5. Fur Traders and Missionaries

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C. New France →→ 1. French Exploration 1534-1602 → 2. The Acadian Saga → 3. First Settlements → 4. The Royal Colony → 5. Fur Traders and Missionaries → 6. Daily Life in New France → 7. Wars with the English 1685-1763 →→ D. British North America

Europeans had originally come to North America to fish for the plentiful cod off Newfoundland's Grand Banks. What really encouraged them to go ashore, other than to dry and salt their catch, was fur. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, a change in European fashion had a profound impact on Canada. Beaver hats, in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and styles, became all the rage.

Evolving Beaver Hat Styles

All men wore them, and would continue doing so for more than the next century. Not only were they highly fashionable, but as well they were warm and water-resistant. The large beaver hat was the umbrella of the day.

The best source for beaver was the forests of Canada. And the most highly prized pelt were called castor gras, or greasy beaver which were skins that had been worn by the aboriginals. With wearing, the rough outer hairs wore away and the oil mixed with human perspiration to produce an exceedingly soft felt for hat making.

The fur trade formed the very basis of New France. It led to two important changes within New France. First, the fur trade was heavily dependent on aboriginal suppliers. That in turn forced the settlers into close contact with the native population as well as into a highly competitive system of alliances. Second, since the better furs were to be found in the colder climates that in turn led to intense exploration of the interior of the continent. Both exploration and aboriginal alliances would have taken on a very different complexion had it not been for the fur trade. And while other animals were trapped - mink, fox, and marten for example - it was the beaver that was the foundation, the very essence, of the highly lucrative fur trade.

Beavers, by J.J. Audubon

Originally, the Crown had granted fur trading monopolies to a succession of companies, the Canada Company, Company of One Hundred Associates, and Company of Habitants. The Company of One Hundred Associates, formed in 1627, gained an exclusive fur trade monopoly for fifteen years in return for three thousand livres from each investor and the promise to bring over 4 000 colonists over that period. Even while they lagged in terms of meeting their requirement to bring over settlers, the companies exploited and expanded the fur trade. Champlain negotiated an agreement whereby the Huron became the middlemen for the French fur traders. He further expanded the fur trade by sending out coureurs des bois, or unlicensed fur traders. They lived and traded with the aboriginals, learned their language and ways, and explored deep into the interior. Arguably the most notable was Étienne Brulé, who lived with the Huron for twenty years.

Étienne Brulé Reaches the Mouth of the Humber River

The Crown, wanting to restrict the coureurs des bois, passed a law requiring that all fur traders hold a permit. Permit holders were called voyageurs, or travelers, who journeyed deep into the interior in their birch bark canoes. However, since there was so much profit available, such edicts did little to curb the enthusiasm, or the number, involved.

Despite Talon's plan of diversification, the fur trade still remained the cornerstone of New France's economy. In fact, by enlisting increasing numbers of aboriginal middlemen, the trade grew phenomenally. Far more pelts were brought into Montreal under Royal Government than had been the case under the fur trade companies. Pierre Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers advised the British of the incredible wealth to be gained from furs.

Radisson Meets Native Traders in Winter Camp

In response, in 1670, the British Crown granted the Hudson's Bay Company a Royal Charter that gave them the fur trading monopoly in "all the lands that drained into Hudson's Bay." In the last two decades of the seventeenth century, the British built a number of fur trading posts. The French attacked many of them and the rivalry continued to heat up. There was so much money to be made that many individuals - coureurs des bois, voyageurs, merchants, investors, companies, became part of the fierce economic competition. The creation of the North West Company in 1776 only added to the struggle. It was only some years later, in 1821, when the two companies, recognizing the futility of their cutthroat competition, agreed to rationalize the fur trade by merging into a single entity.

Pierre-Esprit Radisson

The fur trade had an immense impact on the evolution and growth of New France. In fact, it virtually determined it. It provided a substantial source of wealth and as it did so, it created divisive rivalries. Those divisions led to major conflicts and wars between the major aboriginal tribes as the Huron became allied to the French and the Iroquois worked with the British. The fur trade determined the nature and speed of exploration of the interior of the continent. Most of it was done to expand the fur trade.

The fur trade introduced major changes in the aboriginal way of life. Their traditional values, ecologically sensitive and spiritually in tune with nature, were eroded, if not shattered. Whereas before, they had been strict conservationists, only hunting for need and using every part of the animal, now with the fur trade, they hunted for profit and greed. In a number of areas, animals became severely endangered. Métissage, or intermarriage between fur traders and aboriginal women, encouraged by the government of New France, threatened the native way of life with assimilation.

