Book: Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV

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




At length, one of the ships, which had suffered most, hauled off and
abandoned the fight. That of the admiral had fared little better, and
now her condition grew desperate. With her rigging torn, her mainmast
half cut through, her mizzen-mast splintered, her cabin pierced, and
her hull riddled with shot, another volley seemed likely to sink her,
when Phips ordered her to be cut loose from her moorings, and she
drifted out of fire, leaving cable and anchor behind. The remaining
ships soon gave over the conflict, and withdrew to stations where they
could neither do harm nor suffer it. [Footnote: Besides authorities
before cited, Le Clercq, _Établissement de la Foy_, II. 434; La
Potherie, III. 118; _Rapport de Champigny, Oct_., 1690; Laval, _Lettre
à_ ----, 20 _Nov_., 1690.]

Phips had thrown away nearly all his ammunition in this futile and
disastrous attack, which should have been deferred till the moment
when Walley, with his land force, had gained the rear of the town.
Walley lay in his camp, his men wet, shivering with cold, famished,
and sickening with the small-pox. Food, and all other supplies, were
to have been brought him by the small vessels, which should have
entered the mouth of the St. Charles and aided him to cross it. But he
waited for them in vain. Every vessel that carried a gun had busied
itself in cannonading, and the rest did not move. There appears to
have been insubordination among the masters of these small craft, some
of whom, being owners or part-owners of the vessels they commanded,
were probably unwilling to run them into danger. Walley was no
soldier; but he saw that to attempt the passage of the river without
aid, under the batteries of the town and in the face of forces twice
as numerous as his own, was not an easy task. Frontenac, on his part,
says that he wished him to do so, knowing that the attempt would ruin
him. [Footnote: _Frontenac au Ministre, 12 et 19 Nov_., 1690.] The New
England men were eager to push on; but the night of Thursday, the day
of Phips's repulse, was so cold that ice formed more than an inch in
thickness, and the half-starved militia suffered intensely. Six
field-pieces, with their ammunition, had been sent ashore; but they
were nearly useless, as there were no means of moving them. Half a
barrel of musket powder, and one biscuit for each man, were also
landed; and with this meagre aid Walley was left to capture Quebec. He
might, had he dared, have made a dash across the ford on the morning
of Thursday, and assaulted the town in the rear while Phips was
cannonading it in front; but his courage was not equal to so desperate
a venture. The firing ceased, and the possible opportunity was lost.
The citizen soldier despaired of success; and, on the morning of
Friday, he went on board the admiral's ship to explain his situation.
While he was gone, his men put themselves in motion, and advanced
along the borders of the St. Charles towards the ford. Frontenac, with
three battalions of regular troops, went to receive them at the
crossing; while Sainte-Hélène, with his brother Longueuil, passed the
ford with a body of Canadians, and opened fire on them from the
neighboring thickets. Their advance parties were driven in, and there
was a hot skirmish, the chief loss falling on the New England men, who
were fully exposed. On the side of the French, Sainte-Hélène was
mortally wounded, and his brother was hurt by a spent ball. Towards
evening, the Canadians withdrew, and the English encamped for the
night. Their commander presently rejoined them. The admiral had given
him leave to withdraw them to the fleet, and boats were accordingly
sent to bring them off; but, as these did not arrive till about
daybreak, it was necessary to defer the embarkation till the next
night.

At dawn, Quebec was all astir with the beating of drums and the
ringing of bells. The New England drums replied; and Walley drew up
his men under arms, expecting an attack, for the town was so near that
the hubbub of voices from within could plainly be heard. The noise
gradually died away; and, except a few shots from the ramparts, the
invaders were left undisturbed. Walley sent two or three companies to
beat up the neighboring thickets, where he suspected that the enemy
was lurking. On the way, they had the good luck to find and kill a
number of cattle, which they cooked and ate on the spot; whereupon,
being greatly refreshed and invigorated, they dashed forward in
complete disorder, and were soon met by the fire of the ambushed
Canadians. Several more companies were sent to their support, and the
skirmishing became lively. Three detachments from Quebec had crossed
the river; and the militia of Beauport and Beaupré had hastened to
join them. They fought like Indians, hiding behind trees or throwing
themselves flat among the bushes, and laying repeated ambuscades as
they slowly fell back. At length, they all made a stand on a hill
behind the buildings and fences of a farm; and here they held their
ground till night, while the New England men taunted them as cowards
who would never fight except under cover. [Footnote: _Relation de la
Descente des Anglois_.] Walley, who with his main body had stood in
arms all day, now called in the skirmishers, and fell back to the
landing-place, where, as soon as it grew dark, the boats arrived from
the fleet. The sick men, of whom there were many, were sent on board,
and then, amid floods of rain, the whole force embarked in noisy
confusion, leaving behind them in the mud five of their cannon. Hasty
as was their parting, their conduct on the whole had been creditable;
and La Hontan, who was in Quebec at the time, says of them, "They
fought vigorously, though as ill-disciplined as men gathered together
at random could be; for they did not lack courage, and, if they
failed, it was by reason of their entire ignorance of discipline, and
because they were exhausted by the fatigues of the voyage." Of Phips
he speaks with contempt, and says that he could not have served the
French better if they had bribed him to stand all the while with his
arms folded. Some allowance should, nevertheless, be made him for the
unmanageable character of the force under his command, the
constitution of which was fatal to military subordination.

