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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Count Frontenac and New France under
+Louis XIV. by Francis Parkman, #5 in the series France and England in
+North America.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+Title: Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.
+Part 5 of the France and England in North America series
+Author: Francis Parkman
+Release Date: Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6875]
+Updated: July 22, 2017.
+Character set encoding: utf-8
+
+Produced by Robert Fite, Tom Allen, David Moynihan, Charles Franks,
+Robert Homa and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COUNT FRONTENAC AND NEW FRANCE
+***
+
+France and England
+in
+North America
+
+
+A Series of Historical Narratives.
+
+
+
+
+by Francis Parkman
+
+Author of the "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," "The Oregon
+Trail," "The Old Régime in Canada," etc.
+
+
+Part Fifth.
+
+Boston:
+Little, Brown, and Company.
+1877.
+
+Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1877, by
+Francis Parkman,
+In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+
+
+Cambridge:
+Press of John Wilson and Son.
+
+
+Count Frontenac
+and
+New France
+Under Louis XIV.
+
+by Francis Parkman
+
+Author of "Pioneers of France in the New World," "The Jesuits in North
+America," "The Discovery of the Great West," and "The Old Régime in
+Canada."
+
+
+Boston:
+Little, Brown, and Company.
+1877.
+
+Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1877, by
+Francis Parkman,
+In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+
+
+Cambridge:
+Press of John Wilson and Son.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+The events recounted in this book group themselves in the main about a
+single figure, that of Count Frontenac, the most remarkable man who ever
+represented the crown of France in the New World. From strangely
+unpromising beginnings, he grew with every emergency, and rose equal to
+every crisis. His whole career was one of conflict, sometimes petty and
+personal, sometimes of momentous consequence, involving the question of
+national ascendancy on this continent. Now that this question is put at
+rest for ever, it is hard to conceive the anxiety which it wakened in
+our forefathers. But for one rooted error of French policy, the future
+of the English-speaking races in America would have been more than
+endangered.
+
+Under the rule of Frontenac occurred the first serious collision of the
+rival powers, and the opening of the grand scheme of military occupation
+by which France strove to envelop and hold in check the industrial
+populations of the English colonies. It was he who made that scheme
+possible.
+
+In "The Old Régime in Canada," I tried to show from what inherent causes
+this wilderness empire of the Great Monarch fell at last before a foe,
+superior indeed in numbers, but lacking all the forces that belong to a
+system of civil and military centralization. The present volume will
+show how valiantly, and for a time how successfully, New France battled
+against a fate which her own organic fault made inevitable. Her history
+is a great and significant drama, enacted among untamed forests, with a
+distant gleam of courtly splendors and the regal pomp of Versailles.
+
+The authorities on which the book rests are drawn chiefly from the
+manuscript collections of the French government in the Archives
+Nationales, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and, above all, the vast
+repositories of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies. Others are from
+Canadian and American sources. I have, besides, availed myself of the
+collection of French, English, and Dutch documents published by the
+State of New York, under the excellent editorship of Dr. O'Callaghan,
+and of the manuscript collections made in France by the governments of
+Canada and of Massachusetts. A considerable number of books,
+contemporary or nearly so with the events described, also help to throw
+light upon them; and these have all been examined. The citations in the
+margins represent but a small part of the authorities consulted.
+
+This mass of material has been studied with extreme care, and peculiar
+pains have been taken to secure accuracy of statement. In the preface of
+"The Old Régime," I wrote: "Some of the results here reached are of a
+character which I regret, since they cannot be agreeable to persons for
+whom I have a very cordial regard. The conclusions drawn from the facts
+may be matter of opinion: but it will be remembered that the facts
+themselves can be overthrown only by overthrowing the evidence on which
+they rest, or bringing forward counter-evidence of equal or greater
+strength; and neither task will be found an easy one."
+
+The invitation implied in these words has not been accepted. "The Old
+Régime" was met by vehement protest in some quarters; but, so far as I
+know, none of the statements of fact contained in it have been attacked
+by evidence, or even challenged. The lines just quoted are equally
+applicable to this volume. Should there be occasion, a collection of
+documentary proofs will be published more than sufficient to make good
+the positions taken. Meanwhile, it will, I think, be clear to an
+impartial reader that the story is told, not in the interest of any race
+or nationality, but simply in that of historical truth.
+
+When, at the age of eighteen, I formed the purpose of writing on
+French-American history, I meant at first to limit myself to the great
+contest which brought that history to a close. It was by an afterthought
+that the plan was extended to cover the whole field, so that the part of
+the work, or series of works, first conceived, would, following the
+sequence of events, be the last executed. As soon as the original scheme
+was formed, I began to prepare for executing it by examining localities,
+journeying in forests, visiting Indian tribes, and collecting materials.
+I have continued to collect them ever since, so that the accumulation is
+now rather formidable; and, if it is to be used at all, it had better be
+used at once. Therefore, passing over for the present an intervening
+period of less decisive importance, I propose to take, as the next
+subject of this series, "Montcalm and the Fall of New France."
+
+Boston, 1 Jan., 1877.
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.
+
+PREFACE.
+
+CHAPTER I. 1620-1672.
+
+COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC.
+
+Mademoiselle de Montpensier and Madame de Frontenac • Orleans • The
+Maréchale de Camp • Count Frontenac • Conjugal Disputes • Early Life of
+Frontenac • His Courtship and Marriage • Estrangement • Scenes at St.
+Fargeau • The Lady of Honor dismissed • Frontenac as a Soldier • He is
+made Governor of New France • Les Divines
+
+CHAPTER II. 1672-1675
+
+FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC.
+
+Arrival • Bright Prospects • The Three Estates of New France • Speech of
+the Governor • His Innovations • Royal Displeasure • Signs of Storm •
+Frontenac and the Priests • His Attempts to civilize the Indians •
+Opposition • Complaints and Heart-burnings
+
+CHAPTER III. 1673-1675.
+
+FRONTENAC AND PERROT.
+
+La Salle • Fort Frontenac • Perrot • His Speculations • His Tyranny •
+The Bush-rangers • Perrot revolts • Becomes alarmed • Dilemma of
+Frontenac • Mediation of Fénelon • Perrot in Prison • Excitement of the
+Sulpitians • Indignation of Fénelon • Passion of Frontenac • Perrot on
+Trial • Strange Scenes • Appeal to the King • Answers of Louis XIV. and
+Colbert • Fénelon rebuked.
+
+CHAPTER IV. 1675-1682.
+
+FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEAU.
+
+Frontenac receives a Colleague • He opposes the Clergy • Disputes in the
+Council • Royal Intervention • Frontenac rebuked • Fresh Outbreaks •
+Charges and Countercharges • The Dispute grows hot • Duchesneau
+condemned and Frontenac warned • The Quarrel continues • The King loses
+Patience • More Accusations • Factions and Feuds • A Side Quarrel • The
+King threatens • Frontenac denounces the Priests • The Governor and the
+Intendant recalled • Qualities of Frontenac.
+
+CHAPTER V. 1682-1684.
+
+LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE.
+
+His Arrival at Quebec • The Great Fire • A Coming Storm • Iroquois
+Policy • The Danger imminent • Indian Allies of France • Frontenac and
+the Iroquois • Boasts of La Barre • His Past Life • His Speculations •
+He takes Alarm • His Dealings with the Iroquois • His Illegal Trade •
+His Colleague denounces him • Fruits of his Schemes • His Anger and his
+Fears.
+
+CHAPTER VI. 1684.
+
+LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS.
+
+Dongan • New York and its Indian Neighbors • The Rival Governors •
+Dongan and the Iroquois • Mission to Onondaga • An Iroquois Politician •
+Warnings of Lamberville • Iroquois Boldness • La Barre takes the Field •
+His Motives • The March • Pestilence • Council at La Famine • The
+Iroquois defiant • Humiliation of La Barre • The Indian Allies • Their
+Rage and Disappointment • Recall of La Barre.
+
+CHAPTER VII. 1685-1687.
+
+DENONVILLE AND DONGAN.
+
+Troubles of the New Governor • His Character • English Rivalry •
+Intrigues of Dongan • English Claims • A Diplomatic Duel • Overt Acts •
+Anger of Denonville • James II. checks Dongan • Denonville emboldened •
+Strife in the North • Hudson's Bay • Attempted Pacification • Artifice
+of Denonville • He prepares for War.
+
+CHAPTER VIII. 1687.
+
+DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS.
+
+Treachery of Denonville • Iroquois Generosity • The Invading Army • The
+Western Allies • Plunder of English Traders • Arrival of the Allies •
+Scene at the French Camp • March of Denonville • Ambuscade • Battle •
+Victory • The Seneca Babylon • Imperfect Success.
+
+CHAPTER IX. 1687-1689.
+
+THE IROQUOIS INVASION.
+
+Altercations • Attitude of Dongan • Martial Preparation • Perplexity of
+Denonville • Angry Correspondence • Recall of Dongan • Sir Edmund Andros
+• Humiliation of Denonville • Distress of Canada • Appeals for Help •
+Iroquois Diplomacy • A Huron Macchiavel • The Catastrophe • Ferocity
+of the Victors • War with England • Recall of Denonville.
+
+CHAPTER X. 1689-1690.
+
+RETURN OF FRONTENAC.
+
+Versailles • Frontenac and the King • Frontenac sails for Quebec •
+Projected Conquest of New York • Designs of the King • Failure • Energy
+of Frontenac • Fort Frontenac • Panic • Negotiations • The Iroquois in
+Council • Chevalier d'Aux • Taunts of the Indian Allies • Boldness of
+Frontenac • An Iroquois Defeat • Cruel Policy • The Stroke parried.
+
+CHAPTER XI. 1690.
+
+THE THREE WAR-PARTIES.
+
+Measures of Frontenac • Expedition against Schenectady • The March • The
+Dutch Village • The Surprise • The Massacre • Prisoners spared • Retreat
+• The English and their Iroquois Friends • The Abenaki War • Revolution
+at Boston • Capture of Pemaquid • Capture of Salmon Falls • Capture of
+Fort Loyal • Frontenac and his Prisoner • The Canadians encouraged.
+
+CHAPTER XII. 1690.
+
+MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC.
+
+English Schemes • Capture of Port Royal • Acadia reduced • Conduct of
+Phips • His History and Character • Boston in Arms • A Puritan Crusade •
+The March from Albany • Frontenac and the Council • Frontenac at
+Montreal • His War Dance • An Abortive Expedition • An English Raid •
+Frontenac at Quebec • Defences of the Town • The Enemy arrives.
+
+CHAPTER XIII. 1690.
+
+DEFENCE OF QUEBEC.
+
+Phips on the St. Lawrence • Phips at Quebec • A Flag of Truce • Scene at
+the Château • The Summons and the Answer • Plan of Attack • Landing of
+the English • The Cannonade • The Ships repulsed • The Land Attack •
+Retreat of Phips • Condition of Quebec • Rejoicings of the French •
+Distress at Boston.
+
+CHAPTER XIV. 1690-1694.
+
+THE SCOURGE OF CANADA.
+
+Iroquois Inroads • Death of Bienville • English Attack • A Desperate
+Fight • Miseries of the Colony • Alarms • A Winter Expedition • La
+Chesnaye burned • The Heroine of Verchères • Mission Indians • The
+Mohawk Expedition • Retreat and Pursuit • Relief arrives • Frontenac
+Triumphant.
+
+CHAPTER XV. 1691-1695.
+
+AN INTERLUDE.
+
+Appeal of Frontenac • His Opponents • His Services • Rivalry and Strife
+• Bishop Saint-Vallier • Society at the Château • Private Theatricals •
+Alarm of the Clergy • Tartuffe • A Singular Bargain • Mareuil and the
+Bishop • Mareuil on Trial • Zeal of Saint-Vallier • Scandals at Montreal
+• Appeal to the King • The Strife composed • Libel against Frontenac.
+
+CHAPTER XVI. 1690-1694.
+
+THE WAR IN ACADIA.
+
+State of that Colony • The Abenakis • Acadia and New England • Pirates •
+Baron de Saint-Castin • Pentegoet • The English Frontier • The French
+and the Abenakis • Plan of the War • Capture of York • Villebon • Grand
+War-party • Attack of Wells • Pemaquid rebuilt • John Nelson • A Broken
+Treaty • Villieu and Thury • Another War-party • Massacre at Oyster
+River.
+
+CHAPTER XVII. 1690-1697.
+
+NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND.
+
+The Frontier of New England • Border Warfare • Motives of the French •
+Needless Barbarity • Who were answerable? • Father Thury • The Abenakis
+waver • Treachery at Pemaquid • Capture of Pemaquid • Projected Attack
+on Boston • Disappointment • Miseries of the Frontier • A Captive
+Amazon.
+
+CHAPTER XVIII. 1693-1697.
+
+FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.
+
+Le Moyne d'Iberville • His Exploits in Newfoundland • In Hudson's Bay •
+The Great Prize • The Competitors • Fatal Policy of the King • The
+Iroquois Question • Negotiation • Firmness of Frontenac • English
+Intervention • War renewed • State of the West • Indian Diplomacy •
+Cruel Measures • A Perilous Crisis • Audacity of Frontenac.
+
+CHAPTER XIX. 1696-1698.
+
+FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS.
+
+March of Frontenac • Flight of the Enemy • An Iroquois Stoic • Relief
+for the Onondagas • Boasts of Frontenac • His Complaints • His Enemies •
+Parties in Canada • Views of Frontenac and the King • Frontenac prevails
+• Peace of Ryswick • Frontenac and Bellomont • Schuyler at Quebec •
+Festivities • A Last Defiance.
+
+CHAPTER XX. 1698.
+
+DEATH OF FRONTENAC.
+
+His Last Hours • His Will • His Funeral • His Eulogist and his Critic •
+His Disputes with the Clergy • His Character.
+
+CHAPTER XXI. 1699-1701.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+The New Governor • Attitude of the Iroquois • Negotiations • Embassy to
+Onondaga • Peace • The Iroquois and the Allies • Difficulties • Death of
+the Great Huron • Funeral Rites • The Grand Council • The Work of
+Frontenac finished • Results.
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+INDEX.
+
+[Illustration: Map of Canada and Adjacent Countries towards the Close of
+the 17th century.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+1620-1672.
+
+Count and Countess Frontenac.
+
+Mademoiselle de Montpensier and Madame de Frontenac • Orleans • The
+Maréchale de Camp • Count Frontenac • Conjugal Disputes • Early Life of
+Frontenac • His Courtship and Marriage • Estrangement • Scenes at St.
+Fargeau • The Lady of Honor dismissed • Frontenac as a Soldier • He is
+made Governor of New France • Les Divines
+
+At Versailles there is the portrait of a lady, beautiful and young. She
+is painted as Minerva, a plumed helmet on her head, and a shield on
+her arm. In a corner of the canvas is written Anne de La Grange-Trianon,
+Comtesse de Frontenac. This blooming goddess was the wife of the future
+governor of Canada.
+
+Madame de Frontenac, at the age of about twenty, was a favorite
+companion of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the grand-daughter of Henry
+IV. and daughter of the weak and dastardly Gaston, Duke of Orleans.
+Nothing in French annals has found more readers than the story of the
+exploit of this spirited princess at Orleans during the civil war of the
+Fronde. Her cousin Condé, chief of the revolt, had found favor in her
+eyes; and she had espoused his cause against her cousin, the king. The
+royal army threatened Orleans. The duke, her father, dared not leave
+Paris; but he consented that his daughter should go in his place to hold
+the city for Condé and the Fronde.
+
+The princess entered her carriage and set out on her errand, attended by
+a small escort. With her were three young married ladies, the Marquise
+de Bréauté, the Comtesse de Fiesque, and the Comtesse de Frontenac. In
+two days they reached Orleans. The civic authorities were afraid to
+declare against the king, and hesitated to open the gates to the
+daughter of their duke, who, standing in the moat with her three
+companions, tried persuasion and threats in vain. The prospect was not
+encouraging, when a crowd of boatmen came up from the river and offered
+the princess their services. "I accepted them gladly," she writes, "and
+said a thousand fine things, such as one must say to that sort of people
+to make them do what one wishes." She gave them money as well as fair
+words, and begged them to burst open one of the gates. They fell at once
+to the work; while the guards and officials looked down from the walls,
+neither aiding nor resisting them. "To animate the boatmen by my
+presence," she continues, "I mounted a hillock near by. I did not look
+to see which way I went, but clambered up like a cat, clutching brambles
+and thorns, and jumping over hedges without hurting myself. Madame de
+Bréauté, who is the most cowardly creature in the world, began to cry
+out against me and everybody who followed me; in fact, I do not know if
+she did not swear in her excitement, which amused me very much." At
+length, a hole was knocked in the gate; and a gentleman of her train,
+who had directed the attack, beckoned her to come on. "As it was very
+muddy, a man took me and carried me forward, and thrust me in at this
+hole, where my head was no sooner through than the drums beat to salute
+me. I gave my hand to the captain of the guard. The shouts redoubled.
+Two men took me and put me in a wooden chair. I do not know whether I
+was seated in it or on their arms, for I was beside myself with joy.
+Everybody was kissing my hands, and I almost died with laughing to see
+myself in such an odd position." There was no resisting the enthusiasm
+of the people and the soldiers. Orleans was won for the Fronde. [1]
+
+[1] Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, I. 358-363 (ed. 1859).
+
+The young Countesses of Frontenac and Fiesque had constantly followed
+her, and climbed after her through the hole in the gate. Her father
+wrote to compliment them on their prowess, and addressed his letter à
+Mesdames les Comtesses, Maréchales de Camp dans l'armée de ma fille
+contre le Mazarin. Officers and soldiers took part in the pleasantry;
+and, as Madame de Frontenac passed on horseback before the troops, they
+saluted her with the honors paid to a brigadier.
+
+When the king, or Cardinal Mazarin who controlled him, had triumphed
+over the revolting princes, Mademoiselle de Montpensier paid the penalty
+of her exploit by a temporary banishment from the court. She roamed from
+place to place, with a little court of her own, of which Madame de
+Frontenac was a conspicuous member. During the war, Count Frontenac had
+been dangerously ill of a fever in Paris; and his wife had been absent
+for a time, attending him. She soon rejoined the princess, who was at
+her château of St. Fargeau, three days' journey from Paris, when an
+incident occurred which placed the married life of her fair companion in
+an unexpected light. "The Duchesse de Sully came to see me, and brought
+with her M. d'Herbault and M. de Frontenac. Frontenac had stopped here
+once before, but it was only for a week, when he still had the fever,
+and took great care of himself like a man who had been at the door of
+death. This time he was in high health. His arrival had not been
+expected, and his wife was so much surprised that everybody observed it,
+especially as the surprise seemed to be not at all a pleasant one.
+Instead of going to talk with her husband, she went off and hid herself,
+crying and screaming because he had said that he would like to have her
+company that evening. I was very much astonished, especially as I had
+never before perceived her aversion to him. The elder Comtesse de
+Fiesque remonstrated with her; but she only cried the more. Madame de
+Fiesque then brought books to show her her duty as a wife; but it did no
+good, and at last she got into such a state that we sent for the curé
+with holy water to exorcise her." [2]	
+
+[2] Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 265. The curé's holy
+water, or his exhortations, were at last successful.
+
+Count Frontenac came of an ancient and noble race, said to have been of
+Basque origin. His father held a high post in the household of Louis
+XIII., who became the child's god-father, and gave him his own name. At
+the age of fifteen, the young Louis showed an incontrollable passion for
+the life of a soldier. He was sent to the seat of war in Holland, to
+serve under the Prince of Orange. At the age of nineteen, he was a
+volunteer at the siege of Hesdin; in the next year, he was at Arras,
+where he distinguished himself during a sortie of the garrison; in the
+next, he took part in the siege of Aire; and, in the next, in those of
+Callioure and Perpignan. At the age of twenty-three, he was made colonel
+of the regiment of Normandy, which he commanded in repeated battles and
+sieges of the Italian campaign. He was several times wounded, and in
+1646 he had an arm broken at the siege of Orbitello. In the same year,
+when twenty-six years old, he was raised to the rank of maréchal de
+camp, equivalent to that of brigadier-general. A year or two later, we
+find him at Paris, at the house of his father, on the Quai des
+Célestins. [3]	
+
+[3] Pinard, Chronologie Historique-militaire, VI.; Table de la
+Gazette de France; Jal, Dictionnaire Critique, Biographique, et
+d'Histoire, art. "Frontenac;" Goyer, Oraison Funèbre du Comte de
+Frontenac.
+
+In the same neighborhood lived La Grange-Trianon, Sieur de Neuville, a
+widower of fifty, with one child, a daughter of sixteen, whom he had
+placed in the charge of his relative, Madame de Bouthillier. Frontenac
+fell in love with her. Madame de Bouthillier opposed the match, and told
+La Grange that he might do better for his daughter than to marry her to
+a man who, say what he might, had but twenty thousand francs a year. La
+Grange was weak and vacillating: sometimes he listened to his prudent
+kinswoman, and sometimes to the eager suitor; treated him as a
+son-in-law, carried love messages from him to his daughter, and ended by
+refusing him her hand, and ordering her to renounce him on pain of being
+immured in a convent. Neither Frontenac nor his mistress was of a pliant
+temper. In the neighborhood was the little church of St. Pierre aux
+Bœufs, which had the privilege of uniting couples without the consent of
+their parents; and here, on a Wednesday in October, 1648, the lovers
+were married in presence of a number of Frontenac's relatives. La Grange
+was furious at the discovery; but his anger soon cooled, and complete
+reconciliation followed. [4]	
+
+[4] Historiettes de Tallemant des Réaux, IX. 214 (ed. Monmerqué); Jal,
+Dictionnaire Critique, etc.
+
+The happiness of the newly wedded pair was short. Love soon changed to
+aversion, at least on the part of the bride. She was not of a tender
+nature; her temper was imperious, and she had a restless craving for
+excitement. Frontenac, on his part, was the most wayward and headstrong
+of men. She bore him a son; but maternal cares were not to her liking.
+The infant, François Louis, was placed in the keeping of a nurse at the
+village of Clion; and his young mother left her husband, to follow the
+fortunes of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, who for a time pronounced her
+charming, praised her wit and beauty, and made her one of her ladies of
+honor. Very curious and amusing are some of the incidents recounted by
+the princess, in which Madame de Frontenac bore part; but what is more
+to our purpose are the sketches traced here and there by the same sharp
+pen, in which one may discern the traits of the destined saviour of New
+France. Thus, in the following, we see him at St. Fargeau in the same
+attitude in which we shall often see him at Quebec.
+
+The princess and the duke her father had a dispute touching her
+property. Frontenac had lately been at Blois, where the duke had
+possessed him with his own views of the questions at issue. Accordingly,
+on arriving at St. Fargeau, he seemed disposed to assume the character
+of mediator. "He wanted," says the princess, "to discuss my affairs with
+me: I listened to his preaching, and he also spoke about these matters
+to Préfontaine (her man of business). I returned to the house after our
+promenade, and we went to dance in the great hall. While we were
+dancing, I saw Préfontaine walking at the farther end with Frontenac,
+who was talking and gesticulating. This continued for a long time.
+Madame de Sully noticed it also, and seemed disturbed by it, as I was
+myself. I said, 'Have we not danced enough?' Madame de Sully assented,
+and we went out. I called Préfontaine, and asked him, 'What was
+Frontenac saying to you?' He answered: 'He was scolding me. I never saw
+such an impertinent man in my life.' I went to my room, and Madame de
+Sully and Madame de Fiesque followed. Madame de Sully said to
+Préfontaine: 'I was very much disturbed to see you talking with so much
+warmth to Monsieur de Frontenac; for he came here in such ill-humor that
+I was afraid he would quarrel with you. Yesterday, when we were in the
+carriage, he was ready to eat us.' The Comtesse de Fiesque said, 'This
+morning he came to see my mother-in-law, and scolded at her.'
+Préfontaine answered: 'He wanted to throttle me. I never saw a man so
+crazy and absurd.' We all four began to pity poor Madame de Frontenac
+for having such a husband, and to think her right in not wanting to go
+with him." [5]
+
+[5] Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 267.
+
+Frontenac owned the estate of Isle Savary, on the Indre, not far from
+Blois; and here, soon after the above scene, the princess made him a
+visit. "It is a pretty enough place," she says, "for a man like him. The
+house is well furnished, and he gave me excellent entertainment. He
+showed me all the plans he had for improving it, and making gardens,
+fountains, and ponds. It would need the riches of a superintendent of
+finance to execute his schemes, and how anybody else should venture to
+think of them I cannot comprehend."
+
+"While Frontenac was at St. Fargeau," she continues, "he kept open
+table, and many of my people went to dine with him; for he affected to
+hold court, and acted as if everybody owed duty to him. The conversation
+was always about my affair with his Royal Highness (her father), whose
+conduct towards me was always praised, while mine was blamed. Frontenac
+spoke ill of Préfontaine, and, in fine, said every thing he could to
+displease me and stir up my own people against me. He praised every
+thing that belonged to himself, and never came to sup or dine with me
+without speaking of some ragoût or some new sweetmeat which had been
+served up on his table, ascribing it all to the excellence of the
+officers of his kitchen. The very meat that he ate, according to him,
+had a different taste on his board than on any other. As for his silver
+plate, it was always of good workmanship; and his dress was always of
+patterns invented by himself. When he had new clothes, he paraded them
+like a child. One day he brought me some to look at, and left them on my
+dressing-table. We were then at Chambord. His Royal Highness came into
+the room, and must have thought it odd to see breeches and doublets in
+such a place. Préfontaine and I laughed about it a great deal. Frontenac
+took everybody who came to St. Fargeau to see his stables; and all who
+wished to gain his good graces were obliged to admire his horses, which
+were very indifferent. In short, this is his way in every thing." [6]
+
+[6] Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 279; III. 10.
+
+Though not himself of the highest rank, his position at court was, from
+the courtier point of view, an enviable one. The princess, after her
+banishment had ended, more than once mentions incidentally that she had
+met him in the cabinet of the queen. Her dislike of him became intense,
+and her fondness for his wife changed at last to aversion. She charges
+the countess with ingratitude. She discovered, or thought that she
+discovered, that in her dispute with her father, and in certain
+dissensions in her own household, Madame de Frontenac had acted secretly
+in opposition to her interests and wishes. The imprudent lady of honor
+received permission to leave her service. It was a woful scene. "She saw
+me get into my carriage," writes the princess, "and her distress was
+greater than ever. Her tears flowed abundantly: as for me, my fortitude
+was perfect, and I looked on with composure while she cried. If any
+thing could disturb my tranquility, it was the recollection of the time
+when she laughed while I was crying." Mademoiselle de Montpensier had
+been deeply offended, and apparently with reason. The countess and her
+husband received an order never again to appear in her presence; but
+soon after, when the princess was with the king and queen at a comedy in
+the garden of the Louvre, Frontenac, who had previously arrived,
+immediately changed his position, and with his usual audacity took a
+post so conspicuous that she could not help seeing him. "I confess," she
+says, "I was so angry that I could find no pleasure in the play; but I
+said nothing to the king and queen, fearing that they would not take
+such a view of the matter as I wished." [7]	
+
+[7] Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, III. 270.
+
+With the close of her relations with "La Grande Mademoiselle," Madame de
+Frontenac is lost to sight for a while. In 1669, a Venetian embassy came
+to France to beg for aid against the Turks, who for more than two years
+had attacked Candia in overwhelming force. The ambassadors offered to
+place their own troops under French command, and they asked Turenne to
+name a general officer equal to the task. Frontenac had the signal honor
+of being chosen by the first soldier of Europe for this most arduous and
+difficult position. He went accordingly. The result increased his
+reputation for ability and courage; but Candia was doomed, and its chief
+fortress fell into the hands of the infidels, after a protracted
+struggle, which is said to have cost them a hundred and eighty thousand
+men. [8]	
+
+[8] Oraison funèbre du Comte de Frontenac, par le Père Olivier Goyer. A
+powerful French contingent, under another command, co-operated with the
+Venetians under Frontenac.
+
+Three years later, Frontenac received the appointment of Governor and
+Lieutenant-General for the king in all New France. "He was," says
+Saint-Simon, "a man of excellent parts, living much in society, and
+completely ruined. He found it hard to bear the imperious temper of his
+wife; and he was given the government of Canada to deliver him from her,
+and afford him some means of living." [9] Certain scandalous songs of
+the day assign a different motive for his appointment. Louis XIV. was
+enamoured of Madame de Montespan. She had once smiled upon Frontenac;
+and it is said that the jealous king gladly embraced the opportunity of
+removing from his presence, and from hers, a lover who had forestalled
+him. [10]	
+
+[9] Memoires du Duc de Saint-Simon, II. 270; V. 336.
+
+[10] Note of M. Brunet, in Correspondance de la Duchesse d'Orléans,
+I. 200 (ed. 1869).
+
+The following lines, among others, were passed about secretly among the
+courtiers:--
+
+   "Je suis ravi que le roi, notre sire,
+       Aime la Montespan;
+    Moi, Frontenac, je me crève de rire,
+       Sachant ce qui lui pend;
+    Et je dirai, sans être des plus bestes,
+       Tu n'as que mon reste,
+             Roi,
+       Tu n'as que mon reste."
+
+Mademoiselle de Montpensier had mentioned in her memoirs, some years
+before, that Frontenac, in taking out his handkerchief, dropped from his
+pocket a love-letter to Mademoiselle de Mortemart, afterwards Madame de
+Montespan, which was picked up by one of the attendants of the princess.
+The king, on the other hand, was at one time attracted by the charms of
+Madame de Frontenac, against whom, however, no aspersion is cast.
+
+The Comte de Grignan, son-in-law of Madame de Sévigné, was an
+unsuccessful competitor with Frontenac for the government of Canada.
+
+Frontenac's wife had no thought of following him across the sea. A more
+congenial life awaited her at home. She had long had a friend of humbler
+station than herself, Mademoiselle d'Outrelaise, daughter of an obscure
+gentleman of Poitou, an amiable and accomplished person, who became
+through life her constant companion. The extensive building called the
+Arsenal, formerly the residence of Sully, the minister of Henry IV.,
+contained suites of apartments which were granted to persons who had
+influence enough to obtain them. The Duc de Lude, grand master of
+artillery, had them at his disposal, and gave one of them to Madame de
+Frontenac. Here she made her abode with her friend; and here at last she
+died, at the age of seventy-five. The annalist Saint-Simon, who knew the
+court and all belonging to it better than any other man of his time,
+says of her: "She had been beautiful and gay, and was always in the best
+society, where she was greatly in request. Like her husband, she had
+little property and abundant wit. She and Mademoiselle d'Outrelaise,
+whom she took to live with her, gave the tone to the best company of
+Paris and the court, though they never went thither. They were called
+Les Divines. In fact, they demanded incense like goddesses; and it was
+lavished upon them all their lives."
+
+Mademoiselle d'Outrelaise died long before the countess, who retained in
+old age the rare social gifts which to the last made her apartments a
+resort of the highest society of that brilliant epoch. It was in her
+power to be very useful to her absent husband, who often needed her
+support, and who seems to have often received it.
+
+She was childless. Her son, François Louis, was killed, some say in
+battle, and others in a duel, at an early age. Her husband died nine
+years before her; and the old countess left what little she had to her
+friend Beringhen, the king's master of the horse. [11]	
+
+[11] On Frontenac and his family, see Appendix A.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+1672-1675.
+
+Frontenac at Quebec.
+
+Arrival • Bright Prospects • The Three Estates of New France • Speech of
+the Governor • His Innovations • Royal Displeasure • Signs of Storm •
+Frontenac and the Priests • His Attempts to civilize the Indians •
+Opposition • Complaints and Heart-burnings
+
+Frontenac was fifty-two years old when he landed at Quebec. If time had
+done little to cure his many faults, it had done nothing to weaken the
+springs of his unconquerable vitality. In his ripe middle age, he was as
+keen, fiery, and perversely headstrong as when he quarrelled with
+Préfontaine in the hall at St. Fargeau.
+
+Had nature disposed him to melancholy, there was much in his position to
+awaken it. A man of courts and camps, born and bred in the focus of a
+most gorgeous civilization, he was banished to the ends of the earth,
+among savage hordes and half-reclaimed forests, to exchange the
+splendors of St. Germain and the dawning glories of Versailles for a
+stern gray rock, haunted by sombre priests, rugged merchants and
+traders, blanketed Indians, and wild bush-rangers. But Frontenac was a
+man of action. He wasted no time in vain regrets, and set himself to his
+work with the elastic vigor of youth. His first impressions had been
+very favorable. When, as he sailed up the St. Lawrence, the basin of
+Quebec opened before him, his imagination kindled with the grandeur of
+the scene. "I never," he wrote, "saw any thing more superb than the
+position of this town. It could not be better situated as the future
+capital of a great empire." [1]
+
+[1] Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.
+
+That Quebec was to become the capital of a great empire there seemed in
+truth good reason to believe. The young king and his minister Colbert
+had labored in earnest to build up a new France in the west. For years
+past, ship-loads of emigrants had landed every summer on the strand
+beneath the rock. All was life and action, and the air was full of
+promise. The royal agent Talon had written to his master: "This part of
+the French monarchy is destined to a grand future. All that I see around
+me points to it; and the colonies of foreign nations, so long settled on
+the seaboard, are trembling with fright in view of what his Majesty has
+accomplished here within the last seven years. The measures we have
+taken to confine them within narrow limits, and the prior claim we have
+established against them by formal acts of possession, do not permit
+them to extend themselves except at peril of having war declared against
+them as usurpers; and this, in fact, is what they seem greatly to fear."
+[2]	
+
+[2] Talon au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1671.
+
+Frontenac shared the spirit of the hour. His first step was to survey
+his government. He talked with traders, colonists, and officials;
+visited seigniories, farms, fishing-stations, and all the infant
+industries that Talon had galvanized into life; examined the new ship on
+the stocks, admired the structure of the new brewery, went to Three
+Rivers to see the iron mines, and then, having acquired a tolerably
+exact idea of his charge, returned to Quebec. He was well pleased with
+what he saw, but not with the ways and means of Canadian travel; for he
+thought it strangely unbecoming that a lieutenant-general of the king
+should be forced to crouch on a sheet of bark, at the bottom of a birch
+canoe, scarcely daring to move his head to the right or left lest he
+should disturb the balance of the fragile vessel.
+
+At Quebec he convoked the council, made them a speech, and administered
+the oath of allegiance. [3] This did not satisfy him. He resolved that
+all Quebec should take the oath together. It was little but a pretext.
+Like many of his station, Frontenac was not in full sympathy with the
+centralizing movement of the time, which tended to level ancient rights,
+privileges, and prescriptions under the ponderous roller of the
+monarchical administration. He looked back with regret to the day when
+the three orders of the state, clergy, nobles, and commons, had a place
+and a power in the direction of national affairs. The three orders still
+subsisted, in form, if not in substance, in some of the provinces of
+France; and Frontenac conceived the idea of reproducing them in Canada.
+Not only did he cherish the tradition of faded liberties, but he loved
+pomp and circumstance, above all, when he was himself the central figure
+in it; and the thought of a royal governor of Languedoc or Brittany,
+presiding over the estates of his province, appears to have fired him
+with emulation.
+
+[3] Registre du Conseil Souverain.
+
+He had no difficulty in forming his order of the clergy. The Jesuits and
+the seminary priests supplied material even more abundant than he
+wished. For the order of the nobles, he found three or four
+gentilshommes at Quebec, and these he reinforced with a number of
+officers. The third estate consisted of the merchants and citizens; and
+he formed the members of the council and the magistrates into another
+distinct body, though, properly speaking, they belonged to the third
+estate, of which by nature and prescription they were the head. The
+Jesuits, glad no doubt to lay him under some slight obligation, lent him
+their church for the ceremony that he meditated, and aided in decorating
+it for the occasion. Here, on the twenty-third of October, 1672, the
+three estates of Canada were convoked, with as much pomp and splendor as
+circumstances would permit. Then Frontenac, with the ease of a man of
+the world and the loftiness of a grand seigneur, delivered himself of
+the harangue he had prepared. He wrote exceedingly well; he is said also
+to have excelled as an orator; certainly he was never averse to the
+tones of his own eloquence. His speech was addressed to a double
+audience: the throng that filled the church, and the king and the
+minister three thousand miles away. He told his hearers that he had
+called the assembly, not because he doubted their loyalty, but in order
+to afford them the delight of making public protestation of devotion to
+a prince, the terror of whose irresistible arms was matched only by the
+charms of his person and the benignity of his rule. "The Holy
+Scriptures," he said, "command us to obey our sovereign, and teach us
+that no pretext or reason can dispense us from this obedience." And, in
+a glowing eulogy on Louis XIV., he went on to show that obedience to him
+was not only a duty, but an inestimable privilege. He dwelt with
+admiration on the recent victories in Holland, and held forth the hope
+that a speedy and glorious peace would leave his Majesty free to turn
+his thoughts to the colony which already owed so much to his fostering
+care. "The true means," pursued Frontenac, "of gaining his favor and his
+support, is for us to unite with one heart in laboring for the progress
+of Canada." Then he addressed, in turn, the clergy, the nobles, the
+magistrates, and the citizens. He exhorted the priests to continue with
+zeal their labors for the conversion of the Indians, and to make them
+subjects not only of Christ, but also of the king; in short, to tame and
+civilize them, a portion of their duties in which he plainly gave them
+to understand that they had not hitherto acquitted themselves to his
+satisfaction. Next, he appealed to the nobles, commended their
+gallantry, and called upon them to be as assiduous in the culture and
+improvement of the colony as they were valiant in its defence. The
+magistrates, the merchants, and the colonists in general were each
+addressed in an appropriate exhortation. "I can assure you, messieurs,"
+he concluded, "that if you faithfully discharge your several duties,
+each in his station, his Majesty will extend to us all the help and all
+the favor that we can desire. It is needless, then, to urge you to act
+as I have counselled, since it is for your own interest to do so. As for
+me, it only remains to protest before you that I shall esteem myself
+happy in consecrating all my efforts, and, if need be, my life itself,
+to extending the empire of Jesus Christ throughout all this land, and
+the supremacy of our king over all the nations that dwell in it."
+
+He administered the oath, and the assembly dissolved. He now applied
+himself to another work: that of giving a municipal government to
+Quebec, after the model of some of the cities of France. In place of the
+syndic, an official supposed to represent the interests of the citizens,
+he ordered the public election of three aldermen, of whom the senior
+should act as mayor. One of the number was to go out of office every
+year, his place being filled by a new election; and the governor, as
+representing the king, reserved the right of confirmation or rejection.
+He then, in concert with the chief inhabitants, proceeded to frame a
+body of regulations for the government of a town destined, as he again
+and again declares, to become the capital of a mighty empire; and he
+farther ordained that the people should hold a meeting every six months
+to discuss questions involving the welfare of the colony. The boldness
+of these measures will scarcely be appreciated at the present day. The
+intendant Talon declined, on pretence of a slight illness, to be present
+at the meeting of the estates. He knew too well the temper of the king,
+whose constant policy it was to destroy or paralyze every institution or
+custom that stood in the way of his autocracy. The despatches in which
+Frontenac announced to his masters what he had done received in due time
+their answer. The minister Colbert wrote: "Your assembling of the
+inhabitants to take the oath of fidelity, and your division of them into
+three estates, may have had a good effect for the moment; but it is well
+for you to observe that you are always to follow, in the government of
+Canada, the forms in use here; and since our kings have long regarded it
+as good for their service not to convoke the states-general of the
+kingdom, in order, perhaps, to abolish insensibly this ancient usage,
+you, on your part, should very rarely, or, to speak more correctly,
+never, give a corporate form to the inhabitants of Canada. You should
+even, as the colony strengthens, suppress gradually the office of the
+syndic, who presents petitions in the name of the inhabitants; for it is
+well that each should speak for himself, and no one for all." [4]	
+
+[4] Frontenac au Roi, 2 Nov., 1672; Ibid., 13 Nov., 1673; Harangue du
+Comte de Frontenac en l'Assemblée à Quebec; Prestations de Serment, 23
+Oct., 1672; Réglement de Police fait par Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac;
+Colbert à Frontenac, 13 Juin, 1673.
+
+Here, in brief, is the whole spirit of the French colonial rule in
+Canada; a government, as I have elsewhere shown, of excellent
+intentions, but of arbitrary methods. Frontenac, filled with the
+traditions of the past, and sincerely desirous of the good of the
+colony, rashly set himself against the prevailing current. His municipal
+government, and his meetings of citizens, were, like his three estates,
+abolished by a word from the court, which, bold and obstinate as he was,
+he dared not disobey. Had they been allowed to subsist, there can be
+little doubt that great good would have resulted to Canada.
+
+Frontenac has been called a mere soldier. He was an excellent soldier,
+and more besides. He was a man of vigorous and cultivated mind,
+penetrating observation, and ample travel and experience. His zeal for
+the colony, however, was often counteracted by the violence of his
+prejudices, and by two other influences. First, he was a ruined man, who
+meant to mend his fortunes; and his wish that Canada should prosper was
+joined with a determination to reap a goodly part of her prosperity for
+himself. Again, he could not endure a rival; opposition maddened him,
+and, when crossed or thwarted, he forgot every thing but his passion.
+Signs of storm quickly showed themselves between him and the intendant
+Talon; but the danger was averted by the departure of that official for
+France. A cloud then rose in the direction of the clergy.
+
+"Another thing displeases me," writes Frontenac, "and this is the
+complete dependence of the grand vicar and the seminary priests on the
+Jesuits, for they never do the least thing without their order: so that
+they (the Jesuits) are masters in spiritual matters, which, as you know,
+is a powerful lever for moving every thing else." [5] And he complains
+that they have spies in town and country, that they abuse the
+confessional, intermeddle in families, set husbands against wives, and
+parents against children, and all, as they say, for the greater glory of
+God. "I call to mind every day, Monseigneur, what you did me the honor
+to say to me when I took leave of you, and every day I am satisfied more
+and more of the great importance to the king's service of opposing the
+slightest of the attempts which are daily made against his authority."
+He goes on to denounce a certain sermon, preached by a Jesuit, to the
+great scandal of loyal subjects, wherein the father declared that the
+king had exceeded his powers in licensing the trade in brandy when the
+bishop had decided it to be a sin, together with other remarks of a
+seditious nature. "I was tempted several times," pursues Frontenac, "to
+leave the church with my guards and interrupt the sermon; but I
+contented myself with telling the grand vicar and the superior of the
+Jesuits, after it was over, that I was very much surprised at what I had
+heard, and demanded justice at their hands. They greatly blamed the
+preacher, and disavowed him, attributing his language, after their
+custom, to an excess of zeal, and making many apologies, with which I
+pretended to be satisfied; though I told them, nevertheless, that their
+excuses would not pass current with me another time, and, if the thing
+happened again, I would put the preacher in a place where he would
+learn how to speak. Since then they have been a little more careful,
+though not enough to prevent one from always seeing their intention to
+persuade the people that, even in secular matters, their authority ought
+to be respected above any other. As there are many persons here who have
+no more brains than they need, and who are attached to them by ties of
+interest or otherwise, it is necessary to have an eye to these matters
+in this country more than anywhere else." [6]	
+
+[5] Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.
+
+[6] Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673.
+
+The churchmen, on their part, were not idle. The bishop, who was then in
+France, contrived by some means to acquaint himself with the contents of
+the private despatches sent by Colbert in reply to the letters of
+Frontenac. He wrote to another ecclesiastic to communicate what he had
+learned, at the same time enjoining great caution; "since, while it is
+well to acquire all necessary information, and to act upon it, it is of
+the greatest importance to keep secret our possession of such
+knowledge." [7]	
+
+[7] Laval à------, 1674. The letter is a complete summary of the
+contents of Colbert's recent despatch to Frontenac. Then follows the
+injunction to secrecy, "estant de très-grande conséquence que l'on ne
+sache pas que l'on aye rien appris de tout cela, sur quoi néanmoins il
+est bon que l'on agisse et que l'on me donne tous les advis qui seront
+nécessaires."
+
+The king and the minister, in their instructions to Frontenac, had dwelt
+with great emphasis on the expediency of civilizing the Indians,
+teaching them the French language, and amalgamating them with the
+colonists. Frontenac, ignorant as yet of Indian nature and unacquainted
+with the difficulties of the case, entered into these views with great
+heartiness. He exercised from the first an extraordinary influence over
+all the Indians with whom he came in contact; and he persuaded the most
+savage and refractory of them, the Iroquois, to place eight of their
+children in his hands. Four of these were girls and four were boys. He
+took two of the boys into his own household, of which they must have
+proved most objectionable inmates; and he supported the other two, who
+were younger, out of his own slender resources, placed them in
+respectable French families, and required them to go daily to school.
+The girls were given to the charge of the Ursulines. Frontenac
+continually urged the Jesuits to co-operate with him in this work of
+civilization, but the results of his urgency disappointed and
+exasperated him. He complains that in the village of the Hurons, near
+Quebec, and under the control of the Jesuits, the French language was
+scarcely known. In fact, the fathers contented themselves with teaching
+their converts the doctrines and rites of the Roman Church, while
+retaining the food, dress, and habits of their original barbarism.
+
+In defence of the missionaries, it should be said that, when brought in
+contact with the French, the Indians usually caught the vices of
+civilization without its virtues; but Frontenac made no allowances. "The
+Jesuits," he writes, "will not civilize the Indians, because they wish
+to keep them in perpetual wardship. They think more of beaver skins than
+of souls, and their missions are pure mockeries." At the same time he
+assures the minister that, when he is obliged to correct them, he does
+so with the utmost gentleness. In spite of this somewhat doubtful
+urbanity, it seems clear that a storm was brewing; and it was fortunate
+for the peace of the Canadian Church that the attention of the truculent
+governor was drawn to other quarters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+1673-1675.
+
+Frontenac and Perrot.
+
+La Salle • Fort Frontenac • Perrot • His Speculations • His Tyranny •
+The Bush-rangers • Perrot revolts • Becomes alarmed • Dilemma of
+Frontenac • Mediation of Fénelon • Perrot in Prison • Excitement of the
+Sulpitians • Indignation of Fénelon • Passion of Frontenac • Perrot on
+Trial • Strange Scenes • Appeal to the King • Answers of Louis XIV. and
+Colbert • Fénelon rebuked.
+
+Not long before Frontenac's arrival, Courcelle, his predecessor, went to
+Lake Ontario with an armed force, in order to impose respect on the
+Iroquois, who had of late become insolent. As a means of keeping them in
+check, and at the same time controlling the fur trade of the upper
+country, he had recommended, like Talon before him, the building of a
+fort near the outlet of the lake. Frontenac at once saw the advantages
+of such a measure, and his desire to execute it was stimulated by the
+reflection that the proposed fort might be made not only a safeguard to
+the colony, but also a source of profit to himself.
+
+At Quebec, there was a grave, thoughtful, self-contained young man, who
+soon found his way into Frontenac's confidence. There was between them
+the sympathetic attraction of two bold and energetic spirits; and though
+Cavelier de la Salle had neither the irritable vanity of the count, nor
+his Gallic vivacity of passion, he had in full measure the same
+unconquerable pride and hardy resolution. There were but two or three
+men in Canada who knew the western wilderness so well. He was full of
+schemes of ambition and of gain; and, from this moment, he and Frontenac
+seem to have formed an alliance, which ended only with the governor's
+recall.
+
+In telling the story of La Salle, I have described the execution of the
+new plan: the muster of the Canadians, at the call of Frontenac; the
+consternation of those of the merchants whom he and La Salle had not
+taken into their counsels, and who saw in the movement the preparation
+for a gigantic fur trading monopoly; the intrigues set on foot to bar
+the enterprise; the advance up the St. Lawrence; the assembly of
+Iroquois at the destined spot; the ascendency exercised over them by the
+governor; the building of Fort Frontenac on the ground where Kingston
+now stands, and its final transfer into the hands of La Salle, on
+condition, there can be no doubt, of sharing the expected profits with
+his patron. [1]
+
+[1] Discovery of the Great West, chap. vi.
+
+On the way to the lake, Frontenac stopped for some time at Montreal,
+where he had full opportunity to become acquainted with a state of
+things to which his attention had already been directed. This state of
+things was as follows:--
+
+When the intendant, Talon, came for the second time to Canada, in 1669,
+an officer named Perrot, who had married his niece, came with him.
+Perrot, anxious to turn to account the influence of his wife's relative,
+looked about him for some post of honor and profit, and quickly
+discovered that the government of Montreal was vacant. The priests of
+St. Sulpice, feudal owners of the place, had the right of appointing
+their own governor. Talon advised them to choose Perrot, who thereupon
+received the desired commission, which, however, was revocable at the
+will of those who had granted it. The new governor, therefore, begged
+another commission from the king, and after a little delay he obtained
+it. Thus he became, in some measure, independent of the priests, who, if
+they wished to rid themselves of him, must first gain the royal consent.
+
+Perrot, as he had doubtless foreseen, found himself in an excellent
+position for making money. The tribes of the upper lakes, and all the
+neighboring regions, brought down their furs every summer to the annual
+fair at Montreal. Perrot took his measures accordingly. On the island
+which still bears his name, lying above Montreal and directly in the
+route of the descending savages, he built a storehouse, and placed it in
+charge of a retired lieutenant named Brucy, who stopped the Indians on
+their way, and carried on an active trade with them, to the great profit
+of himself and his associate, and the great loss of the merchants in the
+settlements below. This was not all. Perrot connived at the desertion of
+his own soldiers, who escaped to the woods, became coureurs de bois, or
+bush-rangers, traded with the Indians in their villages, and shared
+their gains with their commander. Many others, too, of these forest
+rovers, outlawed by royal edicts, found in the governor of Montreal a
+protector, under similar conditions.
+
+The journey from Quebec to Montreal often consumed a fortnight. Perrot
+thought himself virtually independent; and relying on his commission
+from the king, the protection of Talon, and his connection with other
+persons of influence, he felt safe in his position, and began to play
+the petty tyrant. The judge of Montreal, and several of the chief
+inhabitants, came to offer a humble remonstrance against disorders
+committed by some of the ruffians in his interest. Perrot received them
+with a storm of vituperation, and presently sent the judge to prison.
+This proceeding was followed by a series of others, closely akin to it,
+so that the priests of St. Sulpice, who received their full share of
+official abuse, began to repent bitterly of the governor they had
+chosen.
+
+Frontenac had received stringent orders from the king to arrest all the
+bush-rangers, or coureurs de bois; but, since he had scarcely a soldier
+at his disposal, except his own body-guard, the order was difficult to
+execute. As, however, most of these outlaws were in the service of his
+rival, Perrot, his zeal to capture them rose high against every
+obstacle. He had, moreover, a plan of his own in regard to them, and had
+already petitioned the minister for a galley, to the benches of which
+the captive bush-rangers were to be chained as rowers, thus supplying
+the representative of the king with a means of transportation befitting
+his dignity, and at the same time giving wholesome warning against the
+infraction of royal edicts. [2] Accordingly, he sent orders to the
+judge, at Montreal, to seize every coureur de bois on whom he could lay
+hands.
+
+[2] Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.
+
+The judge, hearing that two of the most notorious were lodged in the
+house of a lieutenant named Carion, sent a constable to arrest them;
+whereupon Carion threatened and maltreated the officer of justice, and
+helped the men to escape. Perrot took the part of his lieutenant, and
+told the judge that he would put him in prison, in spite of Frontenac,
+if he ever dared to attempt such an arrest again. [3]
+
+[3] Mémoire des Motifs qui ont obligé M. le Comte de Frontenac de faire
+arrêter le Sieur Perrot.
+
+When Frontenac heard what had happened, his ire was doubly kindled. On
+the one hand, Perrot had violated the authority lodged by the king in
+the person of his representative; and, on the other, the mutinous
+official was a rival in trade, who had made great and illicit profits,
+while his superior had, thus far, made none. As a governor and as a man,
+Frontenac was deeply moved; yet, helpless as he was, he could do no more
+than send three of his guardsmen, under a lieutenant named Bizard, with
+orders to arrest Carion and bring him to Quebec.
+
+The commission was delicate. The arrest was to be made in the dominions
+of Perrot, who had the means to prevent it, and the audacity to use
+them. Bizard acted accordingly. He went to Carion's house, and took him
+prisoner; then proceeded to the house of the merchant Le Ber, where he
+left a letter, in which Frontenac, as was the usage on such occasions,
+gave notice to the local governor of the arrest he had ordered. It was
+the object of Bizard to escape with his prisoner before Perrot could
+receive the letter; but, meanwhile, the wife of Carion ran to him with
+the news, and the governor suddenly arrived, in a frenzy of rage,
+followed by a sergeant and three or four soldiers. The sergeant held the
+point of his halberd against the breast of Bizard, while Perrot, choking
+with passion, demanded, "How dare you arrest an officer in my government
+without my leave?" The lieutenant replied that he acted under orders of
+the governor-general, and gave Frontenac's letter to Perrot, who
+immediately threw it into his face, exclaiming: "Take it back to your
+master, and tell him to teach you your business better another time.
+Meanwhile you are my prisoner." Bizard protested in vain. He was led to
+jail, whither he was followed a few days after by Le Ber, who had
+mortally offended Perrot by signing an attestation of the scene he had
+witnessed. As he was the chief merchant of the place, his arrest
+produced a great sensation, while his wife presently took to her bed
+with a nervous fever.
+
+As Perrot's anger cooled, he became somewhat alarmed. He had resisted
+the royal authority, and insulted its representative. The consequences
+might be serious; yet he could not bring himself to retrace his steps.
+He merely released Bizard, and sullenly permitted him to depart, with a
+letter to the governor-general, more impertinent than apologetic. [4]	
+
+[4] Mémoire des Motifs, etc.
+
+Frontenac, as his enemies declare, was accustomed, when enraged, to foam
+at the mouth. Perhaps he did so when he learned the behavior of Perrot.
+If he had had at command a few companies of soldiers, there can be
+little doubt that he would have gone at once to Montreal, seized the
+offender, and brought him back in irons; but his body-guard of twenty
+men was not equal to such an enterprise. Nor would a muster of the
+militia have served his purpose; for the settlers about Quebec were
+chiefly peaceful peasants, while the denizens of Montreal were disbanded
+soldiers, fur traders, and forest adventurers, the best fighters in
+Canada. They were nearly all in the interest of Perrot, who, if
+attacked, had the temper as well as the ability to make a passionate
+resistance. Thus civil war would have ensued, and the anger of the
+king would have fallen on both parties. On the other hand, if Perrot
+were left unpunished, the coureurs de bois, of whom he was the patron,
+would set no bounds to their audacity, and Frontenac, who had been
+ordered to suppress them, would be condemned as negligent or incapable.
+
+Among the priests of St. Sulpice at Montreal was the Abbé Salignac de
+Fénelon, half-brother of the celebrated author of Télémaque. He was a
+zealous missionary, enthusiastic and impulsive, still young, and more
+ardent than discreet. One of his uncles had been the companion of
+Frontenac during the Candian war, and hence the count's relations with
+the missionary had been very friendly. Frontenac now wrote to Perrot,
+directing him to come to Quebec and give account of his conduct; and he
+coupled this letter with another to Fénelon, urging him to represent to
+the offending governor the danger of his position, and advise him to
+seek an interview with his superior, by which the difficulty might be
+amicably adjusted. Perrot, dreading the displeasure of the king, soothed
+by the moderate tone of Frontenac's letter, and moved by the assurances
+of the enthusiastic abbé, who was delighted to play the part of
+peace-maker, at length resolved to follow his counsel. It was
+mid-winter. Perrot and Fénelon set out together, walked on snow-shoes a
+hundred and eighty miles down the frozen St. Lawrence, and made their
+appearance before the offended count.
+
+Frontenac, there can be little doubt, had never intended that Perrot,
+once in his power, should return to Montreal as its governor; but that,
+beyond this, he meant harm to him, there is not the least proof. Perrot,
+however, was as choleric and stubborn as the count himself; and his
+natural disposition had not been improved by several years of petty
+autocracy at Montreal. Their interview was brief, but stormy. When it
+ended, Perrot was a prisoner in the château, with guards placed over him
+by day and night. Frontenac made choice of one La Nouguère, a retired
+officer, whom he knew that he could trust, and sent him to Montreal to
+command in place of its captive governor. With him he sent also a judge
+of his own selection. La Nouguère set himself to his work with vigor.
+Perrot's agent or partner, Brucy, was seized, tried, and imprisoned; and
+an active hunt was begun for his coureurs de bois. Among others, the two
+who had been the occasion of the dispute were captured and sent to
+Quebec, where one of them was solemnly hanged before the window of
+Perrot's prison; with the view, no doubt, of producing a chastening
+effect on the mind of the prisoner. The execution was fully authorized,
+a royal edict having ordained that bush-ranging was an offence
+punishable with death. [5] As the result of these proceedings, Frontenac
+reported to the minister that only five coureurs de bois remained at
+large; all the rest having returned to the settlements and made their
+submission, so that farther hanging was needless.
+
+[5] Édits et Ordonnances, I. 73.
+
+Thus the central power was vindicated, and Montreal brought down from
+her attitude of partial independence. Other results also followed, if we
+may believe the enemies of Frontenac, who declare that, by means of the
+new commandant and other persons in his interest, the governor-general
+possessed himself of a great part of the trade from which he had ejected
+Perrot, and that the coureurs de bois, whom he hanged when breaking laws
+for his rival, found complete impunity when breaking laws for him.
+
+Meanwhile, there was a deep though subdued excitement among the priests
+of St. Sulpice. The right of naming their own governor, which they
+claimed as seigniors of Montreal, had been violated by the action of
+Frontenac in placing La Nouguère in command without consulting them.
+Perrot was a bad governor; but it was they who had chosen him, and the
+recollection of his misdeeds did not reconcile them to a successor
+arbitrarily imposed upon them. Both they and the colonists, their
+vassals, were intensely jealous of Quebec; and, in their indignation
+against Frontenac, they more than half forgave Perrot. None among them
+all was so angry as the Abbé Fénelon. He believed that he had been used
+to lure Perrot into a trap; and his past attachment to the
+governor-general was turned into wrath. High words had passed between
+them; and, when Fénelon returned to Montreal, he vented his feelings in
+a sermon plainly levelled at Frontenac. [6] So sharp and bitter was it,
+that his brethren of St. Sulpice hastened to disclaim it; and Dollier de
+Casson, their Superior, strongly reproved the preacher, who protested in
+return that his words were not meant to apply to Frontenac in
+particular, but only to bad rulers in general. His offences, however,
+did not cease with the sermon; for he espoused the cause of Perrot with
+more than zeal, and went about among the colonists to collect
+attestations in his favor. When these things were reported to Frontenac,
+his ire was kindled, and he summoned Fénelon before the council at
+Quebec to answer the charge of instigating sedition.
+
+[6] Information faite par nous, Charles le Tardieu, Sieur de Tilly.
+Tilly was a commissioner sent by the council to inquire into the affair.
+
+Fénelon had a relative and friend in the person of the Abbé d'Urfé, his
+copartner in the work of the missions. D'Urfé, anxious to conjure down
+the rising storm, went to Quebec to seek an interview with Frontenac;
+but, according to his own account, he was very ill received, and
+threatened with a prison. On another occasion, the count showed him a
+letter in which D'Urfé was charged with having used abusive language
+concerning him. Warm words ensued, till Frontenac, grasping his cane,
+led the abbé to the door and dismissed him, berating him from the top of
+the stairs in tones so angry that the sentinel below spread the report
+that he had turned his visitor out of doors. [7]	
+
+[7] Mémoire de M. d'Urfé à Colbert, extracts in Faillon.
+
+Two offenders were now arraigned before the council of Quebec: the first
+was Perrot, charged with disobeying the royal edicts and resisting the
+royal authority; the other was the Abbé Fénelon. The councillors were at
+this time united in the interest of Frontenac, who had the power of
+appointing and removing them. Perrot, in no way softened by a long
+captivity, challenged the governor-general, who presided at the council
+board, as a party to the suit and his personal enemy, and took exception
+to several of the members as being connections of La Nouguère. Frontenac
+withdrew, and other councillors or judges were appointed provisionally;
+but these were challenged in turn by the prisoner, on one pretext or
+another. The exceptions were overruled, and the trial proceeded, though
+not without signs of doubt and hesitation on the part of some of the
+councillors. [8]	
+
+[8] All the proceedings in the affair of Perrot will be found in full in
+the Registre des Jugements et Déliberations du Conseil Supérieur. They
+extend from the end of January to the beginning of November, 1674.
+
+Meanwhile, other sessions were held for the trial of Fénelon; and a
+curious scene ensued. Five councillors and the deputy attorney-general
+were seated at the board, with Frontenac as presiding judge, his hat on
+his head and his sword at his side, after the established custom.
+Fénelon, being led in, approached a vacant chair, and was about to seat
+himself with the rest, when Frontenac interposed, telling him that it
+was his duty to remain standing while answering the questions of the
+council. Fénelon at once placed himself in the chair, and replied that
+priests had the right to speak seated and with heads covered.
+
+"Yes," returned Frontenac, "when they are summoned as witnesses, but not
+when they are cited to answer charges of crime."
+
+"My crimes exist nowhere but in your head," replied the abbé. And,
+putting on his hat, he drew it down over his brows, rose, gathered his
+cassock about him, and walked in a defiant manner to and fro. Frontenac
+told him that his conduct was wanting in respect to the council, and to
+the governor as its head. Fénelon several times took off his hat, and
+pushed it on again more angrily than ever, saying at the same time
+that Frontenac was wanting in respect to his character of priest, in
+citing him before a civil tribunal. As he persisted in his refusal to
+take the required attitude, he was at length told that he might leave
+the room. After being kept for a time in the anteroom in charge of a
+constable, he was again brought before the council, when he still
+refused obedience, and was ordered into a sort of honorable
+imprisonment. [9]	
+
+[9] Conteste entre le Gouverneur et l'Abbé de Fénelon; Jugements et
+Déliberations du Conseil Supérieur, 21 Août, 1674.
+
+This behavior of the effervescent abbé, which Frontenac justly enough
+characterizes as unworthy of his birth and his sacred office, was,
+nevertheless, founded on a claim sustained by many precedents. As an
+ecclesiastic, Fénelon insisted that the bishop alone, and not the
+council, had the right to judge him. Like Perrot, too, he challenged his
+judges as parties to the suit, or otherwise interested against him. On
+the question of jurisdiction, he had all the priests on his side. Bishop
+Laval was in France; and Bernières, his grand vicar, was far from
+filling the place of the strenuous and determined prelate. Yet the
+ecclesiastical storm rose so high that the councillors, discouraged and
+daunted, were no longer amenable to the will of Frontenac; and it was
+resolved at last to refer the whole matter to the king. Perrot was taken
+from the prison, which he had occupied from January to November, and
+shipped for France, along with Fénelon. An immense mass of papers was
+sent with them for the instruction of the king; and Frontenac wrote a
+long despatch, in which he sets forth the offences of Perrot and
+Fénelon, the pretensions of the ecclesiastics, the calumnies he had
+incurred in his efforts to serve his Majesty, and the insults heaped
+upon him, "which no man but me would have endured so patiently." Indeed,
+while the suits were pending before the council, he had displayed a
+calmness and moderation which surprised his opponents. "Knowing as I
+do," he pursues, "the cabals and intrigues that are rife here, I must
+expect that every thing will be said against me that the most artful
+slander can devise. A governor in this country would greatly deserve
+pity, if he were left without support; and, even should he make
+mistakes, it would surely be very pardonable, seeing that there is no
+snare that is not spread for him, and that, after avoiding a hundred of
+them, he will hardly escape being caught at last." [10]	
+
+[10] Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674. In a preceding letter, sent
+by way of Boston, and dated 16 February, he says that he could not
+suffer Perrot to go unpunished without injury to the regal authority,
+which he is resolved to defend to the last drop of his blood.
+
+In his charges of cabal and intrigue, Frontenac had chiefly in view the
+clergy, whom he profoundly distrusted, excepting always the Récollet
+friars, whom he befriended because the bishop and the Jesuits opposed
+them. The priests on their part declare that he persecuted them,
+compelled them to take passports like laymen when travelling about the
+colony, and even intercepted their letters. These accusations and many
+others were carried to the king and the minister by the Abbé d'Urfé, who
+sailed in the same ship with Fénelon. The moment was singularly
+auspicious to him. His cousin, the Marquise d'Allègre, was on the point
+of marrying Seignelay, the son of the minister Colbert, who, therefore,
+was naturally inclined to listen with favor to him and to Fénelon, his
+relative. Again, Talon, uncle of Perrot's wife, held a post at court,
+which brought him into close personal relations with the king. Nor were
+these the only influences adverse to Frontenac and propitious to his
+enemies. Yet his enemies were disappointed. The letters written to him
+both by Colbert and by the king are admirable for calmness and dignity.
+The following is from that of the king:--
+
+"Though I do not credit all that has been told me concerning various
+little annoyances which you cause to the ecclesiastics, I nevertheless
+think it necessary to inform you of it, in order that, if true, you may
+correct yourself in this particular, giving to all the clergy entire
+liberty to go and come throughout all Canada without compelling them to
+take out passports, and at the same time leaving them perfect freedom as
+regards their letters. I have seen and carefully examined all that you
+have sent touching M. Perrot; and, after having also seen all the papers
+given by him in his defence, I have condemned his action in imprisoning
+an officer of your guard. To punish him, I have had him placed for a
+short time in the Bastile, that he may learn to be more circumspect in
+the discharge of his duty, and that his example may serve as a warning
+to others. But after having thus vindicated my authority, which has been
+violated in your person, I will say, in order that you may fully
+understand my views, that you should not without absolute necessity
+cause your commands to be executed within the limits of a local
+government, like that of Montreal, without first informing its governor,
+and also that the ten months of imprisonment which you have made him
+undergo seems to me sufficient for his fault. I therefore sent him to
+the Bastile merely as a public reparation for having violated my
+authority. After keeping him there a few days, I shall send him back to
+his government, ordering him first to see you and make apology to you
+for all that has passed; after which I desire that you retain no
+resentment against him, and that you treat him in accordance with the
+powers that I have given him." [11]	
+
+[11] Le Roi à Frontenac, 22 Avril, 1675.
+
+Colbert writes in terms equally measured, and adds: "After having spoken
+in the name of his Majesty, pray let me add a word in my own. By the
+marriage which the king has been pleased to make between the heiress of
+the house of Allègre and my son, the Abbé d'Urfé has become very closely
+connected with me, since he is cousin german of my daughter-in-law; and
+this induces me to request you to show him especial consideration,
+though, in the exercise of his profession, he will rarely have occasion
+to see you."
+
+As D'Urfé had lately addressed a memorial to Colbert, in which the
+conduct of Frontenac is painted in the darkest colors, the almost
+imperceptible rebuke couched in the above lines does no little credit to
+the tact and moderation of the stern minister.
+
+Colbert next begs Frontenac to treat with kindness the priests of
+Montreal, observing that Bretonvilliers, their Superior at Paris, is his
+particular friend. "As to M. Perrot," he continues, "since ten months of
+imprisonment at Quebec and three weeks in the Bastile may suffice to
+atone for his fault, and since also he is related or connected with
+persons for whom I have a great regard, I pray you to accept kindly the
+apologies which he will make you, and, as it is not at all likely that
+he will fall again into any offence approaching that which he has
+committed, you will give me especial pleasure in granting him the honor
+of your favor and friendship." [12]
+
+[12] Colbert à Frontenac, 13 Mai, 1675.
+
+Fénelon, though the recent marriage had allied him also to Colbert,
+fared worse than either of the other parties to the dispute. He was
+indeed sustained in his claim to be judged by an ecclesiastical
+tribunal; but his Superior, Bretonvilliers, forbade him to return to
+Canada, and the king approved the prohibition. Bretonvilliers wrote to
+the Sulpitian priests of Montreal: "I exhort you to profit by the
+example of M. de Fénelon. By having busied himself too much in worldly
+matters, and meddled with what did not concern him, he has ruined his
+own prospects and injured the friends whom he wished to serve. In
+matters of this sort, it is well always to stand neutral." [13]
+
+[13] Lettre de Bretonvilliers, 7 Mai, 1675; extract in Faillon. Fénelon,
+though wanting in prudence and dignity, had been an ardent and devoted
+missionary. In relation to these disputes, I have received much aid from
+the research of Abbé Faillon, and from the valuable paper of Abbé
+Verreau, Les deux Abbés de Fénelon, printed in the Canadian Journal de
+l'Instruction Publique, Vol. VIII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+1675-1682.
+
+Frontenac and Duchesneau.
+
+Frontenac receives a Colleague • He opposes the Clergy • Disputes in the
+Council • Royal Intervention • Frontenac rebuked • Fresh Outbreaks •
+Charges and Countercharges • The Dispute grows hot • Duchesneau
+condemned and Frontenac warned • The Quarrel continues • The King loses
+Patience • More Accusations • Factions and Feuds • A Side Quarrel • The
+King threatens • Frontenac denounces the Priests • The Governor and the
+Intendant recalled • Qualities of Frontenac.
+
+While writing to Frontenac in terms of studied mildness, the king and
+Colbert took measures to curb his power. In the absence of the bishop,
+the appointment and removal of councillors had rested wholly with the
+governor; and hence the council had been docile under his will. It was
+now ordained that the councillors should be appointed by the king
+himself. [1] This was not the only change. Since the departure of the
+intendant Talon, his office had been vacant; and Frontenac was left to
+rule alone. This seems to have been an experiment on the part of his
+masters at Versailles, who, knowing the peculiarities of his temper,
+were perhaps willing to try the effect of leaving him without a
+colleague. The experiment had not succeeded. An intendant was now,
+therefore, sent to Quebec, not only to manage the details of
+administration, but also to watch the governor, keep him, if possible,
+within prescribed bounds, and report his proceedings to the minister.
+The change was far from welcome to Frontenac, whose delight it was to
+hold all the reins of power in his own hands; nor was he better pleased
+with the return of Bishop Laval, which presently took place. Three
+preceding governors had quarrelled with that uncompromising prelate; and
+there was little hope that Frontenac and he would keep the peace. All
+the signs of the sky foreboded storm.
+
+[1] Édits et Ordonnances, I. 84.
+
+The storm soon came. The occasion of it was that old vexed question of
+the sale of brandy, which has been fully treated in another volume, [2]
+and on which it is needless to dwell here. Another dispute quickly
+followed; and here, too, the governor's chief adversaries were the
+bishop and the ecclesiastics. Duchesneau, the new intendant, took part
+with them. The bishop and his clergy were, on their side, very glad of a
+secular ally; for their power had greatly fallen since the days of Mézy,
+and the rank and imperious character of Frontenac appear to have held
+them in some awe. They avoided as far as they could a direct collision
+with him, and waged vicarious war in the person of their friend the
+intendant. Duchesneau was not of a conciliating spirit, and he felt
+strong in the support of the clergy; while Frontenac, when his temper
+was roused, would fight with haughty and impracticable obstinacy for any
+position which he had once assumed, however trivial or however mistaken.
+There was incessant friction between the two colleagues in the exercise
+of their respective functions, and occasions of difference were rarely
+wanting.
+
+[2] The Old Régime in Canada.
+
+The question now at issue was that of honors and precedence at church
+and in religious ceremonies, matters of substantial importance under the
+Bourbon rule. Colbert interposed, ordered Duchesneau to treat Frontenac
+with becoming deference, and warned him not to make himself the partisan
+of the bishop; [3] while, at the same time, he exhorted Frontenac to
+live in harmony with the intendant. [4]	The dispute continued till the
+king lost patience.
+
+[3] Colbert à Duchesneau, 1 Mai, 1677.
+
+[4] Ibid., 18 Mai, 1677.
+
+"Through all my kingdom," he wrote to the governor, "I do not hear of so
+many difficulties on this matter (of ecclesiastical honors) as I see in
+the church of Quebec." [5] And he directs him to conform to the practice
+established in the city of Amiens, and to exact no more; "since you
+ought to be satisfied with being the representative of my person in the
+country where I have placed you in command."
+
+[5] Le Roy à Frontenac, 25 Avril, 1679.
+
+At the same time, Colbert corrects the intendant. "A memorial," he
+wrote, "has been placed in my hands, touching various ecclesiastical
+honors, wherein there continually appears a great pretension on your
+part, and on that of the bishop of Quebec in your favor, to establish an
+equality between the governor and you. I think I have already said
+enough to lead you to know yourself, and to understand the difference
+between a governor and an intendant; so that it is no longer necessary
+for me to enter into particulars, which could only serve to show you
+that you are completely in the wrong." [6]
+
+[6] Colbert à Duchesneau, 8 Mai, 1679
+
+Scarcely was this quarrel suppressed, when another sprang up. Since the
+arrival of the intendant and the return of the bishop, the council had
+ceased to be in the interest of Frontenac. Several of its members were
+very obnoxious to him; and chief among these was Villeray, a former
+councillor whom the king had lately reinstated. Frontenac admitted him
+to his seat with reluctance. "I obey your orders," he wrote mournfully
+to Colbert; "but Villeray is the principal and most dangerous instrument
+of the bishop and the Jesuits." [7] He says, farther, that many people
+think him to be a Jesuit in disguise, and that he is an intriguing
+busybody, who makes trouble everywhere. He also denounces the
+attorney-general, Auteuil, as an ally of the Jesuits. Another of the
+reconstructed council, Tilly, meets his cordial approval; but he soon
+found reason to change his mind concerning him.
+
+[7] Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674
+
+The king had recently ordered that the intendant, though holding only
+the third rank in the council, should act as its president. [8] The
+commission of Duchesneau, however, empowered him to preside only in the
+absence of the governor; [9] while Frontenac is styled "chief and
+president of the council" in several of the despatches addressed to him.
+Here was an inconsistency. Both parties claimed the right of presiding,
+and both could rest their claim on a clear expression of the royal will.
+
+[8] Declaration du Roy, 23 Sept., 1675.
+
+[9] "Présider au Conseil Souverain en l'absence du dit Sieur de
+Frontenac."--Commission de Duchesneau, 5 Juin, 1675.
+
+Frontenac rarely began a new quarrel till the autumn vessels had sailed
+for France; because a full year must then elapse before his adversaries
+could send their complaints to the king, and six months more before the
+king could send back his answer. The governor had been heard to say, on
+one of these occasions, that he should now be master for eighteen
+months, subject only to answering with his head for what he might do. It
+was when the last vessel was gone in the autumn of 1678 that he demanded
+to be styled chief and president on the records of the council; and he
+showed a letter from the king in which he was so entitled. [10] In spite
+of this, Duchesneau resisted, and appealed to precedent to sustain his
+position. A long series of stormy sessions followed. The councillors in
+the clerical interest supported the intendant. Frontenac, chafed and
+angry, refused all compromise. Business was stopped for weeks.
+Duchesneau lost temper, and became abusive. Auteuil tried to interpose
+in behalf of the intendant. Frontenac struck the table with his fist,
+and told him fiercely that he would teach him his duty. Every day
+embittered the strife. The governor made the declaration usual with him
+on such occasions, that he would not permit the royal authority to
+suffer in his person. At length he banished from Quebec his three most
+strenuous opponents, Villeray, Tilly, and Auteuil, and commanded them to
+remain in their country houses till they received his farther orders.
+All attempts at compromise proved fruitless; and Auteuil, in behalf of
+the exiles, appealed piteously to the king.
+
+[10] This letter, still preserved in the Archives de la Marine, is dated
+12 Mai, 1678. Several other letters of Louis XIV. give Frontenac the
+same designation.
+
+The answer came in the following summer: "Monsieur le Comte de
+Frontenac," wrote Louis XIV., "I am surprised to learn all the new
+troubles and dissensions that have occurred in my country of New France,
+more especially since I have clearly and strongly given you to
+understand that your sole care should be to maintain harmony and peace
+among all my subjects dwelling therein; but what surprises me still more
+is that in nearly all the disputes which you have caused you have
+advanced claims which have very little foundation. My edicts,
+declarations, and ordinances had so plainly made known to you my will,
+that I have great cause of astonishment that you, whose duty it is to
+see them faithfully executed, have yourself set up pretensions entirely
+opposed to them. You have wished to be styled chief and president on the
+records of the Supreme Council, which is contrary to my edict concerning
+that council; and I am the more surprised at this demand, since I am
+very sure that you are the only man in my kingdom who, being honored
+with the title of governor and lieutenant-general, would care to be
+styled chief and president of such a council as that of Quebec."
+
+He then declares that neither Frontenac nor the intendant is to have the
+title of president, but that the intendant is to perform the functions
+of presiding officer, as determined by the edict. He continues:--
+
+"Moreover, your abuse of the authority which I have confided to you in
+exiling two councillors and the attorney-general for so trivial a cause
+cannot meet my approval; and, were it not for the distinct assurances
+given me by your friends that you will act with more moderation in
+future, and never again fall into offences of this nature, I should have
+resolved on recalling you." [11]
+
+[11] Le Roy à Frontenac, 29 Avril, 1680. A decree of the council of
+state soon after determined the question of presidency in accord with
+this letter. Édits et Ordonnances, I. 238.
+
+Colbert wrote to him with equal severity: "I have communicated to the
+king the contents of all the despatches which you have written to me
+during the past year; and as the matters of which they treat are
+sufficiently ample, including dissensions almost universal among those
+whose duty it is to preserve harmony in the country under your command,
+his Majesty has been pleased to examine all the papers sent by all the
+parties interested, and more particularly those appended to your
+letters. He has thereupon ordered me distinctly to make known to you his
+intentions." The minister then proceeds to reprove him sharply in the
+name of the king, and concludes: "It is difficult for me to add any
+thing to what I have just said. Consider well that, if it is any
+advantage or any satisfaction to you that his Majesty should be
+satisfied with your services, it is necessary that you change entirely
+the conduct which you have hitherto pursued." [12]
+
+[12] Colbert à Frontenac, 4 Dec., 1679. This letter seems to have been
+sent by a special messenger by way of New England. It was too late in
+the season to send directly to Canada. On the quarrel about the
+presidency, Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679; Auteuil au Ministre,
+10 Aug., 1679; Contestations entre le Sieur Comte de Frontenac et M.
+Duchesneau, Chevalier. This last paper consists of voluminous extracts
+from the records of the council.
+
+This, one would think, might have sufficed to bring the governor to
+reason, but the violence of his resentments and antipathies overcame the
+very slender share of prudence with which nature had endowed him. One
+morning, as he sat at the head of the council board, the bishop on his
+right hand, and the intendant on his left, a woman made her appearance
+with a sealed packet of papers. She was the wife of the councillor
+Amours, whose chair was vacant at the table. Important business was in
+hand, the registration of a royal edict of amnesty to the coureurs de
+bois. The intendant, who well knew what the packet contained, demanded
+that it should be opened. Frontenac insisted that the business before
+the council should proceed. The intendant renewed his demand, the
+council sustained him, and the packet was opened accordingly. It
+contained a petition from Amours, stating that Frontenac had put him in
+prison, because, having obtained in due form a passport to send a canoe
+to his fishing station of Matane, he had afterwards sent a sail-boat
+thither without applying for another passport. Frontenac had sent for
+him, and demanded by what right he did so. Amours replied that he
+believed that he had acted in accordance with the intentions of the
+king; whereupon, to borrow the words of the petition, "Monsieur the
+governor fell into a rage, and said to your petitioner, 'I will teach
+you the intentions of the king, and you shall stay in prison till you
+learn them;' and your petitioner was shut up in a chamber of the
+château, wherein he still remains." He proceeds to pray that a trial may
+be granted him according to law. [13]
+
+[13] Registre du Conseil Supérieur, 16 Aoûst, 1681.
+
+Discussions now ensued which lasted for days, and now and then became
+tempestuous. The governor, who had declared that the council had nothing
+to do with the matter, and that he could not waste time in talking about
+it, was not always present at the meetings, and it sometimes became
+necessary to depute one or more of the members to visit him. Auteuil,
+the attorney-general, having been employed on this unenviable errand,
+begged the council to dispense him from such duty in future, "by
+reason," as he says, "of the abuse, ill treatment, and threats which he
+received from Monsieur the governor, when he last had the honor of being
+deputed to confer with him, the particulars whereof he begs to be
+excused from reporting, lest the anger of Monsieur the governor should
+be kindled against him still more." [14] Frontenac, hearing of this
+charge, angrily denied it, saying that the attorney-general had
+slandered and insulted him, and that it was his custom to do so. Auteuil
+rejoined that the governor had accused him of habitual lying, and told
+him that he would have his hand cut off. All these charges and
+countercharges may still be found entered in due form on the old records
+of the council at Quebec.
+
+[14] Registre du Conseil Supérieur, 4 Nov., 1681.
+
+It was as usual upon the intendant that the wrath of Frontenac fell most
+fiercely. He accuses him of creating cabals and intrigues, and causing
+not only the council, but all the country, to forget the respect due to
+the representative of his Majesty. Once, when Frontenac was present at
+the session, a dispute arose about an entry on the record. A draft of it
+had been made in terms agreeable to the governor, who insisted that the
+intendant should sign it. Duchesneau replied that he and the clerk would
+go into the adjoining room, where they could examine it in peace, and
+put it into a proper form. Frontenac rejoined that he would then have no
+security that what he had said in the council would be accurately
+reported. Duchesneau persisted, and was going out with the draft in his
+hand, when Frontenac planted himself before the door, and told him that
+he should not leave the council chamber till he had signed the paper.
+"Then I will get out of the window, or else stay here all day," returned
+Duchesneau. A lively debate ensued, and the governor at length yielded
+the point. [15]
+
+[15] Registre de Conseil Supérieur, 1681.
+
+The imprisonment of Amours was short, but strife did not cease. The
+disputes in the council were accompanied throughout with other quarrels
+which were complicated with them, and which were worse than all the
+rest, since they involved more important matters and covered a wider
+field. They related to the fur trade, on which hung the very life of the
+colony. Merchants, traders, and even habitants, were ranged in two
+contending factions. Of one of these Frontenac was the chief. With him
+were La Salle and his lieutenant, La Forêt; Du Lhut, the famous leader
+of coureurs de bois; Boisseau, agent of the farmers of the revenue;
+Barrois, the governor's secretary; Bizard, lieutenant of his guard; and
+various others of greater or less influence. On the other side were the
+members of the council, with Aubert de la Chesnaye, Le Moyne and all his
+sons, Louis Joliet, Jacques Le Ber, Sorel, Boucher, Varennes, and many
+more, all supported by the intendant Duchesneau, and also by his fast
+allies, the ecclesiastics. The faction under the lead of the governor
+had every advantage, for it was sustained by all the power of his
+office. Duchesneau was beside himself with rage. He wrote to the court
+letters full of bitterness, accused Frontenac of illicit trade,
+denounced his followers, and sent huge bundles of procès-verbaux and
+attestations to prove his charges.
+
+But if Duchesneau wrote letters, so too did Frontenac; and if the
+intendant sent proofs, so too did the governor. Upon the unfortunate
+king and the still more unfortunate minister fell the difficult task of
+composing the quarrels of their servants, three thousand miles away.
+They treated Duchesneau without ceremony. Colbert wrote to him: "I have
+examined all the letters, papers, and memorials that you sent me by the
+return of the vessels last November, and, though it appears by the
+letters of M. de Frontenac that his conduct leaves something to be
+desired, there is assuredly far more to blame in yours than in his. As
+to what you say concerning his violence, his trade with the Indians, and
+in general all that you allege against him, the king has written to him
+his intentions; but since, in the midst of all your complaints, you say
+many things which are without foundation, or which are no concern of
+yours, it is difficult to believe that you act in the spirit which the
+service of the king demands; that is to say, without interest and
+without passion. If a change does not appear in your conduct before next
+year, his Majesty will not keep you in your office." [16]
+
+[16] Colbert à Duchesneau, 15 Mai, 1678.
+
+At the same time, the king wrote to Frontenac, alluding to the
+complaints of Duchesneau, and exhorting the governor to live on good
+terms with him. The general tone of the letter is moderate, but the
+following significant warning occurs in it: "Although no gentleman in
+the position in which I have placed you ought to take part in any trade,
+directly or indirectly, either by himself or any of his servants, I
+nevertheless now prohibit you absolutely from doing so. Not only abstain
+from trade, but act in such a manner that nobody can even suspect you of
+it; and this will be easy, since the truth will readily come to light."
+[17]
+
+[17] Le Roy à Frontenac, 12 Mai, 1678.