Champlain in a Trade Canoe

The Church in the New World

If furs were the economic lifeblood of New France, then the Roman Catholic Church was the moral and spiritual heart. In large measure, it had been those twin motives, commercial gain and the search for converts that initially impelled the French into North America. The desire for converts came from a mixture of motives. There was some altruism in the belief that the Europeans were civilizing the aboriginal peoples and bringing them a 'better' and more advanced belief system and way of life. There was a sincere desire on the part of many missionaries to bring the advantages of Christianity to the aboriginal peoples.

Many missionaries risked their lives and made the supreme sacrifice, choosing to be martyred rather than renouncing their faith. However, as well there was also a strong dose of self-interest involved in the missionary zeal. The struggle between Catholics and Protestants had been waged violently and relentlessly in Europe. Now, the competition was merely being transferred to the New World. By gaining converts, the position of one faith would be increased over the other.

Jesuit Priest

Récollet Friar

The Récollets were the first religious order in New France, arriving as early as 1615. Their approach was awkward and unsuccessful. They believed that the aboriginal population had to be made "human" and the only way to do that was to make them like the Europeans. The aboriginal population was to be relocated, taught French, and become farmers. Not surprising, the attempt was a dismal failure in the face of stiff opposition. The Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, replaced the Récollets as the dominant religious order in the colony.

Founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534, the Jesuits were much more assertive in their missionary drive. They built the first French Roman Catholic mission at Tadoussac. The Jesuits existed in much greater numbers and became the major religious force, especially after Cardinal Richelieu's decision in the mid-1630s to banish the Récollets.

Pierre de Chomedy, SIeur de Maisonneuve

Sidelight: The Founding of Montreal

On May 17, 1642, Paul de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance arrived on Montreal Island with Mme de La Peltrie, Charlotte Barré and other colonists backed by La Société Notre-Dame.

Jeanne Mance and de Maisonneuve had left Le Havre, France in two ships the previous May 9, 1641. The party arrived on August 8, 1642, spent the winter near Quebec City, and the following Spring went upriver to the Island of Montréal, arriving on May 17, 1642. After a thanksgiving mass they started building a fort at Pointe à Callières, on the site of Place Royale, founding a settlement they called Ville Marie de Montréal.

On December 24, their first Christmas Eve, Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and the settlers prayed to the Virgin Mary for deliverance from the rising waters of the St. Lawrence and La Petite Rivière that threatened to inundate their fort. Maisonneuve built a wooden cross on the point, and promised to carry it to the top of Mount Royal if the flood subsided. It did.

The following January 6, 1643, de Maisonneuve planted a wooden cross on Mount Royal to offer thanks to God for saving the settlement of Ville Marie from flooding. Today, an illuminated cross marks the spot. Montreal, Quebec

On March 30, 1644, aided by force of 30 settlers, Maisonneuve defeated a large band of marauding Iroquois on the site of present day Place d'Armes; they had massacred several habitant families. After a decade of attacks, he asked for and got a troup of 100 soldiers to help defend Ville Marie against the Iroquois. They arrived on September 22, 1653, along with Marguerite Bourgeoys, who intended to start a school in the settlement; for several years, she could not find enough children of school age because of heavy infant mortality.

The Jesuits also created a number of missions throughout Huronia, most notably Sainte Marie among the Hurons, close to present-day Midland, Ontario, which was begun by Jérôme Lalemant in 1639.

Modern Restoration, Sainte Marie Among the Hurons (Tay Township)

Ste. Marie among the Hurons

The Jesuit priests and their young volunteer assistants lived among the Hurons, learning their language, eating their food, and getting to know their customs. However, their idea was to undermine the aboriginal way of life, rather than to understand and appreciate it. The Hurons tolerated the Jesuits' presence because they wanted to continue and hopefully expand the commercial and military relationship with the French. The Huron were encouraged to be baptized by being offered better trading terms. Later guns and brandy were introduced as tools of "Christianizing." However, once baptized, the Huron were told that they had to completely rid themselves of all their traditional customs and rituals.

Martyrdom of Brébeuf & Lalement

Not only was religion a dominant institution within New France but also as had been the case with the fur trade, there was a monopoly involved. It was decreed that only Roman Catholics could immigrate to the colony. While that may have limited population growth, it did produce religious conformity.