On Sunday, the morning after the re-embarkation, Phips called a
council of officers, and it was resolved that the men should rest for
a day or two, that there should be a meeting for prayer, and that, if
ammunition enough could be found, another landing should be attempted;
but the rough weather prevented the prayer-meeting, and the plan of a
new attack was fortunately abandoned.

Quebec remained in agitation and alarm till Tuesday, when Phips
weighed anchor and disappeared, with all his fleet, behind the Island
of Orleans. He did not go far, as indeed he could not, but stopped
four leagues below to mend rigging, fortify wounded masts, and stop
shot-holes. Subercase had gone with a detachment to watch the retiring
enemy; and Phips was repeatedly seen among his men, on a scaffold at
the side of his ship, exercising his old trade of carpenter. This
delay was turned to good use by an exchange of prisoners. Chief among
those in the hands of the French was Captain Davis, late commander at
Casco Bay; and there were also two young daughters of Lieutenant
Clark, who had been killed at the same place. Frontenac himself had
humanely ransomed these children from the Indians; and Madame de
Champigny, wife of the intendant, had, with equal kindness, bought
from them a little girl named Sarah Gerrish, and placed her in charge
of the nuns at the Hôtel-Dieu, who had become greatly attached to her,
while she, on her part, left them with reluctance. The French had the
better in these exchanges, receiving able-bodied men, and returning,
with the exception of Davis, only women and children. The heretics
were gone, and Quebec breathed freely again. Her escape had been a
narrow one; not that three thousand men, in part regular troops,
defending one of the strongest positions on the continent, and
commanded by Frontenac, could not defy the attacks of two thousand raw
fishermen and farmers, led by an ignorant civilian, but the numbers
which were a source of strength were at the same time a source of
weakness. [Footnote: The small-pox had left probably less than 2,000
effective men in the fleet when it arrived before Quebec. The number
of regular troops in Canada by the roll of 1689 was 1,418. Nothing had
since occurred to greatly diminish the number. Callières left about
fifty in Montreal, and perhaps also a few in the neighboring forts.
The rest were in Quebec.] Nearly all the adult males of Canada were
gathered at Quebec, and there was imminent danger of starvation.
Cattle from the neighboring parishes had been hastily driven into the
town; but there was little other provision, and before Phips retreated
the pinch of famine had begun. Had he come a week earlier or stayed a
week later, the French themselves believed that Quebec would have
fallen, in the one case for want of men, and in the other for want of
food.

The Lower Town had been abandoned by its inhabitants, who bestowed
their families and their furniture within the solid walls of the
seminary. The cellars of the Ursuline convent were filled with women
and children, and many more took refuge at the Hôtel-Dieu. The beans
and cabbages in the garden of the nuns were all stolen by the
soldiers; and their wood-pile was turned into bivouac fires. "We were
more dead than alive when we heard the cannon," writes Mother
Juchereau; but the Jesuit Fremin came to console them, and their
prayers and their labors never ceased. On the day when the firing was
heaviest, twenty-six balls fell into their yard and garden, and were
sent to the gunners at the batteries, who returned them to their
English owners. At the convent of the Ursulines, the corner of a nun's
apron was carried off by a cannon-shot as she passed through her
chamber. The sisterhood began a _novena_, or nine days' devotion, to
St. Joseph, St. Ann, the angels, and the souls in purgatory; and one
of their number remained day and night in prayer before the images of
the Holy Family. The bishop came to encourage them; and his prayers
and his chants were so fervent that they thought their last hour was
come. [Footnote: _Récit d'une Réligieuse Ursuline_, in _Les Ursulines
de Québec_, I. 470.]

