1660
HOW MONTREAL SAVED NEW FRANCE
DOLLARD'S EXPLOIT AT THE LONG SAULT
UNIVERSAL FEAR OF IROQUOIS IN THE COLONY--THE GARRISON
OFFICERS AT MONTREAL--ADAM DOLLARD, SIEUR DES ORMEAUX--THE
PERMISSION FROM THE GOVERNOR TO LEAD AN ATTACK UP COUNTRY--HIS
COMPANIONS--PREPARATIONS--WILLS AND THE SACRAMENTS--THE FLOTILLA
OF CANOES--THE LONG SAULT REACHED--THE DILAPIDATED IROQUOIS WAR
CAMP--ANONTAHA AND MITIWEMEG--THE AMBUSH AND ATTACK--THE RETREAT
TO THE STOCKADE--THE SIEGE--THIRST--THE ALGONQUINS DESERT--FIVE
HUNDRED IROQUOIS ALLIES ARRIVE--THE TERRIBLE ATTACK AND
RESISTANCE--A GLORIOUS DEFEAT--RADISSON'S ACCOUNT--THE INVENTORY
OF DOLLARD--UNPAID BILLS--THE NAMES OF THE "COMPANIONS"--NEW
FRANCE SAVED--A CONVOY OF BEAVER SKINS REACHES MONTREAL--A
REINFORCEMENT OF TROOPS FROM FRANCE ASKED FOR TO WIPE OUT THE
IROQUOIS.
Ever since the flight to Montreal of the French from Onondaga under
Dupuis on April 3, 1658, there had been constant fear of a concerted
attempt by the Five Nations to exterminate, by fire and slaughter, the
whole French population. In 1659 a Huron refugee to Quebec brought the
news of the preparation of a great allied army for this fell purpose.
This was confirmed at Quebec in the spring of 1660 by an Iroquois
captive ally; that 800 Iroquois had assembled at Roche Fondue, near
Montreal, to be joined by 400 more who were even then pouring down upon
Quebec by way of Montreal and Three Rivers. Believing that Montreal
and Three Rivers were besieged, Quebec was in the throes of alarm.
The outlying houses were abandoned. Most of the settlers were either
concentrated in the fort or in the Jesuit house, while the Ursulines
and Hospitalières and others were in Upper Town; the rest barricaded
themselves with many guards in the Lower Town. The monasteries, denuded
of their occupants, were also guarded, and the cries of "qui vive?" of
the patrol, each night warned the Iroquois lurking around that all were
on the alert, and restrained any attempt to set fire to the houses.
That the enemy never came, is due to the heroic venturesomeness of a
band of young Montrealers who had meanwhile bearded the lion in his
den, and diverted the attack from the French, thus saving New France.
The garrison of Montreal had thought long of how to meet the threatened
invasion, till at last the daring plan of a young officer of
twenty-five years of age, Adam Dollard, was accepted. In the spring of
1660 the officers were now, besides the governor, Major Raphael Lambert
Closse, M. Zacharie Dupuis, Pierre Picoté de Bélestre and the young
Adam Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux. Major Lambert Closse had been married
on July 24, 1657, and he was now no longer living in the fort, for he
had been given by the Associates, in recognition of his bravery and his
merits, his own lands, the first fief granted in Montreal, a hundred
arpents, "à simple hommage et sans justice." He had now received
letters of nobility, for whereas before he has simply been styled
sergeant major of the garrison, in his marriage contract he is named
"écuyer" (esquire), on December 9th after the arrival of Maisonneuve
and that of the Sulpicians, he is called "noble homme, écuyer." We have
already mentioned that he was the commandant of the Island of Montreal.
On leaving the fort Lambert Closse still retained his office of major,
but he was replaced at the fort by M. Zacharie du Puis, the same who
had been received coldly at Quebec after the retreat under him from
Onondaga, but whose services were welcomed and esteemed at Montreal by
the governor, de Maisonneuve, who named him assistant major; and he
is also spoken of as "commandant of the Island of Montreal," a title
found ascribed also to Lambert Closse. Then we may class Charles Le
Moyne, the official interpreter and storekeeper, as in some way an
officer. Among the late arrivals two others had been at least adjoined
to the military staff. One of these was Picoté de Bélestre, a doctor
as well as a fighting man, and he proved of valuable assistance to the
settlement. Dollier de Casson says of him that "he adorned this place,
as well in war as in peace, on account of the advantageous qualities
he possessed for one and the other." He is spoken of sometimes as a
"commandant," sometimes as an officer of the garrison.
