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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6875-0.txt b/6875-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb8a89b --- /dev/null +++ b/6875-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13354 @@ +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. 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border-width:thin; + border-top:none; border-bottom:none; + text-indent:0em; text-align:justify; + font-size:80%; padding-left:9%; padding-right:9%;} + /* titlepage styling */ + div#titlepage { padding-top:5%; padding-bottom:5%; + margin-right:15%; margin-left:15%; + text-align:center;} + div#titlepage p {text-indent:0;} + div.chapterhead { padding-top:4em; } + /* appendix styling */ + div#appx { padding-top:4em; } + div#appx h3 { text-align: center; margin-left:0; margin-right:0; + font-variant:small-caps; + font-size:large; font-weight:bold;} + div#appx h4 { text-align: center; margin-left:0; margin-right:0; + font-variant:small-caps; + font-weight:normal; font-size:medium;} +/* detailed notes styling */ + div#notes { text-indent:0em; text-align:justify; + font-size:medium;} + div#notes h4 { text-align: left; font-weight:bold; font-size:small; + font-variant: normal; + margin:1em 0 0; } + div#notes p {text-indent:0;} + + + /* index classes */ + div#index { font-size:small; + margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;} + div#index p {margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em; + text-indent:0em;} + div#index h3 {margin:1em 0; text-align:left; + font-size:small; font-weight:bold; } + /* poem classes, including indents */ + div.poem1 {margin-left:3em;} + div.poem1 p {margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;} +.indent30 { text-indent:-3em;} +.indent25 { text-indent:-2.5em;} +.indent15 { text-indent:-1.5em;} + /* used in Chapter 13, footnote 25 */ + table {float:right;} + table tr td:nth-child(2) {max-width:8em; + font-variant:small-caps;} + table tr td:nth-child(3) {font-size:xx-large;} + + + .seal {float:left; border:2px solid; + padding:2px; margin-right:3px; + text-indent:0; text-align:center; + font-size:x-small; max-width:4em;} + </style> +</head> + <body> + + +<div class="boilerplate"> +<p> + 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +</p> + +<p> + Title: Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.<br /> + Part 5 of the France and England in North America series <br /> + Author: Francis Parkman<br /> + Release Date: Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6875]<br /> + Updated: July 22, 2017.<br /> + Character set encoding: utf-8 <br /> +</p> + + + +<p> + Produced by Robert Fite, Tom Allen, David Moynihan, Charles Franks, + Robert Homa and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + <br /> +</p> +</div> +<p class="bold double-space-top"> +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COUNT FRONTENAC AND NEW FRANCE *** +</p> + + +<div id="titlepage"> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">i</a></span> + </p> + <p class="caps xl bold"> + France and England<br /> + <span class="small">in</span><br /> + North America + </p> + <p><br /></p> + <p class="caps"> + A Series of Historical Narratives. + </p> + <p><br /><br /><br /></p> + <p class="title-author">by Francis Parkman</p> + <p class="x-small"> + Author of the "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," "The + Oregon Trail," "The Old Régime in Canada," etc.</p> + <p class="double-space-top"> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="caps"> + Part Fifth.<br /> + </p> + <p class="double-space-top center caps small"> + Boston:<br /> + Little, Brown, and Company.<br /> + 1877.<br /> + </p> + + <hr /> + <p class="quad-space-top center small"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">ii</a></span> + Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1877, by<br /> + <span class="sc">Francis Parkman,</span><br /> + In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.<br /> + <br /><br /><br /> + <span class="caps">Cambridge:<br /> + Press of John Wilson and Son.</span> + </p> + <p class="quad-space-top"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">iii</a></span> + <br /> + </p> + <h1>Count Frontenac<br /> + <span class="small">and</span><br /> + New France<br /> + <span class="lg"> + Under Louis XIV.</span></h1> + <p class="title-author">by Francis Parkman</p> + <p class="x-small"> + 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."</p> + <p><br /></p> + <p class="double-space-top center caps small"> + Boston:<br /> + Little, Brown, and Company.<br /> + 1877.<br /> + </p> + + <hr /> + <p class="quad-space-top center small"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">iv</a></span> + Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1877, by<br /> + <span class="sc">Francis Parkman,</span><br /> + In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.<br /> + <br /><br /><br /> + <span class="caps">Cambridge:<br /> + Press of John Wilson and Son.</span> + </p> +</div> + + + + + +<hr /> +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Preface" id="Preface"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents">PREFACE.</a><br /> + </h2> +</div> + + + +<p class="double-space-top" id="id00024"> +<span class="sc">The</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00025">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">viii</a></span> + English colonies. It was he who made +that scheme possible.</p> + +<p id="id00026">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.</p> + +<p id="id00027">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">ix</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00028"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00029"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">x</a></span> +story is told, not in the interest of any race or nationality, +but simply in that of historical truth.</p> + +<p id="id00030">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."</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Boston,</span> 1 Jan., 1877.</p> + +<p><br /></p> +<hr /> +<p><br /></p> + + + +<div class="contents"> + <a id="Contents" name="Contents"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">xi</a></span> + <h2>Contents</h2> +</div> + + <p class="smcapheader"> + Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. </p> + <p class="noindent double-space-top"><a href="#Preface">PREFACE.</a></p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents01" name="Contents01"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_01">CHAPTER I.</a> 1620-1672. + </p> + <p class="noindent">COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC.</p> + + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents02" name="Contents02"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_02">CHAPTER II. </a>1672-1675 + </p> + <p class="noindent">FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents03" name="Contents03"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_03">CHAPTER III. </a>1673-1675. + </p> + <p class="noindent">FRONTENAC AND PERROT.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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. + </p> + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">xii</a></span> + <a id="Contents04" name="Contents04"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_04">CHAPTER IV. </a>1675-1682. + </p> + <p class="noindent">FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEAU.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents05" name="Contents05"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_05">CHAPTER V. </a>1682-1684. + </p> + <p class="noindent">LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents06" name="Contents06"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_06">CHAPTER VI. </a>1684. + </p> + <p class="noindent">LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">xiii</a></span> + <a id="Contents07" name="Contents07"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_07">CHAPTER VII. </a>1685-1687. + </p> + <p class="noindent">DENONVILLE AND DONGAN.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents08" name="Contents08"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_08">CHAPTER VIII. </a>1687. + </p> + <p class="noindent">DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents09" name="Contents09"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_09">CHAPTER IX. </a>1687-1689. + </p> + <p class="noindent">THE IROQUOIS INVASION.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents10" name="Contents10"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_10">CHAPTER X. </a>1689-1690. + </p> + <p class="noindent">RETURN OF FRONTENAC.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">xiv</a></span> + <a id="Contents11" name="Contents11"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_11">CHAPTER XI. </a>1690. + </p> + <p class="noindent">THE THREE WAR-PARTIES.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents12" name="Contents12"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_12">CHAPTER XII. </a>1690. + </p> + <p class="noindent">MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents13" name="Contents13"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_13">CHAPTER XIII. </a>1690. + </p> + <p class="noindent">DEFENCE OF QUEBEC.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents14" name="Contents14"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_14">CHAPTER XIV. </a>1690-1694. + </p> + <p class="noindent">THE SCOURGE OF CANADA.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">xv</a></span> + <a id="Contents15" name="Contents15"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_15">CHAPTER XV. </a>1691-1695. + </p> + <p class="noindent">AN INTERLUDE.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents16" name="Contents16"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_16">CHAPTER XVI. </a>1690-1694. + </p> + <p class="noindent">THE WAR IN ACADIA.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents17" name="Contents17"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_17">CHAPTER XVII. </a>1690-1697. + </p> + <p class="noindent">NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents18" name="Contents18"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_18">CHAPTER XVIII. </a>1693-1697. + </p> + <p class="noindent">FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.</p> + <p class="topics"> +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. +</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">xvi</a></span> + <a id="Contents19" name="Contents19"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_19">CHAPTER XIX. </a>1696-1698. + </p> + <p class="noindent">FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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. + </p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents20" name="Contents20"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_20">CHAPTER XX. </a>1698. + </p> + <p class="noindent">DEATH OF FRONTENAC.</p> + <p class="topics"> + His Last Hours • His Will • His Funeral • + His Eulogist and his Critic • His Disputes with the Clergy • + His Character.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents21" name="Contents21"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_21">CHAPTER XXI. </a>1699-1701. + </p> + <p class="noindent">CONCLUSION.</p> + <p class="topics"> + 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents22" name="Contents22"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_22">APPENDIX.</a> + </p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="Contents23" name="Contents23"></a> + <a href="#Chapter_23">INDEX.</a> + </p> + + +<p id="id00118" style="margin-top: 4em"> +[Illustration: Map of Canada and Adjacent Countries towards the Close +of the 17th century.]</p> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_01" id="Chapter_01"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_001" id="Page_001">1</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents01">CHAPTER I.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1620-1672.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Count and Countess Frontenac.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">At</span> +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 <i>Anne de La +Grange-Trianon, Comtesse de Frontenac</i>. This blooming goddess was the +wife of the future governor of Canada.</p> + +<p id="id00124"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_002" id="Page_002">2</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00125"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_003" id="Page_003">3</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[1]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-01" name="footer_01-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier</i>, I. 358-363 (ed. 1859).</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00126"> +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 +<i>à Mesdames les Comtesses, Maréchales de Camp dans +l'armée de ma fille contre le Mazarin</i>. 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.</p> + +<p id="id00127"> +When the king, or Cardinal Mazarin who controlled +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_004" id="Page_004">4</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_005" id="Page_005">5</a></span> +that we sent for the curé with holy water to exorcise her." +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-02" name="footer_01-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier</i>, II. 265. The +curé's holy water, or his exhortations, were at last successful. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00128"> +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 <i>maréchal de camp</i>, 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. +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-03" name="footer_01-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +Pinard, <i>Chronologie Historique-militaire</i>, VI.; <i>Table de la Gazette de +France</i>; Jal, <i>Dictionnaire Critique, Biographique, et d'Histoire</i>, +art. "Frontenac;" Goyer, <i>Oraison Funèbre du Comte de Frontenac</i>. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00129"> +In the same neighborhood lived La Grange-Trianon, Sieur de Neuville, a +widower of fifty, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_006" id="Page_006">6</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-04" name="footer_01-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Historiettes de Tallemant des Réaux</i>, IX. 214 +(ed. Monmerqué); Jal, <i>Dictionnaire Critique</i>, + etc.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00130"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_007" id="Page_007">7</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00131"> +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 (<i>her man of business</i>). +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?' +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_008" id="Page_008">8</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +</p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-05" name="footer_01-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier</i>, II. 267. </p> +</div> +<p> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00132"> +"While Frontenac was at St. Fargeau," she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_009" id="Page_009">9</a></span> +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 (<i>her father</i>), 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 +<i>ragoût</i> 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." <span class="superscript">[6]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-06" name="footer_01-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier</i>, +II. 279; III. 10.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00133"> +Though not himself of the highest rank, his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_010" id="Page_010">10</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_011" id="Page_011">11</a></span> +they would not take such a view of the +matter as I wished." <span class="superscript">[7]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-07" name="footer_01-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Memoires de Mademoiselle de +Montpensier</i>, III. 270.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00134"> +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. <span class="superscript">[8]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-08" name="footer_01-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>Oraison funèbre du Comte de Frontenac, par le Père +Olivier Goyer</i>. A powerful French contingent, under another command, +co-operated with the Venetians under Frontenac.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00135"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> Certain scandalous songs of the day +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_012" id="Page_012">12</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[10]</span> </p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-09" name="footer_01-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>Memoires du Duc de Saint-Simon</i>, II. 270; V. 336. </p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-10" name="footer_01-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +Note of M. Brunet, in <i>Correspondance de la Duchesse d'Orléans</i>, +I. 200 (ed. 1869). </p> +<p>The following lines, among others, were passed +about secretly among the courtiers:—</p> + +<div class="poem1"> +<p class="indent30 left-indent15">"Je suis ravi que le roi, notre sire,</p> +<p class="indent15 left-indent15">Aime la Montespan;</p> +<p class="indent25 left-indent15">Moi, Frontenac, je me crève de rire,</p> +<p class="indent15 left-indent15">Sachant ce qui lui pend;</p> +<p class="indent25 left-indent15">Et je dirai, sans être des plus bestes,</p> +<p class="indent15 left-indent15">Tu n'as que mon reste,</p> +<p class="left-indent15">Roi,</p> +<p class="indent15 left-indent15">Tu n'as que mon reste."</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00141"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00142"> +The Comte de Grignan, son-in-law of Madame de Sévigné, +was an unsuccessful competitor with Frontenac for the government of +Canada.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00136"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_013" id="Page_013">13</a></span> +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 +<i>Les Divines</i>. In fact, they demanded incense like goddesses; +and it was lavished upon them all their lives."</p> + +<p id="id00137"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00138"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[11]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_01-11" name="footer_01-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +On Frontenac and his family, see Appendix A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_02" id="Chapter_02"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_014" id="Page_014">14</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents02">CHAPTER II.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1672-1675.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Frontenac at Quebec.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">Frontenac</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00148"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_015" id="Page_015">15</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[1]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_02-01" name="footer_02-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 2 <i>Nov.</i>, 1672.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00149"> +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." <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_02-02" name="footer_02-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Talon au Ministre</i>, 2 <i>Nov</i>., 1671.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00150"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_016" id="Page_016">16</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00151">At Quebec he convoked the council, made them a speech, and +administered the oath of allegiance. <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_017" id="Page_017">17</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_02-03" name="footer_02-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Registre du Conseil Souverain.</i></p> +</div> + +<p id="id00152"> +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 +<i>gentilshommes</i> 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 <i>grand seigneur</i>, +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_018" id="Page_018">18</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_019" id="Page_019">19</a></span> +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." </p> + +<p> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_020" id="Page_020">20</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_02-04" name="footer_02-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Roi</i>, 2 <i>Nov.</i>, +1672; <i>Ibid.</i>, 13 <i>Nov.</i>, 1673; <i>Harangue du Comte de Frontenac en +l'Assemblée à Quebec</i>; <i>Prestations de Serment</i>, 23 <i>Oct.</i>, 1672; +<i>Réglement de Police fait par Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac</i>; +<i>Colbert à Frontenac</i>, 13 <i>Juin</i>, 1673.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00153"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_021" id="Page_021">21</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00154"> +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.</p> +<p id="id00155"> +"Another thing displeases me," writes Frontenac, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_022" id="Page_022">22</a></span> +"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 (<i>the Jesuits</i>) are masters in spiritual matters, +which, as you know, is a powerful lever for moving every thing else." +<span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_023" id="Page_023">23</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[6]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_02-05" name="footer_02-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 2 <i>Nov</i>., 1672.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_02-06" name="footer_02-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 13 <i>Nov.</i>, 1673.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00156"> +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." <span class="superscript">[7]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_02-07" name="footer_02-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Laval à</i>———, 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." +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00157"> +The king and the minister, in their instructions to Frontenac, had +dwelt with great emphasis on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_024" id="Page_024">24</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00158"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_025" id="Page_025">25</a></span> +"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.</p> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_03" id="Chapter_03"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_026" id="Page_026">26</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents03">CHAPTER III.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1673-1675.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Frontenac and Perrot.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">Not</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00164"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_027" id="Page_027">27</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00165"> +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. <span class="superscript">[1]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-01" name="footer_03-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +Discovery of the Great West, chap. vi.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00166"> +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:— +</p> +<p> +When the intendant, Talon, came for the second +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_028" id="Page_028">28</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00167"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_029" id="Page_029">29</a></span> +soldiers, who escaped to the woods, became <i>coureurs de bois</i>, 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.</p> + +<p id="id00168"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00169"> +Frontenac had received stringent orders from the king to arrest all +the bush-rangers, or <i>coureurs de bois</i>; 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_030" id="Page_030">30</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[2]</span> Accordingly, he sent +orders to the judge, at Montreal, to seize every <i>coureur de bois</i> +on whom he could lay hands.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-02" name="footer_03-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 2 <i>Nov.</i>, 1672.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00170"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-03" name="footer_03-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Mémoire des Motifs qui ont obligé M. le Comte de Frontenac +de faire arrêter le Sieur Perrot.</i></p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00171"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00172"> +The commission was delicate. The arrest was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_031" id="Page_031">31</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00173"> +As Perrot's anger cooled, he became somewhat +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_032" id="Page_032">32</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-04" name="footer_03-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Mémoire des Motifs, etc.</i></p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00174"> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>, 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.</p> + +<p id="id00175"> +Among the priests of St. Sulpice at Montreal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_033" id="Page_033">33</a></span> +was the Abbé Salignac de Fénelon, half-brother of the +celebrated author of <i>Télémaque</i>. 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.</p> + +<p id="id00176"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_034" id="Page_034">34</a></span> +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 <i>coureurs de +bois</i>. 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. +<span class="superscript">[5]</span> As the result of these +proceedings, Frontenac reported to the minister that only five +<i>coureurs de bois</i> remained at large; all the rest having returned to +the settlements and made their submission, so that farther hanging was +needless.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-05" name="footer_03-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Édits et Ordonnances</i>, I. 73.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00177"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_035" id="Page_035">35</a></span> +the <i>coureurs de bois</i>, whom he +hanged when breaking laws for his rival, found complete impunity when +breaking laws for him.</p> + +<p id="id00178"> +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. <span class="superscript">[6]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_036" id="Page_036">36</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-06" name="footer_03-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Information faite par nous, Charles le Tardieu, Sieur de Tilly.</i> +Tilly was a commissioner sent by the council to inquire into the +affair.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00179"> +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. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-07" name="footer_03-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Mémoire de M. d'Urfé à Colbert</i>, extracts in +Faillon.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00180"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_037" id="Page_037">37</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[8]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-08" name="footer_03-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +All the proceedings in the affair of Perrot will be found in full in the +<i>Registre des Jugements et Déliberations du Conseil +Supérieur</i>. They extend from the end of January to the +beginning of November, 1674.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00181"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00182"> +"Yes," returned Frontenac, "when they are summoned as witnesses, but +not when they are cited to answer charges of crime."</p> + +<p id="id00183"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_038" id="Page_038">38</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[9]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-09" name="footer_03-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>Conteste entre le Gouverneur et l'Abbé de Fénelon; +Jugements et Déliberations du Conseil Supérieur</i>, +21 <i>Août</i>, 1674.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00184"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_039" id="Page_039">39</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[10]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-10" name="footer_03-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 14 <i>Nov.</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00185"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_040" id="Page_040">40</a></span> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00186"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_041" id="Page_041">41</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[11]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-11" name="footer_03-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +<i>Le Roi à Frontenac</i>, 22 <i>Avril</i>, 1675.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00187"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_042" id="Page_042">42</a></span> +to request you to show him especial consideration, though, in the +exercise of his profession, he will rarely have occasion to see you." +</p> + +<p id="id00188"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00189"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[12]</span> +</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-12" name="footer_03-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>Colbert à Frontenac,</i> 13 <i>Mai,</i> 1675.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00190"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_043" id="Page_043">43</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_03-13" name="footer_03-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>Lettre de Bretonvilliers</i>, 7 <i>Mai</i>, 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, <i>Les deux +Abbés de Fénelon,</i> printed in the Canadian <i>Journal +de l'Instruction Publique,</i> Vol. VIII.</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_04" id="Chapter_04"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_044" id="Page_044">44</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents04">CHAPTER IV.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1675-1682.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Frontenac and Duchesneau.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">While</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[1]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_045" id="Page_045">45</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-01" name="footer_04-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Édits et Ordonnances</i>, I. 84.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00196"> +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, +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_046" id="Page_046">46</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-02" name="footer_04-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> + The Old Régime in Canada.</p> +</div> +<p id="id00197"> +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; <span class="superscript">[3]</span> while, +at the same time, he exhorted Frontenac to live in harmony with the +intendant. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> The dispute +continued till the king lost patience.</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-03" name="footer_04-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Colbert à Duchesneau</i>, 1 <i>Mai</i>, 1677.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-04" name="footer_04-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Ibid.</i>, 18 <i>Mai</i>, 1677.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00198"> +"Through all my kingdom," he wrote to the governor, "I do not hear of +so many difficulties on this matter (<i>of ecclesiastical honors</i>) as I +see in the church of Quebec." <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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."</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-05" name="footer_04-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Le Roy à Frontenac</i>, 25 <i>Avril</i>, 1679.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00199"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_047" id="Page_047">47</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[6]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-06" name="footer_04-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Colbert à Duchesneau</i>, 8 <i>Mai</i>, 1679</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00200"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[7]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-07" name="footer_04-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 14 <i>Nov.</i>, 1674</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00201"> +The king had recently ordered that the intendant, though holding only +the third rank in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_048" id="Page_048">48</a></span> +council, should act as its president. +<span class="superscript">[8]</span> The commission of Duchesneau, +however, empowered him to preside only in the absence of the governor; +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-08" name="footer_04-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>Declaration du Roy,</i> 23 <i>Sept.</i>, 1675.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-09" name="footer_04-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +"Présider au Conseil Souverain <i>en l'absence du dit Sieur +de Frontenac."—Commission de Duchesneau,</i> 5 <i>Juin</i>, 1675.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00202"> +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 <i>chief and president</i> on the +records of the council; and he showed a letter from the king in which +he was so entitled. <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_049" id="Page_049">49</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-10" name="footer_04-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +This letter, still preserved in the +<i>Archives de la Marine,</i> is dated 12 <i>Mai</i>, 1678. Several other +letters of Louis XIV. give Frontenac the same designation.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00204"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_050" id="Page_050">50</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00205"> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00206"> +"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." +<span class="superscript">[11]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-11" name="footer_04-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +<i>Le Roy à Frontenac</i>, 29 <i>Avril</i>, 1680. A decree of +the council of state soon after determined the question of presidency +in accord with this letter. <i>Édits et Ordonnances</i>, I. 238.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00207"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_051" id="Page_051">51</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[12]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-12" name="footer_04-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>Colbert à Frontenac</i>, 4 <i>Dec</i>., 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, <i>Duchesneau au Ministre</i>, 10 <i>Nov</i>., 1679; <i>Auteuil +au Ministre</i>, 10 <i>Aug</i>., 1679; <i>Contestations entre le Sieur +Comte de Frontenac et M. Duchesneau, Chevalier</i>. This last paper +consists of voluminous extracts from the records of the council.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00208"> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>. The intendant, who well knew what the packet +contained, demanded that it should be opened. Frontenac insisted that +the business before the council should +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_052" id="Page_052">52</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-13" name="footer_04-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>Registre du Conseil Supérieur</i>, 16 <i>Aoûst</i>, +1681.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00209"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_053" id="Page_053">53</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-14" name="footer_04-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>Registre du Conseil Supérieur</i>, 4 <i>Nov</i>., 1681.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00210"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_054" id="Page_054">54</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[15]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-15" name="footer_04-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Registre de Conseil Supérieur</i>, 1681.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00211"> +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 <i>habitants</i>, 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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>; 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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_055" id="Page_055">55</a></span> +denounced his followers, and sent huge bundles of <i>procès-verbaux</i> +and attestations to prove his charges.