THE BEGINNING OF FRONTENAC'S ADMINISTRATION
The information we possess respecting the life of Count Frontenac prior
to his appointment to the governorship of Canada is far from being as
complete as might be wished. Such particulars as the records of the
period furnish have been carefully gathered by Parkman and others;[6]
and it is doubtful whether any further facts of importance will come to
light. He was born--there is nothing to show where--in 1620, one year
after the great minister, Colbert, under whom he was destined to serve.
His family belonged to the small principality of Bearn, now incorporated
in the Department of the Basses Pyrenees, which, made an appanage to the
French Crown by Henry of Navarre, was only formally incorporated with
the kingdom of France in the very year in which Frontenac was born. His
father, Henri de Buade, was colonel of the regiment of Navarre, but has
not otherwise passed into history. His grandfather, Antoine de Buade,
Seigneur de Frontenac and Baron de Palluau, was a man of more
distinction, being not only state councillor under Henry IV, but first
steward of the royal household and governor of St. Germain-en-Laye. He
is described in the memoirs of Philip Hurault as "one of the oldest
servants of the king." His children used to play familiarly with the
dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII; and the association thus formed lasted
for some time after their playmate became king, which he did, nominally,
at the age of nine, upon the assassination of his father, Henry IV. The
Frontenac family was thus noble, though not of the highest nobility; and
its connection with the domestic life of the royal family gave it no
doubt an additional measure of influence. The youthful king, with whom
the young Frontenacs played, became the father of Louis XIV.
Louis de Buade, Count Frontenac, the subject of this narrative, felt
early in life a call to arms. The Thirty Years' War broke out in 1618;
and when France, in 1635, under the astute guidance of Cardinal
Richelieu, interfered on the Protestant side, Frontenac, then fifteen
years of age, was sent to Holland to serve under the Prince of Orange.
He seems to have acquitted himself with bravery and distinction in many
different sieges and engagements both in the Low Countries and in Italy.
He was wounded many times: at the siege of Orbitello in 1646 he had an
arm broken. In this year he was raised to the rank of _marechal de
camp_, or brigadier-general. Three years before, at the age of
twenty-three, he had been made colonel of the regiment of Normandy. His
service appears to have been continuous, or nearly so, till the war was
brought to a conclusion in 1648 by the Peace of Westphalia. In the year
mentioned we find him resting from the alarms and fatigues of war in his
father's house on the Quai des Celestins at Paris. Close by lived an
attractive young lady of sixteen, daughter of a certain M. de la
Grange-Trianon, Sieur de Neuville, with whom, as became his age and
profession, the returned warrior fell deeply in love. His passion was
returned sufficiently to lead the young lady, when her father's consent
could not be obtained, to marry her suitor at one of the churches in
Paris authorized to solemnize marriages, in more or less urgent cases,
without the consent of parents. The marriage was not a happy one. Madame
de Frontenac soon conceived a positive aversion for her husband, and
they seem, at a very early period, to have ceased to live together,
though not before the birth of a son. The child was placed in the charge
of a village nurse, and little more is heard of him, except that when he
grew up he embraced the profession of arms, and died, it is not certain
how, at a comparatively early age. The mother joined the train of
Mademoiselle de Montpensier. These were the days of the Fronde--the
abortive rebellion against the fiscal iniquities of Mazarin during the
minority of Louis XIV--and in following the fortunes of her patroness,
whose father, the king's uncle, had joined the opposition, the young
countess had some strange adventures.
