The fighting governor : a chronicle of Frontenac

HOLY REDEEMER LIBRAR&MNNDSOR

CHRONICLES OF CANADA

Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton

In thirty-two volumes

THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR
BY CHARLES W. COLBY

Part II

The Rise of New France

THE FIGHTING
GOVERNOR

A Chronicle of Frontenac

BY

CHARLES W. COLBY

TORONT
GLASGOW, BROOK & Cl
1920

HOLY REDEEM

RY, WINDSOR

Copyright in all Countries subscribing to
the Berne Convention

PRESS o» THB HUNTBR-ROSB Co.. LIMITED, TORONTO

CONTENTS

Page
I. CANADA IN 1672 . '. . .'.;', . . I

II. LOUIS DE BUADE, COMTE DE FRONTENAC . 17

III. FRONTENAC'S FIRST YEARS IN CANADA . 33

IV. GOVERNOR, BISHOP, AND INTENDANT . 51
V. FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY ... 71

VI. THE LURID INTERVAL . . v , 87

VII. THE GREAT STRUGGLE . . . . 113

VIII. FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS . 1- . V' . '35

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . 4 .162

INDEX * . . 164

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE SUMMONS AND THE ANSWER, 1690 . Frontispiece
From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys.

LADY FRONTENAC . . . . Facing page 22

From a painting in the Versailles Gallery.

JEAN BAPTISTE COLBERT . . . ,,26

From an engraving- in the Chateau de Ramezay.

ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE . . „ „ 40

From an engraving by Waltner,- Paris.

FIGURE OF FRONTENAC , , . ,. „ So

From the Hebert Statue at Quebec.

PIERRE LE MOYNE, SIEUR D'IBERVILLE „ Il8

From an engraving in the John Ross Robertson
Collection, Toronto Public Library.

CHAPTER I

CANADA IN 1672

THE Canada to which Frontenac came in 1672
was no longer the infant colony it had been
when Richelieu founded the Company of One
Hundred Associates. Through the efforts of
Louis XIV and Colbert it had assumed the
form of an organized province.1 Though
its inhabitants numbered less than seven
thousand, the institutions under which they
lived could not have been more elaborate or
precise. In short, the divine right of the
king to rule over his people was proclaimed
as loudly in the colony as in the motherland.
It was inevitable that this should be so,
for the whole course of French history since
the thirteenth century had led up to the
absolutism of Louis XIV. During the early
ages of feudalism France had been distracted
by the wars of her kings against rebellious
nobles. The virtues and firmness of Louis IX

1 See The Great Intendani in this Series.
F.G. A

2 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

(1226-70) had turned the scale in favour of
the crown. There were still to be many
rebellions — the strife of Burgundians and
Arrnagnacs in the fifteenth century, the Wars
of the League in the sixteenth century, the
cabal of the Fronde in the seventeenth century
— but the great issue had been settled in the
days of the good St Louis. When Raymond
VII of Toulouse accepted the Peace of Lorris
(1243) the government of Canada by Louis
XIV already existed in the germ. That is to
say, behind the policy of France in the New
World may be seen an ancient process which
had ended in untrammelled autocracy at
Paris.

This process as it affected Canada was not
confined to the spirit of government. It is
equally visible in the forms of colonial ad-
ministration. During the Middle Ages the
dukes and counts of France had been great
territorial lords — levying their own trmies,
coining their own money, holding power of
life and death over their vassals. In that
period Normandy, Brittany, Maine, Anjou,
Toulouse, and many other districts, were
subject to the king in name only. But, with
the growth of royal power, the dukes and
counts steadily lost their territorial independ-

CANADA IN 1672 3

ence and fell at last to the condition of
courtiers. Simultaneously the duchies or
counties were changed into provinces, each
with a noble for its governor — but a noble
who was a courtier, holding his commission
from the king and dependent upon the favour
of the king. Side by side with the governor
stood the intendant, even more a king's man
than the governor himself. So jealously did
the Bourbons guard their despotism that the
crown would not place wide authority in the
hands of any one representative. The gover*
nor, as a noble and a soldier, knew little
or nothing of civil business. To watch over
the finances and the prosperity of the pro-
vince, an intendant was appointed. This
official was always chosen from the middle
class and owed his position, his advancement,
his whole future, to the king. The governor
might possess wealth, or family connections.
The intendant had little save what came to
him from his sovereign's favour. Gratitude
and interest alike tended to make him a faith-
ful servant.

But, though the crown had destroyed the
political power of the nobles, it left intact
their social pre-eminence. The king was as
supreme as a Christian ruler could be. Yet

4 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

by its very nature the monarchy could not
exist without the nobles, from whose ranks
the sovereign drew his attendants, friends,
and lieutenants. Versailles without its cour-
tiers would have been a desert. Even the
Church was a stronghold of the aristocracy,
for few became bishops or abbots who were
not of gentle birth.

The great aim of government, whether at
home or in the colonies, was to maintain the
supremacy of the crown. Hence all public
action flowed from a royal command. The
Bourbon theory required that kings should
speak and that subjects should obey. One
direct consequence of a system so uncom-
promisingly despotic was the loss of all local
initiative. Nothing in the faintest degree
resembling the New England town-meeting
ever existed in New France. Louis XIV
objected to public gatherings of his people,
even for the most innocent purposes. The
sole limitation to the power of the king was
the line of cleavage between Church and
State. Religion required that the king should
refrain from invading the sphere of the clergy,
though controversy often waxed fierce as to
where the secular ended and the spiritual
began.

CANADA IN 1672 5

When it became necessary to provide in-
stitutions for Canada, the organization of the
province in France at once suggested itself as a
fit pattern. Canada, like Normandy, had the
governor and the intendant for her chief
officials, the seigneury for the groundwork of
her society, and mediaeval coutumes for her
laws.

The governor represented the king's dignity
and the force of his arms. He was a noble,
titled or untitled. It was the business of
the governor to wage war and of the intendant
to levy taxes. But as an expedition could
not be equipped without money, the governor
looked to the intendant for funds, and the
intendant might object that the plans of the
governor were unduly extravagant. Worse
still, the commissions under which both held
office were often contradictory. More than
three thousand miles separated Quebec from
Versailles, and for many months governor and
intendant quarrelled over issues which could
only be settled by an appeal to the king.
Meanwhile each was a spy as well as a check
upon the other. In Canada this arrange-
ment worked even more harmfully than in
France, where the king could make himself
felt without great loss of time.

6 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Yet an able intendant could do much
good. There are few finer episodes in the
history of local government than the work of
Turgot as intendant of the Limousin.1 Canada
also had her Talon, whose efforts had trans-
formed the colony during the seven years
which preceded Frontenac's arrival. The
fatal weakness was scanty population. This
Talon saw with perfect clearness, and he
clamoured for immigrants till Colbert declared
that he would not depopulate France to people
Canada. Talon and Frontenac came into
personal contact only during a few weeks, but
the colony over which Frontenac ruled as
governor had been created largely by the
intelligence and toil of Talon as intendant.2

While the provincial system of France gave
Canada two chief personages, a third came
from the Church. In the annals of New
France there is no more prominent figure
than the bishop. Francois de Laval de Mont-
morency had been in the colony since 1659.

1 Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727-81), a statesman,
thinker, and philanthropist of the first order. It was as inten-
dant of Limoges that Turgot disclosed his great powers. He
held his post for thirteen years (1761-74), and effected improve-
ments which led Louis XVI to appoint him comptroller-general
of the Kingdom.

1 See The Great Intendant.

CANADA IN 1672 7

His place in history is due in large part to his
strong, intense personality, but this must not
be permitted to obscure the importance of his
office. His duties were to create educational
institutions, to shape ecclesiastical policy,
and to represent the Church in all its dealings
with the government.

Many of the problems which confronted
Laval had their origin in special and rather
singular circumstances. Few, if any, priests
had as yet been established in fixed parishes —
each with its church and presbytere. Under
ordinary conditions parishes would have been
established at once, but in Canada the con-
ditions were far from ordinary. The Canadian
Church sprang from a mission. Its first
ministers were members of religious orders
who had taken the conversion of the heathen
for their chosen task. They had headquarters
at Quebec or Montreal, but their true field of
action was the wilderness. Having the red
man rather than the settler as their charge,
they became immersed, and perhaps pre-
occupied, in their heroic work. Thus the
erection of parishes was delayed. More than
one historian has upbraided Laval for thinking
so much of the mission that he neglected the
spiritual needs of the colonists. However

8 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

this may be, the colony owed much to the
missionaries — particularly to the Jesuits. It
is no exaggeration to say that the Society of
Jesus had been among the strongest forces
which stood between New France and de-
struction. Other supports failed. The fur
trade had been the corner-stone upon which
Champlain built up Quebec, but the profits
proved disappointing. At the best it was
a very uncertain business. Sometimes the
prices in Paris dwindled to nothing because
the market was glutted. At other times the
Indians brought no furs at all to the trading-
posts. With its export trade dependent upon
the caprice of the savages, the colony often
seemed not worth the keeping. In these years
of worst discouragement the existence of the
mission was a great prop.

On his arrival in 1672 Frontenac found the
Jesuits, the Sulpicians, and the Recollets all
actively engaged in converting the heathen.
He desired that more attention should be paid
to the creation of parishes for the benefit of the
colonists. Over this issue there arose, as we
shall see by and by, acute differences between
the bishop and the governor.

Owing to the large part which religion had
in the life of New France the bishop took his

CANADA IN 1672 9

place beside the governor and the intendant.
This was the triumvirate of dignitaries.
Primarily each represented a different interest
— war, business, religion. But they were
brought into official contact through member-
ship in the Conseil Souverain, which con-
trolled all details of governmental action.

The Sovereign Council underwent changes
of name and composition, but its functions
were at all times plainly defined. In 1672
the members numbered seven Of these the
governor, the bishop, and the intendant
formed the nucleus, the other four being ap-
pointed by them. In 1675 the king raised
the number of councillors to ten, thus diluting
the authority which each possessed, and thence-
forth made the appointments himself. Thus
during the greater part of Frontenac's regime
the governor, the bishop, and the intendant
had seven associates at the council-board.
Still, as time went on, the king felt that his
control over this body was not quite perfect.
So in 1703 he changed the name from
Sovereign Council to Superior Council, and
increased its members to a total of fifteen.

The Council met at the Chateau St Louis
on Monday morning of each week, at a round
table where the governor had the bishop on

io THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

his right hand and the intendant on his left.
Nevertheless the intendant presided, for the
matters under discussion fell chiefly in his
domain. Of the other councillors the at-
torney-general was the most conspicuous.
To him fell the task of sifting the petitions
and determining which should be presented.
Although there were local judges at Quebec,
Three Rivers, and Montreal, the Council had
jurisdiction over all important cases, whether
criminal or civil. In the sphere of commerce
its powers were equally complete and minute.
It told merchants what profits they could
take on their goods, and how their goods
should be classified with respect to the per-
centage of profit allowed. Nothing was too
petty for its attention. Its records depict
with photographic accuracy the nature of
French government in Canada. From this
source we can see how the principle of paternal-
ism was carried out to the last detail.

But Canada was a long way from France
and the St Lawrence was larger than the Seine.
It is hard to fight against nature, and in
Canada there were natural obstacles which
withstood to some extent the forces of des-
potism. It is easy to see how distance from
the court gave both governor and intendant

CANADA IN 1672 ii

a range of action which would have been
impossible in France. With the coming of
winter Quebec was isolated for more than six
months. During this long interval the two
officials could do a great many things of which
the king might not have approved, but which
he was powerless to prevent. His theo-
retical supremacy was thus limited by the un-
yielding facts of geography. And a better,
illustration is found in the operation of the
seigneurial system upon which Canadian
society was based. In France a belated
feudalism still held the common man in its
grip, and in Canada the forms of feudalism
were at least partially established. Yet the
Canadian habitant lived in a very different
atmosphere from that breathed by the Norman
peasant. The Canadian seigneur had an
abundance of acreage and little cash. His
grant was in the form of uncleared land, which
he could only make valuable through the
labours of his tenants or censitaires. The
difficulty of finding good colonists made it
important to give them favourable terms.
The habitant had a hard life, but his obliga-
tions towards his seigneur were not onerous.
The man who lived in a log-hut among the
stumps and could hunt at will through the

12 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

forest was not a serf. Though the conditions
of life kept him close to his home, Canada
meant for him a new freedom.

Freest of all were the coureurs de bois,
those dare-devils of the wilderness who fill
such a large place in the history of the fur
trade and of exploration. The Frenchman
in all ages has proved abundantly his love of
danger and adventure. Along the St Law-
rence from Tadoussac to the Sault St Louis
seigneuries fringed the great river, as they
fringed the banks of its tributary, the Riche-
lieu. This was the zone of cultivation, in
which log-houses yielded, after a time, to
white-washed cottages. But above the Sault
St Louis all was wilderness, whether one
ascended the St Lawrence or turned at He
Perrot into the Lake of Two Mountains and
the Ottawa. For young and daring souls the
forest meant the excitement of discovery, the
licence of life among the Indians, and the
hope of making more than could be gained
by the habitant from his farm. Large
profits meant large risks, and the coureur de
bois took his life in his hand. Even if he
escaped the rapid and the tomahawk, there
was an even chance that he would become
a reprobate.

CANADA IN 1672 13

But if his character were of tough fibre,
there was also a chance that he might render
service to his king. At times of danger the
government was glad to call on him for aid.
When Tracy or Denonville or Frontenac led
an expedition against the Iroquois, it was
fortunate that Canada could muster a cohort
of men who knew woodcraft as well as the
Indians. In days of peace the coureur de bois
was looked on with less favour. The king
liked to know where his subjects were at every
hour of the day and night. A Frenchman at
Michilimackinac,1 unless he were a missionary
or a government agent, incurred severe dis-
pleasure, and many were the edicts which
sought to prevent the colonists from taking
to the woods. But, whatever the laws might
say, the coureur de bois could not be put
down. From time to time he was placed
under restraint, but only for a moment. The
intendant might threaten and the priest might
plead. It recked not to the coureur de bois
when once his knees felt the bottom of the
canoe.

1 The most important of the French posts in the western
portion of the Great Lakes, situated on the strait which unites
Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. It was here that Saint-Lusson
and Perrot took possession of the West in the name of France
(June 1671). See The Great Intendant, pp. 115-16.

14 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

But of the seven thousand French who
peopled Canada in 1672 it is probable that
not more than four hundred were scattered
through the forest. The greater part of the
inhabitants occupied the seigneuries along the
St Lawrence and the Richelieu. Tadoussac
was hardly more than a trading-post. Quebec,
Three Rivers, and Montreal were but villages.
In the main the life of the people was the life
of the seigneuries — an existence well calcu-
lated to bring out in relief the ancestral
heroism of the French race. The grant of
seigneurial rights did not imply that the
recipient had been a noble in France. The
earliest seigneur, Louis Hebert, was a Parisian
apothecary, and many of the Canadian gentry
were sprung from the middle class. There
was nothing to induce the dukes, the counts,
or even the barons of France to settle on the
soil of Canada. The governor was a noble,
but he lived at the Chateau St Louis. The
seigneur who desired to achieve success must
reside on the land he had received and see
that his tenants cleared it of the virgin forest.
He could afford little luxury, for in almost all
cases his private means were small. But a
seigneur who fulfilled the conditions of his
grant could look forward to occupying a

CANADA IN 1672 15

relatively greater position in Canada than he
could have occupied in France, and to making
better provision for his children.

Both the seigneur and his tenant, the
habitant, had a stake in Canada and helped to
maintain the colony in the face of grievous
hardships. The courage and tenacity of the
French Canadian are attested by what he
endured throughout the years when he was
fighting for his foothold. And if he suffered,
his wife suffered still more. The mother who
brought up a large family in the midst of
stumps, bears, and Iroquois knew what it
was to be resourceful.

Obviously the Canada of 1672 lacked many
things — among them the stern resolve which
animated the Puritans of New England that
their sons should have the rudiments of an
education.1 At this point the contrast be-
tween New France and New England discloses
conflicting ideals of faith and duty. In later
years the problem of knowledge assumed
larger proportions, but during the period of
Frontenac the chief need of Canada was
heroism. Possessing this virtue abundantly,
Canadians lost no time in lamentations over

1 For example, Harvard College was founded in 1636, and
there was a printing-press at Cambridge, Mass., in 1638.

16 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

the lack of books or the lack of wealth. The
duty of the hour was such as to exclude all
remoter vistas. When called on to defend
his hearth and to battle for his race, the
Canadian was ready.

CHAPTER II

LOUIS DE BUADE, COMTE DE FRONTENAC

Louis DE BUADE, COMTE DE FRONTENAC ET
DE PALLUAU, was born in 1620. He was the
son of Henri de Buade, a noble at the court of
Louis XIII. His mother, Anne de Phelip-
peaux, came from a stock which in the early
Bourbon period furnished France with many
officials of high rank, notably Louis de
Phelippeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain. His
father belonged to a family of southern France
whose estates lay originally in Guienne. It
was a fortunate incident in the annals of this
family that when Antoine de Bourbon became
governor of Guienne (1555) Geoffrey de Buade
entered his service. Thenceforth the Buades
were attached by close ties to the kings of
Navarre. Frontenac's grandfather, Antoine
de Buade, figures frequently in the Memoirs
of Agrippa d'Aubigne as aide-de-camp to
Henry IV ; Henri de Buade, Frontenac's
father, was a playmate and close friend of

F.G. R

18 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Louis XIII ; 1 and Frontenac himself was a
godson and a namesake of the king.

While fortune thus smiled upon the cradle
of Louis de Buade, some important favours
were denied. Though nobly born, Frontenac
did not spring from a line which had been of
national importance for centuries, like that
of Montmorency or Chatillon. Nor did he
inherit large estates. The chief advantage
which the Buades possessed came from their
personal relations with the royal family.
Their property in Guienne was not great,
and neither Geoffrey, Antoine, nor Henri had
possessed commanding abilities. Nor was
Frontenac the boyhood friend pf his king as
his father had been, for Louis XIV was not
born till 1638. Frontenac's rank was good
enough to give him a chance at the French
court. For the rest, his worldly prosperity
would depend on his own efforts.

Inevitably he became a soldier. He
entered the army at fifteen. It was one of
the greatest moments in French history.
Richelieu was prime minister, and the long

1 As an illustration of their intimacy, there is a story that
one day when Henry IV was indisposed he had these two boys
on his bed, and amused himself by making them fight with each
other.

COMTE DE FRONTENAC 19

strife between France and the House of
Hapsburg had just begun to turn definitely
in favour of France. Against the Hapsburgs,
with their two thrones of Spain and Austria,1
stood the Great Cardinal, ready to use the
crisis of the Thirty Years' War for the
benefit of his nation — even though this
meant a league with heretics. At the moment
when Frontenac first drew the sword France
(in nominal support of her German allies)
was striving to conquer Alsace. The victory
which brought the French to the Rhine was
won through the capture of Breisach, at the
close of 1638. Then in swift succession fol-
lowed those astounding victories of Conde and
Turenne which destroyed the military pre-
eminence of Spain, took the French to the
gates of Munich, and wrung from the emperor
the Peace of Westphalia (1648).

During the thirteen years which followed
Frontenac's first glimpse of war it was a
glorious thing to be a French soldier. The
events of such an era could not fail to leave

1 Charles V held all his Spanish, Burgundian, and Austrian
inheritance in his own hand from 1519 to 1521. In 1521 he
granted the Austrian possessions to his brother Ferdinand.
Thenceforth Spain and Austria were never reunited, but their
association in politics continued to be intimate until the close
of the seventeenth century.

20 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

their mark upon a high-spirited and valorous
youth. Frontenac was predestined by family
tradition to a career of arms ; but it was his
own impetuosity that drove him into war
before the normal age. He first served under
Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, who was
then at the height of his reputation. After
several campaigns in the Low Countries his
regiment was transferred to the confines of
Spain and France. There, in the year of
Richelieu's death (1642), he fought at the siege
of Perpignan. That he distinguished himself
may be seen from his promotion, at twenty-
three, to the rank of colonel. In the same
year (1643) Louis XIV came to the throne ;
and Conde, by smiting the Spaniards at
Rocroi, won for France the fame of having
the best troops in Europe.

It was not the good fortune of Frontenac to
serve under either Conde or Turenne during
those campaigns, so triumphant for France,
which marked the close of the Thirty Years'
War. From Perpignan he was ordered to
northern Italy, where in the course of three
years he performed the exploits which made
him a brigadier - general at twenty - six.
Though repeatedly wounded, he survived
twelve years of constant fighting with no

COMTE DE FRONTENAC 21

more serious casualty than a broken arm
which he carried away from the siege of
Orbitello. By the time peace was signed at
Miinster he had become a soldier well proved
in the most desperate war which had been
fought since Europe accepted Christianity.

To the great action of the Thirty Years'
War there soon succeeded the domestic com-
motion of the Fronde. Richelieu, despite his
high qualities as a statesman, had been a poor
financier ; and Cardinal Mazarin, his successor,
was forced to cope with a discontent which
sprang in part from the misery of the masses
and in part from the ambition of the nobles.
As Louis XIV was still an infant when his
father died, the burden of government fell in
name upon the queen-mother, Anne of Austria,
but in reality upon Mazarin. Not even the
most disaffected dared to rebel against the
young king in the sense of disputing his right
to reign. But in 1648 the extreme youth of
Louis XIV made it easy for discontented
nobles, supported by the Parlement of Paris,
to rebel against an unpopular minister.

The year 1648, wtyich witnessed the Peace of
Westphalia and the outbreak of the Fronde,
was rendered memorable to Frontenac by his
marriage. It was a runaway match, which

22 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

began an extraordinary alliance between two
very extraordinary people. The bride, Anne
de la Grange-Trianon, was a daughter of the
Sieur de Neuville, a gentleman whose house
in Paris was not far from that of Frontenac 's
parents. At the time of the elopement she
was only sixteen, while Frontenac had reached
the ripe age of twenty-eight. Both were high-
spirited and impetuous. We know also that
Frontenac was hot-tempered. For a short
time they lived together and there was a son.
But before the wars of the Fronde had closed
they drifted apart, from motives which were
personal rather than political.

