1694-1704.
DETROIT.
Michilimackinac.--La Mothe-Cadillac: his Disputes with the
Jesuits.--Opposing Views.--Plans of Cadillac: his Memorial to the Court;
his Opponents.--Detroit founded. The New Company.--Detroit changes
Hands.--Strange Act of the Five Nations.
In the few years of doubtful peace that preceded Queen Anne's War, an
enterprise was begun, which, nowise in accord with the wishes and
expectations of those engaged in it, was destined to produce as its last
result an American city.
Antoine de La Mothe-Cadillac commanded at Michilimackinac, whither
Frontenac had sent him in 1694. This old mission of the Jesuits, where
they had gathered the remnants of the lake tribes dispersed by the
Iroquois at the middle of the seventeenth century, now savored little of
its apostolic beginnings. It was the centre of the western fur-trade and
the favorite haunt of the _coureurs de bois_. Brandy and squaws
abounded, and according to the Jesuit Carheil, the spot where Marquette
had labored was now a witness of scenes the most unedifying.[15]
At Michilimackinac was seen a curious survival of Huron-Iroquois
customs. The villages of the Hurons and Ottawas, which were side by
side, separated only by a fence, were surrounded by a common enclosure
of triple palisades, which, with the addition of loopholes for musketry,
were precisely like those seen by Cartier at Hochelaga, and by Champlain
in the Onondaga country. The dwellings which these defences enclosed
were also after the old Huron-Iroquois pattern,--those long arched
structures covered with bark which Brébeuf found by the shores of
Matchedash Bay, and Jogues on the banks of the Mohawk. Besides the
Indians, there was a French colony at the place, chiefly of fur-traders,
lodged in log-cabins, roofed with cedar bark, and forming a street along
the shore close to the palisaded villages of the Hurons and Ottawas. The
fort, known as Fort Buade, stood at the head of the little bay.[16]
The Hurons and Ottawas were thorough savages, though the Hurons retained
the forms of Roman Catholic Christianity. This tribe, writes Cadillac,
"are reduced to a very small number; and it is well for us that they
are, for they are ill-disposed and mischievous, with a turn for intrigue
and a capacity for large undertakings. Luckily, their power is not
great; but as they cannot play the lion, they play the fox, and do their
best to make trouble between us and our allies."
La Mothe-Cadillac[17] was a captain in the colony troops, and an admirer
of the late governor, Frontenac, to whose policy he adhered, and whose
prejudices he shared. He was amply gifted with the kind of intelligence
that consists in quick observation, sharpened by an inveterate spirit of
sarcasm, was energetic, enterprising, well instructed, and a bold and
sometimes a visionary schemer, with a restless spirit, a nimble and
biting wit, a Gascon impetuosity of temperament, and as much devotion as
an officer of the King was forced to profess, coupled with small love of
priests and an aversion to Jesuits.[18] Carheil and Marest, missionaries
of that order at Michilimackinac, were objects of his especial
antipathy, which they fully returned. The two priests were impatient of
a military commandant to whose authority they were in some small measure
subjected; and they imputed to him the disorders which he did not, and
perhaps could not, prevent. They were opposed also to the traffic in
brandy, which was favored by Cadillac on the usual ground that it
attracted the Indians, and so prevented the English from getting control
of the fur-trade,--an argument which he reinforced by sanitary
considerations based on the supposed unwholesomeness of the fish and
smoked meat which formed the chief diet of Michilimackinac. "A little
brandy after the meal," he says, with the solemnity of the learned
Purgon, "seems necessary to cook the bilious meats and the crudities
they leave in the stomach."[19]
Cadillac calls Carheil, superior of the mission, the most passionate and
domineering man he ever knew, and further declares that the Jesuit tried
to provoke him to acts of violence, in order to make matter of
accusation against him. If this was Carheil's aim, he was near
succeeding. Once, in a dispute with the commandant on the brandy-trade,
he upbraided him sharply for permitting it; to which Cadillac replied
that he only obeyed the orders of the court. The Jesuit rejoined that he
ought to obey God, and not man,--"on which," says the commandant, "I
told him that his talk smelt of sedition a hundred yards off, and begged
that he would amend it. He told me that I gave myself airs that did not
belong to me, holding his fist before my nose at the same time. I
confess I almost forgot that he was a priest, and felt for a moment
like knocking his jaw out of joint; but, thank God, I contented myself
with taking him by the arm, pushing him out, and ordering him not to
come back."[20]
Such being the relations of the commandant and the Father Superior, it
is not surprising to find the one complaining that he cannot get
absolved from his sins, and the other painting the morals and manners of
Michilimackinac in the blackest colors.
