La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West Part 7

The bishop is next accused of harshness and intolerance, as well as of growing rich by t.i.thes, and even by trade, in which it is affirmed he has a covert interest.[85] It is added that there exists in Quebec, under the auspices of the Jesuits, an a.s.sociation called the Sainte Famille, of which Madame Bourdon[86] is superior. They meet in the cathedral every Thursday, with closed doors, where they relate to each other--as they are bound by a vow to do--all they have learned, whether good or evil, concerning other people, during the week. It is a sort of female inquisition, for the benefit of the Jesuits, the secrets of whose friends, it is said, are kept, while no such discretion is observed with regard to persons not of their party.[87]

Here follow a series of statements which it is needless to repeat, as they do not concern La Salle. They relate to abuse of the confessional, hostility to other priests, hostility to civil authorities, and over-hasty baptisms, in regard to which La Salle is reported to have made a comparison, unfavorable to the Jesuits, between them and the Recollets and Sulpitians.

[Sidenote: PLOTS AGAINST LA SALLE.]

We now come to the second part of the memoir, ent.i.tled "History of Monsieur de la Salle." After stating that he left France at the age of twenty-one or twenty-two, with the purpose of attempting some new discovery, it makes the statements repeated in a former chapter, concerning his discovery of the Ohio, the Illinois, and possibly the Mississippi. It then mentions the building of Fort Frontenac, and says that one object of it was to prevent the Jesuits from becoming undisputed masters of the fur-trade.[88] Three years ago, it pursues, La Salle came to France, and obtained a grant of the fort; and it proceeds to give examples of the means used by the party opposed to him to injure his good name and bring him within reach of the law. Once, when he was at Quebec, the farmer of the King's revenue, one of the richest men in the place, was extremely urgent in his proffers of hospitality, and at length, though he knew La Salle but slightly, persuaded him to lodge in his house. He had been here but a few days when his host's wife began to enact the part of the wife of Potiphar, and this with so much vivacity that on one occasion La Salle was forced to take an abrupt leave, in order to avoid an infringement of the laws of hospitality. As he opened the door, he found the husband on the watch, and saw that it was a plot to entrap him.[89]

Another attack, of a different character, though in the same direction, was soon after made. The remittances which La Salle received from the various members and connections of his family were sent through the hands of his brother, Abbe Cavelier, from whom his enemies were, therefore, very eager to alienate him. To this end, a report was made to reach the priest's ears that La Salle had seduced a young woman, with whom he was living in an open and scandalous manner at Fort Frontenac.

The effect of this device exceeded the wishes of its contrivers; for the priest, aghast at what he had heard, set out for the fort, to administer his fraternal rebuke, but on arriving, in place of the expected abomination, found his brother, a.s.sisted by two Recollet friars, ruling with edifying propriety over a most exemplary household.

Thus far the memoir. From pa.s.sages in some of La Salle's letters, it may be gathered that Abbe Cavelier gave him at times no little annoyance. In his double character of priest and elder brother, he seems to have const.i.tuted himself the counsellor, monitor, and guide of a man who, though many years his junior, was in all respects incomparably superior to him, as the sequel will show. This must have been almost insufferable to a nature like that of La Salle, who, nevertheless, was forced to arm himself with patience, since his brother held the purse-strings. On one occasion his forbearance was put to a severe proof, when, wis.h.i.+ng to marry a damsel of good connections in the colony, Abbe Cavelier saw fit for some reason to interfere, and prevented the alliance.[90]

[Sidenote: INTRIGUES OF THE JESUITS.]

To resume the memoir. It declares that the Jesuits procured an ordinance from the Supreme Council prohibiting traders from going into the Indian country, in order that they, the Jesuits, being already established there in their missions, might carry on trade without compet.i.tion. But La Salle induced a good number of the Iroquois to settle around his fort; thus bringing the trade to his own door, without breaking the ordinance. These Iroquois, he is further reported to have said, were very fond of him, and aided him in rebuilding the fort with cut stone.

The Jesuits told the Iroquois on the south side of the lake, where they were established as missionaries, that La Salle was strengthening his defences with the view of making war on them. They and the intendant, who was their creature, endeavored to embroil the Iroquois with the French in order to ruin La Salle; writing to him at the same time that he was the bulwark of the country, and that he ought to be always on his guard. They also tried to persuade Frontenac that it was necessary to raise men and prepare for war. La Salle suspected them; and seeing that the Iroquois, in consequence of their intrigues, were in an excited state, he induced the governor to come to Fort Frontenac to pacify them.

