1673-1678.
LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC.
OBJECTS OF LA SALLE.--HIS DIFFICULTIES.--OFFICIAL CORRUPTION IN CANADA.
--THE GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL.--PROJECTS OF FRONTENAC.--CATARAQUI.--FRONTENAC
ON LAKE ONTARIO.--FORT FRONTENAC.--SUCCESS OF LA SALLE.
We turn from the humble Marquette, thanking God with his last breath that
he died for his Order and his faith; and by our side stands the masculine
form of Cavelier de la Salle. Prodigious was the contrast between the two
discoverers: the one, with clasped hands and upturned eyes, seems a figure
evoked from some dim legend of mediaeval saintship; the other, with feet
firm planted on the hard earth, breathes the self-relying energies of
modern practical enterprise. Nevertheless, La Salle was a man wedded to
ideas, and urged by the steady and considerate enthusiasm, which is the
life-spring of heroic natures. Three thoughts, rapidly developing in his
mind, were mastering him, and engendering an invincible purpose. First, he
would achieve that which Champlain had vainly attempted, and of which our
own generation has but now seen the accomplishment,--the opening of a
passage to India and China across the American continent. Next, he would
occupy the Great West, develop its commercial resources, and anticipate
the Spaniards and the English in the possession of it. Thirdly,--for he
soon became convinced that the Mississippi discharged itself into the Gulf
of Mexico,--he would establish a fortified post at its mouth, thus
securing an outlet for the trade of the interior, checking the progress of
the Spaniards, and forming a base, whence, in time of war, their northern
provinces could be invaded and conquered.
Here were vast projects, projects perhaps beyond the scope of private
enterprise, conceived and nursed in the brain of a penniless young man.
Two conditions were indispensable to their achievement. The first was the
countenance of the Canadian authorities, and the second was money. There
was but one mode of securing either, to appeal to the love of gain of
those who could aid the enterprise. Count Frontenac had no money to give;
but he had what was no less to the purpose, the resources of an arbitrary
power, which he was always ready to use to the utmost. From the manner in
which he mentions La Salle in his despatches, it seems that the latter
succeeded in gaining his confidence very soon after he entered upon his
government. There was a certain similarity between the two men. Both were
able, resolute, and enterprising. The irascible and fiery pride of the
noble found its match in the reserved and seemingly cold pride of the
ambitious young burgher. Their temperaments were different, but the bases
of their characters were alike, and each could perfectly comprehend the
other. They had, moreover, strong prejudices and dislikes in common. With
his ruined fortune, his habits of expenditure, the exigent demands of his
rank and station, and the wretched pittance which he received from the
king of three thousand francs a year, Frontenac was not the man to let
slip any reasonable opportunity of bettering his condition. [Footnote:
That he engaged in the fur-trade, was notorious. In a letter to the
Minister Seignelay, 13 Oct. 1681, Duchesneau, Intendant of Canada,
declares that Frontenac used all the authority of his office to favor
those interested in trade with him, and that he would favor nobody else.
The Intendant himself had a rival interest in the same trade.] La Salle
seems to have laid his plans before him as far as he had at this time
formed them, and a complete understanding was established between them.
Here was a great point gained. The head of the colony was on his side. It
remained to raise money, and this was a harder task. La Salle's relations
were rich, evidently proud of him, and anxious for his advancement. As his
schemes developed, they supplied him with means to pursue them, and one of
them in particular, his cousin François Plet, became largely interested in
his enterprises. [Footnote: _Papiers de Famille_, MSS.] Believing
that his projects, if carried into effect, would prove a source of immense
wealth to all concerned in them, and gifted with a rare power of
persuasion when he chose to use it, La Salle addressed himself to various
merchants and officials of the colony, and induced some of them to become
partners in his adventure. But here we are anticipating. Clearly to
understand his position, we must revert to the first year of Frontenac's
government.