</p> + +<p id="id00212"> +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." <span class="superscript">[16]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-16" name="footer_04-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Colbert à Duchesneau</i>, 15 <i>Mai,</i> 1678.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00213"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_056" id="Page_056">56</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[17]</span></p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-17" name="footer_04-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +<i>Le Roy à Frontenac</i>, 12 <i>Mai</i>, +1678.</p> +</div> + + +<p> +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." +<span class="superscript">[18]</span></p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-18" name="footer_04-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +<i>Colbert à Duchesneau</i>, 25 <i>Avril</i>, 1679.</p> +</div> + +<p> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_057" id="Page_057">57</a></span> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>, 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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>, 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_058" id="Page_058">58</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00214"> +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. <span class="superscript">[19]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-19" name="footer_04-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> + <i>Duchesneau au Ministre</i>, 10 <i>Nov.,</i> 1679.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00215"> +This despatch, and the proofs accompanying it, drew from the king a +sharp reproof to Frontenac.</p> + +<p id="id00216"> +"What has passed in regard to the <i>coureurs de bois</i> 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 <i>coureurs +de bois</i> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_059" id="Page_059">59</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[20]</span> +</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-20" name="footer_04-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +<i>Le Roy à Frontenac</i>, 29 <i>Avril,</i> 1680.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00217"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_060" id="Page_060">60</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-21" name="footer_04-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Maréchal de Bellefonds</i>, +14 <i>Nov.,</i> 1680.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00218"> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i> 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. +<span class="superscript">[22]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_061" id="Page_061">61</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[23]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-22" name="footer_04-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +<i>Mémoire et Preuves du Désordre des Coureurs de Bois.</i></p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-23" name="footer_04-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Roy,</i> 2 <i>Nov.,</i> 1681.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00219"> +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; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_062" id="Page_062">62</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[24]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-24" name="footer_04-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +<i>Duchesneau au Ministre</i>, 13 <i>Nov</i>., 1681.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00220"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00221"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_063" id="Page_063">63</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[25]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-25" name="footer_04-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> + <i>Frontenac au Ministre,</i> 2 <i>Nov.,</i> 1681.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00222"> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00223"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_064" id="Page_064">64</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[26]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-26" name="footer_04-26"></a> + <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +<i>Mémoire de l'Evesque de Quebec, Mars,</i> 1681 (printed in +<i>Revue Canadienne,</i> 1873). The bishop is silent about the barricades +of which Frontenac and his friends complain in several letters.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00224"> +The story of Frontenac's violence to the boy is flatly denied by his +friends, who charge Duchesneau +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_065" id="Page_065">65</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[27]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-27" name="footer_04-27"></a> + <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +See, among other instances, the <i>Défense de M. de Frontenac par +un de ses Amis,</i> published by Abbé Verreau in the <i>Revue +Canadienne,</i> 1873.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00225"> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i> 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. <span class="superscript">[28]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-28" name="footer_04-28"></a> + <span class="superscript">[28]</span> +<i>Plumitif du Conseil Souverain,</i> 1681.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00226"> +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; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_066" id="Page_066">66</a></span> +and, the danger of Frontenac's anger being removed, he +completely forgot the lessons of his imprisonment.</p> + +<p id="id00227"> +The intendant ordered Migeon, bailiff of Montreal, to arrest some of +Perrot's <i>coureurs de bois</i>. 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. <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[30]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-29" name="footer_04-29"></a> + <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +<i>Conduite du Sieur Perrot, Gouverneur de Montréal en la Nouvelle +France</i>, 1681; <i>Plainte du Sieur Bouthier</i>, 10 <i>Oct.</i>, 1680; +<i>Procès-verbal des huissiers de Montréal</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-30" name="footer_04-30"></a> + <span class="superscript">[30]</span> +<i>Conduite du Sieur Perrot</i>. La Barre, Frontenac's +successor, declares +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_067" id="Page_067">67</a></span> +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. <i>La Barre +au Ministre,</i> 4 <i>Nov.,</i> 1683.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00228"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[31]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-31" name="footer_04-31"></a> + <span class="superscript">[31]</span> +<i>Le Roy à Frontenac,</i> 30 <i>Avril,</i> 1681.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00229"> +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. <span class="superscript">[32]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-32" name="footer_04-32"></a> + <span class="superscript">[32]</span> +La Barre says that Duchesneau was far more to blame than Frontenac. +<i>La Barre au Ministre,</i> 1683. This testimony has weight, since +Frontenac's friends were La Barre's enemies.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00230"> +The last official act of the governor, recorded in the register of the +council of Quebec, is the formal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_068" id="Page_068">68</a></span> +declaration that his rank in that body is superior to that of the intendant. +<span class="superscript">[33]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-33" name="footer_04-33"></a> + <span class="superscript">[33]</span> +<i>Registre du Conseil-Supérieur</i>, 16 Fév., 1682.</p> +</div> + + +<p> +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. +<span class="superscript">[34]</span> +The recall of the governor was a triumph +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_069" id="Page_069">69</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-34" name="footer_04-34"></a> + <span class="superscript">[34]</span> +Frontenac, <i>Mémoire adressé à Colbert</i>, 1677. +This remarkable paper will be found in the <i>Découvertes et +Établissements des Français dans l'Amérique +Septentrionale; Mémoires et Documents Originaux,</i> 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00231"> +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 <i>brothers,</i> but only as <i>children</i>; +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_070" id="Page_070">70</a></span> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Frontenac appears to have had +a liking not only for Indians, but also for that roving and lawless +class of the Canadian population, the <i>coureurs de bois</i>, 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.</p> + +<p> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_071" id="Page_071">71</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[35]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_04-35" name="footer_04-35"></a> + <span class="superscript">[35]</span> +Note by Abbé Verreau, in <i>Journal de l'Instruction Publique</i> +(Canada), VIII. 127.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00232"> +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.</p> + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_05" id="Chapter_05"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_072" id="Page_072">72</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents05">CHAPTER V.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1682-1684.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">LeFebvre de la Barre.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">When</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_073" id="Page_073">73</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[1]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-01" name="footer_05-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +Chartier de Lotbinière, <i>Procès-verbal sur l'Incendie de la +Basse Ville; Meules au Ministre,</i> 6 <i>Oct.,</i> 1682; Juchereau, +<i>Histoire de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec,</i> 256.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00238"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-02" name="footer_05-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Meules au Ministre,</i> 6 <i>Oct.,</i> 1682.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00239"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_074" id="Page_074">74</a></span> +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, +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +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. +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-03" name="footer_05-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> + Jesuits in North America.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-04" name="footer_05-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +Discovery of the Great West.</p> +</div> + + +<p> +This movement of the western Iroquois had a double incentive, their +love of fighting and their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_075" id="Page_075">75</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[5]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-05" name="footer_05-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +Duchesneau, <i>Memoir on Western Indians in N. Y. Colonial Docs.,</i> +IX. 160.</p> + +</div> + + +<p id="id00240"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_076" id="Page_076">76</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00241">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 <i>casus belli</i> 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.</p> + +<p id="id00242"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_077" id="Page_077">77</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00243">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_078" id="Page_078">78</a></span> + 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. <span class="superscript">[6]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-06" name="footer_05-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +For the papers on this affair, see <i>N. Y. +Colonial Docs</i>., IX.</p> +</div> + + + + +<p id="id00244">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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_079" id="Page_079">79</a></span> +"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. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-07" name="footer_05-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>P. Jean de Lamberville à Frontenac</i>, 20 <i>Sept</i>., 1682.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00245">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." <span class="superscript">[8]</span> He +then begs hard for troops, and in fact there was great need of them, +for there were none in Canada; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_080" id="Page_080">80</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-08" name="footer_05-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>La Barre au Roy</i>, (4 Oct.?) 1682.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-09" name="footer_05-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>La Barre à Seignelay</i>, 1682.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00246">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. +<span class="superscript">[10]</span> + In fact, he was but half a soldier; and it was perhaps for +this reason that he insisted on being called, not <i>Monsieur le +Gouverneur</i>, but <i>Monsieur le Général</i>. 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_081" id="Page_081">81</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>, 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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_082" id="Page_082">82</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-10" name="footer_05-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +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 <i>Description de la France +Équinoctiale</i>. Another volume, called <i>Journal du Voyage +du Sieur de la Barre en la Terre Ferme et Isle de Cayenne</i>, was +printed at Paris in 1671.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-11" name="footer_05-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +<i>La Barre à Seignelay</i>, 1682.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00247"> +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. <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-12" name="footer_05-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>Conference on the State of Affairs with the Iroquois, Oct</i>., 1682, +<i>in N. Y. Colonial Docs</i>., IX. 194.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00248"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_083" id="Page_083">83</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> + 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;" +<span class="superscript">[14]</span> +and he assures the minister that the Senecas +must be attacked or the country abandoned. +<span class="superscript">[15]</span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[16]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-13" name="footer_05-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>La Barre au Ministre</i>, 4 <i>Nov</i>., 1683.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-14" name="footer_05-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>La Barre au Roy</i>, 30 <i>Mai</i>, 1683.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-15" name="footer_05-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>La Barre au Ministre</i>, 30 <i>Mai</i>, 1683.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-16" name="footer_05-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Meules au Roy</i>, 2 <i>Juin</i>, 1683.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00249">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, <i>without permission</i>. +<span class="superscript">[17]</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_084" id="Page_084">84</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +It is affirmed, on good +authority, that he said more than this, and told them they were +welcome to plunder and kill him. <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +The rapacious old man was playing with a two-edged sword.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-17" name="footer_05-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +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. <i>Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en +Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'année</i> 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-18" name="footer_05-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +Belmont, <i>Histoire du Canada</i> (a contemporary chronicle).</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-19" name="footer_05-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00251">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; <span class="superscript">[20]</span> and, a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_085" id="Page_085">85</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[21]</span> +Frontenac +had not been faithful to his trust; but, compared to his successor, he +was a model of official virtue.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-20" name="footer_05-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +<i>Mémoire adressé a MM. les Intéressés en la +Société de la Ferme et Commerce du Canada,</i> 1683.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-21" name="footer_05-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00252">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 +(<i>king's</i>) 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_086" id="Page_086">86</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-22" name="footer_05-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +<i>Meules à Seignelay,</i> 8 <i>July,</i> 1684. This +accords perfectly with statements made in several memorials of La +Salle and his friends.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00253"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_087" id="Page_087">87</a></span> +the governor's canoes, seized all the goods, and captured the men. +<span class="superscript">[23]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-23" name="footer_05-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +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, <i>Mémoire +adressé ou Ministre sur les Affaires de la Nouvelle France,</i> 10 +<i>Août,</i> 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." <i>Dongan to Denonville,</i> 9 +<i>Sept.,</i> 1687.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00254">When La Barre heard the news, he was furious. +<span class="superscript">[24]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_088" id="Page_088">88</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +</p> +<p> +Here we leave him, for a while, scared, excited, and blustering.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-24" name="footer_05-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +"Ce qui mit M. de la Barre en fureur." Belmont, +<i>Histoire du Canada</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_05-25" name="footer_05-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +<i>La Barre au Roy</i>, 5 <i>Juin</i>, 1684.</p> +</div> + + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_06" id="Chapter_06"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_089" id="Page_089">89</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents06">CHAPTER VI.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1684.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">La Barre and the Iroquois.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">The</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00262"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_090" id="Page_090">90</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[1]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-01" name="footer_06-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Sir John Werden to Dongan</i>, 4 <i>Dec</i>., 1684; +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 353. Werden was the +duke's secretary.</p> +<p id="id00308"> +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 (<i>New +York</i>), 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." <i>Lamberville à La +Barre</i>, 10 <i>Fév</i>., 1684.</p> +<p id="id00309"> +The French ambassador at London complained that Dongan +excited the Iroquois to war, and Dongan denied the charge. +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 506, 509.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00263"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00264"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_091" id="Page_091">91</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[2]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-02" name="footer_06-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +Report of Conferences at Albany, in Colden, <i>History of the Five +Nations</i>, 50 (ed. 1727, Shea's reprint).</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-03" name="footer_06-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>La Barre à Dongan</i>, 15 <i>Juin</i>, 1684.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-04" name="footer_06-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Dongan à La Barre</i>, 24 <i>Juin</i>, 1684.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00265"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_092" id="Page_092">92</a></span> +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 +(<i>King Charles</i>) who lives over the Great Lake know that we are a free +people, though united to the English." <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-05" name="footer_06-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +Speech of the Onondagas and Cayugas, in Colden, <i>Five Nations</i>, +63 (1727).</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00266"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_093" id="Page_093">93</a></span> +the governor of New York, only as their brother. +<span class="superscript">[6]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-06" name="footer_06-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +Except the small tribe of the Oneidas, who addressed Corlaer as <i>Father. +Corlaer</i> was the official Iroquois name of the governor of New York; +<i>Onas</i> (the Feather, or Pen), that of the governor of Pennsylvania; +and <i>Assarigoa</i> (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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00267"> +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. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-07" name="footer_06-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Journal of Wentworth Greenhalgh</i>, 1677, +in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 250.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00268"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_094" id="Page_094">94</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-08" name="footer_06-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>Journal of Greenhalgh</i>. 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00269"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00270"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_095" id="Page_095">95</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_096" id="Page_096">96</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +Well as the Jesuit knew the Iroquois, he was +deceived if he thought that Big Mouth was securely won.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-09" name="footer_06-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>Letters of Lamberville in N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. For +specimens of Big Mouth's skill in drawing, see <i>ibid</i>., +IX. 386.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00271"> +Lamberville's constant effort was to prevent a rupture. He wrote with +every opportunity to the governor, painting the calamities that war +would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_097" id="Page_097">97</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[10]</span> +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?"</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-10" name="footer_06-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Lamberville to La Barre</i>, 11 <i>July</i>, 1684, +in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 253.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00272"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_098" id="Page_098">98</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00273"> +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." <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-11" name="footer_06-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +Colden, <i>Five Nations</i>, 80 (1727).</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00274"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_099" id="Page_099">99</a></span> +who spoke as if he were drunk; <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-12" name="footer_06-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>Lamberville to La Barre</i>, 28 <i>Aug</i>., +1684, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 257.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00275"> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i> and Indians from the interior; and that, +"when we are all united, we will perish or destroy the enemy." +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> 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." <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-13" name="footer_06-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>La Barre au Ministre</i>, 9 <i>July</i>, 1684.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-14" name="footer_06-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>La Barre au Roy, même date</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00276"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[15]</span> 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." <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-15" name="footer_06-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Meules à La Barre</i>, 15 <i>July</i>, 1684.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-16" name="footer_06-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Meules à La Barre</i>, 14 <i>Août</i>, 1684. This and +the preceding letter stand, by a copyist's error, in the name of La Barre. +They are certainly written by Meules.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00277"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[17]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-17" name="footer_06-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +The famous <i>voyageur</i>, Nicolas Perrot, agrees with the intendant. +"Ils (<i>La Barre et ses associés</i>) 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." <i>Mémoire sur les +Mœurs, Coustumes, et Relligion des Sauvages</i>, +chap. xxi.</p> +<p id="id00311">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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00278"> +"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> + +<p id="id00279"> +"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 <i>tête-à-tête</i> with the man named La Chesnaye. +Everybody says that the war is a sham, that these two will arrange every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[18]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-18" name="footer_06-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +<i>Meules au Ministre</i>, 8-11 <i>Juillet</i>, 1684.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00280"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00281">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00282">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00283">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.</p> + +<p id="id00284">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. <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> + 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:—</p> + +<p id="id00285"> +"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 (<i>Le +Moyne</i>) 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."</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-19" name="footer_06-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00286"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00287"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00288"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00289"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00290"> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00291"> +"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.</p> + +<p id="id00292"> +"Onontio, when you left Quebec, you must have thought that the heat of +the sun had burned the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00293"> +"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."</p> + +<p id="id00294"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00295"> +"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.</p> + +<p id="id00296"> +"Listen, Onontio. My voice is the voice of the Five Tribes of the +Iroquois. When they buried the hatchet at Cataraqui (<i>Fort Frontenac</i>) +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."</p> + +<p id="id00297"> +The session presently closed; and La Barre +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[20]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-20" name="footer_06-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +The articles of peace will be found in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 236. +Compare <i>Memoir of M. de la Barre regarding the War against the +Senecas, ibid</i>., 239. These two documents do not agree as to date, one +placing the council on the 4th and the other on the 5th.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00298"> +Such was the futile and miserable end of the grand expedition. Even +the promise to pay for the plundered goods was contemptuously broken. +<span class="superscript">[21]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-21" name="footer_06-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +This appears from the letters of Denonville, La Barre's +successor.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00299"> +La Barre embarked and hastened home in advance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00300"> +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 +<i>coureur de bois</i>—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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-22" name="footer_06-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +<i>La Potherie</i>, II. 159 (ed. 1722). Perrot himself, in his +<i>Mœurs des Sauvages</i>, briefly mentions the incident.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00301"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00302"> +The treaty made at La Famine was greeted with contumely through all +the colony. The governor found, however, a comforter in the Jesuit +Lamberville, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[23]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-23" name="footer_06-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +<i>Lamberville to La Barre</i>, 9 <i>Oct</i>., 1684, in <i>N. Y. Col. +Docs</i>., IX. 260.</p> +</div> + +<p> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[24]</span> These, with many other charges, +flew across the sea from the pen of the intendant.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_06-24" name="footer_06-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +<i>Meules au Ministre</i>, 10 <i>Oct</i>., 1684.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00303"> +The next ship from France brought the following letter from the +king:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p id="id00304"> +<span class="sc">Monsieur de la Barre</span>,—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.</p> + +<p class="signature sc" id="id00305">Louis.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p id="id00306"> +La Barre sailed for home; and the Marquis de Denonville, a pious +colonel of dragoons, assumed the vacant office.</p> + + + + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_07" id="Chapter_07"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents07">CHAPTER VII.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1685-1687.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Denonville and Dongan.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">Denonville</span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[1]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-01" name="footer_07-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +Saint-Vallier, <i>État Présent de l'Église</i>, +4 (Quebec, 1856).</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00317">When they landed, the nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> + 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." <span class="superscript">[2]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-02" name="footer_07-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +Juchereau, <i>Hôtel-Dieu</i>, 283.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00318"> +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?</p> + +<p id="id00319"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00320"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> +The governor of New York favored this intrigue to the utmost.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-03" name="footer_07-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 12 <i>Juin</i>, 1686.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00321">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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-04" name="footer_07-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +New York had about 18,000 inhabitants (Brodhead, <i>Hist. +N. Y.</i>, II. 458). Canada, by the census of 1685, had 12,263.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00322">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. <span class="superscript">[5]</span> + 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 (<i>Albany</i>), 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-05" name="footer_07-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Seignelay to Barillon, French +Ambassador at London</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 269.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-06" name="footer_07-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Denonville à Seigneloy</i>, 8 <i>Nov</i>., 1686.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00323"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> +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 +(<i>Michigan</i>), the country of the Hurons, and all the country in +the direction of the Mississippi." <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-07" name="footer_07-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Denonville à Seignelay</i>, 12 <i>Juin</i>, 1686.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00324"> +The most pressing danger was the defection of the lake tribes. "In +spite of the king's edicts," pursues Denonville, "the <i>coureurs de +bois</i> 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." <span class="superscript">[8]</span> And he begs hard +for a strong reinforcement of troops.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-08" name="footer_07-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>Ibid</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00325"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00326"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-09" name="footer_07-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville</i>, 13 <i>Oct</i>., 1685, in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX, 292.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00327"> +Denonville replied with many compliments: "I know not what reason you +may have had to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> +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?" +<span class="superscript">[10]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-10" name="footer_07-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Denonville to Dongan</i>, 5 <i>Juin</i>, 1686, +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 456.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00328">This specious appeal for maintaining French Jesuits on English +territory, or what was claimed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>, 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 (<i>Niagara</i>) 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 (<i>peltry</i>). I hear one of the Fathers (<i>the Jesuit Jean de +Lamberville</i>) is gone to you, and th'other that stayed (<i>Jacques de +Lamberville</i>) 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; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> +setting apart the station I am in, I am as much +Monsr. Des Novilles (<i>Denonville's</i>) humble servant as any friend he +has, and will ommit no opportunity of manifesting the same. Sir, your +humble servant, Thomas Dongan." +<span class="superscript">[11]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-11" name="footer_07-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville</i>, 22 +<i>May</i>, 1686, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 455.