Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/687

Rh A comparison of the percentage of tonnage contributed by the different provinces shows Nova Scotia to be the largest ship builder:

The percentage of registrations for the same period shows where the ships are owned:

The tonnage of the vessels that entered inward in 1871 was 6,576,771, and of those that cleared outward 6,549,257. These figures show the Dominion to stand third in the list of maritime powers, only England and the United States possessing a larger commercial marine. The development of this marine is due largely to the extensive fisheries of the gulf of St. Lawrence, the number of Canadians employed in which is estimated at 75,000. The value of the exports in 1871 was $74,173,618; of the imports, $86,947,482. The imports from and exports to the United States almost balance one another; the exports being $30,975,642, and the imports, $29,022,387. The exports to Great Britain amounted to $24,173,224, and the imports thence to $49,168,170; exports to the British West Indies, $2,104,064; imports thence, $839,523; exports to the foreign West Indies, $1,773,334; imports thence, $2,055,597. The distribution of the imports and exports for two years ending June 30 was as follows:

The exports for the year ending June 30, 1871, comprised the following articles:

The value of the imports for the year ending June 30, 1872, was $107,704,895; an increase of over $20,000,000 in one year. The duties collected on them amounted to $13,016,218. The value of the exports was $82,639,663, of which $12,798,182 represented products of other countries than Canada.—The history of Canada up to 1867 was the history of the two present provinces of Ontario and Quebec alone. In the spring of 1534 Jacques Cartier, or Quartier, as the ancient French historians write the name, a French navigator, under orders from the king, sailed from St. Malo, with two vessels of 61 tons each, and 61 men; at the end of 20 days he reached Newfoundland, and penetrating the strait of Belle Isle, entered the St. Lawrence, having made the discovery of Canada. Entering the Bay of Chaleurs, Cartier took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, in spite of the protestations of a chief of the race who were the owners of the soil. A large wooden cross was placed on a neighboring eminence, as if to announce the religious mission of the discovering nation. The other principal navigator whose name is connected with Canadian discoveries is Champlain; besides the lake which hears his name, he discovered the lakes Ontario and Nipissing. When colonization was seriously commenced, it was conducted on a plan very different from that pursued in New England. The colony was semi-military, semi-religious. The Recollect and the Jesuit missionaries traversed the country in all directions, enduring incredible hardships to secure the conversion of the Indians. Garrisoned forts were constructed at every prominent point from Quebec to Florida; and those on the shores of Hudson bay were sometimes in the hands of the French and sometimes in possession of the English. The French were frequently at war with the Indians, having for their enemies the Iroquois, the most ferocious tribe that dwelt on the S. side of the lakes. For allies the French had the more timid and less warlike Hurons, who were driven from the peninsula of Upper Canada by the Iroquois in 1636, taking refuge on St. Joseph's island, where numbers of them perished miserably of famine during the winter. The feudal system, on the model of the Coutume de Paris, was established; and thus a nobility, who generally possessed nothing but their swords and the land granted to them as seigneurs, sprang up on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The seigneurs were