He accordingly did so; and a council was held, which ended in a complete restoration of confidence on the part of the Iroquois.[91] At this council they accused the two Jesuits, Bruyas and Pierron,[92] of spreading reports that the French were preparing to attack them. La Salle thought that the object of the intrigue was to make the Iroquois jealous of him, and engage Frontenac in expenses which would offend the King. After La Salle and the governor had lost credit by the rupture, the Jesuits would come forward as pacificators, in the full a.s.surance that they could restore quiet, and appear in the att.i.tude of saviors of the colony.

La Salle, pursues his reporter, went on to say that about this time a quant.i.ty of hemlock and verdigris was given him in a salad; and that the guilty person was a man in his employ named Nicolas Perrot, otherwise called Jolycoeur, who confessed the crime.[93] The memoir adds that La Salle, who recovered from the effects of the poison, wholly exculpates the Jesuits.

This attempt, which was not, as we shall see, the only one of the kind made against La Salle, is alluded to by him in a letter to a friend at Paris, written in Canada when he was on the point of departure on his great expedition to descend the Mississippi. The following is an extract from it:

[Sidenote: LA SALLE EXCULPATES THE JESUITS.]

"I hope to give myself the honor of sending you a more particular account of this enterprise when it shall have had the success which I hope for it; but I have need of a strong protection for its support. It traverses the commercial operations of certain persons, who will find it hard to endure it. They intended to make a new Paraguay in these parts, and the route which I close against them gave them facilities for an advantageous correspondence with Mexico. This check will infallibly be a mortification to them; and you know how they deal with whatever opposes them. _Nevertheless, I am bound to render them the justice to say that the poison which was given me was not at all of their instigation._ The person who was conscious of the guilt, believing that I was their enemy because he saw that our sentiments were opposed, thought to exculpate himself by accusing them, and I confess that at the time I was not sorry to have this indication of their ill-will; but having afterwards carefully examined the affair, I clearly discovered the falsity of the accusation which this rascal had made against them. I nevertheless pardoned him, in order not to give notoriety to the affair; as the mere suspicion might sully their reputation, to which I should scrupulously avoid doing the slightest injury unless I thought it necessary to the good of the public, and unless the fact were fully proved. Therefore, Monsieur, if anybody shared the suspicion which I felt, oblige me by undeceiving him."[94]

This letter, so honorable to La Salle, explains the statement made in the memoir, that, notwithstanding his grounds of complaint against the Jesuits, he continued to live on terms of courtesy with them, entertained them at his fort, and occasionally corresponded with them.

The writer a.s.serts, however, that they intrigued with his men to induce them to desert,--employing for this purpose a young man named Deslauriers, whom they sent to him with letters of recommendation. La Salle took him into his service; but he soon after escaped, with several other men, and took refuge in the Jesuit missions.[95] The object of the intrigue is said to have been the reduction of La Salle's garrison to a number less than that which he was bound to maintain, thus exposing him to a forfeiture of his t.i.tle of possession.

[Sidenote: RENEWED INTRIGUES.]

He is also stated to have declared that Louis Joliet was an impostor,[96] and a _donne_ of the Jesuits,--that is, a man who worked for them without pay; and, further, that when he, La Salle, came to court to ask for privileges enabling him to pursue his discoveries, the Jesuits represented in advance to the minister Colbert that his head was turned, and that he was fit for nothing but a mad-house. It was only by the aid of influential friends that he was at length enabled to gain an audience.

Here ends this remarkable memoir, which, criticise it as we may, does not exaggerate the jealousies and enmities that beset the path of the discoverer.

FOOTNOTES:

[75] _Ante_, p. 17.

[76] Louis-Armand de Bourbon, second Prince de Conti. The author of the memoir seems to have been Abbe Renaudot, a learned churchman.

[77] Extracts from this have already been given in connection with La Salle's supposed discovery of the Mississippi. _Ante_, p. 29.

