CHAPTER IV

THE ADVENTURERS OF CANADA

Charles Lalemant, superior of the Jesuit mission, had no
sooner landed on the shores of New France than he became
convinced that the mission and the colony itself were
doomed unless there should be a radical change in the
government. The Caens were thoroughly selfish. While
discouraging settlement and agriculture, they so
inadequately provided for the support of the colony that
the inhabitants often lacked food. But the gravest evil,
in Lalemant's mind, was the presence of so many Huguenots.
The differences in belief were puzzling to the Indians,
who naturally supposed that different sets of white men
had different gods. True, the Calvinist traders troubled
little with religion. To them the red man was a mere
trapper, a gatherer of furs; and whether he shaped his
course for the happy hunting ground of his fathers or to
the paradise of the Christian mattered nothing. But they
were wont to plague the Jesuits and Recollets at every
opportunity; as when the crews of the ships at Quebec
would lift up their voices in psalms purposely to annoy
the priests at their devotions. Lalemant, an alert-minded
ecclesiastic, came to a swift decision. The trading
monopoly of the Huguenots must be ended and a new company
must be created, with power to exclude Calvinists from
New France. To this end Lalemant sent Father Noyrot to
France in 1626, to lay the whole matter before the viceroy
of New France. But from the Duc de Ventadour Noyrot got