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diff --git a/30258.txt b/30258.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..26cfc34 --- /dev/null +++ b/30258.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4226 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fighting Governor, by Charles W. Colby + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fighting Governor + A Chronicle of Frontenac + +Author: Charles W. Colby + +Release Date: October 15, 2009 [EBook #30258] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: FRONTENAC ANSWERING PHIPS'S MESSENGER, 1690. From a +colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys] + + + + + + +THE FIGHTING + +GOVERNOR + + +A Chronicle of Frontenac + + + +BY + +CHARLES W. COLBY + + + + + +TORONTO + +GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY + +1915 + + + + + Copyright in all Countries subscribing to + the Berne Convention + + + + +{v} + +CONTENTS + + + Page + + I. CANADA IN 1672 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + II. LOUIS DE BUADE, COMTE DE FRONTENAC . . . . . . . . . . . 17 + III. FRONTENAC'S FIRST YEARS IN CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 + IV. GOVERNOR, BISHOP, AND INTENDANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 + V. FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 + VI. THE LURID INTERVAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + VII. THE GREAT STRUGGLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 + VIII. FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 + INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 + + + + +{vii} + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +FRONTENAC ANSWERING PHIPS'S MESSENGER, 1690 . . . . _Frontispiece_ + From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys. + +LADY FRONTENAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Facing page 22_ + From a painting in the Versailles Gallery. + +JEAN BAPTISTE COLBERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 26 + From an engraving in the Chateau de Ramezay. + +ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE . . . . . . . . . . . . " 40 + From an engraving by Waltner, Paris. + +FIGURE OF FRONTENAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 80 + From the Hebert Statue at Quebec. + +PIERRE LE MOYNE, SIEUR D'IBERVILLE . . . . . . . . . " 118 + From an engraving in the John Ross Robertson + Collection, Toronto Public Library. + + + + +{1} + +CHAPTER I + +CANADA IN 1672 + +The Canada to which Frontenac came in 1672 was no longer the infant +colony it had been when Richelieu founded the Company of One Hundred +Associates. Through the efforts of Louis XIV and Colbert it had +assumed the form of an organized province.[1] Though its inhabitants +numbered less than seven thousand, the institutions under which they +lived could not have been more elaborate or precise. In short, the +divine right of the king to rule over his people was proclaimed as +loudly in the colony as in the motherland. + +It was inevitable that this should be so, for the whole course of +French history since the thirteenth century had led up to the +absolutism of Louis XIV. During the early ages of feudalism France had +been distracted by the wars of her kings against rebellious nobles. +The virtues and firmness of Louis IX {2} (1226-70) had turned the scale +in favour of the crown. There were still to be many rebellions--the +strife of Burgundians and Armagnacs in the fifteenth century, the Wars +of the League in the sixteenth century, the cabal of the Fronde in the +seventeenth century--but the great issue had been settled in the days +of the good St Louis. When Raymond VII of Toulouse accepted the Peace +of Lorris (1243) the government of Canada by Louis XIV already existed +in the germ. That is to say, behind the policy of France in the New +World may be seen an ancient process which had ended in untrammelled +autocracy at Paris. + +This process as it affected Canada was not confined to the spirit of +government. It is equally visible in the forms of colonial +administration. During the Middle Ages the dukes and counts of France +had been great territorial lords--levying their own armies, coining +their own money, holding power of life and death over their vassals. +In that period Normandy, Brittany, Maine, Anjou, Toulouse, and many +other districts, were subject to the king in name only. But, with the +growth of royal power, the dukes and counts steadily lost their +territorial {3} independence and fell at last to the condition of +courtiers. Simultaneously the duchies or counties were changed into +provinces, each with a noble for its governor--but a noble who was a +courtier, holding his commission from the king and dependent upon the +favour of the king. Side by side with the governor stood the +intendant, even more a king's man than the governor himself. So +jealously did the Bourbons guard their despotism that the crown would +not place wide authority in the hands of any one representative. The +governor, as a noble and a soldier, knew little or nothing of civil +business. To watch over the finances and the prosperity of the +province, an intendant was appointed. This official was always chosen +from the middle class and owed his position, his advancement, his whole +future, to the king. The governor might possess wealth, or family +connections. The intendant had little save what came to him from his +sovereign's favour. Gratitude and interest alike tended to make him a +faithful servant. + +But, though the crown had destroyed the political power of the nobles, +it left intact their social pre-eminence. The king was as supreme as a +Christian ruler could be. Yet {4} by its very nature the monarchy +could not exist without the nobles, from whose ranks the sovereign drew +his attendants, friends, and lieutenants. Versailles without its +courtiers would have been a desert. Even the Church was a stronghold +of the aristocracy, for few became bishops or abbots who were not of +gentle birth. + +The great aim of government, whether at home or in the colonies, was to +maintain the supremacy of the crown. Hence all public action flowed +from a royal command. The Bourbon theory required that kings should +speak and that subjects should obey. One direct consequence of a +system so uncompromisingly despotic was the loss of all local +initiative. Nothing in the faintest degree resembling the New England +town-meeting ever existed in New France. Louis XIV objected to public +gatherings of his people, even for the most innocent purposes. The +sole limitation to the power of the king was the line of cleavage +between Church and State. Religion required that the king should +refrain from invading the sphere of the clergy, though controversy +often waxed fierce as to where the secular ended and the spiritual +began. + +{5} + +When it became necessary to provide institutions for Canada, the +organization of the province in France at once suggested itself as a +fit pattern. Canada, like Normandy, had the governor and the intendant +for her chief officials, the seigneury for the groundwork of her +society, and mediaeval _coutumes_ for her laws. + +The governor represented the king's dignity and the force of his arms. +He was a noble, titled or untitled. It was the business of the +governor to wage war and of the intendant to levy taxes. But as an +expedition could not be equipped without money, the governor looked to +the intendant for funds, and the intendant might object that the plans +of the governor were unduly extravagant. Worse still, the commissions +under which both held office were often contradictory. More than three +thousand miles separated Quebec from Versailles, and for many months +governor and intendant quarrelled over issues which could only be +settled by an appeal to the king. Meanwhile each was a spy as well as +a check upon the other. In Canada this arrangement worked even more +harmfully than in France, where the king could make himself felt +without great loss of time. + +{6} + +Yet an able intendant could do much good. There are few finer episodes +in the history of local government than the work of Turgot as intendant +of the Limousin.[2] Canada also had her Talon, whose efforts had +transformed the colony during the seven years which preceded +Frontenac's arrival. The fatal weakness was scanty population. This +Talon saw with perfect clearness, and he clamoured for immigrants till +Colbert declared that he would not depopulate France to people Canada. +Talon and Frontenac came into personal contact only during a few weeks, +but the colony over which Frontenac ruled as governor had been created +largely by the intelligence and toil of Talon as intendant.[3] + +While the provincial system of France gave Canada two chief personages, +a third came from the Church. In the annals of New France there is no +more prominent figure than the bishop. Francois de Laval de +Montmorency had been in the colony since 1659. {7} His place in +history is due in large part to his strong, intense personality, but +this must not be permitted to obscure the importance of his office. +His duties were to create educational institutions, to shape +ecclesiastical policy, and to represent the Church in all its dealings +with the government. + +Many of the problems which confronted Laval had their origin in special +and rather singular circumstances. Few, if any, priests had as yet +been established in fixed parishes--each with its church and +_presbytere_. Under ordinary conditions parishes would have been +established at once, but in Canada the conditions were far from +ordinary. The Canadian Church sprang from a mission. Its first +ministers were members of religious orders who had taken the conversion +of the heathen for their chosen task. They had headquarters at Quebec +or Montreal, but their true field of action was the wilderness. Having +the red man rather than the settler as their charge, they became +immersed, and perhaps preoccupied, in their heroic work. Thus the +erection of parishes was delayed. More than one historian has +upbraided Laval for thinking so much of the mission that he neglected +the spiritual needs of the colonists. However {8} this may be, the +colony owed much to the missionaries--particularly to the Jesuits. It +is no exaggeration to say that the Society of Jesus had been among the +strongest forces which stood between New France and destruction. Other +supports failed. The fur trade had been the corner-stone upon which +Champlain built up Quebec, but the profits proved disappointing. At +the best it was a very uncertain business. Sometimes the prices in +Paris dwindled to nothing because the market was glutted. At other +times the Indians brought no furs at all to the trading-posts. With +its export trade dependent upon the caprice of the savages, the colony +often seemed not worth the keeping. In these years of worst +discouragement the existence of the mission was a great prop. + +On his arrival in 1672 Frontenac found the Jesuits, the Sulpicians, and +the Recollets all actively engaged in converting the heathen. He +desired that more attention should be paid to the creation of parishes +for the benefit of the colonists. Over this issue there arose, as we +shall see by and by, acute differences between the bishop and the +governor. + +Owing to the large part which religion had in the life of New France +the bishop took his {9} place beside the governor and the intendant. +This was the triumvirate of dignitaries. Primarily each represented a +different interest--war, business, religion. But they were brought +into official contact through membership in the _Conseil Souverain_, +which controlled all details of governmental action. + +The Sovereign Council underwent changes of name and composition, but +its functions were at all times plainly defined. In 1672 the members +numbered seven. Of these the governor, the bishop, and the intendant +formed the nucleus, the other four being appointed by them. In 1675 +the king raised the number of councillors to ten, thus diluting the +authority which each possessed, and thenceforth made the appointments +himself. Thus during the greater part of Frontenac's regime the +governor, the bishop, and the intendant had seven associates at the +council-board. Still, as time went on, the king felt that his control +over this body was not quite perfect. So in 1703 he changed the name +from Sovereign Council to Superior Council, and increased its members +to a total of fifteen. + +The Council met at the Chateau St Louis on Monday morning of each week, +at a round table where the governor had the bishop on {10} his right +hand and the intendant on his left. Nevertheless the intendant +presided, for the matters under discussion fell chiefly in his domain. +Of the other councillors the attorney-general was the most conspicuous. +To him fell the task of sifting the petitions and determining which +should be presented. Although there were local judges at Quebec, Three +Rivers, and Montreal, the Council had jurisdiction over all important +cases, whether criminal or civil. In the sphere of commerce its powers +were equally complete and minute. It told merchants what profits they +could take on their goods, and how their goods should be classified +with respect to the percentage of profit allowed. Nothing was too +petty for its attention. Its records depict with photographic accuracy +the nature of French government in Canada. From this source we can see +how the principle of paternalism was carried out to the last detail. + +But Canada was a long way from France and the St Lawrence was larger +than the Seine. It is hard to fight against nature, and in Canada +there were natural obstacles which withstood to some extent the forces +of despotism. It is easy to see how distance from the court gave both +governor and intendant {11} a range of action which would have been +impossible in France. With the coming of winter Quebec was isolated +for more than six months. During this long interval the two officials +could do a great many things of which the king might not have approved, +but which he was powerless to prevent. His theoretical supremacy was +thus limited by the unyielding facts of geography. And a better +illustration is found in the operation of the seigneurial system upon +which Canadian society was based. In France a belated feudalism still +held the common man in its grip, and in Canada the forms of feudalism +were at least partially established. Yet the Canadian habitant lived +in a very different atmosphere from that breathed by the Norman +peasant. The Canadian seigneur had an abundance of acreage and little +cash. His grant was in the form of uncleared land, which he could only +make valuable through the labours of his tenants or _censitaires_. The +difficulty of finding good colonists made it important to give them +favourable terms. The habitant had a hard life, but his obligations +towards his seigneur were not onerous. The man who lived in a log-hut +among the stumps and could hunt at will through the {12} forest was not +a serf. Though the conditions of life kept him close to his home, +Canada meant for him a new freedom. + +Freest of all were the coureurs de bois, those dare-devils of the +wilderness who fill such a large place in the history of the fur trade +and of exploration. The Frenchman in all ages has proved abundantly +his love of danger and adventure. Along the St Lawrence from Tadoussac +to the Sault St Louis seigneuries fringed the great river, as they +fringed the banks of its tributary, the Richelieu. This was the zone +of cultivation, in which log-houses yielded, after a time, to +white-washed cottages. But above the Sault St Louis all was +wilderness, whether one ascended the St Lawrence or turned at Ile +Perrot into the Lake of Two Mountains and the Ottawa. For young and +daring souls the forest meant the excitement of discovery, the licence +of life among the Indians, and the hope of making more than could be +gained by the habitant from his farm. Large profits meant large risks, +and the coureur de bois took his life in his hand. Even if he escaped +the rapid and the tomahawk, there was an even chance that he would +become a reprobate. + +{13} + +But if his character were of tough fibre, there was also a chance that +he might render service to his king. At times of danger the government +was glad to call on him for aid. When Tracy or Denonville or Frontenac +led an expedition against the Iroquois, it was fortunate that Canada +could muster a cohort of men who knew woodcraft as well as the Indians. +In days of peace the coureur de bois was looked on with less favour. +The king liked to know where his subjects were at every hour of the day +and night. A Frenchman at Michilimackinac,[4] unless he were a +missionary or a government agent, incurred severe displeasure, and many +were the edicts which sought to prevent the colonists from taking to +the woods. But, whatever the laws might say, the coureur de bois could +not be put down. From time to time he was placed under restraint, but +only for a moment. The intendant might threaten and the priest might +plead. It recked not to the coureur de bois when once his knees felt +the bottom of the canoe. + +{14} + +But of the seven thousand French who peopled Canada in 1672 it is +probable that not more than four hundred were scattered through the +forest. The greater part of the inhabitants occupied the seigneuries +along the St Lawrence and the Richelieu. Tadoussac was hardly more +than a trading-post. Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal were but +villages. In the main the life of the people was the life of the +seigneuries--an existence well calculated to bring out in relief the +ancestral heroism of the French race. The grant of seigneurial rights +did not imply that the recipient had been a noble in France. The +earliest seigneur, Louis Hebert, was a Parisian apothecary, and many of +the Canadian gentry were sprung from the middle class. There was +nothing to induce the dukes, the counts, or even the barons of France +to settle on the soil of Canada. The governor was a noble, but he +lived at the Chateau St Louis. The seigneur who desired to achieve +success must reside on the land he had received and see that his +tenants cleared it of the virgin forest. He could afford little +luxury, for in almost all cases his private means were small. But a +seigneur who fulfilled the conditions of his grant could look forward +to occupying a {15} relatively greater position in Canada than he could +have occupied in France, and to making better provision for his +children. + +Both the seigneur and his tenant, the habitant, had a stake in Canada +and helped to maintain the colony in the face of grievous hardships. +The courage and tenacity of the French Canadian are attested by what he +endured throughout the years when he was fighting for his foothold. +And if he suffered, his wife suffered still more. The mother who +brought up a large family in the midst of stumps, bears, and Iroquois +knew what it was to be resourceful. + +Obviously the Canada of 1672 lacked many things--among them the stern +resolve which animated the Puritans of New England that their sons +should have the rudiments of an education.[5] At this point the +contrast between New France and New England discloses conflicting +ideals of faith and duty. In later years the problem of knowledge +assumed larger proportions, but during the period of Frontenac the +chief need of Canada was heroism. Possessing this virtue abundantly, +Canadians lost no time in lamentations over {16} the lack of books or +the lack of wealth. The duty of the hour was such as to exclude all +remoter vistas. When called on to defend his hearth and to battle for +his race, the Canadian was ready. + + + +[1] See _The Great Intendant_ in this Series. + +[2] Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727-81), a statesman, thinker, and +philanthropist of the first order. It was as intendant of Limoges that +Turgot disclosed his great powers. He held his post for thirteen years +(1761-74), and effected improvements which led Louis XVI to appoint him +comptroller-general of the Kingdom. + +[3] See _The Great Intendant_. + +[4] The most important of the French posts in the western portion of +the Great Lakes, situated on the strait which unites Lake Huron to Lake +Michigan. It was here that Saint-Lusson and Perrot took possession of +the West in the name of France (June 1671). See _The Great Intendant_, +pp. 115-16. + +[5] For example, Harvard College was founded in 1636, and there was a +printing-press at Cambridge, Mass., in 1638. + + + + +{17} + +CHAPTER II + +LOUIS DE BUADE, COMTE DE FRONTENAC + +Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, was born in 1620. He +was the son of Henri de Buade, a noble at the court of Louis XIII. His +mother, Anne de Phelippeaux, came from a stock which in the early +Bourbon period furnished France with many officials of high rank, +notably Louis de Phelippeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain. His father +belonged to a family of southern France whose estates lay originally in +Guienne. It was a fortunate incident in the annals of this family that +when Antoine de Bourbon became governor of Guienne (1555) Geoffrey de +Buade entered his service. Thenceforth the Buades were attached by +close ties to the kings of Navarre. Frontenac's grandfather, Antoine +de Buade, figures frequently in the _Memoirs_ of Agrippa d'Aubigne as +aide-de-camp to Henry IV; Henri de Buade, Frontenac's father, was a +playmate and close friend of {18} Louis XIII;[1] and Frontenac himself +was a godson and a namesake of the king. + +While fortune thus smiled upon the cradle of Louis de Buade, some +important favours were denied. Though nobly born, Frontenac did not +spring from a line which had been of national importance for centuries, +like that of Montmorency or Chatillon. Nor did he inherit large +estates. The chief advantage which the Buades possessed came from +their personal relations with the royal family. Their property in +Guienne was not great, and neither Geoffrey, Antoine, nor Henri had +possessed commanding abilities. Nor was Frontenac the boyhood friend +of his king as his father had been, for Louis XIV was not born till +1638. Frontenac's rank was good enough to give him a chance at the +French court. For the rest, his worldly prosperity would depend on his +own efforts. + +Inevitably he became a soldier. He entered the army at fifteen. It +was one of the greatest moments in French history. Richelieu was prime +minister, and the long {19} strife between France and the House of +Hapsburg had just begun to turn definitely in favour of France. +Against the Hapsburgs, with their two thrones of Spain and Austria,[2] +stood the Great Cardinal, ready to use the crisis of the Thirty Years' +War for the benefit of his nation--even though this meant a league with +heretics. At the moment when Frontenac first drew the sword France (in +nominal support of her German allies) was striving to conquer Alsace. +The victory which brought the French to the Rhine was won through the +capture of Breisach, at the close of 1638. Then in swift succession +followed those astounding victories of Conde and Turenne which +destroyed the military pre-eminence of Spain, took the French to the +gates of Munich, and wrung from the emperor the Peace of Westphalia +(1648). + +During the thirteen years which followed Frontenac's first glimpse of +war it was a glorious thing to be a French soldier. The events of such +an era could not fail to leave {20} their mark upon a high-spirited and +valorous youth. Frontenac was predestined by family tradition to a +career of arms; but it was his own impetuosity that drove him into war +before the normal age. He first served under Prince Frederick Henry of +Orange, who was then at the height of his reputation. After several +campaigns in the Low Countries his regiment was transferred to the +confines of Spain and France. There, in the year of Richelieu's death +(1642), he fought at the siege of Perpignan. That he distinguished +himself may be seen from his promotion, at twenty-three, to the rank of +colonel. In the same year (1643) Louis XIV came to the throne; and +Conde, by smiting the Spaniards at Rocroi, won for France the fame of +having the best troops in Europe. + +It was not the good fortune of Frontenac to serve under either Conde or +Turenne during those campaigns, so triumphant for France, which marked +the close of the Thirty Years' War. From Perpignan he was ordered to +northern Italy, where in the course of three years he performed the +exploits which made him a brigadier-general at twenty-six. Though +repeatedly wounded, he survived twelve years of constant fighting with +no {21} more serious casualty than a broken arm which he carried away +from the siege of Orbitello. By the time peace was signed at Muenster +he had become a soldier well proved in the most desperate war which had +been fought since Europe accepted Christianity. + +To the great action of the Thirty Years' War there soon succeeded the +domestic commotion of the Fronde. Richelieu, despite his high +qualities as a statesman, had been a poor financier; and Cardinal +Mazarin, his successor, was forced to cope with a discontent which +sprang in part from the misery of the masses and in part from the +ambition of the nobles. As Louis XIV was still an infant when his +father died, the burden of government fell in name upon the +queen-mother, Anne of Austria, but in reality upon Mazarin. Not even +the most disaffected dared to rebel against the young king in the sense +of disputing his right to reign. But in 1648 the extreme youth of +Louis XIV made it easy for discontented nobles, supported by the +Parlement of Paris, to rebel against an unpopular minister. + +The year 1648, which witnessed the Peace of Westphalia and the outbreak +of the Fronde, was rendered memorable to Frontenac by his marriage. It +was a runaway match, which {22} began an extraordinary alliance between +two very extraordinary people. The bride, Anne de la Grange-Trianon, +was a daughter of the Sieur de Neuville, a gentleman whose house in +Paris was not far from that of Frontenac's parents. At the time of the +elopement she was only sixteen, while Frontenac had reached the ripe +age of twenty-eight. Both were high-spirited and impetuous. We know +also that Frontenac was hot-tempered. For a short time they lived +together and there was a son. But before the wars of the Fronde had +closed they drifted apart, from motives which were personal rather than +political. + +[Illustration: LADY FRONTENAC. From a painting in the Versailles +Gallery.] + +Madame de Frontenac then became a maid of honour to the Duchesse de +Montpensier, daughter of Gaston d'Orleans[3] and first cousin to Louis +XIV. This princess, known as _La Grande Mademoiselle_, plunged into +the politics of the Fronde with a vigour which involved her whole +household--Madame de Frontenac included--and wrote _Memoirs_ in which +her adventures are recorded at full length, to the pungent criticism of +her foes and the {23} enthusiastic glorification of herself. Madame de +Frontenac was in attendance upon _La Grande Mademoiselle_ during the +period of her most spectacular exploits and shared all the excitement +which culminated with the famous entry of Orleans in 1652. + +Madame de Frontenac was beautiful, and to beauty she added the charm of +wit. With these endowments she made her way despite her slender +means--and to be well-born but poor was a severe hardship in the reign +of Louis XIV. Her portrait at Versailles reflects the striking +personality and the intelligence which won for her the title _La +Divine_. Throughout an active life she never lacked powerful friends, +and Saint-Simon bears witness to the place she held in the highest and +most exclusive circle of court society. + +Frontenac and his wife lived together only during the short period +1648-52. But intercourse was not wholly severed by the fact of +domestic separation. It is clear from the _Memoirs_ of the Duchesse de +Montpensier that Frontenac visited his wife at Saint-Fargeau, the +country seat to which the duchess had been exiled for her part in the +wars of the Fronde. Such evidence as there is seems to show that +Madame de Frontenac considered herself {24} deeply wronged by her +husband and was unwilling to accept his overtures. From Mademoiselle +de Montpensier we hear little after 1657, the year of her quarrel with +Madame de Frontenac. The maid of honour was accused of disloyalty, +tears flowed, the duchess remained obdurate, and, in short, Madame de +Frontenac was dismissed. + +The most sprightly stories of the Frontenacs occur in these _Memoirs_ +of _La Grande Mademoiselle_. Unfortunately the Duchesse de Montpensier +was so self-centred that her witness is not dispassionate. She +disliked Frontenac, without concealment. As seen by her, he was vain +and boastful, even in matters which concerned his kitchen and his +plate. His delight in new clothes was childish. He compelled guests +to speak admiringly of his horses, in contradiction of their manifest +appearance. Worst of all, he tried to stir up trouble between the +duchess and her own people. + +Though Frontenac and his wife were unable to live together, they did +not become completely estranged. It may be that the death of their +son--who seems to have been killed in battle--drew them together once +more, at least in spirit. It may be that with the Atlantic between +them they appreciated each {25} other's virtues more justly. It may +have been loyalty to the family tradition. Whatever the cause, they +maintained an active correspondence during Frontenac's years in Canada, +and at court Madame de Frontenac was her husband's chief defence +against numerous enemies. When he died it was found that he had left +her his property. But she never set foot in Canada. + +Frontenac was forty-one when Louis XIV dismissed Fouquet and took +Colbert for his chief adviser. At Versailles everything depended on +royal favour, and forty-one is an important age. What would the young +king do for Frontenac? What were his gifts and qualifications? + +It is plain that Frontenac's career, so vigorously begun during the +Thirty Years' War, had not developed in a like degree during the period +(1648-61) from the outbreak of the Fronde to the death of Mazarin. +There was no doubt as to his capacity. Saint-Simon calls him 'a man of +excellent parts, living much in society.' And again, when speaking of +Madame de Frontenac, he says: 'Like her husband she had little property +and abundant wit.' The bane of Frontenac's life at this time was his +extravagance. He lived like a {26} millionaire till his money was +gone. Not far from Blois he had the estate of Isle Savary--a property +quite suited to his station had he been prudent. But his plans for +developing it, with gardens, fountains, and ponds, were wholly beyond +his resources. At Versailles, also, he sought to keep pace with men +whose ancestral wealth enabled them to do the things which he longed to +do, but which fortune had placed beyond his reach. Hence, +notwithstanding his buoyancy and talent, Frontenac had gained a +reputation for wastefulness which did not recommend him, in 1661, to +the prudent Colbert. Nor was he fitted by character or training for +administrative duty. His qualifications were such as are of use at a +post of danger. + +[Illustration: JEAN BAPTISTE COLBERT. From an engraving in the Chateau +de Ramezay.] + +His time came in 1669. At the beginning of that year he was singled +out by Turenne for a feat of daring which placed him before the eyes of +all Europe. A contest was about to close which for twenty-five years +had been waged with a stubbornness rarely equalled. This was the +struggle of the Venetians with the Turks for the possession of +Crete.[4] To Venice {27} defeat meant the end of her glory as an +imperial power. The Republic had lavished treasure upon this war as +never before--a sum equivalent in modern money to fifteen hundred +million dollars. Even when compelled to borrow at seven per cent, +Venice kept up the fight and opened the ranks of her nobility to all +who would pay sixty thousand ducats. Nor was the valour of the +Venetians who defended Crete less noble than the determination of their +government. Every man who loved the city of St Mark felt that her fate +was at stake before the walls of Candia. + +Year by year the resources of the Venetians had grown less and their +plight more desperate. In 1668 they had received some assistance from +French volunteers under the Duc de la Feuillade. This was followed by +an application to Turenne for a general who would command their own +troops in conjunction with Morosini. It was a forlorn hope if ever +there was one; and Turenne selected Frontenac. {28} Co-operating with +him were six thousand French troops under the Duc de Navailles, who +nominally served the Pope, for Louis XIV wished to avoid direct war +against the Sultan. All that can be said of Frontenac's part in the +adventure is that he valiantly attempted the impossible. Crete was +doomed long before he saw its shores. The best that the Venetians and +the French could do was to fight for favourable terms of surrender. +These they gained. In September 1669 the Venetians evacuated the city +of Candia, taking with them their cannon, all their munitions of war, +and all their movable property. + +The Cretan expedition not only confirmed but enhanced the standing +which Frontenac had won in his youth. And within three years from the +date of his return he received the king's command to succeed the +governor Courcelles at Quebec. + + +Gossip busied itself a good deal over the immediate causes of +Frontenac's appointment to the government of Canada. The post was +hardly a proconsular prize. At first sight one would not think that a +small colony destitute of social gaiety could have possessed +attractions to a man of Frontenac's rank and {29} training. The salary +amounted to but eight thousand livres a year. The climate was +rigorous, and little glory could come from fighting the Iroquois. The +question arose, did Frontenac desire the appointment or was he sent +into polite exile? + +There was a story that he had once been a lover of Madame de Montespan, +who in 1672 found his presence near the court an inconvenience. Others +said that Madame de Frontenac had eagerly sought for him the +appointment on the other side of the world. A third theory was that, +owing to his financial straits, the government gave him something to +keep body and soul together in a land where there were no great +temptations to spend money. + +Motives are often mixed; and behind the nomination there may have been +various reasons. But whatever weight we allow to gossip, it is not +necessary to fall back on any of these hypotheses to account for +Frontenac's appointment or for his willingness to accept. While there +was no immediate likelihood of a war involving France and England,[5] +and {30} consequent trouble from the English colonies in America, New +France required protection from the Iroquois. And, as a soldier, +Frontenac had acquitted himself with honour. Nor was the post thought +to be insignificant. Madame de Sevigne's son-in-law, the Comte de +Grignan, was an unsuccessful candidate for it in competition with +Frontenac. For some years both the king and Colbert had been giving +real attention to the affairs of Canada. The Far West was opening up; +and since 1665 the population of the colony had more than doubled. To +Frontenac the governorship of Canada meant promotion. It was an office +of trust and responsibility, with the opportunity to extend the king's +power throughout the region beyond the Great Lakes. And if the salary +was small, the governor could enlarge it by private trading. Whatever +his motives, or the motives of those who sent him, it was a good day +for Frontenac when he was sent to Canada. In France the future held +out the prospect of little but a humiliating scramble for sinecures. +In Canada he could do constructive work for his king and country. + + +Those who cross the sea change their skies but not their character. +Frontenac bore with {31} him to Quebec the sentiments and the habits +which befitted a French noble of the sword.[6] The more we know about +the life of his class in France, the better we shall understand his +actions as governor of Canada. His irascibility, for example, seems +almost mild when compared with the outbreaks of many who shared with +him the traditions and breeding of a privileged order. Frontenac had +grown to manhood in the age of Richelieu, a period when fierceness was +a special badge of the aristocracy. Thus duelling became so great a +menace to the public welfare that it was made punishable with death; +despite which it flourished to such an extent that one nobleman, the +Chevalier d'Andrieux, enjoyed the reputation of having slain +seventy-two antagonists. + +Where duelling is a habitual and honourable exercise, men do not take +the trouble to restrain primitive passions. Even in dealings with +ladies of their own rank, French nobles often stepped over the line +where rudeness {32} ends and insult begins. When Malherbe boxed the +ears of a viscountess he did nothing which he was unwilling to talk +about. Ladies not less than lords treated their servants like dirt, +and justified such conduct by the statement that the base-born deserve +no consideration. There was, indeed, no class--not even the +clergy--which was exempt from assault by wrathful nobles. In the +course of an altercation the Duc d'Epernon, after striking the +Archbishop of Bordeaux in the stomach several times with his fists and +his baton, exclaimed: 'If it were not for the respect I bear your +office, I would stretch you out on the pavement!' + +In such an atmosphere was Frontenac reared. He had the manners and the +instincts of a belligerent. But he also possessed a soul which could +rise above pettiness. And the foes he loved best to smite were the +enemies of the king. + + + +[1] As an illustration of their intimacy, there is a story that one day +when Henry IV was indisposed he had these two boys on his bed, and +amused himself by making them fight with each other. + +[2] Charles V held all his Spanish, Burgundian, and Austrian +inheritance in his own hand from 1519 to 1521. In 1521 he granted the +Austrian possessions to his brother Ferdinand. Thenceforth Spain and +Austria were never reunited, but their association in politics +continued to be intimate until the close of the seventeenth century. + +[3] Gaston d'Orleans was the younger brother of Louis XIII, and +heir-presumptive until the birth of Louis XIV in 1638. His vanity and +his complicity in plots to overthrow Richelieu are equally famous. + +[4] This was not the first time that Frontenac had fought against the +Turks. Under La Feuillade and Coligny he had taken part in +Montecuculli's campaign in 1664 against the Turks in Hungary, and was +present at the great victory of St Gothard on the Raab. The regiment +of Carignan-Salieres was also engaged on this occasion. In the next +year it came to Canada, and Lorin thinks that the association of +Frontenac with the Carignan regiment in this campaign may have been +among the causes of his nomination to the post of governor. + +[5] By the Treaty of Dover (May 20, 1670) Charles II received a pension +from France and promised to aid Louis XIV in war with Holland. + +[6] Frontenac's enemies never wearied of dwelling upon his +uncontrollable rage. A most interesting discussion of this subject +will be found in _Frontenac et Ses Amis_ by M. Ernest Myrand (p. 172). +For the bellicose qualities of the French aristocracy see also _La +Noblesse Francaise sous Richelieu_ by the Vicomte G. d'Avenel. + + + + +{33} + +CHAPTER III + +FRONTENAC'S FIRST YEARS IN CANADA + +Frontenac received his commission on April 6, 1672, and reached Quebec +at the beginning of September. The king, sympathetic towards his +needs, had authorized two special grants of money: six thousand livres +for equipment, and nine thousand to provide a bodyguard of twenty +horsemen. Gratified by these marks of royal favour and conscious that +he had been assigned to an important post, Frontenac was in hopeful +mood when he first saw the banks of the St Lawrence. His letters show +that he found the country much less barbarous than he had expected; and +he threw himself into his new duties with the courage which is born of +optimism. A natural fortress like Quebec could not fail to awaken the +enthusiasm of a soldier. The settlement itself was small, but +Frontenac reported that its situation could not be more favourable, +even if this spot were to become the capital of a great empire. It +was, indeed, {34} a scene to kindle the imagination. Sloping down to +the river-bank, the farms of Beauport and Beaupre filled the +foreground. Behind them swept the forest, then in its full autumnal +glory. + +Awaiting Frontenac at Quebec were Courcelles, the late governor, and +Talon the intendant. Both were to return to France by the last ships +of that year; but in the meantime Frontenac was enabled to confer with +them on the state of the colony and to acquaint himself with their +views on many important subjects. Courcelles had proved a stalwart +warrior against the Iroquois, while Talon possessed an unrivalled +knowledge of Canada's wants and possibilities. Laval, the bishop, was +in France, not to return to the colony till 1675. + +The new governor's first acts went to show that with the king's dignity +he associated his own. The governor and lieutenant-general of a vast +oversea dominion could not degrade his office by living like a +shopkeeper. The Chateau St Louis was far below his idea of what a +viceregal residence ought to be. One of his early resolves was to +enlarge and improve it. Meanwhile, his entertainments surpassed in +splendour anything Canada had yet {35} seen. Pomp on a large scale was +impossible; but the governor made the best use of his means to display +the grace and majesty of his office. + +On the 17th of September Frontenac presided for the first time at a +meeting of the Sovereign Council;[1] and the formal inauguration of his +regime was staged for the 23rd of October. It was to be an impressive +ceremony, a pageant at which all eyes should be turned upon him, the +great noble who embodied the authority of a puissant monarch. For this +ceremony the governor summoned an assembly that was designed to +represent the Three Estates of Canada. + +The Three Estates of clergy, nobles, and commons had existed in France +from time immemorial. But in taking this step and in expecting the +king to approve it Frontenac displayed his ignorance of French history; +for the ancient meetings of the Three Estates in France had left a +memory not dear to the crown.[2] They had, in truth, given the kings +{36} moments of grave concern; and their representatives had not been +summoned since 1614. Moreover, Louis XIV was not a ruler to tolerate +such rival pretensions as the States-General had once put forth. + +Parkman thinks that, 'like many of his station, Frontenac was not in +full sympathy with the centralizing movement of his time, which tended +to level ancient rights, privileges and prescriptions under the +ponderous roller of the monarchical administration.' This, it may be +submitted, is only a conjecture. The family history of the Buades +shows that they were 'king's men,' who would be the last to imperil +royal power. The gathering of the Three Estates at Quebec was meant to +be the fitting background of a ceremony. If Frontenac had any thought +beyond this, it was a desire to unite all classes in an expression of +loyalty to their sovereign. + +At Quebec it was not difficult to secure representatives of clergy and +commons. But, as nobles seldom emigrated to Canada, some talent was +needed to discover gentlemen of sufficient standing to represent the +aristocracy. The situation was met by drawing upon the officers and +the seigneurs. The Estates thus duly convened, Frontenac {37} +addressed them on the glory of the king and the duty of all classes to +serve him with zeal. To the clergy he hinted that their task was not +finished when they had baptized the Indians. After that came the duty +of converting them into good citizens. + +Frontenac's next step was to reorganize the municipal government of +Quebec by permitting the inhabitants to choose two aldermen and a +mayor. Since these officials could not serve until they had been +approved by the governor, the change does not appear to have been +wildly radical. But change of any kind was distasteful to the Bourbon +monarchy, especially if it seemed to point toward freedom. So when in +due course Frontenac's report of these activities arrived at +Versailles, it was decided that such innovations must be stopped at +once. The king wished to discourage all memory of the Three Estates, +and Frontenac was told that no part of the Canadian people should be +given a corporate or collective status. The reprimand, however, did +not reach Canada till the summer of 1673, so that for some months +Frontenac was permitted to view his work with satisfaction. + +His next move likewise involved a new departure. Hitherto the king had +{38} discouraged the establishment of forts or trading-posts at points +remote from the zone of settlement. This policy was based on the +belief that the colonists ought to live close together for mutual +defence against the Iroquois. But Frontenac resolved to build a fort +at the outlet of Lake Ontario. His enemies stated that this arose out +of his desire to make personal profit from the fur trade; but on public +grounds also there were valid reasons for the fort. A thrust is often +the best parry; and it could well be argued that the French had much to +gain from a stronghold lying within striking distance of the Iroquois +villages. + +At any rate, Frontenac decided to act first and make explanations +afterwards. On June 3, 1673, he left Quebec for Montreal and beyond. +He accommodated himself with cheerfulness to the bark canoe--which he +described in one of his early letters as a rather undignified +conveyance for the king's lieutenant--and, indeed, to all the hardships +which the discharge of his duties entailed. His plan for the summer +comprised a thorough inspection of the waterway from Quebec to Lake +Ontario and official visits to the settlements lying along the route. +Three Rivers did not detain him long, for he was already {39} familiar +with the place, having visited it in the previous autumn. On the 15th +of the month his canoe came to shore beneath Mount Royal. + +Montreal was the colony's farthest outpost towards the Iroquois. +Though it had been founded as a mission and nothing else, its situation +was such that its inhabitants could not avoid being drawn into the fur +trade. To a large extent it still retained its religious character, +but beneath the surface could be detected a cleavage of interest +between the missionary zeal of the Sulpicians and the commercial +activity of the local governor, Francois Perrot. And since this Perrot +is soon to find place in the present narrative as a bitter enemy of +Frontenac, a word concerning him may fitly be written here. He was an +officer of the king's army who had come to Canada with Talon. The fact +that his wife was Talon's niece had put him in the pathway of +promotion. The order of St Sulpice, holding in fief the whole island +of Montreal, had power to name the local governor. In June 1669 the +Sulpicians had nominated Perrot, and two years later his appointment +had been confirmed by the king. Later, as we shall see, arose the +thorny question of {40} how far the governor of Canada enjoyed +superiority over the governor of Montreal. + +The governor of Montreal, attended by his troops and the leading +citizens, stood at the landing-place to offer full military honours to +the governor of Canada. Frontenac's arrival was then signalized by a +civic reception and a _Te Deum_. The round of civilities ended, the +governor lost no time in unfolding the real purpose of his visit, which +was less to confer with the priests of St Sulpice than to recruit +forces for his expedition, in order that he might make a profound +impression on the Iroquois. The proposal to hold a conference with the +Iroquois at Cataraqui (where Kingston now stands) met with some +opposition; but Frontenac's energy and determination were not to be +denied, and by the close of June four hundred French and Indians were +mustered at Lachine in readiness to launch their canoes and barges upon +Lake St Louis. + +[Illustration: ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE. From an engraving by +Waltner, Paris] + +If Montreal was the outpost of the colony, Lachine was the outpost of +Montreal. Between these two points lay the great rapid, the Sault St +Louis, which from the days of Jacques Cartier had blocked the ascent of +the St Lawrence to seafaring boats. At Lachine La Salle had formed his +seigneury in 1667, {41} the year after his arrival in Canada; and it +had been the starting-point for the expedition which resulted in the +discovery of the Ohio in 1671. La Salle, however, was not with +Frontenac's party, for the governor had sent him to the Iroquois early +in May, to tell them that Onontio would meet his children and to make +arrangements for the great assembly at Cataraqui. + +The Five Nations, remembering the chastisement they had received from +Tracy in 1666,[3] accepted the invitation, but in dread and distrust. +Their envoys accordingly proceeded to the mouth of the Cataraqui; and +on the 12th of July the vessels of the French were seen approaching on +the smooth surface of Lake Ontario. Frontenac had omitted from his +equipage nothing which could awe or interest the savage. He had +furnished his troops with the best possible equipment and had with him +all who could be spared safely from the colony. He had even managed to +drag up the rapids and launch on Lake Ontario two large barges armed +with small cannon and brilliantly painted. The whole flotilla, +including a multitude of canoes arranged by squadron, was now put in +battle {42} array. First came four squadrons of canoes; then the two +barges; next Frontenac himself, surrounded by his personal attendants +and the regulars; after that the Canadian militia, with a squadron from +Three Rivers on the left flank, and on the right a great gathering of +Hurons and Algonquins. The rearguard was composed of two more +squadrons. Never before had such a display been seen on the Great +Lakes. + +Having disclosed his strength to the Iroquois chiefs, Frontenac +proceeded to hold solemn and stately conference with them. But he did +not do this on the day of the great naval procession. He wished to let +this spectacle take effect before he approached the business which had +brought him there. It was not until next day that the meeting opened. +At seven o'clock the French troops, accoutred at their best, were all +on parade, drawn up in files before the governor's tent, where the +conference was to take place. Outside the tent itself large canopies +of canvas had been erected to shelter the Iroquois from the sun, while +Frontenac, in his most brilliant military costume, assumed all the +state he could. In treating with Indians haste was impossible, nor did +Frontenac desire that the {43} speech-making should begin at once. His +fort was hardly more than begun, and he wished the Iroquois to see how +swiftly