, which more
resembled an English Colonial Secretaryship of the present day, than a
viceroyalty, was, on the death of Soisson, conferred on the Prince de
Conde, who sent Champlain from St. Malo for the Colonial Seat of
Government, on the 6th March, 1613, as Deputy Governor. Champlain
arrived at Quebec on the 7th of May. The infant colony was quiet and
contented. Furs were easily obtained for clothing in winter, and in
summer very little clothing of any kind was necessary. The chief
business of the then colonial merchants was the collection of furs for
exportation. There were, properly speaking, no merchants in the
country, but only factors, and other servants of the home Fur Company.
The country was no more independently peopled than the Hudson's Bay
Territory now is. The actual presence of either governor or
sub-governor was unnecessary. Champlain only made an official tour of
inspection to Mount Royal, explored the Ottawa, and returned to France.
He was dissatisfied with the appearance of affairs, and persuaded the
Prince of Conde, his chief, to really settle the country. The prince
consented. A new company was formed through his influence, and, with
some Roman Catholic Missionaries, Champlain again sailed for Canada,
arriving at Quebec early in April, 1615--a proof that the winters were
not more intense when Canada was first settled than at present. Indeed
the intense cold of Lower Canada, compared with other countries in the
same latitude, is not so much attributable to the want of cultivation
as to the height of the land, and the immense gully formed by the St.
Lawrence, and the great lakes which receive the cold blasts of the
mountainous region which constitutes the Arctic highlands, and from
which the rivers running to the northward into Hudson's Bay, and to the
southward into the great lakes and the St. Lawrence, take their rise.
The icy breath of the distant north and northwest sweeps down such
rivers as the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, and the Saguenay, to be gathered
into one vast channel, extending throughout Canada's whole extent. And,
clear the forest as we may, Canada will always be the same cold,
healthy country that it now is. Lower or rather Highland Canada, will
be especially so, without, however, the general commercial prosperity
of the country suffering much on that account. There are lowlands
enough for a population far exceeding that now occupying the United
States. But this is a digression. Champlain'