Perhaps the best-known Jesuit missionary was Jean de Brébeuf. He lived with the Huron for more than fifteen years, learning their language and even compiling the first Huron dictionary. Arguably he might have been as shocked with some of the aboriginal customs as they were of his. He disliked some of their practises and thoroughly loathed their food. For their part, the Huron regarded Brébeuf and all missionaries as strange, in dress, in language, and facial appearance.

Both Brébeuf and Lalemant, like many other Christian missionaries, demonstrated their courage and belief by dying for their faith.

An interesting side-note to the impact of the Jesuits were the "Jesuit Relations". Written between 1632 and 1673, they provide an invaluable insight into life in New France.

Jesuit Relation from 1636

The first Relation was written by Paul le Jeune in August of 1632 and intended simply as a private letter between himself and his superior in France. However, Father Barthélemy Jacquinot, the superior, was so taken with it with it, that he had it reprinted and circulated. And it became a national bestseller. Both Brébeuf and Lalemant were important authors of the Jesuit Relations, and one Relation describes their deaths at the hands of the Iroquois.

Mothers of the Church

Marie de l'Incarnation

Marie de l'Incarnation, next to Bishop Laval, had the major influence on the spiritual life of New France. Inspired by the Jesuit Relations, this widow from Tours, France, by the name of Marie Guyart left her son with relatives and entered the Ursuline Order and later in 1639 traveled to the colony. She built a convent and worked at educating the young women of New France. She also worked diligently to improve relations with the aboriginal population, in the process compiling Iroquoian and Algonquian dictionaries. She also wrote thousands of letters back to her son in France.

Mère Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, again a widow, founded the Grey Nuns, a charitable order that cared for abandoned children, prostitutes, and the poor.

Jeanne Mance

Other important women significantly contributed to the care and welfare of settlers in New France. Jeanne Mance, who along with Paul de Maisonneuve had co-founded Ville Marie (Montreal), established one of the earliest hospitals in the colony, the Hôtel Dieu.

First Ursuline Nuns with Indian Children at Québec

Marguerite Bourgeoys opened the first domestic training school in New France in 1658.

So if the fur trade supplied the economic underpinning of New France, the Roman Catholic Church provided the spiritual and moral essence. Religion offered much more than simply spiritual and moral instruction and guidance. The Roman Catholic Church was the source of education, charity, and health care - all vital in a frontier society. As well, the Church was the inspiration for the hundreds of missionaries who risked their lives to bring the benefits of Christianity to the aboriginal population. In short, New France could not have existed without the twin pillars of the Roman Catholic Church and the fur trade.

Marguerite Bourgeoys

Sulpician Priest

Sidelight: French Fur Traders Found Toronto

On [April 15, 1750], fur trader Pierre de Portneuf started to build a post he called Fort Toronto near the Mississauga village of Teiaiagon on the orders of the Marquis de La Jonquière, Governor of New France. He will complete the post, situated on the east bank of the Humber River up from Lake Ontario, on May 20, 1750.

The French had built a post on the site in about 1720, originally naming it Fort Rouillé for Antoine-Louis Rouillé, the minister of marine and colonies. Abandoned in 1730, the fort was restored in 1740. Several 18th-century French and British maps identified it as Fort Toronto.

Growing trade and a threat from the English at Oswego and in the Ohio valley soon convince the French to build a larger, more secure post, completed the following spring farther east on the site of the CNE at the foot of Dufferin Street.

The historical plaque on the site reads: “The last French post built in present-day Southern Ontario, Fort Rouille, more commonly known as fort Toronto, was erected on the site in 1750-51. It was established by order of the Marquis de Jonquiere, Governor of New France, to help strengthen French control of the great lakes and was located here near an important portage to capture the trade of Indians traveling southwest toward the British fur-trading centre at Oswego. A small frontier post, Fort Rouille was a palisaded fortification with four bastions and five main buildings. It apparently prospered until hostilities between French and British increased in the mid-1750s. Fort Rouille was destroyed by its garrison in July 1759.”

Fort Rouille Monument on the CNE grounds

Origin of the Name "Toronto"

The forts was named after the portage, "le Passage de Toronto", which at that time meant the portage up the Humber River and down the Holland River to the "Lac de Toronto" - Lake Simcoe. The lake was named "toronto" after the Huron/Iroquois word for "fishing weirs" - because of the smelt weirs at the entrance to Lake Couchiching.