1687-1689
IROQUOIS REVENGE
DENONVILLE'S TREACHERY AND THE MASSACRE OF LACHINE
ST. HELEN'S ISLAND A MILITARY STATION--FORT
FRONTENAC--DENONVILLE'S TREACHERY--THE FEAST--INDIANS FOR THE
GALLEYS OF FRANCE--THE WAR MARCH AGAINST THE SENECAS--THE
RETURN--MONTREAL AN INCLOSED FORTRESS--DE CALLIERES' PLAN
FOR THE INVASION OF NEW YORK--THE STRUGGLE FOR TRADE
SUPREMACY--MONTREAL BESIEGED--KONDIARONK, THE RAT, KILLS THE
PEACE--DENONVILLE RECALLED--CALLIERES' PLAN FAILS--THE MASSACRE AT
LACHINE--DENONVILLE'S TREACHERY REVENGED. NOTE: THE EXPLOIT AT THE
RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES.
[Illustration: VIEW OF ISLAND OF STE. HELEN]
In the commencement of the summer of 1687, Denonville, who had made
his preparations secretly and had received reinforcements of 800 men
with 168,000 _livres_ in money or supplies from France, determined to
carry to a finish his long projected war policy against the Iroquois
supported by the English under Dongan, by stealing upon them unawares.
St. Helen's Island opposite Montreal was the scene of a great military
camp. Thither the new intendant, de Champigny-Noroy--the successor
of de Meulles, who had been recalled upon the complaints of the
governor--had gone on June 7th with the Chevalier de Vaudreuil, lately
arrived in the colony with the title of commander of the forces. The
army of four battalions, commanded by the Governor de Denonville in
person, was composed, says Bibaud, of 800 regular soldiers, about a
thousand Canadians and 300 Indians, mostly from the missions of Sault
St. Louis and the Mountain. M. de Callières, the governor of Montreal,
also was there. It started on June 11th on 200 flatboats and as many
birch bark canoes, and struggling against the rapids made its way for
Fort Frontenac. Just after the departure the 800 regulars arrived
from France and were left at Montreal to protect the settler. We have
not usually related the details of these expeditions from Montreal
and its vicinity, but the opening incident on this occasion, known as
Denonville's treachery, resulting in the massacre of Lachine on August
25, 1689, was so fateful in its dire results for Montreal that it must
be told.
[Illustration: PLAN OF MONTREAL, 1687-1723]
Arriving at Fort Frontenac, it was found that there were in the
neighbourhood a number of Iroquois of the two neutral villages of
Kenté (Quinté) and Ganneious or Ganeyout, on the north shore of Lake
Ontario, forming a sort of colony, where the Sulpicians of Montreal
had established their mission. They were on excellent terms with the
garrison of Fort Frontenac and hunted and fished for them. These
Denonville determined to seize, partially because of the fear that they
might communicate with their relatives, the hostile Seneca Iroquois,
but principally because he wished to satisfy the desire of Louis XIV
that the Iroquois prisoners of war should be sent to France to be put
in the galleys, "because," said the royal letters, "the savages being
strong and robust, they will serve usefully on our convict gangs."
Accordingly by various artifices, such as by the invitation to a feast,
the unsuspecting and friendly Indians were enticed to the fort by the
advances of the new intendant, Champigny, and then seized, the men
being sent to Quebec and then deported to the galleys in France.[138]
This was a breach of faith, unjustifiable according to the natural law
of nations; these men could in no way have been called prisoners of
war. The other Indians were deeply incensed at this treason and they
brooded over it long and deeply. A sad incident in the story is that
the Jesuit missionary Lamberville was unwittingly the instrument used
to induce the Onondaga chief to accept the invitation to a parley at
Fort Frontenac. When the news of the capture was made known, he was
summoned before a council of the angry Iroquois. The magnanimity of the
Iroquois saved his life. One of them addressed him thus: "You cannot
but agree that all sorts of reasons, authorize us to treat you as an
enemy, but we cannot agree to that; we know you too well not to be
persuaded that your heart has had no part in the treason against us in
which you have shared, and we are not unjust enough to punish you for
a crime of which we believe you are innocent, and for which without
doubt you are in despair for having been the instrument. But it is not
fitting that you should remain here, for when once our young men have
sung the war cry, they will see in you for the future nothing but a
traitor, who has delivered our chiefs to the most disgraceful slavery.