+
+Exhortation and warning were vain alike. The first ships which returned
+that year from Canada brought a series of despatches from the intendant,
+renewing all his charges more bitterly than before. The minister, out of
+patience, replied by berating him without mercy. "You may rest assured,"
+he concludes, "that, did it not appear by your later despatches that the
+letters you have received have begun to make you understand that you
+have forgotten yourself, it would not have been possible to prevent the
+king from recalling you." [18]
+
+[18] Colbert à Duchesneau, 25 Avril, 1679.
+
+Duchesneau, in return, protests all manner of deference to the governor,
+but still insists that he sets the royal edicts at naught; protects a
+host of coureurs de bois who are in league with him; corresponds with Du
+Lhut, their chief; shares his illegal profits, and causes all the
+disorders which afflict the colony. "As for me, Monseigneur, I have done
+every thing within the scope of my office to prevent these evils; but
+all the pains I have taken have only served to increase the aversion of
+Monsieur the governor against me, and to bring my ordinances into
+contempt. This, Monseigneur, is a true account of the disobedience of
+the coureurs de bois, of which I twice had the honor to speak to
+Monsieur the governor; and I could not help telling him, with all
+possible deference, that it was shameful to the colony and to us that
+the king, our master, of whom the whole world stands in awe, who has
+just given law to all Europe, and whom all his subjects adore, should
+have the pain of knowing that, in a country which has received so many
+marks of his paternal tenderness, his orders are violated and scorned;
+and a governor and an intendant stand by, with folded arms, content with
+saying that the evil is past remedy. For having made these
+representations to him, I drew on myself words so full of contempt and
+insult that I was forced to leave his room to appease his anger. The
+next morning I went to him again, and did all I could to have my
+ordinances executed; but, as Monsieur the governor is interested with
+many of the coureurs de bois, it is useless to attempt to do any thing.
+He has gradually made himself master of the trade of Montreal; and, as
+soon as the Indians arrive, he sets guards in their camp, which would be
+very well, if these soldiers did their duty and protected the savages
+from being annoyed and plundered by the French, instead of being
+employed to discover how many furs they have brought, with a view to
+future operations. Monsieur the governor then compels the Indians to pay
+his guards for protecting them; and he has never allowed them to trade
+with the inhabitants till they had first given him a certain number of
+packs of beaver skins, which he calls his presents. His guards trade
+with them openly at the fair, with their bandoleers on their shoulders."
+
+He says, farther, that Frontenac sends up goods to Montreal, and employs
+persons to trade in his behalf; and that, what with the beaver skins
+exacted by him and his guards under the name of presents, and those
+which he and his favorites obtain in trade, only the smaller part of
+what the Indians bring to market ever reaches the people of the colony.
+[19]
+
+[19] Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679.
+
+This despatch, and the proofs accompanying it, drew from the king a
+sharp reproof to Frontenac.
+
+"What has passed in regard to the coureurs de bois is entirely contrary
+to my orders; and I cannot receive in excuse for it your allegation that
+it is the intendant who countenances them by the trade he carries on,
+for I perceive clearly that the fault is your own. As I see that you
+often turn the orders that I give you against the very object for which
+they are given, beware not to do so on this occasion. I shall hold you
+answerable for bringing the disorder of the coureurs de bois to an end
+throughout Canada; and this you will easily succeed in doing, if you
+make a proper use of my authority. Take care not to persuade yourself
+that what I write to you comes from the ill offices of the intendant. It
+results from what I fully know from every thing which reaches me from
+Canada, proving but too well what you are doing there. The bishop, the
+ecclesiastics, the Jesuit fathers, the Supreme Council, and, in a word,
+everybody, complain of you; but I am willing to believe that you will
+change your conduct, and act with the moderation necessary for the good
+of the colony." [20]
+
+[20] Le Roy à Frontenac, 29 Avril, 1680.
+
+Colbert wrote in a similar strain; and Frontenac saw that his position
+was becoming critical. He showed, it is true, no sign of that change of
+conduct which the king had demanded; but he appealed to his allies at
+court to use fresh efforts to sustain him. Among the rest, he had a
+strong friend in the Maréchal de Bellefonds, to whom he wrote, in the
+character of an abused and much-suffering man: "You exhort me to have
+patience, and I agree with you that those placed in a position of
+command cannot have too much. For this reason, I have given examples of
+it here such as perhaps no governor ever gave before; and I have found
+no great difficulty in doing so, because I felt myself to be the master.
+Had I been in a private station, I could not have endured such
+outrageous insults without dishonor. I have always passed over in
+silence those directed against me personally; and have never given way
+to anger, except when attacks were made on the authority of which I have
+the honor to be the guardian. You could not believe all the annoyances
+which the intendant tries to put upon me every day, and which, as you
+advise me, I scorn or disregard. It would require a virtue like yours to
+turn them to all the good use of which they are capable; yet, great as
+the virtue is which has enabled you to possess your soul in tranquillity
+amid all the troubles of the court, I doubt if you could preserve such
+complete equanimity among the miserable tumults of Canada." [21]
+
+[21] Frontenac au Maréchal de Bellefonds, 14 Nov., 1680.
+
+Having given the principal charges of Duchesneau against Frontenac, it
+is time to give those of Frontenac against Duchesneau. The governor says
+that all the coureurs de bois would be brought to submission but for the
+intendant and his allies, who protect them, and carry on trade by their
+means; that the seigniorial house of Duchesneau's partner, La Chesnaye,
+is the constant resort of these outlaws; and that he and his associates
+have large storehouses at Montreal, Isle St. Paul, and Rivière du Loup,
+whence they send goods into the Indian country, in contempt of the
+king's orders. [22] Frontenac also complains of numberless provocations
+from the intendant. "It is no fault of mine that I am not on good terms
+with M. Duchesneau; for I have done every thing I could to that end,
+being too submissive to your Majesty's commands not to suppress my
+sharpest indignation the moment your will is known to me. But, Sire, it
+is not so with him; and his desire to excite new disputes, in the hope
+of making me appear their principal author, has been so great that the
+last ships were hardly gone, when, forgetting what your Majesty had
+enjoined upon us both, he began these dissensions afresh, in spite of
+all my precautions. If I depart from my usual reserve in regard to him,
+and make bold to ask justice at the hands of your Majesty for the wrongs
+and insults I have undergone, it is because nothing but your authority
+can keep them within bounds. I have never suffered more in my life than
+when I have been made to appear as a man of violence and a disturber of
+the officers of justice: for I have always confined myself to what your
+Majesty has prescribed; that is, to exhorting them to do their duty when
+I saw that they failed in it. This has drawn upon me, both from them and
+from M. Duchesneau, such cutting affronts that your Majesty would hardly
+credit them." [23]
+
+[22] Mémoire et Preuves du Désordre des Coureurs de Bois.
+
+[23] Frontenac au Roy, 2 Nov., 1681.
+
+In 1681, Seignelay, the son of Colbert, entered upon the charge of the
+colonies; and both Frontenac and Duchesneau hastened to congratulate
+him, protest their devotion, and overwhelm him with mutual accusations.
+The intendant declares that, out of pure zeal for the king's service, he
+shall tell him every thing. "Disorder," he says, "reigns everywhere;
+universal confusion prevails throughout every department of business;
+the pleasure of the king, the orders of the Supreme Council, and my
+ordinances remain unexecuted; justice is openly violated, and trade is
+destroyed; violence, upheld by authority, decides every thing; and
+nothing consoles the people, who groan without daring to complain, but
+the hope, Monseigneur, that you will have the goodness to condescend to
+be moved by their misfortunes. No position could be more distressing
+than mine, since, if I conceal the truth from you, I fail in the
+obedience I owe the king, and in the fidelity that I vowed so long since
+to Monseigneur, your father, and which I swear anew at your hands; and
+if I obey, as I must, his Majesty's orders and yours, I cannot avoid
+giving offence, since I cannot render you an account of these disorders
+without informing you that M. de Frontenac's conduct is the sole cause
+of them." [24]
+
+[24] Duchesneau au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1681.
+
+Frontenac had written to Seignelay a few days before: "I have no doubt
+whatever that M. Duchesneau will, as usual, overwhelm me with
+fabrications and falsehoods, to cover his own ill conduct. I send proofs
+to justify myself, so strong and convincing that I do not see that they
+can leave any doubt; but, since I fear that their great number might
+fatigue you, I have thought it better to send them to my wife, with a
+full and exact journal of all that has passed here day by day, in order
+that she may extract and lay before you the principal portions.
+
+"I send you in person merely the proofs of the conduct of M. Duchesneau,
+in barricading his house and arming all his servants, and in coming
+three weeks ago to insult me in my room. You will see thereby to what a
+pitch of temerity and lawlessness he has transported himself, in order
+to compel me to use violence against him, with the hope of justifying
+what he has asserted about my pretended outbreaks of anger." [25]
+
+[25] Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1681.
+
+The mutual charges of the two functionaries were much the same; and, so
+far at least as concerns trade, there can be little doubt that they were
+well founded on both sides. The strife of the rival factions grew more
+and more bitter: canes and sticks played an active part in it, and now
+and then we hear of drawn swords. One is reminded at times of the
+intestine feuds of some mediæval city, as, for example, in the following
+incident, which will explain the charge of Frontenac against the
+intendant of barricading his house and arming his servants:--
+
+On the afternoon of the twentieth of March, a son of Duchesneau, sixteen
+years old, followed by a servant named Vautier, was strolling along the
+picket fence which bordered the descent from the Upper to the Lower Town
+of Quebec. The boy was amusing himself by singing a song, when
+Frontenac's partisan, Boisseau, with one of the guardsmen, approached,
+and, as young Duchesneau declares, called him foul names, and said that
+he would give him and his father a thrashing. The boy replied that he
+would have nothing to say to a fellow like him, and would beat him if he
+did not keep quiet; while the servant, Vautier, retorted Boisseau's
+abuse, and taunted him with low birth and disreputable employments.
+Boisseau made report to Frontenac, and Frontenac complained to
+Duchesneau, who sent his son, with Vautier, to give the governor his
+version of the affair. The bishop, an ally of the intendant, thus
+relates what followed. On arriving with a party of friends at the
+château, young Duchesneau was shown into a room in which were the
+governor and his two secretaries, Barrois and Chasseur. He had no sooner
+entered than Frontenac seized him by the arm, shook him, struck him,
+called him abusive names, and tore the sleeve of his jacket. The
+secretaries interposed, and, failing to quiet the governor, opened the
+door and let the boy escape. Vautier, meanwhile, had remained in the
+guard-room, where Boisseau struck at him with his cane; and one of the
+guardsmen went for a halberd to run him through the body. After this
+warm reception, young Duchesneau and his servant took refuge in the
+house of his father. Frontenac demanded their surrender. The intendant,
+fearing that he would take them by force, for which he is said to have
+made preparation, barricaded himself and armed his household. The bishop
+tried to mediate, and after protracted negotiations young Duchesneau was
+given up, whereupon Frontenac locked him in a chamber of the château,
+and kept him there a month. [26]
+
+[26] Mémoire de l'Evesque de Quebec, Mars, 1681 (printed in Revue
+Canadienne, 1873). The bishop is silent about the barricades of which
+Frontenac and his friends complain in several letters.
+
+The story of Frontenac's violence to the boy is flatly denied by his
+friends, who charge Duchesneau and his partisans with circulating libels
+against him, and who say, like Frontenac himself, that the intendant
+used every means to exasperate him, in order to make material for
+accusations. [27]
+
+[27] See, among other instances, the Défense de M. de Frontenac par un
+de ses Amis, published by Abbé Verreau in the Revue Canadienne, 1873.
+
+The disputes of the rival factions spread through all Canada. The most
+heinous offence in the eyes of the court with which each charged the
+other was the carrying of furs to the English settlements; thus
+defrauding the revenue, and, as the king believed, preparing the ruin of
+the colony. The intendant farther declared that the governor's party
+spread among the Indians the report of a pestilence at Montreal, in
+order to deter them from their yearly visit to the fair, and thus by
+means of coureurs de bois obtain all their beaver skins at a low price.
+The report, according to Duchesneau, had no other foundation than the
+fate of eighteen or twenty Indians, who had lately drunk themselves to
+death at La Chine. [28]
+
+[28] Plumitif du Conseil Souverain, 1681.
+
+Montreal, in the mean time, was the scene of a sort of by-play, in which
+the chief actor was the local governor, Perrot. He and Frontenac appear
+to have found it for their common interest to come to a mutual
+understanding; and this was perhaps easier on the part of the count,
+since his quarrel with Duchesneau gave sufficient employment to his
+natural pugnacity. Perrot was now left to make a reasonable profit from
+the illicit trade which had once kindled the wrath of his superior; and,
+the danger of Frontenac's anger being removed, he completely forgot the
+lessons of his imprisonment.
+
+The intendant ordered Migeon, bailiff of Montreal, to arrest some of
+Perrot's coureurs de bois. Perrot at once arrested the bailiff, and sent
+a sergeant and two soldiers to occupy his house, with orders to annoy
+the family as much as possible. One of them, accordingly, walked to and
+fro all night in the bed-chamber of Migeon's wife. On another occasion,
+the bailiff invited two friends to supper: Le Moyne d'Iberville and one
+Bouthier, agent of a commercial house at Rochelle. The conversation
+turned on the trade carried on by Perrot. It was overheard and reported
+to him, upon which he suddenly appeared at the window, struck Bouthier
+over the head with his cane, then drew his sword, and chased him while
+he fled for his life. The seminary was near at hand, and the fugitive
+clambered over the wall. Dollier de Casson dressed him in the hat and
+cassock of a priest, and in this disguise he escaped. [29] Perrot's
+avidity sometimes carried him to singular extremities. "He has been
+seen," says one of his accusers, "filling barrels of brandy with his own
+hands, and mixing it with water to sell to the Indians. He bartered with
+one of them his hat, sword, coat, ribbons, shoes, and stockings, and
+boasted that he had made thirty pistoles by the bargain, while the
+Indian walked about town equipped as governor." [30]
+
+[29] Conduite du Sieur Perrot, Gouverneur de Montréal en la Nouvelle
+France, 1681; Plainte du Sieur Bouthier, 10 Oct., 1680; Procès-verbal
+des huissiers de Montréal.
+
+[30] Conduite du Sieur Perrot. La Barre, Frontenac's successor, declares
+that the charges against Perrot were false, including the attestations
+of Migeon and his friends; that Dollier de Casson had been imposed upon,
+and that various persons had been induced to sign unfounded statements
+without reading them. La Barre au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1683.
+
+Every ship from Canada brought to the king fresh complaints of
+Duchesneau against Frontenac, and of Frontenac against Duchesneau; and
+the king replied with rebukes, exhortations, and threats to both. At
+first he had shown a disposition to extenuate and excuse the faults of
+Frontenac, but every year his letters grew sharper. In 1681 he wrote:
+"Again I urge you to banish from your mind the difficulties which you
+have yourself devised against the execution of my orders; to act with
+mildness and moderation towards all the colonists, and divest yourself
+entirely of the personal animosities which have thus far been almost
+your sole motive of action. In conclusion, I exhort you once more to
+profit well by the directions which this letter contains; since, unless
+you succeed better herein than formerly, I cannot help recalling you
+from the command which I have intrusted to you." [31]
+
+[31] Le Roy à Frontenac, 30 Avril, 1681.
+
+The dispute still went on. The autumn ships from Quebec brought back the
+usual complaints, and the long-suffering king at length made good his
+threat. Both Frontenac and Duchesneau received their recall, and they
+both deserved it. [32]
+
+[32] La Barre says that Duchesneau was far more to blame than Frontenac.
+La Barre au Ministre, 1683. This testimony has weight, since Frontenac's
+friends were La Barre's enemies.
+
+The last official act of the governor, recorded in the register of the
+council of Quebec, is the formal declaration that his rank in that body
+is superior to that of the intendant. [33]
+
+[33] Registre du Conseil-Supérieur, 16 Fév., 1682.
+
+The key to nearly all these disputes lies in the relations between
+Frontenac and the Church. The fundamental quarrel was generally covered
+by superficial issues, and it was rarely that the governor fell out with
+anybody who was not in league with the bishop and the Jesuits. "Nearly
+all the disorders in New France," he writes, "spring from the ambition
+of the ecclesiastics, who want to join to their spiritual authority an
+absolute power over things temporal, and who persecute all who do not
+submit entirely to them." He says that the intendant and the councillors
+are completely under their control, and dare not decide any question
+against them; that they have spies everywhere, even in his house; that
+the bishop told him that he could excommunicate even a governor, if he
+chose; that the missionaries in Indian villages say that they are equals
+of Onontio, and tell their converts that all will go wrong till the
+priests have the government of Canada; that directly or indirectly they
+meddle in all civil affairs; that they trade even with the English of
+New York; that, what with Jesuits, Sulpitians, the bishop, and the
+seminary of Quebec, they hold two-thirds of the good lands of Canada;
+that, in view of the poverty of the country, their revenues are
+enormous; that, in short, their object is mastery, and that they use all
+means to compass it. [34] The recall of the governor was a triumph to
+the ecclesiastics, offset but slightly by the recall of their
+instrument, the intendant, who had done his work, and whom they needed
+no longer.
+
+[34] Frontenac, Mémoire adressé à Colbert, 1677. This remarkable paper
+will be found in the Découvertes et Établissements des Français dans
+l'Amérique Septentrionale; Mémoires et Documents Originaux, edited by M.
+Margry. The paper is very long, and contains references to attestations
+and other proofs which accompanied it, especially in regard to the trade
+of the Jesuits.
+
+Thus far, we have seen Frontenac on his worst side. We shall see him
+again under an aspect very different. Nor must it be supposed that the
+years which had passed since his government began, tempestuous as they
+appear on the record, were wholly given over to quarrelling. They had
+their periods of uneventful calm, when the wheels of administration ran
+as smoothly as could be expected in view of the condition of the colony.
+In one respect at least, Frontenac had shown a remarkable fitness for
+his office. Few white men have ever equalled or approached him in the
+art of dealing with Indians. There seems to have been a sympathetic
+relation between him and them. He conformed to their ways, borrowed
+their rhetoric, flattered them on occasion with great address, and yet
+constantly maintained towards them an attitude of paternal superiority.
+When they were concerned, his native haughtiness always took a form
+which commanded respect without exciting anger. He would not address
+them as brothers, but only as children; and even the Iroquois, arrogant
+as they were, accepted the new relation. In their eyes Frontenac was by
+far the greatest of all the "Onontios," or governors of Canada. They
+admired the prompt and fiery soldier who played with their children, and
+gave beads and trinkets to their wives; who read their secret thoughts
+and never feared them, but smiled on them when their hearts were true,
+or frowned and threatened them when they did amiss. The other tribes,
+allies of the French, were of the same mind; and their respect for their
+Great Father seems not to have been permanently impaired by his
+occasional practice of bullying them for purposes of extortion.
+
+Frontenac appears to have had a liking not only for Indians, but also
+for that roving and lawless class of the Canadian population, the
+coureurs de bois, provided always that they were not in the service of
+his rivals. Indeed, as regards the Canadians generally, he refrained
+from the strictures with which succeeding governors and intendants
+freely interlarded their despatches. It was not his instinct to clash
+with the humbler classes, and he generally reserved his anger for those
+who could retort it.
+
+He had the air of distinction natural to a man familiar all his life
+with the society of courts, and he was as gracious and winning on some
+occasions as he was unbearable on others. When in good humor, his ready
+wit and a certain sympathetic vivacity made him very agreeable. At times
+he was all sunshine, and his outrageous temper slumbered peacefully till
+some new offence wakened it again; nor is there much doubt that many of
+his worst outbreaks were the work of his enemies, who knew his foible,
+and studied to exasperate him. He was full of contradictions; and,
+intolerant and implacable as he often was, there were intervals, even in
+his bitterest quarrels, in which he displayed a surprising moderation
+and patience. By fits he could be magnanimous. A woman once brought him
+a petition in burlesque verse. Frontenac wrote a jocose answer. The
+woman, to ridicule him, contrived to have both petition and answer
+slipped among the papers of a suit pending before the council. Frontenac
+had her fined a few francs, and then caused the money to be given to her
+children. [35]
+
+[35] Note by Abbé Verreau, in Journal de l'Instruction Publique
+(Canada), VIII. 127.
+
+When he sailed for France, it was a day of rejoicing to more than half
+the merchants of Canada, and, excepting the Récollets, to all the
+priests; but he left behind him an impression, very general among the
+people, that, if danger threatened the colony, Count Frontenac was the
+man for the hour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+1682-1684.
+
+LeFebvre de la Barre.
+
+His Arrival at Quebec • The Great Fire • A Coming Storm • Iroquois
+Policy • The Danger imminent • Indian Allies of France • Frontenac and
+the Iroquois • Boasts of La Barre • His Past Life • His Speculations •
+He takes Alarm • His Dealings with the Iroquois • His Illegal Trade •
+His Colleague denounces him • Fruits of his Schemes • His Anger and his
+Fears.
+
+When the new governor, La Barre, and the new intendant, Meules, arrived
+at Quebec, a dismal greeting waited them. All the Lower Town was in
+ashes, except the house of the merchant Aubert de la Chesnaye, standing
+alone amid the wreck. On a Tuesday, the fourth of August, at ten o'clock
+in the evening, the nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu were roused from their early
+slumbers by shouts, outcries, and the ringing of bells; "and," writes
+one of them, "what was our terror to find it as light as noonday, the
+flames burned so fiercely and rose so high." Half an hour before,
+Chartier de Lotbinière, judge of the king's court, heard the first
+alarm, ran down the descent now called Mountain Street, and found every
+thing in confusion in the town below. The house of Etienne Planchon was
+in a blaze; the fire was spreading to those of his neighbors, and had
+just leaped the narrow street to the storehouse of the Jesuits. The
+season was excessively dry; there were no means of throwing water except
+kettles and buckets, and the crowd was bewildered with excitement and
+fright. Men were ordered to tear off roofs and pull down houses; but the
+flames drove them from their work, and at four o'clock in the morning
+fifty-five buildings were burnt to the ground. They were all of wood,
+but many of them were storehouses filled with goods; and the property
+consumed was more in value than all that remained in Canada. [1]
+
+[1] Chartier de Lotbinière, Procès-verbal sur l'Incendie de la Basse
+Ville; Meules au Ministre, 6 Oct., 1682; Juchereau, Histoire de
+l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, 256.
+
+Under these gloomy auspices, Le Febvre de la Barre began his reign. He
+was an old officer who had achieved notable exploits against the English
+in the West Indies, but who was now to be put to a test far more severe.
+He made his lodging in the château; while his colleague, Meules, could
+hardly find a shelter. The buildings of the Upper Town were filled with
+those whom the fire had made roofless, and the intendant was obliged to
+content himself with a house in the neighboring woods. Here he was ill
+at ease, for he dreaded an Indian war and the scalping-knives of the
+Iroquois. [2]
+
+[2] Meules au Ministre, 6 Oct., 1682.
+
+So far as his own safety was concerned, his alarm was needless; but not
+so as regarded the colony with whose affairs he was charged. For those
+who had eyes to see it, a terror and a woe lowered in the future of
+Canada. In an evil hour for her, the Iroquois had conquered their
+southern neighbors, the Andastes, who had long held their ground against
+them, and at one time threatened them with ruin. The hands of the
+confederates were now free; their arrogance was redoubled by victory,
+and, having long before destroyed all the adjacent tribes on the north
+and west, [3] they looked for fresh victims in the wilderness beyond.
+Their most easterly tribe, the Mohawks, had not forgotten the
+chastisement they had received from Tracy and Courcelle. They had
+learned to fear the French, and were cautious in offending them; but it
+was not so with the remoter Iroquois. Of these, the Senecas at the
+western end of the "Long House," as they called their fivefold league,
+were by far the most powerful, for they could muster as many warriors as
+all the four remaining tribes together; and they now sought to draw the
+confederacy into a series of wars, which, though not directed against
+the French, threatened soon to involve them. Their first movement
+westward was against the tribes of the Illinois. I have already
+described their bloody inroad in the summer of 1680. [4] They made the
+valley of the Illinois a desert, and returned with several hundred
+prisoners, of whom they burned those that were useless, and incorporated
+the young and strong into their own tribe.
+
+[3] Jesuits in North America.
+
+[4] Discovery of the Great West.
+
+This movement of the western Iroquois had a double incentive, their love
+of fighting and their love of gain. It was a war of conquest and of
+trade. All the five tribes of the league had become dependent on the
+English and Dutch of Albany for guns, powder, lead, brandy, and many
+other things that they had learned to regard as necessities. Beaver
+skins alone could buy them, but to the Iroquois the supply of beaver
+skins was limited. The regions of the west and north-west, the upper
+Mississippi with its tributaries, and, above all, the forests of the
+upper lakes, were occupied by tribes in the interest of the French,
+whose missionaries and explorers had been the first to visit them, and
+whose traders controlled their immense annual product of furs. La Salle,
+by his newly built fort of St. Louis, engrossed the trade of the
+Illinois and Miami tribes; while the Hurons and Ottawas, gathered about
+the old mission of Michillimackinac, acted as factors for the Sioux, the
+Winnebagoes, and many other remote hordes. Every summer they brought
+down their accumulated beaver skins to the fair at Montreal; while
+French bush-rangers roving through the wilderness, with or without
+licenses, collected many more. [5]
+
+[5] Duchesneau, Memoir on Western Indians in N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX.
+160.
+
+It was the purpose of the Iroquois to master all this traffic, conquer
+the tribes who had possession of it, and divert the entire supply of
+furs to themselves, and through themselves to the English and Dutch.
+That English and Dutch traders urged them on is affirmed by the French,
+and is very likely. The accomplishment of the scheme would have ruined
+Canada. Moreover, the Illinois, the Hurons, the Ottawas, and all the
+other tribes threatened by the Iroquois, were the allies and "children"
+of the French, who in honor as in interest were bound to protect them.
+Hence, when the Seneca invasion of the Illinois became known, there was
+deep anxiety in the colony, except only among those in whom hatred of
+the monopolist La Salle had overborne every consideration of the public
+good. La Salle's new establishment of St. Louis was in the path of the
+invaders; and, if he could be crushed, there was wherewith to console
+his enemies for all else that might ensue.
+
+Bad as was the posture of affairs, it was made far worse by an incident
+that took place soon after the invasion of the Illinois. A Seneca chief
+engaged in it, who had left the main body of his countrymen, was
+captured by a party of Winnebagoes to serve as a hostage for some of
+their tribe whom the Senecas had lately seized. They carried him to
+Michillimackinac, where there chanced to be a number of Illinois,
+married to Indian women of that neighborhood. A quarrel ensued between
+them and the Seneca, whom they stabbed to death in a lodge of the
+Kiskakons, one of the tribes of the Ottawas. Here was a casus belli
+likely to precipitate a war fatal to all the tribes about
+Michillimackinac, and equally fatal to the trade of Canada. Frontenac
+set himself to conjure the rising storm, and sent a messenger to the
+Iroquois to invite them to a conference.
+
+He found them unusually arrogant. Instead of coming to him, they
+demanded that he should come to them, and many of the French wished him
+to comply; but Frontenac refused, on the ground that such a concession
+would add to their insolence, and he declined to go farther than
+Montreal, or at the utmost Fort Frontenac, the usual place of meeting
+with them. Early in August he was at Montreal, expecting the arrival of
+the Ottawas and Hurons on their yearly descent from the lakes. They soon
+appeared, and he called them to a solemn council. Terror had seized them
+all. "Father, take pity on us," said the Ottawa orator, "for we are like
+dead men." A Huron chief, named the Rat, declared that the world was
+turned upside down, and implored the protection of Onontio, "who is
+master of the whole earth." These tribes were far from harmony among
+themselves. Each was jealous of the other, and the Ottawas charged the
+Hurons with trying to make favor with the common enemy at their expense.
+Frontenac told them that they were all his children alike, and advised
+them to live together as brothers, and make treaties of alliance with
+all the tribes of the lakes. At the same time, he urged them to make
+full atonement for the death of the Seneca murdered in their country,
+and carefully to refrain from any new offence.
+
+Soon after there was another arrival. La Forêt, the officer in command
+at Fort Frontenac, appeared, bringing with him a famous Iroquois chief
+called Decanisora or Tegannisorens, attended by a number of warriors.
+They came to invite Frontenac to meet the deputies of the five tribes at
+Oswego, within their own limits. Frontenac's reply was characteristic.
+"It is for the father to tell the children where to hold council, not
+for the children to tell the father. Fort Frontenac is the proper place,
+and you should thank me for going so far every summer to meet you." The
+Iroquois had expressed pacific intentions towards the Hurons and
+Ottawas. For this Frontenac commended him, but added: "The Illinois also
+are children of Onontio, and hence brethren of the Iroquois. Therefore
+they, too, should be left in peace; for Onontio wishes that all his
+family should live together in union." He confirmed his words with a
+huge belt of wampum. Then, addressing the flattered deputy as a great
+chief, he desired him to use his influence in behalf of peace, and gave
+him a jacket and a silk cravat, both trimmed with gold, a hat, a scarlet
+ribbon, and a gun, with beads for his wife, and red cloth for his
+daughter. The Iroquois went home delighted. [6]
+
+[6] For the papers on this affair, see N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX.
+
+Perhaps on this occasion Frontenac was too confident of his influence
+over the savage confederates. Such at least was the opinion of
+Lamberville, Jesuit missionary at Onondaga, the Iroquois capital. From
+what he daily saw around him, he thought the peril so imminent that
+concession on the part of the French was absolutely necessary, since not
+only the Illinois, but some of the tribes of the lakes, were in danger
+of speedy and complete destruction. "Tegannisorens loves the French," he
+wrote to Frontenac, "but neither he nor any other of the upper Iroquois
+fear them in the least. They annihilate our allies, whom by adoption of
+prisoners they convert into Iroquois; and they do not hesitate to avow
+that after enriching themselves by our plunder, and strengthening
+themselves by those who might have aided us, they will pounce all at
+once upon Canada, and overwhelm it in a single campaign." He adds that
+within the past two years they have reinforced themselves by more than
+nine hundred warriors, adopted into their tribes. [7]
+
+[7] P. Jean de Lamberville à Frontenac, 20 Sept., 1682.
+
+Such was the crisis when Frontenac left Canada at the moment when he was
+needed most, and Le Febvre de la Barre came to supplant him. The new
+governor introduces himself with a burst of rhodomontade. "The
+Iroquois," he writes to the king, "have twenty-six hundred warriors. I
+will attack them with twelve hundred men. They know me before seeing me,
+for they have been told by the English how roughly I handled them in the
+West Indies." This bold note closes rather tamely; for the governor
+adds, "I think that if the Iroquois believe that your Majesty would have
+the goodness to give me some help, they will make peace, and let our
+allies alone, which would save the trouble and expense of an arduous
+war." [8] He then begs hard for troops, and in fact there was great need
+of them, for there were none in Canada; and even Frontenac had been
+compelled in the last year of his government to leave unpunished various
+acts of violence and plunder committed by the Iroquois. La Barre painted
+the situation in its blackest colors, declared that war was imminent,
+and wrote to the minister, "We shall lose half our trade and all our
+reputation, if we do not oppose these haughty conquerors." [9]
+
+[8] La Barre au Roy, (4 Oct.?) 1682.
+
+[9] La Barre à Seignelay, 1682.
+
+A vein of gasconade appears in most of his letters, not however
+accompanied with any conclusive evidence of a real wish to fight. His
+best fighting days were past, for he was sixty years old; nor had he
+always been a man of the sword. His early life was spent in the law; he
+had held a judicial post, and had been intendant of several French
+provinces. Even the military and naval employments, in which he
+afterwards acquitted himself with credit, were due to the part he took
+in forming a joint-stock company for colonizing Cayenne. [10] In fact,
+he was but half a soldier; and it was perhaps for this reason that he
+insisted on being called, not Monsieur le Gouverneur, but Monsieur le
+Général. He was equal to Frontenac neither in vigor nor in rank, but he
+far surpassed him in avidity. Soon after his arrival, he wrote to the
+minister that he should not follow the example of his predecessors in
+making money out of his government by trade; and in consideration of
+these good intentions he asked for an addition to his pay. [11] He then
+immediately made alliances with certain merchants of Quebec for carrying
+on an extensive illicit trade, backed by all the power of his office.
+Now ensued a strange and miserable complication. Questions of war
+mingled with questions of personal gain. There was a commercial
+revolution in the colony. The merchants whom Frontenac excluded from his
+ring now had their turn. It was they who, jointly with the intendant and
+the ecclesiastics, had procured the removal of the old governor; and it
+was they who gained the ear of the new one. Aubert de la Chesnaye,
+Jacques Le Ber, and the rest of their faction, now basked in official
+favor; and La Salle, La Forêt, and the other friends of Frontenac, were
+cast out. There was one exception. Greysolon Du Lhut, leader of coureurs
+de bois, was too important to be thus set aside. He was now as usual in
+the wilderness of the north, the roving chief of a half savage crew,
+trading, exploring, fighting, and laboring with persistent hardihood to
+foil the rival English traders of Hudson's Bay. Inducements to gain his
+adhesion were probably held out to him by La Barre and his allies: be
+this as it may, it is certain that he acted in harmony with the faction
+of the new governor. With La Forêt it was widely different. He commanded
+Fort Frontenac, which belonged to La Salle, when La Barre's associates,
+La Chesnaye and Le Ber, armed with an order from the governor, came up
+from Montreal, and seized upon the place with all that it contained. The
+pretext for this outrage was the false one that La Salle had not
+fulfilled the conditions under which the fort had been granted to him.
+La Forêt was told that he might retain his command, if he would join the
+faction of La Barre; but he refused, stood true to his chief, and soon
+after sailed for France.
+
+[10] He was made governor of Cayenne, and went thither with Tracy in
+1664. Two years later, he gained several victories over the English, and
+recaptured Cayenne, which they had taken in his absence. He wrote a book
+concerning this colony, called Description de la France Équinoctiale.
+Another volume, called Journal du Voyage du Sieur de la Barre en la
+Terre Ferme et Isle de Cayenne, was printed at Paris in 1671.
+
+[11] La Barre à Seignelay, 1682.
+
+La Barre summoned the most able and experienced persons in the colony to
+discuss the state of affairs. Their conclusion was that the Iroquois
+would attack and destroy the Illinois, and, this accomplished, turn upon
+the tribes of the lakes, conquer or destroy them also, and ruin the
+trade of Canada. [12] Dark as was the prospect, La Barre and his
+fellow-speculators flattered themselves that the war could be averted
+for a year at least. The Iroquois owed their triumphs as much to their
+sagacity and craft as to their extraordinary boldness and ferocity. It
+had always been their policy to attack their enemies in detail, and
+while destroying one to cajole the rest. There seemed little doubt that
+they would leave the tribes of the lakes in peace till they had finished
+the ruin of the Illinois; so that if these, the allies of the colony,
+were abandoned to their fate, there would be time for a profitable trade
+in the direction of Michillimackinac.
+
+[12] Conference on the State of Affairs with the Iroquois, Oct., 1682,
+in N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX. 194.
+
+But hopes seemed vain and prognostics illusory, when, early in spring, a
+report came that the Seneca Iroquois were preparing to attack, in force,
+not only the Illinois, but the Hurons and Ottawas of the lakes. La Barre
+and his confederates were in dismay. They already had large quantities
+of goods at Michillimackinac, the point immediately threatened; and an
+officer was hastily despatched, with men and munitions, to strengthen
+the defences of the place. [13] A small vessel was sent to France with
+letters begging for troops. "I will perish at their head," wrote La
+Barre to the king, "or destroy your enemies;" [14] and he assures the
+minister that the Senecas must be attacked or the country abandoned.
+[15] The intendant, Meules, shared something of his alarm, and informed
+the king that "the Iroquois are the only people on earth who do not know
+the grandeur of your Majesty." [16]
+
+[13] La Barre au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1683.
+
+[14] La Barre au Roy, 30 Mai, 1683.
+
+[15] La Barre au Ministre, 30 Mai, 1683.
+
+[16] Meules au Roy, 2 Juin, 1683.
+
+While thus appealing to the king, La Barre sent Charles le Moyne as
+envoy to Onondaga. Through his influence, a deputation of forty-three
+Iroquois chiefs was sent to meet the governor at Montreal. Here a grand
+council was held in the newly built church. Presents were given the
+deputies to the value of more than two thousand crowns. Soothing
+speeches were made them; and they were urged not to attack the tribes of
+the lakes, nor to plunder French traders, without permission. [17] They
+assented; and La Barre then asked, timidly, why they made war on the
+Illinois. "Because they deserve to die," haughtily returned the Iroquois
+orator. La Barre dared not answer. They complained that La Salle had
+given guns, powder, and lead to the Illinois; or, in other words, that
+he had helped the allies of the colony to defend themselves. La Barre,
+who hated La Salle and his monopolies, assured them that he should be
+punished. [17] It is affirmed, on good authority, that he said more than
+this, and told them they were welcome to plunder and kill him. [18] The
+rapacious old man was playing with a two-edged sword.
+
+[17] Soon after La Barre's arrival, La Chesnaye is said to have induced
+him to urge the Iroquois to plunder all traders who were not provided
+with passports from the governor. The Iroquois complied so promptly,
+that they stopped and pillaged, at Niagara, two canoes belonging to La
+Chesnaye himself, which had gone up the lakes in Frontenac's time, and
+therefore were without passports. Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en
+Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'année 1682. (Published by
+the Historical Society of Quebec.) This was not the only case in which
+the weapons of La Barre and his partisans recoiled against themselves.
+
+[18] Belmont, Histoire du Canada (a contemporary chronicle).
+
+[19] See Discovery of the Great West. La Barre denies the assertion, and
+says that he merely told the Iroquois that La Salle should be sent home.
+
+Thus the Illinois, with the few Frenchmen who had tried to defend them,
+were left to perish; and, in return, a brief and doubtful respite was
+gained for the tribes of the lakes. La Barre and his confederates took
+heart again. Merchandise, in abundance, was sent to Michillimackinac,
+and thence to the remoter tribes of the north and west. The governor and
+his partner, La Chesnaye, sent up a fleet of thirty canoes; [20] and, a
+little later, they are reported to have sent more than a hundred. This
+forest trade robbed the colonists, by forestalling the annual market of
+Montreal; while a considerable part of the furs acquired by it were
+secretly sent to the English and Dutch of New York. Thus the heavy
+duties of the custom-house at Quebec were evaded; and silver coin was
+received in payment, instead of questionable bills of exchange. [21]
+Frontenac had not been faithful to his trust; but, compared to his
+successor, he was a model of official virtue.
+
+[20] Mémoire adressé a MM. les Intéressés en la Société de la Ferme et
+Commerce du Canada, 1683.
+
+[21] These statements are made in a memorial of the agents of the
+custom-house, in letters of Meules, and in several other quarters. La
+Barre is accused of sending furs to Albany under pretext of official
+communication with the governor of New York.
+
+La Barre busied himself with ostentatious preparation for war; built
+vessels at Fort Frontenac, and sent up fleets of canoes, laden or partly
+laden with munitions. But his accusers say that the king's canoes were
+used to transport the governor's goods, and that the men sent to
+garrison Fort Frontenac were destined, not to fight the Iroquois, but to
+sell them brandy. "Last year," writes the intendant, "Monsieur de la
+Barre had a vessel built, for which he made his Majesty pay heavily;"
+and he proceeds to say that it was built for trade, and was used for no
+other purpose. "If," he continues, "the two (king's) vessels now at Fort
+Frontenac had not been used for trading, they would have saved us half
+the expense we have been forced to incur in transporting munitions and
+supplies. The pretended necessity of having vessels at this fort, and
+the consequent employing of carpenters, and sending up of iron, cordage,
+sails, and many other things, at his Majesty's charge, was simply in the
+view of carrying on trade." He says, farther, that in May last, the
+vessels, canoes, and men being nearly all absent on this errand, the
+fort was left in so defenceless a state that a party of Senecas,
+returning from their winter hunt, took from it a quantity of goods, and
+drank as much brandy as they wanted. "In short," he concludes, "it is
+plain that Monsieur de la Barre uses this fort only as a depot for the
+trade of Lake Ontario." [22]
+
+[22] Meules à Seignelay, 8 July, 1684. This accords perfectly with
+statements made in several memorials of La Salle and his friends.
+
+In the spring of 1683, La Barre had taken a step as rash as it was
+lawless and unjust. He sent the Chevalier de Baugis, lieutenant of his
+guard, with a considerable number of canoes and men, to seize La Salle's
+fort of St. Louis on the river Illinois; a measure which, while
+gratifying the passions and the greed of himself and his allies, would
+greatly increase he danger of rupture with the Iroquois. Late in the
+season, he despatched seven canoes and fourteen men, with goods to the
+value of fifteen or sixteen thousand livres, to trade with the tribes of
+the Mississippi. As he had sown, so he reaped. The seven canoes passed
+through the country of the Illinois. A large war party of Senecas and
+Cayugas invaded it in February. La Barre had told their chiefs that they
+were welcome to plunder the canoes of La Salle. The Iroquois were not
+discriminating. They fell upon the governor's canoes, seized all the
+goods, and captured the men. [23] Then they attacked Baugis at Fort St.
+Louis. The place, perched on a rock, was strong, and they were beaten
+off; but the act was one of open war.
+
+[23] There appears no doubt that La Barre brought this upon himself. His
+successor, Denonville, writes that the Iroquois declared that, in
+plundering the canoes, they thought they were executing the orders they
+had received to plunder La Salle's people. Denonville, Mémoire adressé
+ou Ministre sur les Affaires de la Nouvelle France, 10 Août, 1688. The
+Iroquois told Dongan, in 1684, "that they had not don any thing to the
+French but what Monsr. delaBarr Ordered them, which was that if they
+mett with any French hunting without his passe to take what they had
+from them." Dongan to Denonville, 9 Sept., 1687.
+
+When La Barre heard the news, he was furious. [24] He trembled for the
+vast amount of goods which he and his fellow-speculators had sent to
+Michillimackinac and the lakes. There was but one resource: to call out
+the militia, muster the Indian allies, advance to Lake Ontario, and
+dictate peace to the Senecas, at the head of an imposing force; or,
+failing in this, to attack and crush them. A small vessel lying at
+Quebec was despatched to France, with urgent appeals for immediate aid,
+though there was little hope that it could arrive in time. She bore a
+long letter, half piteous, half bombastic, from La Barre to the king. He
+declared that extreme necessity and the despair of the people had forced
+him into war, and protested that he should always think it a privilege
+to lay down life for his Majesty. "I cannot refuse to your country of
+Canada, and your faithful subjects, to throw myself, with unequal
+forces, against the foe, while at the same time begging your aid for a
+poor, unhappy people on the point of falling victims to a nation of
+barbarians." He says that the total number of men in Canada capable of
+bearing arms is about two thousand; that he received last year a hundred
+and fifty raw recruits; and that he wants, in addition, seven or eight
+hundred good soldiers. "Recall me," he concludes, "if you will not help
+me, for I cannot bear to see the country perish in my hands." At the
+same time, he declares his intention to attack the Senecas, with or
+without help, about the middle of August. [25]
+
+Here we leave him, for a while, scared, excited, and blustering.
+
+[24] "Ce qui mit M. de la Barre en fureur." Belmont, Histoire du Canada.
+
+[25] La Barre au Roy, 5 Juin, 1684.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+1684.
+
+La Barre and the Iroquois.
+
+Dongan • New York and its Indian Neighbors • The Rival Governors •
+Dongan and the Iroquois • Mission to Onondaga • An Iroquois Politician •
+Warnings of Lamberville • Iroquois Boldness • La Barre takes the Field •
+His Motives • The March • Pestilence • Council at La Famine • The
+Iroquois defiant • Humiliation of La Barre • The Indian Allies • Their
+Rage and Disappointment • Recall of La Barre.
+
+The Dutch colony of New Netherland had now become the English colony of
+New York. Its proprietor, the Duke of York, afterwards James II. of
+England, had appointed Colonel Thomas Dongan its governor. He was a
+Catholic Irish gentleman of high rank, nephew of the famous Earl of
+Tyrconnel, and presumptive heir to the earldom of Limerick. He had
+served in France, was familiar with its language, and partial to its
+king and its nobility; but he nevertheless gave himself with vigor to
+the duties of his new trust.
+
+The Dutch and English colonists aimed at a share in the western fur
+trade, hitherto a monopoly of Canada; and it is said that Dutch traders
+had already ventured among the tribes of the Great Lakes, boldly
+poaching on the French preserves. Dongan did his utmost to promote their
+interests, so far at least as was consistent with his instructions from
+the Duke of York, enjoining him to give the French governor no just
+cause of offence. [1]
+
+[1] Sir John Werden to Dongan, 4 Dec., 1684; N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 353.
+Werden was the duke's secretary.
+
+Dongan has been charged with instigating the Iroquois to attack the
+French. The Jesuit Lamberville, writing from Onondaga, says, on the
+contrary, that he hears that the "governor of New England (New York),
+when the Mohawk chiefs asked him to continue the sale of powder to them,
+replied that it should be continued so long as they would not make war
+on Christians." Lamberville à La Barre, 10 Fév., 1684.
+
+The French ambassador at London complained that Dongan excited the
+Iroquois to war, and Dongan denied the charge. N. Y. Col. Docs., III.
+506, 509.
+
+For several years past, the Iroquois had made forays against the borders
+of Maryland and Virginia, plundering and killing the settlers; and a
+declared rupture between those colonies and the savage confederates had
+more than once been imminent. The English believed that these
+hostilities were instigated by the Jesuits in the Iroquois villages.
+There is no proof whatever of the accusation; but it is certain that it
+was the interest of Canada to provoke a war which might, sooner or
+later, involve New York. In consequence of a renewal of such attacks,
+Lord Howard of Effingham, governor of Virginia, came to Albany in the
+summer of 1684, to hold a council with the Iroquois.
+
+The Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas were the offending tribes. They all
+promised friendship for the future. A hole was dug in the court-yard of
+the council house, each of the three threw a hatchet into it, and Lord
+Howard and the representative of Maryland added two others; then the
+hole was filled, the song of peace was sung, and the high contracting
+parties stood pledged to mutual accord. [2] The Mohawks were also at the
+council, and the Senecas soon after arrived; so that all the confederacy
+was present by its deputies. Not long before, La Barre, then in the heat
+of his martial preparations, had sent a messenger to Dongan with a
+letter, informing him that, as the Senecas and Cayugas had plundered
+French canoes and assaulted a French fort, he was compelled to attack
+them, and begging that the Dutch and English colonists should be
+forbidden to supply them with arms. [3] This letter produced two
+results, neither of them agreeable to the writer: first, the Iroquois
+were fully warned of the designs of the French; and, secondly, Dongan
+gained the opportunity he wanted of asserting the claim of his king to
+sovereignty over the confederacy, and possession of the whole country
+south of the Great Lakes. He added that, if the Iroquois had done wrong,
+he would require them, as British subjects, to make reparation; and he
+urged La Barre, for the sake of peace between the two colonies, to
+refrain from his intended invasion of British territory. [4]	
+
+[2] Report of Conferences at Albany, in Colden, History of the Five
+Nations, 50 (ed. 1727, Shea's reprint).
+
+[3] La Barre à Dongan, 15 Juin, 1684.
+
+[4] Dongan à La Barre, 24 Juin, 1684.
+
+Dongan next laid before the assembled sachems the complaints made
+against them in the letter of La Barre. They replied by accusing the
+French of carrying arms to their enemies, the Illinois and the Miamis.
+"Onontio," said their orator, "calls us his children, and then helps our
+enemies to knock us in the head." They were somewhat disturbed at the
+prospect of La Barre's threatened attack; and Dongan seized the occasion
+to draw from them an acknowledgment of subjection to the Duke of York,
+promising in return that they should be protected from the French. They
+did not hesitate. "We put ourselves," said the Iroquois speaker, "under
+the great sachem Charles, who lives over the Great Lake, and under the
+protection of the great Duke of York, brother of your great sachem." But
+he added a moment after, "Let your friend (King Charles) who lives over
+the Great Lake know that we are a free people, though united to the
+English." [5] They consented that the arms of the Duke of York should be
+planted in their villages, being told that this would prevent the French
+from destroying them. Dongan now insisted that they should make no
+treaty with Onontio without his consent; and he promised that, if their
+country should be invaded, he would send four hundred horsemen and as
+many foot soldiers to their aid.
+
+[5] Speech of the Onondagas and Cayugas, in Colden, Five Nations, 63
+(1727).
+
+As for the acknowledgment of subjection to the king and the Duke of
+York, the Iroquois neither understood its full meaning nor meant to
+abide by it. What they did clearly understand was that, while they
+recognized Onontio, the governor of Canada, as their father, they
+recognized Corlaer, the governor of New York, only as their brother. [6]
+Dongan, it seems, could not, or dared not, change this mark of equality.
+He did his best, however, to make good his claims, and sent Arnold
+Viele, a Dutch interpreter, as his envoy to Onondaga. Viele set out for
+the Iroquois capital, and thither we will follow him.
+
+[6] Except the small tribe of the Oneidas, who addressed Corlaer as
+Father. Corlaer was the official Iroquois name of the governor of New
+York; Onas (the Feather, or Pen), that of the governor of Pennsylvania;
+and Assarigoa (the Big Knife, or Sword), that of the governor of
+Virginia. Corlaer, or Cuyler, was the name of a Dutchman whom the
+Iroquois held in great respect.
+
+He mounted his horse, and in the heats of August rode westward along the
+valley of the Mohawk. On a hill a bow-shot from the river, he saw the
+first Mohawk town, Kaghnawaga, encircled by a strong palisade. Next he
+stopped for a time at Gandagaro, on a meadow near the bank; and next, at
+Canajora, on a plain two miles away. Tionondogué, the last and strongest
+of these fortified villages, stood like the first on a hill that
+overlooked the river, and all the rich meadows around were covered with
+Indian corn. The largest of the four contained but thirty houses, and
+all together could furnish scarcely more than three hundred warriors.
+[7]
+
+[7] Journal of Wentworth Greenhalgh, 1677, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III.
+250.
+
+When the last Mohawk town was passed, a ride of four or five days still
+lay before the envoy. He held his way along the old Indian trail, now
+traced through the grass of sunny meadows, and now tunnelled through the
+dense green of shady forests, till it led him to the town of the
+Oneidas, containing about a hundred bark houses, with twice as many
+fighting men, the entire force of the tribe. Here, as in the four Mohawk
+villages, he planted the scutcheon of the Duke of York, and, still
+advancing, came at length to a vast open space where the rugged fields,
+patched with growing corn, sloped upwards into a broad, low hill,
+crowned with the clustered lodges of Onondaga. There were from one to
+two hundred of these large bark dwellings, most of them holding several
+families. The capital of the confederacy was not fortified at this time,
+and its only defence was the valor of some four hundred warriors. [8]
+
+[8] Journal of Greenhalgh. The site of Onondaga, like that of all the
+Iroquois towns, was changed from time to time, as the soil of the
+neighborhood became impoverished, and the supply of wood exhausted.
+Greenhalgh, in 1677, estimated the warriors at three hundred and fifty;
+but the number had increased of late by the adoption of prisoners.
+
+In this focus of trained and organized savagery, where ferocity was
+cultivated as a virtue, and every emotion of pity stifled as unworthy of
+a man; where ancient rites, customs, and traditions were held with the
+tenacity of a people who joined the extreme of wildness with the extreme
+of conservatism,--here burned the council fire of the five confederate
+tribes; and here, in time of need, were gathered their bravest and their
+wisest to debate high questions of policy and war.
+
+The object of Viele was to confirm the Iroquois in their very
+questionable attitude of subjection to the British crown, and persuade
+them to make no treaty or agreement with the French, except through the
+intervention of Dongan, or at least with his consent. The envoy found
+two Frenchmen in the town, whose presence boded ill to his errand. The
+first was the veteran colonist of Montreal, Charles le Moyne, sent by La
+Barre to invite the Onondagas to a conference. They had known him, in
+peace or war, for a quarter of a century; and they greatly respected
+him. The other was the Jesuit Jean de Lamberville, who had long lived
+among them, and knew them better than they knew themselves. Here, too,
+was another personage who cannot pass unnoticed. He was a famous
+Onondaga orator named Otréouati, and called also Big Mouth, whether by
+reason of the dimensions of that feature or the greatness of the wisdom
+that issued from it. His contemporary, Baron La Hontan, thinking perhaps
+that his French name of La Grande Gueule was wanting in dignity,
+Latinized it into Grangula; and the Scotchman, Colden, afterwards
+improved it into Garangula, under which high-sounding appellation Big
+Mouth has descended to posterity. He was an astute old savage, well
+trained in the arts of Iroquois rhetoric, and gifted with the power of
+strong and caustic sarcasm, which has marked more than one of the chief
+orators of the confederacy. He shared with most of his countrymen the
+conviction that the earth had nothing so great as the league of the
+Iroquois; but, if he could be proud and patriotic, so too he could be
+selfish and mean. He valued gifts, attentions, and a good meal, and
+would pay for them abundantly in promises, which he kept or not, as his
+own interests or those of his people might require. He could use bold
+and loud words in public, and then secretly make his peace with those he
+had denounced. He was so given to rough jokes that the intendant,
+Meules, calls him a buffoon; but his buffoonery seems to have been often
+a cover to his craft. He had taken a prominent part in the council of
+the preceding summer at Montreal; and, doubtless, as he stood in full
+dress before the governor and the officers, his head plumed, his face
+painted, his figure draped in a colored blanket, and his feet decked
+with embroidered moccasins, he was a picturesque and striking object. He
+was less so as he squatted almost naked by his lodge fire, with a piece
+of board laid across his lap, chopping rank tobacco with a
+scalping-knife to fill his pipe, and entertaining the grinning circle
+with grotesque stories and obscene jests. Though not one of the
+hereditary chiefs, his influence was great. "He has the strongest head
+and the loudest voice among the Iroquois," wrote Lamberville to La
+Barre. "He calls himself your best friend.... He is a venal creature,
+whom you do well to keep in pay. I assured him I would send him the
+jerkin you promised." [9] Well as the Jesuit knew the Iroquois, he was
+deceived if he thought that Big Mouth was securely won.
+
+[9] Letters of Lamberville in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. For specimens of Big
+Mouth's skill in drawing, see ibid., IX. 386.
+
+Lamberville's constant effort was to prevent a rupture. He wrote with
+every opportunity to the governor, painting the calamities that war
+would bring, and warning him that it was vain to hope that the league
+could be divided, and its three eastern tribes kept neutral, while the
+Senecas were attacked. He assured him, on the contrary, that they would
+all unite to fall upon Canada, ravaging, burning, and butchering along
+the whole range of defenceless settlements. "You cannot believe,
+Monsieur, with what joy the Senecas learned that you might possibly
+resolve on war. When they heard of the preparations at Fort Frontenac,
+they said that the French had a great mind to be stripped, roasted, and
+eaten; and that they will see if their flesh, which they suppose to have
+a salt taste, by reason of the salt which we use with our food, be as
+good as that of their other enemies." [10] Lamberville also informs the
+governor that the Senecas have made ready for any emergency, buried
+their last year's corn, prepared a hiding place in the depth of the
+forest for their old men, women, and children, and stripped their towns
+of every thing that they value; and that their fifteen hundred warriors
+will not shut themselves up in forts, but fight under cover, among trees
+and in the tall grass, with little risk to themselves and extreme danger
+to the invader. "There is no profit," he says, "in fighting with this
+sort of banditti, whom you cannot catch, but who will catch many of your
+people. The Onondagas wish to bring about an agreement. Must the father
+and the children, they ask, cut each other's throats?"
+
+[10] Lamberville to La Barre, 11 July, 1684, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX.
+253.
+
+The Onondagas, moved by the influence of the Jesuit and the gifts of La
+Barre, did in fact wish to act as mediators between their Seneca
+confederates and the French; and to this end they invited the Seneca
+elders to a council. The meeting took place before the arrival of Viele,
+and lasted two days. The Senecas were at first refractory, and hot for
+war, but at length consented that the Onondagas might make peace for
+them, if they could; a conclusion which was largely due to the eloquence
+of Big Mouth.
+
+The first act of Viele was a blunder. He told the Onondagas that the
+English governor was master of their country; and that, as they were
+subjects of the king of England, they must hold no council with the
+French without permission. The pride of Big Mouth was touched. "You
+say," he exclaimed to the envoy, "that we are subjects of the king of
+England and the Duke of York; but we say that we are brothers. We must
+take care of ourselves. The coat of arms which you have fastened to that
+post cannot defend us against Onontio. We tell you that we shall bind a
+covenant chain to our arm and to his. We shall take the Senecas by one
+hand and Onontio by the other, and their hatchet and his sword shall be
+thrown into deep water." [11]
+
+[11] Colden, Five Nations, 80 (1727).
+
+Thus well and manfully did Big Mouth assert the independence of his
+tribe, and proclaim it the arbiter of peace. He told the warriors,
+moreover, to close their ears to the words of the Dutchman, who spoke as
+if he were drunk; [12] and it was resolved at last that he, Big Mouth,
+with an embassy of chiefs and elders, should go with Le Moyne to meet
+the French governor.
+
+[12] Lamberville to La Barre, 28 Aug., 1684, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX.
+257.
+
+While these things were passing at Onondaga, La Barre had finished his
+preparations, and was now in full campaign. Before setting out, he had
+written to the minister that he was about to advance on the enemy, with
+seven hundred Canadians, a hundred and thirty regulars, and two hundred
+mission Indians; that more Indians were to join him on the way; that Du
+Lhut and La Durantaye were to meet him at Niagara with a body of
+coureurs de bois and Indians from the interior; and that, "when we are
+all united, we will perish or destroy the enemy." [13] On the same day,
+he wrote to the king: "My purpose is to exterminate the Senecas; for
+otherwise your Majesty need take no farther account of this country,
+since there is no hope of peace with them, except when they are driven
+to it by force. I pray you do not abandon me; and be assured that I
+shall do my duty at the head of your faithful colonists." [14]
+
+[13] La Barre au Ministre, 9 July, 1684.
+
+[14] La Barre au Roy, même date.
+
+A few days after writing these curiously incoherent epistles, La Barre
+received a letter from his colleague, Meules, who had no belief that he
+meant to fight, and was determined to compel him to do so, if possible.
+"There is a report," wrote the intendant, "that you mean to make peace.
+It is doing great harm. Our Indian allies will despise us. I trust the
+story is untrue, and that you will listen to no overtures. The expense
+has been enormous. The whole population is roused." [15] Not satisfied
+with this, Meules sent the general a second letter, meant, like the
+first, as a tonic and a stimulant. "If we come to terms with the
+Iroquois, without first making them feel the strength of our arms, we
+may expect that, in future, they will do every thing they can to
+humiliate us, because we drew the sword against them, and showed them
+our teeth. I do not think that any course is now left for us but to
+carry the war to their very doors, and do our utmost to reduce them to
+such a point that they shall never again be heard of as a nation, but
+only as our subjects and slaves. If, after having gone so far, we do not
+fight them, we shall lose all our trade, and bring this country to the
+brink of ruin. The Iroquois, and especially the Senecas, pass for great
+cowards. The Reverend Father Jesuit, who is at Prairie de la Madeleine,
+told me as much yesterday; and, though he has never been among them, he
+assured me that he has heard everybody say so. But, even if they were
+brave, we ought to be very glad of it; since then we could hope that
+they would wait our attack, and give us a chance to beat them. If we do
+not destroy them, they will destroy us. I think you see but too well
+that your honor and the safety of the country are involved in the
+results of this war." [16]
+
+[15] Meules à La Barre, 15 July, 1684.
+
+[16] Meules à La Barre, 14 Août, 1684. This and the preceding letter
+stand, by a copyist's error, in the name of La Barre. They are certainly
+written by Meules.
+
+While Meules thus wrote to the governor, he wrote also to the minister,
+Seignelay, and expressed his views with great distinctness. "I feel
+bound in conscience to tell you that nothing was ever heard of so
+extraordinary as what we see done in this country every day. One would
+think that there was a divided empire here between the king and the
+governor; and, if things should go on long in this way, the governor
+would have a far greater share than his Majesty. The persons whom
+Monsieur la Barre has sent this year to trade at Fort Frontenac have
+already shared with him from ten to twelve thousand crowns." He then
+recounts numerous abuses and malversations on the part of the governor.
+"In a word, Monseigneur, this war has been decided upon in the cabinet
+of Monsieur the general, along with six of the chief merchants of the
+country. If it had not served their plans, he would have found means to
+settle every thing; but the merchants made him understand that they were
+in danger of being plundered, and that, having an immense amount of
+merchandise in the woods in nearly two hundred canoes fitted out last
+year, it was better to make use of the people of the country to carry on
+war against the Senecas. This being done, he hopes to make extraordinary
+profits without any risk, because one of two things will happen: either
+we shall gain some considerable advantage over the savages, as there is
+reason to hope, if Monsieur the general will but attack them in their
+villages; or else we shall make a peace which will keep every thing safe
+for a time. These are assuredly the sole motives of this war, which has
+for principle and end nothing but mere interest. He says himself that
+there is good fishing in troubled waters. [17]
+
+[17] The famous voyageur, Nicolas Perrot, agrees with the intendant.
+"Ils (La Barre et ses associés) s'imaginèrent que sitost que le François
+viendroit à paroistre, l'Irroquois luy demanderoit miséricorde, quil
+seroit facile d'establir des magasins, construire des barques dans le
+lac Ontario, et que c'estoit un moyen de trouver des richesses." Mémoire
+sur les Mœurs, Coustumes, et Relligion des Sauvages, chap. xxi.
+
+The Sulpitian, Abbé Belmont, says that the avarice of the merchants was
+the cause of the war; that they and La Barre wished to prevent the
+Iroquois from interrupting trade; and that La Barre aimed at an
+indemnity for the sixteen hundred livres in merchandise which the
+Senecas had taken from his canoes early in the year. Belmont adds that
+he wanted to bring them to terms without fighting.
+
+"With all our preparations for war, and all the expense in which
+Monsieur the general is involving his Majesty, I will take the liberty
+to tell you, Monseigneur, though I am no prophet, that I discover no
+disposition on the part of Monsieur the general to make war against the
+aforesaid savages. In my belief, he will content himself with going in a
+canoe as far as Fort Frontenac, and then send for the Senecas to treat
+of peace with them, and deceive the people, the intendant, and, if I may
+be allowed with all possible respect to say so, his Majesty himself.
+
+"P. S.--I will finish this letter, Monseigneur, by telling you that he
+set out yesterday, July 10th, with a detachment of two hundred men. All
+Quebec was filled with grief to see him embark on an expedition of war
+tête-à-tête with the man named La Chesnaye. Everybody says that the war
+is a sham, that these two will arrange every thing between them, and, in
+a word, do whatever will help their trade. The whole country is in
+despair to see how matters are managed." [18]
+
+[18] Meules au Ministre, 8-11 Juillet, 1684.
+
+After a long stay at Montreal, La Barre embarked his little army at La
+Chine, crossed Lake St. Louis, and began the ascent of the upper St.
+Lawrence. In one of the three companies of regulars which formed a part
+of the force was a young subaltern, the Baron la Hontan, who has left a
+lively account of the expedition. Some of the men were in flat boats,
+and some were in birch canoes. Of the latter was La Hontan, whose craft
+was paddled by three Canadians. Several times they shouldered it through
+the forest to escape the turmoil of the rapids. The flat boats could not
+be so handled, and were dragged or pushed up in the shallow water close
+to the bank, by gangs of militia men, toiling and struggling among the
+rocks and foam. The regulars, unskilled in such matters, were spared
+these fatigues, though tormented night and day by swarms of gnats and
+mosquitoes, objects of La Hontan's bitterest invective. At length the
+last rapid was passed, and they moved serenely on their way, threaded
+the mazes of the Thousand Islands, entered what is now the harbor of
+Kingston, and landed under the palisades of Fort Frontenac.
+
+Here the whole force was soon assembled, the regulars in their tents,
+the Canadian militia and the Indians in huts and under sheds of bark. Of
+these red allies there were several hundred: Abenakis and Algonquins
+from Sillery, Hurons from Lorette, and converted Iroquois from the
+Jesuit mission of Saut St. Louis, near Montreal. The camp of the French
+was on a low, damp plain near the fort; and here a malarious fever
+presently attacked them, killing many and disabling many more. La Hontan
+says that La Barre himself was brought by it to the brink of the grave.
+If he had ever entertained any other purpose than that of inducing the
+Senecas to agree to a temporary peace, he now completely abandoned it.
+He dared not even insist that the offending tribe should meet him in
+council, but hastened to ask the mediation of the Onondagas, which the
+letters of Lamberville had assured him that they were disposed to offer.
+He sent Le Moyne to persuade them to meet him on their own side of the
+lake, and, with such of his men as were able to move, crossed to the
+mouth of Salmon River, then called La Famine.
+
+The name proved prophetic. Provisions fell short from bad management in
+transportation, and the men grew hungry and discontented. September had
+begun; the place was unwholesome, and the malarious fever of Fort
+Frontenac infected the new encampment. The soldiers sickened rapidly. La
+Barre, racked with suspense, waited impatiently the return of Le Moyne.
+We have seen already the result of his mission, and how he and
+Lamberville, in spite of the envoy of the English governor, gained from
+the Onondaga chiefs the promise to meet Onontio in council. Le Moyne
+appeared at La Famine on the third of the month, bringing with him Big
+Mouth and thirteen other deputies. La Barre gave them a feast of bread,
+wine, and salmon trout, and on the morning of the fourth the council
+began.
+
+Before the deputies arrived, the governor had sent the sick men homeward
+in order to conceal his helpless condition; and he now told the Iroquois
+that he had left his army at Fort Frontenac, and had come to meet them
+attended only by an escort. The Onondaga politician was not to be so
+deceived. He, or one of his party, spoke a little French; and during the
+night, roaming noiselessly among the tents, he contrived to learn the
+true state of the case from the soldiers.
+
+The council was held on an open spot near the French encampment. La
+Barre was seated in an arm-chair. The Jesuit Bruyas stood by him as
+interpreter, and the officers were ranged on his right and left. The
+Indians sat on the ground in a row opposite the governor; and two lines
+of soldiers, forming two sides of a square, closed the intervening
+space. Among the officers was La Hontan, a spectator of the whole
+proceeding. He may be called a man in advance of his time; for he had
+the caustic, sceptical, and mocking spirit which a century later marked
+the approach of the great revolution, but which was not a characteristic
+of the reign of Louis XIV. He usually told the truth when he had no
+motive to do otherwise, and yet was capable at times of prodigious
+mendacity. [19] There is no reason to believe that he indulged in it on
+the present occasion, and his account of what he now saw and heard may
+probably be taken as substantially correct. According to him, La Barre
+opened the council as follows:--
+
+"The king my master, being informed that the Five Nations of the
+Iroquois have long acted in a manner adverse to peace, has ordered me to
+come with an escort to this place, and to send Akouessan (Le Moyne) to
+Onondaga to invite the principal chiefs to meet me. It is the wish of
+this great king that you and I should smoke the calumet of peace
+together, provided that you promise, in the name of the Mohawks,
+Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, to give entire satisfaction
+and indemnity to his subjects, and do nothing in future which may
+occasion rupture."
+
+[19] La Hontan attempted to impose on his readers a marvellous story of
+pretended discoveries beyond the Mississippi; and his ill repute in the
+matter of veracity is due chiefly to this fabrication. On the other
+hand, his account of what he saw in the colony is commonly in accord
+with the best contemporary evidence.
+
+Then he recounted the offences of the Iroquois. First, they had
+maltreated and robbed French traders in the country of the Illinois;
+"wherefore," said the governor, "I am ordered to demand reparation, and
+in case of refusal to declare war against you."
+
+Next, "the warriors of the Five Nations have introduced the English into
+the lakes which belong to the king my master, and among the tribes who
+are his children, in order to destroy the trade of his subjects, and
+seduce these people from the obedience they owe him. I am willing to
+forget this; but, should it happen again, I am expressly ordered to
+declare war against you."
+
+Thirdly, "the warriors of the Five Nations have made sundry barbarous
+inroads into the country of the Illinois and Miamis, seizing, binding,
+and leading into captivity an infinite number of these savages in time
+of peace. They are the children of my king, and are not to remain your
+slaves. They must at once be set free and sent home. If you refuse to do
+this, I am expressly ordered to declare war against you."
+
+La Barre concluded by assuring Big Mouth, as representing the Five
+Nations of the Iroquois, that the French would leave them in peace if
+they made atonement for the past, and promised good conduct for the
+future; but that, if they did not heed his words, their villages should
+be burned, and they themselves destroyed. He added, though he knew the
+contrary, that the governor of New York would join him in war against
+them.
+
+During the delivery of this martial harangue, Big Mouth sat silent and
+attentive, his eyes fixed on the bowl of his pipe. When the interpreter
+had ceased, he rose, walked gravely two or three times around the lines
+of the assembly, then stopped before the governor, looked steadily at
+him, stretched his tawny arm, opened his capacious jaws, and uttered
+himself as follows:--
+
+"Onontio, I honor you, and all the warriors who are with me honor you.
+Your interpreter has ended his speech, and now I begin mine. Listen to
+my words.
+
+"Onontio, when you left Quebec, you must have thought that the heat of
+the sun had burned the forests that make our country inaccessible to the
+French, or that the lake had overflowed them so that we could not escape
+from our villages. You must have thought so, Onontio; and curiosity to
+see such a fire or such a flood must have brought you to this place. Now
+your eyes are opened; for I and my warriors have come to tell you that
+the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks are all alive. I
+thank you in their name for bringing back the calumet of peace which
+they gave to your predecessors; and I give you joy that you have not dug
+up the hatchet which has been so often red with the blood of your
+countrymen.
+
+"Listen, Onontio. I am not asleep. My eyes are open; and by the sun that
+gives me light I see a great captain at the head of a band of soldiers,
+who talks like a man in a dream. He says that he has come to smoke the
+pipe of peace with the Onondagas; but I see that he came to knock them
+in the head, if so many of his Frenchmen were not too weak to fight. I
+see Onontio raving in a camp of sick men, whose lives the Great Spirit
+has saved by smiting them with disease. Our women had snatched
+war-clubs, and our children and old men seized bows and arrows to attack
+your camp, if our warriors had not restrained them, when your messenger,
+Akouessan, appeared in our village."
+
+He next justified the pillage of French traders on the ground, very
+doubtful in this case, that they were carrying arms to the Illinois,
+enemies of the confederacy; and he flatly refused to make reparation,
+telling La Barre that even the old men of his tribe had no fear of the
+French. He also avowed boldly that the Iroquois had conducted English
+traders to the lakes. "We are born free," he exclaimed, "we depend
+neither on Onontio nor on Corlaer. We have the right to go whithersoever
+we please, to take with us whomever we please, and buy and sell of
+whomever we please. If your allies are your slaves or your children,
+treat them like slaves or children, and forbid them to deal with anybody
+but your Frenchmen.
+
+"We have knocked the Illinois in the head, because they cut down the
+tree of peace and hunted the beaver on our lands. We have done less than
+the English and the French, who have seized upon the lands of many
+tribes, driven them away, and built towns, villages, and forts in their
+country.
+
+"Listen, Onontio. My voice is the voice of the Five Tribes of the
+Iroquois. When they buried the hatchet at Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac) in
+presence of your predecessor, they planted the tree of peace in the
+middle of the fort, that it might be a post of traders and not of
+soldiers. Take care that all the soldiers you have brought with you,
+shut up in so small a fort, do not choke this tree of peace. I assure
+you in the name of the Five Tribes that our warriors will dance the
+dance of the calumet under its branches; and that they will sit quiet on
+their mats and never dig up the hatchet, till their brothers, Onontio
+and Corlaer, separately or together, make ready to attack the country
+that the Great Spirit has given to our ancestors."
+
+The session presently closed; and La Barre withdrew to his tent, where,
+according to La Hontan, he vented his feelings in invective, till
+reminded that good manners were not to be expected from an Iroquois. Big
+Mouth, on his part, entertained some of the French at a feast which he
+opened in person by a dance. There was another session in the afternoon,
+and the terms of peace were settled in the evening. The tree of peace
+was planted anew; La Barre promised not to attack the Senecas; and Big
+Mouth, in spite of his former declaration, consented that they should
+make amends for the pillage of the traders. On the other hand, he
+declared that the Iroquois would fight the Illinois to the death; and La
+Barre dared not utter a word in behalf of his allies. The Onondaga next
+demanded that the council fire should be removed from Fort Frontenac to
+La Famine, in the Iroquois country. This point was yielded without
+resistance; and La Barre promised to decamp and set out for home on the
+following morning. [20]
+
+[20] The articles of peace will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 236.
+Compare Memoir of M. de la Barre regarding the War against the Senecas,
+ibid., 239. These two documents do not agree as to date, one placing the
+council on the 4th and the other on the 5th.
+
+Such was the futile and miserable end of the grand expedition. Even the
+promise to pay for the plundered goods was contemptuously broken. [21]
+The honor rested with the Iroquois. They had spurned the French,
+repelled the claims of the English, and by act and word asserted their
+independence of both.
+
+[21] This appears from the letters of Denonville, La Barre's successor.
+
+La Barre embarked and hastened home in advance of his men. His camp was
+again full of the sick. Their comrades placed them, shivering with ague
+fits, on board the flat-boats and canoes; and the whole force, scattered
+and disordered, floated down the current to Montreal. Nothing had been
+gained but a thin and flimsy truce, with new troubles and dangers
+plainly visible behind it. The better to understand their nature, let us
+look for a moment at an episode of the campaign.
+
+When La Barre sent messengers with gifts and wampum belts to summon the
+Indians of the Upper Lakes to join in the war, his appeal found a cold
+response. La Durantaye and Du Lhut, French commanders in that region,
+vainly urged the surrounding tribes to lift the hatchet. None but the
+Hurons would consent, when, fortunately, Nicolas Perrot arrived at
+Michillimackinac on an errand of trade. This famous coureur de bois--a
+very different person from Perrot, governor of Montreal--was well
+skilled in dealing with Indians. Through his influence, their scruples
+were overcome; and some five hundred warriors, Hurons, Ottawas, Ojibwas,
+Pottawatamies, and Foxes, were persuaded to embark for the rendezvous at
+Niagara, along with a hundred or more Frenchmen. The fleet of canoes,
+numerous as a flock of blackbirds in autumn, began the long and weary
+voyage. The two commanders had a heavy task. Discipline was impossible.
+The French were scarcely less wild than the savages. Many of them were
+painted and feathered like their red companions, whose ways they
+imitated with perfect success. The Indians, on their part, were but
+half-hearted for the work in hand, for they had already discovered that
+the English would pay twice as much for a beaver skin as the French; and
+they asked nothing better than the appearance of English traders on the
+lakes, and a safe peace with the Iroquois, which should open to them the
+market of New York. But they were like children with the passions of
+men, inconsequent, fickle, and wayward. They stopped to hunt on the
+shore of Michigan, where a Frenchman accidentally shot himself with his
+own gun. Here was an evil omen. But for the efforts of Perrot, half the
+party would have given up the enterprise, and paddled home. In the
+Strait of Detroit there was another hunt, and another accident. In
+firing at a deer, an Indian wounded his own brother. On this the
+tribesmen of the wounded man proposed to kill the French, as being the
+occasion of the mischance. Once more the skill of Perrot prevailed; but
+when they reached the Long Point of Lake Erie, the Foxes, about a
+hundred in number, were on the point of deserting in a body. As
+persuasion failed, Perrot tried the effect of taunts. "You are cowards,"
+he said to the naked crew, as they crowded about him with their wild
+eyes and long lank hair. "You do not know what war is: you never killed
+a man and you never ate one, except those that were given you tied hand
+and foot." They broke out against him in a storm of abuse. "You shall
+see whether we are men. We are going to fight the Iroquois; and, unless
+you do your part, we will knock you in the head." "You will never have
+to give yourselves the trouble," retorted Perrot, "for at the first
+war-whoop you will all run off." He gained his point. Their pride was
+roused, and for the moment they were full of fight. [22]
+
+[22] La Potherie, II. 159 (ed. 1722). Perrot himself, in his Mœurs des
+Sauvages, briefly mentions the incident.
+
+Immediately after, there was trouble with the Ottawas, who became
+turbulent and threatening, and refused to proceed. With much ado, they
+were persuaded to go as far as Niagara, being lured by the rash
+assurance of La Durantaye that three vessels were there, loaded with a
+present of guns for them. They carried their canoes by the cataract,
+launched them again, paddled to the mouth of the river, and looked for
+the vessels in vain. At length a solitary sail appeared on the lake. She
+brought no guns, but instead a letter from La Barre, telling them that
+peace was made, and that they might all go home. Some of them had
+paddled already a thousand miles, in the hope of seeing the Senecas
+humbled. They turned back in disgust, filled with wrath and scorn
+against the governor and all the French. Canada had incurred the
+contempt, not only of enemies, but of allies. There was danger that
+these tribes would repudiate the French alliance, welcome the English
+traders, make peace at any price with the Iroquois, and carry their
+beaver skins to Albany instead of Montreal.
+
+The treaty made at La Famine was greeted with contumely through all the
+colony. The governor found, however, a comforter in the Jesuit
+Lamberville, who stood fast in the position which he had held from the
+beginning. He wrote to La Barre: "You deserve the title of saviour of
+the country for making peace at so critical a time. In the condition in
+which your army was, you could not have advanced into the Seneca country
+without utter defeat. The Senecas had double palisades, which could not
+have been forced without great loss. Their plan was to keep three
+hundred men inside, and to perpetually harass you with twelve hundred
+others. All the Iroquois were to collect together, and fire only at the
+legs of your people, so as to master them, and burn them at their
+leisure, and then, after having thinned their numbers by a hundred
+ambuscades in the woods and grass, to pursue you in your retreat even to
+Montreal, and spread desolation around it." [23]
+
+[23] Lamberville to La Barre, 9 Oct., 1684, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX.
+260.
+
+La Barre was greatly pleased with this letter, and made use of it to
+justify himself to the king. His colleague, Meules, on the other hand,
+declared that Lamberville, anxious to make favor with the governor, had
+written only what La Barre wished to hear. The intendant also informs
+the minister that La Barre's excuses are a mere pretence; that everybody
+is astonished and disgusted with him; that the sickness of the troops
+was his own fault, because he kept them encamped on wet ground for an
+unconscionable length of time; that Big Mouth shamefully befooled and
+bullied him; that, after the council at La Famine, he lost his wits, and
+went off in a fright; that, since the return of the troops, the officers
+have openly expressed their contempt for him; and that the people would
+have risen against him, if he, Meules, had not taken measures to quiet
+them. [24] These, with many other charges, flew across the sea from the
+pen of the intendant.
+
+[24] Meules au Ministre, 10 Oct., 1684.
+
+The next ship from France brought the following letter from the king:--
+
+    Monsieur de la Barre,--Having been informed that your years do not
+permit you to support the fatigues inseparable from your office of
+governor and lieutenant-general in Canada, I send you this letter to
+acquaint you that I have selected Monsieur de Denonville to serve in
+your place; and my intention is that, on his arrival, after resigning to
+him the command, with all instructions concerning it, you embark for
+your return to France.
+
+                                                                Louis.
+
+La Barre sailed for home; and the Marquis de Denonville, a pious colonel
+of dragoons, assumed the vacant office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+1685-1687.
+
+Denonville and Dongan.
+
+Troubles of the New Governor • His Character • English Rivalry •
+Intrigues of Dongan • English Claims • A Diplomatic Duel • Overt Acts •
+Anger of Denonville • James II. checks Dongan • Denonville emboldened •
+Strife in the North • Hudson's Bay • Attempted Pacification • Artifice
+of Denonville • He prepares for War.
+
+Denonville embarked at Rochelle in June, with his wife and a part of his
+family. Saint-Vallier, the destined bishop, was in the same vessel; and
+the squadron carried five hundred soldiers, of whom a hundred and fifty
+died of fever and scurvy on the way. Saint-Vallier speaks in glowing
+terms of the new governor. "He spent nearly all his time in prayer and
+the reading of good books. The Psalms of David were always in his hands.
+In all the voyage, I never saw him do any thing wrong; and there was
+nothing in his words or acts which did not show a solid virtue and a
+consummate prudence, as well in the duties of the Christian life as in
+the wisdom of this world." [1]
+
+[1] Saint-Vallier, État Présent de l'Église, 4 (Quebec, 1856).
+
+When they landed, the nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu were overwhelmed with the
+sick. "Not only our halls, but our church, our granary, our hen-yard,
+and every corner of the hospital where we could make room, were filled
+with them." [2]
+
+[2] Juchereau, Hôtel-Dieu, 283.
+
+Much was expected of Denonville. He was to repair the mischief wrought
+by his predecessor, and restore the colony to peace, strength, and
+security. The king had stigmatized La Barre's treaty with the Iroquois
+as disgraceful, and expressed indignation at his abandonment of the
+Illinois allies. All this was now to be changed; but it was easier to
+give the order at Versailles than to execute it in Canada. Denonville's
+difficulties were great; and his means of overcoming them were small.
+What he most needed was more troops and more money. The Senecas,
+insolent and defiant, were still attacking the Illinois; the tribes of
+the north-west were angry, contemptuous, and disaffected; the English of
+New York were urging claims to the whole country south of the Great
+Lakes, and to a controlling share in all the western fur trade; while
+the English of Hudson's Bay were competing for the traffic of the
+northern tribes, and the English of New England were seizing upon the
+fisheries of Acadia, and now and then making piratical descents upon its
+coast. The great question lay between New York and Canada. Which of
+these two should gain mastery in the west?
+
+Denonville, like Frontenac, was a man of the army and the court. As a
+soldier, he had the experience of thirty years of service; and he was in
+high repute, not only for piety, but for probity and honor. He was
+devoted to the Jesuits, an ardent servant of the king, a lover of
+authority, filled with the instinct of subordination and order, and, in
+short, a type of the ideas, religious, political, and social, then
+dominant in France. He was greatly distressed at the disturbed condition
+of the colony; while the state of the settlements, scattered in broken
+lines for two or three hundred miles along the St. Lawrence, seemed to
+him an invitation to destruction. "If we have a war," he wrote, "nothing
+can save the country but a miracle of God."
+
+Nothing was more likely than war. Intrigues were on foot between the
+Senecas and the tribes of the lakes, which threatened to render the
+appeal to arms a necessity to the French. Some of the Hurons of
+Michillimackinac were bent on allying themselves with the English. "They
+like the manners of the French," wrote Denonville; "but they like the
+cheap goods of the English better." The Senecas, in collusion with
+several Huron chiefs, had captured a considerable number of that tribe
+and of the Ottawas. The scheme was that these prisoners should be
+released, on condition that the lake tribes should join the Senecas and
+repudiate their alliance with the French. [3] The governor of New York
+favored this intrigue to the utmost.
+
+[3] Denonville au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1686.
+
+Denonville was quick to see that the peril of the colony rose, not from
+the Iroquois alone, but from the English of New York, who prompted them.
+Dongan understood the situation. He saw that the French aimed at
+mastering the whole interior of the continent. They had established
+themselves in the valley of the Illinois, had built a fort on the lower
+Mississippi, and were striving to entrench themselves at its mouth. They
+occupied the Great Lakes; and it was already evident that, as soon as
+their resources should permit, they would seize the avenues of
+communication throughout the west. In short, the grand scheme of French
+colonization had begun to declare itself. Dongan entered the lists
+against them. If his policy should prevail, New France would dwindle to
+a feeble province on the St. Lawrence: if the French policy should
+prevail, the English colonies would remain a narrow strip along the sea.
+Dongan's cause was that of all these colonies; but they all stood aloof,
+and left him to wage the strife alone. Canada was matched against New
+York, or rather against the governor of New York. The population of the
+English colony was larger than that of its rival; but, except the fur
+traders, few of the settlers cared much for the questions at issue. [4]
+Dongan's chief difficulty, however, rose from the relations of the
+French and English kings. Louis XIV. gave Denonville an unhesitating
+support. James II., on the other hand, was for a time cautious to
+timidity. The two monarchs were closely united. Both hated
+constitutional liberty, and both held the same principles of supremacy
+in church and state; but Louis was triumphant and powerful, while James,
+in conflict with his subjects, was in constant need of his great ally,
+and dared not offend him.
+
+[4] New York had about 18,000 inhabitants (Brodhead, Hist. N. Y., II.
+458). Canada, by the census of 1685, had 12,263.