and how well the French could build defences. + +When the proceedings opened there were the usual long harangues, +followed by daily negotiations between the governor and the chiefs. It +was a leading feature of Frontenac's diplomacy to reward the friendly, +and to win over malcontents by presents or personal attention. Each +day some of the chiefs dined with the governor, who gave them the food +they liked, adapted his style of speech to their ornate and +metaphorical language, played with their children, and regretted, +through the interpreter Le Moyne, that he was as yet unable to speak +their tongue. Never had such pleasant flattery been applied to the +vanity of an Indian. At the same time Frontenac did not fail to insist +upon his power; indeed, upon his supremacy. As a matter of fact it had +involved a great effort to make all this display at Cataraqui. In his +discourses, however, he laid stress upon the ease with which he had +mounted the rapids and launched barges upon Lake Ontario. The sum and +substance of all his harangues was this: 'I am your good, kind father, +loving {44} peace and shrinking from war. But you can see my power and +I give you fair warning. If you choose war, you are guilty of +self-destruction; your fate is in your own hands.' + +Apart from his immediate success in building under the eyes of the +Iroquois a fort at the outlet of Lake Ontario, Frontenac profited +greatly by entering the heart of the Indian world in person. He was +able, for a time at least, to check those tribal wars which had +hampered trade and threatened to involve the colony. He gained much +information at first hand about the _pays d'en haut_. And throughout +he proved himself to have just the qualities which were needed in +dealing with a North American Indian--firmness, good-humour, and +dramatic talent. + +On returning from Lake Ontario to Quebec Frontenac had good reason to +be pleased with his summer's work. It still remained to convince +Colbert that the construction of the fort at Cataraqui was not an undue +expense and waste of energy. But as the initial outlay had already +been made, he had ground for hope that he would not receive a positive +order to undo what had been accomplished. At Quebec he received +Colbert's disparaging comments upon the assembly of the Three Estates +{45} and the substitution of aldermen for the syndic who had formerly +represented the inhabitants. These comments, however, were not so +couched as to make the governor feel that he had lost the minister's +confidence. On the whole, the first year of office had gone very well. + +A stormier season was now to follow. The battle-royal between +Frontenac and Perrot, the governor of Montreal, began in the autumn of +1673 and was waged actively throughout the greater part of 1674. + +Enough has been said of Frontenac's tastes to show that he was a +spendthrift; and there can be no doubt that as governor of Canada he +hoped to supplement his salary by private trading. Soon after his +arrival at Quebec in the preceding year he had formed an alliance with +La Salle. The decision to erect a fort at Cataraqui was made for the +double reason that while safeguarding the colony Frontenac and La Salle +could both draw profit from the trade at this point in the interior. + +La Salle was not alone in knowing that those who first met the Indians +in the spring secured the best furs at the best bargains. This +information was shared by many, including Francois Perrot. Just above +the island of Montreal is another island, which {46} lies between Lake +St Louis and the Lake of Two Mountains. Perrot, appreciating the +advantage of a strategic position, had fixed there his own +trading-post, and to this day the island bears his name. Now, with +Frontenac as a sleeping partner of La Salle there were all the elements +of trouble, for Perrot and Frontenac were rival traders. Both were +wrathful men and each had a selfish interest to fight for, quite apart +from any dispute as to the jurisdiction of Quebec over Montreal. + +Under such circumstances the one thing lacking was a ground of action. +This Frontenac found in the existing edict against the coureurs de +bois--those wild spirits who roamed the woods in the hope of making +great profits through the fur trade, from which by law they were +excluded, and provoked the special disfavour of the missionary by the +scandals of their lives, which gave the Indians a low idea of French +morality. Thus in the eyes of both Church and State the coureur de +bois was a _mauvais sujet_, and the offence of taking to the forest +without a licence became punishable by death or the galleys. + +Though Frontenac was not the author of this severe measure, duty +required him to enforce it. Perrot was a friend and {47} defender of +the coureurs de bois, whom he used as employees in the collection of +peltries. Under his regime Montreal formed their headquarters. The +edict gave them no concern, since they knew that between them and +trouble stood their patron and confederate. + +Thus Frontenac found an excellent occasion to put Perrot in the wrong +and to hit him through his henchmen. The only difficulty was that +Frontenac did not possess adequate means to enforce the law. Obviously +it was undesirable that he should invade Perrot's bailiwick in person. +He therefore instructed the judge at Montreal to arrest all the +coureurs de bois who were there. A loyal attempt was made to execute +this command, with the result that Perrot at once intervened and +threatened to imprison the judge if he repeated his effort. + +Frontenac's counterblast was the dispatch of a lieutenant and three +soldiers to arrest a retainer of Perrot named Carton, who had shown +contempt of court by assisting the accused woodsmen to escape. Perrot +then proclaimed that this constituted an unlawful attack on his rights +as governor of Montreal, to defend which he promptly imprisoned Bizard, +the lieutenant sent by Frontenac, together with Jacques Le Ber, the +leading {48} merchant of the settlement. Though Perrot released them +shortly afterwards, his tone toward Frontenac remained impudent and the +issue was squarely joined. + +But a hundred and eighty miles of wilderness separated the governor of +Canada from the governor of Montreal. In short, before Perrot could be +disciplined he must be seized, and this was a task which if attempted +by frontal attack might provoke bloodshed in the colony, with heavy +censure from the king. Frontenac therefore entered upon a +correspondence, not only with Perrot, but with one of the leading +Sulpicians in Montreal, the Abbe Fenelon. This procedure yielded +quicker results than could have been expected. Frontenac's letter +which summoned Perrot to Quebec for an explanation was free from +threats and moderate in tone. It found Perrot somewhat alarmed at what +he had done and ready to settle the matter without further trouble. At +the same time Fenelon, acting on Frontenac's suggestion, urged Perrot +to make peace. The consequence was that in January 1674 Perrot acceded +and set out for Quebec with Fenelon as his companion. + +Whatever Perrot's hopes or expectations of leniency, they were quickly +dispelled. The {49} very first conference between him and Frontenac +became a violent altercation (January 29, 1674). Perrot was forthwith +committed to prison, where he remained ten months. Not content with +this success, Frontenac proceeded vigorously against the coureurs de +bois, one of whom as an example was hanged in front of Perrot's prison. + +The trouble did not stop here, nor with the imprisonment of Brucy, who +was Perrot's chief agent and the custodian of the storehouse at He +Perrot. Fenelon, whose temper was ardent and emotional, felt that he +had been made the innocent victim of a detestable plot to lure Perrot +from Montreal. Having upbraided Frontenac to his face, he returned to +Montreal and preached a sermon against him, using language which the +Sulpicians hastened to repudiate. But Fenelon, undaunted, continued to +espouse Perrot's cause without concealment and brought down upon +himself a charge of sedition. + +In its final stage this _cause celebre_ runs into still further +intricacies, involving the rights of the clergy when accused by the +civil power. The contest begun by Perrot and taken up by Fenelon ran +an active course throughout the greater part of a year (1674), and +finally the {50} king himself was called in as judge. This involved +the sending of Perrot and Fenelon to France, along with a voluminous +written statement from Frontenac and a great number of documents. At +court Talon took the side of Perrot, as did the Abbe d'Urfe, whose +cousin, the Marquise d'Allegre, was about to marry Colbert's son. +Nevertheless the king declined to uphold Frontenac's enemies. Perrot +was given three weeks in the Bastille, not so much for personal +chastisement as to show that the governor's authority must be +respected. On the whole, Frontenac issued from the affair without +suffering loss of prestige in the eyes of the colony. The king +declined to reprimand him, though in a personal letter from his +sovereign Frontenac was told that henceforth he must avoid invading a +local government without giving the governor preliminary notice. The +hint was also conveyed that he should not harry the clergy. +Frontenac's position, of course, was that he only interfered with the +clergy when they were encroaching upon the rights of the crown. + +Upon this basis, then, the quarrel with Perrot was settled. But at +that very moment a larger and more serious contest was about to begin. + + + +[1] In the minutes of this first meeting of the Sovereign Council at +which Frontenac presided the high-sounding words 'haut et puissant' +stand prefixed to his name and titles. + +[2] The power of the States-General reached its height after the +disastrous battle of Poitiers (1356). For a short period, under the +leadership of Etienne Marcel, it virtually supplanted the power of the +crown. + +[3] See _The Great Intendant_, chap. iii. + + + + +{51} + +CHAPTER IV + +GOVERNOR, BISHOP, AND INTENDANT + +At the beginning of September 1675 Frontenac was confronted with an +event which could have given him little pleasure. This was the +arrival, by the same ship, of the bishop Laval, who had been absent +from Canada four years, and Jacques Duchesneau, who after a long +interval had been appointed to succeed Talon as intendant. Laval +returned in triumph. He was now bishop of Quebec, directly dependent +upon the Holy See[1] and not upon the king of France. Duchesneau came +to Canada with the reputation of having proved a capable official at +Tours. + +By temper and training Frontenac was ill-disposed to share authority +with any one. In the absence of bishop and intendant he had filled the +centre of the stage. Now he must become reconciled to the presence at +Quebec {52} of others who held high rank and had claims to be +considered in the conduct of public affairs. Even at the moment of +formal welcome he must have felt that trouble was in store. For +sixteen years Laval had been a great person in Canada, and Duchesneau +had come to occupy the post which Talon had made almost more important +than that of governor. + +Partly through a clash of dignities and partly through a clash of +ideas, there soon arose at Quebec a conflict which rendered personal +friendship among the leaders impossible, and caused itself to be felt +in every part of the administration. Since this antagonism lasted for +seven years and had large consequences, it becomes important to examine +its deeper causes as well as the forms which under varying +circumstances it came to assume. + +In the triangular relations of Frontenac, Laval, and Duchesneau the +bishop and the intendant were ranged against the governor. The +simplest form of stating the case is to say that Frontenac clashed with +Laval over one set of interests and with Duchesneau over another; over +ecclesiastical issues with the bishop and over civil interests with the +intendant. In the Sovereign Council these {53} three dignitaries sat +together, and so close was the connection of Church with State that not +a month could pass without bringing to light some fresh matter which +concerned them all. Broadly speaking, the differences between +Frontenac and Laval were of more lasting moment than those between +Frontenac and Duchesneau. In the end governor and intendant quarrelled +over everything simply because they had come to be irreconcilable +enemies. At the outset, however, their theoretical grounds of +opposition were much less grave than the matters in debate between +Frontenac and Laval. To appreciate these duly we must consider certain +things which were none the less important because they lay in the +background. + +When Frontenac came to Canada he found that the ecclesiastical field +was largely occupied by the Jesuits, the Sulpicians, and the Recollets. +Laval had, indeed, begun his task of organizing a diocese at Quebec and +preparing to educate a local priesthood. Four years after his arrival +in Canada he had founded the Quebec Seminary (1663) and had added +(1668) a preparatory school, called the Little Seminary. But the three +missionary orders were still the mainstay of the Canadian {54} Church. +It is evident that Colbert not only considered the Jesuits the most +powerful, but also thought them powerful enough to need a check. +Hence, when Frontenac received his commission, he received also written +instructions to balance the Jesuit power by supporting the Sulpicians +and the Recollets. + +Through his dispute with Perrot, Frontenac had strained the good +relations which Colbert wished him to maintain with the Sulpicians. +But the friction thus caused was in no way due to Frontenac's dislike +of the Sulpicians as an order. Towards the Jesuits, on the other hand, +he cherished a distinct antagonism which led him to carry out with +vigour the command that he should keep their power within bounds. This +can be seen from the earliest dispatches which he sent to France. +Before he had been in Quebec three months he reported to Colbert that +it was the practice of the Jesuits to stir up strife in families, to +resort to espionage, to abuse the confessional, to make the Seminary +priests their puppets, and to deny the king's right to license the +brandy trade. What seemed to the Jesuits an unforgivable affront was +Frontenac's charge that they cared more for beaver skins than for the +conversion of the savages. This {55} they interpreted as an insult to +the memory of their martyrs, and their resentment must have been the +greater because the accusation was not made publicly in Canada, but +formed part of a letter to Colbert in France. The information that +such an attack had been made reached them through Laval, who was then +in France and found means to acquaint himself with the nature of +Frontenac's correspondence. + +Having displeased the Sulpicians and attacked the Jesuits, Frontenac +made amends to the Church by cultivating the most friendly relations +with the Recollets. No one ever accused him of being a bad Catholic. +He was exact in the performance of his religious duties, and such +trouble as he had with the ecclesiastical authorities proceeded from +political aims rather than from heresy or irreligion. + +Like so much else in the life of Canada, the strife between Frontenac +and Laval may be traced back to France. During the early years of +Louis XIV the French Church was distracted by the disputes of Gallican +and Ultramontane. The Gallicans were faithful Catholics who +nevertheless held that the king and the national clergy had rights +which the Pope must respect. The Ultramontanes {56} defined papal +power more widely and sought to minimize, disregard, or deny the +privileges of the national Church. + +Between these parties no point of doctrine was involved,[2] but in the +sphere of government there exists a frontier between Church and State +along which many wars of argument can be waged--at times with some +display of force. The Mass, Purgatory, the Saints, Confession, and the +celibacy of the priest, all meant as much to the Gallican as to the +Ultramontane. Nor did the Pope's headship prove a stumbling-block in +so far as it was limited to things spiritual. The Gallican did, +indeed, assert the subjection of the Pope to a General Council, quoting +in his support the decrees of Constance and Basel. But in the +seventeenth century this was a theoretical contention. What Louis XIV +and Bossuet strove for was the limitation of papal power in matters +affecting property and political rights. The real questions upon which +Gallican and Ultramontane differed were the {57} appointment of bishops +and abbots, the contribution of the Church to the needs of the State, +and the priest's standing as a subject of the king. + +Frontenac was no theorist, and probably would have written a poor +treatise on the relations of Church and State. At the same time, he +knew that the king claimed certain rights over the Church, and he was +the king's lieutenant. Herein lies the deeper cause of his troubles +with the Jesuits and Laval. The Jesuits had been in the colony for +fifty years and felt that they knew the spiritual requirements of both +French and Indians. Their missions had been illuminated by the supreme +heroism of Brebeuf, Jogues, Lalemant, and many more. Their house at +Quebec stood half-way between Versailles and the wilderness. They were +in close alliance with Laval and supported the ideal and divine rights +of the Church. They had found strong friends in Champlain and +Montmagny. Frontenac, however, was a layman of another type. However +orthodox his religious ideas may have been, his heart was not lowly and +his temper was not devout. Intensely autocratic by disposition, he +found it easy to identify his own will to power with a defence {58} of +royal prerogative against the encroachments of the Church. It was an +attitude that could not fail to beget trouble, for the Ultramontanes +had weapons of defence which they well knew how to use. + +Having in view these ulterior motives, the acrimony of Frontenac's +quarrel with Laval is not surprising. Rightly or wrongly, the governor +held that the bishop was subservient to the Jesuits, while Colbert's +plain instructions required the governor to keep the Jesuits in check. +From such a starting-point the further developments were almost +automatic. Laval found on his return that Frontenac had exacted from +the clergy unusual and excessive honours during church services. This +furnished a subject of heated debate and an appeal by both parties to +the king. After full consideration Frontenac received orders to rest +content with the same honours which were by custom accorded the +governor of Picardy in the cathedral of Amiens. + +More important by far than this argument over precedence was the +dispute concerning the organization of parishes. Here the issue hinged +on questions of fact rather than of theory. Beyond question the +habitants were entitled to have priests living permanently in {59} +their midst, as soon as conditions should warrant it. But had the time +come when a parish system could be created? Laval's opinion may be +inferred from the fact that in 1675, sixteen years after his arrival in +Canada, only one priest lived throughout the year among his own people. +This was the Abbe de Bernieres, cure of Notre Dame at Quebec. In 1678 +two more parishes received permanent incumbents--Port Royal and La +Durantaye. Even so, it was a small number for the whole colony. + +Frontenac maintained that Laval was unwilling to create a normal system +of parishes because thereby his personal power would be reduced. As +long as the cures were not permanently stationed they remained in +complete dependence on the bishop. All the funds provided for the +secular clergy passed through his hands. If he wished to keep for the +Seminary money which ought to go to the parishes, the habitants were +helpless. It was ridiculous to pamper the Seminary at the expense of +the colonists. It was worse than ridiculous that the French themselves +should go without religious care because the Jesuits chose to give +prior attention to the souls of the savage. + +{60} + +Laval's argument in reply was that the time had not yet come for the +creation of parishes on a large scale. Doubtless it would prove +possible in the future to have churches and a parochial system of the +normal type. Meanwhile, in view of the general poverty it was +desirable that all the resources of the Church should be conserved. To +this end the habitants were being cared for by itinerant priests at +much less expense than would be entailed by fixing on each parish the +support of its cure. + +Here, as in all these contests, a mixture of motives is evident. There +is no reason to doubt Frontenac's sincerity in stating that the +missions and the Seminary absorbed funds of the Church which would be +better employed in ministration to the settlers. At the same time, it +was for him a not unpleasant exercise to support a policy which would +have the incidental effect of narrowing the bishop's power. After some +three years of controversy the king, as usual, stepped in to settle the +matter. By an edict of May 1679 he ordained that the priests should +live in their parishes and have the free disposition of the tithes +which had been established under an order of 1667. Thus on the subject +of the {61} cures Frontenac's views were officially accepted; but his +victory was rendered more nominal than real by the unwillingness or +inability of the habitants to supply sufficient funds for the support +of a resident priesthood. + +In Frontenac's dispute with the clergy over the brandy question no new +arguments were brought forward, since all the main points had been +covered already. It was an old quarrel, and there was nothing further +to do than to set forth again the opposing aspects of a very difficult +subject. Religion clashed with business, but that was not all. Upon +the prosecution of business hung the hope of building up for France a +vast empire. The Jesuits urged that the Indians were killing +themselves with brandy, which destroyed their souls and reduced them to +the level of beasts. The traders retorted that the savages would not +go without drink. If they were denied it by the French they would take +their furs to Albany, and there imbibe not only bad rum but +soul-destroying heresy. Why be visionary and suffer one's rivals to +secure an advantage which would open up to them the heart of the +continent? + +Laval, on the other hand, had chosen his side in this controversy long +before Frontenac {62} came to Canada, and he was not one to change his +convictions lightly. As he saw it, the sale of brandy to the Indians +was a sin, punishable by excommunication; and so determined was he that +the penalty should be enforced that he would allow the right of +absolution to no one but himself. In the end the king decided it +otherwise. He declared the regulation of the brandy trade to fall +within the domain of the civil power. He warned Frontenac to avoid an +open denial of the bishop's authority in this matter, but directed him +to prevent the Church from interfering in a case belonging to the +sphere of public order. This decision was not reached without deep +thought. In favour of prohibition stood Laval, the Jesuits, the +Sorbonne, the Archbishop of Paris, and the king's confessor, Pere La +Chaise. Against it were Frontenac, the chief laymen of Canada,[3] the +University of Toulouse, and Colbert. In extricating himself from this +labyrinth of conflicting opinion Louis XIV was guided by reasons of +general policy. He had never seen the Mohawks raving drunk, and, like +Frontenac, {63} he felt that without brandy the work of France in the +wilderness could not go on. + +Such were the issues over which Frontenac and Laval faced each other in +mutual antagonism. + +Between Frontenac and his other opponent, the intendant Duchesneau, the +strife revolved about a different set of questions without losing any +of its bitterness. Frontenac and Laval disputed over ecclesiastical +affairs. Frontenac and Duchesneau disputed over civil affairs. But as +Laval and Duchesneau were both at war with Frontenac they naturally +drew together. The alliance was rendered more easy by Duchesneau's +devoutness. Even had he wished to hold aloof from the quarrel of +governor and bishop, it would have been difficult to do so. But as an +active friend of Laval and the Jesuits he had no desire to be a neutral +spectator of the feud which ran parallel with his own. The two feuds +soon became intermingled, and Frontenac, instead of confronting +separate adversaries, found himself engaged with allied forces which +were ready to attack or defend at every point. It could not have been +otherwise. Quebec was a small place, and the three belligerents were +brought into the closest official contact by {64} their duties as +members of the Sovereign Council. + +It is worthy of remark that each of the contestants, Frontenac, Laval, +and Duchesneau, has his partisans among the historians of the present +day. All modern writers agree that Canada suffered grievously from +these disputes, but a difference of opinion at once arises when an +attempt is made to distribute the blame. The fact is that characters +separately strong and useful often make an unfortunate combination. +Compared with Laval and Frontenac, Duchesneau was not a strong +character, but he possessed qualifications which might have enabled him +in less stormy times to fill the office of intendant with tolerable +credit. It was his misfortune that circumstances forced him into the +thankless position of being a henchman to the bishop and a drag upon +the governor. + +Everything which Duchesneau did gave Frontenac