Then fury will fall on you and we shall not be able any longer to save
you."[139] They gave him guides and sent him back to Denonville.[140]
Meanwhile La Durantaye arrived with news of the capture of the Dutch
and English traders under Rosenboom and Major Patrick McGregor, who had
been carried to Niagara and afterward to Quebec, a proceeding which
mightily angered the English governor of New York, Dongan. The war soon
began; the rendezvous was at Irondequoit Bay on the borders of the
Seneca country. There were gathered the armies of Denonville, joined
by the flotilla of La Durantaye, with Duluth and his cousin Tonti, who
had come from Niagara, the Ottawas from Michillimackinac and savages of
every nation. There were the regulars from France, the Canadian militia
under de Callières of Montreal, the Jesuit chaplains, the Sulpician, de
Belmont, from Montreal, the noblesse, the Christian Indians from the
Montreal district, the hardy explorer Nicholas Perrot and others, such
as Le Moyne de Longueuil. Nearly three thousand men, red and white,
were under Denonville on July 12, when the march against the Senecas
began and most men of note in the colony seemed to be there. On the
24th of July the army returned to the fortified fort at Irondequoit Bay
and shortly descended to Montreal, victorious in name. But the Senecas
were only scotched, not killed.
The expedition returned to Montreal in August. In October the Iroquois,
to the number of 200, attacked the upper part of Montreal, where they
burned five houses and killed six _habitants_. The consequence was
that de Callières (the governor) caused a redoubt to be constructed in
each seignory, so that the troops quartered there and the inhabitants
could find refuge in the hour of attack. A contemporary writer says
that there were twenty-eight such forts in the government of Montreal.
A corps of 120 men picked from the _coureurs de bois_ was placed at
Lachine, but the great massacre there was not to occur till 1689. Thus
Montreal was virtually enclosed in de Callières' palisaded picket. "New
troops were called for from France and the plan of the next campaign
was to advance with two columns in distinct expeditions against the
Iroquois.
"The possession of New York by the French as a desirable acquisition
was advocated by the leading men in Canada more than ever." De
Callières, the governor of Montreal, was conceiving a plan for such an
invasion.[141]
This became more popular as James II, on November 10, 1687, formally
claimed the Iroquois as subjects and ordered Dongan to protect them.
This was the beginning of the long struggle between the two powers,
the supremacy of the west being the bone of contention, for the
trade of which the English were always "itching." As this trade was
Montreal's support we may realize the anxiety present during the
next year, 1688. For two years the trade had been stopped. Montreal
was again in a siege. The Iroquois moved about mysteriously in small
bands, and paralyzed agriculture. The early history of Montreal was
being reproduced; yet the country had far more troops than formerly.
At the head of the Island of Montreal a large body of militia under
Vaudreuil was on guard. In the midst of this anxiety negotiations took
place with the great and crafty diplomatist, Big Mouth, the chief
of the Onondagas, who on the promise of Denonville to return the
prisoners captured up west, made his way to Montreal, in spite of the
prohibitions of Sir Edward Andros, who had now succeeded Dongan, with
six Onondaga, Cayuga and Oneida chiefs; but, it is said, he had sent
ahead a force of 1,200 men. He arrived at Montreal on June 8, 1688. A
declaration of neutrality was drawn up and he promised that within a
certain time the whole confederacy should come to Montreal to conclude
a general peace. They never came. For, although they were on their
way, Kondiaronk, surnamed the Rat, the renowned chief of the Hurons
at Michillimackinac, a most astute man, treacherously "killed" the
peace as he boasted, by intercepting and firing on them, pretending he
had been prompted to this action by Denonville. Thus he aroused the
Iroquois against the French. For his fear was that should peace be
concluded with the Iroquois, the French allies, such as the Hurons,
would not be protected against their hereditary enemies, the Iroquois.