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00329"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[12]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-12" name="footer_07-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> + <i>Denonville à Dongan</i>, 20 <i>Juin</i>, 1686.</p> +</div> +<p> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-13" name="footer_07-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville</i>, 26 <i>July</i>, 1686, in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 460.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00330"> +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." <span class="superscript">[14]</span> + 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?"</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-14" name="footer_07-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>Denonville à Dongan</i>, 1 <i>Oct</i>., 1686.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00331"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> +"Certainly," retorts Dongan, "our Rum doth as little hurt as your +Brandy, and, in the opinion of Christians, is much more wholesome." +<span class="superscript">[15]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-15" name="footer_07-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville</i>, 1 <i>Dec</i>., 1686, in <i>N. Y. Col. +Docs</i>., III. 462.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00332"> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>. +<span class="superscript">[16]</span> + 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. +<span class="superscript">[17]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-16" name="footer_07-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Denonville à Du Lhut</i>, 6 <i>Juin</i>, 1686.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-17" name="footer_07-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +Brodhead, <i>Hist. of New York</i>, II. 429; <i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 8 +<i>Mai</i>, 1686.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-18" name="footer_07-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +Brodhead, <i>Hist. of New York</i>, II. 443; +<i>Commission of McGregory</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 318.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00333"> +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." <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-19" name="footer_07-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +<i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 16 +<i>Nov</i>., 1686.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-20" name="footer_07-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +<i>Ibid</i>., 15 <i>Oct</i>., 1686.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00334"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> +as you call them, were amongst their own +countrymen." </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-21" name="footer_07-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville</i>, 1 <i>Dec</i>., 1686; +<i>Ibid</i>., 20 <i>June</i>, 1687, in <i>N. Y. +Col. Docs</i>., III. 462, 465.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00335"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00336"> +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 (<i>Ontario</i>): 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." +<span class="superscript">[22]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-22" name="footer_07-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville</i>, 20 <i>Juin</i>, 1687, in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 465.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00337"> +"Monsieur," replies Denonville, "I thank you +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> +for your oranges. It is a great pity that they were all rotten."</p> + +<p id="id00338"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[23]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-23" name="footer_07-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +<i>Denonville à Dongan</i>, 21 <i>Aug</i>., 1687; +<i>Ibid., no date</i> (1687).</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00339"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-24" name="footer_07-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +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."</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00340"> +They ascended the Ottawa, and thence, from stream to stream and lake +to lake, toiled painfully towards their goal. At length, they neared +Fort +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00341"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> +the hatchway, and captured the rest. Among them was +Bridger, governor for the company of all its stations on the bay.</p> + +<p id="id00342"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[25]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-25" name="footer_07-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +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, <i>État Présent</i>, 43; and Oldmixon, +<i>British Empire in America</i>, I. 561-564 (ed. 1741). An account +of the preceding events will be found in La Potherie and Oldmixon; +in Jerémie, <i>Relation de la Baie de Hudson</i>; and in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., 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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00343"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[26]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +Dongan accordingly was directed to keep a friendly +correspondence with his rival, and take good care to give him no cause +of complaint. <span class="superscript">[28]</span> + +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-26" name="footer_07-26"></a> + <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +<i>Traité de Neutralité pour l'Amérique, +conclu à Londres le</i> 16 <i>Nov.</i>, 1686, in +<i>Mémoires des Commissaires</i>, II. 86.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-27" name="footer_07-27"></a> + <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +<i>Instrument for preventing Acts of Hostility in America</i> +in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 505.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-28" name="footer_07-28"></a> + <span class="superscript">[28]</span> +<i>Order to Gov. Dongan</i>, 22 <i>Jan</i>., 1687, in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 504.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00344"> +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; +<span class="superscript">[29]</span> +but, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-29" name="footer_07-29"></a> + <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +<i>Louis XIV. à Denonville</i>, 17 <i>Juin</i>, 1687. At the end of +March, the king had written that "he did not think it expedient to +make any attack on the English."</p> + +</div> + + + +<p id="id00345"> +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. <span class="superscript">[30]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-30" name="footer_07-30"></a> + <span class="superscript">[30]</span> +<i>Abstract of Letters</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 314. +This answers exactly to the statement of the <i>Mémoire +adressé au Régent</i>, which places the number of troops in +Canada at this time at thirty-two companies of fifty men each.</p> + +</div> + + +<p id="id00346"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[31]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-31" name="footer_07-31"></a> + <span class="superscript">[31]</span> +<i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 9 <i>Nov</i>., 1686; <i>Ibid</i>., 8 +<i>Juin</i>, 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. <i>Dablon to Dongan</i> +(1685?), in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 454.</p> + +</div> + +<p id="id00347"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> +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 <i>Father</i> Corlaer instead of +<i>Brother</i>. 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. +<span class="superscript">[32]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-32" name="footer_07-32"></a> + <span class="superscript">[32]</span> +Colden, 97 (1727), <i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, +8 <i>Juin</i>, 1687.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00348"> +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. <span class="superscript">[33]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_07-33" name="footer_07-33"></a> + <span class="superscript">[33]</span> +Saint-Vallier, <i>État Présent</i>. 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 +(<i>Fort Frontenac</i>), J'ai toujours tenu ce discours +jusqu'au temps de la marche." +<i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 8 <i>Juin</i>, 1687.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + + <br /><a name="Chapter_08" id="Chapter_08"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents08">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1687.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Denonville and the Senecas.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> + +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">A host</span> +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; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> +and the +sight so exasperated the young officer that he could scarcely refrain +from thrashing the tormentors with his walking stick. +<span class="superscript">[1]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-01" name="footer_08-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>La Hontan</i>, I. 93-95 (1709).</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00355"> +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. <span class="superscript">[2]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[3]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-02" name="footer_08-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-03" name="footer_08-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Le Roy à La Barre</i>, 21 <i>Juillet</i>, 1684; <i>Le Roy à +Denonville et Champigny</i>, 30 <i>Mars</i>, 1687.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00356"> +The intendant Champigny accordingly proceeded to the fort in advance +of the troops, and invited the neighboring Iroquois to a feast. They +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00357">The whole number of prisoners thus secured +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[4]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-04" name="footer_08-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +The authorities for the above are Denonville, Champigny, Abbé +Belmont, Bishop Saint-Vallier, and the author of <i>Recueil de ce qui +s'est passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'année</i> +1682.</p> + +<p id="id00376"> +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. <i>État Présent de +l'Église</i>, 91, 92 (reprint, 1856).</p> + +<p id="id00377"> +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 +<i>Recueil</i> speak of the prisoners as having been "pris par +l'appât d'un festin."</p> + +<p id="id00378"> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00358"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[5]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-05" name="footer_08-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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. (<i>Journal of +Denonville</i>.) This would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00380"> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00359"> +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. <span class="superscript">[6]</span> + 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 <i>coureurs de bois</i> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> +and Indians from the upper lakes. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-06" name="footer_08-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-07" name="footer_08-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +Tonty, <i>Mémoire</i> in Margry, +<i>Relations Inédites</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-08" name="footer_08-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p> +Suddenly a canoe arrived with news that a party of English traders +was approaching. It will be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> +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 <i>coureurs de bois.</i> +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-09" name="footer_08-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +Attestation of N. Harmentse and others of Rooseboom's party. +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 436. La Potherie says, three +hundred.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00360"> +"It is certain," wrote Denonville; "that, if the English had not been +stopped and pillaged, the Hurons and Ottawas would have revolted and +cut +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> +the throats of all our Frenchmen." <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +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.</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-10" name="footer_08-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 25 <i>Août</i>, 1687.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00361"> +La Durantaye and his companions, with a hundred and eighty <i>coureurs +de bois</i> 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. <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-11" name="footer_08-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +The above is drawn from papers in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 436, IX. +324, 336, 346, 405; Saint-Vallier, <i>État Présent</i>, 92; +Denonville, <i>Journal</i>; Belmont, <i>Histoire du Canada</i>; La +Potherie, II. chap. xvi; La Hontan. I. 96. Colden's account is +confused and incorrect.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00362"> +Denonville was already on his way thither. On the fourth of July, he +had embarked at Fort Frontenac with four hundred bateaux and canoes, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[12]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-12" name="footer_08-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada depuis</i> 1682; +<i>Captain Duplessis's Plan for the Defence of Canada</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. +Docs</i>., IX. 447.</p> +</div> + +<p> +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 <i>noblesse</i> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-13" name="footer_08-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +The first part of the extract is from Belmont; +the second, from Saint-Vallier.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00363"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[14]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-14" name="footer_08-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>Information received from several Indians</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., +III. 444.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00364"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> +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 <i>coureurs de +bois</i>, 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[15]</span> 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. +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-15" name="footer_08-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 8 <i>Juin</i>, 1687.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00365"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00366"> +Hurrying forward through the forest, they left the main body behind, +and soon reached the end +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[16]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-16" name="footer_08-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +For authorities, see note at the end of +the chapter. The account of Charlevoix is contradicted at several +points by the contemporary writers.</p> +</div> + + +<p> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> +One of the escaped prisoners saw the rest buried, and he saw also more +than sixty very dangerously wounded." <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-17" name="footer_08-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +<i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 25 <i>Août</i>, +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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00367"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[18]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-18" name="footer_08-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +Belmont. A few words are added from Saint-Vallier.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00368"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00369"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00370"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[19]</span> Here he left a hundred men, under the +Chevalier de Troyes, and, embarking with the rest of the army, +descended to Montreal.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-19" name="footer_08-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +<i>Procès-verbal de la Prise de Possession de Niagara</i>, 31 +<i>Juillet</i>, 1687. There are curious errors of date in this document +regarding the proceedings of La Salle.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00371"> +The campaign was but half a success. Joined +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_08-20" name="footer_08-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +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 <i>Plan for +the Defence of Canada</i>, 1690, declares that not one of them perished +of hunger.</p> +</div> +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p> + <a id="footer_08-end" name="footer_08-end"></a> +<span class="sc">Denonville's campaign against the Senecas</span>.—The +chief authorities on this matter are the journal of Denonville, of which there +is a translation in the <i>Colonial Documents of New York</i>, IX.; the +letters of Denonville to the Minister; the <i>État Présent de +l'Église de la Colonie Française</i>, by Bishop Saint-Vallier; +the <i>Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, +tant des Anglais que des Iroquois, depuis l'année</i> 1682; and the +excellent account by Abbé Belmont in his chronicle called <i>Histoire +du Canada</i>. 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 <i>Colonial Documents</i>, 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.</p> + +<p id="id00374"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> +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 <i>Aboriginal Monuments of New York</i>. The site of the three +other Seneca towns destroyed by Denonville, and called Totiakton, +Gannondata, and Gannongarae, can also be identified. See Marshall, in +<i>Collections N. Y. Hist. Soc., 2d Series</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_09" id="Chapter_09"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents09">CHAPTER IX.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1687-1689.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">The Iroquois Invasion.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">When</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[1]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-01" name="footer_09-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Dongan's Propositions to the Five Nations; Answer of the Five +Nations, N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 438, 441.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00386"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> +you shall be +att Albany. What you alleage concerning my assisting the Sinnakees +(<i>Senecas</i>) 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." +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-02" name="footer_09-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville</i>, 9 <i>Sept.</i>, 1687, in <i>N. Y. +Col. Docs.,</i> III. 472.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00387">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +In spite of his sarcasms, it is clear that the claim of prior discovery and +occupation was on the side of the French.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-03" name="footer_09-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Dongan's Fourth Paper to the French Agents, N. Y. +Col. Docs</i>., III. 528. </p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00388">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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-04" name="footer_09-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Warrant, authorizing Governor Dongan to protect the Five Nations</i>, +10 <i>Nov</i>., 1687, <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 503.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00389"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> +were about to march on Albany to destroy it. "And now, my +Lord," continues Dongan, "we must build forts in +y<span class="superscript">e</span> countrey upon +y<span class="superscript">e</span> great Lakes, +as y<span class="superscript">e</span> French doe, otherwise we lose +y<span class="superscript">e</span> Countrey, +y<span class="superscript">e</span> Bever trade, and our Indians." +<span class="superscript">[5]</span> Denonville, meanwhile, had begun +to yield, and promised to send back McGregory and the men captured +with him. <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-05" name="footer_09-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Dongan to Sunderland, Feb.,</i> +1688, <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.,</i> III. 510.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-06" name="footer_09-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Denonville à Dongan</i>, 2 <i>Oct.</i>, 1687. McGregory +soon arrived, and Dongan sent him back to Canada as an emissary +with a civil message to Denonville. +<i>Dongan to Denonville,</i> 10 <i>Nov.</i>, 1687.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-07" name="footer_09-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville,</i> 31 <i>Oct.</i>, 1687; <i>Dongan's First Demand +of the French Agents, N. Y. Col. Docs.,</i> III. 515, 520.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00390">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> +tried to temporize, and asked for a truce, with a view to a final settlement +by reference to the two kings. <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[10]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[11]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> +Canada.<span class="superscript">[12]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-08" name="footer_09-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +The papers of this discussion will be found in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-09" name="footer_09-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>Dongan's Reply to the Five Nations, Ibid</i>., III. 535.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-10" name="footer_09-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Dongan to Denonville</i>, 17 <i>Feb</i>., 1688, <i>Ibid</i>., III. 519.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-11" name="footer_09-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +"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." <i>Denonville, Mémoire +adressé au Ministre</i>, 9 <i>Nov</i>., 1688.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-12" name="footer_09-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>Denonville à Dongan</i>, 24 <i>Avril</i>, 1688; <i>Ibid.</i>, +12 <i>Mai</i>, 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-13" name="footer_09-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>Denonville à Dongan,</i> 18 <i>Juin</i>, 1688; <i>Ibid.</i>, 5 +<i>Juillet</i>, 1688; <i>Ibid.</i>, 20 <i>Aug.</i>, 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."</p> +</div> + + + + +<p id="id00391"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[14]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-14" name="footer_09-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sr. Marquis de Denonville</i>, +8 <i>Mars</i>, 1688; <i>Le Roy à Denonville, même date</i>; +<i>Seignelay à Denonville, même date.</i> Louis XIV. had +demanded Dongan's recall. How far this had influenced the action of James +II. it is difficult to say.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00392"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[15]</span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[16]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-15" name="footer_09-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Andros to Denonville</i>, 21 <i>Aug.</i>, 1688; <i>Ibid.</i>, +29 <i>Sept.</i>, 1688.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-16" name="footer_09-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Mémoire de l'Estat Présent des Affaires de ce Pays depuis +le 10me Aoust</i>, 1688, <i>jusq'au dernier Octobre de la mesme +année</i>. 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00393"> +While these things were passing, the state of Canada was deplorable, +and the position of its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[18]</span> + 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. +<span class="superscript">[19]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-17" name="footer_09-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +Denonville, <i>Mémoire du</i> 10 +<i>Aoust</i>, 1688.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-18" name="footer_09-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +<i>Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada depuis +l'année</i> 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).</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-19" name="footer_09-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +<i>Denonville à Dongan</i>, 20 <i>Aoust</i>, 1688; +<i>Procès-verbal of the Condition of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span> +Fort Niagara</i>, 1688; <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00394"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[20]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-20" name="footer_09-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +Denonville, <i>Mémoire de</i> 10 <i>Aoust</i>, 1688.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00395"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[21]</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-21" name="footer_09-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +In the Dépot des Cartes de la Marine, there is a contemporary +manuscript map, on which all these forts are laid down.</p> +</div> + +<p> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> +malice of the English and the protection they have +given our enemies." <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-22" name="footer_09-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +<i>Denonville au Roy</i>, 1688; <i>Ibid.</i>, <i>Mémoire du</i> +10 <i>Aoust</i>, 1688; <i>Ibid.</i>, <i>Mémoire du</i> 9 <i>Nov.</i>, +1688.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00396"> +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. <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[24]</span> +His fast friend, +the bishop, warmly seconded his appeal. "The glory of God is +involved," +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[25]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-23" name="footer_09-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +<i>Plan for the Termination of the Iroquois War</i>, <i>N. Y. +Col. Docs.</i>, IX. 375.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-24" name="footer_09-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +Denonville, <i>Mémoire du</i> 8 <i>Août</i>, 1688.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-25" name="footer_09-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +Saint-Vallier, <i>Mémoire sur les Affaires du Canada pour Monseigneur le +Marquis de Seignelay</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-26" name="footer_09-26"></a> + <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +<i>Mémoire du Ministre adressé à +Denonville</i>, 1 <i>Mai</i>, 1689.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00397"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> + 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.</p> + +<p id="id00398"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> +with their escort gravely pursued their way to meet Denonville at +Montreal. <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-27" name="footer_09-27"></a> + <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +<i>Relation des Évenements de la Guerre</i>, 30 <i>Oct</i>., +1688.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00399"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[28]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +A declaration of neutrality was drawn up, and Big Mouth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> +affixed to it the figures of sundry birds and beasts as the signatures +of himself and his fellow-chiefs. <span class="superscript">[30]</span> +He promised, too, that within a certain time deputies from the whole +confederacy should come to Montreal and conclude a general peace.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-28" name="footer_09-28"></a> + <span class="superscript">[28]</span> +<i>Declaration of the Iroquois in presence of M. de Denonville, N. Y. +Col. Docs.</i>, IX. 384; <i>Relation des Événements de la +Guerre</i>, 30 <i>Oct</i>., 1688; Belmont, <i>Histoire du Canada</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-29" name="footer_09-29"></a> + <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +<i>Callières à Seignelay, Jan.</i>, 1689.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-30" name="footer_09-30"></a> + <span class="superscript">[30]</span> +See the signatures in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, +IX. 385, 386.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00400"> +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. </p> +<p> +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. +<span class="superscript">[31]</span> The French had spared no pains to gain +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[32]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-31" name="footer_09-31"></a> + <span class="superscript">[31]</span> +Nicolas Perrot, 143.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-32" name="footer_09-32"></a> + <span class="superscript">[32]</span> +<i>Denonville à Seignelay</i>, 9 <i>Nov.</i>, 1688. La Hontan +saw the party set out, and says that there were about a hundred of them.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00401"> +"It is well," replied the Rat.</p> + +<p id="id00402"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00403"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00404"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> +business." <span class="superscript">[33]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[34]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-33" name="footer_09-33"></a> + <span class="superscript">[33]</span> +"Il dit, J'ai tué la paix." Belmont, <i>Histoire du Canada</i>. +"Le Rat passa ensuite seul à Catarakouy (<i>Fort Frontenac</i>) +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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-34" name="footer_09-34"></a> + <span class="superscript">[34]</span> +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 +<i>Abstract of Letters from Canada</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, +IX. 393; and of the writer of <i>Relation des Événements +de la Guerre</i>, 30 <i>Oct.</i>, 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 <i>Adario, ou le Rat</i>. 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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00405"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[35]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-35" name="footer_09-35"></a> + <span class="superscript">[35]</span> +<i>Denonville au Ministre</i>, 9 <i>Nov</i>., 1688.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00406"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00407"> +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. + <span class="superscript">[36]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-36" name="footer_09-36"></a> + <span class="superscript">[36]</span> +<i>Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada depuis l'année</i> +1682; <i>Observations on the State of Affairs in Canada</i>, 1689, +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 431; Belmont, <i>Histoire du Canada</i>; +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Nov</i>., 1689. This detachment was +commanded by Lieutenant de la Rabeyre, and consisted of fifty French and +thirty Indian converts.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00408"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00409"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[37]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-37" name="footer_09-37"></a> + <span class="superscript">[37]</span> +The best account of the descent of the Iroquois at La Chine is that of +the <i>Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada</i>, 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 <i>Histoire du Canada</i>. 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 (<i>les Iroquois</i>) 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 +<i>Histoire de l'Eau de Vie en Canada,</i> 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.</p> +<p>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." <i>Report of Conference</i> in +Colden, 103.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00410"> +Canada lay bewildered and benumbed under the shock of this calamity; +but the cup of her misery was not full. There was revolution in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00411"> +A letter of recall for Denonville was already on its way. +<span class="superscript">[38] </span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[39] </span>It is said that he had an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> +instinctive antipathy for Indians, such as some +persons have for certain animals; and the <i>coureurs de bois</i>, 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. <span class="superscript">[40]</span> + 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-38" name="footer_09-38"></a> + <span class="superscript">[38]</span> +<i>Le Roy à Denonville</i>, 31 <i>Mai</i>, 1689.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-39" name="footer_09-39"></a> + <span class="superscript">[39]</span> +"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 (<i>Madame +la Gouvernante</i>), 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." <i>Relation of the +State of Affairs in Canada</i>, 1688, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., +IX. 388. This paper was written at Quebec.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_09-40" name="footer_09-40"></a> + <span class="superscript">[40]</span> +Saint-Vallier, <i>État Présent</i>, 91, 92 +(Quebec, 1856).</p> +</div> + + + + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_10" id="Chapter_10"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents10">CHAPTER X.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1689, 1690.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Return of Frontenac.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">The</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00420"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[1]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-01" name="footer_10-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +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 <i>Mercure +Français</i> of that year. See also Soulié, <i>Notice +du Musée impérial de Versailles</i>, where copious extracts +from the <i>Mercure</i> are given. The <i>grands appartements</i> are +now entirely changed in appearance, and turned into an historic picture +gallery.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00421"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> +though he had not heard as yet +of the last great calamity, he was sated with ill tidings already.</p> + +<p id="id00422"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> "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." +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-02" name="footer_10-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Journal de Dangeau</i>, 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. <i>Ibid</i>., I. 205.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-03" name="footer_10-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +Goyer, <i>Oraison Funèbre du Comte de Frontenac</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00423">He repaired to Rochelle, where two ships of the royal navy were +waiting his arrival, embarked in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00424"> +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. <span class="superscript">[4]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-04" name="footer_10-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> +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</i>.</p> + +</div> + + + +<p id="id00425"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[5]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-05" name="footer_10-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction à Monsieur le Comte de +Frontenac sur l'Entreprise de la Nouvelle York</i>, 7 <i>Juin</i>, +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> +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 (<i>ceux qui ne sont pas Français</i>) 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 +(<i>Huguenots</i>)." A translation of the entire document will be found +in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, IX. 422.