8

RELIGIO-COMMERCIAL COMPANY. ENGLISH CAPTURE QUEBEC.

This company held Canada, or New France, with the extensive privileges of a feudal seigniory under the King, to whom was owing fealty and homage, and the presentation of a crown of gold at every new accession to the throne; with the right of soil, a monopoly of trade was granted, the King reserving only for the benefit of all his subjects the cod and whale fisheries in the gulf and coasts of St. Lawrence; and to such colonists as might not be servants of the company, was secured the right of trading with the Indians for peltries, (skins), it being understood that on pain of confiscation they should bring all their acquisitions of beaver skins to the factors of the company, who were bound to purchase them at 40 sous a piece. By the new system "Protestants and other Heretics," as well as Jews, were entirely excluded from the colony, and a Jesuit corps were to be supported by the company, thus monopoly and bigotry went hand-in-hand, and no auspicious Providence attended the efforts of such a selfish and fanatic project.

The very first vessels despatched by the new religio-commercial-company for Quebec, were captured by the English: In 1628 a squadron of English vessels under the command of David Kertk, a French refugee, visited Tadoussac, and destroyed the houses and cattle about Cape Tourmente; Kertk and his little band next proceeded to Gaspé bay, where he met M. De Roquemont, one of the hundred partners, commanding a squadron of vessels, freighted with emigrant families, and all kinds of provisions; Roquemont was provoked to a battle, and lost the whole of his fleet, provisions, &c. and the last hope of the colony of Quebec was blasted by the shipwreck of two Jesuit missionaries, on the coast of Nova Scotia, in a vessel laden with provisions for the starving colonists, who were now reduced to an allowance of 5 oz. of bread per day. Kertk, aided by some more English vessels, commanded by his two brothers, sent them up the St. Lawrence, when they easily captured Quebec, the 20th of July, 1629, and gave permission and free passage to any of the French who chose to return to France. While Quebec was being captured by Kertk and his English squadron, peace

TERRIFIC EARTHQUAKE IN 1663. THE JESUITS' INTRIGUES. 9

was under ratification between England and France, and in 1632, (the latter power having previously opened a negotiation with England), Quebec, Acadia, (Nova Scotia), and Isle Royal, (Cape Breton), were ceded to France. The Jesuits, with their accustomed zeal, commenced anew their efforts in Canada, and from this period to the final British conquest in 1760, a rivalship and growing hostility, partly religious and partly commercial, took place between the French and English settlers in North America, which was evinced by mutual aggressions, when profound peace existed between their respective sovereigns in Europe.

In 1644, Montreal was ceded to and became the property of the religious order of Sulpicians of Paris, and the gradual breaking down of the monopoly of the 100 partners, tended to the spread of colonization and an attention to agriculture, instead of an exclusive consideration for the precarious traffic in furs. In 1663* the proceedings of the company became so

It was at this period that the Jesuits record a terrible earthquake, as convulsing and ravaging a great part of Canada; no person in Canada at this moment knows well whether to believe or disbelieve a circumstance, an account of which is thus minutely given, as having been written at the time of the earthquake; but for a confirmation to some extent see "Physical Aspect," "Geology," and other sections. The original document from which the following is taken is still preserved in the Jesuit College, at Quebec, an establishment which was founded by Réné Rohault, in 1635. EARTHQUAKE IN CANADA IN 1663. FROM A MANUSCRIPT IN THE JESUITS COLLEge at Quebec.-'On the 5th February, 1663, about half past five o'clock in the evening, a great rushing noise was heard throughout the whole extent of Canada. This noise caused the people to run out of their houses into the streets, as if their habitations had been on fire; but instead of flames or smoke, they were surprized to see the walls reeling backwards and forwards, and the stones moving, as if they were detached from each other. The bells sounded by the repeated shocks. The roofs of the buildings bent down, first on one side and then on the other. The timbers, rafters, and planks, cracked. The earth trembled violently, and caused the stakes of the palisades and palings to dance, in a manner that would have been incredible had we not actually seen it in many places. It was at this moment every one ran out of doors. Then were to be seen animals flying in every direction; children crying and screaming in the streets; men and women seized with affright, stood horror struck with the

10 EXTRAORdinary effecTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE, TEARING UP

obnoxious that the King of France decided upon the immediate resumption of his rights, and the erecting of Canada dreadful scene before them, unable to move, and ignorant where to fly for refuge from the tottering walls and trembling earth, which threatened every instant to crush them to death, or sink them into a profound and immeasurable abyss. Some threw themselves on their knees in the snow, crossing their breasts and calling on their saints to relieve them from the dangers with which they were surrounded. Others passed the rest of this dreadful night in prayer; for the earthquake ceased not, but continued at short intervals, with a certain undulating impulse, resembling the waves of the ocean; and the same qualmish sensations, or sickness at the stomach was felt during the shocks, as is experienced in a vessel at sea.