The superior of the Jesuits, with some of the elder members of the
Order, remained at their college during the attack, ready, should the
heretics prevail, to repair to their chapel, and die before the altar.
Rumor exaggerated the numbers of the enemy, and a general alarm
pervaded the town. It was still greater at Lorette, nine miles
distant. The warriors of that mission were in the first skirmish at
Beauport; and two of them, running off in a fright, reported at the
village that the enemy were carrying every thing before them. On this,
the villagers fled to the woods, followed by Father Germain, their
missionary, to whom this hasty exodus suggested the flight of the Holy
Family into Egypt. [Footnote: "Il nous ressouvint alors de la fuite de
Nostre Seigneur en Égypte." Père Germain, _Relation_.] The Jesuits
were thought to have special reason to fear the Puritan soldiery, who,
it was reported, meant to kill them all, after cutting off their ears
to make necklaces. [Footnote: _Ibid_.]

When news first came of the approach of Phips, the bishop was absent
on a pastoral tour. Hastening back, he entered Quebec at night, by
torchlight, to the great joy of its inmates, who felt that his
presence brought a benediction. He issued a pastoral address,
exhorting his flock to frequent and full confession and constant
attendance at mass, as the means of insuring the success of their
arms. [Footnote: _Lettre pastorale pour disposer les Peuples de ce
Diocèse à se bien déffendre contre les Anglois_ (Reg. de l'Évêché de
Québec).] Laval, the former bishop, aided his efforts. "We appealed,"
he writes, "to God, his Holy Mother, to all the Angels, and to all the
Saints." [Footnote: _Laval à ----, Nov_. 20, 1690.] Nor was the appeal
in vain: for each day seemed to bring some new token of celestial
favor; and it is not surprising that the head-winds which delayed the
approach of the enemy, the cold and the storms which hastened his
departure, and, above all, his singularly innocent cannonade, which
killed but two or three persons, should have been accepted as proof of
divine intervention. It was to the Holy Virgin that Quebec had been
most lavish of its vows, and to her the victory was ascribed.

One great anxiety still troubled the minds of the victors. Three
ships, bringing large sums of money and the yearly supplies for the
colony, were on their way to Quebec; and nothing was more likely than
that the retiring fleet would meet and capture them. Messengers had
been sent down the river, who passed the English in the dark, found
the ships at St. Paul's Bay, and warned them of the danger. They
turned back, and hid themselves within the mouth of the Saguenay; but
not soon enough to prevent Phips from discovering their retreat. He
tried to follow them; but thick fogs arose, with a persistent tempest
of snow, which completely baffled him, and, after waiting five days,
he gave over the attempt. When he was gone, the three ships emerged
from their hiding-place, and sailed again for Quebec, where they were
greeted with a universal jubilee. Their deliverance was ascribed to
Saint Ann, the mother of the Virgin, and also to St. Francis Xavier,
whose name one of them bore.

Quebec was divided between thanksgiving and rejoicing. The captured
flag of Phips's ship was borne to the cathedral in triumph; the bishop
sang _Te Deum_; and, amid the firing of cannon, the image of the
Virgin was carried to each church and chapel in the place by a
procession, in which priests, people, and troops all took part. The
day closed with a grand bonfire in honor of Frontenac.

One of the three ships carried back the news of the victory, which was
hailed with joy at Versailles; and a medal was struck to commemorate
it. The ship carried also a despatch from Frontenac. "Now that the
king has triumphed by land and sea," wrote the old soldier, "will he
think that a few squadrons of his navy would be ill employed in
punishing the insolence of these genuine old parliamentarians of
Boston, and crushing them in their den and the English of New York as
well? By mastering these two towns, we shall secure the whole
sea-coast, besides the fisheries of the Grand Bank, which is no slight
matter: and this would be the true, and perhaps the only, way of
bringing the wars of Canada to an end; for, when the English are
conquered, we can easily reduce the Iroquois to complete submission."
[Footnote: _Frontenac au Ministre, 9 et 12 Nov_., 1690.]

Phips returned crestfallen to Boston late in November; and one by one
the rest of the fleet came straggling after him, battered and
weather-beaten. Some did not appear till February, and three or four
never came at all. The autumn and early winter were unusually stormy.
Captain Rainsford, with sixty men, was wrecked on the Island of
Anticosti, where more than half their number died of cold and misery.
[Footnote: Mather, _Magnalia_, I. 192.] In the other vessels, some
were drowned, some frost-bitten, and above two hundred killed by
small-pox and fever.

