1689, 1690.
Return of Frontenac.
Versailles • Frontenac and the King • Frontenac sails for Quebec •
Projected Conquest of New York • Designs of the King • Failure • Energy
of Frontenac • Fort Frontenac • Panic • Negotiations • The Iroquois in
Council • Chevalier d'Aux • Taunts of the Indian Allies • Boldness of
Frontenac • An Iroquois Defeat • Cruel Policy • The Stroke parried.
The sun of Louis XIV. had reached its zenith. From a morning of
unexampled brilliancy it had mounted to the glare of a cloudless noon;
but the hour of its decline was near. The mortal enemy of France was on
the throne of England, turning against her from that new point of
vantage all the energies of his unconquerable genius. An invalid built
the Bourbon monarchy, and another invalid battered and defaced the
imposing structure: two potent and daring spirits in two frail bodies,
Richelieu and William of Orange.
Versailles gave no sign of waning glories. On three evenings of the
week, it was the pleasure of the king that the whole court should
assemble in the vast suite of apartments now known as the Halls of
Abundance, of Venus, of Diana, of Mars, of Mercury, and of Apollo. The
magnificence of their decorations, pictures of the great Italian
masters, sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, tapestries, vases and statues of
silver and gold; the vista of light and splendor that opened through the
wide portals; the courtly throngs, feasting, dancing, gaming,
promenading, conversing, formed a scene which no palace of Europe could
rival or approach. Here were all the great historic names of France,
princes, warriors, statesmen, and all that was highest in rank and
place; the flower, in short, of that brilliant society, so dazzling,
captivating, and illusory. In former years, the king was usually
present, affable and gracious, mingling with his courtiers and sharing
their amusements; but he had grown graver of late, and was more often in
his cabinet, laboring with his ministers on the task of administration,
which his extravagance and ambition made every day more burdensome. [1]
[1] Saint-Simon speaks of these assemblies. The halls in question were
finished in 1682; and a minute account of them, and of the particular
use to which each was destined, was printed in the Mercure Français of
that year. See also Soulié, Notice du Musée impérial de Versailles,
where copious extracts from the Mercure are given. The grands
appartements are now entirely changed in appearance, and turned into an
historic picture gallery.
There was one corner of the world where his emblem, the sun, would not
shine on him. He had done his best for Canada, and had got nothing for
his pains but news of mishaps and troubles. He was growing tired of the
colony which he had nursed with paternal fondness, and he was more than
half angry with it because it did not prosper. Denonville's letters had
grown worse and worse; and, though he had not heard as yet of the last
great calamity, he was sated with ill tidings already.
Count Frontenac stood before him. Since his recall, he had lived at
court, needy and no longer in favor; but he had influential friends, and
an intriguing wife, always ready to serve him. The king knew his merits
as well as his faults; and, in the desperate state of his Canadian
affairs, he had been led to the resolution of restoring him to the
command from which, for excellent reasons, he had removed him seven
years before. He now told him that, in his belief, the charges brought
against him were without foundation. [2] "I send you back to Canada," he
is reported to have said, "where I am sure that you will serve me as
well as you did before; and I ask nothing more of you." [3] The post was
not a tempting one to a man in his seventieth year. Alone and
unsupported,--for the king, with Europe rising against him, would give
him no more troops,--he was to restore the prostrate colony to hope and
courage, and fight two enemies with a force that had proved no match for
one of them alone. The audacious count trusted himself, and undertook
the task; received the royal instructions, and took his last leave of
the master whom even he after a fashion honored and admired.
[2] Journal de Dangeau, II. 390. Frontenac, since his recall, had not
been wholly without marks of royal favor. In 1685, the king gave him a
"gratification" of 3,500 francs. Ibid., I. 205.
[3] Goyer, Oraison Funèbre du Comte de Frontenac.
He repaired to Rochelle, where two ships of the royal navy were waiting
his arrival, embarked in one of them, and sailed for the New World. An
heroic remedy had been prepared for the sickness of Canada, and
Frontenac was to be the surgeon. The cure, however, was not of his
contriving. Denonville had sent Callières, his second in command, to
represent the state of the colony to the court, and beg for help.