annoyance--the more so +as the intendant came armed with very considerable powers. During the +first three years of Frontenac's administration the governor, in the +absence of an intendant, had lorded it over the colony with a larger +freedom from restraint than was normal under the French {65} colonial +system. Apparently Colbert was not satisfied with the result. It may +be that he feared the vigour which Frontenac displayed in taking the +initiative; or the quarrel with Perrot may have created a bad +impression at Versailles; or it may have been considered that the less +Frontenac had to do with the routine of business, the more the colony +would thrive. Possibly Colbert only sought to define anew the +relations which ought to exist between governor and intendant. +Whatever the motive, Duchesneau's instructions gave him a degree of +authority which proved galling to the governor. + +Within three weeks from the date of Duchesneau's arrival the fight had +begun (September 23, 1675). In its earliest phase it concerned the +right to preside at meetings of the Sovereign Council. For three years +Frontenac, 'high and puissant seigneur,' had conducted proceedings as a +matter of course. Duchesneau now asked him to retire from this +position, producing as warrant his commission which stated that he +should preside over the Council, 'in the absence of the said Sieur de +Frontenac.' Why this last clause should have been inserted one finds +it hard to understand, for Colbert's subsequent letters {66} place his +intention beyond doubt. He meant that Duchesneau should preside, +though without detracting from Frontenac's superior dignity. The order +of precedence at the Council is fixed with perfect clearness. First +comes the governor, then the bishop, and then the intendant. Yet the +intendant is given the chair. Colbert may have thought that Duchesneau +as a man of business possessed a better training for this special work. +Clearly the step was not taken with a view to placing an affront upon +Frontenac. When he complained, Colbert replied that there was no other +man in France who, being already a governor and lieutenant-general, +would consider it an increase of honour to preside over the Council. +In Colbert's eyes this was a clerk's work, not a soldier's. + +Frontenac saw the matter differently and was unwilling to be deposed. +Royal letters, which he produced, had styled him 'President of the +Council,' and on the face of it Duchesneau's commission only indicated +that he should preside in Frontenac's absence. With these arguments +the governor stood his ground. Then followed the representations of +both parties to the king, each taxing the other with misdemeanours both +political and {67} personal. During the long period which must elapse +before a reply could be received, the Sovereign Council was turned into +an academy of invective. Besides governor, bishop, and intendant, +there were seven members who were called upon to take sides in the +contest. No one could remain neutral even if he had the desire. In +voting power Laval and Duchesneau had rather the best of it, but +Frontenac when pressed could fall back on physical force; as he once +did by banishing three of the councillors--Villeray, Tilly, and +Auteuil--from Quebec (July 4, 1679). + +Incredible as it may seem, this issue regarding the right to preside +was not settled until the work of the Council had been disturbed by it +for five years. What is still more incredible, it was settled by +compromise. The king's final ruling was that the minutes of each +meeting should register the presence of governor and intendant without +saying which had presided. Throughout the controversy Colbert +remonstrated with both Frontenac and Duchesneau for their turbulence +and unwillingness to work together. Duchesneau is told that he must +not presume to think himself the equal of the governor. Frontenac is +told that the intendant has very important {68} functions and must not +be prevented from discharging them. The whole episode shows how +completely the French colonial system broke down in its attempt to act +through two officials, each of whom was designed to be a check upon the +other. + +Wholly alienated by this dispute, Frontenac and Duchesneau soon found +that they could quarrel over anything and everything. Thus Duchesneau +became a consistent supporter of Laval and the Jesuits, while Frontenac +retaliated by calling him their tool. The brandy question, which was +partly ecclesiastical and partly civil, proved an excellent +battle-ground for the three great men of Canada; and, as finance was +concerned, the intendant had something to say about the establishment +of parishes. But of the manifold contests between Frontenac and +Duchesneau the most distinctive is that relating to the fur trade. At +first sight this matter would appear to lie in the province of the +intendant, whose functions embraced the supervision of commerce. But +it was the governor's duty to defend the colony from attack, and the +fur trade was a large factor in all relations with the Indians. A +personal element was also added, for in almost every letter to the {69} +minister Frontenac and Duchesneau accused each other of taking an +illicit profit from beaver skins. + +In support of these accusations the most minute details are given. +Duchesneau even charged Frontenac with spreading a report among the +Indians of the Great Lakes that a pestilence had broken out in +Montreal. Thereby the governor's agents were enabled to buy up beaver +skins cheaply, afterwards selling them on his account to the English. +Frontenac rejoined by accusing the intendant of having his own +warehouses at Montreal and along the lower St Lawrence, of being +truculent, a slave to the bishop, and incompetent. Behind Duchesneau, +Frontenac keeps saying, are the Jesuits and the bishop, from whom the +spirit of faction really springs. Among many of these tirades the most +elaborate is the long memorial sent to Colbert in 1677 on the general +state of Canada. Here are some of the items. The Jesuits keep spies +in Frontenac's own house. The bishop declares that he has the power to +excommunicate the governor if necessary. The Jesuit missionaries tell +the Iroquois that they are equal to Onontio. Other charges are that +the Jesuits meddle in all civil affairs, that their revenues {70} are +enormous in proportion to the poverty of the country, and that they are +bound to domineer at whatever cost. + +When we consider how Canada from end to end was affected by these +disputes, we may well feel surprise that Colbert and the king should +have suffered them to rage so long. By 1682 the state of things had +become unbearable. Partisans of Frontenac and Duchesneau attacked each +other in the streets. Duchesneau accused Frontenac of having struck +the young Duchesneau, aged sixteen, and torn the sleeve of his jacket. +He also declared that it was necessary to barricade his house. +Frontenac retorted by saying that these were gross libels. A year +earlier Colbert had placed his son, Seignelay, in charge of the +Colonial Office. With matters at such a pass Seignelay rightly thought +the time had come to take decisive action. Three courses were open to +him. The bishop and the Jesuits he could not recall. But both the +governor and the intendant came within his power. One alternative was +to dismiss Frontenac; another, to dismiss Duchesneau. Seignelay chose +the third course and dismissed them both. + + + +[1] Laval had wished strongly that the see of Quebec should be directly +dependent on the Papacy, and his insistence on this point delayed the +formal creation of the diocese. + +[2] The well-known relation of the Jansenist movement to Gallican +liberties was not such that the Gallican party accepted Jansenist +theology. The Jesuits upheld papal infallibility and, in general, the +Ultramontane position. The Jansenists were opposed to the Jesuits, but +Gallicanism was one thing and Jansenist theology another. + +[3] On October 26, 1678, a meeting of the leading inhabitants of Canada +was held by royal order at Quebec to consider the rights and wrongs of +the brandy question. A large majority of those present were opposed to +prohibition. + + + + +{71} + +CHAPTER V + +FRONTENAC'S PUBLIC POLICY + +As was said long ago, every one has the defects of his qualities. Yet, +in justice to a man of strong character and patriotic aim, the +chronicler should take care that constructive work is given its due +place, for only those who do nothing make no mistakes. + +During his first term of office Frontenac had many enemies in the +higher circles of society. His quarrel with Laval was a cause of +scandal to the devout. His deadlock with Duchesneau dislocated the +routine of government. There was no one who did not feel the force of +his will. Yet to friends and foes alike his recall at sixty-two must +have seemed the definite, humiliating close of a career. It was not +the moment to view in due perspective what he had accomplished. His +shortcomings were on the lips of every one. His strength had been +revealed, but was for the time forgotten. When he left Quebec in 1682 +he must {72} have thought that he would never see it again. Yet when +need came he was remembered. This fact is a useful comment on his +first term, extenuating much that had seemed ground for censure in less +troubled days. + +Let us now regard Frontenac's policy from his own point of view, and +attempt to estimate what he had accomplished down to the date of his +recall. + +However closely Laval and Duchesneau might seek to narrow Frontenac's +sphere of action, there was one power they could not deny him. As +commander of the king's troops in Canada he controlled all matters +relating to colonial defence. If his domestic administration was full +of trouble, it must also be remembered that during his first term of +office there was no war. This happy result was due less to accident +than to his own gifts and character. It is true that the friendship of +Louis XIV and Charles II assured peace between New France and New +England. But Canada could thank Frontenac for keeping the Iroquois at +arm's length. + +We have seen how he built the stronghold at Cataraqui, which was named +Fort Frontenac. The vigour and the tact that he displayed on this +occasion give the keynote to {73} all his relations with the Indians. +Towards them he displayed the three qualities which a governor of +Canada most needed--firmness, sympathy, and fair dealing. His +arrogance, so conspicuous in his intercourse with equals or with +refractory subordinates, disappears wholly when he comes into contact +with the savages. Theatrical he may be, but in the forest he is never +intolerant or narrow-minded. And behind his pageants there is always +power. + +Thus Frontenac should receive personal credit for the great success of +his Indian policy. He kept the peace by moral ascendancy, and to see +that this was no light task one need only compare the events of his +regime with those which marked the period of his successors, La Barre +and Denonville. This we shall do in the next chapter. For the present +it is enough to say that throughout the full ten years 1672-82 Canada +was free from fear of the Iroquois. Just at the close of Frontenac's +first term (1680-82) the Senecas were showing signs of restlessness by +attacking tribes allied to the French, but there is abundant reason to +suppose that had Frontenac remained in office he could have kept these +inter-tribal wars under control. + +{74} + +Bound up with the success of Frontenac's Indian policy is the +exploration of the West--an achievement which adds to this period its +chief lustre. Here La Salle is the outstanding figure and the laurels +are chiefly his. None the less, Frontenac deserves the credit of +having encouraged all endeavours to solve the problem of the +Mississippi. Like La Salle he had large ideas and was not afraid. +They co-operated in perfect harmony, sharing profits, perhaps, but +sincerely bent on gaining for France a new, vast realm. The whole +history of colonial enterprise shows how fortunate the French have been +in the co-operation of their explorers with their provincial governors. +The relations of La Salle with La Barre form a striking exception, but +the statement holds true in the main, and with reference to Algiers as +well as to Canada. + +La Salle was a frank partisan of Frontenac throughout the quarrel with +Perrot and Fenelon. On one occasion he made a scene in church at +Montreal. It was during the Easter service of 1674. When Fenelon +decried magistrates who show no respect to the clergy and who use their +deputed power for their own advantage, La Salle stood up and called the +attention of the leading citizens to {75} these words. Frontenac, who +was always a loyal ally, showed that he appreciated La Salle's efforts +on his behalf by giving him a letter of recommendation to the court in +which La Salle is styled 'a man of intelligence and ability, more +capable than any one else I know here to accomplish every kind of +enterprise and discovery which may be entrusted to him.' + +The result of La Salle's visit to Versailles (1674) was that he gained +privileges which made him one of the most important men in Canada, and +a degree of power which brought down on him many enemies. He received +the seigneury of Fort Frontenac, he was made local governor at that +post, and, in recognition of services already performed, he gained a +grant of nobility. It is clear that La Salle's forceful personality +made a strong impression at court, and the favours which he received +enabled him, in turn, to secure financial aid from his wealthy +relatives at Rouen. + +What followed was the most brilliant, the most exciting, and the most +tragic chapter in the French exploration of America. La Salle +fulfilled all the conditions upon which he had received the seigneury +at Fort Frontenac, and found financial profit in maintaining the post. +{76} The original wooden structure was replaced by stone, good barracks +were built for the troops, there were bastions upon which nine cannon +announced a warning to the Iroquois, a settlement with well-tilled land +sprang up around the fort, schooners were built with a draught of forty +tons. But for La Salle this was not enough. He was a pathfinder, not +a trader. Returning to France after two years of labour and success at +Fort Frontenac, he secured a royal patent authorizing him to explore +the whole continent from the Great Lakes to Mexico, with the right to +build forts therein and to enjoy a monopoly of the trade in buffalo +skins. The expenses of the undertaking were, of course, to be borne by +La Salle and his associates, for the king never invested money in these +enterprises. However, the persuasiveness which enabled La Salle to +secure his patent enabled him to borrow the necessary funds. At the +close of 1678 he was once more at Fort Frontenac and ready for the +great adventure. + +How La Salle explored the country of the Illinois in company with his +valiant friend, Henri de Tonty 'of the iron hand,' and how these two +heroic leaders traversed the continent to the very mouth of the +Mississippi, {77} is not to be told here. But with its risks, its +hardships, its tragedies, and its triumphs, this episode, which belongs +to the period of Frontenac's administration, will always remain a +classic in the records of discovery. The Jesuits, who did not love La +Salle, were no less brave than he, and the lustre of his achievements +must not be made to dim theirs. Yet they had all the force of a mighty +organization at their back, while La Salle, standing alone, braved +ruin, obloquy, and death in order to win an empire for France. +Sometimes he may have thought of fame, but he possessed that driving +power which goes straight for the object, even if it means sacrifice of +self. His haughtiness, his daring, his self-centred determination, +well fitted him to be the friend and trusted agent of Frontenac. + +Another leading figure of the period in western discovery was Daniel +Greysolon du Lhut. Duchesneau calls him the leader of the coureurs de +bois. There can be no doubt that he had reached this eminence among +the French of the forest. He was a gentleman by birth and a soldier by +early training. In many ways he resembled La Salle, for both stood +high above the common coureurs de {78} bois in station, as in talent. +Du Lhut has to his credit no single exploit which equals La Salle's +descent of the Mississippi, but in native sagacity he was the superior. +With a temperament less intense and experiences less tragic, he will +never hold the place which La Salle securely occupies in the annals of +adventure. But few Frenchmen equalled him in knowledge of the +wilderness, and none displayed greater force of character in dealing +with the Indians. + +What the mouth of the Mississippi was to La Salle the country of the +Sioux became to Du Lhut--a goal to be reached at all hazards. Not only +did he reach it, but the story of how he rescued Father Hennepin from +the Sioux (1680) is among the liveliest tales to be found in the +literature of the wilderness. The only regrettable circumstance is +that the story should have been told by Hennepin instead of by Du +Lhut--or rather, that we should not have also Du Lhut's detailed +version instead of the brief account which he has left. Above all, Du +Lhut made himself the guardian of French interests at Michilimackinac, +the chief French post of the Far West--the rendezvous of more tribes +than came together at any other point. The finest tale of his courage +{79} and good judgment belongs to the period of La Barre's +government--when, in 1684, at the head of forty-two French, he executed +sentence of death on an Indian convicted of murder. Four hundred +savages, who had assembled in mutinous mood, witnessed this act of +summary justice. But they respected Du Lhut for the manner in which he +had conducted the trial, and admired the firmness with which he +executed a fair sentence. + +Du Lhut's exploits and character make him the outstanding figure of the +war which Duchesneau waged against the coureurs de bois. The intendant +certainly had the letter of the law on his side in seeking to clear the +woods of those rovers who at the risk of their own lives and without +expense to the government were gaining for France an unequalled +knowledge of the interior. Not only had the king decreed that no one +should be permitted to enter the forest without express permission, but +an edict of 1676 denied even the governor the right to issue a trading +pass at his unrestrained discretion. Frontenac, who believed that the +colony would draw great profit from exploration, softened the effect of +this measure by issuing licences to hunt. It was also within his power +to dispatch messengers to the tribes {80} of the Great Lakes. +Duchesneau reported that Frontenac evaded the edict in order to favour +his own partners or agents among the coureurs de bois, and that when he +went to Montreal on the pretext of negotiating with the Iroquois, his +real purpose was to take up merchandise and bring back furs. These +charges Frontenac denied with his usual vigour, but without silencing +Duchesneau. In 1679 the altercation on this point was brought to an +issue by the arrest, at the intendant's instance [Transcriber's note: +insistence?], of La Toupine, a retainer of Du Lhut. An accusation of +disobeying the edict was no trifle, for the penalty might mean a +sentence to the galleys. After a bitter contest over La Toupine the +matter was settled on a basis not unfavourable to Frontenac. In 1681 a +fresh edict declared that all coureurs de bois who came back to the +colony should receive the benefit of an amnesty. At the same time the +governor was empowered to grant twenty-five trading licences in each +year, the period to be limited to one year. + +[Illustration: FIGURE OF FRONTENAC. From the Hebert Statue at Quebec] + +The splendid services of Du Lhut, covering a period of thirty years, +are the best vindication of Frontenac's policy towards him and his +associates. Had Duchesneau succeeded in his efforts, Du Lhut would +have been {81} severely punished, and probably excluded from the West +for the remainder of his life. Thanks to Frontenac's support, he +became the mainstay of French interests from Lake Ontario to the +Mississippi. Setting out as an adventurer with a strong taste for +exploration, he ended as commandant of the most important +posts--Lachine, Cataraqui, and Michilimackinac. He served the colony +nobly in the war against the Iroquois. He has left reports of his +discoveries which disclose marked literary talent. From the early +years of Frontenac's regime he made himself useful, not only to +Frontenac but to each succeeding governor, until, crippled by gout and +age, he died, still in harness. The letter in which the governor +Vaudreuil announces Du Lhut's death (1710) to the Colonial Office at +Paris is a useful comment upon the accusations of Duchesneau. 'He +was,' says Vaudreuil, 'a very honest man.' In these words will be +found an indirect commendation of Frontenac, who discovered Du Lhut, +supported him through bitter opposition, and placed him where his +talents and energy could be used for the good of his country. + +It will be remembered that Frontenac received orders from Colbert +(April 7, 1672) to {82} prevent the Jesuits from becoming too powerful. +In carrying out these instructions he soon found himself embroiled at +Quebec, and the same discord made itself felt throughout the wilderness. + +Frontenac favoured the establishment of trading-posts and government +forts along the great waterways, from Cataraqui to Crevecoeur.[1] He +sincerely believed that these were the best guarantees of the king's +power on the Great Lakes and in the valley of the Mississippi. The +Jesuits saw in each post a centre of debauchery and feared that their +religious work would be undone by the scandalous example of the +coureurs de bois. What for Frontenac was a question of political +expediency loomed large to the Jesuits as a vital issue of morals. It +was a delicate question at best, though probably a peaceable solution +could have been arranged, but for the mutual agreement of Frontenac and +the Jesuits that they must be antagonists. War having once been +declared, Frontenac proved a poor controversialist. He could have +defended his forest policy without alleging that the Jesuits maintained +their missions as a source of {83} profit, which was a slander upon +heroes and upon martyrs. Moreover, he exposed himself to a flank +attack, for it could be pointed out with much force that he had private +motives in advocating the erection of forts. Frontenac was intelligent +and would have recommended the establishment of posts whether he +expected profit from them or not, but he weakened his case by attacking +the Jesuits on wrong grounds. + +During Frontenac's first term the settled part of Canada was limited to +the shores of the St Lawrence from Lachine downward, with a cluster of +seigneuries along the lower Richelieu. In this region the governor was +hampered by the rights of the intendant and the influence of the +bishop. Westward of Lachine stretched the wilderness, against whose +dusky denizens the governor must guard the colony. The problems of the +forest embraced both trade and war; and where trade was concerned the +intendant held sway. But the safety of the flock came first, and as +Frontenac had the power of the sword he could execute his plans most +freely in the region which lay beyond the fringe of settlement. It was +here that he achieved his greatest success and by his acts won a strong +place in the confidence {84} of the settlers. This was much, and to +this extent his first term of office was not a failure. + +As Canada was then so sparsely settled, the growth of population filled +a large place in the shaping of public policy. With this matter, +however, Duchesneau had more to do than Frontenac, for it was the +intendant's duty to create prosperity. During the decade 1673-83 the +population of Canada increased from 6705 to 10,251. In percentage the +advance shows to better advantage than in totals, but the king had +hardened his heart to the demand for colonists. Thenceforth the +population of Canada was to be recruited almost altogether from births. + +On the whole, the growth of the population during this period compares +favourably with the growth of trade. In 1664 a general monopoly of +Canadian trade had been conceded to the West India Company, on terms +which gave every promise of success. But the trading companies of +France proved a series of melancholy failures, and at this point +Colbert fared no better than Richelieu. When Frontenac reached Canada +the West India Company was hopelessly bankrupt, and in 1674 the king +acquired its rights. This change produced little or no improvement. +Like France, {85} Canada suffered greatly through the war with Holland, +and not till after the Peace of Nimwegen (1678) did the commercial +horizon begin to clear. Even then it was impossible to note any real +progress in Canadian trade, except in a slight enlargement of relations +with the West Indies. During his last year at Quebec Duchesneau gives +a very gloomy report on commercial conditions. + +For this want of prosperity Frontenac was in no way responsible, unless +his troubles with Laval and Duchesneau may be thought to have damped +the colonizing ardour of Louis XIV. It is much more probable that the +king withheld his bounty from Canada because his attention was +concentrated on the costly war against Holland. Campaigns at home +meant economy in Canada, and the colony was far from having reached the +stage where it could flourish without constant financial support from +the motherland. + +In