No sooner had that astute official set foot in the colony than, with an
eagle eye, he surveyed the situation, and quickly comprehended it. It was
somewhat peculiar. Canada lived on the fur-trade, a species of commerce
always liable to disorders, and which had produced, among other results, a
lawless body of men known as _coureurs de bois_, who followed the Indians
in their wanderings, and sometimes became as barbarous as their red
associates. The order-loving king who swayed the destinies of France,
taking umbrage at these irregularities, had issued mandates intended to
repress the evil, by prohibiting the inhabitants of Canada from leaving
the limits of the settled country; and requiring the trade to be carried
on, not in the distant wilderness, but within the bounds of the colony.
The civil and military officers of the crown, charged with the execution
of these ordinances, showed a sufficient zeal in enforcing them against
others, while they themselves habitually violated them; hence, a singular
confusion, with abundant outcries, complaint, and recrimination. Prominent
among these officials was Perrot, Governor of Montreal, who must not be
confounded with Nicolas Perrot, the _voyageur_. The Governor of Montreal,
though subordinate to the Governor-General, held great and arbitrary power
within his own jurisdiction. Perrot had married a niece of Talon, the late
Intendant, to whose influence he owed his place. Confiding in this
powerful protection, he gave free rein to his headstrong-temper, and
carried his government with a high hand, berating and abusing anybody who
ventured to remonstrate. The grave fathers of St. Sulpice, owners of
Montreal, were the more scandalized at the behavior of their military
chief, by reason of a certain burlesque and gasconading vein which often
appeared in him, and which they regarded as unseemly levity. [Footnote:
Perrot received his appointment from the Seminary of St. Sulpice, on
Talon's recommendation, but he afterwards applied for and gained a royal
commission, which, as he thought, made him independent of the priests.]
Perrot, through his wife's uncle, had obtained a grant of the Island above
Montreal, which still bears his name. Here he established a trading house
which he placed in charge of an agent, one Brucy, who, by a tempting
display of merchandise and liquors, intercepted the Indians on their
yearly descent to trade with the French, and thus got possession of their
furs, in anticipation of the market of Montreal. Not satisfied with this,
Perrot, in defiance of the royal order, sent men into the woods to trade
with the Indians in their villages, and it is said even used his soldiers
for this purpose, under cover of pretended desertion. [Footnote: The
original papers relating to the accusations against Perrot are still
preserved in the ancient records of Montreal.] The rage of the merchants
of Montreal may readily be conceived, and when Frontenac heard of the
behavior of his subordinate he was duly incensed.
It seems, however, to have occurred, or to have been suggested to him,
that he, the Governor-General might repeat the device of Perrot on a
larger scale and with more profitable results. By establishing a fortified
trading post on Lake Ontario, the whole trade of the upper country might
be engrossed, with the exception of that portion of it which descended by
the river Ottawa, and even this might in good part be diverted from its
former channel. At the same time, a plan of a fort on Lake Ontario might
be made to appear as of great importance to the welfare of the colony; and
in fact, from one point of view, it actually was so. Courcelles, the late
governor, had already pointed out its advantages. Such a fort would watch
and hold in check the Iroquois, the worst enemy of Canada; and, with the
aid of a few small vessels, it would intercept the trade which the upper
Indians were carrying on through the Iroquois country with the English and
Dutch of New York. Frontenac learned from La Salle that the English were
intriguing both with the Iroquois and with the tribes of the Upper Lakes,
to induce them to break the peace with the French, and bring their furs to
New York. [Footnote: _Lettre de Frontenac à Colbert_, 13 _Nov_. 1678.]
Hence the advantages, not to say the necessity, of a fort on Lake Ontario
were obvious. But, while it would turn a stream of wealth from the English
to the French colony, it was equally clear that the change might be made
to inure, not to the profit of Canada at large, but solely to that of
those who had control of the fort; or, in other words, that the new
establishment might become an instrument of a grievous monopoly. This
Frontenac and La Salle well understood, and there can be no reasonable
doubt that they aimed at securing such a monopoly: but the merchants of
Canada understood it, also; and hence they regarded with distrust any
scheme of a fort on Lake Ontario.
