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A Lecture by M. lienjamin Suite, of Ottawa, before Uie Royal Geographical Society qf Quebec,* on April loth, 1880, (TRANSLATED BY COLIN CAMPBELL.) FROM THE OTTAWA FREE PRESS. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER Sth, rSBO. -•i;. u-:A ■^ M m i ' iJt f ^''' ^-'- The CanauiaaConfeJeratioo covering to- day nearly all the northera territory of this continent between the Pacific and the Atlantic, it will not be out of place to trace ihe be'.inning and progress of its geographical \nowledge. We will uecessarily proceed in the order of its u..,"-^very — going from East to West. By the aid of our various his- torical narratives, it will be easy to sketch the advance of the white race in its march from the St. T.iwrenco Gulf to tb« foot of the Rocky Mountains. We must not forget that. ChVistopher Columbus and the , discoverers who fol- lowed him sought to reach China and Japan, Some forty years after the first brilliant triumph of the great navigator, the French tried to penetrate oy n northern rotte into these new regions. Ne\irfoundIand and the banks, where Bretons, Basque^), and Normans fished {or Odd, had not attravited the attention of the civilized world. But in this direc- tion tlie King of France turned hi;, oyes. He sent Jacques Cartier, in 1634, to ^nd tor him a passave by which he might open relations with the Asiatic eontinent with- out troubling explorers from Spain. The map of the world was then limited enough. Some vague notions were held % among the learned men of the period; but it would have been hard to find what : we call, now-a-days, a public interest in these new questions. The old world very . carefully let alone iho great problems of geography. Barely a few of the wise men, the deep thinkers, had uared to attack the old theories of the extent and true configuration of our earth. True, the search for unknown laads commenced to prove attractive to the monarchs of Europe; but whenever they wee drawn into enterprises of that nature, it was for tho purpose of gratifying persenal ambi- tions, not scientific tavies. Not until three centuries after Cartier's day can a dawning be noticed of true geographical anqjiry. Commerce, the pioneer of nearly all enterprises, has furnished a great numbe of explorers. The CathoHo religion, also, which, by its mhsionaries, has every- where reached the farthest bounds of new countries, has given much valuable evi- dence. And the' governors and admin- istrators of colonies have contributed, in a great measure, towards fixing the attention of tha powers and of leading men upon unknown regions susceptible of being thrown open to civilization. After Cartier, who fouud other French navigators already in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and who ventured ae far as Montreal, we remain for sixty years with- out an advance in the knowledge of Ca- nadian geography. Champlam (1613)wi8hed to reconnoitre the count.'v up to Hudson's Bay; but instead of following the course of the St. Maurice river, wh'cch he had remarked, (lG10,)he tried the pt^BBage by theOttawa. On running cp to thrj Allumettea Island, the Indians convinced him of the useless- ness of the attempt, and of the fact that the Bay was much too distant to admit of regular connection between it and the St. Lawrence. Sa slight was the ac- quaintauce of the whitea with the North and West at this period, that they ima- gined they could reaoh the Pacific, or could catch a glimpse of it almost as easily as Balboa had gazed upon it from the mountain-heights of Darien. They little guessed that, instead of an isthmus, they had to deal with a stretch of nine hundred leagues ! Champlain'a genius reminded him that if the North proved difficult of access, the South might open itself to his designs. Consequently, he turned in that direc- tion, and after coasting along tho Georgian Bay he traversed Lake Ontario and passed through some parts of the present State of New York. Thus, leas than eight years after Quebec was found- ed. Lower and Upper Canada were known. Champlain would seem to have perceived that there existed, this side of the great lakes, a water- shed, whose cor- responding dip beyoni must extend very far. His own eflforts stopped short of testing the correctness of the theory; but /■ iA • This soeiuty, incorporeved in 1879 by Act of the Dominion Parliament, liai for iti obieet— lit. "To l)a|)uUriz« and extend the study of geegra^hical laience, and 9f all the pursuits subiidiary to its od- vancoiuent; 2nd. To study and make linown our country in relation fo its pre'tive