A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs: the Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861

CHAPTER I. The Founding of Malbaie

THE FOUNDING OF MALBAIE

The situation of Malbaie.--The physical features of Malbaie.--Jacques Cartier at Malbaie.--Champlain at Malbaie.--The first seigneur of Malbaie.--A new policy for settling Canada.--The Sieur de Comporte, seigneur of Malbaie, sentenced to death in France.--His career in Canada.--His plans for Malbaie.--Hazeur, Seigneur of Malbaie.--Malbaie becomes a King's Post.--A Jesuit's description of Malbaie in 1750.--The burning of Malbaie by the British in 1759. 1

CHAPTER II. The Two Highland Seigneurs At Malbaie

THE TWO HIGHLAND SEIGNEURS AT MALBAIE

Pitt's use of Highlanders in the Seven Years' War.--The origin of Fraser's Highlanders.--The career of Lord Lovat.--Lovat's son Simon Fraser and other Frasers at Quebec.--Malcolm Fraser and John Nairne future seigneurs of Malbaie.--The Highlanders and Wolfe's victory.--The Highlanders in the winter of 1759-60.--Malcolm Fraser on Murray's defeat in April, 1760.--The return of Canadian seigneurs to France.--General Murray buys Canadian seigniories.--Nairne and Fraser at Malbaie.--Their grants from Murray. 22

CHAPTER III. John Nairne, Seigneur of Murray Bay

JOHN NAIRNE, SEIGNEUR OF MURRAY BAY

Colonel Nairne's portrait.--His letters.--The first Scottish settlers at Malbaie.--Nairne's finance.--His tasks.--The cure's work.--The Scottish settlers and their French wives.--The Church and Education.--Nairne's efforts to make Malbaie Protestant.--His war on idleness.--The character of the habitant.--Fishing at Malbaie.--Trade at Malbaie.--Farming at Malbaie.--Nairne's marriage,--Career and death in India of Robert Nairne.--The Quebec Act and its consequences for the habitant. 40

CHAPTER IV. John Nairne in the American Revolution

JOHN NAIRNE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Nairne's work among the French Canadians.--He becomes Major of the Royal Highland Emigrants.--Arnold's march through the wilderness to Quebec.--Quebec during the Siege, 1775-76.--The habitants and the Americans.--Montgomery's plans.--The assault on December 31st, 1775.--Malcolm Fraser gives the alarm in Quebec.--Montgomery's death.--Arnold's attack.--Nairne's heroism.--Arnold's failure.--The American fire-ship.--The arrival of a British fleet.--The retreat of the Americans.--Nairne's later service in the War.--Isle aux Noix and Carleton Island.--Sir John Johnson and the desolation of New York.--Nairne and the American prisoners at Murray Bay.--Their escape and capture.--Nairne and the Loyalists.--The end of the War.--Nairne's retirement to Murray Bay. 62

CHAPTER V. The Last Days of John Nairne

THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN NAIRNE

Nairne's careful education of his children.--His son John enters the army.--Nairne's counsels to his son.--John Nairne goes to India.--His death.--Nairne's declining years.--His activities at Murray Bay.--His income.--His daughter Christine and Quebec society.--The isolation of Murray Bay in Winter.--Signals across the river.--Nairne's reading.--His notes about current events.--The fear of a French invasion of England.--Thoughts of flight from Scotland to Murray Bay.--Nairne's last letter, April 20th, 1802.--His death and burial at Quebec. 93

