1665
THE RECALL OF DE MAISONNEUVE
THE GOVERNOR GENERAL DE COURCELLES AND THE INTENDANT TALON
ARRIVE--THE DUAL REIGN INHARMONIOUS--SIEUR DE TRACY,
LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF THE KING FOR NORTH AMERICA, ARRIVES--THE
CARIGNAN-SALLIERES REGIMENT--CAPTURE OF CHARLES LE MOYNE
BY IROQUOIS--BUILDING OF OUTLYING FORTS--PREPARATIONS FOR
WAR--THE DISMISSAL OF MAISONNEUVE--AN UNRECOGNIZED MAN--HIS
MONUMENT--MAISONNEUVE IN PARIS--A TRUE CANADIAN.
The strained relations at Quebec and Montreal were soon to be relieved
for a time by the death of de Mézy, who died on the night of May 5-6,
1665, thus being saved the painful investigations into his government
which were ordered by Louis XIV, and were to be conducted by the
new governor, M. de Courcelles, and the intendant, Jean Baptiste
Talon. They, having received their letters of appointment on March
23d, were now on their way with a secret commission to look into the
administration of the spiritual and temporal power of New France. M. de
Courcelles was given power over all the local governors of Canada, and
the Sovereign Council, to settle differences between its members, and
to have command over all His Majesty's subjects, ecclesiastics, nobles,
soldiers and others of whatever dignity or condition, but this under
the supervision of M. Alexandre de Pourville, Sieur de Tracy, who was
shortly expected to be in Canada. This latter had been appointed on
November 19, 1663, the lieutenant general of the king for _l'Amérique
Méridionale et Septentrionale_, and was to proceed to Canada as soon as
possible.
As for Talon, the Colbert of New France, and the first intendant in
Canada, he was given unlimited authority in police, civil, judiciary
and financial matters, independently of M. de Courcelles.
[Illustration: THE INTENDANT TALON]
This distribution of power was bound, in the beginning, to create
trouble. Perfect harmony could not be expected while the intendant,
though not of equal dignity with the governor, was treated with great
consideration and was looked upon to act as a check and spy on the
governor. This dual reign was as likely to cause friction as had that
of the governor and the bishop hitherto. Still it was a most valuable
and useful office in the progress of the country, and Talon used it
well.
Before the arrival of de Courcelles and Talon, on April 25th, an attack
had been made on the Hôtel-Dieu at Montreal, when four of their men
were fallen upon by the Indians; one was killed, another mortally
wounded and two others were taken prisoners. This made Montreal look
more eagerly for the arrival of the troops promised to exterminate the
Iroquois.
On June 17th and 19th, four companies of the Carignan-Sallières
regiment, which had sailed from Rochelle, arrived at Quebec, while
de Tracy himself, with the four others which had served with him in
the French Islands, reached Quebec on June 30th. In the train of
the tall and portly veteran of sixty-two, was a gay and glittering
throng of finely dressed young noblemen, and gentlemen adventurers,
eager to witness the wonders of New France. Never was such splendour
seen in Canada as that, when Laval received de Tracy and his bronzed
veterans recently come from Hungary, where they had fought the
Turks, and who now, with their picturesque soldiery accoutrements
and trained movements marched stately to the fort to the beat of the
drums. Assuredly at last the Iroquois would be exterminated by such
disciplined forces.
This infantry regiment, which at the conclusion of the war was to
leave many of its soldiers to settle down near Montreal and become the
founders of many of the best Canadian families, had originally been
raised in 1644 by Thomas François de Savoie, Prince of Carignan, the
head of the house of Carignan, who fought for France in Italy. His son,
after him, also commanded this regiment, which took henceforth the
name of Carignan. In 1659, after having joined the regiment of Colonel
Balthasar, he incorporated this with his own and it was handed over to
the French king, who placed M. Henri de Chapelais, Sieur de Sallières,
the colonel of another regiment incorporated with it, to command it
in the absence of the prince, under his orders. Hence the combination
became known as the Carignan-Sallières regiment and consisted of
about 1,000 men from the Carignan-Balthasar regiment and 200 of the
Sallières. The portion of the troop which returned to France became the
nucleus of a reconstructed regiment which under the name of Lorraine
existed till 1794.
The regiment had, however, not yet all arrived. That portion led by
Colonel de Sallières himself did not come till August 18th or 19th,
while the last companies reached New France with de Courcelles and
Talon, on September 12th. These latter added to the splendour of Quebec
"for," says Mother Jucherau, "M. de Courcelles, our governor, had a
superb train and M. Talon, who naturally loves glory, forgot nothing
which could do honour to the king." At last the numbers were complete,
but many were put into the hospitals, sick from disease, and from the
long voyage, which had taken M. Talon's party 117 days at sea. This
sickness was one of the reasons which delayed the war against the
Iroquois till next year.
Meanwhile at Montreal news had arrived of the capture on the Ile Ste.
Thérèse, of Charles Le Moyne who, in July, had been given leave by de
Maisonneuve to join the friendly "wolves" in a hunting expedition.
He, however, escaped death, for he threatened them with dire revenge.
"There will come a great number of French soldiers," he said, "who will
burn your villages; they are even now arriving at Quebec. Of that I
have certain information."
In preparation for the coming war, de Tracy, soon after his arrival,
determined to build forts at the entrances to the routes leading to and
from the Iroquois country. These were to be garrisoned by the soldiers
of the Carignan regiments so far arrived. The first fort was placed at
the mouth of the Richelieu River, to replace that originally built
by de Montmagny, and quickly ruined in 1642. It was built under the
direction of one of the officers, M. Sorel, whose name was afterwards
given to this place, A second was constructed at the foot of a rapid
of the Richelieu River and it received the name of Chambly, from
another Carignan officer. M. de Sallières constructed the third at
another rapid of the same river and it gained its name of Fort Ste.