I have spoken elsewhere of the two opposing policies that divided
Canada,--the policies of concentration and of expansion, on the one hand
leaving the west to the keeping of the Jesuits, and confining the
population to the borders of the St. Lawrence; on the other, the
occupation of the interior of the continent by posts of war and
trade.[21] Through the force of events the latter view had prevailed;
yet while the military chiefs of Canada could not but favor it, the
Jesuits were unwilling to accept it, and various interests in the colony
still opposed it openly or secretly. Frontenac had been its strongest
champion, and Cadillac followed in his steps. It seemed to him that the
time had come for securing the west for France.
The strait--_détroit_--which connects Lake Huron with Lake Erie was the
most important of all the western passes. It was the key of the three
upper lakes, with the vast countries watered by their tributaries, and
it gave Canada her readiest access to the valley of the Mississippi. If
the French held it, the English would be shut out from the northwest;
if, as seemed likely, the English should seize it, the Canadian
fur-trade would be ruined.[22] The possession of it by the French would
be a constant curb and menace to the Five Nations, as well as a barrier
between those still formidable tribes and the western Indians, allies of
Canada; and when the intended French establishment at the mouth of the
Mississippi should be made, Detroit would be an indispensable link of
communication between Canada and Louisiana.
Denonville had recognized the importance of the position, and it was by
his orders that Greysolon Du Lhut, in 1686, had occupied it for a time,
and built a picket fort near the site of Fort Gratiot.[23]
It would be idle to imagine that the motives of Cadillac were wholly
patriotic. Fur-trading interests were deeply involved in his plans, and
bitter opposition was certain. The fur-trade, in its nature, was a
constant breeder of discord. The people of Montreal would have the
tribes come down every summer from the west and northwest and hold a
fair under the palisades of their town. It is said that more than four
hundred French families lived wholly or in part by this home trade, and
therefore regarded with deep jealousy the establishment of interior
posts, which would forestall it. Again, every new western post would
draw away trade from those already established, and every trading
license granted to a company or an individual would rouse the animosity
of those who had been licensed before. The prosperity of Detroit would
be the ruin of Michilimackinac, and those whose interests centred at the
latter post angrily opposed the scheme of Cadillac.
He laid his plans before Count de Maurepas by a characteristic memorial,
apparently written in 1699. In this he proposed to gather all the tribes
of the lakes at Detroit, civilize them and teach them French, "insomuch
that from pagans they would become children of the Church, and therefore
good subjects of the King." They will form, he continues, a considerable
settlement, "strong enough to bring the English and the Iroquois to
reason, or, with help from Montreal, to destroy both of them." Detroit,
he adds, should be the seat of trade, which should not be permitted in
the countries beyond it. By this regulation the intolerable glut of
beaver-skins, which spoils the market, may be prevented. This proposed
restriction of the beaver-trade to Detroit was enough in itself to raise
a tempest against the whole scheme. "Cadillac well knows that he has
enemies," pursues the memorial, "but he keeps on his way without turning
or stopping for the noise of the puppies who bark after him."[24]
Among the essential features of his plan was a well-garrisoned fort, and
a church, served not by Jesuits alone, but also by Récollet friars and
priests of the Missions Étrangères. The idea of this ecclesiastical
partnership was odious to the Jesuits, who felt that the west was their
proper field, and that only they had a right there. Another part of
Cadillac's proposal pleased them no better. This was his plan of
civilizing the Indians and teaching them to speak French; for it was the
reproach of the Jesuit missions that they left the savage a savage
still, and asked little of him but the practice of certain rites and the
passive acceptance of dogmas to him incomprehensible.
"It is essential," says the memorial, "that in this matter of teaching
the Indians our language the missionaries should act in good faith, and
that his Majesty should have the goodness to impose his strictest orders
upon them; for which there are several good reasons. The first and most
stringent is that when members of religious orders or other
ecclesiastics undertake anything, they never let it go. The second is
that by not teaching French to the Indians they make themselves
necessary [as interpreters] to the King and the governor. The third is
that if all Indians spoke French, all kinds of ecclesiastics would be
able to instruct them. This might cause them [the Jesuits] to lose some
of the presents they get; for though these Reverend Fathers come here
only for the glory of God, yet the one thing does not prevent the
other,"--meaning that God and Mammon may be served at once. "Nobody can
deny that the priests own three quarters of Canada. From St. Paul's Bay
to Quebec, there is nothing but the seigniory of Beauport that belongs
to a private person. All the rest, which is the best part, belongs to
the Jesuits or other ecclesiastics. The Upper Town of Quebec is composed
of six or seven superb palaces belonging to Hospital Nuns, Ursulines,
Jesuits, Récollets, Seminary priests, and the bishop. There may be some
forty private houses, and even these pay rent to the ecclesiastics,
which shows that _the one thing does not prevent the other_." From this
it will be seen that, in the words of one of his enemies, Cadillac "was
not quite in the odor of sanctity."