What part, if any, Frontenac himself took in the troubles of the period,
does not appear; probably none, for although somewhat turbulent by
nature, as will abundantly appear hereafter, he was not without a large
element of caution, particularly where persons in high authority were
concerned. It is certain, at least, that, when the strife was over, he
enjoyed a good position at court, as Mademoiselle de Montpensier notes,
having met him more than once in the cabinet of the queen. He possessed
a property on the Indre, in the neighbourhood of Blois, and here he
attempted to keep up a state far beyond his income. "Your means are very
slender and your waste is great," said the chief-justice to Sir John
Falstaff; and the same observation might not inaptly have been addressed
to Frontenac. He prided himself extravagantly upon his horses, his
table, his servants--in a word, on everything that was his; entertained
largely, and ran himself hopelessly into debt. In 1669 the French
government sent a contingent to assist the Venetians in defending Candia
(Crete), against the Turks. The Venetians offered to place their own
troops under French command, and Frontenac had the high honour of being
recommended by Turenne, the greatest military leader of the age, for the
position. In this struggle the Turks triumphed; the island fell into
their power; and Frontenac returned to France with enhanced military
prestige, but without any amelioration of his financial position. Saint
Simon describes him as "a man of good abilities, holding a prominent
position in society, but utterly ruined." He adds that he could not bear
the haughty temper of his wife, and that his appointment as governor of
Canada was given to him in order to relieve him of her, and afford him
some means of living. His wife's temper was not more haughty probably
than his own; neither apparently was disposed to show any deference to
the wishes of the other. Madame de Frontenac, who was a woman of keen
intelligence, without any large amount of feminine tenderness, took too
dispassionate a measure of her husband's qualities to satisfy his rather
exacting self-esteem. She must have had some means of her own, for,
though she did not go to court, she lived for many years surrounded by
the best people and enjoying a high degree of social authority. Though
she did not accompany her husband to Canada, and probably was not
invited to do so, it is plausibly conjectured that her influence in
court circles stood him in good stead on more than one occasion.
Frontenac's commission as governor was dated 6th April 1672, but he did
not leave France till midsummer. It is interesting to know that M. de
Grignan, Madame de Sevigne's son-in-law, was a candidate for the same
position. Had he obtained it, and had his wife, the accomplished
daughter of a still more accomplished mother, accompanied him, what
flashes of light on Canadian society might we not have obtained from
that mother's correspondence! Unfortunately no vestige of Frontenac's
private correspondence with either his wife or any one else remains.
Courcelles and Talon were still at Quebec when he arrived. From the
former he obtained a full account of his expedition to Lake Ontario; and
from the latter much information as to the general condition of the
country, the various enterprises in the way of exploration that had
already been undertaken, and the further ones that it might be well to
organize. Frontenac, who had the eye of a soldier for a good military
position, was much impressed by what Courcelles told him of Cataraqui;
and from the first the idea of establishing a fortified post at that
point took strong possession of his mind.
The new governor was not a young man--he was fifty-two years of age--but
his natural force, either of body or of mind, was not abated. To a man
of his tastes and habits there were many privations involved in a
residence in a country like Canada; but there were compensations, the
chief of which, perhaps, was to be found in the opportunity afforded him
of exercising a semi-royal pomp and power; while a close second, it
cannot be doubted, was the chance of rehabilitating his shattered
fortunes. It would be unjust, at the same time, to suppose that the man
who had fought through so many hard campaigns was not sincerely desirous
of serving his king and country in the new position to which he had been
assigned. The first important step that he took was a characteristic
one, namely, an attempt to constitute in Canada the "three estates" of
nobles, clergy, and people, of which the kingdom of France was nominally
constituted. True, the three estates, or "States-General," as they were
properly called, had not been summoned in the mother country since 1614,
and it was doubtful if their existence as an organ of political
authority, or even of political opinion, was more than theoretical. This
fact might have caused another man to hesitate, but not Count Frontenac;
to him the idea of gathering representatives of the country round him,
marshalling them in their respective orders, and, after addressing them
in the name of the king, requiring them to take the oath of allegiance
in his presence, was too alluring to be put aside. So the summons went
forth, and the assembly was held on one of the last days of October in
the new church of the Jesuits. The "estates" were constituted, the oaths
