FRONTENAC TO THE RESCUE
From the moment that Prince William of Orange, the one unconquerable foe
of Louis XIV, was called to the throne of England, war between England
and France was a foregone conclusion. It was not declared, however, in
France till the 25th June 1689. Frontenac sailed from Rochelle on the
5th August following, the very day of the Lachine massacre. The king in
an interview with him is reported to have said: "I am sending you back
to Canada, where I am sure that you will serve me as well as you did
before; I ask nothing more of you." His Majesty also intimated, we are
told, that he believed the charges made against him were without
foundation. During the intervals between his two terms of office,
Frontenac had been living for the most part at court, in rather reduced
circumstances. The king once at least came to his relief with a gratuity
of three thousand five hundred francs, and possibly other liberalities
may have flowed to him from the same royal source, though Mr. Ernest
Myrand, after careful research, has not been able to discover trace of
any.[33]
The mission which was tendered to the aged count--he was now in his
seventieth year--was one which a younger man might have felt some
hesitation in accepting. The last accounts from Canada showed the
country to be in a deplorable condition, equally unable to make an
enduring peace or to wage a successful war; and the worst was yet to be
told on the governor's arrival. The situation was rendered decidedly
more critical by the fact of the war with England. True, a treaty had
been made by Louis XIV with James II, providing that, should war break
out between France and England, it should not extend to their American
possessions; but Louis, who did not recognize William III as a
legitimate sovereign, probably felt under no obligation to observe a
treaty made with his predecessor. We know, at least, that a scheme for
the conquest of the English colonies was arranged before Frontenac's
departure. Callieres, Governor of Montreal, had been sent to France by
Denonville in the fall of 1688 to represent the perilous situation of
the colony, and to urge the king to adopt a system of reprisals against
the English for the misdeeds of the Iroquois. Callieres and Frontenac
had some friends in common, and were thus brought together at court, and
the plan that was adopted was probably one that they had jointly
suggested to the court. It was, briefly, that two or three war vessels
should accompany Frontenac to Canada; that the count should disembark at
some point on the coast of Acadia, and proceed by the first private
vessel he could secure to Quebec; that on arrival there he should
organize a force of sixteen hundred men, one thousand regulars, and six
hundred militia, to march on New York by way of Albany; and that when he
was ready to move, he should notify the commander of the squadron, so
that the latter might advance to New York, and be prepared to co-operate
in the capture and occupation of the place. Meantime, the naval force
was to employ itself in picking up any English trading vessels that
might fall in its way.
Not only were plans thus formed for invading and seizing the English
colonies, but the French king made complete arrangements as to the
treatment of the inhabitants when conquered. Those who either were
Catholics, or were prepared to embrace the Catholic faith, might be
allowed to remain in possession of their property and civil rights; the
citizens of means were to be imprisoned and held for ransom, the rest of
the population, numbering about eighteen thousand, were to forfeit
everything and be driven penniless out of the country. It was proposed
to deport them, in the first place, to New England, pending the ulterior
conquest of that region. M. Lorin truly observes that Louis XIV, having
just deprived his own subjects of religious liberty by the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, could not possibly be expected to tolerate it in
any country of which he might acquire control.[34] A more ruthless
policy could scarcely have been devised, nor, it may be added, a more
senseless one. The deportation of so large a body of inhabitants, mainly
of Dutch origin, and all accustomed to the use of arms, was a task
ridiculously beyond the ability of the forces he was proposing to employ
for the purpose.
The plan was followed, so far as the sending out of a small squadron
with the new governor-general was concerned. Sailing, as already
mentioned, on the 5th August, Frontenac arrived at Chedabucto
(Guysborough), near the Straits of Canso, on the 12th September, and
there embarked in a small vessel, the _Francois Xavier_, for Quebec. On
the way he stopped at Perce, where the Recollet missionaries informed
him of the massacre of Lachine. His vessel must have been detained by
contrary winds, for it was the 12th October before he arrived at Quebec.
Here he was received by the citizens with the liveliest manifestations
of joy. The ecclesiastics associated themselves, _bon gre mal gre_, with
the popular feeling. The town was illuminated by night and hung with
banners by day; a _Te Deum_ was sung; and a Jesuit father delivered what
is recorded to have been a most pathetic discourse. On all hands the
count was acclaimed as the man the country needed to restore its fallen
fortunes and stay the hand of the destroyer. Denonville and Champigny
did not grace the rejoicings; they were at Montreal.
Quebec, however, was not the point of danger, nor that at which the
governor's services were most required. Still he remained there eight
days before proceeding to Montreal, where he arrived on the 27th
October. At that place he learnt from Denonville of the instructions he
had given for the abandonment and destruction of Fort Frontenac. The
indignation of the old warrior, to whom the fort called after his name
was a spot of peculiar predilection, can better be imagined than
described. He could hardly believe that a French governor could perform
so craven an act. If we may trust the Baron La Hontan, who does not in
this case tax very seriously our powers of belief, the interview between
the two dignitaries was a decidedly stormy one.[35] There was no time to
waste, however, in useless debate. Something possibly had happened to
delay or prevent the carrying out of the orders, and the fort might
perhaps yet be saved. An expedition was hastily organized to proceed to
the spot and ascertain the facts, but scarcely had it well started
before it encountered the entire garrison of the fort, minus six men,
whom they had lost in the rapids on the way down, returning to Montreal.
The deed had therefore been done. Valrennes, the commandant, told how he
had destroyed the stores, thrown such arms and ammunition as he could
not remove into the river, undermined the walls and fired the train, and
how, as they retreated, they had heard a dull explosion. Yes, the deed
had been done; but, as it turned out later, not with the full result
intended. The mines had exploded, but probably they had been hastily and
not over skilfully placed, and the injury to the walls was but slight.
Not long afterwards Frontenac was able to repair the damage and put the
fort once more in a condition of defence.
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 fashion. 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 _noblesse_. 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 fashion. 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 hardship 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
friendship 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 ambassador, 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
massacre of Lachine with all its attendant circumstances 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 circumstances, 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
shore, 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 fashion, and Perrot was
able to give an account of the success of the principal expedition--the
one directed against Albany--for it had returned to Montreal after doing
its bloody 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 massacre
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 anticipated a general massacre should the English obtain
possession of the town. The special enormities alleged to have been
committed by the heathen Iroquois in the massacre 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
assured 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 massacre; 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 assistance, 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 Hampshire and Maine. The attack was made in very similar fashion to
that at Schenectady. The assailants 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 passed 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
Casco Bay. The principal 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 Sylvanus 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 assault, 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 fashion
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 accumulated 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 governorship
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 attitude 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 pushing 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 Lordship, 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 accumulated 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 assured 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 brandishing
the hatchet over his head in true Indian fashion. The effect was
electric. The old Onontio was surpassing 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 appetites. 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 embassy, 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 dashing Baron La Hontan; but
that young man, who was well versed in the classics, 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 assist 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 assured 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 Documents_, 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 massacre. 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 Etablissement de la Foi._]
[Footnote 40: _Documentary History of New York_, vol. ii. pp. 164-9.]
[Footnote 41: _New York Colonial Documents_, 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 Massachusetts; Corlaer being a corruption of Cuyler, a Dutchman of
the early period held in high honour by them, and Kishon signifying "The
Fish."]