Quebec’s Supply Problems

Scarcely any land had been cleared, so that it was impossible by means of agriculture alone to provide against famine in the winter.

Continuing Quebec Founded,
our selection from The History of Canada under the French Regime by Henry H. Miles published in 1872. The selection is presented in six easy 5-minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Quebec Founded.

Time: 1608
Place: Quebec, Canada

In the meantime, the improvements projected by Champlain in 1620 were steadily prosecuted. Very extensive repairs and additions to former structures, and a number of new ones, were completed or in progress. The De Caëns and the Governor, notwithstanding the difference of their religious views, continued throughout to discharge their respective functions in a manner that denoted mutual respect and personal friendship. Yet, from whatever cause, the number of inhabitants, exclusive of a few factors or agents at the trading-posts, and the Frenchmen who from choice had taken up their abodes among the Indian tribes, remained less than sixty. In fact, every person who bestowed a transient thought upon Canada placed a very low estimate upon it as a country fit for settlement, excepting Champlain himself, whose faith in the future of his colony seems never to have wavered.

In August, 1624, Champlain made arrangements for revisiting France, where fresh dissensions had arisen in regard to the company’s rights and privileges. His chief purpose was to again urge at home an appeal for a more generous support in behalf of his undertakings. The Récollets, also, having found themselves utterly unequal to the occupation of their immense and constantly increasing field of missionary work, had determined to appeal for aid to some of the religious communities of France, and, with this view, deputed Sagard and a priest to sail for Europe in the suite of the Governor.

Before his departure Champlain nominated the younger De Caën commandant at Quebec during his absence, and gave instructions that the works in progress should be prosecuted with the utmost vigor, especially the completion of the Fort St. Louis.

These preparations being made, he set sail on August 15, 1624, accompanied by his wife and the two Récollet deputies.

Champlain, having accomplished all that seemed at that time attainable in France, returned to Quebec in the summer of 1626, accompanied by the priest Le Caron, and his brother-in-law, Boullé, as his lieutenant.

He found the works scarcely advanced beyond the condition in which he had left them two years before. His people also were in a somewhat enfeebled condition. They had been ill-supplied with necessaries the preceding season, owing to the neglect of the company to furnish what was requisite for their comfort and plentiful support during the winter of 1625.

Notwithstanding the exertions which had been made by Champlain to prevent a recurrence of the former sufferings of the colony owing to the neglect of the company, he and his people were doomed to struggle on precisely as heretofore. Scarcely any land had been cleared, so that it was impossible by means of agriculture alone to provide against famine in the winter. Nevertheless, the requisite supplies were furnished by the company’s agents in the most niggardly manner. Its neglect became worse and worse, until, in the winter of 1626, there was an actual dearth of provisions at Quebec. In the spring of 1627, De Caën’s vessels brought out, as usual, a certain supply of necessaries. But when the summer had passed away, and autumn came, although the season of traffic had been very profitable, the ships departed, leaving the establishments in the colony very insufficiently provisioned. The colony contained but one farmer — Louis Hebert * — who could maintain himself and those dependent on him by the cultivation of the ground. But about fifty persons had to endure the rigors of the winter of 1627 on short allowance; and such became their plight that even Champlain’s patience and powers of endurance were severely exercised. When at length the arrival of spring afforded some sources of relief, derived from hunting and fishing, Champlain and his unfortunate colonists at Quebec were amazed to find that De Caën’s ships came not as usual with succors. With infinite anxiety they contrived to subsist until the month of July, when it became known that the river below the Island of Orleans was in possession of the English, at that time enemies to France. In fact, on July 10, 1628, Champlain received a summons from Sir David Kirke, then at Tadoussac, with several ships under his command, to surrender the fort and station of Quebec. Notwithstanding his weakness, which would have prevented him from offering any effectual resistance had Kirke followed up his summons by an attack upon the place, Champlain responded with dignity and firmness, declaring that he would defend his post. Kirke, therefore, for the present, deferred his hostile intentions upon Quebec, and contented himself with adopting measures to intercept supplies and succor from France.

[* He died in the course of this season. Champlain, in his memoirs, mentions him with approbation and respect.]

Cut off from communication with France, Champlain exhorted his now isolated band of priests, colonists, and laborers to follow his own example of patience and courage. A single small ship, with very scanty supplies, succeeded in making its passage good through the English vessels to Quebec, with intelligence that at least ten months must elapse before adequate succor from France could be expected to reach the harbor. To cope with the present emergency, and to prevent absolute starvation, measures were taken to crop all the cleared ground in the neighborhood. At the same time recourse was had to hunting and fishing for the purpose of collecting food for the ensuing winter, and Champlain’s brother-in-law, Eustache Boullé, was dispatched with a small vessel and twelve men down to Gaspé, in the hope of falling in with French fishing-vessels and procuring intelligence and assistance. Some steps were also taken for obtaining aid from the Abnaquis. These responded favorably, promising to furnish maintenance sufficient for about three-fifths of Champlain’s people until succor should arrive. The other Indians, however, the Montagnais and Algonquins, took advantage of the emergency, and manifested, both in demeanor and hostile acts, their enmity to the French.

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