HALF-CENTURY OFCONFLICT. 

FRANCE AND ENGLAND INNORTH AMERICA. 

PART SIXTH. 

BY

FRANCIS PARKMAN. 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 

VOL. I. 

BOSTON:LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1898. 

_Copyright, 1892_, By Francis Parkman. 

_Copyright, 1897_, By Little, Brown, and Company. 

University Press:John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A. 

[Illustration]

PREFACE. 

This book, forming Part VI. Of the series called France and England inNorth America, fills the gap between Part V. , "Count Frontenac, " andPart VII. , "Montcalm and Wolfe;" so that the series now forms acontinuous history of the efforts of France to occupy and control thiscontinent. 

In the present volumes the nature of the subject does not permit anunbroken thread of narrative, and the unity of the book lies in itsbeing throughout, in one form or another, an illustration of thesingularly contrasted characters and methods of the rival claimants toNorth America. 

Like the rest of the series, this work is founded on original documents. The statements of secondary writers have been accepted only when foundto conform to the evidence of contemporaries, whose writings have beensifted and collated with the greatest care. As extremists on each sidehave charged me with favoring the other, I hope I have been unfair toneither. 

The manuscript material collected for the preparation of the series nowcomplete forms about seventy volumes, most of them folios. These havebeen given by me from time to time to the Massachusetts HistoricalSociety, in whose library they now are, open to the examination of thoseinterested in the subjects of which they treat. The collection was begunforty-five years ago, and its formation has been exceedingly slow, having been retarded by difficulties which seemed insurmountable, andfor years were so in fact. Hence the completion of the series hasrequired twice the time that would have sufficed under less unfavorableconditions. 

Boston, March 26, 1892. 

CONTENTS. 

 PAGE

 CHAPTER I. 

 1700-1713. 

 EVE OF WAR. 

 The Spanish Succession. --Influence of Louis XIV. On History. --French Schemes of Conquest in America. --New York. --Unfitness of the Colonies for War. --The Five Nations. --Doubt and Vacillation. --The Western Indians. --Trade and Politics 3

 CHAPTER II. 

 1694-1704. 

 DETROIT. 

 Michilimackinac. --La Mothe-Cadillac: his Disputes with the Jesuits. --Opposing Views. --Plans of Cadillac: his Memorial to the Court; his Opponents. --Detroit founded. --The New Company. --Detroit changes Hands. --Strange Act of the Five Nations 17

 CHAPTER III. 

 1703-1713. 

 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 

 The Forest of Maine. --A Treacherous Peace. --A Frontier Village. --Wells and its People. --Attack upon it. --Border Ravages. --Beaubassin's War-party. --The "Woful Decade. "--A Wedding Feast. --A Captive Bridegroom 34

 CHAPTER IV. 

 1704-1740. 

 DEERFIELD. 

 Hertel de Rouville. --A Frontier Village. --Rev. John Williams. --The Surprise. --Defence of the Stebbins House. --Attempted Rescue. --The Meadow Fight. --The Captives. --The Northward March. --Mrs. Williams killed. --The Minister's Journey. --Kindness of Canadians. --A Stubborn Heretic. --Eunice Williams. --Converted Captives. --John Sheldon's Mission. --Exchange of Prisoners. --An English Squaw. --The Gill Family 55

 CHAPTER V. 

 1704-1713. 

 THE TORMENTED FRONTIER. 

 Border Raids. --Haverhill. --Attack and Defence. --War to the Knife. --Motives of the French. --Proposed Neutrality. --Joseph Dudley. --Town and Country 94

 CHAPTER VI. 

 1700-1710. 

 THE OLD RÉGIME IN ACADIA. 

 The Fishery Question. --Privateers and Pirates. --Port Royal. --Official Gossip. --Abuse of Brouillan. --Complaints of De Goutin. --Subercase and his Officers. --Church and State. --Paternal Government 110

 CHAPTER VII. 

 1704-1710. 

 ACADIA CHANGES HANDS. 

 Reprisal for Deerfield. --Major Benjamin Church: his Ravages at Grand-Pré. --Port Royal Expedition. --Futile Proceedings. --A Discreditable Affair. --French Successes in Newfoundland. --Schemes of Samuel Vetch. --A Grand Enterprise. --Nicholson's Advance. --An Infected Camp. --Ministerial Promises broken. --A New Scheme. --Port Royal attacked. --Acadia conquered 120

 CHAPTER VIII. 

 1710, 1711. 

 WALKER'S EXPEDITION. 

 Scheme of La Ronde Denys. --Boston warned against British Designs. --Boston to be ruined. --Plans of the Ministry. --Canada doomed. --British Troops at Boston. --The Colonists denounced. --The Fleet sails for Quebec. --Forebodings of the Admiral. --Storm and Wreck. --Timid Commanders. --Retreat. --Joyful News for Canada. --Pious Exultation. --Fanciful Stories. --Walker disgraced 156

 CHAPTER IX. 

 1712-1749. 

 LOUISBOURG AND ACADIA. 

 Peace of Utrecht. --Perilous Questions. --Louisbourg founded. --Annapolis attacked. --Position of the Acadians. --Weakness of the British Garrison. --Apathy of the Ministry. --French Intrigue. --Clerical Politicians. --The Oath of Allegiance. --Acadians refuse it: their Expulsion proposed; they take the Oath 183

 CHAPTER X. 

 1713-1724. 

 SEBASTIEN RALE. 

 Boundary Disputes. --Outposts of Canada. --The Earlier and Later Jesuits. --Religion and Politics. --The Norridgewocks and their Missionary. --A Hollow Peace. --Disputed Land Claims. --Council at Georgetown. --Attitude of Rale. --Minister and Jesuit. --The Indians waver. --An Outbreak. --Covert War. --Indignation against Rale. --War declared. --Governor and Assembly. --Speech of Samuel Sewall. --Penobscots attack Fort St. George. --Reprisal. --Attack on Norridgewock. --Death of Rale 212

 CHAPTER XI. 

 1724, 1725. 

 LOVEWELL'S FIGHT. 

 Vaudreuil and Dummer. --Embassy to Canada. --Indians intractable. --Treaty of Peace. --The Pequawkets. --John Lovewell. --A Hunting Party. --Another Expedition. --The Ambuscade. --The Fight. --Chaplain Frye: his Fate. --The Survivors. --Susanna Rogers 250

 CHAPTER XII. 

 1712. 

 THE OUTAGAMIES AT DETROIT. 

 The West and the Fur-trade. --New York and Canada. --Indian Population. --The Firebrands of the West. --Detroit in 1712. --Dangerous Visitors. --Suspense. --Timely Succors. --The Outagamies attacked: their Desperate Position. --Overtures. --Wavering Allies. --Conduct of Dubuisson. --Escape of the Outagamies. --Pursuit and Attack. --Victory and Carnage 272

 CHAPTER XIII. 

 1697-1750. 

 LOUISIANA. 

 The Mississippi to be occupied. --English Rivalry. --Iberville. --Bienville. --Huguenots. --Views of Louis XIV. --Wives for the Colony. --Slaves. --La Mothe-Cadillac. --Paternal Government. --Crozat's Monopoly. --Factions. --The Mississippi Company. --New Orleans. --The Bubble bursts. --Indian Wars. --The Colony firmly established. --The two Heads of New France 298

 CHAPTER XIV. 

 1700-1732. 

 THE OUTAGAMIE WAR. 

 The Western Posts. --Detroit. --The Illinois. --Perils of the West. --The Outagamies. --Their Turbulence. --English Instigation. --Louvigny's Expedition. --Defeat of Outagamies. --Hostilities renewed. --Lignery's Expedition. --Outagamies attacked by Villiers; by Hurons and Iroquois. --La Butte des Morts. --The Sacs and Foxes 326

 CHAPTER XV. 

 1697-1741. 

 FRANCE IN THE FAR WEST. 

 French Explorers. --Le Sueur on the St. Peter. --Canadians on the Missouri. --Juchereau de Saint-Denis. --Bénard de la Harpe on Red River. --Adventures of Du Tisné. --Bourgmont visits the Comanches. --The Brothers Mallet in Colorado and New Mexico. --Fabry de la Bruyère 346

CHAPTER I. 

1700-1713. 

EVE OF WAR. 

The Spanish Succession. --Influence of Louis XIV. On History. --FrenchSchemes of Conquest in America. --New York. --Unfitness of the Coloniesfor War. --The Five Nations. --Doubt and Vacillation. --The WesternIndians. --Trade and Politics. 

The war which in the British colonies was called Queen Anne's War, andin England the War of the Spanish Succession, was the second of a seriesof four conflicts which ended in giving to Great Britain a maritime andcolonial preponderance over France and Spain. So far as concerns thecolonies and the sea, these several wars may be regarded as a singleprotracted one, broken by intervals of truce. The three earlier of them, it is true, were European contests, begun and waged on Europeandisputes. Their American part was incidental and apparently subordinate, yet it involved questions of prime importance in the history of theworld. 

The War of the Spanish Succession sprang from the ambition of Louis XIV. We are apt to regard the story of that gorgeous monarch as a tale thatis told; but his influence shapes the life of nations to this day. Atthe beginning of his reign two roads lay before him, and it was amomentous question for posterity, as for his own age, which one of themhe would choose, --whether he would follow the wholesome policy of hisgreat minister Colbert, or obey his own vanity and arrogance, and plungeFrance into exhausting wars; whether he would hold to the principle oftolerance embodied in the Edict of Nantes, or do the work of fanaticismand priestly ambition. The one course meant prosperity, progress, andthe rise of a middle class; the other meant bankruptcy and theDragonades, --and this was the King's choice. Crushing taxation, misery, and ruin followed, till France burst out at last in a frenzy, drunk withthe wild dreams of Rousseau. Then came the Terror and the Napoleonicwars, and reaction on reaction, revolution on revolution, down to ourown day. 

Louis placed his grandson on the throne of Spain, and insulted Englandby acknowledging as her rightful King the son of James II. , whom she haddeposed. Then England declared war. Canada and the northern Britishcolonies had had but a short breathing time since the Peace of Ryswick;both were tired of slaughtering each other, and both needed rest. Yetbefore the declaration of war, the Canadian officers of the Crownprepared, with their usual energy, to meet the expected crisis. One ofthem wrote: "If war be declared, it is certain that the King can veryeasily conquer and ruin New England. " The French of Canada often use thename "New England" as applying to the British colonies in general. Theyare twice as populous as Canada, he goes on to say; but the people aregreat cowards, totally undisciplined, and ignorant of war, while theCanadians are brave, hardy, and well trained. We have, besides, twenty-eight companies of regulars, and could raise six thousandwarriors from our Indian allies. Four thousand men could easily laywaste all the northern English colonies, to which end we must have fiveships of war, with one thousand troops on board, who must land atPenobscot, where they must be joined by two thousand regulars, militia, and Indians, sent from Canada by way of the Chaudière and the Kennebec. Then the whole force must go to Portsmouth, take it by assault, leave agarrison there, and march to Boston, laying waste all the towns andvillages by the way; after destroying Boston, the army must march forNew York, while the fleet follows along the coast. "Nothing could beeasier, " says the writer, "for the road is good, and there is plenty ofhorses and carriages. The troops would ruin everything as they advanced, and New York would quickly be destroyed and burned. "[1]

Another plan, scarcely less absurd, was proposed about the same time bythe celebrated Le Moyne d'Iberville. The essential point, he says, is toget possession of Boston; but there are difficulties and risks in theway. Nothing, he adds, referring to the other plan, seems difficult topersons without experience; but unless we are prepared to raise a greatand costly armament, our only hope is in surprise. We should make it inwinter, when the seafaring population, which is the chief strength ofthe place, is absent on long voyages. A thousand Canadians, four hundredregulars, and as many Indians should leave Quebec in November, ascendthe Chaudière, then descend the Kennebec, approach Boston under cover ofthe forest, and carry it by a night attack. Apparently he did not knowthat but for its lean neck--then but a few yards wide--Boston was anisland, and that all around for many leagues the forest that was to havecovered his approach had already been devoured by numerous busysettlements. He offers to lead the expedition, and declares that if heis honored with the command, he will warrant that the New Englandcapital will be forced to submit to King Louis, after which New York canbe seized in its turn. [2]

In contrast to those incisive proposals, another French officer breathednothing but peace. Brouillan, governor of Acadia, wrote to the governorof Massachusetts to suggest that, with the consent of their masters, they should make a treaty of neutrality. The English governor beingdead, the letter came before the council, who received it coldly. Canada, and not Acadia, was the enemy they had to fear. Moreover, Bostonmerchants made good profit by supplying the Acadians with necessarieswhich they could get in no other way; and in time of war these profits, though lawless, were greater than in time of peace. But what chieflyinfluenced the council against the overtures of Brouillan was a passagein his letter reminding them that, by the Treaty of Ryswick, the NewEngland people had no right to fish within sight of the Acadian coast. This they flatly denied, saying that the New England people had fishedthere time out of mind, and that if Brouillan should molest them, theywould treat it as an act of war. [3]

While the New England colonies, and especially Massachusetts and NewHampshire, had most cause to deprecate a war, the prospect of one wasalso extremely unwelcome to the people of New York. The conflict latelyclosed had borne hard upon them through the attacks of the enemy, andstill more through the derangement of their industries. They weredistracted, too, with the factions rising out of the recent revolutionunder Jacob Leisler. New York had been the bulwark of the coloniesfarther south, who, feeling themselves safe, had given their protectorlittle help, and that little grudgingly, seeming to regard the war as noconcern of theirs. Three thousand and fifty-one pounds, provincialcurrency, was the joint contribution of Virginia, Maryland, East Jersey, and Connecticut to the aid of New York during five years of the latewar. [4] Massachusetts could give nothing, even if she would, her handsbeing full with the defence of her own borders. Colonel Quary wrote tothe Board of Trade that New York could not bear alone the cost ofdefending herself; that the other colonies were "stuffed withcommonwealth notions, " and were "of a sour temper in opposition togovernment, " so that Parliament ought to take them in hand and compeleach to do its part in the common cause. [5] To this Lord Cornbury addsthat Rhode Island and Connecticut are even more stubborn than the rest, hate all true subjects of the Queen, and will not give a farthing to thewar so long as they can help it. [6] Each province lived in selfishisolation, recking little of its neighbor's woes. 

New York, left to fight her own battles, was in a wretched conditionfor defence. It is true that, unlike the other colonies, the King hadsent her a few soldiers, counting at this time about one hundred andeighty, all told;[7] but they had been left so long without pay thatthey were in a state of scandalous destitution. They would have beenleft without rations had not three private gentlemen--Schuyler, Livingston, and Cortlandt--advanced money for their supplies, whichseems never to have been repaid. [8] They are reported to have been"without shirts, breeches, shoes, or stockings, " and "in such a shamefulcondition that the women when passing them are obliged to cover theireyes. " "The Indians ask, " says the governor, "'Do you think us suchfools as to believe that a king who cannot clothe his soldiers canprotect us from the French, with their fourteen hundred men all wellequipped?'"[9]

The forts were no better than their garrisons. The governor complainsthat those of Albany and Schenectady "are so weak and ridiculous thatthey look more like pounds for cattle than forts. " At Albany the rottenstockades were falling from their own weight. 

If New York had cause to complain of those whom she sheltered, sheherself gave cause of complaint to those who sheltered her. The FiveNations of the Iroquois had always been her allies against the French, had guarded her borders and fought her battles. What they wanted inreturn were gifts, attentions, just dealings, and active aid in war; butthey got them in scant measure. Their treatment by the province wasshort-sighted, if not ungrateful. New York was a mixture of races andreligions not yet fused into a harmonious body politic, divided ininterests and torn with intestine disputes. Its Assembly was made up inlarge part of men unfitted to pursue a consistent scheme of policy, orspend the little money at their disposal on any objects but those ofpresent and visible interest. The royal governors, even when personallycompetent, were hampered by want of means and by factious opposition. The Five Nations were robbed by land-speculators, cheated by traders, and feebly supported in their constant wars with the French. Spasmodically, as it were, on occasions of crisis, they were summoned toAlbany, soothed with such presents as could be got from unwillinglegislators, or now and then from the Crown, and exhorted to fightvigorously in the common cause. The case would have been far worse butfor a few patriotic men, with Peter Schuyler at their head, whounderstood the character of these Indians, and labored strenuously tokeep them in what was called their allegiance. 

The proud and fierce confederates had suffered greatly in the late war. Their numbers had been reduced about one half, and they now countedlittle more than twelve hundred warriors. They had learned a bitter andhumiliating lesson, and their arrogance had changed to distrust andalarm. Though hating the French, they had learned to respect theirmilitary activity and prowess, and to look askance on the Dutch andEnglish, who rarely struck a blow in their defence, and suffered theirhereditary enemy to waste their fields and burn their towns. The Englishcalled the Five Nations British subjects, on which the French tauntedthem with being British slaves, and told them that the King of Englandhad ordered the governor of New York to poison them. This invention hadgreat effect. The Iroquois capital, Onondaga, was filled with wildrumors. The credulous savages were tossed among doubts, suspicions, andfears. Some were in terror of poison, and some of witchcraft. Theybelieved that the rival European nations had leagued to destroy them anddivide their lands, and that they were bewitched by sorcerers, bothFrench and English. [10]

After the Peace of Ryswick, and even before it, the French governor keptagents among them. Some of these were soldiers, like Joncaire, Maricourt, or Longueuil, and some were Jesuits, like Bruyas, Lamberville, or Vaillant. The Jesuits showed their usual ability andskill in their difficult and perilous task. The Indians derived variousadvantages from their presence, which they regarded also as a flatteringattention; while the English, jealous of their influence, made feebleattempts to counteract it by sending Protestant clergymen to Onondaga. "But, " writes Lord Bellomont, "it is next to impossible to prevail withthe ministers to live among the Indians. They [the Indians] are so nastyas never to wash their hands, or the utensils they dress their victualswith. "[11] Even had their zeal been proof to these afflictions, theministers would have been no match for their astute opponents. In vainBellomont assured the Indians that the Jesuits were "the greatest lyarsand impostors in the world. "[12] In vain he offered a hundred dollarsfor every one of them whom they should deliver into his hands. Theywould promise to expel them; but their minds were divided, and theystood in fear of one another. While one party distrusted and dislikedthe priests, another was begging the governor of Canada to send more. Others took a practical view of the question. "If the English sell goodscheaper than the French, we will have ministers; if the French sell themcheaper than the English, we will have priests. " Others, again, wantedneither Jesuits nor ministers, "because both of you [English and French]have made us drunk with the noise of your praying. "[13]

The aims of the propagandists on both sides were secular. The Frenchwished to keep the Five Nations neutral in the event of another war;the English wished to spur them to active hostility; but while theformer pursued their purpose with energy and skill, the efforts of thelatter were intermittent and generally feeble. 

"The Nations, " writes Schuyler, "are full of factions. " There was aFrench party and an English party in every town, especially in Onondaga, the centre of intrigue. French influence was strongest at the westernend of the confederacy, among the Senecas, where the French officerJoncaire, an Iroquois by adoption, had won many to France; and it wasweakest at the eastern end, among the Mohawks, who were nearest to theEnglish settlements. Here the Jesuits had labored long and strenuouslyin the work of conversion, and from time to time they had led theirnumerous proselytes to remove to Canada, where they settled at St. Louis, or Caughnawaga, on the right bank of the St. Lawrence, a littleabove Montreal, where their descendants still remain. It is said that atthe beginning of the eighteenth century two-thirds of the Mohawks hadthus been persuaded to cast their lot with the French, and from enemiesto become friends and allies. Some of the Oneidas and a few of the otherIroquois nations joined them and strengthened the new missionsettlement; and the Caughnawagas afterwards played an important partbetween the rival European colonies. 

The "Far Indians, " or "Upper Nations, " as the French called them, consisted of the tribes of the Great Lakes and adjacent regions, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, Sacs, Foxes, Sioux, and many more. It was fromthese that Canada drew the furs by which she lived. Most of them werenominal friends and allies of the French, who in the interest of tradestrove to keep these wild-cats from tearing one another's throats, andwho were in constant alarm lest they should again come to blows withtheir old enemies, the Five Nations, in which case they would call onCanada for help, thus imperilling those pacific relations with theIroquois confederacy which the French were laboring constantly tosecure. 

In regard to the "Far Indians, " the French, the English, and the FiveIroquois Nations all had distinct and opposing interests. The Frenchwished to engross their furs, either by inducing the Indians to bringthem down to Montreal, or by sending traders into their country to buythem. The English, with a similar object, wished to divert the "FarIndians" from Montreal and draw them to Albany; but this did not suitthe purpose of the Five Nations, who, being sharp politicians and keentraders, as well as bold and enterprising warriors, wished to act asmiddle-men between the beaver-hunting tribes and the Albany merchants, well knowing that good profit might thus accrue. In this state ofaffairs the converted Iroquois settled at Caughnawaga played a peculiarpart. In the province of New York, goods for the Indian trade were ofexcellent quality and comparatively abundant and cheap; while among theFrench, especially in time of war, they were often scarce and dear. TheCaughnawagas accordingly, whom neither the English nor the French daredoffend, used their position to carry on a contraband trade between NewYork and Canada. By way of Lake Champlain and the Hudson they brought toAlbany furs from the country of the "Far Indians, " and exchanged themfor guns, blankets, cloths, knives, beads, and the like. These theycarried to Canada and sold to the French traders, who in this way, andoften in this alone, supplied themselves with the goods necessary forbartering furs from the "Far Indians. " This lawless trade of theCaughnawagas went on even in time of war; and opposed as it was to everyprinciple of Canadian policy, it was generally connived at by the Frenchauthorities as the only means of obtaining the goods necessary forkeeping their Indian allies in good humor. 

It was injurious to English interests; but the fur-traders of Albany andalso the commissioners charged with Indian affairs, being Dutchmenconverted by force into British subjects, were, with a few eminentexceptions, cool in their devotion to the British Crown; while themerchants of the port of New York, from whom the fur-traders drew theirsupplies, thought more of their own profits than of the public good. Thetrade with Canada through the Caughnawagas not only gave aid and comfortto the enemy, but continually admitted spies into the colony, from whomthe governor of Canada gained information touching English movements anddesigns. 

The Dutch traders of Albany and the importing merchants who suppliedthem with Indian goods had a strong interest in preventing activehostilities with Canada, which would have spoiled their trade. So, too, and for similar reasons, had influential persons in Canada. The Frenchauthorities, moreover, thought it impolitic to harass the frontiers ofNew York by war parties, since the Five Nations might come to the aid oftheir Dutch and English allies, and so break the peaceful relationswhich the French were anxious to maintain with them. Thus it happenedthat, during the first six or seven years of the eighteenth century, there was a virtual truce between Canada and New York, and the wholeburden of the war fell upon New England, or rather upon Massachusetts, with its outlying district of Maine and its small and weak neighbor, NewHampshire. [14]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Premier Projet pour L'Expédition contre la Nouvelle Angleterre, 1701. _ _Second Projet_, etc. Compare _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, ix. 725. 

[2] _Mémoire du Sieur d'Iberville sur Boston et ses Dépendances_, 1700(1701?). Baron de Saint-Castin also drew up a plan for attacking Bostonin 1702 with lists of necessary munitions and other supplies. 

[3] _Brouillan à Bellomont, 10 Août, 1701. Conseil de Baston àBrouillan, 22 Août, 1701. _ Brouillan acted under royal orders, havingbeen told, in case of war being declared, to propose a treaty with NewEngland, unless he should find that he can "se garantir des insultes desAnglais" and do considerable harm to their trade, in which case he is tomake no treaty. _Mémoire du Roy au Sieur de Brouillan, 23 Mars, 1700. _

[4] Schuyler, _Colonial New York_, i. 431, 432. 

[5] _Colonel Quary to the Lords of Trade, 16 June, 1703. _

[6] _Cornbury to the Lords of Trade, 9 September, 1703. _

[7] _Bellomont to the Lords of Trade, 28 February, 1700. _

[8] _Ibid. _

[9] Schuyler, _Colonial New York_, i. 488. 

[10] _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, iv. 658. 

[11] _Bellomont to the Lords of Trade, 17 October, 1700. _

[12] _Conference of Bellomont with the Indians, 26 August, 1700. _

[13] _Journal of Bleeker and Schuyler on their visit to Onondaga, August, September, 1701. _

[14] The foregoing chapter rests on numerous documents in the PublicRecord Office, Archives de la Marine, Archives Nationales, _N. Y. Colonial Documents_, vols. Iv. V. Ix. , and the _Second and Third Seriesof the Correspondance Officielle_ at Ottawa. 

CHAPTER II. 

1694-1704. 

DETROIT. 

Michilimackinac. --La Mothe-Cadillac: his Disputes with theJesuits. --Opposing Views. --Plans of Cadillac: his Memorial to the Court;his Opponents. --Detroit founded. The New Company. --Detroit changesHands. --Strange Act of the Five Nations. 

In the few years of doubtful peace that preceded Queen Anne's War, anenterprise was begun, which, nowise in accord with the wishes andexpectations of those engaged in it, was destined to produce as its lastresult an American city. 

Antoine de La Mothe-Cadillac commanded at Michilimackinac, whitherFrontenac had sent him in 1694. This old mission of the Jesuits, wherethey had gathered the remnants of the lake tribes dispersed by theIroquois at the middle of the seventeenth century, now savored little ofits apostolic beginnings. It was the centre of the western fur-trade andthe favorite haunt of the _coureurs de bois_. Brandy and squawsabounded, and according to the Jesuit Carheil, the spot where Marquettehad labored was now a witness of scenes the most unedifying. [15]

At Michilimackinac was seen a curious survival of Huron-Iroquoiscustoms. The villages of the Hurons and Ottawas, which were side byside, separated only by a fence, were surrounded by a common enclosureof triple palisades, which, with the addition of loopholes for musketry, were precisely like those seen by Cartier at Hochelaga, and by Champlainin the Onondaga country. The dwellings which these defences enclosedwere also after the old Huron-Iroquois pattern, --those long archedstructures covered with bark which Brébeuf found by the shores ofMatchedash Bay, and Jogues on the banks of the Mohawk. Besides theIndians, there was a French colony at the place, chiefly of fur-traders, lodged in log-cabins, roofed with cedar bark, and forming a street alongthe shore close to the palisaded villages of the Hurons and Ottawas. Thefort, known as Fort Buade, stood at the head of the little bay. [16]

The Hurons and Ottawas were thorough savages, though the Hurons retainedthe forms of Roman Catholic Christianity. This tribe, writes Cadillac, "are reduced to a very small number; and it is well for us that theyare, for they are ill-disposed and mischievous, with a turn for intrigueand a capacity for large undertakings. Luckily, their power is notgreat; but as they cannot play the lion, they play the fox, and do theirbest to make trouble between us and our allies. "

La Mothe-Cadillac[17] was a captain in the colony troops, and an admirerof the late governor, Frontenac, to whose policy he adhered, and whoseprejudices he shared. He was amply gifted with the kind of intelligencethat consists in quick observation, sharpened by an inveterate spirit ofsarcasm, was energetic, enterprising, well instructed, and a bold andsometimes a visionary schemer, with a restless spirit, a nimble andbiting wit, a Gascon impetuosity of temperament, and as much devotion asan officer of the King was forced to profess, coupled with small love ofpriests and an aversion to Jesuits. [18] Carheil and Marest, missionariesof that order at Michilimackinac, were objects of his especialantipathy, which they fully returned. The two priests were impatient ofa military commandant to whose authority they were in some small measuresubjected; and they imputed to him the disorders which he did not, andperhaps could not, prevent. They were opposed also to the traffic inbrandy, which was favored by Cadillac on the usual ground that itattracted the Indians, and so prevented the English from getting controlof the fur-trade, --an argument which he reinforced by sanitaryconsiderations based on the supposed unwholesomeness of the fish andsmoked meat which formed the chief diet of Michilimackinac. "A littlebrandy after the meal, " he says, with the solemnity of the learnedPurgon, "seems necessary to cook the bilious meats and the cruditiesthey leave in the stomach. "[19]

Cadillac calls Carheil, superior of the mission, the most passionate anddomineering man he ever knew, and further declares that the Jesuit triedto provoke him to acts of violence, in order to make matter ofaccusation against him. If this was Carheil's aim, he was nearsucceeding. Once, in a dispute with the commandant on the brandy-trade, he upbraided him sharply for permitting it; to which Cadillac repliedthat he only obeyed the orders of the court. The Jesuit rejoined that heought to obey God, and not man, --"on which, " says the commandant, "Itold him that his talk smelt of sedition a hundred yards off, and beggedthat he would amend it. He told me that I gave myself airs that did notbelong to me, holding his fist before my nose at the same time. Iconfess I almost forgot that he was a priest, and felt for a momentlike knocking his jaw out of joint; but, thank God, I contented myselfwith taking him by the arm, pushing him out, and ordering him not tocome back. "[20]

Such being the relations of the commandant and the Father Superior, itis not surprising to find the one complaining that he cannot getabsolved from his sins, and the other painting the morals and manners ofMichilimackinac in the blackest colors. 

I have spoken elsewhere of the two opposing policies that dividedCanada, --the policies of concentration and of expansion, on the one handleaving the west to the keeping of the Jesuits, and confining thepopulation to the borders of the St. Lawrence; on the other, theoccupation of the interior of the continent by posts of war andtrade. [21] Through the force of events the latter view had prevailed;yet while the military chiefs of Canada could not but favor it, theJesuits were unwilling to accept it, and various interests in the colonystill opposed it openly or secretly. Frontenac had been its strongestchampion, and Cadillac followed in his steps. It seemed to him that thetime had come for securing the west for France. 

The strait--_détroit_--which connects Lake Huron with Lake Erie was themost important of all the western passes. It was the key of the threeupper lakes, with the vast countries watered by their tributaries, andit gave Canada her readiest access to the valley of the Mississippi. Ifthe French held it, the English would be shut out from the northwest;if, as seemed likely, the English should seize it, the Canadianfur-trade would be ruined. [22] The possession of it by the French wouldbe a constant curb and menace to the Five Nations, as well as a barrierbetween those still formidable tribes and the western Indians, allies ofCanada; and when the intended French establishment at the mouth of theMississippi should be made, Detroit would be an indispensable link ofcommunication between Canada and Louisiana. 

Denonville had recognized the importance of the position, and it was byhis orders that Greysolon Du Lhut, in 1686, had occupied it for a time, and built a picket fort near the site of Fort Gratiot. [23]

It would be idle to imagine that the motives of Cadillac were whollypatriotic. Fur-trading interests were deeply involved in his plans, andbitter opposition was certain. The fur-trade, in its nature, was aconstant breeder of discord. The people of Montreal would have thetribes come down every summer from the west and northwest and hold afair under the palisades of their town. It is said that more than fourhundred French families lived wholly or in part by this home trade, andtherefore regarded with deep jealousy the establishment of interiorposts, which would forestall it. Again, every new western post woulddraw away trade from those already established, and every tradinglicense granted to a company or an individual would rouse the animosityof those who had been licensed before. The prosperity of Detroit wouldbe the ruin of Michilimackinac, and those whose interests centred at thelatter post angrily opposed the scheme of Cadillac. 

He laid his plans before Count de Maurepas by a characteristic memorial, apparently written in 1699. In this he proposed to gather all the tribesof the lakes at Detroit, civilize them and teach them French, "insomuchthat from pagans they would become children of the Church, and thereforegood subjects of the King. " They will form, he continues, a considerablesettlement, "strong enough to bring the English and the Iroquois toreason, or, with help from Montreal, to destroy both of them. " Detroit, he adds, should be the seat of trade, which should not be permitted inthe countries beyond it. By this regulation the intolerable glut ofbeaver-skins, which spoils the market, may be prevented. This proposedrestriction of the beaver-trade to Detroit was enough in itself to raisea tempest against the whole scheme. "Cadillac well knows that he hasenemies, " pursues the memorial, "but he keeps on his way without turningor stopping for the noise of the puppies who bark after him. "[24]

Among the essential features of his plan was a well-garrisoned fort, anda church, served not by Jesuits alone, but also by Récollet friars andpriests of the Missions Étrangères. The idea of this ecclesiasticalpartnership was odious to the Jesuits, who felt that the west was theirproper field, and that only they had a right there. Another part ofCadillac's proposal pleased them no better. This was his plan ofcivilizing the Indians and teaching them to speak French; for it was thereproach of the Jesuit missions that they left the savage a savagestill, and asked little of him but the practice of certain rites and thepassive acceptance of dogmas to him incomprehensible. 

"It is essential, " says the memorial, "that in this matter of teachingthe Indians our language the missionaries should act in good faith, andthat his Majesty should have the goodness to impose his strictest ordersupon them; for which there are several good reasons. The first and moststringent is that when members of religious orders or otherecclesiastics undertake anything, they never let it go. The second isthat by not teaching French to the Indians they make themselvesnecessary [as interpreters] to the King and the governor. The third isthat if all Indians spoke French, all kinds of ecclesiastics would beable to instruct them. This might cause them [the Jesuits] to lose someof the presents they get; for though these Reverend Fathers come hereonly for the glory of God, yet the one thing does not prevent theother, "--meaning that God and Mammon may be served at once. "Nobody candeny that the priests own three quarters of Canada. From St. Paul's Bayto Quebec, there is nothing but the seigniory of Beauport that belongsto a private person. All the rest, which is the best part, belongs tothe Jesuits or other ecclesiastics. The Upper Town of Quebec is composedof six or seven superb palaces belonging to Hospital Nuns, Ursulines, Jesuits, Récollets, Seminary priests, and the bishop. There may be someforty private houses, and even these pay rent to the ecclesiastics, which shows that _the one thing does not prevent the other_. " From thisit will be seen that, in the words of one of his enemies, Cadillac "wasnot quite in the odor of sanctity. "

"One may as well knock one's head against a wall, " concludes thememorial, "as hope to convert the Indians in any other way [than that ofcivilizing them]; for thus far all the fruits of the missions consist inthe baptism of infants who die before reaching the age of reason. "[25]This was not literally true, though the results of the Jesuit missionsin the west had been meagre and transient to a surprising degree. 

Cadillac's plan of a settlement at Detroit was not at first receivedwith favor by Callières, the governor; while the intendant Champigny, afast friend of the Jesuits, strongly opposed it. By their order thechief inhabitants of Quebec met at the Château St. Louis, --Callières, Champigny, and Cadillac himself being present. There was a heated debateon the beaver-trade, after which the intendant commanded silence, explained the projects of Cadillac, and proceeded to oppose them. Hisfirst point was that the natives should not be taught French, becausethe Indian girls brought up at the Ursuline Convent led looser livesthan the young squaws who had received no instruction, while it was muchthe same with the boys brought up at the Seminary. 

"M. De Champigny, " returned the sarcastic Cadillac, "does great honor tothe Ursulines and the Seminary. It is true that some Indian women whohave learned our language have lived viciously; but that is becausetheir teachers were too stiff with them, and tried to make themnuns. "[26]

Champigny's position, as stated by his adversary, was that "all intimacyof the Indians with the French is dangerous and corrupting to theirmorals, " and that their only safety lies in keeping them at a distancefrom the settlements. This was the view of the Jesuits, and there ismuch to be said in its favor; but it remains not the less true thatconversion must go hand in hand with civilization, or it is a failureand a fraud. 

Cadillac was not satisfied with the results of the meeting at theChâteau St. Louis, and he wrote to the minister: "You can never hopethat this business will succeed if it is discussed here on the spot. Canada is a country of cabals and intrigues, and it is impossible toreconcile so many different interests. "[27] He sailed for France, apparently in the autumn of 1699, to urge his scheme at court. Here hehad an interview with the colonial minister, Ponchartrain, to whom herepresented the military and political expediency of his proposedestablishment;[28] and in a letter which seems to be addressed to LaTouche, chief clerk in the Department of Marine and Colonies, hepromised that the execution of his plan would insure the safety ofCanada and the ruin of the British colonies. [29] He asked for fiftysoldiers and fifty Canadians to begin the work, to be followed in thenext year by twenty or thirty families and by two hundred picked men ofvarious trades, sent out at the King's charge, along with priests ofseveral communities, and nuns to attend the sick and teach the Indiangirls. "I cannot tell you, " continues Cadillac, "the efforts my enemieshave made to deprive me of the honor of executing my project; but sosoon as M. De Ponchartrain decides in its favor, the whole country willapplaud it. "

Ponchartrain accepted the plan, and Cadillac returned to Canadacommissioned to execute it. Early in June, 1701, he left La Chine with ahundred men in twenty-five canoes loaded with provisions, goods, munitions, and tools. He was accompanied by Alphonse de Tonty, brotherof Henri de Tonty, the companion of La Salle, and by two half-paylieutenants, Dugué and Chacornacle, together with a Jesuit and aRécollet. [30] Following the difficult route of the Ottawa and LakeHuron, they reached their destination on the twenty-fourth of July, andbuilt a picket fort sixty yards square, which by order of the governorthey named Fort Ponchartrain. [31] It stood near the west bank of thestrait, about forty paces from the water. [32] Thus was planted the germof the city of Detroit. 

Cadillac sent back Chacornacle with the report of what he had done, anda description of the country written in a strain of swelling and gushingrhetoric in singular contrast with his usual sarcastic utterances. "Nonebut enemies of the truth, " his letter concludes, "are enemies of thisestablishment, so necessary to the glory of the King, the progress ofreligion, and the destruction of the throne of Baal. "[33]

What he had, perhaps, still more at heart was making money out of it bythe fur-trade. By command of the King a radical change had lately beenmade in this chief commerce of Canada, and the entire control of it hadbeen placed in the hands of a company in which all Canadians might takeshares. But as the risks were great and the conditions ill-defined, thenumber of subscribers was not much above one hundred and fifty; and therest of the colony found themselves shut out from the trade, --to theruin of some, and the injury of all. [34]

All trade in furs was restricted to Detroit and Fort Frontenac, both ofwhich were granted to the company, subject to be resumed by the King athis pleasure. [35] The company was to repay the eighty thousand francswhich the expedition to Detroit had cost; and to this were added variousother burdens. The King, however, was to maintain the garrison. 

All the affairs of the company were placed in the hands of sevendirectors, who began immediately to complain that their burdens were tooheavy, and to beg for more privileges; while an outcry against theprivileges already granted rose from those who had not taken shares inthe enterprise. Both in the company and out of it there was nothing butdiscontent. None were worse pleased than the two Jesuits Carheil andMarest, who saw their flocks at Michilimackinac, both Hurons andOttawas, lured away to a new home at Detroit. Cadillac took a peculiarsatisfaction in depriving Carheil of his converts, and in 1703 we findhim writing to the minister Ponchartrain, that only twenty-five Huronsare left at Michilimackinac; and "I hope, " he adds, "that in the autumnI shall pluck this last feather from his wing; and I am convinced thatthis obstinate priest will die in his parish without one parishioner tobury him. "[36]

If the Indians came to Detroit, the French would not come. Cadillac hadasked for five or six families as the modest beginning of a settlement;but not one had appeared. The Indians, too, were angry because thecompany asked too much for its goods; while the company complained thata forbidden trade, fatal to its interests, went on through all theregion of the upper lakes. It was easy to ordain a monopoly, butimpossible to enforce it. The prospects of the new establishment weredeplorable; and Cadillac lost no time in presenting his views of thesituation to the court. "Detroit is good, or it is bad, " he writes toPonchartrain. "If it is good, it ought to be sustained, without allowingthe people of Canada to deliberate any more about it. If it is bad, thecourt ought to make up its mind concerning it as soon as may be. I havesaid what I think. I have explained the situation. You have felt theneed of Detroit, and its utility for the glory of God, the progress ofreligion, and the good of the colony. Nothing is left me to do but toimitate the governor of the Holy City, --take water, and wash my hands ofit. " His aim now appears. He says that if Detroit were made a separategovernment, and he were put at the head of it, its prospects wouldimprove. "You may well believe that the company cares for nothing but tomake a profit out of it. It only wants to have a storehouse and clerks;no officers, no troops, no inhabitants. Take this business in hand, Monseigneur, and I promise that in two years your Detroit shall beestablished of itself. " He then informs the minister that as the companycomplain of losing money, he has told them that if they will make overtheir rights to him, he will pay them back all their past outlays. "Ipromise you, " he informs Ponchartrain, "that if they accept my proposaland you approve it, I will make our Detroit flourish. Judge if it isagreeable to me to have to answer for my actions to five or sixmerchants [the directors of the company], who not long ago were blackingtheir masters' boots. " He is scarcely more reserved as to the Jesuits. "I do what I can to make them my friends, but, impiety apart, one hadbetter sin against God than against them; for in that case one getsone's pardon, whereas in the other the offence is never forgiven in thisworld, and perhaps never would be in the other, if their credit were asgreat there as it is here. "[37]

The letters of Cadillac to the court are unique. No governor of NewFrance, not even the audacious Frontenac, ever wrote to a minister ofLouis XIV. With such off-hand freedom of language as this singularpersonage, --a mere captain in the colony troops; and to a more stableand balanced character it would have been impossible. 

Cadillac's proposal was accepted. The company was required to abandonDetroit to him on his paying them the expenses they had incurred. Theirmonopoly was transferred to him; but as far as concerned beaver-skins, his trade was limited to twenty thousand francs a year. The governor wasordered to give him as many soldiers as he might want, permit as manypersons to settle at Detroit as might choose to do so, and providemissionaries. [38] The minister exhorted him to quarrel no more with theJesuits, or anybody else, to banish blasphemy and bad morals from thepost, and not to offend the Five Nations. 

The promised era of prosperity did not come. Detroit lingered on in aweak and troubled infancy, disturbed, as we shall see, by startlingincidents. Its occupation by the French produced a noteworthy result. The Five Nations, filled with jealousy and alarm, appealed to the Kingof England for protection, and, the better to insure it, conveyed thewhole country from Lake Ontario northward to Lake Superior, and westwardas far as Chicago, "unto our souveraigne Lord King William the Third"and his heirs and successors forever. This territory is described in thedeed as being about eight hundred miles long and four hundred wide, andwas claimed by the Five Nations as theirs by right of conquest. [39] Itof course included Detroit itself. The conveyance was drawn by theEnglish authorities at Albany in a form to suit their purposes, andincluded terms of subjection and sovereignty which the signers couldunderstand but imperfectly, if at all. The Five Nations gave away theirland to no purpose. The French remained in undisturbed possession ofDetroit. The English made no attempt to enforce their title, but theyput the deed on file, and used it long after as the base of their claimto the region of the Lakes. 

FOOTNOTES:

[15] See "Old Régime in Canada, " 383. 

[16] _Relation de La Mothe-Cadillac_, in Margry, v. 75. 

[17] He wrote his name as above. It is often written La Motte, which hasthe advantage of conveying the pronunciation unequivocally to anunaccustomed English ear. La Mothe-Cadillac came of a good family ofLanguedoc. His father, Jean de La Mothe, seigneur de Cadillac et deLaunay, or Laumet, was a counsellor in the Parliament of Toulouse. Thedate of young Cadillac's birth is uncertain. The register of hismarriage places it in 1661, and that of his death in 1657. Anotherrecord, cited by Farmer in his _History of Detroit_, makes it 1658. In1703 he himself declared that he was forty-seven years old. Afterserving as lieutenant in the regiment of Clairembault, he went to Canadaabout the year 1683. He became skilled in managing Indians, made himselfwell acquainted with the coasts of New England, and strongly urged anattack by sea on New York and Boston, as the only sure means of securingFrench ascendency. He was always in opposition to the clerical party. 

[18] See _La Mothe-Cadillac à ----, 3 Août, 1695_. 

[19] _La Mothe-Cadillac à ----, 3 Août, 1695. _

[20] "Il me dit que je me donnois des airs qui ne m'appartenoient pas, en me portant le poing au nez. Je vous avoue, Monsieur, que je pensaioublier qu'il étoit prêtre, et que je vis le moment où j'allois luydémonter la mâchoire; mais, Dieu merci, je me contentai de le prendrepar le bras et de le pousser dehors, avec ordre de n'y plus rentrer. "Margry, v. (author's edition), Introduction, civ. This introduction, with other editorial matter, is omitted in the edition of M. Margry'svaluable collection, printed under a vote of the American Congress. 

[21] See "Count Frontenac, " 440. 

[22] Robert Livingston urged the occupation of Detroit as early as 1700. _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, iv. 650. 

[23] _Denonville à Du Lhut, 6 Juin, 1686. _ Count Frontenac, 133. 

[24] "Sans se destourner et sans s'arrester au bruit des jappereaux quicrient après luy. "--_Mémoire de La Mothe-Cadillac adressé au Comte deMaurepas. _

[25] _Mémoire adressé au Comte de Maurepas_, in Margry, v. 138. 

[26] La Mothe-Cadillac, _Rapport au Ministre_, 1700, in Margry, v. 157. 

[27] _Rapport au Ministre_, 1700. 

[28] Cadillac's report of this interview is given in Sheldon, _EarlyHistory of Michigan_, 85-91. 

[29] _La Mothe-Cadillac à un premier commis, 18 Octobre, 1700_, inMargry, v. 166. 

[30] _Callières au Ministre, 4 Octobre, 1701. Autre lettre du même, sansdate_, in Margry, v. 187, 190. 

[31] _Callières et Champigny au Ministre, sans date. _

[32] _Relation du Destroit_ (by the Jesuit who accompanied theexpedition). 

[33] _Description de la Rivière du Détroit, jointe à la lettre de MM. DeCallières et de Champigny, 8 Octobre, 1701. _

[34] _Callières au Ministre, 9 Novembre, 1700. _

[35] _Traité fait avec la Compagnie de la Colonie de Canada, 31 Octobre, 1701. _

[36] _Lamothe-Cadillac à Ponchartrain, 31 Aoust, 1703_ (Margry, v. 301). On Cadillac's relations with the Jesuits, see _Conseils tenus parLamothe-Cadillac avec les Sauvages_ (Margry, v. 253-300); also a curiouscollection of Jesuit letters sent by Cadillac to the minister, withcopious annotations of his own. He excepts from his strictures FatherEngelran, who, he says, incurred the ill-will of the other Jesuits byfavoring the establishment of Detroit, and he also has a word ofcommendation for Father Germain. 

[37] _La Mothe-Cadillac à Ponchartrain, 31 Août, 1703. _ "Toute impiété àpart, il vaudroit mieux pescher contre Dieu que contre eux, parce qued'un costé on en reçoit son pardon, et de l'autre, l'offense, mesmeprétendue, n'est jamais remise dans ce monde, et ne le seroit peut-estrejamais dans l'autre, si leur crédit y estoit aussi grand qu'il est dansce pays. "

[38] _Ponchartrain à La Mothe-Cadillac, 14 Juin, 1704. _

[39] _Deed from the Five Nations to the King of their Beaver HuntingGround_, in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, iv. 908. It is signed by the totems ofsachems of all the Nations. 

CHAPTER III. 

1703-1713. 

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 

The Forest of Maine. --A Treacherous Peace. --A Frontier Village. --Wellsand its People. --Attack upon it. --Border Ravages. --Beaubassin'sWar-party. --The "Woful Decade. "--A Wedding Feast. --A Captive Bridegroom. 

For untold ages Maine had been one unbroken forest, and it was so still. Only along the rocky seaboard or on the lower waters of one or two greatrivers a few rough settlements had gnawed slight indentations into thiswilderness of woods; and a little farther inland some dismal clearingaround a blockhouse or stockade let in the sunlight to a soil that hadlain in shadow time out of mind. This waste of savage vegetationsurvives, in some part, to this day, with the same prodigality of vitalforce, the same struggle for existence and mutual havoc that mark allorganized beings, from men to mushrooms. Young seedlings in millionsspring every summer from the black mould, rich with the decay of thosethat had preceded them, crowding, choking, and killing one another, perishing by their very abundance, --all but a scattered few, strongerthan the rest, or more fortunate in position, which survive by blightingthose about them. They in turn, as they grow, interlock their boughs, and repeat in a season or two the same process of mutual suffocation. The forest is full of lean saplings dead or dying with vainly stretchingtowards the light. Not one infant tree in a thousand lives to maturity;yet these survivors form an innumerable host, pressed together instruggling confusion, squeezed out of symmetry and robbed of normaldevelopment, as men are said to be in the level sameness of democraticsociety. Seen from above, their mingled tops spread in a sea of verdurebasking in light; seen from below, all is shadow, through which spots oftimid sunshine steal down among legions of lank, mossy trunks, toadstools and rank ferns, protruding roots, matted bushes, and rottingcarcasses of fallen trees. A generation ago one might find here andthere the rugged trunk of some great pine lifting its verdant spireabove the undistinguished myriads of the forest. The woods of Maine hadtheir aristocracy; but the axe of the woodman has laid them low, andthese lords of the wilderness are seen no more. 

The life and light of this grim solitude were in its countless streamsand lakes, from little brooks stealing clear and cold under the alders, full of the small fry of trout, to the mighty arteries of the Penobscotand the Kennebec; from the great reservoir of Moosehead to a thousandnameless ponds shining in the hollow places of the forest. 

It had and still has its beast of prey, --wolves, savage, cowardly, andmean; bears, gentle and mild compared to their grisly relatives of theFar West, vegetarians when they can do no better, and not withoutsomething grotesque and quaint in manners and behavior; sometimes, though rarely, the strong and sullen wolverine; frequently the lynx; andnow and then the fierce and agile cougar. 

The human denizens of this wilderness were no less fierce, and far moredangerous. These were the various tribes and sub-tribes of the Abenakis, whose villages were on the Saco, the Kennebec, the Penobscot, and theother great watercourses. Most of them had been converted by theJesuits, and, as we have seen already, some had been persuaded to removeto Canada, like the converted Iroquois of Caughnawaga. [40] The restremained in their native haunts, where, under the direction of theirmissionaries, they could be used to keep the English settlements incheck. 

We know how busily they plied their tomahawks in William and Mary's War, and what havoc they made among the scattered settlements of theborder. [41] Another war with France was declared on the fourth of May, 1702, on which the Abenakis again assumed a threatening attitude. InJune of the next year Dudley, governor of Massachusetts, called thechiefs of the various bands to a council at Casco. Here presentlyappeared the Norridgewocks from the Kennebec, the Penobscots andAndroscoggins from the rivers that bear their names, the Penacooks fromthe Merrimac, and the Pequawkets from the Saco, all well armed, anddaubed with ceremonial paint. The principal among them, gathered under alarge tent, were addressed by Dudley in a conciliatory speech. Theirorator replied that they wanted nothing but peace, and that theirthoughts were as far from war as the sun was from the earth, --wordswhich they duly confirmed by a belt of wampum. [42] Presents weredistributed among them and received with apparent satisfaction, whiletwo of their principal chiefs, known as Captain Samuel and CaptainBomazeen, declared that several French missionaries had lately comeamong them to excite them against the English, but that they were "firmas mountains, " and would remain so "as long as the sun and moonendured. " They ended the meeting with dancing, singing, and whoops ofjoy, followed by a volley of musketry, answered by another from theEnglish. It was discovered, however, that the Indians had loaded theirguns with ball, intending, as the English believed, to murder Dudley andhis attendants if they could have done so without danger to theirchiefs, whom the governor had prudently kept about him. It wasafterwards found, if we may believe a highly respectable member of theparty, that two hundred French and Indians were on their way, "resolvedto seize the governor, council, and gentlemen, and then to sacrifice theinhabitants at pleasure;" but when they arrived, the English officialshad been gone three days. [43]

The French governor, Vaudreuil, says that about this time some of theAbenakis were killed or maltreated by Englishmen. It may have been so:desperadoes, drunk or sober, were not rare along the frontier; butVaudreuil gives no particulars, and the only English outrage thatappears on record at the time was the act of a gang of vagabonds whoplundered the house of the younger Saint-Castin, where the town ofCastine now stands. He was Abenaki by his mother; but he was absent whenthe attack took place, and the marauders seem to have shed no blood. Nevertheless, within six weeks after the Treaty of Casco, everyunprotected farmhouse in Maine was in a blaze. 

The settlements of Maine, confined to the southwestern corner of what isnow the State of Maine, extended along the coast in a feeble and brokenline from Kittery to Casco. Ten years of murderous warfare had almostruined them. East of the village of Wells little was left except one ortwo forts and the so-called "garrisons, " which were private housespierced with loopholes and having an upper story projecting over thelower, so that the defenders could fire down on assailants battering thedoor or piling fagots against the walls. A few were fenced withpalisades, as was the case with the house of Joseph Storer at the eastend of Wells, where an overwhelming force of French and Indians had beengallantly repulsed in the summer of 1692. [44] These fortified houseswere, however, very rarely attacked, except by surprise and treachery. In case of alarm such of the inhabitants as found time took refuge inthem with their families, and left their dwellings to the flames; forthe first thought of the settler was to put his women and childrenbeyond reach of the scalping-knife. There were several of these asylumsin different parts of Wells; and without them the place must have beenabandoned. In the little settlement of York, farther westward, therewere five of them, which had saved a part of the inhabitants when therest were surprised and massacred. 

Wells was a long, straggling settlement, consisting at the beginning ofWilliam and Mary's War of about eighty houses and log-cabins, [45] strungat intervals along the north side of the rough track, known as theKing's Road, which ran parallel to the sea. Behind the houses were rude, half-cleared pastures, and behind these again, the primeval forest. Thecultivated land was on the south side of the road; in front of thehouses, and beyond it, spread great salt-marshes, bordering the sea andhaunted by innumerable game-birds. 

The settlements of Maine were a dependency of Massachusetts, --a positionthat did not please their inhabitants, but which they accepted becausethey needed the help of their Puritan neighbors, from whom they differedwidely both in their qualities and in their faults. The Indian wars thatchecked their growth had kept them in a condition more than halfbarbarous. They were a hard-working and hard-drinking race; for thoughtea and coffee were scarcely known, the land flowed with New Englandrum, which was ranked among the necessaries of life. The better sortcould read and write in a bungling way; but many were wholly illiterate, and it was not till long after Queen Anne's War that the remotersettlements established schools, taught by poor students from Harvard orless competent instructors, and held at first in private houses or undersheds. The church at Wells had been burned by the Indians; and thoughthe settlers were beggared by the war, they voted in town-meeting tobuild another. The new temple, begun in 1699, was a plain woodenstructure thirty feet square. For want of money the windows longremained unglazed, the walls without plaster, and the floor withoutseats; yet services were duly held here under direction of the minister, Samuel Emery, to whom they paid £45 a year, half in provincial currency, and half in farm-produce and fire-wood. 

In spite of these efforts to maintain public worship, they were far frombeing a religious community; nor were they a peaceful one. Gossip andscandal ran riot; social jealousies abounded; and under what seemedentire democratic equality, the lazy, drunken, and shiftless envied theindustrious and thrifty. Wells was infested, moreover, by several"frightfully turbulent women, " as the chronicle styles them, from whoserabid tongues the minister himself did not always escape; and once, inits earlier days, the town had been indicted for not providing aducking-stool to correct these breeders of discord. 

Judicial officers were sometimes informally chosen by popular vote, andsometimes appointed by the governor of Massachusetts from among theinhabitants. As they knew no law, they gave judgment according to theirown ideas of justice, and their sentences were oftener wanting in wisdomthan in severity. Until after 1700 the county courts met by beat of drumat some of the primitive inns or taverns with which the frontierabounded. 

At Wells and other outlying and endangered hamlets life was stillexceedingly rude. The log-cabins of the least thrifty were no betterfurnished than Indian wigwams. The house of Edmond Littlefield, reputedthe richest man in Wells, consisted of two bedrooms and a kitchen, whichlast served a great variety of uses, and was supplied with a table, apewter pot, a frying-pan, and a skillet; but no chairs, cups, saucers, knives, forks, or spoons. In each of the two bedrooms there was a bed, ablanket, and a chest. Another village notable--Ensign John Barrett--wasbetter provided, being the possessor of two beds, two chests and a box, four pewter dishes, four earthen pots, two iron pots, seven trays, twobuckets, some pieces of wooden-ware, a skillet, and a frying-pan. In theinventory of the patriarchal Francis Littlefield, who died in 1712, wefind the exceptional items of one looking-glass, two old chairs, and twoold books. Such of the family as had no bed slept on hay or straw, andno provision for the toilet is recorded. [46]

On the tenth of August, 1703, these rugged borderers were about theirusual callings, unconscious of danger, --the women at their householdwork, the men in the fields or on the more distant salt-marshes. Thewife of Thomas Wells had reached the time of her confinement, and herhusband had gone for a nurse. Some miles east of Wells's cabin livedStephen Harding, --hunter, blacksmith, and tavern-keeper, a sturdy, good-natured man, who loved the woods, and whose frequent hunting tripssometimes led him nearly to the White Mountains. Distant gunshots wereheard from the westward, and his quick eye presently discovered Indiansapproaching, on which he told his frightened wife to go with theirinfant to a certain oak-tree beyond the creek while he waited to learnwhether the strangers were friends or foes. 

That morning several parties of Indians had stolen out of the dismalwoods behind the houses and farms of Wells, and approached differentdwellings of the far-extended settlement at about the same time. Theyentered the cabin of Thomas Wells, where his wife lay in the pains ofchildbirth, and murdered her and her two small children. At the sametime they killed Joseph Sayer, a neighbor of Wells, with all his family. 

Meanwhile Stephen Harding, having sent his wife and child to a safedistance, returned to his blacksmith's shop, and, seeing nobody, gave adefiant whoop; on which four Indians sprang at him from the bushes. Heescaped through a back-door of the shop, eluded his pursuers, and foundhis wife and child in a cornfield, where the woman had fainted withfright. They spent the night in the woods, and on the next day, after acircuit of nine miles, reached the palisaded house of Joseph Storer. 

They found the inmates in distress and agitation. Storer's daughterMary, a girl of eighteen, was missing. The Indians had caught her, andafterwards carried her prisoner to Canada. Samuel Hill and his familywere captured, and the younger children butchered. But it is useless torecord the names and fate of the sufferers. Thirty-nine in all, chieflywomen and children, were killed or carried off, and then the Indiansdisappeared as quickly and silently as they had come, leaving many ofthe houses in flames. 

This raid upon Wells was only part of a combined attack on all thesettlements from that place to Casco. Those eastward of Wells had been, as we have seen, abandoned in the last war, excepting the forts andfortified houses; but the inhabitants, reassured, no doubt, by theTreaty of Casco, had begun to return. On this same day, the tenth ofAugust, they were startled from their security. A band of Indians mixedwith Frenchmen fell upon the settlements about the stone fort near theFalls of the Saco, killed eleven persons, captured twenty-four, andvainly attacked the fort itself. Others surprised the settlers at aplace called Spurwink, and killed or captured twenty-two. Others, again, destroyed the huts of the fishermen at Cape Porpoise, and attacked thefortified house at Winter Harbor, the inmates of which, after a braveresistance, were forced to capitulate. The settlers at Scarborough werealso in a fortified house, where they made a long and obstinate defencetill help at last arrived. Nine families were settled at PurpooduckPoint, near the present city of Portland. They had no place of refuge, and the men being, no doubt, fishermen, were all absent, when theIndians burst into the hamlet, butchered twenty-five women and children, and carried off eight. 