+
+The royal instructions to Denonville enjoined him to humble the
+Iroquois, sustain the allies of the colony, oppose the schemes of
+Dongan, and treat him as an enemy, if he encroached on French territory.
+At the same time, the French ambassador at the English court was
+directed to demand from James II. precise orders to the governor of New
+York for a complete change of conduct in regard to Canada and the
+Iroquois. [5] But Dongan, like the French governors, was not easily
+controlled. In the absence of money and troops, he intrigued busily with
+his Indian neighbors. "The artifices of the English," wrote Denonville,
+"have reached such a point that it would be better if they attacked us
+openly and burned our settlements, instead of instigating the Iroquois
+against us for our destruction. I know beyond a particle of doubt that
+M. Dongan caused all the five Iroquois nations to be assembled last
+spring at Orange (Albany), in order to excite them against us, by
+telling them publicly that I meant to declare war against them." He
+says, further, that Dongan supplies them with arms and ammunition,
+incites them to attack the colony, and urges them to deliver
+Lamberville, the priest at Onondaga, into his hands. "He has sent
+people, at the same time, to our Montreal Indians to entice them over to
+him, promising them missionaries to instruct them, and assuring them
+that he would prevent the introduction of brandy into their villages.
+All these intrigues have given me not a little trouble throughout the
+summer. M. Dongan has written to me, and I have answered him as a man
+may do who wishes to dissimulate and does not feel strong enough to get
+angry." [6]
+
+[5] Seignelay to Barillon, French Ambassador at London, in N. Y. Col.
+Docs., IX. 269.
+
+[6] Denonville à Seigneloy, 8 Nov., 1686.
+
+Denonville, accordingly, while biding his time, made use of counter
+intrigues, and, by means of the useful Lamberville, freely distributed
+secret or "underground" presents among the Iroquois chiefs; while the
+Jesuit Engelran was busy at Michillimackinac in adroit and vigorous
+efforts to prevent the alienation of the Hurons, Ottawas, and other lake
+tribes. The task was difficult; and, filled with anxiety, the father
+came down to Montreal to see the governor, "and communicate to me,"
+writes Denonville, "the deplorable state of affairs with our allies,
+whom we can no longer trust, owing to the discredit into which we have
+fallen among them, and from which we cannot recover, except by gaining
+some considerable advantage over the Iroquois; who, as I have had the
+honor to inform you, have labored incessantly since last autumn to rob
+us of all our allies, by using every means to make treaties with them
+independently of us. You may be assured, Monseigneur, that the English
+are the chief cause of the arrogance and insolence of the Iroquois,
+adroitly using them to extend the limits of their dominion, and uniting
+with them as one nation, insomuch that the English claims include no
+less than the Lakes Ontario and Erie, the region of Saginaw (Michigan),
+the country of the Hurons, and all the country in the direction of the
+Mississippi." [7]
+
+[7] Denonville à Seignelay, 12 Juin, 1686.
+
+The most pressing danger was the defection of the lake tribes. "In spite
+of the king's edicts," pursues Denonville, "the coureurs de bois have
+carried a hundred barrels of brandy to Michillimackinac in a single
+year; and their libertinism and debauchery have gone to such an
+extremity that it is a wonder the Indians have not massacred them all to
+save themselves from their violence and recover their wives and
+daughters from them. This, Monseigneur, joined to our failure in the
+last war, has drawn upon us such contempt among all the tribes that
+there is but one way to regain our credit, which is to humble the
+Iroquois by our unaided strength, without asking the help of our Indian
+allies." [8] And he begs hard for a strong reinforcement of troops.
+
+[8] Ibid.
+
+Without doubt, Denonville was right in thinking that the chastising of
+the Iroquois, or at least the Senecas, the head and front of mischief,
+was a matter of the last necessity. A crushing blow dealt against them
+would restore French prestige, paralyze English intrigue, save the
+Illinois from destruction, and confirm the wavering allies of Canada.
+Meanwhile, matters grew from bad to worse. In the north and in the west,
+there was scarcely a tribe in the French interest which was not either
+attacked by the Senecas or cajoled by them into alliances hostile to the
+colony. "We may set down Canada as lost," again writes Denonville, "if
+we do not make war next year; and yet, in our present disordered state,
+war is the most dangerous thing in the world. Nothing can save us but
+the sending out of troops and the building of forts and blockhouses. Yet
+I dare not begin to build them; for, if I do, it will bring down all the
+Iroquois upon us before we are in a condition to fight them."
+
+Nevertheless, he made what preparations he could, begging all the while
+for more soldiers, and carrying on at the same time a correspondence
+with his rival, Dongan. At first, it was courteous on both sides; but it
+soon grew pungent, and at last acrid. Denonville wrote to announce his
+arrival, and Dongan replied in French: "Sir, I have had the honor of
+receiving your letter, and greatly rejoice at having so good a neighbor,
+whose reputation is so widely spread that it has anticipated your
+arrival. I have a very high respect for the king of France, of whose
+bread I have eaten so much that I feel under an obligation to prevent
+whatever can give the least umbrage to our masters. M. de la Barre is a
+very worthy gentleman, but he has not written to me in a civil and
+befitting style." [9]
+
+[9] Dongan to Denonville, 13 Oct., 1685, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX, 292.
+
+Denonville replied with many compliments: "I know not what reason you
+may have had to be dissatisfied with M. de la Barre; but I know very
+well that I should reproach myself all my life if I could fail to render
+to you all the civility and attention due to a person of so great rank
+and merit. In regard to the affair in which M. de la Barre interfered,
+as you write me, I presume you refer to his quarrel with the Senecas. As
+to that, Monsieur, I believe you understand the character of that nation
+well enough to perceive that it is not easy to live in friendship with a
+people who have neither religion, nor honor, nor subordination. The
+king, my master, entertains affection and friendship for this country
+solely through zeal for the establishment of religion here, and the
+support and protection of the missionaries whose ardor in preaching the
+faith leads them to expose themselves to the brutalities and
+persecutions of the most ferocious of tribes. You know better than I
+what fatigues and torments they have suffered for the sake of Jesus
+Christ. I know your heart is penetrated with the glory of that name
+which makes Hell tremble, and at the mention of which all the powers of
+Heaven fall prostrate. Shall we be so unhappy as to refuse them our
+master's protection? You are a man of rank and abounding in merit. You
+love our holy religion. Can we not then come to an understanding to
+sustain our missionaries by keeping those fierce tribes in respect and
+fear?" [10]
+
+[10] Denonville to Dongan, 5 Juin, 1686, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 456.
+
+This specious appeal for maintaining French Jesuits on English
+territory, or what was claimed as such, was lost on Dongan, Catholic as
+he was. He regarded them as dangerous political enemies, and did his
+best to expel them, and put English priests in their place. Another of
+his plans was to build a fort at Niagara, to exclude the French from
+Lake Erie. Denonville entertained the same purpose, in order to exclude
+the English; and he watched eagerly the moment to execute it. A rumor of
+the scheme was brought to Dongan by one of the French coureurs de bois,
+who often deserted to Albany, where they were welcomed and encouraged.
+The English governor was exceedingly wroth. He had written before in
+French out of complaisance. He now dispensed with ceremony, and wrote in
+his own peculiar English: "I am informed that you intend to build a fort
+at Ohniagero (Niagara) on this side of the lake, within my Master's
+territoryes without question. I cannot beleev that a person that has
+your reputation in the world would follow the steps of Monsr. Labarr,
+and be ill advized by some interested persons in your Governt. to make
+disturbance between our Masters subjects in those parts of the world for
+a little pelttree (peltry). I hear one of the Fathers (the Jesuit Jean
+de Lamberville) is gone to you, and th'other that stayed (Jacques de
+Lamberville) I have sent for him here lest the Indians should insult
+over him, tho' it's a thousand pittys that those that have made such
+progress in the service of God should be disturbed, and that by the
+fault of those that laid the foundation of Christianity amongst these
+barbarous people; setting apart the station I am in, I am as much Monsr.
+Des Novilles (Denonville's) humble servant as any friend he has, and
+will ommit no opportunity of manifesting the same. Sir, your humble
+servant, Thomas Dongan." [11]
+
+[11] Dongan to Denonville, 22 May, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 455.
+
+Denonville in reply denied that he meant to build a fort at Niagara, and
+warned Dongan not to believe the stories told him by French deserters.
+"In order," he wrote, "that we may live on a good understanding, it
+would be well that a gentleman of your character should not give
+protection to all the rogues, vagabonds, and thieves who desert us and
+seek refuge with you, and who, to gain your favor, think they cannot do
+better than tell nonsensical stories about us, which they will continue
+to do so long as you listen to them." [12]
+
+[12] Denonville à Dongan, 20 Juin, 1686.
+
+The rest of the letter was in terms of civility, to which Dongan
+returned: "Beleive me it is much joy to have soe good a neighbour of soe
+excellent qualifications and temper, and of a humour altogether
+differing from Monsieur de la Barre, your predecessor, who was so
+furious and hasty and very much addicted to great words, as if I had bin
+to have bin frighted by them. For my part, I shall take all immaginable
+care that the Fathers who preach the Holy Gospell to those Indians over
+whom I have power bee not in the least ill treated, and upon that very
+accompt have sent for one of each nation to come to me, and then those
+beastly crimes you reproove shall be checked severely, and all my
+endevours used to surpress their filthy drunkennesse, disorders,
+debauches, warring, and quarrels, and whatsoever doth obstruct the
+growth and enlargement of the Christian faith amongst those people." He
+then, in reply to an application of Denonville, promised to give up
+"runawayes." [13]
+
+[13] Dongan to Denonville, 26 July, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 460.
+
+Promise was not followed by performance; and he still favored to the
+utmost the truant Frenchmen who made Albany their resort, and often
+brought with them most valuable information. This drew an angry letter
+from Denonville. "You were so good, Monsieur, as to tell me that you
+would give up all the deserters who have fled to you to escape
+chastisement for their knavery. As most of them are bankrupts and
+thieves, I hope that they will give you reason to repent having harbored
+them, and that your merchants who employ them will be punished for
+trusting such rascals." [14] To the great wrath of the French governor,
+Dongan persisted in warning the Iroquois that he meant to attack them.
+"You proposed, Monsieur," writes Denonville, "to submit every thing to
+the decision of our masters. Nevertheless, your emissary to the
+Onondagas told all the Five Nations in your name to pillage and make war
+on us." Next, he berates his rival for furnishing the Indians with rum.
+"Think you that religion will make any progress, while your traders
+supply the savages in abundance with the liquor which, as you ought to
+know, converts them into demons and their lodges into counterparts of
+Hell?"
+
+[14] Denonville à Dongan, 1 Oct., 1686.
+
+"Certainly," retorts Dongan, "our Rum doth as little hurt as your
+Brandy, and, in the opinion of Christians, is much more wholesome." [15]
+
+[15] Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec., 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 462.
+
+Each tried incessantly to out-general the other. Denonville, steadfast
+in his plan of controlling the passes of the western country, had
+projected forts, not only at Niagara, but also at Toronto, on Lake Erie,
+and on the Strait of Detroit. He thought that a time had come when he
+could, without rashness, secure this last important passage; and he sent
+an order to Du Lhut, who was then at Michillimackinac, to occupy it with
+fifty coureurs de bois. [16] That enterprising chief accordingly
+repaired to Detroit, and built a stockade at the outlet of Lake Huron on
+the western side of the strait. It was not a moment too soon. The year
+before, Dongan had sent a party of armed traders in eleven canoes,
+commanded by Johannes Rooseboom, a Dutchman of Albany, to carry English
+goods to the upper lakes. They traded successfully, winning golden
+opinions from the Indians, who begged them to come every year; and,
+though Denonville sent an officer to stop them at Niagara, they returned
+in triumph, after an absence of three months. [17] A larger expedition
+was organized in the autumn of 1686. Rooseboom again set out for the
+lakes with twenty or more canoes. He was to winter among the Senecas,
+and wait the arrival of Major McGregory, a Scotch officer, who was to
+leave Albany in the spring with fifty men, take command of the united
+parties, and advance to Lake Huron, accompanied by a band of Iroquois,
+to form a general treaty of trade and alliance with the tribes claimed
+by France as her subjects. [18]
+
+[16] Denonville à Du Lhut, 6 Juin, 1686.
+
+[17] Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II. 429; Denonville au Ministre, 8
+Mai, 1686.
+
+[18] Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II. 443; Commission of McGregory, in
+N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 318.
+
+Denonville was beside himself at the news. He had already urged upon
+Louis XIV. the policy of buying the colony of New York, which he thought
+might easily be done, and which, as he said, "would make us masters of
+the Iroquois without a war." This time he wrote in a less pacific mood:
+"I have a mind to go straight to Albany, storm their fort, and burn
+every thing." [19] And he begged for soldiers more earnestly than ever.
+"Things grow worse and worse. The English stir up the Iroquois against
+us, and send parties to Michillimackinac to rob us of our trade. It
+would be better to declare war against them than to perish by their
+intrigues." [20]
+
+[19] Denonville au Ministre, 16 Nov., 1686.
+
+[20] Ibid., 15 Oct., 1686.
+
+He complained bitterly to Dongan, and Dongan replied: "I beleeve it is
+as lawfull for the English as the French to trade amongst the remotest
+Indians. I desire you to send me word who it was that pretended to have
+my orders for the Indians to plunder and fight you. That is as false as
+'tis true that God is in heaven. I have desired you to send for the
+deserters. I know not who they are but had rather such Rascalls and
+Bankrouts, as you call them, were amongst their own countrymen."
+
+[21] Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec., 1686; Ibid., 20 June, 1687, in N. Y.
+Col. Docs., III. 462, 465.
+
+He had, nevertheless, turned them to good account; for, as the English
+knew nothing of western geography, they employed these French
+bush-rangers to guide their trading parties. Denonville sent orders to
+Du Lhut to shoot as many of them as he could catch.
+
+Dongan presently received despatches from the English court, which
+showed him the necessity of caution; and, when next he wrote to his
+rival, it was with a chastened pen: "I hope your Excellency will be so
+kinde as not desire or seeke any correspondence with our Indians of this
+side of the Great lake (Ontario): if they doe amisse to any of your
+Governmt. and you make it known to me, you shall have all justice done."
+He complained mildly that the Jesuits were luring their Iroquois
+converts to Canada; "and you must pardon me if I tell you that is not
+the right way to keepe fair correspondence. I am daily expecting
+Religious men from England, which I intend to put amongst those five
+nations. I desire you would order Monsr. de Lamberville that soe long as
+he stayes amongst those people he would meddle only with the affairs
+belonging to his function. Sir, I send you some Oranges, hearing that
+they are a rarity in your partes." [22]
+
+[22] Dongan to Denonville, 20 Juin, 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 465.
+
+"Monsieur," replies Denonville, "I thank you for your oranges. It is a
+great pity that they were all rotten."
+
+The French governor, unlike his rival, felt strong in the support of his
+king, who had responded amply to his appeals for aid; and the temper of
+his letters answered to his improved position. "I was led, Monsieur, to
+believe, by your civil language in the letter you took the trouble to
+write me on my arrival, that we should live in the greatest harmony in
+the world; but the result has plainly shown that your intentions did not
+at all answer to your fine words." And he upbraids him without measure
+for his various misdeeds: "Take my word for it. Let us devote ourselves
+to the accomplishment of our masters' will; let us seek, as they do, to
+serve and promote religion; let us live together in harmony, as they
+desire. I repeat and protest, Monsieur, that it rests with you alone;
+but do not imagine that I am a man to suffer others to play tricks on
+me. I willingly believe that you have not ordered the Iroquois to
+plunder our Frenchmen; but, whilst I have the honor to write to you, you
+know that Salvaye, Gédeon Petit, and many other rogues and bankrupts
+like them, are with you, and boast of sharing your table. I should not
+be surprised that you tolerate them in your country; but I am astonished
+that you should promise me not to tolerate them, that you so promise me
+again, and that you perform nothing of what you promise. Trust me,
+Monsieur, make no promise that you are not willing to keep." [23]
+
+[23] Denonville à Dongan, 21 Aug., 1687; Ibid., no date (1687).
+
+Denonville, vexed and perturbed by his long strife with Dongan and the
+Iroquois, presently found a moment of comfort in tidings that reached
+him from the north. Here, as in the west, there was violent rivalry
+between the subjects of the two crowns. With the help of two French
+renegades, named Radisson and Groseilliers, the English Company of
+Hudson's Bay, then in its infancy, had established a post near the mouth
+of Nelson River, on the western shore of that dreary inland sea. The
+company had also three other posts, called Fort Albany, Fort Hayes, and
+Fort Rupert, at the southern end of the bay. A rival French company had
+been formed in Canada, under the name of the Company of the North; and
+it resolved on an effort to expel its English competitors. Though it was
+a time of profound peace between the two kings, Denonville warmly
+espoused the plan; and, in the early spring of 1686, he sent the
+Chevalier de Troyes from Montreal, with eighty or more Canadians, to
+execute it. [24] With Troyes went Iberville, Sainte-Hélène, and
+Maricourt, three of the sons of Charles Le Moyne; and the Jesuit Silvy
+joined the party as chaplain.
+
+[24] The Compagnie du Nord had a grant of the trade of Hudson's Bay from
+Louis XIV. The bay was discovered by the English, under Hudson; but the
+French had carried on some trade there before the establishment of Fort
+Nelson. Denonville's commission to Troyes merely directs him to build
+forts, and "se saisir des voleurs coureurs de bois et autres que nous
+savons avoir pris et arrêté plusieurs de nos François commerçants avec
+les sauvages."
+
+They ascended the Ottawa, and thence, from stream to stream and lake to
+lake, toiled painfully towards their goal. At length, they neared Fort
+Hayes. It was a stockade with four bastions, mounted with cannon. There
+was a strong blockhouse within, in which the sixteen occupants of the
+place were lodged, unsuspicious of danger. Troyes approached at night.
+Iberville and Sainte-Hélène with a few followers climbed the palisade on
+one side, while the rest of the party burst the main gate with a sort of
+battering ram, and rushed in, yelling the war-whoop. In a moment, the
+door of the blockhouse was dashed open, and its astonished inmates
+captured in their shirts.
+
+The victors now embarked for Fort Rupert, distant forty leagues along
+the shore. In construction, it resembled Fort Hayes. The fifteen traders
+who held the place were all asleep at night in their blockhouse, when
+the Canadians burst the gate of the stockade and swarmed into the area.
+One of them mounted by a ladder to the roof of the building, and dropped
+lighted hand-grenades down the chimney, which, exploding among the
+occupants, told them unmistakably that something was wrong. At the same
+time, the assailants fired briskly on them through the loopholes, and,
+placing a petard under the walls, threatened to blow them into the air.
+Five, including a woman, were killed or wounded; and the rest cried for
+quarter. Meanwhile, Iberville with another party attacked a vessel
+anchored near the fort, and, climbing silently over her side, found the
+man on the watch asleep in his blanket. He sprang up and made fight, but
+they killed him, then stamped on the deck to rouse those below, sabred
+two of them as they came up the hatchway, and captured the rest. Among
+them was Bridger, governor for the company of all its stations on the
+bay.
+
+They next turned their attention to Fort Albany, thirty leagues from
+Fort Hayes, in a direction opposite to that of Fort Rupert. Here there
+were about thirty men, under Henry Sargent, an agent of the company.
+Surprise was this time impossible; for news of their proceedings had
+gone before them, and Sargent, though no soldier, stood on his defence.
+The Canadians arrived, some in canoes, some in the captured vessel,
+bringing ten captured pieces of cannon, which they planted in battery on
+a neighboring hill, well covered by intrenchments from the English shot.
+Here they presently opened fire; and, in an hour, the stockade with the
+houses that it enclosed was completely riddled. The English took shelter
+in a cellar, nor was it till the fire slackened that they ventured out
+to show a white flag and ask for a parley. Troyes and Sargent had an
+interview. The Englishman regaled his conqueror with a bottle of Spanish
+wine; and, after drinking the health of King Louis and King James, they
+settled the terms of capitulation. The prisoners were sent home in an
+English vessel which soon after arrived; and Maricourt remained to
+command at the bay, while Troyes returned to report his success to
+Denonville. [25]
+
+[25] On the capture of the forts at Hudson's Bay, see La Potherie, I.
+147-163; the letter of Father Silvy, chaplain of the expedition, in
+Saint-Vallier, État Présent, 43; and Oldmixon, British Empire in
+America, I. 561-564 (ed. 1741). An account of the preceding events will
+be found in La Potherie and Oldmixon; in Jerémie, Relation de la Baie de
+Hudson; and in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 796-802. Various embellishments
+have been added to the original narratives by recent writers, such as an
+imaginary hand-to-hand fight of Iberville and several Englishmen in the
+blockhouse of Fort Hayes.
+
+This buccaneer exploit exasperated the English public, and it became
+doubly apparent that the state of affairs in America could not be
+allowed to continue. A conference had been arranged between the two
+powers, even before the news came from Hudson's Bay; and Count d'Avaux
+appeared at London as special envoy of Louis XIV. to settle the
+questions at issue. A treaty of neutrality was signed at Whitehall, and
+commissioners were appointed on both sides. [26] Pending the discussion,
+each party was to refrain from acts of hostility or encroachment; and,
+said the declaration of the commissioners, "to the end the said
+agreement may have the better effect, we do likewise agree that the said
+serene kings shall immediately send necessary orders in that behalf to
+their respective governors in America." [27] Dongan accordingly was
+directed to keep a friendly correspondence with his rival, and take good
+care to give him no cause of complaint. [28]
+
+[26] Traité de Neutralité pour l'Amérique, conclu à Londres le 16 Nov.,
+1686, in Mémoires des Commissaires, II. 86.
+
+[27] Instrument for preventing Acts of Hostility in America in N. Y.
+Col. Docs., III. 505.
+
+[28] Order to Gov. Dongan, 22 Jan., 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 504.
+
+It was this missive which had dashed the ardor of the English governor,
+and softened his epistolary style. More than four months after, Louis
+XIV. sent corresponding instructions to Denonville; [29] but, meantime,
+he had sent him troops, money, and munitions in abundance, and ordered
+him to attack the Iroquois towns. Whether such a step was consistent
+with the recent treaty of neutrality may well be doubted; for, though
+James II. had not yet formally claimed the Iroquois as British subjects,
+his representative had done so for years with his tacit approval, and
+out of this claim had risen the principal differences which it was the
+object of the treaty to settle.
+
+[29] Louis XIV. à Denonville, 17 Juin, 1687. At the end of March, the
+king had written that "he did not think it expedient to make any attack
+on the English."
+
+Eight hundred regulars were already in the colony, and eight hundred
+more were sent in the spring, with a hundred and sixty-eight thousand
+livres in money and supplies. [30] Denonville was prepared to strike. He
+had pushed his preparations actively, yet with extreme secrecy; for he
+meant to fall on the Senecas unawares, and shatter at a blow the
+mainspring of English intrigue. Harmony reigned among the chiefs of the
+colony, military, civil, and religious. The intendant Meules had been
+recalled on the complaints of the governor, who had quarrelled with him;
+and a new intendant, Champigny, had been sent in his place. He was as
+pious as Denonville himself, and, like him, was in perfect accord with
+the bishop and the Jesuits. All wrought together to promote the new
+crusade.
+
+[30] Abstract of Letters, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 314. This answers
+exactly to the statement of the Mémoire adressé au Régent, which places
+the number of troops in Canada at this time at thirty-two companies of
+fifty men each.
+
+It was not yet time to preach it, or at least Denonville thought so. He
+dissembled his purpose to the last moment, even with his best friends.
+Of all the Jesuits among the Iroquois, the two brothers Lamberville had
+alone held their post. Denonville, in order to deceive the enemy, had
+directed these priests to urge the Iroquois chiefs to meet him in
+council at Fort Frontenac, whither, as he pretended, he was about to go
+with an escort of troops, for the purpose of conferring with them. The
+two brothers received no hint whatever of his real intention, and tried
+in good faith to accomplish his wishes; but the Iroquois were
+distrustful, and hesitated to comply. On this, the elder Lamberville
+sent the younger with letters to Denonville to explain the position of
+affairs, saying at the same time that he himself would not leave
+Onondaga except to accompany the chiefs to the proposed council. "The
+poor father," wrote the governor, "knows nothing of our designs. I am
+sorry to see him exposed to danger; but, should I recall him, his
+withdrawal would certainly betray our plans to the Iroquois." This
+unpardonable reticence placed the Jesuit in extreme peril; for the
+moment the Iroquois discovered the intended treachery they would
+probably burn him as its instrument. No man in Canada had done so much
+as the elder Lamberville to counteract the influence of England and
+serve the interests of France, and in return the governor exposed him
+recklessly to the most terrible of deaths. [31]
+
+[31] Denonville au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1686; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1687.
+Denonville at last seems to have been seized with some compunction, and
+writes: "Tout cela me fait craindre que le pauvre père n'ayt de la peine
+à se retirer d'entre les mains de ces barbares ce qui m'inquiète fort."
+Dongan, though regarding the Jesuit as an insidious enemy, had treated
+him much better, and protected him on several occasions, for which he
+received the emphatic thanks of Dablon, superior of the missions. Dablon
+to Dongan (1685?), in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 454.
+
+In spite of all his pains, it was whispered abroad that there was to be
+war; and the rumor was brought to the ears of Dongan by some of the
+Canadian deserters. He lost no time in warning the Iroquois, and their
+deputies came to beg his help. Danger humbled them for the moment; and
+they not only recognized King James as their sovereign, but consented at
+last to call his representative Father Corlaer instead of Brother. Their
+father, however, dared not promise them soldiers; though, in spite of
+the recent treaty, he caused gunpowder and lead to be given them, and
+urged them to recall the powerful war-parties which they had lately sent
+against the Illinois. [32]
+
+[32] Colden, 97 (1727), Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.
+
+Denonville at length broke silence, and ordered the militia to muster.
+They grumbled and hesitated, for they remembered the failures of La
+Barre. The governor issued a proclamation, and the bishop a pastoral
+mandate. There were sermons, prayers, and exhortations in all the
+churches. A revulsion of popular feeling followed; and the people, says
+Denonville, "made ready for the march with extraordinary animation." The
+church showered blessings on them as they went, and daily masses were
+ordained for the downfall of the foes of Heaven and of France. [33]
+
+[33] Saint-Vallier, État Présent. Even to the moment of marching,
+Denonville pretended that he meant only to hold a peace council at Fort
+Frontenac. "J'ai toujours publié que je n'allois qu'à l'assemblée
+générale projetée à Cataracouy (Fort Frontenac), J'ai toujours tenu ce
+discours jusqu'au temps de la marche." Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin,
+1687.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+1687.
+
+Denonville and the Senecas.
+
+Treachery of Denonville • Iroquois Generosity • The Invading Army • The
+Western Allies • Plunder of English Traders • Arrival of the Allies •
+Scene at the French Camp • March of Denonville • Ambuscade • Battle •
+Victory • The Seneca Babylon • Imperfect Success.
+
+A host of flat-boats filled with soldiers, and a host of Indian canoes,
+struggled against the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and slowly made their
+way to Fort Frontenac. Among the troops was La Hontan. When on his
+arrival he entered the gate of the fort, he saw a strange sight. A row
+of posts was planted across the area within, and to each post an
+Iroquois was tied by the neck, hands, and feet, "in such a way," says
+the indignant witness, "that he could neither sleep nor drive off the
+mosquitoes." A number of Indians attached to the expedition, all of whom
+were Christian converts from the mission villages, were amusing
+themselves by burning the fingers of these unfortunates in the bowls of
+their pipes, while the sufferers sang their death songs. La Hontan
+recognized one of them who, during his campaign with La Barre, had often
+feasted him in his wigwam; and the sight so exasperated the young
+officer that he could scarcely refrain from thrashing the tormentors
+with his walking stick. [1]
+
+[1] La Hontan, I. 93-95 (1709).
+
+Though the prisoners were Iroquois, they were not those against whom the
+expedition was directed; nor had they, so far as appears, ever given the
+French any cause of complaint. They belonged to two neutral villages,
+called Kenté and Ganneious, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, forming
+a sort of colony, where the Sulpitians of Montreal had established a
+mission. [2] They hunted and fished for the garrison of the fort, and
+had been on excellent terms with it. Denonville, however, feared that
+they would report his movements to their relations across the lake; but
+this was not his chief motive for seizing them. Like La Barre before
+him, he had received orders from the court that, as the Iroquois were
+robust and strong, he should capture as many of them as possible, and
+send them to France as galley slaves. [3] The order, without doubt,
+referred to prisoners taken in war; but Denonville, aware that the
+hostile Iroquois were not easily caught, resolved to entrap their
+unsuspecting relatives.
+
+[2] Ganneious or Ganéyout was on an arm of the lake a little west of the
+present town of Fredericksburg. Kenté or Quinte was on Quinte Bay.
+
+[3] Le Roy à La Barre, 21 Juillet, 1684; Le Roy à Denonville et
+Champigny, 30 Mars, 1687.
+
+The intendant Champigny accordingly proceeded to the fort in advance of
+the troops, and invited the neighboring Iroquois to a feast. They came
+to the number of thirty men and about ninety women and children,
+whereupon they were surrounded and captured by the intendant's escort
+and the two hundred men of the garrison. The inhabitants of the village
+of Ganneious were not present; and one Perré, with a strong party of
+Canadians and Christian Indians, went to secure them. He acquitted
+himself of his errand with great address, and returned with eighteen
+warriors and about sixty women and children. Champigny's exertions did
+not end here. Learning that a party of Iroquois were peaceably fishing
+on an island in the St. Lawrence, he offered them also the hospitalities
+of Fort Frontenac; but they were too wary to be entrapped. Four or five
+Iroquois were however caught by the troops on their way up the river.
+They were in two or more parties, and they all had with them their women
+and children, which was never the case with Iroquois on the war-path.
+Hence the assertion of Denonville, that they came with hostile designs,
+is very improbable. As for the last six months he had constantly urged
+them, by the lips of Lamberville, to visit him and smoke the pipe of
+peace, it is not unreasonable to suppose that these Indian families were
+on their way to the colony in consequence of his invitations. Among them
+were the son and brother of Big Mouth, who of late had been an advocate
+of peace; and, in order not to alienate him, these two were eventually
+set free. The other warriors were tied like the rest to stakes at the
+fort.
+
+The whole number of prisoners thus secured was fifty-one, sustained by
+such food as their wives were able to get for them. Of more than a
+hundred and fifty women and children captured with them, many died at
+the fort, partly from excitement and distress, and partly from a
+pestilential disease. The survivors were all baptized, and then
+distributed among the mission villages in the colony. The men were sent
+to Quebec, where some of them were given up to their Christian relatives
+in the missions who had claimed them, and whom it was not expedient to
+offend; and the rest, after being baptized, were sent to France, to
+share with convicts and Huguenots the horrible slavery of the royal
+galleys. [4]
+
+[4] The authorities for the above are Denonville, Champigny, Abbé
+Belmont, Bishop Saint-Vallier, and the author of Recueil de ce qui s'est
+passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'année 1682.
+
+Belmont, who accompanied the expedition, speaks of the affair with
+indignation, which was shared by many French officers. The bishop, on
+the other hand, mentions the success of the stratagem as a reward
+accorded by Heaven to the piety of Denonville. État Présent de l'Église,
+91, 92 (reprint, 1856).
+
+Denonville's account, which is sufficiently explicit, is contained in
+the long journal of the expedition which he sent to the court, and in
+several letters to the minister. Both Belmont and the author of the
+Recueil speak of the prisoners as having been "pris par l'appât d'un
+festin."
+
+Mr. Shea, usually so exact, has been led into some error by confounding
+the different acts of this affair. By Denonville's official journal, it
+appears that, on the 19th June, Perré, by his order, captured several
+Indians on the St. Lawrence; that, on the 25th June, the governor, then
+at Rapide Plat on his way up the river, received a letter from
+Champigny, informing him that he had seized all the Iroquois near Fort
+Frontenac; and that, on the 3d July, Perré, whom Denonville had sent
+several days before to attack Ganneious, arrived with his prisoners.
+
+Before reaching Fort Frontenac, Denonville, to his great relief, was
+joined by Lamberville, delivered from the peril to which the governor
+had exposed him. He owed his life to an act of magnanimity on the part
+of the Iroquois, which does them signal honor. One of the prisoners at
+Fort Frontenac had contrived to escape, and, leaping sixteen feet to the
+ground from the window of a blockhouse, crossed the lake, and gave the
+alarm to his countrymen. Apparently, it was from him that the Onondagas
+learned that the invitations of Onontio were a snare; that he had
+entrapped their relatives, and was about to fall on their Seneca
+brethren with all the force of Canada. The Jesuit, whom they trusted and
+esteemed, but who had been used as an instrument to beguile them, was
+summoned before a council of the chiefs. They were in a fury at the
+news; and Lamberville, as much astonished by it as they, expected
+instant death, when one of them is said to have addressed him to the
+following effect: "We know you too well to believe that you meant to
+betray us. We think that you have been deceived as well as we; and we
+are not unjust enough to punish you for the crime of others. But you are
+not safe here. When once our young men have sung the war-song, they will
+listen to nothing but their fury; and we shall not be able to save you."
+They gave him guides, and sent him by secret paths to meet the advancing
+army. [5]
+
+[5] I have ventured to give this story on the sole authority of
+Charlevoix, for the contemporary writers are silent concerning it. Mr.
+Shea thinks that it involves a contradiction of date; but this is
+entirely due to confounding the capture of prisoners by Perré at
+Ganneious on July 3d with the capture by Champigny at Fort Frontenac
+about June 20th. Lamberville reached Denonville's camp, one day's
+journey from the fort, on the evening of the 29th. (Journal of
+Denonville.) This would give four and a half days for news of the
+treachery to reach Onondaga, and four and a half days for the Jesuit to
+rejoin his countrymen.
+
+Charlevoix, with his usual carelessness, says that the Jesuit Milet had
+also been used to lure the Iroquois into the snare, and that he was soon
+after captured by the Oneidas, and delivered by an Indian matron.
+Milet's captivity did not take place till 1689-90.
+
+Again the fields about Fort Frontenac were covered with tents,
+camp-sheds, and wigwams. Regulars, militia, and Indians, there were
+about two thousand men; and, besides these, eight hundred regulars just
+arrived from France had been left at Montreal to protect the settlers.
+[6] Fortune thus far had smiled on the enterprise, and she now gave
+Denonville a fresh proof of her favor. On the very day of his arrival, a
+canoe came from Niagara with news that a large body of allies from the
+west had reached that place three days before, and were waiting his
+commands. It was more than he had dared to hope. In the preceding
+autumn, he had ordered Tonty, commanding at the Illinois, and La
+Durantaye, commanding at Michillimackinac, to muster as many coureurs de
+bois and Indians as possible, and join him early in July at Niagara. The
+distances were vast, and the difficulties incalculable. In the eyes of
+the pious governor, their timely arrival was a manifest sign of the
+favor of Heaven. At Fort St. Louis, of the Illinois, Tonty had mustered
+sixteen Frenchmen and about two hundred Indians, whom he led across the
+country to Detroit; and here he found Du Lhut, La Forêt, and La
+Durantaye, with a large body of French and Indians from the upper lakes.
+[7] It had been the work of the whole winter to induce these savages to
+move. Presents, persuasion, and promises had not been spared; and while
+La Durantaye, aided by the Jesuit Engelran, labored to gain over the
+tribes of Michillimackinac, the indefatigable Nicolas Perrot was at work
+among those of the Mississippi and Lake Michigan. They were of a race
+unsteady as aspens and fierce as wild-cats, full of mutual jealousies,
+without rulers, and without laws; for each was a law to himself. It was
+difficult to persuade them, and, when persuaded, scarcely possible to
+keep them so. Perrot, however, induced some of them to follow him to
+Michillimackinac, where many hundreds of Algonquin savages were
+presently gathered: a perilous crew, who changed their minds every day,
+and whose dancing, singing, and yelping might turn at any moment into
+war-whoops against each other or against their hosts, the French. The
+Hurons showed more stability; and La Durantaye was reasonably sure that
+some of them would follow him to the war, though it was clear that
+others were bent on allying themselves with the Senecas and the English.
+As for the Pottawatamies, Sacs, Ojibwas, Ottawas, and other Algonquin
+hordes, no man could foresee what they would do. [8]
+
+[6] Denonville. Champigny says 832 regulars, 930 militia, and 300
+Indians. This was when the army left Montreal. More Indians afterwards
+joined it. Belmont says 1,800 French and Canadians and about 300
+Indians.
+
+[7] Tonty, Mémoire in Margry, Relations Inédites.
+
+[8] The name of Ottawas, here used specifically, was often employed by
+the French as a generic term for the Algonquin tribes of the Great
+Lakes.
+
+Suddenly a canoe arrived with news that a party of English traders was
+approaching. It will be remembered that two bands of Dutch and English,
+under Rooseboom and McGregory, had prepared to set out together for
+Michillimackinac, armed with commissions from Dongan. They had rashly
+changed their plan, and parted company. Rooseboom took the lead, and
+McGregory followed some time after. Their hope was that, on reaching
+Michillimackinac, the Indians of the place, attracted by their cheap
+goods and their abundant supplies of rum, would declare for them and
+drive off the French; and this would probably have happened, but for the
+prompt action of La Durantaye. The canoes of Rooseboom, bearing
+twenty-nine whites and five Mohawks and Mohicans, were not far distant,
+when, amid a prodigious hubbub, the French commander embarked to meet
+him with a hundred and twenty coureurs de bois. [9] Behind them followed
+a swarm of Indian canoes, whose occupants scarcely knew which side to
+take, but for the most part inclined to the English. Rooseboom and his
+men, however, naturally thought that they came to support the French;
+and, when La Durantaye bore down upon them with threats of instant death
+if they made the least resistance, they surrendered at once. The captors
+carried them in triumph to Michillimackinac, and gave their goods to the
+delighted Indians.
+
+[9] Attestation of N. Harmentse and others of Rooseboom's party. N. Y.
+Col. Docs., III. 436. La Potherie says, three hundred.
+
+"It is certain," wrote Denonville; "that, if the English had not been
+stopped and pillaged, the Hurons and Ottawas would have revolted and cut
+the throats of all our Frenchmen." [10] As it was, La Durantaye's
+exploit produced a revulsion of feeling, and many of the Indians
+consented to follow him. He lost no time in leading them down the lake
+to join Du Lhut at Detroit; and, when Tonty arrived, they all paddled
+for Niagara. On the way, they met McGregory with a party about equal to
+that of Rooseboom. He had with him a considerable number of Ottawa and
+Huron prisoners whom the Iroquois had captured, and whom he meant to
+return to their countrymen as a means of concluding the long projected
+triple alliance between the English, the Iroquois, and the tribes of the
+lakes. This bold scheme was now completely crushed. All the English were
+captured and carried to Niagara, whence they and their luckless
+precursors were sent prisoners to Quebec.
+
+[10] Denonville au Ministre, 25 Août, 1687.
+
+La Durantaye and his companions, with a hundred and eighty coureurs de
+bois and four hundred Indians, waited impatiently at Niagara for orders
+from the governor. A canoe despatched in haste from Fort Frontenac soon
+appeared; and they were directed to repair at once to the rendezvous at
+Irondequoit Bay, on the borders of the Seneca country. [11]
+
+[11] The above is drawn from papers in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 436, IX.
+324, 336, 346, 405; Saint-Vallier, État Présent, 92; Denonville,
+Journal; Belmont, Histoire du Canada; La Potherie, II. chap. xvi; La
+Hontan. I. 96. Colden's account is confused and incorrect.
+
+Denonville was already on his way thither. On the fourth of July, he had
+embarked at Fort Frontenac with four hundred bateaux and canoes, crossed
+the foot of Lake Ontario, and moved westward along the southern shore.
+The weather was rough, and six days passed before he descried the low
+headlands of Irondequoit Bay. Far off on the glimmering water, he saw a
+multitude of canoes advancing to meet him. It was the flotilla of La
+Durantaye. Good management and good luck had so disposed it that the
+allied bands, concentring from points more than a thousand miles
+distant, reached the rendezvous on the same day. This was not all. The
+Ottawas of Michillimackinac, who refused to follow La Durantaye, had
+changed their minds the next morning, embarked in a body, paddled up the
+Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, crossed to Toronto, and joined the allies at
+Niagara. White and red, Denonville now had nearly three thousand men
+under his command. [12]
+
+[12] Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada depuis 1682; Captain
+Duplessis's Plan for the Defence of Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX.
+447.
+
+All were gathered on the low point of land that separates Irondequoit
+Bay from Lake Ontario. "Never," says an eye-witness, "had Canada seen
+such a sight; and never, perhaps, will she see such a sight again. Here
+was the camp of the regulars from France, with the general's
+head-quarters; the camp of the four battalions of Canadian militia,
+commanded by the noblesse of the country; the camp of the Christian
+Indians; and, farther on, a swarm of savages of every nation. Their
+features were different, and so were their manners, their weapons, their
+decorations, and their dances. They sang and whooped and harangued in
+every accent and tongue. Most of them wore nothing but horns on their
+heads, and the tails of beasts behind their backs. Their faces were
+painted red or green, with black or white spots; their ears and noses
+were hung with ornaments of iron; and their naked bodies were daubed
+with figures of various sorts of animals." [13]
+
+[13] The first part of the extract is from Belmont; the second, from
+Saint-Vallier.
+
+These were the allies from the upper lakes. The enemy, meanwhile, had
+taken alarm. Just after the army arrived, three Seneca scouts called
+from the edge of the woods, and demanded what they meant to do. "To
+fight you, you blockheads," answered a Mohawk Christian attached to the
+French. A volley of bullets was fired at the scouts; but they escaped,
+and carried the news to their villages. [14] Many of the best warriors
+were absent. Those that remained, four hundred or four hundred and fifty
+by their own accounts, and eight hundred by that of the French, mustered
+in haste; and, though many of them were mere boys, they sent off the
+women and children, hid their most valued possessions, burned their
+chief town, and prepared to meet the invaders.
+
+[14] Information received from several Indians, in N. Y. Col. Docs.,
+III. 444.
+
+On the twelfth, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Denonville began his
+march, leaving four hundred men in a hastily built fort to guard the
+bateaux and canoes. Troops, officers, and Indians, all carried their
+provisions at their backs. Some of the Christian Mohawks guided them;
+but guides were scarcely needed, for a broad Indian trail led from the
+bay to the great Seneca town, twenty-two miles southward. They marched
+three leagues through the open forests of oak, and encamped for the
+night. In the morning, the heat was intense. The men gasped in the dead
+and sultry air of the woods, or grew faint in the pitiless sun, as they
+waded waist-deep through the rank grass of the narrow intervales. They
+passed safely through two dangerous defiles, and, about two in the
+afternoon, began to enter a third. Dense forests covered the hills on
+either hand. La Durantaye with Tonty and his cousin Du Lhut led the
+advance, nor could all Canada have supplied three men better for the
+work. Each led his band of coureurs de bois, white Indians, without
+discipline, and scarcely capable of it, but brave and accustomed to the
+woods. On their left were the Iroquois converts from the missions of
+Saut St. Louis and the Mountain of Montreal, fighting under the
+influence of their ghostly prompters against their own countrymen. On
+the right were the pagan Indians from the west. The woods were full of
+these painted spectres, grotesquely horrible in horns and tail; and
+among them flitted the black robe of Father Engelran, the Jesuit of
+Michillimackinac. Nicolas Perrot and two other bush-ranging Frenchmen
+were assigned to command them, but in fact they obeyed no man. These
+formed the vanguard, eight or nine hundred in all, under an excellent
+officer, Callières, governor of Montreal. Behind came the main body
+under Denonville, each of the four battalions of regulars alternating
+with a battalion of Canadians. Some of the regulars wore light armor,
+while the Canadians were in plain attire of coarse cloth or buckskin.
+Denonville, oppressed by the heat, marched in his shirt. "It is a rough
+life," wrote the marquis, "to tramp afoot through the woods, carrying
+one's own provisions in a haversack, devoured by mosquitoes, and faring
+no better than a mere soldier." [15] With him was the Chevalier de
+Vaudreuil, who had just arrived from France in command of the eight
+hundred men left to guard the colony, and who, eager to take part in the
+campaign, had pushed forward alone to join the army. Here, too, were the
+Canadian seigniors at the head of their vassals, Berthier, La Valterie,
+Granville, Longueuil, and many more. A guard of rangers and Indians
+brought up the rear.
+
+[15] Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.
+
+Scouts thrown out in front ran back with the report that they had
+reached the Seneca clearings, and had seen no more dangerous enemy than
+three or four women in the cornfields. This was a device of the Senecas
+to cheat the French into the belief that the inhabitants were still in
+the town. It had the desired effect. The vanguard pushed rapidly
+forward, hoping to surprise the place, and ignorant that, behind the
+ridge of thick forests on their right, among a tangled growth of
+beech-trees in the gorge of a brook, three hundred ambushed warriors lay
+biding their time.
+
+Hurrying forward through the forest, they left the main body behind, and
+soon reached the end of the defile. The woods were still dense on their
+left and front; but on their right lay a great marsh, covered with alder
+thickets and rank grass. Suddenly the air was filled with yells, and a
+rapid though distant fire was opened from the thickets and the forest.
+Scores of painted savages, stark naked, some armed with swords and some
+with hatchets, leaped screeching from their ambuscade, and rushed
+against the van. Almost at the same moment a burst of whoops and firing
+sounded in the defile behind. It was the ambushed three hundred
+supporting the onset of their countrymen in front; but they had made a
+fatal mistake. Deceived by the numbers of the vanguard, they supposed it
+to be the whole army, never suspecting that Denonville was close behind
+with sixteen hundred men. It was a surprise on both sides. So dense was
+the forest that the advancing battalions could see neither the enemy nor
+each other. Appalled by the din of whoops and firing, redoubled by the
+echoes of the narrow valley, the whole army was seized with something
+like a panic. Some of the officers, it is said, threw themselves on the
+ground in their fright. There were a few moments of intense
+bewilderment. The various corps became broken and confused, and moved
+hither and thither without knowing why. Denonville behaved with great
+courage. He ran, sword in hand, to where the uproar was greatest,
+ordered the drums to beat the charge, turned back the militia of
+Berthier who were trying to escape, and commanded them and all others
+whom he met to fire on whatever looked like an enemy. He was bravely
+seconded by Callières, La Valterie, and several other officers. The
+Christian Iroquois fought well from the first, leaping from tree to
+tree, and exchanging shots and defiance with their heathen countrymen;
+till the Senecas, seeing themselves confronted by numbers that seemed
+endless, abandoned the field, after heavy loss, carrying with them many
+of their dead and all of their wounded. [16]
+
+[16] For authorities, see note at the end of the chapter. The account of
+Charlevoix is contradicted at several points by the contemporary
+writers.
+
+Denonville made no attempt to pursue. He had learned the dangers of this
+blind warfare of the woods; and he feared that the Senecas would waylay
+him again in the labyrinth of bushes that lay between him and the town.
+"Our troops," he says, "were all so overcome by the extreme heat and the
+long march that we were forced to remain where we were till morning. We
+had the pain of witnessing the usual cruelties of the Indians, who cut
+the dead bodies into quarters, like butchers' meat, to put into their
+kettles, and opened most of them while still warm to drink the blood.
+Our rascally Ottawas particularly distinguished themselves by these
+barbarities, as well as by cowardice; for they made off in the fight. We
+had five or six men killed on the spot, and about twenty wounded, among
+whom was Father Engelran, who was badly hurt by a gun-shot. Some
+prisoners who escaped from the Senecas tell us that they lost forty men
+killed outright, twenty-five of whom we saw butchered. One of the
+escaped prisoners saw the rest buried, and he saw also more than sixty
+very dangerously wounded." [17]
+
+[17] Denonville au Ministre, 25 Août, 1687. In his journal, written
+afterwards, he says that the Senecas left twenty-seven dead on the
+field, and carried off twenty more, besides upwards of sixty mortally
+wounded.
+
+In the morning, the troops advanced in order of battle through a marsh
+covered with alders and tall grass, whence they had no sooner emerged
+than, says Abbé Belmont, "we began to see the famous Babylon of the
+Senecas, where so many crimes have been committed, so much blood
+spilled, and so many men burned. It was a village or town of bark, on
+the top of a hill. They had burned it a week before. We found nothing in
+it but the graveyard and the graves, full of snakes and other creatures;
+a great mask, with teeth and eyes of brass, and a bearskin drawn over
+it, with which they performed their conjurations." [18] The fire had
+also spared a number of huge receptacles of bark, still filled with the
+last season's corn; while the fields around were covered with the
+growing crop, ripening in the July sun. There were hogs, too, in great
+number; for the Iroquois did not share the antipathy with which Indians
+are apt to regard that unsavory animal, and from which certain
+philosophers have argued their descent from the Jews.
+
+[18] Belmont. A few words are added from Saint-Vallier.
+
+The soldiers killed the hogs, burned the old corn, and hacked down the
+new with their swords. Next they advanced to an abandoned Seneca fort on
+a hill half a league distant, and burned it, with all that it contained.
+Ten days were passed in the work of havoc. Three neighboring villages
+were levelled, and all their fields laid waste. The amount of corn
+destroyed was prodigious. Denonville reckons it at the absurdly
+exaggerated amount of twelve hundred thousand bushels.
+
+The Senecas, laden with such of their possessions as they could carry
+off, had fled to their confederates in the east; and Denonville did not
+venture to pursue them. His men, feasting without stint on green corn
+and fresh pork, were sickening rapidly, and his Indian allies were
+deserting him. "It is a miserable business," he wrote, "to command
+savages, who, as soon as they have knocked an enemy in the head, ask for
+nothing but to go home and carry with them the scalp, which they take
+off like a skull-cap. You cannot believe what trouble I had to keep them
+till the corn was cut."
+
+On the twenty-fourth, he withdrew, with all his army, to the fortified
+post at Irondequoit Bay, whence he proceeded to Niagara, in order to
+accomplish his favorite purpose of building a fort there. The troops
+were set at work, and a stockade was planted on the point of land at the
+eastern angle between the River Niagara and Lake Ontario, the site of
+the ruined fort built by La Salle nine years before. [19] Here he left a
+hundred men, under the Chevalier de Troyes, and, embarking with the rest
+of the army, descended to Montreal.
+
+[19] Procès-verbal de la Prise de Possession de Niagara, 31 Juillet,
+1687. There are curious errors of date in this document regarding the
+proceedings of La Salle.
+
+The campaign was but half a success. Joined to the capture of the
+English traders on the lakes, it had, indeed, prevented the defection of
+the western Indians, and in some slight measure restored their respect
+for the French, of whom, nevertheless, one of them was heard to say that
+they were good for nothing but to make war on hogs and corn. As for the
+Senecas, they were more enraged than hurt. They could rebuild their bark
+villages in a few weeks; and, though they had lost their harvest, their
+confederates would not let them starve. [20] A converted Iroquois had
+told the governor before his departure that, if he overset a wasps'
+nest, he must crush the wasps, or they would sting him. Denonville left
+the wasps alive.
+
+[20] The statement of some later writers, that many of the Senecas died
+during the following winter in consequence of the loss of their corn, is
+extremely doubtful. Captain Duplessis, in his Plan for the Defence of
+Canada, 1690, declares that not one of them perished of hunger.
+
+Denonville's campaign against the Senecas.--The chief authorities on
+this matter are the journal of Denonville, of which there is a
+translation in the Colonial Documents of New York, IX.; the letters of
+Denonville to the Minister; the État Présent de l'Église de la Colonie
+Française, by Bishop Saint-Vallier; the Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en
+Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, tant des Anglais que des Iroquois, depuis
+l'année 1682; and the excellent account by Abbé Belmont in his chronicle
+called Histoire du Canada. To these may be added La Hontan, Tonty,
+Nicolas Perrot, La Potherie, and the Senecas examined before the
+authorities of Albany, whose statements are printed in the Colonial
+Documents, III. These are the original sources. Charlevoix drew his
+account from a portion of them. It is inexact, and needs the correction
+of his learned annotator, Mr. Shea. Colden, Smith, and other English
+writers follow La Hontan.
+
+The researches of Mr. O. H. Marshall, of Buffalo, have left no
+reasonable doubt as to the scene of the battle, and the site of the
+neighboring town. The Seneca ambuscade was on the marsh and the hills
+immediately north and west of the present village of Victor; and their
+chief town, called Gannagaro by Denonville, was on the top of Boughton's
+Hill, about a mile and a quarter distant. Immense quantities of Indian
+remains were formerly found here, and many are found to this day.
+Charred corn has been turned up in abundance by the plough, showing that
+the place was destroyed by fire. The remains of the fort burned by the
+French are still plainly visible on a hill a mile and a quarter from the
+ancient town. A plan of it will be found in Squier's Aboriginal
+Monuments of New York. The site of the three other Seneca towns
+destroyed by Denonville, and called Totiakton, Gannondata, and
+Gannongarae, can also be identified. See Marshall, in Collections N. Y.
+Hist. Soc., 2d Series, II. Indian traditions of historical events are
+usually almost worthless; but the old Seneca chief Dyunehogawah, or
+"John Blacksmith," who was living a few years ago at the Tonawanda
+reservation, recounted to Mr. Marshall with remarkable accuracy the
+story of the battle as handed down from his ancestors who lived at
+Gannagaro, close to the scene of action. Gannagaro was the Canagorah of
+Wentworth Greenalgh's Journal. The old Seneca, on being shown a map of
+the locality, placed his finger on the spot where the fight took place,
+and which was long known to the Senecas by the name of Dyagodiyu, or
+"The Place of a Battle." It answers in the most perfect manner to the
+French contemporary descriptions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+1687-1689.
+
+The Iroquois Invasion.
+
+Altercations • Attitude of Dongan • Martial Preparation • Perplexity of
+Denonville • Angry Correspondence • Recall of Dongan • Sir Edmund Andros
+• Humiliation of Denonville • Distress of Canada • Appeals for Help •
+Iroquois Diplomacy • A Huron Macchiavel • The Catastrophe • Ferocity of
+the Victors • War with England • Recall of Denonville.
+
+When Dongan heard that the French had invaded the Senecas, seized
+English traders on the lakes, and built a fort at Niagara, his wrath was
+kindled anew. He sent to the Iroquois, and summoned them to meet him at
+Albany; told the assembled chiefs that the late calamity had fallen upon
+them because they had held councils with the French without asking his
+leave; forbade them to do so again, and informed them that, as subjects
+of King James, they must make no treaty, except by the consent of his
+representative, the governor of New York. He declared that the Ottawas
+and other remote tribes were also British subjects; that the Iroquois
+should unite with them, to expel the French from the west; and that all
+alike should bring down their beaver skins to the English at Albany.
+Moreover, he enjoined them to receive no more French Jesuits into their
+towns, and to call home their countrymen whom these fathers had
+converted and enticed to Canada. "Obey my commands," added the governor,
+"for that is the only way to eat well and sleep well, without fear or
+disturbance." The Iroquois, who wanted his help, seemed to assent to all
+he said. "We will fight the French," exclaimed their orator, "as long as
+we have a man left." [1]
+
+[1] Dongan's Propositions to the Five Nations; Answer of the Five
+Nations, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 438, 441.
+
+At the same time, Dongan wrote to Denonville demanding the immediate
+surrender of the Dutch and English captured on the lakes. Denonville
+angrily replied that he would keep the prisoners, since Dongan had
+broken the treaty of neutrality by "giving aid and comfort to the
+savages." The English governor, in return, upbraided his correspondent
+for invading British territory. "I will endevour to protect his
+Majesty's subjects here from your unjust invasions, till I hear from the
+King, my Master, who is the greatest and most glorious Monarch that ever
+set on a Throne, and would do as much to propagate the Christian faith
+as any prince that lives. He did not send me here to suffer you to give
+laws to his subjects. I hope, notwithstanding all your trained souldiers
+and greate Officers come from Europe, that our masters at home will
+suffer us to do ourselves justice on you for the injuries and spoyle you
+have committed on us; and I assure you, Sir, if my Master gives leave, I
+will be as soon at Quebeck as you shall be att Albany. What you alleage
+concerning my assisting the Sinnakees (Senecas) with arms and ammunition
+to warr against you was never given by mee untill the sixt of August
+last, when understanding of your unjust proceedings in invading the King
+my Master's territorys in a hostill manner, I then gave them powder,
+lead, and armes, and united the five nations together to defend that
+part of our King's dominions from your jnjurious invasion. And as for
+offering them men, in that you doe me wrong, our men being all buisy
+then at their harvest, and I leave itt to your judgment whether there
+was any occasion when only foure hundred of them engaged with your whole
+army. I advise you to send home all the Christian and Indian prisoners
+the King of England's subjects you unjustly do deteine. This is what I
+have thought fitt to answer to your reflecting and provoking letter." [2]
+
+[2] Dongan to Denonville, 9 Sept., 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 472.
+
+As for the French claims to the Iroquois country and the upper lakes, he
+turned them to ridicule. They were founded, in part, on the missions
+established there by the Jesuits. "The King of China," observes Dongan,
+"never goes anywhere without two Jessuits with him. I wonder you make
+not the like pretence to that Kingdome." He speaks with equal irony of
+the claim based on discovery: "Pardon me if I say itt is a mistake,
+except you will affirme that a few loose fellowes rambling amongst
+Indians to keep themselves from starving gives the French a right to the
+Countrey." And of the claim based on geographical divisions: "Your
+reason is that some rivers or rivoletts of this country run out into the
+great river of Canada. O just God! what new, farr-fetched, and
+unheard-of pretence is this for a title to a country. The French King
+may have as good a pretence to all those Countrys that drink clarett and
+Brandy." [3] In spite of his sarcasms, it is clear that the claim of
+prior discovery and occupation was on the side of the French.
+
+[3] Dongan's Fourth Paper to the French Agents, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 528.
+
+The dispute now assumed a new phase. James II. at length consented to
+own the Iroquois as his subjects, ordering Dongan to protect them, and
+repel the French by force of arms, should they attack them again. [4] At
+the same time, conferences were opened at London between the French
+ambassador and the English commissioners appointed to settle the
+questions at issue. Both disputants claimed the Iroquois as subjects,
+and the contest wore an aspect more serious than before.
+
+[4] Warrant, authorizing Governor Dongan to protect the Five Nations, 10
+Nov., 1687, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 503.
+
+The royal declaration was a great relief to Dongan. Thus far he had
+acted at his own risk; now he was sustained by the orders of his king.
+He instantly assumed a warlike attitude; and, in the next spring, wrote
+to the Earl of Sunderland that he had been at Albany all winter, with
+four hundred infantry, fifty horsemen, and eight hundred Indians. This
+was not without cause, for a report had come from Canada that the French
+were about to march on Albany to destroy it. "And now, my Lord,"
+continues Dongan, "we must build forts in ye countrey upon ye great
+Lakes, as ye French doe, otherwise we lose ye Countrey, ye Bever trade,
+and our Indians." [5] Denonville, meanwhile, had begun to yield, and
+promised to send back McGregory and the men captured with him. [6]
+Dongan, not satisfied, insisted on payment for all the captured
+merchandise, and on the immediate demolition of Fort Niagara. He added
+another demand, which must have been singularly galling to his rival. It
+was to the effect that the Iroquois prisoners seized at Fort Frontenac,
+and sent to the galleys in France, should be surrendered as British
+subjects to the English ambassador at Paris or the secretary of state in
+London. [7]
+
+[5] Dongan to Sunderland, Feb., 1688, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 510.
+[6] Denonville à Dongan, 2 Oct., 1687. McGregory soon arrived, and
+Dongan sent him back to Canada as an emissary with a civil message to
+Denonville. Dongan to Denonville, 10 Nov., 1687.
+[7] Dongan to Denonville, 31 Oct., 1687; Dongan's First Demand of the
+French Agents, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 515, 520.
+
+Denonville was sorely perplexed. He was hard pressed, and eager for
+peace with the Iroquois at any price; but Dongan was using every means
+to prevent their treating of peace with the French governor until he had
+complied with all the English demands. In this extremity, Denonville
+sent Father Vaillant to Albany, in the hope of bringing his intractable
+rival to conditions less humiliating. The Jesuit played his part with
+ability, and proved more than a match for his adversary in dialectics;
+but Dongan held fast to all his demands. Vaillant tried to temporize,
+and asked for a truce, with a view to a final settlement by reference to
+the two kings. [8] Dongan referred the question to a meeting of Iroquois
+chiefs, who declared in reply that they would make neither peace nor
+truce till Fort Niagara was demolished and all the prisoners restored.
+Dongan, well pleased, commended their spirit, and assured them that King
+James, "who is the greatest man the sunn shines uppon, and never told a
+ly in his life, has given you his Royall word to protect you." [9]
+Vaillant returned from his bootless errand; and a stormy correspondence
+followed between the two governors. Dongan renewed his demands, then
+protested his wish for peace, extolled King James for his pious zeal,
+and declared that he was sending over missionaries of his own to convert
+the Iroquois. [10] What Denonville wanted was not their conversion by
+Englishmen, but their conversion by Frenchmen, and the presence in their
+towns of those most useful political agents, the Jesuits. [11] He
+replied angrily, charging Dongan with preventing the conversion of the
+Iroquois by driving off the French missionaries, and accusing him,
+farther, of instigating the tribes of New York to attack Canada.[12]
+Suddenly there was a change in the temper of his letters. He wrote to
+his rival in terms of studied civility; declared that he wished he could
+meet him, and consult with him on the best means of advancing the cause
+of true religion; begged that he would not refuse him his friendship;
+and thanked him in warm terms for befriending some French prisoners whom
+he had saved from the Iroquois, and treated with great kindness. [13]
+
+[8] The papers of this discussion will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs.,
+III.
+[9] Dongan's Reply to the Five Nations, Ibid., III. 535.
+[10] Dongan to Denonville, 17 Feb., 1688, Ibid., III. 519.
+[11] "II y a une nécessité indispensable pour les intérais de la
+Religion et de la Colonie de restablir les missionaires Jésuites dans
+tous les villages Iroquois: si vous ne trouvés moyen de faire retourner
+ces Pères dans leurs anciennes missions, vous devés en attendre beaucoup
+de malheur pour cette Colonie; car je dois vous dire que jusqu'icy c'est
+leur habilité qui a soutenu les affaires du pays par leur sçavoir-faire
+à gouverner les esprits de ces barbares, qui ne sont Sauvages que de
+nom." Denonville, Mémoire adressé au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1688.
+[12] Denonville à Dongan, 24 Avril, 1688; Ibid., 12 Mai, 1688. Whether
+the charge is true is questionable. Dongan had just written that, if the
+Iroquois did harm to the French, he was ordered to offer satisfaction,
+and had already done so.
+[13] Denonville à Dongan, 18 Juin, 1688; Ibid., 5 Juillet, 1688; Ibid.,
+20 Aug., 1688. "Je n'ai donc qu'à vous asseurer que toute la Colonie a
+une très-parfaite reconnoissance des bons offices que ces pauvres
+malheureux ont reçu de vous et de vos peuples."
+
+This change was due to despatches from Versailles, in which Denonville
+was informed that the matters in dispute would soon be amicably settled
+by the commissioners; that he was to keep on good terms with the English
+commanders, and, what pleased him still more, that the king of England
+was about to recall Dongan. [14] In fact, James II. had resolved on
+remodelling his American colonies. New York, New Jersey, and New England
+had been formed into one government under Sir Edmund Andros; and Dongan
+was summoned home, where a regiment was given him, with the rank of
+major-general of artillery. Denonville says that, in his efforts to
+extend English trade to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, his late
+rival had been influenced by motives of personal gain. Be this as it
+may, he was a bold and vigorous defender of the claims of the British
+crown.
+
+[14] Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sr. Marquis de Denonville, 8
+Mars, 1688; Le Roy à Denonville, même date; Seignelay à Denonville, même
+date. Louis XIV. had demanded Dongan's recall. How far this had
+influenced the action of James II. it is difficult to say.
+
+Sir Edmund Andros now reigned over New York; and, by the terms of his
+commission, his rule stretched westward to the Pacific. The usual
+official courtesies passed between him and Denonville; but Andros
+renewed all the demands of his predecessor, claimed the Iroquois as
+subjects, and forbade the French to attack them. [15] The new governor
+was worse than the old. Denonville wrote to the minister: "I send you
+copies of his letters, by which you will see that the spirit of Dongan
+has entered into the heart of his successor, who may be less passionate
+and less interested, but who is, to say the least, quite as much opposed
+to us, and perhaps more dangerous by his suppleness and smoothness than
+the other was by his violence. What he has just done among the Iroquois,
+whom he pretends to be under his government, and whom he prevents from
+coming to meet me, is a certain proof that neither he nor the other
+English governors, nor their people, will refrain from doing this colony
+all the harm they can." [16]
+
+[15] Andros to Denonville, 21 Aug., 1688; Ibid., 29 Sept., 1688.
+[16] Mémoire de l'Estat Présent des Affaires de ce Pays depuis le 10me
+Aoust, 1688, jusq'au dernier Octobre de la mesme année. He declares that
+the English are always "itching for the western trade," that their
+favorite plan is to establish a post on the Ohio, and that they have
+made the attempt three times already.
+
+While these things were passing, the state of Canada was deplorable, and
+the position of its governor as mortifying as it was painful. He thought
+with good reason that the maintenance of the new fort at Niagara was of
+great importance to the colony, and he had repeatedly refused the
+demands of Dongan and the Iroquois for its demolition. But a power
+greater than sachems and governors presently intervened. The provisions
+left at Niagara, though abundant, were atrociously bad. Scurvy and other
+malignant diseases soon broke out among the soldiers. The Senecas
+prowled about the place, and no man dared venture out for hunting,
+fishing, or firewood. [17] The fort was first a prison, then a hospital,
+then a charnel-house, till before spring the garrison of a hundred men
+was reduced to ten or twelve. In this condition, they were found towards
+the end of April by a large war-party of friendly Miamis, who entered
+the place and held it till a French detachment at length arrived for its
+relief. [18] The garrison of Fort Frontenac had suffered from the same
+causes, though not to the same degree. Denonville feared that he should
+be forced to abandon them both. The way was so long and so dangerous,
+and the governor had grown of late so cautious, that he dreaded the risk
+of maintaining such remote communications. On second thought, he
+resolved to keep Frontenac and sacrifice Niagara. He promised Dongan
+that he would demolish it, and he kept his word. [19]
+
+[17] Denonville, Mémoire du 10 Aoust, 1688.
+[18] Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada depuis l'année 1682. The
+writer was an officer of the detachment, and describes what he saw.
+Compare La Potherie, II. 210; and La Hontan, I. 131 (1709).
+[19] Denonville à Dongan, 20 Aoust, 1688; Procès-verbal of the Condition
+of Fort Niagara, 1688; N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 386. The palisades were
+torn down by Denonville's order on the 15th of September. The rude
+dwellings and storehouses which they enclosed, together with a large
+wooden cross, were left standing. The commandant De Troyes had died, and
+Captain Desbergères had been sent to succeed him.
+
+He was forced to another and a deeper humiliation. At the imperious
+demand of Dongan and the Iroquois, he begged the king to send back the
+prisoners entrapped at Fort Frontenac, and he wrote to the minister: "Be
+pleased, Monseigneur, to remember that I had the honor to tell you that,
+in order to attain the peace necessary to the country, I was obliged to
+promise that I would beg you to send back to us the prisoners I sent you
+last year. I know you gave orders that they should be well treated, but
+I am informed that, though they were well enough treated at first, your
+orders were not afterwards executed with the same fidelity. If ill
+treatment has caused them all to die,--for they are people who easily
+fall into dejection, and who die of it,--and if none of them come back,
+I do not know at all whether we can persuade these barbarians not to
+attack us again." [20]
+
+[20] Denonville, Mémoire de 10 Aoust, 1688.
+
+What had brought the marquis to this pass? Famine, destitution, disease,
+and the Iroquois were making Canada their prey. The fur trade had been
+stopped for two years; and the people, bereft of their only means of
+subsistence, could contribute nothing to their own defence. Above Three
+Rivers, the whole population was imprisoned in stockade forts hastily
+built in every seigniory. [21] Here they were safe, provided that they
+never ventured out; but their fields were left untilled, and the
+governor was already compelled to feed many of them at the expense of
+the king. The Iroquois roamed among the deserted settlements or prowled
+like lynxes about the forts, waylaying convoys and killing or capturing
+stragglers. Their war-parties were usually small; but their movements
+were so mysterious and their attacks so sudden, that they spread a
+universal panic through the upper half of the colony. They were the
+wasps which Denonville had failed to kill.
+
+[21] In the Dépot des Cartes de la Marine, there is a contemporary
+manuscript map, on which all these forts are laid down.
+
+"We should succumb," wrote the distressed governor, "if our cause were
+not the cause of God. Your Majesty's zeal for religion, and the great
+things you have done for the destruction of heresy, encourage me to hope
+that you will be the bulwark of the Faith in the new world as you are in
+the old. I cannot give you a truer idea of the war we have to wage with
+the Iroquois than by comparing them to a great number of wolves or other
+ferocious beasts, issuing out of a vast forest to ravage the neighboring
+settlements. The people gather to hunt them down; but nobody can find
+their lair, for they are always in motion. An abler man than I would be
+greatly at a loss to manage the affairs of this country. It is for the
+interest of the colony to have peace at any cost whatever. For the glory
+of the king and the good of religion, we should be glad to have it an
+advantageous one; and so it would have been, but for the malice of the
+English and the protection they have given our enemies." [22]
+
+[22] Denonville au Roy, 1688; Ibid., Mémoire du 10 Aoust, 1688; Ibid.,
+Mémoire du 9 Nov., 1688.
+
+And yet he had, one would think, a reasonable force at his disposal. His
+thirty-two companies of regulars were reduced by this time to about
+fourteen hundred men, but he had also three or four hundred Indian
+converts, besides the militia of the colony, of whom he had stationed a
+large body under Vaudreuil at the head of the Island of Montreal. All
+told, they were several times more numerous than the agile warriors who
+held the colony in terror. He asked for eight hundred more regulars. The
+king sent him three hundred. Affairs grew worse, and he grew desperate.
+Rightly judging that the best means of defence was to take the
+offensive, he conceived the plan of a double attack on the Iroquois, one
+army to assail the Onondagas and Cayugas, another the Mohawks and
+Oneidas. [23] Since to reach the Mohawks as he proposed, by the way of
+Lake Champlain, he must pass through territory indisputably British, the
+attempt would be a flagrant violation of the treaty of neutrality.
+Nevertheless, he implored the king to send him four thousand soldiers to
+accomplish it. [24] His fast friend, the bishop, warmly seconded his
+appeal. "The glory of God is involved," wrote the head of the church,
+"for the Iroquois are the only tribe who oppose the progress of the
+gospel. The glory of the king is involved, for they are the only tribe
+who refuse to recognize his grandeur and his might. They hold the French
+in the deepest contempt; and, unless they are completely humbled within
+two years, his Majesty will have no colony left in Canada." [25] And the
+prelate proceeds to tell the minister how, in his opinion, the war ought
+to be conducted. The appeal was vain. "His Majesty agrees with you,"
+wrote Seignelay, "that three or four thousand men would be the best
+means of making peace, but he cannot spare them now. If the enemy breaks
+out again, raise the inhabitants, and fight as well as you can till his
+Majesty is prepared to send you troops." [26]
+
+[23] Plan for the Termination of the Iroquois War, N. Y. Col. Docs., IX.
+375.
+[24] Denonville, Mémoire du 8 Août, 1688.
+[25] Saint-Vallier, Mémoire sur les Affaires du Canada pour Monseigneur
+le Marquis de Seignelay.
+[26] Mémoire du Ministre adressé à Denonville, 1 Mai, 1689.
+
+A hope had dawned on the governor. He had been more active of late in
+negotiating than in fighting, and his diplomacy had prospered more than
+his arms. It may be remembered that some of the Iroquois entrapped at
+Fort Frontenac had been given to their Christian relatives in the
+mission villages. Here they had since remained. Denonville thought that
+he might use them as messengers to their heathen countrymen, and he sent
+one or more of them to Onondaga with gifts and overtures of peace. That
+shrewd old politician, Big Mouth, was still strong in influence at the
+Iroquois capital, and his name was great to the farthest bounds of the
+confederacy. He knew by personal experience the advantages of a neutral
+position between the rival European powers, from both of whom he
+received gifts and attentions; and he saw that what was good for him was
+good for the confederacy, since, if it gave itself to neither party,
+both would court its alliance. In his opinion, it had now leaned long
+enough towards the English; and a change of attitude had become
+expedient. Therefore, as Denonville promised the return of the
+prisoners, and was plainly ready to make other concessions, Big Mouth,
+setting at naught the prohibitions of Andros, consented to a conference
+with the French. He set out at his leisure for Montreal, with six
+Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida chiefs; and, as no diplomatist ever
+understood better the advantage of negotiating at the head of an
+imposing force, a body of Iroquois warriors, to the number, it is said,
+of twelve hundred, set out before him, and silently took path to Canada.
+
+The ambassadors paddled across the lake and presented themselves before
+the commandant of Fort Frontenac, who received them with distinction,
+and ordered Lieutenant Perelle to escort them to Montreal. Scarcely had
+the officer conducted his august charge five leagues on their way, when,
+to his amazement, he found himself in the midst of six hundred Iroquois
+warriors, who amused themselves for a time with his terror, and then
+accompanied him as far as Lake St. Francis, where he found another body
+of savages nearly equal in number. Here the warriors halted, and the
+ambassadors with their escort gravely pursued their way to meet
+Denonville at Montreal. [27]
+
+[27] Relation des Évenements de la Guerre, 30 Oct., 1688.
+
+Big Mouth spoke haughtily, like a man who knew his power. He told the
+governor that he and his people were subjects neither of the French nor
+of the English; that they wished to be friends of both; that they held
+their country of the Great Spirit; and that they had never been
+conquered in war. He declared that the Iroquois knew the weakness of the
+French, and could easily exterminate them; that they had formed a plan
+of burning all the houses and barns of Canada, killing the cattle,
+setting fire to the ripe grain, and then, when the people were starving,
+attacking the forts; but that he, Big Mouth, had prevented its
+execution. He concluded by saying that he was allowed but four days to
+bring back the governor's reply; and that, if he were kept waiting
+longer, he would not answer for what might happen. [28] Though it
+appeared by some expressions in his speech that he was ready to make
+peace only with the French, leaving the Iroquois free to attack the
+Indian allies of the colony, and though, while the ambassadors were at
+Montreal, their warriors on the river above actually killed several of
+the Indian converts, Denonville felt himself compelled to pretend
+ignorance of the outrage. [29] A declaration of neutrality was drawn up,
+and Big Mouth affixed to it the figures of sundry birds and beasts as
+the signatures of himself and his fellow-chiefs. [30] He promised, too,
+that within a certain time deputies from the whole confederacy should
+come to Montreal and conclude a general peace.
+
+[28] Declaration of the Iroquois in presence of M. de Denonville, N. Y.
+Col. Docs., IX. 384; Relation des Événements de la Guerre, 30 Oct.,
+1688; Belmont, Histoire du Canada.
+[29] Callières à Seignelay, Jan., 1689.
+[30] See the signatures in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 385, 386.
+
+The time arrived, and they did not appear. It became known, however,
+that a number of chiefs were coming from Onondaga to explain the delay,
+and to promise that the deputies should soon follow. The chiefs in fact
+were on their way. They reached La Famine, the scene of La Barre's
+meeting with Big Mouth; but here an unexpected incident arrested them,
+and completely changed the aspect of affairs.
+
+Among the Hurons of Michillimackinac there was a chief of high renown
+named Kondiaronk, or the Rat. He was in the prime of life, a redoubted
+warrior, and a sage counsellor. The French seem to have admired him
+greatly. "He is a gallant man," says La Hontan, "if ever there was one;"
+while Charlevoix declares that he was the ablest Indian the French ever
+knew in America, and that he had nothing of the savage but the name and
+the dress. In spite of the father's eulogy, the moral condition of the
+Rat savored strongly of the wigwam. He had given Denonville great
+trouble by his constant intrigues with the Iroquois, with whom he had
+once made a plot for the massacre of his neighbors, the Ottawas, under
+cover of a pretended treaty. [31] The French had spared no pains to gain
+him; and he had at length been induced to declare for them, under a
+pledge from the governor that the war should never cease till the
+Iroquois were destroyed. During the summer, he raised a party of forty
+warriors, and came down the lakes in quest of Iroquois scalps. [32] On
+the way, he stopped at Fort Frontenac to hear the news, when, to his
+amazement, the commandant told him that deputies from Onondaga were
+coming in a few days to conclude peace, and that he had better go home
+at once.
+
+[31] Nicolas Perrot, 143.
+[32] Denonville à Seignelay, 9 Nov., 1688. La Hontan saw the party set
+out, and says that there were about a hundred of them.
+
+"It is well," replied the Rat.
+
+He knew that for the Hurons it was not well. He and his tribe stood
+fully committed to the war, and for them peace between the French and
+the Iroquois would be a signal of destruction, since Denonville could
+not or would not protect his allies. The Rat paddled off with his
+warriors. He had secretly learned the route of the expected deputies;
+and he shaped his course, not, as he had pretended, for
+Michillimackinac, but for La Famine, where he knew that they would land.
+Having reached his destination, he watched and waited four or five days,
+till canoes at length appeared, approaching from the direction of
+Onondaga. On this, the Rat and his friends hid themselves in the bushes.
+
+The new comers were the messengers sent as precursors of the embassy. At
+their head was a famous personage named Decanisora, or Tegannisorens,
+with whom were three other chiefs, and, it seems, a number of warriors.
+They had scarcely landed when the ambushed Hurons gave them a volley of
+bullets, killed one of the chiefs, wounded all the rest, and then,
+rushing upon them, seized the whole party except a warrior who escaped
+with a broken arm. Having secured his prisoners, the Rat told them that
+he had acted on the suggestion of Denonville, who had informed him that
+an Iroquois war-party was to pass that way. The astonished captives
+protested that they were envoys of peace. The Rat put on a look of
+amazement, then of horror and fury, and presently burst into invectives
+against Denonville for having made him the instrument of such atrocious
+perfidy. "Go, my brothers," he exclaimed, "go home to your people.
+Though there is war between us, I give you your liberty. Onontio has
+made me do so black a deed that I shall never be happy again till your
+five tribes take a just vengeance upon him." After giving them guns,
+powder, and ball, he sent them on their way, well pleased with him and
+filled with rage against the governor.
+
+In accordance with Indian usage, he, however, kept one of them to be
+adopted, as he declared, in place of one of his followers whom he had
+lost in the skirmish; then, recrossing the lake, he went alone to Fort
+Frontenac, and, as he left the gate to rejoin his party, he said coolly,
+"I have killed the peace: we shall see how the governor will get out of
+this business." [33] Then, without loss of time, he repaired to
+Michillimackinac, and gave his Iroquois prisoner to the officer in
+command. No news of the intended peace had yet reached that distant
+outpost; and, though the unfortunate Iroquois told the story of his
+mission and his capture, the Rat declared that it was a crazy invention
+inspired by the fear of death, and the prisoner was immediately shot by
+a file of soldiers. The Rat now sent for an old Iroquois who had long
+been a prisoner at the Huron village, telling him with a mournful air
+that he was free to return to his people, and recount the cruelty of the
+French, who, had put their countryman to death. The liberated Iroquois
+faithfully acquitted himself of his mission. [34]
+
+[33] "Il dit, J'ai tué la paix." Belmont, Histoire du Canada. "Le Rat
+passa ensuite seul à Catarakouy (Fort Frontenac) sans vouloir dire le
+tour qu'il avoit fait, dit seulement estant hors de la porte, en s'en
+allant, Nous verrons comme le gouverneur se tirera d'affaire."
+Denonville.
+[34] La Hontan, I. 189. (1709) Most of the details of the story are
+drawn from the writer, whose statement I have compared with that of
+Denonville, in his letter dated Nov. 9, 1688; of Callières, Jan., 1689;
+of the Abstract of Letters from Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 393;
+and of the writer of Relation des Événements de la Guerre, 30 Oct.,
+1688. Belmont notices the affair with his usual conciseness. La Hontan's
+account is sustained by the others in most, though not all of its
+essential points. He calls the Huron chief Adario, ou le Rat. He is
+elsewhere mentioned as Kondiaronk, Kondiaront, Soüoïas, and Soüaïti. La
+Hontan says that the scene of the treachery was one of the rapids of the
+St. Lawrence, but more authentic accounts place it at La Famine.
+
+One incident seemed for a moment likely to rob the intriguer of the
+fruits of his ingenuity. The Iroquois who had escaped in the skirmish
+contrived to reach Fort Frontenac some time after the last visit of the
+Rat. He told what had happened; and, after being treated with the utmost
+attention, he was sent to Onondaga, charged with explanations and
+regrets. The Iroquois dignitaries seemed satisfied, and Denonville wrote
+to the minister that there was still good hope of peace. He little knew
+his enemy. They could dissemble and wait; but they neither believed the
+governor nor forgave him. His supposed treachery at La Famine, and his
+real treachery at Fort Frontenac, filled them with a patient but
+unextinguishable rage. They sent him word that they were ready to renew
+the negotiation; then they sent again, to say that Andros forbade them.
+Without doubt they used his prohibition as a pretext. Months passed, and
+Denonville remained in suspense. He did not trust his Indian allies, nor
+did they trust him. Like the Rat and his Hurons, they dreaded the
+conclusion of peace, and wished the war to continue, that the French
+might bear the brunt of it, and stand between them and the wrath of the
+Iroquois. [35]
+
+[35] Denonville au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1688.
+
+In the direction of the Iroquois, there was a long and ominous silence.
+It was broken at last by the crash of a thunderbolt. On the night
+between the fourth and fifth of August, a violent hail-storm burst over
+Lake St. Louis, an expansion of the St. Lawrence a little above
+Montreal. Concealed by the tempest and the darkness, fifteen hundred
+warriors landed at La Chine, and silently posted themselves about the
+houses of the sleeping settlers, then screeched the war-whoop, and began
+the most frightful massacre in Canadian history. The houses were burned,
+and men, women, and children indiscriminately butchered. In the
+neighborhood were three stockade forts, called Rémy, Roland, and La
+Présentation; and they all had garrisons. There was also an encampment
+of two hundred regulars about three miles distant, under an officer
+named Subercase, then absent at Montreal on a visit to Denonville, who
+had lately arrived with his wife and family. At four o'clock in the
+morning, the troops in this encampment heard a cannon-shot from one of
+the forts. They were at once ordered under arms. Soon after, they saw a
+man running towards them, just escaped from the butchery. He told his
+story, and passed on with the news to Montreal, six miles distant. Then
+several fugitives appeared, chased by a band of Iroquois, who gave over
+the pursuit at sight of the soldiers, but pillaged several houses before
+their eyes. The day was well advanced before Subercase arrived. He
+ordered the troops to march. About a hundred armed inhabitants had
+joined them, and they moved together towards La Chine. Here they found
+the houses still burning, and the bodies of their inmates strewn among
+them or hanging from the stakes where they had been tortured. They
+learned from a French surgeon, escaped from the enemy, that the Iroquois
+were all encamped a mile and a half farther on, behind a tract of
+forest. Subercase, whose force had been strengthened by troops from the
+forts, resolved to attack them; and, had he been allowed to do so, he
+would probably have punished them severely, for most of them were
+helplessly drunk with brandy taken from the houses of the traders. Sword
+in hand, at the head of his men, the daring officer entered the forest;
+but, at that moment, a voice from the rear commanded a halt. It was that
+of the Chevalier de Vaudreuil, just come from Montreal, with positive
+orders from Denonville to run no risks and stand solely on the
+defensive. Subercase was furious. High words passed between him and
+Vaudreuil, but he was forced to obey.
+
+The troops were led back to Fort Roland, where about five hundred
+regulars and militia were now collected under command of Vaudreuil. On
+the next day, eighty men from Fort Rémy attempted to join them; but the
+Iroquois had slept off the effect of their orgies, and were again on the
+alert. The unfortunate detachment was set upon by a host of savages, and
+cut to pieces in full sight of Fort Roland. All were killed or captured,
+except Le Moyne de Longueuil, and a few others, who escaped within the
+gate of Fort Rémy. [36]
+
+[36] Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada depuis l'année 1682;
+Observations on the State of Affairs in Canada, 1689, N. Y. Col. Docs.,
+IX. 431; Belmont, Histoire du Canada; Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov.,
+1689. This detachment was commanded by Lieutenant de la Rabeyre, and
+consisted of fifty French and thirty Indian converts.