Frontenac, therefore, thought it expedient "to make use," as he expresses
it, "of address." He gave out merely that he intended to make a tour
through the upper parts of the colony with an armed force, in order to
inspire the Indians with respect, and secure a solid peace. He had neither
troops, money, munitions, nor means of transportation; yet there was no
time to lose, for should he delay the execution of his plan it might be
countermanded by the king. His only resource, therefore, was in a prompt
and hardy exertion of the royal authority; and he issued an order
requiring the inhabitants of Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, and other
settlements to furnish him, at their own cost, as soon as the spring
sowing should be over, with a certain number of armed men besides the
requisite canoes. At the same time, he invited the officers settled in the
country to join the expedition, an invitation which, anxious as they were
to gain his good graces, few of them cared to decline. Regardless of
murmurs and discontent, he pushed his preparation vigorously, and on the
third of June left Quebec with his guard, his staff, a part of the
garrison of the Castle of St. Louis, and a number of volunteers. He had
already sent to La Salle, who was then at Montreal, directing him to
repair to Onondaga, the political centre of the Iroquois, and invite their
sachems to meet the Governor in council at the Bay of Quinté on the north
of Lake Ontario. La Salle had set out on his mission, but first sent
Frontenac a map, which convinced him that the best site for his proposed
fort was the mouth of the Cataraqui, where Kingston now stands. Another
messenger was accordingly despatched, to change the rendezvous to this
point.
Meanwhile, the Governor proceeded, at his leisure, towards Montreal,
stopping by the way to visit the officers settled along the bank, who,
eager to pay their homage to the newly risen sun, received him with a
hospitality, which, under the roof of a log hut, was sometimes graced by
the polished courtesies of the salon and the boudoir. Reaching Montreal,
which he had never before seen, he gazed we may suppose with some interest
at the long row of humble dwellings which lined the bank, the massive
buildings of the seminary, and the spire of the church predominant over
all. It was a rude scene, but the greeting that awaited him savored
nothing of the rough simplicity of the wilderness. Perrot, the local
governor, was on the shore with his soldiers and the inhabitants, drawn up
under arms, and firing a salute, to welcome the representative of the
king. Frontenac was compelled to listen to a long harangue from the Judge
of the place, followed by another from the Syndic. Then there was a solemn
procession to the church, where he was forced to undergo a third effort of
oratory from one of the priests. _Te Deum_ followed, in thanks for his
arrival, and then he took refuge in the fort. Here he remained thirteen
days, busied with his preparations, organizing the militia, soothing their
mutual jealousies, and settling knotty questions of rank and precedence.
During this time every means, as he declares, was used to prevent him from
proceeding, and among other devices a rumor was set on foot that a Dutch
fleet, having just captured Boston, was on its way to attack Quebec.
[Footnote: _Lettre de Frontenac à Colbert_, 13 _Nov_. 1673, MS. This
rumor, it appears, originated with the Jesuit Dablon.--_Journal du Voyage
du Comte de Frontenac au Lac Ontario_. MS. The Jesuits were greatly
opposed to the establishment of forts and trading posts in the upper
country, for reasons that will appear hereafter.]
Having sent men, canoes, and baggage, by land, to La Salle's old
settlement of La Chine, Frontenac himself followed on the twenty-eighth of
June. He now had with him about four hundred men, including Indians from
the missions, and a hundred and twenty canoes, besides two large
flatboats, which he caused to be painted in red and blue, with strange
devices, intended to dazzle the Iroquois by a display of unwonted
splendor. Now their hard task began. Shouldering canoes through the
forest, dragging the flatboats along the shore, working like beavers,
sometimes in water to the knees, sometimes to the armpits, their feet cut
by the sharp stones, and they themselves well nigh swept down by the
furious current, they fought their way upward against the chain of mighty
rapids that break the navigation of the St. Lawrence. The Indians were of
the greatest service. Frontenac, like La Salle, showed from the first a
special faculty of managing them; for his keen, incisive spirit was
exactly to their liking, and they worked for him as they would have worked
for no man else. As they approached the Long Saut, rain fell in torrents,
and the Governor, without his cloak, and drenched to the skin, directed in
person the amphibious toil of his followers. Once, it is said, he lay
awake all night, in his anxiety lest the biscuit should be wet, which
would have ruined the expedition. No such mischance took place, and at
length the last rapid was passed, and smooth water awaited them to their
journey's end. Soon they reached the Thousand Islands, and their light
flotilla glided in long file among those watery labyrinths, by rocky
islets, where some lonely pine towered like a mast against the sky; by
sun-scorched crags, where the brown lichens crisped in the parching glare;
by deep dells, shady and cool, rich in rank ferns, and spongy, dark green
mosses; by still coves, where the water-lilies lay like snow-flakes on
their broad, flat leaves; till at length they neared their goal, and the
glistening bosom of Lake Ontario opened on their sight.
