"Since it has pleased God," says this prince, "to give peace to our kingdom, we have nothing more strongly to heart than the re-establishment of commerce, as being the source and the principle of the abundance which we take upon ourselves to procure for our people. This has led us to inform ourselves of the state of New France which our king, our very honoured lord and father, had given over by a treaty of 1626 to a company of one hundred persons. But in place of learning that this country had been populated as it should be, considering the long time of its possession, we have recognized with regret that not only the number of its inhabitants is very small, but that they are every day in danger of being driven out by the Iroquois. Recognizing, besides, that this company of one hundred men is nearly extinct owing to the voluntary retirement of a great number, and that the few remaining are not powerful enough to maintain this country, by sending forces and men necessary to swell and defend it, we have resolved to take it from the hands of this company, which has resigned it to our good purposes. For which reasons we declare that all the rights of property, justice and seigneurie granted by our most honoured lord and father, by the charter of April 29, 1626, shall be and do remain reunited to our crown, to be henceforth exercised in our name by the officers whom we shall name to this effect."

Thus the future Canadian society was being thought out on the basis of an over-parental feudalism, probably the best form for the times, though it sadly crippled the initiative of the French-Canadian population, with results seen to this day. Yet the population was no more than twenty-five hundred souls, of which eight hundred were at Quebec.

At the same time the negotiations for the transfer of the seigneury of the island of Montreal were completed. During the visit of Mademoiselle Mance several meetings of the Company of Montreal had been held, the members of which, with the exception of some directors of the Seminary of Paris, and M. de Maisonneuve, were reduced to five. On March 9th the act of transfer, to be found in the Edicts and Ordinances of the Province of Quebec, states that:

"Considering the great blessings, which God has poured upon the Island of Montreal for the conversion of the savages and the edification of the French, by the help of MM. Olier, de Renty and others, for twenty years; and now, in later years the gentlemen of the Seminary of St. Sulpice have laboured by their care and zeal to uphold this good work, having exposed their persons and having made contributions for the good of the colony and increase of the glory of God; the Associates desiring moreover to contribute on their part by seconding the pious designs of the Gentlemen of the Seminary, and in honour of the memory of the founder and one of the promoters and benefactors of the work of Montreal, they have, after several conferences on the subject, and in furtherance of the greater glory of God, given to these gentlemen all the proprietorial rights which they have in the Island of Montreal, as also the seigneurial manor house, called the Fort, the farm, the tilled lands and all the rights that they have in their island." [90]

In this donation special reference was made to the services of M. de Maisonneuve. He was to continue, during his life, governor and captain of the island and of the seigneurial manor house under, however, the pleasure of the Gentlemen of the Seminary. He was to have, in place of remuneration, half of the farm lands and the revenues of the mill.

He was to have his apartments in the seigneurial manor house, in which the Gentlemen of the Seminary, as Seigneurs, shall henceforth have the right to live.

After some hesitation, in view of the expense of the undertaking, the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Paris, on March 31st, finally undertook the work for which their founder had always intended them, and Montreal was saved from the abandonment which at one time during the negotiations looked imminent. There was a desire to have M. de Queylus sent back, but Laval, then in Paris, was adamant in his firmness.

On his part, he was very well received at court. The king would have Laval made "Bishop of Quebec" and he gave him the abbey revenues of Maubec in the diocese of Bourges to sustain the position when the see of Quebec should be erected, which was not to be for many years. The most important preparation for the better government of New France, and one in favor of Laval, was the edict, published in March by the king, of the appointment of a Sovereign Council to sit at Quebec, unless judged more convenient elsewhere. This was to consist of the governor general, the bishop, or in default the highest ecclesiastic on the spot, the intendant when appointed, five councillors and a procureur du roi.

The nomination of these councillors was to be made conjointly by the governor general and the bishop, and they could dismiss them or continue them at pleasure. This gave Laval greater power than before, for hitherto under d'Avaugour, he had only a right to be called to the council with a "voix délibératrice," as a simple councillor among creatures chosen by the governor general. The Baron d'Avaugour was recalled, [91] and Laval was constrained to name his successor, his choice falling unfortunately on M. Saffray de Mézy, then town major of Caen, whom he had formerly met at the Hermitage of Caen, where M. Bernières gathered his pious friends whom he thought he could rely on to extend the glory of God. De Mézy's letters were signed on May 1st, before d'Avaugour's second year of the usual term of three years was completed. On March 26th Laval, in preparation for rearing a colonial clergy, erected a seminary and united it with that of the Foreign Missionaries of Paris, from whom he wished to draw some volunteers.