+
+Montreal was wild with terror. It had been fortified with palisades
+since the war began; but, though there were troops in the town under the
+governor himself, the people were in mortal dread. No attack was made
+either on the town or on any of the forts, and such of the inhabitants
+as could reach them were safe; while the Iroquois held undisputed
+possession of the open country, burned all the houses and barns over an
+extent of nine miles, and roamed in small parties, pillaging and
+scalping, over more than twenty miles. There is no mention of their
+having encountered opposition; nor do they seem to have met with any
+loss but that of some warriors killed in the attack on the detachment
+from Fort Rémy, and that of three drunken stragglers who were caught and
+thrown into a cellar in Fort La Présentation. When they came to their
+senses, they defied their captors, and fought with such ferocity that it
+was necessary to shoot them. Charlevoix says that the invaders remained
+in the neighborhood of Montreal till the middle of October, or more than
+two months; but this seems incredible, since troops and militia enough
+to drive them all into the St. Lawrence might easily have been collected
+in less than a week. It is certain, however, that their stay was
+strangely long. Troops and inhabitants seem to have been paralyzed with
+fear.
+
+At length, most of them took to their canoes, and recrossed Lake St.
+Louis in a body, giving ninety yells to show that they had ninety
+prisoners in their clutches. This was not all; for the whole number
+carried off was more than a hundred and twenty, besides about two
+hundred who had the good fortune to be killed on the spot. As the
+Iroquois passed the forts, they shouted, "Onontio, you deceived us, and
+now we have deceived you." Towards evening, they encamped on the farther
+side of the lake, and began to torture and devour their prisoners. On
+that miserable night, stupefied and speechless groups stood gazing from
+the strand of La Chine at the lights that gleamed along the distant
+shore of Châteaugay, where their friends, wives, parents, or children
+agonized in the fires of the Iroquois, and scenes were enacted of
+indescribable and nameless horror. The greater part of the prisoners
+were, however, reserved to be distributed among the towns of the
+confederacy, and there tortured for the diversion of the inhabitants.
+While some of the invaders went home to celebrate their triumph, others
+roamed in small parties through all the upper parts of the colony,
+spreading universal terror. [37]
+
+[37] The best account of the descent of the Iroquois at La Chine is that
+of the Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada, 1682-1712. The writer
+was an author under Subercase, and was on the spot. Belmont, superior of
+the mission at Montreal, also gives a trustworthy account in his
+Histoire du Canada. Compare La Honton, I. 193 (1709) and La Potherie,
+II. 229. Farther particulars are given in the letters of Callières, 8
+Nov.; Champigny, 16 Nov.; and Frontenac, 15 Nov. Frontenac, after
+visiting the scene of the catastrophe a few weeks after it occurred,
+writes: "Ils (les Iroquois) avoient bruslé plus de trois lieues de pays,
+saccagé toutes les maisons jusqu'aux portes de la ville, enlevé plus de
+six vingt personnes, tant hommes, femmes, qu'enfants, après avoir
+massacré plus de deux cents dont ils avoient cassé la teste aux uns,
+bruslé, rosty, et mangé les autres, ouverte le ventre des femmes grosses
+pour en arracher les enfants, et fait des cruautez inouïes et sans
+exemple." The details are given by Belmont, and by the author of
+Histoire de l'Eau de Vie en Canada, are no less revolting. The
+last-mentioned writer thinks that the massacre was a judgment of God
+upon the sale of brandy at La Chine.
+
+Some Canadian writers have charged the English with instigating the
+massacre. I find nothing in contemporary documents to support the
+accusation. Denonville wrote to the minister, after the Rat's treachery
+came to light, that Andros had forbidden the Iroquois to attack the
+colony. Immediately after the attack at La Chine, the Iroquois sachems,
+in a conference with the agents of New England, declared that "we did
+not make war on the French at the persuasion of our brethren at Albany;
+for we did not so much as acquaint them of our intention till fourteen
+days after our army had begun their march." Report of Conference in
+Colden, 103.
+
+Canada lay bewildered and benumbed under the shock of this calamity; but
+the cup of her misery was not full. There was revolution in England.
+James II., the friend and ally of France, had been driven from his
+kingdom, and William of Orange had seized his vacant throne. Soon there
+came news of war between the two crowns. The Iroquois alone had brought
+the colony to the brink of ruin; and now they would be supported by the
+neighboring British colonies, rich, strong, and populous, compared to
+impoverished and depleted Canada.
+
+A letter of recall for Denonville was already on its way. [38] His
+successor arrived in October, and the marquis sailed for France. He was
+a good soldier in a regular war, and a subordinate command; and he had
+some of the qualities of a good governor, while lacking others quite as
+essential. He had more activity than vigor, more personal bravery than
+firmness, and more clearness of perception than executive power. He
+filled his despatches with excellent recommendations, but was not the
+man to carry them into effect. He was sensitive, fastidious, critical,
+and conventional, and plumed himself on his honor, which was not always
+able to bear a strain; though as regards illegal trade, the besetting
+sin of Canadian governors, his hands were undoubtedly clean. [39] It is
+said that he had an instinctive antipathy for Indians, such as some
+persons have for certain animals; and the coureurs de bois, and other
+lawless classes of the Canadian population, appeared to please him no
+better. Their license and insubordination distressed him, and he
+constantly complained of them to the king. For the Church and its
+hierarchy his devotion was unbounded; and his government was a season of
+unwonted sunshine for the ecclesiastics, like the balmy days of the
+Indian summer amid the gusts of November. They exhausted themselves in
+eulogies of his piety; and, in proof of its depth and solidity, Mother
+Juchereau tells us that he did not regard station and rank as very
+useful aids to salvation. While other governors complained of too many
+priests, Denonville begged for more. All was harmony between him and
+Bishop Saint-Vallier; and the prelate was constantly his friend, even to
+the point of justifying his worst act, the treacherous seizure of the
+Iroquois neutrals. [40] When he left Canada, the only mourner besides
+the churchmen was his colleague, the intendant Champigny; for the two
+chiefs of the colony, joined in a common union with the Jesuits, lived
+together in unexampled concord. On his arrival at court, the good
+offices of his clerical allies gained for him the highly honorable post
+of governor of the royal children, the young Dukes of Burgundy, Anjou,
+and Berri.
+
+[38] Le Roy à Denonville, 31 Mai, 1689.
+[39] "I shall only add one article, on which possibly you will find it
+strange that I have said nothing; namely, whether the governor carries
+on any trade. I shall answer, no; but my Lady the Governess (Madame la
+Gouvernante), who is disposed not to neglect any opportunity for making
+a profit, had a room, not to say a shop, full of goods, till the close
+of last winter, in the château of Quebec, and found means afterwards to
+make a lottery to get rid of the rubbish that remained, which produced
+her more than her good merchandise." Relation of the State of Affairs in
+Canada, 1688, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 388. This paper was written at
+Quebec.
+[40] Saint-Vallier, État Présent, 91, 92 (Quebec, 1856).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+1689, 1690.
+
+Return of Frontenac.
+
+Versailles • Frontenac and the King • Frontenac sails for Quebec •
+Projected Conquest of New York • Designs of the King • Failure • Energy
+of Frontenac • Fort Frontenac • Panic • Negotiations • The Iroquois in
+Council • Chevalier d'Aux • Taunts of the Indian Allies • Boldness of
+Frontenac • An Iroquois Defeat • Cruel Policy • The Stroke parried.
+
+The sun of Louis XIV. had reached its zenith. From a morning of
+unexampled brilliancy it had mounted to the glare of a cloudless noon;
+but the hour of its decline was near. The mortal enemy of France was on
+the throne of England, turning against her from that new point of
+vantage all the energies of his unconquerable genius. An invalid built
+the Bourbon monarchy, and another invalid battered and defaced the
+imposing structure: two potent and daring spirits in two frail bodies,
+Richelieu and William of Orange.
+
+Versailles gave no sign of waning glories. On three evenings of the
+week, it was the pleasure of the king that the whole court should
+assemble in the vast suite of apartments now known as the Halls of
+Abundance, of Venus, of Diana, of Mars, of Mercury, and of Apollo. The
+magnificence of their decorations, pictures of the great Italian
+masters, sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, tapestries, vases and statues of
+silver and gold; the vista of light and splendor that opened through the
+wide portals; the courtly throngs, feasting, dancing, gaming,
+promenading, conversing, formed a scene which no palace of Europe could
+rival or approach. Here were all the great historic names of France,
+princes, warriors, statesmen, and all that was highest in rank and
+place; the flower, in short, of that brilliant society, so dazzling,
+captivating, and illusory. In former years, the king was usually
+present, affable and gracious, mingling with his courtiers and sharing
+their amusements; but he had grown graver of late, and was more often in
+his cabinet, laboring with his ministers on the task of administration,
+which his extravagance and ambition made every day more burdensome. [1]
+
+[1] Saint-Simon speaks of these assemblies. The halls in question were
+finished in 1682; and a minute account of them, and of the particular
+use to which each was destined, was printed in the Mercure Français of
+that year. See also Soulié, Notice du Musée impérial de Versailles,
+where copious extracts from the Mercure are given. The grands
+appartements are now entirely changed in appearance, and turned into an
+historic picture gallery.
+
+There was one corner of the world where his emblem, the sun, would not
+shine on him. He had done his best for Canada, and had got nothing for
+his pains but news of mishaps and troubles. He was growing tired of the
+colony which he had nursed with paternal fondness, and he was more than
+half angry with it because it did not prosper. Denonville's letters had
+grown worse and worse; and, though he had not heard as yet of the last
+great calamity, he was sated with ill tidings already.
+
+Count Frontenac stood before him. Since his recall, he had lived at
+court, needy and no longer in favor; but he had influential friends, and
+an intriguing wife, always ready to serve him. The king knew his merits
+as well as his faults; and, in the desperate state of his Canadian
+affairs, he had been led to the resolution of restoring him to the
+command from which, for excellent reasons, he had removed him seven
+years before. He now told him that, in his belief, the charges brought
+against him were without foundation. [2] "I send you back to Canada," he
+is reported to have said, "where I am sure that you will serve me as
+well as you did before; and I ask nothing more of you." [3] The post was
+not a tempting one to a man in his seventieth year. Alone and
+unsupported,--for the king, with Europe rising against him, would give
+him no more troops,--he was to restore the prostrate colony to hope and
+courage, and fight two enemies with a force that had proved no match for
+one of them alone. The audacious count trusted himself, and undertook
+the task; received the royal instructions, and took his last leave of
+the master whom even he after a fashion honored and admired.
+
+[2] Journal de Dangeau, II. 390. Frontenac, since his recall, had not
+been wholly without marks of royal favor. In 1685, the king gave him a
+"gratification" of 3,500 francs. Ibid., I. 205.
+[3] Goyer, Oraison Funèbre du Comte de Frontenac.
+
+He repaired to Rochelle, where two ships of the royal navy were waiting
+his arrival, embarked in one of them, and sailed for the New World. An
+heroic remedy had been prepared for the sickness of Canada, and
+Frontenac was to be the surgeon. The cure, however, was not of his
+contriving. Denonville had sent Callières, his second in command, to
+represent the state of the colony to the court, and beg for help.
+Callières saw that there was little hope of more troops or any
+considerable supply of money; and he laid before the king a plan, which
+had at least the recommendations of boldness and cheapness. This was to
+conquer New York with the forces already in Canada, aided only by two
+ships of war. The blow, he argued, should be struck at once, and the
+English taken by surprise. A thousand regulars and six hundred Canadian
+militia should pass Lake Champlain and Lake George in canoes and
+bateaux, cross to the Hudson and capture Albany, where they would seize
+all the river craft and descend the Hudson to the town of New York,
+which, as Callières stated, had then about two hundred houses and four
+hundred fighting men. The two ships were to cruise at the mouth of the
+harbor, and wait the arrival of the troops, which was to be made known
+to them by concerted signals, whereupon they were to enter and aid in
+the attack. The whole expedition, he thought, might be accomplished in a
+month; so that by the end of October the king would be master of all the
+country. The advantages were manifold. The Iroquois, deprived of English
+arms and ammunition, would be at the mercy of the French; the question
+of English rivalry in the west would be settled for ever; the king would
+acquire a means of access to his colony incomparably better than the St.
+Lawrence, and one that remained open all the year; and, finally, New
+England would be isolated, and prepared for a possible conquest in the
+future.
+
+The king accepted the plan with modifications, which complicated and did
+not improve it. Extreme precautions were taken to insure secrecy; but
+the vast distances, the difficult navigation, and the accidents of
+weather appear to have been forgotten in this amended scheme of
+operation. There was, moreover, a long delay in fitting the two ships
+for sea. The wind was ahead, and they were fifty-two days in reaching
+Chedabucto, at the eastern end of Nova Scotia. Thence Frontenac and
+Callières had orders to proceed in a merchant ship to Quebec, which
+might require a month more; and, on arriving, they were to prepare for
+the expedition, while at the same time Frontenac was to send back a
+letter to the naval commander at Chedabucto, revealing the plan to him,
+and ordering him to sail to New York to co-operate in it. It was the
+twelfth of September when Chedabucto was reached, and the enterprise was
+ruined by the delay. Frontenac's first step in his new government was a
+failure, though one for which he was in no way answerable. [4]
+
+[4] Projet du Chevalier de Callières de former une Expédition pour aller
+attaquer Orange, Manatte, etc.; Résumé du Ministre sur la Proposition de
+M. de Callières; Autre Mémoire de M. de Callières sur son Projet
+d'attaquer la Nouvelle York; Mémoire des Armes, Munitions, et Ustensiles
+nécessaires pour l'Entreprise proposée par M. de Callières; Observations
+du Ministre sur le Projet et le Mémoire ci-dessus; Observations du
+Ministre sur le Projet d'Attaque de la Nouvelle York; Autre Mémoire de
+M. de Callières au Sujet de l'Entreprise proposée; Autre Mémoire de M.
+de Callières sur le même Sujet.
+
+It will be well to observe what were the intentions of the king towards
+the colony which he proposed to conquer. They were as follows: If any
+Catholics were found in New York, they might be left undisturbed,
+provided that they took an oath of allegiance to the king. Officers, and
+other persons who had the means of paying ransoms, were to be thrown
+into prison. All lands in the colony, except those of Catholics swearing
+allegiance, were to be taken from their owners, and granted under a
+feudal tenure to the French officers and soldiers. All property, public
+or private, was to be seized, a portion of it given to the grantees of
+the land, and the rest sold on account of the king. Mechanics and other
+workmen might, at the discretion of the commanding officer, be kept as
+prisoners to work at fortifications and do other labor. The rest of the
+English and Dutch inhabitants, men, women, and children, were to be
+carried out of the colony and dispersed in New England, Pennsylvania, or
+other places, in such a manner that they could not combine in any
+attempt to recover their property and their country. And, that the
+conquest might be perfectly secure, the nearest settlements of New
+England were to be destroyed, and those more remote laid under
+contribution. [5]
+
+[5] Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction à Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac
+sur l'Entreprise de la Nouvelle York, 7 Juin, 1689. "Si parmy les
+habitans de la Nouvelle York il se trouve des Catholiques de la fidelité
+desquels il croye se pouvoir asseurer, il pourra les laisser dans leurs
+habitations après leur avoir fait prester serment de fidelité à sa
+Majesté.... Il pourra aussi garder, s'il le juge à propos, des artisans
+et autres gens de service nécessaires pour la culture des terres ou pour
+travailler aux fortifications en qualité de prisonniers.... II faut
+retenir en prison les officiers et les principaux habitans desquels on
+pourra retirer des rançons. A l'esgard de tous les autres estrangers
+(ceux qui ne sont pas Français) hommes, femmes, et enfans, sa Majesté
+trouve à propos qu'ils soient mis hors de la Colonie et envoyez à la
+Nouvelle Angleterre, à la Pennsylvanie, ou en d'autres endroits qu'il
+jugera à propos, par mer ou par terre, ensemble ou séparément, le tout
+suivant qu'il trouvera plus seur pour les dissiper et empescher qu'en se
+réunissant ils ne puissent donner occasion à des entreprises de la part
+des ennemis contre cette Colonie. Il envoyera en France les Français
+fugitifs qu'il y pourra trouver, et particulièrement ceux de la Religion
+Prétendue-Réformée (Huguenots)." A translation of the entire document
+will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 422.
+
+In the next century, some of the people of Acadia were torn from their
+homes by order of a British commander. The act was harsh and violent,
+and the innocent were involved with the guilty; but many of the
+sufferers had provoked their fate, and deserved it.
+
+Louis XIV. commanded that eighteen thousand unoffending persons should
+be stripped of all that they possessed, and cast out to the mercy of the
+wilderness. The atrocity of the plan is matched by its folly. The king
+gave explicit orders, but he gave neither ships nor men enough to
+accomplish them; and the Dutch farmers, goaded to desperation, would
+have cut his sixteen hundred soldiers to pieces. It was the scheme of a
+man blinded by a long course of success. Though perverted by flattery
+and hardened by unbridled power, he was not cruel by nature; and here,
+as in the burning of the Palatinate and the persecution of the
+Huguenots, he would have stood aghast, if his dull imagination could
+have pictured to him the miseries he was preparing to inflict. [6]
+
+[6] On the details of the projected attack of New York, Le Roy à
+Denonville, 7 Juin, 1689; Le Ministre à Denonville, même date; Le
+Ministre à Frontenac, même date; Ordre du Roy à Vaudreuil, même date; Le
+Roy au Sieur de la Caffinière, même date; Champigny au Ministre, 16
+Nov., 1689.
+
+With little hope left that the grand enterprise against New York could
+succeed, Frontenac made sail for Quebec, and, stopping by the way at
+Isle Percée, learned from Récollet missionaries the irruption of the
+Iroquois at Montreal. He hastened on; but the wind was still against
+him, and the autumn woods were turning brown before he reached his
+destination. It was evening when he landed, amid fireworks,
+illuminations, and the firing of cannon. All Quebec came to meet him by
+torchlight; the members of the council offered their respects, and the
+Jesuits made him an harangue of welcome. [7] It was but a welcome of
+words. They and the councillors had done their best to have him
+recalled, and hoped that they were rid of him for ever; but now he was
+among them again, rasped by the memory of real or fancied wrongs. The
+count, however, had no time for quarrelling. The king had told him to
+bury old animosities and forget the past, and for the present he was too
+busy to break the royal injunction. [8] He caused boats to be made
+ready, and in spite of incessant rains pushed up the river to Montreal.
+Here he found Denonville and his frightened wife. Every thing was in
+confusion. The Iroquois were gone, leaving dejection and terror behind
+them. Frontenac reviewed the troops. There were seven or eight hundred
+of them in the town, the rest being in garrison at the various forts.
+Then he repaired to what was once La Chine, and surveyed the miserable
+waste of ashes and desolation that spread for miles around.
+
+[7] La Hontan, I. 199.
+[8] Instruction pour le Sieur Comte de Frontenac, 7 Juin, 1689.
+
+To his extreme disgust, he learned that Denonville had sent a Canadian
+officer by secret paths to Fort Frontenac, with orders to Valrenne, the
+commandant, to blow it up, and return with his garrison to Montreal.
+Frontenac had built the fort, had given it his own name, and had
+cherished it with a paternal fondness, reinforced by strong hopes of
+making money out of it. For its sake he had become the butt of scandal
+and opprobrium; but not the less had he always stood its strenuous and
+passionate champion. An Iroquois envoy had lately with great insolence
+demanded its destruction of Denonville; and this alone, in the eyes of
+Frontenac, was ample reason for maintaining it at any cost. [9] He still
+had hope that it might be saved, and with all the energy of youth he
+proceeded to collect canoes, men, provisions, and arms; battled against
+dejection, insubordination, and fear, and in a few days despatched a
+convoy of three hundred men to relieve the place, and stop the execution
+of Denonville's orders. His orders had been but too promptly obeyed. The
+convoy was scarcely gone an hour, when, to Frontenac's unutterable
+wrath, Valrenne appeared with his garrison. He reported that he had set
+fire to every thing in the fort that would burn, sunk the three vessels
+belonging to it, thrown the cannon into the lake, mined the walls and
+bastions, and left matches burning in the powder magazine; and, further,
+that when he and his men were five leagues on their way to Montreal a
+dull and distant explosion told them that the mines had sprung. It
+proved afterwards that the destruction was not complete; and the
+Iroquois took possession of the abandoned fort, with a large quantity of
+stores and munitions left by the garrison in their too hasty retreat.
+[10]
+
+[9] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689.
+[10] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689; Recueil de ce qui s'est passé
+en Canada depuis l'année 1682.
+
+There was one ray of light through the clouds. The unwonted news of a
+victory came to Montreal. It was small, but decisive, and might be an
+earnest of greater things to come. Before Frontenac's arrival,
+Denonville had sent a reconnoitring party up the Ottawa. They had gone
+no farther than the Lake of Two Mountains, when they met twenty-two
+Iroquois in two large canoes, who immediately bore down upon them,
+yelling furiously. The French party consisted of twenty-eight coureurs
+de bois under Du Lhut and Mantet, excellent partisan chiefs, who
+manœuvred so well that the rising sun blazed full in the eyes of the
+advancing enemy, and spoiled their aim. The French received their fire,
+which wounded one man; then, closing with them while their guns were
+empty, gave them a volley, which killed and wounded eighteen of their
+number. One swam ashore. The remaining three were captured, and given to
+the Indian allies to be burned. [11]
+
+[11] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689; Champigny au Ministre, 16
+Nov., 1689. Compare Belmont, whose account is a little different; also
+N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 435.
+
+This gleam of sunshine passed, and all grew black again. On a snowy
+November day, a troop of Iroquois fell on the settlement of La Chesnaye,
+burned the houses, and vanished with a troop of prisoners, leaving
+twenty mangled corpses on the snow. [12] "The terror," wrote the bishop,
+"is indescribable." The appearance of a few savages would put a whole
+neighborhood to flight. [13] So desperate, wrote Frontenac, were the
+needs of the colony, and so great the contempt with which the Iroquois
+regarded it, that it almost needed a miracle either to carry on war or
+make peace. What he most earnestly wished was to keep the Iroquois
+quiet, and so leave his hands free to deal with the English. This was
+not easy, to such a pitch of audacity had late events raised them.
+Neither his temper nor his convictions would allow him to beg peace of
+them, like his predecessor; but he had inordinate trust in the influence
+of his name, and he now took a course which he hoped might answer his
+purpose without increasing their insolence. The perfidious folly of
+Denonville in seizing their countrymen at Fort Frontenac had been a
+prime cause of their hostility; and, at the request of the late
+governor, the surviving captives, thirteen in all, had been taken from
+the galleys, gorgeously clad in French attire, and sent back to Canada
+in the ship which carried Frontenac. Among them was a famous Cayuga
+war-chief called Ourehaoué, whose loss had infuriated the Iroquois. [14]
+Frontenac gained his good-will on the voyage; and, when they reached
+Quebec, he lodged him in the château, and treated him with such kindness
+that the chief became his devoted admirer and friend. As his influence
+was great among his people, Frontenac hoped that he might use him with
+success to bring about an accommodation. He placed three of the captives
+at the disposal of the Cayuga, who forthwith sent them to Onondaga with
+a message which the governor had dictated, and which was to the
+following effect: "The great Onontio, whom you all know, has come back
+again. He does not blame you for what you have done; for he looks upon
+you as foolish children, and blames only the English, who are the cause
+of your folly, and have made you forget your obedience to a father who
+has always loved and never deceived you. He will permit me, Ourehaoué,
+to return to you as soon as you will come to ask for me, not as you have
+spoken of late, but like children speaking to a father." [15] Frontenac
+hoped that they would send an embassy to reclaim their chief, and thus
+give him an opportunity to use his personal influence over them. With
+the three released captives, he sent an Iroquois convert named Cut Nose
+with a wampum belt to announce his return.
+
+[12] Belmont, Histoire du Canada; Frontenac à------, 17 Nov., 1689;
+Champigny au Ministre, 16 Nov., 1689. This letter is not the one just
+cited. Champigny wrote twice on the same day.
+[13] N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 435.
+[14] Ourehaoué was not one of the neutrals entrapped at Fort Frontenac,
+but was seized about the same time by the troops on their way up the St.
+Lawrence.
+[15] Frontenac au Ministre, 30 Avril, 1690.
+
+When the deputation arrived at Onondaga and made known their errand, the
+Iroquois magnates, with their usual deliberation, deferred answering
+till a general council of the confederacy should have time to assemble;
+and, meanwhile, they sent messengers to ask the mayor of Albany, and
+others of their Dutch and English friends, to come to the meeting. They
+did not comply, merely sending the government interpreter, with a few
+Mohawk Indians, to represent their interests. On the other hand, the
+Jesuit Milet, who had been captured a few months before, adopted, and
+made an Oneida chief, used every effort to second the designs of
+Frontenac. The authorities of Albany tried in vain to induce the
+Iroquois to place him in their hands. They understood their interests
+too well, and held fast to the Jesuit. [16]
+
+[16] Milet was taken in 1689, not, as has been supposed, in 1690. Lettre
+du Père Milet, 1691, printed by Shea.
+
+The grand council took place at Onondaga on the twenty-second of
+January. Eighty chiefs and sachems, seated gravely on mats around the
+council fire, smoked their pipes in silence for a while; till at length
+an Onondaga orator rose, and announced that Frontenac, the old Onontio,
+had returned with Ourehaoué and twelve more of their captive friends,
+that he meant to rekindle the council fire at Fort Frontenac, and that
+he invited them to meet him there. [17]
+
+[17] Frontenac declares that he sent no such message, and intimates that
+Cut Nose had been tampered with by persons over-anxious to conciliate
+the Iroquois, and who had even gone so far as to send them messages on
+their own account. These persons were Lamberville, François Hertel, and
+one of the Le Moynes. Frontenac was very angry at this interference, to
+which he ascribes the most mischievous consequences. Cut Nose, or Nez
+Coupé, is called Adarahta by Colden, and Gagniegaton, or Red Bird, by
+some French writers.
+
+"Ho, ho, ho," returned the eighty senators, from the bottom of their
+throats. It was the unfailing Iroquois response to a speech. Then Cut
+Nose, the governor's messenger, addressed the council: "I advise you to
+meet Onontio as he desires. Do so, if you wish to live." He presented a
+wampum belt to confirm his words, and the conclave again returned the
+same guttural ejaculation.
+
+"Ourehaoué sends you this," continued Cut Nose, presenting another belt
+of wampum: "by it he advises you to listen to Onontio, if you wish to
+live."
+
+When the messenger from Canada had ceased, the messenger from Albany, a
+Mohawk Indian, rose and repeated word for word a speech confided to him
+by the mayor of that town, urging the Iroquois to close their ears
+against the invitations of Onontio.
+
+Next rose one Cannehoot, a sachem of the Senecas, charged with matters
+of grave import; for they involved no less than the revival of that
+scheme, so perilous to the French, of the union of the tribes of the
+Great Lakes in a triple alliance with the Iroquois and the English.
+These lake tribes, disgusted with the French, who, under Denonville, had
+left them to the mercy of the Iroquois, had been impelled, both by their
+fears and their interests, to make new advances to the confederacy, and
+had first addressed themselves to the Senecas, whom they had most cause
+to dread. They had given up some of the Iroquois prisoners in their
+hands, and promised soon to give up the rest. A treaty had been made;
+and it was this event which the Seneca sachem now announced to the
+council. Having told the story to his assembled colleagues, he exhibited
+and explained the wampum belts and other tokens brought by the envoys
+from the lakes, who represented nine distinct tribes or bands from the
+region of Michillimackinac. By these tokens, the nine tribes declared
+that they came to learn wisdom of the Iroquois and the English; to wash
+off the war-paint, throw down the tomahawk, smoke the pipe of peace, and
+unite with them as one body. "Onontio is drunk," such was the
+interpretation of the fourth wampum belt; "but we, the tribes of
+Michillimackinac, wash our hands of all his actions. Neither we nor you
+must defile ourselves by listening to him." When the Seneca sachem had
+ended, and when the ejaculations that echoed his words had ceased, the
+belts were hung up before all the assembly, then taken down again, and
+distributed among the sachems of the five Iroquois tribes, excepting
+one, which was given to the messengers from Albany. Thus was concluded
+the triple alliance, which to Canada meant no less than ruin.
+
+"Brethren," said an Onondaga sachem, "we must hold fast to our brother
+Quider (Peter Schuyler, mayor of Albany) and look on Onontio as our
+enemy, for he is a cheat."
+
+Then they invited the interpreter from Albany to address the council,
+which he did, advising them not to listen to the envoys from Canada.
+When he had ended, they spent some time in consultation among
+themselves, and at length agreed on the following message, addressed to
+Corlaer, or New York, and to Kinshon, the Fish, by which they meant New
+England, the authorities of which had sent them the image of a fish as a
+token of alliance: [18]--
+
+"Brethren, our council fire burns at Albany. We will not go to meet
+Onontio at Fort Frontenac. We will hold fast to the old chain of peace
+with Corlaer, and we will fight with Onontio. Brethren, we are glad to
+hear from you that you are preparing to make war on Canada, but tell us
+no lies.
+
+"Brother Kinshon, we hear that you mean to send soldiers against the
+Indians to the eastward; but we advise you, now that we are all united
+against the French, to fall upon them at once. Strike at the root: when
+the trunk is cut down, all the branches fall with it.
+
+"Courage, Corlaer! courage, Kinshon! Go to Quebec in the spring; take
+it, and you will have your feet on the necks of the French and all their
+friends."
+
+[18] The wooden image of a codfish still hangs in the State House at
+Boston, the emblem of a colony which lived chiefly by the fisheries.
+Then they consulted together again, and agreed on the following answer
+to Ourehaoué and Frontenac:--
+
+"Ourehaoué, the whole council is glad to hear that you have come back.
+
+"Onontio, you have told us that you have come back again, and brought
+with you thirteen of our people who were carried prisoners to France. We
+are glad of it. You wish to speak with us at Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac).
+Don't you know that your council fire there is put out? It is quenched
+in blood. You must first send home the prisoners. When our brother
+Ourehaoué is returned to us, then we will talk with you of peace. You
+must send him and the others home this very winter. We now let you know
+that we have made peace with the tribes of Michillimackinac. You are not
+to think, because we return you an answer, that we have laid down the
+tomahawk. Our warriors will continue the war till you send our
+countrymen back to us." [19]
+
+[19] The account of this council is given, with condensation and the
+omission of parts not essential, from Colden (105-112, ed. 1747). It
+will serve as an example of the Iroquois method of conducting political
+business, the habitual regularity and decorum of which has drawn from
+several contemporary French writers the remark that in such matters the
+five tribes were savages only in name. The reply to Frontenac is also
+given by Monseignat (N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 465), and, after him, by La
+Potherie. Compare Le Clercq, Établissement de la Foy, II. 403. Ourehaoué
+is the Tawerahet of Colden.
+
+The messengers from Canada returned with this reply. Unsatisfactory as
+it was, such a quantity of wampum was sent with it as showed plainly the
+importance attached by the Iroquois to the matters in question.
+Encouraged by a recent success against the English, and still possessed
+with an overweening confidence in his own influence over the
+confederates, Frontenac resolved that Ourehaoué should send them another
+message. The chief, whose devotion to the count never wavered,
+accordingly despatched four envoys, with a load of wampum belts,
+expressing his astonishment that his countrymen had not seen fit to send
+a deputation of chiefs to receive him from the hands of Onontio, and
+calling upon them to do so without delay, lest he should think that they
+had forgotten him. Along with the messengers, Frontenac ventured to send
+the Chevalier d'Aux, a half-pay officer, with orders to observe the
+disposition of the Iroquois, and impress them in private talk with a
+sense of the count's power, of his good-will to them, and of the wisdom
+of coming to terms with him, lest, like an angry father, he should be
+forced at last to use the rod. The chevalier's reception was a warm one.
+They burned two of his attendants, forced him to run the gauntlet, and,
+after a vigorous thrashing, sent him prisoner to Albany. The last
+failure was worse than the first. The count's name was great among the
+Iroquois, but he had trusted its power too far. [20]
+
+[20] Message of Ourehaoué, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 735; Instructions
+to Chevalier d'Eau, Ibid., 733; Chevalier d'Aux au Ministre, 15 Mai,
+1693. The chevalier's name is also written d'O, He himself wrote it as
+in the text.
+
+The worst of news had come from Michillimackinac. La Durantaye, the
+commander of the post, and Carheil, the Jesuit, had sent a messenger to
+Montreal in the depth of winter to say that the tribes around them were
+on the point of revolt. Carheil wrote that they threatened openly to
+throw themselves into the arms of the Iroquois and the English; that
+they declared that the protection of Onontio was an illusion and a
+snare; that they once mistook the French for warriors, but saw now
+that they were no match for the Iroquois, whom they had tamely allowed
+to butcher them at Montreal, without even daring to defend themselves;
+that when the French invaded the Senecas they did nothing but cut down
+corn and break canoes, and since that time they had done nothing but beg
+peace for themselves, forgetful of their allies, whom they expected to
+bear the brunt of the war, and then left to their fate; that they had
+surrendered through cowardice the prisoners they had caught by
+treachery, and this, too, at a time when the Iroquois were burning
+French captives in all their towns; and, finally, that, as the French
+would not or could not make peace for them, they would make peace for
+themselves. "These," pursued Carheil, "are the reasons they give us to
+prove the necessity of their late embassy to the Senecas; and by this
+one can see that our Indians are a great deal more clear-sighted than
+they are thought to be, and that it is hard to conceal from their
+penetration any thing that can help or harm their interests. What is
+certain is that, if the Iroquois are not stopped, they will not fail to
+come and make themselves masters here."
+
+[21] Carheil à Frontenac, 1690. Frontenac did not receive this letter
+till September, and acted on the information previously sent him.
+Charlevoix's version of the letter does not conform with the original.
+
+Charlevoix thinks that Frontenac was not displeased at this bitter
+arraignment of his predecessor's administration. At the same time, his
+position was very embarrassing. He had no men to spare; but such was the
+necessity of saving Michillimackinac, and breaking off the treaty with
+the Senecas, that when spring opened he sent Captain Louvigny with a
+hundred and forty-three Canadians and six Indians to reinforce the post
+and replace its commander, La Durantaye. Two other officers with an
+additional force were ordered to accompany him through the most
+dangerous part of the journey. With them went Nicolas Perrot, bearing a
+message from the count to his rebellious children of Michillimackinac.
+The following was the pith of this characteristic document:--
+
+"I am astonished to learn that you have forgotten the protection that I
+always gave you. Do you think that I am no longer alive; or that I have
+a mind to stand idle, like those who have been here in my place? Or do
+you think that, if eight or ten hairs have been torn from my children's
+heads when I was absent, I cannot put ten handfuls of hair in the place
+of every one that was pulled out? You know that before I protected you
+the ravenous Iroquois dog was biting everybody. I tamed him and tied him
+up; but, when he no longer saw me, he behaved worse than ever. If he
+persists, he shall feel my power. The English have tried to win him by
+flatteries, but I will kill all who encourage him. The English have
+deceived and devoured their children, but I am a good father who loves
+you. I loved the Iroquois once, because they obeyed me. When I knew that
+they had been treacherously captured and carried to France, I set them
+free; and, when I restore them to their country, it will not be through
+fear, but through pity, for I hate treachery. I am strong enough to kill
+the English, destroy the Iroquois, and whip you, if you fail in your
+duty to me. The Iroquois have killed and captured you in time of peace.
+Do to them as they have done to you, do to the English as they would
+like to do to you, but hold fast to your true father, who will never
+abandon you. Will you let the English brandy that has killed you in your
+wigwams lure you into the kettles of the Iroquois? Is not mine better,
+which has never killed you, but always made you strong?" [22]
+
+[22] Parole (de M. de Frontenac) qui doit être dite à l'Outaouais pour
+le dissuader de l'Alliance qu'il vent faire avec l'Iroquois et
+l'Anglois. The message is long. Only the principal points are given
+above.
+
+Charged with this haughty missive, Perrot set out for Michillimackinac
+along with Louvigny and his men. On their way up the Ottawa, they met a
+large band of Iroquois hunters, whom they routed with heavy loss.
+Nothing could have been more auspicious for Perrot's errand. When
+towards midsummer they reached their destination, they ranged their
+canoes in a triumphal procession, placed in the foremost an Iroquois
+captured in the fight, forced him to dance and sing, hung out the
+fleur-de-lis, shouted Vive le Roi, whooped, yelled, and fired their
+guns. As they neared the village of the Ottawas, all the naked
+population ran down to the shore, leaping, yelping, and firing, in
+return. Louvigny and his men passed on, and landed at the neighboring
+village of the French settlers, who, drawn up in battle array on the
+shore, added more yells and firing to the general uproar; though, amid
+this joyous fusillade of harmless gunpowder, they all kept their bullets
+ready for instant use, for they distrusted the savage multitude. The
+story of the late victory, however, confirmed as it was by an imposing
+display of scalps, produced an effect which averted the danger of an
+immediate outbreak.
+
+The fate of the Iroquois prisoner now became the point at issue. The
+French hoped that the Indians in their excitement could be induced to
+put him to death, and thus break their late treaty with his countrymen.
+Besides the Ottawas, there was at Michillimackinac a village of Hurons
+under their crafty chief, the Rat. They had pretended to stand fast for
+the French, who nevertheless believed them to be at the bottom of all
+the mischief. They now begged for the prisoner, promising to burn him.
+On the faith of this pledge, he was given to them; but they broke their
+word, and kept him alive, in order to curry favor with the Iroquois. The
+Ottawas, intensely jealous of the preference shown to the Hurons,
+declared in their anger that the prisoner ought to be killed and eaten.
+This was precisely what the interests of the French demanded; but the
+Hurons still persisted in protecting him. Their Jesuit missionary now
+interposed, and told them that, unless they "put the Iroquois into the
+kettle," the French would take him from them. After much discussion,
+this argument prevailed. They planted a stake, tied him to it, and began
+to torture him; but, as he did not show the usual fortitude of his
+countrymen, they declared him unworthy to die the death of a warrior,
+and accordingly shot him. [23]
+
+[23] "Le Père Missionnaire des Hurons, prévoyant que cette affaire
+auroit peut-être une suite qui pourrait être préjudiciable aux soins
+qu'il prenoit de leur instruction, demanda qu'il lui fut permis d'aller
+à leur village pour les obliger de trouver quelque moyen qui fut capable
+d'appaiser le ressentiment des François. Il leur dit que ceux-ci
+vouloient absolument que l'on mit l'Iroquois à la chaudière, et que si
+on ne le faisoit, on devoit venir le leur enlever." La Potherie, II. 237
+(1722). By the "result prejudicial to his cares for their instruction"
+he seems to mean their possible transfer from French to English
+influences. The expression mettre à la chaudière, though derived from
+cannibal practices, is often used figuratively for torturing and
+killing. The missionary in question was either Carheil or another
+Jesuit, who must have acted with his sanction.
+
+Here was a point gained for the French, but the danger was not passed.
+The Ottawas could disavow the killing of the Iroquois; and, in fact,
+though there was a great division of opinion among them, they were
+preparing at this very time to send a secret embassy to the Seneca
+country to ratify the fatal treaty. The French commanders called a
+council of all the tribes. It met at the house of the Jesuits. Presents
+in abundance were distributed. The message of Frontenac was reinforced
+by persuasion and threats; and the assembly was told that the five
+tribes of the Iroquois were like five nests of muskrats in a marsh,
+which the French would drain dry, and then burn with all its
+inhabitants. Perrot took the disaffected chiefs aside, and with his
+usual bold adroitness diverted them for the moment from their purpose.
+The projected embassy was stopped, but any day might revive it. There
+was no safety for the French, and the ground of Michillimackinac was
+hollow under their feet. Every thing depended on the success of their
+arms. A few victories would confirm their wavering allies; but the
+breath of another defeat would blow the fickle crew over to the enemy
+like a drift of dry leaves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+1690.
+
+The Three War-parties.
+
+Measures of Frontenac • Expedition against Schenectady • The March • The
+Dutch Village • The Surprise • The Massacre • Prisoners spared • Retreat
+• The English and their Iroquois Friends • The Abenaki War • Revolution
+at Boston • Capture of Pemaquid • Capture of Salmon Falls • Capture of
+Fort Loyal • Frontenac and his Prisoner • The Canadians encouraged.
+
+While striving to reclaim his allies, Frontenac had not forgotten his
+enemies. It was of the last necessity to revive the dashed spirits of
+the Canadians and the troops; and action, prompt and bold, was the only
+means of doing so. He resolved, therefore, to take the offensive, not
+against the Iroquois, who seemed invulnerable as ghosts, but against the
+English; and by striking a few sharp and rapid blows to teach both
+friends and foes that Onontio was still alive. The effect of his return
+had already begun to appear, and the energy and fire of the undaunted
+veteran had shot new life into the dejected population. He formed three
+war-parties of picked men, one at Montreal, one at Three Rivers, and one
+at Quebec; the first to strike at Albany, the second at the border
+settlements of New Hampshire, and the third at those of Maine. That of
+Montreal was ready first. It consisted of two hundred and ten men, of
+whom ninety-six were Indian converts, chiefly from the two mission
+villages of Saut St. Louis and the Mountain of Montreal. They were
+Christian Iroquois whom the priests had persuaded to leave their homes
+and settle in Canada, to the great indignation of their heathen
+countrymen, and the great annoyance of the English colonists, to whom
+they were a constant menace. When Denonville attacked the Senecas, they
+had joined him; but of late they had shown reluctance to fight their
+heathen kinsmen, with whom the French even suspected them of collusion.
+Against the English, however, they willingly took up the hatchet. The
+French of the party were for the most part coureurs de bois. As the sea
+is the sailor's element, so the forest was theirs. Their merits were
+hardihood and skill in woodcraft; their chief faults were
+insubordination and lawlessness. They had shared the general
+demoralization that followed the inroad of the Iroquois, and under
+Denonville had proved mutinous and unmanageable. In the best times, it
+was a hard task to command them, and one that needed, not bravery alone,
+but tact, address, and experience. Under a chief of such a stamp, they
+were admirable bushfighters, and such were those now chosen to lead
+them. D'Aillebout de Mantet and Le Moyne de Sainte-Hélène, the brave son
+of Charles Le Moyne, had the chief command, supported by the brothers Le
+Moyne d'Iberville and Le Moyne de Bienville, with Repentigny de
+Montesson, Le Ber du Chesne, and others of the sturdy Canadian noblesse,
+nerved by adventure and trained in Indian warfare. [1]
+
+[1] Relation de Monseignat, 1689-90. There is a translation of this
+valuable paper in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 462. The party, according to
+three of their number, consisted at first of 160 French and 140
+Christian Indians, but was reduced by sickness and desertion to 250 in
+all. Examination of three French prisoners taken by ye. Maquas
+(Mohawks), and brought to Skinnectady, who were examined by Peter
+Schuyler, Mayor of Albany, Domine Godevridus Dellius, and some of ye.
+Gentlen. that went from Albany a purpose.
+
+It was the depth of winter when they began their march, striding on
+snow-shoes over the vast white field of the frozen St. Lawrence, each
+with the hood of his blanket coat drawn over his head, a gun in his
+mittened hand, a knife, a hatchet, a tobacco pouch, and a bullet pouch
+at his belt, a pack on his shoulders, and his inseparable pipe hung at
+his neck in a leather case. They dragged their blankets and provisions
+over the snow on Indian sledges. Crossing the forest to Chambly, they
+advanced four or five days up the frozen Richelieu and the frozen Lake
+Champlain, and then stopped to hold a council. Frontenac had left the
+precise point of attack at the discretion of the leaders, and thus far
+the men had been ignorant of their destination. The Indians demanded to
+know it. Mantet and Sainte-Hélène replied that they were going to
+Albany. The Indians demurred. "How long is it," asked one of them,
+"since the French grew so bold?" The commanders answered that, to regain
+the honor of which their late misfortunes had robbed them, the French
+would take Albany or die in the attempt. The Indians listened sullenly;
+the decision was postponed, and the party moved forward again. When
+after eight days they reached the Hudson, and found the place where two
+paths diverged, the one for Albany and the other for Schenectady, they
+all without farther words took the latter. Indeed, to attempt Albany
+would have been an act of desperation. The march was horrible. There was
+a partial thaw, and they waded knee-deep through the half melted snow,
+and the mingled ice, mud, and water of the gloomy swamps. So painful and
+so slow was their progress, that it was nine days more before they
+reached a point two leagues from Schenectady. The weather had changed
+again, and a cold, gusty snow-storm pelted them. It was one of those
+days when the trees stand white as spectres in the sheltered hollows of
+the forest, and bare and gray on the wind-swept ridges. The men were
+half dead with cold, fatigue, and hunger. It was four in the afternoon
+of the eighth of February. The scouts found an Indian hut, and in it
+were four Iroquois squaws, whom they captured. There was a fire in the
+wigwam; and the shivering Canadians crowded about it, stamping their
+chilled feet and warming their benumbed hands over the blaze. The
+Christian chief of the Saut St. Louis, known as Le Grand Agnié, or the
+Great Mohawk, by the French, and by the Dutch called Kryn, harangued his
+followers, and exhorted them to wash out their wrongs in blood. Then
+they all advanced again, and about dark reached the river Mohawk, a
+little above the village. A Canadian named Gignières, who had gone with
+nine Indians to reconnoitre, now returned to say that he had been within
+sight of Schenectady, and had seen nobody. Their purpose had been to
+postpone the attack till two o'clock in the morning; but the situation
+was intolerable, and the limit of human endurance was reached. They
+could not make fires, and they must move on or perish. Guided by the
+frightened squaws, they crossed the Mohawk on the ice, toiling through
+the drifts amid the whirling snow that swept down the valley of the
+darkened stream, till about eleven o'clock they descried through the
+storm the snow-beplastered palisades of the devoted village. Such was
+their plight that some of them afterwards declared that they would all
+have surrendered if an enemy had appeared to summon them. [2]
+
+[2] Colden, 114 (ed. 1747).
+
+Schenectady was the farthest outpost of the colony of New York. Westward
+lay the Mohawk forests; and Orange, or Albany, was fifteen miles or more
+towards the south-east. The village was oblong in form, and enclosed by
+a palisade which had two gates, one towards Albany and the other towards
+the Mohawks. There was a blockhouse near the eastern gate, occupied by
+eight or nine Connecticut militia men under Lieutenant Talmage. There
+were also about thirty friendly Mohawks in the place, on a visit. The
+inhabitants, who were all Dutch, were in a state of discord and
+confusion. The revolution in England had produced a revolution in New
+York. The demagogue Jacob Leisler had got possession of Fort William,
+and was endeavoring to master the whole colony. Albany was in the hands
+of the anti-Leisler or conservative party, represented by a convention
+of which Peter Schuyler was the chief. The Dutch of Schenectady for the
+most part favored Leisler, whose emissaries had been busily at work
+among them; but their chief magistrate, John Sander Glen, a man of
+courage and worth, stood fast for the Albany convention, and in
+consequence the villagers had threatened to kill him. Talmage and his
+Connecticut militia were under orders from Albany; and therefore, like
+Glen, they were under the popular ban. In vain the magistrate and the
+officer entreated the people to stand on their guard. They turned the
+advice to ridicule, laughed at the idea of danger, left both their gates
+wide open, and placed there, it is said, two snow images as mock
+sentinels. A French account declares that the village contained eighty
+houses, which is certainly an exaggeration. There had been some
+festivity during the evening, but it was now over; and the primitive
+villagers, fathers, mothers, children, and infants, lay buried in
+unconscious sleep. They were simple peasants and rude woodsmen, but with
+human affections and capable of human woe.
+
+The French and Indians stood before the open gate, with its blind and
+dumb warder, the mock sentinel of snow. Iberville went with a detachment
+to find the Albany gate, and bar it against the escape of fugitives; but
+he missed it in the gloom, and hastened back. The assailants were now
+formed into two bands, Sainte-Hélène leading the one and Mantet the
+other. They passed through the gate together in dead silence: one turned
+to the right and the other to the left, and they filed around the
+village between the palisades and the houses till the two leaders met at
+the farther end. Thus the place was completely surrounded. The signal
+was then given: they all screeched the war-whoop together, burst in the
+doors with hatchets, and fell to their work. Roused by the infernal din,
+the villagers leaped from their beds. For some it was but a momentary
+nightmare of fright and horror, ended by the blow of the tomahawk.
+Others were less fortunate. Neither women nor children were spared. "No
+pen can write, and no tongue express," wrote Schuyler, "the cruelties
+that were committed." [3] There was little resistance, except at the
+blockhouse, where Talmage and his men made a stubborn fight; but the
+doors were at length forced open, the defenders killed or taken, and the
+building set on fire. Adam Vrooman, one of the villagers, saw his wife
+shot and his child brained against the door-post; but he fought so
+desperately that the assailants promised him his life. Orders had been
+given to spare Peter Tassemaker, the domine or minister, from whom it
+was thought that valuable information might be obtained; but he was
+hacked to pieces, and his house burned. Some, more agile or more
+fortunate than the rest, escaped at the eastern gate, and fled through
+the storm to seek shelter at Albany or at houses along the way. Sixty
+persons were killed outright, of whom thirty-eight were men and boys,
+ten were women, and twelve were children. [4] The number captured
+appears to have been between eighty and ninety. The thirty Mohawks in
+the town were treated with studied kindness by the victors, who declared
+that they had no quarrel with them, but only with the Dutch and English.
+
+[3] "The women bigg with Childe rip'd up, and the Children alive throwne
+into the flames, and their heads dashed to pieces against the Doors and
+windows." Schuyler to the Council of Connecticut, 15 Feb., 1690. Similar
+statements are made by Leisler. See Doc. Hist. N. Y., I. 307, 310.
+[4] List of ye. People kild and destroyed by ye. French of Canida and
+there Indians at Skinnechtady, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., I. 304.
+
+The massacre and pillage continued two hours; then the prisoners were
+secured, sentinels posted, and the men told to rest and refresh
+themselves. In the morning, a small party crossed the river to the house
+of Glen, which stood on a rising ground half a mile distant. It was
+loopholed and palisaded; and Glen had mustered his servants and tenants,
+closed his gates, and prepared to defend himself. The French told him to
+fear nothing, for they had orders not to hurt a chicken of his;
+whereupon, after requiring them to lay down their arms, he allowed them
+to enter. They urged him to go with them to the village, and he
+complied; they on their part leaving one of their number as a hostage in
+the hands of his followers. Iberville appeared at the gate with the
+Great Mohawk, and, drawing his commission from the breast of his coat,
+told Glen that he was specially charged to pay a debt which the French
+owed him. On several occasions, he had saved the lives of French
+prisoners in the hands of the Mohawks; and he, with his family, and,
+above all, his wife, had shown them the greatest kindness. He was now
+led before the crowd of wretched prisoners, and told that not only were
+his own life and property safe, but that all his kindred should be
+spared. Glen stretched his privilege to the utmost, till the French
+Indians, disgusted at his multiplied demands for clemency, observed that
+everybody seemed to be his relation.
+
+Some of the houses had already been burned. Fire was now set to the
+rest, excepting one, in which a French officer lay wounded, another
+belonging to Glen, and three or four more which he begged the victors to
+spare. At noon Schenectady was in ashes. Then the French and Indians
+withdrew, laden with booty. Thirty or forty captured horses dragged
+their sledges; and a troop of twenty-seven men and boys were driven
+prisoners into the forest. About sixty old men, women, and children were
+left behind, without farther injury, in order, it is said, to conciliate
+the Mohawks in the place, who had joined with Glen in begging that they
+might be spared. Of the victors, only two had been killed. [5]
+
+[5] Many of the authorities on the burning of Schenectady will be found
+in the Documentary History of New York, I. 297-312. One of the most
+important is a portion of the long letter of M. de Monseignat,
+comptroller-general of the marine in Canada, to a lady of rank, said to
+be Madame de Maintenon. Others are contemporary documents preserved at
+Albany, including, among others, the lists of killed and captured,
+letters of Leisler to the governor of Maryland, the governor of
+Massachusetts, the governor of Barbadoes, and the Bishop of Salisbury;
+of Robert Livingston to Sir Edmund Andros and to Captain Nicholson; and
+of Mr. Van Cortlandt to Sir Edmund Andros. One of the best contemporary
+authorities is a letter of Schuyler and his colleagues to the governor
+and council of Massachusetts, 15 February, 1690, preserved in the
+Massachusetts archives, and printed in the third volume of Mr.
+Whitmore's Andros Tracts. La Potherie, Charlevoix, Colden, Smith, and
+many others, give accounts at second-hand.
+
+Johannes Sander, or Alexander, Glen, was the son of a Scotchman of good
+family. He was usually known as Captain Sander. The French wrote the
+name Cendre, which became transformed into Condre, and then into Coudre.
+In the old family Bible of the Glens, still preserved at the place named
+by them Scotia, near Schenectady, is an entry in Dutch recording the
+"murders" committed by the French, and the exemption accorded to
+Alexander Glen on account of services rendered by him and his family to
+French prisoners. See Proceedings of N. Y. Hist. Soc., 1846, 118.
+
+The French called Schenectady Corlaer or Corlar, from Van Curler, its
+founder. Its treatment at their hands was ill deserved, as its
+inhabitants, and notably Van Curler himself, had from the earliest times
+been the protectors of French captives among the Mohawks. Leisler says
+that only one-sixth of the inhabitants escaped unhurt.
+
+At the outset of the attack, Simon Schermerhorn threw himself on a
+horse, and galloped through the eastern gate. The French shot at and
+ounded him; but he escaped, reached Albany at daybreak, and gave the
+alarm. The soldiers and inhabitants were called to arms, cannon were
+fired to rouse the country, and a party of horsemen, followed by some
+friendly Mohawks, set out for Schenectady. The Mohawks had promised to
+carry the news to their three towns on the river above; but, when they
+reached the ruined village, they were so frightened at the scene of
+havoc that they would not go farther. Two days passed before the alarm
+reached the Mohawk towns. Then troops of warriors came down on
+snow-shoes, equipped with tomahawk and gun, to chase the retiring
+French. Fifty young men from Albany joined them; and they followed the
+trail of the enemy, who, with the help of their horses, made such speed
+over the ice of Lake Champlain that it seemed impossible to overtake
+them. They thought the pursuit abandoned; and, having killed and eaten
+most of their horses, and being spent with fatigue, they moved more
+slowly as they neared home, when a band of Mohawks, who had followed
+stanchly on their track, fell upon a party of stragglers, and killed or
+captured fifteen or more, almost within sight of Montreal.
+
+Three of these prisoners, examined by Schuyler, declared that Frontenac
+was preparing for a grand attack on Albany in the spring. In the
+political confusion of the time, the place was not in fighting
+condition; and Schuyler appealed for help to the authorities of
+Massachusetts. "Dear neighbours and friends, we must acquaint you that
+nevir poor People in the world was in a worse Condition than we are at
+Present, no Governour nor Command, no money to forward any expedition,
+and scarce Men enough to maintain the Citty. We have here plainly laid
+the case before you, and doubt not but you will so much take it to
+heart, and make all Readinesse in the Spring to invade Canida by water."
+[6] The Mohawks were of the same mind. Their elders came down to Albany
+to condole with their Dutch and English friends on the late disaster.
+"We are come," said their orator, "with tears in our eyes, to lament the
+murders committed at Schenectady by the perfidious French. Onontio comes
+to our country to speak of peace, but war is at his heart. He has broken
+into our house at both ends, once among the Senecas and once here; but
+we hope to be revenged. Brethren, our covenant with you is a silver
+chain that cannot rust or break. We are of the race of the bear; and the
+bear does not yield, so long as there is a drop of blood in his body.
+Let us all be bears. We will go together with an army to ruin the
+country of the French. Therefore, send in all haste to New England. Let
+them be ready with ships and great guns to attack by water, while we
+attack by land." [7] Schuyler did not trust his red allies, who,
+however, seem on this occasion to have meant what they said. He lost no
+time in sending commissioners to urge the several governments of New
+England to a combined attack on the French.
+
+[6] Schuyler, Wessell, and Van Rensselaer to the Governor and Council of
+Massachusetts, 15 Feb., 1690, in Andros Tracts, III. 114.
+
+[7] Propositions made by the Sachems of ye. Maquase (Mohawk) Castles to
+ye. Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonality of ye. Citty of Albany, ye. 25 day
+of february, 1690, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 164-169.
+
+New England needed no prompting to take up arms; for she presently
+learned to her cost that, though feeble and prostrate, Canada could
+sting. The war-party which attacked Schenectady was, as we have seen,
+but one of three which Frontenac had sent against the English borders.
+The second, aimed at New Hampshire, left Three Rivers on the
+twenty-eighth of January, commanded by François Hertel. It consisted of
+twenty-four Frenchmen, twenty Abenakis of the Sokoki band, and five
+Algonquins. After three months of excessive hardship in the vast and
+rugged wilderness that intervened, they approached the little settlement
+of Salmon Falls on the stream which separates New Hampshire from Maine;
+and here for a moment we leave them, to observe the state of this
+unhappy frontier.
+
+It was twelve years and more since the great Indian outbreak, called
+King Philip's War, had carried havoc through all the borders of New
+England. After months of stubborn fighting, the fire was quenched in
+Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut; but in New Hampshire and Maine
+it continued to burn fiercely till the treaty of Casco, in 1678. The
+principal Indians of this region were the tribes known collectively as
+the Abenakis. The French had established relations with them through the
+missionaries; and now, seizing the opportunity, they persuaded many of
+these distressed and exasperated savages to leave the neighborhood of
+the English, migrate to Canada, and settle first at Sillery near Quebec
+and then at the falls of the Chaudière. Here the two Jesuits, Jacques
+and Vincent Bigot, prime agents in their removal, took them in charge;
+and the missions of St. Francis became villages of Abenaki Christians,
+like the village of Iroquois Christians at Saut St. Louis. In both
+cases, the emigrants were sheltered under the wing of Canada; and they
+and their tomahawks were always at her service. The two Bigots spared no
+pains to induce more of the Abenakis to join these mission colonies.
+They were in good measure successful, though the great body of the tribe
+still clung to their ancient homes on the Saco, the Kennebec, and the
+Penobscot. [8]
+
+[8] The Abenaki migration to Canada began as early as the autumn of 1675
+(Relation, 1676-77). On the mission of St. Francis on the Chaudière, see
+Bigot, Relation, 1684; Ibid., 1685. It was afterwards removed to the
+river St. Francis.
+
+There were ten years of critical and dubious peace along the English
+border, and then the war broke out again. The occasion of this new
+uprising is not very clear, and it is hardly worth while to look for it.
+Between the harsh and reckless borderer on the one side, and the fierce
+savage on the other, a single spark might at any moment set the frontier
+in a blaze. The English, however, believed firmly that their French
+rivals had a hand in the new outbreak; and, in fact, the Abenakis told
+some of their English captives that Saint-Castin, a French adventurer on
+the Penobscot, gave every Indian who would go to the war a pound of
+gunpowder, two pounds of lead, and a supply of tobacco. [9] The trading
+house of Saint-Castin, which stood on ground claimed by England, had
+lately been plundered by Sir Edmund Andros, and some of the English had
+foretold that an Indian war would be the consequence; but none of them
+seem at this time to have suspected that the governor of Canada and his
+Jesuit friends had any part in their woes. Yet there is proof that this
+was the case; for Denonville himself wrote to the minister at Versailles
+that the successes of the Abenakis on this occasion were due to the
+"good understanding which he had with them," by means of the two
+brothers Bigot and other Jesuits. [10]
+
+[9] Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., I. 326. Compare N. Y. Col. Docs., IV. 282,
+476.
+[10] "En partant de Canada, j'ay laissé une très grande disposition à
+attirer au Christianisme la plus grande partie des sauvages Abenakis qui
+abitent les bois du voisinage de Baston. Pour cela il faut les attirer à
+la mission nouvellement établie près Québec sous le nom de S. François
+de Sale. Je l'ai vue en peu de temps au nombre de six cents âmes venues
+du voisinage de Baston. Je l'ay laissée en estat d'augmenter beaucoup si
+elle est protegée; j'y ai fait quelque dépense qui n'est pas inutile. La
+bonne intelligence que j'ai eue avec ces sauvages par les soins des
+Jésuites, et surtout des deux pères Bigot frères a fait le succès de
+toutes les attaques qu'ils ont faites sur les Anglois cet esté, aux
+quels ils ont enlevé 16 forts, outre celuy de Pemcuit (Pemaquid) ou il y
+avoit 20 pièces de canon, et leur ont tué plus de 200 hommes."
+Denonville au Ministre, Jan., 1690.
+
+It is to be observed that this Indian outbreak began in the summer of
+1688, when there was peace between France and England. News of the
+declaration of war did not reach Canada till July, 1689. (Belmont.)
+Dover and other places were attacked in June of the same year.
+
+The intendant Champigny says that most of the Indians who attacked the
+English were from the mission villages near Quebec. Champigny au
+Ministre, 16 Nov., 1689. He says also that he supplied them with
+gunpowder for the war.
+
+The "forts" taken by the Indians on the Kennebec at this time were
+nothing but houses protected by palisades. They were taken by treachery
+and surprise. Lettre du Père Thury, 1689. Thury says that 142 men,
+women, and children were killed.
+
+Whatever were the influences that kindled and maintained the war, it
+spread dismay and havoc through the English settlements. Andros at first
+made light of it, and complained of the authorities of Boston, because
+in his absence they had sent troops to protect the settlers; but he soon
+changed his mind, and in the winter went himself to the scene of action
+with seven hundred men. Not an Indian did he find. They had all
+withdrawn into the depths of the frozen forest. Andros did what he
+could, and left more than five hundred men in garrison on the Kennebec
+and the Saco, at Casco Bay, Pemaquid, and various other exposed points.
+He then returned to Boston, where surprising events awaited him. Early
+in April, news came that the Prince of Orange had landed in England.
+There was great excitement. The people of the town rose against Andros,
+whom they detested as the agent of the despotic policy of James II. They
+captured his two forts with their garrisons of regulars, seized his
+frigate in the harbor, placed him and his chief adherents in custody,
+elected a council of safety, and set at its head their former governor,
+Bradstreet, an old man of eighty-seven. The change was disastrous to the
+eastern frontier. Of the garrisons left for its protection the winter
+before, some were partially withdrawn by the new council; while others,
+at the first news of the revolution, mutinied, seized their officers,
+and returned home. [11] These garrisons were withdrawn or reduced,
+partly perhaps because the hated governor had established them, partly
+through distrust of his officers, some of whom were taken from the
+regulars, and partly because the men were wanted at Boston. The order of
+withdrawal cannot be too strongly condemned. It was a part of the
+bungling inefficiency which marked the military management of the New
+England governments from the close of Philip's war to the peace of
+Utrecht.
+
+[11] Andros, Account of Forces in Maine, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 85.
+Compare Andros Tracts, I. 177; Ibid., II. 181, 193, 207, 213, 217;
+Ibid., III. 232; Report of Andros in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 722. The
+order for the reduction of the garrisons and the return of the suspected
+officers was passed at the first session of the council of safety, 20
+April. The agents of Massachusetts at London endeavored to justify it.
+See Andros Tracts, III. 34. The only regular troops in New England were
+two companies brought by Andros. Most of them were kept at Boston,
+though a few men and officers were sent to the eastern garrison. These
+regulars were regarded with great jealousy, and denounced as "a crew
+that began to teach New England to Drab, Drink, Blaspheme, Curse, and
+Damm." Ibid., II. 59.
+
+In their hatred of Andros, many of the people of New England held the
+groundless and foolish belief that he was in secret collusion with the
+French and Indians. Their most dangerous domestic enemies were some of
+their own traders, who covertly sold arms and ammunition to the Indians.
+
+When spring opened, the Indians turned with redoubled fury against the
+defenceless frontier, seized the abandoned stockades, and butchered the
+helpless settlers. Now occurred the memorable catastrophe at Cocheco, or
+Dover. Two squaws came at evening and begged lodging in the palisaded
+house of Major Waldron. At night, when all was still, they opened the
+gates and let in their savage countrymen. Waldron was eighty years old.
+He leaped from his bed, seized his sword, and drove back the assailants
+through two rooms; but, as he turned to snatch his pistols, they stunned
+him by the blow of a hatchet, bound him in an arm-chair, and placed him
+on a table, where after torturing him they killed him with his own
+sword.
+
+The crowning event of the war was the capture of Pemaquid, a stockade
+work, mounted with seven or eight cannon. Andros had placed in it a
+garrison of a hundred and fifty-six men, under an officer devoted to
+him. Most of them had been withdrawn by the council of safety; and the
+entire force of the defenders consisted of Lieutenant James Weems and
+thirty soldiers, nearly half of whom appear to have been absent at the
+time of the attack. [12] The Indian assailants were about a hundred in
+number, all Christian converts from mission villages. By a sudden rush,
+they got possession of a number of houses behind the fort, occupied only
+by women and children, the men being at their work. [13] Some ensconced
+themselves in the cellars, and others behind a rock on the seashore,
+whence they kept up a close and galling fire. On the next day, Weems
+surrendered, under a promise of life, and, as the English say, of
+liberty to himself and all his followers. The fourteen men who had
+survived the fire, along with a number of women and children, issued
+from the gate, upon which some were butchered on the spot, and the rest,
+excepting Weems and a few others, were made prisoners. In other
+respects, the behavior of the victors is said to have been creditable.
+They tortured nobody, and their chiefs broke the rum barrels in the
+fort, to prevent disorder. Father Thury, a priest of the seminary of
+Quebec, was present at the attack; and the assailants were a part of his
+Abenaki flock. Religion was one of the impelling forces of the war. In
+the eyes of the Indian converts, it was a crusade against the enemies of
+God. They made their vows to the Virgin before the fight; and the
+squaws, in their distant villages on the Penobscot, told unceasing
+beads, and offered unceasing prayers for victory. [14]
+
+[12] Andros in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 85. The original commanding
+officer, Brockholes, was reputed a "papist." Hence his removal. Andros
+Tracts, III. 35. Andros says that but eighteen men were left in the
+fort. A list of them in the archives of Massachusetts, certified by
+Weems himself, shows that there were thirty. Doubt is thrown on this
+certificate by the fact that the object of it was to obtain a grant of
+money in return for advances of pay made by Weems to his soldiers. Weems
+was a regular officer. A number of letters from him, showing his
+condition before the attack, will be found in Johnston, History of
+Bristol, Bremen, and Pemaquid.
+[13] Captivity of John Gyles. Gyles was one of the inhabitants.
+[14] Thury, Relation du Combat des Canibas. Compare Hutchinson, Hist.
+Mass., I. 352, and Mather, Magnalia, II. 590 (ed. 1853). The murder of
+prisoners after the capitulation has been denied. Thury incidentally
+confirms the statement, when, after saying that he exhorted the Indians
+to refrain from drunkenness and cruelty, he adds that, in consequence,
+they did not take a single scalp, and "tuèrent sur le champ ceux qu'ils
+voulurent tuer."
+
+English accounts place the number of Indians at from two to three
+hundred. Besides the persons taken in the fort, a considerable number
+were previously killed, or captured in the houses and fields. Those who
+were spared were carried to the Indian towns on the Penobscot, the seat
+of Thury's mission. La Motte-Cadillac, in his Mémoire sur l'Acadie,
+1692, says that 80 persons in all were killed; an evident exaggeration.
+He adds that Weems and six men were spared at the request of the chief,
+Madockawando. The taking of Pemaquid is remarkable as one of the very
+rare instances in which Indians have captured a fortified place
+otherwise than by treachery or surprise. The exploit was undoubtedly due
+to French prompting. We shall see hereafter with what energy and success
+Thury incited his flock to war.
+
+The war now ran like wildfire through the settlements of Maine and New
+Hampshire. Sixteen fortified houses, with or without defenders, are said
+to have fallen into the hands of the enemy; and the extensive district
+then called the county of Cornwall was turned to desolation.
+Massachusetts and Plymouth sent hasty levies of raw men, ill-armed and
+ill-officered, to the scene of action. At Casco Bay, they met a large
+body of Indians, whom they routed after a desultory fight of six hours;
+and then, as the approaching winter seemed to promise a respite from
+attack, most of them were withdrawn and disbanded.
+
+It was a false and fatal security. Through snow and ice and storm,
+Hertel and his band were moving on their prey. On the night of the
+twenty-seventh of March, they lay hidden in the forest that bordered the
+farms and clearings of Salmon Falls. Their scouts reconnoitred the
+place, and found a fortified house with two stockade forts, built as a
+refuge for the settlers in case of alarm. Towards daybreak, Hertel,
+dividing his followers into three parties, made a sudden and
+simultaneous attack. The settlers, unconscious of danger, were in their
+beds. No watch was kept even in the so-called forts; and, when the
+French and Indians burst in, there was no time for their few tenants to
+gather for defence. The surprise was complete; and, after a short
+struggle, the assailants were successful at every point. They next
+turned upon the scattered farms of the neighborhood, burned houses,
+barns, and cattle, and laid the entire settlement in ashes. About thirty
+persons of both sexes and all ages were tomahawked or shot; and
+fifty-four, chiefly women and children, were made prisoners. Two Indian
+scouts now brought word that a party of English was advancing to the
+scene of havoc from Piscataqua, or Portsmouth, not many miles distant.
+Hertel called his men together, and began his retreat. The pursuers, a
+hundred and forty in number, overtook him about sunset at Wooster River,
+where the swollen stream was crossed by a narrow bridge. Hertel and his
+followers made a stand on the farther bank, killed and wounded a number
+of the English as they attempted to cross, kept up a brisk fire on the
+rest, held them in check till night, and then continued their retreat.
+The prisoners, or some of them, were given to the Indians, who tortured
+one or more of the men, and killed and tormented children and infants
+with a cruelty not always equalled by their heathen countrymen. [15]
+
+[15] The archives of Massachusetts contain various papers on the
+disaster at Salmon Falls. Among them is the report of the authorities of
+Portsmouth to the governor and council at Boston, giving many
+particulars, and asking aid. They estimate the killed and captured at
+upwards of eighty, of whom about one fourth were men. They say that
+about twenty houses were burnt, and mention but one fort. The other,
+mentioned in the French accounts, was, probably a palisaded house.
+Speaking of the combat at the bridge, they say, "We fought as long as we
+could distinguish friend from foe. We lost two killed and six or seven
+wounded, one mortally." The French accounts say fourteen. This letter is
+accompanied by the examination of a French prisoner, taken the same day.
+Compare Mather, Magnalia, II. 595; Belknap, Hist. New Hampshire, I. 207;
+Journal of Rev. John Pike (Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc. 1875); and
+the French accounts of Monseignat and La Potherie. Charlevoix adds
+various embellishments, not to be found in the original sources. Later
+writers copy and improve upon him, until Hertel is pictured as charging
+the pursuers sword in hand, while the English fly in disorder before
+him.
+
+Hertel continued his retreat to one of the Abenaki villages on the
+Kennebec. Here he learned that a band of French and Indians had lately
+passed southward on their way to attack the English fort at Casco Bay,
+on the site of Portland. Leaving at the village his eldest son, who had
+been badly wounded at Wooster River, he set out to join them with
+thirty-six of his followers. The band in question was Frontenac's third
+war-party. It consisted of fifty French and sixty Abenakis from the
+mission of St. Francis; and it had left Quebec in January, under a
+Canadian officer named Portneuf and his lieutenant, Courtemanche. They
+advanced at their leisure, often stopping to hunt, till in May they were
+joined on the Kennebec by a large body of Indian warriors. On the
+twenty-fifth, Portneuf encamped in the forest near the English forts,
+with a force which, including Hertel's party, the Indians of the
+Kennebec, and another band led by Saint-Castin from the Penobscot,
+amounted to between four and five hundred men. [16]
+
+[16] Declaration of Sylvanus Davis; Mather, Magnalia, II. 603.
+
+Fort Loyal was a palisade work with eight cannon, standing on rising
+ground by the shore of the bay, at what is now the foot of India Street
+in the city of Portland. Not far distant were four blockhouses and a
+village which they were designed to protect. These with the fort were
+occupied by about a hundred men, chiefly settlers of the neighborhood,
+under Captain Sylvanus Davis, a prominent trader. Around lay rough and
+broken fields stretching to the skirts of the forest half a mile
+distant. Some of Portneuf's scouts met a straggling Scotchman, and could
+not resist the temptation of killing him. Their scalp-yells alarmed the
+garrison, and thus the advantage of surprise was lost. Davis resolved to
+keep his men within their defences, and to stand on his guard; but there
+was little or no discipline in the yeoman garrison, and thirty young
+volunteers under Lieutenant Thaddeus Clark sallied out to find the
+enemy. They were too successful; for, as they approached the top of a
+hill near the woods, they observed a number of cattle staring with a
+scared look at some object on the farther side of a fence; and, rightly
+judging that those they sought were hidden there, they raised a cheer,
+and ran to the spot. They were met by a fire so close and deadly that
+half their number were shot down. A crowd of Indians leaped the fence
+and rushed upon the survivors, who ran for the fort; but only four, all
+of whom were wounded, succeeded in reaching it. [17]
+
+[17] Relation de Monseignat; La Potherie, III. 79.
+
+The men in the blockhouses withdrew under cover of night to Fort Loyal,
+where the whole force of the English was now gathered along with their
+frightened families. Portneuf determined to besiege the place in form;
+and, after burning the village, and collecting tools from the abandoned
+blockhouses, he opened his trenches in a deep gully within fifty yards
+of the fort, where his men were completely protected. They worked so
+well that in three days they had wormed their way close to the palisade;
+and, covered as they were in their burrows, they lost scarcely a man,
+while their enemies suffered severely. They now summoned the fort to
+surrender. Davis asked for a delay of six days, which was refused; and
+in the morning the fight began again. For a time the fire was sharp and
+heavy. The English wasted much powder in vain efforts to dislodge the
+besiegers from their trenches; till at length, seeing a machine loaded
+with a tar-barrel and other combustibles shoved against their palisades,
+they asked for a parley. Up to this time, Davis had supposed that his
+assailants were all Indians, the French being probably dressed and
+painted like their red allies. "We demanded," he says, "if there were
+any French among them, and if they would give us quarter. They answered
+that they were Frenchmen, and that they would give us good quarter. Upon
+this, we sent out to them again to know from whence they came, and if
+they would give us good quarter for our men, women, and children, both
+wounded and sound, and (to demand) that we should have liberty to march
+to the next English town, and have a guard for our defence and safety;
+then we would surrender; and also that the governour of the French
+should hold up his hand and swear by the great and ever living God that
+the several articles should be performed: all which he did solemnly
+swear."
+
+The survivors of the garrison now filed through the gate, and laid down
+their arms. They with their women and children were thereupon abandoned
+to the Indians, who murdered many of them, and carried off the rest.
+When Davis protested against this breach of faith, he was told that he
+and his countrymen were rebels against their lawful king, James II.
+After spiking the cannon, burning the fort, and destroying all the
+neighboring settlements, the triumphant allies departed for their
+respective homes, leaving the slain unburied where they had fallen. [18]
+
+[18] Their remains were buried by Captain Church, three years later.
+
+On the capture of Fort Loyal, compare Monseignat and La Potherie with
+Mather, Magnalia, II. 603, and the Declaration of Sylvanus Davis, in 3
+Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 101. Davis makes curious mistakes in regard to
+French names, his rustic ear not being accustomed to the accents of the
+Gallic tongue. He calls Courtemanche, Monsieur Corte de March, and
+Portneuf, Monsieur Burniffe or Burneffe. To these contemporary
+authorities may be added the account given by Le Clercq, Établissement
+de la Foy, II. 393, and a letter from Governor Bradstreet of
+Massachusetts to Jacob Leisler in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 259. The French
+writers of course say nothing of any violation of faith on the part of
+the victors, but they admit that the Indians kept most of the prisoners.
+Scarcely was the fort taken, when four English vessels appeared in the
+harbor, too late to save it. Willis, in his History of Portland (ed.
+1865), gives a map of Fort Loyal and the neighboring country. In the
+Massachusetts archives is a letter from Davis, written a few days before
+the attack, complaining that his fort is in wretched condition.
+
+Davis with three or four others, more fortunate than their companions,
+was kept by the French, and carried to Canada. "They were kind to me,"
+he says, "on my travels through the country. I arrived at Quebeck the
+14th of June, where I was civilly treated by the gentry, and soon
+carried to the fort before the governour, the Earl of Frontenack."
+Frontenac told him that the governor and people of New York were the
+cause of the war, since they had stirred up the Iroquois against Canada,
+and prompted them to torture French prisoners. [19] Davis replied that
+New York and New England were distinct and separate governments, each of
+which must answer for its own deeds; and that New England would gladly
+have remained at peace with the French, if they had not set on the
+Indians to attack her peaceful settlers. Frontenac admitted that the
+people of New England were not to be regarded in the same light with
+those who had stirred up the Indians against Canada; but he added that
+they were all rebels to their king, and that if they had been good
+subjects there would have been no war. "I do believe," observes the
+captive Puritan, "that there was a popish design against the Protestant
+interest in New England as in other parts of the world." He told
+Frontenac of the pledge given by his conqueror, and the violation of it.
+"We were promised good quarter," he reports himself to have said, "and a
+guard to conduct us to our English; but now we are made captives and
+slaves in the hands of the heathen. I thought I had to do with
+Christians that would have been careful of their engagements, and not to
+violate and break their oaths. Whereupon the governour shaked his head,
+and, as I was told, was very angry with Burniffe (Portneuf)."
+
+[19] I am unable to discover the foundation of this last charge.
+
+Frontenac was pleased with his prisoner, whom he calls a bonhomme. He
+told him in broken English to take courage, and promised him good
+treatment; to which Davis replied that his chief concern was not for
+himself, but for the captives in the hands of the Indians. Some of these
+were afterwards ransomed by the French, and treated with much kindness,
+as was also Davis himself, to whom the count gave lodging in the
+château.
+
+The triumphant success of his three war-parties produced on the Canadian
+people all the effect that Frontenac had expected. This effect was very
+apparent, even before the last two victories had become known. "You
+cannot believe, Monseigneur," wrote the governor, speaking of the
+capture of Schenectady, "the joy that this slight success has caused,
+and how much it contributes to raise the people from their dejection and
+terror."
+
+One untoward accident damped the general joy for a moment. A party of
+Iroquois Christians from the Saut St. Louis had made a raid against the
+English borders, and were returning with prisoners. One evening, as they
+were praying at their camp near Lake Champlain, they were discovered by
+a band of Algonquins and Abenakis who were out on a similar errand, and
+who, mistaking them for enemies, set upon them and killed several of
+their number, among whom was Kryn, the great Mohawk, chief of the
+mission of the Saut. This mishap was near causing a rupture between the
+best Indian allies of the colony; but the difference was at length
+happily adjusted, and the relatives of the slain propitiated by gifts.
+[20]
+
+[20] The attacking party consisted of some of the Abenakis and
+Algonquins who had been with Hertel, and who had left the main body
+after the destruction of Salmon Falls. Several of them were killed in
+the skirmish, and among the rest their chief, Hopehood, or Wohawa, "that
+memorable tygre," as Cotton Mather calls him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+1690.
+
+Massachusetts attacks Quebec.
+
+English Schemes • Capture of Port Royal • Acadia reduced • Conduct of
+Phips • His History and Character • Boston in Arms • A Puritan Crusade •
+The March from Albany • Frontenac and the Council • Frontenac at
+Montreal • His War Dance • An Abortive Expedition • An English Raid •
+Frontenac at Quebec • Defences of the Town • The Enemy arrives.
+
+When Frontenac sent his war-parties against New York and New England, it
+was in the hope not only of reanimating the Canadians, but also of
+teaching the Iroquois that they could not safely rely on English aid,
+and of inciting the Abenakis to renew their attacks on the border
+settlements. He imagined, too, that the British colonies could be
+chastised into prudence and taught a policy of conciliation towards
+their Canadian neighbors; but he mistook the character of these bold and
+vigorous though not martial communities. The plan of a combined attack
+on Canada seems to have been first proposed by the Iroquois; and New
+York and the several governments of New England, smarting under French
+and Indian attacks, hastened to embrace it. Early in May, a congress of
+their delegates was held in the city of New York. It was agreed that the
+colony of that name should furnish four hundred men, and Massachusetts,
+Plymouth, and Connecticut three hundred and fifty-five jointly; while
+the Iroquois afterwards added their worthless pledge to join the
+expedition with nearly all their warriors. The colonial militia were to
+rendezvous at Albany, and thence advance upon Montreal by way of Lake
+Champlain. Mutual jealousies made it difficult to agree upon a
+commander; but Winthrop of Connecticut was at length placed at the head
+of the feeble and discordant band.
+
+While Montreal was thus assailed by land, Massachusetts and the other
+New England colonies were invited to attack Quebec by sea; a task
+formidable in difficulty and in cost, and one that imposed on them an
+inordinate share in the burden of the war. Massachusetts hesitated. She
+had no money, and she was already engaged in a less remote and less
+critical enterprise. During the winter, her commerce had suffered from
+French cruisers, which found convenient harborage at Port Royal, whence
+also the hostile Indians were believed to draw supplies. Seven vessels,
+with two hundred and eighty-eight sailors, were impressed, and from four
+to five hundred militia-men were drafted for the service. [1] That
+rugged son of New England, Sir William Phips, was appointed to the
+command. He sailed from Nantasket at the end of April, reached Port
+Royal on the eleventh of May, landed his militia, and summoned Meneval,
+the governor, to surrender. The fort, though garrisoned by about seventy
+soldiers, was scarcely in condition to repel an assault; and Meneval
+yielded without resistance, first stipulating, according to French
+accounts, that private property should be respected, the church left
+untouched, and the troops sent to Quebec or to France. [2] It was found,
+however, that during the parley a quantity of goods, belonging partly to
+the king and partly to merchants of the place, had been carried off and
+hidden in the woods. [3] Phips thought this a sufficient pretext for
+plundering the merchants, imprisoning the troops, and desecrating the
+church. "We cut down the cross," writes one of his followers, "rifled
+their church, pulled down their high altar, and broke their images." [4]
+The houses of the two priests were also pillaged. The people were
+promised security to life, liberty, and property, on condition of
+swearing allegiance to King William and Queen Mary; "which," says the
+journalist, "they did with great acclamation," and thereupon they were
+left unmolested. [5] The lawful portion of the booty included twenty-one
+pieces of cannon, with a considerable sum of money belonging to the
+king. The smaller articles, many of which were taken from the merchants
+and from such of the settlers as refused the oath, were packed in
+hogsheads and sent on board the ships. Phips took no measures to secure
+his conquest, though he commissioned a president and six councillors,
+chosen from the inhabitants, to govern the settlement till farther
+orders from the crown or from the authorities of Massachusetts. The
+president was directed to constrain nobody in the matter of religion;
+and he was assured of protection and support so long as he remained
+"faithful to our government," that is, the government of Massachusetts.
+[6] The little Puritan commonwealth already gave itself airs of
+sovereignty.
+
+[1] Summary of Muster Roll, appended to A Journal of the Expedition from
+Boston against Port Royal, among the papers of George Chalmers in the
+Library of Harvard College.
+[2] Relation de la Prise du Port Royal par les Anglois de Baston, pièce
+anonyme, 27 Mai, 1690.
+[3] Journal of the Expedition from Boston against Port Royal.
+[4] Ibid.
+[5] Relation de Monseignat. Nevertheless, a considerable number seem to
+have refused the oath, and to have been pillaged. The Relation de la
+Prise du Port Royal par les Anglois de Baston, written on the spot
+immediately after the event, says that, except that nobody was killed,
+the place was treated as if taken by assault. Meneval also says that the
+inhabitants were pillaged. Meneval au Ministre, 29 Mai, 1690; also
+Rapport de Champigny, Oct., 1690. Meneval describes the New England men
+as excessively irritated at the late slaughter of settlers at Salmon
+Falls and elsewhere.
+[6] Journal of the Expedition, etc.
+
+Phips now sent Captain Alden, who had already taken possession of
+Saint-Castin's post at Penobscot, to seize upon La Hêve, Chedabucto, and
+other stations on the southern coast. Then, after providing for the
+reduction of the settlements at the head of the Bay of Fundy, he sailed,
+with the rest of the fleet, for Boston, where he arrived triumphant on
+the thirtieth of May, bringing with him, as prisoners, the French
+governor, fifty-nine soldiers, and the two priests, Petit and Trouvé.
