1693-1697.
French and English Rivalry.
Le Moyne d'Iberville • His Exploits in Newfoundland • In Hudson's Bay •
The Great Prize • The Competitors • Fatal Policy of the King • The
Iroquois Question • Negotiation • Firmness of Frontenac • English
Intervention • War renewed • State of the West • Indian Diplomacy • Cruel
Measures • A Perilous Crisis • Audacity of Frontenac.
No Canadian, under the French rule, stands in a more conspicuous or more
deserved eminence than Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In the seventeenth
century, most of those who acted a prominent part in the colony were born
in Old France; but Iberville was a true son of the soil. He and his
brothers, Longueuil, Serigny, Assigny, Maricourt, Sainte-Hélène, the two
Châteauguays, and the two Bienvilles, were, one and all, children worthy
of their father, Charles Le Moyne of Montreal, and favorable types of
that Canadian noblesse, to whose adventurous hardihood half the continent
bears witness. Iberville was trained in the French navy, and was already
among its most able commanders. The capture of Pemaquid was, for him, but
the beginning of greater things; and, though the exploits that followed
were outside the main theatre of action, they were too remarkable to be
passed in silence.
The French had but one post of any consequence on the Island of
Newfoundland, the fort and village at Placentia Bay; while the English
fishermen had formed a line of settlements two or three hundred miles
along the eastern coast. Iberville had represented to the court the
necessity of checking their growth, and to that end a plan was settled,
in connection with the expedition against Pemaquid. The ships of the king
were to transport the men; while Iberville and others associated with him
were to pay them, and divide the plunder as their compensation. The
chronicles of the time show various similar bargains between the great
king and his subjects.
Pemaquid was no sooner destroyed, than Iberville sailed for Newfoundland,
with the eighty men he had taken at Quebec; and, on arriving, he was
joined by as many more, sent him from the same place. He found Brouillan,
governor of Placentia, with a squadron formed largely of privateers from
St. Malo, engaged in a vain attempt to seize St. John, the chief post of
the English. Brouillan was a man of harsh, jealous, and impracticable
temper; and it was with the utmost difficulty that he and Iberville could
act in concert. They came at last to an agreement, made a combined attack
on St. John, took it, and burned it to the ground. Then followed a new
dispute about the division of the spoils. At length it was settled.
Brouillan went back to Placentia, and Iberville and his men were left to
pursue their conquests alone.
There were no British soldiers on the island. The settlers were rude
fishermen without commanders, and, according to the French accounts,
without religion or morals. In fact, they are described as "worse than
Indians." Iberville now had with him a hundred and twenty-five soldiers
and Canadians, besides a few Abenakis from Acadia. ¹ It was mid-winter
when he began his march. For two months he led his hardy band through
frost and snow, from hamlet to hamlet, along those forlorn and desolate
coasts, attacking each in turn and carrying havoc everywhere. Nothing
could exceed the hardships of the way, or the vigor with which they were
met and conquered. The chaplain Baudoin gives an example of them in his
diary. "January 18th. The roads are so bad that we can find only twelve
men strong enough to beat the path. Our snow-shoes break on the crust,
and against the rocks and fallen trees hidden under the snow, which catch
and trip us; but, for all that, we cannot help laughing to see now one,
and now another, fall headlong. The Sieur de Martigny fell into a river,
and left his gun and his sword there to save his life."
[1] The reinforcement sent him from Quebec consisted of fifty soldiers,
thirty Canadians, and three officers. Frontenac au Ministre, 28 Oct.,
1696.
A panic seized the settlers, many of whom were without arms as well as
without leaders. They imagined the Canadians to be savages, who scalped
and butchered like the Iroquois. Their resistance was feeble and
incoherent, and Iberville carried all before him. Every hamlet was
pillaged and burned; and, according to the incredible report of the
French writers, two hundred persons were killed and seven hundred
captured, though it is admitted that most of the prisoners escaped. When
spring opened, all the English settlements were destroyed, except the
post of Bonavista and the Island of Carbonnière, a natural fortress in
the sea. Iberville returned to Placentia, to prepare for completing his
conquest, when his plans were broken by the arrival of his brother
Serigny, with orders to proceed at once against the English at Hudson's
Bay. [2]
[2] On the Newfoundland expedition, the best authority is the long diary
of the chaplain Baudoin, Journal du Voyage que j'ai fait avec M.