The other is Adam Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux, a young man of
twenty-five years of age. There is little known of his antecedents.
The actual date of his arrival is not certain but, according to the
latest researches made by Mr. E. Z. Massicotte, city archivist of
Montreal (April, 1912), the first document, in which his name appears
as witnessing a land transfer, is dated September 10, 1658.
As he figures frequently in acts after this, it is not likely that he
came much before that date, for he was not present on December 29,
1657, at the marriage of Jeanne Le Moyne with Jacques Leber, a young
man of his own age, nor at that of Michel Messier and of Anne Le Moyne,
February 18, 1658; while after the above date, on September 15, 1658,
he was present at that of Jacques Mousseaux and of Marguerite Soviot,
and on October 3, 1658, he was godfather to Elizabeth Moyen, daughter
of Lambert Closse and Elizabeth Moyen, married the year previously, and
thenceforward he appeared frequently at public ceremonies.
In this act, Dollard is styled "_volontaire_," a volunteer, which may
signify that he was only as yet attached to the garrison or that he had
taken service freely and not on wages. The Notary Basset gives him,
sometimes, the title of "commandant"; at others that of "officer of the
garrison."
Mr. Massicotte proves, from the inventory of Dollard's effects after
his death, that he had intended to settle, having formed a building
society, explained before as then customary, with Picoté de Bélestre,
to break land and to cultivate it in view of a future homestead. We
have the record of de Bélestre's concession and of a debt to be paid
to the succession of "the late Adam Dollard" the sum of 79 _livres_, 10
_sols_, for fifty-three days' work, by men employed by the deceased to
work on the same concession.
It is therefore probable that Dullard was contemplating his own
homestead and that, in his turn, de Bélestre would assist, according to
the contracts before noticed.
Dollard was by no means wealthy; indeed the number of his personal
effects at his death was less than those shown in the inventories
of the greater part of the settlers dying before him, even of the
bachelors. The sum total of these possessions has been estimated at
eighty-five _livres_, or 1,700 _sous_! But we must remember that a
_sou_ would at that time buy five to ten times more than now.
The quality, however, of his varied but slight wardrobe and of the
articles of toilette not mentioned in other inventories gives ground
for the tradition that he was of a superior caste to the ordinary
colonist. The ordinary tradition is, following Dollier de Casson, that
this young man of good family had already had some command in the
army in France, but had done some foolish act, and that he had joined
Maisonneuve with the desire of doing some notable deed of valour or
self-sacrifice to rehabilitate himself in his own eyes, and those of
his friends.
The spelling of his name has been a subject of controversy. Mr.
Massicotte has established that there is no doubt, since we have his
signature at the city hall archives, that he signed himself "Dollard."
"Daulat" and "Daulac," the variant readings, are the mistakes of
copyists writing phonetically rather than orthographically, since
the three are pronounced practically the same. There is a scarcely
imperceptible nuance of sound differing.[84]
We have given these minute facts, since the exploit we are about to
relate is one of the most stirring and notable in Canadian history, and
the story of Montreal can well expatiate on one of its own heroes.
Adam Dollard it was who, by his boldness, persuaded de Maisonneuve
from his Fabian policy of defence which had, as we have seen, made
him, so far, content to drive the Iroquois away from the fort to their
ambuscades around. In April, 1660, he obtained permission from the
governor to take a band of volunteers up country and there do battle.
The fear of the Iroquois must have been indeed desperate for one so
young to have secured such a permission from Maisonneuve.
Dollard's enthusiasm, which had led the sixteen young men, two of whom
were thirty and thirty-one years of age and the rest between twenty-one
and twenty-seven, and most of whom had arrived in 1653, to strike
hands with him to follow him if the governor gave consent, now spurred
them on to make all the needful preparations. In order to purchase the
necessary arms, food and boats to man the expedition, we find records
extant of loans being sought as, for example, the following, signed by
Dollard with his own private _paraphe_, or flourish, after his name,
according to the custom of the time:
"I, the undersigned, acknowledge my indebtedness to Jean Haubichon
of the sum of forty _livres_ plus three _livres_ which I promise
to pay to him on my return. Done at Ville Marie, the fifteenth of
April, sixteen hundred and sixty.