were taken, and the governor stirred the feelings of his audience,
consisting, he says, of over a thousand persons, by referring to the
victories which his royal master had that year achieved in his war with
Holland. Everything, indeed, passed off beautifully; but when a report
of the proceedings reached the minister, Colbert, his response was of a
somewhat chilling nature. The immediate effect of the assembly might,
perhaps, he said, be good, but "it is well for you to observe that, as
you are always to follow the forms in force here, and as our kings have
considered it for a long time advantageous not to assemble the
States-General of their kingdom, with the object perhaps of insensibly
abolishing that ancient form, you also ought only very rarely, or--to
speak more correctly--never, give that form to the corporate body of the
inhabitants of that country." Colbert did not even approve--though
perhaps on this point he was expressing more particularly the views of
the king--of the election of "syndics" to represent the interests of the
population of Quebec. "Let every one," he said, "speak for himself; it
is not desirable to have any one authorized to speak for all." This was
absolutism with a vengeance. It answered for the day; but could the
minister have looked forward to 1789 he would have seen that the
"ancient form," which it was proposed to extinguish by desuetude, was
destined, like a blazing star that suddenly flashes a strange light in
the heavens, to leap into a new life, amazing, consuming, resistless.
The views of the governor, it must be admitted, were, in this whole
matter, decidedly in advance of those of the minister, able
administrator as the latter undoubtedly was. Frontenac had come to
Canada to uphold the royal authority in the fullest sense, but he
appears to have had a perception that, in a new country where so much
responsibility was necessarily thrown upon individuals, there ought to
be a certain measure of spontaneous political life. Masterful as he was
himself by nature, it is not recorded that he ever dwelt on the
necessity of repressing individual liberty; it is the intendant,
Meulles, a dozen years later, who writes: "It is of very great
importance that the people should not be allowed to speak their
minds."[7]
No, the quarter in which Frontenac conceived the authority of his royal
master might, perhaps, be threatened, was a different one altogether; in
other words the battle he foresaw was not against the political
aspirations of the people, but against the excessive claims and
pretensions of the ecclesiastical power. This idea did not originate in
his own mind. The instructions which he brought out with him, while they
eulogized the zeal and piety of the Jesuits, hinted that they might seek
to extend their authority beyond its proper limits, in which case
Frontenac was to "give them kindly to understand the conduct they ought
to observe"; and if they did not amend their ways, he was, as the
document read, "skilfully to oppose their designs in such a way that no
rupture may ensue, and no distinct intention on your part to thwart
their purposes may be apparent." The court had, indeed, for several
years been under the impression that cautions of this kind to its
representatives were necessary. In Talon's instructions, drafted in the
year 1664, the troubles that had occurred between previous governors and
the bishop were rehearsed, and the inference was at least suggested
that these might in part have arisen from the domineering spirit of the
prelate. He had had his way with Argenson, Avaugour, and Mezy; but, if
the civil power was not to pale entirely before the ecclesiastical, it
was about time that the series of his victories should close. Other
despatches to Courcelles, Bouteroue (interim intendant during Talon's
temporary absence in France), and Frontenac himself contain observations
of a like tenor.
The redoubtable vicar-apostolic was not in Canada when Frontenac
arrived. He had sailed for France in the month of May to press the
important matter of his appointment as bishop of Quebec. A letter which
he wrote to the cardinals of the propaganda almost immediately on his
arrival serves to show the reasons he had for desiring this change of
status, and, incidentally, his opinion of the civil officers of the
Crown. "I have learnt," he says, "by a long experience how insecure the
office of vicar-apostolic is against those who are entrusted with
political affairs, I mean the officers of the court, the perpetual
rivals and despisers of the ecclesiastical power, who steadily contend
that the authority of a vicar-apostolic is open to doubt, and should be
kept within certain limits. That is why, having considered the whole
matter very carefully, I have fully determined to resign that office,
and not to return to New France, unless the bishopric of Quebec is
constituted, and unless I am provided and armed with the bulls
constituting me the Ordinary."[8] These are the words of a man who knows
his own mind, and, we may add, of one who is prepared to fight his
enemies to a finish. He may not have known, before he arrived in France,
what man, and what kind of a man, had been selected as successor to
Courcelles; but we may be sure that, when he found out, he was not less
impressed than before with the need for a strengthening of his position.
