PARKMAN'S WORKS.

-o^w

The Pioneers of France in the New World.

(I. Huguenots in Florida. II. Samuel de Champlain.) Fifth Edition. Small Svo. Cloth, $2.50; half

calf, $4-50.

In vigor and pointedness of description, Mr. Parkman may be counted superior to Irving. — New
' York Tribune'- _ ,

■ It is a narrative which has all the animation, variety, and interest of a romance, and to most readers it
will be as fresh and novel as a pure creation of the imaginative faculty. — New York World.

Ill interest this work exceeds any novel which has been published during the year. Every page bears
unmistakable impress of power, — power of patient investigation, power of dramatic conception, power of
philosophic thought, power of pictorial diction. — Boston transcript.

One of the very finest contributions to the historical literature of this country. — Providence (R. I.)
Press.

The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century.

Fourth Edition. Small Svo. Cloth, $2.50 ; half calf, $4-50.

We feel that he is for us a faithful and competent interpreter and commentator of Indian life, manners,
superstitions, and fortunes. He has a marvellous skill in observing and describing the phenomena of
nature, — the features and scenes of the wilderness amid which they roved. We know of no writer whose
pages are so real and vivid in qualities harmonizing with his theme, as are his. — Atlantic Monthly.

Parkman's work is as fascinating as the best of Scott's novels. Once commenced, you cannot lay the
book down : you will read every line of it. — Boston Pilot.

The Discovery of the Great West.

Third Edition. Small Svo. Cloth, $2.50; half calf, #4.50.

This volume embodies the exploits and adventures of the first European explorers of the valley of the
Mississippi ; the efforts of the French to secure the whole interior of the continent ; the attempt of La
Salle to find a westward passage to India ; his colony on the Illinois; his scheme of invading Mexico ; his
contest with the Jesuits, and his assas>ination by his own followers- The narrative is founded entirely on
contemporary documents, including many unpublished letters and journals of the chief explorers, which.
for the first time, place in a clear light one of the most interesting and striking portions of American
History.

A subject which Mr. Parkman has made as much his own as Motley the Dutch Republic, or Macaulay
the English Revolution. He is thorough master of his material, which is much' scattered, and exists
largely in manuscript ; and'his imagination, his picturesque narrative style, and his admirable perception
of the true point of interest give to his historical works a wonderful charm and symmetry. It is to the
pages of Mr. Parkman that we must go for the American Indian. Cooper so bewitches our young fancies
with Uncas and the red heroes that it is very difficult to divest our estimate of the Indian of a false and
foolish glamour. Mr. Parkman, however, knows him by personal experience and long and thoughtful
study. — George IV. Cnrtis.

The Old Regime in Canada under Louis XIV.

Fourth Edition. Small Svo. Cloth, $2.50; half calf, $4.50.

The author here presents the results of his researches into the early history of Canada under French
rule, including in his view the century bounded by 1653 and 1753. He has-had access to a mass of State
papers in the archives of France which have never before been drawn upon, and with the material thus
derived has wrought an historical fabric at once substantial and fascinating. The influences which con-
trolled the colony" in its beginning, and during its first century of life, — the Roman Catholic mission spirit,
and the monarchical ambition of Louis XIV., — are delineated in character and operation with remarkable
skill; and the extracts from the voluminous official correspondence maintained between France and Can-
ada lend a singular and delightful piquancy to the narrative.

In this volume Mr. Parkman details intelligently and in a symmetrical and impressive narrative the
efforts of French Monarchy and the Church of Rome to grasp the Continent of North America. He has
chosen a peculiar but very effective method to this end- Instead of discoursing at length of state-craft and
.church-craft, and overwhelming the reader with dry documents and historical lore, he invites him to look
upon a series of scenes in the early life of Canada, in which that life is set forth with marvellous vividness
and realism. But in him the historian always controls the painter; and, amid the fascination of these
pictures, he never loses sight of the two forces the history of whose operation is the history of Canada, —
the spirit of monarchy, ancl the spirit of Roman Catholic missions. — The Literary World.

The Conspiracy of Pontiac, and the Indian War after the Con-
quest of Canada.

New Edition. 2 vols. Small Svo. Cloth, $5.00 ; half calf, $9.00.

An admirable production. Combining thoroughness of research with a picturesque beauty of expres-
sion, it presents a fascinating narrative of one of the most pregnant episodes in American history. — West-
minster Review.

Mr. Parkman's " Conspiracy of Pontiac" takes rank, among competent judges, as the most satisfac-
tory historical monograph that our literature has produced. — The Nation, New York.

The Oregon Trail.— Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life.

Fourtli Edition, revised. Small Svo. Cloth, $2.50 ; half calf, $4-5°-
The sketches of which this volume is made up were originally published in 1S47. They comprise a
record of the summer adventures of two young men just out of college, and preserve the features of a state
of nature and society which has vanished for ever. No more graphic pictures of life on the frontier and in
the wilderness thirty years ago have ever been drawn.

For the present, we must only praise this delightful book for its absolute good qualities, for the unfail-
ing interest of the narrative, for the vivid pictures of such Indian life as rarely reveals itself to white men,
for all its stories of the hunt and march and camp, for the calm observation brought to all these wide
scenes and primitive personalities. — Atlantic Monthly.

Webster Fa*

Medicine

CummipQ

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Tufts Univ.

200Westbv

North Grafton, MA 01 536

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FBANCE AND ENGLAND

NORTH AMERICA.

A SERIES OF HISTORICAL NARRATIVES.

BY

FRANCIS PARKMAN,

AUTHOR OF THE " HISTORY OF THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC," THE
"OREGON TRAIL," "THE OLD REGIME IN CANADA," ETC.

PART FIFTH.

BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY.

1877.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1877, by

FRANCIS PARKMAN,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

CAMBRIDGE :
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.

COUNT FRONTENAC

AND

NEW FRANCE

UNDER LOUIS XIV.

BY

FRANCIS PARKMAN,

AUTHOR OF " PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD," " THE JESUITS

IN NORTH AMERICA," " THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST,"

AND "THE OLD REGIME IN CANADA."

BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY.

1877.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1877, by

FRANCIS PARKMAN,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington.

PREFACE.

The events recounted in this book group them-
selves in the main about a single figure, that of
Count Frontenac, the most remarkable man who
ever represented the crown of France in the New
World. From strangely unpromising beginnings,
he grew with every emergency, and rose equal
to every crisis. His whole career was one of
conflict, sometimes petty and personal, sometimes
of momentous consequence, involving the ques-
tion of national ascendency on this continent.
Now that this question is put at rest for ever, it
is hard to conceive the anxiety which it wakened
in our forefathers. But for one rooted error of
French policy, the future of the English-speaking
races in America would have been more than
endangered.

Under the rule of Frontenac occurred the first
serious collision of the rival powers, and the
opening of the grand scheme of military occu-
pation by which France strove to envelop and
hold in check the industrial populations of the

Vlll PREFACE.

English colonies. It was he who made that
scheme possible.

In "The Old Regime in Canada," I tried to
show from what inherent causes this wilderness
empire of the Great Monarch fell at last before
a foe, superior indeed in numbers, but lacking all
the forces that belong to a system of civil and
military centralization. The present volume will
show how valiantly, and for a time how success-
fully, New France battled against a fate which
her own organic fault made inevitable. Her
history is a great and significant drama, enacted
among untamed forests, with a distant gleam of
courtly splendors and the regal pomp of Ver-
sailles.

The authorities on which the book rests are
drawn chiefly from the manuscript collections of
the French government in the Archives Nation-
ales, the Bibliotheque Nationale, and, above all,
the vast repositories of the Archives of the
Marine and Colonies. Others are from Cana-
dian and American sources. I have, besides,
availed myself of the collection of French, Eng-
lish, and Dutch documents published by the
State of New York, under the excellent editor-
ship of Dr. O'Callaghan, and of the manuscript
collections made in France by the governments
of Canada and of Massachusetts. A considerable
number of books, contemporary or nearly so with

PREFACE. IX

the events described, also help to throw light
upon them ; and these have all been examined.
The citations in the margins represent but a
small part of the authorities consulted.

This mass of material has been studied with
extreme care, and peculiar pains have been taken
to secure accuracy of statement. In the preface
of "The Old Regime," I wrote: "Some of the
results here reached are of a character which I
regret, since they cannot be agreeable to persons
for whom I have a very cordial regard. The
conclusions drawn from the facts may be matter
of opinion : but it will be remembered that the
facts themselves can be overthrown only by over-
throwing the evidence on which they rest, or
bringing forward counter-evidence of equal or
greater strength ; and neither task will be found
an easy one."

The invitation implied in these wrords has not
been accepted. " The Old Regime " was met by
vehement protest in some quarters ; but, so far
as I know, none of the statements of fact con-
tained in it have been attacked by evidence, or
even challenged. The lines just quoted are
equally applicable to this volume. Should there
be occasion, a collection of documentary proofs
will be published more than sufficient to make
good the positions taken. Meanwhile, it will, I
think, be clear to an impartial reader that the

X PREFACE.

story is told, not in the interest of any race
or nationality, but simply in that of historical
truth.

When, at the age of eighteen, I formed the
purpose of writing on French-American history,
I meant at first to limit myself to the great
contest which brought that history to a close.
It was by an afterthought that the plan was ex-
tended to cover the whole field, so that the part
of the work, or series of works, first conceived,
would, following the sequence of events, be the
last executed. As soon as the original scheme
was formed, I began to j^repare for executing
it by examining localities, journeying in forests,
visiting Indian tribes, and collecting materials.
I have continued to collect them ever since, so
that the accumulation is now rather formidable ;
and, if it is to be used at all, it had better be
used at once. Therefore, passing over for the
present an intervening period of less decisive
importance, I propose to take, as the next sub-
ject of this series, " Montcalm and the Fall of
New France."

Bostox, 1 Jan., 1877.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
1620-1672.

COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC.

Mademoiselle de Montpensier and Madame de Frontenac. — Or-
leans.— The Mare'chale de Camp. — Count Frontenac. — Con-
jugal Disputes. — Early Life of Frontenac. — His Courtship and
Marriage. — Estrangement. — Scenes at St. Fargeau. — The
Lady of Honor dismissed. — Frontenac as a Soldier. — He is
made Governor of New France. — Les Divines 1

CHAPTER II.

1672-1675.

FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC.

Arrival. — Bright Prospects. — The Three Estates of Xew France.
— Speech of the Governor. — His Innovations. — Royal Dis-
pleasure. — Signs of Storm. — Frontenac and the Priests. —
His Attempts to civilize the Indians. — Opposition. — Complaints
and Heart-burnings 14

CHAPTER in.
1673-1675.

FRONTENAC AND PERROT.

La Salle. — Fort Frontenac. — Perrot. — His Speculations. — His
Tyranny. — The Bush-rangers. — Perrot revolts. — Becomes
alarmed. — Dilemma of Frontenac. — Mediation of Fe'nelon. —
Perrot in Prison. — Excitement of the Sulpitians. — Indignation
of Fenelon. — Passion of Frontenac. — Perrot on Trial. — Strange
Scenes. — Appeal to the King. — Answers of Louis XIV. and
Colbert. — Fe'nelon rebuked 26

Xll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

1675-1682.

FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEATJ.

Frontenac receives a Colleague. — He opposes the Clergy. — Dis-
putes in the Council. — Royal Intervention. — Frontenac re-
buked. — Fresh Outbreaks. — Charges and Countercharges. —
The Dispute grows hot. — Duchesneau condemned and Fronte-
nac warned. — The Quarrel continues. — The King loses Pa-
tience.— More Accusations. — Factions and Feuds. — A Side
Quarrel. — The King threatens. — Frontenac denounces the
Priests. — The Governor and the Intendant recalled. — Quali-
ties of Frontenac 44

CHAPTER V.

1682-1684.

LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE.

His Arrival at Quebec— The Great Fire. — A Coming Storm. —
Iroquois Policy. — The Danger imminent. — Indian Allies of
France. — Frontenac and the Iroquois. — Boasts of La Barre. —
His Past Life. — His Speculations. — He takes Alarm. — His
Dealings with the Iroquois. — His Illegal Trade. — His Col-
league denounces him. — Fruits of his Schemes. — His Anger
and his Fears 72

CHAPTER VI.
1684.

LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS.

Dongan. — New York and its Indian Neighbors. — The Rival Gov-
ernors.— Dongan and the Iroquois. — Mission to Onondaga. —
An Iroquois Politician. — Warnings of Lamberville. — Iroquois
Boldness. —La Barre takes the Field.— His Motives. — The
March. — Pestilence. — Council at La Famine. — The Iroquois
defiant. — Humiliation of La Barre. — The Indian Allies. —
Their Rage and Disappointment. — Recall of La Barre ... 80

CONTENTS. xiii

CHAPTER VII.

1685-1687.

DENONVILLE AND DONGAN.

Troubles of the New Governor. — His Character. — English Riv-
alry.— Intrigues of Dongan. — English Claims. — A Diploma-
tic Duel. — Overt Acts. — Anger of Denonville. — James II.
checks Dongan. — Denonville emboldened. — Strife in the
North. — Hudson's Bay. — Attempted Pacification. — Artifice
of Denonville. — He prepares for War 116

CHAPTER VIII.

1687.

DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS.

Treachery of Denonville. — Iroquois Generosity. — The Invading
Army. — The Western Allies. — Plunder of English Traders. —
Arrival of the Allies. — Scene at the French Camp. — March of
Denonville. — Ambuscade. — Battle. — Victory. — The Seneca
Babylon. — Imperfect Success 139

CHAPTER IX.

1687-1689.

THE IROQUOIS INVASION.

Altercations. — Attitude of Dongan. — Martial Preparation. —
Perplexity of Denonville. — Angry Correspondence. — Recall of
Dongan. — Sir Edmund Andros. — Humiliation of Denonville.

— Distress of Canada. — Appeals for Help — Iroquois Diplo-
macy. — A Huron Macchiavel. — The Catastrophe. — Ferocity

of the Victors. — War with England. — Recall of Denonville . 158

CHAPTER X.

1689, 1690.

RETURN OF FRONTENAC.

Versailles. — Frontenac and the King. — Frontenac sails for Que-
bec.— Projected Conquest of New York. — Designs of the
King. — Failure. — Energy of Frontenac. — Fort Frontenac. —
Panic. — Negotiations. — The Iroquois in Council. — Chevalier
d'Aux. — Taunts of the Indian Allies. — Boldness of Frontenac.

— An Iroquois Defeat. — Cruel Policy. — The Stroke parried . 184

XIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XL

1690.

THE THREE WAR-PARTIES.

Measures of Frontenac. — Expedition against Schenectady. — The
March.— The Dutch Village. — The Surprise. — The Massa-
cre. — Prisoners spared. — Retreat. — The English and their
Iroquois Friends. — The Abenaki War. — Revolution at Bos-
ton. — Capture of Pemaquid. — Capture of Salmon Falls. —
Capture of Fort Loyal. — Frontenac and his Prisoner. — The
Canadians encouraged 208

CHAPTER XIL

1690.

MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC.

English Schemes. — Capture of Port Royal. — Acadia reduced. —
Conduct of Phips. — His History and Character. — Boston in
Arms. — A Puritan Crusade. — The March from Albany. —
Frontenac and the Council. — Frontenac at Montreal. — His
War Dance. — An Abortive Expedition. — An English Raid. —
Frontenac at Quebec. — Defences of the Town. — The Enemy
arrives 235

CHAPTER XIII.
1690.

DEFENCE OF QUEBEC.

Phips on the St. Lawrence. — Phips at Quebec. — A Flag of Truce.

— Scene at the Chateau. — The Summons and the Answer. —
Plan of Attack. — Landing of the English. — The Cannonade.

— The Ships repulsed. — The Land Attack. — Retreat of Phips.

— Condition of Quebec. — Rejoicings of the French. — Distress

at Boston 262

CHAPTER XIV.
1690-1694.

THE SCOURGE OP CANADA.

Iroquois Inroads. — Death of Bienville. — English Attack. — A
Desperate Fight. — Miseries of the Colony. — Alarms. — A
Winter Expedition. — La Chesnaye burned. — The Heroine of
Vercheres. — Mission Indians. — The Mohawk Expedition. —
Retreat and Pursuit. — Relief arrives. — Frontenac Triumphant. 286

CONTENTS. XV

CHAPTER XV.

1691-1695.

AX INTERLUDE.

Appeal of Frontenac. — His Opponents. — His Services. — Rivalry
and Strife. — Bishop Saint- Vallier. — Society at the Chateau.

— Private Theatricals. — Alarm of the Clergy. — Tartuffe. —
A Singular Bargain. — Mareuil and the Bishop. — Mareuil on
Trial. — Zeal of Saint- Vallier. — Scandals at Montreal. — Ap-
peal to the King. — The Strife composed. — Lihel against Fron-
tenac 317

CHAPTER XVI.

1690-1691.

THE WAR IN ACADIA.

State of that Colony. — The Abenakis. — Acadia and New Eng-
land.— Pirates. — Baron de Saint-Castin. — Pentegoet. — The
English Frontier. — The French and the Abenakis. — Plan of
the War. — Capture of York. — Villebon. — Grand War-party.

— Attack of Wells. — Pemaquid rebuilt. — John Nelson. — A
Broken Treaty. — Villieu and Thury. — Another War-party. —
Massacre at Oyster River 335

CHAPTER XVII.

1690-1697.

NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND.

The Frontier of New England. — Border Warfare. — Motives of the
French. — Needless Barbarity. — Who were answerable? —
Father Thury. — The Abenakis waver. — Treachery at Pema-
quid. — Capture of Pemaquid. — Projected Attack on Boston. —
Disappointment. — Miseries of the Frontier. — A Captive Am-
azon 370

CHAPTER XVIII.

1693-1697.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.

Le Moyne dTberville. — His Exploits in Newfoundland. — In Hud-
son's Bay. — The Great Prize. — The Competitors. — Fatal
Policy of the King. — The Iroquois Question. — Negotiation. —
Firmness of Frontenac. — English Intervention. — War renewed.

— State of the West. — Indian Diplomacy. — Cruel Measures.

— A Perilous Crisis. — Audacity of Frontenac 388

XVI CONTEXTS.

CHAPTER XIX.

1696-1698.

FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS.

March of Frontenac. — Flight of the Enemy. — An Iroquois Stoic.

— Relief for the Onondagas. — Boasts of Frontenac. — His
Complaints. — His Enemies. — Parties in Canada. — Views of
Frontenac and the King. — Frontenac prevails. — Peace of Rys-
wick. — Frontenac and Bellomont. — Schuyler at Quebec. —
Festivities. — A Last Defiance 410

CHAPTER XX.
1698.

DEATH OF FRONTENAC.

His Last Hours. — His Will. — His Funeral. — His Eulogist and

his Critic. — His Disputes with the Clergy. — His Character. . 428

CHAPTER XXL

1699-1701.

CONCLUSION.

The New Governor. — Attitude of the Iroquois. — Negotiations. —
Embassy to Onondaga. — Peace. — The Iroquois and the Allies.

— Difficulties. — Death of the Great Huron. — Funeral Rites.

— The Grand Council. — The Work of Frontenac finished. —
Results 438

APPENDIX 453

INDEX 457

CANADA

ash m&ACEsr cuvsmms

toward* i/k efote

17" CENTURY.

COUNT FEONTENAC AND NEW FRANCE
UNDER LOUIS XIV.

CHAPTER I.

1620-1672.
COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC.

Mademoiselle de Montpensier and Madame de Frontenac. —
Orleans. — The Marechale de Camp. — Count Frontenac. —
Conjugal Disputes. — Early Life op Frontenac. — His
Courtship and Marriage. — Estrangement. — Scenes at St.
Fargeau. — The Lady of Honor dismissed. — Frontenac as a
Soldier. — He is made Governor op New France. — Les
Divines.

At Versailles there is the portrait of a lady,
beautiful and young. She is painted as Minerva,
a plumed helmet on her head, and a shield on her
arm. In a corner of the canvas is written Anne
de La Grange- Trianon, Comtesse de Frontenac.
This blooming goddess was the wife of the future
governor of Canada.

Madame de Frontenac, at the age of about
twenty, was a favorite companion of Mademoiselle
de Montpensier, the grand-daughter of Henry IV.
and daughter of the weak and dastardly Gaston,
Duke of Orleans. Nothing in French annals has
found more readers than the story of the exploit
of this spirited princess at Orleans during the civil

1

^ COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC. [1652.

war of the Fronde. Her cousin Concle, chief of the
revolt, had found favor in her eyes ; and she had
espoused his cause against her cousin, the king.
The royal army threatened Orleans. The duke,
her father, dared not leave Paris; but he con-
sented that his daughter should go in his place to
hold the city for Conde and the Fronde.

The princess entered her carriage and set out
on her errand, attended by a small escort. With
her were three young married ladies, the Marquise
cle Breaute, the Comtesse de Fiesque, and the
Comtesse de Frontenac. In two days they reached
Orleans. The civic authorities were afraid to de-
clare against the king, and hesitated to open the
gates to the daughter of their duke, who, standing
in the moat with her three companions, tried per-
suasion and threats in vain. The prospect was not
encouraging, when a crowd of boatmen came up
from the river and offered the princess their ser-
vices. " I accepted them gladly," she writes,
" and said a thousand fine things, such as one must
say to that sort of people to make them do what
one wishes." She gave them money as well as
fair words, and begged them to burst open one of
the gates. They fell at once to the work ; while
the guards and officials looked down from the
walls, neither aiding nor resisting them. " To
animate the boatmen by my presence," she con-
tinues, " I mounted a hillock near by. I did not
look to see which way I went, but clambered
up like a cat, clutching brambles and thorns, and
jumping over hedges without hurting myself.

1652.] ORLEANS. 3

Madame cle Breaute, who is the most cowardly
creature in the world, began to cry out against me
and everybody who followed me ; in fact, I do not
know if she did not swear in her excitement, which
amused me verv much." At length, a hole was
knocked in the gate ; and a gentleman of her train,
who had directed the attack, beckoned her to come
on. " As it was very muddy, a man took me and
carried me forward, and thrust me in at this hole,
where my head was no sooner through than the
drums beat to salute me. I gave my hand to the
captain of the guard. The shouts redoubled.
Two men took me and put me in a wooden chair.
I do not know whether I wras seated in it or on
their arms, for I wras beside myself with joy.
Everybody was kissing my hands, and I almost
died with laughing to see myself in such an odd
position." There was no resisting the enthusiasm
of the people and the soldiers. Orleans was won
for the Fronde.1

The young Countesses of Frontenac and Fiesque
had constantly followed her, and climbed after her
through the hole in the gate. Her father wrote
to compliment them on their prowress, and ad-
dressed his letter a Mesdames Us Comtesses,
Marechales cle Camp dans Varmee de ma fille
contre le Mazarin. Officers and soldiers took
part in the pleasantry ; and, as Madame de Fronte-
nac passed on horseback before the troops, they
saluted her with the honors paid to a brigadier.

When the king, or Cardinal Mazarin who con-

1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, I. 358-363 (ed. 1859).

4 COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC. [1653

trolled him, had triumphed over the revolting
princes, Mademoiselle cle Montpensier paid the
penalty of her exploit by a temporary banishment
from the court. She roamed from place to place,
with a little court of her own, of which Madame
de Frontenac was a conspicuous member. During
the war, Count Frontenac had been dangerously
ill of a fever in Paris ; and his wife had- been absent
for a time, attending him. She soon rejoined the
princess, who was at her chateau of St. Fargeau,
three clays' journey from Paris, when an incident
occurred which placed the married life of her fair
companion in an unexpected light. " The Duch-
esse de Sully came to see me, and brought with her
M. d'Herbault and M. de Frontenac. Frontenac had
stopped here once before, but it was only for a
week, when he still had the fever, and took great
care of himself like a man who had been at the
door of death. This time he was in high health.
His arrival had not been expected, and his wife
was so much surprised that everybody observed it,
especially as the surprise seemed to be not at all a
pleasant one. Instead of going to talk with her
husband, she went off and hid herself, crying and
screaming because he had said that he would like
to have her company that evening. I was very
much astonished, especially as I had never before
perceived her aversion to him. The elder Com-
tesse cle Fiesque remonstrated with her ; but she
only cried the more. Madame cle Fiesque then
brought books to show her her duty as a wrife ; but
it did no good, and at last she got into such a state

1620-48.] EARLY LIFE OF FRONTENAC. 5

that we sent for the cure with holy water to exor-
cise her." 1

Count Frontenac came of an ancient and noble
race, said to have been of Basque origin. His
father held a high post in the household of
Louis XIII., who became the child's god-father,
and gave him his own name. At the age of fif-
teen, the young Louis showed an incontrollable
passion for the life of a soldier. He was sent to
the seat of war in Holland, to serve under the
Prince of Orange. At the age of nineteen, he was
a volunteer at the siege of Hesdin ; in the next
year, he was at Arras, where he distinguished him-
self during a sortie of the garrison ; in the next, he
took part in the siege of Aire ; and, in the next, in
those of Callioure and Perpignan. At the age of
twenty-three, he was made colonel of the regiment
of Normandy, which he commanded in repeated
battles and sieges of the Italian campaign. He
was several times wounded, and in 1646 he had
an, arm broken at the siege of Orbitello. In the
same year, when twenty-six years old, he was
raised to the rank of marechal de camp, equiva-
lent to that of brigadier-general. A year or two
later, we find him at Paris, at the house of his
father, on the Quai des Celestins.2

In the same neighborhood lived La Grange-
Trianon, Sieur de Neuville, a widower of fifty,

1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 265. The cure's holy
water, or his exhortations, were at last successful.

2 Pinard, Chronologie Historique-militaire, VI. ; Table de la Gazette de
France ; Jal, Dictionnaire Critique, Biographique, et d'Histoire, art. " Fron-
tenac; " Gojer, Oraison Funebre da Comte de Frontenac.

6 COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC. [1048.

with one child, a daughter of sixteen, whom he
had placed in the charge of his relative, Madame
de Bouthillier. Frontenac fell in love with her.
Madame de Bouthillier opposed the match, and
told La Grange that he might do better for his
daughter than to marry her to a man who, say
what he might, had but twenty thousand francs a
year. La Grange was weak and vacillating : some-
times he listened to his prudent kinswoman, and
sometimes to the eager suitor ; treated him as a
son-in-law, carried love messages from him to his
daughter, and ended by refusing him her hand, and
ordering her to renounce him on pain of being im-
mured in a convent. Neither Frontenac nor his
mistress was of a pliant temper. In the neigh-
borhood was the little church of St. Pierre aux
Bceufs, which had the privilege of uniting couples
without the consent of their parents ; and here, on
a Wednesday in October, 1648, the lovers were
married in presence of a number of Frontenac's
relatives. La Grange was furious at the discovery ;
but his anger soon cooled, and complete reconcilia-
tion followed.1

The happiness of the newly wedded pair was
short. Love soon changed to aversion, at least on
the part of the bride. She was not of a tender
nature ; her temper was imperious, and she had a
restless craving for excitement. Frontenac, on his
part, was the most wayward and headstrong of
men. She bore him a son ; but maternal cares

i Historiettes de Tallemant des B.€aux, IX. 214 (eel. Monmerque) ; Jal,
Dictionnaire Critique, etc.

1653.] CHARACTER OF FRONTENAC. 7

were not to her liking. The infant, Francois Louis,
was placed in the keeping of a nurse at the village
of Clion ; and his young mother left her husband,
to follow the fortunes of Mademoiselle cle Mont-
pensier, who for a time pronounced her charming,
praised her wit and beauty, and made her one of
her ladies of honor. Very curious and amusing
are some of the incidents recounted by the prin-
cess, in which Madame cle Frontenac bore part ;
but what is more to our purpose are the sketches
traced here and there by the same sharp pen, in
which one may discern the traits of the destined
saviour of New France. Thus, in the following,
we see him at St. Fargeau in the same attitude in
which we shall often see him at Quebec.

The princess and the duke her father had a dis-
pute touching her property. Frontenac had lately
been at Blois, where the duke had possessed him
with his own views of the questions at issue.
Accordingly, on arriving at St. Fargeau, he seemed
disposed to assume the character of mediator.
" He wanted," says the princess, " to discuss my
affairs with me : I listened to his preaching, and
he also spoke about these matters to Prefontaine
{her man of business). I returned to the house
after our promenade, and we went to dance in
the great hall. While we were dancing, I saw
Prefontaine walking at the farther end with Fron-
tenac, who was talking and gesticulating. This
continued for a long time. Madame cle Sully
noticed it also, and seemed disturbed by it, as I
was myself. I said, c Have we not danced enough ? '

8 COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC. [165.3.

Madame de Sully assented, and we went out. I
called Prefontaine, and asked him, i What was
Frontenac saying to you ? ' He answered : 6 He
was scolding me. I never saw such an impertinent
man in m}r life.' I went to my room, and Madame
de Sully and Madame de Fiesque followed. Ma-
dame de Sully said to Prefontaine : ' I was very
much disturbed to see you talking with so much
warmth to Monsieur de Frontenac ; for he came
here in such ill-humor that I was afraid he would
quarrel with you. Yesterday, when we were in the
carriage, he was ready to eat us.' The Comtesse
de Fiesque said, i This morning he came to see my
mother-in-law, and scolded at her.' Prefontaine
answered : ' He wanted to throttle me. I never
saw a man so crazy and absurd.' We all four began
to pity poor Madame de Frontenac for having such
a husband, and to think her right in not wanting
to go with him." l

Frontenac owned the estate of Isle Savary, on
the Inclre, not far from Blois ; and here, soon after
the above scene, the princess made him a visit.
"It is a pretty enough place," she says, "for a
man like him. The house is well furnished, and
he gave me excellent entertainment. He showed
me all the plans he had for improving it, and mak-
ing gardens, fountains, and ponds. It would need
the riches of a superintendent of finance to execute
his schemes, and how anybody else should ven-
ture to think of them I cannot comprehend."

" While Frontenac was at St. Fargeau," she

1 Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 267.

1653-60.] SCENES AT ST. FARGEAU. 9

continues, " he kept open table, and many of my
people went to cline with him ; for he affected to
hold court, and acted as if everybody owed duty
to him. The conversation was always about my
affair with his Royal Highness [her father), whose
conduct towards me was always praised, while
mine was blamed. Frontenac spoke ill of Prefon-
taine, and, in fine, said every thing he could to dis-
please me and stir up my own people against me.
He praised every thing that belonged to himself,
and never came to sup or dine with me without
speaking of some ragout or some new sweetmeat
which had been served up on his table, ascribing
it all to the excellence of the officers of his kitchen.
The very meat that he ate, according to him, had
a different taste on his board than on any other.
As for his silver plate, it was always of good work-
manship ; and his dress was always of patterns in-
vented by himself. When he had new clothes, he
paraded them like a child. One day he brought
me some to look at, and left them on my dressing-
table. We were then at Chambord. His Royal
Highness came into the room, and must have
thought it odd to see breeches and doublets in
such a place. Prefontaine and I laughed about it
a great deal. Frontenac took everybody who came
to St. Fargeau to see his stables ; and all who wished
to gain his good graces were obliged to admire his
horses, which were very indifferent. In short,
this is his way in every thing."1

Though not himself of the highest rank, his

1 Me'iuoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 279 ; III. 1G.

10 COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC. 1.1660-72.

position at court was, from the courtier point of
view, an enviable one. The princess, after her
banishment had ended, more than once mentions
incidentally that she had met him in the cabinet
of the queen. Her dislike of him became intense,
and her fondness for his wife changed at last to
aversion. She charges the countess with inerrati-
tude. She discovered, or thought that she discov-
ered, that in her dispute with her father, and in
certain dissensions in her oavii household, Madame
cle Frontenac had acted secretly in opposition to
her interests and wishes. The imprudent lady of
honor received permission to leave her service. It
was a woful scene. " She saw me get into my
carriage," writes the princess, "and her distress
was greater than ever. Her tears flowed abun-
dantly: as for me, my fortitude was perfect, and I
looked on with composure while she cried. If any
thing could disturb my tranquillity, it was the recol-
lection of the time when she laughed while I was
crying." Mademoiselle de Montpensier had been
deeply offended, and apparently with reason. The
countess and her husband received an order never
again to appear in her presence ; but soon after,
when the princess was with the king and queen
at a comedy in the garden of the Louvre, Fron-
tenac, who had previously arrived, immediately
changed his position, and with his usual audacity
took a post so conspicuous that she could not help
seeing him. " I confess," she says, " I was so an-
gry that I could find no pleasure in the play ; but
I said nothing to the king and queen, fearing that

1660-72.] FRONTENAC AS A SOLDIER. 11

they would not take such a view of the matter as
I wished." J

With the close of her relations with " La Grande
Mademoiselle," Madame de Frontenac is lost to
sight for a while. In 1669. a Venetian embassy
came to France to beg for aid against the Turks,
who for more than two years had attacked Canclia
in overwhelming force. The ambassadors offered
to place their own troops under French command,
and they asked Tureune to name a general officer
equal to the task. Frontenac had the signal honor
of being chosen by the first soldier of Europe for
this most arduous and difficult position. He went
accordingly. The result increased his reputation
for ability and courage ; but Candia was doomed,
and its chief fortress fell into the hands of the
infidels, after a protracted struggle, which is said
to have cost them a hundred and eighty thousand
men.2

Three years later, Frontenac received the ap-
pointment of Governor and Lieutenant-General
for the king in all New France. " He was," says
Saint-Simon, " a man of excellent parts, living
much in society, and completely ruined. He found
it hard to bear the imperious temper of his wife ;
and he was given the government of Canada to
deliver him from her, and afford him some means
of living." 3 Certain scandalous songs of the day

1 Me'moires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, III. 270.

2 Oraison funebre da Comte de Frontenac, par le Pere Olivier Goyer. A
powerful French contingent, under another command, co-operated with
the Venetians under Frontenac.

3 Me'moires du Ducde Saint-Simon, II. 270 : V. 336.

12 COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC, [1672.

assign a different motive for his appointment.
Louis XIV. was enamoured of Madame de Mon-
tespan. She had once smiled upon Frontenac ;
and it is said that the jealous king gladly embraced
the opportunity of removing from his presence,
and from hers, a lover who had forestalled him.1

Frontenac's wife had no thought of following
him across the sea. A more congenial life awaited
her at home. She had long had a friend of hum-
bler station than herself, Mademoiselle cl'Outrelaise,
daughter of an obscure gentleman of Poitou, an
amiable and accomplished person, who became
through life her constant companion. The exten-
sive building called the Arsenal, formerly the
residence of Sully, the minister of Henry IV.,
contained suites of apartments which were granted
to persons who had influence enough to obtain

1 Note of M. Brunei, in Correspondence de la Duchesse d' Orleans, I. 200
(ed. 1869).

The following lines, among others, were passed about secretly among
the courtiers : —

" Je suis ravi que le roi, notre sire,
Aime la Montespan ;
Moi, Frontenac, je me creve de rire,

Sachant ce qui lui pend ;
Et je dirai, sans etre des plus bestes,
Tu n'as que mon reste,

Eoi,
Tu n'as que mon reste."

Mademoiselle de Montpensier had mentioned in her memoirs, some
years before, that Frontenac, in taking out his handkerchief, dropped
from his pocket a love-letter to Mademoiselle de Mortemart, afterwards
Madame de Montespan, which was picked up by one of the attendants
of the princess. The king, on the other hand, was at one time attracted
by the charms of Madame de Frontenac, against whom, however, no
aspersion is cast.

The Comte de Grignan, son-in-law of Madame de Sevigne, was an
unsuccessful competitor with Frontenac for the government of Canada.

1672-1707.] LES DIVINES. 13

them. The Due cle Lucie, grand master of artil-
lery, had them at his disposal, and gave one of
them to Madame de Frontenac. Here she made
her abode with her friend ; and here at last she
died, at the age of seventy-live. The annalist
Saint-Simon, who knew the court and all belonging
to it better than any other man of his time, says
of her : " She had been beautiful and gay, and was
always in the best society, where she was greatly
in request. Like her husband, she had little prop-
erty and abundant wit. She and Mademoiselle
d'Outrelaise, whom she took to live with her, gave
the tone to the best company of Paris and the
court, though they never went thither. They
were called Les Divines. In fact, they demanded
incense like goddesses ; and it was lavished upon
them all their lives."

Mademoiselle d'Outrelaise died long before the
countess, who retained in old age the rare social
gifts which to the last made her apartments a
resort of the highest society of that brilliant epoch.
It was in her power to be very useful to her absent
husband, who often needed her support, and who
seems to have often received it.

She was childless. Her son, Francois Louis, was
killed, some say in battle, and others in a duel, at
an early age. Her husband died nine years before
her ; and the old countess left what little she had
to her friend Beringhen, the king's master of the
horse.1

1 On Frontenac and his family, see Appendix A.

CHAPTER II.

1672-1675.

FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC.

Arrival. — Bright Prospects. — The Three Estates of New
France. — Speech of the Governor. — His Innovations. —
Royal Displeasure. — Signs of Storm. — Frontenac and the
Priests. — His Attempts to civilize the Indians. — Opposi-
tion. — Complaints and Heart-burnings.

Frontenac was fifty-two years old when he
landed at Quebec. If time had done little to cure
his many faults, it had done nothing to weaken the
springs of his unconquerable vitality. In his ripe
middle age, he was as keen, fiery, and perversely
headstrong as when he quarrelled with Prefon-
taine in the hall at St. Fargeau.

Had nature disposed him to melancholy, there
was much in his position to awaken it. A man of
courts and camps, born and bred in the focus of a
most gorgeous civilization, he was banished to the
ends of the earth, among savage hordes and half-
reclaimed forests, to exchange the splendors of St.
Germain and the dawning glories of Versailles for
a stern gray rock, haunted by sombre priests,
rugged merchants and traders, blanketed Indians,
and wild bush-rangers. But Frontenac was a man
of action. He wasted no time in vain regrets, and

1672.] ARRIVAL. 15

set himself to his work with the elastic vigor of
youth. His first impressions had been very favor-
able. When, as he sailed up the St. Lawrence, the
basin of Quebec opened before him, his imagina-
tion kindled with the grandeur of the scene. " I
never/' he wrote, " saw any thing more superb
than the position of this town. It could not be
better situated as the future capital of a great
empire." *

That Quebec was to become the capital of a
great empire there seemed in truth good reason to
believe. The young king and his minister Col-
bert had labored in earnest to build up a new
France in the west. For years past, ship-loads of
emigrants had landed every summer on the strand
beneath the rock. All was life and action, and
the air was full of promise. The royal agent
Talon had written to his master : " This part of the
French monarchy is destined to a grand future.
All that I see around me points to it ; and the colo-
nies of foreign nations, so long settled on the sea-
board, are trembling with fright in view of what
his Majesty has accomplished here within the last
seven years. The measures we have taken to con-
fine them within narrow limits, and the prior claim
we have established against them by formal acts
of possession, do not permit them to extend them-
selves except at peril of having war declared
against them as usurpers ; and this, in fact, is what
they seem greatly to fear." 2

1 Frontenac an Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

2 Talon au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1671.

16 FROXTEXAC AT QUEBEC. J1672.

Frontenac shared the spirit of the hour. His
first step was to survey his government. He
talked with traders, colonists, and officials ; visited
seigniories, farms, fishing-stations, and all the in-
fant industries that Talon had galvanized into life ;
examined the new ship on the stocks, admired the
structure of the new brewery, went to Three
Rivers to see the iron mines, and then, having
acquired a tolerably exact idea of his charge, re-
turned to Quebec. He was well pleased with what
he saw, but not with the ways and means of Cana-
dian travel ; for lie thought it strangely unbecom-
ing that a lieutenant-general of the king should
be forced to crouch on a sheet of bark, at the bot-
tom of a birch canoe, scarcely daring to move his
head to the right or left lest he should disturb the
balance of the fragile vessel.

At Quebec he convoked the council, made them
a speech, and administered the oath of allegiance.1
This did not satisfy him. He resolved that all
Quebec should take the oath together. It was lit-
tle but a pretext. Like many of his station, Fron-
tenac was not in full sympathy with the centraliz-
ing movement of the time, which tended to level
ancient rights, privileges, and prescriptions under
the ponderous roller of the monarchical adminis-
tration. He looked back with regret to the day
when the three orders of the state, clergy, nobles,
and commons, had a place and a power in the
direction of national affairs. The three orders still
subsisted, in form, if not in substance, in some of

1 Registre du Conseil Souverain.

1G72.] THE THREE ESTATES. 17

the provinces of France ; and Frontenac conceived
the idea of reproducing them in Canada. Not
only did he cherish the tradition of faded liberties,
but he loved pomp and circumstance, above all,
when he was himself the central figure in it ; and
the thought of a royal governor of Languecloc or
Brittany, presiding over the estates of his province,
appears to have fired him with emulation.

He had no difficulty in forming his order of the
clergy. The Jesuits and the seminary priests sup-
plied material even more abundant than he wished.
For the order of the nobles, he found three or four
gentilshommes at Quebec, and these he reinforced
with a number of officers. The third estate con-
sisted of the merchants and citizens ; and he
formed the members of the council and the magis-
trates into another distinct body, though, properly
speaking, they belonged to the third estate, of
which by nature and prescription they were the
head. The Jesuits, glad no doubt to lay him
under some slight obligation, lent him their church
for the ceremony that he meditated, and aided in
decorating it for the occasion. Here, on the
twenty- third of October, 1672, the three estates of
Canada were convoked, with as much pomp and
splendor as circumstances would permit. Then
Frontenac, with the ease of a man of the world
and the loftiness of a grand seigneur, delivered
himself of the harangue he had prepared. He
wrote exceedingly well ; he is said also to have
excelled as an orator ; certainly he was never
averse to the tones of his own eloquence. His

18 FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC. [1672.

speech was addressed to a double audience : the
throng that filled the church, and the king and the
minister three thousand miles away. He told his
hearers that he had called the assembly, not because
he doubted their loyalty, but in order to afford
them the delight of making public protestation of
devotion to a prince, the terror of whose irresist-
ible arms was matched only by the charms of his
person and the benignity of his rule. " The Holy
Scriptures," he said, " command us to obey our
sovereign, and teach us that no pretext or reason
can dispense us from this obedience." And, in a
glowing eulogy on Louis XIV., he went on to show
that obedience to him was not only a duty, but an
inestimable privilege. He dwelt with admiration
on the recent victories in Holland, and held forth
the hope that a speedy and glorious peace would
leave his Majesty free to turn his thoughts to the
colony which already owed so much to his foster-
ing care. " The true means," pursued Frontenac,
i; of gaining his favor and his support, is for us to
unite with one heart in laboring for the progress
of Canada." Then he addressed, in turn, the
clergy, the nobles, the magistrates, and the citi-
zens. He exhorted the priests to continue with
zeal their labors for the conversion of the Indians,
and to make them subjects not only of Christ, but
also of the king ; in short, to tame and civilize
them, a portion of their duties in which he plainly
gave them to understand that they had not hith-
erto acquitted themselves to his satisfaction.
Next, he appealed to the nobles, commended

1672.] SPEECH OF FRONTENAC. 19

their gallantry, and called upon them to be as
assiduous in the culture and improvement of the
colony as they were valiant in its defence. The
magistrates, the merchants, and the colonists in
general were each addressed in an appropriate
exhortation. "I can assure you, messieurs," he
concluded, " that if you faithfully discharge your
several duties, each in his station, his Majesty will
extend to us all. the help and all the favor that we
can desire. It is needless, then, to urge you to
act as I have counselled, since it is for your own
interest to do so. As for me, it only remains to
protest before you that I shall esteem myself
happy in consecrating all my efforts, and, if need
be, my life itself, to extending the empire of Jesus
Christ throughout all this land, and the supremacy
of our king over all the nations that dwell in it."

He administered the oath, and the assembly dis-
solved. He now applied himself to another work :
that of giving a municipal government to Quebec,
after the model of some of the cities of France.
In place of the syndic, an official supposed to rep-
resent the interests of the citizens, he ordered the
public election of three aldermen, of whom the
senior should act as mayor. One of the number
was to go out of office every year, his place being
filled by a new election ; and the governor, as rep-
resenting the king, reserved the right of confirma-
tion or rejection. He then, in concert with the
chief inhabitants, proceeded to frame a body of
regulations for the government of a town destined,
as he again and again declares, to become the capi-

20 FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC. [1672.

tal of a mighty empire ; and lie farther ordained
that the people should hold a meeting every six
months to discuss questions involving the welfare
of the colony. The boldness of these measures
will scarcely be appreciated at the present day.
The intendant Talon declined, on pretence of a
slight illness, to be present at the meeting of the
estates. He knew too well the temper of the king,
whose constant policy it was to destroy or para-
lyze every institution or custom that stood in the
way of his autocracy. The despatches in which
Frontenac announced to his masters what he had
clone received in due time their answer. The
minister Colbert wrote : " Your assembling of the
inhabitants to take the oath of fidelity, and your
division of them into three estates, may have had
a good effect for the moment ; but it is well for
you to observe that you are always to follow, in
the government of Canada, the forms in use here ;
and since our kings have long regarded it as good
for their service not to convoke the states-general
of the kingdom, in order, perhaps, to abolish in-
sensibly this ancient usage, you, on your part,
should very rarely, or, to speak more correctly,
never, give a corporate form to the inhabitants of
Canada. You should even, as the colony strength-
ens, suppress gradually the office of the syndic,
who presents petitions in the name of the inhabi-
tants ; for it is well that each should speak for
himself, and no one for all." '

I Frontenac au Roi, 2 Nov., 1672; Ibid., 13 Nov., 1673 ; Harangue du
Comte de Frontenac en I' Assembled a Quebec; Prestations de Serment, 23 Oct.,
1672 ; Rtglement de Police fait par Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac; Colbert
a Frontenac, 13 Juin, 1673.

1672.] SIGNS OF STORM. 21

Here, in brief, is the whole spirit of the French
colonial rule in Canada ; a government, as I have
elsewhere shown, of excellent intentions, but of
arbitrary methods. Front euac, filled with the tra-
ditions of the past, and sincerely desirous of the
good of the colony, rashly set himself against the
prevailing current. His municipal government,
and his meetings of citizens, were, like his three
estates, abolished by a word from the court, which,
bold and obstinate as he was, he dared not dis-
obey. Had they been allowed to subsist, there
can be little doubt that great good would have
resulted to Canada.

Frontenac has been called a mere soldier. He
was an excellent soldier, and more besides. He
was a man of vigorous and cultivated mind, pene-
trating observation, and ample travel and experi-
ence. His zeal for the colony, however, was often
counteracted by the violence of his prejudices, and
by two other influences. First, he was a ruined
man, who meant to mend his fortunes ; and his
wish that Canada should prosper was joined with
a determination to reap a goodly part of her j)ros-
perity for himself. Again, he could not endure
a rival ; opposition maddened him, and, when
crossed or thwarted, he forgot every thing but his
passion. Signs of storm quickly showed them-
selves between him and the intenclant Talon ; but
the danger was averted by the departure of that
official for France. A cloud then rose in the direc-
tion of the clergy.

" Another thing displeases me," writes Fronte-

22 FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC. x [1672.

nac, " and this is the complete dependence of the
grand vicar and the seminary priests on the Jesuits,
for they never do the least thing without their
order: so that they {the Jesuits) are masters in
spiritual matters, which, as you know, is a power-
ful lever for moving every thing else."1 And he
complains that they have spies in town and coun-
try, that they abuse the confessional, intermeddle
in families, set husbands against wives, and parents
against children, and all, as they say, for the greater
glory of God. " I call to mind every day, Mon-
seigneur, what you did me the honor to say to me
when I took leave of you, and every day I am
satisfied more and more of the great importance
to the king's service of opposing the slightest of
the attempts which are daily made against his
authority." He goes on to denounce a certain
sermon, preached by a Jesuit, to the great scandal
of loyal subjects, wherein the father declared that
the king had exceeded his powers in licensing the
trade in brandy when the bishop had decided it to
be a sin, together with other remarks of a seditious
nature. " I was tempted several times," pursues
Frontenac, " to leave the church with my guards
and interrupt the sermon ; but I contented my-
self with telling the grand vicar and the superior
of the Jesuits, after it was over, that I was very
much surprised at what I had heard, and demanded
justice at their hands. They greatly blamed the
preacher, and disavowed him, attributing his lan-
guage, after their custom, to an excess of zeal, and

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

1672.] FRONTENAC AND THE PRIESTS. 23

making many apologies, with which I pretended
to be satisfied ; though I told them, nevertheless,
that their excuses would not pass current with me
another time, and, if the thing happened again, I
would put the preacher in a place where he would
learn how to speak. Since then they have been a
little more careful, though not enough to prevent
one from always seeing their intention to persuade
the people that, even in secular matters, their
authority ought to be respected above any other.
As there are many persons here who have no more
brains than they need, and who are attached to
them by ties of interest or otherwise, it is neces-
sary to have an eye to these matters in this country
more than anywhere else." !

The churchmen, on their part, were not idle.
The bishop, who was then in France, contrived by
some means to acquaint himself with the contents
of the private despatches sent by Colbert in reply
to the letters of Frontenac. He wrote to another
ecclesiastic to communicate what he had learned,
at the same time enjoining great caution ; " since,
while it is well to acquire all necessary information,
and to act upon it, it is of the greatest importance
to keep secret our possession of such knowledge." 2

The king and the minister, in their instructions
to Frontenac, had dwelt with great emphasis on

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673.

2 Laval a , 1674. The letter is a complete summary of the con-
tents of Colbert's recent despatch to Frontenac. Then follows the
injunction to secrecy, " estant de tres-grande consequence que Ton ne
sache pas que Ton aye rien appris de tout cela, sur quoi neanmoins il est bon
que Ton agisse et que Ton me donne tous les advis qui serontnecessaires."

24 FRONTEXAC AT QUEBEC. [1672.

the expediency of civilizing the Indians, teaching
them the French language, and amalgamating them
with the colonists. Frontenac, ignorant as yet of
Indian nature and unacquainted with the difficul-
ties of the case, entered into these views with great
heartiness. He exercised from the first an extraor-
dinary influence over all the Indians with whom
he came in contact; and he persuaded the most
savage and refractory of them, the Iroquois, to
place eight of their children in his hands. Four
of these were girls and four were boys. He took
two of the boys into his own household, of which
they must have proved most objectionable inmates ;
and he supported the other two, who were younger,
out of his own slender resources, placed them in
respectable French families, and required them to
go daily to school. The girls were given to the
charge of the Ursulines. Frontenac continually
urged the Jesuits to co-operate with him in this
work of civilization, but the results of his urgency
disappointed and exasperated him. He complains
that in the village of the Hurons, near Quebec,
and under the control of the Jesuits, the French
language was scarcely known. In fact, the fathers
contented themselves with teaching their converts
the doctrines and rites of the Roman Church, while
retaining the food, dress, and habits of their origi-
nal barbarism.

In defence of the missionaries, it should be said
that, when brought in contact with the French, the
Indians usually caught the vices of civilization
without its virtues ; but Frontenac made no allow-

1672-73.] COMPLAINTS OF FRONTENAC. 25

ances. " The Jesuits," he writes, " will not civilize
the Indians, because they wish to keep them in
perpetual wardship. They think more of beaver
skins than of souls, and their missions are pure
mockeries." At the same time he assures the min-
ister that, when he is obliged to correct them, he
does so with the utmost gentleness. In spite of
this somewhat doubtful urbanity, it seems clear
that a storm was brewing ; and it was fortunate for
the peace of the Canadian Church that the atten-
tion of the truculent governor was drawn to other
quarters.

CHAPTER III.

1673-1675.
FRONTENAC AND PERROT.

La Salle. — Fort Frontenac. — Perrot. — His Speculations. —
His Tyranny. — The Bush-rangers. — Perrot revolts. —
Becomes alarmed. — Dilemma of Frontenac. — Mediation op
Fenelon. — Perrot in Prison. — Excitement of the Sclpi-
tians. — Indignation of Fenelon. — Passion of Frontenac. —
Perrot on Trial. — Strange Scenes. — Appeal to the King. —
Answers of Louis XIV. and Colbert. — Fenelon rebuked.

Not long before Frontenac's arrival, Courcelle,
his predecessor, went to Lake Ontario with an
armed force, in order to impose respect on the
Iroquois, who had of late become insolent. As a
means of keeping them in check, and at the same
time controlling the fur trade of the upper coun-
try, he had recommended, like Talon before him,
the building of a fort near the outlet of the lake.
Frontenac at once saw the advantages of such a
measure, and his desire to execute it was stimu-
lated by the reflection that the proposed fort might
be made not only a safeguard to the colony, but
also a source of profit to himself.

At Quebec, there was a grave, thoughtful, self-
contained young man, who soon found his way
into Frontenac' s confidence. There was between
them the sympathetic attraction of two bold and

1673.] FORT FRONTENAC. 27

energetic spirits ; and though Cavelier cle la Salle
had neither the irritable vanity of the count, nor
his Gallic vivacity of passion, he had in full meas-
ure the same unconquerable pride and hardy reso-
lution. There were but two or three men in
Canada who knew the western wilderness so well.
He was full of schemes of ambition and of gain ;
and, from this moment, he and Frontenac seem to
have formed an alliance, which ended only with
the governor's recall.

In telling the story of La Salle, I have described
the execution of the new plan : the muster of the
Canadians, at the call of Frontenac ; the consterna-
tion of those of the merchants whom he and La
Salle had not taken into their counsels, and who
saw in the movement the preparation for a gigan-
tic fur trading monopoly ; the intrigues set on foot
to bar the enterprise ; the advance up the St. Law-
rence ; the assembly of Iroquois at the destined
spot ; the ascendency exercised over them by the
governor ; the building of Fort Frontenac on the
ground where Kingston now stands, and its final
transfer into the hands of La Salle, on condition,
there can be no doubt, of sharing the expected
profits with his patron.1

On the way to the lake, Frontenac stopped for
some time at Montreal, where he had full opportu-
nity to become acquainted with a state of things
to which his attention had already been directed.
This state of things was as follows : —

When the intenclant, Talon, came for the second

1 Discovery of the Great West, chap. vi.

28 EROXTENAC AND PERROT. [1669-73.

time to Canada, in 16G9, an officer named Perrot,
who had married his niece, came with him. Perrot,
anxious to turn to account the influence of his wife's
relative, looked about him for some post of honor
and profit, and quickly discovered that the govern-
ment of Montreal was vacant. The priests of St.
Sulpice, feudal owners of the place, had the right
of appointing their own governor. Talon advised
them to choose Perrot, who thereupon received
the desired commission, which, however, was re-
vocable at the will of those who had granted it.
The new governor, therefore, begged another com-
mission from the king, and after a little delay he
obtained it. Thus he became, in some measure,
independent of the priests, who, if they wished to
rid themselves of him, must first gain the royal
consent.

Perrot, as he had doubtless foreseen, found him-
self in an excellent position for making money.
The tribes of the upper lakes, and all the neigh-
boring regions, brought down their furs every
summer to the annual fair at Montreal. Perrot
took his measures accordingly. On the island
which still bears his name, lying above Mont-
real and directly in the route of the descending
savages, he built a storehouse, and placed it in
charge of a retired lieutenant named Brucy, who
stopped the Indians on their way, and carried on
an active trade with them, to the great profit of
himself and his associate, and the great loss of the
merchants in the settlements below. This was not
all. Perrot connived at the desertion of his own

1673.] TYRANNY OF PERROT. *29

soldiers, who escaped to the woods, became cou~
reurs de bois, or bush-rangers, traded with the
Indians in their villages, and shared their gains
with their commander. Many others, too, of these
forest rovers, outlawed by royal edicts, found in
the governor of Montreal a protector, under simi-
lar conditions.

The journey from Quebec to Montreal often
consumed a fortnight. Perrot thought himself
virtually independent ; and relying on his commis-
sion from the king, the protection of Talon, and
his connection with other persons of influence, he
felt safe in his position, and began to play the
petty tyrant. The judge of Montreal, and several
of the chief inhabitants, came to offer a humble
remonstrance against disorders committed by some
of the ruffians in his interest. Perrot received
them with a storm of vituperation, and presently
sent the judge to prison. This proceeding was
followed by a series of others, closely akin to it, so
that the priests of St. Sulpice, who received their
full share of official abuse, began to repent bitterly
of the governor they had chosen.

Frontenac had received stringent orders from
the king to arrest all the bush-rangers, or coareurs
de bois ; but, since he had scarcely a soldier at his
disposal, except his own body-guard, the order was
difficult to execute. As, however, most of these
outlaws were in the service of his rival, Perrot, his
zeal to capture them rose high against every ob-
stacle. He had, moreover, a plan of his own in
regard to them, and had already petitioned the

30 FRONTENAC AND PERROT. [1673.

minister for a galley, to the benches of which the
captive bush-rangers were to be chained as rowers,
thus supplying the representative of the king with
a means of transportation befitting his dignity, and
at the same time giving wholesome warning against
the infraction of royal edicts.1 Accordingly, he
sent orders to the judge, at Montreal, to seize
every coureur de bois on whom he could lay hands.

The judge, hearing that two of the most notori-
ous were lodged in the house of a lieutenant named
Carion, sent a constable to arrest them ; where-
upon Carion threatened and maltreated the officer
of justice, and helped the men to escape. Perrot
took the part of his lieutenant, and told the judge
that he would put him in prison, in spite of Fron-
tenac, if he ever dared to attempt such an arrest
again.2

When Frontenac heard what had happened, his
ire was doubly kindled. On the one hand, Perrot
had violated the authority lodged by the king in
the person of his representative ; and, on the
other, the mutinous official was a rival in trade,
who had made great and illicit profits, while his
superior had, thus far, made none. As a governor
and as a man, Frontenac was deeply moved ; yet,
helpless as he was, he could do no more than send
three of his guardsmen, under a lieutenant named
Bizard, with orders to arrest Carion and bring
him to Quebec.

The commission was delicate. The arrest was

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

2 Mimoire des Motifs qui ont oblige' M. le Comte de Frontenac de /aire
aireter le Sieur Perrot.

1673] PERROT ALARMED. 31

to be made in the dominions of Perrot, who had
the means to prevent it, and the audacity to use
them. Bizard acted accordingly. He went to
Carion's house, and took him prisoner ; then pro-
ceeded to the house of the merchant Le Ber,
where he left a letter, in which Frontenac, as was
the usage on such occasions, gave notice to the
local governor of the arrest he had ordered. It
was the object of Bizard to escape with his pris-
oner before Perrot could receive the letter ; but,
meanwhile, the wife of Carion ran to him with the
news, and the governor suddenly arrived, in a
frenzy of rage, followed by a sergeant and three
or four soldiers. The sergeant held the point of
his halberd against the breast of Bizard, while Per-
rot, choking with passion, demanded, " How dare
you arrest an officer in my government without
my leave ? " The lieutenant replied that he acted
under orders of the governor-general, and gave
Frontenac's letter to Perrot, who immediately
threw it into his face, exclaiming : " Take it back
to your master, and tell him to teach you your
business better another time. Meanwhile you are
my prisoner." Bizard protested in vain. He was
led to jail, whither he was followed a few days
after by Le Ber, who had mortally offended Per-
rot by signing an attestation of the scene he had
witnessed. As he was the chief merchant of the
place, his arrest produced a great sensation, while
his wife presently took to her bed with a nervous
fever.

As Perrot's anger cooled, he became somewhat

32 FROXTEXAC AND PERROT. [1673.

alarmed. He had resisted the royal authority, and
insulted its representative. The consequences
might be serious ; yet he could not bring himself
to retrace his steps. He merely released Bizard,
and sullenly permitted him to depart, with a letter
to the governor-general, more impertinent than
apologetic.1

Frontenac, as his enemies declare, was accus-
tomed, when enraged, to foam at the mouth. Per-
haps he did so when he learned the behavior of
Perrot. If he had had at command a few compa-
nies of soldiers, there can be little doubt that he
would have gone at once to Montreal, seized the
offender, and brought him back in irons ; but his
body-guard of twenty men was not equal to such
an enterprise. Nor would a muster of the militia
have served his purpose ; for the settlers about
Quebec were chiefly peaceful peasants, while the
denizens of Montreal were disbanded soldiers, fur
traders, and forest adventurers, the best fighters in
Canada. They were nearly all in the interest of
Perrot, who, if attacked, had the temper as well
as the ability to make a passionate resistance.
Thus civil war would have ensued, and the anger
of the king would have fallen on both parties. On
the other hand, if Perrot were left unpunished, the
conreurs de bois, of whom he was the patron,
would set no bounds to their audacity, and Fron-
tenac, who had been ordered to suppress them,
would be condemned as negligent or incapable.

Among the priests of St. Sulpice at Montreal

1 Jlemoire des Motifs, etc.

1674.] abb£ fenelon. 33

was the Abbe Salignac cle Fenelon, half-brother of
the celebrated author of Telemaque. He was a
zealous missionary, enthusiastic and impulsive, still
young, and more ardent than discreet. One of his
uncles had been the companion of Frontenac dur-
ing the Candian war, and hence the count's rela-
tions with the missionary had been very friendly.
Frontenac now wrote to Perrot, directing him to
come to Quebec and give account of his conduct ;
and he coupled this letter with another to Fenelon,
urging him to represent to the offending governor
the clanger of his position, and advise him to seek
an interview with his superior, by which the diffi-
culty might be amicably adjusted. Perrot, dread-
ing the displeasure of the king, soothed by the
moderate tone of Frontenac's letter, and moved
by the assurances of the enthusiastic abbe, who
was delighted to play the part of peace-maker, at
length resolved to follow his counsel. It was mid-
winter. Perrot and Fenelon set out together,
walked on snow-shoes a hundred and eighty miles
down the frozen St. Lawrence, and made their
appearance before the offended count.

Frontenac, there can be little doubt, had never
intended that Perrot, once in his power, should re-
turn to Montreal as its governor ; but that, beyond
this, he meant harm to him, there is not the least
proof. Perrot, however, was as choleric and stub-
born as the count himself ; and his natural disposi-
tion had not been improved by several years of
petty autocracy at Montreal. Their interview was
brief, but stormy. When it ended, Perrot was a

3

34 FRONTENAC AND PERROT. [1674.

prisoner in the chateau, with guards placed over
him by day and night. Frontenac made choice of
one La Nouguere, a retired officer, whom he knew
that he could trust, and sent him to Montreal
to command in place of its captive gover-
nor. With him he sent also a judge of his own
selection. La Nouguere set himself to his work
with vigor. Perrot's agent or partner, Brucy, was
seized, tried, and imprisoned ; and an active hunt
was begun for his coureurs de bois. Among others,
the two who had been the occasion of the dispute
were captured and sent to Quebec, where one of
them was solemnly hanged before the window of
Perrot's prison ; with the view, no doubt, of pro-
ducing a chastening effect on the mind of the
prisoner. The execution was fully authorized, a
royal edict having ordained that bush-ranging was
an offence punishable with death.1 As the result
of these proceedings, Frontenac reported to the
minister that only five coureurs de bois remained
at large ; all the rest having returned to the settle-
ments and made their submission, so that farther
hanging was needless.

Thus the central power was vindicated, and
Montreal brought down from her attitude of par-
tial independence. Other results also followed, if
we may believe the enemies of Frontenac, who de-
clare that, by means of the new commandant
and other persons in his interest, the governor-
general possessed himself of a great part of the
trade from which he had ejected Perrot, and that

1 Edits et Ordonnances. I. 73.

1674.] EXCITEMENT AT ST. SULPICE. 35

the coareurs de bois, whom he hanged when break-
ing laws for his rival, found complete impunity
when breaking laws for him.

Meanwhile, there was a deep though subdued
excitement among the priests of St. Sulpice. The.
right of naming their own governor, which they
claimed as seigniors of Montreal, had been violated
by the action of Frontenac in placing La Nouguere
in command without consulting them. Perrot was
a bad governor ; but it was they who had chosen
him, and the recollection of his misdeeds did not
reconcile them to a successor arbitrarily imposed
upon them. Both they and the colonists, their
vassals, were intensely jealous of Quebec; and, in
their indignation against Frontenac, they more
than half forgave Perrot. None among them all
was so angry as the Abbe* Fenelon. He believed
that he had been used to lure Perrot into a trap ;
and his past attachment to the governor-general
was turned into wrath. High words had passed
between them; and, when Fenelon returned to
Montreal, he vented his feelings in a sermon plainly
levelled at Frontenac.1 So sharp and bitter was
it, that his brethren of St. Sulpice hastened to dis-
claim it; and Dollier de Casson, their Superior,
strongly reproved the preacher, who protested in
return that his words were not meant to apply to
Frontenac in particular, but only to bad rulers in
general. His offences, however, did not cease
with the sermon ; for he espoused the cause of

1 Information faite par nous, Charles le Tardieu, Sieur de Tilly. Tilly
was a commissioner sent by the council to inquire into the affair.

36 FRONTENAC AND PERROT. [1674.

Perrot with more than zeal, and went about among
the colonists to collect attestations in his favor.
When these things were reported to Frontenac,
his ire was kindled, and he summoned Fenelon be-
fore the council at Quebec to answer the charge
of instigating sedition.

Fenelon had a relative and friend in the person
of the Abbe d'Urfe, his copartner in the work of
the missions. D'Urfe, anxious to conjure down
the rising storm, went to Quebec to seek an inter-
view with Frontenac ; but, according to his own
account, he was very ill received, and threatened
with a prison. On another occasion, the count
showed him a letter in which D'Urfe was charged
with haying used abusive language concerning
him. Warm words ensued, till Frontenac, grasp-
ing his cane, led the abbe to the door and dis-
missed him, berating him from the top of the
stairs in tones so angry that the sentinel below
spread the report that he had turned his visitor
out of doors.1

Two offenders were now arraigned before the
council of Quebec : the first was Perrot, charged
.with disobeying the royal edicts and resisting the
royal authority ; the other was the Abbe Fenelon.
The councillors were at this time united in the
interest of Frontenac, who had the power of ap-
pointing and removing them. Perrot, in no way
softened by a long captivity, challenged the gov-
ernor-general, who presided at the council board,
as a party to the suit and his personal enemy, and

1 Mtmoire de M. d'Urf€ a Colbert, extracts in Faillon.

1674.] EXCITEMENT OF FENELON. 37

took exception to several of the members as being
connections of La Nouguere. Frontenac with-
drew, and other councillors or judges were
appointed provisionally ; but these were chal-
lenged in turn by the prisoner, on one pretext
or another. The exceptions were overruled, and
the trial proceeded, though not without signs of
doubt and hesitation on the part of some of the
councillors.1

Meanwhile, other sessions were held for the trial
of Fenelon ; and a curious scene ensued. Five
councillors and the deputy attorney-general were
seated at the board, with Frontenac as presiding
judge, his hat on his head and his sword at his
side, after the established custom. Fenelon, being
led in, approached a vacant chair, and was about
to seat himself with the rest, when Frontenac in-
terposed, telling him that it was his duty to remain
standing while answering the questions of the
council. Fenelon at once placed himself in the
chair, and replied that priests had the right to
speak seated and with heads covered.

"Yes," returned Frontenac, "when they are
summoned as witnesses, but not when they are
cited to answer charges of crime."

"My crimes exist nowhere but in your head,"
replied the abbe. And, putting on his hat, he
drew it down over his brows, rose, gathered his
cassock about him, and walked in a defiant manner

1 All the proceedings in the affair of Perrot will be found in full in
the Registre des Jugements et Deliberations du Conseil Supe'rieur. They
extend from the end of January to the beginning of November, 1674.

38 FRONTENAC AND PERROT. [1674.

to and fro. Frontenac told him that his conduct
was wanting in respect to the council, and to the
governor as its head. Fenelon several times took
off his hat, and pushed it on again more angrily
than ever, saying at the same time that Frontenac
was wanting in respect to his character of priest,
in citing him before a civil tribunal. As he per-
sisted in his refusal to take the required attitude,
he was at length tolcl that he might leave the
room. After being kept for a time in the ante-
room in charge of a constable, he was again
brought before the council, when he still refused
obedience, and was ordered into a sort of honorable
imprisonment.1

This behavior of the effervescent abbe, which
Frontenac justly enough characterizes as unworthy
of his birth and his sacred office, was, nevertheless,
founded on a claim sustained by many precedents.
As an ecclesiastic, Fenelon insisted that the bishop
alone, and not the council, had the right to judge him.
Like Perrot, too, he challenged his judges as parties
to the suit, or otherwise interested against him. On
the question of jurisdiction, he had all the priests
on his side. Bishop Laval was in France ; and
Bernieres, his grand vicar, was far from filling the
place of the strenuous and determined prelate.
Yet the ecclesiastical storm rose so high that the
councillors, discouraged and daunted, were no
longer amenable to the will of Frontenac ; and it
was resolved at last to refer the whole matter to

1 Conteste entre le Gouverneur et I' Abbe de Fenelon ; Jugements et Delibera-
tions du Conseil Supe'rieur, 21 Aout, 1674.

1674.] APPEAL TO THE KING. 39

the king. Perrot was taken from the prison, which
he had occupied from January to November, and
shipped for France, along with Fenelon. An im-
mense mass of papers was sent with them for the
instruction of the king ; and Frontenac wrote a
long despatch, in which he sets forth the offences of
Perrot and Fenelon, the pretensions of the ecclesi-
astics, the calumnies he had incurred in his efforts
to serve his Majesty, and the insults heaped upon
him, " which no man but me would have endured
so patiently." Indeed, while the suits were pend-
ing before the council, he had displayed a calmness
and moderation which surprised his opponents.
" Knowing as I do," he pursues, " the cabals and
intrigues that are rife here, I must expect that
every thing will be said against me that the most
artful slander can devise. A governor in this coun-
try would greatly deserve pity, if he were left
without support ; and, even should he make mis-
takes, it would surely be very pardonable, seeing
that there is no snare that is not spread for him,
and that, after avoiding a hundred of them, he will
hardly escape being caught at last." *

In his charges of cabal and intrigue, Frontenac
had chiefly in view the clergy, whom he pro-
foundly distrusted, excepting always the Eecollet
friars, whom he befriended because the bishop and
the Jesuits opposed them. The priests on their
part declare that he persecuted them, compelled

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674. In a preceding letter, sent by
way of Boston, and dated 16 February, he says that he could not suffer
Perrot to go unpunished without injury to the regal authority, which
he is resolved to defend to the last drop of his blood.

40 FRONTENAC AND PERROT. [1675.

them to take passports like laymen when travel-
ling about the colony, and even intercepted their
letters. These accusations and many others were
carried to the king and the minister by the Abbe
d'Urfe, who sailed in the same ship with Fenelon.
The moment was singularly auspicious to him.
His cousin, the Marquise d'Allegre, was on the
point of marrying Seignelay, the son of the minis-
ter Colbert, who, therefore, was naturally inclined
to listen with favor to him and to Fenelon, his
relative. Again, Talon, uncle of Perrot's wife,
held a post at court, which brought him into close
personal relations with the king. Nor were these
the only influences adverse to Frontenac and pro-
pitious to his enemies. Yet his enemies were dis-
appointed. The letters written to him both by
Colbert and by the king are admirable for calm-
ness and dignity. The following is from that of
the king : —

" Though I do not credit all that has been told
me concerning various little annoyances which you
cause to the ecclesiastics, I nevertheless think it
necessary to inform you of it, in order that, if
true, you may correct yourself in this particular,
giving to all the clergy entire liberty to go and
come throughout all Canada without compelling
them to take out passports, and at the same time
leaving them perfect freedom as regards their
letters. I have seen and carefully examined all
that you have sent touching M. Perrot ; and, after
having also seen all the papers given by him
in his defence, I have condemned his action in

1675.] ANSWER OF LOUIS XIV. 41

imprisoning an officer of your guard. To punish
him, I have had him placed for a short time in the
Bastile, that he may learn to be more circumspect
in the discharge of his duty, and that his example
may serve as a warning to others. But after
having thus vindicated my authority, which has
been violated in your person, I will say, in order
that you may fully understand my views, that you
should not without absolute necessity cause your
commands to be executed within the limits of a
local government, like that of Montreal, without
first informing its governor, and also that the ten
months of imprisonment which you have made
him undergo seems to me sufficient for his fault.
I therefore sent him to the Bastile merely as a
public reparation for having violated my author-
ity. After keeping him there a few days, I shall
send him back to his government, ordering him
first to see you and make apology to you for all
that has passed ; after which I desire that you re-
tain no resentment against him, and. that you treat
him in accordance with the powers that I have
given him." 1

Colbert writes in terms equally measured, and
adds : " After having spoken in the name of his
Majesty, pray let me add a word in my own. By
the marriage which the king has been pleased to
make between the heiress of the house of Allegre
and my son, the Abbe d'Urfe has become very
closely connected with me, since he is cousin ger-
man of my daughter-in-law ; and this induces me

1 Le Roi a Frontenac, 22 Avril, 1675.

42 FRONTENAC AND PERROT.

[1675.

to request you to show him especial consideration,
though, in the exercise of his profession, he will
rarely have occasion to see you."

As D'Urfe had lately addressed a memorial to
Colbert, in which the conduct of Frontenac is
painted in the darkest colors, the almost imper-
ceptible rebuke couched in the above lines does
no little credit to the tact and moderation of the
stern minister.

Colbert next begs Frontenac to treat with kind-
ness the priests of Montreal, observing that Breton-
villiers, their Superior at Paris, is his particular
friend. " As to M. Perrot," he continues, " since
ten months of imprisonment at Quebec and three
weeks in the Bastile may suffice to atone for his
fault, and since also he is related or connected with
persons for whom I have a great regard, I pray
you to accept kindly the apologies which he will
make you, and, as it is not at all likely that he will
fall again into any offence approaching that which
he has committed, you will give me especial pleas-
ure in granting him the honor of your favor and
friendship." 1

Fenelon, though the recent marriage had allied
him also to Colbert, fared worse than either of the
other parties to the dispute. He was indeed sus-
tained in his claim to be judged by an ecclesiastical
tribunal ; but his Superior, Bretonvilliers, forbade
him to return to Canada, and the king approved
the prohibition. Bretonvilliers wrote to the Sul-
pitian priests of Montreal : " I exhort you to profit

1 Colbert a Frontenac, 13 Mai, 1675.

1675.] FENELON EEBUKED. 43

by the example of M. de Fenelon. By having
busied himself too much in worldly matters, and
meddled with what did not concern him, he has
ruined his own prospects and injured the friends
whom he wished to serve. In matters of this sort,
it is well always to stand neutral." l

1 Lettre de Bretonvilliers, 7 Mai, 1675 ; extract in Faillon. Fenelon,
though wanting in prudence and dignity, had been an ardent and
devoted missionary. In relation to these disputes, I have received much
aid from the research of Abbe Faillon, and from the valuable paper of
Abbe Verreau, Les deux Abbes de Fenelon, printed in the Canadian
Journal de V 'Instruction Publique, Vol. VIII..

CHAPTER IV.

1675-1682.

FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEAU.

Frontenac receives a Colleague. — He opposes the Clergy. —
Disputes in the Council. — Royal Intervention. — Frontenac
rebuked. — Fresh Outbreaks. — Charges and Countercharges.

— The Dispute grows hot. — Duchesneau condemned and
Frontenac warned. — The Quarrel continues. — The King
loses Patience. — More Accusations. — Factions and Feuds.

— A Side Quarrel. — The King threatens. — Frontenac de-
nounces the Priests. — The Governor and the Intendant
recalled. — Qualities of Frontenac.

While writing to Frontenac in terms of studied
mildness, the king and Colbert took measures to
curb his power. In the absence of the bishop, the
appointment and removal of councillors had rested
wholly with the governor ; and hence the council
had been docile under his will. It was now or-
dained that the councillors should be appointed by
the king himself.1 This was not the only change.
Since the departure of the intendant Talon, his
office had been vacant ; and Frontenac was left to
rule alone. This seems to have been an experi-
ment on the part of his masters at Versailles, who,
knowing the peculiarities of his temper, were
perhaps willing to try the effect of leaving him
without a colleague. The experiment had not

1 Edits et Ordonnances, I. 84.

1675-80.] WAR WITH THE CLERGY. 45

succeeded. An intendant was now, therefore,
sent to Quebec, not only to manage the details of
administration, but also to watch the governor,
keep him, if possible, within prescribed bounds,
and report his proceedings to the minister. The
change was far from welcome to Frontenac, whose
delight it was to hold all the reins of power in his
own hands ; nor was he better pleased with the
return of Bishop Laval, which presently took
place. Three preceding governors had quarrelled
with that uncompromising prelate ; and there was
little hope that Frontenac and he would keep the
peace. All the signs of the sky foreboded storm.

The storm soon came. The occasion of it was
that old vexed question of the sale of brandy,
which has been fully treated in another volume,1
and on which it is needless to dwell here. Another
dispute quickly followed ; and here, too, the gover-
nor's chief adversaries were the bishop and the
ecclesiastics. Duchesneau, the new intendant, took
part with them. The bishop and his clergy were,
on their side, very glad of a secular ally ; for their
power had greatly fallen since the days of Mezy,
and the rank and imperious character of Fronte-
nac appear to have held them in some awe. They
avoided as far as they could a direct collision with
him, and waged vicarious war in the person of their
friend the intendant. Duchesneau was not of a
conciliating spirit, and he felt strong in the sup-
port of the clergy ; while Frontenac, when his
temper was roused-, would fight with haughty and

1 The Old Regime in Canada.

46 FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNE AU. [1675-80.

impracticable obstinacy for any position which he
had once assumed, however trivial or however mis-
taken. There was incessant friction between the
two colleagues in the exercise of their respective
functions, and occasions of difference were rarely
wanting.

The question now at issue was that of honors
and precedence at church and in religious cere-
monies, matters of substantial importance under
the Bourbon rule. Colbert interposed, ordered
Duchesneau to treat Frontenac with becoming
deference, and warned him not to make himself
the partisan of the bishop ; ' while, at the same
time, he exhorted Frontenac to live in harmony
with the intendant.2 The dispute continued till
the king lost patience.

u Through all my kingdom," he wrote to the
governor, " I do not hear of so many difficulties
on this matter (of ecclesiastical honors) as I see in
the church of Quebec. " 3 And he directs him to
conform to the practice established in the city of
Amiens, and to exact no more ; " since you ought
to be satisfied with being the representative of my
person in the country where I have placed you in
command."

At the same time, Colbert corrects the inten-
dant. a A memorial," he wrote, " has been placed
in my hands, touching various ecclesiastical honors,
wherein there continually appears a great preten-

1 Colbert a Duchesneau, 1 Mai, 1677.

2 Ibid., 18 Mai, 1677.

3 Le Roy a Frontenac, 25 Avril, 1679.

1675-80.] THE RECONSTRUCTED COUNCIL. 47

sion on your part, and on that of the bishop of
Quebec in your favor, to establish an equality be-
tween the governor and you. I think I have
already said enough to lead you to know yourself,
and to understand the difference between a gov-
ernor and an intendant; so that it is no longer
necessary for me to enter into particulars, which
could only serve to show you that you are com-
pletely in the wrong." !

Scarcely was this quarrel suppressed, when
another sprang up. Since the arrival of the in-
tendant and the return of the bishop, the council
had ceased to be in the interest of Frontenac.
Several of its members were very obnoxious to
him ; and chief among these was Villeray, a former
councillor whom the king had lately reinstated.
Frontenac admitted him to his seat with reluc-
tance. "I obey your orders," he wrote mourn-
fully to Colbert ; " but Villeray is the principal
and most dangerous instrument of the bishop and
the Jesuits." 2 He says, farther, that many people
think him to be a Jesuit in disguise, and that he
is an intriguing busybody, who makes trouble
everywhere. He also denounces the attorney-
general, Auteuil, as an ally of the Jesuits. An-
other of the reconstructed council, Tilly, meets
his cordial approval ; but he soon found reason to
change his mind concerning him.

The king had recently ordered that the inten-
dant, though holding only the third rank in the

1 Colbert a Duchesneau, 8 Mai, 1G79.

2 Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov.t 1674.

48 FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEAU. [1675-80.

council, should act as its president.1 The com-
mission of Duchesneau, however, empowered him
to preside only in the absence of the governor ; 2
while Frontenac is styled " chief and president of
the council " in several of the despatches addressed
to him. Here was an inconsistency. Both parties
claimed the right of presiding, and both could
rest their claim on a clear expression of the royal
will.

Frontenac rarely began a new quarrel till the
autumn vessels had sailed for France ; because a
full year must then elapse before his adversaries
could send their complaints to the king, and six
months more before the king could send back his
answer. The governor had been heard to say, on
one of these occasions, that he should now be
master for eighteen months, subject only to an-
swering with his head for what he might do. It
was when the last vessel was gone in the autumn
of 1678 that he demanded to be styled chief and
president on the records of the council ; and he
showed a letter from the king in which he was so
entitled.3 In spite of this, Duchesneau resisted,
and appealed to precedent to sustain his position.
A long series of stormy sessions followed. The
councillors in the clerical interest supported the
intendant. Frontenac, chafed and angry, refused
all compromise. Business was stopped for weeks.

1 Declaration da Roy, 23 Sept., 1675.

? " Presider au Conseil Squverain en {'absence du dit Sieur de Fron-
tenac." — Commission de Duchesneau, 5 Juin, 1675.

3 This letter, still preserved in the Archives de la Marine, is dated 12
Mai, 1678. Several other letters of Louis XIV. give Frontenac the same
designation.

1675-80.] THE KING INTERVENES. 49

Duchesneau lost temper, and became abusive.
Auteuil tried to interpose in behalf of the inten-
dant. Frontenac struck the table with his fist, and
told him fiercely that he would teach him his duty.
Every clay embittered the strife. The governor
made the declaration usual with him on such occa-
sions, that he would not permit the royal authority
to suffer in his person. At length he banished
from Quebec his three most strenuous opponents,
Villeray, Tilly, and Auteuil, and commanded them
to remain in their country houses till they re-
ceived his farther orders. All attempts at com-
promise proved fruitless ; and Auteuil, in behalf
of the exiles, appealed piteously to the king.

The answer came in the following summer:
" Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac,'' wrote Louis
XIV., " I am surprised to learn all the new troubles
and dissensions that have occurred in my country
of New France, more especially since I have clearly
and strongly given you to understand that your
sole care should be to maintain harmony and peace
among all my subjects dwelling therein ; but what
surprises me still more is that in nearly all the dis-
putes which you have caused you have advanced
claims which have very little foundation. My
edicts, declarations, and ordinances had so plainly
made known to you my will, that I have great
cause of astonishment that you, whose duty it is
to see them faithfully executed, have yourself set
up pretensions entirely opposed to them. You
have wished to be styled chief and president on
the records of. the Supreme Council, which is con-

50 EROXTEXAC AND DUCHESXEAU. [1675-80.

trary to my edict concerning that council ; and I
am the more surprised at this demand, since I am
very sure that you are the only man in my king-
dom who, being honored with the title of governor
and lieutenant-general, would care to be styled
chief and president of such a council as that of
Quebec."

He then declares that neither Frontenac nor the
intendant is to have the title of president, but that
the intendant is to perform the functions of pre-
siding officer, as determined by the edict. He
continues : —

" Moreover, your abuse of the authority which I
have confided to you in exiling two councillors and
the attorney-general for so trivial a cause cannot
meet my approval ; and, were it not for the dis-
tinct assurances given me by your friends that you
will act with more moderation in future, and never
again fall into offences of this nature, I should
have resolved on recalling you."1

Colbert wrote to him with equal severity : " I
have communicated to the king the contents of all
the despatches which you have written to me dur-
ing . the past year ; and as the matters of which
they treat are sufficiently ample, including dissen-
sions almost universal among those whose duty it
is to preserve harmony in the country under your
command, his Majesty has been pleased to examine
all the papers sent by all the parties interested,

1 'Le Roy a Frontenac, 29 Avril, 1680. A decree of the council of
state soon after determined the question of presidency in accord with
this letter. Edits et Ordonnances, I. 238.

1675-80.] FRESH OUTBREAKS. 51

and more particularly those appended to your let-
ters. He has thereupon ordered me distinctly to
make known to you his intentions." The minister
then proceeds to reprove him sharply in the name
of the king, and concludes : " It is difficult for me
to add any thing to what I have just said. Consider
well that, if it is any advantage or any satisfaction
to you that his Majesty should be satisfied with
your services, it is necessary that you change
entirely the conduct which you have hitherto
pursued." l

This, one would think, might have sufficed to
bring the governor to reason, but the violence of
his resentments and antipathies overcame the very
slender share of prudence with which nature had
endowed him. One morning, as he sat at the head
of the council board, the bishop on his right hand,
and the intendant on his left, a woman made her
appearance with a sealed packet of papers. She
was the wife of the councillor Amours, whose chair
was vacant at the table. Important business was
in hand, the registration of a royal edict of am-
nesty to the courears de hois. The intendant,
who well knew what the packet contained, de-
manded that it should be opened. Frontenac in-
sisted that the business before the council should

1 Colbert a Frontenac, 4 Dec, 1679. This letter seems to have been
sent by a special messenger by way of New England. It was too late
in the season to send directly to Canada. On the quarrel about the
presidency, Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679 ; Auteuil an Ministre,
10 Aug., 1679 ; Contestations entre le Sieur Comte de Frontenac et M. Duclu s-
neau, Chevalier. This last paper consists of voluminous extracts from
the records of the council.

