treated with him and now recognized him as King of England.
Moreover France, hitherto always victorious, with generals who
had not known defeat, was really defeated when she could not
longer advance.



CHAPTER II. Quebec And Boston

At the end of the seventeenth century it must have seemed a far
cry from Versailles to Quebec. The ocean was crossed only by
small sailing vessels haunted by both tempest and pestilence, the
one likely to prolong the voyage by many weeks, the other to
involve the sacrifice of scores of lives through scurvy and other
maladies. Yet, remote as the colony seemed, Quebec was the child
of Versailles, protected and nourished by Louis XIV and directed
by him in its minutest affairs. The King spent laborious hours
over papers relating to the cherished colony across the sea. He
sent wise counsel to his officials in Canada and with tactful
patience rebuked their faults. He did everything for the
colonists--gave them not merely land, but muskets, farm
implements, even chickens, pigs, and sometimes wives. The defect
of his government was that it tended to be too paternal. The
vital needs of a colony struggling with the problems of barbarism
could hardly be read correctly and provided for at Versailles.
Colonies, like men, are strong only when they learn to take care
of themselves.

The English colonies present a vivid contrast. London did not
direct and control Boston. In London the will, indeed, was not