nd the cabals of self-seeking traders who shirked their
obligations, and to endure the apathy of a government which was
preoccupied with palace intrigues.

At Quebec itself the two bright spots were the convent of the
Recollets[3] and the little farm of Louis Hebert. The Recollets first
came to New France in 1615, and began at once by language study to
prepare for their work among the Montagnais and Hurons. It was a
stipulation of the viceroy that six of them should be supported by the
company, and in the absence of parish priests they ministered to the
ungodly hangers-on of the fur trade as well as to the Indians. Louis
{81} Hebert and his admirable family were very dear to the Fathers. In
1617 all the buildings which had been erected at Quebec lay by the
water's edge. Hebert was the first to make a clearing on the heights.
His first domain covered less than ten acres, but it was well tilled.
He built a stone house, which was thirty-eight feet by nineteen.
Besides making a garden, he planted apple-trees and vines. He also
managed to support some cattle. When one considers what all this means
in terms of food and comfort, it may be guessed that the fur traders,
wintering down below on salt pork and smoked eels, must have felt much
respect for the farmer in his stone mansion on the cliff.

We have from Champlain's own lips a valuable statement as to the
condition of things at Quebec in 1627, the year when Louis Hebert died.
'We were in all,' he says, 'sixty-five souls, including men, women, and
children.' Of the sixty-five only eighteen were adult males fit for
hard work, and this small number must be reduced to two or three if we
include only the tillers of the soil. Besides these, a few adventurous
spirits were away in the woods with the Indians, learning their
language and endeavouring to exploit the beaver trade; but twenty years
after the founding of Quebec the {82} French in Canada, all told,
numbered less than one hundred.

Contrast with this the state of Virginia fifteen years after the
settlement of Jamestown. 'By 1622,' says John Fiske, 'the population
of Virginia was at least 4000, the tobacco fields were flourishing and
lucrative, durable houses had been built and made comfortable with
furniture brought from England, and the old squalor was everywhere
giving way to thrift. The area of colonization was pushed up the James
River as far as Richmond.'

This contrast is not to be interpreted to the