The Great Intendant : A Chronicle of Jean Talon in Canada, 1665-1672

more than half a century. Yet it was still in a pitiable state of weakness and destitution. The care and maintenance of the settlement had devolved upo

dian wars. During twenty-five years the daring and ferocious Iroquois had been the constant scourge of the handful of settlers, traders, and missionaries. Champlain's successors in the office of governor, Montmagny, Ailleboust, Lauzon, Argenson, Avaugour, had no military force adequate to the task of meeting and crushing these formidable foes. Year after year the wretched colony maintained its struggle for existence amidst deadly perils, receiving almost no help from France, and to all appearance doomed to destruction. To make things worse, internal strife exercised its disintegrating influ

but the real ruler of his kingdom. In Jean Baptiste Colbert, the man who had been Mazarin's right hand, he had the good fortune to find one of the best administrators in all French history. Colbert soon won the king's confidence. He was instrumental in detecting the maladministration of Fouquet as superintendent of Finance, and became a member of the council appointed to investigate and report on all financial questions. Of this body he was the leading spirit from the beginning. Although at first withou

egate to present them. Louis and his minister studied the conditions of the colony on the St Lawrence and decided in 1663 to give it a new constitution. The charter of the One Hundred Associates was cancelled and the old Council of Quebec-formed in 1647-was reorganized under the name of the Sovereign Council. This new

. On June 19, 1665, the Marquis de Tracy, lieutenant-general of all the French dominions in America, arrived from the West Indies, where he had successfully discharged the first part of the mission entrusted to him by his royal master. With him came four companies of soldiers. During the whole summer ships were disembarking their passengers and unloading their cargoes of ammunition and provisions at Quebec in quick succession. It is easy to imagine the rapture of the colonists at such a sight, and the enthusiastic shouts that welcomed the first detachment of the splendid regiment of Carignan-Salieres. At length, on September 12, the cup of public joy was filled to overflowing by the arrival of the ship Saint Sebastien with two high officials on board, David de Remy, Si

ermont, Jean was employed under one of them in the commissariat. The young man's abilities soon became apparent and attracted Mazarin's attention. In 1654 he was appointed military commissary at Le Quesnoy in connection with the operations of the army commanded by the great Turenne. A year later, at the age of thirty, he was promoted to be intendant for the province of Hainault. For ten years he

d West India Company; the contemplated war against the Iroquois and how it might successfully be carried on; the Sovereign Council and the administration of justice; the settlement of the colony and the advisability of concentrating the population;

Rochelle, to arrange for the embarkation of settlers, working men, and supplies. He attended the review of the troops that were bound for New France, and reported to Colbert that the companies were at their full strength, w

ed on me by the king and yourself. Knowing that the best way to show my gratitude is to do good service to His Majesty, and that the best title to future benevolence lies in strenuous effort for the successful execution of his wishes, I shall

having written the

with M. de Courcel

or Canada, where

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