At Boston, all was dismay and gloom. The Puritan bowed before "this
awful frown of God," and searched his conscience for the sin that had
brought upon him so stern a chastisement. [Footnote: _The Governor and
Council to the Agents of Massachusetts_, in _Andros Tracts_, III. 53.]
Massachusetts, already impoverished, found herself in extremity. The
war, instead of paying for itself, had burdened her with an additional
debt of fifty thousand pounds. [Footnote: _Address of the Gentry,
Merchants, and others, Ibid_., II. 236.] The sailors and soldiers were
clamorous for their pay; and, to satisfy them, the colony was forced
for the first time in its history to issue a paper currency. It was
made receivable at a premium for all public debts, and was also
fortified by a provision for its early redemption by taxation; a
provision which was carried into effect in spite of poverty and
distress. [2]

Massachusetts had made her usual mistake. She had confidently believed
that ignorance and inexperience could match the skill of a tried
veteran, and that the rude courage of her fishermen and farmers could
triumph without discipline or leadership. The conditions of her
material prosperity were adverse to efficiency in war. A trading
republic, without trained officers, may win victories; but it wins
them either by accident or by an extravagant outlay in money and life.


[1] On this affair, Walley, _Journal_; Savage, _Account of the
Late Action_ (in a letter to his brother); Monseignat, _Relation;
Relation de la Descente des Anglois; Relation de_ 1682-1712; La
Hontan, I. 213. "M. le comte de Frontenac se trouva avec 3,000
hommes." Belmont, _Histoire du Canada_, A.D. 1690. The prisoner
Captain Sylvanus Davis, in his diary, says, as already mentioned, that
on the day before Phips's arrival so many regulars and militia arrived
that, with those who came with Frontenac, there were about 2,700. This
was before the arrival of Callières, who, according to Davis, brought
but 300. Thus the three accounts of the deserter, Belmont, and Davis,
tally exactly as to the sum total.

An enemy of Frontenac writes, "Ce n'est pas sa présence qui fit
prendre la fuite aux Anglois, mais le grand nombre de François
auxquels ils virent bien que celuy de leurs guerriers n'étoit pas
capable de faire tête." _Remarques sur l'Oraison Funèbre de feu M. de
Frontenac._

[2] The following is a literal copy of a specimen of this paper money,
which varied in value from two shillings to ten pounds:--

No. (2161) 10s

This Indented Bill of Ten Shillings, due from the Massachusetts Colony
to the Possessor, shall be in value equal to Money, and shall be
accordingly accepted by the Treasurer and Receivers subordinate to him
in all Publick Payments, and for any Stock at any time in the Treasury
Boston in New England, December the 10th. 1690. By Order of the
General Court.

+--------------+ PETER TOWNSEND }
| Seal of | ADAM WINTHROP } Com'tee
| Masachusetts | TIM. THORNTON }
+--------------+

When this paper came into the hands of the treasurer, it was burned.
Nevertheless, owing to the temporary character of the provisional
government, it fell for a time to the value of from fourteen to
sixteen shillings in the pound.

In the Bibliotheque Nationale is the original draft of a remarkable
map, by the engineer Villeneuve, of which a facsimile is before me. It
represents in detail the town and fortifications of Quebec, the
surrounding country, and the positions of the English fleet and land
forces, and is entitled _PLAN DE QUÉBEC, et de ses Environs, EN LA
NOUVELLE FRANCE, ASSIÉGÉ PAR LES ANGLOIS, le 16 d'Octobre 1690
jusqu'au 22 dud. mois qu'ils s'en allerent, apprès avoir esté bien
battus PAR Mr. LE COMTE DE FRONTENAC, gouverneur general du Pays._




CHAPTER XIV.

1690-1694.

THE SCOURGE OF CANADA.

IROQUOIS INROADS.--DEATH OF BIENVILLE.--ENGLISH ATTACK.--A DESPERATE
FIGHT.--MISERIES OF THE COLONY.--ALARMS.--A WINTER EXPEDITION.--LA
CHESNAYE BURNED.--THE HEROINE OF VERCHÈRES.--MISSION INDIANS.--THE
MOHAWK EXPEDITION.--RETREAT AND PURSUIT.--RELIEF ARRIVES.--FRONTENAC
TRIUMPHANT.


One of Phips's officers, charged with the exchange of prisoners at
Quebec, said as he took his leave, "We shall make you another visit in
the spring;" and a French officer returned, with martial courtesy, "We
shall have the honor of meeting you before that time." Neither side
made good its threat, for both were too weak and too poor. No more
war-parties were sent that winter to ravage the English border; for
neither blankets, clothing, ammunition, nor food could be spared. The
fields had lain untilled over half Canada; and, though four ships had
arrived with supplies, twice as many had been captured or driven back
by English cruisers in the Gulf. The troops could not be kept
together; and they were quartered for subsistence upon the settlers,
themselves half famished.

