This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan.
CHRONICLES OF CANADA
Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
In thirty-two volumes
THE GREAT INTENDANT
A Chronicle of Jean Talon in Canada 1665-1672
By THOMAS CHAPAIS
When the year 1665 began, the French colony on the shoresof the St Lawrence, founded by the valour and devotionof Champlain, had been in existence for more than halfa century. Yet it was still in a pitiable state of weaknessand destitution. The care and maintenance of the settlementhad devolved upon trading companies, and their narrow-mindedmercantile selfishness had stifled its progress. Fromother causes, also, there had been but little growth.Cardinal Richelieu, the great French minister, had triedat one time to infuse new life into the colony; [Footnote:For the earlier history of New France the reader isreferred to three other volumes in this Series—TheFounder of New France, The Seigneurs of Old Canada, andThe Jesuit Missions.] but his first attempts had beenunlucky, and later on his powerful mind was diverted toother plans and achievements and he became absorbed inthe wider field of European politics. To the shackles ofcommercial greed, to forgetfulness on the part of themother country, had been added the curse of Indian wars.During twenty-five years the daring and ferocious Iroquoishad been the constant scourge of the handful of settlers,traders, and missionaries. Champlain's successors in theoffice of governor, Montmagny, Ailleboust, Lauzon,Argenson, Avaugour, had no military force adequate tothe task of meeting and crushing these formidable foes.Year after year the wretched colony maintained its strugglefor existence amidst deadly perils, receiving almost nohelp from France, and to all appearance doomed todestruction. To make things worse, internal strifeexercised its disintegrating influence; there was contentionamong the leaders in New France over the vexed questionof the liquor traffic. In the face of so many adversecircumstances—complete lack of means, cessation ofimmigration from the mother country, the perpetual menaceof the bloody Iroquois incursions, a dying trade, and astillborn agriculture—how could the colony be kept aliveat all? Spiritual and civil authorities, the governorand the bishop, the Jesuits and the traders, all unitedin petitioning for assistance. But the motherland wasfar away, and European wars and rivalries were engrossingall her attention.
Fortunately a change was at hand. The prolonged struggleof the Thirty Years' War and of the war against Spainhad been ended by the treaty of Munster and Osnabruck in1648 and by that of the Pyrenees in 1659. The civildissensions of the Fronde were over, thanks to the skilfulpolicy of Cardinal Mazarin, Richelieu's successor. Afterthe death of Mazarin in 1661, Louis XIV had taken intohis own hands the reins of administration. He was young,painstaking, and ambitious; and he wanted to be not onlyking but the real ruler of his kingdom. In Jean BaptisteColbert, the man who had been Mazarin's right hand, hehad the good fortune to find one of the best administratorsin all French history. Colbert soon won the king'sconfidence. He was instrumental in detecting themaladministration of Fouquet as superintendent of Finance,and became a member of the council appointed to investigateand report on all financial questions. Of this body hewas the leading spirit from the beginning. Although atfirst without the title of minister, he was promptlyinvested with a wide authority over the f