Book: Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV

F >> Francis Parkman >> Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV




Though the leaky condition of the frigate compelled him to abandon the
search, it was not till he had gained information which he thought
would lead to success; and, on his return, he inspired such confidence
that the Duke of Albemarle, with other noblemen and gentlemen, gave
him a fresh outfit, and despatched him again on his Quixotic errand.
This time he succeeded, found the wreck, and took from it gold,
silver, and jewels to the value of three hundred thousand pounds
sterling. The crew now leagued together to seize the ship and divide
the prize; and Phips, pushed to extremity, was compelled to promise
that every man of them should have a share in the treasure, even if he
paid it himself. On reaching England, he kept his pledge so well that,
after redeeming it, only sixteen thousand pounds was left as his
portion, which, however, was an ample fortune in the New England of
that day. He gained, too, what he valued almost as much, the honor of
knighthood. Tempting offers were made him of employment in the royal
service; but he had an ardent love for his own country, and thither he
presently returned.

Phips was a rude sailor, bluff, prompt, and choleric. He never gave
proof of intellectual capacity; and such of his success in life as he
did not owe to good luck was due probably to an energetic and
adventurous spirit, aided by a blunt frankness of address that pleased
the great, and commended him to their favor. Two years after the
expedition to Port Royal, the king, under the new charter, made him
governor of Massachusetts, a post for which, though totally unfit, he
had been recommended by the elder Mather, who, like his son Cotton,
expected to make use of him. He carried his old habits into his new
office, cudgelled Brinton, the collector of the port, and belabored
Captain Short of the royal navy with his cane. Far from trying to hide
the obscurity of his origin, he leaned to the opposite foible, and was
apt to boast of it, delighting to exhibit himself as a self-made man.
New England writers describe him as honest in private dealings; but,
in accordance with his coarse nature, he seems to have thought that
any thing is fair in war. On the other hand, he was warmly patriotic,
and was almost as ready to serve New England as to serve himself.
[Footnote: An excellent account of Phips will be found in Professor
Bowen's biographical notice, already cited. His Life by Cotton Mather
is excessively eulogistic.]

When he returned from Port Royal, he found Boston alive with martial
preparation. A bold enterprise was afoot. Massachusetts of her own
motion had resolved to attempt the conquest of Quebec. She and her
sister colonies had not yet recovered from the exhaustion of Philip's
war, and still less from the disorders that attended the expulsion of
the royal governor and his adherents. The public treasury was empty,
and the recent expeditions against the eastern Indians had been
supported by private subscription. Worse yet, New England had no
competent military commander. The Puritan gentlemen of the original
emigration, some of whom were as well fitted for military as for civil
leadership, had passed from the stage; and, by a tendency which
circumstances made inevitable, they had left none behind them equally
qualified. The great Indian conflict of fifteen years before had, it
is true, formed good partisan chiefs, and proved that the New England
yeoman, defending his family and his hearth, was not to be surpassed
in stubborn fighting; but, since Andros and his soldiers had been
driven out, there was scarcely a single man in the colony of the
slightest training or experience in regular war. Up to this moment,
New England had never asked help of the mother country. When thousands
of savages burst on her defenceless settlements, she had conquered
safety and peace with her own blood and her own slender resources; but
now, as the proposed capture of Quebec would inure to the profit of
the British crown, Bradstreet and his council thought it not unfitting
to ask for a supply of arms and ammunition, of which they were in
great need. [Footnote: _Bradstreet and Council to the Earl of
Shrewsbury, 29 Mar., 1690; Danforth to Sir H. Ashurst, 1 April,
1690._] The request was refused, and no aid of any kind came from the
English government, whose resources were engrossed by the Irish war.