Madame de Frontenac then became a maid
of honour to the Duchesse de Montpensier,
daughter of Gaston d' Orleans 1 and first cousin
to Louis XIV. This princess, known as La
Grande Mademoiselle, plunged into the politics
of the Fronde with a vigour which involved
her whole household — Madame de Frontenac
included — and wrote Memoirs in which her
adventures are recorded at full length, to the
pungent criticism of her foes and the en-

1 Gaston d'Orleans was the younger brother of Louis XIII,
and heir-presumptive until the birth of Louis XIV in 1638. His
vanity and his complicity in plots to overthrow Richelieu are
equally famous.

LADY FRONTENAC
From a painting in the Versailles Gallery

COMTE DE FRONTENAC 23

thusiastic glorification of herself. Madame
de Frontenac was in attendance upon La
Grande Mademoiselle during the period of her
most spectacular exploits and shared all the
excitement which culminated with the famous
entry of Orleans in 1652.

Madame de Frontenac was beautiful, and
to beauty she added the charm of wit. With
these endowments she made her way despite
her slender means — and to be well-born but
poor was a severe hardship in the reign of
Louis XIV. Her portrait at Versailles re-
flects the striking personality and the intelli-
gence which won for her the title La Divine.
Throughout an active life she never lacked
powerful friends, and Saint-Simon bears wit-
ness to the place she held in the highest and
most exclusive circle of court society.

Frontenac and his wife lived together only
during the short period 1648-52. But inter-
course was not wholly severed by the fact of
domestic separation. It is clear from the
Memoirs of the Duchesse de Montpensier that
Frontenac visited his wife at Saint-Fargeau,
the country seat to which the duchess had been
exiled for her part in the wars of the Fronde.
Such evidence as there is seems to show
that Madame de Frontenac considered herself

24 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

deeply wronged by her husband and was
unwilling to accept his overtures. From
Mademoiselle de Montpensier we hear little
after 1657, the year of her quarrel with
Madame de Frontenac. The maid of honour
was accused of disloyalty, tears flowed, the
duchess remained obdurate, and, in short,
Madame de Frontenac was dismissed.

The most sprightly stories of the Frontenacs
occur in these Memoirs of La Grande Mademoi-
selle. Unfortunately the Duchesse de Mont-
pensier was so self-centred that her witness
is not dispassionate. She disliked Frontenac,
without concealment. As seen by her, he
was vain and boastful, even in matters which
concerned his kitchen and his plate. His
delight in new clothes was childish. He com-
pelled guests tc speak admiringly of his horses,
in contradiction of their manifest appearance.
Worst of all, he tried to stir up trouble be-
tween the duchess and her own people.

Though Frontenac and his wife were unable
to live together, they did not become com-
pletely estranged. It may be that the death
of their son — who seems to have been killed
in battle — drew them together once more, at
least in spirit. It may be that with the
Atlantic between them they appreciated each

COMTE DE FRONTENAC 25

other's virtues more justly. It may have been
loyalty to the family tradition. Whatever
the cause, they maintained an active corre-
spondence during Frontenac's years in Canada,
and at court Madame de Frontenac was her
husband's chief defence against numerous
enemies. When he died it was found that he
had left her his property. But she never set
foot in Canada.

Frontenac was forty-one when Louis XIV
dismissed Fouquet and took Colbert for his
chief adviser. At Versailles everything de-
pended on royal favour, and forty-one is an
important age. What would the young king
do for Frontenac ? What were his gifts and
qualifications ?

It is plain that Frontenac's career, so
vigorously begun during the Thirty Years'
War, had not developed in a like degree during
the period (1648-61) from the outbreak of
the Fronde to the death of Mazarin. There
was no doubt as to his capacity. Saint-Simon
calls him ' a man of excellent parts, living
much in society.' And again, when speaking
of Madame de Frontenac, he says : * Like her
husband she had little property and abundant
wit.' The bane of Frontenac's life at this time
was his extravagance. He lived like a million-

26 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

aire till his money was gone. Not far from
Blois he had the estate of Isle Savary — a
property quite suited to his station had he been
prudent. But his plans for developing it,
with gardens, fountains, and ponds, were
wholly beyond his resources. At Versailles,
also, he sought to keep pace with men whose
ancestral wealth enabled them to do the things
which he longed to do, but which fortune had
placed beyond his reach. Hence, notwith-
standing his buoyancy and talent, Frontenac
had gained a reputation for wastefulness which
did not recommend him, in 1661, to the
prudent Colbert. Nor was he fitted by char-
acter or training for administrative duty. His
qualifications were such as are of use at a post
of danger.

His time came in 1669. At the beginning
of that year he was singled out by Turenne
for a feat of daring which placed him before the
eyes of all Europe. A contest was about to
close which for twenty-five years had been
waged with a stubbornness rarely equalled.
This was the struggle of the Venetians with the
Turks for the possession of Crete.1 To Venice

1 This was not the first time that Frontenac had fought
against the Turks. Under La Feuillade and Coligny he had
taken part in Montecuculli's campaign in 1664 against the Turks

From an engraving in the Chateau de Ramezny

COMTE DE FRONTENAC 27

defeat meant the end of her glory as an im-
perial power. The Republic had lavished
treasure upon this war as never before — a
sum equivalent in modern money to fifteen
hundred million dollars. Even when com-
pelled to borrow at seven per cent, Venice
kept up the fight and opened the ranks of
her nobility to all who would pay sixty
thousand ducats. Nor was the valour of the
Venetians who defended Crete less noble
than the determination of their government.
Every man who loved the city of St Mark felt
that her fate was at stake before the walls of
Candia.

Year by year the resources of the Venetians
had grown less and their plight more desperate.
In 1668 they had received some assistance
from French volunteers under the Due de la
Feuillade. This was followed by an applica-
tion to Turenne for a general who would com-
mand their own troops in conjunction with
Morosini. It was a forlorn hope if ever there
was one ; and Turenne selected Frontenac.

in Hungary, and was present at the great victory of St Gothard
on the Raab. The regiment of Carignan-Salieres was also
engaged on this occasion. In the next year it came to Canada,
and Lorin thinks that the association of Frontenac with the
Carignan regiment in this campaign may have been among the
causes of his nomination to the post of governor.

28 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Co-operating with him were six thousand
French troops under the Due de Navailles,
who nominally served the Pope, for Louis XIV
wished to avoid direct war against the Sultan.
All that can be said of Frontenac's part in the
adventure is that he valiantly attempted the
impossible. Crete was doomed long before
he saw its shores. The best that the Venetians
and the French could do was to fight for
favourable terms of surrender. These they
gained. In September 1669 the Venetians
evacuated the city of Candia, taking with them
their cannon, all their munitions of war, and
all their movable property.

The Cretan expedition not only confirmed
but enhanced the standing which Frontenac
had won in his youth. And within three years
from the date of his return he received the
king's command to succeed the governor
Courcelles at Quebec.

Gossip busied itself a good deal over the
immediate causes of Frontenac's appointment
to the government of Canada. The post was
hardly a proconsular prize. At first sight one
would not think that a small colony destitute
of social gaiety could have possessed attrac-
tions to a man of Frontenac's rank and train-

COMTE DE FRONTENAC 29

ing. The salary amounted to but eight thou-
sand livres a year. The climate was rigorous,
and little glory could come from righting the
Iroquois. The question arose, did Frontenac
desire the appointment or was he sent into
polite exile ?

There was a story that he had once been a
lover of Madame de Montespan, who in 1672
found his presence near the court an incon-
venience. Others said that Madame de
Frontenac had eagerly sought for him the
appointment on the other side of the world.
A third theory was that, owing to his financial
straits, the government gave him something
to keep body and soul together in a land where
there were no great temptations to spend
money.

Motives are often mixed ; and behind the
nomination there may have been various
reasons. But whatever weight we allow to
gossip, it is not necessary to fall back on any
of these hypotheses to account for Frontenac 's
appointment or for his willingness to accept.
While there was no immediate likelihood of a
war involving France and England,1 and con-

1 By the Treaty of Dover (May 20, 1670) Charles II received
a pension from France and promised to aid Louis XIV in war
with Holland.

30 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

sequent trouble from the English colonies in
America, New France required protection
from the Iroquois. And, as a soldier, Fron-
tenac had acquitted himself with honour.
Nor was the post thought to be insignificant.
Madame de Sevigne's son-in-law, the Comte
de Grignan, was an unsuccessful candidate for
it in competition with Frontenac. For some
years both the king and Colbert had been
giving real attention to the affairs of Canada.
The Far West was opening up ; and since 1665
the population of the colony had more than
doubled. To Frontenac the governorship of
Canada meant promotion. It was an office of
trust and responsibility, with the opportunity
to extend the king's power throughout the
region beyond the Great Lakes. And if the
salary was small, the governor could enlarge
it by private trading. Whatever his motives,
or the motives of those who sent him, it was
a good day for Frontenac when he was sent
to Canada. In France the future held out the
prospect of little but a humiliating scramble
for sinecures. In Canada he could do con-
structive work for his king and country.

Those who cross the sea change their skies
but not their character. Frontenac bore with

COMTE DE FRONTENAC 31

him to Quebec the sentiments and the habits
which befitted a French noble of the sword.1
The more we know about the life of his class
in France, the better we shall understand his
actions as governor of Canada. His irasci-
bility, for example, seems almost mild when
compared with the outbreaks of many who
shared with him the traditions and breeding of
a privileged order. Frontenac had grown to
manhood in the age of Richelieu, a period
when fierceness was a special badge of the
aristocracy. Thus duelling became so great
a menace to the public welfare that it was
made punishable with death ; despite which
it flourished to such an extent that one
nobleman, the Chevalier d'Andrieux, enjoyed
the reputation of having slain seventy-two
antagonists.

Where duelling is a habitual and honour-
able exercise, men do not take the trouble to
restrain primitive passions. Even in dealings
with ladies of their own rank, French nobles
often stepped over the line where rudeness

1 Frontenac's enemies never wearied of dwelling- upon his un-
controllable rage. A most interesting discussion of this subject
will be found in Frontenac ft Sea Amis by M. Ernest Myrand
(p. 172). For the bellicose qualities of the French aristocracy
see also La Noblesse Franqaite sous Richelieu by the Vicomte
G. d'Avenel.

32 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

ends and insult begins. When Malherbe
boxed the ears of a viscountess he did nothing
which he was unwilling to talk about. Ladies
not less than lords treated their servants like
dirt, and justified such conduct by the state-
ment that the base-born deserve no considera-
tion. There was, indeed, no class — not even
the clergy — which was exempt from assault
by wrathful nobles. In the course of an
altercation the Due d'Epernon, after striking
the Archbishop of Bordeaux in the stomach
several times with his fists and his baton,
exclaimed : ' If it were not for the respect I
bear your office, I would stretch you out on
the pavement ! ' .

In such an atmosphere was Frontenac
reared. He had the manners and the instincts
of a belligerent. But he also possessed a soul
which could rise above pettiness: And the
foes he loved best to smite were the enemies
of the king.

CHAPTER III

FRONTENAC'S FIRST YEARS IN CANADA

FRONTENAC received his commission on April
6, 1672, and reached Quebec at the beginning
of September. The king, sympathetic to-
wards his needs, had authorized two special
grants of money : six thousand livres for
equipment, and nine thousand to provide a
bodyguard of twenty horsemen. Gratified
by these marks of royal favour and conscious
that he had been assigned to an important
post, Frontenac was in hopeful mood when
he first saw the banks of the St Lawrence.
His letters show that he found the country
much less barbarous than he had expected ;
and he threw himself into his new duties with
the courage which is born of optimism. A
natural fortress like Quebec could not fail to
awaken the enthusiasm of a soldier. The
settlement itself was small, but Frontenac re-
ported that its situation could not be more
favourable, even if this spot were to become
the capital of a great empire. It was, indeed,

F.G. C

34 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

a scene to kindle the imagination. Sloping
down to the river-bank, the farms of Beau-
port and Beaupfe filled the foreground.
Behind them swept the forest, then in its full
autumnal glory.

Awaiting Frontenac at Quebec were Cour-
celles, the late governor, and Talon the in-
tendant. Both were to return to France by
the last ships of that year ; but in the mean-
time Frontenac was enabled to confer with
them on the state of the colony and to ac-
quaint himself with their views on many im-
portant subjects. Courcelles had proved a
stalwart warrior against the Iroquois, while
Talon possessed an unrivalled knowledge of
Canada's wants and possibilities. Laval, the
bishop, was in France, not to return to the
colony till 1675.

The new governor's first acts went to show
that with the king's dignity he associated his
own. The governor and lieutenant-general
of a vast oversea dominion could not degrade
his office by living like a shopkeeper. The
Chateau St Louis was far below his idea of
what a viceregal residence ought to be. One
of his early resolves was to enlarge and im-
prove it. Meanwhile, his entertainments sur-
passed in splendour anything Canada had yet

FIRST YEARS IN CANADA 35

seen. Pomp on a large scale was impossible ;
but the governor made the best use of his means
to display the grace and majesty of his office.

On the i yth of September Frontenac pre-
sided for the first time at a meeting of the
Sovereign Council ; l and the formal inaugura-
tion of his regime was staged for the 23rd of
October. It was to be an impressive cere-
mony, a pageant at which all eyes should be
turned upon him, the great noble who em-
bodied the authority of a puissant monarch.
For this ceremony the governor summoned an
assembly that was designed to represent the
Three Estates of Canada.

The Three Estates of clergy, nobles, and
commons had existed in France from time
immemorial. But in taking this step and in
expecting the king to approve it Frontenac
displayed his ignorance of French history ; for
the ancient meetings of the Three Estates in
France had left a memory not dear to the
crown.2 They had, in truth, given the kings

1 In the minutes of this first meeting of the Sovereign Council
at which Frontenac presided the high-sounding words 'haut
et puissant ' stand prefixed to his name and titles.

1 The power of the States-General reached its height after the
disastrous battle of^ Poitiers (1356). For a short period, under
the leadership of Etienne Marcel, it virtually supplanted the
power of the crown.

36 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

moments of grave concern ; and their repre-
sentatives had not been summoned since 1614.
Moreover, Louis XIV was not a ruler to
tolerate such rival pretensions as the States-
General had once put forth.

Parkman thinks that, ' like many of his
station, Frontenac was not in full sympathy
with the centralizing movement of his time,
which tended to level ancient rights, privi-
leges and prescriptions under the ponderous
roller of the monarchical administration.'
This, it may be submitted, is only a conjec-
ture. The family history of the Buades
shows that they were ' king's men,' who would
be the last to imperil royal power. The
gathering of the Three Estates at Quebec was
meant to be the fitting background of a
ceremony. If Frontenac had any thought
beyond this, it was a desire to unite all classes
in an expression of loyalty to their sovereign.

At Quebec it was not difficult to secure re-
presentatives of clergy and commons. But,
as nobles seldom emigrated to Canada, some
talent was needed to discover gentlemen of
sufficient standing to represent the aristo-
cracy. The situation was met by drawing
upon the officers and the seigneurs. The
Estates thus duly convened, Frontenac ad-

FIRST YEARS IN CANADA 37

dressed them on the glory of the king and the
duty of all classes to serve him with zeal. To
the clergy he hinted that their task was not
finished when they had baptized the Indians.
After that came the duty of converting them
into good citizens.

Frontenac's next step was to reorganize the
municipal government of Quebec by per-
mitting the inhabitants to choose two alder-
men and a mayor. Since these officials could
not serve until they had been approved by the
governor, the change does not appear to have
been wildly radical. But change of any kind
was distasteful to the Bourbon monarchy,
especially if it seemed to point toward freedom.
So when in due course Frontenac's report of
these activities arrived at Versailles, it was

£

decided that such innovations must be stopped
at once. The king wished to discourage all
memory of the Three Estates, and Frontenac
was told that no part of the Canadian people
should be given a corporate or collective
status. The reprimand, however, did not
reach Canada till the summer of 1673, so that
for some months Frontenac was permitted
to view his work with satisfaction.

His next move likewise involved a new
departure. Hitherto the king had discour-

38 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

aged the establishment of forts or trading-
posts at points remote from the zone of settle-
ment. This policy was based on the belief
that the colonists ought to live close together
for mutual defence against the Iroquois. But
Frontenac resolved to build a fort at the out-
let of Lake Ontario. His enemies stated that
this arose out of his desire to make personal
profit from the fur trade ; but on public
grounds also there were valid reasons for the
fort. A thrust is often the best parry ; and
it could well be argued that the French had
much to gain from a stronghold lying within
striking distance of the Iroquois villages.

At any rate, Frontenac decided to act first
and make explanations afterwards. On June
3» J673, he left Quebec for Montreal and
beyond. He accommodated himself with
cheerfulness to the bark canoe — which he
described in one of his early letters as a rather
undignified conveyance for the king's lieu-
tenant— and, indeed, to all the hardships
which the discharge of his duties entailed.
His plan for the summer comprised a thorough
inspection of the waterway from Quebec to
Lake Ontario and official visits to the settle-
ments lying along the route. Three Rivers
did not detain him long, for he was already

FIRST YEARS IN CANADA 39

familiar with the place, having visited it in
the previous autumn. On the i5th of the
month his canoe came to shore beneath Mount
Royal.

Montreal was the colony's farthest outpost
towards the Iroquois. Though it had been
founded as a mission and nothing else, its
situation was such that its inhabitants could
not avoid being drawn into the fur trade. To
a large extent it still retained its religious
character, but beneath the surface could be
detected a cleavage of interest between the
missionary zeal of the Sulpicians and the
commercial activity of the local governor,
Francois Perrot. And since this Perrot is
soon to find place in the present narrative as
a bitter enemy of Frontenac, a word concerning
him may fitly be written here. He was an
officer of the king's army who had come to
Canada with Talon. The fact that his wife
was Talon's niece had put him in the path-
way of promotion. The order of St Sulpice,
holding in fief the whole island of Montreal,
had power to name the local governor. In
June 1669 the Sulpicians had nominated
Perrot, and two years later his appointment
had been confirmed by the king. Later, as
we shall see, arose the thorny question of

40 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

how far the governor of Canada enjoyed
superiority over the governor of Montreal.

The governor of Montreal, attended by his
troops and the leading citizens, stood at the
landing-place to offer full military honours to
the governor of Canada. Frontenac's arrival
was then signalized by a civic reception and a
Te Deum. The round of civilities ended, the
governor lost no time in unfolding the real
purpose of his visit, which was less to confer
with the priests of St Sulpice than to re-
cruit forces for his expedition, in order that
he might make a profound impression on the
Iroquois. The proposal to hold a conference
with the Iroquois at Cataraqui (where Kings-
ton now stands) met with some opposition ;
but Frontenac's energy and determination
were not to be denied, and by the close of
June four hundred French and Indians were
mustered at Lachine in readiness to launch
their canoes and barges upon Lake St Louis.

If Montreal was the outpost of the colony,
Lachine was the outpost of Montreal. Be-
tween these two points lay the great rapid,
the Sault St Louis, which from the days of
Jacques Cartier had blocked the ascent of the
St Lawrence to seafaring boats. At Lachine
La Salle had formed his seigneury in 1667,

ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE
From an engraving by Waltner, Paris

FIRST YEARS IN CANADA 41

the year after his arrival in Canada ; and it
had been the starting-point for the expedi-
tion which resulted in the discovery of the
Ohio in 1671. La Salle, however, was not
with Frontenac's party, for the governor had
sent him to the Iroquois early in May, to tell
them that Onontio would meet his children
and to make arrangements for the great
assembly at Cataraqui.

The Five Nations, remembering the chas-
tisement they had received from Tracy in
I666,1 accepted the invitation, but in dread
and distrust. Their envoys accordingly pro-
ceeded to the mouth of the Cataraqui ; and
on the 1 2th of July the vessels of the French
were seen approaching on the smooth surface
of Lake Ontario. Frontenac had omitted
from his equipage nothing which could awe
or interest the savage. He had furnished his
troops with the best possible equipment and
had with him all who could be spared safely
from the colony. He had even managed to
drag up the rapids and launch on Lake
Ontario two large barges armed with small
cannon and brilliantly painted. The whole
flotilla, including a multitude of canoes
arranged by squadron, was now put in battle

1 See The Great Intendant, chap. iii.

42 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

array. First came four squadrons of canoes ;
then the two barges ; next Frontenac himself,
surrounded by his personal attendants and the
regulars ; after that the Canadian militia,
with a squadron from Three Rivers on the
left flank, and on the right a great gathering
of Hurons and Algonquins. The rearguard
was composed of two more squadrons. Never
before had such a display been seen on the
Great Lakes.

Having disclosed his strength to the Iroquois
chiefs, Frontenac proceeded to hold solemn
and stately conference with them. But he
did not do this on the day of the great naval
procession. He wished to let this spectacle
take effect before he approached the business
which had brought him there. It was not
until next day that the meeting opened. At
seven o'clock the French troops, accoutred at
their best, were all on parade, drawn up in
files before the governor's tent, where the
conference was to take place. Outside the
tent itself large canopies of canvas had been
erected to shelter the Iroquois from the sun,
while Frontenac, in his most brilliant military
costume, assumed all the state he could. In
treating with Indians haste was impossible,
nor did Frontenac desire that the speech-

FIRST YEARS IN CANADA 43

making should* begin at once. His fort was
hardly more than begun, and he wished the
Iroquois to see how swiftly and how well the
French could build defences.