forces with a view to auKment its rlohas and the wcil-being of its population; Srd. To stady our means of «on;munication and those of other countries, witli a view to facilitate and extend commeroiai rdiatious; 4tii. To prosecute every kind ef icientlflc study comprehesded in sreographical acience; 6kh. To open ccmmunieation witb the giMKiBpUsal societies o( other countries, and to secara their ceoparatien," etc., etc The roll ol meaibers Includes the Premier of Caaada, and leading public ■ten of all parties in the Previnee, the Soman Catholic and Anglican Bisheps of Queoev, as well as many naiaci distiofuithed in the brilliant Held of IVtnch-Oanadlan literature, which— well-knowa and hiirhly litnored as It is ia critical Paris— is literally a ttrra ncognita to Knf Usnasu, and even to most EngUili- spewktnf Canadians t C r. •fv ''■^'i-:/' ,.«e(i " From Nevifoundland to the Rocky Mountahix. we notice thiit on his return from France (in 1633-34) he availed himaelf of the knowledge gained twenty yeura before, and sent Jean Nico^.et to the diicovery of the regior. to-day called Wisconsin. Nicolet reported to him the existence of a great river, the Miiaisiippi, flowing from beyond the country which he him- self had travelled. This must have con- vinjed him that the continent exndeded south-westardly from the lakes. Un- fortunately, he did not live to see the fact established. The charts of Cham- plain show only the details gathered up to 1627, so that outlines of the great lakes hardly appear upon them. In this enquiry we must omit the opera- tionn of the English colonists, whose field was then confined to the sea-ceast, and who did not seek to penetrate inta the interior. We shall therefore only follow the French explorers, in our examination of the devopment of geographical know- ledge respecting the north of this con- tinent. After the death of Champlaio, the Government does not seem to have a»n- cemed itself about the new territories. To the Jesuit missionaries belongs the honor of having been conversant witU the conntry of the great lakes from 1635 t* 1670. It would take a volume to tell of this ourious epoch. I will make mention tn ptkssant of two men who, from 1645 to 1660, advanced to the Missouri and knew the Hionx country. These were Medard Chouard des Groseillers and Pierre-Esprit de Radisson, his brother-in- law, both settled in Lower Canada. The dream which Champlain had entertained in 1613, and even earlier, of penetrating te Hudson's Bay, Chouard aft«rwarda sought for twenty years to realize. He made acquaintence with the tribes who tratiicked with those parts, and for a time believed it possible to establish communi- cations between Lake Superior (Jesuit mission) aud the Kilistinons Indians. Being disappointed by the indifference of the Governors, he tell baok upon the enterprising spirit of the traders on the shores of the St. Lawrence, and urged them to form a company which should monopolize the trade of the "Bay of the North." Unsuccessful in this quarter, on account of the small number of the Oanauianri (2,000 souls at that tim< ) be ventured to offer his services to England, aad was the actual founder of that famous Hudson's Bay Campany (1645 and 1066), whichce ased not to prosper during two centuries, until it became a power in tha State. Geographical knowledge, in the year 1<>70, extended therefore from Newfound- aod to the mouth of the Saeuenay, from there to James' Bay, and tbanoa to the north shore of Lake Superior. W« mvat also taae into account what Chsuard and tlie misiionaries had done in the directiaa of the Sioux cauntry (MI. wauj • ft ft - • • . ft ft • • ft « / ft ft ft ft ft I •ft a ft • ft I * ft ft ft ft ft ft < ft ft ft ft 1 ft ft ft ft W- 9m mm From Sew/omuUand to the Rocky Monntahin. w Hience operation!, no more privileged trtdinfi companiet, no more luch settle- moots, aad no more lost children, saori- fleed upon the outskiits of civilization. What we want now is to occupy territory by utilizing modern science; to sound the rivers and launch steam-boats upob them, «ad to join the landmarks of nature by the iron rails. Inspired by this idea, the Europeans have done wonders these ten or twelve years past; they have discov- ered, studied and published the know- ledge of a quarter el the African coutiaent. It now but remains to send dry goods out there— a matter that should be hastened. The negroes are yearning for the civilization of calico and eheap looking-glasses. By us, who are at onne a young people, and one blest with rich resources, all tiist rannot be loeked upon with in- ditierent gaze. We are better off