Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 1. Under the French Régime, 1535-1760

He was a man of upright conduct, virtuous life and full of devotion for the development of the colony. He came with great ideas of his prerogatives as governor-general in relation to the subordinate position of a local governor such as obtained in other provinces of the kingdom of France. But he had to be made aware of the special privileges granted to Maisonneuve as the representative of the Company of Montreal.

Arriving at Montreal, he expected honours paid to him such as a governor-general would receive in France, when on entering a fortress he would have the keys given to him with other like signs of submission.

The governor of Montreal received him with politeness, but without absolutely refusing the keys, put difficulties in the way lest he should seem to acknowledge his inferior position to the representative of the Company of One Hundred Associates. The case required diplomacy and adroitness, and Maisonneuve acted tactfully. As for receiving the "mot d'ordre" he only accepted this on the third day and then he sent his major for it.

D'Argenson realized the situation which the independent Maisonneuve had created, and doubtless it is in consequence of these painful impressions that he penned the following pessimistic description of the settlement.

After complaining of his reception he adds: "I must talk with you about Montreal, a place which makes a deal of noise and is of little consequence. I speak from knowledge; I have been there this spring, and I can assure you that if I were a painter I should soon finish my picture of it.

"Montreal is an island, difficult enough to land at, even in a chaloupe, by reason of the great currents of the St. Lawrence river. These meet each other at its landing place, and particularly at a half league below. There is a fort where the chaloupes lay by, and which is falling into ruins. A redoubt has been commenced and a mill has been erected on a little eminence very advantageously situated for the defence of the settlement. There are about forty houses, nearly all facing one another, and in this they are well placed, since they in part defend one another. There are fifty heads of families and one hundred and sixty men in all. Finally, there are only two hundred arpents of land tilled, belonging to the Gentlemen of the Company, of which a half is appropriated to the hospital, so that no more than a hundred remains to them; and the enjoyment of these is not entirely theirs, these arpents having been cultivated by private individuals, to whom have been given the fruits of their labour until these Gentlemen of the Company of Montreal shall have furnished the equivalent of their work on the concessions belonging to the habitants."

Governor d'Argenson's short stay in Montreal makes his account slightly inaccurate for, besides the portion of the hundred acres already cultivated, which were only lent temporarily, the habitants were allowed, at a convenient time, to break land on the rest of the Domain of the Seigneurs, in quantity they required according to their concessions, whether it was land on which timber was still standing or where it was simply felled and not cut.

If d'Argenson had arrived later, when the reinforcement of 109 men sent out by the Sulpicians in the fall had built the fortified houses of St. Gabriel and Ste. Marie, his picture would have taken longer to paint; but he arrived at a time when the labourers had to abandon their fields for fear of Iroquois ambuscades. Still the long stretch of land, dotted with charred and blackened stumps, between which the few tilled arpents could be seen sparse and thin in the early spring, would have looked a barren and a gloomy sight to a jaundiced critic had he been able to be unimpressed by the beauty of Mount Royal dignifying the landscape. Moreover, the little progress made after seventeen years must have surprised him. We must not, therefore, be too hard on the young governor-general, then thirty-three years old. For his government was one of the best of those yet sent to represent France, and his bravery and good judgment did much to restrain the Iroquois; but he was abandoned by the company he represented as well as by the French government. He could not depend on the help of Montreal to share his expenses, nor upon the poverty-stricken habitants of Quebec. The main support of the colony, trade in peltry, was bad at Quebec. Living was very expensive and no laughing matter. His own salary of 2,000 écus and the grant of 2,000 others for the upkeep of the garrison were not enough to sustain the situation. It is no wonder that we find him writing, in August, that he did not see the advantage of continuing in his office, especially as he urged the plea of bad health. Still he was not recalled from his arduous and unremunerative position, but continued to give fresh proof of his zeal for the good of the colony.

Meanwhile in France, steps were being taken which would bring M. de Laval to the ecclesiastical rule of Canada, thus unifying the ecclesiastical system, at present endangered by the presence of two vicar generals of the diocese of Rouen.