When the proceedings opened there were
the usual long harangues, followed by daily
negotiations between the governor and the
chiefs. It was a leading feature of Frontenac's
diplomacy to reward the friendly, and to win
over malcontents by presents or personal
attention. Each day some of the chiefs dined
with the governor, who gave them the food
they liked, adapted his style of speech to their
ornate and metaphorical language, played
with their children, and regretted, through the
interpreter Le Moyne, that he was as yet
unable to speak their tongue. Never had
such pleasant flattery been applied to the
vanity of an Indian. At the same time
Frontenac did not fail to insist upon his
power ; indeed, upon his supremacy. As a
matter of fact it had involved a great effort
to make all this display at Cataraqui. In his
discourses, however, he laid stress upon the
ease with which he had mounted the rapids
and launched barges upon Lake Ontario.
The sum and substance of all his harangues
was this : ' I am your good, kind father, loving

44 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

peace and shrinking from war. But you can
see my power and I give you fair warning.
If you choose war, you are guilty of self-de-
struction ; your fate is in your own hands.7

Apart from his immediate success in build-
ing under the eyes of the Iroquois a fort at the
outlet of Lake Ontario, Frontenac profited
greatly by entering the heart of the Indian
world in person. He was able, for a time at
least, to check those tribal wars which had
hampered trade and threatened to involve
the colony. He gained much information
at first hand about the pays d'en haut. And
throughout he proved himself to have just
the qualities which were needed in dealing
with a North American Indian — firmness,
good-humour, and dramatic talent.

On returning from Lake Ontario to Quebec
Frontenac had good reason to be pleased with
his summer's work. It still remained to con-
vince Colbert that the construction of the fort
at Cataraqui was not an undue expense and
waste of energy. But as the initial outlay
had already been made, he had ground for
hope that he would not receive a positive order
to undo what had been accomplished. At
Quebec he received Colbert's disparaging com-
ments upon the assembly of the Three Estates

FIRST YEARS IN CANADA 45

and the substitution of aldermen for the syndic
who had formerly represented the inhabi-
tants. These comments, however, were not so
couched as to make the governor feel that he
had lost the minister's confidence. On the
whole, the first year of office had gone very well.

A stormier season was now to follow. The
battle-royal between Frontenac and Perrot,
the governor of Montreal, began in the autumn
of 1673 and was waged actively throughout
the greater part of 1674.

Enough has been said of Frontenac's tastes
to show that he was a spendthrift ; and there
can be no doubt that as governor of Canada
he hoped to supplement his salary by private
trading. Soon after his arrival at Quebec in
the preceding year he had formed an alliance
with La Salle. The decision to erect a fort at
Cataraqui was made for the double reason
that while safeguarding the colony Frontenac
and La Salle could both draw profit from the
trade at this point in the interior.

La Salle was not alone in knowing that
those who first met the Indians in the spring
secured the best furs at the best bargains.
This information was shared by many, in-
cluding Francois Perrot. Just above the
island of Montreal is another island, which

46 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

lies between Lake St Louis and the Lake of
Two Mountains. Perrot, appreciating the
advantage of a strategic position, had fixed
there his own trading-post, and to this day the
island bears his name. Now, with Frontenac
as a sleeping partner of La Salle there were
all the elements of trouble, for Perrot and
Frontenac were rival traders. Both were
wrathful men and each had a selfish interest
to fight for, quite apart from any dispute as
to the jurisdiction of Quebec over Montreal.

Under such circumstances the one thing
lacking was a ground of action. This Fron-
tenac found in the existing edict against the
coureurs de bois — those wild spirits who
roamed the woods in the hope of making great
profits through the fur trade, from which by
law they were excluded, and provoked the
special disfavour of the missionary by the
scandals of their lives, which gave the Indians
a low idea of French morality. Thus in the
eyes of both Church and State the coureur de
bois was a mauvais sujet, and the offence of
taking to the forest without a licence became
punishable by death or the galleys.

Though Frontenac was not the author
of this severe measure, duty required him
to enforce it. Perrot was a friend and de-

FIRST YEARS IN CANADA 47

fender of the coureurs de bois, whom he used
as employees in the collection of peltries.
Under his regime Montreal formed their
headquarters. The edict gave them no con-
cern, since they knew that between them and
trouble stood their patron and confederate.

Thus Frontenac found an excellent occasion
to put Perrot in the wrong and to hit him
through his henchmen. The only difficulty
was that Frontenac did not possess adequate
means to enforce the law. Obviously it was
undesirable that he should invade Perrot'
bailiwick in person. He therefore instructed
the judge at Montreal to arrest all the coureurs
de bois who were there. A loyal attempt was
made to execute this command, with the result
that Perrot at once intervened and threatened
to imprison the judge if he repeated his effort.

Frontenac 's counterblast was the dispatch
of a lieutenant and three soldiers to arrest a
retainer of Perrot named Carion, who had
shown contempt of court by assisting the
accused woodsmen to escape. Perrot then
proclaimed that this constituted an unlawful
attack on his rights as governor of Montreal,
to defend which he promptly imprisoned
Bizard, the lieutenant sent by Frontenac, to-
gether with Jacques Le Ber, the leading

48 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

merchant of the settlement. Though Perrot
released them shortly afterwards, his tone
toward Frontenac remained impudent and the
issue was squarely joined.

But a hundred and eighty miles of wilder-
ness separated the governor of Canada from
the governor of Montreal. In short, before
Perrot could be disciplined he must be seized,
and this was a task which if attempted by
frontal attack might provoke bloodshed in
the colony, with heavy censure from the king.
Frontenac therefore entered upon a corre-
spondence, not only with Perrot, but with
one of the leading Sulpicians in Montreal,
the Abbe Fenelon. This procedure yielded
quicker results than could have been ex-
pected. Frontenac's letter which summoned
Perrot to Quebec for an explanation was free
from threats and moderate in tone. It found
Perrot somewhat alarmed at what he had done
and ready to settle the matter without further
trouble. At the same time Fenelon, acting on
Frontenac's suggestion, urged Perrot to make
peace. The consequence was that in January
1674 Perrot acceded and set out for Quebec
with Fenelon as his companion.

Whatever Perrot's hopes or expectations of
leniency, they were quickly dispelled. The

FIRST YEARS IN CANADA 49

very first conference between him and Fron-
tenac became a violent altercation (January
29, 1674). Perrot was forthwith committed
to prison, where he remained ten months.
Not content with this success, Frontenac pro-
ceeded vigorously against the coureurs de bois,
one of whom as an example was hanged in
front of Perrot's prison.

The trouble did not stop here, nor with the
imprisonment of Brucy, who was Perrot's
chief agent and the custodian of the store-
house at He Perrot. Fenelon, whose temper
was ardent and emotional, felt that he had
been made the innocent victim of a de-
testable plot to lure Perrot from Montreal.
Having upbraided Frontenac to his face, he
returned to Montreal and preached a sermon
against him, using language which the Sul-
picians hastened to repudiate. But Fenelon,
undaunted, continued to espouse Perrot's cause
without concealment and brought down upon
himself a charge of sedition.

In its final stage this cause celebre runs into
still further intricacies, involving the rights
of the clergy when accused by the civil power.
The contest begun by Perrot and taken up by
Fenelon ran an active course throughout the
greater part of a year (1674), and finally the
F.G. n

50 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

king himself was called in as judge. This
involved the sending of Perrot and Fenelon
to France, along with a voluminous written
statement from Frontenac and a great number
of documents. At court Talon took the side
of Perrot, as did the Abbe d'Urfe, whose
cousin, the Marquise d'Allegre, was about to
marry Colbert's son. Nevertheless the king
declined to uphold Frontenac's enemies.
Perrot was given three weeks in the Bastille,
not so much for personal chastisement as to
show that the governor's authority must be re-
spected. On the whole, Frontenac issued from
the affair without suffering loss of prestige in
the eyes of the colony. The king declined to
reprimand him, though in a personal letter
from his sovereign Frontenac was told that
henceforth he must avoid invading a local
government without giving the governor pre-
liminary notice. The hint was also conveyed
that he should not harry the clergy. Fron-
tenac's position, of course, was that he only
interfered with the clergy when they were
encroaching upon the rights of the crown.

Upon this basis, then, the quarrel with
Perrot was settled. But at that very moment
a larger and more serious contest was about
to begin.

CHAPTER IV

GOVERNOR, BISHOP, AND INtENDANT

AT the beginning of September 1675 Fron-
tenac was confronted with an event which
could have given him little pleasure. This
was the arrival, by the same ship, of the bishop
Laval, who had been absent from Canada four
years, and Jacques Duchesneau, who after
a long interval had been appointed to suc-
ceed Talon as intendant. Laval returned in
triumph. He was now bishop of Quebec,
directly dependent upon the Holy See x and
not upon the king of France. Duchesneau
came to Canada with the reputation of having
proved a capable official at Tours.

By temper and training Frontenac was ill-
disposed to share authority with any one.
In the absence of bishop and intendant he had
filled the centre of the stage. Now he must
become reconciled to the presence at Quebec

1 Laval had wished strongly that the see of Quebec should be
directly dependent on the Papacy, and his insistence on this point
delayed the formal creation of the diocese.

51

52 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

of others who held high rank and had claims
to be considered in the conduct of public
affairs. Even at the moment of formal
welcome he must have felt that trouble was
in store. For sixteen years Laval had been a
great person in Canada, and Duchesneau had
come to occupy the post which Talon had
made almost more important than that of
governor.

Partly through a clash of dignities and
partly through a clash of ideas, there soon arose
at Quebec a conflict which rendered personal
friendship among the leaders impossible, and
caused itself to be felt in every part of the
administration. Since this antagonism lasted
for seven years and had large consequences,
it becomes important to examine its deeper
causes as well as the forms which under vary-
ing circumstances it came to assume.

In the triangular relations of Frontenac,
Laval, and Duchesneau the bishop and the
intendant were ranged against the governor.
The simplest form of stating the case is to say
that Frontenac clashed with Laval over one
set of interests and with Duchesneau over
another ; over ecclesiastical issues with the
bishop and over civil interests with the in-
tendant. In the Sovereign Council these

GOVERNOR, BISHOP, INTENDANT 53

three dignitaries sat together, and so close was
the connection of Church with State that not
a month could pass without bringing to light
some fresh matter which concerned them all.
Broadly speaking, the differences between
Frontenac and Laval were of more lasting
moment than those between Frontenac and
Duchesneau. In the end governor and in-
tendant quarrelled over everything simply
because they had come to be irreconcilable
enemies. At the outset, however, their theo-
retical grounds of opposition were much less
grave than the matters in debate between
Frontenac and Laval. To appreciate these
duly we must consider certain things which
were none the less important because they lay
in the background.

When Frontenac came to Canada he found
that the ecclesiastical field was largely occu-
pied by the Jesuits, the Sulpicians, and the
Recollets. Laval had, indeed, begun his task
of organizing a diocese at Quebec and pre-
paring to educate a local priesthood. Four
years after his arrival in Canada he had
founded the Quebec Seminary (1663) and had
added (1668) a preparatory school, called the
Little Seminary. But the three missionary
orders were still the mainstay of the Canadian

54 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Church. It is evident that Colbert not only
considered the Jesuits the most powerful, but
also thought them powerful enough to need a
check. Hence, when Frontenac received his
commission, he received also written instruc-
tions to balance the Jesuit power by sup-
porting the Sulpicians and the Recollets.

Through his dispute with Perrot, Frontenac
had strained the good relations which Colbert
wished him to maintain with the Sulpicians.
But the friction thus caused was in no way
due to Frontenac's dislike of the Sulpicians
as an order. Towards the Jesuits, on the
other hand, he cherished a distinct antagon-
ism which led him to carry out with vigour
the command that he should keep their power
within bounds. This can be seen from the
earliest dispatches which he sent to France.
Before he had been in Quebec three months
he reported to Colbert that it was the practice
of the Jesuits to stir up strife in families, to
resort to espionage, to abuse the confessional,
to make the Seminary priests their puppets,
and to deny the king's right to license the
brandy trade. What seemed to the Jesuits
an unforgivable affront was Frontenac's
charge that they cared more for beaver skins
than for the conversion of the savages. This

GOVERNOR, BISHOP, INTENDANT 55

they interpreted as an insult to the memory
of their martyrs, and their resentment must
have been the greater because the accusation
was not made publicly in Canada, but formed
part of a letter to Colbert in France. The
information that such an attack had been
made reached them through Laval, who was
then in France and found means to acquaint
himself with the nature of Frontenac's corre-
spondence.

Having displeased the Sulpicians and at-
tacked the Jesuits, Frontenac made amends
to the Church by cultivating the most friendly
relations with the Recollets. No one ever
accused him of being a bad Catholic. He was
exact in the performance of his religious duties,
and such trouble as he had with the ecclesi-
astical authorities proceeded from political
aims rather than from heresy or ir religion.

Like so much else in the life of Canada, the
strife between Frontenac and Laval may be
traced back to France. During the early
years of Louis XIV the French Church was
distracted by the disputes of Gallican and
Ultramontane. The Galileans were faithful
Catholics who nevertheless held that the king
and the national clergy had rights which
the Pope must respect. The Ultramontanes

56 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

defined papal power more widely and sought
to minimize, disregard, or deny the privileges
of the national Church.

Between these parties no point of doctrine
was involved,1 but in the sphere of govern-
ment there exists a frontier between Church
and State along which many wars of argument
can be waged — at times with some display of
force. The Mass, Purgatory, the Saints, Con-
fession, and the celibacy of the priest, all
meant as much to the Gallican as to the
Ultramontane. Nor did the Pope's headship
prove a stumbling-block in so far as it was
limited to things spiritual. The Gallican did,
indeed, assert the subjection of the Pope to a
General Council, quoting in his support the
decrees of Constance and Basel. But in the
seventeenth century this was a theoretical
contention. What Louis XIV and Bossuet
strove for was the limitation of papal power
in matters affecting property and politi-
cal rights. The real questions upon which
Gallican and Ultramontane differed were the

1 The well-known relation of the Jansenist movement to
Gallican liberties was not such that the Gallican party accepted
Jansenist theology. The Jesuits upheld papal infallibility and,
in general, the Ultramontane position. The Jansenists were
opposed to the Jesuits, but Gallicanism was one thing and
Jansenist theology another.

appointment of bishops and abbots, the con-
tribution of the Church to the needs of the
State, and the priest's standing as a subject
of the king.

Frontenac was no theorist, and probably
would have written a poor treatise on the re-
lations of Church and State. At the same
time, he knew that the king claimed certain
rights over the Church, and he was the king's
lieutenant. Herein lies the deeper cause of his
troubles with the Jesuits and Laval. The
Jesuits had been in the colony for fifty years
and felt that they knew the spiritual require-
ments of both French and Indians. Their
missions had been illuminated by the supreme
heroism of Brebeuf, Jogues, Lalemant, and
many more. Their house at Quebec stood
half-way between Versailles and the wilder-
ness. They were in close alliance with Laval
and supported the ideal and divine rights of
the Church. They had found strong friends
in Champlain and Montmagny. Frontenac,
however, was a layman of another type.
However orthodox his religious ideas may
have been, his heart was not lowly and his
temper was not devout. Intensely auto-
cratic by disposition, he found it easy to
identify his own will to power with a defence

58 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

of royal prerogative against the encroach-
ments of the Church. It was an attitude that
could not fail to beget trouble, for the Ultra-
montanes had weapons of defence which they
well knew how to use.

Having in view these ulterior motives, the
acrimony of Frontenac's quarrel with Laval
is not surprising. Rightly or wrongly, the
governor held that the bishop was sub-
servient to the Jesuits, while Colbert's plain
instructions required the governor to keep
the Jesuits in check. From such a starting-
point the further developments were almost
automatic. Laval found on his return that
Frontenac had exacted from the clergy un-
usual and excessive honours during church
services. This furnished a subject of heated
debate and an appeal by both parties to the
king. After full consideration Frontenac re-
ceived orders to rest content with the same
honours which were by custom accorded the
governor of Picardy in the cathedral of Amiens.

More important by far than this argument
over precedence was the dispute concerning
the organization of parishes. Here the issue
hinged on questions of fact rather than of
theory. Beyond question the habitants were
entitled to have priests living permanently in

GOVERNOR, BISHOP, INTENDANT 59

their midst, as soon as conditions should
warrant it. But had the time come when a
parish system could be created ? Laval's
opinion may be inferred from the fact that in
1675, sixteen years after his arrival in Canada,
only one priest lived throughout the year
among his own people. This was the Abbe de
Bernieres, cure of Notre Dame at Quebec.
In 1678 two more parishes received permanent
incumbents — Port Royal and La Durantaye.
Even so, it was a small number for the whole
colony.

Frontenac maintained that Laval was un-
willing to create a normal system of parishes
because thereby his personal power would
be reduced. As long as the cures were not
permanently stationed they remained in com-
plete dependence on the bishop. All the funds
provided for the secular clergy passed through
his hands. If he wished to keep for the
Seminary money which ought to go to the
parishes, the habitants were helpless. It was
ridiculous to pamper the Seminary at the ex-
pense of the colonists. It was worse than
ridiculous that the French themselves should
go without religious care because the Jesuits
chose to give prior attention to the souls of
the savage.

60 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Laval's argument in reply was that the time
had not yet come for the creation of parishes
on a large scale. Doubtless it would prove
possible in the future to have churches and a
parochial system of the normal type. Mean-
while, in view of the general poverty it was
desirable that all the resources of the Church
should be conserved. To this end the habi-
tants were being cared for by itinerant priests
at much less expense than would be entailed
by fixing on each parish the support of its
cure.

Here, as in all these contests, a mixture of
motives is evident. There is no reason to
doubt Frontenac's sincerity in stating that the
missions and the Seminary absorbed funds of
the Church which would be better employed
in ministration to the settlers. At the same
time, it was for him a not unpleasant exercise
to support a policy which would have the
incidental effect of narrowing the bishop's
power. After some three years of contro-
versy the king, as usual, stepped in to settle
the matter. By an edict of May 1679' he
ordained that the priests should live in their
parishes and have the free disposition of the
tithes which had been established under an
order of 1667. Thus on the subject of the

GOVERNOR, BISHOP, INTENDANT 61

cures Frontenac's views were officially ac-
cepted ; but his victory was rendered more
nominal than real by the unwillingness or
inability of the habitants to supply sufficient
funds for the support of a resident priesthood.

In Frontenac's dispute with the clergy over
the brandy question no new arguments were
brought forward, since all the main points had
been covered already. It was an old quarrel,
and there was nothing further to do than to
set forth again the opposing aspects of a very
difficult subject. Religion clashed with busi-
ness, but that was not all. Upon the prosecu-
tion of business hung the hope of building up
for France a vast empire. The Jesuits urged
that the Indians were killing themselves with
brandy, which destroyed their souls and re-
duced them to the level of beasts. The traders
retorted that the savages would not go with-
out drink. If they were denied it by the
French they would take their furs to Albany,
and there imbibe not only bad rum but soul-
destroying heresy. Why be visionary and
suffer one's rivals to secure an advantage
which would open up to them the heart of the
continent ?

Laval, on the other hand, had chosen his
side in this controversy long before Frontehac

62 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

came to Canada, and he was not one to change
his convictions lightly. As he saw it, the sale
of brandy to the Indians was a sin, punishable
by excommunication ; and so determined was
he that the penalty should be enforced that
he would allow the right of absolution to no one
but himself. In the end the king decided it
otherwise. He declared the regulation of the
brandy trade to fall within the domain of the
civil power. He warned Frontenac to avoid
an open denial of the bishop's authority in
this matter, but directed him to prevent the
Church from interfering in a case belonging
t% the sphere of public order. This decision
was not reached without deep thought. In
favour of prohibition stood Laval, the Jesuits,
the Sorbonne, the Archbishop of Paris, and
the king's confessor, Pere La Chaise. Against
it were Frontenac, the chief laymen of Canada,1
the University of Toulouse, and Colbert. In
extricating himself from this labyrinth of con-
flicting opinion Louis XIV was guided by
reasons of general policy. He had never seen
the Mohawks raving drunk, and, like Frontenac,

1 On October 26, 1678, a meeting- of the leading inhabitants of
Canada was held by royal order at Quebec to consider the rights
and wrongs of the brandy question. A large majority of those
present were opposed to prohibition.

GOVERNOR, BISHOP, INTENDANT 63

he felt that without brandy the work of
France in the wilderness could not go on.

Such were the issues over which Frontenac
and Laval faced each other in mutual anta-
gonism.

Between Frontenac and his other opponent,
the intendant Duchesneau, the strife revolved
about a different set of questions without
losing any of its bitterness. Frontenac and
Laval disputed over ecclesiastical affairs.
Frontenac and Duchesneau disputed over
civil affairs. But as Laval and Duchesneau
were both at war with Frontenac they natur-
ally drew together. The alliance was rendered
more easy by Duchesneau 's devout ness. Even
had he wished to hold aloof from the quarrel
of governor and bishop, it would have been
difficult to do so. But as an active friend of
Laval and the Jesuits he had no desire to be
a neutral spectator of the feud which ran
parallel with his own. The two feuds soon
became intermingled, and Frontenac, instead
of confronting separate adversaries, found him-
self engaged with allied forces which were
ready to attack or defend at every point. It
could not have been otherwise. Quebec was
a small place, and the three belligerents were
brought into the closest official contact by

64 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

their duties as members of the Sovereign
Council.

It is worthy of remark that each of the con-
testants, Frontenac, Laval, and Duchesneau,
has his partisans among the historians of the
present day. All modern writers agree that
Canada suffered grievously from these dis-
putes, but a difference of opinion at once arises
when an attempt is made to distribute the
blame. The fact is that characters separately
strong and useful often make an unfortun-
ate combination. Compared with Laval and
Frontenac, Duchesneau was not a strong
character, but he possessed qualifications
which might have enabled him in less stormy
times to fill the office of intendant with toler-
able credit. It was his misfortune that1 cir-
cumstances forced him into the thankless
position of being a henchman to the bishop
and a drag upon the governor.

