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Cofnjrtia7ifr,3.$g>7, 


OLD   RF  IN   CA> 


FRANC 


UTTLE, 

Jean  Guion  before  Boulle. 


THE 


OLD   REGIME   IN   CANADA. 


FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND  IN 
NOETH  AMERICA. 

PART  FOURTH. 


BY 


FRANCIS  PARKMAN, 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY, 
1910. 


i% :-! 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874, 

BY  FRANCIS  PARKMAN, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 

Copyright,  1893, 
BY  FRANCIS  PARKMAN. 

Copyright,  1897, 
BY  LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 

Copyright,  ipo2t 
BY  GRACE  P.  COFFIN. 


-TK/ 

^ 

957882 


TO 

GEORGE   EDWARD   ELLIS,  D.D. 


MY  DEAR  DR.  ELLIS  : 

When,  in  my  youth,  I  proposed  to  write  a  series  of  books 
on  the  French  in  America,  you  encouraged  the  attempt,  and 
your  helpful  kindness  has  followed  it  from  that  day  to  this. 
Pray  accept  the  dedication  of  this  volume  in  token  of  the 
grateful  regard  of 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

FRANCIS   PARKMAN. 


NOTE  TO  REVISED  EDITION. 


WHEN  this  book  was  written,  I  was  unable  to 
gain  access  to  certain  indispensable  papers  relat- 
ing to  the  rival  claimants  to  Acadia,  —  La  Tour 
and  D'Aunay,  —  and  therefore  deferred  all  at- 
tempts to  treat  that  subject.  The  papers  having 
at  length  come  to  hand,  the  missing  chapters  are 
supplied  in  the  present  edition,  which  also  con- 
tains some  additional  matter  of  less  prominence. 

The  title  of  "  The  Old  Regime  in  Canada  "  is 
derived  from  the  third  and  principal  of  the  three 
sections  into  which  the  book  is  divided. 

JUNE  16, 1893. 


PEEFACE. 


HE  physiognomy  of  a  government,"  says 
Tocqueville,  "  can  best  be  judged  in  its  colo- 
nies/Tor^-there  its  characteristic  traits  usually 
appear  larger  and  more  distinct.  When  I  wish 
to  judge  of  the  spirit  and  the  taults  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  Louis  XIV.,  I  must  go  to  Can- 
ada. Its  deformity  is  there  seen  as  through  a 
microscope/^J 

The  monarchical  administration  of  France,  at 
the  height  of  its  power  and  at  the  moment  of 
its  supreme  triumph,  stretched  an  arm  across  the 
Atlantic  and  grasped  the  North  American  conti- 
nent. This  volume  attempts  to  show  by  what 
methods  it  strove  to  make  good  its  hold,  why  it 
achieved  a  certain  kind  of  success,  and  why  it 
failed  at  last.  The  political  system  which  has 
fallen,  and  the  antagonistic  system  which  has 
prevailed,  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  offer  nothing 
but  contrasts ;  yet  out  of  the  tomb  of  Canadian 
absolutism  come  voices  not  without  suggestion 


X  PREFACE. 

even  to  us.  Extremes  meet,  and  Autocracy  and 
Democracy  often  touch  hands,  at  least  in  their 
vices. 

The  means  of  knowing  the  Canada  of  the  past 
are  ample.  The  pen  was  always  busy  in  this 
outpost  of  the  old  monarchy.  The  king  and  the 
minister  demanded  to  know  everything ;  and 
officials  of  high  and  low  degree,  soldiers  and 
civilians,  friends  and  foes,  poured  letters,  de- 
spatches, and  memorials,  on  both  sides  of  every 
question,  into  the  lap  of  government.  These 
masses  of  paper  have  in  the  main  survived  the 
perils  of  revolutions  and  the  incendiary  torch  of 
the  Commune.  Add  to  them  the  voluminous 
records  of  the  Superior  Council  of  Quebec,  and 
numerous  other  documents  preserved  in  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  depositories  of  Canada. 

The  governments  of  New  York  and  of  Canada 
have  caused  a  large  part  of  the  papers  in  the 
French  archives  relating  to  their  early  history  to 
be  copied  and  brought  to  America,  and  valuable 
contributions  of  material  from  the  same  quarter 
have  been  made  by  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
and  by  private  Canadian  investigators.  Never- 
theless, a  great  deal  has  still  remained  in  France 
uncopied  and  unexplored.  In  the  course  of  sev- 
eral visits  to  that  country,  I  have  availed  myself 


PREFACE.  xi 

of  these  supplementary  papers,  as  well  as  of 
those  which  had  before  been  copied,  sparing 
neither  time  nor  pains  to  explore  every  part  of 
the  field.  With  the  help  of  a  system  of  classi- 
fied notes,  I  have  collated  the  evidence  of  the 
various  writers,  and  set  down  without  reserve 
all  the  results  of  the  examination,  whether  fav- 
orable or  unfavorable.  Some  of  them  are  of  a 
character  which  I  regret,  since  they  cannot  be 
agreeable  to  persons  for  whom  I  have  a  very 
cordial  regard.  The  conclusions  drawn  from 
the  facts  may  be  matter  of  opinion,  but  it  will 
be  remembered  that  the  facts  themselves  can  be 
overthrown  only  by  overthrowing  the  evidence 
on  which  they  rest,  or  bringing  forward  counter- 
evidence  of  equal  or  greater  strength ;  and 
neither  task  will  be  found  an  easy  one.1 

I  have  received  most  valuable  aid  in  my  inqui- 
ries from  the  great  knowledge  and  experience  of 
M.  Pierre  Margry,  Chief  of  the  Archives  of  the 
Marine  and  Colonies  at  Paris.  I  beg  also 
warmly  to  acknowledge  the  kind  offices  of 
Abbe*  Henri  Raymond  Casgrain  and  Grand 

1  Those  who  wish  to  see  the  subject  from  a  point  of  view  oppo- 
site to  mine  cannot  do  better  than  consult  the  work  of  the  Jesuit 
Charlevoix,  with  the  excellent  annotation  of  Mr.  Shea.  (History 
and  General  Description  of  New  France,  by  the  Rev.  P.  F.  X.  de 
Charlevoix,  S.J.,  translated  with  notes  by  John  Gilmary  Shea.  6 
vols.  New  York:  1866-1872.) 


Xli  PREFACE. 

Vicar  Cazeau,  of  Quebec  ;  together  with  those  of 
James  Le  Moine,  Esq.,  M.  Eugene  Tache,  Hon. 
P.  J.  0.  Chauveau,  and  other  eminent  Canadians, 
and  Henry  Harrisse,  Esq. 

The  few  extracts  from  original  documents 
which  are  printed  in  the  Appendix  may  serve  as 
samples  of  the  material  out  of  which  the  work 
has  been  constructed.  In  some  instances  their 
testimony  might  be  multiplied  twenty-fold. 
When  the  place  of  deposit  of  the  documents 
cited  in  the  margin  is  not  otherwise  indicated, 
they  will,  in  nearly  all  cases,  be  found  in  the 
Archives  of  the  Marine  and  Colonies. 

In  the  present  book  we  examine  the  political 
and  social  machine ;  in  the  next  volume  of  the 
series  we  shall  see  this  machine  in  action. 

BOSTON,  July  1,  1874. 


CONTENTS. 


SECTION  FIRST. 
THE  FEUDAL   CHIEFS   OF   ACADIA. 

CHAPTER  I. 
1497-1643. 

LA    TOUR   AND   D'AUNAY. 

The  Acadian  Quarrel.  —  Biencourt.  —  Claude  and  Charles  de  la 
Tour. —Sir  William  Alexander.  —  Claude  de  Razilly.— 
Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay.  —  Cape  Sable.  —  Port 
Royal.  —  The  Heretics  of  Boston  and  Plymouth.  —  Madame 
de  la  Tour.  —  War  and  Litigation.  —  La  Tour  worsted :  he 
asks  help  from  the  Boston  Puritans 3 

CHAPTER   II. 
1643-1645. 

LA   TOUR   AND   THE    PURITANS. 

La  Tour  at  Boston  :  he  meets  Winthrop.  —  Boston  in  1 643.  — 
Training  Day.  —  An  Alarm.  —  La  Tour's  Bargain.  —  Doubts 
and  Disputes.  —  The  Allies  sail.  —  La  Tour  and  Endicott.  — 
D'Aunay's  Overture  to  the  Puritans.  — Marie's  Mission  .  .  21 

CHAPTER  III. 
1645-1710. 

THE   VICTOR   VANQUISHED. 

D'Aunay's  Envoys :  their  Reception  at  Boston.  —  Winthrop 
and  his  "  Papist "  Guests.  —  Reconciliation.  —  Treaty.  —  Be- 
havior of  La  Tour.  —  Royal  Favors  to  D'Aunay :  his 
Hopes;  his  Death;  his  Character.  —  Conduct  of  the  Court 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

PAOR 

towards  him.  —  Intrigues  of  La  Tour.  —  Madame  D'Aunay. 
—  La  Tour  marries  her.  —  Children  of  D'Aunay.  —  Descend- 
ants of  La  Tour  41 


SECTION   SECOND. 
CANADA    A    MISSION. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
1653-1658. 

THE   JESUITS  AT   ONONDAGA. 

The  Iroquois  War. — Father  Poncet:  his  Adventures. — Jesuit 
Boldness.  —  Le  Moyne's  Mission.  —  Chaumonot  and  Dablon. 

—  Iroquois  Ferocity.  —  The  Mohawk  Kidnappers.  —  Critical 
Position.  —  The  Colony  of  Onondaga.  —  Speech  of  Chau- 
monot. —  Omens  of  Destruction.  —  Device  of  the  Jesuits.  — 
The  Medicine  Feast.  —  The  Escape 54 

CHAPTER  V. 
1642-1661. 

THE   HOLT   WARS   OF    MONTREAL. 

Dauversiere.  —  Mance  and  Bourgeoys.  —  Miracle.  —  A  Pious  De- 
faulter.—  Jesuit  and  Sulpitian.  —  Montreal  in  1659.  —  The 
Hospital  Nuns.  —  The  Nuns  and  the  Iroquois.  —  More  Mira- 
cles.—The  Murdered  Priests.— Brigeac  and  Closse.  — Sol- 
diers of  the  Holy  Family 96 

CHAPTER  VI. 
1660,  1661. 

THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT. 

Suffering  and  Terror.  —  Francois  Hertel.  —  The  Captive  Wolf. 

—  The  Threatened  Invasion.  —  Daulac  des  Ormeaux.  —  The 
Adventurers  at  the  Long  Saut.  —  The  Attack.  —  A  Desperate 
Defence.  —  A  Final  Assault.  —The  Fort  taken  .  .118 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  VII. 
1657-1668. 

THE   DISPUTED   BISHOPRIC. 

PAGK 

Domestic  Strife.  —  Jesuit  and  Sulpitian.  —  Abbs'  Queylus. — 
Francois  de  Laval.  —  The  Zealots  of  Caen.  —  Galilean  and 
Ultramontane.  —  The  Rival  Claimants.  —  Storm  at  Quebec. 
Laval  Triumphant 140 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
1659,  1660. 

LAVAL   AND  ARGENSON. 

Francois  de  Laval:  his  Position  and  Character.  —  Arrival  of 
Argenson.  —  The  Quarrel 161 

CHAPTER  IX. 
1658-1663. 

LAVAL   AND    AVAUGOUB. 

Reception  of  Argenson:  his  Difficulties;  his  Recall.  —  Dubois 
d'Avaugour. —  The  Brandy  Quarrel.  —  Distress  of  Laval. 
—  Portents.  — The  Earthquake 173 

CHAPTER  X. 
1661-1664. 

LAVAL  AND   DUME8NIL. 

Pe'ronne  Dumesnil.  —  The  Old  Council. —Alleged  Murder.— 
The  New  Council.  —  Bourdon  and  Villeray.  —  Strong  Meas- 
ures.—  Escape  of  Dumesnil.  —  Views  of  Colbert 189 

CHAPTER  XL 
1657-1665. 

LAVAL  AND   MEZY. 

The  Bishop's  Choice.  —  A  Military  Zealot.  —  Hopeful  Begin- 
nings. —  Signs  of  Storm.  —  The  Quarrel.  —  Distress  of  Mezy : 
ha  refuses  to  yield ;  his  Defeat  and  Death 204 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 
1662-1680. 

LAVAL  AND  THE  SEMINARY. 

PAGE 
Laval's  Visit  to  Court.  —  The  Seminary.  —  Zeal  of  the  Bishop  : 

his  Eulogists.  —  Church  and  State.  —  Attitude  of  Laval          .  219 


SECTION   THIRD. 
THE   COLONY  AND   THE   KING.    ^ 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

1661-1665. 

ROYAL   INTERVENTION. 

Fontainebleau.  —  Louis  XIV.  —  Colbert.  —  The  Company  of  the 
West.  —  Evil  Omens.  —  Action  of  the  King.  —  Tracy,  Cour- 
celle,  and  Talon. — The  Regiment  of  Carignan-Salieres. — 
Tracy  at  Quebec.  —  Miracles.  —  A  Holy  War 229 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
1666,  1667. 

THE   MOHAWKS   CHASTISED. 

Courcelle's  March :  his  Failure  and  Return.  —  Courcelle  and 
the  Jesuits.  —  Mohawk  Treachery.  —  Tracy's  Expedition.  — 
Burning  of  the  Mohawk  Towns.  —  French  and  English.  — 
Dollier  de  Casson  at  St.  Anne.  —  Peace.  —  The  Jesuits  and 
the  Iroquois 246 

CHAPTER  XV. 
1665-1672. 

PATERNAL    GOVERNMENT. 

Talon.  —  Restriction  and  Monopoly.  —  Views  of  Colbert.  —  Po- 
litical Galvanism.  —  A  Father  of  the  People 268 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

1661-1673. 

MARRIAGE  AND  POPULATION. 

PAGK 

Shipment  of  Emigrants.  —  Soldier  Settlers.  —  Importation  of 
\\rives.  _  Wedlock.  —  Summary  Methods.  — The  Mothers  of 
Canada.  —  Bounties  on  Marriage.  —  Celibacy  Punished.  — 
Bounties  on  Children.  —  Results 276 

CHAPTER  XVII.       t 
1665-1672. 

THE   NEW   HOME. 

Military  Frontier.  —  The  Canadian  Settler.  —  Seignior  and  Vas- 
sal. —  Example  of  Talon.  —  Plan  of  Settlement.  —  Aspect  of 
Canada.  —  Quebec.  —  The  River  Settlements.  —  Montreal.  — 
The  Pioneers 292 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
1663-1763. 

CANADIAN    FEUDALISM. 

Transplantation  of  Feudalism.  —  Precautions.  —  Faith  and  Hom- 
age. —  The  Seignior.  —  The  Censitaire.  —  Royal  Intervention. 
—  The  Gentilhomme.  —  Canadian  Noblesse 304 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
1663-1763. 

THE    RULERS    OF    CANADA. 

Nature  of  the  Government.  —  The  Governor.  —  The  Council.  — 
Courts  and  Judges.  —  The  Intendant :  his  Grievances.  — 
Strong  Government.  —  Sedition  and  Blasphemy.  —  Royal 
Bounty.  —  Defects  and  Abuses 326 

CHAPTER  XX.   •- 
1663-1763. 

TRADE   AND   INDUSTRY.      ^ 

Trade  in  Fetters.  —  The  Huguenot  Merchants.  —  Royal  Pat- 
ronage. —  The  Fisheries.  —  Cries  for  Help.  —  Agriculture. 


xviii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

—  Manufactures.  —  Arts  of  Ornament.  —  Finance.  — Card 
Money.  —  Repudiation.  —  Imposts.  —  The  Beaver  Trade.  — 
The  Fair  at  Montreal.  —  ( Contraband  Trade.  —  A  Fatal  Sys- 
tem. —  Trouble  and  Change.  —  The  Coureurs  de  Bois.  —  The 
Forest.  —  Letter  of  Carheil 352 

CHAPTER  XXI.    l/ 
1663-1702. 

THE   MISSIONS.  —  THE    BRANDY   QUESTION. 

The  Jesuits  and  the  Iroquois.  —  Mission  Villages.  —  Michili- 
mackinac.  —  Father  Carheil.  —  Temperance.  —  Brandy  and 
the  Indians.  —  Strong  Measures.  —  Disputes.  —  License  and 
Prohibition.  —  Views  of  the  King.  —  Trade  and  the  Jesuits  380 

CHAPTER  XXII.    V 
1663-1763. 

PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE. 

Church  and  State.  —  The  Bishop  and  the  King.  — The  King 
and  the  Cures.  —  The  New  Bishop.  —  The  Canadian  Cure.  — 
Ecclesiastical  Rule.  —  Saint-Vallier  and  Denonville.  —  Cleri- 
cal Rigor.  —  Jesuit  and  Sulpitian.  —  Courcelle  and  Chatelain. 

—  The    Recollets.  —  Heresy    and    Witchcraft.  —  Canadian 
Nuns. —Jeanne  Le  Ber.  —  Education.  —  The   Seminary. — 
Saint  Joachim.  —  Miracles  of  Saint  Anne.  —  Canadian  Schools    396 

CHAPTER  XXIII.      v 
1640-1763. 

MORALS   AND   MANNERS. 

Social  Influence  of  the  Troops.  —  A  Petty  Tyrant.  — Brawls.  — 
Violence  and  Outlawry.  —  State  of  the  Population.  —  Views  of 
Denonville.  —  Brandy.  —  Beggary.  —  The  Past  and  the  Pres- 
ent. —  Inns.  —  State  of  Quebec.  —  Fires.  —  The  Country  Par- 
ishes. —  Slavery.  —  Views  of  La  Hontan,  —  of  Hocquart ;  of 
Bougainville  ;  of  Kalm  ;  of  Charlevoix 434 


CONTENTS.  xix 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 
1663-1763. 

CANADIAN  ABSOLUTISM. 

PAGE 

Formation  of  Canadian  Character.  —  The  Rival  Colonies.  —  Eng- 
land and  France.  —  New  England.  —  Characteristics  of  Race. 
—  Military  Qualities.  -  The  Church.  —  The  English  Conquest  46 1 


APPENDIX. 

A.  La  Tonr  and  D'Aunay 469 

B.  The  Hermitage  of  Caen 476 

C.  Laval  and  Argenson 481 

D.  Peroune  Dumesnil 484 

E.  Laval  and  Mesy 488 

F.  Marriage  and  Population     . 493 

G.  Ch&teau  St.  Louis 496 

H.     Trade  and  Industry 500 

I.       Letter  of  Father  Carheil 506 

J.      The  Government  and  the  Clergy 512 

K.     Canadian  Cures.     Education.     Discipline 520 


INDEX          , 527 


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SECTION  FIEST. 
THE  FEUDAL  CHIEFS  OF  ACADIA, 


CHAPTER   I. 

1497-1643. 
LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY. 

THE  ACADIAN  QUARREL.  —  BIBNCOURT.  —  CLAUDE  AND  CHARLES 
DE  LA  TOUR.  —  SIR  WILLIAM  ALEXANDER.  —  CLAUDE  DE  RA- 
ZILLT.  —  CHARLES  DE  MENOU  D'AUNAY  CHARNISAY.  —  CAPE 
SABLE.  —  PORT  ROYAL.  —  THE  HERETICS  OF  BOSTON  AND  PLY- 
MOUTH.—  MADAME  DE  LA  TOUR.  —  WAR  AND  LITIGATION. — LA 
TOUR  WORSTED:  HE  ASKS  HELP  FROM  THE  BOSTON  PURITANS. 

WITH  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century 
began  that  contest  for  the  ownership  of  North 
America  which  was  to  remain  undecided  for  a  century 
and  a  half.  England  claimed  the  continent  through 
the  discovery  by  the  Cabots  in  1497  and  1498,  and 
France  claimed  it  through  the  voyage  of  Verrazzano 
in  1524.  Each  resented  the  claim  of  the  other;  and 
each  snatched  such  fragments  of  the  prize  as  she 
could  reach,  and  kept  them  if  she  could.  In  1604, 
Henry  IV.  of  France  gave  to  De  Monts  all  America 
from  the  40th  to  the  46th  degree  of  north  latitude. 


4  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.          [1604-29. 

including  the  sites  of  Philadelphia  on  the  one  hand 
and  Montreal  on  the  other ; 1  while,  eight  years  after, 
Louis  XIII.  gave  to  Madame  de  Guercheville  and 
the  Jesuits  the  whole  continent  from  Florida  to  the 
St.  Lawrence,  —  that  is,  the  whole  of  the  future 
British  colonies.  Again,  in  1621,  James  I.  of  Eng- 
land made  over  a  part  of  this  generous  domain  to  a 
subject  of  his  own,  Sir  William  Alexander,  —  to 
whom  he  gave,  under  the  name  of  Nova  Scotia,  the 
peninsula  which  is  now  so  called,  together  with  a 
vast  adjacent  wilderness,  to  be  held  forever  as  a  fief 
of  the  Scottish  Crown.2  Sir  William,  not  yet  satis- 
fied, soon  got  an  additional  grant  of  the  "  River  and 
Gulf  of  Canada,"  along  with  a  belt  of  land  three 
hundred  miles  wide,  reaching  across  the  continent.3 
Thus  thev  King  of  France  gave  to  Frenchmen  the 
sites  of  Boston,  New  York,  and  Washington,  and 
the  King  of  England  gave  to  a  Scotchman  the  sites 
of  Quebec  and  Montreal.  But  while  the  seeds  of 
international  war  were  thus  sown  broadcast  over  the 
continent,  an  obscure  corner  of  the  vast  regions  in 
dispute  became  the  scene  of  an  intestine  strife  like 
the  bloody  conflicts  of  two  feudal  chiefs  in  the  depths 
of  the  Middle  Ages. 

After  the  lawless  inroads  of  Argall,  the  French, 
with  young   Biencourt  at  their  head,   still  kept  a 


1  See  "  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World,"  247. 

2  Charter  of  New  Scotland  in  favour  of  Sir  William  Alexander. 

8  Charter  of  the  Country  and  Lordship  of  Canada  in  America,  2  Feb., 
1628-29,  in  Publications  of  the  Prince  Society,  1873. 


1629.]  YOUNG  LA  TOUR.  5 

feeble  hold  on  Acadia.  After  the  death  of  his  father, 
Poutrincourt,  Biencourt  took  his  name,  by  which 
thenceforth  he  is  usually  known.  In  his  distress  he 
lived  much  like  an  Indian,  roaming  the  woods  with 
a  few  followers,  and  subsisting  on  fish,  game,  roots, 
and  lichens.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  found 
means  to  build  a  small  fort  among  the  rocks  and  fogs 
of  Cape  Sable.  He  named  it  Fort  Lome'ron,  and 
here  he  appears  to  have  maintained  himself  for  a 
time  by  fishing  and  the  fur-trade. 

Many  years  before,  a  French  boy  of  fourteen 
years,  Charles  Saint-Etienne  de  la  Tour,  was  brought 
to  Acadia  by  his  father,  Claude  de  la  Tour,  where 
he  became  attached  to  the  service  of  Biencourt 
(Poutrincourt),  and,  as  he  himself  says,  served  as 
his  ensign  and  lieutenant.  He  says,  further,  that 
Biencourt  on  his  death  left  him  all  his  property  in 
Acadia.  It  was  thus,  it  seems,  that  La  Tour  became 
owner  of  Fort  Lome'ron  and  its  dependencies  at  Cape 
Sable,  whereupon  he  begged  the  King  to  give  him 
help  against  his  enemies,  especially  the  English, 
who,  as  he  thought,  meant  to  seize  the  country;  and 
he  begged  also  for  a  commission  to  command  in 
Acadia  for  his  Majesty.1 

In  fact,  Sir  William  Alexander  soon  tried  to  dis- 
possess him  and  seize  his  fort.  Charles  de  la  Tour's 
father  had  been  captured  at  sea  by  the  privateer 
"Kirke,"  and  carried  to  England.  Here,  being  a 
widower,  he  married  a  lady  of  honor  of  the  Queen, 

1  La  Tour  au  Roy,  25  July,  1627. 


6  LA  TOUR  AND   D'AUNAY.  [1629. 

and,    being    a    Protestant,    renounced    his    French 
allegiance. 

Alexander  made  him  a  baronet  of  Nova  Scotia,  a 
new  title  which  King  James  had  authorized  Sir 
William  to  confer  on  persons  of  consideration  aiding 
him  in  his  work  of  colonizing  Acadia.  Alexander 
now  fitted  out  two  ships,  with  which  he  sent  the 
elder  La  Tour  to  Cape  Sable.  On  arriving,  the 
father,  says  the  story,  made  the  most  brilliant  offers 
to  his  son  if  he  would  give  up  Fort  Lom^ron  to  the 
English,  —  to  which  young  La  Tour  is  reported  to 
have  answered  in  a  burst  of  patriotism,  that  he  would 
take  no  favors  except  from  his  sovereign,  the  King 
of  France.  On  this,  the  English  are  said  to  have 
attacked  the  fort,  and  to  have  been  beaten  off.  As 
the  elder  La  Tour  could  not  keep  his  promise  to 
deliver  the  place  to  the  English,  they  would  have  no 
more  to  do  with  him,  on  which  his  dutiful  son  offered 
him  an  asylum  under  condition  that  he  should  never 
enter  the  fort.  A  house  was  built  for  him  outside 
the  ramparts;  and  here  the  trader,  Nicolas  Denys, 
found  him  in  1635.  It  is  Denys  who  tells  the  above 
story,1  which  he  probably  got  from  the  younger  La 
Tour,  —  and  which,  as  he  tells  it,  is  inconsistent 
with  the  known  character  of  its  pretended  hero,  who 
was  no  model  of  loyalty  to  his  king,  being  a  chameleon 
whose  principles  took  the  color  of  his  interests. 
Denys  says,  further,  that  the  elder  La  Tour  had 
been  invested  with  the  Order  of  the  Garter,  and  that 

1  Denys,  Description  geographique  et  historique. 


1630.]  THE   BROTHERS   KIRKE. 

the  same  dignity  was  offered  to  his  son;  which  is 
absurd.  The  truth  is,  that  Sir  William  Alexander, 
thinking  that  the  two  La  Tours  might  be  useful  to 
him,  made  them  both  baronets  of  Nova  Scotia.1 

Young  La  Tour,  while  begging  Louis  XIII.  for  a 
commission  to  command  in  Acadia,  got  from  Sir 
William  Alexander  not  only  the  title  of  baronet,  but 
also  a  large  grant  of  land  at  and  near  Cape  Sable,  to 
be  held  as  a  fief  of  the  Scottish  Crown.2  Again,  he 
got  from  the  French  King  a  grant  of  land  on  the  river 
St.  John,  and,  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  got 
leave  from  Sir  William  Alexander  to  occupy  it.8 
This  he  soon  did,  and  built  a  fort  near  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  not  far  from  the  present  city  of  St.  John. 

Meanwhile  the  French  had  made  a  lodgment  on 
the  rock  of  Quebec,  and  not  many  years  after,  all 
North  America  from  Florida  to  the  Arctic  circle, 
and  from  Newfoundland  to  the  springs  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  was  given  by  King  Louis  to  the  Company 
of  New  France,  with  Richelieu  at  its  head.4  Sir 
William  Alexander,  jealous  of  this  powerful  rivalry, 
caused  a  private  expedition  to  be  fitted  out  under  the 
brothers  Kirke.  It  succeeded,  and  the  French  settle- 

1  Grant  from  Sir  William  Alexander  to  Sir  Claude  de  St.  Etienne 
(de  la  Tour),  30  Nov.,  1629.  Ibid,  to  Charles  de  St.  Etienne,  Esq., 
Seigneur  de  St.  Denniscourt  and  Baigneux,  12  May,  1630.  (Hazard, 
State  Papers,  i.  294, 298.)  The  names  of  both  father  and  son  appear 
on  the  list  of  baronets  of  Nora  Scotia. 

51  Patent  from  Sir  William  Alexander  to  Claude  and  Charles  de  la 
Tour,  30  April,  1630. 

3  Williamson,  History  of  Maine,  i.  246. 

*  See  "Pioneers  of  France,"  440. 


8  LA  TOUR  AND   D'AUNAY.  [1632. 

ments  in  Acadia  and  Canada  were  transferred  by 
conquest  to  England.  England  soon  gave  them 
back  by  the  treaty  of  St.  Germain ; 1  and  Claude  de 
Razilly,  a  Knight  of  Malta,  was  charged  to  take  pos- 
session of  them  in  the  name  of  King  Louis.2  Full 
powers  were  given  him  over  the  restored  domains, 
together  with  grants  of  Acadian  lands  for  himself.3 

Razilly  reached  Port  Royal  in  August,  1632,  with 
three  hundred  men,  and  the  Scotch  colony  planted 
there  by  Alexander  gave  up  the  place  in  obedience  to 
an  order  from  the  King  of  England.  Unfortunately 
for  Charles  de  la  Tour,  Razilly  brought  with  him  an 
officer  destined  to  become  La  Tour's  worst  enemy. 
This  was  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay,  a 
gentleman  of  birth  and  character,  who  acted  as  his 
commander's  man  of  trust,  and  who,  in  Razilly 's 
name,  presently  took  possession  of  such  other  feebl-e 
English  and  Scotch  settlements  as  had  been  begun 
by  Alexander  or  the  people  of  New  England  along 
the  coasts  of  Nova  Scotia  and  Maine.  This  placed 
the  French  Crown  and  the  Company  of  New  France 
in  sole  possession  for  a  time  of  the  region  then  called 
Acadia. 

When  Acadia  was  restored  to  France,  La  Tour's 

1  TraitS  de  St.  Germain  en  Laye,  29  Mars,  1632,  Article  3.    For 
reasons  of  the  restitution,  see  "  Pioneers  of  France/'  454. 

2  Convention  avec  le  Sieur  de  Razilly  pour  aller  recevoir  la  Restitution 
du  Port  Royal,  etc.,  27  Mars,  1632.     Commission  du  Sieur  de  Razilly t 
10  May,  1632. 

8  Concession  de  la  riviere  et  baye  Saincte  Croix  d  M.  de  Razilly,  29 
May,  1632. 


1635.]  THE   TWO  RIVALS.  9 

English  title  to  his  lands  at  Cape  Sable  became 
worthless.  He  hastened  to  Paris  to  fortify  his  posi- 
tion; and,  suppressing  his  dallyings  with  England 
and  Sir  William  Alexander,  he  succeeded  not  only  in 
getting  an  extensive  grant  of  lands  at  Cape  Sable, 
but  also  the  title  of  lieutenant-general  for  the  King  in 
Fort  Lome'ron  and  its  dependencies,1  and  commander 
at  Cape  Sable  for  the  Company  of  New  France. 

Razilly,  who  represented  the  King  in  Acadia,  died 
in  1635,  and  left  his  authority  to  D'Aunay  Charnisay, 
his  relative  and  second  in  command.  D'Aunay  made 
his  headquarters  at  Port  Royal;  and  nobody  dis- 
puted his  authority  except  La  Tour,  who  pretended 
to  be  independent  of  him  in  virtue  of  his  commission 
from  the  Crown  and  his  grant  from  the  Company. 
Hence  rose  dissensions  that  grew  at  last  into  war. 

The  two  rivals  differed  widely  in  position  and 
qualities.  Charles  de  Menou,  Seigneur  d'Aunay 
Charnisay,  came  of  an  old  and  distinguished  family 
of  Touraine,2  and  he  prided  himself  above  all  things 
on  his  character  of  gentilhomme  frangais.  Charles 

1  Revocation  de  la  Commission  du  Sieur  Charles  de  Saint-Etienne, 
Sieur  de  la  Tour,  23  Fev.,  1641. 

2  The  modern  representative  of  this  family,  Comte  Jules   de 
Menou,  is  the  author  of  a  remarkable  manuscript  book,  written 
from  family  papers  and  official  documents,  and  entitled  L'Acadie 
colonisee  par  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay.    I  have  followed 
Comte  de  Menou's   spelling  of   the  name.      It  is   often  written 
D'Aulnay,  and  by  New  England  writers  D'Aulney.    The  manu- 
script just  mentioned  is  in  my  possession.    Comte  de  Menou  is  also 
the  author  of  a  printed  work  called  Preuves  de  VHistoire   de  la 
Maison  de  Menou. 


10  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.  [1635. 

Saint-feienne  de  la  Tour  was  of  less  conspicuous 
lineage.1  In  fact,  his  father,  Claude  de  la  Tour,  is 
said  by  his  enemies  to  have  been  at  one  time  so 
reduced  in  circumstances  that  he  carried  on  the  trade 
of  a  mason  in  Rue  St.  Germain  at  Paris.  The  son, 
however,  is  called  gentilhomme  d'une  naissance  dis- 
tinguee,  both  in  papers  of  the  court  and  in  a  legal 
document  drawn  up  in  the  interest  of  his  children. 
As  he  came  to  Acadia  when  a  boy  he  could  have  had 
little  education,  and  both  he  and  D'Aunay  carried 
on  trade,  —  which  in  France  would  have  derogated 
from  their  claims  as  gentle-men,  though  in  America 
the  fur- trade  was  not  held  inconsistent  with  noblesse. 

Of  La  Tour's  little  kingdom  at  Cape  Sable,  with 
its  rocks,  fogs,  and  breakers,  its  seal-haunted  islets 
and  iron-bound  shores  guarded  by  Fort  Lome'ron, 
we  have  but  dim  and  uncertain  glimpses.  After  the 
death  of  Biencourt,  La  Tour  is  said  to  have  roamed 
the  woods  with  eighteen  or  twenty  men,  "living  a 
vagabond  life  with  no  exercise  of  religion."2  He 
himself  admits  that  he  was  forced  to  live  like  the 
Indians,  as  did  Biencourt  before  him.3  Better  times 
had  come,  and  he  was  now  commander  of  Fort 

1  The  true  surname  of  La  Tour's  family,  which  belonged  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Evreux,  in  Normandy,  was  Turgis.    The  designa- 
tion of  La  Tour  was  probably  derived  from  the  name  of  some 
family  estate,  after  a  custom  common  in  France  under  the  old 
regime.    The  Turgis's  arms  were  "  d'or  au  chevron  de  sable,  accom- 
pagne'  de  trois  palmes  de  mSme." 

2  Menou,   L'Acadie    colonisee   par    Charles    de    Menou   d'Aunay 
Charnisay. 

»  La  Tour  au  Roy,  25  Juillet,  1627. 


1641.]  PORT   ROYAL.  11 

Lomdron,  —  or,  as  he  called  it,  Fort  La  Tour,  —  with 
a  few  Frenchmen  and  abundance  of  Micmac  Indians. 
His  next  neighbor  was  the  adventurer  Nicolas  Denys, 
who  with  a  view  to  the  timber  trade  had  settled 
himself  with  twelve  men  on  a  small  river  a  few 
leagues  distant.  Here  Razilly  had  once  made  him  a 
visit,  and  was  entertained  under  a  tent  of  boughs 
with  a  sylvan  feast  of  wild  pigeons,  brant,  teal, 
woodcock,  snipe,  and  larks,  cheered  by  profuse  white 
wine  and  claret,  and  followed  by  a  dessert  of  wild 
raspberries.1 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Acadian  peninsula 
D'Aunay  reigned  at  Port  Royal  like  a  feudal  lord, 
which  in  fact  he  was.  Denys,  who  did  not  like  him, 
says  that  he  wanted  only  to  rule,  and  treated  his 
settlers  like  slaves ;  but  this,  even  if  true  at  the  time, 
did  not  always  remain  so.  D'Aunay  went  to  France 
in  1641,  and  brought  out,  at  his  own  charge,  twenty 
families  to  people  his  seigniory.2  He  had  already 
brought  out  a  wife,  having  espoused  Jeanne  Molin 
(or  Motin),  daughter  of  the  Seigneur  de  Courcelles. 
What  with  old  settlers  and  new,  about  forty  families 
were  gathered  at  Port  Royal  and  on  the  river 
Annapolis,  and  over  these  D'Aunay  ruled  like  a 
feudal  Robinson  Crusoe.8  He  gave  each  colonist  a 
farm  charged  with  a  perpetual  rent  of  one  sou  an 
arpent,  or  French  acre.  The  houses  of  the  settlers 


1  Denys,  Description  geographique  et  historique. 

2  Rameau,  Une  Colonie  feodale  en  Amerique,  i.  93  (ed.  1889). 
8  Ibid.,  i.  96.  97. 


12  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.  [1641. 

were  log  cabins,  and  the  manor-house  of  their  lord 
was  a  larger  building  of  the  same  kind.  The  most 
pressing  need  was  of  defence,  and  D'Aunay  lost  no 
time  in  repairing  and  reconstructing  the  old  fort  on 
the  point  between  Allen's  River  and  the  Annapolis. 
He  helped  his  tenants  at  their  work;  and  his  con- 
fessor describes  him  as  returning  to  his  rough  manor- 
house  on  a  wet  day,  drenched  with  rain  and 
bespattered  with  mud,  but  in  perfect  good  humor, 
after  helping  some  of  the  inhabitants  to  mark  out  a 
field.  The  confessor  declares  that  during  the  eleven 
months  of  his  acquaintance  with  him  he  never  heard 
him  speak  ill  of  anybody  whatever,  a  statement  which 
must  probably  be  taken  with  allowance.  Yet  this 
proud  scion  of  a  noble  stock  seems  to  have  given 
himself  with  good  grace  to  the  rough  labors  of  the 
frontiersman;  while  Father  Ignace,  the  Capuchin 
friar,  praises  him  for  the  merit,  transcendent  in 
clerical  eyes,  of  constant  attendance  at  mass  and  fre- 
quent confession.1 

With  his  neighbors,  the  Micmac  Indians,  he  was 
on  the  best  of  terms.  He  supplied  their  needs,  and 
they  brought  him  the  furs  that  enabled  him  in  some 
measure  to  bear  the  'heavy  charges  of  an  establish- 
ment that  could  not  for  many  years  be  self-support- 
ing. In  a  single  year  the  Indians  are  said  to  have 
brought  three  thousand  moose-skins  to  Port  Royal, 
besides  beaver  and  other  valuable  furs.  Yet,  from 
a  commercial  point  of  view,  D'Aunay  did  not 

1  Lettre  du  Pere  Ignace  de  Paris,  Capucin,  6  Aoust,  1653. 


1642.]  PORT  ROYAL.  13 

prosper.  He  had  sold  or  mortgaged  his  estates  in 
France,  borrowed  large  sums,  built  ships,  bought 
cannon,  levied  soldiers,  and  brought  over  immigrants. 
He  is  reported  to  have  had  three  hundred  fighting 
men  at  his  principal  station,  and  sixty  cannon 
mounted  on  his  ships  and  forts;  for  besides  Port 
Royal  he  had  two  or  three  smaller  establishments.1 

Port  Royal  was  a  scene  for  an  artist,  with  its  fort ; 
its  soldiers  in  breastplate  and  morion,  armed  with 
pike,  halberd,  or  matchlock ;  its  manor-house  of  logs, 
and  its  seminary  of  like  construction;  its  twelve 
Capuchin  friars,  with  cowled  heads,  sandalled  feet, 
and  the  cord  of  Saint  Francis;  the  birch  canoes  of 
Micmac  and  Abenaki  Indians  lying  along  the  strand, 
and  their  feathered  and  painted  owners  lounging 
about  the  place  or  dozing  around  their  wigwam  fires. 
It  was  medievalism  married  to  primeval  savagery. 
The  friars  were  supported  by  a  fund  supplied  by 
Richelieu,  and  their  chief  business  was  to  convert  the 
Indians  into  vassals  of  France,  the  Church,  and  the 
Chevalier  d'Aunay,  Hard  by  was  a  wooden  chapel, 
where  the  seignior  knelt  in  dutiful  observance  of 
every  rite,  and  where,  under  a  stone  chiselled  with 
his  ancient  scutcheon,  one  of  his  children  lay  buried. 
In  the  fort  he  had  not  forgotten  to  provide  a  dungeon 
for  his  enemies. 

1  Certificat  d  I'egard  de  M.  d'Aunay  Charnisay,  signe  Michel 
Boudrot,  Lieutenant  General  en  I'Acadie,  et  autres,  anciens  habitans  au 
pays,  5  Oct.,  1687.  Lettre  du  Roy  de  gouverneur  et  lieutenant  general  es 
costes  de  I'Acadie  pour  Charles  de  Menou,  Sieur  d'Aulnay  Charnisay, 
Fevrier,  1647. 


14  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.  [1642. 

The  worst  of  these  was  Charles  de  la  Tour. 
Before  the  time  of  Razilly  and  his  successor 
D'Aunay,  La  Tour  had  felt  himself  the  chief  man  in 
Acadia ;  but  now  he  was  confronted  by  a  rival  higher 
in  rank,  superior  in  resources  and  court  influence, 
proud,  ambitious,  and  masterful.1  He  was  bitterly 
jealous  of  D'Aunay;  and,  to  strengthen  himself 
against  so  formidable  a  neighbor,  he  got  from  the 
Company  of  New  France  the  grant  of  a  tract  of  land 
at  the  mouth  of  the  river  St.  John,  where  he  built  a 
fort  and  called  it  after  his  own  name,  though  it  was 
better  known  as  Fort  St.  Jean.2  Thither  he  removed 
from  his  old  post  at  Cape  Sable,  and  Fort  St.  Jean 
now  became  his  chief  station.  It  confronted  its  rival, 
Port  Royal,  across  the  intervening  Bay  of  Fundy. 

Now  began  a  bitter  feud  between  the  two  chiefs, 
each  claiming  lands  occupied  by  the  other.  The 
Court  interposed  to  settle  the  dispute,  but  in  its 
ignorance  of  Acadian  geography  its  definitions  were 
so  obscure  that  the  question  was  more  embroiled  than 
ever.3 

1  Besides  succeeding  to  the  authority  of  Razilly,  D'Aunay  had 
bought  of  his  heirs  their  land  claims  in  Acadia.    Arrets  du  Conseil, 
9  Mars,  1642. 

2  Concession  de  la  Compagnie  de  la  Nouvelle  France  d  Charles  de 
Saint-Etienne,  Sieur  de  la  Tour,  Lieutenant  General  de  I'Acadie,  du 
Fort  de  la  Tour,  dans  la  Riviere  de  St.  Jean,  du  15  Jan.,  1635,  in 
Memoires  des  Commissaires,  v.  113  (ed.  1756,  12mo). 

8  Louis  XIII  d  d'Aunay,  10  Fev.,  1638.  This  seems  to  be  the 
occasion  of  Charlevoix's  inexact  assertion  that  Acadia  was  divided 
into  three  governments,  under  D'Aunay,  La  Tour,  and  Nicolas 
Denys,  respectively.  The  title  of  Denys,  such  as  it  was,  had  no 
existence  till  1654. 


1633-42.]  ENGLISH  INTERLOPERS.  15 

While  the  domestic  feud  of  the  rivals  was  gather- 
ing to  a  head,  foreign  heretics  had  fastened  their 
clutches  on  various  parts  of  the  Atlantic  coast  which 
France  and  the  Church  claimed  as  their  own.  English 
heretics  had  made  lodgment  in  Virginia,  and  Dutch 
heretics  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson;  while  other 
sectaries  of  the  most  malignant  type  had  kennelled 
among  the  sands  and  pine-trees  of  Plymouth;  and 
others  still,  slightly  different,  but  equally  venomous, 
had  ensconced  themselves  on  or  near  the  small  penin- 
sula of  Shawmut,  at  the  head  of  La  Grande  Baye,  or 
the  Bay  of  Massachusetts.  As  it  was  not  easy  to 
dislodge  them,  the  French  dissembled  for  the  present, 
yielded  to  the  logic  of  events,  and  bided  their  time. 
But  the  interlopers  soon  began  to  swarm  northward 
and  invade  the  soil  of  Acadia,  sacred  to  God  and  the 
King.  Small  parties  from  Plymouth  built  trading- 
houses  at  Machias  and  at  what  is  now  Castine,  on 
the  Penobscot.  As  they  were  competitors  in  trade, 
no  less  than  foes  of  God  and  King  Louis,  and  as 
they  were  too  few  to  resist,  both  La  Tour  and 
D'Aunay  resolved  to  expel  them;  and  in  1633  La 
Tour  attacked  the  Plymouth  trading-house  at  Machias, 
killed  two  of  the  five  men  he  found  there,  carried  off 
the  other  three,  and  seized  all  the  goods.1  Two 
years  later  D'Aunay  attacked  the  Plymouth  trading- 
station  at  Penobscot,  the  Pentegoet  of  the  French, 
and  took  it  in  the  name  of  King  Louis.  That  he 
might  not  appear  in  the  part  of  a  pirate,  he  set  a 

1  Hubbard,  History  of  New  England,  163. 


16  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.          [1638-42. 

price  on  the  goods  of  the  traders,  and  then,  having 
seized  them,  gave  in  return  his  promise  to  pay  at 
some  convenient  time  if  the  owners  would  come  to 
him  for  the  money. 

He  had  called  on  La  Tour  to  help  him  in  this  raid 
against  Penobscot;  but  La  Tour,  unwilling  to  recog- 
nize his  right  to  command,  had  refused,  and  had 
hoped  that  D'Aunay,  becoming  disgusted  with  his 
Acadian  venture,  which  promised  neither  honor  nor 
profit,  would  give  it  up,  go  back  to  France,  and  stay 
there.  About  the  year  1638  D'Aunay  did  in  fact  go 
to  France,  but  not  to  stay ;  for  in  due  time  he  reap- 
peared, bringing  with  him  his  bride,  Jeanne  Motin, 
who  had  had  the  courage  to  share  his  fortunes,  and 
whom  he  now  installed  at  Port  Royal,  —  a  sure  sign, 
as  his  rival  thought,  that  he  meant  to  make  his  home 
there.  Disappointed  and  angry,  La  Tour  now  lost 
patience,  went  to  Port  Royal,  and  tried  to  stir 
D'Aunay's  soldiers  to  mutiny;  then  set  on  his  Indian 
friends  to  attack  a  boat  in  which  was  one  of 
D'Aunay's  soldiers  and  a  Capuchin  friar,  — the 
soldier  being  killed,  though  the  friar  escaped.1  This 
was  the  beginning  of  a  quarrel  waged  partly  at  Port 
Royal  and  St.  Jean,  and  partly  before  the  admiralty 
court  of  Guienne  and  the  royal  council,  partly  with 
bullets  and  cannon-shot,  and  partly  with  edicts, 
decrees,  and  proems  verbaux.  As  D'Aunay  had  taken 
a  wife,  so  too  would  La  Tour;  and  he  charged  his 
agent  Desjardins  to  bring  him  one  from  France 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee  par  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay. 


J642.]  LA   TOUR   SURRENDERS.  17 

The  agent  acquitted  himself  of  his  delicate  mission, 
and  shipped  to  Acadia  one  Marie  Jacquelin,  — 
daughter  of  a  barber  of  Mans,  if  we  may  believe  the 
questionable  evidence  of  his  rival.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  Marie  Jacquelin  proved  a  prodigy  of  mettle  and 
energy,  espoused  her  husband's  cause  with  passionate 
vehemence,  and  backed  his  quarrel  like  the  intrepid 
Amazon  she  was.  She  joined  La  Tour  at  Fort  St. 
Jean,  and  proved  the  most  strenuous  of  allies. 

About  this  time,  D'Aunay  heard  that  the  English 
of  Plymouth  meant  to  try  to  recover  Penobscot  from 
his  hands.  On  this  he  sent  nine  soldiers  thither, 
with  provisions  and  munitions.  La  Tour  seized  them 
on  the  way,  carried  them  to  Fort  St.  Jean,  and, 
according  to  his  enemies,  treated  them  like  slaves. 

D'Aunay  heard  nothing  of  this  till  four  months 
after,  when,  being  told  of  it  by  Indians,  he  sailed  in 
person  to  Penobscot  with  two  small  vessels,  reinforced 
the  place,  and  was  on  his  way  back  to  Port  Royal 
when  La  Tour  met  him  with  two  armed  pinnaces.  A 
fight  took  place,  and  one  of  D'Aunay's  vessels  was 
dismasted.  He  fought  so  well,  however,  that  Cap- 
tain Jamin,  his  enemy's  chief  officer,  was  killed; 
and  the  rest,  including  La  Tour,  his  new  wife,  and 
his  agent  Desjardins,  were  forced  to  surrender,  and 
were  carried  prisoners  to  Port  Royal. 

At  the  request  of  the  Capuchin  friars  D'Aunay  set 
them  all  at  liberty,  after  compelling  La  Tour  to  sign 
a  promise  to  keep  the  peace  in  future.1  Both  parties 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  coloniste  par  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay. 
2 


18  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.  [1642. 

now  laid  their  cases  before  the  French  courts,  and, 
whether  from  the  justice  of  his  cause  or  from  superior 
influence,  D'Aunay  prevailed.  La  Tour's  commis- 
sion was  revoked,  and  he  was  ordered  to  report  him- 
self in  France  to  receive  the  King's  commands. 
Trusting  to  his  remoteness  from  the  seat  of  power, 
and  knowing  that  the  King  was  often  ill  served  and 
worse  informed,  he  did  not  obey,  but  remained  in 
Acadia  exercising  his  authority  as  before.  D'Aunay's 
father,  from  his  house  in  Rue  St.  Germain,  watched 
over  his  son's  interests,  and  took  care  that  La  Tour's 
conduct  should  not  be  unknown  at  court.  A  decree 
was  thereupon  issued  directing  D'Aunay  to  seize  his 
rival's  forts  in  the  name  of  the  King,  and  place  them 
in  charge  of  trusty  persons.  The  order  was  precise ; 
but  D'Aunay  had  not  at  the  time  force  enough  to 
execute  it,  and  the  frugal  King  sent  him  only  six 
soldiers.  Hence  he  could  only  show  the  royal  order 
to  La  Tour,  and  offer  him  a  passage  to  France  in  one 
of  his  vessels  if  he  had  the  discretion  to  obey.  La 
Tour  refused,  on  which  D'Aunay  returned  to  France 
to  report  his  rival's  contumacy.  At  about  the  same 
time  La  Tour's  French  agent  sent  him  a  vessel  with 
succors.  The  King  ordered  it  to  be  seized ;  but  the 
order  came  too  late,  for  the  vessel  had  already  sailed 
from  Rochelle  bound  to  Fort  St.  Jean. 

When  D'Aunay  reported  the  audacious  conduct  of 
his  enemy,  the  royal  council  ordered  that  the  offender 
should  be  brought  prisoner  to  France ; l  and  D'Aunay, 

i  Arrit  du  Conteil,  21  Fev.t  1642. 


1643.]         LA   TOUR   ASKS   AID  OF   BOSTON.  19 

as  the  King's  lieutenant-general  in  Acadia,  was  again 
required  to  execute  the  decree.1  La  Tour  was  now 
in  the  position  of  a  rebel,  and  all  legality  was  on  the 
side  of  his  enemy,  who  represented  royalty  itself. 

D'Aunay  sailed  at  once  for  Acadia,  and  in  August, 
1642,  anchored  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John, 
before  La  Tour's  fort,  and  sent  three  gentlemen  in  a 
boat  to  read  to  its  owner  the  decree  of  the  council 
and  the  order  of  the  King.  La  Tour  snatched  the 
papers,  crushed  them  between  his  hands,  abused  the 
envoys  roundly,  put  them  and  their  four  sailors  into 
prison,  and  kept  them  there  above  a  year.2 

His  position  was  now  desperate,  for  he  had  placed 
himself  in  open  revolt.  Alarmed  for  the  conse- 
quences, he  turned  for  help  to  the  heretics  of  Boston. 
True  Catholics  detested  them  as  foes  of  God  and 
man ;  but  La  Tour  was  neither  true  Catholic  nor  true 
Protestant,  and  would  join  hands  with  anybody  who 
could  serve  his  turn.  Twice  before  he  had  made 
advances  to  the  Boston  malignants,  and  sent  to  them 
first  one  Rochet,  and  then  one  Lestang,  with  pro- 
posals of  trade  and  alliance.  The  envoys  were 
treated  with  courtesy,  but  could  get  no  promise  of 
active  aid.3 

La  Tour's  agent,  Desjardins,  had  sent  him  from 
Rochelle  a  ship,  called  the  "St.  Clement,"  manned 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee. 

2  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee.    Moreau,  Histoire  de  I'Acadie,  169, 
170. 

8  Hubbard,  History  of  New  England,  chap.  liv.  Winthrop,  ii. 
42,  88. 


20  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.  [1643. 

by  a  hundred  and  forty  Huguenots,  laden  with  stores 
and  munitions,  and  commanded  by  Captain  Mouron. 
In  due  time  La  Tour  at  his  Fort  St.  Jean  heard  that 
the  "St.  Clement"  lay  off  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
unable  to  get  in  because  D'Aunay  blockaded  the 
entrance  with  two  armed  ships  and  a  pinnace.  On 
this  he  resolved  to  appeal  in  person  to  the  heretics. 
He  ran  the  blockade  in  a  small  boat  under  cover  of 
night,  and,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  boarded  the 
"St.  Clement"  and  sailed  for  Boston.1 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonize. 


CHAPTER  H. 

1643-1645. 
LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS. 

LA  TOUR  AT  BOSTON:  HIS  MEETING  WITH  WINTHROP.  —  BOSTON 
IN  1643.  —  TRAINING  DAY.  —  AN  ALARM.  —  LA  TOUR'S  BARGAIN. 
—  DOUBTS  AND  DISPUTES.  —  THE  ALLIES  SAIL.  —  LA  TOUR  AND 
ENDICOTT. — D'AUNAY'S  OVERTURE  TO  THE  PURITANS. —  MARIE'S 
MISSION. 

ON  the  twelfth  of  June,  1643,  the  people  of  the 
infant  town  of  Boston  saw  with  some  misgiving  a 
French  ship  entering  their  harbor.  It  chanced  that 
the  wife  of  Captain  Edward  Gibbons,  with  her 
children,  was  on  her  way  in  a  boat  to  a  farm  belong- 
ing to  her  husband  on  an  island  in  the  harbor.  One 
of  La  Tour's  party,  who  had  before  made  a  visit  to 
Boston,  and  had  been  the  guest  of  Gibbons,  recog- 
nized his  former  hostess ;  and  he,  with  La  Tour  and 
a  few  sailors,  cast  off  from  the  ship  and  went  to 
speak  to  her  in  a  boat  that  was  towed  at  the  stern  of 
the  "St.  Clement."  Mrs.  Gibbons,  seeing  herself 
chased  by  a  crew  of  outlandish  foreigners,  took  refuge 
on  the  island  where  Fort  Winthrop  was  afterwards 
built,  which  was  then  known  as  the  "Governor's 
Garden,"  as  it  had  an  orchard,  a  vineyard,  and 


22  LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS.          [1643. 

"many  other  conveniences."1  The  islands  in  the 
harbor,  most  of  which  were  at  that  time  well  wooded, 
seem  to  have  been  favorite  places  of  cultivation,  as 
sheep  and  cattle  were  there  safe  from  those  pests  of 
the  mainland,  the  wolves.  La  Tour,  no  doubt  to  the 
dismay  of  Mrs.  Gibbons  and  her  children,  landed 
after  them,  and  was  presently  met  by  the  governor 
himself,  who,  with  his  wife,  two  sons,  and  a  daughter- 
in-law,  had  apparently  rowed  over  to  their  garden  for 
the  unwonted  recreation  of  an  afternoon's  outing.2 
La  Tour  made  himself  known  to  the  governor,  and, 
after  mutual  civilities,  told  him  that  a  ship  bringing 
supplies  from  France  had  been  stopped  by  his  enemy, 
D'Aunay,  and  that  he  had  come  to  ask  for  help  to 
raise  the  blockade  and  bring  her  to  his  fort. 
Winthrop  replied  that,  before  answering,  he  must 
consult  the  magistrates.  As  Mrs.  Gibbons  and  her 
children  were  anxious  to  get  home,  the  governor 
sent  them  to  town  in  his  own  boat,  promising  to 
follow  with  his  party  in  that  of  La  Tour,  who  had 
placed  it  at  his  disposal.  Meanwhile,  the  people  of 
Boston  had  heard  of  what  was  taking  place,  and  were 
in  some  anxiety,  since,  in  a  truly  British  distrust  of 
all  Frenchmen,  they  feared  lest  their  governor  might 
be  kidnapped  and  held  for  ransom.  Some  of  them 
accordingly  took  arms,  and  came  in  three  boats  to 
the  rescue.  In  fact,  remarks  Winthrop,  "  if  La  Tour 
had  been  ill-minded  towards  us,  he  had  such  an 

1  Wood,  New  England's  Prospect,  part  i.,  chap.  x. 

2  Winthrop,  ii.  127. 


1643.]  BOSTOtf  IN  1643.  23 

opportunity  as  we  hope  neither  he  nor  any  other  shall 
ever  have  the  like  again."1  The  castle,  or  fort, 
which  was  on  another  island  hard  by,  was  defenceless, 
its  feeble  garrison  having  been  lately  withdrawn,  and 
its  cannon  might  easily  have  been  turned  on  the  town. 

Boston,  now  in  its  thirteenth  year,  was  a  straggling 
village,  with  houses  principally  of  boards  or  logs, 
gathered  about  a  plain  wooden  meeting-house  which 
formed  the  heart  or  vital  organ  of  the  place.  The 
rough  peninsula  on  which  the  infant  settlement  stood 
was  almost  void  of  trees,  and  was  crowned  by  a  hill 
split  into  three  summits,  —  whence  the  name  of 
Tremont,  or  Trimount,  still  retained  by  a  street  of 
the  present  city.  Beyond  the  narrow  neck  of  the 
peninsula  were  several  smaller  villages  with  outlying 
farms;  but  the  mainland  was  for  the  most  part  a 
primeval  forest,  possessed  by  its  original  owners,  — > 
wolves,  bears,  and  rattlesnakes.  These  last  unde- 
sirable neighbors  made  their  favorite  haunt  on  a  high 
rocky  hill,  called  Rattlesnake  Hill,  not  far  inland, 
where,  down  to-  the  present  generation,  they  were 
often  seen,  and  where  good  specimens  may  occasion- 
ally be  found  to  this  day.2 

Far  worse  than  wolves  or  rattlesnakes  were  the 
Pequot  Indians,  —  a  warlike  race  who  had  boasted 

i  Winthrop,  ii.  127. 

*  Blue  Hill  in  Milton.  "  Up  into  the  country  is  a  high  hill  which 
is  called  rattlesnake  hill,  where  there  is  great  store  of  these 
poysonous  creatures."  (Wood,  New  England's  Prospect.)  "They 
[the  wolves]  be  the  greatest  inconreniency  the  country  hath." 
(Ibid.) 


24  LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS.          [1643. 

that  they  would  wipe  the  whites  from  the  face  of  the 
earth,  but  who,  by  hard  marching  and  fighting,  had 
lately  been  brought  to  reason. 

Worse  than  wolves,  rattlesnakes,  and  Indians 
together  were  the  theological  quarrels  that  threatened 
to  kill  the  colony  in  its  infancy.  Children  are  taught 
that  the  Puritans  came  to  New  England  in  search  of 
religious  liberty.  The  liberty  they  sought  was  for 
themselves  alone.  It  was  the  liberty  to  worship  in 
their  own  way,  and  to  prevent  all  others  from  doing 
the  like.  They  imagined  that  they  held  a  monopoly 
of  religious  truth,  and  were  bound  in  conscience  to 
defend  it  against  all  comers.  Their  mission  was  to 
build  up  a  western  Canaan,  ruled  by  the  law  of  God; 
to  keep  it  pure  from  error,  and,  if  need  were,  purge 
it  of  heresy  by  persecution,  —  to  which  ends  they  set 
up  one  of  the  most  detestable  theocracies  on  record. 
Church  and  State  were  joined  in  one.  Church- 
members  alone  had  the  right  to  vote.  There  was 
no  choice  but  to  remain  politically  a  cipher,  or 
embrace,  or  pretend  to  embrace,  the  extremest 
dogmas  of  Calvin.  Never  was  such  a  premium 
offered  to  cant  and  hypocrisy ;  yet  in  the  early  days 
hypocrisy  was  rare,  so  intense  and  pervading  was 
the  faith  of  the  founders  of  New  England. 

It  was  in  the  churches  themselves,  the  appointed 
sentinels  and  defenders  of  orthodoxy,  that  heresy 
lifted  its  head  and  threatened  the  State  with  disrup- 
tion. Where  minds  different  in  complexion  and 
character  were  continually  busied  with  subtle  ques- 


1643.]  PURITAN  TROUBLES.  25 

tions  of  theology,  unity  of  opinion  could  not  be  long 
maintained ;  and  innovation  found  a  champion  in  one 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  a  woman  of  great  controversial 
ability  and  inexhaustible  fluency  of  tongue.  Persons 
of  a  mystical  turn  of  mind,  or  a  natural  inclination 
to  contrariety,  were  drawn  to  her  preachings;  and 
the  church  of  Boston,  with  three  or  four  exceptions, 
went  over  to  her  in  a  body.  "  Sanctification, "  "  justi- 
fication," "revelations,"  the  "covenant  of  grace," 
and  the  "covenant  of  works,"  mixed  in  furious  battle 
with  all  the  subtleties,  sophistries,  and  venom  of  theo- 
logical war;  while  the  ghastly  spectre  of  Antinomian- 
ism  hovered  over  the  fray,  carrying  terror  to  the  souls 
of  the  faithful.  The  embers  of  the  strife  still  burned 
hot  when  La  Tour  appeared  to  bring  another  firebrand. 
As  a  "papist"  or  "idolater,"  though  a  mild  one, 
he  was  sorely  prejudiced  in  Puritan  eyes,  while  his 
plundering  of  the  Plymouth  trading-house  some 
years  before,  and  killing  two  of  its  five  tenants,  did 
not  tend  to  produce  impressions  in  his  favor ;  but  it 
being  explained  that  all  five  were  drunk,  and  had 
begun  the  fray  by  firing  on  the  French,  the  ire 
against  him  cooled  a  little.  Landing  with  Winthrop, 
he  was  received  under  the  hospitable  roof  of  Captain 
Gibbons,  whose  wife  had  recovered  from  her  fright 
at  his  approach.  He  went  to  church  on  Sunday,  and 
the  gravity  of  his  demeanor  gave  great  satisfaction, 
—  a  solemn  carriage  being  of  itself  a  virtue  in  Puritan 
eyes.  Hence  he  was  well  treated,  and  his  men  were 
permitted  to  come  ashore  daily  in  small  numbers. 


26  LA  TOUR  AND   THE   PURITANS.          [1643. 

The  stated  training-day  of  the  Boston  militia  fell 
in  the  next  week,  and  La  Tour  asked  leave  to  exer- 
cise his  soldiers  with  the  rest.  This  was  granted ; 
and,  escorted  by  the  Boston  trained  band,  about 
forty  of  them  marched  to  the  muster-field,  which 
was  probably  the  Common,  —  a  large  tract  of  pasture- 
land  in  which  was  a  marshy  pool,  the  former  home 
of  a  colony  of  frogs,  perhaps  not  quite  exterminated 
by  the  sticks  and  stones  of  Puritan  boys.  This  pool, 
cleaned,  paved,  and  curbed  with  granite,  preserves  to 
this  day  the  memory  of  its  ancient  inhabitants,  and 
is  still  the  Frog  Pond,  though  bereft  of  frogs. 

The  Boston  trained  band,  in  steel  caps  and  buff 
coats,  went  through  its  exercise;  and  the  visitors, 
we  are  told,  expressed  high  approval.  When  the 
drill  was  finished,  the  Boston  officers  invited  La 
Tour's  officers  to  dine,  while  his  rank  and  file  were 
entertained  in  like  manner  by  the  Puritan  soldiers. 
There  were  more  exercises  in  the  afternoon,  and  this 
time  it  was  the  turn  of  the  French,  who,  says 
Winthrop,  "were  very  expert  in  all  their  postures 
and  motions."  A  certain  "judicious  minister,"  in 
dread  of  popish  conspiracies,  was  troubled  in  spirit 
at  this  martial  display,  and  prophesied  that  "  store  of 
blood  would  be  spilled  in  Boston," — a  prediction 
that  was  not  fulfilled,  although  an  incident  took 
place  which  startled  some  of  the  spectators.  The 
Frenchmen  suddenly  made  a  sham  charge,  sword  in 
hand,  which  the  women  took  for  a  real  one.  The 
alarm  was  soon  over;  and  as  this  demonstration 


1643.]  LA  TOUR'S   REQUEST.  27 

ended  the  performance,  La  Tour  asked  leave  of  the 
governor  to  withdraw  his  men  to  their  ship.  The 
leave  being  granted,  they  fired  a  salute  and  marched 
to  the  wharf  where  their  boat  lay,  escorted,  as  before, 
by  the  Boston  trained  band.  During  the  whole  of 
La  Tour's  visit  he  and  Winthrop  went  amicably  to 
church  together  every  Sunday,  —  the  governor  being 
attended,  on  these  and  all  other  occasions  while  the 
strangers  were  in  town,  by  a  guard  of  honor  of 
musketeers  and  halberd  men.  La  Tour  and  his  chief 
officers  had  their  lodging  and  meals  in  the  houses  of 
the  principal  townsmen,  and  all  seemed  harmony  and 
good-will. 

La  Tour,  meanwhile,  had  laid  his  request  before 
the  magistrates,  and  produced  among  other  papers 
the  commission  to  Mouron,  captain  of  his  ship,  dated 
in  the  last  April,  and  signed  and  sealed  by  the  Vice- 
Admiral  of  France,  authorizing  Mouron  to  bring 
supplies  to  La  Tour,  whom  the  paper  styled  Lieuten- 
ant-General for  the  King  in  Acadia;  La  Tour  also 
showed  a  letter,  genuine  or  forged,  from  the  agent  of 
the  Company  of  New  France,  addressed  to  him  as 
lieutenant-general,  and  warning  him  to  beware  of 
D'Aunay:  from  all  which  the  Boston  magistrates 
inferred  that  their  petitioner  was  on  good  terms  with 
the  French  government,1  notwithstanding  a  letter 

1  Count  Jules  de  Menou,  in  his  remarkable  manuscript  book  now 
before  me,  expresses  his  belief  that  the  commission  of  the  Vice- 
Admiral  was  genuine,  but  that  the  letter  of  the  agent  of  the  Com- 
pany was  a  fabrication. 


28  LA   TOUR  AND   THE   PURITANS.         [1643. 

sent  them  by  D'Aunay  the  year  before,  assuring 
them  that  La  Tour  was  a  proclaimed  rebel,  which  in 
fact  he  was.  Throughout  this  affair  one  is  perplexed 
by  the  French  official  papers,  whose  entanglements 
and  contradictions  in  regard  to  the  Acadian  rivals  are 
past  unravelling. 

La  Tour  asked  only  for  such  help  as  would  enable 
him  to  bring  his  own  ship  to  his  own  fort;  and,  as 
his  papers  seemed  to  prove  that  he  was  a  recognized 
officer  of  his  King,  Winthrop  and  the  magistrates 
thought  that  they  might  permit  him  to  hire  such 
ships  and  men  as  were  disposed  to  join  him. 

La  Tour  had  tried  to  pass  himself  as  a  Protestant; 
but  his  professions  were  distrusted,  notwithstanding 
the  patience  with  which  he  had  listened  to  the  long- 
winded  sermons  of  the  Reverend  John  Cotton.  As 
to  his  wife,  however,  there  appears  to  have  been  but 
one  opinion.  She  was  approved  as  a  sound  Protestant 
"  of  excellent  virtues ; "  and  her  denunciations  of 
D'Aunay  no  doubt  fortified  the  prejudice  which  was 
already  strong  against  him  for  his  seizure  of  the 
Plymouth  trading-house  at  Penobscot,  and  for  his 
aggressive  and  masterful  character,  which  made  him 
an  inconvenient  neighbor. 

With  the  permission  of  the  governor  and  the 
approval  of  most  of  the  magistrates,  La  Tour  now 
made  a  bargain  with  his  host,  Captain  Gibbons,  and 
a  merchant  named  Thomas  Hawkins.  They  agreed 
to  furnish  him  with  four  vessels;  to  arm  each  of 
these  with  from  four  to  fourteen  small  cannon,  and 


1643.]  DISPUTES.  29 

man  them  with  a  certain  number  of  sailors,  La  Tour 
himself  completing  the  crews  with  Englishmen  hired 
at  his  own  charge.  Hawkins  was  to  command  the 
whole.  The  four  vessels  were  to  escort  La  Tour  and 
his  ship,  the  "St.  Clement,"  to  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
John,  in  spite  of  D'Aunay  and  all  other  opponents. 
The  agreement  ran  for  two  months;  and  La  Tour 
was  to  pay  £250  sterling  a  month  for  the  use  of  the 
four  ships,  and  mortgage  to  Gibbons  and  Hawkins 
his  fort  and  all  his  Acadian  property  as  security. 
Winthrop  would  give  no  commissions  to  Hawkins  or 
any  others  engaged  in  the  expedition,  and  they  were 
all  forbidden  to  fight  except  in  self-defence ;  but  the 
agreement  contained  the  significant  clause  that  all 
plunder  was  to  be  equally  divided  according  to  rule 
in  such  enterprises.  Hence  it  seems  clear  that  the 
contractors  had  an  eye  to  booty;  yet  no  means  were 
used  to  hold  them  to  their  good  behavior. 

Now  rose  a  brisk  dispute,  and  the  conduct  of 
Winthrop  was  sharply  criticised.  Letters  poured  in 
upon  him  concerning  "great  dangers,"  "sin  upon  the 
conscience,"  and  the  like.  He  himself  was  clearly  in 
doubt  as  to  the  course  he  was  taking,  and  he  soon 
called  another  meeting  of  magistrates,  in  which  the 
inevitable  clergy  were  invited  to  join;  and  they  all 
fell  to  discussing  the  matter  anew.  As  every  man  of 
them  had  studied  the  Bible  daily  from  childhood  up, 
texts  were  the  chief  weapons  of  the  debate.  Doubts 
were  advanced  as  to  whether  Christians  could  law- 
fully help  idolaters,  and  Jehoshaphat,  Ahab,  and 


30  LA  TOUR   AND   THE   PURITANS.         [1643. 

Josias  were  brought  forward  as  cases  in  point.  Then 
Solomon  was  cited  to  the  effect  that  "  he  that  med- 
dleth  with  the  strife  that  belongs  not  to  him  takes  a 
dog  by  the  ear;  "  to  which  it  was  answered  that  the 
quarrel  did  belong  to  us,  seeing  that  Providence  now 
offered  us  the  means  to  weaken  our  enemy,  D'Aunay, 
without  much  expense  or  trouble  to  ourselves. 
Besides,  we  ought  to  help  a  neighbor  in  distress, 
seeing  that  Joshua  helped  the  Gibeonites,  and 
Jehoshaphat  helped  Jehoram  against  Moab  with  the 
approval  of  Elisha.  The  opposing  party  argued  that 
"by  aiding  papists  we  advance  and  strengthen 
popery;"  to  which  it  was  replied  that  the  opposite 
effect  might  follow,  since  the  grateful  papist,  touched 
by  our  charity,  might  be  won  to  the  true  faith  and 
turned  from  his  idols. 

Then  the  debate  continued  on  the  more  worldly 
grounds  of  expediency  and  statecraft,  and  at  last 
Winthrop's  action  was  approved  by  the  majority. 
Still,  there  were  many  doubters,  and  the  governor 
was  severely  blamed.  John  Endicott  wrote  to  him 
that  La  Tour  was  not  to  be  trusted,  and  that  he 
and  D'Aunay  had  better  be  left  to  fight  it  out 
between  them,  since  if  we  help  the  former  to  put 
down  his  enemy  he  will  be  a  bad  neighbor  to  us. 

Presently  came  a  joint  letter  from  several  chief 
men  of  the  colony, —  Saltonstall,  Bradstreet,  Nathaniel 
Ward,  John  Norton,  and  others,  —  saying  in  sub- 
stance: We  fear  international  law  has  been  ill 
observed;  the  merits  of  the  case  are  not  clear;  we 


1643.]  WINTHROP  BLAMED.  31 

are  not  called  upon  in  charity  to  help  La  Tour  (see 
2  Chronicles  xix.  2,  and  Proverbs  xxvi.  17);  this 
quarrel  is  for  England  and  France,  and  not  for  us ;  if 
D'Aunay  is  not  completely  put  down,  we  shall  have 
endless  trouble;  and  "he  that  loses  his  life  in  an 
unnecessary  quarrel  dies  the  devil's  martyr." 

This  letter,  known  as  the  "Ipswich  letter,"  touched 
Winthrop  to  the  quick.  He  thought  that  it  trenched 
on  his  official  dignity,  and  the  asperity  of  his  answer 
betrays  his  sensitiveness.  He  calls  the  remonstrance 
"an  act  of  an  exorbitant  nature,"  and  says  that  it 
"blows  a  trumpet  to  division  and  dissension."  "If 
my  neighbor  is  in  trouble,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "I 
must  help  him."  He  maintains  that  "there  is  great 
difference  between  giving  permission  to  hire  to  guard 
or  transport,  and  giving  commission  to  fight,"  and  he 
adds  the  usual  Bible  text,  "  The  fear  of  man  bringeth 
a  snare;  but  whoso  putteth  his  trust  in  the  Lord 
shall  be  safe."1 

In  spite  of  Winthrop's  reply,  the  Ipswich  letter 
had  great  effect;  and  he  and  the  Boston  magistrates 
were  much  blamed,  especially  in  the  country  towns. 
The  governor  was  too  candid  not  to  admit  that  he 
had  been  in  fault,  though  he  limits  his  self -accusation 
to  three  points :  first,  that  he  had  given  La  Tour  an 
answer  too  hastily;  next,  that  he  had  not  sufficiently 


1  Winthrop's  Answer  to  the  Ipswich  Letter  about  La  Tour  (no  date), 
in  Hutchinson  Papers,  122.  Bradstreet  writes  to  him  on  the  21st  of 
June, "  Our  ayding  of  Latour  was  very  grievous  to  many  hereabouts, 
the  design  being  feared  to  be  unwarrantable  by  dyvers." 


32  LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS.          [1643. 

consulted  the  elders  or  ministers ;  and  lastly,  that  he 
had  not  opened  the  discussion  with  prayer. 

The  upshot  was  that  La  Tour  and  his  allies  sailed 
on  the  fourteenth  of  July.  D'Aunay's  three  vessels 
fled  before  them  to  Port  Royal.  La  Tour  tried  to  per- 
suade his  Puritan  friends  to  join  him  in  an  attack ; 
but  Hawkins,  the  English  commander,  would  give 
no  order  to  that  effect,  on  which  about  thirty  of 
the  Boston  men  volunteered  for  the  adventure. 
D'Aunay's  followers  had  ensconced  themselves  in  a 
fortified  mill,  whence  they  were  driven  with  some 
loss.  After  burning  the  mill  and  robbing  a  pin- 
nace loaded  with  furs,  the  Puritans  returned  home, 
having  broken  their  orders  and  compromised  their 
colony. 

In  the  next  summer,  La  Tour,  expecting  a  serious 
attack  from  D'Aunay,  —  who  had  lately  been  to 
France,  and  was  said  to  be  on  his  way  back  with 
large  reinforcements,  —  turned  again  to  Massachusetts 
for  help.  The  governor  this  time  was  John  Endicott, 
of  Salem.  To  Salem  the  suppliant  repaired;  and  as 
Endicott  spoke  French,  the  conference  was  easy. 
The  rugged  bigot  had  before  expressed  his  disap- 
proval of  "having  anything  to  do  with  these  idola- 
trous French ; "  but,  according  to  Hubbard,  he  was 
so  moved  with  compassion  at  the  woful  tale  of  his 
visitor  that  he  called  a  meeting  of  magistrates  and 
ministers  to  consider  if  anything  could  be  done  for 
him.  The  magistrates  had  by  this  time  learned 
caution,  and  the  meeting  would  do  nothing  but  write 


1643.]  D'AUNAY'S  ARRIVAL.  83 

a  letter  to  D'Aunay,  demanding  satisfaction  for  his 
seizure  of  Penobscot  and  other  aggressions,  and 
declaring  that  the  men  who  escorted  La  Tour  to  his 
fort  in  the  last  summer  had  no  commission  from 
Massachusetts,  yet  that  if  they  had  wronged  him  he 
should  have  justice,  though  if  he  seized  any  New 
England  trading  vessels  they  would  hold  him  an- 
swerable. In  short,  La  Tour's  petition  was  not 
granted. 

D'Aunay,  when  in  France,  had  pursued  his  litiga- 
tion against  his  rival,  and  the  royal  council  had 
ordered  that  the  contumacious  La  Tour  should  be 
seized,  his  goods  confiscated,  and  he  himself  brought 
home  a  prisoner;  which  decree  D'Aunay  was  empow- 
ered to  execute,  if  he  could.  He  had  returned  to 
Acadia  the  accredited  agent  of  the  royal  will.  It 
was  reported  at  Boston  that  a  Biscayan  pirate  had 
sunk  his  ship  on  the  way ;  but  the  wish  was  father  to 
the  thought,  and  the  report  proved  false.  D'Aunay 
arrived  safely,  and  was  justly  incensed  at  the  support 
given  by  the  Puritans  in  the  last  year  to  his  enemy. 
But  he  too  had  strong  reasons  for  wishing  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  his  heretic  neighbors.  King  Louis, 
moreover,  had  charged  him  not  to  offend  them,  since, 
when  they  helped  La  Tour,  they  had  done  so  in  the 
belief  that  he  was  commissioned  as  lieutenant-general 
for  the  King,  and  therefore  they  should  be  held 
blameless. 

Hence  D'Aunay  made  overtures  of  peace  and 
friendship  to  the  Boston  Puritans.  Early  in  October, 

3 


34  LA   TOUR  AND  THE   PURITANS.          [1644. 

1644,  they  were  visited  by  one  Monsieur  Marie, 
"supposed,"  says  the  chronicle,  "to  be  a  friar,  but 
habited  like  a  gentleman."  He  was  probably  one  of 
the  Capuchins  who  formed  an  important  part  of 
D'Aunay's  establishment  at  Port  Royal.  The  gov- 
ernor and  magistrates  received  him  with  due  consid- 
eration; and  along  with  credentials  from  D'Aunay 
he  showed  them  papers  under  the  great  seal  of 
France,  wherein  the  decree  of  the  royal  council  was 
set  forth  in  full,  La  Tour  condemned  as  a  rebel  and 
traitor,  and  orders  given  to  arrest  both  him  and  his 
wife.  Henceforth  there  was  no  room  to  doubt  which 
of  the  rival  chiefs  had  the  King  and  the  law  on  his 
side.  The  envoy,  while  complaining  of  the  aid 
given  to  La  Tour,  offered  terms  of  peace  to  the  gov- 
ernor and  magistrates,  —  who  replied  to  his  com- 
plaints with  their  usual  subterfuge,  that  they  had 
given  no  commission  to  those  who  had  aided  La 
Tour,  declaring  at  the  same  time  that  they  could 
make  no  treaty  without  the  concurrence  of  the  com- 
missioners of  the  United  Colonies.  They  then  desired 
Marie  to  set  down  his  proposals  in  writing ;  on  which 
he  went  to  the  house  of  one  Mr.  Fowle,  where  he 
lodged,  and  drew  up  in  French  his  plan  for  a  treaty, 
adding  the  proposal  that  the  Bostonians  should  join 
D'Aunay  against  La  Tour.  Then  he  came  back  to 
the  place  of  meeting  arid  discussed  the  subject  for 
half  a  day,  —  sometimes  in  Latin  with  the  magis- 
trates, and  sometimes  in  French  with  the  governor, 
that  old  soldier  being  probably  ill  versed  in  the  classic 


1644.]  MARIE'S   MISSION.  35 

tongues.  In  vain  they  all  urged  that  D'Aunay 
should  come  to  terms  with  La  Tour.  Marie  replied, 
that  if  La  Tour  would  give  himself  up  his  life  would 
be  spared,  but  that  if  he  were  caught  he  would  lose 
his  head  as  a  traitor;  adding  that  his  wife  was  worse 
than  he,  being  the  mainspring  of  his  rebellion. 
Endicott  and  the  magistrates  refused  active  alliance ; 
but  the  talk  ended  in  a  provisional  treaty  of  peace, 
duly  drawn  up  in  Latin,  Marie  keeping  one  copy  and 
the  governor  the  other.  The  agreement  needed  rati- 
fication by  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
on  one  part,  and  by  D'Aunay  on  the  other.  What 
is  most  curious  in  the  affair  is  the  attitude  of  Massa- 
chusetts, which  from  first  to  last  figures  as  an  inde- 
pendent State,  with  no  reference  to  the  King  under 
whose  charter  it  was  building  up  its  theocratic 
republic,  and  consulting  none  but  the  infant  confed- 
eracy of  the  New  England  colonies,  of  which  it  was 
itself  the  head.  As  the  commissioners  of  the  confed- 
eracy were  not  then  in  session,  Endicott  and  the 
magistrates  took  the  matter  provisionally  into  their 
own  hands. 

Marie  had  made  good  despatch,  for  he  reached 
Boston  on  a  Friday  and  left  it  on  the  next  Tuesday, 
having  finished  his  business  in  about  three  days,  or 
rather  two,  as  one  of  the  three  was  "the  Sabbath." 
He  expressed  surprise  and  gratification  at  the  atten- 
tion and  courtesy  with  which  he  had  been  treated. 
His  hosts  supplied  him  with  horses,  and  some  of 
them  accompanied  him  to  Salem,  where  he  had  left 


86  LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS.          [1644. 

his  vessel,  and  whence  he  sailed  for  Port  Royal,  well 
pleased. 

Just  before  he  came  to  Boston,  that  town  had 
received  a  visit  from  Madame  de  la  Tour,  who,  soon 
after  her  husband's  successful  negotiation  with 
Winthrop  in  the  past  year,  had  sailed  for  France  in 
the  ship  "  St.  Clement."  She  had  labored  strenuously 
in  La  Tour's  cause;  but  the  influence  of  D'Aunay's 
partisans  was  far  too  strong,  and,  being  charged  with 
complicity  in  her  husband's  misconduct,  she  was 
forbidden  to  leave  France  on  pain  of  death.  She  set 
the  royal  command  at  naught,  escaped  to  England, 
took  passage  in  a  ship  bound  for  America,  and  after 
long  delay  landed  at  Boston.  The  English  ship- 
master had  bargained  to  carry  her  to  her  husband  at 
Fort  St.  Jean ;  but  he  broke  his  bond,  and  was  sen- 
tenced by  the  Massachusetts  courts  to  pay  her  £2, 000 
as  damages.  She  was  permitted  to  hire  three  armed 
vessels  then  lying  in  the  harbor,  to  convey  her  to 
Fort  St.  Jean,  where  she  arrived  safely  and  rejoined 
La  Tour. 

Meanwhile,  D'Aunay  was  hovering  off  the  coast, 
armed  with  the  final  and  conclusive  decree  of  the 
royal  council,  which  placed  both  husband  and  wife 
under  the  ban,  and  enjoined  him  to  execute  its  sen- 
tence. But  a  resort  to  force  was  costly  and  of  doubt- 
ful result,  and  D'Aunay  resolved  again  to  try  the 
effect  of  persuasion.  Approaching  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  John,  he  sent  to  the  fort  two  boats,  commanded 
by  his  lieutenant,  who  carried  letters  from  his  chief, 


1645.]  AN  ENRAGED  AMAZON.  37 

promising  to  La  Tour's  men  pardon  for  their  past 
conduct  and  payment  of  all  wages  due  them  if  they 
would  return  to  their  duty.  An  adherent  of  D'Aunay 
declares  that  they  received  these  advances  with 
insults  and  curses.  It  was  a  little  before  this  time 
that  Madame  de  la  Tour  arrived  from  Boston.  The 
same  writer  says  that  she  fell  into  a  transport  of  fury, 
"behaved  like  one  possessed  with  a  devil,"  and 
heaped  contempt  on  the  Catholic  faith  in  the  presence 
of  her  husband,  who  approved  everything  she  did; 
and  he  further  affirms  that  she  so  berated  and  reviled 
the  Re'eollet  friars  in  the  fort  that  they  refused  to 
stay,  and  set  out  for  Port  Royal  in  the  depth  of 
winter,  taking  with  them  eight  soldiers  of  the  fort 
who  were  too  good  Catholics  to  remain  in  such  a  nest 
of  heresy  and  rebellion.  They  were  permitted  to  go, 
and  were  provided  with  an  old  pinnace  and  two 
barrels  of  Indian  corn,  with  which,  unfortunately  for 
La  Tour,  they  safely  reached  their  destination. 

On  her  arrival  from  Boston,  Madame  de  la  Tour 
had  given  her  husband  a  piece  of  politic  advice.  Her 
enemies  say  that  she  had  some  time  before  renounced 
her  faith  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  Puritans ;  but  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  she  had  been  a  Huguenot 
from  the  first.  She  now  advised  La  Tour  to  go  to 
Boston,  declare  himself  a  Protestant,  ask  for  a  min- 
ister to  preach  to  his  men,  and  promise  that  if  the 
Estonians  would  help  him  to  master  D'Aunay  and 
mquer  Acadia,  he  would  share  the  conquest  with 
tern.  La  Tour  admired  the  sagacious  counsels  of 


38  LA  TOUR   AND  THE  PURITANS.          [1645. 

his  wife,  and  sailed  for  Boston  to  put  them  in  prac- 
tice just  before  the  friars  and  the  eight  deserters 
sailed  for  Port  Royal,  thus  leaving  their  departure 
unopposed. 

At  Port  Royal  both  friars  and  deserters  found  a 
warm  welcome.  D'Aunay  paid  the  eight  soldiers 
their  long  arrears  of  wages,  and  lodged  the  friars  in 
the  seminary  with  his  Capuchins.  Then  he  ques- 
tioned them,  and  was  well  rewarded.  They  told  him 
that  La  Tour  had  gone  to  Boston,  leaving  his  wife 
with  only  forty-five  men  to  defend  the  fort.  Here 
was  a  golden  opportunity.  D'Aunay  called  his 
officers  to  council.  All  were  of  one  mind.  He  mus- 
tered every  man  about  Port  Royal  and  embarked 
them  in  the  armed  ship  of  three  hundred  tons  that 
had  brought  him  from  France;  he  then  crossed  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  with  all  his  force,  anchored  in  a  small 
harbor  a  league  from  Fort  St.  Jean,  and  sent  the 
Re'collet  Pdre  Andre*  to  try  to  seduce  more  of  La 
Tour's  men,  —  an  attempt  which  proved  a  failure. 
D'Aunay  lay  two  months  at  his  anchorage,  during 
which  time  another  ship  and  a  pinnace  joined  him 
from  Port  Royal.  Then  he  resolved  to  make  an 
attack.  Meanwhile,  La  Tour  had  persuaded  a 
Boston  merchant  to  send  one  Grafton  to  Fort  St. 
Jean  in  a  small  vessel  loaded  with  provisions,  and 
bringing  also  a  letter  to  Madame  de  la  Tour  contain- 
ing a  promise  from  her  husband  that  he  would  join 
her  in  a  month.  When  the  Boston  vessel  appeared 
at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John,  D'Aunay  seized  it, 


1645.]  FORT   ST.  JEAN  ATTACKED.  39 

placed  Grafton  and  the  few  men  with  him  on  an 
island,  and  finally  supplied  them  with  a  leaky  sail- 
boat to  make  their  way  home  as  they  best  could. 

D'Aunay  now  landed  two  cannon  to  batter  Fort 
St.  Jean  on  the  land  side ;  and  on  the  seventeenth  of 
April,  having  brought  his  largest  ship  within  pistol- 
shot  of  the  water  rampart,"  he  summoned  the  garrison 
to  surrender.1  They  answered  with  a  volley  of  can- 
non-shot, then  hung  out  a  red  flag,  and,  according 
to  D'Aunay's  reporter,  shouted  "a  thousand  insults 
and  blasphemies  " ! 2  Towards  evening  a  breach  was 
made  in  the  wall,  and  D'Aunay  ordered  a  general 
assault.  Animated  by  their  intrepid  mistress,  the 
defenders  fought  with  desperation,  and  killed  or 
wounded  many  of  the  assailants,  not  without  severe 
loss  on  their  own  side.  Numbers  prevailed  at  last; 

1  The  site  of  Fort  St.  Jean,  or  Fort  La  Tour,  has  been  matter  of 
question.  At  Carleton,  opposite  the  present  city  of  St.  John,  are 
the  remains  of  an  earthen  fort,  by  some  supposed  to  be  that  of  La 
Tour,  but  which  is  no  doubt  of  later  date,  as  the  place  was  occupied 
by  a  succession  of  forts  down  to  the  Seven  Years'  War.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  has  been  assumed  that  Fort  La  Tour  was  at  Jemsec, 
which  is  about  seventy  miles  up  the  river.  Now,  in  the  second 
mortgage  deed  of  Fort  La  Tour  to  Major  Gibbons,  May  10,  1645, 
the  fort  is  described  as  "  situe  pres  de  I'embouchure  de  la  riviere  de  St. 
Jean"  Moreover,  there  is  a  cataract  just  above  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  which,  though  submerged  at  high  tide,  cannot  be  passed  by 
heavy  ships  at  any  time ;  and  as  D'Aunay  brought  his  largest  ship 
of  war  to  within  pistol-shot  of  the  fort,  it  must  have  been  below  the 
cataract.  Mr.  W.  F.  Ganong,  after  careful  examination,  is  con- 
vinced that  Fort  La  Tour  was  at  Portland  Point,  on  the  east  side  of 
the  St.  John,  at  its  mouth.  See  his  paper  on  the  subject  in  Transac- 
tions of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada,  1891. 

a  Proces  Verbal  d' Andre  Certain,  in  Appendix  A. 


40  LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS.          [1645. 

all  resistance  was  overcome;  the  survivors  of  the 
garrison  were  made  prisoners,  and  the  fort  was  pil- 
laged. Madame  de  la  Tour,  her  maid,  and  another 
woman,  who  were  all  of  their  sex  in  the  place,  were 
among  the  captives,  also  Madame  de  la  Tour's  son, 
a  mere  child.  D'Aunay  pardoned  some  of  his  pris- 
oners, but  hanged  the  greater  part,  "to  serve  as  an 
example  to  posterity,"  says  his  reporter.  Nicolas 
Denys  declares  that  he  compelled  Madame  de  la 
Tour  to  witness  the  execution  with  a  halter  about  her 
neck;  but  the  more  trustworthy  accounts  say  nothing 
of  this  alleged  outrage.  On  the  next  day,  the  eigh- 
teenth of  April,  the  bodies  of  the  dead  were  decently 
buried,  an  inventory  was  made  of  the  contents  of  the 
fort,  and  D'Aunay  set  his  men  to  repair  it  for  his 
own  use.  These  labors  occupied  three  weeks  or  more, 
during  a  part  of  which  Madame  de  la  Tour  was  left 
at  liberty,  till,  being  detected  in  an  attempt  to  corre- 
spond with  her  husband  by  means  of  an  Indian,  she 
was  put  into  confinement;  on  which,  according  to 
D'Aunay's  reporter,  "she  fell  ill  with  spite  and 
rage,"  and  died  within  three  weeks, — after,  as  he 
tells  us,  renouncing  her  heresy  in  the  chapel  of  the 
fort. 


CHAPTER  III. 

1645-1710. 
THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED. 

D'AUNAY'S  ENVOYS  TO  THE  PURITANS  :  THEIR  RECEPTION  AT 
BOSTON.  —  WINTHROP  AND  HIS  "  PAPIST  "  GUESTS.  —  RECON- 
CILIATION, —  TREATY.  —  BEHAVIOR  OF  LA  TOUR.  —  ROYAL, 
FAVORS  TO  D'AUNAY  :  HIS  HOPES  ;  HIS  DEATH  ;  HIS  CHARACTER. 
—  CONDUCT  OF  THE  COURT  TOWARDS  HIM.  —  INTRIGUES  OF  LA 
TOUR. — MADAME  D'AUNAY. —  LA  TOUR  MARRIES  HER.  —  CHIL- 
DREN OF  D'AUNAY.  —  DESCENDANTS  OF  LA  TOUR. 

HAVING  triumphed  over  his  rival,  D'Aunay  was 
left  free  to  settle  his  accounts  with  the  Massachusetts 
Puritans,  who  had  offended  him  anew  by  sending 
provisions  to  Fort  St.  Jean,  having  always  insisted 
that  they  were  free  to  trade  with  either  party. 
They,  on  their  side,  were  no  less  indignant  with 
him  for  his  seizure  of  Graf  ton's  vessel  and  harsh 
treatment  of  him  and  his  men. 

After  some  preliminary  negotiation  and  some  rather 
sharp  correspondence,  D'Aunay,  in  September,  1646, 

;nt  a  pinnace  to  Boston,  bearing  his  former  envoy, 

[arie,  accompanied  by  his  own  secretary  and  by  one 

[onsieur  Louis. 

It  was  Sunday,  the  Puritan  Sabbath,  when  the 
three  envoys  arrived;  and  the  pious  inhabitants  were 


42  THE   VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1646. 

preparing  for  the  afternoon  sermon.  Marie  and  his 
two  colleagues  were  met  at  the  wharf  by  two  militia 
officers,  and  conducted  through  the  silent  and  dreary 
streets  to  the  house  of  Captain,  now  Major,  Gibbons, 
who  seems  to  have  taken  upon  himself  in  an 
especial  manner  the  office  of  entertaining  strangers 
of  consequence. 

All  was  done  with  much  civility,  but  no  ceremony ; 
for  the  Lord's  Day  must  be  kept  inviolate.  Winthrop, 
who  had  again  been  chosen  governor,  now  sent  an 
officer,  with  a  guard  of  musketeers,  to  invite  the 
envoys  to  his  own  house.  Here  he  regaled  them 
with  wine  and  sweetmeats,  and  then  informed  them 
of  "our  manner  that  all  men  either  come  to  our 
publick  meetings,  or  keep  themselves  quiet  in  their 
houses."1  He  then  laid  before  them  such  books  in 
Latin  and  French  as  he  had,  and  told  them  that  they 
were  free  to  walk  in  his  garden.  Though  the  diver- 
sion offered  was  no  doubt  of  the  dullest,  —  since  the 
literary  resources  of  the  colony  then  included  little 
besides  arid  theology,  and  the  walk  in  the  garden 
promised  but  moderate  delights  among  the  bitter 
pot-herbs  provided  against  days  of  fasting,  —  the 
victims  resigned  themselves  with  good  grace,  and,  as 
the  governor  tells  us,  "gave  no  offence."  Sunset 
came  at  last,  and  set  the  captives  free. 

On  Monday  both  sides  fell  to  business.  The 
envoys  showed  their  credentials ;  but,  as  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  United  Colonies  were  not  yet  in 
i  Winthrop,  ii.  273,  276. 


1646.]  THE  ENVOYS.  43 

session,  nothing  conclusive  could  be  done  till  Tues- 
day. Then,  all  being  assembled,  each  party  made 
its  complaints  of  the  conduct  of  the  other,  and  a 
long  discussion  followed.  Meals  were  provided  for 
the  three  visitors  at  the  "ordinary,"  or  inn,  where 
the  magistrates  dined  during  the  sessions  of  the 
General  Court.  The  governor,  as  their  host,  always 
sat  with  them  at  the  board,  and  strained  his  Latin  to 
do  honor  to  his  guests.  They,  on  their  part,  that 
courtesies  should  be  evenly  divided,  went  every 
morning  at  eight  o'clock  to  the  governor's  house, 
whence  he  accompanied  them  to  the  place  of  meet- 
ing; and  at  night  he,  or  some  of  the  commissioners 
in  his  stead,  attended  them  to  their  lodging  at  the 
house  of  Major  Gibbons. 

Serious  questions  were  raised  on  both  sides;  but 
as  both  wanted  peace,  explanations  were  mutually 
made  and  accepted.  The  chief  difficulty  lay  in  the 
undeniable  fact,  that,  in  escorting  La  Tour  to  his 
fort  in  1643,  the  Massachusetts  volunteers  had 
chased  D'Aunay  to  Port  Royal,  killed  some  of  his 
men,  burned  his  mill,  and  robbed  his  pinnace,  for 
which  wrongs  the  envoys  demanded  heavy  damages. 
It  was  true  that  the  governor  and  magistrates  had 
forbidden  acts  of  aggression  on  the  part  of  the  volun- 
teers ;  but  on  the  other  hand  they  had  had  reason  to 
believe  that  their  prohibition  would  be  disregarded, 
and  had  taken  no  measures  to  enforce  it.  The 
envoys  clearly  had  good  ground  of  complaint;  and 
here,  says  Winthrop,  "they  did  stick  two  days."  At 


44  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1646. 

last  they  yielded  so  far  as  to  declare  that  what 
D'Aunay  wanted  was  not  so  much  compensation  in 
money  as  satisfaction  to  his  honor  by  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  their  fault  on  the  part  of  the  Massachusetts 
authorities ;  and  they  further  declared  that  he  would 
accept  a  moderate  present  in  token  of  such  acknowl- 
edgment. The  difficulty  now  was  to  find  such  a 
present.  The  representatives  of  Massachusetts  pres- 
ently bethought  themselves  of  a  "very  fair  new 
sedan  "  which  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico  had  sent  to  his 
sister,  and  which  had  been  captured  in  the  West 
Indies  by  one  Captain  Cromwell,  a  corsair,  who 
gave  it  to  "our  governor."  Winthrop,.  to  whom  it 
was  entirely  useless,  gladly  parted  with  it  in  such  a 
cause;  and  the  sedan,  being  graciously  accepted, 
ended  the  discussion.1  The  treaty  was  signed  in 
duplicate  by  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
and  the  envoys  of  D'Aunay,  and  peace  was  at  last 
concluded. 

The  conference  had  been  conducted  with  much 
courtesy  on  both  sides.  One  small  cloud  appeared, 
but  soon  passed  away.  The  French  envoys  displayed 
the  fleur-de-lys  at  the  masthead  of  their  pinnace  as 
she  lay  in  the  harbor.  The  townsmen  were  incensed ; 
and  Monsieur  Marie  was  told  that  to  fly  foreign 
colors  in  Boston  harbor  was  not  according  to  custom. 
He  insisted  for  a  time,  but  at  length  ordered  the 
offending  flag  to  be  lowered. 

On  the  twenty-eighth  of  September  the  envoys  bade 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  274. 


1647.]  BEHAVIOR  OF  LA  TOUR.  45 

farewell  to  Winthrop,  who  had  accompanied  them  to 
their  pinnace  with  a  guard  of  honor.  Five  cannon 
saluted  them  from  Boston,  five  from  "the  Castle," 
and  three  from  Charlestown.  A  supply  of  mutton 
and  a  keg  of  sherry  were  sent  on  board  their  ves- 
sel; and  then,  after  firing  an  answering  salute  from 
their  swivels,  they  stood  down  the  bay  till  their  sails 
disappeared  among  the  islands. 

La  Tour  had  now  no  more  to  hope  from  his  late 
supporters.  He  had  lost  his  fort,  and,  what  was 
worse,  he  had  lost  his  indomitable  wife.  Throughout 
the  winter  that  followed  his  disaster  he  had  been 
entertained  by  Samuel  Maverick,  at  his  house  on 
Noddle's  Island.  In  the  spring  he  begged  hard  for 
further  help;  and,  as  he  begged  in  vain,  he  sailed 
for  Newfoundland  to  make  the  same  petition  to  Sir 
David  Kirke,  who  then  governed  that  island.  Kirke 
refused,  but  lent  him  a  pinnace  and  sent  him  back  to 
Boston.  Here  some  merchants  had  the  good  nature 
or  folly  to  intrust  him  with  goods  for  the  Indian 
trade,  to  the  amount  of  four  hundred  pounds.  Thus 
equipped,  he  sailed  for  Acadia  in  Kirke 's  pinnace, 
manned  with  his  own  followers  and  five  New  England 
men.  On  reaching  Cape  Sable,  he  conspired  with 
the  master  of  the  pinnace  and  his  own  men  to  seize 
the  vessel  and  set  the  New  England  sailors  ashore, 
—  which  was  done,  La  Tour,  it  is  said,  shooting  one 
of  them  in  the  face  with  a  pistol.  It  was  winter, 
and  the  outcasts  roamed  along  the  shore  for  a  fort- 
night, half  frozen  and  half  starved,  till  they  were 


46  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1617. 

met  by  Micmac  Indians,  who  gave  them  food  and  a 
boat,  —  in  which,  by  rare  good  fortune,  they  reached 
Boston,  where  their  story  convinced  the  most  infatu- 
ated that  they  had  harbored  a  knave.  "Whereby," 
solemnly  observes  the  pious  but  much  mortified 
Winthrop,  who  had  been  La  Tour's  best  friend,  "it 
appeared  (as  the  Scripture  saith)  that  there  is  no 
confidence  in  an  unfaithful  or  carnal  man."1 

When  the  capture  of  Fort  St.  Jean  was  known  at 
court  the  young  King  was  well  pleased,  and  promised 
to  send  D'Aunay  the  gift  of  a  ship;2  but  he  forgot 
to  keep  his  word,  and  requited  his  faithful  subject 
with  the  less  costly  reward  of  praises  and  honors. 
After  a  preamble  reciting  his  merits,  and  especially 
his  "care,  courage,  and  valor"  in  "taking,  by  our 
express  order,  and  reducing  again  under  our  authority 
the  fort  on  the  St.  John  which  La  Tour  had  rebel- 
liously  occupied  with  the  aid  of  foreign  sectaries," 
the  King  confirms  D'Aunay's  authority  in  Acadia, 
and  extends  it  on  paper  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
Virginia,  —  empowering  him  to  keep  for  himself  such 
parts  of  this  broad  domain  as  he  might  want,  and 
grant  out  the  rest  to  others,  who  were  to  hold  of  him 
as  vassals.  He  could  build  forts  and  cities,  at  his 
own  expense ;  command  by  land  and  sea ;  make  war 
or  peace  within  the  limits  of  his  grant;  appoint 
officers  of  government,  justice,  and  police;  and,  in 
short,  exercise  sovereign  power,  with  the  simple 

*  Winthrop,  ii.  266. 

2  Le  Roy  d  M.  d'Aunay  Charnisay,  28  Sept.,  1645, 


1647. ]  D' AUN  AY'S   REWARD.  47 

reservation  of  homage  to  the  King,  and  a  tenth  part 
of  all  gold,  silver,  and  copper  to  the  royal  treasury. 
A  full  monopoly  of  the  fur-trade  throughout  his 
dominion  was  conferred  on  him;  and  any  infringe- 
ment of  it  was  to  be  punished  by  confiscation  of  ships 
and  goods,  and  thirty  thousand  livres  of  damages. 
On  his  part  he  was  enjoined  to  "  establish  the  name, 
power,  and  authority  of  the  King ;  subject  the  nations 
to  his  rule,  and  teach  them  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God  and  the  light  of  the  Christian  faith."1 
Acadia,  in  short,  was  made  an  hereditary  fief;  and 
D'Aunay  and  his  heirs  became  lords  of  a  domain  as 
large  as  a  European  kingdom. 

D'Aunay  had  spent  his  substance  in  the  task  of 
civilizing  a  wilderness.2  The  King  had  not  helped 
him;  and  though  he  belonged  to  a  caste  which  held 
commerce  in  contempt,  he  must  be  a  fur-trader  or  a 
bankrupt.  La  Tour's  Fort  St.  Jean  was  a  better 
trading-station  than  Port  Royal,  and  it  had  wofully 
abridged  D'Aunay's  profits.  Hence  an  ignoble  com- 
petition in  beaver-skins  had  greatly  embittered  their 
quarrel.  All  this  was  over;  Fort  St.  Jean,  the  best 
trading-stand  in  Acadia,  was  now  in  its  conqueror's 
hands ;  and  his  monopoly  was  no  longer  a  mere  name, 
but  a  reality. 

1  Lettre  du  Roy  de  Gouverneur  et  Lieutenant  General  es  costes  a* 
PAcadie  pour  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aulnay  Charnisay,  Fevrier,  1647. 
Lettre  de  la  Reyne  regente  au  meme,  13  Avril,  1647. 

2  His  heirs  estimated  his  outlays  for  the  colony  at  800,000  livres. 
Memoire  des  filles  du  feu  Seigneur  d'Aulnay  Charnisay,  1686.     Placet 
de  Joseph  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay,  Jilt  ain£  du  feu  Charles  du 
Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay  t 1658. 


48  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1650. 

Everything  promised  a  thriving  trade  and  a  growing 
colony,  when  the  scene  was  suddenly  changed.  On 
the  twenty-fourth  of  May,  1650,  a  dark  and  stormy 
day,  D'Aunay  and  his  valet  were  in  a  birch  canoe  in 
the  basin  of  Port  Royal,  not  far  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Annapolis.  Perhaps  neither  master  nor  man  was 
skilled  in  the  management  of  the  treacherous  craft 
that  bore  them.  The  canoe  overset.  D'Aunay  and 
the  valet  clung  to  it  and  got  astride  of  it,  one  at 
each  end.  There  they  sat,  sunk  to  the  shoulders, 
the  canoe  though  under  water  having  buoyancy 
enough  to  keep  them  from  sinking  farther.  So  they 
remained  an  hour  and  a  half;  and  at  the  end  of  that 
time  D'Aunay  was  dead,  not  from  drowning  but 
from  cold,  for  the  water  still  retained  the  chill  of 
winter.  The  valet  remained  alive ;  and  in  this  con- 
dition they  were  found  by  Indians  and  brought  to 
the  north  shore  of  the  Annapolis,  whither  Father 
Ignace,  the  Superior  of  the  Capuchins,  went  to  find 
the  body  of  his  patron,  brought  it  to  the  fort,  and 
buried  it  in  the  chapel,  in  presence  of  his  wife  and 
all  the  soldiers  and  inhabitants.1 

The  Father  Superior  highly  praises  the  dead  chief, 
and  is  astonished  that  the  earth  does  not  gape  and 
devour  the  slanderers  who  say  that  he  died  in  desper- 
ation, as  one  abandoned  of  God.  He  admits  that  in 
former  times  cavillers  might  have  found  wherewith 
to  accuse  him,  but  declares  that  before  his  death  he 
had  amended  all  his  faults.  This  is  the  testimony 

i  Lettre  du  Rev.  Pf  Ignace,  Capucin,  6  Aoust,  1653. 


1651.]  LA  TOUR  IN   FAVOR.  49 

of  a  Capuchin,  whose  fraternity  he  had  always 
favored.  The  Re*collets,  on  the  other  hand,  whose 
patron  was  La  Tour,  complained  that  D'Aunay  had 
ill-used  them,  and  demanded  redress.1  He  seems  to 
have  been  a  favorable  example  of  his  class ;  loyal  to 
his  faith  and  his  King,  tempering  pride  with  cour- 
tesy, and  generally  true  to  his  cherished  ideal  of  the 
gentilhomme  Franpais.  In  his  qualities,  as  in  his 
birth,  he  was  far  above  his  rival;  and  his  death  was 
the  ruin  of  the  only  French  colony  in  Acadia  that 
deserved  the  name. 

At  the  news  of  his  enemy's  fate  a  new  hope  pos- 
sessed La  Tour.  He  still  had  agents  in  France 
interested  to  serve  him;  while  the  father  of  D'Aunay, 
who  acted  as  his  attorney,  was  feeble  with  age,  and 
his  children  were  too  young  to  defend  their  interests. 

There  is  an  extraordinary  document  bearing  date 
February,  1651,  or  less  than  a  year  after  D'Aunay's 
death.  It  is  a  complete  reversal  of  the  decree  of 
1647  hi  his  favor.  La  Tour  suddenly  appears  as  the 
favorite  of  royalty,  and  all  the  graces  before  lavished 
on  his  enemy  are  now  heaped  upon  him.  The  lately 
proscribed  "rebel  and  traitor"  is  confirmed  as  gover- 
nor and  lieutenant-general  in  New  France.  His 
services  to  God  and  the  King  are  rehearsed  "as  ot 
our  certain  knowledge,"  and  he  is  praised  with  the 
same  emphasis  used  towards  D'Aunay  in  the  decree 

i  Papers  to  this  effect  are  among  the  many  pieces  cited  in  the 
Arret  du  Conseil  d'Etat  a  Vegard  du  Seigneur  de  la  Tour,  6  J/ars, 
1644. 

4 


50  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1651. 

of  1647,  and  almost  in  the  same  words.  The  paper 
goes  on  to  say  that  he,  La  Tour,  would  have  con- 
verted the  Indians  and  conquered  Acadia  for  the 
King  if  D'Aunay  had  not  prevented  him.1 

Unless  this  document  is  a  fabrication  in  the  inter- 
est of  La  Tour,  as  there  is  some  reason  to  believe,  it 
suggests  strange  reflections  on  colonial  administra- 
tion during  the  minority  of  Louis  XIV.  Genuine  or 
not,  La  Tour  profited  by  it,  and  after  a  visit  to 
France,  which  proved  a  successful  and  fruitful  one, 
he  returned  to  Acadia  with  revived  hopes.  The 
widow  of  D'Aunay  had  eight  children,  all  minors; 
and  their  grandfather,  the  octogenarian  Rend  de 
Menou,  had  been  appointed  their  guardian.  He 
sent  an  incompetent  and  faithless  person  to  Port 
Royal  to  fulfil  the  wardship  of  which  he  was  no 
longer  capable. 

The  unfortunate  widow  and  her  children  needed 
better  help.  D'Aunay  had  employed  as  his  agent 
one  Le  Borgne,  a  merchant  of  Rochelle,  who  now 
succeeded  in  getting  the  old  man  under  his  influence, 
and  induced  him  to  sign  an  acknowledgment,  said 
to  be  false,  that  D'Aunay's  heirs  owed  him  260,000 

1  Confirmation  de  Gouverneur  et  Lieutenant  General  pour  le  Roy  de 
la  Nouvelle  France,  a  la  Coste  de  I'Acadie,  au  Sr.  Charles  de  St. 
Etienne,  Chevalier  de  la  Tour,  27  Fev.,  1651.  A  copy  of  this  strange 
paper  is  before  me.  Comte  de  Menou,  and  after  him,  his  follower 
Moreau,  doubt  the  genuineness  of  the  document,  which,  however,  is 
alluded  to  without  suspicion  in  the  legal  paper  entitled  Memoire  in 
re  Charles  de  St.  Etienne,  Seigneur  de  la  Tour  (fils)  et  ses  freres  et 
soeurs,  1700.  This  Memoire  is  in  the  interest  of  the  Leirs  of  La  Tour 
and  is  to  be  judged  accordingly. 


1653.]  INTRIGUES  OF  LE  BORGNE.  51 

livres.1  Le  Borgne  next  came  to  Port  Royal  to  push 
his  schemes ;  and  here  he  inveigled  or  frightened  the 
widow  into  signing  a  paper  to  the  effect  that  she  and 
her  children  owed  him  205,286  livres.  It  was  fortu- 
nate for  his  unscrupulous  plans  that  he  had  to  do 
with  the  soft  and  tractable  Madame  d'Aunay,  and 
not  with  the  high-spirited  and  intelligent  Amazon 
Madame  La  Tour.  Le  Borgne  now  seized  on  Port 
Royal  as  security  for  the  alleged  debts;  while  La 
Tour  on  his  return  from  his  visit  to  France  induced 
the  perplexed  and  helpless  widow  to  restore  to  him 
Fort  St.  Jean,  conquered  by  her  late  husband. 
Madame  d'Aunay,  beset  with  insidious  enemies,  saw 
herself  and  her  children  in  danger  of  total  ruin.  She 
applied  to  the  Due  de  Vendome,  grand-master,  chief, 
and  superintendent  of  navigation,  and  offered  to 
share  all  her  Acadian  claims  with  him  if  he  would 
help  her  in  her  distress ;  but,  from  the  first,  Vendome 
looked  more  to  his  own  interests  than  to  hers.  La 
Tour  was  not  satisfied  with  her  concessions  to  him, 
and  perplexing  questions  rose  between  them  touching 
land  claims  and  the  fur-trade.  To  end  these  troubles 
she  took  a  desperate  step,  and  on  the  twenty-fourth 
of  February,  1653,  married  her  tormentor,  the  foe  of 
her  late  husband,  who  had  now  been  dead  not  quite 
three  years.2  Her  chief  thought  seems  to  have  been 
for  her  children,  whose  rights  are  guarded,  though 

1  Memoire  in  re  Charles  de  St.  Etienne  (file  de  la  Tour),  etc. 

2  Rameau,  i.  120.    Menou  and  Moreau  think  that  this  marriage 
took  place  two  or  three  years  later. 


52  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.      [1654-1710. 

to  little  purpose,  in  the  marriage  contract.  She  and 
La  Tour  took  up  their  abode  at  Fort  St.  Jean.  Of 
the  children  of  her  first  marriage  four  were  boys  and 
four  were  girls.  They  were  ruined  at  last  by  the 
harpies  leagued  to  plunder  them,  and  sought  refuge 
in  France,  where  the  boys  were  all  killed  in  the  wars 
of  Louis  XIV.,  and  at  least  three  of  the  girls  became 
nuns.1 

Now  follow  complicated  disputes,  without  dignity 
or  interest,  and  turning  chiefly  on  the  fur- trade. 
Le  Borgne  and  his  son,  in  virtue  of  their  claims  on 
the  estate  of  D'Aunay,  which  were  sustained  by  the 
French  courts,  got  a  lion's  share  of  Acadia;  a  part 
fell  also  to  La  Tour  and  his  children  by  his  new  wife, 
while  Nicolas  Denys  kept  a  feeble  hold  on  the  shore 
of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  as  far  north  as  Cape 
Hosiers. 

War  again  broke  out  between  France  and  England, 
and  in  1654  Major  Robert  Sedgwick  of  Charlestown, 
Massachusetts,  who  had  served  in  the  civil  war  as  a 
major-general  of  Cromwell,  led  a  small  New  England 
force  to  Acadia  under  a  commission  from  the  Pro- 
tector, captured  Fort  St.  Jean,  Port  Royal,  and  all 
the  other  French  stations,  and  conquered  the  colony 
for  England.  It  was  restored  to  France  by  the 
treaty  of  Breda,  and  captured  again  in  1690  by  Sir 
William  Phips.  The  treaty  of  Ryswick  again  restored 
it  to  France,  till,  in  1710,  it  was  finally  seized  for 
England  by  General  Nicholson. 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee. 


1666-1830.]     DESCENDANTS  OF  LA  TOUR.  53 

When,  after  Sedgwick's  expedition,  the  English 
were  in  possession  of  Acadia,  La  Tour,  not  for  the 
first  time,  tried  to  fortify  his  claims  by  a  British  title, 
and,  jointly  with  Thomas  Temple  and  William 
Crown,  obtained  a  grant  of  the  colony  from  Cromwell, 
—  though  he  soon  after  sold  his  share  to  his 
copartner,  Temple.  He  seems  to  have  died  in  1666. l 
Descendants  of  his  were  living  in  Acadia  in  1830, 
and  some  may  probably  still  be  found  there.  As  for 
D'Aunay,  no  trace  of  his  blood  is  left  in  the  land 
where  he  gave  wealth  and  life  for  France  and  the 
Church. 

l  Rameau,  1. 122. 


SECTION  SECOND. 
CANADA    A    MISSION 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1653-1658. 
THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA. 

THE  IROQUOIS  WAR.  —  FATHER  PONCET  :  HIS  ADVENTURES.  — 
JESUIT  BOLDNESS.  —  LE  MOYNE'S  MISSION.  —  CHAUMONOT  AND 
DABLON. —  IROQUOIS  FEROCITY.  —  THE  MOHAWK  KIDNAPPERS. 
—  CRITICAL  POSITION.  —  THE  COLONY  OF  ONONDAGA.  —  SPEECH 
OP  CHAUMONOT.  —  OMENS  OF  DESTRUCTION.  —  DEVICE  OF  THE 
JESUITS.  —  THE  MEDICINE  FEAST. —  THE  ESCAPE. 

IN  the  summer  of  1653  all  Canada  turned  to  fast- 
ing and  penance,  processions,  vows,  and  supplica- 
tions. The  saints  and  the  Virgin  were  beset  with 
unceasing  prayer.  The  wretched  little  colony  was 
like  some  puny  garrison,  starving  amj.  sick,  com- 
passed with  inveterate  foes,  supplies  cut  off,  and 
succor  hopeless. 

At  Montreal  —  the  advance  guard  of  the  settle- 
ments, a  sort  of  Castle  Dangerous,  held  by  about 
fifty  Frenchmen,  and  said  by  a  pious  writer  of  the 
day  to  exist  only  by  a  continuous  miracle  —  some  two 


1653.]  THE  IROQUOIS  WAR.  55 

hundred  Iroquois  fell  upon  twenty-six  Frenchmen. 
The  Christians  were  outmatched,  eight  to  one ;  but, 
says  the  chronicle,  the  Queen  of  Heaven  was  on  their 
side,  and  the  Son  of  Mary  refuses  nothing  to  his 
holy  mother.1  Through  her  intercession,  the  Iroquois 
shot  so  wildly  that  at  their  first  fire  every  bullet 
missed  its  mark,  and  they  met  with  a  bloody  defeat. 
The  palisaded  settlement  of  Three  Rivers,  though  in 
a  position  less  exposed  than  that  of  Montreal,  was 
in  no  less  jeopardy.  A  noted  war-chief  of  the 
Mohawk  Iroquois  had  been  captured  here  the  year 
before,  and  put  to  death ;  and  his  tribe  swarmed  out, 
like  a  nest  of  angry  hornets,  to  revenge  him.  Not 
content  with  defeating  and  killing  the  commandant, 
Du  Plessis  Bochart,  they  encamped  during  the  winter 
in  the  neighboring  forest,  watching  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  surprise  the  place.  Hunger  drove  them 
off,  but  they  returned  in  the  spring,  infesting  every 
field  and  pathway;  till  at  length  some  six  hundred 
of  their  warriors  landed  in  secret  and  lay  hidden  in 
the  depths  of  the  woods,  silently  biding  their  time. 
Having  failed,  however,  in  an  artifice  designed  to 
lure  the  French  out  of  their  defences,  they  showed 
themselves  on  all  sides,  plundering,  burning,  and 
destroying,  up  to  the  palisades  of  the  fort.2 

Of  the  three  settlements  which,  with  their  feeble 


1  Le  Mercier,  Relation,  1653,  3. 

2  So  bent  were  they  on  taking  the  place,  that  they  brought  their 
families,  in  order  to  make  a  permanent  settlement.    Marie  de 
Hncarnation,  Lettre  du  6  Sept.,  1663. 


56  THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA.  [1653. 

dependencies,  then  comprised  the  whole  of  Canada, 
Quebec  was  least  exposed  to  Indian  attacks,  being 
partially  covered  by  Montreal  and  Three  Rivers. 
Nevertheless,  there  was  no  safety  this  year,  even 
under  the  cannon  of  Fort  St.  Louis.  At  Cap  Rouge, 
a  few  miles  above,  the  Jesuit  Poncet  saw  a  poor 
woman  who  had  a  patch  of  corn  beside  her  cabin, 
but  could  find  nobody  to  harvest  it.  The  father 
went  to  seek  aid;  met  one  Mathurin  Franchetot, 
whom  he  persuaded  to  undertake  the  charitable  task, 
and  was  returning  with  him,  when  they  both  fell 
into  an  ambuscade  of  Iroquois,  who  seized  them  and 
dragged  them  off.  Thirty-two  men  embarked  in 
canoes  at  Quebec  to  follow  the  retreating  savages  and 
rescue  the  prisoners.  Pushing  rapidly  up  the  St. 
Lawrence,  they  approached  Three  Rivers,  found  it 
beset  by  the  Mohawks,  and  bravely  threw  them- 
selves into  it,  to  the  great  joy  of  its  defenders  and 
discouragement  of  the  assailants. 

Meanwhile,  the  intercession  of  the  Virgin  wrought 
new  marvels  at  Montreal,  and  a  bright  ray  of  hope 
beamed  forth  from  the  darkness  and  the  storm  to  cheer 
the  hearts  of  her  votaries.  It  was  on  the  twenty -sixth 
of  June  that  sixty  of  the  Onondaga  Iroquois  appeared 
in  sight  of  the  fort,  shouting  from  a  distance  that 
they  came  on  an  errand  of  peace,  and  asking  safe- 
conduct  for  some  of  their  number.  Guns,  scalping- 
knives,  tomahawks,  were  all  laid  aside;  and,  with  a 
confidence  truly  astonishing,  a  deputation  of  chiefs, 
naked  and  defenceless,  came  into  the  midst  of  those 


1653.]  PACIFIC   OVERTURES.  57 

whom  they  had  betrayed  so  often.  The  French  had 
a  mind  to  seize  them,  and  pay  them  in  kind  for  past 
treachery;  but  they  refrained,  seeing  in  this  won- 
drous change  of  heart  the  manifest  hand  of  Heaven. 
Nevertheless,  it  can  be  explained  without  a  miracle. 
The  Iroquois,  or  at  least  the  western  nations  of  their 
league,  had  just  become  involved  in  war  with  their 
neighbors  the  Eries,1  and  "one  war  at  a  time"  was 
the  sage  maxim  of  their  policy. 

All  was  smiles  and  blandishment  in  the  fort  at 
Montreal ;  presents  were  exchanged,  and  the  deputies 
departed,  bearing  home  golden  reports  of  the  French. 
An  Oneida  deputation  soon  followed ;  but  the  enraged 
Mohawks  still  infested  Montreal  and  beleaguered 
Three  Rivers,  till  one  of  their  principal  chiefs  and 
four  of  their  best  warriors  were  captured  by  a  party 
of  Christian  Hurons.  Then,  seeing  themselves 
abandoned  by  the  other  nations  of  the  league  and 
left  to  wage  the  war  alone,  they  too  made  overtures 
of  peace. 

A  grand  council  was  held  at  Quebec.  Speeches 
were  made,  and  wampum-belts  exchanged.  The 
Iroquois  left  some  of  their  chief  men  as  pledges  of 
sincerity,  and  two  young  soldiers  offered  themselves 
as  reciprocal  pledges  on  the  part  of  the  French. 
The  war  was  over;  at  least  Canada  had  found  a 
moment  to  take  breath  for  the  next  struggle.  The 

1  See  "Jesuits  in  North  America,"  542.  The  Iroquois,  it  will  be 
remembered,  consisted  of  five  "nations,"  or  tribes,  —  the  Mohawks, 
Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and  Senecas.  For  an  account  of 
them,  see  the  work  just  cited,  Introduction. 


58  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA.  [1653. 

fur-trade  was  restored  again,  with  promise  of  plenty ; 
for  the  beaver,  profiting  by  the  quarrels  of  their 
human  foes,  had  of  late  greatly  multiplied.  It  was 
a  change  from  death  to  life ;  for  Canada  lived  on  the 
beaver,  and  robbed  of  this,  her  only  sustenance,  had 
been  dying  slowly  since  the  strife  began.1 

"  Yesterday, "  writes  Father  Le  Mercier,  "all  was 
dejection  and  gloom ;  to-day,  all  is  smiles  and  gayety. 
On  Wednesday,  massacre,  burning,  and  pillage;  on 
Thursday,  gifts  and  visits,  as  among  friends.  If  the 
Iroquois  have  their  hidden  designs,  so  too  has  God. 

"  On  the  day  of  the  Visitation  of  the  Holy  Virgin, 
the  chief,  Aontarisati,2  so  regretted  by  the  Iroquois, 
was  taken  prisoner  by  our  Indians,  instructed  by  our 
fathers,  and  baptized;  and  on  the  same  day,  being 
put  to  death,  he  ascended  to  heaven.  I  doubt  not 
that  he  thanked  the  Virgin  for  his  misfortune  and 
the  blessing  that  followed,  and  that  he  prayed  to 
God  for  his  countrymen. 

"The  people  of  Montreal  made  a  solemn  vow  to 
celebrate  publicly  the  fete  of  this  mother  of  all  bless- 
ings ;  whereupon  the  Iroquois  came  to  ask  for  peace. 

"It  was  on  the  day  of  the  Assumption  of  this 
Queen  of  angels  and  of  men  that  the  Hurons  took  at 

1  According  to  Le  Mercier,  beaver  to  the  value  of  from  200,000 
to  300,000  livres  was  yearly  brought  down  to  the  colony  before  the 
destruction  of  the  Hurons  (1649-50).    Three  years  later,  not  one 
beaver-skin  was  brought  to  Montreal  during  a  twelvemonth,  and 
Three  Rivers  and  Quebec  had  barely  enough  to  pay  for  keeping  the 
fortifications  in  repair. 

2  The  chief  whose  death  had  so  enraged  the  Mohawki. 


1653.]        THE  WOES   OF   FATHER  PONCET.  59 

Montreal  that  other  famous  Iroquois  chief,  whose 
capture  caused  the  Mohawks  to  seek  our  alliance. 

"  On  the  day  when  the  Church  honors  the  Nativity 
of  the  Holy  Virgin,  the  Iroquois  granted  Father 
Poncet  his  life ;  and  he,  or  rather  the  Holy  Virgin 
and  the  holy  angels,  labored  so  well  in  the  work  of 
peace,  that  on  Saint  Michael's  Day  it  was  resolved  in 
a  council  of  the  elders  that  the  father  should  be  con- 
ducted to  Quebec,  and  a  lasting  treaty  made  with 
the  French."1 

Happy  as  was  this  consummation,  Father  Poncet's 
path  to  it  had  been  a  thorny  one.  He  has  left  us  his 
own  rueful  story,  written  in  obedience  to  the  com- 
mand of  his  superior.  He  and  his  companion  in 
misery  had  been  hurried  through  the  forests,  from 
Cap  Rouge  on  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Indian  towns 
on  the  Mohawk.  He  tells  us  how  he  slept  among 
dank  weeds,  dropping  with  the  cold  dew;  how  fright- 
ful colics  assailed  him  as  he  waded  waist-deep  through 
a  mountain  stream ;  how  one  of  his  feet  was  blistered 
and  one  of  his  legs  benumbed ;  how  an  Indian  snatched 
away  his  reliquary  and  lost  the  precious  contents. 
"I  had,"  he  says,  "a  picture  of  Saint  Ignatius  with 
our  Lord  bearing  the  cross,  and  another  of  Our  Lady 
of  Pity  surrounded  by  the  five  wounds  of  her  Son. 
They  were  my  joy  and  my  consolation;  but  I  hid 
them  in  a  bush,  lest  the  Indians  should  laugh  at 
them."  He  kept,  however,  a  little  image  of  the 
crown  of  thorns,  in  which  he  found  great  comfort, 
i  Relation,  1653, 1& 


60  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1653. 

as  well  as  in  communion  with  his  patron  saints,  Saint 
Raphael,  Saint  Martha,  and  Saint  Joseph.  On  one 
occasion  he  asked  these  celestial  friends  for  some- 
thing to  soothe  his  thirst,  and  for  a  bowl  of  broth  to 
revive  his  strength.  Scarcely  had  he  framed  the 
petition  when  an  Indian  gave  him  some  wild  plums ; 
and  in  the  evening,  as  he  lay  fainting  on  the  ground, 
another  brought  him  the  coveted  broth.  Weary  and 
forlorn,  he  reached  at  last  the  lower  Mohawk  town, 
where,  after  being  stripped,  and  with  his  companion 
forced  to  run  the  gantlet,  he  was  placed  on  a  scaffold 
of  bark,  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  grinning  and 
mocking  savages.  As  it  began  to  rain,  they  took 
him  into  one  of  their  lodges,  and  amused  themselves 
by  making  him  dance,  sing,  and  perform  various 
fantastic  tricks  for  their  amusement.  He  seems  to 
have  done  his  best  to  please  them;  "but,"  adds  the 
chronicler,  "  I  will  say  in  passing,  that  as  he  did  not 
succeed  to  their  liking  in  these  buffooneries  (singeries), 
they  would  have  put  him  to  death  if  a  young  Huron 
prisoner  had  not  offered  himself  to  sing,  dance,  and 
make  wry  faces  in  place  of  the  father,  who  had  never 
learned  the  trade." 

Having  sufficiently  amused  themselves,  they  left 
him  for  a  time  in  peace ;  when  an  old  one-eyed  Indian 
approached,  took  his  hands,  examined  them,  selected 
the  left  forefinger,  and  calling  a  child  four  or  five 
years  old,  gave  him  a  knife,  and  told  him  to  cut  it 
off,  which  the  imp  proceeded  to  do,  his  victim  mean- 
while singing  the  Vexilla  Regis.  After  this  prelimi- 


1653.]  PEACE  CONCLUDED.  61 

nary,  they  would  have  burned  him,  like  Franchetot, 
his  unfortunate  companion,  had  not  a  squaw  happily 
adopted  him  in  place,  as  he  says,  of  a  deceased 
brother.  He  was  installed  at  once  in  the  lodge  of 
his  new  relatives,  where,  bereft  of  every  rag  of 
Christian  clothing,  and  attired  in  leggins,  moccasins, 
and  a  greasy  shirt,  the  astonished  father  saw  himself 
transformed  into  an  Iroquois.  But  his  deliverance 
was  at  hand.  A  special  agreement  providing  for  it 
had  formed  a  part  of  the  treaty  concluded  at  Quebec ; 
and  he  now  learned  that  he  was  to  be  restored  to  his 
countrymen.  After  a  march  of  almost  intolerable 
hardship,  he  saw  himself  once  more  among  Christians, 
• —  Heaven,  as  he  modestly  thinks,  having  found  him 
unworthy  of  martyrdom. 

"At  last,"  he  writes,  "we  reached  Montreal  on 
the  twenty-first  of  October,  the  nine  weeks  of  my  cap- 
tivity being  accomplished,  in  honor  of  Saint  Michael 
and  all  the  holy  angels.  On  the  sixth  of  November 
the  Iroquois  who  conducted  me  made  their  presents  to 
confirm  the  peace;  and  thus,  on  a  Sunday  evening, 
eighty-and-one  days  after  my  capture,  —  that  is  to 
say,  nine  times  nine  days,  —  this  great  business  of 
the  peace  was  happily  concluded,  the  holy  angels 
showing  by  this  number  nine,  which  is  specially 
dedicated  to  them,  the  part  they  bore  in  this  holy 
work."1  This  incessant  supernaturalism  is  the  key 
to  the  early  history  of  New  France. 

i  Poncet  in  Relation,  1653, 17.  On  Poncet's  captivity  see  also 
Morale  Pratique  des  Jesuites,  vol.  xxxiv.  (4to)  chap.  xii. 


02  THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA.  [1653. 

Peace  was  made ;  but  would  peace  endure  ?  There 
was  little  chance  of  it,  and  this  for  several  reasons. 
First,  the  native  fickleness  of  the  Iroquois,  who, 
astute  and  politic  to  a  surprising  degree,  were  in 
certain  respects,  like  all  savages,  mere  grown-up 
children.  Next,  their  total  want  of  control  over 
their  fierce  and  capricious  young  warriors,  any  one 
of  whom  could  break  the  peace  with  impunity  when- 
ever he  saw  fit;  and,  above  all,  the  strong  probability 
that  the  Iroquois  had  made  peace  in  order,  under 
cover  of  it,  to  butcher  or  kidnap  the  unhappy  rem- 
nant of  the  Huions  who  were  living,  under  French 
protection,  on  the  island  of  Orleans,  immediately 
below  Quebec.  I  have  already  told  the  story  of  the 
destruction  of  this  people  and  of  the  Jesuit  missions 
established  among  them.1  The  conquerors  were 
eager  to  complete  their  bloody  triumph  by  seizing 
upon  the  refugees  of  Orleans,  killing  the  elders,  and 
strengthening  their  own  tribes  by  the  adoption  of  the 
women,  children,  and  youths.  The  Mohawks  and 
the  Onondagas  were  competitors  for  the  prize.  Each 
coveted  the  Huron  colony,  and  each  was  jealous  lest 
his  rival  should  pounce  upon  it  first. 

When  the  Mohawks  brought  home  Poncet,  they 
covertly  gave  wampum-belts  to  the  Huron  chiefs, 
and  invited  them  to  remove  to  their  villages.  It  was 
the  wolf's  invitation  to  the  lamb.  The  Hurons, 
aghast  with  terror,  went  secretly  to  the  Jesuits,  and 
told  them  that  demons  had  whispered  in  their  ears  an 
1  See  "  Jesuits  in  North  America." 


1653.]  JESUIT   BOLDNESS.  63 

invitation  to  destruction.  So  helpless  were  both  the 
Hurons  and  their  French  supporters,  that  they  saw 
no  recourse  but  dissimulation.  The  Hurons  promised 
to  go,  and  only  sought  excuses  to  gain  time. 

The  Onondagas  had  a  deeper  plan.  Their  towns 
were  already  full  of  Huron  captives,  former  converts 
of  the  Jesuits,  cherishing  their  memory  and  con- 
stantly repeating  their  praises.  Hence  their  tyrants 
conceived  the  idea  that  by  planting  at  Onondaga  a 
colony  of  Frenchmen  under  the  direction  of  these 
beloved  fathers,  the  Hurons  of  Orleans,  disarmed  of 
suspicion,  might  readily  be  led  to  join  them.  Other 
motives,  as  we  shall  see,  tended  to  the  same  end,  and 
the  Onondaga  deputies  begged,  or  rather  demanded, 
that  a  colony  of  Frenchmen  should  be  sent  among  them. 

Here  was  a  dilemma.  Was  not  this,  like  the 
Mohawk  invitation  to  the  Hurons,  an  invitation  to 
butchery?  On  the  other  hand,  to  refuse  would 
probably  kindle  the  war  afresh.  The  Jesuits  had 
long  nursed  a  project  bold  to  temerity.  Their  great 
Huron  mission  was  ruined ;  but  might  not  another  be 
built  up  among  the  authors  of  this  ruin,  and  the 
Iroquois  themselves,  tamed  by  the  power  of  the 
Faith,  be  annexed  to  the  kingdoms  of  Heaven  and 
of  France  ?  Thus  would  peace  be  restored  to  Canada, 
a  barrier  of  fire  opposed  to  the  Dutch  and  English 
heretics,  and  the  power  of  the  Jesuits  vastly  increased. 
Yet  the  time  was  hardly  ripe  for  such  an  attempt. 
Before  thrusting  a  head  into  the  tiger's  jaws,  it 
would  be  well  to  try  the  effect  of  thrusting  in  a 


64  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1654. 

hand.  They  resolved  to  compromise  with  the 
danger,  and  before  risking  a  colony  at  Onondaga  to 
send  thither  an  envoy  who  could  soothe  the  Indians, 
confirm  them  in  pacific  designs,  and  pave  the  way 
for  more  decisive  steps.  The  choice  fell  on  Father 
Simon  Le  Moyne. 

The  errand  was  mainly  a  political  one;  and  this 
sagacious  and  able  priest,  versed  in  Indian  languages 
and  customs,  was  well  suited  to  do  it.  "On  the 
second  day  of  the  month  of  July,  the  festival  of 
the  Visitation  of  the  Most  Holy  Virgin,  ever  favor- 
able to  our  enterprises,  Father  Simon  Le  Moyne  set 
out  from  Quebec  for  the  country  of  the  Onondaga 
Iroquois."  In  these  words  does  Father  Le  Mercier 
chronicle  the  departure  of  his  brother  Jesuit.  Scarcely 
was  he  gone  when  a  band  of  Mohawks,  under  a 
redoubtable  half-breed  known  as  the  Flemish  Bastard, 
arrived  at  Quebec;  and  when  they  heard  that  the 
envoy  was  to  go  to  the  Onondagas  without  visiting 
their  tribe,  they  took  the  imagined  slight  in  high 
dudgeon,  displaying  such  jealousy  and  ire  that  a 
letter  was  sent  after  Le  Moyne,  directing  him  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  Mohawk  towns  before  his  return.  But 
he  was  already  beyond  reach,  and  the  angry  Mohawks 
tvere  left  to  digest  their  wrath. 

At  Montreal,  Le  Moyne  took  a  canoe,  a  young 
Frenchman,  and  two  or  three  Indians,  and  began  the 
tumultuous  journey  of  the  Upper  St.  Lawrence. 
Nature,  or  habit,  had  taught  him  to  love  the  wilder- 
ness life.  He  and  his  companions  had  struggled  all 


1654.]  FATHER  LE  MOYNE.  65 

day  against  the  surges  of  La  Chine,  and  were  biv- 
ouacked at  evening  by  the  Lake  of  St.  Louis,  when 
a  cloud  of  mosquitoes  fell  upon  them,  followed  by  a 
shower  of  warm  rain.  The  father,  stretched  under 
a  tree,  seems  clearly  to  have  enjoyed  himself.  "  It 
is  a  pleasure,"  he  writes,  "the  sweetest  and  most 
innocent  imaginable,  to  have  no  other  shelter  than 
trees  planted  by  Nature  since  the  creation  of  the 
world."  Sometimes,  during  their  journey,  this 
primitive  tent  proved  insufficient,  and  they  would 
build  a  bark  hut  or  find  a  partial  shelter  under  their 
inverted  canoe.  Now  they  glided  smoothly  over  the 
sunny  bosom  of  the  calm  and  smiling  river,  and  now 
strained  every  nerve  to  fight  their  slow  way  against 
the  rapids,  dragging  their  canoe  upward  in  the 
shallow  water  by  the  shore,  as  one  leads  an  unwilling 
horse  by  the  bridle,  or  shouldering  it  and  bearing  it 
through  the  forest  to  the  smoother  current  above. 
Game  abounded;  and  they  saw  great  herds  of  elk 
quietly  defiling  between  the  water  and  the  woods, 
with  little  heed  of  men,  who  in  that  perilous  region 
found  employment  enough  in  hunting  one  another. 

At  the  entrance  of  Lake  Ontario  they  met  a  party 
of  Iroquois  fishermen,  who  proved  friendly,  and 
guided  them  on  their  way.  Ascending  the  Onondaga, 
they  neared  their  destination ;  and  now  all  misgivings 
as  to  their  reception  at  the  Iroquois  capital  were  dis- 
pelled. The  inhabitants  came  to  meet  them,  bring- 
ing roasting  ears  of  the  young  maize  and  bread  made 
of  its  pulp,  than  which  they  knew  no  luxury  more 


66  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1054. 

exquisite.  Their  faces  beamed  welcome.  Le  Moyne 
was  astonished.  "I  never,"  he  says,  "saw  the  like 
among  Indians  before."  They  were  flattered  by  his 
visit,  and,  for  the  moment,  were  glad  to  see  him. 
They  hoped  for  great  advantages  from  the  residence 
of  Frenchmen  among  them ;  and  having  the  Erie  war 
on  their  hands,  they  wished  for  peace  with  Canada. 
"One  would  call  me  brother,"  writes  Le  Moyne; 
"another,  uncle;  another,  cousin.  I  never  had  so 
many  relations." 

He  was  overjoyed  to  find  that  many  of  the  Huron 
converts,  who  had  long  been  captives  at  Onondaga, 
had  not  forgotten  the  teachings  of  their  Jesuit 
instructors.  Such  influence  as  they  had  with  their 
conquerors  was  sure  to  be  exerted  in  behalf  of  the 
French.  Deputies  of  the  Senecas,  Cayugas,  and 
Oneidas  at  length  arrived,  and  on  the  tenth  of  August 
the  criers  passed  through  the  town,  summoning  all 
to  hear  the  words  of  Onontio.  The  naked  dignita- 
ries, sitting,  squatting,  or  lying  at  full  length, 
thronged  the  smoky  hall  of  council.  The  father 
knelt  and  prayed  in  a  loud  voice,  invoking  the  aid  of 
Heaven,  cursing  the  demons  who  are  spirits  of  dis- 
cord, and  calling  on  the  tutelar  angels  of  the  country 
to  open  the  ears  of  his  listeners.  Then  he  opened 
his  packet  of  presents  and  began  his  speech.  "  I  was 
full  two  hours,"  he  says,  "in  making  it,  speaking  in 
the  tone  of  a  chief,  and  walking  to  and  fro,  after 
their  fashion,  like  an  actor  on  a  theatre."  Not  only 
did  he  imitate  the  prolonged  accents  of  the  Iroquois 


1654.]  LE  MOYNE   AT  ONONDAGA.  67 

orators,  but  he  adopted  and  improved  their  figures  of 
speech,  and  addressed  them  in  turn  by  their  respective 
tribes,  bands,  and  families,  calling  their  men  of  note 
by  name,  as  if  he  had  been  born  among  them.  They 
were  delighted ;  and  their  ejaculations  of  approval  — 
hoh-hoh-hoh  —  came  thick  and  fast  at  every  pause  of 
his  harangue.  Especially  were  they  pleased  with  the 
eighth,  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  presents,  whereby 
the  reverend  speaker  gave  to  the  four  upper  nations 
of  the  league  four  hatchets  to  strike  their  new  ene- 
mies, the  Eries;  while  by  another  present  he  meta- 
phorically daubed  their  faces  with  the  war-paint. 
However  it  may  have  suited  the  character  of  a  Chris- 
tian priest  to  hound  on  these  savage  hordes  to  a  war 
of  extermination  which  they  had  themselves  pro- 
voked, it  is  certain  that,  as  a  politician,  Le  Moyne 
did  wisely ;  since  in  the  war  with  the  Eries  lay  the 
best  hope  of  peace  for  the  French. 

The  reply  of  the  Indian  orator  was  friendly  to 
overflowing.  He  prayed  his  French  brethren  to 
choose  a  spot  on  the  lake  of  Onondaga,  where  they 
might  dwell  in  the  country  of  the  Iroquois,  as  they 
dwelt  already  in  their  hearts.  Le  Moyne  promised, 
and  made  two  presents  to  confirm  the  pledge.  Then, 
his  mission  fulfilled,  he  set  out  on  his  return, 
attended  by  a  troop  of  Indians.  As  he  approached 
the  lake,  his  escort  showed  him  a  large  spring  of 
water,  possessed,  as  they  told  him,  by  a  bad  spirit. 
Le  Moyne  tasted  it,  then  boiled  a  little  of  it,  and 
produced  a  quantity  of  excellent  salt.  He  had  dis- 


68  THE  JESUITS  AT   ONONDAGA.       [1654-55. 

covered  the  famous  salt-springs  of  Onondaga.  Fish- 
ing and  hunting,  the  party  pursued  their  way  till,  at 
noon  of  the  seventh  of  September,  Le  Moyne  reached 
Montreal.1 

When  he  reached  Quebec,  his  tidings  cheered  for 
a  while  the  anxious  hearts  of  its  tenants ;  but  an  un- 
wonted incident  soon  told  them  how  hollow  was  the 
ground  beneath  their  feet.  Le  Moyne,  accompanied 
by  two  Onondagas  and  several  Hurons  and  Algonquins, 
was  returning  to  Montreal,  when  he  and  his  com- 
panions were  set  upon  by  a  war-party  of  Mohawks. 
The  Hurons  and  Algonquins  were  killed.  One  of 
the  Onondagas  shared  their  fate,  and  the  other,  with 
Le  Moyne  himself,  was  seized  and  bound  fast.  The 
captive  Onondaga,  however,  was  so  loud  in  his 
threats  and  denunciations  that  the  Mohawks  released 
both  him  and  the  Jesuit.2  Here  was  a  foreshadow- 
ing of  civil  war,  —  Mohawk  against  Onondaga, 
Iroquois  against  Iroquois.  The  quarrel  was  patched 
up,  but  fresh  provocations  were  imminent. 

The  Mohawks  took  no  part  in  the  Erie  war,  and 
hence  their  hands  were  free  to  fight  the  French  and 
the  tribes  allied  with  them.  Reckless  of  their 
promises,  they  began  a  series  of  butcheries,  —  fell 
upon  the  French  at  Isle  aux  Oies,  killed  a  lay  brother 
of  the  Jesuits  at  Sillery,  and  attacked  Montreal. 
Here,  being  roughly  handled,  they  came  for  a  time 

1  Journal  du  Pere  Le  Moine,  Relation,  1654,  chaps,  vi.  vii. 

2  Compare  Relation,  1654,  33,  and  Lettre  de  Marie  de  T 'Incarnation, 
18  Oct.,  1664. 


1655.]  ONONDAGA   DEPUTATION.  69 

to  their  senses,  and  offered  terms,  promising  to  spare 
the  French,  but  declaring  that  they  would  still  wage 
war  against  the  Hurons  and  Algonquins.  These 
were  allies  whom  the  French  were  pledged  to  protect ; 
but  so  helpless  was  the  colony  that  the  insolent  and 
humiliating  proffer  was  accepted,  and  another  peace 
ensued,  as  hollow  as  the  last.  The  indefatigable  Le 
Moyne  was  sent  to  the  Mohawk  towns  to  confirm  it, 
"so  far,"  says  the  chronicle,  "as  it  is  possible  to  con- 
firm a  peace  made  by  infidels  backed  by  heretics."1 
The  Mohawks  received  him  with  great  rejoicing ;  yet 
his  life  was  not  safe  for  a  moment.  A  warrior, 
feigning  madness,  raved  through  the  town  with 
uplifted  hatchet,  howling  for  his  blood;  but  the 
saints  watched  over  him  and  balked  the  machinations 
of  hell.  He  came  off  alive  and  returned  to  Montreal, 
spent  with  famine  and  fatigue. 

Meanwhile  a  deputation  of  eighteen  Onondaga 
chiefs  arrived  at  Quebec.  There  was  a  grand  council. 
The  Onondagas  demanded  a  colony  of  Frenchmen  to 
dwell  among  them.  Lauson,  the  governor,  dared 
neither  to  consent  nor  to  refuse.  A  middle  course 
was  chosen ;  and  two  Jesuits,  Chaumonot  and  Dablon, 
were  sent,  like  Le  Moyne,  partly  to  gain  time,  partly 
to  reconnoitre,  and  partly  to  confirm  the  Onondagas 
in  such  good  intentions  as  they  might  entertain. 
Chaumonot  was  a  veteran  of  the  Huron  mission,  who, 
miraculously  as  he  himself  supposed,  had  acquired  a 

1  Copie  de  Deux  Lettres  envoyees  de  la  Nouvelle  France  au  Pere 
Procureur  des  Missions  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus. 


70  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA.  [1655. 

great  fluency  in  the  Huron  tongue,  which  is  closely 
allied  to  that  of  the  Iroquois.  Dablon,  a  new-comer, 
spoke,  as  yet,  no  Indian. 