The fort at Casco, or Falmouth, was held by Major March, with thirty-sixmen. He had no thought of danger, when three well-known chiefs fromNorridgewock appeared with a white flag, and asked for an interview. Asthey seemed to be alone and unarmed, he went to meet them, followed bytwo or three soldiers and accompanied by two old men named Phippeny andKent, inhabitants of the place. They had hardly reached the spot whenthe three chiefs drew hatchets from under a kind of mantle which theywore and sprang upon them, while other Indians, ambushed near by, leapedup and joined in the attack. The two old men were killed at once; butMarch, who was noted for strength and agility, wrenched a hatchet fromone of his assailants, and kept them all at bay till Sergeant Hook cameto his aid with a file of men and drove them off. 

They soon reappeared, burned the deserted cabins in the neighborhood, and beset the garrison in numbers that continually increased, till in afew days the entire force that had been busied in ravaging the scatteredsettlements was gathered around the place. It consisted of about fivehundred Indians of several tribes, and a few Frenchmen under an officernamed Beaubassin. Being elated with past successes, they laid siege tothe fort, sheltering themselves under a steep bank by the water-side andburrowing their way towards the rampart. March could not dislodge them, and they continued their approaches till the third day, when CaptainSouthack, with the Massachusetts armed vessel known as the "ProvinceGalley, " sailed into the harbor, recaptured three small vessels that theIndians had taken along the coast, and destroyed a great number of theircanoes, on which they gave up their enterprise and disappeared. [47]

Such was the beginning of Queen Anne's War. These attacks were due lessto the Abenakis than to the French who set them on. "Monsieur deVaudreuil, " writes the Jesuit historian Charlevoix, "formed a party ofthese savages, to whom he joined some Frenchmen under the direction ofthe Sieur de Beaubassin, when they effected some ravages of no greatconsequence; they killed, however, about three hundred men. " This laststatement is doubly incorrect. The whole number of persons killed andcarried off during the August attacks did not much exceed one hundredand sixty;[48] and these were of both sexes and all ages, fromoctogenarians to newborn infants. The able-bodied men among them werefew, as most of the attacks were made upon unprotected houses in theabsence of the head of the family; and the only fortified place capturedwas the garrison-house at Winter Harbor, which surrendered on terms ofcapitulation. The instruments of this ignoble warfare and the revoltingatrocities that accompanied it were all, or nearly all, convertedIndians of the missions. Charlevoix has no word of disapproval for it, and seems to regard its partial success as a gratifying one so far as itwent. 

One of the objects was, no doubt, to check the progress of the Englishsettlements; but, pursues Charlevoix, "the essential point was to committhe Abenakis in such a manner that they could not draw back. "[49] Thisobject was constantly kept in view. The French claimed at this time thatthe territory of Acadia reached as far westward as the Kennebec, whichtherefore formed, in their view, the boundary between the rival nations, and they trusted in the Abenakis to defend this assumed line ofdemarcation. But the Abenakis sorely needed English guns, knives, hatchets, and kettles, and nothing but the utmost vigilance couldprevent them from coming to terms with those who could supply theirnecessities. Hence the policy of the French authorities on the frontierof New England was the opposite of their policy on the frontier of NewYork. They left the latter undisturbed, lest by attacking the Dutch andEnglish settlers they should stir up the Five Nations to attack Canada;while, on the other hand, they constantly spurred the Abenakis againstNew England, in order to avert the dreaded event of their making peacewith her. 

The attack on Wells, Casco, and the intervening settlements wasfollowed by murders and depredations that lasted through the autumn andextended along two hundred miles of frontier. Thirty Indians attackedthe village of Hampton, killed the Widow Mussey, a famous Quakeress, andthen fled to escape pursuit. At Black Point nineteen men going to theirwork in the meadows were ambushed by two hundred Indians, and all butone were shot or captured. The fort was next attacked. It was garrisonedby eight men under Lieutenant Wyatt, who stood their ground for sometime, and then escaped by means of a sloop in the harbor. At York thewife and children of Arthur Brandon were killed, and the Widow Parsonsand her daughter carried off. At Berwick the Indians attacked thefortified house of Andrew Neal, but were repulsed with the loss of ninekilled and many wounded, for which they revenged themselves by burningalive Joseph Ring, a prisoner whom they had taken. Early in February asmall party of them hovered about the fortified house of Joseph Bradleyat Haverhill, till, seeing the gate open and nobody on the watch, theyrushed in. The woman of the house was boiling soap, and in herdesperation she snatched up the kettle and threw the contents over themwith such effect that one of them, it is said, was scalded to death. Theman who should have been on the watch was killed, and several personswere captured, including the woman. It was the second time that she hadbeen a prisoner in Indian hands. Half starved and bearing a heavy load, she followed her captors in their hasty retreat towards Canada. After atime she was safely delivered of an infant in the midst of the winterforest; but the child pined for want of sustenance, and the Indianshastened its death by throwing hot coals into its mouth when it cried. The astonishing vitality of the woman carried her to the end of thefrightful journey. A Frenchman bought her from the Indians, and she wasfinally ransomed by her husband. 

By far the most dangerous and harassing attacks were those of smallparties skulking under the edge of the forest, or lying hidden for daystogether, watching their opportunity to murder unawares, and vanishingwhen they had done so. Against such an enemy there was no defence. TheMassachusetts government sent a troop of horse to Portsmouth, andanother to Wells. These had the advantage of rapid movement in case ofalarm along the roads and forest-paths from settlement to settlement;but once in the woods, their horses were worse than useless, and theycould only fight on foot. Fighting, however, was rarely possible; for onreaching the scene of action they found nothing but mangled corpses andburning houses. 

The best defence was to take the offensive. In September Governor Dudleysent three hundred and sixty men to the upper Saco, the haunt of thePequawket tribe; but the place was deserted. Major, now Colonel, Marchsoon after repeated the attempt, killing six Indians, and capturing asmany more. The General Court offered £40 for every Indian scalp, and oneCaptain Tyng, in consequence, surprised an Indian village in midwinterand brought back five of these disgusting trophies. In the spring of1704 word came from Albany that a band of French Indians had built afort and planted corn at Coos meadows, high up the river Connecticut. Onthis, one Caleb Lyman with five friendly Indians, probably Mohegans, setout from Northampton, and after a long march through the forest, surprised, under cover of a thunderstorm, a wigwam containing ninewarriors, --bound, no doubt, against the frontier. They killed seven ofthem; and this was all that was done at present in the way of reprisalor prevention. [50]

The murders and burnings along the borders were destined to continuewith little variety and little interruption during ten years. It was arepetition of what the pedantic Cotton Mather calls _Decenniumluctuosum_, or the "woful decade" of William and Mary's War. The wonderis that the outlying settlements were not abandoned. These ghastly, insidious, and ever-present dangers demanded a more obstinate couragethan the hottest battle in the open field. 

One curious frontier incident may be mentioned here, though it did nothappen till towards the end of the war. In spite of poverty, danger, andtribulation, marrying and giving in marriage did not cease among thesturdy borderers; and on a day in September there was a notable weddingfeast at the palisaded house of John Wheelwright, one of the chief menof Wells. Elisha Plaisted was to espouse Wheelwright's daughter Hannah, and many guests were assembled, some from Portsmouth, and even beyondit. Probably most of them came in sailboats; for the way by land wasfull of peril, especially on the road from York, which ran through densewoods, where Indians often waylaid the traveller. The bridegroom'sfather was present with the rest. It was a concourse of men in homespun, and women and girls in such improvised finery as their poor resourcescould supply; possibly, in default of better, some wore nightgowns, moreor less disguised, over their daily dress, as happened on similaroccasions half a century later among the frontiersmen of WestVirginia. [51] After an evening of rough merriment and gymnastic dancing, the guests lay down to sleep under the roof of their host or in adjacentbarns and sheds. When morning came, and they were preparing to depart, it was found that two horses were missing; and not doubting that theyhad strayed away, three young men--Sergeant Tucker, Joshua Downing, andIsaac Cole--went to find them. In a few minutes several gunshots wereheard. The three young men did not return. Downing and Cole were killed, and Tucker was wounded and made prisoner. 

Believing that, as usual, the attack came from some smallscalping-party, Elisha Plaisted and eight or ten more threw themselveson the horses that stood saddled before the house, and galloped acrossthe fields in the direction of the firing; while others ran to cut offthe enemy's retreat. A volley was presently heard, and several of theparty were seen running back towards the house. Elisha Plaisted and hiscompanions had fallen into an ambuscade of two hundred Indians. One ormore of them were shot, and the unfortunate bridegroom was captured. Thedistress of his young wife, who was but eighteen, may be imagined. 

Two companies of armed men in the pay of Massachusetts were then inWells, and some of them had come to the wedding. Seventy marksmen wentto meet the Indians, who ensconced themselves in the edge of the forest, whence they could not be dislodged. There was some desultory firing, andone of the combatants was killed on each side, after which the whitesgave up the attack, and Lieutenant Banks went forward with a flag oftruce, in the hope of ransoming the prisoners. He was met by sixchiefs, among whom were two noted Indians of his acquaintance, Bomazeenand Captain Nathaniel. They well knew that the living Plaisted was worthmore than his scalp; and though they would not come to terms at once, they promised to meet the English at Richmond's Island in a few days andgive up both him and Tucker on payment of a sufficient ransom. The flagof truce was respected, and Banks came back safe, bringing a hasty noteto the elder Plaisted from his captive son. This note now lies beforeme, and it runs thus, in the dutiful formality of the olden time:--

 Sir, --I am in the hands of a great many Indians, with which there is six captains. They say that what they will have for me is 50 pounds, and thirty pounds for Tucker, my fellow prisoner, in good goods, as broadcloth, some provisions, some tobacco pipes, Pomisstone [pumice-stone], stockings, and a little of all things. If you will, come to Richmond's Island in 5 days at farthest, for here is 200 Indians, and they belong to Canada. 

 If you do not come in 5 days, you will not see me, for Captain Nathaniel the Indian will not stay no longer, for the Canada Indians is not willing for to sell me. Pray, Sir, don't fail, for they have given me one day, for the days were but 4 at first. Give my kind love to my dear wife. This from your dutiful son till death, Elisha Plaisted. 

The alarm being spread and a sufficient number of men mustered, they setout to attack the enemy and recover the prisoners by force; but not anIndian could be found. 

Bomazeen and Captain Nathaniel were true to the rendezvous; in due timeElisha Plaisted was ransomed and restored to his bride. [52]

FOOTNOTES:

[40] Count Frontenac, 231. 

[41] _Ibid. _, chaps, xi. Xvi. Xvii. 

[42] Penhallow, _History of the Wars of New England with the EasternIndians_, 16 (ed. 1859). Penhallow was present at the council. In JudgeSewall's clumsy abstract of the proceedings (_Diary of Sewall_, ii. 85)the Indians are represented as professing neutrality. The governor andintendant of Canada write that the Abenakis had begun a treaty ofneutrality with the English, but that as "les Jésuites observoient lessauvages, le traité ne fut pas conclu. " They add that Rale, Jesuitmissionary at Norridgewock, informs them that his Indians were ready tolift the hatchet against the English. _Vaudreuil et Beauharnois auMinistre_, 1703. 

[43] Penhallow, 17, 18 (ed. 1859). There was a previous meeting ofconciliation between the English and the Abenakis in 1702. The JesuitBigot says that the Indians assured him that they had scornfullyrepelled the overtures of the English, and told them that they wouldalways stand fast by the French. (_Relation des Abenakis_, 1702. ) Thisis not likely. The Indians probably lied both to the Jesuit and to theEnglish, telling to each what they knew would be most acceptable. 

[44] See "Count Frontenac, " 371. 

[45] Bourne, _History of Wells and Kennebunk_. 

[46] The above particulars are drawn from the _History of Wells andKennebunk_, by the late Edward E. Bourne, of Wells, --a work of admirablethoroughness, fidelity, and candor. 

[47] On these attacks on the frontier of Maine, Penhallow, who well knewthe country and the people, is the best authority. Niles, in his _Indianand French Wars_, copies him without acknowledgment, but not withoutblunders. As regards the attack on Wells, what particulars we have aremainly due to the research of the indefatigable Bourne. Compare Belknap, i. 330; Folsom, _History of Saco and Biddeford_, 198; _Coll. Maine Hist. Soc. _, iii. 140, 348; Williamson, _History of Maine_, ii. 42. Beaubassinis called "Bobasser" in most of the English accounts. 

[48] The careful and well-informed Belknap puts it at only 130. _Historyof New Hampshire_, i. 331. 

[49] Charlevoix, ii. 289, 290 (quarto edition). 

[50] Penhallow, _Wars of New England with the Eastern Indians_. 

[51] Doddridge, _Notes on Western Virginia and Pennsylvania_. 

[52] On this affair, see the note of Elisha Plaisted in MassachusettsArchives; _Richard Waldron to Governor Dudley, Portsmouth, 19 September, 1712_; Bourne, _Wells and Kennebunk_, 278. 

CHAPTER IV. 

1704-1740. 

DEERFIELD. 

Hertel de Rouville. --A Frontier Village. --Rev. John Williams. --TheSurprise. --Defence of the Stebbins House. --Attempted Rescue. --The MeadowFight. --The Captives. --The Northward March. --Mrs. Williams killed. --TheMinister's Journey. --Kindness of Canadians. --A Stubborn Heretic. --EuniceWilliams. --Converted Captives. --John Sheldon's Mission. --Exchange ofPrisoners. --An English Squaw. --The Gill Family. 

About midwinter the governor of Canada sent another large war-partyagainst the New England border. The object of attack was an unoffendinghamlet, that from its position could never be a menace to the French, and the destruction of which could profit them nothing. The aim of theenterprise was not military, but political. "I have sent no war-partytowards Albany, " writes Vaudreuil, "because we must do nothing thatmight cause a rupture between us and the Iroquois; but we must keepthings astir in the direction of Boston, or else the Abenakis willdeclare for the English. " In short, the object was fully to commit thesesavages to hostility against New England, and convince them at the sametime that the French would back their quarrel. [53]

The party consisted, according to French accounts, of fifty Canadiansand two hundred Abenakis and Caughnawagas, --the latter of whom, whiletrading constantly with Albany, were rarely averse to a raid againstMassachusetts or New Hampshire. [54] The command was given to the youngerHertel de Rouville, who was accompanied by four of his brothers. Theybegan their march in the depth of winter, journeyed nearly three hundredmiles on snow-shoes through the forest, and approached their destinationon the afternoon of the twenty-eighth of February, 1704. It was thevillage of Deerfield, which then formed the extreme northwesternfrontier of Massachusetts, --its feeble neighbor, the infant settlementof Northfield, a little higher up the Connecticut, having been abandonedduring the last war. Rouville halted his followers at a place now calledPetty's Plain, two miles from the village; and here, under the shelterof a pine forest, they all lay hidden, shivering with cold, --for theydared not make fires, --and hungry as wolves, for their provisions werespent. Though their numbers, by the lowest account, were nearly equalto the whole population of Deerfield, --men, women, and children, --theyhad no thought of an open attack, but trusted to darkness and surprisefor an easy victory. 

Deerfield stood on a plateau above the river meadows, and thehouses--forty-one in all--were chiefly along the road towards thevillages of Hadley and Hatfield, a few miles distant. In the middle ofthe place, on a rising ground called Meeting-house Hill, was a smallsquare wooden meeting-house. This, with about fifteen private houses, besides barns and sheds, was enclosed by a fence of palisades eight feethigh, flanked by "mounts, " or blockhouses, at two or more of thecorners. The four sides of this palisaded enclosure, which was calledthe fort, measured in all no less than two hundred and two rods, andwithin it lived some of the principal inhabitants of the village, ofwhich it formed the centre or citadel. Chief among its inmates was JohnWilliams, the minister, a man of character and education, who, aftergraduating at Harvard, had come to Deerfield when it was still sufferingunder the ruinous effects of King Philip's War, and entered on hisministry with a salary of sixty pounds in depreciated New Englandcurrency, payable, not in money, but in wheat, Indian-corn, andpork. [55] His parishioners built him a house, he married, and had noweight children, one of whom was absent with friends at Hadley. [56] Hisnext neighbor was Benoni Stebbins, sergeant in the county militia, wholived a few rods from the meeting-house. About fifty yards distant, andnear the northwest angle of the enclosure, stood the house of EnsignJohn Sheldon, a framed building, one of the largest in the village, and, like that of Stebbins, made bullet-proof by a layer of bricks betweenthe outer and inner sheathing, while its small windows and itsprojecting upper story also helped to make it defensible. 

The space enclosed by the palisade, though much too large for effectivedefence, served in time of alarm as an asylum for the inhabitantsoutside, whose houses were scattered, --some on the north towards thehidden enemy, and some on the south towards Hadley and Hatfield. Amongthose on the south side was that of the militia captain, Jonathan Wells, which had a palisade of its own, and, like the so-called fort, served asan asylum for the neighbors. 

These private fortified houses were sometimes built by the owners alone, though more often they were the joint work of the owners and of theinhabitants, to whose safety they contributed. The palisade fence thatenclosed the central part of the village was made under a vote of thetown, each inhabitant being required to do his share; and as they weregreatly impoverished by the last war, the General Court of the provinceremitted for a time a part of their taxes in consideration of a workwhich aided the general defence. [57]

Down to the Peace of Ryswick the neighborhood had been constantlyinfested by scalping-parties, and once the village had been attacked bya considerable force of French and Indians, who were beaten off. Of latethere had been warnings of fresh disturbance. Lord Cornbury, governor ofNew York, wrote that he had heard through spies that Deerfield was againto be attacked, and a message to the same effect came from PeterSchuyler, who had received intimations of the danger from Mohawks latelyon a visit to their Caughnawaga relatives. During the autumn the alarmwas so great that the people took refuge within the palisades, and thehouses of the enclosure were crowded with them; but the panic had nowsubsided, and many, though not all, had returned to their homes. Theywere reassured by the presence of twenty volunteers from the villagesbelow, whom, on application from the minister, Williams, the GeneralCourt had sent as a garrison to Deerfield, where they were lodged in thehouses of the villagers. On the night when Hertel de Rouville and hisband lay hidden among the pines there were in all the settlement alittle less than three hundred souls, of whom two hundred andsixty-eight were inhabitants, twenty were yeomen soldiers of thegarrison, two were visitors from Hatfield, and three were negro slaves. They were of all ages, --from the Widow Allison, in her eighty-fifthyear, to the infant son of Deacon French, aged four weeks. [58]

Heavy snows had lately fallen and buried the clearings, the meadow, andthe frozen river to the depth of full three feet. On the northwesternside the drifts were piled nearly to the top of the palisade fence, sothat it was no longer an obstruction to an active enemy. 

As the afternoon waned, the sights and sounds of the little borderhamlet were, no doubt, like those of any other rustic New Englandvillage at the end of a winter day, --an ox-sledge creaking on the frostysnow as it brought in the last load of firewood, boys in homespunsnowballing one another in the village street, farmers feeding theirhorses and cattle in the barns, a matron drawing a pail of water withthe help of one of those long well-sweeps still used in some remotedistricts, or a girl bringing a pail of milk from the cow-shed. In thehouses, where one room served as kitchen, dining-room, and parlor, thehousewife cooked the evening meal, children sat at their bowls of mushand milk, and the men of the family, their day's work over, gatheredabout the fire, while perhaps some village coquette sat in the cornerwith fingers busy at the spinning-wheel, and ears intent on thestammered wooings of her rustic lover. Deerfield kept early hours, andit is likely that by nine o'clock all were in their beds. There was apatrol inside the palisade, but there was little discipline among theseextemporized soldiers; the watchers grew careless as the frosty nightwent on; and it is said that towards morning they, like the villagers, betook themselves to their beds. 

Rouville and his men, savage with hunger, lay shivering under the pinestill about two hours before dawn; then, leaving their packs and theirsnow-shoes behind, they moved cautiously towards their prey. There was acrust on the snow strong enough to bear their weight, though not toprevent a rustling noise as it crunched under the feet of so many men. It is said that from time to time Rouville commanded a halt, in orderthat the sentinels, if such there were, might mistake the distant soundfor rising and falling gusts of wind. In any case, no alarm was giventill they had mounted the palisade and dropped silently into theunconscious village. Then with one accord they screeched the war-whoop, and assailed the doors of the houses with axes and hatchets. 

The hideous din startled the minister, Williams, from his sleep. Half-wakened, he sprang out of bed, and saw dimly a crowd of savagesbursting through the shattered door. He shouted to two soldiers who werelodged in the house; and then, with more valor than discretion, snatcheda pistol that hung at the head of the bed, cocked it, and snapped it atthe breast of the foremost Indian, who proved to be a Caughnawaga chief. It missed fire, or Williams would, no doubt, have been killed on thespot. Amid the screams of his terrified children, three of the partyseized him and bound him fast; for they came well provided with cords, since prisoners had a market value. Nevertheless, in the first fury oftheir attack they dragged to the door and murdered two of the childrenand a negro woman called Parthena, who was probably their nurse. In anupper room lodged a young man named Stoddard, who had time to snatch acloak, throw himself out of the window, climb the palisade, and escapein the darkness. Half-naked as he was, he made his way over the snow toHatfield, binding his bare feet with strips torn from the cloak. 

They kept Williams shivering in his shirt for an hour while a frightfuluproar of yells, shrieks, and gunshots sounded from without. At lengththey permitted him, his wife, and five remaining children to dressthemselves. Meanwhile the Indians and their allies burst into most ofthe houses, killed such of the men as resisted, butchered some of thewomen and children, and seized and bound the rest. Some of the villagersescaped in the confusion, like Stoddard, and either fled half dead withcold towards Hatfield, or sought refuge in the fortified house ofJonathan Wells. 

The house of Stebbins, the minister's next neighbor, had not beenattacked so soon as the rest, and the inmates had a little time forpreparation. They consisted of Stebbins himself, with his wife and fivechildren, David Hoyt, Joseph Catlin, Benjamin Church, a namesake of theold Indian fighter of Philip's War, and three other men, --probablyrefugees who had brought their wives and families within the palisadedenclosure for safety. Thus the house contained seven men, four or fivewomen, and a considerable number of children. Though the walls werebullet-proof, it was not built for defence. The men, however, were wellsupplied with guns, powder, and lead, and they seem to have found somemeans of barricading the windows. When the enemy tried to break in, theydrove them back with loss. On this, the French and Indians gathered ingreat numbers before the house, showered bullets upon it, and tried toset it on fire. They were again repulsed, with the loss of severalkilled and wounded; among the former a Caughnawaga chief, and among thelatter a French officer. Still the firing continued. If the assailantshad made a resolute assault, the defenders must have been overpowered;but to risk lives in open attack was contrary to every maxim of forestwarfare. The women in the house behaved with great courage, and mouldedbullets, which the men shot at the enemy. Stebbins was killed outright, and Church was wounded, as was also the wife of David Hoyt. At lengthmost of the French and Indians, disgusted with the obstinacy of thedefence, turned their attention to other quarters; though some kept uptheir fire under cover of the meeting-house and another building withineasy range of gunshot. 

This building was the house of Ensign John Sheldon, already mentioned. The Indians had had some difficulty in mastering it; for the door beingof thick oak plank, studded with nails of wrought iron and well barred, they could not break it open. After a time, however, they hacked a holein it, through which they fired and killed Mrs. Sheldon as she sat onthe edge of a bed in a lower room. Her husband, a man of greatresolution, seems to have been absent. Their son John, with Hannah hiswife, jumped from an upper chamber window. The young woman sprained herankle in the fall, and lay helpless, but begged her husband to run toHatfield for aid, which he did, while she remained a prisoner. TheIndians soon got in at a back door, seized Mercy Sheldon, a little girlof two years, and dashed out her brains on the door-stone. Her twobrothers and her sister Mary, a girl of sixteen, were captured. Thehouse was used for a short time as a depot for prisoners, and here alsowas brought the French officer wounded in the attack on the Stebbinshouse. A family tradition relates that as he lay in great torment hebegged for water, and that it was brought him by one of the prisoners, Mrs. John Catlin, whose husband, son, and infant grandson had beenkilled, and who, nevertheless, did all in her power to relieve thesufferings of the wounded man. Probably it was in recognition of thischarity that when the other prisoners were led away, Mrs. Catlin wasleft behind. She died of grief a few weeks later. 

The sun was scarcely an hour high when the miserable drove of captiveswas conducted across the river to the foot of a mountain or high hill. Williams and his family were soon compelled to follow, and his house wasset on fire. As they led him off he saw that other houses within thepalisade were burning, and that all were in the power of the enemyexcept that of his neighbor Stebbins, where the gallant defenders stillkept their assailants at bay. Having collected all their prisoners, themain body of the French and Indians began to withdraw towards the pineforest, where they had left their packs and snow-shoes, and to preparefor a retreat before the country should be roused, first murdering incold blood Marah Carter, a little girl of five years, whom they probablythought unequal to the march. Several parties, however, still lingeredin the village, firing on the Stebbins house, killing cattle, hogs, andsheep, and gathering such plunder as the place afforded. 

Early in the attack, and while it was yet dark, the light of burninghouses, reflected from the fields of snow, had been seen at Hatfield, Hadley, and Northampton. The alarm was sounded through the slumberinghamlets, and parties of men mounted on farm-horses, with saddles orwithout, hastened to the rescue, not doubting that the fires werekindled by Indians. When the sun was about two hours high, betweenthirty and forty of them were gathered at the fortified house ofJonathan Wells, at the southern end of the village. The houses of thisneighborhood were still standing, and seem not to have beenattacked, --the stubborn defence of the Stebbins house having apparentlyprevented the enemy from pushing much beyond the palisaded enclosure. The house of Wells was full of refugee families. A few Deerfield menhere joined the horsemen from the lower towns, as also did four or fiveof the yeoman soldiers who had escaped the fate of most of theircomrades. The horsemen left their horses within Wells's fence; hehimself took the lead, and the whole party rushed in together at thesouthern gate of the palisaded enclosure, drove out the plunderers, andretook a part of their plunder. The assailants of the Stebbins house, after firing at it for three hours, were put to flight, and those of itsmale occupants who were still alive joined their countrymen, while thewomen and children ran back for harborage to the house of Wells. 

Wells and his men, now upwards of fifty, drove the flying enemy morethan a mile across the river meadows, and ran in headlong pursuit overthe crusted snow, killing a considerable number. In the eagerness of thechase many threw off their overcoats, and even their jackets. Wells sawthe danger, and vainly called on them to stop. Their blood was up, andmost of them were young and inexperienced. 

Meanwhile the firing at the village had been heard by Rouville's mainbody, who had already begun their retreat northward. They turned back tosupport their comrades, and hid themselves under the bank of the rivertill the pursuers drew near, when they gave them a close volley andrushed upon them with the war-whoop. Some of the English were shot down, and the rest driven back. There was no panic. "We retreated, " saysWells, "facing about and firing. " When they reached the palisade theymade a final stand, covering by their fire such of their comrades as hadfallen within range of musket-shot, and thus saving them from thescalping-knife. The French did not try to dislodge them. Nine of themhad been killed, several were wounded, and one was captured. [59]

The number of English carried off prisoners was one hundred and eleven, and the number killed was according to one list forty-seven, andaccording to another fifty-three, the latter including some who weresmothered in the cellars of their burning houses. The names, and in mostcases the ages, of both captives and slain are preserved. Those whoescaped with life and freedom were, by the best account, one hundred andthirty-seven. An official tabular statement, drawn up on the spot, setsthe number of houses burned at seventeen. The house of the town clerk, Thomas French, escaped, as before mentioned, and the town records, withother papers in his charge, were saved. The meeting-house also was leftstanding. The house of Sheldon was hastily set on fire by the French andIndians when their rear was driven out of the village by Wells and hismen; but the fire was extinguished, and "the Old Indian House, " as itwas called, stood till the year 1849. Its door, deeply scarred withhatchets, and with a hole cut near the middle, is still preserved in theMemorial Hall at Deerfield. [60]

Vaudreuil wrote to the minister, Ponchartrain, that the French lost twoor three killed, and twenty or twenty-one wounded, Rouville himselfbeing among the latter. This cannot include the Indians, since there isproof that the enemy left behind a considerable number of their dead. Wherever resistance was possible, it had been of the most prompt anddetermined character. [61]

Long before noon the French and Indians were on their northward marchwith their train of captives. More armed men came up from thesettlements below, and by midnight about eighty were gathered at theruined village. Couriers had been sent to rouse the country, and beforeevening of the next day (the first of March) the force at Deerfield wasincreased to two hundred and fifty; but a thaw and a warm rain had setin, and as few of the men had snow-shoes, pursuit was out of thequestion. Even could the agile savages and their allies have beenovertaken, the probable consequence would have been the murdering of thecaptives to prevent their escape. 

In spite of the foul blow dealt upon it, Deerfield was not abandoned. Such of its men as were left were taken as soldiers into the pay of theprovince, while the women and children were sent to the villages below. A small garrison was also stationed at the spot, under command ofCaptain Jonathan Wells, and thus the village held its ground till thestorm of war should pass over. [62]

We have seen that the minister, Williams, with his wife and family, were led from their burning house across the river to the foot of themountain, where the crowd of terrified and disconsolatecaptives--friends, neighbors, and relatives--were already gathered. Herethey presently saw the fight in the meadow, and were told that if theircountrymen attempted a rescue, they should all be put to death. "Afterthis, " writes Williams, "we went up the mountain, and saw the smoke ofthe fires in town, and beheld the awful desolation of Deerfield; andbefore we marched any farther they killed a sucking child of theEnglish. "

The French and Indians marched that afternoon only four or fivemiles, --to Greenfield meadows, --where they stopped to encamp, dug awaythe snow, laid spruce-boughs on the ground for beds, and bound fast suchof the prisoners as seemed able to escape. The Indians then held acarousal on some liquor they had found in the village, and in theirdrunken rage murdered a negro man belonging to Williams. In spite oftheir precautions, Joseph Alexander, one of the prisoners, escapedduring the night, at which they were greatly incensed; and Rouvilleordered Williams to tell his companions in misfortune that if any moreof them ran off, the rest should be burned alive. [63]

The prisoners were the property of those who had taken them. Williamshad two masters, one of the three who had seized him having been shot inthe attack on the house of Stebbins. His principal owner was a surlyfellow who would not let him speak to the other prisoners; but as he waspresently chosen to guard the rear, the minister was left in the handsof his other master, who allowed him to walk beside his wife and helpher on the way. Having borne a child a few weeks before, she was in nocondition for such a march, and felt that her hour was near. Williamsspeaks of her in the strongest terms of affection. She made nocomplaint, and accepted her fate with resignation. "We discoursed, " hesays, "of the happiness of those who had God for a father and friend, asalso that it was our reasonable duty quietly to submit to his will. " Herthoughts were for her remaining children, whom she commended to herhusband's care. Their intercourse was short. The Indian who had gone tothe rear of the train soon returned, separated them, ordered Williams tothe front, "and so made me take a last farewell of my dear wife, thedesire of my eyes and companion in many mercies and afflictions. " Theycame soon after to Green River, a stream then about knee-deep, and soswift that the water had not frozen. After wading it with difficulty, they climbed a snow-covered hill beyond. The minister, with strengthalmost spent, was permitted to rest a few moments at the top; and as theother prisoners passed by in turn, he questioned each for news of hiswife. He was not left long in suspense. She had fallen fromweakness in fording the stream, but gained her feet again, and, drenchedin the icy current, struggled to the farther bank, when the savage whoowned her, finding that she could not climb the hill, killed her withone stroke of his hatchet. Her body was left on the snow till a few ofher townsmen, who had followed the trail, found it a day or two after, carried it back to Deerfield, and buried it in the churchyard. 

[Illustration: _The Return from Deerfield. _

Drawn by Howard Pyle. ]

On the next day the Indians killed an infant and a little girl of elevenyears; on the day following, Friday, they tomahawked a woman, and onSaturday four others. This apparent cruelty was in fact a kind of mercy. The victims could not keep up with the party, and the death-blow savedthem from a lonely and lingering death from cold and starvation. Some ofthe children, when spent with the march, were carried on the backs oftheir owners, --partly, perhaps, through kindness, and partly becauseevery child had its price. 

On the fourth day of the march they came to the mouth of West River, which enters the Connecticut a little above the present town ofBrattleboro'. Some of the Indians were discontented with thedistribution of the captives, alleging that others had got more thantheir share; on which the whole troop were mustered together, and somechanges of ownership were agreed upon. At this place dog-trains andsledges had been left, and these served to carry their wounded, as wellas some of the captive children. Williams was stripped of the betterpart of his clothes, and others given him instead, so full of verminthat they were a torment to him through all the journey. The march nowcontinued with pitiless speed up the frozen Connecticut, where therecent thaw had covered the ice with slush and water ankle-deep. 

On Sunday they made a halt, and the minister was permitted to preach asermon from the text, "Hear, all people, and behold my sorrow: myvirgins and my young men are gone into captivity. " Then amid the ice, the snow, the forest, and the savages, his forlorn flock joined theirvoices in a psalm. [64] On Monday guns were heard from the rear, and theIndians and their allies, in great alarm, bound their prisoners fast, and prepared for battle. It proved, however, that the guns had beenfired at wild geese by some of their own number; on which they recoveredtheir spirits, fired a volley for joy, and boasted that the Englishcould not overtake them. [65] More women fainted by the way and diedunder the hatchet, --some with pious resignation, some with despairingapathy, some with a desperate joy. 

Two hundred miles of wilderness still lay between them and the Canadiansettlements. It was a waste without a house or even a wigwam, excepthere and there the bark shed of some savage hunter. At the mouth ofWhite River, the party divided into small bands, --no doubt in order tosubsist by hunting, for provisions were fast failing. The Williamsfamily were separated. Stephen was carried up the Connecticut; Samueland Eunice, with two younger children, were carried off in variousdirections; while the wretched father, along with two small children ofone of his parishioners, was compelled to follow his Indian masters upthe valley of White River. One of the children--a little girl--waskilled on the next morning by her Caughnawaga owner, who was unable tocarry her. [66] On the next Sunday the minister was left in camp with oneIndian and the surviving child, --a boy of nine, --while the rest of theparty were hunting. "My spirit, " he says, "was almost overwhelmed withinme. " But he found comfort in the text, "Leave thy fatherless children, Iwill preserve them alive. " Nor was his hope deceived. His youngestsurviving child, --a boy of four, --though harshly treated by his owners, was carried on their shoulders or dragged on a sledge to the end of thejourney. His youngest daughter--seven years old--was treated with greatkindness throughout. Samuel and Eunice suffered much from hunger, butwere dragged on sledges when too faint to walk. Stephen nearly starvedto death; but after eight months in the forest, he safely reachedChambly with his Indian masters. 

Of the whole band of captives, only about half ever again saw friendsand home. Seventeen broke down on the way and were killed; while DavidHoyt and Jacob Hix died of starvation at Coos Meadows, on the upperConnecticut. During the entire march, no woman seems to have beensubjected to violence; and this holds true, with rare exceptions, in allthe Indian wars of New England. This remarkable forbearance towardsfemale prisoners, so different from the practice of many western tribes, was probably due to a form of superstition, aided perhaps by theinfluence of the missionaries. [67] It is to be observed, however, thatthe heathen savages of King Philip's War, who had never seen a Jesuit, were no less forbearing in this respect. 

The hunters of Williams's party killed five moose, the flesh of which, smoked and dried, was carried on their backs and that of the prisonerwhom they had provided with snow-shoes. Thus burdened, the ministertoiled on, following his masters along the frozen current of White Rivertill, crossing the snowy backs of the Green Mountains, they struck theheadwaters of the stream then called French River, now the Winooski, orOnion. Being in great fear of a thaw, they pushed on with double speed. Williams was not used to snow-shoes, and they gave him those painfulcramps of the legs and ankles called in Canada _mal à la raquette_. Onemorning at dawn he was waked by his chief master and ordered to get up, say his prayers, and eat his breakfast, for they must make a long marchthat day. The minister was in despair. "After prayer, " he says, "I arosefrom my knees; but my feet were so tender, swollen, bruised, and full ofpain that I could scarce stand upon them without holding on the wigwam. And when the Indians said, 'You must run to-day, ' I answered I could notrun. My master, pointing to his hatchet, said to me, 'Then I must dashout your brains and take your scalp. '" The Indian proved better than hisword, and Williams was suffered to struggle on as he could. "Godwonderfully supported me, " he writes, "and my strength was restored andrenewed to admiration. " He thinks that he walked that day forty miles onthe snow. Following the Winooski to its mouth, the party reached LakeChamplain a little north of the present city of Burlington. Here theswollen feet of the prisoner were tortured by the rough ice, till snowbegan to fall and cover it with a soft carpet. Bending under his load, and powdered by the falling flakes, he toiled on till, at noon of aSaturday, lean, tired, and ragged, he and his masters reached the Frenchoutpost of Chambly, twelve or fifteen miles from Montreal. 

Here the unhappy wayfarer was treated with great kindness both by theofficers of the fort and by the inhabitants, one of the chief among whomlodged him in his house and welcomed him to his table. After a shortstay at Chambly, Williams and his masters set out in a canoe for Sorel. On the way a Frenchwoman came down to the bank of the river and invitedthe party to her house, telling the minister that she herself had oncebeen a prisoner among the Indians, and knew how to feel for him. Sheseated him at a table, spread a table-cloth, and placed food before him, while the Indians, to their great indignation, were supplied with a mealin the chimney-corner. Similar kindness was shown by the inhabitantsalong the way till the party reached their destination, the Abenakivillage of St. Francis, to which his masters belonged. Here there was afort, in which lived two Jesuits, directors of the mission, and hereWilliams found several English children, captured the summer beforeduring the raid on the settlements of Maine, and already transformedinto little Indians both in dress and behavior. At the gate of the fortone of the Jesuits met him, and asked him to go into the church and givethanks to God for sparing his life, to which he replied that he wouldgive thanks in some other place. The priest then commanded him to go, which he refused to do. When on the next day the bell rang for mass, oneof his Indian masters seized him and dragged him into the church, wherehe got behind the door, and watched the service from his retreat withextreme disapprobation. One of the Jesuits telling him that he would goto hell for not accepting the apostolic traditions, and trusting only inthe Bible, he replied that he was glad to know that Christ was to behis judge, and not they. His chief master, who was a zealot in his way, and as much bound to the rites and forms of the Church as he had beenbefore his conversion to his "medicines, " or practices of heathensuperstition, one day ordered him to make the sign of the cross, and onhis refusal, tried to force him. But as the minister was tough andmuscular, the Indian could not guide his hand. Then, pulling out acrucifix that hung at his neck, he told Williams in broken English tokiss it; and being again refused, he brandished his hatchet over him andthreatened to knock out his brains. This failing of the desired effect, he threw down the hatchet and said he would first bite out theminister's finger-nails, --a form of torture then in vogue among thenorthern Indians, both converts and heathen. Williams offered him a handand invited him to begin; on which he gave the thumb-nail a gripe withhis teeth, and then let it go, saying, "No good minister, bad as thedevil. " The failure seems to have discouraged him, for he made nofurther attempt to convert the intractable heretic. 

The direct and simple narrative of Williams is plainly the work of anhonest and courageous man. He was the most important capture of theyear; and the governor, hearing that he was at St. Francis, despatched acanoe to request the Jesuits of the mission to send him to Montreal. Thither, therefore, his masters carried him, expecting, no doubt, a goodprice for their prisoner. Vaudreuil, in fact, bought him, exchanged histattered clothes for good ones, lodged him in his house, and, in thewords of Williams, "was in all respects relating to my outward mancourteous and charitable to admiration. " He sent for two of theminister's children who were in the town, bought his eldest daughterfrom the Indians, and promised to do what he could to get the others outof their hands. His youngest son was bought by a lady of the place, andhis eldest by a merchant. His youngest daughter, Eunice, then seven oreight years old, was at the mission of St. Louis, or Caughnawaga. Vaudreuil sent a priest to conduct Williams thither and try to ransomthe child. But the Jesuits of the mission flatly refused to let himspeak to or see her. Williams says that Vaudreuil was very angry athearing of this; and a few days after, he went himself to Caughnawagawith the minister. This time the Jesuits, whose authority within theirmission seemed almost to override that of the governor himself, yieldedso far as to permit the father to see his child, on condition that hespoke to no other English prisoner. He talked with her for an hour, exhorting her never to forget her catechism, which she had learned byrote. Vaudreuil and his wife afterwards did all in their power toprocure her ransom; but the Indians, or the missionaries in their name, would not let her go. "She is there still, " writes Williams two yearslater, "and has forgotten to speak English. " What grieved him stillmore, Eunice had forgotten her catechism. 

While he was at Montreal, his movements were continually watched, lesthe should speak to other prisoners and prevent their conversion. Hethinks these precautions were due to the priests, whose constantendeavor it was to turn the captives, or at least the younger and moremanageable among them, into Catholics and Canadians. The governor'skindness towards him never failed, though he told him that he should notbe set free till the English gave up one Captain Baptiste, a notedsea-rover whom they had captured some time before. 

He was soon after sent down the river to Quebec along with the superiorof the Jesuits. Here he lodged seven weeks with a member of the council, who treated him kindly, but told him that if he did not avoidintercourse with the other English prisoners he would be sent fartheraway. He saw much of the Jesuits, who courteously asked him to dine;though he says that one of them afterwards made some Latin verses abouthim, in which he was likened to a captive wolf. Another Jesuit told himthat when the mission Indians set out on their raid against Deerfield, he charged them to baptize all children before killing them, --such, hesaid, was his desire for the salvation even of his enemies. To murderingthe children after they were baptized, he appears to have made noobjection. Williams says that in their dread lest he should prevent theconversion of the other prisoners, the missionaries promised him apension from the King and free intercourse with his children andneighbors if he would embrace the Catholic faith and remain in Canada;to which he answered that he would do so without reward if he thoughttheir religion was true, but as he believed the contrary, "the offer ofthe whole world would tempt him no more than a blackberry. "

To prevent him more effectually from perverting the minds of his captivecountrymen, and fortifying them in their heresy, he was sent to ChâteauRicher, a little below Quebec, and lodged with the parish priest, whowas very kind to him. "I am persuaded, " he writes, "that he abhorredtheir sending down the heathen to commit outrages against the English, saying it is more like committing murders than carrying on war. "

He was sorely tried by the incessant efforts to convert the prisoners. "Sometimes they would tell me my children, sometimes my neighbors, wereturned to be of their religion. Some made it their work to allure poorsouls by flatteries and great promises; some threatened, some offeredabuse to such as refused to go to church and be present at mass; andsome they industriously contrived to get married among them. Iunderstood they would tell the English that I was turned, that theymight gain them to change their religion. These their endeavors toseduce to popery were very exercising to me. "

After a time he was permitted to return to Quebec, where he met anEnglish Franciscan, who, he says, had been sent from France to aid inconverting the prisoners. Lest the minister should counteract theefforts of the friar, the priests had him sent back to Château Richer;"but, " he observes, "God showed his dislike of such a persecutingspirit; for the very next day the Seminary, a very famous building, wasmost of it burnt down, by a joiner letting a coal of fire drop among theshavings. "[68]

The heaviest of all his tribulations now fell upon him. His son Samuel, about sixteen years old, had been kept at Montreal under the tutelage ofFather Meriel, a priest of St. Sulpice. The boy afterwards declared thathe was promised great rewards if he would make the sign of the cross, and severe punishment if he would not. Proving obstinate, he was whippedtill at last he made the sign; after which he was told to go to mass, and on his refusal, four stout boys of the school were ordered to draghim in. Williams presently received a letter in Samuel's handwriting, though dictated, as the father believed, by his priestly tutors. In thiswas recounted, with many edifying particulars, the deathbed conversionof two New England women; and to the minister's unspeakable grief andhorror, the messenger who brought the letter told him that the boyhimself had turned Catholic. "I have heard the news, " he wrote to hisrecreant son, "with the most distressing, afflicting, sorrowful spirit. Oh, I pity you, I mourn over you day and night. Oh, I pity your weaknessthat, through the craftiness of man, you are turned from the simplicityof the gospel. " Though his correspondence was strictly watched, hemanaged to convey to the boy a long exposition, from his own pen, of theinfallible truth of Calvinistic orthodoxy, and the damnable errors ofRome. This, or something else, had its effect. Samuel returned to thecreed of his fathers; and being at last exchanged, went home toDeerfield, where he was chosen town-clerk in 1713, and where he soonafter died. [69]

Williams gives many particulars of the efforts of the priests to convertthe prisoners, and his account, like the rest of his story, bears themarks of truth. There was a treble motive for conversion: it recruitedthe Church, weakened the enemy, and strengthened Canada, since few ofthe converts would peril their souls by returning to their hereticrelatives. The means of conversion varied. They were gentle whengentleness seemed likely to answer the purpose. Little girls and youngwomen were placed in convents, where it is safe to assume that they weretreated with the most tender kindness by the sisterhood, who fullybelieved that to gain them to the faith was to snatch them fromperdition. But when they or their brothers proved obdurate, differentmeans were used. Threats of hell were varied by threats of a whipping, which, according to Williams, were often put into execution. Parentswere rigorously severed from their families; though one Lalande, whohad been sent to watch the elder prisoners, reported that they wouldpersist in trying to see their children, till some of them were killedin the attempt. "Here, " writes Williams, "might be a history in itselfof the trials and sufferings of many of our children, who, afterseparation from grown persons, have been made to do as they would havethem. I mourned when I thought with myself that I had one child with theMaquas [Caughnawagas], a second turned papist, and a little child of sixyears of age in danger to be instructed in popery, and knew full wellthat all endeavors would be used to prevent my seeing or speaking withthem. " He also says that he and others were told that if they would turnCatholic their children should be restored to them; and among otherdevices, some of his parishioners were assured that their pastor himselfhad seen the error of his ways and bowed in submission to Holy Church. 

In midwinter, not quite a year after their capture, the prisoners werevisited by a gleam of hope. John Sheldon, accompanied by young JohnWells, of Deerfield, and Captain Livingston, of Albany, came to Montrealwith letters from Governor Dudley, proposing an exchange. Sheldon's wifeand infant child, his brother-in-law, and his son-in-law had beenkilled. Four of his children, with his daughter-in-law, Hannah, --thesame who had sprained her ankle in leaping from her chamberwindow, --besides others of his near relatives and connections, wereprisoners in Canada; and so also was the mother of young Wells. In thelast December, Sheldon and Wells had gone to Boston and begged to besent as envoys to the French governor. The petition was readily granted, and Livingston, who chanced to be in the town, was engaged to accompanythem. After a snow-shoe journey of extreme hardship they reached theirdestination, and were received with courtesy by Vaudreuil. Butdifficulties arose. The French, and above all the clergy, were unwillingto part with captives, many of whom they hoped to transform intoCanadians by conversion and adoption. Many also were in the hands of theIndians, who demanded payment for them, --which Dudley had alwaysrefused, declaring that he would not "set up an Algiers trade" by buyingthem from their pretended owners; and he wrote to Vaudreuil that for hisown part he "would never permit a savage to tell him that any Christianprisoner was at his disposal. " Vaudreuil had insisted that his Indianscould not be compelled to give up their captives, since they were notsubjects of France, but only allies, --which, so far as concerned themission Indians within the colony, was but a pretext. It is true, however, that the French authorities were in such fear of offending eventhese that they rarely ventured to cross their interests or theirpassions. Other difficulties were raised, and though the envoys remainedin Canada till late in spring, they accomplished little. At last, probably to get rid of their importunities, five prisoners were givenup to them, --Sheldon's daughter-in-law, Hannah; Esther Williams, eldestdaughter of the minister; a certain Ebenezer Carter; and two othersunknown. With these, Sheldon and his companions set out in May on theirreturn; and soon after they were gone, four young men, --Baker, Nims, Kellogg, and Petty, --desperate at being left in captivity, made theirescape from Montreal, and reached Deerfield before the end of June, halfdead with hunger. 

Sheldon and his party were escorted homeward by eight soldiers underCourtemanche, an officer of distinction, whose orders were to "makehimself acquainted with the country. " He fell ill at Boston, where hewas treated with much kindness, and on his recovery was sent home bysea, along with Captain Vetch and Samuel Hill, charged to open a freshnegotiation. With these, at the request of Courtemanche, went youngWilliam Dudley, son of the governor. [70]

They were received at Quebec with a courtesy qualified by extremecaution, lest they should spy out the secrets of the land. The missionwas not very successful, though the elder Dudley had now a good numberof French prisoners in his hands, captured in Acadia or on the adjacentseas. A few only of the English were released, including the boy, Stephen Williams, whom Vaudreuil had bought for forty crowns from hisIndian master. 

In the following winter John Sheldon made another journey on foot toCanada, with larger powers than before. He arrived in March, 1706, andreturned with forty-four of his released countrymen, who, says Williams, were chiefly adults permitted to go because there was no hope ofconverting them. The English governor had by this time seen thenecessity of greater concessions, and had even consented to release thenoted Captain Baptiste, whom the Boston merchants regarded as a pirate. In the same summer Samuel Appleton and John Bonner, in the brigantine"Hope, " brought a considerable number of French prisoners to Quebec, andreturned to Boston at the end of October with fifty-seven English, ofall ages. For three, at least, of this number money was paid by theEnglish, probably on account of prisoners bought by Frenchmen from theIndians. The minister, Williams, was exchanged for Baptiste, theso-called pirate, and two of his children were also redeemed, though theCaughnawagas, or their missionaries, refused to part with his daughterEunice. Williams says that the priests made great efforts to induce theprisoners to remain in Canada, tempting some with the prospect ofpensions from the King, and frightening others with promises ofdamnation, joined with predictions of shipwreck on the way home. Hethinks that about one hundred were left in Canada, many of whom werechildren in the hands of the Indians, who could easily hide them in thewoods, and who were known in some cases to have done so. Seven more wereredeemed in the following year by the indefatigable Sheldon, on a thirdvisit to Canada. [71]

The exchanged prisoners had been captured at various times and places. Those from Deerfield amounted in all to about sixty, or a little morethan half the whole number carried off. Most of the others were dead orconverted. Some married Canadians, and others their fellow-captives. Thehistory of some of them can be traced with certainty. Thus, ThomasFrench, blacksmith and town clerk of Deerfield, and deacon of thechurch, was captured, with his wife and six children. His wife andinfant child were killed on the way to Canada. He and his two eldestchildren were exchanged and brought home. His daughter Freedom wasconverted, baptized under the name of Marie Françoise, and married toJean Daulnay, a Canadian. His daughter Martha was baptized asMarguerite, and married to Jacques Roy, on whose death she married JeanLouis Ménard, by whom she became ancestress of Joseph Plessis, eleventhbishop of Quebec. Elizabeth Corse, eight years old when captured, wasbaptized under her own name, and married to Jean Dumontel. AbigailStebbins, baptized as Marguerite, lived many years at Boucherville, wifeof Jacques de Noyon, a sergeant in the colony troops. The widow, SarahHurst, whose youngest child, Benjamin, had been murdered on theDeerfield meadows, was baptized as Marie Jeanne. [72] Joanna Kellogg, eleven years old when taken, married a Caughnawaga chief, and became, atall points, an Indian squaw. 

She was not alone in this strange transformation. Eunice Williams, thenamesake of her slaughtered mother, remained in the wigwams of theCaughnawagas, forgot, as we have seen, her English and her catechism, was baptized, and in due time married to an Indian of the tribe, whothenceforward called himself Williams. Thus her hybrid children bore herfamily name. Her father, who returned to his parish at Deerfield, andher brother Stephen, who became a minister like his parent, never ceasedto pray for her return to her country and her faith. Many years after, in 1740, she came with her husband to visit her relatives in Deerfield, dressed as a squaw and wrapped in an Indian blanket. Nothing wouldinduce her to stay, though she was persuaded on one occasion to put on acivilized dress and go to church; after which she impatiently discardedher gown and resumed her blanket. As she was kindly treated by herrelatives, and as no attempt was made to detain her against her will, she came again in the next year, bringing two of her half-breedchildren, and twice afterwards repeated the visit. She and her husbandwere offered a tract of land if they would settle in New England; butshe positively refused, saying that it would endanger her soul. Shelived to a great age, a squaw to the last. [73]

One of her grandsons, Eleazer Williams, turned Protestant, was educatedat Dartmouth College at the charge of friends in New England, and wasfor a time missionary to the Indians of Green Bay, in Wisconsin. Hischaracter for veracity was not of the best. He deceived the excellentantiquarian, Hoyt, by various inventions touching the attack onDeerfield, and in the latter part of his life tried to pass himself offas the lost Dauphin, son of Louis XVI. [74]

Here it may be observed that the descendants of young captives broughtinto Canada by the mission Indians during the various wars with theEnglish colonies became a considerable element in the Canadianpopulation. Perhaps the most prominent example is that of the Gillfamily. In June, 1697, a boy named Samuel Gill, then in his tenth year, was captured by the Abenakis at Salisbury in Massachusetts, carried toSt. Francis, and converted. Some years later he married a young Englishgirl, said to have been named James, and to have been captured atKennebunk. [75] In 1866 the late Abbé Maurault, missionary at St. Francis, computed their descendants at nine hundred and fifty-two, inwhose veins French, English, and Abenaki blood were mixed in everyconceivable proportion. He gives the tables of genealogy in full, andsays that two hundred and thirteen of this prolific race still bear thesurname of Gill. "If, " concludes the worthy priest, "one should traceout all the English families brought into Canada by the Abenakis, onewould be astonished at the number of persons who to-day are indebted tothese savages for the blessing of being Catholics and the advantage ofbeing Canadians, "[76]--an advantage for which French-Canadians are soungrateful that they migrate to the United States by myriads. 

FOOTNOTES:

[53] _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 14 Novembre, 1703_; _Ibid. , 3 Avril, 1704_;_Vaudreuil et Beauharnois au Ministre 17 Novembre, 1704_. French writerssay that the English surprised and killed some of the Abenakis, whothereupon asked help from Canada. This perhaps refers to the expeditionsof Colonel March and Captain Tyng, who, after the bloody attacks uponthe settlements of Maine, made reprisal upon Abenaki camps. 

[54] English accounts make the whole number 342. 

[55] Stephen W. Williams, _Biographical Memoir of Rev. John Williams_. 

[56] _Account of ye destruction at Derefd, February 29, 1703/4. _

[57] Papers in the Archives of Massachusetts. Among these, a letter ofRev. John Williams to the governor, 21 October, 1703, states that thepalisade is rotten, and must be rebuilt. 

[58] The names of nearly all the inhabitants are preserved, and even theages of most of them have been ascertained, through the indefatigableresearch of Mr. George Sheldon, of Deerfield, among contemporaryrecords. The house of Thomas French, the town clerk, was not destroyed, and his papers were saved. 

[59] On the thirty-first of May, 1704, Jonathan Wells and EbenezerWright petitioned the General Court for compensation for the losses ofthose who drove the enemy out of Deerfield and chased them into themeadow. The petition, which was granted, gives an account of the affair, followed by a list of all the men engaged. They number fifty-seven, including the nine who were killed. A list of the plunder retaken fromthe enemy, consisting of guns, blankets, hatchets, etc. , is also added. Several other petitions for the relief of men wounded at the same timeare preserved in the archives of Massachusetts. In 1736 the survivors ofthe party, with the representatives of those who had died, petitionedthe General Court for allotments of land, in recognition of theirservices. This petition also was granted. It is accompanied by anarrative written by Wells. These and other papers on the same subjecthave been recently printed by Mr. George Sheldon, of Deerfield. 

[60] After the old house was demolished, this door was purchased by myfriend Dr. Daniel Denison Slade, and given by him to the town ofDeerfield, on condition that it should be carefully preserved. For anengraving of "the Old Indian House, " see Hoyt, _Indian Wars_ (ed. 1824). 

[61] Governor Dudley, writing to Lord ---- on 21 April, 1704, says thatthirty dead bodies of the enemy were found in the village and on themeadow. Williams, the minister, says that they did not seem inclined torejoice over their success, and continued for several days to burymembers of their party who died of wounds on the return march. He addsthat he learned in Canada that they lost more than forty, thoughVaudreuil assured him that they lost but eleven. 

[62] On the attack of Deerfield, see Williams, _The Redeemed CaptiveReturning to Zion_. This is the narrative of the minister, JohnWilliams. _Account of the Captivity of Stephen Williams, written byhimself. _ This is the narrative of one of the minister's sons, elevenyears old when captured. It is printed in the Appendix to the_Biographical Memoir of Rev. John Williams_ (Hartford, 1837); _Anaccount of ye destruction at Derefd. Febr. 29, 1703/4_, in_Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc. _, 1867, p. 478. This valuabledocument was found among the papers of Fitz-John Winthrop, governor ofConnecticut. The authorities of that province, on hearing of thecatastrophe at Deerfield, promptly sent an armed force to its relief, which, however, could not arrive till long after the enemy were gone. The paper in question seems to be the official report of one of theConnecticut officers. After recounting what had taken place, he gives atabular list of the captives, the slain, and those who escaped, with theestimated losses in property of each inhabitant. The list of captives isnot quite complete. Compare the lists given by Stephen Williams at theend of his narrative. The town records of Hatfield give variousparticulars concerning the attack on its unfortunate neighbor, as do theletters of Colonel Samuel Partridge, commanding the militia of thecounty. Hoyt, _Antiquarian Researches_, gives a valuable account of it. The careful and unwearied research of Mr. George Sheldon, the linealdescendant of Ensign John Sheldon, among all sources, public or private, manuscript or in print, that could throw light on the subject cannot betoo strongly commended, and I am indebted to him for much valuedinformation. 

Penhallow's short account is inexact, and many of the more recentnarratives are not only exaggerated, but sometimes absurdly incorrect. 

The French notices of the affair are short, and give few particulars. Vaudreuil in one letter sets the number of prisoners at one hundred andfifty, and increases it in another to two hundred and fifty. Ramesay, governor of Montreal, who hated Hertel de Rouville, and bore no love toVaudreuil, says that fifty-six women and children were murdered on theway to Canada, --which is a gross exaggeration. (_Ramesay au Ministre, 14Novembre, 1704. _) The account by Dr. Ethier in the _Revue Canadienne_ of1874 is drawn entirely from the _Redeemed Captive_ of Williams, withrunning comments by the Canadian writer, but no new information. Thecomments chiefly consist in praise of Williams for truth when he speaksfavorably of the Canadians, and charges of lying when he speaksotherwise. 