While waiting for the reply, the colonial authorities urged on their
preparations, in the hope that the plunder of Quebec would pay the
expenses of its conquest. Humility was not among the New England
virtues, and it was thought a sin to doubt that God would give his
chosen people the victory over papists and idolaters; yet no pains
were spared to ensure the divine favor. A proclamation was issued,
calling the people to repentance; a day of fasting was ordained; and,
as Mather expresses it, "the wheel of prayer was kept in continual
motion." [Footnote: _Mass. Colonial Records, 12 Mar., 1690_; Mather,
_Life of Phips._] The chief difficulty was to provide funds. An
attempt was made to collect a part of the money by private
subscription; [Footnote: _Proposals for an Expedition against Canada_,
in 3 _Mass. Hist. Coll._, X. 119.] but, as this plan failed, the
provisional government, already in debt, strained its credit yet
farther, and borrowed the needful sums. Thirty-two trading and fishing
vessels, great and small, were impressed for the service. The largest
was a ship called the "Six Friends," engaged in the dangerous West
India trade, and carrying forty-four guns. A call was made for
volunteers, and many enrolled themselves; but, as more were wanted, a
press was ordered to complete the number. So rigorously was it applied
that, what with voluntary and enforced enlistment, one town, that of
Gloucester, was deprived of two-thirds of its fencible men. [Footnote:
_Rev. John Emerson to Wait Winthrop, 26 July, 1690_. Emerson was the
minister of Gloucester. He begs for the release of the impressed men.]
There was not a moment of doubt as to the choice of a commander, for
Phips was imagined to be the very man for the work. One John Walley, a
respectable citizen of Barnstable, was made second in command with the
modest rank of major; and a sufficient number of ship-masters,
merchants, master mechanics, and substantial farmers, were
commissioned as subordinate officers. About the middle of July, the
committee charged with the preparations reported that all was ready.
Still there was a long delay. The vessel sent early in spring to ask
aid from England had not returned. Phips waited for her as long as he
dared, and the best of the season was over when he resolved to put to
sea. The rustic warriors, duly formed into companies, were sent on
board; and the fleet sailed from Nantasket on the ninth of August.
Including sailors, it carried twenty-two hundred men, with provisions
for four months, but insufficient ammunition and no pilot for the St.
Lawrence. [Footnote: Mather, _Life of Phips_, gives an account of the
outfit. Compare the _Humble Address of Divers of the Gentry, Merchants
and others inhabiting in Boston, to the King's Most Excellent
Majesty_. Two officers of the expedition, Walley and Savage, have left
accounts of it, as Phips would probably have done, had his literary
acquirements been equal to the task.]

While Massachusetts was making ready to conquer Quebec by sea, the
militia of the land expedition against Montreal had mustered at
Albany. Their strength was even less than was at first proposed; for,
after the disaster at Casco, Massachusetts and Plymouth had recalled
their contingents to defend their frontiers. The rest, decimated by
dysentery and small-pox, began their march to Lake Champlain, with
bands of Mohawk, Oneida, and Mohegan allies. The western Iroquois were
to join them at the lake, and the combined force was then to attack
the head of the colony, while Phips struck at its heart.

Frontenac was at Quebec during most of the winter and the early
spring. When he had despatched the three war-parties, whose hardy but
murderous exploits were to bring this double storm upon him, he had an
interval of leisure, of which he made a characteristic use. The
English and the Iroquois were not his only enemies. He had opponents
within as well as without, and he counted as among them most of the
members of the supreme council. Here was the bishop, representing that
clerical power which had clashed so often with the civil rule; here
was that ally of the Jesuits, the intendant Champigny, who, when
Frontenac arrived, had written mournfully to Versailles that he would
do his best to live at peace with him; here were Villeray and Auteuil,
whom the governor had once banished, Damours, whom he had imprisoned,
and others scarcely more agreeable to him. They and their clerical
friends had conspired for his recall seven or eight years before; they
had clung to Denonville, that faithful son of the Church, in spite of
all his failures; and they had seen with troubled minds the return of
King Stork in the person of the haughty and irascible count. He on his
part felt his power. The country was in deadly need of him, and looked
to him for salvation; while the king had shown him such marks of
favor, that, for the moment at least, his enemies must hold their
peace. Now, therefore, was the time to teach them that he was their
master. Whether trivial or important the occasion mattered little.
What he wanted was a conflict and a victory, or submission without a
conflict.

