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OUR
narrative of the warfare on the New England frontier has somewhat
outrun that of events in Canada proper. The safe arrival of the
canoes from the West, the consequent revival of trade, and the
comparative immunity from attack enjoyed by the country towards the
close of the year 1693
had, as we have seen, made the governor more popular in the country
than ever before. Still there were not a few who acknowledged his
merits but grudgingly, while they had much to say in regard to the
defects of his administration. Charlevoix says that, could he only
have added to his own high qualities the virtues of his predecessor,
the pious Denonville, he would have been perfect, and the condition
of the colony would have left nothing to desire. Frontenac, however,
could not be a Denonville any more than Denonville could have been a
Frontenac. He was a religious man in the practical, businesslike way
in which men with strong political instincts and aptitudes are apt
to be religious. There was nothing mystical about him, and little
that was sentimental. Religion, in his opinion, was a good thing,
but it had its own place; it was meant to co-operate to good ends
with the state, but not to dominate the state. In France such views
might have passed unchallenged, for these were the days when
Gallicanism was at its height, but in Canada they met with keen
opposition. There, as already remarked, the leaders of the church
hoped to be able to mould a state in which the secular power should
find its greatest glory in being the handmaiden of the spiritual.
Resuming the complaints made against the
governor, Charlevoix tells us that he was censured for his
indulgence to the officers, whose esteem and attachment he was very
anxious to enjoy, and that he let all the burden
of the war fall on the colonists. There
may have been a slight measure of truth in the accusation; but it is
certain that many officers of the regular army died bravely fighting
the battles of the country. That the militia were, on the whole,
better and more skilful fighters than the regular troops was early
discovered. Denonville, it may be recalled, made some very
disparaging remarks in regard to the latter on the occasion of his
expedition against the Senecas. Another accusation, for which there
was undoubted foundation, was that the officers were allowed to
retain the pay of the soldiers who received permission to do
civilian work. A soldier could always earn in one form or another of
manual labour, much more than his military wages amounted to; and
the custom sprang up of retaining and dividing amongst the officers
the pay of. those who engaged in such labour. The court finally took
cognizance of the practice, and condemned it. Still more serious
complaint was made, Charlevoix says, of Frontenac's toleration of
the liquor trade. He quotes on this subject a letter written by an
ecclesiastic, the Abbé de Brisacier, to Pere Lachaise, the king's
confessor, in which it is stated that "brutalities and murders are
being committed in the streets of Quebec by intoxicated Indian men
and women, who in that condition have neither shame nor fear." There
is also a letter extant from the worthy Superior of the Sulpicians
at Montreal, M. Dollier de Casson, dated
7th October
1691, to a friend in France, that is
really pathetic in its terms. If, he says, " our incomparable
monarch " only knew the truth of the matter, " the uprightness of
his intentions would not be misled by those numerous emissaries of
the Evil One who spread the belief that without liquor we should
have no savages visiting us and no fur trade." He speaks of liquor
as "un
damnable ecueil"—a damnable rock on which
the poor Indian makes shipwreck—and gives a pitiful account of some
of the horrors to be seen almost daily in the. Indian missions. It
may be doubted whether the condition of things was any worse in this
respect under Frontenac than under Denonville, when the whole
country seemed to be more or less paralyzed through the excessive
use of brandy. It may possibly, indeed, have been better; the
comparative efficiency of military operations may not unreasonably
be held to point in that direction.
Frontenac and Champigny were not openly at
strife, but judging by a letter written by the latter,
and dated 4th November 1693, the governor acted
very tyrannically towards him. He quotes the bishop as saying that
Frontenac treats him (Cham-pigny) worse than he ever treated
Duchesneau. He only puts up with it, he says, in order to carry out
his instructions to live peaceably with the governor at all costs,
and in the hope that the minister will appreciate the sacrifice he
is making.
Frontenac, when in France, had lived much at
court, and had doubtless witnessed and participated in many of the
elaborate festivities which royalty was wont to grace with its
presence. It is not surprising that he was ambitious to have some
little echo of Versailles in his mimic court at Quebec. Never had
the public of that capital been so disposed to relaxation and
enjoyment as in the winter of 1693-4 when the country seemed to see
some days of prosperity and tranquillity before it. Great,
therefore, was the enthusiasm when in the holiday season two
dramatic representations were given at the chateau. Officers and
ladies took part in the performances, and the plays
Nicomede and
Miihridate were wholly unobjectionable.
