William Dawson LeSueur

“ More Indians had come to Montreal than ever before, eight hundred having been seen at one time; Iroquois, Algonquins, and Hurons were mixing with one another in the most friendly manner; the Jesuit missionaries among the Iroquois found their position greatly improved, and were never tired of saying so; and, finally, he had obtained the Indian children he had asked for, eight in number, who were being educated in the French fashion, and who would be a perpetual guarantee of the peaceful behaviour of the tribes to which they belonged. ”

“ The Abbé Gosselin has defined with great exactness his attitude towards religion. "Frontenac," he says, "was a Christian and a religious man after the fashion of his time, and as people generally are in the great world; attached to the church, but with all the Gallican ideas of the period, according to which the church was only a dependency of the state; making it a point of honour to discharge the duties incumbent on a gentleman and a Christian, but drawing a clear distinction between the demands of duty and those of perfection." ”

“ We see a face sensitive, perhaps sensuous, subtle, passionate, daring, tenacious. Such a man could not bind himself to the task of patient colonization at Fort Frontenac, or even find satisfaction in the more varied and exciting life of a frontiersman and trader. ”

“ His fort henceforth was safe.
We may now, while a desultory and not very eventful warfare is being waged between the colony and its traditional enemy, the Iroquois, and while negotiations and intrigues are being carried on in triangular fashion between the French, their allies, and the common foe, turn for a few moments to another field, a far distant one, in which Canadian enterprise, bravery, and military aptitude won repeated successes, and, on one occasion at least, performed deeds of lasting renown. ”

“ It is not easy, in these days of swift, safe, and luxurious travel, to imagine what it was in the earlier part of the seventeenth century for women of delicate nurture to leave friends and home and civilized surroundings, and, braving the Atlantic storms in small, ill-equipped and comfortless vessels, to set their faces towards a continent lost in the distant west, amid whose forests a handful of pioneers were doubtfully holding their ground against the scowling hordes of savagery. ”

“ In the following year the whole country, but particularly Quebec, was thrown into trepidation over the news that an army composed of twelve hundred warriors, gathered from the five Iroquois nations, was advancing with fixed determination to wipe out all the French settlements. It would be needless to repeat here, even if the limits of a very cursory narrative permitted it, the glorious feat of arms by which this great danger was turned aside from the colony. The story of our Canadian Thermopylæ is familiar to every school-boy and school-girl in Canada. ”

“ CHAPTER VI THE LIFE OF A COLONY
The great trouble in Canada was that it was an over-governed country. The whole population when Frontenac arrived was but little over six thousand souls, scattered over a territory stretching from Matane and Tadousac in the east, to the western limit of the Island of Montreal. What these people needed in the first place was freedom to seek their living in their own way, and secondly, an extremely simple form of government. Instead of this they were hampered in their trade, and made continually to feel their dependence on the central power ”

“ How could they fail to be fond of adventure when incitements to it presented themselves on every hand, and the rewards that it promised were so much more tempting than those to be derived from the tillage of the soil? It was human nature in those days to prefer the gun to the spade, and the paddle to the scythe. ”

“ A man, taking his life in his hand, penetrates forest and jungle, commits himself to unknown waters, braves the encounter of hostile peoples, takes the risk of treachery among his own followers, faces every form of privation and all extremities of fatigue, travels a thousand leagues, and adds a continent to the possessions of his sovereign, only to have the verdict pronounced [177] by that sovereign that his discoveries are very useless, and that similar expeditions must be prevented for the future lest the beaver trade of Canada suffer! ”

“ It is easy to see, therefore, in how critical a position a colony would be that depended in any large measure on supplies brought from the other side. The wreck or capture of one or two vessels might bring it to the verge of starvation. Success in agriculture, again, can only be looked for where there is peaceable and secure possession of the land. If all the results of laborious tillage are liable to be carried off or destroyed at any moment by marauding foes, there is little encouragement to engage in that kind of industry. ”

“ Was it for this that he had come to Canada, to be flouted and set at nought by a subordinate officer? The worst of it was that there was no immediate remedy. The only thing to do at the moment was to summon the culprit to appear before the Sovereign Council at Quebec. But would he come? If he refused, Frontenac had no force to compel him. The force was all on the other side; the governor-general had but his body guard, whereas Montreal was full of men accustomed to Indian warfare, who would probably obey Perrot's orders, especially as there was a standing jealousy between Montreal and Quebec. ”

“ The general policy of the state is necessarily opposed to the views of a bishop who, in order to prevent the abuse made by a few individuals of a thing good in itself, is prepared to abolish entirely the trade in an article of consumption which serves greatly to promote commerce, and to bring the savages into contact with orthodox Christians like the French. We should run the risk, if we yielded to his opinion, not only of losing this commerce, but of forcing the savages to do business with the English and Dutch, who are heretics ”

“ Canadians who went to the English settlements, either in New England or in what is now New York, were amazed at the cheapness of goods. Duchesneau, in one of his later despatches, speaks of the commercial prosperity of Boston and the large fortunes accumulated by some of its citizens. Nothing similar was to be seen in Canada, where there was a settled belief on the part of the governing powers in whatever was most restrictive and illiberal in commercial policy. ”