52 FRONTENAC AXD DTJCHESNEAU. [1681.

proceed. The intendant renewed his demand, the
council sustained him, and the packet was opened
accordingly. It contained a petition from Amours,
stating that Frontenac had put him in prison, be-
cause, having obtained in due form a passport to
send a canoe to his fishing station of Matane, he
had afterwards sent a sail-boat thither without
applying for another passport. Frontenac had
sent for him, and demanded by what right he did
so. Amours replied that he believed that he had
acted in accordance with the intentions of the
king ; whereupon, to borrow the words of the peti-
tion, " Monsieur the governor fell into a rage, and
said to your petitioner, < I will teach you the inten-
tions of the king, and you shall stay in prison till
you learn them ; ? and your petitioner was shut up
in a chamber of the chateau, wherein he still re-
mains." He proceeds to pray that a trial may be
granted him according to law.1

Discussions now ensued which lasted for clays,
and now and then became tempestuous. The gov-
ernor, who had declared that the council had no-
thing to do with the matter, and that he could not
waste time in talking about it, was not always
present at the meetings, and it sometimes became
necessary to depute one or more of the members
to visit him. Auteuil, the attorney-general, hav-
ing been employed on this unenviable errand,
begged the council to dispense him from such duty
in future, " by reason," as he says, " of the abuse,
ill treatment, and threats which he received from

1 Reyistre du Conseil Supe'rieur, 16 Aoust, 1681.

1681.] CHARGES AND COUNTERCHARGES. 53

Monsieur the governor, when he last had the
honor of being deputed to confer with him, the
particulars whereof he begs to be excused from
reporting, lest the anger of Monsieur the governor
should be kindled against him still more." ! Fron-
tenac, hearing of this charge, angrily denied it,
saying that the attorney-general had slandered
and insulted him, and that it was his custom to do
so. Auteuil rejoined that the governor had ac-
cused him of habitual lying, and told him that he
would have his hand cut off. All these charges
and countercharges may still be found entered in
due form on the old records of the council at
Quebec.

It was as usual upon the intendant that the
wrath of Frontenac fell most fiercely. He accuses
him of creating cabals and intrigues, and causing
not only the council, but all the country, to forget
the respect clue to the representative of his Majesty.
Once, when Frontenac was present at the session,
a dispute arose about an entry on the record. A
draft of it had been made in terms agreeable to the
governor, who insisted that the intendant should
sign it. Duchesneau replied that he and the clerk
would go into the adjoining room, where they could
examine it in peace, and put it into a proper form.
Frontenac rejoined that he would then have no
security that what he had said in the council would
be accurately reported. Duchesneau persisted, and
was going out with the draft in his hand, when
Frontenac planted himself before the door, and

1 Registre du Conseil Supfrieur, 4 Nov., 1681.

54 FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEAU. [1675-82.

told him that he should not leave the council
chamber till he had signed the paper. " Then I
will get out of the window, or else stay here all
day," returned Duchesneau. A lively debate en-
sued, and the governor at length yielded the point.1
The imprisonment of Amours was short, but
strife did not cease. The disputes in the council
were accompanied throughout with other quarrels
which were complicated with them, and which
were worse than all the rest, since they involved
more important matters and covered a wider field.
They related to the fur trade, on which hung the
very life of the colony. Merchants, traders, and
even habitants, were ranged in two contending
factions. Of one of these Frontenac was the chief.
With him were La Salle and his lieutenant, La
Foret ; Du Lhut, the famous leader of coiireurs cle
bois ; Boisseau, agent of the farmers of the revenue ;
Barrois, the governor's secretary ; Bizard, lieu-
tenant of his guard ; and various others of greater
or less influence. On the other side were the
members of the council, with Aubert de la Ches-
naye, Le Moyne and all his sons, Louis Joliet,
Jacques Le Ber, Sorel, Boucher, Varennes, and
many more, all supported by the intendant Duches-
neau, and also by his fast allies, the ecclesiastics.
The faction under the lead of the governor had
every advantage, for it was sustained by all the
power of his office. Duchesneau was beside him-
self with rage. He wrote to the court letters full
of bitterness, accused Frontenac of illicit trade,

1 Registre du Conseil Supe'rieur, 1681.

1675-82.] DUCHESNEAU CONDEMNED. 55

denounced his followers, and sent huge bundles
of proces-verbaux and attestations to prove his
charges.

But if Duchesneau wrote letters, so too did
Frontenac ; and if the intendant sent proofs, so too
did the governor. Upon the unfortunate king and
the still more unfortunate minister fell the difficult
task of composing the quarrels of their servants,
three thousand miles away. They treated Duches-
neau without ceremony. Colbert wrote to him :
" I have examined all the letters, papers, and
memorials that you sent me by the return of the
vessels last November, and, though it appears by
the letters of M. de Frontenac that his conduct
leaves something to be desired, there is assuredly
far more to blame in yours than in his. As to
what you say concerning his violence, his trade
with the Indians, and in general all that you allege
against him, the king has written to him his in-
tentions ; but since, in the midst of all your com-
plaints, you say many things which are without
foundation, or which are no concern of yours, it
is difficult to believe that you act in the spirit
which the service of the king demands ; that is to
say, without interest and without passion. If a
change does not appear in your conduct before
next year, his Majesty will not keep you in your
office." l

At the same time, the king wrote to Frontenac,
alluding to the complaints of Duchesneau, and ex-
horting the governor to live on good terms with

1 Colbert a Duchesneau, 15 Mai, 1678.

56 FRONTENAC AND DUCHESXEAU. [1675-82.

him. The general tone of the letter is moderate,
but the following significant warning occurs in it :
" Although no gentleman in the position in which
I have placed you ought to take part in any trade,
directly or indirectly, either by himself or any of
his servants, I nevertheless now prohibit you ab-
solutely from doing so. Not only abstain from
trade, but act in such a manner that nobody can
even suspect you of it ; and this will be easy, since
the truth will readily come to light." L

Exhortation and warning were vain alike. The
first ships which returned that year from Canada
brought a series of despatches from the intendant,
renewing all his charges more bitterly than before.
The minister, out of patience, replied by berating
him without mercy. " You may rest assured," he
concludes, " that, did it not appear by your later
despatches that the letters you have received have
begun to make you understand that \'ou have for-
gotten yourself, it would not have been possible to
prevent the king from recalling you." 2

Duchesneau, in return, protests all manner of
deference to the governor, but still insists that he
sets the royal edicts at naught ; protects a host of
coureurs de bois who are in league with him ; cor-
responds with Du Lhut, their chief ; shares his ille-
gal profits, and causes all the disorders which afflict
the colony. " As for me, Monseigneur, I have
done every thing within the scope of my office to
prevent these evils ; but all the pains I have taken

1 Le Roy a Frontenac, 12 Mai, 1678.

2 Colbert a Duchesneau, 25 Avril, 1679.

1675-82.] DUCHESNEATJ PERSISTS. . 57

have only served to increase the aversion of Mon-
sieur the governor against me, and to bring my
ordinances into contempt, This, Monseigneur, is
a true account of the disobedience of the coureurs
de bois, of which I twice had the honor to speak
to Monsieur the governor; and I could not help
telling him, with all possible deference, that it was
shameful to the colony and to us that the king,
our master, of whom the whole world stands in
awe, who has just given law to all Europe, and
whom all his subjects adore, should have the pain
of knowing that, in a country which has received
so many marks of his ^paternal tenderness, his
orders are violated and scorned ; and a governor
and an intenclant stand by, with folded arms, con-
tent with saying that the evil is past remedy. For
having made these representations to him, I drew
on myself words so full of contempt and insult that
I was forced to leave his room to appease his
anger. The next morning I went to him again,
and did all I could to have my ordinances exe-
cuted ; but, as Monsieur the governor is interested
with many of the coureurs de bois, it is useless to
attempt to do any thing. He has gradually made
himself master of the trade of Montreal ; and, as
soon as the Indians arrive, he sets guards in their
camp, which would be very well, if these soldiers
did their duty and protected the savages from
being annoyed and plundered by the French, in-
stead of being employed to discover how many
furs they have brought, with a view to future
operations. Monsieur the governor then compels

58 FRONTENAC AXD DUCHESNEAU. [1675-82.

the Indians to pay his guards for protecting them ;
and he has never allowed them to trade with
the inhabitants till they had first given him a cer-
tain number of packs of beaver skins, which he
calls his presents. His guards trade with them
openly at the fair, with their bandoleers on their
shoulders."

He says, farther, that Frontenac sends up goods
to Montreal, and employs persons to trade in his
behalf; and that, what with the beaver skins ex-
acted by him and his guards under the name of
presents, and those which he and his favorites
obtain in trade, only the smaller part of what the
Indians bring to market ever reaches the people of
the colony.1

This despatch, and the proofs accompanying it,
drew from the king a sharp reproof to Frontenac.

" What has passed in regard to the coureurs cle
hois is entirely contrary to my orders ; and I can-
not receive in excuse for it your allegation that it
is the intend ant who countenances them by the
trade he carries on, for I perceive clearly that the
fault is your own. As I see that you often turn
the orders that I give you against the very object
for which they are given, beware not to do so on
this occasion. I shall hold you answerable for
bringing the disorder of the coureurs de bois to
an end throughout Canada ; and this you will
easily succeed in doing, if you make a proper use
of my authority. Take care not to persuade your-
self that what I write to you comes from the ill

1 Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679.

1675-82.] FRONTENAC ASKS FOR HELP. 59

offices of the intendant. It results from what I
fully know from every thing which reaches me
from Canada, proving but too well what you are
doing there. The bishop, the ecclesiastics, the
Jesuit fathers, the Supreme Council, and, in a word,
everybody, complain of you ; but I am willing to
believe that you will change your conduct, and
act with the moderation necessary for the good of
the colony." l

Colbert wrote in a similar strain ; and Frontenac
saw that his position was becoming critical. He
showed, it is true, no sign of that change of con-
duct which the king had demanded ; but he ap-
pealed to his allies at court to use fresh efforts to
sustain him. Among the rest, he had a strong
friend in the Marechal cle Bellefonds, to whom he
wrote, in the character of an abused and much-
suffering man : " You exhort me to have patience,
and I agree with you that those placed in a posi-
tion of command cannot have too much. For this
reason, I have given examples of it here such as
perhaps no governor ever gave before ; and I
have found no great difficulty in doing so, because
I felt myself to be the master. Had I been in
a private station, I could not have endured such
outrageous insults without dishonor. I have al-
ways passed over in silence those directed against
me personally ; and have never given way to
anger, except when attacks were made on the
authority of which I have the honor to be the
guardian. You could not believe all the an-

i Le Roy a Frontenac, 29 Avril, 1680.

" 1

60 FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNE AU. [1675-82.

noyances which the intendant tries to put upon
me every day, and which, as you advise me, I
scorn or disregard. It would require a virtue
like yours to turn them to all the good use of
which they are capable ; yet, great as the virtue
is which has enabled you to possess your soul in
tranquillity amid all the troubles of the court, I
doubt if you could preserve such complete equa
nimity among the miserable tumults of Canada.

Having given the principal charges of Duches-
neau against Frontenac, it is time to give those of
Frontenac against Duchesneau. The governor says
that all the coureurs de hois would be brought to
submission but for the intendant and his allies,
who protect them, and carry on trade by their
means ; that the seigniorial house of Duchesneau's
partner, La Chesnaye, is the constant resort of
these outlaws ; and that he and his associates have
large storehouses at Montreal, Isle St. Paul, and
Riviere du Loup, whence they send goods into
the Indian country, in contempt of the king's
orders.2 . Frontenac also complains of numberless
provocations from the intendant. "It is no- fault
of mine that I am not on good terms with M.
Duchesneau ; for I have done every thing I could
to that end, being too submissive to your Majesty's
commands not to suppress my sharpest indignation
the moment your will is known to me. But, Sire,
it is not so with him ; and his desire to excite new
disputes, in the hope of making me appear their

1 Frontenac an Mare'chal de Bellefonds, 14 Nov., 1680.
- Me'moire et Preaves du De'sordre des Coureurs de Bois.

1675-82.] THE NEW MINISTER. 61

principal author, has been so great that the last
ships were hardly gone, when, forgetting what
your Majesty had enjoined upon us both, he began
these dissensions afresh, in spite of all my precau-
tions. If I depart from my usual reserve in regard
to him, and make bold to ask justice at the hands
of your Majesty for the wrongs and insults I have
undergone, it is because nothing but your authority
can keep them within bounds. I have never suf-
fered more in my life than when I have been made
to appear as a man of violence and a disturber of
the officers of justice : for I have always confined
myself to what your Majesty has prescribed ; that
is, to exhorting them to do their duty when I
saw that they failed in it. This has drawn upon
me, both from them and from M. Duchesneau,
such cutting affronts that your Majesty would
hardly credit them." *

In 1681, Seignelay, the son of Colbert, entered
upon the charge of the colonies ; and both Fron-
tenac and Duchesneau hastened to congratulate
him, protest their devotion, and overwhelm him
with mutual accusations. The intendant declares
that, out of pure zeal for the king's service, he
shall tell him every thing. " Disorder," he says,
" reigns everywhere ; universal confusion prevails
throughout every department of business ; the
pleasure of the king, the orders of the Supreme
Council, and my ordinances remain unexecuted ;
justice is openly violated, and trade is destroyed ;
violence, upheld by authority, decides every thing ;

1 Frontenac au Roy, 2 Nov., 1681.

62 ERONTENAC AND DUCHESNE AU. [1675-82

and nothing consoles the people, who groan with-
out daring to complain, but the hope, Monseigneur,
that you will have the goodness to condescend
to be moved by their misfortunes. No position
could be more distressing than mine, since, if I
conceal the truth from you, I fail in the obedience
I owe the king, and in the fidelity that I vowed so
long since to Monseigneur, your father, and which
I swear anew at your hands ; and if I obey, as I
must, his Majesty's orders and yours, I cannot
avoid giving offence, since I cannot render you an
account of these disorders without informing you
that M. de Frontenac's conduct is the sole cause of
them." '

Frontenac had written to Seignelay a few days
before : " I have no doubt whatever that M. Du-
chesneau will, as usual, overwhelm me with fabrica-
tions and falsehoods, to cover his own ill conduct.
I send proofs to justify myself, so strong and
convincing that I do not see that they can leave
any doubt ; but, since I fear that their great num-
ber might fatigue you, I have thought it better to
send them to my wife, with a full and exact jour-
nal of all that has passed here day by day, in order
that she may extract and lay before you the prin-
cipal portions.

" I send you in person merely the proofs of the
conduct of M. Duchesneau, in barricading his
house and arming all his servants, and in coming
three weeks ago to insult me in my room. You
will see thereby to what a pitch of temerity and

1 Duchesneau au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1681.

1681.] STREET QUARRELS. 63

lawlessness he has transported himself, in order to
compel me to use violence against him, with the
hope of justifying what he has asserted about my
pretended outbreaks of anger." 1

The mutual charges of the two functionaries
were much the same ; and, so far at least as con-
cerns trade, there can be little doubt that they
were well founded on both sides. The strife of
the rival factions grew more and more bitter :
canes and sticks played an active part in it, and
now and then we hear of drawn swords. One is
reminded at times of the intestine feuds of some
mediaeval city, as, for example, in the following in-
cident, which will explain the charge of Frontenac
against the intenclant of barricading his house and
arming his servants : —

On the afternoon of the twentieth of March, a
son of Duchesneau, sixteen years old, followed by
a servant named Vautier, was strolling along the
picket fence which bordered the descent from the
Upper to the Lower Town of Quebec. The boy was
amusing himself by singing a song, when Fronte-
nac's partisan, Boisseau, with one of the guardsmen,
approached, and, as young Duchesneau declares,
called him foul names, and said that he would give
him and his father a thrashing. The boy replied
that he would have nothing to say to a fellow like
him, and would beat him if he did not keep quiet;
while the servant, Vautier, retorted Boisseau's
abuse, and taunted him with low birth and dis-
reputable employments. Boisseau made report to

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1681.

64 FROXTENAC AND DUCHESNEAtT. [1681.

Frontenac, and Frontenac complained to Duches-
neau, who sent his son, with Vautier, to give the
governor his version of the affair. The bishop,
an ally of the intend ant, thus relates what fol-
lowed. On arriving with a party of friends at
the chateau, young Duchesneau was shown into
a room in which were the governor and his two sec-
retaries, Barrois and Chasseur. He had no sooner
entered than Frontenac seized him by the arm,
shook him, struck him, called him abusive names,
and tore the sleeve of his jacket. The secretaries
interposed, and, failing to quiet the governor,
opened the door and let the boy escape. Vautier,
meanwhile, had remained in the guard-room, where
Boisseau struck at him with his cane ; and one of
the guardsmen went for a halberd to run him
through the body. After this warm reception,
young Duchesneau and his servant took refuge in
the house of his father. Frontenac demanded their
surrender. The intendant, fearing that he would
take them by force, for which he is said to have
made preparation, barricaded himself and armed
his household. The bishop tried to mediate, and
after protracted negotiations young Duchesneau
was given up, whereupon Frontenac locked him in
a chamber of the chateau, and kept him there a
month.1

The story of Frontenac' s violence to the boy is
flatly denied by his friends, who charge Duches-

1 Me'moire de VEresque de Quebec, Mars, 1681 (printed in Revue Cana-
dienne, 1873). The bishop is silent about the barricades of which Fron-
tenac and his friends complain in several letters.

1681.] THE WAR BECOMES GENERAL. 65

neau and his partisans with circulating libels against
him, and who say, like Frontenac himself, that the
intendant used every means to exasperate him, in
order to make material for accusations.1

The disputes of the rival factions spread through
all Canada. The most heinous offence in the eyes
of the court with which each charged the other was
the carrying of furs to the English settlements ; thus
defrauding the revenue, and, as the king believed,
preparing the ruin of the colony. The intendant
farther declared that the governor's party spread
among the Indians the report of a pestilence at
Montreal, in order to deter them from their
yearly visit to the fair, and thus by means of
coureurs de hois obtain all their beaver skins at a
low price. The report, according to Duchesneau,
had no other foundation than the fate of eighteen
or twenty Indians, who had lately drunk them-
selves to death at La Chine.2

Montreal, in the mean time, was the scene of a
sort of by-play, in which the chief actor was the
local governor, Perrot. He and Frontenac appear
to have found it for their common interest to come
to a mutual understanding ; and this was perhaps
easier on the part of the count, since his quarrel
with Duchesneau gave sufficient employment to
his natural pugnacity. Perrot was now left to
make a reasonable profit from the illicit trade
which had once kindled the wrath of his superior ;

1 See, among other instances, the Defense de M. de Frontenac par un
de ses Amis, published by Abbe Verreau in the Revue Canadienne, 1873.

2 Plumitifdu Conseil Souverain, 1681.

5

66 FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNE AU. [1681.

and, the clanger of Frontenac's anger being re-
moved, he completely forgot the lessons of his
imprisonment.

The intendant ordered Migeon, bailiff of Mon-
treal, to arrest some of Perrot's coureurs de bois.
Perrot at once arrested the bailiff, and sent a
sergeant and two soldiers to occupy his house,
with "orders to annoy the family as much as pos-
sible. One of them, accordingly, walked to and
fro all night in the bed-chamber of Migeon's wife.
On another occasion, the bailiff invited two friends
to supper : Le Moyne d'Iberville and one Bouthier,
agent of a commercial house at Eochelle. The
conversation turned on the trade carried on by
Perrot. It was overheard and reported to him,
upon which he suddenly appeared at the window,
struck Bouthier over the head with his cane, then
drew his sword, and chased him while he fled for
his life. The seminary was near at hand, and the
fugitive clambered over the wall. Dollier de Casson
dressed him in the hat and cassock of a priest, and
in this disguise he escaped.1 Perrot's avidity some-
times carried him to singular extremities. " He
has been seen," says one of his accusers, " filling
barrels of brandy with his own hands, and mixing
it with water to sell to the Indians. He bartered
with one of them his hat, sword, coat, ribbons,
shoes, and stockings, and boasted that he had made
thirty pistoles by the bargain, while the Indian
walked about town equipped as governor."2

1 Conduitedu Sieur Perrot, Gouverneur de Montreal en la Nouvelle France,
1681 ; Plainte du Sieur Bouthier, 10 Oct., 1680 ; P roces-verbal des huissiers
de Montreal.

2 Conduite du Sieur Perrot. La Barre, Frontenac's successor, declares

1681.] THREATS OF THE KING. 67

Every ship from Canada brought to the king
fresh complaints of Duchesneau against Fronte-
nac, and of Frontenac against Duchesneau; and
the king replied with rebukes, exhortations, and
threats to both. At first he had shown a dispo-
sition to extenuate and excuse the faults of Fron-
tenac, but every year his letters grew sharper.
In 1681 he wrote : " Again I urge you to banish
from your mind the difficulties which you have
yourself devised against the execution of my
orders ; to act with mildness and moderation tow-
ards all the colonists, and divest yourself entirely
of the personal animosities which have thus far
been almost your sole motive of action. In con-
clusion, I exhort you once more to profit well by
the directions which this letter contains ; since,
unless you succeed better herein than formerly, I
cannot help recalling you from the command which
I have intrusted to you." 1

The dispute still went on. The autumn ships
from Quebec brought back the usual complaints,
and the long-suffering king at length made good
his threat. Both Frontenac and Duchesneau re-
ceived their recall, and they both deserved it.2

The last official act of the governor, recorded in
the register of the council of Quebec, is the formal

that the charges against Perrot were false, including the attestations of
Migeon and his friends; that Dollier de Casson had been imposed upon,
and that various persons had been induced to sign unfounded statements
without reading them. La Barre an Ministre, 4 Nov., 1683.

1 Le Roy a Frontenac, 30 Avril, 1681.

2 La Barre says that Duchesneau was far more to blame than Fron-
tenac. La Barre au Ministre, 1683. This testimony has weight, since
Frontenac's friends were La Barre's enemies.

68 FROXTEXAC AXD DUCHESNE AU. [1682.

declaration that his rank in that body is superior
to that of the intendant.1

The key to nearly all these disputes lies in the
relations between Frontenac and the Church. The
fundamental quarrel was generally covered by
superficial issues, and it was rarely that the gov-
ernor fell out with anybody who was not in league
with the bishop and the Jesuits. " Nearly all the
disorders in New France," he writes, " spring from
the ambition of the ecclesiastics, who want to join
to their spiritual authority an absolute power over
things temporal, and who persecute all who do not
submit entirely to them." He says that the in-
tendant and the councillors are completely under
their control, and dare not decide any question
against them ; that they have spies everywhere,
even in his house ; that the bishop told him that
he could excommunicate even a governor, if he
chose ; that the missionaries in Indian villages say
that they are equals of Onontio, and tell their con-
verts that all will go wrong till the priests have the
government of Canada ; that directly or indirectly
they meddle in all civil affairs ; that they trade even
with the English of New York ; that, what with
Jesuits, Sulpitians, the bishop, and the seminary of
Quebec, they hold two-thirds of the good lands of
Canada ; that, in view of the poverty of the country,
their revenues are enormous ; that, in short, their
object is mastery, and that they use all means to
compass it.2 The recall of the governor was a tri-

1 Registre du Conseil Suptfrieur, 16 Fe'v., 1682.

2 Frontenac, Me'moire adress€ a Colbert, 1677. This remarkable

1682.] QUALITIES OF FRONTENAC. 69

umph to the ecclesiastics, offset but slightly by the
recall, of their instrument, the intendant, who had
done his work, and whom they needed no longer.

Thus far, we have seen Frontenac on his worst
side. We shall see him again under an aspect
very different. Nor must it be supposed that the
years which had passed since his government began,
tempestuous as they appear on the record, were
wholly given over to quarrelling. They had their
periods of uneventful calm, when the wheels of ad-
ministration ran as smoothly as could be expected
in view of the condition of the colony. In one
respect at least, Frontenac had shown a remarkable
fitness for his office. Few white men have ever
equalled or approached him in the art of dealing
with Indians. There seems to have been a sympa-
thetic relation between him and them. He con-
formed to their ways, borrowed their rhetoric,
flattered them on occasion with great address, and
yet constantly maintained towards them an attitude
of paternal superiority. When they were concerned,
his native haughtiness always took a form which
commanded respect without exciting anger. He
would not address them as brothers, but only as
children; and even the Iroquois, arrogant as they
were, accepted the new relation. In their eyes
Frontenac was by far the greatest of all the
" Onontios," or governors of Canada. They ad-
paper will be found in the Decouvertes et Elablissements des Francois dans
PAiiie'ii'/iie Septentrionale; Memoires et Documents Originaux, edited by
M. Margry. The paper is very long, and contains references to attesta-
tions and other proofs which accompanied it, especially in regard to
the trade of the Jesuits.

70 FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEAU. [1682.

mired the prompt and fiery soldier who played
with their children, and gave beads and trinkets to
their wives ; who read their secret thoughts and
never feared them, but smiled on them when their
hearts were true, or frowned and threatened them
when they did amiss. The other tribes, allies of
the French, were of the same mind ; and their re-
spect for their Great Father seems not to have been
permanently impaired by his occasional practice of
bullying them for purposes of extortion.

Frontenac appears to have had a liking not only
for Indians, but also for that roving and lawless
class of the Canadian population, the coureurs de
hois, provided always that they were not in the
service of his rivals. Indeed, as regards the Cana-
dians generally, he refrained from the strictures
with which succeeding governors and intenclants
freely interlarded their despatches. It was not his
instinct to clash with the humbler classes, and he
generally reserved his anger for those who could
retort it.

He had the air of distinction natural to a man
familiar all his life with the society of courts, and
he was as gracious and winning on some occasions
as he was unbearable on others. When in good
humor, his ready wit and a certain sympathetic
vivacity made him very agreeable. At times he
was all sunshine, and his outrageous temper slum-
bered peacefully till some new offence wakened it
again ; nor is there much doubt that many of his
worst outbreaks were the work of his enemies, who
knew his foible, and studied to exasperate him.

1682.] DEPARTURE OF FRONTENAC. 71

He was full of contradictions ; and, intolerant and
implacable as he often was, there were intervals,
even in his bitterest quarrels, in which he displayed
a surprising moderation and patience. By fits he
could be magnanimous. A woman once brought
him a petition in burlesque verse. Frontenac
wrote a jocose answer. The woman, to ridicule
him, contrived to have both petition and answer
slipped among the papers of a suit pending before
the council. Frontenac had her fined a few francs,
and then caused the money to be given to her
children.1

When he sailed for France, it was a day of re-
joicing to more than half the merchants of Canada,
and, excepting the Recollets, to all the priests ;
but he left behind him an impression, very general
among the people, that, if danger threatened the
colony, Count Frontenac was the man for the
hour.

1 Note by Abbe Verreau, in Journal de I' Instruction Publique (Canada),
VIII. 127.

CHAPTER Y.

1682-1684.

LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE.

His Arrival at Quebec. — The Great Fire. — A Coming Storm. —
Iroquois Policy. — The Danger imminent. — Indian Allies of
France. — Frontenac and the Iroquois. — Boasts op La Barre.
His Past Life. — His Speculations. — He takes Alarm. — His
Dealings with the Iroquois. — His Illegal Trade. — His Col-
• league denounces him. — Fruits of his Schemes. — His Anger
and his Fears.

^YHEN the new governor, La Barre, and the new
intendant, Meules, arrived at Quebec, a dismal
greeting waited them. All the Lower Town was
in ashes, except the house of the merchant Aubert
de la Chesnaye, standing alone amid the wreck.
On a Tuesday, the fourth of August, at ten o'clock
in the evening, the nuns of the Hotel-Dieu were
roused from their early slumbers by shouts, out-
cries, and the ringing of bells ; " and," writes one
of them, " what was our terror to find it as light
as noonday, the flames burned so fiercely and rose
so high." Half an hour before, Chartier de Lot-
biniere, judge of the king's court, heard the first
alarm, ran clown the descent now called Mountain
Street, and found every thing in confusion in the
town below. The house of Etienne Planchon was
in a blaze ; the fire was spreading to those of his

1682.] THE GREAT EIRE. 73

neighbors, and had just leaped the narrow street
to the storehouse of the Jesuits. The season was
excessively dry ; there were no means of throwing
water except kettles and buckets, and the crowd
was bewildered with excitement and fright. Men
were ordered to tear off roofs and pull clown
houses ; but the flames drove them from their
work, and at four o'clock in the morning fifty-five
buildings were burnt to the ground. They were
all of wood, but many of them were storehouses
filled with goods ; and the property consumed was
more in value than all that remained in Canada.1

Under these gloomy auspices, Le Febvre de la
Barre began his reign. He was an old officer who
had achieved notable exploits against the English
in the West Indies, but who was now to be put to
a test far more severe. He made his lodging in
the chateau; while his colleague, Meules, could
hardly find a shelter. The buildings of the Upper
Town were filled with those whom the fire had
made roofless, and the intendant was obliged to
content himself with a house in the neighboring
woods. Here he was ill at ease, for he dreaded an
Indian war and the scalping-knives of the Iroquois.2

So far as his own safety was concerned, his
alarm was needless ; but not so as regarded the
colony with whose affairs he was charged. For
those who had eyes to see it, a terror and a
woe lowered in the future of Canada. In an evil

1 Chartier de Lotbiniere, Proces-verbal sur Vlncendie de la Basse Ville ;
Meides au Ministre, 6 Oct., 1682 ; Juchereau, Histoire de VHotel-Dieu de
Quebec, 256.

2 Meides au Ministre, 6 Oct., 1682.

74 LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1680-82.

hour for her, the Iroquois had conquered their
southern neighbors, the Andastes, who had long
held their ground against them, and at one time
threatened them with ruin. The hands of the
confederates were now free; their arrogance was
redoubled by victory, and, having long before
destroyed all the adjacent tribes on the north
and west,1 they looked for fresh victims in the
wilderness beyond. Their most easterly tribe,
the Mohawks, had not forgotten the chastise-
ment they had received from Tracy and Cour-
celle. They had learned to fear the French, and
were cautious in offending them ; but it was not
so with the remoter Iroquois. Of these, the Sen-
ecas at the western end of the " Long House,"
as they called their fivefold league, were by far
the most powerful, for they could muster as many
warriors as all the four remaining tribes to-
gether; and they now sought to draw the con-
federacy into a- series of wars, which, though not
directed against the French, threatened soon to
involve them. Their first movement westward
was against the tribes of the Illinois. I have al-
ready described their bloody inroad in the summer
of 1680.2 They made the valley of the Illinois a
desert, and returned with several hundred prison-
ers, of whom they burned those that were useless,
and incorporated the young and strong into their
own tribe.

This movement of the western Iroquois had a
double incentive, their love of fighting and their

1 Jesuits in North America. 2 Discovery of the Great West.

1680-82.] IROQUOIS POLICY. 75

love of gain. It was a war of conquest and of
trade. All the five tribes of the league had be-
come dependent on the English and Dutch of
Albany for guns, powder, lead, brandy, and many
other things that they had learned to regard as
necessities. Beaver skins alone could buy them,
but to the Iroquois the supply of beaver skins was
limited. The regions of the west and north-west, the
upper Mississippi with its tributaries, and, above
all, the forests of the upper lakes, were occupied by
tribes in the interest of the French, whose mission-
aries and explorers had been the first to visit them,
and whose traders controlled their immense annual
product of furs. La Salle, by his newly built fort
of St. Louis, engrossed the trade of the Illinois
and Miami tribes ; while the Hurons and Ottawas,
gathered about the old mission of Michillimackinac,
acted as factors for the Sioux, the Winnebagoes,
and many other remote hordes. Every summer
they brought down their accumulated beaver skins
to the fair at Montreal ; while French bush-rangers
roving through the wilderness, with or without
licenses, collected many more.1

It was the purpose of the Iroquois to master all
this traffic, conquer the tribes who had possession
of it, and divert the entire supply of furs to them-
selves, and through themselves to the English and
Dutch. That English and Dutch traders urged
them on is affirmed by the French, and is very
likely. The accomplishment of the scheme would

1 Duchesneau, Memoir on Western Indians in N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX.
160.

76 LE EEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1680-82.

have ruined Canada. Moreover, the Illinois, the
Hurons, the Ottawas, and all the other tribes
threatened by the Iroquois, were the allies and
" children " of the French, who in honor as in in-
terest were bound to protect them. Hence, when
the Seneca invasion of the Illinois became known,
there was deep anxiety in the colony, "except
only among those in whom hatred of the monop-
olist La Salle had overborne every consideration
of the public good. La Salle's new establishment
of St. Louis was in the path of the invaders;
and, if he could be crushed, there was where-
with to console his enemies for all else that might
ensue.

Bad as was the posture of affairs, it was made
far worse by an incident that took place soon after
the invasion of the Illinois. A Seneca chief en-
gaged in it, who had left the main body of his
countrymen, was captured by a party of Winne-
bagoes to serve as a hostage for some of their
tribe whom the Senecas had lately seized. They
carried him to Michillimackinac, where there
chanced to be a number of Illinois, married to
Indian women of that neighborhood. A quarrel
ensued between them and the Seneca, whom they
stabbed to death in a lodge of the Kiskakons, one
of the tribes of the Ottawas. Here was a casus belli
likely to precipitate a war fatal to all the tribes
about Michillimackinac, and equally fatal to the
trade of Canada. Frontenac set himself to conjure
the rising storm, and sent a messenger to the Iro-
quois to invite them to a conference.

1680-82.] THE INDIAN ALLIES. 77

He found them unusually arrogant. Instead of
coming to him, they demanded that he should come
to them, and many of the French wished him to
comply; but Frontenac refused, on the ground
that such a concession would add to their insolence,
and he declined to go farther than Montreal, or at
the utmost Fort Frontenac, the usual place of
meeting with them. Early in August he was at
Montreal, expecting the arrival of the Ottawas and
Hurons on their yearly descent from the lakes.
They soon appeared, and he called them to a
solemn council. Terror had seized them all.
" Father, take pity on us," said the Ottawa orator,
"for we are like dead men." A Huron chief,
named the Rat, declared that the world was turned
upside down, and implored the protection of Onon-
tio, " who is master of the whole earth." These
tribes were far from harmony among themselves.
Each was jealous of the other, and the Ottawas
charged the Hurons with trying to make favor with
the common enemy at their expense. Frontenac
told them that they were all his children alike, and
advised them to live together as brothers, and
make treaties of alliance with all the tribes of the
lakes. At the same time, he urged them to make
full atonement for the death of the Seneca mur-
dered in their country, and carefully to refrain
from any new offence.

Soon after there was another arrival. La Foret,
the officer in command at Fort Frontenac, appeared,
bringing with him a famous Iroquois chief called
Decanisora or Tegannisorens, attended by a num-

78 LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1680-82.

ber of warriors. They came to invite Frontenac
to meet the deputies of the five tribes at Oswego,
within their own limits. Frontenac's reply was
characteristic. "It is for the father to tell the
children where to hold council, not for the chil-
dren to tell the father. Fort Frontenac is the
proper place, and you should thank me for going
so far every summer to meet you." The Iroquois
had expressed pacific intentions towards the Hurons
and Ottawas. For this Frontenac commended him,
but added : " The Illinois also are children of Onon-
tio, and hence brethren of the Iroquois. There-
fore they, too, should be left in peace ; for Onontio
wishes that all his family should live together in
union." He confirmed his words with a huge belt
of wampum. Then, addressing the flattered deputy
as a great chief, he desired him to use his influence
in behalf of peace, and gave him a jacket and a
silk cravat, both trimmed with gold, a hat, a scarlet
ribbon, and a gun, with beads for his wife, and red
cloth for his daughter. The Iroquois went home
delighted.1

Perhaps on this occasion Frontenac was too con-
fident of his influence over the savage confederates.
Such at least was the opinion of Lamberville, Jesuit
missionary at Onondaga, the Iroquois capital. From
what he daily saw around him, he thought the peril
so imminent that concession on the part of the
French was absolutely necessary, since not only
the Illinois, but some of the tribes of the lakes, were
in danger of speedy and complete destruction.

1 For the papers on this affair, see N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX.

1682.] HIS BOASTS. 79

" Tegannisorens loves the French," he wrote to
Frontenac, " but neither he nor any other of the
upper Iroquois fear them in the least. They anni-
hilate our allies, whom by adoption of prisoners
they convert into Iroquois ; and they do not hesi-
tate to avow that after enriching themselves by our
plunder, and strengthening themselves by those
who might have aided us, they will pounce all at
once upon Canada, and overwhelm it in a single
campaign." He acids that within the past two
years they have reinforced themselves by more
than nine hundred warriors, adopted into their
tribes.1

Such was the crisis when Frontenac left Canada
at the moment when he was needed most, and
Le Febvre de la Barre came to supplant him. The
new governor introduces himself with a burst of
rhoclomontade. " The Iroquois," he writes to the
king, " have twenty-six hundred warriors. I will
attack them with twelve hundred men. They
know me before seeing me, for they have been
told by the English how roughly I handled them
in the West Indies." This bold note closes rather
tamely ; for the governor acids, " I think that if the
Iroquois believe that your Majesty would have the
goodness to give me some help, they will make
peace, and let our allies alone, which would save
the trouble and expense of an arduous war." 2 He
then begs hard for troops, and in fact there was
great need of them, for there were none in Canada ;

1 P. Jean de LamberviUe a Frontenac, 20 Sept., 1682.

2 La Barre au Roy, (4 Oct. ?) 1682.

80 LE EEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1682.

and even Frontenac had been compelled in the last
year of his government to leave unpunished various
acts of violence and plunder committed by the
Iroquois. La Barre painted the situation in its
blackest colors, declared that war was imminent,
and wrote to the minister, " We shall lose half our
trade and all our reputation, if we do not oppose
these haughty conquerors." !

A vein of gasconade appears in most of his let-
ters, not however accompanied with any conclusive
evidence of a real wish to fight. His best fighting
days were past, for he was sixty years old ; nor
had he always been a man of the sword. His early
life was spent in the law ; he had held a judicial
post, and had been intendant of several French
jDrovinces. Even the military and naval employ-
ments, in which he afterwards acquitted himself
with credit, were due to the part he took in form-
ing a joint-stock company for colonizing Cayenne.2
In fact, he was but half a soldier ; and it was per-
haps for this reason that he insisted on being called,
not Monsieur le Gouvemeur, but Monsieur le
General. He wras equal to Frontenac neither in
vigor nor in rank, but he far surpassed him in
avidity. Soon after his arrival, he wrote to the
minister that he should not follow the example of

1 La Barre a Seignelay, 1682.

2 He was made governor of Cayenne, and went thither with Tracy in
1664. Two years later, he gained several victories over the English,
and recaptured Cayenne, which they had taken in his absence. He
wrote a hook concerning this colony, called Description de la France
E'juinoctiale. Another volume, called Journal du Voyage da Sieur de la
Barre en la Terre Ferine et Isle de Cayenne, was printed at Paris in 1671.

1682.] HIS SPECULATIONS. 81

Iiis predecessors in making money out of his gov-
ernment by trade ; and in consideration of these
good intentions he asked for an addition to his
pay.1 He then immediately made alliances with
certain merchants of Quebec for carrying on an
extensive illicit trade, backed by all the power of
his office. Now ensued a strange and miserable com-
plication. Questions of war mingled with ques-
tions of personal gain. There was a commercial
revolution in the colony. The merchants whom
Frontenac excluded from his ring now had their
turn. It was they who, jointly with the intendant
and the ecclesiastics, had procured the removal of
the old governor ; and it was they who gained the
ear of the new one. Aubert de la Chesnaye,
Jacques Le Ber, and the rest of their faction, now
basked in official favor; and La Salle, La Foret,
and the other friends of Frontenac, were cast out.
There was one exception. Greysolon Du Lhut,
leader of coureurs de bois, was too important to be
thus set aside. He was now as usual in the wilder-
ness of the north, the roving chief of a half sav-
age crew, trading, exploring, fighting, and laboring
with persistent hardihood to foil the rival English
traders of Hudson's Bay. Inducements to gain his
adhesion were probably held out to him by La
Barre and his allies : be this as it may, it is certain
that he acted in harmony with the faction of the
new governor. With La Foret it was widely dif-
ferent. He commanded Fort Frontenac, winch
belonged to La Salle, when La Barre's associates,

1 La Barre a Seignelay, 1682.

82 LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1682.

La Chesnaye and Le Ber, armed with an order
from the governor, came up from Montreal, and
seized upon the place with all that it contained.
The pretext for this outrage was the false one that
La Salle had not fulfilled the conditions under
which the fort had been granted to him. La Foret
was told that he might retain his command, if he
would join the faction of La Barre ; but he refused,
stood true to his chief, and soon after sailed for
France.

La Barre summoned the most able and experi-
enced persons in the colony to discuss the state of
affairs. Their conclusion was that the Iroquois
would attack and destroy the Illinois, and, this
accomplished, turn upon the tribes of the lakes,
conquer or destroy them also, and ruin the trade
of Canada.1 Dark as was the prospect, La Barre
and his fellow-speculators flattered themselves that
the war could be averted for a year at least.
The Iroquois owed their triumphs as much to
their sagacity and craft as to their extraordinary
boldness and ferocity. It had always been their
policy to attack their enemies in detail, and while
destroying one to cajole the rest. There seemed
little doubt that they would leave the tribes of the
lakes in peace till they had finished the ruin of the
Illinois ; so that if these, the allies of the colony,
were abandoned to their fate, there would be time
for a profitable trade in the direction of Michilli-
mackinac.

1 Conference on the State of Affairs with the Iroquois, Oct., 1682, in
N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX. 194.

1G83.] HE TAKES ALARM. 83

But hopes seemed vain and prognostics illusory,
when, early in spring, a report came that the
Seneca Iroquois were preparing to attack, in force,
not only the Illinois, but the Hurons and Ottawas
of the lakes. La Barre and his confederates were
in dismay. They already had large quantities of
goods at Michillimackinac, the point immediately
threatened ; and an officer was hastily despatched,
with men and munitions, to strengthen the de-
fences of the place.1 A small vessel was sent to
France with letters begging for troops. " I will
perish at their head," wrote La Barre to the king,
" or destroy your enemies ; " 2 and he assures
the minister that the Senecas must be attacked or
the country abandoned.3 The intend ant, Meules,
shared something of his alarm, and informed the king
that " the Iroquois are the only people on earth
who do not know the grandeur of your Majesty." 4

While thus appealing to the king, La Barre sent
Charles le Moyne as envoy to Onondaga. Through
his influence, a deputation of forty-three Iroquois
chiefs was sent to meet the governor at Montreal.
Here a grand council was held in the newly built
church. Presents were given the deputies to the
value of more than two thousand crowns. Sooth-
ing speeches were made them ; and they were
urged not to attack the tribes of the lakes, nor
to plunder French traders, without permission.5

1 La Barre au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1683.

2 La Barre au Boy, 30 Mai, 1683.

3 La Barre au Ministre, 30 Mai, 1683.
* Meuks au Roy, 2 Juin, 1683.

6 Soon after La Barre's arrival, La Chesnaye is said to have induced

84 LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1683.

They assented ; and La Barre then asked, timidly,
why they made war on the Illinois. " Because they
deserve to die," haughtily returned the Iroquois
orator. La Barre dared not answer. They com-
plained that La Salle had given guns, powder, and
lead to the Illinois ; or, in other words, that he had
helped the allies of the colony to defend them-
selves. La Barre, who hated La Salle and his
monopolies, assured them that he should be pun-
ished.1 It is affirmed, on good authority, that he
said more than this, and told them they were wel-
come to plunder and kill him.2 The rapacious old
man was playing with a two-edged sword.

Thus the Illinois, with the few Frenchmen who
had tried to defend them, were left to perish ;
and, in return, a brief and doubtful respite was
gained for the tribes of the lakes. La Barre and
his confederates took heart again. Merchandise,
in abundance, was sent to Michillimackinac, and
thence to the remoter tribes of the north and
west. The governor and his partner, La Ches-
naye, sent up a fleet of thirty canoes ; 3 and, a

him to urge the Iroquois to plunder all traders who were not provided
with passports from the governor. The Iroquois complied so promptly,
that they stopped and pillaged, at Niagara, two canoes belonging to La
Chesnaye himself, which had gone up the lakes in Frontenac's time,
and therefore were without passports. Recueil de ce qui s'est passe en
Canada an Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis Vanne'e 1682. (Published by the
Historical Society of Quebec.) This was not the only case in which the
weapons of La Barre and his partisans recoiled against themselves.

1 Belmont, Histoiredu Canada (a contemporary chronicle).

2 See Discovery of the Great West. La Barre denies the assertion,
and says that he merely told the Iroquois that La Salle should be sent
home.

3 Me'moire adresse' a MM. les Inte'resse's en la SocieUe' de la Ferme el
Commerce du Canada, 1683.

1683.] MEULES DENOUNCES HIM. 85

little later, they are reported to have sent more
than a hundred. This forest trade robbed the
colonists, by forestalling the annual market of
Montreal ; while a considerable part of the furs
acquired by it were secretly sent to the English
and' Dutch of New York. Thus the heavy duties
of the custom-house at Quebec were evaded ; and
silver coin was received in payment, instead of
questionable bills of exchange.1 Frontenac had
not been faithful to his trust ; but, compared to his
successor, he was a model of official virtue.

La Barre busied himself with ostentatious prepa-
ration for war ; built vessels at Fort Frontenac,
and sent up fleets of canoes, laden or partly laden
with munitions. . But his accusers say that the
king's canoes were used to transport the governor's
goods, and that the men sent to garrison Fort
Frontenac were destined, not to fight the Iroquois,
but to sell them brandy. " Last year," writes the
intenclant, " Monsieur cle la Barre had a vessel
built, for which he made his Majesty pay heavily ; "
and he proceeds to say that it was built for trade,
and was used for no other purpose. " If," he
continues, " the two ( k ing's) vessels now at Fort
Frontenac had not been used for trading, they
would have saved us half the expense we have
been forced to incur in transporting munitions
and supplies. The pretended necessity of having
vessels at this fort, and the consequent employing

1 These statements are made in a memorial of the agents of the
custom-house, in letters of Meules, and in several other quarters. La
Barre is accused of sending furs to Albany under pretext of official
communication with the governor of New York.

86 LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1683-84.

of carpenters, and sending up of iron, cordage,
sails, and many other things, at his Majesty's
charge, was simply in the view of carrying on
trade." He says, farther, that in May last, the
vessels, canoes, and men being nearly all absent on
this errand, the fort was left in so defenceless a
state that a party of Senecas, returning from their
winter hunt, took from it a quantity of goods, and
drank as much brandy as they wanted. " In
short," he concludes, " it is plain that Monsieur de
la Barre uses this fort only as a depot for the trade
of Lake Ontario." *

In the spring of 1683, La Barre had taken a
step as rash as it was lawless and unjust. He sent
the Chevalier de Baugis, lieutenant of his guard,
with a considerable number of canoes and men, to
seize La Salle's fort of St. Louis on the river Illinois ;
a measure which, while gratifying the passions
and the greed of himself and his allies, would
greatly increase the clanger of rupture with the
Iroquois. Late in the season, he despatched seven
canoes and fourteen men, with goods to the value
of fifteen or sixteen thousand livres, to trade with
the tribes of the Mississippi. As he had sown, so
he reaped. The seven canoes passed through the
country of the Illinois. A large war party of
Senecas and Cayugas invaded it in February.
La Barre had told their chiefs that they were wel-
come to plunder the canoes of La Salle. The
Iroquois were not discriminating. They fell upon

1 Meules a Seignelay, 8 July, 1684. This accords perfectly with state-
ments made in several memorials of La Salle and his friends.

1684.] HIS ANGER AND HIS FEARS. 87

the governor's canoes, seized all the goods, and
captured the men.1 Then they attacked Baugis
at Fort St. Louis. The place, perched on a rock,
was strong, and they were beaten oft: ; but the act
was one of open war.

When La Barre heard the news, he was furious.2
He trembled for the vast amount of goods which
he and his fellow-speculators had sent to Michilli-
mackinac and the lakes. There was but one re-
source : to call out the militia, muster the Indian
allies, advance to Lake Ontario, and dictate peace
to the Senecas, at the head of an imposing force ;
or, failing in this, to attack and crush them. A
small vessel lying at Quebec was clesjmtched to
France, with urgent appeals for immediate aid,
though there was little hope that it could arrive
in time. She bore a long letter, half piteous, half
bombastic, from La Barre to the king. He de-
clared that extreme necessity and the despair of
the people had forced him into war, and protested
that he should always think it a privilege to lay
down life for his Majesty. " I cannot refuse to
your country of Canada, and your faithful sub-
jects, to throw myself, with unequal forces, against

1 There appears no doubt that La Barre brought this upon himself.
His successor, Denonville, writes that the Iroquois declared that, in
plundering the canoes, they thought they were executing the orders they
had received to plunder La Salle's people. Denonville, Me'moire adresst
au Ministre sur les Affaires de la Nouvelle France, 10 Aout, 1688. The
Iroquois told Dongan, in 1684, "that they had not don any thing to
the French but what Monsr. delaBarr Ordered them, which was that
if they mett with any French hunting without his passe to take what
they had from them." Dongan to Denonville, 9 Sept., 1687.

2 " Ce qui mit M. de la Barre en fureur." Belmont, Histoire du
Canada.

88 LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1684.

the foe, while at the same time begging your aid
for a poor, unhappy people on the point of falling
victims to a nation of barbarians." He says that
the total number of men in Canada capable of
bearing arms is about two thousand ; that he re-
ceived last year a hundred and fifty raw recruits ;
and that he wants, in addition, seven or eight hun-
dred good soldiers. " Eecall me," he concludes, " if
you will not help me, for I cannot bear to see the
country perish in my hands." At the same time,
he declares his intention to attack the Senecas,
with or without help, about the middle of August.1
Here we leave him, for a while, scared, excited,
and blustering.

1 La Barre au Roy, 5 Juin, 1684.

CHAPTER VI.

1684.

LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS.

Dongan. — New York and its Indian Neighbors. — The Rival
Governors. — Dongan and the Iroquois. — Mission to Onon-
daga.— An Iroquois Politician. — Warnings of Lamberville.

— Iroquois Boldness. — La Barre takes the Field. — His
Motives. — The March. — Pestilence. — Council at La Famine.

— The Iroquois defiant. — Humiliation of La Barre. —The
Indian Allies. — Their Rage and Disappointment. — Recall
of La Barre.

The Dutch colony of New Netherland had now
become the English colony of New York. Its
proprietor, the Duke of York, afterwards James II.
of England, had appointed Colonel Thomas Dongan
its governor. He was a Catholic Irish gentleman
of high rank, nephew of the famous Earl of Tyr-
connel, and presumptive heir to the earldom of
Limerick. He had served in France, was familiar
with its language, and partial to its king and its
nobility ; but he nevertheless gave himself with
vigor to the duties of his new trust.

The Dutch and English colonists aimed at a
share in the western fur trade, hitherto a monopoly
of Canada ; and it is said that Dutch traders had
already ventured among the tribes of the Great
Lakes, boldly poaching on the French preserves.

90 LA BAKRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

Dongan did liis utmost to promote their interests,
so far at least as was consistent with his instruc-
tions from the Duke of York, enjoining him to
give the French governor no just cause of offence.1

For several years past, the Iroquois had made
forays against the borders of Maryland and Vir-
ginia, plundering and killing the settlers ; and a
declared rupture between those colonies and the
savage confederates had more than once been im-
minent. The English believed that these hostili-
ties were instigated by the Jesuits in the Iroquois
villages. There is no proof whatever of the ac-
cusation ; but it is certain that it was the interest
of Canada* to provoke a war which might, sooner
or later, involve New York. In consequence of a
renewal of such attacks, Lord Howard of Effing-
ham, governor of Virginia, came to Albany in the
summer of 1684, to hold a council with the Iro-
quois.

The Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas were the
offending tribes. They all promised friendship for
the future. A hole was dug in the court-yard of
the council house, each of the three threw a hatchet
into it, and Lord Howard and the representative of

i Sir John Werden to Dongan, 4 Dec, 1684 ; iV. Y. Col. Docs., III.
353. Werden was the duke's secretary.

Dongan has been charged with instigating the Iroquois to attack the
French. The Jesuit Lamberville, writing from Onondaga, says, on the
contrary, that he hears that the " governor of New England (New York),
when the Mohawk chiefs asked him to continue the sale of powder to
them, replied that it should be continued so long as they would not make
war on Christians." Lamberville a La Barre, 10 Fev., 1684.

The French ambassador at London complained that Dongan excited
the Iroquois to war, and Dongan denied the charge. N. Y. Col. Docs.,
III. 506, 509.

1084.] ENGLISH AND IROQUOIS. 91

Maryland added two others ; then the hole was
filled, the song of peace was sung, and the high
contracting parties stood pledged to mutual accord.1
The Mohawks were also at the council, and the
Senecas soon after arrived ; so that all the confed-
eracy was present by its deputies. Not long before,
La Barre, then in the heat of his martial prepara-
tions, had sent a messenger to Don^an with a let-
ter, informing him that, as the Senecas and Cayugas
had plundered French canoes and assaulted a
French fort, he was compelled to attack them, and
begging that the Dutch and English colonists should
be forbidden to supply them with arms.2 This
letter produced two results, neither of them agree-
able to the writer : first, the Iroquois were fully
warned of the designs of the French ; and, secondly,
Dongan gained the opportunity he wanted of as-
serting the claim of his king to sovereignty over
the confederacy, and possession of the whole
country south of the Great Lakes. He added
that, if the Iroquois had done wrong, he would re-
quire them, as British subjects, to make reparation ;
and he urged La Barre, for the sake of peace be-
tween the two colonies, to refrain from his intended
invasion of British territory.3

Dongan next laid before the assembled sachems
the complaints made against them in the letter of
La Barre. They replied by accusing the French
of carrying arms to their enemies, the Illinois and

1 Report of Conferences at Albany, in Colden, History of the Five
Nations, 50 (ed. 1727, Shea's reprint).

2 La Barre a Dongan, 15 Jain, 1684.

3 Donyan a La Barre, 24 Juin, 1684.

92 LA BAKRE AXD THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

the Miamis. " Onontio," said their orator, " calls
us his children, and then helps our enemies to
knock us in the head." They were somewhat
disturbed at the prospect of La Barre's threatened
attack ; and Dongan seized the occasion to draw
from them an acknowledgment of subjection to the
Duke of York, promising in return that they should
be protected from the French. They did not hesi-
tate. "We put ourselves," said the Iroquois
speaker, " under the great sachem Charles, who
lives over the Great Lake, and under the protection
of the great Duke of York, brother of your great
sachem." But he added a moment after, " Let your
friend [King Charles) who lives over the Great
Lake know that we are a free people, though
united to the English." ] They consented that the
arms of the Duke of York should be planted in
their villages, being told that this would prevent
the French from destroying them. Dongan now
insisted that they should make no treaty with
Ouontio without his consent ; and he promised that,
if their country should be invaded, he would send
four hundred horsemen and as many foot soldiers
to their aid.

As for the acknowledgment of subjection to the
king and the Duke of York, the Iroquois neither
understood its full meaning nor meant to abide by
it. What they did clearly understand was that,
while they recognized Onontio, the governor of
Canada, as their father, they recognized Cor-

1 Speech of the Onondagas and Cayugas, in Colden, Five Nations, 63
(1727).

1684.] MISSION TO ONONDAGA. 93

laer, the governor of New York, only as their
brother.1 Dongan, it seems, could not, or dared
not, change this mark of equality. He did his best,
however, to make good his claims, and sent Arnold
Yiele, a Dutch interpreter, as his envoy to Onon-
daga. Yiele set out for the Iroquois capital, and
thither we will follow him.

He mounted his horse, and in the heats of
August rode westward along the valley of the
Mohawk. On a hill a bow-shot from the river, he
saw the first Mohawk town, Kaghnawaga, encircled
by a strong palisade. Next he stopped for a time
at Gandagaro, on a meadow near the bank ; and
next, at Canajora, on a plain two miles away.
Tionondogue, the last and strongest of these forti-
fied villages, stood like the first on a hill that over-
looked the river, and all the rich meadows around
were covered with Indian corn. The largest of
the four contained but thirty houses, and all to-
gether could furnish scarcely more than three
hundred warriors.2

When the last Mohawk town was passed, a ride
of four or five days still lay before the envoy. He
held his Avay along the old Indian trail, now traced
through the grass of sunny meadoAvs, and now tun-
nelled through the dense green of shady forests,
till it led him to the town of the Oneidas, contain-

1 Except the small tribe of the Oneidas, who addressed Corlaer as
Father. Corlaer was the official Iroquois name of the governor of New
York ; Onas (the Feather, or Pen), that of the governor of Pennsylvania ;
and Assarigoa (the Big Knife, or Sword), that of the governor of Vir-
ginia. Corlaer, or Cuyler, was the name of a Dutchman whom the
Iroquois held in great respect.

2 Journal of Wentworth Greenhak/h, 1677, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 250.

94 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

ing about a hundred bark houses, with twice as
many fighting men, the entire force of the tribe.
Here, as in the four Mohawk villages, he planted
the scutcheon of the Duke of York, and, still ad-
vancing, came at length to a vast open space where
the rugged fields, patched with growing corn,
sloped upwards into a broad, low hill, crowned with
the clustered lodges of Onondaga. There were
from one to two hundred of these large bark dwell-
ings, most of them holding several families. The
capital of the confederacy was not fortified at
this time, and its only defence was the valor of
some four hundred warriors.1

In this focus of trained and organized savagery,
where ferocity was cultivated as a virtue, and every
emotion of pity stifled as unworthy of a man ; where
ancient rites, customs, and traditions were held
with the tenacity of a people who joined the
extreme of wildness with the extreme of con-
servatism, — here burned the council fire of the
five confederate tribes ; and here, in time of need,
were gathered their bravest and their wisest to
debate high questions of policy and war.

The object of Yiele was to confirm the Iroquois
in their very questionable attitude of subjection
to the British crown, and persuade them to make
no treaty or agreement with the French, except
through the intervention of Dongan, or at least

i Journal of Greenhalgh. The site of Onondaga, like that of all the
Iroquois towns, was changed from time to time, as the soil of the
neighborhood became impoverished, and the supply of wood exhausted.
Greenhalgh, in 1677, estimated the warriors at three hundred and fifty;
but the number had increased of late by the adoption of prisoners.

1684.] AN IROQUOIS POLITICIAN. 95

with his consent. The envoy found two French-
men in the town, whose presence boclecl ill to his
errand. The first was the veteran colonist of Mon-
treal, Charles le Moyne, sent by La Barre to invite
the Ononclagas to a conference. They had known
him, in peace or war, for a quarter of a century ;
and they greatly respected him. The other was
the Jesuit Jean de Lamberville, who had long
lived among them, and knew them better than
they knew themselves. Here, too, was another
personage who cannot pass unnoticed. He was a
famous Onondaga orator named Otreouati, and
called also Big Mouth, whether by reason of the
dimensions of that feature or the greatness of the
wisdom that issued from it. His contemporary,
Baron La Hontan, thinking perhaps that his
French name of La Grande Gueule was wanting
in dignity, Latinized it into Grangula ; and the
Scotchman, Golden, afterwards improved it into
Garangula, under which high-sounding appellation
Big Mouth has descended to posterity. He was
an astute old savage, well trained in the arts of
Iroquois rhetoric, and gifted with the power of
strong and caustic sarcasm, which has marked
more than one of the chief orators of the confeder-
acy. He shared with most of his countrymen the
conviction that the earth had nothing so great as
the league of the Iroquois ; but, if he could be
proud and patriotic, so too he could be selfish and
mean. He valued gifts, attentions, and a good
meal, and would pay for them abundantly in
promises, which he kept or not, as his own interests

96 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

or those of his people might require. He could
use bold and loud words in public, and then secretly
make his peace with those he had denounced.
He was so given to rough jokes that the intenclant,
Meules, calls him a buffoon ; but his buffoonery
seems to have been often a cover to his craft.
He had taken a prominent part in the council of
the preceding summer at Montreal ; and, doubt-
less, as he stood in full dress before the governor
and the officers, his head plumed, his face painted,
his figure draped in a colored blanket, and his
feet decked with embroidered moccasins, he was a
picturesque and striking object. He was less so
as he squatted almost naked by his lodge fire, with
a piece of board laid across his lap, chopping rank
tobacco with a scalping-knife to fill his pipe, and
entertaining the grinning circle with grotesque
stories and obscene jests. Though not one of the
hereditary chiefs, his influence was great. " He
has the strongest head and the loudest voice
among the Iroquois," wrote Lamberville to La
Barre. aHe calls himself your best friend. . . .
He is a venal creature, whom you clo well to keep
in pay. I assured him I would send him the jerkin
you promised." 1 Well as the Jesuit knew the
Iroquois, he was deceived if he thought that Big
Mouth was securely won.

Lamberville's constant effort was to prevent a
rupture. He wrote with every opportunity to the
governor, painting the calamities that war would

1 Letters of Lamberville in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. For specimens of
Big Mouth's skill in drawing, see ibid., IX. 886.

1684.] WARNINGS OF LAMBERVILLE. 97

bring, and warning him that it was vain to hope
that the league could be divided, and its three
eastern tribes kept neutral, while the Senecas
were attacked. He assured him, on the contrary,
that they would all unite to fall upon Canada,
ravaging, burning, and butchering along the whole
range of defenceless settlements. " You cannot
believe, Monsieur, with what joy the Senecas
learned that you might possibly resolve on war.
When they heard of the preparations at Fort
Frontenac, they said that the French had a great
mind to be stripped, roasted, and eaten ; and that
they will see if their flesh, which they suppose to
have a salt taste, by reason of the salt which we
use with our food, be as good as that of their other
enemies." * Lamberville also informs the gover-
nor that the Senecas have made ready for any
emergency, buried their last year's corn, pre-
pared a hiding place in the depth of the forest for
their old men, women, and children, and stripped
their towns of every thing that they value ; and
that their fifteen hundred warriors will not shut
themselves up in forts, but light under cover,
among trees and in the tall grass, with little risk
to themselves and extreme danger to the invader.
" There is no profit," he says, " in fighting with
this sort of banditti, whom you cannot catch, but
who will catch many of your people. The Onon-
clagas wish to bring about an agreement. Must
the father and the children, they ask, cut each
other's throats?"

1 Lamberville to La Barre, 11 July, 1684, in N. Y. Col Does., IX. 253.

'7

98 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1084.

The Onondagas, moved by the influence of the
Jesuit and the gifts of La Barre, did in fact wish
to act as mediators between their Seneca confeder-
ates and the French ; and to this end they invited
the Seneca elders to a council. The meeting took
place before the arrival of Viele, and lasted two
days. The Senecas were at first refractory, and
hot for war, but at length consented that the
Onondagas might make peace for them, if they
could ; a conclusion which was largely due to the
eloquence of Big Mouth.

The first act of Viele was a blunder. He told
the Onondagas that the English governor was
master of their country ; and that, as they were
subjects of the king of England, they must hold
no council with the French without permission.
The pride of Big Mouth was touched. " You
say," he exclaimed to the envoy, " that we are
subjects of the king of England and the Duke of
York ; but we say that we are brothers. We must
take care of ourselves. The coat of arms which
you have fastened to that post cannot defend us
against Onontio. We tell you that we shall bind a
covenant chain to our arm and to his. We shall
take the Senecas by one hand and Onontio by the
other, and their hatchet and his sword shall be
thrown into deep water."1

Thus well and manfully did Big Mouth assert
the independence of his tribe, and proclaim it
the arbiter of peace. He told the warriors, more-
over, to close their ears to the words of the Dutch-

1 Colden, Five Nations, 80 (1727).

1684.] LA BARRE TAKES THE FIELD. 99

man, who spoke as if he were drunk ; * and it was
resolved at last that he, Big Mouth, with an em-
bassy of chiefs and elders, should go with Le
Moyne to meet the French governor.

While these things were passing at Onondaga,
La Barre had finished his preparations, and was
now in full campaign. Before setting out, he had
written to the minister that he was about to ad-
vance on the enemy, with seven hundred Cana-
dians, a hundred and thirty regulars, and two hun-
dred mission Indians ; that more Indians were to
join him on the way ; that Du Lhut and La Duran-
taye were to meet him at Niagara with a body of
coiireurs cle bois and Indians from the interior ;
and that, " when we are all united, we will perish
or destroy the enemy."2 On the same day, he
wrote to the king : " My purpose is to exterminate
the Senecas ; for otherwise your Majesty need
take no farther account of this country, since there
is no hope of peace with them, except when they
are driven to it by force. I pray you do not
abandon me ; and be assured that I shall do my
duty at the head of your faithful colonists." 3

A few days after writing these curiously inco-
herent epistles, La Barre received a letter from his
colleague, Meules, who had no belief that he meant
to fight, and was determined to compel him to do
so, if possible. " There is a report," wrote the
intendant, " that you mean to make peace. It is
doing great harm. Our Indian allies will despise

1 LamberviUe to La Barre, 28 Aug., 1684, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 257.

2 La Barre au Ministre, 9 July, 1684.

3 La Barre au Roy, meme date.

100 LA BAKTCE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

us. I trust the story is untrue, and that 3-011 will
listen to no overtures. The expense has been
enormous. The whole population is roused." l
Not satisfied with this, Meules sent the general
a second letter, meant, like the first, as a tonic
and a stimulant. " If Ave come to terms with
the Iroquois, without first making them feel the
strength of our arms, we may expect that, in
future, they will do every thing they can to
humiliate us, because we drew the sword against
them, and showed them our teeth. I do not think
that any course is now left for us but to carry the
war to their very doors, and do our utmost to
reduce them to such a point that they shall never
again be heard of as a nation, but only as our sub-
jects and slaves. If, after having gone so far, we
do not fight them, we shall lose all our trade, and
bring this country to the brink of ruin. The
Iroquois, and especially the Senecas, pass for great
cowards. The Eeverencl Father Jesuit, who is at
Prairie de la Madeleine, told me as much yester-
day ; and, though he has never been among them,
he assured me that he has heard everybody say
so. But, even if they were brave, we ought to be
very glad of it ; since then we could hope that
they would wait our attack, and give us a chance
to beat them. If we do not destroy them, they
will destroy us. I think you see but too well that
your honor and the safety of the country are
involved in the results of this war."2

1 MevJes a La Barre, 15 July, 1684.

2 Meules a La Barre, 14 Aout, 1684. This and the preceding letter
stand, by a copyist's error, in the name of La Barre. They are certainly
written by Meules.

1681] ACCUSATIONS OF MEULES. 101

While Meules thus wrote to the governor, he
wrote also to the minister, Seignelay, and expressed
his views with great distinctness. " I feel bound
in conscience to tell you that nothing was ever
heard of so extraordinary as what we see done in
this country every day. One would think that
there was a divided empire here between the king
and the governor ; and, if things should go on long
in this way, the governor would have a far greater
share than his Majesty. The persons whom Mon-
sieur la Barre has sent this year to trade at Fort
Frontenac have already shared with him from ten
to twelve thousand crowns." He then recounts
numerous abuses and malversations on the part of
the governor. " In a word, Monseigneur, this
war has been decided upon in the cabinet of Mon-
sieur the general, along with six of the chief mer-
chants of the country. If it had not served their
plans, he would have found means to settle every
thing ; but the merchants made him understand
that they were in danger of being plundered, and
that, having an immense amount of merchandise
in the woods in nearly two hundred canoes fitted
out last year, it was better to make use of the
people ,of the country to carry on war against the
Senecas. This being clone, he hopes to make ex-
traordinary profits without any risk, because one
of two things will happen : either we shall gain
some considerable advantage over the savages, as
there is reason to hope, if Monsieur the general
will but attack them in their villages ; or else we
shall make a peace which will keep every thing

102 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

»

safe for a time. These are assuredly the sole
motives of this war, which has for principle and
end nothing but mere interest. He says himself
that there is good fishing in troubled waters.1

" With all our preparations for war, and all the
expense in which Monsieur the general is involving
his Majesty, I will take the liberty to tell you,
Monseigneur, though I am no prophet, that I dis-
cover no disposition on the part of Monsieur the
general to make war against the aforesaid savages.
In my belief, he will content himself with going in
a canoe as far as Fort Frontenac, and then send
for the Senecas to treat of peace with them, and
deceive the people, the intendant, and, if I may
be allowed with all possible respect to say so, his
Majesty himself.

" P. S. — I will finish this letter, Monseigneur,
by telling you that he set out yesterday, July 10th,
with a detachment of two hundred men. All
Quebec was filled with grief to see him embark
on an expedition of war tete-a-tete with the man
named La Chesnaye. Everybody says that the
war is a sham, that these two will arrange every

1 The famous voyageur, Nicolas Perrot, agrees with the intendant.
" lis (La Barre et ses associe's) s'imaginerent que sitost que le Francois
vienclroit a paroistre, PIrroquois luy demanderoit misericorde, qu'il seroit
facile d'establir des magasins, construiredes barques dans le lac Ontario,
et que c'estoit un moyen de trouver des richesses." Me'moire star les
Mcmrs, Coustumes, et Relligion des Sauvages, chap. xxi.

The Sulpitian, Abbe Belmont, says that the avarice of the merchants
was the cause of the war ; that they and La Barre wished to prevent the
Iroquois from interrupting trade ; and that La Barre aimed at an indem-
nity for the sixteen hundred livres in merchandise which the Senecas
had taken from his canoes early in the year. Belmont adds that he
wanted to bring them to terms without fighting.

1684.] THE MARCH. 103

thing between them, and, in a word, do whatever
will help their trade. The whole country is in
despair to see how matters are managed." *

After a long stay at Montreal, La Barre em-
barked his little army at La Chine, crossed Lake
St. Louis, and began the ascent of the upper St.
Lawrence. In one of the three companies of
regulars which formed a part of the force was a
young subaltern, the Baron la Hontan, who has
left a lively account of the expedition. Some of
the men were in flat boats, and some were in birch
canoes. Of the latter was La Hontan, whose craft
was paddled by three Canadians. Several times
they shouldered it through the forest to escape the
turmoil of the rapids. The flat boats could not
be so handled, and were dragged or pushed up
in the shallow water close to the bank, by gangs
of militia men, toiling and struggling among the
rocks and foam. The regulars, unskilled in such
matters, were spared these fatigues, though tor-
mented night and clay by swarms of gnats and
mosquitoes, objects of La Hontan's bitterest invec-
tive. At length the last rapid was passed, and they
moved serenely on their way, threaded the mazes
of the Thousand Islands, entered what is now the
harbor of Kingston, and landed under the palisades
of Fort Frontenac.

Here the whole force was soon assembled, the
regulars in their tents, the Canadian militia and
the Indians in huts and under sheds of bark. Of
these reel allies there were several hundred : Abe-

1 Meuhs au Ministre, 8-11 Juillet, 1681.

104 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

nakis and Algon quins from Sillery, Hurons from
Lorette, and converted Iroquois from the Jesuit
mission of Saut St. Louis, near Montreal. The
camp of the French was on a low, clamp plain near
the fort ; and here a malarious fever presently
attacked them, killing many and disabling many
more. La Hon tan says that La Barre himself was
brought by it to the brink of the grave. If he had
ever entertained any other purpose than that of
inducing the Senecas to agree to a temporary
peace, he now completely abandoned it. He dared
not even insist that the offending tribe should meet
him in council, but hastened to ask the mediation
of the Ononclagas, which the letters of Lamberville
had assured him that they were disposed to offer.
He sent Le Moyne to persuade them to meet him
on their own side of the lake, and, with such of his
men as were able to move, crossed to the mouth
of Salmon River, then called La Famine.

The name proved prophetic. Provisions fell
short from bad management in transportation, and
the men grew hungry and discontented. Septem-
ber had begun ; the place was unwholesome, and
the malarious fever of Fort Frontenac infected the
new encampment. The soldiers sickened rapidly.
La Barre, racked with suspense, waited impatiently
the return of Le Moyne. We have seen already
the result of his mission, and how he and Lamber-
ville, in spite of the envoy of the English governor,
gained from the Onondaga chiefs the promise to
meet Onontio in council. Le Moyne appeared at
La Famine on the third of the month, bringing

1681.] LA FAMINE. 105

with him Big Mouth and thirteen other deputies.
La Barre gave them a feast of bread, wine, and
salmon trout, and on the morning of the fourth
the council began.

Before the deputies arrived, the governor had
sent the sick men homeward in order to conceal
his helpless condition; and he now told the Iro-
quois that he had left his army at Fort Frontenac,
and had come to meet them attended only by an
escort. The Onondaga politician was not to be so
deceived. He, or one of his party, spoke a little
French ; and during the night, roaming noiselessly
among the tents, he contrived to learn the true
state of the case from the soldiers.

The council was held on an open spot near the
French encampment. La Barre was seated in an
arm-chair. The Jesuit Bruyas stood by him as
interpreter, and the officers were ranged on his
right and left. The Indians sat on the ground in
a row opposite the governor; and two lines of
soldiers, forming two sides of a square, closed the
intervening space. Among the officers was La
Hontan, a spectator of the whole proceeding. He
may be called a man in advance of his time ; for he
had the caustic, sceptical, and mocking spirit which
a century later marked the approach of the great
revolution, but which was not a characteristic of
the reign of Louis XIY. He usually told the truth
when he had no* motive to do otherwise, and yet
was capable at times of prodigious mendacity.1

1 La Hon Ian attempted to impose on his readers a marvellous story
of pretended discoveries beyond the Mississippi ; and his ill repute in the

106 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

There is no reason to believe that he indulged in it
on the present occasion, and his account of what
he now saw and heard may probably be taken as
substantially correct. According to him, La Barre
opened the council as follows : —

" The king my master, being informed that the
Five Nations of the Iroquois have long acted in a
manner adverse to peace, has ordered me to come
with an escort to this place, and to send Akouessan
{Le Moyne) to Onondaga to invite the principal
chiefs to meet me. It is the wish of this great
king that you and I should smoke the calumet of
peace together, provided that you promise, in
the name of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
Cayugas, and Senecas, to give entire satisfaction
and indemnity to his subjects, and do nothing
in future which may occasion, rupture."

Then he recounted the offences of the Iroquois.
First, they had maltreated and robbed French
traders in the country of the Illinois ; " where-
fore," said the governor, " I am ordered to demand
reparation, and in case of refusal to declare war
against you."

Next, " the warriors of the Five Nations have
introduced the English into the lakes which belong
to the king my master, and among the tribes who
are his children, in order to destroy the trade of
his subjects, and seduce these people from the
obedience they owe him. I am willing to forget
this ; but, should it happen again, I am expressly
ordered to declare war against you."

matter of veracity is due chiefly to this fabrication. On the other hand,
his account of what he saw in the colony is commonly in accord with
the best contemporary evideuce.

1684.] SPEECH OE BIG MOUTH. 107

Thirdly, " the warriors of the Five Nations have
made sundry barbarous inroads into the country of
the Illinois and Miamis, seizing, binding, and lead-
ing into captivity an infinite number of these sav-
ages in time of peace. They are the children of
my king, and are not to remain your slaves. They
must at once be set free and sent home. If you
refuse to do this, I am expressly ordered to declare
war against you."

La Barre concluded by assuring Big Mouth, as
representing the Five Nations of the Iroquois, that
the French would leave them in peace if they made
atonement for the past, and promised good conduct
for the future ; but that, if they did not heed his
words, their villages should be burned, and they
themselves destroyed. He added, though he knew
the contrary, that the governor of New York would
join him in war against them.

During the delivery of this martial harangue,
Big Mouth sat silent and attentive, his eyes fixed
on the bowl of his pipe. When the interpreter
had ceased, he rose, walked gravely two or three
times around the lines of the assembly, then
stopped before the governor, looked steadily at
him, stretched his tawny arm, opened his capacious
jaws, and uttered himself as follows : —

% " Onontio, I honor you, and all the warriors who
are with me honor you. Your interpreter has
ended his speech, and now I begin mine. Listen
to my words.

u Onontio, when you left Quebec, you must have
thought that the heat of the sun had burned the

108 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

forests that make our country inaccessible to the
French, or that the lake had overflowed them so
that we could not escape from our villages. You
must have thought so, Onontio ; and curiosity to
see such a fire or such a flood must have brought
you to this place. Now your eyes are opened ; for
T and my warriors have come to tell you that the
Senecas, Cayugas, Ononclagas, Oneidas, and Mo-
hawks are all alive. I thank you in their name
for bringing back the calumet of peace which they
gave to your predecessors ; and I give you joy that
you have not dug up the hatchet which has been
so often red with the blood of your countrymen.

" Listen, Onontio. I am not asleep. My eyes
are open ; and by the sun that gives me light I see
a great captain at the head of a band of soldiers,
who talks like a man in a dream. He says that
he has come to smoke the pipe of peace with the
Onondagas ; but I see that he came to knock them
in the head, if so many of his Frenchmen were not
too weak to fight. I see Onontio raving in a camp
of sick men, whose lives the Great Spirit has saved
by smiting them with disease. Our women had
snatched war-clubs, and our children and old men
seized bows and arrows to attack your camp, if
our warriors had not restrained them, when }^our
messenger, Akouessan, appeared in our village."

He next justified the pillage of French traders
on the ground, very doubtful in this case, that
they wrere carrying arms to the Illinois, enemies
of the confederacy ; and he flatly refused to make
reparation, telling La Barre that even the old men

1684.] SPEECH OE BIG MOUTH. 109

of his tribe had no fear of the French. He also
avowed boldly that the Iroquois had conducted
English traders to the lakes. " We are born free,"
he exclaimed, " we depend neither on Onontio nor
on Corlaer. We have the right to go whitherso-
ever we please, to take with us whomever we please,
and buy and sell of whomever we please. If your
allies are your slaves or your children, treat them
like slaves or children, and forbid them to deal with
anybody but your Frenchmen.

" We have knocked the Illinois in the head, be-
cause they cut down the tree of peace and hunted
the beaver on our lands. We have clone less than
the English and the French, who have seized upon
the lands of many tribes, driven them away? and
built towns, villages, and forts in their country.

" Listen, Onontio. My voice is the voice of the
Five Tribes of the Iroquois. When they buried
the hatchet at Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac) in pres-
ence of your predecessor, they planted the tree
of peace in the middle of the fort, that it might be
a post of traders and not of soldiers. Take care
that all the soldiers you have brought with you,
shut up in so small a fort, do not choke this tree
of peace. I assure you in the name of the Five
Tribes that our wTarriors will dance the dance of the
calumet under its branches ; and that they will sit
quiet on their mats and never dig up the hatchet,
till their brothers, Onontio and Corlaer, separately
or together, make ready to attack the country that
the Great Spirit has given to our ancestors."

The session presently closed \ and La Barre with-

110 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1G&L

drew to his tent, where, according to La Hontan,
he vented his feelings in invective, till reminded
that good manners were not to be expected from
an Iroquois. Big Mouth, on his part, entertained
some of the French at a feast which he opened in
person by a dance. There was another session in the
afternoon, and the terms of peace were settled in
the evening. The tree of peace was planted anew ;
La Barre promised not to attack the Senecas ; and
Big Mouth, in spite of his former declaration, con-
sented that they should make amends for the
pillage of the traders. On the other hand, he
declared that the Iroquois would fight the Illinois
to the death ; and La Barre dared not utter a word
in behalf of his allies. The Onondaga next de-
manded that the council fire should be removed
from Fort Frontenac to La Famine, in the Iroquois
country. This point was yielded without resistance ;
and La Barre promised to decamp and set out for
home on the following morning.1

Such was the futile and miserable end of the
grand expedition. Even the promise to pay for
the plundered goods was contemptuously broken.2
The honor rested with the Iroquois. They had
spurned the French, repelled the claims of the
English, and by act and word asserted their inde-
pendence of both.

La Barre embarked and hastened home in ad-

i The articles of peace will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 236.
Compare Memoir of M. cle la Barre regarding the War against the Senecas,
ibid , 289. These two documents do not agree as to date, one placing
the council on the 4th and the other on the 5th.

2 This appears from the letters of Denonville, La Barre's successor.

1684.] THE INDIAN ALLIES. Ill

vance of his men. His camp was again full of the
sick. Their comrades placed them, shivering with
ague fits, on board the flat-boats and canoes ; and
the whole force, scattered and disordered, floated
clown the current to Montreal. Nothing had been
gained but a thin and flimsy truce, with new
troubles and dangers plainly visible behind it. The
better to understand their nature, let us look for a
moment at an episode of the campaign.

When La Barre sent messengers with gifts and
wampum belts to summon the Indians of the Upper
Lakes to join in the war, his appeal found a cold
response. La Durantaye and Du Lhut, French com-
manders in that region, vainly urged the surround-
ing tribes to lift the hatchet. None but the Hurons
would consent, when, fortunately, Nicolas Perrot
arrived at Michillimackinac on an errand of trade.
This famous coureur de bois — a very different per-
son from Perrot, governor of Montreal — was well
skilled in dealing with Indians. Through his in-
fluence, their scruples were overcome ; and some
five hundred warriors, Hurons, Ottawas, Ojibwas,
Pottawatamies, and Foxes, were persuaded to em-
bark for the rendezvous at Niagara, along with a
hundred or more Frenchmen. The fleet of canoes,
numerous as a flock of blackbirds in autumn, began
the long and weary voyage. The two commanders
had a heavy task. Discipline was impossible. The
French were scarcely less wild than the savages.
Many of them were painted and feathered like
their red companions, whose ways they imitated
with perfect success. The Indians, on their part,

112 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

were but half-hearted for the work in hand, for they
had already discovered that the English would pay
twice as much for a beaver skin as the French ;
and they asked nothing better than the appearance
of English traders on the lakes, and a safe peace
with the Iroquois, which should open to them the
market of New York. But they were like chil-
dren with the passions of men, inconsequent, fickle,
and wayward. They stopped to hunt on the shore
of Michigan, where a Frenchman accidentally shot
himself with his own gun. Here was an evil omen.
But for the efforts of Perrot, half the party would
have given up the enterprise, and paddled home.
In the Strait of Detroit there was another hunt,
and another accident. In firing at a deer, an In-
dian wounded his own brother. On this the tribes-
men of the wounded man proposed to kill the
French, as being the occasion of the mischance.
Once more the skill of Perrot prevailed ; but
when they reached the Long Point of Lake Erie,
the Foxes, about a hundred in number, were on
the point of deserting in a body. As persuasion
failed, Perrot tried the effect of taunts. " You are
cowards," he said to the naked crew, as they
crowded about him with their wild eyes and long
lank hair. " You do not know what war is : you
never killed a man and you never ate one, except
those that were given you tied hand and foot."
They broke out against him in a storm of abuse.
" You shall see whether we are men. We are
going to fight the Iroquois; and, unless you do your
part, we will knock you in the head." " You will

1684.] DISAPPOINTMENT AND ANGER. 113

never have to give yourselves the trouble," retorted
Perrot, "for at the first war-whoop you will all
run off." He gained his point. Their pride was
roused, and for the moment they were full of fight.J

Immediately after, there was trouble with the
Ottawas, who became turbulent and threatening,
and refused to proceed. With much ado, they
were persuaded to go as far as Niagara, being
lured by the rash assurance of La Durantaye that
three vessels were there, loaded with a present of
guns for them. They carried their canoes by the
cataract, launched them again, paddled to the
mouth of the river, and looked for the vessels in
vain. At length a solitary sail appeared on the
lake. She brought no guns, but instead a letter
from La Barre, telling them that peace was
made, and that they might. all go home. Some
of them had paddled already a thousand miles, in
the hope of seeing the Senecas humbled. They
turned back in disgust, filled with wrath and scorn
against the governor and all the French. Canada
had incurred the contempt, not only of enemies,
but of allies. There was clanger that these tribes
would repudiate the French alliance, welcome the
English traders, make peace at any price with the
Iroquois, and carry their beaver skins to Albany
instead of Montreal.

The treaty made at La Famine was greeted with
contumely through all the colony. The governor
found, however, a comforter in the Jesuit Lamber-

1 La Potherie, II. 159 (ed. 1722). Perrot himself, in his Mceurs des
Sauvages, briefly mentions the incident.

8

114 LA BARRE AND THE IROQUOIS. [1684.

ville, who stood fast in the position which he had
held from the beginning. He wrote to La Barre :
" You deserve the title of saviour of the country
for making peace at so critical a time. In the
condition in which your army was, you could not
have advanced into the Seneca country without
utter defeat. The Senecas had double palisades,
which could not have been forced without great
loss. Their plan was to keep three hundred men
inside, and to perpetually harass you with twelve
hundred others. All the Iroquois were to collect
together, and fire only at the legs of your people,
so as to master them, and burn them at their
leisure, and then, after having thinned their num-
bers by a hundred ambuscades in the woods and
grass, to pursue you in your retreat even to Mon-
treal, and spread desolation around it." ]

La Barre was greatly pleased with this letter,
and made use of it to justify himself to the
king. His colleague, Meules, on the other hand,
declared that Lamberville, anxious to make favor
with the governor, had written only what La
Barre wished to hear. The intendant also informs
the minister that La Barre's excuses are a mere
pretence ; that everybody is astonished and dis-
gusted with him ; that the sickness of the troops
was his own fault, because he kept them encamped
on wet ground for an unconscionable length of
time; that Big Mouth shamefully befooled and
bullied him ; that, after the council at La Famine,
he lost his wits, and went off in a fright; that,

i Lamberville to La Barre, 9 Oct., 1684, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 260.

1684.] LA BARRE RECALLED. 115

since the return of the troops, the officers have
openly expressed their contempt for him ; and
that the people would have risen against him, if
he, Meules, had not taken measures to quiet them.1
These, with many other charges, flew across the
sea from the pen of the intenclant.

The next ship from France brought the follow-
ing letter from the king : —

Monsieur de la Barre, — Having been informed that
your years do not permit you to support the fatigues inseparable
from your office of governor and lieutenant-general in Canada,
I send you this letter to acquaint you that I have selected Mon-
sieur de Denonville to serve in your place ; and my intention is
that, on his arrival, after resigning to him the command, with
all instructions concerning it, you embark for your return to
France. Louis.

La Barre sailed for home ; and the Marquis de
Denonville, a pious colonel of dragoons, assumed
the vacant office.

1 Meulcs au Ministre, 10 Oct., 1684.

CHAPTER VII.

1685-1687.
DENONVILLE AND DONG AN.

Troubles of the New Governor. — His Character. — English
Rivalry. — Intrigues of Dongan. — English Claims. — A Dip-
lomatic Duel. — Overt Acts. — Anger of Denonville. —
James II. checks Dongan. — Denonville emboldened. — Strife
in the North. — Hudson's Bay. — Attempted Pacification. —
Artifice of Denonville. — He prepares for War.

Denonville embarked at Rochelle in June,
with his wife and a part of his family. Saint-
Vallier, the destined bishop, was in the same ves-
sel ; and the squadron carried five hundred soldiers,
of whom a hundred and fifty died of fever and
scurvy on the way. Saint-Vallier speaks in glow-
ing terms of the new governor. " He spent nearly
all his time in prayer and the reading of good
books. The Psalms of David were always in his
hands. In all the voyage, I never saw him clo
any thing wrong ; and there was nothing in his
words or acts which did not show a solid virtue
and a consummate prudence, as well in the
duties of the Christian life as in the wisdom of
this world." J

When they landed, the nuns of the Hotel-Dieu

i Saint-Vallier, Etat Present de VEjlise, 4 (Quebec, 1856).