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00426"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00427"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[6]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-06" name="footer_10-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +On the details of the projected attack of New York, <i>Le Roy +à Denonville</i>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> +7 <i>Juin</i>, 1689; <i>Le Ministre +à Denonville, même date</i>; <i>Le Ministre à +Frontenac, même date</i>; <i>Ordre du Roy à Vaudreuil, +même date</i>; <i>Le Roy au Sieur de la Caffinière, +même date</i>; <i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 16 <i>Nov.</i>, 1689.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00428"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[7]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> +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. +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-07" name="footer_10-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +La Hontan, I. 199.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-08" name="footer_10-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>Instruction pour le Sieur Comte de Frontenac</i>, +7 <i>Juin</i>, 1689.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00429"> +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. <span class="superscript">[9]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-09" name="footer_10-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Nov.</i>, 1689.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-10" name="footer_10-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Nov.</i>, 1689; <i>Recueil de ce qui +s'est passé en Canada depuis l'année</i> 1682.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00430"> +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 +<i>coureurs de bois</i> 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. +<span class="superscript">[11]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-11" name="footer_10-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Nov.</i>, 1689; <i>Champigny au +Ministre</i>, 16 <i>Nov.</i>, 1689. Compare Belmont, whose account +is a little different; also <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, IX. 435.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00431"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[12]</span> "The terror," wrote the +bishop, "is indescribable." The appearance of a few savages would put +a whole neighborhood to flight. <span class="superscript">[13]</span> + 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> +Ourehaoué, whose loss had infuriated the Iroquois. +<span class="superscript">[14]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-12" name="footer_10-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +Belmont, <i>Histoire du Canada</i>; <i>Frontenac +à———</i>, 17 <i>Nov.</i>, 1689; +<i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 16 <i>Nov.</i>, 1689. This +letter is not the one just cited. Champigny wrote twice on +the same day.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-13" name="footer_10-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, IX. 435.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-14" name="footer_10-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-15" name="footer_10-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 30 <i>Avril</i>, 1690.</p> +</div> + + + + +<p id="id00432">When the deputation arrived at Onondaga and made known their errand, +the Iroquois +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[16]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-16" name="footer_10-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +Milet was taken in 1689, not, as has been supposed, in +1690. <i>Lettre du Père Milet</i>, 1691, printed by Shea.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00433">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. +<span class="superscript">[17]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-17" name="footer_10-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> +Cut Nose, or Nez Coupé, is called Adarahta by Colden, and +Gagniegaton, or Red Bird, by some French writers.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00434"> +"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.</p> + +<p id="id00435"> +"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."</p> + +<p id="id00436"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00437"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00438"> +"Brethren," said an Onondaga sachem, "we must hold fast to our brother +Quider (<i>Peter Schuyler, mayor of Albany</i>) and look on Onontio as our +enemy, for he is a cheat."</p> + +<p id="id00439"> +Then they invited the interpreter from Albany to address the council, +which he did, advising them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> +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: +<span class="superscript">[18]</span>—</p> + +<p id="id00440"> +"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.</p> + +<p id="id00441"> +"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.</p> + +<p id="id00442"> +"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."</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-18" name="footer_10-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00443"> +Then they consulted together again, and agreed on the following answer +to Ourehaoué and Frontenac:—</p> + +<p id="id00444"> +"Ourehaoué, the whole council is glad to hear that you have come back.</p> + +<p id="id00445"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> +"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 (<i>Fort +Frontenac</i>). 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." +<span class="superscript">[19]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-19" name="footer_10-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +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 (<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., +IX. 465), and, after him, by La Potherie. Compare Le Clercq, +<i>Établissement de la Foy</i>, II. 403. Ourehaoué is the +Tawerahet of Colden.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00446"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-20" name="footer_10-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +<i>Message of Ourehaoué</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, III. +735; <i>Instructions to Chevalier d'Eau, Ibid</i>., 733; +<i>Chevalier d'Aux au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Mai</i>, 1693. The chevalier's +name is also written <i>d'O</i>, He himself wrote it as in the text.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00447"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> +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." +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-21" name="footer_10-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +<i>Carheil à Frontenac</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00448"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00449"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> +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?" <span class="superscript">[22]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-22" name="footer_10-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +<i>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</i>. The message is long. Only the principal +points are given above.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00450"> +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 +<i>fleur-de-lis</i>, shouted <i>Vive le Roi</i>, 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00451"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[23]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_10-23" name="footer_10-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +"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 <i>l'Iroquois à la +chaudière</i>, 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 <i>mettre à +la chaudière</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00452"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> +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.</p> + + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_11" id="Chapter_11"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents11">CHAPTER XI.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1690.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">The Three War-parties.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">While</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>. 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> +Le Moyne d'Iberville and Le Moyne de Bienville, with Repentigny de +Montesson, Le Ber du Chesne, and others of the sturdy Canadian +<i>noblesse</i>, nerved by adventure and trained in Indian warfare. +<span class="superscript">[1]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-01" name="footer_11-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Relation de Monseignat</i>, 1689-90. There is a translation of this +valuable paper in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, 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. <i>Examination of three French prisoners taken by +y<span class="superscript">e</span>. Maquas (Mohawks), and brought to +Skinnectady, who were examined by Peter Schuyler, Mayor of Albany, +Domine Godevridus Dellius, and some of y<span class="superscript">e</span>. +Gentle<span class="superscript">n</span>. that went from +Albany a purpose.</i></p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00462"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-02" name="footer_11-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +Colden, 114 (ed. 1747).</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00463">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00464"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> +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." + +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-03" name="footer_11-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +"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." <i>Schuyler to the Council of +Connecticut</i>, 15 <i>Feb</i>., 1690. Similar statements are made by Leisler. +See <i>Doc. Hist. N. Y.</i>, I. 307, 310.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-04" name="footer_11-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>List of y<span class="superscript">e</span>. People kild and destroyed +by y<span class="superscript">e</span>. French of Canida +and there Indians at Skinnechtady</i>, in <i>Doc. Hist. +N. Y.</i>, I. 304.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00465">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00466">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. <span class="superscript">[5]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-05" name="footer_11-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +Many of the authorities on the burning of Schenectady will be found +in the <i>Documentary History of New York</i>, 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> +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 <i>Andros Tracts</i>. La Potherie, +Charlevoix, Colden, Smith, and many others, give accounts at +second-hand.</p> + +<p id="id00484"> +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 <i>Cendre</i>, which became transformed into <i>Condre</i>, and then +into <i>Coudre</i>. 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 <i>Proceedings of N. Y. +Hist. Soc.</i>, 1846, 118.</p> + +<p id="id00485"> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00467"> +At the outset of the attack, Simon Schermerhorn threw himself on a +horse, and galloped through the eastern gate. The French shot at and +wounded 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00468">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." <span class="superscript">[6]</span> + The Mohawks were of the same mind. Their elders +came down to Albany to condole with their Dutch and English +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[7]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-06" name="footer_11-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Schuyler, Wessell, and Van Rensselaer to the Governor and Council of +Massachusetts,</i> 15 <i>Feb.,</i> 1690, in <i>Andros Tracts,</i> III. +114.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-07" name="footer_11-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Propositions made by the Sachems of y<span class="superscript">e</span>. +Maquase (Mohawk) Castles to y<span class="superscript">e</span>. Mayor, +Aldermen, and Commonality of y<span class="superscript">e</span>. Citty +of Albany, y<span class="superscript">e</span>. 25 day of february</i>, +1690, in <i>Doc. Hist. N. Y.</i>, II. 164-169.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00469"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00470"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-08" name="footer_11-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +The Abenaki migration to Canada began as early as the autumn of 1675 +(<i>Relation,</i> 1676-77). On the mission of St. Francis on the +Chaudière, see Bigot, <i>Relation,</i> 1684; <i>Ibid.,</i> 1685. +It was afterwards removed to the river St. Francis.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00471"> +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. <span class="superscript">[9]</span> 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; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[10]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-09" name="footer_11-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +Hutchinson, <i>Hist. Mass.,</i> I. 326. Compare <i>N. Y. +Col. Docs.,</i> IV. 282, 476. +</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-10" name="footer_11-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +"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. <i>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</i>, aux quels ils ont enlevé 16 forts, outre celuy +de Pemcuit (<i>Pemaquid</i>) ou il y avoit 20 pièces de canon, et leur ont +tué plus de 200 hommes." <i>Denonville au Ministre, Jan.</i>, 1690.</p> + +<p id="id00487">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.</p> + +<p id="id00488"> +The intendant Champigny says that most of the Indians who attacked the +English were from the mission villages near Quebec. <i>Champigny au +Ministre</i>, 16 <i>Nov.</i>, 1689. He says also that he supplied them with +gunpowder for the war. +</p> + +<p id="id00489"> +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. <i>Lettre du Père Thury</i>, 1689. Thury says that +142 men, women, and children were killed.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00472">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +These garrisons were withdrawn or reduced, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-11" name="footer_11-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +<i>Andros, Account of Forces in Maine,</i> in 3 <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.,</i> +I. 85. Compare <i>Andros Tracts,</i> I. 177; <i>Ibid.,</i> II. 181, 193, +207, 213, 217; <i>Ibid.,</i> III. 232; <i>Report of Andros</i> in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.,</i> 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 +<i>Andros Tracts,</i> 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." <i>Ibid.,</i> II. 59.</p> + +<p id="id00491"> +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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00473"> +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. </p> +<p> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> +appear to have been absent at the time of the attack. +<span class="superscript">[12]</span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[14]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-12" name="footer_11-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +Andros in 3 <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.,</i> I. 85. The original commanding +officer, Brockholes, was reputed a "papist." Hence his removal. +<i>Andros Tracts,</i> 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, <i>History of Bristol, Bremen, and Pemaquid</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-13" name="footer_11-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>Captivity of John Gyles.</i> Gyles was one of the inhabitants.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-14" name="footer_11-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +Thury, <i>Relation du Combat des Canibas</i>. Compare Hutchinson, +<i>Hist. Mass</i>., I. 352, and Mather, <i>Magnalia</i>, 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 +"<i>tuèrent sur le champ ceux qu'ils voulurent tuer</i>."</p> + +<p id="id00494"> +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 <i>Mémoire sur +l'Acadie</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00474"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00475"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[15]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-15" name="footer_11-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +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, <i>Magnalia</i>, II. 595; Belknap, <i>Hist. New +Hampshire</i>, I. 207; <i>Journal of Rev. John Pike (Proceedings of Mass. +Hist. Soc</i>. 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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00476"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[16]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-16" name="footer_11-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Declaration of Sylvanus Davis; Mather, Magnalia</i>, II. 603.</p> +</div> + +<p> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-17" name="footer_11-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +<i>Relation de Monseignat</i>; La Potherie, III. 79.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00477"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00478"> +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. <span class="superscript">[18]</span></p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-18" name="footer_11-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +Their remains were buried by Captain Church, three years later.</p> + +<p> +On the capture of Fort Loyal, compare Monseignat and La Potherie with +Mather, <i>Magnalia</i>, II. 603, and the <i>Declaration of Sylvanus +Davis</i>, in 3 <i>Mass. Hist. Coll</i>., 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> +Portneuf, Monsieur Burniffe or Burneffe. To these contemporary +authorities may be added the account given by Le Clercq, +<i>Établissement de la Foy</i>, II. 393, and a letter from Governor +Bradstreet of Massachusetts to Jacob Leisler in <i>Doc. Hist. +N. Y</i>., 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 <i>History of Portland</i> (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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00479"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[19]</span> +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," +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span> +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 (<i>Portneuf</i>)."</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-19" name="footer_11-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +I am unable to discover the foundation of this last charge.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00480"> +Frontenac was pleased with his prisoner, whom he calls a <i>bonhomme</i>. +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.</p> + +<p id="id00481"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00482"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[20]</span></p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_11-20" name="footer_11-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_12" id="Chapter_12"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents12">CHAPTER XII.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1690.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Massachusetts attacks Quebec.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">When</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00502"> +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. <span class="superscript">[1]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> 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." <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[5]</span> The lawful portion +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +The little Puritan commonwealth already gave itself airs of +sovereignty.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-01" name="footer_12-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Summary of Muster Roll,</i> appended to <i>A Journal of the Expedition +from Boston against Port Royal</i>, among the papers of George +Chalmers in the Library of Harvard College.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-02" name="footer_12-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Relation de la Prise du Port Royal par les Anglois de Baston, +pièce anonyme,</i> 27 <i>Mai</i>, 1690.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-03" name="footer_12-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Journal of the Expedition from Boston against Port Royal</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-04" name="footer_12-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Ibid</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-05" name="footer_12-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Relation de Monseignat</i>. Nevertheless, a considerable number seem +to have refused the oath, and to have been pillaged. The <i>Relation de +la Prise du Port Royal par les Anglois de Baston</i>, 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. <i>Meneval au Ministre</i>, 29 <i>Mai</i>, +1690; also <i>Rapport de Champigny</i>, <i>Oct.</i>, 1690. Meneval +describes the New England men as excessively irritated at the late +slaughter of settlers at Salmon Falls and elsewhere.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-06" name="footer_12-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Journal of the Expedition, etc.</i></p> +</div> + +<p id="id00503"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span> +the men nor the money to secure by sufficient garrisons.</p> + +<p id="id00504"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[7]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-07" name="footer_12-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>An Account of the Silver and Effects which Mr. Phips keeps back +from Mr. Meneval</i>, in 3 <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i>, I. 115.</p> + +<p id="id00529"> +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 <i>Life of Phips</i>, in Sparks's <i>American +Biography</i>, VII. There is also an order of council, "Whereas the +French soldiers lately brought to this place from Port Royal <i>did +surrender on capitulation</i>," they shall be set at liberty. Meneval, +<i>Lettre au Ministre</i>, 29 <i>Mai, 1690</i>, 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> +in collusion with the English. <i>Perrot à de Chevry</i>, +2 <i>Juin</i>, 1690. The same charge is made as regards Petit in +<i>Mémoire sur l'Acadie</i>, 1691.</p> + +<p id="id00530"> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00505"> +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." <span class="superscript">[8]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> Phips thereupon gave up some of +the money and the worst part of the clothing, still keeping the rest. +<span class="superscript">[10]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +This, at least, is his own account of the affair.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-08" name="footer_12-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>Mémoire présenté à M. de Ponchartrain par M. de +Meneval</i>, 6 <i>Avril</i>, 1691.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-09" name="footer_12-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +This note, dated 7 Jan., 1691, is cited by Bowen in his <i>Life of Phips</i>, +Sparks's <i>American Biography</i>, VII.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-10" name="footer_12-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Mémoire de Meneval</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-11" name="footer_12-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> + <i>Ibid</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00506"> +As Phips was to play a conspicuous part in the events that immediately +followed, some notice of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00507"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00508"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[12]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-12" name="footer_12-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +An excellent account of Phips will be found in Professor +Bowen's biographical notice, already cited. His Life by Cotton Mather +is excessively eulogistic.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00509">When he returned from Port Royal, he found +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span> +of arms and ammunition, of which they were in great need. +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> The request was refused, and no +aid of any kind came from the English government, whose resources were +engrossed by the Irish war.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-13" name="footer_12-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>Bradstreet and Council to the Earl of Shrewsbury</i>, 29 +<i>Mar</i>., 1690; <i>Danforth to Sir H. Ashurst</i>, 1 +<i>April</i>, 1690. </p> +</div> + +<p id="id00510"> +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." <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +The chief difficulty was to provide funds. An +attempt was made to collect a part of the money by private +subscription; <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span> +that, what with voluntary and enforced enlistment, one town, that of +Gloucester, was deprived of two-thirds of its fencible men. +<span class="superscript">[16]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-14" name="footer_12-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>Mass. Colonial Records</i>, 12 <i>Mar</i>., 1690; +Mather, <i>Life of Phips.</i></p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-15" name="footer_12-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Proposals for an Expedition against Canada</i>, +in 3 <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i>, X. 119.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-16" name="footer_12-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Rev. John Emerson to Wait Winthrop</i>, 26 <i>July</i>, +1690. Emerson was the minister of Gloucester. He begs for the +release of the impressed men.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-17" name="footer_12-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +Mather, <i>Life of Phips</i>, gives an account of the +outfit. Compare the <i>Humble Address of Divers of the Gentry, Merchants +and others inhabiting in Boston, to the King's Most Excellent +Majesty</i>. 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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00511">While Massachusetts was making ready to conquer Quebec by sea, the +militia of the land expedition against Montreal had mustered at +Albany. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00512">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00513"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00514"> +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. <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-18" name="footer_12-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +"M. le Gouverneur luy a répondu qu'il avoit reconnu avec plaisir +que la Compagnie (<i>le Conseil</i>) 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." <i>Registre du Conseil Souverain, séance +du</i> 13 <i>Mars</i>, 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. +<i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 10 <i>Mai</i>, 1691; <i>Mémoire +instructif sur le Canada</i>, 1691.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00515"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00516">Towards the end of July, Frontenac left Major +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-19" name="footer_12-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> + "Que le lac estoit tout convert de canots." +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 9 <i>et</i> 12 <i>Nov</i>., 1690.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00517"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00518"> +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." <span class="superscript">[20]</span> "I answered," writes +Frontenac, "that I would fight the Iroquois till they came to beg for +peace, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> +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."</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-20" name="footer_12-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +La Potherie, III. 94; Monseignat, <i>Relation; +Frontenac au Ministre,</i> 9 <i>et</i> 12 <i>Nov.</i>, 1690.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00519"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[21]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-21" name="footer_12-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +"Je leur mis moy-mesme la hache à la main en chantant la chanson +de guerre pour m'accommoder à leurs façons de faire." +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 9 <i>et</i> 12 <i>Nov</i>., 1690.</p> + +<p id="id00533"> +"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 <i>Sassakouez</i>, où +les cris et les hurlemens que M<span class="superscript">r</span>. de +Frontenac étoit obligé de faire pour se conformer à +leur manière, augmentoit encore la fureur bachique." La Potherie, +III. 97.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00520"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> +barrels of wine with abundant tobacco were also served out +to the guests, who devoured the meal in a species of frenzy. +<span class="superscript">[22]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-22" name="footer_12-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> + La Potherie, III. 96, 98.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00521"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00522"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[23]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-23" name="footer_12-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +On this expedition see the <i>Journal of Major General Winthrop</i>, in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, IV. 193; <i>Publick Occurrences</i>, 1690, +in <i>Historical Magazine</i>, I. 228; and various documents in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, III. 727, 752, and in <i>Doc. Hist. +N. Y.</i>, II. 266, 288. Compare La Potherie, III. 126, and +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, 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, <i>Lettre +du</i> 20 <i>Nov</i>., 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 (<i>Relation de la Défaite des Anglois</i>, 1690). About one +tenth of this number seem actually to have taken the field.</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-24" name="footer_12-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +<i>Journal of Captain John Schuyler</i>, in <i>Doc. Hist. N. Y.</i>, +II. 285. Compare La Potherie, III. 101, and <i>Relation de Monseignat</i>. +</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00523"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00524"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00525"> +He landed at the Lower Town, and the troops and the armed inhabitants +came crowding to meet him. He was delighted at their ardor. +<span class="superscript">[25]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[26]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-25" name="footer_12-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 9 <i>et</i> 12 <i>Nov</i>., 1690.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-26" name="footer_12-26"></a> + <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +<i>Relation de Monseignat; Plan de Québec, par Villeneuve</i>, 1690; +<i>Relation du Mercure Galant</i>, 1691. The summit of Cape Diamond, which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span> +commanded the town, was not fortified till three years later, nor were +any guns placed here during the English attack.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00526"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[27]</span> +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.</p> + + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_12-27" name="footer_12-27"></a> + <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +<i>Diary of Sylvanus Davis</i>, prisoner in Quebec, in <i>Mass. +Hist. Coll.</i> 3, I. 101. There is a difference of ten days in the +French and English dates, the <i>New Style</i> having been adopted by the +former and not by the latter.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_13" id="Chapter_13"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents13">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1690.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Defence of Quebec.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">The</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[1]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[2]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-01" name="footer_13-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Journal of Major Walley</i>, in +Hutchinson, <i>Hist. Mass</i>., I. 470.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-02" name="footer_13-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +"Ils ne profitèrent pas du vent favorable +pour nous surprendre comme ils auroient pu faire." Juchereau, 320.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00540"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-03" name="footer_13-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +"Les Demoiselles Lalande et Joliet." The title of <i>madame</i> was at +this time restricted to married women of rank. The wives of the +<i>bourgeois</i>, and even of the lesser nobles, were called +<i>demoiselles</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00541"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00542"> +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 <i>fleurs-de-lis</i>, +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.</p> + +<p id="id00543"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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:—</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-04" name="footer_13-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +Juchereau, 323.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-05" name="footer_13-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +"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. +<i>Ibid</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p class="hanging italic" id="id00544"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span> +"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:</p> + +<p id="id00545"> +"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,</p> + +<p id="id00546"> +"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.</p> + +<p id="id00547"> +"Your answer positive in an hour, returned by your own trumpet, with +the return of mine, is required upon the peril that will ensue." +<span class="superscript">[6]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-06" name="footer_13-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +See the Letter in Mather, <i>Magnalia</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00548"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00549"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00550"> +The messenger seemed astonished and startled; but he presently asked +if the governor would give him his answer in writing.</p> + +<p id="id00551"> +"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. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-07" name="footer_13-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>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</i>, +1690. Compare Monseignat, <i>Relation</i>. The English accounts, though +more brief, confirm those of the French.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00552"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[8]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-08" name="footer_13-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>Journal of Major Walley</i>; Savage, <i>Account of the Late Action +of the New Englanders</i> (Lond. 1691).</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00553"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i> 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. +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-09" name="footer_13-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +Juchereau, 325, 326.</p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p id="id00554"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[10]</span> 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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[11]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-10" name="footer_13-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +"Between 12 and 1,300 men." Walley, <i>Journal</i>. "About 1,200 men." Savage, +<i>Account of the Late Action</i>. 