The supreme council had held its usual weekly meetings since
Frontenac's arrival; but as yet he had not taken his place at the
board, though his presence was needed. Auteuil, the attorney-general,
was thereupon deputed to invite him. He visited the count at his
apartment in the chateau, but could get from him no answer, except
that the council was able to manage its own business, and that he
would come when the king's service should require it. The councillors
divined that he was waiting for some assurance that they would receive
him with befitting ceremony; and, after debating the question, they
voted to send four of their number to repeat the invitation, and beg
the governor to say what form of reception would be agreeable to him.
Frontenac answered that it was for them to propose the form, and that,
when they did so, he would take the subject into consideration. The
deputies returned, and there was another debate. A ceremony was
devised, which it was thought must needs be acceptable to the count;
and the first councillor, Villeray, repaired to the château to submit
it to him. After making him an harangue of compliment, and protesting
the anxiety of himself and his colleagues to receive him with all
possible honor, he explained the plan, and assured Frontenac that, if
not wholly satisfactory, it should be changed to suit his pleasure.
"To which," says the record, "Monsieur the governor only answered that
the council could consult the bishop and other persons acquainted with
such matters." The bishop was consulted, but pleaded ignorance.
Another debate followed; and the first councillor was again despatched
to the château, with proposals still more deferential than the last,
and full power to yield, in addition, whatever the governor might
desire. Frontenac replied that, though they had made proposals for his
reception when he should present himself at the council for the first
time, they had not informed him what ceremony they meant to observe
when he should come to the subsequent sessions. This point also having
been thoroughly debated, Villeray went again to the count, and with
great deference laid before him the following plan: That, whenever it
should be his pleasure to make his first visit to the council, four of
its number should repair to the château, and accompany him, with every
mark of honor, to the palace of the intendant, where the sessions were
held; and that, on his subsequent visits, two councillors should meet
him at the head of the stairs, and conduct him to his seat. The envoy
farther protested that, if this failed to meet his approval, the
council would conform itself to all his wishes on the subject.
Frontenac now demanded to see the register in which the proceedings on
the question at issue were recorded. Villeray was directed to carry it
to him. The records had been cautiously made; and, after studying them
carefully, he could find nothing at which to cavil.

He received the next deputation with great affability, told them that
he was glad to find that the council had not forgotten the
consideration due to his office and his person, and assured them, with
urbane irony, that, had they offered to accord him marks of
distinction greater than they felt were due, he would not have
permitted them thus to compromise their dignity, having too much
regard for the honor of a body of which he himself was the head. Then,
after thanking them collectively and severally, he graciously
dismissed them, saying that he would come to the council after Easter,
or in about two months. [3] During four successive Mondays, he had
forced the chief dignitaries of the colony to march in deputations up
and down the rugged road from the intendant's palace to the chamber of
the château where he sat in solitary state. A disinterested spectator
might see the humor of the situation; but the council felt only its
vexations. Frontenac had gained his point: the enemy had surrendered
unconditionally.

Having settled this important matter to his satisfaction, he again
addressed himself to saving the country. During the winter, he had
employed gangs of men in cutting timber in the forests, hewing it into
palisades, and dragging it to Quebec. Nature had fortified the Upper
Town on two sides by cliffs almost inaccessible, but it was open to
attack in the rear; and Frontenac, with a happy prevision of
approaching danger, gave his first thoughts to strengthening this, its
only weak side. The work began as soon as the frost was out of the
ground, and before midsummer it was well advanced. At the same time,
he took every precaution for the safety of the settlements in the
upper parts of the colony, stationed detachments of regulars at the
stockade forts, which Denonville had built in all the parishes above
Three Rivers, and kept strong scouting parties in continual movement
in all the quarters most exposed to attack. Troops were detailed to
guard the settlers at their work in the fields, and officers and men
were enjoined to use the utmost vigilance. Nevertheless, the Iroquois
war-parties broke in at various points, burning and butchering, and
spreading such terror that in some districts the fields were left
untilled and the prospects of the harvest ruined.

Towards the end of July, Frontenac left Major Prévost to finish the
fortifications, and, with the intendant Champigny, went up to
Montreal, the chief point of danger. Here he arrived on the
thirty-first; and, a few days after, the officer commanding the fort
at La Chine sent him a messenger in hot haste with the startling news
that Lake St. Louis was "all covered with canoes." [Footnote: "Que le
lac estoit tout convert de canots." _Frontenac au Ministre_, 9 _et_ 12
_Nov_., 1690.] Nobody doubted that the Iroquois were upon them again.
Cannon were fired to call in the troops from the detached posts; when
alarm was suddenly turned to joy by the arrival of other messengers to
announce that the new comers were not enemies, but friends. They were
the Indians of the upper lakes descending from Michillimackinac to
trade at Montreal. Nothing so auspicious had happened since
Frontenac's return. The messages he had sent them in the spring by
Louvigny and Perrot, reinforced by the news of the victory on the
Ottawa and the capture of Schenectady, had had the desired effect; and
the Iroquois prisoner whom their missionary had persuaded them to
torture had not been sacrificed in vain. Despairing of an English
market for their beaver skins, they had come as of old to seek one
from the French.