d'Iberville; also, Mémoire sur l'Entreprise de Terreneuve, 1696. Compare
La Potherie, I. 24-52. A deposition of one Phillips, one Roberts, and
several others, preserved in the Public Record Office of London, and
quoted by Brown in his History of Cape Breton, makes the French force
much greater than the statements of the French writers. The deposition
also says that at the attack of St. John's "the French took one William
Brew, an inhabitant, a prisoner, and cut all round his scalp, and then,
by strength of hands, stript his skin from the forehead to the crown, and
so sent him into the fortifications, assuring the inhabitants that they
would serve them all in like manner if they did not surrender."
St. John's was soon after reoccupied by the English.
Baudoin was one of those Acadian priests who are praised for services "en
empeschant les sauvages de faire la paix avec les Anglois, ayant mesme
esté en guerre avec eux." Champigny au Ministre, 24 Oct., 1694.
It was the nineteenth of May, when Serigny appeared with five ships of
war, the "Pelican," the "Palmier," the "Wesp," the "Profond," and the
"Violent." The important trading-post of Fort Nelson, called Fort Bourbon
by the French, was the destined object of attack. Iberville and Serigny
had captured it three years before, but the English had retaken it during
the past summer, and, as it commanded the fur-trade of a vast interior
region, a strong effort was now to be made for its recovery. Iberville
took command of the "Pelican," and his brother of the "Palmier." They
sailed from Placentia early in July, followed by two other ships of the
squadron, and a vessel carrying stores. Before the end of the month they
entered the bay, where they were soon caught among masses of floating
ice. The store-ship was crushed and lost, and the rest were in extreme
danger. The "Pelican" at last extricated herself, and sailed into the
open sea; but her three consorts were nowhere to be seen. Iberville
steered for Fort Nelson, which was several hundred miles distant, on the
western shore of this dismal inland sea. He had nearly reached it, when
three sail hove in sight; and he did not doubt that they were his missing
ships. They proved, however, to be English armed merchantmen: the
"Hampshire" of fifty-two guns, and the "Daring" and the "Hudson's Bay" of
thirty-six and thirty-two. The "Pelican" carried but forty-four, and she
was alone. A desperate battle followed, and from half past nine to one
o'clock the cannonade was incessant. Iberville kept the advantage of the
wind, and, coming at length to close quarters with the "Hampshire," gave
her repeated broadsides between wind and water, with such effect that she
sank with all on board. He next closed with the "Hudson's Bay," which
soon struck her flag; while the "Daring" made sail, and escaped. The
"Pelican" was badly damaged in hull, masts, and rigging; and the
increasing fury of a gale from the east made her position more critical
every hour. She anchored, to escape being driven ashore; but the cables
parted, and she was stranded about two leagues from the fort. Here,
racked by the waves and the tide, she split amidships; but most of the
crew reached land with their weapons and ammunition. The northern winter
had already begun, and the snow lay a foot deep in the forest. Some of
them died from cold and exhaustion, and the rest built huts and kindled
fires to warm and dry themselves. Food was so scarce that their only hope
of escape from famishing seemed to lie in a desperate effort to carry the
fort by storm, but now fortune interposed. The three ships they had left
behind in the ice arrived with all the needed succors. Men, cannon, and
mortars were sent ashore, and the attack began.
Fort Nelson was a palisade work, garrisoned by traders and other
civilians in the employ of the English fur company, and commanded by one
of its agents, named Bailey. Though it had a considerable number of small
cannon, it was incapable of defence against any thing but musketry; and
the French bombs soon made it untenable. After being three times
summoned, Bailey lowered his flag, though not till he had obtained
honorable terms; and he and his men marched out with arms and baggage,
drums beating and colors flying.
Iberville had triumphed over the storms, the icebergs, and the English.
The north had seen his prowess, and another fame awaited him in the
regions of the sun; for he became the father of Louisiana, and his
brother Bienville founded New Orleans. [3]
[3] On the capture of Fort Nelson, Iberville au Ministre, 8 Nov., 1697;
Jérémie, Relation de la Baye de Hudson; La Potherie, I. 85-109. All these
writers were present at the attack.
