FROM 1635 TO 1666
Frays between La Tour and Charnisay--Madame La Tour defends the
fort--Charnisay's treachery
When Port Royal fell before Argall, it will be remembered, young
Biencourt took to the woods with his French bush lopers and Indian
followers of Nova Scotia. The farms and fort of Annapolis Basin
granted to his father by special patents lay in ruins. Familiar with
the woods as the English buccaneer, who had destroyed the fort, was
with his ship's cabin, Biencourt withdrew to the southwest corner of
Nova Scotia, where he built a rude stronghold of logs and slabs near
the modern Cape Sable. Here he could keep in touch with the French
fishermen off Cape Breton, and also traffic with the Indians of the
mainland.
With Biencourt was a young man of his own age, boon comrade, kindred
spirit, who had come to Port Royal a boy of fourteen, in 1606, in the
gay days of Marc L'Escarbot--Charles de La Tour. Sea rovers, bush
lopers, these two could bid defiance to English raiders. Whether
Biencourt died in 1623 or went home to France is unknown; but he deeded
over to his friend, Charles de La Tour, all possessions in Acadia.
And now England again comes on the scene. By virtue of Cabot's
discovery and Argall's conquest, the King of England, in 1621, grants
to Sir William Alexander, the Earl of Stirling, all of Acadia, renamed
Nova Scotia--New Scotland. By way of encouraging emigration, the order
of Nova Scotia Baronets is created, a title being granted to those who
subscribe to the colonization company.
Sir William Alexander's colonists shun the French bush lopers under
Charles de La Tour down at Fort St. Louis on Cape Sable. The seventy
Scotch colonists go on up the Annapolis Basin and build their fort four
miles from old Port Royal. How did they pass the pioneer years--these
Scotch retainers of the {62} Nova Scotia Baronets? Report among the
French fishing fleet says thirty died of scurvy; but of definite
information not a vestige remains. The annals of these colonists are
as completely lost to history as the annals of the lost Roanoke colony
in Virginia.
Under the same English patent Lord Ochiltree lands English colonists in
Cape Breton, the grand summer rendezvous of the French fishermen; but
two can play at Argall's game of raids. French seamen swoop down on
Ochiltree's colony, capture fifty, destroy the settlement, and run up
the white flag of France in place of the red standard of England.
[Illustration: SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER]
Charles de La Tour with his Huguenots hides safely ensconced behind his
slab palisades with the swarthy faces of half a hundred Indian
retainers lighted up by the huge logs at blaze on the hearth. Charles
de La Tour takes counsel with himself. English at Port Royal, English
at Cape Breton, English on the mainland at Boston, English ships
passing and repassing his lone lodge in the wilderness, he will be
safer, will Charles de La Tour, with wider distance between himself and
the foe; and he will take more peltries where there are fewer traders.
Still keeping his fort in Nova Scotia, La Tour goes across Fundy Bay
and builds him a second, stronger fort on St. John River, New
Brunswick, near where Carleton town stands to-day.
Then two things happened that upset all plans.
{63} The Hundred Associates are given _all_ Canada--Quebec and Acadia.
Founded by Cardinal Richelieu, the Hundred Associates are violently
Catholic, violently anti-Protestant. Charles de La Tour need expect no
favors, if indeed the grant that he holds from Biencourt be not
assailed. Double reason for moving the most of his possessions across
Fundy Bay to St. John River.
Then the Englishmen, under the Kirke brothers, capture Quebec. As luck
or ill luck will have it, among the French captured from the French
ships of the Hundred Associates down at Tadoussac, is Claude de La
Tour, the father of Charles. Claude de La Tour was a Protestant. This
and his courtly manner and his noble birth commended him to the English
court. What had France done for Claude de La Tour? Placed him under
the ban on account of his religion.
