1689-1698
MONTREAL PROWESS AT HOME AND ABROAD
FRONTENAC'S SECOND TERM OF GOVERNMENT
FRONTENAC RETURNS--REVIEW AT MONTREAL--INDIANS FROM THE GALLEYS
SENT WITH PEACE OVERTURES--NEW ENGLAND TO BE ATTACKED--THE
MONTREAL LEADERS--THREE SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITIONS--RETALIATION
MEDITATED BY THE ENGLISH--TRADE FLOWING BACK TO MONTREAL--THE
GRAND COUNCIL IN THE MARKET--FRONTENAC LEADS THE WAR DANCE--JOHN
SCHUYLER'S PARTY AGAINST MONTREAL RETIRES--SIR WILLIAM PHIPPS
SEIZES QUEBEC--THE MONTREAL CONTINGENT--PETER SCHUYLER DEFEATED AT
LA PRAIRIE--THE COLONY IN DIRE DANGER--MADELEINE DE VERCHERES, HER
DEED OF ARMES--THE EXPEDITION VIA CHAMBLY--ARRIVAL OF FURS FROM
MICHILLIMACKINAC--FRONTENAC, THE SAVIOUR OF THE COUNTRY--MONTREAL
PROWESS EAST AND WEST--A PLEIAD OF MONTREAL NAMES--THE LE MOYNE
FAMILY--NEWFOUNDLAND--HUDSON'S BAY--FORT FRONTENAC AGAIN--THE
DEATH OF FRONTENAC.
On arriving at Quebec on October 25, 1689, Frontenac, learning that the
colony was seized with a sort of paralysis caused by discouragement and
stupor, set out by the boats for Montreal in spite of the incessant
rains, and he found it a scene of desolation and dejection,[144] after
the disaster of Lachine. Frontenac was now a man of seventy years,
but it was felt that with all his imperious failings, now mellowed by
age, he possessed in a high degree, military knowledge and valour and
was the man to meet the desperate state of affairs. Encouraged by the
consciousness of this, he accordingly left the gay court of Louis XIV,
_le Soleil_, determined to prove his loyal attachment to his prince. On
his arrival he was ostensibly welcomed on all hands. And on his part
he was mindful of his charge dated June 7, 1689, to forget his former
dissensions and to govern with moderation and wisdom and to favour the
clergy, although he was to keep an eye on the Jesuits.
At Montreal he reviewed the troops, seven or eight hundred of whom were
in garrison, the rest being scattered in the forts. Having restored
confidence, he turned his attention quickly toward conciliating or
subduing the Iroquois. His first move was to send a deputation to
Onondaga from "the great Onontio, who as you all know has come back
again." With it he sent three of the released Indians whom he had
brought back from the galleys of France, to invite them to meet the
Onontio at Fort Frontenac and to give back allegiance. These overtures
were spurned.
Later came news to Montreal from Father Carheil, the Jesuit, saying
that the Huron and Ottawa tribes, their allies, around Michillimackinac
were on the point of revolt, going over to the Iroquois and the
English. Nicholas Perrot was sent with a haughty message. "I am strong
enough," says Onontio, "to kill the English, destroy the Iroquois and
whip you if you fail in your duty." A temporary peace was secured by
the adroitness of Nicholas Perrot.
Frontenac now turned his attention to the English and planned his
descent on Albany and the border settlements of New Hampshire and
Maine. Of the three war parties of picked men, organized at Quebec,
Three Rivers and Montreal, the latter, which was to attack Maine, was
first ready, consisting of 210 men, ninety-six of whom were Christian
Iroquois from Sault St. Louis or the Mountain settlement, and the rest
being hardy and venturesome bush rangers skilled in woodcraft and
Indian warfare. Their leaders were men equal to the task, d'Ailleboust
de Mantet and Le Moyne de St. Hélène. Other brave sons of Charles Le
Moyne also supported them, Le Moyne d'Iberville, Le Moyne de Bienville
and others of the _noblesse_, men of nerve, and adventurous.
"It was the depth of winter," says Parkman, "when they began their
march, striding on snowshoes over the vast white field of the frozen
St. Lawrence, each with the hood of his blanket coat drawn over his
head, a gun in his mittened hand, a knife, a hatchet, a tobacco pouch
and a bullet pouch at his belt, a pack over his shoulders and his
inseparable pipe hung at his neck in a leather case. They dragged their
blankets and provisions over the snow on Indian sledges."