Everybody was happy except the clergy, who saw in such mundanities
the most serious danger to the spiritual welfare of the community.
The Abbd Glandelet of the Seminary was the first to raise a cry of
alarm, preaching a sermon in the cathedral, in which he essayed to
prove that no one could attend a play without incurring mortal sin.
Then the bishop issued a mandate a little more
moderate in its terms, in which he distinguished between comedies
innocent in their nature, but which under certain circumstances may
be dangerous, and those which are absolutely bad and criminal in
themselves, such as the comedy of
Tartvffe
and similar ones.
Tartuffe, although his Majesty had
listened to it on more than one occasion, and entertained a
particular friendship for its author, was to the ecclesiastical
world a terror. The bishop had heard a report that it was to be put
upon the boards next, and fearing that his mandate alone might not
have sufficient effect, he took occasion of a chance meeting with
Frontenac to offer him a thousand francs if he would not produce it.
Frontenac's friends say that he never had any intention of producing
it; but he took the bishop's money all the same, and, it is stated,
gave it next day to the hospitals. It is somewhat remarkable that
Frontenac should have taken the money whether he did or did not
intend to produce the play, and equally so that the bishop should
have considered him accessible to a purely pecuniary argument in a
matter of the kind.
It has been mentioned that in the summer of
1693 an Oneida
chief had come to Quebec and talked of peace, and that, having gone
back to his people, he returned in October with propositions which
the governor contemptuously rejected. In the month of January
following, two messengers came from the Iroquois country to say
that, if they could have a safe-conduct,
chiefs from each of the Five Nations would come down with authority
to negotiate for peace. A safe-conduct was promised, but Frontenac
expressly stipulated that one particular Onondaga chief,
Teganissorens, with whom he had had negotiations many years before,
should accompany the delegation. In April a number of delegates
came, but without Teganissorens. Frontenac refused to deal with
them, and said that if any of them dared to come to see him again
without that chief, he would put them into the kettle. This had its
effect, for towards the end of May two delegates from each nation
came down, Teganissorens being of the number. Belts were presented,
and the language of the delegates was all that could be desired. "Onontio,"
said Teganissorens, presenting the sixth belt, "I speak to you in
the name of the Five Nations. You have devoured all our chief men,
and scarce any more are left. I ought to feel resentment on account
of our dead. By this belt I say to. you that we forget them; and, as
a token that we do not wish to avenge them, we throw away and bury
our hatchet under the ground, that it may never more be seen. To
preserve the living we shall think no more of the dead." The
personal appearance of the orator, known to the English as
Decanisora, has been described by Colden in his
History of the Five Nations, published in
1727. According to that author he was a tall, well-formed man, with
a face not unlike the busts of Cicero; and we know from
the French official narrative that he spoke with
remarkable fluency and grace. The count replied in a conciliatory
manner; on both sides there seemed to be good dispositions towards
peace, but yet no definite understanding was arrived at. The
Iroquois wished to include the English in the peace, but Frontenac,
of course, was not at liberty to make peace with a people with whom
his master, the French king, was at war. The savages agreed,
however, to give up their prisoners; and Orehaoue was sent with them
to accept delivery of the captives and bring them back. The
Onondagas for some reason refused to surrender theirs, but the other
tribes made good the promise of their delegates. Among those who
were released were some who had been detained since the massacre of
Lachine, and in general they had not much complaint to make of their
treatment. It was a proud day for Orehaou^ when, completing the
important duty entrusted to him, he was able to restore the long
missing ones to country and home.
The majority of the tribes must have wished for
peace, or they would not have given up their prisoners. It was,
however, as much against the interest of the English to have peace
established between the Iroquois and the French, as it was against
the interest of the latter that there should be peace between the
Abenaquis and the New Englanders. A long period of intrigue
followed, with plotting and counter-plotting between the different
parties concerned. The English on their side were striving to stir
up the Iroquois against the French, and the French on theirs to
incite the Abenaquis against the English; the Iroquois talked peace
to the French, but were working all the time to draw the Lake tribes
away from their alliance; while the French commanders in the West
were doing their best to keep their Indians on the war-path against
the Iroquois. Intrigue reigned too among the Lake tribes; for an
influential chief called the Baron was trying hard to persuade them
to join the Iroquois. Some horrible treacheries and cruelties were
meantime being perpetrated in that region. The French at
Michilimackinac, where La Motte Cadillac had replaced Louvigny,
killed two Iroquois who had been brought into the camp in the guise
of prisoners, but who were suspected of being emissaries from their
nation acting in collusion with the Baron. The latter and his
associates were very angry at first, but in the end yielded to the
French, and handed over another Iroquois, whom they had with them.
