[Footnote 374:  On the troupes de la marine,—­Memoire pour servir d’Instruction a MM.  Jonquiere et Bigot, 30 Avril, 1749.  Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1750.  Ibid., 1755.  Ibid., 1757.  Instruction pour Vaudreuil, 22 Mars, 1755.  Ordonnance pour l’Augmentation de Soldats dans les Compagnies de Canada, 14 Mars, 1755.  Duquesne au Ministre, 26 Oct. 1753.  Ibid., 30 Oct. 1753.  Ibid., 29 Fev. 1754.  Duquesne a Marin, 27 Aout, 1753.  Atlas de Susane.]

All the effective male population of Canada, from fifteen years to sixty, was enrolled in the militia, and called into service at the will of the Governor.  They received arms, clothing, equipment, and rations from the King, but no pay; and instead of tents they made themselves huts of bark or branches.  The best of them were drawn from the upper parts of the colony, where habits of bushranging were still in full activity.  Their fighting qualities were much like those of the Indians, whom they rivalled in endurance and in the arts of forest war.  As bush-fighters they had few equals; they fought well behind earthworks, and were good at a surprise or sudden dash; but for regular battle on the open field they were of small account, being disorderly, and apt to break and take to cover at the moment of crisis.  They had no idea of the great operations of war.  At first they despised the regulars for their ignorance of woodcraft, and thought themselves able to defend the colony alone; while the regulars regarded them in turn with a contempt no less unjust.  They were excessively given to gasconade, and every true Canadian boasted himself a match for three Englishmen at least.  In 1750 the militia of all ranks counted about thirteen thousand; and eight years later the number had increased to about fifteen thousand.[375] Until the last two years of the war, those employed in actual warfare were but few.  Even in the critical year 1758 only about eleven hundred were called to arms, except for two or three weeks in summer;[376] though about four thousand were employed in transporting troops and supplies, for which service they received pay.

[Footnote 375:  Recapitulation des Milices du Gouvernement de Canada, 1750. Denombrement des Milices, 1758, 1759.  On the militia, see also Bougainville in Margry, Relations et Memoires inedits, 60, and N.Y.  Col.  Docs., X. 680.]

[Footnote 376:  Montcalm au Ministre, 1 Sept. 1758.]

To the white fighting force of the colony are to be added the red men.  The most trusty of them were the Mission Indians, living within or near the settled limits of Canada, chiefly the Hurons of Lorette, the Abenakis of St. Francis and Batiscan, the Iroquois of Caughnawaga and La Presentation, and the Iroquois and Algonkins at the Two Mountains on the Ottawa.  Besides these, all the warriors of the west and north, from Lake Superior to the Ohio, and from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, were now at the beck of France.  As to the Iroquois or Five Nations who still remained in their ancient seats within the present limits of New York, their power and pride had greatly fallen; and crowded as they were between the French and the English, they were in a state of vacillation, some leaning to one side, some to the other, and some to each in turn.  As a whole, the best that France could expect from them was neutrality.