1696-1698.
Frontenac attacks the Onondagas.
March of Frontenac • Flight of the Enemy • An Iroquois Stoic • Relief for
the Onondagas • Boasts of Frontenac • His Complaints • His Enemies •
Parties in Canada • Views of Frontenac and the King • Frontenac prevails
• Peace of Ryswick • Frontenac and Bellomont • Schuyler at Quebec •
Festivities • A Last Defiance.
On the fourth of July, Frontenac left Montreal, at the head of about
twenty-two hundred men. On the nineteenth he reached Fort Frontenac, and
on the twenty-sixth he crossed to the southern shore of Lake Ontario. A
swarm of Indian canoes led the way; next followed two battalions of
regulars, in bateaux, commanded by Callières; then more bateaux, laden
with cannon, mortars, and rockets; then Frontenac himself, surrounded by
the canoes of his staff and his guard; then eight hundred Canadians,
under Ramesay; while more regulars and more Indians, all commanded by
Vaudreuil, brought up the rear. In two days they reached the mouth of the
Oswego; strong scouting-parties were sent out to scour the forests in
front; while the expedition slowly and painfully worked its way up the
stream. Most of the troops and Canadians marched through the matted woods
along the banks; while the bateaux and canoes were pushed, rowed,
paddled, or dragged forward against the current. On the evening of the
thirtieth, they reached the falls, where the river plunged over ledges of
rock which completely stopped the way. The work of "carrying" was begun
at once. The Indians and Canadians carried the canoes to the navigable
water above, and gangs of men dragged the bateaux up the portage-path on
rollers. Night soon came, and the work was continued till ten o'clock by
torchlight. Frontenac would have passed on foot like the rest, but the
Indians would not have it so. They lifted him in his canoe upon their
shoulders, and bore him in triumph, singing and yelling, through the
forest and along the margin of the rapids, the blaze of the torches
lighting the strange procession, where plumes of officers and uniforms of
the governor's guard mingled with the feathers and scalp-locks of naked
savages.
When the falls were passed, the troops pushed on as before along the
narrow stream, and through the tangled labyrinths on either side; till,
on the first of August, they reached Lake Onondaga, and, with sails set,
the whole flotilla glided before the wind, and landed the motley army on
a rising ground half a league from the salt springs of Salina. The next
day was spent in building a fort to protect the canoes, bateaux, and
stores; and, as evening closed, a ruddy glow above the southern forest
told them that the town of Onondaga was on fire.
The Marquis de Crisasy was left, with a detachment, to hold the fort;
and, at sunrise on the fourth, the army moved forward in order of battle.
It was formed in two lines, regulars on the right and left, and Canadians
in the centre. Callières commanded the first line, and Vaudreuil the
second. Frontenac was between them, surrounded by his staff officers and
his guard, and followed by the artillery, which relays of Canadians
dragged and lifted forward with inconceivable labor. The governor,
enfeebled by age, was carried in an arm-chair; while Callières, disabled
by gout, was mounted on a horse, brought for the purpose in one of the
bateaux. To Subercase fell the hard task of directing the march among the
dense columns of the primeval forest, by hill and hollow, over rocks and
fallen trees, through swamps, brooks, and gullies, among thickets,
brambles, and vines. It was but eight or nine miles to Onondaga; but they
were all day in reaching it, and evening was near when they emerged from
the shadows of the forest into the broad light of the Indian clearing.
The maize-fields stretched before them for miles, and in the midst lay
the charred and smoking ruins of the Iroquois capital. Not an enemy was
to be seen, but they found the dead bodies of two murdered French
prisoners. Scouts were sent out, guards were set, and the disappointed
troops encamped on the maize-fields.
Onondaga, formerly an open town, had been fortified by the English, who
had enclosed it with a double range of strong palisades, forming a
rectangle, flanked by bastions at the four corners, and surrounded by an
outer fence of tall poles. The place was not defensible against cannon
and mortars; and the four hundred warriors belonging to it had been but
slightly reinforced from the other tribes of the confederacy, each of
which feared that the French attack might be directed against itself. On
the approach of an enemy of five times their number, they had burned
their town, and retreated southward into distant forests.
