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Tag Archives: Philippe Aubert de Gaspé

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 & the Quebec Act of 1774

25 Wednesday Aug 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Canadian Confederation, First Nations, the Conquest

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Charles G. D. Roberts, Confederation, Les Anciens Canadiens, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, Sir Guy Carleton, the Confederation Poets, the Proclamation of 1763, the Quebec Act of 1774

Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester (Wikimedia Commons)
National Archives of Canada #C-002833 
James Murray (1721-1684) (Wikimedia Commons)

—ooo—

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 The Quebec Act of 1774 (uppercanadahistory.ca)

Pontiac’s War

In the above document, authors link the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774. Although we have discussed the aftermath of the fall of New France, I will repeat that the citizens of the Thirteen Colonies started to rush west to settle the territory ceded by France to Britain. Some had land grants. However, the territory they wished to appropriate was land where Amerindians had lived mostly undisturbed under the French régime. New York Governor Jeffery Amherst allowed the use of smallpox-laced blankets to create an epidemic that could exterminate Amerindians who had no immunity to this European curse. Ottawa Chief Pontiac and allies attacked the encroaching settlers. The violence was such that King George III of England issued his Royal Proclamation of 1763, thereby creating a large Amerindian reserve. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was considered an “intolerable act” by future Americans. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is Canada’s Amerindians’s “Magna Carta.”

Given Canada’s inauspicious climate, the French needed Amerindians. During the winter of 1535-1536, twenty-five of Jacques Cartier‘s (1491-1557) 110 men died of scurvy. Others were saved because Amerindians provided annedda (thuya occidentalis). In 1609, Champlain (1557-1635) fired at Iroquois to show that the French supported the Huron-Wendat nation. Moreover, the French, the legendary voyageurs, could not have engaged in the fur trade without the Ameridians’s canoe and their guidance.

The following quotations are revealing:

In 1633 and 1635, the Huron-Wendat were asked by Champlain and Father Paul Le Jeune, S. J. to consider intermarriage with the French. The Huron-Wendat rejected this request because they considered marriage a matter between two individuals and their families, and not subject to council decision.

(See Huron-Wendat, The Canadian Encyclopedia.)

Moreover,

[a]t the time of the destruction of the Huron-Wendat homeland (sometimes known as Huronia) by the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois], in 1649-1650, about 500 Huron-Wendat left Georgian Bay to seek refuge close to the French, in the Quebec City region.

(See Huron-Wendat, The Canadian Encyclopedia)
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774

The Quebec act of 1774 

  • The Quebec Act of 1774 did not revoke the rights and privileges granted Amerindians by virtue of the Proclamation of 1763.
  • However, the Quebec Act of 1774 revoked policies aimed to assimilate the French living in a defeated New France.

Although the Royal Proclamation of 1763 recognized the rights and privileges of Amerindians, it also aimed to assimilate the French in Canada. Governor James Murray had not implemented policies aimed to assimilate the French. As for Governor Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, he revoked such policies.

Guy Carleton met Seigneurs and the clergy of the former New France to negotiate the Quebec Act of 1774. New France’s Seigneurial System and Code Civil were restored. So was Catholicism and the clergy’s right to levy tithe. The oath of allegiance French-speaking subjects had to swear in order to hold public office did not entail abandoning Catholicism, and French-speaking subjects were allowed to own property. The Quebec Act also enlarged the Province of Quebec. It included the Ohio Country.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 & the Quebec Act of 1774

Both the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774 were considered “intolerable acts” by the citizens of the Thirteen Colonies. Furthermore, the Quebec Act did not please “habitants.” Yet, the Quebec Act of 1774 would be French-language Canada’s “letters patent,” and it is mostly in this regard, that the Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774 can be associated.

“In French Canada the act was received without any popular demonstration by the French Canadians. On the whole the Quebec Act satisfied only the upper class French Canadians. The lower class found nothing in the Quebec Act to cheer about. The habitant had mixed feelings about it, for while it gave him security of his language and religion it also revived certain objectionable feudal privileges of the seigneurs. The habitant disliked the governor’s defence measures which involved forced labour and the requisitioning of supplies and the prospect that he might be forced into the army.” 
(See The Royal Proclamation of 1763 The Quebec Act of 1774 (uppercanadahistory.ca)

“Of great importance to Canadian history was the fact that the Act meant the province of Quebec was being treated in a special way by an imperial act of parliament.”

(See The Royal Proclamation of 1763 The Quebec Act of 1774 (uppercanadahistory.ca)

The findings of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Bicultularism, (1963-1969) (Commission royale d’enquête sur le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme) led to the passage of the Official Languages Act of 1969. French was confirmed as one of the two official languages of Canada. The Quebec Act of 1774 was a precious precedent. 

Conclusion

As we have seen in previous posts, after Confederation (1867), the Dominion of Canada failed to recognize the culture and language of the nations on whose land they settled. Canada now remembers the Royal Proclamation of 1763. As for the French-speaking citizens of a Confederated Canada, Quebec would be the only province of Canada where children could be educated in both French and English. Yet, the French also had rights. The Quebec Act of 1774 constituted its “letters patent.”

We cannot tell whether French would be an everyday language in several and perhaps all the provinces of Canada, but it is obvious that Amerindians were wronged. Canada’s government has compensated the victims of Residential Schools and it has put into place a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ascertain that Canada’s indigenous people are never subjected to assimilation policies leading to abuse and death. These crimes were a sign of the times, but we are unearthing the remains of children buried in unnamed graves. It is very painful.

Fortunately, Governors James Murray and Sir Guy Carleton did not see why Britain’s French-speaking subjects should be assimilated. Moreover, there have always been Canadians who have recognized the French. One of them is Sir Charles G. D. Roberts who translated Aubert de Gaspé’s Les Anciens Canadiens twice, as Canadians of Old, in 1890, and as Cameron of Lochiel, in 1905. He was one of four Confederation poets, a name they were given, who could see two literatures growing side by side and rooted in two advanced literatures and cultures. There were and there would be tensions, but seeing promise seems the sunnier attitude.

In the Preface to his first translation of Les Anciens Canadiens as Canadians of Old, Sir Charles G. D. Roberts wrote the following:

“In Canada there is settling into shape a nation of two races; there is springing into existence, at the same time, a literature in two languages. In the matter of strength and stamina there is no overwhelming disparity between the two races. The two languages are admittedly those to which belong the supreme literary achievements of the modern world. In this dual character of the Canadian people and the Canadian literature there is afforded a series of problems which the future will be taxed to solve. To make any intelligent forecast as to the solution is hardly possible without a fair comprehension of the two races as they appear at the point of contact. To make any intelligent forecast as to the solution is hardly possible without a fair comprehension of the two races as they appear at the point of contact. We, of English speech, turn naturally to French-Canadian literature for knowledge of the French-Canadian people. The romance before us, while intended for those who read to be entertained, and by no means weighted down with didactic purpose, succeeds in throwing, by its faithful depictions of life and sentiment among the early French Canadians, a strong side-light upon the motives and aspirations of the race.”
Preface to the first edition

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Canadiana.1 (Page)
  • Aboriginals in North America (Page)

Sources and Resources

Wikipedia, The Canadian Encyclopedia, & Britannica
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 The Quebec Act of 1774 (uppercanadahistory.ca)
Les Anciens Canadiens (ebooksgratuits.com). FR
Cameron of Lochiel (Archive.org ), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Cameron of Lochiel is Gutenberg [EBook#53154], Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

I thank you for allowing me to be on holiday. It is nearly over.

