THE CAMPAIGN OF 1657
THE SIEGE OF WILLIAM HENRY--WINTER GAYETY AND GAUNT FAMINE
SHIPS ARRIVE--NEWS OF GREAT INTERNATIONAL WAR--RED ALLIES
IN MONTREAL--STRONG LIQUOR--PREPARATIONS FOR WAR--FORT
WILLIAM HENRY FALLS--ARRIVAL OF SAVAGES AND TWO HUNDRED
ENGLISH PRISONERS--CANNIBALISM--THE PAPER MONEY--FEAR OF
FAMINE--MONTCALM'S LETTER TO TROOPS ON RETRENCHMENT--A
SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE--GAMING AMID SOCIAL MISERY--HORSE FLESH
FOR THE SOLDIERS--DE LEVIS PUTS DOWN A REVOLT--THE "HUNGER
STRIKE"--THE LETTERS OF MONTCALM--BIGOT AND LA GRANDE SOCIETE--"LA
FRIPONNE" AT MONTREAL--MURRAY'S CRITICISM. NOTE: THE PECULATORS.
The ships brought news of grave changes in France. The result of the
alliance between Austria and France, concluded on May 1, 1756, had been
that France had now become embroiled in a great international war.
There had also been an attempt of assassination on the life of Louis
XV. But what particularly affected the government of Montreal was the
information that the minister of war, d'Argenson, and of marine, de
Machault, had been succeeded respectively by M. de Paulmy and M. de
Mauras--due to the influence of Madame de Pompadour. These changes were
not looked upon with too much favour by those responsible for Canada in
the critical period it was now in. To Montcalm the serious loss of his
patron, d'Argenson, was somewhat mitigated by the knowledge that M. de
Paulmy, the minister succeeding, was d'Argenson's nephew. The change
of M. de Machault, with whom Montcalm had had less relations, was less
distasteful, as the new minister, de Mauras, was the brother-in-law
of Madame Hérault, the protectress of his first _aide-de-camp_,
Bougainville; moreover, there were common ties between the de Hérault
family and that of Montcalm.
The vessels from France had lightened the strain of provisioning the
army, but the needs of the army and the gatherings at Montreal of a
vast number of redskins, attracted by the success at Oswego to take
up the axe against the English and share in the campaign, caused
Vaudreuil, acting on a suggestion made by Montcalm as early as March,
to send Martel, the storekeeper, around the Montreal district to
commandeer rations for a month for 12,800 men. On June 22d, more than
eight hundred of these wild allies were encamped around Montreal, and
300 more were expected from Détroit. According to the enumeration in
Montcalm's journal there were: 400 Ottawans,[201] 100 Poutéouatamies,
about four hundred Puants, Sakés, Folles-Avoines and Iowas. The latter
had never been seen before at Montreal and their language was unknown.
The streets and public places saw an incessant passing to and fro of
dusky braves, armed for the warpath, with lances, bows and arrows, with
bodies almost entirely naked, or loosely draped in their beaver or
buffalo coverings, vividly painted in red or blue or black, with their
heads shaven except for the topknots, in which were stuck the tufts of
multicoloured feathers. A great number were of colossal stature; and
these copper-coloured giants, fierce in aspect, guttural in speech, and
strikingly tattooed, moved around the town, ight to the citizens,
and mingled with the French officers and soldiers, whose brilliant
European uniforms produced a strange contrast with their barbaric
but picturesque accoutrements. Sometimes they would be seen wending
their way, with their interpreters, to the Château de Vaudreuil to pay
their respects to the governor, whose inexhaustible patience offered
no rebuff to their interminable deputations. Now, they would go in a
band to carry on their Indian dances before the houses of the chief
officials.
Montreal with its bronzed soldiery, who had warred beyond the Rhine,
crossed the Alps and braved the suns of Italy, presented in this
meeting of two races, two civilizations so widely divergent, a
wonderfully moving and dramatic spectacle. But there was a pitiable
reverse to this picture. At times when the strong liquors had seized
them, their camps became veritable pandemoniums, and revolting scenes
were enacted. Already presentiments of horrible extravagances were
experienced by the officers from France, such as Bougainville, who
wrote of his fierce, drunken and bloodthirsty allies to Madame de
Hérault on June 30th: "I will tell you that we count on two sieges and
a battle, and your child trembles at the horrors he will be forced
to witness. There will be difficulty in restraining the savages from
up country, who are the fiercest of men and great cannibals. Listen
to what their chiefs said just three days ago to M. de Montcalm, 'My
father, do not count upon our giving quarter to the English. We have
with us young men, who have not yet drunk of this broth (blood). This
fresh flesh has led them hither from the ends of the universe. They
have to learn to wield the knife and to plunge it into an English
heart.' Such are our companions, ... what a spectacle for a human
heart!"
