1652-3
CRITICAL YEARS
LAMBERT CLOSSE, COMMANDANT
MAISONNEUVE'S SUCCESS IN PARIS--MADAME DE BULLION'S
DONATIONS--"PARMENDA"--THE EXPLOIT OF LAMBERT CLOSSE--THE PHANTOM
SHIP--MONTREAL REPORTED AT QUEBEC TO BE BLOTTED OUT--PROPOSALS OF
PEACE FROM THE ONONDAGAS--MARCH OF MOHAWKS ON MONTREAL--CHARLES LE
MOYNE AND ANONTAHA TO PARLEY FOR PEACE--A PATCHED UP PEACE--THE
END OF THE SECOND IROQUOIS WAR.
M. de Maisonneuve was absent for nearly three years and during that
time Montreal was in a critical position. The inhabitants were cooped
up within the fortress or in the Hôtel-Dieu for fear of the Iroquois.
The danger of going out of these limits was only too clearly seen when
the cattle guardian, Antoine Roos, was slain at his work on the common
in front, on May 26th.
Anxiety was felt as to M. de Maisonneuve's success in Paris. News was
accordingly eagerly awaited. Thus it was that in June Jeanne Mance
went to Three Rivers under the escort of Major Closse and proceeded on
the way to Quebec under that of M. Duplessis Kerbodot, the governor
of Three Rivers. On arriving there she had almost dared to hope to
hear that M. de Maisonneuve had already arrived, but instead a long
letter awaited her. In this, the governor related his visit to Madame
de Bullion, telling how he had approached Madame adroitly, without
discovering to her his knowledge of her benefactions as the founder of
the Hôtel-Dieu. Not only did this lady not take any steps to show her
disapproval of Mademoiselle Mance's action in making the exchange of
the hospital revenue, but she gave in addition 20,000 _livres_ more
as an anonymous gift, placing it in the hands of the president of the
Company of Montreal, M. de Lamoignon, for the purpose of raising a
convoy for Montreal under M. de Maisonneuve. Thus, in all, this good
lady had contributed 42,000 towards the 75,000 _livres_ for the new
expedition of 115 men provided by the Company. The letter then informed
Mademoiselle Mance that he would return the next year; meanwhile the
preparations would be hastened.
With this good news Jeanne Mance returned as soon as possible to
Montreal. New hope was thus infused into the settlement. On July 29th,
however, the state of hostilities is again revealed to us by the record
of the brave exploit of Martine Messier, the wife of Antoine Primot.
Three Iroquois, who had hidden themselves in the wheat at a distance
of two musket shots from the fort, fell upon her unexpectedly. She
defended herself like a lioness, fighting with her hands and feet. To
quell her loud cries for help they gave her three or four stunning
blows with their axes. Thinking her dead, as she sank to the ground,
one of them threw himself over the prostrate body to take her scalp
as his trophy, when suddenly our Amazon, coming to herself, raised
herself, more furious than ever, seized him with such violence "par un
endroit que la pudeur nous défend de nommer," that he could not free
himself, although he did not cease striking her with the head of the
axe. But she held on tightly, until at last she fell to the ground
exhausted, thus affording her assailant what he most wanted at that
moment, an opportunity to escape from the relief party now running from
all parts of the fort to her rescue.
On reaching the spot where the poor woman lay bathed in her blood,
one of the men assisting her to rise, moved by a natural sentiment of
friendship and compassion, embraced her. But this seems to have made
her confused, for she administered a sound slap in the face of this
affectionate sympathizer, to the great surprise of the bystanders, who
exclaimed: "What are you doing? This man was only showing his sympathy
to you, without any thought of ill. Why do you strike him?"
"Par menda!" she exclaimed in her _patois_. "I thought he wanted to
kiss me!"
Madame Primot did not die, but she was long afterwards known as
"Parmenda," whose valour and modesty were lovingly held in tradition,
as typical of the noble women of these early pioneering days, in which
virtue and courage flourished side by side.