The troops were busied for two days in hacking down the maize, digging up
the caches, or hidden stores of food, and destroying their contents. The
neighboring tribe of the Oneidas sent a messenger to beg peace. Frontenac
replied that he would grant it, on condition that they all should migrate
to Canada, and settle there; and Vaudreuil, with seven hundred men, was
sent to enforce the demand. Meanwhile, a few Onondaga stragglers had been
found; and among them, hidden in a hollow tree, a withered warrior,
eighty years old, and nearly blind. Frontenac would have spared him; but
the Indian allies, Christians from the mission villages, were so eager to
burn him that it was thought inexpedient to refuse them. They tied him to
the stake, and tried to shake his constancy by every torture that fire
could inflict; but not a cry nor a murmur escaped him. He defied them to
do their worst, till, enraged at his taunts, one of them gave him a
mortal stab. "I thank you," said the old Stoic, with his last breath;
"but you ought to have finished as you began, and killed me by fire.
Learn from me, you dogs of Frenchmen, how to endure pain; and you, dogs
of dogs, their Indian allies, think what you will do when you are burned
like me." [1]
[1] Relation de ce qui s'est passé, etc., 1695, 1696; La Potherie, III.
279. Callières and the author of the Relation of 1682-1712 also speak of
the extraordinary fortitude of the victim. The Jesuits say that it was
not the Christian Indians who insisted on burning him, but the French
themselves, "qui voulurent absolument qu'il fût brulé à petit feu, ce
qu'ils executèrent eux-mêmes. Un Jesuite le confessa et l'assista à la
mort, l'encourageant à souffrir courageusement et chrétiennement les
tourmens." Relation de 1696 (Shea), 10. This writer adds that, when
Frontenac heard of it, he ordered him to be spared; but it was too late.
Charlevoix misquotes the old Stoic's last words, which were, according to
the official Relation of 1695-6: "Je te remercie mais tu aurais bien dû
achever de me faire mourir par le feu. Apprenez, chiens de François, à
souffrir, et vous sauvages leurs allies, qui êtes les chiens des chiens,
souvenez vous de ce que vous devez faire quand vous serez en pareil état
que moi."
Vaudreuil and his detachment returned within three days, after destroying
Oneida, with all the growing corn, and seizing a number of chiefs as
hostages for the fulfilment of the demands of Frontenac. There was some
thought of marching on Cayuga, but the governor judged it to be
inexpedient; and, as it would be useless to chase the fugitive Onondagas,
nothing remained but to return home. [2]
[2] On the expedition against the Onondagas, Callières au Ministre, 20
Oct., 1696; Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1696; Frontenac et Champigny
au Ministre (lettre commune) 26 Oct., 1696; Relation de ce qui s'est
passé, etc., 1695, 1696; Relation, 1682-1712; Relation des Jesuites, 1696
(Shea); Doc. Hist. N. Y., I. 323-355; La Potherie, III. 270-282; N. Y.
Col. Docs., IV. 242.
Charlevoix charges Frontenac on this occasion with failing to pursue his
advantage, lest others, and especially Callières, should get more honor
than he. The accusation seems absolutely groundless. His many enemies
were silent about it at the time; for the king warmly commends his
conduct on the expedition, and Callières himself, writing immediately
after, gives him nothing but praise.
While Frontenac was on his march, Governor Fletcher had heard of his
approach, and called the council at New York to consider what should be
done. They resolved that "it will be very grievous to take the people
from their labour; and there is likewise no money to answer the charge
thereof." Money was, however, advanced by Colonel Cortlandt and others;
and the governor wrote to Connecticut and New Jersey for their
contingents of men; but they thought the matter no concern of theirs, and
did not respond. Fletcher went to Albany with the few men he could gather
at the moment, and heard on his arrival that the French were gone. Then
he convoked the chiefs, condoled with them, and made them presents. Corn
was sent to the Onondagas and Oneidas to support them through the winter,
and prevent the famine which the French hoped would prove their
destruction.
