showed that age and adversity made but small inroads on his manly
spirit. Obliged to exertion for the support of his family, he turned
again in his fiftieth year to a voyage of exploration and adventure. A
Canadian company contemplated the extension of its seal and whale
fisheries to the rugged and dangerous coast of Labrador, then little
known, and in 1694 Joliet explored the greater part of this ice-covered
and rock-bound coast under the auspices and in the interest of this
company.
Some years earlier Joliet had shown his merits as a skilful surveyor and
navigator by charting the waters of the St. Lawrence, and when, on his
return from Labrador, occupation failed, Frontenac recognized his
deserving abilities by naming him for the post of royal pilot of the St.
Lawrence, still later appointing him hydrographer at Quebec.
The emoluments of his royal offices were a mere pittance, and in 1695 he
is found on Mignan Islands, where, with his wife, he contracted with his
brother-in-law Bissot and other parties with a view of developing his
interests both on land and at sea. In 1697 he was granted by the Crown
the Seignory of Joliet. This honor he did not long enjoy, for he died,
apparently a poor man, in 1699 or 1700. He was fortunate in his burial
place, one of the Mignan Islands, which is forever associated with his
fame, having been granted him by the French Crown for that great and
dangerous voyage which gave to the world its first definite knowledge of
the location, extent, and fertility of the great valley of the
Mississippi.
While Joliet followed the rugged and peaceful pursuits of his
island-home, ill fared it with his vigorous Norman successor. The great
La Salle fell under the hand of a mutinous follower, while his fated
Texan colony perished totally by desertion, betrayal, and massacre. So
relapsed the lower Mississippi into its primal savagery and grandeur,
until the domineering energy of the great Canadian, Iberville, awakened
it into a vast dominion, to the glory, if not to the profit, of France.
[Illustration]
II.
PETER LE MOYNE, SIEUR D'IBERVILLE,
FOUNDER OF LOUISIANA.
Among the very earliest settlers of Hochelega, now Montreal, was the son
of a Norman innkeeper, a young French lad of fifteen, Charles le Moyne,
who came to this Indian village in 1641. Apt, strong, daring, and
zealous, he soon became one of the most efficient aids to French power.
The language, the wood-craft, the arts of the savage soon became his,
and added to these such suavity of manner, clearness of perception, and
native kindness as made him loved equally by French and savage. As
interpreter, soldier, negotiator, and captain of the guard, he rendered
such great service to the young and exposed colony as caused him to be
made captain of Montreal, and later, in 1668, to be ennobled by Louis
XIV. under the title of Sieur of Longueuil. For four years service in
the country of the Hurons he received for his entire pay the sum of
twenty crowns and his clothing, but he gained also such a knowledge of
the possibilities of the country, such an insight into Indian character,
and such a wealth of vigorous manhood as enabled him to acquire during
his life an estate that was princely. He did better than this, he
married a woman worthy of him, whose family is scarcely known,
Catherine Tierry, an adopted daughter of Antoine Primot.
In all the history of American families there is none that has as
distinguished and brilliant a history as the twelve sons and two
daughters born of this French peasant and the son of a Norman innkeeper
in the forests of Canada. The two daughters married nobles, and of the
twelve sons nine live distinguished in history, three of them were
killed in the service of France, ten of them were ennobled, and four,
Iberville, Serigny, Chateauguay, and Bienville the younger, played
important parts in the founding of Louisiana.
[Illustration: Signature of le Moyne.]
There were many brilliant and picturesque figures among the actors in
the founding of a New France in the wilds of North America, but among
them all there was scarcely one whose personality and deeds excited more
admiration among his contemporaries, or whose services and career are
more deserving of recognition by posterity, than Peter le Moyne, Sieur
d'Iberville, third son of Longueuil, who was born on the extreme
frontier, at the outpost of Montreal, July 16, 1661. As a soldier he
rose to be the leader and idol of his fellow-Canadians; as a sailor he
became an extremely skilful navigator, who was acknowledged as one of
the greatest of French naval commanders; and as an explorer and
administrator he so successfully accomplished his plans as to merit and
receive the title of the Founder of Louisiana.