Everything was now ready for the campaign. By the 18th of June Montcalm
was with de Lévis at St. John; thence he proceeded to Chambly to
inspect the troops, and the military roads, and suitable places for
camping. By the end of June the troops were ordered to move, and on
July 2d de Lévis went to take command of the troops at Carillon. On
July 9th Vaudreuil gave his instructions to General Montcalm. He was to
take Fort George (or Fort William Henry) and then, on its fall, he was
to go to the siege of Fort Lydius (or Fort Edward), situated fifteen
miles from Fort George and from Lake St. Sacrement. That same day
Montcalm with Bougainville went to the Lake of Two Mountains to join
in the war song with the Algonquins and the Nipissings of the district
and he returned to Montreal on July 11th, having received the name of
Goroniatsigoa, that is to say, the "Great Sky in Anger." On the 12th,
Montcalm departed for Montreal for St. John, which he left on July 15th
with the colonial officers, de Rigaud, Dumas, de St. Ours, de Bonne
and many others under the escort of the Guyenne grenadiers and a small
detachment of Ottawans. Three days afterwards he arrived at Carillon.
Meanwhile Vaudreuil remained at Montreal, directing the war from his
cabinet. We cannot follow this campaign in detail, but we may pursue
the fortunes of Montcalm somewhat. On July 29th he found himself, with
7,819 men, advancing to Fort William Henry, his force composed of 2,570
land troops; colonials and militia, 3,470; gunners, 180; and Indian
allies, 1,599. On August 1st he began the siege of William Henry, held
by Colonel Monroe with 2,200 men. On August 9th Colonel Monroe perforce
capitulated, having hung out the white flag at 7 a. m. that morning.
It was a glorious victory, but marred by the shameful extravagances,
feared by Montcalm and the others, of the Indians, who, glutted with
victory, broke the capitulation agreement.
This event may be summed up in the account given in Bancroft's "History
of the United States," II, p. 467:
"To make the capitulation inviolably binding on the Indians, Montcalm
summoned their war chiefs to council. The English were to depart under
an escort with the honors of war on a pledge not to serve against the
French for eighteen months; they were to abandon all but their private
effects; every Canadian or French Indian captive was to be liberated.
The Indians applauded; the capitulation was signed. Late on the 9th the
French entered the fort and the English retired to their entrenched
camp. Montcalm had kept all intoxicating drinks from the savages;
but they obtained them of the English, and all night long were wild
with dances, songs and revelry. The Abenakis of Acadia inflamed other
tribes by recalling their sufferings from English perfidy and power. At
daybreak, they gathered round the entrenchments, and as the terrified
English soldiers filed off, began to plunder them, and incited one
another to use the tomahawk. Twenty, perhaps even thirty,[202] persons
were massacred, while very many were made prisoners. Officers and
soldiers, stripped of everything, fled to the woods, to the fort, to
the tents of the French. To arrest the disorder Lévis plunged into
the tumult, daring death a thousand times. French officers received
wounds in rescuing the captives, and stood at their tents as sentries
over those they recovered. 'Kill me,' cried Montcalm, using prayers
and menaces and promises, 'but spare the English who are under my
protection,' and he urged the troops to defend themselves. The march
to Fort Edward (Fort Lydius) was a flight; not more than six hundred
reached there in a body. From the French camp Montcalm collected
together more than four hundred, who were dismissed with a great
escort, and he sent Vaudreuil[203] to ransom those whom the Indians had
carried away."
Bougainville's journal tells how "the savages (those from up country)
arrived in a mob at Montreal with about two hundred English. M. de
Vaudreuil reprimanded them for having violated the capituion treaty;
they excused themselves and threw the blame on the domiciliated tribes
settled with the French. It was announced that they must give up the
English prisoners unjustly captured and they would be paid two barrels
of _eau-de-vie_ apiece for them." Even with this shameful ransom the
savages released their prisoners only with reluctance, "for," says
Bougainville, "on the 15th, at two o'clock in the afternoon, in the
presence of the whole town, they killed one of them, put him into the
kettle and forced his unfortunate compatriots to feed on him."