Everything which Duchesneau did gave
Frontenac annoyance — the more so as the
intendant came armed with very considerable
powers. During the first three years of
Frontenac's administration the governor, in
the absence of an intendant, had lorded it over
the colony with a larger freedom from re-
straint than was normal under the French

colonial system. Apparently Colbert was not
satisfied with the result. It may be that he
feared the vigour which Frontenac displayed
in taking the initiative ; or the quarrel with
Perrot may have created a bad impression at
Versailles ; or it may have been considered
that the less Frontenac had to do with the
routine of business, the more the colony would
thrive. Possibly Colbert only sought to de-
fine anew the relations which ought to exist
between governor and intendant. Whatever
the motive, Duchesneau's instructions gave
him a degree of authority which proved galling
to the governor*

Within three weeks from the date of
Duchesneau's arrival the fight had begun
(September 23, 1675). In its earliest phase it
concerned the right to preside at meetings
of the Sovereign Council. For three years
Frontenac, ' high and puissant seigneur,' had
conducted proceedings as a matter of course.
Duchesneau now asked him to retire from
this position, producing as warrant his com-
mission which stated that he should preside
over the Council, ' in the absence of the said
Sieur de Frontenac.' Why this last clause
should have been inserted one finds it hard to
understand, for Colbert's subsequent letters

F.G. E

66 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

place his intention beyond doubt. He meant
that Duchesneau should preside, though with-
out detracting from Frontenac's superior
dignity. The order of precedence at the
Council is fixed with perfect clearness. First
comes the governor, then the bishop, and then
the intendant. Yet the intendant is given
the chair. Colbert may have thought that
Duchesneau as a man of business possessed
a better training for this special work. Clearly
the step was not taken with a view to placing
an affront upon Frontenac. When he com-
plained, Colbert replied that there was no
other man in France who, being already a
governor and lieutenant-general, would con-
sider it an 'increase of honour to preside over
the Council. In Colbert's eyes this was a
clerk's work, not a soldier's.

Frontenac saw the matter differently and
was unwilling to be deposed. Royal letters,
which he produced, had styled him * President
of the Council,' and on the face of it Duches-
neau's commission only indicated that he
should preside in Frontenac 's absence. With
these arguments the governor stood his
ground. Then followed the representations
of both parties to the king, each taxing the
other with misdemeanours both political and

GOVERNOR, BISHOP, INTENDANT 67

personal. During the long period which must
elapse before a reply could be received, the
Sovereign Council was turned into an academy
of invective. Besides governor, bishop, and
intendant, there were seven members who were
called upon to take sides in the contest. No
one could remain neutral even if he had the
desire. In voting power Laval and Duches-
neau had rather the best of it, but Frontenac
when pressed could fall back on physical
force ; as he once did by banishing three of
the councillors — Villeray, Tilly, and Auteuil —
from Quebec (July 4, 1679).

Incredible as it may seem, this issue regard-
ing the right to preside was not settled until
the work of the Council had been disturbed
by it for five years. What is still more in-
credible, it was settled by compromise. The
king's final ruling was that the minutes of
each meeting should register the presence of
governor and intendant without saying which
had presided. Throughout the controversy
Colbert remonstrated with both Frontenac
and Duchesneau for their turbulence and un-
willingness to work together. Duchesneau is
told that he must not presume to think him-
self the equal of the governor. Frontenac is
told that the intendant has very important

68 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

functions and must not be prevented from
discharging them. The whole episode shows
how completely the French colonial system
broke down in its attempt to act through two
officials, each of whom was designed to be a
check upon the other.

Wholly alienated by this dispute, Frontenac
and Duchesneau soon found that they could
quarrel over anything and everything. Thus
Duchesneau became a consistent supporter
of Laval and the Jesuits, while Frontenac
retaliated by calling him their tool. The
brandy question, which was partly ecclesi-
astical and partly civil, proved an excellent
battle-ground for the three great men of
Canada ; and, as finance was concerned, the
intendant had something to say about the
establishment of parishes. But of the mani-
fold contests between Frontenac and Duches-
neau the most distinctive is that relating to
the fur trade. At first sight this matter would
appear to lie in the province of the intendant,
whose functions embraced the supervision of
commerce. But it was the governor's duty
to defend the colony from attack, and the fur
trade was a large factor in all relations with
the Indians. A personal element was also
added, for in almost every letter to the

GOVERNOR, BISHOP, INTENDANT 69

minister Frontenac and Duchesneau accused
each other of taking an illicit profit from
beaver skins.

In support of these accusations the most
minute details are given. Duchesneau even
charged Frontenac with spreading a report
among the Indians of the Great Lakes that
a pestilence had broken out in Montreal.
Thereby the governor's agents were enabled
to buy up beaver skins cheaply, afterwards
selling them on his account to the English.
Frontenac rejoined by accusing the intendant
of having his own warehouses at Montreal
and along the lower St Lawrence, of being
truculent, a slave to the bishop, and in-
competent. Behind Duchesneau, Frontenac
keeps saying, are the Jesuits and the bishop,
from whom the spirit of faction really springs.
Among many of these tirades the most
elaborate is the long memorial sent to Colbert
in 1677 on the general state of Canada. Here
are some of the items. The Jesuits keep spies
in Frontenac 's own house. The bishop de-
clares that he has the power to excommunicate
the governor if necessary. The Jesuit mission-
aries tell the Iroquois that they are equal to
Onontio. Other charges are that the Jesuits
meddle in all civil affairs, that their revenues

70 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

are enormous in proportion to the poverty of
the country, and that they are bound to
domineer at whatever cost.

When \ve consider how Canada from end to
end was affected by these disputes, we may
well feel surprise that Colbert and the king
should have suffered them to rage so long.
By 1682 the state of things had become
unbearable. Partisans of Frontenac and Du-
chesneau attacked each other in the streets.
Duchesneau accused Frontenac of having
struck the young Duchesneau, aged sixteen,
and torn the sleeve of his jacket. He also
declared that it was necessary to barricade
his house. Frontenac retorted by saying
that these were gross libels. A year earlier
Colbert had placed his son, Seignelay, in
charge of the Colonial Office. With matters
at such a pass Seignelay rightly thought the
time had come to take decisive action. Three
courses were open to him. The bishop and
the Jesuits he could not recall. But both
the governor and the intendant came within
his power. One alternative was to dismiss
Frontenac; another, to dismiss Duchesneau.
Seignelay chose the third course and dis-
missed them both.

CHAPTER V

FRONTENACS PUBLIC POLICY

As was said long ago, every one has the de-
fects of his qualities. Yet, in justice to a man
of strong character and patriotic aim, the
chronicler should take care that constructive
work is given its due place, for only those who
do nothing make no mistakes.

During his first term of office Frontenac
had many enemies in the higher circles of
society. His quarrel with Laval was a cause
of scandal to the devout. His deadlock with
Duchesneau dislocated the routine of govern-
ment. There was no one who did not feel the
force of his will. Yet to friends and foes alike
his recall at sixty-two must have seemed the
definite, humiliating close of a career. It was
not the moment to view in due perspective
what he had accomplished. His shortcomings
were on the lips of every one. His strength
had been revealed, but was for the time for-
gotten. When he left Quebec in 1682 he must

n

72 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

have thought that he would never see it again.
Yet when need came he was remembered.
This fact is a useful comment on his first term,
extenuating much that had seemed ground for
censure in less troubled days.

Let us now regard Frontenac's policy from
his own point of view, and attempt to estimate
what he had accomplished down to the date of
his recall.

However closely Laval and Duchesneau
might seek to narrow Frontenac's sphere of
action, there was one power they could not
deny him. As commander of the king's
troops in Canada he controlled all matters
relating to colonial defence. If his domestic
administration was full of trouble, it must also
be remembered that during his first term of
office there was no war. This happy result
was due less to accident than to his own gifts
and character. It is true that the friendship
of Louis XIV and Charles II assured peace
between New France and New England. But
Canada could thank Frontenac for keeping the
Iroquois at arm's length.

We have seen how he built the stronghold
at Cataraqui, which was named Fort Fron-
tenac. The vigour and the tact that he dis-
played on this occasion give the keynote 'to

FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY 73

all his relations with the Indians. Towards
them he displayed the three qualities which a
governor of Canada most needed — firmness,
sympathy, and fair dealing. His arrogance,
so conspicuous in his intercourse with equals
or with refractory subordinates, disappears
wholly when he comes into contact with the
savages. Theatrical he may be, but in the
forest he is never intolerant or narrow-minded.
And behind his pageants there is always
power.

Thus Frontenac should receive personal
credit for the great success of his Indian
policy. He kept the peace by moral ascend-
ancy, and to see that this was no light task
one need only compare the events of his
regime with those which marked the period
of his successors, La Barre and Denonville.
This we shall do in the next chapter. For the
present it is enough to say that throughout
the full ten years 1672-82 Canada was free
from fear of the Iroquois. Just at the close of
Frontenac's first term (1680-82) the Senecas
were showing signs of restlessness by attacking
tribes allied to the French, but there is abun-
dant reason to suppose that had Frontenac
remained in office he could have kept these
inter-tribal wars under control.

74 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Bound up with the success of Frontenac's
Indian policy is the exploration of the West —
an achievement which adds to this period its
chief lustre. Here La Salle is the outstanding
figure and the laurels are chiefly his. None
the less, Frontenac deserves the credit of
having encouraged all endeavours to solve the
problem of the Mississippi. Like La Salle
he had large ideas and was not afraid. They
co-operated in perfect harmony, sharing
profits, perhaps, but sincerely bent on gaining
for France a new, vast realm. The whole
history of colonial enterprise shows how
fortunate the French have been in the co-
operation of their explorers with their pro-
vincial governors. The relations of La Salle
with La Barre form a striking exception, but
the statement holds true in the main, and with
reference to Algiers as well as to Canada.

La Salle was a frank partisan of Frontenac
throughout the quarrel with Perrot and
Fenelon. On one occasion he made a scene
in church at Montreal. It was during the
Easter service of 1674. When Fenelon de-
cried magistrates who show no respect to the
clergy and who use their deputed power for
their own advantage, La Salle stood up and
called the attention of the leading citizens to

FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY 75

these words. Frontenac, who was always a
loyal ally, showed that he appreciated La
Salle's efforts on his behalf by giving him a
letter of recommendation to the court in which
La Salle is styled ' a man of intelligence and
ability, more capable than any one else I know
here to accomplish every kind of enterprise
and discovery which may be entrusted to
him.'

The result of La Salle's visit to Versailles
(1674) was that he gained privileges which
made him one of the most important men in
Canada, and a degree of power which brought
down on him many enemies. He received
the seigneury of Fort Frontenac, he was made
local governor at that post, and, in recognition
of services already performed, he gained a
grant of nobility. It is clear that La Salle's
forceful personality made a strong impression
at court, and the favours which he received
enabled him, in turn, to secure financial aid
from his wealthy relatives at Rouen.

What followed was the most brilliant, the
most exciting, and the most tragic chapter in
the French exploration of America. La Salle
fulfilled all the conditions upon which he had
received the seigneury at Fort Frontenac,
found financial profit in maintaining the

.76 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

The original wooden structure was replaced
by stone, good barracks were built for the
troops, there were bastions upon which nine
cannon announced a warning to the Iroquois,
a settlement with well-tilled land sprang up
around the fort, schooners were built with a
draught of forty tons. But for La Salle this
was not enough. He was a pathfinder, not
a trader. Returning to France after two
years of labour and success at Fort Frontenac,
he secured a royal patent authorizing him to
explore the whole continent from the Great
Lakes to Mexico, with the right to build forts
therein and to enjoy a monopoly of the trade
in buffalo skins. The expenses of the under-
taking were, of course, to be borne by La
Salle and his associates, for the king never in-
vested money in these enterprises. However,
the persuasiveness which enabled La Salle to
secure his patent enabled him to borrow the
necessary funds. At the close of 1678 he was
once more at Fort Frontenac and ready for the
great adventure.

How La Salle explored the country of the
Illinois in company with his valiant friend,
Henri de Tonty ' of the iron hand,' and how
these two heroic leaders traversed the con-
tinent to the very mouth of the Mississippi,

FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY 77

is not to be told here. But with its risks, its
hardships, its tragedies, and its triumphs,
this episode, which belongs to the period of
Frontenac's administration, will always re-
main a classic in the records of discovery.
The Jesuits, who did not love La Salle, were
no less brave than he, and the lustre of his
achievements must not be made to dim theirs.
Yet they had all the force of a mighty
organization at their back, while La Salle,
standing alone, braved ruin, obloquy, and
death in order to win an empire for France.
Sometimes he may have thought of fame,
but he possessed that driving power which
goes straight for the object, even if it means
sacrifice of self. His haughtiness, his daring,
his self-centred determination, well fitted
him to be the friend and trusted agent of
Frontenac.

Another leading figure of the period in
western discovery was Daniel Greysolon du
Lhut. Duchesneau calls him the leader of
the coureurs de bois. There can be no doubt
that he had reached this eminence among the
French of the forest. He was a gentleman by
birth and a soldier by early training. In
many ways he resembled La Salle, for both
stood high above the common coureurs de

78 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

bois in station, as in talent. Du Lhut has
to his credit no single exploit which equals
La Salle's descent of the Mississippi, but in
native sagacity he was the superior. With a
temperament less intense and experiences less
tragic, he will never hold the place which La
Salle securely occupies in the annals of adven-
ture. But few Frenchmen equalled him in
knowledge of the wilderness, and none dis-
played greater force of character in dealing
with the Indians.

What the mouth of the Mississippi was to
La Salle the country of the Sioux became to
Du Lhut — a goal to be reached at all hazards.
Not only did he reach it, but the story of how
he rescued Father Hennepin from the Sioux
(1680) is among the liveliest tales to be found
in the literature of the wilderness. The only
regrettable circumstance is that the story
should have been told by Hennepin instead of
by Du Lhut — or rather, that we should not
have also Du Lhut's detailed version instead
of the brief account which he has left. Above
all, Du Lhut made himself the guardian of
French interests at Michilimackinac, the chief
French post of the Far West — the rendezvous
of more tribes than came together at any
other point. The finest tale of his courage

FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY 79

and good judgment belongs to the period of
La Barre's government — when, in 1684, at
the head of forty-two French, he executed
sentence of death on an Indian convicted of
murder. Four hundred savages, who had
assembled in mutinous mood, witnessed this
act of summary justice. But they respected
Du Lhut for the manner in which he had con-
ducted the trial, and admired the firmness
with which he executed a fair sentence.

Du Lhut's exploits and character make him
the outstanding figure of the war which
Duchesneau waged against the coureurs de
bois. The intendant certainly had the letter
of the law on his side in seeking to clear the
woods of those rovers who at the risk of their
own lives and without expense to the govern-
ment were gaining for France an unequalled
knowledge of the interior. Not only had the
king decreed that no one should be permitted
to enter the forest without express permission,
but an edict of 1676 denied even the governor
the right to issue a trading pass at his unre-
strained discretion. Frontenac, who believed
that the colony would draw great profit from
exploration, softened the effect of this measure
by issuing licences to hunt. • It was also within
his power to dispatch messengers to the tribes

8o THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

of the Great Lakes. Duchesneau reported
that Frontenac evaded the edict in order to
favour his own partners or agents among the
coureurs de bois, and that when he went to
Montreal on the pretext of negotiating with
the Iroquois, his real purpose was to take up
merchandise and bring back furs. These
charges Frontenac denied with his usual
vigour, but without silencing Duchesneau.
In 1679 the altercation on this point was
brought to an issue by the arrest, at the in-
tendant's instance, of La Toupine, a retainer
of Du Lhut. An accusation of disobeying
the edict was no trifle, for the penalty might
mean a sentence to the galleys. After a bitter
contest over La Toupine the matter was
settled on a basis not unfavourable to Fron-
tenac. In 1 68 1 a fresh edict declared that all
coureurs de bois who came back to the colony
should receive the benefit of an amnesty.
At the same time the governor was empowered
to grant twenty-five trading licences in each
year, the period to be limited to one year.

The splendid services of Du Lhut, covering
a period of thirty years, are the best vindica-
tion of Frontenac's policy towards him and
his associates. Had Duchesneau succeeded
in his efforts, Du Lhut would have been

FIGURE OF FRONTENAC
From the Hebert Statue at Quebec

FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY 81

severely punished, and probably excluded
from the West for the remainder of his life.
Thanks to Frontenac 's support, he became
the mainstay of French interests from Lake
Ontario to the Mississippi. Setting out as
an adventurer with a strong taste for ex-
ploration, he ended as commandant of the
most important posts — Lachine, Cataraqui,
and Michilimackinac. He served the colony
nobly in the war against the Iroquois. He has
left reports of his discoveries which disclose
marked literary talent. From the early years
of Frontenac's regime he made himself useful,
not only to Frontenac but to each succeeding
governor, until, crippled by gout and age, he
died, still in harness. The letter in which
the governor Vaudreuil announces Du Lhut's
death (1710) to the Colonial Office at Paris
is a useful comment upon the accusations of
Duchesneau. ' He was,' says Vaudreuil, ' a
very honest man.' In these words will be
found an indirect commendation of Frontenac,
who discovered Du Lhut, supported him
through bitter opposition, and placed him
where his talents and energy could be used for
the good of his country.

It will be remembered that Frontenac re-
ceived orders from Colbert (April 7, 1672) to

82 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

prevent the Jesuits from becoming too power-
ful. In carrying out these instructions he
soon found himself embroiled at Quebec, and
the same discord made itself felt throughout
the wilderness.

Frontenac favoured the establishment of
trading-posts and government forts along the
great waterways, from Cataraqui to Creve-
coeur.1 He sincerely believed that these were
the best guarantees of the king's power on the
Great Lakes and in the valley of the Missis-
sippi. The Jesuits saw in each post a centre of
debauchery and feared that their religious
work would be undone by the scandalous
example of the coureurs de bois. What for
Frontenac was a question of political ex-
pediency loomed large to the Jesuits as a vital
issue of morals. It was a delicate question at
best, though probably a peaceable solution
could have been arranged, but for the mutual
agreement of Frontenac and the Jesuits that
they must be antagonists. War having once
been declared, Frontenac proved a poor con-
troversialist. He could have defended his
forest policy without alleging that the Jesuits
maintained their missions as a source of

1 Fort Crevecceur was La Salle's post in the heart of the
Illinois country.

FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY 83

profit, which was a slander upon heroes and
upon martyrs. Moreover, he exposed himself
to a flank attack, for it could be pointed out
with much force that he had private motives
in advocating the erection of forts. Fron-
tenac was intelligent and would have recom-
mended the establishment of posts whether
he expected profit from them or not, but he
weakened his case by attacking the Jesuits
on wrong grounds.

During Frontenac's first term the settled
part of Canada was limited to the shores of
the St Lawrence from Lachine downward, with
a cluster of seigneuries along the lower Riche-
lieu. In this region the governor was ham-
pered by the rights of the intendant and the
influence of the bishop. Westward of Lachine
stretched the wilderness, against whose dusky
denizens the governor must guard the colony.
The problems of the forest embraced both
trade and war ; and where trade was con-
cerned the intendant held sway. But the
safety of the flock came first, and as Frontenac
had the power of the sword he could execute
his plans most freely in the region which lay
beyond the fringe of settlement. It was here
that he achieved his greatest success and by
his acts won a strong place in the confidence

84 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

of the settlers. This was much, and to this
extent his first term of office was not a failure.

As Canada was then so sparsely settled, the
growth of population filled a large place in the
shaping of public policy. With this matter,
however, Duchesneau had more to do than
Frontenac, for it was the intendant's duty to
create prosperity. During the decade 1673-83
the population of Canada increased from 6705
to 10,251. In percentage the advance shows
to better advantage than in totals, but the
king had hardened his heart to the demand
for colonists. Thenceforth the population of
Canada was to be recruited almost altogether
from births.

On the whole, the growth of the population
during this period compares favourably with
the growth of trade. In 1664 a general
monopoly of Canadian trade had been con-
ceded to the West India Company, on terms
which gave every promise of success. But the
trading companies of France proved a series of
melancholy failures, and at this point Colbert
fared no better than Richelieu. When Fron-
tenac reached Canada the West India Com-
pany was hopelessly bankrupt, and in 1674 the
king acquired its rights. This change pro-
duced little or no improvement. Like France,

FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY 85

Canada suffered greatly through the war with
Holland, and not till after the Peace of
Nimwegen (1678) did the commercial horizon
begin to clear. Even then it was impossible
to note any real progress in Canadian trade,
except in a slight enlargement of relations
with the West Indies. During his last year
at Quebec Duchesneau gives a very gloomy
report on commercial conditions.

For this want of prosperity Frontenac was
in no way responsible, unless his troubles
with Laval and Duchesneau may be thought
to have damped the colonizing ardour of
Louis XIV. It is much more probable that
the king withheld his bounty from Canada
because his attention was concentrated on the
costly war against Holland. Campaigns at
home meant economy in Canada, and the
colony was far from having reached the stage
where it could flourish without constant
financial support from the motherland.

In general, Frontenac's policy was as vigor-
ous as he could make it. Over commerce,
taxes, and religion he had no control. By
training and temper he was a war governor,
who during his first administration fell upon
a time of peace. So long as peace prevailed
he lacked the powers and the opportunity to

86 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

enable him to reveal his true strength ; and
his energy, without sufficient vent, broke forth
in quarrels at the council board.

With wider authority, Frontenac might
have proved a successful governor even in time
of peace, for he was very intelligent and had
at heart the welfare of the colony. As it was,
his restrictions chafed and goaded him until
wrathfulness took the place of reason. But we
shall err if we conclude that when he left
Canada in discomfiture he had not earned her
thanks. Through pride and faults of temper
he had impaired his usefulness and marred his
record. Even so there was that which rescued
his work from the stigma of failure. He had
guarded his people from the tomahawk and
the scalping-knife. With prescient eye he had
foreseen the imperial greatness of the West.
Whatever his shortcomings, they had not been
those of meanness or timidity.

CHAPTER VI

THE LURID INTERVAL

WE have seen that during Frontenac's first
term of office no urgent danger menaced the
colony on the frontier. The missionary and
the explorer were steadily pressing forward to
the head of the Great Lakes and into the valley
of the Mississippi, enlarging the sphere of
French influence and rendering the interior
tributary to the commerce of Quebec. But
this peaceful and silent expansion had not
passed unnoticed by those in whose minds it
aroused both rivalry and dread. Untroubled
from without as New France had been under
Frontenac, there were always two lurking
perils — the Iroquois and the English.