Thérèse from the saint's day occurring on October 15th, the day of its
completion. A fourth, St. John, was built at the foot on another rapid
of the Richelieu. The fifth was built by another officer, M. Lamothe,
on an island of Lake Champlain, at a distance of four leagues from its
mouth and was named Ste. Anne.
After their completion, the soldiers were distributed for winter to
Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal. Colonel de Sallières was in command
at the latter. As provisions were scarce in the storehouses of the
company, Talon wrote to Colbert on October 4, 1665:
"I have sent merchandise to Montreal and on the advice of M. de Tracy I
have added some ammunition from the king's stores to be distributed to
the inhabitants. But in return I expect to receive from them wheat and
vegetables, as well as elk skins, to make stronger canoes than those
covered with birch bark."
Hearing of the preparation for war, an embassy from the three upper
nations under Garacontié, the chief friendly to the French, met de
Tracy at Quebec, bringing back with them Charles Le Moyne unscathed,
and parleying for peace. But the two insolent lower tribes against
whose marauderings the forts had been built, were still contumacious
and to be punished presently.
By November, the forts were completed and the peace from Iroquois
attacks was so secure that the body of Father Duperon, the old Jesuit
missioner at Montreal, who had died at Chambly, was taken to Quebec to
be buried. This same month, on November 24th, another Jesuit well known
at Montreal, Simon Le Moyne, died at Cap de la Madeleine. He was a man
of remarkable courage, tact and ability, and his name will ever be
remembered in Canadian history as the first European recorded to have
ascended the St. Lawrence River.
[Illustration: LE MOYNE MEMORIAL AT SALINA, NEW YORK]
A greater sorrow than the imprisonment of Le Moyne was to afflict
Montreal in the enforced departure of "its father, and very dear
governor," who had served the colony for nearly twenty-four years,
and was now to be a sacrifice to the centralizing policy of the new
government, which had long looked with envy on the power of the
seigneurs of Montreal to name their governor. The policy pursued by de
Mézy, and temporarily checked, was now adopted by the Marquis de Tracy,
with no uncertain significance.
The joy at the arrival of the troops, now turned to bitterness. The
nature of de Maisonneuve's dismissal was conveyed in the appointment,
on October 23d, of his successor. "Having permitted," ran de Tracy's
letter, "M. de Maisonneuve, governor of Montreal, to make a journey to
France for his own private affairs, we have judged that we can make no
better choice for a commander in his absence than the person of Sieur
Dupuis, and this as long as we shall judge convenient." Under the glove
of velvet, can be seen the hand of iron.
This stroke of diplomacy, delicate enough in its way, cut deep enough
to wound de Maisonneuve's friends. The charge of inefficiency was
read into the veiled dismissal by Marguerite Bourgeoys, his faithful
adviser. "He was ordered to return to France," says Sister Morin, "as
being incapable of the place and rank of governor he held here; which
I could scarcely have believed, had not Sister Bourgeoys assured me of
it. He took the order as that of the will of God and crossed over to
France, not to make complaint of the bad treatment he had received but
to live simply and humbly, an unrecognized man."
De Maisonneuve was left a poor man; he had made no fortune in Canada,
as others had done. He had contented himself with being the father of
his people. His devotion and attachment to Montreal had stood in the
way of his acceptance of the governor generalship. He left under a
cloud, but his memory has been vindicated in the noble monument to him
in the Place d'Armes of Montreal. There is hardly to be found a higher
ideal of Christian knighthood in the whole history of our Canadian
heroes.
[Illustration: STATUE OF MAISONNEUVE IN PLACE D'ARMES
(By Philippe Hébert)]
On his return to France, he led a simple Christian life. His heart
was in Montreal, and in his modest home at the Fossé St. Victor, his
greatest delight was sometimes to receive a Canadian visitor, for whom
he felt a fatherly affection.
His retreat was visited in 1670 by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who thus
describes it in the account of her journey to obtain the letters patent
for her new institution: "The morning of my arrival I went to the
Seminary of St. Sulpice to learn where I could find M. de Maisonneuve.
He was lodged at the Fossé St. Victor, near the church of the Fathers
of Christian Doctrine, and I arrived at his house rather late. Only
a few days before he had constructed a cabin and furnished a little
room after the Canadian manner so as to entertain any persons who
should come from Canada. I knocked at the door and he himself came
down to open it, for he lived on the second floor with his servant,
Louis Frins, and he opened the door for me with very great joy." Many
other kindnesses did this simple gentleman do for her and for other
Canadians, for whom he acted as the kindly agent while they were in
Paris.
A true Canadian! May his memory remain forever green at Montreal! He
died on September 9, 1676, and his funeral obsequies were carried out
in the church hard by his home, above mentioned. Dollier de Casson, in
his history of the city, treats the painful incident of the governor's
departure thus:
"Speaking of the arrival of the ships and of the 'grand monde' which
came to Montreal this year, and of the extreme joy because of the
king's goodness in making his victorious arms glare and glitter, all
the same these joys were diluted for the more intelligent with much
bitterness when they saw M. Maisonneuve, their father and very dear
governor, depart this time for good, leaving them in the hands of
others, from whom they could not expect the same freedom, the same
love, and the same fidelity in putting down the vices, which have since
taken effect with those other disgraces and miseries, which had never
up to then appeared to the point at which they have since been seen."
It is commonly thought that Maisonneuve arrived at Montreal in his
fortieth year. He lived there twenty-three years. After that he spent
eleven in France, thus dying at the age of seventy-four years.