On the same evening, at Lake George, the columns of smoke from the
heaps of cinders and the last flickering flames from the dying fires
were the only indications of the site where eight days before the
bastions of Fort William Henry had stood. The campaign was virtually
over and Montcalm returned to Montreal at the beginning of September,
a victorious general. But he had not attempted to take Fort Edward
or Lydius, much to the chagrin of Vaudreuil. The reasons for this,
as given by his _aide-de-camp_, in a letter to the minister of war
on August 18th, seem sufficient. "The extreme difficulty of making a
portage of ten leagues without oxen or horses, with an army almost
worn out with fatigue and want of food, the lack of ammunition, the
necessity of sending the Canadians back to gather in their harvests,
already ripe, the departure of all the redskins from the upper
countries, as well as nearly all of the more civilized ones nearer
home: such are the invincible obstacles which did not permit us to
march immediately to Fort Edward." Grave reasons, enough, but they
did not satisfy the governor general, who had watched the situation
from the comfortable quarters of Government House, eighty leagues from
the theatre of war, and he did not hesitate to send his complaints
to France, insinuating the inefficiency of Montcalm, his strained
relations with the colonial officers and want of consideration for
the home forces and unwise treatment of the savages. On the other
hand, the letters of Bougainville go to show the extreme popularity
of the general with all classes. We cannot enter into a discussion
of the rights and wrongs of their bitter controversy; we quote it
as a sidelight, illustrating the division in the highest circles of
Montreal during this period--the _préjugé colonial_ and the _préjugé
métropolitain_, over again![204]
When Montcalm went to Quebec in September after the victory of William
Henry he tells us that he found the air of the town "very commercial
and stock jobbing." It was the time of the year when the card money
was exchanged for letters of exchange on the treasurer of the marine
department in France. The same activity would therefore be engaging
Montreal. From September 1st to September 20th the people were bringing
in to the treasurer the card money and the money orders which, besides
the current coinage, which was very scarce, constituted the monetary
system of the colony. The card money, created by the Intendant de
Meulles, was equivalent to our bills on the government of Canada. But
with the increase of the public expenditures, it was thought fit to
have recourse to another instrument of exchange, and the intendants
had sent out, under their sole signatures, "ordonnances" bearing an
order number and an indication of their nominal value, inscribed in
figures and in writing. These cards and ordonnances had currency only
in the limits of Canada. It was necessary, therefore, that they should
be transformed into other values, for commercial needs of importation
and the financial relations between the colony and France. Thus, every
autumn the treasurer exchanged them for paper negotiable outside the
country. From the 1st of September to the 20th he gave "bonds" or
their equivalent, and these were taken from the 1st of October to the
20th to the bureaux of the intendant, who gave in return the letters
of exchange on the marine deparment of France. Thus the colony paid
its bill to the mother country. The system worked well till 1753.
But afterwards, owing to the deplorable financial conditions and the
growing expenditures in Canada, the ministers adopted a system of
delayed payments in three terms. Montcalm, in his journal, alludes to
this practice. "The intendant regulates the terms of payments. Last
year they were made payable during the year in three payments. This
year they are made payable in three years, viz., a quarter in 1758, a
half in 1759, and another quarter in 1760."[205]
In the middle of October, news came to the garrison of Montreal by an
open letter of Montcalm on October 14th, sent through de Lévis, to the
lieutenant colonels of his regiments, of the retrenchments ordered in
the food supplies owing to the harvests having been ruined by frosts
and rains that year, and to the provisions expected from France not
having been sent through error. "We are about to find ourselves," ended
the letter in an eloquent and soldierly appeal, "in most critical
circumstances for want of good supplies. We are in need of bread this
year; the means that they are about taking to supply it will make us
in need of meat next year. Whatever difficulties the troops in the
country experience in living with the _habitants_, their soldiers
will have less to complain of than will those who are in the town
garrisons. The times are going to be harder than at Prague in certain
respects. I am, at the same time, persuaded that this is going to be
the finest opportunity of glory for the land troops, as I am sure, in
advance, that they will lend themselves to it entirely in the best
taste, and that we shall hear no complaints or jeremiads on the rarity
of supplies, seeing there is no remedy. Thus we are ready to give the
example of frugality necessary by the retrenchment of our table fare
and expenses, and I venture to say that that officer, who in place of
priding himself on his good cheer, on spending and entertaining, like
every French officer accustomed to notions of rank and liberality, will
live the most meanly, will give the surest marks of his love for his
country, for the king's service, and will be worthy of the greatest
praise."