[78] "Tous ceux de mes amis qui l'ont vu luy trouve beaucoup d'esprit et un tres-grand sens; il ne parle guere que des choses sur lesquelles on l'interroge; il les dit en tres-peu de mots et tres-bien circonstanciees; il distingue parfaitement ce qu'il scait avec cert.i.tude, de ce qu'il scait avec quelque melange de doute. Il avoue sans aucune facon ne pas savoir ce qu'il ne scait pas, et quoyque je luy aye ouy dire plus de cinq ou six fois les mesme choses a l'occasion de quelques personnes qui ne les avaient point encore entendues, je les luy ay toujours ouy dire de la mesme maniere. En un mot je n'ay jamais ouy parler personne dont les paroles porta.s.sent plus de marques de verite."

[79] "Il y a une autre chose qui me deplait, qui est l'entiere dependence dans laquelle les Pretres du Seminaire de Quebec et le Grand Vicaire de l'Eveque sont pour les Peres Jesuites, car il ne fait pas la moindre chose sans leur ordre; ce qui fait qu'indirectement ils sont les maitres de ce qui regarde le spirituel, qui, comme vous savez, est une grande machine pour remuer tout le reste."--_Lettre de Frontenac a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672._

[80] "Ces religieux [_les Recollets_] sont fort proteges partout par le comte de Frontenac, gouverneur du pays, et a cause de cela a.s.sez maltraites par l'evesque, parceque la doctrine de l'evesque et des Jesuites est que les affaires de la Religion chrestienne n'iront point bien dans ce pays-la que quand le gouverneur sera creature des Jesuites, ou que l'evesque sera gouverneur."--_Memoire sur Mr. de la Salle_.

[81] "Ils [_les Jesuites_] refusent l'absolution a ceux qui ne veulent pas promettre de n'en plus vendre [_de l'eau-de-vie_], et s'ils meurent en cet etat, ils les privent de la sepulture ecclesiastique; au contraire ils se permettent a eux-memes sans aucune difficulte ce mesme trafic quoique toute sorte de trafic soit interdite a tous les ecclesiastiques par les ordonnances du Roy, et par une bulle expresse du Pape. La Bulle et les ordonnances sont notoires, et quoyqu'ils cachent le trafic qu'ils font d'eau-de-vie, M. de la Salle pretend qu'il ne l'est pas moins; qu'outre la notoriete il en a des preuves certaines, et qu'il les a surpris dans ce trafic, et qu'ils luy ont tendu des pieges pour l'y surprendre.... Ils ont cha.s.se leur valet Robert a cause qu'il revela qu'ils en traitaient jour et nuit."--_Ibid._ The writer says that he makes this last statement, not on the authority of La Salle, but on that of a memoir made at the time when the intendant, Talon, with whom he elsewhere says that he was well acquainted, returned to France. A great number of particulars are added respecting the Jesuit trade in furs.

[82] Albanel was prominent among the Jesuit explorers at this time. He is best known by his journey up the Saguenay to Hudson's Bay in 1672.

[83] "Pour vous parler franchement, ils [_les Jesuites_] songent autant a la conversion du Castor qu'a celle des ames."--_Lettre de Frontenac a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672_.

In his despatch of the next year, he says that the Jesuits ought to content themselves with instructing the Indians in their old missions, instead of neglecting them to make new ones in countries where there are "more beaver-skins to gain than souls to save."

[84] These forts were built by them, and were necessary to the security of their missions.

[85] Francois Xavier de Laval-Montmorency, first bishop of Quebec, was a prelate of austere character. His memory is cherished in Canada by adherents of the Jesuits and all ultramontane Catholics.

[86] This Madame Bourdon was the widow of Bourdon, the engineer (see "The Jesuits in North America," 297). If we may credit the letters of Marie de l'Incarnation, she had married him from a religious motive, in order to charge herself with the care of his motherless children; stipulating in advance that he should live with her, not as a husband, but as a brother. As may be imagined, she was regarded as a most devout and saint-like person.