CHAPTER VI. Thomas Nairne, Seigneur of Murray Bay

THOMAS NAIRNE, SEIGNEUR OF MURRAY BAY

His education in Scotland.--His winning character.--He enters the army.--Malcolm Fraser's counsels to a young soldier.--Thomas Nairne's life at Gibraltar.--His desire to retire from the army.--His return to Canada in 1810-11.--His life at Quebec.--His summer at Murray Bay, 1811.--His resolve to remain in the Army.--Beginning of the War of 1812.--Captain Nairne on Lake Ontario.--Quebec Society and the proposed flight from danger to Murray Bay.--Anxiety at Murray Bay.--The progress of the War.--An American attack on Kingston.--Captain Nairne on the Niagara frontier.--Naval War on Lake Ontario.--Nairne's description of a naval engagement.--Sense of impending disaster at Murray Bay.--The American advance on Montreal by the St. Lawrence.--Nairne's regiment a part of the opposing British force.--The Battle of Crysler's Farm.--Nairne's death.--His body taken to Quebec.--The grief of the family at Murray Bay.--The funeral. 124

CHAPTER VII. A French Canadian Village

A FRENCH CANADIAN VILLAGE

Life at Murray Bay after Captain Nairne's death.--Letters from Europe.--Death of Malcolm Fraser.--Death of Colonel Nairne's widow and children.--His grandson John Nairne, seigneur.--Village Life.--The Church's Influence.--The Habitant's tenacity.--His cottage.--His labours.--His amusements.--The Church's missionary work in the Village.--The powers of the bishop.--His visitations.--The organization of the Parish.--The powers of the fabrique.--Lay control of Church finance.--The cures' tithe.--The best intellects enter the Church.--A native Canadian clergy.--The cure's social life.--The Church and Temperance Reform.--The diligence of the cures.--The habitant's taste for the supernatural.--The belief in goblins.--Prayer in the family.--The habitant as voter.--The office of Churchwarden.--The Church's influence in elections.--The seigneur's position.--The habitant's obligations to him.--Rent day and New Year's Day.--The seigneur's social rank.--The growth of discontent in the villages.--The evils of Seigniorial Tenure.--Agitation against the system.--Its abolition in 1854.--The last of the Nairnes.--The Nairne tomb in Quebec. 168

CHAPTER VIII. The Coming of the Pleasure Seekers

THE COMING OF THE PLEASURE SEEKERS

Pleasure seeking at Murray Bay.--A fisherman's experience in 1830.--New visitors.--Fishing in a mountain lake.--Camp life.--The Upper Murray.--Canoeing.--Running the rapids.--Walks and drives.--Golf.--A rainy day.--The habitant and his visitors. 222

AUTHORITIES 243

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A (p. 31) The Journal of Malcolm Fraser, First Seigneur of Mount Murray, Malbaie. 249

APPENDIX B (p. 38) Title Deed of the Seigniory of Murray Bay, granted to Captain John Nairne. 271

Appendix C (p. 78) the Siege of Quebec in 1775-76.

Colonel Nairne's Narrative. 273

APPENDIX D (p. 98) Memorandum of Colonel Nairne, 5th April, 1795, for his son John Nairne in regard to military duty. 277

APPENDIX E (p. 104) The "Porpoise" (Beluga or White Whale) Fishery on the St. Lawrence. 279

APPENDIX F (p. 122) The Prayer of Colonel Nairne. 286

APPENDIX G (p. 144) The Cures of Malbaie. 287

INDEX 291

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

COLONEL JOHN NAIRNE Frontispiece (From the Oil Painting in the Manor House at Murray Bay.) PAGE

CAP A L'AIGLE FROM THE WEST SHORE OF MURRAY BAY 6 (From the Water Colour by the late L.R. O'Brien, in the possession of the Hon. Edward Blake, K.C.)

VIEW ACROSS MURRAY BAY FROM THE CAP A L'AIGLE SHORE 21 (From an Oil Painting by E. Wyly Grier, in the possession of the Hon. Edward Blake.)

GENERAL JAMES MURRAY 35 (From an Oil Painting preserved in the General's Family.)

THE MANOR HOUSE AT MURRAY BAY 74 (From amateur photographs.)

VIEW FROM POINTE AU PIC UP MURRAY BAY 102 (From a Water Colour by the late L.R. O'Brien in the possession of the Hon. Edward Blake.)

THE GOLF LINKS AT MURRAY BAY 237 (From a Photograph by W. Notman and Son, Montreal.)