On the next day, they all came down the rapids, and landed near the
town. There were fully five hundred of them, Hurons, Ottawas, Ojibwas,
Pottawatamies, Crees, and Nipissings, with a hundred and ten canoes
laden with beaver skins to the value of nearly a hundred thousand
crowns. Nor was this all; for, a few days after, La Durantaye, late
commander at Michillimackinac, arrived with fifty-five more canoes,
manned by French traders, and filled with valuable furs. The stream of
wealth dammed back so long was flowing upon the colony at the moment
when it was most needed. Never had Canada known a more prosperous
trade than now in the midst of her danger and tribulation. It was a
triumph for Frontenac. If his policy had failed with the Iroquois, it
had found a crowning success among the tribes of the lakes.

Having painted, greased, and befeathered themselves, the Indians
mustered for the grand council which always preceded the opening of
the market. The Ottawa orator spoke of nothing but trade, and, with a
regretful memory of the cheapness of English goods, begged that the
French would sell them at the same rate. The Huron touched upon
politics and war, declaring that he and his people had come to visit
their old father and listen to his voice, being well assured that he
would never abandon them, as others had done, nor fool away his time,
like Denonville, in shameful negotiations for peace; and he exhorted
Frontenac to fight, not the English only, but the Iroquois also, till
they were brought to reason. "If this is not done," he said, "my
father and I shall both perish; but, come what may, we will perish
together." [Footnote: La Potherie, III. 94; Monseignat, _Relation;
Frontenac au Ministre_ 9 _et_ 12 _Nov._, 1690.] "I answered," writes
Frontenac, "that I would fight the Iroquois till they came to beg for
peace, and that I would grant them no peace that did not include all
my children, both white and red, for I was the father of both alike."

Now ensued a curious scene. Frontenac took a hatchet, brandished it in
the air and sang the war-song. The principal Frenchmen present
followed his example. The Christian Iroquois of the two neighboring
missions rose and joined them, and so also did the Hurons and the
Algonquins of Lake Nipissing, stamping and screeching like a troop of
madmen; while the governor led the dance, whooping like the rest. His
predecessor would have perished rather than play such a part in such
company; but the punctilious old courtier was himself half Indian at
heart, as much at home in a wigwam as in the halls of princes. Another
man would have lost respect in Indian eyes by such a performance. In
Frontenac, it roused his audience to enthusiasm. They snatched the
proffered hatchet and promised war to the death. [4]

Then came a solemn war-feast. Two oxen and six large dogs had been
chopped to pieces for the occasion, and boiled with a quantity of
prunes. Two barrels of wine with abundant tobacco were also served out
to the guests, who devoured the meal in a species of frenzy.
[Footnote: La Potherie, III. 96, 98.] All seemed eager for war except
the Ottawas, who had not forgotten their late dalliance with the
Iroquois. A Christian Mohawk of the Saut St. Louis called them to
another council, and demanded that they should explain clearly their
position. Thus pushed to the wall, they no longer hesitated, but
promised like the rest to do all that their father should ask.

Their sincerity was soon put to the test. An Iroquois convert called
La Plaque, a notorious reprobate though a good warrior, had gone out
as a scout in the direction of Albany. On the day when the market
opened and trade was in full activity, the buyers and sellers were
suddenly startled by the sound of the death-yell. They snatched their
weapons, and for a moment all was confusion; when La Plaque, who had
probably meant to amuse himself at their expense, made his appearance,
and explained that the yells proceeded from him. The news that he
brought was, however, sufficiently alarming. He declared that he had
been at Lake St. Sacrement, or Lake George, and had seen there a great
number of men making canoes as if about to advance on Montreal.
Frontenac, thereupon, sent the Chevalier de Clermont to scout as far
as Lake Champlain. Clermont soon sent back one of his followers to
announce that he had discovered a party of the enemy, and that they
were already on their way down the Richelieu. Frontenac ordered cannon
to be fired to call in the troops, crossed the St. Lawrence followed
by all the Indians, and encamped with twelve hundred men at La Prairie
to meet the expected attack. He waited in vain. All was quiet, and the
Ottawa scouts reported that they could find no enemy. Three days
passed. The Indians grew impatient, and wished to go home. Neither
English nor Iroquois had shown themselves; and Frontenac, satisfied
that their strength had been exaggerated, left a small force at La
Prairie, recrossed the river, and distributed the troops again among
the neighboring parishes to protect the harvesters. He now gave ample
presents to his departing allies, whose chiefs he had entertained at
his own table, and to whom, says Charlevoix, he bade farewell "with
those engaging manners which he knew so well how to assume when he
wanted to gain anybody to his interest." Scarcely were they gone, when
the distant cannon of La Prairie boomed a sudden alarm.