La Commission royale d’enquête sur le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme
Charles G. D. Roberts cph.3a43709.jpg
Sir Charles G. D. Robert (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
24 August 2021
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The Conquest: its Aftermath

04 Wednesday Aug 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in France, Nouvelle-France, Scots in Canada, the Conquest

≈ Comments Off on The Conquest: its Aftermath

Tags

Cameron of Lochiel, James Murray, Les Anciens Canadiens, Literary Schools, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, Quebec Act 1774, ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763, Sir Guy Carleton

By an unknown artist, James Murray was given to the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 1942. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

—ooo—

Our series of posts on Aubert de Gaspé’s Les Anciens Canadiens have reached an exciting point. France has been defeated, and the ruling families of Quebec are returning to France, but they must do so promptly.

After the sinking of l’Auguste, Governor James Murray gave the reprieve that had saved the d’Habervilles to all prominent French families. In fact, they would no longer be forced to return to France. Therefore, Quebec still had its seigneurs. Papineau was a seigneur, so was Aubert de Gaspé, and the Lotbinières, and others. They were Canada’s aristocrats, but their life in France could be humbler after a long absence. If they left in a hurry, their fate could be disastrous. However, while the Royal Proclamation of 1763 benefited Amerindians, George III of England demanded the assimilation of the French.

Québec in 1774 (Google)

The Royal Proclamation of 1763

  • Amerindians protected
  • James Murray does not enforce assimilation

The Royal Proclamation created the Province of Quebec. It gave the British monarch (the king or queen) the power to buy and sell land belonging to Indigenous people. It made sure that the British would have more power than the French. Also, it attempted to assimilate the French. Through assimilation, the British believed the French should lose their language, traditions, and religious beliefs so that they would become like them.

(See Royal Proclamation of 1763, The Canadian Encyclopedia)

In other words, under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, Amerindians were given a large reserve. This reserve was a wide and long strip of land west of the Thirteen Colonies. This region of North America had fallen to Britain, but it could not be home to the British living in the Thirteen Colonies. Although the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was the Amerindians’ Magna Carta, the citizens of the Thirteen Colonies looked upon George III’s document as an “intolerable act” on the part of Britain.

Moreover, while George III’s Proclamation of 1763 protected Amerindians, the French ran the risk of being assimilated, which takes us back to Les Anciens Canadiens. After the sinking of l’Auguste, not only did Governor James Murray postpone the departure of the d’Habervilles from New France, but he extended this reprieve to every prominent citizen of New France who, as noted above,,, could also remain in Canada. But more importantly, James Murray did not enforce assimilation.

His willingness to allow French law and custom in the courts further alienated the merchants and led to his recall in April 1766 and he left Canada in June. Though charges were dismissed, he did not return to Canada though he retained nominal governorship until April 1768.

(See James Murray, The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The Assembly

  • James Murray criticized
  • the Quebec Act of 1774

James Murray was criticized and recalled, but he completed his term in office, and, as noted in earlier posts, James Murray paved the way for Guy Carleton’s Quebec Act of 1774. The Quebec Act was a more “intolerable act” than the Royal Proclamation. It has also been viewed as somewhat flawed because it was negotiated with Seigneurs, the Clergy, and the bourgeois. “Habitants” were disappointed, but the French in Canada did not lose their language, religion, seigneurs, or Code Civil. The Quebec Act of 1774 is particularly significant because the French-speaking population of the former New France were granted the same rights as the Colony’s English-speaking citizens, which meant that, henceforth, they could run for office.

The Colony had yet to attract English-speaking immigrants. Canada was not an attractive destination. In 1970, Margaret Atwood published The Journals of Susanna Moodie, a book of poetry in which she tries to imagine writer Susanna Moodie’s feelings about life “in the Canada of her era.” At first, in 1774, Canadiens were the majority, but a Governor could form an assembly. Immigrants arrived: Scots who lost their homes and, soon, United Empire Loyalists. A blend, however, was initiated earlier, to which Les Anciens Canadiens is a testimonial. Although New France had fallen, Cameron of Lochiel remains a brother to Jules d’Haberville, and he helps him find his way in a new Canadian élite. Therefore, despite the fall of Nouvelle-France, Jules can enter a career. Furthermore, Jules has met and loves a young Englishwoman in his travels. The two will marry.

Lord Durham’s Report

Canadiens still faced obstacles. In his Report on the Rebellions of 1837-1838, Lord Durham wrote that the people of Quebec did not have a literature, nor did they have a history: “un peuple sans histoire ni littérature.” In response to John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham‘s demeaning remark, Canadiens created two literary movements: le Mouvement littéraire de Québec, the Literary Movement of Quebec, whose members congregated in poet Octave Crémazie‘s bookshop, and le Mouvement littéraire de Montréal, whose most prominent author would be poet Émile Nelligan. Aubert de Gaspé was a member of le mouvement littéraire de Québec. Les Anciens Canadiens was published in 1863. Les Anciens Canadiens is not the first novel published by a French Canadian. Phillipe-Ignace François Aubert de Gaspé, Aubert de Gaspé’s son, published L’Influence d’un livre in 1837. Aubert de Gaspé père worked with his son. So, L’Influence d’un livre may have been Philippe Aubert de Gaspé’s introduction to the world of letters. He was a born writer and his imprisonment had acquainted him with immense sorrow, but he wrote a fine novel at the age of 76.

Conclusion

Chapter XI/X of Les Anciens Canadiens, Légende de Madame d’Haberville (Madame d’Haberville’s Story), is the story of a mother who will not stop mourning the loss of her daughter. The little girl is burdened by buckets filled with her mother’s tears. She sees her child in a dream or vision. This inner tale may reflect the grief of realistic Canadiens. They had to go on and could because they had a “bon Anglais” in James Murray, the Scottish governor of Britain’s new Colony. James Murray commiserates when he listens to Monsieur de Saint-Luc’s account of the shipwreck of Augusta, an unfortunate accident. Henceforth, he will be a kinder governor.

Une grande pâleur se répandit sur tous les traits du général ; il fit apporter des rafraîchissements, traita monsieur de Lacorne avec les plus grands égards, et se fit raconter dans les plus minutieux détails le naufrage de l’Auguste. Ce n’était plus le même homme qui avait voué pour ainsi dire à la mort, avec tant d’insouciance, tous ces braves officiers, dont les uniformes lui portaient ombrage.

Les prévisions de M. de Lacorne se trouvèrent parfaitement justes ; le gouverneur Murray, considérablement radouci après la catastrophe de l’Auguste, traita les Canadiens avec plus de douceur, voire même avec plus d’égard, et tous ceux qui voulurent rester dans la colonie eurent la liberté de le faire. M. de Saint-Luc, surtout, dont il craignait peut-être les révélations, devint l’objet de ses prévenances, et n’eut qu’à se louer des bons procédés du gouverneur envers lui. Ce digne homme, qui comme tant d’autres, avait beaucoup souffert dans sa fortune, très considérable avant la cession du Canada, mit toute son énergie à réparer ses pertes en se livrant à des spéculations très avantageuses.

Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: pp. 364-365)

[General Murray turned as pale as death. He was no longer the same man who had carelessly consigned so many brave officers to their doom just because the sight of their uniforms displeased him. Presently he called for refreshments, and, treating Saint-Luc with the most profound consideration, he inquired of him the most entire particulars of the wreck.