Claude de La Tour promptly became a British subject, received the title
Baronet of Nova Scotia with enormous grants of land on St. John River,
New Brunswick, married an English lady in waiting to the Queen, and
sailed with three men-of-war for Nova Scotia to win over his son
Charles. No writer like Marc Lescarbot was present to describe the
meeting between father and son; but one can guess the stormy
scene,--the war between love of country and love of father, the guns of
the father's vessels pointing at the son's fort, the guns of the son's
fort pointing at the father's vessels. The father's arguments were
strong. What had France done for the La Tours? By siding with England
they would receive safe asylum in case of persecution and enormous
grants of land on St. John River. But the son's arguments were
stronger. The father must know from his English bride--maid in waiting
to the English Queen--that England had no intentions of keeping her
newly captured possessions in Canada, but had already decided to trade
them back to France for a dowry to the English Queen. If Canada were
given back to France, what were English grants in New Brunswick worth?
"If those who sent you think me capable of betraying my country even at
the prayer of my father, they are mightily mistaken," thundered the
young man, ordering his gunners to their places. {64} "I don't
purchase honors by crime! I don't undervalue the offer of England's
King; but the King of France is just as able to reward me! The King of
France has confided the defense of Acadia to me; and I'll defend it to
my last breath."
Stung by his son's rebuke, the elder La Tour retired to his ship, wrote
one more unavailing appeal, then landed his mariners to rush the fort.
But the rough bush lopers inside the palisades were expert marksmen.
Their raking cross fire kept the English at a distance, and the father
could neither drive nor coax his men to the sticking point of courage
to scale palisades in such an unnatural war. Claude de La Tour was now
in an unenviable plight. He dare not go back to France a traitor. He
could not go back to England, having failed to win the day. The son
built him a dwelling outside the fort; and there this famous courtier
of two great nations, with his noble wife, retired to pass the end of
his days in a wildwood wilderness far enough from the gaudy tinsel of
courts. The fate of both husband and wife is unknown.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LA TOUR'S POSSESSIONS IN ACADIA]
Charles de La Tour's predictions were soon verified. The Treaty of
St.-Germain-en-Laye, in 1632, gave back all Canada to France; and the
young man's loyalty was rewarded by the French King confirming the
father's English patent to the lands of St. John River, New Brunswick.
Perhaps he expected more. He certainly wanted to be governor of
Acadia, and may have looked for fresh title to Port Royal, which
Biencourt had deeded {65} to him. His ambition was embittered.
Cardinal Richelieu of the Hundred Associates had his own favorites to
look after. Acadia is divided into three provinces. Over all as
governor is Isaac Razilli, chief of the Hundred Associates. La Tour
holds St. John. One St. Denys is given Cape Breton; and Port Royal,
the best province of all, falls to Sieur d'Aulnay de Charnisay, friend
and relative of Richelieu; and when Razilli dies in 1635, Charnisay,
with his strong influence at court, easily secures the dead man's
patents with all land grants attached. Charnisay becomes governor of
Acadia.
For a second time La Tour is thwarted. Things are turning out as his
father had foretold. Who began the border warfare matters little.
Whether Charnisay as lord of all Acadia first ordered La Tour to
surrender St. John, or La Tour, holding his grant from Biencourt to
Port Royal, ordered Charnisay to give up Annapolis Basin, war had
begun,--such border warfare as has its parallel only in the raids of
rival barons in the Middle Ages. Did La Tour's vessels laden with furs
slip out from St. John River across Fundy Bay bound for France? There
lay at Cape Sable and Sable Island Charnisay's freebooters, Charnisay's
wreckers, ready to board the ship or lure her a wreck on Sable Island
reefs by false lights. It is unsafe to accept as facts the charges and
countercharges made by these two enemies; but from independent sources
it seems fairly certain that Charnisay, unknown to Cardinal Richelieu,
was a bit of a freebooter and wrecker; for his men made a regular
business of waylaying English ships from Boston, Dutch ships from New
York, as they passed Sable Island; and Charnisay's name became
cordially hated by the Protestant colonies of New England. La Tour,
being Huguenot, could count on firm friends in Boston.
