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ity, found also also among other uncivilized tribes. Shocked and embarrassed though he was, Penn wisely refrained from rebuke, but quietly taking no notice of his visitor, she after a while returned to her own place of rest.

1683.

The tract at the confluence of the Schuylkill and the Delaware having appeared to Penn very desirable for the location of his capital city, that locality was fixed upon early in 1683. It was entitled Philadelphia, to show forth to men the brotherly love which the Quakers advocated and endeavored to practice. Its buildings rapidly increased, and by the end of the year eighty houses were erected.

In the midst of active preparation for the future growth of the new city, in March of this year (1683), Penn summoned his newly constituted legislature to meet him in Philadelphia. This Assembly accepted a frame of government modelled after the late act of settlement, with a proviso that no changes should be made except by the joint consent of the proprietary and six parts in seven of the freemen of the province. By this frame it was ordained, beside the provisions on these points before named, that to prevent lawsuits, three arbitrators, to be called peace-makers, should be chosen by the county courts, to hear and determine small differences between man and man; that factors wronging their employers should make satisfaction, and one third over; that every thing which excites the people to rudeness, cruelty, and irreligion should be discouraged, and severely punished; that no one, acknowledging

one God, and living peaceably in society, should be molested for his opinions or his practice, or compelled to frequent or maintain any ministry whatever. A revenue was also voted to the proprietary, to be raised by a duty on imports and exports; unfortunately, however, Penn having consented to suspend the receipt of it for a year or two, it was presently lost altogether. The Assembly of the next year (1684) voted £2,000 towards the expenses of the government, to be raised by a tax on spirits.

1684.

At his mansion on Pennsbury manor, about twenty miles above Philadelphia, Penn enjoyed for a season, the soothing tranquillity and beauty of nature, and had the gratification of beholding the unexampled increase of his colony. The news of its prosperity had been carried to Europe, and many settlers. from Germany and Holland, of whom he and Barclay had made converts during his tour in those countries, came to seek an asylum from the storms of Europe, while numerous Quakers continued to arrive from England. He might well boast that he "had led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did upon a private credit, and the most prosperous beginnings that ever were in it, are to be found among us."

But the active spirit of Penn prompted him to return, for a while at least, to England. Accordingly, in August, 1684, he set sail for home, having firmly planted and organized his province; and leaving judicial affairs in the hands of five judges chosen from the council, with Nicholas Moore for

CH. XV.]

C

TROUBLES IN THE GOVERNMENT.

chief justice. The executive administration was committed to the council, Lloyd being president, and Markham secretary. So rapid had been the increase of Pennsylvania that when Penn returned to England, it contained already twenty settlements and seven thousand inhabitants.

James II. ascended the throne soon after Penn's arrival, and he continued to enjoy the same favor at the hands of the king which he had received from the Duke of York. It may be worth noting, that the charter of Pennsylvania was the only one in America against which a Quo Warranto was not issued.

1685.

While Penn was in England, he was subjected to a great deal of vexation and disappointment. The same scene of contention was renewed in Pennsylvania that had often before taken place between distant proprietaries and popular bodies dissatisfied with the limited authority that they were constantly aiming to enlarge. Disputed questions arose between the governor and council on the one hand, and the Assembly on the other, in which Penn necessarily became involved. Besides being subject to continual encroachments upon his authority, he complained with reason, that the quit-rents to which he looked as a return for his heavy outlays in founding the colony, were appropriated in part to the public service, for which the Assembly refused to vote a suitable provision. He was also dissatisfied with the conduct of

1686.

1688.

135

the council, which he superseded by five commissioners, charged with executive functions, but soon after appointed Blackwell, an old officer of Cromwell, and at the time resident in New England, who sternly insisted upon the maintenance of proprietary rights; yet to so little purpose, that after another period of dissension, Penn, anxious, to use his own words, "to settle the government so as to please the generality," determined "to throw all into their hands, that they might see the confidence he had in them, and his desire to give them all possible contentment." Thus did the council, at that time entirely popular in its constitution, become, early in 1690, invested with the chief authority, subject to the sole proviso of a veto on the part of the proprietary. Meanwhile, a printing press, the third in America, was, about 1687, set up at Philadelphia. Penn also in 1689 gave a charter to a public high school.