These northern conflicts were but episodes. In Hudson's Bay,
Newfoundland, and Acadia, the issues of the war were unimportant,
compared with the momentous question whether France or England should be
mistress of the west; that is to say, of the whole interior of the
continent. There was a strange contrast in the attitude of the rival
colonies towards this supreme prize: the one was inert, and seemingly
indifferent; the other, intensely active. The reason is obvious enough.
The English colonies were separate, jealous of the crown and of each
other, and incapable as yet of acting in concert. Living by agriculture
and trade, they could prosper within limited areas, and had no present
need of spreading beyond the Alleghanies. Each of them was an aggregate
of persons, busied with their own affairs, and giving little heed to
matters which did not immediately concern them. Their rulers, whether
chosen by themselves or appointed in England, could not compel them to
become the instruments of enterprises in which the sacrifice was present,
and the advantage remote. The neglect in which the English court left
them, though wholesome in most respects, made them unfit for aggressive
action; for they had neither troops, commanders, political union,
military organization, nor military habits. In communities so busy, and
governments so popular, much could not be done, in war, till the people
were roused to the necessity of doing it; and that awakening was still
far distant. Even New York, the only exposed colony, except Massachusetts
and New Hampshire, regarded the war merely as a nuisance to be held at
arm's length. [4]
[4] See note at the end of the chapter.
In Canada, all was different. Living by the fur trade, she needed free
range and indefinite space. Her geographical position determined the
nature of her pursuits; and her pursuits developed the roving and
adventurous character of her people, who, living under a military rule,
could be directed at will to such ends as their rulers saw fit. The grand
French scheme of territorial extension was not born at court, but sprang
from Canadian soil, and was developed by the chiefs of the colony, who,
being on the ground, saw the possibilities and requirements of the
situation, and generally had a personal interest in realizing them. The
rival colonies had two different laws of growth. The one increased by
slow extension, rooting firmly as it spread; the other shot offshoots,
with few or no roots, far out into the wilderness. It was the nature of
French colonization to seize upon detached strategic points, and hold
them by the bayonet, forming no agricultural basis, but attracting the
Indians by trade, and holding them by conversion. A musket, a rosary, and
a pack of beaver skins may serve to represent it, and in fact it
consisted of little else.
Whence came the numerical weakness of New France, and the real though
latent strength of her rivals? Because, it is answered, the French were
not an emigrating people; but, at the end of the seventeenth century,
this was only half true. The French people were divided into two parts,
one eager to emigrate, and the other reluctant. The one consisted of the
persecuted Huguenots, the other of the favored Catholics. The government
chose to construct its colonies, not of those who wished to go, but of
those who wished to stay at home. From the hour when the edict of Nantes
was revoked, hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen would have hailed as a
boon the permission to transport themselves, their families, and their
property to the New World. The permission was fiercely refused, and the
persecuted sect was denied even a refuge in the wilderness. Had it been
granted them, the valleys of the west would have swarmed with a laborious
and virtuous population, trained in adversity, and possessing the
essential qualities of self-government. Another France would have grown
beyond the Alleghanies, strong with the same kind of strength that made
the future greatness of the British colonies. British America was an
asylum for the oppressed and the suffering of all creeds and nations, and
population poured into her by the force of a natural tendency. France,
like England, might have been great in two hemispheres, if she had placed
herself in accord with this tendency, instead of opposing it; but
despotism was consistent with itself, and a mighty opportunity was for
ever lost.
As soon could the Ethiopian change his skin as the priest-ridden king
change his fatal policy of exclusion. Canada must be bound to the papacy,
even if it blasted her. The contest for the west must be waged by the
means which Bourbon policy ordained, and which, it must be admitted, had
some great advantages of their own, when controlled by a man like
Frontenac. The result hung, for the present, on the relations of the
French with the Iroquois and the tribes of the lakes, the Illinois, and
the valley of the Ohio, but, above all, on their relations with the
Iroquois; for, could they be conquered or won over, it would be easy to
deal with the rest.