In the April following he obtained an edict from the king regulating the "dime" for church support and the poor rate, to be fixed at the thirteenth part of the income of each colonist. It was arranged also that the curés should be removable at the will of the bishop and his successors.

The bishop of Petrea reached Quebec on September 15th with the new governor general, de Mézy, and M. Louis Gaudais, Sieur du Pont. The latter had been sent by the king as an envoy to enquire into the government of d'Avaugour, and in addition to report on the most convenient means for the colonization and cultivation of the country. The troops which the king had desired to send to subdue the Iroquois were not as yet at liberty to come, but in their place, 100 families containing 500 persons, with expenses defrayed for a year, were dispatched this year.

By September 28th the new councillors, Rouer de Villeray, keeper of the seals; Jucherau de la Ferté, M. Ruette d'Auteuil, Legardeur de Tilly, d'Amours; and the new king's procurator, M. Bourdoin, with Gaudais, the royal commissioner acting as intendant ad interim, had collaborated with de Mézy and Laval and had issued a severe edict forbidding the liquor traffic with the Indians.

There was now great stir under the new form of Royal Government. Mézy and Laval were announced as Chiefs of the Council. The inhabitants made offer of their "foi et hommage" for their land tenures. Officers for the administration of justice, according to civil law, were appointed. Regulations for commerce and social progress were promulgated. New France was declared a province or a kingdom and Quebec a "town." A mayor, Legardeur de Repentigny, and two aldermen, Jean Maudry and Claude Charron, were elected, and municipal life seemed promised. These officers met on October 6th, but by November 14th their election was revoked by the council and the office of syndic again restored. This abortive municipal life was apparently too great a stride in the autocratic government then in vogue. Yet Canada was beginning to emerge from its petty parish condition and its struggling state. The privilege granted Laval of exacting one-thirteenth part of the fruits of the earth and of a man's labour on the earth for church establishment was not satisfactory, and finally it was reduced to one-twentieth for the rest of monseigneur's life; later it was reduced by Laval to a twenty-sixth.

The taking over of the colony as a royal possession began to affect other places than Quebec. At Montreal, the assumption of the seigneurial duties and privileges was not without difficulty. On August 18th, the commission which had been privately given by M. de Bretonvilliers to M. Souart was publicly ratified. But hardly had the Sovereign Council been installed than it took away the right of the Seigneurs to administer justice in civil and criminal cases, and on September 28th appointed M. Arthur de Sailly as judge, Charles Le Moyne, king's procurator, Bénigne Basset as chief clerk and notary of the sénéchal's court, all of whom took the oath on October 19th.

Similar inferior courts of justice were also established at Three Rivers; appeal could be made on trivial causes to the supreme council. The customary law of Paris, or "coutume de Paris," based on the civil law of Rome, was the fundamental law of Canada, and still governs the civil rights of the people.

Hitherto Maisonneuve had acted as administrator of justice, but now the seigneurs named Charles d'Ailleboust des Musseaux as judge and retained Bénigne Basset as clerk of the Seigneurs.

The new appointments, made over their heads in defiance of their rights, caused M. Souart, on behalf of the seigneurs, to go to Quebec with M. de Maisonneuve, to protest. But while there, de Mézy dealt a further blow by presenting Maisonneuve with his commission of governor of Montreal, thereby intimating that the seigneurs had no right of appointment. M. Souart, relying on the decree of 1644 giving this power to the seigneurs, then the Company of Montreal, protested, and he was ordered to produce the letters patent for proof; meanwhile de Maisonneuve was to act as governor of Montreal, by the power just granted by the governor general, till the king should order otherwise.

