RENEWED EFFORTS AND PROGRESS
When Talon arrived at Quebec, New France had again just
escaped an Indian war. A party of Iroquois hunting near
the country of the Outaouais met two men of their nation
who had been prisoners of the Outaouais and had succeeded
in escaping. These informed their fellow-tribesmen that
the Outaouais village was undefended, almost every warrior
being absent. The Iroquois then attacked the village,
destroyed it, and brought with them as prisoners about
one hundred women and children. The Outaouais warriors,
when apprised of the raid, started in pursuit, but did
not succeed in overtaking the raiders. However, receiving
a reinforcement of another party of allied Indians, they
invaded the Senecas' territory. These hostilities aroused
the temper of the Iroquois, and a general Indian war
threatened, into which the French would unavoidably be
drawn. At that moment Garakonthie, the Iroquois chief
who had always been friendly to the French, advised the
Five Nations to send an embassy to the governor of Canada
asking him to compose these differences. The Five Nations
agreed, and Iroquois and Outaouais delegates, many hundreds
in number, came to Quebec. A great council was held
lasting three days, and Courcelle succeeded in bringing
about an understanding between the rival tribes. After
the meetings Garakonthie asked to be baptized, and Laval
himself performed the ceremony.
It was but a few days after these events that Talon
arrived, and, notwithstanding the improvement in the
situation, he does not seem to have deemed peace perfectly
secure, for he wrote to the king that it would be advisable
to send two hundred more soldiers. He added that the
Iroquois caused great injury to the trade of the colony
by hunting the beaver in the territories of the tribes
allied with the French, and selling the skins to Dutch
and English traders. In another letter Talon set forth
that these traders drew from the Iroquois 1,000,000
livres' worth of the best beaver, and he suggested the
construction of a small ship of the galley type to cruise
on Lake Ontario, and that two posts manned by one hundred
picked soldiers should be established, one on the north,
the other on the south shore of that lake. These measures
would ensure safe communication between the colony and
the Outaouais country, keep the Iroquois aloof, and favour
the opening of new roads to the south. It was a broad
and bold scheme. But could it be executed over the head
of M. de Courcelle? Talon had foreseen this objection
and had begged that the governor should be instructed to
give support and assistance. But once more the intendant
was going beyond his authority. Such an undertaking was
clearly within the governor's province. Talon was told
that he should lay his scheme before M. de Courcelle, so
that the governor might attend to its execution.
This incident sheds light upon the relations that existed
between Courcelle and Talon. The former was valiant,
energetic, and intelligent; but he felt that he was
outshone by the latter's promptness, celerity in design,
superior activity, wider and keener penetration, and he
could not conceal his displeasure.
After the great councils held at Quebec, the Senecas
again assumed a somewhat disquieting attitude. The
governor, they said, had been too hard on them. He had
threatened to chastise them in their own country if they
did not bring back their prisoners. Perhaps his arm was
not long enough to strike so far. Evidently they had
forgotten the expedition against the Mohawks five years
ago. They were convinced that distance and natural
impediments, such as rapids and torrents, protected them
from invasion in their remote country south of Lake
Ontario. Courcelle resolved to shake their confidence.
Early in the spring he went to Montreal and ordered the
construction of a flat-boat. In this he set out from
Lachine (June 3, 1671) with Perrot, governor of Montreal,
Captain de Laubia, Varennes, Le Moyne, La Valliere,
Normanville, Abbe Dollier de Casson, and about fifty good
men. Thirteen canoes accompanied the flat-boat. After
considerable exertion, the governor and his party passed
the rapids and continued up the St Lawrence; nine days
later they entered Lake Ontario, to the amazement of a
party of Iroquois whom they met there. The governor gave
these Indians a message for the Senecas and the other
nations, stating that he wished to keep the peace, but
that, if necessary, he could come and devastate their
country. The demonstration had the desired effect and
there was no further talk of war.
It will be inferred from Talon's proposals and schemes
already mentioned that his thoughts were now occupied
with the external affairs of the colony. This indeed was
to be the characteristic feature of his second
administration. When in Canada before he had concentrated
his attention chiefly upon judicial and political
organization, and had directed his efforts to promote
colonization, agriculture, industry, and trade--in a
word, the internal economy of New France. But now, without
neglecting any part of his duty, he seemed desirous of
widening his sphere of action by the extension of French
influence to the north, south, and west. On October 10,
1670, he wrote to the king: 'Since my arrival, I have
sent resolute men to explore farther than has ever been
done in Canada, some to the west and north-west, others
to the south-west and south. They will all on their return
write accounts of their expeditions and frame their
reports according to the instructions I have given them.
