Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/144

CANADA. 116 CANADA. by Governiiipnt grants and local taxation, the latter covering more than two-thirds of the ex- penditure for all the provinces, but differing greatly from province to province. There are a large number of universities and classical col- Ices, including Dalhousie, Xova Scotia (founded 18^20); Montreal { 1821 ) ; New Brunswick, Fred- ericton (1828); University of Toronto. Ontario ( 1828) : Queen's College, Kingston, Ont. (1841) ; Laval University, Quebec (1852) : University of Manitoba (1877) : and the Royal Military Col- lege, Kingston, Ont. (1874). The principal scien- tific societies are the Royal Society of Canada; Natural History Society of Montreal; Cana- dian Institute, Toronto; Nova Scotia Institute; Natural History Institute, New Brunswick; Sci- entific and Historical Society, Winnipeg; and Society of Natural History, Victoria, with a fine local museum. Htstory. It is probable that Bjarni Herjulf- son (q.v. ), a Norseman, sighted the coast of Can- ada, opposite Greenland, in 98G, and that Leif Erieson sailed along a considerable part of the eastern coast in 1000. John Cabot (q.v.) in 1497 reached the shores of the New World in the neighborhood of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It is upon this voyage that England subsequently based her claim, in part, to the whole of North ^^nierica. For the most part, however, the ter- ritory included within the present Dominion, ex- cluding the former Northwest Territories and the Hudson Bay country, was exi)lored and first settled by the French. Basque and Breton fish- ermen began to visit the cod-banks of New- foundland as early as 1504; Denis of Honfleur and Aubert of Dieppe explored the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in 1506 and 1508, respectively; the Baron de Lery made an unsuccessful attempt to settle Sable Island in 1518; and in 1524 Veraz- zano, under the direction of Francis I., sailed afcng the coast of North America from the thirty-fourth to the fiftieth parallel of north latitude. In 1534 Jacques Cartier (q.v.) en- tered the Saint Lawrence and at Gaspe took for- mal possession of the country in the name of the King of France; and on a second voyage, in I5.35-.'i6, he ascended the river as far as Hochelaga (Montreal), wintered at StadaconG (Quebec), and, while passing up the stream, en- tered the present harbor of Sainte-Genevi&ve, and gave it the name Saint Lawrence, which was afterwards extended to the gulf and the river. Jean Francois de la Roque, Sieur de Roberval (q.v.), with the assistance of Cartier, made an abortive attempt to establish a col- ony at Cape Rouge in 1541-43. The Mar(|uis de la Roche received a commission from the King as lieutenant-general of Canada, and in 1598, having bargained to colonize New France, es- tablished a short-lived settlement on Sable Island ; and in the following year PontgravG and Chauvin established an equally short-lived .settlement at the mouth of the Saguenay. In 1G03 Chaniplain made the first of his voyages to Canada, .and his name is inseparably con- nected with the history' of New France from that date until the time of his death, in 1635. (See Cii.Mi"i.A!X. Samiel i)K.) In 1604 he assisted Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, in bringing oit a colony which fir.st settled on Dochet Island, in the Saint Croix, and in the following year was moved to the site of the present An- napolis in Acadia or Nova Scotia (q.v.). This colony, however, was broken up temporarily by the English imder Samuel Argall, in 1613, and the first permanent settlement in Canada was made at Quebec in 1608 by Chaniplain, who within the next few years discovered lakes Chaniplain (1609), Huron (1615), and Erie (1015), established a teiiijiorary settlement at Montreal (1611), and by taking part with the Hurons and Algonquins, the original inhabit- ants of Canada, against the Five Nations, in 1609 and 1615, committed France to a policy Avhich was to he of the greatest significance in the history of New France, arousing, as it did, the enmity of the powerful Iroquois, who united first with the Dutch and then with the English, and frequently thwarted the French in their schemes of expansion and conquest. In aildition to making numerous inroads upon the settlements of the French themselves, they in time virtually annihilated the Hurons, who had allied them- selves to France. "They ruined," says Parkman, "the trade which was the life-blood of New France: they stopped the current of her arteries and made all her early years a mi.sery and a ter- ror." The French governors repeatedly attempted to overcome the Confederacy, and at times seemed on the point of meeting with success ; but in spite of severe reverses and of the occasional destruc- tion of their towns, the Iroquois continued to stand as a barrier to French encroachments and as a protection to the English colonists, tli(nigh, largely as a result of the vigorous policy of Frontenac (q.v.), the ablest of the French gov- ernors after Chaniplain, their aggressions and inroads virtually ceased in the beginning of the I'^ighteenth Century. In 1625 several Jesuits ar- rived at Quebec, and for almost half a century thereafter the order had a jireponderating in- fluence over secular as well as religious alfairs, insomuch that during the early period of its his- tory New France was in many respects essen- tially a mission. The affairs of the colony having been grosslj- mismanaged in the first two decades, Richelieu, in 1627, organized the Com- pany of New France, lietter known as the 'Com- pany of the Hundred Associates' — a corporation which, under the quasi-supervision of the Crown, virtually ruled the wlude of New France until 1663, beside-; exercising a monopoly over the immensely valualile fur trade. In 1(!42 Mon- treal was permanently founded by a company of religious enthusiasts headed by the Sieur de Jlai- sonneuve. and in 1659 Laval-Jlonlmorency (q.v.), the titular bishop, by pajial appointment, of Petrsea in Arabia, was placed at the head of the Catholic Churcli in New France, in which capacity he had a powerful inlluence for many years over civil as well as ecclesiastical affairs. In 1663 Louis XIV. dissolved the Company of New France and placed Canada under the direct control of the Crown, though for ten years thereafter (1664-74) a new corporation, the 'Comi)any of the West,' exercised a virtual monopoly over the trade of the colony. Under the royal Government, which lasted until 1760, the affairs of New France were administered by a Governor, an lnt<'ndant, and a Sujierior Council, all appointed by the Crown, the (iov- ernor being emiiowered to conimand the troops, conduct negotiations with foreign colonies and Indian tribes, and supervise all matters of ad- ministrative routine; the Intendant to jiresidc at the Council, exercise indei)endent legislative