The Five Nations owed their leadership
among the Indian tribes not only to superior
discipline and method but also to their geo-
graphical situation. The valley of the St
Lawrence lay within easy reach, either through
Lake Champlain or Lake Ontario. On the

87

88 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

east at their very door lay the valley of the
Mohawk and the Hudson. From the western
fringe of their territory they could advance
quickly to Lake Erie, or descend the ' Ohio
into the valley of the Mississippi. It was
doubtless due to their prowess rather than to
accident that they originally came into posses-
sion of this central and favoured position ;
however, they could now make their force felt
throughout the whole north-eastern portion
of the continent.

Over seventy years had now passed since
Champlain's attack upon the Iroquois in 1609 ;
but lapse of time had not altered the nature
of the savage, nor were the causes of mutual
hostility less real than at first. A ferocious
lust for war remained the deepest passion of
the Iroquois, to be satisfied at convenient
intervals. It was unfortunate, in their view,
that they could not always be at war ; but
they recognized that there must be breathing
times and that it was important to choose
the right moment for massacre and pillage.
Daring but sagacious, they followed an oppor-
tunist policy. At times their warriors de-
lighted to lurk in the outskirts of Montreal
with tomahawk and scalping -knife and to
organize great war -parties, such as that

THE LURID INTERVAL 89

which was arrested by Dollard and his heroic
companions at the Long Sault in 1660. At
other times they held fair speech with the
governor and permitted the Jesuits to live in
their villages, for the French had weapons and
means of fighting which inspired respect.

The appearance of the Dutch on the Hudson
in 1614 was an event of great importance to
the Five Nations. The Dutch were quite as
ready as the French to trade in furs, and it
was thus that the Iroquois first procured the
firearms which they used in their raids on the
French settlements. That the Iroquois re-
joiced at having a European colony on the
Hudson may be doubted, but as they were
unable to prevent it, they drew what profit
they could by putting the French and Dutch
in competition, both for their alliance and
their neutrality.

But, though the Dutch were heretics and
rivals, it was a bad day for New France when
the English seized New Amsterdam (1664)
and began to establish themselves from
Manhattan to Albany. The inevitable con-
flict was first foreshadowed in the activities of
Sir Edmund Andros, which followed his ap-
pointment as governor of New York in 1674.
He visited the Mohawks in their own villages,

90 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

organized a board of Indian commissioners at
Albany, and sought to cement an alliance with
the whole confederacy of the Five Nations.
In opposition to this France made the formal
claim (1677) that by actual residence in the
Iroquois country the Jesuits had brought the
Iroquois under French sovereignty.

Iroquois, French, and English thus formed
the points of a political triangle. Home
politics, however — the friendship of Stuart
and Bourbon — tended to postpone the day of
reckoning between the English and French in
America. England and France were not only
at peace but in alliance. The Treaty of Dover
had been signed in 1670, and two years later,
just as Frontenac had set out for Quebec,
Charles II had sent a force of six thousand
English to aid Louis XIV against the Dutch.
It was in this war that John Churchill, after-
wards Duke of Marlborough, won his spurs —
fighting on the French side !

None the less, there were premonitions of
trouble in America, especially after Thomas
Dongan became governor of New York in
1683. Andros had shown good judgment in
his dealings with the Iroquois, and his suc-
cessor, inheriting a sound policy, went even
further on the same course. Dongan, an

THE LURID INTERVAL 91

Irishman of high birth and a Catholic, strenu-
ously opposed the pretensions of the French
to sovereignty over the Iroquois. When it
was urged that religion required the presence
of the Jesuits among them, he denied the
allegation, stating that he would provide
English priests to take their place. A New
England Calvinist could not have shown more
firmness in upholding the English position.
Indeed, no governor of Puritan New England
had ever equalled Dongan in hostility to
Catholic New France.

Frontenac's successor, Lefebvre de la Barre,
who had served with distinction in the West
Indies, arrived at Quebec in September 1682.
By the same ship came the new intendant,
Meulles. They found the Lower Town of
Quebec in ruins, for a devastating fire had just
swept through it. Hardly anything remained
standing save the buildings on the cliff.

La Barre and Meulles were soon at logger-
heads. It appears that, instead of striving
to repair the effects of the fire, the new
governor busied himself to accumulate a
fortune. He had indeed promised the king
that, unlike his predecessors, he would seek
no profit from private trading, and had on
this ground requested an increase of salary.

92 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Meulles presently reported that, far from
keeping this promise, La Barre and his agents
had shared ten or twelve thousand crowns of
profit, and that unless checked the governor's
revenues would soon exceed those of the king.
Meulles also accuses La Barre of sending home
deceitful reports regarding the success of his
Indian policy. We need not dwell longer on
these reports. They disclose with great clear-
ness the opinion of the intendant as to the
governor's fitness for his office.

La Barre stands condemned not by the in-
nuendoes of Meulles, but by his own failure
to cope with the Iroquois.

The presence of the Dutch and English had
stimulated the Five Nations to enlarge their
operations in the fur trade and multiply their
profits. The French, from being earliest in
the field, had established friendly relations
with all the tribes to the north of the Great
Lakes, including those who dwelt in the valley
of the Ottawa ; and La Salle and Tonty had
recently penetrated to the Mississippi and ex-
tended French trade to the country of the
Illinois Indians. The furs from this region
were being carried up the Mississippi and for-
warded to Quebec by the Lakes and the St
Lawrence. This brought the Illinois within

THE LURID INTERVAL 93

the circle of tribes commercially dependent on
Quebec. At the same time the Iroquois,
through the English on the Hudson, now
possessed facilities greater than ever for dis-
posing of all the furs they could acquire ; and
they wanted this trade for themselves.

The wholesome respect which the Iroquois
entertained for Frontenac kept them from
attacking the tribes under the protection of
the French on the Great Lakes ; but the re-
mote Illinois were thought to be a safe prey.
During the autumn of 1680 a war-party of
more than six hundred Iroquois invaded the
country of the Illinois. La Salle was then in
Montreal, but Tonty met the invaders and did
all he could to save the Illinois from their
clutches. His efforts were in vain. The
Illinois suffered all that had befallen the
Hurons in I649.1 The Iroquois, however,
were careful not to harm the French, and to
demand from Tonty a letter to show Frontenac
as proof that he and his companions had been
respected.

Obviously this raid was a symptom of
danger, and in 1681 Frontenac asked the king
to send him five or six hundred troops. A
further disturbing incident occurred at the

1 See The Jesuit Missions in this Series, chap. vi.

94 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Jesuit mission of Sault Ste Marie, where an
Illinois Indian murdered a Seneca chieftain.
That Frontenac intended to act with firmness
towards the Iroquois, while giving them
satisfaction for the murder of their chief, is
clear from his acts in 1681 no less than from
his general record. But his forces were small
and he had received particular instructions to
reduce expenditure. £nd, with Duchesneau
at hand to place a sinister interpretation upon
his every act, the conditions were not favour-
able for immediate action. Then in 1682 he
was recalled.

Such, in general, were the conditions which
confronted La Barre, and in fairness it must
be admitted that they were the most serious
thus far in the history of Canada. From the
first the Iroquois had been a pest and a
menace, but now, with the English to flatter
and encourage them, they became a grave
peril. The total population of the colony
was now about ten thousand, of whom many
were women and children. The regular troops
were very few ; and, though the disbanded
Carignan soldiers furnished the groundwork
of a valiant militia, the habitants and their
seigneurs alone could not be expected to
defend such a territory against such a foe.

THE LURID INTERVAL 95

Above all else the situation demanded strong
leadership ; and this was precisely what La
Barre failed to supply. He was preoccupied
with the profits of the fur trade, ignorant of
Indian character, and past his physical prime ;
and his policy towards the Iroquois was a con-
tinuous series of blunders. Through the great
personal influence of Charles Le Moyne the
Five Nations were induced, in 1683, to send
representatives to Montreal, where La Barre
met them and gave them lavish presents. The
Iroquois, always good judges of character,
did not take long to discover in the new
governor a very different Onontio from the
imposing personage who had held conference
with them at Fort Frontenac ten years earlier.

The feebleness of La Barre 's effort to main-
tain French sovereignty over the Iroquois is
reflected in his request that they should ask
his permission before attacking tribes friendly
to the French. When he asked them why
they had attacked the Illinois, they gave this
ominous answer : * Because they deserved to
die.' La Barre could effect nothing by a
display of authority, and even with the help
of gifts he could only postpone war against
the tribes of the Great Lakes. The Iroquois
intimated that for the present they would be

96 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

content to finish the destruction of the
Illinois — a work which would involve the de-
struction of the French posts in the valley
of the Mississippi. La Barre's chief purpose
was to protect his own interests as a trader,
and, so far from wishing to strengthen La
Salle's position on the Mississippi, he looked
upon that illustrious explorer as a competitor
whom it was legitimate to destroy by craft.
By an act of poetic justice the Iroquois a few
months later plundered a convoy of canoes
which La Barre himself had sent out to the
Mississippi for trading purposes,.

The season of 1684 proved even less pros-
perous for the French. Not only Dongan was
doing his best to make the Iroquois allies
of the English ; Lord Howard of Effingham,
the governor of Virginia, was busy to the same
end. For some time past certain tribes of the
Five Nations, though not the confederacy as
a whole, had been making forays upon the
English settlers in Maryland and even in
Virginia. To adjust this matter Lord Howard
came to Albany in person, held a council which
was attended by representatives of all the
tribes, and succeeded in effecting a peace.
Amid the customary ceremonies the Five
Nations buried the hatchet with the English,

97

and stood ready to concentrate their war-
parties upon the French.

It must not be inferred that by an act of
reconciliation these subtle savages threw them-
selves into the arms of the English, exchang-
ing a new suzerainty for an old. They
always did the best they could for their own
hand, seeking to play one white man against
the other for their own advantage. It was a
situation where, on the part of French and
English, individual skill and knowledge of
Indian character counted for much. On the
one hand, Dongan showed great intelligence
and activity in making the most of the fact
that Albany was nearer to the land of the Five
Nations than Quebec, or even Montreal. On
the other, the French had envoys who stood
high in the esteem of the Iroquois — notably
Charles Le Moyne, of Longueuil, and Lamber-
ville, the Jesuit missionary.

But for the moment the French were heavily
burdened by the venality of La Barre, who
subordinated public policy to his own gains.
We have now to record his most egregious
blunder — an attempt to overawe the Iroquois
with an insufficient force — an attempt which
Meulles declared was a mere piece of acting —
not designed for real war on behalf of the colony,

F.G. G

98 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

but to assist the governor's private interests
as a trader. From whatever side the incident
is viewed it illustrates a complete incapacity.

On July 10, 1684, La Barre left Quebec with
a body of two hundred troops. In ascending
the river they were reinforced by recruits
from the Canadian militia and several hundred
Indian allies. After much hardship in the
rapids the little army reached Fort Frontenac.
Here the sanitary conditions proved bad and
many died from malarial fever. All thought
of attack soon vanished, and La Barre altered
his plans and decided to invite the Iroquois to
a council. The degree of his weakness may
be seen from the fact that he began with a
concession regarding the place of meeting.
An embassy from the Onondagas finally con-
descended to meet him, but not at Fort
Frontenac. La Barre, with a force such as
he could muster, crossed to the south side of
Lake Ontario and met the delegates from the
Iroquois at La Famine, at the mouth of the
Salmon River, not far from the point where
Champlain and the Hurons had left their
canoes when they had invaded the Onondaga
country in 1615.

The council which ensued was a ghastly
joke. La Barre began his speech by enumer-

THE LURID INTERVAL 99

ating the wrongs which the French and their
dependent tribes had recently suffered from
the Iroquois. Among these he included the
raid upon the Illinois, the machinations with
the English, and the spoliation of French
traders. For offences so heinous satisfaction
must be given. Otherwise Onontio would
declare a war in which the English would
join him. These were brave words, but un-
fortunately the Iroquois had excellent reason
to believe that the statement regarding the
English was untrue, and could see for them-
selves the weakness of La Barre's forces.

This conference has been picturesquely de-
scribed by Baron La Hontan, who was present
and records the speeches. The chief orator
of the Onondagas was a remarkable person,
who either for his eloquence or aspect is called
by La Hontan, Grangula, or Big Mouth.
Having listened to La Barre's bellicose words
and their interpretation, ' he rose, took five
or six turns in the ring that the French and
the savages formed, and returned to his place.
Then standing upright he spoke after the
following manner to the General La Barre,
who sat in his chair of state :

Onontio, I honour you, and all the warriors that
accompany me do the same. Your interpreter has

ioo THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

made an end of his discourse, and now I come to
begin mine. My voice glides to your ear. Pray
listen to my words.

Onontio, in setting out from Quebec, you must
have fancied that the scorching beams of the sun
had burnt down the forests which render our country
inaccessible to the French ; or else that the inunda-
tions of the lake had surrounded our cottages and
confined us as prisoners. This certainly was your
thought ; and it could be nothing else but the curi-
osity of seeing a burnt or drowned country that
moved you to undertake a journey hither. But now
you have an opportunity of being undeceived, for I
and my warriors come to assure you that the Senecas,
Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks are not
yet destroyed. I return you thanks in their name
for bringing into their country the calumet of peace,
which your predecessor received from their hands.
At the same time I congratulate you on having left
under ground the tomahawk which has so often
been dyed with the blood of the French. I must tell
you, Onontio, that I am not asleep. My eyes are
open, and the sun which vouchsafes the light gives
me a clear view of a great captain at the head of a
troop of soldiers, who speaks as if he were asleep.
He pretends that he does not approach this lake with
any other view than to smoke the calumet with the
Onondagas. But Grangula knows better. He sees
plainly that Onontio meant to knock them on the
head if the French arms had not been so much
weakened. . . .

You must know, Onontio, that we have robbed no

THE LURID INTERVAL 101

Frenchman, save those who supplied the Illinois and
the Miamis (our enemies) with muskets, powder, and
ball. . . . We have conducted the English to our
lakes in order to trade with the Ottawas and the
Hurons ; just as the Algonquins conducted the
French to our five cantons, in order to carry on a
commerce that the English lay claim to as their
right. We are born freemen and have no depend-
ence either upon the Onontio or the Corlaer [the
English governor]. We have power to go where we
please, to conduct whom we will to the places we
resort to, and to buy and sell where we think fit. ...
We fell upon the Illinois and the Miamis because
they cut down the trees of peace that served for
boundaries and came to hunt beavers upon our lands.
. . . We have done less than the English and French,
who without any right have usurped the lands they
are now possessed of.

I give you to know, Onontio, that my voice is the
voice of the five Iroquois cantons. This is their
answer. Pray incline your ear and listen to what
they represent.

The Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and
Mohawks declare that they buried the tomahawk in
the presence of your predecessor, in the very centre
of the fort, and planted the Tree of Peace in the same
place. It was then stipulated that the fort should
be used as a place of retreat for merchants and not
a refuge for soldiers. Be it known to you, Onontio,
that so great a number of soldiers, being shut up in
so small a fort, do not stifle and choke the Tree of
Peace. Since it took root so easily it would be evil

102 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

to stop its growth and hinder it from shading both
your country and ours with its leaves. I assure you,
in the name of the five nations, that our warriors
will dance the calumet dance under its branches and
will never dig up the axe to cut it down — till such
time as the Onontio and the Corlaer do separately or
together invade the country which the Great Spirit gave
to our ancestors.' x

When Le Moyne and the Jesuits had in-
terpreted this speech La Barre ' retired to
his tent and stormed and blustered/ But
Grangula favoured the spectators with an
Iroquois dance, after which he entertained
several of the Frenchmen at a banquet. ' Two
days later,' writes La Hontan, ' he and his
warriors returned to their own country, and
our army set out for Montreal. As soon as
the General was on board, together with the
few healthy men that remained, the canoes
were dispersed, for the militia straggled here
and there, and every one made the best of his
way home.'

With this ignominious adventure the career
of La Barre ends. The reports which Meulles
sent to France produced a speedy effect in

1 Grangula's speech is an example in part of Indian eloquence,
and in part of the eloquence of Baron La Hontan, who contri-
butes many striking1 passages to our knowledge of Frontenac's
period.

THE LURID INTERVAL 103

securing his dismissal from office. ' I have
been informed,' politely writes the king,
' that your years do not permit you to
support the fatigues inseparable from your
office of governor and lieutenant-general in
Canada/

La Barre's successor, the Marquis de Denon-
vilje, arrived at Quebec in August 1685. Like
La Barre, he was a soldier ; like Frontenac,
he was an aristocrat as well. From both these
predecessors, however, he differed in being
free from the reproach of using his office to
secure personal profits through the fur trade.
No governor in all the annals of New France
was on better terms with the bishop and the
Jesuits. He possessed great bravery. There
is much to show that he was energetic. None
the less he failed, and his failure was more
glaring than that of La Barre. He could not
hold his ground against the Iroquois and the
English.

It has been pointed out already that when
La Barre assumed office the problems arising
from these two sources were more difficult
than at any previous date ; but the situation
which was serious in 1682 and had become
critical by 1685 grew desperate in the four
years of Denonville's sway. The one over-

104 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

shadowing question of this period was the
Iroquois peril, rendered more and more acute
by the policy of the English.

The greatest mistake which Denonville
made in his dealings with the Iroquois was to
act deceitfully. The savages could be per-
fidious themselves, but they were not without
a conception of honour and felt genuine re-
spect for a white man whose word they could
trust. Denonville, who in his private life
displayed many virtues, seemed to consider
that he was justified in acting towards the
savages as the exigency of the moment
prompted. Apart from all considerations of
morality this was bad judgment.

In his dealings with the English Denonville
had little more success than in his dealings
with the Indians. Dongan was a thorn in
his side from the first, although their corre-
spondence opened, on both sides, with the
language of compliment. A few months later
its tone changed, particularly after Dongan
heard that Denonville intended to build a fort
at Niagara. Against a project so unfriendly
Dongan protested with emphasis. In reply
Denonville disclaimed the intention, at the
same time alleging that Dongan was giving
shelter at Albany to French deserters. A

THE LURID INTERVAL 105

little later they reach the point of sarcasm.
Denonville taxes Dongan with selling rum to
the Indians. Dongan retorts that at least
English rum is less unwholesome than French
brandy. Beneath these epistolary compli-
ments there lies the broad fact that Dongan
stood firm by his principle that the extension
of French rule to the south of Lake Ontario
should not be tolerated. He ridicules the
basis of French pretensions, saying that
Denonville might as well claim China because
there are Jesuits at the Chinese court. The
Drench, he adds, have no more right to the
country because its streams flow into Lake
Ontario than they have to the lands of those
who drink claret or brandy. It is clear that
Dongan fretted under the restrictions which
were imposed upon him by the friendship
between England and France. He would
have welcomed an order to support his
arguments by force. Denonville, on his
side, with like feelings, could not give up
the claim to suzerainty over the land of the
Iroquois.

The domain of the Five Nations was not
the only part of America where French and
English clashed. The presence of the English
in Hudson Bay excited deep resentment at

106 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Quebec and Montreal. Here Denonville ven-
tured to break the peace as Dongan had not
dared to do. With Denonville's consent and
approval, a band of Canadians left Montreal
in the spring of 1686, fell upon three of
the English posts — Fort Hayes, Fort Rupert,
Fort Albany — and with some bloodshed
dispossessed their garrisons. Well satisfied
with this exploit, Denonville in 1687 turned
his attention to the chastisement of the
Iroquois.

The forces which he brought together for
this task were greatly superior to any that
had been mustered in Canada before. Not
only were they adequate in numbers, but they
comprised an important band of coureurs de
bois, headed by La Durantaye, Tonty, Du
Lhut, and Nicolas Perrot — men who equalled
the Indians in woodcraft and surpassed them
in character. The epitaph of Denonville
as a governor is written in the failure
of this great expedition to accomplish its
purpose.

The first blunder occurred at Fort Fron-
tenac before mobilization had been completed.
There were on the north shore of Lake Ontario
two Iroquois villages, whose inhabitants had
been in part baptized by the Sulpicians and

THE LURID INTERVAL 107

were on excellent terms with the garrison of
the fort. In a moment of insane stupidity
Denonville decided that the men of these
settlements should be captured and sent to
France as galley slaves. Through the ruse of
a banquet they were brought together and
easily seized. By dint of a little further effort
two hundred Iroquois of all ages and both
sexes were collected at Fort Frontenac as
prisoners — and some at least perished by
torture. But, when executing this dastardly
plot, Denonville did not succeed in catching
all the friendly Iroquois who lived in the
neighbourhood of his fort. Enough escaped
to carry the authentic tale to the Five Nations,
and after that there could be no peace till
there had been revenge. Worst of all, the
French stood convicted of treachery and
falseness.

Having thus blighted his cause at the out-
set, Denonville proceeded with his more serious
task of smiting the Iroquois in their own
country. Considering the extent and expense
of his preparations, he should have planned a
complete destruction of their power. Instead
of this he attempted no more than an attack
upon the Senecas, whose operations against
the Illinois and in other quarters had made

io8 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

them especially objectionable. The com-
posite army of French and Indians assembled
at Irondequoit Bay on July 12 — a force
brought together at infinite pains and under
circumstances which might never occur again.
Marching southwards they fought a trivial
battle with the Senecas, in which half a dozen
on the French side were killed, while the
Senecas are said to have lost about a hundred
in killed and wounded. The rest of the tribe
took to the woods. As a result of this easy
victory the triumphant allies destroyed an
Iroquois village and all the corn which it
contained, but the political results of the ex-
pedition were worse than nothing. Denon-
ville made no attempt to destroy the other
nations of the confederacy. Returning to
Lake Ontario he built a fort at Niagara, which
he had promised Dongan he would not do,
and then returned to Montreal. The net re-
sults of this portentous effort were a broken
promise to the English, an act of perfidy
towards the Iroquois, and an insignificant
success in battle.

In 1688 Denonville's decision to abandon
Fort Niagara slightly changed the situation.
The garrison had suffered severe losses through
illness and the post proved too remote for

THE LURID INTERVAL 109

successful defence. So this matter settled
itself. The same season saw the recall of
Dongan through the consolidation of New
England, New York, and New Jersey under
Sir Edmund Andros. But in essentials there
was no change. Andros continued Dongan's
policy, of which, in fact, he himself had been
the author. And, even though no longer
threatened by the French from Niagara, the
savages had reason enough to hate and distrust
Denonville.