[Illustration: "PARMENDA"
(By Philippe Hébert.)]
The severe treatment received at Montreal turned the Iroquois to Three
Rivers, and in a skirmish on August 19th they killed the governor, M.
Duplessis Kerbodot.
In October, however, Montreal was the scene of fresh fighting. Dollier
de Casson has rescued the story of this from oblivion, from so many
others not recorded.
On the 19th of this month, the barking of the dogs indicated the
direction of an Iroquois ambuscade. The brave town major, Lambert
Closse, ever ready to fly to the post of peril, started out at once
with twenty-four armed men to reconnoitre the situation. But though
brave, he was prudent; he therefore sent three of his soldiers ahead.
La Lochetière,[69] Baston (or Bastoin) and another, ordering them to
proceed within gunshot no further than a certain position marked out by
him. La Lochetière, however, in his eagerness pushed a little ahead of
his companions, and the more easily to discover the whereabouts of the
enemy, he climbed a tree, intending to discover from this lookout if
the enemy were hiding in a thicket.
But, without him knowing it, there was an ambush of them at the foot
of the tree, and as soon as he had climbed it they raised their usual
war cry, and were about to fire on him. No less alert than brave, La
Lochetière seized his musket, fired straight at one of them, who was
aiming at himself, killing his man, but paying the penalty of death
at the same instant from his victim's gun. The other two scouts also
received a volley, from which they were lucky to escape.
Major Chase quickly put his men in order, but, finding his party
surrounded, he directed them to make a rush to a wretched shack near
at hand, belonging to an old settler, M. Prud'homme, who had eagerly
invited them to enter as quickly as possible, for the enemy were
surrounding it. This done, the party made loopholes in the walls for
their guns and prepared to open a brisk fire on the besiegers--all
except one coward, who, falling flat on the ground, could not be
induced by threats or blows to rise. But the Iroquois were now firing
at close quarters all around the house and their balls riddled the
scanty walls so that one of them struck Laviolette, one of the fighters
of the fort, completely disabling him. The loopholes now being ready,
the French party answered the Iroquois with such effect that after
the first rounds the ground was strewn with the dusky bodies of the
slain. The hurly-burly went on, the Iroquois fighting while they
attempted to carry away their wounded and dead, until, fearing a dearth
of ammunition, Major Closse was only too glad to accept the offer of
Baston, whose prowess as a runner was well known, to make a dash to the
fort and bring back a reinforcement of men.
Accordingly, under cover of the fire of the defenders of the house, the
door was opened and Baston, speeding forth, escaped while the Iroquois
were recovering from this last fusillade.
Soon he returned with eight or ten men, all that could be spared, and
two pieces of cannon charged with canister shot. Between the scene of
battle and the fort there was a screen of trees under cover of which
the reinforcement made its way and thus escaped the attention of the
savages till it suddenly appeared in view on this side of the screen
and commenced firing on the Iroquois. Major Closse's party now went
into the open to join fire also and a brisk and hot interchange took
place. But the enemy were being overmastered and made their best to
retreat, carrying with them their dead as far as possible, according to
their custom. Dollier de Casson does not give the number of the enemy
slain. "Usually," he says, "they decimated their losses, but, speaking
of this occasion, they owned that 'we all died there.'"
M. de Belmont in his history states that more than fifty of the
Iroquois were wounded and twenty killed. On the French side the only
one killed was La Lochetière, and one wounded, Laviolette.
This was only one of the brave actions which surrounded the fame of the
warlike Lambert Closse as revealed in the early chronicles.
[Illustration: LAMBERT CLOSSE
(By Philippe Hébert)]
Thus the fort of Montreal was the scene of many such conflicts,
unassisted by the "camp volant," which de Lauson had suppressed in
1652. Père Mercier, in his "Relations of the Year 1653," writes:
"There has passed no month of the year in which the Iroquois have not
stealthily visited Ville Marie, attempting to surprise it. But they
have had no great success. The settlers have assisted one another with
so much determination and courage that as soon as a gunshot is heard
in any direction, they run thither quickly, without any dread of the
dangers besetting them."