We have related the early events of the Montreal Company to secure a bishop for Canada as far back as 1645. But the contention of the Jesuits that the time was not ripe in the then unprogressive state of the colony, together with the unsettled times, with war nearly always impending, had delayed such an appointment. We have seen the agitation renewed by the Company on de Maisonneuve's late visit when their candidate was M. de Queylus; while that of the Jesuits, who were now more ready to admit the advisability of a bishop, was one of their former students at the Collège Royal of La Flèche and now a secular priest, François de Laval de Montmorency. They had not desired one of themselves to be appointed, since it was not in accordance with their constitution to seek dignities, and consequently in 1650 the names of the Canadian Jesuits, Charles Lalemant, Ragueneau and Le Jeune, submitted by the Company of the Hundred Associates, were withdrawn as candidates by Goswin Nickel, the vicar general of the order.

We have seen sufficient of the ecclesiastical troubles between Père de Quen, the ecclesiastical superior of Quebec, and M. de Queylus, that of Montreal, both "grands vicaires" of the archbishop of Rouen, to see that a bishop was necessary to restore the unity of government. The experience that the Jesuits had had of M. de Queylus made them more anxious than ever to push their candidate.

François de Laval was born on April 30, 1622, in the Château de Montigny-sur-Aure in the diocese of Chartres, of the illustrious house of Montmorency. At the age of nine years he was sent to the Royal College of La Flèche, taught by the Jesuits, to commence his literary studies. He finished his philosophy course in 1641, and during that time he had made the acquaintance of many Jesuit priests who afterwards joined the Canadian mission. The next four years he studied theology at Paris, till 1645. It was thought that he would take priest's orders, but on the death of his two brothers in 1644 and 1645 he was persuaded by his cousin, the bishop of Evreux, to renounce his canonship in the cathedral of Evreux and take his brother's place in the family in caring for his mother, Madame de Montigny. The bishop died on July 22, 1646, not before repenting of his advice to François, whom he exhorted to go back to the priesthood, and he named him archdeacon of the church of Evreux. Laval now renounced his right of primogeniture and his title to the Seigneury of Montigny in favor of his brother, Jean Louis de Laval, and taking his degree in canon law, received priesthood orders on September 22, 1647.

He arrived unannounced at Quebec, on June 16th, as a simple vicar apostolic, a bishop indeed, but with his see in far-off Arabia, and shorn of the dignity of canons and a chapter, and the external emblems of a bishop in his own see. The colony could not support, with its scanty revenues, such a position. Still he was the first ecclesiastical superior, and thus he brought unity to the church government, then split between the superior of the Jesuits at Quebec and the Abbé de Queylus, at Montreal.

On arriving Laval found the colony in two divisions: on the one side, the majority, composed of the missionaries, the communities of religious women, and those colonists most sincerely devoted to the church; on the other the governor, the partisans of the Abbé de Queylus and a group of traders who scented trouble on the appearance of a man whose unflinching character would not allow him to truckle his duty or his conscience.

The situation was greatly cleared when, seven weeks after the arrival of Laval, de Queylus went down from Montreal, reaching Quebec on September 7th, and gave his submission and ceased to be grand vicaire. At first he was uncertain whether his own powers as independent head of the church in Montreal still held good, but the letters patent of the king, dated March 27, 1659, received by d'Argenson, left no doubt on the point.

Thus submission was made all the easier because de Queylus did not know of the determination of the archbishop of Rouen to maintain him in his function in Montreal. Indeed new letters patent, with a letter from the king, dated May 11, 1659, were now on the way, confirming him in his position without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the vicar apostolic.

On May 14, 1659, the king, repenting of his letter to Mgr. de Harlay, sent two lettres de cachet, one to Laval and the other to Governor d'Argenson, derogating the appointment of May 11th.

The king's letter to d'Argenson contained this: "The letter that I have accorded to the archbishop of Rouen, it is my intention that neither he nor the grands vicaires shall avail themselves of, until by the authority of the church it has been declared if this archbishop is in the right in his pretension that new France is in his diocese."