In the meantime de Maisonneuve acted on his new commission but always without prejudice to the rights of the seigneurs. This loyalty was also shared by Bénigne Basset for, in a contract of marriage for November 16, 1663, he signs himself as clerk in the royal sénéchal's court, notary royal, and clerk for the seigneurs. It may be for this reason that he was supplanted later in his office in the sénéchal's court by Sieur de Mouchy, who had been appointed by the Sovereign Council "for good reasons." Maisonneuve's position at Montreal was also getting insecure. There was now an effort on foot to bring Montreal under control of Quebec as the seat of the royal government and the veteran, de Maisonneuve, as an adherent of the old ways, was jealously viewed by de Mézy and perhaps by Laval. Certainly Montreal was now being dominated by the newly-imported royal policy.

But the new colonial policy was to bring good results from the new blood infused. If wisely handled, the new régime would have worked permanent good.

The resignation of the Company of New France, on February 24, 1663, was accepted by the king in March of the same year, and the edict on the creation of the Supreme Council followed in the April following.

From the date of the establishment of the Supreme Council, September 18, 1663, Civil Government may be said to have begun. Hitherto no deliberative board had sat to discuss the affairs of the colony. There had been a vague and indefinite system of government by the chartered companies, but there had been no constituted hierarchy, either in the political or in the judicial order.

The council was modeled on that of the parliament of Paris. The terms of the "ordonnance" of its creation indicated that the king wished to create here, in Canada, an authority to supply what the parliament of Paris, seeing its great distance away, could not provide for. Yet the Sovereign Council was never a real parliament, although it contained in germ, if not actually, all the power of one. The dignity of the new body was so great later that when Frontenac came as a governor he considerably astonished the simple burgesses of the little fortress of Quebec with all the pomp at his command. He would be in truth a "Viceroy," and Gascon that he was, he would play the part. Others also in their sphere would reproduce the usages of the Paris mother parliament; hence the troubles about "préséance," among the counsellors, which seem so trivial to us, but not so to them, punctilious in their observance of their high positions. With Paris for an example, it is not surprising that Frontenac dismissed his counsellors, when it suited him, for did not Louis le Soleil do the same himself?

The "ordonnance" of the creation of the council, after indicating the composition of its members and outlining its general powers, then continues: "Moreover we give power to the said council to commission, at Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers and in all other places, as many, and in the manner as it shall deem necessary, persons as shall judge in the first instance without chicanery and delay, the procedures of different proceedings which may arise between private persons, and shall name clerks, notaries and scriveners, surgeons and other officers of justice whom they shall judge proper, our desire being to drive all chicanery as far as possible out of the said country of New France, with the end that prompt and speedy justice may be rendered."

The Sovereign Council was held at Quebec but it ruled over Montreal, not in broad lines of general policy only, but in what we would call village politics. It went into very small details indeed and the parish church portals were frequently posted with proclamations from Quebec. There does not seem to have been much home rule for Montreal in those days.

A picture of this period is presented in the "Histoire Véritable et Naturelle de la Nouvelle France," dedicated to Colbert, the minister, by a letter written from Three Rivers on October 8, 1663, by Pierre Boucher, who had been sent to France by the inhabitants of La Nouvelle France for help, in 1662, when he had conversed with Colbert personally.

His object was to explain the physical and natural history of the country to encourage colonization. He expresses surprise that the country still remained inadequately populated, but he warns Colbert against any policy of sending criminals to this country. Tramps were not wanted in Canada. If any insinuated themselves they knew, how to hang them, as elsewhere. Doubtful women were not tolerated either. Those women that came were vouched for by responsible persons or relatives.

Speaking of the climate he says: "From the beginning of May, the heat is extremely great, though we are only coming out of the depth of winter. This is the reason why everything goes ahead and in less than no time the earth is covered with verdure. It is remarkable that the wheat sown at the end of April or as late as May 21st is harvested in September. The winter is very cold, but it is a bright frost, and for the most part the days are beautiful and serene.

"Mont Royal, the last of our settlements, is situated on a beautiful and great island. The lands are very good and produce grain in abundance; everything is going on well there; fishing and hunting are also very good."

Montreal is described as having a rich soil, but requiring horses[92] to till it. As these are expensive he hopes the "bon roi" would assist, especially by exterminating the Iroquois, who killed the cattle. Most of its trees were oak. There was no hemp, but the soil was suitable for its cultivation.