"One may as well knock one's head against a wall," concludes the
memorial, "as hope to convert the Indians in any other way [than that of
civilizing them]; for thus far all the fruits of the missions consist in
the baptism of infants who die before reaching the age of reason."[25]
This was not literally true, though the results of the Jesuit missions
in the west had been meagre and transient to a surprising degree.
Cadillac's plan of a settlement at Detroit was not at first received
with favor by Callières, the governor; while the intendant Champigny, a
fast friend of the Jesuits, strongly opposed it. By their order the
chief inhabitants of Quebec met at the Château St. Louis,--Callières,
Champigny, and Cadillac himself being present. There was a heated debate
on the beaver-trade, after which the intendant commanded silence,
explained the projects of Cadillac, and proceeded to oppose them. His
first point was that the natives should not be taught French, because
the Indian girls brought up at the Ursuline Convent led looser lives
than the young squaws who had received no instruction, while it was much
the same with the boys brought up at the Seminary.
"M. de Champigny," returned the sarcastic Cadillac, "does great honor to
the Ursulines and the Seminary. It is true that some Indian women who
have learned our language have lived viciously; but that is because
their teachers were too stiff with them, and tried to make them
nuns."[26]
Champigny's position, as stated by his adversary, was that "all intimacy
of the Indians with the French is dangerous and corrupting to their
morals," and that their only safety lies in keeping them at a distance
from the settlements. This was the view of the Jesuits, and there is
much to be said in its favor; but it remains not the less true that
conversion must go hand in hand with civilization, or it is a failure
and a fraud.
Cadillac was not satisfied with the results of the meeting at the
Château St. Louis, and he wrote to the minister: "You can never hope
that this business will succeed if it is discussed here on the spot.
Canada is a country of cabals and intrigues, and it is impossible to
reconcile so many different interests."[27] He sailed for France,
apparently in the autumn of 1699, to urge his scheme at court. Here he
had an interview with the colonial minister, Ponchartrain, to whom he
represented the military and political expediency of his proposed
establishment;[28] and in a letter which seems to be addressed to La
Touche, chief clerk in the Department of Marine and Colonies, he
promised that the execution of his plan would insure the safety of
Canada and the ruin of the British colonies.[29] He asked for fifty
soldiers and fifty Canadians to begin the work, to be followed in the
next year by twenty or thirty families and by two hundred picked men of
various trades, sent out at the King's charge, along with priests of
several communities, and nuns to attend the sick and teach the Indian
girls. "I cannot tell you," continues Cadillac, "the efforts my enemies
have made to deprive me of the honor of executing my project; but so
soon as M. de Ponchartrain decides in its favor, the whole country will
applaud it."
Ponchartrain accepted the plan, and Cadillac returned to Canada
commissioned to execute it. Early in June, 1701, he left La Chine with a
hundred men in twenty-five canoes loaded with provisions, goods,
munitions, and tools. He was accompanied by Alphonse de Tonty, brother
of Henri de Tonty, the companion of La Salle, and by two half-pay
lieutenants, Dugué and Chacornacle, together with a Jesuit and a
Récollet.[30] Following the difficult route of the Ottawa and Lake
Huron, they reached their destination on the twenty-fourth of July, and
built a picket fort sixty yards square, which by order of the governor
they named Fort Ponchartrain.[31] It stood near the west bank of the
strait, about forty paces from the water.[32] Thus was planted the germ
of the city of Detroit.
Cadillac sent back Chacornacle with the report of what he had done, and
a description of the country written in a strain of swelling and gushing
rhetoric in singular contrast with his usual sarcastic utterances. "None
but enemies of the truth," his letter concludes, "are enemies of this
establishment, so necessary to the glory of the King, the progress of
religion, and the destruction of the throne of Baal."[33]
What he had, perhaps, still more at heart was making money out of it by
the fur-trade. By command of the King a radical change had lately been
made in this chief commerce of Canada, and the entire control of it had
been placed in the hands of a company in which all Canadians might take
shares. But as the risks were great and the conditions ill-defined, the
number of subscribers was not much above one hundred and fifty; and the
rest of the colony found themselves shut out from the trade,--to the
ruin of some, and the injury of all.[34]
All trade in furs was restricted to Detroit and Fort Frontenac, both of
which were granted to the company, subject to be resumed by the King at
his pleasure.[35] The company was to repay the eighty thousand francs
which the expedition to Detroit had cost; and to this were added various
other burdens. The King, however, was to maintain the garrison.