The freedom, vigor, and wildness of Canadian life developed men early,
and Iberville entered the French Navy as midshipman at the age of
fourteen. His first service of note, however, was as a soldier in the
wilds of his native land, in the Canadian overland campaign to recover
possession of an Indian trading post on Hudson Bay, which it was claimed
the English had illegally seized. Iberville volunteered for this
campaign under De Troye, and exhibited such judgment and vigor as caused
him to be put in command of a small party of nine, some say twelve, men
with two canoes, wherewith he did not hesitate to attack and compel the
unconditional surrender of an English ship manned by fourteen, including
the commander of Hudson Bay. St. Helene, his brother, meantime captured
another vessel, and with the two as means of transport, the two brothers
pushed on to Fort Quitchitchouen, which surrendered after withstanding a
sharp cannonade.
These victories not only insured to the French the command of the entire
southern part of Hudson Bay, but put them in possession of a vast amount
of stores. Indeed, so destructive to English interests were the
campaigns of Iberville in 1687-88, that the Hudson Bay Company declared
that their actual losses amounted to 108,520 pounds sterling, an
enormous sum in the young colonies of that day. The consequential losses
must have been very great, for we are told that the value of furs
obtained in the trade of one year amounted to 400,000 livres (francs).
Iberville remained in charge of the country which his valor had
recaptured, and in 1688, while the Iroquois were ravaging Canada, waged
successful war in Hudson Bay. One of his lieutenants, capturing an
English official, found on him an order from the London Company to
proclaim English sovereignty over the whole bay. Later two ships, with
twenty-eight cannon and eight swivels, appeared before St. Anne in order
to expel the French. Eventually Iberville compelled the surrender of the
English ships, and releasing the smaller vessel for the safe transport
of such prisoners as he paroled, himself navigated the larger ship, with
eleven Hudson Bay pilots held prisoners, to Quebec through Hudson
Strait.
In 1690 Iberville volunteered, under his brother St. Helene, for the
retaliatory expedition in mid-winter against Schenectady, wherein a
large number of the inhabitants of that unhappy town were ruthlessly
massacred by the French and their Indian allies. Iberville seems to have
exerted his influence to restrain the savagery of the Indians, and saved
the life of at least one Englishman.
It seems that the successes of the young Canadian had attracted
attention in France, and when in 1691, through the efforts of the
Northern Company, Louis XIV. had decided to recover Port Nelson, Hudson
Bay, from the English, Du Tast came to Quebec with fourteen sail, it was
with express orders that Iberville should be entrusted with a share of
the work and glory. Du Tast objected to such division of honor, and by
plausible objections as to the lateness of the season, although it was
only the 16th of July, succeeded in delaying the departure of the
expedition for that year.
Iberville seemed determined to show the speciousness of the reasons, for
he made a trip to the bay and brought back in 1691 two ships loaded with
furs, much to the consolation of Frontenac. He immediately went to
France to advance the expedition against Port Nelson, which he knew was
much favored at court. Iberville found favor with the king, who gave him
two ships for the reduction of Port Nelson, and orders to guard it after
reduction.
Delays in France and contrary winds on the Atlantic brought Iberville to
Quebec only in October, far too late for the safe navigation of Hudson
Bay. To fill in his time he set forth to take Pemaquid, but did not make
an attack, this being the only instance in his long career where he
failed to show extreme daring, even against desperate odds. The delay of
the vessels was unfortunate for France as far as Hudson Bay was
concerned, for in 1693 three English vessels attacked and captured St.
Anne, with fifty thousand peltries, and again the control of the bay
passed from France.