Speaking of the caribous he says that the males have forked feet, which in running, open so widely that they never sink in the winter snows no matter how deep these may be. He speaks of the skill of the beavers in constructing their dams, which the waters cannot break through, saying that they thus arrest the courses of little streams, inundating a great part of the country and forming pools for them in which to play and to have their dwellings. The savages had the greatest difficulty on their hunting expeditions in destroying these dams.

Describing social life, he says that the country produced strong boys and girls, but they were led to study with difficulty. Wine was drunk in the best houses, beer in others, and a favourite drink in common use was "bouillon." Some houses were built of stone covered with pine boards, some were built with upright posts filled in with masonry; others were framework buildings of wood. There were no women servants in Canada. Most of the men started as servants and in a few years were at their ease working for themselves. He advised all who came to Canada to be ready to put their hands to anything, building or land clearing. They should bring provisions for two years, especially flour. He gives many other details showing the value of money and the price of things. The great difficulty beyond the mosquitoes and the length of the winter was the fear of the stealthy Iroquois who were here, there and everywhere, never attacking but when they were in strong force. When discovered they take to flight, and as they are so agile in their movements, it is difficult to pursue them. He trusted the "bon roi" would assist in destroying them. "And," says Boucher, "it would not be a difficult thing to get rid of them, for they consist but of eight to nine hundred men capable of bearing arms. It required only prudence and sufficient force to destroy them."

Boucher was accompanied from France by Dumont, an officer in charge of 100 soldiers. In Dumont's account of his visit, written in 1663 in the "Relations," he says of Montreal that the inhabitants were the most soldierly in the country—a remark made also by Boucher. Boucher's mission to France helped to persuade the king to take over the colony as a royal possession. When the king's forces came to exterminate the Iroquois the Montreal fighting men did justice to their reputation, as we shall see.

At this period the mode of living was very simple. The house was one long room lighted by three windows, in which all the family ate, slept and worked. At the bottom of the apartment was the bed of the parents, against the wall; in a corner a contrivance which served as a bench by day and a bed by night for the children. On the right, as you entered, you would have seen the open chimney rising a little above the room, and slung from a chain was the family cooking pot. Near the fireside was a small staircase or ladder leading to the grain loft above lighted by one or two small windows. A table and a few chairs or benches or a collapsible chair and table in one, completed the primitive furniture in the living room.

But we must not forget the old gun hanging over the bed, ready at hand during the night should the Iroquois suddenly attack. This served also as the family forager for meat, and game, both feathered and "red skins." There was good shooting in the neighbourhood of Montreal, with plenty of ducks and partridges. It is recounted that in 1663 a hunter in Quebec brought down thirty-two grey turtle doves with one shot. On the rivers they were so numerous that the rowers could hit the troublesome birds with their paddles. The settlers, when they had collected all they needed and salted there for the winter, had abundance left over to give to the dogs and the pigs.

There was not much hunting in the woods by Montrealers, but the Indians brought into the market near the fort, the original "place d'armes," a goodly amount of bear, elk, venison, wild cow, moose, beaver and muskrats, and other meats.

On "fish days" the good Montrealer had no excuse for not keeping church abstinence, for eels sold at an écu a hundred, and sturgeons, shad, dory, pike, carp, groundlings, brill and maskinongé abounded. From Quebec they received the salmon and the herring, trout from Malbaie and white fish from Three Rivers.

Provisions, clothing and property originally were exchanged by barter, e. g., a small lot of land went for two cows and a pair of stockings; a larger piece would go for two bulls, a cow and a little money.

Money became less rare when the troops arrived. Meanwhile the war with the Iroquois was carried on with the usual incidents, as already described.

At Montreal there seems to have been more fear of the exactions of Quebec than of the incursions of Iroquois. Quebec had endeavoured to restrain all trade to itself, and in consequence of this monopoly prices were very high in Montreal, and many households were in want. At the same time there were complaints as to the adequacy of the police arrangement, so that there seemed to be ground for fearing some sedition.

Accordingly on February 15, 1664, Paul de Chomedey published an ordinance ordering the habitants to assemble on the Sunday following, February 24th, to the place called the "hangar," to elect five of the principal inhabitants to regulate the matters of police for the town.