1685.] TROUBLES OF DENONVILLE. 117

were overwhelmed with the sick. " Not only our
halls, but our church, our granary, our hen-yard,
and every corner of the hospital where we could
make room, were filled with them." *

Much was expected of Denonville. He was to
repair the mischief wrought by his predecessor,
and restore the colony to peace, strength, and
security. The king had stigmatized La Barre's
treaty with the Iroquois as disgraceful, and ex-
pressed indignation at his abandonment of the
Illinois allies. All this was now to be changed ;
but it was easier to give the order at Versailles
than to execute it in Canada. Denonville's diffi-
culties were great ; and his means of overcoming
them were small. What he most needed was more
troops and more money. The Senecas, insolent
and defiant, were still attacking the Illinois ; the
tribes of the north-west were angry, contemptuous,
and disaffected ; the English of New York were urg-
ing claims to the whole country south of the Great
Lakes, and to a controlling share in all the western
fur trade ; while the English of Hudson's Bay were
competing for the traffic of the northern tribes,
and the English of New England were seizing upon
the fisheries of Acadia, and now and then making
piratical descents upon its coast. The great ques-
tion lay between New York and Canada. Which
of these two should gain mastery in the west ?

Denonville, like Frontenac, was a man of the
army and the court. As a soldier, he had the ex-
perience of thirty years of service ; and he was in

1 Juchereau, Hotel-Dieu, 283.

118 DENONVILLE AND DONGAN. [1685.

high repute, not only for piety, but for probity and
honor. He was devoted to the Jesuits, an ardent
servant of the king, a lover of authority, filled with
the instinct of subordination and order, and, in
short, a type of the ideas, religious, political, and
social, then dominant in France. He was greatly
distressed at the disturbed condition of the colony ;
while the state of the settlements, scattered in
broken lines for two or three hundred miles
along the St. Lawrence, seemed to him an invita-
tion to destruction. " If we have a war," he wrote,
" nothing can save the country but a miracle of
God."

Nothing was more likely than war. Intrigues
were on foot between the Senecas and the tribes
of the lakes, which threatened to render the appeal
to arms a necessity to the French. Some of the
Hurons of Michillimackinac were bent on allying
themselves with the English. " They like the
manners of the French," wrote Denonville ; "but
they like the cheap goods of the English better."
The Senecas, in collusion with several Huron chiefs,
had captured a considerable number of that tribe
and of the Ottawas. The scheme was that these
prisoners should be released, on condition that the
lake tribes should join the Senecas and repudiate
their alliance with the French.1 The governor of
New York favored this intrigue to the utmost.

Denonville was quick to see that the peril of the
colony rose, not from the Iroquois alone, but from
the English of New York, who prompted them.

1 Denonville au Mlnistre, 12 Juin, 1686.

1685-86.] NATIONAL RIVALRY. 119

Dongan understood the situation. He saw that
the French aimed at mastering the whole interior
of the continent. They had established themselves
in the valley of the Illinois, had built a fort on the
lower Mississippi, and were striving to entrench
themselves at its mouth. They occupied the Great
Lakes ; and it was already evident that, as soon as
their resources should permit, they would seize the
avenues of communication throughout the west. In
short, the grand scheme of French colonization had
begun to declare itself. Dongan entered the lists
against them. If his policy should prevail, New
France would dwindle to a feeble province on the
St. Lawrence : if the French policy should prevail,
the English colonies would remain a narrow strip
along the sea. Dongan' s cause was that of all
these colonies ; but they all stood aloof, and left
him to wage the strife alone. Canada was matched
against New York, or rather against the gover-
nor of New York. The population of the English
colony was larger than that of its rival ; but, ex-
cept the fur traders, few of the settlers cared much
for the questions at issue.1 Dongan' s chief diffi-
culty, however, rose from the relations of the French
and English kings. Louis XIY. gave Denonville
an unhesitating support. James II., on the other
hand, was for a time cautious to timidity. The
two monarchs were closely united. Both hated
constitutional liberty, and both held the same
principles of supremacy in church and state ; but

1 New York had about 18,000 inhabitants (Brodhead, Hist. N. Y., II.
458). Canada, by the census of 1685, had 12,263.

120 DEXOXVILLE AND DOXGAN. [1685-86.

Louis was triumphant and powerful, while James,
in conflict with his subjects, was in constant need
of his great ally, and dared not offend him.

The royal instructions to Denonville enjoined
him to humble the Iroquois, sustain the allies of
the colony, oppose the schemes of Dongan, and
treat him as an enemy, if he encroached on French
territory. At the same time, the French ambassa-
dor at the English court was directed to demand
from James II. precise orders to the governor of
New York for a complete change of conduct in
regard to Canada and the Iroquois.1 But Dongan,
like the French governors, was not easily con-
trolled. In the absence of money and troops, he
intrigued busily with his Indian neighbors. " The
artifices of the English," wrote Denonville, " have
reached such a point that it would be better if they
•attacked us openly and burned our settlements,
instead of instigating the Iroquois against us for
our destruction. I know beyond a particle of
doubt that M. Dongan caused all the five Iroquois
nations to be assembled last spring at Orange
(Albany), in order to excite them against us, by
telling them publicly that I meant to declare war
against them." He says, further, that Dongan
supplies them with arms and ammunition, incites
them to attack the colony, and urges them to de-
liver Lamberville, the priest at Onondaga, into his
hands. " He has sent people, at the same time,
to our Montreal Indians to entice them over to

1 Seignelay to Barillon, French Ambassador at London, in N. Y. Col.
Docs., IX. 269.

1685-86.] INTRIGUES OF DENONVILLE. 121

him, promising them missionaries to instruct
them, and assuring them that he would prevent
the introduction of brandy into their villages. All
these intrigues have given me not a little trouble
throughout the summer. M. Dongan has written
to me, and I have answered him as a man may
do who wishes to dissimulate and does not feel
strong enough to get angry." ]

Denonville, accordingly, while biding his time,
made use of counter intrigues, and, by means of
the useful Lamberville, freely distributed secret
or " underground " presents among the Iroquois
chiefs ; while the Jesuit Engelran was busy at
Michillimackinac in adroit and vigorous efforts to
prevent the alienation of the Hurons, Ottawas, and
other lake tribes. The task was difficult; and,
filled with anxiety, the father came clown to Mon-
treal to see the governor, " and communicate to
me," writes Denonville, " the de23lorable state of
affairs with our allies, whom we can no longer
trust, owing to the discredit into which we have
fallen among them, and from which we cannot
recover, except by gaining some considerable
advantage over the Iroquois ; who, as I have had
the honor to inform you, have labored incessantly
since last autumn to rob us of all our allies, by
using every means to make treaties with them
independently of us. You may be assured, Mon-
seigneur, that the English are the chief cause of
the arrogance and insolence of the Iroquois, adroitly
using them to extend the limits of their dominion,

1 Denonville a Seignelaij, 8 Nov., 1686.

122 DENONVILLE AND DONGAN. [1685-86.

and uniting with them as one nation, insomuch
that the English claims include no less than the
Lakes Ontario and Erie, the region of Saginaw
{Michigan), the country of the Hurons, and all the
country in the direction of the Mississippi." l

The most pressing danger was the defection of
the lake tribes. " In spite of the king's edicts,"
pursues Denonville, " the conreiirs de bois have
carried a hundred barrels of brandy to Michilli-
mackinac in a single year; and their libertinism
and debauchery have gone to such an extremity
that it is a wonder the Indians have not mas-
sacred them all to save themselves from their
violence and recover their wives and daughters
from them. This, Monseigneur, joined to our
failure in the last war, has drawn upon us such
contempt among all the tribes that there is but one
way to regain our credit, which is to humble the
Iroquois by our unaided strength, without asking
the help of our Indian allies."2 And he begs
hard for a strong reinforcement of troops.

Without doubt, Denonville was right in think-
ing that the chastising of the Iroquois, or at least
the Senecas, the head and front of mischief, was
a matter of the last necessity. A crushing blow
dealt against them would restore French prestige,
paralyze English intrigue, save the Illinois from
destruction, and confirm the wavering allies of
Canada. Meanwhile, matters grew from bad to
worse. In the north and in the west, there was

1 Denonville a Seignelay, 12 Juin, 168G.

2 Ibid.

1685-86.] DIPLOMATIC DUEL. 123

scarcely a tribe in the French interest which was
not either attacked by the Senecas or cajoled by
them into alliances hostile to the colony. " We
may set down Canada as lost/' again writes De-
nonville, " if we do not make war next year ; and
yet, in our present disordered state, war is the
most dangerous thing in the world. Nothing can
save us but the sending out of troops and the
building of forts and blockhouses. Yet I dare not
begin to build them ; for, if I do, it will bring
down all the Iroquois upon us before we are in a
condition to fight them."

Nevertheless, he made what preparations he
could, begging all the while for more soldiers,
and carrying on at the same time a correspond-
ence with his rival, Dongan. At first, it was
courteous on both sides ; but it soon grew pungent,
and at last acrid. Denonville wrote to announce
his arrival, and Dongan replied in French : " Sir,
I have had the honor of receiving your letter, and
greatly rejoice at having so good a neighbor, whose
reputation is so widely spread that it has antici-
pated your arrival. I have a very high respect
for the king of France, of whose bread I have
eaten so much that I feel under an obligation to
prevent whatever can give the least umbrage to
our masters. M. de la Barre is a very worthy
gentleman, but he has not written to me in a civil
and befitting style." 1

Denonville replied with many compliments : " I
know not what reason you may have had to be

1 Dongan to Denonville, 13 Oct., 1685, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 292.

124 DEXOXVILLE AND DOXGAN. [1685-86.

dissatisfied with M. cle la Barre ; but I know very
well that I should reproach myself all my life if I
could fail to render to you all the civility and
attention due to a person of so great rank and
merit. In regard to the affair in which M. de la
Barre interfered, as you write me, I presume you
refer to his quarrel with the Senecas. As to that,
Monsieur, I believe you understand the character
of that nation well enough to perceive that it is
not easy to live in friendship with a people who
have neither religion, nor honor, nor subordina-
tion. The king, my master, entertains affection
and friendship for this country solely through zeal
for the establishment of religion here, and the sup-
port and protection of the missionaries whose ardor
in preaching the faith leads them to expose them-
selves to the brutalities and persecutions of the
most ferocious of tribes. You know better than I
what fatigues and torments they have suffered for
the sake of Jesus Christ. I know your heart is
penetrated with the glory of that name which
makes Hell tremble, and at the mention of which
all the powers of Heaven fall prostrate. Shall we
be so unhappy as to refuse them our master's pro-
tection ? You are a man of rank and abounding
in merit. You love our holy religion. Can we
not then come to an understanding to sustain our
missionaries by keeping those fierce tribes in re-
spect and fear ? " *

This specious appeal for maintaining French
Jesuits on English territory, or what was claimed

1 DenonviUe to Dongan, 5 Juin, 1686, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 456.

16&C] DIPLOMATIC DUEL. 125

as such, was lost on Dongan, Catholic as he w&s.
He regarded them as dangerous political enemies,
and did his best to expel them, and put English
priests in their place. Another of his plans was
to build a fort at Niagara, to exclude the French
from Lake Erie. Denonville entertained the same
purpose, in order to exclude the English ; and he
watched eagerly the moment to execute it. A
rumor of the scheme was brought to Dongan by
one of the French coureurs de bois, who often
deserted to Albany, where they were welcomed
and encouraged. The English governor was ex-
ceedingly wroth. He had written before in French
out of complaisance. He now dispensed with
ceremony, and wrote in his own peculiar English :
" I am informed that you intend to build a fort at
Ohniagero {Niagara) on this side of the lake,
within my Master's territory es without question.
I cannot beleev that a person that has your
reputation in the world would follow the steps of
Monsr. Labarr, and be ill advized by some inter-
ested persons in your Governt. to make disturbance
between our Masters subjects in those parts of the
world for a little pelttree {peltry). I hear one of
the Fathers {the Jesuit Jean de LamherviUe) is
gone to you, and th'other that stayed {Jacques de
Lamberville) I have sent for him here lest the In-
dians should insult over him, tho' it's a thousand
pittys that those that have made such progress in
the service of God should be disturbed, and that
by the fault of those that laid the foundation
of Christianity amongst these barbarous people ;

126 DENONVILLE AND DONGAN. [1686.

setting apart the station I am in, I am as much
Monsr. Des Novilles {Denonville s) humble servant
as any friend he has, and will ommit no oppor-
tunity of manifesting the same. Sir, your humble
servant, Thomas Dongan." '

Denonville in reply denied that he meant to
build a fort at Niagara, and warned Dongan not to
believe the stories told him by French deserters.
" In order," he wrote, " that we may live on a
good understanding, it would be well that a gentle-
man of your character should not give protection
to all the rogues, vagabonds, and thieves who
desert us and seek refuge with you, and who, to
gain your favor, think they cannot do better than
tell nonsensical stories about us, which they will
continue to do so long as you listen to them." 2

The rest of the letter was in terms of civility, to
which Dongan returned : " Beleive me it is much
joy to have soe good a neighbour of soe excellent
qualifications and temper, and of a humour alto-
gether differing from Monsieur de la Barre, your
predecessor, who was so furious and hasty and
very much addicted to great words, as if I had bin
to have bin frighted by them. For my part, I shall
take all immaginable care that the Fathers who
preach the Holy Gospell to those Indians over
whom I have power bee not in the least ill treated,
and upon that very accompt have sent for one of
each nation to come to me, and then those beastly
crimes you reproove shall be checked severely,

i Dongan to Denonville, 22 May, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 455.
2 Denonville a Dongan, 20 Juin, 1686.

1686-1 DIPLOMATIC DUEL. 127

and all my endevours used to surpress their filthy
clrunkennesse, disorders, debauches, warring, and
quarrels, and whatsoever doth obstruct the growth
and enlargement of the Christian faith amongst
those people." He then, in reply to an application
of Denonville, promised to give up " runa waves." !
Promise was not followed by performance ; and
he still favored to the utmost the truant French-
men who made Albany their resort, and often
brought with them most valuable information.
This drew an angry letter from Denonville. " You
were so good, Monsieur, as to tell me that you
would give up all the deserters who have fled to
you to escape chastisement for their knavery. As
most of them are bankrupts and thieves, I hope
that they will give you reason to repent having
harbored them, and that your merchants who em-
ploy them will be punished for trusting such
rascals." 2 To the great wrath of the French gov-
ernor, Dongan persisted in warning the Iroquois
that he meant to attack them. u You proposed,
Monsieur," writes Denonville, " to submit every
thing to the decision of our masters. Neverthe-
less, your emissary to the Ononclagas told all the
Five Nations in your name to pillage and make
war on us." Next, he berates his rival for furnish-
ing the Indians with rum. " Think you that
religion will make any progress, while your traders
supply the savages in abundance with the liquor
which, as you ought to know, converts them into
demons and their lodges into counterparts of Hell ? "

1 Dongan to Denonville, 26 July, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 460.

2 Denonville a Dongan, 1 Oct., 1686.

128 DENONVILLE AND DONG AN. [1686.

" Certainly/' retorts Dongan, " our Rum doth as
little hurt as jour Brandy, and, in the opinion of
Christians, is much more wholesome." *

Each tried incessantly to out-general the other.
Denonville, steadfast in his plan of controlling the
passes of the western country, had projected forts,
not only at Niagara, but also at Toronto, on Lake
Erie, and on the Strait of Detroit. He thought
that a time had come when he could, without rash-
ness, secure this last important passage ; and he
sent an order to Du Lhut, who was then at Michil-
limackinac, to occupy it with fifty coureurs de
bois.2 That enterprising chief accordingly re-
paired to Detroit, and built a stockade at the outlet
of Lake Huron on the western side of the strait.
It was not a moment too soon. The year before,
Dongan had sent a party of armed traders in eleven
canoes, commanded by Johannes Rooseboom, a
Dutchman of Albany, to carry English goods to
the upper lakes. They traded successfully, win-
ning golden opinions from the Indians, who begged
them to come every year ; and, though Denonville
sent an officer to stop them at Niagara, they re-
turned in triumph, after an absence of three months.3
A larger expedition was organized in the autumn of
1686. Rooseboom again set out for the lakes with
twenty or more canoes. He wTas to winter among
the Senecas, and wait the arrival of Major Mc-
Gregory, a Scotch officer, who was to leave Albany

1 Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 462.

2 Denonville a Du Lhut, 6 Juin, 1686.

3 Brodhead, Hist, of New York, II. 429; Denonville au Ministre, 8 Mat,
1686.

1686.] DIPLOMATIC DUEL. 129

in the spring with fifty men, take command of the
united parties, and advance to Lake Huron, ac-
companied by a band of Iroquois, to form a general
treaty of trade and alliance with the tribes claimed
by France as her subjects.1

Denonville was beside himself at the news. He
had already urged upon Louis XIV. the policy of
buying the colony of New York, which he thought
might easily be done, and which, as he said, " would
make us masters of the Iroquois without a war."
This time he wrote in a less pacific mood : " I
have a mind to go straight to Albany, storm their
fort, and burn every thing." 2 And he begged for
soldiers more earnestly than ever. " Things grow
worse and worse. The English stir up the Iro-
quois against us, and send parties to Michilli-
maekinac to rob us of our trade. It would be
better to declare war against them than to perish
by their intrigues." 3

He complained bitterly to Dongan, and Dongan
replied : " I beleeve it is as lawf ull for the English
as the French to trade amongst the remotest In-
dians. I desire you to send me word who it was
that pretended to have my orders for the Indians
to plunder and fight you. That is as false as 'tis
true that God is in heaven. I have desired you
to send for the deserters. I know not who they
are but had rather such Eascalls and Bankrouts,

1 Brodhead, Hist, of New York, II. 443 ; Commission of Me Gregory, in
N. Y. Col. Does., IX. 318.

2 Denonville an Ministre, 16 Nov., 1686.

3 Ibid., 15 Oct., 1686.

9

130 DEXOXVILLE AND DOXGAX. " [1687.

as you call them, were amongst their own country-
men." 1

He had, nevertheless, turned them to good
account ; for, as the English knew nothing of
western geography, they employed these French
bush-rangers to guide their trading parties. De-
nonville sent orders to Du Lhut to shoot as many
of them as he could catch.

Dongan presently received despatches from the
English court, which showed him the necessity
of caution ; and, when next he wrote to his rival,
it was with a chastened pen : " I hope your Ex-
cellency will be so kincle as not desire or seeke any
correspondence with our Indians of this side of
the Great lake (Ontario): if they doe amisse to
any of your Governmt. and vou make it known
to me, you shall have all justice done." He com-
plained mildly that the Jesuits were luring their
Iroquois converts to Canada ; " and you must
pardon me if I tell you that is not the right way
to keepe fair correspondence. I am daily expect-
ing Religious men from England, which I intend
to put amongst those five nations. I desire you
would order Monsr. cle Lamberville that soe Ions;
as he stayes amongst those people he would meddle
only with the affairs belonging to his function.
Sir, I send you some Oranges, hearing that they
are a rarity in your partes." 2

"Monsieur," replies Denonville, "I thank you

» Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec, 1686 ; Ibid., 20 June, 1687, in N. Y.
Col. Docs., III. 462, 465.

2 Dongan to Denonville, 20 Juin, 1687, in .V. Y. Col. Docs., III. 465.

1687.] DENONVILLE EMBOLDENED. 131

for your oranges. It is a great pity that they
were all rotten."

The French governor, unlike his rival, felt strong
in the support of his king, who had responded
amply to his appeals for aid ; and the temper of
his letters answered to his improved position. " I
was led, Monsieur, to believe, by your civil lan-
guage in the letter you took the trouble to write
me on my arrival, that we should live in the
greatest harmony in the world ; but the result has
plainly shown that your intentions did not at all
answer to your fine words." And he upbraids
him without measure for his various misdeeds :
" Take my word for it. Let us devote ourselves
to the accomplishment of our masters' will ; let us
seek, as they do, to serve and promote religion ;
let us live together in harmony, as they desire. I
repeat and protest, Monsieur, that it rests with you
alone ; but do not imagine that I am a man to
suffer others to play tricks on me. I willingly
believe that you have not ordered the Iroquois to
plunder our Frenchmen ; but, whilst I have the
honor to write to you, you know that Salvaye,
Gedeon Petit, and many other rogues and bank-
rupts like them, are with you, and boast of sharing
your table. I should not be surprised that you
tolerate them in your country ; but I am astonished
that you should promise me not to tolerate them,
that you so promise me again, and that you per-
form nothing of what you promise. Trust me,
Monsieur, make no promise that you are not will-
ing to keep." l

1 Denonville a Dongan, 21 Aug., 1G87; Ibid., no date (1687).

132 DENONVILLE AND DONG AN. [1686.

Denonville, vexed and perturbed by his long
strife with Dongan and the Iroquois, presently
found a moment of comfort in tidings that reached
him from the north. Here, as in the west, there
was violent rivalry between the subjects of the
two crowns. With the help of two French rene-
gades, named Radisson and Groseilliers, the English
Company of Hudson's Bay, then in its infancy, had
established a post near the mouth of Nelson River,
on the western shore of that dreary inland sea.
The company had also three other posts, called
Fort Albany, Fort Hayes, and Fort Rupert, at
the southern end of the bay. A rival French
company had been formed in Canada, under the
name of the Company of the North ; and it re-
solved on an effort to expel its English competitors.
Though it was a time of profound peace between
the two kings, Denonville warmly espoused the
plan ; and, in the early spring of 1686, he sent
the Chevalier cle Troyes from Montreal, with eighty
or more Canadians, to execute it.1 With Troyes
went Iberville, Sainte-Helene, and Maricourt,
three of the sons of Charles Le Moyne ; and the
Jesuit Silvy joined the party as chaplain.

They ascended the Ottawa, and thence, from
stream to stream and lake to lake, toiled painfully
towards their goal. At length, they neared Fort

1 The Compagnie du Nord had a grant of the trade of Hudson's Bay
from Louis XIV. The hay was discovered by the English, under Hud-
son ; but the French had carried on some trade there before the establish-
ment of Fort Nelson. Denonville's commission to Troyes merely directs
him to build forts, and " se saisir des voleurs coureurs de bois et autres
que nous savons avoir pris et arrete plusieurs de nos Francois commer-
cants avec les sauvages."

1686.] STRIFE IN THE NORTH. 133

Hayes. It was a stockade with four bastions,
mounted with cannon. There was a strong block-
house within, in which the sixteen occupants of
the place were lodged, unsuspicious of clanger.
Troyes approached at night. Iberville and Sainte-
Helene with a few followers climbed the palisade
on one side, while the rest of the party burst the
main gate with a sort of battering ram, and rushed
in, yelling the war-whoop. In a moment, the door
of the blockhouse wTas dashed open, and its as-
tonished inmates captured in their shirts.

The victors now embarked for Fort Rupert, dis-
tant forty leagues along the shore. In construc-
tion, it resembled Fort Hayes. The fifteen traders
who held the place were all asleep at night in their
blockhouse, when the Canadians burst the gate of
the stockade and swarmed into the area. One of
them mounted by a ladder to the roof of the build-
ing, and dropped lighted hand-grenades down the
chimney, which, exploding among the occupants,
told them unmistakably that something was wrong.
At the same time, the assailants fired briskly on
them through the loopholes, and, placing a petard
under the walls, threatened to blow them into
the air. Five, including a woman, wTere killed or
wounded ; and the rest cried for quarter. Mean-
while, Iberville with another party attacked a
vessel anchored near the fort, and, climbing silently
over her side, found the man on the watch asleep
in his blanket. He sprang up and made fight, but
they killed him, then stamped on the deck to rouse
those below, sabred two of them as they came up

134 DENONVILLE AND DONG AN. [1686.

the hatchway, and captured the rest. Among them
was Bridger, governor for the company of all its
stations on the bay.

They next turned their attention to Fort Albany,
thirty leagues from Fort Hayes, in a direction op-
posite to that of Fort Eupert. Here there were
about thirty men, under Henry Sargent, an agent of
the company. Surprise was this time impossible ;
for news of their proceedings had gone before them,
and Sargent, though no soldier, stood on his de-
fence. The Canadians arrived, some in canoes,
some in the captured vessel, bringing ten captured
pieces of cannon, which they planted in battery
on a neighboring hill, well covered by intrench-
ments from the English shot. Here they presently
opened fire ; and, in an hour, the stockade with
the houses that it enclosed was completely rid-
dled. The English took shelter in a cellar, nor
was it till the fire slackened that they ventured out
to show a white flag and ask for a parley. Troyes
and Sargent had an interview. The Englishman
regaled his conqueror with a bottle of Spanish
wrine ; and, after drinking the health of King Louis
and King James, they settled the terms of capitula-
tion. The prisoners were sent home in an English
vessel which soon after arrived ; and Maricourt
remained to command at the bay, while Troyes
returned to report his success to Denonville.1

1 On the capture of the forts at Hudson's Bay, see La Potherie, I. 147—
163; the letter of Father Silvy, chaplain of the expedition, in Saint- Val-
lier, Efat Present, 43 ; and Oldmixon, British Empire in America, I. 561-564.
(ed. 1741). An account of the preceding events will be found in La
Potherie and Oldmixon ; in Jeremie, Relation de la Baie de Hudson ; and in

1686.] THE FRENCH AT HUDSON'S BAY. 135

This buccaneer exploit exasperated the English
public, and it became doubly apparent that the
state of affairs in America could not be allowed to
continue. A conference had been arranged be-
tween the two powers, even before the news came
from Hudson's Bay ; and Count d'Avaux appeared
at London as special envoy of Louis XIV. to settle
the questions at issue. A treaty of neutrality was
signed at Whitehall, and commissioners were ap-
pointed on both sides.1 Pending the discussion,
each party was to refrain from acts of hostility or
encroachment ; and, said the declaration of the
commissioners, " to the end the said agreement
may have the better effect, we do likewise agree
that the said serene kings shall immediately send
necessary orders in that behalf to their respective
governors in America." 2 Dongan accordingly was
directed to keep a friendly correspondence with his
rival, and take good care to give him no cause of
complaint.3

It was this missive which had dashed the ardor
of the English governor, and softened his epistolary
style. More than four months after, Louis XIV.
sent corresponding instructions to Denonville ; 4 but,

N. Y. Col. Dors., IX. 796-802. Various embellishments have been added
to the original narratives by recent writers, such as an imaginary hand-to-
hand fight of Iberville and several Englishmen in the blockhouse of Eort
Hayes.

1 Traitede Neutrality pour VAme'rique, conclu a Londres le 10 Nov., 1686,
in Memoires des Commissaires, II. 86.

2 Instrument for preventing Acts of Hostility in America in N. Y. Col.
Docs., III. 505.

3 Order to Gov. Dongan, 22 Jan., 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 504.

4 Louis XIV. a Denonville, 17 Juin, 1687. At the end of March, the
king had written that " he did not think it expedient to make any at-
tack on the English."

13 G DENONVILLE AND DONG AN. [1687.

meantime, he had sent him troops, money, and
munitions in abundance, and ordered him to attack
the Iroquois towns. Whether such a step was con-
sistent with the recent treaty of neutrality may
well be doubted ; for, though James II. had not yet
formally claimed the Iroquois as British subjects,
his representative had done so for years with his
tacit approval, and out of this claim had risen the
principal differences which it was the object of the
treaty to settle.

Eight hundred regulars were already in the
colony, and eight hundred more were sent in the
spring, with a hundred and sixty-eight thousand
livres in money and supplies.1 Denonville was
prepared to strike. He had pushed his prepara-
tions actively, yet with extreme secrecy ; for he
meant to fall on the Senecas unawares, and shatter
at a blow the mainspring of English intrigue.
Harmony reigned among the chiefs of the colony,
military, civil, and religious. The intendant Meules
had been recalled on the complaints of the governor,
who had quarrelled with him ; and a new intendant,
Champigny, had been sent in his place. He was
as pious as Denonville himself, and, like him, was
in perfect accord with the bishop and the Jesuits.
All wrought together to promote the new crusade.

It was not yet time to preach it, or at least
Denonville thought so. He dissembled his pur-
pose to the last moment, even with his best friends.
Of all the Jesuits among the Iroquois, the two

1 Abstract of Letters, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 314. This answers ex-
actly to the statement of the Memoire adresst au Regent, which places the
nnmber of troops in Canada at this time at thirty-two companies of fifty
men each.

J 687.] PERIL OF L AMBER VILLE. 137

brothers Lamberville had alone held their post.
Denonville, in order to deceive the enemy, had
directed these priests to urge the Iroquois chiefs
to meet him in council at Fort Frontenac, whither,
as he pretended, he was about to go with an escort
of troops, for the purpose of conferring with them.
The two brothers received no hint whatever of his
real intention, and tried in good faith to accomplish
his wishes ; but the Iroquois were distrustful, and
hesitated to comply. On this, the elder Lamber-
ville sent the younger with letters to Denonville
to explain the position of affairs, saying at the
same time that he himself would not leave Onon-
daga except to accompany the chiefs to the pro-
posed council. " The poor father," wrote the
governor, " knows nothing of our designs. I am
sorry to see him exposed to danger ; but, should I
recall him, his withdrawal would certainly betray
our plans to the Iroquois." This unpardonable
reticence placed the Jesuit in extreme peril ; for
the moment the Iroquois discovered the intended
treachery they would probably burn him as its
instrument. No man in Canada had done so much
as the elder Lamberville to counteract the influence
of England and serve the interests of France, and
in return the governor exposed him recklessly to
the most terrible of deaths.1

1 Denonville au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1686 ; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1687. Denon-
ville at last seems to have been seized with some compunction, and
writes : " Tout cela me fait craindre que le pauvre pere n'ayt de la peine
a se retirer d'entre les mains de ces barbares ce qui m'inquiete fort."
Dongan,-though regarding the Jesuit as an insidious enemy, had treated
him much better, and protected him on several occasions, for which he
received the emphatic thanks of Dablon, superior of the missions.
Dablon to Dongan (1685?), in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 454.

138 DENONVILLE AND DONG AN. [1687

In spite of all his pains, it was whispered abroad
that there was to be warf and the rumor was
brought to the ears of Dongan by some of the
Canadian deserters. He lost no time in warning
the Iroquois, and their deputies came to beg his
help. Danger humbled them for the moment ;
and they not only recognized King James as their
sovereign, but consented at last to call his rep-
resentative Father Corlaer instead of Brother.
Their father, however, dared not promise them
soldiers ; though, in spite of the recent treaty, he
caused gunpowder and lead to be given them,
and urged them to recall the powerful war-
parties which they had lately sent against the
Illinois.1

Denonville at length broke silence, and ordered
the militia to muster. They grumbled and hesi-
tated, for they remembered the failures of La
Barre. The governor issued a proclamation, and
the bishop a pastoral mandate. There were ser-
mons, prayers, and exhortations in all the churches.
A revulsion of popular feeling followed ; and the
j>eople, says Denonville, " made ready for the
march with extraordinary animation." The church
showered blessings on them as they went, and daily
masses were ordained for the downfall of the foes
of Heaven and of France.2

i Colden, 97 (1727), Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.

2 Saint- Vallier, Etat Present. Even to the moment of marching,
Denonville pretended that he meant only to hold a peace council at Fort
Frontenac. " J'ai tou jours publie que je n'allois qu'a l'assemble'e gene'-
rale projetee a Oataracouy (Fort. Fro»tf»ac). J'ai toujours tenu ce dis-
cours jusqu'au temps de la marche." Denonville au Ministre, SJuin, 1687.

CHAPTER VIII.

1687.

DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS.

Treachery of Denonville. — Iroquois Generosity. — The Invad-
ing Army. — The Western Allies. — Plunder of English
Traders. — Arrival of the Allies. — Scene at the French
Camp. — March of Denonville. — Ambuscade. — Battle. — Vic-
tory.— The Seneca Babylon. — Imperfect Success.

A host of flat-boats filled with soldiers, and a
host of Indian canoes, struggled against the rapids
of the St. Lawrence, and slowly made their way to
Fort Frontenac. Among the troops was La Hon-
tan. When on his arrival he entered the gate
of the fort, he saw a strange sight. A row of posts
was planted across the area within, and to each
post an Iroquois was tied by the neck, hands, and
feet, " in such a way," says the indignant witness,
" that he could neither sleep nor drive off the
mosquitoes." A number of Indians attached to the
expedition, all of whom were Christian converts
from the mission villages, were amusing themselves
by burning the fingers of these unfortunates in
the bowls of their pipes, while the sufferers sang
their death songs. La Hontan recognized one of
them who, during his campaign with La Barre,
had often feasted him in his wigwam ; and the

140 DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS. [1687.

sight so exasperated the young officer that he
could scarcely refrain from thrashing the tor-
mentors with his walking stick.1

Though the prisoners were Iroquois, they were
not those against whom the expedition was directed ;
nor had they, so far as appears, ever given the
French any cause of complaint. They belonged
to two neutral villages, called Kente and Gannei-
ous, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, forming
a sort of colony, where the Siu^itians of Montreal
had established a mission.2 They hunted and
fished for the garrison of the fort, and had been
on excellent terms with it. Denonville, however,
feared that they would report his movements to
their relations across the lake ; but this was not
his chief motive for seizing them. Like La Barre
before him, he had received orders from the court
that, as the Iroquois were robust and strong, he
should capture as many of them as possible, and
send them to France as galley slaves.3 The order,
without doubt, referred to prisoners taken in war ;
but Denonville, aware that the hostile Iroquois were
not easily caught, resolved to entrap their unsus-
pecting relatives.

The intenclant Champigny accordingly pro-
ceeded to the fort in advance of the troops, and
invited the neighboring Iroquois to a feast. They

1 La Hontan, I. 03-05 (1700).

2 Ganneious or Gane'yout was on an arm of the lake a little west of
the present town of Eredericksburg. Kente' or Quinte was on Quinte
Bay.

3 Le Roy a La Barre, 21 Juillet, 1684 ; Le Roy a Denonville et Champigny,
30 Mars, 1687.

1687.] TREACHEKY OF DENONVILLE. 141

came to the number of thirty men and about
ninety women and children, whereupon they were
surrounded and captured by the intendant's escort
and the two hundred men of the garrison. The
inhabitants of the village of Ganneious were not
present; and one Perre, with a strong party of
Canadians and Christian Indians, went to secure
them. He acquitted himself of his errand with
great address, and returned with eighteen warriors
and about sixty women and children. Champigny's
exertions did not end here. Learning that a party
of Iroquois were peaceably fishing on an island
in the St. Lawrence, he offered them also the
hospitalities of Fort Frontenac ; but they were too
wary to be entrapped. Four or five Iroquois were
however caught by the troops on their way up the
river. They were in two or more parties, and they
all had with them their women and children, which
was never the case with Iroquois on the war-path.
Hence the assertion of Denonville, that they came
with hostile designs, is very improbable. As for
the last six months he had constantly urged them,
by the lips of Lamberville, to visit him and smoke
the pipe of peace, it is not unreasonable to sup-
pose that these Indian families were on their way
to the colony in consequence of his invitations.
Among them were the son and brother of Big
Mouth, who of late had been an advocate of peace ;
and, in order not to alienate him, these two were
eventually set free. The other warriors were tied
like the rest to stakes at the fort.

The whole number of prisoners thus secured

142 DENONVILLE AND THE SENEGAS. [1687.

was fifty-one, sustained by such food as their wives
were able to get for them. Of more than a hun-
dred and fifty women and children captured with
them, many died at the fort, partly from excite-
ment and distress, and partly from a pestilential
disease. The survivors were all baptized, and
then distributed among the mission villages in the
colony. The men were sent to Quebec, where
some of them were given up to their Christian
relatives in the missions who had claimed them,
and whom it was not expedient to offend ; and the
rest, after being baptized, were sent to France, to
share with convicts and Huguenots the horrible
slavery of the royal galleys.1

Before reaching Fort Frontenac, Denonville, to
his great relief, was joined by Lamberville, delivered
from the peril to which the governor had exposed
him. He owed his life to an act of magnanimity

1 The authorities for the above are Denonville, Champigny, Abbe
Belmont, Bishop Saint- Vallier, and the author of Recueil de ce qui s'est
passe en Canada an Suj<4 de la Guerre, etc., depuis Vannee 1682.

Belmont, who accompanied the expedition, speaks of the affair with
indignation, which was shared by many Erench officers. The bishop,
on the other hand, mentions the success of the stratagem as a reward
accorded by Heaven to the piety of Denonville. Etat Present de VEglise,
91,92 (reprint, 1856).

Denonville's account, which is sufficiently explicit, is contained in the
long journal of the expedition which he sent to the court, and in several
letters to the minister. Both Belmont and the author of the Recueil
speak of the prisoners as having been " pris par l'appat d'un festin."

Mr. Shea, usually so exact, has been led into some error by con-
founding the different acts of this affair. By Denonville's official
journal, it appears that, on the 19th June, Perre, by his order, captured
several Indians on the St. Lawrence ; that, on the 25th June, the gover-
nor, then at Rapide Plat on his way up the river, received a letter from
Champigny, informing him that he had seized all the Iroquois near Fort
Frontenac; and that, on the 3d July, Perre, whom Denonville had sent
several days before to attack Ganneious, arrived with his prisoners.

1087.] IROQUOIS GENEROSITY. 143

on the part of the Iroquois, which does them signal
honor. One of the prisoners at Fort Frontenac
had contrived to escape, and, leaping sixteen feet
to the ground from the window of a blockhouse,
crossed the lake, and gave the alarm to his coun-
trymen. Apparently, it was from him that the
Onondagas learned that the invitations of Onontio
were a snare ; that he had entrapped their rela-
tives, and was about to fall on their Seneca
brethren with all the force of Canada. The Jesuit,
whom they trusted and esteemed, but who had
been used as an instrument to beguile them, was
summoned before a council of the chiefs. They
were in a fury at the news ; and Lamberville, as
much astonished by it as they, expected instant
death, when one of them is said to have addressed
him to the following effect : " We know you too
well to believe that you meant to betray us. We
think that you have been deceived as well as we ;
and we are not unjust enough to punish you for
the crime of others. But you are not safe here.
When once our young men have sung the war-
song, they will listen to nothing but their fury;
and we shall not be able to save you." They gave
him guides, and sent him by secret paths to meet
the advancing army.1

1 I have ventured to give this story on the sole authority of Charle-
voix, for the contemporary writers are silent concerning it. Mr. Shea
thinks that it involves a contradiction of date ; but this is entirely due
to confounding the capture of prisoners by Perre at Ganneious on July
3d with the capture by Champigny at Fort Frontenac about June 20th.
Lamberville readied Denonville's camp, one day's journey from the
fort, on the evening of the 29th. {Journal of Denonville.) This would

144 DEXOXVILLE AND THE SEXECAS. [1687.

Again the fields about Fort Frontenac were
covered with tents, camp-sheds, and wigwams.
Regulars, militia, and Indians, there were about
two thousand men ; and, besides these, eight hundred
regulars just arrived from France had been left at
Montreal to protect the settlers.1 Fortune thus
far had smiled on the enterprise, and she now gave
Denonville a fresh proof of her favor. On the
very day of his arrival, a canoe came from Niagara
with news that a large body of allies from the west
had reached that place three clays before, and were
waiting his commands. It was more than he had
dared to hope. In the preceding autumn, he had
ordered Tonty, commanding at the Illinois, and
La Durantaye, commanding at Michillimackinac,
to muster as many coureurs de bois and Indians as
possible, and join him early in July at Niagara.
The distances were vast, and the difficulties incal-
culable. In the eyes of the pious governor, their
timely arrival was a manifest sign of the favor of
Heaven. At Fort St. Louis, of the Illinois, Tonty
had mustered sixteen Frenchmen and about two
hundred Indians, whom he led across the country
to Detroit; and here he found Du Lhut, La Foret,
and La Durantaye, with a large body of French

give four and a half days for news of the treachery to reach Onondaga,
and four and a half days for the Jesuit to rejoin his countrymen.

Charlevoix, with his usual carelessness, says that the Jesuit Milet had
also been used to lure the Iroquois into the snare, and that he was soon
after captured by the Oneidas, and delivered by an Indian matron.
Milet's captivity did not take place till 1689-90.

1 Denonville. Cliampigny says 832 regulars, 930 militia, and 300
Indians. This was when the army left Montreal. More Indians after-
wards joined it. Belmont says 1,800 French and Canadians and about
300 Indians.

1687.] THE ENGLISH ON THE LAKES. 145

and Indians from the upper lakes.1 It had been
the work of the whole winter to induce these
savages to move. Presents, persuasion, and prom-
ises had not been spared ; and while La Durantaye,
aided by the Jesuit Engelran, labored to gain over
the tribes of Michillimackinac, the indefatigable
Nicolas Per rot was at work among those of the
Mississippi and Lake Michigan. They were of a
race unsteady as aspens and fierce as wild-cats, full
of mutual jealousies, without rulers, and without
laws ; for each was a law to himself. It was diffi-
cult to persuade them, and, when persuaded,
scarcely possible to keep them so. Perrot, how-
ever, induced some of them to follow him to
Michillimackinac, where many hundreds of Algon-
quin savages were presently gathered : a perilous
crew, who changed their minds every day, and
whose dancing, singing, and yelping might turn at
any moment into war-whoops against each other
or against their hosts, the French. The Hurons
showed more stability; and La Durantaye was
reasonably sure that some of them would follow
him to the war, though it was clear that others
were bent on allying themselves with the Senecas
and the English. As for the Pottawatamies, Sacs,
Ojibwas, Ottawas, and other Algonquin hordes, no
man could foresee what they would do.2

Suddenly a canoe arrived with news that a party
of English traders was approaching. It will be re-

1 Tonty, Me'moire in Margry, Relations Inedites.

2 The name of Ottawas, here used specifically, was often employed by
the Erench as a generic term for the Algonquin tribes of the Great
Lakes.

10

146 DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS. [1687.

membered that two bands of Dutch and English,
under Eooseboom and McGregory, had prepared
to set out together for Michillimackinac, armed
with commissions from Dongan. They had rashly
changed their plan, and parted company. Roose-
boom took the lead, and McGregory followed some
time after. Their hope was that, on reaching
Michillimackinac, the Indians of the place, attracted
by their cheap goods and their abundant supplies
of rum, would declare for them and drive off the
French ; and this would probably have happened,
but for the prompt action of La Durantaye. The
canoes of Rooseboom, bearing twenty-nine whites
and five Mohawks and Mohicans, were not far dis-
tant, when, amid a prodigious hubbub, the French
commander embarked to meet him with a hundred
and twenty coureurs de hois} Behind them fol-
lowed a swarm of Indian canoes, whose occupants
scarcely knew which side to take, but for the most
part inclined to the English. Rooseboom and his
men, however, naturally thought that they came
to support the French ; and, when La Durantaye
bore down upon them with threats of instant death
if they made the least resistance, they surrendered
at once. The captors carried them in triumph to
Michillimackinac, and gave their goods to the de-
lighted Indians. %

"It is certain," wrote Denonville, "that, if the
English had not been stopped and pillaged, the
Hurons and Ottawas would have revolted and cut

1 Attestation of N. Harmentse and others of Rooseboom's party
N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 436. La Potherie says, three hundred.

1687.] THE ALLIES ARRIVE. 147

the throats of all our^ Frenchmen." 1 As it was,
La Durantaye's exploit produced a revulsion of
feeling, and many of the Indians consented to fol-
low him. He lost no time in leading them down
the lake to join Du Lhut at Detroit ; and, when
Tonty arrived, they all paddled for Niagara. On
the way, they met McGregory with a party about
equal to that of Rooseboom. He had with him a
considerable number of Ottawa and Huron prison-
ers whom the Iroquois had captured, and whom he
meant to return to their countrymen as a means of
concluding the long projected triple alliance be-
tween the English, the Iroquois, and the tribes of
the lakes. This bold scheme was now completely
crushed. All the English were captured and car-
ried to Niagara, whence they and their luckless
precursors were sent prisoners to Quebec.

La Durantaye and his companions, with a hun-
dred and eighty coureurs de hois and four hundred
Indians, waited impatiently at Niagara for orders
from the governor. A canoe despatched in haste
from Fort Frontenac soon appeared ; and they were
directed to repair at once to the rendezvous at
Ironclequoit Bay, on the borders of the Seneca
country.2

Denonville was already on his way thither. On
the fourth of July, he had embarked at Fort Fron-
tenac with four hundred bateaux and canoes,

1 Denonville au Ministre, 25 Aout, 1687.

2 The above is drawn from papers in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 436, IX.
824, 336, 346, 405; Saint- Vallier, Etat Present, 92; Denonville, Journal;
Belmont, Histoire da Canada ; La Potherie, II. chap. xvi. ; La HontaD
I. 96. Colden's account is confused and incorrect.

148 DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS. [1687.

crossed the foot of Lake Ontario, and moved west-
ward along the southern shore. The weather was
rough, and six days passed before he descried the
low headlands of Irondequoit Bay. Far off on the
glimmering water, he saw a multitude of canoes
advancing to meet him. It was the flotilla of La
Durantaye. Good management and good luck had
so disposed it that the allied bands, concentring
from points more than a thousand miles distant,
reached the rendezvous on the same day. This
was not all. The Ottawas of Michillimackinac, who
refused to folloAV La Durantaye, had changed their
minds the next morning, embarked in a body, pad-
dled up the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, crossed
to Toronto, and joined the allies at Niagara. White
and red, Denonville now had nearly three thousand
men under his command.1

All were gathered on the low point of land that
separates Irondequoit Bay from Lake Ontario.
" Never," says an eye-witness, " had Canada seen
such a sight ; and never, perhaps, will she see such
a sight again. Here was the camp of the regulars
from France, with the general's head-quarters ; the
camp of the four battalions of Canadian militia,
commanded by the nohlesse of the country ; the
camp of the Christian Indians ; and, farther on, a
swarm of savages of every nation. Their features
were different, and so were their manners, their
weapons, their decorations, and their dances. They
sang and whooped and harangued in every accent

1 Recueil dece qui s' est passe' en Canada depuis 1682; Captain Duplessis's
Plan for the Defence of Canada, in N. Y. Col Docs., IX. 447.

1687.] MARCH OF DENONVILLE. 149

and tongue. Most of them wore nothing but horns
on their heads, and the tails of beasts behind their
backs. Their faces were painted red or green,
with black or white spots ; their ears and noses
were hung with ornaments of iron ; and their naked
bodies were daubed with figures of various sorts
of animals." l

These were the allies from the upper lakes.
The enemy, meanwhile, had taken alarm. Just
after the army arrived, three Seneca scouts called
from the edge of the woods, and demanded what
they meant to do. " To fight you, you blockheads,"
answered a Mohawk Christian attached to the
French. A volley of bullets was fired at the
scouts ; but they escaped, and carried the news
to their villages.9 Many of the best warriors were
absent. Those that remained, four hundred or
four hundred and fifty by their own accounts, and
eight hundred by that of the French, mustered in
haste ; and, though many of them were mere boys,
they sent off the women and children, hid their
most valued possessions, burned their chief town,
and prepared to meet the invaders.

On the twelfth, at three o'clock in the after-
noon, Denonville began his march, leaving four
hundred men in a hastily built fort to guard the
bateaux and canoes. Troops, officers, and Indians,
all carried their provisions at their backs. Some
of the Christian Mohawks guided them ; but guides
were scarcely needed, for a broad Indian trail led

1 The first part of the extract is from Belmont ; the second, from
Saint- Vallier.

2 Information received from several Indians, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 444.

150 DEXONVILLE AND THE SENEGAS. [1687.

from the bay to the great Seneca town, twenty-
two miles southward. They marched three leagues
through the open forests of oak, and encamped
for the night. In the morning, the heat was
intense. The men gasped in the dead and sultry
air of the woods, or grew faint in the pitiless sun,
as they waded waist-deep through the rank grass
of the narrow intervales. They passed safely
through two dangerous defiles, and, about two in
the afternoon, began to enter a third. Dense
forests covered the hills on either hand. La Du-
rantaye with Tonty and his cousin Du Lhut led the
advance, nor could all Canada have supplied three
men better for the work. Each led his band of
conreurs de bois, white Indians, without discipline,
and scarcely capable of it, but brave and accus-
tomed to the woods. On their left were the Iro-
quois converts from the missions of Saut St. Louis
and the Mountain of Montreal, fighting under the
influence of their ghostly prompters against their
own countrymen. On the right were the pagan
Indians from the west. The woods were full of
these painted spectres, grotesquely horrible in
horns and tail ; and among them flitted the black
robe of Father Engelran, the Jesuit of Michilli-
mackinac. Nicolas Perrot and two other bush-
ranging Frenchmen were assigned to command
them, but in fact they obeyed no man. These
formed the vanguard, eight or nine hundred in all,
under an excellent officer, Callieres, governor of
Montreal. Behind came the main body under
Denonville, each of the four battalions of regulars

1687.] AMBUSCADE. 151

alternating with a battalion of Canadians. Some
of the regulars wore light armor, while the Cana-
dians were in plain attire of coarse cloth or buck-
skin. Denonville, oppressed by the heat, marched
in his shirt. " It is a rough life," wrote the mar-
quis, " to tramp afoot through the woods, carrying
one's own provisions in a haversack, devoured by
mosquitoes, and faring no better than a mere
soldier." l With him was the Chevalier de Vau-
dreuil, who had just arrived from France in com-
mand of the eight hundred men left to guard
the colony, and who, eager to take part in the
campaign, had pushed forward alone to join the
army. Here, too, were the Canadian seigniors at
the head of their vassals, Berthier, La Valterie,
Granville, Longueuil, and many more. A guard of
rangers and Indians brought up the rear.

Scouts thrown out in front ran back with the
report that they had reached the Seneca clearings,
and had seen no more dangerous enemy than three
or four women in the cornfields. This was a device
of the Senecas to cheat the French into the belief
that the inhabitants were still in the town. It had
the desired effect. The vanguard pushed rapidly
forward, hoping to surprise the place, and ignorant
that, behind the ridge of thick forests on their
right, among a tangled growth of beech-trees in
the gorge of a brook, three hundred ambushed
warriors lay biding their time.

Hurrying forward through the forest, they left
the main body behind, and soon reached the end

1 Denonville an Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.

152 DENONVILLE AND THE SEXECAS. [1687.

of the defile. The woods were still dense on their
left and front ; but on their right lay a great marsh,
covered with alder thickets and rank grass. Sud-
denly the air was filled with yells, and a rapid
though distant fire was opened from the thickets
and the forest. Scores of painted savages, stark
naked, some armed with swords and some with
hatchets, leaped screeching from their ambuscade,
and rushed against the van. Almost at the same
moment a burst of whoops and firing sounded in
the defile behind. It was the ambushed three
hundred supporting the onset of their countrymen
in front ; but they had made a fatal mistake. De-
ceived by the numbers of the vanguard, they sup-
posed it to be the whole army, never suspecting
that Denonville was close behind with sixteen hun-
dred men. It was a surprise on both sides. So
dense was the forest that the advancing battalions
could see neither the enemy nor each other. Ap-
palled by the din of whoops and firing, redoubled
by the echoes of the narrow valley, the whole army
was seized with something like a panic. Some of
the officers, it is said, threw themselves on the
ground in their fright. There were a few moments
of intense bewilderment. The various corps be-
came broken and confused, and moved hither and
thither without knowing why. Denonville be-
haved with great courage. He ran, sword in hand,
to where the uproar was greatest, ordered the
drums to beat the charge, turned back the militia
of Berthier who were trying to escape, and com-
manded them and all others whom he met to fire

1687.] VICTORY. 153

on whatever looked like an enemy. He was
bravely seconded by Callieres, La Valterie, and
several other officers. The Christian Iroquois
fought well from the first, leaping from tree to
tree, and exchanging shots and defiance with their
heathen countrymen ; till the Senecas, seeing
themselves confronted by numbers that seemed
endless, abandoned the field, after heavy loss,
carrying with them many of their dead and all of
their wounded.1

Denonville made no attempt to pursue. He
had learned the dangers of this blind warfare of
the woods; and he feared that the Senecas would
waylay him again in the labyrinth of bushes that
lay between him and the town. " Our troops," he
says, " were all so overcome by the extreme heat
and the long; march that we were forced to remain
where we were till morning. We had the pain of
witnessing the usual cruelties of the Indians, who
cut the dead bodies into quarters, like butchers'
meat, to put into their kettles, and opened most of
them while still warm to drink the blood. Our
rascally Ottawas particularly distinguished them-
selves by these barbarities, as well as by cowardice ;
for they made off in the fight. We had five or six
men killed on the spot, and about twenty wounded,
among whom was Father Engelran, who was badly
hurt by a gun-shot. Some prisoners who escaped
from the Senecas tell us that they lost forty men
killed outright, twenty-five of whom we saw butch-

1 For authorities, see note at the end of the chapter. The account
of Charlevoix is contradicted at several points by the contemporary
writers.

154 DEXOXVILLE AND THE SENECAS. [1687.

ered. One of the escaped prisoners saw the rest
buried, and he saw also more than sixty very
dangerously wounded." *

In the morning, the troops advanced in order of
battle through a marsh covered with alders and
tall grass, whence they had no sooner emerged
than, says Abbe Belmont, " we began to see the
famous Babylon of the Senecas, where so many
crimes have been committed, so much blood spilled,
and so many men burned. It was a village or
town of bark, on the top of a hill. They had
burned it a week before. We found nothing in it
but the graveyard and the graves, full of snakes
and other creatures ; a great mask, with teeth
and eyes of brass, and a bearskin drawn over it,
with which they performed their conjurations." a
The fire had also spared a number of huge recep-
tacles of bark, still filled with the last season's
corn ; while the fields around were covered with
the growing crop, ripening in the July sun. There
were hogs, too, in great number ; for the Iroquois
did not share the antipathy with which Indians
are apt to regard that unsavory animal, and from
which certain philosophers have argued their de-
scent from the Jews.

The soldiers killed the hogs, burned the old
corn, and hacked down the new with their swords.
Next they advanced to an abandoned Seneca fort
on a hill half a league distant, and burned it, with

1 Denonville an Ministre, 25 Aout, 1687. In his journal, written after-
wards, he says that the Senecas left twenty-seven dead on the field, and
carried off twenty more, besides upwards of sixty mortally wounded.

2 Belmont. A few words are added from Saint- Vallier.

1687.] CONDITION OF THE TROOPS. 155

all that it contained. Ten days were passed in
the work of havoc. Three neighboring villages
were levelled, and all their fields laid waste. The
amount of corn destroyed was prodigious. De-
nonville reckons it at the absurdly exaggerated
amount of twelve hundred thousand bushels.

The Senecas, laden with such of their possessions
as they could carry off, had fled to their confeder-
ates in the east ; and Denonville did not venture
to pursue them. His men, feasting without stint
on green corn and fresh pork, were sickening rap-
idly, and his Indian allies were deserting him.
" It is a miserable business," he wrote, " to com-
mand savages, who, as soon as they have knocked
an enemy in the head, ask for nothing but to go
home and carry with them the scalp, which they
take on0 like a skull-cap. You cannot believe what
trouble I had to keep them till the corn was cut."

On the twenty-fourth, he withdrew, with all his
army, to the fortified post at Irondequoit Bay,
whence he proceeded to Niagara, in order to ac-
complish his favorite purpose of building a fort
there. The troops were set at work, and a stock-
ade was planted on the point of land at the eastern
angle between the River Niagara and Lake Ontario,
the site of the ruined fort built by La Salle nine
years before.1 Here he left a hundred men, under
the Chevalier cle Troyes, and, embarking with the
rest of the army, descended to Montreal.

The campaign was but half a success. Joined

1 Proces-verbal de la Prise de Possession de Niagara, 31 Juillet, 1687.
There are curious errors of date in this document regarding the proceed-
ings of La Salle.

156 DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS. [1687.

to the capture of the English traders on the lakes,
it had, indeed, prevented the defection of the
western Indians, and in some slight measure re-
stored their respect for the French, of whom,
nevertheless, one of them was heard to say that
they were good for nothing but to make war on
hogs and corn. As for the Senecas, they were
more enraged than hurt. They could rebuild their
bark villages in a few weeks; and, though they
had lost their harvest, their confederates would
not let them starve.1 A converted Iroquois had
told the governor before his departure that, if he
overset a wasps' nest, he must crush the Avasps, or
they would sting him. Denonville left the wasps
alive.

Denonville's Campaign against the Senecas. — The chief
authorities on this matter are the journal of Denonville, of which
there is a translation in the Colonial Documents of New York,
IX. ; the letters of Denonville to the Minister ; the JEtat Present
de VEglise de la Colonie Francaise, by Bishop Saint- Vallier ; the
Recueil de. ce qui s'est passe en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, tant
des Anglais que des Iroquois, depuis Vann'ee 1682 ; and the excellent
account by Abbe Belmont in his chronicle called Histoire du Ca-
nada. To these may be added La Hontan, Tonty, Nicolas Perrot,
La Potherie, and the Senecas examined before the authorities of
Albany, whose statements are printed in the Colonial Documents,
III. These are the original sources. Charlevoix drew his ac-
count from a portion of them. It is inexact, and needs the cor-
rection of his learned annotator, Mr. Shea. Colden, Smith, and
other English writers follow La Hontan.

The researches of Mr. O. H. Marshall, of Buffalo, have left no
reasonable doubt as to the scene of the battle, and the site of the
neighboring town. The Seneca ambuscade was on the marsh and

1 The statement of some later writers, that many of the Senecas
died during the following winter in consequence of the loss of their
corn, is extremely doubtful. Captain Duplessis, in his Plan for the De-
fence of Canada, 1690, declares that not one of them perished of hunger.

1687.] CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE SENECAS. 157

the bills immediately north and west of the present village of
Victor; and their chief town, called Gannagaro by Denonville,
was on the top of Boughton's Hill, about a mile and a quarter dis-
tant. Immense quantities of Indian remains were formerly found
here, and many are found to this day. Charred corn has been
turned up in abundance by the plough, showing that the place was
destroyed by fire. The remains of the fort burned by the French
are still plainly visible on a hill a mile and a quarter from the an-
cient town. A plan of it will be found in Squier's Aboriginal
Monuments of New York. The site of the three other Seneca towns
destroyed by Denonville, and called Totiakton, Gannondata, and
Gannongarae, can also be identified. See Marshall, in Collections
N. Y. Hist. Soc, 2d Series, II. Indian traditions of historical
events are usually almost worthless ; but the old Seneca chief
Dyunehogawah, or "John Blacksmith," who was living a few
years ago at the Tonawanda reservation, recounted to Mr. Mar-
shall with remarkable accuracy the story of the battle as handed
down from his ancestors who lived at Gannagaro, close to the
scene of action. Gannagaro was the Canagorah of Wentworth
Greenalgh's Journal. The old Seneca, on being shown a map of
the locality, placed his finger on the spot where the fight took
place, and which was long known to the Senecas by the name of
Dyagodiyu, or " The Place of a Battle." It answers in the most
perfect manner to the French contemporary descriptions.

CHAPTER IX.

1687-1689.
THE IROQUOIS INVASION.

Altercations. — Attitude of Dongan. — Martial Preparation. —
Perplexity of Dexonville. — Axgry Correspondence. — Re-
call of Dongan. — Sir Edmund Axdros. — Humiliation of
Dexoxville. — Distress of Canada. — Appeals for Help. —
Iroquois Diplomacy. — A Huron Macchiavel. — The Catas-
trophe.— Ferocity of the Victors. — War with Exglaxd. —
Recall of Dexonville.

When Dongan heard that the French had in-
vaded the Senecas, seized English traders on the
lakes, and built a fort at Niagara, his wrath was
kindled anew. He sent to the Iroquois, and sum-
moned them to meet him at Albany ; told the
assembled chiefs that the late calamity had fallen
upon them because they had held councils with
the French without asking his leave ; forbade them
to do so again, and informed them that, as subjects
of King James, they must make no treaty, except
by the consent of his representative, the governor
of New York. He declared that the Ottawas
and other remote tribes were also British sub-
jects ; that the Iroquois should unite with them,
to expel the French from the west ; and that all
alike should bring clown their beaver skins to the
English at Albany. Moreover, he enjoined them to

1687.] ATTITUDE OF DONGAN. 159

receive no more French Jesuits into their towns,
and to call home their countrymen whom these
fathers had converted and enticed to Canada.
" Obey my commands," added the governor, " for
that is the only way to eat well and sleep well,
without fear or disturbance." The Iroquois, who
wanted his help, seemed to assent to all he said.
" We will fight the French," exclaimed their orator,
" as long as we have a man left." 1

At the same time, Dongan wrote to Denonville
demanding the immediate surrender of the Dutch
and English captured on the lakes. Denonville
angrily replied that he would keep the prisoners,
since Dongan had broken the treaty of neutrality
by " giving aid and comfort to the savages." The
English governor, in return, upbraided his corre-
spondent for invading British territory. " I will
endevour to protect his Majesty's subjects here
from your unjust invasions, till I hear from the
King, my Master, who is the greatest and most
glorious Monarch that ever set on a Throne, and
would do as much to propagate the Christian
faith as any prince that lives. He did not send me
here to suffer you to give laws to his subjects. I
hope, notwithstanding all your trained soulcliers
and greate Officers come from Europe, that our
masters at home will suffer us to do ourselves jus-
tice on you for the injuries and spoyle you have
committed on us ; and I assure you, Sir, if my
Master gives leave, I will be as soon at Quebeck as

1 Dongan' s Propositions to the Five Nations ; Answer of the Five Nations,
N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 438, 441.

160 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1687-88.

you shall be att Albany. What you alleage con-
cerning my assisting the Sinnakees (Senecas) with
arms and ammunition to warr against you was
never given by mee untill the sixt of August last,
when understanding of your unjust proceedings
in invading the King my Master's territorys in a
hostill manner, I then gave them powder, lead, and
armes, and united the five nations together to de-
fend that part of our King's dominions from your
jnjurious invasion. And as for offering them men, in
that you doe me wrong, our men being all buisy then
at their harvest, and I leave itt to your judgment
whether there was any occasion when only foure
hundred of them engaged with your whole army.
I advise you to send home all the Christian and
Indian prisoners the King of England's subjects
you unjustly do deteine. This is what I have
thought fitt to answer to your reflecting and pro-
voking letter." *

As for the French claims to the Iroquois country
and the upper lakes, he turned them to ridicule.
They were founded, in part, on the missions estab-
lished there by the Jesuits. " The King of China,' '
observes Dongan, " never goes anywhere without
two Jessuits with him. I wonder you make not
the like pretence to that Kingdome." He speaks
with equal irony of the claim based on discovery :
" Pardon me if I say itt is a mistake, except you will
affirme that a few loose fellowes rambling amongst
Indians to keep themselves from starving gives the
French a right to the Countrey." And of the claim

i Dongan to Denonville, 9 Sept., 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 472.

1687-88.] MARTIAL PREPARATION. 161

based on geographical divisions : " Your reason is
that some rivers or rivoletts of this country run
out into the great river of Canada. 0 just
God ! what new, farr-f etched, and unheard-of pre-
tence is this for a title to a country. The French
King may have as good a pretence to all those
Countrys that drink clarett and Brandy." * In
spite of his sarcasms, it is clear that the claim of
prior discovery and occupation was on the side of
the French.

The dispute now assumed a new phase. James
II. at length consented to own the Iroquois as his
subjects, ordering Dongan to protect them, and
repel the French by force of arms, should they
attack them again.2 At the same time, conferences
were opened at London between the French am-
bassador and the English commissioners appointed
to settle the questions at issue. Both disputants
claimed the Iroquois as subjects, and the contest
wore an aspect more serious than before.

The royal declaration was a great relief to Don-
gan. Thus far he had acted at his own risk ; now
he was sustained by the orders of his king. He
instantly assumed a warlike attitude ; and, in the
next spring, wrote to the Earl of Sunderland
that he had been at Albany all winter, with four
hundred infantry, fifty horsemen, and eight hun-
dred Indians. This was not without cause, for a
report had come from Canada that the French

1 Dongan's Fourth Paper to the French Agents, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 528.

2 Warrant, authorizing Governor Dongan to protect the Five Nations, 10
Nov., 1687, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 503.

11

162 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1687-88.

were about to nvirch on Albany to destroy it.
"And now, my Lord/' continues Dongan, "we
must build forts in ye countrey upon ye great
Lakes, as ye French doe, otherwise we lose ye
Countrey, ye Bever trade, and our Indians." 1
Denonville, meanwhile, had begun to yield, and
promised to send back McGregory and the men
captured with him.2 Dongan, not satisfied, in-
sisted on payment for all the captured merchandise,
and on the immediate demolition of Fort Niagara.
He added another demand, which must have been
singularly galling to his rival. It was to the effect
that the Iroquois prisoners seized at Fort Frontenac,
and sent to the galleys in France, should be sur-
rendered as British subjects to the English ambas-
sador at Paris or the secretary of state in London.3
Denonville was sorely jierplexecl. He was hard
pressed, and eager for peace with the Iroquois at
any price ; but Dongan was using every means to
prevent their treating of peace with the French
governor until he had complied with all the Eng-
lish demands. In this extremity, Denonville sent
Father Vaillant to Albany, in the hope of bringing
his intractable rival to conditions less humiliating.
The Jesuit played his part with ability, and proved
more than a match for his adversary in dialectics ;
but Dongan held fast to all his demands. Vaillant

1 Dongan to Sunderland, Feb., 1688, N. Y. Col Docs., III. 510.

2 Denonville a Dongan, 2 Oct., 1G87. McGregory soon arrived, and
Dongan sent him back to Canada as an emissary with a civil message to
Denonville. Dongan to Denonville, 10 Nov., 1687.

3 Dongan to Denonville, 31 Oct., 1687 ; Dongan s First Demand of the
French Agents, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 515, 520.

1687-88.] ANGRY CORRESPONDENCE. 163

tried to temporize, and asked for a truce, with a
view to a final settlement by reference to the two
kings.1 Dongan referred the question to a meeting
of Iroquois chiefs, who declared in reply that they
would make neither peace nor truce till Fort Niagara
was demolished and all the prisoners restored.
Dongan, well pleased, commended their spirit, and
assured them that King James, " who is the greatest
man the sunn shines uppon, and never told a ly in
his life, has given you his Royall word to protect
you." 2 Vaillant returned from his bootless errand ;
and a stormy correspondence followed between the
two governors. Dongan renewed his demands,
then protested his wish for peace, extolled King
James for his pious zeal, and declared that he was
sending over missionaries of his own to convert the
Iroquois.3 What Denonville wanted was not their
conversion by Englishmen, but their conversion
by Frenchmen, and the presence in their towns
of those most useful political agents, the Jesuits.4
He replied angrily, charging Dongan with prevent-
ing the conversion of the Iroquois by driving off
the French missionaries, and accusing him, farther,
of instigating the tribes of New York to attack

1 The papers of this discussion will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs. ,111.

2 Donrjan's Reply to the Five Nations, Ibid., III. 535.

3 Dongan to Denonville, 17 Feb., 1638, Ibid., III. 519.

4 " Ilya une necessite indispensable pour les interais de la Religion et
de la Colonie de restablir les missionaires Jesuites dans tous les villages
Iroquois : si vous ne trouves moyen de faire retourner ces Peres dans
leurs anciennes missions, vous deves en attendre beaucoup de malheur
pour cette Colonie ; car je dois vous dire que jusqu'icy c'est leur habilite
qui a soutenu les affaires du pays par leur scavoir-faire a gouvern^r les
esprits de ces barbares, qui ne sont Sauvages que de nom." Denonville,
Me'moire adressg au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1688.

164 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1687-88.

Canada.1 Suddenly there was a change in the
temper of his letters. He wrote to his rival in
terms of studied civility ; declared that he wished
he could meet him, and consult with him on the
best means of advancing the cause of true religion ;
begged that he would not refuse him his friend-
ship ; and thanked him in warm terms for befriend-
ing some French prisoners whom he had saved from
the Iroquois, and treated with great kindness.2

This change was due to despatches from Ver-
sailles, in which Denonville was informed that the
matters in dispute would soon be amicably settled
by the commissioners ; that he was to keep on good
terms with the English commanders, and, what
pleased him still more, that the king of England
was about to recall Dongan.3 In fact, James II.
had resolved on remodelling his American colonies.
New York, New Jersey, and New England had
been formed into one government under Sir Ed-
mund Andros ; and Dongan was summoned home,
where a regiment was given him, with the rank of
major-general of artillery. Denonville says that,
in his efforts to extend English trade to the Great

i Denonville a Dongan, 24 Avril, 1688 ; Ibid., 12 Mai, 1688. Whether
the charge is true is questionable. Dongan had just written that, if the
Iroquois did harm to the French, he was ordered to offer satisfaction,
and had already done so.

2 Denonville a Dongan, 18 Juin, 1688 ; Ibid., 5 Juillet, 1688 ; Ibid., 20
Aug., 1688. " Je n'ai done qu'a vous asseurer que toute la Colonie a une
tres-parfaite rceonnoissance des bons offices que ces pauvres malheureux
ont reou de vous et de vos peuples."

3 Me'moire pour servir d 'Instruction au Sr. Marquis de Denonville, 8 Mars,
1688; Le Roy a Denonville, meme date; Seignelay a Denonville, meme date.
Louis XIV. had demanded Dongan's recall. How far this had influenced
the action of James II. it is difficult to say.

1687-88.] SIR EDMUND ANDROS. 1G5

Lakes and the Mississippi, his late rival had been
influenced by motives of personal gain. Be this
as it may, he was a bold and vigorous defender of
the claims of the British crown.

Sir Edmund Andros now reigned over New
York ; and, by the terms of his commission, his rule
stretched westward to the Pacific. The usual
official courtesies passed between him and Denon-
ville ; but Andros renewed all the demands of his
predecessor, claimed the Iroquois as subjects, and
forbade the French to attack them.1 The new gov-
ernor was worse than the old. Denonville wrote
to the minister : " I send you copies of his letters,
by which you will see that the spirit of Dongan
has entered into the heart of his successor, who
may be less passionate and less interested, but who
is, to say the least, quite as much opposed to us,
and perhaps more dangerous by his suppleness and
smoothness than the other was by his violence.
What he has just clone among the Iroquois, whom
he pretends to be under his government, and whom
he prevents from coming to meet me, is a certain
proof that neither he nor the other English-gov-
ernors, nor their people, will refrain from doing
this colony all the harm they can." 2

While these things were passing, the state of
Canada was deplorable, and the position of its

1 Andros to Denonville, 21 Aug., 1688 ; Ibid., 29 Sept., 1688.

2 Me'moire de VEstat Present des Affaires de ce Pays depuis le lOme Aoust,
1688, jusqu'au dernier Octobre.de la mesme anne'e. He declares that the Eng-
lish are always " itching for the western trade," that their favorite plan
is to establish a post on the Ohio, and that they have made the attempt
three times already.

166 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1688.

governor as mortifying as it was painful. He
thought with good reason that the maintenance of
the new fort at Niagara was of great importance
to the colony, and he had repeatedly refused the
demands of Dongan and the Iroquois for its demoli-
tion. But a power greater than sachems and gov-
ernors presently intervened. The provisions left
at Niagara, though abundant, were atrociously bad.
Scurvy and other malignant diseases soon broke
out among the soldiers. The Senecas prowled
about the place, and no man dared venture out
for hunting, fishing, or firewood.1 The fort was
first a prison, then a hospital, then a charnel-house,
till before spring the garrison of a hundred men
was reduced to ten or twelve. In this condition,
they were found towards the end of April by a
large war-party of friendly Miamis, who entered
the place and held it till a French detachment at
length arrived for its relief.2 The garrison of Fort
Frontenac had suffered from the same causes,
though not to the same degree. Denonville feared
that he should be forced to abandon them both.
The way was so long and so dangerous, and the
governor had grown of late so cautious, that he
dreaded the risk of maintaining* such remote com-
munications. On second thought, he resolved to
keep Frontenac and sacrifice Niagara. He prom-
ised Dongan that he would demolish it, and he
kept his word.3

1 Denonville, Memoire du 10 Aoust, 1688.

2 Recueil de ce qui s'est passe en Canada depuis Vanne'e 1682. The writer
was an officer of the detachment, and describes what he saw. Compare
La Potherie,II. 210; and La Hontan, I. 131 (1709).

3 Denonville a Dongan, 20 Aoust, 1688 ; Proces-verbal of the Condition of

1688.] DISTRESS OF CANADA. 167

He was forced to another and a deeper humilia-
tion. At the imperious demand of Dongan and
the Iroquois, he begged the king to send back the
prisoners entrapped at Fort Frontenac, and he
wrote to the minister : " Be pleased, Monseigneur,
to remember that I had the honor to tell yon
that, in order to attain the peace necessary to the
country, I was obliged to promise that I would beg
you to send back to us the prisoners I sent you
last year. I know you gave orders that they should
be well treated, but I am informed that, though
they were well enough treated at first, your orders
were not afterwards executed with the same fidelity.
If ill treatment has caused them all to die, — for
they are people who easily fall into dejection, and
who die of it, — and if none of them come back,
I do not know at all whether we can persuade
these barbarians not to attack us again." l

What had brought the marquis to this pass ?
Famine, destitution, disease, and the Iroquois were
making Canada their prey. The fur trade had
been stopped for two years ; and the people, bereft
of their only means of subsistence, could contrib-
ute nothing to their own defence. Above Three
Kivers, the whole population was imprisoned in
stockade forts hastily built in every seigniory.2

Fort Niagara, 1688 ; N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 386. The palisades were torn
down by Denonville's order on the loth of September. The rude dwell-
ings and storehouses which they enclosed, together with a large wooden
cross, were left standing. The commandant De Troyes had died, and
Captain Desbergeres had been sent to succeed him.

1 Denonville, Memoire du 10 Aoust, 1688.

2 In the Depot des Cartes de la Marine, there is a contemporary
manuscript map, on which all these forts are laid down.

168 THE IROQUOIS INVASION.

Here they were safe, provided that they never
ventured out ; but their fields were left untillecl,
and the governor was already compelled to feed
many of them at the expense of the king. The
Iroquois roamed among the deserted settlements
or prowled like lynxes about the forts, waylaying
convoys and killing or capturing stragglers. Their
war-parties were usually small ; but their move-
ments were so mysterious and their attacks so
sudden, that they spread a universal panic through
the upper half of the colony. They were the
wasps which Denonville had failed to kill.

" We should succumb," wrote the distressed gov-
ernor, " if our cause were not the cause of Gocl.
Your Majesty's zeal for religion, and the great
things you have done for the destruction of
heresy, encourage me to hope that you will be
the bulwark of the Faith in the new world as you
are in the old. I cannot give you a truer idea
of the war we have to wage with the Iroquois than
by comparing them to a great number of wolves
or other ferocious beasts, issuing out of a vast forest
to ravage the neighboring settlements. The people
gather to hunt them clown ; but nobody can find
their lair, for they are always in motion. An
abler man than I would be greatly at a loss to
manage the affairs of this country. It is for the
interest of the colony to have peace at any cost
whatever. For the glory of the king and the good
of religion, we should be glad to have it an advan-
tageous one : and so it would have been, but for the

1688.] APPEAL FOR HELP. 169

malice of the English and the protection they have
given our enemies." 1

And yet he had, one would think, a reasonable
force at his disposal. His thirty-two companies of
regulars were reduced by this time to about four-
teen hundred men, but he had also three or four
hundred Indian converts, besides the militia of the
colony, of whom he had stationed a large body
under Vaudreuil at the head of the Island of Mon-
treal. All told, they were several times more
numerous than the agile warriors who held the col-
ony in terror. He asked for eight hundred more
regulars. The king sent him three hundred. Af-
fairs grew worse, and he grew desperate. Rightly
judging that the best means of defence was to
take the offensive, he conceived the plan of a
double attack on the Iroquois, one army to assail
the Onondagas and Cayugas, another the Mo-
hawks and Oneidas.2 Since to reach the Mohawks
as he proposed, by the way of Lake Champlain, he
must pass through territory indisputably British,
the attempt would be a flagrant violation of the
treaty of neutrality. Nevertheless, he implored
the king to send him four thousand soldiers to
accomplish it.3 His fast friend, the bishop, warmly
seconded his appeal. " The glory of God is in-
volved," Avrote the head of the church, " for the
Iroquois are the only tribe who oppose the progress
of the gospel. The glory of the king is involved,

i Denonville au Roy, 1688; Ibid., Memoire du 10 Aoust, 1688; Ibid.,
Mtmoire du 9 Nov., 1688.

2 Plan for the Termination of the Iroquois War,N. Y. Col. Docs. , IX. 375.

3 Denonville, Memoire du 8 Aoust, 1688.

170 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1688.

for they are the only tribe who refuse to recognize
his grandeur and his might. They hold the French
in the deepest contempt ; and, unless they are com-
pletely humbled within two years, his Majesty will
have no colony left in Canada." * And the prelate
proceeds to tell the minister how, in his opinion,
the war ought to be conducted. The appeal
was vain. " His Majesty agrees with you," wrote
Seignelay, " that three or four thousand men
would be the best means of making peace, but
he cannot spare them now. If the enemy breaks
out again, raise the inhabitants, and fight as well

as you can till his Majesty is prepared to send you

i "5

troops. z

A hope had dawned on the governor. He had
been more active of late in negotiating than in
fighting, and his diplomacy had prospered more
than his arms. It may be remembered that some
of the Iroquois entrapped at Fort Frontenac
had been given to their Christian relatives in the
mission villages. Here they had since remained.
Denonville thought that he might use them as
messengers to their heathen countrymen, and he
sent one or more of them to Onondaga with gifts
and overtures of peace. That shrewd old politi-
cian, Big Mouth, was still strong in influence at
the Iroquois capital, and his name was great to the
farthest bounds of the confederacy. He knew by
personal experience the advantages of a neutral

1 Saint-Vallier, Jfe'moire sur les Affaires du Canada pour Monseigneur
le Marquis de Seignelay.

2 Me'moire du Ministre adressea Denonville, 1 Mai, 1689.

1688.] IROQUOIS DIPLOMACY. 171

position between the rival European powers, from
both of whom he received gifts and attentions ; and
he saw that what was good for him was good for
the confederacy, since, if it gave itself to neither
party, both would court its alliance. In his opin-
ion, it had now leaned long enough towards the
English ; and a change of attitude had become ex-
pedient. Therefore, as Denonville promised the
return of the prisoners, and was plainly ready to
make other concessions, Big Mouth, setting at
naught the prohibitions of Anclros, consented to a
conference with the French. He set out at his.
leisure for Montreal, with six Onondaga, Cayuga,
and Oneida chiefs ; and, as no diplomatist ever under-
stood better the advantage of negotiating at the
head of an imposing force, a body of Iroquois war-
riors, to the number, it is said, of twelve hundred,
set out before him, and silently took path to
Canada.

The ambassadors paddled across the lake and
presented themselves before the commandant of
Fort Frontenac, who received them with distinction,
and ordered Lieutenant Perelle to escort them to
Montreal. Scarcely had the officer conducted his
august charge five leagues on their way, when, to
his amazement, he found himself in the midst of
six hundred Iroquois warriors, who amused them-
selves for a time with his terror, and then accom-
panied him as far as Lake St. Francis, where he
found another body of savages nearly equal in
number. Here the warriors halted, and the am-

172 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1688.

bassadors with their escort gravely pursued their
way to meet Denonville at Montreal.1

Big Mouth spoke haughtily, like a man who knew
his power. He told the governor that he and his
people were subjects neither of the French nor of
the English ; that they wished to be friends of
both ; that they held their country of the Great
Spirit ; and that they had never been conquered
in war. He declared that the Iroquois knew the
weakness of the French, and could easily extermi-
nate them ; that they had formed a plan of burn-
ing all the houses and barns of Canada, killing the
cattle, setting fire to the ripe grain, and then,
when the people were starving, attacking the forts ;
but that he, Big Mouth, had prevented its execu-
tion. He concluded by saying that he was allowed
but four days to bring back the governor's reply ;
and that, if he were kept waiting longer, he would
not answer for what might happen.2 Though it
appeared by some expressions in his speech that he
was ready to make peace only with the French,
leaving the Iroquois free to attack the Indian
allies of the colony, and though, while the am-
bassadors were at Montreal, their warriors on
the river above actually killed several of the In-
dian converts, Denonville felt himself compelled
to pretend ignorance of the outrage.3 A declara-
tion of neutrality was drawn up, and Big Mouth

1 Relation des Ece'nenxents de la Guerre, 30 Oct., 1688.

2 Declaration of the Iroquois in presence of M. de Denonville, N. Y. Col.
Docs., IX. 384 ; Relation des Eve'nements de la Guerre, 30 Oct., 1688 ; Bel-
mont, Histoire du Canada.

3 Cal/ieres a Seignelay, Jan., 1689.

1688.] A HURON MACCHIAVEL. 173

affixed to it the figures of sundry birds and beasts
as the signatures of himself and his fellow-chiefs.1
He promised, too, that within a certain time depu-
ties from the whole confederacy should come to
Montreal and conclude a general peace.

The time arrived, and they did not appear. It
became known, however, that a number of chiefs
were coming from Onondaga to explain the delay,
and to promise that the deputies should soon follow.
The chiefs in fact were on their way. They
reached La Famine, the scene of La Barre's meet-
ing with Big Mouth ; but here an unexpected
incident arrested them, and completely changed
the aspect of affairs.

Among the Hurons of Michillimackinac there
was a chief of high renown named Koncliaronk, or
the Rat. He was in the prime of life, a redoubted
warrior, and a sage counsellor. The French seem
to have admired him greatly. " He is a gallant
man," says La Hon tan, " if ever there was one ; "
while Charlevoix declares that he was the ablest
Indian the French ever knew in America, and that
he had nothing of the savage but the name and the
dress. In spite of the father's eulogy, the moral
condition of the Rat savored strongly of the wig-
wam. He had given Denonville great trouble by
his constant intrigues with the Iroquois, with whom
he had once made a plot for the massacre of his
neighbors, the Ottawas, under cover of a pretended
treaty.2 The French had spared no pains to gain

1 See the signatures in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 385, 386.
- Nicolas Perrot, 143.

174 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [16S&

him ; and he had at length been induced to declare
for them, under a pledge from the governor that
the war should never cease till the Iroquois were
destroyed. During the summer, he raised a party
of forty warriors, and came clown the lakes in
quest of Iroquois scalps.1 On the way, he stopped-
at Fort Frontenac to hear the news, when, to his
amazement, the commandant told him that deputies
from Onondaga were coming in a few days to con-
clude peace, and that he had better go home at
once.

" It is well," replied the Rat.

He knew that for the Hurons it was not well.
He and his tribe stood fully committed to the war,
and for them peace between the French and the
Iroquois would be a signal of destruction, since
Denonville could not or would not protect his allies.
The Rat paddled off with his warriors. He had
secretly learned the route of the expected deputies ;
and he shaped his course, not, as he had pretended,
for Michillimackinac, but for La Famine, where he
knew that they would land. Having reached his
destination, he watched and waited four or fi\e
days, till canoes at length appeared, approaching
from the direction of Onondaga. On this, the Rat
and his friends hid themselves in the bushes.

The new comers were the messengers sent as
precursors of the embassy. At their head was a
famous personage named Decanisora, or Tegan-
nisorens, with whom were three other chiefs, and,
it seems, a number of warriors. They had scarcely

1 Denonvilh a Seignday, 9 Nov., 1688. La Hontan saw the party set
out, and says that there were about a hundred of them.

1088.] A HURON MACCHIAVEL. 175

landed when the ambushed Hurons gave them a
volley of bullets, killed one of the chiefs, wounded
all the rest, and then, rushing upon them, seized
the whole party except a warrior who escaped
with a broken arm. Having secured his prison-
ers, the Eat told them that he had acted on
the suggestion of Denonville, who had informed
him that an Iroquois war-party was to pass that
way. The astonished captives protested that
they were envoys of peace. The Rat put on
a look of amazement, then of horror and fury,
and presently burst into invectives against De-
nonville for having made him the instrument of
such atrocious perfidy. " Go, my brothers," he ex-
claimed, " go home to your people. Though there
is war between us, I give you your liberty. Onon-
tio has made me do so black a deed that I shall
never be happy again till your five tribes take a
just vengeance upon him." After giving them
guns, powder, and ball, he sent them on their way,
well pleased with him and filled with rage against
the governor.

In accordance with Indian usage, he, however,
kept one of them to be adopted, as he declared, in
place of one of his followers whom he had lost in the
skirmish ; then, recrossing the lake, he went alone
to Fort Frontenac, and, as he left the gate to rejoin
his party, he said coolly, " I have killed the peace :
we shall see how the governor will get out of this

1 " II (lit, J'ai tue la paix." Belmont, Histoire du Canada. " Le Rat
passa ensuite seul a Catarakouy (Fort' Frontenac) sans vouloir dire le
tour qu'il avoit fait, dit seulement estant hors de la porte, en s'en allant,
Nous verrons comme le gouverneur se tirera d'affaire." Denonville.

176 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1688.

business." 1 Then, without loss of time, he repaired
to Michillimackinac, and gave his Iroquois prisoner
to the officer in command. No news of the in-
tended peace had yet reached that distant outpost ;
and, though the unfortunate Iroquois told the story
of his mission and his capture, the Eat declared
that it was a crazy invention inspired by the fear
of death, and the prisoner was immediately shot by
a file of soldiers. The Rat now sent for an old
Iroquois who had long been a prisoner at the
Huron village, telling* him with a mournful air
that he was free to return to his people, and re-
count the cruelty of the French, who, had put their
countryman to death. The liberated Iroquois faith-
fully acquitted himself of his mission.1

One incident seemed for a moment likely to rob
the intriguer of the fruits of his ingenuity. The
Iroquois who had escaped in the skirmish contrived
to reach Fort Frontenac some time after the last
visit of the Rat. He told what had happened ; and,
after being treated with the utmost attention, he
was sent to Onondaga, charged with explanations
and regrets. The Iroquois dignitaries seemed satis-
fied, and Denonville wrote to the minister that

1 La Hontan, 1. 189 (1709). Most of the details of the story are drawn
from this writer, whose statement I have compared with that of Denon-
ville, in his letter dated Nov. 9, 1688 ; of Callieres, Jan., 1689 ; of the Ab-
stract of Letters from Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 393; and of the
writer of Relation des Eve'nements de la Guerre, 30 Oct., 1688. Belmont
notices the affair with his usual conciseness. La Hontan's account is
sustained by the others in most, though not in all of its essential points.
He calls the Huron chief Adario, on le Bat. He is elsewhere mentioned
as Kondiaronk, Kondiaront, Soiioias, and Soiia'iti. La Hontan says that
the scene of the treachery was one of the rapids of the St. Lawrence,
but more authentic accounts place it at La Famine.