Their  voyage  up  the  St.  Lawrence  was  enlivened 
by  an  extraordinary  bear-hunt,  and  by  the  antics  of 
one  of  their  Indian  attendants,  who,  having  dreamed 
that  he  had  swallowed  a  frog,  roused  the  whole 
camp  by  the  gymnastics  with  which  he  tried  to  rid 
himself  of  the  intruder.  On  approaching  Onondaga, 
they  were  met  by  a  chief  who  sang  a  song  of  wel- 
come, a  part  of  which  he  seasoned  with  touches 
of  humor,  —  apostrophizing  the  fish  in  the  river 
Onondaga,  naming  each  sort,  great  or  small,  and 
calling  on  them  in  turn  to  come  into  the  nets  of  the 
Frenchmen  and  sacrifice  life  cheerfully  for  their 
behoof.  Hereupon  there  was  much  laughter  among 
the  Indian  auditors.  An  unwonted  cleanliness 
reigned  in  the  town ;  the  streets  had  been  cleared  of 
refuse,  and  the  arched  roofs  of  the  long  houses  of 
bark  were  covered  with  red-skinned  children  staring 
at  the  entry  of  the  "black  robes." 

Crowds  followed  behind,  and  all  was  jubilation. 
The  dignitaries  of  the  tribe  met  them  on  the  way, 
and  greeted  them  with  a  speech  of  welcome.  A  feast 
of  bear's  meat  awaited  them ;  but,  unhappily,  it  was 
Friday,  and  the  fathers  were  forced  to  abstain. 

"  On  Monday,  the  fifteenth  of  November,  at  nine  in 
the  morning,  after  having  secretly  sent  to  Paradise 
a  dying  infant  by  the  waters  of  baptism,  all  the 
elders  and  the  people  having  assembled,  we  opened 


1655.]  REPLY  OF   THE  CHIEFS.  71 

the  council  by  public  prayer."  Thus  writes  Father 
Dablon.  His  colleague,  Chaumonot,  a  Frenchman 
bred  in  Italy,  now  rose,  with  a  long  belt  of  wampum 
in  his  hand,  and  proceeded  to  make  so  effective  a 
display  of  his  rhetorical  gifts  that  the  Indians  were 
lost  in  admiration,  and  their  orators  put  to  the  blush 
by  his  improvements  on  their  own  metaphors.  "If 
he  had  spoken  all  day,"  said  the  delighted  auditors, 
"we  should  not  have  had  enough  of  it."  "The 
Dutch,"  added  others,  "have  neither  brains  nor 
tongues;  they  never  tell  us  about  paradise  and  hell; 
on  the  contrary,  they  lead  us  into  bad  ways." 

On  the  next  day  the  chiefs  returned  their  answer. 
The  council  opened  with  a  song  or  chant,  which  was 
divided  into  six  parts,  and  which,  according  to 
Dablon,  was  exceedingly  well  sung.  The  burden 
of  the  fifth  part  was  as  follows :  — 

"Farewell  war!  farewell  tomahawk!  We  have 
been  fools  till  now;  henceforth  we  will  be  brothers, 
—  yes,  we  will  be  brothers." 

Then  came  four  presents,  the  third  of  which 
enraptured  the  fathers.  It  was  a  belt  of  seven  thou- 
sand beads  of  wampum.  "But  this,"  says  Dablon, 
"was  as  nothing  to  the  words  that  accompanied  it." 
"It  is  the  gift  of  the  faith,"  said  the  orator.  "It  is 
to  tell  you  that  we  are  believers ;  it  is  to  beg  you  not 
to  tire  of  instructing  us.  Have  patience,  seeing  that 
we  are  so  dull  in  learning  prayer;  push  it  into  our 
heads  and  our  hearts."  Then  he  led  Chaumonot 
into  the  midst  of  the  assembly,  clasped  him  in  his 


72  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

arms,  tied  the  belt  about  his  waist,  and  protested, 
with  a  suspicious  redundancy  of  words,  that  as  he 
clasped  the  father,  so  would  he  clasp  the  faith. 

What  had  wrought  this  sudden  change  of  heart? 
The  eagerness  of  the  Onondagas  that  the  French 
should  settle  among  them  had,  no  doubt,  a  large 
share  in  it.  For  the  rest,  the  two  Jesuits  saw  abund- 
ant signs  of  the  fierce,  uncertain  nature  of  those 
with  whom  they  were  dealing.  Erie  prisoners  were 
brought  in  and  tortured  before  their  eyes,  —  one  of 
them  being  a  young  stoic  of  about  ten  years,  who 
endured  his  fate  without  a  single  outcry.  Huron 
women  and  children,  taken  in  war  and  adopted  by 
their  captors,  were  killed  on  the  slightest  provoca- 
tion, and  sometimes  from  mere  caprice.  For  several 
days  the  whole  town  was  in  an  uproar  with  the  crazy 
follies  of  the  "dream  feast,"1  and  one  of  the  Fathers 
nearly  lost  his  life  in  this  Indian  Bedlam. 

One  point  was  clear:  the  French  must  make  a 
settlement  at  Onondaga,  and  that  speedily,  or, 
despite  their  professions  of  brotherhood,  the 
Onondagas  would  make  war.  Their  attitude  became 
menacing;  from  urgency  they  passed  to  threats;  and 
the  two  priests  felt  that  the  critical  posture  of  affairs 
must  at  once  be  reported  at  Quebec.  But  here  a 
difficulty  arose.  It  was  the  beaver-hunting  season; 
and,  eager  as  were  the  Indians  for  a  French  colony, 
not  one  of  them  would  offer  to  conduct  the  Jesuits 
to  Quebec  in  order  to  fetch  one.  It  was  not  until 

1  See  "  Jesuits  in  North  America,"  154. 


i656.]  DABLON'S  JOURNEY  73 

nine  masses  had  been  said  to  Saint  John  the  Baptist, 
that  a  number  of  Indians  consented  to  forego  their 
hunting,  and  escort  Father  Dablon  home. l  Chaumonot 
remained  at  Onondaga,  to  watch  his  dangerous  hosts 
and  soothe  their  rising  jealousies. 

It  was  the  second  of  March  when  Dablon  began  his 
journey.  His  constitution  must  have  been  of  iron, 
or  he  would  have  succumbed  to  the  appalling  hard- 
ships of  the  way.  It  was  neither  winter  nor  spring. 
The  lakes  and  streams  were  not  yet  open,  but  the 
half-thawed  ice  gave  way  beneath  the  foot.  One  of 
the  Indians  fell  through  and  was  drowned.  Swamp 
and  forest  were  clogged  with  sodden  snow,  and 
ceaseless  rains  drenched  them  as  they  toiled  on, 
knee -deep  in  slush.  Happily,  the  St.  Lawrence  was 
open.  They  found  an  old  wooden  canoe  by  the 
shore,  embarked,  and  reached  Montreal  after  a  jour- 
ney of  four  weeks. 

Dablon  descended  to  Quebec.  There  was  long 
and  anxious  counsel  in  the  chambers  of  Fort  St. 
Louis.  The  Jesuits  had  information  that  if  the 
demands  of  the  Onondagas  were  rejected,  they  would 
join  the  Mohawks  to  destroy  Canada.  But  why 
were  they  so  eager  for  a  colony  of  Frenchmen  ?  Did 
they  want  them  as  hostages,  that  they  might  attack 
the  Hurons  and  Algonquins  without  risk  of  French 
interference ;  or  would  they  massacre  them,  and  then, 
like  tigers  mad  with  the  taste  of  blood,  turn  upon 

1  De  Quen,  Relation,  1656, 35.  Chaumonot,  in  his  Autobiography 
ascribes  the  miracle  to  the  intercession  of  the  deceased  Brebeuf . 


74  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

the  helpless  settlements  of  the  St.  Lawrence?  An 
abyss  yawned  on  either  hand.  Lauson,  the  governor, 
was  in  an  agony  of  indecision;  but  at  length  he 
declared  for  the  lesser  and  remoter  peril,  and  gave 
his  voice  for  the  colony.  The  Jesuits  were  of  the 
same  mind,  though  it  was  they,  and  not  he,  who 
must  bear  the  brunt  of  danger.  "  The  blood  of  the 
martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church,"  said  one  of  them; 
"  and  if  we  die  by  the  fires  of  the  Iroquois,  we  shall 
have  won  eternal  life  by  snatching  souls  from  the 
fires  of  hell." 

Preparation  was  begun  at  once.  The  expense  fell 
on  the  Jesuits,  and  the  outfit  is  said  to  have  cost 
them  seven  thousand  livres,  —  a  heavy  sum  for 
Canada  at  that  day.  A  pious  gentleman,  Zachary 
Du  Puys,  major  of  the  fort  of  Quebec,  joined  the 
expedition  with  ten  soldiers ;  and  between  thirty  and 
forty  other  Frenchmen  also  enrolled  themselves, 
impelled  by  devotion  or  destitution.  Four  Jesuits, 

—  Le  Mercier,   the  superior,  with  Dablon,  Me*nard, 
and  Fre*min,  —  besides  two  lay  brothers  of  the  order, 
formed,  as  it  were,  the  pivot  of  the  enterprise.     The 
governor  made  them  the  grant  of  a  hundred  square 
leagues  of  land  in  the  heart  of  the  Iroquois  country, 

—  a  preposterous  act,  which,  had  the  Iroquois  known 
it,  would  have  rekindled  the  war ;  but  Lauson  had  a 
mania  for  land-grants,  and  was  himself  the  proprietor 
of  vast  domains  which  he  could  have  occupied  only 
at  the  cost  of  his  scalp. 

Embarked   in   two  large   boats   and    followed   by 


1656.]  DEPARTURE.  75 

twelve  canoes  filled  with  Hurons,  Onondagas,  and  a 
few  Senecas  lately  arrived,  they  set  out  on  the  seven- 
teenth of  May  "to  attack  the  demons,"  as  Le  Mercier 
writes,  "in  their  very  stronghold."  With  shouts, 
tears,  and  benedictions,  priests,  soldiers,  and  inhabit- 
ants waved  farewell  from  the  strand.  They  passed 
the  bare  steeps  of  Cape  Diamond  and  the  mission- 
house  nestled  beneath  the  heights  of  Sillery,  and 
vanished  from  the  anxious  eyes  that  watched  the 
last  gleam  of  their  receding  oars.1 

Meanwhile  three  hundred  Mohawk  warriors  had 
taken  the  war-path,  bent  on  killing  or  kidnapping 
the  Hurons  of  Orleans.  When  they  heard  of  the 
departure  of  the  colonists  for  Onondaga,  their  rage 
was  unbounded;  for  not  only  were  they  full  of  jeal- 
ousy towards  their  Onondaga  confederates,  but  they 
had  hitherto  derived  great  profit  from  the  control 
which  their  local  position  gave  them  over  the  traffic 
between  this  tribe  and  the  Dutch  of  the  Hudson,  — 
upon  whom  the  Onondagas,  in  common  with  all  the 
upper  Iroquois,  had  been  dependent  for  their  guns, 
hatchets,  scalping-knives,  beads,  blankets,  and 
brandy.  These  supplies  would  now  be  furnished  by 
the  French,  and  the  Mohawk  speculators  saw  their 
occupation  gone.  Nevertheless,  they  had  just  made 
peace  with  the  French,  and  for  the  moment  were  not 
quite  in  the  mood  to  break  it.  To  wreak  their  spite, 
they  took  a  middle  course,  —  crouched  in  ambush 

1  Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  Lettres,  1656.  Le  Mercier,  Relation, 
1657,  chap.  iv.  Chaulraer,  Nouveau  Monde,  ii.  265,  322,  319. 


76  THE  JESUITS  AT   ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

among  the  bushes  at  Point  St.  Croix,  ten  or  twelve 
leagues  above  Quebec,  allowed  the  boats  bearing  the 
French  to  pass  unmolested,  and  fired  a  volley  at  the 
canoes  in  the  rear,  filled  with  Onondagas,  Senecas, 
and  Hurons.  Then  they  fell  upon  them  with  a  yell, 
and,  after  wounding  a  lay  brother  of  the  Jesuits 
who  was  among  them,  bound  and  flogged  such  of 
the  Indians  as  they  could  seize.  The  astonished 
Onondagas  protested  and  threatened;  whereupon  the 
Mohawks  feigned  great  surprise,  declared  that  they 
had  mistaken  them  for  Hurons,  called  them  brothers, 
and  suffered  the  whole  party  to  escape  without 
further  injury.1 

The  three  hundred  marauders  now  paddled  their 
large  canoes  of  elm-bark  stealthily  down  the  current, 
passed  Quebec  undiscovered  in  the  dark  night  of  the 
nineteenth  of  May,  landed  in  early  morning  on  the 
island  of  Orleans,  and  ambushed  themselves  to  sur- 
prise the  Hurons  as  they  came  to  labor  in  their  corn- 
fields. They  were  tolerably  successful,  —  killed  six, 
and  captured  more  than  eighty,  the  rest  taking  refuge 
in  their  fort,  where  the  Mohawks  dared  not  attack 
them. 

At  noon,  the  French  on  the  rock  of  Quebec  saw 
forty  canoes  approaching  from  the  island  of  Orleans, 
and  defiling,  with  insolent  parade,  in  front  of  the 
town,  all  crowded  with  the  Mohawks  and  their  pris- 
oners, among  whom  were  a  great  number  of  Huron 

1  Compare  Marie  de  Tlncarnation,  Lettre  14  Aout,  1656,  Le  Jeune, 
Relation,  1657,  9. 


1856.]  MOHAWK  INSOLENCE.  7T 

girls.  Their  captors,  as  they  passed,  forced  them 
to  sing  and  dance.  The  Hurons  were  the  allies,  or 
rather  the  wards,  of  the  French,  who  were  in  every 
way  pledged  to  protect  them.  Yet  the  cannon  of 
Fort  St.  Louis  were  silent,  and  the  crowd  stood  gap- 
ing in  bewilderment  and  fright.  Had  an  attack  been 
made,  nothing  but  a  complete  success  and  the  capture 
of  many  prisoners  to  serve  as  hostages  could  have 
prevented  the  enraged  Mohawks  from  taking  their 
revenge  on  the  Onondaga  colonists.  The  emergency 
demanded  a  prompt  and  clear-sighted  soldier.  The 
governor,  Lauson,  was  a  gray-haired  civilian,  who, 
however  enterprising  as  a  speculator  in  wild  lands, 
was  in  no  way  matched  to  the  desperate  crisis  of  the 
hour.  Some  of  the  Mohawks  landed  above  and 
below  the  town,  and  plundered  the  houses  from 
which  the  scared  inhabitants  had  fled.  Not  a  soldier 
stirred  and  not  a  gun  was  fired.  The  French,  bullied 
by  a  horde  of  naked  savages,  became  an  object  of 
contempt  to  their  own  allies. 

The  Mohawks  carried  their  prisoners  home,  burned 
six  of  them,  and  adopted  or  rather  enslaved  the 
rest.1 

Meanwhile  the  Onondaga  colonists  pursued  their 
perilous  way.  At  Montreal  they  exchanged  their 
heavy  boats  for  canoes,  and  resumed  their  journey 
with  a  flotilla  of  twenty  of  these  sylvan  vessels.  A 
few  days  after,  the  Indians  of  the  party  had  the  satis- 
faction of  pillaging  a  small  band  of  Mohawk  hunters, 

1  See  authorities  just  cited,  and  Perrot,  Moeurs  des  Sauvages,  106. 


78  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA.  [1856. 

in  vicarious  reprisal  for  their  own  wrongs.  On  the 
twenty -sixth  of  June,  as  they  neared  Lake  Ontario, 
they  heard  a  loud  and  lamentable  voice  from  the  edge 
of  the  forest;  whereupon,  having  beaten  their  drum 
to  show  that  they  were  Frenchmen,  they  beheld  a 
spectral  figure,  lean  and  covered  with  scars,  which 
proved  to  be  a  pious  Huron, —  one  Joachim  Ondakout, 
captured  by  the  Mohawks  in  their  descent  on  the 
island  of  Orleans,  five  or  six  weeks  before.  They 
had  carried  him  to  their  village  and  begun  to  torture 
him ;  after  which  they  tied  him  fast  and  lay  down  to 
sleep,  thinking  to  resume  their  pleasure  on  the  mor- 
row. His  cuts  and  burns  being  only  on  the  surface, 
he  had  the  good  fortune  to  free  himself  from  his 
bonds,  and,  naked  as  he  was,  to  escape  to  the  woods. 
He  held  his  course  northwestward,  through  regions 
even  now  a  wilderness,  gathered  wild  strawberries  to 
sustain  life,  and  in  fifteen  days  reached  the  St. 
Lawrence,  nearly  dead  with  exhaustion.  The  French- 
men gave  him  food  and  a  canoe,  and  the  living 
skeleton  paddled  with  a  light  heart  for  Quebec. 

The  colonists  themselves  soon  began  to  suffer  from 
hunger.  Their  fishing  failed  on  Lake  Ontario,  and 
they  were  forced  to  content  themselves  with  cran- 
berries of  the  last  year,  gathered  in  the  meadows. 
Of  their  Indians,  all  but  five  deserted  them.  The 
Father  Superior  fell  ill,  and  when  they  reached  the 
mouth  of  the  Oswego  many  of  the  starving  French- 
men had  completely  lost  heart.  Weary  and  faint, 
they  dragged  their  canoes  up  the  rapids,  when  sud- 


1666.]  THE  ONONDAGAS.  V9 

denly  they  were  cheered  by  the  sight  of  a  stranger 
canoe  swiftly  descending  the  current.  The  Onondagas, 
aware  of  their  approach,  had  sent  it  to  meet  them, 
laden  with  Indian  corn  and  fresh  salmon.  Two  more 
canoes  followed,  freighted  like  the  first;  and  now  all 
was  abundance  till  they  reached  their  journey's  end, 
the  Lake  of  Onondaga.  It  lay  before  them  in  the  July 
sun,  a  glittering  mirror,  framed  in  forest  verdure. 

They  knew  that  Chaumonot  with  a  crowd  of 
Indians  was  awaiting  them  at  a  spot  on  the  margin 
of  the  water,  which  he  and  Dablon  had  chosen  as 
the  site  of  their  settlement.  Landing  on  the  strand, 
they  fired,  to  give  notice  of  their  approach,  five  small 
cannon  which  they  had  brought  in  their  canoes. 
Waves,  woods,  and  hills  resounded  with  the  thunder 
of  their  miniature  artillery.  Then  re-embarking, 
they  advanced  in  order,  four  canoes  abreast,  towards 
the  destined  spot.  In  front  floated  their  banner  of 
white  silk,  embroidered  in  large  letters  with  the 
name  of  Jesus.  Here  were  Du  Puys  and  his  soldiers, 
with  the  picturesque  uniforms  and  quaint  weapons  of 
their  time;  Le  Mercier  and  his  Jesuits  in  robes  of 
black;  hunters  and  bush-rangers;  Indians  painted 
and  feathered  for  a  festal  day.  As  they  neared  the 
place  where  a  spring  bubbling  from  the  hillside  is 
still  known  as  the  "Jesuits'  Well,"  they  saw  the 
edge  of  the  forest  dark  with  the  muster  of  savages 
whose  yells  of  welcome  answered  the  salvo  of  their 
guns.  Happily  for  them,  a  flood  of  summer  rain 
saved  them  from  the  harangues  of  the  Onondaga 


80  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

orators,  and  forced  white  men  and  red  alike  to  seek 
such  shelter  as  they  could  find.  Their  hosts,  with 
hospitable  intent,  would  fain  have  sung  and  danced 
all  night;  but  the  Frenchmen  pleaded  fatigue,  and 
the  courteous  savages,  squatting  around  their  tents, 
chanted  in  monotonous  tones  to  lull  them  to  sleep. 
In  the  morning  they  woke  refreshed,  sang  Te  Deum, 
reared  an  altar,  and,  with  a  solemn  mass,  took  pos- 
session of  the  country  in  the  name  of  Jesus.1 

Three  things,  which  they  saw  or  heard  of  in  their 
new  home,  excited  their  astonishment.  The  first 
was  the  vast  flight  of  wild  pigeons  which  in  spring 
darkened  the  air  around  the  Lake  of  Onondaga ;  the 
second  was  the  salt  springs  of  Salina ;  the  third  was 
the  rattlesnakes,  which  Le  Mercier  describes  with 
excellent  precision,  —  adding  that,  as  he  learns  from 
the  Indians,  their  tails  are  good  for  toothache  and 
their  flesh  for  fever.  These  reptiles,  for  reasons 
best  known  to  themselves,  haunted  the  neighborhood 
of  the  salt-springs,  but  did  not  intrude  their  presence 
into  the  abode  of  the  French. 

On  the  seventeenth  of  July,  Le  Mercier  and  Chau- 
monot,  escorted  by  a  file  of  soldiers,  set  out  for  Onon- 
daga, scarcely  five  leagues  distant.  They  followed 
the  Indian  trail,  under  the  leafy  arches  of  the  woods, 
by  hill  and  hollow,  still  swamp  and  gurgling  brook, 
till  through  the  opening  foliage  they  saw  the  Iroquois 
capital,  compassed  with  cornfields  and  girt  with  its 
rugged  palisade.  As  the  Jesuits,  like  black  spectres, 

1  Le  Mercier,  Relation,  1667, 14. 


1656.]  THE  IROQUOIS   CAPITAL.  81 

issued  from  the  shadows  of  the  forest,  followed  by 
tfie  plumed  soldiers  with  shouldered  arquebuses,  the 
red-skinned  population  swarmed  out  like  bees,  and 
they  denied  to  the  town  through  gazing  and  admiring 
throngs.  All  conspired  to  welcome  them.  Feast 
followed  feast  throughout  the  afternoon,  till,  what 
with  harangues  and  songs,  bear's  meat,  beaver-tails, 
and  venison,  beans,  corn,  and  grease,  they  were 
wellnigh  killed  with  kindness.  "  If,  after  this,  they 
murder  us,"  writes  Le  Mercier,  "it  will  be  from 
fickleness,  not  premeditated  treachery."  But  the 
Jesuits,  it  seems,  had  not  sounded  the  depths  of 
Iroquois  dissimulation.1 

There  was  one  exception  to  the  real  or  pretended 
joy.  Some  Mohawks  were  in  the  town,  and  their 
orator  was  insolent  and  sarcastic;  but  the  ready 
tongue  of  Chaumonot  turned  the  laugh  against  him 
and  put  him  to  shame. 

Here  burned  the  council-fire  of  the  Iroquois,  and 
at  this  very  time  the  deputies  of  the  five  tribes  were 
assembling.  The  session  opened  on  the  twenty-fourth. 
In  the  great  council-house,  on  the  earthen  floor  and  the 
broad  platforms,  beneath  the  smoke-begrimed  concave 
of  the  bark  roof,  stood,  sat,  or  squatted  the  wisdom 
and  valor  of  the  confederacy,  —  Mohawks,  Oneidas, 

i  The  Jesuits  were  afterwards  told  by  Hurons,  captive  among 
the  Mohawks  and  the  Onondagas,  that,  from  the  first,  it  was 
intended  to  massacre  the  French  as  soon  as  their  presence  had 
attracted  the  remnant  of  the  Hurons  of  Orleans  into  the  power  of 
the  Onondagas.  Lettre  du  P.  Ragueneau  au  R.  P.  Provincial,  31 
Aout,  1658. 

6 


82  THE  JESUITS   AT  OtfONDAGA.  [1(556. 

Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and  Senecas;  sachems,  coun- 
sellors, orators,  warriors  fresh  from  Erie  victories; 
tall,  stalwart  figures,  limbed  like  Grecian  statues. 

The  pressing  business  of  the  council  over,  it  was 
Chaumonot's  turn  to  speak.  But,  first,  all  the 
Frenchmen,  kneeling  in  a  row,  with  clasped  hands, 
sang  the  Veni  Creator,  amid  the  silent  admiration 
of  the  auditors.  Then  Chaumonot  rose,  with  an 
immense  wampum-belt  in  his  hand,  and  said: 

"It  is  not  trade  that  brings  us  here.  Do  you 
think  that  your  beaver-skins  can  pay  us  for  all  our 
toils  and  dangers?  Keep  them,  if  you  like;  or,  if 
any  fall  into  our  hands,  we  shall  use  them  only  for 
your  service.  We  seek  not  the  things  that  perish. 
It  is  for  the  Faith  that  we  have  left  our  homes  to 
live  in  your  hovels  of  bark,  and  eat  food  which  the 
beasts  of  our  country  would  scarcely  touch.  We  are 
the  messengers  whom  God  has  sent  to  tell  you  that 
his  Son  became  a  man  for  the  love  of  you;  that  this 
man,  the  Son  of  God,  is  the  prince  and  master  of 
men ;  that  he  has  prepared  in  heaven  eternal  joys  for 
those  who  obey  him,  and  kindled  the  fires  of  hell  for 
those  who  will  not  receive  his  word.  If  you  reject 
it,  whoever  you  are,  —  Onondaga,  Seneca,  Mohawk, 
Cayuga,  or  Oneida,  —  know  that  Jesus  Christ,  who 
inspires  my  heart  and  my  voice,  will  plunge  you  one 
day  into  hell.  Avert  this  ruin;  be  not  the  authors 
of  your  own  destruction;  accept  the  truth;  listen  to 
the  voice  of  the  Omnipotent." 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  pith  of  the  father's  exhorta- 


1656.]  THE   NEW  MISSION.  83 

tion.  As  he  spoke  Indian  like  a  native,  and  as  his 
voice  and  gestures  answered  to  his  words,  we  may 
believe  what  Le  Mercier  tells  us,  that  his  hearers 
listened  with  mingled  wonder,  admiration,  and  terror. 
The  work  was  well  begun.  The  Jesuits  struck  while 
the  iron  was  hot ;  built  a  small  chapel  for  the  mass, 
installed  themselves  in  the  town,  and  preached  and 
catechised  from  morning  till  night. 

The  Frenchmen  at  the  lake  were  not  idle.  The 
chosen  site  of  their  settlement  was  the  crown  of  a 
hill  commanding  a  broad  view  of  waters  and  forests. 
The  axemen  fell  to  their  work,  and  a  ghastly  wound 
soon  gaped  in  the  green  bosom  of  the  woodland. 
Here,  among  the  stumps  and  prostrate  trees  of  the 
unsightly  clearing,  the  blacksmith  built  his  forge, 
saw  and  hammer  plied  their  trade;  palisades  were 
shaped  and  beams  squared,  in  spite  of  heat,  mosqui- 
toes, and  fever.  At  one  time  twenty  men  were  ill, 
and  lay  gasping  under  a  wretched  shed  of  bark ;  but 
they  all  recovered,  and  the  work  went  on,  till  at 
length  a  capacious  house,  large  enough  to  hold  the 
whole  colony,  rose  above  the  ruin  of  the  forest.  A 
palisade  was  set  around  it,  and  the  Mission  of  Saint 
Mary  of  Gannentaa l  was  begun. 

France  and  the  Faith  were  intrenched  on  the  Lake 
of  Onondaga.  How  long  would  they  remain  there  ? 
The  future  alone  could  tell.  The  mission,  it  must 

1  Gannentaa  or  Ganuntaah  is  still  the  Iroquois  name  for  Lake 
Onondaga.  According  to  Morgan,  it  means  "  Material  for  Council- 
Fire." 


84  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  L1656. 

not  be  forgotten,  had  a  double  scope,  —  half  ecclesi- 
astical, half  political.  The  Jesuits  had  essayed  a 
fearful  task,  —  to  convert  the  Iroquois  to  God  and  to 
the  King,  thwart  the  Dutch  heretics  of  the  Hudson, 
save  souls  from  hell,  avert  ruin  from  Canada,  and 
thus  raise  their  order  to  a  place  of  honor  and  influ- 
ence both  hard-earned  and  well-earned.  The  mis- 
sion at  Lake  Onondaga  was  but  a  base  of  operations. 
Long  before  they  were  lodged  and  fortified  here, 
Chaumonot  and  Me*nard  set  out  for  the  Cayugas, 
whence  the  former  proceeded  to  the  Senecas,  the 
most  numerous  and  powerful  of  the  five  confederate 
nations;  and  in  the  following  spring  another  mission 
was  begun  among  the  Oneidas.  Their  reception  was 
not  unfriendly ;  but  such  was  the  reticence  and  dis- 
simulation of  these  inscrutable  savages,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  foretell  results.  The  women  proved, 
as  might  be  expected,  far  more  impressible  than  the 
men;  and  in  them  the  fathers  placed  great  hope, 
since  in  this,  the  most  savage  people  of  the  continent, 
women  held  a  degree  of  political  influence  never  per- 
haps equalled  in  any  civilized  nation.1 

i  Women,  among  the  Iroquois,  had  a  council  of  their  own, 
which,  according  to  Lafitau,  who  knew  this  people  well,  had  the 
initiative  in  discussion,  subjects  presented  by  them  being  settled  in 
the  council  of  chiefs  and  elders.  In  this  latter  council  the  women 
had  an  orator,  often  of  their  own  sex,  to  represent  them.  The 
matrons  had  a  leading  voice  in  determining  the  succession  of 
chiefs.  There  were  also  female  chiefs,  one  of  whom,  with  her 
attendants,  came  to  Quebec  with  an  embassy  in  1655  (Marie  de 
'Incarnation).  In  the  torture  of  prisoners,  great  deference  was 


1657.]  JESUIT   COURAGE.  85 

But  while  infants  were  baptized  and  squaws  con- 
verted, the  crosses  of  the  mission  were  many  and 
great.  The  devil  bestirred  himself  with  more  than 
his  ordinary  activity;  "for,"  as  one  of  the  fathers 
writes,  "when  in  sundry  nations  of  the  earth  men 
are  rising  up  in  strife  against  us  [the  Jesuits],  then 
how  much  more  the  demons,  on  whom  we  continually 
wage  war!"  It  was  these  infernal  sprites,  as  the 
priests  believed,  who  engendered  suspicions  and 
calumnies  in  the  dark  and  superstitious  minds  of  the 
Iroquois,  and  prompted  them  in  dreams  to  destroy 
the  apostles  of  the  Faith.  Whether  the  foe  was  of 
earth  or  hell,  the  Jesuits  were  like  those  who  tread 
the  lava-crust  that  palpitates  with  the  throes  of  the 
coming  eruption,  while  the  molten  death  beneath 
their  feet  glares  white-hot  through  a  thousand 
crevices.  Yet,  with  a  sublime  enthusiasm  and  a 
glorious  constancy,  they  toiled  and  they  hoped, 
though  the  skies  around  were  black  with  portent. 

In  the  year  in  which  the  colony  at  Onondaga  was 
begun,  the  Mohawks  murdered  the  Jesuit  Garreau 
on  his  way  up  the  Ottawa.  In  the  following  spring, 
a  hundred  Mohawk  warriors  came  to  Quebec  to  carry 

paid  to  the  judgment  of  the  women,  who,  says  Champlain,  were 
thought  more  skilful  and  subtle  than  the  men. 

The  learned  Lafitau,  whose  book  appeared  in  1724,  dwells  at 
length  on  the  resemblance  of  the  Iroquois  to  the  ancient  Lycians, 
among  whom,  according  to  Grecian  writers,  women  were  in  the 
ascendant.  "  Gynecocracy,  or  the  rule  of  women,"  continues 
Lafitau,  "which  was  the  foundation  of  the  Lycian  government, 
was  probably  common  in  early  times  to  nearly  all  the  barbarous 
people  of  Greece."  Mceurs  des  Sauvages,  i  460  (ed.  in  4to). 


86  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1657. 

more  of  the  Hurons  into  slavery,  —  though  the 
remnant  of  that  unhappy  people,  since  the  catastrophe 
of  the  last  year,  had  sought  safety  in  a  palisaded 
camp  within  the  limits  of  the  French  town,  and 
immediately  under  the  ramparts  of  Fort  St.  Louis. 
Here,  one  might  think,  they  would  have  been  safe; 
but  Charny,  son  and  successor  of  Lauson,  seems  to 
have  been  even  more  imbecile  than  his  father,  and 
listened  meekly  to  the  threats  of  the  insolent 
strangers  who  told  him  that  unless  he  abandoned 
the  Hurons  to  their  mercy,  both  they  and  the  French 
should  feel  the  weight  of  Mohawk  tomahawks. 
They  demanded,  further,  that  the  French  should 
give  them  boats  to  carry  their  prisoners;  but,  as 
there  were  none  at  hand,  this  last  humiliation  was 
spared.  The  Mohawks  were  forced  to  make  canoes, 
in  which  they  carried  off  as  many  as  possible  of  their 
victims. 

When  the  Onondagas  learned  this  last  exploit  of 
their  rivals,  their  jealousy  knew  no  bounds,  and  a 
troop  of  them  descended  to  Quebec  to  claim  their 
share  in  the  human  plunder.  Deserted  by  the 
French,  the  despairing  Hurons  abandoned  themselves 
to  their  fate;  and  about  fifty  of  those  whom  the 
Mohawks  had  left  obeyed  the  behest  of  their  tyrants, 
and  embarked  for  Onondaga.  They  reached  Montreal 
in  July,  and  thence  proceeded  towards  their  destina- 
tion in  company  with  the  Onondaga  warriors.  The 
Jesuit  Ragueneau,  bound  also  for  Onondaga,  joined 
them.  Five  leagues  above  Montreal,  the  warriors 


1657.]  ONONDAGA   TREACHERY.  87 

left  him  behind;  but  he  found  an  old  canoe  on  the 
bank,  in  which,  after  abandoning  most  of  his  bag- 
gage, he  contrived  to  follow  with  two  or  three 
Frenchmen  who  were  with  him.  There  was  a  rumor 
that  a  hundred  Mohawk  warriors  were  lying  in 
wait  among  the  Thousand  Islands  to  plunder  the 
Onondagas  of  their  Huron  prisoners.  It  proved  a 
false  report.  A  speedier  catastrophe  awaited  these 
unfortunates. 

Towards  evening  on  the  third  of  August,  after  the 
party  had  landed  to  encamp,  an  Onondaga  chief 
made  advances  to  a  Christian  Huron  girl,  as  he  had 
already  done  at  every  encampment  since  leaving 
Montreal.  Being  repulsed  for  the  fourth  time,  he 
split  her  head  with  his  tomahawk.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  massacre.  The  Onondagas  rose  upon 
their  prisoners,  killed  seven  men,  all  Christians, 
before  the  eyes  of  the  horrified  Jesuit,  and  plundered 
the  rest  of  all  they  had.  When  Ragueneau  pro- 
tested, they  told  him  with  insolent  mockery  that 
they  were  acting  by  direction  of  the  governor  and 
the  superior  of  the  Jesuits.  The  priest  himself  was 
secretly  warned  that  he  was  to  be  killed  during  the 
night;  and  he  was  surprised  in  the  morning  to  find 
himself  alive.1  On  reaching  Onondaga,  some  of  the 
Christian  captives  were  burned,  including  several 
women  and  their  infant  children.2 

The  confederacy  was  a  hornet's  nest,  buzzing  with 

1  Lettre  de  Ragueneau  au  R.  P.  Provincial,^  Aout,  1657  (Eel,  1657), 

2  Ibid.,  21  Aoiit,  1658  (Rel,  1658). 


88  THE  JESUITS  AT   ONONDAGA.  [1657 

preparation,  and  fast  pouring  out  its  wrathful  swarms. 
The  indomitable  Le  Moyne  had  gone  again  to  the 
Mohawks,  whence  he  wrote  that  two  hundred  of 
them  had  taken  the  war-path  against  the  Algonquins 
of  Canada ;  and,  a  little  later,  that  all  were  gone  but 
women,  children,  and  old  men.  A  great  war-party 
of  twelve  hundred  Iroquois  from  all  the  five  cantons 
was  to  advance  into  Canada  in  the  direction  of  the 
Ottawa.  The  settlements  on  the  St.  Lawrence  were 
infested  with  prowling  warriors,  who  killed  the 
Indian  allies  of  the  French,  and  plundered  the 
French  themselves,  whom  they  treated  with  an  insuf- 
ferable insolence;  for  they  felt  themselves  masters 
of  the  situation,  and  knew  that  the  Onondaga  colony 
was  in  their  power.  Near  Montreal  they  killed 
three  Frenchmen.  "They  approach  like  foxes," 
writes  a  Jesuit,  "attack  like  lions,  and  disappear 
like  birds."  Charny,  fortunately,  had  resigned  the 
government  in  despair  in  order  to  turn  priest,  and 
the  brave  soldier  d'Ailleboust  had  taken  his  place.  He 
caused  twelve  of  the  Iroquois  to  be  seized  and  held 
as  hostages.  This  seemed  to  increase  their  fury. 
An  embassy  came  to  Quebec  and  demanded  the 
release  of  the  hostages,  but  were  met  with  a  sharp 
reproof  and  a  flat  refusal. 

At  the  mission  on  Lake  Onondaga  the  crisis  was 
drawing  near.  The  unbridled  young  warriors,  whose 
capricious  lawlessness  often  set  at  naught  the  moni- 
tions of  their  crafty  elders,  killed  wantonly  at 
various  times  thirteen  Christian  Hurons,  captives  at 


1658.]  FRIGHTFUL  POSITION.  89 

Onondaga.  Ominous  reports  reached  the  ears  of  the 
colonists.  They  heard  of  a  secret  council  at  whicli 
their  death  was  decreed.  Again,  they  heard  that 
they  were  to  be  surprised  and  captured,  that  the 
Iroquois  in  force  were  then  to  descend  upon  Canada, 
lay  waste  the  outlying  settlements,  and  torture  them, 
the  colonists,  in  sight  of  their  countrymen,  by  which 
they  hoped  to  extort  what  terms  they  pleased.  At 
length  a  dying  Onondaga,  recently  converted  and 
baptized,  confirmed  the  rumors,  and  revealed  the 
whole  plot. 

It  was  to  take  effect  before  the  spring  opened ;  but 
the  hostages  in  the  hands  of  d'Ailleboust  embarrassed 
the  conspirators  and  caused  delay.  Messengers  were 
sent  in  haste  to  call  in  the  priests  from  the  detached 
missions ;  and  all  the  colonists,  fifty-three  in  number, 
were  soon  gathered  at  their  fortified  house  on  the 
lake.  Their  situation  was  frightful.  Fate  hung 
over  them  by  a  hair,  and  escape  seemed  hopeless. 
Of  Du  Puys's  ten  soldiers,  nine  wished  to  desert; 
but  the  attempt  would  have  been  fatal.  A  throng 
of  Onondaga  warriors  were  day  and  night  on  the 
watch,  bivouacked  around  the  house.  Some  of  them 
had  built  their  huts  of  bark  before  the  gate,  and 
here,  with  calm,  impassive  faces,  they  lounged  and 
smoked  their  pipes;  or,  wrapped  in  their  blankets, 
strolled  about  the  yards  and  outhouses,  attentive  to 
all  that  passed.  Their  behavior  was  very  friendly. 
The  Jesuits,  themselves  adepts  in  dissimulation, 
were  amazed  at  the  depth  of  their  duplicity;  for  the 


90  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONCWDAGA.  [1658. 

conviction  had  been  forced  upon  them  that  some  of 
the  chiefs  had  nursed  their  treachery  from  the  first. 
In  this  extremity  Du  Puys  and  the  Jesuits  showed 
an  admirable  coolness,  and  among  them  devised  a 
plan  of  escape,  critical  and  full  of  doubt,  but  not 
devoid  of  hope. 

First,  they  must  provide  means  of  transportation ; 
next,  they  must  contrive  to  use  them  undiscovered. 
They  had  eight  canoes,  all  of  which  combined  would 
not  hold  half  their  company.  Over  the  mission-house 
was  a  large  loft  or  garret,  and  here  the  carpenters 
were  secretly  set  at  work  to  construct  two  large  and 
light  flat-boats,  each  capable  of  carrying  fifteen  men. 
The  task  was  soon  finished.  The  most  difficult  part 
of  their  plan  remained. 

There  was  a  beastly  superstition  prevalent  among 
the  Hurons,  the  Iroquois,  and  other  tribes.  It  con- 
sisted of  a  "  medicine  "  or  mystic  feast,  in  which  it 
was  essential  that  the  guests  should  devour  every- 
thing set  before  them,  however  inordinate  in  quantity, 
unless  absolved  from  duty  by  the  person  in  whose 
behalf  the  solemnity  was  ordained,  —  he,  on  his  part, 
taking  no  share  in  the  banquet.  So  grave  was  the 
obligation,  and  so  strenuously  did  the  guests  fulfil  it, 
that  even  their  ostrich  digestion  was  sometimes 
ruined  past  redemption  by  the  excess  of  this  benevo- 
lent gluttony.  These  festins  a  manger  tout  had  been  ' 
frequently  denounced  as  diabolical  by  the  Jesuits, 
during  their  mission  among  the  Hurons;  but  now, 
with  a  pliancy  of  conscience  as  excusable  in  this  case 


1658.]  THE  MEDICINE  FEAST.  91 

as  in  any  other,  they  resolved  to  set  aside  their 
scruples,  although,  judged  from  their  point  of  view, 
they  were  exceedingly  well  founded. 

Among  the  French  was  a  young  man  who  had 
been  adopted  by  an  Iroquois  chief,  and  who  spoke 
the  language  fluently.  He  now  told  his  Indian 
father  that  it  had  been  revealed  to  him  in  a  dream 
that  he  would  soon  die  unless  the  spirits  were 
appeased  by  one  of  these  magic  feasts.  Dreams  were 
the  oracles  of  the  Iroquois,  and  woe  to  those  who 
Blighted  them.  A  day  was  named  for  the  sacred 
festivity.  The  fathers  killed  their  hogs  to  meet  the 
occasion,  and,  that  nothing  might  be  wanting,  they 
ransacked  their  stores  for  all  that  might  give  piquancy 
to  the  entertainment.  It  took  place  in  the  evening  of 
the  twentieth  of  March,  apparently  in  a  large  enclosure 
outside  the  palisade  surrounding  the  mission-house. 
Here,  while  blazing  fires  or  glaring  pine -knots  shed 
their  glow  on  the  wild  assemblage,  Frenchmen  and 
Iroquois  joined  in  the  dance,  or  vied  with  each  other 
in  games  of  agility  and  skill.  The  politic  fathers 
offered  prizes  to  the  winners,  and  the  Indians  entered 
with  zest  into  the  sport,  the  better,  perhaps,  to  hide 
their  treachery  and  hoodwink  their  intended  victims ; 
for  they  little  suspected  that  a  subtlety,  deeper  this 
time  than  their  own,  was  at  work  to  countermine 
them.  Here  too  were  the  French  musicians,  and 
drum,  trumpet,  and  cymbal  lent  their  clangor  to  the 
din  of  shouts  and  laughter.  Thus  the  evening  wore 
on,  till  at  length  the  serious  labors  of  the  feast  began. 


92  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1658 

The  kettles  were  brought  in,  and  their  steaming 
contents  ladled  into  the  wooden  bowls  which  each 
provident  guest  had  brought  with  him.  Seated 
gravely  in  a  ring,  they  fell  to  their  work.  It  was  a 
point  of  high  conscience  not  to  flinch  from  duty  on 
these  solemn  occasions ;  and  though  they  might  burn 
the  young  man  to-morrow,  they  would  gorge  them- 
selves like  vultures  in  his  behoof  to-day. 

Meantime,  while  the  musicians  strained  their  lungs 
and  their  arms  to  drown  all  other  sounds,  a  band  of 
anxious  Frenchmen,  in  the  darkness  of  the  cloudy 
night,  with  cautious  tread  and  bated  breath,  carried 
the  boats  from  the  rear  of  the  mission-house  down  to 
the  border  of  the  lake.  It  was  near  eleven  o'clock. 
The  miserable  guests  were  choking  with  repletion. 
They  prayed  the  young  Frenchman  to  dispense  them 
from  further  surfeit.  "  Will  you  suffer  me  to  die  ?  " 
he  asked,  in  piteous  tones.  They  bent  to  their  task 
again;  but  Nature  soon  reached  her  utmost  limit, 
and  they  sat  helpless  as  a  conventicle  of  gorged 
turkey-buzzards,  without  the  power  possessed  by 
those  unseemly  birds  to  rid  themselves  of  the  burden. 
"That  will  do,"  said  the  young  man;  "you  have 
eaten  enough :  my  life  is  saved.  Now  you  can  sleep 
till  we  come  in  the  morning  to  waken  you  for 
prayers."1  And  one  of  his  companions  played  soft 
airs  on  a  violin  to  lull  them  to  repose.  Soon  all  were 
asleep,  or  in  a  lethargy  akin  to  sleep.  The  few 
remaining  Frenchmen  now  silently  withdrew  and 

1  Lettre  de  Marie  de  V Incarnation  d  son  fils,  4  Oct .,  1668. 


1658.]         PERPLEXITY  OF  THE  IROQUOIS.  93 

cautiously  descended  to  the  shore,  where  their  com- 
rades, already  embarked,  lay  on  their  oars  anxiously 
awaiting  them.  Snow  was  falling  fast  as  they  pushed 
out  upon  the  murky  waters.  The  ice  of  the  winter 
had  broken  up,  but  recent  frosts  had  glazed  the  sur- 
face with  a  thin  crust.  The  two  boats  led  the  way, 
and  the  canoes  followed  in  their  wake,  while  men  in 
the  bows  of  the  foremost  boat  broke  the  ice  with 
clubs  as  they  advanced.  They  reached  the  outlet 
and  rowed  swiftly  down  the  dark  current  of  the 
Oswego.  When  day  broke,  Lake  Onondaga  was  far 
behind,  and  around  them  was  the  leafless,  lifeless 
forest. 

When  the  Indians  woke  in  the  morning,  dull  and 
stupefied  from  their  nightmare  slumbers,  they  were 
astonished  at  the  silence  that  reigned  in  the  mission- 
house.  They  looked  through  the  palisade.  Nothing 
was  stirring  but  a  bevy  of  hens  clucking  and  scratch- 
ing in  the  snow,  and  one  or  two  dogs  imprisoned  in 
the  house  and  barking  to  be  set  free.  The  Indians 
waited  for  some  time,  then  climbed  the  palisade, 
burst  in  the  doors,  and  found  the  house  empty. 
Their  amazement  was  unbounded.  How,  without 
canoes,  could  the  French  have  escaped  by  water? 
And  how  else  could  they  escape  ?  The  snow  which 
had  fallen  during  the  night  completely  hid  their 
footsteps.  A  superstitious  awe  seized  the  Iroquois. 
They  thought  that  the  "  black-robes  "  and  their  flock 
had  flown  off  through  the  air. 

Meanwhile  the  fugitives  pushed  their  flight  with 


94  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA.  [1658. 

the  energy  of  terror,  passed  in  safety  the  rapids  of  the 
Oswego,  crossed  Lake  Ontario,  and  descended  the 
St.  Lawrence  with  the  loss  of  three  men  drowned 
in  the  rapids.  On  the  third  of  April  they  reached 
Montreal,  and  on  the  twenty-third  arrived  at  Quebec. 
They  had  saved  their  lives ;  but  the  mission  of  Onon- 
daga  was  a  miserable  failure.1 

i  On  the  Onondaga  mission,  the  authorities  are  Marie  de 
1'Incarnation,  Lettres  Historiques,  and  Relations  des  J&suites,  1657 
and  1668,  where  the  story  is  told  at  length,  accompanied  with 
several  interesting  letters  and  journals.  Chaumonot,  in  his  Auto- 
biographic, speaks  only  of  the  Seneca  mission,  and  refers  to  the 
Relations  for  the  rest.  Dollier  de  Casson,  in  his  Histoire  du  Mon- 
treal, mentions  the  arrival  of  the  fugitives  at  that  place,  the  sight 
of  which,  he  adds  complacently,  cured  them  of  their  fright.  The 
Journal  des  Supfrieurs  des  Jesuites  chronicles  with  its  usual  brevity 
the  ruin  of  the  mission  and  the  return  of  the  party  to  Quebec. 

The  contemporary  Jesuits,  in  their  account,  say  nothing  of  the 
superstitious  character  of  the  feast.  It  is  Marie  de  ITncarnation 
who  lets  out  the  secret.  The  later  Jesuit  Charlevoix,  much  to  his 
credit,  repeats  the  story  without  reserve. 

Since  the  above  chapter  was  written,  the  remarkable  narratives 
of  Pierre  Esprit  Eadisson  have  been  rescued  from  the  obscurity 
where  they  have  lain  for  more  than  two  centuries.  Radisson,  a 
native  of  St.  Malo,  was  a  member  of  the  colony  at  Onondaga ;  but 
having  passed  into  the  service  of  England,  he  wrote  in  a  language 
which,  for  want  of  a  fitter  name,  may  be  called  English.  He  does 
not  say  that  the  feast  was  of  the  kind  known  a-sfestin  d  manger  tout, 
though  he  asserts  that  one  of  the  priests  pretended  to  have  broken 
his  arm,  and  that  the  Indians  believed  that  the  "  feasting  was  to  be 
done  for  the  safe  recovery  of  the  father's  health."  Like  the  other 
writers,  he  says  that  the  feasters  gorged  themselves  like  wolves  and 
became  completely  helpless,  "  making  strange  kinds  of  faces  that 
turned  their  eyes  up  and  downe,"  till,  when  almost  bursting,  they 
were  forced  to  cry  Skenon,  which  according  to  Radisson  means 
"enough/'  Radisson  adds  that  it  was  proposed  that  the  French, 
"  being  three  and  fifty  in  number,  while  the  Iroquois  were 
but  100  beasts  not  able  to  budge,"  should  fall  upon  the  impotent 


1658.]  STATEMENT  OF  ALLET.  95 

savages  and  kill  them  all,  but  that  the  Jesuits  would  not  consent. 
His  account  of  the  embarkation  and  escape  of  the  colonists  agrees 
with  that  of  the  other  writers.  See  Second  Voyage  made  in  the 
Upper  Country  of  the  Iroquoits,  in  Publications  of  the  Prince  Society, 
1885. 

The  Sulpitian  Allet,  in  the  Morale  Pratique  des  Jesuites,  says 
that  the  French  placed  effigies  of  soldiers  in  the  fort  to  deceive  the 
Indians, 


CHAPTER  Y. 

1642-1661. 
THE  HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL. 

DAUVERSIERE. —  MANCE  AND  BOURGEOYS. —  MIRACLE.  —  A  Pious 
DEFAULTER.  —  JESUIT  AND  SULPITIAN.  —  MONTREAL  IN  1659. — 
THE  HOSPITAL  NUNS.  —  THE  NUNS  AND  THE  IROQUOIS.  —  MORE 
MIRACLES.  —  THE  MURDERED  PRIESTS.  —  BSIGEAC  AND  CLOSSE. 
—  SOLDIERS  OF  THE  HOLT  FAMILY. 

ON  the  second  of  July,  1659,  the  ship  "St.  Andrd  " 
lay  in  the  harbor  of  Rochelle,  crowded  with  passengers 
for  Canada.  She  had  served  two  years  as  a  hospital 
for  marines,  and  was  infected  with  a  contagious 
fever.  Including  the  crew,  some  two  hundred  persons 
were  on  board,  more  than  half  of  whom  were  bound 
for  Montreal.  Most  of  these  were  sturdy  laborers, 
artisans,  peasants,  and  soldiers,  together  with  a  troop 
of  young  women,  their  present  or  future  partners ;  a 
portion  of  the  company  set  down  on  the  old  record 
as  " sixty  virtuous  men  and  thirty-two  pious  girls." 
There  were  two  priests  also,  Vignal  and  Le  Maitre, 
both  destined  to  a  speedy  death  at  the  hands  of  the 
Troquois.  But  the  most  conspicuous  among  these 
passengers  for  Montreal  were  two  groups  of  women 
in  the  habit  of  nuns,  under  the  direction  of  Marguerite 


1659.]  BOURGEOYS   AND  MANGE.  97 

Bourgeoys  and  Jeanne  Mance.  Marguerite  Bourgeoys, 
whose  kind,  womanly  face  bespoke  her  fitness  for  the 
task,  was  foundress  of  the  school  for  female  children 
at  Montreal;  her  companion,  a  tall,  austere  figure, 
worn  with  suffering  and  care,  was  directress  of  the 
hospital.  Both  had  returned  to  France  for  aid,  and 
were  now  on  their  way  back,  each  with  three  recruits, 
—  three  being  the  mystic  number,  as  a  type  of  the 
Holy  Family,  to  whose  worship  they  were  especially 
devoted. 

Amid  the  bustle  of  departure,  the  shouts  of  sailors, 
the  rattling  of  cordage,  the  flapping  of  sails,  the 
tears  and  the  embracings,  an  elderly  man,  with  heavy 
plebeian  features,  sallow  with  disease,  and  in  a  sober, 
half-clerical  dress,  approached  Mademoiselle  Mance 
and  her  three  nuns,  and,  turning  his  eyes  to  heaven, 
spread  his  hands  over  them  in  benediction.  It  was 
Le  Royer  de  la  DauversiSre,  founder  of  the  sister- 
hood of  St.  Joseph,  to  which  the  three  nuns  belonged. 
"Now,  O  Lord,"  he  exclaimed,  with  the  look  of  one 
whose  mission  on  earth  is  fulfilled,  "  permit  thou  thy 
servant  to  depart  in  peace !  " 

Sister  Maillet,  who  had  charge  of  the  meagre 
treasury  of  the  community,  thought  that  something 
more  than  a  blessing  was  due  from  him,  and  asked 
where  she  should  apply  for  payment  of  the  interest 
of  the  twenty  thousand  livres  which  Mademoiselle 
Mance  had  placed  in  his  hands  for  investment. 
Fauversiere  changed  countenance,  and  replied  with 

troubled  voice:  "My  daughter,   God  will  provide 


98          THE   HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.    [1642-57. 

for  you.  Place  your  trust  in  Him." l  He  was  bank- 
rupt, and  had  used  the  money  of  the  sisterhood  to 
pay  a  debt  of  his  own,  leaving  the  nuns  penniless. 

I  have  related  in  another  place  2  how  an  association 
of  devotees,  inspired,  as  they  supposed,  from  heaven, 
had  undertaken  to  found  a  religious  colony  at 
Montreal  in  honor  of  the  Holy  Family.  The  essen- 
tials of  the  proposed  establishment  were  to  be  a  semi- 
nary of  priests  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  a  hospital  to 
Saint  Joseph,  and  a  school  to  the  Infant  Jesus ;  while 
a  settlement  was  to  be  formed  around  them  simply 
for  their  defence  and  maintenance.  This  pious  pur- 
pose had  in  part  been  accomplished.  It  was  seven- 
teen years  since  Mademoiselle  Mance  had  begun 
her  labors  in  honor  of  Saint  Joseph.  Marguerite 
Bourgeoys  had  entered  upon  hers  more  recently;  yet 
even  then  the  attempt  was  premature,  for  she  found 
no  white  children  to  teach.  In  time,  however,  this 
want  was  supplied,  and  she  opened  her  school  in  a 
stable,  which  answered  to  the  stable  of  Bethlehem, 
lodging  with  her  pupils  in  the  loft,  and  instructing 
them  in  Roman  Catholic  Christianity,  with  such 
rudiments  of  mundane  knowledge  as  she  and  her 
advisers  thought  fit  to  impart. 

Mademoiselle  Mance  found  no  lack  of  hospital 
work,  for  blood  and  blows  were  rife  at  Montreal, 
where  the  woods  were  full  of  Iroquois,  and  not  a 

i  Faillon,  Vie  de  M'lle  Mance,  i.  172.    This  volume  is  illustrated 
with  a  portrait  of  Daurersiere. 
8  The  Jesuits  in  North  America. 


1657-58.]  A   WONDERFUL   EVENT.  99 

moment  was  without  its  peril.  Though  years  began 
to  tell  upon  her,  she  toiled  patiently  at  her  dreary- 
task,  till,  in  the  winter  of  1657,  she  fell  on  the  ice 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  broke  her  right  arm,  and  dis- 
located the  wrist.  Bonchard,  the  surgeon  of  Montreal, 
set  the  broken  bones,  but  did  not  discover  the  dis- 
location. The  arm  in  consequence  became  totally 
useless,  and  her  health  wasted  away  under  incessant 
and  violent  pain.  Maisonneuve,  the  civil  and  mili- 
tary chief  of  the  settlement,  advised  her  to  go  to 
France  for  assistance  in  the  work  to  which  she  was 
no  longer  equal;  and  Marguerite  Bourgeoys,  whose 
pupils,  white  and  red,  had  greatly  multiplied,  resolved 
to  go  with  her  for  a  similar  object.  They  get  out 
in  September,  1658,  landed  at  Rochelle,  and  went 
thence  to  Paris.  Here  they  repaired  to  the  seminary 
of  St.  Sulpice;  for  the  priests  of  this  community 
were  joined  with  them  in  the  work  at  Montreal,  of 
which  they  were  afterwards  to  become  the  feudal 
proprietors. 

Now  ensued  a  wonderful  event,  if  we  may  trust 
the  evidence  of  sundry  devout  persons.  Olier,  the 
founder  of  St.  Sulpice,  had  lately  died,  and  the  two 
pilgrims  would  fain  pay  their  homage  to  his  heart, 
which  the  priests  of  his  community  kept  as  a  precious 
relic,  enclosed  in  a  leaden  box.  The  box  waa 
brought,  when  the  thought  inspired  Mademoiselle 
Mance  to  try  its  miraculous  efficacy  and  invoke  the 
intercession  of  the  departed  founder.  She  did  so, 
touching  her  disabled  arm  gently  with  the  leaden 


100        THE  HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.     [1658-59. 

casket.  Instantly  a  grateful  warmth  pervaded  the 
shrivelled  limb,  and  from  that  hour  its  use  was 
restored.  It  is  true  that  the  Jesuits  ventured  to 
doubt  the  Sulpitian  miracle,  and  even  to  ridicule  it; 
but  the  Sulpitians  will  show  to  this  day  the  attesta- 
tion of  Mademoiselle  Mance  herself,  written  with  the 
fingers  once  paralyzed  and  powerless.1  Neverthe- 
less, the  cure  was  not  so  thorough  as  to  permit  her 
again  to  take  charge  of  her  patients. 

Her  next  care  was  to  visit  Madame  de  Bullion,  a 
devout  lady  of  great  wealth,  who  was  usually  desig- 
nated at  Montreal  as  "the  unknown  benefactress," 
because,  though  her  charities  were  the  mainstay  of 
the  feeble  colony,  and  though  the  source  from  which 
they  proceeded  was  well  known,  she  affected,  in  the 
interest  of  humility,  the  greatest  secrecy,  and 
required  those  who  profited  by  her  gifts  to  pretend 
ignorance  whence  they  came.  Overflowing  with  zeal 
for  the  pious  enterprise,  she  received  her  visitor  with 
enthusiasm,  lent  an  open  ear  to  her  recital,  responded 
graciously  to  her  appeal  for  aid,  and  paid  over  to  her 
the  sum,  munificent  at  that  day,  of  twenty-two 
thousand  francs.  Thus  far  successful,  Mademoiselle 
Mance  repaired  to  the  town  of  La  Fldche  to  visit  Le 
Royer  de  la  Dauversiere. 

It  was  this  wretched  fanatic  who,  through  visions 
and  revelations,  had  first  conceived  the  plan  of  a 

1  For  an  account  of  this  miracle,  written  in  perfect  good  faith 
and  supported  by  various  attestations,  see  Faillon,  Vie  de  M'llt 
Mance ,  chap.  iv. 


1659.]  THE   HOSPITAL  NUNS.  101 

hospital  in  honor  of  Saint  Joseph  at  Montreal.1  H 
had  found  in  Mademoiselle  Mance  a  zealous  and 
efficient  pioneer;  but  the  execution  of  his  scheme 
required  a  community  of  hospital  nuns,  and  therefore 
he  had  labored  for  the  last  eighteen  years  to  form 
one  at  La  Fl£che,  meaning  to  despatch  its  members 
in  due  time  to  Canada.  The  time  at  length  was 
come.  Three  of  the  nuns  were  chosen,  —  Sisters 
Bre'soles,  Mace*,  and  Maillet,  —  and  sent  under  the 
escort  of  certain  pious  gentlemen  to  Rochelle.  Their 
exit  from  La  Fl£che  was  not  without  its  difficulties. 
Dauversi£re  was  in  ill  odor,  not  only  from  the  multi- 
plicity of  his  debts,  but  because,  in  his  character  of 
agent  of  the  association  of  Montreal,  he  had  at 
various  times  sent  thither  those  whom  his  biographer 
describes  as  "  the  most  virtuous  girls  to  be  found  at 
La  FISche,"  intoxicating  them  with  religious  excite- 
ment, and  shipping  them  for  the  New  World  against 
the  will  of  their  parents.  It  was  noised  through  the 
town  that  he  had  kidnapped  and  sold  them ;  and  now 
the  report  spread  abroad  that  he  was  about  to  crown 
his  iniquity  by  luring  away  three  young  nuns.  A 
mob  gathered  at  the  convent  gate,  and  the  escort 
were  forced  to  draw  their  swords  to  open  a  way  for 
the  terrified  sisters. 

Of  the  twenty-two  thousand  francs  which  she  had 
received,  Mademoiselle  Mance  kept  two  thousand  for 
immediate  needs,  and  confided  the  rest  to  the  hands 
of  Dauversi£re,  who,  hard  pressed  by  his  creditors, 

1  See  "  The  Jesuits  in  North  America." 


102  THE   HOLY  WARS   OF  MONTREAL.      [1659. 

used  it  to  pay  one  of  his  debts;  and  then,  to  his 
horror,  found  himself  unable  to  replace  it.  Racked 
by  the  gout  and  tormented  by  remorse,  he  betook 
himself  to  his  bed  in  a  state  of  body  and  mind  truly 
pitiable.  One  of  the  miracles,  so  frequent  in  the 
early  annals  of  Montreal,  was  vouchsafed  in  answer 
to  his  prayer,  and  he  was  enabled  to  journey  to 
Rochelle  and  bid  farewell  to  his  nuns.  It  was  but  a 
brief  respite;  he  returned  home  to  become  the  prey 
of  a  host  of  maladies,  and  to  die  at  last  a  lingering 
and  painful  death. 

While  Mademoiselle  Mance  was  gaining  recruits  in 
La  Flejche,  Marguerite  Bourgeoys  was  no  less  success- 
ful in  her  native  town  of  Troyes ;  and  she  rejoined 
her  companions  at  Rochelle,  accompanied  by  Sisters 
Chatel,  Crolo,  and  Raisin,  her  destined  assistants  in 
the  school  at  Montreal.  Meanwhile,  the  Sulpitians 
and  others  interested  in  the  pious  enterprise,  had 
spared  no  effort  to  gather  men  to  strengthen  the 
colony,  and  young  women  to  serve  as  their  wives; 
and  all  were  now  mustered  at  Rochelle,  waiting  for 
embarkation.  Their  waiting  was  a  long  one.  Laval, 
bishop  at  Quebec,  was  allied  to  the  Jesuits,  and 
looked  on  the  colonists  of  Montreal  with  more  than 
coldness.  Sulpitian  writers  say  that  his  agents  used 
every  effort  to  discourage  them,  and  that  certain 
persons  at  Rochelle  told  the  master  of  the  ship  in 
which  the  emigrants  were  to  sail  that  they  were  not 
to  be  trusted  to  pay  their  passage-money.  Hereupon 
ensued  a  delay  of  more  than  two  months  before 


1659.]  DELAY   AND   DIFFICULTY.  103 

means  could  be  found  to  quiet  the  scruples  of  the 
prudent  commander.  At  length  the  anchor  was 
weighed,  and  the  dreary  voyage  begun. 

The  woe-begone  company,  crowded  in  the  filthy 
and  infected  ship,  were  tossed  for  two  months  more 
on  the  relentless  sea,  buffeted  by  repeated  storms  and 
wasted  by  a  contagious  fever,  which  attacked  nearly 
all  of  them  and  reduced  Mademoiselle  Mance  to 
extremity.  Eight  or  ten  died  and  were  dropped 
overboard,  after  a  prayer  from  the  two  priests.  At 
length  land  hove  in  sight;  the  piny  odors  of  the 
forest  regaled  their  languid  senses  as  they  sailed  up 
the  broad  estuary  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  anchored 
under  the  rock  of  Quebec. 

High  aloft,  on  the  brink  of  the  cliff,  they  saw  the 
fleur-de-lis  waving  above  the  fort  of  St.  Louis,  and, 
beyond,  the  cross  on  the  tower  of  the  cathedral  traced 
against  the  sky,  the  houses  of  the  merchants  on  the 
strand  below,  and  boats  and  canoes  drawn  up  along 
the  bank.  The  bishop  and  the  Jesuits  greeted  them 
as  co-workers  in  a  holy  cause,  with  an  unction  not 
wholly  sincere.  Though  a  unit  against  heresy,  the 
pious  founders  of  New  France  were  far  from  unity 
among  themselves.  To  the  thinking  of  the  Jesuits, 
Montreal  was  a  government  within  a  government,  a 
wheel  within  a  wheel.  This  rival  Sulpitian  settle- 
ment was  in  their  eyes  an  element  of  disorganization 
adverse  to  the  disciplined  harmony  of  the  Canadian 
Church,  which  they  would  fain  have  seen,  with  its 
focus  at  Quebec,  radiating  light  unrefracted  to  the 


104  THE  HOLY  WARS   OF  MONTREAL.       [1659. 

uttermost  parts  of  the  colony.  That  is  to  say,  they 
wished  to  control  it  unchecked,  through  their  ally 
the  bishop. 

The  emigrants,  then,  were  received  with  a  studious 
courtesy,  which  veiled  but  thinly  a  stiff  and  persist- 
ent opposition.  The  bishop  and  the  Jesuits  were 
especially  anxious  to  prevent  the  La  Fl£che  nuns 
from  establishing  themselves  at  Montreal,  where  they 
would  form  a  separate  community  under  Sulpitian  in- 
fluence ;  and  in  place  of  the  newly  arrived  sisters  they 
wished  to  substitute  nuns  from  the  H6tel  Dieu  of  Que- 
bec, who  would  be  under  their  own  control.  That 
which  most  strikes  the  non-Catholic  reader  throughout 
this  affair  is  the  constant  reticence  and  dissimulation 
practised,  not  only  between  Jesuits  and  Montrealists, 
but  among  the  Montrealists  themselves.  Their  self- 
devotion,  great  as  it  was,  was  fairly  matched  by  their 
disingenuousness. l 

All  difficulties  being  overcome,  the  Montrealists 
embarked  in  boats  and  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence, 
leaving  Quebec  infected  with  the  contagion  they  had 
brought.  The  journey  now  made  in  a  single  night 
cost  them  fifteen  days  of  hardship  and  danger.  At 
length  they  reached  their  new  home.  The  little 
settlement  lay  before  them,  still  gasping  betwixt  life 
and  death,  in  a  puny,  precarious  infancy.  Some 

i  See,  for  example,  chapter  iv.  of  Faillon's  Life  of  Mademoiselle 
Mance.  The  evidence  is  unanswerable,  the  writer  being  the  par- 
tisan and  admirer  of  most  of  those  whose  pieuse  tromperie,  to  use  the 
expression  of  Dollier  de  Casson,  he  describes  in  apparent  uncon- 
sciousness that  anybody  will  see  reason  to  cavil  at  it. 


1659.]  MONTREAL.  105 

forty  small,  compact  houses  were  ranged  parallel  to 
the  river,  chiefly  along  the  line  of  what  is  now  St. 
Paul's  Street.  On  the  left  there  was  a  fort,  and  on 
a  rising  ground  at  the  right  a  massive  windmill  of 
stone,  enclosed  with  a  wall  or  palisade  pierced  for 
musketry,  and  answering  the  purpose  of  a  redoubt 
or  block-house.1  Fields  studded  with  charred  and 
blackened  stumps,  between  which  crops  were  grow- 
ing, stretched  away  to  the  edges  of  the  bordering 
forest;  and  the  green,  shaggy  back  of  the  mountain 
towered  over  all. 

There  were  at  this  time  a  hundred  and  sixty  men 
at  Montreal,  about  fifty  of  whom  had  families,  or  at 
least  wives.  They  greeted  the  new-comers  with  a 
welcome  which,  this  time,  was  as  sincere  as  it  was 
warm,  and  bestirred  themselves  with  alacrity  to  pro- 
vide them  with  shelter  for  the  winter.  As  for  the 
three  nuns  from  La  Fleche,  a  chamber  was  hastily 
made  for  them  over  two  low  rooms  which  had  served 
as  Mademoiselle  Mance's  hospital.  This  chamber 
was  twenty-five  feet  square,  with  four  cells  for  the 
nuns,  and  a  closet  for  stores  and  clothing,  which  for 
the  present  was  empty,  as  they  had  landed  in  such 
destitution  that  they  were  forced  to  sell  all  their 
scanty  equipment  to  gain  the  bare  necessaries  of 
existence.  Little  could  be  hoped  from  the  colonists, 
who  were  scarcely  less  destitute  than  they.  Such 
was  their  poverty,  —  thanks  to  Dauversiere's  breach 

1  Lettre  du  Vicomte  d'Argenson,  Gouverneur  du  Canada,  4  Aout{ 
1659,  MS. 


106        THE   HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.    [1657-61, 

of  trust,  —  that  when  their  clothes  were  worn  out, 
they  were  unable  to  replace  them,  and  were  forced 
to  patch  them  with  such  material  as  came  to  hand. 
Maisonneuve  the  governor,  and  the  pious  Madame 
d'Ailleboust,  being  once  on  a  visit  to  the  hospital, 
amused  themselves  with  trying  to  guess  of  what  stuff 
the  habits  of  the  nuns  had  originally  been  made,  and 
were  unable  to  agree  on  the  point  in  question.1 

Their  chamber,  which  they  occupied  for  many 
years,  being  hastily  built  of  ill-seasoned  planks,  let 
in  the  piercing  cold  of  the  Canadian  winter  through 
countless  cracks  and  chinks;  and  the  driving  snow 
sifted  through  in  such  quantities  that  they  were 
sometimes  obliged,  the  morning  after  a  storm,  to 
remove  it  with  shovels.  Their  food  would  freeze  on 
the  table  before  them,  and  their  coarse  brown  bread 
had  to  be  thawed  on  the  hearth  before  they  could  cut 
it.  These  women  had  been  nurtured  in  ease,  if  not 
in  luxury.  One  of  them,  Judith  de  Bre*soles,  had  in 
her  youth,  by  advice  of  her  confessor,  run  away  from 
parents  who  were  devoted  to  her,  and  immured  her- 
self in  a  convent,  leaving  them  in  agonies  of  doubt 
as  to  her  fate.  She  now  acted  as  superior  of  the 
little  community.  One  of  her  nuns  records  of  her 
that  she  had  a  fervent  devotion  for  the  Infant  Jesus ; 
and  that,  along  with  many  more  spiritual  graces,  he 
inspired  her  with  so  transcendent  a  skill  in  cookery, 
that  "with  a  small  piece  of  lean  pork  and  a  few  herbs 

1  Annales  des  Hospitalises  de  Villemarie,  par  la  Sceur  Morin, —  a 
contemporary  record,  from  which  Faillon  gives  long  extracts. 


1657-61.]  THE   SISTERS.  107 

she  could  make  soup  of  a  marvellous  relish." l  Sister 
Macd  was  charged  with  the  care  of  the  pigs  and  hens, 
to  whose  wants  she  attended  in  person,  though  she 
too  had  been  delicately  bred.  In  course  of  time,  the 
sisterhood  was  increased  by  additions  from  without, 
—  though  more  than  twenty  girls  who  entered  the 
hospital  as  novices  recoiled  from  the  hardship,  and 
took  husbands  in  the  colony.  Among  a  few  who 
took  the  vows,  Sister  Jumeau  should  not  pass 
unnoticed.  Such  was  her  humility  that,  though  of 
a  good  family  and  unable  to  divest  herself  of  the 
marks  of  good  breeding,  she  pretended  to  be  the 
daughter  of  a  poor  peasant,  and  persisted  in  repeating 
the  pious  falsehood  till  the  merchant  Le  Ber  told  her 
flatly  that  he  did  not  believe  her. 

The  sisters  had  great  need  of  a  man  to  do  the 
heavy  work  of  the  house  and  garden,  but  found  no 
means  of  hiring  one,  when  an  incident,  in  which  they 
saw  a  special  providence,  excellently  supplied  the 
want.  There  was  a  poor  colonist  named  Jouaneaux, 
to  whom  a  piece  of  land  had  been  given  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  settlement.  Had  he  built  a  cabin 
upon  it,  his  scalp  would  soon  have  paid  the  forfeit; 
but,  being  bold  and  hardy,  he  devised  a  plan  by 
which  he  might  hope  to  sleep  in  safety  without 
abandoning  the  farm  which  was  his  only  possession. 
Among  the  stumps  of  his  clearing  there  was  one  hol- 

i  "  CMtait  par  son  recours  a  1'Enf  ant  Jesus  qu'elle  trouvait  tous 
ces  secrets  et  d'autres  semblables,"  writes  in  our  own  day  the 
excellent  annalist,  Faillou. 


108        THE   HOLY  WARS   OF  MONTREAL.    [1657-61. 

low  with  age.  Under  this  he  dug  a  sort  of  cave,  the 
entrance  of  which  was  a  small  hole  carefully  hidden  by 
brushwood.  The  hollow  stump  was  easily  converted 
into  a  chimney ;  and  by  creeping  into  his  burrow  at 
night,  or  when  he  saw  signs  of  danger,  he  escaped 
for  some  time  the  notice  of  the  Iroquois.  But  though 
he  could  dispense  with  a  house,  he  needed  a  barn  for 
his  hay  and  corn ;  and  while  he  was  building  one,  he 
fell  from  the  ridge  of  the  roof  and  was  seriously  hurt. 
He  was  carried  to  the  Hotel  Dieu,  where  the  nuns 
showed  him  every  attention,  until,  after  a  long  con- 
finement, he  at  last  recovered.  Being  of  a  grateful 
nature  and  enthusiastically  devout,  he  was  so  touched 
by  the  kindness  of  his  benefactors,  and  so  moved  by 
the  spectacle  of  their  piety,  that  he  conceived  the 
wish  of  devoting  his  life  to  their  service.  To  this 
end  a  contract  was  drawn  up,  by  which  he  pledged 
himself  to  work  for  them  as  long  as  strength 
remained;  and  they,  on  their  part,  agreed  to  main- 
tain him  in  sickness  or  old  age. 

This  stout-hearted  retainer  proved  invaluable; 
though  had  a  guard  of  soldiers  been  added,  it  would 
have  been  no  more  than  the  case  demanded.  Montreal 
was  not  palisaded,  and  at  first  the  hospital  was  as 
much  exposed  as  the  rest.  The  Iroquois  would 
skulk  at  night  among  the  houses,  like  wolves  in  a 
camp  of  sleeping  travellers  on  the  prairies;  though 
the  human  foe  was,  of  the  two,  incomparably  the 
bolder,  fiercer,  and  more  bloodthirsty.  More  than 
once  one  of  these  prowling  savages  was  known  to 


1657-61.]  PERIL  OF   THE   NUNS.  109 

have  crouched  all  night  in  a  rank  growth  of  wild 
mustard  in  the  garden  of  the  nuns,  vainly  hoping 
that  one  of  them  would  come  out  within  reach  of  his 
tomahawk.  During  summer,  a  month  rarely  passed 
without  a  fight,  sometimes  within  sight  of  their 
windows.  A  burst  of  yells  from  the  ambushed 
marksmen,  followed  by  a  clatter  of  musketry,  would 
announce  the  opening  of  the  fray,  and  promise  the 
nuns  an  addition  to  their  list  of  patients.  On  these 
occasions  they  bore  themselves  according  to  their 
several  natures.  Sister  Morin,  who  had  joined  their 
number  three  years  after  their  arrival,  relates  that 
Sister  Bre*soles  and  she  used  to  run  to  the  belfry 
and  ring  the  tocsin  to  call  the  inhabitants  together. 
"From  our  high  station,"  she  writes,  "we  could 
sometimes  see  the  combat,  which  terrified  us  extremely, 
so  that  we  came  down  again  as  soon  as  we  could, 
trembling  with  fright,  and  thinking  that  our  last 
hour  was  come.  When  the  tocsin  sounded,  my 
Sister  Maillet  would  become  faint  with  excess  of 
fear;  and  my  Sister  Mace',  as  long  as  the  alarm  con- 
tinued, would  remain  speechless,  in  a  state  pitiable  to 
see.  They  would  both  get  into  a  corner  of  the  rood- 
loft,  before  the  Holy  Sacrament,  so  as  to  be  prepared 
for  death,  or  else  go  into  their  cells.  As  soon  as  I 
heard  that  the  Iroquois  were  gone,  I  went  to  tell 
them,  which  comforted  them  and  seemed  to  restore 
them  to  life.  My  Sister  Bre*soles  was  stronger  and 
more  courageous;  her  terror,  which  she  could  not 
help,  did  not  prevent  her  from  attending  the  sick 


110        THE  HOLY   WARS   OF  MONTREAL.     [1657-61. 

and  receiving  the  dead  and  wounded  who  were 
brought  in." 

The  priests  of  St.  Sulpice,  who  had  assumed  the 
entire  spiritual  charge  of  the  settlement,  and  who 
were  soon  to  assume  its  entire  temporal  charge  also, 
had  for  some  years  no  other  lodging  than  a  room  at 
the  hospital,  adjoining  those  of  the  patients.  They 
caused  the  building  to  be  fortified  with  palisades, 
and  the  houses  of  some  of  the  chief  inhabitants  were 
placed  near  it,  for  mutual  defence.  They  also  built 
two  fortified  houses,  called  Ste.  Marie  and  St. 
Gabriel,  at  the  two  extremities  of  the  settlement,  and 
lodged  in  them  a  considerable  number  of  armed  men, 
whom  they  employed  in  clearing  and  cultivating  the 
surrounding  lands,  the  property  of  their  community. 
All  other  outlying  houses  were  also  pierced  with 
loopholes,  and  fortified  as  well  as  the  slender  means 
of  their  owners  would  permit.  The  laborers  always 
carried  their  guns  to  the  field,  and  often  had  need  to 
use  them.  A  few  incidents  will  show  the  state  of 
Montreal  and  the  character  of  its  tenants. 

In  the  autumn  of  1657  there  was  a  truce  with  the 
Iroquois,  under  cover  of  which  three  or  four  of  them 
came  to  the  settlement.  Nicolas  God6  and  Jean 
Saint-Pere  were  on  the  roof  of  their  house,  laying 
thatch,  when  one  of  the  visitors  aimed  his  arquebuse 
at  Saint-Pere,  and  brought  him  to  the  ground  like  a 
wild  turkey  from  a  tree.  Now  ensued  a  prodigy; 
for  the  assassins,  having  cut  off  his  head  and  carried 
it  home  to  their  village,  were  amazed  to  hear  it  speak 


1657-61.]  PRODIGIES.  Ill 

to  them  in  good  Iroquois,  scold  them  for  their  per- 
fidy, and  threaten  them  with  the  vengeance  of 
Heaven;  and  they  continued  to  hear  its  voice  of 
admonition  even  after  scalping  it  and  throwing  away 
the  skull.1  This  story,  circulated  at  Montreal  on  the 
alleged  authority  of  the  Indians  themselves,  found  be- 
lievers among  the  most  intelligent  men  of  the  colony. 

Another  miracle,  which  occurred  several  years 
later,  deserves  to  be  recorded.  Le  Maitre,  one  of 
the  two  priests  who  had  sailed  from  France  with 
Mademoiselle  Mance  and  her  nuns,  being  one  day  at 
the  fortified  house  of  St.  Gabriel,  went  out  with  the 
laborers  in  order  to  watch  while  they  were  at  their 
work.  In  view  of  a  possible  enemy,  he  had  girded 
himself  with  an  earthly  sword ;  but  seeing  no  sign  of 
danger,  he  presently  took  out  his  breviary,  and,  while 
reciting  his  office  with  eyes  bent  on  the  page,  walked 
into  an  ambuscade  of  Iroquois,  who  rose  before  him 
with  a  yell. 

He  shouted  to  the  laborers,  and,  drawing  his 
sword,  faced  the  whole  savage  crew,  in  order,  prob- 
ably, to  give  the  men  time  to  snatch  their  guns. 
Afraid  to  approach,  the  Iroquois  fired  and  killed 
him;  then  rushed  upon  the  working  party,  who 
escaped  into  the  house,  after  losing  several  of  their 
number.  The  victors  cut  off  the  head  of  the  heroic 
priest,  and  tied  it  in  a  white  handkerchief  which 
they  took  from  a  pocket  of  his  cassock.  It  is  said 
that  on  reaching  their  villages  they  were  astonished 

1  Dollier  de  Casson,  Hittoire  du  Montreal,  1657-1658. 


112       THE  HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.    [1657-61. 

to  find  the  handkerchief  without  the  slightest  stain 
of  blood,  but  stamped  indelibly  with  the  features  of 
its  late  owner,  so  plainly  marked  that  none  who  had 
known  him  could  fail  to  recognize  them.1  This  not 
very  original  miracle,  though  it  found  eager  credence 
at  Montreal,  was  received  coolly,  like  other  Montreal 
miracles,  at  Quebec;  and  Sulpitian  writers  complain 
that  the  bishop,  in  a  long  letter  which  he  wrote  to 
the  Pope,  made  no  mention  of  it  whatever. 

Le  Maitre,  on  the  voyage  to  Canada,  had  been 
accompanied  by  another  priest,  Guillaume  de  Vignal, 
who  met  a  fate  more  deplorable  than  that  of  his  com- 
panion, though  unattended  by  any  recorded  miracle. 
Le  Maitre  had  been  killed  in  August.  In  the 
October  following,  Vignal  went  with  thirteen  men, 
in  a  flat-boat  and  several  canoes,  to  Isle  a  la  Pierre, 
nearly  opposite  Montreal,  to  get  stone  for  the  semi- 
nary which  the  priests  had  recently  begun  to  build. 
With  him  was  a  pious  and  valiant  gentleman  named 
Claude  de  Brigeac,  who,  though  but  thirty  years  of 
age,  had  come  as  a  soldier  to  Montreal,  in  the  hope 
of  dying  in  defence  of  the  true  Church,  and  thus 
reaping  the  reward  of  a  martyr.  Vignal  and  three 
or  four  men  had  scarcely  landed  when  they  were  set 
upon  by  a  large  band  of  Iroquois  who  lay  among  the 
bushes  waiting  to  receive  them.  The  rest  of  the 

1  This  story  is  told  by  Sister  Morin,  Marguerite  Bourgeoys,  and 
Dollier  de  Casson,  on  the  authority  of  one  Lavigne,  then  a  prisoner 
among  the  Iroquois,  who  declared  that  he  had  seen  the  handker- 
chief in  the  hands  of  the  returning  warriors. 


1657-61.]  DEATH   OF  VIGNAL.  113 

party,  who  were  still  in  their  boats,  with  a  cowardice 
rare  at  Montreal,  thought  only  of  saving  themselves. 
Claude  de  Brigeac  alone  leaped  ashore  and  ran  to  aid 
his  comrades.  Vignal  was  soon  mortally  wounded. 
Brigeac  shot  the  chief  dead  with  his  arquebuse,  and 
then,  pistol  in  hand,  held  the  whole  troop  for  an 
instant  at  bay ;  but  his  arm  was  shattered  by  a  gun- 
shot, and  he  was  seized,  along  with  Vignal,  Rend 
Cuille'rier,  and  Jacques  Dufresne.  Crossing  to  the 
main  shore,  immediately  opposite  Montreal,  the 
Iroquois  made,  after  their  custom,  a  small  fort  of 
logs  and  branches,  in  which  they  ensconced  them- 
selves, and  then  began  to  dress  the  wounds  of  their 
prisoners.  Seeing  that  Vignal  was  unable  to  make 
the  journey  to  their  villages,  they  killed  him,  divided 
his  flesh,  and  roasted  it  for  food. 

Brigeac  and  his  fellows  in  misfortune  spent  a  wo- 
ful  night  in  this  den  of  wolves ;  and  in  the  morning 
their  captors,  having  breakfasted  on  the  remains  of 
Vignal,  took  up  their  homeward  march,  dragging  the 
Frenchmen  with  them.  On  reaching  Oneida,  Brigeac 
was  tortured  to  death  with  the  customary  atrocities. 
Cuillerier,  who  was  present,  declared  that  they  could 
wring  from  him  no  cry  of  pain,  but  that  throughout 
he  ceased  not  to  pray  for  their  conversion.  The 
witness  himself  expected  the  same  fate,  but  an  old 
squaw  happily  adopted  him,  and  thus  saved  his  life. 
He  eventually  escaped  to  Albany,  and  returned  to 
Canada  by  the  circuitous  but  comparatively  safe 

route  of  New  York  and  Boston. 

8 


114       THE   HOLY  WARS   OF  MONTREAL.     [1657-61. 

In  the  following  winter,  Montreal  suffered  an 
irreparable  loss  in  the  death  of  the  brave  Major 
Closse,  a  man  whose  intrepid  coolness  was  never 
known  to  fail  in  the  direst  emergency.  Going  to  the 
aid  of  a  party  of  laborers  attacked  by  the  Iroquois, 
he  was  met  by  a  crowd  of  savages,  eager  to  kill  or 
capture  him.  His  servant  ran  off.  He  snapped  a 
pistol  at  the  foremost  assailant,  but  it  missed  fire. 
His  remaining  pistol  served  him  no  better,  and  he 
was  instantly  shot  down.  "He  died,"  writes  Dollier 
de  Casson,  "like  a  brave  soldier  of  Christ  and  the 
King."  Some  of  his  friends  once  remonstrating  with 
him  on  the  temerity  with  which  he  exposed  his  life, 
he  replied:  "Messieurs,  I  came  here  only  to  die  in 
the  service  of  God;  and  if  I  thought  I  could  not  die 
here,  I  would  leave  this  country  to  fight  the  Turks, 
that  I  might  not  be  deprived  of  such  a  glory."1 

The  fortified  house  of  Ste.  Marie,  belonging  to  the 
priests  of  St.  Sulpice,  was  the  scene  of  several  hot 
and  bloody  fights.  Here,  too,  occurred  the  follow- 
ing nocturnal  adventure.  A  man  named  Lavigne, 
who  had  lately  returned  from  captivity  among  the 
Iroquois,  chancing  to  rise  at  night  and  look  out  of 
the  window,  saw  by  the  bright  moonlight  a  number 
of  naked  warriors  stealthily  gliding  round  a  corner 
and  crouching  near  the  door,  in  order  to  kill  the  first 
Frenchman  who  should  go  out  in  the  morning.  He 
silently  woke  his  comrades ;  and,  having  the  rest  of 
the  night  for  consultation,  they  arranged  their  plan 

1  Dollier  de  Casson,  Histoire  du  Montreal,  1661, 1662. 


1657-61.]  A  YEAR  OF  DISASTER.  115 

so  well  that  some  of  them,  sallying  from  the  rear  of 
the  house,  came  cautiously  round  upon  the  Iroquois, 
placed  them  between  two  fires,  and  captured  them  all. 

The  summer  of  1661  was  marked  by  a  series  of 
calamities  scarcely  paralleled  even  in  the  annals  of 
this  disastrous  epoch.  Early  in  February,  thirteen 
colonists  were  surprised  and  captured;  next  came  a 
fight  between  a  large  band  of  laborers  and  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  Iroquois ;  in  the  following  month,  ten 
more  Frenchmen  were  killed  or  taken;  and  thence- 
forth, till  winter  closed,  the  settlement  had  scarcely 
a  breathing  space.  "These  hobgoblins,"  writes  the 
author  of  the  Relation  of  this  year,  "sometimes 
appeared  at  the  edge  of  the  woods,  assailing  us  with 
abuse;  sometimes  they  glided  stealthily  into  the 
midst  of  the  fields,  to  surprise  the  men  at  work; 
sometimes  they  approached  the  houses,  harassing  us 
without  ceasing,  and,  like  importunate  harpies  or 
birds  of  prey,  swooping  down  on  us  whenever  they 
could  take  us  unawares."1 

Speaking  of  the  disasters  of  this  year,  the  soldier- 
priest,  Dollier  de  Casson,  writes :  "  God,  who  afflicts 
the  body  only  for  the  good  of  the  soul,  made  a  mar- 
vellous use  of  these  calamities  and  terrors  to  hold  the 
people  firm  in  their  duty  towards  Heaven.  Vice 
was  then  almost  unknown  here,  and  in  the  midst  of 
war  religion  flourished  on  all  sides  in  a  manner  very 
different  from  what  we  now  see  in  time  of  peace."8 

*  Le  Jeune,  Relation,  1661,  p.  3  (ed.  1858). 

*  Histoire  du  Montreal,  1660,  1661. 


116       THE   HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.     [1657-61. 

The  war  was,  in  fact,  a  war  of  religion.  The 
small  redoubts  of  logs,  scattered  about  the  skirts  of 
the  settlement  to  serve  as  points  of  defence  in  case 
of  attack,  bore  the  names  of  saints,  to  whose  care 
they  were  commended.  There  was  one  placed  under 
a  higher  protection,  and  called  the  "  Redoubt  of  the 
Infant  Jesus."  Chomedey  de  Maisonneuve,  the 
pious  and  valiant  governor  of  Montreal,  to  whom  its 
successful  defence  is  largely  due,  resolved,  in  view 
of  the  increasing  fury  and  persistency  of  the  Iroquois 
attacks,  to  form  among  the  inhabitants  a  military 
fraternity,  to  be  called  "  Soldiers  of  the  Holy  Family 
of  Jesus,  Mary,  and  Joseph ; "  and  to  this  end  he 
issued  a  proclamation,  of  which  the  following  is  the 
characteristic  beginning :  — 

"We,  Paul  de  Chomedey,  governor  of  the  island 
of  Montreal  and  lands  thereon  dependent,  on  infor- 
mation given  us  from  divers  quarters  that  the  Iroquois 
have  formed  the  design  of  seizing  upon  this  settle- 
ment by  surprise  or  force,  have  thought  it  our  duty, 
seeing  that  this  island  is  the  property  of  the  Holy 
Virgin,1  to  invite  and  exhort  those  zealous  for  her 
service  to  unite  together  by  squads,  each  of  seven 
persons ;  and  after  choosing  a  corporal  by  a  plurality 
of  voices,  to  report  themselves  to  us  for  enrolment  in 
our  garrison,  and,  in  this  capacity,  to  obey  our 
orders,  to  the  end  that  the  country  ma3r  be  saved." 

1  This  is  no  figure  of  speech.  The  Associates  of  Montreal,  after 
receiving  a  grant  of  the  island  from  Jean  de  Lauson,  placed  it  undei 
the  protection  of  the  Virgin,  and  formally  declared  her  to  be  the 
proprietor  of  it  from  that  day  forth  forever. 


1657-61.]  A   HOLY  WAR.  117 

Twenty  squads,  numbering  in  all  one  hundred  and 
forty  men,  whose  names,  appended  to  the  proclama- 
tion, may  still  be  seen  on  the  ancient  records  of 
Montreal,  answered  the  appeal  and  enrolled  them- 
selves in  the  holy  cause. 

The  whole  settlement  was  in  a  state  of  religious 
exaltation.  As  the  Iroquois  were  regarded  as  actual 
myrmidons  of  Satan  in  his  malign  warfare  against 
Mary  and  her  divine  Son,  those  who  died  in  fighting 
them  were  held  to  merit  the  reward  of  martyrs, 
assured  of  a  seat  in  paradise. 

And  now  it  remains  to  record  one  of  the  most 
heroic  feats  of  arms  ever  achieved  on  this  continent. 
That  it  may  be  rated  as  it  merits,  it  will  be  well  to 
glance  for  a  moment  at  the  condition  of  Canada, 
under  the  portentous  cloud  of  war  which  constantly 
overshadowed  it.1 


1  In  all  that  relates  to  Montreal,  I  cannot  be  sufficiently  grate- 
ful to  the  Abbe  Faillon,  the  indefatigable,  patient,  conscientious 
chronicler  of  its  early  history ;  an  ardent  and  prejudiced  Sulpitian, 
a  priest  who  three  centuries  ago  would  have  passed  for  credulous, 
and,  withal,  a  kind-hearted  and  estimable  man.  His  numerous 
books  on  his  favorite  theme,  with  the  vast  and  heterogeneous  mass 
of  facts  which  they  embody,  are  invaluable,  provided  their  partisan 
character  be  well  kept  in  mind.  His  recent  death  leaves  his  princi- 
pal work  unfinished.  His  Histolre  de  la  Colonie  Franfaise  en  Canada 
—  it  might  more  fitly  be  called  Histoire  du  Montreal — is  unhappily 
little  more  than  half  complete. 


CHAPTER  VL 

1660,  1661. 
THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT. 

SUFFERING  AND  TERROR.  —  FRANQOIS  HERTEL.  —  THE  CAPTIVB 
WOLF.  —  THE  THREATENED  INVASION.  —  DAULAC  DBS  ORMEAUX. 
—  THE  ADVENTURERS  AT  THE  LONG  SAUT.  —  THE  ATTACK.  —  A 
DESPERATE  DEFENCE.  — A  FINAL  ASSAULT.  — THE  FORT  TAKEN. 

CANADA  had  writhed  for  twenty  years,  with  little 
respite,  under  the  scourge  of  Iroquois  war.  During 
a  great  part  of  this  dark  period  the  entire  French 
population  was  less  than  three  thousand.  What, 
then,  saved  them  from  destruction?  In  the  first 
place,  the  settlements  were  grouped  around  three  for- 
tified posts,  —  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal, 
—  which  in  time  of  danger  gave  asylum  to  the  fugi- 
tive inhabitants.  Again,  their  assailants  were  con- 
tinually distracted  by  other  wars,  and  never,  except 
at  a  few  spasmodic  intervals,  were  fully  in  earnest 
to  destroy  the  French  colony.  Canada  was  indis- 
pensable to  them.  The  four  upper  nations  of  the 
league  soon  became  dependent  on  her  for  supplies; 
and  all  the  nations  alike  appear,  at  a  very  early 
period,  to  have  conceived  the  policy  on  which  they 


1660-61.]    SUFFERING  AND  TERROR.        119 

afterwards  distinctly  acted,  of  balancing  the  rival 
settlements  of  the  Hudson  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  the 
one  against  the  other.  They  would  torture,  but  not 
kill.  It  was  but  rarely  that,  in  fits  of  fury,  they 
struck  their  hatchets  at  the  brain;  and  thus  the 
bleeding  and  gasping  colony  lingered  on  in  torment. 

The  seneschal  of  New  France,  son  of  the  governor 
Lauson,  was  surprised  and  killed  on  the  island  of 
Orleans,  along  with  seven  companions.  About  the 
same  time,  the  same  fate  befell  the  son  of  Godefroy, 
one  of  the  chief  inhabitants  of  Quebec.  Outside  the 
fortifications  there  was  no  safety  for  a  moment.  A 
universal  terror  seized  the  people.  A  comet  appeared 
above  Quebec,  and  they  saw  in  it  a  herald  of  destruc- 
tion. Their  excited  imaginations  turned  natural 
phenomena  into  portents  and  prodigies.  A  blazing 
canoe  sailed  across  the  sky;  confused  cries  and 
lamentations  were  heard  in  the  air;  and  a  voice  of 
thunder  sounded  from  mid-heaven.1  The  Jesuits 
despaired  for  their  scattered  and  persecuted  flocks. 
"Everywhere,"  writes  their  superior,  "we  see  infants 
to  be  saved  for  heaven,  sick  and  dying  to  be  baptized, 
adults  to  be  instructed;  but  everywhere  we  see  the 
Iroquois.  They  haunt  us  like  persecuting  goblins. 
They  kill  our  new-made  Christians  in  our  arms.  If 
they  meet  us  on  the  river,  they  kill  us.  If  they 
find  us  in  the  huts  of  our  Indians,  they  burn  us  and 
them  together." 2  And  he  appeals  urgently  for  troops 

1  Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  Lettre,  Septembre,  1661. 
1  Relation,  1660  (anonymous),  3. 


120         THE   HEROES   OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1658. 

to  destroy  them,  as  a  holy  work  inspired  by  God, 
and  needful  for  his  service. 

Canada  was  still  a  mission,  and  the  influence  of 
the  Church  was  paramount  and  pervading.  At 
Quebec,  as  at  Montreal,  the  war  with  the  Iroquois 
was  regarded  as  a  war  with  the  hosts  of  Satan.  Of 
the  settlers'  cabins  scattered  along  the  shores  above 
and  below  Quebec,  many  were  provided  with  small 
iron  cannon,  made  probably  by  blacksmiths  in  the 
colony;  but  they  had  also  other  protectors.  In  each 
was  an  image  of  the  Virgin  or  some  patron  saint; 
and  every  morning  the  pious  settler  knelt  before  the 
shrine  to  beg  the  protection  of  a  celestial  hand  in  his 
perilous  labors  of  the  forest  or  the  farm. 

When,  in  the  summer  of  1658,  the  young  Vicomte 
d'Argenson  came  to  assume  the  thankless  task  of 
governing  the  colony,  the  Iroquois  war  was  at  its 
height.  On  the  day  after  his  arrival,  he  was  wash- 
ing his  hands  before  seating  himself  at  dinner  in  the 
hall  of  the  Chateau  St.  Louis,  when  cries  of  alarm 
were  heard,  and  he  was  told  that  the  Iroquois  were 
close  at  hand.  In  fact,  they  were  so  near  that  their 
war-whoops  and  the  screams  of  their  victims  could 
plainly  be  heard.  Argenson  left  his  guests,  and, 
with  such  a  following  as  he  could  muster  at  the 
moment,  hastened  to  the  rescue;  but  the  assailants 
were  too  nimble  for  him.  The  forests,  which  grew 
at  that  time  around  Quebec,  favored  them  both  in 
attack  and  in  retreat.  After  a  year  or  two  of  experi- 
ence, he  wrote  urgently  to  the  court  for  troops.  He 


1661.]  FRANCOIS  HERTEL.  121 

adds  that,  what  with  the  demands  of  the  harvest  and 
the  unmilitary  character  of  many  of  the  settlers,  the 
colony  could  not  furnish  more  than  a  hundred  men 
for  offensive  operations.  A  vigorous,  aggressive 
war,  he  insists,  is  absolutely  necessary,  and  this 
not  only  to  save  the  colony,  but  to  save  the  only  true 
faith;  "for,"  to  borrow  his  own  words,  "it  is  this 
colony  alone  which  has  the  honor  to  be  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  Holy  Church.  Everywhere  else 
reigns  the  doctrine  of  England  or  Holland,  to  which 
I  can  give  no  other  name,  because  there  are  as  many 
creeds  as  there  are  subjects  who  embrace  them.  They 
do  not  care  in  the  least  whether  the  Iroquois  and  the 
other  savages  of  this  country  have  or  have  not  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  God,  or  else  they  are  so  malicious  as 
to  inject  the  venom  of  their  errors  into  souls  incapable 
of  distinguishing  the  truth  of  the  gospel  from  the 
falsehoods  of  heresy ;  and  hence  it  is  plain  that  religion 
has  its  sole  support  in  the  French  colony,  and  that,  if 
this  colony  is  in  danger,  religion  is  equally  in  danger." l 
Among  the  most  interesting  memorials  of  the  time 
are  two  letters  written  by  Francois  Hertel,  a  youth 
of  eighteen,  captured  at  Three  Rivers,  and  carried  to 
the  Mohawk  towns  in  the  summer  of  1661.  He 
belonged  to  one  of  the  best  families  of  Canada,  and 
was  the  favorite  child  of  his  mother,  to  whom  the 
second  of  the  two  letters  is  addressed.  The  first  is 
to  the  Jesuit  Le  Moyne,  who  had  gone  to  Onondaga, 

1  Papiers  d'Argenson;   Memoire  sur  le  sujet    de    la    guerre   dea 
I roquois,  1659  (1660?).    MS. 


122        THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1661. 

in  July  of  that  year,  to  effect  the  release  of  French 
prisoners  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  a  truce.1 
Both  letters  were  written  on  hirch-bark :  — 

MY  REVEREND  FATHER,  —  The  very  day  when  you  left 
Three  Rivers  I  was  captured,  at  ahout  three  in  the  after- 
noon, by  four  Iroquois  of  the  Mohawk  tribe.  I  would 
not  have  been  taken  alive,  if,  to  my  sorrow,  I  had  not 
feared  that  I  was  not  in  a  fit  state  to  die.  If  you  came 
here,  my  Father,  I  could  have  the  happiness  of  confessing 
to  you  ;  and  I  do  not  think  they  would  do  you  any  harm  ; 
and  I  think  that  I  could  return  home  with  you.  I  pray 
you  to  pity  my  poor  mother,  who  is  in  great  trouble.  You 
know,  my  Father,  how  fond  she  is  of  me.  I  have  heard 
from  a  Frenchman,  who  was  taken  at  Three  Rivers  on  the 
1st  of  August,  that  she  is  well,  and  comforts  herself  with 
the  hope  that  I  shall  see  you.  There  are  three  of 
us  Frenchmen  alive  here.  I  commend  myself  to  your 
good  prayers,  and  particularly  to  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the 
Mass.  I  pray  you,  my  Father,  to  say  a  mass  for  me.  I 
pray  you  give  my  dutiful  love  to  my  poor  mother,  and 
console  her,  if  it  pleases  you. 

My  Father,  I  beg  your  blessing  on  the  hand  that  writes 
to  you,  which  has  one  of  the  fingers  burned  in  the  bowl 
of  an  Indian  pipe,  to  satisfy  the  Majesty  of  God  which 
I  have  offended.  The  thumb  of  the  other  hand  is  cut  off  ; 
but  do  not  tell  my  mother  of  it. 

My  Father,  I  pray  you  to  honor  me  with  a  word  from 
your  hand  in  reply,  and  tell  me  if  you  shall  come  here 
before  winter. 

Your  most  humble  and  most  obedient  servant, 

FRANCOIS  HERTEL. 
1  Journal  des  J&uites,  300. 


1661.]  LETTER  OF  HERTEL.  123 

*  The  following  is  the  letter  to  his  mother,  sent 
probably,  with  the  other,  to  the  charge  of  Le 
Moyne :  — 

MY  MOST  DEAR  AND  HONORED  MOTHER,  —  I  know  very 
well  that  my  capture  must  have  distressed  you  very  much. 
I  ask  you  to  forgive  my  disobedience.  It  is  my  sins  that 
have  placed  me  where  I  am.  I  owe  my  life  to  your 
prayers,  and  those  of  M.  de  Saint-Quentin,  and  of  my 
sisters.  I  hope  to  see  you  again  before  winter.  I  pray 
you  to  tell  the  good  brethren  of  Notre  Dame  to  pray  to 
God  and  the  Holy  Virgin  for  me,  my  dear  mother,  and 
for  you  and  all  my  sisters. 

Your  poop 

FANCHON. 

This,  no  doubt,  was  the  name  by  which  she  had 
called  him  familiarly  when  a  child.  And  who  was 
this  "Fanchon,"  this  devout  and  tender  son  of  a  fond 
mother?  New  England  can  answer  to  her  cost. 
When,  twenty-nine  years  later,  a  band  of  French  and 
Indians  issued  from  the  forest  and  fell  upon  the  fort 
and  settlement  of  Salmon  Falls,  it  was  Francois 
Hertel  who  led  the  attack;  and  when  the  retiring 
victors  were  hard  pressed  by  an  overwhelming  force, 
it  was  he  who,  sword  in  hand,  held  the  pursuers  in 
check  at  the  bridge  of  Wooster  River,  and  covered 
the  retreat  of  his  men.  He  was  ennobled  for  his 
services,  and  died  at  the  age  of  eighty,  the  founder 
of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  families  of  Canada.1 

1  His  letters  of  nobility,  dated  1716,  will  be  found  in  Daniel's 
Histoire  des  Grandes  Families  Francises  du  Canada.  404. 


124        THE   HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

To  the  New  England  of  old  he  was  the  abhorred  chief 
of  Popish  malignants  and  murdering  savages.  The 
New  England  of  to-day  will  be  more  just  to  the  brave 
defender  of  his  country  and  his  faith. 

In  May,  1660,  a  party  of  French  Algonquins 
captured  a  Wolf,  or  Mohegan,  Indian,  naturalized 
among  the  Iroquois,  brought  him  to  Quebec,  and 
burned  him  there  with  their  usual  atrocity  of  torture. 
A  modern  Catholic  writer  says  that  the  Jesuits  could 
not  save  him;  but  this  is  not  so.  Their  influence 
over  the  consciences  of  the  colonists  was  at  that  time 
unbounded,  and  their  direct  political  power  was  very 
great.  A  protest  on  their  part,  and  that  of  the  newly 
arrived  bishop,  who  was  in  their  interest,  could  not 
have  failed  of  effect.  The  truth  was,  they  did  not 
care  to  prevent  the  torture  of  prisoners  of  war,  — 
not  solely  out  of  that  spirit  of  compliance  with  the 
savage  humor  of  Indian  allies  which  stains  so  often 
the  pages  of  French  American  history,  but  also,  and 
perhaps  chiefly,  from  motives  purely  religious. 
Torture,  in  their  eyes,  seems  to  have  been  a  blessing 
in  disguise.  They  thought  it  good  for  the  soul,  and 
in  case  of  obduracy  the  surest  way  of  salvation. 
"  We  have  very  rarely  indeed, "  writes  one  of  them, 
"seen  the  burning  of  an  Iroquois  without  feeling 
sure  that  he  was  on  the  path  to  paradise;  and  we 
never  knew  one  of  them  to  be  surely  on  the  path  to 
paradise  without  seeing  him  pass  through  this  fiery 
punishment."1  So  they  let  the  Wolf  burn;  but 

1  Relation,  1660,  31. 


1660.]  QUEBEC  IN  DANGER.  125 

first,  having  instructed  him  after  their  fashion,  they 
baptized  him,  and  his  savage  soul  flew  to  heaven  out 
of  the  fire.  "Is  it  not,"  pursues  the  same  writer,  "a 
marvel  to  see  a  wolf  changed  at  one  stroke  into  a 
lamb,  and  enter  into  the  fold  of  Christ,  which  he 
came  to  ravage  ?  " 

Before  he  died,  he  requited  their  spiritual  cares 
with  a  startling  secret.  He  told  them  that  eight 
hundred  Iroquois  warriors  were  encamped  below 
Montreal ;  that  four  hundred  more,  who  had  wintered 
on  the  Ottawa,  were  on  the  point  of  joining  them; 
and  that  the  united  force  would  swoop  upon  Quebec, 
kill  the  governor,  lay  waste  the  town,  and  then 
attack  Three  Rivers  and  Montreal.1  This  time,  at 
least,  the  Iroquois  were  in  deadly  earnest.  Quebec 
was  wild  with  terror.  The  Ursulines  and  the  nuns 
of  the  Hotel  Dieu  took  refuge  in  the  strong  and  ex- 
tensive building  which  the  Jesuits  had  just  finished, 
opposite  the  Parish  Church.  Its  walls  and  palisades 
made  it  easy  of  defence ;  and  in  its  yards  and  court 
were  lodged  the  terrified  Hurons,  as  well  as  the 
fugitive  inhabitants  of  the  neighboring  settlements. 
Others  found  asylum  in  the  fort,  and  others  in  the 
convent  of  the  Ursulines,  which,  in  place  of  nuns, 
was  occupied  by  twenty-four  soldiers,  who  fortified 
it  with  redoubts,  and  barricaded  the  doors  and 
windows.  Similar  measures  of  defence  were  taken 
at  the  Hotel  Dieu,  and  the  streets  of  the  Lower 
Town  were  strongly  barricaded.  Everybody  was  in 

1  Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  Lettre,  25  Juin,  1660. 


126        THE   HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660 

arms,   and  the  Qui  vive  of  the  sentries  and  patrols 
resounded  all  night.1 

Several  days  passed,  and  no  Iroquois  appeared. 
The  refugees  took  heart,  and  began  to  return  to  their 
deserted  farms  and  dwellings.  Among  the  rest  was 
a  family  consisting  of  an  old  woman,  her  daughter, 
her  son-in-law,  and  four  small  children,  living  near 
St.  Anne,  some  twenty  miles  below  Quebec.  On 
reaching  home,  the  old  woman  and  the  man  went  to 
their  work  in  the  fields,  while  the  mother  and  chil- 
dren remained  in  the  house.  Here  they  were 
pounced  upon  and  captured  by  eight  renegade 
Hurons,  Iroquois  by  adoption,  who  placed  them  in 
their  large  canoe,  and  paddled  up  the  river  with  their 
prize.  It  was  Saturday,  a  day  dedicated  to  the 
Virgin;  and  the  captive  mother  prayed  to  her  for 
aid,  "feeling,"  writes  a  Jesuit,  "a  full  conviction 
that,  in  passing  before  Quebec  on  a  Saturday,  she 
would  be  delivered  by  the  power  of  this  Queen  of 
Heaven."  In  fact,  as  the  marauders  and  their  cap- 
tives glided  in  the  darkness  of  night  by  Point  Levi, 
under  the  shadow  of  the  shore,  they  were  greeted 
with  a  volley  of  musketry  from  the  bushes,  and  a 
band  of  French  and  Algonquins  dashed  into  the 
water  to  seize  them.  Five  of  the  eight  were  taken, 
and  the  rest  shot  or  drowned.  The  governor  had 
heard  of  the  descent  at  St.  Anne,  and  despatched  a 

1  On  this  alarm  at  Quebec  compare  Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  26 
Juin,  1660 ;  Relation,  1660,  6 ;  Juchereau,  Histoirt  de  VHdtel-Dieu  de 
Quebec,  125,  and  Journal  des  Jesuites,  282. 


1660.]  THE   CAPTORS  CAPTURED.  127 

party  to  lie  in  ambush  for  the  authors  of  it.  The 
Jesuits,  it  is  needless  to  say,  saw  a  miracle  in  the 
result.  The  Virgin  had  answered  the  prayer  of  her 
votary,  —"though  it  is  true,"  observes  the  father 
who  records  the  marvel,  "that,  in  the  volley,  she 
received  a  mortal  wound."  The  same  shot  struck 
the  infant  in  her  arms.  The  prisoners  were  taken  to 
Quebec,  where  four  of  them  were  tortured  with  even 
more  ferocity  than  had  been  shown  in  the  case  of  the 
unfortunate  Wolf.1  Being  questioned,  they  con- 
firmed his  story,  and  expressed  great  surprise  that 
the  Iroquois  had  not  come,  adding  that  they  must 
have  stopped  to  attack  Montreal  or  Three  Rivers. 
Again  all  was  terror,  and  again  days  passed  and  no 
enemy  appeared.  Had  the  dying  converts,  so  chari- 
tably despatched  to  heaven  through  fire,  sought  an 
unhallowed  consolation  in  scaring  the  abettors  of 
their  torture  with  a  lie  ?  Not  at  all.  Bating  a  slight 
exaggeration,  they  had  told  the  truth.  Where, 
then,  were  the  Iroquois?  As  one  small  point  of 


i  The  torturers  were  Christian  Algonquins,  converts  of  the 
Jesuits.  Chaumonot,  who  was  present  to  give  spiritual  aid  to  the 
sufferers,  describes  the  scene  with  horrible  minuteness.  "  I  could 
not,"  he  says,  "  deliver  them  from  their  torments."  Perhaps  not : 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  Jesuits  as  a  body,  with  or  without  the 
bishop,  could  have  prevented  the  atrocity,  had  they  seen  fit.  They 
sometimes  taught  their  converts  to  pray  for  their  enemies.  It 
would  have  been  well  had  they  taught  them  not  to  torture  them. 
I  can  recall  but  one  instance  in  which  they  did  so.  The  prayers 
for  enemies  were  always  for  a  spiritual,  not  a  temporal  good.  The 
fathers  held  the  body  in  slight  account,  and  cared  little  what 
happened  to  it. 


128         THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

steel  disarms  the  lightning  of  its  terrors,  so  did  the 
heroism  of  a  few  intrepid  youths  divert  this  storm  of 
war,  and  save  Canada  from  a  possible  ruin. 

In  the  preceding  April,  before  the  designs  of  the 
Iroquois  were  known,  a  young  officer  named  Daulac, 
commandant  of  the  garrison  of  Montreal,  asked  leave 
of  Maisonneuve,  the  governor,  to  lead  a  party  of 
volunteers  against  the  enemy.  His  plan  was  bold  to 
desperation.  It  was  known  that  Iroquois  warriors  in 
great  numbers  had  wintered  among  the  forests  of  the 
Ottawa.  Daulac  proposed  to  waylay  them  on  their 
descent  of  the  river,  and  fight  them  without  regard 
to  disparity  of  force.  The  settlers  of  Montreal  had 
hitherto  acted  solely  on  the  defensive,  for  their  num- 
bers had  been  too  small  for  aggressive  war.  Of  late 
their  strength  had  been  somewhat  increased,  and 
Maisonneuve,  judging  that  a  display  of  enterprise 
and  boldness  might  act  as  a  check  on  the  audacity  of 
the  enemy,  at  length  gave  his  consent. 

Adam  Daulac,  or  Dollard,  Sieur  des  Ormeaux,  was 
a  young  man  of  good  family,  who  had  come  to  the  col- 
ony three  years  before,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  He 
had  held  some  military  command  in  France,  though  in 
what  rank  does  not  appear.  It  was  said  that  he  had 
been  involved  in  some  affair  which  made  him  anxious 
to  wipe  out  the  memory  of  the  past  by  a  noteworthy 
exploit;  and  he  had  been  busy  for  some  time  among 
the  young  men  of  Montreal,  inviting  them  to  join 
him  in  the  enterprise  he  meditated.  Sixteen  of  them 
caught  his  spirit,  struck  hands  with  him,  and  pledged 


1660.]  DAULAC   DES  ORMEAUX.  129 

their  word.  They  bound  themselves  by  oath  to 
accept  no  quarter ;  and,  having  gained  Maisonneuve's 
consent,  they  made  their  wills,  confessed,  and 
received  the  sacraments.  As  they  knelt  for  the  last 
time  before  the  altar  in  the  chapel  of  the  Hotel  Dieu, 
that  sturdy  little  population  of  pious  Indian-fighters 
gazed  on  them  with  enthusiasm,  not  unmixed  with 
an  envy  which  had  in  it  nothing  ignoble.  Some  of 
the  chief  men  of  Montreal,  with  the  brave  Charles 
Le  Moyne  at  their  head,  begged  them  to  wait  till  the 
spring  sowing  was  over,  that  they  might  join  them ; 
but  Daulac  refused.  He  was  jealous  of  the  glory 
and  the  danger,  and  he  wished  to  command,  which 
he  could  not  have  done  had  Le  Moyne  been  present. 

The  spirit  of  the  enterprise  was  purely  mediaeval. 
The  enthusiasm  of  honor,  the  enthusiasm  of  adven- 
ture, and  the  enthusiasm  of  faith  were  its  motive 
forces.  Daulac  was  a  knight  of  the  early  crusades 
among  the  forests  and  savages  of  the  New  World. 
Yet  the  incidents  of  this  exotic  heroism  are  definite 
and  clear  as  a  tale  of  yesterday.  The  names,  ages, 
and  occupations  of  the  seventeen  young  men  may 
still  be  read  on  the  ancient  register  of  the  parish  of 
Montreal;  and  the  notarial  acts  of  that  year,  pre- 
served in  the  records  of  the  city,  contain  minute 
accounts  of  such  property  as  each  of  them  possessed. 
The  three  eldest  were  of  twenty-eight,  thirty,  and 
thirty-one  years  respectively.  The  age  of  the  rest 
varied  from  twenty-one  to  twenty-seven.  They  were 
of  various  callings,  —  soldiers,  armorers,  locksmiths, 


130         THE   HEROES  OP  THE   LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

lime-burners,  or  settlers  without  trades.  The 
greater  number  had  come  to  the  colony  as  part  of  the 
reinforcement  brought  by  Maisonneuve  in  1653. 

After  a  solemn  farewell,  they  embarked  in  several 
canoes  well  supplied  with  arms  and  ammunition. 
They  were  very  indifferent  canoe-men ;  and  it  is  said 
that  they  lost  a  week  in  vain  attempts  to  pass  the 
swift  current  of  St.  Anne,  at  the  head  of  the  island 
of  Montreal.  At  length  they  were  more  successful, 
and  entering  the  mouth  of  the  Ottawa,  crossed  the 
Lake  of  Two  Mountains,  and  slowly  advanced  against 
the  current. 

Meanwhile,  forty  warriors  of  that  remnant  of  the 
Hurons  who,  in  spite  of  Iroquois  persecutions,  still 
lingered  at  Quebec,  had  set  out  on  a  war-party,  led 
by  the  brave  and  wily  Etienne  Annahotaha,  their 
most  noted  chief.  They  stopped  by  the  way  at 
Three  Rivers,  where  they  found  a  band  of  Christian 
Algonquins  under  a  chief  named  Mituvemeg. 
Annahotaha  challenged  him  to  a  trial  of  courage, 
and  it  was  agreed  that  they  should  meet  at  Montreal, 
where  they  were  likely  to  find  a  speedy  opportunity 
of  putting  their  mettle  to  the  test.  Thither,  accord- 
ingly, they  repaired,  the  Algonquin  with  three 
followers,  and  the  Huron  with  thirty-nine. 

It  was  not  long  before  they  learned  the  departure 
of  Daulac  and  his  companions.  "For,"  observes  the 
honest  Dollier  de  Casson,  "  the  principal  fault  of  our 
Frenchmen  is  to  talk  too  much."  The  wish  seized 
them  to  share  the  adventure,  and  to  that  end  the 


1660.]  INDIAN    ALLIES.  131 

Huron  chief  asked  the  governor  for  a  letter  to 
Daulac,  to  serve  as  credentials.  Maisonneuve  hesi- 
tated. His  faith  in  Huron  valor  was  not  great,  and 
he  feared  the  proposed  alliance.  Nevertheless,  he  at 
length  yielded  so  far  as  to  give  Annahotaha  a  letter, 
in  which  Daulac  was  told  to  accept  or  reject  the 
proffered  reinforcement  as  he  should  see  fit.  The 
Hurons  and  Algonquins  now  embarked,  and  paddled 
in  pursuit  of  the  seventeen  Frenchmen. 

They  meanwhile  had  passed  with  difficulty  the 
swift  current  at  Carillon,  and  about  the  first  of  May 
reached  the  foot  of  the  more  formidable  rapid  called 
the  Long  Saut,  where  a  tumult  of  waters,  foaming 
among  ledges  and  bowlders,  barred  the  onward  way. 
It  was  needless  to  go  farther.  The  Iroquois  were 
sure  to  pass  the  Saut,  and  could  be  fought  here  as 
well  as  elsewhere.  Just  below  the  rapid,  where  the 
forests  sloped  gently  to  the  shore,  among  the  bushes 
and  stumps  of  the  rough  clearing  made  in  construct- 
ing it,  stood  a  palisade  fort,  the  work  of  an 
Algonquin  war-party  in  the  past  autumn.  It  was  a 
mere  enclosure  of  trunks  of  small  trees  planted  in  a 
circle,  and  was  already  ruinous.  •  Such  as  it  was,  the 
Frenchmen  took  possession  of  it.  Their  first  care, 
one  would  think,  should  have  been  to  repair  and 
strengthen  it;  but  this  they  seem  not  to  have  done, 
—  possibly,  in  the  exaltation  of  their  minds,  they 
scorned  such  precaution.  They  made  their  fires, 
and  slung  their  kettles  on  the  neighboring  shore; 
and  here  they  were  soon  joined  by  the  Hurons  and 


132         THE  HEROES  OF   THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

Algonquins.  Daulac,  it  seems,  made  no  objection 
to  their  company,  and  they  all  bivouacked  together. 
Morning  and  noon  and  night  they  prayed  in  three 
different  tongues ;  and  when  at  sunset  the  long  reach 
of  forests  on  the  farther  shore  basked  peacefully  in 
the  level  rays,  the  rapids  joined  their  hoarse  music  to 
the  notes  of  their  evening  hymn. 

In  a  day  or  two  their  scouts  came  in  with  tidings 
that  two  Iroquois  canoes  were  coming  down  the  Saut. 
Daulac  had  time  to  set  his  men  in  ambush  among 
the  bushes  at  a  point  where  he  thought  the  strangers 
likely  to  land.  He  judged  aright.  The  canoes, 
bearing  five  Iroquois,  approached,  and  were  met  by 
a  volley  fired  with  such  precipitation  that  one  or 
more  of  them  escaped  the  shot,  fled  into  the  forest, 
and  told  their  mischance  to  their  main  body,  two 
hundred  in  number,  on  the  river  above.  A  fleet  of 
canoes  suddenly  appeared,  bounding  down  the  rapids, 
filled  with  warriors  eager  for  revenge.  The  allies 
had  barely  time  to  escape  to  their  fort,  leaving  their 
kettles  still  slung  over  the  fires.  The  Iroquois  made 
a  hasty  and  desultory  attack,  and  were  quickly 
repulsed.  They  next  opened  a  parley,  hoping,  no 
doubt,  to  gain  some  advantage  by  surprise.  Failing 
in  this,  they  set  themselves,  after  their  custom  on 
such  occasions,  to  building  a  rude  fort  of  their  own 
in  the  neighboring  forest. 

This  gave  the  French  a  breathing-time,  and  they 
used  it  for  strengthening  their  defences.  Being 
provided  with  tools,  they  planted  a  row  of  stakes 


1660.]  THE   FORT  ATTACKED.  133 

within  their  palisade,  to  form  a  double  fence,  and 
filled  the  intervening  space  with  earth  and  stones  to 
the  height  of  a  man,  leaving  some  twenty  loop-holes, 
at  each  of  which  three  marksmen  were  stationed. 
Their  work  was  still  unfinished  when  the  Iroquois 
were  upon  them  again.  They  had  broken  to  pieces 
the  birch  canoes  of  the  French  and  their  allies,  and, 
kindling  the  bark,  rushed  up  to  pile  it  blazing  against 
the  palisade ;  but  so  brisk  and  steady  a  fire  met  them 
that  they  recoiled,  and  at  last  gave  way.  They 
came  on  again,  and  again  were  driven  back,  leaving 
many  of  their  number  on  the  ground,  —  among  them 
the  principal  chief  of  the  Senecas.  Some  of  the 
French  dashed  out,  and,  covered  by  the  fire  of  their 
comrades,  hacked  off  his  head,  and  stuck  it  on  the 
palisade,  while  the  Iroquois  howled  in  a  frenzy  of 
helpless  rage.  They  tried  another  attack,  and  were 
beaten  off  a  third  time. 

This  dashed  their  spirits,  and  they  sent  a  canoe  to 
call  to  their  aid  five  hundred  of  their  warriors  who 
were  mustered  near  the  mouth  of  the  Richelieu. 
These  were  the  allies  whom,  but  for  this  untoward 
check,  they  were  on  their  way  to  join  for  a  combined 
attack  on  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal.  It 
was  maddening  to  see  their  grand  project  thwarted 
by  a  few  French  and  Indians  ensconced  in  a  paltry 
redoubt,  scarcely  better  than  a  cattle-pen;  but  they 
were  forced  to  digest  the  affront  as  best  they  might. 

Meanwhile,  crouched  behind  trees  and  logs,  they 
beset  the  fort,  harassing  its  defenders  day  and  night 


134        THE   HEROES  OF   THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

with  a  spattering  fire  and  a  constant  menace  of 
attack.  Thus  five  days  passed.  Hunger,  thirst,  and 
want  of  sleep  wrought  fatally  on  the  strength  of  the 
French  and  their  allies,  who,  pent  up  together  in 
their  narrow  prison,  fought  and  prayed  by  turns. 
Deprived  as  they  were  of  water,  they  could  not 
swallow  the  crushed  Indian  corn,  or  "hominy," 
which  was  their  only  food.  Some  of  them,  under 
cover  of  a  brisk  fire,  ran  down  to  the  river  and  filled 
such  small  vessels  as  they  had;  but  this  pittance 
only  tantalized  their  thirst.  They  dug  a  hole  in  the 
fort,  and  were  rewarded  at  last  by  a  little  muddy 
water  oozing  through  the  clay. 

Among  the  assailants  were  a  number  of  Hurons, 
adopted  by  the  Iroquois  and  fighting  on  their  side. 
These  renegades  now  shouted  to  their  countrymen  in 
the  fort,  telling  them  that  a  fresh  army  was  close  at 
hand ;  that  they  would  soon  be  attacked  by  seven  or 
eight  hundred  warriors;  and  that  their  only  hope 
was  in  joining  the  Iroquois,  who  would  receive  them 
as  friends.  Annahotaha's  followers,  half  dead  with 
thirst  and  famine,  listened  to  their  seducers,  took  the 
bait,  and,  one,  two,  or  three  at  a  time,  climbed  the 
palisade  and  ran  over  to  the  enemy,  amid  the  hoot- 
ings  and  execrations  of  those  whom  they  deserted. 
Their  chief  stood  firm ;  and  when  he  saw  his  nephew, 
La  Mouche,  join  the  other  fugitives,  he  fired  his 
pistol  at  him  in  a  rage.  The  four  Algonquins,  who 
had  no  mercy  to  hope  for,  stood  fast,  with  the  cour- 
age of  despair. 


J660.]  THE   REINFORCEMENT.  135 

On  the  fifth  day  an  uproar  of  unearthly  yells  from 
seven  hundred  savage  throats,  mingled  with  a  clatter- 
ing salute  of  musketry,  told  the  Frenchmen  that  the 
expected  reinforcement  had  come;  and  soon,  in  the 
forest  and  on  the  clearing,  a  crowd  of  warriors 
mustered  for  the  attack.  Knowing  from  the  Huron 
deserters  the  weakness  of  their  enemy,  they  had  no 
doubt  of  an  easy  victory.  They  advanced  cautiously, 
as  was  usual  with  the  Iroquois  before  their  blood  was 
up,  screeching,  leaping  from  side  to  side,  and  firing 
as  they  came  on ;  but  the  French  were  at  their  posts, 
and  every  loophole  darted  its  tongue  of  fire.  Besides 
muskets,  they  had  heavy  musketoons  of  large  calibre, 
which,  scattering  scraps  of  lead  and  iron  among  the 
throng  of  savages,  often  maimed  several  of  them  at 
one  discharge.  The  Iroquois,  astonished  at  the  per- 
sistent vigor  of  the  defence,  fell  back  discomfited. 
The  fire  of  the  French,  who  were  themselves  com- 
pletely under  cover,  had  told  upon  them  with  deadly 
effect.  Three  days  more  wore  away  in  a  series  of 
futile  attacks,  made  with  little  concert  or  vigor;  and 
during  all  this  time  Daulac  and  his  men,  reeling  with 
exhaustion,  fought  and  prayed  as  before,  sure  of  a 
martyr's  reward. 

The  uncertain,  vacillating  temper  common  to  all 
Indians  now  began  to  declare  itself.  Some  of  the 
Iroquois  were  for  going  home.  Others  revolted  at 
the  thought,  and  declared  that  it  would  be  an  eternal 
disgrace  to  lose  so  many  men  at  the  hands  of  so 
paltry  an  enemy,  and  yet  fail  to  take  revenge.  It 


136         THE   HEROES   OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

was  resolved  to  make  a  general  assault,  and  volun 
teers  were  called  for  to  lead  the  attack.  After  the 
custom  on  such  occasions,  bundles  of  small  sticks 
were  thrown  upon  the  ground,  and  those  picked 
them  up  who  dared,  thus  accepting  the  gage  of 
battle,  and  enrolling  themselves  in  the  forlorn  hope. 
No  precaution  was  neglected.  Large  and  heavy 
shields  four  or  five  feet  high  were  made  by  lashing 
together  three  split  logs  with  the  aid  of  cross-bars. 
Covering  themselves  with  these  mantelets,  the  chosen 
band  advanced,  followed  by  the  motley  throng  of 
warriors.  In  spite  of  a  brisk  fire,  they  reached  the 
palisade,  and,  crouching  below  the  range  of  shot, 
hewed  furiously  with  their  hatchets  to  cut  their  way 
through.  The  rest  followed  close,  and  swarmed  like 
angry  hornets  around  the  little  fort,  hacking  and 
tearing  to  get  in. 

Daulac  had  crammed  a  large  musketoon  with 
powder,  and  plugged  up  the  muzzle.  Lighting  the 
fuse  inserted  in  it,  he  tried  to  throw  it  over  the 
barrier,  to  burst  like  a  grenade  among  the  crowd  of 
savages  without ;  but  it  struck  the  ragged  top  of  one 
of  the  palisades,  fell  back  among  the  Frenchmen  and 
exploded,  killing  and  wounding  several  of  them,  and 
nearly  blinding  others.  In  the  confusion  that  fol- 
lowed, the  Iroquois  got  possession  of  the  loopholes, 
and,  thrusting  in  their  guns,  fired  on  those  within. 
In  a  moment  more  they  had  torn  a  breach  in  the 
palisade;  but,  nerved  with  the  energy  of  despera- 
tion, Daulac  and  his  followers  sprang  to  defend  it. 


1660.]  THE  FORT  TAKEN.  137 

Another  breach  was  made,  and  then  another.  Daulac 
was  struck  dead,  but  the  survivors  kept  up  the  fight. 
With  a  sword  or  a  hatchet  in  one  hand  and  a  knife 
in  the  other,  they  threw  themselves  against  the 
throng  of  enemies,  striking  and  stabbing  with  the 
fury  of  madmen;  till  the  Iroquois,  despairing  of 
taking  them  alive,  fired  volley  after  volley  and  shot 
them  down.  All  was  over,  and  a  burst  of  triumph- 
ant yells  proclaimed  the  dear-bought  victory. 

Searching  the  pile  of  corpses,  the  victors  found 
four  Frenchmen  still  breathing.  Three  had  scarcely 
a  spark  of  life,  and,  as  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  they 
burned  them  on  the  spot.  The  fourth,  less  fortunate, 
seemed  likely  to  survive,  and  they  reserved  him  for 
future  torments.  As  for  the  Huron  deserters,  their 
cowardice  profited  them  little.  The  Iroquois,  regard- 
less of  their  promises,  fell  upon  them,  burned  some 
at  once,  and  carried  the  rest  to  their  villages  for  a 
similar  fate.  Five  of  the  number  had  the  good 
fortune  to  escape;  and  it  was  from  them,  aided  by 
admissions  made  long  afterwards  by  the  Iroquois 
themselves,  that  the  French  of  Canada  derived  all 
their  knowledge  of  this  glorious  disaster.1 

i  When  the  fugitive  Hurons  reached  Montreal,  they  were  un- 
willing to  confess  their  desertion  of  the  French,  and  declared  that 
they  and  some  others  of  their  people,  to  the  number  of  fourteen, 
had  stood  by  them  to  the  last.  This  was  the  story  told  by  one  of 
them  to  the  Jesuit  Chaumonot,  and  by  him  communicated  in  a 
letter  to  his  friends  at  Quebec.  The  substance  of  this  letter  is 
given  by  Marie  de  ITncarnation,  in  her  letter  to  her  son  of  June  25, 
1660.  The  Jesuit  Relation  of  this  year  gives  another  long  account 
of  the  affair,  also  derived  from  the  Huron  deserters,  who  this  time 


138         THE   HEROES  OF   THE   LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

To  the  colony  it  proved  a  salvation.  The  Iroquois 
had  had  fighting  enough.  If  seventeen  Frenchmen, 
four  Algonquins,  and  one  Huron,  behind  a  picket 
fence,  could  hold  seven  hundred  warriors  at  bay  so 
long,  what  might  they  expect  from  many  such,  fight- 


only  pretended  that  ten  of  their  number  remained  with  the  French. 
They  afterwards  admitted  that  all  had  deserted  but  Annahotaha, 
as  appears  from  the  account  drawn  up  by  Dollier  de  Casson,  in  his 
Histoire  du  Montreal.  Another  contemporary,  Belmont,  who  heard 
the  story  from  an  Iroquois,  makes  the  same  statement.  All  these 
writers,  though  two  of  them  were  not  friendly  to  Montreal,  agree 
that  Daulac  and  his  followers  saved  Canada  from  a  disastrous 
invasion.  The  governor,  Argenson,  in  a  letter  written  on  the  fourth 
of  July  following,  and  in  his  Memoire  sur  le  sujet  de  la  guerre  des 
Iroquois,  expresses  the  same  conviction.  Before  me  is  an  extract, 
copied  from  the  Petit  Registre  de  la  Cure  de  Montreal,  giving  the 
names  and  ages  of  Daulac's  men. 

Radisson,  the  famous  voyageur,  says  that,  on  his  way  down  the 
Ottawa  from  Lake  Superior,  he  passed  the  Long  Saut  eight  days 
after  the  destruction  of  Daulac  and  his  party ;  and  he  gives  an 
account  of  the  fight  that  answers  on  the  whole  to  those  of  the 
other  writers.  He  addg,  however,  that  the  Hurons  remained  out- 
side the  fort,  which  was  too  small  to  hold  them,  and  that  only  the 
seventeen  Frenchmen  and  four  Algonquins  —  or  twenty-one  in  all 
— were  under  cover.  He  also  says  that  the  reinforcement  which 
joined  the  two  hundred  Iroquois  who  began  the  attack  consisted  of 
"  five  hundred  and  fifty  Iroquoits  of  the  lower  nation  [Mohawks] 
and  fifty  Orijonot "  (Oneidas?), —  making  with  the  original  assail- 
ants eight  hundred  in  all.  (Publications  of  the  Prince  Society,  1885, 
233.)  Radisson,  whose  narratives  were  not  written  till  some  years 
after  the  events  that  they  record,  forgets  the  date  of  the  fight  at  the 
Long  Saut,  which  would  appear  from  him  to  have  happened  three 
years  after  it  really  took  place. 

Abbe  Faillon  took  extreme  pains  to  collect  the  evidence  touch- 
ing Daulac's  heroism,  and,  though  Radisson's  writings  were 
unknown  to  him,  his  narrative  should  be  consulted  by  those  in- 
terested in  the  subject.  See  his  anonymous  Histoire  de  la  Coloni« 
Francaise  au  Canada,  ii.  chap.  xv. 


1660.]  THE   IROQUOIS   BAFFLED.  189 

ing  behind  walls  of  stone?  For  that  year  they 
thought  no  more  of  capturing  Quebec  and  Montreal, 
but  went  home  dejected  and  amazed,  to  howl  over 
their  losses,  and  nurse  their  dashed  courage  for  a  day 
of  vengeance. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

1657-1668. 
THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC. 

DOMESTIC  STRIFE.  —  JESUIT  AND  SULPITIAN. — ABBE  QUEYLUS.  — 
FRANCOIS  DE  LAVAL.  — THE  ZEALOTS  OP  CAEN.  —  GALLICAN 
AND  ULTRAMONTANE.  —  THE  RIVAL  CLAIMANTS.  —  STORM  AT 
QUEBEC.  —  LAVAL  TRIUMPHANT. 

CANADA,  gasping  under  the  Iroquois  tomahawk, 
might,  one  would  suppose,  have  thought  her  cup  of 
tribulation  full,  and,  sated  with  inevitable  woe, 
have  sought  consolation  from  the  wrath  without  in  a 
holy  calm  within.  Not  so,  however;  for  while  the 
heathen  raged  at  the  door,  discord  rioted  at  the 
hearthstone.  Her  domestic  quarrels  were  wonderful 
in  number,  diversity,  and  bitterness.  There  was 
the  standing  quarrel  of  Montreal  and  Quebec,  the 
quarrels  of  priests  with  one  another,  of  priests  with 
the  governor,  and  of  the  governor  with  the  intendant, 
besides  ceaseless  wranglings  of  rival  traders  and  rival 
peculators. 

Some  of  these  disputes  were  local  and  of  no  special 
significance;  while  others  are  very  interesting, 
because,  on  a  remote  and  obscure  theatre,  they  repr*- 


1657.]  JESUIT  AND  SULPITIAN.  141 

sent,  sometimes  in  striking  forms,  the  contending 
passions  and  principles  of  a  most  important  epoch  of 
history.  To  begin  with  one  which  even  to  this  day 
has  left  a  root  of  bitterness  behind  it. 

The  association  of  pious  enthusiasts  who  had 
founded  Montreal 1  was  reduced  in  1657  to  a  remnant 
of  five  or  six  persons,  whose  ebbing  zeal  and  over- 
taxed purses  were  no  longer  equal  to  the  devout  but 
arduous  enterprise.  They  begged  the  priests  of  the 
Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice  to  take  it  off  their  hands. 
The  priests  consented;  and,  though  the  conveyance 
of  the  island  of  Montreal  to  these  its  new  proprietors 
did  not  take  effect  till  some  years  later,  four  of  the 
Sulpitian  fathers  —  Queylus,  Souart,  Galinde,  and 
Allet  —  came  out  to  the  colony  and  took  it  in  charge. 
Thus  far  Canada  had  had  no  bishop,  and  the 
Sulpitians  now  aspired  to  give  it  one  from  their  own 
brotherhood.  Many  years  before,  when  the  Re*collets 
had  a  foothold  in  the  colony,  they  too,  or  at  least 
some  of  them,  had  cherished  the  hope  of  giving 
Canada  a  bishop  of  their  own.  As  for  the  Jesuits, 
who  for  nearly  thirty  years  had  of  themselves  consti- 
tuted the  Canadian  church,  they  had  been  content 
thus  far  to  dispense  with  a  bishop;  for  having  no 
rivals  in  the  field,  they  had  felt  no  need  of  episcopal 
support. 

The  Sulpitians  put  forward  Queylus  as  their  candi- 
date for  the  new  bishopric.     The  assembly  of  French 

»  See  "  Jesuits  in  North  America/'  chap.  xxii. 


142  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657. 

clergy  approved,  and  Cardinal  Mazarin  himself 
seemed  to  sanction,  the  nomination.  The  Jesuits 
saw  that  their  time  of  action  was  come.  It  was  they 
who  had  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day,  the 
toils,  privations,  and  martyrdoms,  while  as  yet  the 
Sulpitians  had  done  nothing  and  endured  nothing. 
If  any  body  of  ecclesiastics  was  to  have  the  nomina- 
tion of  a  bishop,  it  clearly  belonged  to  them,  the 
Jesuits.  Their  might,  too,  matched  their  right. 
They  were  strong  at  court;  Mazarin  withdrew  his 
assent,  and  the  Jesuits  were  invited  to  name  a  bishop 
to  their  liking. 

Meanwhile  the  Sulpitians,  despairing  of  the 
bishopric,  had  sought  their  solace  elsewhere.  Ships 
bound  for  Canada  had  usually  sailed  from  ports 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen, 
and  the  departing  missionaries  had  received  their 
ecclesiastical  powers  from  him,  till  he  had  learned  to 
regard  Canada  as  an  outlying  section  of  his  diocese. 
Not  unwilling  to  assert  his  claims,  he  now  made 
Queylus  his  vicar-general  for  all  Canada,  thus  cloth- 
ing him  with  episcopal  powers,  and  placing  him  over 
the  heads  of  the  Jesuits.  Queylus,  in  effect  though 
not  in  name  a  bishop,  left  his  companion  Souart  in 
the  spiritual  charge  of  Montreal,  came  down  to 
Quebec,  announced  his  new  dignity,  and  assumed  the 
curacy  of  the  parish.  The  Jesuits  received  him  at 
first  with  their  usual  urbanity,  an  exercise  of  self- 
control  rendered  more  easy  by  their  knowledge  that 


1657.] 


ABBE  QUEYLUS. 


143 


one  more  potent  than  Queylus  would  soon  arrive  to 
supplant  him.1 

The  vicar  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen  was  a  man 
of  many  virtues,  devoted  to  good  works,  as  he 
understood  them ;  rich,  for  the  Sulpitians  were  under 
no  vow  of  poverty;  generous  in  almsgiving,  busy, 
indefatigable,  overflowing  with  zeal,  vivacious  in 
temperament  and  excitable  in  temper,  impatient  of 
opposition,  and,  as  it  seems,  incapable,  like  his 
destined  rival,  of  seeing  any  way  of  doing  good  but 
his  own.  Though  the  Jesuits  were  outwardly  cour- 
teous, their  partisans  would  not  listen  to  the  new 
curd's  sermons,  or  listened  only  to  find  fault;  and 
germs  of  discord  grew  vigorously  in  the  parish  of 
Quebec.  Prudence  was  not  among  the  virtues  of 
Queylus.  He  launched  two  sermons  against  the 
Jesuits,  in  which  he  likened  himself  to  Christ  and 
them  to  the  Pharisees.  "Who,"  he  supposed  them 
to  say,  "  is  this  Jesus,  so  beloved  of  the  people,  who 
comes  to  cast  discredit  on  us,  who  for  thirty  or  forty 
years  have  governed  church  and  state  here,  with 
none  to  dispute  us?"2  He  denounced  such  of  his 

1  A  detailed  account  of  the  experiences  of  Queylus  at  Quebec, 
immediately  after  his  arrival,  as  related  by  himself,  will  be  found 
in  a  memoir  by  the  Sulpitian  Allet,  in  Morale  Pratique  des  Jesuites, 
xxxiv.  chap.  xii.    In  chapter  ten  of  the  same  volume  the  writer 
says  that  he  visited  Queylus  at  Mont  St.  Valerien,  after  his  return 
from  Canada.    "  II  me  prit  a  part ;  nous  nous  promenames  assez 
longtemps  dans  le  jardin  et  il  m'ouvrit  son  coeur  sur  la  conduite 
des  Jesuites  dans  le  Canada  et  partout  ailleurs.    Messieurs  de  St. 

sulpice  savent  bien  ce  qu'il  m'en  a  pu  dire,  et  je  suis  assure'  qu'ils 
diront  pas  que  je  1'ai  dCi  prendre  pour  des  mensongea." 

2  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Octobre,  1657. 


144  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657. 

hearers  as  came  to  pick  flaws  in  his  discourse,  and 
told  them  it  would  be  better  for  their  souls  if  they 
lay  in  bed  at  home,  sick  of  a  "good  quartan  fever." 
His  ire  was  greatly  kindled  by  a  letter  of  the  Jesuit 
Pijart,  which  fell  into  his  hands  through  a  female 
adherent,  the  pious  Madame  d'Ailleboust,  and  in 
which  that  father  declared  that  he,  Queylus,  was 
waging  war  on  him  and  his  brethren  more  savagely 
than  the  Iroquois.1  "He  was  as  crazy  at  sight  of  a 
Jesuit,"  writes  an  adverse  biographer,  "as  a  mad 
dog  at  sight  of  water."2  He  cooled,  however,  on 
being  shown  certain  papers  which  proved  that  his 
position  was  neither  so  strong  nor  so  secure  as  he  had 
supposed;  and  the  governor,  Argenson,  at  length 
persuaded  him  to  retire  to  Montreal.3 

The  queen-mother,  Anne  of  Austria,  always  in- 
clined to  the  Jesuits,  had  invited  Father  Le  Jeune, 
who  was  then  in  France,  to  make  choice  of  a  bishop 
for  Canada.  It  was  not  an  easy  task.  No  Jesuit 
was  eligible,  for  the  sage  policy  of  Loyola  had 
excluded  members  of  the  order  from  the  bishopric. 
The  signs  of  the  times  portended  trouble  for  the 
Canadian  church,  and  there  was  need  of  a  bishop 
who  would  assert  her  claims  and  fight  her  battles. 
Such  a  man  could  not  be  made  an  instrument  of  the 
Jesuits;  therefore  there  was  double  need  that  he 
should  be  one  with  them  in  sympathy  and  purpose. 

1  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Octobre,  1657. 

*  Viger,  Notice  Historique  sur  l'Abb€  de  Queylus. 

*  Papiers  d' Argenson. 


1657.]  LAVAL.  145 

They  made  a  sagacious  choice.  Le  Jeune  presented 
to  the  queen-mother  the  name  of  Frangois  Xavier  de 
Laval-Montmorency,  Abbe"  de  Montigny. 

Laval,  for  by  this  name  he  was  thenceforth  known, 
belonged  to  one  of  the  proudest  families  of  Europe, 
and,  churchman  as  he  was,  there  is  much  in  his 
career  to  remind  us  that  in  his  veins  ran  the  blood 
of  the  stern  Constable  of  France,  Anne  de  Mont- 
morency.  Nevertheless,  his  thoughts  from  childhood 
had  turned  towards  the  Church,  or,  as  his  biographers 
will  have  it,  all  his  aspirations  were  heavenward. 
He  received  the  tonsure  at  the  age  of  nine.  The 
Jesuit  Bagot  confirmed  and  moulded  his  youthful 
predilections ;  and  at  a  later  period  he  was  one  of  a 
band  of  young  zealots  formed  under  the  auspices  of 
Bernieres  de  Louvigni,  royal  treasurer  at  Caen,  who, 
though  a  layman,  was  reputed  almost  a  saint.  It 
was  Bernieres  who  had  borne  the  chief  part  in  the 
pious  fraud  of  the  pretended  marriage  through  which 
Madame  de  la  Peltrie  escaped  from  her  father's  roof 
to  become  foundress  of  the  Ursulines  of  Quebec.1 
He  had  since  renounced  the  world,  and  dwelt  at 
Caen  in  a  house  attached  to  an  Ursuline  convent, 
and  known  as  the  "Hermitage."  Here  he  lived  like 
a  monk,  in  the  midst  of  a  community  of  young 
priests  and  devotees,  who  looked  to  him  as  their 
spiritual  director,  and  whom  he  trained  in  the 
maxims  and  practices  of  the  most  extravagant,  or,  as 

1  See  "  Jesuits  in  North  America,"  chap.  xiv. 
10 


146  THE   DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.          [1657-62. 

his  admirers  say,  the  roost  sublime  ultramontane 
piety. 1 

The  conflict  between  the  Jesuits  and  the  Jansenists 
was  then  at  its  height.  The  Jansenist  doctrines  of 
election  and  salvation  by  grace,  which  sapped  .the 
power  of  the  priesthood  and  impugned  the  authority 
of  the  Pope  himself  in  his  capacity  of  holder  of  the 
keys  of  heaven,  were  to  the  Jesuits  an  abomination ; 
while  the  rigid  morals  of  the  Jansenists  stood  in 
stern  contrast  to  the  pliancy  of  Jesuit  casuistry. 
Bernieres  and  his  disciples  were  zealous,  not  to  say 
fanatical,  partisans  of  the  Jesuits.  There  is  a  long 
account  of  the  "  Hermitage "  and  its  inmates  from 
the  pen  of  the  famous  Jansenist  Nicole,  —  an  oppo- 
nent, it  is  true,  but  one  whose  qualities  of  mind  and 
character  give  weight  to  his  testimony.2 

"In  this  famous  Hermitage,"  says  Nicole,  "the 
late  Sieur  de  Bernieres  brought  up  a  number  of 
young  men,  to  whom  he  taught  a  sort  of  sublime 
and  transcendental  devotion  called  passive  prayer, 
because  in  it  the  mind  does  not  act  at  all,  but  merely 
receives  the  divine  operation;  and  this  devotion  is 
the  source  of  all  those  visions  and  revelations  in 
which  the  Hermitage  is  so  prolific."  In  short,  he 
and  his  disciples  were  mystics  of  the  most  exalted 
type.  Nicole  pursues :  "  After  having  thus  subtilized 

1  La  Tour  in  his  Vie  de  Laval  gives  his  maxims  at  length. 

8  Me'moire  pour  faire  connoistre  I 'esprit  et  la  conduite  de  la  Com- 
pagnie  etablie  en  la  ville  de  Caen,  appellee  I'Hermitage  (Bibliotheque 
Nationale.  Imprimes.  Partie  Re'servee).  Written  in  1660. 