The French determined, La Potherie says, to make an example of him.
The Ottawas were invited " to drink the broth of an Iroquois," which
they did after the victim had been put to death with cruel tortures
in which a Frenchman took the lead. Not long after four others were
similarly treated. The object, of course, in getting the Ottawas and
Hurons to participate in these cruelties was to render peace with
the Iroquois impossible.
In the summer of 1695, Frontenac carried out his
long-cherished design of restoring the fort at Cataraqui. The scheme
was strongly opposed by the intendant, Champigny, who had managed in
some way to win the court over to his views. The expedition
organized by Frontenac consisted of seven hundred men, and was
placed by him under the command of the Marquis of Crisafy, a
Neapolitan noble, who, as Charlevoix informs us, had been guilty of
treason in his own country, and so been obliged to take service
under the French king. Scarcely had the expedition started before a
letter from the Comte de Pontchartrain was placed in Frontenac's
hand enjoining him not to take any steps in the matter of
re-establishing the fort. Anything more
mal a propos could scarcely have
happened. Had Frontenac been a timid man,, he would have sent a
messenger after Crisafy, and ordered him back; but his service of
many years in many lands had accustomed the veteran to taking
responsibility; and, persuaded as he was that he knew better what
the interest of the country required than the king and the minister
put together, he allowed the expedition to proceed. Within a month
it had returned to Montreal after having put the fort once more in a
condition of defence at a cost of sixteen thousand francs.
Forty-eight men were left behind as a garrison. Frontenac had now a
base for the operations which he felt sure would be required against
the Iroquois, and which in point of fact were carried out in the
following year. The king, on hearing of what had been done, did not
censure the governor, but merely asked him to consider carefully, in
consultation with M. de Champigny, whether it was really for the
advantage of the colony that the fort should be maintained. In the
interest of harmony the court had for some time followed the
practice of writing to the governor and the intendant jointly, and
requiring them to make joint despatches. Notwithstanding this
prudent arrangement, each of the high officials managed to bring his
own private views before the minister or the king, as the case might
be. In joint consultations the will of Frontenac was pretty sure to
carry the day. 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 re- , peated successes, and, on
one occasion at least, performed deeds of lasting renown. We have
already related the expedition under M. de Troyes to Hudson's Bay in
the summer of 1686 in which Iberville and his brother Ste. Hdl&ne
took part. Troyes returned to Quebec in the same year, and, as we
have seen, joined Denonville's campaign against the Senecas.
Iberville seems to have remained in the Hudson's Bay country till
the following year, for we hear of his returning to Quebec in the
fall of 1687 with a large amount of booty in the way of furs. The
Hudson's Bay Company of England, in a petition which they addressed
to the king asking for redress, put the amount of loss they had
sustained by this expedition at £50,000, quite probably an
over-valuation. After this adventure Iberville, in company with his
brother Maricourt, seems to have gone to France ; but two years
later both are in the bay again defending Fort Albany against an
English vessel. Later in the year, in the absence of Iberville, who
had gone to Quebec with a cargo of furs, the English possessed
themselves of the fort; but, returning in the summer of 1690, he
wrested it from them again, and again sailed to Quebec with furs,
this time to the value of 80,000 francs. The next year he went to
France, and in July 1692 returned with two French vessels
L'Envieuse and
Le Poli, destined for operations in
Hudson's Bay. As he did not reach Quebec, however, till the 18th
August, itwas considered that the season was too far advanced for an
attempt in that quarter; and the vessels were consequently diverted
to Acadia in order that they might operate against the newly erected
fort at Pemaquid. As stated in our last chapter, the expedition
proved a failure. In the following year
Le Poli, which Iberville had taken back
to France, was sent out again to Canada with a companion vessel,
L'lndiscret.