Callières saw that there was little hope of more troops or any
considerable supply of money; and he laid before the king a plan, which
had at least the recommendations of boldness and cheapness. This was to
conquer New York with the forces already in Canada, aided only by two
ships of war. The blow, he argued, should be struck at once, and the
English taken by surprise. A thousand regulars and six hundred Canadian
militia should pass Lake Champlain and Lake George in canoes and
bateaux, cross to the Hudson and capture Albany, where they would seize
all the river craft and descend the Hudson to the town of New York,
which, as Callières stated, had then about two hundred houses and four
hundred fighting men. The two ships were to cruise at the mouth of the
harbor, and wait the arrival of the troops, which was to be made known
to them by concerted signals, whereupon they were to enter and aid in
the attack. The whole expedition, he thought, might be accomplished in a
month; so that by the end of October the king would be master of all the
country. The advantages were manifold. The Iroquois, deprived of English
arms and ammunition, would be at the mercy of the French; the question
of English rivalry in the west would be settled for ever; the king would
acquire a means of access to his colony incomparably better than the St.
Lawrence, and one that remained open all the year; and, finally, New
England would be isolated, and prepared for a possible conquest in the
future.
The king accepted the plan with modifications, which complicated and did
not improve it. Extreme precautions were taken to insure secrecy; but
the vast distances, the difficult navigation, and the accidents of
weather appear to have been forgotten in this amended scheme of
operation. There was, moreover, a long delay in fitting the two ships
for sea. The wind was ahead, and they were fifty-two days in reaching
Chedabucto, at the eastern end of Nova Scotia. Thence Frontenac and
Callières had orders to proceed in a merchant ship to Quebec, which
might require a month more; and, on arriving, they were to prepare for
the expedition, while at the same time Frontenac was to send back a
letter to the naval commander at Chedabucto, revealing the plan to him,
and ordering him to sail to New York to co-operate in it. It was the
twelfth of September when Chedabucto was reached, and the enterprise was
ruined by the delay. Frontenac's first step in his new government was a
failure, though one for which he was in no way answerable. [4]
[4] Projet du Chevalier de Callières de former une Expédition pour aller
attaquer Orange, Manatte, etc.; Résumé du Ministre sur la Proposition de
M. de Callières; Autre Mémoire de M. de Callières sur son Projet
d'attaquer la Nouvelle York; Mémoire des Armes, Munitions, et Ustensiles
nécessaires pour l'Entreprise proposée par M. de Callières; Observations
du Ministre sur le Projet et le Mémoire ci-dessus; Observations du
Ministre sur le Projet d'Attaque de la Nouvelle York; Autre Mémoire de
M. de Callières au Sujet de l'Entreprise proposée; Autre Mémoire de M.
de Callières sur le même Sujet.
It will be well to observe what were the intentions of the king towards
the colony which he proposed to conquer. They were as follows: If any
Catholics were found in New York, they might be left undisturbed,
provided that they took an oath of allegiance to the king. Officers, and
other persons who had the means of paying ransoms, were to be thrown
into prison. All lands in the colony, except those of Catholics swearing
allegiance, were to be taken from their owners, and granted under a
feudal tenure to the French officers and soldiers. All property, public
or private, was to be seized, a portion of it given to the grantees of
the land, and the rest sold on account of the king. Mechanics and other
workmen might, at the discretion of the commanding officer, be kept as
prisoners to work at fortifications and do other labor. The rest of the
English and Dutch inhabitants, men, women, and children, were to be
carried out of the colony and dispersed in New England, Pennsylvania, or
other places, in such a manner that they could not combine in any
attempt to recover their property and their country. And, that the
conquest might be perfectly secure, the nearest settlements of New
England were to be destroyed, and those more remote laid under
contribution. [5]
[5] Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction à Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac
sur l'Entreprise de la Nouvelle York, 7 Juin, 1689. "Si parmy les
habitans de la Nouvelle York il se trouve des Catholiques de la fidelité
desquels il croye se pouvoir asseurer, il pourra les laisser dans leurs
habitations après leur avoir fait prester serment de fidelité à sa
Majesté.... Il pourra aussi garder, s'il le juge à propos, des artisans
et autres gens de service nécessaires pour la culture des terres ou pour
travailler aux fortifications en qualité de prisonniers.... II faut
retenir en prison les officiers et les principaux habitans desquels on
pourra retirer des rançons. A l'esgard de tous les autres estrangers
(ceux qui ne sont pas Français) hommes, femmes, et enfans, sa Majesté
trouve à propos qu'ils soient mis hors de la Colonie et envoyez à la
Nouvelle Angleterre, à la Pennsylvanie, ou en d'autres endroits qu'il
jugera à propos, par mer ou par terre, ensemble ou séparément, le tout
suivant qu'il trouvera plus seur pour les dissiper et empescher qu'en se
réunissant ils ne puissent donner occasion à des entreprises de la part
des ennemis contre cette Colonie. Il envoyera en France les Français
fugitifs qu'il y pourra trouver, et particulièrement ceux de la Religion
Prétendue-Réformée (Huguenots)." A translation of the entire document
will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 422.