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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-11" name="footer_13-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +On this affair, Walley, <i>Journal</i>; Savage, <i>Account of the +Late Action</i> (in a letter to his brother); Monseignat, <i>Relation; +Relation de la Descente des Anglois; Relation de</i> 1682-1712; La +Hontan, I. 213. "M. le comte de Frontenac se trouva avec 3,000 +hommes." Belmont, <i>Histoire du Canada</i>, 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.</p> +<p id="id00570"> +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." <i>Remarques sur l'Oraison Funèbre +de feu M. de Frontenac.</i></p> +</div> + + + +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[12]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> Night came at length, and the +turmoil ceased. +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-12" name="footer_13-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +La Hontan, I. 216; Juchereau, 326.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-13" name="footer_13-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +Père Germain, <i>Relation de la Défaite des Anglois.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<p id="id00555"> +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. <span class="superscript">[14]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-14" name="footer_13-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +Besides authorities before cited, Le Clercq, <i>Établissement de +la Foy</i>, II. 434; La Potherie, III. 118; <i>Rapport de Champigny, +Oct</i>., 1690; Laval, <i>Lettre à</i>———, +20 <i>Nov</i>., 1690.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00556"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-15" name="footer_13-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 12 <i>et</i> 19 <i>Nov</i>., 1690.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00557"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-16" name="footer_13-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Relation de la Descente des Anglois</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00558"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00559"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span> +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. </p> +<p>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. <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span> +believed that Quebec would have fallen, in the one case for want of men, +and in the other for want of food.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-17" name="footer_13-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00560"> +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 <i>novena</i>, 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. <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-18" name="footer_13-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +<i>Récit d'une Réligieuse Ursuline</i>, in <i>Les Ursulines +de Québec</i>, I. 470.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00561"> +The superior of the Jesuits, with some of the elder members of the +Order, remained at their college +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[20]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-19" name="footer_13-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +"Il nous ressouvint alors de la fuite de +Nostre Seigneur en Égypte." Père Germain, <i>Relation</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-20" name="footer_13-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +<i>Ibid</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00562"> +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. <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[22]</span> Nor was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-21" name="footer_13-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +<i>Lettre pastorale pour disposer les Peuples de ce Diocèse +à se bien déffendre contre les Anglois</i> (Reg. de +l'Évêché de Québec).</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-22" name="footer_13-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +<i>Laval à———, Nov</i>. 20, 1690.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00563"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00564">Quebec was divided between thanksgiving and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> +rejoicing. The captured +flag of Phips's ship was borne to the cathedral in triumph; the bishop +sang <i>Te Deum</i>; 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.</p> + +<p id="id00565"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[23]</span> +</p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-23" name="footer_13-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 9 <i>et</i> 12 <i>Nov</i>., 1690.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00566"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span> +Island of Anticosti, where more than half their number died of cold and +misery. <span class="superscript">[24]</span> In the other vessels, some +were drowned, some frost-bitten, and above two hundred killed by +small-pox and fever.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-24" name="footer_13-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> + Mather, <i>Magnalia</i>, I. 192.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00567"> +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. <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[27]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-25" name="footer_13-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +<i>The Governor and Council to the Agents of Massachusetts</i>, in +<i>Andros Tracts</i>, III. 53.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-26" name="footer_13-26"></a> + <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +<i>Address of the Gentry, Merchants, and others, Ibid</i>., II. 236.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_13-27" name="footer_13-27"></a> + <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +The following is a literal copy of a specimen of this paper money, +which varied in value from two shillings to ten pounds:—</p> + +<p class="noindent center" id="id00572"> +No. (2161) 10<span class="superscript">s</span ></p> + +<p id="id00573"> +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 10<span class="superscript">th</span>. +1690. By Order of the General Court.</p> + +<p class="seal"> + Seal of<br/> + Masachu-<br /> + setts. +</p> + +<table summary="signatures and committee"> + +<tr> + <td></td> + <td>Peter Townsend<br /> + Adam Winthrop<br /> + Tim. Thornton</td> + <td>}</td> + <td>Com<span class="superscript">tee</span></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<p class="clear" id="id00575"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00576"> +In the Bibliothèque Nationale is the original draft of a remarkable +map, by the engineer Villeneuve, of which a <i>fac-simile</i> 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 <i>PLAN DE QUÉBEC, et de ses Environs, EN LA +NOUVELLE FRANCE, ASSIÉGÉ PAR LES ANGLOIS, le</i> 16 +<i>d'Octobre</i> 1690 <i>jusqu'au</i> 22 <i>dud. mois qu'ils s'en allerent, +apprès avoir esté bien battus PAR +M<span class="superscript">r</span>. LE COMTE DE FRONTENAC, +gouverneur general du Pays.</i></p> +</div> + +<p id="id00568"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span> +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.</p> + + + + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_14" id="Chapter_14"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents14">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1690-1694.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">The Scourge of Canada.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">One</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00582">Spring came at length, and brought with it the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> + 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. </p> +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[1]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-01" name="footer_14-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Relation de Bénac</i>, 1691; <i>Relation de ce qui s'est +passé de plus considérable en Canada</i>, 1690, 1691; +La Potherie, III. 134; <i>Relation de</i> 1682-1712; <i>Champigny +au Ministre</i>, 12 <i>May</i>, 1691. The name of Bienville was taken, +after his death, by one of his brothers, the founder of New Orleans.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00583"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00584"> +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'?" <span class="superscript">[2]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[3]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-02" name="footer_14-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> + Colden, 125, 140.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-03" name="footer_14-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> + <i>Official Journal of Schuyler</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. + Docs</i>., III. 800.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00585"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-04" name="footer_14-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> + <i>Relation de Bénac; Relation de</i> 1682-1712.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-05" name="footer_14-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +"La débauche fut extrême en toute manière." +Belmont.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00586"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00587"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[6]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-06" name="footer_14-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Major Peter Schuyler's Journal of his Expedition to Canada</i>, +in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., III. 800. "<i>Les ennemis +enfoncèrent notre embuscade</i>." Belmont.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00588"> +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. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-07" name="footer_14-07"></a> + <span class="supers7cript">[7]</span> +As this fight under Valrenne has been represented as a French +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span> +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 +<i>Relation</i> of 1682-1712, who was an officer on the spot at the +time, puts the number at 300 soldiers, Canadians, and savages.</p> + +<p id="id00609"> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p> +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." <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span> + 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-08" name="footer_14-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +<i>Lettres de Frontenac et de Champigny</i>, 1691, 1692. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00589"> +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. <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[10]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[11]</span> Money came +every summer in sums which now seem small, but were far from being so +in the eyes of the king, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span> +who joined to each remittance a lecture on +economy and a warning against extravagance. +<span class="superscript">[12]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-09" name="footer_14-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +Frontenac in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, IX. 496, 506.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-10" name="footer_14-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +Villebon in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 507.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-11" name="footer_14-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +The returns show 1,313 regulars in 1691, and 1,120 in 1692.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-12" name="footer_14-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>Lettres du Roy et du Ministre</i>, 1690-1694. In 1691, the amount +allowed for <i>extraordinaires de guerre</i> was 99,000 livres +(<i>francs</i>). 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. (<i>Le Ministre +à Frontenac</i>, 13 <i>Mars</i>, 1694.) This last sum probably +included the pay of the troops. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00590"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-13" name="footer_14-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +"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." <i>Mémoire du +Roy</i>, 1693. "Les habitans de la colonie +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span> +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." <i>Le Ministre à Frontenac</i>, +13 <i>Mars</i>, 1694.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00591"> +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. <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-14" name="footer_14-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>Lettres du Roy et du Ministre</i>, 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.</p> + +<p id="id00611"> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00612"> +"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."</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00592"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[16]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[17]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-15" name="footer_14-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> + <i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 21 <i>Sept</i>., 1692.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-16" name="footer_14-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> + <i>Relation de</i> 1682-1712.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-17" name="footer_14-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> + <i>Mémoire du Roy aux + Sieurs Frontenac et Champigny</i>, 1693; <i>Frontenac et Champigny au + Ministre</i>, 4 <i>Nov</i>., 1693. The bounty on prisoners was reduced + in the same proportion, showing that economy was the chief object of + the change. </p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00593"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00594"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> +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, <i>'Miséricorde, sauvez-moi, +je suis Français'</i>" <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[19]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-18" name="footer_14-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +La Potherie, III. 156; <i>Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus +considérable en Canada</i>, 1691, 1692; La Hontan, I. +233.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-19" name="footer_14-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +<i>Relation</i>, 1682-1712.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00595"> +The brunt of the war fell on the upper half of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[20]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-20" name="footer_14-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +<i>Relation</i>, 1682-1712. +</p> +</div> + +<p> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span> +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, <i>To arms! to arms!</i> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span> +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.'"</p> + + + +<p id="id00596"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00597"> +"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.</p> + +<p id="id00598">"At last, the daylight came again; and, as the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span> +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 (<i>Madeleine</i>) 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.</p> + +<p id="id00599"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span> +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.'" <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +</p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-21" name="footer_14-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +<i>Récit de Mlle. Magdelaine de Verchères, âgée +de</i> 14 <i>ans</i> (Collection de l'Abbé Ferland). It appears +from Tanguay, <i>Dictionnaire Généalogique</i>, that +Marie-Madeleine Jarret de Verchères was born in April, 1678, which +corresponds to the age given in the <i>Récit</i>. 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 <i>Récit</i>, 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.</p> + +<p id="id00614"> +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 +M<span class="superscript">r</span>. de Beauharnois, gouverneur du Canada." +</p> +</div> + +<p> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[22]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-22" name="footer_14-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +La Potherie, I. 326. </p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00600"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00601"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[23]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-23" name="footer_14-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +This mission was also called Caghnawaga. The village still exists, at +the head of the rapid of St. Louis, or La Chine. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00602"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span> +fell in fainter radiance on the rocks and pines behind them.</p> + +<p id="id00603"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00604"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span> +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?" +<span class="superscript">[24]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-24" name="footer_14-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +<i>Journal de Jacques Le Ber</i>, extract in +Faillon, <i>Vie de Mlle. Le Ber, Appendix.</i> +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00605"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> +and in many instances with health irreparably broken. +<span class="superscript">[25]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-25" name="footer_14-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +On this expedition, <i>Narrative of Military Operations in Canada</i>, +in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 550; <i>Relation de ce qui s'est +passé de plus remarquable en Canada</i>, 1692, 1693; +<i>Callières au Ministre</i>, 7 <i>Sept</i>., 1693; La +Potherie, III. 169; <i>Relation de</i> 1682-1712; Faillon, <i>Vie +de Mlle. Le Ber</i>, 313; Belmont, <i>Hist. du Canada</i>; Beyard +and Lodowick, <i>Journal of the Late Actions of the French at Canada</i>; +<i>Report of Major Peter Schuyler</i>, in <i>N. Y. Col. +Docs</i>., IV. 16; Colden, 142.</p> + +<p id="id00616"> +The minister wrote to Callières, finding great fault with the conduct +of the mission Indians. <i>Ponchartrain à Callières</i>, +8 <i>Mai</i>, 1694.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00606"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>. 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. <i>Father of the People, Preserver of +the Country</i>, seemed terms too weak to express their gratitude." +<span class="superscript">[26]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_14-26" name="footer_14-26"></a> + <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +<i>Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable en Canada</i>, +1692, 1693. Compare La Potherie, III. 185.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00607"> +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.</p> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_15" id="Chapter_15"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents15">CHAPTER XV.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1691-1695.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">An Interlude.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">While</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[1]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[3]</span> In return for these +sturdy applications, he got nothing for the present but a continuance +of the king's gift of two thousand crowns.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-01" name="footer_15-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 20 <i>Oct</i>., 1691.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-02" name="footer_15-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Sept</i>., 1692.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-03" name="footer_15-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Ibid</i>., 25 <i>Oct</i>., 1693.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00622"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[4]</span> "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." +<span class="superscript">[5]</span> 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." <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +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 some +time make division between us. But I close my eyes to all that, and +shall still persevere." <span class="superscript">[7]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[8]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-04" name="footer_15-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 12 <i>Oct</i>., 1691.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-05" name="footer_15-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Ibid</i>., 4 <i>Nov</i>., 1693.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-06" name="footer_15-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Sept</i>., 1692.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-07" name="footer_15-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Ibid</i>., 20 <i>Oct</i>., 1691.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-08" name="footer_15-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +"L'iniquité des ecclésiastiques qui commencent à traiter +d'impies ceux qui sont obligés de resister à leurs passions et +à leurs interêts." <i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 20 +<i>Oct</i>., 1691.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00623"> +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. <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +The minister wrote in vain. The bickerings that he reproved were but +premonitions of a greater strife.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-09" name="footer_15-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>Mémoire du Roy pour Frontenac et Champigny</i>, +1694.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-10" name="footer_15-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Le Ministre à Frontenac</i>, 8 <i>May</i>, +1694; <i>Le Ministre à Champigny, même date</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00624"> +Bishop Saint-Vallier was a rigid, austere, and contentious prelate, +who loved power as much as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[11]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-11" name="footer_15-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +Old Régime, chap. xix.</p> + +</div> + + +<p id="id00625"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-12" name="footer_15-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>La Motte-Cadillac à———</i>, 28 <i>Sept</i>., +1694.</p> + +</div> + +<p id="id00626"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span> +Mareuil, who, he says, "uses language capable of making Heaven blush," +and whom he elsewhere stigmatizes as "worse than a Protestant." +<span class="superscript">[13]</span> 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."</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-13" name="footer_15-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>Mandement au Sujet des Comédies</i>, 16 <i>Jan</i>., 1694; +<i>Mandement au Sujet de certaines Personnes qui tenoient des Discours +impies, même date; Registre du Conseil Souverain</i>.</p> + +</div> + + +<p id="id00627"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[14]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-14" name="footer_15-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +This incident is mentioned by La Motte-Cadillac; by the intendant, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> +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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00628"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00629"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[15]</span> 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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +Mareuil was at last ordered to prison, and the whole +affair was referred to the king. <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-15" name="footer_15-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +<i>Registre du Conseil Souverain</i>, 1 <i>et</i> 8 <i>Fév</i>., 1694.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-16" name="footer_15-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Champigny au Ministre,</i> 27 <i>Oct</i>., 1694.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-17" name="footer_15-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> + <i>Registre du Conseil +Souverain; Requeste du Sieur de Mareuil, Nov</i>., 1694.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00630"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[19]</span> The bishop then went up to +Montreal, and discord went with him.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-18" name="footer_15-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +<i>Champigny au Ministre,</i> 24 <i>Oct.,</i> 1694. Trouble on this matter +had begun some time before. <i>Mémoire du Roy pour Frontenac et +Champigny,</i> 1694; <i>Le Ministre à l'Évêque,</i> +8 <i>Mai,</i> 1694.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-19" name="footer_15-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +<i>La Motte-Cadillac à</i>———, 28 <i>Sept.,</i> 1694; +<i>Champigny au Ministre,</i> 27 <i>Oct</i>., 1694.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00631"> +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 <i>prie-dieu</i>, 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span> +at the <i>prie-dieu</i>, 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. <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +When the services +were over, he ordered the friars to remove the obnoxious <i>prie-dieu</i>. +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. <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> +Chevalier de Callières. <span class="superscript">[23]</span> + 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-20" name="footer_15-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +<i>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.)</i>.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-21" name="footer_15-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +<i>Mandement ordonnant de fermer l'Église des Récollets</i>, +13 <i>Mai</i>, 1694.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-22" name="footer_15-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +"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." <i>Extrait du +Mandement de l'Évesque de Québec (Archives Nationales)</i>. +He had before charged Mareuil with language "capable de faire rougir le +ciel."</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-23" name="footer_15-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +"M<span class="superscript">r</span>. 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 M<span class="superscript">r</span>. +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 (<i>sœur du Père Joseph</i>) 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." <i>Mémoire touchant le +Démeslé, etc.</i> Champigny also says that the bishop has +brought this charge, and that Callières declares that he has told +a falsehood. <i>Champigny au Ministre,</i> 27 <i>Oct</i>., 1694.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00632"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[24]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-24" name="footer_15-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +<i>Frontenac à M. de Lagny</i>, 2 <i>Nov</i>., 1695</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00633"> +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 +<i>procès-verbaux</i>, 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. +<span class="superscript">[25]</span> 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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span> +censured for violence, and admonished to avoid future +quarrels. <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[27]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[28]</span> +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. <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-25" name="footer_15-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +<i>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</i>, +3 <i>Juillet</i>, 1695.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-26" name="footer_15-26"></a> + <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +<i>Le Ministre à Frontenac</i>, 4 <i>Juin</i>, 1695; +<i>Ibid</i>., 8 <i>Juin</i>, 1695.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-27" name="footer_15-27"></a> + <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +<i>Le Ministre à Champigny</i>, 4 <i>Juin</i>, 1695; <i>Ibid</i>., +8 <i>Juin</i>, 1695.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-28" name="footer_15-28"></a> + <span class="superscript">[28]</span> +<i>Le Ministre à d'Auteuil</i>, 8 <i>Juin</i>, 1695.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-29" name="footer_15-29"></a> + <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +<i>Le Ministre à Callières</i>, 8 +<i>Juin</i>, 1695.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00634"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[30]</span> +</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-30" name="footer_15-30"></a> + <span class="superscript">[30]</span> +La Tour, <i>Vie de Laval, liv.</i> xii.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00635"> +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. <span class="superscript">[31]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_15-31" name="footer_15-31"></a> + <span class="superscript">[31]</span> +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 <i>Récit d'une Religieuse +Ursuline</i> speaks of Frontenac with gratitude, as a friend and +benefactor, as does also Mother Juchereau, superior of the Hôtel-Dieu.</p> +</div> + + + + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_16" id="Chapter_16"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents16">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1690-1694.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">The War in Acadia.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">Amid</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00643"> +Acadia, as the French at this time understood the name, included Nova +Scotia, New Brunswick, and the greater part of Maine. Sometimes they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[1]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[2]</span> </p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-01" name="footer_16-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +In 1671, 30 <i>garçons</i> and 30 <i>filles</i> were sent by the +king to Acadia, at the cost of 6,000 livres. <i>État. de +Dépenses</i>, 1671.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-02" name="footer_16-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00644"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> +</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-03" name="footer_16-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00645"> +Rude as it was, Acadia had charms, and it has them still: in its +wilderness of woods and its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00646"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00647"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00648"> +Their summer stay at the seashore was perhaps +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00649"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00650"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span> +the Indian manner, and they rarely or never practised +cannibalism.</p> + +<p id="id00651"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[5]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-04" name="footer_16-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Mémoire du Sieur Bergier</i>, 1685.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-05" name="footer_16-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>L'Évêque au Roy</i>, 10 <i>Nov</i>., 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00652">A sort of chronic warfare of aggression and reprisal, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[6]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-06" name="footer_16-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +Meneval, <i>Mémoire</i>, 1688; Denonville, <i>Mémoire</i>, 18 +<i>Oct</i>., 1688; <i>Procès-verbal du Pillage de Chedabucto; +Relation de la Boullaye</i>, 1688.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-07" name="footer_16-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 14 <i>Nov</i>., 1674; +<i>Frontenac à Leverett, gouverneur de Baston</i>, +24 <i>Sept</i>., 1674; +<i>Frontenac to the Governor and Council of Massachusetts</i>, +25 <i>May</i>, 1675 (see 3 <i>Mass. Hist. Coll.</i>, I. 64); +<i>Colbert à Frontenac</i>, 15 <i>May</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00653"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[8]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +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 (<i>Perrot</i>) 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." <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-08" name="footer_16-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +On its condition in 1670, <i>Estat du Fort et Place de Pentegoet fait en +l'année</i> 1670, <i>lorsque les Anglois l'ont rendu</i>. In +1671, fourteen soldiers and eight laborers were settled near the fort. +<i>Talon au Ministre</i>, 2 <i>Nov</i>., 1671. In the next year, Talon +recommends an <i>envoi de filles</i> for the benefit of Pentegoet. +<i>Mémoire sur le Canada</i>, 1672. As late as 1698, we find Acadian +officials advising the reconstruction of the fort.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-09" name="footer_16-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +Petit in Saint-Vallier, <i>Estat de l'Église</i>, 39 (1856).</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-10" name="footer_16-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Saint-Castin à Denonville</i>, 2 <i>Juiliet</i>, 1687.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00654">Perrot was recalled this very year; and his successor, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[11]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-11" name="footer_16-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +<i>Instruction du Roy au Sieur de Meneval</i>, 5 <i>Avril</i>, +1687.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00655"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[12]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-12" name="footer_16-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +<i>Mémoire du Sieur de Meneval sur l'Acadie</i>, 10 <i>Sept</i>., +1688.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00656"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-13" name="footer_16-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +<i>Mémoire présenté au Roy d'Angleterre</i>, 1687; +<i>Saint-Castin à Denonville</i>, 7 <i>Juillet</i>, 1687; +<i>Hutchinson Collection</i>, 562, 563; <i>Andros Tracts</i>, I. 118.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00657"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00658"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[14]</span> 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." <span class="superscript">[15]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-14" name="footer_16-14"></a> + <span class="superscript">[14]</span> +<i>Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur de Villebon</i>, 1691.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-15" name="footer_16-15"></a> + <span class="superscript">[15]</span> +"Comme vostre principal objet doit estre de faire la guerre sans +relâche aux Anglois, il faut que vostre plus particulière +application soit +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> +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 (<i>Abenakis</i>) +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." <i>Le Ministre +à Villebon, Avril</i>, 1692. Two years before, the king had +ordered that the Abenakis should be made to attack the English +settlements.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00659"> +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. <span class="superscript">[16]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-16" name="footer_16-16"></a> + <span class="superscript">[16]</span> +<i>Procès-verbal de la Prise de Possession du Port +Royal</i>, 27 <i>Sept</i>., 1691.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00660"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[17]</span> They were under no +such necessity. Guns, powder, and lead were given them in abundance; +and Thury, the priest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-17" name="footer_16-17"></a> + <span class="superscript">[17]</span> +<i>Paroles des Sauvages de la Mission de Pentegoet</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00661"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00662"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[18]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-18" name="footer_16-18"></a> + <span class="superscript">[18]</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00686"> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00663"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-19" name="footer_16-19"></a> + <span class="superscript">[19]</span> +Villebon, <i>Journal de ce qui s'est passé à l'Acadie</i>, +1691, 1692.