[63] John Williams, _The Redeemed Captive_. Compare Stephen Williams, _Account of the Captivity_, etc. 

[64] The small stream at the mouth of which Williams is supposed to havepreached is still called Williams River. 

[65] Stephen Williams, _Account of the Captivity_, etc. His father alsonotices the incident. 

[66] The name Macquas (Mohawks) is always given to the Caughnawagas bythe elder Williams. 

[67] The Iroquois are well known to have had superstitions in connectionwith sexual abstinence. 

[68] Williams remarks that the Seminary had also been burned three yearsbefore. This was the fire of November, 1701. See "Old Régime in Canada, "451. 

[69] Note of Mr. George Sheldon. 

[70] The elder Dudley speaks with great warmth of Courtemanche, who, onhis part, seems equally pleased with his entertainers. Young Dudley wasa boy of eighteen. "Il a du mérite, " says Vaudreuil. _Dudley toVaudreuil, 4 July, 1705; Vaudreuil au Ministre, 19 Octobre, 1705. _

[71] In 1878 Miss C. Alice Baker, of Cambridge, Mass. , a descendant ofAbigail Stebbins, read a paper on John Sheldon before the MemorialAssociation at Deerfield. It is the result of great research, andcontains much original matter, including correspondence between Sheldonand the captives when in Canada, as well as a full and authentic accountof his several missions. Mr. George Sheldon has also traced out withgreat minuteness the history of his ancestor's negotiations. 

[72] The above is drawn mainly from extracts made by Miss Baker from theregisters of the Church of Notre Dame at Montreal. Many of the acts ofbaptism bear the signature of Father Meriel, so often mentioned in thenarrative of Williams. Apparently, Meriel spoke English. At least thereis a letter in English from him, relating to Eunice Williams, in theMassachusetts Archives, vol. 51. Some of the correspondence betweenDudley and Vaudreuil concerning exchange of prisoners will be foundamong the Paris documents in the State House at Boston. Copies of thesepapers were printed at Quebec in 1883-1885, though with manyinaccuracies. 

[73] Stephen W. Williams, _Memoir of the Rev. John Williams_, 53. _Sermon preached at Mansfield, August 4, 1741, on behalf of Mrs. Eunice, the daughter of Rev. John Williams; by Solomon Williams, A. M. _ _Letterof Mrs. Colton, great granddaughter of John Williams_ (in appendix tothe _Memoir of Rev. John Williams_). 

[74] I remember to have seen Eleazer Williams at my father's house inBoston, when a boy. My impression of him is that of a good-looking andsomewhat portly man, showing little trace of Indian blood, and whosefeatures, I was told, resembled those of the Bourbons. Probably thislikeness, real or imagined, suggested the imposition he was practisingat the time. The story of the "Bell of St. Regis" is probably another ofhis inventions. It is to the effect that the bell of the church atDeerfield was carried by the Indians to the mission of St. Regis, andthat it is there still. But there is reason to believe that there was nochurch bell at Deerfield, and it is certain that St. Regis did not existtill more than a half-century after Deerfield was attacked. It has beensaid that the story is true, except that the name of Caughnawaga shouldbe substituted for that of St. Regis; but the evidence for thisconjecture is weak. On the legend of the bell, see Le Moine, _MapleLeaves, New Series_ (1873), 29; _Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc. _, 1869, 1870, 311; _Hist. Mag. 2d Series_, ix. 401. Hough, _Hist. St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties_, 116, gives the story without criticism. 

[75] The earlier editions of this book follow, in regard to Samuel Gill, the statements of Maurault, which are erroneous, as has been proved bythe careful and untiring research of Miss C. Alice Baker, to whosekindness I owe the means of correcting them. Papers in the archives ofMassachusetts leave no doubt as to the time and place of Samuel Gill'scapture. 

[76] Maurault, _Hist. Des Abenakis_, 377. I am indebted to R. A. Ramsay, Esq. , of Montreal, for a paper on the Gill family, by Mr. Charles Gill, who confirms the statements of Maurault so far as relates to thegenealogies. 

John and Zechariah Tarbell, captured when boys at Groton, becameCaughnawaga chiefs; and one of them, about 1760, founded the mission ofSt. Regis. Green, _Groton during the Indian Wars_, 116, 117-120. 

CHAPTER V. 

1704-1713. 

THE TORMENTED FRONTIER. 

Border Raids. --Haverhill. --Attack and Defence. --War to theKnife. --Motives of the French. --Proposed Neutrality. --JosephDudley. --Town and Country. 

I have told the fate of Deerfield in full, as an example of thedesolating raids which for years swept the borders of Massachusetts andNew Hampshire. The rest of the miserable story may be passed morebriefly. It is in the main a weary detail of the murder of one, two, three, or more men, women, or children waylaid in fields, woods, andlonely roads, or surprised in solitary cabins. Sometimes the attackswere on a larger scale. Thus, not long after the capture of Deerfield, aband of fifty or more Indians fell at dawn of day on a hamlet of fivehouses near Northampton. The alarm was sounded, and they were pursued. Eight of the prisoners were rescued, and three escaped; most of theothers being knocked in the head by their captors. At Oyster River theIndians attacked a loopholed house, in which the women of theneighboring farms had taken refuge while the men were at work in thefields. The women disguised themselves in hats and jackets, fired fromthe loopholes, and drove off the assailants. In 1709 a hundred andeighty French and Indians again attacked Deerfield, but failed tosurprise it, and were put to flight. At Dover, on a Sunday, while thepeople were at church, a scalping-party approached a fortified house, the garrison of which consisted of one woman, --Esther Jones, who, onseeing them, called out to an imaginary force within, "Here they are!come on! come on!" on which the Indians disappeared. 

Soon after the capture of Deerfield, the French authorities, being, according to the prisoner Williams, "wonderfully lifted up with pride, "formed a grand war-party, and assured the minister that they would catchso many prisoners that they should not know what to do with them. Beaucour, an officer of great repute, had chief command, and his forceconsisted of between seven and eight hundred men, of whom about ahundred and twenty were French, and the rest mission Indians. [77] Theydeclared that they would lay waste all the settlements on theConnecticut, --meaning, it seems, to begin with Hatfield. "This army, "says Williams, "went away in such a boasting, triumphant manner that Ihad great hopes God would discover and disappoint their designs. " Infact, their plans came to nought, owing, according to French accounts, to the fright of the Indians; for a soldier having deserted within aday's march of the English settlements, most of them turned back, despairing of a surprise, and the rest broke up into small parties togather scalps on the outlying farms. [78]

In the summer of 1708 there was a more successful attempt. The convertsof all the Canadian missions were mustered at Montreal, where Vaudreuil, by exercising, as he says, "the patience of an angel, " soothed theirmutual jealousies and persuaded them to go upon a war-party againstNewbury, Portsmouth, and other New England villages. Fortunately for theEnglish, the Caughnawagas were only half-hearted towards the enterprise;and through them the watchful Peter Schuyler got hints of it whichenabled him, at the eleventh hour, to set the intended victims on theirguard. The party consisted of about four hundred, of whom one hundredwere French, under twelve young officers and cadets; the whole commandedby Saint-Ours des Chaillons and Hertel de Rouville. For the sake ofspeed and secrecy, they set out in three bodies, by different routes. The rendezvous was at Lake Winnepesaukee, where they were to be joinedby the Norridgewocks, Penobscots, and other eastern Abenakis. TheCaughnawagas and Hurons turned back by reason of evil omens and adisease which broke out among them. The rest met on the shores of thelake, --probably at Alton Bay, --where, after waiting in vain for theireastern allies, they resolved to make no attempt on Portsmouth orNewbury, but to turn all their strength upon the smaller village ofHaverhill, on the Merrimac. Advancing quickly under cover of night, theymade their onslaught at half an hour before dawn, on Sunday, thetwenty-ninth of August. 

Haverhill consisted of between twenty and thirty dwelling-houses, ameeting-house, and a small picket fort. A body of militia from the lowerMassachusetts towns had been hastily distributed along the frontier, onthe vague reports of danger sent by Schuyler from Albany; and as theintended point of attack was unknown, the men were of necessity widelyscattered. French accounts say that there were thirty of them in thefort at Haverhill, and more in the houses of the villagers; while othersstill were posted among the distant farms and hamlets. 

In spite of darkness and surprise, the assailants met a stiff resistanceand a hot and persistent fusillade. Vaudreuil says that they coulddislodge the defenders only by setting fire to both houses and fort. Inthis they were not very successful, as but few of the dwellings wereburned. A fire was kindled against the meeting-house, which was saved byone Davis and a few others, who made a dash from behind the adjacentparsonage, drove the Indians off, and put out the flames. Rolfe, theminister, had already been killed while defending his house. His wifeand one of his children were butchered; but two others--little girls ofsix and eight years--were saved by the self-devotion of hismaid-servant, Hagar, apparently a negress, who dragged them into thecellar and hid them under two inverted tubs, where they crouched, dumbwith terror, while the Indians ransacked the place without finding them. English accounts say that the number of persons killed--men, women, andchildren--was forty-eight; which the French increase to a hundred. 

The distant roll of drums was presently heard, warning the people on thescattered farms; on which the assailants made a hasty retreat. Postednear Haverhill were three militia officers, --Turner, Price, andGardner, --lately arrived from Salem. With such men as they had withthem, or could hastily get together, they ambushed themselves at theedge of a piece of woods, in the path of the retiring enemy, to thenumber, as the French say, of sixty or seventy, which it is safe todiminish by a half. The French and Indians, approaching rapidly, weremet by a volley which stopped them for the moment; then, throwing downtheir packs, they rushed on, and after a sharp skirmish broke throughthe ambuscade and continued their retreat. Vaudreuil sets their totalloss at eight killed and eighteen wounded, --the former including twoofficers, Verchères and Chambly. He further declares that in theskirmish all the English, except ten or twelve, were killed outright;while the English accounts say that the French and Indians took to thewoods, leaving nine of their number dead on the spot, along with theirmedicine chest and all their packs. [79]

Scarcely a hamlet of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire borders escapeda visit from the nimble enemy. Groton, Lancaster, Exeter, Dover, Kittery, Casco, Kingston, York, Berwick, Wells, Winter Harbor, Brookfield, Amesbury, Marlborough, were all more or less infested, usually by small scalping-parties, hiding in the outskirts, waylayingstragglers, or shooting men at work in the fields, and disappearing assoon as their blow was struck. These swift and intangible persecutorswere found a far surer and more effectual means of annoyance than largerbodies. As all the warriors were converts of the Canadian missions, andas prisoners were an article of value, cases of torture were not verycommon; though now and then, as at Exeter, they would roast some poorwretch alive, or bite off his fingers and sear the stumps with red-hottobacco pipes. 

This system of petty, secret, and transient attack put the impoverishedcolonies to an immense charge in maintaining a cordon of militia alongtheir northern frontier, --a precaution often as vain as it was costly;for the wily savages, covered by the forest, found little difficulty indodging the scouting-parties, pouncing on their victims, and escaping. Rewards were offered for scalps; but one writer calculates that, allthings considered, it cost Massachusetts a thousand pounds of hercurrency to kill an Indian. [80]

In 1703-1704 six hundred men were kept ranging the woods all winterwithout finding a single Indian, the enemy having deserted their usualhaunts and sought refuge with the French, to emerge in February for thedestruction of Deerfield. In the next summer nineteen hundred men wereposted along two hundred miles of frontier. [81] This attitude of passivedefence exasperated the young men of Massachusetts, and it is said thatfive hundred of them begged Dudley for leave to make a raid into Canada, on the characteristic condition of choosing their own officers. Thegovernor consented; but on a message from Peter Schuyler that he had atlast got a promise from the Caughnawagas and other mission Indians toattack the New England borders no more, the raid was countermanded, lestit should waken the tempest anew. [82]

What was the object of these murderous attacks, which stung the enemywithout disabling him, confirmed the Indians in their native savagery, and taught the French to emulate it? In the time of Frontenac there wasa palliating motive for such barbarous warfare. Canada was thenprostrate and stunned under the blows of the Iroquois war. Successfulwar-parties were needed as a tonic and a stimulant to rouse the dashedspirits of French and Indians alike; but the remedy was a dangerous one, and it drew upon the colony the attack under Sir William Phips, whichwas near proving its ruin. At present there was no such pressing callfor butchering women, children, and peaceful farmers. The motive, suchas it was, lay in the fear that the Indian allies of France might passover to the English, or at least stand neutral. These allies were theChristian savages of the missions, who, all told, from the Caughnawagasto the Micmacs, could hardly have mustered a thousand warriors. Thedanger was that the Caughnawagas, always open to influence from Albany, might be induced to lay down the hatchet and persuade the rest to followtheir example. Therefore, as there was for the time a virtual truce withNew York, no pains were spared to commit them irrevocably to war againstNew England. With the Abenaki tribes of Maine and New Hampshire the needwas still more urgent, for they were continually drawn to New England bythe cheapness and excellence of English goods; and the only sure meansto prevent their trading with the enemy was to incite them to kill him. Some of these savages had been settled in Canada, to keep them underinfluence and out of temptation; but the rest were still in their nativehaunts, where it was thought best to keep them well watched by theirmissionaries, as sentinels and outposts to the colony. 

There were those among the French to whom this barbarous warfare wasrepugnant. The minister, Ponchartrain, by no means a person of tenderscruples, also condemned it for a time. After the attack on Wells andother places under Beaubassin in 1703, he wrote: "It would have beenwell if this expedition had not taken place. I have certain knowledgethat the English want only peace, knowing that war is contrary to theinterests of all the colonies. Hostilities in Canada have always beenbegun by the French. "[83] Afterwards, when these bloody raids hadproduced their natural effect and spurred the sufferers to attempt theending of their woes once for all by the conquest of Canada, Ponchartrain changed his mind and encouraged the sending out ofwar-parties, to keep the English busy at home. 

The schemes of a radical cure date from the attack on Deerfield and themurders of the following summer. In the autumn we find Governor Dudleyurging the capture of Quebec. "In the last two years, " he says, "theAssembly of Massachusetts has spent about £50, 000 in defending theProvince, whereas three or four of the Queen's ships and fifteen hundredNew England men would rid us of the French and make further outlayneedless, "--a view, it must be admitted, sufficiently sanguine. [84]

But before seeking peace with the sword, Dudley tried less strenuousmethods. It may be remembered that in 1705 Captain Vetch and SamuelHill, together with the governor's young son William, went to Quebec toprocure an exchange of prisoners. Their mission had also another object. Vetch carried a letter from Dudley to Vaudreuil, proposing a treaty ofneutrality between their respective colonies, and Vaudreuil seems tohave welcomed the proposal. Notwithstanding the pacific relationsbetween Canada and New York, he was in constant fear that Dutch andEnglish influence might turn the Five Nations into open enemies of theFrench; and he therefore declared himself ready to accept the proposalsof Dudley, on condition that New York and the other English coloniesshould be included in the treaty, and that the English should beexcluded from fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Acadian seas. The first condition was difficult, and the second impracticable; fornothing could have induced the people of New England to accept it. Vaudreuil, moreover, would not promise to give up prisoners in the handsof the Indians, but only to do what he could to persuade their owners togive them up. The negotiations dragged on for several years. For thefirst three or four months Vaudreuil stopped his war-parties; but he letthem loose again in the spring, and the New England borders weretormented as before. 

The French governor thought that the New England country people, who hadto bear the brunt of the war, were ready to accept his terms. The Frenchcourt approved the plan, though not without distrust; for some enemy ofthe governor told Ponchartrain that under pretence of negotiations heand Dudley were carrying on trading speculations, --which is certainly abaseless slander. [85] Vaudreuil on his part had strongly suspectedDudley's emissary, Vetch, of illicit trade during his visit to Quebec;and perhaps there was ground for the suspicion. It is certain thatVetch, who had visited the St. Lawrence before, lost no opportunity ofstudying the river, and looked forward to a time when he could turn hisknowledge to practical account. [86]

Joseph Dudley, governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, was the sonof a former governor of Massachusetts, --that upright, sturdy, narrow, bigoted old Puritan, Thomas Dudley, in whose pocket was found after hisdeath the notable couplet, --

 "Let men of God in courts and churches watch O'er such as do a toleration hatch. "

Such a son of such a father was the marvel of New England. Those whoclung to the old traditions and mourned for the old theocracy under theold charter, hated Joseph Dudley as a renegade; and the worshippers ofthe Puritans have not forgiven him to this day. He had been president ofthe council under the detested Andros, and when that representative ofthe Stuarts was overthrown by a popular revolution, both he and Dudleywere sent prisoners to England. Here they found a reception differentfrom the expectations and wishes of those who sent them. Dudley became amember of Parliament and lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight, andwas at length, in the beginning of the reign of Queen Anne, sent back togovern those who had cast him out. Any governor imposed on them byEngland would have been an offence; but Joseph Dudley was more than theycould bear. 

He found bitter opposition from the old Puritan party. The two Mathers, father and son, who through policy had at first favored him, soondenounced him with insolent malignity, and the honest and conscientiousSamuel Sewall regarded him with as much asperity as his kindly naturewould permit. To the party of religious and political independency hewas an abomination, and great efforts were made to get him recalled. Twopamphlets of the time, one printed in 1707 and the other in the nextyear, reflect the bitter animosity he excited. [87] Both seem to be thework of several persons, one of whom, there can be little doubt, wasCotton Mather; for it is not easy to mistake the mingled flippancy andpedantry of his style. He bore the governor a grudge, for Dudley hadchafed him in his inordinate vanity and love of power. 

If Dudley loved himself first, he loved his native New England next, andwas glad to serve her if he could do so in his own way and without toomuch sacrifice of his own interests. He was possessed by a restlessambition, apparently of the cheap kind that prefers the first place in asmall community to the second in a large one. He was skilled in the artsof the politician, and knew how, by attentions, dinners, or commissionsin the militia, to influence his Council and Assembly to do his will. His abilities were beyond question, and his manners easy and graceful;but his instincts were arbitrary. He stood fast for prerogative, andeven his hereditary Calvinism had strong Episcopal leanings. He was aman of the world in the better as well as the worse sense of the term;was loved and admired by some as much as he was hated by others; and inthe words of one of his successors, "had as many virtues as can consistwith so great a thirst for honor and power. "[88]

His enemies, however, set no bounds to their denunciation. "All thepeople here are bought and sold betwixt the governour and his son Paul, "says one. "It is my belief, " says another, probably Cotton Mather, "thathe means to help the French and Indians to destroy all they can. " Andagain, "He is a criminal governour. .. . His God is Mammon, his aim is theruin of his country. " The meagreness and uncertainty of his salary, which was granted by yearly votes of the Assembly, gave color to thecharge that he abused his official position to improve his income. Theworst accusation against him was that of conniving in trade with theFrench and Indians under pretence of exchanging prisoners. Six prominentmen of the colony--Borland, Vetch, Lawson, Rous, Phillips, and Coffin, only three of whom were of New England origin--were brought to trialbefore the Assembly for trading at Port Royal; and it was said thatDudley, though he had no direct share in the business, found means tomake profit from it. All the accused were convicted and fined. The morestrenuous of their judges were for sending them to jail, and Rous wasto have been sentenced to "sit an hour upon the gallows with a ropeabout his neck;" but the governor and council objected to theseseverities, and the Assembly forbore to impose them. The popularindignation against the accused was extreme, and probably not withoutcause. [89] There was no doubt an illicit trade between Boston and theFrench of Acadia, who during the war often depended on their enemies forthe necessaries of life, since supplies from France, precarious at thebest, were made doubly so by New England cruisers. Thus the Acadians andtheir Indian allies were but too happy to exchange their furs for verymodest supplies of tools, utensils, and perhaps, at times, of arms, powder, and lead. [90] What with privateering and illicit trade, it wasclear that the war was a source of profit to some of the chief personsin Boston. That place, moreover, felt itself tolerably safe from attack, while the borders were stung from end to end as by a swarm of wasps;and thus the country conceived the idea that the town was fattening atits expense. Vaudreuil reports to the minister that the people of NewEngland want to avenge themselves by an attack on Canada, but that theirchief men are for a policy of defence. This was far from being whollytrue; but the notion that the rural population bore a grudge againstBoston had taken strong hold of the French, who even believed that ifthe town were attacked, the country would not move hand or foot to helpit. Perhaps it was well for them that they did not act on the belief, which, as afterwards appeared, was one of their many mistakes touchingthe character and disposition of their English neighbors. 

The sentences on Borland and his five companions were annulled by theQueen and Council, on the ground that the Assembly was not competent totry the case. [91] The passionate charges against Dudley and a petitionto the Queen for his removal were equally unavailing. The Assemblies ofMassachusetts and New Hampshire, the chief merchants, the officers ofmilitia, and many of the ministers sent addresses to the Queen in praiseof the governor's administration;[92] and though his enemies declaredthat the votes and signatures were obtained by the arts familiar to him, his recall was prevented, and he held his office seven years longer. 

FOOTNOTES:

[77] _Vaudreuil et Beauharnois au Ministre, 17 Novembre, 1704. _

[78] _Vaudreuil et Beauharnois au Ministre, 17 Novembre, 1704_;_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Novembre, 1704_; _Ramesay au Ministre, 14Novembre, 1704_. Compare Penhallow. 

[79] _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Novembre, 1708_; _Vaudreuil et Raudot auMinistre, 14 Novembre, 1708_; Hutchinson, ii. 156; _Mass. Hist. Coll. 2dSeries_, iv. 129; Sewall, _Diary_, ii. 234. Penhallow. 

[80] The rewards for scalps were confined to male Indians thought oldenough to bear arms, --that is to say, above twelve years. _Act ofGeneral Court, 19 August, 1706. _

[81] _Dudley to Lord ----, 21 April, 1704. _ _Address of Council andAssembly to the Queen, 12 July, 1704. _ The burden on the people was sosevere that one writer--not remarkable, however, for exactness ofstatement--declares that he "is credibly informed that some have beenforced to cut open their beds and sell the feathers to pay their taxes. "The general poverty did not prevent a contribution in New England forthe suffering inhabitants of the Island of St. Christopher. 

[82] _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12 Novembre, 1708. _ Vaudreuil says that hegot his information from prisoners. 

[83] _Resumé d'une Lettre de MM. De Vaudreuil et de Beauharnois du 15Novembre, 1703, avec les Observations du Ministre. _ Subercase, governorof Acadia, writes on 25 December, 1708, that he hears that a party ofCanadians and Indians have attacked a place on the _Maramet_ (Merrimac), "et qu'ils y ont égorgé 4 à 500 personnes sans faire quartier aux femmesni aux enfans. " This is an exaggerated report of the affair ofHaverhill. M. De Chevry writes in the margin of the letter: "Ces actionsde cruauté devroient être modérées:" to which Ponchartrain adds: "Bon;les défendre. " His attitude, however, was uncertain; for as early as1707 we find him approving Vaudreuil for directing the missionaries toprompt the Abenakis to war. _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, ix. 805. 

[84] _Dudley to ----, 26 November, 1704. _

[85] _Abrégé d'une lettre de M. De Vaudreuil, avec les notes duMinistre, 19 Octobre, 1705. _

[86] On the negotiations for neutrality, see the correspondence andother papers in the _Paris Documents_ in the Boston State House; also_N. Y. Col. Docs. _, ix. 770, 776, 779, 809; Hutchinson, ii. 141. 

[87] _A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New England, Boston, 1707. _ _The Deplorable State of New England, by Reason of a Covetous andTreacherous Governour and Pusillanimous Counsellors, London, 1708. _ Thefirst of the above is answered by a pamphlet called a _Modest Inquiry_. All three are reprinted in _Mass. Hist. Coll. , 5th Series_, vi. 

[88] Hutchinson, ii. 194. 

[89] The agent of Massachusetts at London, speaking of the three chiefoffenders, says that they were neither "of English extraction, nornatives of the place, and two of them were very new comers. " JeremiahDummer, _Letter to a Noble Lord concerning the late Expedition toCanada_. 

[90] The French naval captain Bonaventure says that the Acadians wereforced to depend on Boston traders, who sometimes plundered them, andsometimes sold them supplies. (_Bonaventure au Ministre, 30 Novembre, 1705. _) Colonel Quary, Judge of Admiralty at New York, writes: "Therehath been and still is, as I am informed, a Trade carried on with PortRoyal by some of the topping men of that government [Boston], undercolour of sending and receiving Flaggs of truce. "--_Quary to the Lordsof Trade, 10 January, 1708. _

[91] _Council Record_, in Hutchinson, ii. 144. 

[92] These addresses are appended to _A Modest Inquiry into the Groundsand Occasions of a late Pamphlet intituled a Memorial of the presentDeplorable State of New England. London, 1707. _

CHAPTER VI. 

1700-1710. 

THE OLD RÉGIME IN ACADIA. 

The Fishery Question. --Privateers and Pirates. --Port Royal. --OfficialGossip. --Abuse of Brouillan. --Complaints of De Goutin. --Subercase andhis Officers. --Church and State. --Paternal Government. 

The French province of Acadia, answering to the present Nova Scotia andNew Brunswick, was a government separate from Canada and subordinate toit. Jacques François de Brouillan, appointed to command it, landed atChibucto, the site of Halifax, in 1702, and crossed by hills and foreststo the Basin of Mines, where he found a small but prosperous settlement. "It seems to me, " he wrote to the minister, "that these people live liketrue republicans, acknowledging neither royal authority nor courts oflaw. "[93] It was merely that their remoteness and isolation made themindependent, of necessity, so far as concerned temporal government. WhenBrouillan reached Port Royal he found a different state of things. Thefort and garrison were in bad condition; but the adjacent settlement, primitive as it was, appeared on the whole duly submissive. 

Possibly it would have been less so if it had been more prosperous; butthe inhabitants had lately been deprived of fishing, their bestresource, by a New England privateer which had driven their craft fromthe neighboring seas; and when the governor sent Lieutenant Neuvillettein an armed vessel to seize the interloping stranger, a fight ensued, inwhich the lieutenant was killed, and his vessel captured. New England issaid to have had no less than three hundred vessels every year in thesewaters. [94] Before the war a French officer proposed that New Englandsailors should be hired to teach the Acadians how to fish, and the Kingseems to have approved the plan. [95] Whether it was adopted or not, NewEngland in peace or war had a lion's share of the Acadian fisheries. "Itgrieves me to the heart, " writes Subercase, Brouillan's successor, "tosee Messieurs les Bastonnais enrich themselves in our domain; for thebase of their commerce is the fish which they catch off our coasts, andsend to all parts of the world. "

When the war broke out, Brouillan's fighting resources were so smallthat he was forced to depend largely for help on sea-rovers of more thandoubtful character. They came chiefly from the West Indies, --the oldhaunt of buccaneers, --and were sometimes mere pirates, and sometimessemi-piratical privateers commissioned by French West Indian governors. Brouillan's successor writes that their opportunities are good, since atleast a thousand vessels enter Boston every year. [96] Besides theseirregular allies, the governor usually had at his disposal two Frenchfrigates of thirty and sixty guns, to which was opposed theMassachusetts navy, consisting of a ship of fifty-six guns, and the"province galley, " of twenty-two. In 1710 one of these Massachusettsvessels appeared off the coast escorting a fishing-fleet of no less thantwo hundred and fifty sail, some of which were afterwards captured byFrench corsairs. A good number of these last, however, were taken fromtime to time by Boston sea-rovers, who, like their enemies, sometimesbore a close likeness to pirates. They seized French fishing and tradingvessels, attacked French corsairs, sometimes traded with the Acadians, and sometimes plundered them. What with West India rum brought by theFrench freebooters, and New England rum brought by the English, it isreported that one could get drunk in Acadia for two sous. 

Port Royal, now Annapolis, was the seat of government, and the onlyplace of any strength in the colony. The fort, a sodded earthwork, lately put into tolerable repair by the joint labor of the soldiers andinhabitants, stood on the point of land between the mouth of the riverAnnapolis and that of the small stream now called Allen's River, whenceit looked down the long basin, or land-locked bay, which, framed inhills and forests, had so won the heart of the Baron de Poutrincourt acentury before. [97] The garrison was small, counting in 1704 only ahundred and eighty-five soldiers and eight commissioned officers. At theright of the fort, between it and the mouth of the Annapolis, was theAcadian village, consisting of seventy or eighty small houses of onestory and an attic, built of planks, boards, or logs, simple and rude, but tolerably comfortable. It had also a small, new wooden church, tothe building of which the inhabitants had contributed eight hundredfrancs, while the King paid the rest. The inhabitants had no voicewhatever in public affairs, though the colonial minister had grantedthem the privilege of travelling in time of peace without passports. Theruling class, civil and military, formed a group apart, living in ornear the fort, in complete independence of public opinion, supposingsuch to have existed. They looked only to their masters at Versailles;and hence a state of things as curious as it was lamentable. The littlesettlement was a hot-bed of gossip, backbiting, and slander. Officialsof every degree were continually trying to undermine and supplant oneanother, besieging the minister with mutual charges. Brouillan, thegovernor, was a frequent object of attack. He seems to have been of anirritable temper, aggravated perhaps by an old unhealed wound in thecheek, which gave him constant annoyance. One writer declares thatAcadia languishes under selfish greed and petty tyranny; that everythingwas hoped from Brouillan when he first came, but that hope has changedto despair; that he abuses the King's authority to make money, sellswine and brandy at retail, quarrels with officers who are notpunctilious enough in saluting him, forces the inhabitants to catch sealand cod for the King, and then cheats them of their pay, andcountenances an obnoxious churchwarden whose daughter is his mistress. "The country groans, but dares not utter a word, " concludes the accuser, as he closes his indictment. [98]

Brouillan died in the autumn of 1705, on which M. De Goutin, amagistrate who acted as intendant, and was therefore at once thecolleague of the late governor and a spy upon him, writes to theminister that "the divine justice has at last taken pity on the goodpeople of this country, " but that as it is base to accuse a dead man, hewill not say that the public could not help showing their joy at thelate governor's departure; and he adds that the deceased was chargedwith a scandalous connection with the Widow de Freneuse. Nor will hereply, he says, to the governor's complaint to the court about apretended cabal, of which he, De Goutin, was the head, and which was inreality only three or four honest men, incapable of any kind ofdeviation, who used to meet in a friendly way, and had given offence bynot bowing down before the beast. [99]

Then he changes the subject, and goes on to say that on a certain festaloccasion he was invited by Bonaventure, who acted as governor after thedeath of Brouillan, to share with him the honor of touching off abonfire before the fort gate; and that this excited such envy, jealousy, and discord that he begs the minister, once for all, to settle thequestion whether a first magistrate has not the right to the honor oftouching off a bonfire jointly with a governor. 

De Goutin sometimes discourses of more serious matters. He tells theminister that the inhabitants have plenty of cattle, and more hemp thanthey can use, but neither pots, scythes, sickles, knives, hatchets, kettles for the Indians, nor salt for themselves. "We should befortunate if our enemies would continue to supply our necessities andtake the beaver-skins with which the colony is gorged;" adding, however, that the Acadians hate the English, and will not trade with them if theycan help it. [100]

In the next year the "Bastonnais" were again bringing supplies, and theAcadians again receiving them. The new governor, Subercase, far frombeing pleased at this, was much annoyed, or professed to be so, andwrote to Ponchartrain, "Nobody could suffer more than I do at seeing theEnglish so coolly carry on their trade under our very noses. " Then heproceeds to the inevitable personalities. "You wish me to write withoutreserve of the officers here; I have little good to tell you;" and henames two who to the best of his belief have lost their wits, a thirdwho is incorrigibly lazy, and a fourth who is eccentric; adding that heis tolerably well satisfied with the rest, except M. De la Ronde. "Yousee, Monseigneur, that I am as much in need of a madhouse as ofbarracks; and what is worse, I am afraid that the _mauvais esprit_ ofthis country will drive me crazy too. "[101] "You write to me, " hecontinues, "that you are informed that M. Labat has killed some cattlebelonging to the inhabitants. If so, he has expiated his fault byblowing off his thumb by the bursting of his gun while he was firing ata sheep. I am sure that the moon has a good deal to do with hisbehavior; he always acts very strangely when she is on the wane. "

The charge brought against Brouillan in regard to Madame de Freneuse wasbrought also against Bonaventure in connection with the same lady. "Thestory, " says Subercase, "was pushed as far as hell could desire;"[102]and he partially defends the accused, declaring that at least hisfidelity to the King is beyond question. 

De Goutin had a quarrel with Subercase, and writes: "I do all that ispossible to live on good terms with him, and to that end I walk as if inthe chamber of a sick prince whose sleep is of the lightest. " AsSubercase defends Bonaventure, De Goutin attacks him, and givesparticulars concerning him and Madame de Freneuse which need not berecounted here. Then comes a story about a quarrel caused by some cowsbelonging to Madame de Freneuse which got into the garden of Madame deSaint-Vincent, and were driven out by a soldier who presumed to strikeone of them with a long stick. "The facts, " gravely adds De Goutin, "have been certified to me as I have the honor to relate them to yourGrandeur. "[103] Then the minister is treated to a story of one Allein. "He insulted Madame de Belleisle at the church door after high mass, andwhen her son, a boy of fourteen, interposed, Allein gave him such a boxon the ear that it drew blood; and I am assured that M. Petit, thepriest, ran to the rescue in his sacerdotal robes. " Subercase, on hisside, after complaining that the price of a certain canoe had beenunjustly deducted from his pay, though he never had the said canoe atall, protests to Ponchartrain, "there is no country on earth where Iwould not rather live than in this, by reason of the ill-disposedpersons who inhabit it. "[104]

There was the usual friction between the temporal and the spiritualpowers. "The Church, " writes Subercase, "has long claimed the right ofcommanding here, or at least of sharing authority with the civilrulers. "[105] The Church had formerly been represented by the Capuchinfriars, and afterwards by the Récollets. Every complaint was of coursecarried to the minister. In 1700 we find M. De Villieu, who then held aprovisional command in the colony, accusing the ecclesiastics of illicittrade with the English. [106] Bonaventure reports to Ponchartrain thatPère Félix, chaplain of the fort, asked that the gate might be opened, in order that he might carry the sacraments to a sick man, his realobject being to marry Captain Duvivier to a young woman named Marie Muisde Poubomcoup, --contrary, as the governor thought, to the good of theservice. He therefore forbade the match; on which the priests told himthat when they had made up their minds to do anything, nobody had powerto turn them from it; and the chaplain presently added that he cared nomore for the governor than for the mud on his shoes. [107] He carried hispoint, and married Duvivier in spite of the commander. 

Every king's ship from Acadia brought to Ponchartrain letters full ofmatters like these. In one year, 1703, he got at least fourteen such. If half of what Saint-Simon tells us of him is true, it is not to besupposed that he gave himself much trouble concerning them. This doesnot make it the less astonishing that in the midst of a great anddisastrous war a minister of State should be expected to waste time onmatters worthy of a knot of old gossips babbling round a tea-table. Thatpompous spectre which calls itself the Dignity of History would scorn totake note of them; yet they are highly instructive, for the morbidanatomy of this little colony has a scientific value as exhibiting, allthe more vividly for the narrowness of the field, the workings of anunmitigated paternalism acting from across the Atlantic. The King'sservants in Acadia pestered his minister at Versailles with theirpettiest squabbles, while Marlborough and Eugene were threatening histhrone with destruction. [108] The same system prevailed in Canada; butas there the field was broader and the men often larger, the effects areless whimsically vivid than they appear under the Acadian microscope. The two provinces, however, were ruled alike; and about this time theCanadian Intendant Raudot was writing to Ponchartrain in a strain worthyof De Goutin, Subercase, or Bonaventure. [109]

FOOTNOTES:

[93] _Brouillan au Ministre, 6 Octobre, 1702. _

[94] _Mémoire de Subercase. _

[95] _Mémoire du Roy au Sieur de Brouillan, 23 Mars, 1700_; _Le Ministreà Villebon, 9 Avril, 1700_. 

[96] _Subercase au Ministre, 3 Janvier, 1710. _

[97] Pioneers of France in the New World, 253. 

[98] La Touche, _Mémoire sur l'Acadie_, 1702 (adressé à Ponchartrain). 

[99] "Que trois ou quatre amis, honnêtes gens, incapables de gauchir enquoique ce soit, pour n'avoir pas fléché devant la bête, aient étéqualifiés de cabalistes. "--_De Goutin au Ministre, 4 Décembre, 1705. _

[100] _De Goutin au Ministre, 22 Décembre, 1707. _ In 1705 Bonaventure, in a time of scarcity, sent a vessel to Boston to buy provisions, onpretence of exchanging prisoners. _Bonaventure au Ministre, 30 Novembre, 1705. _

[101] "Ne me fasse à mon tour tourner la cervelle. "--_Subercase auMinistre, 20 Décembre, 1708. _

[102] "On a poussé la chose aussi loin que l'enfer le pouvaitdésirer. "--_Subercase au Ministre, 20 Décembre, 1708. _

[103] _De Goutin au Ministre, 29 Décembre, 1708. _

[104] _Subercase au Ministre, 20 Décembre, 1708. _

[105] _Ibid. _

[106] _Villieu au Ministre, 20 Octobre, 1700. _

[107] "Il répondit qu'il se soucioit de moi comme de la boue de sessouliers. "--_Bonaventure au Ministre, 30 Novembre, 1705. _

[108] These letters of Acadian officials are in the Archives duMinistère de la Marine et des Colonies at Paris. Copies of some of themwill be found in the 3d series of the _Correspondance Officielle_ atOttawa. 

[109] _Raudot au Ministre, 20 Septembre, 1709. _ The copy before mecovers 108 folio pages, filled with gossiping personalities. 

CHAPTER VII. 

1704-1710. 

ACADIA CHANGES HANDS. 

Reprisal for Deerfield. --Major Benjamin Church: his Ravages atGrand-Pré. --Port Royal Expedition. --Futile Proceedings. --A DiscreditableAffair. --French Successes in Newfoundland. --Schemes of Samuel Vetch. --AGrand Enterprise. --Nicholson's Advance. --An Infected Camp. --MinisterialPromises Broken. --A New Scheme. --Port Royal Attacked. --Acadia Conquered. 

When war-parties from Canada struck the English borders, reprisal wasdifficult against those who had provoked it. Canada was made almostinaccessible by a hundred leagues of pathless forest, prowled by herIndian allies, who were sure to give the alarm of an approaching foe;while, on the other hand, the New Englanders could easily reach Acadiaby their familiar element, the sea; and hence that unfortunate colonyoften made vicarious atonement for the sins of her northern sister. Itwas from French privateers and fishing-vessels on the Acadian seas thatMassachusetts drew most of the prisoners whom she exchanged for her ownpeople held captive in Canada. 

Major Benjamin Church, the noted Indian fighter of King Philip's War, was at Tiverton in Rhode Island when he heard of Hertel de Rouville'sattack on Deerfield. Boiling with rage, he mounted his horse and rode toBoston to propose a stroke of retaliation. Church was energetic, impetuous, and bull-headed, sixty-five years old, and grown so fat thatwhen pushing through the woods on the trail of Indians, he kept a stoutsergeant by him to hoist him over fallen trees. Governor Dudley approvedhis scheme, and appointed him to command the expedition, with the rankof colonel. Church repaired to his native Duxbury; and here, as well asin Plymouth and other neighboring settlements, the militia were calledout, and the veteran readily persuaded a sufficient number to volunteerunder him. With the Indians of Cape Cod he found more difficulty, theybeing, as his son observes, "a people that need much treating, especially with drink. " At last, however, some of them were induced tojoin him. Church now returned to Boston, and begged that an attack onPort Royal might be included in his instructions, --which was refused, onthe ground that a plan to that effect had been laid before the Queen, and that nothing could be done till her answer was received. Thegovernor's enemies seized the occasion to say that he wished Port Royalto remain French, in order to make money by trading with it. 

The whole force, including Indians and sailors, amounted to about sevenhundred men; they sailed to Matinicus in brigs and sloops, the provincegalley, and two British frigates. From Matinicus most of thesailing-vessels were sent to Mount Desert to wait orders, while the mainbody rowed eastward in whale-boats. Touching at Saint-Castin's fort, where the town of Castine now stands, they killed or captured everybodythey found there. Receiving false information that there was a largewar-party on the west side of Passamaquoddy Bay, they hastened to theplace, reached it in the night, and pushed into the woods in hope ofsurprising the enemy. The movement was difficult; and Church's men, being little better than a mob, disregarded his commands, and fell intodisorder. He raged and stormed; and presently, in the darkness andconfusion, descrying a hut or cabin on the farther side of a smallbrook, with a crowd gathered about it, he demanded what was the matter, and was told that there were Frenchmen inside who would not come out. "Then knock them in the head, " shouted the choleric old man; and he wasobeyed. It was said that the victims belonged to a party of Canadianscaptured just before, under a promise of life. Afterwards, when Churchreturned to Boston, there was an outcry of indignation against him forthis butchery. In any case, however, he could have known nothing of thealleged promise of quarter. 

To hunt Indians with an endless forest behind them was like chasingshadows. The Acadians were surer game. Church sailed with a part of hisforce up the Bay of Fundy, and landed at Grand Pré, --a place destined toa dismal notoriety half a century later. The inhabitants of this and theneighboring settlements made some slight resistance, and killed alieutenant named Baker, and one soldier, after which they fled; whenChurch, first causing the houses to be examined, to make sure thatnobody was left in them, ordered them to be set on fire. The dikes werethen broken, and the tide let in upon the growing crops. [110] In spiteof these harsh proceedings, he fell far short in his retaliation for thebarbarities at Deerfield, since he restrained his Indians and permittedno woman or child to be hurt, --at the same time telling his prisonersthat if any other New England village were treated as Deerfield hadbeen, he would come back with a thousand Indians and leave them free todo what they pleased. With this bluster, he left the unfortunatepeasants in the extremity of terror, after carrying off as many of themas were needed for purposes of exchange. A small detachment was sent toBeaubassin, where it committed similar havoc. 

Church now steered for Port Royal, which he had been forbidden toattack. The two frigates and the transports had by this time rejoinedhim, and in spite of Dudley's orders to make no attempt on the Frenchfort, the British and provincial officers met in council to considerwhether to do so. With one voice they decided in the negative, sincethey had only four hundred men available for landing, while the Frenchgarrison was no doubt much stronger, having had ample time to call theinhabitants to its aid. Church, therefore, after trying the virtue of abombastic summons to surrender, and destroying a few houses, sailed backto Boston. It was a miserable retaliation for a barbarous outrage; asthe guilty were out of reach, the invaders turned their ire on theinnocent. [111]

If Port Royal in French hands was a source of illicit gain to somepersons in Boston, it was also an occasion of loss by the privateers andcorsairs it sent out to prey on trading and fishing vessels, while atthe same time it was a standing menace as the possible naval base forone of those armaments against the New England capital which were oftenthreatened, though never carried into effect. Hence, in 1707 the NewEngland colonists made, in their bungling way, a serious attempt to getpossession of it. 

Dudley's enemies raised the old cry that at heart he wished Port Royalto remain French, and was only forced by popular clamor to countenancean attack upon it. The charge seems a malicious slander. Early in Marchhe proposed the enterprise to the General Court; and the question beingreferred to a committee, they reported that a thousand soldiers shouldbe raised, vessels impressed, and her Majesty's frigate "Deptford, " withthe province galley, employed to convoy them. An Act was passedaccordingly. [112] Two regiments were soon afoot, one uniformed in red, and the other in blue; one commanded by Colonel Francis Wainwright, andthe other by Colonel Winthrop Hilton. Rhode Island sent eighty more men, and New Hampshire sixty, while Connecticut would do nothing. Theexpedition sailed on the thirteenth of May, and included one thousandand seventy-six soldiers, with about four hundred and fifty sailors. 

The soldiers were nearly all volunteers from the rural militia, andtheir training and discipline were such as they had acquired in theuncouth frolics and plentiful New England rum of the periodical "musterdays. " There chanced to be one officer who knew more or less of the workin hand. This was the English engineer Rednap, sent out to look afterthe fortifications of New York and New England. The commander-in-chiefwas Colonel John March, of Newbury, who had popular qualities, had seenfrontier service, and was personally brave, but totally unfit for hispresent position. Most of the officers were civilians from countrytowns, --Ipswich, Topsfield, Lynn, Salem, Dorchester, Taunton, orWeymouth. [113] In the province galley went, as secretary of theexpedition, that intelligent youth, William Dudley, son of the governor. 

New England has been blamed for not employing trained officers tocommand her levies; but with the exception of Rednap, and possibly ofCaptain Samuel Vetch, there were none in the country, nor were theywanted. In their stubborn and jealous independence, the sons of thePuritans would have resented their presence. The provincial officerswere, without exception, civilians. British regular officers, good, bad, or indifferent, were apt to put on airs of superiority which galled thedemocratic susceptibilities of the natives, who, rather than endure astanding military force imposed by the mother-country, preferred tosuffer if they must, and fight their own battles in their own crude way. Even for irregular warfare they were at a disadvantage; Canadianfeudalism developed good partisan leaders, which was rarely the casewith New England democracy. Colonel John March was a tyro set over acrowd of ploughboys, fishermen, and mechanics, officered by tradesmen, farmers, blacksmiths, village magnates, and deacons of the church, --forthe characters of deacon and militia officer were often joined in one. These improvised soldiers commonly did well in small numbers, and veryill in large ones. 

Early in June the expedition sailed into Port Royal Basin, andLieutenant-Colonel Appleton, with three hundred and fifty men, landed onthe north shore, four or five miles below the fort, marched up to themouth of the Annapolis, and was there met by an ambushed body of French, who, being outnumbered, presently took to their boats and retreated tothe fort. Meanwhile, March, with seven hundred and fifty men, landed onthe south shore and pushed on to the meadows of Allen's River, whichthey were crossing in battle array when a fire blazed out upon them froma bushy hill on the farther bank, where about two hundred French lay inambush under Subercase, the governor. March and his men crossed thestream, and after a skirmish that did little harm to either side, theFrench gave way. The English then advanced to a hill known as the LionRampant, within cannon-shot of the fort, and here began to intrenchthemselves, stretching their lines right and left towards the Annapolison the one hand, and Allen's River on the other, so as to form asemicircle before the fort, where all the inhabitants had by this timetaken refuge. 

Soon all was confusion in the New England camp, --the consequence ofMarch's incapacity for a large command, and the greenness and ignoranceof both himself and his subordinates. There were conflicting opinions, wranglings, and disputes. The men, losing all confidence in theirofficers, became unmanageable. "The devil was at work among us, " writesone of those present. The engineer, Rednap, the only one of them whoknew anything of the work in hand, began to mark out the batteries; buthe soon lost temper, and declared that "it was not for him to venturehis reputation with such ungovernable and undisciplined men andinconstant officers. "[114] He refused to bring up the cannon, sayingthat it could not be done under the fire of the fort; and the navalcaptains were of the same opinion. 

One of the chaplains, Rev. John Barnard, being of a martial turn andfull of zeal, took it upon himself to make a plan of the fort; and tothat end, after providing himself with pen, ink, paper, and ahorse-pistol, took his seat at a convenient spot; but his task wasscarcely begun when it was ended by a cannon-ball that struck the groundbeside him, peppered him with gravel, and caused his promptretreat. [115]

French deserters reported that there were five hundred men in the fort, with forty-two heavy cannon, and that four or five hundred more wereexpected every day. This increased the general bewilderment of thebesiegers. There was a council of war. Rednap declared that it would beuseless to persist; and after hot debate and contradiction, it wasresolved to decamp. Three days after, there was another council, whichvoted to bring up the cannon and open fire, in spite of Rednap and thenaval captains; but in the next evening a third council resolved againto raise the siege as hopeless. This disgusted the rank and file, whowere a little soothed by an order to destroy the storehouse and otherbuildings outside the fort; and, ill led as they were, they did the workthoroughly. "Never did men act more boldly, " says the witness beforequoted; "they threatened the enemy to his nose, and would have taken thefort if the officers had shown any spirit. They found it hard to bringthem off. At the end we broke up with the confusion of Babel, and wentabout our business like fools. "[116]

The baffled invaders sailed crestfallen to Casco Bay, and a vessel wassent to carry news of the miscarriage to Dudley, who, vexed andincensed, ordered another attempt. March was in a state of helplessindecision, increased by a bad cold; but the governor would not recallhim, and chose instead the lamentable expedient of sending three membersof the provincial council to advise and direct him. Two of them hadcommissions in the militia; the third, John Leverett, was a learnedbachelor of divinity, formerly a tutor in Harvard College, and soonafter its president, --capable, no doubt, of preaching Calvinisticsermons to the students, but totally unfit to command men or conduct asiege. 

Young William Dudley was writing meanwhile to his father how jealousiesand quarrels were rife among the officers, how their conduct breddisorder and desertion among the soldiers, and how Colonel March andothers behaved as if they had nothing to do but make themselvespopular. [117] Many of the officers seem, in fact, to have been smallpoliticians in search of notoriety, with an eye to votes orappointments. Captain Stuckley, of the British frigate, wrote to thegovernor in great discontent about the "nonsensical malice" ofLieutenant-Colonel Appleton, and adds, "I don't see what good I can doby lying here, where I am almost murdered by mosquitoes. "[118]

The three commissioners came at last, with a reinforcement of anotherfrigate and a hundred recruits, which did not supply losses, as thesoldiers had deserted by scores. In great ill-humor, the expeditionsailed back to Port Royal, where it was found that reinforcements hadalso reached the French, including a strongly manned privateer fromMartinique. The New England men landed, and there was some sharpskirmishing in an orchard. Chaplain Barnard took part in the fray. "Ashot brushed my wig, " he says, "but I was mercifully preserved. We soondrove them out of the orchard, killed a few of them, desperately woundedthe privateer captain, and after that we all embarked and returned toBoston as fast as we could. " This summary statement is imperfect, forthere was a good deal of skirmishing from the thirteenth August to thetwentieth, when the invaders sailed for home. March was hooted as hewalked Boston streets, and children ran after him crying, "Woodensword!" There was an attempt at a court-martial; but so many officerswere accused, on one ground or another, that hardly enough were left totry them, and the matter was dropped. With one remarkable exception, theNew England militia reaped scant laurels on their various expeditionseastward; but of all their shortcomings, this was the mostdiscreditable. [119]

Meanwhile events worthy of note were passing in Newfoundland. Thatisland was divided between the two conflicting powers, --the chiefstation of the French being at Placentia, and that of the English at St. John. In January, 1705, Subercase, who soon after became governor ofAcadia, marched with four hundred and fifty soldiers, Canadians, andbuccaneers, aided by a band of Indians, against St. John, --afishing-village defended by two forts, the smaller, known as the castle, held by twelve men, and the larger, called Fort William, by forty menunder Captain Moody. The latter was attacked by the French, who werebeaten off; on which they burned the unprotected houses and fishing-hutswith a brutality equal to that of Church in Acadia, and followed up theexploit by destroying the hamlet at Ferryland and all the defencelesshovels and fish-stages along the shore towards Trinity Bay andBonavista. [120]

Four years later, the Sieur de Saint-Ovide, a nephew of Brouillan, lategovernor at Port Royal, struck a more creditable blow. He set out fromPlacentia on the thirteenth of December, 1708, with one hundred andsixty-four men, and on the first of January approached Fort William twohours before day, found the gate leading to the covered way open, entered with a band of volunteers, rapidly crossed the ditch, plantedladders against the wall, and leaped into the fort, then, as hedeclares, garrisoned by a hundred men. His main body followed close. TheEnglish were taken unawares; their commander, who showed great courage, was struck down by three shots, and after some sharp fighting the placewas in the hands of the assailants. The small fort at the mouth of theharbor capitulated on the second day, and the palisaded village of theinhabitants, which, if we are to believe Saint-Ovide, contained nearlysix hundred men, made little resistance. St. John became for the momenta French possession; but Costebelle, governor at Placentia, despaired ofholding it, and it was abandoned in the following summer. [121]

About this time a scheme was formed for the permanent riddance of NewEngland from war-parties by the conquest of Canada. [122] The prime moverin it was Samuel Vetch, whom we have seen as an emissary to Quebec forthe exchange of prisoners, and also as one of the notables fined forillicit trade with the French. He came of a respectable Scotch family. His grandfather, his father, three of his uncles, and one of hisbrothers were Covenanting ministers, who had suffered some persecutionunder Charles II. He himself was destined for the ministry; but hisinclinations being in no way clerical, he and his brother William gotcommissions in the army, and took an active part in the war that endedwith the Peace of Ryswick. 

In the next year the two brothers sailed for the Isthmus of Panama ascaptains in the band of adventurers embarked in the disastrousenterprise known as the Darien Scheme. William Vetch died at sea, andSamuel repaired to New York, where he married a daughter of RobertLivingston, one of the chief men of the colony, and engaged largely inthe Canadian trade. From New York he went to Boston, where we find himwhen the War of the Spanish Succession began. During his several visitsto Canada he had carefully studied the St. Lawrence and its shores, andboasted that he knew them better than the Canadians themselves. [123] Hewas impetuous, sanguine, energetic, and headstrong, astute withal, andfull of ambition. A more vigorous agent for the execution of theproposed plan of conquest could not have been desired. The General Courtof Massachusetts, contrary to its instinct and its past practice, resolved, in view of the greatness of the stake, to ask this time forhelp from the mother-country, and Vetch sailed for England, bearing anaddress to the Queen, begging for an armament to aid in the reduction ofCanada and Acadia. The scheme waxed broader yet in the ardent brain ofthe agent; he proposed to add Newfoundland to the other conquests, andwhen all was done in the North, to sail to the Gulf of Mexico and wrestPensacola from the Spaniards; by which means, he writes, "Her Majestyshall be sole empress of the vast North American continent. " The ideawas less visionary than it seems. Energy, helped by reasonable goodluck, might easily have made it a reality, so far as concerned thepossessions of France. 

The court granted all that Vetch asked. On the eleventh of March hesailed for America, fully empowered to carry his plans into execution, and with the assurance that when Canada was conquered, he should be itsgovernor. A squadron bearing five regiments of regular troops waspromised. The colonies were to muster their forces in all haste. NewYork was directed to furnish eight hundred men; New Jersey, two hundred;Pennsylvania, one hundred and fifty; and Connecticut, three hundred andfifty, --the whole to be at Albany by the middle of May, and to advanceon Montreal by way of Wood Creek and Lake Champlain, as soon as theyshould hear that the squadron had reached Boston. Massachusetts, NewHampshire, and Rhode Island were to furnish twelve hundred men, to jointhe regulars in attacking Quebec by way of the St. Lawrence. [124]

Vetch sailed from Portsmouth in the ship "Dragon, " accompanied byColonel Francis Nicholson, late lieutenant-governor of New York, who wasto take an important part in the enterprise. The squadron with the fiveregiments was to follow without delay. The weather was bad, and the"Dragon, " beating for five weeks against headwinds, did not enter Bostonharbor till the evening of the twenty-eighth of April. Vetch, chafingwith impatience, for every moment was precious, sent off expresses thatsame night to carry the Queen's letters to the governors of RhodeIsland, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Dudley and hiscouncil met the next morning, and to them Vetch delivered the royalmessage, which was received, he says, "with the dutiful obediencebecoming good subjects, and all the marks of joy and thankfulness. "[125]Vetch, Nicholson, and the Massachusetts authorities quickly arrangedtheir plans. An embargo was laid on the shipping; provision was made forraising men and supplies and providing transportation. When all was intrain, the two emissaries hired a sloop for New York, and touching bythe way at Rhode Island, found it in the throes of the annual electionof governor. Yet every warlike preparation was already made, and Vetchand his companion sailed at once for New Haven to meet Saltonstall, thenewly elected governor of Connecticut. Here too, all was ready, and theenvoys, well pleased, continued their voyage to New York, which theyreached on the eighteenth of May. The governor, Lord Lovelace, hadlately died, and Colonel Ingoldsby, the lieutenant-governor, acted inhis place. The Assembly was in session, and being summoned to thecouncil-chamber, the members were addressed by Vetch and Nicholson withexcellent effect. 

In accepting the plan of conquest, New York completely changed front. She had thus far stood neutral, leaving her neighbors to defendthemselves, and carrying on an active trade with the French and theirred allies. Still, it was her interest that Canada should becomeEnglish, thus throwing open to her the trade of the Western tribes; andthe promises of aid from England made the prospects of the campaign soflattering that she threw herself into the enterprise, though notwithout voices of protest, --for while the frontier farmers and someprominent citizens like Peter Schuyler thought that the time for actionhad come, the Albany traders and their allies, who fattened on Canadianbeaver, were still for peace at any price. [126]

With Pennsylvania and New Jersey the case was different. The one, controlled by non-combatant Quakers and safe from French war-parties, refused all aid; while the other, in less degree under the same militaryblight, would give no men, though granting a slow and reluctantcontribution of £3, 000, taking care to suppress on the record everyindication that the money was meant for military uses. New York, on theother hand, raised her full contingent, and Massachusetts and NewHampshire something more, being warm in the faith that their borderswould be plagued with war-parties no longer. 

It remained for New York to gain the help of the Five Nations of theIroquois, to which end Abraham Schuyler went to Onondaga, well suppliedwith presents. The Iroquois capital was now, as it had been for years, divided between France and England. French interests were represented bythe two Jesuits, Mareuil and Jacques Lamberville. The skilful managementof Schuyler, joined to his gifts and his rum, presently won over so manyto the English party, and raised such excitement in the town thatLamberville thought it best to set out for Montreal with news of whatwas going on. The intrepid Joncaire, agent of France among the Senecas, was scandalized at what he calls the Jesuit's flight, and wrote to thecommandant of Fort Frontenac that its effect on the Indians was suchthat he, Joncaire, was in peril of his life. [127] Yet he stood hisground, and managed so well that he held the Senecas firm in theirneutrality. Lamberville's colleague, Mareuil, whose position was stillmore critical, was persuaded by Schuyler that his only safety was ingoing with him to Albany, which he did; and on this the Onondagas, excited by rum, plundered and burned the Jesuit mission-house andchapel. [128] Clearly, the two priests at Onondaga were less hungry formartyrdom than their murdered brethren Jogues, Brébeuf, Lalemant, andCharles Garnier; but it is to be remembered that the Canadian Jesuit ofthe first half of the seventeenth century was before all things anapostle, and his successor of a century later was before all things apolitical agent. 

As for the Five Nations, that once haughty confederacy, in spite ofdivisions and waverings, had conceived the idea that its true policylay, not in siding with either of the European rivals, but in makingitself important to both, and courted and caressed by both. While someof the warriors sang the war-song at the prompting of Schuyler, they hadbeen but half-hearted in doing so; and even the Mohawks, nearestneighbors and best friends of the English, sent word to their Canadiankindred, the Caughnawagas, that they took up the hatchet only becausethey could not help it. 