They crossed to Chambly. How on February 8, 1690, this party (Montreal
losing but two men) put Corlaer (Schenectady), about fifteen miles from
Albany and the furthest outpost of the colony of New York, to massacre
and ashes, and finally, although victorious, had to retreat to Montreal
across the ice of Lake Champlain, worn out and closely pursued almost
to the very gates of the town by Iroquois and fifty men from Albany,
so that fifteen or more of a party of stragglers were killed or taken
prisoners, it is not necessary to relate in detail, nor is it necessary
to recount the furthest story of the universal war now kindled like
wildfire. The three expeditions were, however, victorious.
Retaliation was being prepared by the Iroquois and the English during
the spring. A combined attack was to be made on Canada. The colonial
militia of New York were to meet at Albany and thence advance on
Montreal by way of Lake Champlain; Massachusetts and the other New
England states were to attack Quebec under Sir William Phipps, the
former coarse ship-carpenter, rough sailor-captain and brusque governor
of Massachusetts, proud of his obscure origin and his career as a
self-made man, blunt in speech and manner, doubtfully honest in private
dealing, but believing that all was fair in war and business, patriotic
and devoted withal to New England.
While these hostile preparations against Quebec and Montreal were being
matured, Frontenac was at Quebec, sparring with the council as to the
degree of dignity with which he was to be received at the meetings
of the Supreme Council when he should visit it for the first time.
Then he turned his attention to _saving_ the country, which was his
_forte_, strengthening the rear of Quebec, fortifying the settlements
and keeping strong scouting parties in Montreal to guard the settlers,
who were being occasionally broken in upon and burned and butchered as
of old, by the war parties of their hereditary enemies, the Iroquois.
Then, late in July, he left for Montreal, the chief point of danger,
and with him went the Intendant Champigny, leaving Town Major Prevost
to finish the fortifications of Quebec.
Montreal was reached on July 31st. A few days of August had passed when
the commandant of Fort Lachine came in hot haste to report that Lake
St. Louis was "full of canoes," as Frontenac wrote to the minister on
November 9th and 12th. Fright gave way to pleasure when it was found
that it was a friendly party of 300 Indians coming with 110 canoes,
laden with beaver skins to the value of nearly a hundred thousand
crowns from the upper lakes, descending from Michillimackinac to trade
at Montreal. A few days later La Durantaye, the recent commander of
Michillimackinac, arrived with fifty-five more canoes loaded with
valuable furs and manned by French traders. The trade was flowing back
from the English market to Montreal.[145] Frontenac was in high feather
at the success of his policy, at least with the lake tribes.
Soon a grand council was prepared to precede the market, according to
custom. Such a crowd there was of painted, greased and befeathered
Hurons, Ottawas, Ojibways, Pottawattomies, Crees and Nipissings,
mingling with the officials and traders around Frontenac. They talked
of trade and war and politics, and they exhorted one another to fight
the English and the Iroquois to the death. Then old Frontenac took a
hatchet and brandishing it sang the war song and led the war dance, in
which all the motley crowd joined, like a screeching mass of frenzied
madmen, possessed by devils it would seem to judge by their wild
contortions. Nor did Onontio lose caste with the Indians; he knew his
people and he gained in estimation with them. Then came the solemn war
feast--two oxen and six large dogs chopped into pieces and basted with
prunes, and two barrels of wine and plenty of tobacco.
During the market days following there was an alarm of Iroquois and
English coming down the Richelieu to attack Montreal. To La Prairie
went Frontenac with 1,200 men to meet the attack. But he did not find
the expected assailants; so leaving a small force he returned to
Montreal and paid the final courtesies to his Indian guests, with whom
he had ingratiated himself.
Hard on their departure, news came from La Prairie that the expected
assailants had arrived and fallen on the soldiers and inhabitants as
they were reaping in the fields, twenty-five being killed or captured,
cattle being destroyed and houses burned. The news was quickly boomed
around by the answering guns of Chambly, La Prairie and Montreal.
Little damage was done, for it was but a small remnant, under Captain
John Schuyler, of the vaunted expedition against Montreal, which had
been reduced by dissension and disease; it soon retired.
On the 10th of October Major Prevost sent a note from Quebec telling of
the advance of Sir William Phipps' navy against Quebec. That evening
Frontenac departed for Quebec by canoe, ordering 200 men to follow
him. On the next day a fresh message from Prevost confirmed the former
saying that the English fleet was already above Tadoussac. Frontenac
sent back Captain de Ramezay to de Callières, the governor of Montreal,
bidding him to descend to Quebec with all the force at his disposal,
and to beat up the inhabitants on the way to join the muster. He
arrived in Quebec on October 14th and on the 16th Phipps entered the
harbour.