At Quebec, it was announced that Montreal had been blotted out.
In the spring of 1653 the governor of Quebec, anxious for news of
this advanced post, had sent a barque thither, giving the commander
instructions that he should not approach the fort, unless he had
proof certain that the French were there, adding that if he did not
see any, he was to come back to Quebec, for fear that the Iroquois,
having captured Ville Marie, might be lying in ambush to capture them
also. The barque advanced near the fort in a dense fog, and anchored.
But seeing no one and hearing no signal, they obeyed their instructions
literally enough, and went back to Quebec with the dire tale of the
destruction of the French colonists. The wiseacres no doubt said that
the inevitable had occurred at last.
Meanwhile in the fort, the keen-eyed had seen the vague outline of a
vessel, but others said it was a phantom of the imagination, and when
later the mist rolled away and they saw no ship, these were satisfied
with their diagnosis until news came later from Quebec that it was a
veritable vessel after all.
In this abandoned state, we are told by the chroniclers how the
Montrealers, under the direction of the Jesuits of the fort, earnestly
prayed for peace.
As if in answer to their petition, on June 26, 1653, an embassy of
sixty Iroquois of the nation of the Onondagas (Onontaquis) appeared
at the fort with a proposal of peace. As they came unarmed, they were
treated kindly, presents were exchanged, and the day was one of public
rejoicing. On returning to their country, passing by the village of the
Oneidas (Onneyuts), they exhibited their presents and spoke in high
praise of the French of Montreal. "They are devils when attacked,"
they said, "but most courteous and affable when treated as friends."
And they protested that they were about to enter into a firm and solid
alliance with them. Touched by these discourses, the Oneida Iroquois
(Onneyuts) would also enter into an alliance with Montreal, and they
sent an embassy with a great porcelain necklace, asking for peace,
which was concluded. But there were three others of the Five Nations
who had not made peace, for though they were allied amongst themselves
they reserved their independence. These were the Mohawks (Agniers), the
Senecas (the Tsonnoutouans), and the Cayugas (Gogogouins).
Three weeks after this, 600 Mohawks marched on Montreal. We have no
records of this attack, but they retired to Three Rivers to seize the
port there. Quebec now also trembled for itself, and it was at this
time that de Lauson reestablished the "camp volant." In September of
this year peace was again concluded, for a time, between the French and
the Iroquois. As Montreal had a large share in bringing this about we
must relate the following circumstances leading to it.
At the time of the descent, of the Iroquois above mentioned, on
Montreal, there was present in the fort a band of Hurons, and among
them one, the bravest of all, named Anontaha. On one occasion these
Hurons had discovered the tracks of a party of lurking Iroquois
meditating mischief for Montreal. They combined with the French
and on August 25th they surrounded the Iroquois, and after a sharp
struggle beat them off, leading four or five Iroquois chiefs, or men of
importance, to the fort. These captives told of the projected raids of
extermination on Three Rivers and Quebec. The acting governor, knowing
of the importance of these Iroquois in the camp, called a meeting of
his counsellors, and it was determined that Charles Le Moyne, the
interpreter, should persuade Anontaha to go to Three Rivers and parley
for peace with the Iroquois, offering to hand them over their chiefs
in captivity in Montreal. This was done on August 24th and peace was
concluded later. Dollier de Casson says of this: "Finally there was
made a sudden patched-up peace in which our enemies acquiesced, solely
to regain their own people and to have an opportunity of surprising us
later. We well knew their rascally motives, but, as they were stronger
than we, we accepted their conditions, 'et en passions par là où ils
voulaient.'"
Thus ended the second Iroquois war.
FOOTNOTE:
[69] The parish register gives Etienne Thibault. The Abbé Faillon reads
Etienne Thibault dit La Lochetière. (Massicotte gives the date as
October 14.)