1657-62.] 


THE   ZEALOTS   AT   CAEN. 


14T 


their  minds,  and  almost  sublimed  them  into  vapor, 
he  rendered  them  capable  of  detecting  Jansenists 
under  any  disguise,  insomuch  that  some  of  his  fol- 
lowers said  that  they  knew  them  by  the  scent,  as 
dogs  know  their  game;  but  the  aforesaid  Sieur  de 
Bernieres  denied  that  they  had  so  subtile  a  sense  of 
smell,  and  said  that  the  mark  by  which  he  detected 
Jansenists  was  their  disapproval  of  his  teachings  or 
their  opposition  to  the  Jesuits." 

The  zealous  band  at  the  Hermitage  was  aided  in 
its  efforts  to  extirpate  error  by  a  sort  of  external 
association  in  the  city  of  Caen,  consisting  of  mer- 
chants, priests,  officers,  petty  nobles,  and  others,  all 
inspired  and  guided  by  Bernieres.  They  met  every 
week  at  the  Hermitage,  or  at  the  houses  of  one 
another.  Similar  associations  existed  in  other  cities 
of  France,  besides  a  fraternity  in  the  Rue  St. 
Dominique  at  Paris,  which  was  formed  by  the  Jesuit 
Bagot,  and  seems  to  have  been  the  parent,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  of  the  others.  They  all  acted  together 
when  any  important  object  was  in  view. 

Bernieres  and  his  disciples  felt  that  God  had 
chosen  them  not  only  to  watch  over  doctrine  and 
discipline  in  convents  and  in  families,  but  also  to 
supply  the  prevalent  deficiency  of  zeal  in  bishops  and 
other  dignitaries  of  the  Church.  They  kept,  too,  a 
constant  eye  on  the  humbler  clergy,  and  whenever  a 
new  preacher  appeared  in  Caen,  two  of  their  number 
were  deputed  to  hear  his  sermon  and  report  upon  it. 
If  he  chanced  to  let  fall  a  word  concerning  the  grace 


148  THE   DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657-62. 

of  God,  they  denounced  him  for  Jansenistic  heresy. 
Such  commotion  was  once  raised  in  Caen  by  charges 
of  sedition  and  Jansenism,  brought  by  the  Hermitage 
against  priests  and  laymen  hitherto  without  attaint, 
that  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux  thought  it  necessary  to 
interpose ;  but  even  he  was  forced  to  pause,  daunted 
by  the  insinuations  of  Bernieres  that  he  was  in  secret 
sympathy  with  the  obnoxious  doctrines. 

Thus  the  Hermitage  and  its  affiliated  societies  con- 
stituted themselves  a  sort  of  inquisition  in  the  interest 
of  the  Jesuits;  "for  what,"  asks  Nicole,  "might  not 
be  expected  from  persons  of  weak  minds  and  atra- 
bilious dispositions,  dried  up  by  constant  fasts, 
vigils,  and  other  austerities,  besides  meditations  of 
three  or  four  hours  a  day,  and  told  continually  that 
the  Church  is  in  imminent  danger  of  ruin  through 
the  machinations  of  the  Jansenists,  who  are  repre- 
sented to  them  as  persons  who  wish  to  break  up  the 
foundations  of  the  Christian  faith  and  subvert  the 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation;  who  believe  neither  in 
transubstantiation,  the  invocation  of  saints,  nor 
indulgences ;  who  wish  to  abolish  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Mass  and  the  sacrament  of  Penitence,  oppose  the 
worship  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  deny  free-will  and  sub- 
stitute predestination  in  its  place,  and,  in  fine,  con- 
spire to  overthrow  the  authority  of  the  Supreme 
Pontiff?" 

Among  other  anecdotes,  Nicole  tells  the  following : 
One  of  the  young  zealots  of  the  Hermitage  took  it 
into  his  head  that  all  Caen  was  full  of  Jansenists, 


1657-62.]  EXTRAVAGANCE.  149 

and  that  the  cure's  of  the  place  were  in  league  with 
them.  He  inoculated  four  others  with  this  notion, 
and  they  resolved  to  warn  the  people  of  their  danger. 
They  accordingly  made  the  tour  of  the  streets,  with 
out  hats  or  collars,  and  with  coats  unbuttoned, 
though  it  was  a  cold  winter  day,  stopping  every 
moment  to  proclaim  in  a  loud  voice  that  all  the  cure's, 
excepting  two,  whom  they  named,  were  abettors  of 
the  Jansenists.  A  mob  was  soon  following  at  their 
heels,  and  there  was  great  excitement.  The  magis- 
trates chanced  to  be  in  session,  and  hearing  of  the 
disturbance,  they  sent  constables  to  arrest  the  authors 
of  it.  Being  brought  to  the  bar  of  justice  and  ques- 
tioned by  the  judge,  they  answered  that  they  were 
doing  the  work  of  God,  and  were  ready  to  die  in  the 
cause ;  that  Caen  was  full  of  Jansenists,  and  that  the 
cure's  had  declared  in  their  favor,  inasmuch  as  they 
denied  any  knowledge  of  their  existence.  Four  of 
the  five  were  locked  up  for  a  few  days,  tried,  and 
sentenced  to  a  fine  of  a  hundred  livres,  with  a 
promise  of  further  punishment  should  they  again 
disturb  the  peace.1 

The  fifth,  being  pronounced  out  of  his  wits  by  the 
physicians,  was  sent  home  to  his  mother,  at  a  village 
near  Argentan,  where  two  or  three  of  his  fellow 
zealots  presently  joined  him.  Among  them,  they 
persuaded  his  mother,  who  had  hitherto  been  devoted 

1  Nicole  is  not  the  only  authority  for  this  story.  It  is  also  told 
by  a  very  different  writer.  See  Notice  Historique  de  I'Abbaye  de  Ste- 
Claire  d' Argentan,  124. 


150  THE   DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.          [1657-62. 

to  household  cares,  to  exchange  them  for  a  life  of 
mystical  devotion.  "These  three  or  four  persons," 
says  Mcole,  "attracted  others  as  imbecile  as  them- 
selves." Among  these  recruits  were  a  number  of 
women,  and  several  priests.  After  various  acts  of 
fanaticism,  "two  or  three  days  before  last  Pentecost," 
proceeds  the  narrator,  "they  all  set  out,  men  and 
women,  for  Argentan.  The  priests  had  drawn  the 
skirts  of  their  cassocks  over  their  heads,  and  tied 
them  about  their  necks  with  twisted  straw.  Some  of 
the  women  had  their  heads  bare,  and  their  hair 
streaming  loose  over  their  shoulders.  They  picked 
up  filth  on  the  road,  and  rubbed  their  faces  with  it; 
and  the  most  zealous  ate  it,  saying  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  mortify  the  taste.  Some  held  stones  in  their 
hands,  which  they  knocked  together  to  draw  the 
attention  of  the  passers-by.  They  had  a  leader, 
whom  they  were  bound  to  obey;  and  when  this 
leader  saw  any  mud-hole  particularly  deep  and  dirty, 
he  commanded  some  of  the  party  to  roll  themselves 
in  it,  which  they  did  forthwith.1 

"After  this  fashion,  they  entered  the  town  of 
Argentan,  and  marched,  two  by  two,  through  all  the 
streets,  crying  with  a  loud  voice  that  the  Faith  was 
perishing,  and  that  whoever  wished  to  save  it  must 
quit  the  country  and  go  with  them  to  Canada, 

1  These  proceedings  were  probably  intended  to  produce  the 
result  which  was  the  constant  object  of  the  mystics  of  the  Her- 
mitage ;  namely,  the  "  annihilation  of  self,"  with  a  view  to  a 
perfect  union  with  God.  To  become  despised  of  men  was  an  im- 
portant if  not  an  essential  step  in  this  mystical  suicide. 


J657-62.]  EULOGY  ON  LAVAL.  151 

whither  they  were  soon  to  repair.  It  is  said  that 
they  still  hold  this  purpose,  and  that  their  leaders 
declare  it  revealed  to  them  that  they  will  find  a  vessel 
ready  at  the  first  port  to  which  Providence  directs 
them.  The  reason  why  they  choose  Canada  for  an 
asylum  is,  that  Monsieur  de  Montigny  (Laval), 
Bishop  of  Petrsea,  who  lived  at  the  Hermitage  a  long 
time,  where  he  was  instructed  in  mystical  theology 
by  Monsieur  de  Berni£res,  exercises  episcopal  func- 
tions there;  and  that  the  Jesuits,  who  are  their 
oracles,  reign  in  that  country." 

This  adventure,  like  the  other,  ended  in  a  collision 
with  the  police.  "The  priests,"  adds  Nicole,  "were 
arrested,  and  are  now  waiting  trial;  and  the  rest 
were  treated  as  mad,  and  sent  back  with  shame  and 
confusion  to  the  places  whence  they  had  come." 

Though  these  pranks  took  place  after  Laval  had 
left  the  Hermitage,  they  serve  to  characterize  the 
school  in  which  he  was  formed;  or,  more  justly 
speaking,  to  show  its  most  extravagant  side.  That 
others  did  not  share  the  views  of  the  celebrated 
Jansenist,  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  pas- 
sage of  the  funeral  oration  pronounced  over  the  body 
of  Laval  half  a  century  later :  — 

"  The  humble  abbe*  was  next  transported  into  the 
terrestrial  paradise  of  Monsieur  de  Bernieres.  It  is 
thus  that  I  call,  as  it  is  fitting  to  call  it,  that  famous 
Hermitage  of  Caen,  where  the  seraphic  author  of  the 
*  Christian  Interior '  [Bernieres]  transformed  into 
angels  all  those  who  had  the  happiness  to  be  the 


152  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.          [1657-62. 

companions  of  his  solitude  and  of  his  spiritual  exer- 
cises. It  was  there  that,  during  four  years,  the 
fervent  abb£  drank  the  living  and  abounding  waters 
of  grace  which  have  since  flowed  so  benignly  over 
this  land  of  Canada.  In  this  celestial  abode  his  ordi- 
nary occupations  were  prayer,  mortification,  instruc- 
tion of  the  poor,  and  spiritual  readings  or  conferences ; 
his  recreations  were  to  labor  in  the  hospitals,  wait 
upon  the  sick  and  poor,  make  their  beds,  dress  their 
wounds,  and  aid  them  in  their  most  repulsive 
needs."1 

In  truth,  Laval's  zeal  was  boundless,  and  the 
exploits  of  self-humiliation  recorded  of  him  were 
unspeakably  revolting.2  Bernieres  himself  regarded 
him  as  a  light  by  which  to  guide  his  own  steps  in 
ways  of  holiness.  He  made  journeys  on  foot  about 
the  country,  disguised,  penniless,  begging  from  door 
to  door,  and  courting  scorn  and  opprobrium,  "in 
order,"  says  his  biographer,  "that  he  might  suffer 
for  the  love  of  God."  Yet,  though  living  at  this 
time  in  a  state  of  habitual  religious  exaltation,  he 
was  by  nature  no  mere  dreamer;  and  in  whatever 
heights  his  spirit  might  wander,  his  feet  were  always 
planted  on  the  solid  earth.  His  flaming  zeal  had  for 
its  servants  a  hard,  practical  nature,  perfectly  fitted 
for  the  battle  of  life,  a  narrow  intellect,  a  stiff  and 

1  Elogefunebre  de  Messire  Francois  Xavier  de  Laval-Montmorency , 
par  Messire  de  la  Colombiere,  Vicaire  General. 

2  See  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv.  i.     Some  of  them  were  closely 
akin  to  that  of  the  fanatics  mentioned  above,  who  ate  *'  immondicea 
d'animaux"  to  mortify  the  taste. 


1657.]        GALLICAN  AND   ULTRAMONTANE.  153 

persistent  will,  and,  as  his  enemies  thought,  the  love 
of  domination  native  to  his  blood. 

Two  great  parties  divided  the  Catholics  of  France, 
—  the  Gallican  or  national  party,  and  the  ultramontane 
or  papal  party.  The  first,  resting  on  the  Scriptural 
injunction  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar,  held  that  to  the 
King,  the  Lord's  anointed,  belonged  the  temporal, 
and  to  the  Church  the  spiritual  power.  It  held  also 
that  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  Church  of  France 
could  not  be  broken  at  the  bidding  of  the  Pope.1 
The  ultramontane  party,  on  the  other  hand,  main- 
tained that  the  Pope,  Christ's  vicegerent  on  earth, 
was  supreme  over  earthly  rulers,  and  should  of  right 
hold  jurisdiction  over  the  clergy  of  all  Christendom, 
with  powers  of  appointment  and  removal.  Hence 
they  claimed  for  him  the  right  of  nominating  bishops 
in  France.  This  had  anciently  been  exercised  by 
assemblies  of  the  French  clergy,  but  in  the  reign  of 
Francis  I.  the  King  and  the  Pope  had  combined  to 
wrest  it  from  them  by  the  Concordat  of  Bologna. 
Under  this  compact,  which  was  still  in  force,  the 
Pope  appointed  French  bishops  on  the  nomination  of 
the  King,  —  a  plan  which  displeased  the  Gallicans, 
and  did  not  satisfy  the  ultramontanes. 

The  Jesuits,  then  as  now,  were  the  most  forcible 
exponents  of  ultramontane  principles.  The  Church 
to  rule  the  world;  the  Pope  to  rule  the  Church;  the 
Jesuits  to  rule  the  Pope,  —  such  was  and  is  the 

1  See  the  famous  Quatre  Articles  of  1682,  in  which  the  liberties 
of  the  Gallican  Church  are  asserted. 


154  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657. 

simple  programme  of  the  Order  of  Jesus;  and  to  it 
they  have  held  fast,  except  on  a  few  rare  occasions 
of  misunderstanding  with  the  Vicegerent  of  Christ.1 
In  the  question  of  papal  supremacy,  as  in  most 
things  else,  Laval  was  of  one  mind  with  them. 

Those  versed  in  such  histories  will  not  be  surprised 
to  learn  that  when  he  received  the  royal  nomination, 
humility  would  not  permit  him  to  accept  it ;  nor  that, 
being  urged,  he  at  length  bowed  in  resignation,  still 
protesting  his  unworthiness.  Nevertheless,  the  royal 
nomination  did  not  take  effect.  The  ultramontanes 
outflanked  both  the  King  and  the  Gallicans,  and  by 
adroit  strategy  made  the  new  prelate  completely  a 
creature  of  the  papacy.  Instead  of  appointing  him 
Bishop  of  Quebec,  in  accordance  with  the  royal 
initiative,  the  Pope  made  him  his  vicar  apostolic  for 
Canada,  —  thus  evading  the  King's  nomination,  and 
affirming  that  Canada,  a  country  of  infidel  savages, 
was  excluded  from  the  concordat,  and  under  his  (the 
Pope's)  jurisdiction  pure  and  simple.  The  Gallicans 
were  enraged.  The  Archbishop  of  Rouen  vainly 
opposed,  and  the  parliaments  of  Rouen  and  of  Paris 
vainly  protested.  The  papal  party  prevailed.  The 
King,  or  rather  Mazarin,  gave  his  consent,  subject 
to  certain  conditions,  the  chief  of  which  was  an  oath 
of  allegiance;  and  Laval,  grand  vicar  apostolic, 
decorated  with  the  title  of  Bishop  of  Petraea,  sailed 

1  For  example,  not  long  after  this  time,  the  Jesuits,  having  a 
dispute  with  Innocent  XL,  threw  themselves  into  the  party  of 
opposition. 


1657.]  LAVAL   AND  QUEYLUS.  155 

for  his  wilderness  diocese  in  the  spring  of  1659.  * 
He  was  but  thirty-six  years  of  age,  but  even  when  a 
boy  he  could  scarcely  have  seemed  young. 

Queylus,  for  a  time,  seemed  to  accept  the  situation, 
and  tacitly  admit  the  claim  of  Laval  as  his  ecclesias 
tical  superior;  but,  stimulated  by  a  letter  from  the 
Archbishop  of  Rouen,  he  soon  threw  himself  into  an 
attitude  of  opposition,2  in  which  the  popularity  which 
his  generosity  to  the  poor  had  won  for  him  gave  him 
an  advantage  very  annoying  to  his  adversary.  The 
quarrel,  it  will  be  seen,  was  three-sided,  —  Gallican 
against  ultramontane,  Sulpitian  against  Jesuit, 
Montreal  against  Quebec.  To  Montreal  the  recal- 
citrant abbe',  after  a  brief  visit  to  Quebec,  had  again 
retired  j  but  even  here,  girt  with  his  Sulpitian 
brethren  and  compassed  with  partisans,  the  arm 
of  the  vicar  apostolic  was  long  enough  to  reach 
him. 

By  temperament  and  conviction  Laval  hated  a 
divided  authority,  and  the  very  shadow  of  a  schism 
was  an  abomination  in  his  sight.  The  young  King, 
who,  though  abundantly  jealous  of  his  royal  power, 
was  forced  to  conciliate  the  papal  party,  had  sent 
instructions  to  Argenson,  the  governor,  to  support 
Laval,  and  prevent  divisions  in  the  Canadian 

1  Compare  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  with  the  long  statement  in 
Faillon,  Colonie  Franpaise,  ii.  316-335.  Faillon  gives  various  docu- 
ments in  full,  including  the  royal  letter  of  nomination  and  those 
in  which  the  King  gives  a  reluctant  consent  to  the  appointment  of 
the  vicar  apostolic. 

8  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Septembre,  1657. 


156  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1659. 

Church.1  These  instructions  served  as  the  pretext 
of  a  procedure  sufficiently  summary.  A  squad  of 
soldiers,  commanded,  it  is  said,  by  the  governor  him- 
self, went  up  to  Montreal,  brought  the  indignant 
Queylus  to  Quebec,  and  shipped  him  thence  for 
France.2  By  these  means,  writes  Father  Lalemant, 
order  reigned  for  a  season  in  the  Church. 

It  was  but  for  a  season.  Queylus  was  not  a  man 
to  bide  his  defeat  in  tranquillity,  nor  were  his  brother 
Sulpitians  disposed  to  silent  acquiescence.  Laval, 
on  his  part,  was  not  a  man  of  half  measures.  He 
had  an  agent  in  France,  and  partisans  strong  at 
court.  Fearing,  to  borrow  the  words  of  a  Catholic 
writer,  that  the  return  of  Queylus  to  Canada  would 
prove  "injurious  to  the  glory  of  God,"  he  bestirred 
himself  to  prevent  it.  The  young  King,  then  at 
Aix,  on  his  famous  journey  to  the  frontiers  of  Spain 
to  marry  the  Infanta,  was  induced  to  write  to 
Queylus,  ordering  him  to  remain  in  France.3 
Queylus,  however,  repaired  to  Rome;  but  even 
against  this  movement  provision  had  been  made: 
accusations  of  Jansenism  had  gone  before  him,  and 
he  met  a  cold  welcome.  Nevertheless,  as  he  had 
powerful  friends  near  the  Pope,  he  succeeded  in 
removing  these  adverse  impressions,  and  even  in 
obtaining  certain  bulls  relating  to  the  establishment 

1  Lettre  du  Roi  a  d'Argenson,  14  Mai,  1659. 

2  Belmont,  Histoire   du    Canada,   A.D.  1659.     Memoir  by  Abb£ 
d'Allet,  in  Morale  Pratique  des  J&uites,  xxxiv.  725. 

8  Lettre  du  Roi  a  Queylus,  27  Fev.,  1660. 


1660-61.]  ANOTHER  STORM.  157 

of  the  parish  of  Montreal,  and  favorable  to  the 
Sulpitians.  Provided  with  these,  he  set  at  nought 
the  King's  letter,  embarked  under  an  assumed 
name,  and  sailed  to  Quebec,  where  he  made  his 
appearance  on  the  third  of  August,  1661, l  to  the 
extreme  wrath  of  Laval. 

A  ferment  ensued.  Laval's  partisans  charged  the 
Sulpitians  with  Jansenism  and  opposition  to  the  will 
of  the  Pope.  A  preacher  more  zealous  than  the  rest 
denounced  them  as  priests  of  Antichrist;  and  as  to 
the  bulls  in  their  favor,  it  was  affirmed  that  Queylus 
had  obtained  them  by  fraud  from  the  Holy  Father. 
Laval  at  once  issued  a  mandate  forbidding  him  to 
proceed  to  Montreal  till  ships  should  arrive  with 
instructions  from  the  King.2  At  the  same  time  he 
demanded  of  the  governor  that  he  should  interpose 
the  civil  power  to  prevent  Queylus  from  leaving 
Quebec.3  As  Argenson,  who  wished  to  act  as  peace- 
maker between  the  belligerent  fathers,  did  not  at 
once  take  the  sharp  measures  required  of  him,  Laval 
renewed  his  demand  on  the  next  day,  —  calling  on 
him,  in  the  name  of  God  and  the  King,  to  compel 
Queylus  to  yield  the  obedience  due  to  him,  the  vicar 
apostolic.4  At  the  same  time  he  sent  another  to  the 
offending  abbe*,  threatening  to  suspend  him  from 
priestly  functions  if  he  persisted  in  his  rebellion.6 

1  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Aotit,  1061, 

2  Lettre  de  Laval  a  Queylus,  4  Aotit,  1661. 
8  Lettre  de  Laval  a  d' Argenson,  Ibid. 

*  Ibid.,  5  Aout,  1661. 

*  Lettre  de  Laval  d  Queylus,  Ibid. 


158  THE   DISPUTED   BISHOPRIC.  [1061 

The  incorrigible  Queylus,  who  seems  to  have  lived 
for  some  months  in  a  simmer  of  continual  indigna- 
tion, set  at  nought  the  vicar  apostolic  as  he  had  set 
at  nought  the  King,  took  a  boat  that  very  night,  and 
set  out  for  Montreal  under  cover  of  darkness.  Great 
was  the  ire  of  Laval  when  he  heard  the  news  in  the 
morning.  He  despatched  a  letter  after  him,  declar- 
ing him  suspended  ipso  facto,  if  he  did  not  instantly 
return  and  make  his  submission.1  This  letter,  like 
the  rest,  failed  of  the  desired  effect;  but  the  gover- 
nor, who  had  received  a  second  mandate  from  the 
King  to  support  Laval  and  prevent  a  schism,2  now 
reluctantly  interposed  the  secular  arm,  and  Queylus 
was  again  compelled  to  return  to  France.3 

His  expulsion  was  a  Sulpitian  defeat.  Laval, 
always  zealous  for  unity  and  centralization^  had 
some  time  before  taken  steps  to  repress  what  he 
regarded  as  a  tendency  to  independence  at  Montreal. 
In  the  preceding  year  he  had  written  to  the  Pope: 
"There  are  some  secular  priests  [Sulpitians]  at 
Montreal,  whom  the  Abbe*  de  Queylus  brought  out 
with  him  in  1657,  and  I  have  named  for  the  functions 
of  cure*  the  one  among  them  whom  I  thought  the 
least  disobedient."  The  bulls  which  Queylus  had 
obtained  from  Rome  related  to  this  very  curacy,  and 
greatly  disturbed  the  mind  of  the  vicar  apostolic. 
He  accordingly  wrote  again  to  the  Pope:  "I  pray 

1  Lettre  de  Laval  a  Queylus,  Q  Aotit,  1661. 
*  Lettre  du  Roi  a  d'Argenson,  13  Mai,  1660. 

8  For  the  governor's  attitude  in  this  affair,  consult  the  Papiers 
d'A.-~gtnsony  containing  his  despatches. 


1661.]  VICTORY  OF  LAVAL.  159 

your  Holiness  to  let  me  know  your  will  concerning 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen.  M. 
1'Abbe"  de  Queylus,  who  has  come  out  this  year  as 
vicar  of  this  archbishop,  has  tried  to  deceive  us  by 
surreptitious  letters,  and  has  obeyed  neither  our 
prayers  nor  our  repeated  commands  to  desist.  But 
he  has  received  orders  from  the  King  to  return  imme- 
diately to  France,  to  render  an  account  of  his  diso- 
bedience ;  and  he  has  been  compelled  by  the  governor 
to  conform  to  the  will  of  his  Majesty.  What  I  now 
fear  is  that  on  his  return  to  France,  by  using  every 
kind  of  means,  employing  new  artifices,  and  falsely 
representing  our  affairs,  he  may  obtain  from  the 
Court  of  Rome  powers  which  may  disturb  the  peace 
of  our  Church;  for  the  priests  whom  he  brought 
with  him  from  France,  and  who  live  at  Montreal, 
are  animated  with  the  same  spirit  of  disobedience 
and  division;  and  I  fear,  with  good  reason,  that  all 
belonging  to  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice,  who  may 
come  hereafter  to  join  them,  will  be  of  the  same  dis- 
position. If  what  is  said  is  true,  that  by  means  of 
fraudulent  letters  the  right  of  patronage  of  the  pre- 
tended parish  of  Montreal  has  been  granted  to  the 
superior  of  this  seminary,  and  the  right  of  appoint- 
ment to  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  then  is  altar 
reared  against  altar  in  our  Church  of  Canada;  for 
the  clergy  of  Montreal  will  always  stand  in  opposition 
to  me,  the  vicar  apostolic,  and  to  my  successors."1 

1  Lettre  de  Laval  au  Pape,  22  Oct.,  1661.    Printed  by  Faillon, 
from  the  original  in  the  archives  of  the  Propaganda. 


160  THE   DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1668. 

These  dismal  forebodings  were  never  realized. 
The  Holy  See  annulled  the  obnoxious  bulls;  the 
Archbishop  of  Rouen  renounced  his  claims,  and 
Queylus  found  his  position  untenable.  Seven  years 
later,  when  Laval  was  on  a  visit  to  France,  a  recon- 
ciliation was  brought  about  between  them.  The 
former  vicar  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen  made  his 
submission  to  the  vicar  of  the  Pope,  and  returned  to 
Canada  as  a  missionary.  Laval's  triumph  was  com- 
plete, to  the  joy  of  the  Jesuits,  —  silent,  if  not  idle, 
spectators  of  the  tedious  and  complex  quarrel. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

1659,  1660. 
LAVAL  AND  ARGENSON. 

FRANCOIS  DB  LAVAL:  HIS  POSITION  AND  CHARACTER.  —  ARRIVAL 
OF  ARGENSON.  —  THE  QUARREL. 

WE  are  touching  delicate  ground.  To  many  excel- 
lent Catholics  of  our  own  day  Laval  is  an  object  of 
veneration.  The  Catholic  university  of  Quebec 
glories  in  bearing  his  name,  and  certain  modern 
ecclesiastical  writers  rarely  mention  him  in  terms 
less  reverent  than  "the  virtuous  prelate,"  or  "the 
holy  prelate."  Nor  are  some  of  his  contemporaries 
less  emphatic  in  eulogy.  Mother  Juchereau  de 
Saint-Denis,  Superior  of  the  H6tel  Dieu,  wrote 
immediately  after  his  death:  "He  began  in  his 
tenderest  years  the  study  of  perfection,  and  we  have 
reason  to  think  that  he  reached  it,  since  every  virtue 
which  Saint  Paul  demands  in  a  bishop  was  seen  and 
admired  in  him ; "  and  on  his  first  arrival  in  Canada, 
Mother  Marie  de  Plncarnation,  Superior  of  the 
Ursulines,  wrote  to  her  son  that  the  choice  of  such  a 
prelate  was  not  of  man,  but  of  God.  "I  will  not," 

she  adds.  "  sav  that  he  is  a  saint ;  but  I  may  say  with 

11 


162  LAVAL  AND  ARGENSON.  [1659 

truth  that  he  lives  like  a  saint  and  an  apostle." 
And  she  describes  his  austerity  of  life ;  how  he  had 
but  two  servants,  a  gardener  —  whom  he  lent  on 
occasion  to  his  needy  neighbors  —  and  a  valet ;  how 
he  lived  in  a  small  hired  house,  saying  that  he  would 
not  have  one  of  his  own  if  he  could  build  it  for  only 
five  sous;  and  how,  in  his  table,  furniture,  and  bed, 
he  showed  the  spirit  of  poverty,  even,  as  she  thinks, 
to  excess.  His  servant,  a  lay  brother  named  Houssart, 
testified,  after  his  death,  that  he  slept  on  a  hard 
bed,  and  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  changed  even 
when  it  became  full  of  fleas;  and,  what  is  more  to 
the  purpose,  that  he  gave  fifteen  hundred  or  two 
thousand  francs  to  the  poor  every  year.1  Houssart 
also  gives  the  following  specimen  of  his  austerities : 
"I  have  seen  him  keep  cooked  meat  five,  six,  seven, 
or  eight  days  in  the  heat  of  summer;  and  when  it 
was  all  mouldy  and  wormy  he  washed  it  in  warm 
water  and  ate  it,  and  told  me  that  it  was  very  good." 
The  old  servant  was  so  impressed  by  these  and  other 
proofs  of  his  master's  sanctity,  that  "  I  determined, " 
he  says,  "to  keep  everything  I  could«  that  had 
belonged  to  his  holy  person,  and  after  his  death  to 
soak  bits  of  linen  in  his  blood  when  his  body  was 
opened,  and  take  a  few  bones  and  cartilages  from  his 
breast,  cut  off  his  hair,  and  keep  his  clothes,  and 
such  things,  to  serve  as  most  precious  relics." 

1  Lettre  du  Frtre  Houssart,  ancien  serviteur  de  IWg'r  de  Laval  a 
M.  Tremblay,  1  Sept.,  1708.  This  letter  is  printed,  though  with  one 
or  two  important  omissions,  in  the  Abeille,  vol.  i.  (Quebec,  1848.) 


1659.]  FRANgOIS   DE  LAVAL.  163 

These  pious  cares  were  not  in  vain,  for  the  relics 
proved  greatly  in  demand. 

Several  portraits  of  Laval  are  extant.  A  drooping 
nose  of  portentous  size;  a  well-formed  forehead;  a 
brow  strongly  arched;  a  bright,  clear  eye;  scanty 
hair,  half  hidden  by  a  black  skullcap ;  thin  lips,  com- 
pressed and  rigid,  betraying  a  spirit  not  easy  to  move 
or  convince ;  features  of  that  indescribable  cast  which 
marks  the  priestly  type,  —  such  is  Laval,  as  he  looks 
grimly  down  on  us  from  the  dingy  canvas  of  two 
centuries  ago. 

He  is  one  of  those  concerning  whom  Protestants 
and  Catholics,  at  least  ultramontane  Catholics,  will 
never  agree  in  judgment.  The  task  of  eulogizing 
him  may  safely  be  left  to  those  of  his  own  way  of 
thinking.  It  is  for  us  to  regard  him  from  the  stand- 
point of  secular  history.  And,  first,  let  us  credit 
him  with  sincerity.  He  believed  firmly  that  the 
princes  and  rulers  of  this  world  ought  to  be  subject 
to  guidance  and  control  at  the  hands  of  the  Pope, 
the  vicar  of  Christ  on  earth.  But  he  himself  was 
the  Pope's  vicar,  and,  so  far  as  the  bounds  of  Canada 
extended,  the  Holy  Father  had  clothed  him  with  his 
own  authority.  The  glory  of  God  demanded  that 
this  authority  should  suffer  no  abatement;  and  he, 
Laval,  would  be  guilty  before  Heaven  if  he  did  not 
uphold  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  over  the  powers 
both  of  earth  and  of  hell. 

Of  the  faults  which  he  owed  to  nature,  the  prin- 
cipal seems  to  have  been  an  arbitrary  and  domineer- 


164  LAVAL  AND   ARGENSON.  [1659. 

ing  temper.  He  was  one  of  those  who  by  nature 
lean  always  to  the  side  of  authority;  and  in  the 
English  Revolution  he  would  inevitably  have ,  stood 
for  the  Stuarts ;  or,  in  the  American  Revolution,  for 
the  Crown.  But  being  above  all  things  a  Catholic 
and  a  priest,  he  was  drawn  by  a  constitutional  neces- 
sity to  the  ultramontane  party,  or  the  party  of  cen- 
tralization. He  fought  lustily,  in  his  way,  against 
the  natural  man ;  and  humility  was  the  virtue  to  the 
culture  of  which  he  gave  his  chief  attention;  but 
soil  and  climate  were  not  favorable.  His  life  was 
one  long  assertion  of  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
and  this  authority  was  lodged  in  himself.  In  his 
stubborn  fight  for  ecclesiastical  ascendency,  he  was 
aided  by  the  impulses  of  a  nature  that  loved  to 
rule,  and  could  not  endure  to  yield.  His  principles 
and  his  instinct  of  domination  were  acting  in  perfect 
unison,  and  his  conscience  was  the  handmaid  of  his 
fault.  Austerities  and  mortifications,  playing  at 
beggar,  sleeping  in  beds  full  of  fleas,  or  performing 
prodigies  of  gratuitous  dirtiness  in  hospitals,  how- 
ever fatal  to  self-respect,  could  avail  little  against 
influences  working  so  powerfully  and  so  insidiously 
to  stimulate  the  most  subtle  of  human  vices.  The 
history  of  the  Roman  Church  is  full  of  Lavals. 

The  Jesuits,  adepts  in  human  nature,  had  made  a 
sagacious  choice  when  they  put  forward  this  con- 
scientious, zealous,  dogged,  and  pugnacious  priest 
to  fight  their  battles.  Nor  were  they  ill  pleased 
that,  for  the  present,  he  was  not  Bishop  of  Canada, 


1659.]  APPROACHING  CHANGE. 

but  only  vicar  apostolic;  for  such  being  the  case, 
they  could  have  him  recalled  if  on  trial  they  did  not 
like  him,  while  an  unacceptable  bishop  would  be  an 
evil  past  remedy. 

Canada  was  entering  a  state  of  transition.  Hitherto 
ecclesiastical  influence  had  been  all  in  all.  The 
Jesuits,  by  far  the  most  educated  and  able  body  of 
men  in  the  colony,  had  controlled  it,  not  alone  in 
things  spiritual,  but  virtually  in  things  temporal 
also;  and  the  governor  may  be  said  to  have  been 
little  else  than  a  chief  of  police,  under  the  direction 
of  the  missionaries.  The  early  governors  were 
themselves  deeply  imbued  with  the  missionary  spirit. 
Champlain  was  earnest  above  all  things  for  convert- 
ing the  Indians ;  Montmagny  was  half-monk,  for  he 
was  a  Knight  of  Malta ;  d'Ailleboust  was  so  insanely 
pious  that  he  lived  with  his  wife  like  monk  and  nun. 
A  change  was  at  hand.  From  a  mission  and  a  trad- 
ing station,  Canada  was  soon  to  become,  in  the  true 
sense,  a  colony;  and  civil  government  had  begun  to 
assert  itself  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The 
epoch  of  the  martyrs  and  apostles  was  passing  away, 
and  the  man  of  the  sword  and  the  man  of  the  gown 
—  the  soldier  and  the  legist  —  were  threatening  to 
supplant  the  paternal  sway  of  priests ;  or,  as  Laval 
might  have  said,  the  hosts  of  this  world  were 
beleaguering  the  sanctuary,  and  he  was  called  of 
Heaven  to  defend  it.  His  true  antagonist,  though 
three  thousand  miles  away,  was  the  great  minister 
Colbert,  as  purely  a  statesman  as  the  vicar  apostolic 


166  LAVAL  AND   ARGENSON.  [1659. 

was  purely  a  priest.  Laval,  no  doubt,  could  see 
behind  the  statesman's  back  another  adversary,  —  the 
Devil. 

Argenson  was  governor  when  the  crozier  and  the 
sword  began  to  clash,  which  is  merely  another  way 
of  saying  that  he  was  governor  when  Laval  arrived. 
He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  education,  modera- 
tion, and  sense,  and  he  was  also  an  earnest  Catholic ; 
but  if  Laval  had  his  duties  to  God,  so  had  Argenson 
his  duties  to  the  King,  of  whose  authority  he  was 
the  representative  and  guardian.  If  the  first  col- 
lisions seem  trivial,  they  were  no  less  the  symptoms 
of  a  grave  antagonism.  Argenson  could  have  pur- 
chased peace  only  by  becoming  an  agent  of  the 
Church. 

The  vicar  apostolic,  or,  as  he  was  usually  styled, 
the  bishop,  being,  it  may  be  remembered,  titular 
Bishop  of  Petrsea  in  Arabia,  presently  fell  into  a 
quarrel  with  the  governor  touching  the  relative  posi- 
tion of  their  seats  in  church,  —  a  point  which,  by  the 
way,  was  a  subject  of  contention  for  many  years, 
and  under  several  successive  governors.  This  time 
the  case  was  referred  to  the  ex-governor,  d' Ailleboust, 
and  a  temporary  settlement  took  place.1  A  few 
weeks  after,  on  the  f£te  of  Saint  Francis  Xavier, 
when  the  Jesuits  were  accustomed  to  ask  the  digni- 
taries of  the  colony  to  dine  in  their  refectory  after 
mass,  a  fresh  difficulty  arose,  —  Should  the  governor 
or  the  bishop  have  the  higher  seat  at  table?  The 

1  Lalemant,  in  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Septembre,  1659. 


1659-00.]        DISPUTES  OF  PRECEDENCE.  167 

question    defied    solution;   so    the    fathers    invited 
neither  of  them.1 

Again,  on  Christmas,  at  the  midnight  mass,  the 
deacon  offered  incense  to  the  bishop,  and  then,  in 
obedience  to  an  order  from  him,  sent  a  subordinate 
to  offer  it  to  the  governor,  instead  of  offering  it  him- 
self. Laval  further  insisted  that  the  priests  of  the 
choir  should  receive  incense  before  the  governor 
received  it.  Argenson  resisted,  and  a  bitter  quarrel 
ensued.2 

The  late  governor,  d'Ailleboust,  had  been  church- 
warden ex  qfficio  ;  3  and  in  this  pious  community  the 
office  was  esteemed  as  an  addition  to  his  honors. 
Argenson  had  thus  far  held  the  same  position;  but 
Laval  declared  that  he  should  hold  it  no  longer. 
Argenson,  to  whom  the  bishop  had  not  spoken  on 
the  subject,  came  soon  after  to  a  meeting  of  the 
wardens,  and,  being  challenged,  denied  Laval's  right 
to  dismiss  him.  A  dispute  ensued,  in  which  the 
bishop,  according  to  his  Jesuit  friends,  used  language 
not  very  respectful  to  the  representative  of  royalty.4 

On  occasion  of  the  "solemn  catechism,"  the  bishop 
insisted  that  the  children  should  salute  him  before 
saluting  the  governor.  Argenson,  hearing  of  this, 
declined  to  come.  A  compromise  was  contrived. 
It  was  agreed  that  when  the  rival  dignitaries  entered, 

1  Lalemant,  in  Journal  des  J&uites,  Decembre,  1659. 

2  Ibid. ;  Lettre  d' Argenson  a  MM.  de  la  Compagnie  de  St.  Sulpice. 
8  Livre  des  Deliberations  de  la  Fabrique  de  Quebec. 

*  Journal  des  Je&uites,  Novembre,  1660. 


168  LAVAL   AND  ARGENSON.  [1661. 

the  children  should  be  busied  in  some  manual  exer- 
cise which  should  prevent  their  saluting  either. 
Nevertheless,  two  boys,  "  enticed  and  set  on  by  their 
parents,"  saluted  the  governor  first,  to  the  great 
indignation  of  Laval.  They  were  whipped  on  the 
next  day  for  breach  of  orders.1 

Next  there  was  a  sharp  quarrel  about  a  sentence 
pronounced  by  Laval  against  a  heretic,  to  which  the 
governor,  good  Catholic  as  he  was,  took  exception.2 
Palm  Sunday  came,  and  there  could  be  no  procession 
and  no  distribution  of  branches,  because  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  bishop  could  not  agree  on  points  of 
precedence.8 

On  the  day  of  the  F£te  Dieu,  however,  there  was 
a  grand  procession,  which  stopped  from  time  to  time 
at  temporary  altars,  or  reposoirs,  placed  at  intervals 
along  its  course.  One  of  these  was  in  the  fort, 
where  the  soldiers  were  drawn  up,  waiting  the 
arrival  of  the  procession.  Laval  demanded  that  they 
should  take  off  their  hats.  Argenson  assented,  and 
the  soldiers  stood  uncovered.  Laval  now  insisted 
that  they  should  kneel.  The  governor  replied  that 
it  was  their  duty  as  soldiers  to  stand;  whereupon  the 
bishop  refused  to  stop  at  the  altar,  and  ordered  the 
procession  to  move  on.4 

The  above  incidents  are  set  down  in  the  private 
journal  of  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits,  which  was  not 

1  Journal  des  J&uites,  Fevrier,  1661. 

«  Ibid. 

»  Ibid.,  Avril,  1661.  *  Ibid.,  Juin,  1661. 


1661.] 


APPEAL  OF   ARGENSON. 


169 


meant  for  the  public  eye.  The  bishop,  it  will  be 
seen,  was,  by  the  showing  of  his  friends,  in  most 
cases  the  aggressor.  The  disputes  in  question, 
though  of  a  nature  to  provoke  a  smile  on  irreverent 
lips,  were  by  no  means  so  puerile  as  they  appear. 
It  is  difficult  in  a  modern  democratic  society  to  con- 
ceive the  substantial  importance  of  the  signs  and 
symbols  of  dignity  and  authority  at  a  time  and  among 
a  people  where  they  were  adjusted  with  the  most 
scrupulous  precision,  and  accepted  by  all  classes  as 
exponents  of  relative  degrees  in  the  social  and 
political  scale.  Whether  the  bishop  or  the  governor 
should  sit  in  the  higher  seat  at  table  thus  became  a 
political  question,  for  it  defined  to  the  popular  under- 
standing the  position  of  Church  and  State  in  their 
relations  to  government. 

Hence  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  a  memorial, 
drawn  up  apparently  by  Argenson,  and  addressed  to 
the  council  of  State,  asking  for  instructions  when 
and  how  a  governor  —  lieutenant-general  for  the 
King  —  ought  to  receive  incense,  holy  water,  and 
consecrated  bread ;  whether  the  said  bread  should  be 
offered  him  with  sound  of  drum  and  fife;  what 
should  be  the  position  of  his  seat  at  church;  and 
what  place  he  should  hold  in  various  religious  cere- 
monies; whether  in  feasts,  assemblies,  ceremonies, 
and  councils  of  a  purely  civil  character,  he  or  the 
bishop  was  to  hold  the  first  place;  and,  finally,  if 
the  bishop  could  excommunicate  the  inhabitants  or 
others  for  acts  of  a  civil  and  political  character, 


170  LAVAL   AND   ARGENSON.  [1659-60. 

when  the  said  acts  were  pronounced  lawful  by  the 
governor. 

The  reply  to  the  memorial  denies  to  the  bishop  the 
power  of  excommunication  in  civil  matters,  assigns 
to  him  the  second  place  in  meetings  and  ceremonies 
of  a  civil  character,  and  is  very  reticent  as  to  the 
rest.1 

Argenson  had  a  brother,  a  counsellor  of  State,  and 
a  fast  friend  of  the  Jesuits.  Laval  was  in  corre- 
spondence with  him,  and,  apparently  sure  of  sym- 
pathy, wrote  to  him  touching  his  relations  with  the 
governor.  "  Your  brother, "  he  begins,  "received  me 
on  my  arrival  with  extraordinary  kindness ;  "  but  he 
proceeds  to  say,  that,  perceiving  with  sorrow  that  he 
entertained  a  groundless  distrust  of  those  good  ser- 
vants of  God,  the  Jesuit  fathers,  he,  the  bishop, 
thought  it  his  duty  to  give  him  in  private  a  candid 
warning  which  ought  to  have  done  good,  but  which, 
to  his  surprise,  the  governor  had  taken  amiss,  and 
had  conceived,  in  consequence,  a  prejudice  against 
his  monitor.2 

Argenson,  on  his  part,  writes  to  the  same  brother, 
at  about  the  same  time.  "  The  Bishop  of  Petrsea  is 
so  stiff  in  opinion,  and  so  often  transported  by  his 
zeal  beyond  the  rights  of  his  position,  that  he  makes 
no  difficulty  in  encroaching  on  the  functions  of 
others;  and  this  with  so  much  heat  that  he  will 

1  Advis  et  Resolutions  demandts  sur  la  Nouvelle  France. 

2  Lettre  de  Laval  a  M.  d' Argenson,  fr$re  du   Gouverneur,  20  Oct^ 
1669. 


1659-60.]  CLERICAL  VIGOR.  171 

listen  to  nobody.  A  few  days  ago  he  carried  off  a 
servant  girl  of  one  of  the  inhabitants  here,  and 
placed  her  by  his  own  authority  in  the  Ursuline 
convent,  on  the  sole  pretext  that  he  wanted  to  have 
her  instructed,  —  thus  depriving  her  master  of  her 
services,  though  he  had  been  at  great  expense  in 
bringing  her  from  France.  This  inhabitant  is  M. 
Denis,  who,  not  knowing  who  had  carried  her  off, 
came  to  me  with  a  petition  to  get  her  out  of  the 
convent.  I  kept  the  petition  three  days  without 
answering  it,  to  prevent  the  affair  from  being  noised 
abroad.  The  Reverend  Father  Lalemant,  with  whom 
I  communicated  on  the  subject,  and  who  greatly 
blamed  the  Bishop  of  Petrsea,  did  all  in  his  power  to 
have  the  girl  given  up  quietly,  but  without  the  least 
success,  so  that  I  was  forced  to  answer  the  petition, 
and  permit  M.  Denis  to  take  his  servant  wherever  he 
should  find  her;  and  if  I  had  not  used  means  to 
bring  about  an  accommodation,  and  if  M.  Denis,  on 
the  refusal  which  was  made  him  to  give  her  up,  had 
brought  the  matter  into  court,  I  should  have  been 
compelled  to  take  measures  which  would  have  caused 
great  scandal,  —  and  all  from  the  self-will  of  the 
Bishop  of  Petraea,  who  says  that  a  bishop  can  do 
what  he  likes,  and  threatens  nothing  but  excom- 
munication."1 

In  another  letter  he  speaks  in  the  same  strain  of 
this  redundancy  of  zeal  on  the  part  of  the  bishop, 

1  "  —  Qui  diet  quun  Evesque  peult  ce  gu'il  veult  et  ne  menace  que 
^excommunication."— Lettre  d'Argenson  a  son  Frtre,  1659. 


172  LAVAL   AND   ARGENSON.  [1659-60. 

which  often,  he  says,  takes  the  shape  of  obstinacy 
and  encroachment  on  the  rights  of  others.  "It  is 
greatly  to  be  wished,"  he  observes,  "that  the  Bishop 
of  Petraea  would  give  his  confidence  to  the  Reverend 
Father  Lalemant  instead  of  Father  Ragueneau ; " l 
and  he  praises  Lalemant  as  a  person  of  excellent 
sense.  "It  would  be  well,"  he  adds,  "if  the  rest  of 
their  community  were  of  the  same  mind ;  for  in  that 
case  they  would  not  mix  themselves  up  with  various 
matters  in  the  way  they  do,  and  would  leave  the 
government  to  those  to  whom  God  has  given  it  in 
charge."2 

One  of  Laval's  modern  admirers,  the  worthy  Abbe* 
Ferland,  after  confessing  that  his  zeal  may  now  and 
then  have  savored  of  excess,  adds  in  his  defence  that 
a  vigorous  hand  was  needed  to  compel  the  infant 
colony  to  enter  "the  good  path,"  —  meaning,  of 
course,  the  straitest  path  of  Roman  Catholic  ortho- 
doxy. We  may  hereafter  see  more  of  this  stringent 
system  of  colonial  education,  its  success,  and  the 
results  that  followed. 

1  Lettre  d'Argenson  a  son  Frere,  21  Oct.,  1659. 
*  Ibid.,  7  July,  1660. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
1658-1663. 

LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR. 

RECEPTION  OF  ARGENSON  :  HIS  DIFFICULTIES  ;  HIS  RECALL.  — 
DUBOIS  D' AVAUGOUR. — THE  BRANDY  QUARREL.  —  DISTRESS  OF 
LAVAL.  —  PORTENTS.  —  THE  EARTHQUAKE. 

WHEN  Argenson  arrived  to  assume  the  govern- 
ment, a  curious  greeting  had  awaited  him.  The 
Jesuits  asked  him  to  dine;  vespers  followed  the 
repast;  and  then  they  conducted  him  into  a  hall, 
where  the  boys  of  their  school —  disguised,  one  as 
the  Genius  of  New  France,  one  as  the  Genius  of  the 
Forest,  and  others  as  Indians  of  various  friendly 
tribes  —  made  him  speeches  by  turn,  in  prose  and 
verse.  First,  Pierre  du  Quet,  who  played  the 
Genius  of  New  France,  presented  his  Indian  retinue 
to  the  governor,  in  a  complimentary  harangue.  Then 
four  other  boys,  personating  French  colonists,  made 
him  four  nattering  addresses,  in  French  verse. 
Charles  Denis,  dressed  as  a  Huron,  followed,  bewail- 
ing the  ruin  of  his  people,  and  appealing  to  Argenson 
for  aid.  Jean  Francois  Bourdon,  in  the  character  of 
an  Algonquin,  next  advanced  on  the  platform, 


174  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1658. 

boasted  his  courage,  and  declared  that  he  was  ashamed 
to  cry  like  the  Huron.  The  Genius  of  the  Forest 
now  appeared,  with  a  retinue  of  wild  Indians  from 
the  interior,  who,  being  unable  to  speak  French, 
addressed  the  governor  in  their  native  tongues,  which 
the  Genius  proceeded  to  interpret.  Two  other  boys, 
in  the  character  of  prisoners  just  escaped  from  the 
Iroquois,  then  came  forward,  imploring  aid  in  piteous 
accents;  and,  in  conclusion,  the  whole  troop  of 
Indians,  from  far  and  near,  laid  their  bows  and 
arrows  at  the  feet  of  Argenson,  and  hailed  him  as 
their  chief.1 

Besides  these  mock  Indians,  a  crowd  of  genuine 
savages  had  gathered  at  Quebec  to  greet  the  new 
"Onontio."  On  the  next  day  —  at  his  own  cost,  as 
he  writes  to  a  friend  —  he  gave  them  a  feast,  consist- 
ing of  "seven  large  kettles  full  of  Indian  corn,  peas, 
prunes,  sturgeons,  eels,  and  fat,  which  they  devoured, 
having  first  sung  me  a  song,  after  their  fashion." 2 

These  festivities  over,  he  entered  on  the  serious 
business  of  his  government,  and  soon  learned  that  his 
path  was  a  thorny  one.  He  could  find,  he  says,  but 
a  hundred  men  to  resist  the  twenty-four  hundred 
warriors  of  the  Iroquois ; 3  and  he  begs  the  proprietary 

1  La  Reception  de  Monseigneur  le  Vicomte  d' Argenson  par  toutes  les 
nations  du  pais  de  Canada  d  son  entre'e  au  gouvernement  de  la  Nouvelle 
France ;  d  Quebecq  au    College  de  la   Compagnie  de  Jesus,  le  28  de 
Juillet  de  I'anne'e  1658.    The  speeches,  in  French  and  Indian,  are 
here  given  verbatim,  with  the  names  of  all  the  boys  who  took  part 
in  the  ceremony. 

2  Papiers  d' Argenson.    Kebec,  5  Sept.,  1658. 

8  jtfemoire  sur  le  subject  (sic)  de  la  Guerre  des  Iroquois,  1659. 


1658-59.]    TROUBLES  OF  ARGENSON.        175 

company  which  he  represented  to  send  him  a  hundred 
more,  who  could  serve  as  soldiers  or  laborers,  accord- 
ing to  the  occasion. 

The  company  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  his  appeals. 
They  had  lost  money  in  Canada,  and  were  grievously 
out  of  humor  with  it.  In  their  view,  the  first  duty 
of  a  governor  was  to  collect  their  debts,  which,  for 
more  reasons  than  one,  was  no  easy  task.  While 
they  did  nothing  to  aid  the  colony  in  its  distress, 
they  beset  Argenson  with  demands  for  the  thousand 
pounds  of  beaver -skins,  which  the  inhabitants  had 
agreed  to  send  them  every  year  in  return  for  the 
privilege  of  the  fur-trade,  —  a  privilege  which  the 
Iroquois  war  made  for  the  present  worthless.  The 
perplexed  governor  vents  his  feelings  in  sarcasm. 
"They  [the  company]  take  no  pains  to  learn  the 
truth ;  and  when  they  hear  of  settlers  carried  off  and 
burned  by  the  Iroquois,  they  will  think  it  a  punish- 
ment for  not  settling  old  debts,  and  paying  over  the 
beaver-skins."1  "I  wish,"  he  adds,  "they  would 
send  somebody  to  look  after  their  affairs  here.  I 
would  gladly  give  him  the  same  lodging  and 
entertainment  as  my  own." 

Another  matter  gave  him  great  annoyance.  This 
was  the  virtual  independence  of  Montreal ;  and  here, 
if  nowhere  else,  he  and  the  bishop  were  of  the  same 
mind.  On  one  occasion  he  made  a  visit  to  the  place 
in  question,  where  he  expected  to  be  received  as  gov- 
ernor-general; but  the  local  governor,  Maisonneuve, 

*  Papiers  d' Argenson,  21  Oct.,  1659. 


176  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1658-59. 

declined,  or  at  least  postponed,  to  take  his  orders 
and  give  him  the  keys  of  the  fort.  Argenson  accord- 
ingly speaks  of  Montreal  as  "  a  place  which  makes  so 
much  noise,  but  which  is  of  such  small  account.'*1 
He  adds  that,  besides  wanting  to  be  independent,  the 
Montrealists  want  to  monopolize  the  fur-trade,  which 
would  cause  civil  war;  and  that  the  King  ought  to 
interpose  to  correct  their  obstinacy. 

In  another  letter  he  complains  of  d'Ailleboust,  who 
had  preceded  him  in  the  government,  though  himself 
a  Montrealist.  Argenson  says  that,  on  going  out  to 
fight  the  Iroquois,  he  left  d'Ailleboust  at  Quebec,  to 
act  as  his  lieutenant;  that,  instead  of  doing  so,  he 
had  assumed  to  govern  in  his  own  right;  that  he  had 
taken  possession  of  his  absent  superior's  furniture, 
drawn  his  pay,  and  in  other  respects  behaved  as  if  he 
never  expected  to  see  him  again.  "  When  I  returned, " 
continues  the  governor,  "I  made  him  director  in 
the  council,  without  pay,  as  there  was  none  to 
give  him.  It  was  this,  I  think,  that  made  him 
remove  to  Montreal;  for  which  I  do  not  care,  pro- 
vided the  glory  of  our  Master  suffer  no  prejudice 
thereby."2 

These  extracts  may,  perhaps,  give  an  unjust 
impression  of  Argenson,  who,  from  the  general  tenor 
of  his  letters,  appears  to  have  been  a  temperate  and 
reasonable  person.  His  patience  and  his  nervous 

1  Papiers  d' Argenson,  4  Ao&t,  1659. 

2  Ibid.     Double  de  la  lettre  escripte  par  le   Vaisseau  du  Gaigneur,. 
parti  le  6  Septembre  (1658). 


1658-59.]     TROUBLES  OF  ARGENSON.       177 

system  seem,  however,  to  have  heen  taxed  to  the 
utmost.  His  pay  could  not  support  him.  "The 
costs  of  living  here  are  horrible,"  he  writes.  "I 
have  only  two  thousand  crowns  a  year  for  all  my 
expenses,  and  I  have  already  been  forced  to  run  into 
debt  to  the  company  to  an  equal  amount."1  Part  of 
his  scanty  income  was  derived  from  a  fishery  of  eels, 
on  which  sundry  persons  had  encroached,  to  his  great 
detriment.2  "I  see  no  reason,"  he  adds,  "for  staying 
here  any  longer.  When  I  came  to  this  country,  I 
hoped  to  enjoy  a  little  repose,  but  I  am  doubly 
deprived  of  it,  —  on  one  hand  by  enemies  without, 
and  incessant  petty  disputes  within;  and,  on  the 
other,  by  the  difficulty  I  find  in  subsisting.  The 
profits  of  the  fur-trade  have  been  so  reduced  that  all 
the  inhabitants  are  in  the  greatest  poverty.  They 
are  all  insolvent,  and  cannot  pay  the  merchants  their 
advances." 

His  disgust  at  length  reached  a  crisis.  "I  am 
resolved  to  stay  here  no  longer,  but  to  go  home  next 
year.  My  horror  of  dissension,  and  the  manifest 
certainty  of  becoming  involved  in  disputes  with 
certain  persons  with  whom  I  am  unwilling  to  quarrel, 
oblige  me  to  anticipate  these  troubles,  and  seek  some 
way  of  living  in  peace.  These  excessive  fatigues 
are  far  too  much  for  my  strength.  I  am  writing  to 
Monsieur  the  President,  and  to  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Company  of  New  France,  to  choose  some  other  man 

1  Papiers  d'Argenson.     Lettre  d  M.  de  Morangi,  5  Sept.,  1658. 

2  Deliberations  de  la  Compagnie  de  la  Nouvelle  France, 

12 


178  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1661. 

for  this  government." l  And  again,  "  If  you  take  any 
interest  in  this  country,  see  that  the  person  chosen  to 
command  here  has,  besides  the  true  piety  necessary 
to  a  Christian  in  every  condition  of  life,  great  firm- 
ness of  character  and  strong  bodily  health.  I  assure 
you  that  without  these  qualities  he  cannot  succeed. 
Besides,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  he  should  be 
a  man  of  property  and  of  some  rank,  so  that  he  will 
not  be  despised  for  humble  birth,  or  suspected  of 
coming  here  to  make  his  fortune ;  for  in  that  case  he 
can  do  no  good  whatever."2 

His  constant  friction  with  the  head  of  the  Church 
distressed  the  pious  governor,  and  made  his  recall 
doubly  a  relief.  According  to  a  contemporary  writer, 
Laval  was  the  means  of  delivering  him  from  the 
burden  of  government,  having  written  to  the  Presi- 
dent Lamoignon  to  urge  his  removal.5  Be  this  as  it 
may,  it  is  certain  that  the  bishop  was  not  sorry  to  be 
rid  of  him. 

The  Baron  Dubois  d'Avaugour  arrived  to  take  his 
place.  He  was  an  old  soldier  of  forty  years'  service,4 
blunt,  imperative,  and  sometimes  obstinate  to  per- 
verseness,  but  full  of  energy,  and  of  a  probity  which 
even  his  enemies  confessed.  "  He  served  a  long  time 
in  Germany  while  you  were  there,"  writes  the  minis- 

1  Papiers  d'Argenson.    Lettre  a  son  Frere,  1659. 

2  Ibid.    Lettre  (a  son  Frere?),  4  Nov.,  1660.     The  originals   of 
Argenson's  letters  were  destroyed  in  the  burning  of  the  library  of 
the  Louvre  by  the  Commune. 

8  Lachenaye,  M&moire  sur  le  Canada. 
4  Avaugour,  Memoire,  4  Aotit,  1663. 


1661-62.]  THE  BRANDY   QUARREL.  179 

ter  Colbert  to  the  Marquis  de  Tracy,  "  and  you  must 
have  known  his  talents,  as  well  as  his  bizarre  and 
somewhat  impracticable  temper."  On  landing,  he 
would  have  no  reception,  being,  as  Father  Lalemant 
observes,  "an  enemy  of  all  ceremony."  He  went, 
however,  to  see  the  Jesuits,  and  "took  a  morsel  of 
food  in  our  refectory."1  Laval  was  prepared  to 
receive  him  with  all  solemnity  at  the  Church;  but 
the  governor  would  not  go.  He  soon  set  out  on  a 
tour  of  observation  as  far  as  Montreal,  whence  he 
returned  delighted  with  the  country,  and  immediately 
wrote  to  Colbert  in  high  praise  of  it,  observing  that 
the  St.  Lawrence  was  the  most  beautiful  river  he  had 
ever  seen.2 

It  was  clear  from  the  first  that,  while  he  had  a 
prepossession  against  the  bishop,  he  wished  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  the  Jesuits.  He  began  by  placing 
some  of  them  on  the  council;  but  they  and  Laval 
were  too  closely  united ;  and  if  Avaugour  thought  to 
separate  them,  he  signally  failed.  A  few  months 
only  had  elapsed  when  we  find  it  noted  in  Father 
Lalemant's  private  journal  that  the  governor  had 
dissolved  the  council  and  appointed  a  new  one,  and 
that  other  "changes  and  troubles"  had  befallen. 
The  inevitable  quarrel  had  broken  out;  it  was  a  com- 
plex one,  but  the  chief  occasion  of  dispute  was  fortu- 
nate for  the  ecclesiastics,  since  it  placed  them,  to  a 
certain  degree,  morally  in  the  right. 

1  Lalemant,  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Septembre,  1661. 

2  Lettre  d' Avaugour  au  Ministre,  1661. 


180  LAVAL  AND   AVAUGOUR.  [1661-62. 

The  question  at  issue  was  not  new.  It  had  agi- 
tated the  colony  for  years,  and  had  been  the  spring 
of  some  of  Argenson's  many  troubles.  Nor  did  it 
cease  with  Avaugour,  for  we  shall  trace  its  course 
hereafter,  tumultuous  as  a  tornado.  It  was  simply 
the  temperance  question,  —  not  as  regards  the 
colonists,  though  here,  too,  there  was  great  room  for 
reform,  but  as  regards  the  Indians. 

Their  inordinate  passion  for  brandy  had  long  been 
the  source  of  excessive  disorders.  They  drank 
expressly  to  get  drunk,  and  when  drunk  they  were 
like  wild  beasts.  Crime  and  violence  of  all  sorts 
ensued;  the  priests  saw  their  teachings  despised  and 
their  flocks  ruined.  On  the  other  hand,  the  sale  of 
brandy  was  a  chief  source  of  profit,  direct  or  indirect, 
to  all  those  interested  in  the  fur-trade,  including  the 
principal  persons  of  the  colony.  In  Argenson's  time, 
Laval  launched  an  excommunication  against  those 
engaged  in  the  abhorred  traffic;  for  nothing  less 
than  total  prohibition  would  content  the  clerical 
party,  and  besides  the  spiritual  penalty,  they  demanded 
the  punishment  of  death  against  the  contumacious 
offender.  Death,  in  fact,  was  decreed.  Such  was 
the  posture  of  affairs  when  Avaugour  arrived;  and, 
willing  as  he  was  to  conciliate  the  Jesuits,  he  per- 
mitted the  decree  to  take  effect,  although,  it  seems, 
with  great  repugnance.  A  few  weeks  after  his 
arrival,  two  men  were  shot  and  one  whipped,  for 
selling  brandy  to  Indians.1  An  extreme  though 

1  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Octobre,  1661. 


1661-62]  THE  BRANDY   QUARREL.  181 

partially  suppressed  excitement  shook  the  entire 
settlement;  for  most  of  the  colonists  were,  in  one 
degree  or  another,  implicated  in  the  offence  thus 
punished.  An  explosion  soon  followed;  and  the 
occasion  of  it  was  the  humanity  or  good-nature  of 
the  Jesuit  Lalemant. 

A  woman  had  been  condemned  to  imprisonment 
for  the  same  cause,  and  Lalemant,  moved  by  compas- 
sion, came  to  the  governor  to  intercede  for  her. 
Avaugour  could  no  longer  contain  himself,  and 
answered  the  reverend  petitioner  with  characteristic 
bluntness.  "You  and  your  brethren  were  the  first 
to  cry  out  against  the  trade,  and  now  you  want  to 
save  the  traders  from  punishment.  I  will  no  longer 
be  the  sport  of  your  contradictions.  Since  it  is  not 
a  crime  for  this  woman,  it  shall  not  be  a  crime  for 
anybody."1  And  in  this  posture  he  stood  fast,  with 
an  inflexible  stubbornness. 

Henceforth  there  was  full  license  to  liquor-dealers. 
A  violent  reaction  ensued  against  the  past  restriction, 
and  brandy  flowed  freely  among  French  and  Indians 
alike.  The  ungodly  drank  to  spite  the  priests  and  re- 
venge themselves  for  the  "  constraint  of  consciences, " 
of  which  they  loudly  complained.  The  utmost  con- 
fusion followed,  and  the  principles  on  which  the  pious 
colony  was  built  seemed  upheaved  from  the  founda- 
tion. Laval  was  distracted  with  grief  and  anger. 
He  outpoured  himself  from  the  pulpit  in  threats  of 
divine  wrath,  and  launched  fresh  excommunications 

1  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv.  v. 


182  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1662-63. 

against  the  offenders ;  but  such  was  the  popular  fury 
that  he  was  forced  to  yield  and  revoke  them.1 

Disorder  grew  from  bad  to  worse.  "Men  gave 
no  heed  to  bishop,  preacher,  or  confessor,"  writes 
Father  Charlevoix.  "  The  French  have  despised  the 
remonstrances  of  our  prelate,  because  they  are  sup- 
ported by  the  civil  power,"  says  the  superior  of  the 
Ursulines.  "He  is  almost  dead  with  grief,  and 
pines  away  before  our  eyes." 

Laval  could  bear  it  no  longer,  but  sailed  for 
France,  to  lay  his  complaints  before  the  court,  and 
urge  the  removal  of  Avaugour.  He  had,  besides, 
two  other  important  objects,  as  will  appear  hereafter. 
His  absence  brought  no  improvement.  Summer  and 
autumn  passed,  and  the  commotion  did  not  abate. 
Winter  was  drawing  to  a  close,  when,  at  length, 
outraged  Heaven  interposed  an  awful  warning  to  the 
guilty  colony. 

Scarcely  had  the  bishop  left  his  flock  when  the 
skies  grew  portentous  with  signs  of  the  chastisement 
to  come.  "We  beheld,"  gravely  writes  Father 
Lalemant,  "blazing  serpents  which  flew  through  the 
air,  borne  on  wings  of  fire.  We  beheld  above  Quebec 
a  great  globe  of  flame,  which  lighted  up  the  night, 
and  threw  out  sparks  on  all  sides.  This  same  meteor 
appeared  above  Montreal,  where  it  seemed  to  issue 

1  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Ffvrier,  1662.  The  sentence  of  excom- 
munication is  printed  in  the  Appendix  to  the  Esquisse  de  la  Vie  de 
Laval.  It  bears  date  February  24.  It  was  on  this  very  day  that 
he  was  forced  to  revoke  it. 


1663.]  PORTENTS.  188 

from  the  bosom  of  the  moon,  with  a  iioise  as  loud  as 
cannon  or  thunder;  and  after  sailing  three  leagues 
through  the  air,  it  disappeared  behind  the  mountain 
whereof  this  island  bears  the  name." l 

Still  greater  marvels  followed.  First,  a  Christian 
Algonquin  squaw,  described  as  "innocent,  simple, 
and  sincere,"  being  seated  erect  in  bed,  wide  awake, 
by  the  side  of  her  husband,  in  the  night  between  the 
fourth  and  fifth  of  February,  distinctly  heard  a 
voice  saying,  "Strange  things  will  happen  to-day; 
the  earth  will  quake !  "  In  great  alarm  she  whispered 
the  prodigy  to  her  husband,  who  told  her  that  she 
lied.  This  silenced  her  for  a  time;  but  when,  the 
next  morning,  she  went  into  the  forest  with  her 
hatchet  to  cut  a  fagot  of  wood,  the  same  dread 
voice  resounded  through  the  solitude,  and  sent  her 
back  in  terror  to  her  hut.2 

These  things  were  as  nothing  compared  with  the 
marvel  that  befell  a  nun  of  the  hospital,  Mother 
Catherine  de  Saint-Augustin,  who  died  five  years 
later,  in  the  odor  of  sanctity.  On  the  night  of  the 
fourth  of  February,  1663,  she  beheld  in  the  spirit 
four  furious  demons  at  the  four  corners  of  Quebec, 
shaking  it  with  a  violence  which  plainly  showed  their 
purpose  of  reducing  it  to  ruins;  "and  this  they 
would  have  done,"  says  the  story,  "if  a  personage  of 
admirable  beauty  and  ravishing  majesty  [Christ], 
whom  she  saw  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  who  from 

1  Lalemant,  Relation,  1663,  2. 

2  Ibid.,  166^  6. 


184  LAVAL   AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1663. 

time  to  time  gave  rein  to  their  fury,  had  not  restrained 
them  when  they  were  on  the  point  of  accomplishing 
their  wicked  design. "  She  also  heard  the  conversa- 
tion of  these  demons,  to  the  effect  that  people  were 
now  well  frightened,  and  many  would  be  converted; 
but  this  would  not  last  long,  and  they,  the  demons, 
would  have  them  in  time.  "Let  us  keep  on  shak- 
ing," they  cried,  encouraging  one  another,  "and  do 
our  best  to  upset  everything." 1 

Now,  to  pass  from  visions  to  facts :  "  At  half-past 
five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  fifth,"  writes 
Father  Lalemant,  "  a  great  roaring  sound  was  heard 
at  the  same  time  through  the  whole  extent  of 
Canada.  This  sound,  which  produced  an  effect  as 
if  the  houses  were  on  fire,  brought  everybody  out  of 
doors;  but  instead  of  seeing  smoke  and  flame,  they 
were  amazed  to  behold  the  walls  shaking,  and  all  the 
stones  moving  as  if  they  would  drop  from  their 
places.  The  houses  seemed  to  bend  first  to  one  side 
and  then  to  the  other.  Bells  sounded  of  themselves; 
beams,  joists,  and  planks  cracked ;  the  ground  heaved, 
making  the  pickets  of  the  palisades  dance  in  a  way 
that  would  have  seemed  incredible  had  we  not  seen 
it  in  divers  places. 

"  Everybody  was  in  the  streets ;  animals  ran  wildly 
about;  children  cried;  men  and  women,  seized  with 


1  Ragueneau,  Vie  de  Catherine  de  St.  Augustin,  liv.  iv.  chap.  i. 
The  same  story  is  told  by  Juchereau,  Lalemant,  and  Marie  de 
1'Incarnation,  to  whom  Charleroix  erroneously  ascribes  the  vision. 
as  does  also  the  Abbe  La  Tour. 


1663.]  THE   EARTHQUAKE.  185 

fright,  knew  not  where  to  take  refuge,  expecting 
every  moment  to  be  buried  under  the  ruins  of  the 
houses,  or  swallowed  up  in  some  abyss  opening  under 
their  feet.  Some,  on  their  knees  in  the  snow,  cried 
for  mercy,  and  others  passed  the  night  in  prayer;  for 
the  earthquake  continued  without  ceasing,  with  a 
motion  much  like  that  of  a  ship  at  sea,  insomuch  that 
sundry  persons  felt  the  same  qualms  of  stomach 
which  they  would  feel  on  the  water.  In  the  forests 
the  commotion  was  far  greater.  The  trees  struck 
one  against  the  other  as  if  there  were  a  battle  between 
them ;  and  you  would  have  said  that  not  only  their 
branches,  but  even  their  trunks,  started  out  of  their 
places  and  leaped  on  one  another  with  such  noise  and 
confusion  that  the  Indians  said  that  the  whole  forest 
was  drunk." 

Mary  of  the  Incarnation  gives  a  similar  account, 
as  does  also  Frances  Juchereau  de  Saint-Ignace ;  and 
these  contemporary  records  are  sustained  to  some 
extent  by  the  evidence  of  geology.1  A  remarkable 
effect  was  produced  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  which  was 
so  charged  with  mud  and  clay  that  for  many  weeks 
the  water  was  unfit  to  drink.  Considerable  hills  and 
large  tracts  of  forest  slid  from  their  places,  some  into 

1  Professor  Sterry  Hunt,  whose  intimate  knowledge  of  Canadian 
geology  is  well  known,  tells  me  that  the  shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
are  to  a  great  extent  formed  of  beds  of  gravel  and  clay  resting  on 
inclined  strata  of  rock,  so  that  earth-slides  would  be  the  necessary 
result  of  any  convulsion  like  that  of  1663.  He  adds  that  the  evi- 
dence that  such  slides  have  taken  place  on  a  great  scale  is  very 
distinct  at  various  points  along  the  river,  especially  at  Les  Eboule- 
mens,  on  the  north  shore. 


186  LAVAL   AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1663. 

the  river,  and  some  into  adjacent  valleys.  A  number 
of  men  in  a  boat  near  Tadoussac  stared  aghast  at  a 
large  hill  covered  with  trees,  which  sank  into  the 
water  before  their  eyes;  streams  were  turned  from 
their  courses ;  water-falls  were  levelled ;  springs  were 
dried  up  in  some  places,  while  in  others  new  springs 
appeared.  Nevertheless,  the  accounts  that  have 
come  down  to  us  seem  a  little  exaggerated,  and  some- 
times ludicrously  so ;  as  when,  for  example,  Mother 
Mary  of  the  Incarnation  tells  us  of  a  man  who  ran 
all  night  to  escape  from  a  fissure  in  the  earth  which 
opened  behind  him  and  chased  him  as  he  fled. 

It  is  perhaps  needless  to  say  that  "spectres  and 
phantoms  of  fire,  bearing  torches  in  their  hands," 
took  part  in  the  convulsion.  "  The  fiery  figure  of  a 
man  vomiting  flames  "  also  appeared  in  the  air,  with 
many  other  apparitions  too  numerous  to  mention.  It 
is  recorded  that  three  young  men  were  on  their  way 
through  the  forest  to  sell  brandy  to  the  Indians, 
when  one  of  them,  a  little  in  advance  of  the  rest,  was 
met  by  a  hideous  spectre  which  nearly  killed  him 
with  fright.  He  had  scarcely  strength  enough  to 
rejoin  his  companions,  who,  seeing  his  terror,  began 
to  laugh  at  him.  One  of  them,  however,  presently 
came  to  his  senses,  and  said:  "This  is  no  laughing 
matter;  we  are  going  to  sell  liquor  to  the  Indians 
against  the  prohibitions  of  the  Church,  and  perhaps 
God  means  to  punish  our  disobedience."  On  this 
they  all  turned  back.  That  night  they  had  scarcely 
lain  down  to  sleep  when  the  earthquake  roused 


1663.J 


AVAUGOUR  RECALLED. 


187 


them,  and  they  ran  out  of  their  hut  just  in  time  to 
escape  being  swallowed  up  along  with  it.1 

With  every  allowance,  it  is  clear  that  the  convul- 
sion must  have  been  a  severe  one,  and  it  is  remark- 
able that  in  all  Canada  not  a  life  was  lost.  The 
writers  of  the  day  see  in  this  a  proof  that  God  meant 
to  reclaim  the  guilty  and  not  destroy  them.  At 
Quebec  there  was  for  the  time  an  intense  revival  of 
religion.  The  end  of  the  world  was  thought  to  be 
at  hand,  and  everybody  made  ready  for  the  last  judg- 
ment. Repentant  throngs  beset  confessionals  and 
altars;  enemies  were  reconciled;  fasts,  prayers,  and 
penances  filled  the  whole  season  of  Lent.  Yet,  as 
we  shall  see,  the  Devil  could  still  find  wherewith  to 
console  himself. 

It  was  midsummer  before  the  shocks  wholly  ceased 
and  the  earth  resumed  her  wonted  calm.  An  extreme 
drought  was  followed  by  floods  of  rain,  and  then 
Nature  began  her  sure  work  of  reparation.  It  was 
about  this  time  that  the  thorn  which  had  plagued  the 
Church  was  at  length  plucked  out.  Avaugour  was 
summoned  home.  He  took  his  recall  with  magna- 
nimity, and  on  his  way  wrote  at  Gaspe*  a  memorial  to 
Colbert,  in  which  he  commends  New  France  to  the 
attention  of  the  King.  "The  St.  Lawrence,"  he 
says,  "is  the  entrance  to  what  may  be  made  the 

1  Marie  de  I'lncarnation,  Lettre  du  20  Aout,  1663.  It  appears 
from  Morton,  Josselyn,  and  other  writers,  that  the  earthquake 
extended  to  New  England  and  New  Netherlands,  producing  similar 
effects  on  the  imagination  of  the  people. 


188  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1663. 

greatest  state  in  the  world; "  and,  in  his  purely  mili- 
tary way,  he  recounts  the  means  of  realizing  this 
grand  possibility.  Three  thousand  soldiers  should 
be  sent  to  the  colony,  to  be  discharged  and  turned 
into  settlers  after  three  years  of  service.  During 
these  three  years  they  may  make  Quebec  an  impreg- 
nable fortress,  subdue  the.  Iroquois,  build  a  strong 
fort  on  the  river  where  the  Dutch  have  a  miserable 
wooden  redoubt,  called  Fort  Orange  (Albany),  and 
finally  open  a  way  by  that  river  to  the  sea.  Thus 
the  heretics  will  be  driven  out,  and  the  King  will  be 
master  of  America,  at  a  total  cost  of  about  four  hun- 
dred thousand  francs  yearly  for  ten  years.  He  closes 
his  memorial  by  a  short  allusion  to  the  charges 
against  him,  and  to  his  forty  years  of  faithful  service ; 
and  concludes,  speaking  of  the  authors  of  his  recall, 
Laval  and  the  Jesuits :  "  By  reason  of  the  respect  I 
owe  their  cloth,  I  will  rest  content,  Monseigneur, 
with  assuring  you  that  I  have  not  only  served  the 
King  with  fidelity,  but  also,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
with  very  good  success,  considering  the  means  at  my 
disposal."1  He  had,  in  truth,  borne  himself  as  a 
brave  and  experienced  soldier;  and  he  soon  after 
died  a  soldier's  death,  while  defending  the  fortress 
of  Zrin,  in  Croatia,  against  the  Turks.2 

1  Avaugour,  Memoire,  Gaspt,  4  Ao&t,  1663. 

2  Lettre  de  Colbert  au  Marquis  de  Tracy,  1664.    Mtmoirc  du  Roy, 
pour  servir  d' instruction  au  Sieur  Talon. 


CHAPTER  X. 

1661-1664. 
LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL. 

P±RONNE  DUMESNIL.  —  THE  OLD  COUNCIL.  —  ALLEGED  MURDER.  — 
THE  NEW  COUNCIL.  —  BOURDON  AND  VILLERAY.  —  STRONG  MEAS- 
URES. —  ESCAPE  OF  DUMESNIL.  —  VIEWS  OF  COLBERT. 

THOUGH  the  proposals  of  Avaugour's  memorial 
were  not  adopted,  it  seems  to  have  produced  a  strong 
impression  at  court.  For  this  impression  the  minds 
of  the  King  and  his  minister  had  already  been  pre- 
pared. Two  years  before,  the  inhabitants  of  Canada 
had  sent  one  of  their  number,  Pierre  Boucher,  to 
represent  their  many  grievances  and  ask  for  aid.1 
Boucher  had  had  an  audience  of  the  young  King, 
who  listened  with  interest  to  his  statements;  and 
when  in  the  following  year  he  returned  to  Quebec, 
he  was  accompanied  by  an  officer  named  Dumont, 
who  had  under  his  command  a  hundred  soldiers  for 
the  colony,  and  was  commissioned  to  report  its  con- 

1  To  promote  the  objects  of  his  mission,  Boucher  wrote  a  little 
book,  Histoire  Veritable  et  Naturelle  des  Moeurs  et  Productions  du 
Pays  de  la  Nouvelle  France.  He  dedicates  it  to  Colbert. 


190  LAVAL   AND  DUMESNIL.  [1660-63, 

dition  and  resources.1  The  movement  seemed  to 
betoken  that  the  government  was  wakening  at  last 
from  its  long  inaction. 

Meanwhile  the  Company  of  New  France,  feudal 
lord  of  Canada,  had  also  shown  signs  of  returning 
life.  Its  whole  history  had  been  one  of  mishap, 
followed  by  discouragement  and  apathy;  and  it  is 
difficult  to  say  whether  its  ownership  of  Canada  had 
been  more  hurtful  to  itself  or  to  the  colony.  At  the 
eleventh  hour  it  sent  out  an  agent  invested  with 
powers  of  controller-general,  intendant,  and  supreme 
judge,  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  its  affairs.  This 
agent,  Pe*ronne  Dumesnil,  arrived  early  in  the 
autumn  of  1660,  and  set  himself  with  great  vigor  to 
his  work.  He  was  an  advocate  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  an  active,  aggressive,  and  tenacious  person,  of 
a  temper  well  fitted  to  rip  up  an  old  abuse  or  probe 
.a  delinquency  to  the  bottom.  His  proceedings 
quickly  raised  a  storm  at  Quebec. 

It  may  be  remembered  that,  many  years  before, 
the  company  had  ceded  its  monopoly  of  the  fur-trade 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony,  in  consideration  of 
that  annual  payment  in  beaver-skins  which  had  been 
so  tardily  and  so  rarely  made.  The  direction  of  the 
trade  had  at  that  time  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  a 
council  composed  of  the  governor,  the  superior  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  several  other  members.  Various 
changes  had  since  taken  place,  and  the  trade  was 

1  A  long  journal  of  Dumont  is  printed  anonymously  in  the 
Relation  of  1663. 


1660-63.]  MONOPOLISTS.  191 

now  controlled  by  another  council,  established  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  company,1  and  composed  of 
the  principal  persons  in  the  colony.  The  members 
of  this  council,  with  certain  prominent  merchants  in 
league  with  them,  engrossed  all  the  trade,  so  that 
the  inhabitants  at  large  profited  nothing  by  the  right 
which  the  company  had  ceded ; 2  and  as  the  council- 
lors controlled  not  only  the  trade,  but  all  the  financial 
affairs  of  Canada,  while  the  remoteness  of  their  scene 
of  operations  made  it  difficult  to  supervise  them, 
they  were  able,  with  little  risk,  to  pursue  their  own 
profit,  to  the  detriment  both  of  the  company  and  the 
colony.  They  and  their  allies  formed  a  petty  trading 
oligarchy,  as  pernicious  to  the  prosperity  of  Canada 
as  the  Iroquois  war  itself. 

The  company,  always  anxious  for  its  beaver-skins, 
made  several  attempts  to  control  the  proceedings  of 
the  councillors  and  call  them  to  account,  but  with 
little  success,  till  the  vigorous  Dumesnil  undertook 
the  task;  when,  to  their  wrath  and  consternation, 
they  and  their  friends  found  themselves  attacked  by 
wholesale  accusations  of  fraud  and  embezzlement. 
That  these  charges  were  exaggerated  there  can  be 
little  doubt;  that  they  were  unfounded  is  incredible, 
in  view  of  the  effect  they  produced. 

The  councillors  refused  to  acknowledge  DumesniFs 

1  Registres  du   Conseil  du  Roy ;  Reponse  a  la  requeste  presentee  au 
Roy. 

2  Arret  du  Conseil  d'Etat,  7  Mars,  1657.  Also  Papiers  d'Argen- 
ton,  and  Extrait  des  Registres  du  Conseil  d'Etat,  15  Mar$t  1656. 


192  LAVAL   AND   DUMESNIL.  [1661. 

powers  as  controller,  intendant,  and  judge,  and 
declared  his  proceedings  null.  He  retorted  by  char- 
ging them  with  usurpation.  The  excitement  in- 
creased, and  Dumesnil's  life  was  threatened. 

He  had  two  sons  in  the  colony.  One  of  them, 
Pe*ronne  de  Maze*,  was  secretary  to  Avaugour,  then 
on  his  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  assume  the 
government.  The  other,  Pe'ronne  des  Touches,  was 
with  his  father  at  Quebec.  Towards  the  end  of 
August  this  young  man  was  attacked  in  the  street  in 
broad  daylight,  and  received  a  kick  which  proved 
fatal.  He  was  carried  to  his  father's  house,  where 
he  died  on  the  twenty-ninth.  Dumesnil  charges 
four  persons,  all  of  whom  were  among  those  into 
whose  affairs  he  had  been  prying,  with  having  taken 
part  in  the  outrage;  but  it  is  very  uncertain  who 
was  the  immediate  cause  of  Des  Touches 's  death. 
Dumesnil,  himself  the  supreme  judicial  officer  of  the 
colony,  made  complaint  to  the  judge  in  ordinary  of 
the  company;  but  he  says  that  justice  was  refused, 
the  complaint  suppressed  by  authority,  his  allegations 
torn  in  pieces,  and  the  whole  affair  hushed.1 

At  the  time  of  the  murder,  Dumesnil  was  confined 


1  Dumesnil,  Memoire.  Under  date  August  31  the  Journal  des 
Jesuites  makes  this  brief  and  guarded  mention  of  the  affair :  "  Le 
fils  de  Mons.  du  Mesnil  .  .  .  fut  enterr6  le  mesme  iour,  tue  d'vn 
coup  de  pie  par  N."  Who  is  meant  by  N.  it  is  difficult  to  say. 
The  register  of  the  parish  church  records  the  burial  as  follows  :  — 

"L'an  1661.  Le  30  Aoust  a  este  enterre  au  Cemetiere  de  Quebec 
Michel  peronne  dit  Sr.  des  Touches  fils  de  Mr.  du  Mesnil  decede 
le  Jour  precedent  a  sa  Maison." 


1662-63.]  THE  NEW  GOVERNMENT.  193 

to  his  house  by  illness.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
rouse  the  mob  against  him,  by  reports  that  he  had 
come  to  the  colony  for  the  purpose  of  laying  taxes ; 
but  he  sent  for  some  of  the  excited  inhabitants,  and 
succeeded  in  convincing  them  that  he  was  their 
champion  rather  than  their  enemy.  Some  Indians 
in  the  neighborhood  were  also  instigated  to  kill  him, 
and  he  was  forced  to  conciliate  them  by  presents. 

He  soon  renewed  his  attacks,  and  in  his  quality  of 
intendant  called  on  the  councillors  and  their  allies  to 
render  their  accounts,  and  settle  the  long  arrears  of 
debt  due  to  the  company.  They  set  his  demands  at 
naught.  The  war  continued  month  after  month. 
It  is  more  than  likely  that  when  in  the  spring  of 
1662  Avaugour  dissolved  and  reconstructed  the 
council,  his  action  had  reference  to  these  disputes; 
and  it  is  clear  that  when  in  the  following  August 
Laval  sailed  for  France,  one  of  his  objects  was  to 
restore  the  tranquillity  which  Dumesnil's  proceed- 
ings had  disturbed.  There  was  great  need;  for, 
what  with  these  proceedings  and  the  quarrel  about 
brandy,  Quebec  was  a  little  hell  of  discord,  the  earth- 
quake not  having  as  yet  frightened  it  into  propriety. 

The  bishop's  success  at  court  was  triumphant. 
Not  only  did  he  procure  the  removal  of  Avaugour, 
but  he  was  invited  to  choose  a  new  governor  to 
replace  him.1  This  was  not  all;  for  he  succeeded 
in  effecting  a  complete  change  in  the  government  of 
the  colony.  The  Company  of  New  France  was  called 

1  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv.  v. 
13 


194  LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

upon  to  resign  its  claims ; ]  and  by  a  royal  edict  of 
April,  1663,  all  power,  legislative,  judicial,  and 
executive,  was  vested  in  a  council  composed  of  the 
governor  whom  Laval  had  chosen,  of  Laval  himself, 
and  of  five  councillors,  an  attorney-general,  and  a 
secretary,  to  be  chosen  by  Laval  and  the  governor 
jointly.2  Bearing  with  them  blank  commissions  to 
be  filled  with  the  names  of  the  new  functionaries, 
Laval  and  his  governor  sailed  for  Quebec,  where  they 
landed  on  the  fifteenth  of  September.  With  them 
came  one  Gaudais-Dupont,  a  royal  commissioner 
instructed  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  colony. 

No  sooner  had  they  arrived  than  Laval  and  Mdzy, 
the  new  governor,  proceeded  to  construct  the  new 
council.  Mdzy  knew  nobody  in  the  colony,  and  was, 
at  this  time,  completely  under  Laval's  influence. 
The  nominations,  therefore,  were  virtually  made  by 
the  bishop  alone,  in  whose  hands,  and  not  in  those  of 
the  governor,  the  blank  commissions  had  been 
placed.3  Thus  for  the  moment  he  had  complete  con- 
trol of  the  government;  that  is  to  say,  the  Church 
was  mistress  of  the  civil  power. 

1  See  the  deliberations  and  acts  to  this  end  in  Edits  et  Or  don- 
nances  concernant  le  Canada,  i.  30-32. 

2  ]£dit  de  Creation  du  Conseil  Superieur  de  Quebec. 

8  Commission  actroyee  au  Sieur  Gaudais.  Memoire  pour  servir 
d' Instruction  au  Sieur  Gaudais.  A  sequel  to  these  instructions,  marked 
"  secret,"  shows  that,  notwithstanding  Laval's  extraordinary  success 
in  attaining  his  objects,  he  and  the  Jesuits  were  somewhat  dis- 
trusted. Gaudais  is  directed  to  make,  with  great  discretion  and 
caution,  careful  inquiry  into  the  bishop's  conduct,  and  with  equal 
secrecy  to  ascertain  why  the  Jesuits  had  asked  for  Avaugour's 
recall. 


1663.]  THE   COUNCIL.  19b 

Laval  formed  his  council  as  follows :  Jean  Bourdon 
for  attorney -general ;  Rouer  de  Villeray,  Juchereau 
de  la  Ferte,  Ruette  d'Auteuil,  Le  Gardeur  de  Tilly, 
and  Matthieu  D'Amours  for  Councellors;  and  Peuvret 
de  Mesnu  for  secretary.  The  royal  commissioner, 
Gaudais,  also  took  a  prominent  place  at  the  board.1 
This  functionary  was  on  the  point  of  marrying  his 
niece  to  a  son  of  Robert  Giffard,  who  had  a  strong 
interest  in  suppressing  Dumesnirs  accusations.2 
Duinesnil  had  laid  his  statements  before  the  commis- 
sioner, who  quickly  rejected  them,  and  took  part 
with  the  accused. 

Of  those  appointed  to  the  new  council,  their  enemy 
Duinesnil  says  that  they  were  "  incapable  persons ; " 
and  their  associate  Gaudais,  in  defending  them 
against  worse  charges,  declares  that  they  were 
"unlettered,  of  little  experience,  and  nearly  all 
unable  to  deal  with  affairs  of  importance."  This 
was,  perhaps,  unavoidable;  for  except  among  the 
ecclesiastics,  education  was  then  scarcely  known  in 
Canada.  But  if  Laval  may  be  excused  for  putting 

1  As  substitute  for  the  intendant,  an  officer  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed but  who  had  not  arrived. 

2  Dumesnil  here  makes  one  of  the  few  mistakes  I  have  been  able 
to  detect  in  his  long  memorials.    He  says  that  the  name  of  the 
niece  of  Gaudais  was  Marie  Nau.    It  was,  in  fact,  Michelle-Therese 
Nau,  who  married  Joseph,  son  of  Robert  Giffard,  on  the  22d  of 
October,   1663.    Dumesnil  had  forgotten  the  bride's  first  name. 
The   elder  Giffard  was   surety  for  Repentigny,  whom  Dumesnil 
charged  with    liabilities  to  the  company,  amounting    to  644,700 
livres.    Giffard  was  also  father-in-law  of  Juchereau  de  la  Ferte, 
one  of  the  accused. 


196  LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

incompetent  men  in  office,  nothing  can  excuse  him 
for  making  men  charged  with  gross  public  offences 
the  prosecutors  and  judges  in  their  own  cause;  and 
his  course  in  doing  so  gives  color  to  the  assertion  of 
Dumesnil  that  he  made  up  the  council  expressly  to 
shield  the  accused  and  smother  the  accusation.1 

The  two  persons  under  the  heaviest  charges 
received  the  two  most  important  appointments,  — 
Bourdon,  attorney-general;  and  Villeray,  keeper  of 
the  seals.  La  Fert6  was  also  one  of  the  accused.2 
Of  Villeray,  the  governor  Argenson  had  written  in 
1659 :  "  Some  of  his  qualities  are  good  enough,  but 
confidence  cannot  be  placed  in  him  on  account  of  his 
instability."3  In  the  same  year  he  had  been  ordered 
to  France,  "  to  purge  himself  of  sundry  crimes  where- 


1  Dumesnil  goes  further  than  this,  for  he  plainly  intimates  that 
the  removing  from  power  of  the   company,  to  whom  the  accused 
were  responsible,  and  the  placing  in  power  of  a  council  formed  of 
the  accused  themselves,  was  a  device  contrived  from  the  first  by 
Laval  and  the  Jesuits  to  get  their  friends  out  of  trouble. 

2  Bourdon  is  charged  with  not  having  accounted  for  an  immense 
quantity   of  beaver-skins  which  had  passed    through    his  hands 
during  twelve  years  or  more,  and  which  are  valued  at  more  than 
300,000  livres.     Other  charges  are  made  against  him  in  connection 
with  large  sums  borrowed  in  Lauson's  time  on  account  of  the 
colony.    In  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  King  in  council,  Dumesnil 
says  that  in  1662  Bourdon,  according  to  his  own  accounts,  had  in 
his  hands  37,516  livres  belonging  to  the  company,  which  he  still 
retained. 

Villeray's  liabilities  arose  out  of  the  unsettled  accounts  of  his 
father-in-law,  Charles  Sevestre,  and  are  set  down  at  more  than 
600,000  livres.  La  Ferte's  are  of  a  smaller  amount.  Others  of  the 
council  were  indirectly  involved  in  the  charges. 

8  Lettre  d' Argenson,  20  Nov.,  1659. 


1663.]  VILLERAY  AND  BOURDON.  197 

with  he  stands  charged."1  He  was  not  yet  free  of 
suspicion,  having  returned  to  Canada  under  an  order 
to  make  up  and  render  his  accounts,  which  he  had 
not  yet  done.  Dumesnil  says  that  he  first  came  to 
the  colony  in  1651,  as  valet  of  the  governor  Lauson, 
who  had  taken  him  from  the  jail  at  Rochelle,  where 
he  was  imprisoned  for  a  debt  of  seventy-one  francs, 
"as  appears  by  the  record  of  the  jail  of  date  July 
eleventh  in  that  year."  From  this  modest  beginning 
he  became  in  time  the  richest  man  in  Canada.2  He 
was  strong  in  orthodoxy,  and  an  ardent  supporter  of 
the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits.  He  is  alternately  praised 
and  blamed,  according  to  the  partisan  leanings  of  the 
writer. 

Bourdon,  though  of  humble  origin,  was,  perhaps, 
the  most  intelligent  man  in  the  council.  He  was 
chiefly  known  as  an  engineer,  but  he  had  also  been  a 
baker,  a  painter,  a  syndic  of  the  inhabitants,  chief 
gunner  at  the  fort,  and  collector  of  customs  for  the 
company.  Whether  guilty  of  embezzlement  or  not, 
he  was  a  zealous  devotee,  and  would  probably  have 
died  for  his  creed.  Like  Villeray,  he  was  one  of 
Laval's  stanchest  supporters,  while  the  rest  of  the 
council  were  also  sound  in  doctrine  and  sure  in 
allegiance. 

In  virtue  of  their  new  dignity,  the  accused  now 
claimed  exemption  from  accountability;  but  this  was 
not  all.  The  abandonment  of  Canada  by  the  com- 

1  Edit  du  Roy,  13  Mai,  1659. 

2  Lettre  de  Colbert  a  Frontenac,  17  Mai,  1674. 


198  LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

pany,  in  leaving  Dumesnil  without  support,  and 
depriving  him  of  official  character,  had  made  his 
charges  far  less  dangerous.  Nevertheless,  it  was 
thought  best  to  suppress  them  altogether,  and  the 
first  act  of  the  new  government  was  to  this  end. 

On  the  twentieth  of  September,  the  second  day 
after  the  establishment  of  the  council,  Bourdon,  in 
his  character  of  attorney-general,  rose  and  demanded 
that  the  papers  of  Jean  Pe'ronne  Dumesnil  should  be 
seized  and  sequestered.  The  council  consented ;  and, 
to  complete  the  scandal,  Villeray  was  commissioned 
to  make  the  seizure  in  the  presence  of  Bourdon.  To 
color  the  proceeding,  it  was  alleged  that  Dumesnil 
had  obtained  certain  papers  unlawfully  from  the 
greffe,  or  record  office.  "As  he  was  thought,"  says 
Gaudais,  "to  be  a  violent  man,"  Bourdon  and  Villeray 
took  with  them  ten  soldiers,  well  armed,  together 
with  a  locksmith  and  the  secretary  of  the  council. 
Thus  prepared  for  every  contingency,  they  set  out 
on  their  errand,  and  appeared  suddenly  at  Dumesnil's 
house  between  seven  and  eight  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing. " The  aforesaid  Sieur  Dumesnil,"  further  says 
Gaudais,  "did  not  refute  the  opinion  entertained  of 
his  violence;  for  he  made  a  great  noise,  shouted 
rollers!  and  tried  to  rouse  the  neighborhood,  out- 
rageously abusing  the  aforesaid  Sieur  de  Villeray 
and  the  attorney-general,  in  great  contempt  of  the 
authority  of  the  council,  which  he  even  refused  to 
recognize." 

They  tried  to  silence  him  by  threats,  but  without 


1663.]  DESIGNS  OF  THE   COUNCIL.  199 

effect;  upon  which  they  seized  him  and  held  him 
fast  in  a  chair, —  "  me,"  writes  the  wrathful  Dumesnil, 
"who  had  lately  been  their  judge."  The  scldiers 
stood  over  him  and  stopped  his  mouth,  while  the 
others  broke  open  and  ransacked  his  cabinet,  drawers, 
and  chest,  from  which  they  took  all  his  papers, 
refusing  to  give  him  an  inventory,  or  to  permit 
any  witness  to  enter  the  house.  Some  of  these 
papers  were  private;  among  the  rest  were,  he  says, 
the  charges  and  specifications,  nearly  finished,  for  the 
trial  of  Bourdon  and  Villeray,  together  with  the 
proofs  of  their  "peculations,  extortions,  and  malver- 
sations." The  papers  were  enclosed  under  seal,  and 
deposited  in  a  neighboring  house,  whence  they  were 
afterwards  removed  to  the  council-chamber,  and 
Dumesnil  never  saw  them  again.  It  may  well  be 
believed  that  this,  the  inaugural  act  of  the  new 
council,  was  not  allowed  to  appear  on  its  records.1 

On  the  twenty-first,  Villeray  made  a  formal  report 
of  the  seizure  to  his  colleagues ;  upon  which,  "  by  rea- 
son of  the  insults,  violences,  and  irreverences  therein 
set  forth  against  the  aforesaid  Sieur  de  Villeray,  com- 
missioner, as  also  against  the  authority  of  the 
council,"  it  was  ordered  that  the  offending  Dumesnil 
should  be  put  under  arrest;  but  Gaudais,  as  he 
declares,  prevented  the  order  from  being  carried  into 
effect. 

1  The  above  is  drawn  from  the  two  memorials  of  Gaudais  and  of 
Dumesnil.  They  do  not  contradict  each  other  as  to  the  essential 
facts. 


200  LAVAL   AND   DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

Dumesnil,  who  says  that  during  the  scene  at  hia 
house  he  had  expected  to  be  murdered  like  his  son, 
now,  though  unsupported  and  alone,  returned  to  the 
attack,  demanded  his  papers,  and  was  so  loud  in 
threats  of  complaint  to  the  King  that  the  council 
were  seriously  alarmed.  They  again  decreed  his 
arrest  and  imprisonment,  but  resolved  to  keep  the 
decree  secret  till  the  morning  of  the  day  when  the 
last  of  the  returning  ships  was  to  sail  for  France. 
In  this  ship  Dumesnil  had  taken  his  passage,  and 
they  proposed  to  arrest  him  unexpectedly  on  the 
point  of  embarkation,  that  he  might  have  no  time  to 
prepare  and  despatch  a  memorial  to  the  court.  Thus 
a  full  year  must  elapse  before  his  complaints  could 
reach  the  minister,  and  seven  or  eight  months  more 
before  a  reply  could  be  returned  to  Canada.  During 
this  long  delay  the  affair  would  have  time  to  cool. 
Dumesnil  received  a  secret  warning  of  this  plan,  and 
accordingly  went  on  board  another  vessel,  which  was 
to  sail  immediately.  The  council  caused  the  six 
cannon  of  the  battery  in  the  Lower  Town  to  be 
pointed  at  her,  and  threatened  to  sink  her  if  she  left 
the  harbor;  but  she  disregarded  them,  and  proceeded 
on  her  way. 

On  reaching  France,  Dumesnil  contrived  to  draw 
the  attention  of  the  minister  Colbert  to  his  accusa- 
tions, and  to  the  treatment  they  had  brought  upon 
him.  On  this  Colbert  demanded  of  Gaudais,  who 
had  also  returned  in  one  of  the  autumn  ships,  why 
he  had  not  reported  these  matters  to  him.  Gaudais 


1663.]  CHARGES  OF   DUMESNIL.  201 

made  a  lame  attempt  to  explain  his  silence,  gave  his 
statement  of  the  seizure  of  the  papers,  answered  in 
vague  terms  some  of  Dumesnil's  charges  against  the 
Canadian  financiers,  and  said  that  he  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  rest.  In  the  following  spring  Colbert 
wrote  as  follows  to  his  relative  Terron,  intendant  of 
marine :  — 

"I  do  not  know  what  report  M.  Gaudais  has  made 
to  you,  but  family  interests  and  the  connections 
which  he  has  at  Quebec  should  cause  him  to  be  a 
little  distrusted.  On  his  arrival  in  that  country, 
having  constituted  himself  chief  of  the  council,  he 
despoiled  an  agent  of  the  Company  of  Canada  of  all 
his  papers,  in  a  manner  very  violent  and  extraordi- 
nary ;  and  this  proceeding  leaves  no  doubt  whatever 
that  these  papers  contained  matters  the  knowledge  of 
which  it  was  wished  absolutely  to  suppress.  I  think 
it  will  be  very  proper  that  you  should  be  informed  of 
the  statements  made  by  this  agent,  in  order  that, 
through  him,  an  exact  knowledge  may  be  acquired  of 
everything  that  has  taken  place  in  the  management 
of  affairs."1 

Whether  Terron  pursued  the  inquiry  does  not 
appear.  Meanwhile  new  quarrels  had  arisen  at 

i  Lettre  de  Colbert  a  Terron  Rockelle,  8  Fev.,  1664.  "II  a  spolie 
un  agent  de  la  Compagnie  de  Canada  de  tous  ses  papiers  d'une 
maniere  fort  violente  et  extraordinaire,  et  ce  procede'ne  laisse  point 
a  douter  que  dans  ces  papiers  il  n'y  eut  des  choses  dont  on  a  voulu 
absolument  supprimer  la  connaissance."  Colbert  seems  to  have 
received  an  exaggerated  impression  of  the  part  borne  by  Gaudais 
in  the  seizure  of  the  papers. 


202  LAVAL   AND  DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

Quebec,  and  the  questions  of  the  past  were  obscured 
in  the  dust  of  fresh  commotions.  Nothing  is  more 
noticeable  in  the  whole  history  of  Canada,  after  it 
came  under  the  direct  control  of  the  Crown,  than  the 
helpless  manner  in  which  this  absolute  government 
was  forced  to  overlook  and  ignore  the  disobedience 
and  rascality  of  its  functionaries  in  this  distant 
transatlantic  dependency. 

As  regards  Dumesnil's  charges,  the  truth  seems  to 
be,  that  the  financial  managers  of  the  colony,  being 
ignorant  and  unpractised,  had  kept  imperfect  and 
confused  accounts,  which  they  themselves  could  not 
always  unravel;  and  that  some,  if  not  all  of  them, 
had  made  illicit  profits  under  cover  of  this  confusion. 
That  their  stealings  approached  the  enormous  sum 
at  which  Dumesnil  places  them  is  not  to  be  believed. 
But,  even  on  the  grossly  improbable  assumption  of 
their  entire  innocence,  there  can  be  no  apology  for 
the  means,  subversive  of  all  justice,  by  which  Laval 
enabled  his  partisans  and  supporters  to  extricate 
themselves  from  embarrassment. 


NOTE.  —  Dumesnil's  principal  memorial,  preserved  in  the  ar- 
chives of  the  Marine  and  Colonies,  is  entitled  Memoire  concernant  les 
Affaires  du  Canada,  qui  montre  etfait  voir  que  sous  pretexts  de  la 
Gloire  de  Dieu,  d' Instruction  des  Sauvages,  de  servir  le  Roy  et  defaire 
la  nouvette  Colonie,  il  a  etc"  pris  et  diverti  trois  millions  de  livres  ou 
environ.  It  forms  in  the  copy  before  me  thirty-eight  pages  of 
manuscript,  and  bears  no  address,  but  seems  meant  for  Colbert,  or 
the  council  of  state.  There  is  a  second  memorial,  which  is  little 
else  than  an  abridgment  of  the  first.  A  third,  bearing  the  address 
Au  Roy  et  d  nos  Seigneurs  du  Conseil  (d'Etat),  and  signed  Peronne 
Dumesnil,  is  a  petition  for  the  payment  of  10,132  livres  due  to  him 


1668.]     DUMESNIL'S   PRINCIPAL  MEMORIAL.         203 

by  the  company  for  his  services  in  Canada,  "  ou  il  a  perdu  son  fils 
assassin^  par  les  comptables  du  dit  pays,  qui  n'ont  voulu  rendre 
compte  au  dit  suppliant,  Intendant,  et  ont  pille*  sa  maison,  ses 
meubles  et  papiers  le  20  du  mois  de  Septembre  dernier,  dont  il  y 
a  acte." 

Gaudais,  in  compliance  with  the  demands  of  Colbert,  gives  his 
statement  in  a  long  memorial,  Le  Sieur  Gaudais  Dupont  a  Monsei- 
gneur  de  Colbert,  1664. 

Dumesnil,  in  his  principal  memorial,  gives  a  list  of  the  alleged 
defaulters,  with  the  special  charges  against  each,  and  the  amounts 
for  which  he  reckons  them  liable.  The  accusations  cover  a  period 
of  ten  or  twelve  years,  and  sometimes  more.  Some  of  them  are 
curiously  suggestive  of  more  recent  "  rings."  Thus  Jean  Gloria 
makes  a  charge  of  thirty-one  hundred  livres  (francs)  for  fireworks 
to  celebrate  the  King's  marriage,  when  the  actual  cost  is  said  to 
have  been  about  forty  livres.  Others  are  alleged  to  have  embezzled 
the  funds  of  the  company,  under  cover  of  pretended  payments  to 
imaginary  creditors ;  and  Argenson  himself  is  said  to  have  eked 
out  his  miserable  salary  by  drawing  on  the  company  for  the  pay  of 
soldiers  who  did  not  exist. 

The  records  of  the  Council  preserve  a  guarded  silence  about 
this  affair.  I  find,  however,  under  date  20  Sept.,  1663,  "  Pouvoir  a 
M.  de  Villeray  de  faire  recherche  dans  la  maison  d'un  nomme  du 
Mesnil  des  papiers  appartenants  au  Conseil  concernant  Sa  Ma- 
jestfe ; "  and  under  date  18  March,  1664,  "  Ordre  pour  Touverture  du 
coffre  contenant  les  papiers  de  Dumesnil,"  and  also  an  "  Ordre 
pour  mettre  1'Inventaire  des  biens  du  Sr.  Dumesnil  entre  les  mains 
du  Sr<  Fillion." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

1657-1665. 
LAVAL  AND  M&ZY. 

THE  BISHOP'S  CHOICE.  —  A  MILITARY  ZEALOT.  —  HOPEFUL  BEGIN- 
NINGS. —  SIGNS  OP  STORM.  —  THE  QUARREL.  — DISTRESS  OF  MEZY  : 
HE  REFUSES  TO  YIELD  ;  HIS  DEFEAT  AND  DEATH. 

•  WE  have  seen  that  Laval,  when  at  court,  had 
been  invited  to  choose  a  governor  to  his  liking.  He 
soon  made  his  selection.  There  was  a  pious  officer, 
Saffray  de  Me*zy,  major  of  the  town  and  citadel  of 
Caen,  whom  he  had  well  known  during  his  long 
stay  with  Bernieres  at  the  Hermitage.  Me'zy  was  the 
principal  member  of  the  company  of  devotees  formed 
at  Caen  under  the  influence  of  Bernieres  and  his 
disciples.  In  his  youth  he  had  been  headstrong  and 
dissolute.  Worse  still,  he  had  been,  it  is  said,  a 
Huguenot ;  but  both  in  life  and  doctrine  his  conver- 
sion had  been  complete,  and  the  fervid  mysticism  of 
Bernieres  acting  on  his  vehement  nature  had  trans- 
formed him  into  a  red-hot  zealot.  Towards  the 
hermits  and  their  chief  he  showed  a  docility  in 
strange  contrast  with  his  past  history,  and  followed 


1657-59.]  A  MILITARY  ZEALOT.  205 

their  inspirations  with  an  ardor  which  sometimes 
overleaped  its  mark. 

Thus  a  Jacobin  monk,  a  doctor  of  divinity,  once 
came  to  preach  at  the  church  of  St.  Paul  at  Caen; 
on  which,  according  to  their  custom,  the  brotherhood 
of  the  Hermitage  sent  two  persons  to  make  report 
concerning  his  orthodoxy.  MeYy  and  another  mili- 
tary zealot,  "who,"  says  the  narrator,  "hardly 
know  how  to  read,  and  assuredly  do  not  know  their 
catechism,"  were  deputed  to  hear  his  first  sermon; 
wherein  this  Jacobin,  having  spoken  of  the  necessity 
of  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  in  order  to  the  doing  of 
good  deeds,  these  two  wiseacres  thought  that  he 
was  preaching  Jansenism;  and  thereupon,  after  the 
sermon,  the  Sieur  de  Me'zy  went  to  the  proctor  of 
the  ecclesiastical  court  and  denounced  him."1 

His  zeal,  though  but  moderately  tempered  with 
knowledge,  sometimes  proved  more  useful  than  on 
this  occasion.  The  Jacobin  convent  at  Caen  was 
divided  against  itself.  Some  of  the  monks  had 
embraced  the  doctrines  taught  by  Berni^res,  while 
the  rest  held  dogmas  which  he  declared  to  be 
contrary  to  those  of  the  Jesuits,  and  therefore 
heterodox.  A  prior  was  to  be  elected,  and  with  the 
help  of  Bernieres  his  partisans  gained  the  victory, 
choosing  one  Father  Louis,  through  whom  the 
Hermitage  gained  a  complete  control  in  the  convent. 
But  the  adverse  party  presently  resisted,  and  com- 

1  Nicole,  Memoire  pour  faire  connoistre  I'esprit  et  la  conduite  de  la 
Compagnie  appellee  I' Hermitage. 


206  LAVAL  AND  M^ZY.  [1663 

plained  to  the  provincial  of  their  order,  who  came  to 
Caen  to  close  the  dispute  by  deposing  Father  Louis. 
Hearing  of  his  approach,  Bernieres  asked  aid  from 
his  military  disciple,  and  De  Me'zy  sent  him  a  squad 
of  soldiers,  who  guarded  the  convent  doors  and  barred 
out  the  provincial.1 

Among  the  merits  of  Me'zy,  his  humility  and 
charity  were  especially  admired;  and  the  people  of 
Caen  had  more  than  once  seen  the  town  major  stag- 
gering across  the  street  with  a  beggar  mounted  on 
his  back,  whom  he  was  bearing  dry-shod  through  the 
mud  in  the  exercise  of  those  virtues.2  In  this  he 
imitated  his  master  Bernieres,  of  whom  similar  acts 
are  recorded.3  However  dramatic  in  manifestation, 
his  devotion  was  not  only  sincere  but  intense.  Laval 
imagined  that  he  knew  him  well.  Above  all  others, 
Me'zy  was  the  man  of  his  choice ;  and  so  eagerly  did 
he  plead  for  him  that  the  King  himself  paid  certain 
debts  which  the  pious  major  had  contracted,  and 
thus  left  him  free  to  sail  for  Canada. 

His  deportment  on  the  voyage  was  edifying,  and 
the  first  days  of  his  accession  were  passed  in  harmony. 
He  permitted  Laval  to  form  the  new  council,  and 
supplied  the  soldiers  for  the  seizure  of  Dumesnil's 
papers.  A  question  arose  concerning  Montreal,  a 
subject  on  which  the  governors  and  the  bishop  rarely 

1  Nicole,  Memoire  pour  fairs  connoistre  V esprit  et  la  conduite  de  la 
Compagnie  appellee  I' Hermitage. 

a  Juchereau,  Histoire  de  I' H6tel-Dieu,  149. 

8  See  the  laudatory  notice  of  Bernieres  de  Loimgny  in  the 
Nouvelle  Biographic  Universelle. 


1663.]  SIGNS  OF   STORM.  207 

differed  in  opinion.  The  present  instance  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule.  Me*zy  removed  Maisonneuve, 
the  local  governor,  and  immediately  replaced  him,  — • 
the  effect  being,  that  whereas  he  had  before  derived 
his  authority  from  the  seigniors  of  the  island,  he  now 
derived  it  from  the  governor-general.  It  was  a 
movement  in  the  interest  of  centralized  power,  and 
as  such  was  cordially  approved  by  Laval. 

The  first  indication  to  the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits 
that  the  new  governor  was  not  likely  to  prove  in 
their  hands  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter,  is  said 
to  have  been  given  on  occasion  of  an  interview  with 
an  embassy  of  Iroquois  chiefs,  to  whom  Me'zy,  aware 
of  their  duplicity,  spoke  with  a  decision  and  haughti- 
ness that  awed  the  savages  and  astonished  the  eccle- 
siastics. He  seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  natures 
that  run  with  an  engrossing  vehemence  along  any 
channel  into  which  they  may  have  been  turned.  At 
the  Hermitage  he  was  all  devotee;  but  climate  and 
conditions  had  changed,  and  he  or  his  symptoms 
changed  with  them.  He  found  himself  raised  sud- 
denly to  a  post  of  command,  or  one  which  was  meant 
to  be  such.  The  town  major  of  Caen  was  set  to  rule 
over  a  region  far  larger  than  France.  The  royal 
authority  was  trusted  to  his  keeping,  and  his  honor 
and  duty  forbade  him  to  break  the  trust.  But  when 
he  found  that  those  who  had  procured  for  him  his 
new  dignities  had  done  so  that  he  might  be  an  instru- 
ment of  their  will,  his  ancient  pride  started  again 
into  life,  and  his  headstrong  temper  broke  out  like  a 


208  LAVAL  AND  M^ZY.  [1664. 

long-smothered    fire.     Laval    stood    aghast    at    the 
transformation.     His  lamb  had  turned  wolf. 

What  especially  stirred  the  governor's  dudgeon 
was  the  conduct  of  Bourdon,  Villeray,  and  Auteuil, 
those  faithful  allies  whom  Laval  had  placed  on  the 
council,  and  who,  as  Me'zy  soon  found,  were  wholly  in 
the  bishop's  interest.  On  the  thirteenth  of  February 
he  sent  his  friend  Angoville,  major  of  the  fort,  to 
Laval,  with  a  written  declaration  to  the  effect  that 
he  had  ordered  them  to  absent  themselves  from  the 
council,  because,  having  been  appointed  "on  the 
persuasion  of  the  aforesaid  Bishop  of  Petrsea,  who 
knew  them  to  be  wholly  his  creatures,  they  wish  to 
make  themselves  masters  in  the  aforesaid  council, 
and  have  acted  in  divers  ways  against  the  interests 
of  the  King  and  the  public  for  the  promotion  of 
personal  and  private  ends,  and  have  formed  and 
fomented  cabals,  contrary  to  their  duty  and  their 
oath  of  fidelity  to  his  aforesaid  Majesty."1  He 
further  declares  that  advantage  had  been  taken  of 
the  facility  of  his  disposition  and  his  ignorance  of  the 
country  to  surprise  him  into  assenting  to  their  nomi- 
nation; and  he  asks  the  bishop  to  acquiesce  in  their 
expulsion,  and  join  him  in  calling  an  assembly  of  the 
people  to  choose  others  in  their  place.  Laval  refused ; 
on  which  Me'zy  caused  his  declaration  to  be  placarded 
about  Quebec  and  proclaimed  by  sound  of  drum. 

1  Ordre  de  M.  de  Mezy  de  fairs  sommation  a  VEveque  de  Petree,  13 
Fev.,  1664.  Notification  du  dit  Ordre,  meme  date.  (Registre  du 
Conseil  Suptfrieur.) 


1664.1  DISTRESS   OF  M^ZY.  209 

The  proposal  of  a  public  election,  contrary  as  it 
was  to  the  spirit  of  the  government,  opposed  to  the 
edict  establishing  the  council,  and  utterly  odious  to 
the  young  autocrat  who  ruled  over  France,  gave 
Laval  a  great  advantage.  "I  reply,"  he  wrote,  "to 
the  request  which  Monsieur  the  Governor  makes  me 
to  consent  to  the  interdiction  of  the  persons  named 
in  his  declaration,  and  proceed  to  the  choice  of  other 
councillors  or  officers  by  an  assembly  of  the  people, 
that  neither  my  conscience  nor  my  honor,  nor  the 
respect  and  obedience  which  I  owe  to  the  will  and 
commands  of  the  King,  nor  my  fidelity  and  affection 
to  his  service,  will  by  any  means  permit  me  to 
do  so."1 

Me'zy  was  dealing  with  an  adversary  armed  with 
redoubtable  weapons.  It  was  intimated  to  him  that 
the  sacraments  would  be  refused,  and  the  churches 
closed  against  him.  This  threw  him  into  an  agony 
of  doubt  and  perturbation ;  for  the  emotional  religion 
which  had  become  a  part  of  his  nature,  though 
overborne  by  gusts  of  passionate  irritation,  was  still 
full  of  life  within  him.  Tossing  between  the  old 
feeling  and  the  new,  he  took  a  course  which  reveals 
the  trouble  and  confusion  of  his  mind.  He  threw 
himself  for  counsel  and  comfort  on  the  Jesuits, 
though  he  knew  them  to  be  one  with  Laval  against 
him,  and  though,  under  cover  of  denouncing  sin  in 
general,  they  had  lashed  him  sharply  in  their 
sermons.  There  is  something  pathetic  in  the  appeal 

l  Rfponse  de  I'EvSque  de  Petree,  16  Fev.,  1664. 
14 


210  LAVAL  AND  M^ZY.  [1664. 

he  makes  to  them.  For  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
service  of  the  King,  he  had  come,  he  says,  on  Laval's 
solicitation,  to  seek  salvation  in  Canada;  and  being 
under  obligation  to  the  bishop,  who  had  recommended 
him  to  the  King,  he  felt  bound  to  show  proofs  of  his 
gratitude  on  every  occasion.  Yet  neither  gratitude 
to  a  benefactor  nor  the  respect  due  to  his  character 
and  person  should  be  permitted  to  interfere  with 
duty  to  the  King,  "since  neither  conscience  nor 
honor  permit  us  to  neglect  the  requirements  of  our 
office  and  betray  the  interests  of  his  Majesty,  after 
receiving  orders  from  his  lips,  and  making  oath  of 
fidelity  between  his  hands."  He  proceeds  to  say 
that,  having  discovered  practices  of  which  he  felt 
obliged  to  prevent  the  continuance,  he  had  made  a 
declaration  expelling  the  offenders  from  office;  that 
the  bishop  and  all  the  ecclesiastics  had  taken  this 
declaration  as  an  offence;  that,  regardless  of  the 
King's  service,  they  had  denounced  him  as  a  calum- 
niator, an  unjust  judge,  without  gratitude,  and  per- 
verted in  conscience ;  and  that  one  of  the  chief  among 
them  had  come  to  warn  him  that  the  sacraments 
would  be  refused  and  the  churches  closed  against 
him.  "This,"  writes  the  unhappy  governor,  "has 
agitated  our  soul  with  scruples;  and  we  have  none 
from  whom  to  seek  light  save  those  who  are  our 
declared  opponents,  pronouncing  judgment  on  us 
without  knowledge  of  cause.  Yet  as  our  salvation 
and  the  duty  we  owe  the  King  are  the  things  most 
important  to  us  on  earth,  and  as  we  hold  them  to  be 


1664.]  ADVICE  OF  THE  JESUITS.  211 

inseparable  the  one  from  the  other;  and  as  nothing 
is  so  certain  as  death,  and  nothing  so  uncertain  as 
the  hour  thereof;  and  as  there  is  no  time  to  inform 
his  Majesty  of  what  is  passing  and  to  receive  his 
commands;  and  as  our  soul,  though  conscious  of 
innocence,  is  always  in  fear,  —  we  feel  obliged,  despite 
their  opposition,  to  have  recourse  to  the  reverend 
father  casuists  of  the  House  of  Jesus,  to  tell  us  in 
conscience  what  we  can  do  for  the  fulfilment  of  our 
duty  at  once  to  God  and  to  the  King." l 

The  Jesuits  gave  him  little  comfort.  Lalemant, 
their  superior,  replied  by  advising  him  to  follow  the 
directions  of  his  confessor,  a  Jesuit,  so  far  as  the 
question  concerned  spiritual  matters,  adding  that  in 
temporal  matters  he  had  no  advice  to  give.2  The 
distinction  was  illusory.  The  quarrel  turned  wholly 
on  temporal  matters,  but  it  was  a  quarrel  with  a 
bishop.  To  separate  -in  such  a  case  the  spiritual 
obligation  from  the  temporal  was  beyond  the  skill  of 
Me'zy,  nor  would  the  confessor  have  helped  him. 

Perplexed  and  troubled  as  he  was,  he  would  not 
reinstate  Bourdon  and  the  two  councillors.  The 
people  began  to  clamor  at  the  interruption  of  justice, 
for  which  they  blamed  Laval,  whom  a  recent  impo- 
sition of  tithes  had  made  unpopular.  Me'zy  there- 
upon issued  a  proclamation,  in  which,  after  mentioning 
his  opponents  as  the  most  subtle  and  artful  persons 

1  Mizy  aux  PP.  Jesuites,  Fait  au  Chdteau  de  Quebec  ce  dernier 
jour  de  Fevrier,  1664. 

a  Lettre  du  P.  H.  Lalemant  d  Mr.  le  Gouverneur. 


212  LAVAL  AND  M^ZY.  [1664. 

in  Canada,  he  declares  that,  in  consequence  of  peti- 
tions sent  him  from  Quebec  and  the  neighboring 
settlements,  he  had  called  the  people  to  the  council- 
chamber,  and  by  their  advice  had  appointed  the 
Sieur  de  Chartier  as  attorney-general  in  place  of 
Bourdon.1 

Bourdon  replied  by  a  violent  appeal  from  the  gov- 
ernor to  the  remaining  members  of  the  council;2 
on  which  Me'zy  declared  him  excluded  from  all  public 
functions  whatever,  till  the  King's  pleasure  should 
be  known.3  Thus  Church  and  State  still  frowned 
on  each  other,  and  new  disputes  soon  arose  to  widen 
the  breach  between  them.  On  the  first  establish- 
ment of  the  council,  an  order  had  been  passed  for  the 
election  of  a  mayor  and  two  aldermen  (echevins)  for 
Quebec,  which  it  was  proposed  to  erect  into  a  city, 
though  it  had  only  seventy  houses  and  less  than  a 
thousand  inhabitants.  Repentigny  was  chosen  mayor, 
and  Madry  and  Charron  aldermen;  but  the  choice 
was  not  agreeable  to  the  bishop,  and  the  three  func- 
tionaries declined  to  act,  influence  having  probably 
been  brought  to  bear  on  them  to  that  end.  The 
council  now  resolved  that  a  mayor  was  needless,  and 
the  people  were  permitted  to  choose  a  syndic  in  his 
stead.  These  municipal  elections  were  always  so 
controlled  by  the  authorities  that  the  element  of 
liberty  which  they  seemed  to  represent  was  little  but 

1  Declaration  du  Sieur  de  Mezy,  10  Mars,  1664. 

2  Bourdon  au  Conseil,  13  Mars,  1664. 

8  Ordre  du  Gouverneur,  13  Mars,  1664. 


1664.]  M^ZY  REFUSES  TO  YIELD.  213 

a  mockery.  On  the  present  occasion,  after  an  unac- 
countable delay  of  ten  months,  twenty-two  persons 
cast  their  votes  in  presence  of  the  council,  and  the 
choice  fell  on  Charron.  The  real  question  was 
whether  the  new  syndic  should  belong  to  the  gov- 
ernor or  to  the  bishop.  Charron  leaned  to  the 
governor's  party.  The  ecclesiastics  insisted  that  the 
people  were  dissatisfied,  and  a  new  election  was 
ordered,  but  the  voters  did  not  come.  The  governor 
now  sent  messages  to  such  of  the  inhabitants  as  he 
knew  to  be  in  his  interest,  who  gathered  in  the 
council-chamber,  voted  under  his  eye,  and  again 
chose  a  syndic  agreeable  to  him.  Laval's  party 
protested  in  vain.1 

The  councillors  held  office  for  a  year,  and  the  year 
had  now  expired.  The  governor  and  the  bishop,  it 
will  be  remembered,  had  a  joint  power  of  appoint- 
ment; but  agreement  between  them  was  impossible. 
Laval  was  for  replacing  his  partisans,  Bourdon, 
Villeray,  Auteuil,  and  La  Fertd.  Me'zy  refused; 
and  on  the  eighteenth  of  September  he  reconstructed 
the  council  by  his  sole  authority,  retaining  of  the 
old  councillors  only  Amours  and  Tilly,  and  replacing 
the  rest  by  Denis,  La  Tesserie,  and  Pe'ronne  de  Maze*, 
the  surviving  son  of  Dumesnil.  Again  Laval  pro- 
tested ;  but  Me'zy  proclaimed  his  choice  by  sound  of 
drum,  and  caused  placards  to  be  posted,  full,  accord- 
ing to  Father  Lalemant,  of  abuse  against  the  bishop. 
On  this  he  was  excluded  from  confession  and  absolu- 

1  Registre  du  Conseil  Superieur. 


214  LAVAL  AND  MfiZY.  [1664. 

tion.  He  complained  loudly ;  "  but  our  reply  was,  *' 
says  the  father,  "that  God  knew  everything." l 

This  unanswerable  but  somewhat  irrelevant  re- 
sponse failed  to  satisfy  him,  and  it  was  possibly  on 
this  occasion  that  an  incident  occurred  which  is 
recounted  by  the  bishop's  eulogist,  La  Tour.  He 
says  that  M£zy,  with  some  unknown  design,  appeared 
before  the  church  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  soldiers, 
while  Laval  was  saying  mass.  The  service  over, 
the  bishop  presented  himself  at  the  door,  on  which, 
to  the  governor's  confusion,  all  the  soldiers  respect- 
fully saluted  him.2  The  story  may  have  some  foun- 
dation, but  it  is  not  supported  by  contemporary 
evidence. 

On  the  Sunday  after  Me*zy's  coup  d'Stat,  the  pulpits 
resounded  with  denunciations.  The  people  listened, 
doubtless,  with  becoming  respect;  but  their  sympa- 
thies were  with  the  governor;  and  he,  on  his  part, 
had  made  appeals  to  them  at  more  than  one  crisis  of 
the  quarrel.  He  now  fell  into  another  indiscretion. 
He  banished  Bourdon  and  Villeray,  and  ordered 
them  home  to  France. 

They  carried  with  them  the  instruments  of  their 
revenge,  —  the  accusations  of  Laval  and  the  Jesuits 
against  the  author  of  their  woes.  Of  these  accusa- 
tions one  alone  would  have  sufficed.  Mdzy  had 
appealed  to  the  people.  It  is  true  that  he  did  so 

1  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Octobre,  1664. 

2  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv.  vii.    It  is  charitable  to  ascribe  thia 
writer's  many  errors  to  carelessness. 


^664.1  MtfZY'S   DEFEAT. 

from  no  love  of  popular  liberty,  but  simply  to  make 
head  against  an  opponent;  yet  the  act  alone  was 
enough,  and  he  received  a  peremptory  recall.  Again 
Laval  had  triumphed.  He  had  made  one  governor 
and  unmade  two,  if  not  three.  The  modest  Levite, 
as  one  of  his  biographers  calls  him  in  his  earlier  days, 
had  become  the  foremost  power  in  Canada. 

Laval  had  a  threefold  strength  at  court,  —  his  high 
birth,  his  reputed  sanctity,  and  the  support  of  the 
Jesuits.  This  was  not  all,  for  the  permanency  of 
his  position  in  the  colony  gave  him  another  advan- 
tage. The  governors  were  named  for  three  years,  and 
could  be  recalled  at  any  time ;  but  the  vicar  apostolic 
owed  his  appointment  to  the  Pope,  and  the  Pope 
alone  could  revoke  it.  Thus  he  was  beyond  reach 
of  the  royal  authority,  and  the  court  was  in  a  certain 
sense  obliged  to  conciliate  him.  As  for  Me'zy,  a  man 
of  no  rank  or  influence,  he  could  expect  no  mercy. 
Yet,  though  irritable  and  violent,  he  seems  to  have 
tried  conscientiously  to  reconcile  conflicting  duties, 
or  what  he  regarded  as  such.  The  governors  and 
intendants,  his  successors,  received,  during  many 
years,  secret  instructions  from  the  court  to  watch 
Laval,  and  cautiously  prevent  him  from  assuming 
powers  which  did  not  belong  to  him.  It  is  likely 
that  similar  instructions  had  been  given  to  Me'zy,1 

1  The  royal  commissioner,  Gaudais,  who  came  to  Canada  with 
Me'zy,  had,  as  before  mentioned,  orders  to  inquire  with  great  secrecy 
into  the  conduct  of  Laval.  The  intendant,  Talon,  who  followed 
immediately  after,  had  similar  instructions. 


216  LAVAL  AND  M^ZY.  [1665. 

and  that  the  attempt  to  fulfil  them  had  aided  to 
embroil  him  with  one  who  was  probably  the  last  man 
on  earth  with  whom  he  would  willingly  have 
quarrelled. 

An  inquiry  was  ordered  into  his  conduct;  but  a 
voice  more  potent  than  the  voice  of  the  King  had 
called  him  to  another  tribunal.  A  disease,  the  result 
perhaps  of  mental  agitation,  seized  upon  him  and 
soon  brought  him  to  extremity.  As  he  lay  gasping 
between  life  and  death,  fear  and  horror  took  posses- 
sion of  his  soul.  Hell  yawned  before  his  fevered 
vision,  peopled  with  phantoms  which  long  and  lonely 
meditations,  after  the  discipline  of  Loyola,  made  real 
and  palpable  to  his  thought.  He  smelt  the  fumes  of 
infernal  brimstone,  and  heard  the  bowlings  of  the 
damned.  He  saw  the  frown  of  the  angry  Judge,  and 
the  fiery  swords  of  avenging  angels,  hurling  wretches 
like  himself,  writhing  in  anguish  and  despair,  into 
the  gulf  of  unutterable  woe.  He  listened  to  the 
ghostly  counsellors  who  besieged  his  bed,  bowed  his 
head  in  penitence,  made  his  peace  with  the  Church, 
asked  pardon  of  Laval,  confessed  to  him,  and  received 
absolution  at  his  hands;  and  his  late  adversaries, 
now  benign  and  bland,  soothed  him  with  promises  of 
pardon,  and  hopes  of  eternal  bliss. 

Before  he  died,  he  wrote  to  the  Marquis  de  Tracy, 
newly  appointed  viceroy,  a  letter  which  indicates  that 
even  in  his  penitence  he  could  not  feel  himself  wholly 
in  the  wrong.1  He  also  left  a  will  in  which  the 

1  Lettre  de  Mezy  au  Marquis  de  Tracy,  26  Avril,  1665. 


1665.]  DEATH   OF  M^ZY.  217 

pathetic  and  the  quaint  are  curiously  mingled. 
After  praying  his  patron,  Saint  Augustine,  with 
Saint  John,  Saint  Peter,  and  all  the  other  saints,  to 
intercede  for  the  pardon  of  his  sins,  he  directs  that 
his  body  shall  be  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  the  poor 
at  the  hospital,  as  being  unworthy  of  more  honored 
sepulture.  He  then  makes  various  legacies  of  piety 
and  charity.  Other  bequests  follow,  —  one  of  which 
is  to  his  friend  Major  Angoville,  to  whom  he  leaves 
two  hundred  francs,  his  coat  of  English  cloth,  his 
camlet  mantle,  a  pair  of  new  shoes,  eight  shirts  with 
sleeve-buttons,  his  sword  and  belt,  and  a  new  blanket 
for  the  major's  servant.  Felix  Aubert  is  to  have 
fifty  francs,  with  a  gray  jacket,  a  small  coat  of  gray 
serge,  "which,"  says  the  testator,  "has  been  worn  for 
a  while,"  and  a  pair  of  long  white  stockings.  And 
in  a  codicil  he  further  leaves  to  Angoville  his  best 
black  coat,  in  order  that  he  may  wear  mourning  for 
him.1 

His  earthly  troubles  closed  on  the  night  of  the 
sixth  of  May.  He  went  to  his  rest  among  the 
paupers;  and  the  priests,  serenely  triumphant,  sang 
requiems  over  his  grave. 

NOTE.  —  Mezy  sent  home  charges  against  the  bishop  and  the 
Jesuits  which  seem  to  have  existed  in  Charlevoix's  time,  but  for 
which,  as  well  as  for  those  made  by  Laval,  I  have  sought  in  vain. 

The  substance  of  these  mutual  accusations  is  given  thus  by  the 
minister  Colbert,  in  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  Marquis  de  Tracy, 
in  1665 :  "  Les  Jesuites  1'accusent  d'avarice  et  de  violences ;  et  lui 

1  Testament  du  Sieur  de  Mezy.  This  will,  as  well  as  the  letter,  is 
engrossed  in  the  registers  of  the  council. 


218  LAVAL   AND  MfiZY.  [1665. 

qu'ils  voulaient  entreprendre  sur  1'autorite  qui  lui  a  et6  commise 
par  le  Hoy,  en  sorte  que  n'ayant  que  de  leurs  creatures  dans  le 
Conseil  Souverain,  toutes  les  resolutions  s'y  prenaient  selon  leurs 
sentiments/* 

The  papers  cited  are  drawn  partly  from  the  Registres  du  Conseil 
Superieur,  still  preserved  at  Quebec,  and  partly  from  the  Archives 
of  the  Marine  and  Colonies.  Laval's  admirer,  the  Abbe  La  Tour, 
in  his  eagerness  to  justify  the  bishop,  says  that  the  quarrel  arose 
from  a  dispute  about  precedence  between  Mezy  and  the  intendant, 
and  from  the  ill-humor  of  the  governor  because  the  intendant 
shared  the  profits  of  his  office.  The  truth  is,  that  there  was  no 
intendant  in  Canada  during  the  term  of  Me'zy's  government.  One 
Robert  had  been  appointed  to  the  office,  but  he  never  came  to  the 
colony.  The  commissioner  Gaudais,  during  the  two  or  three  months 
of  his  stay  at  Quebec,  took  the  intendant's  place  at  the  council- 
board  ;  but  harmony  between  Laval  and  Mezy  was  unbroken  till 
after  his  departure.  Other  writers  say  that  the  dispute  arose  from 
the  old  question  about  brandy.  Towards  the  end  of  the  quarrel 
there  was  some  disorder  from  this  source,  but  even  then  the  brandy 
question  was  subordinate  to  other  subjects  of  strife. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1662-1680. 
LAVAL  AND  THE  SEMINARY. 

LAVAL'S  VISIT  TO  COURT.  —  THE  SEMINARY.  —  ZEAL  OF  THE  BISHOP; 
HIS  EULOGISTS.  —  CHURCH  AND  STATE. — ATTITUDE  OF  LAVAL. 

THAT  memorable  journey  of  Laval  to  court,  which 
caused  the  dissolution  of  the  Company  of  New 
France,  the  establishment  of  the  Supreme  Council, 
the  recall  of  Avaugour,  and  the  appointment  of 
Mdzy,  had  yet  other  objects  and  other  results. 
Laval,  vicar  apostolic  and  titular  Bishop  of  Petraea, 
wished  to  become  in  title,  as  in  fact,  Bishop  of 
Quebec.  Thus  he  would  gain  an  increase  of  dignity 
and  authority,  necessary,  as  he  thought,  in  his  con- 
flicts with  the  civil  power;  "for,"  he  wrote  to  the 
cardinals  of  the  Propaganda,  "I  have  learned  from 
long  experience  how  little  security  my  character  of 
vicar  apostolic  gives  me  against  those  charged  with 
political  affairs:  I  mean  the  officers  of  the  Crown, 
perpetual  rivals  and  contemners  of  the  authority  of 
the  Church."1 

1  For  a  long  extract  from  this  letter,  copied  from  the  original  in 
the  archives  of  the  Propaganda  at  Rome,  see  Faillon,  Colonie 
Franyais,  Hi.  432. 


220  LAVAL  AND  THE   SEMINARY.       (1662-80. 

This  reason  was  for  the  Pope  and  the  cardinals. 
It  may  well  be  believed  that  he  held  a  different 
language  to  the  King.  To  him  he  urged  that  the 
bishopric  was  needed  to  enforce  order,  suppress  sin, 
and  crush  heresy.  Both  Louis  XIV.  and  the  Queen 
Mother  favored  his  wishes;1  but  difficulties  arose, 
and  interminable  disputes  ensued  on  the  question 
whether  the  proposed  bishopric  should  depend  imme- 
diately on  the  Pope  or  on  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen. 
It  was  a  revival  of  the  old  quarrel  of  Gallican  and 
ultramontane.  Laval,  weary  of  hope  deferred,  at 
length  declared  that  he  would  leave  the  colony  if  he 
could  not  be  its  bishop  in  title ;  and  in  1674,  after 
eleven  years  of  delay,  the  King  yielded  to  the  Pope's 
demands,  and  the  vicar  apostolic  became  first  Bishop 
of  Quebec. 

If  Laval  had  to  wait  for  his  mitre,  he  found  no 
delay  and  no  difficulty  in  attaining  another  object  no 
less  dear  to  him.  He  wished  to  provide  priests  for 
Canada,  drawn  from  the  Canadian  population,  fed 
with  sound  and  wholesome  doctrine,  reared  under  his 
eye,  and  moulded  by  his  hand.  To  this  end  he 
proposed  to  establish  a  seminary  at  Quebec.  The 
plan  found  favor  with  the  pious  King,  and  a  decree 
signed  by  his  hand  sanctioned  and  confirmed  it. 
The  new  seminary  was  to  be  a  corporation  of  priests 
under  a  superior  chosen  by  the  bishop ;  and,  besides 

1  Anne  d'Autriche  a  Laval,  23  Avril,  1662;  Louis  XIV.  au  Pape, 
28  Jan.  1664;  Louis  XIV.  au  Due  de  Crequy,  Ambassadeur  a  Romet 
28  June,  1664. 


1662-80.]  THE   PARISH  PRIEST.  221 

its  functions  of  instruction,  it  was  vested  with  dis- 
tinct and  extraordinary  powers.  Laval,  an  organizer 
and  a  disciplinarian  by  nature  and  training,  would 
fain  subject  the  priests  of  his  diocese  to  a  control  as 
complete  as  that  of  monks  in  a  convent.  In  France, 
the  curd  or  parish  priest  was,  with  rare  exceptions,  a 
fixture  in  his  parish,  whence  he  could  be  removed 
only  for  grave  reasons,  and  through  prescribed  forms 
of  procedure.  Hence  he  was  to  a  certain  degree 
independent  of  the  bishop.  Laval,  on  the  contrary, 
demanded  that  the  Canadian  cure  should  be  remov- 
able at  his  will,  and  thus  placed  in  the  position  of  a 
missionary,  to  come  and  go  at  the  order  of  his 
superior.  In  fact,  the  Canadian  parishes  were  for  a 
long  time  so  widely  scattered,  so  feeble  in  popula- 
tion, and  so  miserably  poor,  that,  besides  the  disciplin- 
ary advantages  of  this  plan,  its  adoption  was  at  first 
almost  a  matter  of  necessity.  It  added  greatly  to 
the  power  of  the  Church;  and,  as  the  colony 
increased,  the  King  and  the  minister  conceived  an 
increasing  distrust  of  it.  Instructions  for  the  "  fixa- 
tion "  of  the  curds  were  repeatedly  sent  to  the  colony, 
and  the  bishop,  while  professing  to  obey,  repeatedly 
evaded  them.  Various  fluctuations  and  changes 
took  place;  but  Laval  had  built  on  strong  founda- 
tions, and  at  this  day  the  system  of  removable  curds 
prevails  in  most  of  the  Canadian  parishes.1 

1  On  the  establishment  of  the  seminary.  Mandement  de  I'Eveque 
de  Petre'e,  pour  I'Etablissement  du  Stminaire  de  Quebec ;  Approbation 
du  Roy  (Edits  et  Ordonnances,  i.  33,  35) ;  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv. 


222  LAVAL  AND   THE   SEMINARY.       [1662-80 

Thus  he  formed  his  clergy  into  a  family  with  him- 
self at  its  head.  His  seminary,  the  mother  who  had 
reared  them,  was  further  charged  to  maintain  them, 
nurse  them  in  sickness,  and  support  them  in  old  age. 
Under  her  maternal  roof  the  tired  priest  found  repose 
among  his  brethren ;  and  thither  every  year  he  repaired 
from  the  charge  of  his  flock  in  the  wilderness,  to 
freshen  his  devotion  and  animate  his  zeal  by  a  season 
of  meditation  and  prayer. 

The  difficult  task  remained  to  provide  the  neces- 
sary funds.  Laval  imposed  a  tithe  of  one-thirteenth 
on  all  products  of  the  soil,  or,  as  afterwards  settled, 
on  grains  alone.  This  tithe  was  paid  to  the  seminary, 
and  by  the  seminary  to  the  priests.  The  people, 
unused  to  such  a  burden,  clamored  and  resisted; 
and  Me*zy,  in  his  disputes  with  the  bishop,  had  taken 
advantage  of  their  discontent.  It  became  necessary 
to  reduce  the  tithe  to  a  twenty-sixth,  which,  as  there 
was  little  or  no  money  among  the  inhabitants,  was 
paid  in  kind.  Nevertheless,  the  scattered  and 
impoverished  settlers  grudged  even  this  contribution 
to  the  support  of  a  priest  whom  many  of  them  rarely 
saw;  and  the  collection  of  it  became  a  matter  of  the 
greatest  difficulty  and  uncertainty.  How  the  King 
came  to  the  rescue,  we  shall  hereafter  see. 

Besides  the  great  seminary  where  young  men  were 
trained  for  the  priesthood,  there  was  the  lesser  semi- 

vi. ;  Esquisse  de  la  Vie  de  Laval,  Appendix.  Various  papers  bear- 
ing on  the  subject  are  printed  in  the  Canadian  Abeille,  from  origi- 
nals in  the  archives  of  the  seminary. 


1662-80.]          ENDOWMENTS  OF  LAVAL.  223 

nary  where  boys  were  educated  in  the  hope  that  they 
would  one  day  take  orders.  This  school  began  in 
1668,  with  eight  French  and  six  Indian  pupils,  in  the 
old  house  of  Madame  Couillard;  but  so  far  as  the 
Indians  were  concerned  it  was  a  failure.  Sooner  or 
later  they  all  ran  wild  in  the  woods,  carrying  with 
them  as  fruits  of  their  studies  a  sufficiency  of  prayers, 
offices,  and  chants  learned  by  rote,  along  with  a 
feeble  smattering  of  Latin  and  rhetoric,  which  they 
soon  dropped  by  the  way.  There  was  also  a  sort  of 
farm-school  attached  to  the  seminary,  for  the  training 
of  a  humbler  class  of  pupils.  It  was  established  at 
the  parish  of  St.  Joachim,  below  Quebec,  where  the 
children  of  artisans  and  peasants  were  taught  farming 
and  various  mechanical  arts,  and  thoroughly  grounded 
in  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church.1  The 
Great  and  Lesser  Seminary  still  subsist,  and  form  one 
of  the  most  important  Roman  Catholic  institutions 
on  this  continent.  To  them  has  recently  been  added 
the  Laval  University,  resting  on  the  same  foundation, 
and  supported  by  the  same  funds. 

Whence  were  these  funds  derived?  Laval,  in 
order  to  imitate  the  poverty  of  the  apostles,  had 
divested  himself  of  his  property  before  he  came  to 
Canada;  otherwise  there  is  little  doubt  that  in  the 
fulness  of  his  zeal  he  would  have  devoted  it  to  his 


1  Annales  du  Petit  Stminaire  de  Quebec,  see  Abeille,  vol.  i. ;  Notice 
Historique  sur  le  Petit  Seminaire  de  Quebec,  Ibid.,  vol.  ii. ;  Notice 
Historigue  sur  la  Paroisse  de  St.  Joachim*  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  The  Abeille 
is  a  journal  published  by  the  seminary. 


224  LAVAL  AND  THE   SEMINARY.      [J.662-80. 

favorite  object.  But  if  he  had  no  property  he  had 
influence,  and  his  family  had  both  influence  and 
wealth.  He  acquired  vast  grants  of  land  in  the  best 
parts  of  Canada.  Some  of  these  he  sold  or  exchanged ; 
others  he  retained  till  the  year  1680,  when  he  gave 
them,  with  nearly  all  else  that  he  then  possessed,  to 
his  seminary  at  Quebec.  The  lands  with  which  he 
thus  endowed  it  included  the  seigniories  of  the 
Petite  Nation,  the  Island  of  Jesus,  and  Beaupre*. 
The  last  is  of  great  extent,  and  at  the  present  day  of 
immense  value.  Beginning  a  few  miles  below  Quebec, 
it  borders  the  St.  Lawrence  for  a  distance  of  sixteen 
leagues,  and  is  six  leagues  in  depth,  measured  from 
the  river.  From  these  sources  the  seminary  still 
draws  an  abundant  revenue,  though  its  seigniorial 
rights  were  commuted  on  the  recent  extinction  of  the 
feudal  tenure  in  Canada. 