We must resist the temptation to describe the defence of Quebec. One
incident in the siege, which must be related, is the arrival, on the
evening of October 16th, of the Montreal contingent, the noise of
the welcome in Upper Town being heard by Phipps as his vessels were
lying idly at their moorings down below. The officers asked a French
prisoner, Granville, the meaning of the noise. "Ma foi! Messieurs,"
said he, "You have lost the game. It is the governor of Montreal
arriving with the people from the country above. There is nothing for
you now but to pack and go home."
The Montreal contingent was a powerful body of 800 men, regulars and
_coureurs de bois_ and gay young volunteers spoiling for the fight.
Nearly all the manhood of Canada was gathered in the precincts of the
fortressed rock of Quebec. Finally, on October 24th, Phipps retired
behind the Island of Orleans to mend his rigging and repair his ships.
His expedition was a failure. To this the Montrealers had largely
contributed. Among their noblesse were the gallant sons of Le Moyne,
who distinguished themselves, although Jacques Le Moyne de Ste.
Hélène died of the wounds received in the siege, a great loss to the
colony, for he was, says Charlevoix, one of its bravest knights and
citizens. When Louis XIV wrote on the 7th of May, 1691, to Frontenac
and Champigny, the intendant, the king gave Le Moyne de Longueuil,
and his brother, de Maricourt, commands of companies and a promise of
good things in store for d'Iberville and a commission to undertake the
enterprise of Fort Nelson and Hudson Bay to drive the English away.
Later de Callières and others were to be remembered by the king for
their good services. Frontenac himself received a gratification of
6,000 _livres_, which no doubt he needed, for he had consumed all his
property.
Next spring, that of 1691, the Iroquois, after the winter hunting,
gathered at the mouth of the Ottawa, and parties went forth to harass
the settlements. Soon Pointe aux Trembles and the Mountain Mission were
attacked. Near Fort Repentigny, young François de Bienville, one of Le
Moyne's sons, was killed in an attack of the marauders.
In midsummer, a detachment of 266 men--120 English and Dutch and the
rest Iroquois allies--under Major Peter Schuyler, advancing upon
Montreal, met the French at La Prairie de la Madeleine, opposite
Montreal. Thither, de Callières had moved. At first the English had the
day, but owing to the intrepid conduct of Valrennes they were forced
to flee. For before reaching their canoes on the Richelieu they were
intercepted by Valrennes, who gave Schuyler's party, according to
Frontenac's statement, "the most hot and stubborn fight ever known in
Canada."
Thus, was Montreal and Canada in a state of great trial in the summer
of 1691 and the year of 1692. Frontenac wrote home, "What with fighting
and hardship, our troops and militia are wasting away. The enemy is
upon us by sea and land. Send us a thousand men next spring, if you
want the country to be saved. We are perishing by inches; the people
are in the depth of poverty; the war has doubled prices, so that nobody
can live; many families are without bread. The inhabitants desert the
country and crowd into the towns."
The fortifications of Montreal and Quebec needed strengthening but
there was little money to further the work. Still something was done.
The country round Montreal during these years of 1691 and 1692 was in
fear and trembling. The farmers worked in the fields with sentinels,
and a guard of regulars protected them, and at night they shivered
in their huts in the rudely fashioned palisaded stockades reared to
protect them. Their anger was so great that fearful reprisals took
place. At Montreal a number of Iroquois captured by Vaudreuil were
burned at the demand of the Canadians and the Mission Indians.
It was a troublous time around Montreal and even the women and children
were called upon to fight. A picture has been preserved to us in the
heroic story of the defence, of Fort Verchères, eight leagues from
Montreal, by Madeleine de Verchères, the fourteen-year-old daughter
of the seigneur of the place, who by her wonderful presence of mind,
coolness and courage saved the lives of a number of women and children,
two soldiers, her young brothers, aged twelve and ten, and an old man
and kept the Iroquois at bay holding the fort for a week in the absence
of her father at Quebec and her mother at Montreal. Then help arrived
after the firing had been heard from Montreal and the Iroquois were
driven off by the relief force from Montreal under M. de la Monnerie at
the head of forty men.[146]
This deed of arms, beginning at eight o'clock in the morning of October
22, 1696, deserves to be commemorated among the noblest actions of
heroic womanhood. There is room for the painter, the romancist, or
the sculptor, justly to celebrate the glory of a national heroine in
Marie-Madeleine de Verchères.