This day, the weather being bad, saw very few at the voting place, and we find the syndic, Urbain Bauderau, asking for a reannouncement of the same ordinance for next Sunday, March 2d. This was done, and at least 226 were present, to judge by the votes recorded. The following were elected police judges: Louis Prud'homme, 23 votes; Jacques Le Moyne, 23; Gabriel le Sel, Sieur du Clos, 19; Jacques Picot, Sieur de la Brie, 24; Jean Leduc, 19.

Dated March 6th, another document of de Maisonneuve is preserved, in which it is recorded that the above five had been ordered to appear before the governor to take the oath, and had done so, but Le Sel and Leduc, having said and declared that they did not know how to write or sign, the three others signed the commission of appointment. Meanwhile the position of de Maisonneuve as governor of Montreal was becoming insecure and in June of this year he was called to Quebec by M. de Mézy who named Captain Etienne Pézard, Sieur de la Touche, to succeed him in his position. What the reason was, beyond the jealousy of the governor general, or a possible secret instruction from the government, we do not know. Yet this latter appointment never took place, for we find de Maisonneuve still governor till his final removal by Tracy at the end of 1665, and even then M. Dupuis, the town major, was only appointed as commandant till Perrot was officially appointed in 1669. [93]

At Quebec the early months of 1664 were signalized by the outburst in flame of the smouldering dissatisfactions and the growing discord marring the harmony hitherto existing between Laval and de Mézy, the joint chiefs of the Sovereign Council. The dual rule was found impossible, especially as the council was considered by de Mézy to be a packed one in favour of Laval. It came to a head on February 3d, when the governor sent his major, the Sieur d'Angouville, to announce to the bishop that he had forbidden three of the council, de Villeray, d'Auteuil and Bourdon, the king's procurator, to appear at the council until they had been justified by the king for the cabals he alleged had been fomented against himself by them. He prayed the bishop to confirm this interdiction of those "who had been named in his favour" and to proceed in the nomination of three others. He did more: he proclaimed the same interdiction at the sound of the drum by a proclamation signed also by the three other councillors. Further, on February 13th, he published another declaration forbidding several practices which he said he felt bound to stop, so as not to betray the interests of the king.

This rupture was inevitably the result of the impossible dual government. In France the vesting of temporal power in a bishop was not so likely to prove unsuccessful as in a new country needing a military governor. But to place the spiritual and civil authorities "ex aequo" in civil government was not the wise move for the good of the church it had been intended to be.

M. de Mézy no doubt felt the weakness of his position. The moral strength of government would be dominated by the bishop and in a conflict the councillors and others would side with the bishop as vicar apostolic, who was irremovable, except by the pope, until death, while the governor general could be recalled even before his three years were completed. Hence his patience was tried and his dignity hurt; thus he lost his head and went beyond his powers. On the other hand, the bishop would honestly not have been prepared for this outburst. With pain and astonishment Laval replied, on February 16th, that he could not in honour or in conscience ratify the suspension of the councillors until they should be convicted of their alleged crimes against the governor.

The suspension of Bourdon, the king's procurator, held up the administration of justice. This Mézy endeavoured to correct by appointing, on March 10th, against the will of Laval, another, in the person of the Sieur Chartier. He went further and arbitrarily dissolved the council on September 18th, and on the 24th established another without the consent and participation of the bishop.

On September 23d M. Bourdon sailed to France at the command of de Mézy to render an account of his service to the king. In October de Mézy published again, at the beat of the drum, another proclamation, which incensed the ecclesiastical party.

The dissentions in Quebec could not but have a disquieting effect on Montreal, now politically more dependent on Quebec than ever.

CHAPTER XVI

Before the arrival of de Courcelles and Talon, on April 25th, an attack had been made on the Hôtel-Dieu at Montreal, when four of their men were fallen upon by the Indians; one was killed, another mortally wounded and two others were taken prisoners. This made Montreal look more eagerly for the arrival of the troops promised to exterminate the Iroquois.

On June 17th and 19th, four companies of the Carignan-Sallières regiment, which had sailed from Rochelle, arrived at Quebec, while de Tracy himself, with the four others which had served with him in the French Islands, reached Quebec on June 30th. In the train of the tall and portly veteran of sixty-two, was a gay and glittering throng of finely dressed young noblemen, and gentlemen adventurers, eager to witness the wonders of New France. Never was such splendour seen in Canada as that, when Laval received de Tracy and his bronzed veterans recently come from Hungary, where they had fought the Turks, and who now, with their picturesque soldiery accoutrements and trained movements marched stately to the fort to the beat of the drums. Assuredly at last the Iroquois would be exterminated by such disciplined forces.

