Count Frontenac Part 7

The season was now so far advanced that the project which had been formed of raising a large force with which to invade English territory, in conjunction with a naval attack on New York, had to be abandoned. La Caffiniere, commander of the squadron, waited for two months for some sign of the arrival of the Canadians, and then sailed back to France, making a few prizes on the way. But, if the governor was unable to organize an expedition on a large scale, he did not forego his intention of attacking the English colonies. If he could not march with an army he could make raids after the Indian fas.h.i.+on. His plan was to stand simply on the defensive as regards the Iroquois, and to impress their minds by the suddenness and vigour of his attacks on the English. Three raiding parties were accordingly organized, one having its base at Montreal, the second at Three Rivers, and the third at Quebec. The Montreal party consisted of a little over two hundred men, of whom somewhat less than half were mission Indians from Sault St. Louis--the present Caughnawaga settlement--and the Montreal Mountain. The remainder of the party consisted for the most part of _coureurs de bois_, formidable men for border warfare, far steadier than the Indians, and just as wary. Their destination was Albany and the neighbouring English settlements. The leaders were men of skill and courage, Daillebout de Mantet, and Le Moyne de Ste. Helene; the latter, a man greatly admired and beloved for his brilliant soldierly qualities and gay, amiable disposition, but nevertheless a keen and relentless fighter. With these were two of Ste.

Helene's brothers, formidable men all, Le Moyne d'Iberville, who had already made fame for himself in Hudson's Bay, where still greater glory yet awaited him, and Le Moyne de Bienville, together with several other members of the Canadian _n.o.blesse_. The Three Rivers party was under the charge of Francois Hertel, a man of much experience in Indian warfare.

When quite a lad he had been carried off by the Iroquois, and had endured some cruel treatment at their hands before making his escape,[36] and since then he had been in constant contact with them either in peace or in war. With him went three of his sons, twenty-four Frenchmen, and twenty-five Indians, fifty-two men in all. The third party, recruited at Quebec, consisted of fifty Frenchmen and sixty Abenaquis Indians from the settlement at the falls of the Chaudiere, under the command of M. de Portneuf, who had as lieutenant his cousin, Repentigny, Sieur de Courtemanche. The Montreal expedition set out in the beginning of February, those from Three Rivers and Quebec a few days earlier; but before recounting their exploits, it may be well to glance at the negotiations, which the governor was at this time carrying on with a view to putting the relations of the colony with the Iroquois tribes on a better basis.

The king, it has been mentioned, had consented to send back the Indians who had been so treacherously captured and sent to France as galley slaves. It would be doing his Majesty injustice to suppose that he ever intended his representative in Canada to procure men for his galleys in so disreputable a fas.h.i.+on. The Marquis of Denonville from the moment of his arrival in Canada had breathed nothing but war; and the king doubtless counted on a large number of prisoners as the result of his martial prowess. It is significant that, even before encountering the Senecas, Denonville should have written to the king explaining how very difficult it was to capture Iroquois in battle. He did not say so, but he doubtless thought that to trap them would be much easier. Out of nearly forty Indians sent to France, thirteen only were alive when the order for their restoration to their country was given; the rest had died of hards.h.i.+p and homesickness. The survivors were sent out in the same vessel with Frontenac, who did all in his power to make them forget the wrongs they had suffered. The most important man in the band was a Cayuga chief named Orehaoue, between whom and the count a sincere friends.h.i.+p seems to have sprung up. During the whole voyage the count treated him with the highest consideration, invited him to eat at his table, and furnished him with a handsome uniform; so that, by the time they landed at Quebec, the savage chief was completely won over to the French side. The same treatment was continued after they landed.

Orehaoue was lodged in the Chateau St. Louis and went everywhere with the governor. There was policy in this of course on Frontenac's part, but there is no reason to doubt that on both sides there was a genuine feeling of attachment.

After viewing the scene of desolation at Lachine, Frontenac reported to the king that nine square leagues of territory had been laid waste. The question was what to do. The best course seemed to be to send four of the Indians who had been brought back from France to their Iroquois kinsmen with a suitable message. They were despatched accordingly, accompanied by an Indian named Gagniogoton who, a short time before, had come to Montreal as a kind of amba.s.sador, but whose tone had been more insolent than conciliatory. The returned warriors were to invite their people "to come and welcome their father whom they had so long missed, and thank him for his goodness to them in restoring a chief whom they had given up as lost,"[37] namely Orehaoue. The latter did not accompany the mission, Frontenac considering that he would be more useful for the present at Montreal. It does not appear exactly when the envoys set out, but, after some delay, consequent upon prolonged deliberation on the part of the tribes, they returned to Montreal on the 9th March. It was evident the mission had not been a great success. The messengers came laden with belts of wampum, each of which had its own special significance, yet for several days they kept silence. Finally at the urgent request of M. de Callieres--Frontenac had gone back to Quebec--they disburdened themselves of the messages with which they were charged. Belt number one was to explain that delay had been caused by the arrival of an Ottawa delegation among the Senecas with overtures of peace, as a pledge of which they had brought with them a number of Iroquois prisoners whom they were prepared to restore. The second belt was meant to express the joy of the whole Iroquois confederacy over the return of Orehaoue, whom they spoke of as their general-in-chief. The third demanded the return of Orehaoue and the other prisoners; and mentioned the fact that all the surviving French prisoners were at the chief town of the Onondagas, and that no disposition would be made of them till they should hear the advice of Orehaoue on his return home.