All these letters arrived by the St. André on September 8th, with the reinforcement brought back by Marguerite Bourgeoys and Jeanne Mance.

After the conflicting nature of their contents were mastered the position of de Queylus remained as after his submission.

Queylus returned to Montreal and later came back to Quebec, from which he departed on October 2d on the St. André on its return voyage.

The causes of his departure are shrouded in silence, and in guarded words d'Argenson writes: "I do not send you the reasons in writing for fear lest the letter shall fall into other hands."

Dollier de Casson says: "After the arrival of the reinforcement and of the Hospitalières at Ville Marie we witnessed the return of M. de Queylus to France, which afflicted this place very much," adding as a commentary: "Thus in this life are its sweets mixed with bitterness." Laval in his letter to the Propaganda laconically says: "In Galliam ipse transfretavit" (he sailed over to France).

This would look as if the voyage was of a voluntary nature. It was otherwise. Laval feared the opposition of de Queylus; he looked upon him as a rival, a disturber of the peace by his continued presence in the country, and had written to France shortly after his arrival, asking a lettre de cachet for his removal. M. de Queylus was a powerful personality and had the support of an active minority. Already on his return to Montreal in the previous year the two other secular priests, chaplains of the convent, at Quebec, had left Canada on this account, and sixty persons had accompanied him on his journey back to Montreal on that occasion.

After his recent visit to Laval and while he was welcoming new recruits at Montreal, the lettre de cachet arrived for his departure.

Speaking of the position of Laval after the receipt of the letter of May 11th, the journal of the Jesuits on September 7th says that "he disposed all things sovereignly at Quebec and Montreal." Laval's critics would translate it "imperiously" or "high-handedly," for, according to the history of Canada by M. Belmont, Laval, in acquainting de Queylus of his recall persuaded the governor to assist the departure of his friend from Montreal with a squad of soldiers; or rather, as M. d'Allet, his secretary, reports in his Mémoire, "with a considerable number of our men as for some military expedition." But may not this escort have been one of honour and protection in war time rather than one of ignominy? The governor general himself carried out this order and this escort may therefore have been appropriate on such an occasion, both for the governor and his friend. Two others were removed with the late grand vicaire, M. d'Allet and another Sulpician, though d'Allet got no further than Quebec, at which place sickness detained him during the winter.

We can imagine the grief of the Montrealers watching their departure at the little harbour at the mouth of the St. Peter River near the fort. But though silenced at present, Queylus is not finally suppressed, for we shall find him back again at Montreal before the end of two years. In the meantime he was determined to clinch the matter of the disputed jurisdiction. Before leaving, however, he had the satisfaction of having received on September 7th at Quebec, and having accompanied to Montreal, the new recruits led by Jeanne Mance and Marguerite Bourgeoys, whose experiences, since leaving Ville Marie in the previous year, must now be chronicled.

After the cure of her hand and wrist on February 2, 1659, Jeanne Mance visited Madame de Bullion, who gave her 22,000 livres, of which 20,000 were to be set aside for the annual income to support four Hospitalières at Montreal, from M. de la Dauversière's foundation at La Flèche. In addition, this lady paid Jeanne's passage and gave her presents for the church as well as money to assist struggling families in Montreal. In all, Madame de Bullion had given 60,000 écus or 1,000,000 francs to the Montreal work.

At Troyes, Marguerite Bourgeoys had been equally successful, having received the co-operation of three workers, Edmée Chastel (Aimée Chatel), Catherine Crolo, and Marguerite Raisin. Mademoiselle Catherine Gauchet de Belleville also joined the party. She was the cousin of M. Souart and came from the parish of St. Sulpice in Paris. She was then sixteen years old. In 1665 she married Migeon de Brausaat. At La Flèche three Hospitalière Sisters of St. Joseph were chosen: Judith Moreau de Brésoles, Catherine Massé and Marie Maillé, with Marie Polo, their servant, and the departure of the party from La Flèche was fixed for May 25th.