Spring came at length, and brought with it the swallows, the
bluebirds, and the Iroquois. They rarely came in winter, when the
trees and bushes had no leaves to hide them, and their movements were
betrayed by the track of their snow-shoes; but they were always to be
expected at the time of sowing and of harvest, when they could do most
mischief. During April, about eight hundred of them, gathering from
their winter hunting-grounds, encamped at the mouth of the Ottawa,
whence they detached parties to ravage the settlements. A large band
fell upon Point aux Trembles, below Montreal, burned some thirty
houses, and killed such of the inmates as could not escape. Another
band attacked the Mission of the Mountain, just behind the town, and
captured thirty-five of the Indian converts in broad daylight. Others
prowled among the deserted farms on both shores of the St. Lawrence;
while the inhabitants remained pent in their stockade forts, with
misery in the present and starvation in the future. Troops and militia
were not wanting. The difficulty was to find provisions enough to
enable them to keep the field. By begging from house to house, getting
here a biscuit and there a morsel of bacon, enough was collected to
supply a considerable party for a number of days; and a hundred and
twenty soldiers and Canadians went out under Vaudreuil to hunt the
hunters of men. Long impunity had made the Iroquois so careless that
they were easily found. A band of about forty had made their quarters
at a house near the fort at Repentigny, and here the French scouts
discovered them early in the night. Vaudreuil and his men were in
canoes. They lay quiet till one o'clock, then landed, and noiselessly
approached the spot. Some of the Iroquois were in the house, the rest
lay asleep on the ground before it. The French crept towards them, and
by one close volley killed them all. Their comrades within sprang up
in dismay. Three rushed out, and were shot: the others stood on their
defence, fired from windows and loopholes, and killed six or seven of
the French, who presently succeeded in setting fire to the house,
which was thatched with straw. Young François de Bienville, one of the
sons of Charles Le Moyne, rushed up to a window, shouted his name like
an Indian warrior, fired on the savages within, and was instantly shot
dead. The flames rose till surrounding objects were bright as day. The
Iroquois, driven to desperation, burst out like tigers, and tried to
break through their assailants. Only one succeeded. Of his companions,
some were shot, five were knocked down and captured, and the rest
driven back into the house, where they perished in the fire. Three of
the prisoners were given to the inhabitants of Repentigny, Point aux
Trembles, and Boucherville, who, in their fury, burned them alive.
[Footnote: _Relation de Bénac_, 1691; _Relation de ce qui s'est passé
de plus considérable en Canada_, 1690, 1691; La Potherie, III. 134;
_Relation de_ 1682-1712; _Champigny au Ministre_, 12 _May_, 1691. The
name of Bienville was taken, after his death, by one of his brothers,
the founder of New Orleans.]

For weeks, the upper parts of the colony were infested by wolfish
bands howling around the forts, which they rarely ventured to attack.
At length, help came. A squadron from France, strong enough to beat
off the New England privateers which blockaded the St. Lawrence,
arrived at Quebec with men and supplies; and a strong force was
despatched to break up the Iroquois camp at the Ottawa. The enemy
vanished at its approach; and the suffering farmers had a brief
respite, which enabled them to sow their crops, when suddenly a fresh
alarm was sounded from Sorel to Montreal, and again the settlers ran
to their forts for refuge.

Since the futile effort of the year before, the English of New York,
still distracted by the political disorders that followed the
usurpation of Leisler, had fought only by deputy, and contented
themselves with hounding on the Iroquois against the common enemy.
These savage allies at length lost patience, and charged their white
neighbors with laziness and fear. "You say to us, 'Keep the French in
perpetual alarm.' Why don't you say, 'We will keep the French in
perpetual alarm'?" [Footnote: Colden, 125, 140.] It was clear that
something must be done, or New York would be left to fight her battles
alone. A war-party was therefore formed at Albany, and the Indians
were invited to join it. Major Peter Schuyler took command; and his
force consisted of two hundred and sixty-six men, of whom a hundred
and twenty were English and Dutch, and the rest Mohawks and Wolves, or
Mohegans. [Footnote: _Official Journal of Schuyler_, in _N. Y. Col.
Docs_., III. 800.] He advanced to a point on the Richelieu ten miles
above Fort Chambly, and, leaving his canoes under a strong guard,
marched towards La Prairie de la Madeleine, opposite Montreal.

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