coeval with the discovery of the continent by Columbus--much anterior to
the foundation of Jamestown, in 1607--anterior to that of St Augustine, in
Florida. Quebec, has, then, a right to call herself an old, a very old,
city of the west.

The colonization of Canada, or, as it was formerly called, New France, was
undertaken by French merchants engaged in the fur trade, close on whose
steps followed a host of devoted missionaries who found, in the forests of
this new and attractive country, ample scope for the exercise of their
religious enthusiasm. It was at Quebec that these Christian heroes landed,
from hence they started for the forest primeval, the bearers of the olive
branch of Christianity, an unfailing token of civilization.

A fatal mistake committed at the outset by the French commanders, in
taking sides in the Indian wars, more than once brought the incipient
colony to the verge of ruin. During these periods, scores of devoted
missionaries fell under the scalping knife or suffered incredible tortures
amongst the merciless savages whom they had come to reclaim. Indian
massacres became so frequent, so appalling, that on several occasions the
French thought seriously of giving up the colony forever. The rivalry
between France and England, added to the hardships and dangers of the few
hardy colonists established at Quebec. Its environs, the shores of its
noble river, more than once became the battle-field of European armies.
These are periods of strife, happily gone by, we hope, forever.

In his "_Pioneers of France in the New World_," the gifted Francis
Parkman mournfully reviews the vanished glories of old France in her
former vast dominions in America:--

"The French dominion is a memory of the past; and when we evoke its