The downfall of James was fatal to Penn's favor at court, and subjected him to severe trials. The old settlers on the Delaware became jealous of the newly-created colony; dissensions and quarrels arose; and ended in the establishment of the three lower counties, by Penn's consent, under a separate government of their own, of which Markham became the head. Penn himself, however, was very soon deprived, by an order of the Privy Council, of the administration of colonial affairs in both the Delaware counties and also in Pennsylvania.

CHAPTER XVI.

1626-1689.

FRENCH COLONIAL ENTERPRISE.

New France Missionary labors of Franciscans and Jesuits — Extent of their explorations in the west and east-
Charlevoix's account No success with the Iroquois War with the Five Nations A truce Labors of the
Jesuits - War again-- Company of New France given up - Marquette and the Mississippi La Salle En-
terprise and activity — Proceeds to the Mississippi - Various fortune - Descends the Mississippi to its mouth
LOUISIANA - La Salle goes to France - Expedition - Fatal termination — Affairs in Canada — De la Barre -
Denonville - War with the Five Nations French attempts at colonization on the whole unsuccessful - Con-
trast with English colonies — Accession of William III.
War in consequence.

TOWARDS the close of our first chap-| ter, we gave a brief account of the progress of navigation and settlement by the French in Canada and its contiguous waters. Resuming the narrative from that point, we call the attention of the reader to some interesting facts in connection with the efforts of those enterprising Frenchmen by whose energy and perseverance their country was enabled to lay claim to that vast region of interior America known in general terms as NEW FRANCE.

The determined hostility of the Mohawks having prevented the French from occupying the upper waters of the Hudson, and cut off all progress towards the south, the Franciscan missionaries who had accompanied

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it must be confessed by even the sternest Protestant that their labors for the cause which they had in hand have rarely been surpassed by missionaries in any age or in any part of the world.

Two Jesuit missionaries, Brebeuf and Daniel, guided by a party of Huron Indians, set out for the far-distant wigwams of their tribe. Paddling up the St. Lawrence, they ascended its great tributary, the Ottawa, surmounting its numerous falls and rapids, and by carrying their canoes through tangled pathways in the forest, as do the "voyageurs" of the present day, and enduring every species of hardship, they reached, after a journey of three hundred miles, the eastern projection of Lake Huron, converted one of the leading chiefs, and succeeded in esta blishing six missions among the rude but impressible savages on its borders. "Now and then," says Mr. Hildreth, (6 one of these fathers would make a voyage to Quebec in a canoe, with two or three savages, paddle in hand, exhausted with rowing, his feet naked, his breviary hanging about his neck,

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his shirt unwashed, his cassock halftorn from his lean body, but with a face full of content, charmed with the life he led, and inspiring by his air and his words a strong desire to join him in the mission." The news of these remarkable successes being transmitted to France created great excitement, and led to many efforts in behalf of the Roman Catholic religion in Canada. A Jesuit college was established at Quebec, as was soon after a hospital for the benefit of both French and Indians, and a convent of Ursuline

1635.

nuns.

1641.

137

such of the missionaries as fell into the
power of this savage tribe. A like
success attended the missionary efforts
toward the east, where, at a very early
period, before the landing of the pil-
grim fathers, the French had labored
to convert the natives to Chris-
tianity. Dreuillettes, the mis- 1646.
sionary explorer, having reported fa-
vorably, measures were taken by the
Jesuits to establish a permanent mission.