But they did not leave peaceably, for there was a party at La Flèche, which had resented the previous consignments of "pious young girls" that had been previously taken to Montreal through the instrumentality of M. de la Dauversière, it being alleged that this enthusiast, as he was thought, had done it against the wishes of their parents. Open persecution broke out against him. Dollier de Casson tells us that there was a popular resentment; each one murmured, "M. de la Dauversière is leading these girls away by force; we must stop it." In their anxiety many could not sleep that night; but next morning, May 26th, M. Robert Saint André, an admirer of M. de la Dauversière, who, with his wife, was returning to Montreal, forced, with the assistance of other gentlemen, a way on to the ship for the girls, at the point of the sword. On reaching Rochelle M. Dauversière's party was met by agents from Mgr. Laval, who wished to restrain their departure on the ground that they were not wanted in Canada, as one institute of Hospitalières was sufficient. We have seen that even M. de Queylus was of this opinion. But M. de la Dauversière's resolution was unshaken. "If they do not go this year they will never go." The La Flèche institute had been founded for Montreal; the departure of the Hospitalières had been delayed several years. He now carried his point.

New embarrassments arose. The owner of the ship, doubtless influenced by the agents, refused to weigh anchor without the passage money being paid in advance; he appears even to have profited by this circumstance to raise the price. But Jeanne Mance, never to be taken by surprise, immediately obtained the money from a merchant in consequence of a contract which she made with a group of colonists who were coming "en famille." These latter obliged themselves, on June 5th, before Notary Demontreau, as a body to reimburse their debts to her in two years. In addition they were indebted to Jeanne Mance for 199 livres 8 sols, which she turned over for hotel expenses to Daniel Guerry, mine host of the Grâce-de-Dieu. [82]

The above money was not to be paid, however, till ten years after, when Mademoiselle Mance gave them a deed of acquittance in 1669, made out by Maître Basset, the town clerk.

At last the recruit force for Montreal was ready and it embarked on the St. André (Captain Poulet) on June 29th. Besides the ladies with the two foundresses, there were two Sulpicians, MM. de Vignal and Le Maître, and a body of sixty-two men, and forty-seven women, or marriageable girls honest families, most of whom were from Marans in Saintonge and more or less interrelated, who were sent out at the expense of the company and of the Hôtel-Dieu, the third of the trilogy of religious institutions to minister at Montreal in this early period. There were other settlers who paid their own expenses. In addition there were sixteen or seventeen young women for Quebec.

The St. André, containing about two hundred souls, set sail for Rochelle on July 2d. It was a veritable pesthouse of infection, having been used as a hospital troop-ship two years ago, and it had never been quarantined, so that hardly were they on their way when the contagion declared itself. The food of the emigrants was the poorest; the accommodations of the barest and most primitive description; the supply of fresh water very limited. For two months sickness and furious tempests and contrary winds afflicted the wretched vessel. Eight or ten died, but most were sick, among them Marguerite Bourgeoys but principally Jeanne Mance, who was reduced to the last extremity. The ship became a hospital and among the devoted nurses none were more so than the women for the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal.

At last Quebec harbour was reached on September 7th but disembarkation took place next day. Here the sick were landed, a work in which Mgr. de Laval gave his personal service, "tending the sick and making their beds," as the Annales of the Hôtel-Dieu relate. The hospital was filled with the convalescents but the rest of the Montreal party put up at the storehouse sheds of the "Magasin de Montréal."

Marguerite Bourgeoys was the first to be able to lead her party from Quebec and she arrived at Montreal just a year after her departure, on September 29th, carrying the little Thibaudeau baby (the three other Thibaudeau children had died on the ocean) that she had tended on the voyage and which she had allowed the father to nurse at Quebec, but he, unlucky wight, having let it get burned, she had again taken care of the poor sufferer on the journey up the river.

Mademoiselle Mance remained behind, still too sick to travel. Moreover, the opposition of the vicar apostolic Monseigneur de Laval, to the Hospitalières for Montreal, had to be met. He examined their constitution, drawn up by a married man, M. de la Dauversière, and found it different from other congregations. They wore secular clothing. Though erected canonically in October, 1643, they only took simple vows and they had not yet received the approbation of Rome. He thought it would be better for them to go back to France or seek admission to the Hospitalières of the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec, a constituted regular institution, which could form a branch to serve Montreal. But their superior, Judith de Moreau de Brésoles, and her companions, did not acquiesce with either suggestion.