This letter, which did honour to the general, was written in
consequence of a meeting called in Quebec on October 13th by
Vaudreuil, at which Montcalm, Bigot, Péan and the commissary
general, Cadet, were present to consider the terrible question of
failing provisions. The Intendant Bigot submitted an _exposé_ of the
situation. The commissariat department contained only 1,500 quarts of
flour; the quests in the southern districts had only returned 2,000
hundredweights; the government of Montreal could only furnish 600, to
that of Quebec.
It was then decided that, commencing from November 1st, each soldier
would receive the following rations every eight days: a half pound of
bread every day, and a quarter pound of peas, six pounds of beef and
two pounds of codfish for the eight days. In December they would begin
to be given horseflesh--this to continue in January and February;
pork was to be kept for the autumn. Montcalm made several judicious
propositions, one being that soldiers should be dispersed into those
villages where none were as yet quartered, and that the example of
frugality, and retrenchment should be immediately set by himself, the
governor general, the intendant and the others. This self-denying
ordinance was at once generously acted upon. Writing to de Lévis next
day, enclosing the open letter as above, Montcalm, speaking of the new
régime of retrenchment, says: "All the colony applauds; the intendant
not so much. He loves display."
Yet, sad to relate, in spite of these noble resolutions, the gayeties
among the rulers of the colony, were soon revived at Quebec, while
misery and famine were gnawing at the vitals of the common people.
Bigot continued giving his luxurious receptions; music, sumptuous
fêtes, dances and balls, illicit amours and gaming, went on fast and
furiously in his house, with Vaudreuil complacently assisting. Even
Montcalm was present at the great banquets and lost his money at the
gaming tables like the rest. Many of his officers were becoming ruined.
At times he would get qualms of conscience and he would write in his
journal: "We are amusing ourselves and thinking of nothing; all is
going and will go to the devil!" Again: "In spite of the public misery,
balls and fearful gaming!" Then he would write to the batallions that
if they played in any but the privileged houses (such as those of the
intendant "out of the consideration due to him") he would punish them,
adding that even in this case, he would expect them to play discreetly.
Then he would make a resolution only to go to the intendant's house in
the morning. "The tone of decency, of polite manners, of good society
is banished from the home where it ought to be." Yet he frequented the
house of Bigot and that of his paramour, La Péan, as at Montreal de
Lévis was the constant visitor of Madame Pénisseault.
Meanwhile misery reigned in the colony. The people in Quebec continued
to have no bread. In the country places wheat was rare, and an
ordinance was passed to prevent the inhabitants from milling the grain
necessary for seeding purposes.
From October 19th the rations of the troops had been reduced to a pound
of bread, a quarter pound of pork and four ounces of peas. On November
1st, they were further reduced. Finally in December the troops and the
people had to eat horseflesh. At Montreal when the first distribution
of this was made it was perceived that a revolt was fermenting among
them and that they had been incited by the people to make resistance.
Being warned that the soldiers were refusing the rations and were
leaving the canteen, de Lévis ran thither, ordered the company to be
reassembled and in their presence made them cut some horseflesh for
himself and commanded the grenadiers also to take some. These wished
to make some representations, but he checked them, enjoining on them
obedience and threatening to hang the first man that flinched, adding
that he would listen to them after the distribution.
The grenadiers, thus subdued, took their meat and their example was
followed by all the companies. Then they had the liberty to air their
grievances. After having listened to them, de Lévis harangued them,
disabusing them of the popular prejudice being aroused against
horseflesh. "Horse meat was a healthy dish; that it was often eaten
in besieged towns; that he would have an eye to it that the animals
slaughtered should be in good condition; that he himself dined on it
daily;[206] that the land troops ought to give a good example, etc."
There were no more difficulties. They seem even to have taken to the
dish, according to the following incident related in de Lévis' journal:
"On 'the day of the Kings' (January 6), 1758, eight grenadiers of the
Béarn regiment brought M. de Lévis a dish of horse meat prepared in
their own fashion, which was very good. The chevalier made them sit
down and dine, and ordered them some wine and two dishes of horse
prepared by his own cooks, who proved to be not as good as theirs. In
addition he gave them four louis, so that the company should celebrate
the feast and drink to his health."
