In mentioning these incidents, however, we have run ahead by two or three years of the strict sequence of events. Argenson, the new governor, arrived on the 11th July 1658. He had hardly been twenty-four hours at his post before the Iroquois gave him a hint what to expect by making a raid in the immediate neighbourhood of Quebec. In the following year the whole country, but particularly Quebec, was thrown into trepidation over the news that an army composed of twelve hundred warriors, gathered from the five Iroquois nations, was advancing with fixed determination to wipe out all the French settlements. It would be needless to repeat here, even if the limits of a very cursory narrative permitted it, the glorious feat of arms by which this great danger was turned aside from the colony. The story of our Canadian Thermopylæ is familiar to every school-boy and school-girl in Canada. Suffice it to say that the constancy of Dollard and the handful of companions who perished with him in defending a position they had hastily fortified on the river Ottawa, directly in the path of the invaders, so disheartened the latter that they relinquished their enterprise. When so few could hold so many at bay, what might not be expected when attack should be made on the fortified posts of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec? The abandonment, however, of their larger design did not involve any discontinuance of their accustomed mode of warfare. We hear of horrible butcheries committed on settlers in the neighbourhood of Montreal and even of Quebec; it seemed as if the colony could never get rest from its tormentors. The new governor was a man of courage and ability, but he lacked the means of effectually guarding against these treacherous attacks, while the destitute condition in which he found the colony filled him with discouragement. Whether general starvation or massacre was the more imminent danger was sometimes a grave question. Other difficulties arose. Argenson and Laval, the civil and religious heads of the state, found themselves at variance on points of ceremony and precedence; and the bishop, whose self-confidence was unbounded, undertook to give the governor certain doubtless well-meant admonitions, which the latter did not take in good part. The governor's health may, or may not, have been good, but he alleged that he was suffering from physical infirmities, and asked for his recall. He left for France in September 1661, his successor, Baron Dubois d'Avaugour, having arrived a few weeks previously. A remark which he made respecting the head of the Canadian church, in a letter written a year before his departure, may perhaps be put on record: "I can say with truth that his zeal on many occasions bears close resemblance to an extraordinary attachment to his own opinions, and a strong desire to encroach on the rights and duties of others."
The Baron d'Avaugour only remained two years in the country. When he arrived an earnest effort was being made by the clergy, headed by the bishop, to have the law against selling liquor to the Indians strictly enforced. The law was not popular in the country, and Avaugour thought it altogether too severe; still he allowed it to take effect in the case of two men who had been sentenced to death, and of one who had been condemned to be publicly whipped. Shortly afterwards a woman was imprisoned for a similar offence, and the Jesuit father, Lalemant, having pleaded for a relaxation of the law in her case, Avaugour, glad of a pretext to do away with it altogether, said that if the woman was not to be punished, no one should be. The result was that liquor began to be sold to the natives almost without restraint, and with effects which one of the ecclesiastics said he had no ink black enough to describe. Doubtless they were bad enough. The bishop fulminated from his episcopal throne against the practice, and launched excommunications right and left, but with little effect. He then decided on going to France and laying the whole matter before the government. He left in the summer of 1662; and it was while he was absent, that is to say in February of the following year, that an earthquake occurred of which the most extraordinary descriptions have come down to us. The only moderate account is that given by Avaugour himself, who says in a despatch: "On the 5th of February we had an earthquake, which continued during half a quarter of an hour, and was sufficiently strong to extort from us a good act of contrition. It was repeated from time to time during nine days, and was perceptible until the last of the month, but steadily diminishing." This was all an unimaginative mind like that of the baron could make of it, but not so with minds of another order. One pious soul saw four demons tugging at the four corners of the sky, and threatening universal ruin, which they would have effected had not a higher spirit appeared on the scene. We read that the air was filled with howlings as of lost spirits, and flashings of strange, unearthly lights, not to speak of a little detail of blazing serpents flying abroad on wings of fire. But the marvels that took place in the aerial regions were surpassed, if possible, by those that were witnessed on the solid earth. To take only one example out of many: some sailors coming from Gaspé, as Père Charlevoix relates, saw a mountain "skipping like a ram," after which it spun round several times, and finally sank out of sight. Houses swayed to and fro till their walls nearly touched the street, and yet righted themselves in the end. Quebec and Montreal, which, even at this early period, did not pull well together, were somewhat at variance concerning the significance of the phenomenon. At Montreal the favourite theory was that the devil was enraged to find God so well served in the colony; at Quebec the humbler view prevailed that the earthquake was a solemn warning to the people to abandon their evil ways, and be obedient to the teachings of the clergy. Considering that, despite the prohibitions of the clergy, the liquor traffic was just then at its height, the admonition could not have come more opportunely.
Laval, whose reputation for piety gave him great influence, the Abbé Faillon tells us, at the not altogether puritanical court of Louis XIV, was completely successful in his mission. Not only was the uncomplying Avaugour recalled, but the bishop himself was requested to nominate a successor. If the bishop had consulted the men by whom he had himself been chosen, he would likely have got good advice; but he followed his own judgment entirely and made a terrible blunder, as he did in a still more important matter some years later. His choice fell on a M. de Mézy, recommended to him by the possession of an exalted and almost hysterical type of piety; and the two embarking on the same vessel arrived at Quebec on the 15th September 1663.
It would be taking a very one-sided and radically unjust view of Laval's character to consider him simply as a man of ability with a strong propensity to autocratic rule. A man of ability he was, and his temper was unbending; but that, from first to last, he took the deepest and most unselfish interest in the welfare of the Canadian people, and also of the Indian tribes, is not open to a moment's question; nor can it be denied that his views on the whole were broad and statesmanlike. It was when he was in France, in 1662, that he arranged for the establishment of that historic institution, the Quebec Seminary, the higher development of which is seen in the Laval University of to-day. A few years after his return he established the Lesser Seminary (Petit Séminaire), as a school where boys could get a sound education under religious auspices, and whence the more promising among them might be drafted into the Grand Séminaire with a view to their preparation for the priesthood. Memorable also were the services rendered by him in the organization of a parochial system for Canada, which before his advent had been treated almost wholly as a mission field.
