A French colony in Canada

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The Renaissance

Hail Bravehearts

This journeys end is a new beginning.  This preparedness that painstakingly ensures success is finally our triumph.  Glory and praises, thankfulness and relief, the weary are welcomed.  Come, join us.  Into this fair land of sunshine and wild, of a place of unusual gold.  Riches and fortune, made for a king.

Praises, praises, we have a colony.  At the time of the founding of Quebec city, France was the most populated country in Europe,  yet they had difficulty finding willing settlers to inhabit this great land and to build this great country.  The awesome enticement of riches from the great wild, couldn’t even entice the impoverished slaves from the lower classes to leave the slums of France.  But what does it take to be a fortune hunter, a settler, a soldier and a daredevil?  What qualifications did they need? Perhaps a poor peasant wasn’t the best choice for the colonies.  Slaves might be too fearful and prisoners might be too dangerous.  Choose wisely, oh mighty ones, your day of reckoning will come.

No longer the grandeur of 17th century France.  The life of the  impressive French Renaissance.  Brilliant change and brilliant invention.  Who would leave this awesome place?  Look around yourselves, your good fortune lies here.  Here in the homeland of brilliant France, where the arts are thriving and life is good.  Who would leave this wonderful place, this wonderful life, and venture into the hardship and conflict of life in a colony?  Who dares to be first?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Renaissance

The appeal of colonial life and of making a new country, was not at the top of the list of dreams for the French.  Only those brave few, would dare the Atlantic crossing and venture into the unknown.  Stalwarts and bravehearts, skilled and courageous, colonial life was too daunting an adventure for the polished, sophisticated, countrymen of France.

A backbreaking adventure, a risk of life and limb, a intolerable climate and connections to a people of unknown character.  Life in a fort, in crowded conditions, with bare necessities and humble accommodation.  The freemen of France looked upon the life in a colony suspiciously.  Stumble and fall, stumble and fall, but rise and shine and pursue the adventure once more.

For those who finally ventured forth, into the new, into the unknown, the challenges of life abroad would change the face of North America.  As small as the tiny fort was, it still made a mark in the land, a change in the landscape, a place of accommodation, an establishment and a secure dwelling for those who dared.  Now over 400 years old, the city of Quebec is a thriving city of old and new, of charm and charisma.  A beautiful old place of French pride.

Connect to the people, connect to the countryside.  Learn and teach, the life in the colony will be hard, but finally the adventure is won.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

May 15, 2016

Oh Most Divine
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Oh Most Divine

Hail all you brave ones.

 

Oh glory and honour to this majestic king.  We worship you, we praise you, oh blessed immortal being.  Salvation and glory to this oh risen Lord.  We hail thee and praise thee, with prayers and adoration, oh deity divine and humanity saved.

Blessed Lord of centuries past, generations of followers still believing, still pursuing, still curious and understanding, still searching and seeking, the devout persisting, what are these holy ways?  Powers immense, of magnificent proportions, intervention and instilling the knowledge of these mysterious ways.  Providence and grandeur, might and mightiness, still the stable, with the lowly, still the path of righteous living.  Oh greatest of Lords, oh highest of beings, oh teacher of wisdom, we praise thee, with song, with prayer, with labour, with love, with gold, with skills and with honour.  Teach us, oh wise one, teach us to be human.  Oh deity of the great divine, hold us mercifully in you hands.

So duty calls you, oh awesome human, come to the colony, do your duty, come to the colony and be praised.  The wondrous one, of heavens keeping, the glorious, will guide your way.  Come and be magnificent, join the grandeur, mighty and noble and courageous to this day.  Come and worship, come and be guided, oh you most daring, you fortunate, you awesome, you lucky ones, to be the fortitude of France and to seek your fortunes in this most auspicious place.

Lucky are we, to be the chosen ones, the one who will survive and sing glories to our King.  Praises!  Praises!  To overcome the shadows of hardship and poverty, to overcome the cruelty of harsh judgement and misunderstanding, to overcome the elements and live once more.  Hail to you, oh awesome almighty ones, to be first.  First in a game of daunting obstacles, first in a challenge of courage and fortitude, first in a roll of the dice as to who will survive.  Lucky you, to be the chosen ones, come to the colony, take up the dare.

http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/population/immigration/  come to Canada

A fort, a sweet road, Cap Diamond, a church, the Victorious,  government dwellings, low ground and high ground, lower echelons and higher dignitaries, merchants and sailors, government and leadership, all finally together in one place, the colony of New France.  Oh sweet Quebec, you finally survive, oh sweet Quebec, you finally exist.  A colony, one sweet place, a colony, for France.