All the affairs of the company were placed in the hands of seven
directors, who began immediately to complain that their burdens were too
heavy, and to beg for more privileges; while an outcry against the
privileges already granted rose from those who had not taken shares in
the enterprise. Both in the company and out of it there was nothing but
discontent. None were worse pleased than the two Jesuits Carheil and
Marest, who saw their flocks at Michilimackinac, both Hurons and
Ottawas, lured away to a new home at Detroit. Cadillac took a peculiar
satisfaction in depriving Carheil of his converts, and in 1703 we find
him writing to the minister Ponchartrain, that only twenty-five Hurons
are left at Michilimackinac; and "I hope," he adds, "that in the autumn
I shall pluck this last feather from his wing; and I am convinced that
this obstinate priest will die in his parish without one parishioner to
bury him."[36]
If the Indians came to Detroit, the French would not come. Cadillac had
asked for five or six families as the modest beginning of a settlement;
but not one had appeared. The Indians, too, were angry because the
company asked too much for its goods; while the company complained that
a forbidden trade, fatal to its interests, went on through all the
region of the upper lakes. It was easy to ordain a monopoly, but
impossible to enforce it. The prospects of the new establishment were
deplorable; and Cadillac lost no time in presenting his views of the
situation to the court. "Detroit is good, or it is bad," he writes to
Ponchartrain. "If it is good, it ought to be sustained, without allowing
the people of Canada to deliberate any more about it. If it is bad, the
court ought to make up its mind concerning it as soon as may be. I have
said what I think. I have explained the situation. You have felt the
need of Detroit, and its utility for the glory of God, the progress of
religion, and the good of the colony. Nothing is left me to do but to
imitate the governor of the Holy City,--take water, and wash my hands of
it." His aim now appears. He says that if Detroit were made a separate
government, and he were put at the head of it, its prospects would
improve. "You may well believe that the company cares for nothing but to
make a profit out of it. It only wants to have a storehouse and clerks;
no officers, no troops, no inhabitants. Take this business in hand,
Monseigneur, and I promise that in two years your Detroit shall be
established of itself." He then informs the minister that as the company
complain of losing money, he has told them that if they will make over
their rights to him, he will pay them back all their past outlays. "I
promise you," he informs Ponchartrain, "that if they accept my proposal
and you approve it, I will make our Detroit flourish. Judge if it is
agreeable to me to have to answer for my actions to five or six
merchants [the directors of the company], who not long ago were blacking
their masters' boots." He is scarcely more reserved as to the Jesuits.
"I do what I can to make them my friends, but, impiety apart, one had
better sin against God than against them; for in that case one gets
one's pardon, whereas in the other the offence is never forgiven in this
world, and perhaps never would be in the other, if their credit were as
great there as it is here."[37]
The letters of Cadillac to the court are unique. No governor of New
France, not even the audacious Frontenac, ever wrote to a minister of
Louis XIV. with such off-hand freedom of language as this singular
personage,--a mere captain in the colony troops; and to a more stable
and balanced character it would have been impossible.
Cadillac's proposal was accepted. The company was required to abandon
Detroit to him on his paying them the expenses they had incurred. Their
monopoly was transferred to him; but as far as concerned beaver-skins,
his trade was limited to twenty thousand francs a year. The governor was
ordered to give him as many soldiers as he might want, permit as many
persons to settle at Detroit as might choose to do so, and provide
missionaries.[38] The minister exhorted him to quarrel no more with the
Jesuits, or anybody else, to banish blasphemy and bad morals from the
post, and not to offend the Five Nations.
The promised era of prosperity did not come. Detroit lingered on in a
weak and troubled infancy, disturbed, as we shall see, by startling
incidents. Its occupation by the French produced a noteworthy result.
The Five Nations, filled with jealousy and alarm, appealed to the King
of England for protection, and, the better to insure it, conveyed the
whole country from Lake Ontario northward to Lake Superior, and westward
as far as Chicago, "unto our souveraigne Lord King William the Third"
and his heirs and successors forever. This territory is described in the
deed as being about eight hundred miles long and four hundred wide, and
was claimed by the Five Nations as theirs by right of conquest.[39] It
of course included Detroit itself. The conveyance was drawn by the
English authorities at Albany in a form to suit their purposes, and
included terms of subjection and sovereignty which the signers could
understand but imperfectly, if at all. The Five Nations gave away their
land to no purpose. The French remained in undisturbed possession of
Detroit. The English made no attempt to enforce their title, but they
put the deed on file, and used it long after as the base of their claim
to the region of the Lakes.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] See "Old Régime in Canada," 383.
