France and England in N America, Part V: Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV

83

Soon after La Barre's arrival, La Chesnaye is said to have induced him to urge the Iroquois to plunder all traders who were not provided with passports from the governor. The Iroquois complied so promptly, that they stopped and pillaged, at Niagara, two canoes belonging to La Chesnaye himself, which had gone up the lakes in Frontenac's time, and therefore were without passports. Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'année 1682. (Published by the Historical Society of Quebec.) This was not the only case in which the weapons of La Barre and his partisans recoiled against themselves.

84

Belmont, Histoire du Canada (a contemporary chronicle).

85

See Discovery of the Great West. La Barre denies the assertion, and says that he merely told the Iroquois that La Salle should be sent home.

86

Mémoire adressé a MM. les Intéressés en la Société de la Ferme et Commerce du Canada, 1683.

87

These statements are made in a memorial of the agents of the custom-house, in letters of Meules, and in several other quarters. La Barre is accused of sending furs to Albany under pretext of official communication with the governor of New York.

88

Meules à Seignelay, 8 July, 1684. This accords perfectly with statements made in several memorials of La Salle and his friends.

89

There appears no doubt that La Barre brought this upon himself. His successor, Denonville, writes that the Iroquois declared that, in plundering the canoes, they thought they were executing the orders they had received to plunder La Salle's people. Denonville, Mémoire adressé ou Ministre sur les Affaires de la Nouvelle France, 10 Août, 1688. The Iroquois told Dongan, in 1684, "that they had not don any thing to the French but what Monsr. delaBarr Ordered them, which was that if they mett with any French hunting without his passe to take what they had from them." Dongan to Denonville, 9 Sept., 1687.

90

"Ce qui mit M. de la Barre en fureur." Belmont, Histoire du Canada.

91

La Barre au Roy, 5 Juin, 1684.

92

Sir John Werden to Dongan, 4 Dec., 1684; N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 353. Werden was the duke's secretary.

Dongan has been charged with instigating the Iroquois to attack the French. The Jesuit Lamberville, writing from Onondaga, says, on the contrary, that he hears that the "governor of New England (New York), when the Mohawk chiefs asked him to continue the sale of powder to them, replied that it should be continued so long as they would not make war on Christians." Lamberville à La Barre, 10 Fév., 1684.

The French ambassador at London complained that Dongan excited the Iroquois to war, and Dongan denied the charge. N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 506, 509.

93

Report of Conferences at Albany, in Colden, History of the Five Nations, 50 (ed. 1727, Shea's reprint).

94

La Barre à Dongan, 15 Juin, 1684.

95

Dongan à La Barre, 24 Juin, 1684.

96

Speech of the Onondagas and Cayugas, in Colden, Five Nations, 63 (1727).

97

Except the small tribe of the Oneidas, who addressed Corlaer as Father. Corlaer was the official Iroquois name of the governor of New York; Onas (the Feather, or Pen), that of the governor of Pennsylvania; and Assarigoa (the Big Knife, or Sword), that of the governor of Virginia. Corlaer, or Cuyler, was the name of a Dutchman whom the Iroquois held in great respect.

98

Journal of Wentworth Greenhalgh, 1677, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 250.

99

Journal of Greenhalgh. The site of Onondaga, like that of all the Iroquois towns, was changed from time to time, as the soil of the neighborhood became impoverished, and the supply of wood exhausted. Greenhalgh, in 1677, estimated the warriors at three hundred and fifty; but the number had increased of late by the adoption of prisoners.

100

Letters of Lamberville in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. For specimens of Big Mouth's skill in drawing, see ibid., IX. 386.

101

Lamberville to La Barre, 11 July, 1684, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 253.

102

Colden, Five Nations, 80 (1727).

103

Lamberville to La Barre, 28 Aug., 1684, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 257.

104

La Barre au Ministre, 9 July, 1684.

105

La Barre au Roy, même date.

106

Meules à La Barre, 15 July, 1684.

107

Meules à La Barre, 14 Août, 1684. This and the preceding letter stand, by a copyist's error, in the name of La Barre. They are certainly written by Meules.