The ladies of Montreal were among the first to stir up resistance.
When the first partial substitution of horseflesh for beef was made,
they trouped tumultuously to the doors of the Château Vaudreuil. The
governor allowed four of them to enter and asked them what they wanted.
They replied that they wanted bread. Vaudreuil told them that he had
none to give them; that even the troops were on short rations, but that
he was going to kill horses and cattle to assist the poor in this time
of misery. They replied that horseflesh was repugnant to them; that the
horse was the friend of man; that religion forbade it to be killed, and
that they would rather die than eat it. The governor then told them
that this was mere nonsense; that horse was good meat, and he dismissed
them, affirming that if they created any more disturbance he would put
them in prison and hang half of them.
Thus was the "hunger strike" of 1757 dealt with.
The letters of Montcalm from Montreal, which have been carefully
studied by M. Thomas Chapais in his "Montcalm," published in 1911,
reveal to us a sad state of corruption and venality in high places
at Quebec and Montreal. We may quote M. Chapais' estimate of the
situation. In answer to the charge that Montcalm hated the Canadians
he says: "This is not so; he loved our people and appreciated their
real qualities at their true value. He wrote to M. Moras (the minister
of marine) on July 11, 1767: 'What a colony! What a people!... They
are all thoroughly men of character and courage!' He had sympathy for
the 'Canadian simple habitant,' who for his part loved and respected
him, and Montcalm had reason to believe, as he said, that he was
popular. But he had little esteem for a great number of the Canadian
high functionaries and officers of the country. He criticized their
vanity, their spirit of boastfulness, their duplicity and their
unscrupulousness. We believe that he was too inclined to generalize
to the point of pushing his antipathies too far. He did not guard
himself against the _anti-colonial prejudice_, with which the troops
of the line were certainly affected and which, in spite of himself,
made his judgment err at times. A Canadian historian is wounded in
his national '_amour propre_' in reading the journal and letters of
Montcalm. The allusions to Canadian insincerity, Canadian braggadocio,
Canadian rudeness, occurred too frequently for our liking. And we
rightly find that the spirit of ill-humour and caustic carping is too
easily indulged in, to the detriment of the sons of the soil. But we
must not, for this reason, tax with injustice and with blind prejudice
all the severe strictures passed by Montcalm. Hélas! We are forced to
agree that he had under his eyes spectacles of a nature calculated to
ruffle an honest soul and a clear-sighted mind, pretentious incapacity,
insatiable cupidity, shameless indelicacy and dishonesty. And we ought
not to be astonished that bitter expressions had been ready to mount
from his heart to his lips. Doubtless distinctions have to be made and
Montcalm knew how to make them. Thus we find frequently from his pen
eulogiums on de Villiers, de Contrecoeur, de Ligneris, de la Naudière,
de Langy, Marin and many other Canadian officers. But when he denounces
the robberies of Cadet, of Péan, of Duchesneau and of so many other
peculators, can we accuse him with injustice because these were born in
Canada?"
This leads us to speak of the "grande société" of functionaries who
were waxing rich at the public expense at Quebec and Montreal. The
chief of these was Bigot, the intendant, a Frenchman; with him were the
Canadians, Cadet, Péan, Duchesnaux; and acting in concert with them
at Montreal was the Frenchman Varin, in charge of the commissariat
department, who had associated with him Martel, the keeper of the
stores, and the Sieur de Pénisseault, whom they placed in charge of
a store to monopolize the commerce of Montreal. This is known as "La
Friponne," or "The Cheat," after the parent one at Quebec.
This notorious group of men, with whom were others less conspicuous,
were then in the very height of their successful efforts to "get rich
quick," in the system of peculation and robbery established by Bigot.
Bigot was a type of the adventurer that helped to ruin Canada. His
great objective was to make his fortune as quickly as possible. Eager
for pleasure, a dissolute gamester, fastidious in his tastes, pushing
his love of luxury to incredible excesses, he had need to make money
quickly to satisfy his craving for the enjoyments of life. Withal,
he was an intelligent, active worker, full of resources and address,
clever to surmount obstacles and even to render great services to the
country in difficult situations.
From his arrival in Canada he had joined illicitly in commerce with the
Gradis, shipowners of Bordeaux, as well as with Bréard, controller of
the marine at Quebec, whom he had interested in his business affairs in
order to buy his complicity.