In September, 1694, Iberville, with two ships, la Poli and la Charante,
the former commanded by his brother, de Serigny, appeared before Port
Nelson, which he was six weeks in approaching owing to the heavy moving
ice, which nearly destroyed his vessel. The fort had a double palisade,
thirty-two cannon and swivels in the main body, and fourteen cannon in
outer works, the whole manned by fifty-three men. Iberville landed
without hesitation, invested the fort with forty Canadians, worked with
his usual energy and skill, and in fourteen days he had his outworks
established, his batteries placed and mortars in position. His final
summons for surrender resulted in the capitulation of the fort, on
condition that personal property should be spared and safe transport be
given the garrison to England the coming year. His success was saddened
for Iberville by the death of the elder Chateauguay, the third of his
brothers to fall in the service of his king, who perished while
gallantly repelling a sortie of the beleaguered garrison. The name of
Port Nelson was changed to Fort Bourbon, and the river was rechristened
St. Therese, because, says Jeremie, in his _Relation de la Baie de
Hudson_, the capitulation was made on October 14th, the day of that holy
saint.
The victory did not prove to be cheap, for scurvy, then the dreaded
scourge of the sailor, broke out during the long, dark, excessively cold
winter, and caused the death of twenty men. Late the next summer, after
waiting to the last moment for the English ships he counted on
capturing, and leaving a garrison of sixty-seven at Fort Bourbon,
Iberville sailed for Quebec; but the winds were so contrary and his crew
so debilitated by scurvy, that he turned his prows to France and
fortunately arrived at Rochelle, October 9, 1695.
His victories in Hudson Bay so commended him to the king that Iberville
was charged with the reduction and destruction of the strong fort which
James II. of England had erected at Pemaquid, Maine. While on this
cruise our Canadian fell in with three English ships near the mouth of
the St. John. He unhesitatingly attacked them, dismasted, fired, and
captured the flag-ship of the squadron, the Newport, a ship of eighty
men and twenty-four guns.
Reinforced by several hundred Indians, as a land and besieging force,
Iberville arrived at Pemaquid, August 13, 1696, and invested the fort
the next day. He summoned the commander, Colonel Chubb, to capitulate,
but that officer replied that, "if the sea was covered with French
vessels and the land with Indians, he would not surrender until
compelled to do so." Iberville promptly landed, and used such expedition
that within the short space of thirteen hours he established his
batteries in position and opened fire, when the garrison surrendered on
honorable terms. Iberville, doubtless mindful of his experiences at
Schenectady, took the wise and humane precaution of quartering his
prisoners under the guns of the royal ships, so as to secure them from
the fury of his bloodthirsty allies, the Indians, who desired to
supplement the entire destruction of the fort by the slaughter of the
garrison.
In withdrawing from the demolished post, while doubling the island at
the mouth of the Penobscot, he had an opportunity of justifying his
reputation as the most skilful officer in the French service; for,
falling in with an English squadron of seven sail, he successfully
evaded them by bold seamanship along the very coast line of that
dangerous and rock-bound shore.
His capacity as a military commander was now to be tested. Charged by
the king to co-operate in the reduction of Newfoundland to French power,
Iberville found himself viewed with jealousy by his colleague,
Brouillan, governor of Placentia, who assumed entire command, interfered
with Iberville's contemplated movements, and declared that his own
troops, the Canadians, should not accompany him on the opening campaign.
Iberville realizing the necessity of zealous and concerted action in an
enterprise of such importance, decided to leave the field free to
Brouillan, and so announced his intention of returning to France.
Immediately the Canadians declared to a man that they were bound to him
alone, that Frontenac's orders recognized Iberville as commander, and
finally, that they would return to Quebec sooner than accept another.
Brouillan recognizing that Iberville was the idol of his Canadian
countrymen, and unable to deny that the king had confided all the
enterprises to be undertaken during the winter to Iberville, made such
concessions as brought about reconciliation; nevertheless the campaign
undertaken against St. John's was marked by dissension. Iberville
displayed his usual energy and gallantry in the advance and subsequent
skirmishes which ultimately resulted in the surrender of St. John's,
which was abandoned and destroyed by fire. The campaign was pursued with
such energy and success that at the end of two months the English had
nothing left in Newfoundland except Bona Vista and Carbonniere Island.