This infantry regiment, which at the conclusion of the war was to leave many of its soldiers to settle down near Montreal and become the founders of many of the best Canadian families, had originally been raised in 1644 by Thomas François de Savoie, Prince of Carignan, the head of the house of Carignan, who fought for France in Italy. His son, after him, also commanded this regiment, which took henceforth the name of Carignan. In 1659, after having joined the regiment of Colonel Balthasar, he incorporated this with his own and it was handed over to the French king, who placed M. Henri de Chapelais, Sieur de Sallières, the colonel of another regiment incorporated with it, to command it in the absence of the prince, under his orders. Hence the combination became known as the Carignan-Sallières regiment and consisted of about 1,000 men from the Carignan-Balthasar regiment and 200 of the Sallières. The portion of the troop which returned to France became the nucleus of a reconstructed regiment which under the name of Lorraine existed till 1794.

The regiment had, however, not yet all arrived. That portion led by Colonel de Sallières himself did not come till August 18th or 19th, while the last companies reached New France with de Courcelles and Talon, on September 12th. These latter added to the splendour of Quebec "for," says Mother Jucherau, "M. de Courcelles, our governor, had a superb train and M. Talon, who naturally loves glory, forgot nothing which could do honour to the king." At last the numbers were complete, but many were put into the hospitals, sick from disease, and from the long voyage, which had taken M. Talon's party 117 days at sea. This sickness was one of the reasons which delayed the war against the Iroquois till next year.

Meanwhile at Montreal news had arrived of the capture on the Ile Ste. Thérèse, of Charles Le Moyne who, in July, had been given leave by de Maisonneuve to join the friendly "wolves" in a hunting expedition. He, however, escaped death, for he threatened them with dire revenge. "There will come a great number of French soldiers," he said, "who will burn your villages; they are even now arriving at Quebec. Of that I have certain information."

In preparation for the coming war, de Tracy, soon after his arrival, determined to build forts at the entrances to the routes leading to and from the Iroquois country. These were to be garrisoned by the soldiers of the Carignan regiments so far arrived. The first fort was placed at the mouth of the Richelieu River, to replace that originally built by de Montmagny, and quickly ruined in 1642. It was built under the direction of one of the officers, M. Sorel, whose name was afterwards given to this place, A second was constructed at the foot of a rapid of the Richelieu River and it received the name of Chambly, from another Carignan officer. M. de Sallières constructed the third at another rapid of the same river and it gained its name of Fort Ste. Thérèse from the saint's day occurring on October 15th, the day of its completion. A fourth, St. John, was built at the foot on another rapid of the Richelieu. The fifth was built by another officer, M. Lamothe, on an island of Lake Champlain, at a distance of four leagues from its mouth and was named Ste. Anne.

After their completion, the soldiers were distributed for winter to Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal. Colonel de Sallières was in command at the latter. As provisions were scarce in the storehouses of the company, Talon wrote to Colbert on October 4, 1665:

"I have sent merchandise to Montreal and on the advice of M. de Tracy I have added some ammunition from the king's stores to be distributed to the inhabitants. But in return I expect to receive from them wheat and vegetables, as well as elk skins, to make stronger canoes than those covered with birch bark."

Hearing of the preparation for war, an embassy from the three upper nations under Garacontié, the chief friendly to the French, met de Tracy at Quebec, bringing back with them Charles Le Moyne unscathed, and parleying for peace. But the two insolent lower tribes against whose marauderings the forts had been built, were still contumacious and to be punished presently.

By November, the forts were completed and the peace from Iroquois attacks was so secure that the body of Father Duperon, the old Jesuit missioner at Montreal, who had died at Chambly, was taken to Quebec to be buried. This same month, on November 24th, another Jesuit well known at Montreal, Simon Le Moyne, died at Cap de la Madeleine. He was a man of remarkable courage, tact and ability, and his name will ever be remembered in Canadian history as the first European recorded to have ascended the St. Lawrence River.