Well  did  Laval  deserve  that  his  name  should  live 
in  that  of  the  university  which  a  century  and  a  half 
after  his  death  owed  its  existence  to  his  bounty. 
This  father  of  the  Canadian  Church,  who  has  left  so 
deep  an  impress  on  one  of  the  communities  which 
form  the  vast  population  of  North  America,  belonged 
to  a  type  of  character  to  which  an  even  justice  is 
rarely  done.  With  the  exception  of  the  Canadian 
Garneau,  a  liberal  Catholic,  those  who  have  treated 
of  him  have  seen  him  through  a  medium  intensely 
Romanist,  coloring,  hiding,  and  exaggerating  by 
turns  both  his  actions  and  the  traits  of  his  character. 
Tried  by  the  Romanist  standard,  his  merits  were 


1662-80.]  LAVAL'S  POSITION.  225 

great;  though  the  extraordinary  influence  which  he 
exercised  in  the  affairs  of  the  colony  were,  as  already 
observed,  by  no  means  due  to  his  spiritual  graces 
alone.  To  a  saint  sprung  from  the  "haute  noblesse, 
Earth  and  Heaven  were  alike  propitious.  When 
the  vicar-general  Colombi£re  pronounced  his  funeral 
eulogy  in  the  sounding  periods  of  Bossuet,  he  did 
not  fail  to  exhibit  him  on  the  ancestral  pedestal 
where  his  virtues  would  shine  with  redoubled  lustre. 
"  The  exploits  of  the  heroes  of  the  House  of  Mont- 
morency,"  exclaims  the  reverend  orator,  "form  one 
of  the  fairest  chapters  in  the  annals  of  Old  France ; 
the  heroic  acts  of  charity,  humility,  and  faith 
achieved  by  a  Montmorency  form  one  of  the  fairest 
in  the  annals  of  New  France.  The  combats,  victories, 
and  conquests  of  the  Montmorency  in  Europe  would 
fill  whole  volumes;  and  so,  too,  would  the  triumphs 
won  by  a  Montmorency  in  America  over  sin,  passion, 
and  the  Devil."  Then  he  crowns  the  high-born 
prelate  with  a  halo  of  fourfold  saintship:  "It  was 
with  good  reason  that  Providence  permitted  him  to 
be  called  Francis,  for  the  virtues  of  all  the  saints  of 
that  name  were  combined  in  him,  —  the  zeal  of  Saint 
Francis  Xavier,  the  charity  of  Saint  Francis  of  Sales, 
the  poverty  of  Saint  Francis  of  Assisi,  the  self- 
mortification  of  Saint  Francis  Borgia;  but  poverty 
was  the  mistress  of  his  heart,  and  he  loved  her  with 
incontrollable  transports." 

The  stories  which  ColombiSre  proceeds  to  tell  of 
Laval's  asceticism  are  confirmed  by  other  evidence, 

15 


226  LAVAL   AND  THE   SEMINARY.       [1662-80. 

and  are,  no  doubt,  true.  Nor  is  there  any  reasonable 
doubt  that,  had  the  bishop  stood  in  the  place  of 
Brdbeuf  or  Charles  Lalemant,  he  would  have  suffered 
torture  and  death  like  them.  But  it  was  his  lot  to 
strive,  not  against  infidel  savages,  but  against  country- 
men and  Catholics,  who  had  no  disposition  to  burn 
him,  and  would  rather  have  done  him  reverence  than 
wrong. 

To  comprehend  his  actions  and  motives,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  his  ideas  in  regard  to  the  relations  of 
Church  and  State.  They  were  those  of  the  extreme 
ultramontanes,  which  a  recent  Jesuit  preacher  has 
expressed  with  tolerable  distinctness.  In  a  sermon 
uttered  in  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame,  at  Montreal, 
on  the  first  of  November,  1872,  he  thus  announced 
them :  "  The  supremacy  and  infallibility  of  the  Pope ; 
the  independence  and  liberty  of  the  Church;  the 
subordination  and  submission  of  the  State  to  the 
Church ;  in  case  of  conflict  between  them,  the 
Church  to  decide,  the  State  to  submit  rf  for  whoever 
follows  and  defends  these  principles,  life  and  a  bless- 
ing; for  whoever  rejects  and  combats  them,  death 
and  a  curse."1 

These  were  the  principles  which  Laval  and  the 

1  This  sermon  was  preached  by  Father  Braun,  S.  J.,  on  occasion 
of  the  "Golden  Wedding/'  or  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Bishop 
Bourget  of  Montreal.  A  large  body  of  the  Canadian  clergy  were 
present,  some  of  whom  thought  his  expressions  too  emphatic.  A 
translation  by  another  Jesuit  is  published  in  the  "Montreal 
Weekly  Herald "  of  Nov.  2, 1872 ;  and  the  above  extract  is  copied 
verbatim. 


1662-80.]    MENTAL  CONDITION  OF  LAVAL.  227 

Jesuits  strove  to  make  good.  Christ  was  to  rule  in 
Canada  through  his  deputy  the  bishop,  and  God's 
law  was  to  triumph  over  the  laws  of  man.  As  in 
the  halcyon  days  of  Champlain  and  Montmagny,  the 
governor  was  to  be  the  right  hand  of  the  Church,  to 
wield  the  earthly  sword  at  her  bidding;  and  the 
council  was  to  be  the  agent  of  her  high  behests. 

France  was  drifting  toward  the  triumph  of  the 
parti  devot,  the  sinister  reign  of  petticoat  and  cas- 
sock, the  era  of  Maintenon  and  Tellier,  and  the  fatal 
atrocities  of  the  dragonnades.  Yet  the  advancing 
tide  of  priestly  domination  did  not  flow  smoothly. 
The  unparalleled  prestige  which  surrounded  the 
throne  of  the  young  King,  joined  to  his  quarrels  with 
the  Pope  and  divisions  in  the  Church  itself,  dis- 
turbed, though  they  could  not  check,  its  progress. 
In  Canada  it  was  otherwise.  The  colony  had  been 
ruled  by  priests  from  the  beginning,  and  it  only 
remained  to  continue  in  her  future  the  law  of  her 
past.  She  was  the  fold  of  Christ;  the  wolf  of  civil 
government  was  among  the  flock,  and  Laval  and  the 
Jesuits,  watchful  shepherds,  were  doing  their  best  to 
chain  and  muzzle  him. 

According  to  Argenson,  Laval  had  said,  "  A  bishop 
can  do  what  he  likes;  "  and  his  action  answered  rea- 
sonably well  to  his  words.  He  thought  himself  above 
human  law.  In  vindicating  the  assumed  rights  of 
the  Church,  he  invaded  the  rights  of  others,  and 
used  means  from  which  a  healthy  conscience  would 
have  shrunk.  All  his  thoughts  and  sympathies  had 


228  LAVAL  AND  THE  SEMINARY.      [1662-80. 

nm  from  childhood  in  ecclesiastical  channels,  and  he 
cared  for  nothing  outside  the  Church.  Prayer,  medi- 
tation, and  asceticism  had  leavened  and  moulded 
him.  During  four  years  he  had  been  steeped  in  the 
mysticism  of  the  Hermitage,  which  had  for  its  aim 
the  annihilation  of  self,  and  through  self-annihilation 
the  absorption  into  God.1  He  had  passed  from  a  life 
of  visions  to  a  life  of  action.  Earnest  to  fanaticism, 
he  saw  but  one  great  object,  —  the  glory  of  God  on 
earth.  He  was  penetrated  by  the  poisonous  casuistry 
of  the  Jesuits,  based  on  the  assumption  that  all 
means  are  permitted  when  the  end  is  the  service  of 
God;  and  as  Laval,  in  his  own  opinion,  was  always 
doing  the  service  of  God,  while  his  opponents  were 
always  doing  that  of  the  Devil,  he  enjoyed,  in  the 
use  of  means,  a  latitude  of  which  we  have  seen  him 
avail  himself. 

*  See  the  maxims  of  Bernieres  published  by  La  Tour. 


SECTION  THIRD. 
THE  COLONY  AND   THE  KING. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

1661-1665. 
ROYAL  INTERVENTION. 

FONTAINEBLEATJ.  —  LOUIS    XIV.  —  COLBERT.  —  THE    COMPANY  OJ 
THE  WEST. — EVIL  OMENS.  —  ACTION  OF  THE   KING.  —  TRACY, 

COURCELLE,   AND    TALON.  —  THE    REGIMENT   OF   CARIGNAN-SALI- 

ERES. —  TRACY  AT  QUEBEC.  —  MIRACLES.  —  A  HOLY  WAR. 

LEAVE  Canada  behind;  cross  the  sea,  and  stand, 
on  an  evening  in  June,  by  the  edge  of  the  forest  of 
Fontainebleau.  Beyond  the  broad  gardens,  above 
the  long  ranges  of  moonlit  trees,  rise  the  walls  and 
pinnacles  of  the  vast  chateau,  —  a  shrine  of  history, 
the  gorgeous  monument  of  lines  of  vanished  kings, 
haunted  with  memories  of  Capet,  Valois,  and 
Bourbon. 

There  was  little  thought  of  the  past  at  Fontainebleau 
in  June,  1661.  The  present  was  too  dazzling  and 
too  intoxicating;  the  future,  too  radiant  with  hope 
and  promise.  It  was  the  morning  of  a  new  reign; 


230  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1661. 

the  sun  of  Louis  XIV.  was  rising  in  splendor,  and 
the  rank  and  beauty  of  France  were  gathered  to  pay 
it  homage.  A  youthful  court,  a  youthful  king;  a 
pomp  and  magnificence  such  as  Europe  had  never 
seen;  a  delirium  of  ambition,  pleasure,  and  love,  — 
all  this  wrought  in  many  a  young  heart  an  enchant- 
ment destined  to  be  cruelly  broken.  Even  old  cour- 
tiers felt  the  fascination  of  the  scene,  and  tell  us  of 
the  music  at  evening  by  the  borders  of  the  lake ;  of 
the  gay  groups  that  strolled  under  the  shadowing 
trees,  floated  in  gilded  barges  on  the  still  water,  or 
moved  slowly  in  open  carriages  around  its  borders. 
Here  was  Anne  of  Austria,  the  King's  mother,  and 
Marie  The*ro»se,  his  tender  and  jealous  queen;  his 
brother,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  with  his  bride  of  six- 
teen, Henriette  of  England;  and  his  favorite,  that 
vicious  butterfly  of  the  court,  the  Count  de  Quiche. 
Here,  too,  were  the  humbled  chiefs  of  the  civil  war, 
Beaufort  and  Conde*,  obsequious  before  their  triumph- 
ant master.  Louis  XIV.,  the  centre  of  all  eyes,  in 
the  flush  of  health  and  vigor,  and  the  pride  of  new- 
fledged  royalty,  stood,  as  he  still  stands  on  the 
canvas  of  Philippe  de  Champagne,  attired  in  a 
splendor  which  would  have  been  effeminate  but  for 
the  stately  port  of  the  youth  who  wore  it.1 

Fortune  had  been  strangely  bountiful  to  Louis 

1  On  the  visit  of  the  court  at  Fontainebleau  in  the  summer  of 
1661,  see  Memoires  de  Madame  de  Motteville,  Memoires  de  Madame  d« 
La  Fayette,  Memoires  de  VAbbt  de  Choisy,  and  Walckenaer's  Me- 
moires sur  Madame  de  Stvigne". 


1661.]  LOUIS  XIV.  231 

XIV.  The  nations  of  Europe,  exhausted  by  wars 
and  dissensions,  looked  upon  him  with  respect  and 
fear.  Among  weak  and  weary  neighbors,  he  alone 
was  strong.  The  death  of  Mazarin  had  released  him 
from  tutelage ;  feudalism  in  the  person  of  Condd  was 
abject  before  him ;  he  had  reduced  his  parliaments  to 
submission ;  and  in  the  arrest  of  the  ambitious  prodi- 
gal Fouquet,  he  was  preparing  a  crushing  blow  to 
the  financial  corruption  which  had  devoured  France. 

Nature  had  formed  him  to  act  the  part  of  King. 
Even  his  critics  and  enemies  praise  the  grace  and 
majesty  of  his  presence,  and  he  impressed  his  cour- 
tiers with  an  admiration  which  seems  to  have  been  to 
an  astonishing  degree  genuine.  He  carried  airs  of 
royalty  even  into  his  pleasures;  and  while  his 
example  corrupted  all  France,  he  proceeded  to  the 
apartments  of  Montespan  or  Fontanges  with  the 
majestic  gravity  of  Olympian  Jove.  He  was  a 
devout  observer  of  the  forms  of  religion ;  and  as  the 
buoyancy  of  youth  passed  away,  his  zeal  was  stimu- 
lated by  a  profound  fear  of  the  Devil.  Mazarin  had 
reared  him  in  ignorance ;  but  his  faculties  were  excel- 
lent in  their  way,  and  in  a  private  station  would 
have  made  him  an  efficient  man  of  business.  The 
vivacity  of  his  passions  and  his  inordinate  love  of 
pleasure  were  joined  to  a  persistent  will  and  a  rare 
power  of  labor.  The  vigorous  mediocrity  of  his 
understanding  delighted  in  grappling  with  details. 
His  astonished  courtiers  saw  him  take  on  himself  the 
burden  of  administration,  and  work  at  it  without 


232  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1661. 

relenting  for  more  than  half  a  century.  Great  as 
was  his  energy,  his  pride  was  far  greater.  As  king 
by  divine  right,  he  felt  himself  raised  immeasurably 
above  the  highest  of  his  subjects;  but  while  vindi- 
cating with  unparalleled  haughtiness  his  claims  to 
supreme  authority,  he  was,  at  the  outset,  filled  with 
a  sense  of  the  duties  of  his  high  place,  and  fired  by 
an  ambition  to  make  his  reign  beneficent  to  France 
as  well  as  glorious  to  himself. 

Above  all  rulers  of  modern  times,  Louis  XIV.  was 
the  embodiment  of  the  monarchical  idea.  The 
famous  words  ascribed  to  him,  "I  am  the  State," 
were  probably  never  uttered;  but  they  perfectly 
express  his  spirit.  "  It  is  God's  will, "  he  wrote  in 
1666,  "that  whoever  is  born  a  subject  should  not 
reason,  but  obey;"1  and  those  around  him  were  of 
his  mind.  "The  State  is  in  the  King,"  said  Bossuet, 
the  great  mouthpiece  of  monarchy ;  "  the  will  of  the 
people  is  merged  in  his  will.  O  Kings!  put  forth 
your  power  boldly,  for  it  is  divine  and  salutary  to 
humankind."2 

For  a  few  brief  years,  this  King's  reign  was  indeed 
salutary  to  France.  His  judgment  of  men,  when 
not  obscured  by  his  pride  and  his  passion  for  flattery, 
was  good ;  and  he  had  at  his  service  the  generals  and 
statesmen  formed  in  the  freer  and  bolder  epoch  that 
had  ended  with  his  accession.  Among  them  was 
Jean  Baptiste  Colbert,  formerly  the  intendant  of 

1  (Euvres  de  Louis  XIV.,  ii.  283. 

2  Bossuet,  Politique  tiree  de  I'ficriture  sainte,  670  (1843). 


1664.]  COLBERT.  233 

Mazarin's  household,  —  a  man  whose  energies 
matched  his  talents,  and  who  had  preserved  his 
rectitude  in  the  midst  of  corruption.  It  wlas  a  hard 
task  that  Colbert  imposed  on  his  proud  and  violent 
nature  to  serve  the  imperious  King,  morbidly  jealous 
of  his  authority,  and  resolved  to  accept  no  initiative 
but  his  own.  He  must  counsel  while  seeming  to 
receive  counsel,  and  lead  while  seeming  to  follow. 
The  new  minister  bent  himself  to  the  task,  and  the 
nation  reaped  the  profit.  A  vast  system  of  reform 
was  set  in  action  amid  the  outcries  of  nobles,  finan- 
ciers, churchmen,  and  all  who  profited  by  abuses. 
The  methods  of  this  reform  were  trenchant  and  some- 
times violent,  and  its  principles  were  not  always  in 
accord  with  those  of  modern  economic  science;  but 
the  good  that  resulted  was  incalculable.  The 
burdens  of  the  laboring  classes  were  lightened,  the 
public  revenues  increased,  and  the  wholesale  plunder 
of  the  public  money  was  arrested  with  a  strong  hand. 
Laws  were  reformed  and  codified;  feudal  tyranny, 
which  still  subsisted  in  many  quarters,  was  repressed ; 
agriculture  and  productive  industry  of  all  kinds  were 
encouraged,  roads  and  canals  opened,  trade  was 
stimulated,  a  commercial  marine  created,  and  a 
powerful  navy  formed  as  if  by  magic.1 

It  is  in  his  commercial,  industrial,  and  colonial 
policy  that  the  profound  defects  of  the  great  minis- 

1  On  Colbert,  see  Clement,  Histoire  de  Colbert ;  Cle'ment,  Lettres 
et  Memoires  de  Colbert;  Cheruel,  Administration  monarchique  en 
France,  ii.  chap.  vi. ;  Henri  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  xiii.,  etc. 


234  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1664. 

ter's  system  are  most  apparent.  It  was  a  system  of 
authority,  monopoly,  and  exclusion,  in  which  the 
government,  and  not  the  individual,  acted  always 
the  foremost  part.  Upright,  incorruptible,  ardent  for 
the  public  good,  inflexible,  arrogant,  and  domineer- 
ing, he  sought  to  drive  France  into  paths  of  prosper- 
ity, and  create  colonies  by  the  energy  of  an  imperial 
will.  He  feared,  and  with  reason,  that  the  want  of 
enterprise  and  capital  among  the  merchants  would 
prevent  the  broad  and  immediate  results  at  which  he 
aimed;  and  to  secure  these  results  he  established  a 
series  of  great  trading  corporations,  in  which  the 
principles  of  privilege  and  exclusion  were  pushed  to 
their  utmost  limits.  Prominent  among  them  was 
the  Company  of  the  West.  The  King  signed  the 
edict  creating  it  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  May,  1664. 
Any  person  in  the  kingdom  or  out  of  it  might  become 
a  partner  by  subscribing,  within  a  certain  time,  not 
less  than  three  thousand  francs.  France  was  a  mere 
patch  on  the  map,  compared  to  the  vast  domains  of 
the  new  association.  Western  Africa  from  Cape 
Verd  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  South  America 
between  the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco,  Cayenne,  the 
Antilles,  and  all  New  France,  from  Hudson's  Bay  to 
Virginia  and  Florida,  were  bestowed  on  it  forever,  to 
be  held  of  the  Crown  on  the  simple  condition  of 
faith  and  homage.  As,  according  to  the  edict,  the 
glory  of  God  was  the  chief  object  in  view,  the  com- 
pany was  required  to  supply  its  possessions  with  a 
sufficient  number  of  priests,  and  diligently  to  exclude 


1664-68.]  MONOPOLY.  235 

all  teachers  of  false  doctrine.  It  was  empowered  to 
build  forts  and  war-ships,  cast  cannon,  wage  war, 
make  peace,  establish  courts,  appoint  judges,  and 
otherwise  to  act  as  sovereign  within  its  own  domains. 
A  monopoly  of  trade  was  granted  it  for  forty  years.1 
Sugar  from  the  Antilles  and  furs  from  Canada  were 
the  chief  source  of  expected  profit;  and  Africa  was 
to  supply  the  slaves  to  raise  the  sugar.  Scarcely  was 
the  grand  machine  set  in  motion,  when  its  directors 
betrayed  a  narrowness  and  blindness  of  policy  which 
boded  the  enterprise  no  good.  Canada  was  a  chief 
sufferer.  Once  more,  bound  hand  and  foot,  she  was 
handed  over  to  a  selfish  league  of  merchants,  — 
monopoly  in  trade,  monopoly  in  religion,  monopoly 
in  government.  Nobody  but  the  company  had  a 
right  to  bring  her  the  necessaries  of  life ;  and  nobody 
but  the  company  had  a  right  to  exercise  the  traffic 
which  alone  could  give  her  the  means  of  paying  for 
these  necessaries.  Moreover,  the  supplies  which  it 
brought  were  insufficient,  and  the  prices  which  it 
demanded  were  exorbitant.  It  was  throttling  its 
wretched  victim.  The  Canadian  merchants  remon- 
strated.2 It  was  clear  that  if  the  colony  was  to  live, 
the  system  must  be  changed;  and  a  change  was 
accordingly  ordered.  The  company  gave  up  its 
monopoly  of  the  fur- trade,  but  reserved  the  right  to 
levy  a  duty  of  one-fourth  of  the  beaver-skins,  and 
one-tenth  of  the  moose-skins;  and  it  also  reserved 

1  Edit  d'Etablissement  de  la  Compagnie  des  Indes  Occidentals. 
*  Lettre  du  Conseil  Souverain  d  Colbert,  1668. 


236  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1664-66. 

the  entire  trade  of  Tadoussac,  —  that  is  to  say,  the 
trade  of  all  the  tribes  between  the  lower  St. 
Lawrence  and  Hudson's  Bay.  It  retained,  besides, 
the  exclusive  right  of  transporting  furs  in  its  own 
ships,  —  thus  controlling  the  commerce  of  Canada, 
and  discouraging,  or  rather  extinguishing,  the  enter- 
prise of  Canadian  merchants.  On  its  part,  it  was 
required  to  pay  governors,  judges,  and  all  the  colonial 
officials  out  of  the  duties  which  it  levied.1 

Yet  the  King  had  the  prosperity  of  Canada  at 
heart;  and  he  proceeded  to  show  his  interest  in  her 
after  a  manner  hardly  consistent  with  his  late  action 
in  handing  her  over  to  a  mercenary  guardian.  In 
fact,  he  acted  as  if  she  had  still  remained  under  his 
paternal  care.  He  had  just  conferred  the  right  of 
naming  a  governor  and  intendant  upon  the  new 
company;  but  he  now  assumed  it  himself,  the  com- 
pany, with  a  just  sense  of  its  own  unfitness,  readily 
consenting  to  this  suspension  of  one  of  its  most 
important  privileges.  Daniel  de  Re*my,  Sieur  de 
Courcelle,  was  appointed  governor,  and  Jean  Baptiste 
Talon  intendant.2  The  nature  of  this  duplicate 

1  Arret  du  Conseil  du  Roy  qm  accorde  a  la  Compagnie  le  quart  des 
castors,  le  dixieme  des  orignaux  et  la  traite  de  Tadoussac :  Instruction 
deMonseigneurde  Tracy  et  a  Messieurs  le  Gouverneur  et  I' Intendant. 

This  company  prospered  as  little  as  the  rest  of  Colbert's  trad- 
ing companies.  Within  ten  years  it  lost  3,523,000  lirres,  besides 
blighting  the  colonies  placed  under  its  control.  (Recherches  sur  les 
Finances,  cited  by  Clement,  Histoire  de  Colbert.) 

2  Commission  de  Lieutenant  General  en   Canada,  etc.,  pour  M.  de 
Courcelle,  23   Mars,   1665;     Commission   d' Intendant    de   la  Justice, 
Police,  et  Finances  en  Canada,  etc.,  pour  M.  Talon,  23  Mars,  1665, 


1665.]  ARRIVAL  OF  TRACY.  237 

government  will  appear  hereafter.  But  before 
appointing  rulers  for  Canada,  the  King  had  appointed 
a  representative  of  the  Crown  for  all  his  American 
domains.  The  Mare'chal  d'Estrades  had  for  some 
time  held  the  title  of  viceroy  for  America;  and  as  he 
could  not  fulfil  the  duties  of  that  office,  being  at  the 
time  ambassador  in  Holland,  the  Marquis  de  Tracy 
was  sent  in  his  place,  with  the  title  of  lieutenant- 
general.1 

Canada  at  this  time  was  an  object  of  very  consid- 
erable attention  at  court,  and  especially  in  what 
was  known  as  the  parti  devot.  The  Relations  of  the 
Jesuits,  appealing  equally  to  the  spirit  of  religion 
and  the  spirit  of  romantic  adventure,  had  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  been  the  favorite  reading 
of  the  devout,  and  the  visit  of  Laval  at  court  had 
greatly  stimulated  the  interest  they  had  kindled. 
The  letters  of  Argenson,  and  especially  of  Avaugour, 
had  shown  the  vast  political  possibilities  of  the  young 
colony,  and  opened  a  vista  of  future  glories  alike 
for  Church  and  for  King. 

So,  when  Tracy  set  sail  he  found  no  lack  of  fol- 
lowers. A  throng  of  young  nobles  embarked  with 
him,  eager  to  explore  the  marvels  and  mysteries  of 
the  western  world.  The  King  gave  him  two  hun- 
dred soldiers  of  the  regiment  of  Carignan-Salieres, 
and  promised  that  a  thousand  more  should  follow. 
After  spending  more  than  a  year  in  the  West  Indies, 

1  Commission  de  Lieutenant  General  de  VAmerique  Meridionale  et 
Septentrionale  pour  M.  Prouville  de  Tracy,  19  Nov.,  1663. 


238  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1665- 

where,  as  Mother  Mary  of  the  Incarnation  expresses 
it,  "  he  performed  marvels  and  reduced  everybody  to 
obedience,"  he  at  length  sailed  up  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and  on  the  thirtieth  of  June,  1665,  anchored  in 
the  basin  of  Quebec.  The  broad,  white  standard, 
blazoned  with  the  arms  of  France,  proclaimed  the 
representative  of  royalty;  and  Point  Levi  and  Cape 
Diamond  and  the  distant  Cape  Tourmente  roared 
back  the  sound  of  the  saluting  cannon.  All  Quebec 
was  on  the  ramparts  or  at  the  landing-place,  and  all 
eyes  were  strained  at  the  two  vessels  as  they  slowly 
emptied  their  crowded  decks  into  the  boats  along- 
side. The  boats  at  length  drew  near,  and  the 
lieutenant-general  and  his  suite  landed  on  the  quay 
with  a  pomp  such  as  Quebec  had  never  seen  before. 

Tracy  was  a  veteran  of  sixty-two,  portly  and  tall, 
"one  of  the  largest  men  I  ever  saw,"  writes  Mother 
Mary;  but  he  was  sallow  with  disease,  for  fever  had 
seized  him,  and  it  had  fared  ill  with  him  on  the  long 
voyage.  The  Chevalier  de  Chaumont  walked  at  his 
side,  and  young  nobles  surrounded  him,  gorgeous  in 
lace  and  ribbons  and  majestic  in  leonine  wigs. 
Twenty-four  guards  in  the  King's  livery  led  the  way, 
followed  by  four  pages  and  six  valets;1  and  thus, 
while  the  Frenchmen  shouted  and  the  Indians  stared, 
the  august  procession  threaded  the  streets  of  the 
Lower  Town,  and  climbed  the  steep  pathway  that 
scaled  the  cliffs  above.  Breathing  hard,  they  reached 

1  Juchereau  says  that  this  was  his  constant  attendance  when  he 
went  abroad. 


1665.]  THE  REINFORCEMENT.  239 

the  top,  passed  on  the  left  the  dilapidated  walls  of 
the  fort  and  the  shed  of  mingled  wood  and  masonry 
which  then  bore  the  name  of  the  Castle  of  St.  Louis ; 
passed  on  the  right  the  old  house  of  Couillard  and 
the  site  of  Laval's  new  seminary,  and  soon  reached 
the  square  betwixt  the  Jesuit  college  and  the  cathe- 
dral. The  bells  were  ringing  in  a  frenzy  of  wel- 
come. Laval  in  pontificals,  surrounded  by  priests  and 
Jesuits,  stood  waiting  to  receive  the  deputy  of  the 
King ;  and  as  he  greeted  Tracy  and  offered  him  the 
holy  water,  he  looked  with  anxious  curiosity  to  see 
what  manner  of  man  he  was.  The  signs  were  auspi- 
cious. The  deportment  of  the  lieutenant-general  left 
nothing  to  desire.  A  prie-dieu  had  been  placed  for 
him.  He  declined  it.  They  offered  him  a  cushion, 
but  he  would  not  have  it;  and,  fevered  as  he  was, 
he  knelt  on  the  bare  pavement  with  a  devotion  that 
edified  every  beholder.  Te  Deum  was  sung,  and  a 
day  of  rejoicing  followed. 

There  was  good  cause.  Canada,  it  was  plain,  was 
not  to  be  wholly  abandoned  to  a  trading  company. 
Louis  XIV.  was  resolved  that  a  new  France  should 
be  added  to  the  old.  Soldiers,  settlers,  horses,  sheep, 
cattle,  young  women  for  wives,  were  all  sent  out  in 
abundance  by  his  paternal  benignity.  Before  the 
season  was  over,  about  two  thousand  persons  had 
landed  at  Quebec  at  the  royal  charge.  "  At  length, " 
writes  Mother  Juchereau,  "  our  joy  was  completed  by 
the  arrival  of  two  vessels  with  Monsieur  de  Courcelle, 
our  governor;  Monsieur  Talon,  our  intendant,  and 


240  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1665. 

the  last  companies  of  the  regiment  of  Carignan." 
More  state  and  splendor,  more  young  nobles,  more 
guards  and  valets:  for  Courcelle,  too,  says  the  same 
chronicler,  "had  a  superb  train;  and  Monsieur 
Talon,  who  naturally  loves  glory,  forgot  nothing 
which  could  do  honor  to  the  King."  Thus  a  sun- 
beam from  the  court  fell  for  a  moment  on  the  rock  of 
Quebec.  Yet  all  was  not  sunshine ;  for  the  voyage 
had  been  a  tedious  one,  and  disease  had  broken  out 
in  the  ships.  That  which  bore  Talon  had  been  a 
hundred  and  seventeen  days  at  sea,1  and  others  were 
hardly  more  fortunate.  The  hospital  was  crowded 
with  the  sick;  so,  too,  were  the  Church  and  the 
neighboring  houses ;  and  the  nuns  were  so  spent  with 
their  labors  that  seven  of  them  were  brought  to  the 
point  of  death.  The  priests  were  busied  in  convert 
ing  the  Huguenots,  a  number  of  whom  were  detected 
among  the  soldiers  and  emigrants.  One  of  them 
proved  refractory,  declaring  with  oaths  that  he  would 
never  renounce  his  faith.  Falling  dangerously  ill, 
he  was  carried  to  the  hospital,  where  Mother 
Catherine  de  Saint- Augustin  bethought  her  of  a  plan 
of  conversion.  She  ground  to  powder  a  small  piece 
of  a  bone  of  Father  Bre*beuf,  the  Jesuit  martyr,  and 
secretly  mixed  the  sacred  dust  with  the  patient's 
gruel;  whereupon,  says  Mother  Juchereau,  "this 
intractable  man  forthwith  became  gentle  as  an  angel, 
begged  to  be  instructed,  embraced  the  faith,  and 

,.    >  Talvn  au  Ministre,  4  Oct.,  1665. 


1665.]  TRACY'S   DEVOTION.  241 

abjured  his  errors  publicly  with  an  admirable 
fervor."1 

Two  or  three  years  before,  the  Church  of  Quebec 
had  received  as  a  gift  from  the  Pope  the  bodies  or 
bones  of  two  saints,  —  Saint  Flavian  and  Saint 
Felicite*.  They  were  enclosed  in  four  large  coffers 
or  reliquaries,  and  a  grand  procession  was  now 
ordered  in  their  honor.  Tracy,  Courcelle,  Talon, 
and  the  agent  of  the  company  bore  the  canopy  of  the 
Host.  Then  came  the  four  coffers  on  four  decorated 
litters,  carried  by  the  principal  ecclesiastics.  Laval 
followed  in  pontificals.  Forty-seven  priests,  and  a 
long  file  of  officers,  nobles,  soldiers,  and  inhabitants, 
followed  the  precious  relics  amid  the  sound  of  music 
and  the  roar  of  cannon.2 

"  It  is  a  ravishing  thing, "  says  Mother  Mary,  "  to 
see  how  marvellously  exact  is  Monsieur  de  Tracy 
at  all  these  holy  ceremonies,  where  he  is  always  the 
first  to  come,  for  he  would  not  lose  a  single  moment 
of  them.  He  has  been  seen  in  church  for  six  hours 
together,  without  once  going  out."  But  while  the 
lieutenant-general  thus  edified  the  colony,  he 
betrayed  no  lack  of  qualities  equally  needful  in  his 
position.  In  Canada,  as  in  the  West  Indies,  he 
showed  both  vigor  and  conduct.  First  of  all,  he  had 
been  ordered  to  subdue  or  destroy  the  Iroquois ;  and 
the  regiment  of  Carignan-Sali£res  was  the  weapon 

1  Le  Mercier  tells  the  same  story  in  the  Relation  of  1665. 

2  Compare  Marie  de  ITncarnation,  Lettre  16  Oct.,  1666,  with  La 
Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  chap.  x. 

16 


242  ROYAL   INTERVENTION.  [1665, 

placed  in  his  hands  for  this  end.  Four  companies 
of  this  corps  had  arrived  early  in  the  season;  four 
more  came  with  Tracy,  more  yet  with  Salie»res, 
their  colonel,  —  and  now  the  number  was  complete. 
As  with  slouched  hat  and  plume,  bandoleer,  and 
shouldered  firelock,  these  bronzed  veterans  of  the 
Turkish  wars  marched  at  the  tap  of  drum  through 
the  narrow  street,  or  mounted  the  rugged  way  that 
led  up  to  the  fort,  the  inhabitants  gazed  with  a  sense 
of  profound  relief.  Tame  Indians  from  the  neigh- 
boring missions,  wild  Indians  from  the  woods,  stared 
in  silent  wonder  at  their  new  defenders.  Their 
numbers,  their  discipline,  their  uniform,  and  their 
martial  bearing  filled  the  savage  beholders  with 
admiration. 

Carignan-Salieres  was  the  first  regiment  of  regular 
troops  ever  sent  to  America  by  the  French  govern- 
ment. It  was  raised  in  Savoy  by  the  Prince  of 
Carignan  in  1644,  but  was  soon  employed  in  the 
service  of  France;  where,  in  1652,  it  took  a  con- 
spicuous part,  on  the  side  of  the  King,  in  the  battle 
with  Conde'  and  the  Fronde  at  the  Porte  St.  Antoine. 
After  the  peace  of  the  Pyrenees,  the  Prince  of 
Carignan,  unable  to  support  the  regiment,  gave  it  to 
the  King,  and  it  was,  for  the  first  time,  incorporated 
into  the  French  armies.  In  1664  it  distinguished 
itself,  as  part  of  the  allied  force  of  France,  in  the 
Austrian  war  against  the  Turks.  In  the  next  year 
it  was  ordered  to  America,  along  with  the  fragment 
of  a  regiment  formed  of  Germans,  the  whole  being 


1665.]  A   HOLY   WAR.  243 

placed  under  the  command  of  Colonel  de  SaliSres. 
Hence  its  double  name.1 

Fifteen  heretics  were  discovered  in  its  ranks,  and 
quickly  converted.2  Then  the  new  crusade  was 
preached,  —  the  crusade  against  the  Iroquois,  enemies 
of  God  and  tools  of  the  Devil.  The  soldiers  and 
the  people  were  filled  with  a  zeal  half  warlike  and 
half  religious.  "They  are  made  to  understand,'* 
writes  Mother  Mary,  "  that  this  is  a  holy  war,  all  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls.  The 
fathers  are  doing  wonders  in  inspiring  them  with 
true  sentiments  of  piety  and  devotion.  Fully  five 
hundred  soldiers  have  taken  the  scapulary  of  the 
Holy  Virgin.  It  is  we  [the  Ursulines],  who  make 
them;  it  is  a  real  pleasure  to  do  such  work;"  and 
she  proceeds  to  relate  a  "beau  miracle,"  by  which 
God  made  known  his  satisfaction  at  the  fervor  of 
his  military  servants. 


1  For  a    long    notice    of    the    regiment    of    Carignan-Salieres 
(Lorraine),  see  Susane,  Ancienne  Infanterie  Fran$aise,  v.  236.    The 
portion  of  it  which  returned  to  France  from  Canada  formed  a 
nucleus  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  regiment,  which,  under  the 
name  of  the  regiment  of  Lorraine,  did  not  cease  to  exist  as  a  sepa- 
rate organization  till  1794.    When  it  came  to  Canada  it  consisted, 
says  Susane,  of  about  a  thousand  men,  besides  about  two  hundred 
of  the  other  regiment  incorporated  with  it.     Compare  Memoire  du 
Roy  pour  servir  d' instruction  au  Sieur  Talon,  which  corresponds  very 
nearly  with  Susane's  statement. 

2  Besides  these,  there  was  Berthier,  a  captain.    "  Voila,"  write* 
Talon  to  the  King,  "  le   16me  converti ;  ainsi  votre  Majeste'  moi*- 
sonne  dejk  k  pleines  mains  de  la  gloire  pour  Dieu,  et  pour  elle 

de  la  renommee  dans  toute  Fetendue  de  la  Chre'tientfc."     (Lettre 
7  Oct.,  1665.) 


244  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1665. 

The  secular  motives  for  the  war  were  in  themselves 
strong  enough;  for  the  growth  of  the  colony  abso- 
lutely demanded  the  cessation  of  Iroquois  raids,  and 
the  French  had  begun  to  learn  the  lesson  that  in  the 
case  of  hostile  Indians  no  good  can  come  of  attempts 
to  conciliate,  unless  respect  is  first  imposed  by  a 
sufficient  castigation.  It  is  true  that  the  writers  of 
the  time  paint  Iroquois  hostilities  in  their  worst 
colors.  In  the  innumerable  letters  which  Mother 
Mary  of  the  Incarnation  sent  home  every  autumn, 
by  the  returning  ships,  she  spared  no  means  to  gain 
the  sympathy  and  aid  of  the  devout;  and,  with 
similar  motives,  the  Jesuits  in  their  printed  Relations 
took  care  to  extenuate  nothing  of  the  miseries  which 
the  pious  colony  endured.  Avaugour  too,  in  urg- 
ing the  sending  out  of  a  strong  force  to  fortify  and 
hold  the  country,  had  advised  that,  in  order  to  furnish 
a  pretext  and  disarm  the  jealousy  of  the  English  and 
Dutch,  exaggerated  accounts  should  be  given  of 
danger  from  the  side  of  the  savage  confederates. 
Yet,  with  every  allowance,  these  dangers  and  suffer- 
ings were  sufficiently  great. 

The  three  upper  nations  of  the  Iroquois  were  com- 
paratively pacific;  but  the  two  lower  nations,  the 
Mohawks  and  Oneidas,  were  persistently  hostile; 
making  inroads  into  the  colony  by  way  of  Lake 
Champlain  and  the  Richelieu,  murdering  and  scalp- 
ing, and  then  vanishing  like  ghosts.  Tracy's  first 
step  was  to  send  a  strong  detachment  to  the  Richelieu 
to  build  a  picket  fort  below  the  rapids  of  Chambly, 


1665.]  PACIFIC   OVERTURES.  245 

which  take  their  name  from  that  of  the  officer  in 
command.  An  officer  named  Sorel  soon  afterwards 
built  a  second  fort  on  the  site  of  the  abandoned 
palisade  work  built  by  Montmagny,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  where  the  town  of  Sorel  now  stands ;  and 
Salieres,  colonel  of  the  regiment,  added  a  third  fort, 
two  or  three  leagues  above  Chambly.1  These  forts 
could  not  wholly  bar  the  passage  against  the  nimble 
and  wily  warriors  who  might  pass  them  in  the  night, 
shouldering  their  canoes  through  the  woods.  A 
blow,  direct  and  hard,  was  needed,  and  Tracy 
prepared  to  strike  it. 

Late  in  the  season  an  embassy  from  the  three 
upper  nations  —  the  Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and 
Senecas  —  arrived  at  Quebec,  led  by  Garacontie',  a 
famous  chief  whom  the  Jesuits  had  won  over,  and 
who  proved  ever  after  a  stanch  friend  of  the  French. 
They  brought  back  the  brave  Charles  Le  Moyne  of 
Montreal,  whom  they  had  captured  some  three 
months  before,  and  now  restored  as  a  peace-offering, 
taking  credit  to  themselves  that  "  not  even  one  of  his 
nails  had  been  torn  out,  nor  any  part  of  his  body 
burnt."2  Garacontie  made  a  peace  speech,  which,  as 
rendered  by  the  Jesuits,  was  an  admirable  specimen  of 
Iroquois  eloquence ;  but  while  joining  hands  with  him 
and  his  companions,  the  French  still  urged  on  their 
preparations  to  .chastise  the  contumacious  Mohawks. 

1  See  the  map  in  the  Relation  of  1665.    The  accompanying  text 
of  the  Relation  is  incorrect. 

2  Explanation  of  the  eleven  Presents  of  the  Iroquois  Ambassadors, 
N.  Y.  Colonial  Docs.,  ix.  37. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

1666,  1667. 
THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED. 

COURCELLE'S  MARCH  :  ms  FAILURE  AND  RETURN.  —  COURCELLB 
AND  THE  JESUITS. —  MOHAWK  TREACHERY.  —  TRACT'S  EXPEDI- 
TION. —  BURNING  or  THE  MOHAWK  TOWNS.  —  FRENCH  AND  ENG- 
LISH. —  DOLLIER  DE  CASSON  AT  ST.  ANNE.  —  PEACE.  —  THE 
JESUITS  AND  THE  IROQUOIS. 

THE  governor,  Courcelle,  says  Father  Le  Mercier, 
"breathed  nothing  but  war,"  and  was  bent  on  imme- 
diate action.  He  was  for  the  present  subordinate  to 
Tracy,  who,  however,  forbore  to  cool  his  ardor,  and 
allowed  him  to  proceed.  The  result  was  an  enter- 
prise bold  to  rashness.  Courcelle,  with  about  five 
hundred  men,  prepared  to  march  in  the  depth  of  a 
Canadian  winter  to  the  Mohawk  towns,  —  a  distance 
estimated  at  three  hundred  leagues.  Those  who 
knew  the  country  vainly  urged  the  risks  and  diffi- 
culties of  the  attempt.  The  adventurous  governor 
held  fast  to  his  purpose,  and  only  waited  till  the  St. 
Lawrence  should  be  well  frozen.  Early  in  January, 
it  was  a  solid  floor;  and  on  the  ninth  the  march 
began.  Officers  and  men  stopped  at  Sillery,  and 
knelt  in  the  little  mission  chapel  before  the  shrine  of 


1666.]  COURCELLE'S  MARCH.  247 

Saint  Michael,  to  ask  the  protection  and  aid  of  the 
warlike  archangel;  then  they  resumed  their  course, 
and,  with  their  snow-shoes  tied  at  their  backs, 
walked  with  difficulty  and  toil  over  the  bare  and 
slippery  ice.  A  keen  wind  swept  the  river,  and  the 
fierce  cold  gnawed  them  to  the  bone.  Ears,  noses, 
fingers,  hands,  and  knees  were  frozen;  some  fell 
in  torpor,  and  were  dragged  on  by  their  comrades 
to  the  shivering  bivouac.  When,  after  a  march  of 
ninety  miles,  they  reached  Three  Rivers,  a  consid- 
erable number  were  disabled,  and  had  to  be  left 
behind;  but  others  joined  them  from  the  garrison, 
and  they  set  out  again.  Ascending  the  Richelieu, 
and  passing  the  new  forts  at  Sorel  and  Chambly, 
they  reached  at  the  end  of  the  month  the  third  fort, 
called  Ste.  ThdrSse.  On  the  thirtieth  they  left  it, 
and  continued  their  march  up  the  frozen  stream. 
About  two  hundred  of  them  were  Canadians,  and 
of  these  seventy  were  old  Indian-fighters  from 
Montreal,  versed  in  wood-craft,  seasoned  to  the 
climate,  and  trained  among  dangers  and  alarms. 
Courcelle  quickly  learned  their  value,  and  his  "  Blue 
Coats,"  as  he  called  them,  were  always  placed  in  the 
van.1  Here,  wrapped  in  their  coarse  blue  capotes, 
with  blankets  and  provisions  strapped  at  their  backs, 
they  strode  along  on  snow-shoes,  which  recent  storms 
had  made  indispensable.  The  regulars  followed  as 
they  could.  They  were  not  yet  the  tough  and 
experienced  woodsmen  that  they  and  their  descend- 

1  Dollier  de  Casson,  Histoire  du  Montreal,  A.  D.  1665,  1666. 


248  THE  MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

ants  afterwards  became ;  and  their  snow-shoes  embar- 
rassed them,  burdened  as  they  were  with  the  heavy 
loads  which  all  carried  alike,  from  Courcelle  to  the 
lowest  private. 

Lake  Champlain  lay  glaring  in  the  winter  sun,  a 
sheet  of  spotless  snow;  and  the  wavy  ridges  of  the 
Adirondacks  bordered  the  dazzling  landscape  with 
the  cold  gray  of  their  denuded  forests.  The  long 
procession  of  weary  men  crept  slowly  on  under  the 
lee  of  the  shore ;  and  when  night  came  they  bivouacked 
by  squads  among  the  trees,  dug  away  the  snow  with 
their  snow-shoes,  piled  it  in  a  bank  around  them, 
built  their  fire  in  the  middle,  and  crouched  about  it 
on  beds  of  spruce  or  hemlock, 1  —  while,  as  they  lay 
close  packed  for  mutual  warmth,  the  winter  sky 
arched  them  like  a  vault  of  burnished  steel,  sparkling 
with  the  cold  diamond  lustre  of  its  myriads  of  stars. 
This  arctic  serenity  of  the  elements  was  varied  at 
times  by  heavy  snow-storms,  and  before  they  reached 
their  journey's  end  the  earth  and  the  ice  were  buried 
to  the  unusual  depth  of  four  feet.  From  Lake 
Champlain  they  passed  to  Lake  George2  and  the 
frigid  glories  of  its  snow- wrapped  mountains,  thence 
crossed  to  the  Hudson,  and  groped  their  way  through 
the  woods  in  search  of  the  Mohawk  towns.  They 

1  One  of  the  men,  telling  the  story  of  their  sufferings  to  Daniel 
Gookin,  of  Massachusetts,  indicated  this  as  their  mode  of  encamp- 
ing.   See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  first  series,  i.  161. 

2  Carte  des  grands  lacs,  Ontario  et  autres  .  .  .  et  des  pays  traversez 
par  MM.  de  Tracy  et  Courcelle  pour  alter  attaquer  les  agnies  [Mohawks], 


1666.]  FAILURE   OF  COURCELLE.  249 

soon  went  astray;  for  thirty  Algonquins,  whom  they 
had  taken  as  guides,  had  found  the  means  of  a  grand 
debauch  at  Fort  Ste.  The're^se,  drunk  themselves  into 
helplessness,  and  lingered  behind.  Thus  Courcelle 
and  his  men  mistook  the  path,  and,  marching  by  way 
of  Saratoga  Lake  and  Long  Lake,1  found  themselves, 
on  Saturday  the  twentieth  of  February,  close  to  the 
little  Dutch  hamlet  of  Corlaer,  or  Schenectady. 
Here  the  chief  man  in  authority  told  them  that  most 
of  the  Mohawks  and  Oneidas  had  gone  to  war  with 
another  tribe.  They  however  caught  a  few  strag- 
glers, and  had  a  smart  skirmish  with  a  party  of 
warriors,  losing  an  officer  and  several  men.  Half 
frozen  and  half  starved,  they  encamped  in  the  neigh- 
boring woods,  where,  on  Sunday,  three  envoys 
appeared  from  Albany,  to  demand  why  they  had 
invaded  the  territories  of  his  Royal  Highness  the 
Duke  of  York.  It  was  now  that  they  learned  for  the 
first  time  that  the  New  Netherlands  had  passed  into 
English  hands,  a  change  which  boded  no  good  to 
Canada.  The  envoys  seemed  to  take  their  explana- 
tions in  good  part,  made  them  a  present  of  wine  and 
provisions,  and  allowed  them  to  buy  further  supplies 
from  the  Dutch  of  Schenectady.  They  even  invited 
them  to  enter  the  village,  but  Courcelle  declined,  — 
partly  because  the  place  could  not  hold  them  all,  and 
partly  because  he  feared  that  his  men,  once  seated  in 
a  chimney-corner,  could  never  be  induced  to  leave  it. 
Their  position  was  cheerless  enough ;  for  the  vast 

1  Carte  .  .  .  des  pays  traversez  par  MM.  de  Tracy  et  Courcelle,  etc 


250  THE  MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

beds  of  snow  around  them  were  soaking  slowly  under 
a  sullen  rain,  and  there  was  danger  that  the  lakes 
might  thaw  and  cut  off  their  retreat.  "  Ye  Mohaukes, '  * 
says  the  old  English  report  of  the  affair,  "were  all 
gone  to  their  Castles  with  resolution  to  fight  it  out 
against  the  french,  who,  being  refresht  and  supplyed 
wtt  the  aforesaid  provisions,  made  a  shew  of  marching 
towards  the  Mohaukes  Castles,  but  with  faces  about, 
and  great  sylence  and  dilligence,  returned  towards 
Cannada."  "Surely,"  observes  the  narrator,  "so 
bould  and  hardy  an  attempt  hath  not  hapned  in  any 
age."1  The  end  hardly  answered  to  the  beginning. 
The  retreat,  which  began  on  Sunday  night,  was 
rather  precipitate.  The  Mohawks  hovered  about 
their  rear,  and  took  a  few  prisoners ,  but  famine  and 
cold  proved  more  deadly  foes,  and  sixty  men  perished 
before  they  reached  the  shelter  of  Fort  Ste.  The*rese. 
On  the  eighth  of  March,  Courcelle  came  to  the 
neighboring  fort  of  St.  Louis  or  Chambly.  Here  he 
found  the  Jesuit  Albanel  acting  as  chaplain;  and, 
being  in  great  ill  humor,  he  charged  him  with  caus- 
ing the  failure  of  the  expedition  by  detaining  the 
Algonquin  guides.  This  singular  notion  took  such 
possession  of  him,  that,  when  a  few  days  after  he 
met  the  Jesuit  Fre*min  at  Three  Rivers,  he  embraced 
him  ironically,  saying,  at  the  same  time,  "  My  father, 
I  am  the  unluckiest  gentleman  in  the  world;  and 

1  A  Relation  of  the  Govern*,  of  Cannada,  his  March  with  600  Volun- 
eirs  into  ye  Territoryes  of  His  Royatt  Highnesse  the  Duke  of  Yorke  it 
America.  See  Doc.  Hist.  N.  Y.  L  7L 


1666.]  MOHAWK  TREACHERY.  251 

you,  and  the  rest  of  you,  are  the  cause  of  it." 1  The 
pious  Tracy  and  the  prudent  Talon  tried  to  disarm 
his  suspicions,  and  with  such  success  that  he  gave  up 
an  intention  he  had  entertained  of  discarding  his 
Jesuit  confessor,  and  forgot  or  forgave  the  imagined 
wrong. 

Unfortunate  as  this  expedition  was,  it  produced 
a  strong  effect  on  the  Iroquois  by  convincing  them 
that  their  forest  homes  were  no  safe  asylum  from 
French  attacks.  In  May,  the  Senecas  sent  an  embassy 
of  peace;  and  the  other  nations,  including  the 
Mohawks,  soon  followed.  Tracy,  on  his  part,  sent 
the  Jesuit  B6chefer  to  learn  on  the  spot  the  real 
temper  of  the  savages,  and  ascertain  whether  peace 
could  safely  be  made  with  them.  The  Jesuit  was 
scarcely  gone  when  news  came  that  a  party  of  officers 
hunting  near  the  outlet  of  Lake  Champlain  had  been 
set  upon  by  the  Mohawks,  and  that  seven  of  them 
had  been  captured  or  killed.  Among  the  captured 
was  Leroles,  a  cousin  of  Tracy;  and  among  the 
killed  was  a  young  gentleman  named  Chasy,  his 
nephew. 

On  this  the  Jesuit  envoy  was  recalled;  twenty- 
four  Iroquois  deputies  were  seized  and  imprisoned; 
and  Sorel,  captain  in  the  regiment  of  Carignan,  was 
sent  with  three  hundred  men  to  chastise  the  per- 
fidious Mohawks.  If,  as  it  seems,  he  was  expected 
to  attack  their  fortified  towns  or  "castles,"  as  the 
English  call  them,  his  force  was  too  small.  This 

1  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Mars,  1666. 


252  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

time,  however,  there  was  no  fighting.  At  two  days 
from  his  journey's  end,  Sorel  met  the  famous  chief 
called  the  Flemish  Bastard,  bringing  back  Leroles 
and  his  fellow-captives,  and  charged,  as  he  alleged, 
to  offer  full  satisfaction  for  the  murder  of  Chasy. 
Sorel  believed  him,  retraced  his  course,  and  with 
the  Bastard  in  his  train  returned  to  Quebec. 

Quebec  was  full  of  Iroquois  deputies,  all  bent  on 
peace  or  pretending  to  be  so.  On  the  last  day  of 
August  there  was  a  grand  council  in  the  garden  of 
the  Jesuits.  Some  days  later,  Tracy  invited  the 
Flemish  Bastard  and  a  Mohawk  chief  named  Agariata 
to  his  table,  when  allusion  was  made  to  the  murder 
of  Chasy.  On  this  the  Mohawk,  stretching  out  his 
arm,  exclaimed  in  a  braggart  tone,  "  This  is  the  hand 
that  split  the  head  of  that  young  man."  The  indig- 
nation of  the  company  may  be  imagined.  Tracy  told 
his  insolent  guest  that  he  should  never  kill  anybody 
else ;  and  he  was  led  out  and  hanged  in  presence  of 
the  Bastard.1  There  was  no  more  talk  of  peace. 
Tracy  prepared  to  march  in  person  against  the 
Mohawks  with  all  the  force  of  Canada. 

On  the  day  of  the  Exaltation  of  the  Cross,  "for 
whose  glory,"  says  the  chronicler,  "this  expedition 

1  This  story  rests  chiefly  on  the  authority  of  Nicholas  Perrot, 
Afceurs  des  Sauvages,  113.  La  Potherie  also  tells  it,  with  the  ad- 
dition of  the  chief's  name.  Golden  follows  him.  The  Journal  des 
Jesuites  mentions  that  the  chief  who  led  the  murderers  of  Chasy 
arrived  at  Quebec  on  the  sixth  of  September.  Marie  de  Tlncarna- 
tion  mentions  the  hanging  of  an  Iroquois  at  Quebec,  late  in  the 
autumn,  for  violating  the  peace. 


1666.]  MARCH  OF  TRACY.  253 

is  undertaken,"  Tracy  and  Courcelle  left  Quebec 
with  thirteen  hundred  men.  They  crossed  Lake 
Champlain,  and  launched  their  boats  again  on  the 
waters  of  St.  Sacrament,  now  Lake  George.  It  was 
the  first  of  the  warlike  pageants  that  have  made  that 
fair  scene  historic.  October  had  begun,  and  the 
romantic  wilds  breathed  the  buoyant  life  of  the  most 
inspiring  of  American  seasons,  when  the  blue-jay 
screams  from  the  woods,  the  wild  duck  splashes 
along  the  lake,  and  the  echoes  of  distant  mountains 
prolong  the  quavering  cry  of  the  loon ;  when  weather- 
stained  rocks  are  plumed  with  the  fiery  crimson  of 
the  sumach,  the  claret  hues  of  young  oaks,  the  amber 
and  scarlet  of  the  maple,  and  the  sober  purple  of  the 
ash ;  or  when  gleams  of  sunlight,  shot  aslant  through 
the  rents  of  cool  autumnal  clouds,  chase  fitfully  along 
the  glowing  sides  of  painted  mountains.  Amid  this 
gorgeous  euthanasia  of  the  dying  season,  the  three 
hundred  boats  and  canoes  trailed  in  long  procession 
up  the  lake,  threaded  the  labyrinth  of  the  Narrows, 
—  that  sylvan  fairy-land  of  tufted  islets  and  quiet 
waters,  —  and  landed  at  length  where  Fort  William 
Henry  was  afterwards  built.1 

About  a  hundred  miles  of  forests,  swamps,  rivers, 
and  mountains  still  lay  between  them  and  the 
Mohawk  towns.  There  seems  to  have  been  an 
Indian  path,  for  this  was  the  ordinary  route  of  the 
Mohawk  and  Oneida  war-parties;  but  the  path  was 
narrow,  broken,  full  of  gullies  and  pitfalls,  crossed 

1  Carte  .  .  .  des  pays  traversez  par  MM.  de  Tracy  et  Courcelle,  ett 


254  THE  MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

by  streams,  and  in  one  place  interrupted  by  a  lake 
which  they  passed  on  rafts.  A  hundred  and  ten 
"Blue  Coats,"  of  Montreal,  led  the  way,  under 
Charles  Le  Moyne;  Repentigny  commanded  the 
levies  from  Quebec.  In  all  there  were  six  hundred 
Canadians,  six  hundred  regulars,  and  a  hundred 
Indians  from  the  missions,  who  ranged  the  woods 
in  front,  flank,  and  rear,  like  hounds  on  the  scent. 
Red  or  white,  Canadians  or  regulars,  all  were  full  of 
zeal.  "It  seems  to  them,"  writes  Mother  Mary, 
"  that  they  are  going  to  lay  siege  to  Paradise,  and 
win  it  and  enter  in,  because  they  are  righting  for 
religion  and  the  faith."1  Their  ardor  was  rudely 
tried.  Officers  as  well  as  men  carried  loads  at  their 
backs,  whence  ensued  a  large  blister  on  the  shoulders 
of  the  Chevalier  de  Chaumont,  in  no  way  used  to  such 
burdens.  Tracy,  old,  heavy,  and  infirm,  was  inop- 
portunely seized  with  the  gout.  A  Swiss  soldier 
tried  to  carry  him  on  his  shoulders  across  a  rapid 
stream;  but  midway  his  strength  failed,  and  he  was 
barely  able  to  deposit  his  ponderous  load  on  a  rock. 
A  Huron  came  to  his  aid,  and  bore  Tracy  safely  to 
the  farther  bank.  Courcelle  was  attacked  with 
cramps,  and  had  to  be  carried  for  a  time  like  his 
commander.  Provisions  gave  out,  and  men  and 
officers  grew  faint  with  hunger.  The  Montreal 
soldiers  had  for  chaplain  a  sturdy  priest,  Dollier  de 
Casson,  as  large  as  Tracy  and  far  stronger;  for  the 
incredible  story  is  told  of  him  that  when  in  good 
1  Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  Lettre  du  16  Oct.,  1666. 


1666.]  THE  MOHAWK  TOWNS.  255 

condition  he  could  hold  two  men  seated  on  his 
extended  hands.1  Now,  however,  he  was  equal  to 
no  such  exploit,  being  not  only  deprived  of  food,  but 
also  of  sleep,  by  the  necessity  of  listening  at  night  to 
the  confessions  of  his  pious  flock ;  and  his  shoes,  too, 
had  failed  him,  nothing  remaining  but  the  upper 
leather,  which  gave  him  little  comfort  among  the 
sharp  stones.  He  bore  up  manfully,  being  by  nature 
brave  and  light-hearted ;  and  when  a  servant  of  the 
Jesuits  fell  into  the  water,  he  threw  off  his  cassock 
and  leaped  after  him.  His  strength  gave  out,  and 
the  man  was  drowned;  but  a  grateful  Jesuit  led 
him  aside,  and  requited  his  efforts  with  a  morsel  of 
bread.2  A  wood  of  chestnut-trees  full  of  nuts  at 
length  stayed  the  hunger  of  the  famished  troops. 

It  was  Saint  Theresa's  day  when  they  approached 
the  lower  Mohawk  town.  A  storm  of  wind  and  rain 
set  in;  but,  anxious  to  surprise  the  enemy,  they 
pushed  on  all  night  amid  the  moan  and  roar  of  the 
forest,  —  over  slippery  logs,  tangled  roots,  and  oozy 
mosses,  under  dripping  boughs  and  through  saturated 
bushes.  This  time  there  was  no  want  of  good 
guides;  and  when  in  the  morning  they  issued  from 
the  forest,  they  saw,  amid  its  cornfields,  the  palisades 
of  the  Indian  stronghold.  They  had  two  small  pieces 
of  cannon  brought  from  the  lake  by  relays  of  men, 
but  they  did  not  stop  to  use  them.  Their  twenty 

1  Grandet,  Notice  manuscrite  sur  Dottier  de  Casson,  extract  given 
by  J.  Viger  in  appendix  to  Histoire  du  Montreal  (Montreal,  1868). 

2  Dollier  de  Casson,  Histoire  du  Montreal,  A.  D.  1665,  1666. 


256  THE  MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

drums  beat  the  charge,  and  they  advanced  to  seize 
the  place  by  coup-de-main.  Luckily  for  them,  a 
panic  had  seized  the  Indians:  not  that  they  were 
taken  by  surprise,  for  they  had  discovered  the 
approaching  French,  and,  two  days  before,  had  sent 
away  their  women  and  children  in  preparation  for  a 
desperate  fight;  but  the  din  of  the  drums,  which 
they  took  for  so  many  devils  in  the  French  service, 
and  the  armed  men  advancing  from  the  rocks  and 
thickets  in  files  that  seemed  interminable,  so  wrought 
on  the  scared  imagination  of  the  warriors  that  they 
fled  in  terror  to  their  next  town,  a  short  distance 
above.  Tracy  lost  no  time,  but  hastened  in  pursuit. 
A  few  Mohawks  were  seen  on  the  hills,  yelling  and 
firing  too  far  for  effect.  Repentigny,  at  the  risk  of  his 
scalp,  climbed  a  neighboring  height,  and  looked  down 
on  the  little  army,  which  seemed  so  numerous  as  it 
passed  beneath,  "that,"  writes  the  superior  of  the  Ur- 
sulines,  "  he  told  me  that  he  thought  the  good  angels 
must  have  joined  with  it:  whereat  he  stood  amazed." 
The  second  town  or  fort  was  taken  as  easily  as 
the  first;  so,  too,  were  the  third  and  the  fourth. 
The  Indians  yelled,  and  fled  without  killing  a  man ; 
and  still  the  troops  pursued,  following  the  broad 
trail  which  led  from  town  to  town  along  the  valley 
of  the  Mohawk.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when 
the  fourth  town  was  entered,1  and  Tracy  thought 

1  Marie  de  ITnearnation  says  that  there  were  four  towns  in  all. 
I  follow  the  Acte  de  prise  de  possession,  made  on  the  spot  Five  art* 
here  mentioned. 


1666.]  VICTORY.  257 

that  his  work  was  done;  but  an  Algonquin  squaw 
who  had  followed  her  husband  to  the  war,  and  who 
had  once  been  a  prisoner  among  the  Mohawks,  told 
him  that  there  was  still  another  above.  The  sun 
was  near  its  setting,  and  the  men  were  tired  with 
their  pitiless  marching;  but  again  the  order  was 
given  to  advance.  The  eager  squaw  showed  the 
way,  holding  a  pistol  in  one  hand  and  leading 
Courcelle  with  the  other;  and  they  soon  came  in 
sight  of  Andaraque*,  the  largest  and  strongest  of  the 
Mohawk  forts.  The  drums  beat  with  fury,  and  the 
troops  prepared  to  attack;  but  there  were  none  to 
oppose  them.  The  scouts  sent  forward  reported  that 
the  warriors  had  fled.  The  last  of  the  savage  strong- 
holds was  in  the  hands  of  the  French. 

"God  has  done  for  us,"  says  Mother  Mary,  "what 
he  did  in  ancient  days  for  his  chosen  people,  — strik- 
ing terror  into  our  enemies,  insomuch  that  we  were 
victors  without  a  blow.  Certain  it  is  that  there  is 
miracle  in  all  this ;  for  if  the  Iroquois  had  stood  fast, 
they  would  have  given  us  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
and  caused  our  army  great  loss,  seeing  how  they 
were  fortified  and  armed,  and  how  haughty  and  bold 
they  are." 

The  French  were  astonished  as  they  looked  about 
them.  These  Iroquois  forts  were  very  different 
from  those  that  Jogues  had  seen  here  twenty  years 
before,  or  from  that  which  in  earlier  times  set 
Champlain  and  his  Hurons  at  defiance.  The  Mohawks 
had  had  counsel  and  aid  from  their  Dutch  friends, 

17 


THE   MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

and  adapted  their  savage  defences  to  the  rules  oi 
European  art.  Andaraqu^  was  a  quadrangle  formed 
of  a  triple  palisade,  twenty  feet  high,  and  flanked  by 
four  bastions.  Large  vessels  of  bark  filled  with 
water  were  placed  on  the  platforms  of  the  palisade 
for  defence  against  fire.  The  dwellings  which  these 
fortifications  enclosed  were  in  many  cases  built  of 
wood,  though  the  form  and  arrangement  of  the 
primitive  bark-lodge  of  the  Iroquois  seems  to  have 
been  preserved.  Some  of  the  wooden  houses  were  a 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  long,  with  fires  for  eight 
or  nine  families.  Here,  and  in  subterranean  caches, 
was  stored  a  prodigious  quantity  of  Indian-corn  and 
other  provisions;  and  all  the  dwellings  were  sup- 
plied with  carpenters'  tools,  domestic  utensils,  and 
many  other  appliances  of  comfort. 

The  only  living  things  in  Andaraque*,  when  the 
French  entered,  were  two  old  women,  a  small  boy, 
and  a  decrepit  old  man,  who,  being  frightened  by 
the  noise  of  the  drums,  had  hidden  himself  under 
a  canoe.  From  them  the  victors  learned  that  the 
Mohawks,  retreating  from  the  other  towns,  had 
gathered  here,  resolved  to  fight  to  the  last;  but  at 
sight  of  the  troops  their  courage  failed,  and  the 
chief  was  first  to  run,  crying  out,  "Let  us  save 
ourselves,  brothers!  the  whole  world  is  coming 
against  us ! " 

A  cross  was  planted,  and  at  its  side  the  royal 
arms.  The  troops  were  drawn  up  in  battle  array, 
when  Jean  Baptiste  du  Bois,  an  officer  deputed  by 


1666.] 


ENGLISH  JEALOUSY. 


259 


Tracy,  advancing  sword  in  hand  to  the  front,  pro- 
claimed in  a  loud  voice  that  he  took  possession  in 
the  name  of  the  King  of  all  the  country  of  the 
Mohawks ;  and  the  troops  shouted  three  times,  Vive 
le  JKoi.1 

That  night  a  mighty  bonfire  illumined  the  Mohawk 
forests ;  and  the  scared  savages  from  their  hiding- 
places  among  the  rocks  saw  their  palisades,  their 
dwellings,  their  stores  of  food,  and  all  their  posses- 
sions turned  to  cinders  and  ashes.  The  two  old 
squaws  captured  in  the  town  threw  themselves  in 
despair  into  the  flames  of  their  blazing  homes. 
When  morning  came,  there  was  nothing  left  of 
Andaraqu6  but  smouldering  embers,  rolling  their 
pale  smoke  against  the  painted  background  of  the 
October  woods.  Te  Deum  was  sung  and  mass  said ; 
and  then  the  victors  began  their  backward  march, 
—  burning,  as  they  went,  all  the  remaining  forts, 
with  all  their  hoarded  stores  of  corn,  except  such  as 
they  needed  for  themselves.  If  they  had  failed  to 
destroy  their  enemies  in  battle,  they  hoped  that 
winter  and  famine  would  do  the  work  of  shot  and 
steel. 

While  there  was  distress  among  the  Mohawks, 
there  was  trouble  among  their  English  neighbors, 
who  claimed  as  their  own  the  country  which  Tracy 
had  invaded.  The  English  authorities  were  the 
more  disquieted,  because  they  feared  that  the  lately 
conquered  Dutch  might  join  hands  with  the  French 

1  Acte  de  prise  de  possession,  17  Oct.,  1666. 


260  THE   MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

against  them.  When  Nicolls,  governor  of  Ne~w 
York,  heard  of  Tracy's  advance,  he  wrote  to  the 
governors  of  the  New  England  colonies,  begging 
them  to  join  him  against  the  French  invaders,  and 
urging  that  if  Tracy's  force  were  destroyed  or 
captured,  the  conquest  of  Canada  would  be  an  easy 
task.  There  was  war  at  the  time  between  the  two 
Crowns;  and  the  British  court  had  already  enter- 
tained this  project  of  conquest,  and  sent  orders  to 
its  colonies  to  that  effect.  But  the  New  England 
governors  —  ill  prepared  for  war,  and  fearing  that 
their  Indian  neighbors,  who  were  enemies  of  the 
Mohawks,  might  take  part  with  the  French  —  hesi- 
tated to  act,  and  the  affair  ended  in  a  correspondence, 
civil  if  not  sincere,  between  Nicolls  and  Tracy.1 
The  treaty  of  Bre'da,  in  the  following  year,  secured 
peace  for  a  time  between  the  rival  colonies. 

The  return  of  Tracy  was  less  fortunate  than  his 
advance.  The  rivers,  swollen  by  autumn  rains, 
were  difficult  to  pass;  and  in  crossing  Lake  Cham- 
plain  two  canoes  were  overset  in  a  storm,  and  eight 
men  were  drowned.  From  St.  Anne,  a  new  fort 
built  early  in  the  summer  on  Isle  La  Motte,  near  the 
northern  end  of  the  lake,  he  sent  news  of  his  success 
to  Quebec,  where  there  was  great  rejoicing  and  a 
solemn  thanksgiving.  Signs  and  prodigies  had  not 
been  wanting  to  attest  the  interest  of  the  upper  and 
nether  powers  in  the  crusade  against  the  myrmidons 

1  See  the  correspondence  in  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  iii.  118-156.  Com- 
pare Hutchinson  Collection,  407  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll,  xviii.  102. 


1666.]  THE  CURE  OF  ST.   ANNE.  261 

of  hell.  At  one  of  the  forts  on  the  Richelieu,  "  the 
soldiers,"  says  Mother  Mary,  "were  near  dying  of 
fright.  They  saw  a  great  fiery  cavern  in  the  sky, 
and  from  this  cavern  came  plaintive  voices  mixed 
with  frightful  howlings.  Perhaps  it  was  the  demons, 
enraged  because  we  had  depopulated  a  country 
where  they  had  been  masters  so  long,  and  had  said 
mass  and  sung  the  praises  of  God  in  a  place  where 
there  had  never  before  been  anything  but  foulness 
and  abomination." 

Tracy  had  at  first  meant  to  abandon  Fort  St. 
Anne;  but  he  changed  his  mind  after  returning  to 
Quebec.  Meanwhile  the  season  had  grown  so  late 
that  there  was  no  time  to  send  proper  supplies  to  the 
garrison.  Winter  closed,  and  the  place  was  not 
only  ill-provisioned,  but  was  left  without  a  priest. 
Tracy  wrote  to  the  superior  of  the  Sulpitians  at 
Montreal  to  send  one  without  delay ;  but  the  request 
was  more  easily  made  than  fulfilled,  for  he  forgot  to 
order  an  escort,  and  the  way  was  long  and  dangerous. 
The  stout-hearted  Dollier  de  Casson  was  told,  how- 
ever, to  hold  himself  ready  to  go  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity. His  recent  campaigning  had  left  him  in  no 
condition  for  braving  fresh  hardships,  for  he  was 
nearly  disabled  by  a  swelling  on  one  of  his  knees. 
By  way  of  cure  he  resolved  to  try  a  severe  bleeding, 
and  the  Sangrado  of  Montreal  did  his  work  so 
thoroughly  that  his  patient  fainted  under  his  hands. 
As  he  returned  to  consciousness,  he  became  aware 
that  two  soldiers  had  entered  the  room.  They  told 


262  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

him  that  they  were  going  in  the  morning  to  Chambly, 
which  was  on  the  way  to  St.  Anne ;  and  they  invited 
him  to  go  with  them.  "Wait  till  the  day  after 
to-morrow,"  replied  the  priest,  "and  I  will  try." 
The  delay  was  obtained;  and  on  the  day  fixed  the 
party  set  out  by  the  forest  path  to  Chambly,  a  dis- 
tance of  about  four  leagues.  When  they  reached  it, 
Dollier  de  Casson  was  nearly  spent;  but  he  concealed 
his  plight  from  the  commanding  officer,  and  begged 
an  escort  to  St.  Anne,  some  twenty  leagues  farther. 
As  the  officer  would  not  give  him  one,  he  threatened 
to  go  alone,  on  which  ten  men  and  an  ensign  were 
at  last  ordered  to  conduct  him.  Thus  attended,  he 
resumed  his  journey  after  a  day's  rest.  One  of  the 
soldiers  fell  through  the  ice,  and  none  of  his  com- 
rades dared  help  him.  Dollier  de  Casson,  making 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  went  to  his  aid,  and,  more 
successful  than  on  the  former  occasion,  caught  him 
and  pulled  him  out.  The  snow  was  deep;  and  the 
priest,  having  arrived  in  the  preceding  summer,  had 
never  before  worn  snow-shoes,  while  a  sack  of  cloth- 
ing, and  his  portable  chapel  which  he  carried  at  his 
back,  joined  to  the  pain  of  his  knee  and  the  effects 
of  his  late  bleeding,  made  the  march  a  purgatory. 

He  was  sorely  needed  at  Fort  St.  Anne.  There 
was  pestilence  in  the  garrison.  Two  men  had  just 
died  without  absolution,  while  more  were  at  the 
point  of  death,  and  praying  for  a  priest.  Thus  it 
happened  that  when  the  sentinel  descried  far  off, 
on  the  ice  of  Lake  Champlain,  a  squad  of  soldiers 


J666.]  THE  CURE   OF   ST.   AtfNE.  263 

approaching,  and  among  them  a  black  cassock,  every 
officer  and  man  not  sick  or  on  duty  came  out  with 
one  accord  to  meet  the  new-comer.  They  over- 
whelmed him  with  welcome  and  with  thanks.  One 
took  his  sack,  another  his  portable  chapel,  and  they 
led  him  in  triumph  to  the  fort.  First  he  made  a 
short  prayer,  then  went  his  rounds  among  the  sick, 
and  then  came  to  refresh  himself  with  the  officers. 
Here  was  La  Motte  de  la  Luci£re,  the  commandant; 
La  Durantaye,  a  name  destined  to  be  famous  in 
Canadian  annals ;  and  a  number  of  young  subalterns. 
The  scene  was  no  strange  one  to  Dollier  de  Casson, 
for  he  had  been  an  officer  of  cavalry  in  his  time,  and 
fought  under  Turenne;1  a  good  soldier,  without 
doubt,  at  the  mess  table  or  in  the  field,  and  none  the 
worse  a  priest  that  he  had  once  followed  the  wars. 
He  was  of  a  lively  humor,  given  to  jests  and  mirth ; 
as  pleasant  a  father  as  ever  said  Benedicite.  The 
soldier  and  the  gentleman  still  lived  under  the  cas- 
sock of  the  priest.  He  was  greatly  respected  and 
beloved;  and  his  influence  as  a  peace-maker,  which 
he  often  had  occasion  to  exercise,  is  said  to  have  been 
remarkable.  When  the  time  demanded  it,  he  could 
use  arguments  more  cogent  than  those  of  moral 
suasion.  Once,  in  a  camp  of  Algonquins,  when,  as 
he  was  kneeling  in  prayer,  an  insolent  savage  came 
to  interrupt  him,  the  father,  without  rising,  knocked 
the  intruder  flat  by  a  blow  of  his  fist ;  and  the  other 

1  Grandet,  Notice  manuscrite  sur  Dollier  de  Casson,  extracts  from 
copy  in  possession  of  the  late  Jacques  Viger. 


264  THE  MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

Indians,  far  from  being  displeased,  were  filled  with 
admiration  at  the  exploit.1 

His  cheery  temper  now  stood  him  in  good  stead ; 
for  there  was  dreary  work  before  him,  and  he  was 
not  the  man  to  flinch  from  it.  The  garrison  of  St. 
Anne  had  nothing  to  live  on  but  salt  pork  and  half- 
spoiled  flour.  Their  hogshead  of  vinegar  had  sprung 
a  leak,  and  the  contents  had  all  oozed  out.  They 
had  rejoiced  in  the  supposed  possession  of  a  reason- 
able stock  of  brandy ;  but  they  soon  discovered  that 
the  sailors,  on  the  voyage  from  France,  had  emptied 
the  casks  and  filled  them  again  with  salt-water.  The 
scurvy  broke  out  with  fury.  In  a  short  time,  forty 
out  of  the  sixty  men  became  victims  of  the  loathsome 
malady.  Day  or  night,  Dollier  de  Casson  and 
Forestier,  the  equally  devoted  young  surgeon,  had 
no  rest.  The  surgeon's  strength  failed,  and  the 
priest  was  himself  slightly  attacked  with  the  disease. 
Eleven  men  died ;  and  others  languished  for  want  of 
help,  for  their  comrades  shrank  from  entering  the 
infected  dens  where  they  lay.  In  their  extremity 
some  of  them  devised  an  ingenious  expedient. 
Though  they  had  nothing  to  bequeath,  they  made 
wills  in  which  they  left  imaginary  sums  of  money  to 
those  who  had  befriended  them;  and  thenceforth 
they  found  no  lack  of  nursing. 

In  the  intervals  of  his  labors,  Dollier  de  Casson 
would  run  to  and  fro  for  warmth  and  exercise  on  a 

1  Grandet,  Notice  manuscrite  sur  Dollier  de  Casson,  cited  by  Fail- 
Ion,  Colonie  Fran$aisey  iii.  395,  396. 


1666-67.]  JESUITS  AND  IROQUOIS.  265 

certain  track  of  beaten  snow,  between  two  of  the 
bastions,  reciting  his  breviary  as  he  went,  so  that 
those  who  saw  him  might  have  thought  him  out  of 
his  wits.  One  day  La  Motte  called  out  to  him  as  he 
was  thus  engaged,  "Eh,  Monsieur  le  cure*,  if  the 
Iroquois  should  come,  you  must  defend  that  bastion. 
My  men  are  all  deserting  me,  and  going  over  to  you 
and  the  doctor."  To  which  the  father  replied,  "Get 
me  some  litters  with  wheels,  and  I  will  bring  them 
out  to  man  my  bastion.  They  are  brave  enough 
now;  no  fear  of  their  running  away."  With  banter 
like  this,  they  sought  to  beguile  their  miseries ;  and 
thus  the  winter  wore  on  at  Fort  St.  Anne.1 

Early  in  spring  they  saw  a  troop  of  Iroquois 
approaching,  and  prepared  as  well  as  they  could  to 
make  fight ;  but  the  strangers  proved  to  be  ambassa- 
dors of  peace.  The  destruction  of  the  Mohawk 
towns  had  produced  a  deep  effect,  not  on  that  nation 
alone,  but  also  on  the  other  four  members  of  the 
league.  They  were  disposed  to  confirm  the  promises 
of  peace  which  they  had  already  made;  and  Tracy 
had  spurred  their  good  intentions  by  sending  them 
a  message  that  unless  they  quickly  presented  them- 
selves at  Quebec,  he  would  hang  all  the  chiefs  whom 
he  had  kept  prisoners  after  discovering  their  treach- 

1  The  above  curious  incidents  are  told  by  Dollier  de  Casson,  in  his 
Itistoire  du  Montreal,  preserved  in  manuscript  in  the  Mazarin  Library 
at  Paris.  He  gives  no  hint  that  the  person  in  question  was  himself, 
but  speaks  of  him  as  un  ecclesiastique.  His  identity  is,  however, 
made  certain  by  internal  evidence,  by  a  pafssage  in  the  Notice  of 
Grandet,  and  by  other  contemporary  allusions. 


266  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1667. 

ery  in  the  preceding  summer.  The  threat  had  its 
effect :  deputies  of  the  Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Cayugas, 
and  Senecas  presently  arrived  in  a  temper  of  befitting 
humility.  The  Mohawks  were  at  first  afraid  to 
come,  but  in  April  they  sent  the  Flemish  Bastard 
with  overtures  of  peace,  and  in  July  a  large  deputa- 
tion of  their  chiefs  appeared  at  Quebec.  They  and 
the  rest  left  some  of  their  families  as  hostages,  and 
promised  that  if  any  of  their  people  should  kill  a 
Frenchman,  they  would  give  them  up  to  be  hanged.1 
They  begged,  too,  for  blacksmiths,  surgeons,  and 
Jesuits  to  live  among  them.  The  presence  of  the 
Jesuits  in  their  towns  was  in  many  ways  an  advan- 
tage to  them;  while  to  the  colony  it  was  of  the 
greatest  importance.  Not  only  was  conversion  to 
the  Church  justly  regarded  as  the  best  means  of 
attaching  the  Indians  to  the  French  and  alienating 
them  from  the  English ;  but  the  Jesuits  living  in  the 
midst  of  them  could  influence  even  those  whom  they 
could  not  convert,  soothe  rising  jealousies,  counter- 
act English  intrigues,  and  keep  the  rulers  of  the 
colony  informed  of  all  that  was  passing  in  the 
Iroquois  towns.  Thus,  half  Christian  missionaries, 
half  political  agents,  the  Jesuits  prepared  to  resume 
the  hazardous  mission  of  the  Iroquois.  Fre*min  and 
Pierron  were  ordered  to  the  Mohawks,  Bruyas  to 
the  Oneidas,  and  three  others  were  named  for  the 

1  Lettre  du  Pere  Jean  Pierron,  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus,  escripte 
de  la  Motte  [Fort  Ste.  Anne]  sur  le  lac  Champlain,  le  I2me  d'aoust, 
1667. 


1667.]  TRACY'S  EXPEDITION.  267 

remaining  three  nations  of  the  league.  The  troops 
had  made  the  peace;  the  Jesuits  were  the  rivets  to 
hold  it  fast,  —  and  peace  endured  without  absolute 
rupture  for  nearly  twenty  years.  Of  all  the  French 
expeditions  against  the  Iroquois,  that  of  Tracy  was 
the  most  productive  of  good. 

NOTE.  —  On  Tracy's  expedition  against  the  Mohawks  compare 
Faillon,  Histoire  de  la  Colonie  Franfaise  au  Canada,  iii. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

1665-1672. 
PATERNAL  GOVERNMENT. 

TALON.  —  RESTRICTION  AND  MONOPOLY.  —  VIEWS  OF  COLBERT.— 
POLITICAL  GALVANISM.  —  A  FATHER  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

TRACY'S  work  was  done,  and  he  left  Canada  with 
the  glittering  noblesse  in  his  train.  Courcelle  and 
Talon  remained  to  rule  alone;  and  now  the  great 
experiment  was  begun.  Paternal  royalty  would  try 
its  hand  at  building  up  a  colony,  and  Talon  was  its 
chosen  agent.  His  appearance  did  him  no  justice. 
The  regular  contour  of  his  oval  face,  about  which 
fell  to  his  shoulders  a  cataract  of  curls,  natural  01 
supposititious;  the  smooth  lines  of  his  well-formed 
features,  brows  delicately  arched,  and  a  mouth  more 
suggestive  of  feminine  sensibility  than  of  masculine 
force,  —  would  certainly  have  misled  the  disciple  of 
Lavater.1  Yet  there  was  no  want  of  manhood  in 
him.  He  was  most  happily  chosen  for  the  task 
placed  in  his  hands,  and  from  first  to  last  approved 
himself  a  vigorous  executive  officer.  He  was  a  true 

1  His  portrait  is  at  the  Hotel  Dieu  of  Quebec.  An  engraving 
from  it  will  be  found  in  the  third  volume  of  Shea's  Charlevoix. 


1665-72.]     RESTRICTION   AND  MONOPOLY.  269 

disciple  of  Colbert,  formed  in  his  school  and  animated 
by  his  spirit. 

Being  on  the  spot,  he  was  better  able  than  his 
master  to  judge  the  working  of  the  new  order  of 
things.  With  regard  to  the  company,  he  writes  that 
it  will  profit  by  impoverishing  the  colony;  that  its 
monopolies  dishearten  the  people  and  paralyze  enter- 
prise; that  it  is  thwarting  the  intentions  of  the 
King,  who  wishes  trade  to  be  encouraged;  and  that 
if  its  exclusive  privileges  are  maintained,  Canada  in 
ten  years  will  be  less  populous  than  now.1  But 
Colbert  clung  to  his  plan,  though  he  wrote  in  reply 
that  to  satisfy  the  colonists  he  had  persuaded  the 
company  to  forego  the  monopolies  for  a  year.2  As 
this  proved  insufficient,  the  company  was  at  length 
forced  to  give  up  permanently  its  right  of  exclusive 
trade,  still  exacting  its  share  of  beaver  and  moose 
skins.  This  was  its  chief  source  of  profit;  it 
begrudged  every  sou  deducted  from  it  for  charges  of 
government,  and  the  King  was  constantly  obliged  to 
do  at  his  own  cost  that  which  the  company  should  \^ 
have  done.  In  one  point  it  showed  a  ceaseless  activ- 
ity ;  and  this  was  the  levying  of  duties,  in  which  it 
was  never  known  to  fail. 

Trade,  even  after  its  exercise  was  permitted,  was 
continually  vexed  by  the  hand  of  authority.  One  of 
Tracy's  first  measures  had  been  to  issue  a  decree 

lucing  the  price  of  wheat  one  half.     The  council 

1  Talon  a  Colbert,  4  Oct.,  1665. 
*  Colbert  a  Talon,  6  Avril,  1666. 


270  PATERNAL  GOVERNMENT.  [1665-72, 

took  up  the  work  of  regulation,  and  fixed  the  price 
of  all  imported  goods  in  three  several  tariffs,  —  one 
for  Quebec,  one  for  Three  Rivers,  and  one  for 
Montreal.1  It  may  well  be  believed  that  there  was 
in  Canada  little  capital  and  little  enterprise.  Indus- 
trially and  commercially,  the  colony  was  almost 
dead.  Talon  set  himself  to  galvanize  it;  and  if  one 
man  could  have  supplied  the  intelligence  and  energy 
of  a  whole  community,  the  results  would  have  been 
triumphant. 

He  had  received  elaborate  instructions,  and  they 
indicate  an  ardent  wish  for  the  prosperity  of  Canada. 
Colbert  had  written  to  him  that  the  true  means  to 
strengthen  the  colony  was  to  "  cause  justice  to  reign, 
establish  a  good  police,  protect  the  inhabitants,  dis- 
cipline them  against  enemies,  and  procure  for  them 
peace,  repose,  and  plenty."2  "  And  as, "  the  minister 
further  says,  "the  King  regards  his  Canadian  sub- 
jects, from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  almost  as  his 
own  children,  and  wishes  them  to  enjoy  equally  with 
the  people  of  France  the  mildness  and  happiness  of 
his  reign,  the  Sieur  Talon  will  study  to  solace  them 
in  all  things,  and  encourage  them  to  trade  and 
industry.  And,  seeing  that  nothing  can  better  pro- 
mote this  end  than  entering  into  the  details  of  their 
households  and  of  all  their  little  affairs,  it  will  not  be 
amiss  that  he  visit  all  their  settlements  one  after  the 
other  in  order  to  learn  their  true  condition,  provide 

1  Tariff  of  Prices,  in  N.  Y.  Colonial  Docs.  ix.  36. 
a  Colbert  a  Talon,  5  Avril,  1666. 


1665-72.]  ACTIVITY  OF   TALON.  271 

as  much  as  possible  for  their  wants,  and,  performing 
the  duty  of  a  good  head  of  a  family,  put  them  in  the 
way  of  making  some  profit."  The  intendant  was 
also  told  to  encourage  fathers  to  inspire  their  children 
with  piety,  together  with  "profound  love  and  respect 
for  the  royal  person  of  his  Majesty. " 1 

Talon  entered  on  his  work  with  admirable  zeal. 
Sometimes  he  used  authority,  sometimes  persuasion, 
sometimes  promises  of  reward.  Sometimes,  again,  he 
tried  the  force  of  example.  Thus  he  built  a  ship  to 
show  the  people  how  to  do  it,  and  rouse  them  to 
imitation.2  Three  or  four  years  later,  the  experi- 
ment was  repeated.  This  time  it  was  at  the  cost  of 
the  King,  who  applied  the  sum  of  forty  thousand 
livres  3  to  the  double  purpose  of  promoting  the  art  of 
ship-building,  and  saving  the  colonists  from  vagrant 
habits  by  giving  them  employment.  Talon  wrote 
that  three  hundred  and  fifty  men  had  been  supplied 
that  summer  with  work  at  the  charge  of  government.4 

He  despatched  two  engineers  to  search  for  coal, 
lead,  iron,  copper,  and  other  minerals.  Important 
discoveries  of  iron  were  made ;  but  three  generations 
were  destined  to  pass  before  the  mines  were  success- 
fully worked.6  The  copper  of  Lake  Superior  raised 

1  Instruction  au  Sieur  Talon,  27  Mars,  1665. 

2  Talon  a  Colbert,  Octobre,  1667 ;  Colbert  a  Talon,  20  Ftv.,  1668. 
8  De-peche  de  Colbert,  11  Fdv.,  1671. 

4  Talon  a  Colbert,  2  Nov.,  1671. 

*  Charlevoix  speaks  of  these  mineg  as  having  been  forgotten  for 
seventy  years,  and  rediscovered  in  his  time.  After  passing  through 
various  hands,  they  were  finally  worked  on  the  King's  account. 


272  PATERNAL  GOVERNMENT.          [1655-72. 

the  intendant's  hopes  for  a  time,  but  he  was  soon 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  too  remote  to  be 
of  practical  value.  He  labored  vigorously  to  develop 
arts  and  manufactures;  made  a  barrel  of  tar,  and 
sent  it  to  the  King  as  a  specimen;  caused  some  of 
the  colonists  to  make  cloth  of  the  wool  of  the  sheep 
which  the  King  had  sent  out;  encouraged  others  to 
establish  a  tannery,  and  also  a  factory  of  hats  and  of 
shoes.  The  Sieur  Follin  was  induced  by  the  grant 
of  a  monopoly  to  begin  the  making  of  soap  and 
potash.1  The  people  were  ordered  to  grow  hemp,2 
and  urged  to  gather  the  nettles  of  the  country  as 
material  for  cordage;  and  the  Ursulines  were  sup- 
plied with  flax  and  wool,  in  order  that  they  might 
teach  girls  to  weave  and  spin. 

Talon  was  especially  anxious  to  establish  trade 
between  Canada  and  the  West  Indies ;  and,  to  make 
a  beginning,  he  freighted  the  vessel  he  had  built  with 
salted  cod,  salmon,  eels,  pease,  fish-oil,  staves,  and 
planks,  and  sent  her  thither  to  exchange  her  cargo  for 
sugar,  which  she  was  in  turn  to  exchange  in  France 
for  goods  suited  for  the  Canadian  market.3  Another 
favorite  object  with  him  was  the  fishery  of  seals  and 
white  porpoises  for  the  sake  of  their  oil;  and  some 
of  the  chief  merchants  were  urged  to  undertake  it, 
as  well  as  the  establishment  of  stationary  cod-fisheries 
along  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence.  But,  with  every 

1  Registre  du  Conseil  Souverain. 

*  Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  Choix  des  Lettres  de,  371 

*  Le  Mercier,  Eel.  1667,  3;  Depeches  de  Talon. 


1665-72.]  POLICY  OF   TALON.  273 

encouragement,  many  years  passed  before  this  valu- 
able industry  was  placed  on  a  firm  basis. 

Talon  saw  with  concern  the  huge  consumption  of 
wine  and  brandy  among  the  settlers,  costing  them,  as 
he  wrote  to  Colbert,  a  hundred  thousand  livres  a  year ; 
and  to  keep  this  money  in  the  colony,  he  declared 
his  intention  of  building  a  brewery.  The  minister 
approved  the  plan,  not  only  on  economic  grounds, 
but  because  "  the  vice  of  drunkenness  would  thereafter 
cause  no  more  scandal  by  reason  of  the  cold  nature 
of  beer,  the  vapors  whereof  rarely  deprive  men  of  the 
use  of  judgment."1  The  brewery  was  accordingly 
built,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  poorer  colonists. 

Nor  did  the  active  intendant  fail  to  acquit  himself 
of  the  duty  of  domiciliary  visits,  enjoined  upon  him 
by  the  royal  instructions,  —  a  point  on  which  he  was 
of  one  mind  with  his  superiors,  for  he  writes  that 
"those  charged  in  this  country  with  his  Majesty's 
affairs  are  under  a  strict  obligation  to  enter  into  the 
detail  of  families."2  Accordingly,  we  learn  from 
Mother  Juchereau  that  "he  studied  with  the  affec- 
tion of  a  father  how  to  succor  the  poor  and  cause  the 
colony  to  grow;  entered  into  the  minutest  particu- 
lars; visited  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
caused  them  to  visit  him;  learned  what  crops  each 
one  was  raising ;  taught  those  who  had  wheat  to  sell 
it  at  a  profit,  helped  those  who  had  none,  and 
encouraged  everybody."  And  Dollier  de  Casson 

1  Colbert  a  Talon,  20  Fto.,  1668. 
*  Mtmoire  de  1667. 
18 


274  PATERNAL   GOVERNMENT.          [1665-72. 

represents  him  as  visiting  in  turn  every  house  at 
Montreal,  and  giving  aid  from  the  King  to  such  as 
needed  it.1  Horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and  other  domestic 
animals  were  sent  out  at  the  royal  charge  in  consider- 
able numbers,  and  distributed  gratuitously,  with  an 
order  that  none  of  the  young  should  be  killed  till  the 
country  was  sufficiently  stocked.  Large  quantities 
of  goods  were  also  sent  from  the  same  high  quarter. 
Some  of  these  were  distributed  as  gifts,  and  the  rest 
bartered  for  corn  to  supply  the  troops.  As  the 
intendant  perceived  that  the  farmers  lost  much  time 
in  coming  from  their  distant  clearings  to  buy  neces- 
saries at  Quebec,  he  caused  his  agents  to  furnish 
them  with  the  King's  goods  at  their  own  houses,  — 
to  the  great  annoyance  of  the  merchants  of  Quebec, 
who  complained  that  their  accustomed  trade  was  thus 
forestalled.2 

These  were  not  the  only  cares  which  occupied  the 
mind  of  Talon.  He  tried  to  open  a  road  across  the 
country  to  Acadia,  —  an  almost  impossible  task,  in 
which  he  and  his  successors  completely  failed. 
Under  his  auspices,  Albanel  penetrated  to  Hudson's 
Bay,  and  Saint-Lusson  took  possession  in  the  King's 
name  of  the  country  of  the  Upper  Lakes.  It  was 
Talon,  in  short,  who  prepared  the  way  for  the 
remarkable  series  of  explorations  described  in  another 
work.8  Again  and  again  he  urged  upon  Colbert  and 

1  Histoire  du  Montreal,  A.  D.  1666,  1667. 

2  Talon  a  Colbert,  10  Nov.,  1670. 

«  La  Salle,  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great  West. 


1665-72.]  TALON'S   FIDELITY.  275 

the  King  a  measure  from  which,  had  it  taken  effect,  mo- 
mentous consequences  must  have  sprung.  This  was 
the  purchase  or  seizure  of  New  York,  —  involving  the 
isolation  of  New  England,  the  subjection  of  the  Iroquois, 
and  the  undisputed  control  of  half  the  continent. 

Great  as  were  his  opportunities  of  abusing  his 
trust,  it  does  not  appear  that  he  took  advantage  of 
them.  He  held  lands  and  houses  in  Canada,1  owned 
the  brewery  which  he  had  established,  and  embarked 
in  various  enterprises  of  productive  industry;  but, 
so  far  as  I  can  discover,  he  is  nowhere  accused  of 
making  illicit  gains,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  he  acquitted  himself  of  his  charge  with  entire 
fidelity.2  His  health  failed  in  1668,  and  for  this  and 
other  causes  he  asked  for  his  recall.  Colbert  granted 
it  with  strong  expressions  of  regret;  and  when,  two 
years  later,  he  resumed  the  intendancy,  the  colony 
seems  to  have  welcomed  his  return. 

1  In  1682,  the  Intendant  Meules,  in  a  despatch  to  the  minister, 
makes  a  statement  of  Talon's  property  in  Quebec.    The  chief  items 
are  the  brewery  and  a  house  of  some  value  on  the  descent  of 
Mountain  Street.     He  owned,  also,  the  valuable  seigniory,  after- 
wards barony,  Des  Islets,  in  the  immediate  neighborhood. 

2  Some  imputations  against  him,  not  of  much  weight,  are,  how- 
ever, made  in  a  memorial  of  A  :bert  de  la  Chesnaye,  a  merchant  of 
Quebec. 


CHAPTER  XYI. 

1661-1673. 
MARRIAGE  AND  POPULATION. 

SHIPMENT  OF  EMIGRANTS.  —  SOLDIER  SETTLERS.  —  IMPORTATION  or 
WIVES.  —  WEDLOCK.  —  SUMMARY  METHODS.  —  THE  MOTHERS  OF 
CANADA.  —  BOUNTIES  ON  MARRIAGE.  —  CELIBACY  PUNISHED. — 
BOUNTIES  ON  CHILDREN.  —  RESULTS. 

THE  peopling  of  Canada  was  due  in  the  main  to 
the  King.  Before  the  accession  of  Louis  XIV.  the 
entire  population  —  priests,  nuns,  traders,  and  settlers 
—  did  not  exceed  twenty-five  hundred ; l  but  scarcely 
had  he  reached  his  majority  when  the  shipment  of 
men  to  the  colony  was  systematically  begun.  Even 
in  Argenson's  time,  loads  of  emigrants  sent  out  by 
the  Crown  were  landed  every  year  at  Quebec.  The 
Sulpitians  of  Montreal  also  brought  over  colonists  to 
people  their  seigniorial  estate ;  the  same  was  true  on  a 
small  scale  of  one  or  two  other  proprietors,  and  once 
at  least  the  company  sent  a  considerable  number:  yet 
the  government  was  the  chief  agent  of  emigration.  X 
Colbert  did  the  work,  and  "the  King  paid  for  it. 

In  1661,  Laval  wrote  to  the  cardinals  of  the  Propa- 
ganda that  during  the  past  two  years  the  King  had 
spent  two  hundred  thousand  livres  on  the  colony; 

1  Le  Clerc,  Jftablissement  de  la  Foy,  ii.  4. 


1661-65]  EMIGRANTS.  277 

that  since  1659  he  had  sent  out  three  hundred  men  a 
year;  and  that  he  had  promised  to  send  an  equal 
number  every  summer  during  ten  years.1  These 
n?  <m  were  sent  by  squads  in  merchant-ships,  each 
one  of  which  was  required  to  carry  a  certain  number. 
In  many  instances,  emigrants  were  bound  on  their 
arrival  to  enter  into  the  service  of  colonists  already 
established.  In  this  case  the  employer  paid  them 
wages,  and  after  a  term  of  three  years  they  became 
settlers  themselves.2 

The  destined  emigrants  were  collected  by  agents 
in  the  provinces,  conducted  to  Dieppe  or  Rochelle, 
and  thence  embarked.  At  first  men  were  sent  from 
Rochelle  itself,  and  its  neighborhood;  but  Laval 
remonstrated,  declaring  that  he  wanted  none  from 
that  ancient  stronghold  of  heresy.3  The  people  of 
Rochelle,  indeed,  found  no  favor  in  Canada.  Another 
writer  describes  them  as  "  persons  of  little  conscience, 
and  almost  no  religion,"  —  adding  that  the  Normans, 
Percherons,  Picards,  and  peasants  of  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Paris  are  docile,  industrious,  and  far  more 
pious.  "It  is  important,"  he  concludes,  "in  begin- 
ning a  new  colony,  to  sow  good  seed."4  It  was, 
accordingly,  from  the  northwestern  provinces  that 
most  of  the  emigrants  were  drawn.5  They  seem  in 

1  Lettre  de  Laval  envoyde  a  Rome,  21  Oct.,  1661  (extract  in  Faillon 
from  Archives  of  the  Propaganda). 

2  Marie  de  ITncarnation,  18  Aout,  1664.    These  engages  were 
sometimes  also  brought  over  by  private  persons. 

3  Colbert  a  Laval,  18  Mars,  1664. 

4  Mfmoire  de  1664  (anonymous). 

*  See  a  paper  by  Garneau  in  Le  National  of  Quebec,  28  Oct., 


2T8  MARRIAGE   AND  POPULATION.       [1665-72. 

the  main  to  have  been  a  decent  peasantry,  though 
writers  who  from  their  position  should  have  been 
well  informed  have  denounced  them  in  unmeasured 
terms.1  Some  of  them  could  read  and  write,  and 
some  brought  with  them  a  little  money. 

Talon  was  constantly  begging  for  more  men,  till 
Louis  XIV.  at  length  took  alarm.  Colbert  replied 
to  the  over-zealous  intendant  that  the  King  did  not 
think  it  expedient  to  depopulate  France  in  order  to 
people  Canada ;  that  he  wanted  men  for  his  armies ; 
and  that  the  colony  must  rely  chiefly  on  increase 
from  within.  Still  the  shipments  did  not  cease ;  and, 
even  while  tempering  the  ardor  of  his  agent,  the 

1856,  embodying  the  results  of  research  among  the  papers  of  the 
early  notaries  of  Quebec.  The  chief  emigration  was  from  Paris, 
Normandy,  Poitou,  Pays  d'Aunis,  Brittany,  and  Picardy.  Nearly 
all  those  from  Paris  were  sent  by  the  King  from  houses  of  charity. 

1  "Une  foule  d'aventuriers,  ramasse's  au  hazard  en  France, 
presque  tous  de  la  lie  du  peuple,  la  plupart  oberes  de  dettes  ou 
charges  de  crimes,"  etc.  (La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv.  iv.)  "  Le  vice 
a  oblige  la  plupart  de  chercher  ce  pays  comme  un  asile  pour  se 
mettre  a  couvert  de  leurs  crimes."  (Meules,  Dfyeche  de  1682.) 
Meules  was  intendant  in  that  year.  Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  after 
speaking  of  the  emigrants  as  of  a  very  mixed  character,  says  that 
it  would  have  been  far  .better  to  send  a  few  who  were  good 
Christians,  rather  than  so  many  who  give  so  much  trouble.  Lettre 
du  —  Octobre,  1669. 

Le  Clerc,  on  the  other  hand,  is  emphatic  in  praise,  calling  the 
early  colonists  "tres  honnetes  gens,  ayant  de  la  probite,  de  la 
droiture,  et  de  la  religion.  .  .  .  L'on  a  examine  et  choisi  les  habi- 
tants, et  renvoye  en  France  les  personnes  vicieuses."  If,  he  adds, 
any  such  were  left,  "  ils  effa9aient  glorieusement  par  leur  penitence 
les  taches  de  leur  premiere  condition."  Chanevoix  is  almost  as 
strong  in  praise  as  La  Tour  in  censure.  Both  of  them  wrote  in  the 
next  century.  We  shall  have  means  hereafter  of  judging  between 
these  conflicting  statements. 


1665-72.]  SOLDIER  SETTLERS.  279 

King  gave  another  proof  how  much  he  had  the  growth 
of  Canada  at  heart.1 

The  regiment  of  Carignan-SaliSres  had  been  ordered 
home,  with  the  exception  of  four  companies  kept  in 
garrison,2  and  a  considerable  number  discharged  in 
order  to  become  settlers.  Of  those  who  returned, 
six  companies  were  a  year  or  two  later  sent  back, 
discharged  in  their  turn,  and  converted  into  colonists. 
Neither  men  nor  officers  were  positively  constrained 
to  remain  in  Canada ;  but  the  officers  were  told  that 
if  they  wished  to  please  his  Majesty  this  was  the  way 
to  do  so ;  and  both  they  and  the  men  were  stimulated 
by  promises  and  rewards.  Fifteen  hundred  livres 
were  given  to  La  Motte,  because  he  had  married  in 
the  country  and  meant  to  remain  there.  Six  thou- 
sand livres  were  assigned  to  other  officers  because 
they  had  followed,  or  were  about  to  follow,  La 
Motte 's  example;  and  twelve  thousand  were  set 
apart  to  be  distributed  to  the  soldiers  under  similar 
conditions.3  Each  soldier  who  consented  to  remain 
and  settle  was  promised  a  grant  of  land  and  a  hun- 
dred livres  in  money;  or,  if  he  preferred  it,  fifty 
livres  with  provisions  for  a  year.  This  military 
colonization  had  a  strong  and  lasting  influence  on 
the  character  of  the  Canadian  people. 

1  The  King  had  sent  out  more  emigrants  than  he  had  promised, 
to  judge  from  the  census  reports  during  the  years  1666,  1667,  and 
1668.    The  total  population  for  those  years  is  3418,  4312,  and  5870, 
respectively.    A  small  part  of  this  growth  may  be  set  down  to 
emigration  not  under  government  auspices,  and  a  large  part  to 
natural  increase,  —  which  was  enormous  at  this  time,  from  causes 
which  will  soon  appear. 

2  Colbert  a  Talon,  20  Ftv.,  1668.  •  Ibid. 


280  MARRIAGE  AND  POPULATION.      [1665-72. 

But  if  the  colony  was  to  grow  from  within,  the  new 
settlers  must  have  wives.  For  some  years  past  the 
Sulpitians  had  sent  out  young  women  for  the  supply 
of  Montreal ;  and  the  King,  on  a  larger  scale,  contin- 
ued the  benevolent  work.  Girls  for  the  colony  were 
taken  from  the  hospitals  of  Paris  and  of  Lyons, 
which  were  not  so  much  hospitals  for  the  sick  as 
houses  of  refuge  for  the  poor.  Mother  Mary  writes 
in  1665  that  a  hundred  had  come  that  summer,  and 
were  nearly  all  provided  with  husbands,  and  that  two 
hundred  more  were  to  come  next  year.  The  case 
was  urgent,  for  the  demand  was  great.  Complaints, 
however,  were  soon  heard  that  women  from  cities 
made  indifferent  partners ;  and  peasant  girls,  healthy, 
strong,  and  accustomed  to  field-work,  were  demanded 
in  their  place.  Peasant  girls  were  therefore  sent;  but 
this  was  not  all.  Officers  as  well  as  men  wanted  wives ; 
and  Talon  asked  for  a  consignment  of  young  ladies. 
His  request  was  promptly  answered.  In  1667,  he 
writes :  "  They  send  us  eighty-four  girls  from  Dieppe 
and  twenty-five  from  Rochelle  ,•  among  them  are  fifteen 
or  twenty  of  pretty  good  birth ;  several  of  them  are 
really  demoiselles,  and  tolerably  well  brought  up." 
They  complained  of  neglect  and  hardship  during  the 
voyage.  "  I  shall  do  what  I  can  to  soothe  their  discon- 
tent," adds  the  intendant;  "for  if  they  write  to  their 
correspondents  at  home  how  ill  they  have  been  treated, 
it  would  be  an  obstacle  to  your  plan  of  sending  us 
next  year  a  number  of  select  young  ladies." l 

*  "  Des  demoiselles  bien  choisies."  —  Talon  a  Colbert,  27  Oct.,  1667. 


1665-72.]       ASPERSIONS  OF  LA  HONTAN".  281 

Three  years  later  we  find  him  asking  for  three  01 
four  more  in  behalf  of  certain  bachelor  officers.  The 
response  surpassed  his  utmost  wishes ;  and  he  wrote 
again :  "  It  is  not  expedient  to  send  more  demoiselles. 
I  have  had  this  year  fifteen  of  them,  instead  of  the 
four  I  asked  for."1 

As  regards  peasant  girls,  the  supply  rarely  equalled 
the  demand.  Count  Frontenac,  Courcelle's  succes- 
sor, complained  of  the  scarcity:  "If  a  hundred  and 
fifty  girls  and  as  many  servants,"  he  says,  "had  been 
sent  out  this  year,  they  would  all  have  found  hus- 
bands and  masters  within  a  month."2 

The  character  of  these  candidates  for  matrimony 
has  not  escaped  the  pen  of  slander.  The  caustic  La 
Hontan,  writing  fifteen  or  twenty  years  after,  draws 
the  following  sketch  of  the  mothers  of  Canada: 
"After  the  regiment  of  Carignan  was  disbanded, 
ships  were  sent  out  freighted  with  girls  of  indiffer- 
ent virtue,  under  the  direction  of  a  few  pious 
old  duennas,  who  divided  them  into  three  classes. 
These  vestals  were,  so  to  speak,  piled  one  on  the 
other  in  three  different  halls,  where  the  bridegrooms 

1  Talon  a  Colbert,  2  Nov.,  1671. 

2  Frontenac  a  Colbert,  2  Nov.,  1672.    This  year  only  eleven  girls 
had  been  sent.    The  scarcity  was  due  to  the  indiscretion  of  Talon, 
who  had  written  to  the  minister,  that,  as  many  of  the  old  settlers 
had  daughters  just  becoming  marriageable,  it  would  be  well,  in 
order  that  they  might  find  husbands,  to  send  no  more  girls  from 
France  at  present. 

The  next  year,  1673,  the  King  writes,  that,  though  he  is  involved 
in  a  great  war,  which  needs  all  his  resources,  he  has  nevertheless 
gent  sixty  more  girls. 


282  MARRIAGE   AND   POPULATION.       [1665-72. 

chose  their  brides  as  a  butcher  chooses  his  sheep  out 
of  the  midst  of  the  flock.  There  was  wherewith  to 
content  the  most  fantastical  in  these  three  harems; 
for  here  were  to  be  seen  the  tall  and  the  short,  the 
blond  and  the  brown,  the  plump  and  the  lean ;  every- 
body, in  short,  found  a  shoe  to  fit  him.  At  the  end 
of  a  fortnight  not  one  was  left.  I  am  told  that  the 
plumpest  were  taken  first,  because  it  was  thought 
that,  being  less  active,  they  were  more  likely  to  keep 
at  home,  and  that  they  could  resist  the  winter  cold 
better.  Those  who  wanted  a  wife  applied  to  the 
directresses,  to  whom  they  were  obliged  to  make 
known  their  possessions  and  means  of  livelihood 
before  taking  from  one  of  the  three  classes  the  girl 
whom  they  found  most  to  their  liking.  The  mar- 
riage was  concluded  forthwith,  with  the  help  of  a. 
priest  and  a  notary;  and  the  next  day  the  governor- 
general  caused  the  couple  to  be  presented  with  an 
ox,  a  cow,  a  pair  of  swine,  a  pair  of  fowls,  two 
barrels  of  salted  meat,  and  eleven  crowns  in  money." * 
As  regards  the  character  of  the  girls,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  this  amusing  sketch  is,  in  the  main, 
maliciously  untrue.  Since  the  colony  began,  it  had 
been  the  practice  to  send  back  to  France  women  of 
the  class  alluded  to  by  La  Hontan,  as  soon  as  they 
became  notorious.2  Those  who  were  not  taken  from 

1  La  Hontan,  Nouveaux  Voyages,  i.  11  (1709).    In  some  of  the 
other  editions  the  same  account  is  given  in  different  words,  equally 
lively  and  scandalous. 

2  This  is  the  statement  of  Boucher,  a  good  authority.    A  case  of 
the  sort  in  1658  is  mentioned  in  the  correspondence  of  Argenson. 


1665-72.]        THE  MOTHERS  OF  CANADA.  283 

institutions  of  charity  usually  belonged  to  the  families 
of  peasants  overburdened  with  children,  and  glad  to 
find  the  chance  of  establishing  them.1  How  some  of 
them  were  obtained  appears  from  a  letter  of  Colbert 
to  Harlay,  Archbishop  of  Rouen.  "As  in  the 
parishes  about  Rouen,"  he  writes,  "fifty  or  sixty 
girls  might  be  found  who  would  be  very  glad  to  go 
to  Canada  to  be  married,  I  beg  you  to  employ  your 
credit  and  authority  with  the  curds  of  thirty  or  forty 
of  these  parishes,  to  try  to  find  in  each  of  them  one 
or  two  girls  disposed  to  go  voluntarily  for  the  sake 
of  a  settlement  in  life."2 

Mistakes    nevertheless    occurred.      "Along    with 

Boucher  says  further,  that  an  assurance  of  good  character  was 
required  from  the  relations  or  friends  of  the  girl  who  wished  to  em- 
bark. This  refers  to  a  period  anterior  to  1663,  when  Boucher  wrote 
his  book.  Colbert  evidently  cared  for  no  qualification  except  the 
capacity  of  maternity. 

1  Temoignage  de  la  Mere  du  Plessis  de  Sainte-Helene  (extract  in 
Faillon). 

2  Colbert  a  I'Archeveque  de  Rouen,  27  Fev.,  1670. 

That  they  were  not  always  destitute  may  be  gathered  from  a 
passage  in  one  of  Talon's  letters :  "  Entre  les  filles  qu'on  fait  passer 
ici  il  y  en  a  qui  ont  de  legitimes  et  considerables  preventions  aux 
successions  de  leurs  parents,  meme  entre  celles  qui  sont  tirees  de 
THopital  General."  The  General  Hospital  of  Paris  had  recently 
been  established  (1656)  as  a  house  of  refuge  for  the  "Bohemians," 
or  vagrants  of  Paris.  The  royal  edict  creating  it  says  that  "  les 
pauvres  mendiants  et  invalides  des  deux  sexes  y  seraient  enfermes 
pour  estre  employes  aux  manufactures  et  aultres  travaux  selon  leur 
pouvoir."  They  were  gathered  by  force  in  the  streets  by  a  body  of 
special  police,  called  "Archers  de  1'Hopital."  They  resisted  at 
first,  and  serious  riots  ensued.  In  1662,  the  General  Hospital  of 
Paris  contained  6262  paupers.  See  Clement,  Histoire  de  Colbert,  113. 
Mother  de  Sainte-Helene  says  that  the  girls  sent  from  this  asylum 
had  been  there  from  childhood  in  charge  of  nuns. 


284  MARRIAGE   AND  POPULATION.      [1065-72. 

the  honest  people,"  complains  Mother  Mary,  "comes 
a  great  deal  of  canaille  of  both  sexes,  who  cause  a 
great  deal  of  scandal."1  After  some  of  the  young 
women  had  been  married  at  Quebec,  it  was  found 
that  they  had  husbands  at  home.  The  priests  became 
cautious  in  tying  the  matrimonial  knot,  and  Colbert 
thereupon  ordered  that  each  girl  should  provide  her- 
self with  a  certificate  from  the  cur6  or  magistrate  of 
her  parish  to  the  effect  that  she  was  free  to  marry. 
Nor  was  the  practical  intendant  unmindful  of  other 
precautions  to  smooth  the  path  to  the  desired  goal. 
"The  girls  destined  for  this  country,"  he  writes, 
"besides  being  strong  and  healthy,  ought  to  be 
entirely  free  from  any  natural  blemish  or  anything 
personally  repulsive."2 

Thus  qualified  canonically  and  physically,  the 
annual  consignment  of  young  women  was  shipped  to 
Quebec,  in  charge  of  a  matron  employed  and  paid  by 
the  King.  Her  task  was  not  an  easy  one,  for  the 
troop  under  her  care  was  apt  to  consist  of  what 
Mother  Mary  in  a  moment  of  unwonted  levity  calls 

"mixed   goods."3     On   one   occasion  the  office  was 

jf- ; 
\ 

1  "  Beaucoup  de  canaille  de  Tun  et  1'autre  sexe  qui  causent  beau- 
coup  de  scandale."  —  Lettre  du  —  Octobre,  1669. 

2  Talon  a  Colbert,  10  Nov.,  1670. 

8  "Une  marchandise  meMe."  —  Lettre  du  — 1668.  In  that  year, 
1668,  the  King  spent  40,000  livres  in  the  shipment  of  men  and  girls. 
In  1669,  a  hundred  and  fifty  girls  were  sent ;  in  1670,  a  hundred  and 
sixty-five ;  and  Talon  asks  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred 
more  to  supply  the  soldiers  who  had  got  ready  their  houses  and 
clearings,  and  were  now  prepared  to  marry.  The  total  number  of 
girls  sent  from  1665  to  1673,  inclusive,  was  about  a  thousand. 


1865-72.]         THE  MOTHERS  OF  CANADA.  285 

undertaken  by  the  pious  widow  of  Jean  Bourdon. 
Her  flock  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  girls,  says  Mother 
Mary,  "  gave  her  no  little  trouble  on  the  voyage ;  for 
they  are  of  all  sorts,  and  some  of  them  are  very  rude 
and  hard  to  manage."  Madame  Bourdon  was  not 
daunted.  She  not  only  saw  her  charge  distributed 
and  married,  but  she  continued  to  receive  and  care 
for  the  subsequent  ship-loads  as  they  arrived  summer 
after  summer.  She  was  indeed  chief  among  the 
pious  duennas  of  whom  La  Hontan  irreverently 
speaks.  Marguerite  Bourgeoys  did  the  same  good 
offices  for  the  young  women  sent  to  Montreal.  Here 
the  "King's  girls,"  as  they  were  called,  were  all 
lodged  together  in  a  house  to  which  the  suitors 
repaired  to  make  their  selection.  "  I  was  obliged  to 
live  there  myself,"  writes  the  excellent  nun,  "because 
families  were  to  be  formed ;  " l  that  is  to  say,  because 
it  was  she  who  superintended  these  extemporized 
unions.  Meanwhile  she  taught  the  girls  their  cate- 
chism, and,  more  fortunate  than  Madame  Bourdon, 
inspired  them  with  a  confidence  and  affection  which 
they  retained  long  after. 

At  Quebec,  where  the  matrimonial  market  was  on 
a  larger  scale,  a  more  ample  bazaar  was  needed. 
That  the  girls  were  assorted  into  three  classes,  each 
penned  up  for  selection  in  a  separate  hall,  is  a  state- 
ment probable  enough  in  itself,  but  resting  on  no 
better  authority  than  that  of  La  Hontan.  Be  this  as 
it  may,  they  were  submitted  together  to  the  inspec- 

1  Extract  in  Faillon,  Colonie  Franqaise,  iii.  214. 


286  MARRIAGE  AND  POPULATION.       [1665-72. 

tion  of  the  suitor;  and  the  awkward  young  peasant 
or  the  rugged  soldier  of  Carignan  was  required  to 
choose  a  bride  without  delay  from  among  the  anxious 
candidates.  They,  on  their  part,  were  permitted  to 
reject  any  applicant  who  displeased  them;  and  the 
first  question,  we  are  told,  which  most  of  them  asked 
was  whether  the  suitor  had  a  house  and  a  farm. 

Great  as  was  the  call  for  wives,  it  was  thought 
prudent  to  stimulate  it.  The  new  settler  was  at 
once  enticed  and  driven  into  wedlock.  Bounties 
were  offered  on  early  marriages.  Twenty  livres  were  »J 
given  to  each  youth  who  married  before  the  age  of 
twenty,  and  to  each  girl  who  married  before  the  age 
of  sixteen.1  This,  which  was  called  the  "King's 
gift,"  was  exclusive  of  the  dowry  given  by  him  to 
every  girl  brought  over  by  his  orders.  The  dowry 
varied  greatly  in  form  and  value ;  but,  according  to 
Mother  Mary,  it  was  sometimes  a  house  with  pro- 
visions for  eight  months.  More  often  it  was  fifty 
livres  in  household  supplies,  besides  a  barrel  or  two 
of  salted  meat.  The  royal  solicitude  extended  also 
to  the  children  of  colonists  already  established.  "  I 
pray  you, "  writes  Colbert  to  Talon,  "  to  commend  it 
to  the  consideration  of  the  whole  people,  that  their 
prosperity,  their  subsistence,  and  all  that  is  dear  to 
them  depend  on  a  general  resolution,  never  to  be 
departed  from,  to  marry  youths  at  eighteen  or  nine- 
teen years  and  girls  at  fourteen  or  fifteen;  since 
abundance  can  never  come  to  them  except  through 

l  Arret  du  Conseil  d'lZtat  du  Roy  (see  Edits  et  Ordonnances,  i.  67), 


1665-72.]  CELIBACY  PUNISHED.  287 

the  abundance  of  men." 1  This  counsel  was  followed 
by  appropriate  action.  Any  father  of  a  family  who, 
without  showing  good  cause,  neglected  to  marry  his 
children  when  they  had  reached  the  ages  of  twenty 
and  sixteen  w&s  fined ; 2  and  each  father  thus  delin- 
quent was  required  to  present  himself  every  six 
months  to  the  local  authorities  to  declare  what 
reason,  if  any,  he  had  for  such  delay.3  Orders  were 
issued,  a  little  before  the  arrival  of  the  yearly  ships 
from  France,  that  all  single  men  should  marry  within 
a  fortnight  after  the  landing  of  the  prospective 
brides.  No  mercy  was  shown  to  the  obdurate 
bachelor.  Talon  issued  an  order  forbidding  unmar- 
ried men  to  hunt,  fish,  trade  with  the  Indians,  or  go 
into  the  woods  under  any  pretence  whatsoever.4  In 

1  Colbert  a  Talon,  20  Ffv.,  1668. 

2  Arrets  du  Conseil  d'tftat,  1669  (cited  by  Faillon) ;    Arrtt  du 
Conseil  d'fitat,  1670  (see  Itdits  et  Ordonnances,  i.  67) ;   Ordonnance  du 
Roy,  5  Avril,  1669.      See  Cle'ment,  Instructions,  etc.  de  Colbert,  iii.  2me 
Partie,  657. 

8  Registre  du  Conseil  Souverain. 

*  Talon  au  Ministre,  10  Oct.,  1670.  Colbert  highly  approves  this 
order.  Faillon  found  a  case  of  its  enforcement  among  the  ancient 
records  of  Montreal.  In  December,  1670,  Francois  Le  Noir,  an 
inhabitant  of  La  Chine,  was  summoned  before  the  judge,  because, 
though  a  single  man,  he  had  traded  with  Indians  at  his  own  house 
He  confessed  the  fact,  but  protested  that  he  would  marry  within 
three  weeks  after  the  arrival  of  the  vessels  from  France,  or,  failing 
to  do  so,  that  he  would  give  a  hundred  and  fifty  livres  to  the  church 
of  Montreal,  and  an  equal  sum  to  the  hospital.  On  this  condition 
he  was  allowed  to  trade,  but  was  still  forbidden  to  go  into  the 
woods.  The  next  year  he  kept  his  word,  and  married  Marie  Magde- 
leine  Charbonnier,  late  of  Paris. 

The  prohibition  to  go  into  the  woods  was  probably  intended  to 
prevent  the  bachelor  from  finding  a  temporary  Indian  substitute 
for  a  French  vrife. 


288  MARRIAGE   AND   POPULATION.       [1665-72. 

short,  they  were  made  as  miserable  as  possible. 
Colbert  goes  further.  He  writes  to  the  intendant, 
"  Those  who  may  seem  to  have  absolutely  renounced 
marriage  should  be  made  to  bear  additional  burdens, 
and  be  excluded  from  all  honors;  it  would  be  well 
even  to  add  some  marks  of  infamy."1  The  success 
of  these  measures  was  complete.  "No  sooner,"  says 
Mother  Mary,  "have  the  vessels  arrived  than  the 
young  men  go  to  get  wives;  and,  by  reason  of  the 
great  number,  they  are  married  by  thirties  at  a  time." 
Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Canada,  Hy- 
men, if  not  Cupid,  was  whipped  into  a  frenzy  of  activ- 
ity. Dollier  de  Casson  tells  us  of  a  widow  who  was 
married  afresh  before  her  late  husband  was  buried.2 

Nor  was  the  fatherly  care  of  the  King  confined  to 
the  humbler  classes  of  his  colonists.  He  wished  to 
form  a  Canadian  noblesse,  to  which  end  early  mar- 
riages were  thought  needful  among  officers  and  others 
of  the  better  sort.  The  progress  of  such  marriages 
was  carefully  watched  and  reported  by  the  intendant. 
We  have  seen  the  reward  bestowed  upon  La  Motte 
for  taking  to  himself  a  wife,  and  the  money  set  apart 
for  the  brother  officers  who  imitated  him.  In  his 
despatch  of  October,  1667,  the  intendant  announces 
that  two  captains  are  already  married  to  two  damsels 
of  the  country;  that  a,  lieutenant  has  espoused  a 
daughter  of  the  governor  of  Three  Rivers ;  and  that 

1  "  II  serait  a  propos  de  leur  augmenter  les  charges,  de  les  priver 
de  tous  honneurs,  meme  d'y  ajouter  quelque  marque  d'infamie." 
Lettre  du  20  F0o.t  1668. 

2  Hi$toire  du  Montreal,  A.  D.  1671, 1672. 


1665-72.]          BOUNTIES  ON  CHILDREN.  289 

"  four  ensigns  are  in  treaty  with  their  mistresses,  and 
are  already  half  engaged." l  The  paternal  care  of  gov- 
ernment, one  would  think,  could  scarcely  go  further. 
It  did,  however,  go  further.  Bounties  were  offered 
on  children.  The  King,  in  council,  passed  a  decree 
"that  in  future  all  inhabitants  of  the  said  country  of 
Canada  who  shall  have  living  children  to  the  number 
of  ten,  born  in  lawful  wedlock,  not  being  priests, 
monks,  or  nuns,  shall  each  be  paid  out  of  the  moneys 
sent  by  his  Majesty  to  the  said  country  a  pension  of 
three  hundred  livres  a  year,  and  those  who  shall  have 
twelve  children,  a  pension  of  four  hundred  livres; 
and  that,  to  this  effect,  they  shall  be  required  to 
declare  the  number  of  their  children  every  year  in 
the  months  of  June  or  July  to  the  intendant  of 
justice,  police,  and  finance,  established  in  the  said 
country,  who,  having  verified  the  same,  shall  order 
the  payment  of  said  pensions,  one-half  in  cash,  and 
the  other  half  at  the  end  of  each  year."2  This  was 

1  "  Quatre  enseignes  sont  en  pourparler  avec  leurs  mattresses  et 
sont  deja  a  demi  engage's."  (Depeche  du  27  Oct.,  1667.)   The  lieutenant 
was  Rene  Gaultier  de  Varennes,  who  on  the  26th  September,  1667, 
married  Marie  Bochart,  daughter  of  the  governor  of  Three  Rivers, 
aged  twelve  years.    One  of  the  children  of  this  marriage  was  Varennes 
de  la  Verendrye,  whose  son  discovered  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

2  fidits  et  Ordonnances,  i.  67.    It  was  thought  at  this  time  that  the 
Indians,  mingled  with  the  French,  might  become  a  valuable  part  of 
the  population.    The  reproductive  qualities  of  Indian  women,  there- 
fore, became  an  object  of  Talon's  attention,  and  he  reports  that  they 
impair  their  fertility  by  nursing  their  children  longer  than  is 
necessary ;  "  but,"  he  adds, "  this  obstacle  to  the  speedy  building  up 
of  the  colony  can  be  overcome  by  a  police  regulation."    Memoir* 
sur  I'jtftat  Present  du  Canada,  1667. 

id 


290  MARRIAGE   AND  POPULATION.      [1665-72 

applicable  to  all.  Colbert  had  before  offered  a 
reward,  intended  specially  for  the  better  class,  of 
twelve  hundred  livres  to  those  who  had  fifteen 
children,  and  eight  hundred  to  those  who  had  ten. 

These  wise  encouragements,  as  the  worthy  Faillon 
calls  them,  were  crowned  with  the  desired  result.  A 
despatch  of  Talon  in  1670  informs  fhe  minister  that 
most  of  the  young  women  sent  out  last  summer  are 
pregnant  already;  and  in  1671  he  announces  that 
from  six  hundred  to  seven  hundred  children  have 
been  born  in  the  colony  during  the  year,  —  a  pro- 
digious number  in  view  of  the  small  population. 
The  climate  was  supposed  to  be  particularly  favorable 
to  the  health  of  women,  which  is  somewhat  surpris- 
ing in  view  of  recent  American  experience.  "The 
first  reflection  I  have  to  make,"  says  Dollier  de 
Casson,  "is  on  the  advantage  that  women  have  in 
this  place  [Montreal]  over  men;  for  though  the  cold 
is  very  wholesome  to  both  sexes,  it  is  incomparably 
more  so  to  the  female,  who  is  almost  immortal  here." 
Her  fecundity  matched  her  longevity,  and  was  the 
admiration  of  Talon  and  his  successors,  accustomed 
as  they  were  to  the  scanty  families  of  France. 

Why  with  this  great  natural  increase  joined  to  an  im- 
migration which,  though  greatly  diminishing,  did  not 
entirely  cease,  was  there  not  a  corresponding  increase 
in  the  population  of  the  colony?  Why,  more  than 
half  a  century  after  the  King  took  Canada  in  charge, 
did  the  census  show  a  total  of  less  than  twenty-five 
thousand  souls  ?  The  reasons  will  appear  hereafter. 


1665-72.]        DECREASE  OF  EMIGRATION.  291 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  Canadian  immigration,  at  this 
its  most  flourishing  epoch,  that  it  was  mainly  an 
immigration  of  single  men  and  single  women.  The 
cases  in  which  entire  families  came  over  were  com- 
paratively few.1  The  new  settler  was  found  by  the 
King,  sent  over  by  the  King,  and  supplied  by  the 
King  with  a  wife,  a  farm,  and  sometimes  with  a 
house.  Well  did  Louis  XIV.  earn  the  title  of 
Father  of  New  France.  But  the  royal  zeal  was  spas- 
modic. The  King  was  diverted  to  other  cares ;  and 
soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Dutch  war  in  1672 
the  regular  despatch  of  emigrants  to  Canada  well- 
nigh  ceased,  —  though  the  practice  of  disbanding 
soldiers  in  the  colony,  giving  them  lands,  and  turn- 
ing them  into  settlers,  was  continued  in  some  degree, 
even  to  the  last. 

1  The  principal  emigration  of  families  seems  to  have  been  in 
1669,  when,  at  the  urgency  of  Talon,  then  in  France,  a  considerable 
number  were  sent  out.  In  the  earlier  period  the  emigration  of 
families  was,  relatively,  much  greater.  Thus,  in  1634,  the  physician 
Giffard  brought  over  seven  to  people  his  seigniory  of  Beauport. 
Before  1663,  when  the  King  took  the  colony  in  hand,  the  emigrants 
were  for  the  most  part  apprenticed  laborers. 

The  zeal  with  which  the  King  entered  into  the  work  of  stocking 
his  colony  is  shown  by  numberless  passages  in  his  letters,  and 
those  of  his  minister.  "  The  end  and  the  rule  of  all  your  conduct," 
says  Colbert  to  the  intendant  Bouteroue,  "  should  be  the  increase 
of  the  colony ;  and  on  this  point  you  should  never  be  satisfied,  but 
labor  without  ceasing  to  find  every  imaginable  expedient  for  pre- 
serving the  inhabitants,  attracting  new  ones,  and  multiplying  them 
by  marriage."  —  Instruction  pour  M.  Bouteroue,  1668. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

1665-1672. 
THE  NEW  HOME. 

MILITARY  FRONTIER.  —  THE  CANADIAN  SETTLER.  —  SEIGNIOR  AND 
VASSAL.  —  EXAMPLE  OF  TALON. — PLAN  OF  SETTLEMENT.  —  AS- 
PECT OF  CANADA. —  QUEBEC.  —  THE  RIVER  SETTLEMENTS. — 
MONTREAL.  —  THE  PIONEERS. 

WE  have  seen  the  settler  landed  and  married ;  let 
us  follow  him  to  his  new  home.  At  the  end  of 
Talon's  administration,  the  head  of  the  colony — • 
that  is  to  say,  the  island  of  Montreal  and  the  borders 
of  the  Richelieu  —  was  the  seat  of  a  peculiar  coloni- 
zation, the  chief  object  of  which  was  to  protect  the 
rest  of  Canada  against  Iroquois  incursions.  The 
lands  along  the  Richelieu,  from  its  mouth  to  a  point 
above  Chambly,  were  divided  in  large  seigniorial 
grants  among  several  officers  of  the  regiment  of 
Carignan,  who  in  their  turn  granted  out  the  land  to 
the  soldiers,  reserving  a  sufficient  portion  as  their 
own.  The  officer  thus  became  a  kind  of  feudal  chief, 
and  the  whole  settlement  a  permanent  military  can- 
tonment admirably  suited  to  the  object  in  view. 
The  disbanded  soldier  was  practically  a  soldier  still, 
but  he  was  also  a  farmer  and  a  landholder. 


1665-72.]  MILITARY    FRONTIER.  293 

Talon  had  recommended  this  plan  as  being  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  example  of  the  Romans.  "The 
practice  of  that  politic  and  martial  people,"  he  wrote, 
"  may,  in  my  opinion,  be  wisely  adopted  in  a  country 
a  thousand  leagues  distant  from  its  monarch.  And 
as  the  peace  and  harmony  of  peoples  depend  above 
all  things  on  their  fidelity  to  their  sovereign,  our  first 
kings,  better  statesmen  than  is  commonly  supposed, 
introduced  into  newly  conquered  countries  men  of 
war,  of  approved  trust,  in  order  at  once  to  hold  the 
inhabitants  to  their  duty  within,  and  repel  the  enemy 
from  without."1 

The  troops  were  accordingly  discharged,  and  settled 
not  alone  on  the  Richelieu,  but  also  along  the  St. 
Lawrence,  between  Lake  St.  Peter  and  Montreal,  as 
well  as  at  some  other  points.  The  Sulpitians,  feudal 
owners  of  Montreal,  adopted  a  similar  policy,  and 
surrounded  their  island  with  a  border  of  fiefs  large 
and  small,  granted  partly  to  officers  and  partly  to 
humbler  settlers,  bold,  hardy,  and  practised  in  bush- 
fighting.  Thus  a  line  of  sentinels  was  posted  around 
their  entire  shore,  ready  to  give  the  alarm  whenever 
an  enemy  appeared.  About  Quebec  the  settlements, 
covered  as  they  were  by  those  above,  were  for  the 
most  part  of  a  more  pacific  character. 

To  return  to  the  Richelieu.  The  towns  and  vil- 
lages which  have  since  grown  upon  its  banks  and 
along  the  adjacent  shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence  owe 
their  names  to  these  officers  of  Carignan,  ancient 

i  Projets  de  Reglemens,  1667  (see  J&dits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  29). 


294  THE  NEW  HOME.  [1665-72. 

lords  of  the  soil,  —  Sorel,  Chambly,  Saint  Ours, 
Contrecoeur,  Varennes,  Verchdres.  Yet  let  it  not 
be  supposed  that  villages  sprang  up  at  once.  The 
military  seignior,  valiant  and  poor  as  Walter  the 
Penniless,  was  in  no  condition  to  work  such  magic. 
His  personal  possessions  usually  consisted  of  little 
but  his  sword  and  the  money  which  the  King  had 
paid  him  for  marrying  a  wife.  A  domain  varying 
from  half  a  league  to  six  leagues  in  front  on  the 
river,  and  from  half  a  league  to  two  leagues  in  depth, 
had  been  freely  given  him.  When  he  had  distributed 
a  part  of  it  in  allotments  to  the  soldiers,  a  variety  of 
tasks  awaited  him,  —  to  clear  and  cultivate  his  land ; 
to  build  his  seigniorial  mansion,  often  a  log  hut;  to 
build  a  fort;  to  build  a  chapel;  and  to  build  a  mill. 
To  do  all  this  at  once  was  impossible.  Chambly,  the 
chief  proprietor  on  the  Richelieu,  was  better  able 
than  the  others  to  meet  the  exigency.  He  built 
himself  a  good  house,  where,  with  cattle  and  sheep 
furnished  by  the  King,  he  lived  in  reasonable  com- 
fort.1 The  King's  fort,'  close  at  hand,  spared  him 
and  his  tenants  the  necessity  of  building  one  for 
themselves,  and  furnished,  no  doubt,  a  mill,  a  chapel, 
and  a  chaplain.  His  brother  officers,  Sorel  excepted, 
were  less  fortunate.  They  and  their  tenants  were 
forced  to  provide  defence  as  well  as  shelter.  Their 
houses  were  all  built  together,  and  surrounded  by  a 
palisade,  so  as  to  form  a  little  fortified  village.  The 

1  Frontenac  au  Ministre,  2  Nov.,  1672.     Marie   de   Tlncarnation 
speaks  of  these  officers  on  the  Richelieu  as  tres  honnetes  gens. 


1665-72.]  THE   CANADIAN   SETTLER.  295 

ever-active  benevolence  of  the  King  had  aided  them 
in  the  task,  for  the  soldiers  were  still  maintained  by 
him  while  clearing  the  lands  and  building  the  houses 
destined  to  be  their  own ;  nor  was  it  till  this  work 
was  done  that  the  provident  government  despatched 
them  to  Quebec  with  orders  to  bring  back  wives. 
The  settler,  thus  lodged  and  wedded,  was  required 
on  his  part  to  aid  in  clearing  lands  for  those  who 
should  come  after  him.1 

It  was  chiefly  in  the  more  exposed  parts  of  the 
colony  that  the  houses  were  gathered  together  in 
palisaded  villages,  thus  forcing  the  settler  to  walk  or 
paddle  some  distance  to  his  farm.  He  naturally 
preferred  to  build  when  he  could  on  the  front  of  his 
farm  itself,  near  the  river,  which  supplied  the  place 
of  a  road.  As  the  grants  of  land  were  very  narrow, 
his  house  was  not  far  from  that  of  his  next  neighbor ; 
and  thus  a  line  of  dwellings  was  ranged  along  the 
shore,  forming  what  in  local  language  was  called  a 
cdte,  —  a  use  of  the  word  peculiar  to  Canada,  where 
it  still  prevails. 

The  impoverished  seignior  rarely  built  a  chapel. 
Most  of  the  early  Canadian  churches  were  built  with 

1  "  Sa  Majeste  semble  pretendre  faire  la  depense  entiere  pour 
former  le  commencement  des  habitations  par  1'abattis  du  bois,  la 
culture  et  semence  de  deux  arpens  de  terre,  1'avance  de  quelques 
farines  aux  families  venantes,"  etc.  (Projets  de  Reglemens,  1667.) 
This  applied  to  civil  and  military  settlers  alike.  The  established 
settler  was  allowed  four  years  to  clear  two  arpents  of  land  for 
a  new-comer.  The  soldiers  were  maintained  by  the  King  during 
a  year,  while  preparing  their  farms  and  houses.  Talon  asks  that 
two  years  more  be  given  them.  Talon  au  Roy,  10  Nov.,  1670. 


296  THE  NEW  HOME.  [1665-72. 

funds  furnished  by  the  seminaries  of  Quebec  or  of 
Montreal,  aided  by  contributions  of  material  and  labor 
from  the  parishioners.1  Meanwhile  mass  was  said  in 
some  house  of  the  neighborhood  by  a  missionary 
priest,  paddling  his  canoe  from  village  to  village,  or 
from  cdte  to  cdte. 

The  mill  was  an  object  of  the  last  importance.  It 
was  built  of  stone  and  pierced  with  loopholes,  to 
serve  as  a  blockhouse  in  case  of  attack.  The  great 
mill  at  Montreal  was  one  of  the  chief  defences  of  the 
place.  It  was  at  once  the  duty  and  the  right  of  the 
seignior  to  supply  his  tenants,  or  rather  vassals,  with 
this  essential  requisite ;  and  they  on  their  part  were 
required  to  grind  their  grain  at  his  mill,  leaving  the 
fourteenth  part  in  payment.  But  for  many  years 
there  was  not  a  seigniory  in  Canada  where  this  frac- 
tion would  pay  the  wages  of  a  miller;  and,  except 
the  ecclesiastical  corporations,  there  were  few  seign- 
iors who  could  pay  the  cost  of  building.  The  first 
settlers  were  usually  forced  to  grind  for  themselves 
after  the  tedious  fashion  of  the  Indians. 

Talon,  in  his  capacity  of  counsellor,  friend,  and 
father  to  all  Canada,  arranged  the  new  settlements 
near  Quebec  in  the  manner  which  he  judged  best, 
and  which  he  meant  to  serve  as  an  example  to  the 
rest  of  the  colony.  It  was  his  aim  to  concentrate 
population  around  this  point,  so  that,  should  an 
enemy  appear,  the  sound  of  a  cannon-shot  from  the 
Chateau  St.  Louis  might  summon  a  numerous  bod"y 

1  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  chap.  x. 


1665-72.]  MODEL   SEIGNIORY.  297 

of  defenders  to  this  the  common  point  of  rendezvous.1 
He  bought  a  tract  of  land  near  Quebec,  laid  it  out, 
and  settled  it  as  a  model  seigniory,  hoping,  as  he 
says,  to  kindle  a  spirit  of  emulation  among  the  new- 
made  seigniors  to  whom  he  had  granted  lands  from 
the  King.  He  also  laid  out  at  the  royal  cost  three 
villages  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  planning 
them  with  great  care,  and  peopling  them  partly  with 
families  newly  arrived,  partly  with  soldiers,  and 
partly  with  old  settlers,  in  order  that  the  new-comers 
might  take  lessons  from  the  experience  of  these 
veterans.  That  each  village  might  be  complete  in 
itself,  he  furnished  it  as  well  as  he  could  with  the 
needful  carpenter,  mason,  blacksmith,  and  shoe- 
maker. These  inland  villages,  called  respectively 
Bourg  Royal,  Bourg  la  Reine,  and  Bourg  Talon,  did 
not  prove  very  thrifty.2  Wherever  the  settlers  were 
allowed  to  choose  for  themselves,  they  ranged  their 
dwellings  along  the  watercourses.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  Talon's  villages,  one  could  have  seen  nearly 
every  house  in  Canada,  by  paddling  a  canoe  up  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  the  Richelieu.  The  settlements 
formed  long  thin  lines  on  the  edges  of  the  rivers,  —  a 
convenient  arrangement,  but  one  very  unfavorable 
to  defence,  to  ecclesiastical  control,  and  to  strong 
government.  The  King  soon  discovered  this;  and 
repeated  orders  were  sent  to  concentrate  the  inhab- 

1  Projets  de  Reghmens,  1667. 

2  In  1672  the  King,  as  a  mark  of  honor,  attached  these  Tillages 
to  Taion'e  seigniory.    See  Documents  on  Seigniorial  Tenure. 


298  THE  NEW  HOME.  [1665-72. 

itants  and  form  Canada  into  villages,  instead  of  cotes. 
To  do  so  would  have  involved  a  general  revocation 
of  grants  and  abandonment  of  houses  and  clearings, 
—  a  measure  too  arbitrary  and  too  wasteful,  even  for 
Louis  XIV.,  and  one  extremely  difficult  to  enforce. 
Canada  persisted  in  attenuating  herself,  and  the  royal 
will  was  foiled. 

As  you  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  first  har- 
boring place  of  civilization  was  Tadoussac,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Saguenay,  where  the  company  had  its 
trading  station,  where  its  agents  ruled  supreme,  and 
where,  in  early  summer,  all  was  alive  with  canoes 
and  wigwams,  and  troops  of  Montagnais  savages, 
bringing  their  furs  to  market.  Leave  Tadoussac 
behind,  and,  embarked  in  a  sail-boat  or  a  canoe, 
follow  the  northern  coast.  Far  on  the  left,  twenty 
miles  away,  the  southern  shore  lies  pale  and  dim,  and 
mountain  ranges  wave  their  faint  outline  along  the 
sky.  You  pass  the  beetling  rocks  of  Mai  Bay,  a 
solitude  but  for  the  bark  hut  of  some  wandering 
Indian  beneath  the  cliff,  the  Eboulements  with  their 
wild  romantic  gorge  and  foaming  waterfalls,  and  the 
Bay  of  St.  Paul  with  its  broad  valley  and  its  woody 
mountains,  rich  with  hidden  stores  of  iron.  Vast 
piles  of  savage  verdure  border  the  mightv  stream,  till 
at  length  the  mountain  of  Cape  Tourmente  upheaves 
its  huge  bulk  from  -the  bosom  of  the  water,  shadowed 
by  lowering  clouds,  and  dark  with  forests.  Just 
beyond,  begin  the  settlements  of  Laval's  vast  seign- 
iory of  Beaupre*,  which  had  not  been  forgotten  in  the 


1665-72.]  QUEBEC.  299 

distribution  of  emigrants,  and  which,  in  1667,  con- 
tained more  inhabitants  than  Quebec  itself.1  The 
ribbon  of  rich  meadow  land  that  borders  that  beauti- 
ful shore  was  yellow  with  wheat  in  harvest  time; 
and  on  the  woody  slopes  behind,  the  frequent  clear- 
ings and  the  solid  little  dwellings  of  logs  continued 
for  a  long  distance  to  relieve  the  sameness  of  the 
forest.  After  passing  the  cataract  of  Montmorenci, 
there  was  another  settlement,  much  smaller,  at 
Beauport,  the  seigniory  of  the  ex-physician  Giffard, 
one  of  the  earliest  proprietors  in  Canada.  The  neigh- 
boring shores  of  the  Island  of  Orleans  were  also 
edged  with  houses  and  clearings.  The  promontory 
of  Quebec  now  towered  full  in  sight,  crowned  with 
church,  fort,  chateau,  convents,  and  seminary. 
There  was  little  else  on  the  rock.  Priests,  nuns, 
government  officials,  and  soldiers  were  the  denizens 
of  the  Upper  Town;  while  commerce  and  the  trades 
were  cabined  along  the  strand  beneath.2  From  the 
gallery  of  the  chateau,  you  might  toss  a  pebble  far 
down  on  their  shingled  roofs.  In  the  midst  of  them 
was  the  magazine  of  the  company,  with  its  two  round 
towers  and  two  projecting  wings.  It  was  here  that 


1  The  census  of  1667  gives  to  Quebec  only  448  souls ;  C6te  de 
Beaupre,  656 ;  Beauport,  123 ;  Island  of  Orleans,  629 ;  other  settle- 
ments included  under  the  government  of  Quebec,  1,011;  Cote  de 
Lauzon  (south  shore),  113;  Trois  Rivieres  and  its  dependencies,  666 ; 
Montreal,  766.    Both  Beaupre  and  Isle  d'Orleans  belonged  at  this 
time  to  the  bishop. 

2  According  to  Juchereau,  there  were  seventy  houses  at  Quebec 
about  the  time  of  Tracy's  arrival. 


300  THE  NEW  HOME.  [1665-72. 

all  the  beaver-skins  of  the  colony  were  collected, 
assorted,  and  shipped  for  France.  The  so-called 
Chateau  St.  Louis  was  an  indifferent  wooden  struc- 
ture planted  on  a  site  truly  superb,  —  above  the 
Lower  Town,  above  the  river,  above  the  ships,  gaz- 
ing abroad  on  a  majestic  panorama  of  waters,  forests, 
and  mountains.1  Behind  it  was  the  area  of  the  fort, 
of  which  it  formed  one  side.  The  governor  lived  in 
the  chateau,  and  soldiers  were  on  guard  night  and 
day  in  the  fort.  At  some  little  distance  was  the 
convent  of  the  Ursulines,  ugly  but  substantial,2 
where  Mother  Mary  of  the  Incarnation  ruled  her 
pupils  and  her  nuns ;  and  a  little  farther  on,  towards 
the  right,  was  the  Hotel  Dieu.  Between  them  were 
the  massive  buildings  of  the  Jesuits,  then  as  now 
facing  the  principal  square.  At  one  side  was  their 
church,  newly  finished;  and  opposite,  across  the 
square,  stood  and  still  stands  the  great  church  of 
Notre  Dame.  Behind  the  church  was  Laval's  semi- 
nary, with  the  extensive  enclosures  belonging  to  it. 
The  sSnechaussee  or  court-house,  the  tavern  of  one 
Jacques  Boisdon  on  the  square  near  the  church,  and 
a  few  houses  along  the  line  of  what  is  now  St.  Louis 
Street  comprised  nearly  all  the  civil  part  of  the  Upper 
Town.  The  ecclesiastical  buildings  were  of  stone, 
and  the  church  of  Notre  Dame  and  the  Jesuit 

1  In  1660,  an  exact  inventory  was  taken  of  the  contents  of  the 
fort  and  chateau,  —  a  beggarly  account  of  rubbish.    The  chateau 
was  then  a  long  low  building  roofed  with  shingles. 

2  There  is  an  engraving  of  it  in  Abbe  Casgrain's  interesting  Vu 
de  Marie  de  ['Incarnation.    It  was  burned  in  1686. 