1689.] A CRITICAL SITUATION. 177

there was still good hope of peace. He little knew
his enemy. They conld dissemble and wait ; but
they neither believed the governor nor forgave
him. His supposed treachery at La Famine, and
his real treachery at Fort Frontenac, filled them
with a patient but unextinguishable rage. They
sent him word that they were ready to renew the
negotiation ; then they sent again, to say that
Andros forbade them. Without doubt they used
his prohibition as a pretext. Months passed, and
Denonville remained in suspense. He did not trust
his Indian allies, nor did they trust him. Like the
Eat and his Hurons, they dreaded the conclusion
of peace, and wished the war to- continue, that the
French might bear the brunt of it, and stand be-
tween them and the wrath of the Iroquois.1

In the direction of the Iroquois, there was a long
and ominous silence. It was broken at last by the
crash of a thunderbolt. On the night between
the fourth and fifth of August, a violent hail-storm
burst over Lake St. Louis, an expansion of the St.
Lawrence a little above Montreal. Concealed by
the tempest and the darkness, fifteen hundred war-
riors landed at La Chine, and silently posted them-
selves about the houses of the sleeping settlers,
then screeched the war-whoop, and began the
most frightful massacre in Canadian history. The
houses were burned, and men, women, and chil-
dren indiscriminately butchered. In the neigh-
borhood were three stockade forts, called Remy,
Roland, and La Presentation ; and they all had

1 Denonville au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1688.
12

178 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1689.

garrisons. There was also an encampment of two
hundred regulars about three miles distant, under
an officer named Subercase, then absent at Mon-
treal on a visit to Denonville, who had lately
arrived with his wife and family. At four o'clock
in the morning, the troops in this encampment
heard a cannon-shot from one of the forts. They
were at once ordered under arms. Soon after, they
saw a man running towards them, just escaped
from the butchery. He told his story, and passed
on with the news to Montreal, six miles distant.
Then several fugitives appeared, chased by a band
of Iroquois, who gave over the pursuit at sight of the
soldiers, but pillaged several houses before their
eyes. The day was well advanced before Suber-
case arrived. He ordered the troops to march.
About a hundred armed inhabitants had joined
them, and they moved together towards La Chine.
Here they found the houses still burning, and the
bodies of their inmates strewn among them or
hanging from the stakes where they had been
tortured. They learned from a French surgeon,
escaped from the enemy, that the Iroquois were all
encamped a mile and a half farther on, behind a
tract of forest. Subercase, whose force had been
strengthened by troops from the forts, resolved to
attack them ; and, had he been allowed to do so,
he would probably have punished them severely, for
most of them were helplessly drunk with brandy
taken from the houses of the traders. Sword in hand,
at the head of his men, the daring officer entered the
forest ; but, at that moment, a voice from the rear

1689.] TERROR AT MONTREAL. 179

commanded a halt. It was that of the Chevalier
de Vaudreuil, just come from Montreal, with positive
orders from Denonville to run no risks and stand
solely on the defensive. Subercase was furious.
High words passed between him and Vaudreuil,
but he was forced to obey.

The troops were led back to Fort Roland, where
about five hundred regulars and militia were now
collected under command of Vaudreuil. On the
next day, eighty men from Fort Remy attempted
to join them ; but the Iroquois had slept off the
effect of their orgies, and were again on the alert.
The unfortunate detachment was set upon by a
host of savages, and cut to pieces in full sight of
Fort Roland. All were killed or captured, except
Le Moyne de Longueuil, and a few others, who
escaped within the gate of Fort Remy.J

Montreal was wild with terror. It had been
fortified with palisades since the war began ; but,
though there were troops in the town under the
governor himself, the people were in mortal dread.
No attack was made either on the town or on any
of the forts, and such of the inhabitants as could
reach them were safe ; while the Iroquois held
undisputed possession of the open country, burned
all the houses and barns over an extent of nine
miles, and roamed in small parties, pillaging and
scalping, over more than twenty miles. There is

1 Recneil de ce qui s'est passe" en Canada depnis Vann€e 1682 ; Observa-
tions on the State of Affairs in Canada, 1689, N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 431 ;
Belmont, Histoire du Canada; Frontenacau Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689. This
detachment was commanded by Lieutenant de la Rabeyre, and con-
sisted of fifty French and thirty Indian converts.

180 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1689.

no mention of their having encountered opposition ;
nor do they seem to have met with any loss but
that of some warriors killed in the attack on the
detachment from Fort Remy, and that of three
drunken stragglers who were caught and thrown
into a cellar in Fort La Presentation. When they
came to their senses, they defied their captors, and
fought with such ferocity that it was necessary to
shoot them. Charlevoix says that the invaders
remained in the neighborhood of Montreal till
the middle of October, or more than two months ;
but this seems incredible, since troops and militia
enough to drive them all into the St. Lawrence
might easily have been collected in less than a
week. It is certain, however, that their stay was
strangely long. Troops and inhabitants seem to
have been paralyzed with fear.

At length, most of them took to their canoes,
and recrossecl Lake St. Louis in a body, giving
ninety yells to show that they had ninety prisoners
in their clutches. This was not all ; for the whole
number carried off was more than a hundred and
twenty, besides about two hundred who had the
good fortune to be killed on the spot. As the
Iroquois passed the forts, they shouted, " Onontio,
you deceived us, and now we have deceived
you." Towards evening, they encamped on the
farther side of the lake, and began to torture and
devour their prisoners. On that miserable night,
stupefied and speechless groups stood gazing from
the strand of La Chine at the lights that gleamed
along the distant shore of Chateaugay, where their

1689.] FEROCITY OF THE VICTORS. 181

friends, wives, parents, or children agonized in the
fires of the Iroquois, and scenes were enacted of
indescribable and nameless horror. The greater
part of the prisoners were, however, reserved to
be distributed among the towns of the confederacy,
and there tortured for the diversion of the inhab-
itants. While some of the invaders went home to
celebrate their triumph, others roamed in small
parties through all the upper parts of the colony,
spreading universal terror.1

Canada lay bewildered and benumbed under
the shock of this calamity ; but the cup of her
misery was not full. There was revolution in

1 The best account of the descent of the Iroquois at La Chine is that of
the Recueil de ce qui s'est pass€ en Canada, 1682-1712. The writer was an
officer under Subercase, and was on the spot. Belmont, superior of the
mission of Montreal, also gives a trustworthy account in his Histoire da
Canada. Compare La Hon tan, I. 193 (1709), and La Potherie, II. 229.
Farther particulars are given in the letters of Callieres, 8 Nov. ; Cham-
pigny, 16 Nov.; and Frontenac, 15 Nov. Frontenac, after visiting the
scene of the catastrophe a few weeks after it occurred, writes : " lis
(les Iroquois) avoient brusle plus de trois lieues de pays, saccage
toutes les maisons jusqu'aux portes de la ville, enleve plus de six vingt
personnes, tant homrnes, femmes, qu'enfants, apres avoir massacre plus
de deux cents dont ils avoient casse la teste aux uns, brusle, rosty, et
mange les autres, ouvert le ventre des femmes grosses pour en arraclier
les enfants, et fait des cruautez inou'ies et sans exemple." The details
given by Belmont, and by the author of Histoire de VEau de Vie en Ca-
nada, are no less revolting. The last-mentioned writer thinks that the
massacre was a judgment of God upon the sale of brandy at La Chine.

Some Canadian writers have charged the English with instigating
the massacre. I find nothing in contemporary documents to support the
accusation. Denonville wrote to the minister, after the Rat's treachery
came to light, that Andros had forbidden the Iroquois to attack the colony.
Immediately after the attack at La Chine, the Iroquois sachems, in a
conference with the agents of New England, declared that " we did not
make war on the French at the persuasion of our brethren at Albany ;
for we did not so much as acquaint them of our intention till fourteen
days after our army had begun their march." Report of Conference in
Colden, 103.

182 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1689.

England. James II., the friend and ally of France,
had been driven from his kingdom, and William of
Orange had seized his vacant throne. Soon there
came news of war between the two crowns. The
Iroquois alone had brought the colony to the brink
of ruin ; and now they would be supported by
the neighboring British colonies, rich, strong, and
populous, compared to impoverished and depleted
Canada.

A letter of recall for Denonville was already on
its way.1 His successor arrived in October, and the
marquis sailed for France. He was a good soldier
in a regular war, and a subordinate command ;
and he had some of the qualities of a good gover-
nor, while lacking others quite as essential. He
had more activity than vigor, more personal bravery
than firmness, and more clearness of perception
than executive power. He filled his despatches
with excellent recommendations, but was not the
man to carry them into effect. He was sensitive,
fastidious, critical, and conventional, and plumed
himself on his honor, which was not always able to
bear a strain ; though as regards illegal trade, the
besetting sin of Canadian governors, his hands were
undoubtedly clean.2 It is said that he had an

i Le Roy a Denonville, 31 Mai, 1689.

2 "I shall only add one article, on which possihly you will find it
strange that I have said nothing ; namely, whether the governor carries
on any trade. I shall answer, no ; hut my Lady the Governess {Madame la
Gouvernante), who is disposed not to neglect any opportunity for making
a profit, had a room, not to say a shop, full of goods, till the close of last
winter, in the chateau of Quehec, and found means afterwards to make a
lottery to get rid of the ruhbish that remained, which produced her more
than her good merchandise." Relation of the State of Affairs in Canada,
1688, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 388. This paper was written at Quebec.

1689.] CHARACTER OF DENONVILLE. 183

instinctive antipathy for Indians, snch as some per-
sons have for certain animals ; and the coureurs
de hois, and other lawless classes of the Canadian
population, appeared to please him no better.
Their license and insubordination distressed him,
and he constantly complained of them to the
king. For the Church and its hierarchy his de-
votion was unbounded : and his government was
a season of unwonted sunshine for the ecclesi-
astics, like the balmy clays of the Indian summer
amid the gusts of November. They exhausted
themselves in eulogies of his piety ; and, in proof
of its depth and solidity, Mother Juchereau tells
us that he clicl not regard station and rank as
very useful aids to salvation. While other gover-
nors complained of too many priests, Denonville
begged for more. All was harmony between him
and Bishop Saint-Vallier ; and the prelate was con-
stantly his friend, even to the point of justifying his
worst act, the treacherous seizure of the Iroquois
neutrals.1 When he left Canada, the only mourner
besides the churchmen was his colleague, the in-
tendant Cbampigny ; for the two chiefs of the
colony, joined in a common union with the Jesuits,
lived together in unexampled concord. On his
arrival at court, the good offices of his clerical
allies gained for him the highly honorable post of
governor of the royal children, the young Dukes
of Burgundy, Anjou, and Berri.

1 Saint-Vallier, Etat Present, 91, 92 (Quebec, 1856).

CHAPTER X.

1689, 1690.
RETURN OF FRONTENAC.

Versailles. — Frontenac and the King. — Frontenac sails for
Quebec. — Projected Conquest of New York. — Designs of
the King. — Failure. — Energy of Frontenac. — Fort Fron-
tenac.— Panic. — Negotiations. — The Iroquois in Council.
— Chevalier d'Aux. — Taunts of the Indian Allies. — Bold-
ness of Frontenac. — An Iroquois Defeat. — Cruel Policy. —
The Stroke parried.

The sun of Louis XIV. had reached its zenith.
From a morning of unexampled brilliancy it had
mounted to the glare of a cloudless noon ; but the
hour of its decline was near. The mortal enemv
of France was on the throne of England, turning
against her from that new point of vantage all the
energies of his unconquerable genius. An invalid
built the Bourbon monarchy, and another invalid
battered and defaced the imposing structure : two
potent and daring spirits in two frail bodies, Riche-
lieu and William of Orange.

Versailles gave no sign of waning glories. On
three evenings of the week, it was the pleasure of
the king that the whole court should assemble in
the vast suite of apartments now known as the
Halls of Abundance, of Venus, of Diana, of Mars,

1689.] VERSAILLES. 185

of Mercury, and of Apollo. The magnificence of
their decorations, pictures of the great Italian
masters, sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, tapestries,
vases and statues of silver and gold ; the vista
of light and splendor that opened through the
wide portals ; the courtly throngs, feasting, danc-
ing, gaming, promenading, conversing, formed a
scene which no palace of Europe could rival or
approach. Here were all the great historic names
of France, princes, warriors, statesmen, and all
that was highest in rank and place ; the flower, in
short, of that brilliant society, so dazzling, capti-
vating, and illusory. In former years, the king
was usually present, affable and gracious, mingling
with his courtiers and sharing their amusements ;
but he had grown graver of late, and was more
often in his cabinet, laboring with his ministers on
the task of administration, which his extravagance
and ambition made every day more burdensome.1

There was one corner of the world where his
emblem, the sun, would not shine on him. He
had done his best for Canada, and had got nothing
for his pains but news of mishaps and troubles. He
was growing tired of the colony which he had nursed
with paternal fondness, and he was more than half
angry with it because it did not prosper. Denon-
ville's letters had grown worse and worse ; and,

1 Saint-Simon speaks of these assemblies. The halls in question
were finished in 1682; and a minute account of them, and of the par-
ticular use to which each was destined, was printed in the Mercure Fran-
gais of that year. See also Soulie, Notice du Mustfe imperial de Versailles,
where copious extracts from the Mercure are given. The grands apparte-
ments are now entirely changed in appearance, and turned into an historic
picture gallery.

186 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. [1689.

though he had not heard as yet of the last great
calamity, he was sated with ill tidings already.

Count Frontenac stood before him. Since his
recall, he had lived at court, needy and no longer
in favor; but he had influential friends, and an
intriguing wife, always ready to serve him. The
king knew his merits as well as his faults ; and, in
the desperate state of his Canadian affairs, he had
been led to the resolution of restoring him to the
command from which, for excellent reasons, he
had removed him seven years before. He now
told him that, in his belief, the charges brought
against him were without foundation.1 " I send
you back to Canada," he is reported to have said,
" where I am sure that you will serve me as well
as you did before ; and I ask nothing more of
3'ou." 2 The post was not a tempting one to a
man in his seventieth year. Alone and unsup-
ported,— for the king, with Europe rising against
him, would give him no more troops, — he was to
restore the prostrate colony to hope and courage,
and fight two enemies with a force that had proved
no match for one of them alone. The audacious
count trusted himself, and undertook the task ; re-
ceived the royal instructions, and took his last
leave of the master whom even he after a fashion
honored and admired.

He repaired to Rochelle, where two ships of the
royal navy were waiting his arrival, embarked in

1 Journal cle Dangeau, II. 390. Frontenac, since his recall, had not
been wholly without marks of royal favor. In 1G85, the king gave him
a " gratification " of 3,500 francs. Ibid., I. 205.

- Goyer, Oraison Funebre da Comte de Frontenac,

1689.] CONQUEST OF NEW YORK. 187

one of them, and sailed for the New World. An
heroic remedy had been prepared for the sickness
of Canada, and Frontenac was to be the surgeon.
The cure, however, was not of his contriving.
Denonville had sent Callieres, his second in com-
mand, to represent the state of the colony to the
court, and beg for help. Callieres saw that there
wras little hope of more troops or any considerable
supply of money ; and he laid before the king a
plan, which had at least the recommendations of
boldness and cheapness. This was to conquer
New York with the forces already in Canada, aided
only by two ships of war. The blow, he argued,
should be struck at once, and the English taken by
surprise. A thousand regulars and six hundred
Canadian militia should pass Lake Champlain and
Lake George in canoes and bateaux, cross to the
Hudson and capture Albany, where they would seize
all the river craft and descend the Hudson to the
town of New York, which, as Callieres stated, had
then about two hundred houses and four hundred
lighting men. The two ships were to cruise at
the mouth of the harbor, and wait the arrival of
the troops, which was to be made known to them
by concerted signals, whereupon they were to
enter and aid in the attack. The whole expedition,
he thought, might be accomplished in a month ;
so that by the end of October the king would be
master of all the country. The advantages were
manifold. The Iroquois, deprived of English
arms and ammunition, would be at the mercy of
the French ; the question of English rivalry in the

1S8 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. [1689.

west would be settled for ever ; the king would ac-
quire a means of access to his colony incomparably
better than the St. Lawrence, and one that re-
mained open all the year ; and, finally, New Eng-
land would be isolated, and prepared for a possible
conquest in the future.

The king accepted the plan with modifications,
which complicated and did not improve it. Ex-
treme precautions were taken to insure secrecy ; but
the vast distances, the difficult navigation, and the
accidents of weather appear to have been forgotten
in this amended scheme of operation. There was,
moreover, a long delay in fitting the two ships for
sea. The wind was ahead, and they were fifty-two
days in reaching Checlabucto, at the eastern end of
Nova Scotia. Thence Frontenac and Callieres had
orders to proceed in a merchant ship to Quebec,
which might require a month more ; and, on arriv-
ing, they were to prepare for the expedition,
while at the same time Frontenac was to send
back a letter to the naval commander at Checla-
bucto, revealing the plan to him, and ordering
him to sail to New York to co-operate in it. It
was the twelfth of September when Chedabucto
was reached, and the enterprise was ruined by the
delay. Frontenac's first step in his new govern-
ment was a failure, though one for which he was
in no way answerable.1

1 Projet du Chevalier cle Callieres cle former line Expedition pour aller
attaquer Orange, Manatte, etc. ; Re'sume du Ministre sur la Proposition de
M. de Callieres; Autre Me'moire de M. de Callieres sur son Projet d' attaquer
la Nouvelle York; Me'moire d>s Amies, Munitions, et Ustensiles ne'ressaires
pour I'Entreprise propose'e par M. de Callieres; Observations du Ministre sur

1689.] DESIGNS OF THE KING. 189

It will be well to observe what were the inten-
tions of the king towards the colony which he pro-
posed to conquer. They were as follows : If any
Catholics were found in New York, they might be
left undisturbed, provided that they took an oath
of allegiance to the king. Officers, and other per-
sons who had the means of paying ransoms, were
to be thrown into prison. All lands in the colony,
except those of Catholics swearing allegiance, were
to be taken from their owners, and granted under
a feudal tenure to the French officers and soldiers.
All property, public or private, was to be seized, a
portion of it given to the grantees of the land, and
the rest sold on account of the king. Mechanics
and other workmen might, at the discretion of the
commanding officer, be kept as prisoners to work
at fortifications and do other labor. The rest of
the English and Dutch inhabitants, men, women,
and children, were to be carried out of the colony
and dispersed in New England, Pennsylvania, or
other places, in such a manner that they could not
combine in any attempt to recover their property
and their country. And, that the conquest might
be perfectly secure, the nearest settlements of New
England were to be destroyed, and those more re-
mote laid under contribution.1

le Projet et le Me'moire ci-dessus ; Observations du Ministre sur le Projet
d'Attaquede la Nouvelle York; Autre Me'moire de M. de Callieres au Sujet
de I'Entreprise propose'e ; Autre Me'moire de M. de Callieres sur le mime
Sujet.

1 Me'moire pour servir d' Instruction a Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac
sur VEntreprise de la Nouvelle York, 7 Juin, 1689. " Si parmy les habitans
de la Nouvelle York il se trouve des Catholiques de la fidelite desqnels il
croye se pouvoir asseurer, il pourra les laisser dans leurs habitations
apres leur avoir fait prester serment de fidelite a sa Majeste'. ... II

190 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. [1689.

In the next century, some of the people of Acadia
were torn from their homes by order of a British
commander. The act was harsh and violent, and
the innocent were involved with the guilty ; but
many of the sufferers had provoked their fate, and
deserved it.

Louis XIY. commanded that eighteen thousand
unoffending persons should be stripped of all that
they possessed, and cast out to the mercy of the
wilderness. The atrocity of the plan is matched
by its folly. The king gave explicit orders, but he
gave neither ships nor men enough to accomplish
them; and the Dutch farmers, goaded to despera-
tion, would have cut his sixteen hundred soldiers
to pieces. It was the scheme of a man blinded by
a long course of success. Though perverted by
flattery and hardened by unbridled power, he was
not cruel by nature ; and here, as in the burning of
the Palatinate and the persecution of the Hugue-
nots, he would have stood aghast, if his dull imagi-
nation could have pictured to him the miseries he
was preparing to inflict.2

pourra aussi garder, s'il le juge a propos, des artisans et autres gens de
service neeessaires pour la culture des terres ou pour travailler aux forti-
fications en qualite de prisonniers. ... II faut retenir en prison les
officiers et les principaux habitans desquels on pourra retirer des ran-
90ns. A l'esgard de tous les autres estrangers (ceux qui ne sont pas Fran-
cais) liommes, femraes, et enfans, sa Majeste trouve a propos qu'ils soient
mis hors de la Colonie et envoyez a la Xouvelle Angleterre, a la Pennsyl-
vanie, ou en d'autres endroits qu'il jugera a propos, par mer ou parterre,
ensemble ou separe'ment, le tout suivant qu'il trouvera plus seur pour les
dissiper et empescher qu'en se reunissant ils ne puissent donner occasion
a des entreprises de la part des ennemis contre cette Colonie. II envoy-
era en France les Francais fugitifs qu'il y pourra trouver, et particnliere-
ment ceux de la Religion Pretendue-Reformee (Hiir/uenots)." A transla-
tion of the entire document will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs , IX. 422.
2 On the details of the projected attack of New York, Le Roy a

1689.] HIS ARRIVAL. 191

With little hope left that the grand enterprise
against New York conlcl succeed, Frontenac made
sail for Quebec, and, stopping by the way at Isle
Percee, learned from Eecollet missionaries the irrup-
tion of the Iroquois at Montreal. He hastened on ;
but the wind was still against him, and the autumn
woods wrere turning brown before he reached his
destination. It was evening when he landed, amid
fireworks, illuminations, and the firing of cannon.
All Quebec came to meet him by torchlight ; the
members of the council offered their respects, and
the Jesuits made him an harangue of welcome.1 It
was but a welcome of words. They and the council-
lors had done their best to have him recalled, and
hoped that they were rid of him for ever ; but now
he was among them again, rasped by the memory
of real or fancied wrongs. The count, however,
had no time for quarrelling. The king had told
him to bury old animosities and forget the past,
and for the present he was too busy to break the
royal injunction.2 He caused boats to be made
ready, and in spite of incessant rains pushed up
the river to Montreal. Here he found Denonville
and his frightened wife. Every thing was in con-
fusion. The Iroquois were gone, leaving dejection
and terror behind them. Frontenac reviewed the
troops. There were seven or eight hundred of
them in the town, the rest being in garrison at the

Denonville, 7 Jiu'n, 1689; Le Ministre a Denonville, meme date; Le Mm-
istre a Frontenac, me me date; Ordre du Roy a Vaudreuil, meme date; Le'Roy
au Sieur deia Caffiniere, meme date; Champigny au Ministre, 16 Nov., 1689.

1 La Hontan, I 199."

2 Instruction pour le Sieur Comte de Frontenac, 7 Juin, 1689.

192 RETURN OF FROXTEXAC. [1689.

various forts. Then he repaired to what was once
La Chine, and surveyed the miserable waste of
ashes and desolation that spread for miles around.
To his extreme disgust, he learned that Denon-
ville had sent a Canadian officer by secret paths to
Fort Frontenac, with orders to Valrenne, the com-
mandant, to blow it up, and return with his garrison
to Montreal. Frontenac had built the fort, had
given it his own name, and had cherished it with a
paternal fondness, reinforced by strong hopes of
making money out of it. For its sake he had be-
come the butt of scandal and opprobrium ; but not
the less had he always stood its strenuous and
passionate champion. An Iroquois envoy had lately
with great insolence demanded its destruction of
Denonville ; and this alone, in the eyes of Fronte-
nac, was ample reason for maintaining it at any
cost.1 He still had hope that it might be saved,
and with all the energy of youth he proceeded to
collect canoes, men, provisions, and arms ; battled
against dejection, insubordination, and fear, and
in a few days despatched a convoy of three hun-
dred men to relieve the place, and stop the execu-
tion of Denonville's orders. His orders had been
but too promptly obeyed. The convoy was scarcely
gone an hour, when, to Frontenac' s unutterable
wrath, Valrenne appeared with his garrison. He
reported that he had set fire to every thing in the
fort that would burn, sunk the three vessels belong-
ing to it, thrown the cannon into the lake, mined
the walls and bastions, and left matches burning

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689.

1689.] IROQUOIS DEFEAT. 193

in the powder magazine ; and, further, that when
he and his men were five leagues on their way to
Montreal a dull and distant explosion told them that
the mines had sprung. It proved afterwards that
the destruction was not complete ; and the Iroquois
took possession of the abandoned fort, with a large
quantity of stores and munitions left by the gar-
rison in their too hasty retreat.1

There was one ray of light through the clouds.
The unwonted news of a victory came to Montreal.
It was small, but decisive, and might be an earnest
of greater things to come. Before Frontenac's
arrival, Denonville had sent a reconnoitring party
up the Ottawa. They had gone no farther than the
Lake of Two Mountains, when they met twenty-
two Iroquois in two large canoes, who immediately
bore down upon them, yelling furiously. The
French party consisted of twenty-eight coureurs
de hois under Du Lhut and Mantet, excellent
partisan chiefs, who manoeuvred so well that the
rising sun blazed full in the eyes of the advancing
enemy, and spoiled their aim. The French re-
ceived their fire, which wounded one man ; then,
closing with them while their guns were empty,
gave them a volley, which killed and wounded
eighteen of their number. One swam ashore. The
remaining three were captured, and given to the
Indian allies to be burned.2

1 Frontenac an Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689; Recueil de ce qui s' 'est passe en
Canada depuis Vannfa 1G82.

2 Frontenac an Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689 ; Ckampigny an Ministre, 16 Nov.,
1689. Compare Belmont, whose account is a little different ; also N. Y.
Col. Docs., IX. 435.

13

194 RETURN OF FRONTENAC, [1689.

This gleam of sunshine passed, and all grew black
again. On a snowy November day, a troop of
Iroquois fell on the settlement of La Chesnaye,
burned the houses, and vanished with a troop of
prisoners, leaving twenty mangled corpses on the
snow.1 " The terror," wrote the bishop, " is in-
describable." The appearance of a few savages
would put a whole neighborhood to flight.2 So
desperate, wrote Frontenac, were the needs of
the colony, and so great the contempt with which
the Iroquois regarded it, that it almost needed a
miracle either to carry on war or make peace.
What he most earnestly wished was to keep the
Iroquois quiet, and so leave his hands free to deal
with the English. This was not easy, to such a
pitch of audacity had late events raised them.
Neither his temper nor his convictions would allow
him to beg peace of them, like his predecessor;
but he had inordinate trust in the influence of his
name, and he now took a course which he hoped
might answer his purpose without increasing their
insolence. The perfidious folly of Denonville in
seizing their countrymen at Fort Frontenac had
been a prime cause of their hostility ; and, at the
request of the late governor, the surviving captives,
' thirteen in all, had been taken from the galleys,
gorgeously clad in French attire, and sent back
to Canada in the ship which carried Frontenac.
Among them was a famous Cayuga war-chief called

1 Belmont, Histoire du Canada ; Frontenac a , 17 Nov., 1689 ;

Champigny an Ministre, 16 Nov., 1689. This letter is not the one just
cited. Champigny wrote twice on the same day.

2 N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 435.

1689.] HIS EFFORTS FOR PEACE. 195

Ourehaoue, whose loss had infuriated the Iroquois.1
Frontenac gained his good-will on the voyage ; and,
when they reached Quebec, he lodged him in the
chateau, and treated him with such kindness that
the chief became his devoted admirer and friend.
As his influence was great among his people, Fron-
tenac hoped that he might use him with success to
bring about an accommodation. He placed three
of the captives at the disposal of the Cayuga, who
forthwith sent them to Onondaga with a message
which the governor had dictated, and which was
to the following effect : " The great Onontio, whom
you all know, has come back again. He does not
blame you for what you have done ; for he looks
upon you as foolish children, and blames only the
English, who are the cause of your folly, and have
made you forget your obedience to a father who
has always loved and never deceived you. He
will permit me, Ourehaoue, to return to you as
soon as you will come to ask for me, not as you
have spoken of late, but like children speaking to
a father." 2 Frontenac hoped that they would
send an embassy to reclaim their chief, and thus
give him an opportunity to use his personal influ-
ence over them. With the three released captives,
he sent an Iroquois convert named Cut Nose with
a wampum belt to announce his return.

When the deputation arrived at Onondaga
and made known their errand, the Iroquois

1 Ourehaoue was not one of the neutrals entrapped at Fort Frontenac,
but was seized about the same time by the troops on their way up the
St. Lawrence.

2 Frontenac au Ministre, 30 Avril, 1690.

196 RETURN OF FBONTENAC. [1689.

magnates, with their usual deliberation, deferred
answering till a general council of the confeder-
acy should have time to assemble ; and, mean-
while, they sent messengers to ask the mayor
of Albanv, and others of their Dutch and English
friends, to come to the meeting. They did not
comply, merely sending the government inter-
preter, with a few Mohawk Indians, to represent
their interests. On the other hand, the Jesuit
Milet, who had been captured a few months before,
adopted, and made an Oneida chief, used every
effort to second the designs of Frontenac. The
authorities of Albany tried in vain to induce the
Iroquois to place him in their hands. They under-
stood their interests too well, and held fast to the
Jesuit.1

The grand council took place at Onondaga on
the twenty-second of January. Eighty chiefs and
sachems, seated gravely on mats around the coun-
cil fire, smoked their pipes in silence for a while ;
till at length an Onondaga orator rose, and an-
nounced that Frontenac, the old Onontio, had
returned with Ourehaoue and twelve more of their
captive friends, that he meant to rekindle the
council fire at Fort Frontenac, and that he invited
them to meet him there.2

1 Milet was taken in 1G89, not, as has been supposed, in 1690. Lettre
du Pere Milet, 1601, printed by Shea.

2 Frontenac declares that he sent no sucli message, and intimates
that Cut Nose had been tampered with by persons over-anxious to con-
ciliate the Iroquois, and who had even gone so far as to send them
messages on their own account. These persons were Lamberville,
Francois Hertel. and one of the Le Moynes. Frontenac was very angry
at this interference, to which he ascribes the most mischievous conse-

1(390.] THE IROQUOIS IN COUNCIL. 197

" Ho, ho, ho," returned the eighty senators, from
the bottom of their throats. It was the unfailing
Iroquois response to a speech. Then Cut Nose,
the governor's messenger, addressed the council :
" I advise you to meet Onontio as he desires.
Do so, if you wish to live." He presented a wam-
pum belt to confirm his words, and the conclave
again returned the same guttural ejaculation.

" Ourehaoue sends you this," continued Cut Nose,
presenting another belt of wampum : " by it he ad-
vises you to listen to Onontio, if you wish to live."

When the messenger from Canada had ceased,
the messenger from Albany, a Mohawk Indian, rose
and repeated word for word a speech confided to
him by the mayor of that town, urging the Iro-
quois to close their ears against the invitations of
Onontio.

Next rose one Cannehoot, a sachem of the Sene-
cas, charged with matters of grave import ; for
they involved no less than the revival of that
scheme, so perilous to the French, of the union of
the tribes of the Great Lakes in a triple alliance
with the Iroquois and the English. These lake
tribes, disgusted with the French, who, under
Denonville, had left them to the mercy of the Iro-
quois, had been impelled, both by their fears and
their interests, to make new advances to the con-
federacy, and had first addressed themselves to
the Senecas, whom they had most cause to dread.
They had given up some of the Iroquois prisoners

quences. Cut Nose, or Nez Coupe, is called Adarahta by Colden, and
Gagniegaton, or Red Bird, by some French writers.

198 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. [1690.

in their hands, and promised soon to give up the
rest. A treaty had been made ; and it was this
event which the Seneca sachem now announced to
the council. Having told the story to his assem-
bled colleagues, he exhibited and explained the
wampum belts and other tokens brought by the
envoys from the lakes, who represented nine dis-
tinct tribes or bands from the region of Michilli-
mackinac. By these tokens, the nine tribes
declared that they came to learn wisdom of the
Iroquois and the English ; to wash off the war-
paint, throw clown the tomahawk, smoke the pipe
of peace, and unite with them as one body. " On-
ontio is drunk," such was the interpretation of
the fourth wampum belt ; " but we, the tribes of
Michillimackinac, wash our hands of all his actions.
Neither we nor you must defile ourselves by
listening to him." When the Seneca sachem had
ended, and when the ejaculations that echoed his
words had ceased, the belts were hung up before
all the assembly, then taken down again, and dis-
tributed among the sachems of the five Iroquois
tribes, excepting one, which was given to the mes-
sengers from Albany. Thus was concluded the
triple alliance, which to Canada meant no less than
ruin.

" Brethren," said an Onondaga sachem, " we
must hold fast to our brother Quicler [Peter Schuy-
ler, mayor of Albany), and look on Onontio as
our enemy, for he is a cheat."

Then they invited the interpreter from Albany
to address the council, which he did, advising them

1690.] THE IROQUOIS IN COUNCIL. 199

not to listen to the envoys from Canada. When he
had ended, they spent some time in consultation
among themselves, and at length agreed on the
following message, addressed to Corlaer, or New
York, and to Kinshon, the Fish, by which they
meant New England, the authorities of which had
sent them the image of a fish as a token of
alliance : 1 —

" Brethren, our council fire burns at Albany.
"We will not go to meet Onontio at Fort Frontenac.
We will hold fast to the old chain of peace with
Corlaer, and we will fight with Onontio. Brethren,
we are glad to hear from you that you are pre-
paring to make war on Canada, but tell us no
lies.

" Brother Kinshon, we hear that you mean to
send soldiers against the Indians to the eastward ;
but we advise you, now that we are all united
against the French, to fall upon them at once.
Strike at the root : when the trunk is cut clown,
all the branches fall with it.

" Courage, Corlaer ! courage, Kinshon ! Go to
Quebec in the spring ; take it, and you will have
your feet on the necks of the French and all their
friends."

Then they consulted together again, and agreed
on the following answer to Ourehaoue and Fron-
tenac : —

" Ourehaoue, the whole council is glad to hear
that you have come back.

1 The wooden image of a codfish still hangs in the State House at
Boston, the emblem of a colony which lived chiefly by the fisheries.

200 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. [1690.

" Onontio, you have tolcl us that you have come
back again, and brought with you thirteen of our
people who were carried prisoners to France. We
are glad of it. You wish to speak with us at Cata-
raqui [Fort Frontenac). Don't you know that
your council fire there is put out ? It is quenched
in blood. You must first send home the prison-
ers, When our brother Ourehaoue is returned to
us, then we will talk with you of peace. You must
send him and the others home this very winter.
We now let you know that we have made peace
with the tribes of Michillimackinac. You are not
to think, because we return you an answer, that
we have laid down the tomahawk. Our warriors
will continue the war till you send our country-
men back to us." ]

The messengers from Canada returned with this
reply. Unsatisfactory as it was, such a quantity
of wampum was sent with it as showed plainly the
importance attached by the Iroquois to the mat-
ters in question. Encouraged by a recent success
against the English, and still possessed with an over-
weening confidence in his own influence over the
confederates, Frontenac resolved that Ourehaoue
should send them another message. The chief,
whose devotion to the count never wavered, ac-

1 The account of this council is given, with condensation and the
omission of parts not essential, from Colden (105-112, ed. 1747). It will
6erve as an example of the Iroquois method of conducting political busi-
ness, the habitual regularity and decorum of which has drawn from
several contemporary French writers the remark that in such matters
the five tribes were savages only in name. The reply to Frontenac is
also given by Monseignat (V. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 465), and, after him, by
La Potherie. Compare Le Clereq, EtabHssement tie la Foy, II. 403.
Ourehaoue' is the Tawerahet of Colden.

1690.] CHEVALIER D'AUX. 201

corclingly despatched four envoys, with a load of
wampum belts, expressing his astonishment that
his countrymen had not seen fit to send a deputa-
tion of chiefs to receive him from the hands of On-
ontio, and calling upon them to do so without delay,
lest he should think that they had forgotten him.
Along with the messengers, Frontenac ventured to
send the Chevalier d'Aux, a half-pay officer, with
orders to observe the disposition of the Iroquois,
and impress them in private talk with a sense of
the count's power, of his good-will to them, and
of the wisdom of coming to terms with him, lest,
like an angry father, he should be forced at last
to use the rod. The chevalier's reception was a
warm one. They burned two of his attendants,
forced him to run the gauntlet, and, after a vigorous
thrashing, sent him prisoner to Albany. The last
failure was worse than the first. The count's name
was great among the Iroquois, but he had trusted
its power too far.1

The worst of news had come from Michillimack-
inac. La Durantaye, the commander of the post,
and Carheil, the Jesuit, had sent a messenger to
Montreal in the depth of winter to say that the
tribes around them were on the point of revolt.
Carheil wrote that they threatened openly to throw
themselves into the arms of the Iroquois and the
English ; that they declared that the protection of
Onontio was an illusion and a snare ; that they

1 Message of Ourehaoue, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 735; Instructions to
Chevalier d'Eau, Ibid., 733; Chevalier d'Aux au MinUtre, 15 Mai, 1693.
The chevalier's name is also written d'O. He himself wrote it as in the
text.

202 RETURN OF FRONTENAC.

once mistook the French for warriors, but saw now
that they were no match for the Iroquois, whom
they had tamely allowed to butcher them at Mon-
treal, without even daring to defend themselves ;
that when the French invaded the Senecas they
did nothing but cut down corn and break canoes,
and since that time they had done nothing but beg
peace for themselves, forgetful of their allies, whom
they expected to bear the brunt of the war, and
then left to their fate; that they had surren-
dered through cowardice the prisoners they had
caught by treachery, and this, too, at a time when
the Iroquois were burning French captives in all
their towns ; and, finally, that, as the French
would not or could not make peace for them, they
would make peace for themselves. " These," pur-
sued Carheil, " are the reasons they give us to
prove the necessity of their late embassy to the
Senecas ; and by this one can see that our Indians
are a great deal more clear-sighted than they are
thought to be, and that it is hard to conceal from
their penetration any thing that can help or harm
their interests. What is certain is that, if the Iro-
quois are not stopped, they will not fail to come and
make themselves masters here." l

Charlevoix thinks that Frontenac was not dis-
pleased at this bitter arraignment of his prede-
cessor's administration. At the same time, his
position was very embarrassing. He had no men

1 Carheil a Frontenac, 1690. Frontenac did not receive this*letter till
September, and acted on the information previously sent him. Charle-
voix's version of the letter does not conform with the original.

1690.] HIS BOLDNESS. 203

to spare; but such was the necessity of saving
Michillimackinac, and breaking off the treaty with
the Senecas, that when spring opened he sent
Captain Louvigny with a hundred and forty-three
Canadians and six Indians to reinforce the post
and replace its commander, La Durantaye. Two
other officers with an additional force were ordered
to accompany him through the most dangerous
part of the journey. With them went Nicolas
Perrot, bearing a message from the count to his
rebellious children of Michillimackinac. The fol-
lowing was the pith of this characteristic docu-
ment : —

" I am astonished to learn that you have for-
gotten the protection that I always gave you. Do
you think that I am no longer alive ; or that I
have a mind to stand idle, like those who have been
here in my place ? Or do you think that, if eight
or ten hairs have been torn from my children's
heads when I was absent, I cannot put ten hand-
fuls of hair in the place of every one that was
pulled out? You know that before I protected
you the ravenous Iroquois dog was biting every-
body. I tamed him and tied him up; but, when
he no longer saw me, he behaved worse than ever.
If he persists, he shall feel my power. The Eng-
lish have tried to win him by flatteries, but I will
kill all who encourage him. The English have
deceived and devoured their children, but I am a
good father who loves you. I loved the Iroquois
once, because they obeyed me. When I knew that
they had been treacherously captured and carried

204 RETURN OF FROXTEXAC. [1690.

to France, I set them free ; and, when I restore
them to their country, it will not be through fear,
but through pity, for I hate treachery. I am
strong enough to kill the English, destroy the Iro-
quois, and whip you, if you fail in your duty to me.
The Iroquois have killed and captured you in time
of peace. Do to them as they have done to you,
do to the English as they would like to do to you,
but hold fast to your true father, who will never
abandon you. Will you let the English brandy
that has killed you in your wigwams lure you into
the kettles of the Iroquois ? Is not mine better,
which has never killed you, but always made you
strong?"1

Charged with this haughty missive, Perrot set
out for Michillimackinac along with Louvigny and
his men. On their way up the Ottawa, they met
a large band of Iroquois hunters, whom they routed
with heavy loss. Nothing could have been more
auspicious for Perrot's errand. When towards mid-
summer they reached their destination, they ranged
their canoes in a triumphal procession, placed in
the foremost an Iroquois captured in the fight,
forced him to dance and sing, hung out the fleur-
de-lis, shouted Vive le Boi, whooped, yelled, and
fired their guns. As they neared the village of the
Ottawas, all the naked population ran down to the
shore, leaping, yelping, and firing, in return. Lou-
vigny and his men passed on, and landed at the

1 Parole [dp M. de Frontenac) qui doit etre dite a I'Outaouais pour le dis-
suader d>- V Alliance qu'il vent /aire avec I'Iroguois el I'Anglois. The mes-
sage is long. Only the principal points are given above.

1690.] THE FRENCH AT MICHILLIMACKINAC. 205

neighboring village of the French settlers, who,
drawn up in battle array on the shore, added more
yells and firing to the general uproar ; though, amid
this joyous fusillade of harmless gunpowder, they
all kept their bullets ready for instant use, for they
distrusted the savage multitude. The story of the
late victory, however, confirmed as it was by an
imposing display of scalps, produced an effect which
averted the danger of an immediate outbreak.

The fate of the Iroquois prisoner now became
the point at issue. The French hoped that the
Indians in their excitement could be induced to
put him to death, and thus break their late treaty
with his countrymen. Besides the Ottawas, there
was at Michillimackinac a village of Hurons under
their crafty chief, the Rat. They had pretended
to stand fast for the French, who nevertheless be-
lieved them to be at the bottom of all the mischief.
They now begged for the prisoner, promising to
burn him. On the faith of this pledge, he was
given to them ; but they broke their word, and
kept him alive, in order to curry favor with the
Iroquois. The Ottawas, intensely jealous of the
preference shown to the Hurons, declared in their
anger that the prisoner ought to be killed and
eaten. This was precisely what the interests of
the French demanded ; but the Hurons still per-
sisted in protecting him. Their Jesuit missionary
now interposed, and told them that, unless they
" put the Iroquois into the kettle," the French
would take him from them. After much discussion,
this argument prevailed. They planted a stake,

206 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. [1690.

tied him to it, and began to torture him ; but, as
he did not show the usual fortitude of his country-
men, they declared him unworthy to die the death
of a warrior, and accordingly shot him.1

Here was a point gained for the French, but the
danger was not passed. The Ottawas could dis-
avow the killing of the Iroquois ; and, in fact,
though there was a great division of .opinion
among them, they were preparing at this very time
to send a secret embassy to the Seneca country to
ratify the fatal treaty. The French commanders
called a council of all the tribes. It met at the
house of the Jesuits. Presents in abundance were
distributed. The message of Frontenac was rein-
forced by persuasion and threats ; and the assembly
was told that the five tribes of the Iroquois were
like five nests of muskrats in a marsh, which the
French would drain dry, and then burn with all
its inhabitants. Perrot took the disaffected chiefs
aside, and with his usual bold adroitness diverted
them for the moment from their purpose. The
projected embassy was stopped, but any day might
revive it. There was no safety for the French,

1 "Le Pere Missionnaire des Hurons, prevoyant que cette affaire
auroit peut-etre une suite qui pourrait etre prejudiciable aux soins qu'il
prenoit de leur instruction, demanda qu'il lui fut permis d'aller a leur
village pour les obliger de trouver quelque moyen qui fut capable d'ap-
paiser le ressentiment des Francois. II leur dit que ceux-ci vouloient
absolument que l'on mit I' Iroquois a la chaudiere, et que si on ne le
faisoit, on devoit venir le leur enlever." La Potherie, II. 237 (1722).
By the "result prejudicial to his cares for their instruction " he seems to
mean their possible transfer from French to English influences. The
expression mettre a la chaudiere, though derived from cannibal practices,
is often used figuratively for torturing and killing. The missionary in
question was either Carheil or another Jesuit, who must have acted with
his sanction.

1690.] THE STROKE PARRIED. 207

and the ground of Michillimackinac was hollow
under their feet. Every thing depended on the
success of their arms. A few victories would con-
firm their wavering allies ; but the breath of an-
other defeat would blow the fickle crew over to
the enemy like a drift of dry leaves.

CHAPTER XI.

1690.
THE THREE WAR-PARTIES.

Measures of Frontenac. — Expedition against Schenectady. —
The March. — The Dutch Village. — The Surprise. — The
Massacre. — Prisoners spared. — Retreat. — The English and
their Iroquois Friends. — The Abenaki War. — Revolution at
Boston. — Capture of Pemaquid. — Capture of Salmon Falls.
— Capture of Fort Loyal. — Frontenac and his Prisoner. —
The Canadians encouraged.

While striving to reclaim his allies, Frontenac
had not forgotten his enemies. It was of the last
necessity to revive the clashed spirits of the Cana-
dians and the troops ; and action, prompt and bold,
was the only means of doing so. He resolved,
therefore, to take the offensive, not against the
Iroquois, who seemed invulnerable as ghosts, but
against the English ; and by striking a few sharp
and rapid blows to teach both friends and foes that
Onontio was still alive. The effect of his return
had already begun to appear, and the energy and
fire of the undaunted veteran had shot new life
into the dejected population. He formed three
war-parties of picked men, one at Montreal,
one at Three Rivers, and one at Quebec ; the
first to strike at Albany, the second at the

1690.] THE BUSH-RANGERS. 209

border settlements of New Hampshire, and the
third at those of Maine. That of Montreal was
ready first. It consisted of two hundred and ten
men, of whom ninety-six were Indian converts,
chiefly from the two mission villages of Saut St.
Louis and the Mountain of Montreal. They were
Christian Iroquois whom the priests had persuaded
to leave their homes and settle in Canada, to the
great indignation of their heathen countrymen,
and the great annoyance of the English colonists,
to whom they were a constant menace. When
Denonville attacked the Senecas, they had joined
him ; but of late they had shown reluctance to
fight their heathen kinsmen, with whom the French
even suspected them of collusion. Against the
English, however, they willingly took up the
hatchet. The French of the party were for
the most part coiireurs de bois. As the sea is
the sailor's element, so the forest was theirs. Their
merits were hardihood and skill in woodcraft ; their
chief faults were insubordination and lawlessness.
They had shared the general demoralization that
followed the inroad of the Iroquois, and under
Denonville had proved mutinous and unmanage-
able. In the best times, it was a hard task to com-
mand them, and one that needed, not bravery
alone, but tact, address, and experience. Under a
chief of such a stamp, they were admirable bush-
fighters, and such were those now chosen to lead
them. D'Aillebout de Mantet and Le Moyne de
Sainte-Helene, the brave son of Charles Le Moyne,
had the chief command, supported by the brothers

14

210 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690.

Le Moyne d 'Iberville and Le Moyne de Bienville,
with Repentigny de Montesson, Le Ber clu Chesne,
and others of the sturdy Canadian noblesse, nerved
by adventure and trained in Indian warfare.1

It was the depth of winter when they began
their march, striding on snow-shoes over the vast
white field of the frozen St. Lawrence, each with
the hood of his blanket coat drawn over his head,
a gun in his mittened hand, a knife, a hatchet, a
tobacco pouch, and a bullet pouch at his belt, a
pack on his shoulders, and his inseparable pipe
hung at his neck in a leather case. They dragged
their blankets and provisions over the snow on
Indian sledges. Crossing the forest to Chambly,
they advanced four or five days up the frozen
Richelieu and the frozen Lake Champlain, and then
stopped to hold a council. Frontenac had left the
precise point of attack at the discretion of the
leaders, and thus far the men had been ignorant of
their destination. The Indians demanded to know
it. Mantet and Sainte-Helene replied that they
were going to Albany. The Indians demurred.
" How long is it," asked one of them, "since the
French grew so bold ? " The commanders an-
swered that, to regain the honor of which their
late misfortunes had robbed them, the French
would take Albany or die in the attempt. The

1 Relation de Monseiynat, 1689-90. There is a translation of this
valuable paper in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 462. The party, according to
three of their number, consisted at first of 160 French and 110 Christian
Indians, but was reduced by sickness and desertion to 250 in all. Ex-
amination of three French prisoners taken by ye. Maquas {Mohawks), and
brought to Skinnectady, who were examined by Peter Schuyler, Mayor of Al-
bany, Domine (jodtvridus Dellius, and some of y* Gentle'} that went from
Albany a purpose.

1690.] THE MAKCH. 211

Indians listened sullenly ; the decision was post-
poned, and the party moved forward again. When
after eight days they reached the Hudson, and
found the place where two paths diverged, the one
for Albany and the other for Schenectady, they all
without farther words took the latter. Indeed, to
attempt Albany would have been an act of despera-
tion. The march was horrible. There was a par-
tial thaw, and they waclecl knee-deep through the
half melted snow, and the mingled ice, mud, and
water of the gloomy swamps. So painful and so
slow was their progress, that it was nine days more
before they reached a point two leagues from
Schenectady. The weather had changed again,
and a cold, gusty snow-storm pelted them. It was
one of those days when the trees stand white as
spectres in the sheltered hollows of the forest, and
bare and gray on the wind-swept ridges. The
men were half dead with cold, fatigue, and
hunger. It was four in the afternoon of the eighth
of February. The scouts found an Indian hut, and
in it were four Iroquois squaws, whom they cap-
tured. There was a. fire in the wigwam ; and the
shivering Canadians crowded about it, stamping
their chilled feet and warming their benumbed
hands over the blaze. The Christian chief of the
Saut St. Louis, known as Le Grand Agnie, or the
Great Mohawk, by the French, and by the Dutch
called Kryn, harangued his followers, and exhorted
them to wash out their wrongs in blood. Then
they all advanced again, and about dark reached
the river Mohawk, a little above the village. A

212 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690.

Canadian named Gignieres, who had gone with
nine Indians to reconnoitre, now returned to say
that he had been within sight of Schenectady, and
had seen nobody. Their purpose had been to
postpone the attack till two o'clock in the morn-
ing ; but the situation was intolerable, and the
limit of human endurance was reached. They
could not make fires, and they must move on or
perish. Guided by the frightened squaws, they
crossed the Mohawk on the ice, toiling through
the drifts amid the whirling snow that swept down
the valley of the darkened stream, till about eleven
o'clock they descried through the storm the snow-
beplasterecl palisades of the devoted village. Such
was their plight that some of them afterwards
declared that they would all have surrendered if
an enemy had appeared to summon them.1

Schenectady was the farthest outpost of the col-
ony of New York. Westward lay the Mohawk
forests ; and Orange, or Albany, was fifteen miles or
more towards the south-east. The village was oblong
in form, and enclosed by a palisade which had two
gates, one towards Albany and the other towards
the Mohawks. There was a blockhouse near the
eastern gate, occupied by eight or nine Connecticut
militia men under Lieutenant Talmage. There were
also about thirty friendly Mohawks in the place, on
a visit. The inhabitants, who were all Dutch, were
in a state of discord and confusion. The revolu-
tion in England had produced a revolution in New
York. The demagogue Jacob Leisler had got pos-

i Colden, 114 (ed. 1717),

1690.] SCHENECTADY. 213

session of Fort William, and was endeavoring to
master the whole colony. Albany was in the hands
of the anti-Leisler or conservative party, repre-
sented by a convention of which Peter Schuyler
was the chief. The Dutch of Schenectady for the
most part favored Leisler, whose emissaries had
been busily at work among them ; but their chief
magistrate, John Sander Glen, a man of courage
and worth, stood fast for the Albany convention,
and in consequence the villagers had threatened to
kill him. Talmage and his Connecticut militia were
under orders from Albany ; and therefore, like
Glen, they were under the popular ban. In vain
the magistrate and the officer entreated the people
to stand on their guard. They turned the advice
to ridicule, laughed at the idea of clanger, left both
their gates wide open, and placed there, it is said,
two snow images as mock sentinels. A French
account declares that the village contained eighty
houses, which is certainly an exaggeration. There
had been some festivity during the evening, but it
was now over ; and the primitive villagers, fathers,
mothers, children, and infants, lay buried in un-
conscious sleep. They were simple peasants and
rude woodsmen, but with human affections and
capable of human woe.

The French and Indians stood before the open
gate, with its blind and dumb warder, the mock
sentinel of snow. Iberville went with a detach-
ment to find the Albany gate, and bar it against
the escape of fugitives ; but he missed it in the
gloom, and hastened back. The assailants were

214 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690.

now formed into two bands, Sainte-Helene leading
the one and Mantet the other. They passed
through the srate together in dead silence : one
turned to the right and the other to the left, and
they filed around the village between the palisades
and the houses till the two leaders met at the
farther end. Thus the place was completely sur-
rounded. The signal was then given : they all
screeched the war-whoop together, burst in the
doors with hatchets, and fell to their work.
Boused by the infernal din, the villagers leaped
from their beds. For some it was but a momentary
nightmare of fright and horror, ended bv the blow
of the tomahawk. Others were less fortunate.
Neither women nor children were spared. " No
pen can write, and no tongue express," wrote
Schuyler, " the cruelties that were committed.' ' 1
There was little resistance, except at the block-
house, where Talmage and his men made a stub-
born fight ; but the doors were at length forced
open, the defenders killed or taken, and the build-
ing set on fire. Adam Yrooman, one of the
villagers, saw his wife shot and his child brained
against the door-post; but he fought so desper-
ately that the assailants promised him his life.
Orders had been given to spare Peter Tassemaker,
the d online or minister, from whom it was thought
that valuable information might be obtained ; but

1 " The women bigg with Childe rip'd up, and the Children alive
throwne into the flames, and their heads dashed to pieces against the
Doors and windows." Schuyler to the Council of Connecticut, 15 Feb., 1690.
Similar statements are made by Leisler. See Doc. Hist. N. Y., I. 307,
310.

1690.] THE MASSACRE. 215

he was hacked to pieces, and his house burned.
Some, more agile or more fortunate than the rest,
escaped at the eastern gate, and fled through
the storm to seek shelter at Albany or at houses
along the way. Sixty persons were killed out-
right, of whom thirty-eight were men and boys,
ten were women, and twelve were children.1
The number captured appears to have been be-
tween eighty and ninety. The thirty Mohawks
in the town were treated with studied kindness
by the victors, who declared that they had no
quarrel with them, but only with the Dutch
and English.

The massacre and pillage continued two hours ;
then the prisoners were secured, sentinels posted,
and the men told to rest and refresh themselves.
In the morning, a small party crossed the river to
the house of Glen, which stood on a rising ground
half a mile distant. It was loopholed and palisaded ;
and Glen had mustered his servants and tenants,
closed his gates, and prepared to defend himself.
The French told him to fear nothing, for they had
orders not to hurt a chicken of his ; whereupon,
after requiring them to lay down their arms, he
allowed them to enter. They urged him to go
with them to the village, and he complied ; they on
their part leaving one of their number as a hostage
in the hands of his followers. Iberville appeared
at the gate with the Great Mohawk, and, drawing
his commission from the breast of his coat, told

1 List of ye. People Mid and destroyed by ye. French of Canida and there
Indians at Skinnechtady, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., I. 304.

216 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690.

Glen that he was specially charged to pay a debt
which the French owed him. On several occasions,
he had saved the lives of French prisoners in the
hands of the Mohawks ; and he, with his family,
and, above all, his wife, had shown them the
greatest kindness. He wTas now led before the
crowd of wretched prisoners, and told that not
only were his own life and property safe, but that
all his kindred should be spared. Glen stretched
his privilege to the utmost, till the French Indians,
disgusted at his multiplied demands for clem-
ency, observed that everybody seemed to be his
relation.

Some of the houses had already been burned.
Fire was now set to the rest, excepting one, in
which a French officer lay wounded, another be-
longing to Glen, and three or four more which he
begged the victors to spare. At noon Schenectady
was in ashes. Then the French and Indians with-
drew, laden with booty. Thirty or forty captured
horses dragged their sledges ; and a troop of
twenty-seven men and boys were driven prisoners
into the forest. About sixty old men, women, and
children were left behind, without farther injury,
in order, it is said, to conciliate the Mohawks in
the place, who had joined with Glen in begging
that they might be spared. Of the victors, only
two had been killed.1

1 Many of the authorities on the burning of Schenectady will be
found in the Documentary History of Neiv York, I. 297-312. One of the
most important is a portion of the long letter of M. de Monseignat, comp-
troller-general of the marine in Canada, to a lady of rank, said to be
Madame de Maintenon. Others are contemporary documents pre-

1690.] ALARM AT ALBANY. 217

At the outset of the attack, Simon Schermer-
horn threw himself on a horse, and galloped
through the eastern gate. The French shot at
and wounded him ; but he escaped, reached Al-
bany at daybreak, and gave the alarm. The
soldiers and inhabitants were called to arms, can-
non were fired to rouse the country, and a party
of horsemen, followed by some friendly Mohawks,
set out for Schenectady. The Mohawks had prom-
ised to carry the news to their three towns on the
river above ; but, when they reached the ruined
village, they were so frightened at the scene of
havoc that they would not go farther. Two clays
passed before the alarm reached the Mohawk
towns. Then troops of warriors came down on

served at Albany, including, among others, the lists of killed and cap-
tured, letters of Leisler to the governor of Maryland, the governor of
Massachusetts, the governor of Barbadoes, and the Bishop of Salisbury ;
of Robert Livingston to Sir Edmund Andros and to Captain Nicholson ;
and of Mr. Van Cortlandt to Sir Edmund Andros. One of the best
contemporary authorities is a letter of Schuyler and his colleagues to
the governor and council of Massachusetts, 15 February, 1600, preserved
in the Massachusetts archives, and printed in the third volume of Mr.
Whitmore's Andros Tracts. La Potherie, Charlevoix, Colden, Smith,
and many others, give accounts at second-hand.

Johannes Sander, or Alexander, Glen, was the son of a Scotchman of
good family. He was usually known as Captain Sander. The French
wrote the name Cendre, which became transformed into Condre, and then
into Coudre. In the old family Bible of the Glens, still preserved at the
placed named by them Scotia, near Schenectady, is an entry in Dutch
recording the "murders " committed by the French, and the exemption
accorded to Alexander Glen on account of services rendered by him and
his family to French prisoners. See Proceedings of N. Y. Hist. Soc,
1816, 118.

The French called Schenectady Corlaer or Corlar, from Van Curler,
its founder. Its treatment at their hands was ill deserved, as its inhab-
itants, and notably Van Curler himself, had from the earliest times been
the protectors of French captives among the Mohawks. Leisler says
that only one-sixth of the inhabitants escaped unhurt.

218 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690.

snow-shoes, equipped with tomahawk and gun,
to chase the retiring French. Fifty young men
from Albany joined them ; and they followed the
trail of the enemy, who, with the help of their
horses, made such speed over the ice of Lake
Champlain that it seemed impossible to overtake
them. Thev thought the pursuit abandoned ; and,

•SCI. 7 '

having killed and eaten most of their horses, and
being spent with fatigue, they moved more slowly
as they neared home, when a band of Mohawks,
who had followed stanchly on their track, fell upon
a party of stragglers, and killed or captured fifteen
or more, almost within sight of Montreal.

Three of these prisoners, examined by Schuyler,
declared that Frontenac was preparing for a grand
attack on Albany in the spring. In the political
confusion of the time, the place was not in
fighting condition ; and Schuyler appealed for
help to the authorities of Massachusetts. " Dear
neighbours and friends, we must acquaint you that
nevir poor People in the world was in a worse Con-
dition than we are at Present, no Governour nor
Command, no money to forward any expedition,
and scarce Men enough to maintain the Citty.
We have here plainly laid the case before you,
and doubt not but you will so much take it to
heart, and make all Eeadinesse in the Spring to
invade Canicla by water." l The Mohawks were
of the same mind. Their elders came down to
Albany to condole with their Dutch and English

1 Schuyler, Wessell, and Van Rensselaer to the Governor a)id Council of
Massachusetts, 15 Feb., 1690, in Andros Tracts, III. 114.

1690.] RETREAT OF THE VICTORS. 219

friends on the late disaster. " We are come,"
said their orator, " with tears in our eyes, to
lament the murders committed at Schenectady
by the perfidious French. Onontio comes to our
country to speak of peace, but war is at his heart.
He has broken into our house at both ends, once
among the Senecas and once here ; but we hope
to be revenged. Brethren, our covenant with
you is a silver chain that cannot rust or break. We
are of the race of the bear ; and the bear does not
yield, so long as there is a drop of blood in his
body. Let us all be bears. We will go together
with an army to ruin the country of the French.
Therefore, send in all haste to New England.
Let them be ready with ships and great guns to
attack by water, while we attack by land." 1
Schuyler did not trust his red allies, who, however,
seem on this occasion to have meant what they
said. He lost no time in sending commissioners to
urge the several governments of New England to
a combined attack on the French.

New England needed no prompting to take up
arms ; for she presently learned to her cost that,
though feeble and prostrate, Canada could sting.
The war-party which attacked Schenectady was, as
we have seen, but one of three which Frontenac
had sent against the English borders. The second,
aimed at New Hampshire, left Three Rivers on the
twenty-eighth of January, commanded by Francois

1 Propositions made by the Sachems of ye. Maquase {Mohawk) Castles to
ye. Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonality of ye. Citty of Albany, ye. 25 day of
february, 1690, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 164-169.

220 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1688-89,

Hertel. It consisted of twenty-four Frenchmen,
twenty Abenakis of the Sokoki band, and five
Algonquins. After three months of excessive hard-
ship in the vast and rugged wilderness that inter-
vened, they approached the little settlement of
Salmon Falls on the stream which separates New
Hampshire from Maine ; and here for a moment
we leave them, to observe the state of this unhappy
frontier.

It was twelve years and more since the great
Indian outbreak, called King Philip's War, had
carried havoc through all the borders of New Eng-
land. After months of stubborn fighting, the fire
was quenched in Massachusetts, Plymouth, and
Connecticut; but in New Hampshire and Maine it
continued to burn fiercely till the treaty of Casco,
in 1678. The principal Indians of this region were
the tribes known collectively as the Abenakis.
The French had established relations with them
through the missionaries ; and now, seizing the op-
portunity, they persuaded many of these distressed
and exasperated savages to leave the neighborhood
of the English, migrate to Canada, and settle first
at Sillery near Quebec and then at the falls of the
Chaudiere. Here the two Jesuits, Jacques and
Vincent Bigot, prime agents in their removal, took
them in charge ; and the missions of St. Francis
became villages of Abenaki Christians, like the
village of Iroquois Christians at Saut St. Louis.
In both cases, the emigrants were sheltered under
the wing of Canada; and they and their tomahawks
were always at her service. The two Bigots spared

1688-89.] THE ABENAKI WAR. 221

no pains to induce more of the Abenakis to join
these mission colonies. They were in good measure
successful, though the great body of the tribe still
clung to their ancient homes on the Saco, the Ken-
nebec, and the Penobscot.1

There were ten years of critical and dubious
peace along the English border, and then the war
broke out again. The occasion of this new up-
rising is not very clear, and it is hardly worth
while to look for it. Between the harsh and reck-
less borderer on the one side, and the fierce savage
on the other, a single spark might at any moment
set the frontier in a blaze. The English, however,
believed firmly that their French rivals had a hand
in the new outbreak ; and, in fact, the Abenakis told
some of their English captives that Saint-Castin, a
French adventurer on the Penobscot, gave every
Indian who would go to the war a pound of gun-
powder, two pounds of lead, and a supply of to-
bacco.2 The trading house of Saint-Castin, which
stood on ground claimed by England, had lately
been plundered by Sir Edmund Anclros, and some
of the English had foretold that an Indian war
would be the consequence ; but none of them seem
at this time to have suspected that the governor of
Canada and his Jesuit friends had any part in their
woes. Yet there is proof that this was the case ;

1 The Ahenaki migration to Canada began as early as the autumn
of 1675 {Relation, 1676-77). On the mission of St. Francis on the Chau-
diere, see Bigot, Relation, 1684 ; Ibid., 1685. It was afterwards removed
to the river St. Francis.

2 Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., I. 326. Compare N. Y. Col. Docs., IV. 282,
476.

222 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1688-89.

for Denonville himself wrote to the minister at
Versailles that the successes of the Abenakis on
this occasion were clue to the " good understanding
which he had with them," by means of the two
brothers Bigot and other Jesuits.1

Whatever were the influences that kindled and
maintained the war, it spread dismay and havoc
through the English settlements. Anclros at first
made light of it, and complained of the authorities
of Boston, because in his absence they had sent
troops to protect the settlers ; but he soon changed
his mind, and in the winter went himself to the
scene of action with seven hundred men. Not an
Indian did he find. They had all withdrawn into

1 "En partant de Canada, j'ay laisse une tres grande disposition a
attirer au Christianisme la plus grande partie des sauvages Abenakis
qui abitent les bois du voisinage de Baston. Pour cela il faut les attirer
a la mission nouvellement etablie pres Quebec sous le nom de S. Fran-
cois de Sale. Je l'ai vue en peu de temps au nombre de six cents ames
venues du voisinage de Baston. Je l'ay laisse'e en estat d'augmenter
beaucoup si elle est protege'e ; j'y ai fait quelque de'pense qui n'est pas
inutile. La bonne intelligence que fax eue avec ces sauvages par les soins des
Je'suites, et surtout des deux pkres Bigot J re res a fait le succes de toutes les at-
taques qu'ils ont faites sur les Anglois cet este', aux quels ils ont enleve 16
forts, outre celuy de Pemcuit (Pemaquid) ou il y avoit 20 pieces de
canon, et leur ont tue' plus de 200 hommes." Denonville au Ministre,
Jan., 1690.

It is to be observed that this Indian outbreak began in the summer of
1688, when there was peace between France and England. News of the
declaration of war did not reach Canada till July, 1689. (Belmont.)
Dover and other places were attacked in June of the same year.

The intendantChampigny says that most of the Indians who attacked
the English were from the mission villages near Quebec. Champigny au
Ministre, 16 Nov., 1689. He says also that he supplied them with gun-
powder for the war.

The "forts" taken by the Indians on the Kennebec at this time were
nothing but houses protected by palisades. They were taken by treach-
ery and surprise. Lettre du Pere Thury, 1689. Thury says that 142
men, women, and children were killed.

1688-89.] REVOLUTION AT BOSTON. 223

the depths of the frozen forest. Anclros did what
he could, and left more than five hundred men in
garrison on the Kennebec and the Saco, at Casco
Bay, Pemaquid, and various other exposed points.
He then returned to Boston, where surprising
events awaited him. Early in April, news came
that the Prince of Orange had landed in England.
There was great excitement. The people of the
town rose against Anclros, whom they detested as
the agent of the despotic policy of James II. They
captured his two forts with their garrisons of
regulars, seized his frigate in the harbor, placed
him and his chief adherents in custody, elected a
council of safety, and set at its head their former
governor, Bradstreet, an old man of eighty-seven.
The change was disastrous to the eastern frontier.
Of the garrisons left for its protection the winter
before, some were partially withdrawn by the new
council ; while others, at the first news of the revolu-
tion, mutinied, seized their officers, and returned
home.1 These garrisons were withdrawn or reduced,

1 Andros, Account of Forces in Maine, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 85.
Compare Andros Tracts, I. 177; Ibid., II. 181, 193, 207, 213, 217; Ibid.,
III. 232; Report of Andros in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 722. The order for
the reduction of the garrisons and the return of the suspected officers
was passed at the first session of the council of safety, 20 April. The
agents of Massachusetts at London endeavored to justify it. See Andros
Tracts, III. 34. The only regular troops in New England were two com-
panies brought by Andros. Most of them were kept at Boston, though
a few men and officers were sent to the eastern garrison. These regulars
were regarded with great jealousy, and denounced as " a crew that began
to teach New England to Drab, Drink, Blaspheme, Curse, and Damm."
Ibid., II. 50.

In their hatred of Andros, many of the people of New England held
the groundless and foolish belief that he was in secret collusion with the
French and Indians. Their most dangerous domestic enemies were some
of their own traders, who covertly sold arms and ammunition to the
Indians.

224 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES.

partly perhaps because the hated governor had
established them, partly through distrust of his
officers, some of whom were taken from the reg-
ulars, and partly because the men were wanted at
Boston. The order of withdrawal cannot be too
strongly condemned. It was a part of the bungling
inefficiency which marked the military management
of the New England governments from the close of
Philip's war to the peace of Utrecht.

When spring opened, the Indians turned with
redoubled fury against the defenceless frontier,
seized the abandoned stockades, and butchered the
helpless settlers. Now occurred the memorable
catastrophe at Cocheco, or Dover. Two squaws
came at evening and begged lodging in the pali-
saded house of Major Waldron. At night, when
all was still, they opened the gates and let in their
savage countrymen. Waldron was eighty years
old. He leaped from his bed, seized his sword,
and drove back the assailants through two rooms ;
but, as he turned to snatch his pistols, they stunned
him by the blow of a hatchet, bound him in an
arm-chair, and placed him on a table, where after
torturing him they killed him with his own sword.

The crowning event of the war was the capture
of Pemaquicl, a stockade work, mounted with seven
or eight cannon. Andros had placed in it a garri-
son of a hundred and fiftv-six men, under an officer
devoted to him. Most of them had been with-
drawn by the council of safety ; and the entire
force of the defenders consisted of Lieutenant James
Weems and thirty soldiers, nearly half of whom

1689.] CAPTURE OF PEMAQUID. 225

appear to have been absent at the time of the
attack.1 The Indian assailants were about a hun-
dred in number, all Christian converts from mission
villages. By a sudden rush, they got possession
of a number of houses behind the fort, occupied
only by women and children, the men being at
their work.2 Some ensconced themselves in the
cellars, and others behind a rock on the seashore,
whence they kept up a close and galling fire. On
the next clay, Weems surrendered, under a promise
of life, and, as the English say, of liberty to him-
self and all his followers. The fourteen men who
had survived the fire, along with a number of women
and children, issued from the gate, upon which some
were butchered on the spot, and the rest, except-
ing Weems and a few others, were made prisoners.
In other respects, the behavior of the victors is
said to have been creditable. They tortured no-
body, and their chiefs broke the rum barrels in the
fort, to prevent disorder. Father Thury, a priest
of the seminary of Quebec, was present at the
attack ; and the assailants were a part of his Abe-
naki flock. Eeligion was one of the impelling forces
of the war. In the eyes of the Indian converts, it

1 Andros in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 85. The original commanding
officer, Brockholes, was reputed a " papist." Hence his removal. An-
dros Tracts, III. 35. Andros says that but eighteen men were left in the
fort. A list of them in the archives of Massachusetts, certified by
Weems himself, shows that there were thirty. Doubt is thrown on this
certificate by the fact that the object of it was to obtain a grant of
money in return for advances of pay made by Weems to his soldiers.
Weems was a regular officer. A number of letters from him, showing
his condition before the attack, will be found in Johnston, History of
Bristol, Bremen, and Pemaquid.

2 Captivity of John Gyles. Gyles was one of the inhabitants.

15

226 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES.

was a crusade against the enemies of God. They
made their vows to the Virgin before the fight ;
and the squaws, in their distant villages on the
Penobscot, told unceasing beads, and offered un-
ceasing prayers for victory.1

The war now ran like wildfire through the
settlements of Maine and New Hampshire. Six-
teen fortified houses, with or without defenders,
are said to have fallen into the hands of the enemy ;
and the extensive district then called the county
of Cornwall was turned to desolation. Massachu-
setts and Plymouth sent hasty levies of raw men, ill-
armed and ill-officered, to the scene of action. At
Casco Bay, they met a large body of Indians, whom
they routed after a desultory fight of six hours ;
and then, as the approaching winter seemed to
promise a respite from attack, most of them were
withdrawn and disbanded.

1 Thury, Relation da Combat des Canibas. Compare Hutchinson, Hist.
Mass., I. 352, and Mather, Magnolia, II. 590 (ed. 1853). The murder of
prisoners after the capitulation has been denied. Thury incidentally con-
firms the statement, when, after saying that he exhorted the Indians to
refrain from drunkenness and cruelty, he adds that, in consequence, they
did not take a single scalp, and " tuerent sur le champ ceux qu'ils voulurent
titer."

English accounts place the number of Indians at from two to three
hundred. Besides the persons taken in the fort, a considerable number
were previously killed, or captured in the houses and fields. Those who
were spared were carried to the Indian towns on the Penobscot, the seat
of Thury's mission. La Motte-Cadillac, in his Memoire mr VAcadie, 1692,
says that 80 persons in all were killed ; an evident exaggeration. He
adds that Weems and six men were spared at the request of the chief,
Madockawando. The taking of Pemaquid is remarkable as one of the
very rare instances in which Indians have captured a fortified place
otherwise than by treachery or surprise. The exploit was undoubtedly
due to French prompting. We shall see hereafter with what energy and
6uccess Thury incited his flock to war.

1690.] CAPTURE OF SALMON FALLS. 227

It was a false and fatal security. Through snow
and ice and storm, Hertel and his band were mov-
ing on their prey. On the night of the twenty-
seventh of March, they lay hidden in the forest
that bordered the farms and clearings of Salmon
Falls. Their scouts reconnoitred the place, and
found a fortified house with two stockade forts,
built as a refuge for the settlers in case of alarm.
Towards daybreak, Hertel, dividing his followers
into three parties, made a sudden and simultane-
ous attack. The settlers, unconscious of danger,
were in their beds. No watch was kept even in
the so-called forts ; and, when the French and In-
dians burst in, there was no time for their few
tenants to gather for defence. The surprise was
complete ; and, after a short struggle, the assailants
were successful at every point. They next turned
upon the scattered farms of the neighborhood,
burned houses, barns, and cattle, and laid the
entire settlement in ashes. About thirty persons
of both sexes and all ages were tomahawked or
shot ; and fifty -four, chiefly women and children,
were made prisoners. Two Indian scouts now
brought word that a party of English was advanc-
ing to the scene of havoc from Piscataqua, or Ports-
mouth, not many miles distant. Hertel called his
men together, and began his retreat. The pur-
suers, a hundred and forty in number, overtook
him about sunset at Wooster River, where the
swollen stream was crossed by a narrow bridge.
Hertel and his followers made a stand on the far-
ther bank, killed and wounded a number of the Eng-

228 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690.

lish as they attempted to cross, kept npa brisk fire
on the rest, held them in check till night, and then
continued their retreat. The prisoners, or some of
them, were given to the Indians, who tortured one
or more of the men, and killed and tormented chil-
dren and infants with a cruelty not always equalled
by their heathen countrymen.1

Hertel continued his retreat to one of the Abe-
naki villages on the Kennebec. Here he learned
that a band of French and Indians had lately
passed southward on their way to attack the Eng-
lish fort at Casco Bay, on the site of Portland.
Leaving at the viilage his eldest son, who had
been badly wounded at Wooster River, he set out
to join them with thirty-six of his followers. The
band in question was Frontenac's third war-party.
It consisted of fifty French and sixty Abenakis
from the mission of St. Francis ; and it had left
Quebec in January, under a Canadian officer named

1 The archives of Massachusetts contain various papers on the dis-
aster at Salmon Falls.- Among them is the report of the authorities of
Portsmouth to the governor and council at Boston, giving many par-
ticulars, and asking aid. They estimate the killed and captured at
upwards of eighty, of whom about one fourth were men. They say that
about twenty houses were burnt, and mention but one fort. The other,
mentioned in the French accounts, was probably a palisaded house.
Speaking of the combat at the bridge, they say, " We fought as long as
we could distinguish friend from foe. We lost two killed and six or
seven wounded, one mortally." The French accounts say fourteen.
This letter is accompanied by the examination of a French prisoner,
taken the same day. Compare Mather, Magnolia, II. 595; Belknap,
Hist. New Hampshire, I. 207 ; Journal of Rev. John Pike (Proceedinr/s oj
Mass. Hist. Soc. 1875 ) ; and the French accounts of Monseignat and La
Potherie. Charlevoix adds various embellishments, not to be found in
the original sources. Later writers copy and improve upon him, until
Hertel is pictured as charging the pursuers sword in hand, while the
English fly in disorder before him.

1690.] CASCO BAY. 229

Portneuf and his lieutenant, Courtemanche. They
advanced at their leisure, often stopping to hunt,
till in May they were joined on the Kennebec by
a large body of Indian warriors. On the twenty-
fifth, Portneuf encamped in the forest near the
English forts, with a force which, including Hertel's
party, the Indians of the Kennebec, and another
band led by Saint-Castin from the Penobscot,
amounted to between four and five hundred men.1
Fort Loyal was a palisade work with eight can-
non, standing on rising ground by the shore of the
bay, at what is now the foot of India Street in the
city of Portland. Not far distant were four block-
houses and a village which they were designed to
protect. These with the fort were occupied by about
a hundred men, chiefly settlers of the neighborhood,
under Captain Sylvanus Davis, a prominent trader.
Around lay rough and broken fields stretching to
the skirts of the forest half a mile distant. Some
of Portneuf's scouts met a straggling Scotchman,
and could not resist the temptation of killing
him. Their scalp-yells alarmed the garrison, and
thus the advantage of surprise was lost. Davis
resolved to keep his men within their defences,
and to stand on his guard; but there was little
or no discipline in the yeoman garrison, and
thirty young volunteers under Lieutenant Thad-
deus Clark sallied out to find the enemy. They
were too successful ; for, as they approached the
top of a hill near the woods, they observed a num-
ber of cattle staring with a scared look at some

1 Declaration of Sylvanus Davis ; Mather, Magnolia, II. 603.

230 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1C90.

object on the farther side of a fence; and, rightly
judging that those they sought were hidden there,
they raised a cheer, and ran to the spot. They
were met by a fire so close and deadly that half
their number were shot down. A crowd of Indians
leaped the fence and rushed upon the survivors,
who ran for the fort ; but only four, all of whom
were wounded, succeeded in reaching it.1

The men in the blockhouses withdrew under
cover of night to Fort Loyal, where the whole
force of the English was now gathered along with
their frightened families. Portneuf determined to
besiege the place in form ; and, after burning the
village, and collecting tools from the abandoned
blockhouses, he opened his trenches in a deep gully
within fifty yards of the fort, where his men were
completely protected. They worked so well that
in three clays they had wormed their way close to
the palisade ; and, covered as they were in their
burrows, they lost scarcely a man, while their ene-
mies suffered severely. They now summoned the
fort to surrender. Davis asked for a delay of six
days, which was refused ; and in the morning the
fight began again. For a time the fire was sharp
and heavy. The English wasted much powder in
vain efforts to dislodge the besiegers from their
trenches; till at length, seeing a machine loaded
with a tar-barrel and other combustibles shoved
against their palisades, they asked for a parley.
Up to this time, Davis had supposed that his assail-
ants were all Indians, the French being probably

1 Relation de Monseignat ; La Potherie, III. 79.

1690.] THE ENGLISH SURRENDER. 231

dressed and painted like their red allies. " We
demanded," he says, " if there were any French
among them, and if they would give us quarter.
They answered that they were Frenchmen, and
that they would give us good quarter. Upon this,
we sent out to them again to know from whence
they came, and if they would give us good quarter
for our men, women, and children, both wounded
and sound, and (to demand) that we should have
liberty to march to the next English town, and
have a guard for our defence and safety ; then we
would surrender ; and also that the governour of
the French should hold up his hand and swear by
the great and ever living God . that the several
articles should be performed : all which he did
solemnly swear."

The survivors of the garrison now filed through
the gate, and laid clown their arms. They with
their women and children were thereupon aban-
doned to the Indians, who murdered many of them,
and carried off the rest. When Davis protested
against this breach of faith, he was told that he and
his countrymen were rebels against their lawful
king, James II. After spiking the cannon, burning
the fort, and destroying all the neighboring settle-
ments, the triumphant allies departed for their re-
spective homes, leaving the slain unburied where
they had fallen.1

1 Their remains were buried by Captain Church, three years later.

On the capture of Fort Loyal, compare Monseignat and La Potherie
with Mather, Magnolia, II. 603, and the Declaration of Sylvanus Davis,
in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 101. Davis makes curious mistakes in regard to
French names, his rustic ear not being accustomed to the accents of the
Gallic tongue. He calls Courtemanche, Monsieur Corte de March, and

232 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690.

Davis with three or four others, more fortunate
than their companions, was kept by the French,
and carried to Canada. " They were kind to me,"
he says, " on my travels through the country. I
arrived at Quebeck the 14th of June, where I was
civilly treated by the gentry, and soon carried to
the fort before the governour, the Earl of Fron-
tenack." Frontenac told him that the governor
and people of New York were the cause of the
war, since they had stirred up the Iroquois against
Canada, and prompted them to torture French
prisoners.1 Davis replied that New York and New
England were distinct and separate governments,
each of which must answer for its own deeds ; and
that New England would gladly have remained
at peace with the French, if they had not set on
the Indians to attack her peaceful settlers. Fron-
tenac admitted that the people of New England
were not to be regarded in the same light with
those who had stirred up the Indians against
Canada ; but he added that they were all rebels to
their king, and that if they had been good subjects
there would have been no war. " I do believe,''

Portneuf, Monsieur Burniffe or Burneffe. To these contemporary au-
thorities may be added the account given by Le Clercq, EtaUissement de
la Foy, II. 393, and a letter from Governor Bradstreet of Massachusetts
to Jacob Leisler in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 259. The French writers of
course say nothing of any violation of faith on the part of the victors,
but they admit that the Indians kept most of the prisoners. Scarcely
was the fort taken, when four English vessels appeared in the harbor,
too late to save it. Willis, in his History of Port/ and (ed. 1865), gives a
map of Fort Loyal and the neighboring country. In the Massachusetts
archives is a letter from Davis, written a few days before the attack,
complaining that his fort is in wretched condition.

1 I am unable to discover the foundation of this last charge.

1690.] THE CANADIANS ENCOURAGED. 233

observes the captive Puritan, " that there was a .
popish design against the Protestant interest in
New England as in other parts of the world." He
told Frontenac of the pledge given by his con-
queror, and the violation of it. " We were promised
good quarter," he reports himself to have said,
" and a guard to conduct us to our English ; but
now we are made captives and slaves in the hands
of the heathen. I thought I had to do with Chris-
tians that would have been careful of their engage-
ments, and not to violate and break their oaths.
Whereupon the governour shaked his head, and, as
I was told, was very angry with Burniffe (Port-
neuf)"

Frontenac was pleased with his prisoner, whom
he calls a bonhomme. He told him in broken Eng-
lish to take courage, and promised him good treat-
ment; to which Davis replied that his chief con-
cern was not for himself, but for the captives in the
hands of the Indians. Some of these were after-
wards ransomed by the French, and treated with
much kindness, as was also Davis himself, to whom
the count gave lodging in the chateau.

The triumphant success of his three war-parties
produced on the Canadian people all the effect
that Frontenac had expected. This effect was
very apparent, even before the last two victories
had become known. " You cannot believe, Mon-
seigneur," wrote the governor, speaking of the
capture of Schenectady, " the joy that this slight
success has caused, and how much it contributes
to raise the people from their dejection and terror."

234 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES.

One untoward accident damped the general joy
for a moment. A party of Iroquois Christians from
the Saut St. Louis had made a raid against the
English borders, and were returning with prisoners.
One evening, as they were praying at their camp
near Lake Champlain, they were discovered by a
band of Algonquins and Abenakis who were out
on a similar errand, and who, mistaking them for
enemies, set upon them and killed several of their
number, among whom was Kryn, the great Mo-
hawk, chief of the mission of the Saut. This mis-
hap was near causing a rupture between the best
Indian allies of the colony ; but the difference was
at length happily adjusted, and the relatives of the
slain propitiated by gifts.1

1 The attacking party consisted of some of the Abenakis and Algon-
quins who had been with Hertel, and who had left the main body after
the destruction of Salmon Falls. Several of them were killed in the
skirmish, and among the rest their chief, Hopehood, or Woliawa, " that
memorable tygre," as Cotton Mather calls him.

CHAPTER XII.

1690.

MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC.

English Schemes. — Capture of Port Royal. — Acadia reduced.
— Conduct of Phips. — His History and Character. — Boston
in Arms. — A Puritan Crusade. — The March from Albany. —
Frontenac and the Council. — Frontenac at Montreal. —
His War Dance. — An Abortive Expedition. — An English
Raid. — Frontenac at Quebec. — Defences of the Town. —
The Enemy arrives.

When Frontenac sent his war-parties against
New York and New England, it was in the hope
not only of reanimating the Canadians, but also of
teaching the Iroquois that they could' not safely
rely on English aid, and of inciting the Abenakis
to renew their attacks on the border settlements.
He imagined, too, that the British colonies could
be chastised into prudence and taught a policy of
conciliation towards their Canadian neighbors ; but
he mistook the character of these bold and vigor-
ous though not martial communities. The plan of
a combined attack on Canada seems to have been
first proposed by the Iroquois ; and New York and
the several governments of New England, smart-
ing under French and Indian attacks, hastened to
embrace it. Early in May, a congress of their
delegates was held in the city of New York. It

236 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1G90.

was agreed that the colony of that name should
furnish four hundred men, and Massachusetts,
Plymouth, and Connecticut three hundred and
fifty-five jointly ; while the Iroquois afterwards
added their worthless pledge to join the expedi-
tion with nearly all their warriors. The colonial
militia were to rendezvous at Albany, and thence
advance upon Montreal by way of Lake Champlain.
Mutual jealousies made it difficult to agree upon a
commander ; but Winthrop of Connecticut was at
length placed at the head of the feeble and dis-
cordant band.