In 1693, in January, a great expedition which was largely followed
by the Mission Indians of Sault St. Louis (Caughnawaga) and the
Mountain, those from Lorette at Quebec, Abenakis from the Chaudière
and Algonquins from Three Rivers, left Chambly on snowshoes for the
Iroquois towns--a party of 625 men under Mantet, Courtemanche and Noue.
On February 16th they took three of these towns.
This year, there was again great rejoicing in Montreal. Frontenac
had planned to escort the Indians with their furs to Montreal from
Michillimackinac, and he came to Montreal to witness their arrival with
canoes plentifully filled with beaver skins, the escort being under
Commandant de Louvigny. Frontenac was the hero of the hour. "It is
impossible," says the Chronicle, "to conceive the joys of the people
when they beheld these riches. Canada had awaited them for years. The
merchants and the farmers were dying of hunger. Credit was gone and
everybody was afraid that the enemy would waylay and seize this last
resource of the country. Therefore, it was that none could find words
strong enough to praise and bless him, by whose care all the wealth had
arrived. _Father of the people, Preserver of the Country_, seemed terms
too weak to express their gratitude."[147]
We are not writing the history of Canada or of Frontenac, consequently
we must pass over much contemporary history of this period. But we
may be rightfully concerned with the history of notable Montrealers
then consolidating New France. During the latter administration of
Frontenac, Montreal's sons reached the height of their careers. These
latter were here, there, and everywhere, engaging in the struggle for
mastery in the West or for that of Hudson's Bay, or of Newfoundland or
lastly of Acadia--these four regions all coming under the government
of Frontenac and each of them being largely influenced by the Canadian
noblesse whose center was at Montreal.
In the West, on the banks of the Mississippi, among the Illinois,
there were to be found men who had at one time or other made Montreal
their headquarters, and who had taken their share in the discovery
of the Great River and had founded posts and cities and colonies and
had become the governors of provinces such as that of Louisiana,
which from 1678 to 1754 was ruled by d'Iberville, de Bienville, La
Motte-Cardillac, and de Vaudreuil. Men like La Salle, the sons of
Charles Le Moyne, the Montreal interpreter, viz., d'Iberville, de
Bienville, de Sérigny, de Chateauguay; de Tonti, du Luth, de la Forêt
and others--a pleiad of illustrious Montreal names--men of courage
and audacity--are not only captains of whom any city may be proud but
they belong to the history of the Continent of North America. Their
discoveries, their adventures, their exploits, oftentimes heroic, are
recorded in the pages of history, dealing with regions stretching from
Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico.
[Illustration: CHATEAU DE LONGUEUIL]
[Illustration: HUDSON BAY]
It is often forgotten that Montreal is the Mother of the West. These
men, living in a time of faith, hope, and romantic chivalry, held their
lives in daily peril, exposed themselves to unheard of privations led
on by the desire, for glory or for gain, of conquering the unknown and
acquiring territories for their beloved France and for the expansion
of Christendom.[148] Thus they rose above the ranks of mere soldiers
of fortune, vulgar adventurers, or careless _coureurs de bois_. We
are fascinated by the story of their wanderings accompanied by their
Jesuit, Récollet or Sulpician chaplains,[149] to primeval forests and
plains, over lofty mountain peaks and through deep dales, nowploring
mines of copper or land on the Mississippi or restlessly crossing
the mighty rivers and lakes in their birch bark canoes or their flat
bottomed bateaux; now as hunters or fishermen, sometimes in want and
disease, but always gay; now trading in skins or acting as captains
of vessels of war, or as commanders defending their far off posts,
or attacking the Iroquois or the rival English. An atmosphere of the
marvelous and heroic surrounds these makers of Canada and creates
in one the desire to relate their histories and their wanderings by
land and water, in detail. Out of all these one family stands out
preëminently--that of Charles Le Moyne, settled in Montreal since 1646.
He was the father of eleven sons, of whom the third, Pierre Le Moyne,
d'Iberville (born in Montreal in 1662), was the most famous. Others
were de Longueuil, de Sérigny, de Maricourt, d'Assigny, Ste. Hélène,
the two Chateauguays, the two Bienvilles and Antoine Le Moyne, who died
young--types of the hardy Canadian _noblesse_.
[Illustration: FRANÇOIS LE MOYNE DE BIENVILLE]
[Illustration: LE MOYNE D'IBERVILLE]
Seven of these sons lived long enough to die heroically on the field
of battle or to become distinguished administrators of the colonies.
These were native born and of obscure parentage, yet they aspired to
positions which were in those days rarely given but to those of noble
birth coming from France. From all these notable sons, d'Iberville
stands out giantlike; his actions being almost legendary in their
records of heroism.