What M. de Saint-Luc had foreseen presently came to pass. Thenceforward Governor Murray, conscience-stricken by the loss of the Auguste, became very lenient toward the Canadians. Those who wished to remain in the Colony were given liberty. M. de Saint-Luc, whose possible revelations he may have dreaded, became the particular object of his favour and found nothing to complain of in the governor’s attitude. He set his tremendous energies to the work of repairing his fortunes, and his efforts were crowned with well-merited success.]

Cameron of Lochiel (XIV: 226-228)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • A Lost Paragraph (1st August 2021)
  • The Shipwreck of the Auguste, cont’d (30 July 2021)
  • Reconciliation & the Shipwreck of the Auguste (27 July 2021)
  • An Update: the French and Indian War (26 July 2021)
  • Last Words on the Battle of Jumonville (25 July 2021)
  • The Battle of Jumonville Glen 24 July 2021)
  • The Good Gentleman (9 July 2021)
  • The Order of Good Cheer (19 June 2021)
  • La Débâcle/The Debacle (13 June 2021)
  • Jules d’Haberville & Cameron of Lochiel (12 June 2021)
  • Les Anciens Canadiens/Cameron of Lochiel (9 June 2021)
  • Nouvelle-France’s Last and Lost Battle: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham (24 March 2012)
  • The Battle of Fort William Henry & Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans (26 March 2012)
  • Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran (25 March 2012)

Sources and Resources

Wikipedia, The Canadian Encyclopedia, & Britannica
Les Anciens Canadiens (ebooksgratuits.com). FR
Cameron of Lochiel (Archive.org ), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Cameron of Lochiel is a translator of Gutenberg [EBook#53154], Sir Charles G. D. Roberts. EN

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

P.S. My last two posts were nearly erased. I’ve rebuilt both, hence the delay. I’ve added that once Louisbourg fell to Britain, on 26 July 1758, ships could go up the St. Lawrence River unhindered, which meant that Quebec could fail. It fell on 13 September 1759.

The French and Indian War (1754-1763)
Portrait of James Murray as a young man by Allan Ramsay, 1742. (Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
4 August 2021
WordPress

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The Shipwreck of the Auguste, cont’d

30 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Britain, New France, Quebec history, Quebec literature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

James Murray, Jeffery Amherst, Les Anciens Canadiens, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, Pierre de Rigault, Siège de Louisbourg

Vaisseaux français en feu ou capturés au Siège de Louisbourg en 1758. This image is also known as a depiction of the life of Sir Admiral George Young. (Google)
Burning of the French ship Prudent and capture of Bienfaisant, during the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, Richard Paton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

—ooo—

Le Puissant Protecteur / The Powerful Protector

  • Monsieur de Saint-Luc arrives at the d’Haberville’s home
  • He survived the sinking of the Auguste
  • Jules’s Father learns that Cameron de Lochiel is helping the family

Chapter XIV/XIII of Les Anciens Canadiens‘ also spelled Les anciens Canadiens, is very long. However, the superior of the Hospital, Jules’s aunt, allows Cameron de Lochiel to see Jules d’Haberville. The friendship is renewed, but Jules’s father will not accept that Jules’s aunt forgave Cameron de Lochiel. Cameron of Lochiel is Arché, Jules’s best friend, but Arché fought in the British Army, when Jules fought in the French army.

In Chapter XV/XIV, entitled Le Naufrage de l’Auguste (The Shipwreck of the Auguste), an exhausted survivor, comes to the d’Haberville’s door. At first, no one can recognize this emaciated figure with a long beard, but le capitaine d’Haberville can tell that the voice is that of Monsieur de Saint-Luc. After Monsieur de Saint-Luc says that the Auguste sank, he surprises le capitaine d’Haberville by telling him that the d’Haberville’s return to France was postponed because Arché, Cameron of Lochiel, intervened on behalf of his friends, which is a revelation he can substantiate.

– Sais-tu, d’Haberville, dit M. de Saint-Luc en déjeunant, quel est le puissant protecteur qui a obtenu du général Murray un répit de deux ans pour te faciliter la vente de tes propriétés ? Sais-tu à qui, toi et ta famille, vous devez aujourd’hui la vie, que vous auriez perdue en toute probabilité dans notre naufrage ?
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: p. 357)
[“Do you know, D’Haberville,” said M. de Saint-Luc at breakfast, “who was the friend so strong with Murray as to obtain you your two years’ respite? Do you know to whom you owe to-day the life which you would probably have lost in our shipwreck?”]
Cameron of Lochiel (XIV: 222-223)

When le capitaine d’Haberville learns he is still furious at Arché.

– Non, dit M. d’Haberville ; j’ignore quel a été le protecteur assez puissant pour m’obtenir cette faveur ; mais, foi de gentilhomme, je lui en conserverai une reconnaissance éternelle.
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: p. 357)
[“No,” said Captain D’Haberville. “I have no idea what friend we can have so powerful. But whoever he is, never shall I forget the debt of gratitude I owe him.”]

– Eh bien ! mon ami, c’est au jeune Écossais Archibald de Locheill que tu dois cette reconnaissance éternelle.
[“Well, my friend, it is the young Scotchman Archibald de Lochiel to whom you owe this eternal gratitude.”]
– J’ai défendu, s’écria le capitaine, de prononcer en ma présence le nom de cette vipère que j’ai réchauffée dans mon sein! [“I have commanded,” almost shouted Captain D’Haberville, “that the name of this viper, whom I warmed in my bosom, should never be pronounced in my presence.” And the captain’s great black eyes shot fire.]
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: p. 357-358)
Cameron of Lochiel (XIV: 222-223)

When all is told, Monsieur de Saint-Luc and le capitaine d’Haberville are soon reconciled. They were childhood friends. and War, the duties of officers, separated the former friends. Jules and Arché have resumed their friendship.

Arché’s men burnt down the d’Haberville’s manoir, and Captain D’Haberville now looks older than his age. He has fought in many conflicts between Amerindians who were friends of the British and the Huron-Wendat, the Wyandot people and the Iroquois confederacy. These wars were taxing, but we find confirmation of the wars the French entered when Champlain fought on behalf of Amerindians, the Wyandot people. It began in 1609. In Les Anciens Canadiens. Mon oncle Raoul is running the seigneurie, not his exhausted brother.

Cameron of Lochiel and James Murray

  • Arché is offered a promotion by James Murray
  • Arché will resign
  • Monsieur de Saint-Luc and James Murray

In fact, Arché would have resigned had James Murray not allowed him to help his friends. During the Battle of Sainte-Foy, Arché demonstrated to James Murray that he was an extraordinary Highlander. Arché knew the terrain, the lay of the land, and he spoke French.

But to save his friends from a hasty departure, Arché has told James Murray that he would resign unless he could protect his friends. Those who had to sell their belongings hurriedly lost nearly everything.