Yet despite these untoward circumstances
all hope of peace between the French and the
Five Nations had not been destroyed. The
Iroquois loved their revenge and were willing
to wait for it, but caution warned them that
it would not be advantageous to destroy the
French for the benefit of the English. More-
over, in the long course of their relations with
the French they had, as already mentioned,
formed a high opinion of men like Le Moyne
and Lamberville, while they viewed with
respect the exploits of Tonty, La Durantaye,
and Du Lhut.

Moved by these considerations and a love of
presents, Grangula, of the Onondagas, was in
the midst of negotiations for peace with the
French, which might have ended happily but

no THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

for the stratagem of the Huron chief Kon-
diaronk, called ' The Rat.' The remnant
of Hurons and the other tribes centring at
Michilimackinac did not desire a peace of the
French and Iroquois which would not include
themselves, for this would mean their own
certain destruction. The Iroquois, freed of
the French, would surely fall on the Hurons.
All the Indians distrusted Denonville, and
Kondiaronk suspected, with good reason, that
the Hurons were about to be sacrificed.
Denonville, however, had assured Kondiaronk
that there was to be war to the death against
the Iroquois, and on this understanding he
went with a band of warriors to Fort Fron-
tenac. There he learned that peace would
be concluded between Onontio and the Onon-
dagas — in other words, that the Iroquois
would soon be free to attack the Hurons and
their allies. To avert this threatened de-
struction of his own people, he set out with
his warriors and lay in ambush for a party of
Onondaga chiefs who were on their way to
Montreal. Having killed one and captured
almost all the rest, he announced to his
Iroquois prisoners that he had received orders
from Denonville to destroy them. When they
explained that they were ambassadors, he

THE LURID INTERVAL in

feigned surprise and said he could no longer
be an accomplice to the wickedness of the
French. Then he released them all save one,
in order that they might carry home this tale
of Denonville's second treachery. The one
Iroquois Kondiaronk retained on the plea
that he wished to adopt him. Arrived at
Michilimackinac, he handed over the captive
to the French there, who, having heard
nothing of the peace, promptly shot him.
An Iroquois prisoner, whom Kondiaronk
secretly released for the purpose, conveyed
to the Five Nations word of this further
atrocity.

The Iroquois prepared to deliver a hard
blow. On August 5, 1689, they fell in over-
whelming force upon the French settlement at
Lachine. Those who died by the tomahawk
were the most fortunate. Charlevoix gives
the number of victims at two hundred killed
and one hundred and twenty taken prisoner.
Girouard's examination of parish registers
results in a lower estimate — namely, twenty-
four killed at Lachine and forty-two at La
Chesnaye, a short time afterwards. What-
ever the number, it was the most dread-
ful catastrophe which the colony had yet
suffered.

I
H2 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Such were the events which, in seven years,
had brought New France to the brink of ruin.
But she was not to perish from the Iroquois.
In October 1689 Frontenac returned to take
Denonville's place.

CHAPTER VII

THE GREAT STRUGGLE

DURING the period which separates his two
terms of office Frontenac's life is almost a
blank. His relations with his wife seem to
have been amicable, but they did not live
together. His great friend was the Marechal
de Bellefonds, from whom he received many
favours of hospitality. In 1685 the king gave
him a pension of thirty-five hundred livres,
though without assigning him any post of
dignity. Already a veteran, his record could
hardly be called successful. His merits were
known to the people of Canada ; they be-
lieved him to be a tower of strength against
the Iroquois. At Versailles the fact stood
out most plainly that through infirmities of
temper he had lost his post. His pension
might save him from penury. It was far too
small to give him real independence.

Had either La Barre or Denonville proved
equal to the government of Canada, it is almost

F.G. H

ii4 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

certain that Frontenac would have ended his
days ingloriously at Versailles, ascending the
stairs of others with all the grief which is
the portion of disappointed old age. Their
failure was his opportunity, and from the
dreary antechambers of a court he mounts to
sudden glory as the saviour of New France.

There is some doubt, as we have seen, con-
cerning the causes which gave Frontenac his
appointment in 1672. At that time court
favour may have operated on his behalf, or it
may have seemed desirable that he should
reside for a season out of France. But in 1689
graver considerations came into play. At the
moment when the Iroquois were preparing to
ravage Canada, the expulsion of James II
from his throne had broken the peace between
France and England. The government of
New France was now no post for a court
favourite. Louis XIV had expended much
money and effort on the colony. Through
the mismanagement of La Barre and Denon-
ville everything appeared to be on the verge
of ruin. It is inconceivable that Frontenac,
then in his seventieth year, should have been
renominated for any other cause than merit.
Times and conditions had changed. The task
now was not to work peaceably with bishop

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 115

and intendant, but to destroy the foe. Father
Goyer, the Recollet who delivered Frontenac's
funeral oration, states that the king said when
renewing his commission : ' I send you back to
Canada, where I expect you will serve me as
well as you did before ; I ask for nothing
more.* This is a bit of too gorgeous rhetoric,
which none the less conveys the truth. The
king was not reappointing Frontenac because
he was, on the whole, satisfied with what he
had done before ; he was reappointing him
because during his former term of office and
throughout his career he had displayed the
qualities which were called for at the present
crisis.

Thus Frontenac returned to Quebec in the
autumn of 1689, just after the Iroquois
massacred the people of Lachine and just
before they descended upon those of La
Chesnaye. The universal mood was one of
terror and despair. If ever Canada needed a
Moses this was the hour.

It will be seen from the dates that Denon-
ville's recall was not due to the Lachine
massacre and the other raids of the Iroquois
in 1689, for these only occurred after Fron-
tenac had been appointed. Denonville's dis-
missal was justified by the general results of

u6 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

his administration down to the close of 1688.
Before Frontenac left France a plan of cam-
paign had been agreed upon which it was now
his duty to execute. The outlines of this plan
were suggested by Callieres, the governor of
Montreal,1 who had been sent home by Denon-
ville to expound the needs of the colony in
person and to ask for fresh aid. The idea was
to wage vigorous offensive warfare against
the English from Albany to New York.
Success would depend upon swiftness and
audacity, both of which Frontenac possessed
in full measure, despite his years. Two French
warships were to be sent direct to New York
in the autumn of 1689, while a raiding party
from Canada should set out for the Hudson
as soon as Frontenac could organize it.

In its original form this plan of campaign
was never carried out, for on account of head
winds Frontenac reached Quebec too late in
the autumn. However, the central idea re-
mained in full view and suggested the three
war-parties which were sent out during the
winter of 1690 to attack the English colonies.

1 Louis Hector de Callieres- Bon nevue was a captain of the
French army who became governor of Montreal in 1684, and
succeeded Frontenac as governor of Canada in 1698. He re-
ceived the Cross of St Louis for distinguished service against
the Iroquois. Frontenac could not have had a better lieutenant

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 117

Louis XIV had given Denonville important
reinforcements, and with war clouds gathering
in Europe he was unwilling or unable to de-
tach more troops for the defence of Canada.
Hence, in warring against the Iroquois and the
English Frontenac had no greater resources
than those at the disposal of Denonville when
he attacked the Senecas. In fact, since 1687
there had been some wastage in the number
of the regulars from disease. The result was
that Frontenac could not hope for any solid
success unless he received support from the
Canadian militia.

In this crisis the habitants and their
seigneurs accepted with courage the duties
laid upon them. In the narrower sense they
were fighting for their homes, but the spirit
which they displayed under Frontenac's
leadership is not merely that which one
associates with a war of defence. The French
soldier, in all ages, loved to strike the quick,
sharp blow, and it was now necessary for the
salvation of Canada that it should be struck.
The Iroquois had come to believe that Onontio
was losing his power. The English colonies
were far more populous than New France.
In short, the only hope lay in a swift, spec-
tacular campaign which would disorganize

n8 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

the English and regain the respect of the
Iroquois.

The issue depended on the courage and
capacity of the Canadians. It is to their
honour and to the credit of Frontenac that
they rose to the demand of the hour. The
Canadians were a robust, prolific race, trained
from infancy to woodcraft and all the hard-
ships of the wilderness. Many families con-
tained from eight to fourteen sons who had
used the musket and paddle from early boy-
hood, and could endure the long tramps of
winter like the Indians themselves. The
frontiersman is, and must be, a fighter, but
nowhere in the past can one find a braver
breed of warriors than mustered to the call
of Frontenac. Francois Hertel and Hertel
de Rouville, Le Moyne d'Iberville with his
brothers Bienville and Sainte-Helene, D'Aille-
bout de Mantet and Repentigny de Montesson,
are but a few representatives of the militiamen
who sped forth at the call of Frontenac to
destroy the settlements of the English.

What followed was war in its worst form,
including th^ massacre of women and children.
The three bands organized by Frontenac at
the beginning of 1690 set out on snowshoes
from Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec.

PIERRE LE MOYNE, S1EUR D'lBERVILLE

From an engraving in the John Ross Rohertson Collection,
Toronto Public Library

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 119

The largest party contained a hundred and
fourteen French and ninety-six Indians. It
marched from Montreal against Schenectady,
commanded by D'Aillebout de Mantet and Le
Moyne de Sainte-Helene. The second party,
proceeding from Three Rivers and numbering
twenty- six French and twenty-nine Indians
under the command of Francois Hertel, aimed
at Dover, Pemaquid, and other settlements
of Maine and New Hampshire. The Quebec
party, under Portneuf, comprised fifty French
and sixty Indians. Its objective was the
English colony on Casco Bay, where the city
of Portland now stands. All three were suc-
cessful in accomplishing what they aimed at,
namely the destruction of English settle-
ments amid fire and carnage. All three em-
ployed Indians, who were suffered, either
willingly or unwillingly, to commit bar-
barities.

It is much more the business of history to
explain than to condemn or to extenuate.
How could a man like FranQois Hertel lead one
of these raids without sinking to the moral
level of his Indian followers ? Some such
question may, not unnaturally, rise to the lips
of a modern reader who for the first time
comes upon the story of Dover and Salmon

120 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Falls. But fuller knowledge breeds respect
for Francois Hertel. When eighteen years old
he was captured by the Mohawks and put to
the torture. One of his fingers they burned
off in the bowl of a pipe. The thumb of the
other hand they cut off. In the letter which
he wrote on birch-bark to his mother after
this dreadful experience there is not a word
of his sufferings. He simply sends her his
love and asks for her prayers, signing him-
self by his childish nickname, ' Your poor
Fanchon.' As he grew up he won from an
admiring community the name of * The Hero.'
He was not only brave but religious. In his
view it was all legitimate warfare. If he
slew others, he ran a thousand risks and en-
dured terrible privations for his king and the
home he was defending. His stand at the
bridge over the Wooster river, sword in hand,
when pressed on his retreat by an overwhelm-
ing force of English, holding the pass till all
his men are over, is worthy of an epic. He
was forty-seven years old at the time. The
three eldest of his nine sons were with him
in that little band of twenty-six Frenchmen,
and two of his nephews. ' To the New
England of old,' says Parkman, ' Francois
Hertel was the abhorred chief of Popish

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 121

malignants and murdering savages. The New
England of to-day will be more just to the
brave defender of his country and his faith.'

The atrocities committed by the French
and Indians are enough to make one shudder
even at this distance of time. As Frontenac
adopted the plan and sent forth the war-
parties, the moral responsibility in large part
rests with him. There are, however, some
facts to consider before judgment is passed
as to the degree of his culpability. The
modern distinction between combatants and
non-combatants had little meaning in the
wilds of America at this period. When France
and England were at open war, every settler
was a soldier, and as such each man's duty
was to keep on his guard. If caught napping
he must take the consequences. Thus, to fall
upon an unsuspecting hamlet and slay its
men-folk with the tomahawk, while brutal,
was hardly more brutal than under such cir-
cumstances we could fairly expect war to be.

The massacre of women and children is
another matter, not to be excused on any
grounds, even though Schenectady and Salmon
Falls are paralleled by recent acts of the
Germans in Belgium. Still, we should not
forget that European warfare in the age of

122 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Frontenac abounded with just such atrocities
as were committed at Schenectady, Dover,
Pemaquid, Salmon Falls, and Casco Bay.
The sack of Magdeburg, the wasting of the
Palatinate, and, perhaps, the storming of
Drogheda will match whatever was done by
the Indian allies of Frontenac. These were
unspeakable, but the savage was little worse
than his European contemporary. Those
killed were in almost all cases killed outright,
and the slaughter was not indiscriminate.
At Schenectady John Sander Glen, with his
whole family and all his relations, were spared
because he and his wife had shown kindness
to French prisoners taken by the Mohawks.
Altogether sixty people were killed at Sche-
nectady (February 9, 1690), thirty-eight men,
ten women, and twelve children. Nearly
ninety were carried captive to Canada. Sixty
old men, women, and children were left un-
harmed. It is not worth while to take up
the details of the other raids. They were of
much the same sort — no better and no worse.
Where a garrison surrendered under promise
that it would be spared, the promise was
observed so far as the Indians could be con-
trolled ; but English and French alike when
they used Indian allies knew well that their

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 123

excesses could not be prevented, though they
might be moderated. The captives as a rule
were treated with kindness and clemency when
once the northward march was at an end.

Meanwhile, Frontenac had little time to
reflect upon the probable attitude of posterity
towards his political morals. The three war-
parties had accomplished their purpose and
in the spring of 1690 the colony was aglow
with fresh hope. But the English were not
slow to retaliate. That summer New York
and Massachusetts decided on an invasion of
Canada. It was planned that a fleet from
Boston under Sir William Phips should attack
Quebec, while a force of militia from New York
in command of John Schuyler should advance
through Lake Champlain against Montreal.
Thus by sea and land Canada soon found
herself on the defensive.

Of Schuyler's raid nothing need be said
except that he reached Laprairie, opposite
Montreal, where he killed a few men and de-
stroyed the crops (August 23, 1690). It was
a small achievement and produced no result
save the disappointment of New York that
an undertaking upon which much money and
effort had been expended should terminate so
ingloriously. But the siege of Quebec by

124 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Phips, though it likewise ended in failure, is
a much more famous event, and deserves to
be described in some detail.

The colony of Massachusetts mustered its
forces for a great and unusual exploit. Earlier
in the same year a raid upon the coasts of
Acadia had yielded gratifying results. The
surrender of Port Royal without resistance
(May n, 1690) kindled the Puritan hope that
a single summer might see the- pestiferous
Romanists of New France driven from all
their strongholds. Thus encouraged, Boston
put forth its best energies and did not shrink
from incurring a debt of £50,000, which in the
circumstances of Massachusetts was an enor-
mous sum. Help was expected from England,
but none came, and the fleet sailed without
it, in full confidence that Quebec would fall
before the assault of the colonists alone.

The fleet, which sailed in August, num-
bered thirty-four ships, carrying twenty-three
hundred men and a considerable equipment.
Sir William Phips, the leader of the expedition,
was not an Englishman by birth, but a New
Englander of very humble origin who owed his
advancement to a robust physique and un-
limited assurance. He was unfitted for his
command, both because he lacked experience

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 125

in fighting such foes as he was about to
encounter, and because he was completely
ignorant of the technical difficulties involved
in conducting a large, miscellaneous fleet
through the tortuous channels of the lower St
Lawrence. This ignorance resulted in such
loss of time that he arrived before Quebec
amid the tokens of approaching winter. It
was the i6th of October when he rounded the
island of Orleans and brought his ships to
anchor under the citadel. Victory could only
be secured by sudden success. The state of
the season forbade siege operations which con-
templated starvation of the garrison.

Hopeful that the mere sight of his armada
would compel surrender, Phips first sent an
envoy to Frontenac under protection of the
white flag. This messenger after being blind-
folded was led to the Chateau and brought
before the governor, who had staged for his
reception one of the impressive spectacles he
loved to prepare. Surrounding Frontenac,
as Louis XIV might have been surrounded by
the grandees of France, were grouped the
aristocracy of New France — the officers of
the French regulars and the Canadian militia.
Nothing had been omitted which could
create an impression of dignity and strength.

126 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Costume, demeanour, and display were all
employed to overwhelm the envoy with the
insulted majesty of the king of France. Led
into this high presence the messenger delivered
his letter, which, when duly interpreted, was
found to convey a summary ultimatum.
Phips began by stating that the war between
France and England would have amply
warranted this expedition even ' without 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.' Indeed, ' the cruelties and
barbarities used against them by the French
and Indians might, upon the present oppor-
tunity, prompt unto a severe revenge.' But
seeking to avoid all inhumane and unchristian-
like actions, Phips announces that he will be
content with ' a present surrender of your
forts and castles, undemolished, and the King's
and other stores, unimbezzled, with a season-
able 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, accord-
ing to what shall be found for their Majesties'
service and the subjects' security. Which,

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 127

if you refuse forthwith to do, I am come pro-
vided 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, vmake 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.'

To this challenge Frontenac at once re-
turned the answer which comported with his
character. When Phips 's envoy took out
his watch to register the hour permitted by
the ultimatum, Frontenac rejoined that he
required no time for deliberation, but would
return his answer by the mouth of the cannon.
The ground which he assigned for the invasion
of New England was that its people had re-
belled against their lawful prince, the ally of
France. Other more personal observations
were directed towards the manner in which
Phips had behaved at Port Royal. No word
in writing would Frontenac send. The envoy
(who was only a subaltern) received his conge,
was blindfolded and led back to his boat.

Compliments having been thus exchanged,
it remained for Phips to make good his chal-

128 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

lenge. If we compare the four English and
American sieges of Quebec, the attack by
Phips will be seen to have little in common
with those of Kirke and Montgomery, but to
resemble rather strikingly the attack by Wolfe.
Without fighting, Kirke swooped down upon
a garrison which was exhausted by starvation.
Arnold and Montgomery operated without a
fleet. But while Phips's attempt is unlike
Wolfe's in that it ended in failure, the presence
of the fleet and the attempt to effect a landing
below the mouth of the St Charles present
features of real similarity. It is clear that
Phips received intelligence from prisoners of a
possible landing above the town, at the spot
where Wolfe carried out his daring and desper-
ate coup de main. But, anticipating Wolfe
in another quarter, he chose to make his first
attack on the flats rather than on the heights.
The troops ordinarily stationed at Quebec
were increased just after Phips's arrival by a
force of seven hundred regulars and militia-
men under Callieres, who had come down from
Montreal with all possible haste. So agile
were the French and so proficient in irregular
warfare that Phips found it difficult to land
any considerable detachment in good order.
Thirteen hundred of the English did succeed

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 129

in forming on the Beauport Flats, after wading
through a long stretch of mud. There fol-
lowed a preliminary skirmish in which three
hundred French were driven back with no
great loss, after inflicting considerable damage
on the invaders. But though the English
reached the east bank of the St Charles they
could do no more. Phips wasted his ammuni-
tion on a fruitless and ill-timed bombardment,
which was answered with much spirit from the
cliffs. Meanwhile the musketeers on the bank
of the St Charles were unable to advance alone
and received no proper supply of stores from
the ships. Harassed by the Canadians, wet,
cold, and starving, they took to the boats,
leaving behind them five cannon. After this
nothing happened, save deliberations on the
part of Phips and his officers as to whether
there remained anything that could be done
other than to sail for home, beaten and
humiliated, with a heavy burden of debt to
hang round the neck of a too ambitious
Massachusetts. Thus ended the second siege
of Quebec (October 23, 1690).

Frontenac had lost two of his best soldiers —
Sainte-Helene, of the fighting Le Moynes, and
the Chevalier de Clermont ; but, this notwith-
standing, the victory was felt to be complete.

F.G. T

130 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

The most precious trophy was the flag of
Phips's ship, which a shot from the ramparts
had knocked into the river, whence it was
rescued and brought ashore in triumph. Best
of all, the siege had been too short to bring
famine in its train. The loss of life was in-
considerable, and in prestige the soldiery of
New France now stood on a pinnacle which
they had never before attained. When we
consider the paucity of the forces engaged, this
repulse of the English from Quebec may not
seem an imposing military achievement. But
Canada had put forth her whole strength and
had succeeded where failure would have been
fatal. In the shouts of rejoicing which fol-
lowed Phips's withdrawal we hear the cry of
a people reborn.

The siege of Quebec and Schuyler's raid on
Laprairie open up a subject of large and vital
moment — the historical antagonism of New
France and New England. Whoever wishes
to understand the deeper problems of Canada
in the age of Frontenac should read John
Fiske's volumes on the English colonies. In
the rise of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania,
New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts
one sees the certain doom which was impend-

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 131

ing over New France. It may be too much
to say that Richelieu by conquering Alsace
threw away America. Even had the popula-
tion of Canada been increased to the extent
called for by the obligations of Richelieu's
company in 1627, the English might have
nevertheless prevailed. But the preoccupa-
tion of France with the war against Austria
prevented her from giving due attention to the
colonial question at the critical moment when
colonists should have been sent out in large
numbers. And it is certain that by nothing
short of a great emigration could France
have saved Canada. As it was, the English
were bound to prevail by weight of population.
When the conflict reached its climax in the
days of Montcalm and Wolfe, two and a half
million English Americans confronted sixty-
five thousand French Canadians. On such
terms the result of the contest could not be
doubtful. Even in Frontenac's time the
French were protected chiefly by the interven-
ing wilderness and the need of the English
colonists to develop their own immediate re-
sources. The English were not yet ready for
a serious offensive war. In fact they, too,
had their own Indian question.

It is a matter of some interest to observe

132 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

how the conquest of Canada was postponed
by the lack of cohesion among the English
colonies. Selfishness and mutual jealousy
prevented them from combining against the
common foe. Save for this disunion and
fancied conflict of interest, New France must
have succumbed long before the time of Mont-
calm. But the vital significance of the con-
flict between New England and New France
lies in the contrast of their spirit and institu-
tions. The English race has extended itself
through the world because it possessed the
genius of emigration. The French colonist
did his work magnificently in the new home.
But the conditions in the old home were un-
favourable to emigration. The Huguenots,
the one class of the population with a strong
motive for emigrating, were excluded from
Canada in the interest of orthodoxy. The
dangers of the Atlantic and the hardships of
life in a wintry wilderness might well deter
the ordinary French peasant ; moreover, it
by no means rested with him to say whether
he would go or stay. But, whatever their
nature, the French race lost a wonderful
opportunity through the causes which pre-
vented a healthy, steady exodus to America.
England profited by having classes of people

THE GREAT STRUGGLE 133

sufficiently well educated to form independent
opinions and strong enough to carry out the
programme dictated by these opinions. While
each of the English colonies sprang from a
different motive, att had in common the
purpose to form an effective settlement. The
fur trade did France more harm than good.
It deflected her attention from the middle to
the northern latitudes and lured her colonists
from the land in search of quick profits. It
was the enemy to the home. On the other
hand, the English came to America primarily
in search of a home. Profits they sought, like
other people, but they sought them chiefly
from the soil.