In February of the year 1663, the Company of New France, whose affairs had been going from bad to worse, made a voluntary surrender of all their rights and privileges to the king, leaving it to his discretion to make them such compensation as might be just for the capital they had sunk in their not very well-directed efforts. The king accepted the surrender, and, as a means of providing for the better administration of justice in the colony, and also the due control of its finances, he created by royal edict a Sovereign Council, which was to consist of the governor, the bishop, or other senior ecclesiastic, and five councillors chosen by them jointly. A year later he proceeded to charter a completely new company—as if the régime of companies had not been sufficiently tried—under the name of the West India Company. To it the entire trade of all the French possessions in America and on the west coast of Africa was transferred. The new company was virtually the creation of the great administrator, Colbert; and it may be assumed that he trusted to his own vigorous oversight and control to make it a success. He hoped, in fact, to succeed where a Richelieu had failed; experience had yet to teach him that no administrative ability, however eminent, can obtain prosperity from a system of close monopoly.
It was not long before Laval and his pocket governor (as he had hoped Mézy would be) found themselves at daggers drawn. The quarrel was of so trifling a character that its details need not detain us; suffice it to say, that Laval represented the case to the court and procured his nominee's dismissal. The unfortunate man, however, whose weak mind was assailed with the most distressing spiritual fears, when he found himself under the ban of the church, accomplished a hasty reconciliation with the offended powers, and died, desperately penitent, before his successor reached Canada.
The West India Company was empowered by its charter to nominate the governor of Canada, but had voluntarily ceded that power to the king. The latter, under the inspiration probably of Colbert, was now taking a great interest in Canada. He was not going to leave it any longer at the mercy of the Iroquois, if a thousand or more good French soldiers could avail for its protection. As lieutenant-general over all his possessions in America, he appointed a brave old soldier of much distinction, the Marquis de Tracy; as governor of Canada in particular, M. de Courcelles; and as intendant—a new office—M. Jean Baptiste Talon. The Carignan-Salières Regiment, about twelve hundred strong, had been detailed for service in Canada, and was sent out in detachments, which arrived at intervals during the summer; Tracy himself with four companies reaching Quebec in June. Many of the men were landed sick of fever; twenty had died on shipboard in the St. Lawrence. Mère l'Incarnation, in one of her letters, attributes the malady to their having opened the portholes when they got into the river, and let in the fresh air too suddenly. In these days one is apt to conjecture that it was the confined air, not the fresh air, that did the mischief, and that the portholes might with advantage have been opened earlier.
Tracy was eager to move against the enemy, but, as he was obliged to await the arrival of the rest of his troops, he improved the interval by erecting forts on the line of his intended march, one at the mouth of the river Richelieu, known at that time as the Iroquois River, a second at Chambly, some forty miles up the stream, and two others at points still higher up. While this work was in progress Courcelles, the governor, Talon, the intendant, and the remainder of the troops reached Quebec (September 1665). Courcelles was even more eager for war than his superior officer; and as it was too late when the forts were finished, and the health of the troops had been sufficiently restored, to attempt a summer campaign, he obtained the consent of the marquis to organize a mid-winter one. Old inhabitants, who knew something of the rigour of the climate and the difficulties to be encountered on the march, tried to dissuade him from his purpose, but in vain. With a fatuity, of which military history furnishes too many examples, Courcelles despised all such counsels of prudence. He started with five hundred men on the 10th of January, marching on the frozen St. Lawrence. The cold was fearful, and the expedition had proceeded but a short distance when the sufferings of the men became almost unendurable. At Three Rivers a number had to be left behind who had been disabled by frost-bites. Some reinforcements having been obtained at that point, the little army again set forth. Two hundred men out of the whole force were Canadians, and these naturally proved the fittest for the undertaking; nor did their superior quality fail to impress Courcelles. At last the expedition reached the Mohawk country, but the enemy were not there; they had gone off on some warlike adventure of their own. There was some burning of deserted cabins; but the position of the invading force began to be a precarious one, for the winter was now merging into spring, and there was danger that if the ice melted in the streams, their retreat would be cut off. The Mohawks were already hovering in their rear. By the time they reached the nearest of their forts they had lost sixty men by cold and hunger. The only thing that can be said in favour of the expedition is that it greatly impressed the minds of the Iroquois, as proving that the French had now the means of turning the tables on them and carrying the war into their own country.
The Iroquois showed some disposition to negotiate for peace; but nothing came of it, and in September a larger expedition set out, commanded by Tracy himself, with Courcelles as second in command. This time they not only reached the Iroquois country, but, the savages having fled in panic, they were able at their ease to destroy a number of fortified villages and large quantities of food that had been laid up for the winter. The Iroquois were deeply impressed by these vigorous proceedings. They saw that a great change had come over the situation and resources of the French colony, when, instead of submitting helplessly to attack, they could equip two expeditions in one year to seek them out in their own habitations. They hastened, therefore, to renew their propositions of peace, and, as this time they were clearly in earnest, Tracy concluded a peace with them which held good for several years. The colony now had a rest, and the beneficial effects of it were soon evident. Two years later the Jesuit annalist writes: "It is beautiful now to see nearly all the banks of our river St. Lawrence occupied by new settlements, stretching along more than eighty leagues, making navigation not only more agreeable by the sight of houses dotting the riverside, but also more convenient through an increase in the number of resting-places." A charming picture is here given in very simple words.
