e to trade
to the extent of 10,000 crowns on the merchandize and 600 crowns to
each of the canoemen. Beaver skins, at Montreal, were then worth 2s.
3d. sterling a pound weight. The first fishery was formed at Mount
Louis, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, about half way between
the mouth of the Gulf and Quebec, in 1697. A company formed by the
Sieur de Reverin, was tolerably successful. Canada was even now
beginning to look up, in a commercial point of view. De Frontenac died
in November following, in the 78th year of his age, and the Governor of
Montreal, De Callieres, succeeded him. De Callieres died suddenly, a
few years after his elevation, (1703) when the people of Canada
petitioned for the appointment of the Marquis De Vaudreuil to the
Viceroyalty, and the king granted their prayer. The death of De
Callieres occurred one year after a new declaration of war between
France and England. This war was the result of unsettled boundaries, by
the peace of Ryswick. England declared war against both France and
Spain. Again Canadians and New Englanders suffered severely. The French
of Canada, especially, allowed their Indians to perpetrate the most
horrible atrocities. Women prisoners were inhumanly butchered in cold
blood, before the very eyes of their husbands, only because they were
unable to keep pace with other prisoners, or their captors. Both the
French and the English colonists were permitted by the parent states to
fight almost unaided, to fight on imperial account, at colonial expense
of blood and treasure. To Canada, nearly altogether a military colony,
fighting was particularly agreeable, and yet the population had not
reached 15,000, while Massachusetts contained 70,000 souls;
Connecticut, 30,000: Rhode Island, 10,000; New Hampshire, 10,000; New
York, 30,000; New Jersey, 15,000; Pennsylvania, 20,000; Maryland,
25,000; North Carolina, 5,000; South Carolina, 7,000, and in all
142,000 souls. The difficulty of land transport confined hostilities to
the border States, and preserved a balance of power between the
contending colonists. Indeed, the St. Lawrence afforded a comparatively
easy means of communication for the French to that afforded by the
mountain passes of Vermont to the New Englanders. The French could more
easily pounce upon the outposts of Lake Champlain than the New
Englanders could march to defend them. The English colonists resolved
upon making a great effort. Massachusetts petitioned Queen Anne