The fourth congratulated Frontenac on his wish to plant again the tree of peace; but the fifth was the most expressive of all. Referring to the desire of Frontenac to bring them again to his fort, it said: "Know you not that the fire of peace no longer burns in that fort; that it is extinguished by the blood that has been spilt there; the place where the council is held is all red; it has been desecrated by the treachery perpetrated there." Fort Frontenac, it went on to say, was henceforth an impossible place for peaceful gatherings: if the tree of peace was again to be planted it must be in some other spot, nearer or more distant they did not care--only not _there_. Then these words were added: "In fine, Father Onontio, you have whipped your children most severely; your rods were too cutting and too long; and after having used me thus you can readily judge that I have some sense now." The sixth belt mentioned that there were parties now out on the war-path, but that they were prepared to spare their prisoners should they take any, if the French would agree to do the same on their side. There was no lack of frankness in the further information conveyed by this belt, which was to the effect that the Onondagas had received eight prisoners as their share of the prisoners taken at La Chesnaye, and had eaten four of them, and spared the other four. This was intended to show their superiority in humanity to the French, who, having taken three Seneca prisoners, had eaten them all, that is to say, allowed their Indian allies to kill and eat them, instead of sparing one or two. To what incident this refers is not clear, as Denonville did not report any prisoners taken in his fight with the Senecas.

Callieres sent the deputation down to Quebec to see the governor-general; but the latter, according to the account here followed, which was written by his own secretary, Monseignat, declined to give them an audience, mainly on account of the objection he had to their spokesman, Gagniogoton. Doubtless Callieres had informed him sufficiently of the tenor of the communications they had to make. The governor had much on his mind, but he was not a man to act in nervous haste. Towards the close of the month of December, a man named Zachary Jolliet arrived at Quebec from Michilimackinac, having been despatched by La Durantaye to represent the perilous nature of the situation there owing to the very unsatisfactory dispositions of the Lake tribes. The ma.s.sacre of Lachine with all its attendant circ.u.mstances had convinced them that French power was at a very low ebb. As the narrative says: "They saw nothing on our part but universal supineness; our houses burnt; our people carried off; the finest portion of our country ruined; and all done without any one being moved; or, at least, if any attempts were made, the trifling effort recoiled to our shame." Yet what the French, individually, were capable of may be judged by the fact that this messenger, with only one companion, had come all the way from Michilimackinac at a most inclement season of the year, partly in a canoe and partly on the ice, reaching Quebec at the very end of December. Surely some benumbing influence must have been at work upon the colony. Was it the extreme mediaevalism of the Denonville regime aided by an excessive use of intoxicating liquors? These at least were _verae causae_, and might well have had no small share in creating the situation described.

Something had to be done, and that speedily, to strengthen La Durantaye's position, or the French of the Upper Lakes would virtually find themselves hostages in the hands of disaffected tribes; if indeed their lives were not sacrificed to cement the union which the Ottawas were even then endeavouring to effect with the Iroquois. Frontenac wanted to send Zachary Jolliet back at once with instructions; but it was learnt that the route was infested by Iroquois; very unwillingly, therefore, he deferred action till the breaking of the ice in the spring. He then despatched M. de Louvigny, with a hundred and forty-three Canadians and a small number of Indians, to strengthen the garrison and relieve La Durantaye. With this contingent went a man well known to all the region, and probably second to none in his ability to influence the native mind, Nicolas Perrot. The count did not, however, entrust Perrot with any merely verbal message, but placed in his hands a written one, conceived in the style of which he had acquired so great a mastery. "Children," said Onontio, "I am astonished to learn on arriving that you have forgotten the protection I always afforded you. Remember that I am your father, who adopted you, and who has loved you so tenderly. I gave you your country; I drove the horrors of war far from it, and introduced peace there. You had no home before that. You were wandering about exposed to the Iroquois tempests. Hark, I speak to you as a father. My body is big; it is strong and cannot die. Think you I am going to remain in a state of inactivity such as prevailed during my absence; and, if eight or ten hairs have been pulled from my children's heads when I was absent, that I cannot put ten handfuls of hair in the place of one that has been torn out? or that, for one piece of bark that has been stripped from my cabin, I cannot put double the number in its place? Children, know that I always am, that nothing but the Great Spirit can destroy me, and that it is I who destroy all." The message went on to refer to the Iroquois as a ravenous dog who formerly was snapping and biting at every one, but whom Frontenac had tamed and tied up, and whom he would discipline again if he did not mend his ways. The blood shed at Montreal last summer, it said, was of no account; the houses destroyed were only two or three rat holes. The English were not people to have confidence in; they deceived and devoured their children.

"I am strong enough to kill the English, destroy the Iroquois, and whip you if you fail in your duty to me." Finally there was a warning against the use of English rum, which was killing in its effects, whereas French brandy was health-giving.

What the effect of this allocution would have been, unsupported by favouring circ.u.mstances, it is difficult to say. The Indian tribes all had a remarkable gift of perspicacity. They had no need of Dr. Johnson's advice to clear their minds of cant, for cant was something quite foreign to their mental habits; it was not a product of forest life. It happened, however, that Perrot was able to show them a number of Iroquois scalps, and hand over to them an Iroquois prisoner that his party had taken on their journey up the Ottawa. This looked like business, and lent a weight which might otherwise have been lacking to the somewhat fustian eloquence of Onontio. The affair of the capture had happened in this wise. As the expedition neared the place now known as Sand Point, on the river Ottawa, they discovered two Iroquois canoes drawn up at the end of the point. Three canoes were detached to attack the enemy, but were received with a heavy fire from an ambush on the sh.o.r.e, by which four Frenchmen were killed. Perrot, who thought it much more important to accomplish his mission among the Ottawas than to have even a successful fight with the Iroquois, did not at first wish to push the matter further; but his men were full of fight, and he finally allowed a general attack to be made, which resulted most successfully.