Over a span of several decades, the colony grew.  From its roots in human sorrow, to a place of quaint ingenuity and charm.  Boldly go where no one has dared to go before, oh brave colonialists of bygone era.  The seat of the country lies in your hands.  Negotiate and trade, bargain and develop.  Oh brave new world of French imperialism, of French might and fortitude.  Oh brave new world.  The king of kings holds you dear and in his arms, his strength shall hold you.  Oh wondrous love, to live so greatly.  Power and praises to our king.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

April 27, 2016

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We Are Here

Good Day you brilliant ones

A landing.  A safe harbour.   A good place to live.  A place to survive, to beat the elements, to meet the challenge, to conquer the storm.  A place, a safe harbour, a secure place.  Home?  Could this be home?  Could this remote and daunting place finally be home?

Weary and doubting, but necessity calls.  With prayers and hopes and dreams of survival, could this at last, be home?  A secure place to build a colony, a secure place for a settlement.   Set in the St. Lawrence River on a bluff of land, overlooking the river and tucked behind an island.  The thrilling prospect of yet another settlement attempt.  Success!  Success!  Give us success! Finally, let us be saved!

Oh joyous you, oh sweet Quebec.  Oh happy founding, oh life immortal.  A resting place, a  secure and safe place.  A home and shelter in the storms of the eastern coast.  Oh happy rest for weary souls, the founding of a great country, a great city, a colony, a settlement.  Oh happy success.  A refuge in a storm.  Oh great and brilliant, you sweet Quebec.

Poised and strong, fortified and armed.  For France!  Finally, the nation has accomplished it’s goal.  Finally a settlement!  Relieved and thankful, the city endures.  In 1608, mission accomplished!  Finally, a colony.  Praises and gratitude, thank you, oh thank you.    Finally our salvation, oh sweet Quebec.

A beautiful little place of old country charm.  Peace and prosperity, goodwill and protection.  The small but mighty ones of old world courage, who erected those dwellings, secured their fortress, fought the storms and cleared the land.  Negotiate, barter, trade and exchange.  A thriving place of  prosperity in the challenging land of the new world.

For France!  Oh sweet Quebec.  Our sanctuary, our resting place, our lovely, quaint and dreamy home.  It’s thrilling.  We have a colony.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/champlain-and-the-founding-of-quebec-feature/

The habitation was secure, but the usual winter hardship wreaked havoc among the men again.  Scurvy, as usual.  Many died, but the dream was secure.  A fort, a fur trading post, a destiny wrought from the forest.  Now there is security.  Now there is a place to live.  Shelter, negotiation, prospects of trade.  The adventure of their lives has culminated in this great place.  A strong  and fortified habitation, small but secure, with cannons, guns and ammunition.

Finally, they will come.  Come to Canada, you mighty adventurous ones.  Come to great Quebec, to our island in the storm.  Come to share in the wealth of the fur trade, in the prosperity of a new life, in the duty to meet this awesome challenge and to be first, in a great line of pioneers.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

April 9, 2016

Pioneers
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Pioneers

Hail Bravehearts

 

Welcome to this glorious new day.  A step for you, in the right direction, can take you anywhere.

Your skills ,your education, your accumulated knowledge, your comrades, your team.  All locked together in this fight for success. Your ship awaits, climb aboard.  Take this first, irreversible step, and venture forth, to the great unknown.

It is not implausible, it’s been done before. Success was marginal, but imperative to try.  You must try, say the great masters, you must will yourselves to obey.  The command is difficult, but some must follow. Off to the colonies, oh brave pioneers.

The wind whispers in their hair.   Warm, gentle breezes, lift their spirits, the waves roll and rock the boat, the ocean smells of salt and sea water and ocean animals rise to the surface for a look at them.  Trespassers in the ocean of the great wild, passers by in this fragile ecosystem of sea.