We have already had occasion to mention incidentally the dismissal by Tracy of Maisonneuve. Whatever the motive of this harsh act may have been, its consequences were most unhappy. Maisonneuve was a man of incorruptible integrity. His successor, François Marie Perrot, was a man of good family and fine appearance, who enjoyed considerable protection at court and needed it all, for he had simply the instincts of a dishonest trader, and used his office for the sole purpose of personal gain. Tracy's connection with Canada was brief, for he was recalled in the year following that in which he made his campaign against the Iroquois, and the government of the country was left in the hands of Courcelles and Talon; the former, as governor, representing the king in a military, political, and high administrative capacity; while the latter, as intendant, was entrusted with all that concerned the finances of the colony and its industrial and commercial development. The two heads of the state seem to have worked together at first, and for a considerable time, with commendable harmony. The governor was a judicious and capable administrator; the intendant, a man of wide views, of singular discretion, and of indefatigable industry. The Abbé Gosselin, in his Life of Laval, says that Talon "troubled himself little about the moral condition of the colony so long as he saw its commerce and industry flourishing"; and again that "he was never well disposed to the clergy, whose influence he feared, dreading that they might become too rich." It is probably the case that he was not very sympathetic with the ecclesiastical powers of the day, but he certainly did apply himself to promote the material prosperity of the colony. Amongst other things he caused three vessels to be built which were despatched to the West Indies with cargoes of dried fish, staves, and lumber; and also established a brewery at Quebec, in the hope of abating the consumption of imported spirits. If he did not achieve a larger measure of success, it was because little was possible under a system of combined monopoly and paternalism. His reports to the home government speak of the country as prosperous. In 1670 he writes that the money granted by the king for the encouragement of families, and the different industries established, have had such a good effect, that now no one dares to beg, unless perhaps some unprotected child too young to work, or some man too old to work or incapacitated by accident or disease.
A census of the country taken by the intendant in the year 1666 showed a total population of 3418. The estimated number of men capable of bearing arms being 1344. The old Company of the Hundred Associates was, by the terms of its contract to have brought 4000 settlers to the colony in fifteen years, dating from 1633; but Talon's figures proved that, in more than twice fifteen years, the whole population still fell considerably short of that number. The population of Quebec at this time was 555, of Montreal 584, and of Three Rivers 461. The seigniory of Beaupré below Quebec had 678 inhabitants and the Island of Orleans 471. The French government had for some years been showing much zeal in sending out settlers to Canada, and it was chiefly owing to its efforts that the population had increased to the extent indicated by the census. The total number of state-directed immigrants from 1664 to the close of the year 1671 is estimated at over 2500—a most substantial addition to the strength of the colony. The Sulpicians must also be credited with some useful activity in the cause of colonization. Their settlers were of course directed to Montreal, and, as the figures above quoted show, the population of that place already exceeded that of Quebec.
The patent granted to the Company of New France, or of the Hundred Associates, had made them lords of the whole territory of Canada, with power to concede seigniories therein of varying degrees of extent, importance and dignity. A few seigniories were established by that company; but, as we have seen, the country under its management was practically at a stand-still. All the rights which it had in the disposition of the land were transferred to the West India Company; and under Talon's régime the creation of seigniories proceeded much more rapidly, owing mainly to the fact that there were suitable applicants for them in the officers of the regiments which the king had sent out. The last few weeks he spent in the country were mainly occupied in this way. In one month he issued sixty patents.[5] This was entirely in accordance with the intentions of the French government, which had promised lands to any of the officers or soldiers of the Carignan Regiment who might elect to settle in the country. A large number accepted the proposition; and to provide wives for the excess of men existing in the colony the government was assiduous in sending out marriageable girls, on the whole very carefully selected, who as a rule were snapped up immediately on arrival by wistful bachelors or disconsolate widowers. If any were slow in finding partners owing to lack of visible attractions, they were bonused in money and household goods, which usually had the effect desired. Bounties were moreover paid throughout the colony for early and fruitful marriages; and the administrators were instructed to see that special respect was paid to the fathers of large families, and particularly to those who, having large families, had succeeded in marrying off their boys and girls at an early age. Contrariwise, fathers whose children showed backwardness in entering on matrimony were to be the objects of official displeasure. Parkman expresses the truth with his usual picturesque force when he says that, "throughout the length and breadth of Canada, Hymen, if not Cupid, was whipped into a frenzy of activity." A gratifying success attended these practical measures. By the year 1671 the total population had increased to six thousand. There were in that year seven hundred baptisms; and the bishop, from doubtless reliable sources of information, was able to promise the governor eleven hundred for the next year. Unfortunately infant mortality was in those days extremely high; or the population would indeed have been increasing by leaps and bounds.
It is a matter of regret that the early historians of Canada feel themselves obliged to record a decline in the morals of the country, dating from the arrival of the king's troops in 1665. Up to that time, we are told, the inhabitants—those in the Montreal district at least—had lived in a condition of pristine simplicity and innocence, recalling that of the early Christians. No one locked his house by day or night, the crime of theft being unknown. The ordinances of the church were strictly observed by the whole population; but, if on occasion any one failed in his duty, punishment promptly followed. For example, a man on the Island of Orleans, having eaten meat on a Friday, was fined twenty-five francs, half of which went to the parish church, and threatened with corporal punishment if he repeated the offence. "Here," observes the Abbé Faillon with quiet enthusiasm, "we see the true destination of the secular power."
But—ages of gold have a tendency to vanish away, and the Astraea of the French colony took her sad flight shortly after the Carignan-Salières Regiment arrived. These men had the pleasure-loving ways of soldiers, and war had not trained them to a very strict regard for personal rights or clerical admonitions. A ball was given at Quebec—the first ever held in the country—on the 4th February 1667. The clergy held their breath, not knowing what might follow. Many abuses, it would seem, followed: morals began to be relaxed; thefts became sufficiently common to bring bolts and locks into requisition; a Seneca chief was cruelly murdered by three soldiers; and shortly afterwards six Indians were massacred in their sleep by some settlers near Montreal. The object of the latter crime was to obtain possession of a large quantity of furs which the Indians had brought down to sell. That peace with the natives was gravely imperilled by these atrocious deeds may readily be imagined. It took all the firmness and tact of the governor to avoid an outbreak. The three soldiers were shot by his orders in the presence of a number of Indians. The other criminals seem to have escaped punishment by flight.