1665-72.]        THE  RIVER  SETTLEMENTS  301 

College  were  marvels  of  size  and  solidity  in  view  of 
the  poverty  and  weakness  of  the  colony.1 

Proceeding  upward  along  the  north  shore  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  one  found  a  cluster  of  houses  at  Cap 
Rouge,  and,  farther  on,  the  frequent  rude  begin- 
nings of  a  seigniory.  The  settlements  thickened  on 
approaching  Three  Rivers,  a  fur-trading  hamlet 
enclosed  with  a  square  palisade.  Above  this  place, 
a  line  of  incipient  seigniories  bordered  the  river, 
most  of  them  granted  to  officers,  —  Laubia,  a  captain ; 
Labadie,  a  sergeant;  Moras,  an  ensign;  Berthier,  a 
captain;  Raudin,  an  ensign;  La  Valterie,  a  lieuten- 
ant.2 Under  their  auspices,  settlers,  military  and 
civilian,  were  ranging  themselves  along  the  shore, 
and  ugly  gaps  in  the  forest  thickly  set  with  stumps 
bore  witness  to  their  toils.  These  settlements  rapidly 
extended,  till  in  a  few  years  a  chain  of  houses 
and  clearings  reached  with  little  interruption  from 
Quebec  to  Montreal.  Such  was  the  fruit  of  Tracy's 
chastisement  of  the  Mohawks,  and  the  influx  of 
immigrants  that  followed. 

As  you  approached  Montreal,    the  fortified  mill 

1  The  first  stone  of  Notre  Dame  de  Quebec  was  laid  in  Sep- 
tember, 1647,  and  the  first  mass  was  said  in  it  on  the  24th  of 
December,  1650.    The  side  walls  still  remain  as  part  of  the  present 
structure.    The  Jesuit  College  was  also  begun  in  1647.    The  walls 
and  roof  were  finished  in  1649.    The  church  connected  with  it, 
since  destroyed,  was  begun  in  1666.    See  Journal  des  J&uites. 

2  See  Documents  on  the  Seigniorial  Tenure ;  Abstracts  of  Titles. 
Most  of  these  grants,  like  those  on  the  Richelieu,  were  made  by 
Talon  in  1672 ;  but  the  land  had,  in  many  cases,  been  occupied  and 
cleared  in  anticipation  of  the  title. 


302  THE  NEW   HOME.  [1665-72. 

built  by  the  Sulpitians  at  Point  aux  Trembles  towered 
above  the  woods;  and  soon  after  the  newly  built 
chapel  of  the  Infant  Jesus.  More  settlements  fol- 
lowed, till  at  length  the  great  fortified  mill  of 
Montreal  rose  in  sight;  then  the  long  row  of  com- 
pact wooden  houses,  the  Hotel  Dieu,  and  the  rough 
masonry  of  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice.  Beyond  the 
town,  the  clearings  continued  at  intervals  till  you 
reached  Lake  St.  Louis,  where  young  Cavelier  de  la 
Salle  had  laid  out  his  seigniory  of  La  Chine,  and 
abandoned  it  to  begin  his  hard  career  of  western 
exploration.  Above  the  island  of  Montreal,  the 
wilderness  was  broken  only  by  a  solitary  trading 
station  on  the  neighboring  Isle  Pe'rot. 

Now  cross  Lake  St.  Louis,  shoot  the  rapids  of  La 
Chine,  and  follow  the  southern  shore  downward. 
Here  the  seigniories  of  Longueuil,  Boucherville, 
Varennes,  Verche»res,  and  Contrecceur  were  already 
begun.  From  the  fort  of  Sorel  one  could  visit  the 
military  seigniories  along  the  Richelieu  or  descend 
towards  Quebec,  passing  on  the  way  those  of 
Lussaudiere,  Becancour,  Lotbiniere,  and  others  still 
in  a  shapeless  infancy.  Even  far  below  Quebec,  at 
St.  Anne  de  la  Pocatiere,  River  Ouelle,  and  other 
points,  cabins  and  clearings  greeted  the  eye  of  the 
passing  canoeman. 

For  a  year  or  two  the  settler's  initiation  was  a 
rough  one ;  but  when  he  had  a  few  acres  under  til- 
lage he  could  support  himself  and  his  family  on  the 
produce,  aided  by  hunting,  if  he  knew  how  to  use 


1665-72.]  THE  PIONEERS.  303 

a  gun,  and  by  the  bountiful  profusion  of  eels  which 
the  St.  Lawrence  never  failed  to  yield  in  their  season, 
and  which,  smoked  or  salted,  supplied  his  larder  for 
months.  In  winter  he  hewed  timber,  sawed  planks, 
or  split  shingles  for  the  market  of  Quebec,  obtaining 
in  return  such  necessaries  as  he  required.  With 
thrift  and  hard  work  he  was  sure  of  comfort  at  last; 
but  the  former  habits  of  the  military  settlers  and  of 
many  of  the  others  were  not  favorable  to  a  routine 
of  dogged  industry.  The  sameness  and  solitude  of 
their  new  life  often  became  insufferable ;  nor,  married 
as  they  had  been,  was  the  domestic  hearth  likely  to 
supply  much  consolation.  Yet,  thrifty  or  not,  they 
multiplied  apace.  "A  poor  man,"  says  Mother 
Mary,  "  will  have  eight  children  and  more,  who  run 
about  in  winter  with  bare  heads  and  bare  feet,  and  a 
little  jacket  on  their  backs,  live  on  nothing  but  bread 
and  eels,  and  on  that  grow  fat  and  stout."  With 
such  treatment  the  weaker  sort  died,  but  the  strong 
survived;  and  out  of  this  rugged  nursing  sprang 
the  hardy  Canadian  race  of  bush-rangers  and  bush- 
fighters. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

1663-1763. 
CANADIAN  FEUDALISM. 

TRANSPLANTATION  OF  FEUDALISM.  —  PRECAUTIONS.  —  FAITH  AND 
HOMAGE. —  THE  SEIGNIOR. —  THE  CENSITAIRE.  —  ROYAL  INTER- 
VENTION.—  THE  GENTILHOMME.  —  CANADIAN  NOBLESSE. 

ICANADIAN  society  was  beginning  to  form  itself,  and 
at  its  base  was  the  feudal  tenure.  European  feu- 
dalism was  the  indigenous  and  natural  growth  of 
political  and  social  conditions  which  preceded  it. 
Canadian  feudalism  was  an  offshoot  of  the  feudalism 
of  France,  modified  by  the  lapse  of  centuries,  and 
further  modified  by  the  royal  will} 

In  France,  as  in  the  rest  of  Europe,  the  system 
had  lost  its  vitality.  The  warrior-nobles  who  placed 
Hugh  Capet  on  the  throne,  and  began  the  feudal 
monarchy,  formed  an  aristocratic  republic ;  and  the 
King  was  one  of  their  number,  whom  they  chose  to 
be  their  chief.  But  through  the  struggles  and  vicis- 
situdes of  many  succeeding  reigns  royalty  had  waxed 
and  oligarchy  had  waned.  The  fact  had  changed, 
and  the  theory  had  changed  with  it.  The  King, 
once  powerless  among  a  host  of  turbulent  nobles, 


1663-1763.]        TRIUMPH   OF   ROYALTY.  305 

was  now  a  king  indeed.  Once  a  chief,  because  his 
equals  had  made  him  so,  he  was  now  the  anointed  of 
the  Lord.  This  triumph  of  royalty  had  culminated 
in  Louis  XIV.  The  stormy  energies  and  bold  indi- 
vidualism of  the  old  feudal  nobles  had  ceased  to 
exist.  They  who  had  held  his  predecessors  in  awe 
had  become  his  obsequious  servants.  He  no  longer 
feared  his  nobles :  he  prized  them  as  gorgeous  decora- 
tions of  his  court  and  satellites  of  his  royal  person, 
vlt  was  Richelieu  who  first  planted  feudalism  in 
Canada.1  The  King  would  preserve  it  there,  because 
with  its  teeth  drawn  he  was  fond  of  it;  and  because, 
asjbhe  feudal  tenure  prevailed  in  Old  France,  it  was 
natural  that  it  should  prevail  also  in  the  New.  But 
he  continued  as  Richelieu  had  begun,  and  moulded  it 
to  the  form  that  pleased  him.  Nothing  was  left 
which  could  threaten  his  absolute  and  undivided 
authority  over  the  colony.  In  France,  a  multitude 
of  privileges  and  prescriptions  still  clung,  despite  its 
fall,  about  the  ancient  ruling  class.  Few  of  these 
were  allowed  to  cross  the  Atlantic,  while  the  old 
lingering  abuses,  which'  had  made  the  system  odious, 
were  at  the  same  time  japped  away.  Thus  retrenched, 
Canadian  feudalism  *  was  made  to  serve  a  double 
end,  — r  to  produce  a  faint  and  harmless  reflection  of 
French  aristocracy,  and  simply  and  practically  to 
supply  agencies  for  distributing  land  among  the 
settlers.  / 

I  A 

1  By  the  charter  of  the  Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates, 

1627.  \ 

20 


306  CANADIAN    FEUDALISM.          [1663-1763. 

The  nature  of  the  precautions  which  it  was  held  to 
require  appear  in  the  plan  of  administration  which 
Talon  and  Tracy  laid  before  the  minister.  They 
urge  that,  in  view  of  the  distance  from  France, 
special  care  ought  to  be  taken  to  prevent  changes 
and  revolutions,  aristocratic  or  otherwise,  in  the 
colony,  whereby  in  time  sovereign  jurisdictions  might 
grow  up,  as  formerly  occurred  in  various  parts  of 
France.1  And  in  respect  to  grants  already  made  an 
inquiry  was  ordered,  to  ascertain  "if  seigniors  in 
distributing  lands  to  their  vassals  have  exacted  any 
conditions  injurious  to  the  rights  of  the  Crown  and 
the  subjection  due  solely  to  the  King."  In  the  same 
view  the  seignior  was  denied  any  voice  whatever  in 
the  direction  of  government;  and  it  is  scarcely  neces- 
sary to  say  that  the  essential  feature  of  feudalism  in 
the  day  of  its  vitality,  the  requirement  of  military 
service  by  the  lord  from  the  vassal,  was  utterly 
unknown  in  Canada.  The  royal  governor  called  out 
the  militia  whenever  he  saw  fit,  and  set  over  it  what 
officers  he  pleased.  f  \ 

The  seignior  was  usually  the  immediate  vassal  of 
the  Crown,  from  which  he  1 3d  received  his  land 
gratuitously.  In  a  few  cases  he  niade  grants  to  other 
seigniors  inferior  in  the  feudal  scale,  and  they,  his 
vassals,  granted  in  turn  to  their  vassals,  —  the  habi- 
tants^ or  cultivators  of  the  soil.2  Sometimes  the 

1  Projet  de  Reglement  fait  par  MM.  de  Tracy  et  Talon  pour  la  jus- 
tice"etla  distribution  des  terres  du  Canada,  Jan.  24,  1667- 

2  Most  of  the  seigniories  of  Canada  were  simple  fiefs ;  but  there 
we*  t  some  exceptions.    In  1671,  the  King,  a^i  a  mark  of  honor  to 


1663-1763.]  FAITH   AND   HOMAGE.  307 

habitant  held  directly  of  the  Crown,  in  which  case 
there  was  no  step  between  the  highest  and  lowest 
degrees  of  the  feudal  scale.  The  seignior  held  by 
the  tenure  of  faith  and  homage,  the  habitant  by  the 
inferior  tenure  en  censive.  Faith  and  homage  were 
rendered  to  the  Crown  or  other  feudal  superior  when- 
ever the  seigniory  changed  hands,  or,  in  the  case  of 
seigniories  held  by  corporations,  after  long  stated 
intervals.  The  following  is  an  example,  drawn  from 
the  early  days  of  the  colony,  of  the  performance  of 
this  ceremony  by  the  owner  of  a  fief  to  the  seignior 
who  had  granted  it  to  him.  It  is  that  of  Jean 
Guion,  vassal  of  Giffard,  seignior  of  Beauport. 

The  act  recounts  how,  in  presence  of  a  notary, 
Guion  presented  himself  at  the  principal  door  of  the 
manor-house  of  Beauport;  how,  having  knocked, 
one  Boulle*,  farmer  of  Giffard,  opened  the  door,  and 
in  reply  to  Guion 's  question  if  the  seignior  was  at 
home,  replied  that  he  was  not,  but  that  he,  Boull^, 
was  empowered  to  receive  acknowledgments  of  faith 
and  homage  from  the  vassals  in  his  name.  "After 
the  which  reply,"  proceeds  the  act,  "the  said  Guion, 
being  at  the  principal  door,  placed  himself  on  his 

Talon,  erected  his  seigniory  Des  Islets  into  a  barony ;  and  it  was 
soon  afterwards  made  an  earldom,  comte.  In  1676,  the  seigniory  of 
St.  Laurent,  on  the  island  of  Orleans,  once  the  property  of  Laval, 
and  then  belonging  to  Fra^ois  Berthelot,  councillor  of  the  King, 
was  erected  into  an  earldom.  In  1681,  the  seigniory  of  Portneuf, 
belonging  to  Rene  Robineau,  chevalier,  was  made  a  barony.  In 
1700,  three  seigniories  on  the  south  side  of  the  St.  Lawrence  were 
united  into  the  barony  of  Longueuil.  (See  Papers  on  the  Feudal 
Tenure  in  Canada,  Abstract  of  Titles.) 


308  CANADIAN  FEUDALISM.         [1663-1763. 

knees  on  the  ground,  with  head  bare,  and  without 
sword  or  spurs,  and  said  three  times  these  words: 
4  Monsieur  de  Beauport,  Monsieur  de  Beauport, 
Monsieur  de  Beauport!  I  bring  you  the  faith  and 
homage  which  I  am  bound  to  bring  you  on  account 
of  my  fief  Du  Buisson,  which  I  hold  as  a  man  of 
faith  of  your  seigniory  of  Beauport,  declaring  that  I 
offer  to  pay  my  seigniorial  and  feudal  dues  in  their 
season,  and  demanding  of  you  to  accept  me  in  faith 
and  homage  as  aforesaid.'  " J 

The  following  instance  is  the  more  common  one  of  a 
seignior  holding  directly  of  the  Crown.  It  is  widely 
separated  from  the  first  in  point  of  time,  having  oc- 
curred a  year  after  the  army  of  Wolfe  entered  Quebec. 

Philippe  Noel  had  lately  died,  and  Jean  Noel,  his 
son,  inherited  his  seigniory  of  Tilly  and  Bonsecours. 
To  make  the  title  good,  faith  and  homage  must  be 
renewed.  Jean  Noel  was  under  the  bitter  necessity 
of  rendering  this  duty  to  General  Murray,  governor 
for  the  King  of  Great  Britain.  The  form  is  the 
same  as  in  the  case  of  Guion,  more  than  a  century 
before.  Noel  repairs  to  the  Government  House  at 
Quebec,  and  knocks  at  the  door.  A  servant  opens 
it.  Noel  asks  if  the  governor  is  there.  The  servant 
replies  that  he  is.  Murray,  informed  of  the  visi- 
tor's object,  comes  to  the  door,  and  Noel  then  and 
there,  "without  sword  or  spurs,  with  bare  head, 

1  Ferland,  Notes  sur  les  Registres  de  Notre  Dame  de  Quebec,  65. 
This  was  &fief  en  roture,  as  distinguished  from  &fief  noble,  to  which 
judicial  powers  and  other  privileges  were  attached. 


1663-1763.]  THE   SEIGNIOR.  309 

and  one  knee  on  the  ground,"  repeats  the  acknowl 
edgment  of  faith  and  homage  for  his  seigniory.  He 
was  compelled,  however,  to  add  a  detested  innova- 
tion, —  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  his  Britannic  Majesty, 
coupled  with  a  pledge  to  keep  his  vassals  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  new  sovereign.1 

The  seignior  was  a  proprietor  holding  that  relation 
to  the  feudal  superior  which,  in  its  pristine  character, 
has  been  truly  described  as  servile  in  form,  proud 
and  bold  in  spirit.  But  in  Canada  this  bold  spirit 
was  very  far  from  being  strengthened  by  the  changes 
which  the  policy  of  the  Crcwn  had  introduced  into 
the  system.  The  reservation  of  mines  and  minerals, 
oaks  for  the  royal  navy,  roadways,  and  a  site  (if 
needed)  for  royal  forts  and  magazines,  had  in  it 
nothing  extraordinary.  (^  The  great  difference  between 
the  position  of  the  Canadian  seignior  and  that  of  the 
vassal  proprietor  of  the  Middle  Ages  lay  in  the  extent 
and  nature  of  the  control  which  the  Crown  and  its 
officers  held  over  him. J  A  decree  of  the  King,  an 
edict  of  the  council,  or  an  ordinance  of  the  intendant, 
might  at  any  moment  change  old  conditions,  impose 
new  ones,  interfere  between  the  lord  of  the  manor 
and  his  grantees,  and  modify  or  annul  his  bargains, 
past  or  present.  He  was  never  sure  whether  or  not 
the  government  would  let  him  alone ;  and  against  its 
most  arbitrary  intervention  he  had  no  remedy. 

One  condition  was  imposed  on  him  which  may  be 

riK 

See  the  act  in  Observations  de  Sir  L.  H.  Lafontaine,  Bart.,  tut 
**--*  Seigneur iale,  217,  note. 


310  CANADIAN  FEUDALISM.          [1663-1763. 

said  to  form  the  distinctive  feature  of  Canadian 
feudalism,  —  that  of  clearing  his  land  within  a 
limited  time  on  pain  of  forfeiting  it.  The  object 
was  the  excellent  one  of  preventing  the  lands  of  the 
colony  from  lying  waste.  As  the  seignior  was  often 
the  penniless  owner  of  a  domain  three  or  four  leagues 
wide  and  proportionably  deep,  he  could  not  clear  it 
all  himself,  and  was  therefore  under  the  necessity  of 
placing  the  greater  part  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
could.  But  he  was  forbidden  to  sell  any  part  of  it 
which  he  had  not  cleared.  He  must  grant  it  without 
price,  on  condition  of  ~&  small  perpetual  rent;  and 
this  brings  us  to  the  cultivator  of  the  soil,  the  cen- 
sitaire, the  broad  base  of  the  feudal  pyramid.1 

The  tenure  en  censive,  by  which  the  censitaire  held 
of  the  seignior,  consisted  in  the  obligation  to  make 


1  The  greater  part  of  the  grants  made  by  the  old  Company  of 
New  France  were  resumed  by  the  Crown  for  neglect  to  occupy  and 
improve  the  land,  which  was  granted  out  anew  ur  der  the  adminis- 
tration of  Talon.  The  most  remarkable  of  these  'forfeited  grants 
is  that  of  the  vast  domain  of  La  Citiere,  large  enough  for  a 
kingdom.  Lauson,  afterwards  governor,  had  obtained  it  from  the 
company,  but  had  failed  to  improve  it.  Two  or  three  sub-grants 
which  he  had  made  from  it  were  held  valid ;  the  rest  was  reunited 
to  the  royal  domain.  On  repeated  occasions  at  later  dates,  negli- 
gent seigniors  were  threatened  with  the  loss  of  half  or  the  whole 
of  their  land,  and  various  cases  are  recorded  in  which  the  threat 
took  effect.  In  1741,  an  ordinance  of  the  governor  and  intendant 
reunited  to  the  royal  domain  seventeen  seigniories  at  one  stroke ; 
but  the  former  owners  were  told  that  if  within  a  year  they  cleared 
and  settled  a  reasonable  part  of  the  forfeited  estates,  the  titles 
should  be  restored  to  them,  (ifdits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  555.)  I  g£.e 
case  of  the  habitant  or  censitaire,  forfeitures  for  neglect  to  im:hicre 
the  land  and  live  on  it  are  very  numerous. 


1663-1763.]  THE   CENSITAIRE.  311 

annual  payments  in  money,  produce,  or  both.  In 
Canada  these  payments,  known  as  cens  et  rente,  were 
strangely  diverse  in  amount  and  kind;  but  in  all 
the  early  period  of  the  colony  they  were  almost 
ludicrously  small.  A  common  charge  at  Montreal 
was  half  a  sou  and  half  a  pint  of  wheat  for  each 
arpent.  The  rate  usually  fluctuated  in  the  early 
times  between  half  a  sou  and  two  sous;  so  that  a 
farm  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  arpents  would  pay  from 
four  to  sixteen  francs,  of  which  a  part  would  be  in 
money  and  the  rest  in  live  capons,  wheat,  eggs,  or 
all  three  together,  in  pursuance  of  contracts  as  amus- 
ing in  their  precision  as  they  are  bewildering  in  their 
variety.  Live  capons,  estimated  at  twenty  sous 
each,  though  sometimes  not  worth  ten,  form  a  con- 
spicuous feature  in  these  agreements ;  so  that  on  pay- 
day the  seignior's  barnyard  presented  an  animated 
scene.  Later  in  the  history  of  the  colony  grants 
were  at  somewhat  higher  rates.  Payment  was  com- 
monly made  on  St.  Martin's  day,  when  there  was  a 
general  muster  of  tenants  at  the  seigniorial  mansion, 
with  a  prodigious  consumption  of  tobacco  and  a  cor- 
responding retail  of  neighborhood  gossip,  joined  to 
the  outcries  of  the  captive  fowls  bundled  together 
for  delivery,  with  legs  tied,  but  throats  at  full 
liberty. 

A  more  considerable  but  a  very  uncertain  source 
of  income  to  the  seignior  were  the  lods  et  ventes,  or 
ir  2n^pn  fines.  The  land  of  the  censitaire  passed 
f:  3  Lettre  his  heirs ;  but  if  he  sold  it,  a  twelfth  part 


312  CANADIAN  FEUDALISM.         [1663-1763, 

of  the  purchase-money  must  be  paid  to  the  seignior. 
The  seignior,  on  his  part,  was  equally  liable  to  pay 
a  mutation  fine  to  his  feudal  superior  if  he  sold  his 
seigniory;  and  for  him  the  amount  was  larger,  — 
being  a  quint,  or  a  fifth  of  the  price  received,  of 
which,  however,  the  greater  part  was  deducted  for 
immediate  payment.  This  heavy  charge,  constitut- 
ing as  it  did  a  tax  on  all  improvements,  was  a  prin- 
cipal cause  of  the  abolition  of  the  feudal  tenure 
in  1854. 

The  obligation  of  clearing  his  land  and  living  on 
it  was  laid  on  seignior  and  censitaire  alike ;  but  the 
latter  was  under  a  variety  of  other  obligations  to  the 
former,  partly  imposed  by  custom  and  partly  estab- 
lished by  agreement  when  the  grant  was  made.  To 
grind  his  grain  at  the  seignior's  mill,  bake  his  bread 
in  the  seignior's  oven,  work  for  him  one  or  more 
days  in  the  year,  and  give  him  one  fish  in  every 
eleven,  for  the  privilege  of  fishing  in  the  river  before 
his  farm,  —  these  were  the  most  annoying  of  the 
conditions  to  which  the  censitaire  was  liable.  Few 
of  them  were  enforced  with  much  regularity.  That 
of  baking  in  the  seignior's  oven  was  rarely  carried 
into  effect,  though  occasionally  used  for  purposes  of 
extortion.  It  is  here  that  the  royal  government 
appears  in  its  true  character,  so  far  as  concerns  its 
relations  with  Canada,  —  that  of  a  well-meaning 
despotismuT  It  continually  intervened  between  censi- 
taire and  seignior,  on  the  principle  that  "im"'  6^s 
Majesty  gives  th3  land  for  nothing,  he  c;  e 


1663-1763.]          ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  313 

what  conditions  he  pleases,  and  change  them  when 
he  pleases."1 

These  interventions  were  usually  favorable  to  the 
censitaire.  On  one  occasion  an  intendant  reported 
to  the  minister,  that  in  his  opinion  all  rents  ought  to 
be  reduced  to  one  sou  and  one  live  capon  for  every 
arpent  of  front,  equal  in  most  cases  to  forty  superfi- 
cial arpents.2  Everything,  he  remarks,  ought  to  be 
brought  down  to  the  level  of  the  first  grants  "  made 
in  days  of  innocence,"  —  a  happy  period  which  he 
does  not  attempt  to  define.  The  minister  replies 
that  the  diversity  of  the  rent  is,  in  fact,  vexatious, 
and  that  for  his  part  he  is  disposed  to  abolish  it 
altogether.3  Neither  he  nor  the  intendant  gives  the 
slightest  hint  of  any  compensation  to  the  seignior. 

Though  these  radical  measures  were  not  executed, 
many  changes  were  decreed  from  time  to  time  in  the 
relations  between  seignior  and  censitaire,  —  sometimes 
as  a  simple  act  of  sovereign  power,  and  sometimes 
on  the  ground  that  the  grants  had  been  made  with 
conditions  not  recognized  by  the  Coutume  de  Paris. 
This  was  the  code  of  law  assigned  to  Canada;  but 
most  of  the  contracts  between  seignior  and  censitaire 
had  been  agreed  upon  in  good  faith  by  men  who 
knew  as  much  of  the  Coutume  de  Paris  as  of  the 
Capitularies  of  Charlemagne,  and  their  conditions 

1  This  doctrine  is  laid  down  in  a  letter  of  the  Marquis  de  Beau 
harnois,  governor,  to  the  minister,  1734. 

8  Lettre  de  Raudot,  pere,  au  Ministre,  10  Nov.,  1707. 
3  Lettre  de  Ponchartrain  a  Raudot,  pere,  13,/atn,  1708. 


314  CANADIAN  FEUDALISM.          [1663-1763. 

had  remained  in  force  unchallenged  for  generations. 
These  interventions  of  government  sometimes  contra- 
dicted one  another,  and  often  proved  a  dead  letter. 
They  are  more  or  less  active  through  the  whole 
period  of  the  French  rule. 

The  seignior  had  judicial  powers,  which,  however, 
were  carefully  curbed  and  controlled.  His  jurisdic- 
tion, when  exercised  at  all,  extended  in  most  cases 
only  to  trivial  causes.  He  very  rarely  had  a  prison, 
and  seems  never  to  have  abused  it.  The  dignity  of 
a  seigniorial  gallows  with  high  justice  or  jurisdiction 
over  heinous  offences  was  granted  only  in  three  or 
four  instances.1 

Four  arpents  in  front  by  forty  in  depth  were  the 
ordinary  dimensions  of  a  grant  en  censive.  These 
ribbons  of  land,  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  with 
one  end  on  the  river  and  the  other  on  the  uplands 
behind,  usually  combined  the  advantages  of  meadows 
for  cultivation,  and  forests  for  timber  and  firewood. 
So  long  as  the  censitaire  brought  in  on  Saint  Martin's 
day  his  yearly  capons  and  his  yearly  handful  of 
copper,  his  title  against  the  seignior  was  perfect. 
There  are  farms  in  Canada  which  have  passed  from 
father  to  son  for  two  hundred  years.  The  condition 
of  the  cultivator  was  incomparably  better  than  that 
of  the  French  peasant,  crushed  by  taxes,  and  oppressed 
by  feudal  burdens  far  heavier  than  those  of  Canada. 

1  Baronies  and  comtts  were  empowered  to  set  up  gallows  and 
pillories,  to  which  the  arms  of  the  owner  were  affixed.  See,  for 
example,  the  edict  creating  the  Barony  des  Islets. 


1663-1763.]  THE   HABITANT.  315 

In  fact,  the  Canadian  settler  scorned  the  name  of 
peasant,  and  then,  as  now,  was  always  called  the 
habitant.  The  government  held  him  in  wardship, 
watched  over  him,  interfered  with  him,  but  did  not 
oppress  him  or  allow  others  to  oppress  him.  Canada 
was  not  governed  to  the  profit  of  a  class ;  and  if  the 
King  wished  to  create  a  Canadian  noblesse,  he  took 
care  that  it  should  not  bear  hard  on  the  country.1 

Under  a  genuine  feudalism,  the  ownership  of  land 
conferred  nobility;  but  all  this  was  changed.  The 
King  and  not  the  soil  was  now  the  parent  of  honor. 
France  swarmed  with  landless  nobles,  while  roturier 
land-holders  grew  daily  more  numerous.  In  Canada 
half  the  seigniories  were  in  roturier  or  plebeian 
hands,  and  in  course  of  time  some  of  them  came 
into  possession  of  persons  on  very  humble  degrees  of 
the  social  scale.  A  seigniory  could  be  bought  and 
sold,  and  a  trader  or  a  thrifty  habitant  might,  and 
often  did,  become  the  buyer.2  If  the  Canadian  noble 

1  On  the  seigniorial  tenure,  I  have  examined  the  entire  mass  of 
papers  printed  at  the  time  when  the  question  of  its  abolition  was 
under  discussion.    A  great  deal  of  legal  research  and  learning  was 
then  devoted  to  the  subject.     The  argument  of  Mr.  Dunkin  in 
behalf  of  the  seigniors,  and  the  observations  6f  Judge  Lafontaine 
are  especially  instructive,  as  is  also  the  collected  correspondence 
of  the  governors  and  intendants  with  the  central  government  on. 
matters  relating  to  the  seigniorial  system. 

2  In  1712,  the  engineer  Catalogne  made  a  very  long  and  elaborate 
report  on  the  condition  of  Canada,  with  a  full  account  of  all  the 
seigniorial  estates.    Of  ninety-one  seigniories,  fiefs,  and  baronies, 
described  by  him,  ten  belonged  to  merchants,  twelve  to  husband- 
men, and  two  to  masters  of  small  river  craft.     The  rest  belonged 
to  religious  corporations,  members  of  the  council,  judges,  officials 
of  the  Crown,  widows,  and  discharged  officers  or  their  sons. 


316  CANADIAN  FEUDALISM.         [1663-1763. 

was  always  a  seignior,  it  is  far  from  being  true  that 
the  Canadian  seignior  was  always  a  noble. 

In  France,  it  will  be  remembered,  nobility  did  not 
in  itself  imply  a  title.  Besides  its  titled  leaders, 
it  had  its  rank  and  file,  numerous  enough  to  form  a 
considerable  army.  Under  the  later  Bourbons,  the 
penniless  young  nobles  were,  in  fact,  enrolled  into 
regiments,  —  turbulent,  difficult  to  control,  obeying 
officers  of  high  rank,  but  scorning  all  others,  and 
conspicuous  by  a  fiery  and  impetuous  valor  which  on 
more  than  one  occasion  turned  the  tide  of  victory. 
The  gentilhomme,  or  untitled  noble,  had  a  distinctive 
character  of  his  own,  —  gallant,  punctilious,  vain ; 
skilled  in  social  and  sometimes  in  literary  and  artistic 
accomplishments,  but  usually  ignorant  of  most  things 
except  the  handling  of  his  rapier.  Yet  there  were 
striking  exceptions;  and  to  say  of  him,  as  has  been 
said,  that  "  he  knew  nothing  but  how  to  get  himself 
killed,"  is  hardly  just  to  a  body  which  has  produced 
some  of  the  best  writers  and  thinkers  of  France. 
Sometimes  the  origin  of  his  nobility  was  lost  in  the 
mists  of  time ;  sometimes  he  owed  it  to  a  patent  from 
the  King.  In  either  case,  the  line  of  demarcation 
between  him  and  the  classes  below  him  was  perfectly 
distinct;  and  in  this  lies  an  essential  difference 
between  the  French  noblesse  and  the  English  gentry, 
a  class  not  separated  from  others  by  a  definite  barrier. 
The  French  noblesse,  unlike  the  English  gentry, 
constituted  a  caste. 

The  gentilhomme  had  no  vocation  for  emigrating. 


1663-1763.]  CANADIAN   NOBLESSE.  317 

He  liked  the  army  and  he  liked  the  court.  If  he 
could  not  be  of  it,  it  was  something  to  live  in  its 
shadow.  The  life  of  a  backwoods  settler  had  no 
charm  for  him.  He  was  not  used  to  labor;  and  he 
could  not  trade,  at  least  in  retail,  without  becoming 
liable  to  forfeit  his  nobility.  When  Talon  came  to 
Canada,  there  were  but  four  noble  families  in  the 
colony.1  Young  nobles  in  abundance  came  out  with 
Tracy;  but  they  went  home  with  him.  Where, 
then,  should  be  found  the  material  of  a  Canadian 
noblesse  ?  First,  in  the  regiment  of  Carignan,  of 
which  most  of  the  officers  were  gentilshommes ; 
secondly,  in  the  issue  of  patents  of  nobility  to  a  few 
of  the  more  prominent  colonists.  Tracy  asked  for 
four  such  patents ;  Talon  asked  for  five  more ; 2  and 
such  requests  were  repeated  at  intervals  by  succeed- 
ing governors  and  intend  ants,  in  behalf  of  those 
who  had  gained  their  favor  by  merit  or  otherwise. 
Money  smoothed  the  path  to  advancement,  so  far 
had  noblesse  already  fallen  from  its  old  estate.  Thus 
Jacques  Le  Ber,  the  merchant,  who  had  long  kept  a 
shop  at  Montreal,  got  himself  made  a  "gentleman" 
for  six  thousand  livres.3 

All  Canada  soon  became  infatuated  with  noblesse ; 

1  Talon,  Mfmoire  sur  I'Etat  present  du  Canada,  1667.    The  fami- 
lies of  Repentigny,  Tilly,  Potherie,  and  Ailleboust  appear  to  be 
meant. 

2  Tracy's  request  was  in  behalf  of  Bourdon,  Boucher,  Auteuil, 
and  Juchereau.    Talon's  was  in  behalf  of  Godefroy,  Le  Moyne, 
Denis,  Amiot,  and  Couillard. 

8  Faillon,  Vie  de  Mademoiselle  Le  Ber,  325. 


318  CANADIAN  FEUDALISM.         [1663-1763. 

and  country  and  town,  merchant  and  seignior,  vied 
with  each  other  for  the  quality  of  gentilhomme.     If 
they  could  not  get  it,  they  often  pretended  to  have 
it,  and  aped  its   ways   with   the   zeal   of  Monsieur 
Jourdain   himself.     "Everybody   here,"   writes    the 
intendant  Meules,   "calls  himself  Esquire,  and  ends 
with    thinking    himself    a  gentleman."     Successive 
intendants   repeat    this    complaint.     The   case    was 
worst  with  roturiers  who   had  acquired   seigniories. 
Thus   Noel  Langlois   was  a  good  carpenter  till  he 
became  owner  of  a  seigniory,  on  which  he  grew  lazy 
and    affected    to    play    the    gentleman.      The    real 
gentilshommes,    as    well   as   the    spurious,    had   their 
full  share  of  official  stricture.     The  governor  Denon- 
ville  speaks  of  them  thus :  "  Several  of   them   have 
come  out  this  year  with  their  wives,  who  are  very 
much  cast  down ;  but  they  play  the  fine  lady,  never- 
theless.    I  had  much  rather  see  good  peasants;  it 
would   be  a  pleasure   to   me   to   give   aid  to  such, 
knowing,  as  I  should,  that  within   two  years   their 
families  would  have  the  means  of  living  at  ease ;  for 
it  is  certain  that  a  peasant  who  can  and  will  work  is 
well  off  in  this  country,  while  our  nobles  with  noth- 
ing to  do  can  never  be  anything  but  beggars.     Still 
they  ought  not  to  be  driven  off  or  abandoned.     The 
question  is  how  to  maintain  them." l 

The  intendant  Duchesneau  writes,  to  the  same 
effect:  "Many  of  our  gentilshommes,  officers,  and 
other  owners  of  seigniories,  lead  what  in  France  is 

1  Lettre  de  Denonville  au  Ministre,  10  Nov.,  1686. 


1663-1763.]  CANADIAN  NOBLESSE.  319 

called  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman,  and  spend 
most  of  their  time  in  hunting  and  fishing.  As  their 
requirements  in  food  and  clothing  are  greater  than 
those  of  the  simple  habitants,  and  as  they  do  not 
devote  themselves  to  improving  their  land,  they  mix 
themselves  up  in  trade,  run  in  debt  on  all  hands, 
incite  their  young  habitants  to  range  the  woods,  and 
send  their  own  children  there  to  trade  for  furs  in  the 
Indian  villages  and  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  in 
spite  of  the  prohibition  of  his  Majesty.  Yet,  with 
all  this,  they  are  in  miserable  poverty."1 

Their  condition,  indeed,  was  often  deplorable. 
"It  is  pitiful,"  says  the  intendant  Champigny,  "to 
see  their  children,  of  which  they  have  great  numbers, 
passing  all  summer  with  nothing  on  them  but  a  shirt, 
and  their  wives  and  daughters  working  in  the 
fields."2  In  another  letter  he  asks  aid  from  the  King 
for  Repentigny  with  his  thirteen  children,  and  for 
Tilly  with  his  fifteen.  "We  must  give  them  some 
corn  at  once,"  he  says,  "or  they  will  starve."3 
These  were  two  of  the  original  four  noble  families 
of  Canada.  The  family  of  Ailleboust,  another  of  the 
four,  is  described  as  equally  destitute.  "  Pride  and 
sloth,"  says  the  same  intendant,  "are  the  great  faults 
of  the  people  of  Canada,  and  especially  of  the  nobles 
and  those  who  pretend  to  be  such.  I  pray  you  grant 


1  Lettre,  de  Duchesneau  an  Ministre,  10  Nov.,  1679. 

2  Lettre  de  Champignij  au  Ministre,  26  Aout,  1687. 
Ibid.,  Q  Nov.,  1687.' 


320  CANADIAN   FEUDALISM.         [i663-1763. 

no   more   letters   of    nobility,    unless   you   want    to 
multiply  beggars." l 

The  governor  Denonville  is  still  more  emphatic: 
"Above  all  things,  Monseigneur,  permit  me  to  say 
that  the  nobles  of  this  new  country  are  everything 
that  is  most  beggarly,  and  that  to  increase  their 
number  is  to  increase  the  number  of  do-nothings. 
A  new  country  requires  hard  workers,  who  will 
handle  the  axe  and  mattock.  The  sons  of  our  coun- 
cillors are  no  more  industrious  than  the  nobles ;  and 
their  only  resource  is  to  take  to  the  woods,  trade  a 
little  with  the  Indians,  and,  for  the  most  part,  fall 
into  the  disorders  of  which  I  have  had  the  honor  to 
inform  you.  I  shall  use  all  possible  means  to  induce 
them  to  engage  in  regular  commerce;  but  as  oar 
nobles  and  councillors  are  all  very  poor  and  weighed 
down  with  debt,  they  could  not  get  credit  for  a 
single  crown  piece."2  {^Two  days  ago,"  he  writes  in 
another  letter,  "Monsieur  de  Saint-Ours,  a  gentle- 
man of  Dauphiny,  came  to  me  to  ask  leave  to  go  back 
to  France  in  search  of  bread.  He  says  that  he  will 
put  his  ten  children  into  the  charge  of  any  who  will 
give  them  a  living,  and  that  he  himself  will  go  into 
the  army  again.  His  wife  and  he  are  in  despair; 
and  yet  they  do  what  they  can.  I  have  seen  two 
of  his  girls  reaping  grain  and  holding  the  plough^ 
Other  families  are  in  the  same  condition.  They 

1  Mtmoire  instructif  sur  le  Canada,  joint  a  la  lettre  de  M.  de  Cham- 
pigny  du  10  Mai,  1691. 

*  Lettre  de  Denonville  au  Ministre,  13  Nov.,  1685. 


1663-1763.]  CANADIAN  NOBLESSE. 

come  to  me  with  tears  in  their  eyes.  All  our  married 
officers  are  beggars ;  and  I  entreat  you  to  send  them 
aid/J  There  is  need  that  the  King  should  provide 
support  for  their  children,  or  else  they  will  be 
tempted  to  go  over  to  the  English."1  Again  he 
writes  that  the  sons  of  the  councillor  D' Amours  have 
been  arrested  as  coureurs  de  bois,  or  outlaws  in  the 
bush ;  and  that  if  the  minister  does  not  do  something 
to  help  them,  there  is  danger  that  all  the  sons  of  the 
noblesse,  real  or  pretended,  will  turn  bandits,  since 
they  have  no  other  means  of  living. 

The  King,  dispenser  of  charity  for  all  Canada, 
came  promptly  to  the  rescue.  He  granted  an  alms 
of  a  hundred  crowns  to  each  family,  coupled  with  a 
warning  to  the  recipients  of  his  bounty  that  "  their 
misery  proceeds  from  their  ambition  to  live  as 
persons  of  quality  and  without  labor."  2  At  the  same 
time,  the  minister  announced  that  no  more  letters  of 
nobility  would  be  granted  in  Canada;  adding,  "to 
relieve  the  country  of  some  of  the  children  of  those 
who  are  really  noble,  I  send  you  [the  governor]  six 
commissions  of  Gardes  de  la  Marine,  and  recommend 
you  to  take  care  not  to  give  them  to  any  who  are  not 
actually  gentilshommes."  The  Garde  de  la  Marine 
answered  to  the  midshipman  of  the  English  or 
American  service.  As  the  six  commissions  could 

1  Lettre  de  Denonville  au  Ministre,  10  Nov.,  1686.     (Condensed  in 
the  translation.) 

2  Abstract  of  Denonville's  Letters,  and  of  the  Minister's  Answers, 
in  N.  Y.  Colonial  Docs.,  ix.  317,  318. 

21 


322  CANADIAN   FEUDALISM.          [1663-1763 

bring  little  relief  to  the  crowd  of  needy  youths,  it 
was  further  ordained  that  sons  of  nobles  or  persons 
living  as  such  should  be  enrolled  into  companies  at 
eight  sous  a  day  for  those  who  should  best  conduct 
themselves,  and  six  sous  a  day  for  the  others. 
Nobles  in  Canada  were  also  permitted  to  trade,  even 
at  retail,  without  derogating  from  their  rank.1 

They  had  already  assumed  this  right,  without 
waiting  for  the  royal  license;  but  thus  far  it  had 
profited  them  little.  The  gentilhomme  was  not  a 
good  shopkeeper,  nor,  as  a  rule,  was  the  shopkeeper's 
vocation  very  lucrative  in  Canada.  The  domestic 
trade  of  the  colony  was  small;  and  all  trade  was 
exposed  to  such  vicissitudes  from  the  intervention  of 
intendants,  ministers,  and  councils,  that  at  one  time 
it  was  almost  banished.  At  best,  it  was  carried  on 
under  conditions  auspicious  to  a  favored  few  and 
withering  to  the  rest.  Even  when  most  willing  to 
work,  the  position  of  the  gentilhomme  was  a  painful 
one.  Unless  he  could  gain  a  post  under  the  Crown, 
which  was  rarely  the  case,  he  was  as  complete  a 
political  cipher  as  the  meanest  habitant.  His  rents 
were  practically  nothing,  and  he  had  no  capital  to 
improve  his  seigniorial  estate.  By  a  peasant's  work 
he  could  gain  a  peasant's  living,  and  this  was  all. 
The  prospect  was  not  inspiring.  His  long  initia- 
tion of  misery  was  the  natural  result  of  his  position 
and  surroundings;  and  it  is  no  matter  of  wonder 
that  he  threw  himself  into  the  only  field  of  action 

1  Lettre  de  Meules  au  Ministre,  1685. 


1663-1763.]  CANADIAN  NOBLESSE.  323 

which  in  time  of  peace  was  open  to  him.  It  was 
trade,  but  trade  seasoned  by  adventure  and  ennobled 
by  danger,  defiant  of  edict  and  ordinance,  outlawed, 
conducted  in  arms  among  forests  and  savages;  in 
short,  it  was  the  Western  fur- trade.  The  tyro  was 
likely  to  fail  in  it  at  first,  but  time  and  experience 
formed  him  to  the  work.  On  the  Great  Lakes,  in 
the  wastes  of  the  Northwest,  on  the  Mississippi  and 
the  plains  beyond,  we  find  the  roving  gentilhomme, 
chief  of  a  gang  of  bush-rangers,  often  his  own  habi- 
tants, —  sometimes  proscribed  by  the  government, 
sometimes  leagued  in  contraband  traffic  with  its 
highest  officials;  a  hardy  vidette  of  civilization, 
tracing  unknown  streams,  piercing  unknown  forests, 
trading,  fighting,  negotiating,  and  building  forts. 
Again  we  find  him  on  the  shores  of  Acadia  or  Maine, 
surrounded  by  Indian  retainers,  a  menace  and  a 
terror  to  the  neighboring  English  colonist.  Saint- 
Castin,  Du  Lhut,  La  Durantaye,  La  Salle,  La  Mothe- 
Cadillac,  Iberville,  Bienville,  La  Ve*rendrye,  are 
names  that  stand  conspicuous  on  the  page  of  half- 
savage  romance  that  refreshes  the  hard  and  practical 
annals  of  American  colonization.  But  a  more  sub- 
stantial debt  is  due  to  their  memory.  It  was  they, 
and  sucn  as  they,  who  discovered  the  Ohio,  explored 
the  Mississippi  to  its  mouth,  discovered  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  founded  Detroit,  St.  Louis,  and  New 
Orleans. 

Even  in  his  earliest  day,  the  gentilhomme  was  not 
always  in  the  evil  plight  where  we  have  found  him. 


324  CANADIAN  FEUDALISM.          [1663-1763. 

There  were  a  few  exceptions  to  the  general  misery, 
and  the  chief  among  them  is  that  of  the  Le  Moynes 
of  Montreal.  Charles  Le  Moyne,  son  of  an  inn- 
keeper of  Dieppe  and  founder  of  a  family  the  most 
truly  eminent  in  Canada,  was  a  man  of  sterling 
qualities  who  had  been  long  enough  in  the  colony  to 
learn  how  to  live  there.1  Others  learned  the  same 
lesson  at  a  later  day,  adapted  themselves  to  soil  and 
situation,  took  root,  grew,  and  became  more  Canadian 
than  French.  As  population  increased,  their  seign- 
iories began  to  yield  appreciable  returns,  and  their 
reserved  domains  became  worth  cultivating.  A 
future  dawned  upon  them;  they  saw  in  hope  their 
names,  their  seigniorial  estates,  their  manor-houses, 
their  tenantry,  passing  to  their  children  and  their 
children's  children.  The  beggared  noble  of  the  early 
time  became  a  sturdy  country  gentleman,  —  poor, 
but  not  wretched ;  ignorant  of  books,  except  possibly 
a  few  scraps  of  rusty  Latin  picked  up  in  a  Jesuit 
school;  hardy  as  the  hardiest  woodsman,  yet  never 
forgetting  his  quality  of  gentilhomme ;  scrupulously 
wearing  its  badge,  the  sword,  and  copying  as  well  as 
he  could  the  fashions  of  the  court,  which  glowed  on 
his  vision  across  the  sea  in  all  the  effulgence  of 

1  Berthelot,  proprietor  of  the  comte  of  St.  Laurent,  and  Robineau, 
of  the  barony  of  Portneuf,  may  also  be  mentioned  as  exceptionally 
prosperous.  Of  the  younger  Charles  Le  Moyne,  afterwards*  Baron 
de  Longueuil,  Frontenac  the  governor  says,  "  son  fort  et  sa  raaison 
nous  donnent  une  idee  des  chateaux  de  France  fortifiez."  His  fort 
was  of  stone  and  flanked  with  four  towers.  It  was  nearly  opposite 
Montreal,  on  the  south  shore 


1663-1763.]  CANADIAN   NOBLESSE.  325 

Versailles,  and  beamed  with  reflected  ray  from  the 
Chateau  of  Quebec.  He  was  at  home  among  his 
tenants,  at  home  among  the  Indians,  and  never  more 
at  home  than  when,  a  gun  in  his  hand  and  a  crucifix 
on  his  breast,  he  took  the  war-path  with  a  crew  of 
painted  savages  and  Frenchmen  almost  as  wild,  and 
pounced  like  a  lynx  from  the  forest  on  some  lonely 
farm  or  outlying  hamlet  of  New  England.  How 
New  England  hated  him,  let  her  records  tell.  The 
reddest  blood-streaks  on  her  old  annals  mark  the 
track  of  the  Canadian  gentilhomme. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

1663-1763. 
THE  RULERS   OF  CANADA. 

NATURE  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT.  —  THE  GOVERNOR.  —  THE  COUNCIL, 
—  COURTS  AND  JUDGES.  —  THE  INTENDANT:  HIS  GRIEVANCES. — 
STRONG  GOVERNMENT.  —  SEDITION  AND  BLASPHEMY.  —  ROYAL 
BOUNTY.  —  DEFECTS  AND  ABUSES. 

THE  government  of  Canada  was  formed  in  its  chiei 
features  after  the  government  of  a  French  province. 
Throughout  France  the  past  and  the  present  stood 
side  by  side.  The  kingdom  had  a  double  adminis- 
tration ;  or,  rather,  the  shadow  of  the  old  administra- 
tion and  the  substance  of  the  new.  The  government 
of  provinces  had  long  been  held  by  the  high  nobles, 
often  kindred  to  the  Crown;  and  hence,  in  former 
times,  great  perils  had  arisen,  amounting  during  the 
civil  wars  to  the  danger  of  dismemberment.  The 
high  nobles  were  still  governors  of  provinces;  but 
here,  as  elsewhere,  they  had  ceased  to  be  dangerous. 
Titles,  honors,  and  ceremonial  they  had  in  abundance ; 
but  they  were  deprived  of  real  power.  Close  beside 
them  was  the  royal  intendant,  an  obscure  figure,  lost 
amid  the  vainglories  of  the  feudal  sunset,  but  in  the 
name  of  the  King  holding  the  reins  of  government,  — 


1663-1763.]    GOVERNOR  AND  ISTTENDANT.  327 

a  check  and  a  spy  on  his  gorgeous  colleague.  He 
was  the  King's  agent;  of  modest  birth,  springing 
from  the  legal  class ;  owing  his  present  to  the  King, 
and  dependent  on  him  for  his  future ;  learned  in  the 
law  and  trained  to  administration.  It  was  by  such 
instruments  that  the  powerful  centralization  of  the 
monarchy  enforced  itself  throughout  the  kingdom, 
and,  penetrating  beneath  the  crust  of  old  prescrip- 
tions, supplanted  without  seeming  to  supplant  them. 
The  courtier  noble  looked  down  in  the  pride  of  rank 
on  the  busy  man  in  black  at  his  side ;  but  this  man 
in  black,  with  the  troop  of  officials  at  his  beck,  con- 
trolled finance,  the  royal  courts,  public  works,  and 
all  the  administrative  business  of  the  province. 

The  governor-general  and  the  intendant  of  Canada 
answered  to  those  of  a  French  province.  ^The  gov- 
ernor, excepting  in  the  earliest  period  of  the  colony, 
was  a  military  noble,  —  in  most  cases  bearing  a  title 
and  sometimes  of  high  rank.  The  intendant,  as  in 
France,  was  usually  drawn  from  the  gens  de  role,  or 
legal  class.1  The  mutual  relations  of  the  two  officers 
were  modified  by  the  circumstances  about  them.  The 
governor  was  superior  in  rank  to  the  intendant;  he 
commanded  the  troops,  conducted  relations  with 
foreign  colonies  and  Indian  tribes,  and  took  pre- 
cedence on  all  occasions  of  ceremony.  Unlike  a 

1  The  governor  was  styled  in  his  commission,  Gouverneur  et  Lieu- 
tenant-G&ne'ral  en  Canada,  Acadie,  Isle  de  Terreneuve,  et  autres  pays 
de  la  France  Septentrionale ;  and  the  intendant,  Intendant  de  la  Justice, 
Police,  et  Finances  en  Canada,  Acadie,  Terreneuve,  et  autres  pays  de  la 
France  Septentrionale. 


828  THE  RULERS  OF  CANADA.      [1683-1763. 

provincial  governor  in  France,  he  had  great  and 
substantial  power.  The  King  and  the  minister,  his 
sole  masters,  were  a  thousand  leagues  distant,  and 
he  controlled  the  whole  military  force.  If  he  abused 
his  position,  there  was  no  remedy  but  in  appeal  to 
the  court,  which  alone  could  hold  him  in  check. 
There  were  local  governors  at  Montreal  and  Three 
Rivers;  but  their  power  was  carefully  curbed,  and 
they  were  forbidden  to  fine  or  imprison  any  person 
without  authority  from  Quebec.1 

The  intendant  was  virtually  a  spy  on  the  governor- 
general,  of  whose  proceedings  and  of  everything 
else  that  took  place  he  was  required  to  make  report. 
Every  year  he  wrote  to  the  minister  of  state  one,  two, 
three,  or  four  letters,  often  forty  or  fifty  pages  long, 
filled  with  the  secrets  of  the  colony,  political  and 
personal,  great  and  small,  set  forth  with  a  minuteness 
often  interesting,  often  instructive,  and  often  exces- 
sively tedious.2  The  governor,  too,  wrote  letters  of 
pitiless  length ;  and  each  of  the  colleagues  was  jealous 
of  the  letters  of  the  other.  In  truth,  their  relations 
to  each  other  were  so  critical,  and  perfect  harmony 
so  rare,  that  they  might  almost  be  described  as 
natural  enemies.  The  court,  it  is  certain,  did  not 

1  The   Sulpitian   seigniors  of   Montreal    claimed  the  right  of 
appointing  their  own  local  governor.     This  was   denied  by  the 
court,  and  the  excellent  Sulpitian  governor,  Maisonneuve,  was  re- 
moved by  De  Tracy,  to  die  in  patient  obscurity  at  Paris.    Some 
concessions  were  afterwards  made  in  favor  of  the  Sulpitian  claims. 

2  I  have  carefully  read  about  two  thousand  pages  of  these 
letters. 


1663-1763.]  THE  COUNCIL.  329 

desire  their  perfect  accord;  nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
did  it  wish  them  to  quarrel :  it  aimed  to  keep  them  on 
such  terms  that,  without  deranging  the  machinery  of 
administration,  each  should  be  a  check  on  the  other.1 
The  governor,  the  intendant,  and  the  supreme 
council  or  court  were  absolute  masters  of  Canada 
under  the  pleasure  of  the  King.  Legislative,  judi- 
cial, and  executive  power,  all  centred  in  them.  We 
have  seen  already  the  very  unpromising  beginnings 
of  the  supreme  council.  It  had  consisted  at  first  of 
the  governor,  the  bishop,  and  five  councillors  chosen 
by  them.  The  intendant  was  soon  added,  to  form  the 
ruling  triumvirate ;  but  the  appointment  of  the  coun- 
cillors, the  occasion  of  so  many  quarrels,  was  after- 
wards exercised  by  the  King  himself.2  Even  the  name 
of  the  council  underwent  a  change  in  the  interest  of 
his  autocracy,  and  he  commanded  that  it  should  no 
longer  be  called  the  Supreme,  but  only  the  Superior 
Council.  The  same  change  had  just  been  imposed  on 
all  the  high  tribunals  of  France.3  Under  the  shadow 
of  the  fleur-de-lis,  the  King  alone  was  to  be  supreme. 

1  The  governor  and  intendant  made  frequent  appeals  to  the  court 
to  settle  questions  arising  between  them.    Several  of  these  appeals 
are  preserved.    The  King  wrote  replies  on  the  margin  of  the  paper, 
but  they  were  usually  too  curt  and  general  to  satisfy  either  party. 

2  D&laration  du  Roi  du  16  Juin,  1703.    Appointments  were  made 
by  the  King  many  years  earlier.     As  they  were  always  made  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  governor  and  intendant,  the  practical  effect 
of  the  change  was  merely  to  exclude  the  bishop  from  a  share  in 
them.    The  West  India  Company  made  the  nominations  during  the 
ten  years  of  its  ascendancy. 

8  Cheruel,  Administration  Monarchique  en  France,  ii  100. 


330  THE  RULERS  OF  CANADA.      [1663-1763. 

In  1675  the  number  of  councillors  was  increased  to 
seven,  and  in  1703  it  was  again  increased  to  twelve ; 
but  the  character  of  the  council  or  court  remained 
the  same.  It  issued  decrees  for  the  civil,  commer- 
cial, and  financial  government  of  the  colony,  and 
gave  judgment  in  civil  and  criminal  causes  according 
to  the  royal  ordinances  and  the  Coutume  de  Paris.  It 
exercised  also  the  function  of  registration  borrowed 
from  the  parliament  of  Paris.  That  body,  it  will  be 
remembered,  had  no  analogy  whatever  with  the 
English  parliament.  Its  ordinary  functions  were 
not  legislative,  but  judicial ;  and  it  was  composed  of 
judges  hereditary  under  certain  conditions.  Never- 
theless, it  had  long  acted  as  a  check  on  the  royal 
power  through  its  right  of  registration.  No  royal 
edict  had  the  force  of  law  till  entered  upon  its  books, 
and  this  custom  had  so  deep  a  root  in  the  monarchical 
constitution  of  France,  that  even  Louis  XIV.,  in  the 
flush  of  his  power,  did  not  attempt  to  abolish  it. 
He  did  better;  he  ordered  his  decrees  to  be  regis- 
tered, and  the  humbled  parliament  submissively 
obeyed.  In  like  manner  all  edicts,  ordinances,  or 
declarations  relating  to  Canada  were  entered  on  the 
registers  of  the  superior  council  at  Quebec.  The 
order  of  registration  was  commonly  affixed  to  the 
edict  or  other  mandate,  and  nobody  dreamed  of  dis- 
obeying it.1 

1  Many  general  edicts  relating  to  the  whole  kingdom  are  also 
registered  on  the  books  of  the  council;  but  the  practice  in  this 
respect  was  by  no  means  uniform. 


1663-1763.]  INFERIOR   COURTS.  331 

The  council  or  court  had  its  attorney-general,  who 
heard  complaints,  and  brought  them  before  the 
tribunal  if  he  thought  necessary;  its  secretary,  who 
kept  its  registers,  and  its  huissiers  or  attendant 
officers.  It  sat  once  a  week;  and,  though  it  was  the 
highest  court  of  appeal,  it  exercised  at  first  original 
jurisdiction  in  very  trivial  cases.1  It  was  empowered 
to  establish  subordinate  courts  or  judges  throughout 
the  colony.  Besides  these,  there  was  a  judge 
appointed  by  the  King  for  each  of  the  three  districts 
into  which  Canada  was  divided,  —  those  of  Quebec, 
Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal.  To  each  of  the  three 
royal  judges  were  joined  a  clerk  and  an  attorney- 
general,  under  the  supervision  and  control  of  the 
attorney-general  of  the  superior  court,  to  which 
tribunal  appeal  lay  from  all  the  subordinate  jurisdic- 
tions. The  jurisdiction  of  the  seigniors  within  their 
own  limits  has  already  been  mentioned.  They  were 
entitled  by  the  terms  of  their  grants  to  the  exercise 
of  "high,  middle,  and  low  justice;"  but  most  of 
them  were  practically  restricted  to  the  last  of  the 
three,  —  that  is,  to  petty  disputes  between  the  habi- 
tants, involving  not  more  than  sixty  sous,  or  offences 
for  which  the  fine  did  not  exceed  ten  sous.2  Thus 
limited,  their  judgments  were  often  useful  in  saving 

1  See  the  Registres  du  Conseil  Sup€rieur,  preserved  at  Quebec. 
Between  1663  and  1673  are  a  multitude  of  judgments  on  matters 
great  and  small,  —  from  murder,  rape,  and  infanticide,  down   to 
petty  nuisances,  misbehavior  of  servants,  and  disputes  about  the 
price  of  a  sow. 

2  Doutre  et  Lareau,  Histoire  <*u  Droit  Canadien,  135. 


332  THE  RULERS  OF  CANADA.      [1663-1763. 

time,  trouble,  and  money  to  the  disputants.  The 
corporate  seigniors  of  Montreal  long  continued  to 
hold  a  feudal  court  in  form,  with  attorney-general, 
clerk,  and  huissier  ;  but  very  few  other  seigniors  were 
in  a  condition  to  imitate  them.  Added  to  all  these 
tribunals  was  the  bishop's  court  at  Quebec,  to  try 
causes  held  to  be  within  the  province  of  the  Church. 

The  office  of  judge  in  Canada  was  no  sinecure.  The 
people  were  of  a  litigious  disposition,  —  partly  from 
their  Norman  blood ;  partly,  perhaps,  from  the  idleness 
of  the  long  and  tedious  winter,  which  gave  full  leis- 
ure for  gossip  and  quarrel ;  and  partly  from  the  very 
imperfect  manner  in  which  titles  had  been  drawn  and 
the  boundaries  of  grants  marked  out,  whence  ensued 
disputes  without  end  between  neighbor  and  neighbor. 

"I  will  not  say,"  writes  the  satirical  La  Hontan, 
"that  Justice  is  more  chaste  and  disinterested  here 
than  in  France ;  but,  at  least,  if  she  is  sold,  she  is  sold 
cheaper.  We  do  not  pass  through  the  clutches  of  ad- 
vocates, the  talons  of  attorneys,  and  the  claws  of  clerks. 
These  vermin  do  not  infest  Canada  yet.  Everybody 
pleads  his  own  cause.  Our  Themis  is  prompt,  and 
she  does  not  bristle  with  fees,  costs,  and  charges.  The 
judges  have  only  four  hundred  francs  a  year,  —  a  great 
temptation  to  look  for  law  in  the  bottom  of  the  suitor's 
purse.  Four  hundred  francs !  Not  enough  to  buy  a 
cap  and  gown;  so  these  gentry  never  wear  them."1 

Thus  far  La  Hontan.     Now  let  us  hear  the  King 

i  La  Hontan,  i.  21  (ed.  1705).  In  some  editions,  the  above  is  ex 
pressed  in  different  language. 


1663-1763.]  THE   COUNCILLORS.  333 

himself.  "  The  greatest  disorder  which  has  hitherto 
existed  in  Canada,"  writes  Louis  XIV.  to  the 
intendant  Meules,  "has  come  from  the  small  degree 
of  liberty  which  the  officers  of  justice  have  had  in 
the  discharge  of  their  duties,  by  reason  of  the 
violence  to  which  they  have  been  subjected,  and  the 
part  they  have  been  obliged  to  take  in  the  continual 
quarrels  between  the  governor  and  the  intendant; 
insomuch  that  justice  having  been  administered  by 
cabal  and  animosity,  the  inhabitants  have  hitherto 
been  far  from  the  tranquillity  and  repose  which  can- 
not be  found  in  a  place  where  everybody  is  compelled 
to  take  side  with  one  party  or  another."  l 

Nevertheless,  on  ordinary  local  questions  between 
the  habitants,  justice  seems  to  have  been  administered 
on  the  whole  fairly;  and  judges  of  all  grades  often 
interposed  in  their  personal  capacity  to  bring  parties 
to  an  agreement  without  a  trial.  From  head  to  foot, 
the  government  kept  its  attitude  of  paternity. 

Beyond  and  above  all  the  regular  tribunals,  beyond 
and  above  the  council  itself,  was  the  independent 
jurisdiction  lodged  in  the  person  of  the  King's  man, 
the  intendant.  His  commission  empowered  him,  if 
he  saw  fit,  to  call  any  cause  whatever  before  himself 
for  judgment;  and  he  judged  exclusively  the  cases 
which  concerned  the  King,  and  those  involving  the 
relations  of  seignior  and  vassal.2  He  appointed  sub- 

1  Instruction  du  Roy  pour  le  Sieur  de  Meules,  1682. 

2  See  the  commissions  of  various  intendants,  in  iZdits  et  Or  don 
nances  iii. 


334  THE   RULERS  OF  CANADA.       [1663-1733. 

ordinate  judges,  from  whom  there  was  appeal  to 
him;  but  from  his  decisions,  as  well  as  from  those  of 
the  superior  council,  there  was  no  appeal  but  to  the 
King  in  his  council  of  state. 

On  any  Monday  morning  one  would  have  found 
the  superior  council  in  session  in  the  antechamber  of 
the  governor's  apartment,  at  the  Chateau  St.  Louis. 
The  members  sat  at  a  round  table.  At  the  head  was 
the  governor,  with  the  bishop  on  his  right,  and  the 
intendant  on  his  left.  The  councillors  sat  in  the 
order  of  their  appointment,  and  the  attorney-general 
also  had  his  place  at  the  board.  As  La  Hontan 
says,  they  were  not  in  judicial  robes,  but  in  their 
ordinary  dress,  and  all  but  the  bishop  wore  swords.1 
The  want  of  the  cap  and  gown  greatly  disturbed  the 
intendant  Meules ;  and  he  begs  the  minister  to  con- 
sider how  important  it  is  that  the  councillors,  in 
order  to  inspire  respect,  should  appear  in  public  in 
long  black  robes,  which  on  occasions  of  ceremony 
they  should  exchange  for  robes  of  red.  He  thinks 
that  the  principal  persons  of  the  colony  would  thus 
be  induced  to  train  up  their  children  to  so  enviable  a 
dignity;  "and,"  he  concludes,  "as  none  of  the  coun- 
cillors can  afford  to  buy  red  robes,  I  hope  that  the 
King  will  vouchsafe  to  send  out  nine  such.  As  for 
the  black  robes,  they  can  furnish  those  themselves."2 
The  King  did  not  respond,  and  the  nine  robes  never 
arrived. 

1  Compare  La Potherie, i. 260 ;  and  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,liv.  vii 

2  Meules  au  Ministre,  28  Sept.,  1685. 


1663-1763.]  THE  COUNCILLORS.  336 

The  official  dignity  of  the  council  was  sometimes 
exposed  to  trials  against  which  even  red  gowns 
might  have  proved  an  insufficient  protection.  The 
same  intendant  urges  that  the  tribunal  ought  to  be 
provided  immediately  with  a  house  of  its  own.  "  It 
is  not  decent,"  he  says,  "that  it  should  sit  in  the 
governor's  antechamber  any  longer.  His  guards  and 
valets  make  such  a  noise  that  we  cannot  hear  one 
another  speak.  I  have  continually  to  tell  them  to 
keep  quiet,  which  causes  them  to  make  a  thousand 
jokes  at  the  councillors  as  they  pass  in  and  out."1 
As  the  governor  and  the  council  were  often  on  ill 
terms,  the  official  head  of  the  colony  could  not 
always  be  trusted  to  keep  his  attendants  on  their 
good  behavior.  The  minister  listened  to  the  com- 
plaint of  Meules,  and  adopted  his  suggestion  that  the 
government  should  buy  the  old  brewery  of  Talon,  — 
a  large  structure  of  mingled  timber  and  masonry 
on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Charles.  It  was  at  an  easy 
distance  from  the  chateau;  passing  the  H6tel  Dieu 
and  descending  the  rock,  one  reached  it  by  a  walk  of 
a  few  minutes.  It  was  accordingly  repaired,  partly 
rebuilt,  and  fitted  up  to  serve  the  double  purpose 
of  a  lodging  for  the  intendant  and  a  court-house. 
Henceforth  the  transformed  brewery  was  known  as 
the  Palace  of  the  Intendant,  or  the  Palace  of  Justice ; 
and  here  the  council  and  inferior  courts  long  con- 
tinued to  hold  their  sessions. 

Some  of  these  inferior  courts  appear  to  have  needed 

1  Meules  au  Ministre,  12  Nov.,  1684. 


336  THE  RULERS  OF  CANADA.       [1663-1763. 

a  lodging  quite  as  much  as  the  council.  The  watch- 
ful Meules  informs  the  minister  that  the  royal  judge 
for  the  district  of  Quebec  was  accustomed  in  winter, 
with  a  view  to  saving. fuel,  to  hear  causes  and  pro- 
nounce judgment  by  his  own  fireside,  in  the  midst  of 
his  children,  whose  gambols  disturbed  the  even 
distribution  of  justice.1 

The  superior  council  was  not  a  very  harmonious 
body.  As  its  three  chiefs  —  the  man  of  the  sword, 
the  man  of  the  church,  and  the  man  of  the  law  — 
were  often  at  variance,  the  councillors  attached  them- 
selves to  one  party  or  the  other,  and  hot  disputes 
sometimes  ensued.  The  intendant,  though  but  third 
in  rank,  presided  at  the  sessions,  took  votes,  pro- 
nounced judgment,  signed  papers,  and  called  special 
meetings.  This  matter  of  the  presidency  was  for 
some  time  a  source  of  contention  between  him  and 
the  governor,  till  the  question  was  set  at  rest  by  a 
decree  of  the  King. 

The  intendants  in  their  reports  to  the  minister  do 
not  paint  the  council  in  flattering  colors.  One  of 
them  complains  that  the  councillors,  being  busy  with 
their  farms,  neglect  their  official  duties.  Another 
says  that  they  are  all  more  or  less  in  trade.  A  third 
calls  them  uneducated  persons  of  slight  account, 
allied  to  the  chief  families  and  chief  merchants  in 
Canada,  in  whose  interest  they  make  laws;  and  he 
adds,  that,  as  a  year  and  a  half  or  even  two  years 
usually  elapse  before  the  answer  to  a  complaint  is 

1  Meules  on  Ministre,  12  Nov.,  1684. 


1663-1763.]  THE  INTENDANT.  £87 

received  from  France,  they  take  advantage  of  this 
long  interval  to  the  injury  of  the  King's  service.1 
These  and  other  similar  charges  betray  the  con- 
tinual friction  between  the  several  branches  of  the 
government. 

The  councillors  were  rarely  changed,  and  they 
usually  held  office  for  life.  In  a  few  cases  the  King 
granted  to  the  son  of  a  councillor  yet  living  the  right 
of  succeeding  his  father  when  the  charge  should 
become  vacant.2  It  was  a  post  of  honor  and  not  of 
profit,  at  least  of  direct  profit.  The  salaries  were 
very  small,  and  coupled  with  a  prohibition  to  receive 
fees. 

Judging  solely  by  the  terms  of  his  commission,  the 
intendant  was  the  ruling  power  in  the  colony.  He 
controlled  all  expenditure  of  public  money,  and  not 
only  presided  at  the  council,  but  was  clothed  in  his 
own  person  with  independent  legislative  as  well  as 
judicial  power.  He  was  authorized  to  issue  ordi- 
nances having  the  force  of  law  whenever  he  thought 
necessary,  and,  in  the  words  of  his  commission,  "to 
order  everything  as  he  shall  see  just  and  proper."3 
He  was  directed  to  be  present  at  councils  of  war, 
though  war  was  the  special  province  of  his  colleague, 

1  Meules  au  Ministre,  12  Nov.,  1684. 

2  A  son  of  Amours  was  named  in  his  father's  lifetime  to  succeed 
him,  as  was  also  a  son  of  the  attorney-general  Auteuil.    There  are 
several  other  cases.    A  son  of  Tilly,  to  whom  the  right  of  succeed- 
ing his  father  had  been  granted,  asks  leave  to  sell  it  to  the  merchant 
La  Chesnaye. 

8  Commissions  of  Bouteroue,  Duchesneau,  Meules,  etc. 

22 


338  THE   RULERS  OF  CANADA.       [1663-1763. 

and  to  protect  soldiers  and  all  others  from  official 
extortion  and  abuse;  that  is,  to  protect  them  from 
the  governor.  Yet  there  were  practical  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  his  apparent  power.  The  King,  his 
master,  was  far  away;  but  official  jealousy  was  busy 
around  him,  and  his  patience  was  sometimes  put  to 
the  proof.  Thus  the  royal  judge  of  Quebec  had 
fallen  into  irregularities.  "I  can  do  nothing  with 
him,"  writes  the  intendant;  "he  keeps  on  good 
terms  with  the  governor  and  council,  and  sets  me  at 
naught."  The  governor  had,  as  he  thought,  treated 
him  amiss.  "You  have  told  me,"  he  writes  to  the 
minister,  "  to  bear  everything  from  him  and  report  to 
you ; "  and  he  proceeds  to  recount  his  grievances. 
Again,  "the  attorney-general  is  bold  to  insolence, 
and  needs  to  be  repressed.  The  King's  interposition 
is  necessary."  He  modestly  adds  that  the  intendant 
is  the  only  man  in  Canada  whom  his  Majesty  can 
trust,  and  that  he  ought  to  have  more  power.1 

These  were  far  from  being  his  only  troubles.  The 
enormous  powers  with  which  his  commission  clothed 
him  were  sometimes  retrenched  by  contradictory 
instructions  from  the  King;2  for  this  government, 
not  of  laws  but  of  arbitrary  will,  is  marked  by  fre- 
quent inconsistencies.  When  he  quarrelled  with  the 
governor,  and  the  governor  chanced  to  have  strong 

1  Meules  au  Ministre,l2  Nov.,  1684. 

2  Thus,  Meules  is  flatly  forbidden  to  compel  litigants  to  bring 
causes  before  him  (Instruction  pour  h  Sieur  de  Meules,  1682) ;  and  this 
prohibition  is  nearly  of  the  same  date  with   the   commission  in 
which  the  power  to  do  so  is  expressly  given  him. 


1663-1763.]  THE   INTEND  ANT.  339 

friends  at  court,  his  position  became  truly  pitiable. 
He  was  berated  as  an  imperious  master  berates  an 
offending  servant.  "  Your  last  letter  is  full  of  noth- 
ing but  complaints."  "You  have  exceeded  your 
authority."  "Study  to  know  yourself,  and  to  under- 
stand clearly  the  difference  there  is  between  a  gov- 
ernor and  an  intendant."  "Since  you  failed  to 
comprehend  the  difference  between  you  and  the 
officer  who  represents  the  King's  person,  you  are  in 
danger  of  being  often  condemned,  or  rather  of  being 
recalled;  for  his  Majesty  cannot  endure  so  many 
petty  complaints,  founded  on  nothing  but  a  certain 
quasi  equality  between  the  governor  and  you,  which 
you  assume,  but  which  does  not  exist."  "Meddle 
with  nothing  beyond  your  functions."  "Take  good 
care  to  tell  me  nothing  but  the  truth."  "You  ask 
too  many  favors  for  your  adherents."  "You  must 
not  spend  more  than  you  have  authority  to  spend,  or 
it  will  be  taken  out  of  your  pay."  In  short,  there 
are  several  letters  from  the  minister  Colbert  to  his 
colonial  man- of -all- work,  which,  from  beginning  to 
end,  are  one  continued  scold.1 

The  luckless  intendant  was  liable  to  be  held  to 
account  for  the  action  of  natural  laws.  "If  the 
population  does  not  increase  in  proportion  to  the 
pains  I  take,"  writes  the  King  to  Duchesneau,  "you 
are  to  lay  the  blame  on  yourself  for  not  having  exe- 

1  The  above  examples  are  all  taken  from  the  letters  of  Colbert 
to  the  intendant  Duchesneau.  It  is  an  extreme  case,  but  other  in- 
tendants  are  occasionally  treated  with  scarcely  more  ceremony. 


340  THE  RULERS   OF   CANADA.       [1663-1763. 

cuted  my  principal  order  [to  promote  marriages],  and 
for  having  failed  in  the  principal  object  for  which  I 
sent  you  to  Canada."1 

A  great  number  of  ordinances  of  intendants  are 
preserved.  They  were  usually  read  to  the  people  at 
the  doors  of  churches  after  mass,  or  sometimes  by 
the  cure'  from  his  pulpit.  They  relate  to  a  great 
variety  of  subjects,  —  regulation  of  inns  and  markets, 
poaching,  preservation  of  game,  sale  of  brandy,  rent 
of  pews,  stray  hogs,  mad  dogs,  tithes,  matrimonial 
quarrels,  fast  driving,  wards  and  guardians,  weights 
and  measures,  nuisances,  value  of  coinage,  trespass 
on  lands,  building  churches,  observance  of  Sunday, 
preservation  of  timber,  seignior  and  vassal,  settle- 
ment of  boundaries,  and  many  other  matters.  If  a 
curd  with  some  of  his  parishioners  reported  that  his 
church  or  his  house  needed  repair  or  rebuilding,  the 
intendant  issued  an  ordinance  requiring  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  parish,  "both  those  who  have 
consented  and  those  who  have  not  consented,"  to 
contribute  materials  and  labor,  on  pain  of  fine  or 
other  penalty.2  The  militia  captain  of  the  cote  was 
to  direct  the  work  and  see  that  each  parishioner  did 
his  due  part,  which  was  determined  by  the  extent  of 
his  farm,  so,  too,  if  the  grand  voyer,  an  officer 
charged  with  the  superintendence  of  highways, 
reported  that  a  new  road  was  wanted  or  that  an  old 

1  Le  Roi  a  Duchesneau,  11  Juin,  1680. 

2  See,  among  many  examples,  the  ordinance  of  24th  December, 
1715.     Edits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  443. 


1663-1763.]  ABSOLUTISM.  341 

one  needed  mending,  an  ordinance  of  the  in  tend  ant 
set  the  whole  neighborhood  at  work  upon  it,  directed, 
as  in  the  other  case,  by  the  captain  of  militia.  If 
children  were  left  fatherless,  the  intendant  ordered 
the  cure*  of  the  parish  to  assemble  their  relations  or 
friends  for  the  choice  of  a  guardian.  If  a  censitaire 
did  not  clear  his  land  and  live  on  it,  the  intendant 
took  it  from  him  and  gave  it  back  to  the  seignior.1 

Chimney-sweeping  having  been  neglected  at 
Quebec,  the  intendant  commands  all  householders 
promptly  to  do  their  duty  in  this  respect,  and  at  the 
same  time  fixes  the  pay  of  the  sweep  at  six  sous  a 
chimney.  Another  order  forbids  quarrelling  in 
church.  Another  assigns  pews  in  due  order  of  pre- 
cedence to  the  seignior,  the  captain  of  militia,  and 
the  wardens.  The  intendant  Raudot,  who  seems  to 
have  been  inspired  even  more  than  the  others  with 
the  spirit  of  paternal  intervention,  issued  a  mandate 
to  the  effect,  that,  whereas  the  people  of  Montreal 
raise  too  many  horses,  which  prevents  them  from 
raising  cattle  and  sheep,  "  being  therein  ignorant  of 
their  true  interest.  .  .  .  Now,  therefore,  we  com- 
mand that  each  inhabitant  of  the  cdtes  of  this  govern- 
ment shall  hereafter  own  no  more  than  two  horses,  or 
mares,  and  one  foal,  —  the  same  to  take  effect  after 
the  sowing-season  of  the  ensuing  year,  1710,  giving 
them  time  to  rid  themselves  of  their  horses  in  excess 
of  said  number,  after  which  they  will  be  required  to 

1  Compare  the  numerous  ordinances  printed  in  the  second  and 
third  volumes  of  iSdits  et  Ordonnances. 


342  THE   RULERS  OF  CANADA.       [1663-1763. 

kill  any  of  such  excess  that  may  remain  in  their 
possession."1  Many  other  ordinances,  if  not  equally 
preposterous,  are  equally  stringent;  such,  for 
example,  as  that  of  the  intendant  Bigot,  in  which, 
with  a  view  of  promoting  agriculture,  and  protecting 
the  morals  of  the  farmers  by  saving  them  from  the 
temptations  of  cities,  he  proclaims  to  them:  "We 
prohibit  and  forbid  you  to  remove  to  this  town 
[Quebec]  under  any  pretext  whatever,  without  our 
permission  in  writing,  on  pain  of  being  expelled  and 
sent  back  to  your  farms,  your  furniture  and  goods 
confiscated,  and  a  fine  of  fifty  livres  laid  on  you  for 
the  benefit  of  the  hospitals.  And,  furthermore,  we 
forbid  all  inhabitants  of  the  city  to  let  houses  or 
rooms  to  persons  coming  from  the  country,  on  pain 
of  a  fine  of  a  hundred  livres,  also  applicable  to  the 
hospitals."2  At  about  the  same  time  a  royal  edict, 
designed  to  prevent  the  undue  subdivision  of  farms, 
forbade  the  country  people,  except  such  as  were 
authorized  to  live  in  villages,  to  build  a  house  or 
barn  on  any  piece  of  land  less  than  one  and  a  half 
arpents  wide  and  thirty  arpents  long ; 3  while  a  sub- 
sequent ordinance  of  the  intendant  commands  the 
immediate  demolition  of  certain  houses  built  in  con- 
travention of  the  edict.4 

The  spirit  of  absolutism  is  everywhere  apparent. 
"It  is  of  very  great  consequence,"  writes  the  intend- 
ant Meules,  "that  the  people  should  not  be  left  at 

1  jtfdits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  273.  2  Ibid.,  ii.  399. 

'  Ibid.,  i.  585.  *  Ibid.,  ii.  400. 


1663-1763.]  ABSOLUTISM.  343 

liberty  to  speak  their  minds. " 1  Hence  public  meet- 
ings were  jealously  restricted.  Even  those  held  by 
parishioners  under  the  eye  of  the  cur£  to  estimate 
the  cost  of  a  new  church  seem  to  have  required  a 
special  license  from  the  intendant.  During  a  number 
of  years  a  meeting  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of 
Quebec  was  called  in  spring  and  autumn  by  the 
council  to  discuss  the  price  and  quality  of  bread,  the 
supply  of  firewood,  and  other  similar  matters.  The 
council  commissioned  two  of  its  members  to  preside 
at  these  meetings,  and  on  hearing  their  report  took 
what  action  it  thought  best.  Thus,  after  the  meet- 
ing held  in  February,  1686,  it  issued  a  decree,  in 
which,  after  a  long  and  formal  preamble,  it  solemnly 
ordained  "  that  besides  white-bread  and  light  brown- 
bread,  all  bakers  shall  hereafter  make  dark  brown- 
bread  whenever  the  same  shall  be  required."2  Such 
assemblies,  so  controlled,  could  scarcely,  one  would 
think,  wound  the  tenderest  susceptibilities  of  author- 
ity ;  yet  there  was  evident  distrust  of  them,  and  after 
a  few  years  this  modest  shred  of  self-government  is 
seen  no  more.  The  syndic,  too,  that  functionary 
whom  the  people  of  the  towns  were  at  first  allowed 
to  choose,  under  the  eye  of  the  authorities,  was  con- 
jured out  of  existence  by  a  word  from  the  King. 
Seignior,  censitaire,  and  citizen  were  prostrate  alike 


1  "II  ne  laisse  pas  d'etre  de  tres  grande  consequence  de  ne  pas 
laisser  la  liberte*  au  peuple  de  dire  son  sentiment."  —  Meule?  au 
Ministre,  1686. 

*  Edits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  112. 


844  THE   RULERS  OF  CANADA.       [1663-1763. 

in  flat  subjection  to  the  royal  will.  They  were  not 
free  even  to  go  home  to  France.  No  inhabitant  of 
Canada,  man  or  woman,  could  do  so  without  leave ; 
and  several  intendants  express  their  belief  that  with- 
out this  precaution  there  would  soon  be  a  falling  off 
in  the  population. 

In  1671  the  council  issued  a  curious  decree.  One 
Paul  Dupuy  had  been  heard  to  say  that  there  is  noth- 
ing like  righting  one's  self,  and  that  when  the 
English  cut  off  the  head  of  Charles  I.  they  did  a 
good  thing,  with  other  discourse  to  the  like  effect. 
The  council  declared  him  guilty  of  speaking  ill  of 
royalty  in  the  person  of  the  King  of  England,  and 
uttering  words  tending  to  sedition.  He  was  con- 
demned to  be  dragged  from  prison  by  the  public  exe- 
cutioner, and  led  in  His  shirt,  with  a  rope  about  his 
neck  and  a  torch  in  his  hand,  to  the  gate  of  the 
Chateau  St.  Louis,  there  to  beg  pardon  of  the  King; 
thence  to  the  pillory  of  the  Lower  Town  to  be 
branded  with  a  fleur-de-lis  on  the  cheek,  and  set  in 
the  stocks  for  half  an  hour ;  then  to  be  led  back  to 
prison,  and  put  in  irons  "  till  the  information  against 
him  shall  be  completed."  1 

If  irreverence  to  royalty  was  thus  rigorously  chas- 
tised, irreverence  to  God  was  threatened  with  still 
sharper  penalties.  Louis  XIV.,  ever  haunted  with 
the  fear  of  the  Devil,  sought  protection  against  him 
by  his  famous  edict  against  swearing,  duly  registered 
on  the  books  of  the  council  at  Quebec.  "It  is  out 

1  Jugements  et  Deliberations  du  Conseil  Suptrieur. 


1603-1763.]  CANADIAN  JUSTICE.  345 

will  and  pleasure, "  says  this  pious  mandate,  "  that  all 
persons  convicted  of  profane  swearing  or  blaspheming 
the  name  of  God,  the  most  Holy  Virgin  his  mother, 
or  the  saints,  be  condemned  for  the  first  offence  to  a 
pecuniary  fine  according  to  their  possessions  and  the 
greatness  and  enormity  of  the  oath  and  blasphemy; 
and  if  those  thus  punished  repeat  the  said  oaths,  then 
for  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  time  they  shall  be 
condemned  to  a  double,  triple,  and  quadruple  fine; 
and  for  the  fifth  time,  they  shall  be  set  in  the  pillory 
on  Sunday  or  other  festival  days,  there  to  remain 
from  eight  in  the  morning  till  one  in  the  afternoon, 
exposed  to  all  sorts  of  opprobrium  and  abuse,  and  be 
condemned  besides  to  a  heavy  fine ;  and  for  the  sixth 
time,  they  shall  be  led  to  the  pillory,  and  there  have 
the  upper  lip  cut  with  a  hot  iron ;  and  for  the  seventh 
time,  they  shall  be  led  to  the  pillory  and  have  the 
lower  lip  cut;  and  if,  by  reason  of  obstinacy  and 
inveterate  bad  habit,  they  continue  after  all  these 
punishments  to  utter  the  said  oaths  and  blasphemies, 
it  is  our  will  and  command  that  they  have  the  tongue 
completely  cut  out,  so  that  thereafter  they  cannot 
utter  them  again."1  All  those  who  should  hear 
anybody  swear  were  further  required  to  report  the 
fact  to  the  nearest  judge  within  twenty-four  hours, 
on  pain  of  fine. 

This  is  far  from  being  the  only  instance  in  which 
the    temporal   power    lends    aid    to    the    spiritual. 

1  Edit  du  Roy  contre  les  Jureurs  et  Blasph&mateurs,  du  30rae  Juillet* 
1666.     See  fidits  et  Ordonnances,  i.  62. 


346  THE   RULERS   OF   CANADA.       [1663-1763. 

Among  other  cases,  the  following  is  worth  mention- 
ing: Louis  Gaboury,  an  inhabitant  of  the  island  of 
Orleans,  charged  with  eating  meat  in  Lent  without 
asking  leave  of  the  priest,  was  condemned  by  the 
local  judge  to  be  tied  three  hours  to  a  stake  in 
public,  and  then  led  to  the  door  of  the  chapel,  there 
on  his  knees,  with  head  bare  and  hands  clasped,  to 
ask  pardon  of  God  and  the  King.  The  culprit 
appealed  to  the  council,  which  revoked  the  sentence 
and  imposed  only  a  fine.1 

The  due  subordination  of  households  had  its  share 
of  attention.  Servants  who  deserted  their  masters 
were  to  be  set  in  the  pillory  for  the  first  offence,  and 
whipped  and  branded  for  the  second;  while  any 
person  harboring  them  was  to  pay  a  fine  of  twenty 
francs.2  On  the  other  hand,  nobody  was  allowed  to 
employ  a  servant  without  a  license.8 

In  case  of  heinous  charges,  torture  of  the  accused 
was  permitted  under  the  French  law;  and  it  was 
sometimes  practised  in  Canada.  Condemned  mur- 
derers and  felons  were  occasionally  tortured  before 
being  strangled;  and  the  dead  body,  enclosed  in  a 
kind  of  iron  cage,  was  left  hanging  for  months  at  the 
top  of  Cape  Diamond,  a  terror  to  children  and  a 
warning  to  evil-doers.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  Canadian 
justice,  tried  by  the  standard  of  the  time,  was  neither 
vindictive  nor  cruel. 

1  Doutre  et  Lareau,  Histoire  du  Droit  Canadien,  163. 

2  Re'glement  de  Police,  1676. 

8  Edits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  63. 


1663-1763.]  ABUSES.  347 

In  reading  the  voluminous  correspondence  of  gov- 
ernors and  intendants,  the  minister  and  the  King, 
nothing  is  more  apparent  than  the  interest  with 
which,  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  Louis  XIV. 
regarded  his  colony.  One  of  the  faults  of  his  rule  is 
the  excess  of  his  benevolence;  for  not  only  did  he 
give  money  to  support  parish  priests,  build  churches, 
and  aid  the  seminary,  the  Ursulines,  the  missions, 
and  the  hospitals ;  but  he  established  a  fund  destined, 
among  other  objects,  to  relieve  indigent  persons,  sub- 
sidized nearly  every  branch  of  trade  and  industry, 
and  in  other  instances  did  for  the  colonists  what 
they  would  far  better  have  learned  to  do  for 
themselves. 

Meanwhile,  the  officers  of  government  were  far 
from  suffering  from  an  excess  of  royal  beneficence. 
La  Hontan  says  that  the  local  governor  of  Three 
Rivers  would  die  of  hunger  if,  besides  his  pay,  he 
did  not  gain  something  by  trade  with  the  Indians; 
and  that  Perrot,  local  governor  of  Montreal,  with  one 
thousand  crowns  of  salary,  traded  to  such  purpose 
that  in  a  few  years  he  made  fifty  thousand  crowns. 
This  trade,  it  may  be  observed,  was  in  violation  of 
the  royal  edicts.  The  pay  of  the  governor-general 
varied  from  time  to  time.  When  La  Potherie  wrote, 
it  was  twelve  thousand  francs  a  year,  besides  three 
thousand  which  he  received  in  his  capacity  of  local 
governor  of  Quebec.1  This  would  hardly  tempt  a 

1  In  1674,  the  governor-general  received  20,718  francs,  out  of 
which  he  was  to  pay  8,718  to  his  guard  of  twenty  men  and  officer* 


348  THE  RULERS   OF   CANADA.       [1663-1763. 

Frenchman  of  rank  to  expatriate  himself;  and  yet 
some  at  least  of  the  governors  came  out  to  the  colony 
for  the  express  purpose  of  mending  their  fortunes. 
Indeed,  the  higher  nobility  could  scarcely,  in  time  of 
peace,  have  other  motives  for  going  there ;  the  court 
and  the  army  were  their  element,  and  to  be  else- 
where was  banishment.  We  shall  see  hereafter  by 
what  means  they  sought  compensation  for  their  exile 
in  Canadian  forests. 

Loud  complaints  sometimes  found  their  way  to 
Versailles.  A  memorial  addressed  to  the  regent  duke 
of  Orleans,  immediately  after  the  King's  death, 
declares  that  the  ministers  of  state,  who  have  been 
the  real  managers  of  the  colony,  have  made  their 
creatures  and  relations  governors  and  intendants,  and 
set  them  free  from  all  responsibility.  High  colonial 
officers,  pursues  the  writer,  come  home  rich,  while 
the  colony  languishes  almost  to  perishing.1  As  for 
lesser  offices,  they  were  multiplied  to  satisfy  needy 
retainers,  till  lean  and  starving  Canada  was  covered 


( Ordonnnance  du  Roy,  1675.)  Yet  in  1677,  in  the  Jtftat  de  la  Depense 
que  le  Roy  veut  et  ordonne  estre  faite,  etc.,  the  total  pay  of  the  gover- 
nor-general is  set  down  at  3,000  francs,  and  so  also  in  1681,  1682, 
and  1687.  The  local  governor  of  Montreal  was  to  have  1,800 
francs,  and  the  governor  of  Three  Rivers  1,200.  It  is  clear,  how- 
ever, that  this  fitat  de  depense  is  not  complete,  as  there  is  no  pro- 
vision for  the  intendant.  The  first  councillor  received  500  francs, 
and  the  rest  300  francs  each,  equal  in  Canadian  money  to  400.  An 
ordinance  of  1676  gives  the  intendant  12,000  francs.  It  is  tolerably 
clear  that  the  provision  of  3,000  francs  for  the  governor-general  was 
meant  only  to  apply  to  his  capacity  of  local  governor  of  Quebec. 
1  Memoire  addresse"  au  Regent,  1716. 


1663-1763.]     THE   KING  AND  THE  MINISTER.        349 

with  official  leeches,  sucking,  in  famished  despera- 
tion, at  her  bloodless  veins. 

The  whole  system  of  administration  centred  in  the 
King,  who,  to  borrow  the  formula  of  his  edicts,  "in 
the  fulness  of  our  power  and  our  certain  knowledge," 
was  supposed  to  direct  the  whole  machine,  from  its 
highest  functions  to  its  pettiest  intervention  in  private 
affairs.  That  this  theory,  like  all  extreme  theories 
of  government,  was  an  illusion,  is  no  fault  of  Louis 
XIV.  Hard-working  monarch  as  he  was,  he  spared 
no  pains  to  guide  his  distant  colony  in  the  paths  of 
prosperity.  The  prolix  letters  of  governors  and 
intendants  were  carefully  studied;  and  many  of  the 
replies,  signed  by  the  royal  hand,  enter  into  details 
of  surprising  minuteness.  That  the  King  himself 
wrote  these  letters  is  incredible ;  but  in  the  early  part 
of  his  reign  he  certainly  directed  and  controlled 
them.  At  a  later  time,  when  more  absorbing  inter- 
ests engrossed  him,  he  could  no  longer  study  in 
person  the  long-winded  despatches  of  his  Canadian 
officers.  They  were  usually  addressed  to  the  minister 
of  state,  who  caused  abstracts  to  be  made  from  them 
for  the  King's  use,  and  perhaps  for  his  own.1  The 
minister,  or  the  minister's  secretary,  could  suppress 
or  color  as  he  or  those  who  influenced  him  saw  fit. 

In  the  latter  half  of  his  too  long  reign,  when  cares, 
calamities,  and  humiliations  were  thickening  around 
the  King,  another  influence  was  added  to  make  the 

i  Many  of  these  abstracts  are  still  preserved  in  the  Archives  of 
the  Marine  and  Colonies. 


350  THE   RULERS  OF  CANADA.       [1663-1763. 

theoretical  supremacy  of  his  royal  will  more  than  ever 
a  mockery.  That  prince  of  annalists,  Saint-Simon, 
has  painted  Louis  XIV.  ruling  his  realm  from  the 
bedchamber  of  Madame  de  Main  tenon,  —  seated  with 
his  minister  at  a  small  table  beside  the  fire,  the  King 
in  an  arm-chair,  the  minister  on  a  stool,  with  his  bag 
of  papers  on  a  second  stool  near  him.  In  another 
arm-chair,  at  another  table  on  the  other  side  of  the 
fire,  sat  the  sedate  favorite,  busy  to  all  appearance 
with  a  book  or  a  piece  of  tapestry,  but  listening  to 
everything  that  passed.  "She  rarely  spoke,"  says 
Saint-Simon,  "except  when  the  King  asked  her 
opinion,  which  he  often  did ;  and  then  she  answered 
with  great  deliberation  and  gravity.  She  never,  or 
very  rarely,  showed  a  partiality  for  any  measure,  still 
less  for  any  person;  but  she  had  an  understanding 
with  the  minister,  who  never  dared  do  otherwise 
than  she  wished.  Whenever  any  favor  or  appoint- 
ment was  in  question,  the  business  was  settled 
between  them  beforehand.  She  would  send  to  the 
minister  that  she  wanted  to  speak  to  him,  and  he  did 
not  dare  bring  the  matter  on  the  carpet  till  he  had 
received  her  orders."  Saint-Simon  next  recounts  the 
subtle  methods  by  which  Maintenon  and  the  minister, 
her  tool,  beguiled  the  King  to  do  their  will,  while 
never  doubting  that  he  was  doing  his  own.  "He 
thought,"  concludes  the  annalist,  "that  it  was  he 
alone  who  disposed  of  all  appointments;  while  in 
reality  he  disposed  of  very  few  indeed,  except  on  the 
rare  occasions  when  he  had  taken  a  fancy  to  some- 


1663-1763.]  CANADA  NEGLECTED.  351 

body,  or  when  somebody  whom  he  wanted  to  favor 
had  spoken  to  him  in  behalf  of  somebody  else."  J 

Add  to  all  this  the  rarity  of  communication  with 
the  distant  colony.  The  ships  from  France  arrived 
at  Quebec  in  July,  August,  or  September,  and 
returned  in  November.  The  machine  of  Canadian 
government,  wound  up  once  a  year,  was  expected  to 
run  unaided  at  least  a  twelvemonth.  Indeed,  it  was 
often  left  to  itself  for  two  years,  such  was  sometimes 
the  tardiness  of  the  overburdened  government  in 
answering  the  despatches  of  its  colonial  agents.  It 
is  no  matter  of  surprise  that  a  writer  well  versed  in 
its  affairs  calls  Canada  the  "country  of  abuses."2 

1  Mtmoires  du  Due  de  Saint-Simon,  xiii.38,  39  (Cheruel,  1857). 
Saint-Simon,  notwithstanding  the  independence  of  his  character  and 
his  violent  prejudices,  held  a  high  position  at  court;  and  his  acute 
and  careful  observation,  joined  to  his  familiar  acquaintance  with 
ministers  and  other  functionaries,  both  in  and  out  of  office,  gives  a 
rare  value  to  his  matchless  portraitures,  and  makes  him  indispen- 
sable to  the  annalist  of  his  time. 

*  &at  present  du  Canada,  1758. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

1663-1763. 
TRADE  AND  INDUSTRY. 

TRADE  IN  FETTERS.  —  THE  HUGUENOT  MERCHANTS.  —  ROYAL  PAT- 
RONAGE.  —  THE  FISHERIES.  —  CRIES  FOR  HELP.  —  AGRICULTURE. 

—  MANUFACTURES.  —  ARTS  OF  ORNAMENT.  —  FINANCE.  —  CARD 
MONEY.  —  REPUDIATION.  —  IMPOSTS.  —  THE   BEAVER  TRADE.  — 
THE  FAIR  AT  MONTREAL.  —  CONTRABAND  TRADE.  —  A  FATAL 
SYSTEM.  —  TROUBLE  AND  CHANGE. — THE  COUREURS  DE  Bois. 

—  THE  FOREST.  —  LETTER  OF  CARHEIL. 

WE  have  seen  the  head  of  the  colony,  its  guiding 
intellect  and  will:  it  remains  to  observe  its  organs 
of  nutrition.  Whatever  they  might  have  been  under 
a  different  treatment,  they  were  perverted  and 
enfeebled  by  the  regimen  to  which  they  were 
subjected. 

The  spirit  of  restriction  and  monopoly  had  ruled 
from  the  beginning.  The  old  governor  Lauson, 
seignior  for  a  while  of  a  great  part  of  the  colony, 
held  that  Montreal  had  no  right  to  trade  directly  with 
France,  but  must  draw  all  her  supplies  from  Quebec ; l 
and  this  preposterous  claim  was  revived  in  the  time 
of  Me'zy.  The  successive  companies  to  whose  hands 
the  colony  was  consigned  had  a  baneful  effect  on 

i  Faillon,  Colonie  Fran$aise,  ii.  244. 


1663-1763.]  TRADE  IN  FETTERS.  353 

individual  enterprise.  In  1674  the  charter  of  the 
West  India  Company  was  revoked,  and  trade  was 
declared  open  to  all  subjects  of  the  King;  yet  com- 
merce was  still  condemned  to  wear  the  ball  and 
chain.  New  restrictions  were  imposed,  meant  for 
good,  but  resulting  in  evil.  Merchants  not  resident 
in  the  colony  were  forbidden  all  trade,  direct  or 
indirect,  with  the  Indians.1  They  were  also  for- 
bidden to  sell  any  goods  at  retail  except  in  August, 
September,  and  October;2  to  trade  anywhere  in 
Canada  above  Quebec,  and  to  sell  clothing  or  domestic 
articles  ready  made.  This  last  restriction  was 
designed  to  develop  colonial  industry.  No  person, 
resident  or  not,  could  trade  with  the  English  colonies, 
or  go  thither  without  a  special  passport,  and  rigid 
examination  by  the  military  authorities.3  Foreign 
trade  of  any  kind  was  stiffly  prohibited.  '  In  1719, 
after  a  new  company  had  engrossed  the  beaver-trade, 
its  agents  were  empowered  to  enter  all  houses  in 
Canada,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  secular,  and  search 
them  for  foreign  goods,  which  when  found  were 
publicly  burned.4  In  the  next  year  the  royal  council 
ordered  that  vessels  engaged  in  foreign  trade  should 
be  captured  by  force  of  arms,  like  pirates,  and  con- 
fiscated along  with  their  cargoes ; 5  while  anybody 
having  an  article  of  foreign  manufacture  in  his  pos- 
session was  subjected  to  a  heavy  fine.6 

1  Element  de  Police,  1676.    Art.  xl. 

2  Edits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  100.  »  Ibid.,  i.  489. 
*  Ibid.,  i.  402.                      6  Ibid.,  i.  425.  «  Ibid.,  i.  505. 


354  TRADE  AND  INDUSTRY.         [1663-1763. 

Attempts  were  made  to  fix  the  exact  amount  of 
profit  which  merchants  from  France  should  be  allowed 
to  make  in  the  colony;  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the 
superior  council  was  to  order  them  to  bring  their 
invoices  immediately  before  that  body,  which  there- 
upon affixed  prices  to  each  article.  The  merchant 
who  sold  and  the  purchaser  who  bought  above  this 
tariff  were  alike  condemned  to  heavy  penalties ;  and 
so,  too,  was  the  merchant  who  chose  to  keep  his 
goods  rather  than  sell  them  at  the  price  ordained.1 
Resident  merchants,  on  the  other  hand,  were  favored 
to  the  utmost:  they  could  sell  at  what  price  they 
saw  fit;  and,  according  to  La  Hontan,  they  made 
great  profit  by  the  sale  of  laces,  ribbons,  watches, 
jewels,  and  similar  superfluities  to  the  poor  but 
extravagant  colonists. 

A  considerable  number  of  the  non-resident  mer- 
chants were  Huguenots,  for  most  of  the  importations 
were  from  the  old  Huguenot  city  of  Rochelle.  No 
favor  was  shown  them;  they  were  held  under  rigid 
restraint,  and  forbidden  to  exercise  their  religion,  or 
to  remain  in  the  colony  during  winter  without 
special  license.2  This  sometimes  bore  very  hard  upon 
them.  The  governor,  Denonville,  an  ardent  Catholic, 
states  the  case  of  one  Bernon,  who  had  done  great 
service  to  the  colony,  and  whom  La  Hontan  mentions 
as  the  principal  French  merchant  in  the  Canadian 
trade.  "It  is  a  pity,"  says  Denonville,  "that  he 

1  jSdits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  17,  19. 

2  Rtfglement  de  Police,  1676.    Art.  xxxrii 


1663-1763.]  ROYAL   PATRONAGE.  355 

cannot  be  converted.  As  he  is  a  Huguenot,  the 
bishop  wants  me  to  order  him  home  this  autumn,  — 
which  I  have  done,  though  he  carries  on  a  large  busi- 
ness, and  a  great  deal  of  money  remains  due  to  him 
here."1 

For  a  long  time  the  ships  from  France  went  home 
empty,  except  a  favored  few  which  carried  furs,  or 
occasionally  a  load  of  dried  pease  or  of  timber.  Pay- 
ment was  made  in  money  when  there  was  any  in 
Canada,  or  in  bills  of  exchange.  The  colony,  draw- 
ing everything  from  France  and  returning  little 
besides  beaver-skins,  remained  under  a  load  of  debt. 
French  merchants  were  discouraged,  and  shipments 
from  France  languished.  As  for  the  trade  with  the 
West  Indies,  which  Talon  had  tried  by  precept  and 
example  to  build  up,  the  intendant  reports  in  1680 
that  it  had  nearly  ceased;  though  six  years  later  it 
grew  again  to  the  modest  proportions  of  three  vessels 
loaded  with  wheat.2 

The  besetting  evil  of  trade  and  industry  in  Canada 
was  the  habit  they  contracted,  and  were  encouraged 
to  contract,  of  depending  on  the  direct  aid  of  govern- 
ment. Not  a  new  enterprise  was  set  on  foot  with- 
out a  petition  to  the  King  to  lend  a  helping  hand. 
Sometimes  the  petition  was  sent  through  the  gov- 
ernor, sometimes  through  the  intendant ;  and  it  was 
rarely  refused.  Denonville  writes  that  the  merchants 

1  Denonville  au  Ministre,  1685. 

2  Ibid.,  1686.    The  year  before,  about  18,000  minots  of  grain  were 
sent  hither.    In  1736  the  shipments  reached  80,000  minots. 


356  TRADE  AND  INDUSTRY.         [1663-1763. 

of  Quebec,  by  a  combined  effort,  had  sent  a  vessel 
of  sixty  tons  to  France  with  colonial  produce;  and 
he  asks  that  the  royal  commissaries  at  Rochefort  be 
instructed  to  buy  the  whole  cargo,  in  order  to 
encourage  so  deserving  an  enterprise.  One  Hazeur 
set  up  a  saw-mill  at  Mai  Bay.  Finding  a  large 
stock  of  planks  and  timber  on  his  hands,  he  begs  the 
King  to  send  two  vessels  to  carry  them  to  France  ; 
and  the  King  accordingly  did  so.  A  similar  request 
was  made  in  behalf  of  another  saw-mill  at  St.  Paul's 
Bay.  Denonville  announces  that  one  Riverin  wishes 
to  embark  in  the  whale  and  cod  fishery,  and  that 
though  strong  in  zeal  he  is  weak  in  resources.  The 
minister  replies  that  he  is  to  be  encouraged,  and  that 
his  Majesty  will  favorably  consider  his  enterprise.1 
Various  gifts  were  soon  after  made  him.  He  now 
took  to  himself  a  partner,  the  Sieur  Chalons ;  where- 
upon the  governor  writes  to  ask  the  minister's  pro- 
tection for  them.  "  The  Basques, "  he  says,  "  formerly 
carried  on  this  fishery,  but  some  monopoly  or  other 
put  a  stop  to  it."  The  remedy  he  proposes  is  homoeo- 
pathic. He  asks  another  monopoly  for  the  two 
partners.  Louis  Joliet,  the  discoverer  of  the  Missis- 

1  The  interest  felt  by  the  King  in  these  matters  is  shown  in  a 
letter  signed  by  his  hand  in  which  he  enters  with  considerable  detail 
into  the  plans  of  Riverin.  (Le  Roy  a  Denonville  et  Champigny,  1 
Mai,  1689.)  He  afterwards  ordered  boats,  harpooners,  and  cordage 
to  be  sent  him,  for  which  he  was  to  pay  at  his  convenience.  Four 
years  later  he  complains  that,  though  Riverin  had  been  often 
helped,  his  fisheries  were  of  slight  account.  "  Let  him  take  care," 
pursues  the  King,  "  that  he  does  not  use  his  enterprises  as  a  pretext 
to  obtain  favors."  Me'moire  du  Roy  a  Frontenac  et  Champigny,  1693. 


1663-1763.]  THE   FISHERIES.  357 

sippi,  made  a  fishing-station  on  the  island  of  Anticosti ; 
and  he  begs  help  from  the  King,  on  the  ground  that 
his  fishery  will  furnish  a  good  and  useful  employment 
to  young  men.  The  Sieur  Vitry  wished  to  begin  a 
fishery  of  white  porpoises,  and  ,he  begs  the  King  to 
give  him  two  thousand  pounds  of  cod-line  and  two 
thousand  pounds  of  one  and  two  inch  rope.  His 
request  was  granted,  on  which  he  asked  for  five 
hundred  livres.  The  money  was  given  him;  and  the 
next  year  he  asked  to  have  the  gift  renewed.1 

The  King  was  very  anxious  to  develop  the  fisheries 
of  the  colony.  "His  Majesty,"  writes  the  minister, 
"wishes  you  to  induce  the  inhabitants  to  unite  with 
the  merchants  for  this  object,  and  to  incite  them  by 
all  sorts  of  means  to  overcome  their  natural  laziness, 
since  there  is  no  other  way  of  saving  them  from  the 
misery  in  which  they  now  are."2  "I  wish,"  says  the 
zealous  Denonville,  "that  fisheries  could  be  well 
established  to  give  employment  to  our  young  men, 
and  prevent  them  from  running  wild  in  the  woods;  " 
and  he  adds  mournfully,  "they  [the  fisheries]  are 

1  All  the  above  examples  are  drawn  from  the  correspondence  of 
the  governor  and  intendant  with  the  minister,  between  1680  and 
1699,  together  with  a  memorial  of  Hazeur  and  another  of  Riverin, 
addressed  to  the  minister. 

Vitry's  porpoise-fishing  appears  to  have  ended  in  failure.  In 
1707  the  intendant  Raudot  granted  the  porpoise-  fishery  of  the 
seigniory  of  Riviere  Ouelle  to  six  of  the  habitants.  This  fishery  is 
carried  on  here  successfully  at  the  present  day.  A  very  interesting 
account  of  it  was  published  in  the  Opinion  Publigue,  1873,  by  my 
friend  Abbe  Casgrain,  whose  family  residence  is  the  seigniorial 
mansion  of  Riviere  Ouelle. 

2  Mf moire  pour  Denonville  et  Champigny,  8  Mars,  1688. 


358  TRADE  AND  INDUSTRY.         [1663-1763. 

enriching  Boston  at  our  expense."  "They  are  our 
true  mines,"  urges  the  intendant  Meules;  "but  the 
English  of  Boston  have  got  possession  of  those  of 
Acadia,  which  belong  to  us,  and  we  ought  to  prevent 
it."  It  was  not  prevented;  and  the  Canadian 
fisheries,  like  other  branches  of  Canadian  industry, 
remained  in  a  state  of  almost  hopeless  languor.1 

The  government  applied  various  stimulants.  One 
of  these,  proposed  by  the  intendant  Duchesneau,  is 
characteristic.  He  advises  the  formation  of  a  com- 
pany which  should  have  the  exclusive  right  of  export- 
ing fish ;  but  which  on  its  part  should  be  required  to 
take,  at  a  fixed  price,  all  that  the  inhabitants  should 
bring  them.  This  notable  plan  did  not  find  favor 
with  the  King.2  It  was  practised,  however,  in  the 
case  of  beaver-skins,  and  also  in  that  of  wood-ashes. 
The  farmers  of  the  revenue  were  required  to  take 
this  last  commodity  at  a  fixed  price,  on  their  own 
risk,  and  in  any  quantity  offered.  They  remonstrated, 
saying  that  it  was  unsalable,  —  adding,  that,  if  the 
inhabitants  would  but  take  the  trouble  to  turn  it  into 

1  The   Canadian   fisheries   must  not  be  confounded   with   the 
French  fisheries  of  Newfoundland,  which  were  prosperous,  but  were 
carried  on  wholly  from  French  ports. 

In  a  memorial  addressed  by  the  partners  Chalons  and  Riverin  to 
the  minister  Seignelay,  they  say:  "Baston  [Boston]  et  toute  sa 
colonie  nous  donne  un  exemple  qui  fait  honte  a  nostre  nation, 
puisqu'elle  s'augmente  tous  les  jours  par  cette  pesche  (de  la  morue) 
qu'elle  fait  la  plus  grande  partie  sur  nos  costes  pendant  que  lea 
Fran£ois  ne  s'occupent  a  rien."  Meules  urges  that  the  King  should 
undertake  the  fishing  business  himself,  since  his  subjects  cannot  or 
will  not. 

2  Ministre  a  Duchesneau,  15  Mai,  1678. 


1663-1763.]  APPEALS  FOR   HELP.  359 

potash,  it  might  be  possible  to  find  a  market  for  it. 
The  King  released  them  entirely,  coupling  his  order 
to  that  effect  with  a  eulogy  of  free-trade.1 

In  all  departments  of  industry  the  appeals  for  help 
are  endless.  Governors  and  intendants  are  so  many 
sturdy  beggars  for  the  languishing  colony.  "Send 
us  money  to  build  storehouses,  to  which  the  habitants 
can  bring  their  produce  and  receive  goods  from  the 
government  in  exchange."  "Send  us  a  teacher  to 
make  sailors  of  our  young  men :  it  is  a  pity  the  colony 
should  remain  in  such  a  state  for  want  of  instruction 
for  youth."2  "We  want  a  surgeon:  there  is  none  in 
Canada  who  can  set  a  bone."  3  "  Send  us  some  tilers, 
brick-makers,  and  potters."4  "Send  us  iron-workers 
to  work  our  mines."5  "It  is  to  be  wished  that  his 
Majesty  would  send  us  all  sorts  of  artisans,  especially 
potters  and  glass- workers."6  "Our  Canadians  need 
aid  and  instruction  in  their  fisheries;  they  need 
pilots.  "^ 

In  1688  the  intendant  reported  that  Canada  was 
entirely  without  either  pilots  or  sailors ;  and  as  late 
as  1712  the  engineer  Catalogue  informed  the  govern- 
ment, that,  though  the  St.  Lawrence  was  dangerous, 
a  pilot  was  rarely  to  be  had.  "  There  ought  to  be 

1  Le  Roy  a  Duchesneau,  11  Juin,  1680. 

2  Memoire  a  Monseigneur  le  Marquis  de   Seignelay,  presents  pal 
es  Sieurs  Chalons  et  Riverin,  1686. 

8  Champigny  au  Ministre,  1688. 

*  Ibid. 

6  Denonville  au  Ministre,  1686. 

6  Memoire  de  Catalogue,  1712. 

7  Denonville  au  Ministre,  1686. 


360  TRADE   AND  INDUSTRY.         [1663-1763 

trade  with  the  West  Indies  and  other  places,"  urges 
another  writer.  "Everybody  says  it  is  best,  but 
nobody  will  undertake  it.  Our  merchants  are  too 
poor,  or  else  are  engrossed  by  the  fur-trade."1 

The  languor  of  commerce  made  agriculture  languish. 
"It  is  of  no  use  now,"  writes  Meules,  in  1682,  "to 
raise  any  crops  except  what  each  family  wants  for 
itself."  In  vain  the  government  sent  out  seeds  for 
distribution;  in  vain  intendants  lectured  the  farmers, 
and  lavished  well-meant  advice.  Tillage  remained 
careless  and  slovenly.  "If,"  says  the  all-observing 
Catalogue,  "the  soil  were  not  better  cultivated  in 
Europe  than  here,  three-fourths  of  the  people  would 
starve."  He  complains  that  the  festivals  of  the 
Church  are  so  numerous  that  not  ninety  working- 
days  are  left  during  the  whole  working  season.  The 
people,  he  says,  ought  to  be  compelled  to  build 
granaries  to  store  their  crops,  instead  of  selling  them 
in  autumn  for  almost  nothing,  and  every  habitant 
should  be  required  to  keep  two  or  three  sheep.  The 
intendant  Champigny  calls  for  seed  of  hemp  and  flax, 
and  promises  to  visit  the  farms,  and  show  the  people 
the  lands  best  suited  for  their  culture.  He  thinks 
that  favors  should  be  granted  to  those  who  raise 
hemp  and  flax  as  well  as  to  those  who  marry. 
Denonville  is  of  opinion  that  each  habitant  should  be 
compelled  to  raise  a  little  hemp  every  year,  and  that 
the  King  should  then  buy  it  of  him  at  a  high  price.2 

1  Mgmoire  de  Chalons  et  Riverin  pr&sente'  au  Marquis  de  Seignelay. 

2  Denonville  au  Ministre,  13  Nov.,  1685. 


1663-1763.]  MANUFACTURES.  361 

It  will  be  well,  he  says,  to  make  use  of  severity, 
while  at  the  same  time  holding  out  a  hope  of  gain ; 
and  he  begs  that  weavers  be  sent  out  to  teach  the 
women  and  girls,  who  spend  the  winter  in  idleness, 
how  to  weave  and  spin.  Weaving  and  spinning, 
however,  as  well  as  the  culture  of  hemp  and  flax, 
were  neglected  till  1705,  when  the  loss  of  a  ship 
laden  with  goods  for  the  colony  gave  the  spur  to 
home  industry;  and  Madame  de  Repentigny  set  the 
example  of  making  a  kind  of  coarse  blanket  of  nettle 
and  linden  bark.1 

The  jealousy  of  colonial  manufactures  shown  by 
England  appears  but  rarely  in  the  relations  of  France 
with  Canada.  According  to  its  light,  the  French 
government  usually  did  its  best  to  stimulate  Canadian 
industry,  with  what  results  we  have  just  seen.  There 
was  afterwards  some  improvement.  In  1714  the 
intendant  B^gon  reported  that  coarse  fabrics  of  wool 
and  linen  were  made ;  that  the  sisters  of  the  congre- 
gation wove  cloth  for  their  own  habits  as  good  as  the 
same  stuffs  in  France ;  that  black  cloth  was  made  for 
priests,  and  blue  cloth  for  the  pupils  of  the  colleges. 
The  inhabitants,  he  says,  have  been  taught  these  arts 
by  necessity.  They  were  naturally  adroit  at  handi- 
work of  all  kinds ;  and  during  the  last  half-century 
of  the  French  rule,  when  the  population  had  settled 
into  comparative  stability,  many  of-  the  mechanic  arts 
were  practised  with  success,  notwithstanding  the 
assertion  of  the  Abbe*  La  Tour  that  everything  but. 

1  Beauharnois  et  Baudot  ay  Ministre,  1705. 


362  TRADE   AND  INDUSTRY.         [1663-1763. 

bread  and  meat  had  still  to  be  brought  from  France. 
This  change  may  be  said  to  date  from  the  peace  of 
Utrecht,  or  a  few  years  before  it.  At  that  time  one 
Duplessis  had  a  new  vessel  on  the  stocks.  Catalogue, 
who  states  the  fact,  calls  it  the  beginning  of  ship- 
building in  Canada,  —  evidently  ignorant  that  Talon 
had  made  a  fruitless  beginning  more  than  forty  years 
before. 

Of  the  arts  of  ornament  not  much  could  have  been 
expected ;  but,  strangely  enough,  they  were  in  some- 
what better  condition  than  the  useful  arts.  The 
nuns  of  the  Hotel-Dieu  made  artificial  flowers  for 
altars  and  shrines,  under  the  direction  of  Mother 
Juchereau ; 1  and  the  boys  of  the  seminary  were 
taught  to  make  carvings  in  wood  for  the  decoration 
of  churches.2  Pierre,  son  of  the  merchant  Le  Ber, 
had  a  turn  for  painting,  and  made  religious  pictures, 
described  as  very  indifferent.3  His  sister  Jeanne,  an 
enthusiastic  devotee,  made  embroideries  for  vest- 
ments and  altars,  and  her  work  was  much  admired. 

The  colonial  finances  were  not  prosperous.  In  the 
absence  of  coin,  beaver-skins  long  served  as  currency. 
In  1669  the  council  declared  wheat  a  legal  tender,  at 
four  francs  the  minot  or  three  French  bushels ; 4  and, 
five  years  later,  all  creditors  were  ordered  to  receive 
inoose-skins  in  payment  at  the  market  rate.5  Coin 
would  not  remain  in  the  colony:  if  the  company  or 

.  !  Juchereau,  Hist,  de  I' H6tel-Dieu,  244.       2  AMlle,  ii.  13. 
8  Faillon,  Vie  de  Mile.  Le  Ber,  331.  *  tfdits  et  Ord.t  ii.  47. 

5  Ibid.,  ii.  55. 


1663-1763.]  FINANCE.  368 

the  King  sent  any  thither,  it  went  back  in  the  return- 
ing ships.  The  government  devised  a  remedy.  A 
coinage  was  ordered  for  Canada  one-fourth  less  in 
value  than  that  of  France.  Thus  the  Canadian  livre 
or  franc  was  worth,  in  reality,  fifteen  sous  instead  of 
twenty.1  This  shallow  expedient  produced  only  a 
nominal  rise  of  prices,  and  coin  fled  the  colony  as 
before.  Trade  was  carried  on  for  a  time  by  means 
of  negotiable  notes,  payable  in  furs,  goods,  or  farm 
produce.  In  1685  the  intendant  Meules  issued  a 
card  currency.  He  had  no  money  to  pay  the  soldiers, 
"and  not  knowing,"  he  informs  the  minister,  "to 
what  saint  to  make  my  vows,  the  idea  occurred  to  me 
of  putting  in  circulation  notes  made  of  cards,  each 
cut  into  four  pieces ;  and  I  have  issued  an  ordinance 
commanding  the  inhabitants  to  receive  them  in 
payment."2  The  cards  were  common  playing-cards, 
and  each  piece  was  stamped  with  &  fleur-de-lis  and  a 
crown,  and  signed  by  the  governor,  the  intendant, 
and  the  clerk  of  the  treasury  at  Quebec.3  The 
example  of  Meules  found  ready  imitation.  Governors 
and  intendants  made  card-money  whenever  they  saw 
fit;  and,  being  worthless  everywhere  but  in  Canada, 
it  showed  no  disposition  to  escape  the  colony.  It 
was  declared  convertible  not  into  coin,  but  into  bills 
of  exchange ;  and  this  conversion  could  only  take 
place  at  brief  specified  periods.  "  The  currency  used 

1  This  device  was  of  very  early  date.    See  Boucher,  Hi»t.  Vfri- 
table,  chap.  xiv. 

2  Meules  au  Ministre,  24  Sept.,  1685. 
8  Me*moire  address^  au  Regent  1715. 


364  TRADE   AND  INDUSTRY.         [1663-1763 

in  Canada,"  says  a  writer  in  the  last  years  of  the 
French  rule,  "has  no  value  as  a  representative  of 
money.  It  is  the  sign  of  a  sign."1  It  was  card 
representing  paper,  and  this  paper  was  very  often 
dishonored.  In  1714  the  amount  of  card  rubbish 
had  risen  to  two  million  livres.  Confidence  was  lost, 
and  trade  was  half  dead.  The  minister  Ponchartrain 
came  to  the  rescue,  and  promised  to  redeem  it  at  half 
its  nominal  value.  The  holders  preferred  to  lose 
half  rather  than  the  whole,  and  accepted  the  terms. 
A  few  of  the  cards  were  redeemed  at  the  rate  named ; 
then  the  government  broke  faith,  and  payment  ceased. 
"This  afflicting  news,"  says  a  writer  of  the  time, 
"was  brought  out  by  the  vessel  which  sailed  from 
France  last  July." 

In  1717  the  government  made  another  proposal, 
and  the  cards  were  converted  into  bills  of  exchange. 
At  the  same  time  a  new  issue  was  made,  which  it 
was  declared  should  be  the  last.2  This  issue  was 
promptly  redeemed;  but  twelve  years  later  another 
followed  it.  In  the  interval,  a  certain  quantity  of 
coin  circulated  in  the  colony;  but  it  underwent 
fluctuations  through  the  intervention  of  government, 
and  within  eight  years  at  least  four  edicts  were  issued 
affecting  its  value.8  Then  came  more  promises  to 
pay,  till,  in  the  last  bitter  years  of  its  existence,  the 
colony  floundered  in  drifts  of  worthless  paper. 

One    characteristic   grievance   was    added  to   the 

i  Considerations  sur  I'lZtat  du  Canada,  1758. 

«  tfdits  et  Ordonnances,  i.  370.  3  Ibid.,  400,  432,  436,  484. 


1663-1763.]  IMPOSTS.  365 

countless  woes  of  Canadian  commerce.  The  govern- 
ment was  so  jealous  of  popular  meetings  of  all  kinds, 
that  for  a  long  time  it  forbade  merchants  to  meet 
together  for  discussing  their  affairs ;  and  it  was  not 
till  1717  that  the  establishment  of  a  bourse,  or 
exchange,  was  permitted  at  Quebec  and  Montreal.1 
tlLi  respect  of  taxation,  Canada,  as  compared  with 
France,  had  no  reason  to  complain.  If  the  King 
permitted  governors  and  intendants  to  make  card- 
money,  he  permitted  nobody  to  impose  taxes  but 
himself.  The  Canadians  paid  no  direct  civil  tax, 
except  in  a  few  instances  where  temporary  and  local 
assessments  were  ordered  for  special  objects.  It  was 
the  fur-trade  on  which  the  chief  burden  fell.  One- 
fourth  of  the  beaver-skins,  and  one-tenth  of  the 
moose-hides  belonged  to  the  King ;  and  wine,  brandy, 
and  tobacco  contributed  a  duty  of  ten  per  cent. 
During  a  long  course  of  years  these  were  the  only 
imposts.  The  King  also  retained  the  exclusive  right 
of  the  fur-trade  at  Tadoussac.  A  vast  tract  of  wilder- 
ness extending  from  St.  Paul's  Bay  to  a  point  eighty 
leagues  down  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  stretching  indefi- 
nitely northward  towards  Hudson's  Bay,  formed  a 
sort  of  royal  preserve,  whence  every  settler  was 
rigidly  excluded.  The  farmers  of  the  revenue  had 
their  trading-houses  at  Tadoussac,  whither  the 
northern  tribes,  until  war,  pestilence,  and  brandy 
consumed  them,  brought  every  summer  a  large 
quantity  of  furs. 

1  Doutre  et  Lareau,  Hist,  du  Droit  Canadien,  264. 


366  TRADE   AND  INDUSTRY.         [1663-1763. 

When,  in  1674,  the  West  India  Company,  to 
whom  these  imposts  had  been  granted,  was  extin- 
guished, the  King  resumed  possession  of  them.  The 
various  duties,  along  with  the  trade  of  Tadoussac, 
were  now  farmed  out  to  one  Oudiette  and  his  asso- 
ciates, who  paid  the  Crown  three  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  livres  for  their  privilege.1 

uVe  come  now  to  a  trade  far  more  important  than 
all  the  others  together,  one  which  absorbed  the  enter- 
prise of  the  colony,  drained  the  life-sap  from  other 
branches  of  commerce,  and,  even  more  than  a  vicious 
system  of  government,  kept  them  in  a  state  of  chronic 
debility,  —  the  hardy,  adventurous,  lawless,  fascinat- 
ing fur-trade)  In  the  eighteenth  century,  Canada 
exported  a  moderate  quantity  of  timber,  wheat,  the 
herb  called  ginseng,  and  a  few  other  commodities; 
but  from  first  to  last  she  lived  chiefly  on  beaver- 
skins.  The  government  tried  without  ceasing  to 
control  and  regulate  this  traffic;  but  it  never  suc- 
ceeded. It  aimed,  above  all  things,  to  bring  the 
trade  home  to  the  colonists;  to  prevent  them  from 

1  The  annual  return  to  the  King  from  the  ferme  du  Canada  was, 
for  some  years,  119,000  francs  (livres).  Out  of  this  were  paid  from 
35,000  to  40,000  francs  a  year  for  "  ordinary  charges."  The  gover- 
nor, intendant,  and  all  troops,  except  the  small  garrisons  of  Quebec, 
Montreal,  and  Three  Rivers,  were  paid  from  other  sources.  There 
was  a  time  when  the  balance  must  have  been  in  the  King's  favor ; 
but  profit  soon  changed  to  loss,  owing  partly  to  wars,  partly  to  the 
confusion  into  which  the  beaver-trade  soon  fell.  "  His  Majesty," 
writes  the  minister  to  the  governor  in.  1698,  "  may  soon  grow  tired 
of  a  colony  which,  far  from  yielding  him  any  profit,  costs  him 
immense  sums  every  year." 


1663-1763.]  THE   BEAVER-TRADE.  367 

going  to  the  Indians,  and  induce  the  Indians  to  come 
to  them.  To  this  end  a  great  annual  fair  was  estab- 
lished by  order  of  the  King  at  Montreal.  Thither 
every  summer  a  host  of  savages  came  down  from  the 
lakes  in  their  bark  canoes.  A  place  was  assigned 
them  at  a  little  distance  from  the  town.  They 
landed,  drew  up  their  canoes  in  a  line  on  the  bank, 
took  out  their  packs  of  beaver-skins,  set  up  their 
wigwams,  slung  their  kettles,  and  encamped  for  the 
night.  On  the  next  day  there  was  a  grand  council 
on  the  common,  between  St.  Paul  Street  and  the 
river.  Speeches  of  compliment  were  made  amid  a 
solemn  smoking  of  pipes.  The  governor-general  was 
usually  present,  seated  in  an  arm-chair,  while  the 
visitors  formed  a  ring  about  him,  ranged  in  the  order 
of  their  tribes.  On  the  next  day  the  trade  began  in 
the  same  place.  Merchants  of  high  and  low  degree 
brought  up  their  goods  from  Quebec,  and  every 
inhabitant  of  Montreal,  of  any  substance,  sought  a 
share  in  the  profit.  Their  booths  were  set  along  the 
palisades  of  the  town,  and  each  had  an  interpreter, 
to  whom  he  usually  promised  a  certain  portion  of  his 
gains.  The  scene  abounded  in  those  contrasts  —  not 
always  edifying,  but  always  picturesque  —  which 
mark  the  whole  course  of  French -Canadian  history. 
Here  was 'a  throng  of  Indians  armed  with  bows  and 
arrows,  war-clubs,  or  the  cheap  guns  of  the  trade, 
—  some  of  them  being  completely  naked,  except  for 
the  feathers  on  their  heads  and  the  paint  on  their 
faces;  French  bush-rangers  tricked  out  with  savage 


368  TRADE   AND  INDUSTRY.         [1663-1763. 

finery;  merchants  and  habitants  in  their  coarse  and 
plain  attire,  and  the  grave  priests  of  St.  Sulpice  robed 
in  black.  Order  and  sobriety  were  their  watchwords ; 
but  the  wild  gathering  was  beyond  their  control. 
The  prohibition  to  sell  brandy  could  rarely  be 
enforced ;  and  the  fair  ended  at  times  in  a  pandemo- 
nium of  drunken  frenzy.  The  rapacity  of  trade, 
and  the  license  of  savages  and  coureurs  de  bois,  had 
completely  transformed  the  pious  settlement. 

A  similar  fair  was  established  at  Three  Rivers, 
for  the  Algonquin  tribes  north  of  that  place.  These 
yearly  markets  did  not  fully  answer  the  desired 
object.  There  was  a  constant  tendency  among  the 
inhabitants  of  Canada  to  form  settlements  above 
Montreal,  in  order  to  intercept  the  Indians  on  their 
way  down,  drench  them  with  brandy,  and  get  their 
furs  from  them  at  low  rates  in  advance  of  the  fair. 
Such  settlements  were  forbidden,  but  not  prevented. 
The  audacious  "  squatter  "  defied  edict  and  ordinance 
and  the  fury  of  drunken  savages,  and  boldly  planted 
himself  in  the  path  of  the  descending  trade.  Nor  is 
this  a  matter  of  surprise;  for  he  was  usually  the 
secret  agent  of  some  high  colonial  officer,  —  an 
intendant,  the  local  governor,  or  the  governor- 
general,  who  often  used  his  power  to  enforce  the 
law  against  others,  and  to  violate  it  himself. 

This  was  not  all ;  for  the  more  youthful  arid 
vigorous  part  of  the  male  population  soon  began  to 
escape  into  the  woods,  and  trade  with  the  Indians 
far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  remotest  settlements. 


1663-1763.]  THE   FOREST-TRADE.  369 

Here,  too,  many  of  them  were  in  league  with  the 
authorities,  who  denounced  the  abuse  while  secretly 
favoring  the  portion  of  it  in  which  they  themselves 
were  interested.  The  home  government,  unable  to 
prevent  the  evil,  tried  to  regulate  it.  Licenses  were 
issued  for  the  forest-trade.1  Their »  number  was 
limited  to  twenty-five,  and  the  privileges  which  they 
conferred  varied  at  different  periods.  In  La  Hontan's 
time,  each  license  authorized  the  departure  of  two 
canoes  loaded  with  goods.  One  canoe  only  was  after- 
wards allowed,  bearing  three  men  with  about  four 
hundred  pounds  of  freight.  The  licenses  were  some- 
times sold  for  the  profit  of  government;  but  many 
were  given  to  widows  of  officers  and  other  needy 
persons,  to  the  hospitals,  or  to  favorites  and  retainers 
of  the  governor.  Those  who  could  not  themselves 
use  them  sold  them  to  merchants  or  voyageurs,  at  a 
price  varying  from  a  thousand  to  eighteen  hundred 
francs.  They  were  valid  for  a  year  and  a  half;  and 
each  canoeman  had  a  share  in  the  profits,  which,  if 
no  accident  happened,  were  very  large.  The  license 
system  was  several  times  suppressed  and  renewed 
again;  but,  like  the  fair  at  Montreal,  it  failed  com- 
pletely to  answer  its  purpose,  and  restrain  the  young 
men  of  Canada  from  a  general  exodus  into  the 
wilderness.2 

The  most  characteristic  features  of  the  Canadian 


1  Ordres  du  Roy  au  sujet  de  la  Traite  du  Canada,  1681. 

2  Before  me  is  one  of  these  licenses,  signed  by  the   governor 
Denonville.    A  condition  of  carrying  no  brandy  is  appended  to  it. 

24 


370  TRADE   AND   INDUSTRY.          [1663-1763. 

fur-trade  still  remain  to  be  seen.  Oudiette  and  his 
associates  were  not  only  charged  with  collecting  the 
revenue,  but  were  also  vested  with  an  exclusive  right 
of  transporting  all  the  beaver-skins  of  the  colony 
to  France.  On  their  part  they  were  compelled  to 
receive  all  beaver-skins  brought  to  their  magazines, 
and,  after  deducting  the  fourth  belonging  to  the 
King,  to  pay  for  the  rest  at  a  fixed  price.  This  price 
was  graduated  to  the  different  qualities  of  the  fur; 
but  the  average  cost  to  the  collectors  was  a  little 
more  than  three  francs  a  pound.  The  inhabitants 
could  barter  their  furs  with  merchants ;  but  the  mer- 
chants must  bring  them  all  to  the  magazines  of 
Oudiette,  who  paid  in  receipts  convertible  into  bills 
of  exchange.  He  soon  found  himself  burdened  with 
such  a  mass  of  beaver-skins  that  the  market  was 
completely  glutted.  The  French  hatters  refused  to 
take  them  all ;  and  for  the  part  which  they  consented 
to  take  they  paid  chiefly  in  hats,  which  Oudiette  was 
not  allowed  to  sell  in  France,  but  only  in  the  French 
West  Indies,  where  few  people  wanted  them.  An 
unlucky  fashion  of  small  hats  diminished  the  con 
sumption  of  fur  and  increased  his  embarrassments, 
as  did  also  a  practice  common  among  the  hatters  of 
mixing  rabbit  fur  with  the  beaver.  In  his  extremity 
he  bethought  him  of  setting  up  a  hat  factory  for  him- 
self, under  the  name  of  a  certain  licensed  hatter, 
thinking  thereby  to  alarm  his  customers  into  buying 
his  stock.1  The  other  hatters  rose  in  wrath,  and 

1  Mtmoire  touchant  le  Commerce  du  Canada,  1687. 


1663-1763.]         TROUBLE   AND  CHANGE.  371 

petitioned  the  minister.  The  new  factory  was 
suppressed,  and  Oudiette  soon  became  bankrupt. 
Another  company  of  farmers  of  the  revenue  took  his 
place  with  similar  results.  The  action  of  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand  was  completely  arrested  by  the 
peremptory  edict  which,  with  a  view  to  the  prosper- 
ity of  the  colony  and  the  profit  of  the  King,  required 
the  company  to  take  every  beaver-skin  offered. 

All  Canada,  thinking  itself  sure  of  its  price,  rushed 
into  the  beaver-trade,  and  the  accumulation  of  unsal- 
able furs  became  more  and  more  suffocating.  The 
farmers  of  the  revenue  could  not  meet  their  engage- 
ments. Their  bills  of  exchange  were  unpaid,  and 
Canada  was  filled  with  distress  and  consternation. 
In  1700  a  change  of  system  was  ordered.  The 
monopoly  of  exporting  beaver  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  a  company  formed  of  the  chief  inhabitants  of 
Canada.  Some  of  them  hesitated  to  take  the  risk; 
but  the  government  was  not  to  be  trifled  with,  and 
the  minister,  Ponchartrain,  wrote  in  terms  so  per- 
emptory, and  so  menacing  to  the  recusants,  that,  in 
the  words  of  a  writer  of  the  time,  he  "shut  every- 
body's mouth."  About  a  hundred  and  fifty  mer- 
chants accordingly  subscribed  to  the  stock  of  the  new 
company,  and  immediately  petitioned  the  King  for 
a  ship  and  a  loan  of  seven  hundred  thousand  francs. 
They  were  required  to  take  off  the  hands  of  the 
farmers  of  the  revenue  an  accumulation  of  more  than 
six  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  beaver,  for  which, 
however,  the}'  were  to  pay  but  half  its  usual  price. 


372  TRADE   AND  INDUSTRY.          [1663-1763. 

The  market  of  France  absolutely  refused  it,  and  the 
directors  of  the  new  company  saw  no  better  course 
than  to  burn  three-fourths  of  the  troublesome  and 
perishable  commodity ;  nor  was  this  the  first  resort  to 
this  strange  expedient.  One  cannot  repress  a  feel- 
ing of  indignation  at  the  fate  of  the  interesting  and 
unfortunate  animals  uselessly  sacrificed  to  a  false 
economic  system.  In  order  to  rid  themselves  of 
what  remained,  the  directors  begged  the  King  to 
issue  a  decree,  requiring  all  hatters  to  put  at  least 
three  ounces  of  genuine  beaver-fur  into  each  hat. 

All  was  in  vain.  The  affairs  of  the  company  fell 
into  a  confusion  which  was  aggravated  by  the  bad 
faith  of  some  of  its  chief  members.  In  1707  it  was 
succeeded  by  another  company,  to  whose  magazines 
every  habitant  or  merchant  was  ordered  to  bring 
every  beaver-skin  in  his  possession  within  forty-eight 
hours;  and  the  company,  like  its  predecessors,  was 
required  to  receive  it,  and  pay  for  it  in  written 
promises.  Again  the  market  was  overwhelmed  with 
a  surfeit  of  beaver.  Again  the  bills  of  exchange 
were  unpaid,  and  all  was  confusion  and  distress. 
Among  the  memorials  and  petitions  to  which  this 
state  of  things  gave  birth,  there  is  one  conspicuous 
by  the  presence  of  good  sense  and  the  absence  of 
self-interest.  The  writer  proposes  that  there  should 
be  no  more  monopoly,  but  that  everybody  should  be 
free  to  buy  beaver-skins  and  send  them  to  France, 
subject  only  to  a  moderate  duty  of  entry.  The  pro- 
posal was  not  accepted.  In  1721  the  monopoly  of 


1663-1763.]        THE   COUREURS  DE  BOIS.  378 

exporting  beaver-skins  was  given  to  the  new  West 
India  Company;  but  this  time  it  was  provided  that 
the  government  should  direct  from  time  to  time, 
according  to  the  capacities  of  the  market,  the  quan- 
tity of  furs  which  the  company  should  be  forced  to 
receive.1 

Out  of  the  beaver-trade  rose  a  huge  evil,  baneful 
to  the  growth  and  the  morals  of  Canada.  All  that 
was  most  active  and  vigorous  in  the  colony  took  to 
the  woods,  and  escaped  from  the  control  of  intend- 
ants,  councils,  and  priests,  to  the  savage  freedom  of 
the  wilderness.  Not  only  were  the  possible  profits 
great;  but,  in  the  pursuit  of  them,  there  was  a  fasci- 
nating element  of  adventure  and  danger.  The  bush- 
rangers, or  coureurs  de  bois,  were  to  the  King  an 
object  of  horror.  They  defeated  his  plans  for  the 
increase  of  the  population,  and  shocked  his  native 
instinct  of  discipline  and  order.  Edict  after  edict 
was  directed  against  them;  and  more  than  once  the 
colony  presented  the  extraordinary  spectacle  of  the 
greater  part  of  its  young  men  turned  into  forest  out- 

1  On  the  fur-trade  the  documents  consulted  are  very  numerous. 
The  following  are  the  most  important :  Me'moire  sur  ce  qui  concerns 
le  Commerce  du  Castor  et  ses  de'pendances,  1715 ;  Me'moire  concernant 
le  Commerce  de  Traite  entre  les  Francois  et  les  Sauvages,  1691 ;  Me'- 
moire sur  le  Canada  addresse'  au  Regent,  1715 ;  Me'moire  sur  les  Affaires 
de  Canada  dans  leur  Estat  present,  1696 ;  Me'moire  des  Negotiants  de 
la  Rockelle  qui  font  Commerce  en  Canada  sur  la  Proposition  de  ne  plus 
recevoir  les  Castors  et  d'engager  les  Habitants  a  la  Culture  des  Terres 
et  Pesche  de  la  Molue,  1696 ;  Me'moire  du  Sr.  Riverin  sur  la  Traite  et 
la  Ferme  du  Castor,  1696 ;  Me'moire  touchant  le  Commerce  du  Canada, 
1687,  etc. 


374  TRADE  AND  INDUSTRY.          [1663-1763. 

laws.  But  severity  was  dangerous.  The  offenders 
might  be  driven  over  to  the  English,  or  converted 
into  a  lawless  banditti,  —  renegades  of  civilization 
and  the  faith.  Therefore,  clemency  alternated  with 
rigor,  and  declarations  of  amnesty  with  edicts  of  pro- 
scription. Neither  threats  nor  blandishments  were 
of  much  avail.  We  hear  of  seigniories  abandoned; 
farms  turning  again  into  forests ;  wives  and  children 
left  in  destitution.  The  exodus  of  the  coureurs  de 
bois  would  take,  at  times,  the  character  of  an  organ- 
ized movement.  The  famous  Du  Lhut  is  said  to 
have  made  a  general  combination  of  the  young  men 
of  Canada  to  follow  him  into  the  woods.  Their  plan 
was  to  be  absent  four  years,  in  order  that  the  edicts 
against  them  might  have  time  to  relent.  The  intend- 
ant  Duchesneau  reported  that  eight  hundred  men 
out  of  a  population  of  less  than  ten  thousand  souls 
had  vanished  from  sight  in  the  immensity  of  a  bound- 
less wilderness.  Whereupon  the  King  ordered  that 
any  person  going  into  the  woods  without  a  license 
should  be  whipped  and  branded  for  the  first  offence, 
and  sent  for  life  to  the  galleys  for  the  second.1  The 
order  was  more  easily  given  than  enforced.  "  I  must 
not  conceal  from  you,  Monseigneur, "  again  writes 
Duchesneau,  "that  the  disobedience  of  the  coureurs 
de  bois  has  reached  such  a  point  that  everybody 
boldly  contravenes  the  King's  interdictions;  that 
there  is  no  longer  any  concealment;  and  that  parties 

l^Le  Roy  a  Frontenac,  SQAvril,  1681.     On  another  occasion,  it  was 
ordered  that  any  person  thus  offending  should  suffer  death. 


1663-1763.]        THE   COUREURS  DE   BOIS.  375 

are  collected  with  astonishing  insolence  to  go  and 
trade  in  the  Indian  country.  I  have  done  all  in  my 
power  to  prevent  this  evil,  which  may  cause  the  ruin 
of  the  colony.  I  have  enacted  ordinances  against  the 
coureurs  de  bois ;  against  the  merchants  who  furnish 
them  with  goods;  against  the  gentlemen  and  others 
who  harbor  them ;  and  even  against  those  who  have 
any  knowledge  of  them,  and  will  not  inform  the 
local  judges.  All  has  been  in  vain;  inasmuch  as 
some  of  the  most  considerable  families  are  interested 
with  them,  and  the  governor  lets  them  go  on  and 
even  shares  their  profits."1  "You  are  aware,  Mon- 
seigneur,"  writes  Denonville,  some  years  later,  "that 
the  coureurs  de  bois  are  a  great  evil,  but  you  are  not 
aware  how  great  this  evil  is.  It  deprives  the  country 
of  its  effective  men;  makes  them  indocile,  debauched, 
and  incapable  of  discipline,  and  turns  them  into  pre- 
tended nobles,  —  wearing  the  sword  and  decked  out 
with  lace,  both  they  and  their  relations,  who  all 
affect  to  be  gentlemen  and  ladies.  As  for  cultivat- 
ing the  soil,  they  will  not  hear  of  it.  This,  along 
with  the  scattered  condition  of  the  settlements, 
causes  their  children  to  be  as  unruly  as  Indians, 
being  brought  up  in  the  same  manner.  Not  that 
there  are  not  some  very  good  people  here,  but  they 
are  in  a  minority."2  In  another  despatch  he  enlarges 
on  their  vagabond  and  lawless  ways,  their  indiffer- 

1  N.  Y.  Colonial  Docs.,  ix,  131. 

2  Denonville,  Mtmoire  sur  I'Estat   des  Affaires  de   la   Nouvelle 
France. 


376  TRADE  AND  INDUSTRY.          [1663-1768, 

ence  to  marriage,  and  the  mischief  caused  by  their 
example;  describes  how,  on  their  return  from  the 
woods,  they  swagger  like  lords,  spend  all  their  gains 
in  dress  and  drunken  revelry,  and  despise  the  peas- 
ants, whose  daughters  they  will  not  deign  to  marry, 
though  they  are  peasants  themselves. 

It  was  a  curious  scene  when  a  party  of  coureurs 
de  bois  returned  from  their  rovings.  Montreal  was 
their  harboring  place,  and  they  conducted  themselves 
much  like  the  crew  of  a  man-of-war  paid  off  after  a 
long  voyage.  As  long  as  their  beaver-skins  lasted, 
they  set  no  bounds  to  their  riot.  Every  house  in  the 
place,  we  are  told,  was  turned  into  a  drinking-shop. 
The  new-comers  were  bedizened  with  a  strange  mix- 
ture of  French  and  Indian  finery;  while  some  of 
them,  with  instincts  more  thoroughly  savage,  stalked 
about  the  streets  as  naked  as  a  Pottawattamie  or  a 
Sioux.  The  clamor  of  tongues  was  prodigious,  and 
gambling  and  drinking  filled  the  day  and  the  night. 
When  at  last  they  were  sober  again,  they  sought 
absolution  for  their  sins;  nor  could  the  priests  ven- 
ture to  bear  too  hard  on  their  unruly  penitents,  lest 
they  should  break  wholly  with  the  Church  and  dis- 
pense thenceforth  with  her  sacraments. 

Under  such  leaders  as  Du  Lhut,  the  coureurs  de 
"bois  built  forts  of  palisades  at  various  points  through- 
out the  West  and  Northwest.  They  had  a  post  of  this 
sort  at  Detroit  some  time  before  its  permanent  settle- 
ment, as  well  as  others  on  Lake  Superior  and  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi.  They  occupied  them  as 


1663-1763.]        THE  COUREURS  DE   BOIS.  377 

Jong  as  it  suited  their  purposes,  and  then  abandoned 
them  to  the  next  comer.  Michilimackinac  was, 
however,  their  chief  resort;  and  thence  they  would 
set  out,  two  or  three  together,  to  roam  for  hundreds 
of  miles  through  the  endless  mesh-work  of  inter- 
locking lakes  and  rivers  which  seams  the  northern 
wilderness. 