Capitaine de Locheill, lui dit alors Murray en lui présentant le brevet de ce nouveau grade, j’allais vous envoyer chercher. Témoin de vos exploits sur notre glorieux champ de bataille de 1759, je m’étais empressé de solliciter pour vous le commandement d’une compagnie ; et je dois ajouter que votre conduite subséquente m’a aussi prouvé que vous étiez digne des faveurs du gouvernement britannique, et de tout ce que je puis faire individuellement pour vous les faire obtenir. 359
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: p. 359)
[“‘Captain de Lochiel,’ said Murray, handing him the brevet of his new rank, ‘I was going to look for you. Having witnessed your exploits on the glorious field of 1759, I hastened to ask for your promotion; and I may add that your subsequent conduct has proved you worthy of the favor of His Majesty’s Government, and of my utmost efforts on your behalf.’]
Cameron of Locheill (XIV: 223-224)

Votre Excellence sait que je dois beaucoup de reconnaissance à cette famille, qui m’a comblé de bienfaits pendant un séjour de dix ans dans cette colonie. C’est moi qui, pour obéir aux ordres de mon supérieur, ai complété sa ruine en incendiant ses immeubles de Saint-Jean-Port-Joli. De grâce, général, 360 un répit de deux ans, et vous soulagerez mon âme d’un pesant fardeau !
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: p. 360)
[Your Excellency is aware how much I owe to this family, which loaded me with kindness during my ten years’ sojourn in the colony. It was I who, obeying the orders of my superior officer, completed their ruin by burning their manor and mill at St. Jean-Port-Joli. For the love of Heaven, general, grant them two years, and you will lift a terrible burden from my soul!’]
Cameron of Locheil (XIV: 224-225)

– Je suis heureux, monsieur le général, répondit de Locheill, que votre recommandation m’ait fait obtenir un avancement au-dessus de mes faibles services, et je vous prie d’agréer mes remerciements pour cette faveur qui m’enhardit à vous demander une grâce de plus, puisque vous m’assurez de votre bienveillance. Oh ! oui, général, c’est une grâce bien précieuse pour moi que j’ai à solliciter.
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: p. 360)
[“‘I am most glad, sir,’ answered Lochiel, ‘that your recommendation has obtained me a reward far beyond anything my poor services could entitle me to expect; and I beg you will accept my grateful thanks for the favor, which emboldens me to ask yet one more. General, it is a great, an inestimable favor which I would ask of you.’]
Cameron of Lochiel (XIV: 223-224)

– Capitaine de Locheill, fit le général Murray d’un ton sévère, je suis surpris de vous entendre intercéder pour les d’Haberville, qui se sont montrés nos ennemis les plus acharnés.
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: p. 360)
[“‘Captain de Lochiel,’ said Murray severely, ‘I am surprised to hear you interceding for the D’Habervilles, who have shown themselves our most implacable enemies.’]
Cameron of Lochiel (XIV: 224-225)

– Que Votre Excellence, reprit de Locheill avec le plus grand sang-froid, daigne accepter ma résignation, et qu’elle me permette de servir comme simple soldat : ceux qui chercheront, pour le montrer du doigt, le monstre d’ingratitude qui, après avoir été comblé de bienfaits par toute une famille étrangère à son origine, a complété sa ruine sans pouvoir adoucir ses maux, auront plus de peine à le reconnaître dans les rangs, sous l’uniforme d’un simple soldat, qu’à la tête
d’hommes irréprochables.

(XV: p. 362)
[“‘Will Your Excellency,’ repeated Archie coldly, ‘be so good as to accept my resignation, and permit me to serve as a common soldier? They who will seek to225 point the finger at me as the monster of ingratitude, who, after being loaded with benefits by a family to whom he came a stranger, achieved the final ruin of that family without working any alleviation of their lot—they who would hold me up to scorn for this will find it harder to discover me when buried in the ranks than when I am at the head of men who have no such stain upon them.’ Once more he offered his commission to the general.]
Cameron of Lochiel (XIV: 225-)

– Capitaine de Locheill, fit le général Murray d’un ton sévère, je suis surpris de vous entendre intercéder pour les d’Haberville, qui se sont montrés nos ennemis les plus acharnés.
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: 360)
[“‘Captain de Lochiel,’ said Murray severely, ‘I am surprised to hear you interceding for the D’Habervilles, who have shown themselves our most implacable enemies.’]
Cameron of Locheil XIV:


– J’apprécie, capitaine de Locheill, les sentiments qui vous font agir : notre souverain ne doit par être privé des services que peut rendre, dans un grade supérieur, celui qui est prêt à sacrifier son avenir à une dette de gratitude ; vos amis resteront.
Les Anciens Canadiens (XV: p. 362)
[“‘I appreciate your sentiments, Captain de Lochiel. Our sovereign must not be deprived of the services which you can render him as one of his officers, you who are ready to sacrifice your future for a debt of gratitude. Your friends shall remain.’]
Cameron of Lochiel (XIV: 225-230)This is an exceptional exchange: brief, to the point, and polite.

Conclusion

James Murray was a good man. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 protected Amerindians, but it ordered the assimilation of the French. Yet James Murray “allow[ed] French law and custom in the courts” (see James Murray, The Canadian Encyclopedia). James Murray was recalled, but he “retained nominal governorship until April 1768.” He paved the way for Guy Carleton‘s Quebec Act of 1774. By virtue of the Quebec Act, English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians were equal.

After the siege of Louisbourg, in 1758, the French could no longer hope for a victory in North America. L’Auguste will sink near Louisbourg located on l’Isle Royale, the current Cape Breton Island. the French could no longer hope to win the war. (See the Siege of Louisbourg, Wikipedia). Later, the shipwreck of l’Auguste, near Louisbourg, would earn a reprieve to families returning to France. the French all the prevented too hasty a return to France. But Monsieur de Saint-Luc and a few others survived the sinking of l’Auguste. They met good Amerindians. ames Murray was a good man and Cameron of Lochiel, a genuine “bon Anglais.”On 8 September, 1760, Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial capitulated in Montreal. The French won the Battle of Sainte-Foy, but reinforcement could no longer be expected. Militarily, the British were winning the war. In 1658, Louisbourg had fallen to the British on l’Isle Royale, the current Cape Breton Island. (See the Siege of Louisbourg, Wikipedia). But Monsieur de Saint-Luc and a few others survived the sinking of l’Auguste. L’Auguste sinks, but Monsieur de Saint-Luc and others survived.

Similarly, although Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil signed the capitulation of Montreal. Yet, although the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which protected Amerindians and ordered the assimilation of the French in Camada, James Murray did not assimilate the French in a defeated New France. Nor would Guy Carleton.

—ooo—

« Quel est celui qui n’a jamais commis de faute à la guerre ? » Vae victis !
Les Anciens Canadiens (XIV: p. 314)
[“Who is he that has never made a mistake in battle?” Vae victis!]
Cameron of Lochiel (XIII: 198-199)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • An Update: the French and Indian War (26 July 2021)
  • Last Words on the Battle of Jumonville (25 July 2021)
  • The Battle of Jumonville Glen 24 July 2021)
  • The Good Gentleman (9 July 2021)
  • The Order of Good Cheer (19 June 2021)
  • La Débâcle/The Debacle (13 June 2021)
  • Jules d’Haberville & Cameron of Lochiel (12 June 2021)
  • Les Anciens Canadiens/Cameron of Lochiel (9 June 2021)
  • Nouvelle-France’s Last and Lost Battle: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham (24 March 2012)
  • The Battle of Fort William Henry & Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans (26 March 2012)
  • Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran (25 March 2012)

Sources and Resources

Wikipedia, The Canadian Encyclopedia, & Britannica
Les Anciens Canadiens (ebooksgratuits.com). FR
Cameron of Lochiel (Archive.org ), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Cameron of Lochiel is Gutenberg [EBook#53154], Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN

https://www.nfb.ca/film/dreams_of_a_land/ (video)

The Battle of Quebec 1759
Montcalm by C. W. Jefferys

© Micheline Walker
30 July 2021
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The Battle of Jumonville Glen

24 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Amerindians, The French and Indian War, United Kingdom, United States

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Absurdism, Battle of Jumonville Glen, French and Indian War, George Washington, Les Anciens Canadiens, Lex Talionis, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, Robert Dimwiddie, Tanacharison, The Ohio Country

Charles Willson Peale, Portrait de George Washington, 1772.