Frontenac, to impose respect on the Iroquois, now set his canoes in order
of battle. Four divisions formed the first line, then, came the two
flatboats; he himself, with his guards, his staff, and the gentlemen
volunteers, followed, with the canoes of Three Rivers on his right, and
those of the Indians on his left, while two remaining divisions formed a
rear line. Thus, with measured paddles, they advanced over the still lake,
till they saw a canoe approaching to meet them. It bore several Iroquois
chiefs, who told them that the dignitaries of their nation awaited them at
Cataraqui, and offered to guide them to the spot. They entered the wide
mouth of the river, and passed along the shore, now covered by the quiet
little city of Kingston, till they reached the point at present occupied
by the barracks, at the western end of Cataraqui bridge. Here they
stranded their canoes and disembarked. Baggage was landed, fires lighted,
tents pitched, and guards set. Close at hand, under the lee of the forest,
were the camping sheds of the Iroquois, who had come to the rendezvous in
considerable numbers.
At daybreak of the next morning, the thirteenth of July, the drums beat,
and the whole party were drawn up under arms. A double line of men
extended from the front of Frontenac's tent to the Indian camp, and
through the lane thus formed, the savage deputies, sixty in number,
advanced to the place of council. They could not hide their admiration at
the martial array of the French, many of whom were old soldiers of the
Regiment of Carignan, and when they reached the tent, they ejaculated
their astonishment at the uniforms of the Governor's guard who surrounded
it. Here the ground had been carpeted with the sails of the flatboats, on
which the deputies squatted themselves in a ring and smoked their pipes
for a time with their usual air of deliberate gravity, while Frontenac,
who sat surrounded by his officers, had full leisure to contemplate the
formidable adversaries whose mettle was hereafter to put his own to so
severe a test. A chief named Garakontié, a noted friend of the French, at
length opened the council, in behalf of all the five Iroquois nations,
with expressions of great respect and deference towards "Onontio"; that is
to say, the Governor of Canada. Whereupon Frontenac, whose native
arrogance, where Indians were concerned, always took a form which imposed
respect without exciting anger, replied in the following strain:--
"Children! Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. I am glad to
see you here, where I have had a fire lighted for you to smoke by, and for
me to talk to you. You have done well, my children, to obey the command of
your Father. Take courage; you will hear his word, which is full of peace
and tenderness. For do not think that I have come for war. My mind is full
of peace, and she walks by my side. Courage, then, children, and take
rest."
With that, he gave them six fathoms of tobacco, reiterated his assurances
of friendship, promised that he would be a kind father so long as they
should be obedient children, regretted that he was forced to speak through
an interpreter, and ended with a gift of guns to the men, and prunes and
raisins to their wives and children. Here closed this preliminary meeting,
the great council being postponed to another day.
During the meeting, Raudin, Frontenac's engineer, was tracing out the
lines of a fort, after a predetermined plan, and the whole party, under
the direction of their officers, now set themselves to construct it. Some
cut down trees, some dug the trenches, some hewed the palisades; and with
such order and alacrity was the work urged on, that the Indians were lost
in astonishment. Meanwhile, Frontenac spared no pains to make friends of
the chiefs, some of whom he had constantly at his table. He fondled the
Iroquois children, and gave them bread and sweetmeats, and, in the
evening, feasted the squaws, to make them dance. The Indians were
delighted with these attentions, and conceived a high opinion of the new
Onontio.
