PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD

By Francis Parkman




INTRODUCTION.


The springs of American civilization, unlike those of the elder world,
lie revealed in the clear light of History. In appearance they are
feeble; in reality, copious and full of force. Acting at the sources of
life, instruments otherwise weak become mighty for good and evil, and
men, lost elsewhere in the crowd, stand forth as agents of Destiny. In
their toils, their sufferings, their conflicts, momentous questions were
at stake, and issues vital to the future world,--the prevalence of
races, the triumph of principles, health or disease, a blessing or a
curse. On the obscure strife where men died by tens or by scores hung
questions of as deep import for posterity as on those mighty contests of
national adolescence where carnage is reckoned by thousands.

The subject to which the proposed series will be devoted is that of
"France in the New World,"--the attempt of Feudalism, Monarchy, and
Rome to master a continent where, at this hour, half a million of
bayonets are vindicating the ascendency of a regulated freedom;--
Feudalism still strong in life, though enveloped and overborne by
new-born Centralization; Monarchy in the flush of triumphant power;
Rome, nerved by disaster, springing with renewed vitality from ashes and
corruption, and ranging the earth to reconquer abroad what she had lost