Louis XIV had himself for thirteen years been pressing, at intervals,
upon the Holy See the expediency of establishing a bishopric in New
France, but without much success. There were some points of difference
between the French court and the Roman authorities as to the conditions
under which the projected diocese should be created, and the latter
showed a wonderful skill in prolonging the negotiations. Finally, the
only point in dispute was whether the new bishop should be a suffragan
of one of the French archbishops, as desired by the king, or directly
dependent on the Pope. This point was conceded by the king in December
1673; but it was not till October 1674 that the necessary bull was
issued. In the following April Laval took the oath of fealty to the king
as bishop of Quebec, with jurisdiction over the whole of Canada, and
shortly afterwards he set sail for the scene of his pastoral labours.
Thus it was that for nearly three years Frontenac had no direct
relations with the head of the Canadian church.
Was this interval, then, one of peace? Not entirely. Frontenac defines
his position and raises a note of alarm in his very first despatch to
the minister for the colonies.[9] He was dissatisfied, he said, with
"the complete subserviency of the priests of the seminary at Quebec, and
the bishop's vicar-general to the Jesuit fathers, without whose orders
they never do anything. Thus," he adds, "they [the Jesuits] are
indirectly the masters of whatever relates to the spiritual, which, as
you are aware, is a great machine for moving all the rest." He thinks
they have gained an ascendency even over the Superior of the
Recollets;[10] and he expresses the wish that the ecclesiastics of that
order could be replaced by abler men who could hold their own against
the Jesuit influence. He mentions that he had expressed his surprise in
strong terms to the Jesuit fathers at Ste. Foy that not one of their
Indian converts had been taught the French language, and had told them
that they "should bethink themselves, when rendering the savages
subjects of Jesus Christ, of making them subjects of the king also--that
the true way to make them Christians was to make them men." The governor
had probably noticed that lack of vigorous, self-helping manhood in the
Indian converts, which is hinted at even in the _Jesuit Relations_, and
which had certainly been conspicuous in the christianized Huron tribe in
the crisis of their struggle with the Iroquois. As regards teaching them
the French language, the missionaries had their own well-defined reasons
for not doing so. They did not wish to bring them into too close contact
with the French inhabitants, lest they should unlearn the lessons of
morality and religion that had been taught to them. The great object
which the priests had in view was to build up a kingdom not of this
world; and, as the object which the king and his officers had mainly in
view was to enlarge and strengthen the French dominions, it is not
surprising that there was clashing now and again. Frontenac, in writing
to Colbert, seems to have felt assured of sympathy in his somewhat
anti-clerical, or, at least, anti-Jesuit, attitude; otherwise he would
never have ventured to make, as he does in the same despatch, the
unjustifiable statement that the Jesuit missionaries were quite as much
interested in the beaver trade as in the conversion of souls, and that
most of their missions were pure mockeries. It was of Colbert that
Madame de Maintenon said: "He only thinks of his finances, and never of
religion."
But while the elements of future trouble were plainly visible, no
serious friction occurred during the first year of the new governor's
administration. His relations with the Jesuit order were civil, and with
the Sulpicians, at Montreal, and the Recollets entirely friendly. With
the Sovereign Council, too, they were all that could be wished. His mind
at this time was greatly taken up with the project he had in view of
following in Courcelles' footsteps and establishing a military and
trading post at Cataraqui. His general policy when he wanted to do a
thing was not to ask permission beforehand, but to do it, and trust to
the result for justification. Had he laboured under Nelson's disability,
he would have been quite capable of turning his blind eye to a
prohibitive signal, even after seeing it distinctly with his good one.