Frontenac was meditating a grand effort to inflict such castigation as
would bring them to reason, when one of their chiefs, named Tareha, came
to Quebec with overtures of peace. The Iroquois had lost many of their
best warriors. The arrival of troops from France had discouraged them;
the war had interrupted their hunting; and, having no furs to barter with
the English, they were in want of arms, ammunition, and all the
necessaries of life. Moreover, Father Milet, nominally a prisoner among
them, but really an adopted chief, had used all his influence to bring
about a peace; and the mission of Tareha was the result. Frontenac
received him kindly. "My Iroquois children have been drunk; but I will
give them an opportunity to repent. Let each of your five nations send me
two deputies, and I will listen to what they have to say." They would not
come, but sent him instead an invitation to meet them and their friends,
the English, in a general council at Albany; a proposal which he rejected
with contempt. Then they sent another deputation, partly to him and
partly to their Christian countrymen of the Saut and the Mountain,
inviting all alike to come and treat with them at Onondaga. Frontenac,
adopting the Indian fashion, kicked away their wampum belts, rebuked them
for tampering with the mission Indians, and told them that they were
rebels, bribed by the English; adding that, if a suitable deputation
should be sent to Quebec to treat squarely of peace, he still would
listen, but that, if they came back with any more such proposals as they
had just made, they should be roasted alive.
A few weeks later, the deputation appeared. It consisted of two chiefs of
each nation, headed by the renowned orator Decanisora, or, as the French
wrote the name, Tegannisorens. The council was held in the hall of the
supreme council at Quebec. The dignitaries of the colony were present,
with priests, Jesuits, Récollets, officers, and the Christian chiefs of
the Saut and the Mountain. The appearance of the ambassadors bespoke
their destitute plight; for they were all dressed in shabby deerskins and
old blankets, except Decanisora, who was attired in a scarlet coat laced
with gold, given him by the governor of New York. Colden, who knew him in
his old age, describes him as a tall, well-formed man, with a face not
unlike the busts of Cicero. "He spoke," says the French reporter, "with
as perfect a grace as is vouchsafed to an uncivilized people;" buried the
hatchet, covered the blood that had been spilled, opened the roads, and
cleared the clouds from the sun. In other words, he offered peace; but he
demanded at the same time that it should include the English. Frontenac
replied, in substance: "My children are right to come submissive and
repentant. I am ready to forgive the past, and hang up the hatchet; but
the peace must include all my other children, far and near. Shut your
ears to English poison. The war with the English has nothing to do with
you, and only the great kings across the sea have power to stop it. You
must give up all your prisoners, both French and Indian, without one
exception. I will then return mine, and make peace with you, but not
before." He then entertained them at his own table, gave them a feast
described as "magnificent," and bestowed gifts so liberally, that the
tattered ambassadors went home in embroidered coats, laced shirts, and
plumed hats. They were pledged to return with the prisoners before the
end of the season, and they left two hostages as security. [5]
[5] On these negotiations, and their antecedents, Callières, Relation de
ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable en Canada depuis Sept., 1692,
jusqu'au Départ des Vaisseaux en 1693; La Motte-Cadillac, Mémoire des
Negociations avec les Iroquois, 1694; Callières au Ministre, 19 Oct.,
1694; La Potherie, III. 200-220; Colden, Five Nations, chap. x.; N. Y.
Col. Docs., IV. 85.
Meanwhile, the authorities of New York tried to prevent the threatened
peace. First, Major Peter Schuyler convoked the chiefs at Albany, and
told them that, if they went to ask peace in Canada, they would be slaves
for ever. The Iroquois declared that they loved the English, but they
repelled every attempt to control their action. Then Fletcher, the
governor, called a general council at the same place, and told them that
they should not hold councils with the French, or that, if they did so,
they should hold them at Albany in presence of the English. Again they
asserted their rights as an independent people. "Corlaer," said their
speaker, "has held councils with our enemies, and why should not we hold
councils with his?" Yet they were strong in assurances of friendship, and
declared themselves "one head, one heart, one blood, and one soul, with
the English." Their speaker continued: "Our only reason for sending
deputies to the French is that we are brought so low, and none of our
neighbors help us, but leave us to bear all the burden of the war. Our
brothers of New England, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, all of
their own accord took hold of the covenant chain, and called themselves
our allies; but they have done nothing to help us, and we cannot fight
the French alone, because they are always receiving soldiers from beyond
the Great Lake. Speak from your heart, brother: will you and your
neighbors join with us, and make strong war against the French? If you
will, we will break off all treaties, and fight them as hotly as ever;
but, if you will not help us, we must make peace."