The last important act of Courcelles was to undertake a journey up the St. Lawrence as far as the outlet of Lake Ontario. The object of this adventure was to impress upon the more distant Iroquois tribes, who had boasted that they were out of reach of the French arms, that such was not the case. The idea which these savages had was that the only route by which the French could penetrate into their country was by way of the river Richelieu and Lake Champlain, in which case they would have first to pass through the "buffer" territory of the eastern Iroquois tribes. The rapids of the St. Lawrence, they thought, would effectually bar approach by way of Lake Ontario. To demonstrate their error, Courcelles gave orders for the construction of a flat-boat of two or three tons burden, which could be rowed in smooth water, and dragged up difficult places on the rapids. When this craft was ready, he manned it with a crew of eight men; and, taking also thirteen bark canoes, he ascended the river successfully with a party of over fifty men, including the governor of Montreal and other leading officials. The Iroquois (Cayugas and Senecas) took due note of the feat and revised their opinions accordingly.
In the following year both Courcelles and Talon were recalled at their own request. There had been friction between them for some time, and they seem to have thought that it would be best for the king's service that they should both retire. Whatever the causes of difference may have been, they did not squabble in public like some of their successors. The services of both were highly appreciated by the French government, and the departure of both from Canada was very generally and sincerely regretted.
CHAPTER III
THE BEGINNING OF FRONTENAC'S ADMINISTRATION
The information we possess respecting the life of Count Frontenac prior to his appointment to the governorship of Canada is far from being as complete as might be wished. Such particulars as the records of the period furnish have been carefully gathered by Parkman and others;[6] and it is doubtful whether any further facts of importance will come to light. He was born—there is nothing to show where—in 1620, one year after the great minister, Colbert, under whom he was destined to serve. His family belonged to the small principality of Béarn, now incorporated in the Department of the Basses Pyrénées, which, made an appanage to the French Crown by Henry of Navarre, was only formally incorporated with the kingdom of France in the very year in which Frontenac was born. His father, Henri de Buade, was colonel of the regiment of Navarre, but has not otherwise passed into history. His grandfather, Antoine de Buade, Seigneur de Frontenac and Baron de Palluau, was a man of more distinction, being not only state councillor under Henry IV, but first steward of the royal household and governor of St. Germain-en-Laye. He is described in the memoirs of Philip Hurault as "one of the oldest servants of the king." His children used to play familiarly with the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII; and the association thus formed lasted for some time after their playmate became king, which he did, nominally, at the age of nine, upon the assassination of his father, Henry IV. The Frontenac family was thus noble, though not of the highest nobility; and its connection with the domestic life of the royal family gave it no doubt an additional measure of influence. The youthful king, with whom the young Frontenacs played, became the father of Louis XIV.
Louis de Buade, Count Frontenac, the subject of this narrative, felt early in life a call to arms. The Thirty Years' War broke out in 1618; and when France, in 1635, under the astute guidance of Cardinal Richelieu, interfered on the Protestant side, Frontenac, then fifteen years of age, was sent to Holland to serve under the Prince of Orange. He seems to have acquitted himself with bravery and distinction in many different sieges and engagements both in the Low Countries and in Italy. He was wounded many times: at the siege of Orbitello in 1646 he had an arm broken. In this year he was raised to the rank of maréchal de camp, or brigadier-general. Three years before, at the age of twenty-three, he had been made colonel of the regiment of Normandy. His service appears to have been continuous, or nearly so, till the war was brought to a conclusion in 1648 by the Peace of Westphalia. In the year mentioned we find him resting from the alarms and fatigues of war in his father's house on the Quai des Célestins at Paris. Close by lived an attractive young lady of sixteen, daughter of a certain M. de la Grange-Trianon, Sieur de Neuville, with whom, as became his age and profession, the returned warrior fell deeply in love. His passion was returned sufficiently to lead the young lady, when her father's consent could not be obtained, to marry her suitor at one of the churches in Paris authorized to solemnize marriages, in more or less urgent cases, without the consent of parents. The marriage was not a happy one. Madame de Frontenac soon conceived a positive aversion for her husband, and they seem, at a very early period, to have ceased to live together, though not before the birth of a son. The child was placed in the charge of a village nurse, and little more is heard of him, except that when he grew up he embraced the profession of arms, and died, it is not certain how, at a comparatively early age. The mother joined the train of Mademoiselle de Montpensier. These were the days of the Fronde—the abortive rebellion against the fiscal iniquities of Mazarin during the minority of Louis XIV—and in following the fortunes of her patroness, whose father, the king's uncle, had joined the opposition, the young countess had some strange adventures.
What part, if any, Frontenac himself took in the troubles of the period, does not appear; probably none, for although somewhat turbulent by nature, as will abundantly appear hereafter, he was not without a large element of caution, particularly where persons in high authority were concerned. It is certain, at least, that, when the strife was over, he enjoyed a good position at court, as Mademoiselle de Montpensier notes, having met him more than once in the cabinet of the queen. He possessed a property on the Indre, in the neighbourhood of Blois, and here he attempted to keep up a state far beyond his income. "Your means are very slender and your waste is great," said the chief-justice to Sir John Falstaff; and the same observation might not inaptly have been addressed to Frontenac. He prided himself extravagantly upon his horses, his table, his servants—in a word, on everything that was his; entertained largely, and ran himself hopelessly into debt. In 1669 the French government sent a contingent to assist the Venetians in defending Candia (Crete), against the Turks. The Venetians offered to place their own troops under French command, and Frontenac had the high honour of being recommended by Turenne, the greatest military leader of the age, for the position. In this struggle the Turks triumphed; the island fell into their power; and Frontenac returned to France with enhanced military prestige, but without any amelioration of his financial position. Saint Simon describes him as "a man of good abilities, holding a prominent position in society, but utterly ruined." He adds that he could not bear the haughty temper of his wife, and that his appointment as governor of Canada was given to him in order to relieve him of her, and afford him some means of living. His wife's temper was not more haughty probably than his own; neither apparently was disposed to show any deference to the wishes of the other. Madame de Frontenac, who was a woman of keen intelligence, without any large amount of feminine tenderness, took too dispassionate a measure of her husband's qualities to satisfy his rather exacting self-esteem. She must have had some means of her own, for, though she did not go to court, she lived for many years surrounded by the best people and enjoying a high degree of social authority. Though she did not accompany her husband to Canada, and probably was not invited to do so, it is plausibly conjectured that her influence in court circles stood him in good stead on more than one occasion.