Hence Montreal never saw the delegation. But the danger still hovered
around, although Denonville with false security still wrote to France
that there was hope of peace. The Iroquois, however, had not forgotten
his treachery at Fort Frontenac. Their brethren in the galleys of
France called for vengeance.
The winter of 1688 and part of the summer of 1689 passed quietly
enough. Changes had occurred in the government. Denonville received his
recall by a letter of May 31, 1689, being needed for the war in Europe.
St. Vallier had been consecrated bishop of Quebec on January 25th.
Count Frontenac was named governor for a second time. De Callières, the
governor of Montreal, being replaced in his absence by de Vaudreuil,
was in France communicating his ambitious plans of conquering New York
as the only means of preserving the colony.[142] Incidentally he was
to be New York's new governor. It could be done, he argued, with the
forces in Canada, 1,000 regulars and 600 militia, and two royal ships
of war. The king modified the scheme and adopted it, but it never
came into execution. The long delay in the preparation of the ships
and the unexpectedly long passage of Callières and Frontenac across
the Atlantic, caused by head winds, ruined the enterprise. The two
governors did not reach Quebec until October 12th, bringing back with
them from the galleys of France the remnant of the Iroquois. Thence
they left on October 20th and arrived at Montreal on October 27th,
where Denonville, with Duluth in charge of the garrison, was still
making the last arrangements for maintaining the peace of Montreal
before departing for France. But this was not to be till after the
horrible massacre of reprisal, so long threatened, that fell upon the
island at Lachine on the night of August 5, 1689.
The story of the disaster at Lachine, saddening the last days
of Denonville, must now be told in the graphic words of Parkman
(Frontenac, pp. 177-181).
"On the night before the 4th and 5th of August a violent hailstorm
burst over Lake St. Louis, an expansion of the St. Lawrence, a little
above Montreal. Concealed by the tempest and the darkness, 1,500
warriors landed at Lachine and silently posted themselves about the
houses of the sleeping settlers, then screeched the war whoop and
began the most frightful massacre in Canadian history. The houses were
burned and men, women and children indiscriminately butchered. In the
neighbourhood were three stockade forts, called Rémy, Rolland and La
Présentation; and they all had garrisons. There was also an encampment
of 200 regulars about three miles distant, under an officer named
Subercasse, then absent from Montreal on a visit to Denonville, who
had lately arrived with his wife and family. At four o'clock in the
morning the troops in this encampment heard a cannon shot from one of
the forts. They were at once ordered under arms. Soon after, they saw
a man running toward them just escaped from the butchery. He told
his story and passed on with the news to Montreal, six miles distant.
Then several fugitives appeared, chased by a band of Iroquois who gave
up the pursuit at sight of the soldiers but pillaged several houses
before their eyes. The day was well advanced before Subercasse arrived.
He ordered the troops to march. About a hundred armed inhabitants had
joined them and they moved together toward Lachine. Here they found the
houses still burning and the bodies of the inmates strewn among them
or hanging from the stakes where they had been tortured. They learned
from a French surgeon, escaped from the enemy, that the Iroquois were
all encamped a mile and a half further on, behind a tract of forest.
Subercasse, whose force had been strengthened by troops from the forts,
resolved to attack them; and had he been allowed to do so, he would
probably have punished them severely, for most of them were hopelessly
drunk with brandy taken from the houses of the traders. Sword in hand,
at the head of his men, the daring officer entered the forest; but
at that moment a voice from the rear commanded him to halt. It was
that of the Chevalier de Vaudreuil, just come from Montreal, with
positive orders from Denonville to run no risks and stand solely on the
defensive. Subercasse was furious. High words passed between him and
Vaudreuil, but he was forced to obey.
[Illustration: ALGONQUINS
(From the Hébert group before the Palais Legislatif, Quebec.)]