This stroke of diplomacy, delicate enough in its way, cut deep enough to wound de Maisonneuve's friends. The charge of inefficiency was read into the veiled dismissal by Marguerite Bourgeoys, his faithful adviser. "He was ordered to return to France," says Sister Morin, "as being incapable of the place and rank of governor he held here; which I could scarcely have believed, had not Sister Bourgeoys assured me of it. He took the order as that of the will of God and crossed over to France, not to make complaint of the bad treatment he had received but to live simply and humbly, an unrecognized man."

De Maisonneuve was left a poor man; he had made no fortune in Canada, as others had done. He had contented himself with being the father of his people. His devotion and attachment to Montreal had stood in the way of his acceptance of the governor generalship. He left under a cloud, but his memory has been vindicated in the noble monument to him in the Place d'Armes of Montreal. There is hardly to be found a higher ideal of Christian knighthood in the whole history of our Canadian heroes.

CHAPTER XVII

De Tracy led the next expedition with de Courcelles on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14th. Never had so large an army started out—600 Carignans, 100 friendly Indian allies from the missions and 600 French Canadians, of which 110 were the "blue coats" from Montreal under Le Moyne and Picoté de Bélestre, who led the van to meet the brunt of all disasters as they were chosen to be at the rear in retreat. The canoes and flat-bottomed boats started from Quebec crossed Lake Champlain; then, they landed and portaged their boats on their backs till they launched them again on Lake St. George (then called Lake St. Sacrament), and proceeded up the narrows to where Fort William Henry was afterwards built. There were 100 miles of marching now to be endured, through forests, streams and marshes gleaming in the Indian summer sun. Marie de l'Incarnation tells some adventures of this journey. As each one, even the officers, had to carry his knapsack of provisions, the fair Chevalier de Chaumont got a humour on his shoulders. Others suffered likewise. General de Tracy was placed in a dangerous predicament when crossing a ford. "He was one of the biggest men I have ever seen," says the good sister, "and a Swiss soldier was trying to carry him. When in the middle, de Tracy found himself overthrown, but luckily clung to a rock and saved himself. From this undignified position he was rescued by a hardy Huron, who conveyed him safely to the other side."

But the character of this journey was the genial chaplain of the Montreal forces, none other than Dollier de Casson, whom we have quoted so often. Dollier had arrived in Canada on September 7th. His venturesome spirit was enlisted at once in this expedition, in which he was quite at home being, besides a "man of God," a "man of war," having but ten years ago served and fought, as a cavalry officer under Marshal de Turenne. He was a very large man, as tall as de Tracy, and stronger. Grandet, who left a manuscript note on Dollier, says that he had such extraordinary strength, that he could hold two men seated in his hands. He was cheerful, courtly, courteous and genial. He had a merry and quick jest to cheer up the "blue coats" and others, in many a tight corner. He was doubtless the most popular man in camp. [94]

If he had lived in these days, the newspapers would have called him the "fighting parson." Grandet, in his manuscript note on Dollier, tells how on one occasion, being at prayer on his knees in an Algonquin camp, an insolent savage came to interrupt him. Without rising from his knees, the big burly missioner sent the astonished Indian sprawling on the ground by a blow from his fist—a proceeding which gained him admiration from the Algonquins, who exclaimed with pride in his physical prowess: "This is indeed a man!" Probably this strength helped him to become the great peacemaker he afterwards became at Montreal. Dollier says little of himself in his account of the march, speaking modestly and impersonally of himself. The big man seems to have suffered hunger very much on the small rations dealt out to him, for he says that "this priest made a good noviceship under a certain captain who could be called the Grand Master of Fasting; at least this officer could have served as novice master in this point to the Fathers of the Desert." This "ecclesiastic of St. Sulpice," he says, "was strongly built, but what enfeebled him was hearing the confessions of the men by night while the others were asleep. He felt the marching pretty badly, for his wretched pair of shoes gave way, so that having nothing left but the uppers the sharp stones of the water beds and banks played havoc with his bare feet. So weak and weary did he become that he could not save a man drowning in the water into which he had plunged to the rescue. This man happened to belong to the train of the Jesuits and Dollier explained that it was hunger that had so enfeebled him, whereat the good Jesuit took the good Sulpician aside and gave him a piece of bread, made palatable with two different sucres, one of Madeira and the other of appétit."