More than thirty Iroquois, the narrative says, were killed, and many more were wounded. Out of thirteen canoes only four escaped. Two prisoners were taken. One of these was sent to Quebec and was used by Frontenac to help out his negotiations with their nation; the other was taken to Michilimackinac. His fate was not a pleasant one. Perrot gave him to the Hurons, and by so doing made the Ottawas a little jealous.

Both Ottawas and Hurons were at the time meditating an alliance with the Iroquois, and the Hurons thought they could make good use of their prisoner as a peace-offering. The French, however, were not going to have any nonsense of that kind. The commanders conferred with the missionaries, and finally a hint was dropped to the Hurons that, if they did not put their prisoner "into the kettle," he would be taken from them and given to the Ottawas. That settled the question; the unhappy prisoner was put to death with the customary tortures, and all chance of peace between Hurons and Iroquois was thus destroyed. What the Ottawas might do still remained uncertain. Frontenac's message had by no means wholly won them over to the French alliance. They had heard of the warfare Onontio was waging against the English, and thought they would await developments.

That war had been going merrily on in its own fas.h.i.+on, and Perrot was able to give an account of the success of the princ.i.p.al expedition--the one directed against Albany--for it had returned to Montreal after doing its b.l.o.o.d.y work nearly two months before he left for the Upper Lakes.[38] The story of the three war parties must now be woven into our narrative. The one just mentioned started from Montreal on one of the first days in February (1690). The Indians of the party had not been informed what their destination was. When they learned that the intention was to attack Albany, they inquired with surprise how long it was since the French had become so bold. Like the Indians of the West, they had drawn their own conclusions from the events of the previous year. They were not disposed to join in so hazardous an undertaking; and it is allowable, perhaps, to doubt whether it was at any time seriously contemplated to make Albany the point of attack. If it was, the leaders changed their minds, for on coming to a point where the roads to that place and to Corlaer or Schenectady diverged, they took the latter. The difficulties of the march were extreme. Though it was yet midwinter, more or less thaw prevailed, and during much of the journey the men had to walk knee-deep in water. Then on the last day or two came a blast of excessive cold. A few miles from Corlaer the expedition was halted, and the chief man of the Christian Mohawks harangued his people. The opportunity had now come, he said, for taking ample revenge for all the injuries they had received from the heathen Iroquois at the instigation of the English, and to wash them out in blood. This Indian known as the Great Mohawk, or in French as the _Grand Agnie_, is described in the official narrative as "the most considerable of his tribe, an honest man, full of spirit, prudence, and generosity, and capable of the greatest undertakings." The little army was in wretched plight, and probably, had they been attacked at this point by even a small force of men in good condition, they would have been completely routed. No such attack, however, was made. Marching a little further, they found a wigwam occupied only by four squaws. There was a fire in it, and, benumbed with cold, they crowded round it in turns. At eleven o'clock at night they were in sight of the town, but in order that they might take the inhabitants in their deepest sleep, they deferred the attack for three hours; then they burst in through an open gate in the palisade.

The official account says, in very simple words, that "the ma.s.sacre lasted two hours." This, be it remembered, was supposed to be regular warfare, not between savage Indians, or between French and Indians, but between French and English. War, as already stated, had been declared between France and England, and this was Frontenac's method of carrying on his part of it. When New England retaliated later in the year by the attack on Quebec, we can hardly wonder that some of the inhabitants of that city antic.i.p.ated a general ma.s.sacre should the English obtain possession of the town. The special enormities alleged to have been committed by the heathen Iroquois in the ma.s.sacre at Lachine are, by witnesses who made their statements within a few days after the event, affirmed to have been perpetrated by the Christian Indians at Schenectady. Sixty persons in all were killed, thirty-eight being men and boys, ten women, and twelve children of tender age.[39] Many were wounded, thirty were carried away captive. The chief magistrate of the place, John Sanders Glen by name, lived outside the town in a palisaded and fortified dwelling, which he was prepared to defend. He was known, however, to the French commanders as a man who had always been favourable to their people, having on several occasions rescued French prisoners from the Mohawks, over whom he had great influence. On being a.s.sured that his life and property would be spared, he surrendered. It was also agreed to extend the same immunity to any of his relatives who might have survived the ma.s.sacre; and the number of persons claiming the privilege was so great as to cause the Indians to express some surprise and ill-humour at the wide range of his family connection.

The homeward march was begun a day or two later. It was by no means a prosperous one. Early in the attack a man on horseback had escaped through the eastern gate of the town, and, though shot at and wounded, was able to make his way to Albany and give the alarm. Thence word was sent on to the Mohawk towns, and the warriors, accompanied by a detachment of fifty young men from Albany, started on the track of the retreating foe. Two only on the French side had been killed in the attack on Schenectady, but before the party reached Montreal, their losses amounted to twenty-one, seventeen French, and four Indians. The opinion of the Mohawk Indians on the character of the expedition was expressed in a message of sympathy which they sent to the authorities at Albany. "The French," they said, "did not act on this occasion like brave men, but like thieves and robbers. Be not discouraged, we give this belt to wipe away your tears. We do not think what the French have done can be called a victory. It is only a further proof of their cruel deceit."[40]

The expedition organized at Three Rivers left that place on the 28th January; but it was not till after two months' wanderings in the inhospitable wilderness that they were able to strike their first blow.