Frontenac's commission as governor was dated 6th April 1672, but he did not leave France till midsummer. It is interesting to know that M. de Grignan, Madame de Sévigné's son-in-law, was a candidate for the same position. Had he obtained it, and had his wife, the accomplished daughter of a still more accomplished mother, accompanied him, what flashes of light on Canadian society might we not have obtained from that mother's correspondence! Unfortunately no vestige of Frontenac's private correspondence with either his wife or any one else remains. Courcelles and Talon were still at Quebec when he arrived. From the former he obtained a full account of his expedition to Lake Ontario; and from the latter much information as to the general condition of the country, the various enterprises in the way of exploration that had already been undertaken, and the further ones that it might be well to organize. Frontenac, who had the eye of a soldier for a good military position, was much impressed by what Courcelles told him of Cataraqui; and from the first the idea of establishing a fortified post at that point took strong possession of his mind.
The new governor was not a young man—he was fifty-two years of age—but his natural force, either of body or of mind, was not abated. To a man of his tastes and habits there were many privations involved in a residence in a country like Canada; but there were compensations, the chief of which, perhaps, was to be found in the opportunity afforded him of exercising a semi-royal pomp and power; while a close second, it cannot be doubted, was the chance of rehabilitating his shattered fortunes. It would be unjust, at the same time, to suppose that the man who had fought through so many hard campaigns was not sincerely desirous of serving his king and country in the new position to which he had been assigned. The first important step that he took was a characteristic one, namely, an attempt to constitute in Canada the "three estates" of nobles, clergy, and people, of which the kingdom of France was nominally constituted. True, the three estates, or "States-General," as they were properly called, had not been summoned in the mother country since 1614, and it was doubtful if their existence as an organ of political authority, or even of political opinion, was more than theoretical. This fact might have caused another man to hesitate, but not Count Frontenac; to him the idea of gathering representatives of the country round him, marshalling them in their respective orders, and, after addressing them in the name of the king, requiring them to take the oath of allegiance in his presence, was too alluring to be put aside. So the summons went forth, and the assembly was held on one of the last days of October in the new church of the Jesuits. The "estates" were constituted, the oaths were taken, and the governor stirred the feelings of his audience, consisting, he says, of over a thousand persons, by referring to the victories which his royal master had that year achieved in his war with Holland. Everything, indeed, passed off beautifully; but when a report of the proceedings reached the minister, Colbert, his response was of a somewhat chilling nature. The immediate effect of the assembly might, perhaps, he said, be good, but "it is well for you to observe that, as you are always to follow the forms in force here, and as our kings have considered it for a long time advantageous not to assemble the States-General of their kingdom, with the object perhaps of insensibly abolishing that ancient form, you also ought only very rarely, or—to speak more correctly—never, give that form to the corporate body of the inhabitants of that country." Colbert did not even approve—though perhaps on this point he was expressing more particularly the views of the king—of the election of "syndics" to represent the interests of the population of Quebec. "Let every one," he said, "speak for himself; it is not desirable to have any one authorized to speak for all." This was absolutism with a vengeance. It answered for the day; but could the minister have looked forward to 1789 he would have seen that the "ancient form," which it was proposed to extinguish by desuetude, was destined, like a blazing star that suddenly flashes a strange light in the heavens, to leap into a new life, amazing, consuming, resistless.
The views of the governor, it must be admitted, were, in this whole matter, decidedly in advance of those of the minister, able administrator as the latter undoubtedly was. Frontenac had come to Canada to uphold the royal authority in the fullest sense, but he appears to have had a perception that, in a new country where so much responsibility was necessarily thrown upon individuals, there ought to be a certain measure of spontaneous political life. Masterful as he was himself by nature, it is not recorded that he ever dwelt on the necessity of repressing individual liberty; it is the intendant, Meulles, a dozen years later, who writes: "It is of very great importance that the people should not be allowed to speak their minds."[7]
No, the quarter in which Frontenac conceived the authority of his royal master might, perhaps, be threatened, was a different one altogether; in other words the battle he foresaw was not against the political aspirations of the people, but against the excessive claims and pretensions of the ecclesiastical power. This idea did not originate in his own mind. The instructions which he brought out with him, while they eulogized the zeal and piety of the Jesuits, hinted that they might seek to extend their authority beyond its proper limits, in which case Frontenac was to "give them kindly to understand the conduct they ought to observe"; and if they did not amend their ways, he was, as the document read, "skilfully to oppose their designs in such a way that no rupture may ensue, and no distinct intention on your part to thwart their purposes may be apparent." The court had, indeed, for several years been under the impression that cautions of this kind to its representatives were necessary. In Talon's instructions, drafted in the year 1664, the troubles that had occurred between previous governors and the bishop were rehearsed, and the inference was at least suggested that these might in part have arisen from the domineering spirit of the prelate. He had had his way with Argenson, Avaugour, and Mézy; but, if the civil power was not to pale entirely before the ecclesiastical, it was about time that the series of his victories should close. Other despatches to Courcelles, Bouteroue (interim intendant during Talon's temporary absence in France), and Frontenac himself contain observations of a like tenor.