In the next century, some of the people of Acadia were torn from their
homes by order of a British commander. The act was harsh and violent,
and the innocent were involved with the guilty; but many of the
sufferers had provoked their fate, and deserved it.
Louis XIV. commanded that eighteen thousand unoffending persons should
be stripped of all that they possessed, and cast out to the mercy of the
wilderness. The atrocity of the plan is matched by its folly. The king
gave explicit orders, but he gave neither ships nor men enough to
accomplish them; and the Dutch farmers, goaded to desperation, would
have cut his sixteen hundred soldiers to pieces. It was the scheme of a
man blinded by a long course of success. Though perverted by flattery
and hardened by unbridled power, he was not cruel by nature; and here,
as in the burning of the Palatinate and the persecution of the
Huguenots, he would have stood aghast, if his dull imagination could
have pictured to him the miseries he was preparing to inflict. [6]
[6] On the details of the projected attack of New York, Le Roy à
Denonville, 7 Juin, 1689; Le Ministre à Denonville, même date; Le
Ministre à Frontenac, même date; Ordre du Roy à Vaudreuil, même date; Le
Roy au Sieur de la Caffinière, même date; Champigny au Ministre, 16
Nov., 1689.
With little hope left that the grand enterprise against New York could
succeed, Frontenac made sail for Quebec, and, stopping by the way at
Isle Percée, learned from Récollet missionaries the irruption of the
Iroquois at Montreal. He hastened on; but the wind was still against
him, and the autumn woods were turning brown before he reached his
destination. It was evening when he landed, amid fireworks,
illuminations, and the firing of cannon. All Quebec came to meet him by
torchlight; the members of the council offered their respects, and the
Jesuits made him an harangue of welcome. [7] It was but a welcome of
words. They and the councillors had done their best to have him
recalled, and hoped that they were rid of him for ever; but now he was
among them again, rasped by the memory of real or fancied wrongs. The
count, however, had no time for quarrelling. The king had told him to
bury old animosities and forget the past, and for the present he was too
busy to break the royal injunction. [8] He caused boats to be made
ready, and in spite of incessant rains pushed up the river to Montreal.
Here he found Denonville and his frightened wife. Every thing was in
confusion. The Iroquois were gone, leaving dejection and terror behind
them. Frontenac reviewed the troops. There were seven or eight hundred
of them in the town, the rest being in garrison at the various forts.
Then he repaired to what was once La Chine, and surveyed the miserable
waste of ashes and desolation that spread for miles around.
[7] La Hontan, I. 199.
[8] Instruction pour le Sieur Comte de Frontenac, 7 Juin, 1689.
To his extreme disgust, he learned that Denonville had sent a Canadian
officer by secret paths to Fort Frontenac, with orders to Valrenne, the
commandant, to blow it up, and return with his garrison to Montreal.