Thus English ideas took root in America,
gained new vitality, and assumed an import-
ance they had not possessed in England for
many centuries. And, while for the moment
the organization of the English colonies was
not well suited to offensive war, as we may
judge from the abortive efforts of Phips and
Schuyler, this defect could be corrected.
Arising, as it did arise, from a lack of unity
among the colonies, it was even indicative of
latent strength. From one angle, localism
seems selfishness and weakness ; from another,
it shows the vigorous life of separate com-

134 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

muni ties, each self-centred and jealous of its
authority because the local instinct is so vitally
active. It only needed time to broaden the
outlook and give the English colonies a sense
of their common interest. Virginia, New
York, and Massachusetts, by striking their
roots each year more deeply into the soil of
America, became more and more self-support-
ing states in everything save name and
political allegiance ; while New France, which
with its austere climate would have developed
more slowly in any case, remained dependent
on the king's court.

Thus Frontenac's task was quite hopeless,
if we define it as the effort to overthrow
English power in America. But neither he
nor any one of that age defined his duties so
widely. In 1689 Canada was in extremes,
with the Iroquois at Lachine and Dongan
threatening an attack from New York. Fron-
tenac's policy was defensive. If he struck
first, it was because he considered audacity to
be his best safeguard. No one knew better
than Frontenac that a successful raid does not
mean conquest.

CHAPTER VIII

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS

THOUGH the English might withdraw from
Quebec, New France always had the Iroquois
with her. We must now pursue the thread of
Frontenac's dealings with the savages from
the moment when he replaced Denonville.

It requires no flight of the imagination to
appreciate the rage Frontenac must have felt
when, on returning to Canada, he saw before
his eyes the effects of La Barre's rapacity and
Denonville 's perfidy, of which the massacres
of Lachine and La Chesnaye furnished the
most ghastly proofs. But in these two cases
the element of tragedy was so strong as to
efface the mood of exasperation. There re-
mained a third incident which must have pro-
voked pure rage. This was the destruction
of Fort Frontenac, blown up, at Denonville's
order, by the French themselves (October
1689). The erection and maintenance of this
post had been a cardinal point in Frontenac's

135

136 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Indian policy ; and, more particularly to
aggravate the offence, there was the humili-
ating fact that Denonville had ordered it
demolished to comply with a demand from
the Iroquois. This shameful concession had
been made shortly before Frontenac reached
Canada. It was Denonville's last important
act in the colony. On the chance that
something might have occurred to delay
execution of the order, Frontenac at once
countermanded it and sent forward an ex-
pedition of three hundred men. But they
were too late. His beloved fortress was gone.
The only comfort which Frontenac could
derive from the incident was that the work
of destruction had been carried out imper-
fectly. There remained a portion of the
works which could still be used.

Thus with regard to the Iroquois the situa-
tion was far worse in 1689 than it had been
when Frontenac came to Canada in 1672.
Everything which he had done to conciliate
the Five Nations had been undone ; and
Dongan's intelligent activities, coinciding with
this long series of French mistakes, had helped
to make matters worse. Nor was it now
merely a question of the Iroquois. The whole
Indian world had been convulsed by the re-

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 137

newal of strife between Onontio and the Five
Nations. Tribes long friendly to the French
and in constant trade with them were being
alienated. The Indian problem as Frontenac
saw it in 1690 resolved itself to this : either
peace with the Iroquois on terms which would
prove impressive to the Hurons, the Ottawas,
and even to the savages of the Mississippi ; or
else uncompromising war. For under no cir-
cumstances could the French afford to lose
their hold upon the tribes from whom they
derived their furs.

Obviously an honourable peace would be
preferable to the horrors of a forest war, and
Frontenac did his best to secure it. To undo,
as far as possible, Denonville's treachery at
Fort Frontenac and elsewhere, he had brought
back with him to Quebec the Iroquois who
had been sent to France — or such of them as
were still alive. First among these was a
Cayuga chief of great influence named Oure-
haoue, whose friendship Frontenac assiduously
cultivated and completely won. Towards the
close of January 1690 an embassy of three re-
leased Iroquois carried to Onondaga a message
from Ourehaoue that the real Onontio had re-
turned and peace must be made with him if
the Five Nations wished to live. A great

138 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

council was then held at which the English,
by invitation, were represented, while the
French interest found its spokesman in a
Christian Iroquois named Cut Nose. Any
chance of success was destroyed by the im-
placable enmity of the Senecas, who remem-
bered the attempt of the French to check their
raids upon the Illinois and the invasion of
their own country by Denonville. Cannehoot,
a Seneca chieftain, rose and stated that the
tribes of Michilimackinac were ready to join
the English and the Iroquois for the destruc-
tion of New France ; and the assembly decided
to enter this triple alliance. Frontenac's
envoys returned to Quebec alive, but with
nothing to show for their pains. A later effort
by Frontenac was even less successful. The
Iroquois, it was clear, could not be brought
back to friendship by fair words.

War to the knife being inevitable, Fron-
tenac promptly took steps to confirm his
position with the hitherto friendly savages
of the Ottawa and the Great Lakes. When
Cannehoot had said that the tribes of Michili-
mackinac were ready to turn against the
French, he was not drawing wholly upon his
imagination. This statement was confirmed
by the report of Nicolas Perrot, who knew the

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 139

Indians of the West as no one else knew them
— save perhaps Du Lhut and Carheil.1 The
French were now playing a desperate game
in the vast region beyond Lake Erie, which
they had been the first of Europeans to ex-
plore. The Ottawas and the Hurons, while
alike the hereditary foes of the Iroquois, were
filled with mutual jealousy which must be
composed. The successes of the Iroquois in
their raids on the French settlements must be
explained and minimized. ' The Rat ' Kondia-
ronk, the cleverest of the western chieftains,
must be conciliated. And to compass all
these ends, Perrot found his reliance in the
word that Frontenac had returned and would
lead his children against the common foe.
Meanwhile, the Iroquois had their own advo-
cates among the more timid and suspicious
members of these western tribes. During the
winter of 1689-90 the French and the Iroquois
had about an even chance of winning the

1 Etienne de Carheil was the most active of the Jesuit mission-
aries in Canada during the period of Frontenac. After fifteen
years among the Iroquois at Cayuga (1668-83) he returned for
three years to Quebec. He was then sent to Michilimackinac,
where he remained another fifteen years. Shortly after the
founding of Detroit (1701) he gave up life in the forest Despite
the great hardships which he endured, he lived to be ninety-
three. None of the missionaries was more strongly opposed to
the brandy trade.

140 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Indians who centred at Michilimackinac. But
the odds were against the French to this ex-
tent— they were working against a time limit.
Unless Frontenac could quickly show evidence
of strength, the tribes of the West would range
with the Iroquois.

In the spring of 1690 Frontenac dispatched
a force of a hundred and fifty men to reinforce
the garrison at Michilimackinac. On their
way westward these troops encountered a
band of Iroquois and fortunately killed a
number of them. The scalps were an ocular
proof of success ; and Perrot, who was of the
party, knew how to turn the victory to its
best use by encouraging the Ottawas to torture
an Iroquois prisoner. The breach thus made
between the Ottawas and the Five Nations
distinctly widened as soon as word came that
the French had destroyed Schenectady. Thus
this dreadful raid against the English did not
fail of its psychological effect, as may be
gathered from one of the immediate conse-
quences. Early in August there appeared on
Lake St Louis a vast flotilla of canoes, which
at first caused the afflicted habitants to fear
that the Iroquois were upon them again. In-
stead of this it was a great band of friendly
savages from the West, drawn from all the

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 141

trading tribes and bringing a cargo of furs of
far more than the usual value. Frontenac
himself chanced to be in Montreal at this
fortunate moment. The market was held and
concluded to mutual satisfaction, but the
crowning event of the meeting was a council,
at which, after an exchange of harangues,
Frontenac entered into the festivities of the
savages as though he were one of themselves
(August 1690). The governor's example was
followed by his leading officers. Amid the
chanting of the war-song and the swinging
of the tomahawk the French renewed their
alliance with the Indians of the West. All
were to fight until the Iroquois were destroyed.
Even the Ottawas, who had been coquetting
with the Senecas, now came out squarely and
said that they would stand by Onontio.

Here, at last, was a real answer to the
Lachine massacre. The challenge had been
fairly given, and now it was not a Denonville
who made the reply. There followed three
years of incessant warfare between the Iro-
quois and the French, which furnished a fair
test of the strength that each side could
muster when fighting at its best. The Five
Nations had made up their minds. The cares
of diplomacy they threw to the winds. They

142 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

were on the war-path, united and determined.
The French, on their side, had Frontenac for
leader and many outrages to avenge. It was
war of the wilderness in its most unrelenting
form, with no mercy expected or asked. The
general result can be quickly stated. The
Iroquois got their fill of war, and Frontenac
destroyed their power as a central, dominating,
terrorizing confederacy.

The measure of this achievement is to be
sought in the difficulties which were overcome.
Despite the eighty years of its existence the
colony was still so poor that regularity in the
arrival of supplies from France was a matter
of vital importance. From the moment war
began English cruisers hovered about the
mouth of the St Lawrence, ready to pounce
upon the supply-ships as they came up the
river. Sometimes the French boats escaped ;
sometimes they were captured ; but from this
interruption of peaceful oversea traffic Canada
suffered grievously. Another source of weak-
ness was the interruption of agriculture which
followed in the train of war. As a rule the
Iroquois spent the winter in hunting deer, but
just as the ground was ready for its crop they
began to show themselves in the parishes near
Montreal, picking off the habitants in their

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 143

farms on the edge of the forest, or driving
them to the shelter of the stockade. These
forays made it difficult and dangerous to till
the soil, with a corresponding shrinkage in
the volume of the crop. Almost every winter
famine was imminent in some part of the
colony, and though spring was welcome for
its own sake, it invariably brought the Iroquois.
A third calamity was the interruption of the
fur trade. Ordinarily the great cargoes de-
scended the Ottawa in fleets of from one hun-
dred to two hundred canoes. But the savages
of the West well knew that when they em-
barked with their precious bales upon a route
which was infested by the Iroquois, they gave
hostages to fortune. In case of a battle the
cargo was a handicap, since they must pro-
tect it as well as themselves. In case they
were forced to flee for their lives, they lost the
goods which it had cost so much effort to
collect. In these circumstances the tribes of
Michilimackinac would not bring down their
furs unless they felt certain that the whole
course of the Ottawa was free from danger.
In seasons when they failed to come, the
colony had nothing to export and penury be-
came extreme. At best the returns from the
fur trade were precarious. In 1690 and 1693

144 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

there were good markets ; in 1691 and 1692
there were none at all.

From time to time Frontenac received from
France both money and troops, but neither
in sufficient quantity to place him where he
could deal the Iroquois one final blow. Thus
one year after another saw a war of skirmishes
and minor raids, sufficiently harassing and
weakening to both sides, but with results
which were disappointing because inconclu-
sive. The hero of this border warfare is the
Canadian habitant, whose farm becomes a
fort and whose gun is never out of reach. Nor
did the men of the colony display more cour-
age than their wives and daughters. The
heroine of New France is the woman who rears
from twelve to twenty children, works in the
fields and cooks by day, and makes garments
and teaches the catechism in the evening. It
was a community which approved of early
marriage — a community where boys and girls
assumed their responsibilities very young.
Youths of sixteen shouldered the musket.
Madeleine de Vercheres was only fourteen
when she defended her father's fort against
the Iroquois with a garrison of five, which in-
cluded two boys and a man of eighty (October
1692).

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 145

A detailed chronicle of these raids and
counter-raids would be both long and compli-
cated, but in addition to the incidents which
have been mentioned there remain three which
deserve separate comment — Peter Schuyler's
invasion of Canada in 1691, the activities of
the Abnakis against New England, and Fron-
tenac's invasion of the Onondaga country in
1696.

We have already seen that in 1690 an
attempt was made by John Schuyler to avenge
the massacre at Schenectady. The results of
this effort were insignificant, but its purpose
was not forgotten ; and in 1691 the Anglo-
Dutch of the Hudson attempted once more to
make their strength felt on the banks of the
St Lawrence. This time the leader was Peter
Schuyler, whose force included a hundred and
twenty English and Dutch, as against the
forty who had attacked Canada in the previous
summer. The number of Indian allies was
also larger than on the former occasion, in-
cluding both Mohawks and Mohegans. Apart
from its superior numbers and much harder
fighting, the second expedition of the English
was similar to the first. Both followed Lake
Champlain and the Richelieu ; both reached
Laprairie, opposite Montreal ; both were

F.G. K

*s

146 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

forced to retreat without doing any great
damage to their enemies. There is this not-
able difference, however, that the French
were in a much better state of preparation
than they had been during the previous
summer. The garrison at Laprairie now
numbered above seven hundred, while a
flying squadron of more than three hundred
stood ready to attack the English on their
retreat to the Richelieu. On the whole,
Schuyler was fortunate to escape as lightly
as he did. Forty of his party were killed
in a hot battle, but he made his retreat
in good order after inflicting some losses
on the French (August i, 1691). Although
Schuyler's retreat was skilfully conducted,
his original object had been far more ambitious
than to save his men from extermination.
The French missed a chance to injure their
foe more seriously than they had done at
Schenectady. At the same time, this second
English invasion was so far from successful
that the New France of Frontenac suffered no
further attack from the side of Albany.

While Callieres and Valrennes were repuls-
ing Peter Schuyler from Laprairie, the French
in another part of Frontenac's jurisdiction
were preparing for the offensive. The centre

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 147

of this activity was the western part of
Acadia — that is, the large and rugged region
which is watered by the Penobscot and the
Kennebec. Here dwelt the Abnakis, a tribe
of Algonquin origin, among whom the Jesuits
had established a mission and made many
converts. Throughout Acadia the French
had established friendly relations with the
Indians, and as the English settlements began
to creep from New Hampshire to the mouth
of the Kennebec, the interval between the rival
zones of occupation became so narrow as to
admit of raiding. Phips's capture of Port
Royal had alarmed some of the Abnakis, but
most of them held fast to the French connec-
tion and were amenable to presents. It soon
proved that all they needed was leadership,
which was amply furnished by the Baron de
Saint-Castin and Father Thury.

Saint-Castin was a very energetic French
trader, of noble birth, who had established
himself at Pentegoet on Penobscot Bay — a
point which, after him, is now called Castine.
Father Thury was the chief of the mission
priests in the western part of Acadia, but
though an ecclesiastic he seems to have
exalted patriotism above religion. That he
did his best to incite his converts against the

148 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

English is beyond question. Urged on by
him and Saint-Castin, the savages of the
Penobscot and the Kennebec proceeded with
enthusiasm to destroy the English settlements
which lay within their reach. In the course
of successive raids which extended from 1692
to 1694 they descended upon York, Wells,
and Oyster Bay, always with the stealth and
swiftness which marked joint operations of
the French and Indians. The settlements
of the English were sacked, the inhabitants
were either massacred or carried into cap-
tivity, and all those scenes were re-enacted
which had marked the success of Frontenac's
three war-parties in 1690. Thus New England
was exposed to attack from the side of Acadia
no less than from that of Canada. Incident-
ally Canada and Acadia were drawn into closer
connection by the vigour which Frontenac
communicated to the war throughout all parts
of his government.

But the most vivid event of Frontenac's
life after the defence of Quebec against Phips
was the great expedition which he led in person
against the Onondagas. It was an exploit
which resembles Denonville's attack upon the
Senecas, with the added interest that Fron-
tenac was in his seventy-seventh year when

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 149

he thus carried the war into the heart of the
enemy's country. As a physical tour de force
this campaign was splendid, and it enables us,
better than any other event, to appreciate
the magnificent energy which Frontenac threw
into the fulfilment of his task. With over
two thousand men, and an equipment that
included cannon and mortars, he advanced
from the south shore of Lake Ontario against
the chief stronghold of the Iroquois. At the
portage the Indians would not permit their
aged, indomitable Onontio to walk, but in-
sisted that he should remain seated in his
canoe, while they carried it from the pool
below the fall to the dead water above. All
the French saw of the stronghold they had
come to attack was the flame which con-
sumed it. Following the example of the
Senecas, the Onondagas, when they saw that
the invader was at hand, set fire to their
palisade and wigwams, gathered up what
property was portable, and took to the woods.
Pursuit was impossible. All that could be
done was to destroy the corn and proceed
against the settlement of the Oneidas. After
this, with its maize, had been consumed,
Frontenac considered whether he should at-
tack the Cayugas, but he decided against this

150 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

extension of the campaign. Unlike Denon-
ville, he was at war with the English as well
as with the Iroquois, and may have thought
it imprudent to risk surprise at a point so far
from his base. While it was disappointing
that the Onondagas did not wait to be de-
stroyed by the cannon which with so much
effort had been brought against them, this
expedition was a useful proof of strength and
produced a good moral effect throughout the
colony as well as among the western tribes.

The events of ' William and Mary's War,'
as it was known in New England, show how
wide the French zone in North America had
come to be. Frontenac's province extended
from Newfoundland to the Mississippi, from
Onondaga'to Hudson Bay. The rarest quality
of a ruler is the power to select good sub-
ordinates and fill them with his own high
spirit. Judged by this standard Frontenac
deserves great praise, for he never lacked
capable and loyal lieutenants. With Callieres
at Montreal, Tonty on the Mississippi, Perrot
and Du Lhut at Michilimackinac, Villebon
and Saint-Castin in Acadia, Sainte-Helene at
the siege of Quebec, and Iberville at Hudson
Bay, he was well supported by his staff. At
this critical moment the shortcomings of the

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 151

French in America were certainly not due to
lack of purpose or driving power. The system
under which they worked was faulty, and in
their extremity they resorted to harsh ex-
pedients. But there were heroes in New
France, if courage and self-sacrifice are the
essence of heroism.

The Peace of Ryswick, which was signed in
the year after Frontenac's campaign against
the Onondagas, came as a happy release to
Canada (1697). For nine years the colony
had been hard pressed, and a breathing space
was needed. The Iroquois still remained a
peril, but proportionately their losses since
1689 had been far heavier than those of the
French and English. Left to carry on the war
by themselves, they soon saw the hopelessness
of their project to drive the French from the
S* Lawrence. The English were ready to give
them defensive assistance, even after word
came from Europe that peace had been signed.
In 1698 the Earl of Bellomont, then governor
of New York, wrote Frontenac that he would
arm every man in his province to aid the
Iroquois if the French made good their threat
to invade once more the land of the Five
Nations. Frontenac, then almost on his
death-bed, sent back the characteristic reply

152 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

that this kind of language would only en-
courage him to attack the Iroquois with the
more vigour. The sequel shows that the
English at Albany overplayed their part.
The reward of their protection was to be
suzerainty, and at this price protection proved
unacceptable to the Iroquois, whose safety lay
in the equipoise of power between the rival
whites. Three years later the Five Nations
renewed peace with Onontio ; and, though
Frontenac did not live to see the day, he it
was who had brought it to pass. His daring
and energy had broken the spirit of the red
man. In 1701 Callieres, then governor of
New France, held a great council at Montreal,
which was attended by representatives from
all the Indian tribes of the V/est as well as from
the Iroquois. There, amid all the ceremonies
of the wilderness, the calumet was smoked and
the hatchet was interred.

But the old warrior was then no more. On
returning to Quebec from his war against the
Onondagas he had thrown himself into an
active quarrel with Champigny, the intendant,
as to the establishment and maintenance of
French posts throughout the West. To the
last Frontenac remained an advocate of the
policy which sought to place France in control

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 153

of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi.
Champigny complained of the expense and the
Jesuits lamented the immorality which life in
the forest encouraged among young men.
It was an old quarrel renewed under conditions
which made the issue more important than
ever, for with open war between French and
English it became of vital moment to control
points which were, or might be, strategic.

This dispute with Champigny was the last
incident in Frontenac's stormy life. It re-
mains to the credit of both governor and
intendant that their differences on matters
of policy did not make them irreconcilable
enemies. On the 28th of November 1698
Frontenac died at the Chateau St Louis after
an illness of less than a month. He had long
been a hero of the people, and his friendship
with the Recollets shows that he had some
true allies among the clergy. No one in
Canada could deny the value of his services
at the time of crisis — which was not a matter
of months but of years. Father Goyer, of the
Recollets, delivered a eulogy which in fervour
recalls Bossuet's funeral orations over mem-
bers of the royal family. But the most touch-
ing valedictory was that from Champigny,
who after many differences had become

154 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Frontenac's friend. In communicating to the
Colonial Office tidings of the governor's death,
Champigny says : ' On the 28th of last month
Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac died, with the
sentiments of a true Christian. After all our
disputes, 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
devoid of gratitude if I did not feel thankful
to him.'

There is a well-known portrait of Madame
de Frontenac, which may still be seen at
Versailles. Of Frontenac himself no portrait
whatever exists. Failing his likeness from
brush or pencil, we must image to ourselves
as best we may the choleric old warrior who
rescued New France in her hour of need. In
seeking to portray his character the historian
has abundant materials for the period of his
life in Canada, though we must regret the
dearth of information for the years which
separate his two terms of office. There is also
a bad gap in our sources for the period which
precedes his first appointment as governor.
What we have from Madame de Montpensier
and Saint-Simon is useful, but their statements

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 155

are far from complete and provoke many
questions which must remain unanswered.
His letters and reports as governor of Canada
exist in considerable numbers, but it must
remain a source of lasting regret that his
private correspondence has perished.