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00664"> +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. <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-20" name="footer_16-20"></a> + <span class="superscript">[20]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Sept</i>., 1692.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00665"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[21]</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-21" name="footer_16-21"></a> + <span class="superscript">[21]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00666"> +In the morning, no room was left for doubt. One John Diamond, on his +way from the house to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00667"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00668"> +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. <span class="superscript">[22]</span></p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-22" name="footer_16-22"></a> + <span class="superscript">[22]</span> +Villebon, <i>Journal de ce qui s'est passé à l'Acadie</i>, 1691, +1692; Mather, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span> +<i>Magnalia</i>, II. 613; Hutchinson, <i>Hist. Mass.</i>, II. 67; +Williamson, <i>History of Maine</i>, I. 631; Bourne, <i>History of Wells</i>, +213; Niles, <i>Indian and French Wars</i>, 229. Williamson, like Sylvanus +Davis, calls Portneuf <i>Burneffe</i> or <i>Burniffe</i>. He, and other English +writers, call La Brognerie <i>Labocree</i>. 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00669"> +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. <span class="superscript">[23]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-23" name="footer_16-23"></a> + <span class="superscript">[23]</span> +"Le 18<span class="superscript">me</span> (<i>Août</i>) 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, <i>Journal</i>, 1691, 1692.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00670"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00671"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00672"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span> +board his ship, and +was possibly the occasion of his inaction. +<span class="superscript">[25]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-24" name="footer_16-24"></a> + <span class="superscript">[24]</span> +<i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 4 <i>Nov</i>., 1693.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-25" name="footer_16-25"></a> + <span class="superscript">[25]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 25 <i>Oct</i>., 1693.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00673"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[26]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-26" name="footer_16-26"></a> + <span class="superscript">[26]</span> +Lagny, <i>Mémoire sur l'Acadie</i>, 1692; <i>Mémoire sur +l'Enlèvement de Saint-Castin; Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 25 +<i>Oct</i>., 1693; <i>Relation de ce qui s'est passè de plus +remarquable</i>, 1690, 1691 (capture of Nelson); <i>Frontenac au +Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Sept</i>., 1692; <i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 15 +<i>Oct</i>., 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 <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, IX. 555. In +the same collection is a <i>Memorial on the Northern Colonies</i>, 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. (<i>Le +Ministre à Bégon</i>, 13 <i>Jan</i>., 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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p> +The French failure at Pemaquid completed the discontent of the +Abenakis; and despondency and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-27" name="footer_16-27"></a> + <span class="superscript">[27]</span> +For the treaty in full, Mather, <i>Magnalia</i>, II. 625.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00674"> +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. <span class="superscript">[28]</span> +The French +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-28" name="footer_16-28"></a> + <span class="superscript">[28]</span> +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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-29" name="footer_16-29"></a> + <span class="superscript">[29]</span> +<i>Estat de Munitions, etc., pour les +Sauvages de l'Acadie</i>, 1693.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00675"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00676"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00677"> +Villieu again went with them, and on the way his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00678"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[30]</span> + 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-30" name="footer_16-30"></a> + <span class="superscript">[30]</span> +Villebon, <i>Mémoire, Juillet</i>, 1694; <i>Instruction du +S<span class="superscript">r</span>. de Villebon au +S<span class="superscript">r</span>. de Villieu.</i></p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00679"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[31]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-31" name="footer_16-31"></a> + <span class="superscript">[31]</span> +Woodman's garrison house is still standing, +having been carefully preserved by his descendants.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00680"> +Among the unprotected houses, the carnage was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00681"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[32]</span> They did in fact fall a few days +after on the settlements near Groton, and killed some forty persons.</p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-32" name="footer_16-32"></a> + <span class="superscript">[32]</span> +"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, <i>Relation</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00682"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[33]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[34]</span></p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-33" name="footer_16-33"></a> + <span class="superscript">[33]</span> +"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." <i>Callières au Ministre</i>, +19 <i>Oct</i>., 1694.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_16-34" name="footer_16-34"></a> + <span class="superscript">[34]</span> +The principal authority for the above is the very curious +<i>Relation du Voyage fait par le Sieur de Villieu … pour faire la +Guerre aux Anglois au printemps de l'an</i> 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 <i>History +of New Hampshire</i>. 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 <i>Provincial Record of New Hampshire</i> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00690"> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p><br /></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p id="id00683"> + <a id="footer_16-end" name="footer_16-end"></a> +<span class="sc">The Indian tribes of Acadia.</span>—The name +<i>Abenaki</i> 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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span> +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 <i>Abenaki</i>. 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.</p> +</div> + + + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_17" id="Chapter_17"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents17">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1690-1697.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">New France and New England.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">"This</span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[1]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-01" name="footer_17-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +"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." <i>Villebon au +Ministre</i>, 19 <i>Sept</i>., 1694.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00696"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00697"> +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 there was a political necessity for +butchering women and children on the frontier of New England, it was a +necessity created by the French themselves.</p> + +<p id="id00698">There was no such necessity. Massachusetts was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00699"> +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. <span class="superscript">[2]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-02" name="footer_17-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +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 (<i>Observations +sur les Depêches touchant l'Acadie</i>, 1695), and their priest +Baudoin had led a band of Micmacs to the attack of Wells (Villebon, +<i>Journal</i>). 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00700"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00701"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-03" name="footer_17-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +Tibièrge, <i>Mémoire sur l'Acadie</i>, 1695.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-04" name="footer_17-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +"Les témoignages qu'on a rendu à Sa Majesté de +l'affection et du zêle du S<span class="superscript">r</span>. +de Thury, missionaire chez les Canibas (<i>Abenakis</i>), 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." <i>Le Ministre à +l'Évesque de Québec</i>, 16 <i>Avril</i>, 1695.</p> +<p id="id00716"> +"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." <i>Le Ministre à +Thury</i>, 23 <i>Avril</i>, 1697. The other letter to Thury, written two +years before, is of the same tenor.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00702"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[5]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-05" name="footer_17-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +Mather, <i>Magnalia</i>, II. 629. Compare Dummer, <i>Memorial</i>, 1709, in +<i>Mass. Hist. Coll</i>., 3 <i>Ser</i>., I., and the same writer's <i>Letter +to a Noble Lord concerning the Late Expedition to Canada</i>, 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." <i>First Report on the Geology of +Maine</i>, 72. Here, perhaps, is a tradition from early missionary +teaching.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00703"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[6]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-06" name="footer_17-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00718"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00719"> +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. +<i>Mémoire contenant une Description détaillée +de l'Acadie, etc.</i>, 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 <i>Diary of President +Stiles</i>, cited by Holmes.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00704"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00705"> +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. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> + 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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-07" name="footer_17-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Thury à Frontenac</i>, 11 <i>Sept</i>., 1694.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00706"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span> +at Boston that they came to Pemaquid, and opened a conference +with Chubb. The French say that they meant only to deceive him. +<span class="superscript">[8]</span> 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. +<span class="superscript">[9]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-08" name="footer_17-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +Villebon, <i>Journal</i>, 1694-1696.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-09" name="footer_17-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>N. Y. Col Docs.</i>, IX. 613, 616, 642, 643; La Potherie, III. 258; +<i>Calières au Ministre</i>, 25 <i>Oct</i>., 1695; <i>Rev. John +Pike to Governor and Council</i>, 7 <i>Jan</i>., 1694 (1695), in +Johnston, <i>Hist. of Bristol and Bremen</i>; Hutchinson, <i>Hist. +Mass.</i>, II. 81, 90.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00707"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00708"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00709"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">381</a></span> +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. </p> + +<p>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. <span class="superscript">[10]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-10" name="footer_17-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +Baudoin, <i>Journal d'un Voyage fait avec M. d'Iberville</i>. Baudoin +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span> +was an Acadian priest, who accompanied the expedition, which he +describes in detail. <i>Relation de ce qui s'est passé, etc.</i>, +1695, 1696; <i>Des Goutins au Ministre</i>, 23 <i>Sept</i>., 1696; +Hutchinson, <i>Hist. Mass.</i>, II. 89; Mather, <i>Magnalia</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00710"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00711"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span> +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. </p> +<p>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. <span class="superscript">[11]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-11" name="footer_17-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +<i>Mémoire sur l'Entreprise de Boston, pour M. le Marquis de +Nesmond, Versailles</i>, 21 <i>Avril</i>, 1697; <i>Instruction à +M. le Marquis de Nesmond, même +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">384</a></span> +date; Le Roy à Frontenac, +même date; Le Roy à Frontenac et Champigny</i> 27 +<i>Avril</i>, 1697; <i>Le Ministre à Nesmond</i>, 28 +<i>Avril</i>, 1697; <i>Ibid</i>., 15 <i>Juin</i>, 1697; <i>Frontenac +au Ministre</i>, 15 <i>Oct</i>., 1697; <i>Carte de Baston, par le +S<span class="superscript">r</span>. Franquelin</i>, 1697. This is +the map made for the use of the expedition. A <i>fac-simile</i> of it is +before me. The conquest of New York had originally formed part of the plan. +<i>Lagny au Ministre</i>, 20 <i>Jan</i>., 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.</p> + +<p id="id00721"> +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 <i>Mémoire sur les Établissements +anglois au delà de Pemaquid, jusqu'a Baston</i>. 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 <i>petits forts</i>, 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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00712"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">385</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p> 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. </p> +<p>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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">386</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00713"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">387</a></span> +women that, when they reached the village, they would be stripped, +made to run the gauntlet, and severely beaten, according to custom.</p> + +<p id="id00714"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[12]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_17-12" name="footer_17-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_18" id="Chapter_18"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">388</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1693-1697.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">French and English Rivalry.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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. +</p> +</div> +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">No</span> +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 <i>noblesse</i>, 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">389</a></span> +of action, they were too remarkable to be passed in +silence.</p> + +<p id="id00727"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00728"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00729"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">390</a></span> +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." +</p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-01" name="footer_18-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +The reinforcement sent him from Quebec consisted of fifty soldiers, +thirty Canadians, and three officers. <i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 28 +<i>Oct</i>., 1696. +</p> +</div> + +<p> +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; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">391</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[2]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-02" name="footer_18-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +On the Newfoundland expedition, the best authority is the long +diary of the chaplain Baudoin, <i>Journal du Voyage que j'ai fait avec +M. d'Iberville</i>; also, <i>Mémoire sur l'Entreprise de +Terreneuve</i>, 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 <i>History of Cape +Breton</i>, 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."</p> + +<p id="id00747"> +St. John's was soon after reoccupied by the English.</p> + +<p id="id00748"> +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." <i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, +24 <i>Oct</i>., 1694.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00730">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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">392</a></span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span> +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. +</p> +<p> +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.</p> + +<p> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">394</a></span> +Louisiana, and +his brother Bienville founded New Orleans. +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-03" name="footer_18-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +On the capture of Fort Nelson, <i>Iberville au Ministre</i>, 8 +<i>Nov</i>., 1697; Jérémie, <i>Relation de la Baye +de Hudson</i>; La Potherie, I. 85-109. All these writers were present +at the attack.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00731"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">395</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-04" name="footer_18-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +See note at the end of the chapter.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00732">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.</p> + +<p id="id00733"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">396</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00734"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">397</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">398</a></span> +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.</p> +<p> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">399</a></span> + 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. <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-05" name="footer_18-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +On these negotiations, and their antecedents, Callières, <i>Relation +de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable en Canada depuis Sept</i>., +1692, <i>jusqu'au Départ des Vaisseaux en</i> 1693; La Motte-Cadillac, +<i>Mémoire des Negociations avec les Iroquois</i>, 1694; +<i>Callières au Ministre</i>, 19 <i>Oct</i>., 1694; +La Potherie, III. 200-220; Colden, <i>Five Nations</i>, chap. x.; +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, IV. 85. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00735"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">400</a></span> +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." </p> +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">401</a></span> +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. </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-06" name="footer_18-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +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. +</p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">402</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00736"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">403</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00737"> +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 <i>coureurs de bois</i>. 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">404</a></span> +savages of a lower grade, tossed continually between hatred of the +Iroquois, distrust of the French, and love of English goods and +English rum. <span class="superscript">[7]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-07" name="footer_18-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +"Si les Outaouacs (<i>Ottawas</i>) 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 (<i>moyen</i>) 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." +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 25 <i>Oct</i>., 1696. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00738"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">405</a></span> +up to the required pitch of ferocity; and, after atrociously tormenting him, +they cut him to pieces, and ate him. <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[9]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-08" name="footer_18-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +La Potherie, II. 298. </p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-09" name="footer_18-09"></a> + <span class="superscript">[9]</span> +<i>La Motte-Cadillac à———</i>, 3 <i>Aug</i>., +1695. A translation of this letter will be found in Sheldon, <i>Early +History of Michigan</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00739"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[10]</span> +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." <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-10" name="footer_18-10"></a> + <span class="superscript">[10]</span> +<i>Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable entre +les François et les Iroquois durant la présente +année</i>, 1695. There is a translation in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.</i>, IX. Compare La Potherie, who +misplaces the incident as to date.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-11" name="footer_18-11"></a> + <span class="superscript">[11]</span> +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." <i>Callières au Ministre</i>, 20 <i>Oct</i>., 1696.</p> +</div> +<p id="id00740"> +Every effort was vain. La Motte-Cadillac wrote that matters grew worse +and worse, and that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">406</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00741"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">407</a></span> +his government. He did not, and perhaps could not, keep his +word. <span class="superscript">[12]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-12" name="footer_18-12"></a> + <span class="superscript">[12]</span> +Colden, 178. Fletcher could get no men from his own +or neighboring governments. See <a href="#footer_18-end"><i>note</i></a>, +at the end of the chapter. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00742"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00743"> +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. <span class="superscript">[13]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_18-13" name="footer_18-13"></a> + <span class="superscript">[13]</span> +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 <i>Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus +remarquable en Canada</i>, 1694, 1695, and <i>Ibid</i>., 1695, 1696; +<i>Mémoire soumis au Ministre de ce qui résulte +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">408</a></span> +des Avis reçus du Canada en</i> 1695; Champigny, <i>Mémoire +concernant le Fort de Cataracouy</i>; La Potherie, II. 284-302, IV. 1-80; +Colden, chaps. x., xi.</p> +<br /> +</div> + +<div class="footer"> + <p id="id00744"> + <a id="footer_18-end" name="footer_18-end"></a> +<span class="sc">Military Inefficiency of the British +Colonies</span>—"His Majesty has subjects enough in those parts +of America to drive out the French from Canada; but they are so +<i>crumbled into little governments</i>, 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">409</a></span> + 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.</p> + +<p id="id00745"> +A great number of documents bearing upon the above subject will be +found in the <i>New York Colonial Documents</i>, IV.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_19" id="Chapter_19"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">410</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents19">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1696-1698.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Frontenac attacks the Onondagas.</p> + +<p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">On</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">411</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00754">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.</p> + +<p id="id00755"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">412</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00756">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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">413</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00757"> +The troops were busied for two days in hacking down the maize, digging +up the <i>caches</i>, 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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">414</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +</p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_19-01" name="footer_19-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Relation de ce qui s'est passé, etc</i>., 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 <i>chrétiennement</i> les tourmens." +<i>Relation de</i> 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."</p> +</div> + + +<p> +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. +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> +</p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_19-02" name="footer_19-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +On the expedition against the Onondagas, <i>Callières au Ministre</i>, +20 <i>Oct</i>., 1696; <i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 25 <i>Oct</i>., 1696; +<i>Frontenac et Champigny au Ministre (lettre commune)</i> 26 <i>Oct</i>., +1696; <i>Relation de ce qui s'est passé, etc</i>., 1695, 1696; +<i>Relation</i>, 1682-1712; <i>Relation des Jesuites</i>, 1696 (Shea); +<i>Doc. Hist. N. Y.</i>, I. 323-355; La Potherie, III. 270-282; +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IV. 242. +</p> +<p> +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.</p> +</div> +<p> +While Frontenac was on his march, Governor +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">415</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00758"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00759"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">416</a></span> +an <i>entrepôt (Fort Frontenac</i>), 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.</p> + +<p id="id00760"> +"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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">417</a></span> +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." +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> +</p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_19-03" name="footer_19-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Roy</i>, 25 <i>Oct</i>., 1696.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00761"> +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." +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> +</p> +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_19-04" name="footer_19-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Frontenac au Ministre</i>, 25 <i>Oct</i>., 1696.</p> +</div> +<p id="id00762"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">418</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_19-05" name="footer_19-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Le Ministre à Frontenac</i>, 21 <i>Mai</i>, 1698.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00763"> +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 <i>voyageurs</i>. 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">419</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00764"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">420</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[6]</span> </p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_19-06" name="footer_19-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +<i>Mémoire du Roy pour Frontenac et Champigny</i>, 26 <i>Mai</i>, 1696; +<i>Ibid</i>., 27 <i>Avril</i>, 1697; <i>Registres du Conseil Supérieur, +Edit du</i> 21 <i>Mai</i>, 1696.</p> + +<p id="id00782"> +"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." <i>Le Ministre à Frontenac</i>, 26 <i>Mai</i>, +1696.</p> + +<p id="id00783"> +Besides the above, many other letters and despatches on both sides +have been examined in relation to these questions.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00765"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">421</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00766"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00767"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">422</a></span> +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." +</p> +<p> +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.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="no-space-bottom" id="id00768"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">423</a></span> +<span class="sc">Our Faithful and Beloved,</span>—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 +<i>Te Deum</i> 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.</p> + +<p class="signature sc">Louis.<span class="superscript">[7]</span></p> +</blockquote> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_19-07" name="footer_19-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Lettre du Roy pour faire chanter le Te Deum</i>, 12 <i>Mars</i>, 1698. +</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00771"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">424</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00772"> +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:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p id="id00773"> +<span class="sc">Sir</span>,—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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">425</a></span> +take, and the resolution I have adopted, whereof I have thought it +proper by these presents to give you notice.</p> + +<p class="signature no-space-bottom"> +<span class="right-indent">I am, Sir, yours, &c.,</span><br/> +<span class="sc">Earl of Bellemont.</span></p> +<p class="noindent no-space-top"> +<span class="sc">New York</span>, 22d August, 1698.<br/> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p id="id00775"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00776"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">426</a></span> +The following Sunday was the day appointed for the <i>Te Deum</i> 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:—</p> + +<p id="id00777"> +"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." +<span class="superscript">[8]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_19-08" name="footer_19-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +On the questions between Bellomont and Frontenac, <i>Relation de ce +qui s'est passé, etc.,</i> 1697, 1698; <i>Champigny au Ministre,</i> +12 <i>Juillet,</i> 1698; <i>Frontenac au Ministre,</i> 18 <i>Oct.,</i> +1698; <i>Frontenac et Champigny au Ministre (lettre commune),</i> 15 +<i>Oct.,</i> 1698; <i>Calliéres au Ministre, même date, +etc.</i> 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 <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.,</i> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">427</a></span> +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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00778"> +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.</p> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_20" id="Chapter_20"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">428</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents20">CHAPTER XX.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1698.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Death of Frontenac.</p> + +<p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + His Last Hours • His Will • His Funeral • + His Eulogist and his Critic • His Disputes with the Clergy • + His Character.</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">In</span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00790"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">429</a></span> +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." <span class="superscript">[1]</span> "He was the +father of the poor," says another, "the protector of the oppressed, and +a perfect model of virtue and piety." <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +An Ursuline nun regrets him as the friend and patron of her +sisterhood, and so also does the superior of the Hôtel-Dieu. +<span class="superscript">[3]</span> 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." <span class="superscript">[4]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_20-01" name="footer_20-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +La Potherie, I. 244, 246.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_20-02" name="footer_20-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +Hennepin, 41 (1704). Le Clerc speaks to the same effect.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_20-03" name="footer_20-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +<i>Histoire des Ursulines de Québec</i>, I. 508; Juchereau, +378.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_20-04" name="footer_20-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +<i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 22 <i>Dec.</i>, +1698.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00791"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">430</a></span> +his small property, and he also directed that his heart +should be sent her in a case of lead or silver. +<span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_20-05" name="footer_20-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +<i>Testament du Comte de Frontenac.</i> 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. +</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00792"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00793"> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00794"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">431</a></span> +<i>The Orator</i>. "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,—" <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_20-06" name="footer_20-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +Alluding to an incident that occurred when Frontenac +commanded a Venetian force for the defence of Candia against the +Turks.</p> +</div> + +<p class="small" id="id00795"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "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."</p> + +<p id="id00796"> +<i>The Orator</i>. "This disinterested man, more busied with duty than with +gain,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00797"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "The less said about that the better."</p> + +<p id="id00798"> +<i>The Orator</i>. "Who made the fortune of others, but did not increase +his own,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00799"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "Not for want of trying, and that very often in spite of +his conscience and the king's orders."</p> + +<p id="id00800"> +<i>The Orator</i>. "Devoted to the service of his king, whose majesty he +represented, and whose person he loved,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00801"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "Not at all. How often has he opposed his orders, even +with force and violence, to the great scandal of everybody!"</p> + +<p id="id00802"> +<i>The Orator</i>. "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,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00803"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "He had in fact a great capacity for political +manœuvres and tricks; but as for the solid judgment ascribed to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">432</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p id="id00804"> +<i>The Orator.</i> "Great in dangers by his courage, he always came off +with honor, and never was reproached with rashness,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00805"> +<i>The Critic.</i> "True; he was not rash, as was seen when the Bostonnais +besieged Quebec."</p> + +<p id="id00806"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">433</a></span> +<i>The Orator</i>. "Great in religion by his piety, he practised its good +works in spirit and in truth,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00807"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "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 +<i>religion and piety</i>, or, more truly, in vanity and hypocrisy. How can +a man be called <i>great in religion</i>, when he openly holds opinions +entirely opposed to the True Faith, such as, that <i>all men are +predestined</i>, that <i>Hell will not last for ever</i>, and the like?"