Frontenac had built the fort, had given it his own name, and had
cherished it with a paternal fondness, reinforced by strong hopes of
making money out of it. For its sake he had become the butt of scandal
and opprobrium; but not the less had he always stood its strenuous and
passionate champion. An Iroquois envoy had lately with great insolence
demanded its destruction of Denonville; and this alone, in the eyes of
Frontenac, was ample reason for maintaining it at any cost. [9] He still
had hope that it might be saved, and with all the energy of youth he
proceeded to collect canoes, men, provisions, and arms; battled against
dejection, insubordination, and fear, and in a few days despatched a
convoy of three hundred men to relieve the place, and stop the execution
of Denonville's orders. His orders had been but too promptly obeyed. The
convoy was scarcely gone an hour, when, to Frontenac's unutterable
wrath, Valrenne appeared with his garrison. He reported that he had set
fire to every thing in the fort that would burn, sunk the three vessels
belonging to it, thrown the cannon into the lake, mined the walls and
bastions, and left matches burning in the powder magazine; and, further,
that when he and his men were five leagues on their way to Montreal a
dull and distant explosion told them that the mines had sprung. It
proved afterwards that the destruction was not complete; and the
Iroquois took possession of the abandoned fort, with a large quantity of
stores and munitions left by the garrison in their too hasty retreat.
[10]
[9] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689.
[10] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689; Recueil de ce qui s'est passé
en Canada depuis l'année 1682.
There was one ray of light through the clouds. The unwonted news of a
victory came to Montreal. It was small, but decisive, and might be an
earnest of greater things to come. Before Frontenac's arrival,
Denonville had sent a reconnoitring party up the Ottawa. They had gone
no farther than the Lake of Two Mountains, when they met twenty-two
Iroquois in two large canoes, who immediately bore down upon them,
yelling furiously. The French party consisted of twenty-eight coureurs
de bois under Du Lhut and Mantet, excellent partisan chiefs, who
manœuvred so well that the rising sun blazed full in the eyes of the
advancing enemy, and spoiled their aim. The French received their fire,
which wounded one man; then, closing with them while their guns were
empty, gave them a volley, which killed and wounded eighteen of their
number. One swam ashore. The remaining three were captured, and given to
the Indian allies to be burned. [11]
[11] Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689; Champigny au Ministre, 16
Nov., 1689. Compare Belmont, whose account is a little different; also
N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 435.
This gleam of sunshine passed, and all grew black again. On a snowy
November day, a troop of Iroquois fell on the settlement of La Chesnaye,
burned the houses, and vanished with a troop of prisoners, leaving
twenty mangled corpses on the snow. [12] "The terror," wrote the bishop,
"is indescribable." The appearance of a few savages would put a whole
neighborhood to flight. [13] So desperate, wrote Frontenac, were the
needs of the colony, and so great the contempt with which the Iroquois
regarded it, that it almost needed a miracle either to carry on war or
make peace. What he most earnestly wished was to keep the Iroquois
quiet, and so leave his hands free to deal with the English. This was
not easy, to such a pitch of audacity had late events raised them.
Neither his temper nor his convictions would allow him to beg peace of
them, like his predecessor; but he had inordinate trust in the influence
of his name, and he now took a course which he hoped might answer his
purpose without increasing their insolence. The perfidious folly of
Denonville in seizing their countrymen at Fort Frontenac had been a
prime cause of their hostility; and, at the request of the late
governor, the surviving captives, thirteen in all, had been taken from
the galleys, gorgeously clad in French attire, and sent back to Canada
in the ship which carried Frontenac. Among them was a famous Cayuga
war-chief called Ourehaoué, whose loss had infuriated the Iroquois. [14]
Frontenac gained his good-will on the voyage; and, when they reached
Quebec, he lodged him in the château, and treated him with such kindness
that the chief became his devoted admirer and friend. As his influence
was great among his people, Frontenac hoped that he might use him with
success to bring about an accommodation. He placed three of the captives
at the disposal of the Cayuga, who forthwith sent them to Onondaga with
a message which the governor had dictated, and which was to the
following effect: "The great Onontio, whom you all know, has come back
again. He does not blame you for what you have done; for he looks upon
you as foolish children, and blames only the English, who are the cause
of your folly, and have made you forget your obedience to a father who
has always loved and never deceived you. He will permit me, Ourehaoué,
to return to you as soon as you will come to ask for me, not as you have
spoken of late, but like children speaking to a father." [15] Frontenac
hoped that they would send an embassy to reclaim their chief, and thus
give him an opportunity to use his personal influence over them. With
the three released captives, he sent an Iroquois convert named Cut Nose
with a wampum belt to announce his return.