While Montreal was thus assailed by land, Massa-
chusetts and the other New England colonies were
invited to attack Quebec by sea ; a task formidable
in difficulty and in cost, and one that imposed on
them an inordinate share in the burden of the
war. Massachusetts hesitated. She had no money,
and she was already engaged in a less remote and
less critical enterprise. During the winter, her
commerce had suffered from French cruisers, which
found convenient harborage at Port Royal, whence
also the hostile Indians were believed to draw sup-
plies. Seven vessels, with two hundred and eighty-
eight sailors, were impressed, and from four to five
hundred militia-men were drafted for the service.1
That rugged son of New England, Sir William Phips,
was appointed to the command. He sailed from
Nantasket at the end of April, reached Port Royal

1 Summary of Muster Roll, appended to A Journal of the Expedition
from Boston ar/ainst Port Royal, among the papers of George Chalmers in
the Library of Harvard College.

1690.] ATTACK ON PORT ROYAL. 237

on the eleventh of May, landed his militia, and
summoned Meneval, the governor, to surrender.
The fort, though garrisoned by about seventy
soldiers, was scarcely in condition to repel an
assault; and Meneval yielded without resistance,
first stipulating, according to French accounts,
that private property should be respected, the
church left untouched, and the troops sent to
Quebec or to France.1 It was found, however,
that during the parley a quantity of goods, be-
longing partly to the king and partly to merchants
of the place, had been carried off and hidden
in the woods.2 Phips thought this a sufficient
pretext for plundering the merchants, imprisoning
the troops, and desecrating the church. " We
cut down the cross," writes one of his followers,
" rifled their church, pulled down their high altar,
and broke their images." 3 The houses of the two
priests were also pillaged. The people were prom-
ised security to life, liberty, and property, on
condition of swearing allegiance to King William
and Queen Mary ; " which," says the journalist,
" they did with great acclamation," and thereupon
they were left unmolested.4 The lawful portion

1 Relation de la Prise da Port Royal par les Anglois de Baston, piece
anonyme, 27 Mai, 1690.

2 Journal of the Expedition from Boston against Port Royal.
8 Ibid.

4 Relation de Monseignat. Nevertheless, a considerable number seem
to have refused the oath, and to have been pillaged. The Relation de la
Prise du Port Royal par les Anglois de Baston, written on the spot imme-
diately after the event, says that, except that nobody was killed, the
place was treated as if taken by assault. Meneval also says that the
inhabitants were pillaged. Meneval an Ministre, 29 Mai, 1690; also Rap-
port de Champigny, Oct., 1690. Meneval describes the New England men

238 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690.

of the booty included twenty-one pieces of can-
non, with a considerable sum of money belong-
ing to the king. The smaller articles, many
of which were taken from the merchants and
from such of the settlers as refused the oath,
were packed in hogsheads and sent on board
the ships. Phips took no measures to secure his
conquest, though he commissioned a president and
six councillors, chosen from the inhabitants, to
govern the settlement till farther orders from the
crown or from the authorities of Massachusetts.
The president was directed to constrain nobody in
the matter of religion ; and he was assured of pro-
tection and support so long as he remained " faith-
ful to our government," that is, the government
of Massachusetts.1 The little Puritan common-
wealth already gave itself airs of sovereignty.

Phips now sent Captain Alden, who had already
taken possession of Saint-Castin's post at Penob-
scot, to seize upon La Heve, Chedabucto, and
other stations on the southern coast. Then, after
providing for the reduction of the settlements at
the head of the Bay of Fundy, he sailed, with
the rest of the fleet, for Boston, where he arrived
triumphant on the thirtieth of May, bringing with
him, as prisoners, the French governor, fifty-nine
soldiers, and the two priests, Petit and Trouve.
Massachusetts had made an easy conquest of all
Acadia ; a conquest, however, which she had neither

as excessively irritated at the late slaughter of settlers at Salmon Falls
and elsewhere.

1 Journal of the Expedition, etc.

1690.] CONDUCT OF PHIPS. 239

the men nor the money to secure by sufficient
garrisons.

The conduct of the New England commander
in this affair does him no credit. It is true that
no blood was spilt, and no revenge taken for the
repeated butcheries of unoffending and defenceless
settlers. It is true, also, that the French appear to
have acted in bad faith. But Phips, on the other
hand, displayed a scandalous rapacity. Charle-
voix says that he robbed Meneval of all his money ;
but Meneval himself affirms that he gave it to the
English commander for safe keeping, and that
Phips and his wife would return neither the money
nor various other articles belonging to the captive
governor, whereof the following are specified :
" Six silver spoons, six silver forks, one silver cup
in the shape of a gondola, a pair of pistols, three
new wigs, a gray vest, four pair of silk garters,
two dozen of shirts, six vests of dimity, four night-
caps with lace edgings, all my table service of fine
tin, all my kitchen linen," and many other items
which give an amusing insight into Meneval's
housekeeping.1

1 An Account of the Silver and Effects ivhich Mr. Phips keeps bach from
Mr. Meneval, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 115.

Monseignat and La Potherie describe briefly this expedition against
Port Royal. In the archives of Massachusetts are various papers con-
cerning it, among which are Governor Bradstreet's instructions to
Phips, and a complete invoice of the plunder. Extracts will be found
in Professor Bowen's Life of Phips, in Sparks's American Biography, VII.
There is also an order of council, " Whereas the French soldiers lately
brought to this place from Port Royal did surrender on capitulation," they
shall be set at liberty. Meneval, Lettre au Ministre, 29 Mai, 1690, says
that there was a capitulation, and that Phips broke it. Perrot, former
governor of Acadia, accuses both Meneval and the priest Petit of being

240 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1G90.

Meneval, with the two priests, was confined in
a house at Boston, under guard. He says that he
petitioned the governor and council for redress ;
" but, as they have little authority and stand in
fear of Phips, who is supported by the rabble, to
which he himself once belonged, and of which he
is now the chief, they would do nothing for me." 1
This statement of Meneval is not quite correct : for
an order of the council is on record, requiring Phips
to restore his chest and clothes ; and, as the order
received no attention, Governor Braclstreet wrote
to the refractory commander a note, enjoining him
to obey it at once.2 Phips thereupon gave ' up
some of the money and the worst part of the cloth-
ing, still keeping the rest.3 After long delay, the
council released Meneval : upon which, Phips and
the populace whom he controlled demanded that
he should be again imprisoned ; but the " honest
people " of the town took his part, his persecutor
was forced to desist, and he set sail covertly for
France.4 This, at least, is his own account of the
affair.

As Phips was to play a conspicuous part in the
events that immediately followed, some notice of

in collusion with the English. Perrot a de Chevry, 2 Juin, 1690. The
same charge is made as regards Petit in Memoire sur I'Acadie, 1691.

Charlevoix's account of this affair is inaccurate. He ascrihes to
Phips acts which took place weeks after his return, such as the capture
of Chedahucto.

1 Me'moire pre'sente' a M. de Ponchartrain par M. de Meneval, 6 Avril,
1691.

2 This note, dated 7 Jan., 1691, is cited by Bowen in his Life of Phips,
Sparks's American Biography, VII.

3 Memoire de Meneval.
* Ibid.

1690.] SIR WILLIAM PHIPS. 241

him will not be amiss. He is said to have been
one of twenty-six children, all of the same mother,
and was born in 1650 at a rude border settlement,
since called Woolwich, on the Kennebec. His
parents were ignorant and poor ; and till eighteen
years of age he was employed in keeping sheep.
Such a life ill suited his active and ambitious
nature. To better his condition, he learned the
trade of ship-carpenter, and, in the exercise of it,
came to Boston, where he married a widow with
some property, beyond him in years, and much
above him in station. About this time, he learned
to read and write, though not too well, for his sig-
nature is like that of a peasant. Still aspiring to
greater things, he promised his wife that he would
one clay command a king's ship and own a " fair
brick house in the Green Lane of North Boston,"
a quarter then occupied by citizens of the better
class. He kept his word at both points. Fortune
was inauspicious to him for several years ; till at
length, under the pressure of reverses, he conceived
the idea of conquering fame and wealth at one
stroke, by fishing up the treasure said to be stored in
a Spanish galleon wrecked fifty years before some-
where in the West Indian seas. Full of this project,
he went to England, where, through influences which
do not plainly appear, he gained a hearing from
persons in high places, and induced the admiralty
to adopt his scheme. A frigate was given him,
and he sailed for the West Indies ; whence, after a
long search, he returned unsuccessful, though not
without adventures which proved his mettle. It

16

242 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690.

was the epocli of the buccaneers ; and his crew, tired
of a vain and toilsome search, came to the quarter-
deck, armed with cutlasses, and demanded of their
captain that he should turn pirate with them.
Phips, a tall and powerful man, instantly fell upon
them with his fists, knocked down the ringleaders,
and awed them all into submission. Not long after,
there was a more formidable mutiny ; but, with
great courage and address, he quelled it for a time,
and held his crew to their duty till he had brought
the ship into Jamaica, and exchanged them for
better men.

Though the leaky condition of the frigate com-
pelled him to abandon the search, it was not till he
had gained information which he thought would
lead to success; and, on his return, he inspired
such confidence that the Duke of Albemarle, with
other noblemen and gentlemen, gave him a fresh
outfit, and despatched him again on his Quixotic
errand. This time he succeeded, found the wreck,
and took from it gold, silver, and jewels to the
value of three hundred thousand pounds sterling.
The crew now leagued together to seize the ship
and divide the prize; and Phips, pushed to ex-
tremity, was compelled to promise that every
man of them should have a share in the treasure,
even if he paid it himself. On reaching England,
he kept his pledge so well that, after redeeming it,
only sixteen thousand pounds was left as his por-
tion, which, however, was an ample fortune in the
New England of that day. He gained, too, what
he valued almost as much, the honor of knight-

1690.] SIR WILLIAM PHIPS. 243

hood. Tempting offers were made him of employ-
ment in the royal service ; but he had an ardent
love for his own country, and thither he presently
returned.

Phips was a rude sailor, bluff, prompt, and chol-
eric. He never gave proof of intellectual capacity ;
and such of his success in life as he did not owe to
good luck was due probably to an energetic and
adventurous spirit, aided by a blunt frankness of
address that pleased the great, and commended him
to their favor. Two years after the expedition to
Port Royal, the king, under the new charter, made
him governor of Massachusetts, a post for which,
though totally unfit, he had been recommended by
the elder Mather, who, like his son Cotton, expected
to make use of him. He carried his old habits into
his new office, cudgelled Brinton, the collector of
the port, and belabored Captain Short of the royal
navy with his cane. Far from trying to hide the
obscurity of his origin, he leaned to the opposite
foible, and was apt to boast of it, delighting to
exhibit himself as a self -made man. New England
writers describe him as honest in private dealings ;
but, in accordance with his coarse nature, he seems
to have thought that any thing is fair in war. On
the other hand, he was warmly patriotic, and was
almost as ready to serve New England as to serve
himself.1

When he returned from Port Royal, he found

1 An excellent account of Phips will be found in Professor Bowen's
biographical notice, already cited. His Life by Cotton Mather is exces-
sively eulogistic.

244 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690.

Boston alive with martial preparation. A bold
enterprise was afoot. Massachusetts of her own
motion had resolved to attempt the conquest of
Quebec. She and her sister colonies had not yet
recovered from the exhaustion of Philip's war,
and still less from the disorders that attended the
expulsion of the royal governor and his adherents.
The public treasury was empty, and the recent
expeditions against the eastern Indians had been
supported by private subscription. "Worse yet,
New England had no competent military com-
mander. The Puritan gentlemen of the original
emigration, some of whom were as well fitted for
military as for civil leadership, had passed from
the stage • and, by a tendency which circumstances
made inevitable, they had left none behind them
equally qualified. The great Indian conflict of
fifteen years before had, it is true, formed good
partisan chiefs, and proved that the New England
yeoman, defending his family and his hearth, was
not to be surpassed in stubborn fighting ; but, since
Anclros and his soldiers had been driven out, there
was scarcely a single man in the colony of the
slightest training or experience in regular war.
Up to this moment, New England had never asked
help of the mother country. When thousands of
savages burst on her defenceless settlements, she
had conquered safety and peace with her own
blood and her own slender resources ; but now, as
the proposed capture of Quebec would inure to the
profit of the British crown, Braclstreet and his
council thought it not unfitting to ask for a supply

1690.] MARTIAL PREPARATION. 245

of arms and ammunition, of which they were in
great need.1 The request was refused, and no aid
of any kind came from the English government,
whose resources were engrossed by the Irish war.
While waiting for the reply, the colonial authori-
ties urged on their preparations, in the hope that
the plunder of Quebec would pay the expenses of
its conquest. Humility was not among the New
England virtues, and it wras thought a sin to doubt
that God would give his chosen people the victory
over papists and idolaters ; yet no pains were spared
to ensure the divine favor. A proclamation was
issued, calling the people to repentance ; a day of
fasting was ordained ; and, as Mather expresses
it, " the wheel of prayer was kept in continual
motion." 2 The chief difficulty was to provide
funds. An attempt was made to collect a part of
the money by private subscription ; 3 but, as this
plan failed, the provisional government, already in
debt, strained its credit yet farther, and borrowed
the needful sums. Thirty-two trading and fishing
vessels, great and small, were impressed for the
service. The largest was a ship called the " Six
Friends," engaged in the dangerous West India
trade, and carrying forty-four guns. A call was
made for volunteers, and many enrolled themselves ;
but, as more were wanted, a press was ordered to
complete the number. So rigorously was it applied

1 Bradstreet and Council to the Earl of Shrewsbury, 29 Mar., 1690 ; Dan-
forth to Sir H. Ashurst, 1 April, 1690.

2 Mass. Colonial Records, 12 Mar., 1690 ; Mather, Life of Phips.

3 Proposals for an Expedition against Canada, in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll.,
X. 119.

246 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690.

that, what with voluntary and enforced enlistment,
one town, that of Gloucester, was deprived of two-
thirds of its fencible men.1 There was not a
moment of doubt as to the choice of a commander,
for Phips was imagined to be the very man for the
work. One John Walley, a respectable citizen of
Barnstable, was made second in command with the
modest rank of major; and a sufficient number of
ship-masters, merchants, master mechanics, and
substantial farmers, were commissioned as subordi-
nate officers. About the middle of July, the com-
mittee charged with the preparations reported that
all was ready. Still there was a long delay. The
vessel sent early in spring to ask aid from England
had not returned. Phips waited for her as long as
he dared, and the best of the season was over when
he resolved to put to sea. The rustic warriors,
duly formed into companies, were sent on board ;
and the fleet sailed from Nantasket on the ninth of
August. Including sailors, it carried twenty-two
hundred men, with provisions for four months, but
insufficient ammunition and no pilot for the St.
Lawrence.2

While Massachusetts was making ready to con-
quer Quebec by sea, the militia of the land expe-
dition against Montreal had mustered at Albany.

1 Jlev. John Emerson to Wait Winthrop, 26 July, 1690. Emerson was
the minister of Gloucester. He begs for the release of the impressed
men.

2 Mather, Life of Phips, gives an account of the outfit. Compare the
Humble Address of Divers of the Gentry, Merchants and others inhabiting in
Boston, to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. Two officers of the expedi-
tion, Walley and Savage, have left accounts of it, as Phips would prob-
ably have done, had his literary acquirements been equal to the task.

1690.] FRONTENAC AND THE COUNCIL. 247

Their strength was even less than was at first
pro]30sed ; for, after the disaster at Casco, Massachu-
setts and Plymouth had recalled their contingents
to defend their frontiers. The rest, decimated
by dysentery and small-pox, began their march to
Lake Champlain, with bands of Mohawk, Oneida,
and Mohegan allies. The western Iroquois were
to join them at the lake, and the combined force
was then to attack the head of the colony, while
Phips struck at its heart.

Frontenac was at Quebec during most of the
winter and the early spring. When he had de-
spatched the three war-parties, whose hardy but
murderous exploits were to bring this double storm
upon him, he had an interval of leisure, of which
he made a characteristic use. The English and
the Iroquois were not his only enemies. He had
opponents within as well as without, and he counted
as among them most of the members of the
supreme council. Here Avas the bishop, repre-
senting that clerical power which had clashed so
often with the civil rule ; here was that ally of
the Jesuits, the intenclant Champigny, who, when
Frontenac arrived, had written mournfully to Ver-
sailles that he would do his best to live at peace
with him ; here were Villeray and Auteuil, whom
the governor had once banished, Damours, whom he
had imprisoned, and others scarcely more agreeable
to him. They and their clerical friends had con-
spired for his recall seven or eight years before ;
they had clung to Denonville, that faithful son of
the Church, in spite of all his failures ; and they had

248 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690.

seen with troubled minds the return of King Stork
in the person of the haughty and irascible count.
He on his part felt his power. The country was
in deadly need of him, and looked to him for salva-
tion ; while the king had shown him such marks of
favor, that, for the moment at least, his enemies
must hold their peace. Now, therefore, was the
time to teach them that he was their master.
"Whether trivial or important the occasion mattered
little. What he wanted was a conflict and a victory,
or submission without a conflict.

The supreme council had held its usual weekly
meetings since Frontenac's arrival ; but as yet he
had not taken his place at the board, though his
presence was needed. Auteuil, the attorney-gen-
eral, was thereupon deputed to invite him. He
visited the count at his apartment in the chateau,
but could get from him no answer, except that the
council was able to manage its own business, and
that he would come when the king's service should
require it. The councillors divined that he was
waiting for some assurance that they would receive
him with befitting ceremony ; and, after debating the
question, they voted to send four of their number
to repeat the invitation, and beg the governor to say
what form of reception would be agreeable to him.
Frontenac answered that it was for them to pro-
pose the form, and that, when they did so, he
would take the subject into consideration. The
deputies returned, and there was another debate.
A ceremony was devised, which it was thought
must needs be acceptable to the count ; and the

1090.] FRONTENAC AND THE COUNCIL. 249

first councillor, Villeray, repaired to the chateau to
submit it to him. After making him an harangue
of compliment, and protesting the anxiety of him-
self and his colleagues to receive him with all
possible honor, he explained the plan, and assured
Frontenac that, if not wholly satisfactory, it should
be changed to suit his pleasure. " To which," says
the record, " Monsieur the governor only answered
that the council could consult the bishop and other
persons acquainted with such matters." The bishop
was consulted, but pleaded ignorance. Another
debate followed ; and the first councillor was again
despatched to the chateau, with proposals still more
deferential than the last, and full power to yield,
in addition, whatever the governor might desire.
Frontenac replied that, though they had made propo-
sals for his reception when he should present himself
at the council for the first time, they had not informed
him what ceremony they meant to observe when
he should come to the subsequent sessions. This
point also having been thoroughly debated, Yilleray
went again to the count, and with great deference
laid before him the following plan : That, whenever
it should be his pleasure to make his first visit to
the council, four of its number should repair to
the chateau, and accompany him, with every mark
of honor, to the palace of the intendant, where the
sessions were held; and that, on his subsequent
visits, two councillors should meet him at the head
of the stairs, and conduct him to his seat. The
envoy farther protested that, if this failed to meet
his approval, the council would conform itself to

250 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690,

all his wishes on the subject. Frontenac now de-
manded to see the register in which the proceed-
ings on the question at issue were recorded.
Villeray was directed to carry it to him. The
records had been cautiously made ; and, after
studying them carefully, he could find nothing at
which to cavil.

He received the next deputation with great
affability, told them that he was glad to find that
the council had not forgotten the consideration due
to his office and his person, and assured them, with
urbane irony, that, had they offered to accord him
marks of distinction greater than they felt were
due, he would not have permitted them thus to
compromise their dignity, having too much regard
for the honor of a body of which he himself was
the head. Then, after thanking them collectively
and severally, he graciously dismissed them, saying
that he would come to the council after Easter, or
in about two months.1 During four successive
Mondays, he had forced the chief dignitaries of the
colony to march in deputations up and clown the
rugged road from the intenclant's palace to the

1 " M. le Gouverneur luy a repondu qu'il avoit reconnu avec plaisir que
la Compagnie (le Conseil) conservoit la consideration qu'elle avoit pour
son caractere et pour sa personne, et qu'elle pouvoit bien s'assurer qu'en-
core qu'elle luy eust fait des propositions au dela de ce qu'elle auroit era
devoir t'aire pour sa reception au Conseil, il ne les auroit pas acceptees,
l'lionneur de la Compagnie luy estant d'autant plus considerable, qu'en
estant le chef, il n'auroit rien voulu souffrir qui peust estre contraire a sa
dignite." Registre da Conseil Souverain, se'ance du 13 Mars, 1690. The
affair had occupied the preceding sessions of 20 and 27 February and 6
March. The submission of the councillors did not prevent them from com-
plaining to the minister. Champigny au Minislre, 10 Mai, 1691 ; M€moire
instruct!/ sur le Canada, 1691.

1690.] PRECAUTIONS OF FRONTENAC. 251

chamber of the chateau where he sat in solitary
state. A disinterested spectator might see the
humor of the situation ; but the council felt only
its vexations. Frontenac had gained his point :
the enemy had surrendered unconditionally.

Having settled this important matter to his satis-
faction, he again addressed himself to saving the
country. During the winter, he had employed
gangs of men in cutting timber in the forests, hew-
ing it into palisades, and dragging it to Quebec.
Nature had fortified the Upper Town on two sides
by cliffs almost inaccessible, but it was open to
attack in the rear ; and Frontenac, with a happy
prevision of approaching danger, gave his first
thoughts to strengthening this, its only weak side.
The work began as soon as the frost was out of
the ground, and before midsummer it was well
advanced. At the same time, he took every pre-
caution for the safety of the settlements in the
upper parts of the colony, stationed detachments
of regulars at the stockade forts, which Denonville
had built in all the parishes above Three Rivers,
and kept strong scouting parties in continual move-
ment in all the quarters most exposed to attack.
Troops were detailed to guard the settlers at their
work in the fields, and officers and men were en-
joined to use the utmost vigilance. Nevertheless,
the Iroquois war-parties broke in at various points,
burning and butchering, and spreading such terror
that in some districts the fields were left unfilled
and the prospects of the harvest ruined.

Towards the end of July, Frontenac left Major

252 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1600.

Prevost to finish the fortifications, and, with the
intendant Champigny, went up to Montreal, the
chief point of clanger. Here he arrived on
the thirty-first ; and, a few clays after, the officer
commanding the fort at La Chine sent him a mes-
senger in hot haste with the startling news that
Lake St. Louis was " all covered with canoes." !
Nobody doubted that the Iroquois were upon them
again. Cannon were fired to call in the troops
from the detached posts; when alarm was sud-
denly turned to joy by the arrival of other messen-
gers to announce that the new coiners were not
enemies, but friends. They were the Indians of
the upper lakes descending from Michillimackinac
to trade at Montreal. Nothing so auspicious had
happened since Frontenac's return. The messages
he had sent them in the spring by Louvigny and
Perrot, reinforced by the news of the victory on
the Ottawa and the capture of Schenectady, had
had the desired effect ; and the Iroquois prisoner
whom their missionary had persuaded them to tor-
ture had not been sacrificed in vain. Despairing
of an English market for their beaver skins, they
had come as of old to seek one from the French.

On the next day, they all came clown the rapids,
and landed near the town. There were fully five
hundred of them, Hurons, Ottawas, Ojibwas, Potta-
wat amies, Crees, and Nipissings, with a hundred
and ten canoes laden with beaver skins to the value
of nearly a hundred thousand crowns. Nor was

1 " Que le lac estoit tout couvert tie canots." Frontenac au Mmistre,
9 et 12 Nov., 1690.

1690.1 FRONTENAC AND HIS ALLIES. 253

this all ; for, a few clays after. La Durantaye, late
commander at Michillimackinac, arrived with fifty-
five more canoes, manned by French traders, and
filled with valuable furs. The stream of wealth
dammed back so long was flowing upon the colony
at the moment when it was most needed. Never
had Canada known a more prosperous trade than
now in the midst of her clanger and tribulation.
It was a triumph for Frontenac. If his policy had
failed with the Iroquois, it had found a crowning
success among; the tribes of the lakes.

Having painted, greased, and befeathered them-
selves, the Indians mustered for the grand council
which always preceded the opening of the market.
The Ottawa orator spoke of nothing but trade, and,
with a regretful memory of the cheapness of Eng-
lish goods, begged that the French would sell them
at the same rate. The Huron touched upon
politics and war, declaring that he and his people
had come to visit their old father and listen to his
voice, being well assured that he would never
abandon them, as others had done, nor fool away
his time, like Denonville, in shameful negotiations
for peace ; and he exhorted Frontenac to fight, not
the English only, but the Iroquois also, till they
were brought to reason. " If this is not clone," he
said, " my father and I shall both perish ; but,
come what may, we will perish together." ! " I
answered," writes Frontenac, " that I would fight
the Iroquois till they came to beg for peace,

1 La Potherie, III. 94 ; Monseignat, Relation ; Frontenac au Ministre.
9 et 12 Nov., 1690.

254 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690.

and that I would grant them no peace that did not
include all my children, both white and red, for I
was the father of both alike."

Now ensued a curious scene. Frontenac took a
hatchet, brandished it in the air and sang the war-
song. The principal Frenchmen present followed
his example. The Christian Iroquois of the two
neighboring missions rose and joined them, and so
also did the Hurons and the Algonquins of Lake Ni-
pissing, stamping and screeching like a troop of
madmen ; while the governor led the dance, whoop-
ing like the rest. His predecessor would have
perished rather than play such a part in such com-
pany ; but the punctilious old courtier was himself
half Indian at heart, as much at home in a wigwam
as in the halls of princes. Another man would have
lost respect in Indian eyes by such a performance.
In Frontenac, it roused his audience to enthusiasm.
They snatched the proffered hatchet and promised
war to the death.1

Then came a solemn war-feast. Two oxen and
six large dogs had been chopped to pieces for the
occasion, and boiled with a quantity of prunes. Two

1 " Je leur mis moy-mesme la hache a la main en chantant la chanson
de guerre pour m'accommoderaleursfacons de faire." Frontenac au Mi-
ni stre, 9 et 12 Nov., 1690.

" Monsieur de Frontenac commenca la Chanson de guerre, la Hache
a, la main, les principaux Chefs des Francois se joignant a luy avec de
pareilles amies, la chanterent ensemble. Les Iroquois du Saut et de la
Montagne, les Hurons et les Nipisiriniens donnerent encore le branle :
Ton eut dit, Monsieur, que ces Acteurs etoient des possedez par les
gestes et les contorsions qu'ils faisoient. Les Sassakouez, oil les cris et
les hurlemens que M^ de Frontenac etoit oblige' de faire pour se confor-
mer a leur maniere, augmentoit encore la fureur bachique." La Po-
therie, III. 97.

1690.

ALARM AT MONTREAL. 255

barrels of wine with abundant tobacco were also
served out to the guests, who devoured the meal
in a species of frenzy.1 All seemed eager for war
except the Ottawas, who had not forgotten their
late dalliance with the Iroquois. A Christian Mo-
hawk of the Saut St. Louis called them to another
council, and demanded that they should explain
clearly their position. Thus pushed to the wall,
they no longer hesitated, but promised like the
rest to do all that their father should ask.

Their sincerity was soon put to the test. An
Iroquois convert called La Plaque, a notorious rep-
robate though a good warrior, had gone out as a
scout in the direction of Albany. On the day when
the market opened and trade was in full activity,
the buyers and sellers were suddenly startled by
the sound of the death-yell. They snatched their
weapons, and for a moment all was confusion ; when
La Plaque, who had probably meant to amuse him-
self at their expense, made his appearance, and ex-
plained that the yells proceeded from him. The
news that he brought was, however, sufficiently
alarming. He declared that he had been at Lake
St. Sacrement, or Lake George, and had seen there
a great number of men making canoes as if about
to advance on Montreal. Frontenac, thereupon,
sent the Chevalier cle Clermont to scout as far as
Lake Champlain. Clermont soon sent back one of
his followers to announce that he had discovered a
party of the enemy, and that they were already on
their way down the Kichelieu. Frontenac ordered

i La Potherie, III. 96, 98.

256 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690.

cannon to be fired to call in the troops, crossed the
St. Lawrence followed by all the Indians, and en-
camped with twelve hundred men at La Prairie to
meet the expected attack. He waited in vain.
All was quiet, and the Ottawa scouts reported that
they could find no enemy. Three days passed. The
Indians grew impatient, and wished to go home.
Neither English nor Iroquois had shown themselves ;
and Frontenac, satisfied that their strength had
been exaggerated, left a small force at La Prairie,
recrossecl the river, and distributed the troops again
among the neighboring parishes to protect the har-
vesters. He now gave ample presents to his de-
parting allies, whose chiefs he had entertained at
his own table, and to whom, says Charlevoix, he
bade farewell " with those engaging manners which
he knew so well how to assume when he wanted to
gain anybody to his interest." Scarcely were they
gone, when the distant cannon of La Prairie boomed
a sudden alarm.

The men whom La Plaque had seen near Lake
George were a part of the combined force of Con-
necticut and New York, destined to attack Mont-
real. They had made their way along Wood Creek
to the point where it widens into Lake Champlain,
and here they had stopped. Disputes between the
men of the two colonies, intestine quarrels in the
New York militia, who were divided between the
two factions engendered by the late revolution,
the want of provisions, the want of canoes, and the
ravages of small-pox, had ruined an enterprise
which had been mismanaged from the first. There

1690.] AN ENGLISH RAID. 257

was no birch bark to make more canoes, and owing
to the lateness of the season the bark of the elms
would not peel. Such of the Iroquois as had joined
them were cold and sullen ; and news came that
the three western tribes of the confederacy, terri-
fied by the small-pox, had refused to move. It
was impossible to advance ; ^and Winthrop, the
commander, gave orders to return to Albany, leav-
ing Phips to conquer Canada alone.1 But first,
that the campaign might not seem wholly futile,
he permitted Captain John Schuyler to make a
raid into Canada with a band of volunteers. Schuy-
ler left the camp at Wood Creek with twenty-nine
whites and a hundred and twenty Indians, passed
Lake Champlain, descended the Richelieu to Cham-
bly, and fell suddenly on the settlement of La
Prairie, whence Frontenac had just withdrawn with
his forces. Soldiers and inhabitants were reaping
in the wheat-fields. Schuyler and his followers
killed or captured twenty-five, including several

1 On this expedition see the Journal of Major General Winthrop, in
N. Y. Col. Docs., IV. 193 ; Pub/ick Occurrences, 1690, in Historical Maga-
zine, I. 228; and various documents in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 727, 752, and
in Doc. Hist. X. Y., II. 2G6, 288. Compare La Potherie, III. 126, and N. Y.
Col. Docs., IX. 513. These last are French statements. A Sokoki In-
dian brought to Canada a greatly exaggerated account of the English
forces, and said that disease had been spread among them by boxes of
infected clothing, which they themselves had provided in order to poi-
son the Canadians. Bishop Laval, Lettre du 20 Nov., 1690, says that there
was a quarrel between the English and their Iroquois allies, who, hav-
ing plundered a magazine of spoiled provisions, fell ill, and thought that
they were poisoned. Golden and other English writers seem to have
been strangely ignorant of this expedition. The Jesuit Michel Germain
declares that the force of the English alone amounted to four thousand
men (Relation de la Defaite des Anglois, 1690). About one tenth of this
number seem actually to have taken the field.

17

2-38 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1600.

women. He wished to attack the neighboring fort,
but his Indians refused ; and after burning houses,
barns, and hay-ricks, and killing a great number of
cattle, he seated himself with his party at dinner
in the adjacent woods, while cannon answered can-
non from Chambly, La Prairie, and Montreal, and
the whole country was astir. " We thanked the
Governor of Canada," writes Schuyler, "for his
salute of heavy artillery during our meal." *

The English had little to boast in this affair, the
paltry termination of an enterprise from which
great things had been expected. Nor was it for
their honor to adopt the savage and cowardly mode
of warfare in which their enemies had led the way.
The blow that had been struck was less an injury
to the French than an insult ; but, as such, it galled
Frontenac excessively, and he made no mention of
it in his despatches to the court. A few more Iro-
quois attacks and a few more murders kept Mont-
real in alarm till the tenth of October, when matters
of deeper import engaged the governor's thoughts.

A messenger arrived in haste at three o'clock in
the afternoon, and gave him a letter from Prevost,
town major of Quebec. It was to the effect that
an Abenaki Indian had just come over land from
Acadia, with news that some of his tribe had cap-
tured an English woman near Portsmouth, who
told them that a great fleet had sailed from Bos-
ton to attack Quebec. Frontenac, not easily alarmed,
doubted the report. Nevertheless, he embarked

1 Journal of Captain John Schuyler, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 285. Cora-
pare La Potherie, III. 101, and Relation de Monseignat.

1690.] APPROACH OF PHIPS. 259

at once with the intenclant in a small vessel, which
proved to be leaky, and was near foundering with
all on board. He then took a canoe, and towards
evening set out again for Quebec, ordering some
two hundred men to follow him. On the next
day, he met another canoe, bearing a fresh
message from Prevost, who announced that the
English fleet had been seen in the river, and that
it was already above Tadoussac. Frontenac now
sent back Captain de Ramsay with orders to Cal-
lieres, governor of Montreal, to descend immedi-
ately to Quebec with all the force at his disposal,
and to muster the inhabitants on the way. Then
he pushed on with the utmost speed. The autum-
nal storms had begun, and the rain pelted him with-
out ceasing ; but on the morning of the fourteenth
he neared the town. The rocks of Cape Diamond
towered before him ; the St. Lawrence lay beneath
them, lonely and still ; and the Basin of Quebec
outspread its broad bosom, a solitude without a sail.
Frontenac had arrived in time.

He landed at the Lower Town, and the troops and
the armed inhabitants came crowding to meet him.
He was delighted at their ardor.1 Shouts, cheers,
and the waving of hats greeted the old man as he
climbed the steep ascent of Mountain Street. Fear
and doubt seemed banished by his presence. Even
those who hated him rejoiced at his coming, and
hailed him as a deliverer. He went at once to in-
spect the fortifications. Since the alarm a week
before, Prevost had accomplished wonders, and

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 9 et 12 Nov., 1690.

260 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690.

not only completed the works begun in the spring,
but added others to secure a place which was a
natural fortress in itself. On two sides, the Upper
Town scarcely needed defence. The cliffs along
the St. Lawrence and those along the tributary
river St. Charles had three accessible points,
guarded at the present clay by the Prescott Gate,
the Hope Gate, and the Palace Gate. Prevost had
secured them by barricades of heavy beams and
casks filled with earth. A continuous line of pali-
sades ran along the strand of the St. Charles, from
the great cliff called the Saut au Matelot to the
palace of the intendant. At this latter point be-
gan the line of works constructed by Frontenac to
protect the rear of the town. They consisted of
palisades, strengthened by a ditch and an em-
bankment, and flanked at frequent intervals by
square towers of stone. Passing behind the garden
of the Ursulines, they extended to a windmill on a
hillock called Mt. Carmel, and thence to the brink
of the cliffs in front. Here there was a battery of
eight guns near the present Public Garden ; two
more, each of three guns, were planted at the top
of the Saut au Matelot ; another at the barricade
of the Palace Gate ; and another near the windmill
of Mt. Carmel ; while a number of light pieces were
held in reserve for such use as occasion might re-
quire. The Lower Town had no defensive works ;
but two batteries, each of three guns, eighteen
and twenty-four pounders, were placed here at
the edge of the river.1

1 Relation de Monseignat; Plan de Quebec, par Villeneure, 1600; Rela-
tion du Mercure Galant, 1691. The summit of Cape Diamond, which

1690.] THE ENEMY ARRIVES. 26 1

Two days passed in completing these defences
under the eye of the governor. Men were flock-
ing in from the parishes far and near ; and on the
evening of the fifteenth about twenty-seven hun-
dred, regulars and militia, were gathered within the
fortifications, besides the armed peasantry of Beau-
port and Beaupre, who were ordered to watch the
river below the town, and resist the English, should
they attempt to land.1 At length, before dawn on
the morning of the sixteenth, the sentinels on the
Saut au Matelot could descry the slowly moving
lights of distant vessels. At daybreak the fleet
was in sight. Sail after sail passed the Point of
Orleans and glided into the Basin of Quebec. The
excited spectators on the rock counted thirty-four
of them. Four were large ships, several others
wTere of considerable size, and the rest were brigs,
schooners, and fishing craft, all thronged with
men.

commanded the town, was not fortified till three years later, nor were
any guns placed here during the English attack.

1 Diary of S yl 'vanus Davis, prisoner in Quebec, in Mass. Hist. Coll.
8, I. 101. There is a difference of ten days in the French and English
dates, the New Style having been adopted by the former and not by the
latter.

CHAPTER XIII.

1690.

DEFENCE OF QUEBEC.

Phips ox the St. Lawrence. — Phips at Quebec. — A Flag of
Truce. — Scene at the Chateau. — The Summons and the An-
swer.— Plan of Attack. — Landing op the English. — The
Cannonade. — The Ships repulsed. — The Land Attack. —
Retreat of Phips. — Condition of Quebec. — Rejoicings of
the French. — Distress at Boston.

The delay at Boston, waiting aid from England
that never came, was not propitious to Phips ;
nor were the wind and the waves. The voyage to
the St. Lawrence was a long one ; and when he
began, without a pilot, to grope his way up the
unknown river, the weather seemed in league
with his enemies. He appears, moreover, to have
wasted time. What was most vital to his success
was rapidity of movement; yet, whether by his
fault or his misfortune, he remained three weeks
within three clays' sail of Quebec.1 While an-
chored off Tacloussac, with the wind ahead, he
passed the idle hours in holding councils of war
and framing rules for the government of his men ;
and, when at length the wind veered to the east, it
is doubtful if he made the best use of his oppor-
tunity.2

1 Journal of Major Walley, in Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., I. 470.

2 " lis ne profiterent pas du vent favorable pour nous surprendre
couime ils auroient pu faire." Juchereau, 320.

1690.] PHIPS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. 2G3

He presently captured a small vessel, commanded
by Granville, an officer whom Prevost had sent to
watch his movements. He had already captured,
near Tadoussac, another vessel, having on board
Madame Lalande and Madame Joliet, the wife and
the mother-in-law of the discoverer of the Missis-
sippi.1 When questioned as to the condition of"
Quebec, they told him that it was imperfectly forti-
fied, that its cannon were dismounted, and that it
had not two hundred men to defend it. Phips was
greatly elated, thinking that, like Port Royal, the
capital of Canada would fall without a blow. The
statement of the two prisoners was true, for the
most part, when it was made ; but the energy of
Prevost soon wrought a change.

Phips imagined that the Canadians would offer
little resistance to the Puritan invasion ; for some
of the Acadians had felt the influence of their New
England neighbors, and shown an inclination to
them. It was far otherwise in Canada, where
the English heretics were regarded with abhor-
rence. Whenever the invaders tried to land at the
settlements along the shore, they were met by a
rebuff. At the river Ouelle, Francheville, the
cure put on a cap and capote, took a musket, led
his parishioners to the river, and hid with them in
the bushes. As the English boats approached their
ambuscade, they gave the foremost a volley, which
killed nearly every man on board ; upon which
the rest sheared off. It was the same when the

1 " Les Demoiselles Lalande et Joliet." The title of madame was at
this time restricted to married women of rank. The wives of the bour-
geois, and even of the lesser nobles, were called demoiselles.

264 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1G90.

fleet neared Quebec. Bands of militia, vigilant,
agile, and well commanded, followed it along the
shore, and repelled with showers of bullets every
attempt of the enemy to touch Canadian soil.

When, after his protracted voyage, Phips sailed
into the Basin of Quebec, one of the grandest
scenes on the western continent opened upon his
sight : the wide expanse of waters, the lofty prom-
ontory beyond, and the opposing heights of Levi ;
the cataract of Montmorenci, the distant range
of the Laurentian Mountains, the warlike rock
with its diadem of Avails and towers, the roofs of
the Lower Town clustering on the strand beneath,
the Chateau St. Louis perched at the brink of the
cliff, and over it the white banner, spangled with
fleurs-de-lis, flaunting defiance in the clear autumnal
air. Perhaps, as he gazed, a suspicion seized him
that the task he had undertaken was less easy
than he had thought ; but he had conquered once
by a simple summons to surrender, and he resolved
to try its virtue again.

The fleet anchored a little below Quebec ; and
towards ten o'clock the French saw a boat put out
from the admiral's ship, bearing a flag of truce.
Four canoes went from the Lower Town, and met
it midway. It brought a subaltern officer, who
announced himself as the bearer of a letter from
Sir William Phips to the French commander. He
was taken into one of the canoes and paddled to
the quay, after being completely blindfolded by a
bandage which covered half his face. Prevost re-
ceived him as he landed, and ordered two sergeants

1690.] A FLAG OF TRUCE. 265

to take him by the arms and lead him to the
governor. His progress was neither rapid nor
direct. They drew him hither and thither, delight-
ing to make him clamber in the dark over every
possible obstruction ; while a noisy crowd hustled
him, and laughing women called him Colin Mail-
lard, the name of the chief player in blindman's
buff.1 Amid a prodigious hubbub, intended to
bewilder him and impress him with a sense of im-
mense warlike preparation, they dragged him over
the three barricades of Mountain Street, and
brought him at last into a large room of the
chateau. Here they took the bandage from his
eyes. He stood for a moment with an air of
astonishment and some confusion. The governor
stood before him, haughty and stern, surrounded by
French and Canadian officers, Maricourt, Sainte-
Helene, Longueuil, Villebon, Valrenne, Bienville,
and many more, bedecked with gold lace and
silver lace, perukes and powTder, plumes and rib-
bons, and all the martial foppery in which they
took delight, and regarding the envoy Avith keen,
defiant eyes.2 After a moment, he recovered his
breath and his composure, saluted Frontenac, and,
expressing a wish that the duty assigned him had
been of a more agreeable nature, handed him the
letter of Phips. Frontenac gave it to an inter-
preter, who read it aloud in French that all might
hear. It ran thus : —

1 Juchereau, 323.

2 " Tons oes Officiers s'etoient habilles le plus proprement qu'ils purent,
les galons d'or et d'argent, les rubans, les plumets, la poudre, et la
frisure, rien ne manquoit," etc. Ibid.

266 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1600

" Sir William Phips, Knight, General and Commander-in-chief in and over
their Majesties* Forces of New England, by Sea and Land, to Count
Frontenac, Lieutenant- General and Governour for the French King at
Canada ; or, in his absence, to his Deputy, or him or them in chief com~
mnnd at Quebeck :

" The war between the crowns of England and France doth
not only sufficiently warrant, but the destruction made by the
French and Indians, under your command and encouragement,
upon the persons and estates of their Majesties' subjects of New
England, without provocation on their part, hath put them
under the necessity of this expedition for their own security and
satisfaction. And although the cruelties and barbarities used
against them by the French and Indians might, upon the present
opportunity, prompt unto a severe revenge, yet, being desirous
to avoid all inhumane and unchristian-like actions, and to pre-
vent shedding of blood as much as may be,

" I, the aforesaid William Phips, Knight, do hereby, in the
name and in the behalf of their most excellent Majesties, Wil-
liam and Mary, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France,
and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, and by order of their said
Majesties' government of the Massachuset-colony in New Eng-
land, demand a present surrender of your forts and castles,
undemolished, and the King's and other stores, unimbezzled,
with a seasonable delivery of all captives ; together with a sur-
render of all your persons and estates to my dispose : upon the
doing whereof, you may expect mercy from me, as a Christian,
according to what shall be found for their Majesties' service
and the subjects' security. Which, if you refuse forthwith to
do, I am come provided, and am resolved, by the help of God,
in whom I trust, by force of arms to revenge all wrongs and
injuries offered, and bring you under subjection to the Crown
of England, and, when too late, make you wrish you had ac-
cepted of the favour tendered.

" Your answer positive in an hour, returned by your own
trumpet, with the return of mine, is required upon the peril
that will ensue." 1

1 See the Letter in Mather, Magnolia, I. 186. The French kept a
copy of it, which, with an accurate translation, in parallel columns, was
sent to Versailles, and is still preserved in the Archives de la Marine.
The text answers perfectly to that given by Mather.

1690.] REPLY OF FRONTENAC. 267

When the reading was finished, the Englishman
pulled his watch from his pocket, and handed it to
the governor. Frontenac could not, or pretended
that he could not, see the hour. The messenger
thereupon told him that it was ten o'clock, and
that he must have his answer before eleven. A
general cry of indignation arose ; and Valrenne
called out that Phips was nothing but a pirate, and
that his man ought to be hanged. Frontenac con-
tained himself for a moment, and then said to the
envoy : —

" I will not keep you waiting so long. Tell
your general that I clo not recognize King William ;
and that the Prince of Orange, who so styles him-
self, is a usurper, who has violated the most sacred
laws of blood in attempting to dethrone his father-
in-law. I know no king of England but King
James. Your general ought not to be surprised
at the hostilities which he says that the French
have carried on in the colony of Massachusetts ;
for, as the king my master has taken the king of
England under his protection, and is about to re-
place him on his throne by force of arms, he might
have expected that his Majesty would order me to
make war on a people who have rebelled against
their lawful prince." Then, turning with a smile
to the officers about him : " Even if your general
offered me conditions a little more gracious, and if
I had a mind to accept them, does he suppose that
these brave gentlemen would give their consent,
and advise me to trust a man who broke his agree-
ment with the governor of Port Royal, or a rebel

268 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1690.

who has failed in his duty to his king, and forgot-
ten all the favors he had received from him, to
follow a prince who pretends to be the liberator of
England and the defender of the faith, and yet
destroys the laws and privileges of the kingdom
and overthrows its religion ? The divine justice
which your general invokes in his letter will not
fail to punish such acts severely."

The messenger seemed astonished and startled ;
but he presently asked if the governor would give
him his answer in writing.

" No," returned Frontenac, " I will answer your
general only by the mouths of my cannon, that he
may learn that a man like me is not to be sum-
moned after this fashion. Let him do his best, and
I will do mine ; " and he dismissed the Englishman
abruptly. He was again blindfolded, led over the
barricades, and sent back to the fleet by the boat
that brought him.1

Phips had often given proof of personal courage,
but for the past three weeks his conduct seems that
of a man conscious that he is charged with a work
too large for his capacity. He had spent a good
part of his time in holding councils of war; and
now, when he heard the answer of Frontenac, he
called another to consider what should be clone. A
plan of attack was at length arranged. The mili-
tia were to be landed on the shore of Beauport,
which was just below Quebec, though separated

1 Lettre de Sir William Phips a M. de Frontenac, avec sa Re'ponse ver-
bal e ; Relation de re cjui s'est passtf a la Dcsrente des Ancjlois a Quebec au mois
d'Octobre, 1600. Compare Monseignat, Relation. The English accounts,
though more brief, confirm those of the French.

1690.] PLAN OF ATTACK. 269

from it by the St. Charles. They were then to
cross this river by a ford practicable at low water,
climb the heights of St. Genevieve, and gain the
rear of the town. The small vessels of the fleet
were to aid the movement by ascending the St.
Charles as far as the ford, holding the enemy in
check by their lire, and carrying provisions, ammu-
nition, and intrenching tools, for the use of the
land troops. When these had crossed and were
ready to attack Quebec in the rear, Phips was to
cannonade it in front, and land two hundred men
under cover of his guns to effect a diversion by
storming the barricades. Some of the French pris-
oners, from whom their captors appear to have
received a great deal of correct information, told
the admiral that there was a place a mile or two
above the town where the heights might be scaled
and the rear of the fortifications reached from a
direction opposite to that proposed. This was pre-
cisely the movement by which Wolfe afterwards
gained his memorable victory ; but Phips chose to
abide by the original plan.1

While the plan was debated, the opportunity for
accomplishing it ebbed away. It was still early
when the messenger returned from Quebec ; but,
before Phips was ready to act, the day was on the
wane and the tide was against him. He lay quietly
at his moorings when, in the evening, a great shout-
ing, mingled with the roll of drums and the sound
of fifes, was heard from the Upper Town. The

1 Journal of Major Wallet/; Savage, Account of the Late Action of the
New Englanders (Lond. 1691).

270 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1690.

English officers asked their prisoner, Granville,
what it meant. " Ma foi, Messieurs," he replied,
" you have lost the game. It is the governor of
Montreal with the people from the country above.
There is nothing for you now but to pack and go
home." In fact, Callieres had arrived with seven
or eight hundred men, many of them regulars.
With these were bands of coareurs cle bois and other
young Canadians, all full of fight, singing and
whooping with martial glee as they passed the
western gate and trooped down St. Louis Street.1

The next clay was gusty and blustering ; and still
Phips lay quiet, waiting on the winds and the waves.
A small vessel, with sixty men on board, under Cap-
tain Ephraim Savage, ran in towards the shore of
Beauport to examine the landing, and stuck fast in
the much The Canadians plied her with bullets,
and brought a cannon to bear on her. They might
have wadecl out and boarded her, but Savage and
his men kept up so hot a fire that they forbore
the attempt; and, when the tide rose, she floated
again.

There was another night of tranquillity ; but at
about eleven on Wednesday morning the French
heard the English fifes and drums in full action,
while repeated shouts of " God save King William ! "
rose from all the vessels. This lasted an hour or
more ; after which a great number of boats, loaded
with men, put out from the fleet and rowed rapidly
towards the shore of Beauport. The tide was low,
and the boats grounded before reaching the land-

1 Juchereau, 325, 326.

1690.] SKIRMISHING. 271

ing-place. The French on the rock could see the
troops through telescopes, looking in the distance
like a swarm of black ants, as they waded through
mud and water, and formed in companies along the
strand. They were some thirteen hundred in num-
ber, and were commanded by Major Walley.1 Fron-
tenac had sent three hundred sharpshooters, under
Sainte-Helene, to meet them and hold them in
check. A battalion of troops followed; but, long
before they could reach the spot, Sainte-Helene's
men, with a few militia from the neighboring par-
ishes, and a band of Huron warriors from Lorette,
threw themselves into the thickets along the front
of the English, and opened a distant but galling
fire upon the compact bodies of the enemy. Wal-
ley ordered a charge. The New England men
rushed, in a disorderly manner, but with great im-
petuosity, up the rising ground ; received two vol-
leys, which failed to check them ; and drove back
the assailants in some confusion. They turned,
however, and fought in Indian fashion with courage
and address, leaping and dodging among trees,
rocks, and bushes, firing as they retreated, and
inflicting more harm than they received. Towards
evening they disappeared ; and Walley, whose men
had been much scattered in the desultory fight,
drew them together as well as he could, and advanced
towards the St. Charles, in order to meet the ves-
sels which were to aid him in passing the ford.

1 " Between 12 and 1,300 men." Walley, Journal. " About 1,200 men."
Savage, Account of the Late Action. Savage was second in command of
the militia. Mather says, 1,400. Most of the French accounts say, 1,500.
Some say, 2,000 ; and La Hontan raises the number to 3,000.

272 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1000.

Here lie posted sentinels, and encamped for the
night. He had lost four killed and about sixty
wounded, and imagined that he had killed twenty
or thirty of the enemy. In fact, however, their
loss was much less, though among the killed was
a valuable officer, the Chevalier de Clermont, and
among the wounded the veteran captain of Beau-
port, Juchereau de Saint-Denis, more than sixty-
four years of age. In the evening, a deserter came
to the English camp, and brought the unwelcome
intelligence that there were three thousand armed
men in Quebec.1

Meanwhile, Phips, whose fault hitherto had not
been an excess of promptitude, grew impatient, and
made a premature movement inconsistent with the
preconcerted plan. He left his moorings, anchored
his largest ships before the town, and prepared to
cannonade it; but the fiery veteran, who watched
him from the Chateau St. Louis, anticipated him,
and gave him the first shot. Phips replied furi-
ously, opening fire with every gun that he could
bring to bear ; while the rock paid him back in kind,

1 On this affair, Walley, Journal; Savage, Account of the Late Action
(in a letter to his brother) ; Monseignat, Relation ; Relation de la Descente
des Anghis; Relation de 1682-1712; La Hontan, I. 213. "M. le comte
de Frontenac se trouva avee 3,000 hommes." Belmont, Histoire du Canada,
a.d. 1690. The prisoner Captain Sylvanus Davis, in his diary, says, as
already mentioned, that on the day before Phips's arrival so many reg-
ulars and militia arrived that, with those who came with Frontenac,
there were about 2,700. This was before the arrival of Callieres, who,
according to Davis, brought but 300. Thus the three accounts of the
deserter, Belmont, and Davis, tally exactly as to the sum total.

An enemy of Frontenac writes, " Ce n'est pas sa presence qui fit
prendre la fuite aux Anglois, mais le grand nombre de Francois aux-
quels ils virent bien que eeluy de leurs guerriers n'etoit pas capable de
faire tete." Re marques sur VOraison Funebre de feu M. de Frontenac.

1690.] THE CANNONADE. 273

and belched flame and smoke from all its batteries.
So fierce and rapid was the firing, that La Hon-
tan compares it to volleys of musketry ; and old
officers, who had seen many sieges, declared that
they had never known the like.1 The din was pro-
digious, reverberated from the surrounding heights,
and rolled back from the distant mountains in one
continuous roar. On the part of the English, how-
ever, surprisingly little was accomplished beside
noise and smoke. The practice of their gunners
was so bad that many of their shot struck harm-
lessly against the face of the cliff. Their guns,
too, were very light, and appear to have been
charged with a view to the most rigid economy of
gunpowder ; for the balls failed to pierce the stone
walls of the buildings, and did so little damage that,
as the French boasted, twenty crowns would have
repaired it all.2 Night came at length, and the
turmoil ceased.

Phips lay quiet till daybreak, when Frontenac
sent a shot to waken him, and the cannonade began
again. Sainte-Helene had returned from Beauport ;
and he, with his brother Maricourt, took charge
of the two batteries of the Lower Town, aiming the
guns in person, and throwing balls of eighteen and
twenty-four pounds with excellent precision against
the four largest ships of the fleet. One of their
shots cut the flagstaff of the admiral, and the cross
of St. George fell into the river. It drifted with
the tide towards the north shore ; whereupon sev-

1 La Hontan, I. 216; Juchereau, 320.

2 Fere Germain, Relation cle la Defaite des Anglois.

18

274 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1690.

eral Canadians padclled out in a birch canoe, secured
it, and brought it back in triumph. On the spire
of the cathedral in the Upper Town had been hung
a picture of the Holy Family, as an invocation of
divine aid. The Puritan gunners wasted their am-
munition in vain attempts to knock it down. That
it escaped their malice was ascribed to miracle, but
the miracle would have been greater if they had
hit it.

At length, one of the ships, which had suffered
most, hauled off and abandoned the fight. That of
the admiral had fared little better, and now her
condition grew desperate. With her rigging torn,
her mainmast half cut through, her mizzen-mast
splintered, her cabin pierced, and her hull riddled
with shot, another volley seemed likely to sink her,
when Phips ordered her to be cut loose from her
moorings, and she drifted out of fire, leaving cable
and anchor behind. The remaining ships soon
£ave over the conflict, and withdrew to stations
where they could neither clo harm nor suffer it.1

Phips had thrown away nearly all his ammuni-
tion in this futile and disastrous attack, which should
have been deferred till the moment when Walley,
with his land force, had gained the rear of the
town. Walley lay in his camp, his men wet, shiver-
ing with cold, famished, and sickening with the
small-pox. Food, and all other supplies, were to
have been brought him by the small vessels, which

1 Besides authorities before cited, Le Clercq, Etablissement de la
Fon, 11. 434; La Potherie, III. 118; Rapport de Champigny, Oct., 1690;
Laval, Lettre a . 20 Nov., 1600.

1690.] THE LAND ATTACK. 275

should have entered the mouth of the St. Charles
and aided him to cross it. But he waited for them
in vain. Every vessel that carried a gun had busied
itself in cannonading, and the rest did not move.
There appears to have been insubordination among
the masters of these small craft, some of whom, be-
ing owners or part-owners of the vessels they com-
manded, were probably unwilling to run them into
clanger. Walley was no soldier ; but he saw that to
attempt the passage of the river without aid, under
the batteries of the town and in the face of forces
twice as numerous as his own, was not an easy task.
Frontenac, on his part, says that he wished him to
do so, knowing that the attempt would ruin him.1
The New England men were eager to push on ;
but the night of Thursday, the day of Phips's re-
pulse, was so cold that ice formed more than an
inch in thickness, and the half-starved militia suf-
fered intensely. Six field-pieces, with their ammu-
nition, had been sent ashore ; but they were nearly
useless, as there were no means of moving them.
Half a barrel of musket powder, and one biscuit for
each man, were also landed ; and with this meagre
aid Walley was left to capture Quebec. He might,
had he dared,- have made a dash across the ford on
the morning of Thursday, and assaulted the town
in the rear while Phips was cannonading it in front ;
but his courage was not equal to so desperate a
venture. The firing ceased, and the possible op-
portunity was lost. The citizen soldier despaired
of success ; and, on the morning of Friday, he went

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 12 et 19 Nov., 1690.

276 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1690.

on board the admiral's ship to explain his situation.
While he was gone, his men put themselves in motion,
and advanced along the borders of the St. Charles
towards the ford. Frontenac, with three battalions
of regular troops, went to receive them at the cross-
ing ; while Sainte-Helene, with his brother Lon-
gueuil, passed the ford with a body of Canadians, and
opened fire on them from the neighboring thickets.
Their advance parties were driven in, and there
wras a hot skirmish, the chief loss falling on the New
England men, who were fully exposed. On the
side of the French, Sainte-Helene was mortally
wounded, and his brother was hurt by a spent ball.
Towards evening, the Canadians withdrew, and the
English encamped for the night. Their com-
mander presently rejoined them. The admiral
had given him leave to withdraw them to the fleet,
and boats were accordingly sent to bring them off ;
but, as these did not arrive till about daybreak, it
was necessary to defer the embarkation till the
next night.

At dawn, Quebec was all astir with the beating
of drums and the ringing of bells. The New Eng-
land drums replied ; and Walley drew up his men
under arms, expecting an attack, for the town
was so near that the hubbub of voices from within
could plainly be heard. The noise gradually died
away ; and, except a few shots from the ramparts,
the invaders were left undisturbed. Walley sent
two or three companies to beat up the neighboring
thickets, where he suspected that the enemy was
lurking. On the way, they had the good luck to

1690.] THE ENGLISH DISCOMFITED. 277

find and kill a number of cattle, which they cooked
and ate on the spot ; whereupon, being greatly
refreshed and invigorated, they clashed forward in
complete disorder, and were soon met by the fire
of the ambushed Canadians. Several more com-
panies were sent to their support, and the skirmish-
ing became lively. Three detachments from Quebec
had crossed the river ; and the militia of Beauport
and Beaupre had hastened to join them. They
fought like Indians, hiding behind trees or throw-
ing themselves flat among the bushes, and laying
repeated ambuscades as they slowly fell back. At
length, they all made a stand on a hill behind the
buildings and fences of a farm ; and here they held
their ground till night, while the New England
men taunted them as cowards who would never
fight except under cover.1

Walley, who with his main body had stood in
arms all day, now called in the skirmishers, and
fell back to the landing-place, where, as soon as it
grew dark, the boats arrived from the fleet. The
sick men, of whom there were many, were sent on
board, and then, amid floods of rain, the whole
force embarked in noisy confusion, leaving behind
them in the mud five of their cannon. Hasty as
was their parting, their conduct on the whole had
been creditable ; and La Hontan, who was in Quebec
at the time, says of them, " They fought vigor-
ously, though as ill-disciplined as men gathered
together at random could be ; for they did not
lack courage, and, if they failed, it was by reason

1 Relation de la Descente des Anglois.

278 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1690.

of their entire ignorance of discipline, and be-
cause they were exhausted by the fatigues of the
voyage." Of Phips he speaks with contempt, and
says that he could not have served the French
better if they had bribed him to stand all the while
with his arms folded. Some allowance should,
nevertheless, be made him for the unmanageable
character of the force under his command, the
constitution of which was fatal to military sub-
ordination.

On Sunday, the morning after the re-embarka-
tion, Phips called a council of officers, and it was
resolved that the men should rest for a clay or two,
that there should be a meeting for prayer, and that,
if ammunition enough could be found, another land-
ing should be attempted ; but the rough weather
£>revented the prayer- meeting, and the plan of a
new attack was fortunately abandoned.

Quebec remained in agitation and alarm till
Tuesday, when Phips weighed anchor and disap-
peared, with all his fleet, behind the Island of
Orleans. He did not go far, as indeed he could
not, but stopped four leagues below to mend rig-
ging, fortify wounded masts, and stop shot-holes.
Subercase had gone with a detachment to watch
the retiring enemy ; and Phips was repeatedly
seen among his men, on a scaffold at the side of
his ship, exercising his old trade of carpenter.
This delay was turned to good use by an exchange
of prisoners. Chief among those in the hands of
the French was Captain Davis, late commander at
Casco Bay ; and there were also two young claugh-

1690.] CONDITION OF QUEBEC. 279

ters of Lieutenant Clark, who had been killed at
the same place. Frontenac himself had humanely
ransomed these children from the Indians ; and
Madame de Champigny, wife of the intendant,
had, with equal kindness, bought from them a
little girl named Sarah Gerrish, and placed her
in charge of the nuns at the Hotel-Dieu, who had
become greatly attached to her, while she, on her
part, left them with reluctance. The French had
the better in these exchanges, receiving able-
bodied men, and returning, with the exception of
Davis, only women and children.

The heretics were gone, and Quebec breathed
freely again. Her escape had been a narrow one ;
not that three thousand men, in part regular troops,
defending one of the strongest positions on the
continent, and commanded by Frontenac, could
not defy the attacks of two thousand raw fishermen
and farmers, led by an ignorant civilian, but the
numbers which were a source of strength were at
the same time a source of weakness.1 Nearly all
the adult males of Canada were gathered at Quebec,
and there was imminent danger of starvation.
Cattle from the neighboring parishes had been
hastily driven into the town ; but there was little
other provision, and before Phips retreated the
pinch of famine had begun. Had he come a week
earlier or stayed a week later, the French them-

1 The small-pox had left probably less than 2,000 effective men in
the fleet when it arrived before Quebec. The number of regular troops
in Canada by the roll of 1689 was 1.418. Nothing had since occurred to
greatly diminish the number. Callieres left about fifty in Montreal, and
perhaps also a few in the neighboring forts. The rest were in Quebec.

280 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1690.

selves believed that Quebec would have fallen, in
the one case for want of men, and in the other for
want of food.

The Lower Town had been abandoned by its
inhabitants, who bestowed their families and their
furniture within the solid walls of the seminary.
The cellars of the Ursuline convent were filled with
women and children, and many more took refuge
at the Hotel-Dieu. The beans and cabbages in the
garden of the nuns were all stolen by the soldiers ;
and their wood-pile was turned into bivouac fires.
" We were more dead than alive when we heard
the cannon," writes Mother Juchereau ; but the Jes-
uit Fremin came to console them, and their prayers
and their labors never ceased. On the day when
the firing was heaviest, twenty-six balls fell into
their }~ard and garden, and were sent to the gun-
ners at the batteries, who returned them to their
English owners. At the convent of the Ursulines,
the corner of a nun's apron was carried off by a
cannon-shot as she passed through her chamber.
The sisterhood began a novena, or nine days' devo-
tion, to St. Joseph, St. Ann, the angels, and the
souls in purgatory ; and one of their number re-
mained clay and night in prayer before the images
of the Holy Family. The bishop came to encour-
age them ; and his prayers and his chants were so
fervent that they thought their last hour was
come.1

The superior of the Jesuits, with some of the
elder members of the Order, remained at their col-

1 Eecil d'une Rdigieuse Ursuline, in Les Ursulines de Quebec, I. 470

1690.] ALARM OF THE FRENCH. 281

lege during the attack, ready, should the heretics
prevail, to repair to their chapel, and die before
the altar. Rumor exasperated the numbers of the
enemy, and a general alarm pervaded the town.
It was still greater at Lorette, nine miles distant.
The warriors of that mission were in the first skir-
mish at Beauport ; and two of them, running off in a
fright, reported at the village that the enemy were
carrying every thing before them. On this, the
villagers fled to the woods, followed by Father Ger-
main, their missionary, to whom this hasty exodus
suggested the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt.1
The Jesuits were thought to have special reason
to fear the Puritan soldiery, who, it was reported,
meant to kill them all, after cutting off their ears
to make necklaces.2

When news first came of the approach of Phips,
the bishop wras absent on a pastoral tour. Hasten-
ing back, he entered Quebec at night, by torch-
light, to the great joy of its inmates, who felt that
his presence brought a benediction. He issued a
pastoral address, exhorting his flock to frequent
and full confession and constant attendance at mass,
as the means of insuring the success of their arms.3
Laval, the former bishop, aided his efforts. " We
appealed," he writes, " to God, his Holy Mother,
to all the Angels, and to all the Saints." 4 Nor was

1 " II nous ressouvint alors de la fuite de Xostre Seigneur en Egypte."
Pere Germain, Relation.

2 Ibid.

8 Lettre pastorale pour disposer les Peuples de ce Diocese a se bien deffendre
contre les Angluis (Reg. de l'Eveche de Quebec).
* Laval a , Nov. 20, 1690.

282 DEFE^XE OF QUEBEC. [1690.

the appeal in vain : for each day seemed to bring
some new token of celestial favor ; and it is not
surprising that the head-winds which delayed the
approach of the enemy, the cold and the storms
which hastened his departure, and, above all. his
singularly innocent cannonade, which killed but
two or three persons, should have been accepted
as proof of divine intervention. It was to the Holy
Virgin that Quebec had been most lavish of its
vows, and to her the victory was ascribed.

One great anxiety still troubled the minds of the
victors. Three ships, bringing large sums of money
and the yearly supplies for the colony, were on
their way to Quebec ; and nothing was more likely
than that the retiring fleet would meet and capture
them. Messengers had been sent down the river,
who passed the English in the dark, found the
ships at St. Paul's Bay, and warned them of the
danger. They turned back, and hid themselves
within the mouth of the Sapmenay ; but not soon
enough to prevent Phips from discovering their
retreat. He tried to follow them ; but thick fogs
arose, with a persistent tempest of snow, which
completely baffled him, and, after waiting five
days, he gave over the attempt. When he was
gone, the three ships emerged from their hiding-
place, and sailed again for Quebec, where they
were greeted with a universal jubilee. Their de-
liverance was ascribed to Saint Ann, the mother of
the Virgin, and also to St. Francis Xavier, whose
name one of them bore.

Quebec was divided between thanksgiving and

1690.] EEJOICIXGS AT QUEBEC. 283

rejoicing. The captured flag of Phips's ship was
borne to the cathedral in triumph ; the bishop
sang Te Deum ; and, amid the firing of cannon,
the image of the Virgin was carried to each church
and chapel in the place by a procession, in which
priests, people, and troops all took part. The day
closed with a grand bonfire in honor of Fron-
tenac.

One of the three ships carried back the news of
the victory, which was hailed with joy at Ver-
sailles ; and a medal was struck to commemorate
it. The ship carried also a despatch from Fron-
tenac. " Now that the king has triumphed by
land and sea," wrote the old soldier, " will he
think that a few squadrons of his navy would be
ill employed in punishing the insolence of these
genuine old parliamentarians of Boston, and crush-
ing them in their den and the English of New York
as well ? By mastering these two towns, we shall
secure the whole sea-coast, besides the fisheries of
the Grand Bank, which is no slight matter : and
this would be the true, and perhaps the only, way
of bringing the wars of Canada to an end ; for,
when the English are conquered, we can easily re-
duce the Iroquois to complete submission." l

Phips returned crestfallen to Boston late in
November ; and one by one the rest of the fleet
came straggling after him, battered and weather-
beaten. Some did not appear till February, and
three or four never came at all. The autumn and
early winter were unusually stormy. Captain
Rainsford, with sixty men, was wrecked on the

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 9 et 12 Nov., 1690.

284 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1690.

Island of Anticosti, where more than half their
number died of cold and misery.1 In the other
vessels, some were drowned, some frost-bitten, and
above two hundred killed by small-pox and fever.
At Boston, all was dismay and gloom. The
Puritan bowed before " this awful frown of God,"
and searched his conscience for the sin that had
brought upon him so stern a chastisement.2 Mas-
sachusetts, already impoverished, found herself in
extremity. The war, instead of paying for itself,
had burdened her with an additional debt of fifty
thousand pounds.3 The sailors and soldiers were
clamorous for their pay ; and, to satisfy them, the
colony was forced for the first time in its history to
issue a paper currency. It was made receivable at
a premium for all public debts, and was also forti-
fied by a provision for its early redemption by
taxation ; a provision which was carried into effect
in spite of poverty and distress.4

1 Mather, Magnolia, I. 192.

2 The Governor and Council to the Agents of Massachusetts, in Andros
Tracts, III. 53.

3 Address of the Gentry, Merchants, and others, Ibid., II. 236.

4 The following is a literal copy of a specimen of this paper money,
which varied in value from two shillings to ten pounds : —

No. (2161) 10*
This Indented Bill of Ten Shillings, due from the Massachusetts
Colony to the Possessor, shall be in value equal to Money, and shall be
accordingly accepted by the Treasurer and Receivers subordinate to
him in all Publick Payments, and for any Stock at any time in the
Treasury Boston in New England, December the 10'.h 1690. By Order
of the General Court.

Seal of
Massachu-
setts.

Peter Townsexd ~\
Adam Winthrop > Com'"
Tim. Thornton )

When this paper came into the hands of the treasurer, it was burned.
Nevertheless, owing to the temporary character of the provisional gov-

1690.] MISTAKE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 285

Massachusetts had made her usual mistake. She
had confidently believed that ignorance and inex-
perience could match the skill of a tried veteran, and
that the rude courage of her fishermen and farmers
could triumph without discipline or leadership.
The conditions of her material prosperity were
adverse to efficiency in war. A trading republic,
without trained officers, may win victories ; but it
wins them either by accident or by an extravagant
outlay in money and life.

ernment, it fell for a time to the value of from fourteen to sixteen
shillings in the pound.

In the Bibliotheque Nationale is the original draft of a remarkable
map, by the engineer Villeneuve, of which a facsimile is before me. It
represents in detail the town and fortifications of Quebec, the surround-
ing country, and the positions of the English fleet and land forces, and
is entitled PLAN DE QUEBEC, et de ses Enuirons, EN LA NOU-
VELLE FRANCE, ASSIEGE PAR LPS ANGLOIS, h 16 cTOc-
tobre 1690 jusqu'au 22 dud. mois qu'ils s'en afferent, appres auoir este bien
battus PAR Mr. LE COMTE DE FRONTENAC, gouuemeur general
da Pays.

CHAPTER XIV.

1690-1694.
THE SCOURGE OF CANADA.

Iroquois Inroads. — Death op Bienville. — English Attack. —
A Desperate Fight. — Miseries op the Colony. — Alarms. —
A Winter Expedition. — La Chesnate burned. — The Heroine
of Vercheres. — Mission Indians. — The Mohawk Expedition.
— Retreat and Pursuit. — Relief arrives. — Frontenac Tri-
umphant.

One of Phips's officers, charged with the exchange
of prisoners at Quebec, said as he took his leave,
" We shall make you another visit in the spring ; "
and a French officer returned, with martial courtesy,
" We shall have the honor of meeting you before
that time." Neither side made good its threat, for
both wrere too weak and too poor. No more war-
parties were sent that winter to ravage the English
border ; for neither blankets, clothing, ammunition,
nor food could be spared. The fields had lain un-
tilled over half Canada ; and, though four ships had
arrived with supplies, twice as many had been cap-
tured or driven back by English cruisers in the
Gulf. The troops could not be kept together ; and
they were quartered for subsistence upon the set-
tlers, themselves half famished.

Spring came at length, and brought with it the

1691.] IROQUOIS INROADS. 287

swallows, the bluebirds, and the Iroquois. They
rarely came in winter, when the trees and bushes
had no leaves to hide them, and their movements
were betrayed by the track of their snow-shoes ;
but they were always to be expected at the time
of sowing and of harvest, when they could do
most mischief. During April, about eight hundred
of them, gathering from their winter hunting-
grounds, encamped at the mouth of the Ottawa,
whence they detached parties to ravage the settle-
ments. A large band fell upon Point aux Trembles,
below Montreal, burned some thirty houses, and
killed such of the inmates as could not escape. An-
other band attacked the Mission of the Mountain,
just behind the town, and captured thirty-five of
the Indian converts in broad daylight. Others
prowled among the deserted farms on both shores
of the St. Lawrence ; while the inhabitants remained
pent in their stockade forts, with misery in the
present and starvation in the future.

Troops and militia were not wanting. The dif-
ficulty was to find provisions enough to enable them
to keep the field. By begging from house to house,
getting here a biscuit and there a morsel of bacon,
enough was collected to supply a considerable party
for a number of clays ; and a hundred and twenty
soldiers and Canadians went out under Vaudreuil
to hunt the hunters of men. Long impunity had
made the Iroquois so careless that they were easily
found. A band of about forty had made their
quarters at a house near the fort at Eepentigny,
and here the French scouts discovered them early

288 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1691.

in the night. Vauclreuil and his men were in ca-
noes. They lay quiet till one o'clock, then landed,
and noiselessly approached the spot. Some of the
Iroquois were in the house, the rest lay asleep on
the ground before it. The French crept towards
them, and by one close volley killed them all.
Their comrades within sprang up in dismay. Three
rushed out, and were shot : the others stood on their
defence, fired from windows and loopholes, and
killed six or seven of the French, who presently
succeeded in setting fire to the house, which was
thatched with straw. Young Francois cle Bienville,
one of the sons of Charles Le Moyne, rushed up to
a window, shouted his name like an Indian warrior,
fired on the savages within, and was instantly shot
dead. The flames rose till surrounding objects
were bright as clay. The Iroquois, driven to des-
peration, burst out like tigers, and tried to break
through their assailants. Only one succeeded. Of
his companions, some were shot, five were knocked
down and captured, and the rest driven back into
the house, where they perished in the fire. Three
of the prisoners were given to the inhabitants of
Repentigny, Point aux Trembles, and Boucherville,
who, in their fury, burned them alive.1

For weeks, the upper parts of the colony were
infested by wolfish bands howling around the forts,
which they rarely ventured to attack. At length,
help came. A squadron from France, strong enough

1 Relation de Benac, 1691 ; Relation de ce qui s'est passe' de plus conside-
rableen Canada, 1690, 1691; La Potherie, III. 134; Relation de 1682-1712;
Champigny au Minis! re, 12 Mai/, 1691. The name of Bienville was taken,
after his death, by one of his brothers, the founder of New 'Orleans.

1691.1 IROQUOIS AND ENGLISH. 289

to beat off the New England privateers which block-
aded the St. Lawrence, arrived at Quebec with men
and supplies ; and a strong force was despatched
to break up the Iroquois camp at the Ottawa.
The enemy vanished at its approach ; and the suf-
fering farmers had a brief respite, which enabled
them to sow their crops, when suddenly a fresh
alarm was sounded from Sorel to Montreal, and
again the settlers ran to their forts for refuge.

Since the futile effort of the year before, the
English of New York, still distracted by the politi-
cal disorders that followed the usurpation of Leis-
ler, had fought only by deputy, and contented
themselves with hounding on the Iroquois against
the common enemy. These savage allies at length
lost patience, and charged their white neighbors
with laziness and fear. " You say to us, ' Keep the
French in perpetual alarm.' Why don't you say,
6 We will keep the French in perpetual alarm ' ? " *
It was clear that something must be done, or New
York would be left to fight her battles alone. A
war-party was therefore formed at Albany, and the
Indians were invited to join it. Major Peter Schuy-
ler took command ; and his force consisted of two
hundred and sixty-six men, of whom a hundred and
twenty were English and Dutch, and the rest Mo-
hawks and Wolves, or Mohegans.2 He advanced
to a point on the Eichelieu ten miles above Fort
Chambly, and, leaving his canoes under a strong
guard, marched towards La Prairie de la Madeleine,
opposite Montreal.

i Coklen, 125, 140.

2 Official Journal of Schuyler, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 800.
19

290 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1691.

Scouts had brought warning of his approach;
and Callieres, the local governor, crossed the St.
Lawrence, and encamped at La Prairie with seven
or eight hundred men.1 Here he remained for a
week, attacked by fever and helpless in bed. The
fort stood a few rods from the river. Two battal-
ions of regulars lay on a field at the right ; and the
Canadians and Indians were bivouacked on the left,
between the fort and a small stream, near which
was a windmill. On the evening of the tenth of
August, a drizzling rain began to fall ; and the Can-
adians thought more of seeking shelter than of
keeping watch. They were, moreover, well sup-
plied with brandy, and used it freely.2 At an hour
before dawn, the sentry at the mill descried objects
like the shadows of men silently advancing along
the borders of the stream. They were Schuyler's
vanguard. The soldier cried, " Qui vive ? " There
was no answer. He fired his musket, and ran into
the mill. Schuyler's men rushed in a body upon
the Canadian camp, drove its occupants into the
fort, and killed some of the Indian allies, who lay
under their canoes on the adjacent strand.

The regulars on the other side of the fort, roused
by the noise, sprang to arms and hastened to the
spot. They were met by a volley, which laid some
fifty of them on the ground, and drove back the
rest in disorder. They rallied and attacked again ;
on which, Schuyler, greatly outnumbered, withdrew
his men to a neighboring ravine, where he once

1 Relation de Btnac ; Relation de 1682-1712.

2 " La debauche f ut extreme en toute maniere." Belmont.

1691.] RETREAT OF SCHUYLER. 291

more repulsed his assailants, and, as lie declares,
drove them into the fort with great loss. By this
time it was daylight. The English, having struck
their blow, slowly fell back, hacking down the corn
in the fields, as it was still too green for burning,
and pausing at the edge of the woods, where their
Indians were heard for some time uttering fright-
ful howls, and shouting to the French that they
were not men, but clogs. Why the invaders were
left to retreat unmolested, before a force more than
double their own, does not appear. The helpless
condition of Callieres and the death of Saint-Cirque,
his second in command, scarcely suffice to explain
it. Schuyler retreated towards his canoes, moving,
at his leisure, along the forest path that led to
Chambly. Tried by the standard of partisan war,
his raid had been a success. He had inflicted great
harm and suffered little ; but the affair was not
yet ended.

A clay or two before, Valrenne, an officer of
birth and ability, had been sent to Chambly, with
about a hundred and sixty troops and Canadians, a
body of Huron and Iroquois converts, and a band
of Algonquins from the Ottawa. His orders were
to let the English pass, and then place himself
in their rear to cut them off from their canoes.
His scouts had discovered their advance ; and, on
the morning of the attack, he set his force in
motion, and advanced six or seven miles towards
La Prairie, on the path by which Schuyler was
retreating. The country was buried in forests.
At about nine o'clock, the scouts of the hostile

292 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1691

parties met eacli other, and their war-whoops gave
the alarm. Yalrenne instantly took possession of
a ridge of ground that crossed the way of the
approaching English. Two large trees had fallen
along the crest of the acclivity ; and behind these
the French crouched, in a triple row, well hidden
by bushes and thick standing trunks. The Eng-
lish, underrating the strength of their enemy, and
ignorant of his exact position, charged impetuously,
and were sent reeling back by a close and deadly
volley. They repeated the attack with still greater
fury, and dislodged the French from their ambus-
cade. Then ensued a fight, which Frontenac
declares to have been the most hot and stubborn
ever known in Canada. The object of Schuyler
was to break through the French and reach his
canoes : the object of Valrenne was to drive him
back upon the superior force at La Prairie. The
cautious tactics of the bush were forgotten. Three
times the combatants became mingled together,
firing breast to breast, and scorching each other's
shirts by the flash of their guns. The Algonquins
did themselves no credit ; and at first some of the
Canadians gave way, but they were rallied by Le
Ber Duchesne, their commander, and afterwards
showed great bravery. On the side of the English,
many of the Mohegan allies ran off ; but the whites
and the Mohawks fought with equal desperation.
In the midst of the tumult, Yalrenne was perfectly
cool, directing his men with admirable vigor and
address, and barring Schuyler's retreat for more
than an hour. At length, the French were driven

1691.

SUCCESS OF SCHUYLER. 293

from the path. " We broke through the middle
of their body," says Schuyler, " until we got into
their rear, trampling upon their dead ; then faced
about upon them, and fought them until we made
them give way ; then drove them, by strength of
arm, four hundred paces before us ; and, to say
the truth, we were all glad to see them retreat." ]
He and his followers continued their march un-
molested, carrying their wounded men, and leaving
about forty dead behind them, along with one of
their flags, and all their knapsacks, which they had
thrown off when the fray began. They reached
the banks of the Richelieu, found their canoes safe,
and, after waiting several hours for stragglers, em-
barked for Albany.

Nothing saved them from destruction but the
failure of the French at La Prairie to follow their
retreat, and thus enclose them between two fires.
They did so, it is true, at the eleventh hour, but not
till the fight was over and the English were gone.
The Christian Mohawks of the Saut also appeared
in the afternoon, and set out to pursue the enemy,
but seem to have taken care not to overtake them ;
for the English Mohawks were their relatives, and
they had no wish for their scalps. Frontenac was
angry at their conduct ; and, as he rarely lost an
opportunity to find fault with the Jesuits, he laid
the blame on the fathers in charge of the mission,
whom he sharply upbraided for the shortcomings
of their flock.2

1 Major Peter Schuyler's Journal of his Expedition to Canada, in N. Y.
Col. Docs., III. 800. " Les ennemis enfoncerent notre embuscade" Bel-
mont.

2 As this fight under Valrenne has been represented as a French

294 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1691.

He was at Three Eivers at a ball when news of
the disaster at La Prairie damped the spirits of
the company, which, however, were soon revived
by tidings of the fight under Valrenne and the
retreat of the English, who were reported to have
left two hundred dead on the field. Front enac
wrote an account of the affair to the minister, with
high praise of Valrenne and his band, followed by
an appeal for help. " What with fighting and
hardship, our troops and militia are wasting away."
" The enemy is upon us by sea and land." " Send
us a thousand men next spring, if you want the
colony to be saved." " We are perishing by inches ;
the people are in the depths of poverty ; the war
has doubled jDrices so that nobody can live." " Many
families are without bread. The inhabitants desert
the country, and crowd into the towns." ' A new
enemy appeared in the following summer, almost

victory against overwhelming odds, it may be well to observe the evi-
dence as to the numbers engaged. The French party consisted, accord-
ing to Benac, of 160 regulars and Canadians, besides Indians. La
Potherie places it at 180 men, and Frontenac at 200 men. These two
estimates do not include Indians ; for the author of the Relation of 1682-
1712, who was an officer on the spot at the time, puts the number at
300 soldiers, Canadians, and savages.

Schuyler's official return shows that his party consisted of 120 whites,
80 Mohawks, and 66 River Indians (Mohegans) : 266 in all. The French
writer Benac places the whole at 280, and the intendant Champigny at
300. The other French estimates of the English force are greatly exag-
gerated. Schuyler's strength was reduced by 27 men left to guard the
canoes, and by a number killed or disabled at La Prairie. The force
under Valrenne was additional to the 700 or 800 men at La Prairie
(Filiation, 1682-1712). Schuyler reported his loss in killed at 21 whites,
16 Mohawks, and 6 Mohegans, besides many wounded. The French
statements of it are enormously in excess of this, and are irreconcilable
with each other.

1 Lettres de Frontenac et de Champigny, 1691, 1692.

1691-92.] A RADICAL CURE. 295

as destructive as the Iroquois. This was an
army of caterpillars, which set at naught the
maledictions of the clergy, and made great havoc
among the crops. It is recorded that along
with the caterpillars came an unprecedented
multitude of squirrels, which, being industriously
trapped or shot, proved a great help to many
families.

Alarm followed alarm. It was reported that
Phips was bent on revenge for his late discomfiture,
that great armaments were afoot, and that a mighty
host of " Bostonnais " was preparing another de-
scent. A«;am and a^ain Frontenac beo-ored that
one bold blow should be struck to end these perils
and make King Louis master of the continent, by
despatching a fleet to seize New York. If this
were done, he said, it would be easy to take Boston
and the " rebels and old republican leaven of Crom-
well " who harbored there ; then burn the place,
and utterly destroy it.1 Villebon, governor of
Acadia, was of the same mind. " No town," he
told the minister, " could be burned more easily.
Most of the houses are covered with shingles, and
the streets are very narrow." 2 But the king could
not spare a squadron equal to the attempt ; and
Frontenac was told that he must wait. The troops
sent him did not supply his losses.3 Money came
every summer in sums which now seem small, but
were far from being so in the eyes of the king,

1 Frontenac in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 496, 506.

2 Villebon in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 507.

3 The returns show 1,313 regulars in 1691, and 1,120 in 1692.

296 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1691-94.

who joined to each remittance a lecture on econ-
omy and a warning against extravagance.1

The intendant received his share of blame on
these occasions, and he usually defended himself
vigorously. He tells his master that " war-parties
are necessary, but very expensive. We rarely pay
money ; but we must give presents to our Indians,
and fit out the Canadians with provisions, arms,
ammunition, moccasons, snow-shoes, sledges, canoes,
capotes, breeches, stockings, and blankets. This
costs a great deal, but without it we should have
to abandon Canada." The king complained that,
while the great sums he was spending in the colony
turned to the profit of the inhabitants, they con-
tributed nothing to their own defence. The com-
plaint was scarcely just ; for, if they gave no money,
they gave their blood with sufficient readiness.
Excepting a few merchants, they had nothing else
to give ; and, in the years when the fur trade was
cut off, they lived chiefly on the pay they received
for supplying the troops and other public services.
Far from being able to support the war, they looked
to the war to support them.2

1 Lettres du Roy et da Ministre, 1690-1694. In 1691, the amount
allowed for extraordinaires de guerre was 99,000 livres (francs). In 1692,
it was 193.000 livres, a part of which was for fortifications. In the fol-
lowing year, no less than 750,000 livres were drawn for Canada, " ce qui
ne se pourroit pas supporter, si cela continuoit de la mesme force," writes
the minister. (Le Ministre a Frontenac, 13 Mars, 1694.) This last sum
probably included the pay of the troops.