T'"^ 

LDJo  wonder  that  a  year  or  two  of  bush-ranging 
spoiled  them  for  civilization.  Though  not  a  very 
valuable  member  of  society,  and  though  a  thorn  in 
the  side  of  princes  and  rulers,  the  coureur  de  bois  had 
his  uses,  at  least  from  an  artistic  point  of  view ;  and 
his  strange  figure,  sometimes  brutally  savage,  but 
oftener  marked  with  the  lines  of  a  dare-devil  cour- 
age, and  a  reckless,  thoughtless  gayety,  will  always 
be  joined  to  the  memories  of  that  grand  world  of 
woods  which  the  nineteenth  century  is  fast  civilizing 
out  of  existence?^  At  least,  he  is  picturesque,  and 
with  his  red-skin  companion  serves  to  animate  forest 
scenery.  Perhaps  he  could  sometimes  feel,  without 
knowing  that  he  felt  them,  the  charms  of  the  savage 
nature  that  had  adopted  him.  Rude  as  he  was,  her 
voice  may  not  always  have  been  meaningless  for  one 
who  knew  her  haunts  so  well,  —  deep  recesses  where, 
veiled  in  foliage,  some  wild  shy  rivulet  steals  with 
timid  music  through  breathless  caves  of  verdure; 
gulfs  where  feathered  crags  rise  like  castle  walls, 
where  the  noonday  sun  pierces  with  keen  rays 
athwart  the  torrent,  and  the  mossed  arms  of  fallen 
pines  cast  wavering  shadows  on  the  illumined  foam ; 


378  TRADE   AND   INDUSTRY.          [1663-1763. 

pools  of  liquid  crystal  turned  emerald  in  the  reflected 
green  of  impending  woods;  rocks  on  whose  rugged 
front  the  gleam  of  sunlit  waters  dances  in  quivering 
light ;  ancient  trees  hurled  headlong  by  the  storm,  to 
dam  the  raging  stream  with  their  forlorn  and  savage 
ruin ;  or  the  stern  depths  of  immemorial  forests,  dim 
and  silent  as  a  cavern,  columned  with  innumeiable 
trunks,  each  like  an  Atlas  upholding  its  world  of 
leaves,  and  sweating  perpetual  moisture  down  its 
dark  and  channelled  rind,  — some  strong  in  youth, 
some  grisly  with  decrepit  age,  nightmares  of  strange 
distortion,  gnarled  and  knotted  with  wens  and  goitres ; 
roots  intertwined  beneath  like  serpents  petrified  in 
an  agony  of  contorted  strife;  green  and  glistening 
mosses  carpeting  the  rough  ground,  mantling  the 
rocks,  turning  pulpy  stumps  to  mounds  of  verdure, 
and  swathing  fallen  trunks  as,  bent  in  the  impotence 
of  rottenness,  they  lie  outstretched  over  knoll  and 
hollow,  like  mouldering  reptiles  of  the  primeval 
world,  while  around,  and  on  and  through  them, 
springs  the  young  growth  that  battens  on  their  decay, 
—  the  forest  devouring  its  own  dead ;  or,  to  turn  from 
its  funereal  shade  to  the  light  and  life  of  the  open 
woodland,  the  sheen  of  sparkling  lakes,  and  moun- 
tains basking  in  the  glory  of  the  summer  noon, 
flecked  by  the  shadows  of  passing  clouds  that  sail 
on  snowy  wings  across  the  transparent  azure.1 

1  An  adverse  French  critic  gives  as  his  opinion  that  the  sketch 
of  the  primeval  wilderness  on  the  preceding  page  is  drawn  from 
fancy,  and  not  from  observation.  It  is,  however,  copied  in  every 


1663-1763.]  LETTER  OF  CARHEIL.  379 

Yet  it  would  be  false  coloring  to  paint  the  half- 
savage  coureur  de  bois  as  a  romantic  lover  of  Nature. 
He  liked  the  woods  because  they  emancipated  him 
from  restraint.  He  liked  the  lounging  ease  of  the 
camp-fire,  and  the  license  of  Indian  villages.  His 
life  has  a  dark  and  ugly  side,  which  is  nowhere 
drawn  more  strongly  than  in  a  letter  written  by  the 
Jesuit  Carheil  to  the  intendant  Champigny.  It  was 
at  a  time  when  some  of  the  outlying  forest  posts, 
originally  either  missions  or  transient  stations  of 
coureur s  de  bois,  had  received  regular  garrisons. 
Carheil  writes  from  Michilimackinac,  and  describes 
the  state  of  things  around  him  like  one  whom  long 
familiarity  with  them  had  stripped  of  every  illusion.1 

But  here,  for  the  present,  we  pause ;  for  the  father 
touches  on  other  matters  than  the  coureurs  de  bois, 
and  we  reserve  him  and  his  letter  for  the  next 
chapter. 

particular,  without  exception,  from  a  virgin  forest  in  a  deep  moist 
valley  by  the  upper  waters  of  the  little  river  Pemigewasset  in 
northern  New  Hampshire,  where  I  spent  a  summer  afternoon  a  few 
days  before  the  passage  was  written. 
1  See  the  letter  in  Appendix  I. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

1663-1702. 
THE  MISSIONS.  — THE  BRANDY  QUESTION. 

THE  JESUITS  AND  THE  IROQUOIS.  —  MISSION  VILLAGES.  —  MICHILI* 
MACKINAC.  —  FATHER  CARHEIL.  —  TEMPERANCE.  —  BRANDY  AND 
THE  INDIANS.  —  STRONG  MEASURES.  —  DISPUTES.  —  LICENSE  AND 
PROHIBITION.  —  VIEWS  OF  THE  KING.  —  TRADE  AND  THE  JESUITS. 

FOB  a  year  or  two  after  De  Tracy  had  chastised 
the  Mohawks,  and  humbled  the  other  Iroquois  na- 
tions, all  was  rose-color  on  the  side  of  that  dreaded 
confederacy.  The  Jesuits,  defiant  as  usual  of  hard- 
ship and  death,  had  begun  their  ruined  missions 
anew.  Bruyas  took  the  Mission  of  the  Martyrs 
among  the  Mohawks;  Milet,  that  of  Saint  Francis 
Xavier,  among  the  Oneidas;  Lamberville,  that  of 
Saint  John  the  Baptist  among  the  Onondagas ; 
Carheil,  that  of  Saint  Joseph  among  the  Cayugas; 
and  Raffeix  and  Julien  Gamier  shared  between  them 
the  three  missions  of  the  Senecas.  The  Iroquois, 
after  their  punishment,  were  in  a  frame  of  mind  so 
hopeful  that  the  fathers  imagined  for  a  moment  that 
they  were  all  on  the  point  of  accepting  the  faith. 
This  was  a  consummation  earnestly  to  be  wished,  not 


1663-1702.]   THE  JESUITS   AND  THE   IROQUOIS.   381 

only  from  a  religious,  but  also  from  a  political,  point 
of  view.  The  complete  conversion  of  the  Iroquois 
meant  their  estrangement  from  the  heretic  English 
and  Dutch,  and  their  firm  alliance  with  the  French. 
It  meant  safety  for  Canada,  and  it  insured  for  her 
the  fur-trade  of  the  interior  freed  from  English 
rivalry.  Hence  the  importance  of  these  missions, 
and  hence  their  double  character.  While  the  Jesuit 
toiled  to  convert  his  savage  hosts,  he  watched  them 
at  the  same  time  with  the  eye  of  a  shrewd  political 
agent;  reported  at  Quebec  the  result  of  his  observa- 
tions, and  by  every  means  in  his  power  sought  to 
alienate  them  from  England,  and  attach  them  to 
France. 

Their  simple  conversion,  by  placing  them  wholly 
under  his  influence,  would  have  outweighed  in 
political  value  all  other  agencies  combined;  but  the 
flattering  hopes  of  the  earlier  years  soon  vanished. 
Some  petty  successes  against  other  tribes  so  elated 
the  Iroquois  that  they  ceased  to  care  for  French 
alliance  or  French  priests.  Then  a  few  petty  reverses 
would  dash  their  spirits,  and  dispose  them  again  to 
listen  to  Jesuit  counsels.  Every  success  of  a  war- 
party  was  a  loss  to  the  faith,  and  every  reverse  was 
a  gain.  Meanwhile  a  more  repulsive  or  a  more  criti- 
cal existence  than  that  of  a  Jesuit  father  in  an 
Iroquois  town  is  scarcely  conceivable.  The  torture 
of  prisoners  turned  into  a  horrible  festivity  for  the 
whole  tribe ;  foul  and  crazy  orgies  in  which,  as  the 
priest  thought,  the  powers  of  darkness  took  a  special 


382        MISSIONS.  —  BRANDY   QUESTION.     [1663-1702. 

delight;  drunken  riots,  the  work  of  Dutch  brandy, 
when  he  was  forced  to  seek  refuge  from  death  in  his 
chapel,  —  a  sanctuary  which  superstitious  fear  with- 
held the  Indians  from  violating,  —  these,  and  a  thou- 
sand disgusts  and  miseries,  filled  the  record  of  his 
days;  and  he  bore  them  all  in  patience.  Not  only 
were  the  early  Canadian  Jesuits  men  of  an  intense 
religious  zeal,  but  they  were  also  men  who  lived  not 
for  themselves  but  for  their  Order.  Their  faults 
were  many  and  great,  but  the  grandeur  of  their  self- 
devotion  towers  conspicuous  over  all. 

At  Caughnawaga,  near  Montreal,  may  still  be  seen 
the  remnants  of  a  mission  of  converted  Iroquois, 
whom  the  Jesuits  induced  to  leave  the  temptations 
of  their  native  towns  and  settle  here,  under  the  wing 
of  the  Church.  They  served  as  a  bulwark  against 
the  English,  and  sometimes  did  good  service  in  time 
of  war.  At  Sillery,  near  Quebec,  a  band  of  Abenakis, 
escaping  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  English 
towards  the  close  of  Philip's  War,  formed  another 
mission  of  similar  character.  The  Sulpitians  had  a 
third  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  of  Montreal,  where 
two  massive  stone-towers  of  the  fortified  Indian  town 
are  standing  to  this  day.  All  these  converted 
savages,  as  well  as  those  of  Lorette  and  other  missions 
far  and  near,  were  used  as  allies  in  war,  and  launched 
in  scalping-parties  against  the  border  settlements  of 
New  England. 

Not  only  the  Sulpitians,  but  also  the  seminary 
priests  of  Quebec,  the  Recoil ets,  and  even  the 


1663-1702.]  MICHILIMACKLNTAC.  383 

Capuchins,  had  missions  more  or  less  important,  and 
more  or  less  permanent.  But  the  Jesuits  stood 
always  in  the  van  of  religious  and  political  propa- 
gandism ;  and  all  the  forest  tribes  felt  their  influence, 
from  Acadia  and  Maine  to  the  plains  beyond  the 
Mississippi.  Next  in  importance  to  their  Iroquois 
missions  were  those  among  the  Algonquins  of  the 
northern  lakes.  Here  was  the  grand  domain  of  the 
beaver- trade ;  and  the  chief  woes  of  the  missionary 
sprang  not  from  the  Indians,  but  from  his  own 
countrymen.  Beaver-skins  had  produced  an  effect 
akin  to  that  of  gold  in  our  own  day,  and  the  deep- 
est recesses  of  the  wilderness  were  invaded  by  eager 
seekers  after  gain. 

The  focus  of  the  evil  was  at  Father  Marquette's 
old  mission  of  Michilimackinac.  First,  year  after 
year  came  a  riotous  invasion  of  coureurs  de  lois,  and 
then  a  garrison  followed  to  crown  the  mischief. 
Discipline  was  very  weak  at  these  advanced  posts, 
and,  to  eke  out  their  pay,  the  soldiers  were  allowed 
to  trade,  —  brandy,  whether  permitted  or  interdicted, 
being  the  chief  article  of  barter.  Father  Etienne  Car- 
heil  was  driven  almost  to  despair ;  and  he  wrote  to  the 
intendant,  his  fast  friend  and  former  pupil,  the  long 
letter  already  mentioned.  "Our  missions,'' he  says, 
"  are  reduced  to  such  extremity  that  we  can  no  longer 
maintain  them  against  the  infinity  of  disorder,  brutal- 
ity, violence,  injustice,  impiety,  impurity,  insolence, 
scorn,  and  insult,  which  the  deplorable  and  infamous 
traffic  in  brandy  has  spread  universally  among  the 


384        MISSIONS.  —  BRANDY   QUESTION.     [1663-1702. 

Indians  of  these  parts.  ...  In  the  despair  in  which 
we  are  plunged,  nothing  remains  for  us  but  to  abandon 
them  to  the  brandy-sellers  as  a  domain  of  drunken- 
ness and  debauchery."  He  complains  bitterly  of  the 
officers  in  command  of  the  fort,  who,  he  says,  far 
from  repressing  disorders,  encourage  them  by  their 
example,  and  are  even  worse  than  their  subordinates, 
"insomuch  that  all  our  Indian  villages  are  so  many 
taverns  for  drunkenness  and  Sodoms  for  iniquity, 
which  we  shall  be  forced  to  leave  to  the  just  wrath 
and  vengeance  of  God."  He  insists  that  the  garri- 
sons are  entirely  useless,  as  they  have  only  four  occu- 
pations, —  first,  to  keep  open  liquor-shops  for  crowds 
of  drunken  Indians ;  secondly,  to  roam  from  place  to 
place,  carrying  goods  and  brandy  under  the  orders  of 
the  commandant,  who  shares  their  profits;  thirdly, 
to  gamble  day  and  night ;  fourthly,  to  "  turn  the  fort 
into  a  place  which  I  am  ashamed  to  call  by  its  right 
name ; "  and  he  describes,  with  a  curious  amplitude 
of  detail,  the  swarms  of  Indian  girls  who  are  hired  to 
make  it  their  resort.  "Such,  Monseigneur,  are  the 
only  employments  of  the  soldiers  maintained  here  so 
many  years.  If  this  can  be  called  doing  the  King 
service,  I  admit  that  such  service  is  done  for  him 
here  now,  and  has  always  been  done  for  him  here  ; 
but  I  never  saw  any  other  done  in  my  life."  He 
further  declares  that  the  commandants  oppose  and 
malign  the  missionaries,  while  of  the  presents  which 
the  King  sends  up  the  country  for  distribution  to 
the  Indians,  they,  the  Indians,  get  nothing  but  a 


1663-1702.]  MICHILIMACKINAC.  S8ii 

little  tobacco,  and  the  officer  keeps  the  rest  for  him- 
self.1 

From  the  misconduct  of  officers  and  soldiers,  the 
father  passes  to  that  of  the  coureurs  de  bois  and 
licensed  traders ;  and  here  he  is  equally  severe.  He 
dilates  on  the  evils  which  result  from  permitting  the 
colonists  to  go  to  the  Indians  instead  of  requiring 
the  Indians  to  come  to  the  settlements.  "  It  serves 
only  to  rob  the  country  of  all  its  young  men,  weaken 
families,  deprive  wives  of  their  husbands,  sisters  of 
their  brothers,  and  parents  of  their  children ;  expose 
the  voyagers  to  a  hundred  dangers  of  body  and  soul ; 
involve  them  in  a  multitude  of  expenses,  some  neces- 
sary, some  useless,  and  some  criminal;  accustom 
them  to  do  no  work,  and  at  last  disgust  them  with  it 
forever;  make  them  live  in  constant  idleness,  unfit 
them  completely  for  any  trade,  and  render  them  use- 
less to  themselves,  their  families,  and  the  public. 
But  it  is  less  as  regards  the  body  than  as  regards  the 
soul  that  this  traffic  of  the  French  among  the  savages 
is  infinitely  hurtful.  It  carries  them  far  away  from 
churches,  separates  them  from  priests  and  nuns,  and 
severs  them  from  all  instruction,  all  exercise  of 

1  Of  the  officers  in  command  at  Michilimackinac  while  Carheil 
was  there,  he  partially  excepts  La  Durantaye  from  his  strictures, 
but  bears  very  hard  on  La  Mothe-Cadillac,  who  hated  the  Jesuits 
and  was  hated  by  them  in  turn.  La  Mothe,  on  his  part,  writes  that 
"  the  missionaries  wish  to  be  masters  wherever  they  are,  and  cannot 
tolerate  anybody  above  themselves  "  (N.  Y.  Colonial  Docs.,  ix.  587.) 
For  much  more  emphatic  expressions  of  his  views  concerning  them, 
see  two  letters  from  him,  translated  in  Sheldon's  Early  History  oj 
Michigan. 

25 


386        MISSIONS.  —  BRANDY  QUESTION.     ([1663-1702. 

religion,  and  all  spiritual  aid.  It  sends  them  into 
places  wild  and  almost  inaccessible,  through  a  thou- 
sand perils  by  land  and  water,  to  carry  on  by  base, 
abject,  and  shameful  means  a  trade  which  would 
much  better  be  carried  on  at  Montreal." 

But  in  the  complete  transfer  of  the  trade  to 
Montreal,  Father  Carheil  sees  insuperable  difficulties ; 
and  he  proceeds  to  suggest,  as  the  last  and  best 
resort,  that  garrisons  and  officers  should  be  with- 
drawn, and  licenses  abolished,  that  discreet  and 
virtuous  persons  should  be  chosen  to  take  charge  of 
all  the  trade  of  the  upper  country ;  that  these  persons 
should  be  in  perfect  sympathy  and  correspondence 
with  the  Jesuits ;  and  that  the  trade  should  be  car- 
ried on  at  the  missions  of  the  Jesuits  and  in  their 
presence.1 

This  letter  brings  us  again  face  to  face  with  the 
brandy  question,  of  which  we  have  seen  something 
already  in  the  quarrel  between  Avaugour  and  the 
bishop.  In  the  summer  of  1648  there  was  held  at 
the  mission  of  Sillery  a  temperance  meeting,  —  the 
first  in  all  probability  on  this  continent.  The  drum 
beat  after  mass,  and  the  Indians  gathered  at  the 
summons.  Then  an  Algonquin  chief,  a  zealous  con- 
vert of  the  Jesuits,  proclaimed  to  the  crowd  a  late 
edict  of  the  governor  imposing  penalties  for  drunken- 
ness, and,  in  his  own  name  and  that  of  the  other 

1  Lettre  du  Pere  iZtienne  Carheil  de  la  Compagnie  de  J&us  a  I'fn- 
tendant  Champigny,  Michilimackinac,  30  Aout,  1702  (Archives  No- 
tionafes),_Appendix  I. 


1683-1702.]    BRANDY   AND   THE   INDIANS.  387 

chiefs,  exhorted  them  to  abstinence,  declaring  that 
all  drunkards  should  be  handed  over  to  the  French 
for  punishment.  Father  Jerome  Lalemant  looked  on 
delighted.  "It  was,"  he  says,  "the  finest  public 
act  of  jurisdiction  exercised  among  the  Indians  since 
I  have  been  in  this  country.  From  the  beginning  of 
the  world  they  have  all  thought  themselves  as  great 
lords,  the  one  as  the  other,  and  never  before  sub- 
mitted to  their  chiefs  any  further  than  they  chose  to 
do  so."1 

There  was  great  need  of  reform;  for  a  demon  of 
drunkenness  seemed  to  possess  these  unhappy  tribes. 
Nevertheless,  with  all  their  rage  for  brandy,  they 
sometimes  showed  in  regard  to  it  a  self-control  quite 
admirable  in  its  way.  When  at  a  fair,  a  council,  or 
a  friendly  visit,  their  entertainers  regaled  them  with 
rations  of  the  coveted  liquor,  so  prudently  measured 
out  that  they  could  not  be  the  worse  for  it,  they 
would  unite  their  several  portions  in  a  common 
stock,  which  they  would  then  divide  among  a  few  of 
their  number,  —  thus  enabling  them  to  attain  that 
complete  intoxication  which,  in  their  view,  was  the 
true  end  of  all  drinking.  The  objects  of  this  singular 
benevolence  were  expected  to  requite  it  in  kind  on 
some  future  occasion. 

A  drunken  Indian,  with  weapons  within  reach,  was 
very  dangerous,  and  all  prudent  persons  kept  out  of 
his  way.  This  greatly  pleased  him ;  for,  seeing  every- 
body run  before  him,  he  fancied  himself  a  great  chief, 

1  Lalemant,  Relation,  1648,  p.  43. 


388       MISSIONS.  —  BRANDY   QUESTION.     [1663-1702. 

and  howled  and  swung  his  tomahawk  with  redoubled 
fuiy.  If,  as  often  happened,  he  maimed  or  murdered 
some  wretch  not  nimble  enough  to  escape,  his  country- 
men absolved  him  from  all  guilt,  and  blamed  only 
the  brandy.  Hence,  if  an  Indian  wished  to  take  a 
safe  revenge  on  some  personal  enemy,  he  would 
pretend  to  be  drunk ;  and  not  only  murders  but  other 
crimes  were  often  committed  by  false  claimants  to 
the  bacchanalian  privilege. 

In  the  eyes  of  the  missionaries,  brandy  was  a  fiend 
with  all  crimes  and  miseries  in  his  train;  and,  in 
fact,  nothing  earthly  could  better  deserve  the  epithet 
infernal  than  an  Indian  town  in  the  height  of  a 
drunken  debauch.  The  orgies  never  ceased  till  the 
bottom  of  the  barrel  was  reached.  Then  came 
repentance,  despair,  wailing,  and  bitter  invective 
against  the  white  men,  the  cause  of  all  the  woe.  In 
the  name  of  the  public  good,  of  humanity,  and  above 
all  of  religion,  the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits  denounced 
the  fatal  traffic. 

Their  case  was  a  strong  one ;  but  so  was  the  case 
of  their  opponents.  There  was  real  and  imminent 
danger  that  the  thirsty  savages,  if  refused  brandy  by 
the  French,  would  seek  it  from  the  Dutch  and 
English  of  New  York.  It  was  the  most  potent  lure 
and  the  most  killing  bait.  Wherever  it  was  found, 
thither  the  Indians  and  their  beaver-skins  were  sure 
to  go,  and  the  interests  of  the  fur-trade,  vital  to  the 
colony,  were  bound  up  with  it.  Nor  was  this  all, 
for  the  merchants  and  the  civil  powers  insisted  that 


1663-1702  J  STRONG  MEASURES.  389 

religion  and  the  saving  of  souls  were  bound  up  with 
it  no  less;  since,  to  repel  the  Indians  from  the 
Catholic  French,  and  attract  them  to  the  heretic 
English,  was  to  turn  them  from  ways  of  grace  to 
ways  of  perdition.1  The  argument,  no  doubt,  was 
dashed  largely  with  hypocrisy  in  those  who  used  it; 
but  it  was  one  which  the  priests  were  greatly  per- 
plexed to  answer. 

In  former  days,  when  Canada  was  not  yet  trans- 
formed from  a  mission  to  a  colony,  the  Jesuits  entered 
with  a  high  hand  on  the  work  of  reform.  It  fared 
hard  with  the  culprit  caught  in  the  act  of  selling 
brandy  to  Indians.  They  led  him,  after  the  sermon, 
to  the  door  of  the  church;  where,  kneeling  on  the 
pavement,  partially  stript  and  bearing  in  his  hand 
the  penitential  torch,  he  underwent  a  vigorous  flagel- 
lation, laid  on  by  Father  Le  Mercier  himself,  after 
the  fashion  formerly  practised  in  the  case  of  refractory 
school-boys.2  Bishop  Laval  not  only  discharged 
against  the  offenders  volleys  of  wholesale  excommu- 
nication, but  he  made  of  the  offence  a  "reserved 
case ; "  that  is,  a  case  in  which  the  power  of  granting 
absolution  was  reserved  to  himself  alone.  This  pro- 
duced great  commotion,  and  a  violent  conflict  between 
religious  scruples  and  a  passion  for  gain.  The 
bishop  and  the  Jesuits  stood  inflexible;  while  their 

1  "  Ce  commerce  est  absolument  necessaire  pour   attirer    les 
sauvages  dans  les  colonies  fran9oises,  et  par  ce  moyen  leur  donner 
les  premieres  teintures  de  la  foy."  — Mtmoire  de  Colbert,  joint  a  sa 
lettre  a  Duchesneau  du  24  Mai,  1678. 

2  Mtmoire  de  Dumesnil,  1671. 


390        MISSIONS.— BRANDY  QUESTION.     [1663-1702. 

opponents  added  bitterness  to  the  quarrel  by  charging 
them  with  permitting  certain  favored  persons  to  sell 
brandy,  unpunished,  and  even  covertly  selling  it 
themselves.1 

Appeal  was  made  to  the  King,  who  —  with  his 
Jesuit  confessor,  guardian  of  his  conscience  on.  one 
side,  and  Colbert,  guardian  of  his  worldly  interests 
on  the  other  —  stood  in  some  perplexity.  The  case 
was  referred  to  the  fathers  of  the  Sorbonne;  and 
they,  after  solemn  discussion,  pronounced  the  selling 
of  brandy  to  Indians  a  mortal  sin.2  It  was  next 
referred  to  an  assembly  of  the  chief  merchants  and 
inhabitants  of  Canada,  held  under  the  eye  of  the 
governor,  intendant,  and  council,  in  the  Chateau  St. 

1  Lettre  de  Charles  Aubert  de  la  Chesnaye,  24  Oct.,  1693.     After 
speaking  of  the  excessive  rigor  of  the  bishop,  he  adds :  "  L'on  dit, 
et  il  est  vrai,  que   dans  ces  temps  si  facheux,  sous  pretexte  de 
pauvrete  dans  les  families,  certaines  gens  avoient  permission  d'en 
traiter,  je  crois  toujours  avec  la  reserve  de  ne  pas  enivrer."     Du- 
mesnil,  Me'moire  de  1671,  says  that  Laval  excommunicated  all  brandy- 
sellers,  "  a  Texception,   neanmoins,  de  quelques  particuliers  qu'il 
voulait   favoriser."      He    says    further    that    the    bishop  and  the 
Jesuit  Ragueneau  had  a  clerk  whom  they  employed  at  500  francs 
a  year  to  trade  with  the  Indians,  paying  them  in  liquors  for  their 
furs ;  and  that  for  a  time  the  ecclesiastics  had  this  trade  to  them- 
selves, their  severities  having  deterred  most  others  from  venturing 
into  it.     La  Salle,  Me'moire  de  1678,  declares  that,  "  Us  [les  J&uites] 
refusent  1'absolution  a  ceux  qui  ne  veulent  pas  promettre  de  n'en 
plus  vendre,  et  s'ils   meurent   en   cet  etat,  ils   les  privent  de   la 
sepulture  ecclesiastique :    au   contraire,  ils   se   permettent   a  eux 
mesmes  sans  aucune  difficulte  ce  mesme  trafic,  quoyque  toute  sorte 
de  trafic  soit  interdite  a  tous  les  ecclesiastiques  par  les  ordonnances 
tiu  Boy  et  par  une  bulle  expresse  du  Pape."    I  give   these  asser- 
tions as  I  find  them,  and  for  what  they  are  worth. 

2  Delibe'ration  de  la  Sorbonne  sur  la  Traite  des  Boissons,  8  Mars, 
1675. 


1663-1702.]          VIEWS  OF  THE  KING.  391 

Louis.  Each  was  directed  to  state  his  views  in 
writing.  The  great  majority  were  for  unrestricted 
trade  in  brandy ;  a  few  were  for  a  limited  and  guarded 
trade;  and  two  or  three  declared  for  prohibition.1 
Decrees  of  prohibition  were  passed  from  time  to  time, 
but  they  were  unavailing.  They  were  revoked, 
renewed,  and  revoked  again.  They  were,  in  fact, 
worse  than  useless ;  for  their  chief  effect  was  to  turn 
traders  and  coureurs  de  bois  into  troops  of  audacious 
contrabandists.  Attempts  were  made  to  limit  the 
brandy-trade  to  the  settlements,  and  exclude  it  from 
the  forest  country,  where  its  regulation  was  impossible ; 
but  these  attempts,  like  the  others,  were  of  little  avail. 
It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  when  brandy  was  forbid- 
den everywhere  else,  it  was  permitted  in  the  trade  of 
Tadoussac,  carried  on  for  the  profit  of  government.2 

In  spite  of  the  Sorbonne,  in  spite  of  Pdre  La 
Chaise,  and  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  whom  he 
also  consulted,  the  King  was  never  at  heart  a  pro- 
hibitionist.3 His  Canadian  revenue  was  drawn  from 
the  fur-trade;  and  the  singular  argument  of  the 
partisans  of  brandy,  that  its  attractions  were  needed 

1  Proces-verbal  de  I' Assembled  tenue  au   Chateau  de  St.  Louis  de 
Quebec,  le  26  Oct.,  1676,  et  jours  suivants. 

2  Lettre  de  Charles  Aubert  de  la  Chesnaye,  24  Oct.,  1693.     In  the 
course  of  the  quarrel,  a  severe  law  passed  by  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  against  the  sale  of  liquors  to  Indians  was  several 
times  urged  as  an  example  to  be  imitated.    A  copy  of  it  was  sent 
to  the  minister,  and  is  still  preserved  in  the  Archives  of  the  Marine 
and  Colonies. 

3  See,  among  other  evidence,  Mfmoire  sur  la  Traite  des  Boissons, 
1678. 


392        MISSIONS.— BRANDY  QUESTION.     [1663-1702. 

to  keep  the  Indians  from  contact  with  heresy,  served 
admirably  to  salve  his  conscience.  Bigot  as  he  was, 
he  distrusted  the  Bishop  of  Quebec,  the  great 
champion  of  the  anti-liquor  movement.  His  own 
letters,  as  well  as  those  of  his  minister,  prove  that 
he  saw,  or  thought  that  he  saw,  motives  for  the 
crusade  very  different  from  those  inscribed  on  its 
banners.  He  wrote  to  Saint-Vallier,  Laval's  suc- 
cessor in  the  bishopric,  that  the  brandy -trade  was 
very  useful  to  the  kingdom  of  France ;  that  it  should 
be  regulated,  but  not  prevented;  that  the  consciences 
of  his  subjects  must  not  be  disturbed  by  denuncia- 
tions of  it  as  a  sin ;  and  that  "  it  is  well  that  you  [the 
bishop]  should  take  care  that  the  zeal  of  the  eccle- 
siastics is  not  excited  by  personal  interests  and 
passions."1  Perhaps  he  alludes  to  the  spirit  of 
encroachment  and  domination  which  he  and  his 
minister  in  secret  instructions  to  their  officers  often 
impute  to  the  bishop  and  the  clergy;  or  perhaps  he 
may  have  in  mind  other  accusations  which  had 
reached  him  from  time  to  time  during  many  years, 
and  of  which  the  following  from  the  pen  of  the  most 
noted  of  Canadian  governors  will  serve  as  an  example. 
Count  Frontenac  declares  that  the  Jesuits  greatly 
exaggerate  the  disorders  caused  by  brandy,  and  that 
they  easily  convince  persons  "  who  do  not  know  the 
interested  motives  which  have  led  them  to  harp  con- 
tinually on  this  string  for  more  than  forty  years.  .  .  . 
They  have  long  wished  to  have  the  fur-trade  entirely 

1  Le  Roy  a  Saint-Vallier,  7  Avril,  1691. 


1663-1702.J        TRADE  OF  THE  JESUITS, 

to  themselves,  and  to  keep  out  of  sight  the  trade 
which  they  have  always  carried  on  in  the  woods,  and 
which  they  are  carrying  on  there  now." l 

TRADE  OF  THE  JESUITS.  —  As  I  have  observed  in  a  former 
volume,  the  charge  against  the  Jesuits  of  trading  in  beaver- 
skins  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the  colony.  In  the  private 
journal  of  Father  Jerome  Lalemant,  their  superior,  occurs  the 
following  curious  passage,  under  date  of  November,  1645: 
Pour  la  traite  des  castors.  Le  15  de  Nov.  le  bruit  estant  qu'on 
s'en  alloit  icy  publier  la  defense  qui  auoit  est4  publie'e  aux 
Trois  Riuieres  que  pas  vn  n'eut  &  traiter  auec  les  sauuages,  le 
P.  Vimont  demanda  k  Mons.  des  Chastelets  commis  general 
si  nous  serious  de  pire  condition  soubs  eux  que  soubs  Messieurs 
de  la  Compagnie.  La  conclusion  fut  que  non  et  que  cela  iroit 
pour  nous  a  I' ordinaire,  mais  que  nous  le  fissions  doucement.1' 
(Journal  des  Jesuites.}  Two  years  after,  on  the  request  of 
Lalemant,  the  governor  Montmagny.  and  his  destined  successor 
Ailleboust,  gave  the  Jesuits  a  certificate  to  the  effect  that  "  les 
peres  de  la  compagnie  de  Jesus  sont  innocents  de  la  calomnie 
qui  leur  a  dtd  imputee,  et  ce  qu'ils  en  ont  fait  a  ete  pour  le  bien 
de  la  communaute  et  pour  un  bon  sujet."  This  leaves  it  to  be 
inferred  that  they  actually  traded,  though  with  good  inten- 
tions. In  1664,  in  reply  to  similar  "  calumnies,"  the  Jesuits 
made  by  proxy  a  declaration  before  the  council,  stating,  "  que 
les  dits  Re've'rends  Peres  Je'suites  n'ont  fait  jamais  aucune 
profession  de  vendre  et  n'ont  jamais  rien  vendu,  mais  seulement 
que  les  marchandises  qu'ils  donnent  aux  particuliers  ne  sont  que 
pour  avoir  leurs  ne'cessite's."  This  is  an  admission  in  a  thin 
disguise.  The  word  ne'cessite's  is  of  very  elastic  interpretation. 
In  a  memoir  of  Talon,  1667,  he  mentions,  "  la  traite  de  pelle- 
teries  qu'on  assure  qu'ils  [les  Jesuites]  font  aux  Outaouacks  et 
au  Cap  de  la  Madeleine;  ce  que  je  ne  sais  pas  de  science 
certaine." 

That  which  Talon  did  not  know  with  certainty  is  made 
reasonably  clear  for  us  by  a  line  in  the  private  journal  of 

1  Frontenac  au  Ministre,  29  Oct.,  1676. 


394        MISSIONS.  —  BRANDY   QUESTION.     [1663-1702. 

Father  Le  Mercier,  who  writes  under  date  of  17  August,  1665, 
"  Le  Pere  Fremin  remonte  supe'rieur  au  Cap  de  la  Magdeleine, 
ou  le  temporel  est  en  bon  estat.  Comme  il  est  delivre  de  tout 
soin  d'aucune  traite,  il  doit  s'appliquer  a  llnstruction  tant  des 
Montagnets  que  des  Algonquins."  Father  Charles  Albanel 
was  charged,  under  Fremin,  with  the  affairs  of  the  mission, 
including  doubtless  the  temporal  interests,  to  the  prosperity 
of  which  Father  Le  Mercier  alludes,  and  the  cares  of  trade 
from  which  Father  Fre'min  was  delivered.  Cavelier  de  la 
Salle  declared  in  1678,  "Le  pere  Arbanelle  [Albanel]  jesuite 
a  traite  au  Cap  [de  la  Madeleine^  pour  700  pistoles  de  peaux 
d'orignaux  et  de  castors ;  luy  mesme  me  1'a  dit  en  1667.  II 
vend  le  pain,  le  vin,  le  bled,  le  lard,  et  il  tient  magazin  au  Cap 
aussi  bien  que  le  frere  Joseph  a  Quebec.  Ce  frere  gagne  500 
pour  100  sur  tous  les  peuples.  Us  [les  Jesuites]  ont  bati  leur  col- 
lege en  partie  de  leur  traite  et  en  partie  de  1'emprunt."  La  Salle 
further  says  that  Fremin,  being  reported  to  have  made  enormous 
profits,  "  ce  pere  repondit  au  gouverneur  (qui  lui  en  avait  fait  des 
plaintes)  par  un  billet  que  luy  a  conserve*,  que  c'estoit  une 
calomnie  que  ce  grand  gain  prdtendu ;  puisque  tout  ce  qui  se 
passoit  par  ses  mains  ne  pouvoit  produire  par  an  que  quatre 
mille  de  revenant  bon,  tous  frais  faits,  sans  comprendre  les 
gages  des  domestiques."  La  Salle  gives  also  many  other 
particulars,  especially  relating  to  Michilimackinac,  where,  as 
he  says,  the  Jesuits  had  a  large  stock  of  beaver- skins.  Accord- 
ing to  Pe'ronne  Dumesnil,  Memoire  de  1671,  the  Jesuits  had  at 
that  time  more  than  20,000  francs  a  year,  —  partly  from  trade 
and  partly  from  charitable  contributions  of  their  friends  in 
France. 

The  King  repeatedly  forbade  the  Jesuits  and  other  ecclesi- 
astics in  Canada  to  carry  on  trade.  On  one  occasion  he 
threatened  strong  measures  should  they  continue  to  disobey 
him.  (Le  Roi  a  Frontenac,  28  Avril,  1677.)  In  the  same  year 
the  minister  wrote  to  the  intendant  Duchesneau :  "  Vous  ne 
sauriez  apporter  trop  de  precautions  pour  abolir  entierement 
la  coustume  que  les  Ecclesiastiques  seculiers  et  reguliers  avaient 
pris  de  traitter  ou  de  faire  traitter  leurs  valets,"  18  Avril,  1677. 

The  Jesuits  entered  also  into  other  branches  of  trade  and 


1663-1702.]        TRADE   OF  THE  JESUITS.  395 

industry  with  a  vigor  and  address  which  the  inhabitants  of 
Canada  might  have  emulated  with  advantage.  They  were 
successful  fishers  of  eels.  In  1646  their  eel-pots  at  Sillery  are 
said  to  have  yielded  no  less  than  forty  thousand  eels,  some  of 
which  they  sold  at  the  modest  price  of  thirty  sous  a  hundred. 
(Ferland,  Notes  sur  les  Eegistres  de  N.  D.  de  Quebec,  82.)  The 
members  of  the  Order  were  exempted  from  payment  of  duties, 
and  in  1674  they  were  specially  empowered  to  construct  mills, 
including  sugar-mills,  and  keep  slaves,  apprentices,  and  hired 
servants.  Droit  Canadien,  180. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

1663-1763. 
PRIESTS  AND  PEOPLE. 

CHURCH  AND  STATE. — THE  BISHOP  AND  THE  KING.  —  THE  KING 
AND  THE  CURES.  —  THE  NEW  BISHOP.— THE  CANADIAN  CURE. — 
ECCLESIASTICAL  RULE. — SAINT- VALLIER  AND  DENONVILLE. — 
CLERICAL  RIGOR.  —  JESUIT  AND  SULPITIAN.  —  COURCELLE  AND 
CHATELAIN.  —  THE  RECOLLETS.  —  HERESY  AND  WITCHCRAFT. — 
CANADIAN  NUNS. — JEANNE  LE  BER.  —  EDUCATION. — THE  SEM- 
INARY. —  SAINT  JOACHIM.  —  MIRACLES  OF  SAINT  ANNE.  —  CANA- 
DIAN SCHOOLS. 

WHEN  Laval  and  the  Jesuits  procured  the  recall  of 
Me*zy,  they  achieved  a  seeming  triumph ;  yet  it  was 
but  a  defeat  in  disguise.  While  ordering  home  the 
obnoxious  governor,  the  King  and  Colbert  made  a 
practical  assertion  of  their  power  too  strong  to  be 
resisted.  A  vice-regal  officer,  a  governor,  an  intend- 
ant,  and  a  regiment  of  soldiers  were  silent  but  con- 
vincing proofs  that  the  mission  days  of  Canada  were 
over,  and  the  dream  of  a  theocracy  dispelled  forever. 
The  ecclesiastics  read  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  for 
a  while  seemed  to  accept  the  situation. 

The  King  on  his  part,  in  vindicating  the  civil 
power,  had  shown  a  studious  regard  to  the  sensibili- 
ties of  the  bishop  and  his  allies.  The  lieutenant- 


1665-70.]    COURCELLE  AND   THE  JESUITS.  397 

general  Tracy,  a  zealous  devotee,  and  the  intendant 
Talon,  who  at  least  professed  to  be  one,  were  not 
men  to  offend  the  clerical  party  needlessly.  In  the 
choice  of  Courcelle,  the  governor,  a  little  less  caution 
had  been  shown.  His  chief  business  was  to  fight  the 
Iroquois,  for  which  he  was  well  fitted;  but  he 
presently  showed  signs  of  a  willingness  to  fight  the 
Jesuits  also.  The  colonists  liked  him  for  his  lively 
and  impulsive  speech;  but  the  priests  were  of  a 
different  mind,  and  so,  too,  was  his  colleague  Talon, 
—  a  prudent  person,  who  studied  the  amenities  of 
life,  and  knew  how  to  pursue  his  ends  with  temper 
and  moderation.  On  the  subject  of  the  clergy  he 
and  the  governor  substantially  agreed,  but  the  ebulli- 
tions of  the  one  and  the  smooth  discretion  of  the 
other  were  mutually  repugnant  to  both.  Talon 
complained  of  his  colleague's  impetuosity;  and 
Colbert  directed  him  to  use  his  best  efforts  to  keep 
Courcelle  within  bounds,  and  prevent  him  from 
publicly  finding  fault  with  the  bishop  and  the 
Jesuits.1  Next  we  find  the  minister  writing  to 
Courcelle  himself  to  soothe  his  ruffled  temper,  and 
enjoining  him  to  act  discreetly,  "because,"  said 
Colbert,  "as  the  colony  grows,  the  King's  authority 
will  grow  with  it,  and  the  authority  of  the  priests 
will  be  brought  back  in  time  within  lawful  bounds. "  2 
Meanwhile,  Talon  had  been  ordered  to  observe 
carefully  the  conduct  of  the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits, 

1  Colbert  a  Talon,  20  F<fv.,  1668. 
«  Colbert  a  Courcelle,  19  Mai,  1669. 


398  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.  [1665-70. 

"who, "says  the  minister,  "have  hitherto  nominated 
governors  for  the  King,  and  used  every  means  to 
procure  the  recall  of  those  chosen  without  their 
participation ; l  filled  offices  with  their  adherents,  and 
tolerated  no  secular  priests  except  those  of  one  mind 
with  them."2  Talon,  therefore,  under  the  veil  of  a 
reverent  courtesy,  sharply  watched  them.  They 
paid  courtesy  with  courtesy,  and  the  intendant  wrote 
home  to  his  master  that  he  saw  nothing  amiss  in 
them.  He  quickly  changed  his  mind.  "I  should 
have  had  less  trouble  and  more  praise,"  he  writes  in 
the  next  year,  "if  I  had  been  willing  to  leave  the 
power  of  the  Church  where  I  found  it."3  "It  is 
easy,"  he  says  again,  "to  incur  the  ill-will  of  the 
Jesuits  if  one  does  not  accept  all  their  opinions  and 
abandon  one's  self  to  their  direction  even  in  temporal 
matters ;  for  their  encroachments  extend  to  affairs  of 
police,  which  concern  only  the  civil  magistrate,"  — 
and  he  recommends  that  one  or  two  of  them  be  sent 
home  as  disturbers  of  the  peace.4  They,  on  their 
part,  changed  attitude  towards  both  him  and  the 
governor.  One  of  them,  Father  Bardy,  less  discreet 
than  the  rest,  is  said  to  have  preached  a  sermon 
against  them  at  Quebec,  in  which  he  likened  them 
to  a  pair  of  toadstools  springing  up  in  a  night,  — 
adding  that  a  good  remedy  would  soon  be  found,  and 


1  Instruction  au  Steur  Talon. 

2  Memoire  pour  M.  de  Tracy. 

8  Talon  au  Ministre,  13  Nov.,  1666. 
*  Talon,  Memoire  de  1667. 


1665-1700.]    THE  BISHOP  AND   THE   KING.  399 

that  Courcelle  would  have  to  run  home  like  other 
governors  before  him.1 

Tracy  escaped  clerical  attacks.  He  was  extremely 
careful  not  to  provoke  them ;  and  one  of  his  first  acts 
was  to  restore  to  the  council  the  bishop's  adherents 
whom  Mezy  had  expelled.2  And  if,  on  the  one  hand, 
he  was  too  pious  to  quarrel  with  the  bishop,  so,  on 
the  other,  the  bishop  was  too  prudent  to  invite  col- 
lision with  a  man  of  his  rank  and  influence. 

After  all,  the  dispute  between  the  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical powers  was  not  fundamental.  Each  had 
need  of  the  other;  both  rested  on  authority,  and 
they  differed  only  as  to  the  boundary  lines  of  their 
respective  shares  in  it.  Yet  the  dispute  of  bounda- 
ries was  a  serious  one,  and  it  remained  a  source  of 
bitterness  for  many  years.  The  King,  though  rigidly 
Catholic,  was  not  yet  sunk  in  the  slough  of  bigotry 
into  which  Maintenon  and  the  Jesuits  succeeded  at 
last  in  plunging  him.  He  had  conceived  a  distrust 
of  Laval,  and  his  jealousy  of  his  royal  authority 
disposed  him  to  listen  to  the  anti-clerical  counsels  of 
his  minister.  How  needful  they  both  thought  it  to 
prune  the  exuberant  growth  of  clerical  power,  and 
how  cautiously  they  set  themselves  to  do  so,  their 
letters  attest  again  and  again.  "The  bishop,"  writes 
Colbert,  "  assumes  a  domination  far  beyond  that  of 

1  La  Salle,  Memoirs  de  1678.    This  sermon  was  preached  on  the 
12th  of  March,  1667. 

2  A  curious  account  of  his  relations  with  Laval  is  given  in  a 
letter  of  La  Mothe-Cadillac,  28  September,  1694. 


400  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.  [1665-1700. 

other  bishops  throughout  the  Christian  world,  and 
particularly  in  the  kingdom  of  France." l  "It  is  the 
will  of  his  Majesty  that  you  confine  him  and  the 
Jesuits  within  just  bounds,  and  let  none  of  them 
overstep  these  bounds  in  any  manner  whatsoever. 
Consider  this  as  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance, 
and  one  to  which  you  cannot  give  too  much  atten- 
tion."2 "But,"  the  prudent  minister  elsewhere 
writes,  "it  is  of  the  greatest  consequence  that  the 
bishop  and  the  Jesuits  do  not  perceive  that  the 
intendant  blames  their  conduct."3 

It  was  to  the  same  intendant  that  Colbert  wrote, 
"it  is  necessary  to  diminish  as  much  as  possible  the 
excessive  number  of  priests,  monks,  and  nuns  in 
Canada."  Yet  in  the  very  next  year,  and  on  the 
advice  of  Talon,  he  himself  sent  four  more  to  the 
colony.  His  motive  was  plain.  He  meant  that  they 
should  serve  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  Jesuits.4  They 
were  mendicant  friars,  belonging  to  the  branch  of  the 
Franciscans  known  as  the  Re"collets;  and  they  were 
supposed  to  be  free  from  the  ambition  for  the  aggran- 
dizement of  their  Order  which  was  imputed,  and 
with  reason,  to  the  Jesuits.  Whether  the  R^collets 
were  free  from  it  or  not,  no  danger  was  to  be  feared 
from  them;  for  Laval  and  the  Jesuits  were  sure  to 
oppose  them,  and  they  would  need  the  support  of  the 

1  Colbert  a  Duchesn&au,  1  Mai,  16-77. 

2  Ibid.,  28  Avril,  1677; 

8  Instruction  pour  M.  Bouteroue,  1668. 

4  Me'moire  suecinct  des  principaux  points  des  intentions  du  Roy  sur  ie 
pays  de  Canada,  18  Mai,  1669. 


1665-1700.]    THE   KING  AND   THE  CHURCH.          401 

government  too  much  to  set  themselves  in  opposition 
to  it.  "  The  more  Re'collets  we  have, "  says  Talon, 
"the  better  will  the  too  firmly  rooted  authority  of 
the  others  be  balanced."1 

While  Louis  XIV.  tried  to  confine  the  priests  to 
their  ecclesiastical  functions,  he  was  at  the  same 
time,  whether  from  religion,  policy,  or  both  com- 
bined, very  liberal  to  the  Canadian  Church,  of 
which,  indeed,  he  was  the  main-stay.  vln  the  yearly 
estimate  of  "  ordinary  charges "  of  the  colony,  the 
Church  holds  the  most  prominent  place;  and  the 
appropriations  for  religious  purposes  often  exceed  all 
the  rest  together.  Thus,  in  1667,  out  of  a  total  of 
36,360  francs,  28,000  are  assigned  to  Church  uses.2  V" 
The  amount  fluctuated,  but  was  always  relatively 
large.  The  Canadian  cure's  were  paid  in  great  part 
by  the  King,  who  for  many  years  gave  eight  thousand 
francs  annually  towards  their  support.  Such  was 
the  poverty  of  the  country  that,  though  in  1685  there 
were  only  twenty-five  cure's,3  each  costing  about  five 
hundred  francs  a  year,  the  tithes  utterly  failed  to 
meet  the  expense.  As  late  as  1700,  the  intendant 
declared  that  Canada  without  the  King's  help  could 

i  Talon  au  Mmistre,  10  Oct.,  1670. 

a  Of  this,  6,000  francs  were  given  to  the  Jesuits,  6,000  to  the 
Ursulines,  9,000  to  the  cathedral,  4,000  to  the  seminary,  and  3,000 
to  the  Hotel-Dieu.  (fitat  de  dfyense,  etc.,  1677.)  The  rest  went  to 
pay  civil  officers  and  garrisons.  In  1682  the  amount  for  Church 
uses  was  only  12,000  francs.  In  1687  it  was  13,500.  In  1689  it  rose 
to  34,000,  including  Acadia. 

8  Increased  soon  after  to  thirty-six  by  Saint- Vallier,  Laval's 
successor. 

20 


402  PRIESTS   AND   PEOPLE.          [1665-1700) 

not  maintain  more  than  eight  or  nine  cure's.  Louis 
XIV.  winced  under  these  steady  demands,  and 
reminded  the  bishop  that  more  than  four  thousand 
cure's  in  France  lived  on  less  than  two  hundred  francs 
a  year.1  "You  say,"  he  wrote  to  the  intendant, 
"  that  it  is  impossible  for  a  Canadian  cur£  to  live  on 
five  hundred  francs.  Then  you  must  do  the  impos- 
sible to  accomplish  my  intentions,  which  are  always 
that  the  cure's  should  live  on  the  tithes  alone."2  Yet 
the  head  of  the  Church  still  begged  for  money,  and 
the  King  still  paid  it.  "  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a 
costly  war, "  wrote  the  minister  to  the  bishop,  "  yet 
in  consequence  of  your  urgency  the  gifts  to  ecclesi- 
astics will  be  continued  as  before."8  And  they  did 
continue.  More  than  half  a  century  later,  the  King 
was  still  making  them,  and  during  the  last  years  of 
the  colony  he  gave  twenty  thousand  francs  annually 
to  support  Canadian  curds.4 

The  maintenance  of  cure's  was  but  a  part  of  his 
bounty.  He  endowed  the  bishopric  with  the  revenues 
of  two  French  abbeys,  to  which  he  afterwards  added 
a  third.  The  vast  tracts  of  land  which  Laval  had 
acquired  were  freed  from  feudal  burdens,  and  emi- 
grants were  sent  to  them  by  the  government  in  such 
numbers  that,  in  1667,  the  bishop's  seigniory  of 
Beaupre  and  Orleans  contained  more  than  a  fourth 

1  M&noire  a  Duchesneau,   15  Mai,  1678 ;  Le  Roy  a  Duchesneau,  11 
Juin,  1680. 

2  Le  Roy  a  Duchesneau,  30  Avril,  1681. 
«  Le  Ministre  a  I'fiveque,  8  Mai,  1694. 

4  Bougainville,  Mfmoire,  1757. 


1665-1700.]    THE   KING   AND   THE   CHURCH.  403 

of  the  entire  population  of  Canada. l  He  had  emerged 
from  his  condition  of  apostolic  poverty  to  find  him- 
self the  richest  land-owner  in  the  colony. 

If  by  favors  like  these  the  King  expected  to  lead 
the  ecclesiastics  into  compliance  with  his  wishes,  he 
was  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  system  of 
movable  cure's,  by  which  the  bishop  like  a  military 
chief  could  compel  each  member  of  his  clerical  army 
to  come  and  go  at  his  bidding,  was  from  the  first 
repugnant  to  Louis  XIV.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
bishop  clung  to  it  with  his  usual  tenacity.  Colbert 
denounced  it  as  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  kingdom.3 
"His  Majesty  has  reason  to  believe,"  he  writes,  "that 
the  chief  source  of  the  difficulty  which  the  bishop 
makes  on  this  point  is  his  wish  to  preserve  a  greater 
authority  over  the  cure's."3  The  inflexible  prelate, 
whose  heart  was  bound  up  in  the  system  he  had 
established,  opposed  evasion  and  delay  to  each 
expression  of  the  royal  will ;  and  even  a  royal  edict 
failed  to  produce  the  desired  effect.  In  the  height 
of  the  dispute,  Laval  went  to  court,  and,  on  the 
ground  of  failing  health,  asked  for  a  successor  in  the 
bishopric.  The  King  readily  granted  his  prayer. 
The  successor  was  appointed;  but  when  Laval  pre- 

1  Entire  population,  4,312 ;  Beaupre  and  Orleans,  1185.     (Recense- 
ment  de  1667.)     Laval,  it  will  be  remembered,  afterwards  gave  his 
lands  to  the  seminary  of  Quebec.    He  previously  exchanged  the 
Island  of  Orleans  with  the  Sieur  Berthelot  for  the  Island  of  Jesus. 
Berthelot  gave  him  a  large  sum  of  money  in  addition. 

2  Le  Ministre  a  Duchesneau,  15  Mai,  1678. 
8  Instruction  a  M.  de  Meules,  1682. 


404  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.          [1665-1700. 

pared  to  embark  again  for  Canada,  he  was  given  to 
understand  that  he  was  to  remain  in  France.  In  vain 
he  promised  to  make  no  trouble ; 1  and  it  was  not  till 
after  an  absence  of  four  years  that  he  was  permitted 
to  return,  no  longer  as  its  chief,  to  his  beloved 
Canadian  Church.2 

Meanwhile  Saint- Vallier,  the  new  bishop,  had 
raised  a  new  tempest.  He  attacked  that  organization 
of  the  seminary  of  Quebec  by  which  Laval  had 
endeavored  to  unite  the  secular  priests  of  Canada 
into  an  attached  and  obedient  family,  with  the 
bishop  as  its  head  and  the  seminary  as  its  home,  —  a 
plan  of  which  the  system  of  movable  cure's  was  an 
essential  part.  The  Canadian  priests,  devoted  to 
Laval,  met  the  innovations  of  Saint- Vallier  with  an 
opposition  which  seemed  only  to  confirm  his  purpose. 
Laval,  old  and  worn  with  toil  and  asceticism,  was 
driven  almost  to  despair.  The  seminary  of  Quebec 
was  the  cherished  work  of  his  life,  and,  to  his  think- 
ing, the  citadel  of  the  Canadian  Church ;  and  now  he 
beheld  it  battered  and  breached  before  his  eyes.  His 
successor,  in  fact,  was  trying  to  place  the  Church  of 
Canada  on  the  footing  of  the  Church  of  France.  The 
conflict  lasted  for  years,  with  the  rancor  that  marks 
the  quarrels  of  non-combatants  of  both  sexes.  "  He  " 

1  Laval  au  Pere  la  Chaise,  1687.     This  forms  part  of  a  curious 
correspondence  printed  in  the  Foyer  Canadien  for  1866,  from  origi- 
nals in  the  Archev£che  of  Quebec. 

2  From  a  mtmoire  of  18  Feb.,  1685  (Archives  de   Versailles),  it  is 
plain  that  the  court,  in  giving  a  successor  to  Laval,  thought  that 
it  had  ended  the  vexed  question  of  movable  cures. 


1683.]  THE   NEW   BISHOP.  405 

[Saint- Vallier],  says  one  of  his  opponents,  "  has  made 
himself  contemptible  to  almost  everybody,  and  par- 
ticularly odious  to  the  priests  born  in  Canada;  for 
there  is  between  them  and  him  a  mutual  antipathy 
difficult  to  overcome."  *  He  is  described  by  the  same 
writer  as  a  person  "  without  reflection  and  judgment, 
extreme  in  all  things,  secret  and  artful,  passionate 
when  opposed,  and  a  flatterer  when  he  wishes  to  gain 
his  point."  This  amiable  critic  adds  that  Saint- Vallier 
believes  a  bishop  to  be  inspired,  in  virtue  of  his 
office,  with  a  wisdom  that  needs  no  human  aid;  and 
that  whatever  thought  comes  to  him  in  prayer  is  a 
divine  inspiration  to  be  carried  into  effect  at  all  costs 
and  in  spite  of  all  opposition. 

The  new  bishop,  notwithstanding  the  tempest  he 
had  raised,  did  not  fully  accomplish  that  establish- 
ment of  the  cure's  in  their  respective  parishes  which 
the  King  and  the  minister  so  much  desired.  The 
Canadian  cure*  was  more  a  missionary  than  a  parish 
priest;  and  Nature  as  well  as  Bishop  Laval  threw 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  settling  him  quietly  over 
his  charge. 

On  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence,  where  it  widens  to  an 
estuary,  six  leagues  across,  a  ship  from  France,  the 
last  of  the  season,  holds  her  way  for  Quebec,  laden 
with  stores  and  clothing,  household  utensils,  goods 
for  Indian  trade,  the  newest  court  fashions,  wine, 
brandy,  tobacco,  and  the  King's  orders  from  Ver- 

1  The  above  is  from  an  anonymous  paper,  written  apparently  in 
1695,  and  entitled  Memoire  pour  le  Canada 


406  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.  [1683. 

sallies.  Swelling  her  patched  and  dingy  sails,  she 
glides  through  the  wildness  and  the  solitude  where 
there  is  nothing  but  her  to  remind  you  of  the  great 
troubled  world  behind  and  the  little  troubled  world 
before.  On  the  far  verge  of  the  ocean-like  river, 
clouds  and  mountains  mingle  in  dim  confusion ;  fresh 
gusts  from  the  north  dash  waves  against  the  ledges, 
sweep  through  the  quivering  spires  of  stiff  and 
stunted  fir-trees,  and  ruffle  the  feathers  of  the  crow, 
perched  on  the  dead  bough  after  his  feast  of  mussels 
among  the  sea-weed.  You  are  not  so  solitary  as  you 
think.  A  small  birch -canoe  rounds  the  point  of 
rocks,  and  it  bears  two  men,  —  one  in  an  old  black 
cassock,  and  the  other  in  a  buckskin  coat,  —  both 
working  hard  at  the  paddle  to  keep  their  slender 
craft  off  the  shingle  and  the  breakers.  The  man  in 
the  cassock  is  Father  Morel,  aged  forty-eight,  —  the 
oldest  country  cure*  in  Canada,  most  of  his  brethren 
being  in  the  vigor  of  youth,  as  they  had  need  to  be. 
His  parochial  charge  embraces  a  string  of  incipient 
parishes  extending  along  the  south  shore  from  Riviere 
du  Loup  to  Riviere  du  Sud,  a  distance  reckoned  at 
twenty-seven  leagues,  and  his  parishioners  number 
in  all  three  hundred  and  twenty-eight  souls.  He  has 
administered  spiritual  consolation  to  the  one  inhabi- 
tant of  Kamouraska ;  visited  the  eight  families  of  La 
Bouteillerie  and  the  five  families  of  La  Combe ;  and 
now  he  is  on  his  way  to  the  seigniory  of  St.  Denis 
with  its  two  houses  and  eleven  souls.1 

1  These  particulars  are  from  the  Plan  g€n€ral  de  I'estat  present  des 
missions  du  Canada,  fait  en  I'annte  1683.     It  is  a  list  and  description 


1665-1700.]         THE   CANADIAN   CUR&  407 

The  father  lands  where  a  shattered  eel-pot  high 
and  dry  on  the  pebbles  betrays  the  neighborhood  of 
man.  His  servant  shoulders  his  portable  chapel,  and 
follows  him  through  the  belt  of  firs  and  the  taller 
woods  beyond,  till  the  sunlight  of  a  desolate  clear- 
ing shines  upon  them.  Charred  trunks  and  limbs 
encumber  the  ground;  dead  trees,  branchless,  bark- 
less,  pierced  by  the  woodpeckers,  in  part  black  with 
fire,  in  part  bleached  by  sun  and  frost,  tower  ghastly 
and  weird  above  the  labyrinth  of  forest  ruins,  through 
which  the  priest  and  his  follower  wind  their  way,  the 
cat-bird  mewing,  and  the  blue-jay  screaming  as  they 
pass.  Now  the  golden-rod  and  the  aster,  harbingers 
of  autumn,  fringe  with  yellow  and  purple  the  edge 
of  the  older  clearing,  where  wheat  and  maize,  the 
settler's  meagre  harvest,  are  growing  among  the 
stumps. 

Wild-looking  women,  with  sunburnt  faces  and 
neglected  hair,  run  from  their  work  to  meet  the  cur6 ; 
a  man  or  two  follow  with  soberer  steps  and  less 
exuberant  zeal;  while  half-savage  children,  the 
coureurs  de  lois  of  the  future,  bareheaded,  barefooted, 
and  half-clad,  come  to  wonder  and  stare.  To  set  up 
his  altar  in  a  room  of  the  rugged  log-cabin;  say 
mass,  hear  confessions,  impose  penance,  grant  abso- 
lution; repeat  the  office  of  the  dead  over  a  grave 
made  weeks  before ;  baptize,  perhaps,  the  last  infant ; 

of  the  parishes  with  the  names  and  ages  of  the  cures,  and  other 
details.  (See  Abeille,  i.)  This  paper  was  drawn  up  by  order  of 
Laval. 


408  PRIESTS   AND   PEOPLE.          [1665-1700. 

marry,  possibly,  some  pair  who  may  or  may  not  have 
waited  for  his  coming ;  catechise  as  well  as  time  and 
circumstance  would  allow  the  shy  but  turbulent 
brood  of  some  former  wedlock,  —  such  was  the  work 
of  the  parish  priest  in  the  remoter  districts.  It  was 
seldom  that  his  charge  was  quite  so  scattered  and  so 
far  extended  as  that  of  Father  Morel ;  but  there  were 
fifteen  or  twenty  others  whose  labors  were  like  in 
kind,  and  in  some  cases  no  less  arduous.  All  summer 
they  paddled  their  canoes  from  settlement  to  settle- 
ment; and  in  winter  they  toiled  on  snow-shoes  over 
the  drifts,  while  the  servant  carried  the  portable 
chapel  on  his  back,  or  dragged  it  on  a  sledge.  Once, 
at  least,  in  the  year  the  cur6  paid  his  visit  to  Quebec, 
where,  under  the  maternal  roof  of  the  seminary,  he 
made  his  retreat  of  meditation  and  prayer,  and  then 
returned  to  his  work.  He  rarely  had  a  house  of  his 
own,  but  boarded  in  that  of  the  seignior  or  one  of 
the  habitants.  Many  parishes  or  aggregations  of 
parishes  had  no  other  church  than  a  room  fitted  up 
for  the  purpose  in  the  house  of  some  pious  settler. 
In  the  larger  settlements  there  were  churches  and 
chapels  of  wood,  thatched  with  straw,  often  ruinous, 
poor  to  the  last  degree,  without  ornaments,  and 
sometimes  without  the  sacred  vessels  necessary  for 
the  service.1  In  1683  there  were  but  seven  stone 
churches  in  all  the  colony.  The  population  was  so 
thin  and  scattered  that  many  of  the  settlers  heard 

1  Saint- Vallier,  Estat  present  de  I'figlise  et  de  la  Colonie  Fran$aise} 
22  (ed.  1856). 


1665-1700.]        THE   CANADIAN   CURE.  409 

mass  only  three  or  four  times  a  year,  and  some  of 
them  not  so  often.  The  sick  frequently  died  with- 
out absolution,  and  infants  without  baptism. 

The  splendid  self-devotion  of  the  early  Jesuit 
missions  has  its  record;  so,  too,  have  the  unseemly 
bickerings  of  bishops  and  governors.  But  the  patient 
toils  of  the  missionary  curd  rest  in  the  obscurity 
where  the  best  of  human  virtues  are  buried  from  age 
to  age.  What  we  find  set  down  concerning  him  is, 
that  Louis  XIV.  was  unable  to  see  why  he  should 
not  live  on  two  hundred  francs  a  year  as  well  as  a 
village  curd  by  the  banks  of  the  Garonne.  The  King 
did  not  know  that  his  cassock  and  all  his  clothing 
cost  him  twice  as  much  and  lasted  half  as  long ;  that 
he  must  have  a  canoe  and  a  man  to  paddle  it;  and 
that  when  on  his  annual  visit  the  seminary  paid  him 
five  or  six  hundred  francs,  partly  in  clothes,  partly 
in  stores,  and  partly  in  money,  the  end  of  the  year 
found  him  as  poor  as  before  except  only  in  his 
conscience^ 

The  Canadian  priests  held  the  manners  of  the 
colony  under  a  rule  as  rigid  as  that  of  the  Puritan 
churches  of  New  England,  —  but  with  the  difference 
that  in  Canada  a  large  part  of  the  population  was 
restive  under  their  control,  while  some  of  the  civil 
authorities,  often  with  the  governor  at  their  head, 
supported  the  opposition.  This  was  due  partly  to 
an  excess  of  clerical  severity,  and  partly  to  the  con- 
tinued friction  between  the  secular  and  ecclesiastical 
powers.  It  sometimes  happened,  however,  that  a 


410  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.  [1685. 

new  governor  arrived,  who  was  so  pious  that  the 
clerical  party  felt  that  they  could  rely  on  him.  Of 
these  rare  instances  the  principal  is  that  of  De- 
nonville,  who,  with  a  wife  as  pious  as  himself,  and 
a  young  daughter,  landed  at  Quebec  in  1685.  On 
this,  Bishop  Saint- Vallier,  anxious  to  turn  his  good 
dispositions  to  the  best  account,  addressed  to  him  a 
series  of  suggestions  or  rather  directions  for  the 
guidance  of  his  conduct,  with  a  view  to  the  spiritual 
profit  of  those  over  whom  he  was  appointed  to  rule. 
The  document  was  put  on  file,  and  the  following  are 
some  of  the  points  in  it.  It  is  divided  into  five 
different  heads,  — "Touching  feasts,"  "touching 
balls  and  dances,"  "touching  comedies  and  other 
declamations,"  "touching  dress,"  "touching  irrever- 
ence in  church."  The  governor  and  madame  his 
wife  are  desired  to  accept  no  invitations  to  suppers, 
—  that  is  to  say,  late  dinners,  —  as  tending  to  noc- 
turnal hours  and  dangerous  pastimes;  and  they  are 
further  enjoined  to  express  dissatisfaction,  and  refuse 
to  come  again,  should  any  entertainment  offered 
them  be  too  sumptuous.  "Although,"  continues  the 
bishop  under  the  second  head  of  his  address,  "balls 
and  dances  are  not  sinful  in  their  nature,  neverthe- 
less they  are  so  dangerous  by  reason  of  the  circum- 
stances  that  attend  them  and  the  evil  results  that 
almost  inevitably  follow,  that,  in  the  opinion  of  Saint 
Francis  of  Sales,  it  should  be  said  of  them  as  physi- 
cians say  of  mushrooms,  that  at  best  they  are  good 
for  nothing; "  and,  after  enlarging  on  their  perils,  he 


1685.]     SAINT-VALLIER  AND   DENONVILLE.  411 

declares  it  to  be  of  great  importance  to  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  sanctification  of  the  colony,  that  the 
governor  and  his  wife  neither  give  such  entertain- 
ments nor  countenance  them  by  their  presence. 
"Nevertheless,"  adds  the  mentor,  "since  the  youth 
and  vivacity  of  mademoiselle  their  daughter  requires 
some  diversion,  it  is  permitted  to  relent  somewhat, 
and  indulge  her  in  a  little  moderate  and  proper  dan- 
cing, provided  that  it  be  solely  with  persons  of  her 
own  sex,  and  in  the  presence  of  madame  her  mother ; 
but  by  no  means  in  the  presence  of  men  or  youths, 
since  it  is  this  mingling  of  sexes  which  causes  the 
disorders  that  spring  from  balls  and  dances."  Private 
theatricals  in  any  form  are  next  interdicted  to  the 
young  lady.  The  bishop  then  passes  to  the  subject 
of  her  dress,  and  exposes  the  abuses  against  which 
she  is  to  be  guarded.  "The  luxury  of  dress,"  he 
says,  "appears  in  the  rich  and  dazzling  fabrics 
wherein  the  women  and  girls  of  Canada  attire  them- 
selves, and  which  are  far  beyond  their  condition  and 
their  means ;  in  the  excess  of  ornaments  which  they 
put  on ;  in  the  extraordinary  head-dresses  which  they 
affect,  their  heads  being  uncovered  and  full  of 
strange  trinkets;  and  in  the  immodest  curls  so 
expressly  forbidden  in  the  epistles  of  Saint  Peter 
and  Saint  Paul,  as  well  as  by  all  the  fathers  and 
doctors  of  the  Church,  and  which  God  has  often 
severely  punished,  —  as  may  be  seen  by  the  example 
of  the  unhappy  Pretextata,  a  lady  of  high  quality, 
who,  as  we  learn  from  Saint  Jerome,  who  knew  her, 


412  PRIESTS   AND   PEOPLE.  [1685 

had  her  hands  withered,  and  died  suddenly  five 
months  after,  and  was  precipitated  into  hell,  as  God 
had  threatened  her  by  an  angel;  because,  by  order 
of  her  husband,  she  had  curled  the  hair  of  her  niece, 
and  attired  her  after  a  worldly  fashion."1 

Whether  the  Marquis  and  Marchioness  Denonville 
profited  by  so  apt  and  terrible  a  warning,  or  whether 
their  patience  and  good-nature  survived  the  episcopal 
onslaught,  does  not  appear  on  record.  The  subject 
of  feminine  apparel  received  great  attention,  both 
from  Saint- Vallier  and  his  predecessor,  each  of  whom 
issued  a  number  of  pastoral  mandates  concerning  it. 
Their  severest  denunciations  were  aimed  at  low- 
necked  dresses,  which  they  regarded  as  favorite 
devices  of  the  enemy  for  the  snaring  of  souls;  and 
they  also  used  strong  language  against  certain  knots 
of  ribbons  called  fontanges,  with  which  the  belles  of 
Quebec  adorned  their  heads.  Laval  launches  strenu- 
ous invectives  against  "the  luxury  and  vanity  of 
women  and  girls,  who,  forgetting  the  promises  of 
their  baptism,  decorate  themselves  with  the  pomp  of 

1  "  Temoin  entr'autres  Texemple  de  la  malheureuse  Pretextate, 
dame  de  grande  condition,  laquelle  au  rapport  de  S.  Jerome,  dont 
elle  etoit  connue,  eut  les  mains  dessechees  et  cinq  mois  apres 
mourut  subitement  et  fut  precipitee  en  enfer,  ainsi  que  Dieu  Ten 
avoit  menacee  par  un  Ange  pour  avoir  par  le  commandement  de 
son  mari  frise  et  habille  mondainement  sa  niece."  (Divers  points 
a  repre'senter  a  Mr.  le  Gouverneur  et  a  Madame  la  Gouvernante,  signJ 
Jean,  e'vesgue  de  Quebec.  Registre  de  I'Eveche'  de  Quebec.}  The 
bishop  on  another  occasion  holds  up  the  sad  fate  of  Pretextata 
as  a  warning  to  Canadian  mothers ;  but  in  the  present  case  he 
slightly  changes  the  incidents  to  make  the  story  more  applicable 
to  the  governor  and  his  wife 


1663-1700.]  CLERICAL   SEVERITY.  413 

Satan,  whom  they  have  so  solemnly  renounced ;  and, 
in  their  wish  to  please  the  eyes  of  men,  make  them- 
selves the  instruments  and  thfc  captives  of  the  fiend. "  l 

In  the  journal  of  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits  we 
find,  under  date  of  February  4,  1667,  a  record  of  the 
first  ball  in  Canada,  along  with  the  pious  wish,  "  God 
grant  that  nothing  further  come  of  it."  Neverthe- 
less more  balls  were  not  long  in  following;  and, 
worse  yet,  sundry  comedies  were  enacted  under  no 
less  distinguished  patronage  than  that  of  Frontenac, 
the  governor.  Laval  denounced  them  vigorously, 
the  Jesuit  Dablon  attacked  them  in  a  violent  sermon; 
and  such  excitement  followed  that  the  affair  was 
brought  before  the  royal  council,  which  declined  to 
interfere.2  This  flurry,  however,  was  nothing  to  the 
storm  raised  ten  or  twelve  years  later  by  other 
dramatic  aggressions,  an  account  of  which  will 
appear  in  the  sequel  of  this  volume. 

^The  morals  of  families  were  watched  with  unre- 
lenting vigilance.  Frontenac  writes  in  a  mood 
unusually  temperate,  "  They  [the  priests]  are  full  of 
virtue  and  piety,  and  if  their  zeal  were  less  vehement 
and  more  moderate,  they  would  perhaps  succeed 
better  in  their  efforts  for  the  conversion  of  souls ;  but 

1  Mandement  contre  le  luxe  et  la  vanlte"  desfemmes  et  des  files,  1682. 
(Registres  de  I'Eveche"  de  Quebec.)     A  still  more  vigorous  denuncia- 
tion is  contained  in  Ordonnance  contre  les  vices  de  luxe  et  d'impurete, 
1690.    This  was  followed  in  the  next  year  by  a  stringent  list  of 
rules  called  Re"glement  pour  la  conduite  des  fideles  de  ce  dioce'se. 

2  Arrets  du  24  et  28juin  par  lesquels  cette  affaire  (des  come'des)  est 
renvoyte  a  So,  Majesty  1681.  (?)     Registre  du  Conseil  Souverain. 


414  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.  [1663-1700 

they  often  use  means  so  extraordinary,  and  in  France 
so  unusual,  that  they  repel  most  people  instead  of 
persuading  them.  I  sometimes  tell  them  my  views 
frankly  and  as  gently  as  I  can,  as  I  know  the  mur- 
murs that  their  conduct  excites,  and  often  receive 
complaints  of  the  constraint  under  which  they  place 
consciences.  This  is  above  all  the  case  with  the 
ecclesiastics  at  Montreal,  where  there  is  a  cure*  from 
Franche  Comte'  who  wants  to  establish  a  sort  of  in- 
quisition worse  than  that  of  Spain,  and  all  out  of  an 
excess  of  zeal.'^^ 

It  was  this  cure*,  no  doubt,  of  whom  La  Hontan 
complains.  That  unsanctified  young  officer  was 
quartered  at  Montreal,  in  the  house  of  one  of  the 
inhabitants.  "During  a  part  of  the  winter  I  was 
hunting  with  the  Algonquins ;  the  rest  of  it  I  spent 
here  very  disagreeably.  One  can  neither  go  on  a 
pleasure  party,  nor  play  a  game  of  cards,  nor  visit 
the  ladies,  without  the  cure*  knowing  it  and  preach- 
ing about  it  publicly  from  his  pulpit.  The  priests 
excommunicate  masqueraders,  and  even  go  in  search 
of  them  to  pull  off  their  masks  and  overwhelm  them 
with  abuse.  They  watch  more  closely  over  the 
women  and  girls  than  their  husbands  and  fathers. 
They  prohibit  and  burn  all  books  but  books  of  devo- 
tion. I  cannot  think  of  this  tyranny  without  cursing 
the  indiscreet  zeal  of  the  cure*  of  this  town.  He 
came  to  the  house  where  I  lived,  and,  finding  some 
books  on  my  table,  presently  pounced  on  the  romance 

1  Frontenac  au  Ministre,  20  Oct.,  1691. 


1663-1700.]    LA  MOTHE   AND   THE   PRIESTS.  415 

of  Petronius,  which  I  valued  more  than  my  life 
because  it  was  not  mutilated.  He  tore  out  almost 
all  the  leaves,  so  that  if  my  host  had  not  restrained 
me  when  I  came  in  and  saw  the  miserable  wreck,  I 
should  have  run  after  this  rampant  shepherd  and  torn 
out  every  hair  of  his  beard." 1 

La  Mothe-Cadillac,  the  founder  of  Detroit,  seems 
to  have  had  equal  difficulty  in  keeping  his  temper. 
"  Neither  men  of  honor  nor  men  of  parts  are  endured 
in  Canada;  nobody  can  live  here  but  simpletons  and 
slaves  of  the  ecclesiastical  domination.  The  count 
[Frontenac]  would  not  have  so  many  troublesome 
affairs  on  his  hands  if  he  had  not  abolished  a  Jericho 
in  the  shape  of  a  house  built  by  messieurs  of  the 
seminary  of  Montreal,  to  shut  up,  as  they  said,  girls 
who  caused  scandal;  if  he  had  allowed  them  to  take 
officers  and  soldiers  to  go  into  houses  at  midnight 
and  carry  off  women  from  their  husbands  and  whip 
them  till  the  blood  flowed  because  they  had  been  at 
a  ball  or  worn  a  mask ;  if  he  had  said  nothing  against 
the  curds  who  went  the  rounds  with  the  soldiers,  and 
compelled  women  and  girls  to  shut  themselves  up  in 
their  houses  at  nine  o'clock  of  summer  evenings ;  if 
he  had  forbidden  the  wearing  of  lace,  and  made  no 
objection  to  the  refusal  of  the  communion  to  women 
of  quality  because  they  wore  a  fontange ;  if  he  had 
not  opposed  excommunicatioRS  flung  about  without 
sense  or  reason,  — if  I  say,  the  count  had  been  of  this 

1  La  Hontan,  i.  60  (ed.  1709).  Other  editions  contain  the  game 
utory  in  different  words. 


416  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.          [1663  1700. 

way  of  thinking,  he  would  have  stood  as  a  nonpareil, 
and  have  been  put  very  soon  on  the  list  of  saints, 
for  saint-making  is  cheap  in  this  country."1 

While  the  Sulpitians  were  thus  rigorous  at  Montreal, 
the  bishop  and  his  Jesuit  allies  were  scarcely  less  so 
at  Quebec.  There  was  little  good-will  between  them 
and  the  Sulpitians,  and  some  of  the  sharpest  charges 
against  the  followers  of  Loyola  are  brought  by  their 
brother  priests  at  Montreal.  The  Sulpitian  Allet 
writes :  "  The  Jesuits  hold  such  domination  over  the 
people  of  this  country  that  they  go  into  the  houses 
and  see  everything  that  passes  there.  They  then  tell 
what  they  have  learned  to  each  other  at  their  meet- 
ings, and  on  this  information  they  govern  their 
policy.  The  Jesuit,  Father  Ragueneau,  used  to  go 
every  day  down  to  the  Lower  Town,  where  the 
merchants  live,  to  find  out  all  that  was  going  on  in 
their  families ;  and  he  often  made  people  get  up  from 
table  to  confess  to  him."  Allet  goes  on  to  say  that 
Father  Ch&telain  also  went  continually  to  the  Lower 
Town  with  the  same  object,  and  that  some  of  the 
inhabitants  complained  of  him  to  Courcelle,  the  gov- 
ernor. One  day  Courcelle  saw  the  Jesuit,  who  was 
old  and  somewhat  infirm,  slowly  walking  by  the 
chateau,  cane  in  hand,  on  his  usual  errand,  —  on 
which  he  sent  a  sergeant  after  him  to  request  that  he 
would  not  go  so  often  to  the  Lower  Town,  as  the 
people  were  annoyed  by  the  frequency  of  his  visits. 
The  father  replied  in  wrath,  "  Go  and  teil  Monsieur 

1  La  Mothe-Cadillac  a ,  28  Sept.,  1694. 


1663-1700.]  JESUIT   ACTIVITY.  417 

de  Courcelle  that  I  have  been  there  ever  since  he  was 
governor,  and  that  I  shall  go  there  after  he  has  ceased 
to  be  governor;"  and  he  kept  on  his  way  as  before. 
Courcelle  reported  his  answer  to  the  superior,  Le 
Mercier,  and  demanded  to  have  him  sent  home  as  a 
punishment;  but  the  superior  effected  a  compromise. 
On  the  following  Thursday,  after  mass  in  the  cathe- 
dral, he  invited  Courcelle  into  the  sacristy,  where 
Father  Chatelain  was  awaiting  them;  and  here,  at 
Le  Mercier's  order,  the  old  priest  begged  pardon  of 
the  offended  governor  on  his  knees.1 

The  Jesuits  derived  great  power  from  the  confes- 
sional; and,  if  their  accusers  are  to  be  believed, 
they  employed  unusual  means  to  make  it  effective. 
Cavelier  de  la  Salle  says :  "  They  will  confess  nobody 
till  he  tells  his  name,  and  no  servant  till  he  tells  the 
name  of  his  master.  When  a  crime  is  confessed, 
they  insist  on  knowing  the  name  of  the  accomplice, 
as  well  as  all  the  circumstances,  with  the  greatest 
particularity.  Father  Chatelain  especially  never  fails 
to  do  this.  They  enter  as  it  were  by  force  into  the 
secrets  of  families,  and  thus  make  themselves  for- 
midable ;  for  what  cannot  be  done  by  a  clever  man 
devoted  to  his  work,  who  knows  all  the  secrets  of 
every  family ;  above  all,  when  he  permits  himself  to 
tell  them  when  it  is  for  his  interest  to  do  so  ?  "  2 

1  Mtmoire  d'Allet.    The  author  was  at  one  time  secretary  to 
Abbe*  Quelus.      The  paper  is  printed  in  the  Morale  pratique  des 
Je'suites.    The  above  is  one  of  many  curious  statements  which  it 
contains. 

2  La  Salle,  Memoire,  1678. 

27 


118  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.  [1663-1700, 

The  association  of  women  and  girls  known  as  the 
Congregation  of  the  Holy  Family,  which  was  formed 
under  Jesuit  auspices,  and  which  met  every  Thursday 
with  closed  doors  in  the  cathedral,  is  said  to  have 
been  very  useful  to  the  fathers  in  their  social  investi- 
gations.1 The  members  are  affirmed  to  have  been 
under  a  vow  to  tell  one  another  every  good  or  evil 
deed  they  knew  of  every  person  of  their  acquaintance; 
so  that  this  pious  gossip  became  a  copious  source  of 
information  to  those  in  a  position  to  draw  upon  it. 
In  Talon's  time  the  Congregation  of  the  Holy  Family 
caused  such  commotion  in  Quebec  that  he  asked  the 
council  to  appoint  a  commission  to  inquire  into  its 
proceedings.  He  was  touching  dangerous  ground. 
The  affair  was  presently  hushed,  and  the  application 
cancelled  on  the  register  of  the  council.2 

The  Jesuits  had  long  exercised  solely  the  function 
of  confessors  in  the  colony,  and  a  number  of  curious 
anecdotes  are  on  record  showing  the  reluctance  with 
which  they  admitted  the  secular  priests,  and  above 
all  the  Re*collets,  to  share  in  it.  The  Re'collets,  of 
whom  a  considerable  number  had  arrived  from  time 
to  time,  were  on  excellent  terms  with  the  civil 
powers,  and  were  popular  with  the  colonists;  but 
with  the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits  they  were  not  in 

1  See  "  La  Salle,  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great  West,"  111. 

a  Representation  faite  au  conseil  au  sujet  de  certaines  assemblies  de 
femmes  oufilles  sous  le  nom  de  la  Sainte  Famille,  1667.  (Registre  du 
Conseil  Souverain.)  The  paper  is  cancelled  by  lines  drawn  over  it ; 
and  the  following  minute,  duly  attested,  is  appended  to  it :  "  Raye 
du  consentement  de  M.  Talon." 


1663-1700.]  THE  RECOLLETS.  419 

favor,  and  one  or  two  sharp  collisions  took  place. 
The  bishop  was  naturally  annoyed  when,  while  he 
was  trying  to  persuade  the  King  that  a  curd  needed 
at  least  six  hundred  francs  a  year,  these  mendicant 
friars  came  forward  with  an  offer  to  serve  the  parishes 
for  nothing;  nor  was  he,  it  is  likely,  better  pleased 
when,  having  asked  the  hospital  nuns  eight  hundred 
francs  annually  for  two  masses  a  day  in  their  chapel, 
the  Re'collets  underbid  him,  and  offered  to  say  the 
masses  for  three  hundred.1  They,  on  their  part, 
complain  bitterly  of  the  bishop,  who,  they  say,  would 
gladly  have  ordered  them  out  of  the  colony,  but,  being 
unable  to  do  this,  tried  to  shut  them  up  in  their  con- 
vent, and  prevent  them  from  officiating  as  priests 
among  the  people.  "We  have  as  little  liberty,"  says 
the  Re'collet  writer,  "as  if  we  were  in  a  country  of 
heretics."  He  adds  that  the  inhabitants  ask  earnestly 
for  the  ministrations  of  the  friars,  but  that  the  bishop 
replies  with  invectives  and  calumnies  against  the 
Order;  and  that  when  the  Re'collets  absolve  a  peni- 
tent, he  often  annuls  the  absolution.2 

In    one    respect   this    Canadian   Church   militant 
achieved  a  complete  success.     Heresy  was  scoured 

1  "  Mon  dit  sieur  1'evesque  leur  fait  payer  (aux  hospitalieres  800  /. 
par  an  pour  deux  messes  qu'il  leur  fait  dire   par  ses  S^minaristes 
que  les  Re'collets  leurs  voisins  leur  offrent  pour  300  I."  —  La  Barre 
au  Ministre,  1682.  xl 

2  M e moire  instruct!/  contenant  laconduite  des  PP.  Recollets  rf^tion 
en  leurs  missions  de  Canada,  1684.     This  paper,  of  whichjns    Q£ 
fragment  is  preserved,  was  written  in  connection  with  a 

the  Recollets  with  the  bishop  who  opposed  their  attempt 
a  church  in  Quebec. 


420  PRIESTS  AND  PEOPLE.          [1662-1700. 

out  of  the  colony.  When  Maintenon  and  her  ghostly 
prompters  overcame  the  better  nature  of  the  King, 
and  wrought  on  his  bigotry  and  his  vanity  to  launch 
him  into  the  dragonnades;  when  violence  and  lust 
bore  the  crucifix  into  thousands  of  Huguenot  homes, 
and  the  land  reeked  with  nameless  infamies  ;  when 
churches  rang  with  Te  Deums,  and  the  heart  of 
France  withered  in  anguish,  —  when,  in  short,  this 
hideous  triumph  of  the  faith  was  won,  the  royal  tool 
of  priestly  ferocity  sent  orders  that  heresy  should  be 
treated  in  Canada  as  it  had  been  treated  in  France.  l 
The  orders  were  needless.  The  pious  Denonville 
replies,  "Praised  be  God!  there  is  not  a  heretic 
here."  He  adds  that  a  few  abjured  last  year,  and 
that  he  should  be  very  glad  if  the  King  would  make 
them  a  present.  The  Jesuits,  he  further  says,  go 
every  day  on  board  the  ships  in  the  harbor  to  look 
after  the  new  converts  from  France.2  Now  and  then 
at  a  later  day  a  real  or  suspected  Jansenist  found  his 
way  to  Canada,  and  sometimes  an  esprit  fort,  like  La 
Hontan,  came  over  with  the  troops  ;  but  on  the  whole 
a  community  more  free  from  positive  heterodoxy  per- 
haps never  existed  on  earth.  This  exemption  cost 
no  bloodshed.  What  it  did  cost  we  may  better  judge 
hereafter. 

If  Canada  escaped  the  dragonnades,   so  also   she 


du  Roy   a  Denonville,  31  Mai,  1686.     The  King  here 
a  j?ejhe  imprisonment  of  heretics  who  refuse  to  abjure,  or  the 
femmes  ouT  of  soldiers  on  them.    What  this  meant,  the  history  of 
Conseil  Soflades  will  show. 
and  the  fol'/^e  au  Ministre,  10  Nov.,  1686. 
du  consente 


1662-1700.]  THE  NUNS.  421 

escaped  another  infliction  from  which  a  neighboring 
colony  suffered  deplorably.  Her  peace  was  never 
much  troubled  by  witches.  They  were  held  to  exist, 
it  is  true ;  but  they  wrought  no  panic.  Mother  Mary 
of  the  Incarnation  reports  on  one  occasion  the  dis- 
covery of  a  magician  in  the  person  of  a  converted 
Huguenot  miller,  who,  being  refused  in  marriage  by 
a  girl  of  Quebec,  bewitched  her,  and  filled  the  house 
where  she  lived  with  demons,  which  the  bishop  tried 
in  vain  to  exorcise.  The  miller  was  thrown  into 
prison,  and  the  girl  sent  to  the  Hotel-Dieu,  where 
not  a  demon  dared  enter.  The  infernal  crew  took 
their  revenge  by  creating  a  severe  influenza  among 
the  citizens.1 

If  there  are  no  Canadian  names  on  the  calendar  of 
saints,  it  is  not  because  in  byways  and  obscure  places 
Canada  had  not  virtues  worthy  of  canonization. 
Not  alone  her  male  martyrs  and  female  devotees, 
whose  merits  have  found  a  chronicle  and  a  recog- 
nition; not  the  fantastic  devotion  of  Madame 
d'Ailleboust,  who,  lest  she  should  not  suffer  enough, 
took  to  herself  a  vicious  and  refractory  servant  girl, 
as  an  exercise  of  patience;  and  not  certainly  the 
medieval  pietism  of  Jeanne  Le  Ber,  the  venerated 
recluse  of  Montreal,  —  there  are  others  quite  as 
worthy  of  honor,  whose  names  have  died  from 
memory.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  self-abnegation 
more  complete  than  that  of  the  hospital  nuns  of 
Quebec  and  Montreal.  In  the  almost  total  absence 

1  Marie  de  1'Incarnation,  Lettre  de  —  Septembre,  1661. 


422  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.          [1662-17H. 

of  trained  and  skilled  physicians,  the  burden  of  the 
sick  and  wounded  fell  upon  them.  Of  the  two 
communities,  that  of  Montreal  was  the  more  wretch- 
edly destitute,  while  that  of  Quebec  was  exposed, 
perhaps,  to  greater  dangers.  Nearly  every  ship  from 
France  brought  some  form  of  infection,  and  all  infec- 
tion found  its  way  to  the  H6tel-Dieu  of  Quebec. 
The  nuns  died,  but  they  never  complained.  Removed 
from  the  arena  of  ecclesiastical  strife,  too  busy  for 
the  morbidness  of  the  cloister,  too  much  absorbed  in 
practical  benevolence  to  become  the  prey  of  illusions, 
they  and  their  sister  community  were  models  of  that 
benign  and  tender  charity  of  which  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  is  so  rich  in  examples.  Nor  should 
the  Ursulines  and  the  nuns  of  the  Congregation  be 
forgotten  among  those  who,  in  another  field  of  labor, 
have  toiled  patiently  according  to  their  light. 

Mademoiselle  Jeanne  Le  Ber  belonged  to  none 
of  these  sisterhoods.  She  was  the  favorite  daughter 
of  the  chief  merchant  of  Montreal,  —  the  same  who, 
with  the  help  of  his  money,  got  himself  ennobled. 
She  seems  to  have  been  a  girl  of  a  fine  and  sensitive 
nature;  ardent,  affectionate,  and  extremely  suscep- 
tible to  religious  impressions.  Religion  at  last  gained 
absolute  sway  over  her.  Nothing  could  appease  her 
longings  or  content  the  demands  of  her  excited  con- 
science but  an  entire  consecration  of  herself  to 
Heaven.  Constituted  as  she  was,  the  resolution 
must  have  cost  her  an  agony  of  mental  conflict. 
Her  story  is  a  strange,  and,  as  many  will  think,  a 


1662-1714.]  JEANNE   LE   BER.  423 

very  sad  one.  She  renounced  her  suitors,  and  wished 
to  renounce  her  inheritance ;  but  her  spiritual  directors, 
too  far-sighted  to  permit  such  a  sacrifice,  persuaded 
her  to  hold  fast  to  her  claims,  and  content  herself 
with  what  they  called  "poverty  of  heart."  Her 
mother  died,  and  her  father,  left  with  a  family  of 
young  children,  greatly  needed  her  help;  but  she 
refused  to  leave  her  chamber  where  she  had  immured 
herself.  Here  she  remained  ten  years,  seeing  nobody 
but  her  confessor  and  the  girl  who  brought  her  food. 
Once  only  she  emerged,  and  this  was  when  her 
brother  lay  dead  in  the  adjacent  room,  killed  in  a 
fight  with  the  English.  She  suddenly  appeared 
before  her  astonished  sisters,  stood  for  a  moment  in 
silent  prayer  by  the  body,  and  then  vanished  without 
uttering  a  word.  "Such,"  says  her  modern  biogra- 
pher, "was  the  sublimity  of  her  virtue  and  the 
grandeur  of  her  soul."  Not  content  with  this 
domestic  seclusion,  she  caused  a  cell  to  be  made 
behind  the  altar  in  the  newly  built  church  of  the 
Congregation,  and  here  we  will  permit  ourselves 
to  cast  a  stolen  glance  at  her  through  the  narrow 
opening  through  which  food  was  passed  in  to  her. 
Her  bed,  a  pile  of  straw  which  she  never  moved,  lest 
it  should  become  too  soft,  was  so  placed  that  her 
head  could  touch  the  partition  which  alone  separated 
it  from  the  Host  on  the  altar.  Here  she  lay  wrapped 
in  a  garment  of  coarse  gray  serge,  worn,  tattered, 
and  unwashed.  An  old  blanket,  a  stool,  a  spinning- 
wheel,  a  belt  and  shirt  of  haircloth,  a  scourge,  and  a 


424  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.          [1662-1714. 

pair  of  shoes  made  by  herself  of  the  husks  of  Indian- 
corn,  appear  to  have  formed  the  sum  of  her  furniture 
and  her  wardrobe.  Her  employments  were  spinning 
and  working  embroidery  for  churches.  She  remained 
in  this  voluntary  prison  about  twenty  years ;  and  the 
nun  who  brought  her  food  testifies  that  she  never 
omitted  a  mortification  or  a  prayer,  though  commonly 
in  a  state  of  profound  depression,  and  what  her 
biographer  calls  "complete  spiritual  aridity."  When 
her  mother  died,  she  had  refused  to  see  her;  and, 
long  after,  no  prayer  of  her  dying  father  could  draw 
her  from  her  cell.  "In  the  person  of  this  modest 
virgin,"  writes  her  reverend  eulogist,  "we  see,  with 
astonishment,  the  love  of  God  triumphant  over 
earthly  affection  for  parents,  and  a  complete  victory 
of  faith  over  reason  and  of  grace  over  nature." 

In  1711,  Canada  was  threatened  with  an  attack  by 
the  English;  and  Mademoiselle  Le  Ber  gave  the 
nuns  of  the  Congregation  an  image  of  the  Virgin  on 
which  she  had  written  a  prayer  to  protect  their 
granary  from  the  invaders.  Other  persons,  anxious 
for  a  similar  protection,  sent  her  images  to  write  upon ; 
but  she  declined  the  request.  One  of  the  disappointed 
applicants  then  stole  the  inscribed  image  from  the 
granary  of  the  Congregation,  intending  to  place  it  on 
his  own  when  the  danger  drew  near.  The  English, 
however,  did  not  come,  their  fleet  having  suffered  a 
ruinous  shipwreck  ascribed  to  the  prayers  of  Jeanne 
Le  Ber.  "  It  was, "  writes  the  Sulpitian  Belmont, 
"the  greatest  miracle  that  ever  happened  since  the 


1662-1714.]  JEANNE  LE   BER.  425 

days  of  Moses."  Nor  was  this  the  only  miracle  of 
which  she  was  the  occasion.  She  herself  declared 
that  once  when  she  had  broken  her  spinning-wheel, 
an  angel  came  and  mended  it  for  her.  Angels  also 
assisted  in  her  embroidery,  "no  doubt,"  says  Mother 
Juchereau,  "  taking  great  pleasure  in  the  society  of 
this  angelic  creature."  In  the  church  where  she  had 
secluded  herself,  an  image  of  the  Virgin  continued 
after  her  death  to  heal  the  lame  and  cure  the  sick.1 

Though  Jeanne  rarely  permitted  herself  to  speak, 
yet  some  oracular  utterance  of  the  sainted  recluse 
would  now  and  then  escape  to  the  outer  world. 
One  of  these  was  to  the  effect  that  teaching  poor 
girls  to  read,  unless  they  wanted  to  be  nuns,  was 
robbing  them  of  their  time.  Nor  was  she  far  wrong, 
for  in  Canada  there  was  very  little  to  read  except 
formulas  of  devotion  and  lives  of  saints.  The 
dangerous  innovation  of  a  printing-press  had  not 
invaded  the  colony,2  and  the  first  Canadian  news- 
paper dates  from  the  British  conquest. 

All  education  was  controlled  by  priests  or  nuns. 
The  ablest  teachers  in  Canada  were  the  Jesuits. 
Their  college  of  Quebec  was  three  years  older  than 
Harvard.  We  hear  at  an  early  date  of  public  dis- 
putations by  the  pupils,  after  the  pattern  of  those 

1  Faillon,  L' Heroine  chrttienne  du  Canada,  ou  Vie  de-Mlle.  Le  Ber. 
This  is  a  most  elaborate  and  eulogistic  life  of  the  recluse.     A 
shorter  account  of  her  will  be  found  in  Juchereau,  H6tel-Dieu.    She 
died  in  1714,  at  the  age  of  fifty-two. 

2  A  printing-press  was  afterwards  brought  to  Canada,  but  was. 
soon  sent  back  again. 


426  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.          [1663-1763. 

tournaments  of  barren  logic  which  preceded  the  reign 
of  inductive  reason  in  Europe,  and  of  which  the 
archetype  is  to  be  found  in  the  scholastic  duels  of  the 
Sorbonne.  The  boys  were  sometimes  permitted  to 
act  certain  approved  dramatic  pieces  of  a  religious 
character,  like  the  Sage  Visionnaire.  On  one  occa- 
sion they  were  allowed  to  play  the  Cid  of  Corneille, 
which,  though  remarkable  as  a  literary  work,  con- 
tained nothing  threatening  to  orthodoxy.  JThey  were 
taught  a  little  Latin,  a  little  rhetoric,  ami  a  little 
logic;  but  against  all  that  might  rouse  the  faculties 
to  independent  action,  the  Canadian  schools  pru- 
dently closed  their  doors.  There  was  then  no  rival 
population,  of  a  different  origin  and  a  different  faith, 
to  compel  competition  in  the  race  of  intelligence 
and  knowledge.  The  Church  stood  sole  mistress  of 
field.  Under  the  old  regime  the  real  object  of 
education  in  Canada  was  a  religious  and,  in  far  less 
degree,  a  political  one.  The  true  purpose  of  the 
schools  was :  first,  to  make  priests ;  and,  secondly,  to 
make  obedient^enTants  of  the  Church  and  the  King!\ 
All  the  rest  was  extraneous  and  of  slight  accoulf£7 
In  regard  to  this  matter,  the  King  and  the  bishop 
were  of  one  mind.  "As  I  have  been  informed," 
Louis  XIV.  writes  to  Laval,  "  of  your  continued  care 
to  hold  the  people  in  their  duty  towards  God  and 
towards  me  by  the  good  education  you  give  'or  cause 
to  be  given  to  the  young,  I  write  this  letter  to 
express  my  satisfaction  with  conduct  so  salutary, 
and  to  exhort  you  to  persevere  in  it.'*1 

1  Le  Roy  a  Laval,  9  Avril,  1667  (extract  in  Faillon). 


1663-1763.]    THE   INDUSTRIAL   SCHOOL.  427 

The  bishop  did  not  fail  to  persevere.  The  school 
for  boys  attached  to  his  seminary  became  the  most 
important  educational  institution  in  Canada.  It 
was  regulated  by  thirty-four  rules,  "  in  honor  of  the 
thirty-four  years  which  Jesus  lived  on  earth."  The 
qualities  commended  to  the  boys  as  those  which  they 
should  labor  diligently  to  acquire  were  "humility, 
obedience,  purity,  meekness,  modesty,  simplicity, 
chastity,  charity,  and  an  ardent  love  of  Jesus  and 
his  Holy  Mother."1  Here  is  a  goodly  roll  of  Chris- 
tian virtues.  What  is  chiefly  noticeable  in  it  is,  that 
truth  is  allowed  no  place.  That  manly  but  unaccom- 
modating virtue  was  not,  it  seems,  thought  important 
in  forming  the  mind  of  youth.  Humility  and  obedi- 
ence lead  the  list;  for  in  unquestioning  submission 
to  the  spiritual  director  lay  the  guaranty  of  all  other 
merits. 

tSKe  have  seen  already,  that,  besides  this  seminary 
for  boys,  Laval  established  another  for  educating 
the  humbler  colonists.  It  was  a  sort  of  farm-school ; 
though  besides  farming,  various  mechanical  trades 
were  also  taught  in  it.  It  was  well  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  a  great  majority  of  Canadians,  whose  ten- 
dencies were  anything  but  bookish;  but  here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  real  object  was  religious.  It  enabled 
the  Church  to  extend  her  influence  ov-er  classes 
which  the  ordinary  schools  could  not  reacL/  Besides 
manual  training,  the  pupils  were  taughr  to  read  and 

1  Ancien  r/fglement  du  Petit  Stminaire  de  Que'bec,  see  Abeille,  viil 


no. 


428  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.          [1663-1763. 

write;  and  for  a  time  a  certain  number  of  them 
received  some  instruction  in  Latin.  When,  in  1686, 
Saint- Vallier  visited  the  school,  he  found  in  all 
thirty-one  boys  under  the  charge  of  two  priests; 
but  the  number  was  afterwards  greatly  reduced,  and 
the  place  served,  as  it  still  serves,  chiefly  as  a  retreat 
during  vacations  for  the  priests  and  pupils  of  the 
seminary  of  Quebec.  A  spot  better  suited  for  such  a 
purpose  cannot  be  conceived. 

From  the  vast  meadows  of  the  parish  of  St. 
Joachim,  which  here  border  the  St.  Lawrence,  there 
rises  like  an  island  a  low  flat  hill,  hedged  round  with 
forests  like  the  tonsured  head  of  a  monk.  It  was 
here  that  Laval  planted  his  school.  Across  the 
meadows,  a  mile  or  more  distant,  towers  the  moun- 
tain promontory  of  Cape  Tourmente.  You  may  climb 
its  woody  steeps,  and  from  the  top,  waist-deep 
in  blueberry-bushes,  survey,  from  Kamouraska  to 
Quebec,  the  grand  Canadian  world  outstretched 
below;  or  mount  the  neighboring  heights  of  St. 
Anne,  where,  athwart  the  gaunt  arms  of  ancient 
pines,  the  river  lies  shimmering  in  summer  haze,  the 
cottages  of  the  habitants  are  strung  like  beads  of  a 
rosary  along  the  meadows  of  Beaupre*,  the  shores  of 
Orleans  bask  in  warm  light,  and  far  on  the  horizon 
the  rock  of  Quebec  rests  like  a  faint  gray  cloud ;  or 
traverse  the  forest  till  the  roar  of  the  torrent  guides 
you  to  the  rocky  solitude  where  it  hold£  its  savage 
revels.  High  on  the  cliffs  above,  young '  birch-trees 
stand  smiling  in  the  morning  sun ;  while  in  the  abyss 


^663-1763.]  SAINT   ANNE.  429 

beneath  the  snowy  waters  plunge  from  depth  to 
depth,  and,  halfway  down,  the  slender  harebell 
hangs  from  its  mossy  nook,  quivering  in  the  steady 
thunder  of  the  cataract.  Game  on  the  river;  trout 
in  lakes,  brooks,  and  pools ;  wild  fruits  and  flowers 
on  meadows  and  mountains,  —  a  thousand  resources 
of  honest  and  wholesome  recreation  here  wait  the 
student  emancipated  from  books,  but  not  parted  for  a 
moment  from  the  pious  influence  which  hangs  about 
the  old  walls  embosomed  in  the  woods  of  St.  Joachim. 
Around  on  plains  and  hills  stand  the  dwellings  of  a 
peaceful  peasantry,  as  different  from  the  restless 
population  of  the  neighboring  States  as  the  denizens 
of  some  Norman  or  Breton  village. 

Above  all,  do  not  fail  to  make  your  pilgrimage  to 
the  shrine  of  St.  Anne.  You  may  see  her  chapel 
four  or  five  miles  away,  nestled  under  the  heights  of 
the  Petit  Cap.  Here,  when  Ailleboust  was  governor, 
he  began  with  his  own  hands  the  pious  work,  and  a 
habitant  of  Beaupre*,  Louis  Guimont,  sorely  afflicted 
with  rheumatism,  came  grinning  with  pain  to  lay 
three  stones  in  the  foundation,  in  honor  probably  of 
Saint  Anne,  Saint  Joachim,  and  their  daughter  the 
Virgin.  Instantly  he  was  cured.  It  was  but  the 
beginning  of  a  long  course  of  miracles  continued 
more  than  two  centuries,  and  continuing  still.  Their 
fame  spread  far  and  wide.  The  devotion  to  Saint 
Anne  became  a  distinguishing  feature  of  Canadian 
Catholicity,  till  at  the  present  day  at  least  thirteen 
parishes  bear  her  name.  But  of  all  her  shrines,  none 


430  PRIESTS  AND  PEOPLE.          [1663-1763. 

can  match  the  fame  of  St.  Anne  du  Petit  Cap. 
Crowds  flocked  thither  on  the  week  of  her  festival, 
and  marvellous  cures  were  wrought  unceasingly,  as 
the  sticks  and  crutches  hanging  on  the  walls  and 
columns  still  attest.  Sometimes  the  whole  shore 
was  covered  with  the  wigwams  of  Indian  converts 
who  had  paddled  their  birch  canoes  from  the  farthest 
wilds  of  Canada.  The  more  fervent  among  them 
would  crawl  on  their  knees  from  the  shore  to  the 
altar.  And,  in  our  own  day,  every  summer  a  far 
greater  concourse  of  pilgrims  —  not  in  paint  and 
feathers,  but  in  cloth  and  millinery,  and  not  in 
canoes,  but  in  steamboats  —  bring  their  offerings 
and  their  vows  to  the  "Bonne  Sainte  Anne."1 

To  return  to  Laval's  industrial  school.  ^Judging 
from  repeated  complaints  of  governors  and  intendants 
of  the  dearth  of  skilled  workmen,  the  priests  in 
charge  of  it  were  more  successful  in  making  good 
Catholics  than  in  making  good  masons,  carpenters, 
blacksmiths,  and  weaversjf\and  the  number  of  pupils, 
even  if  well  trained,  was  at  no  time  sufficient  to  meet 
the  wants  of  the  colony,2  for,  though  the  Canadians 

1  For  an  interesting  account  of  the  shrine  at  the  Petit  Cap,  see 
Casgrain,  Le  Ptterinage  de  la  Bonne  Sainte  Anne,  a  little  manual  of 
devotion  printed  at  Quebec.    I  chanced  to  visit  the  old  chapel  in 
1871,  during  a  meeting  of  the  parish  to  consider  the  question  of  re- 
constructing it,  as  it  was  in  a  ruinous  state.    Passing  that  way  again 
two  years  later,  I  found  the  old  chapel  still  standing,  and  a  new  one, 
much  larger,  half  finished. 

2  Most  of  them  were  moreover  retained,  after  leaving  the  school, 
by  the  seminary,  as  servants,  farmers,  or  vassals.     (La  Tour,  Vie  d« 
Laval,  liv.  vi.) 


1663-1763.]  RESULTS.  431 

showed  an  aptitude  for  mechanical  trades,  they  pre- 
ferred above  all  things  the  savage  liberty  of  the 
backwoods. 

The  education  of  girls  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Ursulines  and  the  nuns  of  the  Congregation,  of  whom 
the  former,  besides  careful  instruction  in  religious 
duties,  taught  their  pupils  "  all  that  a  girl  ought  to 
know."1  This  meant  exceedingly  little  besides  the 
manual  arts  suited  to  their  sex ;  and,  in  the  case  of 
the  nuns  of  the  Congregation,  who  taught  girls  of 
the  poorer  class,  it  meant  still  less.  It  was  on  nuns 
as  well  as  on  priests  that  the  charge  fell,  not  only  of 
spiritual  and  mental,  but  also  of  industrial,  training. 
Thus  we  find  the  King  giving  to  a  sisterhood  of 
Montreal  a  thousand  francs  to  buy  wool,  and  a  thou- 
sand more  for  teaching  girls  to  knit.2  The  King  also 
maintained  a  teacher  of  navigation  and  surveying  at 
Quebec  on  the  modest  salary  of  four  hundred  francs. 

During  the  eighteenth  century,  some  improvement 
is  perceptible  in  the  mental  state  of  the  population. 
As  it  became  more  numerous  and  more  stable,  it 
also  became  less  ignorant ;  and  the  Canadian  habitant^ 
towards  the  end  of  the  French  rule,  was  probably 
better  taught,  so  far  as  concerned  religion,  than  the 
mass  of  French  peasants.  Yet  secular  instruction 
was  still  extremely  meagre,  even  in  the  noblesse. 

1  "  A  lire,  a  e'crire,  Ics  prieres*  les  moeurs-  cliretiennes,  et  tout  ce 
qu'une  fille  doit  savoir."  —  Marie  de  FIncarnation,  Lettre  du  9  Aoutt 
1668. 

3  Denonville  au  Ministre,  13  Nov.,  1685. 


432  PRIESTS   AND  PEOPLE.  [1663-1763 

"In  spite  of  this  defective  education,"  says  the 
famous  navigator,  Bougainville,  who  knew  the  colony 
well  in  its  last  years,  "  the  Canadians  are  naturally 
intelligent.  They  do  not  know  how  to  write,  but 
they  speak  with  ease,  and  with  an  accent  as  good  as 
the  Parisian."1  He  means,  of  course,  the  better 
class.  "Even  the  children  of  officers  and  gentle- 
men," says  another  writer,  "scarcely  know  how  to 
read  and  write;  they  are  ignorant  of  the  first  ele- 
ments of  geography  and  history."2  And  evidence 
like  this  might  be  extended. 

When  France  was  heaving  with  the  throes  that 
prepared  the  Revolution;  when  new  hopes,  new 
dreams,  new  thoughts  —  good  and  evil,  false  and  true 
—  tossed  the  troubled  waters  of  French  society,  — 
Canada  caught  something  of  its  social  corruption, 
but  not  the  faintest  impulsion  of  its  roused  mental 
life.  The  torrent  surged  on  its  way;  while,  in  the 
deep  nook  beside  it,  the  sticks  and  dry  leaves  floated 
their  usual  round,  and  the  unruffled  pool  slept  in  the 
placidity  of  intellectual  torpor.8 

1  Bougainville,  Memmre  de  1757  (see  Margry,  Relations  intdites). 

2  Mtmoire  de  1736 ;  Detail  de  toute  la  Colonie  (published  by  the 
Hist.  Soc.  of  Quebec). 

'  8  Several  Frenchmen  of  a  certain  intellectual  eminence  made 
their  abode  in :  Canada  from  time  to  time.  The  chief  among  them 
are  the  Jesuit  Lafitau,  author  of  MCE.UTS  des  Sauvages  Amtfricains ; 
the  Jesuit  Charlevoix,  traveller  and  historian  ;  the  physician  Sarra- 
zin ;  and  the  Marquis  de  la  Galisonniere,  the  most  enlightened  of 
the  French  governors  of  Canada.  Sarrazin,  a  naturalist  as  well  as 
a  physician,  has  left  his  name  to  the  botanical  genus  Sarracenia,  of 
which  the  curious  American  species,  S,  purpurea,  the  "pitcher- 


1663-1763.]  MICHEL   SARRAZIN.  433 

plant,"  was  described  by  him.  His  position  in  the  colony  was  sin- 
gular and  characteristic.  He  got  little  or  no  pay  from  his  patients ; 
and  though  at  one  time  the  only  genuine  physician  in  Canada 
( Callieres  et  Beauharnois  au  Ministre,  3  Nov.,  1702),  he  was  dependent 
on  the  King  for  support.  In  1699  we  find  him  thanking  his  Majesty 
for  300  francs  a  year,  and  asking  at  the  same  time  for  more,  as  he 
has  nothing  else  to  live  on.  ( Callieres  et  Champigny  au  Ministre,  20 
Oct.,  1699.)  Two  years  later  the  governor  writes,  that,  as  he  serves 
almost  everybody  without  fees,  he  ought  to  have  another  300  francs. 
(Ibid.,  5  Oct.,  1701.)  The  additional  300  francs  was  given  him;  but, 
finding  it  insufficient,  he  wanted  to  leave  the  colony.  "  He  is  too 
useful,"  writes  the  governor  again;  "we  cannot  let  him  go."  His 
yearly  pittance  of  600  francs,  French  money,  was  at  one  time  rein- 
forced by  his  salary  as  member  of  the  Superior  Council.  He  died 
at  Quebec  in  1734. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

1640-1763. 
MORALS  AND  MANNERS. 

SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TROOPS.  —  A  PETTY  TYRANT.  —  BRAWLS. 
—  VIOLENCE  AND  OUTLAWRY.  —  STATE  OF  THE  POPULATION. — 
VIEWS  OF  DENONVILLE.  —  BRANDY.  —  BEGGARY.  —  THE  PAST 
AND  THE  PRESENT.  —  INNS.  —  STATE  OF  QUEBEC.  —  FIRES.  —  THE 
COUNTRY  PARISHES.  —  SLAVERY.  —  VIEWS  OF  LA  HONTAN,  —  OF 
HOCQUART;  OF  BOUGAINVILLE;  OF  KALM;  OF  CHARLEVOIX. 

THE  mission  period  of  Canada,  or  the  period 
anterior  to  the  year  1663,  when  the  King  took  the 
colony  in  charge,  has  a  character  of  its  own.  The 
whole  population  did  not  exceed  that  of  a  large 
French  village.  Its  extreme  poverty,  the  constant 
danger  that  surrounded  it,  and,  above  all,  the  con- 
tagious zeal  of  the  missionaries,  saved  it  from  many 
vices,  and  inspired  it  with  an  extraordinary  religious 
fervor.  Without  doubt  an  ideal  picture  has  been 
drawn  of  this  early  epoch.  Trade  as  well  as  propa- 
gandism  was  the  business  of  the  colony,  and  the 
colonists  were  far  from  being  all  in  a  state  of  grace ; 
yet  it  is  certain  that  zeal  was  higher,  devotion  more 
constant,  and  popular  morals  more  pure,  than  at  any 
later  period  of  the  French  rule. 


1663-73.]  CHANGE   OF   MANNERS.  435 

The  intervention  of  the  King  wrought  a  change. 
The  annual  shipments  of  emigrants  made  by  him 
were,  in  the  most  favorable  view,  of  a  very  mixed 
character,  and  the  portion  which  Mother  Mary  calls 
canaille  was  but  too  conspicuous.  Along  with  them 
came  a  regiment  of  soldiers  fresh  from  the  license  of 
camps  and  the  excitements  of  Turkish  wars,  accus- 
tomed to  obey  their  officers  and  to  obey  nothing  else, 
and  more  ready  to  wear  the  scapulary  of  the  Virgin 
in  campaigns  against  the  Mohawks  than  to  square 
their  lives  by  the  rules  of  Christian  ethics.  "Our 
good  King,"  writes  Sister  Morin,  of  Montreal,  "has 
sent  troops  to  defend  us  from  the  Iroquois,  and  the 
soldiers  and  officers  have  ruined  the  Lord's  vineyard, 
and  planted  wickedness  and  sin  and  crime  in  our  soil 
of  Canada."1  Few,  indeed,  among  the  officers  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  one  of  their  number,  —  Paul 
Dupuy,  who,  in  his  settlement  of  Isle  aux  Oies, 
below  Quebec,  lived,  it  is  said,  like  a  saint,  and  on 
Sundays  and  fete  days  exhorted  his  servants  and 
habitants  with  such  unction  that  their  eyes  filled  with 
tears.2  Nor,  let  us  hope,  were  there  many  imitators 
of  Major  La  Frediere,  who,  with  a  company  of  the 
regiment,  was  sent  to  garrison  Montreal,  where  he 
ruled  with  absolute  sway  over  settlers  and  soldiers 
alike.  His  countenance  naturally  repulsive  was 
made  more  so  by  the  loss  of  an  eye ;  yet  he  was  irre- 
pressible in  gallantry,  and  women  and  girls  fled  in 

1  Annales  de  l'H6tel-Dieu  St.  Joseph,  cited  by  Faillon. 

2  Juchereau,  Hdtel-Dieu  de  Quebec,  611. 


436  MORALS   AND  MANNERS.  [1663-73 

terror  from  the  military  Polyphemus.  The  men,  too, 
feared  and  hated  him,  not  without  reason.  One 
morning  a  settler  named  Demers  was  hoeing  his  field, 
when  he  saw  a  sportsman  gun  in  hand  striding 
through  his  half -grown  wheat.  "Steady  there, 
steady !  "  he  shouted  in  a  tone  of  remonstrance ;  but 
the  sportsman  gave  no  heed.  "  Why  do  you  spoil  a 
poor  man's  wheat?"  cried  the  outraged  cultivator. 
"If  I  knew  who  you  were,  I  would  go  and  com- 
plain of  you."  "Whom  would  you  complain  to?" 
demanded  the  sportsman,  who  then  proceeded  to 
walk  back  into  the  middle  of  the  wheat,  and  called 
out  to  Demers,  "  You  are  a  rascal,  and  I  '11  thrash 
you."  "Look  at  home  for  rascals,"  retorted  Demers, 
"  and  keep  your  thrashing  for  your  dogs. "  The  sports- 
man came  towards  him  in  a  rage  to  execute  his  threat. 
Demers  picked  up  his  gun,  which,  after  the  custom 
of  the  time,  he  had  brought  to  the  field  with  him, 
and,  advancing  to  meet  his  adversary,  recognized  La 
FrediSre,  the  commandant.  On  this  he  ran  off.  La 
Frediere  sent  soldiers  to  arrest  him,  threw  him  into 
prison,  put  him  in  irons,  and  the  next  day  mounted 
him  on  the  wooden  horse,  with  a  weight  of  sixty 
pounds  tied  to  each  foot.  He  repeated  the  torture 
a  day  or  two  after,  and  then  let  his  victim  go,  saying, 
"If  I  could  have  caught  you  when  I  was  in  your 
wheat,  I  would  have  beaten  you  well." 

The  commandant  next  turned  his  quarters  into  a 
dram-shop  for  Indians,  to  whom  he  sold  brandy  in 
large  quantities,  but  so  diluted  that  his  customers, 


1663-73.]  BRAWLS.  437 

finding  themselves  partially  defrauded  of  their  right 
of  intoxication,  complained  grievously.  About  this 
time  the  intendant  Talon  made  one  of  his  domiciliary 
visits  to  Montreal,  and  when,  in  his  character  of 
father  of  the  people,  he  inquired  if  they  had  any 
complaints  to  make,  every  tongue  was  loud  in  accusa- 
tion against  La  FredieTe.  Talon  caused  full  deposi- 
tions to  be  made  out  from  the  statements  of  Demers 
and  other  witnesses.  Copies  were  deposited  in  the 
hands  of  the  notary,  and  it  is  from  these  that  the 
above  story  is  drawn.  The  tyrant  was  removed,  and 
ordered  home  to  France.1 

Many  other  officers  embarked  in  the  profitable 
trade  of  selling  brandy  to  Indians,  and  several  garri- 
son posts  became  centres  of  disorder.  Others  of 
the  regiment  became  notorious  brawlers.  A  lieu- 
tenant of  the  garrison  of  Montreal  named  Carion, 
and  an  ensign  named  Morel,  had  for  some  reason 
conceived  a  violent  grudge  against  another  ensign 
named  Lormeau.  On  Pentecost  day,  just  after 
vespers,  Lormeau  was  walking  by  the  river  with  his 
wife.  They  had  passed  the  common  and  the  semi- 
nary wall,  and  were  in  front  of  the  house  of  the 
younger  Charles  Le  Moyne,  when  they  saw  Carion 
coming  towards  them.  He  stopped  before  Lormeau, 
looked  him  full  in  the  face,  and  exclaimed,  "  Coward!  " 
"Coward  yourself,"  returned  Lormeau;  "take  your 

1  Information  contre  La  Freditre.  (See  Faillon,  Colonie  Fran$aise^ 
iii.  386.)  The  dialogue,  as  here  given  from  the  depositions,  is 
translated  as  closely  as  possible. 


438  MORALS  AND  MANNERS.  [1663-73. 

self  off!"  Carion  drew  his  sword,  and  Lormeau 
followed  his  example.  They  exchanged  a  few  passes, 
then  closed,  and  fell  to  the  ground  grappled  together. 
Lormeau's  wig  fell  off;  and  Carion,  getting  the 
uppermost,  hammered  his  bare  head  with  the  hilt  of 
his  sword.  Lormeau's  wife,  in  a  frenzy  of  terror, 
screamed  murder.  One  of  the  neighbors,  Monsieur 
Bel£tre,  was  at  table  with  Charles  Le  Moyne  and  a 
Rochelle  merchant  named  Baston.  He  ran  out  with 
his  two  guests,  and  they  tried  to  separate  the  com- 
batants, who  still  lay  on  the  ground  foaming  like  a 
pair  of  enraged  bull-dogs.  All  their  efforts  were 
useless.  "Very  well,"  said  Le  Moyne  in  disgust, 
"if  you  won't  let  go,  then  kill  each  other  if  you 
like."  A  former  military  servant  of  Carion  now  ran 
up,  and  began  to  brandish  his  sword  in  behalf  of  his 
late  master.  Carion's  comrade,  Morel,  also  arrived, 
and,  regardless  of  the  angry  protest  of  Le  Moyne, 
stabbed  repeatedly  at  Lormeau  as  he  lay.  Lormeau 
had  received  two  or  three  wounds  in  the  hand  and 
arm  with  which  he  parried  the  thrusts,  and  was 
besides  severely  mauled  by  the  sword-hilt  of  Carion, 
when  two  Sulpitian  priests,  drawn  by  the  noise, 
appeared  on  the  scene.  One  was  Fre*mont,  the  cur6 ; 
the  other  was  Dollier  de  Casson.  That  herculean 
father,  whose  past  soldier  life  had  made  him  at  home 
in  a  fray,  and  who  cared  nothing  for  drawn  swords, 
set  himself  at  once  to  restore  peace,  —  upon  which, 
whether  from  the  strength  of  his  arm,  or  the  mere 
effect  of  his  presence,  the  two  champions  released 


1663-73.]       THE   OUTLAW  OF  MONTREAL.  439 

their  gripe  on  each  other's   throats,   rose,   sheathed 
their  weapons,  and  left  the  field.1 

Montreal,  a  frontier  town  at  the  head  of  the  colony, 
was  the  natural  resort  of  desperadoes,  offering,  as  we 
have  seen,  a  singular  contrast  between  the  rigor  of 
its  clerical  seigniors  and  the  riotous  license  of  the 
lawless  crew  which  infested  it.  Dollier  de  Casson 
tells  the  story  of  an  outlaw  who  broke  prison  ten  or 
twelve  times,  and  whom  no  walls,  locks,  or  fetters 
could  hold.  "A  few  months  ago,"  he  says,  "he  was 
caught  again,  and  put  into  the  keeping  of  six  or 
seven  men,  each  with  a  good  gun.  They  stacked 
their  arms  to  play  a  game  of  cards,  which  their 
prisoner  saw  fit  to  interrupt  to  play  a  game  of  his 
own.  He  made  a  jump  at  the  guns,  took  them  under 
his  arm  like  so  many  feathers,  aimed  at  these  fellows 
with  one  of  them,  swearing  that  he  would  kill  the 
first  who  came  near  him,  and  so,  falling  back  step 
by  step,  at  last  bade  them  good-by,  and  carried  off 
all  their  guns.  Since  then  he  has  not  been  caught, 
and  is  roaming  the  woods.  Very  likely  he  will 
become  chief  of  our  banditti,  and  make  great  trouble 
in  the  country  when  it  pleases  him  to  come  back 
from  the  Dutch  settlements,  whither  they  say  he  is 
gone  along  with  another  rascal,  and  a  French  woman 
so  depraved  that  she  is  said  to  have  given  or  sold 
two  of  her  children  to  the  Indians."2 

1  Requete  de  Lormeau  a  M,  d'Aillebout.  Depositions  de  MM.  de 
Longueuil  [Le  Moyne]  de  Boston,  de  Beletre,  et  autres.  Cited  by 
Faillon,  Colonie  Fran$aise,  iii.  393. 

*  Dollier  de  Casson,  Histoire  de  Montreal,  1671-72. 


440  MORALS   AND  MANNERS.  [1670-90 

When  the  governor,  La  Barre,  visited  Montreal, 
he  found  there  some  two  hundred  reprobates  gam- 
bling, drinking,  and  stealing.  If  hard  pressed  by 
justice,  they  had  only  to  cross  the  river  and  place 
themselves  beyond  the  seigniorial  jurisdiction.  The 
military  settlements  of  the  Richelieu  were  in  a  condi- 
tion somewhat  similar,  and  La  Barre  complains  of  a 
prevailing  spirit  of  disobedience  and  lawlessness.1 
The  most  orderly  and  thrifty  part  of  Canada  appears 
to  have  been  at  this  time  the  cdte  of  Beaupre",  belong- 
ing to  the  seminary  of  Quebec.  Here  the  settlers 
had  religious  instruction  from  their  curds,  and  indus- 
trial instruction  also  if  they  wanted  it.  Domestic 
spinning  and  weaving  were  practised  at  Beaupre' 
sooner  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  colony. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  a  population  which  in 
La  Barre 's  time  did  not  exceed  ten  thousand,  and 
which  forty  years  later  did  not  much  exceed  twice 
that  number,  was  scattered  along  both  sides  of  a 
great  river  for  three  hundred  miles  or  more ;  that  a 
large  part  of  this  population  was  in  isolated  groups 
of  two,  three,  five,  ten,  or  twenty  houses  at  the  edge 
of  a  savage  wilderness ;  that  between  them  there  was 
little  communication  except  by  canoes;  that  the 
settlers  were  disbanded  soldiers,  or  others  whose 
lives  had  been  equally  adverse  to  habits  of  reflection 
or  self-control;  that  they  rarely  saw  a  priest,  and 
that  a  government  omnipotent  in  name  had  not  arms 
long  enough  to  reach  them,  —  we  may  listen  without 

1  La  Barre  au  Ministre,  4  Nov.,  1683. 


1670-90.]  SOCIAL   DISORDER.  441 

surprise  to  the  lamentations  of  order-loving  officials 
over  the  unruly  condition  of  a  great  part  of  the  colony. 
One  accuses  the  seigniors,  who,  he  says,  being  often 
of  low  extraction,  cannot  keep  their  vassals  in  order.1 
Another  dwells  sorrowfully  on  the  "terrible  disper- 
sion "  of  the  settlements  where  the  inhabitants  "  live 
in  a  savage  independence."  But  it  is  better  that 
each  should  speak  for  himself,  and  among  the  rest 
let  us  hear  the  pious  Denonville. 

"This,  Monseigneur, "  he  says,  "seems  to  me  the 
place  for  rendering  you  an  account  of  the  disorders 
which  prevail  not  only  in  the  woods,  but  also  in  the 
settlements.  They  arise  from  the  idleness  of  young 
persons,  and  the  great  liberty  which  fathers,  mothers, 
and  guardians  have  for  a  long  time  given  them,  or 
allowed  them  to  assume,  of  going  into  the  forest 
under  pretence  of  hunting  or  trading.  This  has 
come  to  such  a  pass,  that,  from  the  moment  a  boy 
can  carry  a  gun,  the  father  cannot  restrain  him  and 
dares  not  offend  him.  You  can  judge  the  mischief 
that  follows.  These  disorders  are  always  greatest  in 
the  families  of  those  who  are  gentilshommes,  or  who 
through  laziness  or  vanity  pass  themselves  off  as 
such.  Having  no  resource  but  hunting,  they  must 
spend  their  lives  in  the  woods,  where  they  have  no 
cure's  to  trouble  them,  and  no  fathers  or  guardians  to 
constrain  them.  I  think,  Monseigneur,  .that  martial 
law  would  suit  their  case  better  than  any  judicial 
sentence.  Monsieur  de  la  Barre  suppressed  a  certain 

1  Catalogne,  Mtmoire  address^  au  Ministre,  1712. 


442  MORALS   AND  MANNERS.  [1670-90. 

order  of  knighthood  which  had  sprung  up  here,  but 
he  did  not  abolish  the  usages  belonging  to  it.  It  was 
thought  a  fine  thing  and  a  good  joke  to  go  about 
naked  and  tricked  out  like  Indians,  not  only  on 
carnival  days,  but  on  all  other  days  of  feasting  and 
debauchery.  These  practices  tend  to  encourage  the 
disposition  of  our  young  men  to  live  like  savages, 
frequent  their  company,  and  be  forever  unruly  and 
lawless  like  them.  I  cannot  tell  you,  Monseigneur, 
how  attractive  this  Indian  life  is  to  all  our  youth.  It 
consists  in  doing  nothing,  caring  for  nothing,  follow- 
ing every  inclination,  and  getting  out  of  the  way  of 
all  correction." 

He  goes  on  to  say  that  the  mission  villages  gov- 
erned by  the  Jesuits  and  Sulpitians  are  models  of 
good  order,  and  that  drunkards  are  never  seen  there 
except  when  they  come  from  the  neighboring  French 
settlements ;  but  that  the  other  Indians,  who  roam  at 
large  about  the  colony,  do  prodigious  mischief,  because 
the  children  of  the  seigniors  not  only  copy  their  way 
of  life,  but  also  run  off  with  their  women  into  the 
woods.1  " Nothing, "  he  continues,  "can  be  finer  or 
better  conceived  than  the  regulations  framed  for  the 
government  of  this  country;  but  nothing,  I  assure 
you,  is  so  ill  observed  as  regards  both  the  fur-trade 

1  Raudot,  who  was  intendant  early  in,  the  eighteenth  century,  i§ 
a  little  less  gloomy  in  his  coloring,  but  says  that  Canadian  children 
were  without  discipline  or  education,  had  no  respect  for  parents  or 
cure's,  and  owned  no  superiors.  This,  he  thinks,  is  owing  to  "la 
folle  tendresse  des  parents  qui  les  empeche  de  les  corriger  et  de  leur 
former  le  caractere  qu'ils  ont  dur  et  f^roce." 


1670-90.]  SOCIAL   DISORDER.  443 

and  the  general  discipline  of  the  colony.  One  great 
evil  is  the  infinite  number  of  drinking-shops,  which 
makes  it  almost  impossible  to  remedy  the  disorders 
resulting  from  them.  All  the  rascals  and  idlers  of 
the  country  are  attracted  into  this  business  of  tavern- 
keeping.  They  never  dream  of  tilling  the  soil ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  they  deter  the  other  inhabitants 
from  it,  and  end  with  ruining  them.  I  know  seign- 
iories where  there  are  but  twenty  houses,  and  more 
than  half  of  them  dram-shops.  At  Three  Rivers 
there  are  twenty-five  houses,  and  liquor  may  be  had 
at  eighteen  or  twenty  of  them.  Villemarie  [Montreal] 
and  Quebec  are  on  the  same  footing." 

The  governor  next  dwells  on  the  necessity  of  find- 
ing occupation  for  children  and  youths,  —  a  matter 
which  he  regards  as  of  the  last  importance.  "  It  is 
sad  to  see  the  ignorance  of  the  population  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  abodes  of  the  cur6s,  who  are  put  to 
the  greatest  trouble  to  remedy  the  evil  by  travelling 
from  place  to  place  through  the  parishes  in  their 
charge."1 

La  Barre,  Champigny,  and  Duchesneau  write  in  a 
similar  strain.  Bishop  Saint- Vallier,  in  an  epistolary 
journal  which  he  printed  of  a  tour  through  the  colony 
made  on  his  first  arrival,  gives  a  favorable  account  of 
the  disposition  of  the  people,  especially  as  regards 
religion.  He  afterwards  changed  his  views.  An 
abstract  made  from  his  letters  for  the  use  of  the 
King  states  that  he  "represents,  like  M.  Denonville, 

1  Denonville  au  Ministre  13  Nov.,  1685. 


444  MORALS   AND  MANNERS.  [1670-90 

that  the  Canadian  youth  are  for  the  most  part  wholl} 
demoralized."1 

"The  bishop  was  very  sorry,"  says  a  correspondent 
of  the  minister  at  Quebec,  "  to  have  so  much  exag- 
gerated in  the  letter  he  printed  at  Paris  the  morality 
of  the  people  here."2  He  preached  a  sermon  on  the 
sins  of  the  inhabitants  and  issued  a  pastoral  mandate, 
in  which  he  says,  "Before  we  knew  our  flock  we 
thought  that  the  English  and  the  Iroquois  were  the 
only  wolves  we  had  to  fear;  but  God  having  opened 
our  eyes  to  the  disorders  of  this  diocese,  and  made  us 
feel  more  than  ever  the  weight  of  our  charge,  we  are 
forced  to  confess  that  our  most  dangerous  foes  are 
drunkenness,  luxury,  impurity,  and  slander."3 

Drunkenness  was  at  this  time  the  most  destructive 
vice  in  the  colony.  One  writer  declares  that  most 
of  the  Canadians  drink  so  much  brandy  in  the  morn- 
ing that  they  are  unfit  for  work  all  day.4  Another 
says  that  a  canoe-man  when  he  is  tired  will  lift  a  keg 
of  brandy  to  his  lips  and  drink  the  raw  liquor  from 
the  bung-hole,  after  which,  having  spoiled  his  appe- 
tite, he  goes  to  bed  supperless ;  and  that,  what  with 
drink  and  hardship,  he  is  an  old  man  at  forty. 
Nevertheless  the  race  did  not  deteriorate.  The  pre- 
valence of  early  marriages,  and  the  birth  of  numer- 
ous offspring  before  the  vigor  of  the  father  had  been 

1  N.  Y.  Colonial  Documents,  ix.  278.  2  Ibid.,  ix.  388. 

*  Ordonnance  contre  les  vices  de  I'ivrognerie,  luxe,  et  impurete',  31  Oct ., 
1690. 

*  N.  Y.  Colonial  Documents,  ix.  398. 


1670-1715.]  IMPROVEMENT.  445 

wasted,  insured  the  strength  and  hardihood  which 
characterized  the  Canadians.  As  Denonville  describes 
them,  so  they  long  remained.  "The  Canadians  are 
tall,  well-made,  and  well  set  on  their  legs  [bien 
plantes  sur  leurs  jambes],  robust,  vigorous,  and  accus- 
tomed in  time  of  need  to  live  on  little.  They  have 
intelligence  and  vivacity,  but  are  wayward,  light- 
minded,  and  inclined  to  debauchery.'* 

As  the  population  increased,  as  the  rage  for  bush- 
ranging  began  to  abate,  and,  above  all,  as  the  cures 
multiplied,  a  change  took  place  for  the  better.  More 
churches  were  built,  the  charge  of  each  priest  was 
reduced  within  reasonable  bounds,  and  a  greater 
proportion  of  the  inhabitants  remained  on  their  farms. 
They  were  better  watched,  controlled,  and  taught  by 
the  Church.  The  ecclesiastical  power,  wherever  it 
had  a  hold,  was  exercised,  as  we  have  seen,  with  an 
undue  rigor,  yet  it  was  the  chief  guardian  of  good 
morals ;  and  the  colony  grew  more  orderly  and  more 
temperate  as  the  Church  gathered  more  and  more  of 
its  wild  and  wandering  flock  fairly  within  its  fold. 
In  this,  however,  its  success  was  but  relative.  It  is 
true  that  in  1715  a  well-informed  writer  says  that  the 
people  were  "  perfectly  instructed  in  religion ;  " J  but 
at  that  time  the  statement  was  only  partially  true. 

During  the  seventeenth  century,  and  some  time 
after  its  close,  Canada  swarmed  with  beggars,  —  a 
singular  feature  in  a  new  country  where  a  good  farm 
could  be  had  for  the  asking.  In  countries  intensely 

1  Mfmoire  address?  au  Regent. 


446  MORALS  AND  MANNERS.        [1670-1700. 

Roman  Catholic  begging  is  not  regarded  as  an 
unmixed  evil,  being  supposed  to  promote  two  cardinal 
virtues,  —  charity  in  the  giver,  and  humility  in  the 
receiver.  The  Canadian  officials  nevertheless  tried 
to  restrain  it.  Vagabonds  of  both  sexes  were  ordered 
to  leave  Quebec,  and  nobody  was  allowed  to  beg 
without  a  certificate  of  poverty  from  the  cur6  or  the 
local  judge.1  These  orders  were  not  always  observed. 
Bishop  Saint- Vallier  writes  that  he  is  overwhelmea 
by  beggars,2  and  the  intendant  echoes  his  complaint 
Almshouses  were  established  at  Montreal,  Three 
Rivers,  and  Quebec ; 3  and  when  Saint- Vallier  founded 
the  General  Hospital,  its  chief  purpose  was  to  serve, 
not  as  a  hospital  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word, 
but  as  a  house  of  refuge,  after  the  plan  of  the  General 
Hospital  of  Paris.4  Appeal,  as  usual,  was  made  to 
the  King.  Denonville  asks  his  aid  for  two  destitute 
families,  and  says  that  many  others  need  it.  Louis 
XIV.  did  not  fail  to  respond,  and  from  time  to  time 
he  sent  considerable  sums  for  the  relief  of  the  Cana- 
dian poor.6 
Denonville  says,  "The  principal  reason  of  the 

1  Rtglement  de  Police,  1676. 

2  2V.  Y.  Colonial  Documents,  ix.  279. 
8  tfdits  et  Ordonnances,  ii.  119. 

4  On  the  General  Hospital  of  Quebec,  see  Juchereau,  355.  In 
1692,  the  minister  writes  to  Frontenac  and  Champigny  that  they 
should  consider  well  whether  this  house  of  refuge  will  not  "  aug- 
menter  la  faine'antise  parmi  les  habitans,"  by  giving  them  a  sure 
support  in  poverty. 

6  As  late  as  1701  six  thousand  livres  were  granted.  Callieres  au 
Ministre,  4  Nov.,  1701. 


1670-1700.]  POVERTY.  447 

poverty  of  this  country  is  the  idleness  and  bad  con- 
duct of  most  of  the  people.  The  greater  part  of  the 
women,  including  all  the  demoiselles,  are  very  lazy."1 
Meules  proposes  as  a  remedy  that  the  King  should 
establish  a  general  workshop  in  the  colony,  and  pay 
the  workmen  himself  during  the  first  five  or  six 
years.2  "The  persons  here,"  he  says,  "who  have 
wished  to  make  a  figure  are  nearly  all  so  overwhelmed 
with  debt  that  they  may  be  considered  as  in  the  last 
necessity."3  He  adds  that  many  of  the  people  go 
half -naked  even  in  winter.  "  The  merchants  of  this 
country,"  says  the  intendant  Duchesneau,  "are  all 
plunged  in  poverty,  except  five  or  six  at  the  most;  it 
is  the  same  with  the  artisans,  except  a  small  number, 
because  the  vanity  of  the  women  and  the  debauchery 
of  the  men  consume  all  their  gains.  As  for  such  of 
the  laboring  class  as  apply  themselves  steadily  to 
cultivating  the  soil,  they  not  only  live  very  well,  but 
are  incomparably  better  off  than  the  better  sort  of 
peasants  in  France."4 

All  the  writers  lament  the  extravagant  habits  of 
the  people;  and  even  La  Hontan  joins  hands  with 
the  priests  in  wishing  that  the  supply  of  ribbons,  laces, 
brocades,  jewelry,  and  the  like  might  be  cut  off  by 
act  of  law.  Mother  Juchereau  tells  us,  that,  when 
the  English  invasion  was  impending,  the  belles  of 


1  Denonvilk  et  Champigny  au  Ministre,  6  Nov.,  1687. 

2  Meules  au  Ministre,  12  Nov.,  1682. 

8  Meules,  Me~moire  touchant  le  Canada  et  VAcadie,  1684, 
*  Duchesneau  au  Ministre,  10  Nov.,  1679. 


448  MORALS   AND   MANNERS.  [1645-63. 

Canada  were  scared  for  a  while  into  modesty  in  order 
to  gain  the  favor  of  Heaven ;  but,  as  may  be  imagined, 
the  effect  was  short,  and  Father  La  Tour  declares 
that  in  his  time  all  the  fashions  except  rouge  came 
over  regularly  in  the  annual  ships. 

The  manners  of  the  mission  period,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  extremely  simple.  The  old  governor, 
Lauzon,  lived  on  pease  and  bacon  like  a  laborer,  and 
kept  no  man-servant.  He  was  regarded,  it  is  true, 
as  a  miser,  and  held  in  slight  account.1  Magdeleine 
Bochart,  sister  of  the  governor  of  Three  Rivers, 
brought  her  husband  two  hundred  francs  in  money, 
four  sheets,  two  table-cloths,  six  napkins  of  linen 
and  hemp,  a  mattress,  a  blanket,  two  dishes,  six 
spoons  and  six  tin  plates,  a  pot  and  a  kettle,  a  table 
and  two  benches,  a  kneading-trough,  a  chest  with 
lock  and  key,  a  cow,  and  a  pair  of  hogs.2  But  the 
Bocharts  were  a  family  of  distinction,  and  the  bride's 
dowry  answered  to  her  station.  By  another  marriage 
contract,  at  about  the  same  time,  the  parents  of  the 
bride,  being  of  humble  degree,  bind  themselves  to 
present  the  bridegroom  with  a  barrel  of  bacon,  deliver- 
able on  the  arrival  of  the  ships  from  France.8 

Some  curious  traits  of  this  early  day  appear  in  the 
license  of  Jean  Boisdon  as  innkeeper.  He  is  required 
to  establish  himself  on  the  great  square  of  Quebec, 
close  to  the  church,  so  that  the  parishioners  may  con- 

1  Memoire  d'Aubert  cte  la  Chesnaye,  1676.    • 

2  Control  de  mariage,  cited  by  Ferland,  Notes,  73. 

8  Control  de,  manage,  cited  by  Benjamin  Suite  in  Revue  Canadi- 
enne,  ix.  111. 


1672-1701.]  STATE   OF   QUEBEC.  449 

veniently  warm  and  refresh  themselves  between  the 
services;  but  he  is  forbidden  to  entertain  anybody 
during  high  mass,  sermon,  catechism,  or  vespers.1 
Matters  soon  changed;  Jean  Boisdon  lost  his 
monopoly,  and  inns  sprang  up  on  all  hands.  They 
did  not  want  for  patrons,  and  we  find  some  of  their 
proprietors  mentioned  as  among  the  few  thriving  men 
in  Canada.  Talon  tried  to  regulate  them,  and,  among 
other  rules,  ordained  that  no  innkeeper  should  furnish 
food  or  drink  to  any  hired  laborer  whatever,  or  to 
any  person  residing  in  the  place  where  his  inn  was 
situated.  An  innkeeper  of  Montreal  was  fined  for 
allowing  the  syndic  of  the  town  to  dine  under  his 
roof.3 

One  gets  glimpses  of  the  pristine  state  of  Quebec 
through  the  early  police  regulations.  Each  inhabi- 
tant was  required  to  make  a  gutter  along  the  middle 
of  the  street  before  his  house,  and  also  to  remove 
refuse  and  throw  it  into  the  river.  All  dogs,  without 
exception,  were  ordered  home  at  nine  o'clock.  On 
Tuesdays  and  Fridays  there  was  a  market  in  the 
public  square,  whither  the  neighboring  habitants, 
male  and  female,  brought  their  produce  for  sale,  as 
they  still  continue  to  do.  Smoking  in  the  street  was 
forbidden,  as  a  precaution  against  fire ;  householders 
were  required  to  provide  themselves  with  ladders, 
and  when  the  fire  alarm  was  rung  all  able-bodied 

1  Acte  officielh,  1648,  cited  by  Ferland,  Cours  d'Histoire  du  Canada^ 
i.  366. 

2  Faillon,  Colonie  Francaise,  iii.  405. 

29 


450  MORALS   AND  MANNERS.        [1672-1701. 

persons  were  obliged  to  run  to  the  scene  of  danger 
with  buckets  or  kettles  full  of  water.1  This  did  not 
prevent  the  Lower  Town  from  burning  to  the  ground 
in  1682.  It  was  soon  rebuilt,  but  a  repetition  of  the 
catastrophe  seemed  very  likely.  "This  place,"  says 
Denonville,  "  is  in  a  fearful  state  as  regards  fire ;  for 
the  houses  are  crowded  together  out  of  all  reason, 
and  so  surrounded  with  piles  of  cord-wood  that  it  is 
pitiful  to  see."2  Add  to  this  the  stores  of  hay  for 
the  cows  kept  by  many  of  the  inhabitants  for  the 
benefit  of  their  swarming  progeny.  The  houses  were 
at  this  time  low,  compact  buildings,  with  gables  of 
masonry,  as  required  by  law;  but  many  had  wooden 
fronts,  and  all  had  roofs  covered  with  cedar  shingles. 
The  anxious  governor  begs,  that,  as  the  town  has  not 
a  sou  of  revenue,  his  Majesty  will  be  pleased  to  make 
it  the  gift  of  two  hundred  crowns'  worth  of  leather 
fire-buckets.3  Six  or  seven  years  after,  certain  citi- 
zens were  authorized  by  the  council  to  import  from 
France,  at  their  own  cost,  "  a  pump  after  the  Dutch 
fashion,  for  throwing  water  on  houses  in  case  of 
fire."4 

How  a  fire  was  managed  at  Quebec  appears  from  a 
letter  of  the  engineer,  Vasseur,  describing  the  burn- 
ing of  Laval's  seminary  in  1701.  Vasseur  was  then 
at  Quebec,  directing  the  new  fortifications.  On  a 
Monday  in  November,  all  the  pupils  of  the  seminary 

1  Ee'glement  de  Police,  1672.    Ibid.,  1676. 

2  Denonville  au  Ministre,  20  Aout,  1685. 
»  Ibid. 

*  Rdglement  de  1691,  extract  in  Ferland. 