During these operations Iberville displayed marked ability in handling
troops, both in the field and during siege operations. His eagerness to
share every danger, and willingness to undergo every hardship in common
with his troops, endeared him to all and contributed much to the
enthusiasm with which his men followed him or obeyed his orders.
In May, 1697, his brother Serigny arrived at Placentia with four
vessels, destined for the command of Iberville in a proposed attempt to
again reduce Hudson Bay. With these ships--le Pelican, fifty guns; le
Palmier, forty guns; le Profond, le Vespe, and a brigantine--Iberville
entered the mouth of Hudson Strait on August 3d, and was immediately
beset with heavy ice. The floes were driven hither and thither with such
violence by the currents that Iberville directed, as the best means of
safety, that each vessel should moor itself to the largest attainable
iceberg. This expedient saved four of the ships, but an unexpected
movement of two large bergs crushed so completely the brigantine that
she sank instantly, the crew barely escaping with their lives.
After a besetment of twenty-four days, Iberville succeeded in
extricating his vessel from the ice and passed into the bay. He was
alone and in utter ignorance of the fate of his consorts, which had been
hidden from view by the ice for the past seventeen days. Iberville was
not the man to turn back, nor indeed to delay in an expedition which
demanded haste, so he pushed on alone and reached Port Nelson on
September 4th.
The next morning he discovered three ships several leagues to the
leeward, tacking to enter the harbor. He hoped that they were his
consorts, and he at once made signals, which being unanswered showed
that the ships were English. It was indeed an English squadron,
consisting of the Hampshire, fifty-two guns and two hundred and thirty
men; the Hudson Bay, thirty-two guns, and the Deringue, also of
thirty-two guns, against which force Iberville had but one ship of fifty
guns. It was with reason that, as Jeremie says, "they flattered
themselves with the idea of capturing Iberville, seeing that they were
three to one, and they were amazed at the boldness with which he
attacked them."
Indeed, almost any other officer in the French navy would have
considered an attack as simply madness, but such desperate odds only
served to stimulate to the highest degree the known courage and skill of
Iberville. He cleared his decks for action, and instantly quitting the
shelter and supposed advantage of the harbor, attacked the English
squadron in the open sea, where Iberville doubtless counted that his
skill in handling ship would inure to his benefit.
Charlevoix thus describes this desperate fight:
"The cannonade opened about half-past nine in the morning and was kept
up incessantly till one with great vigor on both sides. Meanwhile the
Pelican had only one man killed and seventeen wounded. Then Iberville,
who had kept the weather-gauge, bore down straight on the two frigates,
pouring in several broadsides at close quarters in order to disable
them. At that moment he perceived the third, the Hampshire, coming on
with twenty-six guns in battery on each side, with a crew of two hundred
and thirty men.
"He at once proceeded to meet her, all his guns pointed to sink her, ran
under her lee, yard-arm to yard-arm, and having brought his ship to,
poured in his broadside. This was done so effectively that the
Hampshire, after keeping on about her own length, went down. Iberville
at once wore and turned on the Hudson Bay, the ship of the remaining two
that could most easily enter St. Teresa River; but as he was on the
point of boarding her, the commandant struck his flag and surrendered.
"Iberville then gave chase to the Deringue, the third, which was
escaping to the northeast, and which was only a good cannon-shot off;
but as that vessel was as good a sailor as his own ship he soon gave up
the chase, not daring to crowd sail, having had much of his rigging cut,
two pumps burst, his shrouds considerably injured, hull cut up by seven
cannon-balls and pierced at the water's edge, with no way of stopping
the leak. He accordingly veered and sent the Sieur de la Sale in his
boat with twenty-five men to man the prize. He then proceeded to repair
damage, and having done so with great expedition, he renewed the chase
of the enemy, who was now three leagues off.
"He began to gain on him when, in the evening, the wind changed to the
north, and a thick fog suddenly rising, he lost sight of the Deringue.
This accident compelled him to rejoin the Hudson Bay, and he anchored
near the Hampshire, now almost out of sight, and from which not a soul
had been saved."