[Illustration: WAR DANCE]
"The troops were led back to Fort Rolland, where about five hundred
regulars and militia were now collected under command of Vaudreuil. On
the next day eighty men from Fort Rémy attempted to join them, but the
Iroquois had slept off the effects of their orgies and were again on
the alert. The unfortunate detachment was set upon by a host of savages
and cut to pieces in full sight of Fort Rolland. All were killed or
captured except Le Moyne de Longueuil, and a few others who escaped
within the gate of Fort Rémy.
"Montreal was wild with terror. It had been fortified with palisades
since the war began and though there were troops in the town under the
governor himself, the people were in mortal dread. No attack was made
either on the town or on any of the forts, and such of the inhabitants
who could reach them were safe while the Iroquois held undisputed
possession of the open country, burned all the houses and barns over
an extent of nine miles, and roamed in small parties pillaging and
scalping over more than twenty miles. There is no mention of their
having encountered opposition, nor do they seem to have met with any
loss but that of some warriors killed in the attack on the detachment
from Fort Rémy, and that of three drunken stragglers who were caught
and thrown into a cellar in Fort La Présentation. When they came to
their senses they defied their captors and fought with such ferocity
that it was necessary to shoot them. Charlevoix says that the invaders
remained in the neighbourhood of Montreal till the middle of October,
or for more than two months. But this seems incredible, since troops
and militia enough to drive them all into the St. Lawrence might easily
have been collected in less than a week. It is certain, however, that
their stay was strangely long. Troops and inhabitants seemed to have
been paralyzed with fear. At length the most of them took to their
canoes and recrossed Lake St. Louis in a body, giving ninety yells
to show that they had ninety prisoners in their clutches. This was
not all, for the whole number carried off was more than a hundred
and twenty, besides about two hundred who had the good fortune to be
killed on the spot. As the Iroquois passed the forts they shouted:
'Onontio! You deceived us! And now we have deceived you!' Towards
evening they encamped on the farther side of the lake and began to
torture and devour their prisoners. On that miserable night, stupefied
and speechless groups stood gazing from the strand of the Lachine at
the lights that gleamed along the distant shore of Chateauguay, where
their friends, wives, parents or children agonized in the fires of
the Iroquois and scenes were enacted of indescribable and nameless
horror. The greater part of the prisoners were, however, reserved to be
distributed among the towns of the confederacy and there tortured for
the diversion of the inhabitants. While some of the invaders went home
to celebrate their triumph others roamed in small parties through all
the upper parts of the colony, spreading universal terror."[143]
NOTE
THE EXPLOIT AT THE RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES, 1690
Since writing the last chapter important facts almost forgotten
concerning the brilliant exploit against the Iroquois at the Rivière
des Prairies, which almost rivals that of Dollard's companions at
the Long Sault, have been made public by Mr. E. Z. Massicotte in
the "Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal" No. 3, 1914. The
intendant, Champigny, had officially and briefly reported it and
it had been also commented on sparsely or inaccurately by Ferland,
"Histoire du Canada," Volume II, pp. 209-210, by de Belmont, "Histoire
du Canada," and by Tanguay in his "Dictionnaire" and in a mémoire
attributed to deLery. From these authorities and the study of the
registers of Pointe aux Trembles for 1690 and 1694 Mr. Massicotte
has been enabled to reconstruct the story and identify the heroes.
Four days after the horrible hecatomb of Lachine, i.e., on the 9th of
August, 1689, the Iroquois, emboldened by their success, spread over
the island of Montreal and below it they massacred Pierre Dagenets dit
Lespine and probably burned his wife, Anne Brandon, whose disappearance
is recorded at this time. They also besieged the mill of Rivière des
Prairies recently constructed. But this was only by way of prelude.