2 " Sa Majeste fait depuis plusieurs annees des sacrifices immenses en
Canada. L'avantage en demeure presque tout entier au profit des ha-
bitans et des marchands qui y resident. Ces depenses se font pour leur
seurete et pour leur conservation. II est juste que ceux qui sont en
estat secourent le public." Me moire da Roy, 1693. "Les habitans de la

1691-94.] ALARMS. 297

The work of fortifying the vital points of the
colony, Quebec, Three Kivers, and Montreal, re-
ceived constant stimulus from the alarms of attack,
and, above all, from a groundless report that
ten thousand "Bostonnais" had sailed for Quebec.
The sessions of the council were suspended, and
the councillors seized pick and spade. The old
defences of the place were reconstructed on a new
plan, made by the great engineer Vauban. The
settlers were mustered together from a distance of
twenty leagues, and compelled to labor, with little
or no pay, till a line of solid earthworks enclosed
Quebec from Cape Diamond to the St. Charles.
Three Rivers and Montreal were also strengthened.
The cost exceeded the estimates, and drew upon
Frontenac and Champigny fresh admonitions from
Versailles.1

colonie ne contribuent en rien a tout ce que Sa Majeste fait pour leur
conservation, pendant que ses sujets du Royaume donnent tout ce qu'ils
ont pour son service." Le Ministre a Frontenac, 13 Mars, 1694.

1 Lettres flu Roy et du Ministre, 1693, 1694. Cape Diamond was now
for the first time included within the line of circumvallation at Quebec.
A strong stone redoubt, with sixteen cannon, was built upon its summit.

In 1854, in demolishing a part of the old wall between the fort of
Quebec and the adjacent " Governor's Garden," a plate of copper was
found with a Latin inscription, of which the following is a transla-
tion : —

" In the year of Grace, 1693, under the reign of the Most August,
Most Invincible, and Most Christian King, Louis the Great, Fourteenth
of that name, the Most Excellent and Most Illustrious Lord, Louis de
Buade, Count of Frontenac, twice Viceroy of all New France, after
having three years before repulsed, routed, and completely conquered
the rebellious inhabitants of New England, who besieged this town of
Quebec, and who threatened to renew their attack this year, constructed,
at the charge of the king, this citadel, with the fortifications therewith
connected, for the defence of the country and the safety of the people,
and for confounding yet again a people perfidious towards God and to-
wards its lawful king. And he has laid this first stone."

298 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1691-94.

The bounties on scalps and prisoners were an-
other occasion of royal complaint. Twenty crowns
had been offered for each male white prisoner, ten
crowns for each female, and ten crowns for each
scalp, whether Indian or English.1 The bounty on
prisoners produced an excellent result, since in-
stead of killing them the Indian allies learned to
bring them to Quebec. If children, they were
placed in the convents ; and, if adults, they were
distributed to labor among the settlers. Thus,
though the royal letters show that the measure
was one of policy, it acted in the interest of
humanity. It was not so with the bounty on
scalps. The Abenaki, Huron, and Iroquois con-
verts brought in many of them ; but grave doubts
arose whether they all came from the heads of
enemies.2 The scalp of a Frenchman was not dis-
tinguishable from the scalp of an Englishman, and
could be had with less trouble. Partly for this
reason, and partly out of economy, the king gave
it as his belief that a bounty of one crown was
enough ; though the governor and the intendant
united in declaring that the scalps of the whole
Iroquois confederacy would be a good bargain for
his Majesty at ten crowns apiece.3

The river Ottawa was the main artery of Canada,
and to stop it was to stop the flow of her life blood.
The Iroquois knew this ; and their constant effort

1 Champigny an Ministre, 21 Sept., 1692.

2 Relation de 1682-1712.

3 Me'moire du Roy aux Sienrs Frontennc et Champigny, 1693 ; Frontenac
et Champigny au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1693. The bounty on prisoners was
reduced in the same proportion, showing that economy was the chief
object of the change.

1692.] A WINTER EXPEDITION. 299

was to close it so completely that the annual supply
of beaver skins would be prevented from passing,
and the colony be compelled to live on credit. It
was their habit to spend the latter part of the
winter in hunting among the forests between the
Ottawa and the upper St. Lawrence, and then,
when the ice broke up, to move in large bands to
the banks of the former stream, and lie in ambush
at the Chaudiere, the Long Saut, or other favor-
able points, to waylay the passing canoes. On the
other hand, it was the constant effort of Frontenac
to drive them off and keep the river open ; an
almost impossible task. Many conflicts, great and
small, took place with various results ; but, in spite
of every effort, the Iroquois blockade was main-
tained more than two years. The story of one of
the expeditions made by the French in this quarter
will show the hardship of the service, and the
moral and physical vigor which it demanded.

Early in February, three hundred men under
Dorvilliers were sent by Frontenac to surprise the
Iroquois in their hunting-grounds. When they
were a few days out, their leader scalded his foot
by the upsetting of a kettle at their encampment
near Lake St. Francis; and the command fell on
a youth named Beaucour, an officer of regulars,
accomplished as an engineer, and known for his
polished wit. The march through the snow- clogged
forest was so terrible that the men lost heart.
Hands and feet were frozen ; some of the Indians
refused to proceed, and many of the Canadians
lagged behind. Shots were heard, showing that

300 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1692.

the enemy were not far off: ; but cold, hunger, and
fatigue had overcome the courage of the pursuers,
and the young commander saw his followers on
the point of deserting him. He called them to-
gether, and harangued them in terms so animating
that they caught his spirit, and again pushed on.
For four hours more they followed the tracks of
the Iroquois snow-shoes, till they found the savages
in their bivouac, set upon them, and killed or cap-
tured nearly all. There was a French slave among
them, scarcely distinguishable from his owners. It
was an officer named La Plante, taken at La Chine
three years before. " He would have been killed
like his masters," says La Hontan, " if he had not
cried out with all his might, ' Misericorde, sauvez-
moi, je sals Fram;aisyi Beaucour brought his
prisoners to Quebec, where Frontenac ordered that
two of them should be burned. One stabbed him-
self in prison ; the other was tortured by the Chris-
tian Hurons on Cape Diamond, defying them to
the last. Nor was this the only instance of such
fearful reprisal. In the same ^year, a number of Iro-
quois captured by Vauclreuil were burned at Mon-
treal at the demand of the Canadians and the mission
Indians, who insisted that their cruelties should be
paid back in kind. It is said that the purpose was
answered, and the Iroquois deterred for a while
from torturing their captives.2

The brunt of the war fell on the upper half of

1 La.Potherie, III. 156 ; Relation de ce qui s'est passe de plus conside-
rable en Canada, 1691, 1692 ; La Hontan, I. 233.

2 Relation, 1682-1712.

1693.] STATE OF THE COLONY. 301

the colony. The country about Montreal, and for
nearly a hundred miles below it, was easily accessi-
ble to the Iroquois by the routes of Lake Champ-
lain and the upper St. Lawrence ; while below
Three Rivers the settlements were tolerably safe
from their incursions, and were exposed to attack
solely from the English of New England, who
could molest them only by sailing up from the
Gulf in force. Hence the settlers remained on
their farms, and followed their usual occupations,
except when Frontenac drafted them for war-
parties. Above Three Rivers, their condition was
wholly different. A traveller passing through this
part of Canada would have found the houses empty.
Here and there he would have seen all the inhabi-
tants of a parish laboring in a field together,
watched by sentinels, and generally guarded by
a squad of regulars. When one field was tilled,
they passed to the next ; and this communal process
was repeated when the harvest was ripe. At night,
they took refuge in the fort ; that is to say, in a
cluster of log cabins, surrounded by a palisade.
Sometimes, when long exemption from attack had
emboldened them, they ventured back to their
farm-houses, an experiment always critical and
sometimes fatal. Thus the people of La Chesnaye,
forgetting a sharp lesson they had received a year
or two before, returned to their homes in fancied
security. One evening a bachelor of the parish
made a visit to a neighboring widow, bringing
with him his gun and a small dog. As he was
taking his leave, his hostess, whose husband had

302 THE SCOURGE OE CANADA. [1692.

been killed the year before, tolcl him that she
was afraid to be left alone, and begged him to
remain with her, an invitation which he accepted.
Towards morning, the barking of his dog roused
him ; when, going out, he saw the night lighted up
by the blaze of burning houses, and heard the usual
firing and screeching of an Iroquois attack. He
went back to his frightened companion, who also
had a gun. Placing himself at a corner of the
house, he told her to stand behind him. A number
of Iroquois soon appeared, on which he fired at
them, and, taking her gun, repeated the shot,
giving her his own to load. The warriors returned
his fire from a safe distance, and in the morning
withdrew altogether, on which the pair emerged
from their shelter, and succeeded in reaching the
fort. The other inhabitants were all killed or
captured.1

Many incidents of this troubled time are pre-
served, but none of them are so well worth the
record as the defence of the fort at Vercheres by
the young daughter of the seignior. Many years
later, the Marquis de Beauharnais, governor of
Canada, caused the story to be written down from
the recital of the heroine herself. Vercheres was
on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, about
twenty miles below Montreal. A strong block-
house stood outside the fort, and was connected
with it by a covered way. On the morning of the
twenty-second of October, the inhabitants were at
work in the fields, and nobody was left in the place
but two soldiers, two boys, an old man of eighty,

1 Relation, 1682-1712.

1692.] THE HEROINE OF VERCHERES. 303

and a number of women and children. The seig-
nior, formerly an officer of the regiment of Carig-
nan, was on duty at Quebec ; his wife was at Mont-
real ; and their daughter Madeleine, fourteen years
of age, was at the landing-place not far from the
gate of the fort, with a hired man named Laviolette.
Suddenly she heard firing from the direction where
the settlers were at work, and an instant after
Laviolette cried out, " Run, Mademoiselle, run !
here come the Iroquois ! " She turned and saw
forty or fifty of them at the distance of a pistol-
shot. " I ran for the fort, commending myself to
the Holy Virgin. The Iroquois who chased after
me, seeing that they could not catch me alive
before I reached the gate, stopped and fired at me.
The bullets whistled about my ears, and made the
time seem very long. As soon as I was near
enough to be heard, I cried out, To arms ! to arms !
hoping that somebody would come out and help
me ; but it was of no use. The two soldiers in the
fort were so scared that they had hidden in the
blockhouse. At the gate, I found two women
crying for their husbands, who had just been
killed. I made them go in, and then shut the
gate. I next thought what I could do to save
myself and the few people with me. I went to
inspect the fort, and found that several palisades
had fallen clown, and left openings by which the
enemy could easily get in. I ordered them to be
set up again, and helped to carry them myself.
When the breaches were stopped, I went to the
blockhouse where the ammunition is kept, and

304 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1692.

here I found the two soldiers, one hiding in a
corner, and the other with a lighted match in his
hand. ' What are you going to do with that
match ? ' I asked. He answered, ' Light the
powder, and blow us all up.' ' You are a mis-
erable coward,' said I, ' go out of this place.' I
spoke so resolutely that he obeyed. I then threw
off my bonnet; and, after putting on a hat and
taking a gun, I said to my two brothers : ' Let us
fight to the death. We are fighting for our country
and our religion. Remember that our father has
taught you that gentlemen are born to shed their
blood for the service of God and the king.' "

The boys, who were twelve and ten years old,
aided by the soldiers, whom her words had in-
spired with some little courage, began to fire from
the loopholes upon the Iroquois, who, ignorant of
the weakness of the garrison, showed their usual
reluctance to attack a fortified place, and occupied
themselves with chasing and butchering the peo-
ple in the neighboring fields. Madeleine ordered a
cannon to be fired, partly to deter the enemy from
an assault, and partly to warn some of the soldiers,
who were hunting at a distance. The women and
children in the fort cried and screamed without
ceasing. She ordered them to stop, lest their
terror should encourage the Indians. A canoe was
presently seen approaching the landing-place. It
was a settler named Fontaine, trying to reach the
fort with his family. The Iroquois were still near ;
and Madeleine feared that the new comers would
be killed, if something were not done to aid them.

1692.] THE HEROINE OF VERCHERES. 305

She appealed to the soldiers, but their courage was
not equal to the attempt ; on which, as she declares,
after leaving Laviolette to keep watch at the gate,
she herself went alone to the landing-place. " I
thought that the savages would suppose it to be
a ruse to draw them towards the fort, in order to
make a sortie upon them. They did suppose so,
and thus I was able to save the Fontaine family.
When they were all landed, I made them inarch
before me in full sight of the enemy. We put so
bold a face on it, that they thought they had more
to fear than we. Strengthened by this reinforce-
ment, I ordered that the enemy should be fired on
whenever they showed themselves. After sunset,
a violent north-east wind began to blow, accom-
panied with snow and hail, which told us that we
should have a terrible night. The Iroquois were
all this time lurking about us ; and I judged by
their movements that, instead of being deterred by
the storm, they would climb into the fort under
cover of the darkness. I assembled all my troops,
that is to say, six persons, and spoke to them thus :
* God has saved us to-day from the hands of our
enemies, but we must take care not to fall into
their snares to-night. As for me, I want you to
see that I am not afraid. I will take charge of
the fort with an old man of eighty and another who
never fired a gun ; and you, Pierre Fontaine, with
La Bonte and Gachet (our two soldiers), will go to
the blockhouse with the women and children, be-
cause that is the strongest place ; and, if I am taken,
don't surrender, even if I am cut to pieces and

20

306 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1692.

burned before your eyes. The enemy cannot hurt
you in the blockhouse, if you make the least show
of fight.' I placed my young brothers on two of
the bastions, the old man on the third, and I took
the fourth ; and all night, in spite of wind, snow,
and hail, the cries of ' All's well ' were kept up
from the blockhouse to the fort, and from the fort
to the blockhouse. One would have thought that
the place was full of soldiers. The Iroquois thought
so, and were completely deceived, as they confessed
afterwards to Monsieur de Callieres, whom they
told that they had held a council to make a plan
for capturing the fort in the night but had done
nothing because such a constant watch was kept.

" About one in the morning, the sentinel on the
bastion by the gate called out, ' Mademoiselle, I
hear something.' I went to him to find what it
was ; and by the help of the snow, which covered
the ground, I could see through the darkness a
number of cattle, the miserable remnant that the
Iroquois had left us. The others wanted to open
the gate and let them in, but I answered : i God
forbid. You don't know all the tricks of the sav-
ages. They are no doubt following the cattle, cov-
ered with skins of beasts, so as to get into the fort,
if we are simple enough to open the gate for
them.' Nevertheless, after taking every precaution,
I thought that we might open it without risk. I
made my two brothers stand ready with their guns
cocked in case of surprise, and so we let in the
cattle.

" At last, the daylight came again ; and, as the

1692.] THE HEROINE OF VERCHERES. 307

darkness disappeared, our anxieties seemed to dis-
appear with it. Everybody took courage except
Mademoiselle Marguerite, wife of the Sieur Fon-
taine, who being extremely timid, as all Parisian
women are, asked her husband to carry her to an^-
other fort. . . He said, e I will never abandon this fort
while Mademoiselle Madelon [Madeleine) is here.'
I answered him that I would never abandon it ; that
I would rather die than give it up to the enemy ; and
that it was of the greatest importance that they
should never get possession of any French fort, be-
cause, if they got one, they would think they could
get others, and would grow more bold and pre-
sumptuous than ever. I may say with truth that
I did not eat or sleep for twice twenty-four hours.
I did not go once into my father's house, but kept
always on the bastion, or went to the blockhouse to
see how the people there were behaving. I always
kept a cheerful and smiling face, and encouraged
my little company with the hope of speedy succor.
" We were a week in constant alarm, with the
enemy always about us. At last Monsieur cle la
Monnerie, a lieutenant sent by Monsieur de Cal-
lieres, arrived in the night with forty men. As he
did not know whether the fort was taken or not,
he approached as silently as possible. One of our
sentinels, hearing a slight sound, cried, c Qui vive ? "
I was at the time dozing, with my head on a table
and my gun lying across my arms. The sentinel
told me that he heard a voice from the river. I
went up at once to the bastion to see whether it
was Indians or Frenchmen. I asked, ' Who are

308 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1692.

you ? ' One of them answered, l We are French-
men : it is La Monnerie, who comes to bring you
help.' I caused the gate to be opened, placed a
sentinel there, and went down to the river to meet
them. As soon as I saw Monsieur de la Monnerie,
I saluted him, and said, ' Monsieur, I surrender my
arms to you.' He answered gallantly, ' Mademoi-
selle, they are in good hands.' ' Better than you
think,' I returned. He inspected the fort, and
found every thing in order, and a sentinel on each
bastion. 6 It is time to relieve them, Monsieur,'
said I: 'we have not been off our bastions for a
week.' " x

A band of converts from the Saut St. Louis ar-
rived soon after, followed the trail of their heathen
countrymen, overtook them on Lake Champlain,
and recovered twenty or more French prisoners.
Madeleine cle Vercheres was not the only heroine
of her family. Her father's fort was the Castle
Dangerous of Canada ; and it was but two years
before that her mother, left with three or four

1 Recti de Mile. Magdelaine de Vercheres, dge'e de 14 ans (Collection de
l'Abbe Ferland). It appears from Tanguay, Dictionnaire Gene'alorjique,
that Marie-Madeleine Jarret de Vercheres was born in April, 1678, which
corresponds to the age given in the R€cit. She married Thomas Tarieu
de la Naudiere in 1706, and M. de la Perrade, or Prade, in 1722. Her
brother Louis was born in 1680, and was therefore, as stated in the
Re'cit, twelve years old in 1692. The birthday of the other, Alexander,
is not given. His baptism was registered in 1682. One of the brothers
was killed at the attack of Haverhill, in 1708.

Madame de Ponchartrain, wife of the minister, procured a pension
for life to Madeleine de Vercheres. Two versions of her narrative are
before me. There are slight variations between them, but in all essen-
tial points they are the same. The following note is appended to one of
them : " Ce re'cit fut fait par ordre de MT. de Beauharnois, gouverneur
du Canada."

1692, 1693.] SAUT ST. LOUIS. 309

armed men, and beset by the Iroquois, threw her-
self with her followers into the blockhouse, and
held the assailants two days at bay, till the Mar-
quis de Crisasi came with troops to her relief.1

From the moment when the Canadians found a
chief whom they could trust, and the firm old
hand of Frontenac grasped the reins of their destiny,
a spirit of hardihood and energy grew up in all
this rugged population ; and they faced their stern
fortunes with a stubborn daring and endurance that
merit respect and admiration.

Now, as in all their former wars, a great part of
their suffering was due to the Mohawks. The
Jesuits had spared no pains to convert them, thus
changing them from enemies to friends ; and their
efforts had so far succeeded that the mission colony
of Saut St. Louis contained a numerous population
of Mohawk Christians.2 The place was well forti-
fied ; and troops were usually stationed here, partly
to defend the converts and partly to ensure their
fidelity. They had sometimes done excellent ser-
vice for the French ; but many of them still remem-
bered their old homes on the Mohawk, and their
old ties of fellowship and kindred. Their heathen
countrymen were jealous of their secession, and
spared no pains to reclaim them. Sometimes they
tried intrigue, and sometimes force. On one occa-
sion, joined by the Oneidas and Onondagas, they
appeared before the palisades of St. Louis, to the

i La Potherie, I. 326.

2 This mission was also called Caghnawaga. The village still ex-
ists, at the head of the rapid of St. Louis, or La Chine.

310 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1693.

number of more than four hundred warriors ; but,
finding the bastions manned and the gates shut,
they withdrew discomfited. It was of great im-
portance to the French to sunder them from their
heathen relatives so completely that reconciliation
would be impossible, and it was largely to this
end that a grand expedition was prepared against
the Mohawk towns.

All the mission Indians in the colony were in-
vited to join it, the Iroquois of the Saut and
Mountain, Abenakis from the Chaucliere, Hurons
from Lorette, and Algonquins from Three Rivers.
A hundred picked soldiers were added, and a large
band of Canadians. All told, they mustered six
hundred and twenty-five men, under three tried
leaders, Mantet, Court emanche, and La Noue.
They left Chambly at the end of January, and
pushed southward on snow-shoes. Their way was
over the ice of Lake Champlain, for more than a
century the great thoroughfare of war-parties.
They bivouacked in the forest hy squads of twelve
or more ; dug away the snow in a circle, covered
the bared earth with a bed of spruce boughs, made
a fire in the middle, and smoked their pipes around
it. Here crouched the Christian savage, muffled
in his blanket, his unwashed face still smirched
with soot and vermilion, relics of the war-paint he
had worn a wreek before when he danced the war-
dance in the square of the mission village ; and
here sat the Canadians, hooded like Capuchin
monks, but irrepressible iji loquacity, as the blaze
of the camp-fire glowed on their hardy visages and

1693.] MOHAWK TOWNS CAPTURED. oil

fell in fainter radiance on the rocks and pines
behind them.

Sixteen clays brought them to the two lower
Mohawk towns. A young Dutchman who had
been captured three years before at Schenectady,
and whom the Indians of the Saut had imprudently
brought with them, ran off in the night, and car-
ried the alarm to the English. The invaders had
no time to lose. The two towns were a quarter
of a league apart. They surrounded them both
on the night of the sixteenth of February, waited
in silence till the voices within were hushed, and
then captured them without resistance, as most of
the inmates were absent. After burning one of
them, and leaving the prisoners well guarded in
the other, they marched eight leagues to the third

town, reached it at evening and hid in the neigh-
s' o

boring woods. Through all the early night, they
heard the whoops and songs of the warriors within,
who were dancing the war-dance for an intended
expedition. About midnight, all was still. The
Mohawks had posted no sentinels ; and one of
the French Indians, scaling the palisade, opened
the gate to his comrades. There was a short but
bloody fight. Twenty or thirty Mohawks were
killed, and nearly three hundred captured, chiefly
women and children. The French commanders
now required their allies, the mission Indians, to
make good a promise which, at the instance of
Frontenac, had been exacted from them by the
governor of Montreal. It was that they should
kill all their male captives, a proceeding which

312 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1693.

would have averted every danger of future re-
conciliation between the Christian and heathen
Mohawks. The converts of the Saut and the
Mountain had readily given the pledge, but appar-
ently with no intention to keep it ; at least, they
now refused to do so. Remonstrance was useless ;
and, after burning the town, the French and their
allies began their retreat, encumbered by a long train
of prisoners. They marched two clays, when they
were hailed from a distance by Mohawk scouts, who
told them that the English were on their track,
but that peace had been declared in Europe, and
that the pursuers did not mean to fight, but to
parley. Hereupon the mission Indians insisted on
waiting for them, and no exertion of the French
commanders could persuade them to move. Trees
were hewn down, and a fort made after the Iro-
quois fashion, by encircling the camp with a high
and dense abatis of trunks and branches. Here
they lay two days more, the French disgusted and
uneasy, and their savage allies obstinate and im-
practicable.

Meanwhile, Major Peter Schuyler was following
their trail, with a body of armed settlers hastily
mustered. A troop of Oneidas joined him ; and
the united parties, between five and six hundred
in all, at length appeared before the fortified camp
of the French. It was at once evident that there
was to be no parley. The forest rang with war-
whoops ; and the English Indians, unmanageable as
those of the French, set at work to entrench them-
selves with felled trees. The French and their

1693.] A DRAWN BATTLE. 313

allies sallied to dislodge them. The attack was
fierce, and the resistance equally so. Both sides
lost ground by turns. A priest of the mission of
the Mountain, named Gay, was in the thick of the
fight; and, when he saw his neophytes run, he
threw himself before them, crying, " What are
you afraid of ? We are fighting with infidels, who
have nothing human but the shape. Have you
forgotten that the Holy Virgin is our leader and
our protector, and that you are subjects of the
King of France, whose name makes all Europe
tremble ? " * Three times the French renewed
the attack in vain ; then gave over the attempt,
and lay quiet behind their barricade of trees. So
also did their opponents. The morning was dark
and stormy, and the driving snow that filled the
air made the position doubly dreary. The English
were starving. Their slender stock of provisions
had been consumed or shared with the Indians,
who, on their part, did not want food, having re-
sources unknown to their white friends. A group
of them squatted about a fire invited Schuyler to
share their broth; but his appetite was spoiled
when he saw a human hand ladled out of the
kettle. His hosts were breakfasting on a dead
Frenchman.

All night the hostile bands, ensconced behind
their sylvan ramparts, watched each other in silence.
In the morning, an Indian deserter told the Eng-
lish commander that the French were packing their
baggage. Schuyler sent to reconnoitre, and found

1 Journal cle Jacques Le Ber, extract in Faillon, Vie de Mile. Le Ber,
Appendix.

314 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1693.

them gone. They had retreated unseen through
the snow-storm. He ordered his men to follow ;
but, as most of them had fasted for two days, they
refused to do so till an expected convoy of provi-
sions should arrive. They waited till the next
morning, when the convoy appeared : fixe biscuits
were served out to each man, and the pursuit be-
gan. By great efforts, they nearly overtook the
fugitives, who now sent them word that, if they
made an attack, all the prisoners should be put to
death. On this, Schuyler's Indians refused to con-
tinue the chase. The French, by this time, had
reached the Hudson, where to their dismay they
found the ice breaking up and drifting down the
stream. Happily for them, a large sheet of it had
become wedged at a turn of the river, and formed
a temporary bridge, by which they crossed, and
then pushed on to Lake George. Here the soft
and melting ice would not bear them ; and they
were forced to make their way along the shore,
over rocks and mountains, through sodden snow
and matted thickets. The provisions, of which they
had made a depot on Lake Cham plain, were all
spoiled. The}? boiled moccasons for food, and
scraped away the snow to find hickory and beech
nuts. Several died of famine, and many more,
unable to move, lay helpless by the lake ; while a
few of the strongest toiled on to Montreal to tell
Callieres of their plight. Men and food were sent
them ; and from time to time, as they were able,
they journeyed on again, straggling towards their
homes, singly or in small parties, feeble, emaciated,

1693.] BOLDNESS OF COURTEMANCHE. 315

and in many instances with health irreparably
broken.1

" The expedition/' says Frontenac, " was a glo-
rious success." However glorious, it was dearly
bought ; and a few more such victories would be
ruin. The governor presently achieved a success
more solid and less costly. The wavering mood of
the north-western tribes, always oscillating between
the French and the English, had caused him inces-
sant anxiety ; and he had lost no time in using the
defeat of Phips to confirm them in alliance with
Canada. Courtemanche was sent up the Ottawa
to carry news of the French triumph, and stimulate
the savages of Michillimackinac to lift the hatchet.
It was a desperate venture ; for the river was be-
set, as usual, by the Iroquois. With ten followers,
the daring partisan ran the gauntlet of a thousand
dangers, and safely reached his destination ; where
his gifts and his harangues, joined with the tidings
of victory, kindled great excitement among the
Ottawas and Hurons. The indispensable but most
difficult task remained : that of opening the Ottawa
for the descent of the great accumulation of beaver
skins, which had been gathering at Michillimack-
inac for three years, and for the want of which
Canada was bankrupt. More than two hundred

1 On this expedition, Narrative of Military Operations in Canada, in
N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 550 ; Relation cle ce qui s'est passe" cle plus remarquable
en Canada, 1692, 1693; Callieres au Ministre, 7 Sept., 1693; La Potherie,
III. 169; Relation de 1682-1712; Eaillon, Vie de Mile. Le Ber, 313; Bel-
mont, Hist, du Canada ; Beyard and Lodowick, Journal of the Late Actions
of the French at Canada; Report of Major Peter Schuyler, in N. Y. Col.
Docs., IV. 16 ; Colden, 112.

The minister wrote to Callieres, finding great fault with the conduct
of the mission Indians. Ponchartrain a Callieres, 8 Mai, 1694.

316 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1693.

Frenchmen were known to be at that remote post,
or roaming in the wilderness around it ; and Fron-
tenac resolved on an attempt to muster them to-
gether, and employ their united force to protect
the Indians and the traders in bringing down this
mass of furs to Montreal. A messenger, strongly
escorted, was sent with orders to this effect, and
succeeded in reaching Michillimackinac, though
there was a battle on the way, in which the officer
commanding the escort was killed. Frontenac
anxiously waited the issue, when after a long delay
the tidings reached him of complete success. He
hastened to Montreal, and found it swarming with
Indians and coureurs de bois. Two hundred ca-
noes had arrived, filled with the coveted beaver
skins. " It is impossible," says the chronicle, " to
conceive the joy of the people, when they beheld
these riches. Canada ha,d awaited them for years.
The merchants and the farmers were dying of
hunger. Credit was gone, and everybody was
afraid that the enemy would waylay and seize this
last resource of the country. Therefore it was,
that none could find words strong enough to praise
and bless him by whose care all this wealth had
arrived. Father of the People, Preserver of the
Country, seemed terms too weak to express their
gratitude." !

While three years of arrested sustenance came
down together from the lakes, a fleet sailed up the
St. Lawrence, freighted with soldiers and supplies.
The horizon of Canada was brightening.

1 Relation de ce qui s'est passe de jjIus remarquable en Canada, 1692, 1693.
Compare La Potherie, III. 185.

CHAPTER XV.

1691-1695.
AN INTEELUDE.

Appeal of Frontenac. — His Opponents. — His Services. — Rival-
ry and Strife. — Bishop Saint- Vallier. — Society at the
Chateau. — Private Theatricals. — Alarm of the Clergy. —
Tartuffe. — A Singular Bargain. — Mareuil and the Bishop.
— Mareuil on Trial. — Zeal of Saint- Vallier. — Scandals at
Montreal. — Appeal to the King. — The Strife composed. —
Libel against Frontenac.

While the Canadians hailed Frontenac as a
father, he fonnd also some recognition of his ser-
vices from his masters at the court. The king
wrote him a letter with his own hand, to express
satisfaction at the defence of Quebec, and sent him
a gift of two thousand crowns. He greatly needed
the money, but prized the letter still more, and
wrote to his relative, the minister Ponchartrain :
" The gift you procured for me, this year, has
helped me very much towards paying the great
expenses which the crisis of our affairs and the
excessive cost of living here have caused me ; but,
though I receive this mark of his Majesty's good-
ness with the utmost respect and gratitude, I con-
fess that I feel far more deeply the satisfaction
that he has been pleased to express with my ser-
vices. The raising of the siege of Quebec did not

318 AN INTERLUDE. [1691-93.

deserve all the attention that I hear ne has given
it in the midst of so many important events, and
therefore I must needs ascribe it to your kindness
in commending it to his notice. This leads me to
hope that whenever some office, or permanent
employment, or some mark of dignity or distinc-
tion, may offer itself, you will put me on the list
as well as others who have the honor to be as
closely connected with you as I am ; for it would
be very hard to find myself forgotten because I
am in a remote country, where it is more difficult
and dangerous to serve the king than elsewhere.
I have consumed all my property. Nothing is left
but what the king gives me ; and I have reached
an age where, though neither strength nor good-
will fail me as yet, and though the latter will last
as long as I live, I see myself on the eve of losing
the former : so that a post a little more secure and
tranquil than the government of Canada will soon
suit my time of life ; and, if I can be assured of
your support, I shall not despair of getting such a
one. Please then to permit my wife and my friends
to refresh your memory now and then on this
point." l Again, in the following year : " I have
been encouraged to believe that the gift of two
thousand crowns, which his Majesty made me last
year, would be continued ; but apparently you
have not been able to obtain it, for I think that you
know the difficulty I have in living here on my
salary. I hope that, when you find a better oppor-
tunity, you will try to procure me this favor. My

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1691.

1691-03.] OPPONENTS OF FRONTENAC. 319

only trust is in your support ; and I am persuaded
that, having the honor to be so closely connected
with you, you would reproach yourself, if you saw
me sink into decrepitude, without resources and
without honors." * And still again he appeals to
the minister for " some permanent and honorable
place attended with the marks of distinction, which
are more grateful than all the rest to a heart shaped
after the right pattern." 2 In return for these
sturdy applications, he got nothing for the present
but a continuance of the king's gift of two thou-
sand crowns.

Not every voice in the colony sounded the gov-
ernor's praise. Now, as always, he had enemies in
state and Church. It is true that the quarrels and
the bursts of passion that marked his first term of
government now rarely occurred, but this was not
so much due to a change in Frontenac himself as
to a change in the conditions around him. The
war made him indispensable. He had gained what
he wanted, the consciousness of mastery ; and under
its soothing influence he was less irritable and
exacting. He lived with the bishop on terms of
mutual courtesy, while his relations with his col-
league, the intendant, were commonly smooth
enough on the surface ; for Champigny, warned by
the court not to offend him, treated him with
studied deference, and was usually treated in re-
turn with urfcane condescension. During all this
time, the intendant was complaining of him to the

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Sept., 1692.

2 Ibid., 25 Oct., 1693.

320 AN INTERLUDE. [1691-93.

minister. " He is spending a great deal of money ;
but he is master, and does what he pleases. I can
only keep the peace by yielding every thing." *
" He wants to reduce me to a nobody." And,
among other similar charges, he says that the gov-
ernor receives pay for garrisons that do not exist,
and keeps it for himself. " Do not tell that I said
so," adds the prudent Champigny, " for it Avould
make great trouble, if he knew it."2 Frontenac,
perfectly aware of these covert attacks, desires the
minister not to heed " the falsehoods and impos-
tures uttered against me by persons who meddle
with what does not concern them."3 He alludes
to Champigny's allies, the Jesuits, who, as he
thought, had also maligned him. "Since I have
been here, I have spared no pains to gain the good-
will of Monsieur the intenclant, and may God grant
that the counsels which he is too ready to receive
from certain persons who have never been friends
of peace and harmony do not some time make divi-
sion between us. But I close my eyes to all that,
and shall still persevere." 4 In another letter to Pon-
chartrain, he says : " I write you this in private, be-
cause I have been informed by my wife that charges
have been made to you against my conduct since
my return to this country. I promise you, Mon-
seigneur, that, whatever my accusers do, they will
not make me change conduct towards them, and
that I shall still treat them with consideration. I

1 Champigny au Ministre, 12 Oct., 1691.

2 Ibid. ,4 Nov., 1693.

3 Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Sept., 1692.

4 Ibid., 20 Oct., 1691.

1691-93.] SERVICES OF ERONTENAC, • 321

merely ask your leave most humbly to represent
that, having maintained this colony in full pros-
perity during the ten years when I formerly held
the government of it, I nevertheless fell a sacrifice
to the artifice and fury of those whose encroach-
ments, and whose excessive and unauthorized
power, my duty and my passionate affection for
the service of the king obliged me in conscience
to repress. My recall, which made them masters in
the conduct of the government, was followed by
all the disasters which overwhelmed this unhappy
colony. The millions that the king spent here, the
troops that he sent out, and the Canadians that he
took into pay, all went for nothing. Most of the
soldiers, and no small number of brave Canadians,
perished in enterprises ill devised and ruinous to
the country, which I found on my arrival ravaged
with unheard-of cruelty by the Iroquois, without
resistance, and in sight of the troops and of the
forts. The inhabitants were discouraged, and un-
nerved by want of confidence in their chiefs ;
while the friendly Indians, seeing our weakness,
were ready to join our enemies. I was fortunate
enough and diligent enough to change this de-
plorable state of things, and drive away the Eng-
lish, whom my predecessors did not have on their
hands, and this too with only half as many troops
as they had. I am far from wishing to blame their
conduct. I leave you to judge it. But I cannot
have the tranquillity and freedom of mind which I
need for the work I have to do here, without feel-
ing entire confidence that the cabal which is again

21

322 AN INTERLUDE. [1693,1694.

forming against me cannot produce impressions
which may prevent you from doing me justice.
For the rest, if it is thought fit that I should leave
the priests to do as they like, I shall be delivered
from an infinity of troubles and cares, in which I
can have no other interest than the good of the
colony, the trade of the kingdom, and the peace of
the king's subjects, and of which I alone bear the
burden, as well as the jealousy of sundry persons,
and the iniquity of the ecclesiastics, who begin to
call impious those who are obliged to oppose their
passions and their interests." 1

As Champigny always sided with the Jesuits, his
relations with Frontenac grew daily more critical.
Open rupture at length seemed imminent, and the
king interposed to keep the peace. " There has
been discord between you under a show of har-
mony," he wrote to the disputants.2 Frontenac
was exhorted to forbearance and calmness ; while
the intendant was told that he allowed himself to
be made an instrument of others, and that his
charges against the governor proved nothing but
his own ill-temper.3 The minister wrote in vain.
The bickerings that he reproved were but premoni-
tions of a greater strife.

Bishop Saint-Vallier was a rigid, austere, and
contentious prelate, who loved power as much as

1 " L'iniquite des ecclesiastiques qui commencent a traiter d'impies
ceux qui sont obliges de resister a leurs passions et a leurs interets."
Frontenac an Ministre, 20 Oct., 1691.

2 Memoire du Rot/ pour Frontenac et Champigny, 1694.

3 Le Ministre a Frontenac, 8 May, 1694 ; Le Ministre a Champigny,
mime date.

1693, 1694.] SOCIETY AT THE CHATEAU. 323

Frontenac himself, and thought that, as the deputy
of Christ, it was his duty to exercise it to the ut-
most. The governor watched him with a jealous
eye, well aware that, though the pretensions of the
Church to supremacy over the civil power had suf-
fered a check, Saint- Vallier would revive them the
moment he thought he could do so with success.
I have shown elsewhere the severity of the ecclesi-
astical rule at Quebec, where the zealous pastors
watched their flock with unrelenting!: vigilance, and
associations of pious women helped them in the
work.] This naturally produced revolt, and tended
to divide the town into two parties, the worldly
and the devout. The love of pleasure was not
extinguished, and various influences helped to keep
it alive. Perhaps none of these was so potent as
the presence in winter of a considerable number of
officers from France, whose piety was often less
conspicuous than their love of enjoyment. At the
Chateau St. Louis a circle of young men, more or
less brilliant and accomplished, surrounded the
governor, and formed a centre of social attraction.
Frontenac was not without religion, and he held it
becoming a man of his station not to fail in its
observances ; but he would not have a Jesuit con-
fessor, and placed his conscience in the keeping
of the Eecollet friars, who were not politically
aggressive, and who had been sent to Canada ex-
pressly as a foil to the rival order. They found
no favor in the eyes of the bishop and his adherents,
and the governor found none for the support he
lent them.

1 Old Regime, chap. xix.

324 AN INTERLUDE. [1693, 1694.

The winter that followed the arrival of the furs
from the upper lakes was a season of gayety with-
out precedent since the war began. All was har-
mony at Quebec till the carnival approached, when
Frontenac, whose youthful instincts survived his
seventy-four }^ears, introduced a startling novelty
which proved the signal of discord. One of his
military circle, the sharp-witted La Motte-Caclillac,
thus relates this untoward event in a letter to a
friend : " The winter passed very pleasantly, es-
pecially to the officers, who lived together like
comrades ; and, to contribute to their honest en-
joyment, the count caused two plays to be acted,
' Nicomede ' and c Mi thri elate.' ' It was an amateur
performance, in which the officers took part along
with some of the ladies of Quebec. The success was
prodigious, and so was the storm that followed.
Half a century before, the Jesuits had grieved over
the first ball in Canada. Private theatricals were
still more baneful. " The clergy," continues La
Motte, " beat their alarm drums, armed cap-a-pie,
and snatched their bows and arrowrs. The Sieur
Glandelet was first to begin, and preached two
sermons, in which he tried to prove that nobody
could go to a play without mortal sin. The bishop
issued a mandate, and had it read from the pulpits,
in which he speaks of certain impious, impure, and
noxious comedies, insinuating that those which had
been acted were such. The credulous and infat-
uated people, seduced by the sermons and the
mandate, began already to regard the count as a
corrupter of morals and a destroyer of religion.

1694.] "TARTUFFE." 325

The numerous party of the pretended devotees
mustered in the streets and public places, and
presently made their way into the houses, to con-
firm the weak-minded in their illusion, and tried to
make the stronger share it ; but, as they failed in
this almost completely, they resolved at last to con-
quer or die, and persuaded the bishop to use a
strange device, which was to publish a mandate in
the church, whereby the Sieur de Mareuil, a half-
pay lieutenant, was interdicted the use of the
sacraments." !

This story needs explanation. Not only had
the amateur actors at the chateau played two pieces
inoffensive enough in themselves, but a report had
been spread that they meant next to perform the
famous " Tartuffe " of Moliere, a satire which, while
purporting to be levelled against falsehood, lust,
greed, and ambition, covered with a mask of religion,
was rightly thought by a portion of the clergy to be
levelled against themselves. The friends of Fron-
tenac say that the report was a hoax. Be this as
it may, the bishop believed it. " This worthy prel-
ate," continues the irreverent La Motte, " was
afraid of i Tartuffe,' and had got it into his head that
the count meant to have it played, though he had
never thought of such a thing. Monsieur cle Saint-
Vallier sweated blood and water to stop a torrent
which existed only in his imagination." It was
now that he launched his two mandates, both on
the same day ; one denouncing comedies in general
and " Tartuffe " in particular, and the other smiting

1 La Motte- Cadillac a , 28 Sept., 1694.

326 AN INTERLUDE. [1694.

Mareuil, who, he says, " uses language capable of
making Heaven blush," and whom he elsewhere
stigmatizes as "worse than a Protestant." x It was
Mareuil who, as reported, was to play the part of
Tartuffe ; and on him, therefore, the brunt of epis-
copal indignation fell. He was not a wholly ex-
emplary person. " I mean," says La Motte, " to
show you the truth in all its nakedness. The
fact is that, about two years ago, when the Sieur
cle Mareuil first came to Canada, and was carousing
with his friends, he sang some indecent song or
other. The count was tolcl of it, and gave him a
severe reprimand. This is the charge against him.
After a two years' silence, the pastoral zeal has
wakened, because a play is to be acted which the
clergy mean to stop at any cost."

The bishop found another way of stopping it.
He met Frontenac, with the intendant, near the
Jesuit chapel, accosted him on the subject which
filled his thoughts, and offered him a hundred
pistoles if he would prevent the playing of " Tar-
tuffe." Frontenac laughed, and closed the bargain.
Saint- Vallier wrote his note on the spot ; and the
governor took it, apparently well pleased to have
made the bishop disburse. " I thought," writes
the intendant, " that Monsieur de Frontenac would
have given him back the paper." He did no such
thing, but drew the money on the next clay and
gave it to the hospitals.2

1 Mandement an Sujet des Comedies, 16 Jan., 1694 ; Mandement an Sujet
de certaines Personnes qui tenoient des Discours impies, me me date ; Registre
du Conseil Souverain.

2 This incident is mentioned by La Motte-Cadillac ; by the intendant,

1694.] MAREUIL AND THE BISHOP. 327

Mareuil, deprived of the sacraments, and held
up to reprobation, went to see the bishop, who
refused to receive him ; and it is said that he was
taken by the shoulders and put out of doors. He
now resolved to bring his case before the council ;
but the bishop was informed of his purpose, and
anticipated it. La Motte says " he went before
the council on the first of February, and denounced
the Sieur de Mareuil, whom he declared guilty of
impiety towards God, the Virgin, and the Saints,
and made a fine speech in the absence of the count,
interrupted by the effusions of a heart which
seemed filled with a profound and infinite charity,
but which, as he said, was pushed to extremity by
the rebellion of an indocile child, who had neglected
all his warnings. This was, nevertheless, assumed ;
I will not say entirely false."

The bishop did, in fact, make a vehement speech
against Mareuil before the council on the day in
question ; Mareuil stoutly defending himself, and
entering his appeal against the episcopal mandate.1
The battle was now fairly joined. Frontenac stood
alone for the accused. The intendant tacitly favored
his opponents. Auteuil, the attorney-general, and
Villeray, the first councillor, owed the governor
an old grudge ; and they and their colleagues
sided with the bishop, with the outside support of
all the clergy, except the Kecollets, who, as usual,
ranged themselves with their patron. At first,

who reports it to the minister ; hy the minister Ponchartrain, who asks
Frontenac for an explanation ; by Frontenac, who passes it off as a jest ;
and by several other contemporary writers.

1 Regislre da Conseil Souverain, 1 et 8 Fev., 1694.

328 AN INTERLUDE. [1694.

Frontenac showed great moderation, but grew
vehement, and then violent, as the dispute pro-
ceeded ; as did also the attorney-general, who seems
to have done his best to exasperate him. Fron-
tenac affirmed that, in depriving Mareuil and
others of the sacraments, with no proof of guilt
and no previous warning, and on allegations which,
even if true, could not justify the act, the bishop
exceeded his powers, and trenched on those of the
king. The point was delicate. The attorney-
general avoided the issue, tried to raise others, and
revived the old quarrel about Frontenac's place in
the council, which had been settled fourteen years
before. Other questions were brought up, and
angrily debated. The governor demanded that
the debates, along with the papers which intro-
duced them, should be entered on the record, that
the king might be informed of every thing; but
the demand was refused. The discords of the
council chamber spread into the town. Quebec
was divided against itself. Mareuil insulted the
bishop ; and some of his scapegrace sympathizers
broke the prelate's windows at night, and smashed
his chamber-door.1 Mareuil was at last ordered
to prison, and the whole affair was referred to the
king.2

These proceedings consumed the spring, the
summer, and a part of the autumn. Meanwhile,
an access of zeal appeared to seize the bishop ; and
he launched interdictions to the right and left.

1 Champigntj an Ministre, 27 Oct., 1694.

2 Registre du Conseil Souverain ; Requeste du Sieur de Mareuil, Nov., 1694.

1694.] SAINT- VALLIER AND CALLIERES. 329

Even Champigny was startled when lie refused
the sacraments to all but four or five of the mili-
tary officers for alleged tampering with the pay of
their soldiers, a matter wholly within the province
of the temporal authorities.1 During a recess of
the council, he set out on a pastoral tour, and,
arriving at Three Rivers, excommunicated an
officer named Desjordis for a reputed intrigue with
the wife of another officer. He next repaired to
Sorel, and, being there on a Sunday, was tolcl that
two officers had neglected to go to mass. He
wrote to Frontenac, complaining of the offence.
Frontenac sent for the culprits, and rebuked them ;
but retracted his words when they proved by sev-
eral witnesses that they had been duly present at
the rite.2 The bishop then went up to Montreal,
and discord went with him.

Except Frontenac alone, Callieres, the local
governor, was the man in all Canada to whom the
country owed most ; but, like his chief, he was a
friend of the Eecollets, and this did not commend
•him to the bishop. The friars were about to re-
ceive two novices into their order, and they invited
the bishop to officiate at the ceremony. Callieres
was also present, kneeling at a prie-dieu, or prayer-
desk, near the middle of the church. Saint-Yallier,
having just said mass, was seating himself in his
arm-chair, close to the altar, when he saw Callieres

i Champigny an Ministre, 24 Oct., 1694. Trouble on this matter had
begun some time before. Me'moire du Roy pour Frontenac et Champiyny,
1694 ; Le Ministre a I'Eveque, 8 Mai, 1694.

2 La M of te- Cadillac a , 28 Sept., 1694; Champigny au Ministre,

27 Oct., 1694.

330 AN INTERLUDE. [1694.

at the prie-dieu, with the position of which he had
already found fault as being too honorable for a
subordinate governor. He now rose, approached
the object of his disapproval, and said, " Monsieur,
you are taking a place which belongs only to Mon-
sieur de Frontenac." Callieres replied that the
place was that which properly belonged to him.
The bishop rejoined that, if he did not leave it, he
himself would leave the church. " You can do as
you please," said Callieres ; and the prelate with-
drew abruptly through the sacristy, refusing any
farther part in the ceremony.1 When the services
were over, he ordered the friars to remove the
obnoxious prie-dieu. They obeyed ; but an officer
of Callieres replaced it, and, unwilling to offend
him, they allowed it to remain. On this, the
bishop laid their church under an interdict; that
is, he closed it against the celebration of all the
rites of religion.2 He then issued a pastoral man-
date, in which he charged Father Joseph Denys,
their superior, with offences which he " dared not
name for fear of making the paper blush." 3 His
tongue was less bashful than his pen ; and he gave
out publicly that the father superior had acted as
go-between in an intrigue of his sister with the

1 Proces-verbal du Pere Hyacinthe Perrault, Commissaire Provincial des
Re'collets {Archives Nationales) ; Me'moire touckant le Demesle entre M.
VEvesque de Quebec et le Chevalier de Callieres (Ibid.).

2 Mandement ordonnant de fermer VEglise des Rccollets, 13 Mai, 1694.

3 "Le Superieur du dit Couvent estant lie avec le Gouverneur de la
dite ville par des interests que tout le monde scait et qu'on n'oseroit ex-
primer de peur de faire rougir le papier." Extrait du Mandement de
VEvesque de Quebec (Archives Nationales). He had before charged
Mareuil with language " capable de faire rougir le ciel."

1694.1 THE QUARREL SPREADS. 331

Chevalier cle Callieres.1 It is said that the accusa-
tion was groundless, and the character of the
woman wholly irreproachable. The Kecollets
submitted for two months to the bishop's inter-
dict, then refused to obey longer, and opened
their church again.

Quebec, Three Rivers, Sorel, and Montreal had
all been ruffled by the breeze of these dissensions,
and the farthest outposts of the wilderness were
not too remote to feel it. La Motte-Cadillac had
been sent to replace Louvigny in the command of
Michillimackinac, where he had scarcely arrived,
when trouble fell upon him. " Poor Monsieur de
la Motte-Cadillac," says Frontenac, " would have
sent you a journal to show you the persecutions
he has suffered at the post where I placed him, and
where he does wonders, having great influence
over the Indians, who both love and fear him, but
he has had no time to copy it. Means have been
found to excite against him three or four officers
of the posts dependent on his, who have put upon
him such strange and unheard of affronts, that I
was obliged to send them to prison when they came
down to the colony. A certain Father Carheil, the
Jesuit who wrote me such insolent letters a few

l " ]\jr l'Evesque accuse publiquement le Rev. Pere Joseph, superieur
des Recollets de Montreal, d'etre l'entremetteur d'une galanterie entre
sa soeur et le Gouverneur. Cependant Mr. l'Evesque sait certainement
que le Pere Joseph est l'un des meilleurs et des plus saints religieux de
son ordre. Ce qu'il allegue du pre'tendu commerce entre le Gouverneur
et la Dame de la Naudiere (soeur du Pere Joseph) est entierement faux, et
il l'a publie avec scandale, sans preuve et contre toute apparence, la ditte
Dame ayant toujours eu une conduite irreprochable." Me'moire touchant
le De'mesle, etc. Champigny also says that the bishop has brought this
charge, and that Callieres declares that he has told a falsehood. Cham-
pigny au Ministre, 27 Oct., 1694.

332 AN INTERLUDE. [1094.

years ago, has played an amazing part in this affair.
I shall write about it to Father La Chaise, that he
may set it right. Some remedy must be found ;
for, if it continues, none of the officers who were
sent to Michillimackinac, the Miamis, the Illinois,
and other places, can stay there on account of the
persecutions to which they are subjected, and the
refusal of absolution as soon as they fail to do what
is wanted of them. Joined to all this is a shame-
ful traffic in influence and money. Monsieur cle
Tonty could have written to you about it, if he had
not been obliged to go off to the Assinneboins, to
rid himself of all these torments." L In fact, there
was a chronic dispute at the forest outposts be-
tween the officers and the Jesuits, concerning which
matter much might be said on both sides.

The bishop sailed for France. " He has gone,"
writes Callieres, " after quarrelling with everybody."
The various points in dispute were set before the
king. An avalanche of memorials, letters, and
proces-verhaux, descended upon the unfortunate
monarch ; some concerning Mareuil and the quar-
rels in the council, others on the excommunication
of Desjordis, and others on the troubles at Mon-
treal. They were all referred to the king's privy
council.2 An adjustment was effected : order, if
not harmony, wras restored ; and the usual distribu-
tion of advice, exhortation, reproof, and menace,
was made to the parties in the strife. Frontenac
was commended for defending the royal preroga-

1 Frontenac a M. de Lagny, 2 Nov., 1695.

2 Arrest qui ordonne que les Procedures faites entre le Sieur Evesque de
Qn€bec et les Sieurs Mareuil, Desjordis, etc., seront evoquez au Conseil Priv€
de Sa Majeste, 3 Juillet, 1695.

1695.] LIBEL AGAINST FRONTENAC. 333

tive, censured for violence, and admonished to avoid
future quarrels.1 Champigny was reproved for not
supporting the governor, and told that " his Maj-
esty sees with great pain that, while he is making
extraordinary efforts to sustain Canada at a time
so critical, all his cares and all his outlays are made
useless by your misunderstanding with Monsieur
de Frontenac." 2 The attorney-general was sharply
reprimanded, told that he must mend his ways or
lose his place, and ordered to make an apology to
the governor.3 Villeray was not honored by a
letter, but the intendant was directed to tell him
that his behavior had greatly disposed the king.
Callieres was mildly advised not to take part in the
disputes of the bishop and the Kecollets.4 Thus
was conjured clown one of the most bitter as well
as the most needless, trivial, and untimely, of the
quarrels that enliven the annals of New France.

A generation later, when its incidents had faded
from memory, a passionate and reckless partisan,
Abbe La Tour, published, and probably invented,
a story which later writers have copied, till it now
forms an accepted episode of Canadian history. Ac-
cording to him, Frontenac, in order to ridicule the
clergy, formed an amateur company of comedians
expressly to play " Tartuffe ; " and, after rehearsing
at the chateau during three or four months, they
acted the piece before a large audience. " He was
not satisfied with having it played at the chateau,
but wanted the actors and actresses and the dan-

1 Le Ministre a Frontenac, 4 Juin, 1695 ; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1695.

2 Le Ministre a Champigny, 4 Juin, 1695; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1695.

3 Le Ministre a d'Auteuil, 8 Juin, 1695.

4 Le Ministre a Callieres. 8 Juin, 1695.

334 AN INTERLUDE. [1694.

cers, male and female, to go in full costume, with
violins, to play it in all the religious communities,
except the Recollets. He took them first to the
house of the Jesuits, where the crowd entered with
him ; then to the Hospital, to the hall of the pau-
pers, whither the nuns were ordered to repair ; then
he went to the Ursuline Convent, assembled the
sisterhood, and had the piece played before them.
To crown the insult, he wanted next to go to the
seminary, and repeat the spectacle there ; but, warn-
ing having been given, he was met on the way, and
begged to refrain. He dared not persist, and with-
drew in very ill-humor." 1

Not one of numerous contemporary papers, both
official and private, and written in great part by
enemies of Frontenac, contains the slightest allu-
sion to any such story, and many of them are
wholly inconsistent with it. It may safely be set
down as a fabrication to blacken the memory of
the governor, and exhibit the bishop and his ad-
herents as victims of persecution.2

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

2 Had an outrage, like that with which Frontenac is here charged,
actually taken place, the registers of the council, the letters of the in-
tendant and the attorney-general, and the records of the bishopric of
Quebec would not have failed to show it. They show nothing beyond
a report that " Tartuffe " was to be played, and a payment of money by the
bishop in order to prevent it. We are left to infer that it was prevented
accordingly. I have the best authority — that of the superior of the
convent (1871), herself a diligent investigator into the history of her com-
munity— for stating that neither record nor tradition of the occurrence
exists among the Ursulines of Quebec ; and I have been unable to learn

^that any such exists among the nuns of the Hospital (Hotel-l)ieu). The
contemporary Recit d'une Religieuse Ursuline speaks of Frontenac with
gratitude, as a friend and benefactor, as does also Mother Juchereau,
superior of the Hotel-Dieu.

CHAPTEK XVI.

1690-1694.
THE WAR IN ACADIA.

State of that Colony. — The Abenakis. — Acadia and New
England. — Pirates. — Baron de Saint-Castin. — Pentegoet.

— The English Frontier. — The French and the Abenakis.

— Plan of the War. — Capture of York. — Villebon. —
Grand War-party. — Attack of Wells. — Pemaquid rebuilt.

— John Nelson. — A Broken Treaty. — Villieu and Thury.

— Another War-party. — Massacre at Oyster River.

Amid domestic strife, the war with England and
the Iroquois still went on. The contest for terri-
torial mastery was fourfold : first, for the control
of the west ; secondly, for that of Hudson's Bay ;
thirdly, for that of Newfoundland ; and, lastly, for
that of Acadia. All these vast and widely sundered
regions were included in the government of Fron-
tenac. Each division of the war was distinct from
the rest, and each had a character of its own. As
the contest for the west was wholly with New York
and her Iroquois allies, so the contest for Acadia was
wholly with the " Bostonnais," or people of New
England.

Acadia, as the French at this time understood
the name, included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
and the greater part of Maine. Sometimes they

336 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90.

placed its western boundary at the little River St.
George, and sometimes at the Kennebec. Since
the wars of D'Aulnay and La Tour, this wilderness
had been a scene of unceasing strife ; for the Eng-
lish drew their eastern boundary at the St. Croix,
and the claims of the rival nationalities overlapped
each other. In the time. of Cromwell, Sedgwick, a
New England officer, had seized the whole country.
The peace of Breda restored it to France : the
Chevalier cle Grandfontaine was ordered to reoccupy
it, and the king sent out a few soldiers, a few
settlers, and a few women as their wives.1 Grand-
fontaine held the nominal command for a time,
followed by a succession of military chiefs, Chambly,
Marson, and La Valliere. Then Perrot, whose mal-
practices had cost him the government of Montreal,
was made governor of Acaclia; and, as he did not
mend his ways, he was replaced by Meneval.2

One might have sailed for days along these
lonely coasts, and seen no human form. At Can-
seau, or Chedabucto, at the eastern end of Nova
Scotia, there was a fishing station and a fort ; Chi-
buctou, now Halifax, was a solitude ; at La Heve
there were a few fishermen ; and thence, as you
doubled the rocks of Cape Sable, the ancient haunt
of La Tour, you would have seen four French
settlers, and an unlimited number of seals and sea-

1 In 1671, 30 garqons and 30 Jilles were sent by the king to Acadia, at
the cost of 6,000 livres. Etat de Dfyenses, 1671.

2 Grandfontaine, 1670; Chambly, 1673 ; Marson, 1678 ; La Valliere,
the same year, Marson having died; Perrot, 1684; Meneval, 1687. The
last three were commissioned as local governors, in subordination to the
governor-general. The others were merely military commandants.

1670-90.] STATE OF ACADIA. 337

fowl. Eanging the shore by St. Mary's Bay, and
entering the Strait of Annapolis Basin, you would
have found the fort of Port Royal, the chief place
of all Acadia. It stood at the head of the basin,
where De Monts had planted his settlement nearly
a century before. Around the fort and along the
neighboring river were about ninety-five small
houses ; and at the head of the Bay of Fundy were
two other settlements, Beaubassin and Les Mines,
comparatively stable and populous. At the mouth
of the St. John were the abandoned ruins of La
Tour's old fort ; and on a spot less exposed, at
some distance up the river, stood the small wooden
fort of Jemsec, with a few intervening clearings.
Still sailing westward, passing Mount Desert, an-
other scene of ancient settlement, and entering
Penobscot Bay, you would have found the Baron
de Saint-Castin with his Indian harem at Pente-
goet, where the town of Castine now stands. All
Acadia was comprised in these various stations,
more or less permanent, together with one or two
small posts on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the
huts of an errant population of fishermen and fur
traders. In the time of Denonville, the colonists
numbered less than a thousand souls. The king,
busied with nursing Canada, had neglected its less
important dependency.1

Rude as it was, Acadia had charms, and it has
them still : in its wilderness of woods and its

1 The census taken by order of Meules in 1686 gives a total of 885
persons, of whom 592 were at Port Royal, and 127 at Beaubassin. By
the census of 1693, the number had reached 1,009.

22

338 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90.

wilderness of waves ; the rocky ramparts that guard
its coasts ; its deep, still bays and foaming head-
lands ; the towering cliffs of the Grand Menan ; the
innumerable islands that cluster about Penobscot
Bay ; and the romantic highlands of Mount Desert,
down whose gorges the sea-fog rolls like an invad-
ing host, while the spires of fir-trees pierce the
surging vapors like lances in the smoke of battle.

Leaving Pentegoet, and sailing westward all day
along a solitude of woods, one might reach the
English outpost of Pemaquid, and thence, still
sailing on, might anchor at evening off Casco Bay,
and see in the glowing west the distant peaks of
the White Mountains, spectral and dim amid the
weird and fiery sunset.

Inland Acadia was all forest, and vast tracts of
it are a primeval forest still. Here roamed the
Abenakis with their kindred tribes, a race wild as
their haunts. In habits they were all much alike.
Their villages were on the waters of the Andro-
scoggin, the Saco, the Kennebec, the Penobscot, the
St. Croix, and the St. John ; here in spring they
planted their corn, beans, and pumpkins, and then,
leaving them to grow, went down to the sea in
their birch canoes. They returned towards the
end of summer, gathered their harvest, and went
again to the sea, where they lived in abundance on
ducks, geese, and other water-fowl. During winter,
most of the women, children, and old men remained
in the villages ; while the hunters ranged the forest
in chase of moose, deer, caribou, beavers, and bears.

Their summer stay at the seashore was perhaps

1670-90.] THE ABENAKIS. 339

the most pleasant, and certainly the most pictur-
esque, part of their lives. Bivouacked by some of
the innumerable coves and inlets that indent these
coasts, they passed their days in that alternation
of indolence and action which is a second nature to
the Indian. Here in wet weather, while the torpid
water was dimpled with rain-drops, and the up-
turned canoes lay idle on the pebbles, the listless
warrior smoked his pipe under his roof of bark, or
launched his slender craft at the dawn of the July
day, when shores and islands were painted in shadow
against the rosy east, and forests, dusky and cool,
lay waiting for the sunrise.

The women gathered raspberries or whortle-
berries in the open places of the woods, or clams
and oysters in the sands and shallows, adding their
shells as a contribution to the shell-heaps that have
accumulated for ages along these shores. The men
fished, speared porpoises, or shot seals. A priest
was often in the camp watching over his flock, and
saying mass every day in a chapel of bark. There
was no lack of altar candles, made by mixing tal-
low with the wax of the bayberry, which abounded
among the rocky hills, and was gathered in profu-
sion by the squaws and children.

The Abenaki missions were a complete success.
Not only those of the tribe who had been induced
to migrate to the mission villages of Canada, but
also those who remained in their native woods,
were, or were soon to become, converts to Roman-
ism, and therefore allies of France. Though less
ferocious than the Iroquois, they were brave, after

340 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90.

the Indian manner, and they rarely or never prac-
tised cannibalism.

Some of the French were as lawless as their In-
dian friends. Nothing is more strange than the
incongruous mixture of the forms of feudalism with
the independence of the Acadian woods. Vast
grants of land were made to various persons, some
of whom are charged with using them for no other
purpose than roaming over their domains with In-
dian women. The only settled agricultural popu-
lation was at Port Eoyal, Beaubassin, and the
Basin of Minas. The rest were fishermen, fur
traders, or rovers of the forest. Eepeated orders
came from the court to open a communication with
Quebec, and even to establish a line of military
posts through the intervening wilderness, but the
distance and the natural difficulties of the country
proved insurmountable obstacles. If communica-
tion with Quebec was difficult, that with Boston
was easy ; and thus Acadia became largely depen-
dent on its New England neighbors, who, says an
Acadian officer, " are mostly fugitives from Eng-
land, guilty of the death of their late king, and
accused of conspiracy against their present sover-
eign ; others of them are pirates, and they are all
united in a sort of independent republic." 1 Their
relations with the Acadians were of a mixed sort.
They continually encroached on Acadian fishing
grounds, and we hear at one time of a hundred of
their vessels thus engaged. This was not all. The
interlopers often landed and traded with the Indians

1 Me'moire du Sieur Bergicr, 1685.

1670-90.] HERESY. 341

along the coast. Meneval, the governor, com-
plained bitterly of their arrogance. Sometimes, h\
is said, they pretended to be foreign pirates, and
plundered vessels and settlements, while the ag-
grieved parties could get no redress at Boston.
They also carried on a regular trade at Port Koyal
and Les Mines or Grand Pre, where many of the
inhabitants regarded them with a degree of favor
which gave great umbrage to the military authori-
ties, who, nevertheless, are themselves accused of
seeking their own profit by dealings with the here-
tics ; and even French priests, including Petit, the
cure of Port Royal, are charged with carrying on
this illicit trade in their own behalf, and in that of
the seminary of Quebec. The settlers caught from
the " Bostonnais " what their governor stigmatizes
as English and parliamentary ideas, the chief effect
of which was to make them restive under his rule.
The Church, moreover, was less successful in ex-
cluding heresy from Acadia than from Canada. A
number of Huguenots established themselves at
Port Royal, and formed sympathetic relations with
the Boston Puritans. The bishop at Quebec was
much alarmed. " This is dangerous," he writes.
" I pray your Majesty to put an end to these dis-
orders." 1

A sort of chronic warfare of aggression and re-

1 L'J^veque au Roy, 10 Nov., 1683. For the preceding pages, the au-
thorities are chiefly the correspondence of Grandfontaine, Marson, La
Valliere, Meneval, Bergier, Goutins, Perrot, Talon, Frontenac, and other
officials. A large collection of Acadian documents, from the archives of
Paris, is in my possession. I have also examined the Acadian collections
made for the government of Canada and for that of Massachusetts.

342 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90.

prisal, closely akin to piracy, was carried on at
intervals in Acadian waters by French private
armed vessels on one hand, and New England
private armed vessels on the other. Genuine
pirates also frequently appeared. They were of
various nationality, though usually buccaneers
from the West Indies. They preyed on New Eng-
land trading and fishing craft, and sometimes at-
tacked French settlements. One of their most
notorious exploits was the capture of two French
vessels and a French fort at Chedabucto by a pirate,
manned in part, it is said, from Massachusetts.1 A
similar proceeding of earlier date was the act of
Dutchmen from St. Domingo. They made a
descent on the French fort of Pentegoet, on Pen-
obscot Bay. Chambly, then commanding for the
king in Acadia, was in the place. They assaulted
his works, wounded him, took him prisoner, and
carried him to Boston, where they held him at
ransom. His young ensign escaped into the woods,
and carried the news to Canada ; but many months
elapsed before Chambly was released.2

This young ensign was Jean Vincent de l'Abadie,
Baron de Saint-Castin, a native of Beam, on the
slopes of the Pyrenees, the same rough, strong soil

1 Meneval, Memoire, 1688 ; Denonville, Me'moire, 18 Oct., 1688 ; Proces-
verbal du Pillage de Chedabucto ; Relation de la Boullaye, 1688.

2 Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674 ; Frontenac a Leverett, gouverneur
de Boston, 24 Sept., 1674 ; Frontenac to the Governor and Council of Massa-
chusetts, 25 May, 1675 (see 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 64) ; Colbert a Frontenac,
15 May, 1675. Frontenac supposed the assailants to be buccaneers.
They had, however, a commission from William of Orange. Hutchin-
son says that the Dutch again took Pentegoet in 1676, but were driven
off by ships from Boston, as the English claimed the place for them-
selves.

1670-90.] BARON DE SAINT-CASTIN. 343

that gave to France her Henri IV. When fifteen
years of age, he came to Canada with the regiment
of Carignan-Salieres, ensign in the company of
Chambly ; and, when the regiment was disbanded,
he followed his natural bent, and betook himself
to the Acadian woods. At this time there was a
square bastioned fort at Pentegoet, mounted with
twelve small cannon ; but after the Dutch attack it
fell into decay.1 Saint-Castin, meanwhile, roamed
the woods with the Indians, lived like them, formed
connections more or less permanent with their
women, became himself a chief, and gained such
ascendency over his red associates that, according
to La Hontan, they looked upon him as their
tutelary god. He was bold, hardy, adroit, tena-
cious ; and, in spite of his erratic habits, had such
capacity for business, that, if we may believe the
same somewhat doubtful authority, he made a
fortune of three or four hundred thousand crowns.
His gains came chiefly through his neighbors of
New England, whom he hated, but to whom he
sold his beaver skins at an ample profit. His
trading house was at Pentegoet, now called Castine,
in or near the old fort ; a perilous spot, which he
occupied or abandoned by turns, according to the
needs of the time. Being a devout Catholic he
wished to add a resident priest to his establishment

1 On its condition in 1670, Estat du Fort et Place de Pentegoet fit it en
I'anne'e 1670, lorsque les Anglois I'ont rendu. In 1671, fourteen soldiers and
eight laborers were settled near the fort. Talon au Ministre, 2 Nov.,
1671. In the next year, Talon recommends an envoi de Jilles for the
benefit of Pentegoet. Me'moire stir le Canada, 1672. As late as 1698, we
find Acadian officials advising the reconstruction of the fort.

344 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90.

for the conversion of his Indian friends ; but, ob-
serves Father Petit of Port Royal, who knew him
well, " he himself has need of spiritual aid to sustain
him in the paths of virtue." ! He usually made two
visits a year to Port Royal, where he gave liberal
gifts to the church of which he was the chief
patron, attended mass with exemplary devotion,
and then, shriven of his sins, returned to his
squaws at Pentegoet. Perrot, the governor, ma-
ligned him ; the motive, as Saint- Castin says, being
jealousy of his success in trade, for Perrot himself
traded largely with the English and the Indians.
This, indeed, seems to have been his chief occupa-
tion; and, as Saint-Castin was his principal rival,
they were never on good terms. Saint-Castin
complained to Denonville. " Monsieur Petit," he
writes, " will tell you every thing. I will only say
that he (Pe?Tot) kept me under arrest from the
twenty-first of April to the ninth of June, on pre-
tence of a little weakness I had for some women,
and even told me that he had your orders to do it :
but that is not what troubles him ; and as I do not
believe there is another man under heaven who
will do meaner things through love of gain, even
to selling brandy by the pint and half-pint before
strangers in his own house, because he does not
trust a single one of his servants, — I see plainly
what is the matter with him. He wants to be the
only merchant in Acadia." 2

Perrot was recalled this very year ; and his suc-

1 Petit in Saint- Vallier, Estat de I'Ealise, 39 (1856).

2 Saint-Castin a Denonville, 2 Juiliet, 1687.

1670-90.] PENTEGOET. 345

cessor, Meneval, received instructions in regard
to Saint-Castin, which show that the king or his
minister had a clear idea both of the baron's
merits and of his failings. The new governor was
ordered to require him to abandon " his vagabond
life among the Indians," cease all trade with the
English, and establish a permanent settlement.
Meneval was farther directed to assure him that,
if he conformed to the royal will, and led a life
"more becoming a gentleman," he might expect
to receive proofs of his Majesty's approval.1

In the next year, Meneval reported that he had
represented to Saint-Castin the necessity of reform,
and that in consequence he had abandoned his
trade with the English, given up his squaws, mar-
ried, and promised to try to make a solid settle-
ment.2 True he had reformed before, and might
need to reform again ; but his faults were not of
the baser sort : he held his honor high, and was
free-handed as he was bold. His wife was what
the early chroniclers would call an Indian princess ;
for she was the daughter of Madockawando, chief
of the Penobscots.

So critical was the position of his post at Pente-
goet that a strong fort and a sufficient garrison
could alone hope to maintain it against the pirates
and the " Bostonnais." Its vicissitudes had been
many. Standing on ground claimed by the Eng-
lish, within territory which had been granted to

1 Instruction du Roy au Sieur de Meneval, 5 Avril, 1G87.

2 Me'moire da Sieur de Meneval sur VAcadie, 10 Sept., 1088.

346 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1670-90.

the Duke of York, and which, on his accession to
the throne, became a part of the royal domain, it
was never safe from attack. In 1686, it was plun-
dered by an agent of Dongan. In 1687, it was
plundered again; and in the next year Andros,
then royal governor, anchored before it in his
frigate, the " Rose," landed with his attendants,
and stripped the building of all it contained,
except a small altar with pictures and ornaments,
which they found in the principal room. Saint-
Castin escaped to the woods ; and Andros sent him
word by an Indian that his property would be
carried to Pemaquid, and that he could have it
again by becoming a British subject. He refused
the offer.1

The rival English post of Pemaquid was destroyed,
as we have seen, by the Abenakis in 1689; and, in
the following year, they and their French allies had
made such havoc among the border settlements that
nothing was left east of the Piscataqua except the
villages of Wells, York, and Kittery. But a change
had taken place in the temper of the savages,
mainly due to the easy conquest of Port Royal by
Phips, and to an expedition of the noted partisan
Church by which they had suffered considerable
losses. Fear of the English on one hand, and the
attraction of their trade on the other, disposed
many of them to peace. Six chiefs signed a truce
with the commissioners of Massachusetts, and prom-
ised to meet them in council to bury the hatchet
for ever.

1 M hnoire pr£sent€ au Roy d'Angleterre, 1687 ; Saint-Castin a Dononville,
7 Juillet, 1687; Hutchinson Collection, 562, 563; Andros Tracts, I. 118.

1690-92.] FRENCH AND ABENAKIS. 347

The French were filled with alarm. Peace be-
tween the Abenakis and the " Bostonnais " would be
disastrous both to Acadia and to Canada, because
these tribes held the passes through the northern
wilderness, and, so long as they were in the inter-
est of France, covered the settlements on the St.
Lawrence from attack. Moreover, the government
relied on them to fight its battles. Therefore, no
pains were spared to break off their incipient treaty
with the English, and spur them again to war.
Villebon, a Canadian of good birth, one of the
brothers of Portneuf, was sent by the king to gov-
ern Acadia. Presents for the Abenakis were given
him in abundance ; and he was ordered to assure
them of support, so long as they fought for
France.1 He and his officers were told to join
their war-parties ; while the Canadians, who fol-
lowed him to Acadia, were required to leave all
other employments and wage incessant war against
the English borders. " You yourself," says the
minister, " will herein set them so good an exam-
ple, that they will be animated by no other desire
than that of making profit out of the enemy : there
is nothing which I more strongly urge upon you
than to put forth all your ability and prudence to
prevent the Abenakis from occupying themselves
in any thing but war, and by good management of
the supplies which you have received for their use
to enable them to live by it more to their advan-
tage than by hunting." 2

1 Me'moire pour servir d' Instruction au Sieur de Villebon, 1691.

2 " Comrae vostre principal objet doit estre de faire la guerre sans re-
lache aux Anglois, it faut que vostre plus partieuliere application soit

348 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1690-92.

Armed with these instructions, Villebon re-
paired to his post, where he was joined by a body
of Canadians under Portneuf. His first step was
to reoccupy Port Eoyal ; and, as there was nobody
there to oppose him, he easily succeeded. The set-
tlers renounced allegiance to Massachusetts and
King William, and swore fidelity to their natural
sovereign.1 The capital of Acadia dropped back
quietly into the lap of France ; but, as the " Boston-
nais " might recapture it at any time, Villebon
crossed to the St. John, and built a fort high up
the stream at Naxouat, opposite the present city of
Fredericton. Here no "Bostonnais" could reach
him, and he could muster war-parties at his leisure.

One thing was indispensable. A blow must be
struck that would encourage and excite the Aben-
akis. Some of them had had no part in the truce,
and were still so keen for English blood that a
deputation of their chiefs told Frontenac at Quebec
that they would fight, even if they must head their
arrows with the bones of beasts.2 They were under
no such necessity. Guns, powder, and lead were
given them in abundance ; and Thury, the priest

de detourner de tout autre employ les Francois qui sont avec vous, en
leur donnant de vostre part un si bon exemple en cela qu'ils ne soient
animez que du de'sir de chercher a faire du proffit sur les ennemis. Je
n'ay aussy rien a vous recoramander plus fortement que de mettre en
usage tout ee que vous pouvez avoir de capacite et de prudence afin que
les Canibas (Abenakis) ne s'employent qu'a la guerre, et que par l'eeono-
mie de ce que vous avez a leur fournir ils y puissent trouver leur subsis-
tance et plus d'avantage qu'a la chasse." Le Ministre a Villebon, Avril,
1692. Two years before, the king had ordered that the Abenakis should
be made to attack the English settlements.

1 Proces-verbul de la Prise de Possession du Port Royal, 27 Sept., 1691.

2 Paroles des Sauvages de la Mission de Pentegoet.

1692.] CAPTURE OF YORK. 349

on the Penobscot, urged them to strike the Eng-
lish. A hundred and fifty of his converts took the
war-path, and were joined by a band from the Ken-
nebec. It was January ; and they made their way on
snow-shoes along the frozen streams, and through
the deathly solitudes of the winter forest, till, after
marching a month, they neared their destination,
the frontier settlement of York. In the afternoon
of the fourth of February, they encamped at the
foot of a high hill, evidently Mount Agamenticus,
from the top of which the English village lay in
sight. It was a collection of scattered houses along
the banks of the river Agamenticus and the shore
of the adjacent sea. Five or more of them were
built for defence, though owned and occupied by
families like the other houses. Near the sea stood
the unprotected house of the chief man of the
place, Dummer, the minister. York appears to
have contained from three to four hundred per-
sons of all ages, for the most part rude and ignorant
borderers.

The warriors lay shivering all night in the forest,
not daring to make fires. In the morning, a heavy
fall of snow began. They moved forward, and
soon heard the sound of an axe. It was an English
boy chopping wood. They caught him, extorted
such information as they needed, then tomahawked
him, and moved on, till, hidden by the forest and
the thick snow, they reached the outskirts of the
village. Here they divided into two parties, and each
took its station. A gun was fired as a signal, upon
which they all yelled the war-whoop, and dashed

350 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1692.

upon their prey. One party mastered the nearest
fortified house, which had scarcely a defender but
women. The rest burst into the unprotected
houses, killing or capturing the astonished inmates.
The minister was at his door, in the act of mounting
his horse to visit some distant parishioners, when a
bullet struck him dead. He was a graduate of Har-
vard College, a man advanced in life, of some learn-
ing, and greatly respected. The French accounts
say that about a hundred persons, including women
and children, were killed, and about eighty cap-
tured. Those who could, ran for the fortified
houses of Preble, Harmon, Alcock, and Norton,
which were soon filled with the refugees. The
Indians did not attack them, but kept well out
of gun-shot, and busied themselves in pillaging,
killing horses and cattle, and burning the unpro-
tected houses. They then divided themselves into
small bands, and destroyed all the outlying farms
for four or five miles around.

The wish of King Louis was fulfilled. A good
profit had been made out of the enemy. The
victors withdrew into the forest with their plunder
and their prisoners, among whom were several old
women and a number of children from three to
seven years old. These, with a forbearance which
does them credit, they permitted to return unin-
jured to the nearest fortified house, in requital, it
is said, for the lives of a number of Indian children
spared by the English in a recent attack on the
Androscoggin. The wife of the minister was
allowed to go with them ; but her son remained a

1692.1 VILLEBON AND THE ABEXAETS. 351

risoner. and the agonized mother went back to

Lo

p

the Indian camp to beg for his release. They
again permitted her to return; but, when she
came a second time, they told her that, as she
wanted to be a prisoner, she should have her wish.
She was carried with the rest to their village, where
she soon died of exhaustion and distress. One of
the warriors arrayed himself in the gown of the
slain minister, and preached a mock sermon to the
captive parishioners.1

Leaving York in ashes, the victors began their
march homeward ; while a body of men from Ports-
mouth followed on their trail, but soon lost it, and
failed to overtake them. There was a season of
feasting and scalp-dancing at the Abenaki towns ;
and then, as spring opened, a hundred of the war-
riors set out to visit Villebon, tell him of their
triumph, and receive the promised gifts from their
great father the king. Villebon and his brothers,
Portneuf , Neuvillette, and Desiles, with their Cana-
dian followers, had spent the winter chiefly on the
St. John, finishing their fort at Naxouat, and pre-
paring for future operations. The Abenaki visitors

1 The best French account of the capture of York is that of Cham-
pigny in a letter to the minister, 5 Oct., 1692. His information came
from an Abenaki chief, who was present. The journal of Villebon con-
tains an exaggerated account of the affair, also derived from Indians.
Compare the English accounts in Mather, Williamson, and Xiles. These
writers make the number of slain and captives much less than that given
by the French. In the contemporary journal of Rev. John Pike, it is
placed at 48 killed and 73 taken.

Two fortified houses of this period are still (1875) standing at York.
They are substantial buildings of squared timber, with the upper story
projecting over the lower, so as to allow a vertical fire on the heads of
assailants. In one of them some of the loopholes for musketry are still
left open. They may or may not have been originally enclosed by
palisades.

352 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1692.

arrived towards the end of April, and were received
with all possible distinction. There were speeches,
gifts, and feasting ; for they had clone much, and
were expected to do more. Portneuf sang a war-
song in their language ; then he opened a barrel
of wine: the guests emptied it in less than fifteen
minutes, sang, whooped, danced, and promised to
repair to the rendezvous at Saint-Castin's station of
Pentegoet.1 A grand war-party was afoot ; and a
new and withering blow was to be struck against
the English border. The guests set out for Pente-
goet, followed by Portneuf, Desiles, La Brognerie,
several other officers, and twenty Canadians. A
few days after, a large band of Micmacs arrived ;
then came the Malicite warriors from their village
of Medoctec ; and at last Father Baudoin appeared,
leading another band of Micmacs from his mission
of Beaubassin. Speeches, feasts, and gifts were
made to them all ; and they all followed the rest
to the appointed rendezvous.

At the beginning of June, the site of the town
of Castine was covered with wigwams and the
beach lined with canoes. Malecites and Micmacs,
Abenakis from the Penobscot and Abenakis from
the Kennebec, were here, some four hundred war-
riors in all.2 Here, too, were Portneuf and his
Canadians, the Baron de Saint-Castin and his Indian
father-in-law, Maclockawanclo, with Moxus, Egere-
met, and other noted chiefs, the terror of the Eng-
lish borders. They crossed Penobscot Bay, and
marched upon the frontier village of Wells.

1 Villebon, Journal de ce qui s'est passd a I'Acadie, 1691, 1692.

2 Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Sept., 1692.

1692.] ATTACK ON WELLS. 353

Wells, like York, was a small settlement of scat-
tered houses along the sea-shore. The year be-
fore, Moxus had vainly attacked it with two
hundred warriors. All the neighboring country
had been laid waste by a murderous war of detail,
the lonely farm-houses pillaged and burned, and the
survivors driven back for refuge to the older settle-
ments.1 Wells had been crowded with these refu-
gees ; but famine and misery had driven most of
them beyond the Piscataqua, and the place was
now occupied by a remnant of its own destitute
inhabitants, who, warned by the fate of York, had
taken refuge in five fortified houses. The largest
of these, belonging to Joseph Storer, was surrounded
by a palisade, and occupied by fifteen armed men,
under Captain Convers, an officer of militia. On
the ninth of June, two sloops and a sail-boat ran up
the neighboring creek, bringing supplies and four-
teen more men. The succor came in the nick of
time. The sloops had scarcely anchored, when a
number of cattle were seen running frightened and
wounded from the woods. It was plain that an
enemy was lurking there. All the families of the
place now gathered within the palisades of Storer's
house, thus increasing his force to about thirty
men ; and a close watch was kept throughout the
night.

In the morning, no room was left for doubt.
One John Diamond, on his way from the house to

1 The ravages committed by the Abenakis in the preceding year
among the scattered farms of Maine and New Hampshire are said by
Frontenac to have been " impossible to describe." Another French
writer says that they burned more than 200 houses.

23

354 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1692.

the sloops, was seized by Indians and dragged off
by the hair. Then the whole body of savages ap-
peared swarming over the fields, so confident of
success that they neglected their usual tactics of
surprise. A French officer, who, as an old English
account says, was " habited like a gentleman,"
made them an harangue : they answered with a
burst of yells, and then attacked the house, firing,
screeching, and calling on Convers and his men to
surrender. Others gave their attention to the two
sloops, which lay together in the narrow creek,
stranded by the ebbing tide. They fired at them
for a while from behind a pile of planks on the
shore, and threw many fire-arrows without success,
the men on board fighting with such cool and dex-
terous obstinacy that they held them all at bay,
and lost but one of their own number. Next, the
Canadians made a huge shield of planks, which
they fastened vertically to the back of a cart. La
Brognerie wTith twenty-six men, French and In-
dians, got behind it, and shoved the cart towards
the stranded sloops. It was within fifty feej; of
them, when a wheel sunk in the mud, and the ma-
chine stuck fast. La Brognerie tried to lift the
wheel, and wTas shot dead. The tide began to rise.
A Canadian tried to escape, and was also shot.
The rest then broke away together, some of them,
as they ran, dropping under the bullets of the
sailors.

The whole force now gathered for a final attack
on the garrison house. Their appearance was so
frightful, and their clamor so appalling, that one

1692.] FRENCH REPULSE. 355

of the English muttered something about surren-
der. Convers returned, " If you say that again,
you are a dead man." Had the allies made a bold
assault, he and his followers must have been over-
powered ; but this mode of attack was contrary to
Indian maxims. They merely leaped, yelled, fired,
and called on the English to yield. They were
answered with derision. The women in the house
took part in the defence, passed ammunition to the
men, and sometimes fired themselves on the ene-
my. The Indians at length became discouraged,
and offered Convers favorable terms. He answered,
" I want nothing but men to fight with." An
Abenaki who spoke English cried out : "If you
are so bold, why do you stay in a garrison house
like a squaw ? Come out and fight like a man ! "
Convers retorted, " Do you think I am fool enough
to come out with thirty men to fight five hundred ? "
Another Indian shouted, " Damn you, we'll cut you
small as tobacco before morning." Convers re-
turned a contemptuous defiance.

After a while, they ceased firing, and dispersed
about the neighborhood, butchering cattle and burn-
ing the church and a few empty houses. As the
tide began to ebb, they sent a fire-raft in full blaze
down the creek to destroy the sloops ; but it
stranded, and the attempt failed. They now
wreaked their fury on the prisoner Diamond, whom
they tortured to death, after which they all disap-
peared. A few resolute men had foiled one of the
most formidable bands that ever took the war-path
in Acadia.1

1 Villebon, Journal de ce qui s'est passe a I'Acadie, 1691, 1692; Mather,

356 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1692.