In this fight with an enemy more than twice his superior in guns and men
Iberville had sunk one ship, captured another, and put the third to
flight; but this was followed by other experiences, which at the outset
presented conditions apparently not less desperate and discouraging. Two
days later, pending his siege operations against Port Nelson, a violent
gale arose, in which, says Charlevoix, "In spite of all d'Iberville's
efforts to ride it out--and there was not, perhaps, in the French navy
one more skilful in handling a ship--he was driven ashore with his
vessel, the Pelican, and his prize, the Hudson Bay. The misfortune
happened at night, the darkness increasing the horrors of the storm and
preventing them from beaching the vessels at a favorable place and so
saving them, and before the break of day they broke up and filled."
Both vessels were crowded with wounded men and prisoners, who
endeavored as best they could to reach the shore in the storm and
darkness. Twenty-three perished in the attempt, but fortunately the
receding tide left such shallows that the rest reached shore, and most
of the prisoners successfully sought the friendly shelter of Fort
Nelson.
Iberville now found himself in most desperate plight--shipwrecked on a
barren coast, with a hostile garrison on land, the return of the English
ship at sea possible, and destitute of provisions. He turned to the
wrecked vessels and found that it was possible to obtain from them
cannon and other munitions of war, and, undismayed, he set his cold,
wet, and hungry crew at this task, resolved to obtain food by carrying
the English fort by assault. At this juncture his missing vessels,
having extricated themselves from the ice of Hudson Strait, appeared,
and the fort surrendered without putting Iberville to the last proof of
his courage.
As might be expected, Iberville became the hero of the day on his return
to France in 1697; but true to himself and his career, he sought the
influence of friends at court only to obtain other difficult and
dangerous service that might add to the glory of France. He was now to
enter on a new career as an explorer, colonizer, and administrator,
where, if he was to perform less brilliant deeds than in earlier life,
he was destined to open up to settlement by his countrymen the fertile
lands of Louisiana, and thus lay the foundations of its future
greatness.
It was now twelve years since the tragic fate of La Salle's colony on
the coast of Texas had spread dismay and terror among all who had been
especially interested in the scheme of French colonization on the
Mississippi River. The sentiment seemed to be that the mouth of the
great river could never be found and that further effort would only
result in useless sacrifice of life and vessels. With the march of time,
however, these impressions of doubt and disaster had faded out of mind,
and as now the attention of the ministry was especially turned to that
part of Louisiana which could be reached from the St. Lawrence, it
appeared to Iberville to be a suitable season to revive the project of
discovering the mouth of the Mississippi and of planting a colony.
A plan for the colonization of Louisiana was formally submitted to the
French Government by M. de Remonville, while Iberville for his part
pledged his reputation as a navigator both to find the mouth of the
Mississippi and to successfully plant there a colony. The ministry were
easily persuaded that the scheme was practicable and advantageous, their
decision being doubtless affected by the knowledge that both Spain and
England contemplated the early settlement of the northern coasts of the
Gulf of Mexico. It was even reported, as afterward transpired to be the
truth, that colonizing expeditions were already en route, and in order
to insure protection should Iberville first reach the ground, Count
Pontchartrain projected and arranged for the construction of a fort at
the mouth of the Mississippi.
As was always the case, schemes of trade were interwoven with the policy
of colonization and extension of the royal domain. The principal objects
of the trade proved fanciful or chimerical, being, first, the idea of
making bison wool an article of trade, a scheme fostered in France by La
Salle, and, second, in the hope that valuable pearl fisheries might be
found. In Iberville's instructions we find that "one of the great
objects proposed to the king, when he was urged to discover the mouth of
the Mississippi, was to obtain wool from the cattle (buffalo) of that
country, and for this purpose these animals must be tamed and parked and
the calves sent to France."
Iberville worked with his usual energy, and the expedition, consisting
of two small frigates, the Badine, the Marin, and two Norman
fishing-boats, sailed from Brest, October 4, 1698. It was Friday, but
Iberville no more than Columbus minded the day, and in the reluctance of
the other vessels, himself led in the Badine.