—ooo—

The Battle of Jumonville Glen

  • George Washington goes to the Ohio Country
  • George Washington travels with Tanacharison, the Half King

It is difficult to tell what happened at the Battle of Jumonville Glen. First, it was not a battle; it was an ambush. Yet, it started the French and Indian War (1754-1763), which in turn, started the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), a global conflict and a defeat for France. Tanacharison (1718-1754), an angry Mingo (Iroquoian Amerindian), also called the Half King pressed George Washington (1732-1799) into joining him and attacking a French encampment Amerindians had spotted. When they reached the encampment, it seems that Tanacharison brutally murdered an innocent French captain, Coulon de Jumonville. He stood next to George Washington, thus starting the French and Indian War (1754-1763) which led to the arbitrarily considered last and lost Battle of the Plains of Abraham, and which also led to the Seven Year’s War (1756-1763), or the defeat of France.

Aubert de Gaspé keeps repeating that the defeated are forever defeated and then says, in full, that at the Treaty of Paris 1763 (“trois ans après”), Louis XV abandoned France’s colony in North America. The Battle of Sainte-Foy was a French victory, but the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, a short confrontation, was deemed the last and lost battle of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) when in fact the last battle, the Battle of Saint-Foy, fought on 28 April 1760, was a French victory. “Nonchalant” Louis XV tossed the Battle of Sainte-Foy aside, turning a victory into a defeat. Not necessarily. Coulon de Villiers could avenge his half-brother’s assassination, however, by 1759, could France reinforce its troops in New France. France was losing the Seven Years’ War.

La Nouvelle-France, abandonnée de la mère patrie, fut cédée à l’Angleterre par le nonchalant Louis XV, trois ans après cette glorieuse bataille qui aurait pu sauver la colonie.
Les Anciens Canadiens (XIV: page 321)

[New France, abandoned by the mother country, was ceded to England by the careless Louis three years after the battle.]
Cameron of Lochiel (XIII: 202-203)

Tanacharison tries to return his wampum & the ambush

December 1753

In 1753, the French started to build forts in the Ohio country and were driving out British traders. Therefore, Virginia lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie sent George Washington (1732-1799) to these forts to demand that the French vacate. On his journey, Washington stopped at Logstown to ask Tanacharison, the Half-King, to travel with him. Tanacharison agreed to return the symbolic wampum given to him by French captain Philippe-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire. Tanacharison also travelled with George Washington to meet with Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, the French commander of Fort Le Bœuf. Neither Chabert de Joncaire nor Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre took the wampum back, and the French did not leave the Ohio country, at least, not then. 

So, we know why Washington was in Ohio Country. He had been asked to drive the French away.

27 – 28 May 1754

On 27 May 1754, Tanacharison learned of a French encampment. He urged Washington to ambush the French and Washington agreed.

On 28 May 1754, “[a] company of colonial militia from Virginia under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, and a small number of Mingo warriors led by Tanacharison ambushed a force of 35 Canadiens under the command of Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville.” (See Battle of Jumonville Glen, Wikipedia).

I have not been able to determine whether Virginia lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie authorized the “ambush” that took place on 28 Mary 1754. But in 1753, George Washington was asked to tell the French to leave the Ohio Country.

Questions: the Jumonville Affair

  • Who started the Jumonville affair?
  • Who killed Jumonville?
  • a battle, a skirmish or an ambush …

In the Wikipedia entry on Tanacharison, one can read that Tanacharison, the Half King, started the French and Indian War (1754-1763) which would develop into the Seven Years’ War, an international conflict. (See Tanacharison, Wikipedia.)

Questions do arise? For instance, who initiated the offensive, an ambush, that took place on 28 May 1754? Was it George Washington or Tanacharison, or was it a joint decision by George Washington and Tanacharison? More importantly, as noted above, had Virginia lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie authorized the ambush of an encampment of 35 Frenchmen? In Wikipedia’s entry on Robert Dinwiddie, it is stated that Virginia lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie started Washington’s military career. In one of the videos embedded in my last post, George Washington opened fire. This could be the case. In fact, if Jumonville did not have a gun, or, if a gun was not at hand, should Washington have shot at Jumonville? Robert Dinwiddie is credited with having started George Washington’s military career. Not quite.

“Washington was heavily criticized in Britain for the incident. British statesman Horace Walpole referred to the controversy surrounding Jumonville’s death as the “Jumonville Affair” and described it as ‘a volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America that set the world on fire.'” (See Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, Wikipedia.)

Jumonville Glen has been called a battle and the Jumonville Skirmish, but it was an ambush, and Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville was murdered. George Washington took Tanacharison to the Ohio Country. However, it seems, that Tanacharison took George Washington to ambush Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville. Whether Virginia Royal Governor Robert Dinwiddie authorized this second event cannot be ascertained. It also seems that Jumonville and a few Frenchmen were killed or wounded and that all of them, but one, were captured. Moreover, Jumonville may have been killed at Fort Duquesne. When Washington surrendered, if he surrendered, he admitted that Jumonville was assassinated. But, as mentioned above, this may not be true.

In fact, “[t]he exact circumstances of Jumonville’s death are a subject of historical controversy and debate.” (See Battle of Jumonville Glen, Wikipedia.)

It seems that Canadiens seigneurs were the military in New France. Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville was a seigneur. Seigneuries had been given to members of the Régiment de Carignan-Salières who wanted to remain in Canada. They arrived in 1665. Nouvelle-France was often attacked by Iroquois, who were allies of the British in North America. Canada had its French and Indian War 1754-1763), its French and Indian Wars (1688-1763), inter-colonial wars, and it also had its Beaver Wars or Guerres franco-iroquoises. In the early 1750s, the French were building forts in the Ohio country. Forts were trading posts and fortresses.

François Gaston de Lévis (Wikimedia Commons)

Conclusion

So Aubert de Gaspé comments on the inanity of wars. But in North America, a war was waged that was a tinier war than the Seven Years’ War, but it was absurdism at its peak. Nouvelle-France fell. Jumonville was not a battle, whether it took place at an encampment or in Fort Duquesne, and the French won the Battle of Saint-Foy. I feel as though I were reading an early draft of Malraux‘s Condition Humaine (Man’s Fate, 1933), or Camus, all of Camus.

Militarily, Jumonville’s brother, Captain Coulon de Villiers, “marched on Fort Necessity on the 3rd of July [1754] and forced Washington to surrender.” (See Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, Wikipedia.) The lex talionis was at work: an eye for an eye. Humanity has been avenging itself for millennia at a huge cost. Historically, the people of New France change masters overnight. I suspect that Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, who passed the Quebec Act of 1774, could tell that the French, the people, did not have to be punished. It is also very refreshing to read Aubert de Gaspé who writes:

Des deux côtés la bravoure était égale, et quinze mille hommes des meilleures troupes du monde n’attendaient que l’ordre de leurs chefs pour ensanglanter de nouveau les mêmes plaines qui avaient déjà bu le sang de tant de valeureux soldats.
Les Anciens Canadiens (XIV: p. 318)

[The courage of both was beyond question, and fifteen thousand of the best troops in the world only awaited the word of their commanders to spring at each other’s throats.]
Cameron of Lochiel (XIII: 201-202).