The attack on Canada by way of the Hudson and Lake Champlain was to havebeen commanded by Lord Lovelace or some officer of his choice; but as hewas dead, Ingoldsby, his successor in the government of the province, jointly with the governors of several adjacent colonies who had met atNew York, appointed Colonel Nicholson in his stead. [129] Nicholson wentto Albany, whence, with about fifteen hundred men, he moved up theHudson, built a stockade fort opposite Saratoga, and another at the spotknown as the Great Carrying Place. This latter he called FortNicholson, --a name which it afterwards exchanged for that of FortLydius, and later still for that of Fort Edward, which the town thatoccupies the site owns to this day. [130] Thence he cut a rough roadwaythrough the woods to where Wood Creek, choked with beaver dams, writhedthrough flat green meadows, walled in by rock and forest. Here he builtanother fort, which was afterwards rebuilt and named Fort Anne. WoodCreek led to Lake Champlain, and Lake Champlain to Chambly andMontreal, --the objective points of the expedition. All was astir at thecamp. Flat-boats and canoes were made, and stores brought up fromAlbany, till everything was ready for an advance the moment word shouldcome that the British fleet had reached Boston. Vetch, all impatience, went thither to meet it, as if his presence could hasten its arrival. 

Reports of Nicholson's march to Wood Creek had reached Canada, andVaudreuil sent Ramesay, governor of Montreal, with fifteen hundredtroops, Canadians, and Indians, to surprise his camp. Ramesay's fleet ofcanoes had reached Lake Champlain, and was halfway to the mouth of WoodCreek, when his advance party was discovered by English scouts, and theFrench commander began to fear that he should be surprised in his turn;in fact, some of his Indians were fired upon from an ambuscade. All wasnow doubt, perplexity, and confusion. Ramesay landed at the narrows ofthe lake, a little south of the place now called Crown Point. Here, inthe dense woods, his Indians fired on some Canadians whom they took forEnglish. This was near producing a panic. "Every tree seemed an enemy, "writes an officer present. Ramesay lost himself in the woods, and couldnot find his army. One Deruisseau, who had gone out as a scout, cameback with the report that nine hundred Englishmen were close at hand. Seven English canoes did in fact appear, supported, as the French intheir excitement imagined, by a numerous though invisible army in theforest; but being fired upon, and seeing that they were entering ahornet's nest, the English sheered off. Ramesay having at last found hisarmy, and order being gradually restored, a council of war was held, after which the whole force fell back to Chambly, having accomplishednothing. [131]

Great was the alarm in Canada when it became known that the enemy aimedat nothing less than the conquest of the colony. One La Plaine spread apanic at Quebec by reporting that, forty-five leagues below, he had seeneight or ten ships under sail and heard the sound of cannon. It wasafterwards surmised that the supposed ships were points of rocks seenthrough the mist at low tide, and the cannon the floundering of whalesat play. [132] Quebec, however, was all excitement, in expectation ofattack. The people of the Lower Town took refuge on the rock above; themen of the neighboring parishes were ordered within the walls; and thewomen and children, with the cattle and horses, were sent tohiding-places in the forest. There had been no less consternation atMontreal, caused by exaggerated reports of Iroquois hostility and themovements of Nicholson. It was even proposed to abandon Chambly and FortFrontenac, and concentrate all available force to defend the heart ofthe colony. "A most bloody war is imminent, " wrote Vaudreuil to theminister, Ponchartrain. 

Meanwhile, for weeks and months Nicholson's little army lay in thesultry valley of Wood Creek, waiting those tidings of the arrival ofthe British squadron at Boston which were to be its signal of advance. At length a pestilence broke out. It is said to have been the work ofthe Iroquois allies, who thought that the French were menaced with ruin, and who, true to their policy of balancing one European power againstthe other, poisoned the waters of the creek by throwing into it, abovethe camp, the skins and offal of the animals they had killed in theirhunting. The story may have some foundation, though it rests only on theauthority of Charlevoix. No contemporary writer mentions it; andVaudreuil says that the malady was caused by the long confinement of theEnglish in their fort. Indeed, a crowd of men, penned up through theheats of midsummer in a palisaded camp, ill-ordered and unclean as thecamps of the raw provincials usually were, and infested with pestiferousswarms of flies and mosquitoes, could hardly have remained in health. Whatever its cause, the disease, which seems to have been a malignantdysentery, made more havoc than the musket and the sword. A party ofFrench who came to the spot late in the autumn, found it filled withinnumerable graves. 

The British squadron, with the five regiments on board, was to havereached Boston at the middle of May. On the twentieth of that month thewhole contingent of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island wasencamped by Boston harbor, with transports and stores, ready to embarkfor Quebec at ten hours' notice. [133] When Vetch, after seeingeverything in readiness at New York, returned to Boston on the third ofJuly, he found the New England levies encamped there still, drilleddiligently every day by officers whom he had brought from England forthe purpose. "The bodies of the men, " he writes to Lord Sunderland, "arein general better than in Europe, and I hope their courage will prove sotoo; so that nothing in human probability can prevent the success ofthis glorious enterprise but the too late arrival of the fleet. "[134]But of the fleet there was no sign. "The government here is put to vastexpense, " pursues Vetch, "but they cheerfully pay it, in hopes of beingfreed from it forever hereafter. All that they can do now is to fast andpray for the safe and speedy arrival of the fleet, for which they havealready had two public fast-days kept. "

If it should not come in time, he continues, "it would be the lastdisappointment to her Majesty's colonies, who have so heartily compliedwith her royal order, and would render them much more miserable than ifsuch a thing had never been undertaken. " Time passed, and no shipsappeared. Vetch wrote again: "I shall only presume to acquaint yourLordship how vastly uneasy all her Majesty's loyall subjects here onthis continent are. Pray God hasten the fleet. "[135] Dudley, scarcelyless impatient, wrote to the same effect. It was all in vain, and thesoldiers remained in their camp, monotonously drilling day after daythrough all the summer and half the autumn. At length, on the eleventhof October, Dudley received a letter from Lord Sunderland, informing himthat the promised forces had been sent to Portugal to meet an exigencyof the European war. They were to have reached Boston, as we have seen, by the middle of May. Sunderland's notice of the change of destinationwas not written till the twenty-seventh of July, and was eleven weeks onits way, thus imposing on the colonists a heavy and needless tax intime, money, temper, and, in the case of the expedition againstMontreal, health and life. [136] What was left of Nicholson's force hadfallen back before Sunderland's letter came, making a scapegoat of theinnocent Vetch, cursing him, and wishing him hanged. 

In New England the disappointment and vexation were extreme; but, not tolose all the fruits of their efforts, the governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island met and resolved to attackPort Royal if the captains of several British frigates then at New Yorkand Boston would take part in the enterprise. To the disgust of theprovincials, the captains, with one exception, refused, on the score ofthe late season and the want of orders. 

A tenacious energy has always been a characteristic of New England, andthe hopes of the colonists had been raised too high to be readilyabandoned. Port Royal was in their eyes a pestilent nest of privateersand pirates that preyed on the New England fisheries; and on the refusalof the naval commanders to join in an immediate attack, they offered tothe court to besiege the place themselves next year, if they could counton the help of four frigates and five hundred soldiers, to be at Bostonby the end of March. [137] The Assembly of Massachusetts requestedNicholson, who was on the point of sailing for Europe, to beg herMajesty to help them in an enterprise which would be so advantageous tothe Crown, "and which, by the long and expensive war, we are soimpoverished and enfeebled as not to be in a capacity to effect. "[138]

Nicholson sailed in December, and Peter Schuyler soon followed. NewYork, having once entered on the path of war, saw that she mustcontinue in it; and to impress the Five Nations with the might andmajesty of the Queen, and so dispose them to hold fast to the Britishcause, Schuyler took five Mohawk chiefs with him to England. One died onthe voyage; the rest arrived safe, and their appearance was thesensation of the hour. They were clad, at the Queen's expense, instrange and gay attire, invented by the costumer of one of the theatres;were lodged and feasted as the guests of the nation, driven about Londonin coaches with liveried servants, conducted to dockyards, arsenals, andreviews, and saluted with cannon by ships of war. The Duke of Shrewsburypresented them to Queen Anne, --one as emperor of the Mohawks, and theother three as kings, --and the Archbishop of Canterbury solemnly gaveeach of them a Bible. Steele and Addison wrote essays about them, andthe Dutch artist Verelst painted their portraits, which were engraved inmezzotint. [139] Their presence and the speech made in their name beforethe court seem to have had no small effect in drawing attention to thewar in America and inclining the ministry towards the proposals ofNicholson. These were accepted, and he sailed for America commissionedto command the enterprise against Port Royal, with Vetch asadjutant-general. [140]

Colonel Francis Nicholson had held some modest military positions, butnever, it is said, seen active service. In colonial affairs he hadplayed an important part, and in the course of his life governed, atdifferent times, Virginia, New York, Maryland, and Carolina. He had arobust, practical brain, capable of broad views and large schemes. Oneof his plans was a confederacy of the provinces to resist the French, which, to his great indignation, Virginia rejected. He had Jacobiteleanings, and had been an adherent of James II. ; but being no idealist, and little apt to let his political principles block the path of hisinterests, he turned his back on the fallen cause and offered hisservices to the Revolution. Though no pattern of domestic morals, heseems to have been officially upright, and he wished well to thecolonies, saving always the dominant interests of England. He was bold, ambitious, vehement, and sometimes headstrong and perverse. 

Though the English ministry had promised aid, it was long in coming. TheMassachusetts Assembly had asked that the ships should be at Bostonbefore the end of March; but it was past the middle of May before theysailed from Plymouth. Then, towards midsummer, a strange spasm ofmartial energy seems to have seized the ministry, for Viscount Shannonwas ordered to Boston with an additional force, commissioned to take thechief command and attack, not Port Royal, but Quebec. [141] Thisill-advised change of plan seems to have been reconsidered; at least, itcame to nothing. [142]

Meanwhile, the New England people waited impatiently for the retardedships. No order had come from England for raising men, and the colonistsresolved this time to risk nothing till assured that their labor andmoney would not be wasted. At last, not in March, but in July, the shipsappeared. Then all was astir with preparation. First, the House ofRepresentatives voted thanks to the Queen for her "royal aid. " Next, itwas proclaimed that no vessel should be permitted to leave the harbor"till the service is provided;" and a committee of the House proceededto impress fourteen vessels to serve as transports. Then a vote waspassed that nine hundred men be raised as the quota of Massachusetts, and a month's pay in advance, together with a coat worth thirtyshillings, was promised to volunteers; a committee of three being at thesame time appointed to provide the coats. On the next day appeared aproclamation from the governor announcing the aforesaid"encouragements, " calling on last year's soldiers to enlist again, promising that all should return home as soon as Port Royal was taken, and that each might keep as his own forever the Queen's musket thatwould be furnished him. Now came an order to colonels of militia tomuster their regiments on a day named, read the proclamation at the headof each company, and if volunteers did not come forward in sufficientnumber, to draft as many men as might be wanted, appointing, at the sametime, officers to conduct them to the rendezvous at Dorchester orCambridge; and, by a stringent and unusual enactment, the House orderedthat they should be quartered in private houses, with or without theconsent of the owners, "any law or usage to the contrarynotwithstanding. " Sailors were impressed without ceremony to man thetransports; and, finally, it was voted that a pipe of wine, twentysheep, five pigs, and one hundred fowls be presented to the HonorableGeneral Nicholson for his table during the expedition. [143] The above, with slight variation, may serve as an example of the manner in which, for several generations, men were raised in Massachusetts to serveagainst the French. 

Autumn had begun before all was ready. Connecticut, New Hampshire, andRhode Island sent their contingents; there was a dinner at the GreenDragon Tavern in honor of Nicholson, Vetch, and Sir Charles Hobby, thechief officers of the expedition; and on the eighteenth of September thewhole put to sea. 

On the twenty-fourth the squadron sailed into the narrow entrance ofPort Royal, where the tide runs like a mill-stream. One vessel wasdriven upon the rocks, and twenty-six men were drowned. The others gotin safely, and anchored above Goat Island, in sight of the French fort. They consisted of three fourth-rates, --the "Dragon, " the "Chester, " andthe "Falmouth;" two fifth-rates, --the "Lowestoffe" and the "Feversham;"the province galley, one bomb-ketch, twenty-four small transports, twoor three hospital ships, a tender, and several sloops carrying timber tomake beds for cannon and mortars. The landing force consisted of fourhundred British marines, and about fifteen hundred provincials, dividedinto four battalions. [144] Its unnecessary numbers were due to thebelief of Nicholson that the fort had been reinforced and strengthened. 

In the afternoon of the twenty-fifth they were all on shore, --Vetch withhis two battalions on the north side, and Nicholson with the other twoon the south. Vetch marched to his camping-ground, on which, in thewords of Nicholson's journal, "the French began to fire pretty thick. "On the next morning Nicholson's men moved towards the fort, hackingtheir way through the woods and crossing the marshes of Allen's River, while the French fired briskly with cannon from the ramparts, andsmall-arms from the woods, houses, and fences. They were driven back, and the English advance guard intrenched itself within four hundredyards of the works. Several days passed in landing artillery and stores, cannonading from the fort and shelling from the English bomb-ketch, whenon the twenty-ninth, Ensign Perelle, with a drummer and a flag of truce, came to Nicholson's tent, bringing a letter from Subercase, who beggedhim to receive into his camp and under his protection certain ladies ofthe fort who were distressed by the bursting of the English shells. Theconduct of Perelle was irregular, as he had not given notice of hisapproach by beat of drum and got himself and attendants blindfoldedbefore entering the camp. Therefore Nicholson detained him, sending backan officer of his own with a letter to the effect that he would receivethe ladies and lodge them in the same house with the French ensign, "forthe queen, my royal mistress, hath not sent me hither to make waragainst women. " Subercase on his part detained the English officer, andwrote to Nicholson, --

 Sir, --You have one of my officers, and I have one of yours; so that now we are equal. However, that hinders me not from believing that once you have given me your word, you will keep it very exactly. On that ground I now write to tell you, sir, that to prevent the spilling of both English and French blood, I am ready to hold up both hands for a capitulation that will be honorable to both of us. [145]

In view of which agreement, he adds that he defers sending the ladies tothe English camp. 

Another day passed, during which the captive officers on both sides weretreated with much courtesy. On the next morning, Sunday, October 1, thesiege-guns, mortars, and coehorns were in position; and after somefiring on both sides, Nicholson sent Colonel Tailor and CaptainAbercrombie with a summons to surrender the fort. Subercase replied thathe was ready to listen to proposals; the firing stopped, and withintwenty-four hours the terms were settled. The garrison were to march outwith the honors of war, and to be carried in English ships to Rochelleor Rochefort. The inhabitants within three miles of the fort were to bepermitted to remain, if they chose to do so, unmolested, in their homesduring two years, on taking an oath of allegiance and fidelity to theQueen. 

Two hundred provincials marched to the fort gate and formed in two lineson the right and left. Nicholson advanced between the ranks, with Vetchon one hand and Hobby on the other, followed by all the field-officers. Subercase came to meet them, and gave up the keys, with a few words ofcompliment. The French officers and men marched out with shoulderedarms, drums beating, and colors flying, saluting the English commanderas they passed; then the English troops marched in, raised the unionflag, and drank the Queen's health amid a general firing of cannon fromthe fort and ships. Nicholson changed the name of Port Royal toAnnapolis Royal; and Vetch, already commissioned as governor, tookcommand of the new garrison, which consisted of two hundred Britishmarines, and two hundred and fifty provincials who had offeredthemselves for the service. 

The English officers gave a breakfast to the French ladies in the fort. Sir Charles Hobby took in Madame de Bonaventure, and the rest followedin due order of precedence; but as few of the hosts could speak French, and few of the guests could speak English, the entertainment couldhardly have been a lively one. 

The French officers and men in the fort when it was taken were but twohundred and fifty-eight. Some of the soldiers and many of the armedinhabitants deserted during the siege, which, no doubt, hastened thesurrender; for Subercase, a veteran of more than thirty years' service, had borne fair repute as a soldier. 

Port Royal had twice before been taken by New England men, --once underMajor Sedgwick in 1654, and again under Sir William Phips in the lastwar; and in each case it had been restored to France by treaty. Thistime England kept what she had got; and as there was no other place ofstrength in the province, the capture of Port Royal meant the conquestof Acadia. [146]

FOOTNOTES:

[110] Church, _Entertaining Passages_. "Un habitant des Mines a ditque les ennemis avaient été dans toutes les rivières, qu'il n'yrestait plus que quatre habitations en entier, le restant ayant étébrulé. "--_Expéditions faites par les Anglois, 1704. _ "Qu'ils avaient . .. Brulé toutes les maisons à la reserve du haut des rivières. "--Labat, _Invasion des Anglois_, 1704. 

[111] On this affair, Thomas Church, _Entertaining Passages_ (1716). Thewriter was the son of Benjamin Church. Penhallow; Belknap, i. 266;_Dudley to ----, 21 April, 1704_; Hutchinson, ii. 132; _Deplorable Stateof New England_; _Entreprise des Anglais sur l'Acadie_, 1704;_Expéditions faites par les Anglais de la Nouvelle Angleterre_, 1704;Labat, _Invasion des Anglois de Baston_, 1704. 

[112] _Report of a Committee to consider his Excellency's Speech, 12March, 1707. _ _Resolve for an Expedition against Port Royal_(Massachusetts Archives). 

[113] _Autobiography of Rev. John Barnard_, one of the five chaplains ofthe expedition. 

[114] _A Boston Gentleman to his Friend, 13 June, 1707_ (Mass. Archives). 

[115] _Autobiography of Rev. John Barnard. _

[116] _A Boston Gentleman to his Friend, 13 June _(old style)_, 1707. _The final attack here alluded to took place on the night of thesixteenth of June (new style). 

[117] _William Dudley to Governor Dudley, 24 June, 1707. _

[118] _Stuckley to Dudley, 28 June, 1707. _

[119] A considerable number of letters and official papers on thisexpedition will be found in the 51st and 71st volumes of theMassachusetts Archives. See also Hutchinson, ii. 151, and Belknap, i. 273. The curious narrative of the chaplain, Barnard, is in _Mass. Hist. Coll. , 3d Series_, v. 189-196. The account in the _Deplorable State ofNew England_ is meant solely to injure Dudley. The chief French accountsare _Entreprise des Anglois contre l'Acadie, 26 Juin, 1707_; _Subercaseau Ministre, même date_; _Labat au Ministre, 6 Juillet, 1707_;_Relation_ appended to Dièreville, _Voyage de l'Acadie_. The last isextremely loose and fanciful. Subercase puts the English force at threethousand men, whereas the official returns show it to have been, soldiers and sailors, about half this number. 

[120] Penhallow puts the French force at five hundred and fifty. Jeremiah Dummer, _Letter to a Noble Lord concerning the late Expeditionto Canada_, says that the havoc committed occasioned a total loss of£80, 000. 

[121] _Saint-Ovide au Ministre, 20 Janvier, 1709_; _Ibid. , 6 Septembre, 1709_; _Rapport de Costebelle, 26 Février, 1709_. Costebelle makes theFrench force one hundred and seventy-five. 

[122] Some of the French officials in Acadia foresaw aggressive actionon the part of the English in consequence of the massacre at Haverhill. "Le coup que les Canadiens viennent de faire, où Mars, plus féroce qu'enEurope, a donné carrière à sa rage, me fait appréhender unereprésaille. "--_De Goutin au Ministre, 29 Décembre, 1708. _

[123] Patterson, _Memoir of Hon. Samuel Vetch_, in _Collections of theNova Scotia Historical Society_, iv. Compare a paper by General JamesGrant Wilson in _International Review_, November, 1881. 

[124] _Instructions to Colonel Vetch, 1 March, 1709_; _The Earl ofSunderland to Dudley, 28 April, 1709_; _The Queen to Lord Lovelace, 1March, 1709_; _The Earl of Sunderland to Lord Lovelace, 28 April, 1709. _

[125] _Journal of Vetch and Nicholson_ (Public Record Office). This isin the form of a letter, signed by both, and dated at New York, 29 June, 1709. 

[126] _Thomas Cockerill to Mr. Popple, 2 July, 1709. _

[127] Joncaire in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, ix. 838. 

[128] Mareuil in _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, ix. 836, text and note. _Vaudreuilau Ministre, 14 Novembre, 1709. _

[129] "If I had not accepted the command, there would havebeen insuperable difficulties" (arising from provincialjealousies). --_Nicholson to Sunderland, 8 July, 1709. _

[130] Forts Nicholson, Lydius, and Edward were not the same, butsucceeded each other on the same ground. 

[131] _Mémoire sur le Canada, Année 1709. _ This paper, which has beenascribed to the engineer De Léry, is printed in _Collection deManuscrits relatifs à la Nouvelle France_, i. 615 (Quebec, 1883), printed from the MS. _Paris Documents_ in the Boston State House. Thewriter of the _Mémoire_ was with Ramesay's expedition. Also _Ramesay àVaudreuil, 19 Octobre, 1709_, and _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 14 Novembre, 1709_. Charlevoix says that Ramesay turned back because he believed thatthere were five thousand English at Wood Creek; but Ramesay himselfmakes their number only one thousand whites and two hundred Indians. Hegot his information from two Dutchmen caught just after the alarm nearPointe à la Chevelure (Crown Point). He turned back because he hadfailed to surprise the English, and also, it seems, because there weredisagreements among his officers. 

[132] _Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier et l'Hôpital Général de Québec_, 203. 

[133] _Dudley to Sunderland, 14 August, 1709. _

[134] _Vetch to Sunderland, 2 August, 1709. _ The pay of the men was nineshillings a week, with eightpence a day for provisions; and most of themhad received an enlistment bounty of £12. 

[135] _Vetch to Sunderland, 12 August, 1709. _ Dudley writes with equalurgency two days later. 

[136] _Letters of Nicholson, Dudley, and Vetch, 20 June to 24 October, 1709. _

[137] _Joint Letter of Nicholson, Dudley, Vetch, and Moody toSunderland, 24 October, 1709_; also _Joint Letter of Dudley, Vetch, andMoody to Sunderland, 25 October, 1709_; _Abstracts of Letters and Papersrelating to the Attack of Port Royal, 1709_ (Public Record Office);_Address of ye Inhabitants of Boston and Parts adjacent, 1709_. Moody, named above, was the British naval captain who had consented to attackPort Royal. 

[138] _Order of Assembly, 27 October, 1709. _ Massachusetts had spentabout £22, 000 on her futile expedition of 1707, and, with New Hampshireand Rhode Island, a little more than £46, 000 on that of 1709, besidescontinual outlay in guarding her two hundred miles of frontier, --a heavyexpense for the place and time. 

[139] See J. R. Bartlett, in _Magazine of American History_, March, 1878, and Schuyler, _Colonial New York_, ii. 34-39. The chiefs returnedto America in May on board the "Dragon. " An elaborate pamphlet appearedin London, giving an account of them and their people. A set of themezzotint portraits, which are large and well executed, is in the JohnCarter Brown collection at Providence. For photographic reproductions, see Winsor, _Nar. And Crit. Hist. _, v. 107. Compare Smith, _Hist. N. Y. _, i. 204 (1830). 

[140] _Commission of Colonel Francis Nicholson, 18 May, 1710. __Instructions to Colonel Nicholson, same date. _

[141] _Instructions to Richard Viscount Shannon, July, 1710. _ A reportof the scheme reached Boston. Hutchinson, ii. 164. 

[142] The troops, however, were actually embarked. _True State of theForces commanded by the Right Honble The Lord Viscount Shannon, as theywere Embarkd the 14th of October, 1710. _ The total was three thousandtwo hundred and sixty-five officers and men. Also, _Shannon toSunderland, 16 October, 1710_. The absurdity of the attempt at so late aseason is obvious. Yet the fleet lay some weeks more at Portsmouth, waiting for a fair wind. 

[143] _Archives of Massachusetts_, vol. Lxxi. , where the original papersare preserved. 

[144] _Nicholson and Vetch to the Secretary of State, 16 September, 1710_; Hutchinson, ii. 164; Penhallow. Massachusetts sent two battalionsof four hundred and fifty men each, and Connecticut one battalion ofthree hundred men, while New Hampshire and Rhode Island united theircontingents to form a fourth battalion. 

[145] The contemporary English translation of this letter is printedamong the papers appended to _Nicholson's Journal_ in _Collections ofthe Nova Scotia Historical Society_, i. 

[146] In a letter to Ponchartrain, _1 October, 1710_ (new style), Subercase declares that he has not a sou left, nor any credit. "I havemanaged to borrow enough to maintain the garrison for the last twoyears, and have paid what I could by selling all my furniture. "Charlevoix's account of the siege has been followed by most writers, both French and English; but it is extremely incorrect. It was answeredby one De Gannes, apparently an officer under Subercase, in a papercalled _Observations sur les Erreurs de la Relation du Siège du PortRoyal . .. Faittes sur de faux mémoires par le révérend Père Charlevoix_, whom De Gannes often contradicts flatly. Thus Charlevoix puts thebesieging force at thirty-four hundred men, besides officers andsailors, while De Gannes puts it at fourteen hundred; and whileCharlevoix says that the garrison were famishing, his critic says thatthey were provisioned for three months. See the valuable notes to Shea's_Charlevoix_, v. 227-232. 

The journal of Nicholson was published "by authority" in the _BostonNews Letter, November, 1710_, and has been reprinted, with numerousaccompanying documents, including the French and English correspondenceduring the siege, in the _Collections of the Nova Scotia HistoricalSociety_, i. 

Vaudreuil, before the siege, sent a reinforcement to Subercase, who, bya strange infatuation, refused it. _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, ix. 853. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1710, 1711. 

WALKER'S EXPEDITION. 

Scheme of La Ronde Denys. --Boston warned against BritishDesigns. --Boston to be ruined. --Plans of the Ministry. --Canadadoomed. --British Troops at Boston. --The Colonists denounced. --TheFleet sails for Quebec. --Forebodings of the Admiral. --Storm andWreck. --Timid Commanders. --Retreat. --Joyful News for Canada. --PiousExultation. --Fanciful Stories. --Walker Disgraced. 

Military aid from Old England to New, promised in one year and actuallygiven in the next, was a fact too novel and surprising to escape thenotice either of friends or of foes. 

The latter drew strange conclusions from it. Two Irish deserters from anEnglish station in Newfoundland appeared at the French post of Placentiafull of stories of British and provincial armaments against Canada. Onthis, an idea seized the French commandant, Costebelle, and he hastenedto make it known to the colonial minister. It was to the effect that theaim of England was not so much to conquer the French colonies as toreduce her own to submission, especially Massachusetts, --a kind ofrepublic which has never willingly accepted a governor from itsking. [147] In sending ships and soldiers to the "Bastonnais" underpretence of helping them to conquer their French neighbors, Costebelleis sure that England only means to bring them to a dutiful subjection. "I do not think, " he writes on another occasion, "that they are so blindas not to see that they will insensibly be brought under the yoke of theParliament of Old England; but by the cruelties that the Canadians andIndians exercise in continual incursions upon their lands, I judge thatthey would rather be delivered from the inhumanity of such neighborsthan preserve all the former powers of their little republic. "[148] Hethinks, however, that the design of England ought to be stronglyrepresented to the Council at Boston, and that M. De la Ronde Denys willbe a good man to do it, as he speaks English, has lived in Boston, andhas many acquaintances there. [149]

The minister, Ponchartrain, was struck by Costebelle's suggestion, andwrote both to him and to Vaudreuil in high approval of it. To Vaudreuilhe says: "Monsieur de Costebelle has informed me that the chief objectof the armament made by the English last year was to establish theirsovereignty at Boston and New York, the people of these provinces havingalways maintained a sort of republic, governed by their council, andhaving been unwilling to receive absolute governors from the kings ofEngland. This destination of the armament seems to me probable, and itis much to be wished that the Council at Boston could be informed of thedesigns of the English court, and shown how important it is for thatprovince to remain in the state of a republic. The King would evenapprove our helping it to do so. If you see any prospect of success, nomeans should be spared to secure it. The matter is of the greatestimportance, but care is essential to employ persons who have the talentsnecessary for conducting it, besides great secrecy and prudence, as wellas tried probity and fidelity. This affair demands your best attention, and must be conducted with great care and precaution, in order that nofalse step may be taken. "[150]

Ponchartrain could not be supposed to know that while under her oldcharter Massachusetts, called by him and other Frenchmen the governmentof Boston, had chosen her own governor, New York had always receivedhers from the court. What is most curious in this affair is the attitudeof Louis XIV. , who abhorred republics, and yet was prepared to bolsterup one or more of them beyond the Atlantic, --thinking, no doubt, thatthey would be too small and remote to be dangerous. 

Costebelle, who had suggested the plan of warning the Council at Boston, proceeded to unfold his scheme for executing it. This was to send LaRonde Denys to Boston in the spring, under the pretext of treating foran exchange of prisoners, which would give him an opportunity ofinsinuating to the colonists that the forces which the Queen of Englandsends to join their own for the conquest of Acadia and Canada have noobject whatever but that of ravishing from them the liberties they havekept so firmly and so long, but which would be near ruin if the Queenshould become mistress of New France by the fortune of war; and thateither they must have sadly fallen from their ancient spirit, or theirchiefs have been corrupted by the Court of London, if they do not seethat they are using their own weapons for the destruction of theirrepublic. [151]

La Ronde Denys accordingly received his instructions, which authorizedhim to negotiate with the "Bastonnais" as with an independent people, and offer them complete exemption from French hostility if they wouldpromise to give no more aid to Old England either in ships or men. Hewas told at the same time to approach the subject with great caution, and unless he found willing listeners, to pass off the whole as apleasantry. [152] He went to Boston, where he was detained in consequenceof preparations then on foot for attacking Canada. He tried to escape;but his vessel was seized and moored under the guns of the town, and itis needless to say that his mission was a failure. 

The idea of Costebelle, or rather of La Ronde, --for it probablyoriginated with him, --was not without foundation; for though there is noreason to believe that in sending ships and soldiers against the French, England meant to use them against the liberties of her own colonies, there can be no doubt that she thought those liberties excessive andtroublesome; and, on the other side, while the people of Massachusettswere still fondly attached to the land of their fathers, and stillcalled it "Home, " they were at the same time enamoured of theirautonomy, and jealously watchful against any abridgment of it. 

While La Ronde Denys was warning Massachusetts of the danger of helpingEngland to conquer Canada, another Frenchman, in a more propheticspirit, declared that England would make a grave mistake if she helpedher colonies to the same end. "There is an antipathy, " this writeraffirms, "between the English of Europe and those of America, who willnot endure troops from England even to guard their forts;" and he goeson to say that if the French colonies should fall, those of Englandwould control the continent from Newfoundland to Florida. "OldEngland"--such are his words--"will not imagine that these variousprovinces will then unite, shake off the yoke of the English monarchy, and erect themselves into a democracy. "[153] Forty or fifty years later, several Frenchmen made the same prediction; but at this early day, whenthe British provinces were so feeble and divided, it is truly aremarkable one. 

The anonymous prophet regards the colonies of England, Massachusettsabove all, as a standing menace to those of France; and he proposes adrastic remedy against the danger. This is a powerful attack on Bostonby land and sea, for which he hopes that God will prepare the way. "WhenBoston is reduced, we would call together all the chief men of the othertowns of New England, who would pay heavy sums to be spared from theflames. As for Boston, it should be pillaged, its workshops, manufactures, shipyards, all its fine establishments ruined, and itsships sunk. " If these gentle means are used thoroughly, he thinks thatNew England will cease to be a dangerous rival for some time, especiallyif "Rhodelene" (Rhode Island) is treated like Boston. [154]

While the correspondent of the French court was thus consigning NewEngland to destruction, an attack was preparing against Canada lesstruculent but quite as formidable as that which he urged against Boston. The French colony was threatened by an armament stronger in proportionto her present means of defence than that which brought her underBritish rule half a century later. But here all comparison ceases; forthere was no Pitt to direct and inspire, and no Wolfe to lead. 

The letters of Dudley, the proposals of Vetch, the representations ofNicholson, the promptings of Jeremiah Dummer, agent of Massachusetts inEngland, and the speech made to the Queen by the four Indians who hadbeen the London sensation of the last year, had all helped to draw theattention of the ministry to the New World, and the expediency ofdriving the French out of it. Other influences conspired to the sameend, or in all likelihood little or nothing would have been done. England was tiring of the Continental war, the costs of which threatenedruin. Marlborough was rancorously attacked, and his most stanchsupporters the Whigs had given place to the Tories, led by the LordTreasurer Harley, and the Secretary of State St. John, soon afterwardsLord Bolingbroke. Never was party spirit more bitter; and the newministry found a congenial ally in the coarse and savage but powerfulgenius of Swift, who, incensed by real or imagined slights from the lateminister, Godolphin, gave all his strength to the winning side. 

The prestige of Marlborough's victories was still immense. Harley andSt. John dreaded it as their chief danger, and looked eagerly for somemeans of counteracting it. Such means would be supplied by the conquestof New France. To make America a British continent would be anachievement almost worth Blenheim or Ramillies, and one, too, in whichBritain alone would be the gainer; whereas the enemies of Marlborough, with Swift at their head, contended that his greatest triumphs turnedmore to the profit of Holland or Germany than of England. [155] Moreover, to send a part of his army across the Atlantic would tend to cripple hismovements and diminish his fame. 

St. John entered with ardor into the scheme. Seven veteran regiments, five of which were from the army in Flanders, were ordered to embark. But in the choice of commanders the judgment of the ministers was notleft free; there were influences that they could not disregard. Thefamous Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, lately the favorite of the feeblebut wilful queen, had lost her good graces and given place to Mrs. Masham, one of the women of her bedchamber. The new favorite had abrother, John Hill, known about the court as Jack Hill, whom Marlboroughhad pronounced good for nothing, but who had been advanced to the rankof colonel, and then of brigadier, through the influence of Mrs. Masham;and though his agreeable social qualities were his best recommendation, he was now appointed to command the troops on the Canada expedition. Itis not so clear why the naval command was given to Admiral Sir HovendenWalker, a man whose incompetence was soon to become notorious. 

Extreme care was taken to hide the destination of the fleet. Even theLords of the Admiralty were kept ignorant of it. Some thought the shipsbound for the West Indies; some for the South Sea. Nicholson was sent toAmerica with orders to the several colonies to make ready men andsupplies. He landed at Boston on the eighth of June. The people of thetown, who were nearly all Whigs, were taken by surprise, expecting nosuch enterprise on the part of the Tory ministry; and their perplexitywas not diminished when they were told that the fleet was at hand, andthat they were to supply it forthwith with provisions for tenweeks. [156] There was no time to lose. The governors of New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were summoned to meet at New London, andDudley and Nicholson went thither to join them. Here plans were made forthe double attack; for while Walker and Hill were to sail up the St. Lawrence against Quebec, Nicholson, as in the former attempt, was tomove against Montreal by way of Lake Champlain. In a few days thearrangements were made, and the governors hastened back to theirrespective posts. [157]

When Dudley reached Boston, he saw Nantasket Roads crowded withtransports and ships of war, and the pastures of Noddle's Island studdedwith tents. The fleet had come on the twenty-fourth, having had what theAdmiral calls "by the blessing of God a favorable and extraordinarypassage, being but seven weeks and two days between Plymouth andNantasket. "[158]

The Admiral and the General had been welcomed with all honor. Theprovincial Secretary, with two members of the Council, conducted them totown amid salutes from the batteries of Copp's Hill and Fort Hill, andthe Boston militia regiment received them under arms; after which theywere feasted at the principal tavern, and accompanied in ceremony to thelodgings provided for them. [159] When the troops were disembarked andthe tents pitched, curious townspeople and staring rustics crossed toNoddle's Island, now East Boston, to gaze with wonder on a militarypageant the like of which New England had never seen before. Yet theirjoy at this unlooked-for succor was dashed with deep distrust andjealousy. They dreaded these new and formidable friends, with theirimperious demeanor and exacting demands. The British officers, on theirpart, were no better pleased with the colonists, and one of them, Colonel King, of the artillery, thus gives vent to his feelings: "You'llfind in my Journal what Difficultyes we mett with through the Misfortunethat the Coloneys were not inform'd of our Coming two Months sooner, andthrough the Interestedness, ill Nature, and Sowerness of these People, whose Government, Doctrine, and Manners, whose Hypocracy and canting, are insupportable; and no man living but one of Gen'l Hill's good Senseand good Nature could have managed them. But if such a Man mett withnothing he could depend on, altho' vested with the Queen's Royal Powerand Authority, and Supported by a Number of Troops sufficient to reduceby force all the Coloneys, 'tis easy to determine the Respect andObedience her Majesty may reasonably expect from them. " And he gives itas his conviction that till all the colonies are deprived of theircharters and brought under one government, "they will grow more stiffand disobedient every Day. "[160]

It will be seen that some coolness on the part of the Bostonians was notunnatural. But whatever may have been the popular feeling, theprovincial authorities did their full part towards supplying the needsof the new-comers; for Dudley, with his strong Tory leanings, did notshare the prevailing jealousy, and the country members of the Assemblywere anxious before all things to be delivered from war-parties. Theproblem was how to raise the men and furnish the supplies in the leastpossible time. The action of the Assembly, far from betraying anyslackness, was worthy of a military dictatorship. All ordinary businesswas set aside. Bills of credit for £40, 000 were issued to meet the needsof the expedition. It was ordered that the prices of provisions andother necessaries of the service should stand fixed at the point wherethey stood before the approach of the fleet was known. Sheriffs andconstables, jointly with the Queen's officers, were ordered to searchall the town for provisions and liquors, and if the owners refused topart with them at the prescribed prices, to break open doors and seizethem. Stringent and much-needed Acts were passed against harboringdeserters. Provincial troops, in greater number than the ministry haddemanded, were ordered to be raised at once, and quartered upon thecitizens, with or without their consent, at the rate of eightpence a dayfor each man. [161] Warrants were issued for impressing pilots, and alsomechanics and laborers, who, in spite of Puritan scruples, were requiredto work on Sundays. 

Such measures, if imposed by England, would have roused the most bitterresentment. Even when ordered by their own representatives, they causeda sullen discontent among the colonists, and greatly increased thepopular dislike of their military visitors. It was certain that when theexpedition sailed and the operation of the new enactments ceased, priceswould rise; and hence the compulsion to part with goods at low fixedrates was singularly trying to the commercial temper. It was a busyseason, too, with the farmers, and they showed no haste to bring theirproduce to the camp. Though many of the principal inhabitants boundthemselves by mutual agreement to live on their family stores of saltprovisions, in order that the troops might be better supplied withfresh, this failed to soothe the irritation of the British officers, aggravated by frequent desertions, which the colonists favored, and bythe impossibility of finding pilots familiar with the St. Lawrence. Somewhen forced into the service made their escape, to the great indignationof Walker, who wrote to the governor: "Her Majesty will resent suchactions in a very signal manner; and when it shall be represented thatthe people live here as if there were no king in Israel, but every onedoes what seems right in his own eyes, measures will be taken to putthings upon a better foot for the future. "[162] At length, however, every preparation was made, the supplies were all on board, and after agrand review of the troops on the fields of Noddle's Island, the wholeforce set sail on the thirtieth of July, the provincials wishing themsuccess, and heartily rejoicing that they were gone. 

The fleet consisted of nine ships of war and two bomb-ketches, withabout sixty transports, store-ships, hospital-ships, and other vessels, British and provincial. They carried the seven British regiments, numbering, with the artillery train, about fifty-five hundred men, besides six hundred marines and fifteen hundred provincials; counting, with the sailors, nearly twelve thousand in all. [163]

Vetch commanded the provincials, having been brought from Annapolis forthat purpose. The great need was of pilots. Every sailor in New Englandwho had seen the St. Lawrence had been pressed into the service, thougheach and all declared themselves incapable of conducting the fleet toQuebec. Several had no better knowledge of the river than they hadpicked up when serving as soldiers under Phips twenty-one years before. The best among them was the veteran Captain Bonner, who afterwardsamused his old age by making a plan of Boston, greatly prized byconnoisseurs in such matters. Vetch had studied the St. Lawrence in hisseveral visits to Quebec, but, like Bonner, he had gone up the riveronly in sloops or other small craft, and was, moreover, no sailor. Oneof Walker's ships, the "Chester, " sent in advance to cruise in the Gulf, had captured a French vessel commanded by one Paradis, an experiencedold voyager, who knew the river well. He took a bribe of five hundredpistoles to act as pilot; but the fleet would perhaps have fared betterif he had refused the money. He gave such dismal accounts of theCanadian winter that the Admiral could see nothing but ruin ahead, evenif he should safely reach his destination. His tribulation is recordedin his Journal. "That which now chiefly took up my thoughts, wascontriving how to secure the ships if we got up to Quebec; for _the icein the river freezing to the bottom_ would have utterly destroyed andbilged them as much as if they had been squeezed between rocks. "[164]These misgivings may serve to give the measure of his professionaljudgment. Afterwards, reflecting on the situation, he sees cause forgratitude in his own mishaps; "because, had we arrived safe at Quebec, our provisions would have been reduced to a very small proportion, notexceeding eight or nine weeks at short allowance, so that between tenand twelve thousand men must have been left to perish with the extremityof cold and hunger. I must confess the melancholy contemplation of this(had it happened) strikes me with horror; for how dismal must it havebeen to have beheld the seas and earth locked up by adamantine frosts, and swoln with high mountains of snow, in a barren and uncultivatedregion; great numbers of brave men famishing with hunger, and drawinglots who should die first to feed the rest. "[165]

All went well till the eighteenth of August, when there was a stronghead-wind, and the ships ran into the Bay of Gaspé. Two days after, thewind shifted to the southeast, and they set sail again, Walker in hisflagship, the "Edgar, " being at or near the head of the fleet. On theevening of the twenty-second they were at some distance above the greatIsland of Anticosti. The river is here about seventy miles wide, and noland had been seen since noon of the day before. There was a strong eastwind, with fog. Walker thought that he was not far from the south shore, when in fact he was at least fifty miles from it, and more than halfthat distance north of his true course. At eight in the evening theAdmiral signalled the fleet to bring to, under mizzen and main-topsails, with heads turned southward. At half-past ten, Paddon, the captain ofthe "Edgar, " came to tell him that he saw land which he supposed must bethe south shore; on which Walker, in a fatal moment, signalled for theships to wear and bring to, with heads northward. He then turned intohis berth, and was falling asleep, when a military officer, CaptainGoddard, of Seymour's regiment, hastily entered, and begged him to comeon deck, saying that there were breakers on all sides. Walker, scornfulof a landsman, and annoyed at being disturbed, answered impatiently andwould not stir. Soon after, Goddard appeared again, and implored him forHeaven's sake to come up and see for himself, or all would be lost. Atthe same time the Admiral heard a great noise and trampling, on which heturned out of his berth, put on his dressing-gown and slippers, andgoing in this attire on deck, found a scene of fright and confusion. Atfirst he could see nothing, and shouted to the men to reassure them; butjust then the fog opened, the moon shone out, and the breaking surf wasplainly visible to leeward. The French pilot, who at first could not befound, now appeared on deck, and declared, to the astonishment of boththe Admiral and Captain Paddon, that they were off the north shore. Paddon, in his perplexity, had ordered an anchor to be let go; Walkerdirected the cable to be cut, and, making all sail, succeeded in beatingto windward and gaining an offing. [166]

The ship that carried Colonel King, of the artillery, had a narrowescape. King says that she anchored in a driving rain, "with a shoal ofrocks on each quarter within a cable's length of us, which we plainlyperceived by the waves breaking over them in a very violent manner. "They were saved by a lull in the gale; for if it had continued with thesame violence, he pursues, "our anchors could not have held, and thewind and the vast seas which ran, would have broke our ship into tenthousand pieces against the rocks. All night we heard nothing but shipsfiring and showing lights, as in the utmost distress. "[167]

Vetch, who was on board the little frigate "Despatch, " says that he wasextremely uneasy at the course taken by Walker on the night of thestorm. "I told Colonel Dudley and Captain Perkins, commander of the'Despatch, ' that I wondered what the Flag meant by that course, and whyhe did not steer west and west-by-south. "[168] The "Despatch" kept wellastern, and so escaped the danger. Vetch heard through the fog gunsfiring signals of distress; but three days passed before he knew howserious the disaster was. The ships of war had all escaped; but eightBritish transports, one store-ship, and one sutler's sloop were dashedto pieces. [169] "It was lamentable to hear the shrieks of the sinking, drowning, departing souls, " writes the New England commissary, Sheaf, who was very near sharing their fate. 

The disaster took place at and near a rocky island, with adjacent reefs, lying off the north shore and called Isle aux Oeufs. On the second dayafter it happened, Walker was told by the master of one of the wreckedtransports that eight hundred and eighty-four soldiers had been lost, and he gives this hasty estimate in his published Journal; though hesays in his Introduction to it that the total loss of officers, soldiers, and sailors was scarcely nine hundred. [170] According to alater and more trustworthy statement, the loss of the troops wastwenty-nine officers, six hundred and seventy-six sergeants, corporals, drummers, and private soldiers, and thirty-five women attached to theregiments; that is, a total of seven hundred and forty lives. [171] Theloss of the sailors is not given; but it could scarcely have exceededtwo hundred. 

The fleet spent the next two days in standing to and fro between thenorthern and southern shores, with the exception of some of the smallervessels employed in bringing off the survivors from the rocks of Isleaux Oeufs. The number thus saved was, according to Walker, fourhundred and ninety-nine. On the twenty-fifth he went on board theGeneral's ship, the "Windsor, " and Hill and he resolved to call acouncil of war. In fact, Hill had already got his colonels together. Signals were made for the captains of the men-of-war to join them, andthe council began. 

"Jack Hill, " the man about town, placed in high command by the influenceof his sister, the Queen's tire-woman, had now an opportunity to justifyhis appointment and prove his mettle. Many a man of pleasure andfashion, when put to the proof, has revealed the latent hero within him;but Hill was not one of them. Both he and Walker seemed to look fornothing but a pretext for retreat; and when manhood is conspicuouslywanting in the leaders, a council of war is rarely disposed to supplyit. The pilots were called in and examined, and they all declaredthemselves imperfectly acquainted with the St. Lawrence, which, as someof the captains observed, they had done from the first. Sir WilliamPhips, with pilots still more ignorant, had safely carried his fleet toQuebec in 1690, as Walker must have known, for he had with him Phips'sJournal of the voyage. The expedition had lost about a twelfth part ofits soldiers and sailors, besides the transports that carried them;with this exception there was no reason for retreat which might not aswell have been put forward when the fleet left Boston. All the war-shipswere safe, and the loss of men was not greater than might have happenedin a single battle. Hill says that Vetch, when asked if he would pilotthe fleet to Quebec, refused to undertake it;[172] but Vetch himselfgives his answer as follows: "I told him [the Admiral] I never was bredto sea, nor was it any part of my province; but I would do my best bygoing ahead and showing them where the difficulty of the river was, which I knew pretty well. "[173] The naval captains, however, resolvedthat by reason of the ignorance of the pilots and the dangerous currentsit was impossible to go up to Quebec. [174] So discreditable a backingout from a great enterprise will hardly be found elsewhere in Englishannals. On the next day Vetch, disappointed and indignant, gave his mindfreely to the Admiral. "The late disaster cannot, in my humble opinion, be anyways imputed to the difficulty of the navigation, but to the wrongcourse we steered, which most unavoidably carried us upon the northshore. Who directed that course you best know; and as our return withoutany further attempt would be a vast reflection upon the conduct of thisaffair, so it would be of very fatal consequence to the interest of theCrown and all the British colonies upon this continent. "[175] Hisprotest was fruitless. The fleet retraced its course to the gulf, andthen steered for Spanish River, --now the harbor of Sydney, --in theIsland of Cape Breton; the Admiral consoling himself with the reflectionthat the wreck was a blessing in disguise and a merciful intervention ofProvidence to save the expedition from the freezing, starvation, andcannibalism which his imagination had conjured up. [176]

The frigate "Sapphire" was sent to Boston with news of the wreck and theretreat, which was at once despatched to Nicholson, who, if he continuedhis movement on Montreal, would now be left to conquer Canada alone. Hisforce consisted of about twenty-three hundred men, white and red, andwhen the fatal news reached him he was encamped on Wood Creek, ready topass Lake Champlain. Captain Butler, a New York officer at the camp, afterwards told Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, that when Nicholson heardwhat had happened, he was beside himself with rage, tore off his wig, threw it on the ground and stamped upon it, crying out, "Roguery!Treachery!"[177] When his fit was over, he did all that was now left forhim to do, --burned the wooden forts he had built, marched back toAlbany, and disbanded his army, after leaving one hundred and fifty mento protect the frontier against scalping-parties. [178]

Canada had been warned of the storm gathering against her. Early inAugust, Vaudreuil received letters from Costebelle, at Placentia, telling him that English prisoners had reported mighty preparations atBoston against Quebec, and that Montreal was also to be attacked. [179]The colony was ill prepared for the emergency, but no effort was sparedto give the enemy a warm reception. The militia were mustered, Indianscalled together, troops held in readiness, and defences strengthened. The saints were invoked, and the aid of Heaven was implored by masses, processions, and penances, as in New England by a dismal succession offasts. Mother Juchereau de Saint-Denis tells us how devout Canadiansprayed for help from God and the most holy Virgin; "since their glorywas involved, seeing that the true religion would quickly perish if theEnglish should prevail. " The general alarm produced effects which, though transient, were thought highly commendable while they lasted. Theladies, according to Mother Juchereau, gave up their ornaments, andbecame more modest and more pious. "Those of Montreal, " pursues theworthy nun, "even outdid those of Quebec; for they bound themselves byoath to wear neither ribbons nor lace, to keep their throats covered, and to observe various holy practices for the space of a year. " Therecluse of Montreal, Mademoiselle Le Ber, who, by reason of her morbidseclusion and ascetic life, was accounted almost a saint, made a flagembroidered with a prayer to the Virgin, to be borne against theheretical bands of Nicholson. 

When that commander withdrew, his retreat, though not the cause of it, was quickly known at Montreal, and the forces gathered there went downto Quebec to aid in repelling the more formidable attack by sea. Hereall was suspense and expectancy till the middle of October, when thereport came that two large ships had been seen in the river below. Therewas great excitement, for they were supposed to be the van of theBritish fleet; but alarm was soon turned to joy by the arrival of theships, which proved to be French. On the nineteenth, the Sieur de laValterie, who had come from Labrador in September, and had been sentdown the river again by Vaudreuil to watch for the English fleet, appeared at Quebec with tidings of joy. He had descended the St. Lawrence in a canoe, with two Frenchmen and an Indian, till, landing atIsle aux Oeufs on the first of October, they met two French sailors orfishermen loaded with plunder, and presently discovered the wrecks ofseven English ships, with, as they declared, fifteen or sixteen hundreddead bodies on the strand hard by, besides dead horses, sheep, dogs, andhens, three or four hundred large iron-hooped casks, a barrel of wineand a barrel and a keg of brandy, cables, anchors, chains, planks, boards, shovels, picks, mattocks, and piles of old iron three feethigh. [180]

"The least devout, " writes Mother Juchereau, "were touched by thegrandeur of the miracle wrought in our behalf, --a marvellous effect ofGod's love for Canada, which, of all these countries, is the only onethat professes the true religion. "

Quebec was not ungrateful. A solemn mass was ordered every month duringa year, to be followed by the song of Moses after the destruction ofPharaoh and his host. [181] Amazing reports were spread concerning thelosses of the English. About three thousand of "these wretches"--so thestory ran--died after reaching land, without counting the multitudesdrowned in the attempt; and even this did not satisfy divine justice, for God blew up one of the ships by lightning during the storm. Vesselswere sent to gather up the spoils of the wreck, and they came back, itwas reported, laden with marvellous treasures, including rich clothing, magnificent saddles, plate, silver-hilted swords, and the like; bringingalso the gratifying announcement that though the autumn tides had sweptaway many corpses, more than two thousand still lay on the rocks, nakedand in attitudes of despair. [182] These stories, repeated by laterwriters, find believers to this day. [183]

When Walker and his ships reached Spanish River, he called anothercouncil of war. The question was whether, having failed to take Quebec, they should try to take Placentia; and it was resolved that the shortsupply of provisions, the impossibility of getting more from Bostonbefore the first of November, and the risks of the autumnal storms, madethe attempt impracticable. Accordingly, the New England transportssailed homeward, and the British fleet steered for the Thames. 

Swift writes on the sixth of October in his Journal to Stella: "The newsof Mr. Hill's miscarriage in his expedition came to-day, and I went tovisit Mrs. Masham and Mrs. Hill, his two sisters, to condole with them. "A week after, he mentions the arrival of the general himself; and againon the sixteenth writes thus: "I was to see Jack Hill this morning, whomade that unfortunate expedition; and there is still more misfortune, for that ship which was admiral of his fleet [the "Edgar"] is blown upin the Thames by an accident and carelessness of some rogue, who wasgoing, as they think, to steal some gunpowder: five hundred men arelost. "

A report of this crowning disaster reached Quebec, and Mother Juchereaudoes not fail to improve it. According to her, the Admiral, strickenwith divine justice, and wrought to desperation, blew up the shiphimself, and perished with all on board, except only two men. 

There was talk of an examination into the causes of the failure, butnothing was done. Hill, strong in the influence of Mrs. Masham, reapednew honors and offices. Walker, more answerable for the result, and lessfortunate in court influence, was removed from command, and his name wasstricken from the half-pay list. He did not, however, blow himself up, but left England and emigrated to South Carolina, whence, thinkinghimself ill-treated by the authorities, he removed to Barbadoes, anddied some years later. [184]

FOOTNOTES:

[147] _Rapport de Costebelle, 14 Octobre, 1709. _ _Ibid. , 3 Décembre, 1709. _

[148] "Je ne les crois pas assez aveugles pour ne point s'apercevoirqu'insensiblement ils vont subir le joug du parlement de la vieilleAngleterre, mais par les cruautés que les Canadiens et sauvages exercentsur leurs terres par des courses continuelles je juge qu'ilsaiment encore mieux se délivrer de l'inhumanité de semblablesvoisins que de conserver toute l'ancienne autorité de leur petiterépublique. "--_Costebelle au Ministre, 3 Décembre, 1710. _ He clungtenaciously to this idea, and wrote again in 1712 that "les cruautés denos sauvages, qui font horreur à rapporter, " would always incline theNew England people to peace. They had, however, an opposite effect. 

[149] It is more than probable that La Ronde Denys, who had studied the"Bastonnais" with care, first gave the idea to Costebelle. 

[150] _Ponchartrain à Vaudreuil, 10 Août, 1710. _ _Ponchartrain àCostebelle, même date. _ These letters are in answer to the reports ofCostebelle, before cited. 

[151] _Costebelle à Ponchartrain, 3 Décembre, 1710. _

[152] _Instruction pour Monsieur de la Ronde, Capitaine d'Infanterie desDétachements de la Marine_, 1711. "Le dit sieur de la Ronde pourroitentrer en négociation et se promettre de faire cesser toutes sortesd'hostilités du côté du Canada, supposé que les Bastonnais promissentd'en faire de même de leur côté, et qu'ils ne donassent aucun secours àl'avenir, d'hommes ni de vaisseaux, aux puissances de la vieilleAngleterre et d'Ecosse. "

[153] "La vieille Angleterre ne s'imaginera pas que ces diversesProvinces se réuniront, et, secouant le joug de la monarchie Anglaise, s'érigeront en démocratie. "--_Mémoire sur la Nouvelle Angleterre_, 1710, 1711. (Archives de la Marine. )

[154] "Pour Baston, il faudrait la piller, ruiner ses ateliers, sesmanufactures, tous ses beaux établissements, couler bas ses navires, . .. Ruiner les ateliers de construction de navires. "--_Mémoire sur laNouvelle Angleterre_, 1710, 1711. The writer was familiar with Bostonand its neighborhood, and had certainly spent some time there. Possiblyhe was no other than La Ronde Denys himself, after the failure of hismission to excite the "Bastonnais" to refuse co-operation with Britisharmaments. He enlarges with bitterness on the extent of the fisheries, foreign trade, and ship-building of New England. 

[155] See Swift, _Conduct of the Allies_. 

[156] Boston, devoted to fishing, shipbuilding, and foreign trade, drewmost of its provisions from neighboring colonies. (Dummer, _Letter to aNoble Lord_. ) The people only half believed that the Tory ministry weresincere in attacking Canada, and suspected that the sudden demand forprovisions, so difficult to meet at once, was meant to furnish a pretextfor throwing the blame of failure upon Massachusetts. Hutchinson, ii. 173. 

[157] _Minutes of Proceedings of the Congress of Governors, June, 1711. _

[158] _Walker to Burchett, Secretary of the Admiralty, 14 August, 1711. _

[159] _Abstract of the Journal of the Governor, Council, and Assembly ofthe Province of the Massachusetts Bay. _

[160] _King to Secretary St. John, 25 July, 1711. _

[161] The number demanded from Massachusetts was one thousand, and thatraised by her was eleven hundred and sixty. _Dudley to Walker, 27 July, 1711. _

[162] Walker prints this letter in his Journal. Colonel King writes inhis own Journal: "The conquest of Canada will naturally lead the Queeninto changing their present disorderly government;" and he thinks thatthe conviction of this made the New Englanders indifferent to thesuccess of the expedition. 

[163] The above is drawn from the various lists and tables in Walker, _Journal of the Canada Expedition_. The armed ships that entered Bostonin June were fifteen in all; but several had been detached for cruising. The number of British transports, store-ships, etc. , was forty, the restbeing provincial. 

[164] Walker, _Journal; Introduction_. 

[165] _Ibid. _, 25. 

[166] Walker, _Journal_, 124, 125. 

[167] King, _Journal_. 

[168] Vetch, _Journal_. 

[169] King, _Journal_. 

[170] Compare Walker, _Journal_, 45, and _Ibid. _, 127, 128. He elsewhereintimates that his first statement needed correction. 

[171] _Report of ye Soldiers, etc. , Lost. _ (Public Record Office. ) Thisis a tabular statement, giving the names of the commissioned officersand the positions of their subordinates, regiment by regiment. All theFrench accounts of the losses are exaggerations. 

[172] _Hill to Dudley, 25 August, 1711. _

[173] Vetch, _Journal_. His statement is confirmed by the report of thecouncil. 

[174] _Report of a Consultation of Sea Officers belonging to theSquadron under Command of Sir Hovenden Walker, Kt. , 25 August, 1711. _Signed by Walker and eight others. 

[175] _Vetch to Walker, 26 August, 1711. _

[176] Walker, _Journal, Introduction_, 25. 

[177] Kalm, _Travels_, ii. 135. 

[178] Schuyler, _Colonial New York_, ii. 48. 