general, Frontenac's policy was as vigorous as he could make it. +Over commerce, taxes, and religion he had no control. By training and +temper he was a war governor, who during his first administration fell +upon a time of peace. So long as peace prevailed he lacked the powers +and the opportunity to {86} enable him to reveal his true strength; and +his energy, without sufficient vent, broke forth in quarrels at the +council board. + +With wider authority, Frontenac might have proved a successful governor +even in time of peace, for he was very intelligent and had at heart the +welfare of the colony. As it was, his restrictions chafed and goaded +him until wrathfulness took the place of reason. But we shall err if +we conclude that when he left Canada in discomfiture he had not earned +her thanks. Through pride and faults of temper he had impaired his +usefulness and marred his record. Even so there was that which rescued +his work from the stigma of failure. He had guarded his people from +the tomahawk and the scalping-knife. With prescient eye he had +foreseen the imperial greatness of the West. Whatever his +shortcomings, they had not been those of meanness or timidity. + + + +[1] Fort Crevecoeur was La Salle's post in the heart of the Illinois +country. + + + + +{87} + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LURID INTERVAL + +We have seen that during Frontenac's first term of office no urgent +danger menaced the colony on the frontier. The missionary and the +explorer were steadily pressing forward to the head of the Great Lakes +and into the valley of the Mississippi, enlarging the sphere of French +influence and rendering the interior tributary to the commerce of +Quebec. But this peaceful and silent expansion had not passed +unnoticed by those in whose minds it aroused both rivalry and dread. +Untroubled from without as New France had been under Frontenac, there +were always two lurking perils--the Iroquois and the English. + +The Five Nations owed their leadership among the Indian tribes not only +to superior discipline and method but also to their geographical +situation. The valley of the St Lawrence lay within easy reach, either +through Lake Champlain or Lake Ontario. On the {88} east at their very +door lay the valley of the Mohawk and the Hudson. From the western +fringe of their territory they could advance quickly to Lake Erie, or +descend the Ohio into the valley of the Mississippi. It was doubtless +due to their prowess rather than to accident that they originally came +into possession of this central and favoured position; however, they +could now make their force felt throughout the whole north-eastern +portion of the continent. + +Over seventy years had now passed since Champlain's attack upon the +Iroquois in 1609; but lapse of time had not altered the nature of the +savage, nor were the causes of mutual hostility less real than at +first. A ferocious lust for war remained the deepest passion of the +Iroquois, to be satisfied at convenient intervals. It was unfortunate, +in their view, that they could not always be at war; but they +recognized that there must be breathing times and that it was important +to choose the right moment for massacre and pillage. Daring but +sagacious, they followed an opportunist policy. At times their +warriors delighted to lurk in the outskirts of Montreal with tomahawk +and scalping-knife and to organize great war-parties, such as that {89} +which was arrested by Dollard and his heroic companions at the Long +Sault in 1660. At other times they held fair speech with the governor +and permitted the Jesuits to live in their villages, for the French had +weapons and means of fighting which inspired respect. + +The appearance of the Dutch on the Hudson in 1614 was an event of great +importance to the Five Nations. The Dutch were quite as ready as the +French to trade in furs, and it was thus that the Iroquois first +procured the firearms which they used in their raids on the French +settlements. That the Iroquois rejoiced at having a European colony on +the Hudson may be doubted, but as they were unable to prevent it, they +drew what profit they could by putting the French and Dutch in +competition, both for their alliance and their neutrality. + +But, though the Dutch were heretics and rivals, it was a bad day for +New France when the English seized New Amsterdam (1664) and began to +establish themselves from Manhattan to Albany. The inevitable conflict +was first foreshadowed in the activities of Sir Edmund Andros, which +followed his appointment as governor of New York in 1674. He visited +the Mohawks in their own villages, {90} organized a board of Indian +commissioners at Albany, and sought to cement an alliance with the +whole confederacy of the Five Nations. In opposition to this France +made the formal claim (1677) that by actual residence in the Iroquois +country the Jesuits had brought the Iroquois under French sovereignty. + +Iroquois, French, and English thus formed the points of a political +triangle. Home politics, however--the friendship of Stuart and +Bourbon--tended to postpone the day of reckoning between the English +and French in America. England and France were not only at peace but +in alliance. The Treaty of Dover had been signed in 1670, and two +years later, just as Frontenac had set out for Quebec, Charles II had +sent a force of six thousand English to aid Louis XIV against the +Dutch. It was in this war that John Churchill, afterwards Duke of +Marlborough, won his spurs--fighting on the French side! + +None the less, there were premonitions of trouble in America, +especially after Thomas Dongan became governor of New York in 1683. +Andros had shown good judgment in his dealings with the Iroquois, and +his successor, inheriting a sound policy, went even further on the same +course. Dongan, an {91} Irishman of high birth and a Catholic, +strenuously opposed the pretensions of the French to sovereignty over +the Iroquois. When it was urged that religion required the presence of +the Jesuits among them, he denied the allegation, stating that he would +provide English priests to take their place. A New England Calvinist +could not have shown more firmness in upholding the English position. +Indeed, no governor of Puritan New England had ever equalled Dongan in +hostility to Catholic New France. + +Frontenac's successor, Lefebvre de la Barre, who had served with +distinction in the West Indies, arrived at Quebec in September 1682. +By the same ship came the new intendant, Meulles. They found the Lower +Town of Quebec in ruins, for a devastating fire had just swept through +it. Hardly anything remained standing save the buildings on the cliff. + +La Barre and Meulles were soon at loggerheads. It appears that, +instead of striving to repair the effects of the fire, the new governor +busied himself to accumulate a fortune. He had indeed promised the +king that, unlike his predecessors, he would seek no profit from +private trading, and had on this ground requested an increase of +salary. {92} Meulles presently reported that, far from keeping this +promise, La Barre and his agents had shared ten or twelve thousand +crowns of profit, and that unless checked the governor's revenues would +soon exceed those of the king. Meulles also accuses La Barre of +sending home deceitful reports regarding the success of his Indian +policy. We need not dwell longer on these reports. They disclose with +great clearness the opinion of the intendant as to the governor's +fitness for his office. + +La Barre stands condemned not by the innuendoes of Meulles, but by his +own failure to cope with the Iroquois. + +The presence of the Dutch and English had stimulated the Five Nations +to enlarge their operations in the fur trade and multiply their +profits. The French, from being earliest in the field, had established +friendly relations with all the tribes to the north of the Great Lakes, +including those who dwelt in the valley of the Ottawa; and La Salle and +Tonty had recently penetrated to the Mississippi and extended French +trade to the country of the Illinois Indians. The furs from this +region were being carried up the Mississippi and forwarded to Quebec by +the Lakes and the St Lawrence. This brought the Illinois within {93} +the circle of tribes commercially dependent on Quebec. At the same +time the Iroquois, through the English on the Hudson, now possessed +facilities greater than ever for disposing of all the furs they could +acquire; and they wanted this trade for themselves. + +The wholesome respect which the Iroquois entertained for Frontenac kept +them from attacking the tribes under the protection of the French on +the Great Lakes; but the remote Illinois were thought to be a safe +prey. During the autumn of 1680 a war-party of more than six hundred +Iroquois invaded the country of the Illinois. La Salle was then in +Montreal, but Tonty met the invaders and did all he could to save the +Illinois from their clutches. His efforts were in vain. The Illinois +suffered all that had befallen the Hurons in 1649.[1] The Iroquois, +however, were careful not to harm the French, and to demand from Tonty +a letter to show Frontenac as proof that he and his companions had been +respected. + +Obviously this raid was a symptom of danger, and in 1681 Frontenac +asked the king to send him five or six hundred troops. A further +disturbing incident occurred at the {94} Jesuit mission of Sault Ste +Marie, where an Illinois Indian murdered a Seneca chieftain. That +Frontenac intended to act with firmness towards the Iroquois, while +giving them satisfaction for the murder of their chief, is clear from +his acts in 1681 no less than from his general record. But his forces +were small and he had received particular instructions to reduce +expenditure. And, with Duchesneau at hand to place a sinister +interpretation upon his every act, the conditions were not favourable +for immediate action. Then in 1682 he was recalled. + +Such, in general, were the conditions which confronted La Barre, and in +fairness it must be admitted that they were the most serious thus far +in the history of Canada. From the first the Iroquois had been a pest +and a menace, but now, with the English to flatter and encourage them, +they became a grave peril. The total population of the colony was now +about ten thousand, of whom many were women and children. The regular +troops were very few; and, though the disbanded Carignan soldiers +furnished the groundwork of a valiant militia, the habitants and their +seigneurs alone could not be expected to defend such a territory +against such a foe. + +{95} + +Above all else the situation demanded strong leadership; and this was +precisely what La Barre failed to supply. He was preoccupied with the +profits of the fur trade, ignorant of Indian character, and past his +physical prime; and his policy towards the Iroquois was a continuous +series of blunders. Through the great personal influence of Charles Le +Moyne the Five Nations were induced, in 1683, to send representatives +to Montreal, where La Barre met them and gave them lavish presents. +The Iroquois, always good judges of character, did not take long to +discover in the new governor a very different Onontio from the imposing +personage who had held conference with them at Fort Frontenac ten years +earlier. + +The feebleness of La Barre's effort to maintain French sovereignty over +the Iroquois is reflected in his request that they should ask his +permission before attacking tribes friendly to the French. When he +asked them why they had attacked the Illinois, they gave this ominous +answer: 'Because they deserved to die.' La Barre could effect nothing +by a display of authority, and even with the help of gifts he could +only postpone war against the tribes of the Great Lakes. The Iroquois +intimated that for the present they would be {96} content to finish the +destruction of the Illinois--a work which would involve the destruction +of the French posts in the valley of the Mississippi. La Barre's chief +purpose was to protect his own interests as a trader, and, so far from +wishing to strengthen La Salle's position on the Mississippi, he looked +upon that illustrious explorer as a competitor whom it was legitimate +to destroy by craft. By an act of poetic justice the Iroquois a few +months later plundered a convoy of canoes which La Barre himself had +sent out to the Mississippi for trading purposes. + +The season of 1684 proved even less prosperous for the French. Not +only Dongan was doing his best to make the Iroquois allies of the +English; Lord Howard of Effingham, the governor of Virginia, was busy +to the same end. For some time past certain tribes of the Five +Nations, though not the confederacy as a whole, had been making forays +upon the English settlers in Maryland and even in Virginia. To adjust +this matter Lord Howard came to Albany in person, held a council which +was attended by representatives of all the tribes, and succeeded in +effecting a peace. Amid the customary ceremonies the Five Nations +buried the hatchet with the English, {97} and stood ready to +concentrate their war-parties upon the French. + +It must not be inferred that by an act of reconciliation these subtle +savages threw themselves into the arms of the English, exchanging a new +suzerainty for an old. They always did the best they could for their +own hand, seeking to play one white man against the other for their own +advantage. It was a situation where, on the part of French and +English, individual skill and knowledge of Indian character counted for +much. On the one hand, Dongan showed great intelligence and activity +in making the most of the fact that Albany was nearer to the land of +the Five Nations than Quebec, or even Montreal. On the other, the +French had envoys who stood high in the esteem of the Iroquois--notably +Charles Le Moyne, of Longueuil, and Lamberville, the Jesuit missionary. + +But for the moment the French were heavily burdened by the venality of +La Barre, who subordinated public policy to his own gains. We have now +to record his most egregious blunder--an attempt to overawe the +Iroquois with an insufficient force--an attempt which Meulles declared +was a mere piece of acting--not designed for real war on behalf of the +colony, {98} but to assist the governor's private interests as a +trader. From whatever side the incident is viewed it illustrates a +complete incapacity. + +On July 10, 1684, La Barre left Quebec with a body of two hundred +troops. In ascending the river they were reinforced by recruits from +the Canadian militia and several hundred Indian allies. After much +hardship in the rapids the little army reached Fort Frontenac. Here +the sanitary conditions proved bad and many died from malarial fever. +All thought of attack soon vanished, and La Barre altered his plans and +decided to invite the Iroquois to a council. The degree of his +weakness may be seen from the fact that he began with a concession +regarding the place of meeting. An embassy from the Onondagas finally +condescended to meet him, but not at Fort Frontenac. La Barre, with a +force such as he could muster, crossed to the south side of Lake +Ontario and met the delegates from the Iroquois at La Famine, at the +mouth of the Salmon River, not far from the point where Champlain and +the Hurons had left their canoes when they had invaded the Onondaga +country in 1615. + +The council which ensued was a ghastly joke. La Barre began his speech +by {99} enumerating the wrongs which the French and their dependent +tribes had recently suffered from the Iroquois. Among these he +included the raid upon the Illinois, the machinations with the English, +and the spoliation of French traders. For offences so heinous +satisfaction must be given. Otherwise Onontio would declare a war in +which the English would join him. These were brave words, but +unfortunately the Iroquois had excellent reason to believe that the +statement regarding the English was untrue, and could see for +themselves the weakness of La Barre's forces. + +This conference has been picturesquely described by Baron La Hontan, +who was present and records the speeches. The chief orator of the +Onondagas was a remarkable person, who either for his eloquence or +aspect is called by La Hontan, Grangula, or Big Mouth. Having listened +to La Barre's bellicose words and their interpretation, 'he rose, took +five or six turns in the ring that the French and the savages formed, +and returned to his place. Then standing upright he spoke after the +following manner to the General La Barre, who sat in his chair of state: + + +Onontio, I honour you, and all the warriors that accompany me do the +same. Your interpreter has {100} made an end of his discourse, and now +I come to begin mine. My voice glides to your ear. Pray listen to my +words. + +Onontio, in setting out from Quebec, you must have fancied that the +scorching beams of the sun had burnt down the forests which render our +country inaccessible to the French; or else that the inundations of the +lake had surrounded our cottages and confined us as prisoners. This +certainly was your thought; and it could be nothing else but the +curiosity of seeing a burnt or drowned country that moved you to +undertake a journey hither. But now you have an opportunity of being +undeceived, for I and my warriors come to assure you that the Senecas, +Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks are not yet destroyed. I +return you thanks in their name for bringing into their country the +calumet of peace, which your predecessor received from their hands. At +the same time I congratulate you on having left under ground the +tomahawk which has so often been dyed with the blood of the French. I +must tell you, Onontio, that I am not asleep. My eyes are open, and +the sun which vouchsafes the light gives me a clear view of a great +captain at the head of a troop of soldiers, who speaks as if he were +asleep. He pretends that he does not approach this lake with any other +view than to smoke the calumet with the Onondagas. But Grangula knows +better. He sees plainly that Onontio meant to knock them on the head +if the French arms had not been so much weakened.... + +You must know, Onontio, that we have robbed no {101} Frenchman, save +those who supplied the Illinois and the Miamis (our enemies) with +muskets, powder, and ball.... We have conducted the English to our +lakes in order to trade with the Ottawas and the Hurons; just as the +Algonquins conducted the French to our five cantons, in order to carry +on a commerce that the English lay claim to as their right. We are +born freemen and have no dependence either upon the Onontio or the +Corlaer [the English governor]. We have power to go where we please, +to conduct whom we will to the places we resort to, and to buy and sell +where we think fit.... We fell upon the Illinois and the Miamis +because they cut down the trees of peace that served for boundaries and +came to hunt beavers upon our lands.... We have done less than the +English and French, who without any right have usurped the lands they +are now possessed of. + +I give you to know, Onontio, that my voice is the voice of the five +Iroquois cantons. This is their answer. Pray incline your ear and +listen to what they represent. + +The Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks declare that they +buried the tomahawk in the presence of your predecessor, in the very +centre of the fort, and planted the Tree of Peace in the same place. +It was then stipulated that the fort should be used as a place of +retreat for merchants and not a refuge for soldiers. Be it known to +you, Onontio, that so great a number of soldiers, being shut up in so +small a fort, do not stifle and choke the Tree of Peace. Since it took +root so easily it would be evil {102} to stop its growth and hinder it +from shading both your country and ours with its leaves. I assure you, +in the name of the five nations, that our warriors will dance the +calumet dance under its branches and will never dig up the axe to cut +it down--till such time as the Onontio and the Corlaer do separately or +together invade the country which the Great Spirit gave to our +ancestors.'[2] + + +When Le Moyne and the Jesuits had interpreted this speech La Barre +'retired to his tent and stormed and blustered.' But Grangula favoured +the spectators with an Iroquois dance, after which he entertained +several of the Frenchmen at a banquet. 'Two days later,' writes La +Hontan, 'he and his warriors returned to their own country, and our +army set out for Montreal. As soon as the General was on board, +together with the few healthy men that remained, the canoes were +dispersed, for the militia straggled here and there, and every one made +the best of his way home.' + +With this ignominious adventure the career of La Barre ends. The +reports which Meulles sent to France produced a speedy effect in {103} +securing his dismissal from office. 'I have been informed,' politely +writes the king, 'that your years do not permit you to support the +fatigues inseparable from your office of governor and +lieutenant-general in Canada.' + +La Barre's successor, the Marquis de Denonville, arrived at Quebec in +August 1685. Like La Barre, he was a soldier; like Frontenac, he was +an aristocrat as well. From both these predecessors, however, he +differed in being free from the reproach of using his office to secure +personal profits through the fur trade. No governor in all the annals +of New France was on better terms with the bishop and the Jesuits. He +possessed great bravery. There is much to show that he was energetic. +None the less he failed, and his failure was more glaring than that of +La Barre. He could not hold his ground against the Iroquois and the +English. + +It has been pointed out already that when La Barre assumed office the +problems arising from these two sources were more difficult than at any +previous date; but the situation which was serious in 1682 and had +become critical by 1685 grew desperate in the four years of +Denonville's sway. The one {104} over-shadowing question of this +period was the Iroquois peril, rendered more and more acute by the +policy of the English. + +The greatest mistake which Denonville made in his dealings with the +Iroquois was to act deceitfully. The savages could be perfidious +themselves, but they were not without a conception of honour and felt +genuine respect for a white man whose word they could trust. +Denonville, who in his private life displayed many virtues, seemed to +consider that he was justified in acting towards the savages as the +exigency of the moment prompted. Apart from all considerations of +morality this was bad judgment. + +In his dealings with the English Denonville had little more success +than in his dealings with the Indians. Dongan was a thorn in his side +from the first, although their correspondence opened, on both sides, +with the language of compliment. A few months later its tone changed, +particularly after Dongan heard that Denonville intended to build a +fort at Niagara. Against a project so unfriendly Dongan protested with +emphasis. In reply Denonville disclaimed the intention, at the same +time alleging that Dongan was giving shelter at Albany to French +deserters. A {105} little later they reach the point of sarcasm. +Denonville taxes Dongan with selling rum to the Indians. Dongan +retorts that at least English rum is less unwholesome than French +brandy. Beneath these epistolary compliments there lies the broad fact +that Dongan stood firm by his principle that the extension of French +rule to the south of Lake Ontario should not be tolerated. He +ridicules the basis of French pretensions, saying that Denonville might +as well claim China because there are Jesuits at the Chinese court. +The French, he adds, have no more right to the country because its +streams flow into Lake Ontario than they have to the lands of those who +drink claret or brandy. It is clear that Dongan fretted under the +restrictions which were imposed upon him by the friendship between +England and France. He would have welcomed an order to support his +arguments by force. Denonville, on his side, with like feelings, could +not give up the claim to suzerainty over the land of the Iroquois. + +The domain of the Five Nations was not the only part of America where +French and English clashed. The presence of the English in Hudson Bay +excited deep resentment at {106} Quebec and Montreal. Here Denonville +ventured to break the peace as Dongan had not dared to do. With +Denonville's consent and approval, a band of Canadians left Montreal in +the spring of 1686, fell upon three of the English posts--Fort Hayes, +Fort Rupert, Fort Albany--and with some bloodshed dispossessed their +garrisons. Well satisfied with this exploit, Denonville in 1687 turned +his attention to the chastisement of the Iroquois. + +The forces which he brought together for this task were greatly +superior to any that had been mustered in Canada before. Not only were +they adequate in numbers, but they comprised an important band of +coureurs de bois, headed by La Durantaye, Tonty, Du Lhut, and Nicolas +Perrot--men who equalled the Indians in woodcraft and surpassed them in +character. The epitaph of Denonville as a governor is written in the +failure of this great expedition to accomplish its purpose. + +The first blunder occurred at Fort Frontenac before mobilization had +been completed. There were on the north shore of Lake Ontario two +Iroquois villages, whose inhabitants had been in part baptized by the +Sulpicians and {107} were on excellent terms with the garrison of the +fort. In a moment of insane stupidity Denonville decided that the men +of these settlements should be captured