We now treat of his invasion of Newfoundland made conjointly with de
Sérigny, his brother, after he had seized a frigate of twenty-four
cannons at the entrance of the River St. Jean and captured Pemaquid
on August 15, 1696, whither he had sailed in command of the Envieux;
thence he sailed again to Placentia in Newfoundland. There he set
out to take St. John, the chief port of the English, which he burned
to the ground. During the winter he led a hardy party through hamlet
after hamlet--each man provided with a musket, a battle axe, a dagger
knife and snowshoes, and when the spring of 1697 opened all the
English posts were destroyed according to orders received from the
minister dated March 31, 1696, except those of Bona Vista and the
Island of Carbonnière. Thus the safety from invasion of Canada by
the English was hoped to be rendered secure. When d'Iberville had
returned to Placentia, of which he had been appointed governor in
advance, as well as of all the posts seized by him, and was preparing
to attack the two remaining British strongholds, his brother de Sérigny
arrived, commissioner by the king in the March previously to thrust
the English from Hudson's Bay. With him came five ships of war, the
Pelican, the Palmier, the Profond, the Violent and the Wasp; the
latter with the Dragon, not arrived apparently, was for d'Iberville.
Sérigny's instructions were to take the advice of his brother, who
was undertaking the expense of the expedition. He was to destroy all
the English forts in the bay and to leave no vestiges of them; the
prisoners were to be sent to France or even England. It was to be a war
of extermination of English influence and a strife for the possession
by New France of the fur trade. Fort Bourbon (Fort York of today),
or Fort Nelson, as the English called it, was the chief object of
attack. Already the two brothers had captured it, three years before,
but it had been retaken by the English, to whom it was valuable as it
commanded the fur trade of the interior. How d'Iberville, sailing on
the Pelican, and Sérigny on the Palmier after storms arrived at the
bay and steered mid the threatening ice of the bay into the open sea
to Fort Nelson, 300 miles of those bleak inland waters, and how he
triumphed over ice and storms and the English, this also takes us too
far from Montreal to describe with justice.
Suffice it to say, this glorious campaign assured France for many
years of the possession of the countries of the north and the intrepid
sailor commandant left in a few days for Europe, leaving his brother
de Sérigny in command of the bay. On November 7th he reached the
shores of France and having obtained from the government permission to
reconnoitre the mouths of the Mississippi, he left in 1698 and never
saw Canada again.
Léon Guérin in his "Histoire Maritime de France," draws this picture
of d'Iberville: "He was a hero in the full significance of the
expression." He adds, "If his campaigns, prodigious in their results,
obtained by the most feeble materials, had had Europe for their
witness, instead of the echoless seas bounding the neighbourhood of the
pole, he would have had, in life and after death, a name as celebrated
as those of Jean Bart, Duguay, Trouin and des Tourvilles."
We must now turn to the conquest of the West which was being planned
by Frontenac and the success of which meant continued prosperity
for Montreal as the centre of the paltry trade rather than Albany.
La Motte-Cardillac at Michillimackinac, Tonti and La Forêt at the
fortified rock of St. Louis on the Illinois, Nicholas Perrot, the
_voyageur_, among the Mississippi tribes--all were trying to keep
their allies at peace with one another and the French. Frontenac was
determined to strike a blow up west against the resolute Iroquois who
were the scourge of Canada, supplied with arms from Albany. Things
had been going so badly that a memoir to Champigny and Frontenac on
May 26th tells how the king for the present had decided to abandon
Michillimackinac and all the posts of the West, to withdraw all the
congés to the _coureurs de bois_ and to return to the ancient custom of
relying on the savages themselves to bring their peltries to Montreal.
On April 21, 1697, the king wrote to Frontenac from Marly, arranging
for him to attack Boston and perhaps Manhattan; but on April 27th,
while still outlining the same offensive measures against the English,
he allowed the posts of Michillimackinac, St. Louis and Frontenac to
be continued but forbade the soldiers to trade there. Meanwhile he
had been considering Frontenac's plan of attacking the Iroquois, and
it had his entire approval, expressed in his letter written next day.
These conflicting instructions probably arrived by the same ship.
Champigny and others had been writing to the king and directing his
various policies. Fort Frontenac--his darling first love--it was the
cherished hope of the governor to re-establish and repair. Others
opposed him and wrote to the minister, who informed Frontenac that
Fort Frontenac "must absolutely be abandoned." The letter arrived the
day after the governor had sent 700 men to Lake Ontario to repair it.
