The Short And Simple Annals Of This
Heroic And Gentle Company Of Emigrants Are Full Of Trials And Troubles,
And Ended With A Bloody Catastrophe.
'After Plymouth, I do not think there is any locality in New England more
interesting.
This little band of French families, [343 ] transported from
the shore of the Bay of Biscay to the wilds of our New England interior,
reminds me of the isolated group of Magnolias which we find surrounded by
the ordinary forest trees of our Massachusetts town of Manchester. It is a
surprise to meet with them, and we wonder how they came there, but they
glorify the scenery with their tropical flowers, and sweeten it with their
fragrance. Such a pleasing surprise is the effect of coming upon this
small and transitory abiding-place of the men and women who left their
beloved and beautiful land for the sake of their religion. The lines of
their fort may become obliterated, 'the perfume of the shrubbery may no
longer be perceived but the ground they hallowed by their footsteps is
sacred and the air around their old Oxford home is sweet with their
memory.'
This exclusiveness in the selection of settlers for Canada, ever since the
days of the DeCaens, to render the population homogeneous and prevent
religious discord, was extended to Frenchmen, whose only disability, was
their faith, and who did not belong to the national Church, and though the
colony, more than once was at its last gasp, for want of soldiers and
colonists to defend it, it was forbidden ground to the 500,000 industrious
Frenchman, whom the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1682, drove to
England, Holland and Germany, and the English and Dutch colonies in
America. This policy of exclusiveness, was vigorously denounced by the
leading historian of Canada, F. X. Garneau, in 1845.
"The poorly expressed request, for fifteen hundred colonists to take the
place of those who had joined the army, remained unanswered - unattended
to. Though at the very time the Huguenots solicited as a favour permission
to settle in the New World, where they promised to live peaceably under
the shadow of their country's flag - which they could not cease to love - it
was just when they were denied a request, which had it been granted would
have saved Canada and permanently secured it to France. But Colbert's
influence," says Garneau, "at Court had fallen away; he was on his death-
bed. So long as he was in power he had protected the Calvinists, who had
ceased to disturb France and who then were enriching it. His death which
took place in 1684, handed them over to the tender mercy of the Chancellor
Le Tellier and of the fierce Louvois. The dragonnades swept over
the protestant strongholds, awful heralds of the revocation of the edict
of Nantes. The king, said a celebrated writer, exhibited his power by
humbling the Pope and by crushing the Huguenots. He wished the unification
of the Church and of France - the hobby of the great men of the day,
presided over by Bossuet.
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