108

The famous voyageur, Nicolas Perrot, agrees with the intendant. "Ils (La Barre et ses associés) s'imaginèrent que sitost que le François viendroit à paroistre, l'Irroquois luy demanderoit miséricorde, quil seroit facile d'establir des magasins, construire des barques dans le lac Ontario, et que c'estoit un moyen de trouver des richesses." Mémoire sur les Mœurs, Coustumes, et Relligion des Sauvages, chap. xxi.

109

Meules au Ministre, 8-11 Juillet, 1684.

110

La Hontan attempted to impose on his readers a marvellous story of pretended discoveries beyond the Mississippi; and his ill repute in the matter of veracity is due chiefly to this fabrication. On the other hand, his account of what he saw in the colony is commonly in accord with the best contemporary evidence.

111

The articles of peace will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 236. Compare Memoir of M. de la Barre regarding the War against the Senecas, ibid., 239. These two documents do not agree as to date, one placing the council on the 4th and the other on the 5th.

112

This appears from the letters of Denonville, La Barre's successor.

113

La Potherie, II. 159 (ed. 1722). Perrot himself, in his Mœurs des Sauvages, briefly mentions the incident.

114

Lamberville to La Barre, 9 Oct., 1684, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 260.

115

Meules au Ministre, 10 Oct., 1684.

116

Saint-Vallier, État Présent de l'Église, 4 (Quebec, 1856).

117

Juchereau, Hôtel-Dieu, 283.

118

Denonville au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1686.

119

New York had about 18,000 inhabitants (Brodhead, Hist. N. Y., II. 458). Canada, by the census of 1685, had 12,263.

120

Seignelay to Barillon, French Ambassador at London, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 269.

121

Denonville à Seigneloy, 8 Nov., 1686.

122

Denonville à Seignelay, 12 Juin, 1686.

123

Ibid.

124

Dongan to Denonville, 13 Oct., 1685, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX, 292.

125

Denonville to Dongan, 5 Juin, 1686, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 456.

126

Dongan to Denonville, 22 May, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 455.

127

Denonville à Dongan, 20 Juin, 1686.

128

Dongan to Denonville, 26 July, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 460.

129

Denonville à Dongan, 1 Oct., 1686.

130

Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec., 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 462.

131

Denonville à Du Lhut, 6 Juin, 1686.

132

Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II. 429; Denonville au Ministre, 8 Mai, 1686.

133

Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II. 443; Commission of McGregory, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 318.

134

Denonville au Ministre, 16 Nov., 1686.

135

Ibid., 15 Oct., 1686.

136

Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec., 1686; Ibid., 20 June, 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 462, 465.

137

Dongan to Denonville, 20 Juin, 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 465.

138

Denonville à Dongan, 21 Aug., 1687; Ibid., no date (1687).

139

The Compagnie du Nord had a grant of the trade of Hudson's Bay from Louis XIV. The bay was discovered by the English, under Hudson; but the French had carried on some trade there before the establishment of Fort Nelson. Denonville's commission to Troyes merely directs him to build forts, and "se saisir des voleurs coureurs de bois et autres que nous savons avoir pris et arrêté plusieurs de nos François commerçants avec les sauvages."

140

On the capture of the forts at Hudson's Bay, see La Potherie, I. 147-163; the letter of Father Silvy, chaplain of the expedition, in Saint-Vallier, État Présent, 43; and Oldmixon, British Empire in America, I. 561-564 (ed. 1741). An account of the preceding events will be found in La Potherie and Oldmixon; in Jerémie, Relation de la Baie de Hudson; and in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 796-802. Various embellishments have been added to the original narratives by recent writers, such as an imaginary hand-to-hand fight of Iberville and several Englishmen in the blockhouse of Fort Hayes.

141

Traité de Neutralité pour l'Amérique, conclu à Londres le 16 Nov., 1686, in Mémoires des Commissaires, II. 86.

142

Instrument for preventing Acts of Hostility in America in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 505.

143

Order to Gov. Dongan, 22 Jan., 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 504.

144

Louis XIV. à Denonville, 17 Juin, 1687. At the end of March, the king had written that "he did not think it expedient to make any attack on the English."