and sent to France as galley +slaves. Through the ruse of a banquet they were brought together and +easily seized. By dint of a little further effort two hundred Iroquois +of all ages and both sexes were collected at Fort Frontenac as +prisoners--and some at least perished by torture. But, when executing +this dastardly plot, Denonville did not succeed in catching all the +friendly Iroquois who lived in the neighbourhood of his fort. Enough +escaped to carry the authentic tale to the Five Nations, and after that +there could be no peace till there had been revenge. Worst of all, the +French stood convicted of treachery and falseness. + +Having thus blighted his cause at the outset, Denonville proceeded with +his more serious task of smiting the Iroquois in their own country. +Considering the extent and expense of his preparations, he should have +planned a complete destruction of their power. Instead of this he +attempted no more than an attack upon the Senecas, whose operations +against the Illinois and in other quarters had made {108} them +especially objectionable. The composite army of French and Indians +assembled at Irondequoit Bay on July 12--a force brought together at +infinite pains and under circumstances which might never occur again. +Marching southwards they fought a trivial battle with the Senecas, in +which half a dozen on the French side were killed, while the Senecas +are said to have lost about a hundred in killed and wounded. The rest +of the tribe took to the woods. As a result of this easy victory the +triumphant allies destroyed an Iroquois village and all the corn which +it contained, but the political results of the expedition were worse +than nothing. Denonville made no attempt to destroy the other nations +of the confederacy. Returning to Lake Ontario he built a fort at +Niagara, which he had promised Dongan he would not do, and then +returned to Montreal. The net results of this portentous effort were a +broken promise to the English, an act of perfidy towards the Iroquois, +and an insignificant success in battle. + +In 1688 Denonville's decision to abandon Fort Niagara slightly changed +the situation. The garrison had suffered severe losses through illness +and the post proved too remote for {109} successful defence. So this +matter settled itself. The same season saw the recall of Dongan +through the consolidation of New England, New York, and New Jersey +under Sir Edmund Andros. But in essentials there was no change. +Andros continued Dongan's policy, of which, in fact, he himself had +been the author. And, even though no longer threatened by the French +from Niagara, the savages had reason enough to hate and distrust +Denonville. + +Yet despite these untoward circumstances all hope of peace between the +French and the Five Nations had not been destroyed. The Iroquois loved +their revenge and were willing to wait for it, but caution warned them +that it would not be advantageous to destroy the French for the benefit +of the English. Moreover, in the long course of their relations with +the French they had, as already mentioned, formed a high opinion of men +like Le Moyne and Lamberville, while they viewed with respect the +exploits of Tonty, La Durantaye, and Du Lhut. + +Moved by these considerations and a love of presents, Grangula, of the +Onondagas, was in the midst of negotiations for peace with the French, +which might have ended happily but {110} for the stratagem of the Huron +chief Kondiaronk, called 'The Rat.' The remnant of Hurons and the +other tribes centring at Michilimackinac did not desire a peace of the +French and Iroquois which would not include themselves, for this would +mean their own certain destruction. The Iroquois, freed of the French, +would surely fall on the Hurons. All the Indians distrusted +Denonville, and Kondiaronk suspected, with good reason, that the Hurons +were about to be sacrificed. Denonville, however, had assured +Kondiaronk that there was to be war to the death against the Iroquois, +and on this understanding he went with a band of warriors to Fort +Frontenac. There he learned that peace would be concluded between +Onontio and the Onondagas--in other words, that the Iroquois would soon +be free to attack the Hurons and their allies. To avert this +threatened destruction of his own people, he set out with his warriors +and lay in ambush for a party of Onondaga chiefs who were on their way +to Montreal. Having killed one and captured almost all the rest, he +announced to his Iroquois prisoners that he had received orders from +Denonville to destroy them. When they explained that they were +ambassadors, he {111} feigned surprise and said he could no longer be +an accomplice to the wickedness of the French. Then he released them +all save one, in order that they might carry home this tale of +Denonville's second treachery. The one Iroquois Kondiaronk retained on +the plea that he wished to adopt him. Arrived at Michilimackinac, he +handed over the captive to the French there, who, having heard nothing +of the peace, promptly shot him. An Iroquois prisoner, whom Kondiaronk +secretly released for the purpose, conveyed to the Five Nations word of +this further atrocity. + +The Iroquois prepared to deliver a hard blow. On August 5, 1689, they +fell in overwhelming force upon the French settlement at Lachine. +Those who died by the tomahawk were the most fortunate. Charlevoix +gives the number of victims at two hundred killed and one hundred and +twenty taken prisoner. Girouard's examination of parish registers +results in a lower estimate--namely, twenty-four killed at Lachine and +forty-two at La Chesnaye, a short time afterwards. Whatever the +number, it was the most dreadful catastrophe which the colony had yet +suffered. + +{112} + +Such were the events which, in seven years, had brought New France to +the brink of ruin. But she was not to perish from the Iroquois. In +October 1689 Frontenac returned to take Denonville's place. + + + +[1] See _The Jesuit Missions_ in this Series, chap. vi. + +[2] Grangula's speech is an example in part of Indian eloquence, and in +part of the eloquence of Baron La Hontan, who contributes many striking +passages to our knowledge of Frontenac's period. + + + + +{113} + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GREAT STRUGGLE + +During the period which separates his two terms of office Frontenac's +life is almost a blank. His relations with his wife seem to have been +amicable, but they did not live together. His great friend was the +Marechal de Bellefonds, from whom he received many favours of +hospitality. In 1685 the king gave him a pension of thirty-five +hundred livres, though without assigning him any post of dignity. +Already a veteran, his record could hardly be called successful. His +merits were known to the people of Canada; they believed him to be a +tower of strength against the Iroquois. At Versailles the fact stood +out most plainly that through infirmities of temper he had lost his +post. His pension might save him from penury. It was far too small to +give him real independence. + +Had either La Barre or Denonville proved equal to the government of +Canada, it is almost {114} certain that Frontenac would have ended his +days ingloriously at Versailles, ascending the stairs of others with +all the grief which is the portion of disappointed old age. Their +failure was his opportunity, and from the dreary antechambers of a +court he mounts to sudden glory as the saviour of New France. + +There is some doubt, as we have seen, concerning the causes which gave +Frontenac his appointment in 1672. At that time court favour may have +operated on his behalf, or it may have seemed desirable that he should +reside for a season out of France. But in 1689 graver considerations +came into play. At the moment when the Iroquois were preparing to +ravage Canada, the expulsion of James II from his throne had broken the +peace between France and England. The government of New France was now +no post for a court favourite. Louis XIV had expended much money and +effort on the colony. Through the mismanagement of La Barre and +Denonville everything appeared to be on the verge of ruin. It is +inconceivable that Frontenac, then in his seventieth year, should have +been renominated for any other cause than merit. Times and conditions +had changed. The task now was not to work peaceably with bishop {115} +and intendant, but to destroy the foe. Father Goyer, the Recollet who +delivered Frontenac's funeral oration, states that the king said when +renewing his commission: 'I send you back to Canada, where I expect you +will serve me as well as you did before; I ask for nothing more.' This +is a bit of too gorgeous rhetoric, which none the less conveys the +truth. The king was not reappointing Frontenac because he was, on the +whole, satisfied with what he had done before; he was reappointing him +because during his former term of office and throughout his career he +had displayed the qualities which were called for at the present crisis. + +Thus Frontenac returned to Quebec in the autumn of 1689, just after the +Iroquois massacred the people of Lachine and just before they descended +upon those of La Chesnaye. The universal mood was one of terror and +despair. If ever Canada needed a Moses this was the hour. + +It will be seen from the dates that Denonville's recall was not due to +the Lachine massacre and the other raids of the Iroquois in 1689, for +these only occurred after Frontenac had been appointed. Denonville's +dismissal was justified by the general results of {116} his +administration down to the close of 1688. Before Frontenac left France +a plan of campaign had been agreed upon which it was now his duty to +execute. The outlines of this plan were suggested by Callieres, the +governor of Montreal,[1] who had been sent home by Denonville to +expound the needs of the colony in person and to ask for fresh aid. +The idea was to wage vigorous offensive warfare against the English +from Albany to New York. Success would depend upon swiftness and +audacity, both of which Frontenac possessed in full measure, despite +his years. Two French warships were to be sent direct to New York in +the autumn of 1689, while a raiding party from Canada should set out +for the Hudson as soon as Frontenac could organize it. + +In its original form this plan of campaign was never carried out, for +on account of head winds Frontenac reached Quebec too late in the +autumn. However, the central idea remained in full view and suggested +the three war-parties which were sent out during the winter of 1690 to +attack the English colonies. + +{117} + +Louis XIV had given Denonville important reinforcements, and with war +clouds gathering in Europe he was unwilling or unable to detach more +troops for the defence of Canada. Hence, in warring against the +Iroquois and the English Frontenac had no greater resources than those +at the disposal of Denonville when he attacked the Senecas. In fact, +since 1687 there had been some wastage in the number of the regulars +from disease. The result was that Frontenac could not hope for any +solid success unless he received support from the Canadian militia. + +In this crisis the habitants and their seigneurs accepted with courage +the duties laid upon them. In the narrower sense they were fighting +for their homes, but the spirit which they displayed under Frontenac's +leadership is not merely that which one associates with a war of +defence. The French soldier, in all ages, loved to strike the quick, +sharp blow, and it was now necessary for the salvation of Canada that +it should be struck. The Iroquois had come to believe that Onontio was +losing his power. The English colonies were far more populous than New +France. In short, the only hope lay in a swift, spectacular campaign +which would disorganize {118} the English and regain the respect of the +Iroquois. + +The issue depended on the courage and capacity of the Canadians. It is +to their honour and to the credit of Frontenac that they rose to the +demand of the hour. The Canadians were a robust, prolific race, +trained from infancy to woodcraft and all the hardships of the +wilderness. Many families contained from eight to fourteen sons who +had used the musket and paddle from early boyhood, and could endure the +long tramps of winter like the Indians themselves. The frontiersman +is, and must be, a fighter, but nowhere in the past can one find a +braver breed of warriors than mustered to the call of Frontenac. +Francois Hertel and Hertel de Rouville, Le Moyne d'Iberville with his +brothers Bienville and Sainte-Helene, D'Aillebout de Mantet and +Repentigny de Montesson, are but a few representatives of the +militiamen who sped forth at the call of Frontenac to destroy the +settlements of the English. + +[Illustration: PIERRE LE MOYNE, SIEUR D'IBERVILLE. From an engraving +in the John Ross Robertson Collection, Toronto Public Library] + +What followed was war in its worst form, including the massacre of +women and children. The three bands organized by Frontenac at the +beginning of 1690 set out on snowshoes from Montreal, Three Rivers, and +Quebec. {119} The largest party contained a hundred and fourteen +French and ninety-six Indians. It marched from Montreal against +Schenectady, commanded by D'Aillebout de Mantet and Le Moyne de +Sainte-Helene. The second party, proceeding from Three Rivers and +numbering twenty-six French and twenty-nine Indians under the command +of Francois Hertel, aimed at Dover, Pemaquid, and other settlements of +Maine and New Hampshire. The Quebec party, under Portneuf, comprised +fifty French and sixty Indians. Its objective was the English colony +on Casco Bay, where the city of Portland now stands. All three were +successful in accomplishing what they aimed at, namely the destruction +of English settlements amid fire and carnage. All three employed +Indians, who were suffered, either willingly or unwillingly, to commit +barbarities. + +It is much more the business of history to explain than to condemn or +to extenuate. How could a man like Francois Hertel lead one of these +raids without sinking to the moral level of his Indian followers? Some +such question may, not unnaturally, rise to the lips of a modern reader +who for the first time comes upon the story of Dover and Salmon {120} +Falls. But fuller knowledge breeds respect for Francois Hertel. When +eighteen years old he was captured by the Mohawks and put to the +torture. One of his fingers they burned off in the bowl of a pipe. +The thumb of the other hand they cut off. In the letter which he wrote +on birch-bark to his mother after this dreadful experience there is not +a word of his sufferings. He simply sends her his love and asks for +her prayers, signing himself by his childish nickname, 'Your poor +Fanchon.' As he grew up he won from an admiring community the name of +'The Hero.' He was not only brave but religious. In his view it was +all legitimate warfare. If he slew others, he ran a thousand risks and +endured terrible privations for his king and the home he was defending. +His stand at the bridge over the Wooster river, sword in hand, when +pressed on his retreat by an overwhelming force of English, holding the +pass till all his men are over, is worthy of an epic. He was +forty-seven years old at the time. The three eldest of his nine sons +were with him in that little band of twenty-six Frenchmen, and two of +his nephews. 'To the New England of old,' says Parkman, 'Francois +Hertel was the abhorred chief of Popish {121} malignants and murdering +savages. The New England of to-day will be more just to the brave +defender of his country and his faith.' + +The atrocities committed by the French and Indians are enough to make +one shudder even at this distance of time. As Frontenac adopted the +plan and sent forth the war-parties, the moral responsibility in large +part rests with him. There are, however, some facts to consider before +judgment is passed as to the degree of his culpability. The modern +distinction between combatants and non-combatants had little meaning in +the wilds of America at this period. When France and England were at +open war, every settler was a soldier, and as such each man's duty was +to keep on his guard. If caught napping he must take the consequences. +Thus, to fall upon an unsuspecting hamlet and slay its men-folk with +the tomahawk, while brutal, was hardly more brutal than under such +circumstances we could fairly expect war to be. + +The massacre of women and children is another matter, not to be excused +on any grounds, even though Schenectady and Salmon Falls are paralleled +by recent acts of the Germans in Belgium. Still, we should not forget +that European warfare in the age of {122} Frontenac abounded with just +such atrocities as were committed at Schenectady, Dover, Pemaquid, +Salmon Falls, and Casco Bay. The sack of Magdeburg, the wasting of the +Palatinate, and, perhaps, the storming of Drogheda will match whatever +was done by the Indian allies of Frontenac. These were unspeakable, +but the savage was little worse than his European contemporary. Those +killed were in almost all cases killed outright, and the slaughter was +not indiscriminate. At Schenectady John Sander Glen, with his whole +family and all his relations, were spared because he and his wife had +shown kindness to French prisoners taken by the Mohawks. Altogether +sixty people were killed at Schenectady (February 9, 1690), +thirty-eight men, ten women, and twelve children. Nearly ninety were +carried captive to Canada. Sixty old men, women, and children were +left unharmed. It is not worth while to take up the details of the +other raids. They were of much the same sort--no better and no worse. +Where a garrison surrendered under promise that it would be spared, the +promise was observed so far as the Indians could be controlled; but +English and French alike when they used Indian allies knew well that +their {123} excesses could not be prevented, though they might be +moderated. The captives as a rule were treated with kindness and +clemency when once the northward march was at an end. + +Meanwhile, Frontenac had little time to reflect upon the probable +attitude of posterity towards his political morals. The three +war-parties had accomplished their purpose and in the spring of 1690 +the colony was aglow with fresh hope. But the English were not slow to +retaliate. That summer New York and Massachusetts decided on an +invasion of Canada. It was planned that a fleet from Boston under Sir +William Phips should attack Quebec, while a force of militia from New +York in command of John Schuyler should advance through Lake Champlain +against Montreal. Thus by sea and land Canada soon found herself on +the defensive. + +Of Schuyler's raid nothing need be said except that he reached +Laprairie, opposite Montreal, where he killed a few men and destroyed +the crops (August 23, 1690). It was a small achievement and produced +no result save the disappointment of New York that an undertaking upon +which much money and effort had been expended should terminate so +ingloriously. But the siege of Quebec by {124} Phips, though it +likewise ended in failure, is a much more famous event, and deserves to +be described in some detail. + +The colony of Massachusetts mustered its forces for a great and unusual +exploit. Earlier in the same year a raid upon the coasts of Acadia had +yielded gratifying results. The surrender of Port Royal without +resistance (May 11, 1690) kindled the Puritan hope that a single summer +might see the pestiferous Romanists of New France driven from all their +strongholds. Thus encouraged, Boston put forth its best energies and +did not shrink from incurring a debt of L50,000, which in the +circumstances of Massachusetts was an enormous sum. Help was expected +from England, but none came, and the fleet sailed without it, in full +confidence that Quebec would fall before the assault of the colonists +alone. + +The fleet, which sailed in August, numbered thirty-four ships, carrying +twenty-three hundred men and a considerable equipment. Sir William +Phips, the leader of the expedition, was not an Englishman by birth, +but a New Englander of very humble origin who owed his advancement to a +robust physique and unlimited assurance. He was unfitted for his +command, both because he lacked experience {125} in fighting such foes +as he was about to encounter, and because he was completely ignorant of +the technical difficulties involved in conducting a large, +miscellaneous fleet through the tortuous channels of the lower St +Lawrence. This ignorance resulted in such loss of time that he arrived +before Quebec amid the tokens of approaching winter. It was the 16th +of October when he rounded the island of Orleans and brought his ships +to anchor under the citadel. Victory could only be secured by sudden +success. The state of the season forbade siege operations which +contemplated starvation of the garrison. + +Hopeful that the mere sight of his armada would compel surrender, Phips +first sent an envoy to Frontenac under protection of the white flag. +This messenger after being blindfolded was led to the Chateau and +brought before the governor, who had staged for his reception one of +the impressive spectacles he loved to prepare. Surrounding Frontenac, +as Louis XIV might have been surrounded by the grandees of France, were +grouped the aristocracy of New France--the officers of the French +regulars and the Canadian militia. Nothing had been omitted which +could create an impression of dignity and strength. {126} Costume, +demeanour, and display were all employed to overwhelm the envoy with +the insulted majesty of the king of France. Led into this high +presence the messenger delivered his letter, which, when duly +interpreted, was found to convey a summary ultimatum. Phips began by +stating that the war between France and England would have amply +warranted this expedition even 'without the destruction made by the +French and Indians, under your command and encouragement, upon the +persons and estates of their Majesties' subjects of New England, +without provocation on their part.' Indeed, 'the cruelties and +barbarities used against them by the French and Indians might, upon the +present opportunity, prompt unto a severe revenge.' But seeking to +avoid all inhumane and unchristian-like actions, Phips announces that +he will be content with 'a present surrender of your forts and castles, +undemolished, and the King's and other stores, unimbezzled, with a +seasonable delivery of all captives; together with a surrender of all +your persons and estates to my dispose; upon the doing whereof, you may +expect mercy from me, as a Christian, according to what shall be found +for their Majesties' service and the subjects' security. Which, {127} +if you refuse forthwith to do, I am come provided and am resolved, by +the help of God in whom I trust, by force of arms to revenge all wrongs +and injuries offered, and bring you under subjection to the Crown of +England, and, when too late, make you wish you had accepted of the +favour tendered. Your answer positive in an hour, returned by your own +trumpet, with the return of mine, is required upon the peril that will +ensue.' + +To this challenge Frontenac at once returned the answer which comported +with his character. When Phips's envoy took out his watch to register +the hour permitted by the ultimatum, Frontenac rejoined that he +required no time for deliberation, but would return his answer by the +mouth of the cannon. The ground which he assigned for the invasion of +New England was that its people had rebelled against their lawful +prince, the ally of France. Other more personal observations were +directed towards the manner in which Phips had behaved at Port Royal. +No word in writing would Frontenac send. The envoy (who was only a +subaltern) received his conge, was blindfolded and led back to his boat. + +Compliments having been thus exchanged, it remained for Phips to make +good his {128} challenge. If we compare the four English and American +sieges of Quebec, the attack by Phips will be seen to have little in +common with those of Kirke and Montgomery, but to resemble rather +strikingly the attack by Wolfe. Without fighting, Kirke swooped down +upon a garrison which was exhausted by starvation. Arnold and +Montgomery operated without a fleet. But while Phips's attempt is +unlike Wolfe's in that it ended in failure, the presence of the fleet +and the attempt to effect a landing below the mouth of the St Charles +present features of real similarity. It is clear that Phips received +intelligence from prisoners of a possible landing above the town, at +the spot where Wolfe carried out his daring and desperate _coup de +main_. But, anticipating Wolfe in another quarter, he chose to make +his first attack on the flats rather than on the heights. + +The troops ordinarily stationed at Quebec were increased just after +Phips's arrival by a force of seven hundred regulars and militiamen +under Callieres, who had come down from Montreal with all possible +haste. So agile were the French and so proficient in irregular warfare +that Phips found it difficult to land any considerable detachment in +good order. Thirteen hundred of the English did succeed {129} in +forming on the Beauport Flats, after wading through a long stretch of +mud. There followed a preliminary skirmish in which three hundred +French were driven back with no great loss, after inflicting +considerable damage on the invaders. But though the English reached +the east bank of the St Charles they could do no more. Phips wasted +his ammunition on a fruitless and ill-timed bombardment, which was +answered with much spirit from the cliffs. Meanwhile the musketeers on +the bank