Moreover, a practical difficulty of money matters prevented this, for the Associates of Montreal had declared they would withdraw their alms altogether, if any others went to the Hôtel-Dieu but those already chosen, and in addition if the Quebec Sisterhood should take up the Hôtel-Dieu at Montreal, that part of the foundation given by Madame d'Aiguillon for Quebec should be diverted to Montreal. This solved the difficulty for, as Mère Jucherau, in the Annales of the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec, says: "Monseigneur liked to keep up our community with its revenue rather than to share our funds between two houses, neither of which could support the other."

On October 2d the Hôtel-Dieu Sisters of Montreal left with full authorization to exercise their work until ordered otherwise. On October 20th they received from Maisonneuve the act of the "prise de possession" of the Hôtel-Dieu, dated from the governor's house, which was still in the fort. On October 26th the St. André returned to France, bearing the Abbé de Queylus, as before related. Jeanne Mance started a week later for Montreal but she was here on November 3d and had the satisfaction of being present at the marriage of the widow, "Miss" Bardillières, whom she had left in charge of the hospital and who now wedded Jacques Testard, Sieur de la Forest. It was a notable wedding, the witnesses' names including, besides Jeanne Mance, those of Maisonneuve and the governor of Three Rivers and many notables. Hospital work has since conduced to match-making in Montreal as heretofore. [83]

CHAPTER XIII

The garrison of Montreal had thought long of how to meet the threatened invasion, till at last the daring plan of a young officer of twenty-five years of age, Adam Dollard, was accepted. In the spring of 1660 the officers were now, besides the governor, Major Raphael Lambert Closse, M. Zacharie Dupuis, Pierre Picoté de Bélestre and the young Adam Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux. Major Lambert Closse had been married on July 24, 1657, and he was now no longer living in the fort, for he had been given by the Associates, in recognition of his bravery and his merits, his own lands, the first fief granted in Montreal, a hundred arpents, "à simple hommage et sans justice." He had now received letters of nobility, for whereas before he has simply been styled sergeant major of the garrison, in his marriage contract he is named "écuyer" (esquire), on December 9th after the arrival of Maisonneuve and that of the Sulpicians, he is called "noble homme, écuyer." We have already mentioned that he was the commandant of the Island of Montreal. On leaving the fort Lambert Closse still retained his office of major, but he was replaced at the fort by M. Zacharie du Puis, the same who had been received coldly at Quebec after the retreat under him from Onondaga, but whose services were welcomed and esteemed at Montreal by the governor, de Maisonneuve, who named him assistant major; and he is also spoken of as "commandant of the Island of Montreal," a title found ascribed also to Lambert Closse. Then we may class Charles Le Moyne, the official interpreter and storekeeper, as in some way an officer. Among the late arrivals two others had been at least adjoined to the military staff. One of these was Picoté de Bélestre, a doctor as well as a fighting man, and he proved of valuable assistance to the settlement. Dollier de Casson says of him that "he adorned this place, as well in war as in peace, on account of the advantageous qualities he possessed for one and the other." He is spoken of sometimes as a "commandant," sometimes as an officer of the garrison.

The other is Adam Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux, a young man of twenty-five years of age. There is little known of his antecedents. The actual date of his arrival is not certain but, according to the latest researches made by Mr. E. Z. Massicotte, city archivist of Montreal (April, 1912), the first document, in which his name appears as witnessing a land transfer, is dated September 10, 1658.

As he figures frequently in acts after this, it is not likely that he came much before that date, for he was not present on December 29, 1657, at the marriage of Jeanne Le Moyne with Jacques Leber, a young man of his own age, nor at that of Michel Messier and of Anne Le Moyne, February 18, 1658; while after the above date, on September 15, 1658, he was present at that of Jacques Mousseaux and of Marguerite Soviot, and on October 3, 1658, he was godfather to Elizabeth Moyen, daughter of Lambert Closse and Elizabeth Moyen, married the year previously, and thenceforward he appeared frequently at public ceremonies.