MAPS

THE ST. LAWRENCE FROM QUEBEC TO MURRAY BAY 1

SKETCH MAP OF LAKE ONTARIO AND THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE TO ILLUSTRATE THE WAR OF 1812-14 148

A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs

CHAPTER I. The Founding of Malbaie

THE FOUNDING OF MALBAIE

The situation of Malbaie.--The physical features of Malbaie.--Jacques Cartier at Malbaie.--Champlain at Malbaie.--The first seigneur of Malbaie.--A new policy for settling Canada.--The Sieur de Comporte, seigneur of Malbaie, sentenced to death in France.--His career in Canada.--His plans for Malbaie.--Hazeur, Seigneur of Malbaie.--Malbaie becomes a King's Post.--A Jesuit's description of Malbaie in 1750.--The burning of Malbaie by the British in 1759.

If one is not in too great a hurry it is wise to take the steamer--not the train--at Quebec and travel by it the eighty miles down the St. Lawrence to Malbaie, or Murray Bay, as the English call it, somewhat arrogantly rejecting the old French name used since the pioneer days of Champlain. This means an early morning start and six or seven hours--the steamers are not swift--on that great river. Only less than a mile apart are its rugged banks at Quebec but, even then, they seem to contract the mighty torrent of water flowing between them. Once past Quebec the river broadens into a great basin, across which we see the head of the beautiful Island of Orleans. We skirt, on the south side, the twenty miles of the island's well wooded shore, dotted with the cottages of the habitants, stretched irregularly along the winding road. Church spires rise at intervals; the people are Catholic to a man. Once past this island we begin to note changes. Hardly any longer is the St. Lawrence a river; rather is it now an inlet of the sea; the water has become salt; the air is fresher. So wide apart are the river's shores that the cottages far away to the south seem only white specks.

Hugging the north shore closely we draw in under towering Cap Tourmente, fir-clad, rising nearly two thousand feet above us; a mighty obstacle it has always been to communication by land on this side of the river. Soon comes a great cleft in the mountains, and before us is Baie St. Paul, opening up a wide vista to the interior. We are getting into the Malbaie country for Isle aux Coudres, an island some six miles long, opposite Baie St. Paul, was formerly linked with Malbaie under one missionary priest. The north shore continues high and rugged. After passing Les Eboulements, a picturesque village, far above us on the mountain side, we round Cap aux Oies, in English, unromantically, Goose Cape, and, far in front, lies a great headland, sloping down to the river in bold curves. On this side of the headland we can see nestling in under the cliff what, in the distance, seems only a tiny quay. It is the wharf of Malbaie. The open water beyond it, stretching across to Cap a l'Aigle, marks the mouth of the bay. The great river, now twelve miles broad, with a surging tide, rising sometimes eighteen or twenty feet, has the strength and majesty almost of Old Ocean himself.

As we land we see nothing striking. There is just a long wharf with some cottages clustered at the foot of the cliff. But when we have ascended the short stretch of winding road that leads over the barrier of cliff we discover the real beauties of Malbaie. Before us lies the bay's semi-circle--perhaps five miles in extent; stretching far inland is a broad valley, with sides sloping up to rounded fir-clad mountain tops. It is the break in the mountains and the views up the valley that give the place its peculiar beauty. When the tide is out the bay itself is only a great stretch of brown sand, with many scattered boulders, and gleaming silver pools of water. Looking down upon it, one sees a small river winding across the waste of sand and rocks. It has risen in the far upland three thousand feet above this level and has made an arduous downward way, now by narrow gorges, more rarely across open spaces, where it crawls lazily in the summer sunlight:--les eaux mortes, the French Canadians call such stretches. It bursts at length through the last barrier of mountains, a stream forty or fifty yards wide, and flows noisily, for some ten miles, in successive rapids, down this valley, here at last to mingle its brown waters with the ice-cold, steel-tinted, St. Lawrence.

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