RELATED ARTICLES

  • The Good Gentleman (9 July 2021)
  • The Order of Good Cheer (19 June 2021)
  • La Débâcle/The Debacle (13 June 2021)
  • Jules d’Haberville & Cameron of Lochiel (12 June 2021)
  • Les Anciens Canadiens/Cameron of Lochiel (9 June 2021)
  • Nouvelle-France’s Last and Lost Battle: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham (24 March 2012)
  • The Battle of Fort William Henry & Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans (26 March 2012)
  • Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran (25 March 2012)

Sources and Resources

Wikipedia, The Canadian Encyclopedia, & Britannica
Escarmouche de Jumonville Glen
George Washington in the French & Indian War on Vimeo
Jumonville Glen Skirmish · George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Les Anciens Canadiens (ebooksgratuits.com). FR
Cameron of Lochiel (Archive.org ), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Cameron of Lochiel is Gutenberg [EBook#53154], Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Une Colonie féodale en Amérique: l’Acadie 1604 – 17 (Rameau, Google Books)

French and Indian War

© Micheline Walker
24 July 2021
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The Order of Good Cheer

19 Saturday Jun 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Amerindians, Canadian History, France, Quebec history

≈ Comments Off on The Order of Good Cheer

Tags

Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye, l'Ordre de bon temps, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, Scottish reels, Supper, the Order of Good Cheer, the Sorceress, the Stranger

L’Ordre de Bon Temps, 1606 par Charles William Jefferys (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“To brighten the atmosphere and foster the esprit de corps amongst the sieur de Poutrincourt, lord of Port-Royal’s staff members, Samuel de Champlain had the idea to create “the order of Good-Cheer” during the winter 1606-1607. In turn, the members of the small elite of Port-Royal were to prepare a gastronomical meal for their fellow-members, with the fruit of their hunting and fishing in the rich Acadian natural environment plentiful with game and fish of various kinds. From time to time, the sagamo Membertou and its close relations were also invited to share the feast during which the person in charge of the eve entered ceremoniously in the main room of the Habitation wearing around his neck the collar of the Order that he would tend to the future host of the next evening. In the current rebuilt Habitation, today a national historical place of Canada, one can easily imagine the atmosphere of these evenings. The government of the province of Nova Scotia reestablished the order of the Good Cheer and it is possible to become join it.”
(H. P. Biggar in The Works of Samuel de Champlain)
(See Order of Good Cheer, Wikipedia)

—ooo—

The Order of Good Cheer

The Order of Good Cheer was founded by Champlain in 1606. Champlain thought that scurvy was caused by idleness. L’Ordre de Bon Temps was chartered by Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt et de Saint-Just and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. In its earliest days, Huguenots came to Acadie and then Quebec City, but mostly to Acadie. They were fishing and had been fishing for a long time off the coast of the current Maritime Provinces of Canada. Acadie was founded in 1604 by Dugua de Mons, four years before Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec city. L’Ordre de bon temps could not cure scurvy, but a happy social life lessens stress. But it may have created the “race” John Neilson (1776-1848), an acquaintance of Aubert de Gaspé (1786-1871), describes to Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859). John Neilson depicts The French in Canada as “remarquablement sociables,” which they had to be, among themselves, and, also, in their relationship with the British. They were a conquered nation.

In an earlier post, I compared a seigneur’s dining table to Carl Larsson‘s depiction of a Christmas dinner at his house. To be more accurate, the Order of Good Cheer is the ancestor to merriment in New France, both in Seigneuries and in the humbler homes of the habitants. In fact, it characterizes the behaviour of voyageurs. Voyageurs had to have a strong upper body and a good voice. They sang as they paddled their canoe. Dissatisfied with his American canoemen, John Jacob Astor asked that an exemption be made to the Embargo Act of 1807 so he could recruit Canadiens as canoemen for the American Fur Company and its subsidiary, the Pacific Fur Company. (See the Voyageurs Posts)

A Supper at the House of a French-Canadian Seigneur

After Dumais is rescued and a doctor has been sent for, everyone thanks providence and eight persons repair to the seigneur d’Haberville’s dining-room to eat supper. Traditionally, meals in Canada were le déjeuner (breakfast), le dîner (dinner) and le souper (supper). In Cameron of Lochiel (1905), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts uses the word supper to translate le souper. In earlier days, the people of Britain used the word supper, but in provinces outside Quebec, French-speaking Canadians may say dîner-souper because people could be confused.

Aubert de Gaspé describes une armoire, a large cabinet, containing blue dishes from Marseille. So, there is a degree of opulence on the shores of the St Lawrence.

Le couvert était mis dans une chambre basse, mais spacieuse, dont les meubles, sans annoncer le luxe, ne laissaient rien à désirer de ce que les Anglais appellent confort. (VI: p.110)
[The table was spread in a low but spacious room, whose furniture, though not luxurious, lacked nothing of what an Englishman calls comfort.] (V: 76-77)

By comparing the chambre basse to English comfort, one senses that Philippe Aubert de Gaspé is seeking validation. The novel is historical and, to a large extent, biographical. Historically, New France was defeated in 1759, but Aubert de Gaspé’s novel is part of a collective effort to rebuild New France, albeit in books. The French lived comfortably. In fact, Aubert de Gaspé is a descendant of Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye (1632-1702), reportedly the richest man in New France. Aubert de la Chesnaye owned several seigneuries and he was also a fur trader. Fur traders, called bourgeois, were mostly individuals who could afford to hire voyageurs.

Louis XIV did found the Compagnie des Indes occidentales in 1664. He wanted to take the fur trade away from bourgeois, many of whom were not French. The Company closed in 1674. It had lasted a mere ten years. (See Compagnie des Indes occidentales, Canadian Encyclopedia.) The Hudson’s Bay Company, a British company, was chartered in 1670. Fur trading is no longer its main mission, but it has yet to close. Fur trading was extremely lucrative, but the North West Company, headquartered in Montreal, was not established until 1779, after the conquest, by Scottish immigrants. It closed in 1821 when it was merged with the Hudson’s Bay Company. One would presume that Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye was a bourgeois fur trader.

As for the Seigneur d’Haberville (Aubert de Gaspé himself), the jewel of his manoir‘s dining-room is its armoire. The French in Nouvelle-France had armoires as did their European ancestors. In Les Anciens Canadiens, the D’Haberville’s armoire is also called a “sideboard” or buffet, a more common piece of furniture in the dining-room of other nations.

Un immense buffet, touchant presque au plafond, étalait, sur chacune des barres transversales dont il était amplement muni, un service en vaisselle bleue de Marseille semblant, par son épaisseur, jeter un défi à la maladresse des domestiques qui en auraient laissé tomber quelques pièces.(VI: pp. 110-111)
[A great sideboard, reaching almost to the ceiling, displayed on its many shelves a service of blue Marseilles china, of a thickness to defy the awkwardness of the servants.] (V: 76-77)

On a lower part of this side board, one finds a box (une cassette) filled with silverware.

Au-dessus de la partie inférieure de ce buffet, qui servait d’armoire, et que l’on pourrait appeler le rez-de-chaussée de ce solide édifice, projetait une tablette d’au moins un pied et demi de largeur, sur laquelle était une espèce de cassette, beaucoup plus haute que large, dont les petits compartiments, bordés de drap vert, étaient garnis de couteaux et de fourchettes à manches d’argent, à l’usage du dessert. (VI: p. 111)
[Over the lower part of this sideboard, which served the purpose of a cupboard and which might be called the ground floor of the structure, projected a shelf a foot and a half wide, on which stood a sort of tall narrow cabinet, whose drawers, lined with green cloth, held the silver spoons and forks.] (V: 76-77)

Later, Aubert de Gaspé mentions silver goblets.