Nothing could be more just than these reproaches; and, if the English
governor had answered by a vigorous attack on the French forts south of
the St. Lawrence, the Iroquois warriors would have raised the hatchet
again with one accord. But Fletcher was busy with other matters; and he
had besides no force at his disposal but four companies, the only British
regulars on the continent, defective in numbers, ill-appointed, and
mutinous. Therefore he answered not with acts, but with words. The
negotiation with the French went on, and Fletcher called another council.
It left him in a worse position than before. The Iroquois again asked for
help: he could not promise it, but was forced to yield the point, and
tell them that he consented to their making peace with Onontio.
[6] Fletcher is, however, charged with gross misconduct in regard to the
four companies, which he is said to have kept at about half their
complement, in order to keep the balance of their pay for himself.
It is certain that they wanted peace, but equally certain that they did
not want it to be lasting, and sought nothing more than a breathing time
to regain their strength. Even now some of them were for continuing the
war; and at the great council at Onondaga, where the matter was debated,
the Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks spurned the French proposals, and
refused to give up their prisoners. The Cayugas and some of the Senecas
were of another mind, and agreed to a partial compliance with Frontenac's
demands. The rest seem to have stood passive in the hope of gaining time.
They were disappointed. In vain the Seneca and Cayuga deputies buried the
hatchet at Montreal, and promised that the other nations would soon do
likewise. Frontenac was not to be deceived. He would accept nothing but
the frank fulfilment of his conditions, refused the proffered peace, and
told his Indian allies to wage war to the knife. There was a dog-feast
and a war-dance, and the strife began anew.
In all these conferences, the Iroquois had stood by their English allies,
with a fidelity not too well merited. But, though they were loyal towards
the English, they had acted with duplicity towards the French, and, while
treating of peace with them, had attacked some of their Indian allies,
and intrigued with others. They pursued with more persistency than ever
the policy they had adopted in the time of La Barre, that is, to persuade
or frighten the tribes of the west to abandon the French, join hands with
them and the English, and send their furs to Albany instead of Montreal;
for the sagacious confederates knew well that, if the trade were turned
into this new channel, their local position would enable them to control
it. The scheme was good; but with whatever consistency their chiefs and
elders might pursue it, the wayward ferocity of their young warriors
crossed it incessantly, and murders alternated with intrigues. On the
other hand, the western tribes, who since the war had been but ill
supplied with French goods and French brandy, knew that they could have
English goods and English rum in great abundance, and at far less cost;
and thus, in spite of hate and fear, the intrigue went on.
Michillimackinac was the focus of it, but it pervaded all the west. The
position of Frontenac was one of great difficulty, and the more so that
the intestine quarrels of his allies excessively complicated the mazes of
forest diplomacy. This heterogeneous multitude, scattered in tribes and
groups of tribes over two thousand miles of wilderness, was like a vast
menagerie of wild animals; and the lynx bristled at the wolf, and the
panther grinned fury at the bear, in spite of all his efforts to form
them into a happy family under his paternal rule.
La Motte-Cadillac commanded at Michillimackinac, Courtemanche was
stationed at Fort Miamis, and Tonty and La Forêt at the fortified rock of
St. Louis on the Illinois; while Nicolas Perrot roamed among the tribes
of the Mississippi, striving at the risk of his life to keep them at
peace with each other, and in alliance with the French. Yet a plot
presently came to light, by which the Foxes, Mascontins, and Kickapoos
were to join hands, renounce the French, and cast their fortunes with the
Iroquois and the English. There was still more anxiety for the tribes of
Michillimackinac, because the results of their defection would be more
immediate. This important post had at the time an Indian population of
six or seven thousand souls, a Jesuit mission, a fort with two hundred
soldiers, and a village of about sixty houses, occupied by traders and
coureurs de bois. The Indians of the place were in relations more or less
close with all the tribes of the lakes. The Huron village was divided
between two rival chiefs: the Baron, who was deep in Iroquois and English
intrigue; and the Rat, who, though once the worst enemy of the French,
now stood their friend. The Ottawas and other Algonquins of the adjacent
villages were savages of a lower grade, tossed continually between hatred
of the Iroquois, distrust of the French, and love of English goods and
English rum. [7]
[7] "Si les Outaouacs (Ottawas) et Hurons concluent la paix avec
l'Iroquois sans nostre participation, et donnent chez eux l'entrée à
l'Anglois pour le commerce, la Colonie est entièrement ruinée, puisque
c'est le seul (moyen) par lequel ce pays-cy puisse subsister, et l'on
peut asseurer que si les sauvages goustent une fois du commerce de
l'Anglois, ils rompront pour toujours avec les François, parcequ'ils ne
peuvent donner les marchandises qu'à un prix beaucoup plus hault."
Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1696.
La Motte-Cadillac found that the Hurons of the Baron's band were
receiving messengers and peace belts from New York and her red allies,
that the English had promised to build a trading house on Lake Erie, and
that the Iroquois had invited the lake tribes to a grand convention at
Detroit. These belts and messages were sent, in the Indian expression,
"underground," that is, secretly; and the envoys who brought them came in
the disguise of prisoners taken by the Hurons. On one occasion, seven
Iroquois were brought in; and some of the French, suspecting them to be
agents of the negotiation, stabbed two of them as they landed. There was
a great tumult. The Hurons took arms to defend the remaining five; but at
length suffered themselves to be appeased, and even gave one of the
Iroquois, a chief, into the hands of the French, who, says La Potherie,
determined to "make an example of him." They invited the Ottawas to
"drink the broth of an Iroquois." The wretch was made fast to a stake,
and a Frenchman began the torture by burning him with a red-hot
gun-barrel. The mob of savages was soon wrought up to the required pitch
of ferocity; and, after atrociously tormenting him, they cut him to
pieces, and ate him. [8] It was clear that the more Iroquois the allies
of France could be persuaded to burn, the less would be the danger that
they would make peace with the confederacy. On another occasion, four
were tortured at once; and La Motte-Cadillac writes, "If any more
prisoners are brought me, I promise you that their fate will be no
sweeter." [9]
[8] La Potherie, II. 298.
[9] La Motte-Cadillac à------, 3 Aug., 1695. A translation of this letter
will be found in Sheldon, Early History of Michigan.
The same cruel measures were practised when the Ottawas came to trade at
Montreal. Frontenac once invited a band of them to "roast an Iroquois,"
newly caught by the soldiers; but as they had hamstrung him, to prevent
his escape, he bled to death before the torture began. [10] In the next
spring, the revolting tragedy of Michillimackinac was repeated at
Montreal, where four more Iroquois were burned by the soldiers,
inhabitants, and Indian allies. "It was the mission of Canada," says a
Canadian writer, "to propagate Christianity and civilization." [11]
[10] Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable entre les
François et les Iroquois durant la présente année, 1695. There is a
translation in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. Compare La Potherie, who misplaces
the incident as to date.
[11] This last execution was an act of reprisal: "J'abandonnay les 4
prisonniers aux soldats, habitants, et sauvages, qui les bruslerent par
représailles de deux du Sault que cette nation avoit traitté de la mesme
manière." Callières au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1696.
Every effort was vain. La Motte-Cadillac wrote that matters grew worse
and worse, and that the Ottawas had been made to believe that the French
neither would nor could protect them, but meant to leave them to their
fate. They thought that they had no hope except in peace with the
Iroquois, and had actually gone to meet them at an appointed rendezvous.
One course alone was now left to Frontenac, and this was to strike the
Iroquois with a blow heavy enough to humble them, and teach the wavering
hordes of the west that he was, in truth, their father and their
defender. Nobody knew so well as he the difficulties of the attempt; and,
deceived perhaps by his own energy, he feared that, in his absence on a
distant expedition, the governor of New York would attack Montreal.
Therefore, he had begged for more troops. About three hundred were sent
him, and with these he was forced to content himself.
He had waited, also, for another reason. In his belief, the
re-establishment of Fort Frontenac, abandoned in a panic by Denonville,
was necessary to the success of a campaign against the Iroquois. A party
in the colony vehemently opposed the measure, on the ground that the fort
would be used by the friends of Frontenac for purposes of trade. It was,
nevertheless, very important, if not essential, for holding the Iroquois
in check. They themselves felt it to be so; and, when they heard that the
French intended to occupy it again, they appealed to the governor of New
York, who told them that, if the plan were carried into effect, he would
march to their aid with all the power of his government. He did not, and
perhaps could not, keep his word. [12]
[12] Colden, 178. Fletcher could get no men from his own or neighboring
governments. See note, at the end of the chapter.