It was intended that they should proceed to Hudson's Bay, but they
only arrived at Quebec on the 22nd July, and, as the king had
expressly stipulated that
Le Poli -should return to France that
year, every practical man in Canada saw at once that she at least
could not take part in the expedition. Then- could there be any
expedition? It was at first proposed that Iberville should make the
best he could of
LLndiscret and an English ship he had
captured on the way out, the
Mary Sarah; and a number of French
captains who were in port at the time were formed into a commission
to report on the matter from a practical point of view. Their
report, made on the 7th August, was unfavourable as regarded both
vessels.
L'lndiscret does not seem to have had any
armament, and though guns could have been provided for her at
Quebec, the captains doubted whether either decks or hull were
strong enough to admit of her conversion into an effective fighting
ship, or indeed whether she was suitable at all for northern
navigation. As to the
Mary Sarah, she was a very poor sailer,
and would only prove an embarrassment. Iberville, who of course
expected, if he went, to winter in the bay, said he must have a full
year's provisions for the party; and one of the points the captains
inquired into was whether there was accommodation in the ships for
all the stores required. As one of the necessities of the voyage
they put down 154 barriques of wine, or, alternatively, 38 of
brandy. As the barrique contains something over 50 gallons, the
estimate was for about 2000 gallons of brandy, not an illiberal
allowance. The upshot of the matter was that there was no expedition
that year, and that the English had all their own way in the bay,
capturing once more the fort at Albany, together with furs to the
value, as stated, of 150,000 francs, the property of the Compagnie
du Nord.
The news of this serious loss arrived at Quebec
in August just after the idea of an expedition had been abandoned,
and was carried to France by M. de Serigny, one of Iberville's
brothers. The French government thereupon determined to organize a
strong force for the purpose of securely establishing French
supremacy in those northern waters. Serigny was accordingly sent
back to Quebec in the summer of 1694, with instructions to Frontenac
to lend as many soldiers as he could spare for the enterprise. No
time was lost in executing the order. On the 10th August Iberville
with Serigny and another brother M. de Chateauguay, and over a
hundred picked Canadians set sail for Hudson's Bay in two frigates
of twenty and thirty guns respectively. The first point of attack
was to be Port Nelson on the west side of the bay, garrisoned by
about fifty English, and mounting thirty-six cannon. Having arrived
at the place on the 24th September, Iberville demanded its
surrender, which was refused. The assailants had much the advantage
in strength, and on the 13th October the fort surrendered. The
Canadians took up their quarters there for the winter; and when
summer came Iberville decided to wait in the neighbourhood in the
hope of capturing one or two English trading vessels which were
expected to arrive. None came, however, and he set sail in
September, leaving La Forest in charge with sixty men. Contrary
winds rendering his return to Canada difficult, he steered his
course for France, and arrived safely at Rochelle, where he wrote
out a full account of his adventures and achievements.
It was related in the last chapter how, in the
following year (1696), Iberville, in conjunction with Saint-Castin
and the neighbouring Indians, had captured and destroyed the English
fort of Pemaquid, on the west side of what is now Penobscot Bay. His
instructions were, as soon as this had been accomplished, to sail
for Newfoundland, take St. John's, and harry the English settlements
strewn along the eastern coast. This enterprise had been carefully
prepared beforehand, and a number of fishing vessels from St. Malo
had been armed for the purpose. There was a French governor
stationed at Placentia, M. de Brouillan, to whom instructions had
been sent to co-operate with M. d'Iberville. All accounts agree in
saying that this officer was a man of an extremely surly and jealous
temper. Anxious to win the glory and profit of capturing St. John's
without assistance, he did not await the arrival of Iberville before
setting out on the enterprise. With the help of the St. Malo men he
captured one or two English vessels; but, owing to disagreements
that arose between him and his men, nothing more was accomplished.
Returning to Placentia he found that Iberville with his Canadians
had arrived. Some dispute arose as to who should command the
combined force ; finally it was agreed that Iberville should have
that honour. It is doubtful whether the Canadians would have
consented to serve under any other leader. The capture of St. John's
was effected on the 1st December; but no booty of any consequence
was taken, as some English vessels had shortly before removed
everything of value. Then followed a cruel winter raid on the poor
fisher-folk of the coast who were not in a condition to make any
resistance. All the hamlets were burned, and the French writers say
that two hundred of the English inhabitants were killed, surely a
most unnecessary slaughter.
Other work and other laurels somewhat worthier
of a warrior's brow were, however, awaiting the redoubtable Canadian
chief. In the month of May 1697, when the desolation in Newfoundland
was complete, his brother Serigny arrived from France with five
ships of war, the
Pelican, the
Palmier, the
Wasp,
the Profond,
and the
Violent. Port Nelson had again fallen
into the hands of the English ; and this expedition, which Iberville
was to command, had been organized for the purpose of retaking it.