The Intendant Champigny wanted their early recall, but the inflexible
Frontenac refused and the fort was repaired, garrisoned and victualed
for a year. It would have been a blunder to give up these forest posts.
They were necessary for the trade and the growth of the country. The
early isolation of the colony could never be repeated. On July 4,
1697, 200 men set out with Frontenac from Montreal and on July 19th
he reached Frontenac. With him was de Callières, suffering from the
gout and mounted on a horse, commanding the first line, and Vaudreuil
the second, as they marched to Onondaga, with the aged governor
carried in an armchair when they reached it; they found it burned by
the inhabitants, who had saved themselves by flight. The campaign was
not successful. Frontenac had not delivered his blow; but it was the
forerunner of the peace of 1701 with the Iroquois, for they feared the
old indefatigable man.
Early in May, 1698, a party of Dutch with "Sieur Abraham," an Iroquois,
arrived in Montreal with the news that peace had been declared in
Europe and at the end of May, Major Peter Schuyler arrived accompanied
by Delius, the minister of Albany, with a copy of the treaty of
Ryswick[150] in French and Latin and bringing back French prisoners in
exchange for English, who nearly all preferred to remain. But the
Iroquois free nations still remained unpacified and Frontenac was again
prepared to direct his force against them to press the French claims to
sovereignty over them as opposed to those of the British.
On November 22d the aged governor, now in his seventy-eighth year and
seized with a mortal illness, was strong enough to make his last will
and testament. On the 28th he died, having become reconciled to the
Intendant Champigny, who wrote that the governor had died with the
sentiments of a true Christian. He was buried by his desire on the
Friday after his death in the church of the Recollects at Quebec, whom
he had favoured so considerably. His great faults were overtowered
by his many eminent qualities. He was the greatest captain in the
seventeenth century in Canada. The Jesuit historian, Charlevoix, says:
"New France owed to him all that it was at his death," "He found the
colony enfeebled," says another cleric historian, Abbé Gauthier,
"attacked on all sides, despised by its enemies; he left it in peace,
increased and respected; again he has been called the Saviour of New
France." He had succeeded in suppressing the Iroquois and had warred
successfully against the English. He had encouraged and upheld the
expedition of that brave son of Montreal, d'Iberville, in Acadia,
Newfoundland and at Hudson's Bay and the enterprises of that intrepid
explorer, La Salle, in the West; surely, he merits a tribute in the
history of Montreal!
NOTE
We are indebted for the story of Madeleine de Verchères to a document
found in the "Collection Moreau Saent-Mery," Vol. 6, entitled,
"Relation des faits Héroïques de Mademoiselle Marie Madeleine de
Verchères (âgée de 14 ans) contre les Iroquois en l'année 1692, le 22
Octobre à huit heures du matin." This description was made by Madeleine
Verchères herself on the request of the intendant (named April 1,
1702), M. le Marquis de Beauharnois, arriving from France to take
possession of his office. The event it seems had caused a stir at court
and therefore a more detailed account was desired. In a previous letter
written on October 15, 1699, a modest account of the story had been
told accompanying a petition to Madame la Comtesse de Maurepas, wife
of the secretary of the marine department, requesting a pension of 50
crowns, as was commonly given to the widows of officers, in view of her
father's poverty--"he has been fifty-five years in the King's service."
In default she asked the promotion of one of her brothers, a cadet in
the army, to be an ensign. "He knows service, he has been engaged in
several expeditions against the Iroquois. I have even had one of my
brothers burned by them." Thus even the very young fought. This young
cadet was then only about nineteen years of age. At this period many
of the sons of the noblesse were sent to France to enter the army or
navy as cadets. There are to be found complaints from the ministers of
these departments that youths as young as thirteen and fifteen years
are being sent. These youths were early accustomed to bear arms; hence
the haste to get into the regular service and to obtain commissions.
D'Iberville was only fourteen years of age when he entered the French
navy, and only twenty-five when he was sent by Denonville to Hudson's
Bay.
The following version of the story of Madeleine de Verchères, based on
her own description above, may be fitly recorded here. Not far from
Montreal and the St. Lawrence stands the Village of Verchères, near
which was the scene of Madeleine Jarret's heroism. In early years that
countryside had been erected into a seigneury and at the time of the
exploit, Madeleine Jarret's father was the Seigneur of Verchères. The
defence of Verchères took place during the last week of October, 1692.