We cannot pursue the story of the war, as it takes us too far from Montreal. Suffice it to say that there was a complete victory, the greatest that had ever been won against the Iroquois. After the capture of the last stronghold of the Mohawk Iroquois, the warrior priest chanted a Te Deum and said mass. After that, the cross was planted with the arms of France and possession was taken of the country in the name of Louis XIV. "Vive le roi!"

At Quebec, when the news arrived, on November 2d, there were great rejoicings, and when de Tracy returned on the 5th the Te Deum boomed out anew. But the army was sorely depleted; many had died from cold, hunger and the chances of war, as also by accidents on the road, whereas the Iroquois had lost little else than their birch bark cabins.

After the termination of the expedition, some of the soldiers were picketed in the new forts. A chaplain was needed for Fort Ste. Anne, and Dollier de Casson, now returned to Montreal, volunteered, although he suffered from a swelling on the knee, to cure which he underwent a severe bleeding at the hands of one of the local medicos of Montreal, who did it so effectually that the big man fainted. However, he started out in two days, accompanied by Jacques Leber, Charles Le Moyne and Migeon de Branssat. At Ste. Anne's, he had busy work, with young Forestier, a surgeon from Montreal, in attending the sick men who suffered from famine and scurvy, while eleven died. Though himself sick the cheery chaplain did good, self-sacrificing service, none the less excellent, because it was seasoned with a plenteous fund of raillery and bantering. Among the officers there was La Durantaye, famous hereafter in Canadian annals. So the winter wore away at Ste. Anne's, relieved by provisions sent by the good folks of Montreal.

That winter the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal was filled to overflowing with the sick and wounded, which it had received from the army under de Courcelles after the terrible war of the early winter. During the next year it continued its good work, for which Dollier de Casson says it deserved unspeakable praise, receiving the sick from the forts of Ste. Anne, St. Louis and St. Jean.

Before closing the narration of the events of this year we must not forget the joy at Montreal caused by the news spread in September that the king had settled all doubts of the rights of the Seigneurs of Montreal by confirming the letters patent of 1644. This confirmation M. Talon put into practice on September 17th when he received the fealty and homage of the Seminary for the Seigneurs of Montreal "with high, low and middle justice," and two days afterwards, in virtue of the extraordinary powers granted him by the king, ordered the seigneurs to be maintained in the possession of the administration of justice, thus supplanting the royal court of the sénéchal already established, as before mentioned.

The Seminary had right to name its own governor also, but no one was appointed to the vacant post of Maisonneuve till 1669.

Thus the year closed in a peace to last for twenty years. The king's arms had battered Iroquois insolence.

But the heroic age was at an end. [95]

After the successful war, de Tracy engaged himself before departing in May for Montreal, in consolidating the paternal government lately introduced and in conciliating the habitants on behalf of his royal master. He came to Montreal to take cognizance of it as a place which was most commonly resorted to by the savage as the most advanced point on the river.

He left Quebec on May 4th, and two days later Talon, as intendant, set out to pay his official visit to Montreal. He acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the settlers on all the côtes "for," says Dollier de Casson, "he went to the great edification of the public from house to house, even to the poorest, asking if all were being treated according to equity and justice, and when pecuniary assistance was needed, it was forthcoming."

We shall speak later of many of the progressive movements initiated through M. Talon at this time.

This year the Seigneurs of Montreal were given back the possession of the storehouse at Quebec, about which there had been much contention.

The question of the "dime" had agitated Montreal as elsewhere. Originally fixed by Laval at one-thirteenth it had been reduced to one-twentieth and then to one-twenty-sixth. Even then in view of the difficulties of a young country it was not payable for five years, to allow the settler to cultivate his lands more easily. But at the same time, it was arranged that in the future, better times might allow it to be increased. This was regulated by an act of the clerk's office at Montreal of August 23, 1667; but a further act of an assembly, held on August 12, 1668, shows appreciation on the part of the syndic and inhabitants of a desire to meet the seigneurs in the upkeep of the church by fixing the dime at one-twenty-first part for wheat and one-twenty-sixth for other grains.

The arrangements for the payment of the dime had been made jointly by de Tracy, de Courcelles and Talon. De Tracy left Quebec on September 28th, to the great regret of Laval and the clergy.