Eight persons were at table, which is a small number. The French faced a major difficulty: finding supplies. As for the food, Brillat-Savarin would envy the pâté :

Ce pâté, qu’aurait envié Brillat-Savarin, était composé d’une dinde, de deux poulets, de deux perdrix, de deux pigeons, du râble et des cuisses de deux lièvres : le tout recouvert de bardes de lard gras. (VI: p. 113)
[This pasty, which would have aroused the envy of Brillat-Savarin, consisted of one turkey, two chickens, two partridges, two pigeons, the backs and thighs of two rabbits, all larded with slices of fat pork.] (V: 78-79)

Aubert de Gaspé was well informed. He had read the best authors. Each chapter of Les Anciens Canadiens begins with a learned quotation, Latin is used frequently and the Seigneur d’Haberville knows about Brillat-Savarin, the author of The Physiology of Taste (Physiologie du Goût). (See Brillat-Savarin, Wikipedia.) Every chapter of his book begins with a learned quotation from writers who are not necessarily French or French Canadians. Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) is quoted in chapter VI/V. Tennyson lived in the 19th century, which reveals that Les Anciens Canadiens was written in 1863.

A seigneur, le Seigneur de Beaumont will propose a toast to Arché.

– Remplissez vos gobelets ; feu partout, s’écria M. de Beaumont : je vais porter une santé qui, j’en suis sûr, sera bien accueillie. (VI: p. 118)
[“Fill your glasses! Attention, everybody,” cried the Seigneur de Beaumont. “I am going to propose a health which will, I am very sure, be received with acclamation.”] (V: 80-81)
(Beaumont)

Monsieur de Beaumont praises Archie:

“Votre conduite est au-dessus de tout éloge.” (VI: p. 118)
[“What you have done is beyong all praise.”] (V: 81-82)
(Beaumont)

Of special interest to us, Scots in Canada, is a reference to the Scotch reel. (p. 126) In footnote 9, we learn that the Scots brought reels to Canada shortly after the conquest. This footnote refers to the past, but events in Les Anciens Canadiens occur from 1757 until the conquest.

Les scotch reels, que les habitants appellent cosreels, étaient, à ma connaissance, dansés dans les campagnes, il y a soixante et dix ans. Les montagnards écossais, passionnés pour la danse comme nos Canadiens, les avaient sans doute introduits peu de temps après la conquête. (VI: p. 146)
[Scottish reels, which habitants call cosreels, were, to my knowledge, danced in the countryside, seventy years ago. Scottish Highlanders, who were as fond of dancing as our Canadiens, had introduced the reels shortly after the conquest.]

THE Stranger

Chapter V/VI features a stranger who does not seem altogether human.

Une longue chevelure blonde lui flottait sur les épaules ; ses beaux yeux bleus avaient une douceur angélique, et toute sa figure, sans être positivement triste, était d’une mélancolie empreinte de compassion. Il portait une longue robe bleue nouée avec une ceinture. Larouche disait n’avoir jamais rien vu de si beau que cet étranger ; que la plus belle créature était laide en comparaison. (VI: p. 133)
[“This stranger was a tall, handsome man of about thirty. Long fair hair fell about his shoulders, his blue eyes were as sweet as an angel’s, and his countenance wore a sort of tender sadness. His dress was a long blue robe tied at the waist. Larouche said he had never seen any one so beautiful as this stranger, and that the loveliest woman was ugly in comparison.”] (V: 90-94)

David Larouche meets the stranger when he is taking his tithe to his parish priest. David, also called Davi, has so much to give that he needs a sled to carry his tithe. The stranger congratulates him, but David says there could have been more. If the weather had been better, his tithe would be larger.

The following year, he is carrying his thite because the bundle is so small. But the weather was as he wished, but too much so, as in the proverb.

– Jamais souhait ne vint plus à propos, répondit Larouche, car je crois que le diable est entré dans ma maison, où il tient son sabbat jour et nuit ; ma femme me dévore depuis le matin jusqu’au soir, mes enfants me boudent, quand ils ne font pas pis ; et tous mes voisins sont déchaînés contre moi. (VI: p. 136)
[“‘Never was wish more appropriate,’ answered Larouche, ‘for I believe the devil himself has got into my house, and is kicking up his pranks there day and night. My wife scolds me to death from morn till eve, my children sulk when they are not doing worse, and all my neighbors are set against me.'”] (V: 93-94)
(David Larouche)

The French in North America had to trust in Providence. Hostile Iroquois could kidnap children, but they could also listen to Dumais and release Arché. Moreover, colonies were at the mercy of victories and defeats between colonial powers.

This character, the stranger, is a bit of an archetype. He may be the stranger who comes to the door and whom one believes is Jesus. (Notre Seigneur en pauvre). Novelist Germaine Guèvremont introduces a stranger in her 1945 Le Survenant (The Outlander). (See RELATED ARTILES) This novel, a trilogy, was made into a very popular television serial and is the subject of two films. Aubert de Gaspé, however, depicts a stranger who can predict the future and, in 1757, the future is ominous. We are two years away from the conquest. Montcalm will lose the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on 13 September 1759.

Les Anciens Canadiens also has it sorceress, other than la Corriveau. When the sorceress sees Archie, she knows that he will harm the family.

Va-t’en ! va-t’en ! c’est toi qui amènes l’Anglais pour dévorer le Français ! (IX: p. 208)
[“Avaunt! Avaunt!” continued the witch with the same gestures, “you that are bringing the English to eat up the French.”] (VIII: 134)
(Marie, the sorceress)

Between Christmas and Lent

On the shores of the St Lawrence, there are very few stores. Preparing a meal is difficult. As well, habitants are scattered over a large territory. Consequently, there are good months and bad months. But winter comes bringing “lavish abundance.” Between Christmas time and Lent, there are gatherings and one feasts.

– Nos habitants, dispersés à distance les uns des autres sur toute l’étendue de la Nouvelle-France, et partant privés de marchés, ne vivent, pendant le printemps, l’été et l’automne que de salaisons, pain et laitage (…)
Il se fait, en revanche, pendant l’hiver, une grande consommation de viandes fraîches de toutes espèces ; c’est bombance générale : l’hospitalité est poussée jusqu’à ses dernières limites, depuis Noël jusqu’au carême. C’est un va-et-vient de visites continuelles pendant ce temps. Quatre ou cinq carrioles contenant une douzaine de personnes arrivent ; on dételle aussitôt les voitures, après avoir prié les amis de se dégrayer (dégréer); la table se dresse, et, à l’expiration d’une heure tout au plus, cette même table est chargée de viandes fumantes. (VII: p.169)
[“Our habitants, scattered wide apart over all New France, and consequently deprived of markets during spring, summer, and autumn, live then on nothing but salt meat, bread, and milk, and, except in the infrequent case of a wedding, they rarely give a feast at either of those seasons. In winter, on the other hand, there is a lavish abundance of fresh meats of all kinds; there is a universal feasting, and hospitality is carried to an extreme from Christmas time to Lent; there is a perpetual interchange of visits. Four or five carrioles, containing a dozen people, drive up; the horses are unhitched, the visitors take off their wraps, the table is set, and in an hour or so it is loaded down with smoking dishes.”] (VI: 113-114)

Conclusion

Jules and Archie are about to leave for Europe. Archie will return as a British soldier and will set ablaze his friend’s manoir. But the Order of Good Cheer still inhabits the mind of a people who have otherwise lost everything. One rebuilds. Blanche will not marry Archie, but he will live nearby and never marry. A humbler manoir has been rebuilt and Aubert de Gaspé remembers the dinners of old. It seems a duty to share meals, not so lavish as before, but generous. The Order of Good Cheer, myrth, is a constant in the literature of the conquered Canadiens.