“ The position of Montreal was far more precarious than that of Quebec, as it was so much more accessible to the sworn enemies of the colony, the Iroquois. For twenty-four years Maisonneuve held the post of military governor, edifying all by his piety, and inspiring confidence in all by his bravery and vigilance. ”

“ Frontenac, from the date of his arrival in Canada, had been the only visible source of authority. Laval was in France, looking after the long delayed bull which was to raise him from the doubtful rank of a bishop in partibus to the full legal status of bishop of Quebec. Talon, too, had left the country a few weeks after the governor's arrival, and no one had been sent to replace him. The old warrior had, therefore, had things entirely his own way, and his own way had not proved to be the way of peace. ”

“ To fish in French waters or to trade with the inhabitants was considered an infraction of international law; and yet there is clear evidence that the French settlers rather longed than otherwise for the flesh-pots of Boston in the shape of English goods and English money, very much after the manner of the Iroquois and the Indian tribes of the West. When Perrot came to Port Royal he was pleased to find that the conditions there were nearly as favourable as at Montreal for the trading in which his soul [271] delighted. ”

“ Such an accumulation of misfortunes was enough to break the spirit of an ordinary man; but La Salle was a man whom adversity could not conquer. Straining his credit to the utmost to procure supplies and reinforcements, he returns to the Illinois country to find Fort Crèvecoeur in ruins. It had been attacked by the Iroquois and its defenders scattered. Tonty, wounded in the skirmish, had gone to Michilimackinac. Getting no word of him, La Salle assumes that he is dead. Once more the long journey eastward must be faced. He reaches Montreal, and succeeds in organizing yet another expedition. ”

“ A people may well be proud who know that the blood of such heroes and heroines as gave lustre to the early annals of Canada flows in their veins.
The conclusion to which Frontenac had come at this time was that the raising of large levies of men and organizing formal campaigns against so agile and elusive an enemy as the Iroquois was not a wise policy. ”

“ Villebon, too, after arriving in his government, wrote direct to the minister, eulogizing the same allies, and observing how dangerous it would have been to Canada, if the Boston people had succeeded in making a solid peace with them. In that case, instead of having to sail round by the gulf, they could at any time march direct from Pentagouet to Quebec in about twelve days. It was therefore of the utmost importance to cultivate the friendship of the savages by means of presents, and to keep them well supplied with arms. The idea of attacking Boston was also very close to Villebon's heart. ”

“ If he charms by the lucidity and picturesqueness of his style, none the less does he achieve a high level of historical accuracy, and manifest the control of the true spirit of historical criticism. The work of M. Lorin is, perhaps, less attractive in point of style, but it treats the whole subject from an independent point of view, and in a very comprehensive manner. It is a treasure-house of carefully sifted facts in relation to the career of Canada's most famous governor under the old régime. ”

“ The total number of Indians sent home to France to be consigned to this fate was thirty-five. They were at Fort Frontenac as captives, bound helplessly to posts when Denonville's army passed through, and an eye-witness, the Baron La Hontan, tells how he saw the mission Indians torturing the poor creatures by burning their fingers in the bowls of their pipes. He tried to interfere, but was censured for doing so, and put under arrest. The leaders, doubtless, thought they could not afford to put their Indian allies out of humour by interfering with their amusements. ”

“ The Marquis de Denonville was sent to Canada to retrieve a difficult and dangerous situation. He was a soldier by profession, and had had thirty years' experience of military life. His courage and honour were alike beyond question. In morals he was irreproachable. He was one of those laymen who are half churchmen; and on the voyage from France he greatly edified Saint Vallier by the gravity of his conduct and his punctilious observance of all the forms and practices of religion. "He spent," Saint Vallier himself tells us, "nearly all his time in prayer and the reading of good books. ”

“ Acadia was now to rank as a colony of Massachusetts, which was thus affording the earliest example of American "imperialism," though in a liberal fashion.
While Phipps was taking possession of Port Royal, one of his officers, Captain Alden, had captured Saint-Castin's post at Pentagouet (Penobscot) , after which, by orders of his chief, he sailed to the southern coast of what is now Nova Scotia, and seized the settlements of La Hève, Chedabucto, and one or two others. No resistance was made anywhere, and consequently no lives were lost. The conquest, such as it was, was a bloodless one. ”

“ Marie, he wrote to Frontenac in a rather deprecatory tone as if sensible of the doubtful legality of his position, but pointed out the advantages that would accrue from entering into relations with the North Western Indians. About a year later he presided over a great meeting of the tribes on the site of the important city which now bears his name (according to one spelling of it) ; established peace between communities that had long been at war; and obtained the promise of the important tribe of the Nadessioux to direct their trade in future to Montreal. ”

“ The English were not people to have confidence in; they deceived and devoured their children. "I am strong enough to kill the English, destroy the Iroquois, and whip you if you fail in your duty to me." Finally there was a warning against the use of English rum, which was killing in its effects, whereas French brandy was health-giving. ”