Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/322

302 though generally of a mixture of other than French blood. Some of these half-breeds in the Northwest are called “Metis.”

Nor did the priests wholly escape the jealousies and reproaches of the more intelligent of their flock, whose rivalries in trade, whose intrigues and quarrels, either as rebuked or espoused by the Jesuits, brought upon some of the latter the imputation of having an interest in the peltry and even in the brandy traffic. A study of the work of these French priests will occupy a subsequent chapter.

We must note, not only the difference, but the fundamental and radical antagonism between the motives, agencies, and principles under which French and English enterprise and colonization began upon this continent, so far as they have a bearing upon their relations with the natives. The French, who had by some fifty years the start in their earliest tentative voyages for prospecting and trade, came here with royal grants and privileges, with the patronage of court nobles, and the sanction and zeal of powerful ecclesiastical orders. They retained an unbroken connection with the primary sources of power and authority at home. Viceroys of France were the governors of the colony, reporting to and receiving orders from the chief cabinet minister, and frequently directly to and from the sovereign. Military sway, with martial vigor and appliances, controlled the administration of the colony. But, by an intricate and confused method in the supreme supervision of the enterprise, there was introduced an element of constant irritation and quarrelling in the direction of affairs, by the appointment, under the title of Intendant, of a sort of civil officer whose functions and powers, not sharply distinguished from those to be exercised by the viceroy or the governor, were ever bringing the two heads into quarrelling over cross purposes, rights, and dignities. The Governor and the Intendant kept a jealous watch on each other, conciliated and won their respective