Countless legends cling to Fundy Bay of the forays between these two.
In 1640 La Tour and his wife, cruising past Annapolis Basin in their
fur ships, rashly entered and attacked Port Royal. Their ship was run
aground by Charnisay's vessels and captured; but the friars persuaded
the victor to set La Tour and his wife free, pending an appeal to
France. France, of {66} course, decided in favor of Charnisay, who was
of royal blood, a relative of Richelieu's, in high favor with the
court. La Tour's patent was revoked and he was ordered to surrender
his fort on the St. John.
[Illustration: CARDINAL RICHELIEU]
In answer, La Tour loaded his cannon, locked the fort gates, and bade
defiance to Charnisay. Charnisay sails across Fundy Bay in June, 1643,
with a fleet of four vessels and five hundred men to bombard the fort.
La Tour was without provisions, though his store ship from France lay
in hiding outside, blocked from entering by Charnisay's fleet. Days
passed. Resistance was hopeless. On one side lay the impenetrable
forest; on the other, Charnisay's fleet. On the night of June 12th, La
Tour and his wife slipped from a little sally port in the dark, ran
along the shore, and, evading spies, succeeded in rowing out to the
store ship. Ebb tide carried them far from the four men-of-war
anchored fast in front of the abandoned fort. Then sails out, the
store ship fled for Boston, where La Tour and his wife appealed for aid.
The Puritans of Boston had qualms of conscience about interfering in
this French quarrel; but they did not forget that Charnisay's wreckers
had stripped their merchant ships come to grief on the reefs of Sable
Island. La Tour gave the Boston merchants a mortgage on all his
belongings at St. John, and in return obtained four vessels, fifty
mariners, ninety-two soldiers, {67} thirty-eight cannon. With this
fleet he swooped down on Fundy Bay in July. Charnisay's vessels lay
before Fort St. John, where the stubborn little garrison still held
out, when La Tour came down on him like an enraged eagle. Charnisay's
fur ships were boarded, scuttled, and sunk, while the commander himself
fled in terror for Port Royal. All sails pressed, La Tour pursued
right into Annapolis Basin, wounding seven of the enemy, killing three,
taking one prisoner. Charnisay's one remaining vessel grounded in the
river. A fight took place near the site of the mill which Poutrincourt
had built long ago, but Charnisay succeeded in gaining the shelter of
Port Royal, where his cannon soon compelled La Tour to fly from
Annapolis Basin. Charnisay found it safer to pass that winter in
France, and La Tour gathered in all the peltry traffic of the bay.
Early in 1644 Charnisay returned and sent a friar to secure the
neutrality of the New Englanders. All summer negotiations dragged on
between Boston and Port Royal, La Tour meanwhile scouring land and sea
unchecked, packing his fort with peltries. Finally, Charnisay promised
to desist from all fur trade along the coast if the New England
colonies would remain neutral; and the colonies promised not to aid La
Tour. La Tour was now outlawed by the French government, and Charnisay
had actually induced New England to promise not to convey either La
Tour or his wife to or from Bay of Fundy in English boats.
La Tour chanced to be absent from his fort in 1645. Like a bird of
prey Charnisay swooped on St. John River; but he had not reckoned on
Madame La Tour--Frances Marie Jacqueline. With the courage and agility
of a trained soldier, she commanded her little garrison of fifty and
returned the raider's cannonade with a fury that sent Charnisay limping
back to Port Royal with splintered decks, twenty mangled corpses
jumbled aft, and a dozen men wounded to the death lying in the hold.
With all the power of France at his back Charnisay had been defeated by
a woman,--the Huguenot wife of an outlaw! He must reduce La Tour or
stand discredited before the world. {68} Furious beyond words, he
hastened to France to prepare an overwhelming armament.