1701.]  BURNING  OF  THE  SEMINARY.  451 

and  most  of  the  priests  went,  according  to  their 
weekly  custom,  to  recreate  themselves  at  a  house  and 
garden  at  St.  Michel,  a  short  distance  from  town. 
The  few  priests  who  remained  went  after  dinner  to 
say  vespers  at  the  church.  Only  one,  Father  Petit, 
was  left  in  the  seminary,  and  he  presently  repaired  to 
the  great  hall  to  rekindle  the  fire  in  the  stove  and 
warm  the  place  against  the  return  of  his  brethren. 
His  success  surpassed  his  wishes.  A  firebrand  snapped 
out  in  his  absence  and  set  the  pine  floor  in  a  blaze. 
Father  Boucher,  cur6  of  Point  Levi,  chanced  to  come 
in,  and  was  half  choked  by  the  smoke.  He  cried 
fire  !  the  servants  ran  for  water ;  but  the  flames  soon 
mastered  them;  they  screamed  the  alarm,  and  the 
bells  began  to  ring.  Vasseur  was  dining  with  the 
intendant  at  his  palace  by  the  St.  Charles,  when  he 
heard  a  frightened  voice  crying  out,  "  Monsieur,  you 
are  wanted!  you  are  wanted!"  He  sprang  from 
table,  saw  the  smoke  rolling  in  volumes  from  the  top 
of  the  rock,  ran  up  the  steep  ascent,  reached  the 
seminary,  and  found  an  excited  crowd  making  a 
prodigious  outcry.  He  shouted  for  carpenters.  Four 
men  came  to  him,  and  he  set  them  at  work  with  such 
tools  as  they  had  to  tear  away  planks  and  beams,  and 
prevent  the  fire  from  spreading  to  the  adjacent  parts 
of  the  building ;  but  when  he  went  to  find  others  to 
help  them,  they  ran  off.  He  sent  new  men  in  their 
place,  and  these  too  ran  off  the  moment  his  back  was 
turned.  A  cry  was  raised  that  the  building  was  to 
be  blown  up,  on  which  the  crowd  scattered  for  their 


452  MORALS   AND  MANNERS.  [1700-63, 

lives.  Vasseur  now  gave  up  the  seminary  for  lost, 
and  thought  only  of  cutting  off  the  fire  from  the  rear 
of  the  church,  which  was  not  far  distant.  In  this  he 
succeeded,  by  tearing  down  an  intervening  wing  or 
gallery.  The  walls  of  the  burning  building  were  of 
massive  stone,  and  by  seven  o'clock  the  fire  had  spent 
itself.  We  hear  nothing  of  the  Dutch  pump,  nor 
does  it  appear  that  the  soldiers  of  the  garrison  made 
any  effort  to  keep  order.  Under  cover  of  the  con- 
fusion, property  was  stolen  from  the  seminary  to  the 
amount  of  about  two  thousand  livres,  —  which  is 
remarkable,  considering  the  religious  character  of  the 
building,  and  the  supposed  piety  of  the  people. 
"  There  were  more  than  three  hundred  persons  at  the 
fire,"  says  Vasseur;  "but  thirty  picked  men  would 
have  been  worth  more  than  the  whole,  of  them."1 

August,  September,  and  October  were  the  busy 
months  at  Quebec.  Then  the  ships  from  France 
discharged  their  lading,  the  shops  and  warehouses  of 
the  Lower  Town  were  filled  with  goods,  and  the 
habitants  came  to  town  to  make  their  purchases. 
When  the  frosts  began,  the  vessels  sailed  away,  the 
harbor  was  deserted,  the  streets  were  silent  again, 
and  like  ants  or  squirrels  the  people  set  at  work  to 
lay  in  their  winter  stores.  Fathers  of  families  packed 
their  cellars  with  beets,  carrots,  potatoes,  and  cab- 
bages ;  and,  at  the  end  of  autumn,  with  meat,  fowls, 
game,  fish,  and  eels,  all  frozen  to  stony  hardness. 

1  Vasseur  au  Ministre,  24  Nov.,  1701.  Like  Denonville  before 
him,  he  urges  the  need  of  fire-buckets. 


1700-63.]        THE   COUNTRY   PARISHES.  453 

Most  of  the  shops  closed,  and  the  long  season  of 
leisure  and  amusement  began.  New  Year's  day 
brought  visits  and  mutual  gifts.  Thence  till  Lent 
dinner-parties  were  frequent,  sometimes  familiar  and 
sometimes  ceremonious.  The  governor's  little  court  at 
the  chateau  was  a  standing  example  to  all  the  aspir- 
ing spirits  of  Quebec,  and  forms  and  orders  of  pre- 
cedence were  in  some  houses  punctiliously  observed. 
There  were  dinners  to  the  military  and  civic  digni- 
taries and  their  wives,  and  others,  quite  distinct,  to 
prominent  citizens.  The  wives  and  daughters  of  the 
burghers  of  Quebec  are  said  to  have  been  superior  in 
manners  to  women  of  the  corresponding  class  in 
France.  "They  have  wit,"  says  La  Potherie,  "deli- 
cacy, good  voices,  and  a  great  fondness  for  dancing. 
They  are  discreet,  and  not  much  given  to  flirting; 
but  when  they  undertake  to  catch  a  lover,  it  is  not 
easy  for  him  to  escape  the  bands  of  Hymen."1 

So  much  for  the  town.  In  the  country  parishes, 
there  was  the  same  autumnal  stowing  away  of  frozen 
vegetables,  meat,  fish,  and  eels,  and  unfortunately 
the  same  surfeit  of  leisure  through  five  months  of  the 
year.  During  the  seventeenth  century,  many  of  the 
people  were  so  poor  that  women  were  forced  to  keep 
at  home  from  sheer  want  of  winter  clothing.  Noth- 
ing, however,  could  prevent  their  running  from  house 
to  house  to  exchange  gossip  with  the  neighbors, 
who  all  knew  one  another,  and,  having  nothing  else 
to  do,  discussed  each  other's  affairs  with  an  industry 

i  La  Potherie,  i.  279. 


454  MORALS  AND  MANNERS.        [1685-1763. 

which  often  bred  bitter  quarrels.  At  a  later  period, 
a  more  general  introduction  of  family  weaving  and 
spinning  served  at  once  to  furnish  clothing  and  to 
promote  domestic  peace. 

The  most  important  persons  in  a  parish  were  the 
cure*,  the  seignior,  and  the  militia  captain.  The 
seignior  had  his  bench  of  honor  in  the  church. 
Immediately  behind  it  was  the  bench  of  the  militia 
captain,  whose  duty  it  was  to  drill  the  able-bodied 
men  of  the  neighborhood,  direct  roadmaking  and 
other  public  works,  and  serve  as  deputy  to  the 
intendant,  whose  ordinances  he  was  required  to 
enforce.  Next  in  honor  came  the  local  judge,  if 
any  there  was,  and  the  church-wardens. 

The  existence  of  slavery  in  Canada  dates  from  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  In  1688  the  attorney- 
general  made  a  visit  to  Paris,  and  urged  upon  the 
King  the  expediency  of  importing  negroes  from  the 
West  Indies  as  a  remedy  for  the  scarcity  and  dearness 
of  labor.  The  King  consented,  but  advised  caution, 
on  the  ground  that  the  rigor  of  the_  cltmate  would 
make  the  venture  a  critical  one.1  A  number  of 
slaves  were  brought  into  the  colony;  but  the  system 
never  flourished,  the  climate  and  other  circumstances 
being  hostile  to  it.  Many  of  the  colonists,  especially 
at  Detroit  and  other  outlying  posts,  owned  slaves  of 
a  remote  Indian  tribe,  the  Pawnees.  The  fact  is 

1  Instruction  au  Sr.  de  Frontenac,  1689.  On  Canadian  slavery,  see 
a  long  paper,  L'Esclavage  en  Canada,  published  by  the  Historical 
Society  of  Montreal. 


1736.]  CANADIAN  LIFE.  455 

remarkable,  since  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  another 
of  the  wild  tribes  of  the  continent  capable  of  subjec- 
tion to  domestic  servitude.  The  Pawnee  slaves  were 
captives  taken  in  war  and  sold  at  low  prices  to  the 
Canadians.  Their  market  value  was  much  impaired 
by  their  propensity  to  run  off. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  the  views  of  the  Canadians 
taken  at  different  times  by  different  writers.  La 
Hontan  says :  "  They  are  vigorous,  enterprising,  and 
indefatigable,  and  need  nothing  but  education.  They 
are  presumptuous  and  full  of  self-conceit,  regard 
themselves  as  above  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and, 
unfortunately,  have  not  the  veneration  for  their 
parents  that  they  ought  to  have.  The  women  are 
generally  pretty ;  few  of  them  are  brunettes ;  many  of 
them  are  discreet,  and  a  good  number  are  lazy.  They 
are  fond  to  the  last  degree  of  dress  and  show,  and 
each  tries  to  outdo  the  rest  in  the  art  of  catching  a 
husband."1 

Fifty  years  later,  the  intendant  Hocquart  writes: 
"The  Canadians  are  fond  of  distinctions  and  atten- 
tions, plume  themselves  on  their  courage,  and  are 
extremely  sensitive  to  slights  or  the  smallest  correc- 
tions. They  are  self-interested,  vindictive,  prone  to 
drunkenness,  use  a  great  deal  of  brandy,  and  pass  for 
not  being  at  all  truthful.  This  portrait  is  true  of 
many  of  them,  particularly  the  country  people :  those 
of  the  towns  are  less  vicious.  They  are  all  attached 
to  religion,  and  criminals  are  rare.  They  are  vola- 
i  La  Hontan,  ii.  81  (ed.  1709). 


456  MORALS   AND   MANNERS.  [1749. 

tile,  and  think  too  well  of  themselves,  which  prevents 
their  succeeding  as  they  might  in  farming  and  trade. 
They  have  not  the  rude  and  rustic  air  of  our  French 
peasants.  If  they  are  put  on  their  honor  and  gov- 
erned with  justice,  they  are  tractable  enough;  but 
their  natural  disposition  is  indocile."1 

The  navigator  Bougainville,  in  the  last  years  of 
the  French  rule,  describes  the  Canadian  habitant  as 
essentially  superior  to  the  French  peasant,  and  adds, 
"He  is  loud,  boastful,  mendacious,  obliging,  civil, 
and  honest;  indefatigable  in  hunting,  travelling,  and 
bush-ranging,  but  lazy  in  tilling  the  soil."2 

The  Swedish  botanist,  Kalm,  an  excellent  observer, 
was  in  Canada  a  few  years  before  Bougainville,  and 
sketches  from  life  the  following  traits  of  Canadian 
manners.  The  language  is  that  of  the  old  English 
translation:  "The  men  here  [at *  Montreal]  are 
extremely  civil,  and  take  their  hats  off  to  every 
person  indifferently  whom  they  meet  in  the  streets. 
The  women  in  general  are  handsome ;  they  are  well 
bred  and  virtuous,  with  an  innocent  and  becoming 
freedom.  They  dress  out  very  fine  on  Sundays,  and 
though  on  the  other  days  they  do  not  take  much 
pains  with  the  other  parts  of  their  dress,  yet  they  are 
very  fond  of  adorning  their  heads,  the  hair  of  which 
is  always  curled  and  powdered  and  ornamented  with 
glittering  bodkins  and  aigrettes.  They  are  not  averse 
to  taking  part  in  all  the  business  of  housekeeping; 

1  Mfmoire  de  1736. 

*  M&naire  de  1757,  printed  in  Margry,  Relations  Incites. 


1749.]  CANADIAN   LIFE.  457 

and  I  have  with  pleasure  seen  the  daughters  of  the 
better  sort  of  people,  and  of  the  governor  [of 
Montreal]  himself,  not  too  finely  dressed,  and  going 
into  kitchens  and  cellars  to  look  that  everything  be 
done  as  it  ought.  What  I  have  mentioned  above  of 
their  dressing  their  heads  too  assiduously  is  the  case 
with  all  the  ladies  throughout  Canada.  Their  hair 
is  always  curled,  even  when  they  are  at  home  in  a 
dirty  jacket  and  short  coarse  petticoat  that  does  not 
reach  to  the  middle  of  their  legs.  On  those  days 
when  they  pay  or  receive  visits,  they  dress  so  gayly 
that  one  is  almost  induced  to  think  their  parents 
possess  the  greatest  honors  in  the  state.  They  are 
no  less  attentive  to  have  the  newest  fashions,  and 
they  laugh  at  one  another  when  they  are  not  dressed 
to  one  another's  fancy.  One  of  the  first  questions 
they  propose  to  a  stranger  is,  whether  he  is  married ; 
the  next,  how  he  likes  the  ladies  of  the  country,  and 
whether  he  thinks  them  handsomer  than  those  of  his 
own  country;  and  the  third,  whether  he  will  take 
one  home  with  him.  The  behavior  of  the  ladies 
seemed  to  me  somewhat  too  free  at  Quebec,  and  of  a 
more  becoming  modesty  at  Montreal.  Those  of 
•Quebec  are  not  very  industrious.  The  young  ladies, 
especially  those  of  a  higher  rank^  get  up  at  seven  and 
dress  till  nine,  drinking  their  coffee  at  the  same  time. 
When  they  are  dressed,  they  place  themselves  near  a 
window  that  opens  into  the  street,  take  up  some 
needlework  and  sew  a  stitch  noTP  and  then,  but  turn 
their  eyes  into  the  street  most  of  the  time.  When  a 


458  MORALS  AND  MANNERS.  [1749. 

young  fellow  comes  in,  whether  they  are  acquainted 
with  him  or  not,  they  immediately  lay  aside  their 
work,  sit  down  by  him,  and  begin  to  chat,  laugh, 
joke,  and  invent  double-entendres ;  and  this  is  reckoned 
being  very  witty.  In  this  manner  they  frequently 
pass  the  whole  day,  leaving  their  mothers  to  do  the 
business  of  the  house.  They  are  likewise  cheerful 
and  content,  and  nobody  can  say  that  they  want 
either  wit  or  charms.  Their  fault  is  that  they  think 
too  well  of  themselves.  However,  the  daughters  of 
people  of  all  ranks  without  exception  go  to  market 
and  carry  home  what  they  have  bought.  The  girls 
at  Montreal  are  very  much  displeased  that  those  at 
Quebec  get  husbands  sooner  than  they.  The  reason 
of  this  is  that  many  young  gentlemen  who  come  over 
from  France  with  the  ships  are  captivated  by  the 
ladies  at  Quebec  and  marry  them;  but  as  these 
gentlemen  seldom  go  up  to  Montreal,  the  girls  there 
are  not  often  so  happy  as  those  of  the  former  place."  J 
Long  before  Kalm's  visit,  the  Jesuit  Charlevoix,  a 
traveller  and  a  man  of  the  world,  wrote  thus  of 
Quebec  in  a  letter  to  the  Duchesse  de  Lesdiguieres  : 
"There  is  a  select  little  society  here  which  wants 
nothing  to  make  it  agreeable.  In  the  salons  of  the 
wives  of  the  governor  and  of  the  intendant,  one  finds 
circles  as  brilliant  as  in  other  countries."  These 
circles  were  formed  partly  of  the  principal  inhabi- 
tants, but  chiefly  of  military  officers  and  government 

1  Kalm,  Travels  into  North  A  merica,  translated  into  English  by 
John  Remold  Forster  (London,  1771),  66, 282,  etc. 


1720.]  CANADIAN  LIFE.  459 

officials,  with  their  families.  Charlevoix  continues: 
"Everybody  does  his  part  to  make  the  time  pass 
pleasantly,  with  games  and  parties  of  pleasure,  — 
drives  and  canoe  excursions  in  summer,  sleighing 
and  skating  in  winter.  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
hunting  and  shooting,  for  many  Canadian  gentlemen 
are  almost  destitute  of  any  other  means  of  living  at 
their  ease.  The  news  of  the  day  amounts  to  very 
little  indeed,  as  the  country  furnishes  scarcely  any, 
while  that  from  Europe  comes  all  at  once.  Science 
and  the  fine  arts  have  their  turn,  and  conversation 
does  not  fail.  The  Canadians  breathe  from  their 
birth  an  air  of  liberty,  which  makes  them  very  pleas- 
ant in  the  intercourse  of  life,  and  our  language  is 
nowhere  more  purely  spoken.  One  finds  here  no  rich 
persons  whatever,  and  this  is  a  great  pity;  for  the 
Canadians  like  to  get  the  credit  of  their  money,  and 
scarcely  anybody  amuses  himself  with  hoarding  it. 
They  say  it  is  very  different  with  our  neighbors  the 
English;  and  one  who  knew  the  two  colonies  only 
by  the  way  of  living,  acting,  and  speaking  of  the 
colonists  would  not  hesitate  to  judge  ours  the  more 
flourishing.  In  New  England  and  the  other  British 
colonies  there  reigns  an  opulence  by  which  the  people 
seem  not  to  know  how  to  profit;  while  in  New 
France  poverty  is  hidden  under  an  air  of  ease  which 
appears  entirely  natural.  The  English  colonist  keeps 
as  much  and  spends  as  little  as  possible ;  the  French 
colonist  enjoys  what  he  has  got,  and  often  makes  a 
display  of  what  he  has  not  got.  The  one  labors  for 


460  MORALS   AND  MANNERS.  [1720 

his  heirs;  the  other  leaves  them  to  get  on  as  they 
can,  like  himself.  I  could  push  the  comparison 
further,  but  I  must  close  here;  the  King's  ship  is 
about  to  sail,  and  the  merchant  vessels  are  getting 
ready  to  follow.  In  three  days,  perhaps,  not  one 
will  be  left  in  the  harbor."1 

And  now  we,  too,  will  leave  Canada.  Winter 
draws  near,  and  the  first  patch  of  snow  lies  gleaming 
on  the  distant  mountain  of  Cape  Tourmente.  The 
sun  has  set  in  chill  autumnal  beauty,  and  the  sharp 
spires  of  fir-trees  on  the  heights  of  Sillery  stand  stiff 
and  black  against  the  pure  cold  amber  of  the  fading 
west.  The  ship  sails  in  the  morning;  and  before  the 
old  towers  of  Rochelle  rise  in  sight  there  will  be  time 
to  smoke  many  a  pipe,  and  ponder  what  we  have  seen 
on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

1  Charlevoix,  Journal  Historique,  80  (ed.  1744). 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

1663-1763. 
CANADIAN  ABSOLUTISM. 

FORMATION  OF  CANADIAN  CHARACTER.  —  THE  RIVAL  COLONIES.— 
ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.  —  NEW  ENGLAND.  —  CHARACTERISTICS 
OF  RACE.  —  MILITARY  QUALITIES.  —  THE  CHURCH.  —  THE 
ENGLISH  CONQUEST. 

NOT  institutions  alone,  but  geographical  position, 
climate,  and  many  other  conditions  unite  to  form  the 
educational  influences  that,  acting  through  succes- 
sive generations,  shape  the  character  of  nations  and 
communities. 

It  is  easy  to  see  the  nature  of  the  education,  past 
and  present,  which  wrought  on  the  Canadians  and 
made  them  what  they  were.  An  ignorant  popula- 
tion, sprung  from  a  brave  and  active  race,  but  trained 
to  subjection  and  dependence  through  centuries  of 
feudal  and  monarchical  despotism,  was  planted  in 
the  wilderness  by  the  hand  of  authority,  and  told  to 
grow  and  flourish.  Artificial  stimulants  were  applied, 
but  freedom  was  withheld.  Perpetual  intervention 
of  government,  —  regulations,  restrictions,  encourage- 
ments sometimes  more  mischievous  than  restrictions, 
a  constant  uncertainty  what  the  authorities  would  do 


462  CANADIAN   ABSOLUTISM.        [1663-1763. 

next,  the  fate  of  each  man  resting  less  with  himself 
than  with  another,  volition  enfeebled,  self-reliance 
paralyzed,  —  the  condition,  in  short,  of  a  child  held 
always  under  the  rule  of  a  father,  in  the  main  well- 
meaning  and  kind,  sometimes  generous,  sometimes 
neglectful,  often  capricious,  and  rarely  very  wise,  - 
such  were  the  influences  under  which  Canada  grew 
up.  If  she  had  prospered,  it  would  have  been  sheer 
miracle.  A  man,  to  be  a  man,  must  feel  that  he 
holds  his  fate,  in  some  good  measure,  in  his  own 
hands. 

But  this  was  not  all.  Against  absolute  authority 
there  was  a  counter  influence,  rudely  and  wildly 
antagonistic.  Canada  was  at  the  very  portal  of  the 
great  interior  wilderness.  The  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Lakes  were  the  highway  to  that  domain  of  savage 
freedom;  and  thither  the  disfranchised,  half -starved 
seignior,  and  the  discouraged  habitant  who  could  find 
no  market  for  his  produce  naturally  enough  betook 
themselves.  Their  lesson  of  savagery  was  well 
learned,  and  for  many  a  year  a  boundless  license  and 
a  stiff-handed  authority  battled  for  the  control  of 
Canada.  Nor,  to  the  last,  were  Church  and  State 
fairly  masters  of  the  field.  The  French  rule  was 
drawing  towards  its  close  when  the  intendant  com- 
plained that  though  twenty-eight  companies  of  regular 
troops  were  quartered  in  the  colony,  there  "were  not 
soldiers  enough  to  keep  the  people  in  order.1  One 
cannot  but  remember  that  in  a  neighboring  colony, 

l  Mfmoire  de  1736  (printed  by  the  Historical  Society  of  Quebec). 


1663-1763.]          THE   RIVAL   COLONIES.  463 

far  more  populous,  perfect  order  prevailed,  with  no 
other  guardians  than  a  few  constables  chosen  by  the 
people  themselves. 

Whence  arose  this  difference,  and  other  differences 
equally  striking,  between  the  rival  colonies  ?  It  is 
easy  to  ascribe  them  to  a  difference  of  political  and 
religious  institutions;  but  the  explanation  does  not 
cover  the  grouncj.  The  institutions  of  New  England 
were  utterly  inapplicable  to  the  population  of  New 
France,  and  the  attempt  to  apply  them  would  have 
wrought  nothing  but  mischief.  There  are  no  political 
panaceas,  except  in  the  imagination  of  political 
quacks.  To  each  degree  and  each  variety  of  public 
development  there  are  corresponding  institutions, 
best  answering  the  public  needs;  and  what  is  meat 
to  one  is  poison  to  another.  Freedom  is  for  those 
who  are  fit  for  it ;  the  rest  will  lose  it,  or  turn  it  to 
corruption.  Church  and  State  were  right  in  exercis- 
ing authority  over  a  people  which  had  not  learned 
the  first  rudiments  of  self-government.  Their  fault 
was  not  that  they  exercised  authority,  but  that  they 
exercised  too  much  of  it,  and,  instead  of  weaning  the 
child  to  go  alone,  kept  him  in  perpetual  leading- 
strings,  making  him,  if  possible,  more  and  more 
dependent,  and  less  and  less  fit  for  freedom. 

In  the  building  up  of  colonies,  England  succeeded 
and  France  failed.  The  cause  lies  chiefly  in  the  vast 
advantage  drawn  by  England  from  the  historical 
training  of  her  people  in  habits  of  reflection,  forecast, 
industry,  and  self-reliance,  —  a  training  which  enabled 


464  CANADIAN   ABSOLUTISM         [1663-1763. 

them  to  adopt  and  maintain  an  invigorating  system 
of  self-rule,  totally  inapplicable  to  their  rivals. 

The  New  England  colonists  were  far  less  fugitives 
from  oppression  than  voluntary  exiles  seeking  the 
realization  of  an  idea.  They  were  neither  peasants 
nor  soldiers,  but  a  substantial  Puritan  yeomanry,  led 
by  Puritan  gentlemen  and  divines  in  thorough  sym- 
pathy with  them.  They  were  neither  sent  out  by  the 
King,  governed  by  him,  nor  helped  by  him.  They 
grew  up  in  utter  neglect,  and  continued  neglect  was 
the  only  boon  they  asked.  Till  their  increasing 
strength  roused  the  jealousy  of  the  Crown,  they 
were  virtually  independent,  —  a  republic,  but  by  no 
means  a  democracy.  They  chose  their  governor  and 
all  their  rulers  from  among  themselves,  made  their 
own  government  and  paid  for  it,  supported  their  own 
clergy,  defended  themselves,  and  educated  them- 
selves. Under  the  hard  and  repellent  surface  of 
New  England  society  lay  the  true  foundations  of 
a  stable  freedom,  —  conscience,  reflection,  faith, 
patience,  and  public  spirit.  The  cement  of  common 
interests,  hopes,  and  duties  compacted  the  whole 
people  like  a  rock  of  conglomerate ;  while  the  people 
of  New  France  remained  in  a  state  of  political  segre- 
gation, like  a  basket  of  pebbles  held  together  by  the 
enclosure  that  surrounds  them. 

It  may  be  that  the  difference  of  historical  ante- 
cedents would  alone  explain  the  difference  of  charac- 
ter between  the  rival  colonies ;  but  there  are  deeper 
causes,  the  influence  of  which  went  far  to  determine 


1663-1763.]  MILITARY   QUALITIES.  465 

the  antecedents  themselves.  The  Germanic  race, 
and  especially  the  Anglo-Saxon  branch  of  it,  is  pecu- 
liaiiy  masculine,  and,  therefore,  peculiarly  fitted 
for  self-government.  It  submits  its  action  habitually 
to  the  guidance  of  reason,  and  has  the  judicial  faculty 
of  seeing  both  sides  of  a  question.  The  French  Celt 
is  cast  in  a  different  mould.  He  sees  the  end  dis- 
tinctly, and  reasons  about  it  with  an  admirable  clear- 
ness ;  but  his  own  impulses  and  passions  continually 
turn  him  away  from  it.  Opposition  excites  him ;  he 
is  impatient  of  delay,  is  impelled  always  to  extremes, 
and  does  not  readily  sacrifice  a  present  inclination  to 
an  ultimate  good.  He  delights  in  abstractions  and 
generalizations,  cuts  loose  from  unpleasing  facts, 
and  roams  through  an  ocean  of  desires  and  theories. 

While  New  England  prospered  and  Canada  did  not 
prosper,  the  French  system  had  at  least  one  great 
advantage.  It  favored  military  efficiency.  The 
Canadian  population  sprang  in  great  part  from 
soldiers,  and  was  to  the  last  systematically  reinforced 
by  disbanded  soldiers.  Its  chief  occupation  was  a 
continual  training  for  forest  war;  it  had  little  or 
nothing  to  lose,  and  little  to  do  but  fight  and  range 
the  woods.  This  was  not  all.  The  Canadian  gov- 
ernment was  essentially  military.  At  its  head  was  a 
soldier  nobleman,  often  an  old  and  able  commander; 
and  those  beneath  him  caught  his  spirit  and  emulated 
his  example.  In  spite  of  its  political  nothingness,  in 
spite  of  poverty  and  hardship,  and  in  spite  even  of 

trade,   the  upper  stratum  of  Canadian  society  was 

30 


466  CANADIAN   ABSOLUTISM.        [1663-1761 

animated  by  the  pride  and  fire  of  that  gallant  noblesse 
which  held  war  as  its  only  worthy  calling,  and  prized 
honor  more  than  life.  As  for  the  habitant,  the  forest, 
lake,  and  river  were  his  true  school;  and  here,  at 
least,  he  was  an  apt  scholar.  A  skilful  woodsman, 
a  bold  and  adroit  canoe-man,  a  willing  fighter  in  time 
of  need,  often  serving  without  pay,  and  receiving 
from  government  only  his  provisions  and  his  canoe, 
he  was  more  than  ready  at  any  time  for  any  hardy 
enterprise ;  and  in  the  forest  warfare  of  skirmish  and 
surprise  there  were  few  to  match  him.  An  absolute 
government  used  him  at  will,  and  experienced  leaders 
guided  his  rugged  valor  to  the  best  account. 

The  New  England  man  was  precisely  the  same 
material  with  that  of  which  Cromwell  formed  his 
invincible  "Ironsides;"  but  he  had  very  little  forest 
experience.  His  geographical  position  cut  him  off 
completely  from  the  great  wilderness  of  the  interior. 
The  sea  was  his  field  of  action.  Without  the  aid 'of 
government,  and  in  spite  of  its  restrictions,  he  built 
up  a  prosperous  commerce,  and  enriched  himself  by 
distant  fisheries,  neglected  by  the  rivals  before  whose 
doors  they  lay.  He  knew  every  ocean  from  Green- 
land to  Cape  Horn,  and  the  whales  of  the  north  and 
of  the  south  had  no  more  dangerous  foe.  But  he 
was  too  busy  to  fight  without  good  cause ;  and  when 
he  turned  his  hand  to  soldiering,  it  was  only  to  meet 
some  pressing  need  of  the  hour.  The  New  England 
troops  in  the  early  wars  were  bands  of  raw  fishermen 
and  farmers,  led  by  civilians,  decorated  with  military 


1663-1763.]      THE  ENGLISH  CONQUEST.  467 

titles,  and  subject  to  the  slow  and  uncertain  action  of 
legislative  bodies.  The  officers  had  not  learned  to 
command,  nor  the  men  to  obey.  The  remarkable 
exploit  of  the  capture  of  Louisburg,  the  strongest 
fortress  in  America,  was  the  result  of  mere  audacity 
and  hardihood,  backed  by  the  rarest  good  luck. 

One  great  fact  stands  out  conspicuous  in  Canadian 
history,  —  the  Church  of  Rome.  More  even  than  the 
royal  power,  she  shaped  the  character  and  the  desti- 
^s.qf_  the  colony.  She  was  its  nurse  and  almost 
its  mother ;  and,  wayward  and  headstrong  as  it  was, 
it  never  broke  the  ties  of  faith  that  held  it  to  her.  It 
was  these  ties  which,  in  the  absence  of  political  fran- 
chises, formed  under  the  old  regime  the  only  vital 
coherence  in  the  population.  The  royal  government 
was  transient;  the  Church  was  permanent.  The 
English  conquest  shattered  the  whole  apparatus  of 
civil  administration  at  a  blow,  but  it  left  her 
untouched.  Governors,  intendants,  councils,  and 
commandants,  all  were  gone;  the  principal  seigniors 
fled  the  colony ;  and  a  people  who  had  never  learned 
to  control  themselves  or  help  themselves  were  sud- 
denly left  to  their  own  devices.  Confusion,  if  not 
anarchy,  would  have  followed  but  for  the  parish 
priests,  who,  in  a  character  of  double  paternity,  half 
spiritual  and  half  temporal,  became  more  than  ever 
the  guardians  of  order  throughout  Canada. 

This  English  conquest  was  the  grand  crisis  of 
Canadian  history.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  new 
life.  With  England  came  Protestantism,  and  the 


468  CANADIAN  ABSOLUTISM.        [1663-1763. 

Canadian  Church  grew  purer  and  better  in  the 
presence  of  an  adverse  faith.  Material  growth;  an 
increased  mental  activity;  an  education,  real  though 
fenced  and  guarded ;  a  warm  and  genuine  patriotism, 

—  all  date  from  the  peace  of  1763.     England  imposed 
by  the  sword  on  reluctant  Canada  the  boon  of  rational 
and  ordered  liberty.     Through  centuries  of  striving 
she  had  advanced  from  stage  to  stage  "of  progress, 
deliberate  and  calm,  —  never  breaking  with  her  past, 
but  making  each  fresh  gain  the  base  of  a  new  success, 

—  enlarging  popular  liberties  while  bating  nothing  of 
that  height    and  force    of    individual   development 
which  is  the  brain  and  heart  of  civilization ;  and  now, 
through  a  hard-earned  victory,  she  taught  the  con- 
quered colony  to  share  the  blessings  she  had  won. 
A  happier  calamity  never  befell  a  people  than  the 
conquest  of  Canada  by  the  British  arms. 


APPENDIX. 


SECTION  FIRST. 


LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY. 

PROCI&S    VERBAL   D' ANDRE    CERTAIN. 

[Literatim.] 
Collection  de  M.  Margry. 

I/ AN  mil  six  cent  quarante  quatre  le  vint  cinq  joui 
d'octobre  deux  mois  apres  la  signification  faits  de  1'arrest 
du  conseil  en  date  du  5  mai  de  la  mesme  annee  au  Sieur 
de  la  Tour  et  a  tous  ceux  qui  estoient  avec  luy  dans  le 
fort  de  la  Riviere  St.  Jean  par  la  Montjoie  le  15  8bre  1644 
Mr  Charles  de  Menou  chevalier  Seigneur  d'Aunay  Charni- 
say,  gouverneur  et  Lieutenant  general  pour  le  Roy  dans 
toute  PEtendue  descostes  d'Acadie  pais  de  la  Nouvelle 
France,  veu  le  refus  du  d.  de  la  Tour  et  1'obstination  dans 
laquelle  estoient  ses  gens,  equipa  de  rechef  deux  de  ses 
chaloupes  pour  tenter  par  les  voies  de  douceur  de  ramener 
ces  esprits  rebelles  a  1'obeissance  qu'ils  doivent  £  sa  Majeste 
pour  lequel  effet  mon  dit  Sieur  deputa  un  lieutenant  de  son 
vaisseau  pour  commander  une  d'icelles  et  son  sergent  pour 
1'autre  auec  commandement  de  sa  part  d'aller  a  la  riviere 


470  APPENDIX. 

St.  Jean  faire  tout  effort  pour  adroitement  remonter  quel- 
qu'uns  de  ces  esprits  rebelles,  les  emboucher  et  leur  donner 
lettres  pour  leur  camarades  signes  de  mou  dit  Sieur  avec 
assurance  d'abolition  de  leurs  crimes  et  payements  de  leurs 
gages  s'ils  se  rangeoient  a  leur  devoir  de  veritables  sujets, 
leur  devant  montrer  com  me  les  arrets  du  conseil  obligeoient 
mon  dit  Sieur  a  pareils  traitemens.  Ce  qu'ayant  fidellement 
execute  ils  ne  receurent  pour  toute  reponse  qu'injures  et 
imprecations  de  ces  malheureux  et  huit  jours  apres  la 
femme  du  dit  Sieur  de  la  Tour  arrivant  a  la  riviere  de 
St.  Jean  conduite  par  un  vaisseau  anglois  obligea  son 
mary  d'aller  a  Boston  vers  les  Anglois  se  declarer  de  leur 
religion,  comme  elle  venoit  de  faire  et  leur  demander 
un  ministre  pour  son  habitation  et  par  la  obliger  tout  le 
corps  des  Anglois  a  les  maintenir  dans  leurs  biens  avec  offre 
qu'ils  partageroient  toute  la  coste  d'Acadie  apres  qu'ils  s'en 
seroient  rendus  maistres :  Et  le  28  de  Janvier  1645  la  dite 
dame  parla  si  insolemment  aux  reverends  peres  Recollects 
qui  pour  lors  estoient  dans  son  habitation  que  faisant  la 
Demoniaque  et  mepris  scandaleux  de  la  religion  Catholique, 
apostolique  et  Romaine  son  mary  present,  qui  adhe'roit  a 
toutes  ses  actions,  ils  furent  contraints  de  sortir  et  chercher 
moyen  de  se  retirer  quoyque  dans  ces  contre'es  1'Hiver  soit 
tres  rigoureux,  ce  que  le  dit  Sieur  de  la  Tour  et  sa  femme 
leur  octroierent  avec  derision  et  injures  leur  donnant  pour 
cet  effet  une  vieille  pinasse  qui  couloid  quasy  bas  d'eau  avec 
deux  bariques  de  bled  d'Inde  pour  toutes  vitailles,  ce  qui 
sera  justifie  par  une  attestation  de  ceux  mesmes  qui  estoient 
dans  le  service  du  Sr  de  la  Tour  et  sa  femme  et  une  lettre 
d'un  des  susdits  peres  Recollects  superieur  dans  le  d.  lieu 
et  huit  ou  neuf  des  gens  du  d.  Sr  de  la  Tour  counoissant  le 
deplorable  estat  de  cette  habitation  ed  la  formelle  rebellion 
du  Sr  de  la  Tour  sa  femme  et  du  reste  de  leurs  camarades 
contre  le  devoir  qu'ils  doivent  a  dieu  et  au  Roy  se  retirement 


APPENDIX.  471 

Bemblablement  et  accompagnerent  les  dits  reverends  p&res 
Recollects,  lesquels  avec  beaucoup  de  perils  se  vinrent  rendre 
dans  le  Port  Royal  demeure  ordinaire  du  Sr.  d'Aunay, 
lequel  apres  avoir  este*  imbu  de  tout  ce  que  dessus  les  receut 
tons  humainement  envoiant  les  deux  religieux  Recollects 
dans  la  maison  des  Reverends  peres  Capucins  missionaires 
qui  les  receurent  avec  tant  d'affection  et  les  firent  tant  de 
charite  et  saints  offices  qu'ils  en  demeurent  tous  confus  aussy 
bien  que  les  huid  personnes  qui  les  accompagnoient  voyant 
le  favorable  accueil  que  leur  fit  mon  dit  Sieur  qui  ne  se  con- 
tenta  pas  de  les  loger  et  nourrir  corame  les  siens  propres  mais 
les  paya  leurs  gages  que  le  dit  La  Tour  de  tant  d'anndes  qu'ils 
Pavoient  servy  leur  avoid  refus^.  Ce  qui  est  prouv^  par  une 
reconnoissance  de  ces  mesmes  personnes  pour  les  sommes  qui 
leur  ont  est£  mises  entre  les  mains,  signee  de  leurs  mains. 
Ce  regalement  ayant  est£  donn£  comme  dessus  est  dit,  Mon 
dit  sieur  s'informant  plus  particulierement  de  Pestat  au  quel 
estoient  ces  miserables  esprits,  Pobstination  du  reste  de  ceux 
qui  estoient  demeurez  avec  le  dit  la  Tour,  et  qu'il  estoit 
party  pour  aller  vers  les  Anglois  dans  Boston  pour  tascher 
de  renvoyer  comme  ja  cy  dessus  est  dit  le  traitte  de  paix  fait 
avec  les  dits  Ajaglois  et  le  sieur  Marie  confident  de  Mon 
d.  Sieur  D'Aunay  et  engager  par  mesme  moyen  quelque 
marchand  pour  amener  quelques  vitailles  dans  la  riviere  de 
Saint  Jean  dans  la  quelle  il  n'avoit  laiss£  que  quarante  cinq 
personnes,  ce  que  mon  dit  sieur  considerant  fit  assemblies  de 
tous  les  ofnciers  qui  pour  lors  estoient  aupr&s  de  sa  personne, 
ou  il  fut  conclud  de  prendre  cette  occasion  aux  cbeveux.  Et 
quoyque  ne  le  peut  quasy  permettre  et  qu'il  falloit  risquer 
pour  une  affaire  de  telle  consequence,  ce  qui  obligea  mon  dit 
sieur  de  monter  le  plus  grand  de  ces  navires  du  port  de  trois 
cents  tonneaux,  equip^  en  guerre,  pour  se  mettre  en  garde  4 
Pentre*e  de  la  Rivi&re  St.  Jean  afin  de  surprendre  le  dit  La 
Tour  avec  une  partie  de  son  monde,  qui  pensoit  a  la  faveur 


472  APPENDIX. 

de  la  rigueur  de  1'Hiver  faire  son  voyage  sans  qu'il  en  fust 
aucune  nouvelle,  ce  que  mon  dit  sieur  ayant  execute  et  pria 
rade  a  une  lieue  du  fort  de  la  Riviere  St.  Jean  assist^  d'un 
religieux  Capucin  missionnaire  et  des  deux  susdits  Recol- 
lects, envoya  de  rechef  vers  la  dite  femme  La  Tour  et  tous 
ceux  qui  pour  lors  estoient  avec  elle  le  Reverend  Pere 
Andre  Recollect  par  une  de  ses  chaloupes,  le  quel  se  pro- 
mettoit  d'attirer  peutestre  quelquuns  a  resipiscence ,  leur 
faisant  connoitre  le  bon  accueil  que  luy  et  leurs  camarades 
avoient  receu  de  mon  dit  Sieur,  ce  qui  ne  reussit  non  plus 
que  les  autres  fois  du  passe.  Deux  mois  s'ecoulerent  dans 
semblable  attente,  apres  quoy  mon  dit  Sieur  prid  resolution 
de  battre  le  fer  pendant  qu'il  estoit  chaud,  voyant  un  de  ses 
navires  aussy  equipe  en  guerre  qui  1'estoit  venu  trouver  du 
Port  Royal  selon  qu'il  1'avoit  ainsy  ordonne*  accompagne' 
d'une  pinasse  aussi  charged  de  monde  et  apres  avoir  realli^ 
de  toutes  ses  Habitations  les  personnes  capables  de  porter 
mousquets,  il  fit  descendre  une  bonne  partie  de  ses  hommes 
&  terre  ed  mettre  deux  pieces  de  canon  avec  ordre  de  les 
mettre  promptement  en  batterie  le  plus  proche  du  fort  de  la 
Riviere  de  St.  Jean  qu'ils  pourroient  avec  assurance  qu'aus- 
sytost  qu'ils  avoient  effectue  son  commandement  ils  appro- 
cheroient  ce  navire  a  la  portee  du  pistolet,  afin  que  sans 
donner  jour  aux  assiege's  de  se  reconnoistre  on  pust  faire  un 
tonnerre  et  par  mer  et  par  terre,  donner  a  mesme  temps 
qu'il  y  auroit  breche  faite,  pendant  1'execution  de  ces  ordres 
un  petit  navire  Anglois  se  pr^senta  pour  entrer  dans  la  dite 
riviere  charge  de  vitailles  et  munitions  de  guerre,  dans 
lequel  il  y  avoit  un  des  domestiques  du  d.  La  Tour  qui 
estoit  charge*  de  Lettres  de  son  maistre  pour  la  ditte  dame 
sa  femme  qui  Passuroit  dans  un  mois  ou  deux  venir  la 
trouver  en  meilleur  estat  et  posture  qu'il  pourroit.  Le  dit 
domestique  avoit  outre  plus  une  lettre  du  gouverneur  de  la 
grande  baye  des  anglois  addressante  a  la  dite  dame  par 


APPENDIX.  473 

laquelle  il  1'exhortoit   a   faire    son  profit   des   instructions 
qu'elle  avoit  recues  pendant  sa  residence.      Le  dit  navire 
fut  pris  et  arreste  par  mon  dit  Sieur  et  1'equipage  renvoye 
au  lieu  d'ou  il  estoit  party,  avec  une  chaloupe  que  mon  dit 
sieur  leur  donna  pour  cet  effet,  lequel  estant  une  fois  de 
retour  fit  rapport  a  Messieurs  les  magistrats  du  gouvernement 
des  Anglois  que  leur  navire  avoid  este  pris  en  negotiant  avec 
les  francois  et  que  le  traite  de  paix  quils  avoient  fait  avec  le 
Sieur  Marie  nestoit  garde  avec  mil  autres  plaintes  dont  ils 
vouloient  couvrir  le  sujet  de  leur  voyage,  ce  qui  obligea  ces 
Messieurs  de  deputer  un  expres  vers  mon  dit  Sieur  pour  luy 
demander  raison  du  bien  pris  par  luy  sur  un  de  leurs  mar- 
chands  centre  les  articles  de  paix  que  le  Sieur  Marie,  confi- 
dent, leur  avoit  laisse  signer  de  sa  part  —  A  quoy  mon  dit 
Sieur  leur  fit  response  et  declara  a  leur  depute  la  fourbe  de 
leur  dit  marchand,  le  quel  par  un  desir  de  lucre  abusoit  de 
leur  commission  et  au  lieu  d'aller  negotiant  dans  les  Habita- 
tions  des  veritables  Francois,    II   alloit   rompant   par   luy 
mesmes  ce  traite  de  paix  passe  entre  ses  magistrats  et  le 
Sieur  Marie,   confident,   portant  ainsi  frauduleusement   des 
munitions  de  vivres  et   de  guerre  pour   maintenir  des  re- 
belles   dans   leur   desobeissance  et   centre   le    devoir   qu'ils 
doivent  k  leur  prince  naturel.     Toutes  les  quelles  raisons 
payerent  entierement  et  le  depute  et  Messieurs  les  Magis- 
trats de  la  Grande  Baie  le  susdit  depute  estant  party  et  mon 
dit  Sieur   D'Aunay  ayant  recue  nouvelle   que    la   batterie 
estoit   en   estat  et  ses   gens  qui   estoient  a  terre  disposes 
a   faire   ce   quil   leur  ordonneroit,  se    resolut  de  haster   le 
pas   et   avant  que   le   d.    Sieur    De   la    Tour   en   eust   le 
vent  faire  tout  son  effort,   ce  qui  luy  arriva  si   Heureuse- 
ment  qu'apres  avoir  encore  une  fois  somme'  ces  malbeureux, 
lesquels  lui  envoierent  pour  response  une  volle'e  de  canon  a 
balle,  aborant  le  pavilion  rouge  sur  leurs  bastions  avec  mil 
injures  et  blasphemes  et  avoir  fait  battre  le  dit  fort  de  la 


474  APPENDIX. 

Riviere  de  St  Jean  tant  par  terre  que  par  son  grand  navire, 
qu'il  avoit  eminent  &  portee  de  pistolet  d'iceluy  ce  qui  rasa 
une  partie  de  leur  parapets  il  s'en  rendit  maistre  par  UR 
assaut  general  qu'il  tit  donner  sur  le  soir  de  la  mesme 
Journee  le  Lendemain  Pasques  ce  qui  fut  accompagn^  d'une 
si  grande  benediction  de  Dieu,  que  quoyque  la  perte  des 
Hommes  que  mon  dit  sieur  a  fait  soit  grande  elle  eut  este 
encore  plus  sanglante.  Une  partie  des  assiegez  furent  tuez 
dans  la  chaleur  du  combat  et  1'autre  fait  prisonniers  entre 
autres  la  femme  du  dit  La  Tour,  son  fils  et  sa  fille  de 
Chambre  et  une  autre  femme  qui  est  tout  cequ'il  y  avoit 
dans  le  dit  fort  de  sexe  feminin  toutes  lesquelles  ne  recurent 
aucun  tort  ny  a  leur  Honneur  ny  k  leurs  personnes.  Une 
partie  des  prisonniers  recut  grace  de  mon  dit  Sieur  et  le  reste 
des  plus  seditieux  fut  pendu  et  etrangle  pour  servir  de 
memoire  et  d'exemple,  a  la  posterite  d'une  si  obstinee  re- 
bellion ce  qui  est  prouve*  par  1'attestation  qu'en  ont  rendue 
et  signe'e  une  bonne  partie  de  ceux  qui  ont  recue  la  vie  et 
pareille  gratification.  Le  Lendemain  18  Avril  1645  mon 
dit  sieur  fit  inhumer  tous  les  morts  tant  de  part  que  d'autre 
avec  la  distinction  pour  tant  requise  en  telle  rencontre  du 
party  faisant  prier  Dieu  et  faire  un  service  solemnel  &  tous 
ceux  que  deux  reverends  peres  Capucins  missionnaires  qui 
avoient  est£  presens  a  tout  jugement  estre  deu,  ce  qui  est 
prouve  aussi  bien  que  tout  ce  que  dessus  par  une  attestation 
authentique  des  mesmes  susd.  reverends  peres  Capucins 
missionnaires  apres  quoy  mon  dit  Sieur  fit  travailler  pour 
combler  les  travaux  de  dehors  faits  par  les  assiegeans  et  re* 
parer  ceux  de  la  place  mettre  ordre  aux  deffauts  d'icelle  par 
luy  reconnus  et  faire  inventaire  de  tout  ce  qui  se  trouva  de 
reste  dans  icelle  apres  le  pillage  fait  par  les  compagnons  que 
mon  dit  sieur  leur  avoit  donne*  et  faire  ensuite  renvituailler 
le  dit  lieu  de  toutes  choses"  necessaires  pour  la  conservation 
d'iceluy  et  enfin  poser  une  personne  capable  et  fidele  pour 


APPENDIX.  475 

le  service  du  Roi  ce  que  dura  1'espace  de  trois  semaines  ou 
un  mois  pendant  le  quel  la  femme  du  dit  La  Tour  qui  estoit 
dans  le  Commencement  en  Liberte  fut  resserre'e  par  une 
Lettre  qu'on  trouva  qu'elle  ecrivoit  a  son  mary  et  pratique 
qu'elle  faisoit  de  lui  faire  tenir  par  le  moyen  des  Sauvages 
afin  de  la  pouvoir  par  la  premiere  occasion  envoyer  en 
France  a  nos  Seigneurs  du  Conseil  en  bonne  sauve  garde, 
ce  qui  1'alarma  de  telle  sorte  que  de  depit  et  de  rage  elle 
tomba  malade  et  nonobstaht  tous  les  bons  traitemens  et 
Charites  que  L'on  exercja  en  son  endroit  mourut  le  15  Juin 
apres  avoir  abjure*  publiquement  dans  le  chapelle  du  mesme 
fort  L'Heresie  qu'elle  avoit  professee  parmy  les  Anglois 
ala  grande  Baye.  Ce  qui  est  Justine  par  Fattestation 
de'sja  cy  dessus  alleguee  des  deux  reverends  peres  Capucins 
Missionaires. 

Le  present  proems  verbal  a  est£  fait  par  nous,  Andre 
Certain  prevost  et  garde  du  Seel  Royal  de  La  Coste 
d'Acadie  pays  de  la  Kouvelle  f ranee  a  la  requeste  de 
Monsieur  d'Aunay  Charnisay  Gouverneur  et  Lieutenant 
general  pour  le  Roy  en  toute  1'Etendue  de  la  Coste  d'Acadie 
pays  de  la  Nouvelle  France  le  10e  jour  de  may  1645  et 
rendu  et  des  le  mesme  jour  et  an  que  dessus  pour  lui  servir 
et  valoir  aussi  que  de  raison.  Le  tout  en  presence  de 
tesmoins  et  principaux  chefs  des  Francois  qui  sont  dans 
la  dite  coste  signe  Longvilliers  Poincy,  Bernard  Marot, 
Dubreuil  Vismes,  Javille,  Jean  Laurent,  Henry  Dans- 
martin,  Barthelemy  Aubert,  Leclerc  et  Certain  prevost  et 
Garde  du  Sceau  RoyaL 


476  APPENDIX. 


[The  following  extracts  are  printed,  letter  for  letter,  from  copies  at 
the  original  documents.] 


SECTION  SECOND. 


B. 

THE   HERMITAGE   OF  CAEN. 

MEMOIRE  POUR  FAJRE  CONNOISTRE  L'ESPRIT  ET  LA 
CONDUITE  DE  LA  COMPAGNIE  ESTABLIE  EN  LA  VILLE 
DE  CAEN,  APPELEE  L'HERMITAGE. 

(Extrait. )  1    Bibliotheque  Nationale. 

C'EST  en  ce  fameux  Hermitage  que  le  dit  feu  Sieur  de 
Bernieres  a  esleve  plusieurs  jeunes  gens  auxquels  il  en- 
seignoit  une  espece  d'oraison  sublime  et  transcendante  que 
Ton  appelle  1'oraison  purement  passive,  parceque  1'esprit 
n'y  agit  point,  mais  reqoit  seulement  la  divine  operation ; 
c'est  cette  espece  d'oraison  qui  est  la  source  de  tant  de 
visions  et  de  revelations,  dont  I'Hermitage  est  si  fecond;  et 
apres  qu'il  leur  avoit  subtilize  et  presque  fait  evaporer 
1'esprit  par  cette  oraison  rafinee,  il  les  rendoit  capables  de 
reconnoistre  les  Jansenistes  les  plus  cachez;  en  sorte  que 
quelques  uns  de  ces  disciples  ont  dit  qu'ils  le  connoissoient 
au  flairer,  comme  les  cbiens  font  leur  gibier,  pour  ensuite 
leur  faire  la  cbasse,  ndantmoins  le  dit  Sieur  de  Bernieres 
disoit  qu'il  n'avoit  pas  Podorat  si  subtil,  mais  que  la 
marque  a  laquelle  il  connoissoit  les  Jansenistes  estoit  quand 

1  This  mfmoire  forms  116  pages  in  the  copy  in  my  possession. 


APPENDIX.  477 

on  improuvoit  sa  conduite  ou  que  Ton  estoit  oppose  aux 
Jesuites.  .  .  .  Au  commencement  les  personnes  de  cette 
compagnie  ne  se  mesloient  que  de  1'assistance  des  pauvres, 
mais  depuis  que  le  feu  Sieur  de  Bernieres  qui  estoit  un 
simple  la'ique,  qui  n'avoit  point  d'estude,  s'en  estant  rendu 
le  niaistre,  il  persuada  a  ceux  qui  en  sont  qu'elle  n'estoit 
pas  seulement  establie  pour  prendre  soin  des  pauvres,  mais 
de  toutes  les  autres  bonnes  oeuvres,  publiques  ou  parti- 
culieres,  qui  regardent  la  Piete  et  la  E-eligion  et  que  Dieu 
les  avoit  suscitez,  principalement  pour  suppler  aux  defatits 
et  negligences  des  Prelats,  des  Pasteurs,  des  Magistrats,  des 
Juges  et  autres  Superieurs  Ecclesiastiques  et  Politiques  qui 
faute  de  s'appliquer  assez  aux  devoirs  de  leurs  charges,  ob- 
mettent  dans  les  occasions  beaucoup  de  bien  qu'ils  pour- 
roient  procurer,  et  negligent  de  resister  a  beaucoup  de  maux, 
d'abus  et  d'erreurs  qu'ils  pourroient  emp§cher ;  et  que  pour 
reme'dier  a  ces  manquements,  il  estoit  expedient  qne  Dieu 
suscitat  plusieurs  gens  de  bien  de  toutes  sortes  de  conditions 
qui  s'unissent  ensemble  pour  travailler  a  1'avancement  du 
bien  qui  se  peut  faire  en  chaque  profession,  et  pour  extirper 
les  erreurs,  les  abus  et  les  vices  qui  s;y  glissent  souvent,  par 
la  negligence  ou  connivence  mesme  de  ceux  qui  sont  le  plus 
obligez  par  leur  ministere  d'y  donner  ordre. 

Et  c'est  dans  cette  pense'e  que  ces  messieurs  croyent  avoir 
droit  a  se  mesler  de  toutes  choses,  de  s'ingerer  de  toutes  les 
actions  un  peu  e"clantes  qui  regardent  la  Religion,  de 
s'inge'rer  en  censeurs  publics,  pour  corriger  et  controller 
tout  ce  qui  leur  deplaist,  d'entrer  et  de  penetrer  dans  les 
secrets  des  maisons  et  des  families  particulieres,  comme 
aussi  dans  la  conduite  des  communautez  Eeligieuses  pour  y 
gouverner  toutes  choses  a  leur  gre ;  et  bien  que  ces  messieurs 
soient  fort  ignorans,  bien  qu'ils  n'ayent  aucune  experience 
des  affaires  et  qu'ils  passent  dans  le  jugement  de  tous  ceux 
qui  les  connoissent  pour  personnes  qui  n'ont  qu'uii  Zele 


478  APPENDIX. 

impetueux  et  violent,  sans  lumieres  et  sans  discretion,  neant- 
moins  ils  presument  avoir  assez  de  capacity  pour  reformer  la 
vie,  les  moeurs,  les  sentimens  et  la  doctrine  de  tous  les 
autres.  Et  ce  qu'il  y  a  de  plus  fascheux  et  de  plus  dange- 
reux  en  cela,  c'est  que  si  on  ne  defere  aveugle'ment  a  tous 
leurs  sentimens,  si  on  improuve  leur  conduite  et  si  Ton  op- 
pose la  inoindre  resistance  a  leurs  entreprises,  quoyqu'in- 
justes  et  violentes,  ils  unissent  toutes  leur  forces  pour  les 
faire  reussir  et  pour  cet  effet  ils  reclament  les  secours  de  tous 
ceux  qui  leur  sont  unis,  a  Paris,  a  Rouen  et  ailleurs,  pour 
decrier,  pour  diffamer  et  pour  perdre  ceux  qui  leur  re'sistent 
et  qui  veulent  s'opposer  au  cours  de  leurs  violences  et  de 
leurs  injustice,  de  sorte  qu'on  peut  assurer  avec  verite'  que 
cette  compagnie  a  degenere  en  une  cabale  et  en  une  faction 
dangereuse  et  pernicieuse,  tant  a  PEglise  qu'a  la  Patrie, 
estant  certant  que  depuis  peu  d'annees  ils  ont  excite*  beau- 
coup  de  troubles  et  de  divisions  dans  toute  la  ville  de  Caen, 
et  notamment  dans  le  clerge*  et  mesme  en  plusieurs  autres 
lieux  de  la  Basse-Normandie  ainsi  qu'il  paroistra  par  les 
articles  suivants  de  ce  memoire. 

II  est  arrive  quelques  fois  qu'ayant  eu  de  faux  avis  que 
des  maris  maltroitoient  leurs  femmes  ou  que  des  femmes 
n'estoient  pas  fideles  a  leurs  maris  ou  que  des  filles  ne  se 
gouvernoient  pas  bien,  ils  se  sont  ingerez  sur  le  rapport  qui 
en  estoit  fait  en  leur  assemble  de  cbercher  les  moyens  de 
reme'dier  k  ces  maux,  et  ils  en  ont  choisi  de  si  impertinents 
et  de  si  indiscrets  que  cela  a  este  capable  de  causer  bien  du 
desordre  et  de  la  division  dans  les  families  et  dans  toute  la 
ville ;  car  souvent  voulant  empescher  une  legere  faute,  on  en 
fait  naistre  de  grands  scandales,  lorsque  Ton  agit  par  em- 
porteinent  plustost  que  par  prudence. 

Ce  n'est  pas  seulement  dans  les  families  particulieres  qu'ils 
s'introduisent  pour  en  fureter  les  secrets,  pour  en  connoitre 
les  d^fauts  et  pour  en  usurper  la  direction  et  le  gouverne< 


APPENDIX.  4T9 

ment,  mais  encore  dans  les  maisons  Religieuses,  dont  les 
unes  se  sont  soumises  a  leur  domination,  comrae  les  Ursu- 
lines  de  Caen,  les  moynes  de  PAbbaye  d'Ardenne  de  Pordre 
de  Premontre,  proche  de  cette  ville  et  depuis  pen  les  filles  de 
Sainte-Marie  ;  et  les  autres  leur  ayant  tesmoigne  quelque 
resistance,  ils  ont  employe  toute  leur  Industrie  pour  en 
venir  a  bout ;  et  ou  1'artifice  a  manque,  ils  y  ont  adjoute  les 
violences  et  les  menaces.  .  .  . 

Mais  il  ne  faut  point  chercher  de  marques  plus  visibles  de 
la  perseverance,  pour  mieux  dire  du  progres  de  ces  faux 
ermites  dans  leurs  emportemens  que  ce  qu'ont  fait  cet  hiver 
passe*  cinq  jeunes  homines  nourris  en  1'Hermitage  et  Sieve's 
sous  la  direction  et  discipline  du  feu  Sieur  de  Bernieres. 
On  leur  avoit  si  bien  imprime  dans  1'esprit  que  tout  estoit 
rempli  de  Jansenistes  dans  la  ville  de  Caen,  et  que  les  curez 
en  estoient  les  fauteurs  et  protecteurs,  qu'un  d'entre  eux 
s'imagina  que  Dieu  1'inspiroit  fortement  advertir  le  peuple 
de  Caen  que  les  curez  estoient  des  fauteurs  d'Heretiques  et 
par  consequent  des  excomuniez;  et  ayant  persuade  a  ses 
compagnons  d'annoncer  publiquement  a  toute  la  ville  ce 
crime  pretendu  des  Curez  d'une  maniere  qui  touchast  le 
peuple  et  qui  fut  capable  de  Fexciter  centre  ces  Pasteurs, 
ils  resolurent  de  faire  cette  publication  le  mercredi  qua- 
trieme  du  mois  de  Febvrier  dernier,  et  jugerent  que  pour 
se  disposer  a  executer  dignement  ce  que  Dieu  leur  avoit  in- 
spire, il  falloit  faire  ensemble  une  communion  extraordinaire, 
immediatement  avant  que  de  1'entreprendre.  Ils  assisterent 
done  pour  cet  effet  et  dans  la  paroisse  de  Saint-Ouen  £  la 
messe  d'un  prestre  qu'on  dit  estre  de  leur  cabale,  et  conmu- 
nierent  tous  cinq  de  sa  main;  et  apres  leur  communion,  le 
plus  ze'le'  mit  bas  son  pourpoint  et  le  laissa  avec  son  chapeau 
dans  1'Eglise;  et  accompagn^  des  quatre  autres  qui  le  sui- 
voient  sans  chapeaux,  sans  colets  et  le  pourpoint  deboutonne', 
non-obstant  la  rigueur  extreme  du  froid ;  ils  marcherent  en 


480  APPENDIX. 

cet  Equipage  par  toute  la  ville,  annon^ant  &  haute  voix  que 
les  curez  de  Caen  a  1'exception  de  deux  qu'ils  nomraoient 
etoient  fauteurs  de  Jansenistes  et  excorarauniez,  parce  qu'ils 
avoient  signe  un  acte  devant  1'official  de  Caen,  ou  ils  attestent 
qu'ils  ne  connoissent  point  de  Jansenistes  dans  la  dite  ville 
et  repetoient  cet  advertissement  de  dix  pas  en  dix  pas,  ce 
qui  emeut  toute  la  ville  et  attira  a  leur  suite  une  graride 
multitude  de  populace  qui  se  persuadant  que  ces  gens  es- 
toient  envoyes  de  Dieu  pour  leur  donner  cet  advertissement, 
temoignoient  desja  de  1'emotion  contre  les  curez.  Mais  les 
magistrats  qui  estoient  alors  au  siege  en  ayant  este*  advertis, 
ils  envoyerent  leurs  huissiers  pour  les  arrester  et  les  emme- 
ner,  et  ayant  este  interrogez  par  le  juge  sur  le  sujet  d'une 
action  si  extraordinaire,  ils  respondirent  hardiment  qu'ils 
1'avoient  entreprise  pour  le  service  de  Dieu  et  qu'ils  estoient 
prests  de  souffrir  la  mort  pour  soustenir  la  verite  de  ce  qu'ils 
annonqoient,  qu'ils  avoient  connoissance  certaine  qu'il  y  avoit 
grand  nombre  de  Jansenistes  en  la  ville  de  Caen,  et  que  les 
curez  s'en  estoient  declarez  les  fauteurs,  par  la  declaration 
qu'ils  avoient  donnee  qu'ils  n'en  connoissoient  point ;  ensuitte 
de  quoy  quatre  d'entre  eux  furent  renvoyez  en  prison  et  le 
cinquieme  fut  mis  entre  les  mains  de  ses  parents  sur  une 
attestation  que  donnerent  les  medecins  qu'il  estoit  hypo- 
condriaque  et  peu  de  jours  apres  le  lieutenant  criminel  ayant 
instruit  le  procez,  les  quatre  prisonniers  furent  condamnez  a 
cent  livres  d'amende ;  il  leur  fut  deffendu  et  k  tous  autres  de 
s'assembler  ni  d'exciter  aucun  scandale,  il  fut  ordonne  qu'ils 
seroient  mis  entre  les  mains  de  leur  parents  pour  s'en 
charger  et  en  faire  bonne  et  seure  garde,  ayec  deffense  de 
les  laisser  entrer  dans  la  ville  et  aux  fauxbourgs,  sur  peines 
au  cas  appartenantes.  .  .  . 

Car  de  quelles  entreprises  ne  sont-  pas  capables  des  per- 
sonnes  d'esprit  faible  et  d'humeur  atrabilaire  que  d'ailleurs 
on  a  dessechees  par  des  jeunes,  des  veilles  et  d'autres 


APPENDIX.  481 

auste'ritez  contumelies  et  par  des  meditations  de  trois  on 
quatre  heures  par  jour,  lorsque  Ton  ne  les  entretient  presque 
d'autre  chose,  si  non  que  leur  Religion  et  1'Eglise  sont  en 
un  tres  grand  danger  de  se  perdre,  par  la  faction  et  la  con- 
spiration  des  Jansenistes  lesquels  on  leur  represente  dans  les 
livres,  dans  les  sermons  et  dans  les  conferences,  comrne  des 
gens  qui  veulent  renverser  les  fondements  de  la  Religion  et 
de  la  Pie'te  Chrestienne,  qui  veulent  detruire  le  mystere  de 
T  Incarnation,  qui  ne  croyent  point  a  la  Transubstantation 
ni  Plnvocation  des  Saints,  ni  les  Indulgences,  qui  veulent 
abolir  le  sacrifice  de  la  messe  et  le  sacrement  de  la  Peni- 
tence, qui  combattent  la  devotion  et  la  culte  de  la  Sainte- 
Vierge,  qui  nient  le  franc  arbitre  et  qui  substituent  en  sa 
place  le  destin  et  la  fatalite  des  Turcs,  et  enfin  qui  ma- 
chinerit  la  ruine  de  1'authorite  des  Souverains  Pontifes.  Qu'y 
a-t-il  de  plus  aise  que  d'animer  les  esprits  imbeciles  d'eux 
mesmes  et  preVenus  de  ces  fausses  imaginations  centre  des 
Evesques,  des  Docteurs,  des  Curez,  et  contre  d'autres  per- 
sonnes  tres  vertueuses  et  tres  catholiques,  lorsqu'on  leur  fait 
croire  que  toutes  ces  personnes  conspirent  a  establir  une 
heresie  abominable  ! 


C.  i£v 

LAVAL  AND  ARGENSON. 

LETTRE  DE  L'EVESQUE  DE  PETBEE  A  M.  D'ARGENSON, 
FRERE  DU  GTOUVERNEUR. 

(Extrait.)     Papier s  d'Argenson. 

JAI  reqeu  dans  mon  entree  dans  le  pays  de  Monsieur  votre 
frere  toutes  les  marques  d'une  bienveillance  extraordinaire; 
lay  fait  mon  possible  pour  la  recongnoistre  et  luy  ay  rendu 

31 


482  APPENDIX. 

tous  les  respects  que  je  dois  a  une  personne  de  sa  vertu  et 
de  son  m^rite  joint  a  la  qualit£  qu'il  porte ;  comme  son  plus 
veritable  amy  et  fidelle  serviteur  lay  cm  estre  oblige  de  luy 
donner  un  ad  vis  important  pour  le  bien  de  PEglise  et  qui 
luy  devoit  estre  utile  s'il  1'eust  pris  dans  la  mesme  disposi- 
tion que  ie  suis  asseure  que  vous  1'auries  receu ;  cestoit  seul 
a  seul  a  cceur  ouvert  avec  marques  assez  evidentes  que  ce 
que  ie  luy  disois  estoit  vray  veu  qu'il  estoit  fondd  sur  des 
sentimens  que  i'avois  veu  moy  mesme  paroistre  en  diverses 
assemblies  publiques;  cependant  il  ne  fist  que  trop  cong- 
noistre  qu'il  ne  trouvoit  auqunnement  bon  que  ie  luy  don- 
naisses  cet  advertissement  et  me  voullut  faire  embrasser  le 
party  de  ceux  qui  avaient  tout  subject  de  se  plaindre  de  son 
precede  envers  eux,  mais  que  je  ne  pretendois  auqunne 
ment  justifier  n'en  ayant  auqunne  plainte  de  leur  part  pour 
luy  faire  et  d'ailleurs  estans  asses  desinteresses ;  vous  pouvez 
bien  iuger  quels  sont  ceux  dont  ie  veux  parler  sans  vous  les 
nommer  puisque  vous  mesme  qui  avez  une  affection  sincere 
et  bien  r£gl£e  pour  ces  dignes  ouvriers  eSvangeliques  m'avez 
avou£  que  vous  aviez  doulleur  de  le  voir  partir  dans  les 
sentiments  ou  il  estoit  a  leur  esgard  sans  beaucoup  de  fonde- 
nient  du  moins  suffisamment  recongneu  pour  lors;  ce  que  ie 
luy  dis  avoir  sceu  de  vous  pour  ne  rien  omettre  de  ce  que  je 
me  persuadois  qui  estoit  capable  de  lui  faire  avouer  une  v^rite" 
qui  nestoit  que  trop  apparente,  ce  qui  devoit  un  peu  le 
calmer  son  esprit  sembla  1'aigrir  et  se  fascha  de  ce  que  vous 
m'aviez  faict  cette  ouverture,  ie  ne  scais  depuis  ce  qu'il  a 
pens6  de  moy,  mais  il  semble  que  je  luy  sois  suspect  et  qu'il 
aye  cru  que  i'ernbrasse  la  cause  de  ces  bons  serviteurs  de 
Dieu  a  son  preiudice,  mais  ie  puis  bien  asseurer  qu'ils  n'ont 
pour  luy  que  des  sentimens  de  respect  et  que  la  plus  forte 
passion  que  iaye  est  de  le  voir  dans  une  parfaite  union  et 
intelligence  avec  eux. 

QUEBEC,  ce  20  Octobre  1668. 


APPENDIX.  483 

LETTRE  DE  M.  D'ARGENSON,  1660. 
(Extrait.}     Papiers  d'Argenson. 

Monsieur  de  Petre'e  a  une  telle  adherence  &  ses  sentiments 
et  un  zele  qui  le  porte  souvent  hors  du  droict  de  sa  charge 
qu'il  ne  faict  aucune  difficulte  d'empieter  sur  le  pouvoir  des 
aultres  et  avec  tant  de  chaleur  qu'il  n'ecoute  personne.  II 
enleva  ces  jours  derniers  une  fille  servente  d'un  habitant 
d'icy,  et  la  mit  de  son  autorite'  dans  les  Hursulines  sur  le 
seul  pretexte  qu'il  vouloit  la  faire  instruire,  et  par  la  il  priva 
cet  habitant  du  service  qu'il  pretendoit  de  sa  servente  qui 
luy  avoit  faict  beaucoup  de  depense  a  amener  de  France. 
Cet  habitant  est  Mf  Denis  lequel  ne  cognoissant  pas  qui 
1'avoit  soubstret  me  presenta  requeste  pour  1'avoir.  Je  garde 
[sic]  la  requeste  sans  la  repondre  trois  jours  pour  empescher 
1'eclat  de  cette  affaire.  Le  R.  P.  Lalement  avec  lequel  j'en 
communiqu^  et  lequel  blasma  fort  le  precede  de  MT  de 
Petree  s'employa  de  tout  son  pouvoir  pour  la  faire  rendre 
sans  bruit  et  n'y  gaigna  rien,  si  bien  que  je  fus  oblige*  de 
repondre  la  requeste  et  de  permettre  &  cet  habitant  de 
reprendre  sa  servente  ou  il  la  trouveroit,  et  si  je  n'eusse 
insinue  soubs  main  d'accommoder  cette  affaire  et  que  1'habi- 
tant  a  qui  on  refusa  de  la  rendre  1'eut  poursuivi  en  justice 
j'eusse  este  oblige  de  la  luy  rendre  et  de  pousser  tout  avec 
beaucoup  de  scandal  et  cela  (a  cause  de)  la  volonte*  de 
M!"  de  Petree  qui  diet  qu'un  evesque  peult  se  qu'il  veult,  et 
ne  menace  que  dexcommunication. 

LETTRE  DE   M.   D'ARGENSON. 
(Extraits.)     Papiers  d'Argenson. 

KBBEC  LE  7  JUILLET,  1660. 

Mf  de  Petrel  a  faist  naistre  cette  contestation  et  ie  puip 
dire  auec  verite  que  son  zele  en  plusieurs  rencontres  approche 


484  APPENDIX. 

fort  d'une  grande  atache  a  son  sentiment  et  d'empietement 
sur  la  charge  des  aultres  comme  vous  le  verrez  par  un 
billet  icy  joint.  .  .  .  De  toutes  ces  contestations  que  i'ay 
en  auec  M?  de  Petree  i'ay  tousjours  faist  le  R.  P.  Lalemand 
mediateur;  c'est  une  personne  d'un  si  grand  merite  et  d'un 
sens  si  acheve  que  ie  pense  qu'on  ne  peult  rien  y  adjouter; 
il  seroit  bien  a  souhaiter  que  touts  ceux  de  sa  maison 
suivissent  ses  sentiments;  ils  ne  se  mesleroient  pas  de 
censurer  plusieurs  choses  comme  ils  font  et  laisseroient  le 
gouvernement  des  affaires  a  ceux  que  Dieu  a  ordonne  pour 
cela. 


D. 

PERONNE  DUMESNTL. 

LE   SIEUR  GAUDATS   DU  PONT  X  MONSEIGNEUR 
DE   COLBERT.     1664. 

(Extrait.)     Archives   de   la   Marine. 

QUELQUE  7  ou  8  jours  apres  Petablissement  du  Conseil 
Souverain,  en  consequence  des  lettres  patentes  de  Sa 
majeste,  le  Procureur  General  du  dit  Conseil  jugeant  qu'il 
etait  de  sa  charge  de  reprendre  les  (papiers}  de  cette  plainte 
pour  ne  pas  laisser  un  tel  attentat  impuni,  fit  sa  requite 
verbale  au  dit  Conseil  tendante  a  ce  qu'il  lui  fut  donne' 
commission  pour  informer  centre  le  dit  Sieur  Du  Mesnil ;  et 
que  si  le  dit  Sieur  Du  Mesnil,  avait  avis  de  la  dite  commis- 
sion qu'il  ne  manquerait  pas  de  detourner  ces  dits  papiers 
demandant  qu'il  lui  fut  permis  de  saisir  et  de  sequestrer  ici 
et  apposer  le  sceau  au  coffre  ou  armoire  en  laquelle  se 
trouveraient  les  dits  papiers,  et  pour  ce  faire  qu'il  plut  au 
dit  Conseil  nommer  tel  Commissaire  qu'il  jugerait  a  propos. 


APPENDIX.  486 

Le  dit  Conseil  enterinant  la  requete  du  dit  Procureur 
General,  nomma  le  Sieur  de  Villeray,  pour,  en  la  presence 
du  dit  Procureur  General  et  assistance  de  son  Greffier  vaquer 
a  la  dite  information,  &c. 

Et  d'autant  que  le  dit  Sieur  Du  Mesnil  etait  estime 
homme  violent  et  qu'il  pourrait  faire  quelque  boutade,  pour 
donner  main  forte  a  la  justice,  Mr.  le  Gouverneur  fut  prie 
par  les  dits  Conseillers  de  faire  escorter  le  dit  Sieur  Com- 
missaire  par  quelque  nombre  de  soldats. 

Le  dit  Sieur  de  Villeray  assiste,  comme  dit  est  pour 
Pexecution  de  sa  commission,  se  transporta  au  logis  du  dit 
Sieur  Du  Mesnil,  laissant  £  quartier  1'escorte  de  soldats 
pour  s'en  servir  en  cas  de  besoin. 

Le  dit  Sieur  Du  Mesnil  ne  trompa  pas  1'opinion  que  Ton 
avait  eue  de  sa  violence,  fit  grand  bruit,  cria  aux  voleurs, 
voulant  emouvoir  son  voisinage,  outrageant  d' injures  les 
dits  Sieurs  de  Villeray  et  Procureur  General  au  grand 
mepris  de  1'autorite  du  Conseil,  refusant  m§me  de  le 
reconnaitre.  Ce  qui  n'empScha  pas  le  dit  Sieur  de  Villeray 
d'executer  sa  commission  de  saisir  les  papiers  du  dit  Sieur 
Du  Mesnil,  qui  en  donna  la  clef,  y  fit  apposer  le  sceau  et 
icelui  sequestrer  es  mains  d'un  voisin  du  dit  Sieur  Du 
Mesnil  et  de  son  consentement. 

Le  lendemain  le  dit  Sieur  de  Villeray  rapporta  son 
proces  verbal  au  dit  conseil,  attest^  du  dit  Procureur 
General,  et  signs'  du  Greffier  du  dit  Conseil  et  sur  les  in- 
jures, violences  et  irreverences  y  contenues  tant  contre  le 
dit  Sieur  Commissaire  que  1'autorite  du  Conseil,  fit  decerner 
un  ddcret  de  prise  de  corps  contre  le  dit  Sieur  Du  Mesnil, 
dont  j'empe'chairexe'cution. 


486  APPENDIX. 

MEMOIBE  DE  DUMESNIL  CONCERNANT  LES   AFFAIRES 
DU   CANADA. 

(JEJxtrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

10  SEPTEMBER,  1671. 

Les  dits  Sieurs  de  Mdsy,  Gouverneur,  de  Pe'tree,  Eveque, 
et  Dupont  Gaudais,  arrives  au  dit  Quebec  le  16e  jour  de 
Septembre  1663,  furent  le  lendemain  salues  et  visiles  par  le 
dit  Du  Mesnil  precedent  juge,  lequel  par  devoir  et  civilite 
leur  dit  par  forme  d'avis  que  par  des  arr§ts  du  conseil  du  Roi, 
qu'il  leur  representa  en  date  du  27  Mars  1647  et  13  Mai  1659 
tous  les  comrais  et  receveurs  des  dits  deniers  publics  etaient 
exclus  de  toutes  charges  publiques,  jusqu'a  ce  qu'ils  eussent 
rendu  et  assure  leurs  comptes,  et  le  nomme'  Villeray  chasse* 
du  conseil  de  la  traite  pour  y  avoir  entre*  par  voies  et 
moyens  illicites ;  et  ordonne  qu'il  viendrait  en  France  pour 
le  purger  de  ses  crimes ;  ce  qu'il  n'a  pas  fait,  et  pour  nom- 
mer  les  autres  commis,  receveurs,  auxquels  il  aurait  com- 
mence a  faire  le  proces  pendant  qu'il  etait  juge. 

"Nonobstant  lesquels  dires,  actes  et  arrSts  repr^sentes,  les 
dits  Sieurs  de  Me'sy,  Eveque  de  Petrel,  et  Dupont  Gaudais, 
n'ont  d^laiss^  de  prendre  et  admettre  avec  eux  au  dit 
Conseil  Souverain  les  dits  comptables;  lesquels  par  ce 
moyen  se  pretendent  a  convert  et  exempts  de  rendre  les 
dits  comptes.  Le  dit  e'tablissement  de  conseil  fait  et 
arrete  par  les  dits  Commissaires  le  18  du  mois  de  Septembre, 
deux  jours  apres  leur  arrivee;  et  pour  Procureur  G^n^ral 
prennent  un  nomm^  Jean  Bourdon,  boulanger  et  cannonier 
au  fort  et  aussi  comptable  de  8  a  900,000  livres,  comme  il 
sera  montre*  et  qu'il  a  prete'  son  nom. 

Le  20  du  mois  de  Septembre,  deux  jours  apres  1'etablisse- 
ment  du  dit  conseil,  les  dits  Villeray  soi-disant  conseiller  et 
commissaire  et  Bourdon,  Procureur  Ge'ne'ral  accompagnes  de 
deux  sergents,  d'un  serrurier  et  de  dix  soldats  du  fort,  bien 


APPENDIX.  487 

arme*s  vont  en  la  maison  du  dit  Du  Mesnil,  Intendant  el 
Controleur  General,  et  peu  auparavant  leur  juge  souverain, 
sur  les  7  a  8  heures  du  soir  pour  piller  sa  maison ;  ce  qu'ils 
firent;  ayant  fait  rompre  la  porte  de  son  cabinet,  ses 
armoires  et  un  coffret ;  pris  et  emporte  ce  qu'ils  ont  trouve' 
dedans  et  notamment  tous  ses  papiers  dans  lesquels  £taient 
leurs  proces  presque  faits,  et  les  preuves  de  leurs  pe'culats, 
concussions  et  malversations,  sans  aucun  inventaire  ni  forme 
de  justice,  e'tant  le  dit  Du  Mesnil,  lors  des  dites  violences, 
tenu  et  arrete  sur  un  siege  et  rudement  traits'  par  les  soldats 
jusques  a  1'empScher  d'appeler  du  secours  et  des  te'moins 
pour  voir  ce  qui  se  passait  en  sa  maison  et  comme  il  etait 
lie'  et  arrete'. 

Cette  action  violente  ainsi  faite  et  le  dit  Du  Mesnil  se 
voyant  delivre  du  massacre  de  sa  personne  dont  il  e'tait 
menace*,  et  d'etre  assassins'  comme  son  fils  s'en  va  trouver  le 
dit  Sieur  Dupont  Gaudais  prenant  qualit^  d'Intendant  pour 
lui  en  faire  plainte,  qu'il  ne  voulut  entendre,  disant  que 
c'e'tait  de  son  ordonnance  et  du  dit  Conseil  que  la  dite  action 
et  prise  de  papiers  avait  e'te  faite ;  a  quoi  le  dit  Du  Mesnil 
repartit  qu'il  s'en  plaindrait  au  Roi,  et  lui  en  demanderait 
justice,  ce  qui  obligea  le  dit  Dupont  Gaudais  de  dire  au  dit 
Du  Mesnil  qu'il  donn§,t  sa  requite ;  ce  qui  f ut  fait,  et  sur 
laquelle  fut  par  le  dit  Conseil  ordonne  le  22  du  dit  mois  de 
Septembre,  deux  jours  apres  cette  violence  que  le  dit 
Dupont  Gaudais  serait  commissaire  pour  verifier  les  faits 
d'icelle  requete;  ce  que  poursuivant  le  dit  Du  Mesnil,  il 
eut  ordre  verbal  du  dit  Sr.  Gaudais  de  mettre  au  Greffe  ses 
causes  et  moyens  de  re'cusation,  de  nullite*  de  prise  a  partie 
et  de  demandes ;  ce  que  le  dit  Du  Mesnil  fit  comme  appert 
par  Tacte  signs'  du  Greffier  du  dit  Conseil  du  28  du  dit  mois 
de  Septembre  sur  lesquelles  re'cusations,  prises  a  partie  et 
demandes,  le  dit  Conseil  n'a  rien  voulu  ordonner,  comme 
appert  par  autre  acte  du  dit  Grefner  du  21  Octobre  ensnivant, 


488  APPENDIX. 

jour  ordonne*  pour  Tembarquement  et  depart  des  vaisseaux 
du  dit  Quebec  pour  retourner  en  France. 

Mais  au  lieu  de  statuer  et  ordonner  sur  les  faits,  moyens 
et  conclusions  du  dit  Du  Mesnil,  le  dit  Conseil  sans  plainte, 
sans  partie  et  sans  information  a  dresse  emprisonnement  du 
dit  Du  Mesnil  et  cache  le  decret  sans  le  mettre  au  GrefFe 
dans  Fintention  de  le  faire  paraitre  et  executer  du  merne 
temps  que  le  dit  Du  Mesnil  se  voudrait  embarquer  pour 
revenir  en  France,  afm  qu'il  n'eut  pas  le  temps  de  donner 
avis  des  violences  qu'on  lui  faisait:  de  quoi  averti  il 
s'embarqua  quelques  jours  auparavant  les  autres  et  fut  re$u 
par  le  Capitaine  Gardeur  dans  son  navire,  nonobstant  les 
defenses  qui  lui  en  avaient  etc*  faites  par  le  dit  nouveau 
Conseil  et  que  six  pieces  de  canon  de  la  plate  forme  d'eii 
bas  fussent  pointees  contre  son  navire  pour  le  faire  obeir 
a  leurs  ordonnances. 

Tous  ces  massacres,  assassins  et  pillages  n'ont  e*te  faits  au 
dit  Du  Mesnil,  Intendant,  par  les  dits  comptables,  ordonna- 
teurs  et  preneurs  de  bien  public  et  leurs  parents  et  allies  que 
pour  tacher  a  couvrir  et  s'exempter  de  compter,  payer  et 
rendre  ce  qu'ils  ont  pille,  savoir.  .  .  . 


E. 

LAVAL  AND 

ORDRB  DE  M?  DE  MESY  DE  FAIRE  SOMMATION  A 

I/EVEQUE    DE   PETREE. 

(Extrait.)     Registre  du  Conseil  Superieur. 

13  FEVRIER,  1664. 

LE  Sieur  d'Angoville,  Major  de  la  Garnison  entretenue 
par  le  Koi  dans  le  Fort  de  S*  Louis  a  Quebec  pays  de  la 
Nouvelle  France,  est  cOmmande  par  nous  Sieur  de  Mesy, 


APPENDIX.  489 

Lieutenant  General  et  Gouverneur  pour  Sa  Majeste  dans 
toute  1'etendue  du  dit  pays,  aller  dire  et  avertir  Monsieur 
PEveque  de  Petre"e  etant  presentement  dans  la  chambre  qui 
servait  ci-devant  aux  Assemblies  du  Conseii  au  dit  pays, 
que  les  Sieurs  nomines  pour  Gonseillers  et  le  Sieur  Bourdon 
pour  Procureur  du  Roi  au  dit  conseii  a  la  persuasion  du  dit 
Sieur  de  Petree  qui  les  connaissait  entierement  ses  crea- 
tures s'etant  voulu  rendre  les  maitres  declares  et  portes  en 
diverses  manieres  dans  le  dit  Conseii  centre  les  Interets  du 
Roi  et  du  public  pour  appuyer  et  autoriser  les  interets 
d'autrui  en  particulier,  il  leur  a  ete  commande  par  notre 
ordre  pour  la  conservation  des  interets  du  Roi  en  ce  pays, 
de  s'absenter  du  dit  Conseii  jusqu'a  ce  que  a  notre  diligence 
par  le  retour  des  premiers  vaisseaux  qui  viendront.  Sa 
Majeste  ait  ete'  informee  de  leur  conduite,  et  qu'ils  se  soient 
justifies  des  cabales  qu'ils  ont  formees,  fomentees  et  entrete- 
nues  centre  leur  devoir  et  le  serment  de  fidelite  qu'ils 
etaient  obliges  de  garder  k  Sa  dite  Majeste*. 

Priant  le  dit  Sieur  Ev§que  acquiescer  a  la  dite  interdic- 
tion pour  le  bien  du  service  du  Roi,  et  vouloir  proceder  par 
1'avis  d'une  Assemblee  publique  a  nouvelle  nomination 
des  Conseillers  en  la  place  des  dits  Sieurs  Interdits  pour 
pouvoir  rendre  la  justice  aux  peuples  et  habitants  de  ce 
pays,  Declarant  que  nous  Sieur  de  Me*sy  ne  pouvons  en 
nommer  aucun  de  notre  part  en  la  fa^on  en  laquelle  nous 
avons  6t6  surpris  par  notre  facility  lors  de  la  premiere 
nomination  manque  d'une  parfaite  connaissance,  et  que  s'il 
est  fait  quelque  chose  au  prejudice  de  cet  avertissement  par 
aucun  des  dits  Conseillers  interdits,  ils  seront  traites  comme 
desobeissants,  fomenteurs  de  rebellions  et  contraires  au 
repos  public. 

MESY 


490  APPENDIX. 


DE  L'EVEQUE     DE 

Registre  du  Conseil  Superieur. 

16Fnv.  1664. 

Laissant  a  part  les  paroles  offensives  et  accusations  injuri- 
euses  qui  me  regardent  dans  1'afficbe  mise  au  son  du  tambour 
le  treizieme  de  ce  mois  de  Fevrier,  au  poteau  public,  dont 
je  pretends  me  Justine  r  devant  Sa  Majeste  je  reponds  a  la 
priere  que  Monsieur  le  Gouverneur  m'y  fait  d'agreer  1'in- 
terdiction  des  personnes  qui  y  sont  comprises,  et  de  vouloir 
proceder  a  la  nomination  d'autres  Conseillers  ou  Officiers 
et  ce  par  1'avis  d'une  assemble  publique,  que  ni  ma  con- 
science ni  mon  honneur,  ni  le  respect  et  ob&ssance  que  je 
dois  aux  volontes  et  commandements  du  Roi,  ni  la  fid61it6 
et  Faffection  que  je  dois  a  son  service  ne  me  le  permettent 
aucunement  jusques  a  ce  que  dans  un  jugement  legitime 
les  desnomme's  dans  la  susdite  afficbe  soient  convaincus  des 
crimes  dont  on  les  y  accuse. 

A  Quebec  ce  seizieme  FeVrier  mil-six-cent-soixante- 
quatre. 

(Signe)        FRANCOIS,  EVEQUE  DE  QUEBEC. 

Enregistre  a  la  requite  de  Mgr.  1'EvSque  de  P^tree  ce 
16  Fevrier  1664  par  moi  Secretaire  au  Conseil  Souverain 
soussigne. 

(Signe)  PEUVRET,  Secret" 

avec  paraphe. 

f«:f  t:l5ff!.>v^^-:.5  >  f^  J!KI  flh   "':TJU  ifjirt.  :'fi  ft^orio  *>• 

LETTRE  DE  MisY   AUX  JESUITES. 
(Extrait.)     Collection  de  VAbbe  Ferland. 

Comme  ainsi  soit  que  la  gloire  de  Dieu,  le  service  du 
Roi  et  le  service  du  public  nous  aient  engage's  de  venir  en 
ce  pays  pour  y  rencontrer  notre  salut  par  la  eollicitation  de 


APPENDIX.  491 

M.  FEvSque  de  P6tr3e  qui  nous  a  fait  agre*er  au  Eoi  pour 
avoir  Fhonneur  d'etre  son  Lieutenant  General  et  Gou- 
verneur  de  toute  la  Nouvelle  France,  repre*senter  sa  personne 
dans  le  Conseil  Souverain  qu'il  a  etabli  dans  ce  dit  pays 
pour  exercer  la  justice,  police  et  finance,  ce  qui  nous  tient 
lieu  d'obligation  vers  mon  dit  Sieur  FEveque  pour  lui 
dormer  des  marques  de  reconnaissance  en  toutes  rencontres. 
A  quoi  nous  sommes  aussi  obliges  par  son  merite  particulier 
et  par  le  respect  qui  est  du  a  son  caractere,  mais  qui  ne 
doit  entrer  en  nulle  consideration  pour  le  regard  du  service 
et  de  la  fidelity  que  nous  sommes  oblige  de  rendre  a  S.  M. ; 
n'etant  pas  ni  de  notre  conscience  ni  de  notre  honneur 
d'avoir  accept^  la  commission  dont  il  nous  a  honore,  pour 
n'en  pas  faire  le  deub  de  notre  charge  et  de  trahir  les 
inter§ts  de  Sa  dite  Majeste*;  lui  en  ayant  fait  le  serment 
de  fidelite  entre  ses  mains  et  d'en  avoir  requ  le  commande- 
ment  par  sa  bouche.  Pourquoi  ayant  rencontre  plusieurs 
pratiques  que  nous  avons  cru  en  conscience  par  devoir  etre 
oblige*  d'en  emp^cher  la  suite,  nous  aurions  fait  publier 
notre  declaration  du  13e  jour  de  Fevrier  dernier,  et  ne 
1'ayant  pu  faire  faire  sans  y  int^resser  le  Sr  Ev§que,  notre 
dite  declaration  nous  fait  passer  dans  son  esprit  et  de  tous 
Messieurs  les  Eccle'siastiques  qui  considerent  ce  point  d'une 
pre'tendue  offense  sans  avoir  egard  aucunement  aux  intere'ts 
du  Roy  pour  un  calomniateur,  mauvais  juge,  un  ingrat  et 
conscience  erronne"e  et  plusieurs  autres  termes  injurieux 
qui  se  publient  journellement  contre  Fautorite'  du  Koy,  en 
faisant  un  point  de  reprobation  de  la  dite  pretendue  offense, 
un  des  principaux  nous  etant  venu  avertir  que  Fon  nous 
pourrait  faire  fermer  la  porte  des  Eglises  et  nous  empecher 
de  recevoir  les  S*'  Sacrements,  si  nous  ne  r^parions  la  dite 
pr^tendue  offense,  ce  qui  nous  donne  un  scrupule  en  l'§,me ; 
et  de  plus  ne  pouvant  nous  adresser  pour  nous  en  e*claircir 
qu'a  des  personnes  qui  se  declarent  nos  parties  et  qui  jugent 


492  APPENDIX. 

du  fait  sans  en  savoir  la  cause;  mais  n'y  ayant  rien  de  si 
important  au  monde  que  le  salut  et  la  fidelite*  que  nous 
devons  garder  pour  les  interests  du  Roi  que  nous  tenons  in- 
se'parables  Tun  de  1'autre,  et  reconnaissant  qu'il  n'y  a  rien 
de  si  certain  que  la  mort  et  rien  de  si  inconnu  que  1'heure, 
et  que  le  temps  est  long  pour  informer  Sa  Majeste  de  ce 
qui  se  passe,  pour  en  recevoir  ses  ordres,  et  qu'en  attendant, 
une  &me  est  toujours  dans  la  crainte  quoiqu'elle  se  connaisse 
dans  1'innocence,  nous  sommes  oblige  avoir  ne'anmoins 
recours  aux  Ke've'rends  Peres  Casuistes  de  la  maison  de 
Jesus  pour  nous  dire  en  leur  conscience  ce  que  nous  pouvons 
pour  la  decharge  de  la  notre  et  pour  garder  la  ridelite  que  nous 
devons  avoir  pour  leaser  vice  du  Roi,  les  priant  qu'ils  aient 
agreable  signer  ce  qu'ils  jugeront  au  bas  de  cet  ecrit,  afin 
de  nous  servir  de  garantie  vers  sa  Majeste. 

Fait  au  Chateau  de  Quebec,  ce  dernier  jour  de  Fevrier, 
1664. 

MiSY. 


APPENDIX.  493 


SECTION  THIRD. 


F. 

MABKIAGE  AND    POPULATION. 
LETTRE  DE  COLBERT   A   TALON. 
(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

PARIS,  20  FEVRIER,  1668. 

SA  Majest^  a  fait  une  gratification  de  1500  livres  a  Mr  de 
Lamotte,  1CT  Capitaine  au  Regiment  de  Carignan-Sali&res, 
tant  en  consideration  du  service  qu'il  rend  en  Canada,  de  la 
construction  des  forts  et  de  ses  expeditions  qui  ont  ete 
faites  centre  les  Iroquois,  que  du  mariage  qu'il  a  contract^ 
dans  le  pays,  et  de  la  resolution  qu'il  a  prise  de  s'y  habituer. 
Elle  a  ordonne  de  plus  la  somme  de  6000  livres  pour  §tre 
distributes  aux  officiers  des  mSmes  troupes,  ou  qui  s'y  sont 
deja  mane's  ou  qui  s'y  marieront  afin  de  leur  donner  des 
moyens  de  s'&ablir  et  de  mieux  s'affermir  dans  la  pensee  ou 
ils  sont  de  ne  pas  revenir  en  France.  Elle  fait  un  autre 
fond  de  12,000  livres  pour  Stre  distribue*  aux  soldats  qui 
resteront  aux  pays  et  qui  s'y  marieront,  autres  que  ceux  des 
quatre  compagnies  qu'elle  y  laisse,  ces  derniers  etant  entre- 
tenus  par  le  paiement  de  leur  solde.  .  .  .  1200  livres  pour 
celui  des  meilleurs  habitants  qui  a  15  enfants,  et  800  livres 
pour  1'autre  qui  en  a  dix.  Elle  a  aussi  gratifie  M.  1'Evgque 
de  Petrel  d'une  somme  de  6000  livres  pour  continuer  a 


494  APPENDIX. 

1'assister  pour  soutenir  sa  dignite,  fournir  aux  besoins  de 
son  Eglise  et  de  son  s^minaire,  et  enfin  40,000  livres  pour 
§tre  employees  a  la  leve'e  de  150  hommes  et  de  50  filles 
depuis  16  jusqu'a  30  ans  et  non  au  dela;  outre  235  que  la 
Compagiiie  y  fait  passer  cette  annee,  et  qui  devaient  y  etre 
passees  1'aiinee  derniere ;  12  Ca vales,  2  etalons,  2  gros  anes 
de  Mirbelais  et  50  brebis;  a  quoi  Ton  travaille  dans  les 
provinces  du  royaume,  et  1'on  n'oublie  rien  pour  1'embarque- 
ment  partant  de  la  Rochelle  vers  la  fin  du  mois  prochain. 

.  .  .  Je  vous  prie  de  bien  faire  considered  a  tout  le 
pays  que  leur  bien,  leur  subsistance,  et  tout  ce  qui  peut  les 
regarder  de  plus  pres  depend  d'une  resolution  publique  a 
laquelle  il  ne  soit  jamais  contrevenu  de  inarier  les  gardens 
a  18  ou  19  ans,  et  les  filles  a  14  ou  15  ans;  que  les  opposi- 
tions de  n'avoir  pas  suffisamment  pour  vivre  doivent  etre 
rejetees,  parceque  dans  ces  pays  et  le  Canada  premierement 
ou  tout  le  monde  travaille,  il  se  produit  pour  tous  la  sub- 
sistance et  que  1'abondance  ne  peut  jamais  leur  venir 
que  par  1'abondance  des  hommes.  ...  II  serait  bon 
de  rendre  les  charges  et  servitudes  doubles  a  1'egard  des 
garqons  qui  ne  se  marieraient  point  a  cet  age  .  .  .  et  a 
1'egard  de  ceux  qui  sembleraient  avoir  absolument  renonc^ 
au  mariage,  il  serait  a  propos  de  leur  augmenter  les  charges, 
de  les  priver  de  tous  honneurs,  mSme  d'y  ajouter  quelque 
marque  d'infamie. 

.  .  .  Bien  que  le  Royaume  de  France  soit  autant 
peuple  qu'aucun  pays  du  monde,  il  est  certain  qu'il  serait 
difficile  d'entretenir  de  grandes  armees  et  de  faire  passer  en 
me*me  temps  de  grandes  Colonies  dans  les  pays  eloigries.  .  .  . 
II  faut  done  se  reduire  a  tirer  seulement  chaque  annee 
avec  precaution  un  nombre  d'habitants  de  Tun  et  de  1'autre 
sexe,  pour  les  envoyer  au  Canada,  et  fonder  principalement 
1'augmentation  de  la  colonie  sur  Taugmentation  des  mariagea 
a  mesure  que  le  nombre  des  colons  augmentera. 


APPENDIX.  495 

LETTRE   DE  TALON    A   COLBERT. 
(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

10  Novembre,  1670. 

.  .  .  De  toutes  les  filles  venues  cette  annee  au  nombre 
de  165,  il  n'en  reete  pas  30  a  marier.  Apres  que  les  soldats 
venus  cette  annee  auront  travaille  a  faire  une  habitation,  il 
se  porteront  au  mariage ;  pour  quoi  il  serait  bon  qu'il  pltit  a 
Sa  Majeste  d'envoyer  encore  150  a  200  filles. 

...  II  serait  bon  de  recommander  que  les  filles  des- 
tinees  a  ce  pays  ne  soient  nullement  disgraciees  de  la  nature, 
qu'elles  n'aient  rien  de  rebuttant  a  Fexterieur;  qu'elles 
soient  saines  et  fortes  pour  le  travail  de  campagne,  ou  du- 
moins  qu'elles  aient  quelqu'industrie  pour  les  ouvrages  de 
main. 

.  .  .  Trois  ou  quatre  filles  de  naissance  et  distinguees 
par  la  qualite  serviraient  peut-§tre  utilement  a  Her  par  le 
mariage  des  officiers  qui  ne  tiennent  au  pays  que  par  les 
appointements  et  remolument  de  leurs  terres,  et  qui  par  la 
disproportion  des  conditions  ne  s'engagent  pas  davantage. 
Si  le  Roi  fait  passer  d'autres  filles  ou  femmes  veuves  de 
TAncienne  a  la  Kouvelle-France,  il  est  bon  de  les  faire 
accompagner  d'un  certificat  de  leur  Cure  ou  du  jnge  du  lieu 
qui  fasse  connaitre  qu'elles  sont  libres  et  en  etat  d'etre 
mariees,  sans  quoi  les  Ecclesiastiques  d'ici  font  difficulte  de 
leur  conferer  ce  sacrement;  a  la  verite  ce  n'est  pas  sans 
raison,  2  ou  3  doubles  manages  s'etant  reconnus  ici;  on 
pourrait  prendre  la  mSme  precaution  pour  les  hommes 
veufg. 


496  APPENDIX. 

LETTRE    DE  TALON   A  COLBERT. 
(Extrait.)      Archives  de  la  Marine. 

2  Novembre,  1671. 

.  .  .  Le  nombre  des  en f ants  n£s  cette  annee  est  de  6  a 
700.  .  .  .  J'estime  qu'il  n'est  plus  necessaire  de  faire  passer 
des  demoiselles,  en  ayant  regu  cette  ann^e  quinze  ainsi 
qualifies  au  lieu  de  quatre  que  je  demandais'pour  faire  des 
alliances  avec  les  officiers  ou  les  principaux  habitants 
d'ici.  , 


G. 

CHlTEAU  ST.  LOUIS. 

THIS  structure,  destined  to  be  famous  in  Canadian  history, 
was  originally  built  by  Samuel  de  Cham  plain.  The  cellar 
still  remains,  under  the  wooden  platform  of  the  present 
Durham  Terrace.  Behind  the  chateau  was  the  area  of  the 
fort,  now  an  open  square.  In  the  most  famous  epoch  of  its 
history,  the  time  of  Frontenac,  the  chateau  was  old  and 
dilapidated,  and  the  fort  was  in  a  sad  condition.  "  The 
walls  are  all  down, "  writes  Frontenac  in  1681 ;  "  there  are 
neither  gates  nor  guard-house;  the  whole  place  is  open." 
On  this  the  new  intendant,  Meules,  was  ordered  to  report 
what  repairs  were  needed.  Meanwhile  La  Barre  had  come 
to  replace  Frontenac,  whose  complaints  he  repeats.  He  says 
that  the  wall  is  in  ruin  for  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and 
eighty  toises.  "  The  workmen  ask  6, 000  francs  to  repair  it. 
I  could  get  it  done  in  France  for  2, 000.  The  cost  frightens 
me.  I  have  done  nothing."  (La  Barre  au  Ministre, 
1682.)  Meules,  however,  received  orders  to  do  what  was 


APPENDIX.  497 

necessary ;  and,  two  years  later,  he  reports  that  he  has  re- 
built the  wall,  repaired  the  fort,  and  erected  a  building, 
intended  at  first  for  the  council,  within  the  area.  This 
building  stood  near  the  entrance  of  the  present  St.  Louis 
Street,  and  was  enclosed  by  an  extension  of  the  fort 
wall. 

Denonville  next  appears  on  the  scene,  with  his  usual  dis- 
position to  fault-finding.  The  so-called  chateau,  he  says 
(1685),  is  built  of  wood,  "  and  is  dry  as  a  match.  There  is 
a  place  where  with  a  bundle  of  straw  it  could  be  set  on  fire 
at  any  time ;  .  .  .  some  of  the  gates  will  not  close ;  there 
is  no  watch-tower,  and  no  place  to  shoot  from. "  (Denonville 
au  Ministre,  20  Aout,  1685.) 

When  Frontenac  resumed  the^  government,  he  was  much 
disturbed  at  the  condition  of  the  chateau,  and  begged  for 
slate  to  cover  the  roof,  as  the  rain  was  coming  in  everywhere. 
At  the  same  time  the  intendant,  Champigny,  reports  it  to  be 
rotten  and  ruinous.  This  was  in  the  year  made  famous  by 
the  English  attack  and  the  dramatic  scene  in  the  ha}l  of  the 
old  building,  when  Frontenac  defied  the  envoy  of  Admiral 
Phipps,  whose  fleet  lay  in  the  river  below.  In  the  next 
summer,  1691,  Frontenac  again  asks  for  slate  to  cover  the 
roof,  and  for  15,000  or  20,000  francs  to  repair  his  mansion. 
In  the  next  year  the  King  promises  to  send  him  12,000 
francs,  in  instalments.  Frontenac  acknowledges  the  favor; 
and  says  that  he  will  erect  a  new  building,  and  try  in  the 
mean  time  not  to  be  buried  under  the  old  one,  as  he  expects 
to  be  every  time  the  wind  blows  hard.  (Frontenac  au 
Ministre,  15  Sept.,  1692.)  A  misunderstanding  with  the 
intendant,  who  had  control  of  the  money,  interrupted  the 
work.  Frontenac  writes  the  next  year  that  he  had  been 
obliged  to  send  for  carpenters,  during  the  night,  to  prop  up 
the  chateau,  lest  he  should  be  crushed  under  the  ruins. 
The  wall  of  the  fort  was  however  strengthened,  and  partly 


498  APPENDIX. 

rebuilt  to  the  height  of  sixteen  feet,  at  a  cost  of  13,629 
francs.  It  was  a  time  of  war,  and  a  fresh  attack  was  ex- 
pected from  the  English.  (Frontenac  et  Champigny  au 
Ministre,  4  Nov.,  1693.)  In  the  year  1854,  the  workmen 
employed  in  demolishing  a  part  of  this  wall,  adjoining  the 
garden  of  the  chateau,  found  a  copper  plate  bearing  an  in- 
scription in  Latin  as  follows :  "  In  the  year  of  Redemption 
1693,  under  the  reign  of  the  most  august,  most  invincible, 
and  most  Christian  King  of  France,  Louis  the  Great,  four- 
teenth of  that  name,  the  most  excellent  Louis  de  Buade, 
Count  of  Frontenac,  governor  for  the  second  time  of  all 
New  France,  seeing  that  the  rebellious  inhabitants  of  New 
England,  who  three  years  ago  were  repulsed,  routed,  and 
completely  vanquished  by  him  when  they  besieged  this  town 
of  Quebec,  are  threatening  to  renew  the  siege  this  very  year, 
has  caused  to  be  built,  at  the  expense  of  the  king,  this  cit- 
adel, with  the  fortifications  adjoining  thereto,  for  the  defence 
of  the  country,  for  the  security  of  the  people,  and  for  con- 
founding yet  again  that  nation  perfidious  alike  towards  its 
God  and  its  lawful  king.  And  he  [Frontenac]  has  placed 
here  this  first  stone." 

A  year  later,  the  rebuilding  of  the  chateau  was  begun  in 
earnest.  Frontenac  says  that  nothing  but  a  miracle  has 
saved  him  from  being  buried  under  its  ruins;  that  he  has 
pulled  everything  down,  and  begun  again  from  the  founda- 
tion, but  that  the  money  has  given  out.  (Frontenac  au 
Ministre,  4  Nov.,  1694.)  Accordingly,  he  and  the  intend- 
ant  sold  six  licenses  for  the  fur  trade ;  but  at  a  rate  unusually 
low,  for  they  brought  only  4,400  francs.  The  King,  hear- 
ing of  this,  sent  6,000  more.  Frontenac  is  profuse  in 
thanks;  and  at  the  same  time  begs  for  another  6,000  francs, 
"  to  complete  a  work  which  is  the  ornament  and  beauty  of 
the  city"  (1696).  The  minister  sent  8,000  more,  which 
was  soon  gone ;  and  Frontenac  drew  on  the  royal  treasurer 


APPENDIX.  499 

for  5,047  in  addition.  The  intendant  complains  of  his 
extravagance,  and  says  that  he  will  have  nothing  but  per- 
fection; and  that,  besides  the  chateau,  he  has  insisted  on 
building  two  guard-houses,  with  Mansard  roofs,  at  the  two 
sides  of  the  gate.  "  I  must  do  as  he  says, "  adds  the  intend- 
ant, "or  there  will  be  a  quarrel."  (Champigny  au  Mi- 
nistre,  13  Oct.,  1697.  )  In  a  letter  written  two  days  after, 
Frontenac  speaks  with  great  complacency  of  his  chateau, 
and  asks  for  another  6,000  francs  to  finish  it.  As  the  case 
was  urgent,  he  sold  six  more  licenses,  at  1,000  francs  each; 
but  he  died  too  soon  to  see  the  completion  of  his  favorite 
work  (1698).  The  new  chateau  was  not  finished  before 
1700,  and  even  then  it  had  no  cistern.  In  a  pen-sketch  of 
Quebec  on  a  manuscript  map  of  1699,  preserved  in  the 
D^pot  des  Cartes  de  la  Marine,  the  new  chateau  is  dis- 
tinctly represented.  In  front  is  a  gallery  or  balcony,  rest- 
ing on  a  wall  and  buttresses  at  the  edge  of  the  cliff.  Above 
the  gallery  is  a  range  of  high  windows  along  the  face  of  the 
building,  and  over  these  a  range  of  small  windows  and  a 
Mansard  roof.  In  the  middle  is  a  porch  opening  on  the 
gallery;  and  on  the  left  extends  a  battery,  on  the  ground 
now  occupied  by  a  garden  along  the  brink  of  the  cliff.  A 
water-color  sketch  of  the  chateau  taken  in  1804,  from  the 
land-side,  by  William  Morrison,  Jr.,  is  in  my  possession.  The 
building  appears  to  have  been  completely  remodelled  in  the 
interval.  It  is  two  stories  in  height;  the  Mansard  roof  is 
gone,  and  a  row  of  attic  windows  surmounts  the  second 
story.  In  1809  it  was  again  remodelled,  at  a  cost  of  ten 
thousand  pounds  sterling.  A  third  story  was  added;  and 
the  building,  resting  on  the  buttresses  which  still  remain 
under  the  balustrade  of  Durham  Terrace,  had  an  imposing 
effect  when  seen  from  the  river.  It  was  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1834. 


500  APPENDIX. 

H. 

TRADE  AND  INDUSTRY. 

(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

LETTRE  DE    DENONVILLE    AU   MINTSTRE. 

A  QUEBEC  LB  13  NOVEMBRE,  1685. 

.  .  .  J'AI  remarque*,  Monseigneur  que  les  femmes  et 
filles,  y  sont  assez  paresseuses  par  le  manque  de  menus 
ouvrages  a  se  donner,  il  y  a  un  peu  trop  de  luxe  dans  la 
pauvrete  ge'nerale  des  demoiselles  ou  soi  disantes ;  les  menus 
ouvrages  de  capots  et  de  chemises  de  traite  les  occupent  un 
peu,  pendant  1'hiver,  et  leur  font  gagner  quelque  chose,  mais 
cela  ne  dure  pas,  1'endroit  de  pauvret^  de  ce  pays,  est  le 
manque  de  toilles  et  de  serges  ou  draps,  cependant  c'est  ici 
le  pays  du  monde  le  plus  propre  &  faire  des  chanvres,  et  du 
fil,  et  par  consequent  de  la  toille,  si  on  s'en  voulait  donner 
la  peine.  Mr.  Talon  s'y  est  donne  du  soin  pour  cela,  aussi 
y  a-t-il  une  cote  qui  est  celle  de  Beaupre',  ou  on  en  fait,  mais 
ce  n'est  que  chez  quelques  habitans.  J'ai  fort  exorte  la 
dessus  tous  les  peuples  d'y  travailler,  pour  y  reussir,  il  faut 
y  apporter  de  la  severite  et  de  1'utilite  si  il  y  a  moyen,  ce 
dernier  avec  le  temps  et  1'industrie  arrivera,  et  le  premier  de 
ma  part  ne  manquera  pas,  je  n'ai  pu  avoir  d'autre  raison, 
pourquoi  on  ne  faisait  point  de  chanvres,  si  ce  n'est  que 
Pon  n'avait  pas  assez  de  temps,  &  cause  que  les  saisons  de 
labourer,  semer  et  recueillir  sont  trop  courtes,  car  en  ce  pays 
le  bled  ne  se  seme  qu'en  Avril  et  May.  Si  le  Roy  voulait 
acheter  les  chanvres  un  peu  plus  cher  jusques  &  ce  que  Ton 
fut  en  train,  cela  pourait  les  animer,  aveo  un  ordre  a  chacun 
d'en  fournir  une  certaine  quantity  on  pourra  les  faire  agir, 
si  outre  cela  on  avait  quelques  ouvriers  tisserands  k  dis- 
tribuer  par  paroisses,  et  qui  ne  fussent  a  la  charge  du  peuple 


APPENDIX.  501 

que  pour  leurs  nouritures,  ce  serait  un  moyen  pour  faire 
apprendre  aux  enfants.  Les  Cure's  nous  rendraient  compte 
du  nombre  de  ceux  qui  apprendraient  a  preparer  la  chanvre 
et  fillasse,  et  a  faire  de  la  toille ;  avant  que  d'en  venir  la  il 
faudrait  montrer  a  filer  aux  filles  et  aux  femmes,  car  il  y 
en  a  tres  peu,  qui  sachent  tenir  le  fuseau,  c'est  en  cela  que 
les  filles  de  la  congregation  de  Montreal  feront  merveilles. 
II  nous  est  venu  de  la  part  de  Mr.  Arnoul  deux  bariques 
de  graine  de  chanvre  que  je  ferai  distribuer  et  dont  je  me 
ferai  rendre  compte. 

Je  croyais,  Monseigneur,  une  ordonnance  necessaire  en- 
core a  faire  pour  engager  chaque  habitant  a  avoir  deux  ou 
trois  brebis,  n'y  en  ayant  pas  suffisament  dans  le  pays. 

...  II  n'est  pas  possible  qu'on  ne  puisse  faire  uiie 
verrerie  en  ce  pays,  la  plus  grande  affaire  sont  les  ouvriers 
qui  encherissent  tout  car  Ton  donne  ordinairement  et 
commune'ment  a  chaque  ouvrier  par  jour  quarente  sols 
nouris,  cinquante  sols  et  un  e*cu,  et  tons  ces  maraux  n'en 
sont  pas  plus  riches  car  ils  mettent  tout  &  boire. 

(Signe)  LE  MQUIS  DE  DENONVILLE. 


M&MOJRE  A  MONSEIGNEUR  LE  MARQUIS  DE  SEIGNELAT, 
SUR  L'ETABLISSEMENT  DU  COMMERCE  EN  CANADA, 
PRESENTS  PAR  LES  SlEURS  CHALONS  ET  ElVERIN. 

(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

(JOINT  A  LA  LETTRE  DU  SlEUR   DE  RlVERIN,  DU  7  FfiVRIER,  1686.) 

...  En  effet  si  cette  colonie  n'a  pas  avanc^  depuis  le 
temps  de  son  etablissement,  c'est  que  les  habitants  qui  la 
composent  ou  par  leur  negligence  ou  par  leur  peu  d'exp^rience 
dans  les  affaires,  ou  enfin  par  leur  impuissance  ne  se  sont 
pas  mis  en  estat  de  se  servir  des  avantages  qu'elle  renferme 


502  APPENDIX. 

en  elle-mesme,  et  des  moyens  qu'elle  leur  fournit  pour  un 
commerce  solide  et  considerable. 

Car  il  ne  faut  pas  regarder  la  traitte  des  pelleteries  & 
laquelle  seule  on  s'est  attache  jusqu'a  present  et  qui  iinira 
avec  le  temps  par  la  destruction  des  bestes,  comme  un 
moyen  propre  a  son  avancement,  au  contraire  1'experience  a 
fait  connoistre  qu'elle  rend  les  habitans  faineans  et  vaga- 
bonds, qu'elle  les  detourne  de  la  culture  des  terres,  de  la 
pesche,  de  la  navigation  et  des  autres  entreprises. 


MEMOIRE  DU  SIEUR  DE  CATALOGNE,  ING£NIEUR,  SUR  LES 

PLANS  DES  HABITATIONS  ET  SEIGNEURIES  DES  GOU- 
VERNEMENS  DE  QUEBEC,  DE  MONTREAL  ET  DES  TROIS- 
K-IVIERES. 

(Extrait?)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

7  NOVEMBRE,  1712. 

Observations  sur  Vetablissement.  —  Que  par  rapport  & 
la  grande  etendue  qu'on  a  donnee  a  1'etablissement,  il  n'y  a 
pas  le  quart  des  ouvriers  qu'il  faudroit  pour  bien  etendre  et 
cultiver  les  terres. 

Que  les  laboureurs  ne  se  donnent  pas  assez  de  soin  pour 
cultiver  les  terres,  etant  certain  que  la  semence  d'un  niinot 
de  ble,  seme  sur  de  la  terre  cultivee  comme  en  France, 
produira  plus  que  deux  autres  comme  on  seme  en  Canada. 

Que  comme  les  saisons  sont  trop  courtes  et  souvent  tres 
mauvaises,  il  serait  a  souhaiter  que  FEglise  permit  les 
travaux  indispensables,  que  les  f§tes  d'ete  obligent  de 
chdmer,  etant  tres  vrai  que  depuis  le  mois  de  Mai  que  les 
semences  commencent  jusques  ^,  la  fin  de  Septembre,  il  n'ty 

1  This  mfmoire  \%  70  pages  in  length. 


APPENDIX.  503 

a  pas  90  journe*es  de  travail,  par  rapport  aux  fetes  et  au 
mauvais  temps.  C'est  pourtant  dans  cette  espace  quo  roule 
la  solidit^  de  cet  e*tablissement.  II  faudrait  assujetir  les 
habitans  ne'gligens  a  travailler  a  la  culture  des  terres,  en  les 
privant  des  voyages  qui  les  dispensent  de  travailler,  et  cela 
parce  qu'un  voyage  de  deux  ou  trois  mois  leur  produit  30  ou 
40  escus  en  perdant  la  saison  du  travail  a  la  terre,  quisles 
fait  demeurer  en  friche. 

Les  obliger  de  seraer  quantite  de  chanvre  et  lin  qui 
vient  en  ce  pays  plus  gros  qu'en  Europe.  Us  s'en  re- 
lachent  parceque,  disent-ils,  il  y  a  trop  de  peine  et  de  soins 

6  le  mettre  en  oeuvre.     II  est  vrai  qu'il  y  a  peu  de  gens 
qui  s'entendent  et  qui  le  font  payer  bien  cher. 

Assujetir  les  habitans  a  nourrir  et  a  Clever  des  b§tes  a 
comes,  au  lieu  du  grand  nombre  de  chevaux  qui  ruinent  le 
Pacage  et  qui  entrainent  les  habitans  a  des  grosses  de'penses, 
tant  que  pour  leurs  equipages  qui  sont  fort  chers  que  par  la 
grande  quantity  de  fourages  et  de  grains  qu'il  faut  pendant 

7  ou  8  mois  de  Tannee,  etant  tres  vrai  que  Tentretien  d'un 
cheval  coiite  autant  que  deux  boeufs. 

Obliger  les  Seigneurs  pour  faciliter  1'etablissement  de 
leurs  Seigneuries  de  donner  suffisamment  des  terres  pour 
commencer  a  un  prix  modique  et  a  construire  des  moulins 
et  les  commodites  publiques ;  plusieurs  consomment  le  tiers 
de  leur  temps  a  aller  faires  leur  farines  a  15  ou  20  lieues, 
et  que  les  Seigneurs,  des  que  les  Seigneuries  sont  e'tablies, 
eonc&dent  des  terres  sans  que  les  tenanciers  soient  obliges 
de  payer  des  rentes  qu'apres  6  ans  que  les  terres  soient  en 
valeur. 

Ordonner  au  grand  voyer  de  donner  son  application  a 
faire  e*tablir  les  chemins  et  ponts  necessaires  au  public, 
qui  est  une  ne'cessite'  fort  essentielle. 

Obliger  les  habitans  ou  ceux  qui  sont  en  e*tat,  de  faire 
des  greniers  pourque  chacun  fut  en  £tat  de  conserver  du 


504  APPENDIX. 

grain  pour  deux  armies;  cela  fait  une  fois,  1'abondance  se 
trouvera  toujours  au  Canada  au  lieu  que  la  plupart,  faute 
de  cette  commodity  en  manquent  tr&s  souvent,  £tant  oblig6 
de  le  vendre  &  vil  prix. 

Ch£tier  s^verement  tous  ceux  qui  sont  convaincus  de 
fraude,  mauvaise  foi  et  imposture,  qui  est  un  mal  qui  com- 
mence a  etre  bien  en  racine  et  qui  indubitablement  le 
privera  de  tout  commerce,  les  marchands  des  lies  et  de 
Plaisance  s'en  £tant  ddja  plaints. 

Que  comme  il  n'y  a  pas  de  notaires  dans  tous  les  lieux, 
que  les  conventions  et  les  marches  faits  en  presence  de  deux 
t^moins  vaudront  pendant  un  temps  fix& 

II  serait  a  souhaiter  que  S.  M.  voulut  dtablir  dans  chaque 
ville  des  conseils  a  juger  sans  frais  sur  le  fait  du  commerce 
et  des  affaires  qui  n'entrent  pas  dans  la  coutume.  Ces  sortes 
de  procedures  aussi  bien  que  les  autres,  ne  prennent  aucune 
fin  que  lorsque  les  parties  n'ont  plus  d'argent  pour  plaider, 
qui  est  la  ruine  des  families. 

Engager  un  certain  nombre  de  gens  du  pays  a  etudier  le 
pilotage,  m§me  les  officiers  des  troupes,  particulierement  du 
fleuve  St.  Laurent  qui  est  tr&s  dangereux,  la  plupart  du 
temps  ne  se  trouvant  pas  un  seul  pilote  en  Canada,  et 
cependant  on  commence  a  donner  dans  la  construction;  le 
capitaine  du  Port  et  M.  Duplessis  ayant  mis  un  vaisseau 
de  3  a  400  tonneaux  sur  les  chantiers. 

Cong&lier  de  temps  en  temps  des  soldats  en  leur  permet- 
tant  de  se  marier,  apres  qu'ils  auront  un  ^tablissement. 

II  s'est  £tabli  une  coutume  dans  ce  pays  autoris^e  par 
le  magistrat,  qui  meme  ne  me  parait  pas  naturelle,  de 
laisser  des  bestiaux  a  1'abandon  qui  la  plupart  gatent  les 
grains  et  les  prairies,  n'y  ayant  presque  point  de  terres 
closes  qui  causent  des  contestes  et  de  la  mesintelligence 
entre  les  voisins;  pour  obvier  a  cela  il  faudrait  qu'il  y  eut 
des  gardiens  pour  chaque  nature  d'animaux  pour  les  mener 


APPENDIX.  505 

dans  les  communes,  car  tel  qui  n'a  pas  un  pouce  de  terre, 
envoie  ses  animaux  paitre  sur  les  terres  de  ses  voisins, 
en  disant  que  Fabandon  est  donne;  si  S.  M.  voulait  couper 
la  racine  a  une  pepiniere  de  proces  et  de  mesintelligence 
entre  les  Seigneurs  et  habitans,  il  serait  a  souhaiter  qu'elle 
voulut  donner  une  ordonnance  tendante  a  ce  que  les  Sei- 
gneuries  et  autres  concessions  demeureraient  dans  les  limites 
qu'elles  se  trouvent  a  present,  sans  avoir  egard  aux  titres 
portes  dans  les  contrats,  pour  la  quantity  et  les  rumbs  de 
vent  qui  y  sont  annonces,  etant  a  remarquer  que  les  anciens 
Seigneurs  et  habitans  se  sont  e'tablis  de  bonne  foi,  que  les 
terres  ont  ete*  limite'es  par  des  arpenteurs  peu  intelligens, 
et  aujourd'hui  que  la  chicane  est  en  vogue,  chacun  veut 
suivre  les  termes  de  son  contrat  qui  tendent  la  plupart 
a  1'impossible.  Mr.  Raudot  a  donne*  une  ordonnance  a  ce 
sujet  pour  File  de  Montreal  seulement. 

Comme  la  plupart  des  rues  de  Quebec  et  de  Montreal  sont 
souvent  impraticables,  tant  par  les  rochers  que  par  les  bour- 
biers,  s'il  plaisait  a  S.  M.  d'ordonner  que  les  deniers  qui 
proviennent  des  amendes  et  certaines  confiscations  seraient 
employes  a  les  mettre  en  etat. 

Que  la  subordination  du  vassal  a  son  Seigneur  n'est  point 
objet  a  .  Cette  erreur  vient  qu'il  a  ete  accorde 

des  Seigneuries  a  des  roturiers  qui  non  pas  su  maintenir 
le  droit  que  la  raison  leur  donne  a  1'egard  de  leur  co-sujets, 
mime  les  officiers  de  milice  qui  leur  sont  dependants,  n'ont 
la  plupart  aucun  egard  pour  leur  superiority  et  veulent  dans 
les  occasions  passer  pour  independants. 

II  serait  a  souhaiter  que  S.  M.  voulut  envoyer  dans  ce 
pays  toute  sorte  d'artisans,  particulierement  des  ouvriers  en 
cordages  et  filages,  des  potiers  et  un  verrier,  et  ils  trou- 
veraieftt  a  s'occuper.  Si  S.  M.  Voulait  faire  envoyer  en 
merchandises  une  partie  des  appointemens  de  Messrs,  les 
officiers,  cela  leur  adoucirait  la  durete*  qfu'eux  seuls  trouvent 


506  APPENDIX. 

dans  le  pays,  par  la  grande  cherte*  des  marchandises  cause's 
par  le  mauvais  retour  de  la  monnaie  de  cartes  qui  fait 
acheter  3  et  4  pour  100. 

VEU  :  VAUDBEUIL. 

VEU:BEGON.  CATALOGNB. 


I. 

LETTER  OF  FATHER  CARHEIL. 

LETTRE  DU  PERE  ETIENNE  DE   CARHEIL,  DE  LA  COM^ 
PAGNIE  DE  JESUS,  A  L'lNTENDANT  DE  CHAMPIGNY. 

(Extrait.)*     Archives  Nationales. 

A  MlCHILIMAKINA,  LB  30  D*AOU8T,  1702. 

.  .  .  Nos  Missions  sont  reduites  a  une  telle  extre'mite, 
que  nous  ne  pouvons  plus  les  soutenir  centre  une  multitude 
infinie  de  desordres,  de  brutalitez,  de  violences,  d'injustices, 
d'impietez,  d'impudicitez,  d'insolences,  de  mepris,  d'irisultes 
que  1'infame  et  funeste  traitte  d'eau-de-vie  y  cause  univer- 
sellement  dans  toutes  les  nations  d'icy  haut,  ou  Ton  vient 
la  faire,  allant  de  villages  en  villages  et  courant  les  lacs 
avec  une  quantite  prodigieuse  de  barils,  sans  garder  aucune 
raesure.  Si  Sa  Majeste  avoit  veu  une  seule  fois  ce  qui  se 
passe  et  icy  et  a  Montreal,  dans  tous  les  temps  qu'on  y  fait 
cette  malheureuse  traitte,  je  suis  sur  qu'elle  ne  balanceroit 
pas  un  moment,  des  la  premiere  vue,  a  la  d^ffendre  pour 
jamais  sous  les  plus  rigoureuses  peines. 

Dans  le  desespoir  ou  nous  sommes,  il  ne  nous  reste  point 
d*autre  party  a  prendre  que  celui  de  quitter  nos  Missions  et 
de  les  abandonner  aux  traittants  d'eau-de-vie,  pour  y  ^tablir 

1  This  letter  is  45  pages  long. 


APPENDIX.  507 

le  domaine  de  leur  traitte,  de  Tivrognerie  et  de  1'impuret^. 
C'est  ce  que  nous  aliens  proposer  a  nos  superieurs  en 
Canada  et  en  France,  y  e'tant  contraints  par  I'e'tat  d'inutilite' 
et  d'impuissance  de  faire  aucun  fruit  ou  1'on  nous  a  reduits 
par  la  permission  de  cette  deplorable  traitte,  permission  que 
Ton  n'a  obtenue  de  Sa  Majeste  que  sous  un  pretexte  aparent 
de  raisons  que  Ton  scait  etre  fausses,  permission  qu'elle 
n'accorderoit  point,  si  ceux  auxquels  elle  so  raporte  de  la 
verit^  la  lui  fesoient  connoistre  comnie  ils  la  connoissent 
eux-memes  et  tout  le  Canada  avec  eux,  permission  enfin 
qui  est  le  plus  grand  mal  et  le  principe  de  tous  les  maux  qui 
arrivent  presentement  au  pays,  et  surtout  des  naufrages 
dont  on  n'entendoit  point  encore  parler  ici  et  que  nous 
apprenons  arriver  maintenant  presque  touttes  les  annees  ou 
dans  la  venue  ou  dans  le  retour  de  nos  vaisseaux  en  France, 
par  une  juste  punition  de  Dieu  qui  fait  perir  par  1'eau  ce 
que  1'on  avoit  mal  acquis  par  l'eau-de-vie,  ou  qui  entend 
ernpecher  le  transport  pour  prevenir  le  mauvais  usage  qu'on 
en  feroit.  Si  cette  permission  n'est  reVoquee  par  une  de"f- 
fense  contraire,  nous  n'aurons  plus  que  faire  de  demeurer 
dans  aucune  de  nos  Missions  d'icy  haut,  pour  y  perdre  le 
reste  de  notre  vie,  et  touttes  nos  peines  dans  une  pure 
inutilite  sous  1'empire  d'une  continuelle  ivrognerie  et  d'une 
impurete'  universelle  qu'on  ne  permet  pas  moins  aux  trait- 
teurs  d'eau-de-vie  que  la  traitte  meme  dont  elle  est  Paccom- 
pagnement  et  la  suite.  Si  Sa  Majeste  veut  sauver  nos 
missions  et  soutenir  1'etablissement  de  la  Religion,  comme 
nous  ne  doutona  point  qu'elle  le  veuille,  nous  la  suplions 
tres-humblement  de  croire,  ce  qui  est  tres  veritable,  qu'il 
n'y  a  point  d'autre  moyen  de  le  pouvoir  faire  que  d'abolir 
les  deux  infames  commerces  qui  les  ont  r^duites  a  la  n^ces- 
site'  prochaine  de  p^rir  et  qui  ne  tarderont  pas  a  achever  de 
les  perdre,  s'ils  ne  sont  au  plus  tost  abolis  par  ses  ordres  et 
mis  hors  d'etat  d'etre  r^tablis.  Le  premier  est  le  commerce 


508  APPENDIX. 

de  l'eau-de-vie ;  le  second  est  le  commerce  des  femmes  sau- 
vages  avec  les  Francois,  qui  sont  tous  deux  aussy  publics 
Tun  que  1'autre,  sans  que  nous  puissions  y  reme'dier,  pour 
n'estre  pas  appuyez  des  commandans  qui,  bien  loin  de  les 
vouloir  empScher  par  les  remontrances  que  nous  leur  faisons, 
les  exercent  eux-m8mes  avec  plus  de  libert^  que  leurs 
inferieurs,  et  les  autorisent  tellement  par  leur  exemple  qu'en 
le  regardant  on  s'en  fait  une  permission  ge'ne'rale  et  une 
assurance  d'impunite'  qui  les  rend  communs  a  tout  ce  qui 
vient  icy  de  Francois  en  traitte,  de  sorte  que  tous  les  villages 
de  nos  Sauvages  ne  sont  plus  que  des  cabarets  pour  J'ivro- 
gnerie  et  des  Sodomes  pour  1'impurete,  d'oti  il  faut  que 
nous  nous  retirions,  les  abandonnant  a  la  juste  colere  de 
Dieu  et  a  ses  vengeances. 

Vous  voyez  par  la  que,  de  quelque  mamere  qu'on  ^tablisse 
le  commerce  Francois  avec  les  Sauvages,  si  1'on  veut  nous 
retenir  parmi  eux,  nous  y  conserver  et  nous  y  soutenir  en 
qualit^  de  missionnaires  dans  le  libre  exercice  de  nos 
fonctions  avec  espdrance  d'y  faire  du  fruit,  il  faut  nous 
delivrer  des  commandans  et  de  leur  garnisons  qui,  bien  loin 
d'estre  necessaires,  sont  au  contraire  si  pernicieuses  que 
nous  pouvons  dire  avec  verite*  qu'elles  sont  le  plus  grand 
mal  de  nos  missions,  ne  servant  qu'a  nuire  &  la  traitte 
ordinaire  des  voyageurs  et  a  1'avancement  de  la  Foy. 
Depuis  qu'elles  sont  venues  icy  haut,  nous  n'y  avons  plus 
veu  que  corruption  universelle  qu'elles  ont  re'pandues  par 
leur  vie  scandaleuse  dans  tous  les  esprits  de  ces  nations  qui 
en  sont  presentemerit  infectees.  Tout  le  service  pretendu 
qu'on  veut  faire  croire  au  Roy  qu'elles  rendent  se  r^duit  k 
quatre  principales  occupations  dont  nous  vous  prions  instam- 
ment  de  vouloir  bien  informer  le  Roy. 

La  premiere  est  de  tenir  un  cabaret  public  d'eau-de-vie 
ou  ils  la  traittent  continuellement  aux  Sauvages  qui  ne 
cessent  point  de  s'enyvrer,  quelques  opositions  que  nous  y 


APPENDIX.  509 

puissions  faire.  C'est  en  vain  que  nous  leur  parlons  pour 
les  arre"  ter ;  nous  n'y  gagnons  rien  que  d'etre  accusez  de  nous 
oposer  nous-m§mes  au  Service  du  Roy  en  voulant  empScher 
une  traitte  qui  leur  est  permise. 

La  seconde  occupation  des  soldats  est  d'estre  envoyez  d'un 
poste  a  Pautre  par  les  Comniandans,  pour  y  porter  leurs  inar- 
chandises  et  leur  eau-de-vie,  apres  s'Stre  accommodes  ensein- 
ble,  sans  que  les  uns  et  les  autres  ayent  d'autre  soin  que 
celuy  de  s'entr'ayder  mutuellement  dans  leur  commerce,  et 
afin  que  cela  s'execute  plus  facilement  des  deux  costez 
comme  ils  le  souhaitent,  ils  faut  que  les  commandans  se 
ferment  les  yeux  pour  user  de  connivence  et  ne  voir  aucun 
des  de'sordres  de  leur  soldats,  quelques  visibles,  publics  et 
scandaleux  qu'ils  soient,  et  il  faut  reciproquement  que  les 
soldats,  outre  qu'ils  traittent  leurs  propres  marchandises,  se 
f assent  encore  les  traitteurs  de  celles  de  leurs  Commandans 
qui  souvent  m§me  les  obligent  d'en  acheter  d'eux  pour  leur 
permettre  d'aller  ou  ils  veulent. 

Leur  troisi&me  occupation  est  de  faire  de  leur  fort  un  lieu 
que  j'ay  honte  d'apeler  par  son  nom,  ou  les  femmes  ont 
apris  que  leurs  corps  pouvoient  tenir  lieu  de  marchandises  et 
qu'elles  seroient  mieux  reques  que  le  castor,  de  sorte  que 
c'est  pr^sentement  le  commerce  le  plus  ordinaire,  le  plus 
continuel  et  le  plus  en  vogue.  Quelques  efforts  que  puissent 
faire  tous  les  missionnaires  pour  d&jrier  et  pour  1'abolir,  au 
lieu  de  diminuer,  il  augmente  et  se  multiplie  tous  les  jours 
de  plus  en  plus;  tous  les  soldats  tiennent  table  ouverte  a 
touttes  les  femmes  de  leur  connaissance  dans  leur  maison ; 
depuis  le  matin  jusqu'au  soir,  elles  y  passent  les  journees 
entires,  les  unes  apr&s  les  autres,  assises  a  leur  feu  et 
souvent  sur  leur  lit  dans  des  entretiens  et  des  actions  propre 
de  leur  commerce  qui  ne  s'ach&ve  ordinairement  que  la  nuit, 
la  foule  £tant  trop  grande  pendant  la  journde  pour  qu'ils 
puissent  1'achever,  quoyque  souvent  aussy  ils  s'entrelaissent 


510  APPENDIX. 

une  maison  vide  de  monde  pour  n'en  pas  diffe'rer  1'achSve- 
ment  jusqu'a  la  nuit. 

La  quatrieme  occupation  des  soldats  est  celle  du  jeu  qui  a 
lieu  dans  les  terns  ou  les  traitteurs  se  rassemblent;  il  y  va 
quelquefois  a  un  tel  point  que  n'etaiis  pas  contens  d'y  passer 
le  jour,  ils  y  passent  encore  la  nuit  entiere,  et  il  n'arrive 
meme  que  trop  souvent  dans  1'ardeur  de  1'aplication  qu'ils 
ne  se  souviennent  pas,  ou  s'ils  s'en  souviennent,  qu'ils 
meprisent  de  garder  les  postes.  Mais  ce  qui  augmente  en 
cela  leur  desordre,  c'est  qu'un  attachement  si  opiniatre  au 
jeu  n'est  presque  jamais  sans  une  ivrognerie  commune  & 
tous  les  joueurs,  et  que  1'ivrognerie  est  presque  toujours 
suivie  de  querelles  qui  s'excitent  entre  eux  lesquelles  venant 
a  paroitre  publiquement  aux  yeux  des  Sauvages,  causent 
parmi  eux  trois  grands  scandales:  le  premier  de  les  voir 
ivres,  le  second  de  les  voir  s'entrebatre  avec  fureur  les  uns 
contre  les  autres  jusqu'a  prendre  des  fusils  en  main  pour 
s'entretuer,  le  troisieme  de  voir  que  les  Missionnaires  n'y 
peuvent  apporter  aucun  remade. 

Voila,  Monseigneur,  les  quatre  seules  ocupations  des  garni- 
sons  que  Ton  a  tenues  ici  pendant  taut  d'annees.  Si  ces 
sortes  d'ocupations  peuvent  s'apeler  le  service  du  Roy, 
j'avoue  qu'elles  luy  ont  actuellement  et  toujours  rendu 
quelqu'un  de  ces  quatre  services,  mais  je  n'en  ai  point  veu 
d' autres  que  ces  quatre-la;  et  par  consequent,  si  on  ne  juge 
pas  que  ce  soit  la  des  services  necessaires  au  Roy,  il  n'y  a 
point  eu  jusqu'a  present  de  necessite  de  les  tenir  icy,  et 
apres  leur  rapel,  il  n'y  en  aura  point  de  les  y  re'tablir. 

Cependant  comme  cette  ndcessite  pretendue  des  Garnisona 
est  1'unique  pretexte  que  Ton  prend  pour  y  envoyer  des 
Commandans,  nous  vous  prions,  Monseigneur,  d'etre  bien 
persuadd  de  la  faussete*  de  ce  pretexte,  afin  que,  sous  ces 
spe*cieuses  aparences  du  service  du  Roy,  on  ne  se  fasse  pas 
une  obligation  d'en  envoyer,  puisque  les  Commandans  ne 


APPENDIX.  511 

viennent  icy  que  pour  y  faire  la  traitte  de  concert  avec  leurs 
soldats  sans  se  mettre  en  peine  de  tout  le  reste.  Ils  ii'ont 
de  liaison  avec  les  Missionnaires  que  par  les  endroits  ou  ils 
les  croient  utiles  pour  leur  temporel,  et  hors  de  la  ils  leur 
sont  contraires  des  qu'ils  veulent  s'opposer  au  desordre  qui, 
ne  s'accordant  ny  avec  le  service  de  Dieu  ny  avec  le  service 
du  Roy,  ne  laisse  pas  d'etre  avantageux  a  leur  commerce, 
au  quel  il  n'est  rien  qu'ils  ne  sacrifient.  C'est  la  Punique 
cause  qui  a  mis  le  dereglement  dans  nos  Missions,  et  qui  les 
a  tellement  desolees  par  1'ascendant  que  les  Commandans 
ont  pris  sur  les  Missionnaires  en  s'attirant  toute  Pautorite 
soit  a  1'egard  des  Frangois,  soit  a  Pegard  des  Sauvages,  que 
nous  n'avons  pas  d'autre  pouvoir  que  celui  d'y  travailler 
inutilement  sous  leur  domination  qui  s'est  elevee  jusqu'a 
nous  pour  nous  faire  des  crimes  civils  et  des  accusations 
pretendues  juridiques  des  propres  fonctions  de  notre  e"tat  et 
de  notre  devoir,  comme  1'a  toujours  fait  Monsieur  de  la 
Motte  qui  ne  voulait  pas  m§me  que  nous  nous  servissions 
du  mot  de  desordre  et  qui  intente  en  effet  procez  au  pere 
Pinet  pour  s'en  etre  servi. 

.  .  .  Vous  voyez,  Monseigneur,  que  je  me  suis  beau- 
coup  etendu  sur  les  articles  des  Commandans  et  des  garni- 
sons pour  vous  faire  comprendre  que  c'est  la  qu'est  venu 
tout  le  malheur  de  nos  Missions.  Ce  sont  les  Commandans, 
ce  sont  les  garnisons,  qui,  se  joignant  avec  les  traitteurs 
d'eau-de-vie  les  ont  entierement  de'sole'es  par  Pivrognerie  et 
par  une  impudicite  presque  universelle  que  Pon  y  a  ^tablie 
par  une  continuelle  impunit^  de  Pune  et  de  Pautre,  que  les 
puissances  civiles  ne  tolerent  pas  seulement,  mais  qu'elles 
permettent,  puisque  les  pouvant  empScher,  elles  ne  les 
empSchent  pas.  -  Je'ne  crains  done 'point  de  vous  declarer 
que  si  Ton  remet  icy  haut  dans  nos  missions  des  Commas- 
dans  traitteurs  et  des  garnisons  de  soldats  traitteurs,  noua 
ne  doutons  point  que  nous  ne  soyons  contraints  de  les 


512  APPENDIX. 

quitter,  n'y  pouvant  rien  faire  pour  le  salut  des  §,mes. 
C'est  a  vous  d'informer  Sa  Majeste  de  I'extre'mit^  ou  Pon 
nous  re'duit  et  de  luy  demander  pour  nous  notre  delivrance, 
afin  que  nous  puissions  travailler  a  1'etablissement  de  la 
Religion  sans  ces  empechemens  qui  1'ont  arr§te  jusqu'a 
present. 


J. 

THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  CLERGY. 

MEMOIRE  DE  TALON  SUR  L'ETAT  PRESENT  DU 
CANADA,  1667. 

(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

.  .  .  L'EccLESiASTiQUE  est  compost  d'un  Evesque, 
ayant  le  tiltre  de  Pe'tree,  In  partibus  infidelium,  et  se  ser- 
vant du  caractere  et  de  1'autorite  de  Vicaire  Apostolique. 

II  a  soubs  [sows]  luy  neuf  Prestres,  et  plusieurs  clercs 
qui  vivent  en  communaute  quand  ils  sont  pres  de  lui  dans 
son  Seminaire,  et  separement  a  la  campagne  quand  ils  y 
sont  envoyez  par  voye  de  mission  pour  desservir  les  cures 
qui  ne  sont  pas  encore  fondees.  II  y  a  pareillement  les 
P&res  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus,  au  nombre  de  trente-cinq, 
la  pluspart  desquels  sont  employ ez  aux  Missions  etrangeres : 
ouvrage  digne  de  leur  zele  et  de  leur  pie'te  s'il  est  exempt 
du  meslange  de  1'interest  dont  on  les  dit  susceptibles,  par  la 
traitt'e  des  pelleteries  qu'on  assure  qu'ils  font  aux  StaSaks 
\_0utaoudlcs],  et  au  Cap'de  la  Magdelaine;  ce  queje'he 
sQay  pas  de  science  certaihe. 

La  vie  de  ces  Eccle'siastiques,  par  tout  ce  qui  paroist'  au 
dehors,  est  fort  regie's,  et  peut  servir  de  bon  exemple  et 


APPENDIX.  513 

d'un  bon  modele  aux  seculiers  qui  la  peuvent  imiter;  mais 
com  me  ceux  qui  composent  cette  Colonie  ne  sont  pas  tous 
d'esgale  force,  ny  de  vertu  pareille,  ou  n'ont  pas  tous  les 
mesmes  dispositions  au  bien ,  quelques-uns  tombent  aysement 
dans  leur  disgrace  pour  ne  pas  se  conformer  k  leur  maniere 
de  vivre,  ne  pas  suivre  tous  leurs  sentimens,  et  ne  s'aban- 
donner  pas  a  leur  conduite  qu'ils  estendent  jusques  sur  le 
temporel,  empietant  mesme  sur  la  police  exterieure  qui 
regarde  le  seul  magistrat. 

On  a  lieu  de  soupconner  que  la  pratique  dans  laquelle  ils 
sont,  qui  n'est  pas  bien  conforme  a  celle  des  Eccldsiastiques 
de  1'Aucieime  France,  a  pour  but  de  partager  1'autorite 
temporelle  qui,  jusques  au  temps  de  Parrivee  des  troupes  du 
Koy  en  Canada,  residoit  principalement  en  leur  personnes. 

A  ce  mal  qui  va  jusques  a  ge'henner  \_gener~\  et  contraindre 
les  consciences,  et  par  la  desgouter  les  colons  les  plus  at- 
tachez  au  pays,  on  peut  donner  pour  remade  1'ordre  de 
balancer  avec  adresse  et  moderation  cette  autorite*  par  celle 
qui  reside  ez  [dans  les"]  personnes  envoye'es  par  Sa  Majeste 
pour  le  Gouvernement :  ce  qui  a  desja  6t6  pratique;  de 
permettre  de  renvoyer  un  ou  deux  Ecclesiastiques  de  ceux 
qui  reconnoissent  moins  cette  autorite  temporelle,  et  qui 
troublent  le  plus  par  leur  conduite  le  repos  de  la  Colonie, 
et  introduire  quatre  Ecclesiastiques  entre  les  se*culiers  ou 
les  reguliers,  les  faisant  bien  autoriser  pour  1'administration 
des  Sacremens,  sans  qu'ils  puissent  estre  inquie"tez:  autre- 
ment  ils  deviendroient  inutiles  au  pays,  parce  que  s'ils  ne  se 
conformoient  pas  a  la  pratique  de  ceux  qui  y  sont  aujourd'huy 
M.  1'Evesque  leur  deffendroit  d'administrer  les  Sacremens. 

Pour  estre  mieux  inform^  de  cette  conduite  des  consciences, 
on  peut  entendre  Monsieur  Dubois,  Aumosnier  au  regiment 
de  Carignan,  qui  a  ouy  plusieurs  Confessions  en  secret,  et  a 
la  desrobee,  et  Monsieur  de  Bretonvilliers  sur  ce  qu'il  a 
appris  par  les  Ecclesiastiques  de  son  Seminaire  establi  4 
Mont-K^al.  33 


514  APPENDIX. 


LETTRE  DU  MINISTRE  A  MR.  TALON,  20  FEVRIER, 

1668. 

(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

...  II  faut  que  Fapplication  d'un  Gouverneur  et  d'un 
Intendant  aide  a  adoucir  le  mal,  et  non  a  1'effet  que  le  Gou- 
verneur ne  se  porte  a  aucune  extremite,  centre  les  Sieurs 
EvSque  et  les  P.  P.  Jesuites,  quand  bien  meme  ils  auraient 
abuse  du  pouvoir  que  leur  habit  et  le  respect  qu'on  a  natu- 
rellement  pour  la  religion  leur  donne.  En  se  contentant  par 
des  conferences  particulieres  de  resserrer  ce  pouvoir,  autant 
que  se  pourra,  dans  les  bornes  d'une  legitime  autorite'  et 
esperant  que,  quand  le  pays  sera  plus  peupte,  qui  est  la 
seule  et  unique  chose  que  doit  convier  le  dit  Sr.  Gou- 
verneur et  Intendant  a  y  donner  leurs  soins  quand  a  present, 
I'autorite'  Royale  qui  sera  la  plus  reconnue  des  peuples 
pr^vaudra  sur  1'autre  et  la  contiendra  dans  de  justes  limites. 

.  .  .  Je  ne  m'explique  point  avec  vous  sur  ce  sujet, 
parceque  je  sais  qu'a  part  ses  bonnes  quality's  il  \_M.  de 
Courcelle~]  a  us£  d'emportement  dont  il  est  bon  qu'il  se  cor- 
rige.  lusinuez  lui  aussi  honnetement  les  sentiments  qu'il 
doit  avoir  et  ce  que  je  viens  de  vous  dire  au  sujet  du  Sieur 
de  Kessan,  et  qu'il  ne  doit  jamais  blamer  la  conduite  de 
1'Evgque  de  Pe'tre'e  ni  des  Jesuites  en  public,  £tant  assez 
d'en  user  avec  eux  avec  grande  circonspection,  se  contentant 
seulement  lorsqu'ils  entreprendront  trop  de  leur  faire  con- 
naitre  et  d'en  envoyer  des  m^moires,  afin  que  je  confere 
avec  leurs  Sups' rieurs  de  ces  entreprises  et  en  cas  qu'il&  en 
fassent  qu'on  puisse  les  iuterdire. 