The intendant juggled away the rights of His Majesty's customs in
declaring the merchandise brought in by his Bordeaux accomplices, as
that of the king. The royal stores were always found to be needing just
those articles, which their vessels always had in abundance. The sales
were concluded under fictitious names or of those who lent them for
the nefarious purpose. The controller, Bréard, complacently signed the
invoices and marked fictitious prices. Finally Bigot bought these goods
for the king at an extravagant rate. Others became associated with the
embezzlers and soon it became a public scandal. Among those daring
speculators were the infamous triumvirate, of whom two were men of low
extraction but of undoubted ability, Duchesneau, Bigot's secretary,
the son of a Quebec shoemaker; Cadet, the son of a butcher and himself
once a cattle watcher of a Charlesbourg habitant; the third was Hugues
Péan, Sieur de Levandière, son of a former adjutant at Quebec.
The illicit liaison of this man's wife with Bigot and the complacent
acquiescence of Péan in the arrangement was public property. Like Louis
XV, Bigot had his Pompadour and her influence was considerable.
The extent of misery to which these schemers drove the common people
seems almost incredible. These associates, with whom Bigot and the
triumvirate were popularly connected and whom the public designated
"la grande société" soon came to lay their hands on all "le grande
commerce." A spacious building was constructed near the intendancy,
on ground belonging to the crown. Vast storehouses were built there.
The ostensible object was to sell goods by retail, but in reality
the design was to warehouse all the goods habitually needed by the
government stores. Each year Bigot had to send to the court a list of
the goods necessary for government purposes for the coming year. This
was always left incomplete. Hence in a short time there was a dearth,
and then it was found by the luckiest of chances that the stores of the
associates always had just the desired articles in stock. Thus retail
merchants were excluded by this monopoly and prices were raised, and
the privileged establishment was baptized by the long-suffering public
under the name of "La Friponne" (the cheat).
[Illustration: LA FRIPONNE]
[Illustration: PALACE OF THE INTENDANT]
It has been thought useful to describe the methods of "La Friponne"
of Quebec in order to explain the similar one, set up in Montreal by
Varin, the head of the government commissariat here. He is described
as born in France, of low extraction, small in figure and of an
unattractive appearance, a liar, arrogant, capricious, headstrong
and a libertine. In order to become rich, in imitation of the Quebec
monopolists, he laid violent hands on the supplies for the posts above
Montreal, and not to compromise himself personally he associated
with himself Martel, the king's storekeeper of the town. Varin and
Martel equipped the camps and did large business. They set up a store
on similar lines to those at Quebec, which also the people were not
slow in nicknaming "La Friponne." Over this was placed the Sieur de
Pénisseault, an able manager, but who had the reputation of having left
France under a cloud. The newsmongers of the salons of this period
say that Péan stood in well with Madame Pénisseault regardless of
consequences until he gallantly yielded his place to a more brilliant
star in the person of the dashing Chevalier de Lévis. The morals of
Paris and Versailles were being reflected in the humbler salons of
Quebec and Montreal.
Before leaving Pénisseault it may be added that he was the appointed
agent at Montreal of Cadet, who had been appointed in 1756 commissary
general of the stores in Canada. Herein was a new opportunity
for battening on the treasury which was exercised to its utmost.
Pénisseault was assisted in Montreal by the hunchback, Maurin, deformed
in mind as in body, but a clever and avaricious trader, though at times
ostentatiously generous. These two had been terribly scourged by the
pen of the annalist of the period. ("Mémoires de Sieur de C.," p. 87.)
Another source of illicit revenue came to these latter in conjunction
with the associates of "La Grande Société," which is attested in the
final judgment rendered in Paris in 1763, when tardy justice meted
out more or less adequate reward to this ring of embezzlers. We may
conclude this chapter with General Murray's criticism as follows:
"The small salaries given by the French government to the civil
officers in general made them neglect their duty and wreck their
invention to cheat and trick both king and people. This was carried
to such a length that many instances may be cited of clerks and men
in petty offices with yearly salaries of only six or eight hundred
_livres_, raising to themselves, in the compass of three or four years,
fortunes of three or four hundred thousand." (Observation in General
Murray's Report in 1762 on the State of the Government During the
French Administration.)