The redoubtable vicar-apostolic was not in Canada when Frontenac arrived. He had sailed for France in the month of May to press the important matter of his appointment as bishop of Quebec. A letter which he wrote to the cardinals of the propaganda almost immediately on his arrival serves to show the reasons he had for desiring this change of status, and, incidentally, his opinion of the civil officers of the Crown. "I have learnt," he says, "by a long experience how insecure the office of vicar-apostolic is against those who are entrusted with political affairs, I mean the officers of the court, the perpetual rivals and despisers of the ecclesiastical power, who steadily contend that the authority of a vicar-apostolic is open to doubt, and should be kept within certain limits. That is why, having considered the whole matter very carefully, I have fully determined to resign that office, and not to return to New France, unless the bishopric of Quebec is constituted, and unless I am provided and armed with the bulls constituting me the Ordinary."[8] These are the words of a man who knows his own mind, and, we may add, of one who is prepared to fight his enemies to a finish. He may not have known, before he arrived in France, what man, and what kind of a man, had been selected as successor to Courcelles; but we may be sure that, when he found out, he was not less impressed than before with the need for a strengthening of his position.
Louis XIV had himself for thirteen years been pressing, at intervals, upon the Holy See the expediency of establishing a bishopric in New France, but without much success. There were some points of difference between the French court and the Roman authorities as to the conditions under which the projected diocese should be created, and the latter showed a wonderful skill in prolonging the negotiations. Finally, the only point in dispute was whether the new bishop should be a suffragan of one of the French archbishops, as desired by the king, or directly dependent on the Pope. This point was conceded by the king in December 1673; but it was not till October 1674 that the necessary bull was issued. In the following April Laval took the oath of fealty to the king as bishop of Quebec, with jurisdiction over the whole of Canada, and shortly afterwards he set sail for the scene of his pastoral labours. Thus it was that for nearly three years Frontenac had no direct relations with the head of the Canadian church.
Was this interval, then, one of peace? Not entirely. Frontenac defines his position and raises a note of alarm in his very first despatch to the minister for the colonies.[9] He was dissatisfied, he said, with "the complete subserviency of the priests of the seminary at Quebec, and the bishop's vicar-general to the Jesuit fathers, without whose orders they never do anything. Thus," he adds, "they [the Jesuits] are indirectly the masters of whatever relates to the spiritual, which, as you are aware, is a great machine for moving all the rest." He thinks they have gained an ascendency even over the Superior of the Récollets;[10] and he expresses the wish that the ecclesiastics of that order could be replaced by abler men who could hold their own against the Jesuit influence. He mentions that he had expressed his surprise in strong terms to the Jesuit fathers at Ste. Foy that not one of their Indian converts had been taught the French language, and had told them that they "should bethink themselves, when rendering the savages subjects of Jesus Christ, of making them subjects of the king also—that the true way to make them Christians was to make them men." The governor had probably noticed that lack of vigorous, self-helping manhood in the Indian converts, which is hinted at even in the Jesuit Relations, and which had certainly been conspicuous in the christianized Huron tribe in the crisis of their struggle with the Iroquois. As regards teaching them the French language, the missionaries had their own well-defined reasons for not doing so. They did not wish to bring them into too close contact with the French inhabitants, lest they should unlearn the lessons of morality and religion that had been taught to them. The great object which the priests had in view was to build up a kingdom not of this world; and, as the object which the king and his officers had mainly in view was to enlarge and strengthen the French dominions, it is not surprising that there was clashing now and again. Frontenac, in writing to Colbert, seems to have felt assured of sympathy in his somewhat anti-clerical, or, at least, anti-Jesuit, attitude; otherwise he would never have ventured to make, as he does in the same despatch, the unjustifiable statement that the Jesuit missionaries were quite as much interested in the beaver trade as in the conversion of souls, and that most of their missions were pure mockeries. It was of Colbert that Madame de Maintenon said: "He only thinks of his finances, and never of religion."
But while the elements of future trouble were plainly visible, no serious friction occurred during the first year of the new governor's administration. His relations with the Jesuit order were civil, and with the Sulpicians, at Montreal, and the Récollets entirely friendly. With the Sovereign Council, too, they were all that could be wished. His mind at this time was greatly taken up with the project he had in view of following in Courcelles' footsteps and establishing a military and trading post at Cataraqui. His general policy when he wanted to do a thing was not to ask permission beforehand, but to do it, and trust to the result for justification. Had he laboured under Nelson's disability, he would have been quite capable of turning his blind eye to a prohibitive signal, even after seeing it distinctly with his good one. In his despatch to Colbert of the 2nd November he mentions, in a casual way, that he proposes next spring to visit the place at the outlet of Lake Ontario where M. de Courcelles had projected the establishment of a fort, in order that he may be able "the better to understand its site and importance, and to see if, notwithstanding our actual weakness, it be not possible to create some establishment there that would also strengthen the settlement the gentlemen of Montreal [the Sulpicians] have already formed at Quinté." He adds: "I beg of you, my Lord, to be assured that I shall not spare either care or trouble, or even my life itself, if it be necessary, in the effort to accomplish something pleasing to you, and to prove the gratitude I shall ever feel for the favours I have received at your hands." This is quite effusive, and at the same time tolerably diplomatic. How could the minister do otherwise than approve an enterprise undertaken in so self-sacrificing a spirit, and one prompted by so much personal devotion to himself? Colbert might possibly have replied—if he had had the chance—by pointing Frontenac to his instructions, and asking him to show his devotion to duty by following them out as closely as possible. Those instructions contained the following clause, the tenor of which we shall find repeated in many subsequent communications from the home government: "Sieur de Frontenac is to encourage the inhabitants by all possible means to undertake the cultivation and clearing of the soil; and as the distance of the settlements from one another has considerably retarded the increase thereof, and otherwise facilitated the opportunities of the Iroquois for their destructive expeditions, Sieur de Frontenac will consider the practicability of obliging those inhabitants to make contiguous clearings, either by constraining the old colonists to labour at it for a certain time, or by making new grants to future settlers under this condition." There is not a word said about extending the boundaries of the colony, or throwing out advanced posts, or any other phase of the policy of expansion. The French government was in fact strongly anti-expansionist; but Frontenac, resembling in this point a later sage, did not think they knew everything in the "Judee" of the ministry of marine and colonies.