[87] "Il y a dans Quebec une congregation de femmes et de filles qu'ils [_les Jesuites_] appellent la sainte famille, dans laquelle on fait voeu sur les Saints Evangiles de dire tout ce qu'on sait de bien et de mal des personnes qu'on connoist. La Superieure de cette compagnie s'appelle Madame Bourdon; une Mde. d'Ailleboust est, je crois, l'a.s.sistante et une Mde. Charron, la Tresoriere. La Compagnie s'a.s.semble tous les Jeudis dans la Cathedrale, a porte fermee, et la elles se disent les unes aux autres tout ce qu'elles ont appris. C'est une espece d'Inquisition contre toutes les personnes qui ne sont pas unies avec les Jesuites. Ces personnes sont accusees de tenir secret ce qu'elles apprennent de mal des personnes de leur party et de n'avoir pas la mesme discretion pour les autres."--_Memoire sur M^r. de la Salle_.

The Madame d'Ailleboust mentioned above was a devotee like Madame Bourdon, and, in one respect, her history was similar. See "The Jesuits in North America," 360.

The a.s.sociation of the Sainte Famille was founded by the Jesuit Chaumonot at Montreal in 1663. Laval, Bishop of Quebec, afterwards encouraged its establishment at that place; and, as Chaumonot himself writes, caused it to be attached to the cathedral. _Vie de Chaumonot_, 83. For its establishment at Montreal, see Faillon, _Vie de Mlle.

Mance_, i. 233.

"Ils [_les Jesuites_] ont tous une si grande envie de savoir tout ce qui se fait dans les familles qu'ils ont des Inspecteurs a gages dans la Ville, qui leur rapportent tout ce qui se fait dans les maisons," etc., etc.--_Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673._

[88] Mention has been made (p. 88, _note_) of the report set on foot by the Jesuit Dablon, to prevent the building of the fort.

[89] This story is told at considerable length, and the advances of the lady particularly described.

[90] Letter of La Salle, in possession of M. Margry.

[91] Louis XIV. alludes to this visit, in a letter to Frontenac, dated 28 April, 1677. "I cannot but approve," he writes, "of what you have done, in your voyage to Fort Frontenac, to reconcile the minds of the Five Iroquois Nations, and to clear yourself from the suspicions they had entertained, and from the motives that might induce them to make war." Frontenac's despatches of this year, as well as of the preceding and following years, are missing from the archives.

In a memoir written in November, 1680, La Salle alludes to "le desir que l'on avoit que Monseigneur le Comte de Frontenac fit la guerre aux Iroquois." See Thoma.s.sy, _Geologie Pratique de la Louisiane_, 203.

[92] Bruyas was about this time stationed among the Onondagas. Pierron was among the Senecas. He had lately removed to them from the Mohawk country. _Relation des Jesuites, 1673-79_, 140 (Shea). Bruyas was also for a long time among the Mohawks.

[93] This puts the character of Perrot in a new light; for it is not likely that any other can be meant than the famous _voyageur_. I have found no mention elsewhere of the synonyme of Jolycoeur. Poisoning was the current crime of the day, and persons of the highest rank had repeatedly been charged with it. The following is the pa.s.sage:--

"Quoiqu'il en soit, Mr. de la Salle se sent.i.t quelque temps apres empoisonne d'une salade dans laquelle on avoit mesle du cigue, qui est poison en ce pays la, et du verd de gris. Il en fut malade a l'extremite, vomissant presque continuellement 40 ou 50 jours apres, et il ne rechappa que par la force extreme de sa const.i.tution. Celuy qui luy donna le poison fut un nomme Nicolas Perrot, autrement Jolycoeur, l'un de ses domestiques.... Il pouvait faire mourir cet homme, qui a confesse son crime, mais il s'est contente de l'enfermer les fers aux pieds."--_Histoire de Mr. de la Salle._

[94] The following words are underlined in the original: "_Je suis pourtant oblige de leur rendre une justice, que le poison qu'on m'avoit donne n'estoit point de leur instigation."--Lettre de La Salle au Prince de Conti, 31 Oct., 1678._

[95] In a letter to the King, Frontenac mentions that several men who had been induced to desert from La Salle had gone to Albany, where the English had received them well. _Lettre de Frontenac au Roy, 6 Nov., 1679._ The Jesuits had a mission in the neighboring tribe of the Mohawks and elsewhere in New York.

[96] This agrees with expressions used by La Salle in a memoir addressed by him to Frontenac in November, 1680. In this, he intimates his belief that Joliet went but little below the mouth of the Illinois, thus doing flagrant injustice to that brave explorer.

CHAPTER VIII.