of the St Charles were unable to advance alone and received no +proper supply of stores from the ships. Harassed by the Canadians, +wet, cold, and starving, they took to the boats, leaving behind them +five cannon. After this nothing happened, save deliberations on the +part of Phips and his officers as to whether there remained anything +that could be done other than to sail for home, beaten and humiliated, +with a heavy burden of debt to hang round the neck of a too ambitious +Massachusetts. Thus ended the second siege of Quebec (October 23, +1690). + +Frontenac had lost two of his best soldiers--Sainte-Helene, of the +fighting Le Moynes, and the Chevalier de Clermont; but, this +notwithstanding, the victory was felt to be complete. {130} The most +precious trophy was the flag of Phips's ship, which a shot from the +ramparts had knocked into the river, whence it was rescued and brought +ashore in triumph. Best of all, the siege had been too short to bring +famine in its train. The loss of life was inconsiderable, and in +prestige the soldiery of New France now stood on a pinnacle which they +had never before attained. When we consider the paucity of the forces +engaged, this repulse of the English from Quebec may not seem an +imposing military achievement. But Canada had put forth her whole +strength and had succeeded where failure would have been fatal. In the +shouts of rejoicing which followed Phips's withdrawal we hear the cry +of a people reborn. + + +The siege of Quebec and Schuyler's raid on Laprairie open up a subject +of large and vital moment--the historical antagonism of New France and +New England. Whoever wishes to understand the deeper problems of +Canada in the age of Frontenac should read John Fiske's volumes on the +English colonies. In the rise of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New +York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts one sees the certain doom which +was {131} impending over New France. It may be too much to say that +Richelieu by conquering Alsace threw away America. Even had the +population of Canada been increased to the extent called for by the +obligations of Richelieu's company in 1627, the English might have +nevertheless prevailed. But the preoccupation of France with the war +against Austria prevented her from giving due attention to the colonial +question at the critical moment when colonists should have been sent +out in large numbers. And it is certain that by nothing short of a +great emigration could France have saved Canada. As it was, the +English were bound to prevail by weight of population. When the +conflict reached its climax in the days of Montcalm and Wolfe, two and +a half million English Americans confronted sixty-five thousand French +Canadians. On such terms the result of the contest could not be +doubtful. Even in Frontenac's time the French were protected chiefly +by the intervening wilderness and the need of the English colonists to +develop their own immediate resources. The English were not yet ready +for a serious offensive war. In fact they, too, had their own Indian +question. + +It is a matter of some interest to observe {132} how the conquest of +Canada was postponed by the lack of cohesion among the English +colonies. Selfishness and mutual jealousy prevented them from +combining against the common foe. Save for this disunion and fancied +conflict of interest, New France must have succumbed long before the +time of Montcalm. But the vital significance of the conflict between +New England and New France lies in the contrast of their spirit and +institutions. The English race has extended itself through the world +because it possessed the genius of emigration. The French colonist did +his work magnificently in the new home. But the conditions in the old +home were unfavourable to emigration. The Huguenots, the one class of +the population with a strong motive for emigrating, were excluded from +Canada in the interest of orthodoxy. The dangers of the Atlantic and +the hardships of life in a wintry wilderness might well deter the +ordinary French peasant; moreover, it by no means rested with him to +say whether he would go or stay. But, whatever their nature, the +French race lost a wonderful opportunity through the causes which +prevented a healthy, steady exodus to America. + +England profited by having classes of people {133} sufficiently well +educated to form independent opinions and strong enough to carry out +the programme dictated by these opinions. While each of the English +colonies sprang from a different motive, all had in common the purpose +to form an effective settlement. The fur trade did France more harm +than good. It deflected her attention from the middle to the northern +latitudes and lured her colonists from the land in search of quick +profits. It was the enemy to the home. On the other hand, the English +came to America primarily in search of a home. Profits they sought, +like other people, but they sought them chiefly from the soil. + +Thus English ideas took root in America, gained new vitality, and +assumed an importance they had not possessed in England for many +centuries. And, while for the moment the organization of the English +colonies was not well suited to offensive war, as we may judge from the +abortive efforts of Phips and Schuyler, this defect could be corrected. +Arising, as it did arise, from a lack of unity among the colonies, it +was even indicative of latent strength. From one angle, localism seems +selfishness and weakness; from another, it shows the vigorous life of +separate {134} communities, each self-centred and jealous of its +authority because the local instinct is so vitally active. It only +needed time to broaden the outlook and give the English colonies a +sense of their common interest. Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts, +by striking their roots each year more deeply into the soil of America, +became more and more self-supporting states in everything save name and +political allegiance; while New France, which with its austere climate +would have developed more slowly in any case, remained dependent on the +king's court. + +Thus Frontenac's task was quite hopeless, if we define it as the effort +to overthrow English power in America. But neither he nor any one of +that age defined his duties so widely. In 1689 Canada was in extremes, +with the Iroquois at Lachine and Dongan threatening an attack from New +York. Frontenac's policy was defensive. If he struck first, it was +because he considered audacity to be his best safeguard. No one knew +better than Frontenac that a successful raid does not mean conquest. + + + +[1] Louis Hector de Callieres-Bonnevue was a captain of the French army +who became governor of Montreal in 1684, and succeeded Frontenac as +governor of Canada in 1698. He received the Cross of St Louis for +distinguished service against the Iroquois. Frontenac could not have +had a better lieutenant. + + + + +{135} + +CHAPTER VIII + +FRONTENAC'S LAST DAYS + +Though the English might withdraw from Quebec, New France always had +the Iroquois with her. We must now pursue the thread of Frontenac's +dealings with the savages from the moment when he replaced Denonville. + +It requires no flight of the imagination to appreciate the rage +Frontenac must have felt when, on returning to Canada, he saw before +his eyes the effects of La Barre's rapacity and Denonville's perfidy, +of which the massacres of Lachine and La Chesnaye furnished the most +ghastly proofs. But in these two cases the element of tragedy was so +strong as to efface the mood of exasperation. There remained a third +incident which must have provoked pure rage. This was the destruction +of Fort Frontenac, blown up, at Denonville's order, by the French +themselves (October 1689). The erection and maintenance of this post +had been a cardinal point in Frontenac's {136} Indian policy; and, more +particularly to aggravate the offence, there was the humiliating fact +that Denonville had ordered it demolished to comply with a demand from +the Iroquois. This shameful concession had been made shortly before +Frontenac reached Canada. It was Denonville's last important act in +the colony. On the chance that something might have occurred to delay +execution of the order, Frontenac at once countermanded it and sent +forward an expedition of three hundred men. But they were too late. +His beloved fortress was gone. The only comfort which Frontenac could +derive from the incident was that the work of destruction had been +carried out imperfectly. There remained a portion of the works which +could still be used. + +Thus with regard to the Iroquois the situation was far worse in 1689 +than it had been when Frontenac came to Canada in 1672. Everything +which he had done to conciliate the Five Nations had been undone; and +Dongan's intelligent activities, coinciding with this long series of +French mistakes, had helped to make matters worse. Nor was it now +merely a question of the Iroquois. The whole Indian world had been +convulsed by the {137} renewal of strife between Onontio and the Five +Nations. Tribes long friendly to the French and in constant trade with +them were being alienated. The Indian problem as Frontenac saw it in +1690 resolved itself to this: either peace with the Iroquois on terms +which would prove impressive to the Hurons, the Ottawas, and even to +the savages of the Mississippi; or else uncompromising war. For under +no circumstances could the French afford to lose their hold upon the +tribes from whom they derived their furs. + +Obviously an honourable peace would be preferable to the horrors of a +forest war, and Frontenac did his best to secure it. To undo, as far +as possible, Denonville's treachery at Fort Frontenac and elsewhere, he +had brought back with him to Quebec the Iroquois who had been sent to +France--or such of them as were still alive. First among these was a +Cayuga chief of great influence named Ourehaoue, whose friendship +Frontenac assiduously cultivated and completely won. Towards the close +of January 1690 an embassy of three released Iroquois carried to +Onondaga a message from Ourehaoue that the real Onontio had returned +and peace must be made with him if the Five Nations wished to live. A +great {138} council was then held at which the English, by invitation, +were represented, while the French interest found its spokesman in a +Christian Iroquois named Cut Nose. Any chance of success was destroyed +by the implacable enmity of the Senecas, who remembered the attempt of +the French to check their raids upon the Illinois and the invasion of +their own country by Denonville. Cannehoot, a Seneca chieftain, rose +and stated that the tribes of Michilimackinac were ready to join the +English and the Iroquois for the destruction of New France; and the +assembly decided to enter this triple alliance. Frontenac's envoys +returned to Quebec alive, but with nothing to show for their pains. A +later effort by Frontenac was even less successful. The Iroquois, it +was clear, could not be brought back to friendship by fair words. + +War to the knife being inevitable, Frontenac promptly took steps to +confirm his position with the hitherto friendly savages of the Ottawa +and the Great Lakes. When Cannehoot had said that the tribes of +Michilimackinac were ready to turn against the French, he was not +drawing wholly upon his imagination. This statement was confirmed by +the report of Nicolas Perrot, who knew the {139} Indians of the West as +no one else knew them--save perhaps Du Lhut and Carheil.[1] The French +were now playing a desperate game in the vast region beyond Lake Erie, +which they had been the first of Europeans to explore. The Ottawas and +the Hurons, while alike the hereditary foes of the Iroquois, were +filled with mutual jealousy which must be composed. The successes of +the Iroquois in their raids on the French settlements must be explained +and minimized. 'The Rat' Kondiaronk, the cleverest of the western +chieftains, must be conciliated. And to compass all these ends, Perrot +found his reliance in the word that Frontenac had returned and would +lead his children against the common foe. Meanwhile, the Iroquois had +their own advocates among the more timid and suspicious members of +these western tribes. During the winter of 1689-90 the French and the +Iroquois had about an even chance of winning the {140} Indians who +centred at Michilimackinac. But the odds were against the French to +this extent--they were working against a time limit. Unless Frontenac +could quickly show evidence of strength, the tribes of the West would +range with the Iroquois. + +In the spring of 1690 Frontenac dispatched a force of a hundred and +fifty men to reinforce the garrison at Michilimackinac. On their way +westward these troops encountered a band of Iroquois and fortunately +killed a number of them. The scalps were an ocular proof of success; +and Perrot, who was of the party, knew how to turn the victory to its +best use by encouraging the Ottawas to torture an Iroquois prisoner. +The breach thus made between the Ottawas and the Five Nations +distinctly widened as soon as word came that the French had destroyed +Schenectady. Thus this dreadful raid against the English did not fail +of its psychological effect, as may be gathered from one of the +immediate consequences. Early in August there appeared on Lake St +Louis a vast flotilla of canoes, which at first caused the afflicted +habitants to fear that the Iroquois were upon them again. Instead of +this it was a great band of friendly savages from the West, drawn from +all the {141} trading tribes and bringing a cargo of furs of far more +than the usual value. Frontenac himself chanced to be in Montreal at +this fortunate moment. The market was held and concluded to mutual +satisfaction, but the crowning event of the meeting was a council, at +which, after an exchange of harangues, Frontenac entered into the +festivities of the savages as though he were one of themselves (August +1690). The governor's example was followed by his leading officers. +Amid the chanting of the war-song and the swinging of the tomahawk the +French renewed their alliance with the Indians of the West. All were +to fight until the Iroquois were destroyed. Even the Ottawas, who had +been coquetting with the Senecas, now came out squarely and said that +they would stand by Onontio. + +Here, at last, was a real answer to the Lachine massacre. The +challenge had been fairly given, and now it was not a Denonville who +made the reply. There followed three years of incessant warfare +between the Iroquois and the French, which furnished a fair test of the +strength that each side could muster when fighting at its best. The +Five Nations had made up their minds. The cares of diplomacy they +threw to the winds. They {142} were on the war-path, united and +determined. The French, on their side, had Frontenac for leader and +many outrages to avenge. It was war of the wilderness in its most +unrelenting form, with no mercy expected or asked. The general result +can be quickly stated. The Iroquois got their fill of war, and +Frontenac destroyed their power as a central, dominating, terrorizing +confederacy. + +The measure of this achievement is to be sought in the difficulties +which were overcome. Despite the eighty years of its existence the +colony was still so poor that regularity in the arrival of supplies +from France was a matter of vital importance. From the moment war +began English cruisers hovered about the mouth of the St Lawrence, +ready to pounce upon the supply-ships as they came up the river. +Sometimes the French boats escaped; sometimes they were captured; but +from this interruption of peaceful oversea traffic Canada suffered +grievously. Another source of weakness was the interruption of +agriculture which followed in the train of war. As a rule the Iroquois +spent the winter in hunting deer, but just as the ground was ready for +its crop they began to show themselves in the parishes near Montreal, +picking off the habitants in their {143} farms on the edge of the +forest, or driving them to the shelter of the stockade. These forays +made it difficult and dangerous to till the soil, with a corresponding +shrinkage in the volume of the crop. Almost every winter famine was +imminent in some part of the colony, and though spring was welcome for +its own sake, it invariably brought the Iroquois. A third calamity was +the interruption of the fur trade. Ordinarily the great cargoes +descended the Ottawa in fleets of from one hundred to two hundred +canoes. But the savages of the West well knew that when they embarked +with their precious bales upon a route which was infested by the +Iroquois, they gave hostages to fortune. In case of a battle the cargo +was a handicap, since they must protect it as well as themselves. In +case they were forced to flee for their lives, they lost the goods +which it had cost so much effort to collect. In these circumstances +the tribes of Michilimackinac would not bring down their furs unless +they felt certain that the whole course of the Ottawa was free from +danger. In seasons when they failed to come, the colony had nothing to +export and penury became extreme. At best the returns from the fur +trade were precarious. In 1690 and 1693 {144} there were good markets; +in 1691 and 1692 there were none at all. + +From time to time Frontenac received from France both money and troops, +but neither in sufficient quantity to place him where he could deal the +Iroquois one final blow. Thus one year after another saw a war of +skirmishes and minor raids, sufficiently harassing and weakening to +both sides, but with results which were disappointing because +inconclusive. The hero of this border warfare is the Canadian +habitant, whose farm becomes a fort and whose gun is never out of +reach. Nor did the men of the colony display more courage than their +wives and daughters. The heroine of New France is the woman who rears +from twelve to twenty children, works in the fields and cooks by day, +and makes garments and teaches the catechism in the evening. It was a +community which approved of early marriage--a community where boys and +girls assumed their responsibilities very young. Youths of sixteen +shouldered the musket. Madeleine de Vercheres was only fourteen when +she defended her father's fort against the Iroquois with a garrison of +five, which included two boys and a man of eighty (October 1692). + +{145} + +A detailed chronicle of these raids and counter-raids would be both +long and complicated, but in addition to the incidents which have been +mentioned there remain three which deserve separate comment--Peter +Schuyler's invasion of Canada in 1691, the activities of the Abnakis +against New England, and Frontenac's invasion of the Onondaga country +in 1696. + +We have already seen that in 1690 an attempt was made by John Schuyler +to avenge the massacre at Schenectady. The results of this effort were +insignificant, but its purpose was not forgotten; and in 1691 the +Anglo-Dutch of the Hudson attempted once more to make their strength +felt on the banks of the St Lawrence. This time the leader was Peter +Schuyler, whose force included a hundred and twenty English and Dutch, +as against the forty who had attacked Canada in the previous summer. +The number of Indian allies was also larger than on the former +occasion, including both Mohawks and Mohegans. Apart from its superior +numbers and much harder fighting, the second expedition of the English +was similar to the first. Both followed Lake Champlain and the +Richelieu; both reached Laprairie, opposite Montreal; both were {146} +forced to retreat without doing any great damage to their enemies. +There is this notable difference, however, that the French were in a +much better state of preparation than they had been during the previous +summer. The garrison at Laprairie now numbered above seven hundred, +while a flying squadron of more than three hundred stood ready to +attack the English on their retreat to the Richelieu. On the whole, +Schuyler was fortunate to escape as lightly as he did. Forty of his +party were killed in a hot battle, but he made his retreat in good +order after inflicting some losses on the French (August 1, 1691). +Although Schuyler's retreat was skilfully conducted, his original +object had been far more ambitious than to save his men from +extermination. The French missed a chance to injure their foe more +seriously than they had done at Schenectady. At the same time, this +second English invasion was so far from successful that the New France +of Frontenac suffered no further attack from the side of Albany. + +While Callieres and Valrennes were repulsing Peter Schuyler from +Laprairie, the French in another part of Frontenac's jurisdiction were +preparing for the offensive. The centre {147} of this activity was the +western part of Acadia--that is, the large and rugged region which is +watered by the Penobscot and the Kennebec. Here dwelt the Abnakis, a +tribe of Algonquin origin, among whom the Jesuits had established a +mission and made many converts. Throughout Acadia the French had +established friendly relations with the Indians, and as the English +settlements began to creep from New Hampshire to the mouth of the +Kennebec, the interval between the rival zones of occupation became so +narrow as to admit of raiding. Phips's capture of Port Royal had +alarmed some of the Abnakis, but most of them held fast to the French +connection and were amenable to presents. It soon proved that all they +needed was leadership, which was amply furnished by the Baron de +Saint-Castin and Father Thury. + +Saint-Castin was a very energetic French trader, of noble birth, who +had established himself at Pentegoet on Penobscot Bay--a point which, +after him, is now called Castine. Father Thury was the chief of the +mission priests in the western part of Acadia, but though an +ecclesiastic he seems to have exalted patriotism above religion. That +he did his best to incite his converts against the {148} English is +beyond question. Urged on by him and Saint-Castin, the savages of the +Penobscot and the Kennebec proceeded with enthusiasm to destroy the +English settlements which lay within their reach. In the course of +successive raids which extended from 1692 to 1694 they descended upon +York, Wells, and Oyster Bay, always with the stealth and swiftness +which marked joint operations of the French and Indians. The +settlements of the English were sacked, the inhabitants were either +massacred or carried into captivity, and all those scenes were +re-enacted which had marked the success of Frontenac's three +war-parties in 1690. Thus New England was exposed to attack from the +side of Acadia no less than from that of Canada. Incidentally Canada +and Acadia were drawn into closer connection by the vigour which +Frontenac communicated to the war throughout all parts of his +government. + +But the most vivid event of Frontenac's life after the defence of +Quebec against Phips was the great expedition which he led in person +against the Onondagas. It was an exploit which resembles Denonville's +attack upon the Senecas, with the added interest that Frontenac was in +his seventy-seventh year when {149} he thus carried the war into the +heart of the enemy's country. As a physical _tour de force_ this +campaign was splendid, and it enables us, better than any other event, +to appreciate the magnificent energy which Frontenac threw into the +fulfilment of his task. With over two thousand men, and an equipment +that included cannon and mortars, he advanced from the south shore of +Lake Ontario against the chief stronghold of the Iroquois. At the +portage the Indians would not permit their aged, indomitable Onontio to +walk, but insisted that he should remain seated in his canoe, while +they carried it from the pool below the fall to the dead water above. +All the French saw of the stronghold they had come to attack was the +flame which consumed it. Following the example of the Senecas, the +Onondagas, when they saw that the invader was at hand, set fire to +their palisade and wigwams, gathered up what property was portable, and +took to the woods. Pursuit was impossible. All that could be done was +to destroy the corn and proceed against the settlement of the Oneidas. +After this, with its maize, had been consumed, Frontenac considered +whether he should attack the Cayugas, but he decided against this {150} +extension of the campaign. Unlike Denonville, he was at war with the +English as well as with the Iroquois, and may have thought it imprudent +to risk surprise at a point so far from his base. While it was +disappointing that the Onondagas did not wait to be destroyed by the +cannon which with so much effort had been brought against them, this +expedition was a useful proof of strength and produced a good moral +effect throughout the colony as well as among the western tribes. + +The events of 'William and Mary's War,' as it was known in New England, +show how wide the French zone in North America had come to be. +Frontenac's province extended from Newfoundland to the Mississippi, +from Onondaga to Hudson Bay. The rarest quality of a ruler is the +power to select good subordinates and fill them with his own high +spirit. Judged by this standard Frontenac deserves great praise, for +he never lacked capable and loyal lieutenants. With Callieres at +Montreal, Tonty on the Mississippi, Perrot and Du Lhut at +Michilimackinac, Villebon and Saint-Castin in Acadia, Sainte-Helene at +the siege of Quebec, and Iberville at Hudson Bay, he was well supported +by his staff. At this critical moment the shortcomings of the {151} +French in America were certainly not due to lack of purpose or driving +power. The system under which they worked was faulty, and in their +extremity they resorted to harsh expedients. But there were heroes in +New France, if courage and self-sacrifice are the essence of heroism. + +The Peace of Ryswick, which was signed in the year after Frontenac's +campaign against the Onondagas, came as a happy release to Canada +(1697). For nine years the colony had been hard pressed, and a +breathing space was needed. The Iroquois still remained a peril, but +proportionately their losses since 1689 had been far heavier than those +of the French and English. Left to carry on the war by themselves, +they soon saw the hopelessness of their project to drive the French +from the St Lawrence. The English were ready to give them defensive +assistance, even after word came from Europe that peace had been +signed. In 1698 the Earl of Bellomont, then governor of New York, +wrote Frontenac that he would arm every man in his province to aid the +Iroquois if the French made good their threat to invade once more the +land of the Five Nations. Frontenac, then almost on his death-bed, +sent back the characteristic reply {152} that this kind of language +would only encourage him to attack the Iroquois with the more vigour. +The sequel shows that the English at Albany overplayed their part. The +reward of their protection was to be suzerainty, and at this price +protection proved unacceptable to the Iroquois, whose safety lay in the +equipoise of power between the rival whites. Three years later the +Five Nations renewed peace with Onontio; and, though Frontenac did not +live to see the day, he it was who had brought it to pass. His daring +and energy had broken the spirit of the red man. In 1701 Callieres, +then governor of New France, held a great council at Montreal, which +was attended by representatives from all the Indian tribes of the West +as well as from the Iroquois. There, amid all the ceremonies of the +wilderness, the calumet was smoked and the hatchet was interred. + +But the old warrior was then no more. On returning to Quebec from his +war against the Onondagas he had thrown himself into an active quarrel +with Champigny, the intendant, as to the establishment and maintenance +of French posts throughout the West. To the last Frontenac remained an +advocate of the policy which sought to place France in control {153} of +the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Champigny complained of the +expense and the Jesuits lamented the immorality which life in the +forest encouraged among young men. It was an old quarrel renewed under +conditions which made the issue more important than ever, for with open +war between French and English it became of vital moment to control +points which were, or might be, strategic. + +This dispute with Champigny was the last incident in Frontenac's stormy +life. It remains to the credit of both governor and intendant that +their differences on matters of policy did not make them irreconcilable +enemies. On the 28th of November 1698 Frontenac died at the Chateau St +Louis after an illness of less than a month. He had long been a hero +of the people, and his friendship with the Recollets shows that he had +some true allies among the clergy. No one in Canada could deny the +value of his services at the time of crisis--which was not a matter of +months but of years. Father Goyer, of the Recollets, delivered a +eulogy which in fervour recalls Bossuet's funeral orations over members +of the royal family. But the most touching valedictory was that from +Champigny, who after many differences had become {154} Frontenac's +friend. In communicating to the Colonial Office tidings of the +governor's death, Champigny says: 'On the 28th of last month Monsieur +le Comte de Frontenac died, with the sentiments of a true Christian. +After all our disputes, you will hardly believe, Monseigneur, how truly +and deeply I am touched by his death. He treated me during his illness +in a manner so obliging that I should be utterly devoid of gratitude if +I did not feel thankful to him.' + + +There is a well-known portrait of Madame de Frontenac, which may still +be seen at Versailles. Of Frontenac himself no portrait whatever +exists. Failing his likeness from brush or pencil, we must image to +ourselves as best we may the choleric old warrior who rescued New +France in her hour of need. In seeking to portray his character the +historian has abundant materials for the period of his life in Canada, +though we must regret the dearth of information for the years which +separate his two terms of office. There is also a bad gap in our +sources for the period which precedes his first appointment as +governor. What we have from Madame de Montpensier and Saint-Simon is +useful, but their statements {155} are far from complete and provoke +many questions which must remain unanswered. His letters and reports +as governor of Canada exist in considerable numbers, but it must remain +a source of lasting regret that his private correspondence has perished. + +Some one has said that talent should be judged at its best and +character at its worst; but this is a phrase which does not help us to +form a true estimate of Frontenac. He touched no heights of genius and +he sank to no depths of crime. In essential respects his qualities lie +upon the surface, depicted by his acts and illustrated by his own words +or those of men who knew him well. Were we seeking to set his good +traits against his bad, we should style him, in one column, brave, +steadfast, daring, ambitious of greatness, far-sighted in policy; and +in the other, prodigal, boastful, haughty, unfair in argument, ruthless +in war. This method of portraiture, however, is not very helpful. We +can form a much better idea of Frontenac's nature by discussing his +acts than by throwing adjectives at him. + +As an administrator he appears to least advantage during his first term +of office, when, in the absence of war, his energies were directed +against adversaries within the colony. {156} Had he not been sent to +Canada a second time, his feud with Laval, Duchesneau, and the Jesuits +would fill a much larger space in the canvas than it occupies at +present. For in the absence of great deeds to his credit obstinacy and +truculence might have been thought the essentials rather than the +accidents of his character. M. Lorin, who writes in great detail, +finds much to say on behalf of Frontenac's motives, if not of his +conduct, in these controversies. But viewing his career broadly it +must be held that, at best, he lost a chance for useful co-operation by +hugging prejudices and prepossessions which sprang in part from his own +love of power and in part from antipathy towards the Jesuits in France. +He might not like the Jesuits, but they were a great force in Canada +and had done things which should have provoked his admiration. In any +case, it was his duty to work with them on some basis and not dislocate +the whole administration by brawling. As to Duchesneau, Frontenac was +the broader man of the two, and may be excused some of the petulance +which the intendant's pin-pricks called forth. + +Frontenac's enemies were fond of saying that he used his position to +make illicit profits {157} from the fur trade. Beyond question he +traded to some extent, but it would be harsh to accuse him of venality +or peculation on the strength of such evidence as exists. There is a +strong probability that the king appointed him in the expectation that +he would augment his income from sources which lay outside his salary. +Public opinion varies from age to age regarding the latitude which may +be allowed a public servant in such matters. Under a democratic regime +the standard is very different from that which has existed, for the +most part, under autocracies in past ages. Frontenac was a man of +distinction who accepted an important post at a small salary. We may +infer that the king was willing to allow him something from +perquisites. If so, his profits from the fur trade become a matter of +degree. So long as he kept within the bounds of reason and decency, +the government raised no objection. Frontenac certainly was not a +governor who pillaged the colony to feather his own nest. If he took +profits, they were not thought excessive by any one except Duchesneau. +The king recalled him not because he was venal, but because he was +quarrelsome. + +Assuming the standards of his own age, a {158} reasonable plea can also +be made on Frontenac's behalf respecting the conduct of his wars. +'Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn' in our own +day no less than in the seventeenth century; while certain facts of +recent memory are quite lurid enough to be placed in comparison with +the border raids which, under Frontenac, were made by the French and +their Indian allies. It is dreadful to know that captured Iroquois +were burned alive by the French, but after the Lachine massacre and the +tortures which French captives endured, this was an almost inevitable +retaliation. The concluding scenes of King Philip's War prove, at any +rate, that the men of New England exercised little more clemency +towards their Indian foes than was displayed by the French. The +Puritans justified their acts of carnage by citations from the Old +Testament regarding the Canaanites and the Philistines. The most +bitter chronicler of King Philip's War is William Hubbard, a Calvinist +pastor of Ipswich. On December 19, 1675, the English of Massachusetts +and Connecticut stormed the great stronghold of the Narragansetts. To +quote John Fiske: 'In the slaughter which filled the rest of that +Sunday afternoon till the sun went down behind a {159} dull gray cloud, +the grim and wrathful Puritan, as he swung his heavy cutlass, thought +of Saul and Agag, and spared not. The Lord had delivered up to him the +heathen as stubble to his sword. As usual the number of the slain is +variously estimated. Of the Indians probably not less than a thousand +perished.' + +For the slaughter of English women and children by French raiders there +was no precedent or just provocation. Here Frontenac must be deemed +more culpable than the Puritans. The only extenuating circumstance is +that those who survived the first moments of attack were in almost all +cases spared, taken to Canada, and there treated with kindness. + +Writers of the lighter drama have long found a subject in the old man +whose irascibility is but a cloak for goodness of heart. It would be +an exaggeration to describe Frontenac as a character of this type, for +his wrath could be vehement, and benevolence was not the essential +strain in his disposition. At the same time, he had many warm impulses +to his credit. His loyalty to friends stands above reproach, and there +are little incidents which show his sense of humour. For instance, he +once fined a woman for lampooning him, but {160} caused the money to be +given to her children. Though often unfair in argument, he was by +nature neither mean nor petty. In ordinary circumstances he remembered +_noblesse oblige_, and though boastfulness may have been among his +failings, he had a love of greatness which preserved him from sordid +misdemeanours. Even if we agree with Parkman that greatness must be +denied him, it yet remains to be pointed out that absolute greatness is +a high standard attained by few. Frontenac was a greater man than most +by virtue of robustness, fire, and a sincere aspiration to discharge +his duty as a lieutenant of the king. + +He doubtless thought himself ill-used in that he lacked the wealth +which was needed to accomplish his ambitions at court. But if fortune +frowned upon him at Versailles, she made full compensation by granting +him the opportunity to govern Canada a second time. As he advanced in +years his higher qualities became more conspicuous. His vision +cleared. His vanities fell away. There remained traces of the old +petulance; but with graver duties his stature increased and the strong +fibre of his nature was disclosed. For his foibles he had suffered +much throughout his whole life. {161} But beneath the foibles lay +courage and resolve. It was his reward that in the hour of trial, when +upon his shoulders rested the fate of France in America, he was not +found wanting. + + + +[1] Etienne da Carheil was the most active of the Jesuit missionaries +in Canada during the period of Frontenac. After fifteen years among +the Iroquois at Cayuga (1668-83) he returned for three years to Quebec. +He was then sent to Michilimackinac, where he remained another fifteen +years. Shortly after the founding of Detroit (1701) he gave up life in +the forest. Despite the great hardships which he endured, he lived to +be ninety-three. None of the missionaries was more strongly opposed to +the brandy trade. + + + + +{162} + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +Of the literature on Frontenac and his period the greater part is in +French. The books in English to which attention may be specially +called are: + +Parkman, Francis: _Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV_. + +Le Sieur, William Dawson: _Count Frontenac_ in the 'Makers of Canada' +series. + +Winsor, Justin: _Cartier to Frontenac_. + +Stewart, George: 'Frontenac and his Times' in the _Narrative and +Critical History of America_, edited by Justin Winsor, vol. iv. + + +In French the most important works are: + +Lorin, Henri: _Le Comte de Frontenac_. + +Myrand, Ernest: _Frontenac et ses Amis; Phips devant Quebec_. + +Rochemonteix, Le Pere Camille de: _Les Jesuites et la Nouvelle France_, +vol. iii. + +Gosselin, L'Abbe: _La Vie de Mgr Laval_. + +Sulte, B.: _Histoire des Canadiens-Francais_. + +Ferland, L'Abbe: _Cours d'Histoire du Canada_. + +Faillon, L'Abbe: _Histoire de la Colonie Francaise en Canada_, vol. iii. + +Gagnon, Ernest: _Le Fort et le Chateau Saint-Louis_. + +{163} + +Garneau, F.-X.: _Histoire du Canada_, edited by Hector Garneau. + + +Among the original sources for this period the following are likely to +be found in any large library: + +_Jugements et Deliberations du Conseil Souverain_. + +_Edits et Ordonnances_. + +_Relations des Jesuites._ Ed. Thwaites. + +_Memoires et Documents pour servir a l'histoire des origines francaises +des pays d'outre-mer_, ed. P. Margry. + +_Les Lettres de La Hontan_. + +_Histoire de l'Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, par la mere Juchereau de +Saint-Denis_. + + + + +{164} + +INDEX + + +Abnakis, the, raid New England settlements, 147-8. + +Aillebout de Mantet, d', 118, 119. + +Andros, Sir Edmund, his Indian policy, 89, 90, 109. + + +Bellomont, Earl of, and Frontenac, 151. + +Bernieres, Abbe de, 59. + +Bienville, Francois Le Moyne de, 118. + +Brucy, Perrot's chief agent, 49. + + +Callieres-Bonnevue, Louis Hector de, 116, 150; at the defence of +Quebec, 128; repulses Schuyler's invasion, 146; makes peace with the +Iroquois, 152. + +Canada. See New France. + +Cannehoot, a Seneca chief, 138. + +Carheil, Etienne de, a Jesuit missionary, 139 n. + +Cataraqui, Frontenac's conference with Iroquois at, 41-4. + +Champigny, intendant, his relations with Frontenac, 152-4. + +Champlain, Samuel de, 8. + +Chateau St Louis, 9, 34. + +Clermont, Chevalier de, killed at Quebec, 129. + +Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, 30; and New France, 54, 58, 62, 65-8. + +Courcelles, Sieur de, governor of New France, 34. + +Coureurs de bois, the, 12-13, 46, 49. + + +Denonville, Marquis de, governor of New France, 103-4; his +correspondence with Dongan, 104-6, 108; fails to cope with the +Iroquois, 103-11, 135-136, 138; recalled, 115-16. + +Dongan, Thomas, governor of New York, 90-1, 96, 97, 104-5, 109. + +Duchesneau, Jacques, intendant, 51-2, 64; his relations with Frontenac, +52-3, 63-70, 80, 94; and the coureurs de bois, 79-80. + +Du Lhut, Daniel Greysolon, explorer and pioneer, 77-81, 106, 109, 150. + + +Fenelon, Abbe, espouses Perrot's cause against Frontenac, 48-9, 50, 74. + +Five Nations. See Iroquois. + +Fort Frontenac, 38, 43, 44, 45, 76, 98, 106-7; destroyed, 135-6. + +France, under the Bourbons, 1-4, 11, 29 n., 31-2, 85, 90; her policy in +New France, 5, 10-11, 68; the Thirty Years' War, 19-21; the outbreak of +the Fronde, 21; the dispute between Gallicans and Ultramontanes, 55-7; +war with Holland, 85, 90; war with Britain, 114; her colonial system +compared with that of Britain, 131-4. See New France. + +Frontenac, Comte de, his birth and parentage, 17-18; his early career, +18-21, 26 n.; his marriage and domestic affairs, 21-6, 113; selected by +Turenne to assist Venice in the defence of Crete, 26-8; gossip +concerning his appointment as governor of New France, 28-30; his +arrival in Quebec, 33-4; summons the Three Estates, 35-7, 44-5; his +tour of inspection and conference with the Iroquois, 38-44, 95; his +quarrel with Perrot, 45-50; and Laval, 51-3, 55, 58-63; and Duchesneau, +52-3, 63-70, 80; and the Sulpicians, 54; his antagonism towards the +Jesuits, 54-5, 57-8, 69-70, 81-3; favours the Recollets, 55; upholds +the brandy traffic, 61-3; his influence with the Indians, 72-3, 93-4; +encourages exploration, 74-5, 79; supports the coureurs de bois, 80; +his recall, 70-2; an estimate of his work, 72-4, 83-86, 93-4; his +return to New France, 112-15, 116, 135-6; his campaign against New +England, 117-19, 121; his reply to Phips, 125-7; his Indian policy, +135-7, 138, 141; at war with the Iroquois, 137-42, 144, 148-50; his +expedition against the Onondagas and Oneidas, 148-50; his reply to +Bellomont's threat, 151-2; his dispute with Champigny, 152-3; his +death, 153-4; his character, 24, 25-26, 31, 32, 44, 57, 58, 150, +154-161. + +Frontenac, Madame de, 22-5, 154. + + +Goyer, Father, 115; pronounces eulogy on Frontenac, 153. + +Grangula, an Onondaga chief, 99-102, 109. + +Great Britain, 29 n., 90; and war with France, 114, 142; her colonial +system, 131-4. See New England States. + + +Hebert, Louis, a seigneur of New France, 14. + +Hennepin, Father, his rescue, 78. + +Hertel, Francois, his raid on English settlements, 118, 119-121. + +Holland, and war with France, 29 n., 85, 90; and the fur trade, 89. + +Howard of Effingham, Lord, governor of Virginia, 96. + +Hubbard, William, and King Philip's War, 158-9. + +Hudson Bay, the struggle between French and English on, 105-6. + +Hurons, the, 139. + + +Iberville, Pierre Le Moyne d', 118, 150. + +Illinois, the, 93, 95-6. + +Iroquois, the, and Frontenac, 40, 41-4, 93, 95, 137-8; their power and +political sagacity, 87-9, 97, 109-10; and the fur trade, 92-3, 95-6; a +menace to New France, 94, 95-6, 111; their relations with the English, +96, 97; and La Barre, 95, 98-102; and Denonville, 106-7, 109, 110; at +war with New France, 137-42, 149; make peace, 152. + + +Jesuits, the, in New France, 8, 53-4; and Frontenac, 54-5, 57-8, 69-70, +82-3; and the brandy traffic, 61-3. + + +King Philip's War, 158-9. + +Kondiaronk, a Huron chief, 110-111, 139. + + +La Barre, Lefebvre de, governor of New France, 91, 92, 135; fails to +cope with the Iroquois peril, 94, 95-6, 97, 98-102; recalled, 103. + +La Chesnaye, massacre at, 111, 135. + +Lachine, massacre by Iroquois at, 111, 135. + +La Durantaye, and the Iroquois, 106, 109. + +La Hontan, Baron, quoted, 99-102. + +Lamberville, his influence with the Iroquois, 97, 109. + +Laprairie, English raids on, 123, 146. + +La Salle, and Frontenac, 40-1, 45, 74-7, 92, 93; and La Barre, 96. + +Laval, Francois de, bishop of Quebec, 6-7, 8-9, 34, 51-3; and +Frontenac, 51-3, 55, 58-63; and the brandy traffic, 61-2. + +Le Ber, Jacques, 47-8. + +Le Moyne, Charles, interpreter, 43, 95, 97, 102. See Bienville, +Iberville, and Sainte-Helene. + +Louis XIV, his interest in New France, 30, 50, 60, 62, 67, 85, 117; and +the Church, 56, 58. + + +Marlborough, Duke of, 90. + +Mazarin, Cardinal, 21. + +Meulles, intendant, and La Barre, 91, 92, 97, 102. + +Michilimackinac, 13, 78. + +Mohawks, the, 145. + +Mohegans, the, 145. + +Montpensier, Duchesse de, 22-23; and Frontenac, 24. + +Montreal, its position in New France, 39-40, 141. + + +New Amsterdam, and the Iroquois, 89. + +New England States, contrasted with New France, 15, 130-4; and the +Iroquois, 89-90, 104-5, 151-2; at war with New France, 123-30, 138, +151-152; and the Abnaki raids, 147-8. + +New France, in 1672, 1, 8, 14-16, 83; status of the governor and +intendant, 5, 9-10, 11; the fur trade, 8; the seigneurial system, +11-12, 14-15; the coureurs de bois, 12-13; the creation of parishes, +58-61; the brandy traffic, 61-3; population and trade during 1673-83, +84-5; the Iroquois peril, 87, 89, 90, 91, 94, 97, 111, 137-40, 142-143, +149; in 1689, 114, 115; at war with New England, 119-123, 128-30, +145-6; her weakness, 130-4; from 1690 to 1693, 142-4, 150; and Acadia, +147-8. + + +Oneidas, the, 149. See Iroquois. + +Onondagas, the, 98-103, 149. See Iroquois. + +Ottawas, the, 139, 140, 141. + +Ourehaoue, a Cayuga chief, 137. + + +Parkman, on Frontenac, 36, 160; on Hertel, 120-1. + +Perrot, Francois, governor of Montreal, 39-40; his quarrel with +Frontenac, 45-50. + +Perrot, Nicolas, interpreter, 13 n., 106, 138-9, 140, 150. + +Phips, Sir William, his attack on Quebec, 123-30. + +Portneuf, his raid, 119. + +Port Royal, surrendered to Phips, 124, 127. + + +Quebec, 91; Phips's siege of, 123-30. + + +Recollets, the, and Frontenac, 53-4, 55. + +Repentigny de Montesson, 118. + +Richelieu, Cardinal, minister to Louis XIII, 18-19, 20, 21, 131. + +Rouville, Hertel de, 118. + +Ryswick, Peace of, 151. + + +Saint-Castin, Baron de, raids New England settlements, 147, 148, 150. + +Sainte-Helene, Jacques Le Moyne de, 118, 119, 129, 150. + +Schenectady, raided by the French, 119, 121, 122, 140. + +Schuyler, John, his abortive raid into New France, 123, 145. + +Schuyler, Peter, his invasion defeated at Laprairie, 145-6. + +Seignelay, Marquis de, 70. + +Senecas, the, 107-8. See Iroquois. + +Sovereign Council, composition and jurisdiction of, 9-10; and +Frontenac, 65-8. + +Sulpicians, the, in New France, 39, 53-4. + +Superior Council, 9. See Sovereign Council. + + +Talon, Jean, 6, 34; supports Perrot against Frontenac, 50. + +Thury, Father, encourages Abnaki raids on English settlements, 147-8. + +Tonty, Henri de, explorer, 76-7, 92, 93, 106, 109, 150. + +Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques, 6 and note. + + +Urfe, Abbe d', supports Perrot against Frontenac, 50. + + +Valrennes, at Laprairie, 146. + +Vaudreuil, governor of New France, 81. + +Vercheres, Madeleine de, 144. + + +West India Company, its trading monopoly, 84. + +'William and Mary's War,' 150. See under New France and New England +States. + + + + + Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty + at the Edinburgh University Press + + + + +THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA + +THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED + +Edited by GEORGE M. WRONG and H. H. LANGTON + + + +THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA + +PART I + +THE FIRST EUROPEAN VISITORS + +1. THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY + By Stephen Leacock. + +2. THE MARINER OF ST MALO + By Stephen Leacock. + + +PART II + +THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE + +3. THE FOUNDER OF NEW FRANCE + By Charles W. Colby. + +4. THE JESUIT MISSIONS + By Thomas Guthrie Marquis. + +5. THE SEIGNEURS OF OLD CANADA + By William Bennett Munro. + +6. THE GREAT INTENDANT + By Thomas Chapais. + +7. THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR + By Charles W. Colby. + + +PART III + +THE ENGLISH INVASION + +8. THE GREAT FORTRESS + By William Wood. + +9. THE ACADIAN EXILES + By Arthur G. Doughty. + +10. THE PASSING OF NEW FRANCE + By William Wood. + +11. THE WINNING OF CANADA + By William Wood. + + +PART IV + +THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH CANADA + +12. THE FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA + By William Wood. + +13. THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS + By W. Stewart Wallace. + +14. THE WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES + By William Wood. + + +PART V + +THE RED MAN IN CANADA + +15. THE WAR CHIEF OF THE OTTAWAS + By Thomas Guthrie Marquis. + +16. THE WAR CHIEF OF THE SIX NATIONS + By Louis Aubrey Wood. + +17. TECUMSEH: THE LAST GREAT LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE + By Ethel T. Raymond. + + +PART VI + +PIONEERS OF THE NORTH AND WEST + +18. THE 'ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND' ON HUDSON BAY + By Agnes C. Laut. + +19. PATHFINDERS OF THE GREAT PLAINS + By Lawrence J. Burpee. + +20. ADVENTURERS OF THE FAR NORTH + By Stephen Leacock. + +21. THE RED RIVER COLONY + By Louis Aubrey Wood. + +22. PIONEERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST + By Agnes C. Laut. + +23. THE CARIBOO TRAIL + By Agnes C. Laut. + + +PART VII + +THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM + +24. THE FAMILY COMPACT + By W. Stewart Wallace. + +25. THE 'PATRIOTES' OF '37 + By Alfred D. DeCelles. + +26. THE TRIBUNE OF NOVA SCOTIA + By William Lawson Grant. + +27. THE WINNING OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT + By Archibald MacMechan. + + +PART VIII + +THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY + +28. THE FATHERS OF CONFEDERATION + By A. H. U. Colquhoun. + +29. THE DAY OF SIR JOHN MACDONALD + By Sir Joseph Pope. + +30. THE DAY OF SIR WILFRID LAURIER + By Oscar D. Skelton. + + +PART IX + +NATIONAL HIGHWAYS + +31. ALL AFLOAT + By William Wood. + +32. THE RAILWAY BUILDERS + By Oscar D. Skelton. + + + +TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fighting Governor, by Charles W. Colby + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR *** + +***** This file should be named 30258.txt or 30258.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/2/5/30258/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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