At the time Seigneur Jarret was in Quebec on official business and
his wife was in Montreal. The head of the household was the daughter
Madeleine, a girl of fourteen years, the other members of the family
in the fort being two brothers of Madeleine, who were mere lads, both
younger than herself. On the morning of October 22d, the inhabitants of
the seigneury went as usual to their work in the adjacent fields--and
most of them never to return--leaving in the fort Madeleine, her two
brothers, an old man of eighty and a number of women and children. Such
were the conditions at the Seigneury of Verchères when the Iroquois
suddenly burst upon the place.
[Illustration: MLLE. DE VERCHERES]
During the forenoon, Madeleine went down to the little wharf, or
landing place, not far from the fort, accompanied by a hired man named
La Violette. Suddenly the sounds of firing came from the direction of
the field where the settlers were at work, and the next instant the
servant, La Violette, cried out, "Run, run, here come the Iroquois!"
Turning, she saw forty or fifty Iroquois at a distance of a pistol
shot. She and the man made a dash for the fort, and seeing that they
could not overtake her, the Iroquois fired at the fleeting girl and
man, but missed both. Reaching the fort, she caused the gates to be
closed and fastened, and then set about making the place as secure as
possible. A few palisades had fallen, through which an Indian could
enter the enclosure. She helped to carry palisades, or pickets, to the
places where they were required, and assisted in setting them up.
Then Madeleine went to the blockhouse where the ammunition was kept and
here she said, "I found two soldiers, one hiding in a corner and the
other with a lighted fuse in his hand. 'What are you going to do with
that?' I asked. He answered: 'Light the powder and blow us all up.'
'You are a miserable coward,' said I, 'go out of this place.' I spoke
so resolutely that he obeyed. I then threw off my bonnet and, after
putting on a hat and taking a gun, I said to my brothers: 'Let us fight
to the death. We are fighting for our country. Remember that our father
has taught you that gentlemen are born to shed their blood for the
service of God and the King."
To understand fully the courage of this girl of fourteen, it must
be remembered that these words were addressed to mere lads, twelve
and ten years of age respectively. The brothers were worthy of their
heroic sister. They responded to the call, which also inspired the
two soldiers with some courage, for they took up their guns and began
firing from the loopholes upon the Iroquois, who, ignorant of the
weakness of the garrison, and always reluctant to attack a fortified
place, occupied themselves with chasing and butchering the people in
the neighbouring fields.
Shortly after the appearance of the Iroquois, a settler with his family
in a canoe, was seen approaching the landing. The soldiers would not
venture from the fort, so Madeleine went to the landing alone, and with
a musket in hand, escorted the family to the fort. The very boldness
of the affair caused the Iroquois to think it was a ruse to draw them
near the fort, so that the garrison could rush out upon them, and they
did not dare to attack Madeleine and those she was conducting to the
fort. The arrival of the settler added one to the fighting strength of
the garrison, and Madeleine now gave orders that the Iroquois should be
fired upon whenever seen within range. When night came on a gale began
to blow, accompanied by snow and hail; and the Iroquois hoped to be
able to climb into the fort under cover of darkness. Madeleine now made
the distribution of her small force, upon whose vigilance the lives
of all depended. The two soldiers she stationed in the blockhouse,
and as it was the strongest part of the post, she led there the women
and children. "If I am taken," she said to the two soldiers, "do not
surrender, even if I am cut to pieces and burned before your eyes. The
enemy cannot hurt you in the blockhouse, if you make the least show of
fight."
The outer and chief defence of the fort was a wooden wall, or palisade,
at each corner of which stood a small tower, or bastion. In two of
these towers Madeleine placed her two young brothers, in the third
tower she placed the old man of eighty, while she took the fourth tower
herself. All night long, through the howling wind and driving snow, the
cries of "All's Well" were kept up from the fort to the blockhouse.
"One would have thought," related Madeleine to Governor Beauharnois,
"that the place was full of soldiers. The Iroquois thought so, and were
completely deceived, as they confessed afterwards." They had held a
council to make a plan for capturing the fort in the night, but had
done nothing because such a constant watch was kept.
"At last, the daylight came again; and, as the darkness disappeared,
our anxiety seemed to disappear with it. Everybody took courage, except
the wife of Sieur Fontaine, who, being extremely timid, asked her
husband to carry her to another fort. He said: 'I will never abandon
this fort while Mademoiselle Madeleine is here.' I answered him that
I would never abandon it; that I would rather die than give it up to
the enemy; and that it was of the greatest importance that they (the
Iroquois) should never get possession of any French fort, because if
they got one, they would think that they could get others and would
grow more bold and presumptuous than ever. I may say with truth that I
did not eat or sleep for twice twenty-four hours, but kept always on
the bastion, or went to the blockhouse to see how the people there were
behaving. I always kept a cheerful and smiling face and encouraged my
little company with hope of speedy succour."