In his despatch to Colbert of the 2nd November he mentions, in a casual
way, that he proposes next spring to visit the place at the outlet of
Lake Ontario where M. de Courcelles had projected the establishment of a
fort, in order that he may be able "the better to understand its site
and importance, and to see if, notwithstanding our actual weakness, it
be not possible to create some establishment there that would also
strengthen the settlement the gentlemen of Montreal [the Sulpicians]
have already formed at Quinte." He adds: "I beg of you, my Lord, to be
assured that I shall not spare either care or trouble, or even my life
itself, if it be necessary, in the effort to accomplish something
pleasing to you, and to prove the gratitude I shall ever feel for the
favours I have received at your hands." This is quite effusive, and at
the same time tolerably diplomatic. How _could_ the minister do
otherwise than approve an enterprise undertaken in so self-sacrificing a
spirit, and one prompted by so much personal devotion to himself?
Colbert might possibly have replied--if he had had the chance--by
pointing Frontenac to his instructions, and asking him to show his
devotion to duty by following them out as closely as possible. Those
instructions contained the following clause, the tenor of which we shall
find repeated in many subsequent communications from the home
government: "Sieur de Frontenac is to encourage the inhabitants by all
possible means to undertake the cultivation and clearing of the soil;
and as the distance of the settlements from one another has considerably
retarded the increase thereof, and otherwise facilitated the
opportunities of the Iroquois for their destructive expeditions, Sieur
de Frontenac will consider the practicability of obliging those
inhabitants to make contiguous clearings, either by constraining the old
colonists to labour at it for a certain time, or by making new grants to
future settlers under this condition." There is not a word said about
extending the boundaries of the colony, or throwing out advanced posts,
or any other phase of the policy of expansion. The French government was
in fact strongly anti-expansionist; but Frontenac, resembling in this
point a later sage, did not think they knew everything in the "Judee" of
the ministry of marine and colonies.
So, just about the time that the minister was inditing the despatch in
which he gently chided the ebullient Frontenac for his rashness in
summoning the States-General, the latter was preparing another little
surprise for him. In the spring of the year he had given orders that men
and canoes should be held in readiness for the contemplated movement;
and, as the supply of available canoes was likely to fall short, he had
ordered that a number of new ones should be built. He also directed the
construction of two flat-boats, similar to the one used by Courcelles,
but of twice the capacity. On the 3rd of June he started with a certain
force from Quebec, and after visiting and inspecting different posts
along the river, arrived at Montreal, the point of rendezvous, on the
15th of the same month. Here he was received, according to his own
account, which there is no reason to question, with the greatest
enthusiasm and _eclat_.