[12] Belmont, Histoire du Canada; Frontenac à------, 17 Nov., 1689;
Champigny au Ministre, 16 Nov., 1689. This letter is not the one just
cited. Champigny wrote twice on the same day.
[13] N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 435.
[14] Ourehaoué was not one of the neutrals entrapped at Fort Frontenac,
but was seized about the same time by the troops on their way up the St.
Lawrence.
[15] Frontenac au Ministre, 30 Avril, 1690.
When the deputation arrived at Onondaga and made known their errand, the
Iroquois magnates, with their usual deliberation, deferred answering
till a general council of the confederacy should have time to assemble;
and, meanwhile, they sent messengers to ask the mayor of Albany, and
others of their Dutch and English friends, to come to the meeting. They
did not comply, merely sending the government interpreter, with a few
Mohawk Indians, to represent their interests. On the other hand, the
Jesuit Milet, who had been captured a few months before, adopted, and
made an Oneida chief, used every effort to second the designs of
Frontenac. The authorities of Albany tried in vain to induce the
Iroquois to place him in their hands. They understood their interests
too well, and held fast to the Jesuit. [16]
[16] Milet was taken in 1689, not, as has been supposed, in 1690. Lettre
du Père Milet, 1691, printed by Shea.
The grand council took place at Onondaga on the twenty-second of
January. Eighty chiefs and sachems, seated gravely on mats around the
council fire, smoked their pipes in silence for a while; till at length
an Onondaga orator rose, and announced that Frontenac, the old Onontio,
had returned with Ourehaoué and twelve more of their captive friends,
that he meant to rekindle the council fire at Fort Frontenac, and that
he invited them to meet him there. [17]
[17] Frontenac declares that he sent no such message, and intimates that
Cut Nose had been tampered with by persons over-anxious to conciliate
the Iroquois, and who had even gone so far as to send them messages on
their own account. These persons were Lamberville, François Hertel, and
one of the Le Moynes. Frontenac was very angry at this interference, to
which he ascribes the most mischievous consequences. Cut Nose, or Nez
Coupé, is called Adarahta by Colden, and Gagniegaton, or Red Bird, by
some French writers.
"Ho, ho, ho," returned the eighty senators, from the bottom of their
throats. It was the unfailing Iroquois response to a speech. Then Cut
Nose, the governor's messenger, addressed the council: "I advise you to
meet Onontio as he desires. Do so, if you wish to live." He presented a
wampum belt to confirm his words, and the conclave again returned the
same guttural ejaculation.
"Ourehaoué sends you this," continued Cut Nose, presenting another belt
of wampum: "by it he advises you to listen to Onontio, if you wish to
live."
When the messenger from Canada had ceased, the messenger from Albany, a
Mohawk Indian, rose and repeated word for word a speech confided to him
by the mayor of that town, urging the Iroquois to close their ears
against the invitations of Onontio.
Next rose one Cannehoot, a sachem of the Senecas, charged with matters
of grave import; for they involved no less than the revival of that
scheme, so perilous to the French, of the union of the tribes of the
Great Lakes in a triple alliance with the Iroquois and the English.