What Frontenac feared had come to pass. The enemy had saved themselves by
flight; and his expedition, like that of Denonville, was but half
successful. He took care, however, to announce it to the king as a
triumph.
"Sire, the benedictions which Heaven has ever showered upon your
Majesty's arms have extended even to this New World; whereof we have had
visible proof in the expedition I have just made against the Onondagas,
the principal nation of the Iroquois. I had long projected this
enterprise, but the difficulties and risks which attended it made me
regard it as imprudent; and I should never have resolved to undertake it,
if I had not last year established an entrepôt (Fort Frontenac), which
made my communications more easy, and if I had not known, beyond all
doubt, that this was absolutely the only means to prevent our allies from
making peace with the Iroquois, and introducing the English into their
country, by which the colony would infallibly be ruined. Nevertheless, by
unexpected good fortune, the Onondagas, who pass for masters of the other
Iroquois, and the terror of all the Indians of this country, fell into a
sort of bewilderment, which could only have come from on High; and were
so terrified to see me march against them in person, and cover their
lakes and rivers with nearly four hundred sail, that, without availing
themselves of passes where a hundred men might easily hold four thousand
in check, they did not dare to lay a single ambuscade, but, after waiting
till I was five leagues from their fort, they set it on fire with all
their dwellings, and fled, with their families, twenty leagues into the
depths of the forest. It could have been wished, to make the affair more
brilliant, that they had tried to hold their fort against us, for we were
prepared to force it and kill a great many of them; but their ruin is not
the less sure, because the famine, to which they are reduced, will
destroy more than we could have killed by sword and gun.
"All the officers and men have done their duty admirably; and especially
M. de Callières, who has been a great help to me. I know not if your
Majesty will think that I have tried to do mine, and will hold me worthy
of some mark of honor that may enable me to pass the short remainder of
my life in some little distinction; but, whether this be so or not, I
most humbly pray your Majesty to believe that I will sacrifice the rest
of my days to your Majesty's service with the same ardor I have always
felt." [3]
[3] Frontenac au Roy, 25 Oct., 1696.
The king highly commended him, and sent him the cross of the Military
Order of St. Louis. Callières, who had deserved it less, had received it
several years before; but he had not found or provoked so many defamers.
Frontenac complained to the minister that his services had been slightly
and tardily requited. This was true, and it was due largely to the
complaints excited by his own perversity and violence. These complaints
still continued; but the fault was not all on one side, and Frontenac
himself had often just reason to retort them. He wrote to Ponchartrain:
"If you will not be so good as to look closely into the true state of
things here, I shall always be exposed to detraction, and forced to make
new apologies, which is very hard for a person so full of zeal and
uprightness as I am. My secretary, who is going to France, will tell you
all the ugly intrigues used to defeat my plans for the service of the
king, and the growth of the colony. I have long tried to combat these
artifices, but I confess that I no longer feel strength to resist them,
and must succumb at last, if you will not have the goodness to give me
strong support." [4]
[4] Frontenac au Ministre, 25 Oct., 1696.
He still continued to provoke the detraction which he deprecated, till he
drew, at last, a sharp remonstrance from the minister. "The dispute you
have had with M. de Champigny is without cause, and I confess I cannot
comprehend how you could have acted as you have done. If you do things of
this sort, you must expect disagreeable consequences, which all the
desire I have to oblige you cannot prevent. It is deplorable, both for
you and for me, that, instead of using my good-will to gain favors from
his Majesty, you compel me to make excuses for a violence which answers
no purpose, and in which you indulge wantonly, nobody can tell why." [5]
[5] Le Ministre à Frontenac, 21 Mai, 1698.