Dollard (with paraphe)."
Major Closse, Picoté de Bélestre and Charles Le Moyne would gladly
have thrown in their lot with him, but prudence suggested to them that
they should finish the spring seeding, and then to lead forth a body
of forty men. The impetuous Dollard could not brook delay. Besides he
wanted the command, and this was his opportunity in life. Moreover, his
young men were eager to start. Before leaving on their perilous path
to glory, they swore a sacred oath of fidelity among themselves not to
ask for quarter, and the better to keep their plighted word and to face
death without fear, they resolved each to make his will and to clear
his consciences by a confession of his sins, and to approach in a body
the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the symbol of unity and fellowship.
Each point was faithfully carried out. The sight of these young men at
this last solemn event in the parish church must have been thrilling to
their friends and families, fearful, yet proud of the warriors who were
setting out, perchance to die for their king and their faith.[85]
At last, on April 19th the flotilla of canoes started up the stream,
but when nearby to an adjacent island (probably St. Paul) they heard
a cry of alarm. Thinking that, near at hand, was the quarry they
were going, so far, to seek, Dollard bore down upon the Iroquois,
repulsing them with such vigour that had they not taken to the woods,
leaving behind their canoes and spoils to save their lives, they would
assuredly all have been captured.
But this victory was attended by the loss of three of his men--Nicholas
Duval, a servant at the fort, killed by the Indians, and two others
who, unaccustomed to the management of their canoe, had been drowned in
the engagement. Dollard seized the spoils, left behind by the Iroquois,
and, moreover, a canoe which served him in good stead later in the
expedition. Meanwhile the party made their way back sadly to Ville
Marie with the dead body, without doubt to assist at the burial of
Nicholas Duval on April 20th, for the parish registers give this date.
The other bodies had not as yet been discovered.
They were joined by one of the young men who had failed in his oath
and penitently sought to redeem himself. Thus the seventeen was now
complete.
As men, who might never see their friends again, they bade a general
adieu to Ville Marie, and again embarked on the fateful journey whence
no one returned to tell the tale. Though bold of heart, many of them
were not expert at handling their canoes, so that they were delayed
eight days at a rapid (Ste. Anne's) at the end of the Island of
Montreal. But their indomitable courage surpassed their inexperience,
and they reached, on May 1st, the end of the tumultuous rapids of the
Long Leap, or the "Long Sault," at the foot of the Chaudières Fall, on
the Ottawa River, at a distance of about eight or ten leagues above
Montreal.
There Dollard found a dilapidated war camp abandoned by the
Iroquois, the previous autumn. It was not flanked, but defended only
by a wretched palisading. It was dangerously overlooked too by a
neighbouring wooden slope. Within this feeble fortress, for want of
better protection, he cantoned his men and there awaited the canoes of
the enemy who must come down the Sault in single file on their return
from the chase.
Soon, to their surprise, a body of forty Hurons and four Algonquins
came with credentials from the governor of Montreal, requesting Dollard
to admit them to a share in their glorious enterprise. These were
led by the chief, Anontaha, the Huron, and Mitiwemeg, the Algonquin.
Anontaha had descended from Quebec with his Hurons, the relics of a
once powerful nation, to waylay Iroquois returning from hunting, and at
Three Rivers he had met Mitiwemeg with his Algonquins on a like quest.
Having challenged each other's valour, they determined to push to
Montreal, where likely there would be an opportunity with the Iroquois
to test each other's courage in the fight. Arrived at Montreal the
French, "whose fault, it is," says Dollier de Casson, "to talk too
much," told them of the whereabouts of Dollard's expedition. Amazed at
the daring of so slight a force, and jealous of having been forestalled
in the work of falling upon the Iroquois, they sought permission
to join them; there the vaunting chiefs could show their valour.
Accordingly they arrived with de Maisonneuve's letter which warned
Dollard not to put his trust in their bravery, but to act as if he had
his Frenchmen alone to help him.
Dollard received their parties to his future sorrow. Thus reinforced
the anxious warriors bivouacked around the redoubt, near the
hoarse-sounding waters of the leaping rapids. At last, those on scout
duty reported the coming of the advance guard of 300 Iroquois down the
stream. These were on their way to join the 400 more at the Richelieu
Islands to attack Three Rivers, Quebec and then Montreal.