Stand tall, almighty ones, your names are counted and your lives are engraved in the history of our frontier.  Stand tall on the deck, facing your future, do not look back, the past is gone and you will not return to it. Do not look back.  France, the most populated nation in Europe at the time, could only muster a few hundred brave souls to settle and populate a great land.  Build and settle, populate the land, negotiate and trade, farm and pioneer.  Not an easy task in a land so uncompromising.  Snow and cold, the bitter winter winds howl and scarce food sources decline.  But brave stalwarts are these who settle the land.  The peaceful and helpful natives give the support that they can, and forts and settlements emerge from the dark and forboding forest.

Light.  Light in the darkness of their days as the shadows recede and the sun can shine in. Light and hope.

As the summer fades and the long shadows of winter cling to the ground, hope will come to your rescue.

http://www.genealogy.umontreal.ca/en/LesPionniers

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

February 11, 2016

Still it Snows
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Still it Snows

Hail Bravehearts!

Awesome!  The wonder of life in a new land.  Brilliant and courageous, the spirit soars.  Life in a new land.  All unchartered, all unknown, all mysterious with secrets to reveal.

The sound of the wind as a storm blows in.  Batten down the hatches, close the shutters, stock up the wood supply, fill the larder.  The soft quiet  of winter is blowing in with the storm.  Swirling, dainty flakes of white, fill the air and the temperatures have plunged to zero. ” Let it snow!”  we sing.  “Let it snow!”  For us the first snowfall fills our lives with the changing season and brings joy to our world.  Joy to the world, the winter has come!

Mother Earth sends her children off to a deep winters sleep in hibernation.  The migrating birds have called to each other to flee the snowbound north and fly to warm destinations in the south.   The rest seek shelter in the depths of the forest, where thickets protect them and the shelter of the trees hide them from the elements and the cold.

Winter.  The Earth wraps it’s sleepy head in a soft blanket of snow and sleeps.

The snow falls, it’s quiet intrusion freezes the ground and the lakes and now the water sleeps.  Deep change with the deep freeze and winter storms and icy blasts greet us for the next few months.  Snow!  It piles high.  Higher and higher.  A few inches, a few feet, higher and higher.  While those snug in their warm homes watch in anticipation of the changing season, the snow comes.  Beautiful and white,  dazzling in the sun.  The spectacular change is a gorgeous site.  Still it snows!  It snows relentlessly.  It snows, and snows and snows.

http://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/Canada/snowiest.php  Snowiest places in Canada

The animals vanish and the world is changed.  Higher and higher the snow piles in deep feet of snow.  The weather persists.  Winter storms rage in.  A tiny colony of stalwart humans, set in for the long winters’ sleep.  The larder is full, the woodpile stocked high, prepared for the winter and ready for anything, the tiny colony waits out the deep chill.  And it snows!

Our greatest passions are winter fun, winter play and winter sports, but for us, survival is expected.  We are secure now, in our grand and special place.   A place of sport and hospitality, of snowmen and snow angels.  We learn at an early age to enjoy the spectacular change in season and the joy and privilege that it brings.  A breed of sportsmen, playing and laughing, thrilled for the joy that winter brings.

But a small colony of people, out in the lonely wild, of eastern Canada, did not enjoy the snowbound world so much. In the early 1600’s our great joy of winter, was their peril.  The sleepy, quiet snow, lulled the great planet to sleep.  It nodded it’s great head in slumber and the world slept.  In darkness and cold, the colony sank into slumber as well. The tragedy of the cold, snowy, winter, taking its toll of human life, as temperatures plunged, as the snow fell, as food rations were depleated and disease set in and many lives were lost.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 23, 2015

It Persists
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It Persists

Hail, oh brilliant ones!

The morning shines with light and warmth, the shadows of the darkness pass.  Into this world comes the strong passion of the rising soul.  Now, another day, another quest, another memory.  Each day lived brings us closer to the cause.  To peace, security, life and prosperity.  The greatest achievement in the minds of mankind.  To build a nation and to be one.

To be one with the land, to be one with the people, to join in a massive undertaking of privilege and success.  To be the ones who made it real, to set the stage of your own destiny, to carve footsteps for others to follow, to be the unbeatable champion.  Rise all of you.  Rise to glory.  It is with duty that you come forward, but it is  glory that you aspire to.  Rise, oh champions.  This is your day.

This day, of setting the boundaries, of felling trees, of building dwellings.  This day of toil, of laborious, hard work, of companionship, of perspective and perseverance.  This is a day of duty, of care, of obligations.  This is just another day, way out there.