For trading purposes it was much the most important port on the bay,
being the outlet of a vast fur-bearing region stretching towards
Lake Superior. It was July before the squadron sailed from
Placentia, Iberville taking command of the
Pelican, and his brother of the
Palmier. One ship carrying stores was
crushed and lost amid floating ice, though the crew were saved. The
others were in great danger. When the
Pelican got free her companions were
nowhere to be seen, and Iberville pursued his way towards Port
Nelson alone, hoping that the other vessels would make their
appearance after a time. He had nearly reached his destination when
three sail did heave in sight, which he took to be the missing
vessels. He was soon undeceived. They were armed English
merchantmen—the
Hampshire,
of fifty-two guns; the
Daring, of thirty-six; and the
Hudson's Bay, of thirty-two. The chances
looked bad for the
Pelican, which had but forty-four; but
Iberville was accustomed to taking chances, and he did not decline
the unequal fight. The French commander had the advantage of the
wind, and seems not to have engaged more than one vessel at a time.
After some hours of cannonading he came to close quarters with the
Hampshire,
and, delivering some terrible broadsides, caused her to sink in that
dreary sea with all on board. The
liudsons Bay, which he next attacked,
soon struck her flag, while the
Daring, doing little honour or justice to
her name, seized a favouring wind and escaped. The
Pelican had by no means escaped Scot
free. So badly shattered was she that, having stranded a few miles
from the fort, and a gale having sprung up, she went to pieces. Some
of the crew were lost, while, of those who reached land, a number
died from cold and exhaustion.
Snow was lying a foot deep on the ground; and
had it not been for the timely arrival of the missing vessels, the
whole party would doubtless have perished, unless they could have
made their way to the fort and thrown themselves on the mercy of the
enemy. As it was, the work of the expedition was now proceeded with.
Cannon and mortar were landed. The fort was only protected by a
palisade, and though it mounted a few light cannon, it was quite
unable to withstand a bombardment. The commandant, therefore, though
at first he refused to surrender, was soon compelled to lower his
flag. He obtained honourable terms for his garrison, but was obliged
to hand over a vast quantity of furs. Iberville after this signal
triumph—a triumph, as Parkman describes it, " over the storms, the
icebergs, and the English "—left his brother in charge of the
captured fort, and, taking the two best vessels left, sailed for
France, where he arrived early in November.
The news which greeted him there was that, just
about the time he was sailing from the bay, peace had been signed1
between England and France. By the terms of the peace Louis was to
acknowledge William III as rightful King of England and Anne as his
successor, and to withdraw all assistance from the exiled James. As
regards the colonies, the most important provision was that the
status quo ante bellum should be
re-established. Thus the gallant fight that Iberville had waged, one
against three, and all the bitter
hardships which he and his men had endured by sea and land, had been
in vain. Port Nelson and the other ports in Hudson's Bay would have
to revert to the English. All boundary questions in dispute between
the two nations were to be settled by commissioners appointed for
that purpose.
Returning now to Canada, and going back a year
and a half in our narrative, that is to say, to the 6arly summer of
1696, we find Count Frontenac making his plans for the campaign he
had for some time felt to be necessary against the Iroquois, but
particularly against the most obstinately hostile * nation of the
confederacy, the Onondagas. He had no great reason to think that the
court desired him to engage in this enterprise, for all the counsels
he had lately been receiving from that quarter had been in favour of
contraction rather than expansion, of peaceful rather than warlike
measures. He trusted, however, that if he signally succeeded, as he
expected to do, all would be not only condoned but approved,
including his disobedience of orders in re-establishing Fort
Frontenac the year before, a matter in regard to which he had not
heard from the court as yet. The expedition as organized was one
which certainly should have been adequate for the punishment of the
Iroquois, if they would only stay to be punished. It consisted of
four battalions of regulars of two hundred men each, and four of
militia, numerically somewhat stronger. With these were five hundred
mission Indians, Iroquois from the Saut, near Montreal, and
Abenaquis from Sillery, near Quebec. Two battalions of regulars,
with most of the Indians, constituted the vanguard, which was under
the command of M. de Calli&res. The militia, under M. de Ramesay,
Governor of Three Rivers, were placed in the centre, while M. de
Vaudreuil brought up the rear, consisting of the two remaining
battalions of regulars and the rest of the Indians. Frontenac
himself, with his staff and a number of volunteers, took a position
between the van and the centre. In this order the expedition started
from Lachine on the 6th July. In fifteen days it had reached Fort
Frontenac, where it halted a week, awaiting the arrival of a
contingent of Ottawas which La Motte Cadillac had promised to send
from Michilimackinac. As this reinforcement did not arrive, the
expedition pushed on, and in two days reached the mouth of the
Oswego River. Here the rapids proved very difficult, and several
portages were necessary. On these occasions the count,
notwithstanding his seventy-five years, was prepared to foot it like
the rest; but the Indians would have none of it: they raised him
aloft in his canoe, " singing and yelling with joy."