Down to the place where they would likely land, Dollard led his men and
ensconced them in ambush, till two canoes filled with Iroquois arrived,
and no sooner had these put foot on land than the land force fired into
their midst, but so precipitously that some escaped, and running across
the woods to meet their party on the shore above, cried out: "We have
been defeated at the little fort, which is quite near here. There is a
party of French and Indians there."
Their approach found the party in prayer from which they arose
hurriedly, seeking the shelter of the palisading and leaving in the
confusion their kettles slung over the camp fires preparing for their
meal.
The Iroquois quickly advanced towards the redoubt, thinking to reduce
it easily, but they were frequently repulsed, with much loss and
confusion. Driven back, and refused a parley, by which they sought
to entice the Frenchmen from the fort, the enemy began to construct
a retrenchment facing the redoubt, determined to begin the siege.
Meanwhile, during this delay, the brave defenders strengthened their
outworks (it would seem an obvious duty too long delayed) by building
a second palisading within and filling in the space between, with
stones and earth to a man's height, in such way, however, that they
were loopholes large enough to put three gunmen at each. When the enemy
began next to approach, they poured their scrap iron and lead into them
with deadly effect. To add to their rage and humiliation the Iroquois
saw the heads of their comrades placed on the tops of the stockade
palisades. They now broke up the French and Huron canoes, and putting
them into a blaze sought to fire the stockade with them. But finding
themselves unable, even with their numbers, to capture the fort, they
sent a canoe to warn the 500 at the Richelieu Islands to come to their
assistance. While delaying for their reinforcement they blockaded the
fort, thinking at least to force it to capitulate, through thirst.
For a week the enemy's fire could not be of avail. Thirst, consequent
on the dearth of water in the interior of the fort, might yet effect
their surrender. Water was so scarce that the defenders could hardly
swallow their hominy (rough Indian corn). Their efforts at digging were
rewarded only by a little trickling stream of muddy water, altogether
insufficient to quench their thirst. Thus they were forced to make
sudden sallies to the river, 200 feet away, under shelter of the guns
from the fort, to fill their small pots of water, since they had
already lost their kettles and tin pans.
The Iroquois now called upon the parched Hurons cooped up within the
wretched hole to give themselves up and receive good quarter. Else they
would surely die, since a reinforcement of 500 men was coming.
These perfidious weaklings, listening to the voice of the tempters,
yielded, and they were to be seen deserting stealthily by the gate
or scrambling over the palisadings. This heartbreaking sight was too
much for the brave chief Anontaha, who aimed his pistol at his fleeing
nephew, "The Fly," but missed his aim in his bitter rage.
There were now only twenty-three to guard the fort, Dollard and his
dauntless sixteen, Anontaha, and Mitiwemeg and his four faithful
followers.
On the fifth day the 500 allies arrived. On they came to the fort with
their frightful war cries but quickly they retired, leaving their dead
around the fort and many others escaping, having lead within them
that made them ill content. Thus for three days the fight was hourly
renewed by the Iroquois, sometimes attacking in a body, sometimes in
bands; sometimes they battered the fortress with trunks of trees;
still the defenders would not yield, resolved to die to a man first.
This obstinate and unexpected resistance made the enemy think that the
fugitive Hurons had given a false tale of the numbers within the fort.
So the time passed for the hungering and thirsting men within, weary
and sleepless, but full of resolution, which they renewed with prayer,
till called to fight again for dear life's sake.
On the eighth day, many Iroquois would fain have given up, but the eyes
of others blazed with rage at the immortal disgrace they foresaw if
they should be set to naught by a handful of whites. They determined to
carry the fort by main force or perish in the attempt.