It may be interesting to pause for a moment and try to reconstruct in
imagination the scene on which the grizzled and sun-beaten warrior gazed
as he alighted from his canoe at five o'clock in the afternoon of that
long, bright summer day. The river bank, which had become a common, was
probably no longer flower-bespread as it was on that glorious morning in
the month of May 1642 when Maisonneuve, Mademoiselle Mance, and their
companions knelt in prayer on the soil which their labours and
sacrifices were to consecrate; but the mountain, with its leafy honours
thick upon it, stood forth in royal splendour, while cultivated fields,
smiling with the promise of a harvest, sloped upwards to its base. In
the foreground was the growing burg, full of life and animation on this
memorable day. To the left was the fort built by Maisonneuve, no longer
relied on for defence, but used chiefly as a residence for the local
governor. The river front was as yet unoccupied by houses, the nearest
line of which lay along what is now, as it was then, St. Paul Street,
from St. Peter Street in the west to somewhat beyond the present
Dalhousie Square in the east. Montreal as yet did not possess any parish
church; the churches maintained by the different congregations,
particularly that of the Hotel Dieu, having up to this time been made to
serve the needs of the population. The foundations of a regular parish
church had been laid, but the work of construction was proceeding
slowly, and five years had yet to elapse before the edifice was
finished. The principal buildings were the Hotel Dieu, which had lately
lost its pious founder, Mademoiselle Mance; the Congregation de Notre
Dame, still conducted by the brave and cheery Margaret Bourgeoys; and
the Seminary of St. Sulpice. The whole town, if we may so call it, was
comprised between the eastern and western limits just defined, and the
northern and southern ones of St. Paul and St. James Streets; even so,
much the larger part of the contained space was not built up. A few of
the wealthier merchants had erected substantial houses, and there was
something already in the appearance of the place which suggested that it
would have a future. We can imagine the zeal with which the local
governor, Perrot, upon whose proceedings in the way of illicit traffic
it is probable Frontenac already had an eye--an eye of envy the Abbe
Faillon somewhat harshly suggests--would receive the king's direct
representative. All the troops that the island could furnish were drawn
up under arms at the landing-place, and salvos of artillery and musketry
gave emphasis to the official words of welcome. The officers of justice
and the "syndic"--the spokesman of the people in municipal matters--were
next presented, and, after they had delivered addresses, a procession
was formed to the church, at the door of which the clergy were waiting
to receive the viceregal visitor with all due honour. By the time the
appropriate services, including the chanting of the _Te Deum_, had been
concluded, the sun had sunk behind the mountain. It was the hour for
rest and refreshment, and the governor was conducted to the quarters
assigned to him in the fort, beneath the windows of which tranquilly
rolled the mighty flood of the St. Lawrence, still bright with the
evening glow.
Frontenac had brought with him his military guard, consisting of twenty
men or so, his staff, and a few volunteers. Additional men were to
follow from Quebec, Three Rivers, and other places; and some were to be
recruited at Montreal. In ten or twelve days everything was in
readiness. A waggon-road had been made to Lachine, over which baggage,
provisions, and munitions of war were conveyed; and a start was made
from that point on the 30th June, the whole force consisting of about
four hundred men, including some Huron Indians, in one hundred and
twenty canoes and the two flat-boats already mentioned. Some time before
setting out Frontenac had sent on, as an envoy to the five Iroquois
nations, to invite them to a conference, Cavelier de la Salle, a man who
had already penetrated some distance into the western country, and who
was destined to achieve the highest fame as an explorer.
The voyage up the river was attended, as had indeed been expected, with
serious difficulty. The united strength of fifty men was necessary to
draw each of the flat-boats up the side of some of the rapids. The whole
force, however, worked with the utmost zeal and good-will; the Hurons in
particular accomplishing wonders of strength and endurance such as they
had never been known to perform for any previous commander. But if
portions of the journey were thus arduous, others were delightful. Thus
we read in Frontenac's own narrative: "It would be impossible to have
finer navigation or more favourable weather than we had on the 3rd of
July, a light north-east breeze having sprung up which enabled our
bateaux to keep up with the canoes. On the 4th we pursued our journey
and came to the most beautiful piece of country that can be imagined,
the river being strewn with islands, the trees in which are all either
oak or other kinds of hard wood, while the soil is admirable. The banks
on both sides of the river are not less charming, the trees, which are
very high, standing out distinctly and forming as fine groves as you
could see in France. On both sides may be seen meadows covered with rich
grass and a vast variety of lovely wild flowers; so that it may be
safely stated that from the head of Lake St. Francis to the next rapid
above, you could not see a more beautiful country, if only it were
cleared a bit."
On the 12th July, as the expedition was approaching Cataraqui in
excellent military order, they were met by the Indians, who evinced much
pleasure at seeing the count and his followers, and conducted them to a
spot suitable for encampment. Some preliminary civilities were
exchanged, but it was not till the 17th that serious negotiations were
begun. The count, meanwhile, having found close by what he considered
an advantageous location for his proposed fort, set his men to work to
clear the ground, fell and square timber, dig trenches, etc., in a
manner which fairly surprised the Indians, who were not accustomed to
seeing building operations carried on so systematically and speedily.