The warriors dispersed to their respective haunts ;
and, when a band of them reached the St. John,
Villebon coolly declares that he gave them a pris-
oner to burn. They put him to death with all their
ingenuity of torture. The act, on the part of the
governor, was more atrocious, as it had no motive
of reprisal, and as the burning of prisoners was not
the common practice of these tribes.1

The Avarlike ardor of the Abenakis cooled after
the failure at Wells, and events that soon followed
nearly extinguished it. Phips had just received
his preposterous appointment to the government of
Massachusetts. To the disgust of its inhabitants,
the stubborn colony was no longer a republic. The
new governor, unfit as he was for his office, under-
stood the needs of the eastern frontier, where he
had spent his youth ; and he brought a royal order

Magnolia, II. 613 ; Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., II. 67 ; Williamson, History
of Maine, I. 631 ; Bourne, History of Wells, 213; Niles, Indian and French
Wars, 229. Williamson, like Sylvanus Davis, calls Portneuf Burneffe
or Burniffe. He, and other English writers, call La Brognerie Labocree.
The French could not recover his body, on which, according to Niles and
others, was found a pouch " stuffed full of relics, pardons, and indul-
gences." The prisoner Diamond told the captors that there were thirty
men in the sloops. They believed him, and were cautious accordingly.
There were, in fact, but fourteen. Most of the fighting was on the tenth.
On the evening of that day, Convers received a reinforcement of six
men. They were a scouting party, whom he had sent a few days be-
fore in the direction of Salmon River. Returning, they were attacked,
when near the garrison house, by a party of Portneuf s Indians. The
sergeant in command instantly shouted, " Captain Convers, send your
men round the hill, and we shall catch these dogs." Thinking that Con-
vers had made a sortie, the Indians ran off, and the scouts joined the
garrison without loss.

1 " Le 18me (Aout) un sauvage anglois fut pris au bas de la riviere de
St. Jean. Je le donnai a nos sauvages pour estre brule', ce qu'ils firent le
lendemain. On ne peut rien adjouter aux tourmens qu'ils luy firent
souffrir." Villebon, Journal, 1691, 1692.

1692.] JOHN NELSON. 357

to rebuild the ruined fort at Pemaquid. The king
gave the order, but neither men, money, nor mu-
nitions to execute it ; and Massachusetts bore all
the burden. Phips went to Pemaquid, laid out the
work, and left a hundred men to finish it. A
strong fort of stone was built, the abandoned can-
non of Casco mounted on its walls, and sixty men
placed in garrison.

The keen military eye of Frontenac saw the
clanger involved in the re-establishment of Pema-
quid. Lying far in advance of the other English
stations, it barred the passage of war-parties along
the coast, and was a standing menace to the Abe-
nakis. It was resolved to capture it. Two ships
of war, lately arrived at Quebec, the " Poli " and the
" Envieux," were ordered to sail for Acadia with
above four hundred men, take on board two or
three hundred Indians at Pentegoet, reduce Pema-
quid, and attack Wells, Portsmouth, and the Isles
of Shoals; after which, they were to scour the
Acadian seas of " Bostonnais " fishermen.

At this time, a gentleman of Boston, John Nel-
son, captured by Villebon the year before, was a
prisoner at Quebec. Nelson was nephew and heir
of Sir Thomas Temple, in whose right he claimed
the proprietorship of Acadia, under an old grant
of Oliver Cromwell. He was familiar both with
that country and with Canada, which he had vis-
ited several times before the war. As he was a
man of birth and breeding, and a declared enemy
of Phips, and as he had befriended French pris-
oners, and shown especial kindness to Meneval, the

358 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1693.

captive governor of Acadia, he was treated with
distinction by Frontenac, who, though he knew
him to be a determined enemy of the French,
lodged him at the chateau, and entertained him at
his own table.1 Madockawando, the father-in-law
of Saint-Castin, made a visit to Frontenac ; and
Nelson, who spoke both French and Indian, con-
trived to gain from him and from other sources a
partial knowledge of the intended expedition. He
was not in favor at Boston ; for, though one of the
foremost in the overthrow of Andros, his creed and
his character savored more of the Cavalier than of
the Puritan. This did not prevent him from risk-
ing his life for the colony. He wrote a letter to
the authorities of Massachusetts, and then bribed
two soldiers to desert and carry it to them. The
deserters were hotly pursued, but reached their
destination, and delivered their letter. The two
ships sailed from Quebec ; but when, after a long
delay at Mount Desert, they took on board the In-
dian allies and sailed onward to Pemaquid, they
found an armed ship from Boston anchored in the
harbor. Why they did not attack it, is a mystery.
The defences of Pemaquid were still unfinished,
the French force was far superior to the English,
and Iberville, who commanded it, was a leader of
unquestionable enterprise and daring. Neverthe-
less, the French did nothing, and soon after bore
away for France. Frontenac was indignant, and
severely blamed Iberville, whose sister was on

1 Champigny au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1693.

1693.] ENGLISH PLOT. 359

board his ship, and was possibly the occasion of
his inaction.1

Thus far successful, the authorities of Boston
undertook an enterprise little to their credit. They
employed the two deserters, joined with two Aca-
dian prisoners, to kidnap Saint-Castin, whom, next
to the priest Thury, they regarded as their most
insidious enemy. The Acaclians revealed the plot,
and the two soldiers were shot at Mount Desert.
Nelson was sent to France, imprisoned two years
in a dungeon of the Chateau of Angouleme, and
then placed in the Bastile. Ten years passed
before he was allowed to return to his family at
Boston.2

The French failure at Pemaquid completed the
discontent of the Abenakis ; and despondency and

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1693.

2 Lagny, Me'moire surl'Acadie, 1692 ; Memoire sur V Enlevement de Saint-
Castin; Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1693; Relation de ce qui s' 'est pause
de plus remarquable, 1690, 1691 (capture of Nelson) ; Frontenac au Min-
istre, 15 Sept., 1692; Champigny au Ministre, 15 Oct., 161)2. Chainpigny
here speaks of Nelson as the most audacious of the English, and the most
determined on the destruction of the French. Nelson's letter to the
authorities of Boston is printed in Hutchinson, I. 338. It does not warn
them of an attempt against Pemaquid, of the rebuilding of which he
seems not to have heard, but only of a design against the seaboard towns.
Compare N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 555. In the same collection is a Me-
morial on the Northern Colonies, by Nelson, a paper showing much good
sense and penetration. After an imprisonment of four and a half years,
he was allowed to go to England on parole ; a friend in France giving
security of 15,000 livres for his return, in case of his failure to procure
from the king an order for the fulfilment of the terms of the capitulation
of Port Royal. (Le Ministre a Be'gon, 13 Jan., 1694.) He did not succeed,
and the king forbade him to return. It is characteristic of him that he
preferred to disobey the royal order, and thus incur the high displeasure
of his sovereign, rather than break his parole and involve his friend in
loss. La Hontan calls him a "fort galant homme." There is a portrait
of him at Boston, where his descendants are represented by the prom-
inent families of Derby and Borland.

360 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1693.

terror seized them when, in the spring of 1693,
Convers, the defender of Wells, ranged the fron-
tier with a strong party of militia, and built another
stone fort at the falls of the Saco. In July, they
opened a conference at Pemaquid ; and, in August,
thirteen of their chiefs, representing, or pretending
to represent, all the tribes from the Merrimac to
the St. Croix, came again to the same place to con-
clude a final treaty of peace with the commissioners
of Massachusetts. They renounced the French
alliance, buried the hatchet, declared themselves
British subjects, promised to give up all prisoners,
and left five of their chief men as hostages.1 The
frontier breathed again. Security and hope re-
turned to secluded dwellings buried in a treacher-
ous forest, where life had been a nightmare of
horror and fear; and the settler could go to his
work without dreading to find at evening his cabin
burned and his wife and children murdered. He
was fatally deceived, for the danger was not past.
It is true that some of the Abenakis were sin-
cere in their pledges of peace. A party among
them, headed by Madockawando, were dissatisfied
writh the French, anxious to recover their captive
countrymen, and eager to reopen trade with the
English. But there was an opposing party, led
by the chief Taxous, who still breathed war ; while
between the two was an unstable mob of warriors,
guided by the impulse of the hour.2 The French

1 For the treaty in full, Mather, Magnolia, II. 625.

2 The state of feeling among the Abenakis is shown in a letter of
Thury to Frontenac, 11 Sept., 1694, and in the journal of Villebon for
1693.

1694.] VILLIEU. 361

spared no efforts to break off the peace. The two
missionaries, Bigot on the Kennebec and Thury on
the Penobscot, labored with unwearied energy to
urge the savages to war. The governor, Villebon,
flattered them, feasted them, adopted Taxous as
his brother, and, to honor the occasion, gave him
his own best coat. Twenty-five hundred pounds
of gunpowder, six thousand pounds of lead, and a
multitude of other presents, were given this year
to the Indians of Acadia.1 Two of their chiefs had
been sent to Versailles. They now returned, in
gay attire, their necks hung with medals, and their
minds filled with admiration, wonder, and bewilder-
ment.

The special duty of commanding Indians had
fallen to the lot of an officer named Villieu, who
had been ordered by the court to raise a war-
party and attack the English. He had lately been
sent to replace Portneuf, who had been charged
with debauchery and peculation. Villebon, angry at
his brother's removal, was on ill terms with his suc-
cessor ; and, though he declares that he did his best
to aid in raising the war-party, Villieu says, on the
contrary, that he was worse than indifferent. The
new lieutenant spent the winter at Naxouat, and
on the first of May went up in a canoe to the Mali-
cite village of Medoctec, assembled the chiefs, and
invited them to war. They accepted the invitation
with alacrity. Villieu next made his way through
the wilderness to the Indian towns of the Penobscot.
On the ninth, he reached the mouth of the Matta-

1 Estat de Munitions, etc., pour les Sauvages de I' Accidie, 1693.

362 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1694.

wamkeag, where he found the chief Taxous, pad-
dled with him down the Penobscot, and, at midnight
on the tenth, landed at a large Indian village, at
or near the place now called Passadumkeag. Here
he found a powerful ally in the Jesuit Vincent
Bigot, who had come from the Kennebec, with
three Abenaki s, to urge their brethren of the Pen-
obscot to break off the peace. The chief envoy
denounced the treaty of Pemaquid as a snare ; and
Villieu exhorted the assembled warriors to follow
him to the English border, where honor and profit
awaited them. But first he invited them to go
back with him to Naxouat to receive their presents
of arms, ammunition, and every thing else that
they needed.

They set out with alacrity. Villieu went with them,
and they all arrived within a week. They were
feasted and gifted to their hearts' content; and
then the indefatigable officer led them back by the
same long and weary routes which he had passed
and repassed before, rocky and shallow streams,
chains of wilderness lakes, threads of water writh-
ing through swamps where the canoes could
scarcely glide among the water-weeds and alders.
Villieu was the only white man. The governor,
as he says, would give him but two soldiers, and
these had run off. Early in June, the whole
flotilla paddled clown the Penobscot to Pentegeot.
Here the Indians divided their presents, which
they found somewhat less ample than they had
imagined. In the midst of their discontent, Ma-
dockawando came from Pemaquid with news that

1694.] THE ABENAKIS HESITATE. 363

the governor of Massachusetts was about to deliver
up the Indian prisoners in his hands, as stipulated
by the treaty. This completely changed the
temper of the warriors. Maclockawanclo declared
loudly for peace, and Villieu saw all his hopes
wrecked. He tried to persuade his disaffected allies
that the English only meant to lure them to de-
struction, and the missionary Thury supported
him with his utmost eloquence. The Indians would
not be convinced ; and their trust in English good
faith was confirmed, when they heard that a min-
ister had just come to Pemaquid to teach their
children to read and write. The news grew worse
and worse. Villieu was secretly informed that
Phips had been off the coast in a frigate, invited
Madockawando and other chiefs on board, and
feasted them in his cabin, after which they had all
thrown their hatchets into the sea, in token of
everlasting peace. Villieu now despaired of his
enterprise, and prepared to return to the St. John ;
when Thury, wise as the serpent, set himself to work
on the jealousy of Taxous, took him aside, and
persuaded him that his rival, Madockawando, had
put a slight upon him in presuming to make peace
without his consent. " The effect was marvellous,"
says Villieu. Taxous, exasperated, declared that
he would have nothing to do with Madockawando's
treaty. The fickle multitude caught the conta-
gion, and asked for nothing but English scalps;
but, before setting out, they must needs go back to
Passadumkeag to finish their preparations.

Villieu again went with them, and on the way his

364 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1694.

enterprise and he nearly perished together. His
canoe overset in a rapid at some distance above
the site of Bangor : he was swept down the current,
his head was dashed against a rock, and his body
bruised from head to foot. For five days he lay
helpless with fever. He had no sooner recovered
than he gave the Indians a war-feast, at which
they all sang the war-song, except Madockawando
and some thirty of his clansmen, whom the others
made the butt of their taunts and ridicule. The
chief began to waver. The officer and the mis-
sionary beset him with presents and persuasion, till
at last he promised to join the rest.

It was the end of June when Villieu and Thury,
with one Frenchman and a hundred and five In-
dians, began their long canoe voyage to the Eng-
lish border. The savages were directed to give no
quarter, and told that the prisoners already in their
hands would insure the safety of their hostages in
the hands of the English.1 More warriors were to
join them from Bigot's mission on the Kennebec.
On the ninth of July, they neared Pemaquid ; but it
was no part of their plan to attack a garrisoned
post. The main body passed on at a safe distance ;
while Villieu approached the fort, dressed and
painted like an Indian, and accompanied by two
or three genuine savages, carrying a packet of
furs, as if on a peaceful errand of trade. Such visits
from Indians had been common since the treaty ;
and, while his companions bartered their beaver

1 Villebon, Memoire, Juillet, 1694 ; Instruction du Sr. de Villebon au Sr.
de Villieu.

1604.] ATTACK AT OYSTER RIVER. 365

skins with the unsuspecting soldiers, he strolled
about the neighborhood and made a plan of the
works. The party was soon after joined by Bigot's
Indians, and the united force now amounted to two
hundred and thirty. They held a council to deter-
mine where they should make their attack, but
opinions differed. Some were for the places west
of Boston, and others for those nearer at hand.
Necessity decided them. Their provisions were gone,
and Villieu says that he himself was dying of hun-
ger. They therefore resolved to strike at the
nearest settlement, that of Oyster River, now Dur-
ham, about twelve miles from Portsmouth. They
cautiously moved forward, and sent scouts in ad-
vance, who reported that the inhabitants kept no
watch. In fact, a messenger from Phips had as-
sured them that the war was over, and that they
could follow their usual vocations without fear.

Villieu and his band waited till night, and then
made their approach. There was a small village ;
a church ; a mill ; twelve fortified houses, occupied
in most cases only by families ; and many unpro-
tected farm-houses, extending several miles along
the stream. The Indians separated into bands, and,
stationing themselves for a simultaneous attack at
numerous points, lay patiently waiting till towards
day. The moon was still bright when the first
shot gave the signal, and the slaughter began.
The two palisaded houses of Adams and Drew,
without garrisons, were taken immediately, and the
families butchered. Those of Edgerly, Beard, and
Medar were abandoned, and most of the inmates

366 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1694.

escaped. The remaining seven were successfully
defended, though several of them were occupied
only by the families which owned them. One of
these, belonging to Thomas Bickford, stood by the
river near the lower end of the settlement. Roused
by the firing, he placed his wife and children in a
boat, sent them down the stream, and then went
back alone to defend his dwelling. When the In-
dians appeared, he fired on them, sometimes from
one loophole and sometimes from another, shout-
ing the word of command to an imaginary garrison,
and showing himself with a different hat, cap, or
coat, at different parts of the building. The In-
dians were afraid to approach, and he saved both
family and home. One Jones, the owner of an-
other of these fortified houses, was wakened by the
barking of his clogs, and went out, thinking that
his hog-pen was visited by wolves. The flash of a
gun in the twilight of the morning showed the true
nature of the attack. The shot missed him nar-
rowly ; and, entering the house again, he stood on
his defence, when the Indians, after firing for some
time from behind a neighboring rock, withdrew
and left him in peace. Woodman's garrison house,
though occupied by a number of men, was attacked
more seriously, the Indians keeping up a long and
brisk fire from behind a riclge where they lay
sheltered ; but they hit nobody, and at length
disappeared.1

Among the unprotected houses, the carnage was

1 Woodman's garrison house is still standing, having been carefully
preserved by his descendants.

1694.] MASSACRE. 367

horrible. A hundred and four persons, chiefly
women and children half naked from their beds,
were tomahawked, shot, or killed by slower and
more painful methods. Some escaped to the forti-
fied houses, and others hid in the woods. Twenty-
seven were kept alive as prisoners. Twenty or
more houses were burned ; but, what is remark-
able, the church was spared. Father Thury entered
it during the massacre, and wrote with chalk on
the pulpit some sentences, of which the purport is
not preserved, as they were no doubt in French or
Latin.

Thury said mass, and then the victors retreated
in a body to the place where they had hidden their
canoes. Here Taxous, dissatisfied with the scalps
that he and his band had taken, resolved to have
more ; and with fifty of his own warriors, joined by
others from the Kennebec, set out on a new enter-
prise. " They mean," writes Villieu in his diary,
" to divide into bands of four or fi.Ye, and knock
people in the head by surprise, which cannot fail
to produce a good effect." 1 They did in fact fall
a few days after on the settlements near Groton,
and killed some forty persons.

Having heard from one of the prisoners a rumor
of ships on the way from England to attack Quebec,
Villieu thought it necessary to inform Frontenac
at once. Attended by a few Indians, he travelled
four days and nights, till he found Bigot at an

1 " Casser des testes a la surprise apres s'estre divises en plusieurs
bandes de quatre au cinq, ce qui ne peut manquer de faire un bon effect."
Villieu, Relation.

368 THE WAR IN ACAl5lA. [1694.

Abenaki fort on the Kennebec. His Indians were
completely exhausted. He took others in their
place, pushed forward again, reached Quebec on
the twenty-second of August, found that Fronte-
nac had gone to Montreal, followed him thither,
told his story, and presented him with thirteen
English scalps.1 He had displayed in the achieve-
ment of his detestable exploit an energy, perse-
verance, and hardihood rarely equalled ; but all
would have been vain but for the help of his
clerical colleague Father Pierre Thury.2

The Indian Tribes of Acadia. — The name Abenaki is
generic, and of very loose application. As employed by the best
French writers at the end of the seventeenth century, it may be
taken to include the tribes from the Kennebec eastward to the St.
John. These again may be sub-divided as follows. First, the
Canibas (Kenibas), or tribes of the Kennebec and adjacent waters.
These with kindred neighboring tribes on the Saco, the Andro-

1 " Dans cette assemblee M. de Villieu avec 4 sauvages qu'il avoit
amenes de l'Accadie presenta a Monsieur le Oomte de Frontenac 13
chevelures angloises." Callieres au Ministre, 19 Oct., 1694.

2 The principal authority for the above is the very curious Relation
du Voyage fait par le Sieur de Villieu . . . pour /aire la Guerre aux Anglois
an printemps de Pan 1694. It is the narrative of Villieu himself, written
in the form of a journal, with great detail. He also gives a brief sum-
mary in a letter to the minister, 7 Sept. The best English account is that
of Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire. Cotton Mather tells the story
in his usual unsatisfactory and ridiculous manner. Pike, in his journal,
says that ninety-four persons in all were killed or taken. Mather says,
" ninety four or a hundred." The Provincial Record of New Hampshire
estimates it at eighty. Charlevoix claims two hundred and thirty, and
Villieu himself but a hundred and thirty-one. Champigny, Frontenac,
and Callieres, in their reports to the court, adopt Villieu's statements.
Frontenac says that the success was due to the assurances of safety
which Phips had given the settlers.

In the Massachusetts archives is a letter to Phips, written just after
the attack. The devastation extended six or seven miles. There are
also a number of depositions from persons present, giving a horrible
picture of the cruelties practised.

1694.] INDIAN TRIBES OF ACADIA. 369

scoggin, and the Sheepscot, have been held by some writers to be
the Abenakis proper, though some of them, such as the Sokokis or
Pequawkets of the Saco, spoke a dialect distinct from the rest.
Secondly, the tribes of the Penobscot, called Tarratines by early
New England writers, who sometimes, however, give this name a
more extended application. Thirdly, the Malicites (Marechites) of
the St. Croix and the St. John. These, with the Penobscots or
Tarratines, are the Etchemins of early French writers. All these
tribes speak dialects of Algonquin, so nearly related that they under-
stand each other with little difficulty. That eminent Indian philolo-
gist, Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull, writes to me: " The Malicite,
the Penobscot, and the Kennebec, or Caniba, are dialects of the
same language, which may as well be called Abenaki. The first
named differs more considerably from the other two than do these
from each other. In fact the Caniba and the Penobscot are merely
provincial dialects, with no greater difference than is found in
two English counties." The case is widely different with the
Micmacs, the Souriquois of the French, who occupy portions of
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and who speak a language which,
though of Algonquin origin, differs as much from the Abenaki
dialects as Italian differs from French, and was once described
to me by a Malicite (Passamaquoddy) Indian as an unintelligible
jargon.

21

CHAPTER XVII.

1690-1697.
NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND.

The Frontier of New England. — Border Warfare. — Motives
of the French. — Needless Barbarity. — Who were answera-
ble'?— Father Thury. — The Abenakis waver. — Treachery
at Pemaquid. — Capture of Pemaquid. — Projected Attack on
Boston. — Disappointment. — Miseries of the Frontier. — A
Captive Amazon.

" This stroke," says Villebon, speaking of the
success at Oyster River, " is of great advantage,
because it breaks off all the talk of peace between
our Indians and the English. The English are in
despair, for not even infants in the cradle were
spared." *

I have given the story in detail, as showing the
origin and character of the destructive raids, of
which New England annalists show only the re-
sults. The borders of New England were pecu-
liarly vulnerable. In Canada, the settlers built
their houses in lines, within supporting distance of
each other, along the margin of a river which sup-
plied easy transportation for troops ; and, in time
of danger, they all took refuge in forts under com-

1 " Ce coup est tres-avantageux, parcequ'il rompte tous les pour-
parlers de paix entre nos sauvages et les Anglois. Les Anglois sont au
desespoir de ce qu lis ont tue jusqu'aux enfants au berceau." Villebon
au Ministre, 19 Sept., 1(394.

1690-97.] THE FRONTIER OF NEW ENGLAND. 371

mand of the local seigniors, or of officers with
detachments of soldiers. The exposed part of the
French colony extended along the St. Lawrence
about ninety miles. The exposed frontier of New
England was between two and three hundred
miles long, and consisted of farms and hamlets,
loosely scattered through an almost impervious
forest. Mutual support was difficult or impossible.
A body of Indians and Canadians, approaching
secretly and swiftly, dividing into small bands, and
falling at once upon the isolated houses of an en-
tensive district, could commit prodigious havoc in
a short time, and with little danger. Even in so-
called villages, the houses were far apart, because,
except on the sea-shore, the people lived by farm-
ing. Such as were able to do so fenced their
dwellings with palisades, or built them of solid
timber, with loopholes, a projecting upper story
like a blockhouse, and sometimes a flanker at one
or more of the corners. In the more considerable
settlements, the largest of these fortified houses
was occupied, in time of danger, by armed men,
and served as a place of refuge for the neighbors.
The palisaded house defended by Convers at
Wells was of this sort, and so also was the Wood-
man house at Oyster Eiver. These were " garri-
son houses," properly so called, though the name
was often given to fortified dwellings occupied
only by the family. The French and Indian war-
parties commonly avoided the true garrison houses,
and very rarely captured them, except unawares ;
for their tactics were essentially Iroquois, and con-

372 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1690-97.

sisted, for the most part, in pouncing upon peaceful
settlers by surprise, and generally in the night.
Combatants and non-combatants were slaughtered
together. By parading the number of slain, without
mentioning that most of them were women and
children, and by counting as forts mere private houses
surrounded with palisades, Charlevoix and later
writers have given the air of gallant exploits to acts
which deserve a very different name. To attack
military posts, like Casco and Pemaquid, was a le-
gitimate act of war ; but systematically to butcher
helpless farmers and their families can hardly pass
as such, except from the Iroquois point of view.

The chief alleged motive for this ruthless war-
fare was to prevent the peojDle of New England
from invading Canada, by giving them employ-
ment at home; though, in fact, they had never
thought of invading Canada till after these attacks
began. But for the intrigues of Denonville, the
Bigots, Thury, and Saint-Castin, before war was
declared, and the destruction of Salmon Falls after
it, Phips's expedition would never have taken
place. By successful raids against the borders of
New England, Frontenac roused the Canadians
from their dejection, and prevented his red allies
from deserting him ; but, in so doing, he brought
upon himself an enemy who, as Charlevoix himself
says, asked only to be let alone. If there was a
political necessity for butchering women and chil-
dren on the frontier of New England, it was a ne-
cessity created by the French themselves.

There was no such necessity. Massachusetts was

1690-97.] NEEDLESS BARBARITY. 373

the only one of the New England colonies which
took an aggressive part in the contest. Connecti-
cut did little or nothing. Rhode Island was non-
combatant through Quaker influence ; and New
Hampshire was too weak for offensive war. Massa-
chusetts was in no condition to fight, nor was she
impelled to do so by the home government. Can-
ada was organized for war, and must fight at the
bidding of the king, who made the war and paid
for it. Massachusetts was organized for peace ; and,
if she chose an aggressive part, it was at her own
risk and her own cost. She had had fi editing;
enough already against infuriated savages far more
numerous than the Iroquois, and poverty and po-
litical revolution made peace a necessity to her.
If there was danger of another attack on Quebec,
it was not from New England, but from Old ; and
no amount of frontier butchery could avert it.

Nor, except their inveterate habit of poaching
on Acadian fisheries, had the people of New Eng-
land provoked these barbarous attacks. They
never even attempted to retaliate them, though
the settlements of Acadia offered a safe and easy
revenge. Once, it is true, they pillaged Beau-
bassin ; but they killed nobody, though countless
butcheries in settlements yet more defenceless were
fresh in their memory.1

1 The people of Beaubassin had taken an oath of allegiance to Eng-
land in 1690, and pleaded it as a reason for exemption from plunder; but
it appears by French authorities that they had violated it ( Observations
sur les Depeches touchant VAcadie, 1695), and their priest Baudoin had led
a band of Micmacs to the attack of Wells ( Villebon, Journal). When tho
" Bostonnais " captured Port Royal, they are described by the French
as excessively irritated by the recent slaughter at Salmon Falls, yet the
only revenge they took was plundering some of the inhabitants.

374 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1690-97.

With New York, a colony separate in govern-
ment and widely sundered in local position, the
case was different. Its rulers had instigated the
Iroquois to attack Canada, possibly before the dec-
laration of war, and certainly after it ; and they
had no right to complain of reprisal. Yet the
frontier of New York was less frequently assailed,
because it was less exposed ; while that of New
England was drenched in blood, because it was
open to attack, because the Abenakis were conven-
ient instruments for attacking it, because the
adhesion of these tribes was necessary to the main-
tenance of French power in Acadia, and because
this adhesion could best be secured by inciting
them to constant hostility against the English.
They were not only needed as the barrier of Can-
ada against New England, but the French com-
manders hoped, by means of their tomahawks, to
drive the English beyond the Piscataqua, and se-
cure the whole of Maine to the French crown.

Who were answerable for these offences against
Christianity and civilization ? First, the king ;
and, next, the governors and military officers who
were charged with executing his orders, and who
often executed them with needless barbarity. But
a far different responsibility rests on the mission-
ary priests, who hounded their converts on the
track of innocent blood. The Acadian priests are
not all open to this charge. Some of them are
even accused of being too favorable to the English ;
while others gave themselves to their proper work,
and neither abused their influence, nor perverted

1690-97.] FATHER THURY. 375

their teaching to political ends. The most promi-
nent among the apostles of carnage, at this time,
are the Jesuit Bigot on the Kennebec, and the
seminary priest Thury on the Penobscot. There
is little doubt that the latter instigated attacks on
the English frontier before the war, and there is
conclusive evidence that he had a hand in repeated
forays after it began. Whether acting from fanat-
icism, policy, or an odious compound of both, he
was found so useful, that the minister Ponchartrain
twice wrote him letters of commendation, praising
him in the same breath for his care of the souls of
the Indians and his zeal in exciting them to war.
" There is no better man," says an Acadian official,
" to prompt the savages to any enterprise." 1 The
king was begged to reward him with money ; and
Ponchartrain wrote to the bishop of Quebec to in-
crease his pay out of the allowance furnished by
the government to the Acadian clergy, because he,
Thury, had persuaded the Abenakis to begin the
war anew.2

1 Tibierge, M&moire sur VAcadie, 1695.

2 " Les temoignages qu'on a rendu a Sa Majeste de l'affection et du
zele du S^ de Thury, missionaire chez les Canibas (Abenakis), pour son
service, et particulierement dans l'engagement oil il a mis les Sauvages
de recommencer la guerre contre les Anglois, m'oblige de vous prier de luy
faire une plus forte part sur les 1,500 livres de gratification que Sa Maj-
este accorde pour les ecclesiastiques de l'Acadie." Le Ministre a I'lZvesque
de Quebec, 16 Avrit, 1695.

" Je suis bien aise de me servir de cette occasion pour vous dire que
j'ay este informe, non seulement de vostre zele et de vostre application
pour vostre mission, et du progres qu'elle fait pour l'avancement de la
religion avec les sauvages, mais encore de vos soins pour les maintenir
dans le service de Sa Majeste et pour les encourager aux expeditions de
guerre." Le Ministre a Thury, 2'SAvril, 1697. The other letter to Thury,
written two years before, is of the same tenor.

376 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1690-97.

The French missionaries are said to have made
nse of singular methods to excite their flocks
against the heretics. The Abenaki chief Bomaseen,
when a prisoner at Boston in 1696, declared that
they told the Indians that Jesus Christ was a
Frenchman, and his mother, the Virgin, a French
lady; that the English had murdered him, and
that the best way to gain his favor was to revenge
his death.1

Whether or not these articles of faith formed
a part of the teachings of Thury and his fellow-
apostles, there is no doubt that it was a recognized
part of their functions to keep their converts in
hostility to the English, and that their credit with
the civil powers depended on their success in doing
so. The same holds true of the priests of the mis-
sion villages in Canada. They avoided all that
might impair the warlike spirit of the neophyte,
and they were well aware that in savages the war-
like spirit is mainly dependent on native ferocity.
They taught temperance, conjugal fidelity, devotion
to the rites of their religion, and submission to the
priest ; but they left the savage a savage still. In
spite of the remonstrances of the civil authorities,
the mission Indian was separated as far as possible
from intercourse with the French, and discouraged

1 Mather, Magnolia, II. 629. Compare Dummer, Memorial, 1709, in
^[a$s. Hist. Coll., 3 Ser., I., and the same writer's Letter to a Noble Lord
concerning the Late Expedition to Canada, 1712. Dr. Charles T. Jackson,
the geologist, when engaged in the survey of Maine in 1836, mentions, as
an example of the simplicity of the Acadians of Madawaska, that one of
them asked him "if Bethlehem, where Christ was born, was not a town
in France." First Report on the Geology of Maine, 72. Here, perhaps, is
a tradition from early missionary teaching.

1690-97.] FATHER THURY. 377

from learning the French tongue. He wore a
crucifix, hung wampum on the shrine of the Virgin,
told his beads, prayed three times a day, knelt for
hours before the Host, invoked the saints, and con-
fessed to the priest ; but, with rare exceptions, he
murdered, scalped, and tortured like his heathen
countrymen.1

The picture has another side, which must not
pass unnoticed. Early in the war, the French of
Canada began the merciful practice of buying Eng-
lish prisoners, and especially children, from their
Indian allies. After the first fury of attack, many

1 The famous Ourehaoue, who had been for years under the influence
of the priests, and who, as Charlevoix says, died " un vrai Chretien,"
being told on his death-bed how Christ was crucified by the Jews, ex-
claimed with fervor : " Ah ! why was not I there 1 I would have revenged
him : I would have had their scalps." La Potherie, IV. 91. Charlevoix,
after his fashion on such occasions, suppresses the revenge and the scalp-
ing, and instead makes the dying Christian say, " I would have prevented
them from so treating my God."

The savage custom of forcing prisoners to run the gauntlet, and
sometimes beating them to death as they did so, was continued at two,
if not all, of the mission villages down to the end of the French domina-
tion. General Stark of the Revolution, when a young man, was
subjected to this kind of torture at St. Francis, but saved himself by
snatching a club from one of the savages, and knocking the rest to the
right and left as he ran. The practice was common, and must have had
the consent of the priests of the mission.

At the Sulpitian mission of the Mountain of Montreal, unlike the
rest, the converts were taught to speak French and practise mechanical
arts. The absence of such teaching in other missions was the subject of
frequent complaint, not only from Frontenac, but from other officers.
La Motte-Cadillac writes bitterly on the subject, and contrasts the con-
duct of the French priests with that of the English ministers, who have
taught many Indians to read and write, and reward them for teaching
others in turn, which they do, he says, with great success. Me'moire con-
tenant une Description de'taille'e de V 'Accidie, etc., 1693. In fact, Eliot and his
co-workers took great pains in this respect. There were at this time thirty
Indian churches in New England, according to the Diary of President
Stiles, cited by Holmes.

378 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1694.

lives were spared for the sake of this ransom.
Sometimes, but not always, the redeemed captives
wrere made to work for their benefactors. They
were uniformly treated well, and often with such
kindness that they would not be exchanged, and
became Canadians by adoption.

Villebon was still full of anxiety as to the adhe-
sion of the Abenakis. Thury saw the danger still
more clearly, and told Frontenac that their late
attack at Oyster River was due more to levity than
to any other cause ; that they were greatly alarmed,
wravering, half stupefied, afraid of the English, and
distrustful of the French, whom they accused of
using them as tools.1 It was clear that something
must be done ; and nothing could answer the pur-
pose so well as the capture of Pemaquicl, that
English stronghold which held them in constant
menace, and at the same time tempted them by
offers of goods at a low rate. To the capture of
Pemaquicl, therefore, the French government turned
its thoughts.

One Pascho Chubb, of Andover, commanded
the post, with a garrison of ninety-five militia-
men. Stoughton, governor of Massachusetts, had
written to the Abenakis, upbraiding them for
breaking the peace, and ordering them to bring in
their prisoners without delay. The Indians of
P>igot's mission, that is to say, Bigot in their name,
retorted by a letter to the last degree haughty and
abusive. Those of Thury' s mission, however, were
so anxious to recover their friends held in prison

1 Thury a Frontenac, 11 Sept., 1694.

1696.] PEMAQUID ATTACKED. 379

at Boston that they came to Pemaquicl, and opened
a conference with Chubb. The French say that
they meant only to deceive him.1 This does not
justify the Massachusetts officer, who, by an act of
odious treachery, killed several of them, and cap-
tured the chief, Egeremet. Nor was this the only
occasion on which the English had acted in bad faith.
It was but playing into the hands of the French, who
saw with delight that the folly of their enemies had
aided their own intrigues.2

Early in 1696, two ships of war, the " Envieux"
and the " Profond," one commanded by Iberville
and the other by Bonaventure, sailed from Koche-
fort to Quebec, where they took on board eighty
troops and Canadians; then proceeded to Cape
Breton, embarked thirty Micmac Indians, and
steered for the St. John. Here they met two
British frigates and a provincial tender belonging
to Massachusetts. A fight ensued. The forces
were very unequal. The " Newport," of twenty-
four guns, was dismasted and taken ; but her com-
panion frigate along with the tender escaped in the
fog. The French then anchored at the mouth of the
St. John, where Villebon and the priest Simon were
waiting for them, with fifty more Micmacs. Simon
and the Indians went on board ; and they all sailed
for Pentegoet, where Villieu, with twenty-five
soldiers, and Thury and Saint- Castin, with ssome

1 Villebon, Journal, 1694-1606.

2 N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 613, 616, 642, 643 ; La Potherie, III. 258 ; Cal-
ieres au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1695 ; Rev. John Pike to Governor and Council, 7

Jan., 1694 (1695), in Johnston, Hist, of Bristol and Bremen; Hutchinson,
Hist. Mass., II. 81, 90.

380 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1696.

three hundred Abenakis, were ready to join them.
After the usual feasting, these new allies paddled
for Pemaquid ; the ships followed ; and on the
next day, the fourteenth of August, they all reached
their destination.

The fort of Pemaquid stood at the west side of
the promontory of the same name, on a rocky
point at the mouth of Pemaquid River. It was a
quadrangle, with ramparts of rough stone, built at
great pains and cost, but exposed to artillery, and
incapable of resisting heavy shot. The govern-
ment of Massachusetts, with its usual military
fatuity, had placed it in the keeping of an unfit
commander, and permitted some of the yeoman
garrison to bring their wives and children to this
dangerous and important post.

Saint-Castin and his Indians landed at New
Harbor, half a league from the fort. Troops and
cannon were sent ashore ; and, at five o'clock in
the afternoon, Chubb was summoned to surrender.
He replied that he would fight, " even if the sea
were covered with French ships and the land with
Indians." The firing then began ; and the Indian
marksmen, favored by the nature of the ground,
ensconced themselves near the fort, well covered
from its cannon. During the night, mortars and
heavy ships' guns were landed, and by great exer-
tion were got into position, the two priests working
lustily with the rest. They opened fire at three
o'clock on the next day. Saint-Castin had just
before sent Chubb a letter, telling him that, if the
garrison were obstinate, they would get no quarter,

1690.] PEMAQUID TAKEN. 381

and would be butchered by the Indians. Close
upon this message followed four or five bomb-shells.
Chubb succumbed immediately, sounded a parley,
and gave up the fort, on condition that he and his
men should be protected from the Indians, sent to
Boston, and exchanged for French and Abenaki
prisoners. They all marched out without arms ;
and Iberville, true to his pledge, sent them to an
island in the bay, beyond the reach of his red
allies. Villieu took possession of the fort, where
an Indian prisoner was found in irons, half dead
from long confinement. This so enraged his coun-
trymen that a massacre would infallibly have taken
place but for the precaution of Iberville.

The cannon of Pemaquid were carried on board
the ships, and the small arms and ammunition
given to the Indians. Two clays were spent in
destroying the works, and then the victors with-
drew in triumph. Disgraceful as was the prompt
surrender of the fort, it may be doubted if, even
with the best defence, it could have held out
many days ; for it had no casemates, and its occu-
pants were defenceless against the explosion of
shells. Chubb was arrested for cowardice on his
return, and remained some months in prison. After
his release, he returned to his family at Andover,
twenty miles from Boston ; and here, in the year
following, he and his wife were killed by Indians,
who seem to have pursued him to this apparently
safe asylum to take revenge for his treachery
toward their countrymen.1

1 Baudoin, Journal d'un Voyage fait avec M. d'Iberville. Baudoin

382 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1696,1697.

The people of Massachusetts, compelled by a
royal order to build and maintain Pemaquid, had
no love for it, and underrated its importance. Hav-
ing been accustomed to spend their money as they
themselves saw fit, they revolted at compulsion,
though exercised for their good. Pemaquid was
nevertheless of the utmost value for the preserva-
tion of their hold on Maine, and its conquest was a
crowning triumph to the French.

The conquerors now projected a greater exploit.
The Marquis de Nesmond, with a powerful squad-
ron of fifteen ships, including some of the best in
the royal navy, sailed for Newfoundland, with
orders to defeat an English squadron supposed to
be there, and then to proceed to the mouth of the
Penobscot, where he was to be joined by the Abe-
naki warriors and fifteen hundred troops from
Canada. The whole united force was then to fall
upon Boston. The French had an exact knowledge
of the place. Meneval, when a prisoner there,
lodged in the house of John Nelson, had carefully
examined it ; and so also had the Chevalier d'Aux ;
while La Motte-Cadillac had reconnoitred the town
and harbor before the war began. An accurate
map of them wras made for the use of the expedi-
tion, and the plan of operations was arranged with
great care. Twelve hundred troops and Canadians

was an Acadian priest, who accompanied the expedition, which he de-
scribes in detail. Relation de ce qui s'est passe, etc., 1(595, 1696 ; Des Goutins
an Ministre, 23 Sept., 1696; Hutchinson, Hist Mass., 11.89; Mather,
Magnolia, II. 633. A letter from Chubb, asking to be released from
prison, is preserved in the archives of Massachusetts. I have examined
the site of the fort, the remains of which are still distinct.

1697.] PROJECTED ATTACK ON BOSTON. 383

were to land with artillery at Dorchester, and march
at once to force the barricade across the neck of
the peninsula on which the town stood. At the
same time, Saint-Castin was to land at Noddle's
Island, with a troop of Canadians and all the In-
dians ; pass over in canoes to Charlestown ; and,
after mastering it, cross to the north point of
Boston, which would thus be attacked at both
ends. During these movements, two hundred
soldiers were to seize the battery on Castle Island,
and then land in front of the town near Long
Wharf, under the guns of the fleet.

Boston had about seven thousand inhabitants,
but, owing to the seafaring habits of the people,
many of its best men were generally absent ; and,
in the belief of the French, its available force did
not much exceed eight hundred. " There are no
soldiers in the place," say the directions for attack,
" at least there were none last September, except
the garrison from Pemaquid, who do not deserve
the name." An easy victory was expected. After
Boston was taken, the land forces, French and In-
dian, were to march on Salem, and thence north-
ward to Portsmouth, conquering as they went;
while the ships followed along the coast to lend aid,
when necessary. All captured places were to be
completely destroyed after removing all valuable
property. A portion of this plunder was to be
abandoned to the officers and men, in order to en-
courage them, and the rest stowed in the ships for
transportation to France.1

1 Me'moire sur VEntreprise de Baston, pour M. le Marquis de Nesmond,
Versailles, 21 Avril, 1697; Instruction a M. le Marquis de Nesmond, mem

384 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1697.

Notice of the proposed expedition had reached
Frontenac in the spring ; and he began at once to
collect men, canoes, and supplies for the long and
arduous march to the rendezvous. He saw clearly
the uncertainties of the attempt ; but, in spite of his
seventy-seven years, he resolved to command the
land force in person. He was ready in June, and
waited only to hear from Nesmond. The summer
passed ; and it was not till September that a ship
reached Quebec with a letter from the marquis,
telling him that head winds had detained the fleet
till only fifty days' provision remained, and it was
too late for action. The enterprise had completely
failed, and even at Newfoundland nothing was ac-

date ; Le Roy a Frontenac, me me date ; Le Roy a Frontenac et Champigny
27 Avril, 1697 ; Le Ministre a Nesmond, 28 Avril, 1697 ; Ibid., 15 Juin,
1697 ; Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Oct., 1697 ; Carte de Baston, par le Sr.
Franquelin, 1697. This is the map made for the use of the expedition.
A facsimile of it is before me. The conquest of New York had origi-
nally formed part of the plan. Lagny au Ministre, 20 Jan., 1695. Even as
it was, too much was attempted, and the scheme was fatally complicated
by the operations at Newfoundland. Four years before, a projected at-
tack on Quebec by a British fleet, under Admiral Wheeler, had come to
nought from analogous causes.

The French spared no pains to gain accurate information as to the
strength of the English settlements. Among other reports on this sub-
ject there is a curious Me'moire sur Jes Etablissements anglois au dela de
Pemaquid, jusqu'a Baston. It was made just after the capture of Pe ma-
quid, with a view to farther operations. Saco is described as a small
fort a league above the mouth of the river Saco, with four cannon, but
fit only to resist Indians. At Wells, it says, all the settlers have sought
refuge in four petits forts, of which the largest holds perhaps 20 men,
besides women and children. At York, all the people have gathered into
one fort, where there are about 40 men. At Portsmouth there is a fort,
of slight account, and about a hundred houses. This neighborhood, no
doubt including Kittery, can furnish at most about 300 men. At the
Isles of Shoals there are some 280 fishermen, who are absent, except on
Sundays. In the same manner, estimates are made for every village and
district as far as Boston.

1697.] DISAPPOINTMENT. 385

complishecl. It proved a positive advantage to
New England, since a host of Indians, who would
otherwise have been turned loose upon the borders,
were gathered by Saint-Castin at the Penobscot to
wait for the fleet, and kept there idle all summer.

It is needless to dwell farther on the war in
Acadia. There were petty combats by land and
sea ; Villieu was captured and carried to Boston ;
a band of New England rustics made a futile at-
tempt to dislodge Villebon from his fort at Nax-
ouat ; while, throughout the contest, rivalry and
jealousy rankled among the French officials, who
continually maligned each other in tell-tale letters
to the court. Their hope that the Abenakis would
force back the English boundary to the Piscataqua
was never fulfilled. At Kittery, at Wells, and
even among the ashes of York, the stubborn
settlers held their ground, while war-parties prowled
along the whole frontier, from the Kennebec to
the Connecticut. A single incident will show the
nature of the situation, and the qualities which it
sometimes called forth.

Early in the spring that followed the capture of
Pemaquid, a band of Indians fell, after daybreak,
on a number of farm-houses near the village of
Haverhill. One of them belonged to a settler
named Dustan, whose wife Hannah had borne a
child a week before, and lay in the house, nursed
by Mary Neff, one of her neighbors. Dustan had
gone to his work in a neighboring field, taking with
him his seven children, of whom the youngest was
two years old. Hearing the noise of the attack,

25

386 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1697.

he told them to run to the nearest fortified house,
a mile or more distant, and, snatching up his gun,
threw himself on one of his horses and galloped
towards his own house to save his wife. It was
too late : the Indians were already there. He now
thought only of saving his children ; and, keeping
behind them as they ran, he fired on the pursuing
savages, and held them at bay till he and his flock
reached a place of safety. Meanwhile, the house
was set on fire, and his wife and the nurse carried
off. Her husband, no doubt, had given her up as
lost, when, weeks after, she* reappeared, accom-
panied by Mary Neff and a boy, and bringing ten
Indian scalps. Her story was to the following
effect.

The Indians had killed the new-born child by
dashing it against a tree, after which the mother
and the nurse were dragged into the forest, where
they found a number of friends and neighbors,
their fellows in misery. Some of these were pres-
ently tomahawked, and the rest divided among
their captors. Hannah Dustan and the nurse fell
to the share of a family consisting of two warriors,
three squaws, and seven children, who separated
from the rest, and, hunting as they went, moved
northward towards an Abenaki village, two hun-
dred and fifty miles distant, probably that of the
mission on the Chaudiere. Every morning, noon,
and evening, they told their beads, and repeated
their prayers. An English boy, captured at Wor-
cester, was also of the party. After a while, the
Indians began to amuse themselves by telling the

1697.] A CAPTIVE AMAZON. 387

women that, when they reached the village, they
would be stripped, made to run the gauntlet, and
severely beaten, according to custom.

Hannah Dustan now resolved on a desperate
effort to escape, and Mary Neff and the boy agreed
to join in it. They were in the depths of the forest,
half way on their journey, and the Indians, who
had no distrust of them, were all asleep about their
camp fire, when, late in the night, the two women
and the boy took each a hatchet, and crouched
silently by the bare heads of the unconscious
savages. Then they* all struck at once, with blows
so rapid and true that ten of the twelve were killed
before they were well awake. One old squaw
sprang up wounded, and ran screeching into the
forest, followed by a small boy whom they had
purposely left unharmed. Hannah Dustan and
her companions watched by the corpses till day-
light ; then the Amazon scalped them all, and the
three made their way back to the settlements, with
the trophies of their exploit.1

1 This story is told by Mather, who had it from the women them-
selves, and by Niles, Hutchinson, and others. An entry in the contem-
porary journal of Rev. John Pike fully confirms it. The facts were
notorious at the time. Hannah Dustan and her companions received a
bounty of £50 for their ten scalps ; and the governor of Maryland, hear-
ing of what they had done, sent them a present.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1693-1697.
FKENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.

Le Motne d'Iberville. — His Exploits in Newfoundland. — In
Hudson's Bay. — The Great Prize. — The Competitors. — Fatal
Policy op the King. — The Iroquois Question. — Negotiation.
— Firmness of Frontenac. — English Intervention. — War re-
newed. — State of the West. — Indian Diplomacy. — Cruel
Measures. — A Perilous Crisis. — Audacity of Frontenac.

No Canadian, under the French rule, stands in a
more conspicuous or more deserved eminence than
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In the seventeenth
century, most of those who acted a prominent part
in the colony were born in Old France ; but Iber-
ville was a true son of the soil. He and his brothers,
Longueuil, Serigny, Assigny, Maricourt, Sainte-
Helene, the two Chateauguays, and the two Bien-
villes, were, one and all, children worthy of their
father, Charles Le Moyne of Montreal, and favora-
ble types of that Canadian noblesse, to whose
adventurous hardihood half the continent bears
witness. Iberville was trained in the French navy,
and was already among its most able commanders.
The capture of Pemaquid was, for him, but the
beginning of greater things ; and, though the ex-
ploits that followed were outside the main theatre

1696.] IBERVILLE IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 389

of action, they were too remarkable to be passed
in silence.

The French had but one post of any consequence
on the Island of Newfoundland, the fort and vil-
lage at Placentia Bay ; while the English fisher-
men had formed a line of settlements two or three
hundred miles along the eastern coast. Iberville
had represented to the court the necessity of check-
ing their growth, and to that end a plan was set-
tled, in connection with the expedition against
Pemaquid. The ships of the king were to trans-
port the men ; while Iberville and others associated
with him were to pay them, and divide the plun-
der as their compensation. The chronicles of the
time show various similar bargains between the
great king and his subjects.

Pemaquid was no sooner destroyed, than Iber-
ville sailed for Newfoundland, with the eighty
men he had taken at Quebec ; and, on arriving, he
was joined by as many more, sent him from the
same place. He found Brouillan, governor of
Placentia, with a squadron formed largely of priva-
teers from St. Malo, engaged in a vain attempt to
seize St. John, the chief post of the English.
Brouillan was a man of harsh, jealous, and imprac-
ticable temper ; and it was with the utmost diffi-
culty that he and Iberville could act in concert.
They came at last to an agreement, made a com-
bined attack on St. John, took it, and burned it to
the ground. Then followed a new dispute about
the division of the spoils. At length it was settled.
Brouillan went back to Placentia, and Iberville and
his men were left to pursue their conquests alone.

390 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1697.

There were no British soldiers on the island.
The settlers were rude fishermen without com-
manders, and, according to the French accounts,
without religion or morals. In fact, they are de-
scribed as " worse than Indians." Iberville now
had with him a hundred and twenty-five soldiers
and Canadians, besides a few Abenakis from Aca-
dia.1 It was mid- winter when he began his march.
For two months he led his hardy band through
frost and snow, from hamlet to hamlet, along those
forlorn and desolate coasts, attacking each in turn
and carrying havoc everywhere. Nothing could
exceed the hardships of the way, or the vigor with
which they were met and conquered. The chap-
lain Baudoin gives an example of them in his
diary. "January 18th. The roads are so bad
that we can find only twelve men strong enough
to beat the path. Our snow-shoes break on the
crust, and against the rocks and fallen trees hidden
under the snow, which catch and trip us ; but, for
all that, we cannot help laughing to see now one,
and now another, fall headlong. The Sieur de
Martigny fell into a river, and left his gun and his
sword there to save his life."

A panic seized the settlers, many of whom were
without arms as well as without leaders. They
imagined the Canadians to be savages, who scalped
and butchered like the Iroquois. Their resistance
was feeble and incoherent, and Iberville carried all
before him. Every hamlet was pillaged and burned ;

1 The reinforcement sent him from Quehec consisted of fifty soldiers,
thirty Canadians, and three officers. Frontenac au Ministre, 28 Oct., 1696

1697.] IBERVILLE IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 391

and, according to the incredible report of the
French writers, two hundred persons were killed
and seven hundred captured, though it is admitted
that most of the prisoners escaped. When spring
opened, all the English settlements were destroyed,
except the post of Bonavista and the Island of Car-
bonniere, a natural fortress in the sea. Iberville
returned to Placentia, to prepare for completing
his conquest, when his plans were broken by the
arrival of his brother Serigny, with orders to pro-
ceed at once against the English at Hudson's Bay.1
It was the nineteenth of May, when Serigny
appeared with five ships of war, the "Pelican," the
"Palmier," the "Wesp," the "Profond," and the
"Violent." The important trading-post of Fort
Nelson, called Fort Bourbon by the French, was
the destined object of attack. Iberville and Se-
rigny had captured it three years before, but the
English had retaken it during the past summer,
and, as it commanded the fur-trade of a vast inte-

1 On the Newfoundland expedition, the best authority is the long
diary of the chaplain Baudoin, Journal du Voyage que j'ai fait avec M.
(T Iberville ; also, Memoire sur V Entre prise cle Terreneuve, 1696. Compare
La Potherie, I. 24-52. A deposition of one Phillips, one Roberts, and sev-
eral others, preserved in the Public Record Office of London, and quoted
by Brown in his History of Cape Breton, makes the French force much
greater than the statements of the French writers. The deposition also
says that at the attack of St. John's "the French took one William
Brew, an inhabitant, a prisoner, and cut all round his scalp, and then,
by strength of hands, stript his skin from the forehead to the crown, and
so sent him into the fortifications, assuring the inhabitants that they
would serve them all in like manner if they did not surrender."

St. John's was soon after reoccupied by the English.

Baudoin was one of those Acadian priests who are praised for ser-
vices " en empeschant les sauvages de faire la paix avec les Anglois,
ayant mesme este en guerre avec eux." Champigny au Ministre, 24 Oct.,
1694.

392 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1697.

rior region, a strong effort was now to be made for
its recovery. Iberville took command of the " Peli-
can," and his brother of the " Palmier." They
sailed from Placentia early in July, followed by
two other ships of the squadron, and a vessel car-
rying stores. Before the end of the month they
entered the bay, where they were soon caught
among masses of floating ice. The store-ship was
crushed and lost, and the rest were in extreme
danger. The " Pelican " at last extricated herself,
and sailed into the open sea ; but her three consorts
were nowhere to be seen. Iberville steered for
Fort Nelson, which was several hundred miles dis-
tant, on the western shore of this dismal inland sea.
He had nearly reached it, when three sail hove in
sight ; and he did not doubt that they were his
missing ships. They proved, however, to be Eng-
lish armed merchantmen : the " Hampshire " of
fifty-two guns, and the " Daring " and the " Hud-
son's Bay " of thirty-six and thirty-two. The
" Pelican " carried but forty-four, and she was
alone. A desperate battle followed, and from half
past nine to one o'clock the cannonade was inces-
sant. Iberville kept the advantage of the wind,
and, coming at length to close quarters with the
" Hampshire," gave her repeated broadsides be-
tween wind and water, with such effect that she
sank with all on board. He next closed with the
" Hudson's Bay," which soon struck her flag ; while
the u Daring " made sail, and escaped. The " Pel-
ican " was badly damaged in hull, masts, and rig-
ging ; and the increasing fury of a gale from the

1697.] CAPTURE OF FORT NELSON. 393

east made her position more critical every hour.
She anchored, to escape being driven ashore ; but
the cables parted, and she was stranded about two
leagues from the fort. Here, racked by the waves
and the tide, she split amidships ; but most of the
crew reached land with their weapons and ammu-
nition. The northern winter had already begun,
and the snow lay a foot deep in the forest. Some
of them died from cold and exhaustion, and the
rest built huts and kindled fires to warm and dry
themselves. Food was so scarce that their only
hope of escape from famishing seemed to lie in
a desperate effort to carry the fort by storm, but
now fortune interposed. The three ships they had
left behind in the ice arrived with all the needed
succors. Men, cannon, and mortars were sent
ashore, and the attack began.

Fort Nelson was a palisade work, garrisoned by
traders and other civilians in the employ of the
English fur company, and commanded by one of
its agents, named Bailey. Though it had a con-
siderable number of small cannon, it was incapable
of defence against any thing but musketry ; and
the French bombs soon made it untenable. After
being three times summoned, Bailey lowered his
flag, though not till he had obtained honorable
terms ; and he and his men marched out with arms
and baggage, drums beating and colors flying.

Iberville had triumphed over the storms, the
icebergs, and the English. The north had seen
his prowess, and another fame awaited him in the
regions of the sun ; for he became the father of

394 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1693-97.

Louisiana, and his brother Bienville founded New
Orleans.1

These northern conflicts were but episodes. In
Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland, and Acadia, the
issues of the war were unimportant, compared with
the momentous question whether France or Eng-
land should be mistress of the west ; that is to say,
of the whole interior of the continent. There was
a strange contrast in the attitude of the rival
colonies towards this supreme prize : the one was
inert, and seemingly indifferent ; the other, intensely
active. The reason is obvious enough. The En^-
lish colonies were separate, jealous of the crown
and of each other, and incapable as yet of acting
in concert. Living by agriculture and trade, they
could prosper within limited areas, and had no pres-
ent need of spreading beyond the Alleghanies.
Each of them was an aggregate of persons, busied
with their own affairs, and giving little heed to
matters which did not immediately concern them.
Their rulers, whether chosen by themselves or ap-
pointed in England, could not compel them to
become the instruments of enterprises in which
the sacrifice was present, and the advantage re-
mote. The neglect in which the English court
left them, though wholesome in most respects,
made them unfit for aggressive action ; for they
had neither troops, commanders, political union,
military organization, nor military habits. In

1 On the capture of Eort Nelson, Iberville au Ministre, 8 Nov., 1697 ;
Jeremie, Relation de la Baye de Hudson; La Potherie, I. 85-109. All
these writers were present at the attack.

1695-97.] THE RIVAL COLONIES. 395

communities so busy, and governments so popular,
much could not be clone, in war, till the people were
roused to the necessity of doing it ; and that
awakening was still far distant. Even New York,
the only exposed colony, except Massachusetts and
New Hampshire, regarded the war merely as a
nuisance to be held at arm's length.1

In Canada, all was different. Living by the
fur trade, she needed free range and indefinite
space. Her geographical position determined the
nature of her pursuits ; and her pursuits developed
the roving and adventurous character of her people,
who, living under a military rule, could be directed
at will to such ends as their rulers saw fit. The
grand French scheme of territorial extension was
not born at court, but sprang from Canadian soil,
and was developed by the chiefs of the colony, who,
being on the ground, saw the possibilities and re-
quirements of the situation, and generally had a
personal interest in realizing them. The rival
colonies had two different laws of growth. The
one increased by slow extension, rooting firmly as
it spread ; the other shot offshoots, with few or no
roots, far out into the wilderness. It was the
nature of French colonization to seize upon de-
tached strategic points, and hold them by the
bayonet, forming no agricultural basis, but attract-
ing the Indians by trade, and holding them by
conversion. A musket, a rosary, and a pack of
beaver skins may serve to represent it, and in fact
it consisted of little else.

1 See note at the end of the chapter.

396 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1693-97.

Whence came the numerical weakness of New
France, and the real though latent strength of her
rivals ? Because, it is answered, the French were
not an emigrating people ; but, at the end of the
seventeenth century, this was only half true. The
French people were divided into two parts, one
eager to emigrate, and the other reluctant. The
one consisted of the persecuted Huguenots, the
other of the favored Catholics. The government
chose to construct its colonies, not of those who
wished to go, but of those who wished to stay at
home. From the hour when the edict of Nantes
was revoked, hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen
would have hailed as a boon the permission to
transport themselves, their families, and their prop-
erty to the New World. The permission was fiercely
refused, and the persecuted sect was denied even
a refuge in the wilderness. Had it been granted
them, the valleys of the west would have swarmed
with a laborious and virtuous population, trained
in adversity, and possessing the essential qualities
of self-government. Another France would have
grown beyond the Alleghanies, strong with the
same kind of strength that made the future great-
ness of the British colonies. British America was
an asylum for the oppressed and the suffering of
all creeds and nations, and population poured into
her by the force of a natural tendency. France,
like England, might have been great in two hemi-
spheres, if she had placed herself in accord with
this tendency, instead of opposing it ; but despot-
ism was consistent with itself, and a mighty oppor-
tunity was for ever lost.

1693-97.] THE IROQUOIS QUESTION. 397

As soon could the Ethiopian change his skin as
the priest-ridden king change his fatal policy of
exclusion. Canada must be bound to the papacy,
even if it blasted her. The contest for the west
must be waged by the means which Bourbon policy
ordained, and which, it must be admitted, had
some great advantages of their own, when con-
trolled by a man like Frontenac. The result hung,
for the present, on the relations of the French with
the Iroquois and the tribes of the lakes, the Illi-
nois, and the valley of the Ohio, but, above all, on
their relations with the Iroquois ; for, could they
be conquered or won over, it would be easy to
deal with the rest.

Frontenac was meditating a grand effort to in-
flict such castigation as would bring them to reason,
when one of their chiefs, named. Tareha, came to
Quebec with overtures of peace. The Iroquois
had lost many of their best warriors. The arrival
of troops from France had discouraged them ; the
war had interrupted their hunting ; and, having
no furs to barter with the English, they were in
want of arms, ammunition, and all the necessaries
of life. Moreover, Father Milet, nominally a
prisoner among them, but really an adopted chief,
had used all his influence to bring about a peace ;
and the mission of Tareha was the result. Fron-
tenac received him kindly. " My Iroquois children
have been drunk ; but I will give them an opportunity
to repent. Let each of your five nations send me
two deputies, and I will listen to what they have
to say." They would not come, but sent him in-

398 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1694.

stead an invitation to meet them and their friends,
the English, in a general council at Albany ; a
proposal which he rejected with contempt. Then
they sent another deputation, partly to him and
partly to their Christian countrymen of the Saut
and the Mountain, inviting all alike to come and
treat with them at Onondaga. Frontenac, adopt-
ing the Indian fashion, kicked away their wampum
belts, rebuked them for tampering with the mission
Indians, and told them that they were rebels, bribed
by the English ; adding that, if a suitable deputa-
tion should be sent to Quebec to treat squarely of
peace, he still would listen, but that, if they came
back with any more such proposals as they had
just made, they should be roasted alive.

A few weeks later, the deputation appeared. It
consisted of two chiefs of each nation, headed by
the renowned orator Decanisora, or, as the French
wrote the name, Tegannisorens. The council was
held in the hall of the supreme council at Quebec.
The dignitaries of the colony were present, with
priests, Jesuits, Recollets, officers, and the Christian
chiefs of the Saut and the Mountain. The appear-
ance of the ambassadors bespoke their destitute
plight ; for they were all dressed in shabby deer-
skins and old blankets, except Decanisora, who was
attired in a scarlet coat laced with gold, given him
by the governor of New York. Colclen, who knew
him in his old age, describes him as a tall, well-
formed man, with a face not unlike the busts of
Cicero. " He spoke," says the French reporter,
u with as perfect a grace as is vouchsafed to an

1694.] DEMANDS OF FRONTENAC. 399

uncivilized people ; " buried the hatchet, covered
the blood that had been spilled, opened the roads,
and cleared the clouds from the sun. In other
words, he offered peace ; but he demanded at the
same time that it should include the English.
Frontenac replied, in substance : " My children
are right to come submissive and repentant. I am
ready to forgive the past, and hang up the hatchet ;
but the peace must include all my other children,
far and near. Shut your ears to English poison.
The war with the English has nothing to clo
with you, and only the great kings across the
sea have power to stop it. You must give up
all your prisoners, both French and Indian, with-
out one exception. I will then return mine, and
make peace with you, but not before." He then
entertained them at his own table, gave them a
feast described as " magnificent," and bestowed
gifts so liberally, that the tattered ambassadors
went home in embroidered coats, laced shirts, and
plumed hats. They were pledged to return with
the prisoners before the end of the season, and
they left two hostages as security.1

Meanwhile, the authorities of New York tried to
prevent the threatened peace. First, Major Peter
Schuyler convoked the chiefs at Albany, and told
them that, if they went to ask peace in Canada, they
would be slaves for ever. The Iroquois declared
that they loved the English, but they repelled

1 On these negotiations, and their antecedents, Callieres, Relation de ce
qui s' est passe de plus remarquable en Canada depuis Sept., 1692, jusqn'au
Dtpart des Vaisseaux en 1693 ; La Motte-Cadillac, Me'moire des Negotiations
avecles Iroquois, 1694; Callieres au Ministre, 19 Oct., 1694; La Potherie,
III. 200-220 ; Colden, Five Nations, chap. x. ; N. Y. Col. Docs., IV. 85.

400 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1694

every attempt to control their action. Then
Fletcher, the governor, called a general council
at the same place, and told them that they should
not hold councils with the French, or that, if they
did so, they should hold them at Albany in pres-
ence of the English. Again they asserted their
rights as an independent people. " Corlaer," said
their speaker, " has held councils with our enemies,
and why should not we hold councils with his ? "
Yet they were strong in assurances of friendship,
and declared themselves " one head, one heart, one
blood, and one soul, with the English." Their
speaker continued : " Our only reason for sending
deputies to the French is that we are brought so
low, and none of our neighbors help us, but leave
us to bear all the burden of the war. Our brothers
of New England, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
Virginia, all of their own accord took hold of the
covenant chain, and called themselves our allies ;
but they have done nothing to help us, and we
cannot fight the French alone, because they are
always receiving soldiers from beyond the Great
Lake. Speak from your heart, brother : will you
and your neighbors join with us, and make strong
war against the French ? If you will, we will break
off all treaties, and fight them as hotly as ever ; but,
if you will not help us, we must make peace."

Nothing could be more just than these reproaches ;
and, if the English governor had answered by a
vigorous attack on the French forts south of the
St. Lawrence, the Iroquois warriors would have
raised the hatchet again with one accord. But

1694-96.] ENGLISH WEAKNESS. 401

Fletcher was busy with other matters ; and he had
besides no force at his disposal but four companies,
the only British regulars on the continent, defec-
tive in numbers, ill-appointed, and mutinous.1
Therefore he answered not with acts, but with
words. The negotiation with the French went
on, and Fletcher called another council. It left
him in a worse position than before. The Iroquois
again asked for help : he could not promise it, but
was forced to yield the point, and tell them that he
consented to their making peace with Onontio.

It is certain that they wanted peace, but equally
certain that they did not want it to be lasting, and
sought nothing more than a breathing time to re-
gain their strength. Even now some of them were
for continuing the war ; and at the great council
at Onondaga, where the matter was debated, the
Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks spurned the
French proposals, and refused to give up their
prisoners. The Cayugas and some of the Senecas
were of another mind, and agreed to a partial com-
pliance with Frontenac's demands. The rest seem
to have stood passive in the hope of gaining time.

They were disappointed. In vain the Seneca
and Cayuga deputies buried the hatchet at Mont-
real, and promised that the other nations would
soon do likewise. Frontenac was not to be de-
ceived. He would accept nothing but the frank
fulfilment of his conditions, refused the proffered

1 Fletcher is, however, charged with gross misconduct in regard to
the four companies, which lie is said to have kept at about half their
complement, in order to keep the balance of their pay for himself.

26

402 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1694-96.

peace, and told his Indian allies to wage war to
the knife. There was a dog-feast and a war-dance,
and the strife began anew.

In all these conferences, the Iroquois had stood
by their English allies, with a fidelity not too well
merited. But, though they were loj^al towards the
English, they had acted with duplicity towards the
French, and, while treating of peace with them,
had attacked some of their Indian allies, and in-
trigued with others. They pursued with more
persistency than ever the policy they had adopted
in the time of La Barre, that is, to persuade or
frighten the tribes of the west to abandon the
French, join hands with them and the English, and
send their furs to Albany instead of Montreal ; for
the sagacious confederates knew well that, if the
trade were turned into this new channel, their
local position would enable them to control it.
The scheme was good ; but. with whatever consis-
tency their chiefs and elders might pursue it, the
wayward ferocity of their young warriors crossed
it incessantly, and murders alternated with in-
trigues. On the other hand, the western tribes, who
since the war had been but ill supplied with French
goods and French brandy, knew that they could
have English goods and English rum in great
abundance, and at far less cost ; and thus, in spite
of hate and fear, the intrigue went on. Michilli-
mackinac was the focus of it, but it pervaded all
the west. The position of Frontenac was one of
great difficulty, and the more so that the intestine
quarrels of his allies excessively complicated the

1694-06.] PERPLEXITIES OF FRONTENAC. 403

mazes of forest diplomacy. This heterogeneous
multitude, scattered in tribes and groups of tribes
over two thousand miles of wilderness, was like a vast
menagerie of wild animals ; and the lynx bristled
at the wolf, and the panther grinned fury at the
bear, in spite of all his efforts to form them1 into a
happy family under his paternal rule.

La Motte-Cadillac commanded at Michillimacki-
nac, Courtemanche was stationed at Fort Miamis,
and Tonty and La Foret at the fortified rock of St.
Louis on the Illinois ; while Nicolas Perrot roamed
among the tribes of the Mississippi, striving at the
risk of his life to keep them at peace with each
other, and in alliance with the French. Yet a plot
presently came to light, by which the Foxes, Mas-
contins, and Kickapoos were to join hands, re-
nounce the French, and cast their fortunes with
the Iroquois and the English. There was still more
anxiety for the tribes of Michillimackinac, because
the results of their defection would be more im-
mediate. This important post had at the time an
Indian population of six or seven thousand souls,
a Jesuit mission, a fort with two hundred soldiers,
and a village of about sixty houses, occupied by
traders and courears de hois. The Indians of the
place were in relations more or less close with all
the tribes of the lakes. The Huron village was
divided between two rival chiefs : the Baron, who
was deep in Iroquois and English intrigue ; and the
Eat, who, though once the worst enemy of the
French, now stood their friend. The Ottawas and
other Algonquins of the adjacent villages were

404 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1694-96.

savages of a lower grade, tossed continually be-
tween hatred of the Iroquois, distrust of the French,
and love of English goods and English rum.1

La Motte-Caclillac found that the Hurons of the
Baron's band were receiving messengers and peace
belts from New York and her reel allies, that the
English had promised to build a trading house on
Lake Erie, and that the Iroquois had invited the
lake tribes to a grand convention at Detroit. These
belts and messages were sent, in the Indian ex-
pression, " underground," that is, secretly ; and
the envoys who brought them came in the dis-
guise of prisoners taken by the Hurons. On one
occasion, seven Iroquois were brought in ; and some
of the French, suspecting them to be agents of the
negotiation, stabbed two of them as they landed.
There was a great tumult. The Hurons took arms
to defend the remaining five ; but at length suf-
fered themselves to be appeased, and even gave
one of the Iroquois, a chief, into the hands of the
French, who, says La Potherie, determined to
"make an example of him." They invited the
■Ottawas to " drink the broth of an Iroquois." The
wretch was made fast to a stake, and a Frenchman
began the torture by burning him with a red-hot
gun-barrel. The mob of savages was soon wrought

1 "Si les Outaouacs (Ottawas) et Hurons concluent la paix avec
l'Iroquois sans nostre participation, et donnent chez eux l'entree a l'An-
glois pour le commerce, la Colonie est entierement ruinee, puisque e'est
le seul (moi/en) par lequel ce pays-cy puisse subsister, et Ton peut as-
seurer que si les sauvages goustent une fois du commerce de l'Anglois,
ils rompront pour toujours avec les Francois, parcequ'ils ne peuvent
donner les marchandises qu'a un prix beaucoup plus hault." Frontenac
au Ministre, 25 Oct.. 1696.

1694-96.] BARBAROUS POLICY. 405

up to the required pitch of ferocity ; and, after
atrociously tormenting him, they cut him to pieces,
and ate him.1 It was clear that the more Iroquois
the allies of France could be persuaded to burn,
the less would be the danger that they would
make peace with the confederacy. On another
occasion, four were tortured at once ; and La Motte-
Cadillac writes, " If any more prisoners are brought
me, I promise you that their fate will be no
sweeter." 2

The same cruel measures were practised when
the Ottawas came to trade at Montreal. Fronte-
nac once invited a band of them to " roast an Iro-
quois," newly caught by the soldiers ; but as they
had hamstrung him, to prevent his escape, he bled
to death before the torture began.3 In the next
spring, the revolting tragedy of Michillimackinac
was repeated at Montreal, where four more Iro-
quois were burned by the soldiers, inhabitants, and
Indian allies. "It was the mission of Canada,"
says a Canadian writer, " to propagate Christianity
and civilization." 4

Every effort was vain. La Motte-Cadillac wrote
that matters grew worse and worse, and that the

i La Potherie, II. 298.

2 La Motte-Cadillac a , 3 Aug., 1695. A translation of this letter

will be found in Sheldon, Early History of Michigan.

3 Relation de ce qui s'est passe* de plus remarquable entre les Francois et les
Iroquois durant la pre'sente anne'e, 1695. There is a translation in N. Y.
Col. Docs., IX. Compare La Potherie, who misplaces the incident as to
date.

4 This last execution was an act of reprisal : " J'abandonnay les 4
prisonniers aux soldats, habitants, et sauvages, qui les bruslerent par
represailles de deux du Sault que cette nation avoit traitte de la mesme
maniere." Callieres au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1696.

406 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1694-96.

Ottawas had been made to believe that the French
neither would nor could protect them, but meant
to leave them to their fate. They thought that
the}' had no hope except in peace with the Iroquois,
and had actually gone to meet them at an ap-
pointed rendezvous. One course alone was now
left to Frontenac, and this was to strike the Iro-
quois with a blow heavy enough to humble them,
and teach the wavering hordes of the west that
he was, in truth, their father and their defender.
Nobody knew so well as he the difficulties of the
attempt ; and, deceived perhaps by his own ener-
gy, he feared that, in his absence on a distant expe-
dition, the governor of New York would attack
Montreal. Therefore, he had begged for more
troops. About three hundred were sent him, and
with these he was forced to content himself.

He had waited, also, for another reason. In his
belief, the re-establishment of Fort Frontenac,
abandoned in a panic by Denonville, was neces-
sary to the success of a campaign against the Iro-
quois. A party in the colony vehemently opposed
the measure, on the ground that the fort would be
used by the friends of Frontenac for purposes
of trade. It was, nevertheless, very important, if
not essential, for holding the Iroquois in check.
They themselves felt it to be so ; and, when they
heard that the French intended to occupy it again,
they appealed to the governor of New York, who
told them that, if the plan were carried into effect,
he would march to their aid with all the power of

1696.J AUDACITY OF FRONTENAC. 407

his government. He did not, and perhaps could
not, keep his word.1

In the question of Fort Frontenac, as in every
thing else, the opposition to the governor, always
busy and vehement, found its chief representative
in the intendant, who told the minister that the
policy of Frontenac was all wrong ; that the public
good was not its object ; that he disobeyed or evaded
the orders of the king ; and that he had suffered the
Iroquois to delude him by false overtures of peace.
The representations of the intendant and his fac-
tion had such effect, that Ponchartrain wrote to
the governor that the plan of re-establishing Fort
Frontenac " must absolutely be abandoned." Fron-
tenac, bent on accomplishing his purpose, and
doubly so because his enemies opposed it, had an-
ticipated the orders of the minister, and sent seven
hundred men to Lake Ontario to repair the fort.
The day after they left Montreal, the letter of Pon-
chartrain arrived. The intendant demanded their
recall. Frontenac refused. The fort was repaired,
garrisoned, and victualled for a year.

A successful campaign was now doubly necessary
to the governor, for by this alone could he hope to
avert the consequences of his audacity. He waited
no longer, but mustered troops, militia, and Indians,
and marched to attack the Iroquois.2

1 Colden, 178. Fletcher could get no men from his own or neighbor-
ing governments. See note, at the end of the chapter.

2 The above is drawn from the correspondence of Frontenac, Cham-
pigny, La Motte-Cadillac, and Callieres, on one hand, and the king and
the minister on the other. The letters are too numerous to specify. Also,
from the official Relation de ce qui s'est passe' de plus remarquable en Canada,
1694, 16'J5, and Ibid., 1695, 1696; Me moire sounds au Ministre de ce qui re'-

408 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1696-

Military Inefficiency of the British Colonies. — " His
Majesty has subjects enough in those parts of America to drive
out the French from Canada; but they are so crumbled into little
governments, and so disunited, that they have hitherto afforded lit-
tle assistance to each other, and now seem in a much worse dispo-
sition to do it for the future." This is the complaint of the Lords
of Trade. Governor Fletcher writes bitterly : " Here every little
government sets up for despotic power, and allows no appeal to
the Crown, but, by a little juggling, defeats all commands and in-
junctions from the King." Fletcher's complaint was not unpro-
voked. The Queen had named him commander-in-chief, during
the war, of the militia of several of the colonies, and empowered
him to call on them for contingents of men, not above 350 from
Massachusetts, 250 from Virginia, 160 from Maryland, 120 from
Connecticut, 48 from Rhode Island, and 80 from Pennsylvania.
This measure excited the jealousy of the colonies, and several of
them remonstrated on constitutional grounds ; but the attorney-
general, to whom the question was referred, reported that the
crown had power, under certain limitations, to appoint a com-
mander-in-chief. Fletcher, therefore, in his character as such,
called for a portion of the men; but scarcely one could he get.
He was met by excuses and evasions, which, especially in the case
of Connecticut, were of a most vexatious character. At last, that
colony, tired by his importunities, condescended to furnish him with
twenty-five men. With the others, he was less fortunate, though
Virginia and Maryland compounded with a sum of money. Each
colony claimed the control of its own militia, and was anxious to
avoid the establishment of any precedent which might deprive it of
the right. Even in the military management of each separate col-
ony, there was scarcely less difficulty. A requisition for troops
from a royal governor was always regarded with jealousy, and the
provincial assemblies were slow to grant money for their support.
In 1692, when Fletcher came to New York, the assembly gave
him 300 men, for a year; in 1693, they gave him an equal number;
in 1694, they allowed him but 170, he being accused, apparently
with truth, of not having made good use of the former levies. He
afterwards asked that the force at his disposal should be increased
to 500 men, to guard the frontier; and the request was not granted.
In 1697 he was recalled; and the Earl of Bellomont was commis-
sure ties Avis recus du Canada en 1695; Champigny, Me'moire concernant
le Fort de Cataracouy ; La Potherie, II. 284-302, IV. 1-80; Colden, chaps,
x., xi.

1696.] MILITARY INEFFICIENCY. 409

sioned governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire,
and captain-general, during the war, of all the forces of those col-
onies, as well as of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.
The close of the war quickly ended this military authority; but
there is no reason to believe that, had it continued, the earl's re-
quisitions for men, in his character of captain-general, would have
had more success than those of Fletcher. The whole affair is a
striking illustration of the original isolation of communities, which
afterwards became welded into a nation. It involved a military
paralysis almost complete. Sixty years later, under the sense of a
great danger, the British colonies were ready enough to receive a
commander-in-chief, and answer his requisitions.

A great number of documents bearing upon the above subject
will be found in the New York Colonial Documents, IV.

CHAPTEE XIX.

1696-1698.
FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS.

March of Frontenac. — Flight of the Enemy. — An Iroquois
Stoic. — Eelief for the Onondagas. — Boasts of Frontenac.
— His Complaints. — His Enemies. —Parties in Canada. —
Views of Frontenac and the King. — Frontenac prevails. —
Peace of Rtswick. — Frontenac and Bellomont. — Schuyler
at Quebec. — Festivities. — A Last Defiance.

On the fourth of July, Frontenac left Montreal,
at the head of about twenty-two hundred men.
On the nineteenth he reached Fort Frontenac, and
on the twenty-sixth he crossed to the southern shore
of Lake Ontario. A swarm of Indian canoes led
the way ; next followed two battalions of regulars,
in bateaux, commanded by Callieres; then more
bateaux, laden with cannon, mortars, and rockets ;
then Frontenac himself, surrounded by the canoes
of his staff and his guard ; then eight hundred
Canadians, under Kamesay ; while more regulars
and more Indians, all commanded by Vaudreuil,
brought up the rear. In two days they reached
the mouth of the Oswego ; strong scouting-parties
were sent out to scour the forests in front; while
the expedition slowly and painfully worked its way
up the stream. Most of the troops and Canadians

1696.] MARCH OF FRONTENAC. 411

marched through the matted woods along the
banks ; while the bateaux and canoes were pushed,
rowed, paddled, or dragged forward against the
current. On the evening of the thirtieth, they
reached the falls, where the river plunged over
ledges of rock which completely stopped the way.
The work of " carrying" was begun at once. The
Indians and Canadians carried the canoes to the
navigable water above, and gangs of men dragged
the bateaux up the portage-path on rollers. Night
soon came, and the work was continued till ten
o'clock by torchlight. Frontenac would have
passed on foot like the rest, but the Indians would
not have it so. They lifted him in his canoe upon
their shoulders, and bore him in triumph, singing
and yelling, through the forest and along the margin
of the rapids, the blaze of the torches lighting the
strange procession, where plumes of officers and
uniforms of the governor's guard mingled with the
feathers and scalp-locks of naked savages.

When the falls were passed, the troops pushed
on as before along the narrow stream, and through
the tangled labyrinths on either side ; till, on the
first of August, they reached Lake Onondaga, and,
with sails set, the whole flotilla glided before the
wind, and landed the motley army on a rising
ground half a league from the salt springs of Salina.
The next day was spent in building a fort to pro-
tect the canoes, bateaux, and stores ; and, as
evening closed, a ruddy glow above the southern
forest told them that the town of Onondaga was
on fire.

412 FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE OXOXDAGAS. [1696.

The Marquis de Crisasy was left, with a detach-
ment, to hold the fort ; and, at sunrise on the
fourth, the army moved forward in order of battle.
It was formed in two lines, regulars on the right
and left, and Canadians in the centre. Callieres
commanded the first line, and Vaudreuil the second.
Frontenac was between them, surrounded by his
staff officers and his guard, and followed by the
artillery, which relays of Canadians dragged and
lifted forward with inconceivable labor. The gov-
ernor, enfeebled by age, was carried in an arm-chair ;
while Callieres, disabled by gout, was mounted on
a horse, brought for the purpose in one of the ba-
teaux. To Subercase fell the hard task of directing
the march among the dense columns of the primeval
forest, by hill and hollow, over rocks and fallen
trees, through swamps, brooks, and gullies, among
thickets, brambles, and vines. It was but eight or
nine miles to Onondaga ; but they were all day in
reaching it, and evening was near when they
emerged from the shadows of the forest into the
broad light of the Indian clearing. The maize-
fields stretched before them for miles, and in the
midst lay the charred and smoking ruins of the
Iroquois capital. Not an enemy was to be seen,
but they found the dead bodies of two murdered
French prisoners. Scouts were sent out, guards
were set, and the disappointed troops encamped on
the maize-fields.

Onondaga, formerly an open town, had been
fortified by the English, who had enclosed it with
a double range of strong palisades, forming a rect-

1696.] THE ONEIDAS BEG EOR PEACE. 413

angle, flanked by bastions at the four corners, and
surrounded by an outer fence of tall poles. The
place was not defensible against cannon and mor-
tars; and the four hundred warriors belonging to
it had been but slightly reinforced from the other
tribes of the confederacy, each of which feared
that the French attack might be directed against
itself. On the approach of an enemy of five times
their number, they had burned their town, and
retreated southward into distant forests.

The troops were busied for two days in hacking
down the maize, digging up the caches, or hidden
stores of food, and destroying their contents. The
neighboring tribe of the Oneidas sent a messenger
to beg peace. Frontenac replied that he would
grant it, on condition that they all should migrate to
Canada, and settle there ; and V audreuil, with seven
hundred men, was sent to enforce the demand. Mean-
while, a few Onondaga stragglers had been found ;
and among them, hidden in a hollow tree, a withered
warrior, eighty years old, and nearly blind. Fron-
tenac would have spared him ; but the Indian allies,
Christians from the mission villages, were so eager
to burn him that it was thought inexpedient to
refuse them. They tied him to the stake, and tried
to shake his constancy by every torture that fire
could inflict ; but not a cry nor a murmur escaped
him. He defied them to do their worst, till, en-
raged at his taunts, one of them gave him a mortal
stab. " I thank you," said the old Stoic, with his
last breath ; " but you ought to have finished as
you began, and killed me by fire. Learn from me,

414 FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS. [1696.

you dogs of Frenchmen, how to endure pain ; and
you, dogs of dogs, their Indian allies, think what
you will do when you are burned like me." *

Yauclreuil and his detachment returned within
three days, after destroying Oneida, with all the
growing corn, and seizing a number of chiefs as
hostages for the fulfilment of the demands of
Frontenac. There was some thought of marching
on Cayuga, but the governor judged it to be in-
expedient ; and, as it would be useless to chase the
fugitive Onondagas, nothing remained but to re-
turn home.2

While Frontenac was on his inarch, Governor

1 Relation de ce qui s'est passe", etc., 1695, 1696 ; La Potherie, III. 279.
Callieres and the author of the Relation of 1682-1712 also speak of the
extraordinary fortitude of the victim. The Jesuits say that it was not
the Christian Indians who insisted on burning him, but the French
themselves, " qui voulurent absolument qu'il fut brule a petit feu, ce
qu'ils executerent eux-memes. Un Jesuite le confessa et l'assista a la
mort, l'encourageant a souffrir courageusement et chre'tiennement les.tour-
mens." Relation de 1696 (Shea), 10. This writer adds that, when Fron-
tenac heard of it, he ordered him to be spared ; but it was too late.
Charlevoix misquotes the old Stoic's last words, which were, according
to the official Relation of 1695-6 : " Je te remercie mais tu aurais bien
du achever de me faire mourir par le feu. Apprenez, chiens de Francois,
a souflfrir, et vous sauvages leurs allies, qui etes les chiens des chiens,
souvenez vous de ce que vous devez faire quand vous serez en pareil
etat que moi."

- 2 On the expedition against the Onondagas, Callieres au Ministre, 20
Oct., 1696; Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1696; Frontenac et Champigny
au Ministre (lettre commune) 26 Oct., 1696; Relation de ce qui s'est passe*, etc.,
1695,1696; Relation, 1682-1712 ; Relation des Jesuites, 1696 (Shea) ; Doc.
Hist. N. Y., I. 323-355 ; La Potherie, III. 270-282 ; N. Y. Col. Docs.,
IV. 242.

Charlevoix charges Frontenac on this occasion with failing to pursue
his advantage, lest others, and especially Callieres, should get more
honor than he. The accusation seems absolutely groundless. His
many enemies were silent about it at the time ; for the king warmly
commends his conduct on the expedition, and Callieres himself, writing
immediately after, gives him nothing but praise.