The New England frontier had for a year past been in a very disturbed and precarious condition owing to a renewed outbreak of hostilities on the part of the Abenaquis Indians. A long period of previous warfare with these tribes had been closed by the Treaty of Casco in 1678, but now the frontier was again aflame. The English settlers attributed the trouble to the machinations of the French with whom the Abenaquis were in close alliance; and certain it is that the Marquis of Denonville, in a memorandum written after his return to France, takes credit to himself for the mischief done. He speaks of the progress made in christianizing the Abenaquis, and of the establishment near Quebec of two colonies of them which he thought would prove useful. He then proceeds: "To the close relations which I maintained with these savages through the Jesuits, and particularly the two brothers Bigot, may be attributed the success of the attacks which they made upon the English last summer when they captured sixteen forts besides that of Pemaquid, where there were twenty cannon, and killed two hundred men."[41] The ex-governor exaggerates the number of cannon in the fort at Pemaquid, as there were only seven or eight, and omits to mention the fact that, after that place had surrendered on the promise that the lives of all in it should be spared, a number were murdered by his Indians. That they were not also tortured, Father Thury, who was with the attacking party, attributes to the influence of his exhortations. M. Lorin, in giving an account of the occurrence, says there is no doubt that the Abenaquis were impelled by their missionary, the Abbe Thury. He quotes the statement of Charlevoix that, before setting out, their first care had been to make sure of the divine a.s.sistance, by partaking of the sacrament. "Certainly," he says, "the part taken by the missionaries in expeditions of this character, was a preponderating one." He also ventures the theory that, as the heathen Iroquois never penetrated into New England, the only enemies of the faith upon whom the missionaries could exercise the zeal of their Abenaquis converts were the English.[42]

The fighting along the frontier lasted all through the summer and autumn of 1689. The winter brought respite from attack, and the settlers were beginning to indulge a sense of security when Hertel and his fifty men crept up to the little settlement of Salmon Falls, on the borders of New Hamps.h.i.+re and Maine. The attack was made in very similar fas.h.i.+on to that at Schenectady. The a.s.sailants burst in at night and at once began to apply tomahawk and torch. Thirty persons, men, women, and children indiscriminately, were slaughtered, and fifty-four were made prisoners.

Hearing that a force of English from Piscataqua, now Portsmouth, was hastening to the scene, Hertel ordered a retreat. At Wooster River the pursuers caught up with him, but, taking up an advantageous position on the far side of that stream, he held them in check, killing several as they tried to cross the narrow bridge. At night he resumed his retreat.

Some of the prisoners were given to his Indians to torture and kill. It was unfortunate that Father Thury was not present to inspire milder sentiments in these converts.

Hertel was a born fighter, and when, upon reaching one of the Abenaquis villages on the Kennebec, he learnt that the Quebec party under M. de Portneuf had just pa.s.sed south, he determined to follow them with thirty-six of his men, though he was obliged to leave behind him his eldest son who had been badly wounded in the fight at Wooster River. A number of Indian warriors joined the party at a point on the Kennebec; and on the 25th May, the united force, numbering between four and five hundred men, encamped in the forest not far from the English forts on Cas...o...b..y. The princ.i.p.al of these was Fort Loyal, a palisaded place mounting eight cannon. The others were simple blockhouses. The several garrisons consisted of about one hundred men under the command of Captain Sylva.n.u.s Davis, whose narrative in the original--and most original--spelling has come down to us. The garrison first knew that an enemy was at hand by hearing the war-whoop of the Indians, who had just scalped an unfortunate Scotsman found wandering about in the neighbourhood, all unconscious of danger. Thirty volunteers at once sallied forth from the fort to meet the foe. They had not gone far when they received a volley at close range which killed half of them. Of the remaining half only four reached the fort, all wounded. During the night the men in the blockhouses crept into the fort, together with the inhabitants of some neighbouring houses. The place could not be carried by a.s.sault, so Portneuf determined to besiege it in due form by opening trenches and working his way in. The work was well and rapidly done, and Davis saw that surrender was inevitable. He inquired if there were any French in the attacking force, and, if so, whether they would give quarter. The answer was affirmative on both points. Davis inquired whether the quarter would include men, women, and children, wounded and unwounded, and whether they would all be allowed to retire to the nearest English town. This was agreed to and sworn to; but, no sooner had the occupants of the fort filed out, than the Indians fell upon them, killed a number, and made prisoners of the rest. Davis protested, but he was told that he and his people were rebels against their lawful king, and therefore without any claim to consideration. The captives, Davis among them, were carried off to Quebec, where they arrived about the middle of June. The fort was burned, the guns were spiked, the neighbouring settlements destroyed, and the dead left unburied.

Thus had Frontenac's expeditions fared. They had spread grief and alarm amongst the English settlements, but had inflicted no serious blow on English power. They had shown how expert the colonial French had become in the methods of Indian warfare, and also to how large an extent they had themselves inbibed the Indian spirit. We may doubt whether Frontenac philosophized much on the subject; his immediate object was to produce an effect on the minds of his wavering Indian allies and his sullen Indian enemies; and the raids into English territory, with the slaughterings and burnings, were doubtless well adapted to that purpose.

If Onontio was strong enough and bold enough to make war in this fas.h.i.+on on Corlaer and Kishon[43] at once, there was something for allies, and enemies as well, to reflect on. This view of the matter finally prevailed with the Lake tribes. For some two or three years trade had been almost at a standstill, and furs had acc.u.mulated which the savages were now anxious to turn into European goods. With one accord they determined to try the Montreal market once more, and see Onontio face to face.