On the seventeenth, when the construction of the fort was well advanced,
Frontenac called the chiefs to a grand council, which was held with all
possible state and ceremony. His dealing with the Indians, on this and
other occasions, was truly admirable. Unacquainted as he was with them, he
seems to have had an instinctive perception of the treatment they
required. His predecessors had never ventured to address the Iroquois as
"Children," but had always styled them "Brothers"; and yet the assumption
of paternal authority on the part of Frontenac was not only taken in good
part, but was received with apparent gratitude. The martial nature of the
man, his clear decisive speech, and his frank and downright manner, backed
as they were by a display of force which in their eyes was formidable,
struck them with admiration, and gave tenfold effect to his words of
kindness. They thanked him for that which from another they would not have
endured.
Frontenac began by again expressing his satisfaction that they had obeyed
the commands of their Father, and come to Cataraqui to hear what he had to
say. Then he exhorted them to embrace Christianity; and on this theme he
dwelt at length, in words excellently adapted to produce the desired
effect; words which it would be most superfluous to tax as insincere,
though, doubtless, they lost nothing in emphasis, because in this instance
conscience and policy aimed alike. Then, changing his tone, he pointed to
his officers, his guard, the long files of the militia, and the two
flatboats, mounted with cannon, which lay in the river near by. "If," he
said, "your Father can come so far, with so great a force, through such
dangerous rapids, merely to make you a visit of pleasure and friendship,
what would he do, if you should awaken his anger, and make it necessary
for him to punish his disobedient children? He is the arbiter of peace and
war. Beware how you offend him." And he warned them not to molest the
Indian allies of the French, telling them, sharply, that he would chastise
them for the least infraction of the peace.
From threats he passed to blandishments, and urged them to confide in his
paternal kindness, saying that, in proof of his affection, he was building
a storehouse at Cataraqui, where they could be supplied with all the goods
they needed, without the necessity of a long and dangerous journey. He
warned them against listening to bad men, who might seek to delude them by
misrepresentations and falsehoods; and he urged them to give heed to none
but "men of character, like the Sieur de la Salle." He expressed a hope
that they would suffer their children to learn French from the
missionaries, in order that they and his nephews--meaning the French
colonists--might become one people; and he concluded by requesting them to
give him a number of their children to be educated in the French manner,
at Quebec.
This speech, every clause of which was reinforced by abundant presents,
was extremely well received; though one speaker reminded him that he had
forgotten one important point, inasmuch as he had not told them at what
prices they could obtain goods at Cataraqui. Frontenac evaded a precise
answer, but promised them that the goods should be as cheap as possible,
in view of the great difficulty of transportation. As to the request
concerning their children, they said that they could not accede to it till
they had talked the matter over in their villages; but it is a striking
proof of the influence which Frontenac had gained over them, that, in the
following year, they actually sent several of their children to Quebec to
be educated, the girls among the Ursulines, and the boys in the household
of the Governor.
Three days after the council, the Iroquois set out on their return; and,
as the palisades of the fort were now finished, and the barracks nearly
so, Frontenac began to send his party homeward by detachments. He himself
was detained, for a time, by the arrival of another band of Iroquois, from
the villages on the north side of Lake Ontario. He repeated to them the
speech he had made to the others; and, this final meeting over, embarked
with his guard, leaving a sufficient number to hold the fort, which was to
be provisioned for a year by means of a convoy, then on its way up the
river. Passing the rapids safely, he reached Montreal on the first of
August.
His enterprise had been a complete success. He had gained every point,
and, in spite of the dangerous navigation, had not lost a single canoe.
Thanks to the enforced and gratuitous assistance of the inhabitants, the
whole had cost the king only about ten thousand francs, which Frontenac
had advanced on his own credit. Though, in a commercial point of view, the
new establishment was of very questionable benefit to the colony at large,
the Governor had, nevertheless, conferred an inestimable blessing on all
Canada, by the assurance he had gained of a long respite from the fearful
scourge of Iroquois hostility. "Assuredly," he writes, "I may boast of
having impressed them at once with respect, fear, and good-will."