So, just about the time that the minister was inditing the despatch in which he gently chided the ebullient Frontenac for his rashness in summoning the States-General, the latter was preparing another little surprise for him. In the spring of the year he had given orders that men and canoes should be held in readiness for the contemplated movement; and, as the supply of available canoes was likely to fall short, he had ordered that a number of new ones should be built. He also directed the construction of two flat-boats, similar to the one used by Courcelles, but of twice the capacity. On the 3rd of June he started with a certain force from Quebec, and after visiting and inspecting different posts along the river, arrived at Montreal, the point of rendezvous, on the 15th of the same month. Here he was received, according to his own account, which there is no reason to question, with the greatest enthusiasm and éclat.
It may be interesting to pause for a moment and try to reconstruct in imagination the scene on which the grizzled and sun-beaten warrior gazed as he alighted from his canoe at five o'clock in the afternoon of that long, bright summer day. The river bank, which had become a common, was probably no longer flower-bespread as it was on that glorious morning in the month of May 1642 when Maisonneuve, Mademoiselle Mance, and their companions knelt in prayer on the soil which their labours and sacrifices were to consecrate; but the mountain, with its leafy honours thick upon it, stood forth in royal splendour, while cultivated fields, smiling with the promise of a harvest, sloped upwards to its base. In the foreground was the growing burg, full of life and animation on this memorable day. To the left was the fort built by Maisonneuve, no longer relied on for defence, but used chiefly as a residence for the local governor. The river front was as yet unoccupied by houses, the nearest line of which lay along what is now, as it was then, St. Paul Street, from St. Peter Street in the west to somewhat beyond the present Dalhousie Square in the east. Montreal as yet did not possess any parish church; the churches maintained by the different congregations, particularly that of the Hôtel Dieu, having up to this time been made to serve the needs of the population. The foundations of a regular parish church had been laid, but the work of construction was proceeding slowly, and five years had yet to elapse before the edifice was finished. The principal buildings were the Hôtel Dieu, which had lately lost its pious founder, Mademoiselle Mance; the Congrégation de Notre Dame, still conducted by the brave and cheery Margaret Bourgeoys; and the Seminary of St. Sulpice. The whole town, if we may so call it, was comprised between the eastern and western limits just defined, and the northern and southern ones of St. Paul and St. James Streets; even so, much the larger part of the contained space was not built up. A few of the wealthier merchants had erected substantial houses, and there was something already in the appearance of the place which suggested that it would have a future. We can imagine the zeal with which the local governor, Perrot, upon whose proceedings in the way of illicit traffic it is probable Frontenac already had an eye—an eye of envy the Abbé Faillon somewhat harshly suggests—would receive the king's direct representative. All the troops that the island could furnish were drawn up under arms at the landing-place, and salvos of artillery and musketry gave emphasis to the official words of welcome. The officers of justice and the "syndic"—the spokesman of the people in municipal matters—were next presented, and, after they had delivered addresses, a procession was formed to the church, at the door of which the clergy were waiting to receive the viceregal visitor with all due honour. By the time the appropriate services, including the chanting of the Te Deum, had been concluded, the sun had sunk behind the mountain. It was the hour for rest and refreshment, and the governor was conducted to the quarters assigned to him in the fort, beneath the windows of which tranquilly rolled the mighty flood of the St. Lawrence, still bright with the evening glow.
Frontenac had brought with him his military guard, consisting of twenty men or so, his staff, and a few volunteers. Additional men were to follow from Quebec, Three Rivers, and other places; and some were to be recruited at Montreal. In ten or twelve days everything was in readiness. A waggon-road had been made to Lachine, over which baggage, provisions, and munitions of war were conveyed; and a start was made from that point on the 30th June, the whole force consisting of about four hundred men, including some Huron Indians, in one hundred and twenty canoes and the two flat-boats already mentioned. Some time before setting out Frontenac had sent on, as an envoy to the five Iroquois nations, to invite them to a conference, Cavelier de la Salle, a man who had already penetrated some distance into the western country, and who was destined to achieve the highest fame as an explorer.
The voyage up the river was attended, as had indeed been expected, with serious difficulty. The united strength of fifty men was necessary to draw each of the flat-boats up the side of some of the rapids. The whole force, however, worked with the utmost zeal and good-will; the Hurons in particular accomplishing wonders of strength and endurance such as they had never been known to perform for any previous commander. But if portions of the journey were thus arduous, others were delightful. Thus we read in Frontenac's own narrative: "It would be impossible to have finer navigation or more favourable weather than we had on the 3rd of July, a light north-east breeze having sprung up which enabled our bateaux to keep up with the canoes. On the 4th we pursued our journey and came to the most beautiful piece of country that can be imagined, the river being strewn with islands, the trees in which are all either oak or other kinds of hard wood, while the soil is admirable. The banks on both sides of the river are not less charming, the trees, which are very high, standing out distinctly and forming as fine groves as you could see in France. On both sides may be seen meadows covered with rich grass and a vast variety of lovely wild flowers; so that it may be safely stated that from the head of Lake St. Francis to the next rapid above, you could not see a more beautiful country, if only it were cleared a bit."