[179] _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 25 Octobre, 1711. _

[180] _Déposition de François de Marganne, Sieur de la Valterie; pardevant Nous, Paul Dupuy, Ecuyer, Conseiller du Roy, etc. , 19 Octobre, 1711. _

[181] _Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier et l'Histoire de l'Hôpital Généralde Quebec_, 209. 

[182] Juchereau, _Histoire de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec_, 473-491. La RondeDenys says that nearly one thousand men were drowned, and that about twothousand died of injuries received. _La Ronde au Ministre, 30 Décembre, 1711. _

[183] Some exaggeration was natural enough. Colonel Lee, of the RhodeIsland contingent, says that a day or two after the wreck he saw "thebodies of twelve or thirteen hundred brave men, with women and children, lying in heaps. " _Lee to Governor Cranston, 12 September, 1711. _

[184] Walker's Journal was published in 1720, with an Introduction offorty-eight pages, written in bad temper and bad taste. The Journalcontains many documents, printed in full. In the Public Record Officeare preserved the Journals of Hill, Vetch, and King. Copies of these, with many other papers on the same subject, from the same source, arebefore me. Vetch's Journal and his letter to Walker after the wreck areprinted in the _Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society_, vol. Iv. 

It appears by the muster-rolls of Massachusetts that what with manningthe coast-guard vessels, defending the frontier against Indians, andfurnishing her contingent to the Canada expedition, more than one infive of her able-bodied men were in active service in the summer of1711. Years passed before she recovered from the effects of herfinancial exhaustion. 

CHAPTER IX. 

1712-1749. 

LOUISBOURG AND ACADIA. 

Peace of Utrecht. --Perilous Questions. --Louisbourg founded. --Annapolisattacked. --Position of the Acadians. --Weakness of the BritishGarrison. --Apathy of the Ministry. --French Intrigue. --ClericalPoliticians. --The Oath of Allegiance. --Acadians refuse it: theirExpulsion proposed; they take the Oath. 

The great European war was drawing to an end, and with it the Americanwar, which was but its echo. An avalanche of defeat and disaster hadfallen upon the old age of Louis XIV. , and France was burdened with aninsupportable load of debt. The political changes in England came to herrelief. Fifty years later, when the elder Pitt went out of office andBute came in, France had cause to be grateful; for the peace of 1763 wasfar more favorable to her than it would have been under the imperiouswar minister. It was the same in 1712. The Whigs who had fallen frompower would have wrung every advantage from France; the triumphantTories were eager to close with her on any terms not so easy as toexcite popular indignation. The result was the Treaty of Utrecht, whichsatisfied none of the allies of England, and gave to France conditionsmore favorable than she had herself proposed two years before. The fallof Godolphin and the disgrace of Marlborough were a godsend to her. 

Yet in America Louis XIV. Made important concessions. The Five Nationsof the Iroquois were acknowledged to be British subjects; and thisbecame in future the preposterous foundation for vast territorial claimsof England. Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Acadia, "according to itsancient limits, " were also given over by France to her successful rival;though the King parted from Acadia with a reluctance shown by the greatoffers he made for permission to retain it. [185]

But while the Treaty of Utrecht seemed to yield so much, and yielded somuch in fact, it staved off the settlement of questions absolutelynecessary for future peace. The limits of Acadia, the boundary linebetween Canada and the British colonies, and the boundary between thosecolonies and the great western wilderness claimed by France, were allleft unsettled, since the attempt to settle them would have rekindledthe war. The peace left the embers of war still smouldering, sure, whenthe time should come, to burst into flame. The next thirty years wereyears of chronic, smothered war, disguised, but never quite at rest. The standing subjects of dispute were three, very different inimportance. First, the question of Acadia: whether the treaty gaveEngland a vast country, or only a strip of seacoast. Next, that ofnorthern New England and the Abenaki Indians, many of whom French policystill left within the borders of Maine, and whom both powers claimed assubjects or allies. Last and greatest was the question whether France orEngland should hold the valleys of the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, and with them the virtual control of the continent. This was the tripleproblem that tormented the northern English colonies for more than ageneration, till it found a solution at last in the Seven Years' War. 

Louis XIV. Had deeply at heart the recovery of Acadia. Yet the old andinfirm King, whose sun was setting in clouds after half a century ofunrivalled splendor, felt that peace was a controlling necessity, and hewrote as follows to his plenipotentiaries at Utrecht: "It is soimportant to prevent the breaking off of the negotiations that the Kingwill give up both Acadia and Cape Breton, if necessary for peace; butthe plenipotentiaries will yield this point only in the last extremity, for by this double cession Canada will become useless, the access to itwill be closed, the fisheries will come to an end, and the French marinebe utterly destroyed. "[186] And he adds that if the English will restoreAcadia, he, the King, will give them, not only St. Christopher, butalso the islands of St. Martin and St. Bartholomew. 

The plenipotentiaries replied that the offer was refused, and that thebest they could do without endangering the peace was to bargain thatCape Breton should belong to France. [187] On this, the King bid higherstill for the coveted province, and promised that if Acadia werereturned to him, the fortifications of Placentia should be given upuntouched, the cannon in the forts of Hudson Bay abandoned to theEnglish, and the Newfoundland fisheries debarred to Frenchmen, [188]--aremarkable concession; for France had fished on the banks ofNewfoundland for two centuries, and they were invaluable to her as anursery of sailors. Even these offers were rejected, and England wouldnot resign Acadia. 

Cape Breton was left to the French. This large island, henceforth calledby its owners Isle Royale, lies east of Acadia, and is separated from itonly by the narrow Strait of Canseau. From its position, it commands thechief entrance of the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. Some years before, the intendant Raudot had sent to the court an able paper, in which heurged its occupation and settlement, chiefly on commercial andindustrial grounds. The war was then at its height; the plan was notcarried into effect, and Isle Royale was still a wilderness. It was nowproposed to occupy it for military and political reasons. One of itsmany harbors, well fortified and garrisoned, would guard the approachesof Canada, and in the next war furnish a base for attacking New Englandand recovering Acadia. 

After some hesitation the harbor called Port à l'Anglois was chosen forthe proposed establishment, to which the name of Louisbourg was given, in honor of the King. It lies near the southeastern point of the island, where an opening in the ironbound coast, at once easily accessible andeasily defended, gives entrance to a deep and sheltered basin, where afleet of war-ships may find good anchorage. The proposed fortress was tobe placed on the tongue of land that lies between this basin and thesea. The place, well chosen from the point of view of the soldier or thefisherman, was unfit for an agricultural colony, its surroundings beingbarren hills studded with spruce and fir, and broad marshes buried inmoss. 

In spite of the losses and humiliations of the war, great expectationswere formed from the new scheme. Several years earlier, when theproposals of Raudot were before the Marine Council, it was confidentlydeclared that a strong fortress on Cape Breton would make the Kingmaster of North America. The details of the establishment were settledin advance. The King was to build the fortifications, supply them withcannon, send out eight companies of soldiers, besides all the usualofficers of government, establish a well-endowed hospital, conducted bynuns, as at Quebec, provide Jesuits and Récollets as chaplains, besidesFilles de la Congrégation to teach girls, send families to the spot, support them for two years, and furnish a good number of young women tomarry the soldiers. [189]

This plan, or something much like it, was carried into effect. Louisbourg was purely and solely the offspring of the Crown and itsally, the Church. In time it grew into a compact fishing town of aboutfour thousand inhabitants, with a strong garrison and a circuit offormidable ramparts and batteries. It became by far the strongestfortress on the Atlantic coast, and so famous as a resort of privateersthat it was known as the Dunquerque of America. 

What concerns us now is its weak and troubled infancy. It was to bepeopled in good part from the two lost provinces of Acadia andNewfoundland, whose inhabitants were to be transported to Louisbourg orother parts of Isle Royale, which would thus be made at once and at theleast possible cost a dangerous neighbor to the newly acquiredpossessions of England. The Micmacs of Acadia, and even some of theAbenakis, were to be included in this scheme of immigration. 

In the autumn, the commandant of Plaisance, or Placentia, --the Frenchstronghold in Newfoundland, --received the following mandate from theKing:--

 Monsieur de Costebelle, --I have caused my orders to be given you to evacuate the town and forts of Plaisance and the other places of your government of Newfoundland, ceded to my dear sister the Queen of Great Britain. I have given my orders for the equipment of the vessels necessary to make the evacuation and transport you, with the officers, garrison, and inhabitants of Plaisance and other places of Newfoundland, to my Isle Royale, vulgarly called Cape Breton; but as the season is so far advanced that this cannot be done without exposing my troops and my subjects to perishing from cold and misery, and placing my vessels in evident peril of wreck, I have judged it proper to defer the transportation till the next spring. [190]

The inhabitants of Placentia consisted only of twenty-five or thirtypoor fishermen, with their families, [191] and some of them would gladlyhave become English subjects and stayed where they were; but no choicewas given them. "Nothing, " writes Costebelle, "can cure them of theerror, to which they obstinately cling, that they are free to stay orgo, as best suits their interest. "[192] They and their fishing-boatswere in due time transported to Isle Royale, where for a while theirsufferings were extreme. 

Attempts were made to induce the Indians of Acadia to move to the newcolony; but they refused, and to compel them was out of the question. But by far the most desirable accession to the establishment of IsleRoyale would be that of the Acadian French, who were too numerous to betransported in the summary manner practised in the case of the fishermenof Placentia. It was necessary to persuade rather than compel them tomigrate, and to this end great reliance was placed on their priests, especially Fathers Pain and Dominique. Ponchartrain himself wrote to theformer on the subject. The priest declares that he read the letter tohis flock, who answered that they wished to stay in Acadia; and he addsthat the other Acadians were of the same mind, being unwilling to leavetheir rich farms and risk starvation on a wild and barren island. [193]"Nevertheless, " he concludes, "we shall fulfil the intentions of hisMajesty by often holding before their eyes that religion for which theyought to make every sacrifice. " He and his brother priests kept theirword. Freedom of worship was pledged on certain conditions to theAcadians by the Treaty of Utrecht, and no attempt was ever made todeprive them of it; yet the continual declaration of their missionariesthat their souls were in danger under English rule was the strongestspur to impel them to migrate. 

The condition of the English in Acadia since it fell into their handshad been a critical one. Port Royal, thenceforth called Annapolis Royal, or simply Annapolis, had been left, as before mentioned, in charge ofColonel Vetch, with a heterogeneous garrison of four hundred and fiftymen. [194] The Acadians of the _banlieue_--a term defined as covering aspace of three miles round the fort--had been included in thecapitulation, and had taken an oath of allegiance to Queen Anne, bindingso long as they remained in the province. Some of them worked, for thegarrison and helped to repair the fort, which was in a ruinouscondition. Meanwhile the Micmac Indians remained fiercely hostile to theEnglish; and in June, 1711, aided by a band of Penobscots, theyambuscaded and killed or captured nearly seventy of them. Thiscompletely changed the attitude of the Acadians. They broke their oath, rose against their new masters, and with their Indian friends, investedthe fort to the number of five or six hundred. Disease, desertion, andthe ambuscade had reduced the garrison to about two hundred effectivemen, and the defences of the place were still in bad condition. [195] Theassailants, on the other hand, had no better leader than the priest, Gaulin, missionary of the Micmacs and prime mover in the rising. Hepresently sailed for Placentia to beg for munitions and a commander; buthis errand failed, the siege came to nought, and the besiegersdispersed. Vaudreuil, from whom the Acadians had begged help, was aboutto send it when news of the approach of Walker's fleet forced him tokeep all his strength for his own defence. 

From this time to the end of the war, the chief difficulties of thegovernor of Acadia rose, not from the enemy, but from the Britishauthorities at home. For more than two years he, with his starved andtattered garrison, were treated with absolute neglect. He received noorders, instructions, or money. [196] Acadia seemed forgotten by theministry, till Vetch heard at last that Nicholson was appointed tosucceed him. 

Now followed the Treaty of Utrecht, the cession of Acadia to England, and the attempt on the part of France to induce the Acadians to removeto Isle Royale. Some of the English officials had once been of opinionthat this French Catholic population should be transported to Martiniqueor some other distant French colony, and its place supplied byProtestant families sent from England or Ireland. [197] Since the EnglishRevolution, Protestantism was bound up with the new political order, andCatholicism with the old. No Catholic could favor the Protestantsuccession, and hence politics were inseparable from creed. Vetch, whocame of a race of hot and stubborn Covenanters, had been one of the mostearnest for replacing the Catholic Acadians by Protestants; but afterthe peace he and others changed their minds. No Protestant colonistsappeared, nor was there the smallest sign that the government would giveitself the trouble to attract any. It was certain that if the Acadiansremoved at all, they would go, not to Martinique or any other distantcolony, but to the new military establishment of Isle Royale, whichwould thus become a strong and dangerous neighbor to the feeble Britishpost of Annapolis. Moreover, the labor of the French inhabitants wasuseful and sometimes necessary to the English garrison, which dependedmainly on them for provisions; and if they left the province, they wouldleave it a desert, with the prospect of long remaining so. 

Hence it happened that the English were for a time almost as anxious tokeep the Acadians in Acadia as they were forty years later to get themout of it; nor had the Acadians themselves any inclination to leavetheir homes. But the French authorities needed them at Isle Royale, andmade every effort to draw them thither. By the fourteenth article of theTreaty of Utrecht such of them as might choose to leave Acadia were freeto do so within the space of a year, carrying with them their personaleffects; while a letter of Queen Anne, addressed to Nicholson, thengovernor of Acadia, permitted the emigrants to sell their lands andhouses. 

The missionary Félix Pain had reported, as we have seen, that they were, in general, disposed to remain where they were; on which Costebelle, whonow commanded at Louisbourg, sent two officers, La Ronde Denys andPensens, with instructions to set the priests at work to persuade theirflocks to move. [198] La Ronde Denys and his colleague repaired toAnnapolis, where they promised the inhabitants vessels for theirremoval, provisions for a year, and freedom from all taxation for tenyears. Then, having been well prepared in advance, the heads of familieswere formed in a circle, and in presence of the English governor, thetwo French officers, and the priests Justinien, Bonaventure, and Gaulin, they all signed, chiefly with crosses, a paper to the effect that theywould live and die subjects of the King of France. [199] A few embarkedat once for Isle Royale in the vessel "Marie-Joseph, " and the rest wereto follow within the year. 

This result was due partly to the promises of La Ronde Denys, and stillmore to a pastoral letter from the Bishop of Quebec, supporting theassurances of the missionaries that the heretics would rob them of theministrations of the Church. This was not all. The Acadians aboutAnnapolis had been alienated by the conduct of the English authorities, which was not conciliating, and on the part of the governor wassometimes outrageous. [200] Yet those of the _banlieue_ had no right tocomplain, since they had made themselves liable to the penalties oftreason by first taking an oath of allegiance to Queen Anne, and thenbreaking it by trying to seize her fort. [201]

Governor Nicholson, like his predecessor, was resolved to keep theAcadians in the province if he could. This personage, able, energetic, perverse, headstrong, and unscrupulous, conducted himself, even towardsthe English officers and soldiers, in a manner that seems unaccountable, and that kindled their utmost indignation. [202] Towards the Acadians hisbehavior was still worse. As Costebelle did not keep his promise to sendvessels to bring them to Isle Royale, they built small ones forthemselves, and the French authorities at Louisbourg sent them thenecessary rigging. Nicholson ordered it back, forbade the sale of theirlands and houses, --a needless stretch of power, as there was nobody tobuy, --and would not let them sell even their personal effects, coollysetting at nought both the Treaty of Utrecht and the letter of theQueen. [203]

Nicholson was but a short time at Annapolis, leaving the government, during most of his term, to his deputies, Caulfield and afterwardsDoucette, both of whom roundly denounce their principal for his generalconduct; while both, in one degree or another, followed his example inpreventing so far as they could the emigration of the Acadians. Some ofthem, however, got away, and twelve or fifteen families who settled atPort Toulouse, on Isle Royale, were near perishing from cold andhunger. [204]

From Annapolis the French agents, La Ronde Denys and Pensens, proceededto the settlements about Chignecto and the Basin of Mines, --the mostpopulous and prosperous parts of Acadia. Here they were less successfulthan before. The people were doubtful and vacillating, --ready enough topromise, but slow to perform. While declaring with perfect sinceritytheir devotion to "our invincible monarch, " as they called King Louis, who had just been compelled to surrender their country, they clungtenaciously to the abodes of their fathers. If they had wished toemigrate, the English governor had no power to stop them. From BayeVerte, on the isthmus, they had frequent and easy communication withthe French at Louisbourg, which the English did not and could notinterrupt. They were armed, and they far outnumbered the Englishgarrison; while at a word they could bring to their aid the Micmacwarriors, who had been taught to detest the English heretics as foes ofGod and man. To say that they wished to leave Acadia, but were preventedfrom doing so by a petty garrison at the other end of the province, sofeeble that it could hardly hold Annapolis itself, is an unjust reproachupon a people who, though ignorant and weak of purpose, were not wantingin physical courage. The truth is that from this time to their forcedexpatriation in 1755, all the Acadians, except those of Annapolis andits immediate neighborhood, were free to go or stay at will. Those ofthe eastern parts of the province especially, who formed the greaterpart of the population, were completely their own masters. This was wellknown to the French authorities. The governor of Louisbourg complains ofthe apathy of the Acadians. [205] Saint-Ovide declares that they do notwant to fulfil the intentions of the King and remove to Isle Royale. Costebelle makes the same complaint; and again, after three years ofvain attempts to overcome their reluctance, he writes that every efforthas failed to induce them to migrate. 

From this time forward the state of affairs in Acadia was a peculiarone. By the Treaty of Utrecht it was a British province, and the nominalsovereignty resided at Annapolis, in the keeping of the miserablelittle fort and the puny garrison, which as late as 1743 consisted ofbut five companies, counting, when the ranks were full, thirty-one meneach. [206] More troops were often asked for, and once or twice werepromised; but they were never sent. "This has been hitherto no more thana mock government, its authority never yet having extended beyondcannon-shot of the fort, " wrote Governor Philipps in 1720. "It would bemore for the honour of the Crown, and profit also, to give back thecountry to the French, than to be contented with the name only ofgovernment. "[207] Philipps repaired the fort, which, as the engineerMascarene says, "had lain tumbling down" before his arrival; butAnnapolis and the whole province remained totally neglected and almostforgotten by England till the middle of the century. At one time thesoldiers were in so ragged a plight that Lieutenant-Colonel Armstrongwas forced to clothe them at his own expense. [208]

While this seat of British sovereignty remained in unchanging feeblenessfor more than forty years, the French Acadians were multiplying apace. Before 1749 they were the only white inhabitants of the province, except ten or twelve English families who, about the year 1720, livedunder the guns of Annapolis. At the time of the cession the Frenchpopulation seems not to have exceeded two thousand souls, about fivehundred of whom lived within the _banlieue_ of Annapolis, and weretherefore more or less under English control. They were all alike asimple and ignorant peasantry, prosperous in their humble way, and happywhen rival masters ceased from troubling, though vexed with incessantquarrels among themselves, arising from the unsettled boundaries oftheir lands, which had never been properly surveyed. Their mentalhorizon was of the narrowest, their wants were few, no military servicewas asked of them by the English authorities, and they paid no taxes tothe government. They could even indulge their strong appetite forlitigation free of cost; for when, as often happened, they brought theirland disputes before the Council at Annapolis, the cases were settledand the litigants paid no fees. Their communication with the Englishofficials was carried on through deputies chosen by themselves, andoften as ignorant as their constituents, for a remarkable equalityprevailed through this primitive little society. 

Except the standing garrison at Annapolis, Acadia was as completely letalone by the British government as Rhode Island or Connecticut. Unfortunately, the traditional British policy of inaction towards hercolonies was not applicable in the case of a newly conquered provincewith a disaffected population and active, enterprising, and martialneighbors bent on recovering what they had lost. Yet it might besupposed that a neglect so invigorating in other cases might havedeveloped among the Acadians habits of self-reliance and faculties ofself-care. The reverse took place; for if England neglected Acadia, France did not; and though she had renounced her title to it, she stilldid her best to master it and make it hers again. The chief instrumentof her aggressive policy was the governor of Isle Royale, whose stationwas the fortress of Louisbourg, and who was charged with the managementof Acadian affairs. At all the Acadian settlements he had zealous andefficient agents in the missionary priests, who were sent into theprovince by the Bishop of Quebec, or in a few cases by their immediateecclesiastical superiors in Isle Royale. 

The Treaty of Utrecht secured freedom of worship to the Acadians undercertain conditions. These were that they should accept the sovereigntyof the British Crown, and that they and their pastors should keep withinthe limits of British law. [209] Even supposing that by swearingallegiance to Queen Anne the Acadians had acquired the freedom ofworship which the treaty gave them on condition of their becomingBritish subjects, it would have been an abuse of this freedom to use itfor subverting the power that had granted it. Yet this is what themissionaries did. They were not only priests of the Roman Church, theywere also agents of the King of France; and from first to last theylabored against the British government in the country that France hadceded to the British Crown. So confident were they, and with so muchreason, of the weakness of their opponents that they openly avowed thattheir object was to keep the Acadians faithful to King Louis. When twoof their number, Saint-Poncy and Chevereaux, were summoned before theCouncil at Annapolis, they answered, with great contempt, "We are hereon the business of the King of France. " They were ordered to leaveAcadia. One of them stopped among the Indians at Cape Sable; the other, in defiance of the Council, was sent back to Annapolis by the Governorof Isle Royale. [210] Apparently he was again ordered away; for fouryears later the French governor, in expectation of speedy war, sent himto Chignecto with orders secretly to prepare the Acadians for an attackon Annapolis. [211]

The political work of the missionaries began with the cession of thecolony, and continued with increasing activity till 1755, kindling theimpotent wrath of the British officials, and drawing forth the bittercomplaints of every successive governor. For this world and the next, the priests were fathers of their flocks, generally commanding theirattachment, and always their obedience. Except in questions of disputedboundaries, where the Council alone could settle the title, theecclesiastics took the place of judges and courts of justice, enforcingtheir decisions by refusal of the sacraments. [212] They often treatedthe British officials with open scorn. Governor Armstrong writes to theLords of Trade: "Without some particular directions as to the insolentbehavior of those priests, the people will never be brought toobedience, being by them incited to daily acts of rebellion. " Anothergovernor complains that they tell the Acadians of the destitution of thesoldiers and the ruinous state of the fort, and assure them that thePretender will soon be King of England, and that Acadia will then returnto France. [213] "The bearer, Captain Bennett, " writes Armstrong, "canfurther tell your Grace of the disposition of the French inhabitants ofthis province, and of the conduct of their missionary priests, whoinstil hatred into both Indians and French against the English. "[214] Asto the Indians, Governor Philipps declares that their priests hear ageneral confession from them twice a year, and give them absolution oncondition of always being enemies of the English. [215] The condition waseasy, thanks to the neglect of the British government, which took nopains to conciliate the Micmacs, while the French governor of IsleRoyale corresponded secretly with them and made them yearly presents. 

In 1720 Philipps advised the recall of the French priests, and thesending of others in their place, as the only means of making Britishsubjects of the Acadians, [216] who at that time, having constantlyrefused the oath of allegiance, were not entitled, under the treaty, tothe exercise of their religion. Governor Armstrong wrote sixteen yearsafter: "By some of the above papers your Grace will be informed how highthe French government carries its pretensions over its priests'obedience; and how to prevent the evil consequences I know not, unlesswe could have missionaries from places independent of that Crown. "[217]He expresses a well-grounded doubt whether the home government will beat the trouble and expense of such a change, though he adds that thereis not a missionary among either Acadians or Indians who is not in thepay of France. [218] Gaulin, missionary of the Micmacs, received a"gratification" of fifteen hundred livres, besides an annual allowanceof five hundred, and is described in the order granting it as a "braveman, capable even of leading these savages on an expedition. "[219] In1726 he was brought before the Council at Annapolis charged withincendiary conduct among both Indians and Acadians; but on asking pardonand promising nevermore to busy himself with affairs of government, hewas allowed to remain in the province, and even to act as curé of theMines. [220] No evidence appears that the British authorities evermolested a priest, except when detected in practices alien to his properfunctions and injurious to the government. On one occasion when twocures were vacant, one through sedition and the other apparently throughillness or death, Lieutenant-Governor Armstrong requested the governorof Isle Royale to send two priests "of known probity" to fill them. [221]

Who were answerable for the anomalous state of affairs in theprovince, --the _imperium in imperio_ where the inner power waxed andstrengthened every day, and the outer relatively pined and dwindled? Itwas not mainly the Crown of France nor its agents, secular or clerical. Their action under the circumstances, though sometimes inexcusable, wasnatural, and might have been foreseen. Nor was it the Council atAnnapolis, who had little power either for good or evil. It was mainlythe neglect and apathy of the British ministers, who seemed careless asto whether they kept Acadia or lost it, apparently thinking it not worththeir notice. 

About the middle of the century they wakened from their lethargy, andwarned by the signs of the times, sent troops and settlers into theprovince at the eleventh hour. France and her agents took alarm, andredoubled their efforts to keep their hold on a country which they hadbegun to regard as theirs already. The settlement of the English atHalifax startled the French into those courses of intrigue and violencewhich were the immediate cause of the removal of the Acadians in 1755. 

At the earlier period which we are now considering, the storm was stillremote. The English made no attempt either to settle the province or tosecure it by sufficient garrisons; they merely tried to bind theinhabitants by an oath of allegiance which the weakness of thegovernment would constantly tempt them to break. When George I. Came tothe throne, Deputy-Governor Caulfield tried to induce the inhabitants toswear allegiance to the new monarch. The Acadians asked advice ofSaint-Ovide, governor at Louisbourg, who sent them elaborate directionshow to answer the English demand and remain at the same time faithfulchildren of France. Neither Caulfield nor his successor could carrytheir point. The Treaty of Utrecht, as we have seen, gave the Acadians ayear in which to choose between remaining in the province and becomingBritish subjects, or leaving it as subjects of the King of France. Theyear had long ago expired, and most of them were still in Acadia, unwilling to leave it, yet refusing to own King George. In 1720 GeneralRichard Philipps, the governor of the province, set himself to the taskof getting the oath taken, while the missionaries and the Frenchofficers at Isle Royale strenuously opposed his efforts. He issued aproclamation ordering the Acadians to swear allegiance to the King ofEngland or leave the country, without their property, within fourmonths. In great alarm, they appealed to their priests, and begged theRécollet, Père Justinien, curé of Mines, to ask advice and help fromSaint-Ovide, successor of Costebelle at Louisbourg, protesting that theywould abandon all rather than renounce their religion and theirKing. [222] At the same time they prepared for a general emigration byway of the isthmus and Baye Verte, where it would have been impossibleto stop them. [223]

Without the influence of their spiritual and temporal advisers, to whomthey turned in all their troubles, it is clear that the Acadians wouldhave taken the oath and remained in tranquil enjoyment of their homes;but it was then thought important to French interests that they shouldremove either to Isle Royale or to Isle St. Jean, now Prince Edward'sIsland. Hence no means were spared to prevent them from becoming Britishsubjects, if only in name; even the Micmacs were enlisted in the goodwork, and induced to threaten them with their enmity if they should failin allegiance to King Louis. Philipps feared that the Acadians wouldrise in arms if he insisted on the harsh requirements of hisproclamation; in which case his position would have been difficult, asthey now outnumbered his garrison about five to one. Therefore heextended indefinitely the term of four months, that he had fixed fortheir final choice, and continued to urge and persuade, without gaininga step towards the desired result. In vain he begged for aid from theBritish authorities. They would do nothing for him, but merely observedthat while the French officers and priests had such influence over theAcadians, they would never be good subjects, and so had better be putout of the country. [224] This was easier said than done; for at thisvery time there were signs that the Acadians and the Micmacs would uniteto put out the English garrison. [225]

Philipps was succeeded by a deputy-governor, Lieutenant-ColonelArmstrong, --a person of ardent impulses and unstable disposition. Heapplied himself with great zeal and apparent confidence to accomplishingthe task in which his principal had failed. In fact, he succeeded in1726 in persuading the inhabitants about Annapolis to take the oath, with a proviso that they should not be called upon for military service;but the main body of the Acadians stiffly refused. In the next year hesent Ensign Wroth to Mines, Chignecto, and neighboring settlements torenew the attempt on occasion of the accession of George II. The envoy'sinstructions left much to his discretion or his indiscretion, and hecame back with the signatures, or crosses, of the inhabitants attachedto an oath so clogged with conditions that it left them free to returnto their French allegiance whenever they chose. 

Philipps now came back to Acadia to resume his difficult task. And herea surprise meets us. He reported a complete success. The Acadians, as hedeclared, swore allegiance without reserve to King George; but he doesnot tell us how they were brought to do so. Compulsion was out of thequestion. They could have cut to pieces any part of the paltry Englishgarrison that might venture outside the ditches of Annapolis, or theymight have left Acadia, with all their goods and chattels, with nopossibility of stopping them. The taking of the oath was therefore avoluntary act. 

But what was the oath? The words reported by Philipps were as follows:"I promise and swear sincerely, on the faith of a Christian, that I willbe entirely faithful, and will truly obey his Majesty King George theSecond, whom I recognize as sovereign lord of Acadia or Nova Scotia. Sohelp me God. " To this the Acadians affixed their crosses, or, inexceptional cases, their names. Recently, however, evidence has appearedthat, so far at least as regards the Acadians on and near Mines Basin, the effect of the oath was qualified by a promise on the part ofPhilipps that they should not be required to take up arms against eitherFrench or Indians, --they on their part promising never to take up armsagainst the English. This statement is made by Gaudalie, curé of theparish of Mines, and Noiville, priest at Pigiquid, or Pisiquid, nowWindsor. [226] In fact, the English never had the folly to call on theAcadians to fight for them; and the greater part of this peace-lovingpeople were true to their promise not to take arms against the English, though a considerable number of them did so, especially at thebeginning of the Seven Years' War. It was to this promise, whether keptor broken, that they owed their name of Neutral French. 

From first to last, the Acadians remained in a child-like dependence ontheir spiritual and temporal guides. Not one of their number stands outprominently from among the rest. They seem to have been totally devoidof natural leaders, and, unhappily for themselves, left their fate inthe hands of others. Yet they were fully aware of their numericalstrength, and had repeatedly declared, in a manner that the Englishofficers called insolent, that they would neither leave the country norswear allegiance to King George. The truth probably is that those whogoverned them had become convinced that this simple population, whichincreased rapidly, and could always be kept French at heart, might bemade more useful to France in Acadia than out of it, and that it wasneedless further to oppose the taking of an oath which would leave themin quiet possession of their farms without making any change in theirfeelings, and probably none in their actions. By force of naturalincrease Acadia would in time become the seat of a large populationardently French and ardently Catholic; and while officials in Francesometimes complained of the reluctance of the Acadians to move to IsleRoyale, those who directed them in their own country seem to have becomewilling that they should stay where they were, and place themselves insuch relations with the English as should leave them free to increaseand multiply undisturbed. Deceived by the long apathy of the Britishgovernment, French officials did not foresee that a time would come whenit would bestir itself to make Acadia English in fact as well as inname. [227]

FOOTNOTES:

[185] _Offres de la France; Demandes de l'Angleterre et Réponses de laFrance, in Memorials of the English and French Commissaries concerningthe Limits of Acadia. _

[186] _Mémoire du Roy à ses Plénipotentiaires, 20 Mars, 1712. _

[187] _Précis de ce qui s'est passé pendant la Négotiation de la Paixd'Utrecht au Sujet de l'Acadie; Juillet, 1711-Mai, 1712. _

[188] _Mémoire du Roy, 20 Avril, 1712. _

[189] _Mémoire sur l'Isle du Cap Breton_, 1709. 

[190] _Le Roy à Costebelle, 29 Septembre, 1713. _

[191] _Recensement des Habitans de Plaisance et Iles de St. Pierre, rendus à Louisbourg avec leurs Femmes et Enfans, 5 Novembre, 1714. _

[192] _Costebelle au Ministre, 19 Juillet, 1713. _

[193] _Félix Pain à Costebelle, 23 Septembre, 1713. _

[194] Vetch was styled "General and Commander-in-chief of all hisMajesty's troops in these parts, and Governor of the fort of AnnapolisRoyal, country of l'Accady and Nova Scotia. " Hence he was the firstEnglish governor of Nova Scotia after its conquest in 1710. He wasappointed a second time in 1715, Nicholson having served in the interim. 

[195] _Narrative of Paul Mascarene_, addressed to Nicholson. Accordingto French accounts, a pestilence at Annapolis had carried off threefourths of the garrison. _Gaulin à ----, 5 Septembre, 1711_; _Cahouet auMinistre, 20 Juillet, 1711_. In reality a little more than one hundredhad died. 

[196] Passages from Vetch's letters, in Patterson, _Memoir of Vetch_. 

[197] _Vetch to the Earl of Dartmouth, 22 January, 1711_; _Memorial ofCouncil of War at Annapolis, 14 October, 1710_. 

[198] Costebelle, _Instruction au Capitaine de la Ronde_, 1714. 

[199] _Écrit des Habitants d'Annapolis Royale, 25 Aoust, 1714_; _Mémoirede La Ronde Denys, 30 Aoust, 1714_. 

[200] In 1711, however, the missionary Félix Pain says, "The Englishhave treated the Acadians with much humanity. "--_Père Félix à ----, 8Septembre, 1711. _

[201] This was the oath taken after the capitulation, which bound thosewho took it to allegiance so long as they remained in the province. 

[202] "As he used to curse and Damm Governor Vetch and all his friends, he is now served himself in the same manner. "--_Adams to Steele, 24January, 1715. _

[203] For a great number of extracts from documents on this subject seea paper by Abbé Casgrain in _Canada Français_, i. 411-414; also thedocumentary supplement of the same publication. 

[204] _La Ronde Denys au Ministre, 3 Décembre, 1715. _

[205] _Costebelle au Ministre, 15 Janvier, 1715. _

[206] _Governor Mascarene to the Secretary of State, 1 December, 1743. _At this time there was also a blockhouse at Canseau, where a fewsoldiers were stationed. These were then the only British posts in theprovince. In May, 1727, Philipps wrote to the Lords of Trade:"Everything there [at Annapolis] is wearing the face of ruin and decay, "and the ramparts are "lying level with the ground in breachessufficiently wide for fifty men to enter abreast. "

[207] _Philipps to Secretary Craggs, 26 September, 1720. _

[208] _Selections from the Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 18, note. _

[209] "Those who are willing to remain there [in Acadia] and to besubject to the kingdom of Great Britain, are to enjoy the free exerciseof their religion according to the usage of the Church of Home, as faras the laws of Great Britain do allow the same. "--_Treaty of Utrecht, 14th article. _

[210] _Minutes of Council, 18 May, 1736. _ _Governor Armstrong to theSecretary of State, 22 November, 1736. _

[211] _Minutes of Council, 18 September, 1740_, in _Nova ScotiaArchives_. 

[212] _Governor Mascarene to Père des Enclaves, 29 June, 1741. _

[213] _Deputy-Governor Doucette to the Secretary of State, 5 November, 1717. _

[214] _Governor Armstrong to the Secretary of State, 30 April, 1727. _

[215] _Governor Philipps to Secretary Craggs, 26 September, 1720. _

[216] _Ibid. , 26 May, 1720. _

[217] _Armstrong to the Secretary of State, 22 November, 1736. _ Thedismissal of French priests and the substitution of others was againrecommended some time after. 

[218] The motives for paying priests for instructing the people of aprovince ceded to England are given in a report of the French MarineCouncil. The Acadians "ne pourront jamais conserver un véritableattachement à la religion et _à leur légitime souverain_ sans le secoursd'un missionnaire" (_Délibérations du Conseil de Marine, 23 Mai, 1719_, in _Le Canada-Français_). The Intendant Bégon highly commends theefforts of the missionaries to keep the Acadians in the French interest(_Bégon au Ministre, 25 Septembre, 1715_), and Vaudreuil praises theirzeal in the same cause (_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 31 Octobre, 1717_). 

[219] _Délibérations du Conseil de Marine, 3 Mai, 1718. _

[220] _Record of Council at Annapolis, 11 and 24 October, 1726. _

[221] _Armstrong to Saint-Ovide, 17 June, 1732. _

[222] _The Acadians to Saint-Ovide, 6 May, 1720_, in _Public Documentsof Nova Scotia_, 25. This letter was evidently written for them, --nodoubt by a missionary. 

[223] "They can march off at their leisure, by way of the Baye Verte, with their effects, without danger of being molested by this garrison, which scarce suffices to secure the Fort. "--_Philipps to SecretaryCraggs, 26 May, 1720. _

[224] _The Board of Trade to Philipps, 28 December, 1720. _

[225] _Délibérations du Conseil de Marine, Aoust, 1720. _ The attemptagainst the garrison was probably opposed by the priests, who must haveseen the danger that it would rouse the ministry into sending troops tothe province, which would have been disastrous to their plans. 

[226] _Certificat de Charles de la Gaudalie, prêtre, curé missionnairede la paroisse des Mines, et Noël-Alexandre Noiville, . .. Curé del'Assomption et de la Sainte Famille de Pigiguit_; printed in Rameau, _Une Colonie Féodale en Amérique_ (ed. 1889), ii. 53. 

[227] The preceding chapter is based largely on two collections ofdocuments relating to Acadia, --the _Nova Scotia Archives_, or_Selections from the Public Documents of Nova Scotia_, printed in 1869by the government of that province, and the mass of papers collected byRev. H. R. Casgrain and printed in the documentary department of _LeCanada-Français_, a review published under direction of Laval Universityat Quebec. Abbé Casgrain, with passionate industry, has labored togather everything in Europe or America that could tell in favor of theFrench and against the English. Mr. Akins, the editor of the _NovaScotia Archives_, leans to the other side, so that the two collectionssupplement each other. Both are copious and valuable. Besides these, Ihave made use of various documents from the archives of Paris not to befound in either of the above-named collections. 

CHAPTER X. 

1713-1724. 

SEBASTIEN RALE. 

Boundary Disputes. --Outposts of Canada. --The Earlier and LaterJesuits. --Religion and Politics. --The Norridgewocks and theirMissionary. --A Hollow Peace. --Disputed Land Claims. --Council atGeorgetown. --Attitude of Rale. --Minister and Jesuit. --The Indianswaver. --An Outbreak. --Covert War. --Indignation against Rale. --Wardeclared. --Governor and Assembly. --Speech of Samuel Sewall. --Penobscotsattack Fort St. George. --Reprisal. --Attack on Norridgewock. --Death ofRale. 

Before the Treaty of Utrecht, the present Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and a part of Maine were collectively called Acadia by the French; butafter the treaty gave Acadia to England, they insisted that the namemeant only Nova Scotia. The English on their part claimed that thecession of Acadia made them owners, not only of the Nova Scotianpeninsula, but of all the country north of it to the St. Lawrence, or atleast to the dividing ridge or height of land. 

This and other disputed questions of boundary were to be settled bycommissioners of the two powers; but their meeting was put off for fortyyears, and then their discussions ended in the Seven Years' War. Theclaims of the rival nations were in fact so discordant that any attemptto reconcile them must needs produce a fresh quarrel. The treaty hadleft a choice of evils. To discuss the boundary question meant to renewthe war; to leave it unsettled was a source of constant irritation; andwhile delay staved off a great war, it quickly produced a small one. 

The river Kennebec, which was generally admitted by the French to be thedividing line between their possessions and New England, [228] wasregarded by them with the most watchful jealousy. Its headwatersapproached those of the Canadian river Chaudière, the mouth of which isnear Quebec; and by ascending the former stream and crossing to theheadwaters of the latter, through an intricacy of forests, hills, ponds, and marshes, it was possible for a small band of hardy men, unencumberedby cannon, to reach the Canadian capital, --as was done long after by thefollowers of Benedict Arnold. Hence it was thought a matter of the lastimportance to close the Kennebec against such an attempt. TheNorridgewock band of the Abenakis, who lived on the banks of that river, were used to serve this purpose and to form a sort of advance-guard tothe French colony, while other kindred bands on the Penobscot, the St. Croix, and the St. John were expected to aid in opposing a livingbarrier to English intrusion. Missionaries were stationed among allthese Indians to keep them true to Church and King. The most importantstation, that of the Norridgewocks, was in charge of Father SebastienRale, the most conspicuous and interesting figure among the laterFrench-American Jesuits. 

Since the middle of the seventeenth century a change had come over theJesuit missions of New France. Nothing is more striking or moreadmirable than the self-devoted apostleship of the earlier period. [229]The movement in Western Europe known as the Renaissance was far morethan a revival of arts and letters, --it was an awakening ofintellectual, moral, and religious life; the offspring of causes long inaction, and the parent of other movements in action to this day. TheProtestant Reformation was a part of it. That revolt against Romeproduced a counter Renaissance in the bosom of the ancient Churchherself. In presence of that peril she woke from sloth and corruption, and girded herself to beat back the invading heresies, by force or bycraft, by inquisitorial fires, by the arms of princely and imperialallies, and by the self-sacrificing enthusiasm of her saints andmartyrs. That time of danger produced the exalted zeal of Xavier and theintense, thoughtful, organizing zeal of Loyola. After a century hadpassed, the flame still burned, and it never shone with a purer orbrighter radiance than in the early missions of New France. 

Such ardors cannot be permanent; they must subside, from the law oftheir nature. If the great Western mission had been a success, theenthusiasm of its founders might have maintained itself for some timelonger; but that mission was extinguished in blood. Its martyrs died invain, and the burning faith that had created it was rudely tried. Canadaceased to be a mission. The civil and military powers grew strong, andthe Church no longer ruled with undivided sway. The times changed, andthe men changed with them. It is a characteristic of the Jesuit Order, and one of the sources of its strength, that it chooses the workman forhis work, studies the qualities of its members, and gives to each thetask for which he is fitted best. When its aim was to convert savagehordes and build up another Paraguay in the Northern wilderness, it senta Jogues, a Brébeuf, a Charles Garnier, and a Gabriel Lalemant, like aforlorn hope, to storm the stronghold of heathendom. In later times itsent other men to meet other needs and accomplish other purposes. 

Before the end of the seventeenth century the functions of the CanadianJesuit had become as much political as religious; but if the fires ofhis apostolic zeal burned less high, his devotion to the Order in whichhe had merged his personality was as intense as before. While inconstant friction with the civil and military powers, he tried to makehimself necessary to them, and in good measure he succeeded. Nobody wasso able to manage the Indian tribes and keep them in the interest ofFrance. "Religion, " says Charlevoix, "is the chief bond by which thesavages are attached to us;" and it was the Jesuit above all others whowas charged to keep this bond firm. 

The Christianity that was made to serve this useful end did not strike adeep root. While humanity is in the savage state, it can only beChristianized on the surface; and the convert of the Jesuits remained asavage still. They did not even try to civilize him. They taught him torepeat a catechism which he could not understand, and practise rites ofwhich the spiritual significance was incomprehensible to him. He saw thesymbols of his new faith in much the same light as the superstitionsthat had once enchained him. To his eyes the crucifix was a fetich ofsurpassing power, and the mass a beneficent "medicine, " or occultinfluence, of supreme efficacy. Yet he would not forget his old rootedbeliefs, and it needed the constant presence of the missionary toprevent him from returning to them. 

Since the Iroquois had ceased to be a danger to Canada, the activealliance of the Western Indians had become less important to the colony. Hence the missions among them had received less attention, and most ofthese tribes had relapsed into heathenism. The chief danger had shiftedeastward, and was, or was supposed to be, in the direction of NewEngland. Therefore the Eastern missions were cultivated withdiligence, --whether those within or adjoining the settled limits ofCanada, like the Iroquois mission of Caughnawaga, the Abenaki missionsof St. Francis and Becancour, and the Huron mission of Lorette, or thosethat served as outposts and advance-guards of the colony, like theNorridgewock Abenakis of the Kennebec, or the Penobscot Abenakis of thePenobscot. The priests at all these stations were in closecorrespondence with the government, to which their influence over theirconverts was invaluable. In the wilderness dens of the Hurons or theIroquois, the early Jesuit was a marvel of self-sacrificing zeal; hissuccessor, half missionary and half agent of the King, had thought forthis world as well as the next. 

Sebastien Rale, [230] born in Franche-Comté in 1657, was sent to theAmerican missions in 1689 at the age of thirty-two. After spending twoyears among the Abenakis of Canada, then settled near the mouth of theChaudière, he was sent for two years more to the Illinois, and thence tothe Abenakis of the Kennebec, where he was to end his days. 

Near where the town of Norridgewock now stands, the Kennebec curvedround a broad tongue of meadow land, in the midst of a picturesquewilderness of hills and forests. On this tongue of land, on ground a fewfeet above the general level, stood the village of the Norridgewocks, fenced with a stockade of round logs nine feet high. The enclosure wassquare; each of its four sides measured one hundred and sixty feet, andeach had its gate. From the four gates ran two streets, or lanes, whichcrossed each other in the middle of the village. There were twenty-sixIndian houses, or cabins, within the stockade, described as "built muchafter the English manner, " though probably of logs. The church wasoutside the enclosure, about twenty paces from the east gate. [231]

Such was the mission village of Norridgewock in 1716. It had risen fromits ashes since Colonel Hilton destroyed it in 1705, and the church hadbeen rebuilt by New England workmen hired for the purpose. [232] A smallbell, which is still preserved at Brunswick, rang for mass at earlymorning, and for vespers at sunset. Rale's leisure hours were few. Hepreached, exhorted, catechised the young converts, counselled theirseniors for this world and the next, nursed them in sickness, composedtheir quarrels, tilled his own garden, cut his own firewood, cooked hisown food, which was of Indian corn, or, at a pinch, of roots and acorns, worked at his Abenaki vocabulary, and, being expert at handicraft, madeornaments for the church, or moulded candles from the fruit of thebayberry, or wax-myrtle. [233] Twice a year, summer and winter, hefollowed his flock to the sea-shore and the islands, where they lived attheir ease on fish and seals, clams, oysters, and seafowl. 

This Kennebec mission had been begun more than half a century before;yet the conjurers, or "medicine men, "--natural enemies of themissionary, --still remained obdurate and looked on the father askance, though the body of the tribe were constant at mass and confession, andregarded him with loving reverence. He always attended their councils, and, as he tells us, his advice always prevailed; but he was lessfortunate when he told them to practise no needless cruelty in theirwars, on which point they were often disobedient children. [234]

Rale was of a strong, enduring frame, and a keen, vehement, causticspirit. He had the gift of tongues, and was as familiar with the Abenakiand several other Indian languages as he was with Latin. [235] Of thegenuineness of his zeal there is no doubt, nor of his earnest and livelyinterest in the fortunes of the wilderness flock of which he was theshepherd for half his life. The situation was critical for them and forhim. The English settlements were but a short distance below, whilethose of the French could be reached only by a hard journey of twelve orfourteen days. 

With two intervals of uneasy peace, the borders of Maine had beenharried by war-parties for thirty-eight years; and since 1689 theseraids had been prompted and aided by the French. Thus it happened thatextensive tracts, which before Philip's War were dotted with farmhousesand fishing hamlets, had been abandoned, and cultivated fields wereturning again to forests. The village of Wells had become the easternfrontier. But now the Treaty of Utrecht gave promise of lastingtranquillity. The Abenakis, hearing that they were to be backed nolonger by the French, became alarmed, sent messengers to Casco, andasked for peace. In July there was a convention at Portsmouth, whendelegates of the Norridgewocks, Penobscots, Malicites, and other Abenakibands met Governor Dudley and the councillors of Massachusetts and NewHampshire. A paper was read to them by sworn interpreters, in which theyconfessed that they had broken former treaties, begged pardon for "pastrebellions, hostilities, and violations of promises, " declaredthemselves subjects of Queen Anne, pledged firm friendship with theEnglish, and promised them that they might re-enter without molestationon all their former possessions. Eight of the principal Abenaki chiefssigned this document with their totemic marks, and the rest did so, after similar interpretation, at another convention in the nextyear. [236] Indians when in trouble can waive their pride, and lavishprofessions and promises; but when they called themselves subjects ofQueen Anne, it is safe to say that they did not know what the wordsmeant. 

Peace with the Indians was no sooner concluded than a stream of settlersbegan to move eastward to reoccupy the lands that they owned or claimedin the region of the lower Kennebec. Much of this country was held inextensive tracts, under old grants of the last century, and theproprietors offered great inducements to attract emigrants. Thegovernment of Massachusetts, though impoverished by three wars, ofwhich it had borne the chief burden, added what encouragements it could. The hamlets of Saco, Scarborough, Falmouth, and Georgetown rose fromtheir ashes; mills were built on the streams, old farms were retilled, and new ones cleared. A certain Dr. Noyes, who had established asturgeon fishery on the Kennebec, built at his own charge a stone fortat Cushnoc, or Augusta; and it is said that as early as 1714 ablockhouse was built many miles above, near the mouth of theSebasticook. [237] In the next year Fort George was built at the lowerfalls of the Androscoggin, and some years later Fort Richmond, on theKennebec, at the site of the present town of Richmond. [238]

Some of the claims to these Kennebec lands were based on old Crownpatents, some on mere prescription, some on Indian titles, good or bad. Rale says that an Englishman would give an Indian a bottle of rum, andget from him in return a large tract of land. [239] Something like thismay have happened; though in other cases the titles were as good asIndian titles usually are, the deeds being in regular form and signed bythe principal chiefs for a consideration which they thought sufficient. The lands of Indians, however, are owned, so far as owned at all, by thewhole community; and in the case of the Algonquin tribes the chiefs hadno real authority to alienate them without the consent of the tribesmen. Even supposing this consent to have been given, the Norridgewocks wouldnot have been satisfied; for Rale taught them that they could not partwith their lands, because they held them in trust for their children, towhom their country belonged as much as to themselves. 

Long years of war and mutual wrong had embittered the Norridgewocksagainst their English neighbors, with whom, nevertheless, they wished tobe at peace, because they feared them, and because their trade wasnecessary to them. 

The English borderers, on their part, regarded the Indians less as menthan as vicious and dangerous wild animals. In fact, the benevolent andphilanthropic view of the American savage is for those who are beyondhis reach: it has never yet been held by any whose wives and childrenhave lived in danger of his scalping-knife. In Boston and other of theolder and safer settlements, the Indians had found devoted friendsbefore Philip's War; and even now they had apologists and defenders, prominent among whom was that relic of antique Puritanism, old SamuelSewall, who was as conscientious and humane as he was prosy, narrow, andsometimes absurd, and whose benevolence towards the former owners of thesoil was trebly reinforced by his notion that they were descendants ofthe ten lost tribes of Israel. [240]

The intrusion of settlers, and the building of forts and blockhouses onlands which they still called their own, irritated and alarmed theNorridgewocks, and their growing resentment was fomented by Rale, bothbecause he shared it himself, and because he was prompted by Vaudreuil. Yet, dreading another war with the English, the Indians kept quiet for ayear or two, till at length the more reckless among them began tothreaten and pilfer the settlers. 

In 1716 Colonel Samuel Shute came out to succeed Dudley as governor; andin the next summer he called the Indians to a council at Georgetown, asettlement on Arrowsick Island, at the mouth of the Kennebec. Thither hewent in the frigate "Squirrel, " with the councillors of Massachusettsand New Hampshire; while the deputies of the Norridgewocks, Penobscots, Pequawkets, or Abenakis of the Saco, and Assagunticooks, or Abenakis ofthe Androscoggin, came in canoes to meet him, and set up their wigwamson a neighboring island. The council opened on the ninth of August, under a large tent, over which waved the British flag. The oath wasadministered to the interpreters by the aged Judge Sewall, and Shutethen made the Indians a speech in which he told them that the Englishand they were subjects of the great, good, and wise King George; thatas both peoples were under the same King, he would gladly see them alsoof the same religion, since it was the only true one; and to this end hegave them a Bible and a minister to teach them, --pointing to Rev. JosephBaxter, who stood near by. And he further assured them that if any wrongshould be done them, he would set it right. He then condescended to givehis hand to the chiefs, telling them, through the interpreter, that itwas to show his affection. 

The Indians, after their usual custom, deferred their answer to the nextday, when the council again met, and the Norridgewock chief, Wiwurna, addressed the governor as spokesman for his people. In defiance of everyIndian idea of propriety, Shute soon began to interrupt him withquestions and remarks. Wiwurna remonstrated civilly; but Shute continuedhis interruptions, and the speech turned to a dialogue, which may beabridged thus, Shute always addressing himself, not to the Indianorator, but to the interpreter. 

The orator expressed satisfaction at the arrival of the governor, andhoped that peace and friendship would now prevail. 

GOVERNOR (_to the interpreter_). Tell them that if they behavethemselves, I shall use them kindly. 

ORATOR (_as rendered by the interpreter_). Your Excellency was pleasedto say that we must obey King George. We will if we like his way oftreating us. 

GOVERNOR. They must obey him. 

ORATOR. We will if we are not disturbed on our lands. 

GOVERNOR. Nor must they disturb the English on theirs. 

ORATOR. We are pleased that your Excellency is ready to hear ourcomplaints when wrong is done us. 

GOVERNOR. They must not pretend to lands that belong to the English. 

ORATOR. We beg leave to go on in order with our answer. 

GOVERNOR. Tell him to go on. 

ORATOR. If there should be any quarrel and bloodshed, we will not avengeourselves, but apply to your Excellency. We will embrace in our bosomsthe English that have come to settle on our land. 

GOVERNOR. They must not call it their land, for the English have boughtit of them and their ancestors. 

ORATOR. We pray leave to proceed with our answer, and talk about theland afterwards. 

Wiwurna, then, with much civility, begged to be excused from receivingthe Bible and the minister, and ended by wishing the governor good windand weather for his homeward voyage. 

There was another meeting in the afternoon, in which the orator declaredthat his people were willing that the English should settle on the westside of the Kennebec as far up the river as a certain mill; on which thegovernor said to the interpreter: "Tell them we want nothing but ourown, and that that we will have;" and he ordered an old deed of sale, signed by six of their chiefs, to be shown and explained to them. Wiwurna returned that though his tribe were uneasy about their lands, they were willing that the English should keep what they had got, excepting the forts. On this point there was a sharp dialogue, and Shutesaid bluntly that if he saw fit, he should build a fort at every newsettlement. At this all the Indians rose abruptly and went back to theircamp, leaving behind an English flag that had been given them. 

Rale was at the Indian camp, and some of them came back in the eveningwith a letter from him, in which he told Shute that the governor ofCanada had asked the King of France whether he had ever given theIndians' land to the English, to which the King replied that he had not, and would help the Indians to repel any encroachment upon them. Thiscool assumption on the part of France of paramount right to the Abenakicountry incensed Shute, who rejected the letter with contempt. 

As between the governor and the Indian orator, the savage had shownhimself by far the more mannerly; yet so unwilling were the Indians tobreak with the English that on the next morning, seeing Shute about tore-embark, they sent messengers to him to apologize for what they calledtheir rudeness, beg that the English flag might be returned to them, andask for another interview, saying that they would appoint anotherspokesman instead of Wiwurna, who had given so much offence. Shuteconsented, and the meeting was held. The new orator presented a wampumbelt, expressed a wish for peace, and said that his people wished theEnglish to extend their settlements as far as they had formerly done. Shute, on his part, promised that trading-houses should be establishedfor supplying their needs, and that they should have a smith to mendtheir guns, and an interpreter of their own choice. Twenty chiefs andelders then affixed their totemic marks to a paper, renewing the pledgesmade four years before at Portsmouth, and the meeting closed with adance in honor of the governor. [241]

The Indians, as we have seen, had shown no eagerness to accept theministrations of Rev. Joseph Baxter. The Massachusetts Assembly hadabsurdly tried to counteract the influence of Rale by offering £150 ayear in their depreciated currency to any one of their ministers whowould teach Calvinism to the Indians. Baxter, whom Rale, withcharacteristic exaggeration, calls the ablest of the Boston ministers, but who was far from being so, as he was the pastor of the small countryvillage of Medfield, took up the task, and, with no experience of Indianlife or knowledge of any Indian language, entered the lists against anadversary who had spent half his days among savages, had gained the loveand admiration of the Norridgewocks, and spoke their language fluently. Baxter, with the confidence of a novice, got an interpreter and began topreach, exhort, and launch sarcasms against the doctrines and practicesof the Roman Church. Rale excommunicated such of his flock as listenedto him;[242] yet some persisted in doing so, and three of thesepetitioned the English governor to order "a small praying-house" to bebuilt for their use. [243]

Rale, greatly exasperated, opened a correspondence with Baxter, andwrote a treatise for his benefit, in which, through a hundred pages ofpolemical Latin, he proved that the Church of Rome was founded on arock. This he sent to Baxter, and challenged him to overthrow hisreasons. Baxter sent an answer for which Rale expresses great scorn asto both manner and matter. He made a rejoinder, directed not onlyagainst his opponent's arguments, but against his Latin, in which hepicked flaws with great apparent satisfaction. He says that he heard nomore from Baxter for a long time, but at last got another letter, inwhich there was nothing to the purpose, the minister merely charging himwith an irascible and censorious spirit. This letter is still preserved, and it does not answer to Rale's account of it. Baxter replies to hiscorrespondent vigorously, defends his own Latin, attacks that of Rale, and charges him with losing temper. [244]

Rale's correspondence with the New England ministers seems not to havebeen confined to Baxter. A paper is preserved, translated apparentlyfrom a Latin original, and entitled, "Remarks out of the Fryar SebastianRale's Letter from Norridgewock, February 7, 1720. " This letter appearsto have been addressed to some Boston minister, and is of a scornful anddefiant character, using language ill fitted to conciliate, as thus:"You must know that a missionary is not a cipher, like a minister;" orthus: "A Jesuit is not a Baxter or a Boston minister. " The tone is oneof exasperation dashed with contempt, and the chief theme is Englishencroachment and the inalienability of Indian lands. [245] Rale says thatBaxter gave up his mission after receiving the treatise on theinfallible supremacy of the true Church; but this is a mistake, as theminister made three successive visits to the Eastern country before hetired of his hopeless mission. 

In the letter just quoted, Rale seems to have done his best to rasp thetemper of his New England correspondent. He boasts of his power over theIndians, who, as he declares, always do as he advises them. "Any treatywith the governor, " he goes on to say, "and especially that ofArrowsick, is null and void if I do not approve it, for I give them somany reasons against it that they absolutely condemn what they havedone. " He says further that if they do not drive the English from theKennebec, he will leave them, and that they will then lose both theirlands and their souls; and he adds that, if necessary, he will tell themthat they may make war. [246] Rale wrote also to Shute; and though theletter is lost, the governor's answer shows that it was sufficientlyaggressive. 