These lake tribes, disgusted with the French, who, under Denonville, had
left them to the mercy of the Iroquois, had been impelled, both by their
fears and their interests, to make new advances to the confederacy, and
had first addressed themselves to the Senecas, whom they had most cause
to dread. They had given up some of the Iroquois prisoners in their
hands, and promised soon to give up the rest. A treaty had been made;
and it was this event which the Seneca sachem now announced to the
council. Having told the story to his assembled colleagues, he exhibited
and explained the wampum belts and other tokens brought by the envoys
from the lakes, who represented nine distinct tribes or bands from the
region of Michillimackinac. By these tokens, the nine tribes declared
that they came to learn wisdom of the Iroquois and the English; to wash
off the war-paint, throw down the tomahawk, smoke the pipe of peace, and
unite with them as one body. "Onontio is drunk," such was the
interpretation of the fourth wampum belt; "but we, the tribes of
Michillimackinac, wash our hands of all his actions. Neither we nor you
must defile ourselves by listening to him." When the Seneca sachem had
ended, and when the ejaculations that echoed his words had ceased, the
belts were hung up before all the assembly, then taken down again, and
distributed among the sachems of the five Iroquois tribes, excepting
one, which was given to the messengers from Albany. Thus was concluded
the triple alliance, which to Canada meant no less than ruin.
"Brethren," said an Onondaga sachem, "we must hold fast to our brother
Quider (Peter Schuyler, mayor of Albany) and look on Onontio as our
enemy, for he is a cheat."
Then they invited the interpreter from Albany to address the council,
which he did, advising them not to listen to the envoys from Canada.
When he had ended, they spent some time in consultation among
themselves, and at length agreed on the following message, addressed to
Corlaer, or New York, and to Kinshon, the Fish, by which they meant New
England, the authorities of which had sent them the image of a fish as a
token of alliance: [18]--
"Brethren, our council fire burns at Albany. We will not go to meet
Onontio at Fort Frontenac. We will hold fast to the old chain of peace
with Corlaer, and we will fight with Onontio. Brethren, we are glad to
hear from you that you are preparing to make war on Canada, but tell us
no lies.
"Brother Kinshon, we hear that you mean to send soldiers against the
Indians to the eastward; but we advise you, now that we are all united
against the French, to fall upon them at once. Strike at the root: when
the trunk is cut down, all the branches fall with it.
"Courage, Corlaer! courage, Kinshon! Go to Quebec in the spring; take
it, and you will have your feet on the necks of the French and all their
friends."
[18] The wooden image of a codfish still hangs in the State House at
Boston, the emblem of a colony which lived chiefly by the fisheries.
Then they consulted together again, and agreed on the following answer
to Ourehaoué and Frontenac:--
"Ourehaoué, the whole council is glad to hear that you have come back.
"Onontio, you have told us that you have come back again, and brought
with you thirteen of our people who were carried prisoners to France. We
are glad of it. You wish to speak with us at Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac).
Don't you know that your council fire there is put out? It is quenched
in blood. You must first send home the prisoners. When our brother
Ourehaoué is returned to us, then we will talk with you of peace. You
must send him and the others home this very winter. We now let you know
that we have made peace with the tribes of Michillimackinac. You are not
to think, because we return you an answer, that we have laid down the
tomahawk. Our warriors will continue the war till you send our
countrymen back to us." [19]
[19] The account of this council is given, with condensation and the
omission of parts not essential, from Colden (105-112, ed. 1747). It
will serve as an example of the Iroquois method of conducting political
business, the habitual regularity and decorum of which has drawn from
several contemporary French writers the remark that in such matters the
five tribes were savages only in name. The reply to Frontenac is also
given by Monseignat (N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 465), and, after him, by La
Potherie. Compare Le Clercq, Établissement de la Foy, II. 403. Ourehaoué
is the Tawerahet of Colden.
The messengers from Canada returned with this reply. Unsatisfactory as
it was, such a quantity of wampum was sent with it as showed plainly the
importance attached by the Iroquois to the matters in question.
Encouraged by a recent success against the English, and still possessed
with an overweening confidence in his own influence over the
confederates, Frontenac resolved that Ourehaoué should send them another
message. The chief, whose devotion to the count never wavered,
accordingly despatched four envoys, with a load of wampum belts,
expressing his astonishment that his countrymen had not seen fit to send
a deputation of chiefs to receive him from the hands of Onontio, and
calling upon them to do so without delay, lest he should think that they
had forgotten him. Along with the messengers, Frontenac ventured to send
the Chevalier d'Aux, a half-pay officer, with orders to observe the
disposition of the Iroquois, and impress them in private talk with a
sense of the count's power, of his good-will to them, and of the wisdom
of coming to terms with him, lest, like an angry father, he should be
forced at last to use the rod. The chevalier's reception was a warm one.