</p> + +<p id="id00808"> +<i>The Orator.</i> "His very look inspired esteem and confidence,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00809"> +<i>The Critic.</i> "Then one must have taken him at exactly the right +moment, and not when he was foaming at the mouth with rage."</p> + +<p id="id00810"> +<i>The Orator.</i> "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,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00811"> +<i>The Critic.</i> "The eulogist did not know the old fox."</p> + +<p id="id00812"> +<i>The Orator.</i> "An inviolable fidelity to friends,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00813"> +<i>The Critic.</i> "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."</p> + +<p id="id00814"> +<i>The Orator.</i> "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,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00815"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">434</a></span> +<i>The Critic</i>. "True; but it was for his creatures and for nobody +else."</p> + +<p id="id00816"> +<i>The Orator</i>. "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,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00817"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "Only if the preacher addressed the sermon to him, and +called him <i>Monseigneur</i>. 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."</p> + +<p id="id00818"> +<i>The Orator</i>. "He prepared for the sacraments by meditation and +retreat,—"</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00819"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "And generally came out of his retreat more excited than +ever against the Church."</p> + +<p id="id00820"> +<i>The Orator</i>. "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."</p> + +<p class="small" id="id00821"> +<i>The Critic</i>. "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 <i>hero</i>, they would find it very hard to admit +that he had even one of them." <span class="superscript">[7]</span></p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_20-07" name="footer_20-07"></a> + <span class="superscript">[7]</span> +<i>Oraison Funèbre du très-haut et très-puissant +Seigneur Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, etc., avec +des remarques critiques</i>, 1698. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">435</a></span> +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 <i>Vie de +Laval</i>. 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.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00822"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00823">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.</p> + +<p id="id00824">His own acts and words best paint his character, and it is needless to +enlarge upon it. What perhaps +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">436</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00825">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. +<span class="superscript">[8]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_20-08" name="footer_20-08"></a> + <span class="superscript">[8]</span> +There is no need to exaggerate the services of Frontenac. +Nothing could be more fallacious than the assertion, often repeated, +that in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">437</a></span> +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.</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_21" id="Chapter_21"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">438</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents21">CHAPTER XXI.</a><br /> + <span class="med">1699-1701.</span> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">Conclusion.</p> + <p class="sc noindent space-bottom"> + 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.</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">It</span> +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 <i>ad interim</i>, 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 +<i>hauteur</i> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">439</a></span> +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. <span class="superscript">[1]</span></p> + + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_21-01" name="footer_21-01"></a> + <span class="superscript">[1]</span> +<i>Champigny au Ministre,</i> 26 <i>Mai,</i> 1699; <i>La +Potherie au Ministre,</i> 2 <i>Juin,</i> 1699; <i>Vaudreuil et La Potherie au +Ministre, même date</i>.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00832"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">440</a></span> +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. +<span class="superscript">[2]</span> 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">441</a></span> +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.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_21-02" name="footer_21-02"></a> + <span class="superscript">[2]</span> +<i>Le Roy à Frontenac</i>, 25 <i>Mars</i>, 1699. Frontenac's death was +not known at Versailles till April. <i>Le Roy d' Angleterre à +Bellomont</i>, 2 <i>Avril</i>, 1699; La Potherie, IV. 128; +<i>Callières à Bellomont</i>, 7 <i>Août</i>, 1699.</p> +</div> + +<p id="id00833"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">442</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00834"> +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. <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_21-03" name="footer_21-03"></a> + <span class="superscript">[3]</span> +On these negotiations, La Potherie, IV. lettre xi.; +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IX. 708, 711, 715; Colden, 200; +<i>Callières au Ministre</i>, 16 <i>Oct</i>., 1700; +<i>Champigny au Ministre</i>, 22 <i>Juillet</i>, 1700; +<i>La Potherie au Ministre</i>, 11 <i>Aout</i>, 1700; <i>Ibid</i>., +16 <i>Oct</i>., 1700; <i>Callières et Champigny au Ministre</i>, +18 <i>Oct</i>., 1700. See also <i>N. Y. Col. Docs</i>., IV., +for a great number of English documents bearing on the subject.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00835"> +Father Engelran was sent to Michillimackinac, while Courtemanche spent +the winter and spring in toilsome journeyings among the tribes of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">443</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00836"> +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. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">444</a></span> +In the morning they descended the rapids to Montreal, and in due time +the distant roar of the saluting cannon told of their arrival.</p> + +<p id="id00837"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00838"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">445</a></span> +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 their prisoners first. You see now how +it is, and how they have deceived us."</p> + +<p id="id00839"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">446</a></span> +the respect, not to say admiration, of his French +contemporaries.</p> + +<p id="id00840"> +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. +<span class="superscript">[4]</span> 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. <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">447</a></span> +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,—</p> + + + +<p class="noindent center sc space-top space-bottom"> +Cy git le Rat, Chef des Hurons.</p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_21-04" name="footer_21-04"></a> + <span class="superscript">[4]</span> +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.</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_21-05" name="footer_21-05"></a> + <span class="superscript">[5]</span> +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.</p> +</div> + + +<p id="id00842"> +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, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">448</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00843"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">449</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00844"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00845"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">450</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00846"> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00847"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">451</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p id="id00848"> +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.</p> + +<p id="id00849"> +"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. +<span class="superscript">[6]</span></p> + +<div class="footer"> + <p class="noindent"> + <a id="footer_21-06" name="footer_21-06"></a> + <span class="superscript">[6]</span> +The council at Montreal is described at great length by La +Potherie, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">452</a></span> +a spectator. There is a short official report of the various +speeches, of which a translation will be found in <i>N. Y. Col. Docs.,</i> +IX. 722. Callières himself gives interesting details. +(<i>Callières au Ministre,</i> 4 <i>Oct.,</i> 1701.) +A great number of papers on Indian affairs at this time will be found in +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.,</i> IV.</p> + +<p id="id00852"> +Joncaire went for the prisoners whom the Iroquois had promised to give +up, and could get but six of them. <i>Callières au Ministre,</i> +31 <i>Oct.,</i> 1701. The rest were made Iroquois by adoption.</p> + +<p id="id00853"> +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. +<i>N. Y. Col. Docs.,</i> 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. <i>N. Y. Col Docs.,</i> V. 557.</p> +</div> + + + +<p id="id00850"> +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.</p> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_22" id="Chapter_22"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">453</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents22">APPENDIX.</a><br /> + </h2> + <p class="smcapheader">The Family of Frontenac.</p> +</div> + +<p class="double-space-top"> +<span class="sc">Count Frontenac</span>'s grandfather was</p> + +<p id="id00857"> +<span class="sc">Antoine de Buade,</span> +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,</p> + +<p id="id00858"> +<span class="sc">Henri de Buade,</span> +Chevalier, Baron de Palluau et mestre de camp +(<i>colonel</i>) du régiment de Navarre, who, by his wife Anne Phélippeaux, +daughter of Raymond Phélippeaux, Secretary of State, had, among other +children,</p> + +<p id="id00859">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.</p> + +<p id="id00860">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: <i>Mémoires de Marolles, abbé de +Villeloin</i>, II. 201; L'Hermite-Souliers, <i>Histoire Généalogique de la +Noblesse de Touraine</i>; Du Chesne, <i>Recherches Historiques de l'Ordre +du Saint-Esprit</i>; Morin, <i>Statuts de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit</i>; +Marolles de Villeloin, <i>Histoire des Anciens Comtes d'Anjou</i>; Père +Anselme, <i>Grands Officiers de la Couronne</i>; Pinard, <i>Chronologie +Historique-militaire; Table de la Gazette de France</i>. In this matter +of the Frontenac genealogy, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">454</a></span> +I am much indebted to the kind offices of my friend, James Gordon Clarke, Esq. +</p> +<p> +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. <i>Mémoires de Philippe Hurault</i>, +448 (Petitot).</p> + +<p id="id00861"> +The appointment of Frontenac to the post, esteemed as highly +honorable, of <i>maître d'hôtel</i> 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.</p> + +<p id="id00862"> +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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">455</a></span> +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:—</p> + +<p id="id00863"> +St. Germain, Sunday, 22d (<i>July</i>, 1614). "He (<i>the Dauphin</i>) +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."</p> + +<p id="id00864"> +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, <i>Dictionnaire Critique, Biographique, et d'Histoire</i>). 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. +M<span class="superscript">lle</span>. 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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">456</a></span> +de M. l'official de Paris par laquelle il est permis au +S<span class="superscript">r</span>. de Buade et demoiselle de La +Grange de célébrer leur marriage suyvant et conformément +à la permission qu'ils en ont obtenue du +S<span class="superscript">r</span>. 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.</p> + + +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /><a name="Chapter_23" id="Chapter_23"></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">457</a></span> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents23">INDEX.</a><br /> + </h2> +</div> + + +<div id="index"> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>A.</h3> +<p> +Abenakis, Indians of Acadia and Maine, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, + <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, + <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + attack the Christian Iroquois, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>; + their domain, <a href="#Page_388">338</a>; + missions, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>; + incited against the English colonists, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>; + attack on York, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>; + visit Villebon at St. John, + <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>; + their attack on Wells, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>; + is foiled, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>; + treaty with the English at Pemaquid, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>; + are won back by the French, + <a href="#Page_361">361</a>-<a href="#Page_363">363</a>; + influenced by missionary priests, + <a href="#Page_374">374</a>-<a href="#Page_376">376</a>.<br /> +Acadia (Nova Scotia and westward to the Kennebec) + exposed to in-roads from New England, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, + <a href="#Page_335">335</a>; + the war in, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>-<a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + the region, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>-<a href="#Page_339">339</a>; + relations with New England, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>; + hostilities, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>; + Villebon governor; border war, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, + <a href="#Page_353">353</a>-<a href="#Page_363">363</a>, + New England attacks, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.<br /> +Albany, an Indian mart, <a href="#Page_075">75</a>; + Indian council there, <a href="#Page_090">90</a>, + <a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + Iroquois summoned thither by Dongan, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + by Schuyler, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>; + expedition against Montreal, + <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> +<a id="indexFortAlbany" name="indexFortAlbany"></a> +Albany, Fort, on Hudson's Bay, taken by Canadians, + <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br /> +Albemarle, Duke of, aids Phips, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.<br /> +Alliance, triple, of Indians and English, + <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> +Amours, councillor at Quebec, imprisoned by Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_051">51</a>-<a href="#Page_054">54</a>; + (see <a href="#Page_247">247</a>).<br /> +Andros, Sir Edmund, appointed colonial governor, + <a href="#Page_164">164</a>; + his jurisdiction, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; + plunders Castine, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + is deposed, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + at Pentegoet, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.<br /> +Auteuil, attorney-general of Canada, an enemy of Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_047">47</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + banished, <a href="#Page_049">49</a>.<br /> +Avaux, Count d', French envoy at London, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>B.</h3> +<p> +Bastile, confinement of Perrot, <a href="#Page_041">41</a>.<br /> +Baugis, Chevalier de, sent by La Barre to seize Fort St. Louis, + <a href="#Page_086">86</a>.<br /> +Beaucour, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.<br /> +Bellefonds, Maréchal de, a friend of Frontenac at court, + <a href="#Page_059">59</a>.<br /> +Bellomont, Earl of, governor of New York, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>; + corresponds with Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_423">423</a>-<a href="#Page_426">426</a>.<br /> +Belmont, Abbé, cited, <a href="#footer_06-17">102 <i>n.</i></a>, + <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br /> +Bernières, vicar of Laval in Canada, + <a href="#Page_038">38</a>.<br /> +Bienville, François de, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexBigMouth" id="indexBigMouth"></a> +Big Mouth, an Iroquois chief, <a href="#Page_095">95</a>, + <a href="#Page_098">98</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, + <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; + his speech in defiance of La Barre, + <a href="#Page_107">107</a>-<a href="#Page_109">109</a>; + his power in the confederacy, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>; + defiance of Denonville, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /> +Bigot, Jacques and Vincent, Jesuits, + <a href="#Page_220">220</a>-<a href="#Page_222">222</a>; + in Acadia, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, + <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.<br /> +Bishop of Canada, see <a href="#indexLaval"><i>Laval</i></a>, + <a href="#indexStVillier"><i>Saint-Vallier</i></a>.<br /> +Bizard, Lieutenant, despatched by Frontenac to Montreal, + <a href="#Page_031">31</a>.<br /> +Boisseau, his quarrel at Quebec, <a href="#Page_063">63</a>.<br /> +Boston, after the failure at Quebec, + <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>; + plan of attack on, + <a href="#Page_382">382</a>-<a href="#Page_384">384</a>.<br /> +Bounties on scalps, &c., <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.<br /> +Bradstreet, at the age of eighty-seven, + made governor after Andros at Boston, + <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<br /> +Bretonvilliers, superior of Jesuits, <a href="#Page_042">42</a>.<br /> +Brucy, a lieutenant, agent of Perrot, his traffic with Indians, + <a href="#Page_028">28</a>, <a href="#Page_034">34</a>.<br /> +Bruyas, a Jesuit interpreter, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>C.</h3> +<p> +<a name="indexCadillac" id="indexCadillac"></a> +Cadillac, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>; + at Michillimackinac, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, + <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.<br /> +Callières, governor of Montreal, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, + <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + his scheme for conquering the English colonies, + <a href="#Page_187">187</a>; + comes to the defence of Quebec, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, + <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>; + at La Prairie, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>; + quarrel with the bishop, + <a href="#Page_329">329</a>-<a href="#Page_331">331</a>; + in the Onondaga expedition, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, + <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>; + succeeds Frontenac as governor, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>; + treats with the Iroquois, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>; + conference at Montreal, and treaty, + <a href="#Page_447">447</a>-<a href="#Page_451">451</a>.<br /> +Canada, character of its colonial rule, <a href="#Page_020">20</a>; + its condition under Denonville, + <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-<a href="#Page_168">168</a>; + Iroquois invasion, + <a href="#Page_177">177</a>-<a href="#Page_182">182</a> + (see <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, + <a href="#Page_301">301</a>).<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">458</a></span> +Cannehoot, a Seneca chief, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> +Cannibalism of the Indians, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, + <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.<br /> +Carheil, a Jesuit, at Michillimackinac, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br /> +Carion, an officer of Perrot, <a href="#Page_030">30</a>; + arrested by Frontenac, <a href="#Page_031">31</a>.<br /> +Casco Bay, garrison at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>; + defeat of Indians, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>; + the garrison overcome and slaughtered, + <a href="#Page_228">228</a>-<a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> +Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac), <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.<br /> +Champigny, intendant of Canada, + <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>; + his treacherous seizure of Indians at Fort Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_142">142</a>; + at Quebec, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + at Montreal, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>; + defends himself, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>; + relations with Frontenac, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>; + a champion of the Jesuits, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, + <a href="#Page_329">329</a>; + reconciled to Frontenac, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>; + opposes Callières, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>.<br /> +Chedabucto (Nova Scotia), Frontenac's rendezvous, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + fortifications, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexChesnaye" id="indexChesnaye"></a> +Chesnaye (La), a trader of Quebec, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>, + <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br /> +Chesnaye, La, massacres at, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, + <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.<br /> +Chubb (Pascho), commands at Pemaquid, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>; + which he surrenders, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.<br /> +Cocheco (Dover, N. H.), attacked, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.<br /> +Colbert, minister of Louis XIV., + his zeal for the French colonies, <a href="#Page_015">15</a>; + despatches to Frontenac, <a href="#Page_020">20</a>, + <a href="#Page_041">41</a>, <a href="#Page_050">50</a>, + <a href="#Page_059">59</a>; + instructions to Duchesneau, <a href="#Page_044">44</a>, + <a href="#Page_046">46</a>, <a href="#Page_055">55</a>.<br /> +Converts, Indian, their piety, &c, <a href="#Page_366">366</a> + <a href="#footer_17-06">377 <i>n.</i></a>, + <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.<br /> +Corlaer, the Iroquois name for the governor of New York, + <a href="#footer_06-06">93 <i>n.</i></a>. + (see <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, + <a href="#Page_199">199</a>); + origin of the name, <a href="#footer_11-05">217 <i>n.</i></a><br /> +Council at Quebec, hostile to Frontenac, <a href="#Page_047">47</a>, + <a href="#Page_049">49</a>, <a href="#Page_052">52</a>, + <a href="#Page_248">248</a>-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>; + alarmed at rumors of attack, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /> +———at Onondaga, + <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_200">200</a>; + at Montreal, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>-<a href="#Page_451">451</a>.<br /> +Courcelle, predecessor of Frontenac, <a href="#Page_026">26</a>.<br /> +<i>Coureurs de bois</i> to be arrested, <a href="#Page_029">29</a>, + <a href="#Page_034">34</a>; + amnesty, <a href="#Page_051">51</a>; + their influence with Frontenac, <a href="#Page_057">57</a>; + the king's charge regarding them, <a href="#Page_058">58</a>; + under Du Lhut, <a href="#Page_054">54</a>, + <a href="#Page_099">99</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, + <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>; + at Michillimackinac, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + deserters, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + in the Seneca expedition, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>; + their license, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; + hardihood, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.<br /> +Cut Nose, an Iroquois convert, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + his speech at the Onondaga council, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>D.</h3> +<p> +Davis, Sylvanus, a trader, commanding at Fort Loyal, + Casco Bay, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>; + his surrender, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>; + captivity, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br /> +Denonville, successor of La Barre as governor of Canada, 1685-1689; + sails for Canada, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; + circumstances there; his character, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; + his instructions, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + his intrigues, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>; + correspondence with Dongan, + <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + threatens to attack Albany, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + orders Du Lhut to shoot bush-rangers and deserters, + <a href="#Page_130">130</a>; + plans an expedition against the Iroquois, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + musters the Canadian militia, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>; + treacherously seizes a party of Indians, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>; + arrives at Fort Frontenac, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + at Irondequoit Bay, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; + march for the Seneca country, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>; + battle in the woods, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + his report of the battle, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + destroys "the Babylon of the Senecas," <a href="#Page_154">154</a>; + builds a fort on the Niagara, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + further correspondence with Dongan, + <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + sends an envoy to Albany, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>; + abandons the Niagara fort, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>; + begs for the return of Indian captives, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + his wretched condition, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>; + seeks a conference with the Iroquois, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>; + who deceive him, and invade Canada, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>; + horrors of the invasion, + <a href="#Page_178">178</a>-<a href="#Page_182">182</a>; + he is recalled, and succeeded by Frontenac, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>; + who finds him at Montreal, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + having ordered the destruction of Fort Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br /> +Deserters, French, demanded by Denonville, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>; + sheltered bv Dongan, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, + <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br /> +Detroit, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; + a fort built here by Du Lhut, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + held by the French, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexDongan" id="indexDongan"></a> +Dongan (an Irish Catholic), + governor of New Netherland, <a href="#Page_089">89</a>; + holds an Indian council at Albany, + <a href="#Page_090">90</a>-<a href="#Page_093">93</a>; + his rivalry with Canada, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>; + complaints of Denonville, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + their correspondence, + <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + vindicates himself, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + he sends Denonville some oranges, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>; + his pacific instructions from England, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>; + his wrath at the French attack on the Indian country, + <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + is recalled, and replaced by Sir Edmund Andros, + <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br /> +Dover, N. H. (Cocheco), attacked by Indians, + <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.<br /> +Duchesneau, sent as intendant to Quebec; + sides with the clergy against Frontenac, <a href="#Page_045">45</a>; + dispute as to the presidency of the council, + <a href="#Page_048">48</a>-<a href="#Page_051">51</a>; + quarrel in the council, <a href="#Page_053">53</a>; + his accusations against Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_054">54</a>-<a href="#Page_058">58</a>; + Frontenac's complaints of him, + <a href="#Page_060">60</a>-<a href="#Page_063">63</a>; + and violence to his son, + <a href="#Page_063">63</a>, <a href="#Page_064">64</a>; + Duchesneau recalled, <a href="#Page_067">67</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">459</a></span> +Du Lhut, a leader of <i>coureurs de bois</i>, + <a href="#Page_054">54</a>, <a href="#Page_056">56</a>, + <a href="#Page_081">81</a>, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>; + rivalry with English traders of Hudson's Bay, + <a href="#Page_081">81</a>; + intrigues with Indians, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + builds a fort near Detroit, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + where he has a large force of French and Indians, + <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>; + leads attack on the Senecas, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>; + defeats a party of Indians on the Ottawa, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.<br /> +Durantaye, La, at Niagara, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>; + with Du Lhut at Michillimackinac, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + at Detroit, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + captures Rooseboom and McGregory, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>; + commanding at Michillimackinac, + sends bad news to Montreal, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>; + is replaced by Louvigny, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br /> +D'Urfé, Abbé, a Canadian missionary, + is ill received by Frontenac, <a href="#Page_036">36</a>; + carries complaints of him to France, + <a href="#Page_040">40</a>, <a href="#Page_042">42</a>.<br /> +Dustan, Mrs., of Haverhill, her exploit, + <a href="#Page_385">385</a>-<a href="#Page_387">387</a>.<br /> +Dutch traders instigate Iroquois against the French, + <a href="#Page_075">75</a>; + pursuit of the fur trade into their country, + <a href="#Page_089">89</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>E.</h3> +<p> +Engelran, a Jesuit missionary at Michillimackinac, + confers with Denonville, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>; + his dealings with the Indians, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, + <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>; + is wounded by the Senecas, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br /> +English colonies, designs of Louis XIV. for their destruction, + <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.<br /> +English colonists of New England invade Acadia, + <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; + their organization and policy compared with the French, + <a href="#Page_394">394</a>-<a href="#Page_397">397</a>; + their military inefficiency, <a href="#Page_408">408</a> + (see <a href="#indexNewEngland"><i>New England</i></a>).<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>F.</h3> +<p> +<a id="indexFamine" name="indexFamine"></a> +Famine (La), on Lake Ontario, visited bv La Barre, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>; + the council, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + treaty of, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; + treacherous attack here on the Iroquois by Kondiaronk (the Rat), + <a href="#Page_173">173</a>-<a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br /> +Fénelon, a zealous missionary priest at Montreal, + <a href="#Page_033">33</a>; + arraigned at Quebec by Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_036">36</a>-<a href="#Page_038">38</a>; + is sent to France, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>; + and forbidden to return, <a href="#Page_042">42</a>.<br /> +Fletcher, governor of New York, + his complaints of weakness and divisions, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.<br /> +Forest posts, their abuses and their value to the French, + <a href="#Page_419">419</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.<br /> +Fort, see <i><a href="#indexFortAlbany">Albany</a>, + <a href="#indexFamine">Famine (La)</a>, + <a href="#indexFortFrontenac">Frontenac</a>, + <a href="#indexLoyal">Loyal</a>, + <a href="#indexFortNiagara">Niagara</a>, + <a href="#indexFortStLouis">St. Louis</a>, + <a href="#indexFortNelson">Nelson</a></i>. <br /> +Fortifications of Canada, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.<br /> +Fox Indians, charged with cowardice, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br /> +French designs of colonization and conquest, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>; + policy of conquest and massacre, + <a href="#Page_370">370</a>-<a href="#Page_373">373</a>; + colonization, compared with English, + <a href="#Page_394">394</a>-<a href="#Page_397">397</a>; + occupation of the Great West, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.<br /> +Frontenac, Count (Louis de Buade), governor of Canada, + 1672-1682, 1689-1698; + at St. Fargeau, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>; + his early life, <a href="#Page_005">5</a>; + marriage, <a href="#Page_006">6</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>; + his quarrel at St. Fargeau, <a href="#Page_007">7</a>; + his estate, <a href="#Page_008">8</a>; + his vanity, <a href="#Page_009">9</a>; + aids Venice at Candia; his appointment to command in New France, + <a href="#Page_011">11</a>; + at Quebec, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>; + convokes the three estates, <a href="#Page_017">17</a>; + his address, <a href="#Page_018">18</a>; + form of government, <a href="#Page_019">19</a>; + his merits and faults, <a href="#Page_021">21</a>; + complains of the Jesuits, + <a href="#Page_022">22</a>-<a href="#Page_025">25</a>, + <a href="#Page_320">320</a>-<a href="#Page_322">322</a>; + Fort Frontenac built and confided to La Salle, <a href="#Page_027">27</a>; + dispute with Perrot, governor of Montreal, + whom he throws into prison, + <a href="#Page_028">28</a>-<a href="#Page_034">34</a>; + this leads to a quarrel + with Abbé Fénelon and the priests, + <a href="#Page_035">35</a>-<a href="#Page_038">38</a>; + Frontenac's relations with the clergy, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>; + his instructions from the king and Colbert, + <a href="#Page_040">40</a>-<a href="#Page_046">46</a>; + his hot temper, <a href="#Page_044">44</a>, <a href="#Page_045">45</a>; + question of the presidency, + <a href="#Page_048">48</a>-<a href="#Page_051">51</a>; + imprisonment of Amours, + <a href="#Page_051">51</a>-<a href="#Page_054">54</a>; + disputes on the fur trade, + and accusations of Duchesneau, + <a href="#Page_054">54</a>-<a href="#Page_058">58</a>; + reproof from the king and Colbert, + <a href="#Page_058">58</a>-<a href="#Page_060">60</a>; + complaints against Duchesneau, + <a href="#Page_060">60</a>-<a href="#Page_063">63</a>; + arrest of his son, <a href="#Page_064">64</a>; + relations with Perrot, <a href="#Page_065">65</a>; + with the Church, <a href="#Page_068">68</a>; + with the Indians, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>; + his recall, <a href="#Page_067">67</a>; + sails for France, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>; + relations at this time with the Iroquois, + <a href="#Page_076">76</a>-<a href="#Page_079">79</a>; + Frontenac is sent again to Canada, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>; + scheme of invading New York, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>; + arrives at Chedabucto, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>; + at Quebec and Montreal, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + attempts to save the fort, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>; + summons a conference of Indians, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + the conference, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_200">200</a>; + another failure, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>; + message to the Lake Indians, + <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>; + scheme of attack on English colonies, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>; + Schenectady, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_219">219</a>; + Pemaquid, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>; + Salmon Falls, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>; + Casco Bay, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>; + conference with Davis, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>; + leads the war-dance, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>; + defence of Quebec, + <a href="#Page_247">247</a>-<a href="#Page_279">279</a>; + reply to Phips's summons, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>; + begs troops from the king, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>; + expedition against the Mohawks, + <a href="#Page_310">310</a>-<a href="#Page_315">315</a>; + appeal to Ponchartrain, + <a href="#Page_317">317</a>-<a href="#Page_319">319</a>, + <a href="#Page_320">320</a>-<a href="#Page_322">322</a>, + <a href="#Page_417">417</a>; + jealousies against him, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>; + complaints of Champigny, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>; + scheme of coast-attack, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>; + treats with the Iroquois, + <a href="#Page_397">397</a>-<a href="#Page_399">399</a>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">460</a></span> + <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>; + his difficult position, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>; + expedition against the Onondagas, + <a href="#Page_410">410</a>-<a href="#Page_415">415</a>, + <a href="#Page_421">421</a>; + his tardy reward, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>; + his policy, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>-<a href="#Page_421">421</a>; + correspondence with Bellomont, + <a href="#Page_423">423</a>-<a href="#Page_426">426</a>; + death and character, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>-<a href="#Page_436">436</a>; + the eulogist and the critic, + <a href="#Page_431">431</a>-<a href="#Page_434">434</a>; + his administration, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>; + account of his family, + <a href="#Page_453">453</a>-<a href="#Page_456">456</a>.