The Passing of New France | Page 6

their ships were watched, chased and taken whenever they
appeared on the sea. Even during peace they had much the worse of it,
for they had to spend great sums and much effort in building vessels to
make up for the men of-war and the merchant ships which they had lost
and the British had won. Thus they never quite succeeded in beginning
again on even terms with their triumphant rival.

We must remember, too, that every sort of trade and money-making
depended on the command of the sea, which itself depended on the
stronger navy. Even the trade with Indians in America, two thousand
miles inland, depended on defeat or victory at sea. The French might
send out ships full of things to exchange for valuable furs. But if they
lost their ships they lost their goods, and in consequence the trade and
even the friendship of the Indians. In the same way the navy helped or
hindered the return trade from America to Europe. The furs and food
from the British colonies crossed over in safety, and the money or other
goods in exchange came safely back. But the French ships were not
safe, and French merchants were often ruined by the capture of their
ships or by having the sea closed to them.
To follow out all the causes and effects of the command of the sea
would be far too long a story even to begin here. But the gist of it is
quite short and quite plain: no Navy, no Empire. That is what it meant
then, and that is what it means now.
Secondly, as to freedom in the French colonies. Of course, freedom
itself, no matter how good it is and how much we love it, would have
been nothing without the protection of fleets. All the freedom in the
world cannot hold two countries on opposite sides of the sea together
without the link of strong fleets. But even the strongest fleet would not
have helped New France to grow as fast and as well as New England
grew. The French people were not free in the motherland. They were
not free as colonists in Canada. All kinds of laws and rules were made
for the Canadians by persons thousands of miles away. This
interference came from men who knew scarcely anything about Canada.
They had crude notions as to what should be done, and sometimes they
ordered the men on the spot to do impossible things. The result was that
the men on the spot, if they were bad enough and clever enough, just
hoodwinked the government in France, and did in Canada what they
liked and what made for their own profit.
Now, Bigot the intendant, the man of affairs in the colony, was on the
spot; and he was one of the cleverest knaves ever known, with a feeble
colony in his power. He had nothing to fear from the people, the poor,

helpless French Canadians. He had nothing to fear from their governor,
the vain, incompetent Vaudreuil. He was, moreover, three thousand
miles away from the French court, which was itself full of parasites. He
had been given great power in Canada. As intendant he was the head of
everything except the army, the navy, and the church. He had charge of
all the public money and all the public works and whatever else might
be called public business. Of course, he was supposed to look after the
interests of France and of Canada, not after his own; and earlier
intendants like Talon had done this with perfect honesty. But Bigot
soon organized a gang of men like himself, and gathered into his
grasping hands the control of the private as well as of the public
business.
One example will show how he worked. Whenever food became
dangerously scarce in Canada the intendant's duty was to buy it up, to
put it into the king's stores, and to sell out only enough for the people to
live on till the danger was over. There was a reason for this, as Canada,
cut off from France, was like a besieged fortress, and it was proper to
treat the people as a garrison would be treated, and to make provision
for the good of the whole. But when Bigot had formed his gang, and
had, in some way, silenced Vaudreuil, he declared Canada in danger
when it was not, seized all the food he could lay hands on, and sent it
over to France; sent it, too, in the king's ships, that it might be carried
free. Then he made Vaudreuil send word to the king that Canada was
starving. In the meantime, his friends in France had stored the food,
and had then assured the king that there was plenty of