The violence of the earthquake was greatest in the forests, where it appeared as if there was a battle raging between the trees; for not only their branches were destroyed, but even their trunks are said to have been detached from their places, and dashed against each other with inconceivable violence and confusion-so much so, that the Indians, in their figurative manner of speaking, declared that all the forests were drunk. The war also seemed to be carried on between the mountains, some of which were torn from their beds and thrown upon others, leaving immense chasms in the places from whence they had issued, and the very trees with which they were covered sunk down, leaving only their tops above the surface of the earth; others were completely overturned, their branches buried in the earth, and the roots only remained above ground. During this general wreck of nature, the ice, upwards of six feet thick, was rent and thrown up in large picces, and from the openings, in many parts, there issued thick clouds of smoke, or fountains of dirt and sand, which spouted up to a very considerable height. The springs were either choaked up, or impregnated with sulphur-many rivers were totally lost; others were diverted from their course, and their waters entirely corrupted. Some of them became yellow, others red, and the great river of St. Lawrence appeared entirely white, as far down as Tadoussac. This extraordinary phenomenon must astonish those who know the size of the river, and the immense body of water in various parts, which must have required such an abundance of matter to whiten it. They write from Montreal that during the earthquake, they plainly saw the stakes of the picketing or palisades jump up as if they had been dancing; and that of two doors in the same rcom, one opened and the other shut of their own accord; that the chimneys and tops of the houses bent like branches of trees agitated with the wind; that when they went to walk they felt the earth following them, and rising at every step they took, sometimes sticking against the soles of their feet and other things in a very forcible and surprising manner.

From Three Rivers they write, that the first shock was the most violent, and commenced with a noise resembling thunder. The houses were agi

MOUNTAINS, FORMING LAKES, BLOCKING RIVERS, &c. 11

into a royal government: Monsieur de Mesy was appointed governor, and proceeded from France to Quebec with 400

tated in the same manner as the tops of trees during a tempest, with a noise as if fire was crackling in the garrets. The shock lasted half an hour or rather better, though its greatest force was properly not more than a quarter of an hour; and we believe there was not a single shock which did not cause the earth to open either more or less.

As for the rest we have remarked, that though this earthquake continued almost without intermission, yet it was not always of an equal violence. Sometimes it was like the pitching of a large vessel which dragged heavily at her anchors; and it was this motion which occasioned many to have a giddiness in their heads, and qualmishness at their stomachs. At other times the motion was hurried and irregular, creating sudden jerks, some of which were extremely violent; but the most common was a slight tremulous motion, which occurred frequently with little noise. Many of the French inhabitants and Indians, who were eye witnesses to the scene, state, that a great way up the river of Trois Rivieres, about eighteen miles below Quebec, the hills which bordered the river on either side, and which were of a prodigious height, were torn from their foundations, and plunged into the river, causing it to change its course, and spread itself over a large tract of land recently cleared; the broken earth mixed with the waters, and for several months changed the colour of the great river St. Lawrence, into which that of Trois Rivieres disembogues itself. In the course of this violent convulsion of nature, lakes appeared where none ever existed before: mountains were overthrown, swallowed up by the gaping, or precipitated into adjacent rivers, leaving in their places frightful chasins or level plains; falls and rapids were changed into gentle streams, and gentle streams into falls and rapids. Rivers in many parts of the country sought other beds, or totally disappeared. The earth and the mountains were entirely split and rent in innumerable places, creating chasms and precipices whose depths have never yet been ascertained. Such devastation was also occasioned in the woods, that more than a thousand acres in our neighbourhood were completely overturned; and where but a short time before nothing met the eye but one immense forest of trees, now were to be seen extensive cleared lands, apparently cut up by the plough.

At Tadoussac (about 150 miles below Quebec on the north side), the effect of the earthquake was not less violent than in other places; and such a heavy shower of volcanic ashes fell in that neighbourhood, particularly in the river St. Lawrence, that the waters were as violently agitated as during a tempest.* Near St. Paul's Bay, (about 50 miles below Quebec on the north side), a mountain, about a quarter of a league in circumfer

* The Indians say that a vast Volcano exists in Labrador.

12 CONTINUANCE OF THE EARTHQUAKE FOR SIX MONTHS.

regular troops; one hundred families as settlers, with cattle, horses, and implements of agriculture.

Under the Royal jurisdiction, the Governor, a King's Commissioner, an Apostolical Vicar, and four other Gentlemen were formed into a Sovereign Council, to whom was extended the powers of cognizance in all causes, civil and criminal, to judge in the last resort according to the laws and ordinances of France and the practice of the Parliament of Paris, reserving the general legislative powers of the Crown to be applied according to circumstances. This Council was further invested with the regulation of commerce-the

ence, situated on the shore of the St. Lawrence, was precipitated into the river, but as if it had only made a plunge, it rose from the bottom, and became a small island, forming with the shore a convenient harbour, well sheltered from all winds. Lower down the river, towards Point Alouettes, an entire forest of considerable extent was loosened from the main bank, and slid into the river St. Lawrence, where the trees took fresh root. There are three circumstances, however, which have rendered this extraordinary earthquake particularly remarkable: the first is its duration, it having continued from February to August, that is to say, more than six months almost without intermission! It is true, the shocks were not always equally violent. In several places, as towards the mountains behind Quebec, the thundering noise and trembling motion continued successively for a considerable time. In others, as towards Tadoussac, the shock continued generally for two or three days at a time with much violence.

The second circumstance relates to the extent of this earthquake, which we believe was universal throughout the whole of New France, for we learn that it was felt from I' Isle Persée and Gaspé, which are situated at the mouth of the St. Lawrence to beyond Montreal, as also in New England, Acadia, and other places more remote. As far as it has come to our knowledge, this earthquake extended more than 600 miles in length, and about 300 in breadth. Hence 180,000 square miles of land were convulsed in the same day, and at the same moment.

The third circumstance, which appears the most remarkable of all, regards the extraordinary protection of Divine Providence which has been extended to us and our habitations; for we have seen near us the large openings and chasms which the earthquake occasioned, and the prodigious extent of country which has been either totally lost or hideously convulsed, without our losing either man, woman, or child, or even having a hair of their heads touched.