1696.] . BOASTS OF FRONTENAC. 415

Fletcher had heard of his approach, and called the
council at New York to consider what should be
done. They resolved that " it will be very griev-
ous to take the people from their labour ; and there
is likewise no money to answer the charge thereof."
Money was, however, advanced by Colonel Cort-
landt and others ; and the governor wrote to Con-
necticut and New Jersey for their contingents of
men ; but they thought the matter no concern of
theirs, and did not respond. Fletcher went to
Albany with the few men he could gather at the
moment, and heard on his arrival that the French
were gone. Then he convoked the chiefs, condoled
with them, and made them presents. Corn was
sent to the Ononclagas and Oneidas to support
them through the winter, and prevent the famine
which the French hoped would prove their de-
struction.

What Frontenac feared had come to pass. The
enemy had saved themselves by flight ; and his ex-
pedition, like that of Denonville, was but half suc-
cessful. He took care, however, to announce it to
the king as a triumph.

" Sire, the benedictions which Heaven has ever
showered upon your Majesty's arms have extended
even to this New World ; whereof we have had
visible proof in the expedition I have just made
against the Ononclagas, the principal nation of the
Iroquois. I had long projected this enterprise, but
the difficulties and risks which attended it made
me regard it as imprudent ; and I should never have
resolved to undertake it, if I had not last year es-

416 FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS. [1696.

tablished an entrepot {Fort Frontenac), which
made my communications more easy, and if I had
not known, beyond all doubt, that this was abso-
lutely the only means to prevent our allies from
making peace with the Iroquois, and introducing
the English into their country, by which the colo-
ny would infallibly be ruined. Nevertheless, by
unexpected good fortune, the Ononclagas, who pass
for masters of the other Iroquois, and the terror of
all the Indians of this country, fell into a sort of
bewilderment, which could only have come from
on High ; and were so terrified to see me march
, against them in person, and cover their lakes and
rivers with nearly four hundred sail, that, without
availing themselves of passes where a hundred
men might easily hold four thousand in check,
they did not dare to lay a single ambuscade, but,
after waiting till I was fiwe leagues from their fort,
they set it on fire with all their dwellings, and fled,
with their families, twenty leagues into the depths
of the forest. It could have been wished, to make
the affair more brilliant, that they had tried to
hold their fort against us, for we were prepared to
force it and kill a great many of them ; but their
ruin is not the less sure, because the famine, to
which they are reduced, will destroy more than we
could have killed by sword and gun.

" All the officers and men have done their duty
admirably ; and especially M. de Callieres, who has
been a great help to me. I know not if your Maj-
esty will think that I have tried to do mine, and
will hold me worthy of some mark of honor that

1696.] COMPLAINTS OF FRONTENAC. 417

may enable me to pass the short remainder of my
life in some little distinction ; but, whether this be
so or not, I most humbly pray your Majesty to be-
lieve that I will sacrifice the rest of my days to
your Majesty's service with the same ardor I have
always felt." 1

The king highly commended him, and sent him
the cross of the Military Order of St. Louis. Cal-
lieres, who had deserved it less, had received it
several years before ; but he had not found or pro-
voked so many clefamers. Frontenac complained
to the minister that his services had been slightly
and tardily requited. This was true, and it was
due largely to the complaints excited by his own
perversity and violence. These complaints still
continued ; but the fault was not all on one side,
and Frontenac himself had often just reason to
retort them. He wrote to Ponchar train : " If you
will not be so good as to look closely into the true
state of things here, I shall always be exposed to
detraction, and forced to make new apologies,
which is very hard for a person so full of zeal and
uprightness as I am. My secretary, who is going
to France, will tell you all the ugly intrigues used
to defeat my plans for the service of the king, and
the growth of the colony. I have long tried to
combat these artifices, but I confess that I no
longer feel strength to resist them, and must suc-
cumb at last, if you will not have the goodness to
give me strong support." 2

1 Frontenac au Roy, 25 Oct., 1696.

2 Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1696.

27

418 FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS. [1696-98.

He still continued to provoke the detraction
which he deprecated, till he drew, at last, a sharp
remonstrance from the minister. " The dispute
you have had with M. de Champigny is without
cause, and I confess I cannot comprehend how
you could have acted as you have done. If you
do things of this sort, you must expect disagreeable
consequences, which all the desire I have to oblige
you cannot prevent. It is deplorable, both for
you and for me, that, instead of using my good-will
to gain favors from his Majesty, you compel me to
make excuses for a violence which answers no
purpose, and in which you indulge wantonly, no-
body can tell why." 1

Most of these quarrels, however trivial in them-
selves, had a solid foundation, and were closely
connected with the great question of the control
of the west. As to the measures to be taken, two
parties divided the colony ; one consisting of the
governor and his friends, and the other of the in-
tendant, the Jesuits, and such of the merchants as
were not in favor with Frontenac. His policy was
to protect the Indian allies at all risks, to repel by
force, if necessary, every attempt of the English to
encroach on the territory in dispute, and to occupy
it by forts which should be at once posts of war
and commerce and places of rendezvous for traders
and voyageurs. Champigny and his party de-
nounced this system ; urged that the forest posts
should be abandoned, that both garrisons and
traders should be recalled, that the French should

1 Le Ministre a Frontenac, 21 Mai, 1698.

1696-98.] PARTIES IN CANADA. 419

not go to the Indians, but that the Indians should
come to the French, that the fur trade of the inte-
rior should be carried on at Montreal, and that no
Frenchman should be allowed to leave the settled
limits of the colony, except the Jesuits and persons
in their service, who, as Champigny insisted, would
be able to keep the Indians in the French interest
without the help of soldiers.

Strong personal interests were active on both
sides, and gave bitterness to the strife. Frontenac,
who always stood by his friends, had placed Tonty,
La Foret, La Motte-Cadillac, and others of their
number, in charge of the forest posts, where they
made good profit by trade. Moreover, the licenses
for trading expeditions into the interior were now,
as before, used largely for the benefit of his favor-
ites. The Jesuits also declared, and with some
truth, that the forest posts were centres of de-
bauchery, and that the licenses for the western
trade were the ruin of innumerable young men.
All these reasons were laid before the king. In
vain Frontenac represented that to abandon the
forest posts would be to resign to the English the
trade of the interior country, and at last the coun-
try itself. The royal ear was open to his oppo-
nents, and the royal instincts reinforced their
arguments. The king, enamoured of subordina-
tion and order, wished to govern Canada as he
governed a province of France ; and this could be
done only by keeping the population within pre-
scribed bounds. Therefore, he commanded that
licenses for the forest trade should cease, that the

420 FROXTEXAC ATTACKS THE OXOXDAGAS. [1696-98.

forest posts should be abandoned and destroyed,
that all Frenchmen should be ordered back to the
settlements, and that none should return under
pain of the galleys. An exception was made in
favor of the Jesuits, who were allowed to continue
their western missions, subject to restrictions de-
signed to prevent them from becoming a cover to
illicit fur trade. Frontenac was also directed to
make peace with the Iroquois, even, if necessary,
without including the western allies of France ;
that is, he was authorized by Louis XIV. to pursue
the course which had discredited and imperilled
the colony under the rule of Denonville.1

The intentions of the king did not take effect.
The policy of Frontenac was the true one, what-
ever motives may have entered into his advocacy
of it. In view of the geographical, social, political,
and commercial conditions of Canada, the policy of
his opponents was impracticable, and nothing less
than a perpetual cordon of troops could have pre-
vented the Canadians from escaping to the back-
woods. In spite of all the evils that attended the
forest posts, it would have been a blunder to
abandon them. This quickly became apparent.

1 Memoire du Boy pour Frontenac et Champigny, 26 Mai, 1696 ; Ibid.,
27 Avril, 1697 ; Registres du Conseil Superieur, Edit du 21 Mai, 1696.

" Ce qui vous avez mande de l'accommodement des Sauvages allies
avec les Irocois n'a pas permis a Sa Majeste d'entrer dans la discution
de la maniere de faire rabandormement des postes des Francois dans la
profondeur des terres, particulierement a Missilimackinac. . . En tout
cas vous ne devez pas manquer de donner ordre pour miner les forts et
tous les e'difices qui pourront y avoir este faits." Le Ministre a Fronte-
nac, 26 Mai, 1696.

Besides the above, many other letters and despatches on both sides
have been examined in relation to these questions.

1696-98.] POSITION OF FRONTENAC. 421

Champigny himself saw the necessity of com-
promise. The instructions of the king were
scarcely given before they were partially with-
drawn, and they soon became a dead letter. Even
Fort Frontenac was retained after repeated direc-
tions to abandon it. The policy of the governor
prevailed ; the colony returned to its normal
methods of growth, and so continued to the end.

Now came the question of peace with the Iro-
quois, to whose mercy Frontenac was authorized to
leave his western allies. He was the last man to
accept such permission. Since the burning of
Onondaga, the Iroquois negotiations with the
western tribes had been broken off, and several
fights had occurred, in which the confederates had
suffered loss and been roused to vengeance. This
was what Frontenac wanted, but at the same time
it promised him fresh trouble ; for, while he was
determined to prevent the Iroquois from making
peace with the allies without his authority, he was
equally determined to compel them to do so with
it. There must be peace, though not till he could
control its conditions.

The Onondaga campaign, unsatisfactory as it
was, had had its effect. Several Iroquois chiefs
came to Quebec with overtures of peace. They
brought no prisoners, but promised to bring them
in the spring ; and one of them remained as a hos-
tage that the promise should be kept. It was
nevertheless broken under English influence ; and,
instead of a solemn embassy, the council of . Onon-
daga sent a messenger with a wampum belt to tell

422 EROXTEXAC ATTACKS THE OXOXDAGAS. [1698.

Frontenac that they were all so engrossed in be-
wailing the recent death of Black Kettle, a famous
war chief, that they had no strength to travel ;
and they begged that Onontio would return the
hostage, and send to them for the French prisoners.
The messenger farther declared that, though they
would make peace with Onontio, they would
not make it with his allies. Frontenac threw
back the peace-belt into his face. " Tell the
chiefs that, if they must needs stay at home to cry
about a trifle, I will give them something to cry for.
Let them bring me every prisoner, French and
Indian, and make a treaty that shall include all
my children, or they shall feel my tomahawk
again." Then, turning to a number of Ottawas
who were present : " You see that I can make peace
for myself when I please. If I continue the war,
it is only for your sake. I will never make a treaty
without including you, and recovering your prison-
ers like my own."

Thus the matter stood, when a great event took
place. Early in February, a party of Dutch and
Indians came to Montreal with news that peace
had been signed in Europe ; and, at the end of
May, Major Peter Schuyler, accompanied by Del-
lius, the minister of Albany, arrived with copies
of the treaty in French and Latin. The scratch
of a pen at Ryswick had ended the conflict in
America, so far at least as concerned the civilized
combatants. It was not till July that Frontenac
received the official announcement from Versailles,
coupled with an address from the king to the
people of Canada.

1698.] PEACE OF RYSWICK. 423

Our Faithful and Beloved, — The moment lias arrived
ordained by Heaven to reconcile the nations. The ratification of
the treaty concluded some time ago by our ambassadors with
those of the Emperor and the Empire, after having made peace
with Spain, England, and Holland, has everywhere restored
the tranquillity so much desired. Strasbourg, one of the chief
ramparts of the empire of heresy, united for ever to the Church
and to our Crown ; the Rhine established as the barrier between
France and Germany ; and, what touches us even more, the
worship of the True Faith authorized by a solemn engagement
with sovereigns of another religion, are the advantages secured
by this last treaty. The Author of so many blessings manifests
Himself so clearly that we cannot but recognize His goodness ;
and the visible impress of His all-powerful hand is as it were
the seal He has affixed to justify our intent to cause all our
realm to serve and obey Him, and to make our people happy.
We have begun by the fulfilment of our duty in offering Him
the thanks which are His due ; and we have ordered the arch-
bishops and bishops of our kingdom to cause Te Deiwi to be
sung in the cathedrals of their dioceses. It is our will and our
command that you be present at that which will be sung in the
cathedral of our city of Quebec, on the day appointed by the
Count of Frontenac, our governor and lieutenant-general in
New France. Herein fail not, for such is our pleasure.

Louis.1

There was peace between the two crowns ; but
a serious question still remained between Frontenac
and the new governor of New York, the Earl of
Bellomont. When Schuyler and Dellius came to
Quebec, they brought with them all the French
prisoners in the hands of the English of New York,
together with a promise from Bellomont that he
would order the Iroquois, subjects of the British
crown, to deliver to him all those in their possession,
and that he would then send them to Canada under

1 Lettre du Roy pour fair e chanter le Te Deum, 12 Mars, 1698.

424 ERONTENAC ATTACKS THE OXONDAGAS.

a safe escort. The two envoys demanded of Fron-
tenac, at the same time, that he should deliver to
them all the Iroquois in his hands. To give up
Iroquois prisoners to Bellomont, or to receive
through him French prisoners whom the Iroquois
had captured, would have been an acknowledg-
ment of British sovereignty over the five con-
federate tribes. Frontenac replied that the earl
need give himself no trouble in the matter, as the
Iroquois were rebellious subjects of King Louis ;
that they had already repented and begged peace ;
and that, if they did not soon come to conclude it,
he should use force to compel them.

Bellomont wrote, in return, that he had sent
arms to the Iroquois, with orders to defend them-
selves if attacked by the French, and to give no
quarter to them or their allies ; and he added that,
if necessary, he would send soldiers to their aid.
A few days after, he received fresh news of Fron-
tenac's warlike intentions, and wrote in wrath as
follows : —

Sir, — Two of our Indians, of the Nation called Onondages,
came yesterday to advise me that you had sent two renegades
of their Nation to them, to tell them and the other tribes, except
the Mohawks, that, in case they did not come to Canada within
forty days to solicit peace from you, they may expect your march-
ing into their country at the head of an army to constrain them
thereunto by force. I, on my side, do this very day send my
lieutenant-governor with the king's troops to join the Indians,
and to oppose any hostilities you will attempt ; and, if needs be,
I will arm every man in the Provinces under my government to
repel you, and to make reprisals for the damage which you will
commit on our Indians. This, in a few words, is the part I will

1698.J SCHUYLER AT QUEBEC. 425

take, and the resolution I have adopted, whereof I have thought
it proper by these presents to give you notice.
I am, Sir, yours, &c.,

Earl of Bellomont.
New York, 22d August, 1698.

To arm every man in his government would
have been difficult. He did, however, what he
could, and ordered Captain Nanfan, the lieutenant-
governor, to repair to Albany ; whence, on the first
news that the French were approaching, he was to
march to the relief of the Iroquois with the four
shattered companies of regulars and as many of
the militia of Albany and Ulster as he could mus-
ter. Then the earl sent Wessels, mayor of Albany,
to persuade the Iroquois to deliver their prisoners
to him, and make no treaty with Frontenac. On
the same clay, he despatched Captain John Schuyler
to carry his letters to the French governor. When
Schuyler reached Quebec, and delivered the letters,
Frontenac read them with marks of great dis-
pleasure. " My Lord Bellomont threatens me,"
he said. " Does he think that I am afraid of him ?
He claims the Iroquois, but they are none of his.
They call me father* and they call him brother;
and shall not a father chastise his children when
he sees fit ? " A conversation followed, in which
Frontenac asked the envoy what was the strength
of Bellomont's government. Schuyler parried the
question by a grotesque exaggeration, and an-
swered that the earl could bring about a hundred
thousand men into the field. Frontenac pretended
to believe him, and returned with careless gravity
that he had always heard so.

426 FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE OXOXDAGAS. [1698.

The following Sunday was the clay appointed
for the Te Deum ordered by the king ; and all the
dignitaries of the colony, with a crowd of lesser note,
filled the cathedral. There was a dinner of cere-
mony at the chateau, to which Schuyler was invited ;
and he found the table of the governor thronged
with officers. Frontenac called on his guests to
drink the health of King William. Schuyler re-
plied by a toast in honor of King Louis ; and the
governor next gave the health of the Earl of Bello-
mont. The peace was then solemnly proclaimed,
amid the firing of cannon from the batteries and
ships ; and the clay closed with a bonfire and a general
illumination. On the next evening, Frontenac gave
Schuyler a letter in answer to the threats of the
earl. He had written with trembling hand, but
unshaken will and unbending pride : —

" I am determined to pursue my course without
flinching ; and I request you not to try to thwart me
by efforts which will prove useless. All the pro-
tection and aid you tell me that you have given,
and will continue to give, the Iroquois, against the
terms of the treaty, will not cause me much alarm,
nor make me change my plans, but rather, on the
contrary, engage me to pursue them still more." 1

1 On the questions between Bellomont and Frontenac, Relation de ce
qui s'est passe', etc., 1697, 1698; Champigny au Ministre, 12 Juillet, 1698;
Frontenac au Ministre, 18 Oct., 1698; Frontenac et Champigny au Ministre
[lettre commune), 15 Oct., 1698 ; Callieres au Ministre, mime date, etc. The
correspondence of Frontenac and Bellomont, the report of Peter Schuy-
ler and Dellius, the journal of John Schuyler, and other papers on the
same subjects, will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IV. John Schuyler was
grandfather of General Schuyler of the American Revolution. Peter
Schuyler and his colleague Dellius brought to Canada all the French
prisoners in the hands of the English of New York, and asked for English

1698.] A LAST DEFIANCE. 427

As the old soldier traced these lines, the shadow
of death was upon him. Toils and years, passions
and cares, had wasted his strength at last, and his
fiery soul could bear him up no longer. A few
weeks later he was lying calmly on his death-
bed.

prisoners in return ; but nearly all of these preferred to remain, a remark-
able proof of the kindness with which the Canadians treated their civil-
ized captives.

CHAPTER XX.

1698.

DEATH OF FRONTENAC.

His Last Hours. — His Will. — His Funeral. — His Eulogist
and his Critic. — His Disputes with the Clergy. — His Char-
acter.

In November, when the last ship had gone, and
Canada was sealed from the world for half a year,
a mortal illness fell upon the governor. On the
twenty-second, he had strength enough to dictate
his will, seated in an easy-chair in his chamber at
the chateau. His colleague and adversary, Cham-
pigny, often came to visit him, and did all in his
power to soothe his last moments. The reconcilia-
tion between them was complete. One of his
Recollet friends, Father Olivier Goyer, administered
extreme unction ; and, on the afternoon of the
twenty-eighth, he died, in perfect composure and
full possession of his faculties. He was in his
seventy-eighth year.

He was greatly beloved by the humbler classes,
who, days before his death, beset the chateau,
praising and lamenting him. Many of higher
station shared the popular grief. " He was the
love and delight of New France," says one of

1698.] HIS LAST HOURS. 429

them : " churchmen honored him for his piety,
nobles esteemed him for his valor, merchants re-
spected him for his equity, and the people loved
him for his kindness." 1 " He was the father of
the poor," says another, " the protector of the
oppressed, and a perfect model of virtue and
piety." 2 An Ursuline nun regrets him as the
friend and patron of her sisterhood, and so also
does the superior of the Hotel-Dieu.3 His most
conspicuous though not his bitterest opponent, the
intenclant Champigny, thus announced his death
to the court : " I venture to send this letter by
way of New England to tell you that Monsieur le
Comte de Frontenac died on the twenty-eighth of
last month, with the sentiments of a true Christian.
After all the disputes we have had together, you
will hardly believe, Monseigneur, how truly and
deeply I am touched by his death. He treated me
during his illness in a manner so obliging, that I
should be utterly void of gratitude if I did not
feel thankful to him." 4

As a mark of kind feeling, Frontenac had be-
queathed to the intenclant a valuable crucifix, and to
Madame de Champigny a reliquary which he had long
been accustomed to wear. For the rest, he gave fif-
teen hundred livres to the Eecollets, to be expended
in masses for his soul, and that of his wife after her
death. To her he bequeathed all the remainder of

i La Potherie, I. 244, 246.

2 Hennepin, 41 (1704). Le Clerc speaks to the same effect.

3 Histoire des Ursulines de Quebec, I. 508 ; Juchereau, 378.
* Champigny au Mimstre, 22 Dec, 1698.

430 DEATH OF FRONTENAC. [1698.

his small property, and he also directed that his
heart should be sent her in a case of lead or silver.1
His enemies reported that she refused to accept it,
saying that she had never had it when he was
living, and did not want it when he was dead.

On the Friday after his death, he was buried as
he had directed, not in the cathedral, but in the
church of the Recollets, a preference deeply offen-
sive to many of the clergy. The bishop officiated ;
and then the Recollet, Father Goyer, who had
attended his death-bed, and seems to have been his
confessor, mounted the pulpit, and delivered his
funeral oration. " This funeral pageantry," ex-
claimed the orator, " this temple draped in mourn-
ing, these dim lights, this sad and solemn music,
this great assembly bowed in sorrow, and all this
pomp and circumstance of death, may well pene-
trate your hearts. I will not seek to dry your
tears, for I cannot contain my own. After all,
this is a time to weep, and never did people weep
for a better governor."

A copy of this eulogy fell into the hands of an
enemy of Frontenac, who wrote a running com-
mentary upon it. The copy thus annotated is still
preserved at Quebec. A few passages from the
orator and his critic will show the violent conflict
of opinion concerning the governor, and illustrate
in some sort, though with more force than fairness,
the contradictions of his character : —

1 Testament du Comte de Frontenac. I am indebted to Abbe' Bois of
Maskinonge for a copy of this will. Frontenac expresses a wish that the
heart should be placed in the family tomb at the Church of St. Nicolas
des Champs.

1698.] . HIS EULOGIST AND HIS CKITIC. 431

The Orator. " This wise man, to whom the
Senate of Venice listened with respectful atten-
tion, because he spoke before them with all the
force of that eloquence which you, Messieurs, have
so often admired, — 1

The Critic. u It was not his eloquence that they admired,
but his extravagant pretensions, his bursts of rage, and his un-
worthy treatment of those who did not agree with him."

The Orator. u This disinterested man, more
busied with duty than with gain, —
The Critic. " The less said about that the better."

The Orator. " Who made the fortune of others,
but did not increase his own, —

The Critic. " Not for want of trying, and that very often
in spite of his conscience and the king's orders."

The Orator. "Devoted to tfce service of his
king, whose majesty he represented, and whose
person he loved, — •

The Critic. "Not at all. How often has he opposed his
orders, even with force and violence, to the great scandal of
everybody ! "

The Orator. " Great in the midst of difficulties,
by that consummate prudence, that solid judgment,
that presence of mind, that breadth and elevation
of thought, which he retained to the last moment
of his life

The Critic. " He had in fact a great capacity for political
manoeuvres and tricks ; but as for the solid judgment ascribed to

1 Alluding to an incident that occurred when Frontenac commanded
a Venetian force for the defence of Candia against the Turks.

432 DEATH OF FRONTENAC. [1693.

him, his conduct gives it the lie, or else, if he had it, the
vehemence of his passions often unsettled it. It is much to be
feared that his presence of mind was the effect of an obstinate
and hardened self-confidence by which he put himself above
everybody and every thing, since he never used it to repair, so
far as in him lay, the public and private wrongs he caused.
What ought he not to have done here, in this temple, to ask
pardon for the obstinate and furious heat with which he so long
persecuted the Church ; upheld and even instigated rebellion
against her ; protected libertines, scandal-mongers, and creatures
of evil life against the ministers of Heaven ; molested, perse-
cuted, vexed persons most eminent in virtue, nay, even the
priests and magistrates, who defended the cause of God ; sus-
tained in all sorts of ways the wrongful and scandalous traffic in
brandy with the Indians ; permitted, approved, and supported
the license and abuse of taverns ; authorized and even intro-
duced, in spite of the remonstrances of the servants of God,
criminal and dangerous diversions ; tried to decry the bishop and
the clergy, the missionaries, and other persons of virtue, and to
injure them, both here and in France, by libels and calumnies ;
caused, in fine, either by himself or through others, a multitude
of disorders, under which this infant church has groaned for
many years ! What, I say, ought he not to have done before
dying to atone for these scandals, and give proof of sincere peni-
tence and compunction ? God gave him full time to recognize his
errors, and yet to the last he showed a great indifference in all
these matters. When, in presence of the Holy Sacrament, he
was asked according to the ritual, ' Do you not beg pardon for
all the ill examples you may have given ? ' he answered, ' Yes,'
but did not confess that he had ever given any. In a word, he
behaved during the few days before his death like one who had
led an irreproachable life, and had nothing to fear. And this is
the presence of mind that he retained to his last moment ! "

The Orator. " Great in dangers by his courage,
he always came off with honor, and never was re-
proached with rashness, —

The Critic. " True ; he was not rash, as was seen when the
Bostonnais besieged Quebec."

1698.] HIS EULOGIST AND HIS CRITIC. 433

The Orator. " Great in religion by his piety, he
practised its good works in spirit and in truth, —

The Critic. "Say rather that he practised its forms with
parade and ostentation : witness the inordinate ambition with
which he always claimed honors in the Church, to which he had
no right ; outrageously affronted intendants, who opposed his
pretensions ; required priests to address him when preaching, and
in their intercourse with him demanded from them humiliations
which he did not exact from the meanest military officer. This
was his way of making himself great in religion and piety, or,
more truly, in vanity and hypocrisy. How can a man be called
great in religion, when he openly holds opinions entirely opposed
to the True Faith, such as, that all men are predestined, that
Hell will not last for ever, and the like ? "

The Orator. " His very look inspired esteem and
confidence, —

The Critic. " Then one must have taken him at exactly the
right moment, and not when he was foaming at the mouth with
rage."

The Orator. " A mingled air of nobility and
gentleness; a countenance that bespoke the pro-
bity that appeared in all his acts, and a sincerity
that could not dissimulate, —

The Critic. " The eulogist did not know the old fox."

The Orator. " An inviolable fidelity to friends, —

The Critic. " What friends? Was it persons of the other
sex ? Of these he was always fond, and too much for the honor
of some of them."

The Orator. " Disinterested for himself, ardent
for others, he used his credit at court only to
recommend their services, excuse their faults, and
obtain favors for them, —

28

434 DEATH OF FRONTEXAC. [1698.

The Critic. " True ; but it was for his creatures and for
nobody else."

The Orator. " I pass in silence that reading of
spiritual books which he practised as an indispen-
sable duty more than forty years ; that holy avidity
with which he listened to the word of God, —

The Critic. " Only if the preacher addressed the sermon to
him, and called him Monseigneur. As for his reading, it was
often Jansenist books, of which he had a great many, and which
he greatly praised and lent freely to others."

The Orator. " He prepared for the sacraments
by meditation and retreat, —

The Critic. " And generally came out of his retreat more
excited than ever against the Church."

The Orator. " Let us not recall his ancient and
noble descent, his family connected with all that is
greatest in the army, the magistracy, and the
government ; Knights, Marshals of France, Gov-
ernors of Provinces, Judges, Councillors, and Min-
isters of State : let us not, I say, recall all these
without remembering that their examples roused
this generous heart to noble emulation ; and, as an
expiring flame grows brighter as it dies, so did all
the virtues of his race unite at last in him to end
with glory a long line of great men, that shall be
no more except in history."

The Critic. " Well laid on, and too well for his hearers to
believe him. Far from agreeing that all these virtues were col-
lected in the person of his pretended hero, they would find it
very hard to admit that he had even one of them." x

1 Oraison Funebre du tres-hant et t res-puissant Seigneur Louis de Bnade,
Comte de Frontenuc et de Palluau, etc., avec des remarques critiques, 1698.

1698.] HIS DISPUTES WITH THE CLERGY. 435

It is clear enough from what quiver these arrows
came. From the first, Frontenac had set himself
in opposition to the most influential of the Cana-
dian clergy. When he came to the colony, their
power in the government was still enormous, and
even the most devout of his predecessors had been
forced into conflict with them to defend the civil
authority ; but, when Frontenac entered the strife,
he brought into it an irritability, a jealous and
exacting vanity, a love of rule, and a passion for
having his own way, even in trifles, which made
him the most exasperating of adversaries. Hence
it was that many of the clerical party felt towards
him a bitterness that was far from ending with his
life.

The sentiment of a religion often survives its
convictions. However heterodox in doctrine, he
was still wedded to the observances of the Church,
and practised them, under the ministration of the
Recollets, with an assiduity that made full amends
to his conscience for the vivacity with which he
opposed the rest of the clergy. To the Recollets
their patron was the most devout of men ; to his
ultramontane adversaries, he was an impious per-
secutor.

His own acts and words best paint his character,
and it is needless to enlarge upon it. What per-

That indefatigable investigator of Canadian history, the late M. Jacques
Viger, to whom I am indebted for a copy of this eulogy, suggested that
the anonymous critic may have been Abbe la Tour, author of the Vie de
Laval. If so, his statements need the support of more trustworthy evi-
dence. The above extracts are not consecutive, but are taken from vari-
ous parts of the manuscript.

436 DEATH OF FRONTENAC. [1698.

haps may be least forgiven him is the barbarity of
the warfare that he waged, and the cruelties that he
permitted. He had seen too many towns sacked
to be much subject to the scruples of modern
humanitarianism ; yet he was no whit more ruth-
less than his times and his surroundings, and some
of his contemporaries find fault with him for not
allowing more Indian captives to be tortured.
Many surpassed him in cruelty, none equalled him
in capacity and vigor. When civilized enemies
were once within his power, he treated them, ac-
cording to their degree, with a chivalrous courtesy,
or a generous kindness. If he was a hot and per-
tinacious foe, he was also a fast friend ; and he
excited love and hatred in about equal measure.
His attitude towards public enemies was always
proud and peremptory, yet his courage was
guided by so clear a sagacity that he never was
forced to recede from the position he had taken.
Towards Indians, he was an admirable compound
of sternness and conciliation. Of the immensity
of his services to the colony there can be no doubt.
He found it, under Denonville, in humiliation
and terror ; and he left it in honor, and almost in
triumph.

In spite of Father Goyer, greatness must be de-
nied him ; but a more remarkable figure, in its
bold and salient individuality and sharply marked
light and shadow, is nowhere seen in American
history.1

1 There is no need to exaggerate the services of Frontenac. Noth-
ing could be more fallacious than the assertion, often repeated, that in

1698.] INACTION OF THE ENGLISH. 437

his time Canada withstood the united force of all the British colonies.
Most of these colonies took no part whatever in the war. Only two of
them took an aggressive part, New York and Massachusetts. New
York attacked Canada twice, with the two inconsiderable war-parties of
John Schuyler in 1690 and of Peter Schuyler in the next year. The
feeble expedition under Winthrop did not get beyond Lake George.
Massachusetts, or rather her seaboard towns, attacked Canada once.
Quebec, it is true, was kept in alarm during several years by rumors
of another attack from the same quarter ; but no such danger existed,
as Massachusetts was exhausted by her first effort. The real scourge
of Canada was the Iroquois, supplied with arms and ammunition from
Albany.

CHAPTER XXI.

1699-1701.
CONCLUSION.

The New Governor. — Attitude of the Iroquois. — Negotia-
tions.— Embassy to Onondaga. — Peace. — The Iroquois axd
the Allies. — Difficulties. — Death of the Great Huron-. —
Funeral Rites. — The Grand Council. — The Work of Frox-
tenac finished. — Results.

It did not need the presence of Frontenac to
cause snappings and sparks in the highly electrical
atmosphere of New France. Callieres took his
place as governor ad interim, and in due time re-
ceived a formal appointment to the office. Apart
from the wretched state of his health, undermined
by gout and dropsy, he was in most respects well
fitted for it ; but his deportment at once gave um-
brage to the excitable Champigny, who declared
that he had never seen such hauteur since he came
to the colony. Another official was still more
offended. " Monsieur de Frontenac," he says,
" was no sooner dead than trouble began. Mon-
sieur cle Callieres, puffed up by his new authority,
claims honors due only to a marshal of France. It
would be a different matter if he, like his prede-
cessor, were regarded as the father of the country,
and the love and delight of the Indian allies. At

1699.] THE IROQUOIS QUESTION. 439

the review at Montreal, he sat in his carriage, and
received the incense offered him with as much
composure and coolness as if he had been some
divinity of this New World." In spite of these
complaints, the court sustained Callieres, and au-
thorized him to enjoy the honors that he had as-
sumed.1

His first and chief task was to finish the work
that Frontenac had shaped out, and bring the Iro-
quois to such submission as the interests of the
colony and its allies demanded. The fierce con-
federates admired the late governor, and, if they
themselves are to be believed, could not help
lamenting him ; but they were emboldened by
his death, and the difficulty of dealing with them
was increased by it. Had they been sure of effect-
ual support from the English, there can be little
doubt that they would have refused to treat with
the French, of whom their distrust was extreme.
The treachery of Denonville at Fort Frontenac
still rankled in their hearts, and the English had
made them believe that some of their best men
had lately been poisoned by agents from Montreal.
The French assured them, on the other hand, that
the English meant to poison them, refuse to sell
them powder and lead, and then, when they were
helpless, fall upon and destroy them. At Montreal,
they were told that the English called them their
negroes ; and, at Albany, that if they made peace
with Onontio, they would sink into " perpetual in-

1 Chompigny au Ministre, 26 Mai, 1699 ; La Potherie au Ministre, 2
Juin, 1699 ; Vaudreuil et La Potherie au Ministre, me me date.

440 CONCLUSION. [1699.

famy and slavery." Still, in spite of their per-
plexity, they persisted in asserting their indepen-
dence of each of the rival powers, and played the
one against the other, in order to strengthen their
position with both. When Bellomont required
them to surrender their French prisoners to him,
they answered : " We are the masters ; our prison-
ers are our own. We will keep them or give them
to the French, if we choose." At the same time,
they told Callieres that they would bring them to the
English at Albany, and invited him to send thither
his agents to receive them. They were much
disconcerted, however, when letters were read to
them which showed that, pending the action of
commissioners to settle the dispute, the two kings
had ordered their respective governors to refrain
from all acts of hostility, and join forces, if neces-
sary, to compel the Iroquois to keep quiet.1 This,
with their enormous losses, and their desire to re-
cover their people held captive in Canada, led them
at last to serious thoughts of peace. Resolving at
the same time to try the temper of the new Onon-
tio, and yield no more than was absolutely neces-
sary, they sent him but six ambassadors, and no
prisoners. The ambassadors inarched in single file
to the place of council ; while their chief, who led
the way, sang a dismal soup: of lamentation for the
French slain in the war, calling on them to thrust
their heads above ground, behold the good work

1 Le Roy a Frontenac, 25 Mars, 1699. Frontenac's death was not
known at Versailles till April. Le Roy d' Angleterre a Bellomont, 2 Avril,
1699 ; La Potherie, IV. 128 ; Callieres a Bellomont, 7 Aout, 1699.

1700.] NEGOTIATIONS. 441

of peace, and banish every thought of vengeance.
Callieres proved, as they had hoped, less inexorable
than Frontenac. He accepted their promises, and
consented to send for the prisoners in their hands,
on condition that within thirty-six clays a full
deputation of their principal men should come to
Montreal. The Jesuit Bruyas, the Canadian Mari-
court, and a French officer named Joncaire went
back with them to receive the prisoners.

The history of Joncaire was a noteworthy one.
The Senecas had captured him some time before,
tortured his companions to death, and doomed him
to the same fate. As a preliminary torment, an
old chief tried to burn a finger of the captive in
the bowl of his pipe, on which Joncaire knocked
him clown. If he had begged for mercy, their
hearts would have been flint ; but the warrior crowd
were so pleased with this proof of courage that
they adopted him as one of their tribe, and gave
him an Iroquois wife. He lived among them for
many years, and gained a commanding influence,
which proved very useful to the French. When
he, with Bruyas and Maricourt, approached Onon-
daga, which had long before risen from its ashes,
they were greeted with a fusillade of joy, and re-
galed with the sweet stalks of young maize, fol-
lowed by the more substantial refreshment of
venison and corn beaten together into a pulp and
boiled. The chiefs and elders seemed well inclined
to peace ; and, though an envoy came from Albany
to prevent it, he behaved with such arrogance
that, far from dissuading his auditors, he confirmed

442 CONCLUSION. [1700.

them in their resolve to meet Onontio at Montreal.
They seemed willing enough to give up their
French prisoners, but an unexpected difficulty
arose from the prisoners themselves. They had
been adopted into Iroquois families ; and, having
become attached to the Indian life, they would not
leave it. Some of them hid in the woods to escape
their deliverers, who, with their best efforts, could
collect but thirteen, all women, children, and boys.
With these, they returned to Montreal, accompanied
by a peace embassy of nineteen Iroquois.

Peace, then, was made. " I bury the hatchet,'*
said Callieres, " in a deep hole, and over the hole
I place a great rock, and over the rock I turn a
river, that the hatchet may never be dug up again. "
The famous Huron, Kondiaronk, or the Rat, was
present, as were also a few Ottawas, Abenakis, and
converts of the Saut and the Mountain. Sharp
words passed between them and the ambassadors ;
but at last they all laid down their hatchets at the
feet of Onontio, and signed the treaty together.
It was but a truce, and a doubtful one. More was
needed to confirm it, and the following August
was named for a solemn act of ratification.1

Father Engelran was sent to Michillimackinac,
while Courtemanche spent the winter and spring
in toilsome journeyings among the tribes of the

1 On these negotiations, La Potherie, IV. lettrexi.; N. Y. Col. Docs.,
IX. 708,711,715; Colden, 200; Callieres au Ministre, 16 Oct., 1700;
Champigny au Ministre, 22 Juillet, 1700; La Potherie au Mhiistre, 11
Aout, 1700; Ibid., 16 Oct., 1700; Callieres et Champigny au Ministre, 18
Oct., 1700. See also N. Y. Col. Docs., IV., for a great number of Eng-
lish documents bearing on the subject.

1701.] THE IROQUOIS AND THE ALLIES. 443

west. Such was his influence over them that he
persuaded them all to give up their Iroquois
prisoners, and send deputies to the grand council.
Engelran had had scarcely less success among the
northern tribes ; and early in July a great fleet of
canoes, conducted by Courtemanche, and filled with
chiefs, warriors, and Iroquois prisoners, paddled
down the lakes for Montreal. Meanwhile Bruyas,
Maricourt, and Joncaire had returned on the same
errand to the Iroquois towns • but, so far as con-
cerned prisoners, their success was no greater than
before. Whether French or Indian, the chiefs
were slow to give them up, saying that they had
all been adopted into families who would not part
with them unless consoled for the loss by gifts.
This was true ; but it was equally true of the other
tribes, whose chiefs had made the necessary gifts,
and recovered the captive Iroquois. Joncaire and
his colleagues succeeded, however, in leading a
large deputation of chiefs and elders to Montreal.
Courtemanche with his canoe fleet from the lakes
was not far behind ; and when their approach was
announced, the chronicler, La Potherie, full of
curiosity, went to meet them at the mission village
of the Saut. First appeared the Iroquois, two
hundred in all, firing their guns as their canoes
drew near, while the mission Indians, ranged along
the shore, returned the salute. The ambassadors
were conducted to a capacious lodge, where for a
quarter of an hour they sat smoking with immov-
able composure. Then a chief of the mission made
a speech, and then followed a feast of boiled dogs.

444 CONCLUSION. [1701.

In the morning they descended the rapids to Mont-
real, and in due time the distant roar of the
saluting cannon told of their arrival.

They had scarcely left the village, when the river
was covered with the canoes of the western and
northern allies. There was another fusillade of
welcome as the heterogeneous company landed,
and marched to the great council-house. The
calumet was produced, and twelve of the assembled
chiefs sang a song, each rattling at the same time
a dried gourd half full of peas. Six large kettles
were next brought in, containing several dogs
and a bear suitably chopped to pieces, which being
ladled out to the guests were despatched in an in-
stant, and a solemn dance and a supper of boiled
corn closed the festivity.

The strangers embarked again on the next day,
and the cannon of Montreal greeted them as they
landed before the town. A great quantity of ever-
green boughs had been gathered for their use, and
of these they made their wigwams outside the
palisades. Before the opening of the grand coun-
cil, a multitude of questions must be settled, jeal-
ousies soothed, and complaints answered. Callieres
had no peace. He was busied for a week in giving
audience to the deputies. There was one ques-
tion which agitated them all, and threatened to
rekindle the war. Kondiaronk, the Eat, the
foremost man among all the allied tribes, gave
utterance to the general feeling : " My father, you
told us last autumn to bring you all the Iroquois
prisoners in our hands. We have obeyed, and

1701.1 SPEECH OF THE RAT. 445

brought them. Now let us see if the Iroquois have
also obeyed, and brought you our people whom
they captured during the war. If they have clone
so, they are sincere ; if not, they are false. But I
know that they have not brought them. I told
you last year that it was better that they should
bring their prisoners first. You see now how it is,
and how they have deceived us."

The complaint was just, and the situation became
critical. The Iroquois deputies were invited to
explain themselves. They stalked into the council-
room with their usual haughty composure, and
readily promised to surrender the prisoners in
future, but offered no hostages for their good faith.
The Rat, who had counselled his own and other
tribes to bring their Iroquois captives to Montreal,
was excessively mortified at finding himself duped.
He came to a later meeting, when this and other
matters were to be discussed ; but he was so weak-
ened by fever that he could not stand. An arm-
chair was brought him ; and, seated in it, he
harangued the assembly for two hours, amid a
deep silence, broken only by ejaculations of ap-
proval from his Indian hearers. When the meet-
ing ended, he was completely exhausted ; and, being
carried in his chair to the hospital, he died about
midnight. He was a great loss to the French ; for,
though he had caused the massacre of La Chine,
his services of late years had been invaluable. In
spite of his unlucky name, he was one of the ablest
North American Indians on record, as appears by
his remarkable influence over many tribes, and by

446 CONCLUSION. [1701.

the respect, not to say admiration, of liis French
contemporaries.

The French charged themselves with the funeral
rites, carried the dead chief to his wigwam,
stretched him on a robe of beaver skin, and left
him there lying in state, swathed in a scarlet
blanket, with a kettle, a gun, and a sword at his
side, for his use in the world of spirits. This was
a concession to the superstition of his countrymen ;
for the Rat was a convert, and went regularly to
mass.1 Even the Iroquois, his deadliest foes, paid
tribute to his memory. Sixty of them came in
solemn procession, and ranged themselves around
the bier; while one of their principal chiefs pro-
nounced an harangue, in which he declared that
the sun had covered his face that day in grief for
the loss of the great Huron.2 He was buried on the
next morning. Saint-Ours, senior captain, led the
funeral train with an escort of troops, followed by
sixteen Huron warriors in robes of beaver skin,
marching four and four, with faces painted black
and guns reversed. Then came the clergy, and
then six war-chiefs carrying the coffin. It was
decorated with flowers, and on it lay a plumed hat,
a sword, and a gorget. Behind it were the brother

1 La Potherie, IV. 229. Charlevoix suppresses the kettle and gun,
and says that the dead chief wore a sword and a uniform, like a French
officer. In fact, he wore Indian leggins and a capote under his scarlet
blanket.

2 Charlevoix says that these were Christian Iroquois of the missions.
Potherie, his only authority, proves them to have been heathen, as their
chief mourner was a noted Seneca, and their spokesman, Avenano, was
the accredited orator of the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas,
in whose name he made the funeral harangue.

1701.] THE GRAND COUNCIL. 447

and sons of the dead chief, and files of Huron and
Ottawa warriors ; while Madame de Champigny,
attended by Vaudreuil and all the military officers,
closed the procession. After the service, the sol-
diers fired three volleys over the grave ; and a tablet
was placed upon it, carved with the words, —

Cy git le Rat, Chef des Hurons.

All this ceremony pleased the allied tribes, and
helped to calm their irritation. Every obstacle
being at length removed or smoothed over, the
fourth of August was named for the grand council.
A vast, oblong space was marked out on a plain
near the town, and enclosed with a fence of
branches. At one end was a canopy of boughs and
leaves, under which were seats for the spectators.
Troops were drawn up in line along the sides ; the
seats under the canopy were filled by ladies, officials,
and the chief inhabitants of Montreal ; Callieres
sat in front, surrounded by interpreters ; and the
Indians were seated on the grass around the open
space. There were more than thirteen hundred
of them, gathered from a distance of full two thou-
sand miles, Hurons and Ottawas from Michilli-
mackinac, Ojibwas from Lake Superior, Crees from
the remote north, Pottawatamies from Lake Michi-
gan, Mascontins, Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes, and
Menominies from Wisconsin, Miamis from the St.
Joseph, Illinois from the river Illinois, Abenakis
from Acadia, and many allied hordes of less ac-
count ; each savage painted with diverse hues and
patterns, and each in his dress of ceremony,

448 CONCLUSION. [1701.

leathern shirts fringed with scalp-locks, colored
blankets or robes of bison hide and beaver skin,
bristling crests of hair or long lank tresses, eagle
feathers or horns of beasts. Pre-eminent among
them all sat their valiant and terrible foes, the war-
riors of the confederacy. " Strange," exclaims La
Potherie, " that four or five thousand should make
a whole new world tremble. New England is but
too happy to gain their good graces ; New France
is often wasted by their wars, and our allies dread
them over an extent of more than fifteen hundred
leagues." It was more a marvel than he knew, for
he greatly overrates their number.

Callieres opened the council with a speech, in
which he told the assembly that, since but few
tribes were represented at the treaty of the year
before, he had sent for them all to ratify it ; that
he now threw their hatchets and his own into a
pit so deep that nobody could find them ; that
henceforth they must live like brethren ; and, if
by chance one should strike another, the injured
brother must not revenge the blow, but come for
redress to him, Onontio, their common father.
Nicolas Perrot and the Jesuits who acted as inter-
preters repeated the speech in five different lan-
guages ; and, to confirm it, thirty-one wampum belts
were given to the thirty-one tribes present. Then
each tribe answered in turn. First came Hassaki,
chief of an Ottawa band known as Cut Tails. He
approached with a majestic air, his long robe of
beaver skin trailing on the grass behind him. Four
Iroquois captives followed, with eyes bent on the

1701.] THE GRAND COUNCIL. 449

ground ; and, when he stopped before the governor,
they seated themselves at his feet. " You asked
us for our prisoners/' he said, " and here they are.
I set them free because you wish it, and I regard
them as my brothers." Then turning to the Iro-
quois deputies : " Know that if I pleased I might
have eaten them ; but I have not done as you
would have done. Eemember this when we meet,
and let us be friends." The Iroquois ejaculated
their approval.

Next came a Huron chief, followed by eight
Iroquois prisoners, who, as he declared, had been
bought at great cost, in kettles, guns, and blankets,
from the families who had adopted them. "We
thought that the Iroquois would have done by us as
wre have done by them \ and we were astonished
to see that they had not brought us our prisoners.
Listen to me, my father, and you, Iroquois, listen.
I am not sorry to make peace, since my father
wishes it, and I will live in peace with him and
with you." Thus, in turn, came the spokesmen of
all the tribes, delivering their prisoners and making
their speeches. The Miami orator said : " I am
very angry with the Iroquois, who burned my son
some years ago ; but to-day I forget all that. My
father's will is mine. I will not be like the Iro-
quois, who have disobeyed his voice." The orator
of the Mississagas came forward, crowned with the
head and horns of a young bison bull, and, pre-
senting his prisoners, said : " I place them in your
hands. Do with them as you like. I am only too
proud that you count me among your allies."

29

450 CONCLUSION. [1701.

The chief of the Foxes now rose from his seat
at the farther end of the enclosure, and walked
sedately across the whole open space towards the
stand of spectators. His face was painted red, and
he wore an old French wig, with its abundant curls
in a state of complete entanglement. When he
reached the chair of the governor, he bowed, and
lifted the wig like a hat, to show that he was per-
fect in French politeness. There was a burst of
laughter from the spectators ; but Callieres, with
ceremonious gravity, begged him to put it on
again, which he did, and proceeded with his speech,
the pith of which was briefly as follows : " The
darkness is gone, the sun shines bright again, and
now the Iroquois is my brother."

Then came a young Algonquin war-chief, dressed
like a Canadian, but adorned with a drooping red
feather and a tall rictee of hair like the crest of a
cock. It was he who slew Black Kettle, that
redoubted Iroquois whose loss filled the confecler-
ac}^ with mourning, and who exclaimed as he fell,
" Must I, who have made the whole earth tremble,
now die by the hand of a child ! " The young
chief spoke concisely and to the purpose : " I am
not a man of counsel : it is for me to listen to your
words. Peace has come, and now let us forget the
past."

When he and all the rest had ended, the orator
of the Iroquois strode to the front, and in brief words
gave in their adhesion to the treaty. " Onontio,
we are pleased with all you have clone, and we have
listened to all you have said. We assure you by

1701.] THE WORK OF FRONTENAC FINISHED. 451

these four belts of wampum that we will stand fast
in our obedience. As for the prisoners whom we
have not brought you, we place them at your dis-
posal, and }rou will send and fetch them."

The calumet was lighted. Callieres, Champigny,
and Vaudreuil drew the first smoke, then the Iro-
quois deputies, and then all the tribes in turn.
The treaty was duly signed, the rejDresentative of
each tribe affixing his mark, in the shape of some
bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect, plant, or nonde-
script object.

u Thus," says La Potherie, " the labors of the
late Count Frontenac were brought to a happy
consummation." The work of Frontenac was in-
deed finished, though not as he would have finished
it. Callieres had told the Iroquois that till they sur-
rendered their Indian prisoners he would keep in
his own hands the Iroquois prisoners surrendered
by the allied tribes. To this the spokesman of the
confederacy coolly replied : " Such a proposal was
never made since the world began. Keep them,
if you like. We will go home, and think no more
about them ; but, if you gave them to us without
making trouble, and gave us our son Joncaire at
the same time, we should have no reason to dis-
trust your sincerity, and should all be glad to send
you back the prisoners we took from your allies."
Callieres yielded, persuaded the allies to agree to
the conditions, gave up the prisoners, and took an
empty promise in return. It was a triumph for
the Iroquois, who meant to keep their Indian cap-
tives, and did in fact keep nearly all of them.1

1 The council at Montreal is described at great length by La Potherie,

452 CONCLUSION. [1701.

The chief objects of the late governor were gained.
The power of the Iroquois was so far broken that
they were never again very formidable to the
French. Canada had confirmed her Indian alliances,
and rebutted the English claim to sovereignty over
the five tribes, with all the consequerices that hung
upon it. By the treaty of Ryswick, the great
questions at issue in America were left to the
arbitrament of future wars ; and meanwhile, as time
went on, the policy of Frontenac developed and
ripened. Detroit was occupied by the French,
the passes of the west were guarded by forts,
another New France grew up at the mouth of the
Mississippi, and lines of military communication
joined the Gulf of Mexico with the Gulf of St.
Lawrence ; while the colonies of England lay pas-
sive between the Alleghanies and the sea till roused
by the trumpet that sounded with wavering notes
on many a bloody field to peal at last in triumph
from the Heights of Abraham.

a spectator. There is a short official report of the various speeches, of
which a translation will he found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 722. Callieres
himself gives interesting details. (Callieres au Ministre, 4 Oct., 1701.) A
great number of papers on Indian affairs at this time will he found in
N. Y. Col. Docs., IV.

Joncaire went for the prisoners whom the Iroquois had promised to
give up, and could get but six of them. Callieres an Ministre, 31 Oct.,
1701. The rest were made Iroquois by adoption.

According to an English official estimate made at the end of the war,
the Iroquois numbered 2,550 warriors in 1689, and only 1,230 in 1G98.
VT. Y. Col. Docs., IV. 420. In 1701, a French writer estimates them at only
1,200 warriors. In other words, their strength was reduced at least one
half. They afterwards partially recovered it by the adoption of prisoners,
and still more by the adoption of an entire kindred tribe, the Tuscaroras.
In 1720, the English reckon them at 2,000 warriors. N. Y. Col. Docs.,
V. 557.

APPENDIX.

THE FAMILY OF FRONTENAC.

Count Frontenac's grandfather was

Antoine de Buade, Seigneur de Frontenac, Baron de Pal-
luau, Conseiller d'Etat, Chevalier des Ordres du Roy, son
premier maitre d'hotel, et gouverneur de St. Germain-en-Laye.
By Jeanne Secontat, his wife, he had, among other children,

Henri de Buade, Chevalier, Baron de Palluau et mestre de
camp (colonel) du regiment de Navarre, who, by his wife Anne
Phelippeaux, daughter of Raymond Phelippeaux, Secretary of
State, had, among other children,

Louis de Buade, Comte de Palluau et Frontenac. Seigneur
de l'lsle-Savary, mestre de camp du regiment de Normandie,
marechal de camp dans les armees du Roy, et gouverneur et
lieutenant general en Canada, Acadie, Isle de Terreneuve, et
autres pays'de la France septentrionale. Louis de Buade had
by his wife, Anne de La Grange-Trianon, one son, Francois
Louis, killed in Germany, while in the service of the king, and
leaving no issue.

The foregoing is drawn from a comparison of the following
authorities, all of which will be found in the Bibliotheque
Nationale of Paris, where the examination was made : Memoires
de Marolles, abbe de Villeloin, II. 201 ; L'Hermite-Souliers,
Hlstoire Genealogique de la Noblesse de Touraine ; Du Chesne,
Recherches Historiques de V Ordre du Saint- Esprit ; Morin, Statuts
de V Ordre du Saint- Espr it ; Marolles de Villeloin, Hlstoire des
Anciens Comtes oVAnjou ; Pere Anselme, Grands Officiers de la
Couronne ; Pinard, Chronologie Historique-militaire ; Table de
la Gazette de France. In this matter of the Frontenac geneal-

454 APPENDIX.

ogy, I am much indebted to the kind offices of my friend, James
Gordon Clarke, Esq.

When, in 1 600, Henry IV. was betrothed to Marie de Medicis,
Frontenac, grandfather of the governor of Canada, described as
" ung des plus antiens serviteurs du roy," was sent to Florence
by the king to carry his portrait to his affianced bride. Memoires
de Philippe Hurault, 448 (Petitot).

The appointment of Frontenac to the post, esteemed as highly
honorable, of maitre (V hotel in the royal household, immediately
followed. There is a very curious book, the journal of Jean
Heroard, a physician charged with the care of the infant
Dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII., born in 1601. It records
every act of the future monarch : his screaming and kicking in
the arms of his nurses, his refusals to be washed and dressed,
his resistance when his hair was combed ; how he scratched his
governess, and called her names ; how he quarrelled with the
children of his father's mistresses, and at the age of four de-
clined to accept them as brothers and sisters ; how his mother
slighted him ; and how his father sometimes caressed, sometimes
teased, and sometimes corrected him with his own hand. The
details of the royal nursery are, we may add, astounding for
their grossness ; and the language and the manners amid which
the infant monarch grew up were worthy of the days of
Eabelais.

Frontenac and his children appear frequently, and not un-
favorably, on the pages of this singular diary. Thus, when the
Dauphin was three years old, the king, being in bed, took him
and a young Frontenac of about the same age, set them before
him, and amused himself by making them rally each other in
their infantile lanoma^e. The infant Frontenac had a trick of
stuttering, which the Dauphin caught from him, and retained
for a long time. Again, at the age of five, the Dauphin, armed
with a little gun, played at soldier with two of the Frontenac
children in the hall at St. Germain. They assaulted a town,
the rampart being represented by a balustrade before the fire-
place. " The Dauphin," writes the journalist, " said that he
would be a musketeer, and yet he spoke sharply to the others

APPENDIX. 455

who would not do as he wished. The king said to him. ' My
boy, you are a musketeer, but you speak like a general.' " Long
after, when the Dauphin was in his fourteenth year, the follow-
ing entry occurs in the physician's diary : —

St. Germain, Sunday, 22d {July, 1614). " He (the Dauphin)
goes to the chapel of the terrace, then mounts his horse and goes
to find M. de Souvre and M. de Frontenac, whom he surprises
as they were at breakfast at the small house near the quarries.
At half past one, he mounts again, in hunting boots ; goes to the
park with M. de Frontenac as a guide, chases a stag, and
catches him. It was his first stag-hunt."

Of Henri de Buade, father of the governor of Canada, but
little is recorded. When in Paris, he lived, like his son after
him, on the Quai des Celestins, in the parish of St. Paul. His
son, Count Frontenac, was born in 1620, seven years after his
father's marriage. Apparently his birth took place elsewhere
than in Paris, for it is not recorded with those of Henri de
Buade' s other children, on the register of St. Paul (Jal, Diction-
naire Critique, Biographique, et d'Histoire). The story told by
Tallemant des Reaux concerning his marriage (see page 6)
seems to be mainly true. Colonel Jal says : " On conc,oit que
j'ai pu etre tente de connaitre ce qu'il y a de vrai dans les recits
de Saint- Simon et de Tallemant des Reaux ; voici ce qu'apres
bien des recherches, j'ai pu apprendre. M".e La Grange fit, en
effet, un mariage a demi secret. Ce ne fut point a sa paroisse
que fut benie son union avec M. de Frontenac, mais dans une
des petites eglises de la Cite qui avaient le privilege de recevoir
les amants qui s'unissaient malgre leurs parents, et ceux qui
regularisaient leur position et s'epousaient un peu avant — quel-
quefois apres — la naissance d'un enfant. Ce fut a St. Pierre-
aux-Boeufs que, le mercredy, 28 Octobre, 1648, ' Messire Louis
de Buade, Chevalier, comte de Frontenac, conseiller du Roy en
ses conseils, mareschal des camps et armees de S. M., et maistre
de camp du regiment du Normandie,' epousa ' demoiselle Anne
de La Grange, fille de Messire Charles de La Grange, conseiller
du Roy et maistre des comptes ' de la paroisse de St. Paul
comme M. de Frontenac, ' en vertu de la dispense . . . obtenue

456 APPENDIX.

de M. l'official de Paris par laquelle il est permis au Sf de Buade
et demoiselle de La Grange de celebrer leur marriage suyvant
et conformement a la permission qu'ils en ont obtenue du Sf
Coquerel, vicaire de St. Paul, devant le premier cure ou vicaire
sur ce requis, en gardant les solennites en ce cas requises et ac-
coutumees.' " Jal then gives the signatures to the act of mar-
riage, which, except that of the bride, are all of the Frontenac
family.

INDEX.

A.

Abenakis, Indians of Acadia and
Maine, 220, 221, 228, 310, 368;
attack the Christian Iroquois, 234;
their domain, 338 ; missions, 339 ;
incited against the English colo-
nists, 348; attack on York, 349;
visit Villebon at St. John, 351,
352; their attack on Wells, 353;
is foiled, 355 ; treaty with the Eng-
lish at Pemaquid, 360; are won
back by the French, 361-363 ; influ-
enced by missionary priests, 374-376.

Acadia (Nova Scotia and westward
to the Kennebec) exposed to in-
roads from New England, 117, 335 ;
the war in, 335-368; the region,
337-339 ; relations with New Eng-
land, 340 ; hostilities, 342 ; Villebon
governor; border war, 347, 353-
363 ; New England attacks, 373.

Albany, an Indian mart, 75 ; Indian
council there, 90, 120; Iroquois
summoned thither by Dongan, 158 ;
by Schuyler, 399 ; expedition
against Montreal, 246.

Albanv, Fort, on Hudson's Bay, taken
by Canadians, 134.

Albemarle, Duke of, aids Phips, 242.

Alliance, triple, of Indians and Eng-
lish, 197.

Amours, councillor at Quebec, im-
prisoned by Frontenac, 51-54 (see
247).

Andros, Sir Edmund, appointed colo-
nial governor, 164; his jurisdiction,
165; plunders Castine, 221; is de-
posed, 223 ; at Pentegoet, 346.

Auteuil, attorney-general of Canada,
an enemy of Frontenac, 47, 247 ;
banished, 49.

Avaux, Count d', French envoy at
London, 135.

. B.

Bastile, confinement of Perrot, 41.
Baugis, Chevalier de, sent by La
Barre to seize Fort St. Louis, 86.
Beaucour, 299.

Bellefonds, Marshal de, a friend ot

Frontenac at court, 59.
Bellomont, Earl of, governor of New

York, 423 ; corresponds with Fron-
tenac, 423-426.
Belmont, Abbe, cited, 102 n., 154.
Bernieres, vicar of Laval in Canada,

38.
Bienville, Francois de, 288.
Big Mouth, an Iroquois chief, 95, 98,

105, 114, 141 ; his speech in defiance

of La Barre, 107-109 ; his power in

the confederacy, 170 ; defiance of

Denonville, 172.
Bigot, Jacques and Vincent, Jesuits,

220-222 ; in Acadia, 375, 378.
Bishop of Canada, see Laval, Saint-

Vauier.
Bizard, Lieutenant, despatched by

Frontenac to Montreal, 31.
Boisseau, his quarrel at Quebec, 63.
Boston, after the failure at Quebec,

284, 295 ; plan of attack on, 382-

384.
Bounties on scalps, &c, 298.
Bradstreet, at the age of eighty-seven,

made governor after Andros at

Boston,>23.
Bretonvilliers, superior of Jesuits, 42.
Brucy, a lieutenant, agent of Perrot,

his traffic with Indians, 28, 34.
Bruyas, a Jesuit interpreter, 105.

Cadillac, 324 ; at Michillimackinac,
403, 406-

Callieres, governor of Montreal, 150,
153 ; his scheme for conquering the
English colonies, 187 ; comes to the
defence of Quebec, 259, 270, 279 ; at
La Prairie, 290 ; quarrel with the
bishop, 329-331; in the Onondaga
expedition, 410, 412, 416 ; succeeds
Frontenac as governor, 438 ; treats
with the Iroquois, 440 ; conference
at Montreal, and treaty, 447-451.

Canada, character of its colonial rule,
20; its condition under Denonville,
165-168 ; Iroquois invasion, 177-182
(see 286, 294, 301).

458

INDEX.

Cannehoot, a Seneca chief, 197.

Cannibalism of the Indians, 112, 153,
206, 404.

Carheil, a Jesuit, at Michillimackinac,
201.

Carion, an officer of Perrot, 30; ar-
rested by Frontenac, 31 .

Casco Bay, garrison at, 223 ; defeat of
Indians, 226 ; the garrison overcome
and slaughtered, 228-231.

Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac), 109.

Champigny, intendant of Canada, 136,
333; his treacherous seizure of In-
dians at Fort Frontenac, 139-142 ; at
Quebec, 247 : at Montreal. 252 ; de-
fends himself, 296; relations with
Frontenac, 319; a champion of the
Jesuits, 322, 329; reconciled to Fron-
tenac, 429 : opposes Callieres, 438.

Chedabucto (Nova Scotia), Frontenac's
rendezvous, 188; fortifications, 336.

Chesnave (La), a trader of Quebec,
72, 102.

Chesnave, La, massacres at, 194, 301.

Chubb (Pascho), commands at Pema-
quid, 378 ; which he surrenders, 381.

Cocheco (Dover, N. H.), attacked,
224.

Colbert, minister of Louis XIV., his
zeal for the French colonies, 15;
despatches to Frontenac, 20, 41, 50,
59 ; instructions to Duchesneau, 44,
46, 55.

Converts, Indian, their pietv, &c,
366, 377 »., 386.

Corlaer, the Iroquois name for the
governor of New York, 93 n. (see
109, 138, 199) ; origin of the name,
217 n.

Council at Quebec, hostile to Fron-
tenac, 47, 49, 52, 248-251 ; alarmed
at rumors of attack, 247.

at Onondaga, 196-200; at

Montreal, 442-451.

Courcelle, predecessor of Frontenac,
26.

Coureurs de bois to be arrested, 29,
34 ; amnesty, 51 ; their influence
with Frontenac, 57; the king's
charge regarding them, 58 ; under
Du Lhut, 54, 99, 128, 144, 193; at
Michillimackinac, 122 ; deserters,
125; in the Seneca expedition, 150;
their license, 183; hardihood, 209.

Cut Nose, an Iroquois convert, 195;
his speech at the Onondaga council,
197.

D.

Davis, Sylvanus, a trader, command-
ing at Fort Loyal, Casco Bay. 229 ;
his surrender, 231; captivity, 232.

Denonville, successor of La Barre as
governor of Canada, 1685-1689;
sails for Canada, 116 ; circum-
stances there ; his character,
117; his instructions, 120; his in-
trigues, 121 ; correspondence with
Dongan, 123-128; threatens to at-
tack Albany, 129 ; orders Du Lhut
to shoot bush-rangers and deser-
ters, 130 ; plans an expedition
against the Iroquois, 136; musters
the Canadian militia, 138; treach-
erously seizes a party of Indians,
140 ; arrives at Fort Frontenac. 144 ;
at Irondequoit Bay, 148 ; march for
the Seneca country, 149 ; battle in
the woods, 152 ; his report of the
battle, 153; destroys "the Babylon
of the Senecas," 154; builds a' fort
on the Niagara, 155; further cor-
respondence with Dongan, 159-161;
sends an envoy to Albanv, 162 ;
abandons the Niagara fort, 166;
begs for the return of Indian cap-
tives, 167 ; his wretched condition,
168; seeks a conference with the
Iroquois, 170 ; who deceive him, and
invade Canada, 177 ; horrors of the
invasion, 178-182; he is recalled,
and succeeded by Frontenac, 182;
who finds him at Montreal, 191 ;
having ordered the destruction of
Fort Frontenac, 192.

Deserters, French, demanded by De-
nonville, 127 ; sheltered bv Dongan,
129, 131.

Detroit, 112; a fort built here bv Du
Lhut, 128; held by the French,
452.

Dongan (an Irish Catholic), governor
of New Netherland, 89 ; holds an
Indian council at Albany, 90-93;
his rivalry with Canada, 119 ; com-
plaints of Denonville. 120; their
correspondence, 123-128 ; vindicates
himself, 129 ; he sends Denonville
some oranges, 130 ; his pacific in-
structions from England, 135 ; his
wrath at the French attack on the
Indian country, 158; is recalled,
and replaced by Sir Edmund Andros,
164.

Dover, N. H. (Cocheco), attacked by
Indians, 224.

Duchesneau, sent as intendant to
Quebec ; sides with the clergy
against Frontenac, 45 ; dispute as
to the presidency of the council, 48-
51 ; quarrel in the council, 53 ; his
accusations against Frontenac, 54-
58 ; Frontenac's complaints of him,
60-63 ; and violence to his son, 63,
04 ; Duchesneau recalled, 67.

INDEX.

459

Du Lhut, a leader of coureurs de bois,
54, 56, 81, 99 ; rivalry with English
traders of Hudson's Bay, 81 ; in-
trigues with Indians, 111; builds a
fort near Detroit, 128 ; where he
has a large force of French and
Indians, 144, 147 ; leads attack on
the Senecas, 150; defeats a party
of Indians on the Ottawa, 193.

Durantaye, La, at Niagara, 99; with
Du Lhut at Michillimackinac, 111 ;
at Detroit, 144 ; captures Rooseboom
and McGregory, 146 ; commanding
at Michillimackinac, sends bad news
to Montreal, 201; is replaced by
Louvigny, 203.

D'Urf^, Abbe, a Canadian missionary,
is ill received by Frontenac, 36 ; car-
ries complaints of him to France,
40, 42.

Dustan, Mrs., of Haverhill, her ex-
ploit, 385-387.

Dutch traders instigate Iroquois
against the French, 75; pursuit of
the fur trade into their country,
89.

E.

Engelran, a Jesuit missionary at Mich-
illimackinac, confers with Denon-
ville, 121 ; his dealings with the
Indians, 145, 159, 443;" is wounded
by the Senecas, 153.

English colonies, designs of Louis
XIV. for their destruction, 189.

English colonists of New England in-
vade Acadia, 117 ; their organiza-
tion and policy compared with the
French, 394-397; their military in-
efficiency, 408 (see New England).

F.

Famine (La), on Lake Ontario, vis-
ited bv La Barre, 104 ; the coun-
cil, 105-110; treaty of, 113, 117;
treacherous attack here on the Iro-
quois by Kondiaronk (the Rat),
173-175.

Fe'nelon, a zealous missionary priest
at Montreal, 33 ; arraigned at Que-
bec by Frontenac, 36-38 ; is sent to
France, 39 ; and forbidden to re-
turn, 42.

Fletcher, governor of New York, his
complaints of weakness and divi-
sions, 408.

Forest posts, their abuses and their
value to the French, 419, 420.

Fort, see Albany, Famine (La), Fron-
tenac, Loyal, Niagara, St. Louis,
Nelson.

Fortifications of Canada, 297.

Fox Indians, charged with cowardice,
112.

French designs of colonization and
conquest, 119 ; policy of conquest
and massacre, 370-373; coloniza-
tion, compared with English, 394-
397; occupation of the Great West,
452.

Frontenac, Count (Louis de Buade),
governor of Canada, 1672-1682,
1689-1698; at St. Fargeau, 4; his
early life, 5 ; marriage, 6, 455 ; his
quarrel at St. Fargeau, 7 ; his estate,
8 ; his vanity, 9 ; aids Venice at
Candia ; his appointment to com-
mand in New France, 11 ; at Quebec,
14; convokes the three estates, 17;
his address, 18 ; form of government,
19 ; his merits and faults, 21 ; com-
plains of the Jesuits, 22-25, 320-322 ;
Fort Frontenac built and confided
to La Salle, 27; dispute with Per-
rot, governor of Montreal, whom
he throws into prison, 28-34; this
leads to a quarrel with Abbe Fene-
lon and the priests, 35-38; Fron-
tenac's relations with the clergy,
39 ; his instructions from the king
and Colbert, 40-46 ; his hot temper,
44, 45 ; question of the presidency,
48-51 ; imprisonment of Amours,
51-54 ; disputes on the fur trade,
and accusations of Duchesneau, 54-
58 ; reproof from the king and Col-
bert, 58-60 ; complaints against
Duchesneau, 60-63 ; arrest of his
son, 64 ; relations with Perrot, 65 ;
with the Church, 68 ; with the In-
dians, 69, 254; his recall, 67; sails
for France, 71 ; relations at this time
with the Iroquois, 76-79 ; Frontenac
is sent again to Canada, 186 ; scheme
of invading New York, 187 ; arrives
at Chedabucto, 188 ; at Quebec and
Montreal, 191 ; attempts to save the
fort, 192 ; summons a conference of
Indians, 195; the conference, 196-
200; another failure, 201; message
to the Lake Indians, 203, 206;
scheme of attack on English colon-
ies, 208; Schenectadv, 211-219;
Pemaquid, 224 ; Salmon Falls, 227;
Casco Bay, 229 ; conference with
Davis, 232 ; leads the war-dance,
254; defence of Quebec, 247-279;
reply to Phips's summons, 267 ; begs
troops from the king, 295; expedi-
tion against the Mohawks, 310-315 ;
appeal to Ponchartrain, 317-319,
320-322, 417; jealousies against
him, 319 ; complaints of Champigny,
320; scheme of coast-attack, 357;
treats with the Iroquois, 397-399,

460

INDEX.

401, 421; his difficult position, 402;
expedition against the Onondagas,
410-415, 421 ;"his tardy reward, 417 ;
his poliev, 419-421; correspondence
with Beflomont, 423-426 ; death and
character, 428-436 ; the eulogist and
the critic, 431-434; his administra-
tion, 436 ; account of his family,
453-456.

Frontenac, Fort, 27, 78; La Barre's
muster of troops, 85, 97 ; his arrival,
103 ; summons a council of Indians,
137; who are treacherously seized
and made prisoners, 139-143 (see
162, 167, 170) ; expedition against
the Senecas, 147-155 ; sickness, 166 ;
visit of the Rat, 175; the fort de-
stroyed by order of Denonville, 192 ;
restored, 407, 416.

Frontenac, Madame, her portrait at
Versailles, 1 ; with Mile. Montpen-
sier at Orleans, 3, 7 ; surprised by
her husband's visit, 4; dismissed
by the princess, 10; her stay in
Paris and death, 12, 13; serves
Frontenac at the court, 320 ; is made
his heir, 429.

G.

Galley-slaves, 140, 142.

Ganneious, a mission village : Indians

treacherously seized, 140.
Garangula, 95 "(see B'kj Mouth).
Garrison houses described, 371.
Glen, John S., at Schenectady, 213,

216, 217 n.
Grignan, Count de, 12 n.

H.

Haves, Fort (Hudson's Bav), seized,

133.
Henry IV. of France, anecdotes of,

454.
Hertel, Fr., commands an expedition

against NeAv Hampshire, 220, 227.
Hontan (Baron La), 103, 105, 300; at

Fort Frontenac, 139 ; his account of

the attack on Quebec, 277.
Howard, Lord (governor of Virginia),

at Albany, 90.
Hudson's Bay: English traders, 117;

attack on their posts by Troyes,

132, 134; by Iberville, 391-393.
Huguenots at Port Royal, 341.
Huron converts, 24, 75, 255 ; at Mich-

illimackinac, 205.
Huron Indians inclined to the English,

118 ; at Michillimackinac, 205.

I.

Iberville, son of Le Moyne. 132; his
military career, 388 '; attack on
Newfoundland, 389-391; at Fort
Nelson, 392.

Illinois, tribe of, 78, 122.

Indians : illustrations of their man-
ners and customs, 24, 69. 94, 145,
148, 150, 155, 253, 254, 448 ; grave-
yard, 154; their cannibalism, 97,
112, 153, 181,206, 313; torture, 181,
300; instigated by French. 305, 356 :
great conference "at Montreal, 442-
451.

Irondequoit Bay, 147 ; muster of In-
dians there, 148.

Iroquois (Five Nations), 69, 74; their
strength, 74, 79; policy, 75; craft,
82 ; pride, 92 : offences against the
French, 106, 169 ; Denonville seeks
to chastise them, 122 ; approached
by Dongan, 127; they distrust De-
nonville, 137 ; seizure at Fort Fronte-
nac, 139; converts as allies, 150,
156; claimed as subjects by Andres,
165; invasion of Canada,"l68, 177-
181 ; seize the ruins of Fort Fronte-
nac, 193; their inroads. 287; rela-
tions with Bellomont, 424 ; their sus-
picions of the Fi-ench, 439 ; treat
with Callieres. 440 ; conference at
Montreal, 442-451; their ill-faith,
445 ; their numbers, 452 n.

J.

James II., 119, 136; assumes protec-
torate over the Iroquois, 161; puts
the colonies under command of An-
dros, 164; is deposed, 182.

Jesuits in Canada, 17; Frontenac's
charges, 22. 25, 39, 293; English
suspicions, 90 ; protected by Denon-
ville. 124 ; excluded by Dongan, 159 ;
hostile to Frontenac, 191 ; during the
attack on Quebec, 281 ; their in-
trigues, 331.

Joncaire, his adventures among the
Indians, 441, 443.

K.

Kinshon (the Fish), Indian name of
New England, 199.

Kondiaronk (the Rat), a Huron chief,
77; his craft, which brings on the
Iroquois invasion, 173-176, 205; at
Montreal, 442. 444 : death and burial,
445-447 ; a Christian convert, 446.

INDEX.

461

L.

La Barre, governor of Canada, 1682-
1684 ; finds Lower Quebec in ruins,
72 : his boasting, 79 ; proposes to at-
tack the Senecas, 83; expedition to
the Illinois ; seizes Fort St. Louis,

■ 86; campaign against the Senecas,
99; charges of Meules, 101; council
at Fort La Famine, 101-110; La
Barre's speech. 106; embassy to the
Upper Lakes, 111; wrath of the Ot-
tawas, 113; is recalled. 115.

La Chesnaye, partner of Duchesneau,
60; in favor with La Barre, 81;
seizes Fort Frontenac, 82 ; his forest
trade, 81 (see Chesnaye).

La Chine, massacre of, 178.

La Foret, commander of Fort Fronte-
nac, 81 ; returns to France, 82.

La Grange, father-in-law of Fronte-
nac, 5.

L;ike tribes, English alliance, 97;
great gathering at Montreal, 252-
255; conciliated by Frontenac, 315;
their threatening attitude, 403;
treaty with Callieres, 447-451.

Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary at
Onondaga, 78, 95, 104; correspond-
ence with La Barre, 96, 114 ; pro-
tected by Dongan, 125; in danger
among the Iroquois, 137; escapes to
Denonville, 142.

La Motte-Cadillac (see Cadillac).

La Plaque, a Christian Indian, 255,
256.

La Prairie attacked by John Schuvler,
257 ; bv Peter Schuvler, 289 ; his
retreat, 291-293.

La Salle, his relations with Frontenac,
27, 54 ; at Fort St. Louis, 75 ; which
is seized bv La Barre, 86.

Laval, bishop of Canada, 23, 38, 45,
281.

Leisler, Jacob, at Fort William, 212,
289.

Le Movne, mission to the Onondagas,
83, 104, 106, 288.

Louis XIII. , infancy of, 454.

Louis XIV. admonishes Frontenac, 49,
55, 58; recalls La Barre, 115; sup-
ports Denonville, 119, 135 ; his reign,
184; designs respecting the English
colonies, 189, 190 ; announces the
treatv of Rvswick, 423.

Loyal, Fort, at Casco Bay, 229, 230;
surrenders to Portneuf, 231.

M.

Madeleine de Vercheres, her heroism,
302-308.

Madocawando, Penobscot chief, 345,
360, 363.

Mareuil interdicted for plav-acting,
325-328.

Massachusetts, condition of the colonA-,
244, 285.

Mather, 243, 246.

McGregorv, expedition to Lake Huron,
128, 147.

Meneval, governor of Port Royal, 237 ;
a prisoner at Boston, 240.

Meules, intendant of Canada, 72: let-
ter to La Barre, 99 ; representations
to the king, 114; recalled, 136.

Michigan, the country claimed by the
English, 122.

Michillimackinac. trouble there, 76;
French stores threatened, 83, 84, 87;
expedition of Perrot, 111 ; threatened
Indian hostilities, 121 ; Indian mus-
ter, 145; English traders seized, 146;
craft of the Rat, 176 ; burning of an
Iroquois prisoner, 205 ; in command
of Cadillac, 331.

Missionaries, French, among the In-
dians, 24,68; to be protected (De-
nonville), 124, 163 k.; (Dongan),
126, 130, 160; instigate Indians to
torture and kill their prisoners, 205;
incite to murderous attacks, 374.

Mohawks, fear the French, 74; their
settlements, 93 ; at Schenectady,
212, 215; visit Albany, 218; mission
village at Saut St. Louis, 309 ; ex-
pedition against the tribe, 310-315.

Montespan, lime., 12.

Montpensier. Princess, 1'; at Orleans,
2: her exile, 4; relations with Mine.
Frontenac, 10 (see 12 n.).

Montreal, condition under Perrot, 28,
65 ; arrests made by Perrot, 66 ; ter-
ror at the Iroquois invasion, 179,
191 ; threatened attack from New
York, 236; condition of the country
during the Indian invasions, 301;
great gathering of traders and In-
dians, 316 ; great council of Indians,
443-451.

Mosquitoes, 103.

Moyne, Le, 106, 288.

N.

Nelson, John, a prisoner at Quebec;

warns the Massachusetts colonv,

358.
Nelson, Fort, on Hudson's Bay, 393.
Nesmond (Marquis), to command in

attack on Boston, 382, 384.
New England colonies unfit for war,

244. 285, 394; relations with Canada,

373 ; frontier hostilities, 385.
New Netherland, colony of, 89.

462

INDEX.

New York, English colonies of; rela-
tions with the Iroquois, 75; claims
to the western country, 117; in-
trigues with the Hurons", 118 ; trade
with the north-west, 128; checked
by La Durantaye, 146 (see Dongan) ;
relations with Canada, 374.

Niagara, Fort, planned by Denonville,
125: Indian muster at, 144; the fort
built, 155 ; destroyed, 1661

0.

Oneidas, 93.

Onondaga, 94; council at, 196-200,
401.

Onontio, Indian name for governor of
Canada, 69, 78, 92 (La Barre); ad-
dressed by Big Mouth, 107-109.

Orleans, holds for the Fronde, 2.

Otreouati (Big Mouth), 95.

Ottawa River, its importance to the
French, 298.

Ottawas, their hostility, 113; a generic
name, 145, n. ; join Denonville, 148 ;
their barbarities, 153; claimed as
British subjects, 158; greet Perrot,
204; jealous of the Hurons, 205;
their neutrality overcome, 253-255.

Ourehaoue, a Cayuga chief, 195, 200.

Ovster River, attack and massacre,
365-367.

P.

Peace of Rvswick, 422 ; celebrated in
Quebec, 426.

Pemaquid, capture by French and In-
dians, 224, 346; scheme of Fronte-
nac, 357; its defences, 358; attack
and capture, 378-382.

Pentegoet (Castine), 337; held by
Saint-Castin, 345 ; attacked bv An-
dros, 346.

Perrot, governor of Montreal, 28 ; his
anger at Bizard, 31; arrested at
Quebec by Frontenac, 33 ; the king's
opinion, '40; is restored, 65; his
greed, 66 ; his enmity to Saint-Castin,
344; at the Montreal council, 448.

Perrot, Nicolas, the voyageur, 102 n. ;
at Michillimackinac, 111; his skill
in dealing with the Indians, 112,
145, 203, 206.

Philip's (King) war, 220.

Phips, Sir William, commands the ex-
pedition to Port Royal, 236 ; early
life and character, 240-242 ; as gov-
ernor of Massachusetts. 243; his ex-
pedition to Quebec, 262-285; the
summons to surrender, 266; mis- I

takes and delays, 268; cannonade,
272; retreat, 278; French supply-
ships, 282; arrival at Boston, 283.

Port Royal captured, 236-240.

Prisoners (English), their treatment in
Canada, 377; restored, 423; French,
among the Indians, 421, 424.

Q.

Quebec, capital of Canada, 15 ; muni-
cipal government established by
Frontenac, 19; the Lower Town
burned, 72; greeting to Frontenac,
191 ; design of attack bv Massachu-
setts, 244-246 (see Phips, Sir IP".);
the defences, 251; arrival of Fron-
tenac with troops, 259 ; defence
against Phips's attack, 262-278; its
imminent danger, 279; constructiou
of fortifications. 297.

R.

Rat (the), a Huron chief, see Kondia-
ronk.

Recollet friars befriended hy Fronte-
nac, 39, 71, 323, 435 ; their eulogy
of him, 430.

Richelieu, 184.

Rooseboom, a Dutch trader, 128, 146.

Runaways from Canada, sheltered by
Dongan, 127.

Rupert, Fort (Hudson's Bay), seized
by Canadians, 133.

Rys'wick, peace of, 422, 452.

Saint-Castin, Baron de, on the Penob-
scot, 221 ; attacks Fort Loval, 229 ;
at Castine, 337 ; his career, 342-345;
plan to kidnap him, 359 ; at the at-
tack on Pemaquid, 380 ; on the Pen-
obscot, 385.

Sainte-Helene, son of Le Moyne, 132,
209 ; in the attack on Schenectady,
210, 214; in the defence of Quebec,
271,273; is killed, 276.

Saint Louis (Saut de), mission village,
293, 309.

Saint Louis, Fort, on the Illinois, 86,
144.

Saint Sulpice, priests of, 29, 32, 35,
42.

Saint- Vallier, bishop of Canada, 116;
applauds Denonville, 169, 183, at
Quebec, 247; during Phips's attack,
280, 281; relations with Frontenac,

INDEX.

463

322, 326 ; excess of zeal, 328 ; re-
turns to France, 332.

Salmon Falls, attack on, 220, 227.

Schenectady, destruction of, 211-216;
its effect in Canada, 233 ; on the In-
dians, 252.

Schuyler, John, attacks La Prairie,
257: carries the treaty of Ryswickto
Quebec, 422 ; Peter," mayor of Al-
bany, 198; leads an attack ; his
successful retreat, 289-293; in the
Mohawk expedition, 312-314; con-
vokes an Indian council, 399.

Seignelay, son of Colbert, colonial
minister, 61, 101; advices to Denon-
ville, 170.

Senecas, the most powerful of the Iro-
quois, 74, 76 ; prepare for hostilities,
97 ; pass for cowards, 100 ; their
fortifications, 114; attack the Illinois,
117; intrigue with the Hurons, 118;
Denonville plans to attack them,
122, 136; his campaign, 149-157;
they threaten Fort Niagara, 166.

Subercase, a French officer, proposes
to attack the Iroquois, but is over-
ruled, 178 ; in the Onondaga expedi-
tion, 412.

Talon, the intendant, 15 ; declines to
attend meeting of the estates, 20;
returns to France, 21 ; hostile to
Frontenac at the court, 40.

Theatricals at Quebec, 324-326. 333.

Thury, the priest, 225, 361 ; persuades
Taxous, 363, 368; instigates hos-
tilities, 376.

Tonty at Fort St. Louis, 144; at Fort
Niagara, 147 ; in the fight with the
Senecas, 150.

Toronto, 128.

Torture practised by Indians, 181, 300,
413 ; instigated by the French, 305,
404, 405.

Troves, Chevalier de, 132; at Fort
Niagara, 155.

u.

Ursuline Convent at Quebec, 24 ; dur-
ing the attack, 280.

Vaillant, the Jesuit, negotiates with

Dongan, 162.
Valrenne destroys Fort Frontenac,

192 ; sent to defend La Prairie, 291,

294.
Vaudreuil, Chevalier de, in the Seneca

campaign, 151 ; in the defence

against the Iroquois, 169, 179; in the

attack of the Onondagas, 410, 413,

414.
Vercheres, the heroine of, 302-308.
Versailles, 1, 184.

Viele, his mission to Onondaga, 93, 98.
Villebon, governor of Acadia, 347,

378.
Villeray, a tool of the Jesuits, 47; at

Quebec, 247; his negotiations with

Frontenac, 249.
Villieu, commands the Indian allies,

361; attacks Oyster Ptiver, 365;

nearly perishes in the Penobscot,

364 ; returns to Quebec, 368 ; takes

Pemaquid, 381; is captured, 385.

w.

Waldron at Cocheco, 224.

Walley, John, in command under

Phips at Quebec, 240; commands

the land attack. 271 ; in camp, 274-

270; retreat, 277.
Weems at Pemaquid, 224, 225.
Wells, attacked by French and Abe-

nakis, 353-355.
William III., 184.
Winthrop, commander at Albany, 257.

Y.

York, massacre at, 349-351.

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