On the 12th July, as the expedition was approaching Cataraqui in excellent military order, they were met by the Indians, who evinced much pleasure at seeing the count and his followers, and conducted them to a spot suitable for encampment. Some preliminary civilities were exchanged, but it was not till the 17th that serious negotiations were begun. The count, meanwhile, having found close by what he considered an advantageous location for his proposed fort, set his men to work to clear the ground, fell and square timber, dig trenches, etc., in a manner which fairly surprised the Indians, who were not accustomed to seeing building operations carried on so systematically and speedily. But if they were impressed by the working capacity of the expeditionary force, they were still more deeply influenced by the discourse of the governor and the presents which accompanied it. Had the count been a "black robe" himself, he could not have spoken with more unction or more unimpeachable orthodoxy in urging his savage hearers to embrace Christianity. He condensed, for the occasion, the whole of Christian teaching into the two great commandments of love to God and love to man, and appealed to the consciences of his hearers as to whether both were not entirely reasonable. This portion of his speech, in which he also declared that he desired peace both between the French and the Iroquois, and between the latter and all Indian tribes under French protection, was recommended by a present of fifteen guns and a quantity of powder, lead, and gunflints. Next he informed them of his intention to form a trading-post at Cataraqui. "Here," he said, "you will find all sorts of refreshments and commodities, which I shall cause to be furnished to you at the cheapest rate possible." He added, however, that it would be very expensive to bring goods so far, and that they must take that into consideration in criticizing prices. Twenty-five large overcoats were distributed at this point. In the third place he reproached them with their cruel treatment of the Hurons, and said that he meant to treat all the Indian nations alike, and wished all to enjoy equal security and equal advantages in every way. "See," he said, "that no complaints are made to me henceforward on this subject, for I shall become angry; as I insist that you Iroquois, Algonquins, and other nations that have me for a father, shall live henceforth as brothers." He asked also that they would let him have a few of their children that they might learn the French language and be instructed by the priests. Twenty-five shirts, an equal number of pairs of stockings, five packages of glass beads, and five coats were given to round off this appeal.
The reply of the delegates of the five Iroquois nations was in tone and temper all that could be wished. They thanked Onontio that he had addressed them as children, and were glad that he was going to assume towards them the relation of father. They readily consented to live at peace with the Hurons and Algonquins, and would, when they returned to their cantons, carefully consider the question of letting him have a certain number of their children. One delegate showed his financial acumen by observing that, while Onontio had promised to let them have goods as cheap as possible at the fort, he had not said what the tariff would be. To this the count replied that he could not say what the freight would amount to, but that considering them as his children, he would see that they were fairly treated. Another, a Cayugan, evinced his knowledge of current history by lamenting the calamities which the Dutch were suffering in their war with the French, trade relations between the Dutch and the Iroquois having always been very satisfactory. He consoled himself, however, with the thought that his nation would now find a father in Onontio.
While the negotiations were in progress, work on the fort was proceeding rapidly, and by the 20th of the month it was finished. The count then dismissed the body of his force, the men being anxious to return to their homes. He himself remained behind to meet some belated delegates from points on the north shore of Lake Ontario, whom he did not fail to reprove for their want of punctuality, after which, with rare liberality of speech, he repeated to them all he had said to the others. A few days' delay was also caused by the necessity of awaiting a convoy from Montreal with a year's provisions for the fort. Finally, on the 28th July, the governor and his party started on their homeward journey and arrived safely at Montreal on the 1st of August. During the whole expedition not one man or one canoe was lost.
The narrative of this expedition has been given in some detail because it sets in a strong light the better side of Frontenac's character. We see him here as the able and vigorous organizer, the firm, judicious, and skilful commander, the accomplished diplomat, and the lover of peace rather than war. Short a time as he had been in the country, he seemed already to understand the Indian character, and the Indians in turn understood him. His language in addressing them was direct and simple, frank and courageous. He had no hesitation in assuming the paternal relation, and won their hearts by doing so. But it was not only over savages that he exerted a natural ascendency, for we have seen the zeal and enthusiasm with which his orders were executed by the whole expeditionary force. Whatever weaknesses he may have had, it was not in the field or in active service that they were displayed.
The memorandum, which serves as authority for the facts just narrated, was addressed to Colbert, and sent to France by a ship sailing from Quebec shortly before the close of navigation. The minister's reply was dated 17th May of the following year. He does not at all congratulate Frontenac upon his exploit. "You will readily understand," he says, "by what I have just told you,[11] that his Majesty's intention is not that you undertake great voyages by ascending the river St. Lawrence, nor that the inhabitants spread themselves for the future further than they have already done. On the contrary, he desires that you labour incessantly, and during the whole time you are in that country, to consolidate, concentrate, and form them into towns and villages, that they may be in a better position to defend themselves successfully." In acknowledging this despatch, far from apologizing for what he had done, Frontenac told the minister that the very best results had flowed from it. More Indians had come to Montreal than ever before, eight hundred having been seen at one time; Iroquois, Algonquins, and Hurons were mixing with one another in the most friendly manner; the Jesuit missionaries among the Iroquois found their position greatly improved, and were never tired of saying so; and, finally, he had obtained the Indian children he had asked for, eight in number, who were being educated in the French fashion, and who would be a perpetual guarantee of the peaceful behaviour of the tribes to which they belonged. At the same time he says, that if the minister absolutely disapproves of the fort, he will go next year and pull it down with as much alacrity as he had put it up. This the minister did not insist on. In fact he was not long in coming round to Frontenac's view that considering all the circumstances of the case the fort was a necessity. One point of interest connected with its establishment, upon which Frontenac has left us in ignorance, is whom he appointed as its first commandant. A contemporary writer[12] tells us it was La Salle, and the statement is not improbable. It was La Salle, as we have seen, whom the governor sent to the Iroquois to invite them to the conference, and as he had acquitted himself of that mission in the most successful manner, it seems natural that he should have been the first chosen to command a post, the principal object of which was to serve as a convenient meeting-place for Iroquois and French. A temporary concession of the fort was made a year later to two Montreal merchants, Bazire and Lebert, but it passed again, in the following year, into the hands of La Salle, who had meantime gone to France and laid before the court certain larger schemes for which Fort Frontenac was to serve as a base, and which he obtained the king's authority to carry into effect.