But if they were impressed by the working capacity of the expeditionary
force, they were still more deeply influenced by the discourse of the
governor and the presents which accompanied it. Had the count been a
"black robe" himself, he could not have spoken with more unction or more
unimpeachable orthodoxy in urging his savage hearers to embrace
Christianity. He condensed, for the occasion, the whole of Christian
teaching into the two great commandments of love to God and love to man,
and appealed to the consciences of his hearers as to whether both were
not entirely reasonable. This portion of his speech, in which he also
declared that he desired peace both between the French and the Iroquois,
and between the latter and all Indian tribes under French protection,
was recommended by a present of fifteen guns and a quantity of powder,
lead, and gunflints. Next he informed them of his intention to form a
trading-post at Cataraqui. "Here," he said, "you will find all sorts of
refreshments and commodities, which I shall cause to be furnished to you
at the cheapest rate possible." He added, however, that it would be very
expensive to bring goods so far, and that they must take that into
consideration in criticizing prices. Twenty-five large overcoats were
distributed at this point. In the third place he reproached them with
their cruel treatment of the Hurons, and said that he meant to treat all
the Indian nations alike, and wished all to enjoy equal security and
equal advantages in every way. "See," he said, "that no complaints are
made to me henceforward on this subject, for I shall become angry; as I
insist that you Iroquois, Algonquins, and other nations that have me for
a father, shall live henceforth as brothers." He asked also that they
would let him have a few of their children that they might learn the
French language and be instructed by the priests. Twenty-five shirts, an
equal number of pairs of stockings, five packages of glass beads, and
five coats were given to round off this appeal.
The reply of the delegates of the five Iroquois nations was in tone and
temper all that could be wished. They thanked Onontio that he had
addressed them as children, and were glad that he was going to assume
towards them the relation of father. They readily consented to live at
peace with the Hurons and Algonquins, and would, when they returned to
their cantons, carefully consider the question of letting him have a
certain number of their children. One delegate showed his financial
acumen by observing that, while Onontio had promised to let them have
goods as cheap as possible at the fort, he had not said what the tariff
would be. To this the count replied that he could not say what the
freight would amount to, but that considering them as his children, he
would see that they were fairly treated. Another, a Cayugan, evinced his
knowledge of current history by lamenting the calamities which the Dutch
were suffering in their war with the French, trade relations between the
Dutch and the Iroquois having always been very satisfactory. He consoled
himself, however, with the thought that his nation would now find a
father in Onontio.
While the negotiations were in progress, work on the fort was proceeding
rapidly, and by the 20th of the month it was finished. The count then
dismissed the body of his force, the men being anxious to return to
their homes. He himself remained behind to meet some belated delegates
from points on the north shore of Lake Ontario, whom he did not fail to
reprove for their want of punctuality, after which, with rare liberality
of speech, he repeated to them all he had said to the others. A few
days' delay was also caused by the necessity of awaiting a convoy from
Montreal with a year's provisions for the fort. Finally, on the 28th
July, the governor and his party started on their homeward journey and
arrived safely at Montreal on the 1st of August. During the whole
expedition not one man or one canoe was lost.
The narrative of this expedition has been given in some detail because
it sets in a strong light the better side of Frontenac's character. We
see him here as the able and vigorous organizer, the firm, judicious,
and skilful commander, the accomplished diplomat, and the lover of peace
rather than war. Short a time as he had been in the country, he seemed
already to understand the Indian character, and the Indians in turn
understood him. His language in addressing them was direct and simple,
frank and courageous. He had no hesitation in assuming the paternal
relation, and won their hearts by doing so. But it was not only over
savages that he exerted a natural ascendency, for we have seen the zeal
and enthusiasm with which his orders were executed by the whole
expeditionary force. Whatever weaknesses he may have had, it was not in
the field or in active service that they were displayed.