+Massachusetts had made an easy conquest of all Acadia; a conquest,
+however, which she had neither the men nor the money to secure by
+sufficient garrisons.
+
+The conduct of the New England commander in this affair does him no
+credit. It is true that no blood was spilt, and no revenge taken for the
+repeated butcheries of unoffending and defenceless settlers. It is true,
+also, that the French appear to have acted in bad faith. But Phips, on
+the other hand, displayed a scandalous rapacity. Charlevoix says that he
+robbed Meneval of all his money; but Meneval himself affirms that he
+gave it to the English commander for safe keeping, and that Phips and
+his wife would return neither the money nor various other articles
+belonging to the captive governor, whereof the following are specified:
+"Six silver spoons, six silver forks, one silver cup in the shape of a
+gondola, a pair of pistols, three new wigs, a gray vest, four pair of
+silk garters, two dozen of shirts, six vests of dimity, four nightcaps
+with lace edgings, all my table service of fine tin, all my kitchen
+linen," and many other items which give an amusing insight into
+Meneval's housekeeping. [7]
+
+[7] An Account of the Silver and Effects which Mr. Phips keeps back from
+Mr. Meneval, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 115.
+
+Monseignat and La Potherie describe briefly this expedition against Port
+Royal. In the archives of Massachusetts are various papers concerning
+it, among which are Governor Bradstreet's instructions to Phips, and a
+complete invoice of the plunder. Extracts will be found in Professor
+Bowen's Life of Phips, in Sparks's American Biography, VII. There is
+also an order of council, "Whereas the French soldiers lately brought to
+this place from Port Royal did surrender on capitulation," they shall be
+set at liberty. Meneval, Lettre au Ministre, 29 Mai, 1690, says that
+there was a capitulation, and that Phips broke it. Perrot, former
+governor of Acadia, accuses both Meneval and the priest Petit of being
+in collusion with the English. Perrot à de Chevry, 2 Juin, 1690. The
+same charge is made as regards Petit in Mémoire sur l'Acadie, 1691.
+
+Charlevoix's account of this affair is inaccurate. He ascribes to Phips
+acts which took place weeks after his return, such as the capture of
+Chedabucto.
+
+Meneval, with the two priests, was confined in a house at Boston, under
+guard. He says that he petitioned the governor and council for redress;
+"but, as they have little authority and stand in fear of Phips, who is
+supported by the rabble, to which he himself once belonged, and of which
+he is now the chief, they would do nothing for me." [8] This statement
+of Meneval is not quite correct: for an order of the council is on
+record, requiring Phips to restore his chest and clothes; and, as the
+order received no attention, Governor Bradstreet wrote to the refractory
+commander a note, enjoining him to obey it at once. [9] Phips thereupon
+gave up some of the money and the worst part of the clothing, still
+keeping the rest. [10] After long delay, the council released Meneval:
+upon which, Phips and the populace whom he controlled demanded that he
+should be again imprisoned; but the "honest people" of the town took his
+part, his persecutor was forced to desist, and he set sail covertly for
+France. [11] This, at least, is his own account of the affair.
+
+[8] Mémoire présenté à M. de Ponchartrain par M. de Meneval, 6 Avril,
+1691.
+[9] This note, dated 7 Jan., 1691, is cited by Bowen in his Life of
+Phips, Sparks's American Biography, VII.
+[10] Mémoire de Meneval.
+[11] Ibid.
+
+As Phips was to play a conspicuous part in the events that immediately
+followed, some notice of him will not be amiss. He is said to have been
+one of twenty-six children, all of the same mother, and was born in 1650
+at a rude border settlement, since called Woolwich, on the Kennebec. His
+parents were ignorant and poor; and till eighteen years of age he was
+employed in keeping sheep. Such a life ill suited his active and
+ambitious nature. To better his condition, he learned the trade of
+ship-carpenter, and, in the exercise of it, came to Boston, where he
+married a widow with some property, beyond him in years, and much above
+him in station. About this time, he learned to read and write, though
+not too well, for his signature is like that of a peasant. Still
+aspiring to greater things, he promised his wife that he would one day
+command a king's ship and own a "fair brick house in the Green Lane of
+North Boston," a quarter then occupied by citizens of the better class.
+He kept his word at both points. Fortune was inauspicious to him for
+several years; till at length, under the pressure of reverses, he
+conceived the idea of conquering fame and wealth at one stroke, by
+fishing up the treasure said to be stored in a Spanish galleon wrecked
+fifty years before somewhere in the West Indian seas. Full of this
+project, he went to England, where, through influences which do not
+plainly appear, he gained a hearing from persons in high places, and
+induced the admiralty to adopt his scheme. A frigate was given him, and
+he sailed for the West Indies; whence, after a long search, he returned
+unsuccessful, though not without adventures which proved his mettle. It
+was the epoch of the buccaneers; and his crew, tired of a vain and
+toilsome search, came to the quarterdeck, armed with cutlasses, and
+demanded of their captain that he should turn pirate with them. Phips, a
+tall and powerful man, instantly fell upon them with his fists, knocked
+down the ringleaders, and awed them all into submission. Not long after,
+there was a more formidable mutiny; but, with great courage and address,
+he quelled it for a time, and held his crew to their duty till he had
+brought the ship into Jamaica, and exchanged them for better men.
+
+Though the leaky condition of the frigate compelled him to abandon the
+search, it was not till he had gained information which he thought would
+lead to success; and, on his return, he inspired such confidence that
+the Duke of Albemarle, with other noblemen and gentlemen, gave him a
+fresh outfit, and despatched him again on his Quixotic errand. This time
+he succeeded, found the wreck, and took from it gold, silver, and jewels
+to the value of three hundred thousand pounds sterling. The crew now
+leagued together to seize the ship and divide the prize; and Phips,
+pushed to extremity, was compelled to promise that every man of them
+should have a share in the treasure, even if he paid it himself. On
+reaching England, he kept his pledge so well that, after redeeming it,
+only sixteen thousand pounds was left as his portion, which, however,
+was an ample fortune in the New England of that day. He gained, too,
+what he valued almost as much, the honor of knighthood. Tempting offers
+were made him of employment in the royal service; but he had an ardent
+love for his own country, and thither he presently returned.
+
+Phips was a rude sailor, bluff, prompt, and choleric. He never gave
+proof of intellectual capacity; and such of his success in life as he
+did not owe to good luck was due probably to an energetic and
+adventurous spirit, aided by a blunt frankness of address that pleased
+the great, and commended him to their favor. Two years after the
+expedition to Port Royal, the king, under the new charter, made him
+governor of Massachusetts, a post for which, though totally unfit, he
+had been recommended by the elder Mather, who, like his son Cotton,
+expected to make use of him. He carried his old habits into his new
+office, cudgelled Brinton, the collector of the port, and belabored
+Captain Short of the royal navy with his cane. Far from trying to hide
+the obscurity of his origin, he leaned to the opposite foible, and was
+apt to boast of it, delighting to exhibit himself as a self-made man.
+New England writers describe him as honest in private dealings; but, in
+accordance with his coarse nature, he seems to have thought that any
+thing is fair in war. On the other hand, he was warmly patriotic, and
+was almost as ready to serve New England as to serve himself. [12]
+
+[12] An excellent account of Phips will be found in Professor Bowen's
+biographical notice, already cited. His Life by Cotton Mather is
+excessively eulogistic.
+
+When he returned from Port Royal, he found Boston alive with martial
+preparation. A bold enterprise was afoot. Massachusetts of her own
+motion had resolved to attempt the conquest of Quebec. She and her
+sister colonies had not yet recovered from the exhaustion of Philip's
+war, and still less from the disorders that attended the expulsion of
+the royal governor and his adherents. The public treasury was empty, and
+the recent expeditions against the eastern Indians had been supported by
+private subscription. Worse yet, New England had no competent military
+commander. The Puritan gentlemen of the original emigration, some of
+whom were as well fitted for military as for civil leadership, had
+passed from the stage; and, by a tendency which circumstances made
+inevitable, they had left none behind them equally qualified. The great
+Indian conflict of fifteen years before had, it is true, formed good
+partisan chiefs, and proved that the New England yeoman, defending his
+family and his hearth, was not to be surpassed in stubborn fighting;
+but, since Andros and his soldiers had been driven out, there was
+scarcely a single man in the colony of the slightest training or
+experience in regular war. Up to this moment, New England had never
+asked help of the mother country. When thousands of savages burst on her
+defenceless settlements, she had conquered safety and peace with her own
+blood and her own slender resources; but now, as the proposed capture of
+Quebec would inure to the profit of the British crown, Bradstreet and
+his council thought it not unfitting to ask for a supply of arms and
+ammunition, of which they were in great need. [13] The request was
+refused, and no aid of any kind came from the English government, whose
+resources were engrossed by the Irish war.
+
+[13] Bradstreet and Council to the Earl of Shrewsbury, 29 Mar., 1690;
+Danforth to Sir H. Ashurst, 1 April, 1690.
+
+While waiting for the reply, the colonial authorities urged on their
+preparations, in the hope that the plunder of Quebec would pay the
+expenses of its conquest. Humility was not among the New England
+virtues, and it was thought a sin to doubt that God would give his
+chosen people the victory over papists and idolaters; yet no pains were
+spared to ensure the divine favor. A proclamation was issued, calling
+the people to repentance; a day of fasting was ordained; and, as Mather
+expresses it, "the wheel of prayer was kept in continual motion." [14]
+The chief difficulty was to provide funds. An attempt was made to
+collect a part of the money by private subscription; [15] but, as this
+plan failed, the provisional government, already in debt, strained its
+credit yet farther, and borrowed the needful sums. Thirty-two trading
+and fishing vessels, great and small, were impressed for the service.
+The largest was a ship called the "Six Friends," engaged in the
+dangerous West India trade, and carrying forty-four guns. A call was
+made for volunteers, and many enrolled themselves; but, as more were
+wanted, a press was ordered to complete the number. So rigorously was it
+applied that, what with voluntary and enforced enlistment, one town,
+that of Gloucester, was deprived of two-thirds of its fencible men. [16]
+There was not a moment of doubt as to the choice of a commander, for
+Phips was imagined to be the very man for the work. One John Walley, a
+respectable citizen of Barnstable, was made second in command with the
+modest rank of major; and a sufficient number of ship-masters,
+merchants, master mechanics, and substantial farmers, were commissioned
+as subordinate officers. About the middle of July, the committee charged
+with the preparations reported that all was ready. Still there was a
+long delay. The vessel sent early in spring to ask aid from England had
+not returned. Phips waited for her as long as he dared, and the best of
+the season was over when he resolved to put to sea. The rustic warriors,
+duly formed into companies, were sent on board; and the fleet sailed
+from Nantasket on the ninth of August. Including sailors, it carried
+twenty-two hundred men, with provisions for four months, but
+insufficient ammunition and no pilot for the St. Lawrence. [17]
+
+[14] Mass. Colonial Records, 12 Mar., 1690; Mather, Life of Phips.
+[15] Proposals for an Expedition against Canada, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll.,
+X. 119.
+[16] Rev. John Emerson to Wait Winthrop, 26 July, 1690. Emerson was the
+minister of Gloucester. He begs for the release of the impressed men.
+[17] Mather, Life of Phips, gives an account of the outfit. Compare the
+Humble Address of Divers of the Gentry, Merchants and others inhabiting
+in Boston, to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Two officers of the
+expedition, Walley and Savage, have left accounts of it, as Phips would
+probably have done, had his literary acquirements been equal to the
+task.
+
+While Massachusetts was making ready to conquer Quebec by sea, the
+militia of the land expedition against Montreal had mustered at Albany.
+Their strength was even less than was at first proposed; for, after the
+disaster at Casco, Massachusetts and Plymouth had recalled their
+contingents to defend their frontiers. The rest, decimated by dysentery
+and small-pox, began their march to Lake Champlain, with bands of
+Mohawk, Oneida, and Mohegan allies. The western Iroquois were to join
+them at the lake, and the combined force was then to attack the head of
+the colony, while Phips struck at its heart.
+
+Frontenac was at Quebec during most of the winter and the early spring.
+When he had despatched the three war-parties, whose hardy but murderous
+exploits were to bring this double storm upon him, he had an interval of
+leisure, of which he made a characteristic use. The English and the
+Iroquois were not his only enemies. He had opponents within as well as
+without, and he counted as among them most of the members of the supreme
+council. Here was the bishop, representing that clerical power which had
+clashed so often with the civil rule; here was that ally of the Jesuits,
+the intendant Champigny, who, when Frontenac arrived, had written
+mournfully to Versailles that he would do his best to live at peace with
+him; here were Villeray and Auteuil, whom the governor had once
+banished, Damours, whom he had imprisoned, and others scarcely more
+agreeable to him. They and their clerical friends had conspired for his
+recall seven or eight years before; they had clung to Denonville, that
+faithful son of the Church, in spite of all his failures; and they had
+seen with troubled minds the return of King Stork in the person of the
+haughty and irascible count. He on his part felt his power. The country
+was in deadly need of him, and looked to him for salvation; while the
+king had shown him such marks of favor, that, for the moment at least,
+his enemies must hold their peace. Now, therefore, was the time to teach
+them that he was their master. Whether trivial or important the occasion
+mattered little. What he wanted was a conflict and a victory, or
+submission without a conflict.
+
+The supreme council had held its usual weekly meetings since Frontenac's
+arrival; but as yet he had not taken his place at the board, though his
+presence was needed. Auteuil, the attorney-general, was thereupon
+deputed to invite him. He visited the count at his apartment in the
+château, but could get from him no answer, except that the council was
+able to manage its own business, and that he would come when the king's
+service should require it. The councillors divined that he was waiting
+for some assurance that they would receive him with befitting ceremony;
+and, after debating the question, they voted to send four of their
+number to repeat the invitation, and beg the governor to say what form
+of reception would be agreeable to him. Frontenac answered that it was
+for them to propose the form, and that, when they did so, he would take
+the subject into consideration. The deputies returned, and there was
+another debate. A ceremony was devised, which it was thought must needs
+be acceptable to the count; and the first councillor, Villeray, repaired
+to the château to submit it to him. After making him an harangue of
+compliment, and protesting the anxiety of himself and his colleagues to
+receive him with all possible honor, he explained the plan, and assured
+Frontenac that, if not wholly satisfactory, it should be changed to suit
+his pleasure. "To which," says the record, "Monsieur the governor only
+answered that the council could consult the bishop and other persons
+acquainted with such matters." The bishop was consulted, but pleaded
+ignorance. Another debate followed; and the first councillor was again
+despatched to the château, with proposals still more deferential than
+the last, and full power to yield, in addition, whatever the governor
+might desire. Frontenac replied that, though they had made proposals for
+his reception when he should present himself at the council for the
+first time, they had not informed him what ceremony they meant to
+observe when he should come to the subsequent sessions. This point also
+having been thoroughly debated, Villeray went again to the count, and
+with great deference laid before him the following plan: That, whenever
+it should be his pleasure to make his first visit to the council, four
+of its number should repair to the château, and accompany him, with
+every mark of honor, to the palace of the intendant, where the sessions
+were held; and that, on his subsequent visits, two councillors should
+meet him at the head of the stairs, and conduct him to his seat. The
+envoy farther protested that, if this failed to meet his approval, the
+council would conform itself to all his wishes on the subject. Frontenac
+now demanded to see the register in which the proceedings on the
+question at issue were recorded. Villeray was directed to carry it to
+him. The records had been cautiously made; and, after studying them
+carefully, he could find nothing at which to cavil.
+
+He received the next deputation with great affability, told them that he
+was glad to find that the council had not forgotten the consideration
+due to his office and his person, and assured them, with urbane irony,
+that, had they offered to accord him marks of distinction greater than
+they felt were due, he would not have permitted them thus to compromise
+their dignity, having too much regard for the honor of a body of which
+he himself was the head. Then, after thanking them collectively and
+severally, he graciously dismissed them, saying that he would come to
+the council after Easter, or in about two months. [18] During four
+successive Mondays, he had forced the chief dignitaries of the colony to
+march in deputations up and down the rugged road from the intendant's
+palace to the chamber of the château where he sat in solitary state. A
+disinterested spectator might see the humor of the situation; but the
+council felt only its vexations. Frontenac had gained his point: the
+enemy had surrendered unconditionally.
+
+[18] "M. le Gouverneur luy a répondu qu'il avoit reconnu avec plaisir
+que la Compagnie (le Conseil) conservoit la considération qu'elle avoit
+pour son caractère et pour sa personne, et qu'elle pouvoit bien
+s'assurer qu'encore qu'elle luy eust fait des propositions au delà de ce
+qu'elle auroit cru devoir faire pour sa reception au Conseil, il ne les
+auroit pas acceptées, l'honneur de la Compagnie luy estant d'autant plus
+considérable, qu'en estant le chef, il n'auroit rien voulu souffrir qui
+peust estre contraire à sa dignité." Registre du Conseil Souverain,
+séance du 13 Mars, 1690. The affair had occupied the preceding sessions
+of 20 and 27 February and 6 March. The submission of the councillors did
+not prevent them from complaining to the minister. Champigny au
+Ministre, 10 Mai, 1691; Mémoire instructif sur le Canada, 1691.
+
+Having settled this important matter to his satisfaction, he again
+addressed himself to saving the country. During the winter, he had
+employed gangs of men in cutting timber in the forests, hewing it into
+palisades, and dragging it to Quebec. Nature had fortified the Upper
+Town on two sides by cliffs almost inaccessible, but it was open to
+attack in the rear; and Frontenac, with a happy prevision of approaching
+danger, gave his first thoughts to strengthening this, its only weak
+side. The work began as soon as the frost was out of the ground, and
+before midsummer it was well advanced. At the same time, he took every
+precaution for the safety of the settlements in the upper parts of the
+colony, stationed detachments of regulars at the stockade forts, which
+Denonville had built in all the parishes above Three Rivers, and kept
+strong scouting parties in continual movement in all the quarters most
+exposed to attack. Troops were detailed to guard the settlers at their
+work in the fields, and officers and men were enjoined to use the utmost
+vigilance. Nevertheless, the Iroquois war-parties broke in at various
+points, burning and butchering, and spreading such terror that in some
+districts the fields were left untilled and the prospects of the harvest
+ruined.
+
+Towards the end of July, Frontenac left Major Prévost to finish the
+fortifications, and, with the intendant Champigny, went up to Montreal,
+the chief point of danger. Here he arrived on the thirty-first; and, a
+few days after, the officer commanding the fort at La Chine sent him a
+messenger in hot haste with the startling news that Lake St. Louis was
+"all covered with canoes." [19] Nobody doubted that the Iroquois were
+upon them again. Cannon were fired to call in the troops from the
+detached posts; when alarm was suddenly turned to joy by the arrival of
+other messengers to announce that the new comers were not enemies, but
+friends. They were the Indians of the upper lakes descending from
+Michillimackinac to trade at Montreal. Nothing so auspicious had
+happened since Frontenac's return. The messages he had sent them in the
+spring by Louvigny and Perrot, reinforced by the news of the victory on
+the Ottawa and the capture of Schenectady, had had the desired effect;
+and the Iroquois prisoner whom their missionary had persuaded them to
+torture had not been sacrificed in vain. Despairing of an English market
+for their beaver skins, they had come as of old to seek one from the
+French.
+
+[19] "Que le lac estoit tout convert de canots." Frontenac au Ministre,
+9 et 12 Nov., 1690.
+
+On the next day, they all came down the rapids, and landed near the
+town. There were fully five hundred of them, Hurons, Ottawas, Ojibwas,
+Pottawatamies, Crees, and Nipissings, with a hundred and ten canoes
+laden with beaver skins to the value of nearly a hundred thousand
+crowns. Nor was this all; for, a few days after, La Durantaye, late
+commander at Michillimackinac, arrived with fifty-five more canoes,
+manned by French traders, and filled with valuable furs. The stream of
+wealth dammed back so long was flowing upon the colony at the moment
+when it was most needed. Never had Canada known a more prosperous trade
+than now in the midst of her danger and tribulation. It was a triumph
+for Frontenac. If his policy had failed with the Iroquois, it had found
+a crowning success among the tribes of the lakes.
+
+Having painted, greased, and befeathered themselves, the Indians
+mustered for the grand council which always preceded the opening of the
+market. The Ottawa orator spoke of nothing but trade, and, with a
+regretful memory of the cheapness of English goods, begged that the
+French would sell them at the same rate. The Huron touched upon politics
+and war, declaring that he and his people had come to visit their old
+father and listen to his voice, being well assured that he would never
+abandon them, as others had done, nor fool away his time, like
+Denonville, in shameful negotiations for peace; and he exhorted
+Frontenac to fight, not the English only, but the Iroquois also, till
+they were brought to reason. "If this is not done," he said, "my father
+and I shall both perish; but, come what may, we will perish together."
+[20] "I answered," writes Frontenac, "that I would fight the Iroquois
+till they came to beg for peace, and that I would grant them no peace
+that did not include all my children, both white and red, for I was the
+father of both alike."
+
+[20] La Potherie, III. 94; Monseignat, Relation; Frontenac au Ministre,
+9 et 12 Nov., 1690.
+
+Now ensued a curious scene. Frontenac took a hatchet, brandished it in
+the air and sang the war-song. The principal Frenchmen present followed
+his example. The Christian Iroquois of the two neighboring missions rose
+and joined them, and so also did the Hurons and the Algonquins of Lake
+Nipissing, stamping and screeching like a troop of madmen; while the
+governor led the dance, whooping like the rest. His predecessor would
+have perished rather than play such a part in such company; but the
+punctilious old courtier was himself half Indian at heart, as much at
+home in a wigwam as in the halls of princes. Another man would have lost
+respect in Indian eyes by such a performance. In Frontenac, it roused
+his audience to enthusiasm. They snatched the proffered hatchet and
+promised war to the death. [21]
+
+[21] "Je leur mis moy-mesme la hache à la main en chantant la chanson de
+guerre pour m'accommoder à leurs façons de faire." Frontenac au
+Ministre, 9 et 12 Nov., 1690.
+
+"Monsieur de Frontenac commença la Chanson de guerre, la Hache à la
+main, les principaux Chefs des François se joignant a luy avec de
+pareilles armes, la chanterent ensemble. Les Iroquois du Saut et de la
+Montagne, les Hurons et les Nipisiriniens donnerent encore le branle:
+l'on eut dit, Monsieur, que ces Acteurs étoient des possedez par les
+gestes et les contorsions qu'ils faisoient. Les Sassakouez, où les cris
+et les hurlemens que Mr. de Frontenac étoit obligé de faire pour se
+conformer à leur manière, augmentoit encore la fureur bachique." La
+Potherie, III. 97.
+
+Then came a solemn war-feast. Two oxen and six large dogs had been
+chopped to pieces for the occasion, and boiled with a quantity of
+prunes. Two barrels of wine with abundant tobacco were also served out
+to the guests, who devoured the meal in a species of frenzy. [22] All
+seemed eager for war except the Ottawas, who had not forgotten their
+late dalliance with the Iroquois. A Christian Mohawk of the Saut St.
+Louis called them to another council, and demanded that they should
+explain clearly their position. Thus pushed to the wall, they no longer
+hesitated, but promised like the rest to do all that their father should
+ask.
+
+[22] La Potherie, III. 96, 98.
+
+Their sincerity was soon put to the test. An Iroquois convert called La
+Plaque, a notorious reprobate though a good warrior, had gone out as a
+scout in the direction of Albany. On the day when the market opened and
+trade was in full activity, the buyers and sellers were suddenly
+startled by the sound of the death-yell. They snatched their weapons,
+and for a moment all was confusion; when La Plaque, who had probably
+meant to amuse himself at their expense, made his appearance, and
+explained that the yells proceeded from him. The news that he brought
+was, however, sufficiently alarming. He declared that he had been at
+Lake St. Sacrement, or Lake George, and had seen there a great number of
+men making canoes as if about to advance on Montreal. Frontenac,
+thereupon, sent the Chevalier de Clermont to scout as far as Lake
+Champlain. Clermont soon sent back one of his followers to announce that
+he had discovered a party of the enemy, and that they were already on
+their way down the Richelieu. Frontenac ordered cannon to be fired to
+call in the troops, crossed the St. Lawrence followed by all the
+Indians, and encamped with twelve hundred men at La Prairie to meet the
+expected attack. He waited in vain. All was quiet, and the Ottawa scouts
+reported that they could find no enemy. Three days passed. The Indians
+grew impatient, and wished to go home. Neither English nor Iroquois had
+shown themselves; and Frontenac, satisfied that their strength had been
+exaggerated, left a small force at La Prairie, recrossed the river, and
+distributed the troops again among the neighboring parishes to protect
+the harvesters. He now gave ample presents to his departing allies,
+whose chiefs he had entertained at his own table, and to whom, says
+Charlevoix, he bade farewell "with those engaging manners which he knew
+so well how to assume when he wanted to gain anybody to his interest."
+Scarcely were they gone, when the distant cannon of La Prairie boomed a
+sudden alarm.
+
+The men whom La Plaque had seen near Lake George were a part of the
+combined force of Connecticut and New York, destined to attack Montreal.
+They had made their way along Wood Creek to the point where it widens
+into Lake Champlain, and here they had stopped. Disputes between the men
+of the two colonies, intestine quarrels in the New York militia, who
+were divided between the two factions engendered by the late revolution,
+the want of provisions, the want of canoes, and the ravages of
+small-pox, had ruined an enterprise which had been mismanaged from the
+first. There was no birch bark to make more canoes, and owing to the
+lateness of the season the bark of the elms would not peel. Such of the
+Iroquois as had joined them were cold and sullen; and news came that the
+three western tribes of the confederacy, terrified by the small-pox, had
+refused to move. It was impossible to advance; and Winthrop, the
+commander, gave orders to return to Albany, leaving Phips to conquer
+Canada alone. [23] But first, that the campaign might not seem wholly
+futile, he permitted Captain John Schuyler to make a raid into Canada
+with a band of volunteers. Schuyler left the camp at Wood Creek with
+twenty-nine whites and a hundred and twenty Indians, passed Lake
+Champlain, descended the Richelieu to Chambly, and fell suddenly on the
+settlement of La Prairie, whence Frontenac had just withdrawn with his
+forces. Soldiers and inhabitants were reaping in the wheat-fields.
+Schuyler and his followers killed or captured twenty-five, including
+several women. He wished to attack the neighboring fort, but his Indians
+refused; and after burning houses, barns, and hay-ricks, and killing a
+great number of cattle, he seated himself with his party at dinner in
+the adjacent woods, while cannon answered cannon from Chambly, La
+Prairie, and Montreal, and the whole country was astir. "We thanked the
+Governor of Canada," writes Schuyler, "for his salute of heavy artillery
+during our meal." [24]
+
+[23] On this expedition see the Journal of Major General Winthrop, in N.
+Y. Col. Docs., IV. 193; Publick Occurrences, 1690, in Historical
+Magazine, I. 228; and various documents in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 727,
+752, and in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 266, 288. Compare La Potherie, III.
+126, and N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 513. These last are French statements. A
+Sokoki Indian brought to Canada a greatly exaggerated account of the
+English forces, and said that disease had been spread among them by
+boxes of infected clothing, which they themselves had provided in order
+to poison the Canadians. Bishop Laval, Lettre du 20 Nov., 1690, says
+that there was a quarrel between the English and their Iroquois allies,
+who, having plundered a magazine of spoiled provisions, fell ill, and
+thought that they were poisoned. Colden and other English writers seem
+to have been strangely ignorant of this expedition. The Jesuit Michel
+Germain declares that the force of the English alone amounted to four
+thousand men (Relation de la Défaite des Anglois, 1690). About one tenth
+of this number seem actually to have taken the field.
+[24] Journal of Captain John Schuyler, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 285.
+Compare La Potherie, III. 101, and Relation de Monseignat.
+
+The English had little to boast in this affair, the paltry termination
+of an enterprise from which great things had been expected. Nor was it
+for their honor to adopt the savage and cowardly mode of warfare in
+which their enemies had led the way. The blow that had been struck was
+less an injury to the French than an insult; but, as such, it galled
+Frontenac excessively, and he made no mention of it in his despatches to
+the court. A few more Iroquois attacks and a few more murders kept
+Montreal in alarm till the tenth of October, when matters of deeper
+import engaged the governor's thoughts.
+
+A messenger arrived in haste at three o'clock in the afternoon, and gave
+him a letter from Prévost, town major of Quebec. It was to the effect
+that an Abenaki Indian had just come over land from Acadia, with news
+that some of his tribe had captured an English woman near Portsmouth,
+who told them that a great fleet had sailed from Boston to attack
+Quebec. Frontenac, not easily alarmed, doubted the report. Nevertheless,
+he embarked at once with the intendant in a small vessel, which proved
+to be leaky, and was near foundering with all on board. He then took a
+canoe, and towards evening set out again for Quebec, ordering some two
+hundred men to follow him. On the next day, he met another canoe,
+bearing a fresh message from Prévost, who announced that the English
+fleet had been seen in the river, and that it was already above
+Tadoussac. Frontenac now sent back Captain de Ramsay with orders to
+Callières, governor of Montreal, to descend immediately to Quebec with
+all the force at his disposal, and to muster the inhabitants on the way.
+Then he pushed on with the utmost speed. The autumnal storms had begun,
+and the rain pelted him without ceasing; but on the morning of the
+fourteenth he neared the town. The rocks of Cape Diamond towered before
+him; the St. Lawrence lay beneath them, lonely and still; and the Basin
+of Quebec outspread its broad bosom, a solitude without a sail.
+Frontenac had arrived in time.
+
+He landed at the Lower Town, and the troops and the armed inhabitants
+came crowding to meet him. He was delighted at their ardor. [25] Shouts,
+cheers, and the waving of hats greeted the old man as he climbed the
+steep ascent of Mountain Street. Fear and doubt seemed banished by his
+presence. Even those who hated him rejoiced at his coming, and hailed
+him as a deliverer. He went at once to inspect the fortifications. Since
+the alarm a week before, Prévost had accomplished wonders, and not only
+completed the works begun in the spring, but added others to secure a
+place which was a natural fortress in itself. On two sides, the Upper
+Town scarcely needed defence. The cliffs along the St. Lawrence and
+those along the tributary river St. Charles had three accessible points,
+guarded at the present day by the Prescott Gate, the Hope Gate, and the
+Palace Gate. Prévost had secured them by barricades of heavy beams and
+casks filled with earth. A continuous line of palisades ran along the
+strand of the St. Charles, from the great cliff called the Saut au
+Matelot to the palace of the intendant. At this latter point began the
+line of works constructed by Frontenac to protect the rear of the town.
+They consisted of palisades, strengthened by a ditch and an embankment,
+and flanked at frequent intervals by square towers of stone. Passing
+behind the garden of the Ursulines, they extended to a windmill on a
+hillock called Mt. Carmel, and thence to the brink of the cliffs in
+front. Here there was a battery of eight guns near the present Public
+Garden; two more, each of three guns, were planted at the top of the
+Saut au Matelot; another at the barricade of the Palace Gate; and
+another near the windmill of Mt. Carmel; while a number of light pieces
+were held in reserve for such use as occasion might require. The Lower
+Town had no defensive works; but two batteries, each of three guns,
+eighteen and twenty-four pounders, were placed here at the edge of the
+river. [26]
+
+[25] Frontenac au Ministre, 9 et 12 Nov., 1690.
+[26] Relation de Monseignat; Plan de Québec, par Villeneuve, 1690;
+Relation du Mercure Galant, 1691. The summit of Cape Diamond, which
+commanded the town, was not fortified till three years later, nor were
+any guns placed here during the English attack.
+
+Two days passed in completing these defences under the eye of the
+governor. Men were flocking in from the parishes far and near; and on
+the evening of the fifteenth about twenty-seven hundred, regulars and
+militia, were gathered within the fortifications, besides the armed
+peasantry of Beauport and Beaupré, who were ordered to watch the river
+below the town, and resist the English, should they attempt to land.
+[27] At length, before dawn on the morning of the sixteenth, the
+sentinels on the Saut au Matelot could descry the slowly moving lights
+of distant vessels. At daybreak the fleet was in sight. Sail after sail
+passed the Point of Orleans and glided into the Basin of Quebec. The
+excited spectators on the rock counted thirty-four of them. Four were
+large ships, several others were of considerable size, and the rest were
+brigs, schooners, and fishing craft, all thronged with men.
+
+[27] Diary of Sylvanus Davis, prisoner in Quebec, in Mass. Hist. Coll.
+3, I. 101. There is a difference of ten days in the French and English
+dates, the New Style having been adopted by the former and not by the
+latter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+1690.
+
+Defence of Quebec.
+
+Phips on the St. Lawrence • Phips at Quebec • A Flag of Truce • Scene at
+the Château • The Summons and the Answer • Plan of Attack • Landing of
+the English • The Cannonade • The Ships repulsed • The Land Attack •
+Retreat of Phips • Condition of Quebec • Rejoicings of the French •
+Distress at Boston.
+
+The delay at Boston, waiting aid from England that never came, was not
+propitious to Phips; nor were the wind and the waves. The voyage to the
+St. Lawrence was a long one; and when he began, without a pilot, to
+grope his way up the unknown river, the weather seemed in league with
+his enemies. He appears, moreover, to have wasted time. What was most
+vital to his success was rapidity of movement; yet, whether by his fault
+or his misfortune, he remained three weeks within three days' sail of
+Quebec. [1] While anchored off Tadoussac, with the wind ahead, he passed
+the idle hours in holding councils of war and framing rules for the
+government of his men; and, when at length the wind veered to the east,
+it is doubtful if he made the best use of his opportunity. [2]
+
+[1] Journal of Major Walley, in Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., I. 470.
+[2] "Ils ne profitèrent pas du vent favorable pour nous surprendre comme
+ils auroient pu faire." Juchereau, 320.
+
+He presently captured a small vessel, commanded by Granville, an officer
+whom Prévost had sent to watch his movements. He had already captured,
+near Tadoussac, another vessel, having on board Madame Lalande and
+Madame Joliet, the wife and the mother-in-law of the discoverer of the
+Mississippi. [3] When questioned as to the condition of Quebec, they
+told him that it was imperfectly fortified, that its cannon were
+dismounted, and that it had not two hundred men to defend it. Phips was
+greatly elated, thinking that, like Port Royal, the capital of Canada
+would fall without a blow. The statement of the two prisoners was true,
+for the most part, when it was made; but the energy of Prévost soon
+wrought a change.
+
+[3] "Les Demoiselles Lalande et Joliet." The title of madame was at this
+time restricted to married women of rank. The wives of the bourgeois,
+and even of the lesser nobles, were called demoiselles.
+
+Phips imagined that the Canadians would offer little resistance to the
+Puritan invasion; for some of the Acadians had felt the influence of
+their New England neighbors, and shown an inclination to them. It was
+far otherwise in Canada, where the English heretics were regarded with
+abhorrence. Whenever the invaders tried to land at the settlements along
+the shore, they were met by a rebuff. At the river Ouelle, Francheville,
+the curé put on a cap and capote, took a musket, led his parishioners to
+the river, and hid with them in the bushes. As the English boats
+approached their ambuscade, they gave the foremost a volley, which
+killed nearly every man on board; upon which the rest sheared off. It
+was the same when the fleet neared Quebec. Bands of militia, vigilant,
+agile, and well commanded, followed it along the shore, and repelled
+with showers of bullets every attempt of the enemy to touch Canadian
+soil.
+
+When, after his protracted voyage, Phips sailed into the Basin of
+Quebec, one of the grandest scenes on the western continent opened upon
+his sight: the wide expanse of waters, the lofty promontory beyond, and
+the opposing heights of Levi; the cataract of Montmorenci, the distant
+range of the Laurentian Mountains, the warlike rock with its diadem of
+walls and towers, the roofs of the Lower Town clustering on the strand
+beneath, the Château St. Louis perched at the brink of the cliff, and
+over it the white banner, spangled with fleurs-de-lis, flaunting
+defiance in the clear autumnal air. Perhaps, as he gazed, a suspicion
+seized him that the task he had undertaken was less easy than he had
+thought; but he had conquered once by a simple summons to surrender, and
+he resolved to try its virtue again.
+
+The fleet anchored a little below Quebec; and towards ten o'clock the
+French saw a boat put out from the admiral's ship, bearing a flag of
+truce. Four canoes went from the Lower Town, and met it midway. It
+brought a subaltern officer, who announced himself as the bearer of a
+letter from Sir William Phips to the French commander. He was taken into
+one of the canoes and paddled to the quay, after being completely
+blindfolded by a bandage which covered half his face. Prévost received
+him as he landed, and ordered two sergeants to take him by the arms and
+lead him to the governor. His progress was neither rapid nor direct.
+They drew him hither and thither, delighting to make him clamber in the
+dark over every possible obstruction; while a noisy crowd hustled him,
+and laughing women called him Colin Maillard, the name of the chief
+player in blindman's buff. [4] Amid a prodigious hubbub, intended to
+bewilder him and impress him with a sense of immense warlike
+preparation, they dragged him over the three barricades of Mountain
+Street, and brought him at last into a large room of the château. Here
+they took the bandage from his eyes. He stood for a moment with an air
+of astonishment and some confusion. The governor stood before him,
+haughty and stern, surrounded by French and Canadian officers,
+Maricourt, Sainte-Hélène, Longueuil, Villebon, Valrenne, Bienville, and
+many more, bedecked with gold lace and silver lace, perukes and powder,
+plumes and ribbons, and all the martial foppery in which they took
+delight, and regarding the envoy with keen, defiant eyes. [5] After a
+moment, he recovered his breath and his composure, saluted Frontenac,
+and, expressing a wish that the duty assigned him had been of a more
+agreeable nature, handed him the letter of Phips. Frontenac gave it to
+an interpreter, who read it aloud in French that all might hear. It ran
+thus:--
+
+[4] Juchereau, 323.
+[5] "Tous ces Officiers s'étoient habillés le plus proprement qu'ils
+pûrent, les galons d'or et d'argent, les rubans, les plumets, la poudre,
+et la frisure, rien ne manquoit," etc. Ibid.
+
+"Sir William Phips, Knight, General and Commander-in-chief in and over
+their Majesties' Forces of New England, by Sea and Land, to Count
+Frontenac, Lieutenant-General and Governour for the French King at
+Canada; or, in his absence, to his Deputy, or him or them in chief
+command at Quebeck:
+
+"The war between the crowns of England and France doth not only
+sufficiently warrant, but the destruction made by the French and
+Indians, under your command and encouragement, upon the persons and
+estates of their Majesties' subjects of New England, without provocation
+on their part, hath put them under the necessity of this expedition for
+their own security and satisfaction. And although the cruelties and
+barbarities used against them by the French and Indians might, upon the
+present opportunity, prompt unto a severe revenge, yet, being desirous
+to avoid all inhumane and unchristian-like actions, and to prevent
+shedding of blood as much as may be,
+
+"I, the aforesaid William Phips, Knight, do hereby, in the name and in
+the behalf of their most excellent Majesties, William and Mary, King and
+Queen of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith,
+and by order of their said Majesties' government of the
+Massachuset-colony in New England, demand a present surrender of your
+forts and castles, undemolished, and the King's and other stores,
+unimbezzled, with a seasonable delivery of all captives; together with a
+surrender of all your persons and estates to my dispose: upon the doing
+whereof, you may expect mercy from me, as a Christian, according to what
+shall be found for their Majesties' service and the subjects' security.
+Which, if you refuse forthwith to do, I am come provided, and am
+resolved, by the help of God, in whom I trust, by force of arms to
+revenge all wrongs and injuries offered, and bring you under subjection
+to the Crown of England, and, when too late, make you wish you had
+accepted of the favour tendered.
+
+"Your answer positive in an hour, returned by your own trumpet, with the
+return of mine, is required upon the peril that will ensue." [6]
+
+[6] See the Letter in Mather, Magnalia, I. 186. The French kept a copy
+of it, which, with an accurate translation, in parallel columns, was
+sent to Versailles, and is still preserved in the Archives de la Marine.
+The text answers perfectly to that given by Mather.
+
+When the reading was finished, the Englishman pulled his watch from his
+pocket, and handed it to the governor. Frontenac could not, or pretended
+that he could not, see the hour. The messenger thereupon told him that
+it was ten o'clock, and that he must have his answer before eleven. A
+general cry of indignation arose; and Valrenne called out that Phips was
+nothing but a pirate, and that his man ought to be hanged. Frontenac
+contained himself for a moment, and then said to the envoy:--
+
+"I will not keep you waiting so long. Tell your general that I do not
+recognize King William; and that the Prince of Orange, who so styles
+himself, is a usurper, who has violated the most sacred laws of blood in
+attempting to dethrone his father-in-law. I know no king of England but
+King James. Your general ought not to be surprised at the hostilities
+which he says that the French have carried on in the colony of
+Massachusetts; for, as the king my master has taken the king of England
+under his protection, and is about to replace him on his throne by force
+of arms, he might have expected that his Majesty would order me to make
+war on a people who have rebelled against their lawful prince." Then,
+turning with a smile to the officers about him: "Even if your general
+offered me conditions a little more gracious, and if I had a mind to
+accept them, does he suppose that these brave gentlemen would give their
+consent, and advise me to trust a man who broke his agreement with the
+governor of Port Royal, or a rebel who has failed in his duty to his
+king, and forgotten all the favors he had received from him, to follow a
+prince who pretends to be the liberator of England and the defender of
+the faith, and yet destroys the laws and privileges of the kingdom and
+overthrows its religion? The divine justice which your general invokes
+in his letter will not fail to punish such acts severely."
+
+The messenger seemed astonished and startled; but he presently asked if
+the governor would give him his answer in writing.
+
+"No," returned Frontenac, "I will answer your general only by the mouths
+of my cannon, that he may learn that a man like me is not to be summoned
+after this fashion. Let him do his best, and I will do mine;" and he
+dismissed the Englishman abruptly. He was again blindfolded, led over
+the barricades, and sent back to the fleet by the boat that brought him.
+[7]
+
+[7] Lettre de Sir William Phips à M. de Frontenac, avec sa Réponse
+verbale; Relation de ce qui s'est passé à la Descente des Anglois à
+Québec au mois d'Octobre, 1690. Compare Monseignat, Relation. The
+English accounts, though more brief, confirm those of the French.
+
+Phips had often given proof of personal courage, but for the past three
+weeks his conduct seems that of a man conscious that he is charged with
+a work too large for his capacity. He had spent a good part of his time
+in holding councils of war; and now, when he heard the answer of
+Frontenac, he called another to consider what should be done. A plan of
+attack was at length arranged. The militia were to be landed on the
+shore of Beauport, which was just below Quebec, though separated from it
+by the St. Charles. They were then to cross this river by a ford
+practicable at low water, climb the heights of St. Geneviève, and gain
+the rear of the town. The small vessels of the fleet were to aid the
+movement by ascending the St. Charles as far as the ford, holding the
+enemy in check by their fire, and carrying provisions, ammunition, and
+intrenching tools, for the use of the land troops. When these had
+crossed and were ready to attack Quebec in the rear, Phips was to
+cannonade it in front, and land two hundred men under cover of his guns
+to effect a diversion by storming the barricades. Some of the French
+prisoners, from whom their captors appear to have received a great deal
+of correct information, told the admiral that there was a place a mile
+or two above the town where the heights might be scaled and the rear of
+the fortifications reached from a direction opposite to that proposed.
+This was precisely the movement by which Wolfe afterwards gained his
+memorable victory; but Phips chose to abide by the original plan. [8]
+
+[8] Journal of Major Walley; Savage, Account of the Late Action of the
+New Englanders (Lond. 1691).
+
+While the plan was debated, the opportunity for accomplishing it ebbed
+away. It was still early when the messenger returned from Quebec; but,
+before Phips was ready to act, the day was on the wane and the tide was
+against him. He lay quietly at his moorings when, in the evening, a
+great shouting, mingled with the roll of drums and the sound of fifes,
+was heard from the Upper Town. The English officers asked their
+prisoner, Granville, what it meant. "Ma foi, Messieurs," he replied,
+"you have lost the game. It is the governor of Montreal with the people
+from the country above. There is nothing for you now but to pack and go
+home." In fact, Callières had arrived with seven or eight hundred men,
+many of them regulars. With these were bands of coureurs de bois and
+other young Canadians, all full of fight, singing and whooping with
+martial glee as they passed the western gate and trooped down St. Louis
+Street. [9]
+
+[9] Juchereau, 325, 326.
+
+The next day was gusty and blustering; and still Phips lay quiet,
+waiting on the winds and the waves. A small vessel, with sixty men on
+board, under Captain Ephraim Savage, ran in towards the shore of
+Beauport to examine the landing, and stuck fast in the mud. The
+Canadians plied her with bullets, and brought a cannon to bear on her.
+They might have waded out and boarded her, but Savage and his men kept
+up so hot a fire that they forbore the attempt; and, when the tide rose,
+she floated again.
+
+There was another night of tranquillity; but at about eleven on
+Wednesday morning the French heard the English fifes and drums in full
+action, while repeated shouts of "God save King William!" rose from all
+the vessels. This lasted an hour or more; after which a great number of
+boats, loaded with men, put out from the fleet and rowed rapidly towards
+the shore of Beauport. The tide was low, and the boats grounded before
+reaching the landing-place. The French on the rock could see the troops
+through telescopes, looking in the distance like a swarm of black ants,
+as they waded through mud and water, and formed in companies along the
+strand. They were some thirteen hundred in number, and were commanded by
+Major Walley. [10] Frontenac had sent three hundred sharpshooters, under
+Sainte-Hélène, to meet them and hold them in check. A battalion of
+troops followed; but, long before they could reach the spot,
+Sainte-Hélène's men, with a few militia from the neighboring parishes,
+and a band of Huron warriors from Lorette, threw themselves into the
+thickets along the front of the English, and opened a distant but
+galling fire upon the compact bodies of the enemy. Walley ordered a
+charge. The New England men rushed, in a disorderly manner, but with
+great impetuosity, up the rising ground; received two volleys, which
+failed to check them; and drove back the assailants in some confusion.
+They turned, however, and fought in Indian fashion with courage and
+address, leaping and dodging among trees, rocks, and bushes, firing as
+they retreated, and inflicting more harm than they received. Towards
+evening they disappeared; and Walley, whose men had been much scattered
+in the desultory fight, drew them together as well as he could, and
+advanced towards the St. Charles, in order to meet the vessels which
+were to aid him in passing the ford. Here he posted sentinels, and
+encamped for the night. He had lost four killed and about sixty wounded,
+and imagined that he had killed twenty or thirty of the enemy. In fact,
+however, their loss was much less, though among the killed was a
+valuable officer, the Chevalier de Clermont, and among the wounded the
+veteran captain of Beauport, Juchereau de Saint-Denis, more than
+sixty-four years of age. In the evening, a deserter came to the English
+camp, and brought the unwelcome intelligence that there were three
+thousand armed men in Quebec. [11]
+
+[10] "Between 12 and 1,300 men." Walley, Journal. "About 1,200 men."
+Savage, Account of the Late Action. Savage was second in command of the
+militia. Mather says, 1,400. Most of the French accounts say, 1,500.
+Some say, 2,000; and La Hontan raises the number to 3,000.
+[11] On this affair, Walley, Journal; Savage, Account of the Late Action
+(in a letter to his brother); Monseignat, Relation; Relation de la
+Descente des Anglois; Relation de 1682-1712; La Hontan, I. 213. "M. le
+comte de Frontenac se trouva avec 3,000 hommes." Belmont, Histoire du
+Canada, A.D. 1690. The prisoner Captain Sylvanus Davis, in his diary,
+says, as already mentioned, that on the day before Phips's arrival so
+many regulars and militia arrived that, with those who came with
+Frontenac, there were about 2,700. This was before the arrival of
+Callières, who, according to Davis, brought but 300. Thus the three
+accounts of the deserter, Belmont, and Davis, tally exactly as to the
+sum total.
+
+An enemy of Frontenac writes, "Ce n'est pas sa présence qui fit prendre
+la fuite aux Anglois, mais le grand nombre de François auxquels ils
+virent bien que celuy de leurs guerriers n'étoit pas capable de faire
+tête." Remarques sur l'Oraison Funèbre de feu M. de Frontenac.
+
+Meanwhile, Phips, whose fault hitherto had not been an excess of
+promptitude, grew impatient, and made a premature movement inconsistent
+with the preconcerted plan. He left his moorings, anchored his largest
+ships before the town, and prepared to cannonade it; but the fiery
+veteran, who watched him from the Château St. Louis, anticipated him,
+and gave him the first shot. Phips replied furiously, opening fire with
+every gun that he could bring to bear; while the rock paid him back in
+kind, and belched flame and smoke from all its batteries. So fierce and
+rapid was the firing, that La Hontan compares it to volleys of musketry;
+and old officers, who had seen many sieges, declared that they had never
+known the like. [12] The din was prodigious, reverberated from the
+surrounding heights, and rolled back from the distant mountains in one
+continuous roar. On the part of the English, however, surprisingly
+little was accomplished beside noise and smoke. The practice of their
+gunners was so bad that many of their shot struck harmlessly against the
+face of the cliff. Their guns, too, were very light, and appear to have
+been charged with a view to the most rigid economy of gunpowder; for the
+balls failed to pierce the stone walls of the buildings, and did so
+little damage that, as the French boasted, twenty crowns would have
+repaired it all. [13] Night came at length, and the turmoil ceased.
+
+[12] La Hontan, I. 216; Juchereau, 326.
+[13] Père Germain, Relation de la Défaite des Anglois.
+
+Phips lay quiet till daybreak, when Frontenac sent a shot to waken him,
+and the cannonade began again. Sainte-Hélène had returned from Beauport;
+and he, with his brother Maricourt, took charge of the two batteries of
+the Lower Town, aiming the guns in person, and throwing balls of
+eighteen and twenty-four pounds with excellent precision against the
+four largest ships of the fleet. One of their shots cut the flagstaff of
+the admiral, and the cross of St. George fell into the river. It drifted
+with the tide towards the north shore; whereupon several Canadians
+paddled out in a birch canoe, secured it, and brought it back in
+triumph. On the spire of the cathedral in the Upper Town had been hung a
+picture of the Holy Family, as an invocation of divine aid. The Puritan
+gunners wasted their ammunition in vain attempts to knock it down. That
+it escaped their malice was ascribed to miracle, but the miracle would
+have been greater if they had hit it.
+
+At length, one of the ships, which had suffered most, hauled off and
+abandoned the fight. That of the admiral had fared little better, and
+now her condition grew desperate. With her rigging torn, her mainmast
+half cut through, her mizzen-mast splintered, her cabin pierced, and her
+hull riddled with shot, another volley seemed likely to sink her, when
+Phips ordered her to be cut loose from her moorings, and she drifted out
+of fire, leaving cable and anchor behind. The remaining ships soon gave
+over the conflict, and withdrew to stations where they could neither do
+harm nor suffer it. [14]
+
+[14] Besides authorities before cited, Le Clercq, Établissement de la
+Foy, II. 434; La Potherie, III. 118; Rapport de Champigny, Oct., 1690;
+Laval, Lettre à------, 20 Nov., 1690.
+
+Phips had thrown away nearly all his ammunition in this futile and
+disastrous attack, which should have been deferred till the moment when
+Walley, with his land force, had gained the rear of the town. Walley lay
+in his camp, his men wet, shivering with cold, famished, and sickening
+with the small-pox. Food, and all other supplies, were to have been
+brought him by the small vessels, which should have entered the mouth of
+the St. Charles and aided him to cross it. But he waited for them in
+vain. Every vessel that carried a gun had busied itself in cannonading,
+and the rest did not move. There appears to have been insubordination
+among the masters of these small craft, some of whom, being owners or
+part-owners of the vessels they commanded, were probably unwilling to
+run them into danger. Walley was no soldier; but he saw that to attempt
+the passage of the river without aid, under the batteries of the town
+and in the face of forces twice as numerous as his own, was not an easy
+task. Frontenac, on his part, says that he wished him to do so, knowing
+that the attempt would ruin him. [15] The New England men were eager to
+push on; but the night of Thursday, the day of Phips's repulse, was so
+cold that ice formed more than an inch in thickness, and the
+half-starved militia suffered intensely. Six field-pieces, with their
+ammunition, had been sent ashore; but they were nearly useless, as there
+were no means of moving them. Half a barrel of musket powder, and one
+biscuit for each man, were also landed; and with this meagre aid Walley
+was left to capture Quebec. He might, had he dared, have made a dash
+across the ford on the morning of Thursday, and assaulted the town in
+the rear while Phips was cannonading it in front; but his courage was
+not equal to so desperate a venture. The firing ceased, and the possible
+opportunity was lost. The citizen soldier despaired of success; and, on
+the morning of Friday, he went on board the admiral's ship to explain
+his situation. While he was gone, his men put themselves in motion, and
+advanced along the borders of the St. Charles towards the ford.
+Frontenac, with three battalions of regular troops, went to receive them
+at the crossing; while Sainte-Hélène, with his brother Longueuil, passed
+the ford with a body of Canadians, and opened fire on them from the
+neighboring thickets. Their advance parties were driven in, and there
+was a hot skirmish, the chief loss falling on the New England men, who
+were fully exposed. On the side of the French, Sainte-Hélène was
+mortally wounded, and his brother was hurt by a spent ball. Towards
+evening, the Canadians withdrew, and the English encamped for the night.
+Their commander presently rejoined them. The admiral had given him leave
+to withdraw them to the fleet, and boats were accordingly sent to bring
+them off; but, as these did not arrive till about daybreak, it was
+necessary to defer the embarkation till the next night.
+
+[15] Frontenac au Ministre, 12 et 19 Nov., 1690.
+
+At dawn, Quebec was all astir with the beating of drums and the ringing
+of bells. The New England drums replied; and Walley drew up his men
+under arms, expecting an attack, for the town was so near that the
+hubbub of voices from within could plainly be heard. The noise gradually
+died away; and, except a few shots from the ramparts, the invaders were
+left undisturbed. Walley sent two or three companies to beat up the
+neighboring thickets, where he suspected that the enemy was lurking. On
+the way, they had the good luck to find and kill a number of cattle,
+which they cooked and ate on the spot; whereupon, being greatly
+refreshed and invigorated, they dashed forward in complete disorder, and
+were soon met by the fire of the ambushed Canadians. Several more
+companies were sent to their support, and the skirmishing became lively.
+Three detachments from Quebec had crossed the river; and the militia of
+Beauport and Beaupré had hastened to join them. They fought like
+Indians, hiding behind trees or throwing themselves flat among the
+bushes, and laying repeated ambuscades as they slowly fell back. At
+length, they all made a stand on a hill behind the buildings and fences
+of a farm; and here they held their ground till night, while the New
+England men taunted them as cowards who would never fight except under
+cover. [16]
+
+[16] Relation de la Descente des Anglois.
+
+Walley, who with his main body had stood in arms all day, now called in
+the skirmishers, and fell back to the landing-place, where, as soon as
+it grew dark, the boats arrived from the fleet. The sick men, of whom
+there were many, were sent on board, and then, amid floods of rain, the
+whole force embarked in noisy confusion, leaving behind them in the mud
+five of their cannon. Hasty as was their parting, their conduct on the
+whole had been creditable; and La Hontan, who was in Quebec at the time,
+says of them, "They fought vigorously, though as ill-disciplined as men
+gathered together at random could be; for they did not lack courage,
+and, if they failed, it was by reason of their entire ignorance of
+discipline, and because they were exhausted by the fatigues of the
+voyage." Of Phips he speaks with contempt, and says that he could not
+have served the French better if they had bribed him to stand all the
+while with his arms folded. Some allowance should, nevertheless, be made
+him for the unmanageable character of the force under his command, the
+constitution of which was fatal to military subordination.
+
+On Sunday, the morning after the re-embarkation, Phips called a council
+of officers, and it was resolved that the men should rest for a day or
+two, that there should be a meeting for prayer, and that, if ammunition
+enough could be found, another landing should be attempted; but the
+rough weather prevented the prayer-meeting, and the plan of a new attack
+was fortunately abandoned.
+
+Quebec remained in agitation and alarm till Tuesday, when Phips weighed
+anchor and disappeared, with all his fleet, behind the Island of
+Orleans. He did not go far, as indeed he could not, but stopped four
+leagues below to mend rigging, fortify wounded masts, and stop
+shot-holes. Subercase had gone with a detachment to watch the retiring
+enemy; and Phips was repeatedly seen among his men, on a scaffold at the
+side of his ship, exercising his old trade of carpenter. This delay was
+turned to good use by an exchange of prisoners. Chief among those in the
+hands of the French was Captain Davis, late commander at Casco Bay; and
+there were also two young daughters of Lieutenant Clark, who had been
+killed at the same place. Frontenac himself had humanely ransomed these
+children from the Indians; and Madame de Champigny, wife of the
+intendant, had, with equal kindness, bought from them a little girl
+named Sarah Gerrish, and placed her in charge of the nuns at the
+Hôtel-Dieu, who had become greatly attached to her, while she, on her
+part, left them with reluctance. The French had the better in these
+exchanges, receiving able-bodied men, and returning, with the exception
+of Davis, only women and children.
+
+The heretics were gone, and Quebec breathed freely again. Her escape had
+been a narrow one; not that three thousand men, in part regular troops,
+defending one of the strongest positions on the continent, and commanded
+by Frontenac, could not defy the attacks of two thousand raw fishermen
+and farmers, led by an ignorant civilian, but the numbers which were a
+source of strength were at the same time a source of weakness. [17]
+Nearly all the adult males of Canada were gathered at Quebec, and there
+was imminent danger of starvation. Cattle from the neighboring parishes
+had been hastily driven into the town; but there was little other
+provision, and before Phips retreated the pinch of famine had begun. Had
+he come a week earlier or stayed a week later, the French themselves
+believed that Quebec would have fallen, in the one case for want of men,
+and in the other for want of food.
+
+[17] The small-pox had left probably less than 2,000 effective men in
+the fleet when it arrived before Quebec. The number of regular troops in
+Canada by the roll of 1689 was 1,418. Nothing had since occurred to
+greatly diminish the number. Callières left about fifty in Montreal, and
+perhaps also a few in the neighboring forts. The rest were in Quebec.
+
+The Lower Town had been abandoned by its inhabitants, who bestowed their
+families and their furniture within the solid walls of the seminary. The
+cellars of the Ursuline convent were filled with women and children, and
+many more took refuge at the Hôtel-Dieu. The beans and cabbages in the
+garden of the nuns were all stolen by the soldiers; and their wood-pile
+was turned into bivouac fires. "We were more dead than alive when we
+heard the cannon," writes Mother Juchereau; but the Jesuit Fremin came
+to console them, and their prayers and their labors never ceased. On the
+day when the firing was heaviest, twenty-six balls fell into their yard
+and garden, and were sent to the gunners at the batteries, who returned
+them to their English owners. At the convent of the Ursulines, the
+corner of a nun's apron was carried off by a cannon-shot as she passed
+through her chamber. The sisterhood began a novena, or nine days'
+devotion, to St. Joseph, St. Ann, the angels, and the souls in
+purgatory; and one of their number remained day and night in prayer
+before the images of the Holy Family. The bishop came to encourage them;
+and his prayers and his chants were so fervent that they thought their
+last hour was come. [18]
+
+[18] Récit d'une Réligieuse Ursuline, in Les Ursulines de Québec, I.
+470.
+
+The superior of the Jesuits, with some of the elder members of the
+Order, remained at their college during the attack, ready, should the
+heretics prevail, to repair to their chapel, and die before the altar.
+Rumor exaggerated the numbers of the enemy, and a general alarm pervaded
+the town. It was still greater at Lorette, nine miles distant. The
+warriors of that mission were in the first skirmish at Beauport; and two
+of them, running off in a fright, reported at the village that the enemy
+were carrying every thing before them. On this, the villagers fled to
+the woods, followed by Father Germain, their missionary, to whom this
+hasty exodus suggested the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt. [19]
+The Jesuits were thought to have special reason to fear the Puritan
+soldiery, who, it was reported, meant to kill them all, after cutting
+off their ears to make necklaces. [20]
+
+[19] "Il nous ressouvint alors de la fuite de Nostre Seigneur en
+Égypte." Père Germain, Relation.
+[20] Ibid.
+
+When news first came of the approach of Phips, the bishop was absent on
+a pastoral tour. Hastening back, he entered Quebec at night, by
+torchlight, to the great joy of its inmates, who felt that his presence
+brought a benediction. He issued a pastoral address, exhorting his flock
+to frequent and full confession and constant attendance at mass, as the
+means of insuring the success of their arms. [21] Laval, the former
+bishop, aided his efforts. "We appealed," he writes, "to God, his Holy
+Mother, to all the Angels, and to all the Saints." [22] Nor was the
+appeal in vain: for each day seemed to bring some new token of celestial
+favor; and it is not surprising that the head-winds which delayed the
+approach of the enemy, the cold and the storms which hastened his
+departure, and, above all, his singularly innocent cannonade, which
+killed but two or three persons, should have been accepted as proof of
+divine intervention. It was to the Holy Virgin that Quebec had been most
+lavish of its vows, and to her the victory was ascribed.
+
+[21] Lettre pastorale pour disposer les Peuples de ce Diocèse à se bien
+déffendre contre les Anglois (Reg. de l'Évêché de Québec).
+[22] Laval à------, Nov. 20, 1690.
+
+One great anxiety still troubled the minds of the victors. Three ships,
+bringing large sums of money and the yearly supplies for the colony,
+were on their way to Quebec; and nothing was more likely than that the
+retiring fleet would meet and capture them. Messengers had been sent
+down the river, who passed the English in the dark, found the ships at
+St. Paul's Bay, and warned them of the danger. They turned back, and hid
+themselves within the mouth of the Saguenay; but not soon enough to
+prevent Phips from discovering their retreat. He tried to follow them;
+but thick fogs arose, with a persistent tempest of snow, which
+completely baffled him, and, after waiting five days, he gave over the
+attempt. When he was gone, the three ships emerged from their
+hiding-place, and sailed again for Quebec, where they were greeted with
+a universal jubilee. Their deliverance was ascribed to Saint Ann, the
+mother of the Virgin, and also to St. Francis Xavier, whose name one of
+them bore.
+
+Quebec was divided between thanksgiving and rejoicing. The captured flag
+of Phips's ship was borne to the cathedral in triumph; the bishop sang
+Te Deum; and, amid the firing of cannon, the image of the Virgin was
+carried to each church and chapel in the place by a procession, in which
+priests, people, and troops all took part. The day closed with a grand
+bonfire in honor of Frontenac.
+
+One of the three ships carried back the news of the victory, which was
+hailed with joy at Versailles; and a medal was struck to commemorate it.
+The ship carried also a despatch from Frontenac. "Now that the king has
+triumphed by land and sea," wrote the old soldier, "will he think that a
+few squadrons of his navy would be ill employed in punishing the
+insolence of these genuine old parliamentarians of Boston, and crushing
+them in their den and the English of New York as well? By mastering
+these two towns, we shall secure the whole sea-coast, besides the
+fisheries of the Grand Bank, which is no slight matter: and this would
+be the true, and perhaps the only, way of bringing the wars of Canada to
+an end; for, when the English are conquered, we can easily reduce the
+Iroquois to complete submission." [23]
+
+[23] Frontenac au Ministre, 9 et 12 Nov., 1690.
+
+Phips returned crestfallen to Boston late in November; and one by one
+the rest of the fleet came straggling after him, battered and
+weather-beaten. Some did not appear till February, and three or four
+never came at all. The autumn and early winter were unusually stormy.
+Captain Rainsford, with sixty men, was wrecked on the Island of
+Anticosti, where more than half their number died of cold and misery.
+[24] In the other vessels, some were drowned, some frost-bitten, and
+above two hundred killed by small-pox and fever.
+
+[24] Mather, Magnalia, I. 192.
+
+At Boston, all was dismay and gloom. The Puritan bowed before "this
+awful frown of God," and searched his conscience for the sin that had
+brought upon him so stern a chastisement. [25] Massachusetts, already
+impoverished, found herself in extremity. The war, instead of paying for
+itself, had burdened her with an additional debt of fifty thousand
+pounds. [26] The sailors and soldiers were clamorous for their pay; and,
+to satisfy them, the colony was forced for the first time in its history
+to issue a paper currency. It was made receivable at a premium for all
+public debts, and was also fortified by a provision for its early
+redemption by taxation; a provision which was carried into effect in
+spite of poverty and distress. [27]
+
+[25] The Governor and Council to the Agents of Massachusetts, in Andros
+Tracts, III. 53.
+[26] Address of the Gentry, Merchants, and others, Ibid., II. 236.
+[27] The following is a literal copy of a specimen of this paper money,
+which varied in value from two shillings to ten pounds:--
+                         No. (2161) 10s
+This Indented Bill of Ten Shillings, due from the Massachusetts Colony
+to the Possessor, shall be in value equal to Money, and shall be
+accordingly accepted by the Treasurer and Receivers subordinate to him
+in all Publick Payments, and for any Stock at any time in the Treasury
+Boston in New England, December the 10th. 1690. By Order of the General
+Court.
+   Seal of                   Peter Townsend
+   Masachu-                  Adam Winthrop    }	Comtee
+   setts.                    Tim. Thornton
+	
+When this paper came into the hands of the treasurer, it was burned.
+Nevertheless, owing to the temporary character of the provisional
+government, it fell for a time to the value of from fourteen to sixteen
+shillings in the pound.
+
+In the Bibliothèque Nationale is the original draft of a remarkable map,
+by the engineer Villeneuve, of which a fac-simile is before me. It
+represents in detail the town and fortifications of Quebec, the
+surrounding country, and the positions of the English fleet and land
+forces, and is entitled PLAN DE QUÉBEC, et de ses Environs, EN LA
+NOUVELLE FRANCE, ASSIÉGÉ PAR LES ANGLOIS, le 16 d'Octobre 1690 jusqu'au
+22 dud. mois qu'ils s'en allerent, apprès avoir esté bien battus PAR Mr.
+LE COMTE DE FRONTENAC, gouverneur general du Pays.
+
+Massachusetts had made her usual mistake. She had confidently believed
+that ignorance and inexperience could match the skill of a tried
+veteran, and that the rude courage of her fishermen and farmers could
+triumph without discipline or leadership. The conditions of her material
+prosperity were adverse to efficiency in war. A trading republic,
+without trained officers, may win victories; but it wins them either by
+accident or by an extravagant outlay in money and life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+1690-1694.
+
+The Scourge of Canada.
+
+Iroquois Inroads • Death of Bienville • English Attack • A Desperate
+Fight • Miseries of the Colony • Alarms • A Winter Expedition • La
+Chesnaye burned • The Heroine of Verchères • Mission Indians • The
+Mohawk Expedition • Retreat and Pursuit • Relief arrives • Frontenac
+Triumphant.
+
+One of Phips's officers, charged with the exchange of prisoners at
+Quebec, said as he took his leave, "We shall make you another visit in
+the spring;" and a French officer returned, with martial courtesy, "We
+shall have the honor of meeting you before that time." Neither side made
+good its threat, for both were too weak and too poor. No more
+war-parties were sent that winter to ravage the English border; for
+neither blankets, clothing, ammunition, nor food could be spared. The
+fields had lain untilled over half Canada; and, though four ships had
+arrived with supplies, twice as many had been captured or driven back by
+English cruisers in the Gulf. The troops could not be kept together; and
+they were quartered for subsistence upon the settlers, themselves half
+famished.
+
+Spring came at length, and brought with it the swallows, the bluebirds,
+and the Iroquois. They rarely came in winter, when the trees and bushes
+had no leaves to hide them, and their movements were betrayed by the
+track of their snow-shoes; but they were always to be expected at the
+time of sowing and of harvest, when they could do most mischief. During
+April, about eight hundred of them, gathering from their winter
+hunting-grounds, encamped at the mouth of the Ottawa, whence they
+detached parties to ravage the settlements. A large band fell upon Point
+aux Trembles, below Montreal, burned some thirty houses, and killed such
+of the inmates as could not escape. Another band attacked the Mission of
+the Mountain, just behind the town, and captured thirty-five of the
+Indian converts in broad daylight. Others prowled among the deserted
+farms on both shores of the St. Lawrence; while the inhabitants remained
+pent in their stockade forts, with misery in the present and starvation
+in the future.
+
+Troops and militia were not wanting. The difficulty was to find
+provisions enough to enable them to keep the field. By begging from
+house to house, getting here a biscuit and there a morsel of bacon,
+enough was collected to supply a considerable party for a number of
+days; and a hundred and twenty soldiers and Canadians went out under
+Vaudreuil to hunt the hunters of men. Long impunity had made the
+Iroquois so careless that they were easily found. A band of about forty
+had made their quarters at a house near the fort at Repentigny, and here
+the French scouts discovered them early in the night. Vaudreuil and his
+men were in canoes. They lay quiet till one o'clock, then landed, and
+noiselessly approached the spot. Some of the Iroquois were in the house,
+the rest lay asleep on the ground before it. The French crept towards
+them, and by one close volley killed them all. Their comrades within
+sprang up in dismay. Three rushed out, and were shot: the others stood
+on their defence, fired from windows and loopholes, and killed six or
+seven of the French, who presently succeeded in setting fire to the
+house, which was thatched with straw. Young François de Bienville, one
+of the sons of Charles Le Moyne, rushed up to a window, shouted his name
+like an Indian warrior, fired on the savages within, and was instantly
+shot dead. The flames rose till surrounding objects were bright as day.
+The Iroquois, driven to desperation, burst out like tigers, and tried to
+break through their assailants. Only one succeeded. Of his companions,
+some were shot, five were knocked down and captured, and the rest driven
+back into the house, where they perished in the fire. Three of the
+prisoners were given to the inhabitants of Repentigny, Point aux
+Trembles, and Boucherville, who, in their fury, burned them alive. [1]
+
+[1] Relation de Bénac, 1691; Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus
+considérable en Canada, 1690, 1691; La Potherie, III. 134; Relation de
+1682-1712; Champigny au Ministre, 12 May, 1691. The name of Bienville
+was taken, after his death, by one of his brothers, the founder of New
+Orleans.
+
+For weeks, the upper parts of the colony were infested by wolfish bands
+howling around the forts, which they rarely ventured to attack. At
+length, help came. A squadron from France, strong enough to beat off the
+New England privateers which blockaded the St. Lawrence, arrived at
+Quebec with men and supplies; and a strong force was despatched to break
+up the Iroquois camp at the Ottawa. The enemy vanished at its approach;
+and the suffering farmers had a brief respite, which enabled them to sow
+their crops, when suddenly a fresh alarm was sounded from Sorel to
+Montreal, and again the settlers ran to their forts for refuge.
+
+Since the futile effort of the year before, the English of New York,
+still distracted by the political disorders that followed the usurpation
+of Leisler, had fought only by deputy, and contented themselves with
+hounding on the Iroquois against the common enemy. These savage allies
+at length lost patience, and charged their white neighbors with laziness
+and fear. "You say to us, 'Keep the French in perpetual alarm.' Why
+don't you say, 'We will keep the French in perpetual alarm'?" [2] It was
+clear that something must be done, or New York would be left to fight
+her battles alone. A war-party was therefore formed at Albany, and the
+Indians were invited to join it. Major Peter Schuyler took command; and
+his force consisted of two hundred and sixty-six men, of whom a hundred
+and twenty were English and Dutch, and the rest Mohawks and Wolves, or
+Mohegans. [3] He advanced to a point on the Richelieu ten miles above
+Fort Chambly, and, leaving his canoes under a strong guard, marched
+towards La Prairie de la Madeleine, opposite Montreal.
+
+[2] Colden, 125, 140.
+[3] Official Journal of Schuyler, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 800.
+
+Scouts had brought warning of his approach; and Callières, the local
+governor, crossed the St. Lawrence, and encamped at La Prairie with
+seven or eight hundred men. [4] Here he remained for a week, attacked by
+fever and helpless in bed. The fort stood a few rods from the river. Two
+battalions of regulars lay on a field at the right; and the Canadians
+and Indians were bivouacked on the left, between the fort and a small
+stream, near which was a windmill. On the evening of the tenth of
+August, a drizzling rain began to fall; and the Canadians thought more
+of seeking shelter than of keeping watch. They were, moreover, well
+supplied with brandy, and used it freely. [5] At an hour before dawn,
+the sentry at the mill descried objects like the shadows of men silently
+advancing along the borders of the stream. They were Schuyler's
+vanguard. The soldier cried, "Qui vive?" There was no answer. He fired
+his musket, and ran into the mill. Schuyler's men rushed in a body upon
+the Canadian camp, drove its occupants into the fort, and killed some of
+the Indian allies, who lay under their canoes on the adjacent strand.
+
+[4] Relation de Bénac; Relation de 1682-1712.
+[5] "La débauche fut extrême en toute manière." Belmont.
+
+The regulars on the other side of the fort, roused by the noise, sprang
+to arms and hastened to the spot. They were met by a volley, which laid
+some fifty of them on the ground, and drove back the rest in disorder.
+They rallied and attacked again; on which, Schuyler, greatly
+outnumbered, withdrew his men to a neighboring ravine, where he once
+more repulsed his assailants, and, as he declares, drove them into the
+fort with great loss. By this time it was daylight. The English, having
+struck their blow, slowly fell back, hacking down the corn in the
+fields, as it was still too green for burning, and pausing at the edge
+of the woods, where their Indians were heard for some time uttering
+frightful howls, and shouting to the French that they were not men, but
+dogs. Why the invaders were left to retreat unmolested, before a force
+more than double their own, does not appear. The helpless condition of
+Callières and the death of Saint-Cirque, his second in command, scarcely
+suffice to explain it. Schuyler retreated towards his canoes, moving, at
+his leisure, along the forest path that led to Chambly. Tried by the
+standard of partisan war, his raid had been a success. He had inflicted
+great harm and suffered little; but the affair was not yet ended.
+
+A day or two before, Valrenne, an officer of birth and ability, had been
+sent to Chambly, with about a hundred and sixty troops and Canadians, a
+body of Huron and Iroquois converts, and a band of Algonquins from the
+Ottawa. His orders were to let the English pass, and then place himself
+in their rear to cut them off from their canoes. His scouts had
+discovered their advance; and, on the morning of the attack, he set his
+force in motion, and advanced six or seven miles towards La Prairie, on
+the path by which Schuyler was retreating. The country was buried in
+forests. At about nine o'clock, the scouts of the hostile parties met
+each other, and their war-whoops gave the alarm. Valrenne instantly took
+possession of a ridge of ground that crossed the way of the approaching
+English. Two large trees had fallen along the crest of the acclivity;
+and behind these the French crouched, in a triple row, well hidden by
+bushes and thick standing trunks. The English, underrating the strength
+of their enemy, and ignorant of his exact position, charged impetuously,
+and were sent reeling back by a close and deadly volley. They repeated
+the attack with still greater fury, and dislodged the French from their
+ambuscade. Then ensued a fight, which Frontenac declares to have been
+the most hot and stubborn ever known in Canada. The object of Schuyler
+was to break through the French and reach his canoes: the object of
+Valrenne was to drive him back upon the superior force at La Prairie.
+The cautious tactics of the bush were forgotten. Three times the
+combatants became mingled together, firing breast to breast, and
+scorching each other's shirts by the flash of their guns. The Algonquins
+did themselves no credit; and at first some of the Canadians gave way,
+but they were rallied by Le Ber Duchesne, their commander, and
+afterwards showed great bravery. On the side of the English, many of the
+Mohegan allies ran off; but the whites and the Mohawks fought with equal
+desperation. In the midst of the tumult, Valrenne was perfectly cool,
+directing his men with admirable vigor and address, and barring
+Schuyler's retreat for more than an hour. At length, the French were
+driven from the path. "We broke through the middle of their body," says
+Schuyler, "until we got into their rear, trampling upon their dead; then
+faced about upon them, and fought them until we made them give way; then
+drove them, by strength of arm, four hundred paces before us; and, to
+say the truth, we were all glad to see them retreat." [6] He and his
+followers continued their march unmolested, carrying their wounded men,
+and leaving about forty dead behind them, along with one of their flags,
+and all their knapsacks, which they had thrown off when the fray began.
+They reached the banks of the Richelieu, found their canoes safe, and,
+after waiting several hours for stragglers, embarked for Albany.
+
+[6] Major Peter Schuyler's Journal of his Expedition to Canada, in N. Y.
+Col. Docs., III. 800. "Les ennemis enfoncèrent notre embuscade."
+Belmont.
+
+Nothing saved them from destruction but the failure of the French at La
+Prairie to follow their retreat, and thus enclose them between two
+fires. They did so, it is true, at the eleventh hour, but not till the
+fight was over and the English were gone. The Christian Mohawks of the
+Saut also appeared in the afternoon, and set out to pursue the enemy,
+but seem to have taken care not to overtake them; for the English
+Mohawks were their relatives, and they had no wish for their scalps.
+Frontenac was angry at their conduct; and, as he rarely lost an
+opportunity to find fault with the Jesuits, he laid the blame on the
+fathers in charge of the mission, whom he sharply upbraided for the
+shortcomings of their flock. [7]
+
+[7] As this fight under Valrenne has been represented as a French
+victory against overwhelming odds, it may be well to observe the
+evidence as to the numbers engaged. The French party consisted,
+according to Bénac, of 160 regulars and Canadians, besides Indians. La
+Potherie places it at 180 men, and Frontenac at 200 men. These two
+estimates do not include Indians; for the author of the Relation of
+1682-1712, who was an officer on the spot at the time, puts the number
+at 300 soldiers, Canadians, and savages.
+
+Schuyler's official return shows that his party consisted of 120 whites,
+80 Mohawks, and 66 River Indians (Mohegans): 266 in all. The French
+writer Bénac places the whole at 280, and the intendant Champigny at
+300. The other French estimates of the English force are greatly
+exaggerated. Schuyler's strength was reduced by 27 men left to guard the
+canoes, and by a number killed or disabled at La Prairie. The force
+under Valrenne was additional to the 700 or 800 men at La Prairie
+(Relation, 1682-1712). Schuyler reported his loss in killed at 21
+whites, 16 Mohawks, and 6 Mohegans, besides many wounded. The French
+statements of it are enormously in excess of this, and are
+irreconcilable with each other.
+
+He was at Three Rivers at a ball when news of the disaster at La Prairie
+damped the spirits of the company, which, however, were soon revived by
+tidings of the fight under Valrenne and the retreat of the English, who
+were reported to have left two hundred dead on the field. Frontenac
+wrote an account of the affair to the minister, with high praise of
+Valrenne and his band, followed by an appeal for help. "What with
+fighting and hardship, our troops and militia are wasting away." "The
+enemy is upon us by sea and land." "Send us a thousand men next spring,
+if you want the colony to be saved." "We are perishing by inches; the
+people are in the depths of poverty; the war has doubled prices so that
+nobody can live." "Many families are without bread. The inhabitants
+desert the country, and crowd into the towns." [8] A new enemy appeared
+in the following summer, almost as destructive as the Iroquois. This was
+an army of caterpillars, which set at naught the maledictions of the
+clergy, and made great havoc among the crops. It is recorded that along
+with the caterpillars came an unprecedented multitude of squirrels,
+which, being industriously trapped or shot, proved a great help to many
+families.
+
+[8] Lettres de Frontenac et de Champigny, 1691, 1692.
+
+Alarm followed alarm. It was reported that Phips was bent on revenge for
+his late discomfiture, that great armaments were afoot, and that a
+mighty host of "Bostonnais" was preparing another descent. Again and
+again Frontenac begged that one bold blow should be struck to end these
+perils and make King Louis master of the continent, by despatching a
+fleet to seize New York. If this were done, he said, it would be easy to
+take Boston and the "rebels and old republican leaven of Cromwell" who
+harbored there; then burn the place, and utterly destroy it. [9]
+Villebon, governor of Acadia, was of the same mind. "No town," he told
+the minister, "could be burned more easily. Most of the houses are
+covered with shingles, and the streets are very narrow." [10] But the
+king could not spare a squadron equal to the attempt; and Frontenac was
+told that he must wait. The troops sent him did not supply his losses.
+[11] Money came every summer in sums which now seem small, but were far
+from being so in the eyes of the king, who joined to each remittance a
+lecture on economy and a warning against extravagance. [12]
+
+[9] Frontenac in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 496, 506.
+[10] Villebon in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 507.
+[11] The returns show 1,313 regulars in 1691, and 1,120 in 1692.
+[12] Lettres du Roy et du Ministre, 1690-1694. In 1691, the amount
+allowed for extraordinaires de guerre was 99,000 livres (francs). In
+1692, it was 193,000 livres, a part of which was for fortifications. In
+the following year, no less than 750,000 livres were drawn for Canada,
+"ce qui ne se pourroit pas supporter, si cela continuoit de la mesme
+force," writes the minister. (Le Ministre à Frontenac, 13 Mars, 1694.)
+This last sum probably included the pay of the troops.
+
+The intendant received his share of blame on these occasions, and he
+usually defended himself vigorously. He tells his master that
+"war-parties are necessary, but very expensive. We rarely pay money; but
+we must give presents to our Indians, and fit out the Canadians with
+provisions, arms, ammunition, moccasons, snow-shoes, sledges, canoes,
+capotes, breeches, stockings, and blankets. This costs a great deal, but
+without it we should have to abandon Canada." The king complained that,
+while the great sums he was spending in the colony turned to the profit
+of the inhabitants, they contributed nothing to their own defence. The
+complaint was scarcely just; for, if they gave no money, they gave their
+blood with sufficient readiness. Excepting a few merchants, they had
+nothing else to give; and, in the years when the fur trade was cut off,
+they lived chiefly on the pay they received for supplying the troops and
+other public services. Far from being able to support the war, they
+looked to the war to support them. [13]
+
+[13] "Sa Majesté fait depuis plusieurs années des sacrifices immenses en
+Canada. L'avantage en demeure presque tout entier au profit des habitans
+et des marchands qui y resident. Ces dépenses se font pour leur seureté
+et pour leur conservation. Il est juste que ceux qui sont en estat
+secourent le public." Mémoire du Roy, 1693. "Les habitans de la colonie
+ne contribuent en rien à tout ce que Sa Majesté fait pour leur
+conservation, pendant que ses sujets du Royaume donnent tout ce qu'ils
+ont pour son service." Le Ministre à Frontenac, 13 Mars, 1694.
+
+The work of fortifying the vital points of the colony, Quebec, Three
+Rivers, and Montreal, received constant stimulus from the alarms of
+attack, and, above all, from a groundless report that ten thousand
+"Bostonnais" had sailed for Quebec. The sessions of the council were
+suspended, and the councillors seized pick and spade. The old defences
+of the place were reconstructed on a new plan, made by the great
+engineer Vauban. The settlers were mustered together from a distance of
+twenty leagues, and compelled to labor, with little or no pay, till a
+line of solid earthworks enclosed Quebec from Cape Diamond to the St.
+Charles. Three Rivers and Montreal were also strengthened. The cost
+exceeded the estimates, and drew upon Frontenac and Champigny fresh
+admonitions from Versailles. [14]
+
+[14] Lettres du Roy et du Ministre, 1693, 1694. Cape Diamond was now for
+the first time included within the line of circumvallation at Quebec. A
+strong stone redoubt, with sixteen cannon, was built upon its summit.
+
+In 1854, in demolishing a part of the old wall between the fort of
+Quebec and the adjacent "Governor's Garden," a plate of copper was found
+with a Latin inscription, of which the following is a translation:--
+
+"In the year of Grace, 1693, under the reign of the Most August, Most
+Invincible, and Most Christian King, Louis the Great, Fourteenth of that
+name, the Most Excellent and Most Illustrious Lord, Louis de Buade,
+Count of Frontenac, twice Viceroy of all New France, after having three
+years before repulsed, routed, and completely conquered the rebellious
+inhabitants of New England, who besieged this town of Quebec, and who
+threatened to renew their attack this year, constructed, at the charge
+of the king, this citadel, with the fortifications therewith connected,
+for the defence of the country and the safety of the people, and for
+confounding yet again a people perfidious towards God and towards its
+lawful king. And he has laid this first stone."