In the question of Fort Frontenac, as in every thing else, the opposition
to the governor, always busy and vehement, found its chief representative
in the intendant, who told the minister that the policy of Frontenac was
all wrong; that the public good was not its object; that he disobeyed or
evaded the orders of the king; and that he had suffered the Iroquois to
delude him by false overtures of peace. The representations of the
intendant and his faction had such effect, that Ponchartrain wrote to the
governor that the plan of re-establishing Fort Frontenac "must absolutely
be abandoned." Frontenac, bent on accomplishing his purpose, and doubly
so because his enemies opposed it, had anticipated the orders of the
minister, and sent seven hundred men to Lake Ontario to repair the fort.
The day after they left Montreal, the letter of Ponchartrain arrived. The
intendant demanded their recall. Frontenac refused. The fort was
repaired, garrisoned, and victualled for a year.
A successful campaign was now doubly necessary to the governor, for by
this alone could he hope to avert the consequences of his audacity. He
waited no longer, but mustered troops, militia, and Indians, and marched
to attack the Iroquois. [13]
[13] The above is drawn from the correspondence of Frontenac, Champigny,
La Motte-Cadillac, and Callières, on one hand, and the king and the
minister on the other. The letters are too numerous to specify. Also,
from the official Relation de ce qui s'est passé de plus remarquable en
Canada, 1694, 1695, and Ibid., 1695, 1696; Mémoire soumis au Ministre de
ce qui résulte des Avis reçus du Canada en 1695; Champigny, Mémoire
concernant le Fort de Cataracouy; La Potherie, II. 284-302, IV. 1-80;
Colden, chaps. x., xi.
Military Inefficiency of the British Colonies--"His Majesty has subjects
enough in those parts of America to drive out the French from Canada; but
they are so crumbled into little governments, and so disunited, that they
have hitherto afforded little assistance to each other, and now seem in a
much worse disposition to do it for the future." This is the complaint of
the Lords of Trade. Governor Fletcher writes bitterly: "Here every little
government sets up for despotic power, and allows no appeal to the Crown,
but, by a little juggling, defeats all commands and injunctions from the
King." Fletcher's complaint was not unprovoked. The Queen had named him
commander-in-chief, during the war, of the militia of several of the
colonies, and empowered him to call on them for contingents of men, not
above 350 from Massachusetts, 250 from Virginia, 160 from Maryland, 120
from Connecticut, 48 from Rhode Island, and 80 from Pennsylvania. This
measure excited the jealousy of the colonies, and several of them
remonstrated on constitutional grounds; but the attorney-general, to whom
the question was referred, reported that the crown had power, under
certain limitations, to appoint a commander-in-chief. Fletcher,
therefore, in his character as such, called for a portion of the men; but
scarcely one could he get. He was met by excuses and evasions, which,
especially in the case of Connecticut, were of a most vexatious
character. At last, that colony, tired by his importunities, condescended
to furnish him with twenty-five men. With the others, he was less
fortunate, though Virginia and Maryland compounded with a sum of money.
Each colony claimed the control of its own militia, and was anxious to
avoid the establishment of any precedent which might deprive it of the
right. Even in the military management of each separate colony, there was
scarcely less difficulty. A requisition for troops from a royal governor
was always regarded with jealousy, and the provincial assemblies were
slow to grant money for their support. In 1692, when Fletcher came to New
York, the assembly gave him 300 men, for a year; in 1693, they gave him
an equal number; in 1694, they allowed him but 170, he being accused,
apparently with truth, of not having made good use of the former levies.
He afterwards asked that the force at his disposal should be increased to
500 men, to guard the frontier; and the request was not granted. In 1697
he was recalled; and the Earl of Bellomont was commissioned governor of
New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and captain-general, during
the war, of all the forces of those colonies, as well as of Connecticut,
Rhode Island, and New Jersey. The close of the war quickly ended this
military authority; but there is no reason to believe that, had it
continued, the earl's requisitions for men, in his character of
captain-general, would have had more success than those of Fletcher. The
whole affair is a striking illustration of the original isolation of
communities, which afterwards became welded into a nation. It involved a
military paralysis almost complete. Sixty years later, under the sense of
a great danger, the British colonies were ready enough to receive a
commander-in-chief, and answer his requisitions.
A great number of documents bearing upon the above subject will be found
in the New York Colonial Documents, IV.