Seven days passed, and although the weather continued to be raw and
cold, the Iroquois kept the field, still hoping to be able to capture
the fort and scalp its garrison. "We were a week in constant alarm,
with the enemy always about us," relates Madeleine in her narrative to
Governor Beauharnois. "At last M. de la Monnerie, a lieutenant, sent
by M. de Callières (then commanding at Montreal), arrived in the night
with forty men. As he did not know whether the fort was taken or not,
he approached as silently as possible. One of our sentinels, hearing a
strange sound, cried out, 'Qui Vive?' I was at the time dozing, with
my head on a table and my gun lying across my arms. The sentinel told
me he heard a voice from the river. I went up at once to the bastion
to see whether it was Indians or Frenchmen. I asked, 'Who are you?'
One of them answered, 'We are Frenchmen, it is La Monnerie, who comes
to bring you help.' I caused the gate to be opened, placed a sentinel
there and went down to the river to meet them. As soon as I saw M. de
la Monnerie, I saluted him and said, 'Monsieur, I surrender my arms to
you.' He answered gallantly, 'Mademoiselle, they are in good hands.'
'Better than you think,' I returned. He inspected the fort and found
everything in order and a sentinel on each bastion. 'It is time to
relieve them, Monsieur,' I said, 'We have not been off our bastions for
a week.'"
So ended the siege of Verchères, for learning that the garrison had
received reinforcements, the Iroquois abandoned the undertaking, and
sneaked away to try their fortunes at other little posts, where there
might be a garrison numerically stronger.
FOOTNOTES:
[144] Montreal had now about 2,000 inhabitants.
[145] INDIAN TRADE IN MONTREAL IN 1689.
Differences of prices in the Indian trade at Montreal and Orange
(Albany), New York, in 1689:
_The Indian pays for_ _at Albany_ _at Montreal_
Eight-pounds of powder 1 beaver 4 beavers
A gun 2 " 5 "
Forty pounds of lead 1 " 3 "
A blanket of red cloth 1 " 2 "
A white blanket 1 " 2 "
Four shirts 1 " 2 "
Six pairs of stockings 1 " 2 "
"The English have no black or Brazilian tobacco, they sell that of
Virginia at discretion to the Indians.
"The other small wares, which the French truck with the Indians, are
supplied by the English in the market.
"The English give six quarts (pots) of _eau de vie_ for one beaver. It
is rum or spirits or, in other words, liquor distilled from the sugar
cane, imported from the West Indies. The French have no fixed rate in
trading brandy, some give more, some give less, but they never give as
much as a quart for a beaver. It depends on places and circumstances
and on the honesty of the French trader.
"Remark:--the English do not discriminate in the quality of the beaver;
they take all at the same rate, which is more than 50 per cent higher
than the French, there being besides more than 100 per cent difference
in the price of their trade and ours."
[146] Marie Madeleine Jarret de Verchères was born in April, 1678;
married Pierre Thomas Tarieu de la Naudière and M. de la Pérade
or Prade in 1722. A pension for life was given to her through the
intervention of Madame de Pontchartrain, wife of the minister. For the
story of the heroic defence and the relief from Montreal see note at
the end of the chapter.
[147] See Parkman, Frontenac, p. 316, and Parkman's note "Relation
de ce que s'est passé de plus remarquable au Canada, 1692, 1693,"
attributed to de Callières. Compare La Potherie, III, 185.
[148] On the Duluth building, at the southeast corner of Place d'Armes
Square, is a tablet:
"Here lived, in 1675, Daniel de Grésolon, Sieur Duluth, one of the
explorers of the Upper Mississippi, after whom the city of Duluth was
named." This was a rented house.
Duluth also lived on St. Paul Street South Side. The house was bought
by de Vaudreuil when constructing his _château_ hard by.
[149] 1640, June 28th, Hudson's Bay discovered by land by Albanel, a
Jesuit, afterward stationed at Montreal. 1647, July 16th, St. Johns
was discovered by de Quen, a Jesuit, afterwards stationed at Montreal.
1669, Dollier de Casson and de Galinée, both Sulpicians of Montreal,
take possession of lands on Lake Erie for Louis XIV. 1673, June
17th, the northern part of the Mississippi discovered by Joliet and
Marquette, a Jesuit, who started from Montreal. 1678, Niagara Falls
described by Hennepin, a Recollect, who started from Montreal.
[150] Treaty of Ryswick. This ended the great Anglo-French struggles
known as King William's War, which started in 1685.