But this was a hardy and dangerous deed courting death. On such an
occasion it was the custom when volunteers for the first ranks were
needed, that sticks were thrown on to the ground and those that dared
pick them up were considered the bravest, and took the foremost place
of danger; so now the self-elected braves led the way for a bloody
encounter, carrying each an impromptu shield or fence made of united
logs each four or five feet in height lashed together, under shelter
of which they moved with bowed heads and crouched forms. They crept
nearer and nearer the palisade under the shower of shot from arquebus
and musketoon that rained fire and shot upon them from the loopholes
of the fort. At the gates, and on the palisade wall, the good axe and
sabre of the Frenchmen dealt out death upon the stormers. At length,
they had reached the palisade and strove to break their way in with axe
and battering ram. As a last despairing act, Dollard, having loaded a
heavy musketoon to the muzzle, and having lit the fuse, attempted to
throw it over the palisading so that it would explode in the midst of
the foe clambering up the posts or pulling them down. By ill luck it
caught an obstacle on the inside of the palisading and it rebounded
back, exploding in the fort, blinding many with its charge and killing
several of the gallant whites. This gave great courage to the besiegers
and the piles were wrenched away, and the gates forced. Breaches were
made on all sides in the fortification and a fierce hand to hand fight
of axe and sword and pistol ensued, and in the mêlée the brave Dollard
fell at last. Their leader fallen, each survivor fought like a lion
brought to bay, dealing death around until his own turn came. With
sword or hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other, maddened with
hunger, thirst and exposure, and ablaze with religious and martial
enthusiasm, they turned each upon their enemies, like madmen. But,
unable to take them alive with their overpowering numbers, the Iroquois
shot them down mercilessly, to fall upon the camp enclosure already
heaped up high with their own dead.
[Illustration: DOLLARD'S EXPLOIT AT THE LONG SAULT, MAY, 1660
(By Henri Julien)]
At last not one of the defenders was standing and quickly the
revengeful Iroquois searched among the bodies to see if any Christian
lived and could be reserved for torture later. Three others were found
on the point of death. These they shortly consigned to the flames
but a fourth they took prisoner and reserved for cruel refinements
later. Among those fallen were Anontaha, the Huron, and Mitiwemeg, the
Algonquin, with his three faithful companions. As to the treacherous
Hurons, they did not keep their word to them as they promised, but
sent them to their Iroquois villages to be afterwards burned alive to
satisfy their baulked revenge at their rough handling by the heroic
seventeen.
Some five, however, escaped and it was through one of them Louis, "a
good Christian but a poor soldier"--that the first news was brought at
last to Montreal, on June 3d, that so many of the enemy had been killed
within and without the fort that the bodies served to make a path to
ascend the palisades and pass over into the fort. Gradually the news
was confirmed by others arriving, and the truth was sifted from the
conflicting accounts of these cowards, whose stories strove to shield
their shameful desertion of their friends.
Shortly after the disaster the fur trader, Radisson, passed down the
Long Sault after a brush with the Iroquois. He visited the palisaded
fort and saw the gaping wounds in the stockade burnt by the assailants
and saw the scalps of the Indians still flaunting from the pickets. In
the neighbourhood there was not a tree, he remarks, that was not shot
with bullets. "It was terrible," he says, "for we came there eight days
after the defeat." Not until he reached Montreal did he learn of the
full significance of what he had seen.
The dearly bought victory made the Iroquois shy for a time of engaging
with the French, for if, they said, but seventeen could hold out so
long in a paltry palisaded picket against such odds, and with such
great loss to their assailants, it would be better to leave them alone
in their own houses and settlements. Thus the tide of war was checked.
The threatened extermination of the whites was averted. Quebec and
Three Rivers breathed again. It was the voluntary sacrifice of the
picked flowers of the Montreal youth, that found its Thermopylae at the
Long Sault, and thus saved Canada!
"This was the common belief at the time," says Dollier de Casson,
who arrived in Montreal in the sixth year after this event and whose
relation is the basis of all modern accounts of this magnificent
disaster, "for otherwise the country would have been swept away
and lost, which leads men to say that even if the establishment of
Montreal had only had the advantage of having saved the country in
this adventure, and of having served as a public victim in the persons
of seventeen of its sons who then lost their lives, it ought, for all
posterity, if ever Canada comes to anything, to be accounted as of some
considerable importance since it has saved it on this occasion, without
mentioning others."[86]
"What though beside the foaming flood entombed their ashes lie,
All earth becomes the monument of men who nobly die."
We must now descend from the poetic to the commonplace of prose. In
doing so, we shall have an insight into the customs of the time.