Everywhere they will take possession of the country,
erect posts bearing the king's arms, and draw up memoranda
of these proceedings to serve as title-deeds.'
Of these explorers one of the most noted was Cavelier de
la Salle. He had been born in 1643. After pursuing his
studies in a Jesuit college he came to Canada in 1666
and obtained from the Sulpicians a grant of land near
Montreal, named by him Saint-Sulpice, but ultimately
known under the name of Lachine. In 1669 Courcelle gave
him letters patent for an exploring journey towards the
Ohio and the Meschacebe, or Mississippi. By way of these
rivers he hoped to reach the Vermilion Sea, or Gulf of
California, and thus open a new road to China via the
Pacific ocean. At the same time the Abbes Dollier and de
Galinee, Sulpicians, had prepared for a remote mission
to the Outaouais. It was thought advisable to combine
the two expeditions. Thus it happened that La Salle and
the Sulpicians left Montreal in 1669 and journeyed together
as far as the western end of Lake Ontario. There they
parted. The Sulpicians wintered on the shores of Lake
Erie, and next spring passed the strait between Lakes
Erie and Huron, reached the Sault Sainte-Marie, and then
returned to Montreal by French river, Lake Nipissing,
and the Ottawa river. Their journey lasted from July 4,
1669, to June 18, 1670. In the meantime La Salle had
reached the Ohio and had followed it to the falls at
Louisville. He also returned in the summer of 1670. The
itinerary of his next expedition, undertaken in the same
year, is not very well known. According to an account of
doubtful authority, he went through Lakes Erie and Huron,
entered Lake Michigan, reached the Illinois river, and
even the Mississippi. But a careful study of contemporaneous
documents and evidence leads to the conclusion that the
Mississippi must be omitted from this itinerary. In our
opinion La Salle did not reach that river in 1671, as
has been asserted; he probably went as far as the Illinois
country.
Another of Talon's resolute explorers was Simon Francois
Daumont de Saint-Lusson. Accompanied by Nicolas Perrot,
the well-known interpreter, he left Quebec in September
1670, and wintered with an Outaouais tribe near Lake
Superior. Perrot sent word to the neighbouring nations
that they should meet next spring at Sault Sainte-Marie
a delegate of the great French Ononthio. [Footnote: This
was the name given by the Indians to the king of France;
the governor was called by them Ononthio, which means
'great mountain,' because that was the translation of
Montmagny--mons magnus in Latin--the name of Champlain's
first successor. From M. de Montmagny the name had passed
to the other governors, and the king had become the 'great
Ononthio.'] On June 14 representatives of fourteen nations
were gathered at the Sault. The Jesuit fathers Dablon,
Dreuillettes, Allouez, and Andre were present. A great
council was held on a height. Saint-Lusson had a cross
erected with a post bearing the king's arms. The Vexilla
Regis and the Exaudiat were sung. The intendant's delegates
took possession of the country in the name of their
monarch. There was firing of guns and shouts of 'Vive le
roi!' Then Father Allouez and Saint-Lusson made speeches
suitable to the occasion and the audience. At night the
blaze of an immense bonfire illuminated with its fitful
light the dark trees and foaming rapids. The singing of
the Te Deum crowned that memorable day.
The intendant was pleased with the result of Saint-Lusson's
expedition. He wrote to the king: 'There is every reason
to believe that from the point reached by this explorer
to the Vermilion Sea is a distance of not more than three
hundred leagues. The Western Sea [the Pacific ocean] does
not seem more distant. According to calculation based on
the Indians' reports and on the charts, there should not
be more than fifteen hundred leagues of navigation to
reach Tartary, China, and Japan.'
Talon showed his high appreciation of Saint-Lusson's
services by immediately giving him another mission--this
time to Acadia, for the purpose of finding and reporting
as to the best road to that colony. In 1670 Grandfontaine
had taken possession of Acadia, which had been restored
to France by the treaty of Breda. He had received from
Sir Richard Walker the keys of Fort Pentagouet, at the
mouth of the Penobscot river, and had sent Joybert de
Soulanges to hoist the French flag over Jemsek and Port
Royal. It was therefore incumbent on the intendant to
see to the opening of a road between Quebec and Pentagouet.
His letters and those of Colbert written in 1671 are full
of this project. A fund of thirty thousand livres was
appropriated for the purpose. The intendant's plan was
to erect about twenty houses well provided with stores
along the proposed route at intervals of sixty leagues.