In this act, Dollard is styled "volontaire," a volunteer, which may signify that he was only as yet attached to the garrison or that he had taken service freely and not on wages. The Notary Basset gives him, sometimes, the title of "commandant"; at others that of "officer of the garrison."

Mr. Massicotte proves, from the inventory of Dollard's effects after his death, that he had intended to settle, having formed a building society, explained before as then customary, with Picoté de Bélestre, to break land and to cultivate it in view of a future homestead. We have the record of de Bélestre's concession and of a debt to be paid to the succession of "the late Adam Dollard" the sum of 79 livres, 10 sols, for fifty-three days' work, by men employed by the deceased to work on the same concession.

It is therefore probable that Dullard was contemplating his own homestead and that, in his turn, de Bélestre would assist, according to the contracts before noticed.

Dollard was by no means wealthy; indeed the number of his personal effects at his death was less than those shown in the inventories of the greater part of the settlers dying before him, even of the bachelors. The sum total of these possessions has been estimated at eighty-five livres, or 1,700 sous! But we must remember that a sou would at that time buy five to ten times more than now.

The quality, however, of his varied but slight wardrobe and of the articles of toilette not mentioned in other inventories gives ground for the tradition that he was of a superior caste to the ordinary colonist. The ordinary tradition is, following Dollier de Casson, that this young man of good family had already had some command in the army in France, but had done some foolish act, and that he had joined Maisonneuve with the desire of doing some notable deed of valour or self-sacrifice to rehabilitate himself in his own eyes, and those of his friends.

The spelling of his name has been a subject of controversy. Mr. Massicotte has established that there is no doubt, since we have his signature at the city hall archives, that he signed himself "Dollard." "Daulat" and "Daulac," the variant readings, are the mistakes of copyists writing phonetically rather than orthographically, since the three are pronounced practically the same. There is a scarcely imperceptible nuance of sound differing. [84]

We have given these minute facts, since the exploit we are about to relate is one of the most stirring and notable in Canadian history, and the story of Montreal can well expatiate on one of its own heroes.

Adam Dollard it was who, by his boldness, persuaded de Maisonneuve from his Fabian policy of defence which had, as we have seen, made him, so far, content to drive the Iroquois away from the fort to their ambuscades around. In April, 1660, he obtained permission from the governor to take a band of volunteers up country and there do battle. The fear of the Iroquois must have been indeed desperate for one so young to have secured such a permission from Maisonneuve.

Dollard's enthusiasm, which had led the sixteen young men, two of whom were thirty and thirty-one years of age and the rest between twenty-one and twenty-seven, and most of whom had arrived in 1653, to strike hands with him to follow him if the governor gave consent, now spurred them on to make all the needful preparations. In order to purchase the necessary arms, food and boats to man the expedition, we find records extant of loans being sought as, for example, the following, signed by Dollard with his own private paraphe, or flourish, after his name, according to the custom of the time:

Major Closse, Picoté de Bélestre and Charles Le Moyne would gladly have thrown in their lot with him, but prudence suggested to them that they should finish the spring seeding, and then to lead forth a body of forty men. The impetuous Dollard could not brook delay. Besides he wanted the command, and this was his opportunity in life. Moreover, his young men were eager to start. Before leaving on their perilous path to glory, they swore a sacred oath of fidelity among themselves not to ask for quarter, and the better to keep their plighted word and to face death without fear, they resolved each to make his will and to clear his consciences by a confession of his sins, and to approach in a body the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the symbol of unity and fellowship.

Each point was faithfully carried out. The sight of these young men at this last solemn event in the parish church must have been thrilling to their friends and families, fearful, yet proud of the warriors who were setting out, perchance to die for their king and their faith. [85]

At last, on April 19th the flotilla of canoes started up the stream, but when nearby to an adjacent island (probably St. Paul) they heard a cry of alarm. Thinking that, near at hand, was the quarry they were going, so far, to seek, Dollard bore down upon the Iroquois, repulsing them with such vigour that had they not taken to the woods, leaving behind their canoes and spoils to save their lives, they would assuredly all have been captured.