Most of these quarrels, however trivial in themselves, had a solid
foundation, and were closely connected with the great question of the
control of the west. As to the measures to be taken, two parties divided
the colony; one consisting of the governor and his friends, and the other
of the intendant, the Jesuits, and such of the merchants as were not in
favor with Frontenac. His policy was to protect the Indian allies at all
risks, to repel by force, if necessary, every attempt of the English to
encroach on the territory in dispute, and to occupy it by forts which
should be at once posts of war and commerce and places of rendezvous for
traders and voyageurs. Champigny and his party denounced this system;
urged that the forest posts should be abandoned, that both garrisons and
traders should be recalled, that the French should not go to the Indians,
but that the Indians should come to the French, that the fur trade of the
interior should be carried on at Montreal, and that no Frenchman should
be allowed to leave the settled limits of the colony, except the Jesuits
and persons in their service, who, as Champigny insisted, would be able
to keep the Indians in the French interest without the help of soldiers.
Strong personal interests were active on both sides, and gave bitterness
to the strife. Frontenac, who always stood by his friends, had placed
Tonty, La Forêt, La Motte-Cadillac, and others of their number, in charge
of the forest posts, where they made good profit by trade. Moreover, the
licenses for trading expeditions into the interior were now, as before,
used largely for the benefit of his favorites. The Jesuits also declared,
and with some truth, that the forest posts were centres of debauchery,
and that the licenses for the western trade were the ruin of innumerable
young men. All these reasons were laid before the king. In vain Frontenac
represented that to abandon the forest posts would be to resign to the
English the trade of the interior country, and at last the country
itself. The royal ear was open to his opponents, and the royal instincts
reinforced their arguments. The king, enamoured of subordination and
order, wished to govern Canada as he governed a province of France; and
this could be done only by keeping the population within prescribed
bounds. Therefore, he commanded that licenses for the forest trade should
cease, that the forest posts should be abandoned and destroyed, that all
Frenchmen should be ordered back to the settlements, and that none should
return under pain of the galleys. An exception was made in favor of the
Jesuits, who were allowed to continue their western missions, subject to
restrictions designed to prevent them from becoming a cover to illicit
fur trade. Frontenac was also directed to make peace with the Iroquois,
even, if necessary, without including the western allies of France; that
is, he was authorized by Louis XIV. to pursue the course which had
discredited and imperilled the colony under the rule of Denonville. [6]
[6] Mémoire du Roy pour Frontenac et Champigny, 26 Mai, 1696; Ibid., 27
Avril, 1697; Registres du Conseil Supérieur, Edit du 21 Mai, 1696.
"Ce qui vous avez mandé de l'accommodement des Sauvages alliés avec les
Irocois n'a pas permis à Sa Majesté d'entrer dans la discution de la
manière de faire l'abandonnement des postes des François dans la
profondeur des terres, particulièrement à Missilimackinac ... En tout cas
vous ne devez pas manquer de donner ordre pour ruiner les forts et tous
les édifices qui pourront y avoir esté faits." Le Ministre à Frontenac,
26 Mai, 1696.
Besides the above, many other letters and despatches on both sides have
been examined in relation to these questions.
The intentions of the king did not take effect. The policy of Frontenac
was the true one, whatever motives may have entered into his advocacy of
it. In view of the geographical, social, political, and commercial
conditions of Canada, the policy of his opponents was impracticable, and
nothing less than a perpetual cordon of troops could have prevented the
Canadians from escaping to the backwoods. In spite of all the evils that
attended the forest posts, it would have been a blunder to abandon them.
This quickly became apparent. Champigny himself saw the necessity of
compromise. The instructions of the king were scarcely given before they
were partially withdrawn, and they soon became a dead letter. Even Fort
Frontenac was retained after repeated directions to abandon it. The
policy of the governor prevailed; the colony returned to its normal
methods of growth, and so continued to the end.
Now came the question of peace with the Iroquois, to whose mercy
Frontenac was authorized to leave his western allies. He was the last man
to accept such permission. Since the burning of Onondaga, the Iroquois
negotiations with the western tribes had been broken off, and several
fights had occurred, in which the confederates had suffered loss and been
roused to vengeance. This was what Frontenac wanted, but at the same time
it promised him fresh trouble; for, while he was determined to prevent
the Iroquois from making peace with the allies without his authority, he
was equally determined to compel them to do so with it. There must be
peace, though not till he could control its conditions.
The Onondaga campaign, unsatisfactory as it was, had had its effect.