The wild Indian is unstable as water. At Arrowsick, the Norridgewockswere all for peace; but when they returned to their village their moodchanged, and, on the representations of Rale, they began to kill thecattle of the English settlers on the river below, burn their haystacks, and otherwise annoy them. [247] The English suspected that the Jesuitwas the source of their trouble; and as they had always regarded thelands in question as theirs, by virtue of the charter of the PlymouthCompany in 1620, and the various grants under it, as well as by purchasefrom the Indians, their ire against him burned high. Yet afraid as theIndians were of another war, even Rale could scarcely have stirred themto violence but for the indignities put upon them by Indian-hatingruffians of the border, vicious rum-selling traders, and hungryland-thieves. They had still another cause of complaint. Shute hadpromised to build trading-houses where their wants should be suppliedwithout fraud and extortion; but he had not kept his word, and could notkeep it, for reasons that will soon appear. 

In spite of such provocations, Norridgewock was divided in opinion. Notonly were the Indians in great dread of war, but they had receivedEnglish presents to a considerable amount, chiefly from private personsinterested in keeping them quiet. Hence, to Rale's great chagrin, therewas an English party in the village so strong that when the Englishauthorities demanded reparation for the mischief done to the settlers, the Norridgewocks promised two hundred beaver-skins as damages, and gavefour hostages as security that they would pay for misdeeds in the past, and commit no more in the future. [248]

Rale now feared that his Indians would all go over to the English andtamely do their bidding; for though most of them, when he was present, would denounce the heretics and boast of the brave deeds they would doagainst them, yet after a meeting with English officials, they wouldchange their minds and accuse their spiritual father of lying. It wasclear that something must be done to end these waverings, lest the landsin dispute should be lost to France forever. 

The Norridgewocks had been invited to another interview with the Englishat Georgetown; and Rale resolved, in modern American phrase, to "capturethe meeting. " Vaudreuil and the Jesuit La Chasse, superior of themission, lent their aid. Messengers were sent to the converted Indiansof Canada, whose attachment to France and the Church was past all doubt, and who had been taught to abhor the English as children of the Devil. The object of the message was to induce them to go to the meeting atGeorgetown armed and equipped for any contingency. 

They went accordingly, --Abenakis from Becancour and St. Francis, Huronsfrom Lorette, and Iroquois from Caughnawaga, besides others, all stanchfoes of heresy and England. Rale and La Chasse directed their movementsand led them first to Norridgewock, where their arrival made arevolution. The peace party changed color like a chameleon, and was allfor war. The united bands, two hundred and fifty warriors in all, paddled down the Kennebec along with the two Jesuits and two Frenchofficers, Saint-Castin and Croisil. In a few days the English atGeorgetown saw them parading before the fort, well armed, displayingFrench flags, --feathers dangling from their scalp-locks, and facesfantastically patterned in vermilion, ochre, white clay, soot, and suchother pigments as they could find or buy. 

They were met by Captain Penhallow and other militia officers of thefort, to whom they gave the promised two hundred beaver-skins, anddemanded the four hostages in return; but the hostages had been given assecurity, not only for the beaver-skins, but also for the future goodbehavior of the Indians, and Penhallow replied that he had no authorityto surrender them. On this they gave him a letter to the governor, written for them by Père de la Chasse, and signed by their totems. Itsummoned the English to leave the country at once, and threatened to roband burn their houses in case of refusal. [249] The threat was notexecuted, and they presently disappeared, but returned in September inincreased numbers, burned twenty-six houses and attacked the fort, inwhich the inhabitants had sought refuge. The garrison consisted of fortymen, who, being reinforced by the timely arrival of several whale-boatsbringing thirty more, made a sortie. A skirmish followed; but beingoutnumbered and outflanked, the English fell back behind theirdefences. [250]

The French authorities were in a difficult position. They thought itnecessary to stop the progress of English settlement along the Kennebec;and yet, as there was peace between the two Crowns, they could not useopen force. There was nothing for it but to set on the Abenakis to fightfor them. "I am well pleased, " wrote Vaudreuil to Rale, "that you andPère de la Chasse have prompted the Indians to treat the English as theyhave done. My orders are to let them want for nothing, and I send themplenty of ammunition. " Rale says that the King allowed him a pension ofsix thousand livres a year, and that he spent it all "in good works. " Ashis statements are not remarkable for precision, this may mean that hewas charged with distributing the six thousand livres which the Kinggave every year in equal shares to the three Abenaki missions ofMedoctec, Norridgewock, and Panawamské, or Penobscot, and whichgenerally took the form of presents of arms, gunpowder, bullets, andother munitions of war, or of food and clothing to support the squawsand children while the warriors were making raids on the English. [251]

Vaudreuil had long felt the delicacy of his position, and even beforethe crisis seemed near he tried to provide against it, and wrote to theminister that he had never called the Abenakis subjects of France, butonly allies, in order to avoid responsibility for anything they mightdo. [252] "The English, " he says elsewhere, "must be prevented fromsettling on Abenaki lands; and to this end we must let the Indians actfor us (_laisser agir les sauvages_). "[253]

Yet while urging the need of precaution, he was too zealous to be alwaysprudent; and once, at least, he went so far as to suggest that Frenchsoldiers should be sent to help the Abenakis, --which, he thought, wouldfrighten the English into retreating from their settlements; whereas ifsuch help were refused, the Indians would go over to the enemy. [254] Thecourt was too anxious to avoid a rupture to permit the use of openforce, and would only promise plenty of ammunition to Indians who wouldfight the English, directing at the same time that neither favors norattentions should be given to those who would not. [255]

The half-breed officer, Saint-Castin, son of Baron Vincent deSaint-Castin by his wife, a Penobscot squaw, bore the double characterof a French lieutenant and an Abenaki chief, and had joined with theIndians in their hostile demonstration at Arrowsick Island. Therefore, as chief of a tribe styled subjects of King George, the English seizedhim, charged him with rebellion, and brought him to Boston, where he wasexamined by a legislative committee. He showed both tact and temper, parried the charges against him, and was at last set at liberty. Hisarrest, however, exasperated his tribesmen, who soon began to burnhouses, kill settlers, and commit various acts of violence, for all ofwhich Rale was believed to be mainly answerable. There was greatindignation against him. He himself says that a reward of a thousandpounds sterling was offered for his head, but that the English shouldnot get it for all their sterling money. It does not appear that such areward was offered, though it is true that the Massachusetts House ofRepresentatives once voted five hundred pounds in their currency--thenequal to about a hundred and eighty pounds sterling--for the samepurpose; but as the governor and Council refused their concurrence, theAct was of no effect. 

All the branches of the government, however, presently joined in sendingthree hundred men to Norridgewock, with a demand that the Indians shouldgive up Rale "and the other heads and fomenters of their rebellion. " Incase of refusal they were to seize the Jesuit and the principal chiefsand bring them prisoners to Boston. Colonel Westbrook was put in commandof the party. Rale, being warned of their approach by some of hisIndians, swallowed the consecrated wafers, hid the sacred vessels, andmade for the woods, where, as he thinks, he was saved from discovery bya special intervention of Providence. His papers fell into the hands ofWestbrook, including letters that proved beyond all doubt that he hadacted as agent of the Canadian authorities in exciting his flock againstthe English. [256]

Incensed by Westbrook's invasion, the Indians came down the Kennebec inlarge numbers, burned the village of Brunswick, and captured ninefamilies at Merry-meeting Bay; though they soon set them free, exceptfive men whom they kept to exchange for the four hostages still detainedat Boston. [257] At the same time they seized several small vessels inthe harbors along the coast. On this the governor and Council declaredwar against the Eastern Indians, meaning the Abenakis and their allies, whom they styled traitors and robbers. 

In Massachusetts many persons thought that war could not be justified, and were little disposed to push it with vigor. The direction of itbelonged to the governor in his capacity of Captain-General of theProvince. Shute was an old soldier who had served with credit aslieutenant-colonel under Marlborough; but he was hampered by one ofthose disputes which in times of crisis were sure to occur in everyBritish province whose governor was appointed by the Crown. TheAssembly, jealous of the representative of royalty, and looking backmournfully to their virtual independence under the lamented old charter, had from the first let slip no opportunity to increase its own powersand abridge those of the governor, refused him the means of establishingthe promised trading-houses in the Indian country, and would grant nomoney for presents to conciliate the Norridgewocks. The House nowwanted, not only to control supplies for the war, but to direct the waritself and conduct operations by committees of its own. Shute made hisplans of campaign, and proceeded to appoint officers from among thefrontier inhabitants, who had at least the qualification of beingaccustomed to the woods. One of them, Colonel Walton, was obnoxious tosome of the representatives, who brought charges against him, and theHouse demanded that he should be recalled from the field to answer tothem for his conduct. The governor objected to this as an encroachmenton his province as commander-in-chief. Walton was now accused of obeyingorders of the governor in contravention of those of the representatives, who thereupon passed a vote requiring him to lay his journal beforethem. This was more than Shute could bear. He had the character of agood-natured man; but the difficulties and mortifications of hisposition had long galled him, and he had got leave to return to Englandand lay his case before the King and Council. The crisis had now come. The Assembly were for usurping all authority, civil and military. Accordingly, on the first of January, 1723, the governor sailed in amerchant ship, for London, without giving notice of his intention toanybody except two or three servants. [258]

The burden of his difficult and vexatious office fell upon thelieutenant-governor, William Dummer. When he first met the Council inhis new capacity, a whimsical scene took place. Here, among the rest, was the aged, matronly countenance of the worthy Samuel Sewall, deeplyimpressed with the dignity and importance of his position as seniormember of the Board. At his best he never had the faintest sense ofhumor or perception of the ludicrous, and being now perhaps touched withdotage, he thought it incumbent upon him to address a few words ofexhortation and encouragement to the incoming chief magistrate. He rosefrom his seat with long locks, limp and white, drooping from under hisblack skullcap, --for he abhorred a wig as a sign of backsliding, --and ina voice of quavering solemnity spoke thus:--

 "If your Honour and this Honourable Board please to give me leave, I would speak a Word or two upon this solemn Occasion. Altho the unerring Providence of God has brought you to the Chair of Government in a cloudy and tempestuous season, yet you have this for your Encouragement, that the people you Have to do with are a part of the Israel of God, and you may expect to have of the Prudence and Patience of Moses communicated to you for your Conduct. It is evident that our Almighty Saviour counselled the first planters to remove hither and Settle here, and they dutifully followed his Advice, and therefore He will never leave nor forsake them nor Theirs; so that your Honour must needs be happy in sincerely seeking their Interest and Welfare, which your Birth and Education will incline you to do. _Difficilia quæ pulchra_. I promise myself that they who sit at this Board will yield their Faithful Advice to your Honour according to the Duty of their Place. "

Having thus delivered himself to an audience not much more susceptibleof the ludicrous than he was, the old man went home well pleased, andrecorded in his diary that the lieutenant-governor and councillors roseand remained standing while he was speaking, "and they expressed ahandsom Acceptance of what I had said; _Laus Deo_. "[259]

Dummer was born in New England, and might, therefore, expect to findmore favor than had fallen to his predecessor; but he was therepresentative of royalty, and could not escape the consequences ofbeing so. In earnest of what was in store for him, the Assembly wouldnot pay his salary, because he had sided with the governor in the latequarrel. The House voted to dismiss Colonel Walton and Major Moody, thechief officers appointed by Shute; and when Dummer reminded it that thiswas a matter belonging to him as commander-in-chief, it withheld the payof the obnoxious officers and refused all supplies for the war till theyshould be removed. Dummer was forced to yield. [260] The House wouldprobably have pushed him still farther, if the members had not dreadedthe effect of Shute's representations at court, and feared lestpersistent encroachment on the functions of the governor might costthem their charter, to which, insufficient as they thought it, and farinferior to the one they had lost, they clung tenaciously as thepalladium of their liberties. Yet Dummer needed the patience of Job; forhis Assembly seemed more bent on victories over him than over theIndians. 

There was another election, which did not improve the situation. The newHouse was worse than the old, being made up largely of narrow-mindedrustics, who tried to relieve the governor of all conduct of the war byassigning it to a committee chosen from among themselves; but theCouncil would not concur with them. 

Meanwhile the usual ravages went on. Farmhouses were burned, and theinmates waylaid and killed, while the Indians generally avoidedencounters with armed bodies of whites. Near the village of Oxford fourof them climbed upon the roof of a house, cut a hole in it with theirhatchets, and tried to enter. A woman who was alone in the building, andwho had two loaded guns and two pistols, seeing the first savagestruggling to shove himself through the hole, ran to him in desperationand shot him; on which the others dragged the body back anddisappeared. [261]

There were several attempts of a more serious kind. The small woodenfort at the river St. George, the most easterly English outpost, wasattacked, but the assailants were driven off. A few weeks later it wasattacked again by the Penobscots under their missionary, FatherLauverjat. Other means failing, they tried to undermine the stockade;but their sap caved in from the effect of rains, and they retreated, with severe loss. The warlike contagion spread to the Indians of NovaScotia. In July the Micmacs seized sixteen or seventeen fishing-smacksat Canseau; on which John Eliot, of Boston, and John Robinson, of CapeAnn, chased the marauders in two sloops, retook most of the vessels, andkilled a good number of the Indians. In the autumn a war-party, underthe noted chief Grey Lock, prowled about the village of Rutland, met theminister, Joseph Willard, and attacked him. He killed one savage andwounded another, but was at last shot and scalped. [262]

The representatives had long been bent on destroying the mission villageof the Penobscots on the river of that name; and one cause of theirgrudge against Colonel Walton was that, by order of the governor, he haddeferred a projected attack upon it. His successor, Colonel Westbrook, now took the work in hand, went up the Penobscot in February with twohundred and thirty men in sloops and whale-boats, left these at the headof navigation, and pushed through the forest to the Indian town calledPanawamské by the French. It stood apparently above Bangor, at or nearPassadumkeag. Here the party found a stockade enclosure fourteen feethigh, seventy yards long, and fifty yards wide, containing twenty-threehouses, which Westbrook, a better woodsman than grammarian, reports tohave been "built regular. " Outside the stockade stood the chapel, "welland handsomely furnished within and without, and on the south side ofthat the Fryer's dwelling-house. "[263] This "Fryer" was FatherLauverjat, who had led his flock to the attack of the fort at the St. George. Both Indians and missionary were gone. Westbrook's men burnedthe village and chapel, and sailed back to the St. George. In the nextyear, 1724, there was a more noteworthy stroke; for Dummer, more pliantthan Shute, had so far soothed his Assembly that it no longer refusedmoney for the war. It was resolved to strike at the root of the evil, seize Rale, and destroy Norridgewock. Two hundred and eight men in fourcompanies, under Captains Harmon, Moulton, and Brown, and LieutenantBean, set out from Fort Richmond in seventeen whaleboats on the eighthof August. They left the boats at Taconic Falls in charge of alieutenant and forty men, and on the morning of the tenth the main body, accompanied by three Mohawk Indians, marched through the forest forNorridgewock. Towards evening they saw two squaws, one of whom theybrutally shot, and captured the other, who proved to be the wife of thenoted chief Bomazeen. She gave them a full account of the state of thevillage, which they approached early in the afternoon of the twelfth. In the belief that some of the Indians would be in their cornfields onthe river above, Harmon, who was in command, divided the force, andmoved up the river with about eighty men, while Moulton, with as manymore, made for the village, advancing through the forest with allpossible silence. About three o'clock he and his men emerged from atangle of trees and bushes, and saw the Norridgewock cabins before them, no longer enclosed with a stockade, but open and unprotected. Not anIndian was stirring, till at length a warrior came out from one of thehuts, saw the English, gave a startled war-whoop, and ran back for hisgun. Then all was dismay and confusion. Squaws and children ranscreaming for the river, while the warriors, fifty or sixty in number, came to meet the enemy. Moulton ordered his men to reserve their firetill the Indians had emptied their guns. As he had foreseen, the excitedsavages fired wildly, and did little or no harm. The English, stillkeeping their ranks, returned a volley with deadly effect. The Indiansgave one more fire, and then ran for the river. Some tried to wade tothe farther side, the water being low; others swam across, while manyjumped into their canoes, but could not use them, having left thepaddles in their houses. Moulton's men followed close, shooting thefugitives in the water or as they climbed the farther bank. 

When they returned to the village they found Rale in one of the houses, firing upon some of their comrades who had not joined in the pursuit. He presently wounded one of them, on which a lieutenant named BenjaminJaques burst open the door of the house, and, as he declared, found thepriest loading his gun for another shot. The lieutenant said furtherthat he called on him to surrender, and that Rale replied that he wouldneither give quarter nor take it; on which Jaques shot him through thehead. [264] Moulton, who had given orders that Rale should not be killed, doubted this report of his subordinate so far as concerned the languageused by Rale, though believing that he had exasperated the lieutenant byprovoking expressions of some kind. The old chief Mogg had shut himselfup in another house, from which he fired and killed one of Moulton'sthree Mohawks, whose brother then beat in the door and shot the chiefdead. Several of the English followed, and brutally murdered Mogg'ssquaw and his two children. Such plunder as the village afforded, consisting of three barrels of gunpowder, with a few guns, blankets, andkettles, was then seized; and the Puritan militia thought it ameritorious act to break what they called the "idols" in the church, andcarry off the sacred vessels. 

Harmon and his party returned towards night from their useless excursionto the cornfields, where they found nobody. In the morning a search wasmade for the dead, and twenty-six Indians were found and scalped, including the principal chiefs and warriors of the place. Then, beinganxious for the safety of their boats, the party marched for TaconicFalls. They had scarcely left the village when one of the two survivingMohawks, named Christian, secretly turned back, set fire to the churchand the houses, and then rejoined the party. The boats were found safe, and embarking, they rowed down to Richmond with their trophies. [265]

The news of the fate of the Jesuit and his mission spread joy among theborder settlers, who saw in it the end of their troubles. In their eyesRale was an incendiary, setting on a horde of bloody savages to pillageand murder. While they thought him a devil, he passed in Canada for amartyred saint. He was neither the one nor the other, but a man with thequalities and faults of a man, --fearless, resolute, enduring; boastful, sarcastic, often bitter and irritating; a vehement partisan; apt to seethings, not as they were, but as he wished them to be; given toinaccuracy and exaggeration, yet no doubt sincere in opinions andgenuine in zeal; hating the English more than he loved the Indians;calling himself their friend, yet using them as instruments of worldlypolicy, to their danger and final ruin. In considering the ascription ofmartyrdom, it is to be remembered that he did not die because he was anapostle of the faith, but because he was the active agent of theCanadian government. 

There is reason to believe that he sometimes exercised a humanizinginfluence over his flock. The war which he helped to kindle was markedby fewer barbarities--fewer tortures, mutilations of the dead, andbutcheries of women and infants--than either of the preceding wars. Itis fair to assume that this was due in part to him, though it waschiefly the result of an order given, at the outset, by Shute thatnon-combatants in exposed positions should be sent to places of safetyin the older settlements. [266]

FOOTNOTES:

[228] In 1700, however, there was an agreement, under the treaty ofRyswick, which extended the English limits as far as the river St. George, a little west of the Penobscot. 

[229] See "Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century. "

[230] So written by himself in an autograph letter of 18 November, 1712. It is also spelled Rasle, Rasles, Ralle, and, very incorrectly, Rallé, or Rallee. 

[231] The above particulars are taken from an inscription on amanuscript map in the library of the Maine Historical Society, made in1716 by Joseph Heath, one of the principal English settlers on theKennebec, and for a time commandant of the fort at Brunswick. 

[232] When Colonel Westbrook and his men came to Norridgewock in 1722, they found a paper pinned to the church door, containing, among others, the following words, in the handwriting of Rale, meant as a fling at theEnglish invaders: "It [the church] is ill built, because the Englishdon't work well. It is not finished, although five or six Englishmenhave wrought here during four years, and the Undertaker [contractor], who is a great Cheat, hath been paid in advance for to finish it. " Themoney came from the Canadian government. 

[233] _Myrica cerifera. _

[234] The site of the Indian village is still called Indian Old Point. Norridgewock is the Naurantsouak, or Narantsouak, of the French. ForRale's mission life, see two letters of his, 15 October, 1722, and 12October, 1722, and a letter of Père La Chasse, Superior of the Missions, 29 October, 1724. These are printed in the _Lettres Édifiantes_, xvii. Xxiii. 

[235] Père La Chasse, in his eulogy of Rale, says that there was not alanguage on the continent with which he had not some acquaintance. Thisis of course absurd. Besides a full knowledge of the NorridgewockAbenaki, he had more or less acquaintance with two other Algonquinlanguages, --the Ottawa and the Illinois, --and also with the Huron; whichis enough for one man. 

[236] This treaty is given in full by Penhallow. It is also printed fromthe original draft by Mr. Frederic Kidder, in his _Abenaki Indians:their Treaties of 1713 and 1717_. The two impressions are substantiallythe same, but with verbal variations. The version of Kidder is the morecomplete, in giving not only the Indian totemic marks, but also theautographs in facsimile of all the English officials. Rale gives adramatic account of the treaty, which he may have got from the Indians, and which omits their submission and their promises. 

[237] It was standing in 1852, and a sketch of it is given by Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, v. 185. I have some doubts as to thedate of erection. 

[238] Williamson, _History of Maine_, ii. 88, 97. Compare Penhallow. 

[239] _Remarks out of the Fryar Sebastian Rale's Letter fromNorridgewock, 7 February, 1720_, in the _Common Place Book_ of Rev. Henry Flynt. 

[240] Sewall's _Memorial relating to the Kennebec Indians_ is anargument against war with them. 

[241] A full report of this conference was printed at the time inBoston. It is reprinted in _N. H. Historical Collections_, ii. 242, and_N. H. Provincial Papers_, iii. 693. Penhallow was present at themeeting, but his account of it is short. The accounts of Williamson andHutchinson are drawn from the above-mentioned report. 

[242] _Shute to Rale, 21 February, 1718. _

[243] This petition is still in the Massachusetts Archives, and isprinted by Dr. Francis in _Sparks's American Biography_, New Series, xvii. 259. 

[244] This letter was given by Mr. Adams, of Medfield, a connection ofthe Baxter family, to the Massachusetts Historical Society, in whosepossession it now is, in a worn condition. It was either captured withthe rest of Rale's papers and returned to the writer, or else is aduplicate kept by Baxter. 

[245] This curious paper is in the _Common Place Book_ of Rev. HenryFlynt, of which the original is in the library of the MassachusettsHistorical Society. 

[246] See Francis, _Life of Rale_, where the entire passage is given. 

[247] Rale wrote to the governor of Canada that it was "sur LesReprésentations qu'Il Avoit fait aux Sauvages de Sa Mission" that theyhad killed "un grand nombre de Bestiaux apartenant aux Anglois, " andthreatened them with attack if they did not retire. (_Réponse fait parMM. Vaudreuil et Bégon au Mémoire du Roy du 8 Juin, 1721. _) Rale toldthe governor of Massachusetts, on another occasion, that his characteras a priest permitted him to give the Indians nothing but counsels ofpeace. Yet as early as 1703 he wrote to Vaudreuil that the Abenakis wereready, at a word from him, to lift the hatchet against the English. _Beauharnois et Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Novembre, 1703. _

[248] _Joseph Heath and John Minot to Shute, 1 May, 1719. _ Rale saysthat these hostages were seized by surprise and violence; but Vaudreuilcomplains bitterly of the faintness of heart which caused the Indians togive them (_Vaudreuil à Rale, 15 Juin, 1721_), and both he and theintendant lay the blame on the English party at Norridgewock, who, "withthe consent of all the Indians of that mission, had the weakness to givefour hostages. " _Réponse de Vaudreuil et Bégon au Mémoire du Roy du 8Juin, 1721. _

[249] _Eastern Indians' Letter to the Governour, 27 July, 1721_, in_Mass. , Hist. Coll. , Second Series_, viii. 259. This is the originalFrench. It is signed with totems of all the Abenaki bands, and also ofthe Caughnawagas, Iroquois of the Mountain, Hurons, Micmacs, Montagnais, and several other tribes. On this interview, Penhallow; Belknap, ii. 51;_Shute to Vaudreuil_, 21 July, 1721 (O. S. ); _Ibid. , 23 April, 1722_;Rale in _Lettres Édifiantes_, xvii. 285. Rale blames Shute for not beingpresent at the meeting, but a letter of the governor shows that he hadnever undertaken to be there. He could not have come in any case, fromthe effects of a fall, which disabled him for some months even fromgoing to Portsmouth to meet the Legislature. _Provincial Papers of NewHampshire_, iii. 822. 

[250] Williamson, _Hist. Of Maine_, ii. 119; Penhallow. Rale's accountof the affair, found among his papers at Norridgewock, is curiouslyexaggerated. He says that he himself was with the Indians, and "topleasure the English" showed himself to them several times, --a pointwhich the English writers do not mention, though it is one which theywould be most likely to seize upon. He says that fifty houses wereburned, and that there were five forts, two of which were of stone, andthat in one of these six hundred armed men, besides women and children, had sought refuge, though there was not such a number of men in thewhole region of the Kennebec. 

[251] Vaudreuil, _Mémoire adressé au Roy, 5 Juin, 1723_. 

[252] _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 6 Septembre, 1716. _

[253] _Extrait d'une Liasse de Papiers concernant le Canada_, 1720. (Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères. )

[254] _Réponse de Vaudreuil et Bégon au Mémoire du Roy, 8 Juin, 1721. _

[255] _Bégon à Rale, 14 Juin, 1721. _

[256] Some of the papers found in Rale's "strong box" are stillpreserved in the Archives of Massachusetts, including a letter to himfrom Vaudreuil, dated at Quebec, 25 September, 1721, in which the Frenchgovernor expresses great satisfaction at the missionary's success inuniting the Indians against the English, and promises military aid, ifnecessary. 

[257] Wheeler, _History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell_, 54. 

[258] Hutchinson, ii. 261. On these dissensions compare Palfrey, _Hist. Of New England_, iv. 406-428. 

[259] _Sewall Papers_, iii. 317, 318. 

[260] Palfrey, iv. 432, 433. 

[261] Penhallow. Hutchinson, ii. 279. 

[262] Penhallow. Temple and Sheldon, _History of Northfield_, 195. 

[263] _Westbrook to Dummer, 23 March, 1723_, in _Collections Mass. Hist. Soc. , Second Series_, viii. 264. 

[264] Hutchinson, ii. 283 (ed. 1795). Hutchinson had the story fromMoulton. Compare the tradition in the family of Jaques, as told by hisgreat-grandson, in _Historical Magazine_, viii. 177. 

[265] The above rests on the account of Hutchinson, which was taken fromthe official Journal of Harmon, the commander of the expedition, andfrom the oral statements of Moulton, whom Hutchinson examined on thesubject. Charlevoix, following a letter of La Chasse in the Jesuit_Lettres Édifiantes_, gives a widely different story. According to him, Norridgewock was surprised by eleven hundred men, who first announcedtheir presence by a general volley, riddling all the houses withbullets. Rale, says La Chasse, Tan out to save his flock by drawing therage of the enemy on himself; on which they raised a great shout andshot him dead at the foot of the cross in the middle of the village. LaChasse does not tell us where he got the story; but as there were noFrench witnesses, the story must have come from the Indians, who arenotorious liars where their interest and self-love are concerned. Nobodycompetent to judge of evidence can doubt which of the two statements isthe more trustworthy. 

[266] It is also said that Rale taught some of his Indians to read andwrite, --which was unusual in the Jesuit missions. On his character, compare the judicial and candid _Life of Rale_, by Dr. Convers Francis, in Sparks's _American Biography, New Series_, vii. 

CHAPTER XI. 

1724, 1725. 

LOVEWELL'S FIGHT. 

Vaudreuil and Dummer. --Embassy to Canada. --Indians intractable. --Treatyof Peace. --The Pequawkets. --John Lovewell. --A Hunting Party. --AnotherExpedition. --The Ambuscade. --The Fight. --Chaplain Frye: his Fate. --TheSurvivors. --Susanna Rogers. 

The death of Rale and the destruction of Norridgewock did not at onceend the war. Vaudreuil turned all the savages of the Canadian missionsagainst the borders, not only of Maine, but of western Massachusetts, whose peaceful settlers had given no offence. Soon after theNorridgewock expedition, Dummer wrote to the French governor, who hadlately proclaimed the Abenakis his allies: "As they are subjects of hisBritannic Majesty, they cannot be your allies, except through me, hisrepresentative. You have instigated them to fall on our people in themost outrageous manner. I have seen your commission to Sebastien Rale. But for your protection and incitements they would have made peace longago. "[267]

In reply, Vaudreuil admitted that he had given a safe-conduct and acommission to Rale, which he could not deny, as the Jesuit's paperswere in the hands of the English governor. "You will have to answer toyour king for his murder, " he tells Dummer. "It would have been strangeif I had abandoned our Indians to please you. I cannot help taking thepart of our allies. You have brought your troubles upon yourself. Iadvise you to pull down all the forts you have built on the Abenakilands since the Peace of Utrecht. If you do so, I will be your mediatorwith the Norridgewocks. As to the murder of Rale, I leave that to besettled between the two Crowns. "[268]

Apparently the French court thought it wise to let the question rest, and make no complaint. Dummer, however, gave his views on the subject toVaudreuil. "Instead of preaching peace, love, and friendship, agreeablyto the Christian religion, Rale was an incendiary, as appears by manyletters I have by me. He has once and again appeared at the head of agreat many Indians, threatening and insulting us. If such a disturber ofthe peace has been killed in the heat of action, nobody is to blame buthimself. I have much more cause to complain that Mr. Willard, ministerof Rutland, who is innocent of all that is charged against Rale, andalways confined himself to preaching the Gospel, was slain and scalpedby your Indians, and his scalp carried in triumph to Quebec. "

Dummer then denies that France has any claim to the Abenakis, anddeclares that the war between them and the English is due to theinstigations of Rale and the encouragements given them by Vaudreuil. Buthe adds that in his wish to promote peace he sends two prominentgentlemen, Colonel Samuel Thaxter and Colonel William Dudley, as bearersof his letter. [269]

Mr. Atkinson, envoy on the part of New Hampshire, joined Thaxter andDudley, and the three set out for Montreal, over the ice of LakeChamplain. Vaudreuil received them with courtesy. As required by theirinstructions, they demanded the release of the English prisoners inCanada, and protested against the action of the French governor insetting on the Indians to attack English settlements when there waspeace between the two Crowns. Vaudreuil denied that he had done so, tillthey showed him his own letters to Rale, captured at Norridgewock. Thesewere unanswerable; but Vaudreuil insisted that the supplies sent to theIndians were only the presents which they received every year from theKing. As to the English prisoners, he said that those in the hands ofthe Indians were beyond his power; but that the envoys could have thosewhom the French had bought from their captors, on paying back the pricethey had cost. The demands were exorbitant, but sixteen prisoners wereransomed, and bargains were made for ten more. Vaudreuil proposed toThaxter and his colleagues to have an interview with the Indians, whichthey at first declined, saying that they had no powers to treat withthem, though, if the Indians wished to ask for peace, they were ready tohear them. At length a meeting was arranged. The French governor writes:"Being satisfied that nothing was more opposed to our interests than apeace between the Abenakis and the English, I thought that I would soundthe chiefs before they spoke to the English envoys, and insinuate tothem everything that I had to say. "[270] This he did with such successthat, instead of asking for peace, the Indians demanded the demolitionof the English forts, and heavy damages for burning their church andkilling their missionary. In short, to Vaudreuil's great satisfaction, they talked nothing but war. The French despatch reporting thisinterview has the following marginal note: "Nothing better can be donethan to foment this war, which at least retards the settlements of theEnglish;" and against this is written, in the hand of the colonialminister, the word "_Approved_. "[271] This was, in fact, the policypursued from the first, and Rale had been an instrument of it. TheJesuit La Chasse, who spoke both English and Abenaki, had acted asinterpreter, and so had had the meeting in his power, as he could makeboth parties say what he pleased. The envoys thought him moreanti-English than Vaudreuil himself, and ascribed the intractable moodof the Indians to his devices. Under the circumstances, they made amistake in consenting to the interview at all. The governor, who hadtreated them with civility throughout, gave them an escort of soldiersfor the homeward journey, and they and the redeemed prisoners returnedsafely to Albany. 

The war went on as before, but the Indians were fast growing tired ofit. The Penobscots had made themselves obnoxious by their attacks onFort St. George, and Captain Heath marched across country from theKennebec to punish them. He found their village empty. It was built, since Westbrook's attack, at or near the site of Bangor, a little belowIndian Old Town, --the present abode of the tribe, --and consisted offifty wigwams, which Heath's men burned to the ground. 

One of the four hostages still detained at Boston, together with anotherIndian captured in the war, was allowed to visit his people, under apromise to return. Strange to say, the promise was kept. They came backbringing a request for peace from their tribesmen. On this, commissioners were sent to the St. George, where a conference was heldwith some of the Penobscot chiefs, and it was arranged that deputies ofthat people should be sent to Boston to conclude a solid peace. Afterlong delay, four chiefs appeared, fully empowered, as they said, to makepeace, not for the Penobscots only, but for the other Abenaki tribes, their allies. The speeches and ceremonies being at last ended, the fourdeputies affixed their marks to a paper in which, for themselves andthose they represented, they made submission "unto his most excellentMajesty George, by the grace of God king of Great Britain, France, andIreland, defender of the Faith, " etc. , promising to "cease and forbearall acts of hostility, injuries, and discord towards all his subjects, and never confederate or combine with any other nation to theirprejudice. " Here was a curious anomaly. The English claimed the Abenakisas subjects of the British Crown, and at the same time treated with themas a foreign power. Each of the four deputies signed the above-mentionedpaper, one with the likeness of a turtle, the next with that of a bird, the third with the untutored portrait of a beaver, and the fourth withan extraordinary scrawl, meant, it seems, for a lobster, --such beingtheir respective totems. To these the lieutenant-governor added the sealof the province of Massachusetts, coupled with his own autograph. 

In the next summer, and again a year later, other meetings were held atCasco Bay with the chiefs of the various Abenaki tribes, in which, afterprodigious circumlocution, the Boston treaty was ratified, and the warended. [272] This time the Massachusetts Assembly, taught wisdom byexperience, furnished a guarantee of peace by providing for governmenttrading-houses in the Indian country, where goods were supplied, throughresponsible hands, at honest prices. 

The Norridgewocks, with whom the quarrel began, were completely broken. Some of the survivors joined their kindred in Canada, and others weremerged in the Abenaki bands of the Penobscot, Saco, or Androscoggin. Peace reigned at last along the borders of New England; but it had costher dear. In the year after the death of Rale, there was an incident ofthe conflict too noted in its day, and too strongly rooted in populartradition, to be passed unnoticed. 

Out of the heart of the White Mountains springs the river Saco, fed bythe bright cascades that leap from the crags of Mount Webster, brawlingamong rocks and bowlders down the great defile of the Crawford Notch, winding through the forests and intervales of Conway, then circlingnorthward by the village of Fryeburg in devious wanderings by meadows, woods, and mountains, and at last turning eastward and southward to jointhe sea. 

On the banks of this erratic stream lived an Abenaki tribe called theSokokis. When the first white man visited the country, these Indianslived at the Falls, a few miles from the mouth of the river. Theyretired before the English settlers, and either joined their kindred inMaine, or migrated to St. Francis and other Abenaki settlements inCanada; but a Sokoki band called Pigwackets, or Pequawkets, still keptits place far in the interior, on the upper waters of the Saco, nearPine Hill, in the present town of Fryeburg. Except a small band of theirnear kindred on Lake Ossipee, they were the only human tenants of awilderness many thousand square miles in extent. In their wild andremote abode they were difficult of access, and the forest and the riverwere well stocked with moose, deer, bear, beaver, otter, lynx, fisher, mink, and marten. In this, their happy hunting-ground, the Pequawketsthought themselves safe; and they would have been so for some timelonger if they had not taken up the quarrel of the Norridgewocks andmade bloody raids against the English border, under their war-chief, Paugus. 

Not far from where their wigwams stood clustered in a bend of the Sacowas the small lake now called Lovewell's Pond, named for John Lovewellof Dunstable, a Massachusetts town on the New Hampshire line. Lovewell'sfather, a person of consideration in the village, where he owned a"garrison house, " had served in Philip's War, and taken part in thefamous Narragansett Swamp Fight. The younger Lovewell, now aboutthirty-three years of age, lived with his wife, Hannah, and two or threechildren on a farm of two hundred acres. The inventory of his effects, made after his death, includes five or six cattle, one mare, two steeltraps with chains, a gun, two or three books, a feather-bed, and"under-bed, " or mattress, along with sundry tools, pots, barrels, chests, tubs, and the like, --the equipment, in short, of a decentfrontier yeoman of the time. [273] But being, like the tough veteran, hisfather, of a bold and adventurous disposition, he seems to have beenless given to farming than to hunting and bush-fighting. 

Dunstable was attacked by Indians in the autumn of 1724, and two menwere carried off. Ten others went in pursuit, but fell into an ambush, and nearly all were killed, Josiah Farwell, Lovewell's brother-in-law, being, by some accounts, the only one who escaped. [274] Soon after this, a petition, styled a "Humble Memorial, " was laid before the House ofRepresentatives at Boston. It declares that in order "to kill anddestroy their enemy Indians, " the petitioners and forty or fifty othersare ready to spend one whole year in hunting them, "provided they canmeet with Encouragement suitable. " The petition is signed by JohnLovewell, Josiah Farwell, and Jonathan Robbins, all of Dunstable, Lovewell's name being well written, and the others after a cramped andunaccustomed fashion. The representatives accepted the proposal andvoted to give each adventurer two shillings and sixpence a day, --thenequal in Massachusetts currency to about one English shilling, --out ofwhich he was to maintain himself. The men were, in addition, promisedlarge rewards for the scalps of male Indians old enough to fight. 

A company of thirty was soon raised. Lovewell was chosen captain, Farwell, lieutenant, and Robbins, ensign. They set out towards the endof November, and reappeared at Dunstable early in January, bringing oneprisoner and one scalp. Towards the end of the month Lovewell set outagain, this time with eighty-seven men, gathered from the villages ofDunstable, Groton, Lancaster, Haverhill, and Billerica. They ascendedthe frozen Merrimac, passed Lake Winnepesaukee, pushed nearly to theWhite Mountains, and encamped on a branch of the upper Saco. Here theykilled a moose, --a timely piece of luck, for they were in danger ofstarvation, and Lovewell had been compelled by want of food to send backa good number of his men. The rest held their way, filing on snow-shoesthrough the deathlike solitude that gave no sign of life except thelight track of some squirrel on the snow, and the brisk note of thehardy little chickadee, or black-capped titmouse, so familiar to thewinter woods. Thus far the scouts had seen no human footprint; but onthe twentieth of February they found a lately abandoned wigwam, and, following the snow-shoe tracks that led from it, at length saw smokerising at a distance out of the gray forest. The party lay close tilltwo o'clock in the morning; then cautiously approached, found one ormore wigwams, surrounded them, and killed all the inmates, ten innumber. They were warriors from Canada on a winter raid against theborders. Lovewell and his men, it will be seen, were much like huntersof wolves, catamounts, or other dangerous beasts, except that the chaseof this fierce and wily human game demanded far more hardihood andskill. 

They brought home the scalps in triumph, together with the blankets andthe new guns furnished to the slain warriors by their Canadian friends;and Lovewell began at once to gather men for another hunt. The busyseason of the farmers was at hand, and volunteers came in less freelythan before. At the middle of April, however, he had raised a band offorty-six, of whom he was the captain, with Farwell and Robbins as hislieutenants. Though they were all regularly commissioned by thegovernor, they were leaders rather than commanders, for they and theirmen were neighbors or acquaintances on terms of entire social equality. Two of the number require mention. One was Seth Wyman, of Woburn, anensign; and the other was Jonathan Frye, of Andover, the chaplain, ayouth of twenty-one, graduated at Harvard College in 1723, and now astudent of theology. Chaplain though he was, he carried a gun, knife, and hatchet like the others, and not one of the party was more prompt touse them. 

They began their march on April 15. A few days afterwards, one WilliamCummings, of Dunstable, became so disabled by the effects of a woundreceived from Indians some time before, that he could not keep on withthe rest, and Lovewell sent him back in charge of a kinsman, thusreducing their number to forty-four. When they reached the west shore ofLake Ossipee, Benjamin Kidder, of Nutfield, fell seriously ill. To leavehim defenceless in a place so dangerous was not to be thought of; andhis comrades built a small fort, or palisaded log-cabin, near the water, where they left the sick man in charge of the surgeon, together withSergeant Woods and a guard of seven men. The rest, now reduced tothirty-four, continued their march through the forest northeastwardtowards Pequawket, while the savage heights of the White Mountains, still covered with snow, rose above the dismal, bare forests on theirleft. They seem to have crossed the Saco just below the site ofFryeburg, and in the night of May 7, as they lay in the woods near thenortheast end of Lovewell's Pond, the men on guard heard sounds likeIndians prowling about them. At daybreak the next morning, as they stoodbareheaded, listening to a prayer from the young chaplain, they heardthe report of a gun, and soon after discovered an Indian on the shore ofthe pond at a considerable distance. Apparently he was shooting ducks;but Lovewell, suspecting a device to lure them into an ambuscade, askedthe men whether they were for pushing forward or falling back, and withone voice they called upon him to lead them on. They were then in apiece of open pine woods traversed by a small brook. He ordered them tolay down their packs and advance with extreme caution. They had movedforward for some time in this manner when they met an Indian comingtowards them through the dense trees and bushes. He no sooner saw themthan he fired at the leading men. His gun was charged with beaver-shot;but he was so near his mark that the effect was equal to that of abullet, and he severely wounded Lovewell and one Whiting; on which SethWyman shot him dead, and the chaplain and another man scalped him. Lovewell, though believed to be mortally hurt, was still able to walk, and the party fell back to the place where they had left their packs. The packs had disappeared, and suddenly, with frightful yells, the wholebody of the Pequawket warriors rushed from their hiding-places, firingas they came on. The survivors say that they were more than twice thenumber of the whites, --which is probably an exaggeration, though theirconduct, so unusual with Indians, in rushing forward instead of firingfrom their ambush, shows a remarkable confidence in their numericalstrength. [275] They no doubt expected to strike their enemies with apanic. Lovewell received another mortal wound; but he fired more thanonce on the Indians as he lay dying. His two lieutenants, Farwell andRobbins, were also badly hurt. Eight others fell; but the rest stoodtheir ground, and pushed the Indians so hard that they drove them backto cover with heavy loss. One man played the coward, Benjamin Hassell, of Dunstable, who ran off, escaped in the confusion, and made with hisbest speed for the fort at Lake Ossipee. 

The situation of the party was desperate, and nothing saved them fromdestruction but the prompt action of their surviving officers, only oneof whom, Ensign Wyman, had escaped unhurt. It was probably under hisdirection that the men fell back steadily to the shore of the pond, which was only a few rods distant. Here the water protected their rear, so that they could not be surrounded; and now followed one of the mostobstinate and deadly bush-fights in the annals of New England. It wasabout ten o'clock when the fight began, and it lasted till night. TheIndians had the greater agility and skill in hiding and shelteringthemselves, and the whites the greater steadiness and coolness in usingtheir guns. They fought in the shade; for the forest was dense, and allalike covered themselves as they best could behind trees, bushes, orfallen trunks, where each man crouched with eyes and mind intent, firingwhenever he saw, or thought he saw, the head, limbs, or body of an enemyexposed to sight for an instant. The Indians howled like wolves, yelledlike enraged cougars, and made the forest ring with their whoops; whilethe whites replied with shouts and cheers. At one time the Indiansceased firing and drew back among the trees and undergrowth, where, bythe noise they made, they seemed to be holding a "pow-wow, " orincantation to procure victory; but the keen and fearless Seth Wymancrept up among the bushes, shot the chief conjurer, and broke up themeeting. About the middle of the afternoon young Frye received a mortalwound. Unable to fight longer, he lay in his blood, praying from time totime for his comrades in a faint but audible voice. 

Solomon Keyes, of Billerica, received two wounds, but fought on till athird shot struck him. He then crawled up to Wyman in the heat of thefight, and told him that he, Keyes, was a dead man, but that the Indiansshould not get his scalp if he could help it. Creeping along the sandyedge of the pond, he chanced to find a stranded canoe, pushed it afloat, rolled himself into it, and drifted away before the wind. 

Soon after sunset the Indians drew off and left the field to theirenemies, living and dead, not even stopping to scalp the fallen, --aremarkable proof of the completeness of their discomfiture. Exhaustedwith fatigue and hunger, --for, having lost their packs in the morning, they had no food, --the surviving white men explored the scene of thefight. Jacob Farrar lay gasping his last by the edge of the water. Robert Usher and Lieutenant Robbins were unable to move. Of thethirty-four men, nine had escaped without serious injury, eleven werebadly wounded, and the rest were dead or dying, except the coward whohad run off. 

About midnight, an hour or more before the setting of the moon, such ashad strength to walk left the ground. Robbins, as he lay helpless, askedone of them to load his gun, saying, "The Indians will come in themorning to scalp me, and I'll kill another of 'em if I can. " They loadedthe gun and left him. 

To make one's way even by daylight through the snares and pitfalls of aNew England forest is often a difficult task; to do so in the darknessof night and overshadowing boughs, among the fallen trees and the snarlof underbrush, was wellnigh impossible. Any but the most skilfulwoodsmen would have lost their way. The Indians, sick of fighting, didnot molest the party. After struggling on for a mile or more, Farwell, Frye, and two other wounded men, Josiah Jones and Eleazer Davis, couldgo no farther, and, with their consent, the others left them, with apromise to send them help as soon as they should reach the fort. In themorning the men divided into several small bands, the better to eludepursuit. One of these parties was tracked for some time by the Indians, and Elias Barron, becoming separated from his companions, was neveragain heard of, though the case of his gun was afterwards found by thebank of the river Ossipee. 

Eleven of the number at length reached the fort, and to their amazementfound nobody there. The runaway, Hassell, had arrived many hours beforethem, and to excuse his flight told so frightful a story of the fate ofhis comrades that his hearers were seized with a panic, shamefullyabandoned their post, and set out for the settlements, leaving awriting on a piece of birch-bark to the effect that all the rest werekilled. They had left a supply of bread and pork, and while the famishedeleven rested and refreshed themselves they were joined by SolomonKeyes, the man who, after being thrice wounded, had floated away in acanoe from the place of the fight. After drifting for a considerabledistance, the wind blew him ashore, when, spurred by necessity andfeeling himself "wonderfully strengthened, " he succeeded in gaining thefort. 

Meanwhile Frye, Farwell, and their two wounded companions, Davis andJones, after waiting vainly for the expected help, found strength tostruggle forward again, till the chaplain stopped and lay down, beggingthe others to keep on their way, and saying to Davis, "Tell my fatherthat I expect in a few hours to be in eternity, and am not afraid todie. " They left him, and, says the old narrative, "he has not been heardof since. " He had kept the journal of the expedition, which was lostwith him. 

Farwell died of exhaustion. The remaining two lost their way and becameseparated. After wandering eleven days, Davis reached the fort at LakeOssipee, and, finding food there, came into Berwick on thetwenty-seventh. Jones, after fourteen days in the woods, arrived, halfdead, at the village of Biddeford. 

Some of the eleven who had first made their way to the fort, togetherwith Keyes, who joined them there, came into Dunstable during the nightof the thirteenth, and the rest followed one or two days later. EnsignWyman, who was now the only commissioned officer left alive, and who hadborne himself throughout with the utmost intrepidity, decision, and goodsense, reached the same place along with three other men on thefifteenth. 

The runaway, Hassell, and the guard at the fort, whom he had infectedwith his terror, had lost no time in making their way back to Dunstable, which they seem to have reached on the evening of the eleventh. Horsemenwere sent in haste to carry the doleful news to Boston, on which thegovernor gave orders to Colonel Tyng of the militia, who was then atDunstable, to gather men in the border towns, march with all speed tothe place of the fight, succor the wounded if any were still alive, andattack the Indians, if he could find them. Tyng called upon Hassell togo with him as a guide; but he was ill, or pretended to be so, on whichone of the men who had been in the fight and had just returned offeredto go in his place. 

When the party reached the scene of the battle, they saw the treesplentifully scarred with bullets, and presently found and buried thebodies of Lovewell, Robbins, and ten others. The Indians, after theirusual custom, had carried off or hidden their own dead; but Tyng's mendiscovered three of them buried together, and one of these wasrecognized as the war-chief Paugus, killed by Wyman, or, according to amore than doubtful tradition, by John Chamberlain. [276] Not a livingIndian was to be seen. 

The Pequawkets were cowed by the rough handling they had met when theyplainly expected a victory. Some of them joined their Abenaki kinsmen inCanada and remained there, while others returned after the peace totheir old haunts by the Saco; but they never again raised the hatchetagainst the English. 

Lovewell's Pond, with its sandy beach, its two green islands, and itsenvironment of lonely forests, reverted for a while to its originalowners, --the wolf, bear, lynx, and moose. In our day all is changed. Farms and dwellings possess those peaceful shores, and hard by, where, at the bend of the Saco, once stood, in picturesque squalor, the wigwamsof the vanished Pequawkets, the village of Fryeburg preserves the nameof the brave young chaplain, whose memory is still cherished, in spiteof his uncanonical turn for scalping. [277] He had engaged himself to ayoung girl of a neighboring village, Susanna Rogers, daughter of JohnRogers, minister of Boxford. It has been said that Frye's parentsthought her beneath him in education and position; but this is notlikely, for her father belonged to what has been called the "Brahmincaste" of New England, and, like others of his family, had had, atHarvard, the best education that the country could supply. The girlherself, though only fourteen years old, could make verses, such as theywere; and she wrote an elegy on the death of her lover which, batingsome grammatical lapses, deserves the modest praise of being no worsethan many New England rhymes of that day. 

The courage of Frye and his sturdy comrades contributed greatly to thepacification which in the next year relieved the borders from thescourge of Indian war. [278]

FOOTNOTES:

[267] _Dummer to Vaudreuil, 15 September, 1724. _

[268] _Vaudreuil à Dummer, 29 Octobre, 1724. _

[269] _Dummer to Vaudreuil, 19 January, 1725. _ This, with many otherpapers relating to these matters, is in the Massachusetts Archives. 

[270] _Dépêche de Vaudreuil, 7 Août, 1725. _ "Comme j'ai toujours étépersuadé que rien n'est plus opposé à nos intérêts que la paix desAbenakis avec les Anglais (la sureté de cette colonie du côté de l'estayant été l'unique objet de cette guerre), je songeai à pressentir cessauvages avant qu'ils parlassant aux Anglais et à leur insinuer tout ceque j'avais à leur dire. "--_Vaudreuil au Ministre, 22 Mai, 1725. _

[271] _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, ix. 949. 

[272] Penhallow gives the Boston treaty. For the ratifications, see_Collections of the Maine Hist. Soc. _, iii. 377, 407. 

[273] See the inventory, in Kidder, _The Expeditions of Captain JohnLovewell_, 93, 94. 

[274] Other accounts say that eight of the ten were killed. Theheadstone of one of the number, Thomas Lund, has these words: "This man, with seven more that lies in this grave, was slew All in A day by theIndiens. "

[275] Penhallow puts their number at seventy, Hutchinson at eighty, Williamson at sixty-three, and Belknap at forty-one. In such cases thesmallest number is generally nearest the truth. 

[276] The tradition is that Chamberlain and Paugus went down to thesmall brook, now called Fight Brook, to clean their guns, hot and foulwith frequent firing; that they saw each other at the same instant, andthat the Indian said to the white man, in his broken English, "Me killyou quick!" at the same time hastily loading his piece; to whichChamberlain coolly replied, "Maybe not. " His firelock had a largetouch-hole, so that the powder could be shaken out into the pan, and thegun made to prime itself. Thus he was ready for action an instant soonerthan his enemy, whom he shot dead just as Paugus pulled trigger, andsent a bullet whistling over his head. The story has no good foundation, while the popular ballad, written at the time, and very faithful to thefacts, says that, the other officers being killed, the English madeWyman their captain, --

 "Who shot the old chief Paugus, which did the foe defeat, Then set his men in order and brought off the retreat. "

[277] The town, however, was not named for the chaplain, but for hisfather's cousin, General Joseph Frye, the original grantee of the land. 

[278] Rev. Thomas Symmes, minister of Bradford, preached a sermon on thefate of Lovewell and his men immediately after the return of thesurvivors, and printed it, with a much more valuable introduction, giving a careful account of the affair, on the evidence of "the ValorousCaptain Wyman and some others of good Credit that were in theEngagement. " Wyman had just been made a captain, in recognition of hisconduct. The narrative is followed by an attestation of its truth signedby him and two others of Lovewell's band. 

A considerable number of letters relating to the expedition arepreserved in the Massachusetts Archives, from Benjamin Hassell, ColonelTyng, Governor Dummer of Massachusetts, and Governor Wentworth of NewHampshire. They give the various reports received from those in thefight, and show the action taken in consequence. The Archives alsocontain petitions from the survivors and the families of the slain; andthe legislative Journals show that the petitioners received large grantsof land. Lovewell's debts contracted in raising men for his expeditionswere also paid. 

The papers mentioned above, with other authentic records concerning theaffair, have been printed by Kidder in his _Expeditions of Captain JohnLovewell_, a monograph of thorough research. The names of all Lovewell'sparty, and biographical notices of some of them, are also given by Mr. Kidder. Compare Penhallow, Hutchinson, Fox, _History of Dunstable_, andBouton, _Lovewell's Great Fight_. For various suggestions touchingLovewell's Expedition, I am indebted to Mr. C. W. Lewis, who has made itthe subject of minute and careful study. 

A ballad which was written when the event was fresh, and was longpopular in New England, deserves mention, if only for its generalfidelity to the facts. The following is a sample of its eighteenstanzas:--

 "'T was ten o'clock in the morning when first the fight begun, And fiercely did continue till the setting of the sun, Excepting that the Indians, some hours before 't was night, Drew off into the bushes, and ceased awhile to fight;

 "But soon again returnèd in fierce and furious mood, Shouting as in the morning, but yet not half so loud; For, as we are informèd, so thick and fast they fell, Scarce twenty of their number at night did get home well. 

 * * * * *

 "Our worthy Captain Lovewell among them there did die; They killed Lieutenant Robbins, and wounded good young Frye, Who was our English chaplain; he many Indians slew, And some of them he scalped when bullets round him flew. "

Frye, as mentioned in the text, had engaged himself to Susanna Rogers, ayoung girl of the village of Boxford, who, after his death, wrote someuntutored verses to commemorate his fate. They are entitled, _A MournfulElegy on Mr. Jonathan Frye_, and begin thus:

 "Assist, ye muses, help my quill, Whilst floods of tears does down distil; Not from mine eyes alone, but all That hears the sad and doleful fall Of that young student, Mr. Frye, Who in his blooming youth did die. Fighting for his dear country's good, He lost his life and precious blood. His father's only son was he; His mother loved him tenderly; And all that knew him loved him well; For in bright parts he did excel Most of his age; for he was young, -- Just entering on twenty-one; A comely youth, and pious too; This I affirm, for him I knew. "

She then describes her lover's brave deeds, and sad but heroic death, alone in a howling wilderness; condoles with the bereaved parents, exhorts them to resignation, and touches modestly on her own sorrow. 

In more recent times the fate of Lovewell and his companions hasinspired several poetical attempts, which need not be dwelt upon. Lovewell's Fight, as Dr. Palfrey observes, was long as famous in NewEngland as Chevy Chase on the Scottish Border. 

CHAPTER XII. 

1712. 

THE OUTAGAMIES AT DETROIT. 

The West and the Fur-trade. --New York and Canada. --IndianPopulation. --The Firebrands of the West. --Detroit in 1712. --DangerousVisitors. --Suspense. --Timely Succors. --The Outagamies attacked: theirDesperate Position. --Overtures. --Wavering Allies. --Conduct ofDubuisson. --Escape of the Outagamies. --Pursuit and Attack. --Victory andCarnage. 

We have seen that the Peace of Utrecht was followed by a threefoldconflict for ascendency in America, --the conflict for Acadia, theconflict for northern New England, and the conflict for the Great West;which last could not be said to take at once an international character, being essentially a competition for the fur-trade. Only one of theEnglish colonies took an active part in it, --the province of New York. Alone among her sister communities she had a natural thoroughfare to theWest, not comparable, however, with that of Canada, to whose people theSt. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and their tributary waters were acontinual invitation to the vast interior. 

Virginia and Pennsylvania were not yet serious rivals in the fur-trade;and New England, the most active of the British colonies, was barred outfrom it by the interposition of New York, which lay across her westwardpath, thus forcing her to turn her energies to the sea, where half acentury later her achievements inspired the glowing panegyrics of Burkebefore the House of Commons. 

New York, then, was for many years the only rival of Canada for thecontrol of the West. It was a fatal error in the rulers of New Francethat they did not, in the seventeenth century, use more strenuousefforts to possess themselves, by purchase, exchange, or conquest, ofthis troublesome and dangerous neighbor. There was a time, under thereign of Charles II. , when negotiation for the purchase of New Yorkmight have been successful; and if this failed, the conquest of theprovince, if attempted by forces equal to the importance of the object, would have been far from hopeless. With New York in French hands, thefate of the continent would probably have been changed. The Britishpossessions would have been cut in two. New England, isolated and placedin constant jeopardy, would have vainly poured her unmanageable herds ofraw militia against the disciplined veterans of Old France intrenched atthe mouth of the Hudson. Canada would have gained complete control ofher old enemies, the Iroquois, who would have been wholly dependent onher for the arms and ammunition without which they could do nothing. 

The Iroquois, as the French had been accustomed to call them, were knownto the English as the Five Nations, --a name which during the eighteenthcentury the French also adopted. Soon after the Peace of Utrecht, akindred tribe, the Tuscaroras, was joined to the original five membersof the confederacy, which thenceforward was sometimes called the SixNations, though the Tuscaroras were never very prominent in its history;and, to avoid confusion, we will keep the more familiar name of the FiveNations, which the French used to the last. 

For more than two generations this league of tribes had held Canada interror, and more than once threatened it with destruction. But now achange had come over the confederates. Count Frontenac had humbled theirpride. They were crowded between the rival European nations, both ofwhom they distrusted. Their traditional hatred of the French would havegiven the English of New York a controlling influence over them if theadvantage had been used with energy and tact. But a narrow andshort-sighted conduct threw it away. A governor of New York, moreover, even were he as keen and far-seeing as Frontenac himself, would oftenhave been helpless. When the Five Nations were attacked by the French, he had no troops to defend them, nor could he, like a Canadian governor, call out the forces of his province by a word, to meet the exigency. Thesmall revenues of New York were not at his disposal. Without the votesof the frugal representatives of an impoverished people, his hands weretied. Hence the Five Nations, often left unaided when they most neededhelp, looked upon their Dutch and English neighbors as slothful andunwarlike. 