But this victory was attended by the loss of three of his men—Nicholas Duval, a servant at the fort, killed by the Indians, and two others who, unaccustomed to the management of their canoe, had been drowned in the engagement. Dollard seized the spoils, left behind by the Iroquois, and, moreover, a canoe which served him in good stead later in the expedition. Meanwhile the party made their way back sadly to Ville Marie with the dead body, without doubt to assist at the burial of Nicholas Duval on April 20th, for the parish registers give this date. The other bodies had not as yet been discovered.

They were joined by one of the young men who had failed in his oath and penitently sought to redeem himself. Thus the seventeen was now complete.

As men, who might never see their friends again, they bade a general adieu to Ville Marie, and again embarked on the fateful journey whence no one returned to tell the tale. Though bold of heart, many of them were not expert at handling their canoes, so that they were delayed eight days at a rapid (Ste. Anne's) at the end of the Island of Montreal. But their indomitable courage surpassed their inexperience, and they reached, on May 1st, the end of the tumultuous rapids of the Long Leap, or the "Long Sault," at the foot of the Chaudières Fall, on the Ottawa River, at a distance of about eight or ten leagues above Montreal.

There Dollard found a dilapidated war camp abandoned by the Iroquois, the previous autumn. It was not flanked, but defended only by a wretched palisading. It was dangerously overlooked too by a neighbouring wooden slope. Within this feeble fortress, for want of better protection, he cantoned his men and there awaited the canoes of the enemy who must come down the Sault in single file on their return from the chase.

Soon, to their surprise, a body of forty Hurons and four Algonquins came with credentials from the governor of Montreal, requesting Dollard to admit them to a share in their glorious enterprise. These were led by the chief, Anontaha, the Huron, and Mitiwemeg, the Algonquin. Anontaha had descended from Quebec with his Hurons, the relics of a once powerful nation, to waylay Iroquois returning from hunting, and at Three Rivers he had met Mitiwemeg with his Algonquins on a like quest. Having challenged each other's valour, they determined to push to Montreal, where likely there would be an opportunity with the Iroquois to test each other's courage in the fight. Arrived at Montreal the French, "whose fault, it is," says Dollier de Casson, "to talk too much," told them of the whereabouts of Dollard's expedition. Amazed at the daring of so slight a force, and jealous of having been forestalled in the work of falling upon the Iroquois, they sought permission to join them; there the vaunting chiefs could show their valour. Accordingly they arrived with de Maisonneuve's letter which warned Dollard not to put his trust in their bravery, but to act as if he had his Frenchmen alone to help him.

Dollard received their parties to his future sorrow. Thus reinforced the anxious warriors bivouacked around the redoubt, near the hoarse-sounding waters of the leaping rapids. At last, those on scout duty reported the coming of the advance guard of 300 Iroquois down the stream. These were on their way to join the 400 more at the Richelieu Islands to attack Three Rivers, Quebec and then Montreal.

Down to the place where they would likely land, Dollard led his men and ensconced them in ambush, till two canoes filled with Iroquois arrived, and no sooner had these put foot on land than the land force fired into their midst, but so precipitously that some escaped, and running across the woods to meet their party on the shore above, cried out: "We have been defeated at the little fort, which is quite near here. There is a party of French and Indians there."

Their approach found the party in prayer from which they arose hurriedly, seeking the shelter of the palisading and leaving in the confusion their kettles slung over the camp fires preparing for their meal.