Some one has said that talent should be
judged at its best and character at its worst ;
but this is a phrase which does not help us
to form a true estimate of Frontenac. He
touched no heights of genius and he sank to
no depths of crime. In essential respects his
qualities lie upon the surface, depicted by his
acts and illustrated by his own words or those
of men who knew him well. Were we seeking
to set his good traits against his bad, we should
style him, in one column, brave, steadfast,
daring, ambitious of greatness, far-sighted in
policy ; and in the other, prodigal, boastful,
haughty, unfair in argument, ruthless in war.
This method of portraiture, however, is not
very helpful. We can form a much better idea
of Frontenac's nature by discussing his acts
than by throwing adjectives at him.

As an administrator he appears to least
advantage during his first term of office, when,
in the absence of war, his energies were
directed against adversaries within the colony.

156 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

Had he not been sent to Canada a second time,
his feud with Laval, Duchesneau, and the
Jesuits would fill a much larger space in the
canvas than it occupies at present. For in
the absence of great deeds to his credit
obstinacy and truculence might have been
thought the essentials rather than the acci-
dents of his character. M. Lorin, who writes
in great detail, finds much to say on behalf of
Frontenac's motives, if not of his conduct, in
these controversies. But viewing his career
broadly it must be held that, at best, he lost
a chance for useful co-operation by hugging
prejudices and prepossessions which sprang in
part from his own love of power and in part
from antipathy towards the Jesuits in France.
He might not like the Jesuits, but they were a
great force in Canada and had done things
which should have provoked his admiration.
In any case, it was his duty to work with them
on some basis and not dislocate the whole
administration by brawling. As to Duches-
neau, Frontenac was the broader man of the
two, and may be excused some of the petu-
lance which the intendant's pin-pricks called
forth.

Frontenac's enemies were fond of saying
that he used his position to make illicit profits

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 157

from the fur trade. Beyond question he
traded to some extent, but it would be
harsh to accuse him of venality or peculation
on the strength of such evidence as exists.
There is a strong probability that the king
appointed him in the expectation that he
would augment his income from sources which
lay outside his salary. Public opinion varies
from age to age regarding the latitude which
may be allowed a public servant in such
matters. Under a democratic regime the
standard is very different from that which has
existed, for thefmost part, under autocracies
in past ages. Frontenac was a man of dis-
tinction who accepted an important post at a
small salary. We may infer that the king was
willing to allow him something from per-
quisites. If so, his profits from the fur trade
become a matter of degree. So long as he
kept within the bounds of reason and decency,
the government raised no objection. Fron-
tenac certainly was not a governor who
pillaged the colony to feather his own nest. If
he took profits, they were not thought ex-
cessive by any one except Duchesneau. The
king recalled him not because he was venal,
but because he was quarrelsome.

Assuming the standards of his own age, a

158 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

reasonable plea can also be made on Fron-
tenac's behalf respecting the conduct of his
wars. ' Man's inhumanity to man makes
countless thousands mourn ' in our own day
no less than in the seventeenth century ; while
certain facts of recent memory are quite lurid
enough to be placed in comparison with the
border raids which, under Frontenac, were
made by the French and their Indian allies.
It is dreadful to know that captured Iroquois
were burned alive by the French, but after
the Lachine massacre and the tortures which
French captives endured, thfc was an almost
inevitable retaliation. The concluding scenes
of King Philip's War prove, at any rate, that
the men of New England exercised little more
clemency towards their Indian foes than was
displayed by the French. The Puritans justi-
fied their acts of carnage by citations from the
Old Testament regarding the Canaanites and
the Philistines. The most bitter chronicler
of King Philip's War is William Hubbard, a
Calvinist pastor of Ipswich. On December 19,
1675, the English of Massachusetts and Con-
necticut stormed the great stronghold of the
Narragansetts. To quote John Fiske : ' In the
slaughter which filled the rest of that Sunday
afternoon till the sun went down behind a

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 159

dull gray cloud, the grim and wrathful Puritan,
as he swung his heavy cutlass, thought of Saul
and Agag, and spared not. The Lord had
delivered up to him the heathen as stubble
to his sword. As usual the number of the
slain is variously estimated. Of the Indians
probably not less than a thousand perished.'

For the slaughter of English women and
children by French raiders there was no
precedent or just provocation. Here Fron-
tenac must be deemed more culpable than
the Puritans. The only extenuating circum-
stance is that those who survived the first
moments of attack were in almost all cases
spared, taken to Canada, and there treated
with kindness.

Writers of the lighter drama have long
found a subject in the old man whose irasci-
bility is but a cloak for goodness of heart. It
would be an exaggeration to describe Fron-
tenac as a character of this type, for his wrath
could be vehement, and benevolence was not
the essential strain in his disposition. At the
same time, he had many warm impulses to his
credit. His loyalty to friends stands above
reproach, and there are little incidents which
show his sense of humour. For instance, he
once fined a woman for lampooning him, but

160 THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR

caused the money to be given to her children.
Though often unfair in argument, he was by
nature neither mean nor petty. In ordinary
circumstances he remembered noblesse oblige,
and though boastf ulness may have been among
his failings, he had a love of greatness which
preserved him from sordid misdemeanours.
Even if we agree with Parkman that great-
ness must be denied him, it yet remains
to be pointed out that absolute greatness is
a high standard attained by few. Frontenac
was a greater man than most by virtue of
robustness, fire, and a sincere aspiration to
discharge his duty as a lieutenant of the
king.

He doubtless thought himself ill-used in
that he lacked the wealth which was needed
to accomplish his ambitions at court. But if
fortune frowned upon him at Versailles, she
made full compensation by granting him the
opportunity to govern Canada a second time.
As he advanced in years his higher qualities
became more conspicuous. His vision cleared.
His vanities fell away. There remained traces
of the old petulance ; but with graver duties
his stature increased and the strong fibre of
his nature was disclosed. For his foibles he
had suffered much throughout his whole life./

FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS 161

But beneath the foibles lay courage and re-
solve. It was his reward that in the hour
of trial, when upon his shoulders rested the
fate of France in America, he was not found
wanting.

r.G.

OF the literature on Frontenac and his period the
greater part is in French. The books in English
to which attention may be specially called are :

Parkman, Francis : Count Frontenac and New

France under Louis XIV.
Le Sueur, William Dawson : Count Frontenac

in the * Makers of Canada* series.
Winsor, Justin : Cartier to Frontenac.
Stewart, George : * Frontenac and his Times'

in the Narrative and Critical History of

America, edited by Justin Winsor, vol. iv.

In French the most important works are :

Lorin, Henri : Le Comte de Frontenac.

Myrand, Ernest: Frontenac et ses Amis',
Phips devant Quebec.

Rochemonteix, Le Pere Camille de: Les
Jesuites et la Nouvelle France, vol. iii.

Gosselin, L'Abbe* : La Vie de Mgr Laval.

Suite, B. : Histoire des Canadiens-Francjais.

Ferland, L'Abbe* : Cours d' Histoire du Canada.

Faillon, L'Abbe* : Histoire de la Colonie Fran-
chaise en Canada, vol. iii.

Gagnon, Ernest : Le Fort et le Chateau Saint-
Louis.

162

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 163

Garneau, F.-X. : Histoire du Canada, edited by
Hector Garneau.

Among the original sources for this period the
following are likely to be found in any large
library :

Jugements et Deliberations du Conseil Souve-

raln.

Edits et Ordonnances.
Relations des Jesuites. Ed. Thwaites.
Memoires et Documents pour servir a 1'histoire

des origines fran^aises des pays d'outre-mer,

ed. P. Margry.
Les Lettres de La Hontan.
Histoire de 1'Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, par la mere

Jucbereau de Saint-Denis.

INDEX

Abnakis, the, raid New Eng-
land settlements, 147-8.

Aillebout de Mantet, d', 118,
119.

Andros, Sir Edmund, his In-
dian policy, 89, 90, 109.

Bellomont, Earl of, and Fron-

tenac, 151.

Bernieres, Abbe" de, 59.
Bienville, Francois Le Moyne

de, 118.
Brucy, Perrot's chief agent, 49.

Callieres-Bonnevue, Louis Hec-
tor de, 116, 150; at the de-
fence of Quebec, 128 ; repulses
Schuyler's invasion, 146 ;
makes peace with the Iro-
quois, 152.

Canada. See New France.

Cannehoot, a Seneca chief, 138.

Carheil, Etienne de, a Jesuit
missionary, 1390.

Cataraqui, Froatenac's confer-
ence with Iroquois at, 41-4.

Champigny, intendant, his re-
lations with Frontenac, 152-4.

Champlain, Samuel de, 8.

Chateau St Louis, 9, 34.

Clermont, Chevalier de, killed
at Quebec, 129.

Colbert, minister of Louis XIV,
30 ; and New France, 54, 58,
62, 65-8.

Courcelles, Sieur de, governor

of New France, 34.
Coureurs de bois, the, 12-13,

46, 49.

Denonville, Marquis de, gover-
nor of New France, 103-4;
his correspondence with Don-
gan, 104-6, 1 08 ; fails to cope
with the Iroquois, 103-11, 135-
136, 138; recalled, 115-16.

Dongan, Thomas, governor of
New York, 90-1, 96, 97, 104-5,
109.

Duchesneau, Jacques, intendant,
51-2, 64 ; his relations with
Frontenac, 52-3, 63-70, 80,
94 ; and the coureurs de bois,
79-80.

Du Lhut, Daniel Greysolon,
explorer and pioneer, 77-81,
106, 109, 150.

Fe"nelon, Abb£, espouses Per-
rot's cause against Frontenac,
48-9, 50, 74.

Five Nations. See Iroquois.

Fort Frontenac, 38, 43, 44, 45,
76, 98, 106-7 J destroyed, 135-6.

France, under the Bourbons, i-
4, ii, 29 n., 31-2, 85, 90; her
policy in New France, 5, 10-
n, 68; the Thirty Years'
War, 19-21 ; the outbreak of
the Fronde, 21 ; the dispute

THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR 165

bet ween Galileans and Ul tra-
montanes, 55-7 ; war with
Holland, 85, 90 ; war with
Britain, 114 ; her colonial
system compared with that
of Britain, 131-4. See New
France.

Frontenac, Comte de, his birth
and parentage, 17-18 ; his
early career, 18-21, 26 n. ; his
marriage and domesticaffairs,
21-6, 113; selected by Tur-
enne to assist Venice in the
defence of Crete, 26-8 ; gossip
concerning his appointment
as governor of New France,
28-30 ; his arrival in Quebec,
33-4 ; summons the Three
Estates, 35-7, 44-5 ; his tour
of inspection and conference
with the Iroquois, 38-44, 95 ;
his quarrel with Perrot, 45-
50 ; and Laval, 51-3, 55, 58-
63 ; and Duchesneau, 52-3,
63-70, 80 ; and the Sulpicians,
54 ; his antagonism towards
the Jesuits, 54-5, 57-8, 69-70,
81-3 ; favours the Recollets,
55 ; upholds the brandy traffic,
61-3 ; his influence with the
Indians, 72-3, 93-4; encour-
ages exploration, 74-5, 79;
supports the coureurs de bois,
80 ; his recall, 70-2 ; an esti-
mate of his work, 72-4, 83-
86, 93-4 ; his return to New
France, 112-15, "/»» 135-6 ;
his campaign against New
England, 117-19, 121 ; his
reply to Phips, 125-7 >' his
Indian policy, 135-7, J38, 141 ;
at war wife the Iroquois,
137-42, 144, 148-50 ; his ex-
pedition against the Ononda-

gas and Oneidas, 148-50 ; his
reply to Bellomont's threat,
151-2 ; his dispute with
Champigny, 152-3 ; his death,
153-4 ; his character, 24, 25-
26, 31, 32, 44, 57, 58, 150, 154-
161.

Frontenac, Madame de, 22-5,
154-

Goyer, Father, 115; pronounces

eulogy on Frontenac, 153.
Grangula, an Onondaga chief,

99-102,109.
Great Britain, 29 n., 90; and

war with France, 114, 142 ;

her colonial system, 131-4.

See New England States.

Hebert, Louis, a seigneur of

New France, 14.
Hennepin, Father, his rescue,

78.
Hertel, Francois, his raid on

English settlements, 118, 119-

121.
Holland, and war with France,

29 n. , 85, 90 ; and the fur trade,

89.
Howard of Effingham, Lord,

governor of Virginia, 96.
Hubbard, William, and King

Philip's War, 158-9.
Hudson Bay, the struggle be-
tween French and English

on, 105-6.
Hurons, the, 139.

Iberville, Pierre Le Moyne d',
118, 150.

Illinois, the, 93, 95-6.

Iroquois, the, and Frontenac,
40, 41-4, 93, 95, 137-8 ; their
power and political sagacity,

166

INDEX

87-9» 97» 109-10 ; and the fur
trade, 92-3, 95-6 ; a menace
to New France, 94, 95-6, in ;
their relations with the Eng-
lish, 96, 97; and La Barre,
95, 98-102 ; and Denonville,
106-7, IO9f II0 J at w*r with
New France, 137-42, 149;
make peace, 152.

Jesuits, the, in New France, 8,
53-4; and Frontenac, 54-5,
57-8, 69-70, 82-3; and the
brandy traffic, 61-3.

King Philip's War, 158-9.
Kondiaronk, a Huron chief, 1 10-
xxx. 139-

La Barre, Lefebvre de, gover-
nor of New France, 91, 92,
135 ; fails to cope with the
Iroquois peril, 94, 95-6,97, 98-
102; recalled, 103.

La Chesnaye, massacre at,

i", 135-
Lachine, massacre by Iroquois

at, in, 135.

La Durantaye, and the Iro-
quois, 106, 109.
La Hontan, Baron, quoted, 99-

102.
Lamberville, his influence with

the Iroquois, 97, 109.
Laprairie, English raids on,

123, 146.
La Salle, and Frontenac, 40-1,

45. 74-7. 92, 93 > and La Barre,

96.
Laval, Francois de, bishop of

Quebec, 6-7, 8-9, 34, 51-3 ; and

Frontenac, 51-3, 55, 58-63;

and the brandy traffic, 61-2.
Le Ber, Jacques, 47-8.

LeMoyne, Charles, interpreter,
43> 95» 97> I02- See Bienville,
Iberville, and Sainte-Helene.

Louis XIV, his interest in New
France, 30, 50, 60, 62, 67, 85,
117 ; and the Church, 56, 58.

Marlborough, puke of, 90.
Mazarin, Cardinal, 21.
Meulles, intendant, and La
Barre, 91, 92, 97, 102.

Michilimackinac, 13, 78.
Mohawks, the, 145.
Mohegans, the, 145.
Montpensier, Dachesse de, 22-

23 ; and Frontenac, 24.
Montreal, its position in New

France, 39-40, 141.

New Amsterdam, and the Iro-
quois, 89.

New England States, con-
trasted with New France, 15,
130-4; and the Iroquois, 89-
90, 104-5, 151-2 ; at war with
New France, 123-30, 138, 151-
152 ; and the Abnaki raids,
147-8.

New France, in 1672, i, 8, 14-
16, 83 ; status of the governor
and intendant, 5, 9-10, 11 ; the
fur trade, 8 ; the seigneurial
system, 11-12, 14-15 ; thecou-
reurs debois, 12-13 ; the crea-
tion of parishes, 58-61 ; the
brandy traffic, 61-3 ; popula-
tion and trade during 1673-83,
84-5 ; the Iroquois peril, 87, 89,
90, 91, 94, 97, 1 1 1, 137-40, 142-
143, 149 ; in 1689, 1 14, 115 ; a*
war with New England, 119-
123, 128-30, 145-6 ; her weak-
ness, 130-4; from 1690 to 1693,
142-4, 150; and Acadia, 147-8.

THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR 167

Oneidas, the, 149. See Iroquois.
Onondagas, the, 98-103, 149.

See Iroquois.

Ottawas, the, 139, 140, 141.
Ourehaoue'.aCayugachief, 137.

Parkman, on Frontenac, 36,
160 ; on Hertel, 120-1.

Perrot, Frangois, governor of
Montreal, 39-40; his quarrel
with Frontenac, 45-50.

Perrot, Nicolas, interpreter,
13 n., 106, 138-9, 140, 150.

Phips, Sir William, his attack
on Quebec, 123-30.

Portneuf, his raid, 119.

Port Royal, surrendered to
Phips, 124, 127.

Quebec, 91 ; Phips's siege of,
123-30.

Recollets, the, and Frontenac,

53-4, 55-

Repentigny de Montesson, 118.
Richelieu, Cardinal, minister to

Louis XIII, 18-19, 20, 21,

131-

Rouville, Hertel de, 118.
Ryswick, Peace of, 151.

Saint-Castin, Baron de, raids

New England settlements,

147, 148, 150.
Sainte-H61ene, Jacques Le

Moynede, 118, 119, 129, 150.
Schenectady, raided by the

French, 119, 121, 122, 140.

Schuyler, John, his abortive
raid into New France, 123,

145-

Schuyler, Peter, his invasion
defeated at Laprairie, 145-6.

Seignelay, Marquis de, 70.

Senecas, the, 107-8. See Iro-
quois.

Sovereign Council, composition
and jurisdiction of, 9-10 ; and
Frontenac, 65-8.

Sulpicians, the, in New France,

Superior Council, 9. See Sove-
reign Council.

Talon, Jean, 6, 34; supports

Perrot against Frontenac, 50.
Thury, Father, encourages

Abnaki raids on English

settlements, 147-8.
Tonty, Henri de, explorer, 76-7,

92, 93, 106, 109, 150.
Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques,

6 and note.

Urfe, Abbe" d', supports Perrot
against Frontenac, 50.

Valrennes, at Laprairie, 146.
Vaudreuil, governor of New

France, 81.
Vercheres, Madeleine de, 144.

West India Company, its trad-
ing monopoly, 84.

'William and Mary's War,'
150. See under New France
and New England States.

THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA

Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
of the University of Toronto

A series of thirty-two freshly-written narratives for
popular reading, designed to set forth, in historic con-
tinuity, the principal events and movements in Canada,
from the Norse Voyages to the Railway Builders.

PART I. THE FIRST EUROPEAN VISITORS

1. The Dawn of Canadian History

A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada

BY STEPHEN LEACOCK

2. The Manner of St Malo

A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier
BY STEPHEN LEACOCK

PART II. THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE

3. The Founder of New France

A Chronicle of Champlain

BY CHARLES W. COLBY

4. The Jesuit Missions

A Chronicle of the Cross in the Wilderness

BY THOMAS GUTHRIE MARQUIS

5. The Seigneurs of Old Canada

A Chronicle of New- World Feudalism

BY WILLIAM BENNETT MUNRO

6. The Great Intendant

A Chronicle of Jean Talon

BY THOMAS CHAPAIS

7. The Fighting Governor

A Chronicle of Frontenac

BY CHARLES W. COLBY

The Chronicles of Canada

PART III. THE ENGLISH INVASION

8. The Great Fortress

A Chronicle of Louisbourg

BY WILLIAM WOOD

9. The Acadian Exiles

A Chronicle of the Land of Evangeline

BY ARTHUR G. DOUGHTY

10. The Passing of New France

A Chronicle of Montcalm

BY WILLIAM WOOD

11. The Winning of Canada

A Chronicle of Wolfe

BY WILLIAM WOOD

PART IV. THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH CANADA

12. The Father of British Canada

A Chronicle of Carleton

BY WILLIAM WOOD

13. The United Empire Loyalists

A Chronicle of the Great Migration

BY W. STEWART WALLACE

14. The War with the United States

A Chronicle of 1812

BY WILLIAM WOOD

PART V. THE RED MAN IN CANADA

15. The War Chief of the Ottawas

A Chronicle of the Pontiac War

BY THOMAS GUTHRIE MARQUIS

1 6. The War Chief of the Six Nations

A Chronicle of Joseph Brant

BY LOUIS AUBREY WOOD

17. Tecumseh

A Chronicle of the last Great Leader of his People
BY ETHEL T. RAYMOND

The Chronicles of Canada

PART VI. PIONEERS OF THE NORTH AND WEST

1 8. The ( Adventurers of England ' on Hudson

Bay

A Chronicle of the Fur Trade in the North
BY AGNES C. LAUT

19. Pathfinders of the Great Plains

A Chronicle of La V£rendrye and his Sons

BY LAWRENCE J. BURPEE

20. Adventurers cf the Far North

A Chronicle of the Arctic Seas

BY STEPHEN LE ACOCK

21. The Red River Colony

A Chronicle of the Beginnings of Manitoba

BY LOUIS AUBREY WOOD

22. Pioneers of the Pacific Coast

A Chronicle of Sea Rovers and Fur Hunters
BY AGNES C. LAUT

23. The Cariboo Trail

A Chronicle of the Gold-fields of British Columbia
BY AGNES C. LAUT

PART VII. THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM

24. The Family Compact

A Chronicle of the Rebellion in Upper Canada

BY W. STEWART WALLACE

25. The Patriotes of '37

A Chronicle of the Rebellion in Lower Canada

BY ALFRED D. DECELLES

26. The Tribune of Nova Scotia

A Chronicle of Joseph Howe

BY WILLIAM LAWSON GRANT

27. The Winning of Popular Government

A Chronicle of the Union of 1841

BY ARCHIBALD MACMECHAN

The Chronicles of Canada
\

PART VIII. THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY

28. The Fathers of Confederation

A Chronicle of the Birth of the Dominion

BY A. H. U. COLQUHOUN

29. The Day of Sir John Macdonald

A Chronicle of the Early Years of the Dominion
BY SIR JOSEPH POPE

30. The Day of Sir Wilfrid Laurier

A Chronicle of Our Own Times

BY OSCAR D. SKELTON

PART IX. NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

31. All Afloat

A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways

BY WILLIAM WOOD

32. The Railway Builders

A Chronicle of Overland Highways

BY OSCAR D. SKELTON

Published by
Glasgow, Brook & Company

TORONTO, CANADA

FC 162 .C47 v.7

SMC

Colby, Charles W.

(Charles William),
The fighting governor

a chronicle of
AKA-6433 (mcab)