The memorandum, which serves as authority for the facts just narrated,
was addressed to Colbert, and sent to France by a ship sailing from
Quebec shortly before the close of navigation. The minister's reply was
dated 17th May of the following year. He does not at all congratulate
Frontenac upon his exploit. "You will readily understand," he says, "by
what I have just told you,[11] that his Majesty's intention is not that
you undertake great voyages by ascending the river St. Lawrence, nor
that the inhabitants spread themselves for the future further than they
have already done. On the contrary, he desires that you labour
incessantly, and during the whole time you are in that country, to
consolidate, concentrate, and form them into towns and villages, that
they may be in a better position to defend themselves successfully." In
acknowledging this despatch, far from apologizing for what he had done,
Frontenac told the minister that the very best results had flowed from
it. More Indians had come to Montreal than ever before, eight hundred
having been seen at one time; Iroquois, Algonquins, and Hurons were
mixing with one another in the most friendly manner; the Jesuit
missionaries among the Iroquois found their position greatly improved,
and were never tired of saying so; and, finally, he had obtained the
Indian children he had asked for, eight in number, who were being
educated in the French fashion, and who would be a perpetual guarantee
of the peaceful behaviour of the tribes to which they belonged. At the
same time he says, that if the minister absolutely disapproves of the
fort, he will go next year and pull it down with as much alacrity as he
had put it up. This the minister did not insist on. In fact he was not
long in coming round to Frontenac's view that considering all the
circumstances of the case the fort was a necessity. One point of
interest connected with its establishment, upon which Frontenac has left
us in ignorance, is whom he appointed as its first commandant. A
contemporary writer[12] tells us it was La Salle, and the statement is
not improbable. It was La Salle, as we have seen, whom the governor
sent to the Iroquois to invite them to the conference, and as he had
acquitted himself of that mission in the most successful manner, it
seems natural that he should have been the first chosen to command a
post, the principal object of which was to serve as a convenient
meeting-place for Iroquois and French. A temporary concession of the
fort was made a year later to two Montreal merchants, Bazire and Lebert,
but it passed again, in the following year, into the hands of La Salle,
who had meantime gone to France and laid before the court certain larger
schemes for which Fort Frontenac was to serve as a base, and which he
obtained the king's authority to carry into effect.
[Footnote 6: See particularly the interesting work of Mr. Ernest Myrand,
_Frontenac et ses Amis_, Quebec, 1902.]
[Footnote 7: It was not till 1717 that the merchants of Montreal and
Quebec were allowed to meet and discuss business affairs.]
[Footnote 8: Quoted by Faillon, vol. iii. p. 432.]
[Footnote 9: This office was held by Colbert (in connection with a
general control of marine, finance, and public works) from 1669 to the
date of his death, 6th September 1683; by his son, the Marquis of
Seignelay, from 1683 to the date of his own death, 3rd November 1690;
and from that time to the conclusion of the period covered by this
narrative by the Marquis of Pontchartrain.]
[Footnote 10: Through the influence of Talon, the king was induced in
the year 1668 to sign a decree permitting the Recollets to return to
Canada, and reinstating them in their former possessions. Pere Leclercq,
Recollet, says they were very much wanted. "For thirty years," to quote
his words, "complaint was made in Canada that consciences were being
burdened; and the more the colony increased in population the greater
was the outcry. I sincerely hope that there was no real occasion for it,
and that the great rigour of the [Jesuit] clergy was useful and
necessary. Still the Frenchman loves liberty, and under all skies is
opposed to constraint, even in religion."]
[Footnote 11: He had been speaking of the slow growth of the population
of Canada.]
[Footnote 12: Pere Leclercq, _Premier Etablissement de la Foi_, vol. ii.
p. 117.]