than Europe; our manufactures are not yet \ numerous, and no useless class, like the proletariat of Europe, exists among us; ' like Europe, we have need of an outlet for the products of our im'ustries in the measure of their development; unlike her, in place of sendine afar off to find a mar- ket for our merchandise, we have it at our doors. The North-west awaits us. But who, to-day, knows anythias; of the North-west t Almost no one. The old memories of it are lost. For the last twenty years, a letter coming from Red Eiver would have been looked upon as coming from China, or thereabouts. At any rate, the prairies visited by our fathers and where so many Canadians qetiled, no longer appealed to our imagi- nation. *Ten years|ago, under the pressure of political events, a sort of awakening took place. Public attention was drawn to the Red River colony, ta the extent even of giving it a constitution, which erected it into a Federcl Province, and tTTat was all. People no longer cared to know anything about it. They were (]uite indifierenii regarding the iminense territories to the west of Manitoba, as well as the belt of land to be taken pos- mession of, which stretches away to the North, between Hudson's Bay and the St. Lawrence. Here we are; the owners, the mgnmre, the administrators, pp.ying the expenses of these new countries, while knowing so little of them, failing to comprehend that their future is re- latively to us as that of Africa and Aus- tralia to Europe. Around the simple questions of geo- graphy,then, other great branchesof study gather. In truth, geography, in this order of ideas — idens springing from modern requirements^is the pivot upon whibh at this moment turn the destinies of races. I will dare even to say that Canada is more than any other nation in danger of perishing if she fails to take acoonntof passing events, and if she does not look to take her share of action in the general movement which, by thirty years hence, perhaps, will have changed the face ot all that remains under the sun of colonizable country. Needlesa, I think, to insist upon this ; neverthelesi, if anv one doubt me, one simple question will decide it : Where are the men who thoronghly understand our marine, onr fisheries, the steps neces- sary t« improve the Sc, Lawrencn Oulf and create industries upon its shores — where are they who know the northern parts of Ontario and Qaebec — where the writers, the orators who can popularize the knowledge of our T^ortn-west? De ubtless there are some, but isolated, unknown, unable to make themselves heard except by accident, or as a m»- tnentary novelty — liks the speaking machine and learned dogs. This does uot prevent onr paying, however, for the placing of our name upon tho^e great spaces, from whi<^, oven now, we ought to be deriving some profit. Of course, we want the Newfoundland and other fisheries, we want the Hudson's Bay, we want the Saskatchewan, but what do wt know about (Item all ? About as much as we know about the moon. Then why not want the moon as well ? THis re- minds me of that famous cry of the French | Chambers before 1»70: "We must have the Rhine !" An impatient membor brusquely put the question: "Do you^know what this Rhine is, or where it's to be found ?" We need be tXvj greater loss than that at any rate. Tjet us look at things carefully. What th(; countries of Europe lack we have at ou ' doors; territory, room, the resources of a fertile soil. It remains for us to define its "geography," in all the points of view embraced by, or in any way related to that science, history, agricul- ture, mines, lines of communication, climate, &c. That is a good deal. Yes,it is indeed a good deal when one thinks that it has been found necessary to ex- pend four millions of dollars to trace upon the map the route which a railway may take from Old Canada to the Rocky Mountains; and there has not been found in Parliament a man able to light the snuff of a candle — to show even a taper's light of his own, to illumine the Ministers of two Administrations in their labors amidst thit darkness ! And so we remain in our shell, and comprehend not what is this country called Canada. Our voyageurs of the past were trulji greater imsanta than that ! They coaid have drawn for ns, from memory, tbo chart of the Confederation from oeeah to ocean, without omitting that w ch oilr •nginee::t are at such pains to r*-di*cJover to-day. Surely I had roaaon, in speaking of onr French-Canadian anoestort, to take for the title ot my lectnre: "From New- fonndlaod to the Rocky Mountaini !" • • • ,\t t • • • • . . , • . , • • • « « • • • •