On the 4th August the army reached the principal
fort of the Onondagas only to find it abandoned and burnt. There was
nothing to do but, as on former similar occasions, to destroy the
corn. An old Onondaga Indian who had remained in the neighbourhood
was captured and put to death with horrible tortures, which he
endured with the greatest fortitude; reviling his enemies with his
latest breath, and calling the French " dogs," and their Indian
allies " the dogs of dogs," bidding them, at the same time, to learn
from him how to suffer when their turn should come. While such havoc
as was possible was being wrought in the Onondaga habitations,
Vaudreuil was detached from the main force to do similar damage in
the country of the Oneidas. As he approached their village, some
deputies of the tribe came forward to offer submission, and beg that
their crops might not be destroyed, but Vaudreuil told them he had
to obey his orders, and that, if they chose, they might come and
dwell with the French, where they would not want for anything. While
the detachment was engaged in the work of destruction news came that
a force of three hundred English was marching to attack them,
whereupon the Abenaquis expressed great joy, saying that they would
not need to waste powder on such enemies, their tomahawks and knives
would be enough. The English did not come, however. Governor
Fletcher, of New York, was on the move ; but, by the time he had
gathered a force, he learnt that the French had gone. It is
difficult to see in what respect this campaign, which was precisely
of the kind that Frontenac had said a few years before he did not
approve, was more effectual than that of Denonville in 1687;
Frontenac, nevertheless, represented it to the king as a notable
victory. He could be pious in his phraseology when he liked ; and he
wrote that the Iroquois had been smitten at his approach with a
panic which could only have come from Heaven. The Iroquois were
surely in hard luck in having to fight, at the same moment, human
foes in superior numbers, and armed with superior weapons, and
celestial ones capable of paralyzing their faculties in the moment
of their greatest need. But not more actively did the gods and
goddesses of Olympus intervene on the plain of Troy on behalf of
well-greaved Greeks or horse-taming Trojans than did the higher
powers, if we can trust the narratives of the time, on behalf of the
well-musketed Canadians.
On the 10th August the return journey was begun,
and on the 20th the army reached Montreal. Some lives had been lost
in the rapids; otherwise there had been no casualties. In concluding
his letter to the king, Frontenac, after praising the officers under
his command, particularly M. de Calibres, put in a modest word for
himself: "I do not know whether your Majesty will consider that I
have tried to do my duty, and, if so, whether you will judge me
worthy of some mark of honour such as may enable me to live the
brief remainder of my life in some distinction. However your Majesty
may decide, I must humbly beg you to believe that I am prepared to
sacrifice the remainder of my days in your Majesty's service with
the same ardour which I have always hitherto displayed." His Majesty
was graciously pleased to say in reply, by the mouth of the
minister, that he was entirely satisfied with the count's expedition
against the Onondagas and Oneidas, and with his whole conduct. After
dealing with other matters the minister added : " Until his Majesty
has it in his power to bestow on you more marked proofs of his
satisfaction, he has granted you his Military Order of St. Louis,
and you will find herewith his permission to you to wear its cross."
This was a distinction of which his subordinate Calli&res, as well
as M. de Vaudreuil and the intendant, Champigny, were already in
enjoyment: yet it was all that the very decided merit of M. de
Frontenac was able to extract. It is said that the violent take the
kingdom of heaven by force; but it is also said that the meek shall
inherit the earth. Frontenac tried to make his way by dint of
self-assertion, but in the end his success was only moderate. The
enemies whom he thrust aside, or cowed into silence, could whisper
at opportune moments, and their whispers did him no good; while
sometimes they could secure gratifications for themselves decidedly
worth having.