+
+The bounties on scalps and prisoners were another occasion of royal
+complaint. Twenty crowns had been offered for each male white prisoner,
+ten crowns for each female, and ten crowns for each scalp, whether
+Indian or English. [15] The bounty on prisoners produced an excellent
+result, since instead of killing them the Indian allies learned to bring
+them to Quebec. If children, they were placed in the convents; and, if
+adults, they were distributed to labor among the settlers. Thus, though
+the royal letters show that the measure was one of policy, it acted in
+the interest of humanity. It was not so with the bounty on scalps. The
+Abenaki, Huron, and Iroquois converts brought in many of them; but grave
+doubts arose whether they all came from the heads of enemies. [16] The
+scalp of a Frenchman was not distinguishable from the scalp of an
+Englishman, and could be had with less trouble. Partly for this reason,
+and partly out of economy, the king gave it as his belief that a bounty
+of one crown was enough; though the governor and the intendant united in
+declaring that the scalps of the whole Iroquois confederacy would be a
+good bargain for his Majesty at ten crowns apiece. [17]
+
+[15] Champigny au Ministre, 21 Sept., 1692.
+[16] Relation de 1682-1712.
+[17] Mémoire du Roy aux Sieurs Frontenac et Champigny, 1693; Frontenac
+et Champigny au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1693. The bounty on prisoners was
+reduced in the same proportion, showing that economy was the chief
+object of the change.
+
+The river Ottawa was the main artery of Canada, and to stop it was to
+stop the flow of her life blood. The Iroquois knew this; and their
+constant effort was to close it so completely that the annual supply of
+beaver skins would be prevented from passing, and the colony be
+compelled to live on credit. It was their habit to spend the latter part
+of the winter in hunting among the forests between the Ottawa and the
+upper St. Lawrence, and then, when the ice broke up, to move in large
+bands to the banks of the former stream, and lie in ambush at the
+Chaudière, the Long Saut, or other favorable points, to waylay the
+passing canoes. On the other hand, it was the constant effort of
+Frontenac to drive them off and keep the river open; an almost
+impossible task. Many conflicts, great and small, took place with
+various results; but, in spite of every effort, the Iroquois blockade
+was maintained more than two years. The story of one of the expeditions
+made by the French in this quarter will show the hardship of the
+service, and the moral and physical vigor which it demanded.
+
+Early in February, three hundred men under Dorvilliers were sent by
+Frontenac to surprise the Iroquois in their hunting-grounds. When they
+were a few days out, their leader scalded his foot by the upsetting of a
+kettle at their encampment near Lake St. Francis; and the command fell
+on a youth named Beaucour, an officer of regulars, accomplished as an
+engineer, and known for his polished wit. The march through the
+snow-clogged forest was so terrible that the men lost heart. Hands and
+feet were frozen; some of the Indians refused to proceed, and many of
+the Canadians lagged behind. Shots were heard, showing that the enemy
+were not far off; but cold, hunger, and fatigue had overcome the courage
+of the pursuers, and the young commander saw his followers on the point
+of deserting him. He called them together, and harangued them in terms
+so animating that they caught his spirit, and again pushed on. For four
+hours more they followed the tracks of the Iroquois snow-shoes, till
+they found the savages in their bivouac, set upon them, and killed or
+captured nearly all. There was a French slave among them, scarcely
+distinguishable from his owners. It was an officer named La Plante,
+taken at La Chine three years before. "He would have been killed like
+his masters," says La Hontan, "if he had not cried out with all his
+might, 'Miséricorde, sauvez-moi, je suis Français'" [18] Beaucour
+brought his prisoners to Quebec, where Frontenac ordered that two of
+them should be burned. One stabbed himself in prison; the other was
+tortured by the Christian Hurons on Cape Diamond, defying them to the
+last. Nor was this the only instance of such fearful reprisal. In the
+same year, a number of Iroquois captured by Vaudreuil were burned at
+Montreal at the demand of the Canadians and the mission Indians, who
+insisted that their cruelties should be paid back in kind. It is said
+that the purpose was answered, and the Iroquois deterred for a while
+from torturing their captives. [19]
+
+[18] La Potherie, III. 156; Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus
+considérable en Canada, 1691, 1692; La Hontan, I. 233.
+[19] Relation, 1682-1712.
+
+The brunt of the war fell on the upper half of the colony. The country
+about Montreal, and for nearly a hundred miles below it, was easily
+accessible to the Iroquois by the routes of Lake Champlain and the upper
+St. Lawrence; while below Three Rivers the settlements were tolerably
+safe from their incursions, and were exposed to attack solely from the
+English of New England, who could molest them only by sailing up from
+the Gulf in force. Hence the settlers remained on their farms, and
+followed their usual occupations, except when Frontenac drafted them for
+war-parties. Above Three Rivers, their condition was wholly different. A
+traveller passing through this part of Canada would have found the
+houses empty. Here and there he would have seen all the inhabitants of a
+parish laboring in a field together, watched by sentinels, and generally
+guarded by a squad of regulars. When one field was tilled, they passed
+to the next; and this communal process was repeated when the harvest was
+ripe. At night, they took refuge in the fort; that is to say, in a
+cluster of log cabins, surrounded by a palisade. Sometimes, when long
+exemption from attack had emboldened them, they ventured back to their
+farm-houses, an experiment always critical and sometimes fatal. Thus the
+people of La Chesnaye, forgetting a sharp lesson they had received a
+year or two before, returned to their homes in fancied security. One
+evening a bachelor of the parish made a visit to a neighboring widow,
+bringing with him his gun and a small dog. As he was taking his leave,
+his hostess, whose husband had been killed the year before, told him
+that she was afraid to be left alone, and begged him to remain with her,
+an invitation which he accepted. Towards morning, the barking of his dog
+roused him; when, going out, he saw the night lighted up by the blaze of
+burning houses, and heard the usual firing and screeching of an Iroquois
+attack. He went back to his frightened companion, who also had a gun.
+Placing himself at a corner of the house, he told her to stand behind
+him. A number of Iroquois soon appeared, on which he fired at them, and,
+taking her gun, repeated the shot, giving her his own to load. The
+warriors returned his fire from a safe distance, and in the morning
+withdrew altogether, on which the pair emerged from their shelter, and
+succeeded in reaching the fort. The other inhabitants were all killed or
+captured. [20]
+
+[20] Relation, 1682-1712.
+
+Many incidents of this troubled time are preserved, but none of them are
+so well worth the record as the defence of the fort at Verchères by the
+young daughter of the seignior. Many years later, the Marquis de
+Beauharnais, governor of Canada, caused the story to be written down
+from the recital of the heroine herself. Verchères was on the south
+shore of the St. Lawrence, about twenty miles below Montreal. A strong
+blockhouse stood outside the fort, and was connected with it by a
+covered way. On the morning of the twenty-second of October, the
+inhabitants were at work in the fields, and nobody was left in the place
+but two soldiers, two boys, an old man of eighty, and a number of women
+and children. The seignior, formerly an officer of the regiment of
+Carignan, was on duty at Quebec; his wife was at Montreal; and their
+daughter Madeleine, fourteen years of age, was at the landing-place not
+far from the gate of the fort, with a hired man named Laviolette.
+Suddenly she heard firing from the direction where the settlers were at
+work, and an instant after Laviolette cried out, "Run, Mademoiselle,
+run! here come the Iroquois!" She turned and saw forty or fifty of them
+at the distance of a pistol-shot. "I ran for the fort, commending myself
+to the Holy Virgin. The Iroquois who chased after me, seeing that they
+could not catch me alive before I reached the gate, stopped and fired at
+me. The bullets whistled about my ears, and made the time seem very
+long. As soon as I was near enough to be heard, I cried out, To arms! to
+arms! hoping that somebody would come out and help me; but it was of no
+use. The two soldiers in the fort were so scared that they had hidden in
+the blockhouse. At the gate, I found two women crying for their
+husbands, who had just been killed. I made them go in, and then shut the
+gate. I next thought what I could do to save myself and the few people
+with me. I went to inspect the fort, and found that several palisades
+had fallen down, and left openings by which the enemy could easily get
+in. I ordered them to be set up again, and helped to carry them myself.
+When the breaches were stopped, I went to the blockhouse where the
+ammunition is kept, and here I found the two soldiers, one hiding in a
+corner, and the other with a lighted match in his hand. 'What are you
+going to do with that match?' I asked. He answered, 'Light the powder,
+and blow us all up.' 'You are a miserable coward,' said I, 'go out of
+this place.' I spoke so resolutely that he obeyed. I then threw off my
+bonnet; and, after putting on a hat and taking a gun, I said to my two
+brothers: 'Let us fight to the death. We are fighting for our country
+and our religion. Remember that our father has taught you that gentlemen
+are born to shed their blood for the service of God and the king.'"
+
+The boys, who were twelve and ten years old, aided by the soldiers, whom
+her words had inspired with some little courage, began to fire from the
+loopholes upon the Iroquois, who, ignorant of the weakness of the
+garrison, showed their usual reluctance to attack a fortified place, and
+occupied themselves with chasing and butchering the people in the
+neighboring fields. Madeleine ordered a cannon to be fired, partly to
+deter the enemy from an assault, and partly to warn some of the
+soldiers, who were hunting at a distance. The women and children in the
+fort cried and screamed without ceasing. She ordered them to stop, lest
+their terror should encourage the Indians. A canoe was presently seen
+approaching the landing-place. It was a settler named Fontaine, trying
+to reach the fort with his family. The Iroquois were still near; and
+Madeleine feared that the new comers would be killed, if something were
+not done to aid them. She appealed to the soldiers, but their courage
+was not equal to the attempt; on which, as she declares, after leaving
+Laviolette to keep watch at the gate, she herself went alone to the
+landing-place. "I thought that the savages would suppose it to be a ruse
+to draw them towards the fort, in order to make a sortie upon them. They
+did suppose so, and thus I was able to save the Fontaine family. When
+they were all landed, I made them march before me in full sight of the
+enemy. We put so bold a face on it, that they thought they had more to
+fear than we. Strengthened by this reinforcement, I ordered that the
+enemy should be fired on whenever they showed themselves. After sunset,
+a violent north-east wind began to blow, accompanied with snow and hail,
+which told us that we should have a terrible night. The Iroquois were
+all this time lurking about us; and I judged by their movements that,
+instead of being deterred by the storm, they would climb into the fort
+under cover of the darkness. I assembled all my troops, that is to say,
+six persons, and spoke to them thus: 'God has saved us to-day from the
+hands of our enemies, but we must take care not to fall into their
+snares to-night. As for me, I want you to see that I am not afraid. I
+will take charge of the fort with an old man of eighty and another who
+never fired a gun; and you, Pierre Fontaine, with La Bonté and Gachet
+(our two soldiers), will go to the blockhouse with the women and
+children, because that is the strongest place; and, if I am taken, don't
+surrender, even if I am cut to pieces and burned before your eyes. The
+enemy cannot hurt you in the blockhouse, if you make the least show of
+fight.' I placed my young brothers on two of the bastions, the old man
+on the third, and I took the fourth; and all night, in spite of wind,
+snow, and hail, the cries of 'All's well' were kept up from the
+blockhouse to the fort, and from the fort to the blockhouse. One would
+have thought that the place was full of soldiers. The Iroquois thought
+so, and were completely deceived, as they confessed afterwards to
+Monsieur de Callières, whom they told that they had held a council to
+make a plan for capturing the fort in the night but had done nothing
+because such a constant watch was kept.
+
+"About one in the morning, the sentinel on the bastion by the gate
+called out, 'Mademoiselle, I hear something.' I went to him to find what
+it was; and by the help of the snow, which covered the ground, I could
+see through the darkness a number of cattle, the miserable remnant that
+the Iroquois had left us. The others wanted to open the gate and let
+them in, but I answered: 'God forbid. You don't know all the tricks of
+the savages. They are no doubt following the cattle, covered with skins
+of beasts, so as to get into the fort, if we are simple enough to open
+the gate for them.' Nevertheless, after taking every precaution, I
+thought that we might open it without risk. I made my two brothers stand
+ready with their guns cocked in case of surprise, and so we let in the
+cattle.
+
+"At last, the daylight came again; and, as the darkness disappeared, our
+anxieties seemed to disappear with it. Everybody took courage except
+Mademoiselle Marguérite, wife of the Sieur Fontaine, who being extremely
+timid, as all Parisian women are, asked her husband to carry her to
+another fort ... He said, 'I will never abandon this fort while
+Mademoiselle Madelon (Madeleine) is here.' I answered him that I would
+never abandon it; that I would rather die than give it up to the enemy;
+and that it was of the greatest importance that they should never get
+possession of any French fort, because, if they got one, they would
+think they could get others, and would grow more bold and presumptuous
+than ever. I may say with truth that I did not eat or sleep for twice
+twenty-four hours. I did not go once into my father's house, but kept
+always on the bastion, or went to the blockhouse to see how the people
+there were behaving. I always kept a cheerful and smiling face, and
+encouraged my little company with the hope of speedy succor.
+
+"We were a week in constant alarm, with the enemy always about us. At
+last Monsieur de la Monnerie, a lieutenant sent by Monsieur de
+Callières, arrived in the night with forty men. As he did not know
+whether the fort was taken or not, he approached as silently as
+possible. One of our sentinels, hearing a slight sound, cried, 'Qui
+vive?' I was at the time dozing, with my head on a table and my gun
+lying across my arms. The sentinel told me that he heard a voice from
+the river. I went up at once to the bastion to see whether it was
+Indians or Frenchmen. I asked, 'Who are you?' One of them answered, 'We
+are Frenchmen: it is La Monnerie, who comes to bring you help.' I caused
+the gate to be opened, placed a sentinel there, and went down to the
+river to meet them. As soon as I saw Monsieur de la Monnerie, I saluted
+him, and said, 'Monsieur, I surrender my arms to you.' He answered
+gallantly, 'Mademoiselle, they are in good hands.' 'Better than you
+think,' I returned. He inspected the fort, and found every thing in
+order, and a sentinel on each bastion. 'It is time to relieve them,
+Monsieur' said I: 'we have not been off our bastions for a week.'" [21]
+
+[21] Récit de Mlle. Magdelaine de Verchères, âgée de 14 ans (Collection
+de l'Abbé Ferland). It appears from Tanguay, Dictionnaire Généalogique,
+that Marie-Madeleine Jarret de Verchères was born in April, 1678, which
+corresponds to the age given in the Récit. She married Thomas Tarleu de
+la Naudière in 1706, and M. de la Perrade, or Prade, in 1722. Her
+brother Louis was born in 1680, and was therefore, as stated in the
+Récit, twelve years old in 1692. The birthday of the other, Alexander,
+is not given. His baptism was registered in 1682. One of the brothers
+was killed at the attack of Haverhill, in 1708.
+
+Madame de Ponchartrain, wife of the minister, procured a pension for
+life to Madeleine de Verchères. Two versions of her narrative are before
+me. There are slight variations between them, but in all essential
+points they are the same. The following note is appended to one of them:
+"Ce récit fut fait par ordre de Mr. de Beauharnois, gouverneur du
+Canada."
+
+A band of converts from the Saut St. Louis arrived soon after, followed
+the trail of their heathen countrymen, overtook them on Lake Champlain,
+and recovered twenty or more French prisoners. Madeleine de Verchères
+was not the only heroine of her family. Her father's fort was the Castle
+Dangerous of Canada; and it was but two years before that her mother,
+left with three or four armed men, and beset by the Iroquois, threw
+herself with her followers into the blockhouse, and held the assailants
+two days at bay, till the Marquis de Crisasi came with troops to her
+relief. [22]
+
+[22] La Potherie, I. 326.
+
+From the moment when the Canadians found a chief whom they could trust,
+and the firm old hand of Frontenac grasped the reins of their destiny, a
+spirit of hardihood and energy grew up in all this rugged population;
+and they faced their stern fortunes with a stubborn daring and endurance
+that merit respect and admiration.
+
+Now, as in all their former wars, a great part of their suffering was
+due to the Mohawks. The Jesuits had spared no pains to convert them,
+thus changing them from enemies to friends; and their efforts had so far
+succeeded that the mission colony of Saut St. Louis contained a numerous
+population of Mohawk Christians. [23] The place was well fortified; and
+troops were usually stationed here, partly to defend the converts and
+partly to ensure their fidelity. They had sometimes done excellent
+service for the French; but many of them still remembered their old
+homes on the Mohawk, and their old ties of fellowship and kindred. Their
+heathen countrymen were jealous of their secession, and spared no pains
+to reclaim them. Sometimes they tried intrigue, and sometimes force. On
+one occasion, joined by the Oneidas and Onondagas, they appeared before
+the palisades of St. Louis, to the number of more than four hundred
+warriors; but, finding the bastions manned and the gates shut, they
+withdrew discomfited. It was of great importance to the French to sunder
+them from their heathen relatives so completely that reconciliation
+would be impossible, and it was largely to this end that a grand
+expedition was prepared against the Mohawk towns.
+
+[23] This mission was also called Caghnawaga. The village still exists,
+at the head of the rapid of St. Louis, or La Chine.
+
+All the mission Indians in the colony were invited to join it, the
+Iroquois of the Saut and Mountain, Abenakis from the Chaudière, Hurons
+from Lorette, and Algonquins from Three Rivers. A hundred picked
+soldiers were added, and a large band of Canadians. All told, they
+mustered six hundred and twenty-five men, under three tried leaders,
+Mantet, Courtemanche, and La Noue. They left Chambly at the end of
+January, and pushed southward on snow-shoes. Their way was over the ice
+of Lake Champlain, for more than a century the great thoroughfare of
+war-parties. They bivouacked in the forest by squads of twelve or more;
+dug away the snow in a circle, covered the bared earth with a bed of
+spruce boughs, made a fire in the middle, and smoked their pipes around
+it. Here crouched the Christian savage, muffled in his blanket, his
+unwashed face still smirched with soot and vermilion, relics of the
+war-paint he had worn a week before when he danced the war-dance in the
+square of the mission village; and here sat the Canadians, hooded like
+Capuchin monks, but irrepressible in loquacity, as the blaze of the
+camp-fire glowed on their hardy visages and fell in fainter radiance on
+the rocks and pines behind them.
+
+Sixteen days brought them to the two lower Mohawk towns. A young
+Dutchman who had been captured three years before at Schenectady, and
+whom the Indians of the Saut had imprudently brought with them, ran off
+in the night, and carried the alarm to the English. The invaders had no
+time to lose. The two towns were a quarter of a league apart. They
+surrounded them both on the night of the sixteenth of February, waited
+in silence till the voices within were hushed, and then captured them
+without resistance, as most of the inmates were absent. After burning
+one of them, and leaving the prisoners well guarded in the other, they
+marched eight leagues to the third town, reached it at evening, and hid
+in the neighboring woods. Through all the early night, they heard the
+whoops and songs of the warriors within, who were dancing the war-dance
+for an intended expedition. About midnight, all was still. The Mohawks
+had posted no sentinels; and one of the French Indians, scaling the
+palisade, opened the gate to his comrades. There was a short but bloody
+fight. Twenty or thirty Mohawks were killed, and nearly three hundred
+captured, chiefly women and children. The French commanders now required
+their allies, the mission Indians, to make good a promise which, at the
+instance of Frontenac, had been exacted from them by the governor of
+Montreal. It was that they should kill all their male captives, a
+proceeding which would have averted every danger of future
+reconciliation between the Christian and heathen Mohawks. The converts
+of the Saut and the Mountain had readily given the pledge, but
+apparently with no intention to keep it; at least, they now refused to
+do so. Remonstrance was useless; and, after burning the town, the French
+and their allies began their retreat, encumbered by a long train of
+prisoners. They marched two days, when they were hailed from a distance
+by Mohawk scouts, who told them that the English were on their track,
+but that peace had been declared in Europe, and that the pursuers did
+not mean to fight, but to parley. Hereupon the mission Indians insisted
+on waiting for them, and no exertion of the French commanders could
+persuade them to move. Trees were hewn down, and a fort made after the
+Iroquois fashion, by encircling the camp with a high and dense abatis of
+trunks and branches. Here they lay two days more, the French disgusted
+and uneasy, and their savage allies obstinate and impracticable.
+
+Meanwhile, Major Peter Schuyler was following their trail, with a body
+of armed settlers hastily mustered. A troop of Oneidas joined him; and
+the united parties, between five and six hundred in all, at length
+appeared before the fortified camp of the French. It was at once evident
+that there was to be no parley. The forest rang with war-whoops; and the
+English Indians, unmanageable as those of the French, set at work to
+entrench themselves with felled trees. The French and their allies
+sallied to dislodge them. The attack was fierce, and the resistance
+equally so. Both sides lost ground by turns. A priest of the mission of
+the Mountain, named Gay, was in the thick of the fight; and, when he saw
+his neophytes run, he threw himself before them, crying, "What are you
+afraid of? We are fighting with infidels, who have nothing human but the
+shape. Have you forgotten that the Holy Virgin is our leader and our
+protector, and that you are subjects of the King of France, whose name
+makes all Europe tremble?" [24] Three times the French renewed the
+attack in vain; then gave over the attempt, and lay quiet behind their
+barricade of trees. So also did their opponents. The morning was dark
+and stormy, and the driving snow that filled the air made the position
+doubly dreary. The English were starving. Their slender stock of
+provisions had been consumed or shared with the Indians, who, on their
+part, did not want food, having resources unknown to their white
+friends. A group of them squatted about a fire invited Schuyler to share
+their broth; but his appetite was spoiled when he saw a human hand
+ladled out of the kettle. His hosts were breakfasting on a dead
+Frenchman.
+
+[24] Journal de Jacques Le Ber, extract in Faillon, Vie de Mlle. Le Ber,
+Appendix.
+
+All night the hostile bands, ensconced behind their sylvan ramparts,
+watched each other in silence. In the morning, an Indian deserter told
+the English commander that the French were packing their baggage.
+Schuyler sent to reconnoitre, and found them gone. They had retreated
+unseen through the snow-storm. He ordered his men to follow; but, as
+most of them had fasted for two days, they refused to do so till an
+expected convoy of provisions should arrive. They waited till the next
+morning, when the convoy appeared: five biscuits were served out to each
+man, and the pursuit began. By great efforts, they nearly overtook the
+fugitives, who now sent them word that, if they made an attack, all the
+prisoners should be put to death. On this, Schuyler's Indians refused to
+continue the chase. The French, by this time, had reached the Hudson,
+where to their dismay they found the ice breaking up and drifting down
+the stream. Happily for them, a large sheet of it had become wedged at a
+turn of the river, and formed a temporary bridge, by which they crossed,
+and then pushed on to Lake George. Here the soft and melting ice would
+not bear them; and they were forced to make their way along the shore,
+over rocks and mountains, through sodden snow and matted thickets. The
+provisions, of which they had made a dépôt on Lake Champlain, were all
+spoiled. They boiled moccasons for food, and scraped away the snow to
+find hickory and beech nuts. Several died of famine, and many more,
+unable to move, lay helpless by the lake; while a few of the strongest
+toiled on to Montreal to tell Callières of their plight. Men and food
+were sent them; and from time to time, as they were able, they journeyed
+on again, straggling towards their homes, singly or in small parties,
+feeble, emaciated, and in many instances with health irreparably broken.
+[25]
+
+[25] On this expedition, Narrative of Military Operations in Canada, in
+N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 550; Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus
+remarquable en Canada, 1692, 1693; Callières au Ministre, 7 Sept., 1693;
+La Potherie, III. 169; Relation de 1682-1712; Faillon, Vie de Mlle. Le
+Ber, 313; Belmont, Hist. du Canada; Beyard and Lodowick, Journal of the
+Late Actions of the French at Canada; Report of Major Peter Schuyler, in
+N. Y. Col. Docs., IV. 16; Colden, 142.
+
+The minister wrote to Callières, finding great fault with the conduct of
+the mission Indians. Ponchartrain à Callières, 8 Mai, 1694.
+
+"The expedition," says Frontenac, "was a glorious success." However
+glorious, it was dearly bought; and a few more such victories would be
+ruin. The governor presently achieved a success more solid and less
+costly. The wavering mood of the north-western tribes, always
+oscillating between the French and the English, had caused him incessant
+anxiety; and he had lost no time in using the defeat of Phips to confirm
+them in alliance with Canada. Courtemanche was sent up the Ottawa to
+carry news of the French triumph, and stimulate the savages of
+Michillimackinac to lift the hatchet. It was a desperate venture; for
+the river was beset, as usual, by the Iroquois. With ten followers, the
+daring partisan ran the gauntlet of a thousand dangers, and safely
+reached his destination; where his gifts and his harangues, joined with
+the tidings of victory, kindled great excitement among the Ottawas and
+Hurons. The indispensable but most difficult task remained: that of
+opening the Ottawa for the descent of the great accumulation of beaver
+skins, which had been gathering at Michillimackinac for three years, and
+for the want of which Canada was bankrupt. More than two hundred
+Frenchmen were known to be at that remote post, or roaming in the
+wilderness around it; and Frontenac resolved on an attempt to muster
+them together, and employ their united force to protect the Indians and
+the traders in bringing down this mass of furs to Montreal. A messenger,
+strongly escorted, was sent with orders to this effect, and succeeded in
+reaching Michillimackinac, though there was a battle on the way, in
+which the officer commanding the escort was killed. Frontenac anxiously
+waited the issue, when after a long delay the tidings reached him of
+complete success. He hastened to Montreal, and found it swarming with
+Indians and coureurs de bois. Two hundred canoes had arrived, filled
+with the coveted beaver skins. "It is impossible," says the chronicle,
+"to conceive the joy of the people, when they beheld these riches.
+Canada had awaited them for years. The merchants and the farmers were
+dying of hunger. Credit was gone, and everybody was afraid that the
+enemy would waylay and seize this last resource of the country.
+Therefore it was, that none could find words strong enough to praise and
+bless him by whose care all this wealth had arrived. Father of the
+People, Preserver of the Country, seemed terms too weak to express their
+gratitude." [26]
+
+[26] Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable en Canada, 1692,
+1693. Compare La Potherie, III. 185.
+
+While three years of arrested sustenance came down together from the
+lakes, a fleet sailed up the St. Lawrence, freighted with soldiers and
+supplies. The horizon of Canada was brightening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+1691-1695.
+
+An Interlude.
+
+Appeal of Frontenac • His Opponents • His Services • Rivalry and Strife
+• Bishop Saint-Vallier • Society at the Château • Private Theatricals •
+Alarm of the Clergy • Tartuffe • A Singular Bargain • Mareuil and the
+Bishop • Mareuil on Trial • Zeal of Saint-Vallier • Scandals at Montreal
+• Appeal to the King • The Strife composed • Libel against Frontenac.
+
+While the Canadians hailed Frontenac as a father, he found also some
+recognition of his services from his masters at the court. The king
+wrote him a letter with his own hand, to express satisfaction at the
+defence of Quebec, and sent him a gift of two thousand crowns. He
+greatly needed the money, but prized the letter still more, and wrote to
+his relative, the minister Ponchartrain: "The gift you procured for me,
+this year, has helped me very much towards paying the great expenses
+which the crisis of our affairs and the excessive cost of living here
+have caused me; but, though I receive this mark of his Majesty's
+goodness with the utmost respect and gratitude, I confess that I feel
+far more deeply the satisfaction that he has been pleased to express
+with my services. The raising of the siege of Quebec did not deserve all
+the attention that I hear he has given it in the midst of so many
+important events, and therefore I must needs ascribe it to your kindness
+in commending it to his notice. This leads me to hope that whenever some
+office, or permanent employment, or some mark of dignity or distinction,
+may offer itself, you will put me on the list as well as others who have
+the honor to be as closely connected with you as I am; for it would be
+very hard to find myself forgotten because I am in a remote country,
+where it is more difficult and dangerous to serve the king than
+elsewhere. I have consumed all my property. Nothing is left but what the
+king gives me; and I have reached an age where, though neither strength
+nor goodwill fail me as yet, and though the latter will last as long as
+I live, I see myself on the eve of losing the former: so that a post a
+little more secure and tranquil than the government of Canada will soon
+suit my time of life; and, if I can be assured of your support, I shall
+not despair of getting such a one. Please then to permit my wife and my
+friends to refresh your memory now and then on this point." [1] Again,
+in the following year: "I have been encouraged to believe that the gift
+of two thousand crowns, which his Majesty made me last year, would be
+continued; but apparently you have not been able to obtain it, for I
+think that you know the difficulty I have in living here on my salary. I
+hope that, when you find a better opportunity, you will try to procure
+me this favor. My only trust is in your support; and I am persuaded
+that, having the honor to be so closely connected with you, you would
+reproach yourself, if you saw me sink into decrepitude, without
+resources and without honors." [2] And still again he appeals to the
+minister for "some permanent and honorable place attended with the marks
+of distinction, which are more grateful than all the rest to a heart
+shaped after the right pattern." [3] In return for these sturdy
+applications, he got nothing for the present but a continuance of the
+king's gift of two thousand crowns.
+
+[1] Frontenac au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1691.
+[2] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Sept., 1692.
+[3] Ibid., 25 Oct., 1693.
+
+Not every voice in the colony sounded the governor's praise. Now, as
+always, he had enemies in state and Church. It is true that the quarrels
+and the bursts of passion that marked his first term of government now
+rarely occurred, but this was not so much due to a change in Frontenac
+himself as to a change in the conditions around him. The war made him
+indispensable. He had gained what he wanted, the consciousness of
+mastery; and under its soothing influence he was less irritable and
+exacting. He lived with the bishop on terms of mutual courtesy, while
+his relations with his colleague, the intendant, were commonly smooth
+enough on the surface; for Champigny, warned by the court not to offend
+him, treated him with studied deference, and was usually treated in
+return with urbane condescension. During all this time, the intendant
+was complaining of him to the minister. "He is spending a great deal of
+money; but he is master, and does what he pleases. I can only keep the
+peace by yielding every thing." [4] "He wants to reduce me to a nobody."
+And, among other similar charges, he says that the governor receives pay
+for garrisons that do not exist, and keeps it for himself. "Do not tell
+that I said so," adds the prudent Champigny, "for it would make great
+trouble, if he knew it." [5] Frontenac, perfectly aware of these covert
+attacks, desires the minister not to heed "the falsehoods and impostures
+uttered against me by persons who meddle with what does not concern
+them." [6] He alludes to Champigny's allies, the Jesuits, who, as he
+thought, had also maligned him. "Since I have been here, I have spared
+no pains to gain the goodwill of Monsieur the intendant, and may God
+grant that the counsels which he is too ready to receive from certain
+persons who have never been friends of peace and harmony do not sometime
+make division between us. But I close my eyes to all that, and shall
+still persevere." [7] In another letter to Ponchartrain, he says: "I
+write you this in private, because I have been informed by my wife that
+charges have been made to you against my conduct since my return to this
+country. I promise you, Monseigneur, that, whatever my accusers do, they
+will not make me change conduct towards them, and that I shall still
+treat them with consideration. I merely ask your leave most humbly to
+represent that, having maintained this colony in full prosperity during
+the ten years when I formerly held the government of it, I nevertheless
+fell a sacrifice to the artifice and fury of those whose encroachments,
+and whose excessive and unauthorized power, my duty and my passionate
+affection for the service of the king obliged me in conscience to
+repress. My recall, which made them masters in the conduct of the
+government, was followed by all the disasters which overwhelmed this
+unhappy colony. The millions that the king spent here, the troops that
+he sent out, and the Canadians that he took into pay, all went for
+nothing. Most of the soldiers, and no small number of brave Canadians,
+perished in enterprises ill devised and ruinous to the country, which I
+found on my arrival ravaged with unheard-of cruelty by the Iroquois,
+without resistance, and in sight of the troops and of the forts. The
+inhabitants were discouraged, and unnerved by want of confidence in
+their chiefs; while the friendly Indians, seeing our weakness, were
+ready to join our enemies. I was fortunate enough and diligent enough to
+change this deplorable state of things, and drive away the English, whom
+my predecessors did not have on their hands, and this too with only half
+as many troops as they had. I am far from wishing to blame their
+conduct. I leave you to judge it. But I cannot have the tranquillity and
+freedom of mind which I need for the work I have to do here, without
+feeling entire confidence that the cabal which is again forming against
+me cannot produce impressions which may prevent you from doing me
+justice. For the rest, if it is thought fit that I should leave the
+priests to do as they like, I shall be delivered from an infinity of
+troubles and cares, in which I can have no other interest than the good
+of the colony, the trade of the kingdom, and the peace of the king's
+subjects, and of which I alone bear the burden, as well as the jealousy
+of sundry persons, and the iniquity of the ecclesiastics, who begin to
+call impious those who are obliged to oppose their passions and their
+interests." [8]
+
+[4] Champigny au Ministre, 12 Oct., 1691.
+[5] Ibid., 4 Nov., 1693.
+[6] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Sept., 1692.
+[7] Ibid., 20 Oct., 1691.
+[8] "L'iniquité des ecclésiastiques qui commencent à traiter d'impies
+ceux qui sont obligés de resister à leurs passions et à leurs interêts."
+Frontenac au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1691.
+
+As Champigny always sided with the Jesuits, his relations with Frontenac
+grew daily more critical. Open rupture at length seemed imminent, and
+the king interposed to keep the peace. "There has been discord between
+you under a show of harmony," he wrote to the disputants. [9] Frontenac
+was exhorted to forbearance and calmness; while the intendant was told
+that he allowed himself to be made an instrument of others, and that his
+charges against the governor proved nothing but his own ill-temper. [10]
+The minister wrote in vain. The bickerings that he reproved were but
+premonitions of a greater strife.
+
+[9] Mémoire du Roy pour Frontenac et Champigny, 1694.
+[10] Le Ministre à Frontenac, 8 May, 1694; Le Ministre à Champigny, même
+date.
+
+Bishop Saint-Vallier was a rigid, austere, and contentious prelate, who
+loved power as much as Frontenac himself, and thought that, as the
+deputy of Christ, it was his duty to exercise it to the utmost. The
+governor watched him with a jealous eye, well aware that, though the
+pretensions of the Church to supremacy over the civil power had suffered
+a check, Saint-Vallier would revive them the moment he thought he could
+do so with success. I have shown elsewhere the severity of the
+ecclesiastical rule at Quebec, where the zealous pastors watched their
+flock with unrelenting vigilance, and associations of pious women helped
+them in the work. [11] This naturally produced revolt, and tended to
+divide the town into two parties, the worldly and the devout. The love
+of pleasure was not extinguished, and various influences helped to keep
+it alive. Perhaps none of these was so potent as the presence in winter
+of a considerable number of officers from France, whose piety was often
+less conspicuous than their love of enjoyment. At the Château St. Louis
+a circle of young men, more or less brilliant and accomplished,
+surrounded the governor, and formed a centre of social attraction.
+Frontenac was not without religion, and he held it becoming a man of his
+station not to fail in its observances; but he would not have a Jesuit
+confessor, and placed his conscience in the keeping of the Récollet
+friars, who were not politically aggressive, and who had been sent to
+Canada expressly as a foil to the rival order. They found no favor in
+the eyes of the bishop and his adherents, and the governor found none
+for the support he lent them.
+
+[11] Old Régime, chap. xix.
+
+The winter that followed the arrival of the furs from the upper lakes
+was a season of gayety without precedent since the war began. All was
+harmony at Quebec till the carnival approached, when Frontenac, whose
+youthful instincts survived his seventy-four years, introduced a
+startling novelty which proved the signal of discord. One of his
+military circle, the sharp-witted La Motte-Cadillac, thus relates this
+untoward event in a letter to a friend: "The winter passed very
+pleasantly, especially to the officers, who lived together like
+comrades; and, to contribute to their honest enjoyment, the count caused
+two plays to be acted, 'Nicomede' and 'Mithridate.'" It was an amateur
+performance, in which the officers took part along with some of the
+ladies of Quebec. The success was prodigious, and so was the storm that
+followed. Half a century before, the Jesuits had grieved over the first
+ball in Canada. Private theatricals were still more baneful. "The
+clergy," continues La Motte, "beat their alarm drums, armed cap-a-pie,
+and snatched their bows and arrows. The Sieur Glandelet was first to
+begin, and preached two sermons, in which he tried to prove that nobody
+could go to a play without mortal sin. The bishop issued a mandate, and
+had it read from the pulpits, in which he speaks of certain impious,
+impure, and noxious comedies, insinuating that those which had been
+acted were such. The credulous and infatuated people, seduced by the
+sermons and the mandate, began already to regard the count as a
+corrupter of morals and a destroyer of religion. The numerous party of
+the pretended devotees mustered in the streets and public places, and
+presently made their way into the houses, to confirm the weak-minded in
+their illusion, and tried to make the stronger share it; but, as they
+failed in this almost completely, they resolved at last to conquer or
+die, and persuaded the bishop to use a strange device, which was to
+publish a mandate in the church, whereby the Sieur de Mareuil, a
+half-pay lieutenant, was interdicted the use of the sacraments." [12]
+
+[12] La Motte-Cadillac à------, 28 Sept., 1694.
+
+This story needs explanation. Not only had the amateur actors at the
+château played two pieces inoffensive enough in themselves, but a report
+had been spread that they meant next to perform the famous "Tartuffe" of
+Molière, a satire which, while purporting to be levelled against
+falsehood, lust, greed, and ambition, covered with a mask of religion,
+was rightly thought by a portion of the clergy to be levelled against
+themselves. The friends of Frontenac say that the report was a hoax. Be
+this as it may, the bishop believed it. "This worthy prelate," continues
+the irreverent La Motte, "was afraid of 'Tartuffe,' and had got it into
+his head that the count meant to have it played, though he had never
+thought of such a thing. Monsieur de Saint-Vallier sweated blood and
+water to stop a torrent which existed only in his imagination." It was
+now that he launched his two mandates, both on the same day; one
+denouncing comedies in general and "Tartuffe" in particular, and the
+other smiting Mareuil, who, he says, "uses language capable of making
+Heaven blush," and whom he elsewhere stigmatizes as "worse than a
+Protestant." [13] It was Mareuil who, as reported, was to play the part
+of Tartuffe; and on him, therefore, the brunt of episcopal indignation
+fell. He was not a wholly exemplary person. "I mean," says La Motte, "to
+show you the truth in all its nakedness. The fact is that, about two
+years ago, when the Sieur de Mareuil first came to Canada, and was
+carousing with his friends, he sang some indecent song or other. The
+count was told of it, and gave him a severe reprimand. This is the
+charge against him. After a two years' silence, the pastoral zeal has
+wakened, because a play is to be acted which the clergy mean to stop at
+any cost."
+
+[13] Mandement au Sujet des Comédies, 16 Jan., 1694; Mandement au Sujet
+de certaines Personnes qui tenoient des Discours impies, même date;
+Registre du Conseil Souverain.
+
+The bishop found another way of stopping it. He met Frontenac, with the
+intendant, near the Jesuit chapel, accosted him on the subject which
+filled his thoughts, and offered him a hundred pistoles if he would
+prevent the playing of "Tartuffe." Frontenac laughed, and closed the
+bargain. Saint-Vallier wrote his note on the spot; and the governor took
+it, apparently well pleased to have made the bishop disburse. "I
+thought," writes the intendant, "that Monsieur de Frontenac would have
+given him back the paper." He did no such thing, but drew the money on
+the next day and gave it to the hospitals. [14]
+
+[14] This incident is mentioned by La Motte-Cadillac; by the intendant,
+who reports it to the minister; by the minister Ponchartrain, who asks
+Frontenac for an explanation; by Frontenac, who passes it off as a jest;
+and by several other contemporary writers.
+
+Mareuil, deprived of the sacraments, and held up to reprobation, went to
+see the bishop, who refused to receive him; and it is said that he was
+taken by the shoulders and put out of doors. He now resolved to bring
+his case before the council; but the bishop was informed of his purpose,
+and anticipated it. La Motte says "he went before the council on the
+first of February, and denounced the Sieur de Mareuil, whom he declared
+guilty of impiety towards God, the Virgin, and the Saints, and made a
+fine speech in the absence of the count, interrupted by the effusions of
+a heart which seemed filled with a profound and infinite charity, but
+which, as he said, was pushed to extremity by the rebellion of an
+indocile child, who had neglected all his warnings. This was,
+nevertheless, assumed; I will not say entirely false."
+
+The bishop did, in fact, make a vehement speech against Mareuil before
+the council on the day in question; Mareuil stoutly defending himself,
+and entering his appeal against the episcopal mandate. [15] The battle
+was now fairly joined. Frontenac stood alone for the accused. The
+intendant tacitly favored his opponents. Auteuil, the attorney-general,
+and Villeray, the first councillor, owed the governor an old grudge; and
+they and their colleagues sided with the bishop, with the outside
+support of all the clergy, except the Récollets, who, as usual, ranged
+themselves with their patron. At first, Frontenac showed great
+moderation, but grew vehement, and then violent, as the dispute
+proceeded; as did also the attorney-general, who seems to have done his
+best to exasperate him. Frontenac affirmed that, in depriving Mareuil
+and others of the sacraments, with no proof of guilt and no previous
+warning, and on allegations which, even if true, could not justify the
+act, the bishop exceeded his powers, and trenched on those of the king.
+The point was delicate. The attorney-general avoided the issue, tried to
+raise others, and revived the old quarrel about Frontenac's place in the
+council, which had been settled fourteen years before. Other questions
+were brought up, and angrily debated. The governor demanded that the
+debates, along with the papers which introduced them, should be entered
+on the record, that the king might be informed of every thing; but the
+demand was refused. The discords of the council chamber spread into the
+town. Quebec was divided against itself. Mareuil insulted the bishop;
+and some of his scapegrace sympathizers broke the prelate's windows at
+night, and smashed his chamber-door. [16] Mareuil was at last ordered to
+prison, and the whole affair was referred to the king. [17]
+
+[15] Registre du Conseil Souverain, 1 et 8 Fév., 1694.
+[16] Champigny au Ministre, 27 Oct., 1694.
+[17] Registre du Conseil Souverain; Requeste du Sieur de Mareuil, Nov.,
+1694.
+
+These proceedings consumed the spring, the summer, and a part of the
+autumn. Meanwhile, an access of zeal appeared to seize the bishop; and
+he launched interdictions to the right and left. Even Champigny was
+startled when he refused the sacraments to all but four or five of the
+military officers for alleged tampering with the pay of their soldiers,
+a matter wholly within the province of the temporal authorities. [18]
+During a recess of the council, he set out on a pastoral tour, and,
+arriving at Three Rivers, excommunicated an officer named Desjordis for
+a reputed intrigue with the wife of another officer. He next repaired to
+Sorel, and, being there on a Sunday, was told that two officers had
+neglected to go to mass. He wrote to Frontenac, complaining of the
+offence. Frontenac sent for the culprits, and rebuked them; but
+retracted his words when they proved by several witnesses that they had
+been duly present at the rite. [19] The bishop then went up to Montreal,
+and discord went with him.
+
+[18] Champigny au Ministre, 24 Oct., 1694. Trouble on this matter had
+begun some time before. Mémoire du Roy pour Frontenac et Champigny,
+1694; Le Ministre à l'Évêque, 8 Mai, 1694.
+[19] La Motte-Cadillac à------, 28 Sept., 1694; Champigny au Ministre,
+27 Oct., 1694.
+
+Except Frontenac alone, Callières, the local governor, was the man in
+all Canada to whom the country owed most; but, like his chief, he was a
+friend of the Récollets, and this did not commend him to the bishop. The
+friars were about to receive two novices into their order, and they
+invited the bishop to officiate at the ceremony. Callières was also
+present, kneeling at a prie-dieu, or prayer-desk, near the middle of the
+church. Saint-Vallier, having just said mass, was seating himself in his
+arm-chair, close to the altar, when he saw Callières at the prie-dieu,
+with the position of which he had already found fault as being too
+honorable for a subordinate governor. He now rose, approached the object
+of his disapproval, and said, "Monsieur, you are taking a place which
+belongs only to Monsieur de Frontenac." Callières replied that the place
+was that which properly belonged to him. The bishop rejoined that, if he
+did not leave it, he himself would leave the church. "You can do as you
+please," said Callières; and the prelate withdrew abruptly through the
+sacristy, refusing any farther part in the ceremony. [20] When the
+services were over, he ordered the friars to remove the obnoxious
+prie-dieu. They obeyed; but an officer of Callières replaced it, and,
+unwilling to offend him, they allowed it to remain. On this, the bishop
+laid their church under an interdict; that is, he closed it against the
+celebration of all the rites of religion. [21] He then issued a pastoral
+mandate, in which he charged Father Joseph Denys, their superior, with
+offences which he "dared not name for fear of making the paper blush."
+[22] His tongue was less bashful than his pen; and he gave out publicly
+that the father superior had acted as go-between in an intrigue of his
+sister with the Chevalier de Callières. [23] It is said that the
+accusation was groundless, and the character of the woman wholly
+irreproachable. The Récollets submitted for two months to the bishop's
+interdict, then refused to obey longer, and opened their church again.
+
+[20] Procès-verbal du Père Hyacinthe Perrault, Commissaire Provincial
+des Récollets (Archives Nationales); Mémoire touchant le Démeslé entre
+M. l'Évesque de Québec et le Chevalier de Callières (Ibid.).
+[21] Mandement ordonnant de fermer l'Église des Récollets, 13 Mai, 1694.
+[22] "Le Supérieur du dit Couvent estant lié avec le Gouverneur de la
+dite ville par des interests que tout le monde scait et qu'on n'oseroit
+exprimer de peur de faire rougir le papier." Extrait du Mandement de
+l'Évesque de Québec (Archives Nationales). He had before charged Mareuil
+with language "capable de faire rougir le ciel."
+[23] "Mr. l'Évesque accuse publiquement le Rev. Père Joseph, supérieur
+des Récollets de Montréal, d'être l'entremetteur d'une galanterie entre
+sa sœur et le Gouverneur. Cependant Mr. l'Évesque sait certainement que
+le Père Joseph est l'un des meilleurs et des plus saints religieux de
+son ordre. Ce qu'il allègue du prétendu commerce entre le Gouverneur et
+la Dame de la Naudière (sœur du Père Joseph) est entièrement faux, et il
+l'a publié avec scandale, sans preuve et contre toute apparence, la
+ditte Dame ayant toujours eu une conduite irréprochable." Mémoire
+touchant le Démeslé, etc. Champigny also says that the bishop has
+brought this charge, and that Callières declares that he has told a
+falsehood. Champigny au Ministre, 27 Oct., 1694.
+
+Quebec, Three Rivers, Sorel, and Montreal had all been ruffled by the
+breeze of these dissensions, and the farthest outposts of the wilderness
+were not too remote to feel it. La Motte-Cadillac had been sent to
+replace Louvigny in the command of Michillimackinac, where he had
+scarcely arrived, when trouble fell upon him. "Poor Monsieur de la
+Motte-Cadillac," says Frontenac, "would have sent you a journal to show
+you the persecutions he has suffered at the post where I placed him, and
+where he does wonders, having great influence over the Indians, who both
+love and fear him, but he has had no time to copy it. Means have been
+found to excite against him three or four officers of the posts
+dependent on his, who have put upon him such strange and unheard of
+affronts, that I was obliged to send them to prison when they came down
+to the colony. A certain Father Carheil, the Jesuit who wrote me such
+insolent letters a few years ago, has played an amazing part in this
+affair. I shall write about it to Father La Chaise, that he may set it
+right. Some remedy must be found; for, if it continues, none of the
+officers who were sent to Michillimackinac, the Miamis, the Illinois,
+and other places, can stay there on account of the persecutions to which
+they are subjected, and the refusal of absolution as soon as they fail
+to do what is wanted of them. Joined to all this is a shameful traffic
+in influence and money. Monsieur de Tonty could have written to you
+about it, if he had not been obliged to go off to the Assinneboins, to
+rid himself of all these torments." [24] In fact, there was a chronic
+dispute at the forest outposts between the officers and the Jesuits,
+concerning which matter much might be said on both sides.
+
+[24] Frontenac à M. de Lagny, 2 Nov., 1695.
+
+The bishop sailed for France. "He has gone," writes Callières, "after
+quarrelling with everybody." The various points in dispute were set
+before the king. An avalanche of memorials, letters, and procès-verbaux,
+descended upon the unfortunate monarch; some concerning Mareuil and the
+quarrels in the council, others on the excommunication of Desjordis, and
+others on the troubles at Montreal. They were all referred to the king's
+privy council. [25] An adjustment was effected: order, if not harmony,
+was restored; and the usual distribution of advice, exhortation,
+reproof, and menace, was made to the parties in the strife. Frontenac
+was commended for defending the royal prerogative, censured for
+violence, and admonished to avoid future quarrels. [26] Champigny was
+reproved for not supporting the governor, and told that "his Majesty
+sees with great pain that, while he is making extraordinary efforts to
+sustain Canada at a time so critical, all his cares and all his outlays
+are made useless by your misunderstanding with Monsieur de Frontenac."
+[27] The attorney-general was sharply reprimanded, told that he must
+mend his ways or lose his place, and ordered to make an apology to the
+governor. [28] Villeray was not honored by a letter, but the intendant
+was directed to tell him that his behavior had greatly displeased the
+king. Callières was mildly advised not to take part in the disputes of
+the bishop and the Récollets. [29] Thus was conjured down one of the
+most bitter as well as the most needless, trivial, and untimely, of the
+quarrels that enliven the annals of New France.
+
+[25] Arrest qui ordonne que les Procédures faites entre le Sieur Évesque
+de Québec et les Sieurs Mareuil, Desjordis, etc., seront évoquez au
+Conseil Privé de Sa Majesté, 3 Juillet, 1695.
+[26] Le Ministre à Frontenac, 4 Juin, 1695; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1695.
+[27] Le Ministre à Champigny, 4 Juin, 1695; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1695.
+[28] Le Ministre à d'Auteuil, 8 Juin, 1695.
+[29] Le Ministre à Callières, 8 Juin, 1695.
+
+A generation later, when its incidents had faded from memory, a
+passionate and reckless partisan, Abbé La Tour, published, and probably
+invented, a story which later writers have copied, till it now forms an
+accepted episode of Canadian history. According to him, Frontenac, in
+order to ridicule the clergy, formed an amateur company of comedians
+expressly to play "Tartuffe;" and, after rehearsing at the château
+during three or four months, they acted the piece before a large
+audience. "He was not satisfied with having it played at the château,
+but wanted the actors and actresses and the dancers, male and female, to
+go in full costume, with violins, to play it in all the religious
+communities, except the Récollets. He took them first to the house of
+the Jesuits, where the crowd entered with him; then to the Hospital, to
+the hall of the paupers, whither the nuns were ordered to repair; then
+he went to the Ursuline Convent, assembled the sisterhood, and had the
+piece played before them. To crown the insult, he wanted next to go to
+the seminary, and repeat the spectacle there; but, warning having been
+given, he was met on the way, and begged to refrain. He dared not
+persist, and withdrew in very ill-humor." [30]
+
+[30] La Tour, Vie de Laval, liv. xii.
+
+Not one of numerous contemporary papers, both official and private, and
+written in great part by enemies of Frontenac, contains the slightest
+allusion to any such story, and many of them are wholly inconsistent
+with it. It may safely be set down as a fabrication to blacken the
+memory of the governor, and exhibit the bishop and his adherents as
+victims of persecution. [31]
+
+[31] Had an outrage, like that with which Frontenac is here charged,
+actually taken place, the registers of the council, the letters of the
+intendant and the attorney-general, and the records of the bishopric of
+Quebec would not have failed to show it. They show nothing beyond a
+report that "Tartuffe" was to be played, and a payment of money by the
+bishop in order to prevent it. We are left to infer that it was
+prevented accordingly. I have the best authority--that of the superior
+of the convent (1871), herself a diligent investigator into the history
+of her community--for stating that neither record nor tradition of the
+occurrence exists among the Ursulines of Quebec; and I have been unable
+to learn that any such exists among the nuns of the Hospital
+(Hôtel-Dieu). The contemporary Récit d'une Religieuse Ursuline speaks of
+Frontenac with gratitude, as a friend and benefactor, as does also
+Mother Juchereau, superior of the Hôtel-Dieu.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+1690-1694.
+
+The War in Acadia.
+
+State of that Colony • The Abenakis • Acadia and New England • Pirates
+• Baron de Saint-Castin • Pentegoet • The English Frontier • The French
+and the Abenakis • Plan of the War • Capture of York • Villebon • Grand
+War-party • Attack of Wells • Pemaquid rebuilt • John Nelson • A Broken
+Treaty • Villieu and Thury • Another War-party • Massacre at Oyster
+River.
+
+Amid domestic strife, the war with England and the Iroquois still went
+on. The contest for territorial mastery was fourfold: first, for the
+control of the west; secondly, for that of Hudson's Bay; thirdly, for
+that of Newfoundland; and, lastly, for that of Acadia. All these vast and
+widely sundered regions were included in the government of Frontenac.
+Each division of the war was distinct from the rest, and each had a
+character of its own. As the contest for the west was wholly with New
+York and her Iroquois allies, so the contest for Acadia was wholly with
+the "Bostonnais," or people of New England.
+
+Acadia, as the French at this time understood the name, included Nova
+Scotia, New Brunswick, and the greater part of Maine. Sometimes they
+placed its western boundary at the little River St. George, and sometimes
+at the Kennebec. Since the wars of D'Aulnay and La Tour, this wilderness
+had been a scene of unceasing strife; for the English drew their eastern
+boundary at the St. Croix, and the claims of the rival nationalities
+overlapped each other. In the time of Cromwell, Sedgwick, a New England
+officer, had seized the whole country. The peace of Breda restored it to
+France: the Chevalier de Grandfontaine was ordered to reoccupy it, and
+the king sent out a few soldiers, a few settlers, and a few women as
+their wives. [1] Grandfontaine held the nominal command for a time,
+followed by a succession of military chiefs, Chambly, Marson, and La
+Vallière. Then Perrot, whose malpractices had cost him the government of
+Montreal, was made governor of Acadia; and, as he did not mend his ways,
+he was replaced by Meneval. [2]
+
+[1] In 1671, 30 garçons and 30 filles were sent by the king to Acadia, at
+the cost of 6,000 livres. État. de Dépenses, 1671.
+
+[2] Grandfontaine, 1670; Chambly, 1673; Marson, 1678; La Vallière, the
+same year, Marson having died; Perrot, 1684; Meneval, 1687. The last
+three were commissioned as local governors, in subordination to the
+governor-general. The others were merely military commandants.
+
+One might have sailed for days along these lonely coasts, and seen no
+human form. At Canseau, or Chedabucto, at the eastern end of Nova Scotia,
+there was a fishing station and a fort; Chibuctou, now Halifax, was a
+solitude; at La Hêve there were a few fishermen; and thence, as you
+doubled the rocks of Cape Sable, the ancient haunt of La Tour, you would
+have seen four French settlers, and an unlimited number of seals and
+seafowl. Ranging the shore by St. Mary's Bay, and entering the Strait of
+Annapolis Basin, you would have found the fort of Port Royal, the chief
+place of all Acadia. It stood at the head of the basin, where De Monts
+had planted his settlement nearly a century before. Around the fort and
+along the neighboring river were about ninety-five small houses; and at
+the head of the Bay of Fundy were two other settlements, Beaubassin and
+Les Mines, comparatively stable and populous. At the mouth of the St.
+John were the abandoned ruins of La Tour's old fort; and on a spot less
+exposed, at some distance up the river, stood the small wooden fort of
+Jemsec, with a few intervening clearings. Still sailing westward, passing
+Mount Desert, another scene of ancient settlement, and entering Penobscot
+Bay, you would have found the Baron de Saint-Castin with his Indian harem
+at Pentegoet, where the town of Castine now stands. All Acadia was
+comprised in these various stations, more or less permanent, together
+with one or two small posts on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the huts of
+an errant population of fishermen and fur traders. In the time of
+Denonville, the colonists numbered less than a thousand souls. The king,
+busied with nursing Canada, had neglected its less important dependency.
+[3]
+
+[3] The census taken by order of Meules in 1686 gives a total of 885
+persons, of whom 592 were at Port Royal, and 127 at Beaubassin. By the
+census of 1693, the number had reached 1,009.
+
+Rude as it was, Acadia had charms, and it has them still: in its
+wilderness of woods and its wilderness of waves; the rocky ramparts that
+guard its coasts; its deep, still bays and foaming headlands; the
+towering cliffs of the Grand Menan; the innumerable islands that cluster
+about Penobscot Bay; and the romantic highlands of Mount Desert, down
+whose gorges the sea-fog rolls like an invading host, while the spires of
+fir-trees pierce the surging vapors like lances in the smoke of battle.
+
+Leaving Pentegoet, and sailing westward all day along a solitude of
+woods, one might reach the English outpost of Pemaquid, and thence, still
+sailing on, might anchor at evening off Casco Bay, and see in the glowing
+west the distant peaks of the White Mountains, spectral and dim amid the
+weird and fiery sunset.
+
+Inland Acadia was all forest, and vast tracts of it are a primeval forest
+still. Here roamed the Abenakis with their kindred tribes, a race wild as
+their haunts. In habits they were all much alike. Their villages were on
+the waters of the Androscoggin, the Saco, the Kennebec, the Penobscot,
+the St. Croix, and the St. John; here in spring they planted their corn,
+beans, and pumpkins, and then, leaving them to grow, went down to the sea
+in their birch canoes. They returned towards the end of summer, gathered
+their harvest, and went again to the sea, where they lived in abundance
+on ducks, geese, and other water-fowl. During winter, most of the women,
+children, and old men remained in the villages; while the hunters ranged
+the forest in chase of moose, deer, caribou, beavers, and bears.
+
+Their summer stay at the seashore was perhaps the most pleasant, and
+certainly the most picturesque, part of their lives. Bivouacked by some
+of the innumerable coves and inlets that indent these coasts, they passed
+their days in that alternation of indolence and action which is a second
+nature to the Indian. Here in wet weather, while the torpid water was
+dimpled with rain-drops, and the upturned canoes lay idle on the pebbles,
+the listless warrior smoked his pipe under his roof of bark, or launched
+his slender craft at the dawn of the July day, when shores and islands
+were painted in shadow against the rosy east, and forests, dusky and
+cool, lay waiting for the sunrise.
+
+The women gathered raspberries or whortleberries in the open places of
+the woods, or clams and oysters in the sands and shallows, adding their
+shells as a contribution to the shell-heaps that have accumulated for
+ages along these shores. The men fished, speared porpoises, or shot
+seals. A priest was often in the camp watching over his flock, and saying
+mass every day in a chapel of bark. There was no lack of altar candles,
+made by mixing tallow with the wax of the bayberry, which abounded among
+the rocky hills, and was gathered in profusion by the squaws and
+children.
+
+The Abenaki missions were a complete success. Not only those of the tribe
+who had been induced to migrate to the mission villages of Canada, but
+also those who remained in their native woods, were, or were soon to
+become, converts to Romanism, and therefore allies of France. Though less
+ferocious than the Iroquois, they were brave, after the Indian manner,
+and they rarely or never practised cannibalism.
+
+Some of the French were as lawless as their Indian friends. Nothing is
+more strange than the incongruous mixture of the forms of feudalism with
+the independence of the Acadian woods. Vast grants of land were made to
+various persons, some of whom are charged with using them for no other
+purpose than roaming over their domains with Indian women. The only
+settled agricultural population was at Port Royal, Beaubassin, and the
+Basin of Minas. The rest were fishermen, fur traders, or rovers of the
+forest. Repeated orders came from the court to open a communication with
+Quebec, and even to establish a line of military posts through the
+intervening wilderness, but the distance and the natural difficulties of
+the country proved insurmountable obstacles. If communication with Quebec
+was difficult, that with Boston was easy; and thus Acadia became largely
+dependent on its New England neighbors, who, says an Acadian officer,
+"are mostly fugitives from England, guilty of the death of their late
+king, and accused of conspiracy against their present sovereign; others
+of them are pirates, and they are all united in a sort of independent
+republic." [4] Their relations with the Acadians were of a mixed sort.
+They continually encroached on Acadian fishing grounds, and we hear at
+one time of a hundred of their vessels thus engaged. This was not all.
+The interlopers often landed and traded with the Indians along the coast.
+Meneval, the governor, complained bitterly of their arrogance. Sometimes,
+it is said, they pretended to be foreign pirates, and plundered vessels
+and settlements, while the aggrieved parties could get no redress at
+Boston. They also carried on a regular trade at Port Royal and Les Mines
+or Grand Pré, where many of the inhabitants regarded them with a degree
+of favor which gave great umbrage to the military authorities, who,
+nevertheless, are themselves accused of seeking their own profit by
+dealings with the heretics; and even French priests, including Petit, the
+curé of Port Royal, are charged with carrying on this illicit trade in
+their own behalf, and in that of the seminary of Quebec. The settlers
+caught from the "Bostonnais" what their governor stigmatizes as English
+and parliamentary ideas, the chief effect of which was to make them
+restive under his rule. The Church, moreover, was less successful in
+excluding heresy from Acadia than from Canada. A number of Huguenots
+established themselves at Port Royal, and formed sympathetic relations
+with the Boston Puritans. The bishop at Quebec was much alarmed. "This is
+dangerous," he writes. "I pray your Majesty to put an end to these
+disorders." [5]
+
+[4] Mémoire du Sieur Bergier, 1685.
+
+[5] L'Évêque au Roy, 10 Nov., 1683. For the preceding pages, the
+authorities are chiefly the correspondence of Grandfontaine, Marson, La
+Vallière, Meneval, Bergier, Goutins, Perrot, Talon, Frontenac, and other
+officials. A large collection of Acadian documents, from the archives of
+Paris, is in my possession. I have also examined the Acadian collections
+made for the government of Canada and for that of Massachusetts.
+
+A sort of chronic warfare of aggression and reprisal, closely akin to
+piracy, was carried on at intervals in Acadian waters by French private
+armed vessels on one hand, and New England private armed vessels on the
+other. Genuine pirates also frequently appeared. They were of various
+nationality, though usually buccaneers from the West Indies. They preyed
+on New England trading and fishing craft, and sometimes attacked French
+settlements. One of their most notorious exploits was the capture of two
+French vessels and a French fort at Chedabucto by a pirate, manned in
+part, it is said, from Massachusetts. [6] A similar proceeding of earlier
+date was the act of Dutchmen from St. Domingo. They made a descent on the
+French fort of Pentegoet, on Penobscot Bay. Chambly, then commanding for
+the king in Acadia, was in the place. They assaulted his works, wounded
+him, took him prisoner, and carried him to Boston, where they held him at
+ransom. His young ensign escaped into the woods, and carried the news to
+Canada; but many months elapsed before Chambly was released. [7]
+
+[6] Meneval, Mémoire, 1688; Denonville, Mémoire, 18 Oct., 1688;
+Procès-verbal du Pillage de Chedabucto; Relation de la Boullaye, 1688.
+
+[7] Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674; Frontenac à Leverett,
+gouverneur de Baston, 24 Sept., 1674; Frontenac to the Governor and
+Council of Massachusetts, 25 May, 1675 (see 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 64);
+Colbert à Frontenac, 15 May, 1675. Frontenac supposed the assailants to
+be buccaneers. They had, however, a commission from William of Orange.
+Hutchinson says that the Dutch again took Pentegoet in 1676, but were
+driven off by ships from Boston, as the English claimed the place for
+themselves.
+
+This young ensign was Jean Vincent de l'Abadie, Baron de Saint-Castin, a
+native of Béarn, on the slopes of the Pyrenees, the same rough, strong
+soil that gave to France her Henri IV. When fifteen years of age, he came
+to Canada with the regiment of Carignan-Salières, ensign in the company
+of Chambly; and, when the regiment was disbanded, he followed his natural
+bent, and betook himself to the Acadian woods. At this time there was a
+square bastioned fort at Pentegoet, mounted with twelve small cannon; but
+after the Dutch attack it fell into decay. [8] Saint-Castin, meanwhile,
+roamed the woods with the Indians, lived like them, formed connections
+more or less permanent with their women, became himself a chief, and
+gained such ascendency over his red associates that, according to La
+Hontan, they looked upon him as their tutelary god. He was bold, hardy,
+adroit, tenacious; and, in spite of his erratic habits, had such capacity
+for business, that, if we may believe the same somewhat doubtful
+authority, he made a fortune of three or four hundred thousand crowns.
+His gains came chiefly through his neighbors of New England, whom he
+hated, but to whom he sold his beaver skins at an ample profit. His
+trading house was at Pentegoet, now called Castine, in or near the old
+fort; a perilous spot, which he occupied or abandoned by turns, according
+to the needs of the time. Being a devout Catholic he wished to add a
+resident priest to his establishment for the conversion of his Indian
+friends; but, observes Father Petit of Port Royal, who knew him well, "he
+himself has need of spiritual aid to sustain him in the paths of virtue."
+[9] He usually made two visits a year to Port Royal, where he gave
+liberal gifts to the church of which he was the chief patron, attended
+mass with exemplary devotion, and then, shriven of his sins, returned to
+his squaws at Pentegoet. Perrot, the governor, maligned him; the motive,
+as Saint-Castin says, being jealousy of his success in trade, for Perrot
+himself traded largely with the English and the Indians. This, indeed,
+seems to have been his chief occupation; and, as Saint-Castin was his
+principal rival, they were never on good terms. Saint-Castin complained
+to Denonville. "Monsieur Petit," he writes, "will tell you every thing. I
+will only say that he (Perrot) kept me under arrest from the twenty-first
+of April to the ninth of June, on pretence of a little weakness I had for
+some women, and even told me that he had your orders to do it: but that
+is not what troubles him; and as I do not believe there is another man
+under heaven who will do meaner things through love of gain, even to
+selling brandy by the pint and half-pint before strangers in his own
+house, because he does not trust a single one of his servants,--I see
+plainly what is the matter with him. He wants to be the only merchant in
+Acadia." [10]
+
+[8] On its condition in 1670, Estat du Fort et Place de Pentegoet fait en
+l'année 1670, lorsque les Anglois l'ont rendu. In 1671, fourteen soldiers
+and eight laborers were settled near the fort. Talon au Ministre, 2 Nov.,
+1671. In the next year, Talon recommends an envoi de filles for the
+benefit of Pentegoet. Mémoire sur le Canada, 1672. As late as 1698, we
+find Acadian officials advising the reconstruction of the fort.
+
+[9] Petit in Saint-Vallier, Estat de l'Église, 39 (1856).
+
+[10] Saint-Castin à Denonville, 2 Juiliet, 1687.
+
+Perrot was recalled this very year; and his successor, Meneval, received
+instructions in regard to Saint-Castin, which show that the king or his
+minister had a clear idea both of the baron's merits and of his failings.
+The new governor was ordered to require him to abandon "his vagabond life
+among the Indians," cease all trade with the English, and establish a
+permanent settlement. Meneval was farther directed to assure him that, if
+he conformed to the royal will, and led a life "more becoming a
+gentleman," he might expect to receive proofs of his Majesty's approval.
+[11]
+
+[11] Instruction du Roy au Sieur de Meneval, 5 Avril, 1687.
+
+In the next year, Meneval reported that he had represented to
+Saint-Castin the necessity of reform, and that in consequence he had
+abandoned his trade with the English, given up his squaws, married, and
+promised to try to make a solid settlement. [12] True he had reformed
+before, and might need to reform again; but his faults were not of the
+baser sort: he held his honor high, and was free-handed as he was bold.
+His wife was what the early chroniclers would call an Indian princess;
+for she was the daughter of Madockawando, chief of the Penobscots.
+
+[12] Mémoire du Sieur de Meneval sur l'Acadie, 10 Sept., 1688.
+
+So critical was the position of his post at Pentegoet that a strong fort
+and a sufficient garrison could alone hope to maintain it against the
+pirates and the "Bostonnais." Its vicissitudes had been many. Standing on
+ground claimed by the English, within territory which had been granted to
+the Duke of York, and which, on his accession to the throne, became a
+part of the royal domain, it was never safe from attack. In 1686, it was
+plundered by an agent of Dongan. In 1687, it was plundered again; and in
+the next year Andros, then royal governor, anchored before it in his
+frigate, the "Rose," landed with his attendants, and stripped the
+building of all it contained, except a small altar with pictures and
+ornaments, which they found in the principal room. Saint-Castin escaped
+to the woods; and Andros sent him word by an Indian that his property
+would be carried to Pemaquid, and that he could have it again by becoming
+a British subject. He refused the offer. [13]
+
+[13] Mémoire présenté au Roy d'Angleterre, 1687; Saint-Castin à
+Denonville, 7 Juillet, 1687; Hutchinson Collection, 562, 563; Andros
+Tracts, I. 118.
+
+The rival English post of Pemaquid was destroyed, as we have seen, by the
+Abenakis in 1689; and, in the following year, they and their French
+allies had made such havoc among the border settlements that nothing was
+left east of the Piscataqua except the villages of Wells, York, and
+Kittery. But a change had taken place in the temper of the savages,
+mainly due to the easy conquest of Port Royal by Phips, and to an
+expedition of the noted partisan Church by which they had suffered
+considerable losses. Fear of the English on one hand, and the attraction
+of their trade on the other, disposed many of them to peace. Six chiefs
+signed a truce with the commissioners of Massachusetts, and promised to
+meet them in council to bury the hatchet for ever.
+
+The French were filled with alarm. Peace between the Abenakis and the
+"Bostonnais" would be disastrous both to Acadia and to Canada, because
+these tribes held the passes through the northern wilderness, and, so
+long as they were in the interest of France, covered the settlements on
+the St. Lawrence from attack. Moreover, the government relied on them to
+fight its battles. Therefore, no pains were spared to break off their
+incipient treaty with the English, and spur them again to war. Villebon,
+a Canadian of good birth, one of the brothers of Portneuf, was sent by
+the king to govern Acadia. Presents for the Abenakis were given him in
+abundance; and he was ordered to assure them of support, so long as they
+fought for France. [14] He and his officers were told to join their
+war-parties; while the Canadians, who followed him to Acadia, were
+required to leave all other employments and wage incessant war against
+the English borders. "You yourself," says the minister, "will herein set
+them so good an example, that they will be animated by no other desire
+than that of making profit out of the enemy: there is nothing which I
+more strongly urge upon you than to put forth all your ability and
+prudence to prevent the Abenakis from occupying themselves in any thing
+but war, and by good management of the supplies which you have received
+for their use to enable them to live by it more to their advantage than
+by hunting." [15]
+
+[14] Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur de Villebon, 1691.
+
+[15] "Comme vostre principal objet doit estre de faire la guerre sans
+relâche aux Anglois, il faut que vostre plus particulière application
+soit de detourner de tout autre employ les François qui sont avec vous,
+en leur donnant de vostre part un si bon exemple en cela qu'ils ne soient
+animez que du désir de chercher à faire du proffit sur les ennemis. Je
+n'ay aussy rien à vous recommander plus fortement que de mettre en usage
+tout ce que vous pouvez avoir de capacité et de prudence afin que les
+Canibas (Abenakis) ne s'employent qu'à la guerre, et que par l'économie
+de ce que vous avez à leur fournir ils y puissent trouver leur
+subsistance et plus d'avantage qu'à la chasse." Le Ministre à Villebon,
+Avril, 1692. Two years before, the king had ordered that the Abenakis
+should be made to attack the English settlements.
+
+Armed with these instructions, Villebon repaired to his post, where he
+was joined by a body of Canadians under Portneuf. His first step was to
+reoccupy Port Royal; and, as there was nobody there to oppose him, he
+easily succeeded. The settlers renounced allegiance to Massachusetts and
+King William, and swore fidelity to their natural sovereign. [16] The
+capital of Acadia dropped back quietly into the lap of France; but, as
+the "Bostonnais" might recapture it at any time, Villebon crossed to the
+St. John, and built a fort high up the stream at Naxouat, opposite the
+present city of Fredericton. Here no "Bostonnais" could reach him, and he
+could muster war-parties at his leisure.
+
+[16] Procès-verbal de la Prise de Possession du Port Royal, 27 Sept.,
+1691.
+
+One thing was indispensable. A blow must be struck that would encourage
+and excite the Abenakis. Some of them had had no part in the truce, and
+were still so keen for English blood that a deputation of their chiefs
+told Frontenac at Quebec that they would fight, even if they must head
+their arrows with the bones of beasts. [17] They were under no such
+necessity. Guns, powder, and lead were given them in abundance; and
+Thury, the priest on the Penobscot, urged them to strike the English. A
+hundred and fifty of his converts took the war-path, and were joined by a
+band from the Kennebec. It was January; and they made their way on
+snow-shoes along the frozen streams, and through the deathly solitudes of
+the winter forest, till, after marching a month, they neared their
+destination, the frontier settlement of York. In the afternoon of the
+fourth of February, they encamped at the foot of a high hill, evidently
+Mount Agamenticus, from the top of which the English village lay in
+sight. It was a collection of scattered houses along the banks of the
+river Agamenticus and the shore of the adjacent sea. Five or more of them
+were built for defence, though owned and occupied by families like the
+other houses. Near the sea stood the unprotected house of the chief man
+of the place, Dummer, the minister. York appears to have contained from
+three to four hundred persons of all ages, for the most part rude and
+ignorant borderers.
+
+[17] Paroles des Sauvages de la Mission de Pentegoet.
+
+The warriors lay shivering all night in the forest, not daring to make
+fires. In the morning, a heavy fall of snow began. They moved forward,
+and soon heard the sound of an axe. It was an English boy chopping wood.
+They caught him, extorted such information as they needed, then
+tomahawked him, and moved on, till, hidden by the forest and the thick
+snow, they reached the outskirts of the village. Here they divided into
+two parties, and each took its station. A gun was fired as a signal, upon
+which they all yelled the war-whoop, and dashed upon their prey. One
+party mastered the nearest fortified house, which had scarcely a defender
+but women. The rest burst into the unprotected houses, killing or
+capturing the astonished inmates. The minister was at his door, in the
+act of mounting his horse to visit some distant parishioners, when a
+bullet struck him dead. He was a graduate of Harvard College, a man
+advanced in life, of some learning, and greatly respected. The French
+accounts say that about a hundred persons, including women and children,
+were killed, and about eighty captured. Those who could, ran for the
+fortified houses of Preble, Harmon, Alcock, and Norton, which were soon
+filled with the refugees. The Indians did not attack them, but kept well
+out of gun-shot, and busied themselves in pillaging, killing horses and
+cattle, and burning the unprotected houses. They then divided themselves
+into small bands, and destroyed all the outlying farms for four or five
+miles around.
+
+The wish of King Louis was fulfilled. A good profit had been made out of
+the enemy. The victors withdrew into the forest with their plunder and
+their prisoners, among whom were several old women and a number of
+children from three to seven years old. These, with a forbearance which
+does them credit, they permitted to return uninjured to the nearest
+fortified house, in requital, it is said, for the lives of a number of
+Indian children spared by the English in a recent attack on the
+Androscoggin. The wife of the minister was allowed to go with them; but
+her son remained a prisoner, and the agonized mother went back to the
+Indian camp to beg for his release. They again permitted her to return;
+but, when she came a second time, they told her that, as she wanted to be
+a prisoner, she should have her wish. She was carried with the rest to
+their village, where she soon died of exhaustion and distress. One of the
+warriors arrayed himself in the gown of the slain minister, and preached
+a mock sermon to the captive parishioners. [18]
+
+[18] The best French account of the capture of York is that of Champigny
+in a letter to the minister, 5 Oct., 1692. His information came from an
+Abenaki chief, who was present. The journal of Villebon contains an
+exaggerated account of the affair, also derived from Indians. Compare the
+English accounts in Mather, Williamson, and Niles. These writers make the
+number of slain and captives much less than that given by the French. In
+the contemporary journal of Rev. John Pike, it is placed at 48 killed and
+73 taken.
+
+Two fortified houses of this period are still (1875) standing at York.
+They are substantial buildings of squared timber, with the upper story
+projecting over the lower, so as to allow a vertical fire on the heads of
+assailants. In one of them some of the loopholes for musketry are still
+left open. They may or may not have been originally enclosed by
+palisades.
+
+Leaving York in ashes, the victors began their march homeward; while a
+body of men from Portsmouth followed on their trail, but soon lost it,
+and failed to overtake them. There was a season of feasting and
+scalp-dancing at the Abenaki towns; and then, as spring opened, a hundred
+of the warriors set out to visit Villebon, tell him of their triumph, and
+receive the promised gifts from their great father the king. Villebon and
+his brothers, Portneuf, Neuvillette, and Desîles, with their Canadian
+followers, had spent the winter chiefly on the St. John, finishing their
+fort at Naxouat, and preparing for future operations. The Abenaki
+visitors arrived towards the end of April, and were received with all
+possible distinction. There were speeches, gifts, and feasting; for they
+had done much, and were expected to do more. Portneuf sang a war-song in
+their language; then he opened a barrel of wine: the guests emptied it in
+less than fifteen minutes, sang, whooped, danced, and promised to repair
+to the rendezvous at Saint-Castin's station of Pentegoet. [19] A grand
+war-party was afoot; and a new and withering blow was to be struck
+against the English border. The guests set out for Pentegoet, followed by
+Portneuf, Desîles, La Brognerie, several other officers, and twenty
+Canadians. A few days after, a large band of Micmacs arrived; then came
+the Malicite warriors from their village of Medoctec; and at last Father
+Baudoin appeared, leading another band of Micmacs from his mission of
+Beaubassin. Speeches, feasts, and gifts were made to them all; and they
+all followed the rest to the appointed rendezvous.
+
+[19] Villebon, Journal de ce qui s'est passé à l'Acadie, 1691, 1692.
+
+At the beginning of June, the site of the town of Castine was covered
+with wigwams and the beach lined with canoes. Malecites and Micmacs,
+Abenakis from the Penobscot and Abenakis from the Kennebec, were here,
+some four hundred warriors in all. [20] Here, too, were Portneuf and his
+Canadians, the Baron de Saint-Castin and his Indian father-in-law,
+Madockawando, with Moxus, Egeremet, and other noted chiefs, the terror of
+the English borders. They crossed Penobscot Bay, and marched upon the
+frontier village of Wells.
+
+[20] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Sept., 1692.
+
+Wells, like York, was a small settlement of scattered houses along the
+sea-shore. The year before, Moxus had vainly attacked it with two hundred
+warriors. All the neighboring country had been laid waste by a murderous
+war of detail, the lonely farm-houses pillaged and burned, and the
+survivors driven back for refuge to the older settlements. [21] Wells had
+been crowded with these refugees; but famine and misery had driven most
+of them beyond the Piscataqua, and the place was now occupied by a
+remnant of its own destitute inhabitants, who, warned by the fate of
+York, had taken refuge in five fortified houses. The largest of these,
+belonging to Joseph Storer, was surrounded by a palisade, and occupied by
+fifteen armed men, under Captain Convers, an officer of militia. On the
+ninth of June, two sloops and a sail-boat ran up the neighboring creek,
+bringing supplies and fourteen more men. The succor came in the nick of
+time. The sloops had scarcely anchored, when a number of cattle were seen
+running frightened and wounded from the woods. It was plain that an enemy
+was lurking there. All the families of the place now gathered within the
+palisades of Storer's house, thus increasing his force to about thirty
+men; and a close watch was kept throughout the night.
+
+[21] The ravages committed by the Abenakis in the preceding year among
+the scattered farms of Maine and New Hampshire are said by Frontenac to
+have been "impossible to describe." Another French writer says that they
+burned more than 200 houses.
+
+In the morning, no room was left for doubt. One John Diamond, on his way
+from the house to the sloops, was seized by Indians and dragged off by
+the hair. Then the whole body of savages appeared swarming over the
+fields, so confident of success that they neglected their usual tactics
+of surprise. A French officer, who, as an old English account says, was
+"habited like a gentleman," made them an harangue: they answered with a
+burst of yells, and then attacked the house, firing, screeching, and
+calling on Convers and his men to surrender. Others gave their attention
+to the two sloops, which lay together in the narrow creek, stranded by
+the ebbing tide. They fired at them for a while from behind a pile of
+planks on the shore, and threw many fire-arrows without success, the men
+on board fighting with such cool and dexterous obstinacy that they held
+them all at bay, and lost but one of their own number. Next, the
+Canadians made a huge shield of planks, which they fastened vertically to
+the back of a cart. La Brognerie with twenty-six men, French and Indians,
+got behind it, and shoved the cart towards the stranded sloops. It was
+within fifty feet of them, when a wheel sunk in the mud, and the machine
+stuck fast. La Brognerie tried to lift the wheel, and was shot dead. The
+tide began to rise. A Canadian tried to escape, and was also shot. The
+rest then broke away together, some of them, as they ran, dropping under
+the bullets of the sailors.
+
+The whole force now gathered for a final attack on the garrison house.
+Their appearance was so frightful, and their clamor so appalling, that
+one of the English muttered something about surrender. Convers returned,
+"If you say that again, you are a dead man." Had the allies made a bold
+assault, he and his followers must have been overpowered; but this mode
+of attack was contrary to Indian maxims. They merely leaped, yelled,
+fired, and called on the English to yield. They were answered with
+derision. The women in the house took part in the defence, passed
+ammunition to the men, and sometimes fired themselves on the enemy. The
+Indians at length became discouraged, and offered Convers favorable
+terms. He answered, "I want nothing but men to fight with." An Abenaki
+who spoke English cried out: "If you are so bold, why do you stay in a
+garrison house like a squaw? Come out and fight like a man!" Convers
+retorted, "Do you think I am fool enough to come out with thirty men to
+fight five hundred?" Another Indian shouted, "Damn you, we'll cut you
+small as tobacco before morning." Convers returned a contemptuous
+defiance.
+
+After a while, they ceased firing, and dispersed about the neighborhood,
+butchering cattle and burning the church and a few empty houses. As the
+tide began to ebb, they sent a fire-raft in full blaze down the creek to
+destroy the sloops; but it stranded, and the attempt failed. They now
+wreaked their fury on the prisoner Diamond, whom they tortured to death,
+after which they all disappeared. A few resolute men had foiled one of
+the most formidable bands that ever took the war-path in Acadia. [22]
+
+[22] Villebon, Journal de ce qui s'est passé à l'Acadie, 1691, 1692;
+Mather, Magnalia, II. 613; Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., II. 67; Williamson,
+History of Maine, I. 631; Bourne, History of Wells, 213; Niles, Indian
+and French Wars, 229. Williamson, like Sylvanus Davis, calls Portneuf
+Burneffe or Burniffe. He, and other English writers, call La Brognerie
+Labocree. The French could not recover his body, on which, according to
+Niles and others, was found a pouch "stuffed full of relics, pardons, and
+indulgences." The prisoner Diamond told the captors that there were
+thirty men in the sloops. They believed him, and were cautious
+accordingly. There were, in fact, but fourteen. Most of the fighting was
+on the tenth. On the evening of that day, Convers received a
+reinforcement of six men. They were a scouting party, whom he had sent a
+few days before in the direction of Salmon River. Returning, they were
+attacked, when near the garrison house, by a party of Portneuf's Indians.
+The sergeant in command instantly shouted, "Captain Convers, send your
+men round the hill, and we shall catch these dogs." Thinking that Convers
+had made a sortie, the Indians ran off, and the scouts joined the
+garrison without loss.
+
+The warriors dispersed to their respective haunts; and, when a band of
+them reached the St. John, Villebon coolly declares that he gave them a
+prisoner to burn. They put him to death with all their ingenuity of
+torture. The act, on the part of the governor, was more atrocious, as it
+had no motive of reprisal, and as the burning of prisoners was not the
+common practice of these tribes. [23]
+
+[23] "Le 18me (Août) un sauvage anglois fut pris au bas de la rivière de
+St. Jean. Je le donnai à nos sauvages pour estre brulé, ce qu'ils firent
+le lendemain. On ne peut rien adjouter aux tourmens qu'ils luy firent
+souffrir." Villebon, Journal, 1691, 1692.
+
+The warlike ardor of the Abenakis cooled after the failure at Wells, and
+events that soon followed nearly extinguished it. Phips had just received
+his preposterous appointment to the government of Massachusetts. To the
+disgust of its inhabitants, the stubborn colony was no longer a republic.
+The new governor, unfit as he was for his office, understood the needs of
+the eastern frontier, where he had spent his youth; and he brought a
+royal order to rebuild the ruined fort at Pemaquid. The king gave the
+order, but neither men, money, nor munitions to execute it; and
+Massachusetts bore all the burden. Phips went to Pemaquid, laid out the
+work, and left a hundred men to finish it. A strong fort of stone was
+built, the abandoned cannon of Casco mounted on its walls, and sixty men
+placed in garrison.