Several Iroquois chiefs came to Quebec with overtures of peace. They
brought no prisoners, but promised to bring them in the spring; and one
of them remained as a hostage that the promise should be kept. It was
nevertheless broken under English influence; and, instead of a solemn
embassy, the council of Onondaga sent a messenger with a wampum belt to
tell Frontenac that they were all so engrossed in bewailing the recent
death of Black Kettle, a famous war chief, that they had no strength to
travel; and they begged that Onontio would return the hostage, and send
to them for the French prisoners. The messenger farther declared that,
though they would make peace with Onontio, they would not make it with
his allies. Frontenac threw back the peace-belt into his face. "Tell the
chiefs that, if they must needs stay at home to cry about a trifle, I
will give them something to cry for. Let them bring me every prisoner,
French and Indian, and make a treaty that shall include all my children,
or they shall feel my tomahawk again." Then, turning to a number of
Ottawas who were present: "You see that I can make peace for myself when
I please. If I continue the war, it is only for your sake. I will never
make a treaty without including you, and recovering your prisoners like
my own."
Thus the matter stood, when a great event took place. Early in February,
a party of Dutch and Indians came to Montreal with news that peace had
been signed in Europe; and, at the end of May, Major Peter Schuyler,
accompanied by Dellius, the minister of Albany, arrived with copies of
the treaty in French and Latin. The scratch of a pen at Ryswick had ended
the conflict in America, so far at least as concerned the civilized
combatants. It was not till July that Frontenac received the official
announcement from Versailles, coupled with an address from the king to
the people of Canada.
Our Faithful and Beloved,--The moment has arrived ordained by Heaven to
reconcile the nations. The ratification of the treaty concluded some time
ago by our ambassadors with those of the Emperor and the Empire, after
having made peace with Spain, England, and Holland, has everywhere
restored the tranquillity so much desired. Strasbourg, one of the chief
ramparts of the empire of heresy, united for ever to the Church and to
our Crown; the Rhine established as the barrier between France and
Germany; and, what touches us even more, the worship of the True Faith
authorized by a solemn engagement with sovereigns of another religion,
are the advantages secured by this last treaty. The Author of so many
blessings manifests Himself so clearly that we cannot but recognize His
goodness; and the visible impress of His all-powerful hand is as it were
the seal He has affixed to justify our intent to cause all our realm to
serve and obey Him, and to make our people happy. We have begun by the
fulfilment of our duty in offering Him the thanks which are His due; and
we have ordered the archbishops and bishops of our kingdom to cause Te
Deum to be sung in the cathedrals of their dioceses. It is our will and
our command that you be present at that which will be sung in the
cathedral of our city of Quebec, on the day appointed by the Count of
Frontenac, our governor and lieutenant-general in New France. Herein fail
not, for such is our pleasure.
Louis.[7]
[7] Lettre du Roy pour faire chanter le Te Deum, 12 Mars, 1698.
There was peace between the two crowns; but a serious question still
remained between Frontenac and the new governor of New York, the Earl of
Bellomont. When Schuyler and Dellius came to Quebec, they brought with
them all the French prisoners in the hands of the English of New York,
together with a promise from Bellomont that he would order the Iroquois,
subjects of the British crown, to deliver to him all those in their
possession, and that he would then send them to Canada under a safe
escort. The two envoys demanded of Frontenac, at the same time, that he
should deliver to them all the Iroquois in his hands. To give up Iroquois
prisoners to Bellomont, or to receive through him French prisoners whom
the Iroquois had captured, would have been an acknowledgment of British
sovereignty over the five confederate tribes. Frontenac replied that the
earl need give himself no trouble in the matter, as the Iroquois were
rebellious subjects of King Louis; that they had already repented and
begged peace; and that, if they did not soon come to conclude it, he
should use force to compel them.