Various inconclusive negotiations for peace
followed the Onondaga campaign; and things dragged on in this way
till news came in January 1698, though not through an authorized
channel, of the signing of the Peace of Ryswick. The officer in
command at Albany, Peter Schuyler, had deputed Captain John Schuyler
and one Dellius to carry the news to Calli&res at Montreal.
Frontenac 354 received it at Quebec a few
days later. The messengers stated that a new governor was coming out
to New York—the Earl of Bellomont—and mentioned that instructions
had been given to their Indians to cease their warfare against the
French. Frontenac sent a reply stating that he would have to await
confirmation of the news from his own government; but he did not
think it well to recognize that part of the message which assumed,
on the part of the English, authority over the Iroquois. Early in
the following June (1698)
Schuyler and Dellius came, bringing some twenty French prisoners of
all ages, and also a letter from the Earl of Bellomont to Frontenac,
forwarding copies in French and Latin of the treaty of peace, and
proposing that Frontenac should give up all his Iroquois prisoners
to him, undertaking, on his part, to secure the restoration of all
the French prisoners whom the Iroquois might be holding. This
brought things to an issue. Frontenac replied in firm but courteous
terms, saying that, although he was still without advices from his
government, he was prepared to hand over all English prisoners in
his custody, but that he could not understand how his Lordship could
have instructed his delegates to ask for the return of the Iroquois
prisoners. The Iroquois had been uninterruptedly subjects of the
French king from a time prior to the taking of New York by the
English from the Dutch. So far as they were concerned, therefore,
the Earl of Bellomont need not give himself any trouble, as they
were suing for peace, had engaged to restore all their French
prisoners, and had given hostages for the fulfilment of their
promise. He also referred, as a further proof of French authority,
to the missions which they had maintained among the Iroquois for
over forty years. This letter was dated
8th June. Bellomont replied on the
13th August, manifesting much irritation
at Frontenac's refusal to recognize the Iroquois as English
subjects, and consequently covered by the peace. He told Frontenac
that he had sent word to those nations to be on their guard, that he
had furnished them with arms and munitions of war, and promised them
assistance in case they were attacked. As to the Jesuit
missionaries, the Indians had repeatedly entreated him "to expel
those gentlemen from amongst them," their wish being " to have some
of our Protestant ministers among them, instead of your
missionaries, in order for their instruction in the Christian
religion." Here was a pretty quarrel right on the head of a peace!
Frontenac replied with his customary firmness, saying that he would
pursue his course unflinchingly and insist on the fulfilment by the
Iroquois of the engagement they had entered into before the
declaration of peace. He referred to the fact that commissioners
were to be appointed to decide questions of boundary, and said that,
such being the case, the earl had taken too absolute a position.
Here the correspondence ended so far as Frontenac was concerned. He
was fighting in a losing cause, for the
claim of England to the territory in dispute was shortly afterwards
recognized. He could, however, at least say that the cause was not
lost through him ; to the last he maintained with courage,
resolution, and dignity, what he held to be the rights of his
sovereign. As regards the formal establishment of peace with the
Iroquois it was not to be in his time. His last despatch to the
court bears date the 25th October. He tells the minister that the
Iroquois, who had promised to come and conclude peace and bring back
their prisoners, have not yet done so, and that he has no doubt they
are held back by the Earl of Bellomont. The minister answers that,
to prevent a continuation of disputes, he had consented that the
tribes in question should remain undisturbed and enjoy the peace
concluded at Rys: wick. The boundary question would be
settled in due time by the commissioners appointed for that purpose.