Way out across the ocean in a land of newness and wild.  The great wild.  So tempting and so secretive, so majestic and so dangerous.  In unison they toil and in unison they strive, to build a fortress of security to protect themselves, shelter, and keep them, in this brave new world.

The great wild is lurking, we hear the howls in the night.  The barks of canine species as they call.  The hoots and coos, of the unknown, the swirling flight of night creatures, the croaks and chorus of singing sounds, the eyes of creatures in the dark.  The night in the forest, so loud and alive, as hunting and singing and playing rings in our ears and the watchful wild stare in the dark, lurking and forbidding us to trespass.  The night sky, a shining mass of stars and the brightness of the moon casts shadows across the grass.  The insects sing in a deafening crescendo and the sounds of the night in the forest fill their dreams and disturb a restful sleep. The wild, so haunting and forbidding, so silent and so eerie.

But the test for a colony comes from adaptability,  foresight, ingenuity and preparedness.  The strength to carry on. The ability to survive.  Good leadership,  sound judgement, skills and ability.  Determination.

http://www.lookbackward.com/perrault/perr1/newfrance/  A Brief History of New France

Here, in the wild frontier of Canada, where hope and dreams and dares and challenges fill their every day, comes the human of fortitude.  An illustrious European, with desires of grandeur, with minds focused on a colony, with dreams of prosperity.  Persevere, oh great ones.  All is for fame, for fortune and for us.  It is for a place in history and a place for you.  A new world!

Oh awesome human, venture forth.  To a new world!  To a new beginning!

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 15, 2015

In The Beginning
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In The Beginning

Good Day Bravehearts!

Welcome to this awesome new day.  The world brings light into your lives, life into your existence and hope to those who sing for  it.  Brave new world, a world of hope and inspiration.  A world of challenges and excitement.  A world for the bold, the daring, the skilled and the champions.  Light our lives, oh daring adventurers, for the great good earth has presented a brave new world for exploration, adventure and settlement.  Light our lives, oh torches of strength and courage, as the great swells of the ocean, cast you about and hurl you through the darkest and most dangerous storms, to a landing of somewhat safety.  Cast your doubts aside and persevere, oh bold and talented chosen ones. The angels fly and their wings surround you as you step to the chosen shore.  Safety.  The security of the land, the chosen place of a new birth, the cultivation of civilization, wrought from the timbers of the land.

An opportunity so profound, it could not be overlooked.  The opportunity of life, of fortune, of fame, of grandeur, all for the sake of a few strong souls who could make it real.  The hope of success, the plea for courage, the compelling need to try.  The fortune hunter, the inspired authority, the wealth of riches, the greed of plunder.  Dreams, inspiration, imagination and flights of fancy.  The mind races with prospects of achievement, the brain spins with possibilities.  Unlimited opportunity for those who dare.  A new world.  A new life.  A new beginning.  To be on the breaking edge of new discovery, new possibility, new everything!  A chance.   A roll of the dice.

Sooth sayers, fortune tellers, tarot readers, crystal balls.  What does the future hold?  Tell us, oh wise and enchanted ones.  What does it say?  Will we be rich?  Will we survive?  Give us your answer!  Tell us our fortunes!  Will we survive.

Our luck is surrounding us, the King pledges his trust.  His command is omnipotent.

Bold and daring, we must adventure, to cultivate a civilization from the forest of a far flung world.  A world of temptation, of persuasion, of allure. The call of this land is the song of the siren, enchanting and haunting it begs us to stay.

” Come!”, whispers the wind, and the swaying branches wave us ashore.  The rustling leaves catch the sunlight and play with our senses.  A pretty sight.  A friendly world.  A breathtaking, heart stopping, thought.

Build it!  Build it and they will come.  The fortune seekers, the treasure hunters, the rich and the poor.  Build it and they will come.

To the might of France, to the power of the authority of the King.   A brave new world, a fabulous civilization, fashioned from the rough hewn timbers of the forest.  An indomitable human spirit.   The sailor, the ministry, the adventurer, the pioneer.  The champions of new life, new liberty, new beginnings.  The torch shines brightly for the souls of those days, as we feast from the harvest of their workmanship, negotiation and peace.

Hail, almighty ones, a country is in the making.  Hail oh bravehearts, your backs are breaking.  The long and difficult journey to a colony is at hand.

To greatness!

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 1, 2015