Yet their friendship was of the greatest importance to the province, inpeace as well as in war, and was indispensable in the conflict that NewYork was waging single-handed for the control of the western fur-trade. The Five Nations, as we have seen, [279] acted as middlemen between theNew York merchants and the tribes of the far interior, and through themEnglish goods and English influence penetrated all the lake country, andreached even to the Mississippi. 

These vast western regions, now swarming with laborious millions, werethen scantily peopled by savage hordes, whose increase was stopped byincessant mutual slaughter. This wild population had various centres orrallying-points, usually about the French forts, which protected themfrom enemies and supplied their wants. Thus the Pottawattamies, Ottawas, and Hurons were gathered about Detroit, and the Illinois about Fort St. Louis, on the river Illinois, where Henri de Tonty and his old comrade, La Forest, with fifteen or twenty Frenchmen, held a nominal monopoly ofthe neighboring fur-trade. Another focus of Indian population was nearthe Green Bay of Lake Michigan, and on Fox River, which enters it. Herewere grouped the Sacs, Winnebagoes, and Menominies, with the Outagamies, or Foxes, a formidable tribe, the source of endless trouble to theFrench. 

The constant aim of the Canadian authorities was to keep these westernsavages at peace among themselves, while preventing their establishingrelations of trade with the Five Nations, and carrying their furs tothem in exchange for English goods. The position was delicate, for whilea close understanding between the western tribes and the Five Nationswould be injurious to French interests, a quarrel would be still moreso, since the French would then be forced to side with their westernallies, and so be drawn into hostilities with the Iroquois confederacy, which of all things they most wished to avoid. Peace and friendshipamong the western tribes; peace without friendship between these tribesand the Five Nations, --thus became maxims of French policy. The Canadiangovernor called the western Indians his "children, " and a family quarrelamong them would have been unfortunate, since the loving father mustneeds have become involved in it, to the detriment of his tradinginterests. 

Yet to prevent such quarrels was difficult, partly because they hadexisted time out of mind, and partly because it was the interest of theEnglish to promote them. Dutch and English traders, it is true, tooktheir lives in their hands if they ventured among the western Indians, who were encouraged by their French father to plunder and kill them, andwho on occasion rarely hesitated to do so. Hence English communicationwith the West was largely carried on through the Five Nations. Iroquoismessengers, hired for the purpose, carried wampum belts"underground"--that is, secretly--to such of the interior tribes as weredisposed to listen with favor to the words of Corlaer, as they calledthe governor of New York. 

In spite of their shortcomings, the English had one powerful attractionfor all the tribes alike. This was the abundance and excellence of theirgoods, which, with the exception of gunpowder, were better as well ascheaper than those offered by the French. The Indians, it is true, likedthe taste of French brandy more than that of English rum; yet as theirchief object in drinking was to get drunk, and as rum would supply asmuch intoxication as brandy at a lower price, it always found favor intheir eyes. In the one case, to get thoroughly drunk often cost abeaver-skin; in the other, the same satisfaction could generally be hadfor a mink-skin. 

Thus the French found that some of their western children were disposedto listen to English seductions, look askance at their father Onontio, and turn their canoes, not towards Montreal, but towards Albany. Nor wasthis the worst; for there were some of Onontio's wild and unruly westernfamily too ready to lift their hatchets against their brethren and fillthe wilderness with discord. Consequences followed most embarrassing tothe French, and among them an incident prominent in the early annals ofDetroit, that new establishment so obnoxious to the English, because itbarred their way to the northern lakes, so that they were extremelyanxious to rid themselves of it. 

In the confused and tumultuous history of the savages of this continentone now and then sees some tribe or league of tribes possessed for atime with a spirit of conquest and havoc that made it the terror of itsneighbors. Of this the foremost example is that of the Five Nations ofthe Iroquois, who, towards the middle of the seventeenth century, sweptall before them and made vast regions a solitude. They were nowcomparatively quiet; but far in the Northwest, another people, inferiorin number, organization, and mental capacity, but not in ferocity orcourage, had begun on a smaller scale, and with less conspicuoussuccess, to play a similar part. These were the Outagamies, or Foxes, with their allies, the Kickapoos and the Mascoutins, all living at thetime within the limits of the present States of Wisconsin andIllinois, --the Outagamies near Fox River, and the others on RockRiver. [280] The Outagamies, in particular, seem to have been seized withan access of homicidal fury. Their hand was against every man, and fortwenty years and more they were the firebrands of the West, and aceaseless peril to French interests in that region. They were, however, on good terms with the Five Nations, by means of whom, as French writerssay, the Dutch and English of Albany sent them gifts and messages toincite them to kill French traders and destroy the French fort atDetroit. This is not unlikely, though the evidence on the point is farfrom conclusive. 

Fort Ponchartrain, better known as Fort Detroit, was an enclosure ofpalisades, flanked by blockhouses at the corners, with an open spacewithin to serve as a parade-ground, around which stood small woodenhouses thatched with straw or meadow-grass. La Mothe-Cadillac, founderof the post, had been made governor of the new colony of Louisiana, andthe Sieur Dubuisson now commanded at Detroit. There were about thirtyFrench traders, _voyageurs_, and _coureurs de bois_ in the place, but atthis time no soldiers. 

The village of the Pottawattamies was close to the French fort; that ofthe Hurons was not far distant, by the edge of the river. Their houseswere those structures of bark, "very high, very long, and arched likegarden arbors, " which were common to all the tribes of Iroquois stock, and both villages were enclosed by strong double or triple stockades, such as Cartier had found at Hochelaga, and Champlain in the Onondagacountry. Their neighbors, the Ottawas, who were on the east side of theriver, had imitated, with imperfect success, their way of housing andfortifying themselves. These tribes raised considerable crops of peas, beans, and Indian corn; and except when engaged in their endless dancesand games of ball, dressed, like the converts of the mission villages, in red or blue cloth. [281] The Hurons were reputed the most intelligentas well as the bravest of all the western tribes, and, being incensed byvarious outrages, they bore against the Outagamies a deadly grudge, which was shared by the other tribes, their neighbors. 

All these friendly Indians were still absent on their winter hunt, when, at the opening of spring, Dubuisson and his Frenchmen were startled by aportentous visitation. Two bands of Outagamies and Mascoutins, men, women, and children, counting in all above a thousand, of whom aboutthree hundred were warriors, appeared on the meadows behind the fort, approached to within pistol-shot of the palisades, and encamped there. It is by no means certain that they came with deliberate hostile intent. Had this been the case, they would not have brought their women andchildren. A paper ascribed to the engineer Léry says, moreover, thattheir visit was in consequence of an invitation from the latecommandant, La Mothe-Cadillac, whose interest it was to attract toDetroit as many Indians as possible, in order to trade for theirfurs. [282] Dubuisson, however, was satisfied that they meant mischief, especially when, in spite of all his efforts to prevent them, theyfortified themselves by cutting down young trees and surrounding theirwigwams with a rough fence of palisades. They were rude and insolent, declared that all that country was theirs, and killed fowls and pigeonsbelonging to the French, who, in the absence of their friends, theHurons and Ottawas, dared not even remonstrate. Dubuisson himself wasforced to submit to their insults in silence, till a party of them cameone day into the fort bent on killing two of the French, a man and agirl, against whom they had taken some offence. The commandant thenordered his men to drive them out; which was done, and henceforward hewas convinced that the Outagamies and Mascoutins were only watchingtheir opportunity to burn the fort and butcher its inmates. Soon after, their excitement redoubled. News came that a band of Mascoutins, who hadwintered on the river St. Joseph, had been cut off by the Ottawas andPottawattamies, led by an Ottawa chief named Saguina; on which thebehavior of the dangerous visitors became so threatening that Dubuissonhastily sent a canoe to recall the Hurons and Ottawas from theirhunting-grounds, and a second to invite the friendly Ojibwas andMississagas to come to his aid. No doubt there was good cause for alarm;yet if the dangerous strangers had resolved to strike, they would havebeen apt to strike at once, instead of waiting week after week, whenthey knew that the friends and allies of the French might arrive at anytime. Dubuisson, however, felt that the situation was extremelycritical, and he was confirmed in his anxiety by a friendly Outagamie, who, after the news of the massacre on the St. Joseph, told him that histribesmen meant to burn the fort. 

The church was outside the palisade, as were also several houses, one ofwhich was stored with wheat. This the Outagamies tried to seize. TheFrench fired on them, drove them back, and brought most of the wheatinto the fort; then they demolished the church and several of thehouses, which would have given cover to the assailants and enabled themto set fire to the palisade, close to which the buildings stood. TheFrench worked at their task in the excitement of desperation, for theythought that all was lost. 

The irritation of their savage neighbors so increased that an outbreakseemed imminent, when, on the thirteenth of May, the Sieur de Vincennesarrived, with seven or eight Frenchmen, from the Miami country. Thereinforcement was so small that instead of proving a help it might haveprovoked a crisis. Vincennes brought no news of the Indian allies, whowere now Dubuisson's only hope. "I did not know on what saint to call, "he writes, almost in despair, when suddenly a Huron Indian came pantinginto the fort with the joyful news that both his people and the Ottawaswere close at hand. Nor was this all. The Huron messenger announced thatMakisabie, war-chief of the Pottawattamies, was then at the Huron fort, and that six hundred warriors of various tribes, deadly enemies of theOutagamies and Mascoutins, would soon arrive and destroy them all. 

Here was an unlooked-for deliverance. Yet the danger was not over; forthere was fear lest the Outagamies and their allies, hearing of theapproaching succor, might make a desperate onslaught, burn the Frenchfort, and kill its inmates before their friends could reach them. Aninterval of suspense followed, relieved at last by a French sentinel, who called to Dubuisson that a crowd of Indians was in sight. Thecommandant mounted to the top of a blockhouse, and, looking across themeadows behind the fort, saw a throng of savages coming out of thewoods, --Pottawattamies, Sacs, Menominies, Illinois, Missouris, and othertribes yet more remote, each band distinguished by a kind of ensign. These were the six hundred warriors promised by the Huron messenger, andwith them, as it proved, came the Ottawa war-chief Saguina. Having heardduring the winter that the Outagamies and Mascoutins would go to Detroitin the spring, these various tribes had combined to attack the commonenemy; and they now marched with great ostentation and some show oforder, not to the French fort, but to the fortified village of theHurons, who with their neighbors, the Ottawas, had arrived just beforethem. 

The Hurons were reputed leaders among the western tribes, and they hatedthe Outagamies, not only by reason of bitter wrongs, but also throughjealousy of the growing importance which these fierce upstarts had wonby their sanguinary prowess. The Huron chiefs came to meet the motleycrew of warriors, and urged them to instant action. "You must not stopto encamp, " said the Huron spokesman; "we must all go this moment to thefort of our fathers, the French, and fight for them. " Then, turning tothe Ottawa war-chief: "Do you see that smoke, Saguina, rising from thecamp of our enemies? They are burning three women of your village, andyour wife is one of them. " The Outagamies had, in fact, three Ottawasquaws in their clutches; but the burning was an invention of the craftyHuron. It answered its purpose, and wrought the hearers to fury. Theyran with yells and whoops towards the French fort, the Hurons andOttawas leading the way. A burst of answering yells rose from the campof the enemy, and about forty of their warriors ran out in bravado, stripped naked and brandishing their weapons; but they soon fell backwithin their defences before the approaching multitude. 

Just before the arrival of the six hundred allies, Dubuisson, whoseorders were to keep the peace, if he could, among the western tribes, had sent Vincennes to the Huron village with a proposal that they shouldspare the lives of the Outagamies and Mascoutins, and rest content withdriving them away; to which the Hurons returned a fierce and haughtyrefusal. There was danger that, if vexed or thwarted, the rabble ofexcited savages now gathered before the fort might turn from friendsinto enemies, and in some burst of wild caprice lift parricidaltomahawks against their French fathers. Dubuisson saw no choice but tohumor them, put himself at their head, aid them in their vengeance, andeven set them on. Therefore, when they called out for admittance, hedid not venture to refuse it, but threw open the gate. 

The savage crew poured in till the fort was full. The chiefs gatheredfor council on the parade, and the warriors crowded around, a livingwall of dusky forms, befeathered heads, savage faces, lank snaky locks, and deep-set eyes that glittered with a devilish light. Their oratorspoke briefly, but to the purpose. He declared that all present wereready to die for their French father, who had stood their friend againstthe bloody and perfidious Outagamies. Then he begged for food, tobacco, gunpowder, and bullets. Dubuisson replied with equal conciseness, thanked them for their willingness to die for him, said that he would dohis best to supply their wants, and promised an immediate distributionof powder and bullets; to which the whole assembly answered with yellsof joy. 

Then the council dissolved, and the elder warriors stalked about thefort, haranguing their followers, exhorting them to fight like men andobey the orders of their father. The powder and bullets were served out, after which the whole body, white men and red, yelled the war-whooptogether, --"a horrible cry, that made the earth tremble, " writesDubuisson. [283] An answering howl, furious and defiant, rose close athand from the palisaded camp of the enemy, the firing began on bothsides, and bullets and arrows filled the air. 

The French and their allies outnumbered their enemies fourfold, whilethe Outagamie and Mascoutin warriors were encumbered with more thanseven hundred women and children. Their frail defences might have beencarried by assault; but the loss to the assailants must needs have beengreat against so brave and desperate a foe, and such a mode of attack isrepugnant to the Indian genius. Instead, therefore, of storming thepalisaded camp, the allies beleaguered it with vindictive patience, andwore out its defenders by a fire that ceased neither day nor night. TheFrench raised two tall scaffolds, from which they overlooked thepalisade, and sent their shot into the midst of those within, who wereforced, for shelter, to dig holes in the ground four or five feet deep, and ensconce themselves there. The situation was almost hopeless, buttheir courage did not fail. They raised twelve red English blankets onpoles as battle-flags, to show that they would fight to the death, andhung others over their palisades, calling out that they wished to seethe whole earth red, like them, with blood; that they had no fathers butthe English, and that the other tribes had better do as they did, andturn their backs to Onontio. 

The great war-chief of the Pottawattamies now mounted to the top of oneof the French scaffolds, and harangued the enemy to this effect: "Do youthink, you wretches, that you can frighten us by hanging out those redblankets? If the earth is red with blood, it will be your own. You talkabout the English. Their bad advice will be your ruin. They are enemiesof religion, and that is why the Master of Life punishes both them andyou. They are cowards, and can only defend themselves by poisoningpeople with their firewater, which kills a man the instant he drinks it. We shall soon see what you will get for listening to them. "

This Homeric dialogue between the chief combatants was stopped byDubuisson, who saw that it distracted the attention of the warriors, andso enabled the besieged to run to the adjacent river for water. Thefiring was resumed more fiercely than ever. Before night twelve of theIndian allies were killed in the French fort, though the enemy suffereda much greater loss. One house had been left standing outside the Frenchpalisades, and the Outagamies raised a scaffold behind its bullet-proofgable, under cover of which they fired with great effect. The French atlength brought two swivels to bear upon the gable, pierced it, knockeddown the scaffold, killed some of the marksmen, and scattered the restin consternation. 

Famine and thirst were worse for the besieged than the bullets andarrows of the allies. Parched, starved, and fainting, they could nolonger find heart for bravado, and they called out one evening frombehind their defences to ask Dubuisson if they might come to speak withhim. He called together the allied chiefs, and all agreed that here wasan opportunity to get out of the hands of the Outagamies the threeOttawa women whom they held prisoners. The commandant, therefore, toldthem that if they had anything to say to their father before dying, theymight come and say it in safety. 

In the morning all the red blankets had disappeared, and a white flagwas waving over the hostile camp. The great Outagamie chief, Pemoussa, presently came out, carrying a smaller white flag and followed by twoIndian slaves. Dubuisson sent his interpreter to protect him from insultand conduct him to the parade, where all the allied chiefs presently metto hear him. 

"My father, " he began, "I am a dead man. The sky is bright for you, anddark as night for me. " Then he held out a belt of wampum, and continued:"By this belt I ask you, my father, to take pity on your children, andgrant us two days in which our old men may counsel together to findmeans of appeasing your wrath. " Then, offering another belt to theassembled chiefs, "This belt is to pray you to remember that you are ofour kin. If you spill our blood, do not forget that it is also your own. Try to soften the heart of our father, whom we have offended so often. These two slaves are to replace some of the blood you have lost. Grantus the two days we ask, for I cannot say more till our old men have heldcounsel. "

To which Dubuisson answered in the name of all: "If your hearts werereally changed, and you honestly accepted Onontio as your father, youwould have brought back the three women who are prisoners in yourhands. As you have not done so, I think that your hearts are still bad. First bring them to me, if you expect me to hear you. I have no more tosay. "

"I am but a child, " replied the envoy. "I will go back to my village, and tell our old men what you have said. "

The council then broke up, and several Frenchmen conducted the chiefback to his followers. 

Three other chiefs soon after appeared, bearing a flag and bringing theOttawa squaws, one of whom was the wife of the war-chief, Saguina. Againthe elders met in council on the parade, and the orator of thedeputation spoke thus: "My father, here are the three pieces of fleshthat you ask of us. We would not eat them, lest you should be angry. Dowith them what you please, for you are the master. Now we ask that youwill send away the nations that are with you, so that we may seek foodfor our women and children, who die of hunger every day. If you are asgood a father as your other children say you are, you will not refuse usthis favor. "

But Dubuisson, having gained his point and recovered the squaws, spoketo them sternly, and referred them to his Indian allies for theiranswer. Whereupon the head chief of the Illinois, being called upon bythe rest to speak in their behalf, addressed the envoys to this effect:"Listen to me, you who have troubled all the earth. We see plainly thatyou mean only to deceive our father. If we should leave him, as youwish, you would fall upon him and kill him. You are dogs who have alwaysbitten him. You thought that we did not know all the messages you havehad from the English, telling you to cut our father's throat, and thenbring them into this our country. We will not leave him alone with you. We shall see who will be the master. Go back to your fort. We are goingto fire at you again. "

The envoys went back with a French escort to prevent their beingmurdered on the way, and then the firing began again. The Outagamies andMascoutins gathered strength from desperation, and sent flights offire-arrows into the fort to burn the straw-thatched houses. The flamescaught in many places; but with the help of the Indians they wereextinguished, though several Frenchmen were wounded, and there was greatfright for a time. But the thatch was soon stripped off and the roofscovered with deer and bear skins, while mops fastened to long poles, andtwo large wooden canoes filled with water, were made ready for futureneed. 

A few days after, a greater peril threatened the French. If the wildIndian has the passions of a devil, he has also the instability of achild; and this is especially true when a number of incoherent tribes orbands are joined in a common enterprise. Dubuisson's Indians becamediscouraged, partly at the stubborn resistance of the enemy, and partlyat the scarcity of food. Some of them declared openly that they couldnever conquer those people; that they knew them well, and that they werebraver than anybody else. In short, the French saw themselves on thepoint of being abandoned by their allies to a fate the most ghastly andappalling; and they urged upon the commandant the necessity of escapingto Michilimackinac before it was too late. Dubuisson appears to have metthe crisis with equal resolution and address. He braced the shakennerves of his white followers by appeals to their sense of shame, threats of the governor's wrath, and assurances that all would yet bewell; then set himself to the more difficult task of holding the Indianallies to their work. He says that he scarcely ate or slept for fourdays and nights, during which time he was busied without ceasing inprivate and separate interviews with all the young war-chiefs, persuading them, flattering them, and stripping himself of all he had tomake them presents. When at last he had gained them over, he called thetribes to a general council. 

"What, children!" thus he addressed them, "when you are on the verypoint of destroying these wicked people, do you think of shamefullyrunning away? How could you ever hold up your heads again? All the othernations would say: 'Are these the brave warriors who deserted the Frenchand ran like cowards?'" And he reminded them that their enemies werealready half dead with famine, and that they could easily make an end ofthem, thereby gaining great honor among the nations, besides the thanksand favors of Onontio, the father of all. 

At this the young war-chiefs whom he had gained over interrupted him andcried out, "My father, somebody has been lying to you. We are notcowards. We love you too much to abandon you, and we will stand by youtill the last of your enemies is dead. " The elder men caught thecontagion, and cried, "Come on, let us show our father that those whohave spoken ill of us are liars. " Then they all raised the war-whoop, sang the war-song, danced the war-dance, and began to fire again. 

Among the enemy were some Sakis, or Sacs, fighting for the Outagamies, while others of their tribe were among the allies of the French. Seeingthe desperate turn of affairs, they escaped from time to time and cameover to the winning side, bringing reports of the state of thebeleaguered camp. They declared that sixty or eighty women and childrenwere already dead from hunger and thirst, besides those killed bybullets and arrows; that the fire of the besiegers was so hot that thebodies could not be buried, and that the camp of the Outagamies andMascoutins was a den of infection. 

The end was near. The besieged savages called from their palisades toask if they might send another deputation, and were told that they werefree to do so. The chief, Pemoussa, soon appeared at the gate of thefort, naked, painted from head to foot with green earth, wearing beltsof wampum about his waist, and others hanging from his shoulders, besides a kind of crown of wampum beads on his head. With him came sevenwomen, meant as a peace-offering, all painted and adorned with wampum. Three other principal chiefs followed, each with a gourd rattle in hishand, to the cadence of which the whole party sang and shouted at thefull stretch of their lungs an invocation to the spirits for help andpity. They were conducted to the parade, where the French and the alliedchiefs were already assembled, and Pemoussa thus addressed them:--

"My father, and all the nations here present, I come to ask for life. Itis no longer ours, but yours. I bring you these seven women, who are myflesh, and whom I put at your feet, to be your slaves. But do not thinkthat I am afraid to die; it is the life of our women and children that Iask of you. " He then offered six wampum belts, in token that hisfollowers owned themselves beaten, and begged for mercy. "Tell us, Ipray you, "--these were his last words, --"something that will lighten thehearts of my people when I go back to them. "

Dubuisson left the answer to his allies. The appeal of the suppliantfell on hearts of stone. The whole concourse sat in fierce and sullensilence, and the envoys read their doom in the gloomy brows thatsurrounded them. Eight or ten of the allied savages presently came toDubuisson, and one of them said in a low voice: "My father, we come toask your leave to knock these four great chiefs in the head. It is theywho prevent our enemies from surrendering without conditions. When theyare dead, the rest will be at our mercy. "

Dubuisson told them that they must be drunk to propose such a thing. "Remember, " he said, "that both you and I have given our word for theirsafety. If I consented to what you ask, your father at Montreal wouldnever forgive me. Besides, you can see plainly that they and theirpeople cannot escape you. "

The would-be murderers consented to bide their time, and the wretchedenvoys went back with their tidings of despair. 

"I confess, " wrote Dubuisson to the governor, a few days later, "that Iwas touched with compassion; but as war and pity do not agree welltogether, and especially as I understood that they were hired by theEnglish to destroy us, I abandoned them to their fate. "

The firing began once more, and the allied hordes howled round the campof their victims like troops of ravenous wolves. But a surprise awaitedthem. Indians rarely set guards at night, and they felt sure now oftheir prey. It was the nineteenth day of the siege. [284] The nightclosed dark and rainy, and when morning came, the enemy were gone. Allamong them that had strength to move had glided away through the gloomwith the silence of shadows, passed the camps of their sleeping enemies, and reached a point of land projecting into the river opposite the endof Isle au Cochon, and a few miles above the French fort. Here, knowingthat they would be pursued, they barricaded themselves with trunks andbranches of trees. When the astonished allies discovered their escape, they hastily followed their trail, accompanied by some of the French, led by Vincennes. In their eagerness they ran upon the barricade beforeseeing it, and were met by a fire that killed and wounded twenty ofthem. There was no alternative but to forego their revenge and abandonthe field, or begin another siege. Encouraged by Dubuisson, they builttheir wigwams on the new scene of operations; and, being supplied by theFrench with axes, mattocks, and two swivels, they made a wall of logsopposite the barricade, from which they galled the defenders with aclose and deadly fire. The Mississagas and Ojibwas, who had latelyarrived, fished and hunted for the allies, while the French furnishedthem with powder, ball, tobacco, Indian corn, and kettles. The enemyfought desperately for four days, and then, in utter exhaustion, surrendered at discretion. [285]

The women and children were divided among the victorious hordes, andadopted or enslaved. To the men no quarter was given. "Our Indiansamused themselves, " writes Dubuisson, "with shooting four or five ofthem every day. " Here, however, another surprise awaited the conquerorsand abridged their recreation, for about a hundred of these intrepidwarriors contrived to make their escape, and among them was the greatwar-chief Pemoussa. 

The Outagamies were crippled, but not disabled, for but a part of thetribe was involved in this bloody affair. The rest were wrought to furyby the fate of their kinsmen, and for many years they remained thorns inthe sides of the French. 

There is a disposition to assume that events like that just recountedwere a consequence of the contact of white men with red; but theprimitive Indian was quite able to enact such tragedies without the helpof Europeans. Before French or English influence had been felt in theinterior of the continent, a great part of North America was thefrequent witness of scenes still more lurid in coloring, and on a largerscale of horror. In the first half of the seventeenth century the wholecountry, from Lake Superior to the Tennessee, and from the Alleghaniesto the Mississippi, was ravaged by wars of extermination, in whichtribes, large and powerful by Indian standards, perished, dwindled intofeeble remnants, or were absorbed by other tribes and vanished fromsight. French pioneers were sometimes involved in the carnage, butneither they nor other Europeans were answerable for it. [286]

FOOTNOTES:

[279] See Chapter I. 

[280] _Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi_, in_N. Y. Col. Docs. _, ix. 885. 

[281] _Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi. _

[282] This paper is printed, not very accurately, in the _Collection deDocuments relatifs à la Nouvelle France_, i. 623 (Québec, 1883). 

[283] "Cri horrible, dont la terre trembla. "--_Dubuisson à Vaudreuil, 15Juin, 1712. _ This is the official report of the affair. 

[284] According to the paper ascribed to Léry it was only the eighth. 

[285] The paper ascribed to Léry says that they surrendered on a promisefrom Vincennes that their lives should be spared, but that the promiseavailed nothing. 

[286] _Dubuisson à Vaudreuil, 15 Juin, 1712. _ This is Dubuisson's reportto the governor, which soon after the event he sent to Montreal by thehands of Vincennes. He says that the great fatigue through which he hasjust passed prevents him from giving every detail, and he refersVaudreuil to the bearer for further information. The report is, however, long and circumstantial. 

_État de ce que M. Dubuisson a dépensé pour le service du Roy pours'attirer les Nations et les mettre dans ses intérêts afin de résisteraux Outagamis et aux Mascoutins qui étaient payés des Anglais pourdétruire le poste du Fort de Ponchartrain du Détroit, 14 Octobre, 1712. _Dubuisson reckons his outlay at 2, 901 livres. 

These documents, with the narrative ascribed to the engineer Léry, arethe contemporary authorities on which the foregoing account is based. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

1697-1750. 

LOUISIANA. 

The Mississippi to be occupied. --EnglishRivalry. --Iberville. --Bienville. --Huguenots. --Views of LouisXIV. --Wives for the Colony. --Slaves. --La Mothe-Cadillac. --PaternalGovernment. --Crozat's Monopoly. --Factions. --The MississippiCompany. --New Orleans. --The Bubble bursts. --Indian Wars. --The Colonyfirmly established. --The two Heads of New France. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century an event took place that wasto have a great influence on the future of French America. This was theoccupation by France of the mouth of the Mississippi, and thevindication of her claim to the vast and undefined regions which LaSalle had called Louisiana. La Salle's schemes had come to nought, butthey were revived, seven years after his death, by his lieutenant, thegallant and faithful Henri de Tonty, who urged the seizure of Louisianafor three reasons, --first, as a base of attack upon Mexico; secondly, asa dépôt for the furs and lead ore of the interior; and thirdly, as theonly means of preventing the English from becoming masters of theWest. [287]

Three years later, the Sieur de Rémonville, a friend of La Salle, proposed the formation of a company for the settlement of Louisiana, andcalled for immediate action as indispensable to anticipate theEnglish. [288] The English were, in fact, on the point of takingpossession of the mouth of the Mississippi, and were prevented only bythe prompt intervention of the rival nation. 

If they had succeeded, colonies would have grown up on the Gulf ofMexico after the type of those already planted along the Atlantic:voluntary immigrants would have brought to a new home their oldinheritance of English freedom; would have ruled themselves by laws oftheir own making, through magistrates of their own choice; would havedepended on their own efforts, and not on government help, in theinvigorating consciousness that their destinies were in their own hands, and that they themselves, and not others, were to gather the fruits oftheir toils. Out of conditions like these would have sprung communities, not brilliant, but healthy, orderly, well rooted in the soil, and ofhardy and vigorous growth. 

But the principles of absolutism, and not those of a regulated liberty, were to rule in Louisiana. The new French colony was to be the child ofthe Crown. Cargoes of emigrants, willing or unwilling, were to beshipped by authority to the fever-stricken banks of theMississippi, --cargoes made up in part of those whom fortune and theirown defects had sunk to dependence; to whom labor was strange andodious, but who dreamed of gold mines and pearl fisheries, and wealth tobe won in the New World and spent in the Old; who wore the shackles of apaternal despotism which they were told to regard as of divineinstitution; who were at the mercy of military rulers set over them bythe King, and agreeing in nothing except in enforcing the mandates ofarbitrary power and the withering maxim that the labor of the colonistwas due, not to himself, but to his masters. It remains to trace brieflythe results of such conditions. 

The before-mentioned scheme of Rémonville for settling the Mississippicountry had no result. In the next year the gallant Le Moyned'Iberville--who has been called the Cid, or, more fitly, the Jean Bart, of Canada--offered to carry out the schemes of La Salle and plant acolony in Louisiana. [289] One thing had become clear, --France must actat once, or lose the Mississippi. Already there was a movement in Londonto seize upon it, under a grant to two noblemen. Iberville's offer wasaccepted; he was ordered to build a fort at the mouth of the greatriver, and leave a garrison to hold it. [290] He sailed with twofrigates, the "Badine" and the "Marin, " and towards the end of January, 1699, reached Pensacola. Here he found two Spanish ships, which wouldnot let him enter the harbor. Spain, no less than England, was bent onmaking good her claim to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, and thetwo ships had come from Vera Cruz on this errand. Three hundred men hadbeen landed, and a stockade fort was already built. Iberville left theSpaniards undisturbed and unchallenged, and felt his way westward alongthe coasts of Alabama and Mississippi, exploring and sounding as hewent. At the beginning of March his boats were caught in a strong muddycurrent of fresh water, and he saw that he had reached the object of hissearch, the "fatal river" of the unfortunate La Salle. He entered it, encamped, on the night of the third, twelve leagues above its mouth, climbed a solitary tree, and could see nothing but broad flats of bushesand canebrakes. [291]

Still pushing upward against the current, he reached in eleven days avillage of the Bayagoula Indians, where he found the chief attired in ablue capote, which was probably put on in honor of the white strangers, and which, as the wearer declared, had been given him by Henri de Tonty, on his descent of the Mississippi in search of La Salle, thirteen yearsbefore. Young Le Moyne de Bienville, who accompanied his brotherIberville in a canoe, brought him, some time after, a letter from Tontywhich the writer had left in the hands of another chief, to bedelivered to La Salle in case of his arrival, and which Bienville hadbought for a hatchet. Iberville welcomed it as convincing proof that theriver he had entered was in truth the Mississippi. [292] After pushing upthe stream till the twenty-fourth, he returned to the ships by way oflakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain. 

Iberville now repaired to the harbor of Biloxi, on the coast of thepresent State of Mississippi. Here he built a small stockade fort, wherehe left eighty men, under the Sieur de Sauvolle, to hold the country forLouis XIV. ; and this done, he sailed for France. Thus the firstfoundations of Louisiana were laid in Mississippi. 

Bienville, whom his brother had left at Biloxi as second in command, wassent by Sauvolle on an exploring expedition up the Mississippi with fivemen in two canoes. At the bend of the river now called EnglishTurn, --_Tour à l'Anglais_, --below the site of New Orleans, he found anEnglish corvette of ten guns, having, as passengers, a number of FrenchProtestant families taken on board from the Carolinas, with theintention of settling on the Mississippi. The commander, Captain LouisBank, declared that his vessel was one of three sent from London by acompany formed jointly of Englishmen and Huguenot refugees for thepurpose of founding a colony. [293] Though not quite sure that they wereupon the Mississippi, they were on their way up the stream to join aparty of Englishmen said to be among the Chickasaws, with whom they weretrading for Indian slaves. Bienville assured Bank that he was not uponthe Mississippi, but on another river belonging to King Louis, who had astrong fort there and several settlements. "The too-credulousEnglishman, " says a French writer, "believed these inventions and turnedback. "[294] First, however, a French engineer in the service of Bankcontrived to have an interview with Bienville, and gave him a petitionto the King of France, signed by four hundred Huguenots who had takenrefuge in the Carolinas after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Thepetitioners begged that they might have leave to settle in Louisiana, with liberty of conscience, under the French Crown. In due time theygot their answer. The King replied, through the minister, Ponchartrain, that he had not expelled heretics from France in order that they shouldset up a republic in America. [295] Thus, by the bigotry that had beenthe bane of Canada and of France herself, Louis XIV. Threw away theopportunity of establishing a firm and healthy colony at the mouth ofthe Mississippi. 

So threatening was the danger that England would seize the country, thatIberville had scarcely landed in France when he was sent back with areinforcement. The colonial views of the King may be gathered from hisinstructions to his officer. Iberville was told to seek out diligentlythe best places for establishing pearl-fisheries, though it was admittedthat the pearls of Louisiana were uncommonly bad. He was also to catchbison calves, make a fenced park to hold them, and tame them for thesake of their wool, which was reputed to be of value for variousfabrics. Above all, he was to look for mines, the finding of which thedocument declares to be "la grande affaire. "[296]

On the eighth of January, Iberville reached Biloxi, and soon after wentup the Mississippi to that remarkable tribe of sun-worshippers, theNatchez, whose villages were on and near the site of the city that nowbears their name. Some thirty miles above he found a kindred tribe, theTaensas, whose temple took fire during his visit, when, to his horror, he saw five living infants thrown into the flames by their mothers toappease the angry spirits. [297]

Retracing his course, he built a wooden redoubt near one of the mouthsof the Mississippi to keep out the dreaded English. 

In the next year he made a third voyage, and ordered the feebleestablishment at Biloxi to be moved to the bay of Mobile. This drew aprotest from the Spaniards, who rested their claims to the country onthe famous bull of Pope Alexander VI. The question was referred to thetwo Crowns. Louis XIV. , a stanch champion of the papacy when his dutiesas a Catholic did not clash with his interests as a king, refusedsubmission to the bull, insisted that the Louisiana country was his, anddeclared that he would hold fast to it because he was bound, as a son ofHoly Church, to convert the Indians and keep out the Englishheretics. [298] Spain was then at peace with France, and her new King, the Duc d'Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV. , needed the support of hispowerful kinsman; hence his remonstrance against French encroachment wasof the mildest. [299]

Besides Biloxi and Mobile Bay, the French formed a third establishmentat Dauphin Island. The Mississippi itself, which may be called the vitalorgan of the colony, was thus far neglected, being occupied by nosettlement and guarded only by a redoubt near one of its mouths. 

Of the emigrants sent out by the court to the new land of promise, themost valuable by far were a number of Canadians who had served underIberville at Hudson Bay. The rest were largely of the sort who aredescribed by that officer as "beggars sent out to enrich themselves, "and who expected the government to feed them while they looked forpearls and gold mines. The paternal providence of Versailles, mindful oftheir needs, sent them, in 1704, a gift of twenty marriageable girls, described as "nurtured in virtue and piety, and accustomed to work. "Twenty-three more came in the next year from the same benignant source, besides seventy-five soldiers, five priests, and two nuns. Food, however, was not sent in proportion to the consumers; and as no cropswere raised in Louisiana, famine and pestilence followed, till thestarving colonists were forced to live on shell-fish picked up along theshores. 

Disorder and discord filled the land of promise. Nicolas de la Salle, the _commissaire ordonnateur_, an official answering to the Canadianintendant, wrote to the minister Ponchartrain that Iberville and hisbrothers, Bienville and Chateauguay, were "thieves and knaves. "[300] LaVente, curé of Mobile, joined in the cry against Bienville, and stirredsoldiers and settlers to disaffection; but the bitterest accuser of thattruly valuable officer was the worthy matron who held the unenviablepost of directress of the "King's girls, "--that is, the young women sentout as wives for the colonists. It seems that she had matrimonial viewsfor herself as well as for her charge; and she wrote to Ponchartrainthat Major Boisbriant, commander of the garrison, would certainly havemarried her if Bienville had not interfered and dissuaded him. "It isclear, " she adds, "that M. De Bienville has not the qualities necessaryfor governing the colony. "[301]

Bienville was now chief in authority. Charges of peculation and otheroffences poured in against him, and at last, though nothing was proved, one De Muys was sent to succeed him, with orders to send him home aprisoner if on examination the accusations should prove to be true. DeMuys died on the voyage. D'Artaguette, the new intendant, proceeded tomake the inquiry, but refused to tell Bienville the nature of thecharges against him, saying that he had orders not to do so. Nevertheless, when he had finished his investigation he reported to theminister that the accused was innocent; on which Nicolas de la Salle, whom he had supplanted as intendant, wrote to Ponchartrain thatD'Artaguette had deceived him, being no better than Bienville himself. La Salle further declared that Barrot, the surgeon of the colony, was anignoramus, and that he made money by selling the medicines supplied bythe King to cure his Louisianian subjects. Such were the transatlanticworkings of the paternalism of Versailles. 

Bienville, who had been permitted to resume his authority, paints thestate of the colony to his masters, and tells them that the inhabitantsare dying of hunger, --not all, however, for he mentions a fewexceptional cases of prosperity. These were certain thrifty colonistsfrom Rochelle, who, says Bienville, have grown rich by keepingdram-shops, and now want to go back to France; but he has set a watchover them, thinking it just that they should be forced to stay in thecolony. [302] This was to add the bars of a prison to the otherattractions of the new home. 

As the colonists would not work, there was an attempt to make Indianslaves work for them; but as these continually ran off, Bienvilleproposed to open a barter with the French West Indies, giving three redslaves for two black ones, --an exchange which he thought would bemutually advantageous, since the Indians, being upon islands, could nolonger escape. The court disapproved the plan, on the ground that theWest Indians would give only their worst negroes in exchange, and thatthe only way to get good ones was to fetch them from Guinea. 

Complaints against Bienville were renewed till the court sent out LaMothe-Cadillac to succeed him, with orders to examine the chargesagainst his predecessor, whom it was his interest to condemn, in orderto keep the governorship. In his new post, Cadillac displayed all hisold faults; began by denouncing the country in unmeasured terms, andwrote in his usual sarcastic vein to the colonial minister: "I have seenthe garden on Dauphin Island, which had been described to me as aterrestrial paradise. I saw there three seedling pear-trees, threeseedling apple-trees, a little plum-tree about three feet high, withseven bad plums on it, a vine some thirty feet long, with nine bunchesof grapes, some of them withered or rotten and some partly ripe, aboutforty plants of French melons, and a few pumpkins. This is M. D'Artaguette's terrestrial paradise, M. De Rémonville's Pomona, and M. De Mandeville's Fortunate Islands. Their stories are mere fables. " Thenhe slanders the soil, which, he declares, will produce neither grain norvegetables. 

D'Artaguette, no longer fancying himself in Eden, draws a dismal pictureof the state of the colony. There are, he writes, only ten or twelvefamilies who cultivate the soil. The inhabitants, naturally lazy, areruined by the extravagance of their wives. "It is necessary to send outgirls and laboring-men. I am convinced that we shall easily discovermines when persons are sent us who understand that business. "[303]

The colonists felt no confidence in the future of Louisiana. The Kingwas its sole support, and if, as was likely enough, he should tire ofit, their case would be deplorable. When Bienville ruled over them, theyhad used him as their scapegoat; but that which made the colony languishwas not he, but the vicious system it was his business to enforce. Theroyal edicts and arbitrary commands that took the place of law proceededfrom masters thousands of miles away, who knew nothing of the country, could not understand its needs, and scarcely tried to do so. 

In 1711, though the mischievous phantom of gold and silver mines stillhaunted the colony, we find it reported that the people were beginningto work, and were planting tobacco. The King, however, was losingpatience with a dependency that cost him endless expense and trouble, and brought little or nothing in return, --and this at a time when he hada costly and disastrous war on his hands, and was in no mood to bearsupernumerary burdens. The plan of giving over a colony to a merchant, or a company of merchants, was not new. It had been tried in otherFrench colonies with disastrous effect. Yet it was now tried again. Louisiana was farmed out for fifteen years to Antoine Crozat, a wealthyman of business. The countries made over to him extended from theBritish colonies on the east to New Mexico on the west, and the Rio delNorte on the south, including the entire region watered by theMississippi, the Missouri, the Ohio, and their tributaries, as far northas the Illinois. In comparison with this immense domain, which was allincluded under the name of Louisiana, the present State so called is buta small patch on the American map. 

To Crozat was granted a monopoly of the trade, wholesale and retail, domestic and foreign, of all these countries, besides the product of allmines, after deducting one-fourth reserved for the King. He wasempowered to send one vessel a year to Guinea for a cargo of slaves. TheKing was to pay the governor and other Crown officers, and during thefirst nine years the troops also; though after that time Crozat was tomaintain them till the end of his term. 

In consideration of these and other privileges, the grantee was bound tosend to Louisiana a specified number of settlers every year. His charterprovided that the royal edicts and the _Coutume de Paris_ should be thelaw of the colony, to be administered by a council appointed by theKing. 

When Louisiana was thus handed over to a speculator for a term of years, it needed no prophet to foretell that he would get all he could out ofit, and put as little into it as possible. When Crozat took possessionof the colony, the French court had been thirteen years at work inbuilding it up. The result of its labors was a total population, including troops, government officials, and clergy, of 380 souls, ofwhom 170 were in the King's pay. Only a few of the colonists were withinthe limits of the present Louisiana. The rest lived in or around thefeeble stockade forts at Mobile, Biloxi, Ship Island, and DauphinIsland. This last station had been partially abandoned; but some of thecolonists proposed to return to it, in order to live by fishing, andonly waited, we are told, for help from the King. This incessantdependence on government relaxed the fibres of the colony and sapped itslife-blood. 

The King was now exchanged for Crozat and his grinding monopoly. Thecolonists had carried on a modest trade with the Spaniards at Pensacolain skins, fowls, Indian corn, and a few other articles, bringing back alittle money in return. This, their only source of profit, was now cutoff; they could sell nothing, even to one another. They were forbiddento hold meetings without permission; but some of them secretly drew up apetition to La Mothe-Cadillac, who was still the official chief of thecolony, begging that the agents of Crozat should be restricted towholesale dealings, and that the inhabitants might be allowed to tradeat retail. Cadillac denounced the petition as seditious, threatened tohang the bearer of it, and deigned no other answer. 

He resumed his sarcasms against the colony. "In my opinion this countryis not worth a straw (_ne vaut pas un fétu_). The inhabitants are eagerto be taken out of it. The soldiers are always grumbling, and withreason. " As to the council, which was to be the only court of justice, he says that no such thing is possible, because there are no properpersons to compose it; and though Duclos, the new intendant, hasproposed two candidates, the first of these, the Sieur de Lafresnière, learned to sign his name only four months ago, and the other, beingchief surgeon of the colony, is too busy to serve. [304]

Between Bienville, the late governor, and La Mothe-Cadillac, who hadsupplanted him, there was a standing quarrel; and the colony was splitinto hostile factions, led by the two disputants. The minister atVersailles was beset by their mutual accusations, and Bienville wrotethat his refusal to marry Cadillac's daughter was the cause of the spitethe governor bore him. [305]

The indefatigable curé De la Vente sent to Ponchartrain a memorial, inthe preamble of which he says that since Monsieur le Ministre wishes tobe informed exactly of the state of things in Louisiana, he, La Vente, has the honor, with malice to nobody, to make known the pure truth;after which he goes on to say that the inhabitants "are nearly alldrunkards, gamblers, blasphemers, and enemies of everything good;" andhe proceeds to illustrate the statement with many particulars. [306]

As the inhabitants were expected to work for Crozat, and not forthemselves, it naturally followed that they would not work at all; andidleness produced the usual results. 

The yearly shipment of girls continued; but there was difficulty infinding husbands for them. The reason was not far to seek. Duclos, theintendant, reports the arrival of an invoice of twelve of them, "so uglythat the inhabitants are in no hurry to take them. "[307] The Canadians, who formed the most vigorous and valuable part of the population, muchpreferred Indian squaws. "It seems to me, " pursues the intendant, "thatin the choice of girls, good looks should be more considered thanvirtue. " This latter requisite seems, at the time, to have found no moreattention than the other, since the candidates for matrimony were drawnfrom the Parisian hospitals and houses of correction, from the former ofwhich Crozat was authorized to take one hundred girls a year, "in orderto increase the population. " These hospitals were compulsory asylums forthe poor and vagrant of both sexes, of whom the great Hôpital Général ofParis contained at one time more than six thousand. [308]

Crozat had built his chief hopes of profit on a trade, contraband orotherwise, with the Mexican ports; but the Spanish officials, faithfulinstruments of the exclusive policy of their government, would notpermit it, and were so vigilant that he could not elude them. At thesame time, to his vexation, he found that the King's officers inLouisiana, with more address or better luck, and in contempt of hismonopoly, which it was their business to protect, carried on, for theirown profit, a small smuggling trade with Vera Cruz. He complained thatthey were always thwarting his agents and conspiring against hisinterests. At last, finding no resource left but an unprofitable tradewith the Indians, he gave up his charter, which had been a bane to thecolony and a loss to himself. Louisiana returned to the Crown, and wassoon passed over to the new Mississippi Company, called also the WesternCompany. [309]

That charlatan of genius, the Scotchman John Law, had undertaken, withthe eager support of the Regent Duke of Orleans, to deliver France fromfinancial ruin through a prodigious system of credit, of whichLouisiana, with its imaginary gold mines, was made the basis. Thegovernment used every means to keep up the stock of the MississippiCompany. It was ordered that the notes of the royal bank and allcertificates of public debt should be accepted at par in payment for itsshares. Powers and privileges were lavished on it. It was given themonopoly of the French slave-trade, the monopoly of tobacco, the profitsof the royal mint, and the farming of the revenues of the kingdom. Ingots of gold, pretending to have come from the new Eldorado ofLouisiana, were displayed in the shop-windows of Paris. The fever ofspeculation rose to madness, and the shares of the company were inflatedto monstrous and insane proportions. 

When Crozat resigned his charter, Louisiana, by the highest estimates, contained about seven hundred souls, including soldiers, but not blacksor Indians. Crozat's successors, however, say that the whole number ofwhites, men, women, and children, was not above four hundred. [310] Whenthe Mississippi Company took the colony in charge, it was but a changeof despots. Louisiana was a prison. But while no inhabitant could leaveit without permission of the authorities, all Jews were expelled, andall Protestants excluded. The colonists could buy nothing except fromthe agents of the company, and sell nothing except to the sameall-powerful masters, always at prices fixed by them. Foreign vesselswere forbidden to enter any port of Louisiana, on pain of confiscation. 

The coin in circulation was nearly all Spanish, and in less than twoyears the Company, by a series of decrees, made changes of about eightyper cent in its value. Freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, oftrade, and of action, were alike denied. Hence voluntary immigration wasnot to be expected; "but, " says the Duc de Saint-Simon, "the governmentwished to establish effective settlements in these vast countries, afterthe example of the English; and therefore, in order to people them, vagabonds and beggars, male and female, including many women of thetown, were seized for the purpose both in Paris and throughoutFrance. "[311] Saint-Simon approves these proceedings in themselves, astending at once to purge France and people Louisiana, but thinks thebusiness was managed in a way to cause needless exasperation among thelower classes. 

In 1720 it was ordered by royal edict that no more vagabonds orcriminals should be sent to Louisiana. The edict, it seems, touched onlyone sex, for in the next year eighty girls were sent to the colony fromthe Parisian House of Correction called the Salpêtrière. There had beena more or less constant demand for wives, as appears by letters stillpreserved in the archives of Paris, the following extract from one ofwhich is remarkable for the freedom with which the writer, a M. DeChassin, takes it upon him to address a minister of State in a courtwhere punctilio reigned supreme. "You see, Monseigneur, that nothing iswanting now to make a solid settlement in Louisiana but a certain pieceof furniture which one often repents having got, and with which I shalldispense, like the rest, till the Company sends us girls who have atleast some show of virtue. If there happens to be any young woman ofyour acquaintance who wants to make the voyage for love of me, I shouldbe much obliged to her, and would do my best to show her mygratitude. "[312]

The Company, which was invested with sovereign powers, began its work bysending to Louisiana three companies of soldiers and sixty-ninecolonists. Its wisest act was the removal of the governor, L'Épinay, whohad supplanted La Mothe-Cadillac, and the reappointment of Bienville inhis place. Bienville immediately sought out a spot for establishing apermanent station on the Mississippi. Fifty men were sent to clear theground, and in spite of an inundation which overflowed it for a time, the feeble foundations of New Orleans were laid. Louisiana, hithertodiffused through various petty cantonments, far and near, had at last acapital, or the germ of one. 

It was the sixth of September, 1717, when the charter of the MississippiCompany was entered in the registers of the Parliament of Paris; andfrom that time forward, before the offices of the Company in the RueQuincampoix, crowds of crazed speculators jostled and fought frommorning till night to get their names inscribed among the stockholders. Within five years after, the huge glittering bubble had burst. Theshares, each one of which had seemed a fortune, found no morepurchasers, and in its fall the Company dragged down with it its allyand chief creditor, the bank. All was dismay and despair, except inthose who had sold out in time, and turned delusive paper into solidvalues. John Law, lately the idol and reputed savior of France, fled forhis life, amid a howl of execration. 

Yet the interests of the kingdom required that Louisiana should besustained. The illusions that had given to the Mississippi Company amorbid and intoxicated vitality were gone, but the Company lingered on, and the government still lent it a helping hand. A French writer remarksthat the few Frenchmen who were famishing on the shores of theMississippi and the Gulf of Mexico had cost the King, since the colonybegan, more than 150, 000 livres a year. The directors of the Companyreported that they had shipped 7, 020 persons to the colony, besides fourhundred already there when they took possession, and that 5, 420 stillremained, the rest having died or escaped. [313] Besides this importationof whites, they had also brought six hundred slaves from Guinea. It isreckoned that the King, Crozat, and the Mississippi Company had spentamong them about eight million livres on Louisiana, without anyreturn. [314]

The bursting of the Mississippi bubble did not change the principles ofadministration in Louisiana. The settlers, always looking to France tosupply their needs and protect them against their own improvidence, werein the habit of butchering for food the livestock sent them forpropagation. The remedy came in the shape of a royal edict forbiddingany colonist to kill, without permission of the authorities, any cow, sheep, or lamb belonging to himself, on pain of a fine of three hundredlivres; or to kill any horse, cow, or bull belonging to another, on painof death. 

Authority and order were the watchwords, and disorder was the rule. Theagents of power quarrelled among themselves, except when they leaguedtogether to deceive their transatlantic masters and cover their ownmisdeeds. Each maligned the other, and it was scarcely possible for theKing or the Company to learn the true state of affairs in their distantcolony. 

Accusations were renewed against Bienville, till in 1724 he was orderedto France to give account of his conduct, and the Sieur Perier was sentout to take his place. Perier had no easy task. The Natchez Indians, among whom the French had made a settlement and built a fort called FortRosalie, suddenly rose on their white neighbors and massacred nearlyall of them. [315] Then followed a long course of Indian wars. The Frenchbelieved that there was a general conspiracy among the southern tribesfor their destruction, --though this was evidently an exaggeration of thedanger, which, however, was serious. The Chickasaws, a brave and warlikepeople, living chiefly in what is now western Tennessee and Kentucky, made common cause with the Natchez, while the more numerous Choctaws, most of whose villages were in the present State of Mississippi, tookpart with the French. More than a thousand soldiers had been sent toLouisiana; but Perier pronounced them "so bad that they seem to havebeen made on purpose for the colony. "[316] There were also about eighthundred militia. Perier showed little vigor, and had little success. Hischief resource was to set the tribes against one another. He reportsthat his Indian allies had brought him a number of Natchez prisoners, and that he had caused six of them, four men and two women, to be burnedalive, and had sent the rest as slaves to St. Domingo. The Chickasaws, aided by English traders from the Carolinas, proved formidableadversaries, and when attacked, ensconced themselves in stockade fortsso strong that, as the governor complains, there was no dislodging thedefenders without cannon and heavy mortars. 

In this state of things the directors of the Mississippi Company, whoseaffairs had gone from bad to worse, declared that they could no longerbear the burden of Louisiana, and begged the King to take it off theirhands. The colony was therefore transferred from the mercantiledespotism of the Company to the paternal despotism of the Crown, and itprofited by the change. Commercial monopoly was abolished. Trade betweenFrance and Louisiana was not only permitted, but encouraged by bountiesand exemption from duties; and instead of paying to the Company twohundred per cent of profit on indispensable supplies, the colonists nowgot them at a reasonable price. 

Perier was removed, and again Bienville was made governor. Dirond'Artaguette, who came with him as intendant, reported that thecolonists were flying the country to escape starvation, and Bienvilleadds that during the past year they had subsisted for three months onthe seed of reeds and wild grasses. [317] The white population had ratherdiminished than increased during the last twelve years, while theblacks, who had lately conspired to massacre all the French along theMississippi, had multiplied to two thousand. [318] A French writer says:"There must have been a worm gnawing the root of the tree that had beentransplanted into so rich a soil, to make it wither instead of growing. What it needed was the air of liberty. " But the air of liberty ismalaria to those who have not learned to breathe it. The Englishcolonists throve in it because they and their forefathers had beentrained in a school of self-control and self-dependence; and what wouldhave been intoxication for others, was vital force to them. 

Bienville found the colony again threatened with a general rising, or, as he calls it, a revolt, of the Indian tribes. The Carolina traders, having no advantage of water-ways, had journeyed by land withpack-horses through a thousand miles of wilderness, and with the aid ofgifts had instigated the tribes to attack the French. The Chickasawsespecially, friends of the English and arch-enemies of Louisiana, becameso threatening that a crushing blow against them was thoughtindispensable. The forces of the colony were mustered to attempt it; theenterprise was mismanaged, and failed completely. [319] Bienville triedto explain the disaster, but his explanation was ill received at court;he was severely rebuked, reproved at the same time for permitting twofamilies to emigrate to St. Domingo, and sharply ordered to suffernobody to leave Louisiana without express license from Versailles. Deeply wounded, he offered his resignation, and it was accepted. Whatever his failings, he had faithfully served the colony, and gainedfrom posterity the title of Father of Louisiana. 

With the help of industrious nursing, --or, one might almost say, inspite of it, --Louisiana began at last to strike roots into the soil andshow signs of growth, though feebly as compared with its sturdy rivalsalong the Atlantic seaboard, which had cost their King nothing, and hadbeen treated, for the most part, with the coolest neglect. Cavelier dela Salle's dream of planting a firm settlement at the mouth of theMississippi, and utilizing, by means of it, the resources of the vastinterior, was, after half a century, in some measure realized. NewFrance (using that name in its broadest geographical sense) had now twoheads, --Canada and Louisiana; one looking upon the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other upon the Gulf of Mexico. Canada was not without jealousyof her younger and weaker sister, lest she might draw away, as she hadbegun to do at the first, some of the most active and adventurouselements of the Canadian population; lest she might prove a competitorin the fur-trade; and lest she should encroach on the Illinois and otherwestern domains, which the elder and stronger sister claimed as her own. These fears were not unfounded; yet the vital interests of the twoFrench colonies were the same, and each needed the help of the other inthe prime and all-essential task of keeping the British colonies incheck. The chiefs of Louisiana looked forward to a time when the greatsouthern tribes, --Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and even the dreadedChickasaws, --won over by French missionaries to the Church, andtherefore to France, should be turned against the encroaching English tostop their westward progress and force them back to the borders of theAtlantic. Meanwhile the chiefs of Canada were maturing the plan--pursuedwith varying assiduity, but always kept in view--of connecting the twovital extremities of New France by a chain of forts to control thepasses of the West, keep communications open, and set English invasionat defiance. 

FOOTNOTES:

[287] _Henri de Tonty à Cabart de Villermont, 11 Septembre, 1694_(Margry, iv. 3). 

[288] _Mémoire sur le Projet d'establir une nouvelle Colonie auMississippi, 1697_ (Margry, iv. 21). 

[289] _Iberville au Ministre, 18 Juin, 1698_ (Margry, iv. 51). 

[290] _Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur d'Iberville_ (Margry, iv. 72). 

[291] _Journal d'Iberville_ (Margry, iv. 131). 

[292] This letter, which D'Iberville gives in his Journal, is dated "DuVillage des Quinipissas, le 20 Avril, 1685. " Iberville identifies theQuinipissas with the Bayagoulas. The date of the letter was evidentlymisread, as Tonty's journey was in 1686. See "La Salle and the Discoveryof the Great West, " 455, _note_. Iberville's lieutenant, Sugères, commanding the "Marin, " gives the date correctly. _Journal de la Frégatele Marin_, 1698, 1699 (Margry, iv. ). 

[293] _Journal du Voyage du Chevalier d'Iberville sur le Vaisseau du Royla Renommée en 1699_ (Margry, iv. 395). 

[294] Gayarré, _Histoire de la Louisiane_ (1846), i. 69. Bénard de laHarpe, _Journal historique_ (1831), 20. Coxe says, in the preface to his_Description of Carolana_ (1722), that "the present proprietor ofCarolana, my honour'd Father, . .. Was the author of this English voyageto the Mississippi, having in the year 1698 equipp'd and fitted out TwoShips for Discovery by Sea, and also for building a Fortification andsettling a Colony by land; there being in both vessels, besides Sailorsand Common Men, above Thirty English and French Volunteers. " Coxe addsthat the expedition would have succeeded if one of the commanders hadnot failed to do his duty. 

[295] Gayarré, _Histoire de la Louisiane_ (1846), i. 69. 

[296] _Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur d'Iberville_ (Margry, iv. 348). 

[297] _Journal du Voyage du Chevalier d'Iberville sur le Vaisseau du Royla Renommée_, 1699, 1700. 

[298] _Mémoire de la Junte de Guerre des Indes. Le Ministre de la Marineau Duc d'Harcourt_ (Margry, iv. 553, 568). 