APPENDIX.  515 

INSTRUCTION  POUR  M.  DE  BOUTEROUE,  1668. 
(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

II  faut  empescher  autant  qu'il  se  pourra  la  trop  grande 
quantite  des  prestres,  religieux,  et  religieuses  .  .  .  s'entre- 
mettre  quelquefois  et  dans  les  occasions  pour  les  porter  a 
adoucir  cette  trop  grande  severit^,  estant  tres-important  que 
lesdits  evesque  et  Jesuites  ne  s'aperqoivent  jamais  qu'il 
veuille  blasmer  leur  conduite. 

(Sign6)  COLBERT. 

For  the  instructions  on  this  subject,  more  precise  and  em- 
phatic than  the  above,  given  by  the  King  to  Talon  in  1665, 
see  N.  Y.  Colonial  Docs.,  ix.  24. 


LETTRE  DE  COLBERT  A  DUCHESNEAU,  15  AVRIL,  1676. 
(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

Eviter  les  contestations  .  .  .  sans  toutefois  prejudicier 
aux  precautions  qui  sont  &  prendre  et  aux  mesures  a  garder 
pour  empescher  que  la  puissance  ecclesiastique  n'entreprenne 
rien  sur  la  temporelle,  k  quoy  les  ecclesiastiques  sont  assez 
portds. 


LETTRE  DU   MINISTRE  A  DUCHESNEAU,  LE  28  AVRIL, 

1677. 

(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

.  .  .  Je  vous  dirai  premi&rement  que  Sa  Majest^  est  bien 
persuad^e  de  la  pi£t£  de  tous  les  Ecclesiastiques  et  de  leurs 
bonnes  intentions  pour  le  succez  du  sujet  de  leurs  missions. 


516  APPENDIX. 

mais  Sa  Majeste*  veut  que  vous  preniez  garde  qu'ils  n'entre- 
prennent  rien  tant  sur  son  authorite  Royalle  que  sur  la 
justice  et  police  du  pays  et  que  vous  les  resserriez  pr^cise- 
ment  dans  les  bornes  de  1'authorit^  que  les  Ecclesiastiques 
ont  dans  le  Royaume,  sans  souffrir  qu'ils  les  passent  en 
quelque  sorte  et  mani&re  que  ce  soit,  et  cette  maxime  gene- 
ralle  vous  doit  servir  pour  toutes  les  difficultez  de  cette 
nature  qui  pourront  survenir ;  mais  pour  parvenir  a  ce  point 
il  seroit  necessaire  que  vous-mesme  vous  travailliassiez  a 
vous  rendre  habil  sur  ces  matures  en  lisant  les  autheurs  qui 
en  ont  traitt^,  observer  tout  ce  qui  se  passe  et  k  envoyer 
tous  les  ans  des  memoires  sur  les  difficultez  que  vous  aurez 
et  auxquelles  vous  n'aurez  pas  pu  rem&lier;  considerez  cette 
matiere  comme  tres  importante  et  a  laquelle  vous  ne  S9auriez 
donner  trop  d'application. 


LETTBB  DU  MINISTRE  A  DUCHESNEAU,  LE  PREMIER 
MAY,  1677. 

(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

.  .  .  Je  suis  encore  oblig^  de  vous  dire  que  Ton  voit  claire- 
ment  qu'encore  que  le  dit  Sieur  Evesque  soit  un  homme 
de  bien  et  qu'il  fasse  fort  Men  son  devoir,  il  ne  laisse  pas 
d'affecter  une  domination  qui  passe  de  beaucoup  au  dela 
des  bornes  que  les  Evesques  ont  dans  tout  le  monde 
chrestien  et  particuli&rement  dans  le  E/oyaume  et  ainsy 
vous  devez  vous  appliquer  a  bien  connoistre  et  k  SQavoir 
le  plus  parfaitement  que  vous  pourrez  Pestendue  du  pouvoir 
des  Evesques  et  les  remedes  que  1'authorite  Royalle  a 
apporte  pour  en  empescher  1'abus  et  leur  trop  grande 
domination,  afin  que  vous  puissiez  de  concert  avec  Monsieur 
le  Comte  de  Frontenac  dans  les  occasions  importantes  y 
apporter  les  mesmes  rem&des,  en  quoy  vous  devez  toujours 


APPENDIX.  517 

agir  avec  beaucoup  de  moderation  et  de  retenue.  . .  .  Comme 
je  vois  que  Monsieur  1'Evesque  de  Quebec,  ainsi  que  je 
viens  de  vous  dire  affecte  une  authority  un  peu  trop  inde- 
pendante  de  Pauthorit^  Royalle  et  que  par  cette  raison 
il  seroit  peut-estre  bon  qu'il  n'eust  pas  de  seance  dans  le 
conseil,  vous  devez  bien  examiner  toutes  les  occasions  et 
tous  les  moyens  que  Ton  pourrait  pratiquer,  pour  luy  donner 
a  luy-mesme  1'envie  de  n'y  plus  venir;  mais  vous  devez 
en  cela  vous  conduire  avec  beaucoup  de  retenue,  et  bien 
prendre  garde  que  qui  ce  soit  ne  descouvre  ce  que  je  vous 
escris  sur  ce  point. 


M^MOIRE  DU  EOI  AUX  SlEUBS  DE  FRONTENAC  ET  DE 
CHAMPIGNY,  ANNEE  1692. 

(Extrait.}     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

.  .  Sa  Majeste  veut  aussy  qu'ils  \_Frontenac  et  Cham- 
pigny~\  assistent  de  leur  authorise  les  Jesuites  et  les  Re'colets 
et  tous  autres  Ecclesiastiques  sans  n^antmoins  souffrir  qu'ils 
portent  Pautorite  eccle'siastique  plus  loin  qu'elle  ne  doit 
s'estendre.  Elle  ne  veut  pas  qu'ils  se  dispensent  de  faire 
doucement  et  avec  toute  la  discretion  possible  des  remon- 
strances au  dit  Sieur  Evesque  dans  les  occasions  ou  ils 
reconnoistront  que  les  Ecclesiastiques  agissent  par  un  zele 
immode're  ou  par  d'autres  passions,  afin  de  1' engager  a  y 
remedier  et  a  faire  tout  ce  qui  depend  avec  lui  pour  pro- 
curer le  repos  des  consciences.  Les  dits  Sieurs  de  Fron- 
tenac  et  de  Champigny  doivent  se  tenir  en  cela  dans  les 
voyes  de  la  seule  excitation  et  informer  sa  Majeste  de  tout 
ce  qui  se  passera  a  cet  egard. 


APPENDIX. 


LETTRE  DE  MONSIEUR  DE  LA  MOTHE  CADILLAC. 
(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

28  SEPTEMBRE,  1694. 

...  La  chose  ne  se  passa  pas  ainsi  qu'il  1'a  racont^  dana 
cet  article  et  le  suivant;  ceux  qui  savent  1'histoire  de  ce 
temps  1&  en  parlent  autrement  et  voicy  le  fait:  Monsieur 
de  Laval  fit  diverges  tentatives  &  peu  pr&s  comme  celles 
qu'on  void  aujourd'huy  dont  le  but  a  toujours  6t6  de  pr3- 
valoir  sur  I'autorit^  du  gouvernement;  Monsieur  de  Tracy 
pour  lors  Vice-roy  de  ce  pays,  voyait  tranquillement  le  ddsir 
de  cette  £l£vation,  et  comme  c'estoit  un  homme  d^vot, 
il  ne  jugea  pas  &  propos  de  prater  le  colet  a  cette  cohorte 
Ecclesiastique,  dont  la  puissance  dtoit  redoutable.  Mon- 
sieur Talon  dans  cette  conjoncture  fit  paroitre  une  plus 
forte  resolution  et  risqua  pour  Pint^rest  du  Koy  de  perdre 
son  credit  et  sa  fortune;  il  vid  qu'il  falloit  ^touffer  cet 
orage  dans  son  berceau  et  enfin  par  ses  remontrances  et  par 
ses  soins,  il  fit  donner  un  arr§t  favorable  et  tel  qu'il  se 
l'£toit  propos^.  Monsieur  de  Laval  voyant  alors  qu'on 
1'avoit  rengaine*  et  qu'on  1'avoit  coup£  &  demi-vent,  il  creut 
suivant  la  politique  de  1'Eglise  qu'il  falloit  attendre  un 
temps  plus  favorable;  ayant  done  mis  armes  bas,  on  tacha 
de  rajuster  les  affaires  par  Tentremise  rneme  de  Monsieur  de 
Tracy  qui  obtint  de  Monsieur  Talon  au  jour  de  sa  recon- 
ciliation que  l'arr§t  en  question  seroit  raye  et  batonn^,  non 
pas  pour  le  d^saprouver  ou  pour  1'avoir  trouv£  contraire 
k  toute  bonne  justice,  comme  le  veut  persuader  le  procureur 
g&i^ral  ;  mais  afin  que  Monsieur  de  Laval  ne  f  ut  pas  repro- 
chable  de  ses  hearts  et  de  ses  injustes  pretentions;  ce  fut 
une  foiblesse  a  Monsieur  Talon  de  s'etre  laiss^  vaincre  par 
de  telles  soumissions. 

i.   .  .  II  faut  §tre  ici  pour  voir  les  menses  qui  se  font  tous 


APPENDIX.  519 

ies  jours  pour  renverser  le  plan  et  les  projets  d'un  Gou- 
verneur.  II  faut  une  tete  aussi  ferme  et  aussi  plomb^e  que 
celle  de  Monsieur  le  Comte  pour  se  soutenir  centres  les 
ambusches  que  partout  on  lui  dresse ;  s'il  veut  la  paix  cela 
sumt  pour  qu'on  s'y  oppose  et  qu'on  crie  que  tout  est  perdu ; 
s'il  veut  faire  la  guerre,  on  lui  expose  la  ruine  de  la  collonie. 
II  n'auroit  pas  tant  d'affaires  sur  les  bras,  s'il  n'avoit  pas 
aboli  un  Hiericho  qui  etait  une  maisori  que  Messieurs  du 
S^minaire  de  Montreal  avoient  fait  bdtir  pour  renfermer, 
disoient-ils,  les  filles  de  mauvaise  vie.  S'il  avoit  voulu  leur 
permettre  de  prendre  des  soldats  et  leur  donner  des  officiers 
pour  aller  dans  les  maisons  arracher  des  femmes  a  minuit  et 
couchees  avec  leurs  maris,  pour  avoir  et£  au  bal  ou  en 
masque  et  les  faire  fesser  jusques  au  sang  dans  ce  Hiericho; 
s'il  n'avait  rien  dit  encore  centre  des  Cur^s  qui  faisoient  la 
ronde  avec  des  soldats  et  qui  obligeoient  en  est£  les  filles  et 
les  fenimes  a  se  renfermer  a  neuf  heures  chez  elles,  s'il  avoit 
voulu  d^ffendre  de  porter  de  la  dentelle,  s'il  n'avoit  rien  dit 
sur  ce  qu'on  refusoit  la  communion  a  des  femmes  de  qualit£ 
pour  avoir  une  fontange,  s'il  ne  s'opposoit  point  encore  aux 
excommunications  qu'on  jette  a  tort  et  a  travers,  aux  scan- 
dale»  qui  s'en  suivent,  s'il  ne  faisoit  les  officiers  que  par  la 
voye  des  communautds,  s'il  vouloit  ddffendre  le  vin  et  1'eau 
de  vie  aux  sauvages,  s'il  ne  disoit  mot  sur  le  sujet  des  cures 
fixes  et  droits  de  patronage,  si  Monsieur  le  Comte  estoit  de 
ces  avis-la,  ce  seroit  assurement  un  homme  sans  pareil  et  il 
seroit  bientot  sur  la  liste  des  plus  grands  saints,  car  on  lea 
canonise  dans  ce  pais  a  bon  marche. 


520  APPENDIX. 


K. 

CANADIAN  CURES.     EDUCATION.     DIS- 
CIPLINE. 

LETTRE   DU  MARQUIS  DE   DENONVILLE   AU   MINISTBE. 
(Extrait.)     Archives  de  la  Marine. 

A   QUEBEC   16  NOVEMBRE,  1685. 

.  .  .  Vous  me  permettrez,  Monseigneur,  de  vous 
demander  la  gr&ce  de  faire  quelques  reflections  sur  les 
moyens  d'occuper  la  jeunesse  du  pays,  dans  son  bas  §,ge, 
et  dans  l'age  le  plus  avarice',  que  je  vous  rende  compte  de 
mes  pense'es  la  dessus,  puisque  c'est  une  des  choses  la  plus 
essentielle  de  la  colonie. 

Pour  y  parvenir,  Monseigneur,  le  premier  moyen  k  mon 
gre*,  est  de  multiplier  le  nombre  des  Cure's,  et  de  les  rendre 
plus  fixes  et  residentaires,  Mr.  notre  EvSque  en  est  si  con- 
vaincu  par  la  connaissance  qu'il  a  prise  de  son  diocese  dans 
ses  visites,  et  dans  le  voyage  que  nous  avons  fait  ensemble, 
qu'il  n'a  point  de  plus  grand  enipressement  que  de  pouvoir 
contribuer  a  cet  etablissement  qui  serait  un  moyen  sur,  pour 
faire  des  e'coles,  auxquelles  les  cures  s'occuperaient  et  ainsi 
accoutumeraient  les  enfans  de  bonne  heure  a  s'assugetir  et  a 
s'occuper:  Mais,  Monseigneur,  pour  faire  cet  etablissement 
utilement,  il  faudrait  multiplier  le  nombre  des  cures  jusques 
au  nombre  de  cinquante  et  un.  Le  me* moire  que  je  vous 
en  envoye,  vous  fera  assez  bien  voir,  que  si  on  les  £tend 
davantage  et  qu'il  faille  que  les  cures  passent  et  repassent 
la  riviere,  comme  ils  font  a  present  pour  faire  leurs  fonc- 
tions,  ils  employent  avec  bien  du  travail  tout  le  temps  qu'ils 
pourraient  donner  &  instruire  la  jeunesse,  si  leurs  cures 
e'taient  moins  e*tendues.  Outre  cela,  Monseigneur,  a  I'entre'e 


APPENDIX.  521 

et  a  la  sortie  de  Phiver,  il  y  a  pres  de  deux  mois  que  Ton 
ne  saurait  passer  la  riviere,  qui  en  bien  des  endroits  a  une 
lieue  de  largeur,  et  beaucoup  plus  en  d'autres.  Si  bien  que 
dans  ces  temps  il  faut  que  les  malades  demeurent  sans  aucun 
secours  spirituel. 

C'est  une  pitie,  Monseigneur,  que  de  voir  1'ignorance 
dans  laquelle  les  peuples  eloignes  du  sejourdes  Cures  vivent 
en  ce  pays,  et  les  peines  que  les  missionnaires  et  Cures  se 
donnent  pour  y  remedier  en  parcourant  leurs  cures,  sur  le 
pied  qu'elles  sont  selon  le  memoire  que  je  vous  en  envoye. 
Vous  y  verrez,  Monseigneur,  le  cheinin  qu'il  leur  faut  faire 
pour  visiter  leurs  paroisses  dans  les  rigueurs  de  Phiver. 

Puisque  j'ai  entame'  1' affaire  des  Cures  vous  me  per- 
mettrez  d'achever  de  vous  dire  que  pour  la  subsistance  d'un 
cure  selon  les  connaissances  que  j'ai  pu  prendre  du  pays, 
depuis  que  j'y  suis,  selon  le  prix  des  denrees,  on  ne  saurait 
donner  moins  a  un  cure*  pour  sa  subsistance  que  quatre 
cents  livres,  monoye  de  France,  attendu  qu'il  ne  faut  pas 
compter  sur  aucun  revenant  bon  du  dedans  de  PEglise. 
II  est  bien  vrai  qu'il  y  a  quelques  cures  qui  sont  mieux 
peuplees  dont  les  dismes  sont  assez  raisonables  pour  pou- 
voir  suffir  a  leur  entretien,  mais  il  y  en  a  tres  peu  sur  ce 
pied  la. 

J'ai  trouve  ici  dans  le  Seminaire  de  I'Eve'che',  le  com- 
mencement de  deux  etablissements  qui  seraient  admirables 
pour  la  Colonie,  si  on  les  pouvait  augmenter,  ce  sont,  Mon- 
seigneur, deux  maisons  ou  Pon  retire  des  enfans  pour  les 
instruire,  dans  1'une  on  y  met  ceux  auquels  on  trouve  de 
la  disposition  pour  les  lettres,  auxquelles  on  s'attache  de  les 
former  pour  TEglise,  qui  dans  la  suite  peu  vent  rendre  plus 
de- service  que  les  pretres  Francois  e*tants  plus  faits  que  les 
autres-aux  fatigues  et  aux  raanieres  du  pays.  ^ 

Dans  Pautre  maison  on  y  met  ceux  qui  ne  sont  propres  que 
pour  e*tre  artisans,  et  k  ceux  Ik  on  apprends  des  metiers. 


522  APPENDIX. 

Je  croirais  que  ce  sorait  la  un  moyen  admirable  pour  com- 
mencer  un  etablissement  de  manufactures,  qui  sont  absolu- 
ment  necessaires  pour  le  secours  de  ce  pays. 

Mr.  notre  Evgque  est  charrne  de  ces  etablissements,  et 
voudrait  bien  §tre  en  etat  de  les  soutenir  et  augmenter. 
Mais  comme  tout  cela  ne  se  peut  faire  sans  de'pense  tant 
pour  1'augmentation  du  nombre  des  Cures  que  pour  cette 
espece  de  manufacture,  et  qu'il  conviendrait  d'en  faire  de 
grandes,  pour  y  reussir,  je  ne  vois  qu'un  moyen  assure  pour 
cela,  qui  serait  que  le  Roy  voulut  bien  donner  une  grosse 
abbaye  a  Mr.  notre  Eveque  sans  1'attacher  a  l'Ev§che, 
comme  il  n'a  Pesprit  et  le  coeur  occupes  que  des  soins  de 
faire  du  bien  aux  pauvres  et  augmenter  la  foi  et  le  salut  des 
ames,  il  est  certain  que  Sa  Majeste,  aurait  le  plaisir  de 
voir  employer  le  revenu  de  ce  benefice  en  bonnes  et  saintes 
oeuvres,  qui  feraient  merveille  pour  le  bien  de  la  colonie  son 
soutien  et  son  augmentation. 

J'ai  trouv^  a  Villemarie  en  Pisle  de  Montreal,  un  eta- 
blissement de  soeurs  de  la  congregation,  sous  la  conduite 
de  la  soeur  Bourgeois,  qui  fait  de  grands  biens  a  toute  la 
colonie,  elles  furent  brulees  Pan  passe  ou  elles  perdirent 
tout;  il  seroit  fort  ne*cessaire  qu'elles  se  retablissent,  elles 
n'ont  pas  le  premier  sol,  j'y  ai  trouve  un  autre  etablissement 
de  filles  de  la  providence  qui  travaillent  ensemble,  elles 
pourront  commencer  qnelque  manfacture  de  ce  cote*  Ik, 
si  vous  avez  la  bonte*  de  continuer  la  gratification  de  mil 
livres  pour  les  laines,  et  mil  livres  pour  apprendre  a  tricoter. 
II  y  a  encore  un  troisieme  Etablissement  pour  faire  des 
maitres  d'ecoles. 

II  faut  revenir  s'il  vous  plait,  Monseigneur,  a  voir  ce  qui 
se  peut  faire  pour  dissipliner  les  grands  gar^ons,  et  pour 
donner  de  1'occupation  aux  enfans  des  gentilsnommes  et 
autres  soi-disans  et  vivans  comme  tels. 

Avant  tout,   Monseigneur,   vous  me  permettrez  de  vous 


APPENDIX.  523 

dire  que  la  noblesse  de  ce  pays  nouveau,  est  tout  ce  qu'il 
y  a  de  plus  gueux  et  que  d'en  augmenter  le  nombre  est 
augmenter  le  nombre  des  faineants.  Un  pays  neuf  demande 
des  gens  laborieux  et  industrieux,  et  qui  mettent  la  main 
a  la  hache  et  a  la  pioche.  Les  enfans  de  nos  conseillers 
ne  sont  pas  plus  laborieux,  et  n'ont  de  ressource  que  les 
bois,  ou  ils  font  quelque  traite,  et  la  plupart  font  tous 
les  d^sordres  dont  j'ai  eu  1'honneur  de  vous  entretenir, 
je  ne  m'oublierai  en  rien  de  ce  qu'il  y  aurait  a  faire  pour 
les  engager  a  entrer  dans  le  commerce,  mais  comme  nos 
nobles  et  conseillers  sont  tous  fort  pauvres  et  accable's  de 
debtes,  ils  ne  sauraient  trouver  de  credit  pour  un  e*cu. 

Le  seul  moyen  qui  me  parait  le  plus  assure  pour  disci- 
pliner  cette  jeunesse  serait  que  le  Boy  voulut  bien  entre- 
tenir en  ce  pays,  quelques  compagnies,  dont  on  donnerait 
le  commandement  a  gens  d'authorite  et  de  bonnes  moeurs 
et  applique's,  comme  a  Mr.  le  Chevalier  de  Cailliere,  a  Mr. 
de  Vare'nes,  Gouverneur  des  trois  Rivieres,  ou  au  Sr. 
PreVot,  Major  de  Quebec,  avec  des  Lieutenants  du  pays 
que  Ton  choisirait,  lesquels  ne  devraient  point  avoir  peine 
d'obeir,  a  ceux  auxquels  naturellement  ils  doivent  obeir. 


INDEX, 


INDEX. 


ABENAKI  Indians,  the,  at  Port 
Royal,  13,  382. 

Absolutism,  in  Canada,  342,  461- 
468. 

Acadia,  quarrel  between  England 
and  France  over,  3 ;  the  French 
keep  a  feeble  hold  on,  5 ; 
Charles  de  la  Tour  applies  for 
a  commission  to  command  in,  5  ; 
French  settlements  transferred 
by  conquest  to  England,  8 ; 
restored  to  France  by  the  treaty 
of  St.  Germain,  8 ;  France  and 
the  Company  of  New  France  in 
sole  possession  of,  8;  D'Aunay 
succeeds  Razilly  in  command  in, 
9  ;  inexact  assertion  of  Charle- 
voix  concerning  division  of,  14  ; 
invaded  by  the  Plymouth  trad- 
ers, 15;  50;  Le  Borgue  gets  a 
lion's  share  of,  52 ;  conquered 
for  England  by  Major  Robert 
Sedgwick,  52  ;  restored  to 
France  by  the  treaty  of  Breda, 
52 ;  recaptured  by  Sir  William 
Phips,  52;  again  restored  to 
France  by  the  treaty  of  Rys- 
wick,  52  ; ;  finally  seized  for 
England  by  General  Nicholson, 
52 ;  Talon  tries  to  open  a  road 
to,  274,  323,  383. 

Adirondack,  the,  248. 

Africa,  234,  235. 

Agariata,  Chief,  252. 


Ailleboust,  the  family  of,  319. 

Ailleboust,  D',  succeeds  Charny  as 
governor  of  Quebec,  88;  his 
dealings  with  the  Iroquois,  88  ; 
insanely  pious,  165,  166,  167; 
Argenson  complains  of,  176, 
393,  429. 

Ailleboust,  Madame  d',  106,  144 ; 
fantastic  devotion  of,  421. 

Aix,  156. 

Albanel,  Father  Charles,  the  Jesuit, 
at  the  Fort  of  St.  Louis,  250 ; 
penetrates  to  Hudson's  Bay,  274 ; 
39 

Albany,  113,  188,249. 

Alexander,  Sir  "William,  grant 
made  by  James  I.  to,  4  ;  attacks 
Charles  de  la  Tour  at  Fort  Lo- 
me'ron,  5  ;  makes  Claude  de  la 
Tour  a  baronet  of  Nova  Scotia, 
6 ;  sends  Claude  de  la  Tour  to 
Cape  Sable,  6;  makes  the  La 
Tours  baronets  of  Nova  Scotia, 
7 ;  grants  Charles  de  la  Tour 
land  near  Cape  Sable,  7 ;  jeal- 
ous of  the  Company  of  New 
France,  7;  fits  out  a  private 
expedition  under  the  brothers 
Kirke,  7  ;  succeeds  in  transfer- 
ring by  conquest  the  French 
settlements  in  Acadia  and  Can- 
ada  to  England,  7 ;  gives  up 
Port  Royal  to  Razilly,  8 ;  9. 

Algonquins,  French,  124. 


528 


INDEX. 


Algonquin  Indians,  the,  68,  88. 
126,  134. 

Algonquin  missions,  the,  383. 

Allen's  River,  12. 

Allet,  Father,  the  Sulpitian,  95, 
141,  156  ;  on  the  Jesuits  at  Que- 
bec, 416. 

Almshouses,  established  in  Can- 
ada, 446. 

Amazon  River,  the,  234. 

American  Revolution,  the,  164. 

Amours,  D',  Matthieu,  the  coun- 
cillor, 195,  213,  321. 

Amours,  D'  (son),  337. 

Andaraque,  largest  and  strongest 
of  the  Mohawk  forts,  257  ;  taken 
by  the  French,  257  ;  description 
of,  258. 

Andre,  Pere,  tries  to  seduce  La 
Tour's  men,  38 ;  472. 

Angoville,  Major  d',  208,  217, 
488. 

Annahotaha,  Etienne,  130 ;  offers 
to  reinforce  Daulac,  131  ;  at  the 
Long  Saut,  131-133  ;  deserts 
Daulac,  134,  138. 

Annapolis  River,  the,  11,  12,  48. 

Anne  of  Austria,  144,  220,  230. 

Anne,  St.,  shrine  of,  429 ;  Ca- 
nadian devotion  to,  429. 

Anticosti,  the  island  of,  357. 

Antilles,  the,  234,  235. 

Antiuomianism,  the  ghastly  spec- 
tre of,  25. 

Aontarisati,  the  Iroquois  Chief, 
58. 

Arabia,  166. 

Argall,  lawless  inroads  of,  4. 

Argenson,  Vicomte  d',  105 ;  be- 
comes governor  of  the  colony, 
120  ;  his  efforts  to  save  the  col- 
ony, 121  ;  on  the  desertion  of 
Daulac  by  the  Hurons,  138;  144, 
155, 157,  158 ;  characteristics  of, 
166;  Laval  quarrels  with,  166, 


167  ;  his  memorial  to  the  council 
of  state,  169  ;  his  reception  by  the 
Jesuits,  173  ;  difficulties  of,  174  ; 
the  Company  of  New  France 
refuses  aid  to,  175  ;  annoyed  by 
the  virtual  independence  of 
Montreal,  175  ;  complains  of 
Ailleboust,  176;  his  troubles, 
177;  resigns  his  position  in 
disgust,  177;  Laval  urges  the 
removal  of,  178;  his  opinion  of 
Villeray,  196 ;  203. 

Argenson,  D'  (brother  of  the  gov- 
ernor), 170,  178;  correspond- 
ence between  Laval  and,  481- 
484. 

Argentan,  town  of,  150. 

Arnold,  M.,  501. 

Arts  of  ornament,  the,  in  Canada, 
362. 

Associates  of  Montreal,  the,  see 
Montreal,  the  Association  of. 

Aabert,  Barthelemy,  475. 

Aubert,  Felix,  217. 

Austrian  War,  the,  242. 

Auteuil,  Ruette  d',  appointed  coun- 
cillor at  Quebec,  195  ;  removed 
from  the  council  by  Mezy,  208  ; 
213. 

Auteuil,  D'  (son),  337. 

Avaugour,  Baron  Dubois  d',  takes 
Argenson's  place,  178;  de- 
scription of,  178 ;  his  reception, 
1 79 ;  wished  to  be  on  good 
terms  with  the  Jesuits,  179  ; 
the  brandy  quarrel,  180;  Laval 
urges  the  removal  of,  182 ; 
summoned  home,  187  ;  his 
memorial  to  Colbert,  187  ;  death 
.of,  188  ;  198. 

BAGOT,  the  Jesuit,  145,  147. 
Balls,  in  Canada,  413. 
Bardy,  Father,  398. 
Baronies,  314. 


INDEX. 


529 


Basques,  the,  356. 

Baston,  the  merchant,  438,  439. 

Bayeux,  the  Bishop  of,  148. 

"Beaufort,  230. 

Beauharnois,  Marquis  de,  313,  361, 
433. 

Beauport,  Monsieur  de,  308. 

Beauport,  settlement  of,  census  of, 
299,  307. 

Beaupre',  Laval's  seigniory  of, 
224,  298,  299;  census  of,  402; 
population  of,  403,  428,  429, 
440,  500. 

Beaver-skins,  serve  as  currency, 
362  ;  effect  produced  by,  383. 

Beaver-trade,  the,  Canada  depend- 
ent upon,  58 ;  largeness  of,  58 ; 
Oudiette  granted  monopoly  in, 
366,  371  ;  a  surfeit  in,  372;  the 
West  Indian  Company  given  a 
monopoly  in,  373. 

Becancour,  the  seigniory  of,  302. 

Bechefer,  the  Jesuit,  251. 

B€gon,  the  intendant,  361,  506. 

Bele-tre,  M.,  438,  439. 

Belmont,  the  Sulpitian,  on  the 
desertion  of  Daulac  by  the  Hu- 
rons,  138 ;  on  the  struggle  for 
the  bishopricof  Canada,  156;  424. 

Bernieres,  Sieur  de,  see  Louvigni, 
Bernieres  de. 

Bernon,  354. 

Berthelot,  Fra^ois,  307,  324,  403. 

Berthier,  Captain,  243,  301. 

Biencourt,  keeps  a  feeble  hold  on 
Acadia,  4,  5  ;  takes  the  name  of 
Foutrincourt,  5  ;  at  Fort  Lome- 
ron,  5 ;  La  Tour  becomes  at- 
tached to  the  service  of,  5 ; 
bequeaths  his  property  to  La 
Tour,  5. 

Bienville,  323. 

Bigot,  the  intendant,  342. 

"Blue  Coats"  of  Montreal,  the, 
247,  254. 

34 


Blue  Hill  in  Milton,  the,  23. 

Bochart,  Du  Plessis,  defeated  and 
killed  by  the  Mohawk  Iroquois, 
55. 

Bochart,  Magdeleine,  448. 

Bochart,  Marie,  289. 

Boisdon,  Jacques,  300. 

Boisdon,  Jean,  448. 

Bologna,  the  Concordat  of,  153; 
Canada  excluded  from,  154. 

Bonchard,  the  surgeon  of  Mont- 
real, 99. 

Bonsecours,  the  seigniory  of,  308. 

Bossuet,  232. 

Boston,  site  of,  4 ;  La  Tour  sails 
for,  20;  La  Tour  arrives  in,  21 ; 
description  of,  23;  undesirable 
neighbors  of,  23 ;  antagonisms 
of  the  Pequot  Indians,  23  ;  dan- 
gers of  the  theological  quarrels 
to,  24;  training-day  in,  26; 
Governor  Winthrop  allows  La 
Tour  to  hire  allies  in,  28; 
Madame  La  Tour  in,  36; 
D'Aunay  sends  envoys  to,  41 ; 
358,  470. 

Boucher,  Father  Pierre,  cure  of 
Point  Levi,  189,  282,  363,  451. 

Boucherville,  the  seigniory  of,  302. 

Boudrot,  Michel,  Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral  in  Acadia,  13. 

Bougainville,  the  famous  naviga- 
tor, 402,  432;  his  view  of  the 
Canadians,  456. 

Boulle,  307. 

Bourbon,  229. 

Bourbons,  the,  316. 

Bourdon,  Jean,  appointed  attor- 
ney-general at  Quebec,  195,  196 ; 
early  life  of,  1 97 ;  removed  from 
the  council  by  Me'zy,  208 ;  213  ; 
banished  to  France,  214  ;  486 
489. 

Bourdon,  Madame  Jean,  285. 

Bourdon,  Jean  Fran^oie,  173. 


530 


INDEX. 


Bourgeoys,  Marguerite,  returns  to 
Canada,  96 ;  her  labors  at  Mont- 
real, 98  ;  returns  to  France,  99  ; 
gains  recruits  in  Troves,  102; 
on  the  miracles  at  Montreal, 
112;  285. 

Bourget,  Bishop  of  Montreal, 
fiftieth  anniversary  of,  226. 

Bourg  la  Reine,  village  of,  297. 

Bourg  Royal,  village  of,  297. 

Bourg  Talon,  village  of,  297. 

Bourse,  the,  established  at  Quebec, 
365 

Bouteroue,  the  intendant,  291,337, 
400 ;  Colbert's  instructions  re- 
garding the  government  and  the 
clergy  in  Canada,  515. 

Bradstreet,  signs  the  "Ipswich 
Letter,"  30;  Governor  Win- 
throp's  reply  to,  31 ;  letter  to 
Governor  Winthrop,  31. 

Brandy,  love  of  the  Indians  for, 
180,  387 ;  quarrel  between 
Laval  and  Avaugour  concern- 
ing, 180,  a  fiend  with  all  crimes 
and  miseries  in  his  train,  388; 
its  sale  necessary  to  the  interests 
of  the  fur-trade,  388 ;  penalties 
for  selling,  389  ;  question  of  its 
sale  submitted  to  the  fathers  of 
the  Sorbonne,  390;  the  King's 
views  concerning,  391. 

Brandy  quarrel,  the,  180,  386- 
393. 

Brauu,  Father,  226. 

Brebeuf,  Jean  de,  the  Jesuit,  73, 
226,  240. 

Breda,  the  treaty  of,  restores  Aca- 
dia  to  France,  52,  260. 

Bre'soles,  Sister  Judith  de,  101  ; 
early  life  of,  106  ;  made  Supe- 
rior at  Montreal,  106,  109. 

Bretonvilliers,  M.  de,  513. 

Brigeac,  Claude  de,  ,112  ;  tortured 
to  death  by  the  Iroquois,  113. 


British  colonies,  the,  4. 

British  conquest,  the,  425. 

Brittany,  278. 

Bruyas,  the  Jesuit,  ordered  to  the 
Oneidas,  266;  takes  the  Mis- 
sion of  the  Martyrs,  380. 

Bullion,  Madame  de,  visited  by 
Mile.  Mance,  100;  designated 
as  "  the  unknown  benefactress," 
100. 

CABOTS,  the,  discovery  of  North 
America  by,  3. 

Caen,  145 ;  the  zealots  at,  147,  148, 
149 ;  204 ;  the  Jacobin  convent 
at,  205 ;  207,  479,  480. 

Cffisar,  153. 

Cailliere,  Chevalier  de,  523. 

Callieres,  433,  446. 

Calvin,  John,  the  extreme  dogmas 
of,  24. 

Canada,  charter  of  the  country 
and  lordship  of,  4 ;  French 
settlements  transferred  by  con- 
quest to  England,  8;  restored 
to  France  by  the  treaty  of  St. 
Germain,  8  ;  turned  to  fasting 
and  penance,  54 ;  the  beaver 
her  only  sustenance,  58 ;  the 
Iroquois  wish  for  peace  with, 
66 ;  writhes  under  the  scourge 
of  the  Iroquois  War,  118;  still 
a  mission,  120;  domestic  quar- 
rels in,  140;  struggle  for  the 
bishopric  of,  141-160;  excluded 
from  the  Concordat  of  Bologna, 
154;  entering  into  a  state  of 
transition,  1 65 ;  the  chief  suf- 
ferer from  the  monopoly  of  the 
Company  of  the  West,  235; 
Louis  XIV.  has  at  heart  the 
prosperity  of,  236 ;  an  object  of 
very  considerable  attention  at 
conrt,  237 ;  not  to  be  wholly 
abandoned  to  a  trading  company, 


INDEX. 


531 


239  ;  little  capital  and  little  enter- 
prise in,  270  ;  Talon  sets  himself 
to  galvanize,  270 ;  concern  of 
Colbert  for  the  prosperity  of, 
270;  Talon's  attempt  to  estab- 
lish trade  between  the  West 
Indies  and,  272 ;  the  peopling 
of,  276;  emigration  to,  277; 
young  women  sent  to,  280 ; 
premium  placed  on  marriage, 
282;  celibacy  punished,  287; 
bounties  offered  for  children, 
289  ;  satisfactory  results,  290  ; 
the  settler  of,  295  ;  persists  in 
attenuating  herself,  298;  the 
river  settlements,  301 ;  feudalism 
of,  304  ;  Richelieu  first  plants 
feudalism  in,  305  ;  not  governed 
to  the  profit  of  a  class,  315  ;  its 
condition  in  1712,  315  ;  becomes 
infatuated  with  noblesse,  317; 
the  King  the  dispenser  of  charity 
for  all,  321  ;  its  government, 
326 ;  the  intendant,  326 ;  the 
Governor-General,  327 ;  the  coun- 
cil, 329 ;  the  King  alone  su- 
preme in,  329 ;  inferior  courts, 
331 ;  the  judge,  332  ;  the  spirit  of 
absolutism  everywhere  apparent 
in,  342,  461-468 ;  justice  in, 
344-346 ;  abuses,  347  ;  neg- 
lected, 351 ;  its  organs  of  nu- 
trition, 352  ;  its  trade  in  fetters, 
353  ;  appeals  for  help,  359  ;  man- 
ufactures of,  361 ;  ship-building 
in,  362 ;  condition  of  ornamen- 
tal arts  in,  362  ;  finances  of,  362 ; 
a  coinage  ordered  for,  363  ;  a 
card  currency  issued,  363 ;  im- 
portance of  the  fur-trade  to, 
366;  the  forest-trade,  368 ;  filled 
with  distress  and  consternation, 
371  ;  the  coureurs  de  bois,  373  ; 
the  first  ball  in,  413;  clerical 
severity  in,  418  ;  heresy  scoured 


out  of,  419;  never  troubled  by 
witches,  421 ;  threatened  with 
an  attack  by  the  English,  424 ; 
miracles  in,  425  ;  education  in, 
425  ;  catches  some  of  the  French 
corruption,  432 ;  extreme  pov- 
erty of,  434 ;  influence  of  the 
troops  on,  435 ;  lawlessness  in, 
435-441  ;  drunkenness  the  most 
destructive  vice  in,  444 ;  swarms 
with  beggars,  445;  slavery  in, 
454  ;  formation  of  character  in, 
461 ;  the  very  portal  of  the  great 
interior  wilderness,  462 ;  com- 
pared with  New  England,  463- 
467 ;  the  Church  of  Rome 
stands  out  conspicuous  in  the 
history  of,  467 ;  the  English 
Conquest  a  happy  calamity  to, 
468 ;  memorial  of  Dumesnil 
concerning  the  affairs  of,  286- 
288 ;  marriage  and  population 
in,  493-496  ;  trade  and  industry 
in,  500-506  ;  the  government  and 
the  clergy  in,  512-519. 

"  Canada,  the  River  and  Gulf  of," 
4. 

Canadian  Church,  the,  103;  its 
influence  paramount  and  pervad- 
ing, 120;  159;  Laval  the  father 
of,  224 ;  liberality  of  the  King 
to,  401  ;  grows  purer  in  the 
presence  of  Protestantism,  468. 

Canadian  fisheries,  the,  see  Fish- 
eries. 

Canadian  government,  the,  326- 
346  ;  essentially  military,  465. 

Canadian  noblesse,  315. 

Canadian  settler,  the,  295. 

Canadians,  the,  strength  of,  445 ; 
views  of  different  writers  on, 
455. 

Capet,  Hugh,  229,  304. 

Cap  Rouge,  56,  59,  301. 

Capuchin    Friars,    tho,     at    Port 


532 


INDEX. 


Royal,  13  ;  supported  by  Riche- 
lieu, 13 ;  the  missions  of,  383. 

Capucins,  the,  471,  472,  474,  475. 

Card  currency,  in  Canada,  363; 
loses  its  value,  364 ;  converted 
into  bills  of  exchange,  364. 

Carheil,  Father  Etienne,  his  letter 
to  Champigny,  379,  506-512; 
takes  the  mission  of  Saint 
Joseph,  380;  in  despair  over 
the  Jesuit  missions,  383 ;  his 
severe  condemnation  of  tlie 
coureurs  de  hois,  385  ;  his  sug- 
gestions concerning  the  govern- 
ment of  Canada,  386. 

Carignan,  the  Prince  of,  242. 

Carignan-Salieres,  the  regiment 
of,  237,  240,  241  ;  history  of, 
242 ;  ordered  back  to  France, 
279,  292,  293,  317,  493,  513. 

Carillon,  131. 

Carion,  Lieutenant,  attacks  on 
Lormeau,  437,  438. 

Carleton,  supposed  site  of  Fort  La 
Tour  at,  39. 

Casgrain,  Abbe,  300,  357  ;  on  the 
shrine  at  the  Petit  Cap,  430. 

Casson,  Dollier  de,  94, 104 ;  on  the 
miracles  at  Montreal,  111,  112; 
on  the  death  of  Major  Closse, 
114;  on  the  year  of  disaster  at 
Montreal,  115  ;  on  the  principal 
fault  of  Frenchmen,  130;  on 
the  desertion  of  Daulac  by  the 
Hurons,  138 ;  on  Courcelle's 
"Blue  Coats,"  247;  great 
strength  of,  254;  sent  to  St. 
Anne,  261  ;  description  of,  263  ; 
at  Fort  St.  Anne,  264  ;  on  the 
policy  of  Talon,  273;  on  the 
frenzy  for  marriage  in  Canada, 
288 ;  on  the  advantages  of  the 
Canadian  climate  for  women, 
290 ;  at  Montreal,  438  ;  on  the 
outlaw  of  Montreal,  439. 


Castine,  15. 

"  Castle,"  the,  45. 

Catalogue,  the  engineer,  359,  360, 
362, 441  ;  his  memorial,  502-506. 

Catholics,  the,  of  France,  divided 
by  two  great  parties,  153  ;  Laval 
an  object  of  veneration  to,  163. 

Oaughnawaga,  Jesuit  mission  at, 
382. 

Cayenne,  234. 

Cayuga  Indians,  the,  57,  66 ;  at 
Onondaga,  82 ;  the  Jesuits 
among,  84 ;  send  an  embassy  to 
Quebec,  245  ;  sue  for  peace,  266  ; 
Carheil  among,  380. 

Celibacy,  punishment  of,  287. 

Censitaire,  the,  310,  341,  343. 

Certain,  Andre,  his  official  report 
on  La  Tour  and  D'Aunay,  469- 
475. 

Chalons,  Sieur,  356  ;  memorial  pre- 
sented by,  on  the  establishment 
of  commerce  in  Canada,  358, 
501,  502. 

Chambly,  the  chief  proprietor  on 
the  Richelieu,  294. 

Chambly,  Fort  of,  250,  262. 

Chambly,  Rapids  of,  244,  245,  247. 

Chambly,  town  of,  292,  294. 

Champagne,  Philippe  de,  230. 

Champigny,  the  intendant,  on  the 
Canadian  nobility,  319, 320;  357, 
359,  360;  letter  from  Father 
Carheil  to,  379,  506-512;  386, 
433,  443,  446,  447 ;  on  Chateau 
St.  Louis,  497-499 ;  his  memorial 
to  the  King,  517. 

Champlain,  Lake,  244,  248,  253, 
260,  262. 

Champlain,  Samuel  de,  on  the 
political  influence  of  women 
among  the  Indians,  85 ;  his 
earnestness  in  converting  the 
Indians,  165;  builds  Chateau 
St.  Louis,  496. 


INDEX. 


533 


Charbonnier,  Marie  Magdeleine, 
287. 

Charlemagne,  the  Capitularies  of, 
313. 

Charles  I.,  344. 

Charlestown,  45,  52. 

Charlevoix,  Father,  inexact  asser- 
tion concerning  division  of 
Acadia,  14 ;  on  the  Medicine 
Feast,  94  ;  on  the  brandy  quarrel, 
182  ;  on  the  earthquake  at  Que- 
bec, 184  ;  on  the  copper  mines 
of  Lake  Superior,  271 ;  on  the 
early  colonists  of  Canada,  277 ; 
in  Canada,  432  ;  his  letter  to  the 
Duchesse  de  Lesdiguieres,  458. 

Charnisay,  Charles  de  Menou 
d'Aunay,  in  Razilly's  company, 
8 ;  succeeds  Razilly  in  com- 
mand in  Acadia,  9 ;  dissen- 
sions with  La  Tour,  9  ;  his  posi- 
tion and  qualities  compared  with 
La  Tour,  9 ;  his  reign  at  Port 
Royal,  11  ;  returns  to  France, 
11  ;  marries  Jeanne  Molin, 
11  ;  his  life  at  Port  Royal, 
11-13  ;  on  good  terms  with  the 
Indians,  12;  reduced  financial 
condition  of,  13 ;  bitter  en- 
mity for  La  Tour,  14;  his 
feud  with  La  Tour,  14,  15; 
attacks  the  Plymouth  trading 
station  at  Penobscot,  15 ;  La 
Tour  plots  against,  16;  battle 
with  La  Tour,  17;  takes  La 
Tour  prisoner,  17;  releases 
La  Tour,  17  ;  ordered  to  seize 
La  Tour's  forts,  18;  returns 
to  France,  18;  endeavors  to 
seize  La  Tour,  19,  20;  La 
Tour  asks  Governor  Winthrop 
for  aid  against,  22,  27,  28 ; 
La  Tour  hires  allies  against, 
28,  30  ;  flees  from  La  Tour  and 
his  allies,  32;  letter  from  the 


Massachusetts  magistrates  to, 
33;  ordered  by  the  King  to 
keep  peace  with  the  Puritans, 
33  ;  makes  overtures  of  friend 
ship  to  the  Puritans,  33 ; 
joined  by  the  Recollet  friars, 
38;  attacks  and  captures  Fort 
St.  Jean,  39 ;  captures  Ma- 
dame La  Tour,  40;  his  treat- 
ment of  his  prisoners,  40; 
sends  envoys  to  the  Puritans, 
41 ;  their  reception  in  Boston, 
41  ;  makes  a  treaty  with 
D'Aunay,  43,  44;  royal  favors 
to,  46 ;  his  hopes,  47 ;  his 
death,  48;  tribute  to  his  charac- 
ter, 48,  49  ;  his  children,  52  ;  no 
trace  of  his  blood  left  in  the 
land,  53  ;  official  report  of  Andre* 
Certain  on  La  Tour  and,  469-475. 

Charnisay,  Madame  Charles  de 
Menou  d'Aunay,  see  Molin, 
Jeanne. 

Charnisay,  Joseph  de  Menou 
d'Aunay,  47. 

Charny,  son  and  successor  of 
Lauson,  86 ;  weakness  of  his 
character,  86 ;  resigns  the 
government  and  becomes  a 
priest,  88. 

Charron,  chosen  alderman  of  Que- 
bec, 212. 

Chartier,  Sieur  de,  appointed  at- 
torney-general by  Mezy,  212. 

Chasy,  nephew  of  Tracy,  251 ; 
murder  of,  252. 

Chatelain,  Father,  at  Quebec, 
416  ;  his  episode  with  Courcelle, 
416,  417. 

Chatel,  Sister,  102. 

Chaulmer,  on  the  French  colony 
among  the  Onondagas,  75. 

Chaumonot,  sent  among  the  Onon- 
dagas, 69 ;  arrival  at  Onon- 
daga,  70;  harangues  the  Indi 


534 


INDEX. 


ans,  71,  82 ;  at  Onondaga, 
79,  80  ;  sets  out  for  the  Cayugas, 
84 ;  on  the  Seneca  mission, 
94 ;  on  the  Jesuits'  belief  in  tor- 
ture, 127  ;  on  the  desertion  of 
Daulac  by  the  Hurons,  137. 

Chaumont,  Chevalier  de,  238,  254. 

Ch€ruel,  on  Colbert,  233  ;  329,351. 

Children,  bounties  offered  on,  289. 

Choisy,  Abb<?  de,  230. 

Chomedey,  Paul  de,  see  Maison- 
neuve,  Chomedey  de. 

CMment,  on  Colbert,  233,  236; 
on  the  paupers  of  Paris,  283  ;  on 
the  premium  on  marriage  in 
Canada,  287. 

Closse,  Major,  killed  by  the  Iro- 
quois,  114. 

Colbert,  Jean  Baptiste,  the  true 
antagonist  of  Laval,  165;  his 
opinion  of  Avaugour,  1 79 ; 
Avaugour's  memorial  to,  1 87  ; 
197 ;  Dumesnil  reports  his  griev- 
ances to,  200;  on  the  mutual 
accusations  of  Laval,  Mezy,  and 
the  Jesuits,  217;  the  intendant 
of  Mazarin's  household,  232; 
reforms  of,  233;  defects  in  his 
policy,  233  ;  Talon  a  true  dis- 
ciple of,  268;  his  concern  for 
the  prosperity  of  Canada,  270; 
reluctantly  recalls  Talon,  275  ; 
peoples  Canada,  276,  283 ; 
places  a  premium  on  marriage 
in  Canada,  286  ;  offers  a  bounty 
on  children  in  Canada,  290 ;  sat- 
isfactory results,  290  ;  his  letters 
to  Duchesneau,  339;  report  on 
the  brandy  question  to,  389,  390 ; 
orders  Courcelle  to  be  kept 
within  bounds,  397;  his  letter 
to  Courcelle,  397  ;  on  the  rela- 
tions of  Laval  and  the  King, 
399 ;  plans  against  the  Jesuits, 
400;  letter  from  Du  Pont  con- 


cerning Dumesnil  to,  484 ;  his 
correspondence  with  Talon  re- 
garding marriage  and  popula- 
tion, 493-496;  letter  from 
Denonville  concerning  trade 
and  industry  in  Canada,  500, 
501 ;  his  letter  to  Talon  on 
the  government  and  the  clergy 
in  Canada,  514 ;  his  instruc- 
tions to  Bouteroue  regarding 
the  government  and  the  clergy 
in  Canada,  515;  his  letters  to 
Duchesneau,  515,  516 ;  letter 
from  Denonville  on  Canadian 
cures,  education,  and  discipline 
in  Canada,  520,  523. 

Golden,  252. 

Colombiere,  the  vicar-general,  pro- 
nounces the  funeral  eulogy  of 
Laval,  225. 

Comet,  the,  appears  above  Quebec, 
119. 

Commerce,  in  Canada,  358,  501. 

Commune,  the,  178. 

Company  of  New  France,  the, 
North  America  given  by  Louis 
XIII.  to,  7;  Richelieu  at  the 
head  of,  7  ;  Sir  William  Alexan- 
der jealous  of,  7  ;  in  sole  posses- 
sion of  Acadia,  8 ;  Charles  de  la 
Tour  made  commander  at  Cape 
Sable  for,  9  ;  grants  land  to  La 
Tour  on  the  St.  John,  14;  27; 
refuses  aid  to  Argenson,  175; 
Argenson  replaced  by  Avaugour, 
178;  shows  signs  of  returning 
life,  190;  called  upon  to  resign 
its  claims,  193  ;  grants  made  by, 
310. 

Company  of  the  Hundred  Associ- 
ates, the,  305. 

Company  of  the  West,  the,  234; 
monopoly  of  trade  granted  to, 
235  ;  fails  to  prosper,  236. 

Comte's,  314. 


INDEX. 


535 


,  230,  231,  242. 

Congregation  of  the  Holy  Family, 
the,  418,  422,  424,431. 

Contrecoeur,  town  of,  294,  302. 

Copper  mines  of  Lake  Superior, 
the,  271. 

Corlaer  (Schenectady),  Dutch 
hamlet  of,  249. 

C6te,  a,  295,341. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  28. 

Couillard,  239. 

Couillard,  Madame,  223. 

Council  of  Canada,  the,  powers  of, 
329. 

Courcelle,  Sieur  de,  see  Re'my, 
Daniel  de. 

Courcelles,  Seigneur,  de,  11. 

Coureurs  de  bois,  321,  368;  an  ob- 
ject of  horror  to  the  King,  373  ; 
edicts  directed  against,  373 ;  their 
return  to  Montreal,  376 ;  build 
palisades,  376  ;  spoiled  for  civili- 
zation, 377 ;  had  their  uses,  377  ; 
their  riotous  invasions  of  Michili- 
mackinac,  383  ;  Father  Carheil's 
severe  condemnation  of,  385. 

Continue  de  Paris,  the,  313,  330. 

Crequy,  Due  de,  ambassador  of 
France  at  Rome,  220. 

Croatia,  188. 

Crolo,  Sister,  102. 

Cromwell,  Captain,  44. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  52,  202. 

Crown,  William,  obtains  a  grant 
of  Acadia  from  Cromwell,  53. 

Cuillerier,  Ren^,  113. 

Cures,  Canadian,  520. 

DABLON,  the  Jesuit,  sent  among 
the  Onondagas,  69;  arrival  at 
Onondaga,  70 ;  harangues  the 
Indians,  70;  his  journey  home, 
73  ;  at  Quebec,  73  ;  joins  the  col- 
ony among  the  Onondagas,  74; 
denounces  balls  in  Canada,  413. 


D' Amours,  see  Amours,  D9. 

Daniel,  123. 

Dansmartin,  Henry,  475. 

Daulac,  Adam,  early  life  of,  128  ; 
his  expedition  against  the  Iro- 
quois,  129 ;  Chief  Aunahotaha 
offers  to  reinforce,  130 ;  his  en- 
counter with  the  Iroquois  at  the 
Long  Saut,  131-139 ;  deserted 
by  Annahotaha,  134 ;  death  of, 
137 ;  saved  Canada  from  a  dis- 
astrous invasion,  138. 

D' Aulnay,  D'Aulney ,  see  D'Aunay. 

D'Aunay,  see  Charnisay,  Charles 
de  Menou  d'Aunay. 

Dauphiny,  320. 

Dauversiere,  see  La  Dauverstere, 
Le  Rot/er  de. 

Demers,  436. 

De  Monts,  grant  made  by  Henry 
IV.  to,  3. 

Denis,  Charles,  173,  213. 

Denis,  M.,  171,  483. 

Denonville,  Mademoiselle,  410. 

Denonville,  Marchioness,  410. 

Denonville,  Marquis,  the  governor, 
on  the  Canadian  nobility,  318, 
320,  321, 354,  355,  357,  360,  369  ; 
on  the  coureurs  de  bois,  375 ;  his 
arrival  in  Canada,  410;  the  di- 
rections of  Bishop  Saint- Vallier 
to,  410,  420;  on  the  education 
of  girls  in  Canada,  431  ;  on  the 
lawlessness  in  Canada,  441-443  ; 
on  the  strength  of  the  Canadi- 
ans, 445 ;  asks  aid  from  the 
King  for  the  Canadian  poor, 
446,  450 ;  on  Chateau  St.  Louis, 
497;  his  letter  to  Colbert  con- 
cerning trade  and  industry  in 
Canada,  500,  501 ;  his  letter  to 
Colbert  on  Canadian  cures,  edu- 
cation, and  discipline  in  Canada, 
520-523. 

Denys,  Nicolas,  the  trader,  6 ;  at 


536 


INDEX. 


Fort  Lome'ron,  11;  his  title  in 
Acadia,  14 ;  on  the  capture  of 
Fort  St  Jean  by  D'Aunay,  40 ; 
keeps  a  feeble  hold  on  his  pos- 
sessions, 52. 

De  Quen,  see  Quen,  De. 

Des  Islets,  275,  307,  314. 

Desjardins,  La  Tour's  agent,  16  ; 
taken  prisoner  by  D'Aunay,  1 7  ; 
released  by  D'Aunay,  17  ;  sends 
a  ship  to  La  Tour,  19. 

Des  Touches,  Peronne,  192;  his 
murder,  192. 

Detroit,  323 ;  post  of  the  coureurs  de 
bois  at,  376;  La  Mothe-Cadillac 
the  founder  of,  415  ;  slavery  at, 
454. 

Diamond,  Cape,  75,  238,  346. 

Dieppe,  277. 

Dollard,  see  Daulac,  Adam. 

Dollier,  see  Casson,  Dollier  de. 

Doutre,  331,  346,  365. 

Dream  Feast,  the,  72. 

Dreams,  the  oracles  of  the  Iro- 
quois,  91. 

Drunkenness,  the  most  destruc- 
tive vice  in  the  colony,  444. 

Du  Bois,  Jean  Baptiste,  258. 

Dubois,  M.,  513. 

Du  Buisson,  308. 

Duchesneau,  the  intendant,  on  the 
Canadian  nobility,  318,  319, 337  ; 
letters  from  Colbert  to,  339,  400 ; 
letters  from  the  King  to,  339, 
394 ;  attempts  to  apply  a  stimu- 
lus to  Canadian  trade,  358 ;  ap- 
peals for  help,  359  ;  on  the  cou- 
reurs de  bois,  374 ;  his  report  on 
the  brandy  question,  389 ;  402, 
403,  443 ;  on  the  poverty  of 
Canada,  447;  letters  from  Col- 
bert to,  515,  516. 

Dufresne,  Jacques,  113. 

Du  Lhut,  323,  374  ;  the  leader  of 
the  wireurs  de  bois,  376. 


Dumesnil,  Jean  Peronne,  190; 
his  power  not  recognized,  191  ; 
his  life  threatened,  192,  193; 
his  statements  rejected  by  the 
council,  195  ;  his  papers  seized 
by  the  council,  198  ;  designs  of 
the  council  against,  199;  his 
escape,  200 ;  returns  to  France, 
200;  reports  his  grievances  to 
Colbert,  200 ;  memorials  of, 
202  ;  389 ;  on  the  brandy  quarrel, 
390 ;  on  the  trade  of  the  Jesuits, 
394 ;  letter  of  Du  Pont  to  Col- 
bert concerning,  484,  485 ;  his 
memorial  concerning  affairs  in 
Canada,  486-488. 

Dumont,  1 89  ;  journal  of,  190. 

Dunkin,  Mr.,  315. 

Duplessis,  362,  504. 

Du  Pont,  Gaudais,  letter  to  Col- 
bert concerning  Dumesnil  from, 
484 ;  486,  487. 

Dupuy,  Paul,  344,  435. 

Du  Puys,  Major  Zachary,  74 ;  at 
Onondaga,  79,  89 ;  admirable 
coolness  of,  90. 

Du  Quet,  Pierre,  173. 

Durham  Terrace,  496,  499. 

Dutch,  the,  63,  71,  75,  84,  381, 
388. 

Dutch  War,  the,  outbreak  of,  291. 

EBOULEMENS,  the,  185,  298. 

Education,  in  Canada,  520. 

Endicott,  Governor  John,  warns 
Governor  VVinthrop  against  La 
Tour,  30;  La  Tour  asks  aid 
from,  32 ;  refuses  to  grant  La 
Tour's  petition,  33;  D'Aunay 
proposes  terms  of  peace  to,  34, 
35. 

England,  claims  the  North  Ameri- 
can continent,  3;  Sir  William 
Alexander  transfers  the  French 
settlements  in  Acadia  and  Can- 


INDEX. 


537 


ada  by  conquest  to,  8  ;  restored 
by  treaty  of  St.  Germain,  8  ; 
war  breaks  out  between  France 
and,  52 ;  121  ;  jealousy  of  Co- 
lonial manufactures  shown  by, 
361  ;  succeeded  in  the  building 
up  of  colonies,  463. 

English,  the,  attack  Fort  Lome- 
ron,  6;  381,  388;  threaten  to 
attack  Canada,  424. 

English  colonist,  the,  compared 
with  the  French  colonist,  459. 

English  conquest,  the,  the  grand 
crisis  of  Canadian  history,  467. 

English  gentry,  the,  316. 

English  revolution,  the,  164. 

Erie  Indians,  the,  at  war  with  the 
Iroquois,  57  ;  the  best  hope  of 
peace  for  the  French  lay  in  the 
Iroquois'  war  with,  67. 

Estrades,  the  Mare'chal  d',  viceroy 
for  America,  237. 

Evreux,  in  Normandy,  10. 

FAILLON,  Abbe*,  on  Dauversiere 
and  the  Sisterhood  of  St. 
Joseph,  98 ;  on  the  miraculous 
cure  of  Mile.  Mance,  100;  on 
the  reticence  and  dissimulation 
practised  by  the  Jesuits  and 
the  Montrealists,  104  ;  on  the 
privations  of  the  nuns  at  Mont- 
real, 106;  tribute  to,  117;  on 
the  heroism  of  Daulac,  138  ;  on 
the  struggle  for  the  bishopric  of 
Canada,  155;  on  Laval's  letter 
to  the  Pope,  159;  on  Laval's 
desire  for  the  title  of  Bishop  of 
Quebec,  219 ;  on  Dollier  de  Gas- 
sou  at  St.  Anne,  264  ;  on  Tracy's 
expedition  against  the  Iroquois, 
267 ;  on  the  peopling  of  Can- 
ada, 277,  285  ;  on  the  premium 
placed  on  marriage  in  Canada, 
287,  290 ;  on  the  right  of  Mont- 


real to  trade  with  France,  352 ; 
on  the  ornamental  arts  in 
Canada,  362  ;  on  Mile.  Le  Ber, 
425 ;  on  education  in  Canada, 
426;  on  the  influence  of  the 
troops  on  Canada,  435 ;  on  the 
brawls  at  Montreal,  439 ;  on 
the  laws  controlling  innkeepers, 
449. 

Felicite,  Saint,  241. 

Ferlaud,  Abbe',  his  admiration  of 
Laval,  172;  308;  on  the  trade 
of  the  Jesuits,  395  ;  448,  449, 
450  ;  on  the  letter  from  Mezy  to 
the  Jesuits,  490. 

"  Festins  a  manger  tout,"  90,  94. 

Fete  Dieu,  the,  168. 

Feudalism,  in  Europe,  304;  in 
Canada,  304 ;  in  France,  304 ; 
first  planted  in  Canada  by 
Richelieu,  305. 

Fillion,  Sieur,  203. 

Finances  of  Canada,  the,  not  pros- 
perous, 362. 

Fisheries  of  Canada,  the,  357, 
358. 

Flavian,  Saint,  241. 

Flemish  Bastard,  the,  64,  252, 
266. 

Florida,  4,  7,  234. 

Follin,  Sieur,  272. 

Fontainebleau,  the  forest  of,  229. 

Fontanges,  231. 

Forestier,  at  Fort  St.  Anne,  264. 

Forest-trade,  the,  368. 

Forster,  John  Reinold,  458. 

Fouquet,  the  arrest  of,  231. 

Fowle,  Mr.,  34. 

France,  claims  the  North  Ameri- 
can continent,  3 ;  the  French 
settlements  in  Acadia  and  Can- 
ada restored  by  the  treaty  of 
St.  Germain  to,  8 ;  in  sole 
possession  of  Acadia,  8;  war 
breaks  out  between  England 


538 


INDEX. 


and,  52;  drifting  toward  the 
triumph  of  the  parti  de'vot,  227  ; 
feudalism  loses  its  vitality  in, 
304 ;  past  and  present  stand 
side  by  side  throughout,  326  ; 
failed  in  the  building  up  of 
colonies,  463. 

France,  the  Church  of,  153. 

Franche  Comte,  414. 

Franchetot,  Mathurin,  captured 
by  the  Iroquois,  56 ;  burned  by 
the  Iroquois,  61. 

Francis,  Saint,  13. 

Francis  Borgia,  Saint,  225. 

Francis  I.,  of  France,  153,  155, 
156. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  Saint,  225. 

Francis  of  Sales,  Saint,  225,  410. 

Franciscans,  the,  400. 

Fre'min,  Father,  joins  the  colony 
among  the  Onondagas,  74;  at 
Three  Rivers,  250 ;  ordered 
to  the  Mohawks,  266  ;  394. 

Fremont,  the  cure,  438. 

French,  the,  keep  a  feeble  hold 
on  Acadia,  4 ;  make  a  lodg- 
ment on  the  rock  of  Quebec, 
7 ;  peace  concluded  with  the 
Indians  at  Quebec,  61 ;  their 
best  hope  of  peace  lay  in  the 
Iroquois'  war  with  the  Eries, 
67 ;  Mohawk  attacks  on,  68 ; 
the  Mohawks  make  insolent  de- 
mands of,  86 ;  abandon  the 
Hurons  to  their  fate,  86;  the 
principal  fault  of,  130. 

French  Celt,  the,  465. 

French  colonist,  the,  compared 
with  the  English  colonist,  459. 

French  fisheries  of  Newfoundland, 
the,  358. 

French  noblesse,  the,  316. 

Fronde,  242. 

Frontenac,  Count,  197,  281  ;  on 
the  life  of  Chambly  on  the 


Richelieu,  294  ;  on  the  younger 
Charles  Le  Moyne,  324 ;  re- 
ports on  the  coureurs  de  bois  to, 
374 ;  on  the  brandy  quarrel, 
392,  393 ;  his  patronage  of 
balls  in  Canada,  413 ;  on  the 
clerical  severity  in  Canada, 
413,  414;  446;  on  Chateau 
St.  Louis,  496,  497-499;  his 
memorial  to  the  King,  517. 

Fundy,  Bay  of,  14,  38. 

Fur- trade,  the,  not  held  inconsis- 
tent with  noblesse,  10;  disputes 
concerning,  52  ;  again  restored 
to  Canada  after  the  Iroquois 
War,  58 ;  rendered  worthless 
by  the  Iroquois  War,  175;  the 
Montrealists  want  to  monopolize, 
176;  at  Tadoussac,  365;  the 
importance  of,  366. 

GABOURY,  Louis,  346. 

Galinee,  Father,  141. 

Gallican  Church,  the,  153. 

Gallican  (National)  Party,  the, 
153  ;  tenets  of,  153  ;  outflanked 
by  the  Ultramontanes,  154 ;  its 
struggle  against  the  Ultramon- 
tanes, 155. 

Gannentaa,  meaning  of  the  word, 
83. 

Ganong,  W.  F.,  on  the  supposed 
site  of  Fort  La  Tour,  39. 

Ganuntaah,  meaning  of  the  word, 
83. 

Garacontie,  the  famous  chief,  245. 

Garde  de  la  Marine,  the,  321. 

Garneau,  the  Canadian,  224;  on 
the  emigration  to  Canada,  277. 

Garnier,  Julien,  at  the  Seneca  mis- 
sions, 880. 

Garonne  River,  the,  409. 

Garreau,  the  Jesuit,  murdered  by 
the  Mohawks,  85. 

Gaspe',  187. 


INDEX. 


539 


Gaudais-Dupont,  194, 195, 198, 199, 

200,  201,  203,  215,  218. 
General  Court  oi  Massachusetts, 

the,  43 ;  severe  law  against  the 

sale  of    liquor  to  the   Indians 

passed  by,  391. 

General  Hospital  of  Paris,  the,  446. 
General  Hospital  of  Quebec,  the, 

founded  by  Saint- Vallier,  446. 
Gentilhomme,  the,  316. 
Gentry,  English,  316. 
George,  Lake,  248,  253. 
Germanic  race,  the,  465. 
Gibbons,  Capt.  Edward,   21,   25; 

joins  La  Tour  against  D'Aunay, 

28,  29,  32 ,  returns   to  Boston, 

32;    entertains    D'Aunay's    en- 

roys,  42,  43. 

Gibbons,  Mrs.  Edward,  21,  22,  25. 
Giffard,  the  physician,  291,  299, 

307. 

Giffard,  Robert,  195. 
Gloria,  Jean,  203. 
Code',  Nicolas,  110. 
Godefroy  (son),  death  of,  119. 
Good  Hope,  Cape  of,  234. 
Gookin,  Daniel,  248. 
Government  House,  the,  at  Que- 
bec, 308. 
Governor-General  of  Canada,  the, 

powers    of,    327;    his  relations 

with  the  intendant,  328. 
"  Governor's  Garden,"  the,  21. 
Grafton,  sent  to  Fort  St.  Jean  with 

provisions,     38;    captured     by 

D'Aunay,  38,41. 
Grande  Baye,  La,  15. 
Grandet,  255,  263,  264,  265. 
Grand  voyer,  the,  in  Canada,  340. 
Great  Britain,  the  King  of,  308. 
Great  Lakes,  the,  323,  462. 
Great  Seminary,  the,  at  Quebec, 

220;    founded    by  Laval,  220; 

Laval's    arrangement    for    the 

support  of,  223. 


Greenland,  466. 

Guercheville,  Madame  de,   grant 

made  by  Louis  XIII.  to,  4. 
Guiche,  the  Count  de,  230. 
Guienne,  the  admiralty  court  of, 

16. 

Guimont,  Louis,  429. 
Guion,  Jean,  307. 
Gynecocracy,  among  the  Indians, 

85. 

HABITANT,  the,  315,  333,  360,  431, 

466. 
Harlay,    Archbishop    of     Rouen, 

283. 

Harvard  College,  425. 
Hawkins,  Thomas,  joins  La  Tour 

against    D'Aunay,  28,   29,  32; 

returns  to  Boston,  32. 
Hazard,  7. 

Hazeur,  356 ;  memorial  of,  357. 
Henriette  of  England,  230. 
Henry  IV.,  of  France,  grant  made 

to  De  Monts  by,  3. 
"Hermitage,"  the,   145;    account 

of,   146;   the    zealots    at,   147; 

204,  205,  207,  228,  476-481. 
Hertel,  Francois,  his  letter  to  Le 

Moyne,  121,   122;    captured  by 

the  Mohawks,  122 ;  his  letter  to 

his  mother,  123  ;  adventures  of, 

123;  death  of,   123;   letters  of 

nobility  of,  123;   estimates  of, 

124. 
Hocquart,  the  intendant,  his  view 

of  the  Canadians,  455. 
Holland,  121,  237. 
Holy  Family,  the,  attempt  to  found 

a  religious  colony  at  Montreal 

in  honor  of,  98. 
Holy  See,  the,  160. 
Holy  Wars  of  Montreal,  the,  96- 

117. 

Horn,  Cape,  466. 
H6tel  Dieu  of  Montreal,  tne,  302, 


540 


INDEX. 


Hotel  Dieu  of  Quebec,  the,  104, 
125;  Talon's  portrait  at,  268, 
300;  the  nuns  of,  362  ;  401,  421, 
422. 

Houssart,  162. 

Hubbard,  15,  19,  32. 

Hudson's  Bay,  234,  236,  365. 

Hudson  River,  the,  Dutch  heretics 
at  the  mouth  of,  15  ;  settlements 
of,  119;  248. 

Huguenots,  the,  204,  240,  354,  420, 
421. 

Huissier,  the,  in  Canada,  331. 

Hundred  Associates,  the,  305. 

Hunt,  Prof.  Sterry,  on  the  evi- 
dences of  the  earthquake  at 
Quebec,  185. 

Huron  Colony,  the,  coveted  by  the 
Iroquois,  the  Mohawks,  and  the 
Onondagas,  62. 

Huron  Indians,  the,  destruction  of, 
58;  Iroquois  plans  to  destroy, 
62 ;  turn  to  the  Jesuits  for  aid, 
62  ;  attack  of  the  Mohawks  on, 
76 ;  abandoned  to  their  fate  by 
the  French,  86 ;  joined  by  Father 
Ragueneau,  86;  slaughtered  by 
the  Onondagas,  87  ;  take  refuge 
in  Quebec,  125;  at  the  Long 
Saut,  134;  desert  Daulac,  134, 
137,  138. 

Huron  mission,  the,  63. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.,  preaching  of, 
25. 

IBERVILLE,  Le  Moyne  d',  323. 

Ignace,  Father,  the  Superior  of  the 
Capucins,  at  Port  Royal,  12; 
tribute  to  D'Aunay,  48. 

Incarnation,  Marie  de  T,  on  the 
Mohawk  Iroquois  attack  on  Du 
Plessis  Bochart,  55  ;  on  the  cap- 
ture of  Father  Le  Moyne  by  the 
Mohawks,  68;  on  the  French 
colony  among  the  Onondagas, 


75 ;  on  the  Mohawks'  attack  on 
the  Hurons,  76 ;  on  the  politi- 
cal influence  of  women  among 
the  Iroquois,  84 ;  on  the  Medi- 
cine Feast,  92 ;  on  the  Onon- 
daga  mission,  94;  on  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  comet  above 
Quebec,  119;  on  the  threatened 
attack  of  the  Iroquois,  125;  on 
the  desertion  of  Daulac  by  the 
Hurons,  137;  her  eulogy  on 
Laval,  161  ;  on  the  earthquake 
at  Quebec,  184,  185,  186,  187; 
on  the  appointment  of  the  Mar- 
quis de  Tracy  as  lieutenant- 
general  of  America,  238,  241; 
on  the  Holy  War  in  Canada, 
243;  her  letters  home,  244; 
252;  on  Tracy's  expedition 
against  the  Mohawks,  254,  256 ; 
on  Tracy's  success,  257 ;  261 ; 
on  Talon's  zeal  for  the  success 
of  the  colony,  272 ;  on  the  peo- 
pling of  Canada,  277 ;  on  the 
emigration  to  Canada,  278,  280; 
on  the  "  King's  gift,"  286 ;  on 
the  premium  on  marriage  in 
Canada,  287 ;  her  estimate  of 
the  officers  on  the  Richelieu, 
294;  at  the  Ursuline  Convent 
in  Quebec,  300  ;  on  the  Canadian 
settler,  303 ;  on  witches  in 
Canada,  421  ;  on  the  education 
of  girls  in  Canada,  431 ;  on  the 
influence  of  the  troops  on  Can- 
ada, 435. 

Indians,  the,  grand  council  held  at 
Quebec,  57 ;  conclude  treaty 
with  the  French,  61  ;  celebra- 
tion of  the  Dream  Feast,  72; 
political  influence  of  women 
among,  84 ;  their  fur-trade 
with  the  French,  367 ;  forest- 
trade  with,  368;  severe  law 
passed  by  the  General  Court  of 


INDEX. 


541 


Massachusetts  against  the  sale 
of  liquor  to,  391. 

Indian  women,  the,  reproductive 
qualities  of,  289. 

Infant  Jesus,  the  chapel  of  the,  at 
Montreal,  302. 

Innocent  XI,,  Pope,  153,  154,  156, 
158,  159,  220. 

Intendant  of  Canada,  the  powers 
of,  326  ;  his  relations  with  the 
Governor-General,  328 ;  the  rul- 
ing power  in  the  colony,  337. 

"  Ipswich  Letter/'  the,  30 ;  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop's  reply  to,  31  ; 
great  effect  of,  31. 

"  Ironsides,"  Cromwell's  invinci- 
ble, 466. 

Iroquois  Indians,  the,  attack  the 
French  at  Montreal,  55 ;  cap- 
ture Father  Poncet,  56 ;  at  war 
with  the  Eries,  57 ;  make  peace 
with  the  French,  57;  the  five 
"nations"  of,  57;  grant  life  to 
Father  Poncet,  59  ;  native  fickle- 
ness of,  62  ;  plans  to  destroy  the 
Hurons,  62 ;  their  friendly  re- 
ception to  Father  Le  Moyne, 
66;  desire  peace  with  Canada, 
66  ;  the  capital  of,  81 ;  dissimu- 
lation of,  81  ;  political  influence 
of  women  among,  84 ;  dealings 
of  Ailleboust  with,  88  ;  dreams 
the  oracles  of,  91  ;  their  attacks 
on  Montreal,  109-116;  the 
French  ma  fee  a  truce  with,  110; 
kill  Le  Maitre  and  Vignal,  111, 
112  ;  their  threatened  attack  on 
the  French,  125;  captured  by 
the  French,  127  ;  Daulac's  ex- 
pedition against,  129;  their 
encounter  with  Daulac  at  the 
Long  Saut,  131-139 ;  244 ;  sue 
for  peace,  265  ;  the  hopes  of  the 
Jesuits  for,  380. 

Iroquois  missions,  the,  38S. 


Iroquois  War,  the,  54-57  ;  Canada 
writhes  under  the  scourge  of, 
118;  at  its  height,  120;  renders 
the  fur-trade  worthless,  175. 

Isle  a  la  Pierre,  112. 

Isle  aux  Oies,  68,  435. 

Isle  La  Motte,  260. 

JACOBIN  convent,  the,  205. 

Jacobin  monks,  the,  205. 

Jacquelin,  Marie,  marries  Charles 
de  la  Tour,  1 7 ;  proves  a  valu- 
able ally  to  La  Tour,  17  ; 
taken  prisoner  by  'D'Aunay,  17  ; 
released  by  D'Aunay,  17;  sails 
for  Boston,  20 ;  in  Boston,  28  ; 
returns  to  France,  36 ;  forbidden 
to  leave  France,  36  ;  escapes  to 
England  and  sails  to  America, 
36 ;  arrives  in  Boston,  36 ;  re- 
joins La  Tour,  37  ;  captured  by 
D'Aunay,  40;  her  death,  40; 
470. 

James  I.  of  England,  grant  made 
to  Sir  William  Alexander  by,  4. 

Jamin,  Captain,  17. 

Jansenism,  148,  157,  205. 

Jansenists,  the,  their  struggle  with 
the  Jesuits,  146 ;  420,  4-76,  479, 
480. 

Javille,  475. 

Jemsec,  supposed  site  of  Fort  La 
Tour  at,  39. 

Jerome,  Saint,  411. 

Jesuit  College,  the,  at  Quebec,  301, 

Jesuit  missions,  the,  380  ;  import- 
ance of,  381  ;  extremities  of, 
383  ;  the  splendid  self-devotion 
of,  409. 

Jesuits,  the,  grant  made  by  Louis 
XIII.  to,  4;  the  Hurons  apply 
for  aid  to,  62 ;  invited  by  the 
Onondagas  to  plant  a  colony 
among  them,  63  ;  send  Father 
Le  Moyne  among  the  Onon- 


542 


INDEX. 


dagas,   64;     at  Onondaga,    70, 
80 ;  decide  to  establish  a  colony 
among     the     Onondagas,     74 ; 
Governor  Lauson  makes  a  grant 
of    land  to,    74;    fearful    task 
essayed    by,    84 ;     among    the 
Cayugas,  the  Senecas,  and  the 
Oneidas,  84 ;  frightful  position 
of,   89 ;    admirable  coolness  of, 
90;   the    Medicine   Feast,    91; 
escape  from  the    Indians,   93  ; 
arrival  at  Quebec,  94  ;  jealousy 
for  the  Sulpitians  at  Montreal, 
103  ;  reticence  and  dissimulation 
practised  by,   104;  in    despair, 
119  ;  torture  considered  a  bless- 
ing in  disguise  by,    124 ;    their 
struggle  to  obtain  the  bishopric 
of  Canada,   142-145;  animosity 
of  Father  Queylus  to,  143,  144; 
conflict     with    the    Jansenists, 
1 46 ;    the  most    forcible   expo- 
nents   of   ultramontane  princi- 
ples, 153  ;  their  struggle  against 
the    Sulpitians,    155 ;    triumph 
over  the  Sulpitians,  160  ;  adepts 
m    human   nature,    164;    their 
sagacity  in  choosing  Laval  to 
be    Bishop    of    Canada,    164; 
Avaugour  desires  to  be  on  good 
terms  with,  179;  M£zy  appeals  • 
to,    209 ;    accusations    against  | 
Mezy,     214;     M£zy's    charges 
against,  217  ;  their  ideas  in  re- ' 
gard    to  the  relations    of    the  i 
Church  and  State,  226 ;  victory 
over  the  Iroquois,  265-267 ;  be-  | 
gin  their  ruined  missions  anew,  j 
380;  their  hopes  of  converting 
the  Iroquois,  380  ;  always  in  the  i 
van  of  religious  and    political  j 
propagandism,  383  ;  La  Mothe's 
hatred  for,  385 ;  denounce  the  ! 
brandy  traffic,  388  ;  enter  on  the 
work  of  reform,  389 ;  trade  of,  j 


393-395  ;  forbidden  by  the  King 
to  carry  on  trade,  394 ;  the  re- 
call of  Mezy  a  defeat  in  dis- 
guise for,  396 ;  Courcelle's  op- 
position to,  397  ;  Talon  ordered 
to  watch,  397 ;  Colbert  plans 
against,  400;  rigorous  at  Que- 
bec, 416;  derive  great  power 
from  the  confessional,  417; 
form  the  Congregation  of  the 
Holy  Family,  418  ;  reluctant  to 
share  their  power  with  the 
Recollets,  418;  the  ablest 
teachers  in  Canada,  425 ;  letter 
from  Mezy  to,  490-492  ;  517. 

"  Jesuits'  Well,"  the,  79. 

Jesus,  the  Company  of,  69,  512. 

Jesus,  the  Island  of,  224,  403. 

Jesus,  the  Order  of,  see  Order  oj 
Jesus. 

Joachim,  Saint,  429. 

Jogues,  Father  Isaac,  257. 

Joliet,  Louis,  356. 

Joseph,  Brother,  394. 

Joseph,  Saint,  the  labors  of  Mile. 
Mance  in  honor  of,  98 ;  hos- 
pital at  Montreal  in  honor  of, 
101. 

Josselyn,  on  the  earthquake  at 
Quebec,  187. 

Jouaneaux,  at  Montreal,  107 }  de- 
votes himself  to  the  service  of 
the  Sisters,  107. 

Juchereau,  see  Saint-Ignace>  Fran- 
ces Juchereau  de. 

Judge,  the,  in  Canada,  332. 

Jumeau,  Sister,  at  Montreal,  107. 

KALM,  the  Swedish  botanist,  456  ; 
his  view  of  the  Canadians,  456, 
Kamouraska,  406,  428. 
"  King's  gift,"  the,  28G. 
«  King's  girls,"  the,  285. 
"  Kirke,"  the,  5. 
Kirke,  the  brothers,  Sir  William 


INDEX. 


543 


Alexander  fits  out  a  private  ex 
pedition   under,    7  ;    success  of 
the  expedition,  7. 
Kirke,  Sir  David,  gives  assistance 
to  La  Tour,  45. 

LABADIE,  Sergeant,  301. 

La  Barre,  Governor,  419,  440,  441, 
443,  496. 

La  Bouteillerie,  406. 

La  Chaise,  Pere,  391  ;  his  corre- 
spondence with  Laval,  404. 

Lachenaye,  178. 

La  Ohesnaye,  Charles  Aubert  de, 
memorial  of,  275  ;  on  the  brandy 
quarrel,  390,  391  ;  448. 

La  Chine,  65,  287,  302. 

La  Chine  Rapids,  the,  302. 

La  Citiere,  vast  domain  of,  310. 

La  Combe,  406. 

La  Dauversiere,  Le  Royer  de, 
founder  of  the  sisterhood  of  St. 
Joseph,  97 ;  appropriates  for 
himself  the  money  of  the  sister- 
hood, 98,  102;  portrait  of,  98; 
visited  by  Mile.  Mance,  100;  a 
wretched  fanatic,  100 ;  agent  of 
the  Association  of  Montreal, 
101  ;  death  of,  102. 

Ladies,  the,  in  Canada,  457. 

La  Durantaye,  263,  323  ;  at  Mich- 
ilimackinac,  385. 

La  Fayette,  Madame  de,  230. 

La  Ferte,  Juchereau  de,  appointed 
councillor  at  Quebec,  195,  196; 
213. 

Lafitau,  on  the  political  influence 
of  women  among  the  Iroquois, 
84 ;  on  the  resemblance  between 
the  Iroquois  and  the  ancient 
Lyciansi  85 ;  432. 

La  Fleche,  town  of,  100,  101,  102. 

La  Fleche  Nuns,  the,  102;  in 
Canada,  104;  extreme  poverty 
of,  105. 


Lafontaine,  Judge,  315. 

Lafontaine,  Sir  L.  H.,  309. 

La  Frediere,  Major,  sent  to  garri- 
son Montreal,  435  ;  his  tyranny, 
436  ;  accusations  against,  437  ; 
ordered  home  to  France,  437. 

La  Galisonniere,  Marquis  de,  432. 

La  Hontan,  281,  282,  285,  332, 334, 
347,  354,  369  ;  complains  of  the 
clerical  severity  in  Canada,  414, 
415  ;  420,  447 ;  his  view  of  the 
Canadians,  455. 

Lalemant,  Charles,  226. 

Lalemant,  Father  Jerome,  166, 
167,  171,  172,  179,  181,  182,  183, 
184,  211,  213,  387  ;  on  the  trade 
of  the  Jesuits,  393  ;  483, 484. 

La  Luciere,  La  Motte  de,  263,  265, 
279,  288,  493. 

Lamberville,  among  the  Onon- 
dagas,  380. 

Lamoignon,  President  of  the  Com- 
pany of  New  France,  178. 

La  Mothe-Cadillac,  323  ;  at  Mich- 
ilimackinac,  385  ;  his  hatred 
for  the  Jesuits,  385 ;  on  the  re- 
lations of  Laval  and  the  King, 
399;  the  founder  of  Detroit, 
415  ;  on  the  clerical  severity  in 
Canada,  415,  416,  518,  519. 

La  Motte,  see  La  Luciere,  La 
Motte  de. 

La  Mouche,  Chief,  134. 

Langlois,  Noel,  318. 

La  Peltrie,  Madame  de,  145. 

La  Potherie,  252,  334,  347  ;  on  the 
women  of  Quebec,  453. 

Lareau,  331,  346,  365. 

La  Salle,  274,  302,  323;  on  the 
brandy  quarrel,  390;  on  the 
trade  of  the  Jesuits,  394 ;  on 
Father  Bardy's  sermon  against 
the  governor,  399 ;  on  the  power 
derived  by  the  Jesuits  from  the 
confessional,  417. 


544 


INDEX. 


La  Tesserae,  appointed  councillor 
at  Quebec,  213. 

La  Tour,  Abbe,  146,  152, 155,  181, 
184, 193,  214,  218,  221,  228,  241, 
278,  296,  334,  361,  430,  448. 

La  Tour,  Charles  Saint-Etienne 
de,  brought  to  Acadia,  5 ;  be- 
comes attached  to  the  service  of 
Biencourt,  5 ;  Biencourt  be- 
queaths his  property  to,  5 ;  be- 
comes owner  of  Fort  Lomeron 
and  its  dependencies,  5 ;  appeals 
to  the  King  for  a  commission  to 
command  in  Acadia,  5 ;  attacked 
by  Sir  William  Alexander,  5  ; 
made  a  baronet  of  Nova  Scotia, 
7 ;  receives  grants  of  land  near 
Cape  Sable  and  on  the  St.  John 
River,  7 ;  builds  a  fort  on  the 
St.  John  River,  7;  his  English 
titles  to  lands  at  Cape  Sable 
become  worthless,  9  ;  returns  to 
Paris,  9 ;  extensive  grants  of 
lands  made  to,  9  ;  made  lieuten- 
ant-general in  Fort  Lomeron 
and  commander  at  Cape  Sable, 
9 ;  dissensions  with  D'Aunay, 
9 ;  his  position  and  qualities 
compared  with  D'Aunay,  9  ;  his 
little  kingdom  at  Cape  Sable, 
10;  the  true  surname  of  his 
family,  10;  bitter  enmity  for 
D'Aunay,  14 ;  receives  a  land 
grant  on  the  St.  John,  14 ;  re- 
moves from  Cape  Sable  to  Fort 
St.  Jean,  14 ;  his  feud  with 
D'Aunay,  14,  15 ;  attacks  the 
Plymouth  trading-house  at  Ma- 
tthias, 15;  refuses  to  aid 
D'Aunay  against  Penobscot, 
16  ;  plots  against  D'Aunay,  16; 
marries  Marie  Jacquelin,  1 7 ; 
she  proves  a  valuable  ally  to,  17  ; 
captures  some  of  D'Aunay's  sol- 
diers, 1 7 ;  battle  with  D'Aunay, 


17;  taken  prisoner  by  D'Aunay, 
17;  released  by  D'Aunay,  17; 
his  commission  revoked,  18 ; 
refuses  to  obey  the  King's  com- 
mand, 18;  in  open  revolt,  19 ; 
sails  for  Boston,  20 ;  arrives 
in  Boston,  21 ;  asks  Governor 
Winthrop  for  aid  against 
D'Aunay,  22  ;  among  the  Puri- 
tans, 25  ;  attends  training-day 
in  Boston,  26;  allowed  by 
Governor  Winthrop  to  hire 
allies  against  D'Aunay,  28 ; 
sails  with  his  allies  from  Boston, 
32;  D'Aunay  flees  before,  32; 
asks  aid  from  Governor  Eudi- 
cott,  32  ;  his  petition  not  granted, 
33 ;  rejoined  by  his  wife,  37 ; 
D'Aunay  captures  Fort  St. 
Jean,  39 ;  his  wife  captured, 
and  her  death,  40 ;  entertained 
by  Samuel  Maverick,  45  ;  re- 
ceives assistance  from  Sir  David 
Kirke,  45  ;  treachery  of,  45 ; 
death  of  D'Aunay,  48 ;  suddenly 
appears  as  the  favorite  of  roy- 
alty, 49;  his  fruitful  visit  to 
France,  50;  return  to  Acadia, 
50 ;  marries  Madame  d'Aunay, 
51  ;  his  share  of  Acadia,  52 ; 
obtains  a  grant  of  Acadia  from 
Cromwell,  53  ;  sells  his  share  to 
Temple,  53 ;  his  death,  53 ;  his 
descendants,  53 ;  official  report 
of  Andre  Certain  on  D'Aunay 
and,  469-475. 

La  Tour,  Madame  Charles  de,  see 
Jacquelin,  Marie. 

La  Tour,  Claude  de,  5 ;  captured 
by  the  privateer  "  Kirke,"  5  ; 
his  marriage,  5  ;  renounces  his 
French  allegiance,  6 ;  made  a 
baronet  of  Nova  Scotia,  6 ;  sent 
to  Cape  Sable,  6 ;  early  history 
of,  10. 


INDEX. 


545 


La  Tour,  Fort,  supposed  site  of, 
39  ;  see  also  Lomfron,  Fort. 

Laubia,  Captain,  301. 

Laurent,  Jean,  475. 

Lauson,  Governor,  Jean  de,  re- 
ceives the  Onondaga  deputation, 
69  ;  favors  the  establishment  of 
the  Onondaga  colony,  74  ;  makes 
a  grant  of  land  to  the  Jesuits, 
74 ;  not  matched  to  the  desper- 
ate crisis  of  the  hour,  77;  116, 
196,  310,  352,448. 

Lauson,  son  of  the  governor,  the 
seneschal  of  New  France,  119; 
death  of,  119. 

Lauzon>  Cote  de,  census  of,  299. 

Laval- Mo ntmorency,  Fran9ois 
Xavier  de,  bishop  at  Quebec, 
102 ;  allied  to  the  Jesuits,  102  ; 
looks  on  the  colonists  of  Mont- 
real with  more  than  coldness, 
102 ;  maxims  of,  141  ;  appointed 
Bishop  of  Canada,  145 ;  sketch 
of,  145  ;  eulogy  on,  151 ;  bound- 
less zeal  of,  152;  of  one  mind 
with  the  Jesuits,  154;  sails  for 
Canada,  154 ;  Queylus  puts  him- 
self in  opposition  to,  155;  his 
dislike  of  divided  authority,  155 ; 
not  a  man  of  half  measures, 
156;  Queylus  in  conflict  with, 
158  ;  his  letter  to  the  Pope,  159  ; 
reconciliation  with  Queylus, 
160;  his  triumph  complete,  160; 
an  object  of  veneration  to  Cath- 
olics, 161 ;  eulogies  on,  161 ;  his 
austerity  of  life,  162;  sanctity 
of,  162  ;  portraits  of,  163  ;  char- 
acteristics of,  163;  Colbert  the 
true  antagonist  of,  165  ;  quarrels 
with  Argenson,  166,  167,  168, 
170,  171  ;  Ferland's  admiration 
for,  172;  urges  the  removal  of 
Argenson,  178;  the  brandy 
quarrel,  181 ;  sails  for  France, 
86 


182;  urges  the  removal  of 
Avaugour,  182 ;  his  triumph, 
193 ;  constructs  a  new  council, 
194;  his  selection  of  Mezy  as 
governor,  206  ;  signs  of  storm, 
207  ;  Mezy  in  opposition  to, 
209,  213 ;  accusations  against 
Mezy,  214 ;  Mezy  recalled,  215  ; 
his  threefold  strength  at  court, 
215;  the  death  of  Mezy,  216; 
Mezy's  charges  against,  217 ; 
his  desire  to  obtain  the  title  of 
Bishop  of  Quebec,  219;  obtains 
his  desires,  220 ;  proposes  to 
establish  a  seminary  at  Quebec, 
220 ;  his  idea  of  the  parish  priest, 
221 ;  his  arrangement  for  the 
support  of  the  seminary,  222; 
acquires  vast  grants  of  land  in 
Canada,  224  ;  the  father  of  the 
Canadian  Church,  224 ;  tribute 
to,  224 ;  his  funeral  eulogy,  225  ; 
stories  of  his  asceticism,  225; 
his  ideas  in  regard  to  the  rela- 
tion of  Church  and  State,  226; 
cared  for  nothing  outside  the 
Church,  228 ;  receives  the  Mar- 
quis de  Tracy,  239 ;  on  the 
peopling  of  Canada,  277;  his 
seigniory  of  Beaupre*,  298  ;  his 
opposition  to  the  brandy  traffic, 
389 ;  the  King  distrusts,  392 ; 
his  relations  with  the  King, 
399;  returns  to  France,  403; 
asks  to  have  a  successor  ap- 
pointed, 403  ;  forbidden  to  return 
to  Canada,  404  ;  his  correspond- 
ence with  Pere  La  Chaise,  404; 
his  invectives  against  the  luxury 
and  vanity  of  women,  412;  de- 
nounces balls  in  Canada,  413; 
encourages  education  in  Canada, 
426  ;  his  industrial  school,  430 , 
letters  between  D'Argenson 
(brother  of  the  governor)  and, 


546 


INDEX. 


481-484;  486;  order  received 
from  Mezy,  488 ;  his  reply,  490 ; 
517,  518,  520. 

Laval's  Seminary,  at  Quebec,  450 ; 
the  burning  of,  450. 

La  Valterie,  Lieutenant,  301. 

Laval  University,  of  Quebec,  161, 
223. 

Lavater,  268. 

La  Ve'rendrye,  Varennes  de,  289, 
323. 

Lavigne,  112  ;  nocturnal  adventure 
of,  114. 

Le  Ber,  the  merchant,  107. 

Le  Ber,  Jacques,  317. 

Le  Ber,  Jeanne,  362;  the  vener- 
ated recluse  of  Montreal,  421  ; 
sketch  of,  422-425. 

Le  Ber,  Pierre,  362. 

Le  Borgne,  unscrupulous  plans 
agaiust  Madame  d'Aunay,  50, 
51 ;  gets  a  lion's  share  of  Aca- 
dia,  52. 

Leclerc,  475. 

Le  Clerc,  276 ;  on  the  early  colo- 
nists of  Canada,  278. 

Le  Jeune,  Father,  on  the  Mo- 
hawks' attack  on  the  Hurons, 
76;  on  the  Iroquois  attacks  on 
Montreal,  115;  asked  by  Anne 
of  Austria  to  select  a  bishop  for 
Canada,  144 ;  sagacious  choice 
of,  145. 

Le  Maitre,  the  priest,  96;  killed 
by  the  Iroquois,  111. 

Le  Mercier,  Father,  on  the  French 
victory  over  the  Iroquois  at 
Montreal,  55 ;  on  the  close  of 
the  Iroquois  War,  58 ;  on  the 
sale  of  beaver-skins  in  Canada, 
58 ;  on  the  departure  of  Father 
Le  Moyne  to  the  Onondagas, 
64 ;  joins  the  colony  among  the 
Onondagas,  74 ;  falls  ill,  78 ;  at 
Onondaga,  79,  80;  on  Chaumo- 


not's  power  among  the  Indians 
83  ;  241  ;  on  Courcelle's  desire 
for  war,  246;  on  Talon's  at- 
tempt to  establish  trade  between 
Canada  and  the  West  Indies, 
272 ;  his  punishment  of  the 
brandy  traffic,  389;  private 
journal  of,  393;  417. 

Le  Moyne,  Charles,  129,  245;  at 
the  head  of  the  "Blue  Coats" 
of  Montreal,  254 ;  a  man  of 
sterling  qualities,  324. 

Le  Moyne,  Charles  (the  younger), 
324  ;  his  fort,  324 ;  437,  438. 

Le  Moyne,  Father  Simon,  sect 
among  the  Onondagas,  64 ;  his 
journey,  64 ;  reception  by  the 
Iroquois,  65 ;  his  haraugue,  66, 
67 ;  discovers  the  famous  salt- 
springs  of  Onondaga,  68 ;  re- 
turns to  Quebec,  68 ;  captured 
by  the  Mohawks,  but  released, 
68  ;  among  the  Mohawks,  69 ; 
returns  to  Montreal,  69  ;  goes 
again  among  the  Mohawks,  88 ; 
letter  from  Hertel  to,  122. 

Le  Noir,  Fra^ois,  287. 

Leroles,  cousin  of  Tracy,  251. 

Lesdiguieres,  Duchesse  de,  letter 
from  Charlevoix  to,  458. 

Lesser  Seminary,  the,  at  Quebec, 
223. 

Lestang,  19. 

Levi,  Point,  126,  238,  451. 

Levite,  215. 

Lome'ron,  Fort,  Biencourt  at,  5; 
Charles  de  la  Tour  becomes  the 
owner  of,  5;  attacked  by  Sir 
William  Alexander,  5,  6 ; 
Charles  de  la  Tour  made  lieu- 
tenant-general in,  9;  his  life  at,  1 1 . 

Long  Lake,  249. 

Long  Saut  Rapids,  the,  131  ;  en- 
counter of  Daulac  with  the  Iro- 
quois  at,  131-139. 


INDEX. 


547 


Longueuil,the  seigniory  of,  302,307. 

Longueuil,  Baron  de,  see  Le 
Moyne,  Charles  (the  younger). 

Lorette,  the  mission  of,  382. 

Lormeau,  Ensign,  Carion's  attack 
on,  437,  438. 

Lorraine,  the  regiment  of,  243. 

Lotbiniere,  the  seigniory  of,  302. 

Louis,  Father,  205,  206. 

Louis,  M.,  goes  to  Boston  as 
D'Aunay's  envoy,  41 ;  completes 
treaty  with  the  Puritans,  44; 
returns  to  D'Aunay,  45. 

Louis  XIII.,  of  France,  grant 
made  to  Madame  de  Guerche- 
ville  and  the  Jesuits  by,  4 ;  La 
Tour  begs  a  commission  to 
command  in  Acadia  from,  5, 
7 ;  gives  North  America  to  the 
Company  of  New  France,  7 ; 
revokes  La  Tour's  commission, 
18;  orders  D'Aunay  to  keep 
peace  with  the  Puritans,  33. 

Louis  XIV.,  of  France,  pleased 
with  D'Aunay's  capture  of  Fort 
St.  Jean,  46 ;  grants  royal  favors 
to  D'Aunay,  46 ;  reverses  the 
decree  against  La  Tour,  49  ;  re- 
flections on  the  colonial  adminis- 
tration of,  50  ;  favors  Laval's 
wishes  for  the  bishopric  of  Que- 
bec, 220 ;  his  sun  rising  in 
splendor.  230 ;  fortune  strangely 
bountiful  to,  230;  formed  by 
nature  to  act  the  part  of  a  king, 
231;  the  embodiment  of  the 
monarchical  idea,  232;  has  the 
prosperity  of  Canada  at  heart, 
236  ;  resolved  that  a  new  France 
should  be  added  to  the  old,  239 ; 
peoples  Canada,  276 ;  alarmed 
by  Talon's  demands  for  more 
men,  278 ;  offers  a  bounty  on 
children,  289 ;  the  Father  of 
New  France,  291  ;  his  zeal 


spasmodic,  291 ;  the  triumph 
of  royalty  culminates  in,  305; 
preserves  feudalism  in  Canada, 
305;  the  dispenser  of  charity 
for  all  Canada,  321  ;  alone 
supreme  in  Canada,  329 ;  on 
justice  in  Canada,  333 ;  letter 
to  Dnchesneau,  339 ;  ever 
haunted  with  the  fear  of  the 
Devil,  344;  his  edict  against 
swearing,  344;  the  excess  of 
his  benevolence,  347 ;  death  of, 
348;  Saint-Simon's  portrait  of, 
350 ;  influence  of  Madame  de 
Maiutenon  on,  350 ;  retains  ex- 
clusive right  of  the  fur-trade 
at  Tadoussac,  365  ;  the  coureurs 
de  bois  an  object  of  horror  to, 
373  ;  appeal  made  in  the  brandy 
quarrel  to,  390 ;  never  at  heart 
a  prohibitionist,  391  ;  distrusts 
Laval,  392 ;  his  attitude  on  the 
brandy  quarrel,  392 ;  forbids  the 
Jesuits  from  carrying  on  trade, 
394 ;  his  relations  with  Laval, 
399 ;  his  liberality  to  the  Cana- 
dian Church,  401  ;  on  education 
in  Canada,  426  ;  contributes  to 
the  relief  of  the  Canadian  poor, 
446;  his  instructions  to  Talon 
regarding  the  government  and 
the  clergy  in  Canada,  515. 

Louisburg,  the  capture  of,  467. 

Louvigni,  Bernieres  de,  royal 
treasurer  at  Caen,  145,  151 ; 
sketch  of,  145-147;  204,  206; 
laudatory  notice  of,  206 ;  the 
maxims  of,  228 ,  476,  477,  479. 

Louvre,  the,  library  of,  178. 

Loyola,  Ignatius  de,  sage  policy 
of,  144;  followers  of,  416. 

Lussaudicre,  the  seigniory  of,  302, 

Lycians,  the,  ancient  resemblance 
of  the  Iroquois  to,  85. 

Lyons,  280. 


548 


INDEX. 


MACE,  Sister,  101  ;  at  Montreal, 
107,  109. 

Machias,  Plymouth  trading-houses 
at,  15 ;  attacked  by  La  Tour, 
15. 

Madeleine,  Cape,  393. 

Madry,  chosen  alderman  of  Que- 
bec, 212. 

Magdelaine,  Cape,  512. 

Maillet,  Sister,  97,  101,  109. 

Maine,  State  of,  8,  323,  383. 

Maintenon,  Madame  de,  227,  350 ; 
influence  on  Louis  XIV.,  350, 
420. 

Maisonneuve,  Chomedey  de,  gov- 
ernor of  Montreal,  106 ;  forms 
a  military  fraternity  at  Mont- 
real, 116  ;  proclamation  of,  116 ; 
128,  130,  131,  175  ;  removed  by 
Mezy,  207 ;  removed  by  Tracy, 
328 ;  his  death  in  obscurity, 
328. 

Mai  Bay,  298,  356. 

Malta,  Knights  of,  165. 

Mance,  Jeanne,  returns  to  Canada, 
97;  her  labors  in  honor  of  St. 
Joseph,  98 ;  her  hospital  work 
at  Montreal,  98 ;  loses  the  use 
of  her  arm,  99 ;  returns  to 
France,  99  ;  her  miraculous  cure, 
99 ;  her  visit  to  Mme.  de  Bul- 
lion, 100;  her  visit  to  Dau- 
versiere,  100 ;  gains  recruits  in 
La  Fleche,  102;  attacked  by 
fever,  103  ;  returns  to  Montreal, 
103  ;  description  of  her  hospital, 
105. 

Mans,  17. 

Manufactures,  at  Canada,  361. 

Margry,  432,  456;  on  La  Tour 
and  D'Aunay,  469-475. 

Marie,  M.,  visits  the  Puritans,  34  ; 
his  reception  by  the  magistrates, 
34 ;  his  terms  of  peace  from 
D'Aunay,  34 :  his  return  to 


Port  Royal,  35 ;  returns  to 
Boston  as  D'Aunay 's  envoy,  41, 
44 ;  completes  treaty  with  the 
Puritans,  44 ;  returns  to  D'Au- 
nay, 45. 

Marie,  Sieur,  471,  473. 

Marie  The'rese,  230. 

Marine  and  Colonies,  the  Archives 
of  the,  349,  391. 

Marot,  Bernard,  475. 

Marquette,  Father,  his  old  mis- 
sion at  Michilimackinac,  383. 

Marriage  in  Canada,  bounty  on, 
286. 

Martin,  Henri,  on  Colbert,  233. 

Martyrs,  the  mission  of  the,  380 ; 
Bruyas  at,  380. 

Massachusetts,  Bay  of,  15. 

Massachusetts,  State  of,  figures  as 
an  independent  state,  35. 

Massachusetts  magistrates,  the, 
grant  aid  to  La  Tour  against 
D'Aunay,  28;  letter  to  D'Au- 
nay, 33;  refuse  to  grant  La 
Tour's  second  petition,  33 ;  re- 
ception of  M.  Marie,  34;  his 
terms  of  peace  from  D'Aunay, 
34. 

Maverick,  Samuel,  La  Tour  en- 
tertained by,  45. 

Mazarin,  Cardinal,  142, 154 :  death 
of,  231. 

Mazarin  library  at  Paris,  the,  265, 

Maze',  Peronne  de,  secretary  to 
Avaugour,  192;  appointed  coun- 
cillor at  Quebec,  213. 

Medicine  Feast,  the,  90-92. 

MtSnard,  joins  the  colony  among 
the  Onondagas,  74  ;  sets  out  for 
the  Cayugas,  84. 

Menou,  Comte  Jules  de,  9,  10,  16, 
17,19,  20,27,  50,  51. 

Menou,  Rene'  de  (father  of  D'Au- 
nay), 18,  50. 

Mesnu,    Peuvret     de,    appointed 


INDEX. 


549 


secretary  of  the  council  at  Que- 
bec, 195. 

Meules,  the  intendant,  275,  278, 
318,  322,  333,  334,  335,336,  337, 
338,  342,  343,  358,  360;  issues 
a  card  currency,  363  ;  403,  447, 
496. 

Mexico,  the  viceroy  of,  44. 

Mezy,  Saffray  de,  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  Quebec,  1 94 ;  youth 
of,  204  ;  a  military  zealot,  205  ; 
merits  of,  206  ;  removes  Maison- 
neuve,  207 ;  signs  of  storm, 
207 ;  removes  Bourdon,  Villeray, 
and  Auteuil  from  the  council, 
208;  his  appeal  to  the  Jesuits, 
209 ;  appoints  Chartier  attorney- 
general,  212  ;  banishes  Bourdon 
and  Villeray  to  France,  214; 
accusations  of  Laval  and  the 
Jesuits  against,  214 ;  receives 
a  peremptory  recall,  215;  his 
defeat,  215;  his  death,  216 ;  his 
letter  to  Marquis  de  Tracy,  216 ; 
his  will,  216;  his  charges 
against  Laval  and  the  Jesuits, 
217;  on  the  right  of  Montreal 
to  trade  with  France,  352 ;  his 
recall  a  defeat  in  disguise  for 
the  Jesuits,  396 ;  486 ;  his  order 
to  Laval,  488;  Laval's  reply, 
490;  his  letter  to  the  Jesuits, 
490-492. 

Michael,  Saint,  247. 

Michilimackinac,  the  chief  resort 
of  the  coureurs  de  bois,  377,  379  ; 
Father  Marquette's  old  mission 
at,  383;  abuses  at,  383-385; 
difficulties  in  transferring  trade 
to  Montreal  from,  386;  Jesuit 
beaver-skins  at,  383. 

Micmac  Indians,  the,  at  Cape  Sa- 
ble, 11;  at  Port  Royal,  12 ; 
give  assistance  to  La  Tour's 
outcasts,  46. 


Milet,  among  the  Oneidas,  380. 

Milton,  the  Blue  Hill  in,  23. 

Missions,  the  Jesuit,  380. 

Mississippi  River,  the,  323,  356, 
383. 

Mississippi  Valley,  the,  posts  of  the 
coureurs  de  bois  in,  376. 

Mituvemeg,  Chief,  130. 

Mohawk  Iroquois  Indians,  the,  55  ; 
defeat  and  kill  Du  Plessis  Bo- 
chart,  55;  Three  Rivers  beset 
by,  56 ;  make  overtures  of  peace, 
57 ;  59 ;  covet  the  Huron 
colony,  62 ;  pretended  indigna- 
tion with  the  Jesuits,  64 ;  cap- 
ture Father  Le  Moyne,  68 ;  at- 
tacks on  the  French,  68;  take 
no  part  in  the  Erie  War,  68; 
attack  on  Montreal,  68 ;  Father 
Le  Moyne  among,  69 ;  their,  op- 
position to  the  French  colony 
among  the  Onondagas,  75 ;  at- 
tack on  the  Hurons,  76;  at 
Onondaga,  81 ;  murder  the 
Jesuit  Garreau,  85  ;  make  inso- 
lent demands  of  the  French,  86; 
Father  Le  Moyne  again  goes 
among,  88  ;  capture  Hertel,  122 ; 
138;  244;  the  French  plan  to 
chastise,  245 ;  Courcelle's  march 
against,  246;  his  failure,  249; 
sue  for  peace,  251 ;  their  treach- 
ery, 251 ;  Sorel  sent  against, 
251 ;  Tracy  sets  out  against,  253  ; 
the  French  victorious  against, 
257  ;  sue  for  peace,  266  Fremin 
and  Pierron  ordered  to,  266; 
Bruyas  among,  380. 

Mohawk  town,  the  lower,  60. 

Mohawk  towns,  the,  248;  Tracy 
attacks,  255 ;  captured  by  the 
French,  257. 

Mohegan  Indians,  the,  124. 

Molin  (Motin),  Jeanne,  marries 
D'Aunay,  11,  16;  death  of  her 


550 


INDEX. 


husband,  48;  in  need  of  help, 
50 ;  oppressed  by  Le  Borgne, 
50,  51  ;  applies  to  the  Due  de 
Vendome,  51 ;  marries  La  Tour, 
51 ;  her  children,  52. 

Montagnais  Indians,  the,  298. 

Montespan,  Madame  de,  231. 

Montiguy,  Abbe  de,  see  Laval- 
Montmorency,  Francois  Xavier 
de. 

Montmagny,  Governor,  165,  393. 

Montmorenci,  the  cataract  of,  299. 

Montmoreiicy,  Anne  de,  Constable 
of  France,  145. 

Montreal,  site  of,  4;  attacked  by 
the  Iroquois,  54  ;  the  Onondaga 
Indians  at,  56 ;  attacked  by  the 
Mohawks,  68 ;  holy  wars  of, 
96-117;  school  for  female  chil- 
dren at,  97  ;  attempt  to  found  a 
religious-  colony  in  honor  of  the 
Holy  Family  at,  98 ;  blood  and 
blows  rife  at,  98  ;  a  government 
within  a  goverument,  103  ;  pop- 
ulation of,  105;  attacks  of  the 
Iroquois  on,  109 ;  character  of 
its  tenants,  110;  miracles  at, 
110-112;  a  year  of  disaster  at, 
115 ;  Maisonneuve  forms  a  mili- 
tary fraternity  at,  116;  118;  in 
danger  from  the  Iroquois,  125, 
133,  139;  Father  Souart  left 
in  spiritual  charge  of,  142  ;  its 
struggle  against  Quebec,  155 ; 
the  virtual  independence  of, 
175;  ariff  of  prices  at,  270; 
young  women  shipped  to,  285 ; 
the  great  mill  at,  296;  local 
government  at,  328 ;  the  corpo- 
rate seigniors  of,  332 ;  her  right 
to  trade  with  France,  352 ;  a 
bourse  established  at,  365  ;  great 
annual  fair  established  at,  367  ; 
the  harboring-place  of  the 
coureurs  de  bois,  376;  difficul- 


ties in  transferring  trade  from 
Michilimackinac  to,  386 ;  the 
Sulpitians  rigorous  at,  416;  the 
sisterhood  at,  431  ;  the  natural 
resort  of  desperadoes,  439  ; 
almshouse  established  at,  446  ; 
502. 

Montreal,  the  Association  of,  101, 
116. 

Montreal,  Island  of,  130;  passes 
into  the  possession  of  the  Sulpi- 
tian  priests,  141  ;  the  head  of 
the  colony,  292. 

Montrealists,  the,  reticence  and 
dissimulation  practised  by,  104; 
ascend  the  St.  Lawrence,  104; 
reach  their  new  home,  104  • 
want  to  monopolize  the  fur- 
trade,  176. 

Monts,  De,  see  De  Monts. 

Morangi,  M.  de,  177. 

Moras,  Ensign,  301. 

Moreau,  19,  50,  51. 

Morel,  Ensign,  437,  438. 

Morel,  Father,  406 ;  the  charge  of, 
406-408. 

Morin,  Sister,  106;  in  Montreal, 
109 ;  on  the  miracles  at  Mont- 
real, 112;  on  the  influence  of 
the  troops  on  Canada,  435. 

Morgan,  83. 

Morrison,  William,  Jr.,  499. 

Morton,  on  the  earthquake  at 
Quebec,  187. 

Motteville,  Madame  de,  230. 

Mouron,  Captain,  20,  27. 

Murray,  General,  308. 

NATIONAL   (Gallican )  party,  the, 

153  ;  tenets  of,  153. 
Nau,  Michelle-The'rese,  195. 
New   England,    187 ;  the  Puritan 

churches  of,  409  ;  the  colonists 

of,  464  ;  compared  with  Canada, 

463-467. 


INDEX. 


551 


Newfoundland,  7,  45 ;  the  French 
fisheries  of,  358. 

New  France,  La  Tour  becomes 
governor  in,  49  ;  incessant  su- 
pernaturalism  the  key  to  the 
early  history  of,  61 ;  political 
segregation  in,  464. 

New  France,  the  Company  of,  see 
Company  of  New  France,  the. 

New  Hampshire,  State  of,  379. 

New  Netherlands,  187 ;  passes 
into  English  hands,  249. 

New  Orleans,  city  of,  323. 

New  Scotland,  charter  of,  4. 

Newspaper,  the  first  Canadian,  425. 

New  York,  site  of,  4  ;  113  ;  Talon 
urges  the  purchase  or  seizure 
of,  274,  275. 

Nicholson,  General,  finally  seizes 
Acadia  for  England,  52. 

Nicole,  the  Jaiasenist,  on  the  zeal- 
ots at  the  "  Hermitage,"  146- 
151  ;  205,  206. 

Nicolls,  governor  of  New  York, 
260. 

Noblesse,  Canadian,  315;  French, 
316. 

Noddle's  Island,  45. 

Noel,  Jean,  308. 

Noiil,  Philippe,  308. 

Normandy,  278. 

Normans,  the,  277. 

North  America,  contest  for  owner- 
ship of,  3;  given  by  Louis 
XIII.  to  the  Company  of  New 
France,  7. 

Norton,  John,  signs  the  "  Ipswich 
Letter,"  30;  Governor  Win- 
throp's  reply  to,  31. 

Notre  Dame,  the  brethren  of,  123. 

Notre  Dame,  the  Church  of,  at 
Montreal,  226. 

Notre  Dame,  the  Church  of,  at 
Quebec,  300,  301 

.Nova  Scotia,  4,  8. 


'  Nuns,  the,  at  Montreal,  105 ;  pri- 
vations of,    106;   additions   to, 
107  ;  Jouaneaux  devotes  himself 
to  the  service  of,  108. 
Nuns,  the,  at  Quebec,  421,  422. 

OHIO  RIVER,  the,  323. 

Olier,  Jean  Jacques,  founder  of 
St.  Sulpice,  99 ;  death  of,  99. 

Ondakout,  Joachim,  adventures 
of,  78. 

Oneida  Indians,  the,  57,  66 ;  at 
Onondaga,  81 ;  the  Jesuits 
among.  84 ;  244 ;  send  deputies 
to  Tracy,  266  ;  Bruyas  ordered 
to,  266 ;  Milet  among,  380. 

Onondaga,  the  famous  salt  springs 
of,  68;  the  Jesuits  at,  54-95; 
Le  Moyueat,  121 

Onondaga  colonists,  the,  journey 
of,  set  out  from  Quebec,  74  ; 
77  79  ;  evil  designs  of  the  In- 
dians upon,  89 ;  the  Medicine 
Feast,  91 ;  their  escape,  93 ; 
their  arrival  in  Quebec,  94. 

Onondaga  Iroquois  Indians,  at 
Montreal,  56 ;  covet  the  Huron, 
colony,  62;  invite  the  French 
to  plant  a  colony  among  them, 
63  ;  Father  Le  Moyne  sent 
among,  64 ;  demand  a  French 
colony  to  be  established  among 
them,  69 ;  Chaumonot  and 
Dablon  sent  among,  70,  71 ; 
their  punishment  of  prisoners, 
72  ;  celebration  of  the  Dream 
Feast,  72  ;  the  Jesuits  decide  to 
establish  a  colony  among,  74 ; 
at  Onondaga,  82 ;  jealousy  for 
the  Mohawks,  86;  slaughter 
their  Huron  prisoners,  87  ;  dia- 
bolical plots  against  the  Jesuits, 
89  ;  send  an  embassy  to  Quebec, 
245  ;  sue  for  peace,  266  ;  Lam- 
berville  among,  380. 


552 


INDEX. 


Onondaga,  the  Lake  of,  67,  79,  80 ; 
France  and  the  Faith  intrenched 
on,  83. 

Ouondaga,  the  Mission  of,  see 
Saint  Mary  of  Gannentaa,  the 
Mission  of. 

Onondaga  River,  the,  65,  70 

"Onontio,"  174. 

Ontario,  Lake,  65,  78. 

Orange,  Fort  (Albany),  188. 

Order  of  Jesus,  the,  154. 

Orinoco  River,  the,  234. 

Orleans,  the  Duke  of,  230,  348. 

Orleans,  the  Island  of,  62,  76  ;  cen- 
sus of,  299  ;  307,  346,  403,  428. 

Orleans,  the  seigniory  of,  402  ; 
population  of,  403. 

Ormeaux,  Sieur  des,  see  Daulac, 
Adam. 

Oswego  River,  the,  78,  93,  94. 

Ottawa  River,  the,  125,  128,  130. 

Oudiette,  granted  monopoly  in  the 
Tadoussac  trade,  366 ;  estab- 
lishes a  hat  factory,  370;  be- 
comes bankrupt,  371. 

Ouelle  River,  the,  302,  357. 

PALACE  OF  JUSTICE,  the,  335, 
Palace  of  the  Intendaut,  the,  335. 
Papal  (Ultramontane)   Party,  the, 

153  ;  tenets  of,  153. 
Paris,  9,  99,  278. 
Paris,  the  Archbishop  of,  391. 
Paris,  the   General    Hospital  of, 

283. 

Paris,  the  Parliament  of,  154,  190. 
Parishes,  the  country,  453. 
Pawnee  Indians,  the,  454. 
Pays  d'Aunis,  278. 
Pemigewasset  River,  the,  379. 
Peiiobscot,  the  Pentegoet  of    the 

French,  15 ;   Plymouth  trading 

station    at,    15;     attacked    by 

D'Aunay,  15;  17. 
Penobscot  River,  the,  15. 


Pentegoet  of  the  French,  the,  15. 
Pequot   Indians,   the,  antagonism 

to  the  whites,  24. 
Percherons,  the,  277. 
Perot,  Isle,  302. 

Perrot,  Governor  of  Montreal,  347, 
Perrot,  Nicolas,  77,  252. 
Petit  Cap,  the,   heights  of,  429  ; 

shrine  at,  430. 
Petit,  Father,  451. 
Petite  Nation,  the,   seigniory  of, 

224. 
Petraea,    Bishop    of,    see    Laval- 

Montmorency,    Francois    Xavier 

de. 

Peuvret,  Laval's  secretary,  490. 
Philadelphia,  site  of,  4. 
Philip's  War,  382. 
Phipps,  Admiral,  497. 
Phips,     Sir     William,     captures 

Acadia  for  England,  52. 
Picards,  the,  277. 
Picardy,  278. 
Pierron,  Father  Jean,  ordered  to 

the  Mohawks,  266. 
Pijart,  the  Jesuit,  144. 
Plymouth,  15. 
Plymouth       trading-houses,       at 

Machias,      15;      attacked      by 

La  Tour,  15;  at  Penobscot,  15; 

attacked  by  D'Aunay,  15. 
Poincy,  Longvilliers,  475. 
Point  aux  Trembles,  302. 
Poitou,  278. 
Poncet,  Father,  captured    by  the 

Iroquois,  56  ;  his  life  spared  by 

the  Iroquois,  59  ;  his  adventures 

among  the  Iroquois,  59-61. 
Ponchartrain,  313,  364,  371. 
Porpoise-fishing,  357. 
Porte  St.  Antoine,  the,  242. 
Portland  Point,  supposed  site  of 

Fort  La  Tour  at,  39. 
Portneuf,  the  seigniory  of,  307. 
Port    Royal,  Razilly  reaches.  8 ; 


INDEX. 


553 


D'Aunay  makes  his  headquarters 
at,  9;  D'Aunay's  reign  at,  11; 
description  of,  13 ;  32, 36, 37,  38, 
48;  captured  by  Maj  Robert 
Sedgwick,  52;  471,472. 

Pottawattamie  Indians,  the,  376. 

Poutrincourt,  5. 

Pretextata,  411. 

Prevot,  Major  of  Quebec,  523. 

Priests,  the  Canadian,  409. 

Printing-press,  the  first,  in  Canada, 
425. 

Propaganda,  at  Rome,  the,  219. 

Protestantism  in  Canada,  467. 

Puritans,  the,  threaten  to  destroy 
the  infant  colony  by  their  theo- 
logical quarrels,  24 ;  their  ideas 
of  religious  toleration,  24 ; 
troubles  of,  25;  Louia  XIII.'s 
desire  to  keep  peace  with,  33 ; 
D'Aunay  makes  overtures  of 
friendship  to,  33;  M.  Marie 
visits,  34;  D'Aunay  sends 
envoys  to,  42. 

Pyrenees,  the,  peace  of,  242. 

QUATRE  ARTICLES  of  1682,  the, 
153. 

Quebec,  site  of,  4;  least  exposed 
to  Indian  attacks,  56 ;  grand 
council  of  the  Indians  at,  57  ; 
fur-trade  at,  58 ;  peace  con- 
cluded with  the  Indians  at,  61  ; 
the  Canadian  Church  focussed 
at,  103;  118;  a  comet  appears 
above,  119;  in  danger,  125,  133, 
139 ;  its  struggle  against 
Montreal,  155  ;  portents  of  com- 
ing evil,  182  ;  the  earthquake  at, 
185-187 ;  a  little  hell  of  dis- 
cord, 1 93  ;  the  new  government, 
194 ;  plan  to  make  a  city  of,  212  ; 
political  troubles  at,  213  ;  Laval 
proposes  to  establish  a  seminary 
at,  220  ;  tariff  of  prices  at,  270 ; 


young  women  shipped  to,  284 ; 
settlements  about,  293 ;  Talon 
aims  to  concentrate  the  popu- 
lation around,  296  ;  census  of, 
299 ;  the  superior  council  at, 
330 ;  chimney-sweeping  neg- 
lected at,  341  ;  a  bourse  estab- 
lished at,  365 ;  the  Jesuits 
rigorous  at,  416;  the  Congre- 
gation of  the  Holy  Family  in, 
418;  almshouse  established  at, 
446 ;  early  police  regulations  of, 
449  ;  the  Lower  Town  burned  to 
the  ground,  450 ;  busy  months 
at,  452 ;  the  women  of,  453 ;  502. 

Quebec,  the  Chateau  of,  325. 

Quebec,  the  Church  of,  241. 

Quebec,  the  College  of,  425. 

Quebec,  the  Council  of,  created 
by  Laval,  191  ;  refuses  to  ac- 
knowledge the  powers  of 
Dumesnil,  191  ;  the  members 
of,  195;  seize  the  papers  of 
Dumesnil,  198;  Me'zy  in  op- 
position to,  208  ;  changes  made 
by  Me'zy  in,  213. 

Quebec,  the  Rock  of,  the  French 
made  a  lodgment  on,  7 ;  103, 428. 

Quen,  De,  on  the  Jesuits  at  Onon- 
daga,  73. 

Queylns,  Abbe'  de,  141  ;  the 
Sulpitian  candidate  for  the 
bishopric  of  Canada,  141  ;  made 
vicar-general  for  all  Canada, 
142 ;  description  of,  143 ;  his 
experiences  in  Quebec,  143  ;  his 
animosity  to  the  Jesuits,  143, 
144 ;  opposes  Laval,  155 ;  shipped 
to  France,  1 #6 ;  ordered  to  Rome, 
156';  receives  a  cold  welcome, 
156;  disobeys  the  King's  orders 
and  returns  to  Canada,  157  ;  in 
conflict  with  Laval,  157  ;  again 
compelled  to  return  to  France, 
158 ;  his  expulsion  a  defeat 


554 


INDEX. 


for  the  Sulpitians,  158;  bulls 
obtained  from  Rome  by,  158; 
finds  his  position  untenable,  160 ; 
reconciliation  with  Laval,  160; 
returns  to  Canada  as  a  mission- 
ary, 160;  417. 

RADISSON,  Pierre  Esprit,  remark- 
able narratives  of,  94 ;  ac- 
count of  Daulac's  fight  with 
the  Iroquois,  138. 

Raffeix,  at  the  Seneca  missions, 
380. 

Ragueneau,  Father,  on  the  dis- 
simulation of  the  Iroquois,  81  ; 
joins  the  Huron  fugitives,  86 ; 
172;  on  the  earthquake  at  Que- 
.bec,  184;  his  trade  with  the 
Indians,  390  ;  at  Quebec,  416. 

Raisin,  Sister,  102. 

Rameau,  11,  51,  53. 

Rattlesnake  Hill,  23. 

Raudin,  Ensign,  301. 

Raudot,  the  intcndant,  313,  341, 
357,  361,  442,  505. 

Razilly,  Claude  de,  takes  posses- 
sion of  the  French  settlements 
in  Acadia  and  Canada  for 
France,  8 ;  reaches  Port  Royal, 
8  ;  grants  of  Acadian  lands  made 
to,  8  ;  death  of,  9  ;  succeeded  by 
D'Aunay,  9;  11. 

Re'collet  Friars,  the,  in  Fort  St. 
Jean,  37  ;  join  D'Aunay,  38 ; 
complain  that  D'Aunay  ill-used 
them,  49  ;  cherished  hope  of, 
141  ;  missions  of,  382 ;  sent  to 
Canada  by  Colbert,  400 ;  Talon 
favors,  401 ;  the  Jesuits  reluctant 
to  share  their  power  with,  418  ; 
in  dispute  with  the  bishop, 
419;  470,  471,472,  517. 

"  Redoubt  of  the  Infant  Jesus," 
the,  116. 

Remy,  Daniel  de,  Sieur  de  Cour- 


celle,  236;  appointed  governor 
of  Canada,  236;  his  arrival  at 
Quebec,  239  ;  breathed  nothing 
but  war,  246  ;  his  march  against 
the  Mohawks,  246 ;  his  "  Blue 
Coats,"  247  ;  failure  of  his  ex- 
pedition, 249 ;  his  second  expedi- 
tion against  the  Mohawks,  253  ; 
characteristics  of,  397 ;  Talon 
complains  to  Colbert  of,  397 ; 
Colbert's  letter  to,  397 ;  his  op- 
position to  the  Jesuits,  397  ; 
his  episode  with  Father  Chate- 
lain,  416;  514. 

Repentigny ,  1 95 ;  chosen  mayor 
of  Quebec,  212 ;  joins  Tracy 
against  the  Mohawks,  254,  256  ; 
asks  aid  from  the  King,  319. 

Repentigny,  Madame  de,  361. 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  at  the  head 
of  the  Company  of  New  France, 
7 ;  supports  the  Capuchin  friars, 
13 ;  first  plants  feudalism  in 
Canada,  305. 

Richelieu  River,  the,  133,  244,  247, 
261,  292,  293,  294,  297,  301, 
302. 

Riverin,  356 ;  memorial  on  the 
establishment  of  commerce  in 
Canada  presented  by,  357,  501, 
502. 

Riviere  du  Loup,  406. 

Riviere  du  Sud,  406. 

Robert,  appointed  intendant  of 
Canada,  218. 

Robineau,  Rene,  307,  324. 

Rochefort,  356. 

Rochelle,  Huguenot  city  of,  18,  96, 
99,  101,  102,  277,  354,  460. 

Rochet,  19. 

Rocky  Mountains,  the,  discovery 
of,  289,  323. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  the, 
422  ;  stands  out  conspicuous  in 
the  history  of  Canada,  467. 


INDEX. 


555 


Romans,  the,  293. 

Rome,  156,  158. 

Rome,  the  Court  of,  159. 

Rosiers,  Cape,  52. 

Rouen,  283. 

Rouen,   the    Archbishop   of,   142, 

154,  155,  159,  160,  220,  283. 
Rouen,  the  Parliament  of,  154. 
Royalty,  the  triumph  of,  305. 
Ryswick,  the  treaty   of,   restores 

Acadia  to  France,  52. 

SABLE,  Cape,  5,  6,  7 ;  Charles  de 

la   Tour  made   commander  at, 

9 ;  La    Tour's    little    kingdom 

at,   10;    La    Tour   removes   to 

Fort  St.  Jean  from,  14 ;  La  Tour 

returns  to,  45. 
Saguenay  River,  the,  298. 
"St.  AndreY'  the  ship,   96;  the 

company  on  board,  96. 
St.  Anne,  Fort,  260,  261  ;  Dollier 

sent  to,   262;  the  garrison  at, 

264. 

St.  Anne,  heights  of,  428. 
St.  Anne,  settlement  of,  126. 
St.  Anne  de  la  Pocatiere,  302. 
St.  Anne  du  Petit  Cap,  430. 
St.  Anne  River,  the,  130. 
Saint-Augustin,  Mother  Catherine 

de,  183,  240. 
Saint-Castin,  323. 
St.  Charles  River,  the,  335,  451. 
"St.   Clement,"    the,   19,   20;   in 

Boston    Harbor,   21 ;    sails  for 

France,  36. 
St.  Croix  Bay,  8. 
St.  Croix,  Point,  76. 
St.  Croix  River,  the,  8. 
St.  Denis,  the  seigniory  of,  406. 
Saint-Denis,  Mother  Juchereau  de, 

Superior  of  the  Hotel-Dieu,  161 ; 

her  eulogy  on  Laval,  161. 
St.   Etienne,   Charles  de,   son    of 

La  Tour,  51. 


Saint  Francis  Xavier,  the  mission 
of,  380 ;  Milet  at,  380. 

St.  Gabriel,  the  fortified  house  of, 
110,  111. 

St.  Germain,  the  treaty  of,  restores 
the  French  settlements  in 
Acadia  and  Canada  to  France, 
8. 

Saint-Iguace,  Frances  Juchereau 
de,  126;  on  the  earthquake  at 
Quebec,  184,  185  ;  on  the  merits 
of  Mezy,  206 ;  on  the  Marquis 
de  Tracy,  238  ;  on  the  arrival  of 
the  Marquis  de  Tracy  at  Que- 
bec, 239 ;  on  Talon's  zeal  for 
the  success  of  the  colony,  273  ; 
on  the  population  of  Quebec, 
299 ;  on  the  condition  of  the 
ornamental  arts  in  Canada,  362  ; 
on  the  miracles  in  Canada,  425  ; 
on  Paul  Dupuy,  435 ;  on  ex- 
travagance in  Canada,  447. 

St.  Jean,  Fort,  La  Tour  removes 
from  Cape  Sable  to,  14;  loca- 
tion of,  14;  16,  17,  18,  20,  36; 
attacked  and  captured  by 
D'Aunay,  39;  site  of,  39;  41, 
46 ;  its  value  as  a  trading  sta- 
tion, 47  ;  La  Tour  regains  pos- 
session of,  51,  52;  captured  by 
Maj.  Robert  Sedgwick,  52. 

St.  Joachim,  the  parish  of,  semi- 
nary at,  223  ;  428,  429. 

St.  John,  city  of,  7,  39. 

St.  John  River,  the,  Charles  de  la 
Tour  receives  grants  of  land  on, 
7, 14  ;  Charles  de  la  Tour  builds 
a  fort  on,  7 ;  29,  36,  38,  469, 
470,  471,  472,  474. 

Saint  John  the  Baptist,  the  mis- 
sion of,  380;  Lamberville  at, 
380. 

Saint  Joseph,  the  mission  of,  380 ; 
Carheil  at,  380. 

St.    Joseph,  the    Sisterhood    of, 


556 


INDEX. 


founded    by    Dauversiere,    97 ; 

left  penniless,  98. 
St.  Laurent,  the  seigniory  of,  307, 

324. 

St.  Lawrence,  the  Gulf  of,  52. 
St.  Lawrence  River,  the,  4,  7,  46, 

56,  59,  64,  73,  78,  88,  94, 103,  104, 

119,  165,  179,  185,  187,  224,236, 

238,  246,  272,  293,  297,  298,  301, 

303,    359,   365,   405,    428,    460, 

462. 

St.  Louis,  the  castle  of,  239. 
St.  Louis,  Chateau,  120,  296,  300, 

334,  344,  390 ;  history  of,  496- 

499. 

St.  Louis,  city  of,  323. 
St.  Louis,  Fort,  at  Quebec,  488. 
St.  Louis,  Fort  of,  56,  73,  77,  86, 

103,  250. 

St.  Louis,  the  Lake  of,  65,  302. 
Saint-Lusson,  takes  possession  of 

the  country  of  the  Upper  Lakes, 

274. 

St.  Malo,  94. 

St.  Martin's  Day,  311,  314. 
Saint   Mary    of    Gannentaa,   the 

mission  of,  the   beginnings  of, 

83 ;  crisis  drawing  near  at,  88 ; 

a  miserable  failure,  94. 
St.  Michel,  451. 
Saint-Ouen,  the  parish  of,  479. 
Saint-Ours,  Monsieur  de,  320. 
Saint  Ours,  town  of,  294. 
St.  Paul,  the  Bay  of,  298,  356, 

365. 

Saint-Pere,  Jean,  110. 
St.  Peter,  Lake,  293. 
Saint-Quentin,  M.  de,  123. 
Saint-Simon,  Due  de,  his  portrait 

of  Louis  XIV.,  350,  351. 
St.      Sacrament,      Lake      (Lake 

George),  253. 
St.  Sulpice,  the  Seminary  of,  99  ; 

founded  by  Olier,  99  ;  141,  159, 

302,  401  ;    attacked    by   Saint- 


Vallien,  404  ;  the  citadel  of  the 
Canadian  Church,  404. 

St.  Vale'rien,  Mont,  143. 

Saint- Vallier,  Bishop  of  Quebec, 
succeeds  Laval,  392;  letter 
from  the  King  to,  392 ;  401  ; 
attacks  the  Seminary  of  Que- 
bec, 404 ;  estimates  of,  405  ;  408  j 
his  directions  to  Denonville, 
410 ;  his  invectives  against  the 
vanity  of  women,  411 ;  428, 443  ; 
overwhelmed  with  beggars,  446  ; 
founds  the  General  Hospital  of 
Quebec,  446. 

Ste.  Claire  d'Argentan,  the  abbey 
of,  149,  150. 

Sainte-Helene,  Mother  du  Plessis 
de,  283. 

Ste.  Marie,  the  fortified  house  of, 
110;  the  scene  of  hot  and 
bloody  fights,  114. 

Ste,  The'rese,  Fort,  247,  249,  250. 

Salem,  La  Tour  in,  32 ;  M.  Marie 
in,  35. 

Salieres,  Colonel  de,  242,  243,  245. 

Salina,  the  salt  springs  of,  80. 

Salmon  Falls,  fort  and  settlement 
of,  123. 

Saltonstall,  signs  the  "Ipswich 
Letter,"  30 ;  Governor  Win- 
throp's  reply  to,  31. 

Sangrado  of  Montreal,  the,  261. 

Saratoga  Lake,  249. 

Sarrazin,  Michel,  the  physician, 
432 ;  sketch  of,  433. 

Savoy,  242. 

Schenectady,  549. 

Schools,  in  Canada,  426. 

Sedgwick,  Major  Robert,  conquers 
Acadia  for  England,  52. 

Seignelay,  the  minister,  memorial 
on  the  establishment  of  com- 
merce in  Canada,  presented  by 
Chalons  and  Riverin  to,  358, 
359,  501,  502. 


INDEX. 


557 


Seignior,  the,  in  Canada,  306,  331, 
343. 

Seigniorial  tenure,  in  Canada,  297, 
315. 

Seigniories,  in  Canada,  297,  306. 

Seneca  Indians,  the,  57,  66,  75; 
at  Onondaga,  82;  the  Jesuits 
among,  84 ;  133 ;  send  an  em- 
bassy to  Quebec,  245 ;  sue  for 
peace,  251,  266. 

Seneca  missions,  the,  94,  380 ; 
Raffeix  and  Gamier  at,  380. 

Seven  Years'  War,  the,  39. 

Sevestre,  Charles,  196. 

Se'vigne,  Madame  de,  230. 

Shawmut,  the  peninsula  of,  15. 

Shea,  J.  G.,  268. 

Sheldon,  385. 

Ship-building  in  Canada,  362. 

Sillery,  68,  75,  246;  Jesuit  eel- 
pots  at,  395  ;  the  heights  of,  460. 

Sillery,  the  mission  of,  382,  386. 

Sioux  Indians,  the,  376. 

Slavery  in  Canada,  454. 

"  Soldiers  of  the  Holy  Family  of 
Jesus,  Mary,  and  Joseph,"  116. 

Sorbonne,  the,  the  Fathers  of, 
390 ;  the  scholastic  duels  of,  426. 

Sorel,  245 ;  sent  against  the  Mo- 
hawks, 251 ;  294. 

Sorel,  Fort  of,  302. 

Sorel,  town  of,  245  ;  new  forts  at, 
247,  294. 

Souart,  Father,  141 ;  left  in  spir- 
itual charge  of  Montreal,  142. 

South  America,  234. 

Spain,  414. 

Stuarts,  the,  164. 

Sulpitians,  the  1 00 ;  efforts  to 
strengthen  the  colony  at  Mont- 
real, 102;  jealousy  of  the 
Jesuits  for,  103  ;  assume  entire 
spiritual  charge  of  Montreal, 
110;  the  Island  of  Montreal 
passes  into  the  possession  of, 


141 ;  their  plans  to  obtain  the 
bishopric  of  Canada,  141  ;  de- 
spair of  obtaining  the  bishopric, 
142  ;  their  struggle  against  the 
Jesuits,  155  ;  the  expulsion  of 
Queylus  a  defeat  for,  158  ;  their 
plan  of  land-grants,  293 ;  claim 
the  right  to  name  their  own 
local  governor,  328 ;  missions  of, 
382 ;  rigorous  at  Montreal,  416. 

Suite,  Benjamin,  448. 

Superior,  Lake,  138 ;  the  copper 
of,  271  ;  posts  of  the  coureurs  de 
bois  on,  376. 

Susane,  on  the  regiment  of  Ca= 
rignan-Salieres,  243. 

Swearing,  Louis  XIV.'s  famous 
edict  against,  344. 

Syndic,  the,  in  Canada,  343. 

TADOUSSAC,  186,  236,  298;  fur- 
trade  at,  365. 

Talon,  Jean  Baptiste,  188,  215; 
appointed  intendant  of  Canada, 
236  ;  his  arrival  at  Quebec,  239 ; 
the  chosen  agent  of  paternal 
royalty,  268 ;  his  personal  ap- 
pearance, 268 ;  his  portrait,  268 ; 
a  true  disciple  of  Colbert,  268, 
269;  sets  himself  to  galvanize 
Canada,  270  ;  Colbert's  instruc- 
tions to,  270;  his  zeal  for  the 
colony,  271-275  ;  his  policy,  273, 
274 ;  urges  the  purchase  or 
seizure  of  New  York,  275;  his 
fidelity  to  his  trust,  275  ;  failing 
health,  275 ;  asks  for  his  recall, 
275 ;  resumes  the  intendancy, 
275 ;  his  property,  275 ;  his 
efforts  to  people  Canada,  278, 
280,  281 ;  places  a  premium  on 
marriage,  287  ;  satisfactory  re- 
sults, 290;  his  plan  of  dividing 
the  lands  into  seigniorial  grants, 
293;  on  the  Canadian  settler, 


558 


INDEX. 


295 ;  aims  to  concentrate  the 
population  around  Quebec,  296  ; 
his  model  seigniory,  297;  his 
villages,  297;  grants  of  land 
made  by,  301 ;  his  plan  of  ad- 
ministration, 306 ;  asks  for  pa- 
tents of  nobility,  317;  the  old 
brewery  of,  335 ;  his  attempt 
to  establish  trade  with  the  West 
Indies,  355  ;  393, 397  ;  complains 
of  Courcelle,  397 ;  ordered  to 
watch  the  Jesuits,  397;  favors 
the  Re'collets,  401  ;  orders  La 
Frediere  home  to  France,  437 ; 
tries  to  control  the  inns,  449  ; 
his  correspondence  with  Col- 
bert regarding  marriage  and 
population  in  Canada,  493-496 ; 
500;  his  memorial  of  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  Canada,  512 ; 
his  letter  from  Colbert  on  the 
government  and  the  clergy  in 
Canada,  514 ;  instructions  re- 
ceived from  the  King  regarding 
the  government  and  the  clergy 
in  Canada,  515  ;  518. 

Tellier,  227. 

Temple,  Thomas,  obtains  a  grant 
of  Acadia  from  Cromwell,  53. 

Terron,  201. 

Theresa,  Saint,  the  day  of,  255. 

Thousand  Islands,  the,  87. 

Three  Rivers,  settlement  of,  55, 
56  ;  beset  by  the  Mohawks,  56 ; 
fur-trade  at,  58;  118,  121,  122, 
125,  127,  130,  133,  247,  250; 
tariff  of  prices  at,  270 ;  288, 289, 
301 ;  local  governor  at,  328 ; 
347 ;  annual  fair  established  at, 
368;  393,  443;  almshouse  es- 
tablished at,  446 ;  502. 

Tilly,  the  seigniory  of,  308. 

Tilly,  Le  Gardeur  de,  appointed 
councillor  at  Quebec,  195,  213  ; 
asks  aid  from  the  King,  319. 


Tilly  (son),  337. 

Torture,  considered  by  the  Jesuits 
to  be  a  blessing  in  disguise,  124. 

Tourmente,Cape,  238,298, 428,460. 

Tracy,  Marquis  Prouville  de,  179, 
188,  216,  236;  appointed  lieu- 
tenant-general of  America,  237  5 
description  of,  238 ;  his  arrival 
at  Quebec,  238;  received  by 
Laval,  239;  sets  out  against 
the  Mohawks,  253 ;  success  of 
his  expedition,  257 ;  trouble 
with  the  English,  260;  his  re- 
turn to  Quebec,  260;  the  Iro- 
quois  sue  for  peace,  265 ;  his  ex- 
pedition against  the  Iroquois 
the  most  productive  of  good, 
267;  leaves  Canada,  268;  his 
tariff  of  prices,  270 ;  the  fruit 
of  his  chastisement  of  the  Mo- 
hawks, 301  ;  his  plan  of  admin- 
istration, 306 ;  asks  for  patents 
of  nobility,  317 ;  removes  Mai- 
sonneuve,  328 ;  397 ;  escapes 
clerical  attacks,  399  ;  518. 

Trade  in  Canada,  restrictions  upon, 
353. 

Tremblay,  M.,  162. 

Tremont,  23. 

Trimount,  23. 

Troyes,  town  of,  102. 

Turenne,  263. 

Turgis,  the  true  surname  of  La 
Tour's  family,  10 ;  the  arms  of,  10. 

Turkish  Wars,  the,  435. 

Turks,  the,  188,  242. 

Two  Mountains,  the  Lake  of,  130. 

ULTRAMONTANE  (Papal)  Party, 
the,  153;  tenets  of,  153;  out- 
flank the  King  and  the  Galli- 
cans,  1 54 ;  its  struggle  against 
tie  Gallicans,  155. 

United  Colonies,  the,  commission' 
ers  of,  34,  35,  42,  44. 


INDEX. 


559 


Upper    Lakes,  the,   Saint-Lusson 

takes  possession  of  the  country 

of,  274. 
Ursuline  Convent  at  Quebec,  the, 

171,   300;    engraving  of,    300; 

burned,  300. 

Ursulines,  the,  of  Caen,  479. 
Ursulines,   the,   of    Quebec,    125, 

145,  243,  272,300,347,401,422, 

431. 
Utrecht,  the  Peace  of,  362. 

VALOIS,  229. 

Varennes,  town  of,  294,  302. 

Varennes,  Rene  Gaultier  de,  289, 

523. 
Vasseur,  describes  the  burning  of 

Laval's  seminary,  450. 
Vaudreuil,  506. 
Vendome,     Due      de,     Madame 

d'Aunay  applies  for  help  to,  51. 
Vercheres,  town  of,  294,  302. 
Verd,  Cape,  234. 
Verrazzano,  voyage  of,  3. 
Versailles,  325,  348,  405. 
Viger,  J.,  144,  255. 
Vignal,  Guillaume  de,  the  priest, 

96;  killed  by  the  Iroquois,  112, 

113. 

Villemarie,  see  Montreal. 
Villeray,     Rouer    de,    appointed 

councillor     at     Quebec,      195 ; 

Argenson's    opinion     of,    196 ; 

becomes    the    richest    man    in 

Canada,    197 ;     203 ;     removed 

from  the  council  by  Mezy,  208 ; 

213  ;   banished  to  France,  214  ; 

485,  486. 

Vimont,  Father,  393. 
Virginia,  English  heretics  in,  15; 

46,  234. 

Vismes,  Dubreuil,  475. 
Vitry,  Sieur,  357. 

WALCKENAER,  230. 

Ward,  Nathaniel,  signs  the  "Ips- 


wich Letter,"  30 ;  Governor 
Winthrop's  reply  to,  31. 

Washington,  site  of,  4. 

West,  the  Company  of  the,  234. 

West  India  Company,  the,  329, 
its  charter  revoked,  353 ;  ex- 
tinguished, 366 ;  revived,  373  ; 
given  a  monopoly  of  exporting 
beaver-skins,  373. 

West  Indies,  the,  44,  237,  241; 
Talon's  efforts  to  establish  trade 
between  Canada  and,  272,  355, 
360 ;  370  ;  slaves  imported  into 
Canada  from,  454. 

William  Henry,  Fort,  253. 

Williamson,  7. 

Winthrop,  Fort,  21. 

Winthrop,  Governor,  19;  La 
Tour  asks  aid  against  D'Aunay 
from,  22;  entertains  La  Tour, 
23-27;  allows  La  Tour  to 
hire  allies,  28,  29;  sharply 
criticised  for  giving  assistance 
to  La  Tour,  29 ;  his  action 
approved  by  the  majority,  30; 
the  "  Ipswich  Letter,"  30 ;  his 
reply  to,  31 ;  letter  from  Brad- 
street  to,  31  ;  entertains 
D'Aunay's  envoys,  42 ;  ar- 
ranges a  treaty  with  D'Aunay, 
43,  44  ;  deceived  in  La  Tour,  46. 

Witches,  Canada  never  troubled 
by,  421. 

Wolf  Indians,  the,  124. 

Wolfe,  308. 

Women,  political  influence  among 
the  Iroquois  of,  84. 

Wood,  22,  23. 

Wooster  River,  123. 

XAVIER,  Saint  Francis,  fe"te  of, 
166 ;  225. 

YORK,  the  Duke  of,  249. 
ZRIN,  the  fortress  of,  18& 


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