+
+The keen military eye of Frontenac saw the danger involved in the
+re-establishment of Pemaquid. Lying far in advance of the other English
+stations, it barred the passage of war-parties along the coast, and was a
+standing menace to the Abenakis. It was resolved to capture it. Two ships
+of war, lately arrived at Quebec, the "Poli" and the "Envieux," were
+ordered to sail for Acadia with above four hundred men, take on board two
+or three hundred Indians at Pentegoet, reduce Pemaquid, and attack Wells,
+Portsmouth, and the Isles of Shoals; after which, they were to scour the
+Acadian seas of "Bostonnais" fishermen.
+
+At this time, a gentleman of Boston, John Nelson, captured by Villebon
+the year before, was a prisoner at Quebec. Nelson was nephew and heir of
+Sir Thomas Temple, in whose right he claimed the proprietorship of
+Acadia, under an old grant of Oliver Cromwell. He was familiar both with
+that country and with Canada, which he had visited several times before
+the war. As he was a man of birth and breeding, and a declared enemy of
+Phips, and as he had befriended French prisoners, and shown especial
+kindness to Meneval, the captive governor of Acadia, he was treated with
+distinction by Frontenac, who, though he knew him to be a determined
+enemy of the French, lodged him at the château, and entertained him at
+his own table. [24] Madockawando, the father-in-law of Saint-Castin, made
+a visit to Frontenac; and Nelson, who spoke both French and Indian,
+contrived to gain from him and from other sources a partial knowledge of
+the intended expedition. He was not in favor at Boston; for, though one
+of the foremost in the overthrow of Andros, his creed and his character
+savored more of the Cavalier than of the Puritan. This did not prevent
+him from risking his life for the colony. He wrote a letter to the
+authorities of Massachusetts, and then bribed two soldiers to desert and
+carry it to them. The deserters were hotly pursued, but reached their
+destination, and delivered their letter. The two ships sailed from
+Quebec; but when, after a long delay at Mount Desert, they took on board
+the Indian allies and sailed onward to Pemaquid, they found an armed ship
+from Boston anchored in the harbor. Why they did not attack it, is a
+mystery. The defences of Pemaquid were still unfinished, the French force
+was far superior to the English, and Iberville, who commanded it, was a
+leader of unquestionable enterprise and daring. Nevertheless, the French
+did nothing, and soon after bore away for France. Frontenac was
+indignant, and severely blamed Iberville, whose sister was on board his
+ship, and was possibly the occasion of his inaction. [25]
+
+[24] Champigny au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1693.
+
+[25] Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1693.
+
+Thus far successful, the authorities of Boston undertook an enterprise
+little to their credit. They employed the two deserters, joined with two
+Acadian prisoners, to kidnap Saint-Castin, whom, next to the priest
+Thury, they regarded as their most insidious enemy. The Acadians revealed
+the plot, and the two soldiers were shot at Mount Desert. Nelson was sent
+to France, imprisoned two years in a dungeon of the Château of Angoulême,
+and then placed in the Bastile. Ten years passed before he was allowed to
+return to his family at Boston. [26]
+
+[26] Lagny, Mémoire sur l'Acadie, 1692; Mémoire sur l'Enlèvement de
+Saint-Castin; Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1693; Relation de ce qui
+s'est passè de plus remarquable, 1690, 1691 (capture of Nelson);
+Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Sept., 1692; Champigny au Ministre, 15 Oct.,
+1692. Champigny here speaks of Nelson as the most audacious of the
+English, and the most determined on the destruction of the French.
+Nelson's letter to the authorities of Boston is printed in Hutchinson, I.
+338. It does not warn them of an attempt against Pemaquid, of the
+rebuilding of which he seems not to have heard, but only of a design
+against the seaboard towns. Compare N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 555. In the
+same collection is a Memorial on the Northern Colonies, by Nelson, a
+paper showing much good sense and penetration. After an imprisonment of
+four and a half years, he was allowed to go to England on parole; a
+friend in France giving security of 15,000 livres for his return, in case
+of his failure to procure from the king an order for the fulfilment of
+the terms of the capitulation of Port Royal. (Le Ministre à Bégon, 13
+Jan., 1694.) He did not succeed, and the king forbade him to return. It
+is characteristic of him that he preferred to disobey the royal order,
+and thus incur the high displeasure of his sovereign, rather than break
+his parole and involve his friend in loss. La Hontan calls him a "fort
+galant homme." There is a portrait of him at Boston, where his
+descendants are represented by the prominent families of Derby and
+Borland.
+
+The French failure at Pemaquid completed the discontent of the Abenakis;
+and despondency and terror seized them when, in the spring of 1693,
+Convers, the defender of Wells, ranged the frontier with a strong party
+of militia, and built another stone fort at the falls of the Saco. In
+July, they opened a conference at Pemaquid; and, in August, thirteen of
+their chiefs, representing, or pretending to represent, all the tribes
+from the Merrimac to the St. Croix, came again to the same place to
+conclude a final treaty of peace with the commissioners of Massachusetts.
+They renounced the French alliance, buried the hatchet, declared
+themselves British subjects, promised to give up all prisoners, and left
+five of their chief men as hostages. [27] The frontier breathed again.
+Security and hope returned to secluded dwellings buried in a treacherous
+forest, where life had been a nightmare of horror and fear; and the
+settler could go to his work without dreading to find at evening his
+cabin burned and his wife and children murdered. He was fatally deceived,
+for the danger was not past.
+
+[27] For the treaty in full, Mather, Magnalia, II. 625.
+
+It is true that some of the Abenakis were sincere in their pledges of
+peace. A party among them, headed by Madockawando, were dissatisfied with
+the French, anxious to recover their captive countrymen, and eager to
+reopen trade with the English. But there was an opposing party, led by
+the chief Taxous, who still breathed war; while between the two was an
+unstable mob of warriors, guided by the impulse of the hour. [28] The
+French spared no efforts to break off the peace. The two missionaries,
+Bigot on the Kennebec and Thury on the Penobscot, labored with unwearied
+energy to urge the savages to war. The governor, Villebon, flattered
+them, feasted them, adopted Taxous as his brother, and, to honor the
+occasion, gave him his own best coat. Twenty-five hundred pounds of
+gunpowder, six thousand pounds of lead, and a multitude of other
+presents, were given this year to the Indians of Acadia. [29] Two of
+their chiefs had been sent to Versailles. They now returned, in gay
+attire, their necks hung with medals, and their minds filled with
+admiration, wonder, and bewilderment.
+
+[28] The state of feeling among the Abenakis is shown in a letter of
+Thury to Frontenac, 11 Sept., 1694, and in the journal of Villebon for
+1693.
+
+[29] Estat de Munitions, etc., pour les Sauvages de l'Acadie, 1693.
+
+The special duty of commanding Indians had fallen to the lot of an
+officer named Villieu, who had been ordered by the court to raise a
+war-party and attack the English. He had lately been sent to replace
+Portneuf, who had been charged with debauchery and peculation. Villebon,
+angry at his brother's removal, was on ill terms with his successor; and,
+though he declares that he did his best to aid in raising the war-party,
+Villieu says, on the contrary, that he was worse than indifferent. The
+new lieutenant spent the winter at Naxouat, and on the first of May went
+up in a canoe to the Malicite village of Medoctec, assembled the chiefs,
+and invited them to war. They accepted the invitation with alacrity.
+Villieu next made his way through the wilderness to the Indian towns of
+the Penobscot. On the ninth, he reached the mouth of the Mattawamkeag,
+where he found the chief Taxous, paddled with him down the Penobscot,
+and, at midnight on the tenth, landed at a large Indian village, at or
+near the place now called Passadumkeag. Here he found a powerful ally in
+the Jesuit Vincent Bigot, who had come from the Kennebec, with three
+Abenakis, to urge their brethren of the Penobscot to break off the peace.
+The chief envoy denounced the treaty of Pemaquid as a snare; and Villieu
+exhorted the assembled warriors to follow him to the English border,
+where honor and profit awaited them. But first he invited them to go back
+with him to Naxouat to receive their presents of arms, ammunition, and
+every thing else that they needed.
+
+They set out with alacrity. Villieu went with them, and they all arrived
+within a week. They were feasted and gifted to their hearts' content; and
+then the indefatigable officer led them back by the same long and weary
+routes which he had passed and repassed before, rocky and shallow
+streams, chains of wilderness lakes, threads of water writhing through
+swamps where the canoes could scarcely glide among the water-weeds and
+alders. Villieu was the only white man. The governor, as he says, would
+give him but two soldiers, and these had run off. Early in June, the
+whole flotilla paddled down the Penobscot to Pentegeot. Here the Indians
+divided their presents, which they found somewhat less ample than they
+had imagined. In the midst of their discontent, Madockawando came from
+Pemaquid with news that the governor of Massachusetts was about to
+deliver up the Indian prisoners in his hands, as stipulated by the
+treaty. This completely changed the temper of the warriors. Madockawando
+declared loudly for peace, and Villieu saw all his hopes wrecked. He
+tried to persuade his disaffected allies that the English only meant to
+lure them to destruction, and the missionary Thury supported him with his
+utmost eloquence. The Indians would not be convinced; and their trust in
+English good faith was confirmed, when they heard that a minister had
+just come to Pemaquid to teach their children to read and write. The news
+grew worse and worse. Villieu was secretly informed that Phips had been
+off the coast in a frigate, invited Madockawando and other chiefs on
+board, and feasted them in his cabin, after which they had all thrown
+their hatchets into the sea, in token of everlasting peace. Villieu now
+despaired of his enterprise, and prepared to return to the St. John; when
+Thury, wise as the serpent, set himself to work on the jealousy of
+Taxous, took him aside, and persuaded him that his rival, Madockawando,
+had put a slight upon him in presuming to make peace without his consent.
+"The effect was marvellous," says Villieu. Taxous, exasperated, declared
+that he would have nothing to do with Madockawando's treaty. The fickle
+multitude caught the contagion, and asked for nothing but English scalps;
+but, before setting out, they must needs go back to Passadumkeag to
+finish their preparations.
+
+Villieu again went with them, and on the way his enterprise and he nearly
+perished together. His canoe overset in a rapid at some distance above
+the site of Bangor: he was swept down the current, his head was dashed
+against a rock, and his body bruised from head to foot. For five days he
+lay helpless with fever. He had no sooner recovered than he gave the
+Indians a war-feast, at which they all sang the war-song, except
+Madockawando and some thirty of his clansmen, whom the others made the
+butt of their taunts and ridicule. The chief began to waver. The officer
+and the missionary beset him with presents and persuasion, till at last
+he promised to join the rest.
+
+It was the end of June when Villieu and Thury, with one Frenchman and a
+hundred and five Indians, began their long canoe voyage to the English
+border. The savages were directed to give no quarter, and told that the
+prisoners already in their hands would insure the safety of their
+hostages in the hands of the English. [30] More warriors were to join
+them from Bigot's mission on the Kennebec. On the ninth of July, they
+neared Pemaquid; but it was no part of their plan to attack a garrisoned
+post. The main body passed on at a safe distance; while Villieu
+approached the fort, dressed and painted like an Indian, and accompanied
+by two or three genuine savages, carrying a packet of furs, as if on a
+peaceful errand of trade. Such visits from Indians had been common since
+the treaty; and, while his companions bartered their beaver skins with
+the unsuspecting soldiers, he strolled about the neighborhood and made a
+plan of the works. The party was soon after joined by Bigot's Indians,
+and the united force now amounted to two hundred and thirty. They held a
+council to determine where they should make their attack, but opinions
+differed. Some were for the places west of Boston, and others for those
+nearer at hand. Necessity decided them. Their provisions were gone, and
+Villieu says that he himself was dying of hunger. They therefore resolved
+to strike at the nearest settlement, that of Oyster River, now Durham,
+about twelve miles from Portsmouth. They cautiously moved forward, and
+sent scouts in advance, who reported that the inhabitants kept no watch.
+In fact, a messenger from Phips had assured them that the war was over,
+and that they could follow their usual vocations without fear.
+
+[30] Villebon, Mémoire, Juillet, 1694; Instruction du Sr. de Villebon au
+Sr. de Villieu.
+
+Villieu and his band waited till night, and then made their approach.
+There was a small village; a church; a mill; twelve fortified houses,
+occupied in most cases only by families; and many unprotected
+farm-houses, extending several miles along the stream. The Indians
+separated into bands, and, stationing themselves for a simultaneous
+attack at numerous points, lay patiently waiting till towards day. The
+moon was still bright when the first shot gave the signal, and the
+slaughter began. The two palisaded houses of Adams and Drew, without
+garrisons, were taken immediately, and the families butchered. Those of
+Edgerly, Beard, and Medar were abandoned, and most of the inmates
+escaped. The remaining seven were successfully defended, though several
+of them were occupied only by the families which owned them. One of
+these, belonging to Thomas Bickford, stood by the river near the lower
+end of the settlement. Roused by the firing, he placed his wife and
+children in a boat, sent them down the stream, and then went back alone
+to defend his dwelling. When the Indians appeared, he fired on them,
+sometimes from one loophole and sometimes from another, shouting the word
+of command to an imaginary garrison, and showing himself with a different
+hat, cap, or coat, at different parts of the building. The Indians were
+afraid to approach, and he saved both family and home. One Jones, the
+owner of another of these fortified houses, was wakened by the barking of
+his dogs, and went out, thinking that his hog-pen was visited by wolves.
+The flash of a gun in the twilight of the morning showed the true nature
+of the attack. The shot missed him narrowly; and, entering the house
+again, he stood on his defence, when the Indians, after firing for some
+time from behind a neighboring rock, withdrew and left him in peace.
+Woodman's garrison house, though occupied by a number of men, was
+attacked more seriously, the Indians keeping up a long and brisk fire
+from behind a ridge where they lay sheltered; but they hit nobody, and at
+length disappeared. [31]
+
+[31] Woodman's garrison house is still standing, having been carefully
+preserved by his descendants.
+
+Among the unprotected houses, the carnage was horrible. A hundred and
+four persons, chiefly women and children half naked from their beds, were
+tomahawked, shot, or killed by slower and more painful methods. Some
+escaped to the fortified houses, and others hid in the woods.
+Twenty-seven were kept alive as prisoners. Twenty or more houses were
+burned; but, what is remarkable, the church was spared. Father Thury
+entered it during the massacre, and wrote with chalk on the pulpit some
+sentences, of which the purport is not preserved, as they were no doubt
+in French or Latin.
+
+Thury said mass, and then the victors retreated in a body to the place
+where they had hidden their canoes. Here Taxous, dissatisfied with the
+scalps that he and his band had taken, resolved to have more; and with
+fifty of his own warriors, joined by others from the Kennebec, set out on
+a new enterprise. "They mean," writes Villieu in his diary, "to divide
+into bands of four or five, and knock people in the head by surprise,
+which cannot fail to produce a good effect." [32] They did in fact fall a
+few days after on the settlements near Groton, and killed some forty
+persons.
+
+[32] "Casser des testes à la surprise après s'estre divisés en plusieurs
+bandes de quatre au cinq, ce qui ne peut manquer de faire un bon effect."
+Villieu, Relation.
+
+Having heard from one of the prisoners a rumor of ships on the way from
+England to attack Quebec, Villieu thought it necessary to inform
+Frontenac at once. Attended by a few Indians, he travelled four days and
+nights, till he found Bigot at an Abenaki fort on the Kennebec. His
+Indians were completely exhausted. He took others in their place, pushed
+forward again, reached Quebec on the twenty-second of August, found that
+Frontenac had gone to Montreal, followed him thither, told his story, and
+presented him with thirteen English scalps. [33] He had displayed in the
+achievement of his detestable exploit an energy, perseverance, and
+hardihood rarely equalled; but all would have been vain but for the help
+of his clerical colleague Father Pierre Thury. [34]
+
+[33] "Dans cette assemblée M. de Villieu avec 4 sauvages qu'il avoit
+amenés de l'Accadie présenta à Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac 13
+chevelures angloises." Callières au Ministre, 19 Oct., 1694.
+
+[34] The principal authority for the above is the very curious Relation
+du Voyage fait par le Sieur de Villieu ... pour faire la Guerre aux
+Anglois au printemps de l'an 1694. It is the narrative of Villieu
+himself, written in the form of a journal, with great detail. He also
+gives a brief summary in a letter to the minister, 7 Sept. The best
+English account is that of Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire.
+Cotton Mather tells the story in his usual unsatisfactory and ridiculous
+manner. Pike, in his journal, says that ninety-four persons in all were
+killed or taken. Mather says, "ninety four or a hundred." The Provincial
+Record of New Hampshire estimates it at eighty. Charlevoix claims two
+hundred and thirty, and Villieu himself but a hundred and thirty-one.
+Champigny, Frontenac, and Callières, in their reports to the court, adopt
+Villieu's statements. Frontenac says that the success was due to the
+assurances of safety which Phips had given the settlers.
+
+In the Massachusetts archives is a letter to Phips, written just after
+the attack. The devastation extended six or seven miles. There are also a
+number of depositions from persons present, giving a horrible picture of
+the cruelties practised.
+
+The Indian tribes of Acadia.--The name Abenaki is generic, and of very
+loose application. As employed by the best French writers at the end of
+the seventeenth century, it may be taken to include the tribes from the
+Kennebec eastward to the St. John. These again may be sub-divided as
+follows. First, the Canibas (Kenibas), or tribes of the Kennebec and
+adjacent waters. These with kindred neighboring tribes on the Saco, the
+Androscoggin, and the Sheepscot, have been held by some writers to be the
+Abenakis proper, though some of them, such as the Sokokis or Pequawkets
+of the Saco, spoke a dialect distinct from the rest. Secondly, the tribes
+of the Penobscot, called Tarratines by early New England writers, who
+sometimes, however, give this name a more extended application. Thirdly,
+the Malicites (Marechites) of the St. Croix and the St. John. These, with
+the Penobscots or Tarratines, are the Etchemins of early French waiters.
+All these tribes speak dialects of Algonquin, so nearly related that they
+understand each other with little difficulty. That eminent Indian
+philologist, Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull, writes to me: "The Malicite, the
+Penobscot, and the Kennebec, or Caniba, are dialects of the same
+language, which may as well be called Abenaki. The first named differs
+more considerably from the other two than do these from each other. In
+fact the Caniba and the Penobscot are merely provincial dialects, with no
+greater difference than is found in two English counties." The case is
+widely different with the Micmacs, the Souriquois of the French, who
+occupy portions of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and who speak a
+language which, though of Algonquin origin, differs as much from the
+Abenaki dialects as Italian differs from French, and was once described
+to me by a Malicite (Passamaquoddy) Indian as an unintelligible jargon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+1690-1697.
+
+New France and New England.
+
+The Frontier of New England • Border Warfare • Motives of the French •
+Needless Barbarity • Who were answerable? • Father Thury • The Abenakis
+waver • Treachery at Pemaquid • Capture of Pemaquid • Projected Attack on
+Boston • Disappointment • Miseries of the Frontier • A Captive Amazon.
+
+"This stroke," says Villebon, speaking of the success at Oyster River,
+"is of great advantage, because it breaks off all the talk of peace
+between our Indians and the English. The English are in despair, for not
+even infants in the cradle were spared." [1]
+
+[1] "Ce coup est très-avantageux, parcequ'il rompte tous les pour-parlers
+de paix entre nos sauvages et les Anglois. Les Anglois sont au désespoir
+de ce qu'ils ont tué jusqu'aux enfants au berceau." Villebon au Ministre,
+19 Sept., 1694.
+
+I have given the story in detail, as showing the origin and character of
+the destructive raids, of which New England annalists show only the
+results. The borders of New England were peculiarly vulnerable. In
+Canada, the settlers built their houses in lines, within supporting
+distance of each other, along the margin of a river which supplied easy
+transportation for troops; and, in time of danger, they all took refuge
+in forts under command of the local seigniors, or of officers with
+detachments of soldiers. The exposed part of the French colony extended
+along the St. Lawrence about ninety miles. The exposed frontier of New
+England was between two and three hundred miles long, and consisted of
+farms and hamlets, loosely scattered through an almost impervious forest.
+Mutual support was difficult or impossible. A body of Indians and
+Canadians, approaching secretly and swiftly, dividing into small bands,
+and falling at once upon the isolated houses of an extensive district,
+could commit prodigious havoc in a short time, and with little danger.
+Even in so-called villages, the houses were far apart, because, except on
+the sea-shore, the people lived by farming. Such as were able to do so
+fenced their dwellings with palisades, or built them of solid timber,
+with loopholes, a projecting upper story like a blockhouse, and sometimes
+a flanker at one or more of the corners. In the more considerable
+settlements, the largest of these fortified houses was occupied, in time
+of danger, by armed men, and served as a place of refuge for the
+neighbors. The palisaded house defended by Convers at Wells was of this
+sort, and so also was the Woodman house at Oyster River. These were
+"garrison houses," properly so called, though the name was often given to
+fortified dwellings occupied only by the family. The French and Indian
+war-parties commonly avoided the true garrison houses, and very rarely
+captured them, except unawares; for their tactics were essentially
+Iroquois, and consisted, for the most part, in pouncing upon peaceful
+settlers by surprise, and generally in the night. Combatants and 
+non-combatants were slaughtered together. By parading the number of
+slain, without mentioning that most of them were women and children, and
+by counting as forts mere private houses surrounded with palisades,
+Charlevoix and later writers have given the air of gallant exploits to
+acts which deserve a very different name. To attack military posts, like
+Casco and Pemaquid, was a legitimate act of war; but systematically to
+butcher helpless farmers and their families can hardly pass as such,
+except from the Iroquois point of view.
+
+The chief alleged motive for this ruthless warfare was to prevent the
+people of New England from invading Canada, by giving them employment at
+home; though, in fact, they had never thought of invading Canada till
+after these attacks began. But for the intrigues of Denonville, the
+Bigots, Thury, and Saint-Castin, before war was declared, and the
+destruction of Salmon Falls after it, Phips's expedition would never have
+taken place. By successful raids against the borders of New England,
+Frontenac roused the Canadians from their dejection, and prevented his
+red allies from deserting him; but, in so doing, he brought upon himself
+an enemy who, as Charlevoix himself says, asked only to be let alone. If
+here was a political necessity for butchering women and children on the
+frontier of New England, it was a necessity created by the French
+themselves.
+
+There was no such necessity. Massachusetts was the only one of the New
+England colonies which took an aggressive part in the contest.
+Connecticut did little or nothing. Rhode Island was non-combatant through
+Quaker influence; and New Hampshire was too weak for offensive war.
+Massachusetts was in no condition to fight, nor was she impelled to do so
+by the home government. Canada was organized for war, and must fight at
+the bidding of the king, who made the war and paid for it. Massachusetts
+was organized for peace; and, if she chose an aggressive part, it was at
+her own risk and her own cost. She had had fighting enough already
+against infuriated savages far more numerous than the Iroquois, and
+poverty and political revolution made peace a necessity to her. If there
+was danger of another attack on Quebec, it was not from New England, but
+from Old; and no amount of frontier butchery could avert it.
+
+Nor, except their inveterate habit of poaching on Acadian fisheries, had
+the people of New England provoked these barbarous attacks. They never
+even attempted to retaliate them, though the settlements of Acadia
+offered a safe and easy revenge. Once, it is true, they pillaged
+Beaubassin; but they killed nobody, though countless butcheries in
+settlements yet more defenceless were fresh in their memory. [2]
+
+[2] The people of Beaubassin had taken an oath of allegiance to England
+in 1690, and pleaded it as a reason for exemption from plunder; but it
+appears by French authorities that they had violated it (Observations sur
+les Depêches touchant l'Acadie, 1695), and their priest Baudoin had led a
+band of Micmacs to the attack of Wells (Villebon, Journal). When the
+"Bostonnais" captured Port Royal, they are described by the French as
+excessively irritated by the recent slaughter at Salmon Falls, yet the
+only revenge they took was plundering some of the inhabitants.
+
+With New York, a colony separate in government and widely sundered in
+local position, the case was different. Its rulers had instigated the
+Iroquois to attack Canada, possibly before the declaration of war, and
+certainly after it; and they had no right to complain of reprisal. Yet
+the frontier of New York was less frequently assailed, because it was
+less exposed; while that of New England was drenched in blood, because it
+was open to attack, because the Abenakis were convenient instruments for
+attacking it, because the adhesion of these tribes was necessary to the
+maintenance of French power in Acadia, and because this adhesion could
+best be secured by inciting them to constant hostility against the
+English. They were not only needed as the barrier of Canada against New
+England, but the French commanders hoped, by means of their tomahawks, to
+drive the English beyond the Piscataqua, and secure the whole of Maine to
+the French crown.
+
+Who were answerable for these offences against Christianity and
+civilization? First, the king; and, next, the governors and military
+officers who were charged with executing his orders, and who often
+executed them with needless barbarity. But a far different responsibility
+rests on the missionary priests, who hounded their converts on the track
+of innocent blood. The Acadian priests are not all open to this charge.
+Some of them are even accused of being too favorable to the English;
+while others gave themselves to their proper work, and neither abused
+their influence, nor perverted their teaching to political ends. The most
+prominent among the apostles of carnage, at this time, are the Jesuit
+Bigot on the Kennebec, and the seminary priest Thury on the Penobscot.
+There is little doubt that the latter instigated attacks on the English
+frontier before the war, and there is conclusive evidence that he had a
+hand in repeated forays after it began. Whether acting from fanaticism,
+policy, or an odious compound of both, he was found so useful, that the
+minister Ponchartrain twice wrote him letters of commendation, praising
+him in the same breath for his care of the souls of the Indians and his
+zeal in exciting them to war. "There is no better man," says an Acadian
+official, "to prompt the savages to any enterprise." [3] The king was
+begged to reward him with money; and Ponchartrain wrote to the bishop of
+Quebec to increase his pay out of the allowance furnished by the
+government to the Acadian clergy, because he, Thury, had persuaded the
+Abenakis to begin the war anew. [4]
+
+[3] Tibièrge, Mémoire sur l'Acadie, 1695.
+
+[4] "Les témoignages qu'on a rendu à Sa Majesté de l'affection et du zêle
+du Sr. de Thury, missionaire chez les Canibas (Abenakis), pour son
+service, et particulièrement dans l'engagement où il a mis les Sauvages
+de recommencer la guerre contre les Anglois, m'oblige de vous prier de
+luy faire une plus forte part sur les 1,500 livres de gratification que
+Sa Majesté accorde pour les ecclésiastiques de l'Acadie." Le Ministre à
+l'Évesque de Québec, 16 Avril, 1695.
+
+"Je suis bien aise de me servir de cette occasion pour vous dire que j'ay
+esté informé, non seulement de vostre zêle et de vostre application pour
+vostre mission, et du progrès qu'elle fait pour l'avancement de la
+religion avec les sauvages, mais encore de vos soins pour les maintenir
+dans le service de Sa Majesté et pour les encourager aux expeditions de
+guerre." Le Ministre à Thury, 23 Avril, 1697. The other letter to Thury,
+written two years before, is of the same tenor.
+
+The French missionaries are said to have made use of singular methods to
+excite their flocks against the heretics. The Abenaki chief Bomaseen,
+when a prisoner at Boston in 1696, declared that they told the Indians
+that Jesus Christ was a Frenchman, and his mother, the Virgin, a French
+lady; that the English had murdered him, and that the best way to gain
+his favor was to revenge his death. [5]
+
+[5] Mather, Magnalia, II. 629. Compare Dummer, Memorial, 1709, in Mass.
+Hist. Coll., 3 Ser., I., and the same writer's Letter to a Noble Lord
+concerning the Late Expedition to Canada, 1712. Dr. Charles T. Jackson,
+the geologist, when engaged in the survey of Maine in 1836, mentions, as
+an example of the simplicity of the Acadians of Madawaska, that one of
+them asked him "if Bethlehem, where Christ was born, was not a town in
+France." First Report on the Geology of Maine, 72. Here, perhaps, is a
+tradition from early missionary teaching.
+
+Whether or not these articles of faith formed a part of the teachings of
+Thury and his fellow-apostles, there is no doubt that it was a recognized
+part of their functions to keep their converts in hostility to the
+English, and that their credit with the civil powers depended on their
+success in doing so. The same holds true of the priests of the mission
+villages in Canada. They avoided all that might impair the warlike spirit
+of the neophyte, and they were well aware that in savages the warlike
+spirit is mainly dependent on native ferocity. They taught temperance,
+conjugal fidelity, devotion to the rites of their religion, and
+submission to the priest; but they left the savage a savage still. In
+spite of the remonstrances of the civil authorities, the mission Indian
+was separated as far as possible from intercourse with the French, and
+discouraged from learning the French tongue. He wore a crucifix, hung
+wampum on the shrine of the Virgin, told his beads, prayed three times a
+day, knelt for hours before the Host, invoked the saints, and confessed
+to the priest; but, with rare exceptions, he murdered, scalped, and
+tortured like his heathen countrymen. [6]
+
+[6] The famous Ouréhaoué, who had been for years under the influence of
+the priests, and who, as Charlevoix says, died "un vrai Chrétien," being
+told on his death-bed how Christ was crucified by the Jews, exclaimed
+with fervor: "Ah! why was not I there? I would have revenged him: I would
+have had their scalps." La Potherie, IV. 91. Charlevoix, after his
+fashion on such occasions, suppresses the revenge and the scalping, and
+instead makes the dying Christian say, "I would have prevented them from
+so treating my God."
+
+The savage custom of forcing prisoners to run the gauntlet, and sometimes
+beating them to death as they did so, was continued at two, if not all,
+of the mission villages down to the end of the French domination. General
+Stark of the Revolution, when a young man, was subjected to this kind of
+torture at St. Francis, but saved himself by snatching a club from one of
+the savages, and knocking the rest to the right and left as he ran. The
+practice was common, and must have had the consent of the priests of the
+mission.
+
+At the Sulpitian mission of the Mountain of Montreal, unlike the rest,
+the converts were taught to speak French and practise mechanical arts.
+The absence of such teaching in other missions was the subject of
+frequent complaint, not only from Frontenac, but from other officers. La
+Motte-Cadillac writes bitterly on the subject, and contrasts the conduct
+of the French priests with that of the English ministers, who have taught
+many Indians to read and write, and reward them for teaching others in
+turn, which they do, he says, with great success. Mémoire contenant une
+Description détaillée de l'Acadie, etc., 1693. In fact, Eliot and his
+co-workers took great pains in this respect. There were at this time
+thirty Indian churches in New England, according to the Diary of
+President Stiles, cited by Holmes.
+
+The picture has another side, which must not pass unnoticed. Early in the
+war, the French of Canada began the merciful practice of buying English
+prisoners, and especially children, from their Indian allies. After the
+first fury of attack, many lives were spared for the sake of this ransom.
+Sometimes, but not always, the redeemed captives were made to work for
+their benefactors. They were uniformly treated well, and often with such
+kindness that they would not be exchanged, and became Canadians by
+adoption.
+
+Villebon was still full of anxiety as to the adhesion of the Abenakis.
+Thury saw the danger still more clearly, and told Frontenac that their
+late attack at Oyster River was due more to levity than to any other
+cause; that they were greatly alarmed, wavering, half stupefied, afraid
+of the English, and distrustful of the French, whom they accused of using
+them as tools. [7] It was clear that something must be done; and nothing
+could answer the purpose so well as the capture of Pemaquid, that English
+stronghold which held them in constant menace, and at the same time
+tempted them by offers of goods at a low rate. To the capture of
+Pemaquid, therefore, the French government turned its thoughts.
+
+[7] Thury à Frontenac, 11 Sept., 1694.
+
+One Pascho Chubb, of Andover, commanded the post, with a garrison of
+ninety-five militia-men. Stoughton, governor of Massachusetts, had
+written to the Abenakis, upbraiding them for breaking the peace, and
+ordering them to bring in their prisoners without delay. The Indians of
+Bigot's mission, that is to say, Bigot in their name, retorted by a
+letter to the last degree haughty and abusive. Those of Thury's mission,
+however, were so anxious to recover their friends held in prison at
+Boston that they came to Pemaquid, and opened a conference with Chubb.
+The French say that they meant only to deceive him. [8] This does not
+justify the Massachusetts officer, who, by an act of odious treachery,
+killed several of them, and captured the chief, Egeremet. Nor was this
+the only occasion on which the English had acted in bad faith. It was but
+playing into the hands of the French, who saw with delight that the folly
+of their enemies had aided their own intrigues. [9]
+
+[8] Villebon, Journal, 1694-1696.
+
+[9] N. Y. Col Docs., IX. 613, 616, 642, 643; La Potherie, III. 258;
+Calières au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1695; Rev. John Pike to Governor and
+Council, 7 Jan., 1694 (1695), in Johnston, Hist. of Bristol and Bremen;
+Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., II. 81, 90.
+
+Early in 1696, two ships of war, the "Envieux" and the "Profond," one
+commanded by Iberville and the other by Bonaventure, sailed from
+Rochefort to Quebec, where they took on board eighty troops and
+Canadians; then proceeded to Cape Breton, embarked thirty Micmac Indians,
+and steered for the St. John. Here they met two British frigates and a
+provincial tender belonging to Massachusetts. A fight ensued. The forces
+were very unequal. The "Newport," of twenty-four guns, was dismasted and
+taken; but her companion frigate along with the tender escaped in the
+fog. The French then anchored at the mouth of the St. John, where
+Villebon and the priest Simon were waiting for them, with fifty more
+Micmacs. Simon and the Indians went on board; and they all sailed for
+Pentegoet, where Villieu, with twenty-five soldiers, and Thury and
+Saint-Castin, with some three hundred Abenakis, were ready to join them.
+After the usual feasting, these new allies paddled for Pemaquid; the
+ships followed; and on the next day, the fourteenth of August, they all
+reached their destination.
+
+The fort of Pemaquid stood at the west side of the promontory of the same
+name, on a rocky point at the mouth of Pemaquid River. It was a
+quadrangle, with ramparts of rough stone, built at great pains and cost,
+but exposed to artillery, and incapable of resisting heavy shot. The
+government of Massachusetts, with its usual military fatuity, had placed
+it in the keeping of an unfit commander, and permitted some of the yeoman
+garrison to bring their wives and children to this dangerous and
+important post.
+
+Saint-Castin and his Indians landed at New Harbor, half a league from the
+fort. Troops and cannon were sent ashore; and, at five o'clock in the
+afternoon, Chubb was summoned to surrender. He replied that he would
+fight, "even if the sea were covered with French ships and the land with
+Indians." The firing then began; and the Indian marksmen, favored by the
+nature of the ground, ensconced themselves near the fort, well covered
+from its cannon. During the night, mortars and heavy ships' guns were
+landed, and by great exertion were got into position, the two priests
+working lustily with the rest. They opened fire at three o'clock on the
+next day. Saint-Castin had just before sent Chubb a letter, telling him
+that, if the garrison were obstinate, they would get no quarter, and
+would be butchered by the Indians. Close upon this message followed four
+or five bomb-shells. Chubb succumbed immediately, sounded a parley, and
+gave up the fort, on condition that he and his men should be protected
+from the Indians, sent to Boston, and exchanged for French and Abenaki
+prisoners. They all marched out without arms; and Iberville, true to his
+pledge, sent them to an island in the bay, beyond the reach of his red
+allies. Villieu took possession of the fort, where an Indian prisoner was
+found in irons, half dead from long confinement. This so enraged his
+countrymen that a massacre would infallibly have taken place but for the
+precaution of Iberville.
+
+The cannon of Pemaquid were carried on board the ships, and the small
+arms and ammunition given to the Indians. Two days were spent in
+destroying the works, and then the victors withdrew in triumph.
+Disgraceful as was the prompt surrender of the fort, it may be doubted
+if, even with the best defence, it could have held out many days; for it
+had no casemates, and its occupants were defenceless against the
+explosion of shells. Chubb was arrested for cowardice on his return, and
+remained some months in prison. After his release, he returned to his
+family at Andover, twenty miles from Boston; and here, in the year
+following, he and his wife were killed by Indians, who seem to have
+pursued him to this apparently safe asylum to take revenge for his
+treachery toward their countrymen. [10]
+
+[10] Baudoin, Journal d'un Voyage fait avec M. d'Iberville. Baudoin was
+an Acadian priest, who accompanied the expedition, which he describes in
+detail. Relation de ce qui s'est passé, etc., 1695, 1696; Des Goutins au
+Ministre, 23 Sept., 1696; Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., II. 89; Mather,
+Magnalia, II. 633. A letter from Chubb, asking to be released from
+prison, is preserved in the archives of Massachusetts. I have examined
+the site of the fort, the remains of which are still distinct.
+
+The people of Massachusetts, compelled by a royal order to build and
+maintain Pemaquid, had no love for it, and underrated its importance.
+Having been accustomed to spend their money as they themselves saw fit,
+they revolted at compulsion, though exercised for their good. Pemaquid
+was nevertheless of the utmost value for the preservation of their hold
+on Maine, and its conquest was a crowning triumph to the French.
+
+The conquerors now projected a greater exploit. The Marquis de Nesmond,
+with a powerful squadron of fifteen ships, including some of the best in
+the royal navy, sailed for Newfoundland, with orders to defeat an English
+squadron supposed to be there, and then to proceed to the mouth of the
+Penobscot, where he was to be joined by the Abenaki warriors and fifteen
+hundred troops from Canada. The whole united force was then to fall upon
+Boston. The French had an exact knowledge of the place. Meneval, when a
+prisoner there, lodged in the house of John Nelson, had carefully
+examined it; and so also had the Chevalier d'Aux; while La Motte-Cadillac
+had reconnoitred the town and harbor before the war began. An accurate
+map of them was made for the use of the expedition, and the plan of
+operations was arranged with great care. Twelve hundred troops and
+Canadians were to land with artillery at Dorchester, and march at once to
+force the barricade across the neck of the peninsula on which the town
+stood. At the same time, Saint-Castin was to land at Noddle's Island,
+with a troop of Canadians and all the Indians; pass over in canoes to
+Charlestown; and, after mastering it, cross to the north point of Boston,
+which would thus be attacked at both ends. During these movements, two
+hundred soldiers were to seize the battery on Castle Island, and then
+land in front of the town near Long Wharf, under the guns of the fleet.
+
+Boston had about seven thousand inhabitants, but, owing to the seafaring
+habits of the people, many of its best men were generally absent; and, in
+the belief of the French, its available force did not much exceed eight
+hundred. "There are no soldiers in the place," say the directions for
+attack, "at least there were none last September, except the garrison
+from Pemaquid, who do not deserve the name." An easy victory was
+expected. After Boston was taken, the land forces, French and Indian,
+were to march on Salem, and thence northward to Portsmouth, conquering as
+they went; while the ships followed along the coast to lend aid, when
+necessary. All captured places were to be completely destroyed after
+removing all valuable property. A portion of this plunder was to be
+abandoned to the officers and men, in order to encourage them, and the
+rest stowed in the ships for transportation to France. [11]
+
+[11] Mémoire sur l'Entreprise de Boston, pour M. le Marquis de Nesmond,
+Versailles, 21 Avril, 1697; Instruction à M. le Marquis de Nesmond, même
+date; Le Roy à Frontenac, même date; Le Roy à Frontenac et Champigny 27
+Avril, 1697; Le Ministre à Nesmond, 28 Avril, 1697; Ibid., 15 Juin, 1697;
+Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Oct., 1697; Carte de Baston, par le Sr.
+Franquelin, 1697. This is the map made for the use of the expedition. A
+fac-simile of it is before me. The conquest of New York had originally
+formed part of the plan. Lagny au Ministre, 20 Jan., 1695. Even as it
+was, too much was attempted, and the scheme was fatally complicated by
+the operations at Newfoundland. Four years before, a projected attack on
+Quebec by a British fleet, under Admiral Wheeler, had come to nought from
+analogous causes.
+
+The French spared no pains to gain accurate information as to the
+strength of the English settlements. Among other reports on this subject
+there is a curious Mémoire sur les Établissements anglois au delà de
+Pemaquid, jusqu'a Baston. It was made just after the capture of Pemaquid,
+with a view to farther operations. Saco is described as a small fort a
+league above the mouth of the river Saco, with four cannon, but fit only
+to resist Indians. At Wells, it says, all the settlers have sought refuge
+in four petits forts, of which the largest holds perhaps 20 men, besides
+women and children. At York, all the people have gathered into one fort,
+where there are about 40 men. At Portsmouth there is a fort, of slight
+account, and about a hundred houses. This neighborhood, no doubt
+including Kittery, can furnish at most about 300 men. At the Isles of
+Shoals there are some 280 fishermen, who are absent, except on Sundays.
+In the same manner, estimates are made for every village and district as
+far as Boston.
+
+Notice of the proposed expedition had reached Frontenac in the spring;
+and he began at once to collect men, canoes, and supplies for the long
+and arduous march to the rendezvous. He saw clearly the uncertainties of
+the attempt; but, in spite of his seventy-seven years, he resolved to
+command the land force in person. He was ready in June, and waited only
+to hear from Nesmond. The summer passed; and it was not till September
+that a ship reached Quebec with a letter from the marquis, telling him
+that head winds had detained the fleet till only fifty days' provision
+remained, and it was too late for action. The enterprise had completely
+failed, and even at Newfoundland nothing was accomplished. It proved a
+positive advantage to New England, since a host of Indians, who would
+otherwise have been turned loose upon the borders, were gathered by
+Saint-Castin at the Penobscot to wait for the fleet, and kept there idle
+all summer.
+
+It is needless to dwell farther on the war in Acadia. There were petty
+combats by land and sea; Villieu was captured and carried to Boston; a
+band of New England rustics made a futile attempt to dislodge Villebon
+from his fort at Naxouat; while, throughout the contest, rivalry and
+jealousy rankled among the French officials, who continually maligned
+each other in tell-tale letters to the court. Their hope that the
+Abenakis would force back the English boundary to the Piscataqua was
+never fulfilled. At Kittery, at Wells, and even among the ashes of York,
+the stubborn settlers held their ground, while war-parties prowled along
+the whole frontier, from the Kennebec to the Connecticut. A single
+incident will show the nature of the situation, and the qualities which
+it sometimes called forth.
+
+Early in the spring that followed the capture of Pemaquid, a band of
+Indians fell, after daybreak, on a number of farm-houses near the village
+of Haverhill. One of them belonged to a settler named Dustan, whose wife
+Hannah had borne a child a week before, and lay in the house, nursed by
+Mary Neff, one of her neighbors. Dustan had gone to his work in a
+neighboring field, taking with him his seven children, of whom the
+youngest was two years old. Hearing the noise of the attack, he told them
+to run to the nearest fortified house, a mile or more distant, and,
+snatching up his gun, threw himself on one of his horses and galloped
+towards his own house to save his wife. It was too late: the Indians were
+already there. He now thought only of saving his children; and, keeping
+behind them as they ran, he fired on the pursuing savages, and held them
+at bay till he and his flock reached a place of safety. Meanwhile, the
+house was set on fire, and his wife and the nurse carried off. Her
+husband, no doubt, had given her up as lost, when, weeks after, she
+reappeared, accompanied by Mary Neff and a boy, and bringing ten Indian
+scalps. Her story was to the following effect.
+
+The Indians had killed the new-born child by dashing it against a tree,
+after which the mother and the nurse were dragged into the forest, where
+they found a number of friends and neighbors, their fellows in misery.
+Some of these were presently tomahawked, and the rest divided among their
+captors. Hannah Dustan and the nurse fell to the share of a family
+consisting of two warriors, three squaws, and seven children, who
+separated from the rest, and, hunting as they went, moved northward
+towards an Abenaki village, two hundred and fifty miles distant, probably
+that of the mission on the Chaudière. Every morning, noon, and evening,
+they told their beads, and repeated their prayers. An English boy,
+captured at Worcester, was also of the party. After a while, the Indians
+began to amuse themselves by telling the women that, when they reached
+the village, they would be stripped, made to run the gauntlet, and
+severely beaten, according to custom.
+
+Hannah Dustan now resolved on a desperate effort to escape, and Mary Neff
+and the boy agreed to join in it. They were in the depths of the forest,
+half way on their journey, and the Indians, who had no distrust of them,
+were all asleep about their camp fire, when, late in the night, the two
+women and the boy took each a hatchet, and crouched silently by the bare
+heads of the unconscious savages. Then they all struck at once, with
+blows so rapid and true that ten of the twelve were killed before they
+were well awake. One old squaw sprang up wounded, and ran screeching into
+the forest, followed by a small boy whom they had purposely left
+unharmed. Hannah Dustan and her companions watched by the corpses till
+daylight; then the Amazon scalped them all, and the three made their way
+back to the settlements, with the trophies of their exploit. [12]
+
+[12] This story is told by Mather, who had it from the women themselves,
+and by Niles, Hutchinson, and others. An entry in the contemporary
+journal of Rev. John Pike fully confirms it. The facts were notorious at
+the time. Hannah Dustan and her companions received a bounty of £50 for
+their ten scalps; and the governor of Maryland, hearing of what they had
+done, sent them a present.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+1693-1697.
+
+French and English Rivalry.
+
+Le Moyne d'Iberville • His Exploits in Newfoundland • In Hudson's Bay •
+The Great Prize • The Competitors • Fatal Policy of the King • The
+Iroquois Question • Negotiation • Firmness of Frontenac • English
+Intervention • War renewed • State of the West • Indian Diplomacy • Cruel
+Measures • A Perilous Crisis • Audacity of Frontenac.
+
+No Canadian, under the French rule, stands in a more conspicuous or more
+deserved eminence than Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In the seventeenth
+century, most of those who acted a prominent part in the colony were born
+in Old France; but Iberville was a true son of the soil. He and his
+brothers, Longueuil, Serigny, Assigny, Maricourt, Sainte-Hélène, the two
+Châteauguays, and the two Bienvilles, were, one and all, children worthy
+of their father, Charles Le Moyne of Montreal, and favorable types of
+that Canadian noblesse, to whose adventurous hardihood half the continent
+bears witness. Iberville was trained in the French navy, and was already
+among its most able commanders. The capture of Pemaquid was, for him, but
+the beginning of greater things; and, though the exploits that followed
+were outside the main theatre of action, they were too remarkable to be
+passed in silence.
+
+The French had but one post of any consequence on the Island of
+Newfoundland, the fort and village at Placentia Bay; while the English
+fishermen had formed a line of settlements two or three hundred miles
+along the eastern coast. Iberville had represented to the court the
+necessity of checking their growth, and to that end a plan was settled,
+in connection with the expedition against Pemaquid. The ships of the king
+were to transport the men; while Iberville and others associated with him
+were to pay them, and divide the plunder as their compensation. The
+chronicles of the time show various similar bargains between the great
+king and his subjects.
+
+Pemaquid was no sooner destroyed, than Iberville sailed for Newfoundland,
+with the eighty men he had taken at Quebec; and, on arriving, he was
+joined by as many more, sent him from the same place. He found Brouillan,
+governor of Placentia, with a squadron formed largely of privateers from
+St. Malo, engaged in a vain attempt to seize St. John, the chief post of
+the English. Brouillan was a man of harsh, jealous, and impracticable
+temper; and it was with the utmost difficulty that he and Iberville could
+act in concert. They came at last to an agreement, made a combined attack
+on St. John, took it, and burned it to the ground. Then followed a new
+dispute about the division of the spoils. At length it was settled.
+Brouillan went back to Placentia, and Iberville and his men were left to
+pursue their conquests alone.
+
+There were no British soldiers on the island. The settlers were rude
+fishermen without commanders, and, according to the French accounts,
+without religion or morals. In fact, they are described as "worse than
+Indians." Iberville now had with him a hundred and twenty-five soldiers
+and Canadians, besides a few Abenakis from Acadia. ¹ It was mid-winter
+when he began his march. For two months he led his hardy band through
+frost and snow, from hamlet to hamlet, along those forlorn and desolate
+coasts, attacking each in turn and carrying havoc everywhere. Nothing
+could exceed the hardships of the way, or the vigor with which they were
+met and conquered. The chaplain Baudoin gives an example of them in his
+diary. "January 18th. The roads are so bad that we can find only twelve
+men strong enough to beat the path. Our snow-shoes break on the crust,
+and against the rocks and fallen trees hidden under the snow, which catch
+and trip us; but, for all that, we cannot help laughing to see now one,
+and now another, fall headlong. The Sieur de Martigny fell into a river,
+and left his gun and his sword there to save his life."
+
+[1] The reinforcement sent him from Quebec consisted of fifty soldiers,
+thirty Canadians, and three officers. Frontenac au Ministre, 28 Oct.,
+1696.
+
+A panic seized the settlers, many of whom were without arms as well as
+without leaders. They imagined the Canadians to be savages, who scalped
+and butchered like the Iroquois. Their resistance was feeble and
+incoherent, and Iberville carried all before him. Every hamlet was
+pillaged and burned; and, according to the incredible report of the
+French writers, two hundred persons were killed and seven hundred
+captured, though it is admitted that most of the prisoners escaped. When
+spring opened, all the English settlements were destroyed, except the
+post of Bonavista and the Island of Carbonnière, a natural fortress in
+the sea. Iberville returned to Placentia, to prepare for completing his
+conquest, when his plans were broken by the arrival of his brother
+Serigny, with orders to proceed at once against the English at Hudson's
+Bay. [2]	
+
+[2] On the Newfoundland expedition, the best authority is the long diary
+of the chaplain Baudoin, Journal du Voyage que j'ai fait avec M.
+d'Iberville; also, Mémoire sur l'Entreprise de Terreneuve, 1696. Compare
+La Potherie, I. 24-52. A deposition of one Phillips, one Roberts, and
+several others, preserved in the Public Record Office of London, and
+quoted by Brown in his History of Cape Breton, makes the French force
+much greater than the statements of the French writers. The deposition
+also says that at the attack of St. John's "the French took one William
+Brew, an inhabitant, a prisoner, and cut all round his scalp, and then,
+by strength of hands, stript his skin from the forehead to the crown, and
+so sent him into the fortifications, assuring the inhabitants that they
+would serve them all in like manner if they did not surrender."
+
+St. John's was soon after reoccupied by the English.
+
+Baudoin was one of those Acadian priests who are praised for services "en
+empeschant les sauvages de faire la paix avec les Anglois, ayant mesme
+esté en guerre avec eux." Champigny au Ministre, 24 Oct., 1694.
+
+It was the nineteenth of May, when Serigny appeared with five ships of
+war, the "Pelican," the "Palmier," the "Wesp," the "Profond," and the
+"Violent." The important trading-post of Fort Nelson, called Fort Bourbon
+by the French, was the destined object of attack. Iberville and Serigny
+had captured it three years before, but the English had retaken it during
+the past summer, and, as it commanded the fur-trade of a vast interior
+region, a strong effort was now to be made for its recovery. Iberville
+took command of the "Pelican," and his brother of the "Palmier." They
+sailed from Placentia early in July, followed by two other ships of the
+squadron, and a vessel carrying stores. Before the end of the month they
+entered the bay, where they were soon caught among masses of floating
+ice. The store-ship was crushed and lost, and the rest were in extreme
+danger. The "Pelican" at last extricated herself, and sailed into the
+open sea; but her three consorts were nowhere to be seen. Iberville
+steered for Fort Nelson, which was several hundred miles distant, on the
+western shore of this dismal inland sea. He had nearly reached it, when
+three sail hove in sight; and he did not doubt that they were his missing
+ships. They proved, however, to be English armed merchantmen: the
+"Hampshire" of fifty-two guns, and the "Daring" and the "Hudson's Bay" of
+thirty-six and thirty-two. The "Pelican" carried but forty-four, and she
+was alone. A desperate battle followed, and from half past nine to one
+o'clock the cannonade was incessant. Iberville kept the advantage of the
+wind, and, coming at length to close quarters with the "Hampshire," gave
+her repeated broadsides between wind and water, with such effect that she
+sank with all on board. He next closed with the "Hudson's Bay," which
+soon struck her flag; while the "Daring" made sail, and escaped. The
+"Pelican" was badly damaged in hull, masts, and rigging; and the
+increasing fury of a gale from the east made her position more critical
+every hour. She anchored, to escape being driven ashore; but the cables
+parted, and she was stranded about two leagues from the fort. Here,
+racked by the waves and the tide, she split amidships; but most of the
+crew reached land with their weapons and ammunition. The northern winter
+had already begun, and the snow lay a foot deep in the forest. Some of
+them died from cold and exhaustion, and the rest built huts and kindled
+fires to warm and dry themselves. Food was so scarce that their only hope
+of escape from famishing seemed to lie in a desperate effort to carry the
+fort by storm, but now fortune interposed. The three ships they had left
+behind in the ice arrived with all the needed succors. Men, cannon, and
+mortars were sent ashore, and the attack began.
+
+Fort Nelson was a palisade work, garrisoned by traders and other
+civilians in the employ of the English fur company, and commanded by one
+of its agents, named Bailey. Though it had a considerable number of small
+cannon, it was incapable of defence against any thing but musketry; and
+the French bombs soon made it untenable. After being three times
+summoned, Bailey lowered his flag, though not till he had obtained
+honorable terms; and he and his men marched out with arms and baggage,
+drums beating and colors flying.
+
+Iberville had triumphed over the storms, the icebergs, and the English.
+The north had seen his prowess, and another fame awaited him in the
+regions of the sun; for he became the father of Louisiana, and his
+brother Bienville founded New Orleans. [3]
+
+[3] On the capture of Fort Nelson, Iberville au Ministre, 8 Nov., 1697;
+Jérémie, Relation de la Baye de Hudson; La Potherie, I. 85-109. All these
+writers were present at the attack.
+
+These northern conflicts were but episodes. In Hudson's Bay,
+Newfoundland, and Acadia, the issues of the war were unimportant,
+compared with the momentous question whether France or England should be
+mistress of the west; that is to say, of the whole interior of the
+continent. There was a strange contrast in the attitude of the rival
+colonies towards this supreme prize: the one was inert, and seemingly
+indifferent; the other, intensely active. The reason is obvious enough.
+The English colonies were separate, jealous of the crown and of each
+other, and incapable as yet of acting in concert. Living by agriculture
+and trade, they could prosper within limited areas, and had no present
+need of spreading beyond the Alleghanies. Each of them was an aggregate
+of persons, busied with their own affairs, and giving little heed to
+matters which did not immediately concern them. Their rulers, whether
+chosen by themselves or appointed in England, could not compel them to
+become the instruments of enterprises in which the sacrifice was present,
+and the advantage remote. The neglect in which the English court left
+them, though wholesome in most respects, made them unfit for aggressive
+action; for they had neither troops, commanders, political union,
+military organization, nor military habits. In communities so busy, and
+governments so popular, much could not be done, in war, till the people
+were roused to the necessity of doing it; and that awakening was still
+far distant. Even New York, the only exposed colony, except Massachusetts
+and New Hampshire, regarded the war merely as a nuisance to be held at
+arm's length. [4]
+
+[4] See note at the end of the chapter.
+
+In Canada, all was different. Living by the fur trade, she needed free
+range and indefinite space. Her geographical position determined the
+nature of her pursuits; and her pursuits developed the roving and
+adventurous character of her people, who, living under a military rule,
+could be directed at will to such ends as their rulers saw fit. The grand
+French scheme of territorial extension was not born at court, but sprang
+from Canadian soil, and was developed by the chiefs of the colony, who,
+being on the ground, saw the possibilities and requirements of the
+situation, and generally had a personal interest in realizing them. The
+rival colonies had two different laws of growth. The one increased by
+slow extension, rooting firmly as it spread; the other shot offshoots,
+with few or no roots, far out into the wilderness. It was the nature of
+French colonization to seize upon detached strategic points, and hold
+them by the bayonet, forming no agricultural basis, but attracting the
+Indians by trade, and holding them by conversion. A musket, a rosary, and
+a pack of beaver skins may serve to represent it, and in fact it
+consisted of little else.
+
+Whence came the numerical weakness of New France, and the real though
+latent strength of her rivals? Because, it is answered, the French were
+not an emigrating people; but, at the end of the seventeenth century,
+this was only half true. The French people were divided into two parts,
+one eager to emigrate, and the other reluctant. The one consisted of the
+persecuted Huguenots, the other of the favored Catholics. The government
+chose to construct its colonies, not of those who wished to go, but of
+those who wished to stay at home. From the hour when the edict of Nantes
+was revoked, hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen would have hailed as a
+boon the permission to transport themselves, their families, and their
+property to the New World. The permission was fiercely refused, and the
+persecuted sect was denied even a refuge in the wilderness. Had it been
+granted them, the valleys of the west would have swarmed with a laborious
+and virtuous population, trained in adversity, and possessing the
+essential qualities of self-government. Another France would have grown
+beyond the Alleghanies, strong with the same kind of strength that made
+the future greatness of the British colonies. British America was an
+asylum for the oppressed and the suffering of all creeds and nations, and
+population poured into her by the force of a natural tendency. France,
+like England, might have been great in two hemispheres, if she had placed
+herself in accord with this tendency, instead of opposing it; but
+despotism was consistent with itself, and a mighty opportunity was for
+ever lost.
+
+As soon could the Ethiopian change his skin as the priest-ridden king
+change his fatal policy of exclusion. Canada must be bound to the papacy,
+even if it blasted her. The contest for the west must be waged by the
+means which Bourbon policy ordained, and which, it must be admitted, had
+some great advantages of their own, when controlled by a man like
+Frontenac. The result hung, for the present, on the relations of the
+French with the Iroquois and the tribes of the lakes, the Illinois, and
+the valley of the Ohio, but, above all, on their relations with the
+Iroquois; for, could they be conquered or won over, it would be easy to
+deal with the rest.
+
+Frontenac was meditating a grand effort to inflict such castigation as
+would bring them to reason, when one of their chiefs, named Tareha, came
+to Quebec with overtures of peace. The Iroquois had lost many of their
+best warriors. The arrival of troops from France had discouraged them;
+the war had interrupted their hunting; and, having no furs to barter with
+the English, they were in want of arms, ammunition, and all the
+necessaries of life. Moreover, Father Milet, nominally a prisoner among
+them, but really an adopted chief, had used all his influence to bring
+about a peace; and the mission of Tareha was the result. Frontenac
+received him kindly. "My Iroquois children have been drunk; but I will
+give them an opportunity to repent. Let each of your five nations send me
+two deputies, and I will listen to what they have to say." They would not
+come, but sent him instead an invitation to meet them and their friends,
+the English, in a general council at Albany; a proposal which he rejected
+with contempt. Then they sent another deputation, partly to him and
+partly to their Christian countrymen of the Saut and the Mountain,
+inviting all alike to come and treat with them at Onondaga. Frontenac,
+adopting the Indian fashion, kicked away their wampum belts, rebuked them
+for tampering with the mission Indians, and told them that they were
+rebels, bribed by the English; adding that, if a suitable deputation
+should be sent to Quebec to treat squarely of peace, he still would
+listen, but that, if they came back with any more such proposals as they
+had just made, they should be roasted alive.
+
+A few weeks later, the deputation appeared. It consisted of two chiefs of
+each nation, headed by the renowned orator Decanisora, or, as the French
+wrote the name, Tegannisorens. The council was held in the hall of the
+supreme council at Quebec. The dignitaries of the colony were present,
+with priests, Jesuits, Récollets, officers, and the Christian chiefs of
+the Saut and the Mountain. The appearance of the ambassadors bespoke
+their destitute plight; for they were all dressed in shabby deerskins and
+old blankets, except Decanisora, who was attired in a scarlet coat laced
+with gold, given him by the governor of New York. Colden, who knew him in
+his old age, describes him as a tall, well-formed man, with a face not
+unlike the busts of Cicero. "He spoke," says the French reporter, "with
+as perfect a grace as is vouchsafed to an uncivilized people;" buried the
+hatchet, covered the blood that had been spilled, opened the roads, and
+cleared the clouds from the sun. In other words, he offered peace; but he
+demanded at the same time that it should include the English. Frontenac
+replied, in substance: "My children are right to come submissive and
+repentant. I am ready to forgive the past, and hang up the hatchet; but
+the peace must include all my other children, far and near. Shut your
+ears to English poison. The war with the English has nothing to do with
+you, and only the great kings across the sea have power to stop it. You
+must give up all your prisoners, both French and Indian, without one
+exception. I will then return mine, and make peace with you, but not
+before." He then entertained them at his own table, gave them a feast
+described as "magnificent," and bestowed gifts so liberally, that the
+tattered ambassadors went home in embroidered coats, laced shirts, and
+plumed hats. They were pledged to return with the prisoners before the
+end of the season, and they left two hostages as security. [5]
+
+[5] On these negotiations, and their antecedents, Callières, Relation de
+ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable en Canada depuis Sept., 1692,
+jusqu'au Départ des Vaisseaux en 1693; La Motte-Cadillac, Mémoire des
+Negociations avec les Iroquois, 1694; Callières au Ministre, 19 Oct.,
+1694; La Potherie, III. 200-220; Colden, Five Nations, chap. x.; N. Y.
+Col. Docs., IV. 85.
+
+Meanwhile, the authorities of New York tried to prevent the threatened
+peace. First, Major Peter Schuyler convoked the chiefs at Albany, and
+told them that, if they went to ask peace in Canada, they would be slaves
+for ever. The Iroquois declared that they loved the English, but they
+repelled every attempt to control their action. Then Fletcher, the
+governor, called a general council at the same place, and told them that
+they should not hold councils with the French, or that, if they did so,
+they should hold them at Albany in presence of the English. Again they
+asserted their rights as an independent people. "Corlaer," said their
+speaker, "has held councils with our enemies, and why should not we hold
+councils with his?" Yet they were strong in assurances of friendship, and
+declared themselves "one head, one heart, one blood, and one soul, with
+the English." Their speaker continued: "Our only reason for sending
+deputies to the French is that we are brought so low, and none of our
+neighbors help us, but leave us to bear all the burden of the war. Our
+brothers of New England, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, all of
+their own accord took hold of the covenant chain, and called themselves
+our allies; but they have done nothing to help us, and we cannot fight
+the French alone, because they are always receiving soldiers from beyond
+the Great Lake. Speak from your heart, brother: will you and your
+neighbors join with us, and make strong war against the French? If you
+will, we will break off all treaties, and fight them as hotly as ever;
+but, if you will not help us, we must make peace."
+
+Nothing could be more just than these reproaches; and, if the English
+governor had answered by a vigorous attack on the French forts south of
+the St. Lawrence, the Iroquois warriors would have raised the hatchet
+again with one accord. But Fletcher was busy with other matters; and he
+had besides no force at his disposal but four companies, the only British
+regulars on the continent, defective in numbers, ill-appointed, and
+mutinous. Therefore he answered not with acts, but with words. The
+negotiation with the French went on, and Fletcher called another council.
+It left him in a worse position than before. The Iroquois again asked for
+help: he could not promise it, but was forced to yield the point, and
+tell them that he consented to their making peace with Onontio.
+
+[6] Fletcher is, however, charged with gross misconduct in regard to the
+four companies, which he is said to have kept at about half their
+complement, in order to keep the balance of their pay for himself.
+
+It is certain that they wanted peace, but equally certain that they did
+not want it to be lasting, and sought nothing more than a breathing time
+to regain their strength. Even now some of them were for continuing the
+war; and at the great council at Onondaga, where the matter was debated,
+the Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks spurned the French proposals, and
+refused to give up their prisoners. The Cayugas and some of the Senecas
+were of another mind, and agreed to a partial compliance with Frontenac's
+demands. The rest seem to have stood passive in the hope of gaining time.
+
+They were disappointed. In vain the Seneca and Cayuga deputies buried the
+hatchet at Montreal, and promised that the other nations would soon do
+likewise. Frontenac was not to be deceived. He would accept nothing but
+the frank fulfilment of his conditions, refused the proffered peace, and
+told his Indian allies to wage war to the knife. There was a dog-feast
+and a war-dance, and the strife began anew.
+
+In all these conferences, the Iroquois had stood by their English allies,
+with a fidelity not too well merited. But, though they were loyal towards
+the English, they had acted with duplicity towards the French, and, while
+treating of peace with them, had attacked some of their Indian allies,
+and intrigued with others. They pursued with more persistency than ever
+the policy they had adopted in the time of La Barre, that is, to persuade
+or frighten the tribes of the west to abandon the French, join hands with
+them and the English, and send their furs to Albany instead of Montreal;
+for the sagacious confederates knew well that, if the trade were turned
+into this new channel, their local position would enable them to control
+it. The scheme was good; but with whatever consistency their chiefs and
+elders might pursue it, the wayward ferocity of their young warriors
+crossed it incessantly, and murders alternated with intrigues. On the
+other hand, the western tribes, who since the war had been but ill
+supplied with French goods and French brandy, knew that they could have
+English goods and English rum in great abundance, and at far less cost;
+and thus, in spite of hate and fear, the intrigue went on.
+Michillimackinac was the focus of it, but it pervaded all the west. The
+position of Frontenac was one of great difficulty, and the more so that
+the intestine quarrels of his allies excessively complicated the mazes of
+forest diplomacy. This heterogeneous multitude, scattered in tribes and
+groups of tribes over two thousand miles of wilderness, was like a vast
+menagerie of wild animals; and the lynx bristled at the wolf, and the
+panther grinned fury at the bear, in spite of all his efforts to form
+them into a happy family under his paternal rule.
+
+La Motte-Cadillac commanded at Michillimackinac, Courtemanche was
+stationed at Fort Miamis, and Tonty and La Forêt at the fortified rock of
+St. Louis on the Illinois; while Nicolas Perrot roamed among the tribes
+of the Mississippi, striving at the risk of his life to keep them at
+peace with each other, and in alliance with the French. Yet a plot
+presently came to light, by which the Foxes, Mascontins, and Kickapoos
+were to join hands, renounce the French, and cast their fortunes with the
+Iroquois and the English. There was still more anxiety for the tribes of
+Michillimackinac, because the results of their defection would be more
+immediate. This important post had at the time an Indian population of
+six or seven thousand souls, a Jesuit mission, a fort with two hundred
+soldiers, and a village of about sixty houses, occupied by traders and
+coureurs de bois. The Indians of the place were in relations more or less
+close with all the tribes of the lakes. The Huron village was divided
+between two rival chiefs: the Baron, who was deep in Iroquois and English
+intrigue; and the Rat, who, though once the worst enemy of the French,
+now stood their friend. The Ottawas and other Algonquins of the adjacent
+villages were savages of a lower grade, tossed continually between hatred
+of the Iroquois, distrust of the French, and love of English goods and
+English rum. [7]
+
+[7] "Si les Outaouacs (Ottawas) et Hurons concluent la paix avec
+l'Iroquois sans nostre participation, et donnent chez eux l'entrée à
+l'Anglois pour le commerce, la Colonie est entièrement ruinée, puisque
+c'est le seul (moyen) par lequel ce pays-cy puisse subsister, et l'on
+peut asseurer que si les sauvages goustent une fois du commerce de
+l'Anglois, ils rompront pour toujours avec les François, parcequ'ils ne
+peuvent donner les marchandises qu'à un prix beaucoup plus hault."
+Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1696.
+
+La Motte-Cadillac found that the Hurons of the Baron's band were
+receiving messengers and peace belts from New York and her red allies,
+that the English had promised to build a trading house on Lake Erie, and
+that the Iroquois had invited the lake tribes to a grand convention at
+Detroit. These belts and messages were sent, in the Indian expression,
+"underground," that is, secretly; and the envoys who brought them came in
+the disguise of prisoners taken by the Hurons. On one occasion, seven
+Iroquois were brought in; and some of the French, suspecting them to be
+agents of the negotiation, stabbed two of them as they landed. There was
+a great tumult. The Hurons took arms to defend the remaining five; but at
+length suffered themselves to be appeased, and even gave one of the
+Iroquois, a chief, into the hands of the French, who, says La Potherie,
+determined to "make an example of him." They invited the Ottawas to
+"drink the broth of an Iroquois." The wretch was made fast to a stake,
+and a Frenchman began the torture by burning him with a red-hot
+gun-barrel. The mob of savages was soon wrought up to the required pitch
+of ferocity; and, after atrociously tormenting him, they cut him to
+pieces, and ate him. [8] It was clear that the more Iroquois the allies
+of France could be persuaded to burn, the less would be the danger that
+they would make peace with the confederacy. On another occasion, four
+were tortured at once; and La Motte-Cadillac writes, "If any more
+prisoners are brought me, I promise you that their fate will be no
+sweeter." [9]
+
+[8] La Potherie, II. 298.
+
+[9] La Motte-Cadillac à------, 3 Aug., 1695. A translation of this letter
+will be found in Sheldon, Early History of Michigan.
+
+The same cruel measures were practised when the Ottawas came to trade at
+Montreal. Frontenac once invited a band of them to "roast an Iroquois,"
+newly caught by the soldiers; but as they had hamstrung him, to prevent
+his escape, he bled to death before the torture began. [10] In the next
+spring, the revolting tragedy of Michillimackinac was repeated at
+Montreal, where four more Iroquois were burned by the soldiers,
+inhabitants, and Indian allies. "It was the mission of Canada," says a
+Canadian writer, "to propagate Christianity and civilization." [11]
+
+[10] Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable entre les
+François et les Iroquois durant la présente année, 1695. There is a
+translation in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. Compare La Potherie, who misplaces
+the incident as to date.
+
+[11] This last execution was an act of reprisal: "J'abandonnay les 4
+prisonniers aux soldats, habitants, et sauvages, qui les bruslerent par
+représailles de deux du Sault que cette nation avoit traitté de la mesme
+manière." Callières au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1696.
+
+Every effort was vain. La Motte-Cadillac wrote that matters grew worse
+and worse, and that the Ottawas had been made to believe that the French
+neither would nor could protect them, but meant to leave them to their
+fate. They thought that they had no hope except in peace with the
+Iroquois, and had actually gone to meet them at an appointed rendezvous.
+One course alone was now left to Frontenac, and this was to strike the
+Iroquois with a blow heavy enough to humble them, and teach the wavering
+hordes of the west that he was, in truth, their father and their
+defender. Nobody knew so well as he the difficulties of the attempt; and,
+deceived perhaps by his own energy, he feared that, in his absence on a
+distant expedition, the governor of New York would attack Montreal.
+Therefore, he had begged for more troops. About three hundred were sent
+him, and with these he was forced to content himself.
+
+He had waited, also, for another reason. In his belief, the
+re-establishment of Fort Frontenac, abandoned in a panic by Denonville,
+was necessary to the success of a campaign against the Iroquois. A party
+in the colony vehemently opposed the measure, on the ground that the fort
+would be used by the friends of Frontenac for purposes of trade. It was,
+nevertheless, very important, if not essential, for holding the Iroquois
+in check. They themselves felt it to be so; and, when they heard that the
+French intended to occupy it again, they appealed to the governor of New
+York, who told them that, if the plan were carried into effect, he would
+march to their aid with all the power of his government. He did not, and
+perhaps could not, keep his word. [12]
+
+[12] Colden, 178. Fletcher could get no men from his own or neighboring
+governments. See note, at the end of the chapter.
+
+In the question of Fort Frontenac, as in every thing else, the opposition
+to the governor, always busy and vehement, found its chief representative
+in the intendant, who told the minister that the policy of Frontenac was
+all wrong; that the public good was not its object; that he disobeyed or
+evaded the orders of the king; and that he had suffered the Iroquois to
+delude him by false overtures of peace. The representations of the
+intendant and his faction had such effect, that Ponchartrain wrote to the
+governor that the plan of re-establishing Fort Frontenac "must absolutely
+be abandoned." Frontenac, bent on accomplishing his purpose, and doubly
+so because his enemies opposed it, had anticipated the orders of the
+minister, and sent seven hundred men to Lake Ontario to repair the fort.
+The day after they left Montreal, the letter of Ponchartrain arrived. The
+intendant demanded their recall. Frontenac refused. The fort was
+repaired, garrisoned, and victualled for a year.
+
+A successful campaign was now doubly necessary to the governor, for by
+this alone could he hope to avert the consequences of his audacity. He
+waited no longer, but mustered troops, militia, and Indians, and marched
+to attack the Iroquois. [13]
+
+[13] The above is drawn from the correspondence of Frontenac, Champigny,
+La Motte-Cadillac, and Callières, on one hand, and the king and the
+minister on the other. The letters are too numerous to specify. Also,
+from the official Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable en
+Canada, 1694, 1695, and Ibid., 1695, 1696; Mémoire soumis au Ministre de
+ce qui résulte des Avis reçus du Canada en 1695; Champigny, Mémoire
+concernant le Fort de Cataracouy; La Potherie, II. 284-302, IV. 1-80;
+Colden, chaps. x., xi.
+
+Military Inefficiency of the British Colonies--"His Majesty has subjects
+enough in those parts of America to drive out the French from Canada; but
+they are so crumbled into little governments, and so disunited, that they
+have hitherto afforded little assistance to each other, and now seem in a
+much worse disposition to do it for the future." This is the complaint of
+the Lords of Trade. Governor Fletcher writes bitterly: "Here every little
+government sets up for despotic power, and allows no appeal to the Crown,
+but, by a little juggling, defeats all commands and injunctions from the
+King." Fletcher's complaint was not unprovoked. The Queen had named him
+commander-in-chief, during the war, of the militia of several of the
+colonies, and empowered him to call on them for contingents of men, not
+above 350 from Massachusetts, 250 from Virginia, 160 from Maryland, 120
+from Connecticut, 48 from Rhode Island, and 80 from Pennsylvania. This
+measure excited the jealousy of the colonies, and several of them
+remonstrated on constitutional grounds; but the attorney-general, to whom
+the question was referred, reported that the crown had power, under
+certain limitations, to appoint a commander-in-chief. Fletcher,
+therefore, in his character as such, called for a portion of the men; but
+scarcely one could he get. He was met by excuses and evasions, which,
+especially in the case of Connecticut, were of a most vexatious
+character. At last, that colony, tired by his importunities, condescended
+to furnish him with twenty-five men. With the others, he was less
+fortunate, though Virginia and Maryland compounded with a sum of money.
+Each colony claimed the control of its own militia, and was anxious to
+avoid the establishment of any precedent which might deprive it of the
+right. Even in the military management of each separate colony, there was
+scarcely less difficulty. A requisition for troops from a royal governor
+was always regarded with jealousy, and the provincial assemblies were
+slow to grant money for their support. In 1692, when Fletcher came to New
+York, the assembly gave him 300 men, for a year; in 1693, they gave him
+an equal number; in 1694, they allowed him but 170, he being accused,
+apparently with truth, of not having made good use of the former levies.
+He afterwards asked that the force at his disposal should be increased to
+500 men, to guard the frontier; and the request was not granted. In 1697
+he was recalled; and the Earl of Bellomont was commissioned governor of
+New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and captain-general, during
+the war, of all the forces of those colonies, as well as of Connecticut,
+Rhode Island, and New Jersey. The close of the war quickly ended this
+military authority; but there is no reason to believe that, had it
+continued, the earl's requisitions for men, in his character of
+captain-general, would have had more success than those of Fletcher. The
+whole affair is a striking illustration of the original isolation of
+communities, which afterwards became welded into a nation. It involved a
+military paralysis almost complete. Sixty years later, under the sense of
+a great danger, the British colonies were ready enough to receive a
+commander-in-chief, and answer his requisitions.
+
+A great number of documents bearing upon the above subject will be found
+in the New York Colonial Documents, IV.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+1696-1698.
+
+Frontenac attacks the Onondagas.
+
+March of Frontenac • Flight of the Enemy • An Iroquois Stoic • Relief for
+the Onondagas • Boasts of Frontenac • His Complaints • His Enemies •
+Parties in Canada • Views of Frontenac and the King • Frontenac prevails
+• Peace of Ryswick • Frontenac and Bellomont • Schuyler at Quebec •
+Festivities • A Last Defiance.
+
+On the fourth of July, Frontenac left Montreal, at the head of about
+twenty-two hundred men. On the nineteenth he reached Fort Frontenac, and
+on the twenty-sixth he crossed to the southern shore of Lake Ontario. A
+swarm of Indian canoes led the way; next followed two battalions of
+regulars, in bateaux, commanded by Callières; then more bateaux, laden
+with cannon, mortars, and rockets; then Frontenac himself, surrounded by
+the canoes of his staff and his guard; then eight hundred Canadians,
+under Ramesay; while more regulars and more Indians, all commanded by
+Vaudreuil, brought up the rear. In two days they reached the mouth of the
+Oswego; strong scouting-parties were sent out to scour the forests in
+front; while the expedition slowly and painfully worked its way up the
+stream. Most of the troops and Canadians marched through the matted woods
+along the banks; while the bateaux and canoes were pushed, rowed,
+paddled, or dragged forward against the current. On the evening of the
+thirtieth, they reached the falls, where the river plunged over ledges of
+rock which completely stopped the way. The work of "carrying" was begun
+at once. The Indians and Canadians carried the canoes to the navigable
+water above, and gangs of men dragged the bateaux up the portage-path on
+rollers. Night soon came, and the work was continued till ten o'clock by
+torchlight. Frontenac would have passed on foot like the rest, but the
+Indians would not have it so. They lifted him in his canoe upon their
+shoulders, and bore him in triumph, singing and yelling, through the
+forest and along the margin of the rapids, the blaze of the torches
+lighting the strange procession, where plumes of officers and uniforms of
+the governor's guard mingled with the feathers and scalp-locks of naked
+savages.
+
+When the falls were passed, the troops pushed on as before along the
+narrow stream, and through the tangled labyrinths on either side; till,
+on the first of August, they reached Lake Onondaga, and, with sails set,
+the whole flotilla glided before the wind, and landed the motley army on
+a rising ground half a league from the salt springs of Salina. The next
+day was spent in building a fort to protect the canoes, bateaux, and
+stores; and, as evening closed, a ruddy glow above the southern forest
+told them that the town of Onondaga was on fire.
+
+The Marquis de Crisasy was left, with a detachment, to hold the fort;
+and, at sunrise on the fourth, the army moved forward in order of battle.
+It was formed in two lines, regulars on the right and left, and Canadians
+in the centre. Callières commanded the first line, and Vaudreuil the
+second. Frontenac was between them, surrounded by his staff officers and
+his guard, and followed by the artillery, which relays of Canadians
+dragged and lifted forward with inconceivable labor. The governor,
+enfeebled by age, was carried in an arm-chair; while Callières, disabled
+by gout, was mounted on a horse, brought for the purpose in one of the
+bateaux. To Subercase fell the hard task of directing the march among the
+dense columns of the primeval forest, by hill and hollow, over rocks and
+fallen trees, through swamps, brooks, and gullies, among thickets,
+brambles, and vines. It was but eight or nine miles to Onondaga; but they
+were all day in reaching it, and evening was near when they emerged from
+the shadows of the forest into the broad light of the Indian clearing.
+The maize-fields stretched before them for miles, and in the midst lay
+the charred and smoking ruins of the Iroquois capital. Not an enemy was
+to be seen, but they found the dead bodies of two murdered French
+prisoners. Scouts were sent out, guards were set, and the disappointed
+troops encamped on the maize-fields.
+
+Onondaga, formerly an open town, had been fortified by the English, who
+had enclosed it with a double range of strong palisades, forming a
+rectangle, flanked by bastions at the four corners, and surrounded by an
+outer fence of tall poles. The place was not defensible against cannon
+and mortars; and the four hundred warriors belonging to it had been but
+slightly reinforced from the other tribes of the confederacy, each of
+which feared that the French attack might be directed against itself. On
+the approach of an enemy of five times their number, they had burned
+their town, and retreated southward into distant forests.
+
+The troops were busied for two days in hacking down the maize, digging up
+the caches, or hidden stores of food, and destroying their contents. The
+neighboring tribe of the Oneidas sent a messenger to beg peace. Frontenac
+replied that he would grant it, on condition that they all should migrate
+to Canada, and settle there; and Vaudreuil, with seven hundred men, was
+sent to enforce the demand. Meanwhile, a few Onondaga stragglers had been
+found; and among them, hidden in a hollow tree, a withered warrior,
+eighty years old, and nearly blind. Frontenac would have spared him; but
+the Indian allies, Christians from the mission villages, were so eager to
+burn him that it was thought inexpedient to refuse them. They tied him to
+the stake, and tried to shake his constancy by every torture that fire
+could inflict; but not a cry nor a murmur escaped him. He defied them to
+do their worst, till, enraged at his taunts, one of them gave him a
+mortal stab. "I thank you," said the old Stoic, with his last breath;
+"but you ought to have finished as you began, and killed me by fire.
+Learn from me, you dogs of Frenchmen, how to endure pain; and you, dogs
+of dogs, their Indian allies, think what you will do when you are burned
+like me." [1]
+
+[1] Relation de ce qui s'est passé, etc., 1695, 1696; La Potherie, III.
+279. Callières and the author of the Relation of 1682-1712 also speak of
+the extraordinary fortitude of the victim. The Jesuits say that it was
+not the Christian Indians who insisted on burning him, but the French
+themselves, "qui voulurent absolument qu'il fût brulé à petit feu, ce
+qu'ils executèrent eux-mêmes. Un Jesuite le confessa et l'assista à la
+mort, l'encourageant à souffrir courageusement et chrétiennement les
+tourmens." Relation de 1696 (Shea), 10. This writer adds that, when
+Frontenac heard of it, he ordered him to be spared; but it was too late.
+Charlevoix misquotes the old Stoic's last words, which were, according to
+the official Relation of 1695-6: "Je te remercie mais tu aurais bien dû
+achever de me faire mourir par le feu. Apprenez, chiens de François, à
+souffrir, et vous sauvages leurs allies, qui êtes les chiens des chiens,
+souvenez vous de ce que vous devez faire quand vous serez en pareil état
+que moi."
+
+Vaudreuil and his detachment returned within three days, after destroying
+Oneida, with all the growing corn, and seizing a number of chiefs as
+hostages for the fulfilment of the demands of Frontenac. There was some
+thought of marching on Cayuga, but the governor judged it to be
+inexpedient; and, as it would be useless to chase the fugitive Onondagas,
+nothing remained but to return home. [2]
+
+[2] On the expedition against the Onondagas, Callières au Ministre, 20
+Oct., 1696; Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1696; Frontenac et Champigny
+au Ministre (lettre commune) 26 Oct., 1696; Relation de ce qui s'est
+passé, etc., 1695, 1696; Relation, 1682-1712; Relation des Jesuites, 1696
+(Shea); Doc. Hist. N. Y., I. 323-355; La Potherie, III. 270-282; N. Y.
+Col. Docs., IV. 242.
+
+Charlevoix charges Frontenac on this occasion with failing to pursue his
+advantage, lest others, and especially Callières, should get more honor
+than he. The accusation seems absolutely groundless. His many enemies
+were silent about it at the time; for the king warmly commends his
+conduct on the expedition, and Callières himself, writing immediately
+after, gives him nothing but praise.
+
+While Frontenac was on his march, Governor Fletcher had heard of his
+approach, and called the council at New York to consider what should be
+done. They resolved that "it will be very grievous to take the people
+from their labour; and there is likewise no money to answer the charge
+thereof." Money was, however, advanced by Colonel Cortlandt and others;
+and the governor wrote to Connecticut and New Jersey for their
+contingents of men; but they thought the matter no concern of theirs, and
+did not respond. Fletcher went to Albany with the few men he could gather
+at the moment, and heard on his arrival that the French were gone. Then
+he convoked the chiefs, condoled with them, and made them presents. Corn
+was sent to the Onondagas and Oneidas to support them through the winter,
+and prevent the famine which the French hoped would prove their
+destruction.
+
+What Frontenac feared had come to pass. The enemy had saved themselves by
+flight; and his expedition, like that of Denonville, was but half
+successful. He took care, however, to announce it to the king as a
+triumph.
+
+"Sire, the benedictions which Heaven has ever showered upon your
+Majesty's arms have extended even to this New World; whereof we have had
+visible proof in the expedition I have just made against the Onondagas,
+the principal nation of the Iroquois. I had long projected this
+enterprise, but the difficulties and risks which attended it made me
+regard it as imprudent; and I should never have resolved to undertake it,
+if I had not last year established an entrepôt (Fort Frontenac), which
+made my communications more easy, and if I had not known, beyond all
+doubt, that this was absolutely the only means to prevent our allies from
+making peace with the Iroquois, and introducing the English into their
+country, by which the colony would infallibly be ruined. Nevertheless, by
+unexpected good fortune, the Onondagas, who pass for masters of the other
+Iroquois, and the terror of all the Indians of this country, fell into a
+sort of bewilderment, which could only have come from on High; and were
+so terrified to see me march against them in person, and cover their
+lakes and rivers with nearly four hundred sail, that, without availing
+themselves of passes where a hundred men might easily hold four thousand
+in check, they did not dare to lay a single ambuscade, but, after waiting
+till I was five leagues from their fort, they set it on fire with all
+their dwellings, and fled, with their families, twenty leagues into the
+depths of the forest. It could have been wished, to make the affair more
+brilliant, that they had tried to hold their fort against us, for we were
+prepared to force it and kill a great many of them; but their ruin is not
+the less sure, because the famine, to which they are reduced, will
+destroy more than we could have killed by sword and gun.