The men whom La Plaque had seen near Lake George were a part of the
combined force of Connecticut and New York, destined to attack
Montreal. They had made their way along Wood Creek to the point where
it widens into Lake Champlain, and here they had stopped. Disputes
between the men of the two colonies, intestine quarrels in the New
York militia, who were divided between the two factions engendered by
the late revolution, the want of provisions, the want of canoes, and
the ravages of small-pox, had ruined an enterprise which had been
mismanaged from the first. There was no birch bark to make more
canoes, and owing to the lateness of the season the bark of the elms
would not peel. Such of the Iroquois as had joined them were cold and
sullen; and news came that the three western tribes of the
confederacy, terrified by the small-pox, had refused to move. It was
impossible to advance; and Winthrop, the commander, gave orders to
return to Albany, leaving Phips to conquer Canada alone. [5] But
first, that the campaign might not seem wholly futile, he permitted
Captain John Schuyler to make a raid into Canada with a band of
volunteers. Schuyler left the camp at Wood Creek with twenty-nine
whites and a hundred and twenty Indians, passed Lake Champlain,
descended the Richelieu to Chambly, and fell suddenly on the
settlement of La Prairie, whence Frontenac had just withdrawn with his
forces. Soldiers and inhabitants were reaping in the wheat-fields.
Schuyler and his followers killed or captured twenty-five, including
several women. He wished to attack the neighboring fort, but his
Indians refused; and after burning houses, barns, and hay-ricks, and
killing a great number of cattle, he seated himself with his party at
dinner in the adjacent woods, while cannon answered cannon from
Chambly, La Prairie, and Montreal, and the whole country was astir.
"We thanked the Governor of Canada," writes Schuyler, "for his salute
of heavy artillery during our meal." [Footnote: _Journal of Captain
John Schuyler_, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 285. Compare La Potherie,
III. 101, and _Relation de Monseignat_.]

The English had little to boast in this affair, the paltry termination
of an enterprise from which great things had been expected. Nor was it
for their honor to adopt the savage and cowardly mode of warfare in
which their enemies had led the way. The blow that had been struck was
less an injury to the French than an insult; but, as such, it galled
Frontenac excessively, and he made no mention of it in his despatches
to the court. A few more Iroquois attacks and a few more murders kept
Montreal in alarm till the tenth of October, when matters of deeper
import engaged the governor's thoughts.

A messenger arrived in haste at three o'clock in the afternoon, and
gave him a letter from Prévost, town major of Quebec. It was to the
effect that an Abenaki Indian had just come over land from Acadia,
with news that some of his tribe had captured an English woman near
Portsmouth, who told them that a great fleet had sailed from Boston to
attack Quebec. Frontenac, not easily alarmed, doubted the report.
Nevertheless, he embarked at once with the intendant in a small
vessel, which proved to be leaky, and was near foundering with all on
board. He then took a canoe, and towards evening set out again for
Quebec, ordering some two hundred men to follow him. On the next day,
he met another canoe, bearing a fresh message from Prévost, who
announced that the English fleet had been seen in the river, and that
it was already above Tadoussac. Frontenac now sent back Captain de
Ramsay with orders to Callières, governor of Montreal, to descend
immediately to Quebec with all the force at his disposal, and to
muster the inhabitants on the way. Then he pushed on with the utmost
speed. The autumnal storms had begun, and the rain pelted him without
ceasing; but on the morning of the fourteenth he neared the town. The
rocks of Cape Diamond towered before him; the St. Lawrence lay beneath
them, lonely and still; and the Basin of Quebec outspread its broad
bosom, a solitude without a sail. Frontenac had arrived in time.

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