During the winter, while his guerrilla forces were in the field, Frontenac had not been idle. Having arranged for offensive measures, he next took thought for defensive ones; and, as if with a prevision that Quebec itself might not be exempt from attack, he devoted special attention to strengthening the fortifications of that place. He caused a vast amount of timber to be cut for palisades, with which he protected the city at the rear, its only weak point. In the spring he began the erection of a strong stone redoubt; and the work was pushed with so much vigour that by midsummer it was well advanced towards completion. These pressing occupations did not, however, absorb all his thoughts. The fact of his having been chosen a second time by the king for the governors.h.i.+p of Canada, notwithstanding all the criticism of which he had formerly been the object, gave him a position of manifest strength, which even his bitterest opponents of former days could not ignore. The Sovereign Council as a whole recognized the fact, and was anxious to arrange matters so as, if possible, to avoid friction for the future.

The governor on his part was determined to preserve an att.i.tude of dignified, not to say haughty, reserve, and throw upon the council the task of making such advances as might be necessary. In pursuance of this policy, he refrained from attending the meetings, though his presence was much required. The council having deputed Auteuil, the attorney-general, to wait upon him and invite his attendance, he replied that the council should be able to manage its own business and that he would come when he thought the king's service required it. It is hard to understand why Auteuil should have been chosen for this negotiation; for Frontenac must have had a vivid recollection of the insolence with which he had been treated during his first administration by this individual, then a raw youth of not much over twenty. The next move of the council was to send four of their number to repeat the invitation, and to ask the governor at the same time with what ceremonies he would wish to be received. His answer was that if they would propose the form he would tell them whether it was satisfactory. The council felt that the governor was pus.h.i.+ng his advantage a little too far; but nevertheless they applied themselves to the question, and, having devised a form which they thought could not fail to be acceptable, sent Villeray, the first councillor, to the chateau to explain what was proposed. Villeray was as deferential and complimentary as he knew how; but the end was not yet. "See the bishop, and any other parties who have knowledge of such matters, and get their opinion," said the governor. The bishop was consulted accordingly, but very properly declined to give any opinion.

Thrown back on their own resources the councillors devised the following scheme: that, when his Lords.h.i.+p, the count, should decide to make his first visit to the council, four of its members should present themselves at the chateau in order to accompany him to the place of meeting, which was the intendant's palace on the bank of the St.

Charles; and that, on all subsequent occasions, he should be met by two councillors at the head of the stairs and respectfully conducted to his seat. This was duly explained by the first councillor, Villeray, who said he was authorized to add that any modification of the plan which the governor might suggest would be gladly adopted by the council. This was submission indeed, yet still the count hesitated. He asked to see the minutes of the council in which the resolution bearing on the matter was recorded. Villeray struggled up Palace Hill with the official register, and presented himself again before the potentate, who found the entry in good shape, but reserved his final answer. A few days later, having been again waited on, he graciously informed the deputation that the arrangement proposed was quite satisfactory. With what must really be called a fatuous self-complacency, he added that, had the council wished to go too far in the way of obsequiousness, he could not have consented to it, as, being himself its head, he was jealous of its dignity and honour. If for some men there is, as the poet hints, "a far-off touch of greatness" in knowing they are not great, it is to be feared Frontenac did not possess that particular touch.

Not only were the fortifications of Quebec strengthened, but steps were also taken to form a local militia guard under the command of the town-major, Prevost. Leaving to that officer the supervision of whatever work was still required on the defences, Frontenac, accompanied by the intendant and Madame Champigny, left the capital on the 22nd July for Montreal, where his presence was much required. He probably did some inspection of posts on the way, for he did not reach the end of his journey till the 31st. Trade at this time was pretty much at a standstill. Bands of mission Indians were on the war-path against the English; and every now and again the Iroquois would swoop down on the settlements, notwithstanding the fact that scouts were kept continually employed along the routes by which they were accustomed to make their approaches. Under the new administration the lesson of Lachine, the lesson of eternal watchfulness, was being taken to heart. The governor had much to occupy his thoughts. At Montreal, as at Quebec, he was anxious to perfect the organization of the military forces, and to place the city, from every point of view, in the best possible condition of defence. He had not as yet received news as to how Louvigny and Perrot had succeeded among the Lake tribes; yet upon the success of their mission hung the most momentous issues. Was Canada to secure allies in the West who would hold at least in partial check the Iroquois power, or were Hurons, Ottawas, Iroquois, and English to combine their forces for her destruction? Meantime bad news had come from Acadia. Port Royal and other fortified posts had been captured; the English were in possession of the entire country; the governor had been carried captive to Boston.

It was known that the English of Albany and New York were moving: what the next news would be, who could tell?

On the 18th August news came. In hot haste the officer in command at Lachine had despatched a messenger to say that Lake St. Louis to the west was covered with Iroquois canoes bearing down on the island. The terror of the inhabitants, in spite of the presence of the governor amongst them, was extreme. Orders were given to fire alarm guns to warn the inhabitants of the surrounding country; and other measures of protection were being hastily concerted, when a second messenger arrived to say that it was all a mistake. It was not the dreaded Iroquois who were close at hand, but a large body of Lake Indians who were coming to trade. Fear was at once turned into joy. The envoys sent to the upper country in May had been successful; a great danger had been averted.

Perrot with his scalps and Frontenac with his vigorous and aggressive, if somewhat primitive and ruthless, war policy had turned the scale in favour of Canada. Firm alliances would now be made, and there would be a big market at Montreal.