They burned two of his attendants, forced him to run the gauntlet, and,
after a vigorous thrashing, sent him prisoner to Albany. The last
failure was worse than the first. The count's name was great among the
Iroquois, but he had trusted its power too far. [20]
[20] Message of Ourehaoué, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 735; Instructions
to Chevalier d'Eau, Ibid., 733; Chevalier d'Aux au Ministre, 15 Mai,
1693. The chevalier's name is also written d'O, He himself wrote it as
in the text.
The worst of news had come from Michillimackinac. La Durantaye, the
commander of the post, and Carheil, the Jesuit, had sent a messenger to
Montreal in the depth of winter to say that the tribes around them were
on the point of revolt. Carheil wrote that they threatened openly to
throw themselves into the arms of the Iroquois and the English; that
they declared that the protection of Onontio was an illusion and a
snare; that they once mistook the French for warriors, but saw now
that they were no match for the Iroquois, whom they had tamely allowed
to butcher them at Montreal, without even daring to defend themselves;
that when the French invaded the Senecas they did nothing but cut down
corn and break canoes, and since that time they had done nothing but beg
peace for themselves, forgetful of their allies, whom they expected to
bear the brunt of the war, and then left to their fate; that they had
surrendered through cowardice the prisoners they had caught by
treachery, and this, too, at a time when the Iroquois were burning
French captives in all their towns; and, finally, that, as the French
would not or could not make peace for them, they would make peace for
themselves. "These," pursued Carheil, "are the reasons they give us to
prove the necessity of their late embassy to the Senecas; and by this
one can see that our Indians are a great deal more clear-sighted than
they are thought to be, and that it is hard to conceal from their
penetration any thing that can help or harm their interests. What is
certain is that, if the Iroquois are not stopped, they will not fail to
come and make themselves masters here."
[21] Carheil à Frontenac, 1690. Frontenac did not receive this letter
till September, and acted on the information previously sent him.
Charlevoix's version of the letter does not conform with the original.
Charlevoix thinks that Frontenac was not displeased at this bitter
arraignment of his predecessor's administration. At the same time, his
position was very embarrassing. He had no men to spare; but such was the
necessity of saving Michillimackinac, and breaking off the treaty with
the Senecas, that when spring opened he sent Captain Louvigny with a
hundred and forty-three Canadians and six Indians to reinforce the post
and replace its commander, La Durantaye. Two other officers with an
additional force were ordered to accompany him through the most
dangerous part of the journey. With them went Nicolas Perrot, bearing a
message from the count to his rebellious children of Michillimackinac.
The following was the pith of this characteristic document:--
"I am astonished to learn that you have forgotten the protection that I
always gave you. Do you think that I am no longer alive; or that I have
a mind to stand idle, like those who have been here in my place? Or do
you think that, if eight or ten hairs have been torn from my children's
heads when I was absent, I cannot put ten handfuls of hair in the place
of every one that was pulled out? You know that before I protected you
the ravenous Iroquois dog was biting everybody. I tamed him and tied him
up; but, when he no longer saw me, he behaved worse than ever. If he
persists, he shall feel my power. The English have tried to win him by
flatteries, but I will kill all who encourage him. The English have
deceived and devoured their children, but I am a good father who loves
you. I loved the Iroquois once, because they obeyed me. When I knew that
they had been treacherously captured and carried to France, I set them
free; and, when I restore them to their country, it will not be through
fear, but through pity, for I hate treachery. I am strong enough to kill
the English, destroy the Iroquois, and whip you, if you fail in your
duty to me. The Iroquois have killed and captured you in time of peace.
Do to them as they have done to you, do to the English as they would
like to do to you, but hold fast to your true father, who will never
abandon you. Will you let the English brandy that has killed you in your
wigwams lure you into the kettles of the Iroquois? Is not mine better,
which has never killed you, but always made you strong?" [22]
[22] Parole (de M. de Frontenac) qui doit être dite à l'Outaouais pour
le dissuader de l'Alliance qu'il vent faire avec l'Iroquois et
l'Anglois. The message is long. Only the principal points are given
above.