"It is certain," says Charlevoix—as quoted by Hildreth-in speaking on this subject, "as well from the annual relations of those happy times, as from the constant tradition of that country, that a peculiar unction attached to this savage mission, giving it a preference over many others far more brilliant and more fruitful. The reason no doubt was, that nature, finding nothing there to gratify the senses or to flatter vanity

Montreal, which was in the highway to the newly established missions, was solemnly consecrated to the Virgin Mary, grew up into a religious station, and became the nucleus of a future city. Fresh bodies of Jesuit missionaries continued to arrive, and emulate the zeal of their predecessors. Among stumbling blocks too common even these Raymbault, and his com- to the holiest grace worked without panion Jogues, coasting the obstacle. The Lord, who never allows shore of Lake Huron, reached the dis- himself to be outdone, communicates tant country of the Chippewas, at the himself without measure to those who foot of the falls of St. Mary. Worn sacrifice themselves without reserve; out with hardships, Raymbault again who, dead to all, detached entirely from reached Quebec, but only to die; while themselves and the world, possess their his companion, descending the St. Law- souls in unalterable peace, perfectly esrence with his Huron converts, was beset tablished in that child-like spirituality by a party of the hostile Mohawks, and which Jesus Christ has recommended forced to run the gauntlet three succes- to his disciples as that which ought to sive times, between rows of tormentors, be the most marked trait of their chahis Indian companions perishing racter." "Such is the portrait," adds in his sight by the tomahawk Charlevoix, "drawn of the missiona| or the flames. Jogues, having escaped, ries of New France by those who knew made his way to the Mohawk valley, them best. I myself knew some of where he was hospitably received by the them in my youth, and I found them Dutch commandant at Rensselaerwyck. such as I have painted them, bending Similar sufferings were inflicted upon under the labor of a long apostleship,

1643.

VOL. I.-20

with bodies exhausted by fatigues and broken with age, but still preserving all the vigor of the apostolic spirit, and I have thought it but right to do them here the same justice universally done them in the country of their labors.

The French missionaries were not, however, favored with any success among the Iroquois or Five Nations, but met with unyielding and fierce opposition. These Five Nations or allied communities, comprising the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, the Onei- | das, and the Mohawks, occupied the country between the banks of the St. Lawrence and the Hudson. Against these tribes, soon after his arrival in Canada, Champlain had joined the Algonquins and Hurons in a warlike expedition, an impolitic interference, which was punished by these implacable savages with an inveterate hostility to his country and their allies. They menaced the infant settlement of Quebec, and waylaid, as we have seen, the Jesuit missionaries, until the French were compelled to sue for peace. Nothing therefore was so much desired as their conversion. During a temporary pacification, Jogues set out again on this perilous mission, from which he never again returned, being put to death soon after his arrival among the Mohawks. The Dutch having supplied the Iroquois with fire-arms, the war broke out with increased ferocity; the missionaries were cruelly tortured and 1649. put to death, and the terrified colonists lived in daily dread of mas

1651.

sacre. Even Quebec itself was not safe. The Huron missions were entirely broken up, and the French became so dispirited as to ask aid from New England against the Indians; but we are sorry to say it was denied. After two or three years, the Iroquois consented to a peace (1654). The occasion was embraced for fresh efforts by the Jesuits to plant the cross among their vengeful adversaries, and this time, happily, with somewhat better success. Some Christian Hurons, who had become captives to the Mohawks, paved the way for the reception of Le Moyne, while Mesnard repaired to the Cayugas, and Chaumont and Dablon visited the other tribes. At first, their success seemed to be great, but they soon discovered that they had only lulled, not subdued, the passions of these ferocious warriors, and that their lives hung by a single thread. Some Frenchmen had ventured to establish a colony on the banks of the Oswego; collisions took place with Indians; and a third time war again burst forth. The distress was now so extreme, that the Company of New France, reduced to a mere handful, resigned in 1662, to the king, a colony which they were unable to defend, by whom it was transferred to the new West India Company, just then formed by Colbert. The protection implored by the Jesuits was immediately afforded, and a French regiment commanded by Tracy, who was appointed viceroy, repaired to Quebec, a measure which at

1656.

1659.

1665.

Hildreth's “History of the United States,” vol. ii., length effectually restrained the persevering hostility of the Five Nations.

p. 86.

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