NOTE
THE PECULATORS
The number of those afterwards accused of peculation[207] was fifty-five,
including the governor, Pierre de Rigaud; Marquis de Vaudreuil and
his secretary, Saint-Sauveur; the intendant, Bigot; Varin, his
sub-delegate; and Duchesneau, his secretary; Bréard, controller of the
marine department; Estèbe, the keeper of the king's stores in Quebec;
Cadet, commissary general of supplies for Canada; Corpron, merchant,
and his agent; Péan, captain and aide-major of the marine troops in
Canada; Le Mercier, the commander of artillery in Canada. All these
were well known at Montreal, but we may add to them the following who
were stationed here and who acted as the associates of the peculators
whose headquarters had been at Quebec before the change of government
to Montreal; Martel de Saint-Antoine, La Barthe, Fayolle, keepers of
the king's stores at Montreal; Maurin, Pénisseault, merchants, partners
and agents of Cadet in his offices here; Le Moyne-Despins, a merchant
employed in furnishing provisions to the army; Martel, of the marine
commissariat; and Salvat, employed in the stores department. The rest
were either commandants of forts or storekeepers.
Of the fifty-five accused, twenty-one, and these the chiefs, alone
appeared, having undergone a long imprisonment in the Bastille; the
rest were judged in their absence. The final judgment was pronounced on
December 10, 1763, of which the following is a partial résumé:
Bigot--Perpetual banishment; property confiscated; 1,000 _livres_ of
fine and 1,500,000 _livres_ restitution.
Varin--Perpetual banishment; property confiscated; 1,000 _livres_ of
fine and 800,000 _livres_ restitution.
Cadet--Nine years' banishment; 500 _livres_ of fine and 600,000
_livres_ restitution.
Duchesnaux--Five years' banishment; 50 _livres_ of fine and 300,000
_livres_ restitution.
Pénisseault--Nine years' banishment; 500 _livres_ of fine and 600,000
_livres_ restitution.
Maurin--Nine years' banishment; 500 _livres_ of fine and 600,000
_livres_ restitution.
Corpron--Condemned to be admonished in parliament; 6 _livres_ to the
poor and 600,000 _livres_ restitution.
Martel de Saint-Antoine--Six _livres_ to the poor and 100,000 _livres_
restitution.
Estèbe--Six _livres_ to the poor and 30,000 _livres_ restitution.
With incarceration of the offenders until the amounts should be paid.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil, Le Mercier and Fayolle were acquitted; La
Barthe, _hors de cours_, or "not proven." Péan's sentence was not
pronounced till June 25, 1764; he was then declared _hors de cours_,
but in view of his illegitimate gains he was condemned to restore
600,000 _livres_ and to be kept in the Bastille until restitution had
been made.
FOOTNOTES:
[201] The Ottawans or the "Sauteux" from Michilimackinac were the first
to arrive and on the 14th they waited on Montcalm to compliment him
on the victory of Oswego. The slight and small figure of the general
astonished them, but the light that leaped from the piercing eyes of
the little man revealed to them a great leader: "My father," they said,
"when we heard news of the great things you have done we counted on
finding you tall like the great pines of the forest, but now we see
you, we find the grandeur of the pines in your eyes. We look upon you
as an eagle and your children are ready to do great deeds with you."
[202] Father Roubard, who was an eye witness, says: "The massacre was
not, however, as considerable as so much fury would seem to make us
fear; it hardly amounted to forty or fifty men"; and, Lévis wrote on
his side, "that fifty scalps had been taken."
[203] I. e., sent them to Vaudreuil in Montreal.
[204] Those wishing to follow this interesting _causerie_ should read
"Montcalm" by M. Thomas Chapais, 1911. It is a notable contribution to
the history of the period.
[205] Cf. General Murray's Report, Constitutional Documents, Canadian
Archives, English Version, p. 49.
[206] At Quebec, the people took more kindly to the new fare. Montcalm
was the first to give a good example. He had it served up at his own
table in every form except as soup, and he enumerates some of them:
"_Petits pâtés de cheval à l'espagnol: cheval à la mode; escaloppe
de cheval; filet de cheval à la broche avec une poivrade bien liée;
semelles de cheval au gratin; langue de cheval au miroton; frigoussé
de cheval; langue de cheval boucanée, meilleure que celle d'orignal;
gâteau de cheval, comme les gâteaux de lièvre._"
[207] Cf. "Jugement rendu souverainement et en dernier resort dans
l'Affaire du Canada, 10 Decembre, 1763." Dussieux, p. 169.