+
+"All the officers and men have done their duty admirably; and especially
+M. de Callières, who has been a great help to me. I know not if your
+Majesty will think that I have tried to do mine, and will hold me worthy
+of some mark of honor that may enable me to pass the short remainder of
+my life in some little distinction; but, whether this be so or not, I
+most humbly pray your Majesty to believe that I will sacrifice the rest
+of my days to your Majesty's service with the same ardor I have always
+felt." [3]	
+
+[3] Frontenac au Roy, 25 Oct., 1696.
+
+The king highly commended him, and sent him the cross of the Military
+Order of St. Louis. Callières, who had deserved it less, had received it
+several years before; but he had not found or provoked so many defamers.
+Frontenac complained to the minister that his services had been slightly
+and tardily requited. This was true, and it was due largely to the
+complaints excited by his own perversity and violence. These complaints
+still continued; but the fault was not all on one side, and Frontenac
+himself had often just reason to retort them. He wrote to Ponchartrain:
+"If you will not be so good as to look closely into the true state of
+things here, I shall always be exposed to detraction, and forced to make
+new apologies, which is very hard for a person so full of zeal and
+uprightness as I am. My secretary, who is going to France, will tell you
+all the ugly intrigues used to defeat my plans for the service of the
+king, and the growth of the colony. I have long tried to combat these
+artifices, but I confess that I no longer feel strength to resist them,
+and must succumb at last, if you will not have the goodness to give me
+strong support." [4]	
+
+[4] Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1696.
+
+He still continued to provoke the detraction which he deprecated, till he
+drew, at last, a sharp remonstrance from the minister. "The dispute you
+have had with M. de Champigny is without cause, and I confess I cannot
+comprehend how you could have acted as you have done. If you do things of
+this sort, you must expect disagreeable consequences, which all the
+desire I have to oblige you cannot prevent. It is deplorable, both for
+you and for me, that, instead of using my good-will to gain favors from
+his Majesty, you compel me to make excuses for a violence which answers
+no purpose, and in which you indulge wantonly, nobody can tell why." [5]	
+
+[5] Le Ministre à Frontenac, 21 Mai, 1698.
+
+Most of these quarrels, however trivial in themselves, had a solid
+foundation, and were closely connected with the great question of the
+control of the west. As to the measures to be taken, two parties divided
+the colony; one consisting of the governor and his friends, and the other
+of the intendant, the Jesuits, and such of the merchants as were not in
+favor with Frontenac. His policy was to protect the Indian allies at all
+risks, to repel by force, if necessary, every attempt of the English to
+encroach on the territory in dispute, and to occupy it by forts which
+should be at once posts of war and commerce and places of rendezvous for
+traders and voyageurs. Champigny and his party denounced this system;
+urged that the forest posts should be abandoned, that both garrisons and
+traders should be recalled, that the French should not go to the Indians,
+but that the Indians should come to the French, that the fur trade of the
+interior should be carried on at Montreal, and that no Frenchman should
+be allowed to leave the settled limits of the colony, except the Jesuits
+and persons in their service, who, as Champigny insisted, would be able
+to keep the Indians in the French interest without the help of soldiers.
+
+Strong personal interests were active on both sides, and gave bitterness
+to the strife. Frontenac, who always stood by his friends, had placed
+Tonty, La Forêt, La Motte-Cadillac, and others of their number, in charge
+of the forest posts, where they made good profit by trade. Moreover, the
+licenses for trading expeditions into the interior were now, as before,
+used largely for the benefit of his favorites. The Jesuits also declared,
+and with some truth, that the forest posts were centres of debauchery,
+and that the licenses for the western trade were the ruin of innumerable
+young men. All these reasons were laid before the king. In vain Frontenac
+represented that to abandon the forest posts would be to resign to the
+English the trade of the interior country, and at last the country
+itself. The royal ear was open to his opponents, and the royal instincts
+reinforced their arguments. The king, enamoured of subordination and
+order, wished to govern Canada as he governed a province of France; and
+this could be done only by keeping the population within prescribed
+bounds. Therefore, he commanded that licenses for the forest trade should
+cease, that the forest posts should be abandoned and destroyed, that all
+Frenchmen should be ordered back to the settlements, and that none should
+return under pain of the galleys. An exception was made in favor of the
+Jesuits, who were allowed to continue their western missions, subject to
+restrictions designed to prevent them from becoming a cover to illicit
+fur trade. Frontenac was also directed to make peace with the Iroquois,
+even, if necessary, without including the western allies of France; that
+is, he was authorized by Louis XIV. to pursue the course which had
+discredited and imperilled the colony under the rule of Denonville. [6]	
+
+[6] Mémoire du Roy pour Frontenac et Champigny, 26 Mai, 1696; Ibid., 27
+Avril, 1697; Registres du Conseil Supérieur, Edit du 21 Mai, 1696.
+
+"Ce qui vous avez mandé de l'accommodement des Sauvages alliés avec les
+Irocois n'a pas permis à Sa Majesté d'entrer dans la discution de la
+manière de faire l'abandonnement des postes des François dans la
+profondeur des terres, particulièrement à Missilimackinac ... En tout cas
+vous ne devez pas manquer de donner ordre pour ruiner les forts et tous
+les édifices qui pourront y avoir esté faits." Le Ministre à Frontenac,
+26 Mai, 1696.
+
+Besides the above, many other letters and despatches on both sides have
+been examined in relation to these questions.
+
+The intentions of the king did not take effect. The policy of Frontenac
+was the true one, whatever motives may have entered into his advocacy of
+it. In view of the geographical, social, political, and commercial
+conditions of Canada, the policy of his opponents was impracticable, and
+nothing less than a perpetual cordon of troops could have prevented the
+Canadians from escaping to the backwoods. In spite of all the evils that
+attended the forest posts, it would have been a blunder to abandon them.
+This quickly became apparent. Champigny himself saw the necessity of
+compromise. The instructions of the king were scarcely given before they
+were partially withdrawn, and they soon became a dead letter. Even Fort
+Frontenac was retained after repeated directions to abandon it. The
+policy of the governor prevailed; the colony returned to its normal
+methods of growth, and so continued to the end.
+
+Now came the question of peace with the Iroquois, to whose mercy
+Frontenac was authorized to leave his western allies. He was the last man
+to accept such permission. Since the burning of Onondaga, the Iroquois
+negotiations with the western tribes had been broken off, and several
+fights had occurred, in which the confederates had suffered loss and been
+roused to vengeance. This was what Frontenac wanted, but at the same time
+it promised him fresh trouble; for, while he was determined to prevent
+the Iroquois from making peace with the allies without his authority, he
+was equally determined to compel them to do so with it. There must be
+peace, though not till he could control its conditions.
+
+The Onondaga campaign, unsatisfactory as it was, had had its effect.
+Several Iroquois chiefs came to Quebec with overtures of peace. They
+brought no prisoners, but promised to bring them in the spring; and one
+of them remained as a hostage that the promise should be kept. It was
+nevertheless broken under English influence; and, instead of a solemn
+embassy, the council of Onondaga sent a messenger with a wampum belt to
+tell Frontenac that they were all so engrossed in bewailing the recent
+death of Black Kettle, a famous war chief, that they had no strength to
+travel; and they begged that Onontio would return the hostage, and send
+to them for the French prisoners. The messenger farther declared that,
+though they would make peace with Onontio, they would not make it with
+his allies. Frontenac threw back the peace-belt into his face. "Tell the
+chiefs that, if they must needs stay at home to cry about a trifle, I
+will give them something to cry for. Let them bring me every prisoner,
+French and Indian, and make a treaty that shall include all my children,
+or they shall feel my tomahawk again." Then, turning to a number of
+Ottawas who were present: "You see that I can make peace for myself when
+I please. If I continue the war, it is only for your sake. I will never
+make a treaty without including you, and recovering your prisoners like
+my own."
+
+Thus the matter stood, when a great event took place. Early in February,
+a party of Dutch and Indians came to Montreal with news that peace had
+been signed in Europe; and, at the end of May, Major Peter Schuyler,
+accompanied by Dellius, the minister of Albany, arrived with copies of
+the treaty in French and Latin. The scratch of a pen at Ryswick had ended
+the conflict in America, so far at least as concerned the civilized
+combatants. It was not till July that Frontenac received the official
+announcement from Versailles, coupled with an address from the king to
+the people of Canada.
+
+Our Faithful and Beloved,--The moment has arrived ordained by Heaven to
+reconcile the nations. The ratification of the treaty concluded some time
+ago by our ambassadors with those of the Emperor and the Empire, after
+having made peace with Spain, England, and Holland, has everywhere
+restored the tranquillity so much desired. Strasbourg, one of the chief
+ramparts of the empire of heresy, united for ever to the Church and to
+our Crown; the Rhine established as the barrier between France and
+Germany; and, what touches us even more, the worship of the True Faith
+authorized by a solemn engagement with sovereigns of another religion,
+are the advantages secured by this last treaty. The Author of so many
+blessings manifests Himself so clearly that we cannot but recognize His
+goodness; and the visible impress of His all-powerful hand is as it were
+the seal He has affixed to justify our intent to cause all our realm to
+serve and obey Him, and to make our people happy. We have begun by the
+fulfilment of our duty in offering Him the thanks which are His due; and
+we have ordered the archbishops and bishops of our kingdom to cause Te
+Deum to be sung in the cathedrals of their dioceses. It is our will and
+our command that you be present at that which will be sung in the
+cathedral of our city of Quebec, on the day appointed by the Count of
+Frontenac, our governor and lieutenant-general in New France. Herein fail
+not, for such is our pleasure.
+                                                               Louis.[7]
+
+[7] Lettre du Roy pour faire chanter le Te Deum, 12 Mars, 1698.
+
+There was peace between the two crowns; but a serious question still
+remained between Frontenac and the new governor of New York, the Earl of
+Bellomont. When Schuyler and Dellius came to Quebec, they brought with
+them all the French prisoners in the hands of the English of New York,
+together with a promise from Bellomont that he would order the Iroquois,
+subjects of the British crown, to deliver to him all those in their
+possession, and that he would then send them to Canada under a safe
+escort. The two envoys demanded of Frontenac, at the same time, that he
+should deliver to them all the Iroquois in his hands. To give up Iroquois
+prisoners to Bellomont, or to receive through him French prisoners whom
+the Iroquois had captured, would have been an acknowledgment of British
+sovereignty over the five confederate tribes. Frontenac replied that the
+earl need give himself no trouble in the matter, as the Iroquois were
+rebellious subjects of King Louis; that they had already repented and
+begged peace; and that, if they did not soon come to conclude it, he
+should use force to compel them.
+
+Bellomont wrote, in return, that he had sent arms to the Iroquois, with
+orders to defend themselves if attacked by the French, and to give no
+quarter to them or their allies; and he added that, if necessary, he
+would send soldiers to their aid. A few days after, he received fresh
+news of Frontenac's warlike intentions, and wrote in wrath as follows:--
+
+Sir,--Two of our Indians, of the Nation called Onondages, came yesterday
+to advise me that you had sent two renegades of their Nation to them, to
+tell them and the other tribes, except the Mohawks, that, in case they
+did not come to Canada within forty days to solicit peace from you, they
+may expect your marching into their country at the head of an army to
+constrain them thereunto by force. I, on my side, do this very day send
+my lieutenant-governor with the king's troops to join the Indians, and to
+oppose any hostilities you will attempt; and, if needs be, I will arm
+every man in the Provinces under my government to repel you, and to make
+reprisals for the damage which you will commit on our Indians. This, in a
+few words, is the part I will take, and the resolution I have adopted,
+whereof I have thought it proper by these presents to give you notice.
+
+                                   I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
+                                                       Earl of Bellemont.
+
+New York, 22d August, 1698.
+
+To arm every man in his government would have been difficult. He did,
+however, what he could, and ordered Captain Nanfan, the
+lieutenant-governor, to repair to Albany; whence, on the first news that
+the French were approaching, he was to march to the relief of the
+Iroquois with the four shattered companies of regulars and as many of the
+militia of Albany and Ulster as he could muster. Then the earl sent
+Wessels, mayor of Albany, to persuade the Iroquois to deliver their
+prisoners to him, and make no treaty with Frontenac. On the same day, he
+despatched Captain John Schuyler to carry his letters to the French
+governor. When Schuyler reached Quebec, and delivered the letters,
+Frontenac read them with marks of great displeasure. "My Lord Bellomont
+threatens me," he said. "Does he think that I am afraid of him? He claims
+the Iroquois, but they are none of his. They call me father, and they
+call him brother; and shall not a father chastise his children when he
+sees fit?" A conversation followed, in which Frontenac asked the envoy
+what was the strength of Bellomont's government. Schuyler parried the
+question by a grotesque exaggeration, and answered that the earl could
+bring about a hundred thousand men into the field. Frontenac pretended to
+believe him, and returned with careless gravity that he had always heard
+so.
+
+The following Sunday was the day appointed for the Te Deum ordered by the
+king; and all the dignitaries of the colony, with a crowd of lesser note,
+filled the cathedral. There was a dinner of ceremony at the château, to
+which Schuyler was invited; and he found the table of the governor
+thronged with officers. Frontenac called on his guests to drink the
+health of King William. Schuyler replied by a toast in honor of King
+Louis; and the governor next gave the health of the Earl of Bellomont.
+The peace was then solemnly proclaimed, amid the firing of cannon from
+the batteries and ships; and the day closed with a bonfire and a general
+illumination. On the next evening, Frontenac gave Schuyler a letter in
+answer to the threats of the earl. He had written with trembling hand,
+but unshaken will and unbending pride:--
+
+"I am determined to pursue my course without flinching; and I request you
+not to try to thwart me by efforts which will prove useless. All the
+protection and aid you tell me that you have given, and will continue to
+give, the Iroquois, against the terms of the treaty, will not cause me
+much alarm, nor make me change my plans, but rather, on the contrary,
+engage me to pursue them still more." [8]
+
+[8] On the questions between Bellomont and Frontenac, Relation de ce qui
+s'est passé, etc., 1697, 1698; Champigny au Ministre, 12 Juillet, 1698;
+Frontenac au Ministre, 18 Oct., 1698; Frontenac et Champigny au Ministre
+(lettre commune), 15 Oct., 1698; Calliéres au Ministre, même date, etc.
+The correspondence of Frontenac and Bellomont, the report of Peter
+Schuyler and Dellius, the journal of John Schuyler, and other papers on
+the same subjects, will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IV. John Schuyler
+was grandfather of General Schuyler of the American Revolution. Peter
+Schuyler and his colleague Dellius brought to Canada all the French
+prisoners in the hands of the English of New York, and asked for English
+prisoners in return; but nearly all of these preferred to remain, a
+remarkable proof of the kindness with which the Canadians treated their
+civilized captives.
+
+As the old soldier traced these lines, the shadow of death was upon him.
+Toils and years, passions and cares, had wasted his strength at last, and
+his fiery soul could bear him up no longer. A few weeks later he was
+lying calmly on his death-bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+1698.
+
+Death of Frontenac.
+
+His Last Hours • His Will • His Funeral • His Eulogist and his Critic •
+His Disputes with the Clergy • His Character.
+
+In November, when the last ship had gone, and Canada was sealed from the
+world for half a year, a mortal illness fell upon the governor. On the
+twenty-second, he had strength enough to dictate his will, seated in an
+easy-chair in his chamber at the château. His colleague and adversary,
+Champigny, often came to visit him, and did all in his power to soothe
+his last moments. The reconciliation between them was complete. One of
+his Récollet friends, Father Olivier Goyer, administered extreme unction;
+and, on the afternoon of the twenty-eighth, he died, in perfect composure
+and full possession of his faculties. He was in his seventy-eighth year.
+
+He was greatly beloved by the humbler classes, who, days before his
+death, beset the château, praising and lamenting him. Many of higher
+station shared the popular grief. "He was the love and delight of New
+France," says one of them: "churchmen honored him for his piety, nobles
+esteemed him for his valor, merchants respected him for his equity, and
+the people loved him for his kindness." [1] "He was the father of the
+poor," says another, "the protector of the oppressed, and a perfect model
+of virtue and piety." [2] An Ursuline nun regrets him as the friend and
+patron of her sisterhood, and so also does the superior of the
+Hôtel-Dieu. [3] His most conspicuous though not his bitterest opponent,
+the intendant Champigny, thus announced his death to the court: "I
+venture to send this letter by way of New England to tell you that
+Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac died on the twenty-eighth of last month,
+with the sentiments of a true Christian. After all the disputes we have
+had together, you will hardly believe, Monseigneur, how truly and deeply
+I am touched by his death. He treated me during his illness in a manner
+so obliging, that I should be utterly void of gratitude if I did not feel
+thankful to him." [4]
+
+[1] La Potherie, I. 244, 246.
+
+[2] Hennepin, 41 (1704). Le Clerc speaks to the same effect.
+
+[3] Histoire des Ursulines de Québec, I. 508; Juchereau, 378.
+
+[4] Champigny au Ministre, 22 Dec., 1698.
+
+As a mark of kind feeling, Frontenac had bequeathed to the intendant a
+valuable crucifix, and to Madame de Champigny a reliquary which he had
+long been accustomed to wear. For the rest, he gave fifteen hundred
+livres to the Récollets, to be expended in masses for his soul, and that
+of his wife after her death. To her he bequeathed all the remainder of
+his small property, and he also directed that his heart should be sent
+her in a case of lead or silver. [5] His enemies reported that she
+refused to accept it, saying that she had never had it when he was
+living, and did not want it when he was dead.
+
+[5] Testament du Comte de Frontenac. I am indebted to Abbé Bois of
+Maskinongé for a copy of this will. Frontenac expresses a wish that the
+heart should be placed in the family tomb at the Church of St. Nicolas
+des Champs.
+
+On the Friday after his death, he was buried as he had directed, not in
+the cathedral, but in the church of the Récollets, a preference deeply
+offensive to many of the clergy. The bishop officiated; and then the
+Récollet, Father Goyer, who had attended his death-bed, and seems to have
+been his confessor, mounted the pulpit, and delivered his funeral
+oration. "This funeral pageantry," exclaimed the orator, "this temple
+draped in mourning, these dim lights, this sad and solemn music, this
+great assembly bowed in sorrow, and all this pomp and circumstance of
+death, may well penetrate your hearts. I will not seek to dry your tears,
+for I cannot contain my own. After all, this is a time to weep, and never
+did people weep for a better governor."
+
+A copy of this eulogy fell into the hands of an enemy of Frontenac, who
+wrote a running commentary upon it. The copy thus annotated is still
+preserved at Quebec. A few passages from the orator and his critic will
+show the violent conflict of opinion concerning the governor, and
+illustrate in some sort, though with more force than fairness, the
+contradictions of his character:--
+
+The Orator. "This wise man, to whom the Senate of Venice listened with
+respectful attention, because he spoke before them with all the force of
+that eloquence which you, Messieurs, have so often admired,--" [6]
+
+[6] Alluding to an incident that occurred when Frontenac commanded a
+Venetian force for the defence of Candia against the Turks.
+
+The Critic. "It was not his eloquence that they admired, but his
+extravagant pretensions, his bursts of rage, and his unworthy treatment
+of those who did not agree with him."
+
+The Orator. "This disinterested man, more busied with duty than with
+gain,--"
+
+The Critic. "The less said about that the better."
+
+The Orator. "Who made the fortune of others, but did not increase his
+own,--"
+
+The Critic. "Not for want of trying, and that very often in spite of his
+conscience and the king's orders."
+
+The Orator. "Devoted to the service of his king, whose majesty he
+represented, and whose person he loved,--"
+
+The Critic. "Not at all. How often has he opposed his orders, even with
+force and violence, to the great scandal of everybody!"
+
+The Orator. "Great in the midst of difficulties, by that consummate
+prudence, that solid judgment, that presence of mind, that breadth and
+elevation of thought, which he retained to the last moment of his
+life,--"
+
+The Critic. "He had in fact a great capacity for political manœuvres and
+tricks; but as for the solid judgment ascribed to him, his conduct gives
+it the lie, or else, if he had it, the vehemence of his passions often
+unsettled it. It is much to be feared that his presence of mind was the
+effect of an obstinate and hardened self-confidence by which he put
+himself above everybody and every thing, since he never used it to
+repair, so far as in him lay, the public and private wrongs he caused.
+What ought he not to have done here, in this temple, to ask pardon for
+the obstinate and furious heat with which he so long persecuted the
+Church; upheld and even instigated rebellion against her; protected
+libertines, scandal-mongers, and creatures of evil life against the
+ministers of Heaven; molested, persecuted, vexed persons most eminent in
+virtue, nay, even the priests and magistrates, who defended the cause of
+God; sustained in all sorts of ways the wrongful and scandalous traffic
+in brandy with the Indians; permitted, approved, and supported the
+license and abuse of taverns; authorized and even introduced, in spite of
+the remonstrances of the servants of God, criminal and dangerous
+diversions; tried to decry the bishop and the clergy, the missionaries,
+and other persons of virtue, and to injure them, both here and in France,
+by libels and calumnies; caused, in fine, either by himself or through
+others, a multitude of disorders, under which this infant church has
+groaned for many years! What, I say, ought he not to have done before
+dying to atone for these scandals, and give proof of sincere penitence
+and compunction? God gave him full time to recognize his errors, and yet
+to the last he showed a great indifference in all these matters. When, in
+presence of the Holy Sacrament, he was asked according to the ritual, 'Do
+you not beg pardon for all the ill examples you may have given?' he
+answered, 'Yes,' but did not confess that he had ever given any. In a
+word, he behaved during the few days before his death like one who had
+led an irreproachable life, and had nothing to fear. And this is the
+presence of mind that he retained to his last moment!"
+
+The Orator. "Great in dangers by his courage, he always came off with
+honor, and never was reproached with rashness,--"
+
+The Critic. "True; he was not rash, as was seen when the Bostonnais
+besieged Quebec."
+
+The Orator. "Great in religion by his piety, he practised its good works
+in spirit and in truth,--"
+
+The Critic. "Say rather that he practised its forms with parade and
+ostentation: witness the inordinate ambition with which he always claimed
+honors in the Church, to which he had no right; outrageously affronted
+intendants, who opposed his pretensions; required priests to address him
+when preaching, and in their intercourse with him demanded from them
+humiliations which he did not exact from the meanest military officer.
+This was his way of making himself great in religion and piety, or, more
+truly, in vanity and hypocrisy. How can a man be called great in
+religion, when he openly holds opinions entirely opposed to the True
+Faith, such as, that all men are predestined, that Hell will not last for
+ever, and the like?"
+
+The Orator. "His very look inspired esteem and confidence,--"
+
+The Critic. "Then one must have taken him at exactly the right moment,
+and not when he was foaming at the mouth with rage."
+
+The Orator. "A mingled air of nobility and gentleness; a countenance that
+bespoke the probity that appeared in all his acts, and a sincerity that
+could not dissimulate,--"
+
+The Critic. "The eulogist did not know the old fox."
+
+The Orator. "An inviolable fidelity to friends,--"
+
+The Critic. "What friends? Was it persons of the other sex? Of these he
+was always fond, and too much for the honor of some of them."
+
+The Orator. "Disinterested for himself, ardent for others, he used his
+credit at court only to recommend their services, excuse their faults,
+and obtain favors for them,--"
+
+The Critic. "True; but it was for his creatures and for nobody else."
+
+The Orator. "I pass in silence that reading of spiritual books which he
+practised as an indispensable duty more than forty years; that holy
+avidity with which he listened to the word of God,--"
+
+The Critic. "Only if the preacher addressed the sermon to him, and called
+him Monseigneur. As for his reading, it was often Jansenist books, of
+which he had a great many, and which he greatly praised and lent freely
+to others."
+
+The Orator. "He prepared for the sacraments by meditation and retreat,--"
+
+The Critic. "And generally came out of his retreat more excited than ever
+against the Church."
+
+The Orator. "Let us not recall his ancient and noble descent, his family
+connected with all that is greatest in the army, the magistracy, and the
+government; Knights, Marshals of France, Governors of Provinces, Judges,
+Councillors, and Ministers of State: let us not, I say, recall all these
+without remembering that their examples roused this generous heart to
+noble emulation; and, as an expiring flame grows brighter as it dies, so
+did all the virtues of his race unite at last in him to end with glory a
+long line of great men, that shall be no more except in history."
+
+The Critic. "Well laid on, and too well for his hearers to believe him.
+Far from agreeing that all these virtues were collected in the person of
+his pretended hero, they would find it very hard to admit that he had
+even one of them." [7]
+
+[7] Oraison Funèbre du très-haut et très-puissant Seigneur Louis de
+Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, etc., avec des remarques
+critiques, 1698. That indefatigable investigator of Canadian history, the
+late M. Jacques Viger, to whom I am indebted for a copy of this eulogy,
+suggested that the anonymous critic may have been Abbé la Tour, author of
+the Vie de Laval. If so, his statements need the support of more
+trustworthy evidence. The above extracts are not consecutive, but are
+taken from various parts of the manuscript.
+
+It is clear enough from what quiver these arrows came. From the first,
+Frontenac had set himself in opposition to the most influential of the
+Canadian clergy. When he came to the colony, their power in the
+government was still enormous, and even the most devout of his
+predecessors had been forced into conflict with them to defend the civil
+authority; but, when Frontenac entered the strife, he brought into it an
+irritability, a jealous and exacting vanity, a love of rule, and a
+passion for having his own way, even in trifles, which made him the most
+exasperating of adversaries. Hence it was that many of the clerical party
+felt towards him a bitterness that was far from ending with his life.
+
+The sentiment of a religion often survives its convictions. However
+heterodox in doctrine, he was still wedded to the observances of the
+Church, and practised them, under the ministration of the Récollets, with
+an assiduity that made full amends to his conscience for the vivacity
+with which he opposed the rest of the clergy. To the Récollets their
+patron was the most devout of men; to his ultramontane adversaries, he
+was an impious persecutor.
+
+His own acts and words best paint his character, and it is needless to
+enlarge upon it. What perhaps may be least forgiven him is the barbarity
+of the warfare that he waged, and the cruelties that he permitted. He had
+seen too many towns sacked to be much subject to the scruples of modern
+humanitarianism; yet he was no whit more ruthless than his times and his
+surroundings, and some of his contemporaries find fault with him for not
+allowing more Indian captives to be tortured. Many surpassed him in
+cruelty, none equalled him in capacity and vigor. When civilized enemies
+were once within his power, he treated them, according to their degree,
+with a chivalrous courtesy, or a generous kindness. If he was a hot and
+pertinacious foe, he was also a fast friend; and he excited love and
+hatred in about equal measure. His attitude towards public enemies was
+always proud and peremptory, yet his courage was guided by so clear a
+sagacity that he never was forced to recede from the position he had
+taken. Towards Indians, he was an admirable compound of sternness and
+conciliation. Of the immensity of his services to the colony there can be
+no doubt. He found it, under Denonville, in humiliation and terror; and
+he left it in honor, and almost in triumph.
+
+In spite of Father Goyer, greatness must be denied him; but a more
+remarkable figure, in its bold and salient individuality and sharply
+marked light and shadow, is nowhere seen in American history. [8]
+
+[8] There is no need to exaggerate the services of Frontenac. Nothing
+could be more fallacious than the assertion, often repeated, that in his
+time Canada withstood the united force of all the British colonies. Most
+of these colonies took no part whatever in the war. Only two of them took
+an aggressive part, New York and Massachusetts. New York attacked Canada
+twice, with the two inconsiderable war-parties of John Schuyler in 1690
+and of Peter Schuyler in the next year. The feeble expedition under
+Winthrop did not get beyond Lake George. Massachusetts, or rather her
+seaboard towns, attacked Canada once. Quebec, it is true, was kept in
+alarm during several years by rumors of another attack from the same
+quarter; but no such danger existed, as Massachusetts was exhausted by
+her first effort. The real scourge of Canada was the Iroquois, supplied
+with arms and ammunition from Albany.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+1699-1701.
+
+Conclusion.
+
+The New Governor • Attitude of the Iroquois • Negotiations • Embassy to
+Onondaga • Peace • The Iroquois and the Allies • Difficulties • Death of
+the Great Huron • Funeral Rites • The Grand Council • The Work of
+Frontenac finished • Results.
+
+It did not need the presence of Frontenac to cause snappings and sparks
+in the highly electrical atmosphere of New France. Callières took his
+place as governor ad interim, and in due time received a formal
+appointment to the office. Apart from the wretched state of his health,
+undermined by gout and dropsy, he was in most respects well fitted for
+it; but his deportment at once gave umbrage to the excitable Champigny,
+who declared that he had never seen such hauteur since he came to the
+colony. Another official was still more offended. "Monsieur de
+Frontenac," he says, "was no sooner dead than trouble began. Monsieur de
+Callières, puffed up by his new authority, claims honors due only to a
+marshal of France. It would be a different matter if he, like his
+predecessor, were regarded as the father of the country, and the love and
+delight of the Indian allies. At the review at Montreal, he sat in his
+carriage, and received the incense offered him with as much composure and
+coolness as if he had been some divinity of this New World." In spite of
+these complaints, the court sustained Callières, and authorized him to
+enjoy the honors that he had assumed. [1]
+
+[1] Champigny au Ministre, 26 Mai, 1699; La Potherie au Ministre, 2 Juin,
+1699; Vaudreuil et La Potherie au Ministre, même date.
+
+His first and chief task was to finish the work that Frontenac had shaped
+out, and bring the Iroquois to such submission as the interests of the
+colony and its allies demanded. The fierce confederates admired the late
+governor, and, if they themselves are to be believed, could not help
+lamenting him; but they were emboldened by his death, and the difficulty
+of dealing with them was increased by it. Had they been sure of effectual
+support from the English, there can be little doubt that they would have
+refused to treat with the French, of whom their distrust was extreme. The
+treachery of Denonville at Fort Frontenac still rankled in their hearts,
+and the English had made them believe that some of their best men had
+lately been poisoned by agents from Montreal. The French assured them, on
+the other hand, that the English meant to poison them, refuse to sell
+them powder and lead, and then, when they were helpless, fall upon and
+destroy them. At Montreal, they were told that the English called them
+their negroes; and, at Albany, that if they made peace with Onontio, they
+would sink into "perpetual infamy and slavery." Still, in spite of their
+perplexity, they persisted in asserting their independence of each of the
+rival powers, and played the one against the other, in order to
+strengthen their position with both. When Bellomont required them to
+surrender their French prisoners to him, they answered: "We are the
+masters; our prisoners are our own. We will keep them or give them to the
+French, if we choose." At the same time, they told Callières that they
+would bring them to the English at Albany, and invited him to send
+thither his agents to receive them. They were much disconcerted, however,
+when letters were read to them which showed that, pending the action of
+commissioners to settle the dispute, the two kings had ordered their
+respective governors to refrain from all acts of hostility, and join
+forces, if necessary, to compel the Iroquois to keep quiet. [2] This,
+with their enormous losses, and their desire to recover their people held
+captive in Canada, led them at last to serious thoughts of peace.
+Resolving at the same time to try the temper of the new Onontio, and
+yield no more than was absolutely necessary, they sent him but six
+ambassadors, and no prisoners. The ambassadors marched in single file to
+the place of council; while their chief, who led the way, sang a dismal
+song of lamentation for the French slain in the war, calling on them to
+thrust their heads above ground, behold the good work of peace, and
+banish every thought of vengeance. Callières proved, as they had hoped,
+less inexorable than Frontenac. He accepted their promises, and consented
+to send for the prisoners in their hands, on condition that within
+thirty-six days a full deputation of their principal men should come to
+Montreal. The Jesuit Bruyas, the Canadian Maricourt, and a French officer
+named Joncaire went back with them to receive the prisoners.
+
+[2] Le Roy à Frontenac, 25 Mars, 1699. Frontenac's death was not known at
+Versailles till April. Le Roy d' Angleterre à Bellomont, 2 Avril, 1699;
+La Potherie, IV. 128; Callières à Bellomont, 7 Août, 1699.
+
+The history of Joncaire was a noteworthy one. The Senecas had captured
+him some time before, tortured his companions to death, and doomed him to
+the same fate. As a preliminary torment, an old chief tried to burn a
+finger of the captive in the bowl of his pipe, on which Joncaire knocked
+him down. If he had begged for mercy, their hearts would have been flint;
+but the warrior crowd were so pleased with this proof of courage that
+they adopted him as one of their tribe, and gave him an Iroquois wife. He
+lived among them for many years, and gained a commanding influence, which
+proved very useful to the French. When he, with Bruyas and Maricourt,
+approached Onondaga, which had long before risen from its ashes, they
+were greeted with a fusillade of joy, and regaled with the sweet stalks
+of young maize, followed by the more substantial refreshment of venison
+and corn beaten together into a pulp and boiled. The chiefs and elders
+seemed well inclined to peace; and, though an envoy came from Albany to
+prevent it, he behaved with such arrogance that, far from dissuading his
+auditors, he confirmed them in their resolve to meet Onontio at Montreal.
+They seemed willing enough to give up their French prisoners, but an
+unexpected difficulty arose from the prisoners themselves. They had been
+adopted into Iroquois families; and, having become attached to the Indian
+life, they would not leave it. Some of them hid in the woods to escape
+their deliverers, who, with their best efforts, could collect but
+thirteen, all women, children, and boys. With these, they returned to
+Montreal, accompanied by a peace embassy of nineteen Iroquois.
+
+Peace, then, was made. "I bury the hatchet," said Callières, "in a deep
+hole, and over the hole I place a great rock, and over the rock I turn a
+river, that the hatchet may never be dug up again." The famous Huron,
+Kondiaronk, or the Rat, was present, as were also a few Ottawas,
+Abenakis, and converts of the Saut and the Mountain. Sharp words passed
+between them and the ambassadors; but at last they all laid down their
+hatchets at the feet of Onontio, and signed the treaty together. It was
+but a truce, and a doubtful one. More was needed to confirm it, and the
+following August was named for a solemn act of ratification. [3]
+
+[3] On these negotiations, La Potherie, IV. lettre xi.; N. Y. Col. Docs.,
+IX. 708, 711, 715; Colden, 200; Callières au Ministre, 16 Oct., 1700;
+Champigny au Ministre, 22 Juillet, 1700; La Potherie au Ministre, 11
+Aout, 1700; Ibid., 16 Oct., 1700; Callières et Champigny au Ministre, 18
+Oct., 1700. See also N. Y. Col. Docs., IV., for a great number of English
+documents bearing on the subject.
+
+Father Engelran was sent to Michillimackinac, while Courtemanche spent
+the winter and spring in toilsome journeyings among the tribes of the
+west. Such was his influence over them that he persuaded them all to give
+up their Iroquois prisoners, and send deputies to the grand council.
+Engelran had had scarcely less success among the northern tribes; and
+early in July a great fleet of canoes, conducted by Courtemanche, and
+filled with chiefs, warriors, and Iroquois prisoners, paddled down the
+lakes for Montreal. Meanwhile Bruyas, Maricourt, and Joncaire had
+returned on the same errand to the Iroquois towns; but, so far as
+concerned prisoners, their success was no greater than before. Whether
+French or Indian, the chiefs were slow to give them up, saying that they
+had all been adopted into families who would not part with them unless
+consoled for the loss by gifts. This was true; but it was equally true of
+the other tribes, whose chiefs had made the necessary gifts, and
+recovered the captive Iroquois. Joncaire and his colleagues succeeded,
+however, in leading a large deputation of chiefs and elders to Montreal.
+
+Courtemanche with his canoe fleet from the lakes was not far behind; and
+when their approach was announced, the chronicler, La Potherie, full of
+curiosity, went to meet them at the mission village of the Saut. First
+appeared the Iroquois, two hundred in all, firing their guns as their
+canoes drew near, while the mission Indians, ranged along the shore,
+returned the salute. The ambassadors were conducted to a capacious lodge,
+where for a quarter of an hour they sat smoking with immovable composure.
+Then a chief of the mission made a speech, and then followed a feast of
+boiled dogs. In the morning they descended the rapids to Montreal, and in
+due time the distant roar of the saluting cannon told of their arrival.
+
+They had scarcely left the village, when the river was covered with the
+canoes of the western and northern allies. There was another fusillade of
+welcome as the heterogeneous company landed, and marched to the great
+council-house. The calumet was produced, and twelve of the assembled
+chiefs sang a song, each rattling at the same time a dried gourd half
+full of peas. Six large kettles were next brought in, containing several
+dogs and a bear suitably chopped to pieces, which being ladled out to the
+guests were despatched in an instant, and a solemn dance and a supper of
+boiled corn closed the festivity.
+
+The strangers embarked again on the next day, and the cannon of Montreal
+greeted them as they landed before the town. A great quantity of
+evergreen boughs had been gathered for their use, and of these they made
+their wigwams outside the palisades. Before the opening of the grand
+council, a multitude of questions must be settled, jealousies soothed,
+and complaints answered. Callières had no peace. He was busied for a week
+in giving audience to the deputies. There was one question which agitated
+them all, and threatened to rekindle the war. Kondiaronk, the Rat, the
+foremost man among all the allied tribes, gave utterance to the general
+feeling: "My father, you told us last autumn to bring you all the
+Iroquois prisoners in our hands. We have obeyed, and brought them. Now
+let us see if the Iroquois have also obeyed, and brought you our people
+whom they captured during the war. If they have done so, they are
+sincere; if not, they are false. But I know that they have not brought
+them. I told you last year that it was better that they should bring
+heir prisoners first. You see now how it is, and how they have deceived
+us."
+
+The complaint was just, and the situation became critical. The Iroquois
+deputies were invited to explain themselves. They stalked into the
+council-room with their usual haughty composure, and readily promised to
+surrender the prisoners in future, but offered no hostages for their good
+faith. The Rat, who had counselled his own and other tribes to bring
+their Iroquois captives to Montreal, was excessively mortified at finding
+himself duped. He came to a later meeting, when this and other matters
+were to be discussed; but he was so weakened by fever that he could not
+stand. An armchair was brought him; and, seated in it, he harangued the
+assembly for two hours, amid a deep silence, broken only by ejaculations
+of approval from his Indian hearers. When the meeting ended, he was
+completely exhausted; and, being carried in his chair to the hospital, he
+died about midnight. He was a great loss to the French; for, though he
+had caused the massacre of La Chine, his services of late years had been
+invaluable. In spite of his unlucky name, he was one of the ablest North
+American Indians on record, as appears by his remarkable influence over
+many tribes, and by the respect, not to say admiration, of his French
+contemporaries.
+
+The French charged themselves with the funeral rites, carried the dead
+chief to his wigwam, stretched him on a robe of beaver skin, and left him
+there lying in state, swathed in a scarlet blanket, with a kettle, a gun,
+and a sword at his side, for his use in the world of spirits. This was a
+concession to the superstition of his countrymen; for the Rat was a
+convert, and went regularly to mass. [4] Even the Iroquois, his deadliest
+foes, paid tribute to his memory. Sixty of them came in solemn
+procession, and ranged themselves around the bier; while one of their
+principal chiefs pronounced an harangue, in which he declared that the
+sun had covered his face that day in grief for the loss of the great
+Huron. [5] He was buried on the next morning. Saint-Ours, senior captain,
+led the funeral train with an escort of troops, followed by sixteen Huron
+warriors in robes of beaver skin, marching four and four, with faces
+painted black and guns reversed. Then came the clergy, and then six
+war-chiefs carrying the coffin. It was decorated with flowers, and on it
+lay a plumed hat, a sword, and a gorget. Behind it were the brother and
+sons of the dead chief, and files of Huron and Ottawa warriors; while
+Madame de Champigny, attended by Vaudreuil and all the military officers,
+closed the procession. After the service, the soldiers fired three
+volleys over the grave; and a tablet was placed upon it, carved with the
+words,--
+
+Cy git le Rat, Chef des Hurons.
+
+[4] La Potherie, IV. 229. Charlevoix suppresses the kettle and gun, and
+says that the dead chief wore a sword and a uniform, like a French
+officer. In fact, he wore Indian leggins and a capote under his scarlet
+blanket.
+
+[5] Charlevoix says that these were Christian Iroquois of the missions.
+Potherie, his only authority, proves them to have been heathen, as their
+chief mourner was a noted Seneca, and their spokesman, Avenano, was the
+accredited orator of the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, in
+whose name he made the funeral harangue.
+
+All this ceremony pleased the allied tribes, and helped to calm their
+irritation. Every obstacle being at length removed or smoothed over, the
+fourth of August was named for the grand council. A vast, oblong space
+was marked out on a plain near the town, and enclosed with a fence of
+branches. At one end was a canopy of boughs and leaves, under which were
+seats for the spectators. Troops were drawn up in line along the sides;
+the seats under the canopy were filled by ladies, officials, and the
+chief inhabitants of Montreal; Callières sat in front, surrounded by
+interpreters; and the Indians were seated on the grass around the open
+space. There were more than thirteen hundred of them, gathered from a
+distance of full two thousand miles, Hurons and Ottawas from
+Michillimackinac, Ojibwas from Lake Superior, Crees from the remote
+north, Pottawatamies from Lake Michigan, Mascontins, Sacs, Foxes,
+Winnebagoes, and Menominies from Wisconsin, Miamis from the St. Joseph,
+Illinois from the river Illinois, Abenakis from Acadia, and many allied
+hordes of less account; each savage painted with diverse hues and
+patterns, and each in his dress of ceremony, leathern shirts fringed with
+scalp-locks, colored blankets or robes of bison hide and beaver skin,
+bristling crests of hair or long lank tresses, eagle feathers or horns of
+beasts. Pre-eminent among them all sat their valiant and terrible foes,
+the warriors of the confederacy. "Strange," exclaims La Potherie, "that
+four or five thousand should make a whole new world tremble. New England
+is but too happy to gain their good graces; New France is often wasted by
+their wars, and our allies dread them over an extent of more than fifteen
+hundred leagues." It was more a marvel than he knew, for he greatly
+overrates their number.
+
+Callières opened the council with a speech, in which he told the assembly
+that, since but few tribes were represented at the treaty of the year
+before, he had sent for them all to ratify it; that he now threw their
+hatchets and his own into a pit so deep that nobody could find them; that
+henceforth they must live like brethren; and, if by chance one should
+strike another, the injured brother must not revenge the blow, but come
+for redress to him, Onontio, their common father. Nicolas Perrot and the
+Jesuits who acted as interpreters repeated the speech in five different
+languages; and, to confirm it, thirty-one wampum belts were given to the
+thirty-one tribes present. Then each tribe answered in turn. First came
+Hassaki, chief of an Ottawa band known as Cut Tails. He approached with a
+majestic air, his long robe of beaver skin trailing on the grass behind
+him. Four Iroquois captives followed, with eyes bent on the ground; and,
+when he stopped before the governor, they seated themselves at his feet.
+"You asked us for our prisoners," he said, "and here they are. I set them
+free because you wish it, and I regard them as my brothers." Then turning
+to the Iroquois deputies: "Know that if I pleased I might have eaten
+them; but I have not done as you would have done. Remember this when we
+meet, and let us be friends." The Iroquois ejaculated their approval.
+
+Next came a Huron chief, followed by eight Iroquois prisoners, who, as he
+declared, had been bought at great cost, in kettles, guns, and blankets,
+from the families who had adopted them. "We thought that the Iroquois
+would have done by us as we have done by them; and we were astonished to
+see that they had not brought us our prisoners. Listen to me, my father,
+and you, Iroquois, listen. I am not sorry to make peace, since my father
+wishes it, and I will live in peace with him and with you." Thus, in
+turn, came the spokesmen of all the tribes, delivering their prisoners
+and making their speeches. The Miami orator said: "I am very angry with
+the Iroquois, who burned my son some years ago; but to-day I forget all
+that. My father's will is mine. I will not be like the Iroquois, who have
+disobeyed his voice." The orator of the Mississagas came forward, crowned
+with the head and horns of a young bison bull, and, presenting his
+prisoners, said: "I place them in your hands. Do with them as you like. I
+am only too proud that you count me among your allies."
+
+The chief of the Foxes now rose from his seat at the farther end of the
+enclosure, and walked sedately across the whole open space towards the
+stand of spectators. His face was painted red, and he wore an old French
+wig, with its abundant curls in a state of complete entanglement. When he
+reached the chair of the governor, he bowed, and lifted the wig like a
+hat, to show that he was perfect in French politeness. There was a burst
+of laughter from the spectators; but Callières, with ceremonious gravity,
+begged him to put it on again, which he did, and proceeded with his
+speech, the pith of which was briefly as follows: "The darkness is gone,
+the sun shines bright again, and now the Iroquois is my brother."
+
+Then came a young Algonquin war-chief, dressed like a Canadian, but
+adorned with a drooping red feather and a tall ridge of hair like the
+crest of a cock. It was he who slew Black Kettle, that redoubted Iroquois
+whose loss filled the confederacy with mourning, and who exclaimed as he
+fell, "Must I, who have made the whole earth tremble, now die by the hand
+of a child!" The young chief spoke concisely and to the purpose: "I am
+not a man of counsel: it is for me to listen to your words. Peace has
+come, and now let us forget the past."
+
+When he and all the rest had ended, the orator of the Iroquois strode to
+the front, and in brief words gave in their adhesion to the treaty.
+"Onontio, we are pleased with all you have done, and we have listened to
+all you have said. We assure you by these four belts of wampum that we
+will stand fast in our obedience. As for the prisoners whom we have not
+brought you, we place them at your disposal, and you will send and fetch
+them."
+
+The calumet was lighted. Callières, Champigny, and Vaudreuil drew the
+first smoke, then the Iroquois deputies, and then all the tribes in turn.
+The treaty was duly signed, the representative of each tribe affixing his
+mark, in the shape of some bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect, plant, or
+nondescript object.
+
+"Thus," says La Potherie, "the labors of the late Count Frontenac were
+brought to a happy consummation." The work of Frontenac was indeed
+finished, though not as he would have finished it. Callières had told the
+Iroquois that till they surrendered their Indian prisoners he would keep
+in his own hands the Iroquois prisoners surrendered by the allied tribes.
+To this the spokesman of the confederacy coolly replied: "Such a proposal
+was never made since the world began. Keep them, if you like. We will go
+home, and think no more about them; but, if you gave them to us without
+making trouble, and gave us our son Joncaire at the same time, we should
+have no reason to distrust your sincerity, and should all be glad to send
+you back the prisoners we took from your allies." Callières yielded,
+persuaded the allies to agree to the conditions, gave up the prisoners,
+and took an empty promise in return. It was a triumph for the Iroquois,
+who meant to keep their Indian captives, and did in fact keep nearly all
+of them. [6]
+
+[6] The council at Montreal is described at great length by La Potherie,
+a spectator. There is a short official report of the various speeches, of
+which a translation will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 722. Callières
+himself gives interesting details. (Callières au Ministre, 4 Oct., 1701.)
+A great number of papers on Indian affairs at this time will be found in
+N. Y. Col. Docs., IV.
+
+Joncaire went for the prisoners whom the Iroquois had promised to give
+up, and could get but six of them. Callières au Ministre, 31 Oct., 1701.
+The rest were made Iroquois by adoption.
+
+According to an English official estimate made at the end of the war, the
+Iroquois numbered 2,550 warriors in 1689, and only 1,230 in 1698. N. Y.
+Col. Docs., IV. 420. In 1701, a French writer estimates them at only
+1,200 warriors. In other words, their strength was reduced at least one
+half. They afterwards partially recovered it by the adoption of
+prisoners, and still more by the adoption of an entire kindred tribe, the
+Tuscaroras. In 1720, the English reckon them at 2,000 warriors. N. Y. Col
+Docs., V. 557.
+
+The chief objects of the late governor were gained. The power of the
+Iroquois was so far broken that they were never again very formidable to
+the French. Canada had confirmed her Indian alliances, and rebutted the
+English claim to sovereignty over the five tribes, with all the
+consequences that hung upon it. By the treaty of Ryswick, the great
+questions at issue in America were left to the arbitrament of future
+wars; and meanwhile, as time went on, the policy of Frontenac developed
+and ripened. Detroit was occupied by the French, the passes of the west
+were guarded by forts, another New France grew up at the mouth of the
+Mississippi, and lines of military communication joined the Gulf of
+Mexico with the Gulf of St. Lawrence; while the colonies of England lay
+passive between the Alleghanies and the sea till roused by the trumpet
+that sounded with wavering notes on many a bloody field to peal at last
+in triumph from the Heights of Abraham.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+The Family of Frontenac.
+
+Count Frontenac's grandfather was
+
+Antoine de Buade, Seigneur de Frontenac, Baron de Palluau, Conseiller
+d'État, Chevalier des Ordres du Roy, son premier maître d'hôtel, et
+gouverneur de St. Germain-en-Laye. By Jeanne Secontat, his wife, he had,
+among other children,
+
+Henri de Buade, Chevalier, Baron de Palluau et mestre de camp (colonel)
+du régiment de Navarre, who, by his wife Anne Phélippeaux, daughter of
+Raymond Phélippeaux, Secretary of State, had, among other children,
+
+LOUIS DE BUADE, Comte de Palluau et Frontenac, Seigneur de l'Isle-Savary,
+mestre de camp du régiment de Normandie, maréchal de camp dans les armées
+du Roy, et gouverneur et lieutenant général en Canada, Acadie, Isle de
+Terreneuve, et autres pays de la France septentrionale. Louis de Buade
+had by his wife, Anne de La Grange-Trianon, one son, François Louis,
+killed in Germany, while in the service of the king, and leaving no
+issue.
+
+The foregoing is drawn from a comparison of the following authorities,
+all of which will be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, where
+the examination was made: Mémoires de Marolles, abbé de Villeloin, II.
+201; L'Hermite-Souliers, Histoire Généalogique de la Noblesse de
+Touraine; Du Chesne, Recherches Historiques de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit;
+Morin, Statuts de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit; Marolles de Villeloin,
+Histoire des Anciens Comtes d'Anjou; Père Anselme, Grands Officiers de la
+Couronne; Pinard, Chronologie Historique-militaire; Table de la Gazette
+de France. In this matter of the Frontenac genealogy, I am much indebted
+to the kind offices of my friend, James Gordon Clarke, Esq.
+
+When, in 1600, Henry IV. was betrothed to Marie de Medicis, Frontenac,
+grandfather of the governor of Canada, described as "ung des plus antiens
+serviteurs du roy," was sent to Florence by the king to carry his
+portrait to his affianced bride. Mémoires de Philippe Hurault, 448
+(Petitot).
+
+The appointment of Frontenac to the post, esteemed as highly honorable,
+of maître d'hôtel in the royal household, immediately followed. There is
+a very curious book, the journal of Jean Héroard, a physician charged
+with the care of the infant Dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII., born in
+1601. It records every act of the future monarch: his screaming and
+kicking in the arms of his nurses, his refusals to be washed and dressed,
+his resistance when his hair was combed; how he scratched his governess,
+and called her names; how he quarrelled with the children of his father's
+mistresses, and at the age of four declined to accept them as brothers
+and sisters; how his mother slighted him; and how his father sometimes
+caressed, sometimes teased, and sometimes corrected him with his own
+hand. The details of the royal nursery are, we may add, astounding for
+their grossness; and the language and the manners amid which the infant
+monarch grew up were worthy of the days of Rabelais.
+
+Frontenac and his children appear frequently, and not unfavorably, on the
+pages of this singular diary. Thus, when the Dauphin was three years old,
+the king, being in bed, took him and a young Frontenac of about the same
+age, set them before him, and amused himself by making them rally each
+other in their infantile language. The infant Frontenac had a trick of
+stuttering, which the Dauphin caught from him, and retained for a long
+time. Again, at the age of five, the Dauphin, armed with a little gun,
+played at soldier with two of the Frontenac children in the hall at St.
+Germain. They assaulted a town, the rampart being represented by a
+balustrade before the fireplace. "The Dauphin," writes the journalist,
+"said that he would be a musketeer, and yet he spoke sharply to the
+others who would not do as he wished. The king said to him, 'My boy, you
+are a musketeer, but you speak like a general.'" Long after, when the
+Dauphin was in his fourteenth year, the following entry occurs in the
+physician's diary:--
+
+St. Germain, Sunday, 22d (July, 1614). "He (the Dauphin) goes to the
+chapel of the terrace, then mounts his horse and goes to find M. de
+Souvré and M. de Frontenac, whom he surprises as they were at breakfast
+at the small house near the quarries. At half past one, he mounts again,
+in hunting boots; goes to the park with M. de Frontenac as a guide,
+chases a stag, and catches him. It was his first stag-hunt."
+
+Of Henri de Buade, father of the governor of Canada, but little is
+recorded. When in Paris, he lived, like his son after him, on the Quai
+des Célestins, in the parish of St. Paul. His son, Count Frontenac, was
+born in 1620, seven years after his father's marriage. Apparently his
+birth took place elsewhere than in Paris, for it is not recorded with
+those of Henri de Buade's other children, on the register of St. Paul
+(Jal, Dictionnaire Critique, Biographique, et d'Histoire). The story told
+by Tallemant des Réaux concerning his marriage (see page 6) seems to be
+mainly true. Colonel Jal says: "On conçoit que j'ai pu être tenté de
+connaître ce qu'il y a de vrai dans les récits de Saint-Simon et de
+Tallemant des Réaux; voici ce qu'après bien des recherches, j'ai pu
+apprendre. Mlle. La Grange fit, en effet, un mariage à demi secret. Ce ne
+fut point à sa paroisse que fut bénie son union avec M. de Frontenac,
+mais dans une des petites églises de la Cité qui avaient le privilège de
+recevoir les amants qui s'unissaient malgré leurs parents, et ceux qui
+regularisaient leur position et s'épousaient un peu avant--quelquefois
+après--la naissance d'un enfant. Ce fut à St. Pierre-aux-Bœufs que, le
+mercredy, 28 Octobre, 1648, 'Messire Louis de Buade, Chevalier, comte de
+Frontenac, conseiller du Roy en ses conseils, mareschal des camps et
+armées de S. M., et maistre de camp du régiment du Normandie,' épousa
+'demoiselle Anne de La Grange, fille de Messire Charles de La Grange,
+conseiller du Roy et maistre des comptes' de la paroisse de St. Paul
+comme M. de Frontenac, 'en vertu de la dispense ... obtenue de M.
+l'official de Paris par laquelle il est permis au Sr. de Buade et
+demoiselle de La Grange de célébrer leur marriage suyvant et conformément
+à la permission qu'ils en ont obtenue du Sr. Coquerel, vicaire de St.
+Paul, devant le premier curé ou vicaire sur ce requis, en gardant les
+solennités en ce cas requises et accoutumées.'" Jal then gives the
+signatures to the act of marriage, which, except that of the bride, are
+all of the Frontenac family.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+A.
+
+Abenakis, Indians of Acadia and Maine, 220, 221, 228, 310, 368; attack
+the Christian Iroquois, 234; their domain, 338; missions, 339; incited
+against the English colonists, 348; attack on York, 349; visit Villebon
+at St. John, 351, 352; their attack on Wells, 353; is foiled, 355;
+treaty with the English at Pemaquid, 360; are won back by the French,
+361-363; influenced by missionary priests, 374-376.
+Acadia (Nova Scotia and westward to the Kennebec) exposed to in-roads
+from New England, 117, 335; the war in, 335-368; the region, 337-339;
+relations with New England, 340; hostilities, 342; Villebon governor;
+border war, 347, 353-363, New England attacks, 373.
+Albany, an Indian mart, 75; Indian council there, 90, 120; Iroquois
+summoned thither by Dongan, 158; by Schuyler, 399; expedition against
+Montreal, 246.
+Albany, Fort, on Hudson's Bay, taken by Canadians, 134.
+Albemarle, Duke of, aids Phips, 242.
+Alliance, triple, of Indians and English, 197.
+Amours, councillor at Quebec, imprisoned by Frontenac, 51-54; (see 247).
+Andros, Sir Edmund, appointed colonial governor, 164; his jurisdiction,
+165; plunders Castine, 221; is deposed, 223; at Pentegoet, 346.
+Auteuil, attorney-general of Canada, an enemy of Frontenac, 47, 247;
+banished, 49.
+Avaux, Count d', French envoy at London, 135.
+
+
+B.
+
+Bastile, confinement of Perrot, 41.
+Baugis, Chevalier de, sent by La Barre to seize Fort St. Louis, 86.
+Beaucour, 299.
+Bellefonds, Maréchal de, a friend of Frontenac at court, 59.
+Bellomont, Earl of, governor of New York, 423; corresponds with
+Frontenac, 423-426.
+Belmont, Abbé, cited, 102 n., 154.
+Bernières, vicar of Laval in Canada, 38.
+Bienville, François de, 288.
+Big Mouth, an Iroquois chief, 95, 98, 105, 114, 141; his speech in
+defiance of La Barre, 107-109; his power in the confederacy, 170;
+defiance of Denonville, 172.
+Bigot, Jacques and Vincent, Jesuits, 220-222; in Acadia, 375, 378.
+Bishop of Canada, see Laval, Saint-Vallier.
+Bizard, Lieutenant, despatched by Frontenac to Montreal, 31.
+Boisseau, his quarrel at Quebec, 63.
+Boston, after the failure at Quebec, 284, 295; plan of attack on,
+382-384.
+Bounties on scalps, &c., 298.
+Bradstreet, at the age of eighty-seven, made governor after Andros at
+Boston, 223.
+Bretonvilliers, superior of Jesuits, 42.
+Brucy, a lieutenant, agent of Perrot, his traffic with Indians, 28, 34.
+Bruyas, a Jesuit interpreter, 105.
+
+
+C.
+
+Cadillac, 324; at Michillimackinac, 403, 406.
+Callières, governor of Montreal, 150, 153; his scheme for conquering the
+English colonies, 187; comes to the defence of Quebec, 259, 270, 279; at
+La Prairie, 290; quarrel with the bishop, 329-331; in the Onondaga
+expedition, 410, 412, 416; succeeds Frontenac as governor, 438; treats
+with the Iroquois, 440; conference at Montreal, and treaty, 447-451.
+Canada, character of its colonial rule, 20; its condition under
+Denonville, 165-168; Iroquois invasion, 177-182 (see 286, 294, 301).
+Cannehoot, a Seneca chief, 197.
+Cannibalism of the Indians, 112, 153, 206, 404.
+Carheil, a Jesuit, at Michillimackinac, 201.
+Carion, an officer of Perrot, 30; arrested by Frontenac, 31.
+Casco Bay, garrison at, 223; defeat of Indians, 226; the garrison
+overcome and slaughtered, 228-231.
+Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac), 109.
+Champigny, intendant of Canada, 136, 333; his treacherous seizure of
+Indians at Fort Frontenac, 139-142; at Quebec, 247; at Montreal, 252;
+defends himself, 296; relations with Frontenac, 319; a champion of the
+Jesuits, 322, 329; reconciled to Frontenac, 429; opposes Callières, 438.
+Chedabucto (Nova Scotia), Frontenac's rendezvous, 188; fortifications,
+336.
+Chesnaye (La), a trader of Quebec, 72, 102.
+Chesnaye, La, massacres at, 194, 301.
+Chubb (Pascho), commands at Pemaquid, 378; which he surrenders, 381.
+Cocheco (Dover, N. H.), attacked, 224.
+Colbert, minister of Louis XIV., his zeal for the French colonies, 15;
+despatches to Frontenac, 20, 41, 50, 59; instructions to Duchesneau, 44,
+46, 55.
+Converts, Indian, their piety, &c, 366 377 n., 386.
+Corlaer, the Iroquois name for the governor of New York, 93 n.. (see
+109, 138, 199); origin of the name, 217 n.
+Council at Quebec, hostile to Frontenac, 47, 49, 52, 248-251; alarmed at
+rumors of attack, 247.
+------at Onondaga, 196-200; at Montreal, 442-451.
+Courcelle, predecessor of Frontenac, 26.
+Coureurs de bois to be arrested, 29, 34; amnesty, 51; their influence
+with Frontenac, 57; the king's charge regarding them, 58; under Du Lhut,
+54, 99, 128, 144, 193; at Michillimackinac, 122; deserters, 125; in the
+Seneca expedition, 150; their license, 183; hardihood, 209.
+Cut Nose, an Iroquois convert, 195; his speech at the Onondaga council,
+197.
+
+
+D.
+
+Davis, Sylvanus, a trader, commanding at Fort Loyal, Casco Bay, 229; his
+surrender, 231; captivity, 232.
+Denonville, successor of La Barre as governor of Canada, 1685-1689;
+sails for Canada, 116; circumstances there; his character, 117; his
+instructions, 120; his intrigues, 121; correspondence with Dongan,
+123-128; threatens to attack Albany, 129; orders Du Lhut to shoot
+bush-rangers and deserters, 130; plans an expedition against the
+Iroquois, 136; musters the Canadian militia, 138; treacherously seizes a
+party of Indians, 140; arrives at Fort Frontenac, 144; at Irondequoit
+Bay, 148; march for the Seneca country, 149; battle in the woods, 152;
+his report of the battle, 153; destroys "the Babylon of the Senecas,"
+154; builds a fort on the Niagara, 155; further correspondence with
+Dongan, 159-161; sends an envoy to Albany, 162; abandons the Niagara
+fort, 166; begs for the return of Indian captives, 167; his wretched
+condition, 168; seeks a conference with the Iroquois, 170; who deceive
+him, and invade Canada, 177; horrors of the invasion, 178-182; he is
+recalled, and succeeded by Frontenac, 182; who finds him at Montreal,
+191; having ordered the destruction of Fort Frontenac, 192.
+Deserters, French, demanded by Denonville, 127; sheltered bv Dongan,
+129, 131.
+Detroit, 112; a fort built here by Du Lhut, 128; held by the French,
+452.
+Dongan (an Irish Catholic), governor of New Netherland, 89; holds an
+Indian council at Albany, 90-93; his rivalry with Canada, 119;
+complaints of Denonville, 120; their correspondence, 123-128; vindicates
+himself, 129; he sends Denonville some oranges, 130; his pacific
+instructions from England, 135; his wrath at the French attack on the
+Indian country, 158; is recalled, and replaced by Sir Edmund Andros,
+164.
+Dover, N. H. (Cocheco), attacked by Indians, 224.
+Duchesneau, sent as intendant to Quebec; sides with the clergy against
+Frontenac, 45; dispute as to the presidency of the council, 48-51;
+quarrel in the council, 53; his accusations against Frontenac, 54-58;
+Frontenac's complaints of him, 60-63; and violence to his son, 63, 64;
+Duchesneau recalled, 67.
+Du Lhut, a leader of coureurs de bois, 54, 56, 81, 99; rivalry with
+English traders of Hudson's Bay, 81; intrigues with Indians, 111; builds
+a fort near Detroit, 128; where he has a large force of French and
+Indians, 144, 147; leads attack on the Senecas, 150; defeats a party of
+Indians on the Ottawa, 193.
+Durantaye, La, at Niagara, 99; with Du Lhut at Michillimackinac, 111; at
+Detroit, 144; captures Rooseboom and McGregory, 146; commanding at
+Michillimackinac, sends bad news to Montreal, 201; is replaced by
+Louvigny, 203.
+D'Urfé, Abbé, a Canadian missionary, is ill received by Frontenac, 36;
+carries complaints of him to France, 40, 42.
+Dustan, Mrs., of Haverhill, her exploit, 385-387.
+Dutch traders instigate Iroquois against the French, 75; pursuit of the
+fur trade into their country, 89.
+
+
+E.
+
+Engelran, a Jesuit missionary at Michillimackinac, confers with
+Denonville, 121; his dealings with the Indians, 145, 159, 443; is
+wounded by the Senecas, 153.
+English colonies, designs of Louis XIV. for their destruction, 189.
+English colonists of New England invade Acadia, 117; their organization
+and policy compared with the French, 394-397; their military
+inefficiency, 408 (see New England).
+
+
+F.
+
+Famine (La), on Lake Ontario, visited bv La Barre, 104; the council,
+105-110; treaty of, 113, 117; treacherous attack here on the Iroquois by
+Kondiaronk (the Rat), 173-175.
+Fénelon, a zealous missionary priest at Montreal, 33; arraigned at
+Quebec by Frontenac, 36-38; is sent to France, 39; and forbidden to
+return, 42.
+Fletcher, governor of New York, his complaints of weakness and
+divisions, 408.
+Forest posts, their abuses and their value to the French, 419, 420.
+Fort, see Albany, Famine (La), Frontenac, Loyal, Niagara, St. Louis,
+Nelson.
+Fortifications of Canada, 297.
+Fox Indians, charged with cowardice, 112.
+French designs of colonization and conquest, 119; policy of conquest and
+massacre, 370-373; colonization, compared with English, 394-397;
+occupation of the Great West, 452.
+Frontenac, Count (Louis de Buade), governor of Canada, 1672-1682,
+1689-1698; at St. Fargeau, 4; his early life, 5; marriage, 6, 455; his
+quarrel at St. Fargeau, 7; his estate, 8; his vanity, 9; aids Venice at
+Candia; his appointment to command in New France, 11; at Quebec, 14;
+convokes the three estates, 17; his address, 18; form of government, 19;
+his merits and faults, 21; complains of the Jesuits, 22-25, 320-322;
+Fort Frontenac built and confided to La Salle, 27; dispute with Perrot,
+governor of Montreal, whom he throws into prison, 28-34; this leads to a
+quarrel with Abbé Fénelon and the priests, 35-38; Frontenac's relations
+with the clergy, 39; his instructions from the king and Colbert, 40-46;
+his hot temper, 44, 45; question of the presidency, 48-51; imprisonment
+of Amours, 51-54; disputes on the fur trade, and accusations of
+Duchesneau, 54-58; reproof from the king and Colbert, 58-60; complaints
+against Duchesneau, 60-63; arrest of his son, 64; relations with Perrot,
+65; with the Church, 68; with the Indians, 69, 254; his recall, 67;
+sails for France, 71; relations at this time with the Iroquois, 76-79;
+Frontenac is sent again to Canada, 186; scheme of invading New York,
+187; arrives at Chedabucto, 188; at Quebec and Montreal, 191; attempts
+to save the fort, 192; summons a conference of Indians, 195; the
+conference, 196-200; another failure, 201; message to the Lake Indians,
+203, 206; scheme of attack on English colonies, 208; Schenectady,
+211-219; Pemaquid, 224; Salmon Falls, 227; Casco Bay, 229; conference
+with Davis, 232; leads the war-dance, 254; defence of Quebec, 247-279;
+reply to Phips's summons, 267; begs troops from the king, 295;
+expedition against the Mohawks, 310-315; appeal to Ponchartrain,
+317-319, 320-322, 417; jealousies against him, 319; complaints of
+Champigny, 320; scheme of coast-attack, 357; treats with the Iroquois,
+397-399, 401, 421; his difficult position, 402; expedition against the
+Onondagas, 410-415, 421; his tardy reward, 417; his policy, 419-421;
+correspondence with Bellomont, 423-426; death and character, 428-436;
+the eulogist and the critic, 431-434; his administration, 436; account
+of his family, 453-456.
+Frontenac, Fort, 27, 78; La Barre's muster of troops, 85, 97; his
+arrival, 103; summons a council of Indians, 137; who are treacherously
+seized and made prisoners, 139-143 (see 162, 167, 170); expedition
+against the Senecas, 147-155; sickness, 166; visit of the Rat, 175; the
+fort destroyed by order of Denonville, 192; restored, 407, 416.
+Frontenac, Madame, her portrait at Versailles, 1; with Mlle. Montpensier
+at Orleans, 3, 7; surprised by her husband's visit, 4; dismissed by the
+princess, 10; her stay in Paris and death, 12, 13; serves Frontenac at
+the court, 320; is made his heir, 429.
+
+
+G.
+
+Galley-slaves, 140, 142.
+Ganneious, a mission village: Indians treacherously seized, 140.
+Garangula, 95 (see Big Mouth).
+Garrison houses described, 371.
+Glen, John S., at Schenectady, 213, 216, 217 n.
+Grignan, Count de, 12 n..
+
+
+H.
+
+Hayes, Fort (Hudson's Bay), seized, 133.
+Henry IV. of France, anecdotes of, 454.
+Hertel, Fr., commands an expedition against New Hampshire, 220, 227.
+Hontan (Baron La), 103, 105, 300; at Fort Frontenac, 139; his account of
+the attack on Quebec, 277.
+Howard, Lord (governor of Virginia), at Albany, 90.
+Hudson's Bay: English traders,117; attack on their posts by Troyes, 132,
+134; by Iberville, 391-393.
+Huguenots at Port Royal, 341.
+Huron converts, 24, 75, 255; at Michillimackinac, 205.
+Huron Indians inclined to the English, 118; at Michillimackinac, 205.
+
+
+I.
+
+Iberville, son of Le Moyne, 132; his military career, 388; attack on
+Newfoundland, 389-391; at Fort Nelson, 392.
+Illinois, tribe of, 78, 122.
+Indians: illustrations of their manners and customs, 24, 69, 94, 145,
+148, 150, 155, 253, 254, 448; graveyard, 154; their cannibalism, 97,
+112, 153, 181, 206, 313; torture, 181, 300; instigated by French, 205,
+356; great conference at Montreal, 442-451.
+Irondequoit Bay, 147; muster of Indians there, 148.
+Iroquois (Five Nations), 69, 74; their strength, 74, 79; policy, 75;
+craft, 82; pride, 92; offences against the French, 106, 169; Denonville
+seeks to chastise them, 122; approached by Dongan, 127; they distrust
+Denonville, 137; seizure at Fort Frontenac, 139; converts as allies,
+150, 156; claimed as subjects by Andres, 165; invasion of Canada, 168,
+177-181; seize the ruins of Fort Frontenac, 193; their inroads, 287;
+relations with Bellomont, 424; their suspicions of the French, 439;
+treat with Callières, 440; conference at Montreal, 442-451; their
+ill-faith, 445; their numbers, 452 n..
+
+
+J.
+
+James II., 119, 136; assumes protectorate over the Iroquois, 161; puts
+the colonies under command of Andros, 164; is deposed, 182.
+Jesuits in Canada, 17; Frontenac's charges, 22, 25, 39, 293; English
+suspicions, 90; protected by Denonville, 124; excluded by Dongan, 159;
+hostile to Frontenac, 191; during the attack on Quebec, 281; their
+intrigues, 331.
+Joncaire, his adventures among the Indians, 441, 443.
+
+
+K.
+
+Kinshon (the Fish), Indian name of New England, 199.
+Kondiaronk (the Rat), a Huron chief, 77; his craft, which brings on the
+Iroquois invasion, 173-176, 205; at Montreal, 442, 444; death and
+burial, 445-447; a Christian convert, 446.
+
+
+L.
+
+La Barre, governor of Canada, 1682-1684; finds Lower Quebec in ruins,
+72; his boasting, 79; proposes to attack the Senecas, 83; expedition to
+the Illinois; seizes Fort St. Louis, 86; campaign against the Senecas,
+99; charges of Meules, 101; council at Fort La Famine, 104-110; La
+Barre's speech, 106; embassy to the Upper Lakes, 111; wrath of the
+Ottawas, 113; is recalled, 115.
+La Chesnaye, partner of Duchesneau, 60; in favor with La Barre, 81;
+seizes Fort Frontenac, 82; his forest trade, 84 (see Chesnaye).
+La Chine, massacre of, 178.
+La Forêt, commander of Fort Frontenac, 81; returns to France, 82.
+La Grange, father-in-law of Frontenac, 5.
+Lake tribes, English alliance, 97; great gathering at Montreal, 252-255;
+conciliated by Frontenac, 315; their threatening attitude, 403; treaty
+with Callières, 447-451.
+Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary at Onondaga, 78, 95, 104;
+correspondence with La Barre, 96, 114; protected by Dongan, 125; in
+danger among the Iroquois, 137; escapes to Denonville, 142.
+La Motte-Cadillac (see Cadillac).
+La Plaque, a Christian Indian, 255, 256.
+La Prairie attacked by John Schuyler, 257; by Peter Schuvler, 289; his
+retreat, 291-293.
+La Salle, his relations with Frontenac, 27, 54; at Fort St. Louis, 75;
+which is seized by La Barre, 86.
+Laval, bishop of Canada, 23, 38, 45, 281.
+Leisler, Jacob, at Fort William, 212, 289.
+Le Moyne, mission to the Onondagas, 83, 104, 106, 288.
+Louis XIII., infancy of, 454.
+Louis XIV. admonishes Frontenac, 49, 55, 58; recalls La Barre, 115;
+supports Denonville, 119, 135; his reign, 184; designs respecting the
+English colonies, 189, 190; announces the treaty of Ryswick, 423.
+Loyal, Fort, at Casco Bay, 229, 230; surrenders to Portneuf, 231.
+
+
+M.
+
+Madeleine de Verchères, her heroism, 302-308.
+Madocawando, Penobscot chief, 345, 360, 363.
+Mareuil interdicted for play-acting, 325-328.
+Massachusetts, condition of the colony, 244, 285.
+Mather, 243, 246.
+McGregory, expedition to Lake Huron, 128, 147.
+Meneval, governor of Port Royal, 237; a prisoner at Boston, 240.
+Meules, intendant of Canada, 72; letter to La Barre, 99; representations
+to the king, 114; recalled, 136.
+Michigan, the country claimed by the English, 122.
+Michillimackinac, trouble there, 76; French stores threatened, 83, 84,
+87; expedition of Perrot, 111; threatened Indian hostilities, 121;
+Indian muster, 145; English traders seized, 146; craft of the Rat, 176;
+burning of an Iroquois prisoner, 205; in command of Cadillac, 331.
+Missionaries, French, among the Indians, 24, 68; to be protected
+(Denonville), 124, 163 n..; (Dongan), 126, 130, 160; instigate Indians
+to torture and kill their prisoners, 205; incite to murderous attacks,
+374.
+Mohawks, fear the French, 74; their settlements, 93; at Schenectady,
+212, 215; visit Albany, 218; mission village at Saut St. Louis, 309;
+expedition against the tribe, 310-315.
+Montespan, Mme., 12.
+Montpensier, Princess, 1; at Orleans, 2; her exile, 4; relations with
+Mme. Frontenac, 10 (see 12 n.).
+Montreal, condition under Perrot, 28, 65; arrests made by Perrot, 66;
+terror at the Iroquois invasion, 179, 191; threatened attack from New
+York, 236; condition of the country during the Indian invasions, 301;
+great gathering of traders and Indians, 316; great council of Indians,
+443-451.
+Mosquitoes, 103.
+Moyne, Le, 106, 208.
+
+
+N.
+
+Nelson, John, a prisoner at Quebec; warns the Massachusetts colony, 358.
+Nelson, Fort, on Hudson's Bay, 393.
+Nesmond (Marquis), to command in attack on Boston, 382, 384.
+New England colonies unfit for war, 244, 285, 394; relations with
+Canada, 373; frontier hostilities, 385.
+New Netherland, colony of, 89.
+New York, English colonies of; relations with the Iroquois, 75; claims
+to the western country, 117; intrigues with the Hurons, 118; trade with
+the north-west, 128; checked by La Durantaye, 146 (see Dongan);
+relations with Canada, 374.
+Niagara, Fort, planned by Denonville, 125; Indian muster at, 144; the
+fort built, 155; destroyed, 166.
+
+
+O.
+
+Oneidas, 93.
+Onondaga, 94; council at, 196-200, 401.
+Onontio, Indian name for governor of Canada, 69, 78, 92 (La Barre);
+addressed by Big Mouth, 107-109.
+Orleans, holds for the Fronde, 2.
+Otréouati (Big Mouth), 95.
+Ottawa River, its importance to the French, 298.
+Ottawas, their hostility, 113; a generic name, 145 n.; join Denonville,
+148; their barbarities, 153; claimed as British subjects, 158; greet
+Perrot, 204; jealous of the Hurons, 205; their neutrality overcome,
+253-255.
+Ourehaoué, a Cayuga chief, 195, 200.
+Oyster River, attack and massacre, 365-367.
+
+
+P.
+
+Peace of Ryswick, 422; celebrated in Quebec, 426.
+Pemaquid, capture by French and Indians, 224, 346; scheme of Frontenac,
+357; its defences, 358; attack and capture, 378-382.
+Pentegoet (Castine), 337; held by Saint-Castin, 345; attacked by Andros,
+346.
+Perrot, governor of Montreal, 28; his anger at Bizard, 31; arrested at
+Quebec by Frontenac, 33; the king's opinion, 40; is restored, 65; his
+greed, 66; his enmity to Saint-Castin, 344; at the Montreal council,
+448.
+Perrot, Nicolas, the voyageur, 102 n.; at Michillimackinac, 111; his
+skill in dealing with the Indians, 112, 145, 203, 206.
+Philip's (King) war, 220.
+Phips, Sir William, commands the expedition to Port Royal, 236; early
+life and character, 240-242; as governor of Massachusetts, 243; his
+expedition to Quebec, 262-285; the summons to surrender, 266; mistakes
+and delays, 268; cannonade, 272; retreat, 278; French supply-ships, 282;
+arrival at Boston, 283.
+Port Royal captured, 236-240.
+Prisoners (English), their treatment in Canada, 377; restored, 423;
+French, among the Indians, 421, 424.
+
+
+Q.
+
+Quebec, capital of Canada, 15; municipal government established by
+Frontenac, 19; the Lower Town burned, 72; greeting to Frontenac, 191;
+design of attack bv Massachusetts, 244-246 (see Phips, Sir W.); the
+defences, 251; arrival of Frontenac with troops, 259; defence against
+Phips's attack, 261-278; its imminent danger, 279; construction of
+fortifications, 297.
+
+
+R.
+
+Rat (the), a Huron chief, see Kondiaronk.
+Récollet friars befriended by Frontenac, 39, 71, 323, 435; their eulogy
+of him, 430.
+Richelieu, 184.
+Rooseboom, a Dutch trader, 128, 146.
+Runaways from Canada, sheltered by Dongan, 127.
+Rupert, Fort (Hudson's Bay), seized by Canadians, 133.
+Ryswick, peace of, 422, 452.
+
+
+S.
+
+Saint-Castin, Baron de, on the Penobscot, 221; attacks Fort Loval, 229;
+at Castine, 337; his career, 342-345; plan to kidnap him, 359; at the
+attack on Pemaquid, 380; on the Penobscot, 385.
+Sainte-Hélène, son of Le Moyne, 132, 209; in the attack on Schenectady,
+210, 214; in the defence of Quebec, 271, 273; is killed, 276.
+Saint Louis (Saut de), mission village, 293, 309.
+Saint Louis, Fort, on the Illinois, 86, 144.
+Saint Sulpice, priests of, 29, 32, 35, 42.
+Saint-Vallier, bishop of Canada, 116; applauds Denonville, 169, 183; at
+Quebec, 247; during Phips's attack, 280, 281; relations with Frontenac,
+322, 326; excess of zeal, 328; returns to France, 332.
+Salmon Falls, attack on, 220, 227.
+Schenectady, destruction of, 211-216; its effect in Canada, 233; on the
+Indians, 252.
+Schuyler, John, attacks La Prairie, 257; carries the treaty of Ryswick
+to Quebec, 422; Peter, mayor of Albany, 198; leads an attack; his
+successful retreat, 289-293; in the Mohawk expedition, 312-314; convokes
+an Indian council, 399.
+Seignelay, son of Colbert, colonial minister, 61, 101; advices to
+Denonville, 170.
+Senecas, the most powerful of the Iroquois, 74, 76; prepare for
+hostilities, 97; pass for cowards, 100; their fortifications, 114;
+attack the Illinois, 117; intrigue with the Hurons, 118; Denonville
+plans to attack them, 122, 136; his campaign, 149-157; they threaten
+Fort Niagara, 166.
+Subercase, a French officer, proposes to attack the Iroquois, but is
+overruled, 178; in the Onondaga expedition, 412.
+
+
+T.
+
+Talon, the intendant, 15; declines to attend meeting of the estates, 20;
+returns to France, 21; hostile to Frontenac at the court, 40.
+Theatricals at Quebec, 324-326, 333.
+Thury, the priest, 225, 361; persuades Taxous, 363, 368; instigates
+hostilities, 376.
+Tonty at Fort St. Louis, 144; at Fort Niagara, 147; in the fight with
+the Senecas, 150.
+Toronto, 128.
+Torture practised by Indians, 181, 300, 413; instigated by the French,
+305, 404, 405.
+Troyes, Chevalier de, 132; at Fort Niagara, 155.
+
+
+U.
+
+Ursuline Convent at Quebec, 24; during the attack, 280.
+
+
+V.
+
+Vaillant, the Jesuit, negotiates with Dongan, 162.
+Valrenne destroys Fort Frontenac, 192; sent to defend La Prairie, 291,
+294.
+Vaudreuil, Chevalier de, in the Seneca campaign, 151; in the defence
+against the Iroquois, 169, 179; in the attack of the Onondagas, 410,
+413, 414.
+Verchères, the heroine of, 302-308.
+Versailles, 1, 184.
+Viele, his mission to Onondaga, 93, 98.
+Villebon, governor of Acadia, 347, 378.
+Villeray, a tool of the Jesuits, 47; at Quebec, 247; his negotiations
+with Frontenac, 249.
+Villieu, commands the Indian allies, 361; attacks Oyster River, 365;
+nearly perishes in the Penobscot, 364; returns to Quebec, 368; takes
+Pemaquid, 381; is captured, 385.
+
+
+W.
+
+Waldron at Cocheco, 224.
+Walley, John, in command under Phips at Quebec, 246; commands the land
+attack, 271; in camp, 274-276; retreat, 277.
+Weems at Pemaquid, 224, 225.
+Wells, attacked by French and Abenakis, 353-355.
+William III., 184.
+Winthrop, commander at Albany, 257.
+
+
+Y.
+
+York, massacre at, 349-351.
+
+Cambridge: Press of John Wilson & Son.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Francis Parkman
+
+
+France and England in North America
+
+1.  Pioneers of France in the New World (1865)
+    Revised (1885)
+2.  The Jesuits in North America in the seventeenth century (1867)
+3.  The Discovery of the West (1869)
+    La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1879)
+4.  The Old Régime in Canada (1874)
+    Revised (1894)
+5.  Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. (1877)
+6.  A Half Century of Conflict (1892)
+    Volume 1
+    Volume 2
+7.  Montcalm and Wolfe (1884)
+
+The year that each book was published is printed and enclosed by
+parenthesis after the title of each volume. In three cases, there are
+two listings for a line item. For those parts, Parkman issued a volume
+with major revisions subsequent to the initial release of the book.
+
+The revised version of Pioneers of France (Part One) contains new
+descriptions of Florida and some changes to the section on Samuel
+Champlain. Parkman revised Discovery of the West (Part Three) after
+obtaining access to Margry's collection. The revised version of The Old
+Régime (Part Four) includes three new chapters regarding La Tour and
+D'Aunay.
+
+Volume 3 was not only revised, but the title was altered. Parkman first
+released Volume 3 as The Discovery of the West. His updated version of
+Volume 3 was entitled La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West.
+
+Other Principal Works
+
+•   The Oregon Trail (1849)
+•   The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+Introduction
+
+Welcome to Project Gutenberg's edition of Count Frontenac and New France
+under Louis XIV. This book was the fifth part released by Francis
+Parkman in his seven-part series called France and England in North
+America.
+
+This transcription is based on the original version of the book,
+published in 1877, by Little, Brown, and Company. This e-book was
+proofread with the book scanned on Hathitrust, courtesy of Tufts
+University.
+
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+the titles of references which are presented in italics in the printed
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+example, it is easier to write: Champigny au Ministre, 22 Juillet, 1700,
+but the book displayed the content as follows: Champigny au Ministre, 22
+Juillet, 1700. We have tried to match that policy in this e-book. Small
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+
+Detailed notes describe problems or issues in transcribing a specific
+portion of the text. Emendations are listed, and described, in the
+Detailed Notes, as well as other issues in transcribing the text.
+
+
+Detailed Notes Section:
+
+
+
+Chapter 11:
+
+Block-house and block-houses are hyphenated and split between two lines
+for spacing in the text. We have transcribed these words as blockhouse
+and blockhouses. In this e-book, there are twenty-one instances of
+blockhouse and blockhouses.
+
+
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+
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+have a closing quote. These were exchanges that ended in an mdash. We
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