But Madame La Tour was not idle. She, too, hastened across the
Atlantic to solicit aid in London. One can imagine how Charnisay
gnashed his teeth. Here, at last, was his chance. The Boston vessels
were not to convey the La Tours back to Acadia. Like a hawk Charnisay
cruised the sea for the outcoming ship with its fair passenger; but
Madame La Tour had made a cast-iron agreement with the master of the
sailing vessel to bring her direct to Boston. Instead of this, the
vessel cruised the St. Lawrence, trading with the Indians, and so
delayed the aid coming to La Tour; but when Charnisay's searchers came
on board off Sable Island, Madame La Tour was hidden among the freight
in the hold. For the delay she sued the sailing master in Boston and
obtained a judgment of 2000 pounds; and when he failed to pay, had his
cargo seized and sold, and with the proceeds equipped three vessels to
aid her outlawed husband. So the whole of 1646 passed, each side
girding itself for the final fray.
April, 1647, spies brought word to Charnisay that La Tour was absent
from his fort. Waiting not a moment, Charnisay hurried ships,
soldiers, cannon across the bay. Inside La Tour's fort was no
confusion. Madame La Tour had ordered every man to his place. Day and
night for three days the siege lasted, Charnisay's men closing in on
the palisades so near they could bandy words with the fighters on the
galleries inside the walls. Among La Tour's fighters were Swiss
mercenaries--men who fight for the highest pay. Did Charnisay in the
language of the day "grease the fist" of the Swiss sentry, or was it a
case of a boorish fellow refusing to fight under a woman's command?
Legend gives both explanations; but on Easter Sunday morning
Charnisay's men gained entrance by scaling the walls where the Swiss
sentry stood. Madame La Tour rushed her men to an inner fort loopholed
with guns. Afraid of a final defeat that would disgrace him before all
the world, Charnisay called up generous terms if she would surrender.
To save the {69} lives of the men Madame La Tour agreed to honorable
surrender, and the doors were opened. In rushed Charnisay! To his
amazement the woman had only a handful of men. Disgusted with himself
and boiling over with revenge for all these years of enmity, Charnisay
forgot his promise and hanged every soul of the garrison but the
traitor who acted as executioner, compelling Madame La Tour to watch
the execution with a halter round her neck amid the jeers of the
soldiery. Legend says that the experience drove her insane and caused
her death within three weeks. Charnisay was now lord of all Acadia,
with 10,000 pounds worth of Madame La Tour's jewelry transferred to
Port Royal and all La Tour's furs safe in the warehouses of Annapolis
Basin; but he did not long enjoy his triumph. He had the reputation of
treating his Indian servants with great brutality. On the 24th of May,
1650, an Indian was rowing him up the narrows near Port Royal.
Charnisay could not swim. Without apparent cause the boat upset. The
Indian swam ashore. The commander perished. Legend again avers that
the Indian upset the boat to be revenged on Charnisay for some
brutality.
[Illustration: MAP OF ANNAPOLIS BASIN]
La Tour had been wandering from Newfoundland to Boston and Quebec
seeking aid, but a lost cause has few friends, and if La Tour turned
pirate on Boston boats, he probably thought he was justified in paying
off the score of Boston's bargain with Charnisay. Later he turned
trader with the Indians from Hudson Bay, and found friends in Quebec.
Word of his wrongs reached the French court. When Charnisay perished,
La Tour was at last appointed lieutenant governor of Acadia. Widow
{70} Charnisay, left with eight children, all minors, made what
reparation she could to La Tour by giving back the fort on the St.
John, and La Tour, to wipe out the bitter enmity, married the widow of
his enemy in February of 1653.
But this was not the seal of peace on his troubled life. Cromwell was
now ascendant in England, and Major Sedgwick of Boston, in 1654, with a
powerful fleet, captured Port Royal and St. John. Weary of fighting
what seemed to be destiny, La Tour became a British subject, and with
two other Englishmen was granted the whole of Acadia. Ten years later
his English partners bought out his rights, and La Tour died in the
land of his many trials about 1666. A year later the Treaty of Breda
restored Acadia to France.
{71}