<br /> +<a id="indexFortFrontenac" name="indexFortFrontenac"></a> +Frontenac, Fort, <a href="#Page_027">27</a>, <a href="#Page_078">78</a>; + La Barre's muster of troops, + <a href="#Page_085">85</a>, <a href="#Page_097">97</a>; + his arrival, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>; + summons a council of Indians, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>; + who are treacherously seized and made prisoners, + <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a> + (see <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, + <a href="#Page_170">170</a>); + expedition against the Senecas, + <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + sickness, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>; + visit of the Rat, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + the fort destroyed by order of Denonville, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>; + restored, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, + <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.<br /> +Frontenac, Madame, her portrait at Versailles, <a href="#Page_001">1</a>; + with Mlle. Montpensier at Orleans, + <a href="#Page_003">3</a>, <a href="#Page_007">7</a>; + surprised by her husband's visit, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>; + dismissed by the princess, <a href="#Page_010">10</a>; + her stay in Paris and death, <a href="#Page_012">12</a>, + <a href="#Page_013">13</a>; + serves Frontenac at the court, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>; + is made his heir, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>G.</h3> +<p> +Galley-slaves, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> +Ganneious, a mission village: Indians treacherously seized, + <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br /> +Garangula, <a href="#Page_095">95</a> (<i>see + <a href="#indexBigMouth">Big Mouth</a></i>). <br /> +Garrison houses described, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.<br /> +Glen, John S., at Schenectady, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, + <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#footer_11-05">217 <i>n.</i></a><br /> +Grignan, Count de, <a href="#footer_01-10">12 <i>n.</i></a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>H.</h3> +<p> +Hayes, Fort (Hudson's Bay), seized, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br /> +Henry IV. of France, anecdotes of, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.<br /> +Hertel, Fr., commands an expedition + against New Hampshire, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, + <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.<br /> +Hontan (Baron La), <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, + <a href="#Page_300">300</a>; + at Fort Frontenac, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>; + his account of the attack on Quebec, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.<br /> +Howard, Lord (governor of Virginia), at Albany, + <a href="#Page_090">90</a>.<br /> +Hudson's Bay: English traders,<a href="#Page_117">117</a>; + attack on their posts by Troyes, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, + <a href="#Page_134">134</a>; + by Iberville, + <a href="#Page_391">391</a>-<a href="#Page_393">393</a>.<br /> +Huguenots at Port Royal, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.<br /> +Huron converts, <a href="#Page_024">24</a>, <a href="#Page_075">75</a>, + <a href="#Page_255">255</a>; + at Michillimackinac, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +Huron Indians inclined to the English, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>; + at Michillimackinac, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>I.</h3> +<p> +Iberville, son of Le Moyne, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>; + his military career, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>; + attack on Newfoundland, + <a href="#Page_389">389</a>-<a href="#Page_391">391</a>; + at Fort Nelson, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br /> +Illinois, tribe of, <a href="#Page_078">78</a>, + <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> +Indians: illustrations of their manners and customs, + <a href="#Page_024">24</a>, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>, + <a href="#Page_094">94</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, + <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, + <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, + <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>; + graveyard, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>; + their cannibalism, + <a href="#Page_097">97</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, + <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>; + torture, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>; + instigated by French, + <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>; + great conference at Montreal, + <a href="#Page_442">442</a>-<a href="#Page_451">451</a>.<br /> +Irondequoit Bay, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>; + muster of Indians there, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br /> +Iroquois (Five Nations), <a href="#Page_069">69</a>, <a href="#Page_074">74</a>; + their strength, <a href="#Page_074">74</a>, <a href="#Page_079">79</a>; + policy, <a href="#Page_075">75</a>; + craft, <a href="#Page_082">82</a>; + pride, <a href="#Page_092">92</a>; + offences against the French, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>; + Denonville seeks to chastise them, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + approached by Dongan, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>; + they distrust Denonville, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>; + seizure at Fort Frontenac, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>; + converts as allies, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, + <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; + claimed as subjects by Andres, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>; + invasion of Canada, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, + <a href="#Page_177">177</a>-<a href="#Page_181">181</a>; + seize the ruins of Fort Frontenac, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>; + their inroads, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>; + relations with Bellomont, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>; + their suspicions of the French, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>; + treat with Callières, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>; + conference at Montreal, + <a href="#Page_442">442</a>-<a href="#Page_451">451</a>; + their ill-faith, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>; + their numbers, <a href="#footer_21-06">452 <i>n.</i></a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>J.</h3> +<p> +James II., <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + assumes protectorate over the Iroquois, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; + puts the colonies under command of Andros, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>; + is deposed, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.<br /> +Jesuits in Canada, <a href="#Page_017">17</a>; + Frontenac's charges, <a href="#Page_022">22</a>, <a href="#Page_025">25</a>, + <a href="#Page_039">39</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>; + English suspicions, <a href="#Page_090">90</a>; + protected by Denonville, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>; + excluded by Dongan, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>; + hostile to Frontenac, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + during the attack on Quebec, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>; + their intrigues, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.<br /> +Joncaire, his adventures among the Indians, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, + <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>K.</h3> +<p> +Kinshon (the Fish), + Indian name of New England, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexKondiaronk" id="indexKondiaronk"></a> +Kondiaronk (the Rat), a Huron chief, <a href="#Page_077">77</a>; + his craft, which brings on the Iroquois invasion, + <a href="#Page_173">173</a>-<a href="#Page_176">176</a>, + <a href="#Page_205">205</a>; + at Montreal, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>; + death and burial, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>-<a href="#Page_447">447</a>; + a Christian convert, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">461</a></span> </p> +<h3>L.</h3> +<p> +La Barre, governor of Canada, 1682-1684; + finds Lower Quebec in ruins, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>; + his boasting, <a href="#Page_079">79</a>; + proposes to attack the Senecas, <a href="#Page_083">83</a>; + expedition to the Illinois; seizes Fort St. Louis, + <a href="#Page_086">86</a>; + campaign against the Senecas, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>; + charges of Meules, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + council at Fort La Famine, + <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_110">110</a>; + La Barre's speech, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>; + embassy to the Upper Lakes, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + wrath of the Ottawas, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>; + is recalled, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.<br /> +La Chesnaye, partner of Duchesneau, <a href="#Page_060">60</a>; + in favor with La Barre, <a href="#Page_081">81</a>; + seizes Fort Frontenac, <a href="#Page_082">82</a>; + his forest trade, <a href="#Page_084">84</a> + (see <a href="#indexChesnaye"><i>Chesnaye</i></a>).<br /> +La Chine, massacre of, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br /> +La Forêt, commander of Fort Frontenac, <a href="#Page_081">81</a>; + returns to France, <a href="#Page_082">82</a>.<br /> +La Grange, father-in-law of Frontenac, <a href="#Page_005">5</a>.<br /> +Lake tribes, English alliance, <a href="#Page_097">97</a>; + great gathering at Montreal, + <a href="#Page_252">252</a>-<a href="#Page_255">255</a>; + conciliated by Frontenac, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>; + their threatening attitude, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>; + treaty with Callières, + <a href="#Page_447">447</a>-<a href="#Page_451">451</a>.<br /> +Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary at Onondaga, <a href="#Page_078">78</a>, + <a href="#Page_095">95</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>; + correspondence with La Barre, <a href="#Page_096">96</a>, + <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; + protected by Dongan, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + in danger among the Iroquois, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>; + escapes to Denonville, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br /> +La Motte-Cadillac (see <a href="#indexCadillac"><i>Cadillac</i></a>). <br /> +La Plaque, a Christian Indian, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, + <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.<br /> +La Prairie attacked by John Schuyler, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>; + by Peter Schuvler, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; + his retreat, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>-<a href="#Page_293">293</a>.<br /> +La Salle, his relations with Frontenac, <a href="#Page_027">27</a>, + <a href="#Page_054">54</a>; + at Fort St. Louis, <a href="#Page_075">75</a>; + which is seized by La Barre, <a href="#Page_086">86</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexLaval" id="indexLaval"></a> +Laval, bishop of Canada, <a href="#Page_023">23</a>, + <a href="#Page_038">38</a>, <a href="#Page_045">45</a>, + <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /> +Leisler, Jacob, at Fort William, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, + <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.<br /> +Le Moyne, mission to the Onondagas, <a href="#Page_083">83</a>, + <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, + <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.<br /> +Louis XIII., infancy of, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.<br /> +Louis XIV. admonishes Frontenac, <a href="#Page_049">49</a>, + <a href="#Page_055">55</a>, <a href="#Page_058">58</a>; + recalls La Barre, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>; + supports Denonville, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>; + his reign, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>; + designs respecting the English colonies, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, + <a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + announces the treaty of Ryswick, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.<br /> +<a id="indexLoyal" name="indexLoyal"></a> +Loyal, Fort, at Casco Bay, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, + <a href="#Page_230">230</a>; + surrenders to Portneuf, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>M.</h3> +<p> +Madeleine de Verchères, her heroism, + <a href="#Page_302">302</a>-<a href="#Page_308">308</a>.<br /> +Madocawando, Penobscot chief, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, + <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.<br /> +Mareuil interdicted for play-acting, + <a href="#Page_325">325</a>-<a href="#Page_328">328</a>.<br /> +Massachusetts, condition of the colony, + <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.<br /> +Mather, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.<br /> +McGregory, expedition to Lake Huron, + <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br /> +Meneval, governor of Port Royal, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>; + a prisoner at Boston, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +Meules, intendant of Canada, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>; + letter to La Barre, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>; + representations to the king, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; + recalled, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /> +Michigan, the country claimed by the English, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> +Michillimackinac, trouble there, <a href="#Page_076">76</a>; + French stores threatened, <a href="#Page_083">83</a>, + <a href="#Page_084">84</a>, <a href="#Page_087">87</a>; + expedition of Perrot, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + threatened Indian hostilities, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>; + Indian muster, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>; + English traders seized, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>; + craft of the Rat, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>; + burning of an Iroquois prisoner, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>; + in command of Cadillac, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.<br /> +Missionaries, French, among the Indians, + <a href="#Page_024">24</a>, <a href="#Page_068">68</a>; + to be protected (Denonville), <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, + <a href="#footer_09-11">163 <i>n.</i></a>.; + (Dongan), <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, + <a href="#Page_160">160</a>; + instigate Indians to torture and kill their prisoners, + <a href="#Page_205">205</a>; + incite to murderous attacks, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.<br /> +Mohawks, fear the French, <a href="#Page_074">74</a>; + their settlements, <a href="#Page_093">93</a>; + at Schenectady, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>; + visit Albany, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>; + mission village at Saut St. Louis, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; + expedition against the tribe, + <a href="#Page_310">310</a>-<a href="#Page_315">315</a>.<br /> +Montespan, Mme., <a href="#Page_012">12</a>.<br /> +Montpensier, Princess, <a href="#Page_001">1</a>; + at Orleans, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>; + her exile, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>; + relations with Mme. Frontenac, <a href="#Page_010">10</a> + (see <a href="#footer_01-10">12 <i>n</i></a>.).<br /> +Montreal, condition under Perrot, <a href="#Page_028">28</a>, + <a href="#Page_065">65</a>; + arrests made by Perrot, <a href="#Page_066">66</a>; + terror at the Iroquois invasion, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, + <a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + threatened attack from New York, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + condition of the country during the Indian invasions, + <a href="#Page_301">301</a>; + great gathering of traders and Indians, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>; + great council of Indians, + <a href="#Page_443">443</a>-<a href="#Page_451">451</a>.<br /> +Mosquitoes, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /> +Moyne, Le, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>N.</h3> +<p> +Nelson, John, a prisoner at Quebec; + warns the Massachusetts colony, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexFortNelson" id="indexFortNelson"></a> +Nelson, Fort, on Hudson's Bay, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.<br /> +Nesmond (Marquis), to command in attack on Boston, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, + <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexNewEngland" id="indexNewEngland"></a> +New England colonies unfit for war, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, + <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>; + relations with Canada, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>; + frontier hostilities, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.<br /> +New Netherland, colony of, <a href="#Page_089">89</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">462</a></span> +New York, English colonies of; + relations with the Iroquois, <a href="#Page_075">75</a>; + claims to the western country, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; + intrigues with the Hurons, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>; + trade with the north-west, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + checked by La Durantaye, <a href="#Page_146">146</a> + (see <a href="#indexDongan"><i>Dongan</i></a>); + relations with Canada, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexFortNiagara" id="indexFortNiagara"></a> +Niagara, Fort, planned by Denonville, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + Indian muster at, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + the fort built, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + destroyed, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>O.</h3> +<p> +Oneidas, <a href="#Page_093">93</a>.<br /> +Onondaga, <a href="#Page_094">94</a>; + council at, + <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_200">200</a>, + <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.<br /> +Onontio, Indian name for governor of Canada, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>, + <a href="#Page_078">78</a>, <a href="#Page_092">92</a> (La Barre); + addressed by Big Mouth, + <a href="#Page_107">107</a>-<a href="#Page_109">109</a>.<br /> +Orleans, holds for the Fronde, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>.<br /> +Otréouati (Big Mouth), <a href="#Page_095">95</a>.<br /> +Ottawa River, its importance to the French, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.<br /> +Ottawas, their hostility, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>; + a generic name, <a href="#footer_08-08">145 <i>n.</i></a>; + join Denonville, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; + their barbarities, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>; + claimed as British subjects, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + greet Perrot, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>; + jealous of the Hurons, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>; + their neutrality overcome, + <a href="#Page_253">253</a>-<a href="#Page_255">255</a>.<br /> +Ourehaoué, a Cayuga chief, + <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.<br /> +Oyster River, attack and massacre, + <a href="#Page_365">365</a>-<a href="#Page_367">367</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>P.</h3> +<p> +Peace of Ryswick, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>; + celebrated in Quebec, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>.<br /> +Pemaquid, capture by French and Indians, + <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>; + scheme of Frontenac, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>; + its defences, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>; + attack and capture, + <a href="#Page_378">378</a>-<a href="#Page_382">382</a>.<br /> +Pentegoet (Castine), <a href="#Page_337">337</a>; + held by Saint-Castin, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>; + attacked by Andros, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.<br /> +Perrot, governor of Montreal, <a href="#Page_028">28</a>; + his anger at Bizard, <a href="#Page_031">31</a>; + arrested at Quebec by Frontenac, <a href="#Page_033">33</a>; + the king's opinion, <a href="#Page_040">40</a>; + is restored, <a href="#Page_065">65</a>; + his greed, <a href="#Page_066">66</a>; + his enmity to Saint-Castin, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>; + at the Montreal council, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.<br /> +Perrot, Nicolas, the <i>voyageur</i>, <a href="#footer_06-17">102 <i>n.</i></a>; + at Michillimackinac, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; + his skill in dealing with the Indians, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, + <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.<br /> +Philip's (King) war, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexPhips" id="indexPhips"></a> +Phips, Sir William, commands the expedition to Port Royal, + <a href="#Page_236">236</a>; + early life and character, + <a href="#Page_240">240</a>-<a href="#Page_242">242</a>; + as governor of Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>; + his expedition to Quebec, + <a href="#Page_262">262</a>-<a href="#Page_285">285</a>; + the summons to surrender, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>; + mistakes and delays, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>; + cannonade, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>; + retreat, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>; + French supply-ships, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>; + arrival at Boston, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.<br /> +Port Royal captured, + <a href="#Page_236">236</a>-<a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +Prisoners (English), their treatment in Canada, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>; + restored, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>; + French, among the Indians, + <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>Q.</h3> +<p> +Quebec, capital of Canada, <a href="#Page_015">15</a>; + municipal government established by Frontenac, <a href="#Page_019">19</a>; + the Lower Town burned, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>; + greeting to Frontenac, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + design of attack bv Massachusetts, + <a href="#Page_244">244</a>-<a href="#Page_246">246</a> + (see <a href="#indexPhips"><i>Phips, Sir W.</i></a>); + the defences, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>; + arrival of Frontenac with troops, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>; + defence against Phips's attack, + <a href="#Page_261">261</a>-<a href="#Page_278">278</a>; + its imminent danger, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>; + construction of fortifications, + <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>R.</h3> +<p> +Rat (the), a Huron chief, + see <a href="#indexKondiaronk"><i>Kondiaronk</i></a>.<br /> +Récollet friars befriended by Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_039">39</a>, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>, + <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>; + their eulogy of him, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.<br /> +Richelieu, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +Rooseboom, a Dutch trader, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, + <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br /> +Runaways from Canada, sheltered by Dongan, + <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br /> +Rupert, Fort (Hudson's Bay), seized by Canadians, + <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br /> +Ryswick, peace of, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, + <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.<br /> + +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>S.</h3> +<p> +Saint-Castin, Baron de, on the Penobscot, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; + attacks Fort Loval, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>; + at Castine, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>; + his career, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>-<a href="#Page_345">345</a>; + plan to kidnap him, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>; + at the attack on Pemaquid, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>; + on the Penobscot, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.<br /> +Sainte-Hélène, son of Le Moyne, + <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>; + in the attack on Schenectady, + <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>; + in the defence of Quebec, + <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>; + is killed, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.<br /> +Saint Louis (Saut de), mission village, + <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexFortStLouis" id="indexFortStLouis"></a> +Saint Louis, Fort, on the Illinois, + <a href="#Page_086">86</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br /> +Saint Sulpice, priests of, + <a href="#Page_029">29</a>, <a href="#Page_032">32</a>, + <a href="#Page_035">35</a>, <a href="#Page_042">42</a>.<br /> +<a name="indexStVillier" id="indexStVillier"></a> +Saint-Vallier, bishop of Canada, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>; + applauds Denonville, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>; + at Quebec, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + during Phips's attack, + <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>; + relations with Frontenac, + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">463</a></span> + <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>; + excess of zeal, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>; + returns to France, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.<br /> +Salmon Falls, attack on, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, + <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.<br /> +Schenectady, destruction of, + <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_216">216</a>; + its effect in Canada, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>; + on the Indians, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.<br /> +Schuyler, John, attacks La Prairie, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>; + carries the treaty of Ryswick to Quebec, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>; + Peter, mayor of Albany, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>; + leads an attack; his successful retreat, + <a href="#Page_289">289</a>-<a href="#Page_293">293</a>; + in the Mohawk expedition, + <a href="#Page_312">312</a>-<a href="#Page_314">314</a>; + convokes an Indian council, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br /> +Seignelay, son of Colbert, colonial minister, + <a href="#Page_061">61</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>; + advices to Denonville, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.<br /> +Senecas, the most powerful of the Iroquois, + <a href="#Page_074">74</a>, <a href="#Page_076">76</a>; + prepare for hostilities, <a href="#Page_097">97</a>; + pass for cowards, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + their fortifications, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; + attack the Illinois, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>; + intrigue with the Hurons, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>; + Denonville plans to attack them, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, + <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + his campaign, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a href="#Page_157">157</a>; + they threaten Fort Niagara, + <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br /> +Subercase, a French officer, + proposes to attack the Iroquois, but is overruled, + <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + in the Onondaga expedition, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>T.</h3> +<p> +Talon, the intendant, <a href="#Page_015">15</a>; + declines to attend meeting of the estates, + <a href="#Page_020">20</a>; + returns to France, <a href="#Page_021">21</a>; + hostile to Frontenac at the court, + <a href="#Page_040">40</a>.<br /> +Theatricals at Quebec, + <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_326">326</a>, + <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.<br /> +Thury, the priest, + <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>; + persuades Taxous, + <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + instigates hostilities, + <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.<br /> +Tonty at Fort St. Louis, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + at Fort Niagara, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>; + in the fight with the Senecas, + <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br /> +Toronto, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.<br /> +Torture practised by Indians, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, + <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>; + instigated by the French, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, + <a href="#Page_404">404</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br /> +Troyes, Chevalier de, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>; + at Fort Niagara, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>U.</h3> +<p> +Ursuline Convent at Quebec, <a href="#Page_024">24</a>; + during the attack, + <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.<br /> + +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>V.</h3> +<p> +Vaillant, the Jesuit, negotiates with Dongan, + <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br /> +Valrenne destroys Fort Frontenac, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>; + sent to defend La Prairie, + <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.<br /> +Vaudreuil, Chevalier de, in the Seneca campaign, + <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + in the defence against the Iroquois, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>; + in the attack of the Onondagas, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, + <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.<br /> +Verchères, the heroine of, + <a href="#Page_302">302</a>-<a href="#Page_308">308</a>.<br /> +Versailles, 1, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +Viele, his mission to Onondaga, + <a href="#Page_093">93</a>, <a href="#Page_098">98</a>.<br /> +Villebon, governor of Acadia, + <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.<br /> +Villeray, a tool of the Jesuits, + <a href="#Page_047">47</a>; + at Quebec, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; + his negotiations with Frontenac, + <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.<br /> +Villieu, commands the Indian allies, + <a href="#Page_361">361</a>; + attacks Oyster River, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>; + nearly perishes in the Penobscot, + <a href="#Page_364">364</a>; + returns to Quebec, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>; + takes Pemaquid, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>; + is captured, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.<br /> +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>W.</h3> +<p> +Waldron at Cocheco, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.<br /> +Walley, John, in command under Phips at Quebec, + <a href="#Page_246">246</a>; + commands the land attack, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>; + in camp, + <a href="#Page_274">274</a>-<a href="#Page_276">276</a>; + retreat, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.<br /> +Weems at Pemaquid, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, + <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.<br /> +Wells, attacked by French and Abenakis, + <a href="#Page_353">353</a>-<a href="#Page_355">355</a>.<br /> +William III., <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br /> +Winthrop, commander at Albany, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.<br /> + +</p> +<p><br /></p> +<h3>Y.</h3> +<p> +York, massacre at, + <a href="#Page_349">349</a>-<a href="#Page_351">351</a>.<br /> + +</p> + +</div> +<hr class="main" /> +<p class="small noindent center">Cambridge: Press of John Wilson & Son.</p> + +<p><br /></p> +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /> + <a name="parkman" id="parkman"></a> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents23">Francis Parkman</a></h2> +</div> + +<p><br /></p> +<h3>France and England in North America</h3> +<ol> +<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3721"> + Pioneers of France in the New World</a> (1865)<br /> + Revised (1885)</li> +<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6933"> + The Jesuits in North America in the seventeenth century</a> (1867)</li> +<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9997"> + The Discovery of the West</a> (1869) <br /> + <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40143"> + La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West</a> (1879)</li> +<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53000"> + The Old Régime in Canada</a> (1874)<br /> + Revised (1894)</li> +<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6875"> + Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.</a> (1877)</li> +<li>A Half Century of Conflict (1892)<br /> + <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24457"> + Volume 1</a><br /> + <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7064"> + Volume 2</a> </li> +<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14517"> + <span class="smcap">Montcalm and Wolfe</span> </a> (1884)</li> +</ol> + +<p> +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. +</p> +<p> +The revised version of <i>Pioneers of France</i> (Part One) contains new +descriptions of Florida and some changes to the section on Samuel Champlain. +Parkman revised <i>Discovery of the West</i> (Part Three) after obtaining +access to Margry's collection. The revised version of <i>The Old +Régime</i> (Part Four) includes three new chapters regarding +La Tour and D'Aunay. +</p> +<p> +Volume 3 was not only revised, but the title was altered. Parkman first +released Volume 3 as <i>The Discovery of the West.</i> His updated version of +Volume 3 was entitled <i>La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West.</i> +</p> + +<h3>Other Principal Works</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1015"> + The Oregon Trail</a> (1849)</li> +<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39253"> + The Conspiracy of Pontiac</a> (1851)</li> +</ul> + +<hr class="main" /> +<div class="chapterhead"> + <br /> + <a name="transNotes" id="transNotes"></a> + <br /><br /><br /> + <h2><a href="#Contents23">Transcriber's Notes</a></h2> + <p><br /></p> + <h3>Introduction</h3> +</div> + + +<p> +Welcome to <span class="smcap">Project Gutenberg's</span> edition of +<i>Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.</i> This book was +the fifth part released by Francis Parkman in his seven-part series +called <i>France and England in North America.</i> </p> +<p> +This transcription is based on the original version of the book, +published in 1877, by Little, Brown, and Company. 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