[299] Iberville wrote in 1701 a long memorial, in which he tried toconvince the Spanish court that it was for the interest of Spain thatthe French should form a barrier between her colonies and those ofEngland, which, he says, were about to seize the country as far as theMississippi and beyond it. 

[300] _Nicolas de la Salle au Ministre, 7 Septembre, 1706. _

[301] "Il est clair que M. De Bienville n'a pas les qualités nécessairespour bien gouverner la colonie. " Gayarré found this curious letter inthe Archives de la Marine. 

[302] _Dépêche de Bienville, 12 Octobre, 1708. _

[303] D'Artaguette in Gayarré, _Histoire de la Louisiane_. This valuablework consists of a series of documents, connected by a thread ofnarrative. 

[304] _La Mothe-Cadillac au Ministre_, in Gayarré, i. 104, 105. 

[305] "Que si M. De Lamothe-Cadillac lui portoit tant d'animositié, c'étoit à cause du refus qu'il avoit fait d'épouser safille. "--_Bienville in Gayarré_, i. 116. 

[306] _Mémoire du Curé de la Vente, 1714. _

[307] The earlier cargoes of girls seem to have been better chosen, andthere was no difficulty in mating them. Serious disputes sometimes rosefrom the competition of rival suitors. --Dumont, _Mémoires historiques dela Louisiane_, chap. V. 

[308] Prominent officials of the colony are said to have got wives fromthese sources. Nicolas de la Salle is reported to have had two insuccession, both from the hospitals. Bénard de la Harpe, 107 (ed. 1831). 

[309] _Lettres patentes en forme d'Édit portant établissement de laCompagnie d'Occident_, in Le Page du Pratz, _Histoire de la Louisiane_, i. 47. 

[310] _Règlement de Régie, 1721. _

[311] Saint-Simon, _Mémoires_ (ed. Chéruel), xvii. 461. 

[312] _De Chassin au Ministre, 1 Juillet, 1722_, in Gayarré, i. 190. 

[313] A considerable number of the whites brought to Louisiana in thename of the Company had been sent at the charge of persons to whom ithad granted lands in various parts of the colony. Among these was JohnLaw himself, who had the grant of large tracts on the Arkansas. 

[314] Bénard de la Harpe, 371 (ed. 1831). 

[315] _Lettre du Père le Petit_, in _Lettres Édifiantes_; Dumont, _Mémoires historiques_, chap. Xxvii. 

[316] "Nos soldats, qui semblent être faits exprès pour la colonie, tants ils sont mauvais. "--_Dépêche de Perier, 18 Mars, 1730. _

[317] _Mémoire de Bienville, 1730. _

[318] For a curious account of the discovery of this negro plot, see LePage du Pratz, iii. 304. 

[319] _Dépêche de Bienville, 6 Mai, 1740. _ Compare Le Page du Pratz, iii. Chap. Xxiv. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1700-1732. 

THE OUTAGAMIE WAR. 

The Western Posts. --Detroit. --The Illinois. --Perils of the West. --TheOutagamies. --Their Turbulence. --English Instigation. --Louvigny'sExpedition. --Defeat of Outagamies. --Hostilities renewed. --Lignery'sExpedition. --Outagamies attacked by Villiers; by Hurons andIroquois. --La Butte des Morts. --The Sacs and Foxes. 

The rulers of Canada labored without ceasing in their perplexing task ofengrossing the fur-trade of the West and controlling the western tribesto the exclusion of the English. Every day made it clearer that to theseends the western wilderness must be held by forts and trading-posts; andthis policy of extension prevailed more and more, in spite of the leagueof merchants, who wished to draw the fur-trade to Montreal, --in spite ofthe Jesuits, who felt that their influence over the remoter tribes wouldbe compromised by the presence among them of officers, soldiers, andtraders; and in spite of the King himself, who feared that the diffusionof the colony would breed disorder and insubordination. 

Detroit, the most important of the western posts, struggled through acritical infancy in the charge of its founder, La Mothe-Cadillac, till, by a choice not very judicious, he was made governor of Louisiana. During his rule the population had slowly increased to about two hundredsouls; but after he left the place it diminished to a point that seemedto threaten the feeble post with extinction. About 1722 it revivedagain; _voyageurs_ and discharged soldiers settled about the fort, andthe parish register shows six or eight births in the course of theyear. [320]

Meanwhile, on the banks of the Mississippi another settlement wasgrowing up which did not owe its birth to official patronage, and yetwas destined to become the most noteworthy offspring of Canada in theWest. It was known to the French as "the Illinois, " from the name of thegroup of tribes belonging to that region. La Salle had occupied thebanks of the river Illinois in 1682; but the curious Indian colony whichhe gathered about his fort on the rock of St. Louis[321] dispersed afterhis death, till few or none were left except the Kaskaskias, a sub-tribeof the Illinois. These still lived in the meadow below Fort St. Louis, where the Jesuits Marquette, Allouez, Rale, Gravier, and Marest laboredin turn for their conversion, till, in 1700, they or some of themfollowed Marest to the Mississippi and set up their wigwams where thetown of Kaskaskia now stands, near the mouth of the little river whichbears the same name. Charlevoix, who was here in 1721, calls this theoldest settlement of the Illinois, [322]--though there is some reason tobelieve that the village of Cahokia, established as a mission by theJesuit Pinet, sixty miles or more above Kaskaskia, and nearly oppositethe present city of St. Louis, is, by a few weeks, the elder of the two. The _voyageurs_, _coureurs de bois_, and other roving Canadians madethese young settlements their resort, took to wife convertedsquaws, [323] and ended with making the Illinois their home. The missionsturned to parishes, the missionaries to curés, and the wigwams to thosecompact little Canadian houses that cause one to marvel at the ingenuitywhich can store so multitudinous a progeny within such narrow limits. 

White women from Canada or Louisiana began to find their way to thesewilderness settlements, which with every generation grew more French andless Indian. The river Mississippi was at once their friend and theirenemy. It carried their produce to New Orleans, but undermined theirrich alluvial shores, cut away fields and meadows, and swept them in itsturbid eddies thirteen hundred miles southward, as a contribution to themud-banks of the delta. 

When the Mississippi Company came into power, the Illinois, hitherto adependency of Canada, was annexed to Louisiana. Pierre Dugué deBoisbriant was sent to take command of it, and under his direction afort was built on the bank of the Mississippi sixteen miles aboveKaskaskia. It was named Fort Chartres, in honor of the Duc de Chartres, son of the Regent, who had himself once borne the same title. This work, built at first of wood and earth, was afterwards rebuilt of stone, andbecame one of the chief links in the chain of military communicationbetween Canada and Louisiana. 

Here, with the commandant at its head, sat the council of three whichruled over the little settlement. [324] Here too was a garrison toenforce the decrees of the council, keep order among the settlers, andgive them a protection which they greatly needed, since they were withinstriking distance of the formidable Chickasaws, the effects of whosehostility appear year after year on the parish register of deaths atKaskaskia. Worse things were in store; for the gallant young Pierred'Artaguette, who was appointed to the command in 1734, and who marchedagainst the Chickasaws with a band of Frenchmen and Indians, wasdefeated, captured, and burned alive, astonishing his torturers by thefortitude with which he met his fate. The settlement had other foes notless dangerous. These were the Outagamies, or Foxes, between whom andthe tribes of the Illinois there was a deadly feud. We have seen how, in1712, a band of Outagamies, with their allies, the Mascoutins, appearedat Detroit and excited an alarm, which, after a savage conflict, wasended with their ruin. In 1714 the Outagamies made a furious attack uponthe Illinois, and killed or carried off seventy-seven of them. [325] Afew years later they made another murderous onslaught in the samequarter. They were the scourge of the West, and no white man couldtravel between Canada and Louisiana except at the risk of his life. 

In vain the French parleyed with them; threats and blandishments wereuseless alike. Their chiefs would promise, sometimes in good faith, tokeep the peace and no more offend their father Onontio; but nearly allthe tribes of the Lake country were their hereditary enemies, and somebloody revenge for ancient wrongs would excite their young warriors to afury which the elders could not restrain. Thus, in 1722 the Saginaws, afierce Algonquin band on the eastern borders of Michigan, killedtwenty-three Outagamies; the tribesmen of the slain returned the blow, other tribes joined the fray, and the wilderness was again on fire. [326]

The Canadian authorities were sorely perplexed, for this fierceinter-tribal war threatened their whole system of western trade. Meanwhile the English and Dutch of New York were sending wampum beltsto the Indians of the upper lakes, inviting them to bring their furs toAlbany; and Ramesay, governor of Montreal, complains that they were alldisposed to do so. "Twelve of the upper tribes, " says Lord Cornbury, "have come down this year to trade at Albany;" but he adds that as theIndians have had no presents for above six years, he is afraid "we shalllose them before next summer. "[327] The governor of Canada himself issaid to have been in collusion with the English traders for his ownprofit. [328] The Jesuits denied the charge, and Father Marest wrote tothe governor, after the disaster to Walker's fleet on its way to attackQuebec, "The protection you have given to the missions has drawn on youand the colony the miraculous protection of God. "[329]

Whether his accusers did him wrong or not, Vaudreuil felt the necessityof keeping the peace among the western Indians and suppressing theOutagamie incendiaries. In fact, nothing would satisfy him but theirdestruction. "They are the common enemies of all the western tribes, " hewrites. "They have lately murdered three Frenchmen and five Hurons atDetroit. The Hurons ask for our help against them, and we must give it, or all the tribes will despise us. "[330]

He put his chief trust in Louvigny, formerly commandant atMichilimackinac. That officer proposed to muster the friendly tribes andmarch on the Outagamies just as their corn was ripening, fight them ifthey stood their ground, or if not, destroy their crops, burn theirwigwams, and encamp on the spot till winter; then send out parties toharass them as they roamed the woods seeking a meagre subsistence byhunting. In this way he hoped to cripple, if not destroy them. [331]

The Outagamies lived at this time on the Fox River of Green Bay, --astream which owes its name to them. [332] Their chief village seems tohave been between thirty and forty miles from the mouth of the river, where it creeps through broad tracts of rushes, willows, and wild rice. In spite of their losses at Detroit in 1712, their strength was far frombeing broken. 

During two successive summers preparations were made to attack them; butthe march was delayed, once by the tardiness of the Indian allies, andagain by the illness of Louvigny. At length, on the first of May, 1716, he left Montreal with two hundred and twenty-five Frenchmen, while twohundred more waited to join him at Detroit and Michilimackinac, wherethe Indian allies were also to meet him. To save expense in pay andoutfit, the Canadians recruited for the war were allowed to take withthem goods for trading with the Indians. Hence great disorder andinsubordination, especially as more than forty barrels of brandy werecarried in the canoes, as a part of these commercial ventures, inconsequence of which we hear that when French and Indians were encampedtogether, "hell was thrown open. "[333]

The Outagamies stood their ground. Louvigny says, with probableexaggeration, that when he made his attack their village held fivehundred warriors, and no less than three thousand women, --a disparity ofsexes no doubt due to the inveterate fighting habits of the tribe. Thewigwams were enclosed by a strong fence, consisting of three rows ofheavy oaken palisades. This method of fortification was used also bytribes farther southward. When Bienville attacked the Chickasaws, he wasfoiled by the solid wooden wall that resisted his cannon, being formedof trunks of trees as large as a man's body, set upright, closetogether, and made shot-proof by smaller trunks, planted within so as toclose the interstices of the outer row. [334]

The fortified village of the Outagamies was of a somewhat differentconstruction. The defences consisted of three rows of palisades, thoseof the middle row being probably planted upright, and the other two setaslant against them. Below, along the inside of the triple row, ran asort of shallow trench or rifle-pit, where the defenders lay ensconced, firing through interstices left for the purpose between thepalisades. [335]

Louvigny had brought with him two cannon and a mortar; but being light, they had little effect on the wooden wall, and as he was provided withmining tools, he resolved to attack the Outagamie stronghold by regularapproaches, as if he were besieging a fortress of Vauban. Covered by thefire of three pieces of artillery and eight hundred French and Indiansmall-arms, he opened trenches during the night within seventy yards ofthe palisades, pushed a sap sixty feet nearer before morning, and on thethird night burrowed to within about twenty-three yards of the wall. Hisplan was to undermine and blow up the palisades. 

The Outagamies had made a furious resistance, in which their women tookpart with desperation; but dreading the threatened explosion, and unableto resist the underground approaches of their enemy, they asked for aparley, and owned themselves beaten. Louvigny demanded that they shouldmake peace with all tribes friendly to the French, give up allprisoners, and make war on distant tribes, such as the Pawnees, in orderto take captives who should supply the place of those they had killedamong the allies of the French; that they should pay, in furs, the costsof the war, and give six chiefs, or sons of chiefs, as hostages for thefulfilment of these conditions. [336]

On the twelfth of October Louvigny reached Quebec in triumph, bringingwith him the six hostages. 

The Outagamie question was settled for a time. The tribe remained quietfor some years, and in 1718 sent a deputation to Montreal and renewedtheir submission, which the governor accepted, though they had evadedthe complete fulfilment of the conditions imposed on them. Yet peace wasnot secure for a moment. The Kickapoos and Mascoutins would not leavetheir neighbors, the Illinois, at rest; the Saginaws made raids on theMiamis; and a general war seemed imminent. "The difficulty isinconceivable of keeping these western tribes quiet, " writes thegovernor, almost in despair. [337]

At length the crisis came. The Illinois captured the nephew of Oushala, the principal Outagamie war-chief, and burned him alive; on which theOutagamies attacked them, drove them for refuge to the top of the rockon which La Salle's fort of St. Louis had been built, and held themthere at mercy. They would have starved to death, had not the victors, dreading the anger of the French, suffered them to escape. [338] For thisthey took to themselves great credit, not without reason, in view of theprovocation. At Versailles, however, their attack on the Illinois seemedan unpardonable offence, and the next ship from France brought a letterfrom the colonial minister declaring that the Outagamies must beeffectually put down, and that "his Majesty will reward the officer whowill reduce, or rather destroy, them. "[339]

The authorities of Canada were less truculent than their masters at thecourt, or were better able to count the costs of another war. Longueuil, the provisional governor, persisted in measures of peace, and the Sieurde Lignery called a council of the Outagamies and their neighbors, theSacs and Winnebagoes, at Green Bay. He told them that the Great Onontio, the King, ordered them, at their peril, to make no more attacks on theIllinois; and they dutifully promised to obey, while their great chief, Oushala, begged that a French officer might be sent to his village tohelp him keep his young warriors from the war-path. [340] The pacificpolicy of Longueuil was not approved by Desliettes, then commanding inthe Illinois country; and he proposed to settle accounts with theOutagamies by exterminating them. "This is very well, " observes awriter of the time; "but to try to exterminate them and fail would bedisastrous. "[341]

The Marquis de Beauharnois, who came out as governor of Canada in 1726, was averse to violent measures, since if an attempt to exterminate theoffending tribe should be made without success, the life of everyFrenchman in the West would be in jeopardy. [342] Lignery thought that ifthe Outagamies broke the promises they had made him at Green Bay, theforces of Canada and Louisiana should unite to crush them. Themissionary, Chardon, advised that they should be cut off from allsupplies of arms, ammunition, and merchandise of any kind, and that allthe well-disposed western tribes should then be set upon them, --which, he thought, would infallibly bring them to reason. [343]

The new governor, perplexed by the multitude of counsellors, presentlyreceived a missive from the King, directing him not to fight theOutagamies if he could help it, "since the consequences of failure wouldbe frightful. "[344] On the other hand, Beauharnois was told that theEnglish had sent messages to the Lake tribes urging them to kill theFrench in their country, and that the Outagamies had promised to do so. "This, " writes the governor, "compels us to make war in earnest. It willcost sixty thousand livres. "[345]

Dupuy, the intendant, had joined with Beauharnois in this letter to theminister; but being at the time in a hot quarrel with the governor, hesoon after sent a communication of his own to Versailles, in which hedeclares that the war against the Outagamies was only a pretext ofBeauharnois for spending the King's money, and enriching himself bybuying up all the furs of the countries traversed by the army. [346]

Whatever the motives of the expedition, it left Montreal in June, underthe Sieur de Lignery, followed the rugged old route of the Ottawa, anddid not reach Michilimackinac till after midsummer. Thence, in aflotilla of birch canoes carrying about a thousand Indians and fivehundred French, the party set out for the fort at the head of GreenBay. [347] Here they caught one Outagamie warrior and three Winnebagoes, whom the Indian allies tortured to death. Then they paddled their canoesup Fox River, reached a Winnebago village on the twenty-fourth ofAugust, followed the channel of the stream, a ribbon of lazy watertwisting in a vague, perplexing way through the broad marsh of wild riceand flags, till they saw the chief village of the Outagamies on a tractof rising ground a little above the level of the bog. [348] It consistedof bark wigwams, without palisades or defences of any kind. Its onlyinmates were three squaws and one old man. These were all seized, and, to the horror of Père Crespel, the chaplain, were given to the Indianallies, who kept the women as slaves, and burned the old man at a slowfire. [349] Then, after burning the village and destroying the crop ofmaize, peas, beans, and squashes that surrounded it, the whole partyreturned to Michilimackinac. [350]

The expedition was not a success. Lignery had hoped to surprise theenemy; but the alert and nimble savages had escaped him. Beauharnoismakes the best of the miscarriage, and writes that "the army did goodwork;" but says a few weeks later that something must be done to curethe contempt which the western allies of the French have conceived forthem "since the last affair. "[351]

Two years after Lignery's expedition, there was another attempt tohumble the Outagamies. Late in the autumn of 1730 young Coulon deVilliers, who twenty-four years later defeated Washington at FortNecessity, appeared at Quebec with news that the Sieur de Villiers, hisfather, who commanded the post on the St. Joseph, had struck theOutagamies a deadly blow and killed two hundred of their warriors, besides six hundred of their women and children. The force underVilliers consisted of a body of Frenchmen gathered from various westernposts, another body from the Illinois, led by the Sieurs de Saint-Ange, father and son, and twelve or thirteen hundred Indian allies from manyfriendly tribes. [352]

The accounts of this affair are obscure and not very trustworthy. Itseems that the Outagamies began the fray by an attack on the Illinois atLa Salle's old station of Le Rocher, on the river Illinois. On hearingof this, the French commanders mustered their Indian allies, hastened tothe spot, and found the Outagamies intrenched in a grove which they hadsurrounded with a stockade. They defended themselves with their usualcourage, but, being hard pressed by hunger and thirst, as well as by thegreatly superior numbers of their assailants, they tried to escapeduring a dark night, as their tribesmen had done at Detroit in 1712. TheFrench and their allies pursued, and there was a great slaughter, inwhich many warriors and many more women and children were thevictims. [353]

The offending tribe must now, one would think, have ceased to bedangerous; but nothing less than its destruction would content theFrench officials. To this end, their best resource was in their Indianallies, among whom the Outagamies had no more deadly enemy than theHurons of Detroit, who, far from relenting in view of their disasters, were more eager than ever to wreak their ire on their unfortunate foe. Accordingly, they sent messengers to the converted Iroquois at theMission of Two Mountains, and invited them to join in making an end ofthe Outagamies. The invitation was accepted, and in the autumn of 1731forty-seven warriors from the Two Mountains appeared at Detroit. Theparty was soon made up. It consisted of seventy-four Hurons, forty-sixIroquois, and four Ottawas. They took the trail to the mouth of theriver St. Joseph, thence around the head of Lake Michigan to the Chicagoportage, and thence westward to Rock River. Here were the villages ofthe Kickapoos and Mascoutins, who had been allies of the Outagamies, buthaving lately quarrelled with them, received the strangers as friendsand gave them guides. The party now filed northward, by forests andprairies, towards the Wisconsin, to the banks of which stream theOutagamies had lately removed their villages. The warriors were all onsnow-shoes, for the weather was cold and the snow deep. Some of theelders, overcome by the hardships of the way, called a council andproposed to turn back; but the juniors were for pushing on at all risks, and a young warrior declared that he would rather die than go homewithout killing somebody. The result was a division of the party; theelders returned to Chicago, and the younger men, forty Hurons and thirtyIroquois, kept on their way. 

At last, as they neared the Wisconsin, they saw on an open prairie threeOutagamies, who ran for their lives. The Hurons and Iroquois gave chase, till from the ridge of a hill they discovered the principal Outagamievillage, consisting, if we may believe their own story, of forty-sixwigwams, near the bank of the river. The Outagamie warriors came out tomeet them, in number, as they pretended, much greater than theirs; butthe Huron and Iroquois chiefs reminded their followers that they had todo with dogs who did not believe in God, on which they fired two volleysagainst the enemy, then dropped their guns and charged with the knife inone hand and the war-club in the other. According to their own story, which shows every sign of mendacity, they drove back the Outagamies intotheir village, killed seventy warriors, and captured fourteen more, without counting eighty women and children killed, and a hundred andforty taken prisoners. In short, they would have us believe that theydestroyed the whole village, except ten men, who escaped entirely naked, and soon froze to death. They declared further that they sent one oftheir prisoners to the remaining Outagamie villages, ordering him totell the inhabitants that they had just devoured the better part of thetribe, and meant to stay on the spot two days; that the tribesmen of theslain were free to attack them if they chose, but in that case, theywould split the heads of all the women and children prisoners in theirhands, make a breastwork of the dead bodies, and then finish it bypiling upon it those of the assailants. [354]

Nothing is more misleading than Indian tradition, which is of the leastpossible value as evidence. It may be well, however, to mention anotherstory, often repeated, touching these dark days of the Outagamies. It isto the effect that a French trader named Marin, whom they had incensedby levying blackmail from him, raised a party of Indians, with whose aidhe surprised and defeated the unhappy tribe at the Little Butte desMorts, that they retired to the Great Butte des Morts, higher up FoxRiver, and that Marin here attacked them again, killing or capturing thewhole. Extravagant as the story seems, it may have some foundation, though various dates, from 1725 to 1746, are assigned to the allegedexploit, and contemporary documents are silent concerning it. It iscertain that the Outagamies were not destroyed, as the tribe exists tothis day. [355]

In 1736 it was reported that sixty or eighty Outagamie warriors werestill alive. [356] Their women, who when hard pushed would fight likefuries, were relatively numerous and tolerably prolific, and theirvillages were full of sturdy boys, likely to be dangerous in a fewyears. Feeling their losses and their weakness, the survivors of thetribe incorporated themselves with their kindred and neighbors, theSacs, Sakis, or Saukies, the two forming henceforth one tribe, afterwards known to the Americans as the Sacs and Foxes. Early in thenineteenth century they were settled on both banks of the upperMississippi. Brave and restless like their forefathers, they were acontinual menace to the American frontiersmen, and in 1832 they rose inopen war, under their famous chief, Blackhawk, displaying theirhereditary prowess both on foot and on horseback, and more than oncedefeating superior numbers of American mounted militia. In the next yearthat excellent artist, Charles Bodmer, painted a group of them fromlife, --grim-visaged savages, armed with war-club, spear, or rifle, andwrapped in red, green, or brown blankets, their heads close shavenexcept the erect and bristling scalp-lock, adorned with longeagle-plumes, while both heads and faces are painted with fantasticfigures in blue, white, yellow, black, and vermilion. [357]

Three or four years after, a party of their chiefs and warriors wasconducted through the country by order of the Washington government, inorder to impress them with the number and power of the whites. At Bostonthey danced a war-dance on the Common in full costume, to the delight ofthe boy spectators, of whom I was one. 

FOOTNOTES:

[320] Rameau, _Notes historiques sur la Colonie Canadienne du Detroit_. 

[321] See "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, " 315. 

[322] "Ce poste, le premier de tous par droit d'antiquité. "--_Journalhistorique_, 403 (ed. 1744). 

[323] The old parish registers of Kaskaskia are full of records of thesemixed marriages. See Edward G. Mason, _Illinois in the EighteenthCentury_. 

[324] The two other members were La Loire des Ursins, director of theMississippi Company, and Michel Chassin, its commissary, --he who wrotethe curious letter to Ponchartrain, asking for a wife, quoted in thelast chapter, pp. 317-318. 

[325] _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Septembre, 1714. _

[326] _Idem, 2 Octobre, 1723. _

[327] _N. Y. Col. Docs. _, v. 65. 

[328] _Mémoire présenté au Comte de Ponchartrain par M. D'Auteuil, procureur-général du Roy, 1708. _

[329] _Marest à Vaudreuil, 21 Janvier, 1712. _

[330] _Vaudreuil et Bégon au Ministre, 15 Novembre, 1713. _

[331] _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Septembre, 1714. _

[332] "Les Renards [Outagamies] sont placez sur une rivière qui tombedans la Baye des Puants [Green Bay]. "--_Registre du Conseil de laMarine, 28 Mars, 1716. _

[333] "Où il y a des François et des sauvages, c'est un enferouvert. "--_Registre du Conseil de Marine, 28 Mars, 1716. _

[334] Le Page du Pratz. 

[335] _Louvigny au Ministre, 14 Octobre, 1716. _ Louvigny's account ofthe Outagamie defences is short, and not very clear. La Mothe-Cadillac, describing similar works at Michilimackinac, says that the palisades ofthe innermost row alone were set close together, those of the two otherrows being separated by spaces of six inches or more, through which thedefenders fired from their loopholes. The plan seems borrowed from theIroquois. 

[336] _Dépêche de Vaudreuil, 14 Octobre, 1716. _

[337] _Vaudreuil au Conseil de Marine, 28 Octobre, 1719. _

[338] _Paroles des Renards _[Outagamies]_ dans un Conseil tenu le 6Septembre, 1722. _

[339] _Réponse du Ministre à la lettre du Marquis de Vaudreuil du 11Octobre, 1723. _

[340] _Mémoire sur les Renards, 27 Avril, 1727. _

[341] _Mémoire concernant la Paix que M. De Lignery a faite avec lesChefs des Renards, Sakis _[Sacs]_, et Puants _[Winnebagoes]_, 7 Juin, 1726. _

[342] _Mémoire sur les Renards, 27 Avril, 1727. _

[343] _Ibid. _

[344] _Mémoire du Roy, 29 Avril, 1727. _

[345] _Beauharnois et Dupuy au Ministre, 25 Octobre, 1727. _

[346] _Mémoire de Dupuy, 1728. _

[347] Desliettes came to meet them, by way of Chicago, with five hundredIllinois warriors and twenty Frenchmen. _La Perrière et La Fresnière àBeauharnois, 10 Septembre, 1728. _

[348] _Guignas à Beauharnois, 29 Mai, 1728. _

[349] _Dépêche de Beauharnois, 1 Septembre, 1728. _

[350] The best account of this expedition is that of Père EmanuelCrespel. Lignery made a report which seems to be lost, as it does notappear in the Archives. 

[351] _Beauharnois au Ministre, 15 Mai, 1729_; _Ibid. , 21 Juillet, 1729_. 

[352] _Beauharnois et Hocquart au Ministre, 2 Novembre, 1730. _ An Indiantradition says that about this time there was a great battle between theOutagamies and the French, aided by their Indian allies, at the placecalled Little Butte des Morts, on the Fox River. According to the story, the Outagamies were nearly destroyed. Perhaps this is a pervertedversion of the Villiers affair. (See _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, viii, 207. ) Beauharnois also reports, under date of 6 May, 1730, that aparty of Outagamies, returning from a buffalo hunt, were surprised bytwo hundred Ottawas, Ojibwas, Menominies, and Winnebagoes, who killedeighty warriors and three hundred women and children. 

[353] Some particulars of this affair are given by Ferland, _Coursd'Histoire du Canada_, ii. 437; but he does not give his authority. Ihave found no report of it by those engaged. 

[354] _Relation de la Défaite des Renards par les Sauvages Hurons etIroquois, le 28 Février, 1732. _ (Archives de la Marine. )

[355] The story is told in Snelling, _Tales of the Northwest_ (1830), under the title of _La Butte des Morts_, and afterwards, withvariations, by the aged Augustus Grignon, in his _Recollections_, printed in the _Collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society_, iii. ;also by Judge M. L. Martin and others. Grignon, like all the rest, wasnot born till after the time of the alleged event. The nearest approachto substantial evidence touching it is in a letter of Beauharnois, whowrites in 1730 that the Sieur Dubuisson was to attack the Outagamieswith fifty Frenchmen and five hundred and fifty Indians, and that Marin, commander at Green Bay, was to join him. _Beauharnois au Ministre, 25Juin, 1730. _

[356] _Mémoire sur le Canada, 1736. _

[357] Charles Bodmer was the artist who accompanied Prince Maximilian ofWied in his travels in the interior of North America. 

The name Outagamie is Algonquin for a fox. Hence the French called thetribe Renards, and the Americans, Foxes. They called themselvesMusquawkies, which is said to mean "red earth, " and to be derived fromthe color of the soil near one of their villages. 

CHAPTER XV. 

1697-1741. 

FRANCE IN THE FAR WEST. 

French Explorers. --Le Sueur on the St. Peter. --Canadians on theMissouri. --Juchereau de Saint-Denis. --Bénard de la Harpe on RedRiver. --Adventures of Du Tisné. --Bourgmont visits the Comanches. --TheBrothers Mallet in Colorado and New Mexico. --Fabry de la Bruyère. 

The occupation by France of the lower Mississippi gave a strong impulseto the exploration of the West, by supplying a base for discovery, stimulating enterprise by the longing to find gold mines, open tradewith New Mexico, and get a fast hold on the countries beyond theMississippi in anticipation of Spain; and to these motives was soonadded the hope of finding an overland way to the Pacific. It was theCanadians, with their indomitable spirit of adventure, who led the wayin the path of discovery. 

As a bold and hardy pioneer of the wilderness, the Frenchman in Americahas rarely found his match. His civic virtues withered under thedespotism of Versailles, and his mind and conscience were kept inleading-strings by an absolute Church; but the forest and the prairieoffered him an unbridled liberty, which, lawless as it was, gave scopeto his energies, till these savage wastes became the field of his mostnoteworthy achievements. 

Canada was divided between two opposing influences. On the one side werethe monarchy and the hierarchy, with their principles of order, subordination, and obedience; substantially at one in purpose, sinceboth wished to keep the colony within manageable bounds, domesticate it, and tame it to soberness, regularity, and obedience. On the other sidewas the spirit of liberty, or license, which was in the very air of thiswilderness continent, reinforced in the chiefs of the colony by a spiritof adventure inherited from the Middle Ages, and by a spirit of tradeborn of present opportunities; for every official in Canada hoped tomake a profit, if not a fortune, out of beaver-skins. Kindred impulses, in ruder forms, possessed the humbler colonists, drove them into theforest, and made them hardy woodsmen and skilful bush-fighters, thoughturbulent and lawless members of civilized society. 

Time, the decline of the fur-trade, and the influence of the CanadianChurch gradually diminished this erratic spirit, and at the same timeimpaired the qualities that were associated with it. The Canadian becamea more stable colonist and a steadier farmer; but for forest journeyingsand forest warfare he was scarcely his former self. At the middle of theeighteenth century we find complaints that the race of _voyageurs_ isgrowing scarce. The taming process was most apparent in the central andlower parts of the colony, such as the Côte de Beaupré and the oppositeshore of the St. Lawrence, where the hands of the government and of theChurch were strong; while at the head of the colony, --that is, aboutMontreal and its neighborhood, --which touched the primeval wilderness, an uncontrollable spirit of adventure still held its own. Here, at thebeginning of the century, this spirit was as strong as it had ever been, and achieved a series of explorations and discoveries which revealed theplains of the Far West long before an Anglo-Saxon foot had pressed theirsoil. 

The expedition of one Le Sueur to what is now the State of Minnesota maybe taken as the starting-point of these enterprises. Le Sueur hadvisited the country of the Sioux as early as 1683. He returned thitherin 1689 with the famous _voyageur_ Nicolas Perrot. [358] Four yearslater, Count Frontenac sent him to the Sioux country again. The declaredpurpose of the mission was to keep those fierce tribes at peace withtheir neighbors; but the governor's enemies declared that a contrabandtrade in beaver was the true object, and that Frontenac's secretary wasto have half the profits. [359] Le Sueur returned after two years, bringing to Montreal a Sioux chief and his squaw, --the first of thetribe ever seen there. He then went to France, and represented to thecourt that he had built a fort at Lake Pepin, on the upper Mississippi;that he was the only white man who knew the languages of that region;and that if the French did not speedily seize upon it, the English, whowere already trading upon the Ohio, would be sure to do so. Thereupon heasked for the command of the upper Mississippi, with all its tributarywaters, together with a monopoly of its fur-trade for ten years, andpermission to work its mines, promising that if his petition weregranted, he would secure the country to France without expense to theKing. The commission was given him. He bought an outfit and sailed forCanada, but was captured by the English on the way. After the peace hereturned to France and begged for a renewal of his commission. Leave wasgiven him to work the copper and lead mines, but not to trade inbeaver-skins. He now formed a company to aid him in his enterprise, onwhich a cry rose in Canada that under pretence of working mines he meantto trade in beaver, --which is very likely, since to bring lead andcopper in bark canoes to Montreal from the Mississippi and Lake Superiorwould cost far more than the metal was worth. In consequence of thisclamor his commission was revoked. 

Perhaps it was to compensate him for the outlays into which he had beendrawn that the colonial minister presently authorized him to embark forLouisiana and pursue his enterprise with that infant colony, instead ofCanada, as his base of operations. Thither, therefore, he went; and inApril, 1700, set out for the Sioux country with twenty-five men, in asmall vessel of the kind called a "felucca, " still used in theMediterranean. Among the party was an adventurous youth named Penecaut, a ship-carpenter by trade, who had come to Louisiana with Iberville twoyears before, and who has left us an account of his voyage with LeSueur. [360]

The party slowly made their way, with sail and oar, against the muddycurrent of the Mississippi, till they reached the Arkansas, where theyfound an English trader from Carolina. On the tenth of June, spent withrowing, and half starved, they stopped to rest at a point fifteenleagues above the mouth of the Ohio. They had staved off famine with thebuds and leaves of trees; but now, by good luck, one of them killed abear, and, soon after, the Jesuit Limoges arrived from the neighboringmission of the Illinois, in a canoe well stored with provisions. Thusrefreshed, they passed the mouth of the Missouri on the thirteenth ofJuly, and soon after were met by three Canadians, who brought them aletter from the Jesuit Marest, warning them that the river was infestedby war-parties. In fact, they presently saw seven canoes of Siouxwarriors, bound against the Illinois; and not long after, five Canadiansappeared, one of whom had been badly wounded in a recent encounter witha band of Outagamies, Sacs, and Winnebagoes bound against the Sioux. Totake one another's scalps had been for ages the absorbing business andfavorite recreation of all these Western tribes. At or near theexpansion of the Mississippi called Lake Pepin, the voyagers found afort called Fort Perrot, after its builder;[361] and on an island nearthe upper end of the lake, another similar structure, built by Le Sueurhimself on his last visit to the place. These forts were mere stockades, occupied from time to time by the roving fur-traders as their occasionsrequired. 

Towards the end of September, Le Sueur and his followers reached themouth of the St. Peter, which they ascended to Blue Earth River. Pushinga league up this stream, they found a spot well suited to their purpose, and here they built a fort, of which there was great need, for they weresoon after joined by seven Canadian traders, plundered and stripped tothe skin by the neighboring Sioux. Le Sueur named the new post Fortl'Huillier. It was a fence of pickets, enclosing cabins for the men. Theneighboring plains were black with buffalo, of which the party killedfour hundred, and cut them into quarters, which they placed to freezeon scaffolds within the enclosure. Here they spent the winter, subsisting on the frozen meat, without bread, vegetables, or salt, and, according to Penecaut, thriving marvellously, though the surroundingwilderness was buried five feet deep in snow. 

Band after band of Sioux appeared, with their wolfish dogs and theirsturdy and all-enduring squaws burdened with the heavy hide coverings oftheir teepees, or buffalo-skin tents. They professed friendship andbegged for arms. Those of one band had blackened their faces in mourningfor a dead chief, and calling on Le Sueur to share their sorrow, theywept over him, and wiped their tears on his hair. Another party ofwarriors arrived with yet deeper cause of grief, being the remnant of avillage half exterminated by their enemies. They, too, wept profuselyover the French commander, and then sang a dismal song, with headsmuffled in their buffalo-robes. [362] Le Sueur took the needfulprecautions against his dangerous visitors, but got from them a largesupply of beaver-skins in exchange for his goods. 

When spring opened, he set out in search of mines, and found, not farabove the fort, those beds of blue and green earth to which the streamowes its name. Of this his men dug out a large quantity, and selectingwhat seemed the best, stored it in their vessel as a precious commodity. With this and good store of beaver-skins, Le Sueur now began his returnvoyage for Louisiana, leaving a Canadian named D'Éraque and twelve mento keep the fort till he should come back to reclaim it, promising tosend him a canoe-load of ammunition from the Illinois. But the canoe waswrecked, and D'Éraque, discouraged, abandoned Fort l'Huillier, andfollowed his commander down the Mississippi. [363]

Le Sueur, with no authority from government, had opened relations oftrade with the wild Sioux of the Plains, whose westward range stretchedto the Black Hills, and perhaps to the Rocky Mountains. He reached thesettlements of Louisiana in safety, and sailed for France with fourthousand pounds of his worthless blue earth. [364] Repairing at once toVersailles, he begged for help to continue his enterprise. His petitionseems to have been granted. After long delay, he sailed again forLouisiana, fell ill on the voyage, and died soon after landing. [365]

Before 1700, the year when Le Sueur visited the St. Peter, little ornothing was known of the country west of the Mississippi, except fromthe report of Indians. The romances of La Hontan and Mathieu Sâgeanwere justly set down as impostures by all but the most credulous. Inthis same year we find Le Moyne d'Iberville projecting journeys to theupper Missouri, in hopes of finding a river flowing to the Western Sea. In 1703, twenty Canadians tried to find their way from the Illinois toNew Mexico, in hope of opening trade with the Spaniards and discoveringmines. [366] In 1704 we find it reported that more than a hundredCanadians are scattered in small parties along the Mississippi and theMissouri;[367] and in 1705 one Laurain appeared at the Illinois, declaring that he had been high up the Missouri and had visited manytribes on its borders. [368] A few months later, two Canadians toldBienville a similar story. In 1708 Nicolas de la Salle proposed anexpedition of a hundred men to explore the same mysterious river; and in1717 one Hubert laid before the Council of Marine a scheme for followingthe Missouri to its source, since, he says, "not only may we find themines worked by the Spaniards, but also discover the great river that issaid to rise in the mountains where the Missouri has its source, and isbelieved to flow to the Western Sea. " And he advises that a hundred andfifty men be sent up the river in wooden canoes, since bark canoeswould be dangerous, by reason of the multitude of snags. [369]

In 1714 Juchereau de Saint-Denis was sent by La Mothe-Cadillac toexplore western Louisiana, and pushed up Red River to a pointsixty-eight leagues, as he reckons, above Natchitoches. In the nextyear, journeying across country towards the Spanish settlements, with aview to trade, he was seized near the Rio Grande and carried to the cityof Mexico. The Spaniards, jealous of French designs, now sent priestsand soldiers to occupy several points in Texas. Juchereau, however, waswell treated, and permitted to marry a Spanish girl with whom he hadfallen in love on the way; but when, in the autumn of 1716, he venturedanother journey to the Mexican borders, still hoping to be allowed totrade, he and his goods were seized by order of the Mexican viceroy, and, lest worse should befall him, he fled empty-handed, under cover ofnight. [370]

In March, 1719, Bénard de la Harpe left the feeble little French post atNatchitoches with six soldiers and a sergeant. [371] His errand was toexplore the country, open trade if possible with the Spaniards, andestablish another post high up Red River. He and his party soon cameupon that vast entanglement of driftwood, or rather of uprootedforests, afterwards known as the Red River raft, which choked the streamand forced them to make their way through the inundated jungle thatbordered it. As they pushed or dragged their canoes through the swamp, they saw with disgust and alarm a good number of snakes, coiled abouttwigs and boughs on the right and left, or sometimes over their heads. These were probably the deadly water-moccason, which in warm weather isaccustomed to crawl out of its favorite element and bask itself in thesun, precisely as described by La Harpe. Their nerves were furtherdiscomposed by the splashing and plunging of alligators lately wakenedfrom their wintry torpor. Still, they pushed painfully on, till theyreached navigable water again, and at the end of the month were, as theythought, a hundred and eight leagues above Natchitoches. In four daysmore they reached the Nassonites. 

These savages belonged to a group of stationary tribes, only one ofwhich, the Caddoes, survives to our day as a separate community. Theirenemies, the Chickasaws, Osages, Arkansas, and even the distantIllinois, waged such deadly war against them that, according to LaHarpe, the unfortunate Nassonites were in the way of extinction, theirnumbers having fallen, within ten years, from twenty-five hundred soulsto four hundred. [372]

La Harpe stopped among them to refresh his men, and build a house ofcypress-wood as a beginning of the post he was ordered to establish;then, having heard that a war with Spain had ruined his hopes of tradewith New Mexico, he resolved to pursue his explorations. 

With him went ten men, white, red, and black, with twenty-two horsesbought from the Indians, for his journeyings were henceforth to be byland. The party moved in a northerly and westerly course, by hills, forests, and prairies, passed two branches of the Wichita, and on thethird of September came to a river which La Harpe calls the southwestbranch of the Arkansas, but which, if his observation of latitude iscorrect, must have been the main stream, not far from the site of FortMann. Here he was met by seven Indian chiefs, mounted on excellenthorses saddled and bridled after the Spanish manner. They led him towhere, along the plateau of the low, treeless hills that bordered thevalley, he saw a string of Indian villages, extending for a league andbelonging to nine several bands, the names of which can no longer berecognized, and most of which are no doubt extinct. He says that theynumbered in all six thousand souls; and their dwellings were high, dome-shaped structures, built of clay mixed with reeds and straw, resting, doubtless, on a frame of bent poles. [373] With them were alsosome of the roving Indians of the plains, with their conical teepees ofdressed buffalo-skin. 

The arrival of the strangers was a great and amazing event for thesesavages, few of whom had ever seen a white man. On the day after theirarrival the whole multitude gathered to receive them and offer them thecalumet, with a profusion of songs and speeches. Then warrior afterwarrior recounted his exploits and boasted of the scalps he had taken. From eight in the morning till two hours after midnight the din ofdrums, songs, harangues, and dances continued without relenting, with aprospect of twelve hours more; and La Harpe, in desperation, withdrew torest himself on a buffalo-robe, begging another Frenchman to take hisplace. His hosts left him in peace for a while; then the chiefs came tofind him, painted his face blue, as a tribute of respect, put a cap ofeagle-feathers on his head, and laid numerous gifts at his feet. When atlast the ceremony ended, some of the performers were so hoarse fromincessant singing that they could hardly speak. [374]

La Harpe was told by his hosts that the Spanish settlements could bereached by ascending their river; but to do this was at presentimpossible. He began his backward journey, fell desperately ill of afever, and nearly died before reaching Natchitoches. 

Having recovered, he made an attempt, two years later, to explore theArkansas in canoes, from its mouth, but accomplished little besideskilling a good number of buffalo, bears, deer, and wild turkeys. He wasconfirmed, however, in the belief that the Comanches and the Spaniardsof New Mexico might be reached by this route. 

In the year of La Harpe's first exploration, one Du Tisné went up theMissouri to a point six leagues above Grand River, where stood thevillage of the Missouris. He wished to go farther, but they would notlet him. He then returned to the Illinois, whence he set out onhorseback with a few followers across what is now the State of Missouri, till he reached the village of the Osages, which stood on a hill high upthe river Osage. At first he was well received; but when they found himdisposed to push on to a town of their enemies, the Pawnees, fortyleagues distant, they angrily refused to let him go. His firmness andhardihood prevailed, and at last they gave him leave. A ride of a fewdays over rich prairies brought him to the Pawnees, who, coming as hedid from the hated Osages, took him for an enemy and threatened to killhim. Twice they raised the tomahawk over his head; but when the intrepidtraveller dared them to strike, they began to treat him as a friend. When, however, he told them that he meant to go fifteen days' journeyfarther, to the Padoucas, or Comanches, their deadly enemies, theyfiercely forbade him; and after planting a French flag in theirvillage, he returned as he had come, guiding his way by compass, andreaching the Illinois in November, after extreme hardships. [375]

Early in 1721 two hundred mounted Spaniards, followed by a large body ofComanche warriors, came from New Mexico to attack the French at theIllinois, but were met and routed on the Missouri by tribes of thatregion. [376] In the next year, Bienville was told that they meant toreturn, punish those who had defeated them, and establish a post on theriver Kansas; whereupon he ordered Boisbriant, commandant at theIllinois, to anticipate them by sending troops to build a French fort ator near the same place. But the West India Company had already sent oneBourgmont on a similar errand, the object being to trade with theSpaniards in time of peace, and stop their incursions in time ofwar. [377] It was hoped also that, in the interest of trade, peace mightbe made between the Comanches and the tribes of the Missouri. [378]

Bourgmont was a man of some education, and well acquainted with thesetribes, among whom he had traded for years. In pursuance of his ordershe built a fort, which he named Fort Orléans, and which stood on theMissouri not far above the mouth of Grand River. Having thusaccomplished one part of his mission, he addressed himself to the other, and prepared to march for the Comanche villages. 

Leaving a sufficient garrison at the fort, he sent his ensign, Saint-Ange, with a party of soldiers and Canadians, in wooden canoes, tothe villages of the Kansas higher up the stream, and on the third ofJuly set out by land to join him, with a hundred and nine MissouriIndians and sixty-eight Osages in his train. A ride of five days broughthim again to the banks of the Missouri, opposite a Kansas town. Saint-Ange had not yet arrived, the angry and turbid current, joined tofevers among his men, having retarded his progress. Meanwhile Bourgmontdrew from the Kansas a promise that their warriors should go with him tothe Comanches. Saint-Ange at last appeared, and at daybreak of thetwenty-fourth the tents were struck and the pack-horses loaded. At sixo'clock the party drew up in battle array on a hill above the Indiantown, and then, with drum beating and flag flying, began their march. "Afine prairie country, " writes Bourgmont, "with hills and dales andclumps of trees to right and left. " Sometimes the landscape quiveredunder the sultry sun, and sometimes thunder bellowed over their heads, and rain fell in floods on the steaming plains. 

Renaudière, engineer of the party, one day stood by the side of the pathand watched the whole procession as it passed him. The white men wereabout twenty in all. He counted about three hundred Indian warriors, with as many squaws, some five hundred children, and a prodigious numberof dogs, the largest and strongest of which dragged heavy loads. Thesquaws also served as beasts of burden; and, says the journal, "theywill carry as much as a dog will drag. " Horses were less abundant amongthese tribes than they afterwards became, so that their work felllargely upon the women. 

On the sixth day the party was within three leagues of the river Kansas, at a considerable distance above its mouth. Bourgmont had suffered fromdysentery on the march, and an access of the malady made it impossiblefor him to go farther. It is easy to conceive the regret with which hesaw himself compelled to return to Fort Orléans. The party retracedtheir steps, carrying their helpless commander on a litter. 

First, however, he sent one Gaillard on a perilous errand. Taking withhim two Comanche slaves bought for the purpose from the Kansas, Gaillardwas ordered to go to the Comanche villages with the message thatBourgmont had been on his way to make them a friendly visit, and, thoughstopped by illness, hoped soon to try again, with better success. 

Early in September, Bourgmont, who had arrived safely at Fort Orléans, received news that the mission of Gaillard had completely succeeded; onwhich, though not wholly recovered from his illness, he set out again onhis errand of peace, accompanied by his young son, besides Renaudière, asurgeon, and nine soldiers. On reaching the great village of the Kansashe found there five Comanche chiefs and warriors, whom Gaillard hadinduced to come thither with him. Seven chiefs of the Otoes presentlyappeared, in accordance with an invitation of Bourgmont; then six chiefsof the Iowas and the head chief of the Missouris. With these and theKansas chiefs a solemn council was held around a fire before Bourgmont'stent; speeches were made, the pipe of peace was smoked, and presentswere distributed. 

On the eighth of October the march began, the five Comanches and thechiefs of several other tribes, including the Omahas, joining thecavalcade. Gaillard and another Frenchman named Quesnel were sent inadvance to announce their approach to the Comanches, while Bourgmont andhis followers moved up the north side of the river Kansas till theeleventh, when they forded it at a point twenty leagues from its mouth, and took a westward and southwestward course, sometimes threading thegrassy valleys of little streams, sometimes crossing the dry uplandprairie, covered with the short, tufted dull-green herbage since knownas "buffalo grass. " Wild turkeys clamored along every watercourse; deerwere seen on all sides, buffalo were without number, sometimes ingrazing droves, and sometimes dotting the endless plain as far as theeye could reach. Ruffian wolves, white and gray, eyed the travellersaskance, keeping a safe distance by day, and howling about the camp allnight. Of the antelope and the elk the journal makes no mention. Bourgmont chased a buffalo on horseback and shot him with apistol, --which is probably the first recorded example of that way ofhunting. 

The stretches of high, rolling, treeless prairie grew more vast as thetravellers advanced. On the seventeenth, they found an abandonedComanche camp. On the next day as they stopped to dine, and had justunsaddled their horses, they saw a distant smoke towards the west, onwhich they set the dry grass on fire as an answering signal. Half anhour later a body of wild horsemen came towards them at full speed, andamong them were their two couriers, Gaillard and Quesnel, waving aFrench flag. The strangers were eighty Comanche warriors, with the grandchief of the tribe at their head. They dashed up to Bourgmont's bivouacand leaped from their horses, when a general shaking of hands ensued, after which white men and red seated themselves on the ground and smokedthe pipe of peace. Then all rode together to the Comanche camp, threeleagues distant. [379]

Bourgmont pitched his tents at a pistol-shot from the Comanche lodges, whence a crowd of warriors presently came to visit him. They spreadbuffalo-robes on the ground, placed upon them the French commander, hisofficers, and his young son; then lifted each, with its honored load, and carried them all, with yells of joy and gratulation, to the lodge ofthe Great Chief, where there was a feast of ceremony lasting tillnightfall. 

On the next day Bourgmont displayed to his hosts the marvellous store ofgifts he had brought for them, --guns, swords, hatchets, kettles, gunpowder, bullets, red cloth, blue cloth, hand-mirrors, knives, shirts, awls, scissors, needles, hawks' bells, vermilion, beads, and otherenviable commodities, of the like of which they had never dreamed. Twohundred savages gathered before the French tents, where Bourgmont, withthe gifts spread on the ground before him, stood with a French flag inhis hand, surrounded by his officers and the Indian chiefs of his party, and harangued the admiring auditors. 

He told them that he had come to bring them a message from the King, hismaster, who was the Great Chief of all the nations of the earth, andwhose will it was that the Comanches should live in peace with his otherchildren, --the Missouris, Osages, Kansas, Otoes, Omahas, andPawnees, --with whom they had long been at war; that the chiefs of thesetribes were now present, ready to renounce their old enmities; that theComanches should henceforth regard them as friends, share with them theblessing of alliance and trade with the French, and give to these lastfree passage through their country to trade with the Spaniards of NewMexico. Bourgmont then gave the French flag to the Great Chief, to bekept forever as a pledge of that day's compact. The chief took the flag, and promised in behalf of his people to keep peace inviolate with theIndian children of the King. Then, with unspeakable delight, he and histribesmen took and divided the gifts. 

The next two days were spent in feasts and rejoicings. "Is it true thatyou are men?" asked the Great Chief. "I have heard wonders of theFrench, but I never could have believed what I see this day. " Then, taking up a handful of earth, "The Spaniards are like this; but you arelike the sun. " And he offered Bourgmont, in case of need, the aid of histwo thousand Comanche warriors. The pleasing manners of his visitors, and their unparalleled generosity, had completely won his heart. 

As the object of the expedition was accomplished, or seemed to be so, the party set out on their return. A ride of ten days brought them againto the Missouri; they descended in canoes to Fort Orléans, and sang TeDeum in honor of the peace. [380]

No farther discovery in this direction was made for the next fifteenyears. Though the French had explored the Missouri as far as the site ofFort Clark and the Mandan villages, they were possessed by theidea--due, perhaps, to Indian reports concerning the great tributaryriver, the Yellowstone--that in its upper course the main stream bent sofar southward as to form a waterway to New Mexico, with which it was theconstant desire of the authorities of Louisiana to open trade. A waythither was at last made known by two brothers named Mallet, who withsix companions went up the Platte to its South Fork, which they calledRiver of the Padoucas, --a name given it on some maps down to the middleof this century. They followed the South Fork for some distance, andthen, turning southward and southwestward, crossed the plains ofColorado. Here the dried dung of the buffalo was their only fuel; and ithas continued to feed the camp-fire of the traveller in this treelessregion within the memory of many now living. They crossed the upperArkansas, and apparently the Cimarron, passed Taos, and on thetwenty-second of July reached Santa Fé, where they spent the winter. Onthe first of May, 1740, they began their return journey, three of themcrossing the plains to the Pawnee villages, and the rest descending theArkansas to the Mississippi. [381]

The bold exploit of the brothers Mallet attracted great attention at NewOrleans, and Bienville resolved to renew it, find if possible a nearerand better way to Santa Fé, determine the nature and extent of thesemysterious western regions, and satisfy a lingering doubt whether theywere not contiguous to China and Tartary. [382] A naval officer, Fabry dela Bruyère, was sent on this errand, with the brothers Mallet and a fewsoldiers and Canadians. He ascended the Canadian Fork of the Arkansas, named by him the St. André, became entangled in the shallows andquicksands of that difficult river, fell into disputes with his men, and, after protracted efforts, returned unsuccessful. [383]

While French enterprise was unveiling the remote Southwest, twoindomitable Canadians were pushing still more noteworthy explorationsinto more northern regions of the continent. 

FOOTNOTES:

[358] _Journal historique de l'Établissement des Français à laLouisiane_, 43. 

[359] _Champigny au Ministre, 4 Novembre, 1693. _

[360] _Relation de Penecaut. _ In my possession is a contemporarymanuscript of this narrative, for which I am indebted to the kindness ofGeneral J. Meredith Reade. 

[361] Penecaut, _Journal_. _Procès-verbal de la Prise de Possession duPays des Nadouessioux, etc. , par Nicolas Perrot, 1689. _ Fort Perrotseems to have been built in 1685, and to have stood near the outlet ofthe lake, probably on the west side. Perrot afterwards built anotherfort, called Fort St. Antoine, a little above, on the east bank. Theposition of these forts has been the subject of much discussion, andcannot be ascertained with precision. It appears by the _Prise dePossession_, cited above, that there was also, in 1689, a temporaryFrench post near the mouth of the Wisconsin. 

[362] This weeping over strangers was a custom with the Sioux of thattime mentioned by many early writers. La Mothe-Cadillac marvels that apeople so brave and warlike should have such a fountain of tears alwaysat command. 

[363] In 1702 the geographer De l'Isle made a remarkable MS. Mapentitled _Carte de la Rivière du Mississippi, dressée sur les Mémoiresde M. Le Sueur_. 

[364] According to the geologist Featherstonhaugh, who examined thelocality, this earth owes its color to a bluish-green silicate of iron. 

[365] Besides the long and circumstantial _Relation de Penecaut_, anaccount of the earlier part of La Sueur's voyage up the Mississippi iscontained in the _Mémoire du Chevalier de Beaurain_, which, with otherpapers relating to this explorer, including portions of his Journal, will be found in Margry, vi. See also _Journal historique del'Établissement des Français à la Louisiane_, 38-71. 

[366] _Iberville à ----, 15 Février, 1703_ (Margry, vi. 180). 

[367] _Bienville au Ministre, 6 Septembre, 1704. _

[368] Beaurain, _Journal historique_. 

[369] Hubert, _Mémoire envoyé au Conseil de la Marine_. 

[370] Penecaut, _Relation_, chaps. Xvii. , xviii. Le Page du Pratz, _Histoire de la Louisiane_, i. 13-22. Various documents in Margry, vi. 193-202. 

[371] For an interesting contemporary map of the French establishment atNatchitoches, see Thomassy, _Géologie pratique de la Louisiane_. 

[372] Bénard de la Harpe, in Margry, vi. 264. 

[373] Beaurain says that each of these bands spoke a language of itsown. They had horses in abundance, descended from Spanish stock. Amongthem appear to have been the Ouacos, or Huecos, and the Wichitas, --twotribes better known as the Pawnee Picts. See Marcy, _Exploration of RedRiver_. 

[374] Compare the account of La Harpe with that of the Chevalier deBeaurain; both are in Margry, vi. There is an abstract in _Journalhistorique_. 

[375] _Relation de Bénard de la Harpe. _ _Autre Relation du même. _ _DuTisné à Bienville. _ Margry, vi. 309, 310, 313. 

[376] _Bienville au Conseil de Régence, 20 Juillet, 1721. _

[377] _Instructions au Sieur de Bourgmont, 17 Janvier, 1722. _ Margry, vi. 389. 

[378] The French had at this time gained a knowledge of the tribes ofthe Missouri as far up as the Arickaras, who were not, it seems, manydays' journey below the Yellowstone, and who told them of "prodigiouslyhigh mountains, "--evidently the Rocky Mountains. _Mémoire de laRenaudière_, 1723. 

[379] This meeting took place a little north of the Arkansas, apparentlywhere that river makes a northward bend, near the twenty-second degreeof west longitude. The Comanche villages were several days' journey tothe southwest. This tribe is always mentioned in the early Frenchnarratives as the Padoucas, --a name by which the Comanches areoccasionally known to this day. See Whipple and Turner, _Reports uponIndian Tribes_, in _Explorations and Surveys for the Pacific Railroad_(Senate Doc. , 1853, 1854). 

[380] _Relation du Voyage du Sieur de Bourgmont, Juin-Novembre, 1724_, in Margry, vi. 398. Le Page du Pratz, iii. 141. 

[381] _Journal du Voyage des Frères Mallet, présenté à MM. De Bienvilleet Salmon. _ This narrative is meagre and confused, but serves toestablish the main points. _Copie du Certificat donné à Santa Fé auxsept _[huit]_ Français par le Général Hurtado, 24 Juillet, 1739. _ _PèreRébald au Père de Beaubois, sans date. _ _Bienville et Salmon auMinistre, 30 Avril, 1741_, in Margry, vi. 455-468. 

[382] _Instructions données par Jean-Baptiste de Bienville à Fabry de laBruyère, 1 Juin, 1741. _ Bienville was behind his time in geographicalknowledge. As early as 1724 Bénard de la Harpe knew that in ascendingthe Missouri or the Arkansas one was moving towards the "WesternSea, "--that is, the Pacific, --and might, perhaps, find some riverflowing into it. See _Routes qu'on peut tenir pour se rendre à la Mer del'Ouest_, in _Journal historique_, 387. 

[383] _Extrait des Lettres du Sieur Fabry. _