The inventory of the belongings of Adam Dullard, then in the possession
of his partner, Picoté de Bélestre, is preserved in the city archives
dated October 6, 1660, as well as the record of the sale by auction
which took place November 9, 1661, before the door of the house of Jean
Gervaise. Every item is recorded, belonging to the deceased down to
his night cap. Such things as a sword with a broken handle; a baldric,
of English cow leather, with iron buckles; a poor jerkin of gray with
a poor lining in the same colour; a little packet of poor linen; a
poor black hat; a bad pair of Indian racquettes, and so on. The most
valuable article was a jerkin with breeches and white hose, the whole
of superior material, estimated at eighteen _livres_. But this apparel,
according to the note adjoined, was returned by order of the governor
to Sieur de Brigeac, to whom they belonged.
[Illustration: INVENTORY OF DOLLARD'S EFFECTS]
[Illustration: DOLLARD'S PROMISSORY NOTE]
In the inventory is added the following unpaid bill:
"Declared by Jacques Beauchamp, fourteenth September, 1660. Seven days'
work in the winter at 30 _sols_ a day, 10 _livres_ 10 _sols_; plus 2
days and a half at 40 _sols_, 5 _livres_; plus for his washing during
six months, 7 _livres_ 10 _sols_; plus for the making of 4 shirts
and other smaller linens 4 _livres_; plus the sale of a black hat 4
_livres_."
The names of Dollard's companions are to be found in the parish
register for June 3, 1660, as follows: 1. Adam Dollard (Sieur des
Ormeaux), commander, aged 25 years; 2. Jacques Brassier, aged 25
years; 3. Jean Tavernier dit la Lochetière, armourer, aged 25 years;
4. Nicholas Tillemont, sawyer, aged 25 years; 5. Laurent Hébert dit La
Rivière, aged 27 years; 6. Alonié des Lestres, lime burner, aged 31
years; 7. Nicolas Josselin, aged 25 years; 8. Robert Jurié, aged 24
years; 9. Jacques Boisseau dit Cognac, aged 23 years; 10. Louis Martin,
aged 21 years; 11. Christophe Augier dit des Jardins, aged 26 years;
12. Etienne Robin dit des Forges, aged 27 years; 13. Jean Valets, aged
27 years; 14. René Doussin (Sieur de Ste. Cécile), soldier of the
garrison, aged 30 years; 15. Jean Lecomte, aged 26 years; 16. Simon
Grenet; 17. François Crusson dit Pilote, aged 24 years.
[Illustration: The holograph will of Jean Tavernier, _armurier_
(gunsmith), another companion of Dollard, made on the 17th of April,
1660, two days before the departure of the ill-fated expedition. It
is also the first holograph will in the archives of Montreal and the
only holograph found of any of Dollard's companions. (Cf. "Canadian
Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal," 1913, No. 1, "Les Compagnons de
Dollard.")]
[Illustration: The will made by Bassit for Jean Valets, companion of
Dollard. This is the only notarial will found of the members of the
expedition. The translation of the deed is to found in the "Canadian
Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal" of 1913, No. 1, accompanying the
article "Les Compagnons de Dollard," by E. Z. Massicotte.]
The date of the heroic adventure of the Long Sault is put by Dollier de
Casson to May 26th or 27th, following the notice by M. Souart in the
parish register for June 3rd, which says, on the testimony of the Huron
Louis, that the exploit took place eight days before. But M. de Belmont
places it on May 21st. This is more likely to be correct, since we have
the records of the inventory of the goods of Jacques Boisseau, made on
May 25th, and of Jean Valets, on May 26th.
Similar sales were made of the goods of the other heroes. It is to be
noticed that nearly all left racquettes, or snowshoes, behind them, it
then being spring.
Though Montreal was for the moment the Saviour of New France, de
Maisonneuve had learned enough from the fugitives from the Long Sault
to make him fear the downpour of the revengeful Iroquois either that
autumn or the next spring. Consequently he put the town in a state of
defence--by fortifying the fort, the Hôtel-Dieu, the mill on the hill,
the lonely redoubts, St. Gabriel and Ste. Marie, recently constructed
by de Queylus and the Sulpicians, and then hastened to give the news of
the exploit of Dollard to Three Rivers and Quebec. The joyful tidings
gave Quebec pause to breathe again in peace. For five months public
prayers had been daily held in the churches for God's protection of the
country and for the five weeks preceding the news, there had been no
repose by day or by night.
Yet d'Argenson, the governor, also feared a descent upon Quebec before
the harvest, and there would then be utter famine. On July 4th he wrote
to France to have provisions sent back immediately, for "we are more
in war than ever and in still greater famine.... We have little or no
wheat, and there are three months to await for the harvest, which we
are in great danger of not gathering, if the Iroquois carry out their
resolution to ravage our lands."