145

Abstract of Letters, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 314. This answers exactly to the statement of the Mémoire adressé au Régent, which places the number of troops in Canada at this time at thirty-two companies of fifty men each.

146

Denonville au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1686; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1687. Denonville at last seems to have been seized with some compunction, and writes: "Tout cela me fait craindre que le pauvre père n'ayt de la peine à se retirer d'entre les mains de ces barbares ce qui m'inquiète fort." Dongan, though regarding the Jesuit as an insidious enemy, had treated him much better, and protected him on several occasions, for which he received the emphatic thanks of Dablon, superior of the missions. Dablon to Dongan (1685?), in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 454.

147

Colden, 97 (1727), Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.

148

Saint-Vallier, État Présent. Even to the moment of marching, Denonville pretended that he meant only to hold a peace council at Fort Frontenac. "J'ai toujours publié que je n'allois qu'à l'assemblée générale projetée à Cataracouy (Fort Frontenac), J'ai toujours tenu ce discours jusqu'au temps de la marche." Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.

149

La Hontan, I. 93-95 (1709).

150

Ganneious or Ganéyout was on an arm of the lake a little west of the present town of Fredericksburg. Kenté or Quinte was on Quinte Bay.

151

Le Roy à La Barre, 21 Juillet, 1684; Le Roy à Denonville et Champigny, 30 Mars, 1687.

152

The authorities for the above are Denonville, Champigny, Abbé Belmont, Bishop Saint-Vallier, and the author of Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'année 1682.

Belmont, who accompanied the expedition, speaks of the affair with indignation, which was shared by many French officers. The bishop, on the other hand, mentions the success of the stratagem as a reward accorded by Heaven to the piety of Denonville. État Présent de l'Église, 91, 92 (reprint, 1856).

Denonville's account, which is sufficiently explicit, is contained in the long journal of the expedition which he sent to the court, and in several letters to the minister. Both Belmont and the author of the Recueil speak of the prisoners as having been "pris par l'appât d'un festin."

Mr. Shea, usually so exact, has been led into some error by confounding the different acts of this affair. By Denonville's official journal, it appears that, on the 19th June, Perré, by his order, captured several Indians on the St. Lawrence; that, on the 25th June, the governor, then at Rapide Plat on his way up the river, received a letter from Champigny, informing him that he had seized all the Iroquois near Fort Frontenac; and that, on the 3d July, Perré, whom Denonville had sent several days before to attack Ganneious, arrived with his prisoners.

153

I have ventured to give this story on the sole authority of Charlevoix, for the contemporary writers are silent concerning it. Mr. Shea thinks that it involves a contradiction of date; but this is entirely due to confounding the capture of prisoners by Perré at Ganneious on July 3d with the capture by Champigny at Fort Frontenac about June 20th. Lamberville reached Denonville's camp, one day's journey from the fort, on the evening of the 29th. (Journal of Denonville.) This would give four and a half days for news of the treachery to reach Onondaga, and four and a half days for the Jesuit to rejoin his countrymen.

Charlevoix, with his usual carelessness, says that the Jesuit Milet had also been used to lure the Iroquois into the snare, and that he was soon after captured by the Oneidas, and delivered by an Indian matron. Milet's captivity did not take place till 1689-90.

154

Denonville. Champigny says 832 regulars, 930 militia, and 300 Indians. This was when the army left Montreal. More Indians afterwards joined it. Belmont says 1,800 French and Canadians and about 300 Indians.

155

Tonty, Mémoire in Margry, Relations Inédites.

156

The name of Ottawas, here used specifically, was often employed by the French as a generic term for the Algonquin tribes of the Great Lakes.

157

Attestation of N. Harmentse and others of Rooseboom's party. N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 436. La Potherie says, three hundred.

158

Denonville au Ministre, 25 Août, 1687.

159

The above is drawn from papers in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 436, IX. 324, 336, 346, 405; Saint-Vallier, État Présent, 92; Denonville, Journal; Belmont, Histoire du Canada; La Potherie, II. chap. xvi; La Hontan. I. 96. Colden's account is confused and incorrect.