The Iroquois quickly advanced towards the redoubt, thinking to reduce it easily, but they were frequently repulsed, with much loss and confusion. Driven back, and refused a parley, by which they sought to entice the Frenchmen from the fort, the enemy began to construct a retrenchment facing the redoubt, determined to begin the siege. Meanwhile, during this delay, the brave defenders strengthened their outworks (it would seem an obvious duty too long delayed) by building a second palisading within and filling in the space between, with stones and earth to a man's height, in such way, however, that they were loopholes large enough to put three gunmen at each. When the enemy began next to approach, they poured their scrap iron and lead into them with deadly effect. To add to their rage and humiliation the Iroquois saw the heads of their comrades placed on the tops of the stockade palisades. They now broke up the French and Huron canoes, and putting them into a blaze sought to fire the stockade with them. But finding themselves unable, even with their numbers, to capture the fort, they sent a canoe to warn the 500 at the Richelieu Islands to come to their assistance. While delaying for their reinforcement they blockaded the fort, thinking at least to force it to capitulate, through thirst. For a week the enemy's fire could not be of avail. Thirst, consequent on the dearth of water in the interior of the fort, might yet effect their surrender. Water was so scarce that the defenders could hardly swallow their hominy (rough Indian corn). Their efforts at digging were rewarded only by a little trickling stream of muddy water, altogether insufficient to quench their thirst. Thus they were forced to make sudden sallies to the river, 200 feet away, under shelter of the guns from the fort, to fill their small pots of water, since they had already lost their kettles and tin pans.

The Iroquois now called upon the parched Hurons cooped up within the wretched hole to give themselves up and receive good quarter. Else they would surely die, since a reinforcement of 500 men was coming.

These perfidious weaklings, listening to the voice of the tempters, yielded, and they were to be seen deserting stealthily by the gate or scrambling over the palisadings. This heartbreaking sight was too much for the brave chief Anontaha, who aimed his pistol at his fleeing nephew, "The Fly," but missed his aim in his bitter rage.

There were now only twenty-three to guard the fort, Dollard and his dauntless sixteen, Anontaha, and Mitiwemeg and his four faithful followers.

On the fifth day the 500 allies arrived. On they came to the fort with their frightful war cries but quickly they retired, leaving their dead around the fort and many others escaping, having lead within them that made them ill content. Thus for three days the fight was hourly renewed by the Iroquois, sometimes attacking in a body, sometimes in bands; sometimes they battered the fortress with trunks of trees; still the defenders would not yield, resolved to die to a man first. This obstinate and unexpected resistance made the enemy think that the fugitive Hurons had given a false tale of the numbers within the fort. So the time passed for the hungering and thirsting men within, weary and sleepless, but full of resolution, which they renewed with prayer, till called to fight again for dear life's sake.

On the eighth day, many Iroquois would fain have given up, but the eyes of others blazed with rage at the immortal disgrace they foresaw if they should be set to naught by a handful of whites. They determined to carry the fort by main force or perish in the attempt.

But this was a hardy and dangerous deed courting death. On such an occasion it was the custom when volunteers for the first ranks were needed, that sticks were thrown on to the ground and those that dared pick them up were considered the bravest, and took the foremost place of danger; so now the self-elected braves led the way for a bloody encounter, carrying each an impromptu shield or fence made of united logs each four or five feet in height lashed together, under shelter of which they moved with bowed heads and crouched forms. They crept nearer and nearer the palisade under the shower of shot from arquebus and musketoon that rained fire and shot upon them from the loopholes of the fort. At the gates, and on the palisade wall, the good axe and sabre of the Frenchmen dealt out death upon the stormers. At length, they had reached the palisade and strove to break their way in with axe and battering ram. As a last despairing act, Dollard, having loaded a heavy musketoon to the muzzle, and having lit the fuse, attempted to throw it over the palisading so that it would explode in the midst of the foe clambering up the posts or pulling them down. By ill luck it caught an obstacle on the inside of the palisading and it rebounded back, exploding in the fort, blinding many with its charge and killing several of the gallant whites. This gave great courage to the besiegers and the piles were wrenched away, and the gates forced. Breaches were made on all sides in the fortification and a fierce hand to hand fight of axe and sword and pistol ensued, and in the mêlée the brave Dollard fell at last. Their leader fallen, each survivor fought like a lion brought to bay, dealing death around until his own turn came. With sword or hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other, maddened with hunger, thirst and exposure, and ablaze with religious and martial enthusiasm, they turned each upon their enemies, like madmen. But, unable to take them alive with their overpowering numbers, the Iroquois shot them down mercilessly, to fall upon the camp enclosure already heaped up high with their own dead.