The next day the canoes, laden with the acc.u.mulated furs of the last two or three years, shot the Lachine Rapids and landed at Montreal. There were about five hundred Indians in all, Hurons, Ottawas, Crees, Ojibways, and various other tribes, all bent on buying, selling, and negotiating. It was not the habit, however, of these savages to enter precipitately on any kind of business; and three days were allowed to elapse before they opened their great council at which, tribe by tribe, they were to lay their views before the governor. The first to speak were the Ottawas, and their talk was almost exclusively of trade. Their instinct for business was keen, and had it been possible they would probably have steered clear of politics. They had had some experience of the low prices of English goods, and were very insistent that the French should deal with them on equally favourable terms. The spokesman of the Hurons, a much weaker tribe numerically, was not so narrowly commercial in his views. He said he had come down to see his father, to listen to his voice, and to do his will. He presented three belts. By the first he prayed that the war might be prosecuted against the Iroquois as well as against the English. If not, he feared he and his father would both die. The second thanked the count for his former services to their nation. The third prayed him to take pity on the Ottawas, and give them good bargains. Such a manifestation of interest in the Ottawas was very touching; but probably the Huron orator, whose people had a certain reputation for subtlety, calculated that, if a lower tariff were made for the Ottawas, all would get the benefit of it. On the twenty-fifth of the month, the count entertained them all at a great feast. Two oxen and six large dogs furnished the meat, which was cooked with prunes. Two barrels of wine were provided to wash this down, and liberal rations of tobacco were served out to every man. Before the feasting began, the count stood up to address his guests. He a.s.sured them that he meant to prosecute the war with the Iroquois until he had brought it to a successful issue, and forced them to sue for peace. Then, when peace was made, it should be a general peace: all should be included in it, and the Iroquois themselves would again be his children. Meantime, however, they were preparing to invade the country; and the question was whether to await their arrival or go to meet them. Then ensued a remarkable performance, which might well have employed a livelier pen than that of Monseignat who gives us the account of it. Seizing a hatchet, the aged governor, war-worn but yet fiery and vigorous, began to sing the war song, walking to and fro in the most excited manner, and brandis.h.i.+ng the hatchet over his head in true Indian fas.h.i.+on. The effect was electric. The old Onontio was surpa.s.sing himself. Here was a leader whose very presence banished fear. When he had sufficiently excited their admiration, and stimulated their warlike ardour, he handed the hatchet to the different chiefs in turn, and to a number of Frenchmen, who all imitated Onontio's example, vowing vengeance on the foe. Then began the feast, a function to which it is needless to say the savage guests brought ravenous appet.i.tes. In diplomacy dinners have been known to work wonders; and Frontenac was seeking the hearts of his guests through a well-recognized channel.

We have seen that the mission sent by the governor to the Iroquois towards the close of the previous year, and which returned in the following month of March, had not accomplished any satisfactory result.

The count waited till navigation was open before resuming negotiations.

He then determined to restore to their nation the four returned Iroquois who had formed his first emba.s.sy, and to make them the bearers of belts which he hoped would speak strongly in favour of peace. With these Indians he sent a French gentleman, the Chevalier d'Eau. He tendered the mission in the first place to the gay and das.h.i.+ng Baron La Hontan; but that young man, who was well versed in the cla.s.sics, was afraid of the Iroquois even when carrying gifts to them; and, with marked discretion, declined the honour. The Chevalier d'Eau had no reason to congratulate himself on having accepted it. He made his appearance amongst the Iroquois at a most unfavourable moment. The affair at Schenectady was fresh in their recollection; and though their own people had, through motives of policy, been spared on that occasion, they were under a strong pledge to the English to a.s.sist in revenging the slaughter. A couple of Frenchmen who accompanied the chevalier were burnt; he himself was soundly thrashed and handed over as a prisoner to the English; the messages of the belts were disregarded. No news of the fate of the envoy had reached Frontenac up to the time of the gathering of the western Indians at Montreal; but after their departure the facts concerning them were obtained from some Iroquois prisoners at Fort Frontenac. The one great gain of the year had been the winning over of the Lake tribes, a result which at once a.s.sured the safety of the French traders and missionaries in the West, and prevented that isolation of the colony which would have followed had an alliance been struck between those tribes and the Iroquois.

[Footnote 33: _Frontenac et ses Amis_, p. 93.]

[Footnote 34: _Comte de Frontenac_, p. 358.]

[Footnote 35: Far from yielding to Frontenac's view of the matter, Denonville doggedly adhered to his own opinion that the fort ought to be entirely abandoned; and, when it was found that it had only been partly destroyed, he wrote to the king advising that Frontenac should be ordered to send up three hundred men with instructions to demolish it utterly.]

[Footnote 36: Parkman tells the story in his usual brilliant manner in chapter iii. of his _Old Regime in Canada_. Pere Charlevoix gives the facts and adds: "Je l'ai vu en 1721, age de quatre-vingt ans, plein de forces et de sante; toute la colonie rendant hommage a sa vertu et a son merite," vol. ii. p. 111, edition of 1744.]

[Footnote 37: _New York Colonial Doc.u.ments_, p. 464.]

[Footnote 38: Perrot and his party, according to Monseignat's narrative, left the end of the Island of Montreal on the 22nd May. The Albany--or more correctly Schenectady party, for they did not venture to attack Albany--returned towards the end of March. Frontenac's message must have been composed some months before Perrot's departure, otherwise he would undoubtedly have mentioned with pride the Schenectady ma.s.sacre. It was certainly not up to date.]