As Philippe Aubert de Gaspé chronicles the past, building a literary homeland, he also creates Cameron of Lochiel, an intriguing figure, bridging a past and a future.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • La Débâcle / The Debacle (13 June 2021)
  • Jules d’Haberville & Cameron of Lochiel (12 June 2021)
  • Les Anciens Canadiens/Cameron of Lochiel (9 June 2021)
  • Alexis de Tocqueville & John Neilson: a Conversation, 27 August 1831 (13 May 2021)
  • Germaine Guèvremont’s Le Survenant (23 June 2012)
  • The Aftermath cont’d: Aubert de Gaspé’s Anciens Canadiens (30 March 2012)
  • Canadiana.1 (page)
  • Canadiana.2 (page)

Sources and Ressources

Les Anciens Canadiens (ebooksgratuits.com). FR
Cameron of Lochiel (Archive.org ), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Cameron of Lochiel is Gutenberg [EBook#53154], Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Une Colonie féodale en Amérique: l’Acadie 1604 – 17 (Rameau, Google Books)

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Sir Ernest MacMillan’s Notre Seigneur en pauvre
Un Ancien Canadien

© Micheline Walker
19 June 2021
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Les Anciens Canadiens/Cameron of Lochiel

09 Wednesday Jun 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Quebec, Scotland, the Fur Trade, Voyageurs

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cameron of Lochiel, La Patrie littéraire, Les Anciens Canadiens, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, Simon Fraser, Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, The Auld Alliance, the Fur Trade, the Literary Homeland, voyageurs

Cameron of Locheil by H. C. Edwards (EBook#53154)
Manoir de Philippe Aubert de Gaspé à Saint-Jean-Port-Joli (Patrimoine culturel du Québec)

Les Anciens Canadiens (ebooksgratuits.com). FR
Cameron of Lochiel (Archive.org ), Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN
Cameron of Lochiel is Gutenberg [EBook#53154], Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, translator. EN

Last weekend, I worked on Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé‘s Anciens Canadiens. The novel can be read online. It was translated twice by Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, an excellent Canadian writer, but Mr Roberts’s second and finer translation, published in 1905, is entitled Cameron of Lochiel [EN]. I had never looked for a translation of Les Anciens Canadiens [1] and this English title intrigued me. Upon due reflexion, the title Sir Roberts gave Les Anciens Canadiens seemed altogether legitimate. As the events of the Anciens Canadiens unfold, Jules d’Haberville becomes Cameron of Lochiel. Scotland fell to England at the Battle of Culloden (1746), which is discussed in Les Anciens Canadiens. As for New France, it will also fall to England, but it will have a glorious past.

After our friends complete their studies, Jules joins the French army and Arché, the British army. Archie serves in North America during the Seven Years’ War, called the French and Indian War. Ironically and tragically, Arché, a soldier, is ordered to set ablaze his friends’ manoir. Nouvelle-France is conquered by the British. Therefore, the defeat of Nouvelle-France mirrors the defeat of Scotland, a more important country, and, by the same token, it puts Jules and Arché / Archie on an equal footing. They are the two sides of the same coin. So, metaphorically, Jules has become Cameron of Lochiel. His country has been defeated and, despite the role Arché / Archie plays during the war, the friends are reunited. In 1759, the French in Canada fell to England as did the Scots, in 1746.

After the “conquest,” Blanche d’Haberville will not marry Roberts’s Cameron of Lochiel, whom she loves, but Jules will marry an Englishwoman, thereby giving himself a second and redeeming identity, an instance of the collaborator’s ideology. He is the conquered and the conqueror. As for Aubert de Gaspé, the author and a Seigneur, he will use Arché’s guided tour of a Seigneurie to consign New France to a réel absolu, that of fiction, the life and customs of anciens Canadiens. Jules familiarizes Arché with the life of a Seigneur and that of the inhabitants of a seigneurie, not to mention the life of New France’s humbler subjects and its Amerindians.

Missing are New France’s voyageurs, river drivers (draveurs), and bûcherons. Their life and their songs are chronicled elsewhere. Les Anciens Canadiens nevertheless memorializes and mythologizes the presence of the French in North America. France will live forever on the shores of the St Lawrence River because it is remembered, an anamnesis.

La Patrie littéraire

When John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham wrote his Report on the Rebellions of 1837-1838, he described the French in Canada as a people lacking a history and a literature: un peuple sans histoire ni littérature. The French set about proving him wrong. Two literary schools were instituted, one in Montreal and one in Quebec City. The people of New France quickly built a patrie littéraire,[2] a literary homeland.  

Our colleague Derrick J. Knight was correct in suggesting a link between the Scots and the French in Canada. Matters would change when Confederation occurred. However, the spirit of the Auld Alliance would persist. Our Scottish explorers worked at an early point after the Conquest of Canada, formalized by the Treaty of Paris,1763. The Battle of Culloden took place less than two decades before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, fought on 13 September 1759.

Canada’s bon Anglais is Scottish, he is both John Neilson and Cameron of Locheill. John Neilson stated that there could be a blend, un amalgame, of the two “races” in Canada, the French-speaking race, and the English-speaking race: the two sides of the same coin. There was an amalgame. Simon Fraser left Montreal accompanied by 19 voyageurs and 2 Amerindians. Explorers were guided by voyageurs and Amerindians whom they trusted.

Patriotism, devotion to the French-Canadian nationality, a just pride of race, and a loving memory for his people’s romantic and heroic past—these are the dominant chords which are struck throughout the story. Of special significance, therefore, are the words which are put in the mouth of the old seigneur as he bids his son a last farewell. The father has been almost ruined by the conquest. The son has left the French army and taken the oath of allegiance to the English crown. “Serve thy new sovereign,” says the dying soldier, “as faithfully as I have served the King of France; and may God bless thee, my dear son!”
Sir Charles G. D. Roberts’s Cameron of Lochiel (Preface)

An incident in the rebellion of 1745, David Morier (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Montcalm blessé à la bataille des plaines d’Abraham et ramené à Québec (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

RELATED ARTILES

  • The Scots as Explorers (4 June 2021)
  • The Scots in Canada, cont’d (30 May 2021
  • Scots in Canada (26 May 2021)
  • The Auld Alliance & the Scots Guard in Canada (20 May 2021)
  • Alexis de Tocqueville & John Neilson: a Conversation, 27 August 1831 (13 May 2021)
  • From Coast to Coast: the Oregon Treaty (18 May 2012)
  • Franchère’s Narrative of a Voyage (Part Two) (10 June 2015)
  • Gabriel Franchère’s Narrative of a Voyage (Part One) (6 June 2015)
  • The Red River Settlement (30 May 2015)
  • La Corriveau: a legend (1 April 2012)
  • The Aftermath, cont’d: Aubert de Gaspé Les Anciens Canadiens (30 March 2012)
  • Voyageurs Posts (page)
  • Canadiana.1 (page)

Sources and Resources

  • Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, Britannica
  • Wikipedia
  • The Canadian Encyclopedia
  • The Dictionary of Canadian Biography

______________________________
[1] There are four: The Canadians of Old, Georgina Pennée (1864); Charles G. D. Roberts (1890), and Jane Brierley (1997). There are anonymous translations.
[2] Bourbeau-Walker, M. (2002). La patrie littéraire : errance et résistance.
Francophonies d’Amérique,(13), 47–65. https://doi.org/10.7202/1005247ar

Love to everyone 💕

Philippe Aubert de Gaspé (1786-1871)
(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

© Micheline Walker
9 Juin 2021
WordPress

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