Luckily there was no such disaster. Instead great joy was brought to
the colony, for on August 19th[87] sixty canoes, led by 300 friendly
Ottawan Indians, came to Ville Marie, laden with 200,000 _livres_'
worth of beaver peltry. A quarter of this was left at Montreal and the
rest taken to Three Rivers. This resumption of trade, so necessary for
the colony, gave courage, for many were thinking of leaving the country
on account of the continued warfare which crippled commerce. The
merchants were in great part recouped for their losses and the people
were enabled to buy from France the many necessities of life, which the
money from the sale of beaver skins could alone provide.
But trade and peace and the progress of Christianity could only be
secured by reinforcement from France, and this year we find d'Argenson
writing to France to show the necessity of sending troops. The Jesuit
"Relation" of this year urges the same. "Let France only say 'I wish
it,' and with this word it opens heaven to an infinity of heathens; it
gives life to this colony; it preserves for itself its New France and
acquires a glory worthy of a most Christian kingdom.
"Saint Louis formerly planted the _fleur-de-lys_ in the soil of the
crescent. Today it would be a no less glorious conquest to make a
country of infidels into a holy land than to wrest the Holy Land
from the hands of the infidel. Once more, let France's will destroy
the Iroquois and it is done. Two regiments of brave soldiers would
overthrow them."
Hope entered into the hearts of the colonists now, since France was
at peace, having concluded a treaty with Spain, and it was thought
that now was the acceptable hour, the time of salvation, and for this
purpose Father Le Jeune, then the procurator of the Jesuit missions in
Paris, before the end of the year 1660 was asked to present a petition
to Louis XIV and to plead for New France across the sea.
The king heard the "sighs and sobs of the poor afflicted colony," and
promised troops; but again New France was forgotten, except by the
Company of One Hundred Associates, inasmuch as they claimed the annual
rental of a thousand beaver skins.
The call was not to be heard for some years yet.
FOOTNOTES:
[84] To explain the "c" in Daulac it must be remembered that in French
manuscripts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the final "t"
and final "c" were interchangeable, or rather written in the same
character which stood for a "t" or a "c." (Canadian Antiquarian and
Numismatic Journal, Third Series, No. 2, Vol. IX, April, 1912.)
[85] Parkman, speaking of this event in "The Old Régime in Canada,"
says: "The spirit of the enterprise was purely mediæval. The enthusiasm
of honour, the enthusiasm of adventure and the enthusiasm of faith were
its motive forces. Daulac (sic) was a knight of the early Crusades
among the forests and savages of the New World."
[86] It appears that thirty years after the famous defence of the
Long Sault, a band of a hundred Iroquois were fired upon as they
passed Bout de l'Isle to help Phipps in his attack on Quebec. Four of
the Indians were shot, and the remainder turned upon the attacking
band of twenty-five habitants recruited from the district about
Pointe-aux-Trembles and led by a certain Sieur Colombain. Sixteen of
the Frenchmen were killed, but the Indians abandoned their intended
voyage to Quebec. (Cf. The recent discovery by Mr. E. Z. Massicotte,
recorded in the Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal of August, 1914.)
[87] Cf. Faillon, "Histoire de Colonie Française." An act by Bénigne
Basset of July 22, 1660, is recorded of a "Société" or partnership
made by Médard Chod de Groseilliers with Charles Le Moyne. Cf. E. Z.
Massicotte in "Les Colons de Montréal de 1642-1667" and "Bulletin des
Reserches Historiques" (1904). The circumstances are as follows: In
1658 Chouard de Groseilliers and Pierre d'Esprit de Radisson started
from Three Rivers for an expedition for the west. They stopped at
Montreal and were joined by some Frenchmen. They were the first
Europeans to go as far as the south of Lake Superior, making Chouamigon
their headquarters, and thence brought down to Montreal the largest
convoy of furs hitherto known. They arrived shortly after Dollard's
disaster in the month of July. To make the convoy as profitable as
possible Chouard de Groseilliers made the act of "Société" with Charles
Le Moyne to divide the profits of the sales of the peltry brought down
by his Indians, at Montreal, Three Rivers and Quebec. This is doubtless
one and the same party as that of August 19th, mentioned above, who may
have reached Montreal later with de Groseilliers.