[Footnote 39: "There was little resistance," says Pere Chretien Leclercq, a contemporary writer, "except at one house, where Sieur de Marque Montigny was wounded; but Sieur de Ste. Helene, having come up, all were slaughtered with sword or tomahawk, the Indians sparing no one."--_Premier Etabliss.e.m.e.nt de la Foi._]

[Footnote 40: _Doc.u.mentary History of New York_, vol. ii. pp. 164-9.]

[Footnote 41: _New York Colonial Doc.u.ments_, vol. ix. p. 440. See also Lorin, _Comte de Frontenac_, chap. x.]

[Footnote 42: _Comte de Frontenac_, p. 367.]

[Footnote 43: Names given by the Indians to the governors of New York and Ma.s.sachusetts; Corlaer being a corruption of Cuyler, a Dutchman of the early period held in high honour by them, and Kishon signifying "The Fish."]

CHAPTER X

FRONTENAC DEFENDER OF CANADA

In planning his attacks on the English colonies it does not appear that Frontenac took specially into account the political disorganization existing amongst them at the time, or built his hopes of success to any extent on that circ.u.mstance. It is nevertheless true that, if his object had been to strike at a moment of unpreparedness and weakness, he could not have timed his operations better. The rule of James II and his agents had been borne with no little reluctance by his subjects in North America, and particularly by those of New England, and when news came of his expulsion from the throne, his flight from England, and the arrival and coronation of the Prince of Orange and his wife (daughter of James II) as king and queen, there was at once a popular movement both at Boston and at New York to seize the government, and hold it subject to the orders of the new sovereigns. Sir Edmund Andros was governor of New England at the time, with authority over the province of New York, Boston being the chief seat of government, and the governor being represented at New York by a lieutenant-governor, one Francis Nicholson.

Andros had been appointed governor of New York, by James, then Duke of York, to whom the province had been patented in 1674, and had held the office till 1681, when he was replaced by Colonel Dongan of epistolary fame. His recall was consequent upon complaints that had been made by the colonists of various arbitrary acts on his part; but on his arrival in England he managed to defend himself successfully, and in 1686, James being now on the throne, he was sent out again with the larger jurisdiction we have mentioned.

Religious pa.s.sions in those days ran high; and Andros, who was a strong churchman, soon found himself on worse terms with the puritanical population of Boston than he had been with the more heterogeneous and less rigid inhabitants of New York. The circ.u.mstances of the time, it must be confessed, were such as to excuse a somewhat sensitive condition of public feeling. Two years before the arrival of Andros, the Court of Chancery of England had declared null and void the charter granted to the colony of Ma.s.sachusetts in the year 1629, which, from that date onwards, had been the basis, not only of all government, but of all land grants, transfers of property, and popular liberties generally. A provisional government, under one Joseph Dudley had succeeded. Then had come Andros, commissioned by a king who was far from commanding the unlimited confidence of his subjects at home, and who was looked upon with at least equal distrust by the ultra-Protestants of his American dominions. How long they were going to be deprived of legally guaranteed liberties there was no knowing, nor what the intentions of James II might be in regard to their beloved commonwealth. They did not think it impossible he might wish to hand them over to his close ally the King of France; and in Andros they feared they saw only too meet an instrument for stratagems and spoils. The instructions given to him as governor contained a special injunction to favour by all means in his power the rites and doctrines of the Church of England; and the colonists, with the exception of a small minority, were maddened to see public taxes applied to this hateful object. As the Indians were giving trouble, the governor made a campaign against them in the summer of 1688, which was not very successful; hence more odium gathered on his head. Having failed in his measures of offence he thought he would at least provide for defence, and garrisoned the forts on the frontier with six hundred men, chiefly militia. More discontent: the garrisons served unwillingly, and the people at home professed to believe that such measures were unnecessary. A small detachment of soldiers had come out with Andros.

Their conduct, according to contemporary accounts, was most unedifying and in shocking contrast to the unrelenting rigour and formality of colonial piety. It is not surprising therefore that, when, in April 1689, news was brought that James II, whose commission Andros bore, was no longer king, but that the leader of European Protestantism reigned in his stead, there should have been an instant uprising of the populace against his representative. Andros was seized and imprisoned with fifty of his followers. "For seven weeks," says a contemporary writer, "there was not so much as the face of any government." A vessel having arrived towards the end of May with instructions to proclaim William and Mary, certain of the members of the former General Council a.s.sumed to act, and one of their number, the aged Simon Bradstreet, was named as governor.

It did not take long for the news to travel from Boston to New York. The condition of things there was different; public opinion was not in the same state of exasperation as at Boston; still Andros was of old unpopular, and after a little hesitation, a movement was organized, headed by one Jacob Leisler, to take the government out of the hands of the lieutenant-governor, Nicholson. Like his superior officer at Boston, the latter was obliged to submit; and Leisler, most unhappily for himself and his family, a.s.sumed, with the support of a committee of citizens, the control of affairs. Thus, both in New England and in New York, there supervened a period of divided councils and enfeebled administration, and this at the precise moment when the colonies were about to encounter new perils. The provisional government of New England, in blind opposition to the policy of Sir Edmund Andros, withdrew or greatly reduced the garrisons he had wisely established along the frontier. If Leisler could have got his authority recognized at Albany he would have sent forces for the defence of the northern part of the province. There was a party there in his favour; but the magistrates, though quite ready to pay allegiance to William and Mary, thought Leisler's credentials of too dubious a character to justify their negotiating with him. Between divided responsibility and irresponsibility, the difference is not great. News had been received that the French were meditating mischief, but no proper precautionary measures were taken. To this condition of unpreparedness the horrible disaster of Schenectady may be distinctly attributed, and probably those at Salmon Falls and Cas...o...b..y as well.