Charged with this haughty missive, Perrot set out for Michillimackinac
along with Louvigny and his men. On their way up the Ottawa, they met a
large band of Iroquois hunters, whom they routed with heavy loss.
Nothing could have been more auspicious for Perrot's errand. When
towards midsummer they reached their destination, they ranged their
canoes in a triumphal procession, placed in the foremost an Iroquois
captured in the fight, forced him to dance and sing, hung out the
fleur-de-lis, shouted Vive le Roi, whooped, yelled, and fired their
guns. As they neared the village of the Ottawas, all the naked
population ran down to the shore, leaping, yelping, and firing, in
return. Louvigny and his men passed on, and landed at the neighboring
village of the French settlers, who, drawn up in battle array on the
shore, added more yells and firing to the general uproar; though, amid
this joyous fusillade of harmless gunpowder, they all kept their bullets
ready for instant use, for they distrusted the savage multitude. The
story of the late victory, however, confirmed as it was by an imposing
display of scalps, produced an effect which averted the danger of an
immediate outbreak.
The fate of the Iroquois prisoner now became the point at issue. The
French hoped that the Indians in their excitement could be induced to
put him to death, and thus break their late treaty with his countrymen.
Besides the Ottawas, there was at Michillimackinac a village of Hurons
under their crafty chief, the Rat. They had pretended to stand fast for
the French, who nevertheless believed them to be at the bottom of all
the mischief. They now begged for the prisoner, promising to burn him.
On the faith of this pledge, he was given to them; but they broke their
word, and kept him alive, in order to curry favor with the Iroquois. The
Ottawas, intensely jealous of the preference shown to the Hurons,
declared in their anger that the prisoner ought to be killed and eaten.
This was precisely what the interests of the French demanded; but the
Hurons still persisted in protecting him. Their Jesuit missionary now
interposed, and told them that, unless they "put the Iroquois into the
kettle," the French would take him from them. After much discussion,
this argument prevailed. They planted a stake, tied him to it, and began
to torture him; but, as he did not show the usual fortitude of his
countrymen, they declared him unworthy to die the death of a warrior,
and accordingly shot him. [23]
[23] "Le Père Missionnaire des Hurons, prévoyant que cette affaire
auroit peut-être une suite qui pourrait être préjudiciable aux soins
qu'il prenoit de leur instruction, demanda qu'il lui fut permis d'aller
à leur village pour les obliger de trouver quelque moyen qui fut capable
d'appaiser le ressentiment des François. Il leur dit que ceux-ci
vouloient absolument que l'on mit l'Iroquois à la chaudière, et que si
on ne le faisoit, on devoit venir le leur enlever." La Potherie, II. 237
(1722). By the "result prejudicial to his cares for their instruction"
he seems to mean their possible transfer from French to English
influences. The expression mettre à la chaudière, though derived from
cannibal practices, is often used figuratively for torturing and
killing. The missionary in question was either Carheil or another
Jesuit, who must have acted with his sanction.
Here was a point gained for the French, but the danger was not passed.
The Ottawas could disavow the killing of the Iroquois; and, in fact,
though there was a great division of opinion among them, they were
preparing at this very time to send a secret embassy to the Seneca
country to ratify the fatal treaty. The French commanders called a
council of all the tribes. It met at the house of the Jesuits. Presents
in abundance were distributed. The message of Frontenac was reinforced
by persuasion and threats; and the assembly was told that the five
tribes of the Iroquois were like five nests of muskrats in a marsh,
which the French would drain dry, and then burn with all its
inhabitants. Perrot took the disaffected chiefs aside, and with his
usual bold adroitness diverted them for the moment from their purpose.
The projected embassy was stopped, but any day might revive it. There
was no safety for the French, and the ground of Michillimackinac was
hollow under their feet. Every thing depended on the success of their
arms. A few victories would confirm their wavering allies; but the
breath of another defeat would blow the fickle crew over to the enemy
like a drift of dry leaves.