In the spring of 1690 the Indians, who had sown terror the preceding
year, now probably on their way to combine with Phipps in the attack
on Quebec, invaded anew the neighbourhood of Montreal and committed
several acts of brigandage. On the 2d of July, warned of the presence
of Iroquois on the Rivière des Prairies, some inhabitants of Pointe aux
Trembles, under the command of Sieur de Colombet, a former lieutenant,
went to meet the enemy. Posted near the river, they fired on the
marauders and killed four of their men in a canoe. The Iroquois,
numbered a hundred, and as the opposing force of _habitants_ formed
only a little group of twenty to twenty-five, Champigny's account "le
combat fut rude" was very descriptive. Sixteen of the French remained
on the field dead or taken prisoners. The rest in all haste partook
themselves for safety to the little fort not far distant. The enemy
lost thirty warriors and made their way to Ile Jésus to burn some
of their captives; the rest they carried away to suffer the like
fate, with the exception of one, whom Father Pierre Millet, himself
a prisoner among the Onneyouts at the time, records as having been
spared. Such was the fear of the lurking Iroquois that the eight bodies
were buried in all haste on the field of glory, but on November 2,
1694, the registry of Pointe aux Trembles tells us the bodies were
exhumed and reburied together in consecrated ground.
The list of the slain is as follows: (1) De Colombet, commandant; (2)
Joseph de Maintenon, Sieur de la Rue; (3) Jean Gallot, surgeon; (4)
Guillaume Richard, dit Lafleur, Captain, "de la Milice" de Pointe aux
Trembles; (5) Joseph Cartier, dit Larose; (6) Jean Baudoin (fils); (7)
Pierre Marsta (fils); (8) Jean Delpne, dit Parisot; (9) Nicholas Joly;
(10) A hired man of one Beauchamp; (11) Isaac, a soldier.
Made prisoners and burnt: (12) Jean Rainaud, dit Planchard; (13) Jean
Grou; (14) Paschange; (15) Le Bohême.
Made prisoners and released: (16) Pierre Payet, dit St. Amour; (17)
Wounded, probably, Antoine Chaudillon, surgeon.
FOOTNOTES:
[138] On October 31 Dongan wrote to Denonville demanding that these
Iroquois should be surrendered to the English ambassador at Paris. On
August 10, 1689, Denonville wrote to France begging the King to send
back the captured Indians to Canada, and on October 15, 1689, thirteen
Iroquois returned with Frontenac--all that remained of those sent to
the galleys.
[139] Bibaud, "Histoire du Canada," following Charlevoix.
[140] This scandalous act of treachery on the part of a Christian
nation was bewailed by the Abbé de Belmont, the Montreal Sulpician
and historian who was present on this expedition. "It is pitiable,"
he wrote, "that the Indians under our protection were thus seized,
pillaged and chained, seduced under the bait of a feast." And he adds,
"If in the beginning we were too violent, we were too weak and humble
at the close."
[141] Kingsford, History of Canada, Vol. II, 87.
[142] This expedition was meant to be a serious check to the English
pretensions of supremacy over the Iroquois. A memoir of this period
shows the claims of the French as follows: That the Iroquois had
submitted in 1604; that Champlain had taken possession of their lands
in the name of the King; that they had declared themselves to be the
subjects of France in the treaty with M. de Tracy in 1655-6, and that
the subsequent treaty of the Iroquois with the English in 1684 could
not prevail against rights already acquired. Frontenac and de Callières
were to attack Orange and if that expedition succeeded, they were to
attack Manhattan and M. de Vaudreuil was to undertake the government in
their absence.
[143] Bibaud, in his "Histoire du Canada," says that "the Island of
Montreal was not free from the presence of these ferocious enemies
(the Iroquois) until the middle of October when Denonville sent Duluth
and de Mantet, well accompanied, to the Lake of Two Mountains to make
certain whether the retreat of the Iroquois was real or only simulated.
These officers met twenty-two Iroquois in two canoes, who came to
attack them with much determination. They withstood the first gunshots
without firing but after that they boarded them and killed eighteen. Of
the few that remained, one saved himself by swimming, but the others
were taken prisoners and given over to the fire of the Indian allies."