This reply Count Frontenac was not destined to
see. Three months, indeed, before it was penned the curtain had
fallen upon his eager, strenuous, and, broadly speaking, honourable
life. About the middle of November he fell ill. He was in his
seventy-ninth year. In a few days, if not from the first, he knew
that he had passed into the shadow of death, that he was at last
meeting One whom he could not conquer. The old man made all his
arrangements with admirable calmness. On the 22nd November he sent
for the notary to make his will. He
expressed a desire to be buried, not in the cathedral church, but in
that of the Recollets, whose milder theology had best suited his
practical and somewhat Erastian turn of mind. He makes pecuniary
provision for a daily mass on his behalf for one year, and a yearly
one thereafter on the anniversary of his death, Mme. de Frontenac to
share in it after her death. His heart was to be placed in a chapel
of the Church of St. Nicolas des Champs at Paris, where the remains
of his sister, Mme. de Monmort, were already reposing. A merchant of
Quebec, Francis Hazeur, and his private secretary, are named as his
executors. He requests Champigny to support his friends in having
his wishes carried out. He bequeaths to him a crucifix of aloes
wood, and to Mme. de Champigny a reliquary. The bishop, M. de Saint
Vallier, came to see him several times during his illness, as also
did the intendant; death, not for the first time, was acting the
part of reconciler. It was rather expected by the clerical party
that, in his last moments, the old warrior would express deep
contrition for his deficiencies on the religious side and his
frequent opposition to the policy of the church; but in this they
were disappointed. " God gave him full time," says an anonymous
critic of the period, who has annotated very harshly the funeral
sermon preached over his remains, " to recognize his errors, and yet
to the last he showed a great indifference in all these matters. In
a word, he behaved during the few days before his death
like one who had led an irreproachable life and
had nothing to fear." The last rites of religion were administered
by the Rdcollet father, Olivier Goyer, and on the 28th November
1G98, retaining his faculties to the last, the veteran passed
peacefully away.
What manner of man he was, this narrative, it
may be trusted, has in some measure shown. Compounded of faults and
virtues, his was a character that appealed strongly to average human
nature. Common people understood, admired and trusted him. His
faults were those common, everyday ones,1 which it is not
impossible to forgive; and he had the more than compensating virtues
of courage, decision, simplicity, underlying kindliness, and humour.
,His nature, vehement, turbulent, and self-asserting throughout his
early and middle manhood, was gaining towards the end that ripeness
in which, according to Shakespeare, lies the whole significance of
life. The Abbd 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."1 The late
Abb£ Verreau, quoted by Gosselin in his
Life of Laval, has a few words of mingled
praise and blame, which, perhaps, in their general effect are not
far from the truth. " The harsh doctrines of Jansenism," he says, "
and domestic troubles had infused into his nature something
unrefined which the outward manners of the aristocrat did not
entirely conceal . . . When, however, he yielded to the natural bent
of his mind, he attracted every one by the intellectual grace and
charm of his conversation. . . . His ambition was to be in New
France the reflection of the great monarch who ruled in Old France."
The Abb£ probably exaggerates the effect of Jansenist doctrines upon
the mind of Frontenac, and also that of his conjugal difficulties;
but he rightly discerns an element in his character which clashed
with his finer and more distinguished qualities.
There is no known extant portrait of Frontenac.
For many years a certain photograph was sold at Quebec as
representing him on his death-bed, and was reproduced in different
works relating to Canadian history. Parkman, the historian, sent it
to the late M. Pierre Margry of Paris, the well-known authority on
early Canadian history, who at once pronounced that it was not a
portrait of Frontenac at all, but had been taken from one of the
illustrations published in Lavater's celebrated work on physiognomy,
the original being a German professor of the name of Heidegger. How
it ever came to pass for a portrait of Frontenac remains a mystery.
The matter is fully discussed in Mr. Ernest Myrand's work,
Sir William Phipps devant Quebec. So far
as appears, it was through a correspondence between Mr. Myrand and
M. Pierre Margry, that the fact of the unauthenticity of the alleged
portrait of Frontenac first became known in Canada.
The funeral sermon over the deceased governor
was preached by the Recollet father who had attended his death-bed,
and the manuscript of it is still preserved in the library of Laval
University. The eulogium of the sympathetic father may here and
there be a little forced; but surely a generous meed of praise was
due to the man who, when past the meridian of life, had undertaken
and borne unflinchingly for many years the burden of so difficult
and dangerous an administration as that of Canada. The manuscript
has been annotated by an anonymous and unfriendly ecclesiastical
hand, one of whose criticisms is quoted above. The critic's point of
view is further indicated by the comment on the preacher's statement
that Frontenac diligently practised the reading of spiritual books.
"As for his reading, it was often Jansenist books, of which he had a
great many, and which he greatly praised and lent freely to others."
The odium
theologicum here is not difficult to
discern. The people, however, who cared little for theological
subtleties and animosities, but who judged their fallen chief as a
man and an administrator, mourned him sincerely. His death was
announced by the intendant to the king in words that are almost
touching; and Calli&res, a good soldier, and a man after his own
heart, ruled in his stead. |