Bellomont wrote, in return, that he had sent arms to the Iroquois, with
orders to defend themselves if attacked by the French, and to give no
quarter to them or their allies; and he added that, if necessary, he
would send soldiers to their aid. A few days after, he received fresh
news of Frontenac's warlike intentions, and wrote in wrath as follows:--
Sir,--Two of our Indians, of the Nation called Onondages, came yesterday
to advise me that you had sent two renegades of their Nation to them, to
tell them and the other tribes, except the Mohawks, that, in case they
did not come to Canada within forty days to solicit peace from you, they
may expect your marching into their country at the head of an army to
constrain them thereunto by force. I, on my side, do this very day send
my lieutenant-governor with the king's troops to join the Indians, and to
oppose any hostilities you will attempt; and, if needs be, I will arm
every man in the Provinces under my government to repel you, and to make
reprisals for the damage which you will commit on our Indians. This, in a
few words, is the part I will take, and the resolution I have adopted,
whereof I have thought it proper by these presents to give you notice.
I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
Earl of Bellemont.
New York, 22d August, 1698.
To arm every man in his government would have been difficult. He did,
however, what he could, and ordered Captain Nanfan, the
lieutenant-governor, to repair to Albany; whence, on the first news that
the French were approaching, he was to march to the relief of the
Iroquois with the four shattered companies of regulars and as many of the
militia of Albany and Ulster as he could muster. Then the earl sent
Wessels, mayor of Albany, to persuade the Iroquois to deliver their
prisoners to him, and make no treaty with Frontenac. On the same day, he
despatched Captain John Schuyler to carry his letters to the French
governor. When Schuyler reached Quebec, and delivered the letters,
Frontenac read them with marks of great displeasure. "My Lord Bellomont
threatens me," he said. "Does he think that I am afraid of him? He claims
the Iroquois, but they are none of his. They call me father, and they
call him brother; and shall not a father chastise his children when he
sees fit?" A conversation followed, in which Frontenac asked the envoy
what was the strength of Bellomont's government. Schuyler parried the
question by a grotesque exaggeration, and answered that the earl could
bring about a hundred thousand men into the field. Frontenac pretended to
believe him, and returned with careless gravity that he had always heard
so.
The following Sunday was the day appointed for the Te Deum ordered by the
king; and all the dignitaries of the colony, with a crowd of lesser note,
filled the cathedral. There was a dinner of ceremony at the château, to
which Schuyler was invited; and he found the table of the governor
thronged with officers. Frontenac called on his guests to drink the
health of King William. Schuyler replied by a toast in honor of King
Louis; and the governor next gave the health of the Earl of Bellomont.
The peace was then solemnly proclaimed, amid the firing of cannon from
the batteries and ships; and the day closed with a bonfire and a general
illumination. On the next evening, Frontenac gave Schuyler a letter in
answer to the threats of the earl. He had written with trembling hand,
but unshaken will and unbending pride:--
"I am determined to pursue my course without flinching; and I request you
not to try to thwart me by efforts which will prove useless. All the
protection and aid you tell me that you have given, and will continue to
give, the Iroquois, against the terms of the treaty, will not cause me
much alarm, nor make me change my plans, but rather, on the contrary,
engage me to pursue them still more." [8]
[8] On the questions between Bellomont and Frontenac, Relation de ce qui
s'est passé, etc., 1697, 1698; Champigny au Ministre, 12 Juillet, 1698;
Frontenac au Ministre, 18 Oct., 1698; Frontenac et Champigny au Ministre
(lettre commune), 15 Oct., 1698; Calliéres au Ministre, même date, etc.
The correspondence of Frontenac and Bellomont, the report of Peter
Schuyler and Dellius, the journal of John Schuyler, and other papers on
the same subjects, will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IV. John Schuyler
was grandfather of General Schuyler of the American Revolution. Peter
Schuyler and his colleague Dellius brought to Canada all the French
prisoners in the hands of the English of New York, and asked for English
prisoners in return; but nearly all of these preferred to remain, a
remarkable proof of the kindness with which the Canadians treated their
civilized captives.
As the old soldier traced these lines, the shadow of death was upon him.
Toils and years, passions and cares, had wasted his strength at last, and
his fiery soul could bear him up no longer. A few weeks later he was
lying calmly on his death-bed.