[Footnote: _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre_, 13 Nov. 1673.] He adds, that
the fort at Cataraqui, with the aid of a vessel, now building, will
command Lake Ontario, keep the peace with the Iroquois, and cut off the
trade with the English. And he proceeds to say, that, by another fort at
the mouth of the Niagara, and another vessel on Lake Erie, we, the French,
can command all the upper lakes. This plan was an essential link in the
scheme of La Salle; and we shall soon find him employed in executing it.
It remained to determine what disposition should be made of the new fort.
For some time it was uncertain whether the king would not order its
demolition, as efforts had been made to influence him to that effect. It
was resolved, however, that, being once constructed, it should be allowed
to stand; and, after a considerable delay, a final arrangement was made
for its maintenance, in the manner following: In the autumn of 1674, La
Salle went to France, with letters of strong recommendation from
Frontenac. [Footnote: In his despatch to the minister Colbert, of the
fourteenth of November, 1674, Frontenac speaks of La Salle as follows: "I
cannot help, Monseigneur, recommending to you the Sieur de la Salle, who
is about to go to France, and who is a man of intelligence and ability,--
more capable than anybody else I know here, to accomplish every kind of
enterprise and discovery which may be entrusted to him,--as he has the
most perfect knowledge of the state of the country, as you will see if you
are disposed to give him a few moments of audience."] He was well received
at Court; and he made two petitions to the king; the one for a patent of
nobility, in consideration of his services as an explorer; and the other
for a grant in seigniory of Fort Frontenac, for so he called the new post,
in honor of his patron. On his part, he offered to pay back the ten
thousand francs which the fort had cost the king; to maintain it at his
own charge, with a garrison equal to that of Montreal, besides fifteen or
twenty laborers; to form a French colony around it; to build a church,
whenever the number of inhabitants should reach one hundred; and,
meanwhile, to support one or more Récollet friars; and, finally, to form a
settlement of domesticated Indians in the neighborhood. His offers were
accepted. He was raised to the rank of the untitled nobles; received a
grant of the fort, and lands adjacent, to the extent of four leagues in
front and half a league in depth, besides the neighboring islands; and was
invested with the government of the fort and settlement, subject to the
orders of the Governor-General. [Footnote: _Mémoire pour l'entretien du
Fort Frontenac, par le Sr. de la Salle, 1674. MS. Pétition du Sr. de la
Salle au Roi, MS. Lettres patentes de concession du Fort de Frontenac et
terres adjacentes au profit du Sr. de la Salle; données à Compiègne le 13
Mai, 1675, MS. Arrêt qui accepte les offres faites par Robert Cavelier Sr.
de la Salle; à Compiègne le 13 Mai, 1675, MS. Lettres de noblesse pour le
Sr. Cavelier de la Salle; données à Compiègne le 13 Mai, 1675, MS. Papiers
de Famille; Mémoire au Roi, MS._]
La Salle returned to Canada, proprietor of a seigniory, which, all things
considered, was one of the most valuable in the colony. It was now that
his family, rejoicing in his good fortune, and not unwilling to share it,
made him large advances of money, enabling him to pay the stipulated sum
to the king, to rebuild the fort in stone, maintain soldiers and laborers,
and procure in part, at least, the necessary outfit. Had La Salle been a
mere merchant, he was in a fair way to make a fortune, for he was in a
position to control the better part of the Canadian fur trade. But he was
not a mere merchant; and no commercial profit could content the broad
ambition that urged his scheming brain.
Those may believe, who will, that Frontenac did not expect a share in the
profits of the new post. That he did expect it, there is positive
evidence, for a deposition is extant, taken at the instance of his enemy,
the Intendant Duchesneau, in which three witnesses attest that the
Governor, La Salle, his lieutenant La Forest, and one Boisseau, had formed
a partnership to carry on the trade of Fort Frontenac.