" We pity the poor creatures who are flying at each other's throats for the sake of a few acres of ice." So said the philosophers at the end of the eighteenth century, referring to Canada, for whose possession the French and English were then at strife.

The few acres of ice now form a Dominion, with an area larger than that of Europe.

In the year of 1534 a Frenchman, Jacques Cartier, landed, and took possession of this vast territory.

A few facts, a few dates, will suffice us to trace the progress of this important state from its foundation to the period between 1830 and 1840, in which the events recorded in this history took place.