He also had in mind the establishment of settlements
along the rivers Penobscot and Kennebec, to form a barrier
between New France and New England. With the object of
establishing trade relations between Canada and Acadia,
he sent to the French Bay (Bay of Fundy) a barge loaded
with clothes and supplies, and was extremely pleased to
receive in return a cargo of six thousand pounds of salt
meat. In 1671, for Colbert's information, he drew up a
census of Acadia. [Footnote: The figures were--Port
Royal, 359; Poboncoup, 11; Cap Negre, 3; Pentagouet, 6
and 25 soldiers; Mouskadabouet, 13; Saint-Pierre, 7.
Total 399, or, including the soldiers, 424. There were
429 cultivated acres, 866 head of cattle, 407 sheep and
36 goats.] But, as we shall see, the great intendant was
not to remain in Canada long enough to bring his Acadian
undertaking to full fruition.
Let us follow him in another direction. He had tried to
extend the sphere of French influence towards the west
and south, and was doing his best to strengthen Canada
on the New England border by promoting the development
of Acadia. His next attempt was to bring the northern
tribes into the French alliance and to open to the colony
the trade of the wide area extending from Lake St John
to Lake Mistassini and thence to Hudson Bay. For an
expedition to Hudson Bay he chose Father Albanel, a
Jesuit, and M. de Saint-Simon. They left Quebec for
Tadoussac in August 1671, and ascended the Saguenay to
Lake St John where they wintered. In June 1672 they
continued their journey, reaching Lake Mistassini on the
18th of the same month and James Bay on the 28th. After
formally taking possession of the country in the name of
France, they returned by the same route to Quebec, where
on July 23 they laid their report before the intendant.
One of the last but not the least of the explorations
made under Talon's auspices was that which he entrusted
to Louis Jolliet, and which resulted in the discovery of
the upper Mississippi. Jolliet left Montreal in the autumn
of 1672 and wintered at Michilimackinac, where he joined
Father Marquette. Next spring they set out together, and
by way of Lake Michigan, Green Bay, Fox river, and the
Wisconsin they reached the giant river, the mighty
Mississippi, which they followed down as far as latitude
33 degrees. Thus was discovered the highway through the
interior of the continent to the Gulf of Mexico. One
result of the discovery was the birth of Louisiana a few
years later.
Talon's patriotic enthusiasm was justified when he wrote
to Louis XIV: 'I am no courtier and it is not to please
the king or without reason that I say this portion of
the French monarchy is going to become something great.
What I see now enables me to make such a prediction. The
foreign colonies established on the adjoining shores of
the ocean are already uneasy at what His Majesty has done
here during the last seven years.' This confidence was
probably not shared by the king and his minister, for,
in a letter to Frontenac some time later, Colbert
remonstrated against long journeys to the upper St Lawrence
and outlying settlements, and expressed his disapproval
of discoveries far away in the interior of the continent
where the French could never settle or remain. Undoubtedly
it was wise to advise concentration, and Talon himself
would not have differed on that score from the minister.
He was too sagacious not to see that Canada with a small
population should abstain from remote establishments.
His policy of exploration and discovery did not aim at
the immediate foundation of new colonies, but was only
directed towards increasing the prestige of the French
name, developing trade, and thus preparing the way for
the future greatness of Canada. It was a far-sighted
policy, not seeking impossible achievements for to-day,
but gaining a foot-hold for those of to-morrow. That the
political fabric of France in America was doomed to fall
in no way dims the fame of the great intendant. Under
his powerful direction New France, through her missionaries,
explorers, and traders, stamped her mark over three-quarters
of the territory then known as North America. Her moral,
political, and commercial influence was felt beyond her
boundaries--west, north, and south. She had hoisted the
cross and the fleurs-de-lis from the sunny banks of the
Arkansas to the icy shores of Hudson Bay, and from the
surges of the Atlantic to the remotest limits of the
Great Lakes. Her unceasing activity and daring enterprise,
supplementing inferior numbers and wealth, gave her an
undisputed superiority over the industrious English
colonies confined to their narrow strip between the
Alleghanies and the sea; and her name inspired awe and
respect in a hundred Indian tribes.
What was Courcelle's attitude towards the extraordinary
activity displayed by Talon? Evidently the intendant
often acted the part of the governor; and the real
governor, out-shone, could not conceal his ill-humour,
and tried to assert his authority. There were several
clashes between the two high officials. The governor
frequently lost his temper, while Talon complained of
Courcelle's jealousy and harshness. It must be admitted
that the great intendant, in his fervid zeal for the
public good and his passion for action, was not always
careful or tactful in his behaviour to the governor.