[16] _Relation de La Mothe-Cadillac_, in Margry, v. 75.
[17] He wrote his name as above. It is often written La Motte, which has
the advantage of conveying the pronunciation unequivocally to an
unaccustomed English ear. La Mothe-Cadillac came of a good family of
Languedoc. His father, Jean de La Mothe, seigneur de Cadillac et de
Launay, or Laumet, was a counsellor in the Parliament of Toulouse. The
date of young Cadillac's birth is uncertain. The register of his
marriage places it in 1661, and that of his death in 1657. Another
record, cited by Farmer in his _History of Detroit_, makes it 1658. In
1703 he himself declared that he was forty-seven years old. After
serving as lieutenant in the regiment of Clairembault, he went to Canada
about the year 1683. He became skilled in managing Indians, made himself
well acquainted with the coasts of New England, and strongly urged an
attack by sea on New York and Boston, as the only sure means of securing
French ascendency. He was always in opposition to the clerical party.
[18] See _La Mothe-Cadillac à ----, 3 Août, 1695_.
[19] _La Mothe-Cadillac à ----, 3 Août, 1695._
[20] "Il me dit que je me donnois des airs qui ne m'appartenoient pas,
en me portant le poing au nez. Je vous avoue, Monsieur, que je pensai
oublier qu'il étoit prêtre, et que je vis le moment où j'allois luy
démonter la mâchoire; mais, Dieu merci, je me contentai de le prendre
par le bras et de le pousser dehors, avec ordre de n'y plus rentrer."
Margry, v. (author's edition), Introduction, civ. This introduction,
with other editorial matter, is omitted in the edition of M. Margry's
valuable collection, printed under a vote of the American Congress.
[21] See "Count Frontenac," 440.
[22] Robert Livingston urged the occupation of Detroit as early as 1700.
_N. Y. Col. Docs._, iv. 650.
[23] _Denonville à Du Lhut, 6 Juin, 1686._ Count Frontenac, 133.
[24] "Sans se destourner et sans s'arrester au bruit des jappereaux qui
crient après luy."--_Mémoire de La Mothe-Cadillac adressé au Comte de
Maurepas._
[25] _Mémoire adressé au Comte de Maurepas_, in Margry, v. 138.
[26] La Mothe-Cadillac, _Rapport au Ministre_, 1700, in Margry, v. 157.
[27] _Rapport au Ministre_, 1700.
[28] Cadillac's report of this interview is given in Sheldon, _Early
History of Michigan_, 85-91.
[29] _La Mothe-Cadillac à un premier commis, 18 Octobre, 1700_, in
Margry, v. 166.
[30] _Callières au Ministre, 4 Octobre, 1701. Autre lettre du même, sans
date_, in Margry, v. 187, 190.
[31] _Callières et Champigny au Ministre, sans date._
[32] _Relation du Destroit_ (by the Jesuit who accompanied the
expedition).
[33] _Description de la Rivière du Détroit, jointe à la lettre de MM. de
Callières et de Champigny, 8 Octobre, 1701._
[34] _Callières au Ministre, 9 Novembre, 1700._
[35] _Traité fait avec la Compagnie de la Colonie de Canada, 31 Octobre,
1701._
[36] _Lamothe-Cadillac à Ponchartrain, 31 Aoust, 1703_ (Margry, v. 301).
On Cadillac's relations with the Jesuits, see _Conseils tenus par
Lamothe-Cadillac avec les Sauvages_ (Margry, v. 253-300); also a curious
collection of Jesuit letters sent by Cadillac to the minister, with
copious annotations of his own. He excepts from his strictures Father
Engelran, who, he says, incurred the ill-will of the other Jesuits by
favoring the establishment of Detroit, and he also has a word of
commendation for Father Germain.
[37] _La Mothe-Cadillac à Ponchartrain, 31 Août, 1703._ "Toute impiété à
part, il vaudroit mieux pescher contre Dieu que contre eux, parce que
d'un costé on en reçoit son pardon, et de l'autre, l'offense, mesme
prétendue, n'est jamais remise dans ce monde, et ne le seroit peut-estre
jamais dans l'autre, si leur crédit y estoit aussi grand qu'il est dans
ce pays."
[38] _Ponchartrain à La Mothe-Cadillac, 14 Juin, 1704._
[39] _Deed from the Five Nations to the King of their Beaver Hunting
Ground_, in _N. Y. Col. Docs._, iv. 908. It is signed by the totems of
sachems of all the Nations.