Even after the mischief was done, it was extremely difficult to secure any harmonious or well-directed action. A strong appeal was sent by the magistrates of Albany to the governor and council of Ma.s.sachusetts, representing their own deplorable condition of weakness, and asking that New England should undertake the serious enterprise of invading Canada by water. That was a matter for grave consideration, and one, the authorities of Ma.s.sachusetts thought, in which, if they attempted it at all, they should have the a.s.sistance of the Mother Country. They despatched a vessel in April to England with a request for help; but meantime, spurred by their own wrongs and sufferings, they determined to take an easier revenge on the French by invading Acadia. Early in the month of May 1690 the different New England colonies sent delegates to a congress held at New York for the purpose of deciding on a military policy. The conclusion come to was that there should be both a land and a sea expedition, the first directed against Montreal, the second against Quebec. To the former New York was to contribute four hundred men and the New England colonies jointly three hundred and fifty-five.

The Iroquois, it was expected, would add a powerful contingent. The naval expedition, it was proposed, should be provided entirely by the New England colonies. The Ma.s.sachusetts delegates hesitated to commit themselves to so extensive and costly a scheme, but finally agreed to undertake it, relying on a.s.sistance from the Mother Country, which, in existing circ.u.mstances, they hardly thought could be refused. Meantime the expedition against Acadia could be pushed forward.

French Acadia had at all times been much exposed to attacks from the English colonies. The settlers were few in number--at this time not much over a thousand all told--and their defences were but feeble. In 1654, in accordance with secret orders sent by Cromwell, the territory had been seized by an English force from Boston under the command of Major Robert Sedgwick and Captain John Leverett. Two years later it was made a province, Sir Thomas Temple being appointed governor. After remaining in the possession of the English for a period of thirteen years, it was ceded back to France by the Treaty of Breda in 1667. Five years later Frontenac arrived in Canada for the first time, and in the following year, 1673, M. de Chambly, a very capable soldier, whose services had been highly appreciated by the previous governor, M. de Courcelles, was sent to command in Acadia, and established himself at Pentagouet, a fortified post at the mouth of the river Pen.o.bscot. This was the extreme western limit of his jurisdiction even according to the French view of the matter. The New Englanders held that the true limit was the river St. Croix, the present boundary between the province of New Brunswick and the state of Maine. To the east Acadia embraced, by common consent, the southern part of what is now New Brunswick and all Nova Scotia west of the Straits of Canso.

M. de Chambly had not been more than a year in his new government when an attack was made on Pentagouet by a Flemish corsair conducted by a Boston pilot or s.h.i.+p captain. After a brief defence he was obliged to surrender, his force being very inferior, and he himself having been wounded. The attacking party then proceeded to the only other Acadian fort, Jemseg, on the river St. John, and captured it. M. de Chambly was taken as a prisoner to Boston, but was soon set at liberty and permitted to return to France. The attack gave rise to a strong protest on the part of Frontenac, and was wholly disavowed by the Ma.s.sachusetts authorities. In the year 1676, M. de Chambly was sent out again from France with a royal commission as lieutenant-governor. He did not attempt to establish himself at Pentagouet, but for a time made his headquarters at Jemseg, and not long afterwards removed to Port Royal, now Annapolis, on the northern coast of Nova Scotia, which thus became the capital of Acadia. Here he remained till about the year 1679 or 1680, when he was transferred to the governors.h.i.+p of Grenada in the West Indies.

It was not till the autumn of 1684 that a duly appointed successor was provided in the person of M. Francois Perrot, who had finally been dismissed from the governors.h.i.+p of Montreal. In the interval there had been one or two descents on the Acadian coast, calling forth further protests on Frontenac's part, and further disclaimers of responsibility on that of the const.i.tuted authorities of New England. To fish in French waters or to trade with the inhabitants was considered an infraction of international law; and yet there is clear evidence that the French settlers rather longed than otherwise for the flesh-pots of Boston in the shape of English goods and English money, very much after the manner of the Iroquois and the Indian tribes of the West. When Perrot came to Port Royal he was pleased to find that the conditions there were nearly as favourable as at Montreal for the trading in which his soul delighted. The chief difference was the subst.i.tution of Boston for New York as his commercial centre. In the fall of the year 1685, a few weeks after the arrival of the Marquis of Denonville, Meulles, the intendant, accompanied by a member of the Sovereign Council, Peyras, paid a visit of inspection to the country, remaining till the following summer. A carefully-made census showed that the total population amounted at that time to 885 souls, mustering 222 guns. Of cultivated land there were 896 acres. Horned cattle numbered 986, sheep 759, and pigs 608. Just as Meulles was leaving the country, the bishop designate, Saint Vallier, arrived on a pastoral visit. The account he gives of the people in his _Etat present de l'Eglise_ is most laudatory, and strangely at variance with a report made by d.u.c.h.esneau, the intendant, a few years earlier. In 1681 that officer had written that the poverty of the people was not the most serious evil; "their discords are a much greater one. Among them there is neither order nor police; and those who are sent hence to command them pillage them." The future bishop, in 1689, saw things very differently. Although, he said, they had been deprived of spiritual instruction for many years, they did not seem to have suffered in the least thereby. Their morals were excellent; they were kindly and well-disposed, and were greatly rejoiced to learn that their spiritual interests were going to be better looked after in future. Of course they may have improved in the eight years that had elapsed since M.