g arms and ammunition--had the power of building forts in
Canada--and had the power of declaring and carrying on war against the
American Indians, or, in case of insult, the Colonial Englishmen of New
England, or the Manhattanese Dutch. Justice was to be administered
according to the Custom of Paris. All Colonists of, and converts to the
Roman Catholic faith, had the same rights in France as Frenchmen born
and resident in France had. And for four years the king himself agreed
to advance a tenth of the whole stock of the company, without interest,
and to bear a corresponding proportion of any loss which the company,
in the course of four years, might sustain. These were certainly
liberal and prudent privileges, but more ultimate good, or in other
words, good would have been sooner realized had the conditions been
less liberal and less prudent. These conditions were of too liberal a
nature to cause any desire for change to be entertained for a great
length of time, and the consequence is that even now Lower Canada is
governed according to the "Cotume de Paris," and cultivated as France
was cultivated two hundred years back. A year after the Marquis'
arrival, the Council of State granted to the Canadian Company the trade
in furs on payment of a subsidy of one fourth of all beaver skins, and
of one tenth of all Buffalo skins. The trade of Tadousac was excepted.
Fort building and church building went on vigorously. The fur trade was
easily attended to. Three forts were erected at the mouth of the
Richelieu-Sorel. The Indians made sorties repeatedly down this river,
always doing much mischief, and the forts were intended to prevent the
mischief. But the Iroquois were not to be foiled. They found means to
reach the settlements by other roads. Nor was De Tracy to be annoyed.
He sent out war parties who did not, however, effect much. The Viceroy,
an old man of some seventy summers, took the field himself. With the
view of exterminating the Indians, he set out on the 14th Sept., 1666,
with a considerable force consisting of regular troops, militia, and
friendly Indians. Unfortunately the Commissariat Department was badly
conducted, and the exterminating force were nearly themselves
exterminated by starvation. They had to pass through a large tract of
forest land to meet their foes, and they frequently lost their way. The
haversack was soon emptied, and the starving army was only too happy to
breakfast, dine, and sup on chestnuts ga