160

Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada depuis 1682; Captain Duplessis's Plan for the Defence of Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 447.

161

The first part of the extract is from Belmont; the second, from Saint-Vallier.

162

Information received from several Indians, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 444.

163

Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.

164

For authorities, see note at the end of the chapter. The account of Charlevoix is contradicted at several points by the contemporary writers.

165

Denonville au Ministre, 25 Août, 1687. In his journal, written afterwards, he says that the Senecas left twenty-seven dead on the field, and carried off twenty more, besides upwards of sixty mortally wounded.

166

Belmont. A few words are added from Saint-Vallier.

167

Procès-verbal de la Prise de Possession de Niagara, 31 Juillet, 1687. There are curious errors of date in this document regarding the proceedings of La Salle.

168

The statement of some later writers, that many of the Senecas died during the following winter in consequence of the loss of their corn, is extremely doubtful. Captain Duplessis, in his Plan for the Defence of Canada, 1690, declares that not one of them perished of hunger.

Denonville's campaign against the Senecas.—The chief authorities on this matter are the journal of Denonville, of which there is a translation in the Colonial Documents of New York, IX.; the letters of Denonville to the Minister; the État Présent de l'Église de la Colonie Française, by Bishop Saint-Vallier; the Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, tant des Anglais que des Iroquois, depuis l'année 1682; and the excellent account by Abbé Belmont in his chronicle called Histoire du Canada. To these may be added La Hontan, Tonty, Nicolas Perrot, La Potherie, and the Senecas examined before the authorities of Albany, whose statements are printed in the Colonial Documents, III. These are the original sources. Charlevoix drew his account from a portion of them. It is inexact, and needs the correction of his learned annotator, Mr. Shea. Colden, Smith, and other English writers follow La Hontan.

The researches of Mr. O. H. Marshall, of Buffalo, have left no reasonable doubt as to the scene of the battle, and the site of the neighboring town. The Seneca ambuscade was on the marsh and the hills immediately north and west of the present village of Victor; and their chief town, called Gannagaro by Denonville, was on the top of Boughton's Hill, about a mile and a quarter distant. Immense quantities of Indian remains were formerly found here, and many are found to this day. Charred corn has been turned up in abundance by the plough, showing that the place was destroyed by fire. The remains of the fort burned by the French are still plainly visible on a hill a mile and a quarter from the ancient town. A plan of it will be found in Squier's Aboriginal Monuments of New York. The site of the three other Seneca towns destroyed by Denonville, and called Totiakton, Gannondata, and Gannongarae, can also be identified. See Marshall, in Collections N. Y. Hist. Soc., 2d Series, II. Indian traditions of historical events are usually almost worthless; but the old Seneca chief Dyunehogawah, or "John Blacksmith," who was living a few years ago at the Tonawanda reservation, recounted to Mr. Marshall with remarkable accuracy the story of the battle as handed down from his ancestors who lived at Gannagaro, close to the scene of action. Gannagaro was the Canagorah of Wentworth Greenalgh's Journal. The old Seneca, on being shown a map of the locality, placed his finger on the spot where the fight took place, and which was long known to the Senecas by the name of Dyagodiyu, or "The Place of a Battle." It answers in the most perfect manner to the French contemporary descriptions.

169

Dongan's Propositions to the Five Nations; Answer of the Five Nations, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 438, 441.

170

Dongan to Denonville, 9 Sept., 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 472.

171

Dongan's Fourth Paper to the French Agents, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 528.

172

Warrant, authorizing Governor Dongan to protect the Five Nations, 10 Nov., 1687, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 503.

173

Dongan to Sunderland, Feb., 1688, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 510.

174

Denonville à Dongan, 2 Oct., 1687. McGregory soon arrived, and Dongan sent him back to Canada as an emissary with a civil message to Denonville. Dongan to Denonville, 10 Nov., 1687.

175

Dongan to Denonville, 31 Oct., 1687; Dongan's First Demand of the French Agents, N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 515, 520.

176

The papers of this discussion will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs., III.

177

Dongan's Reply to the Five Nations, Ibid., III. 535.

178

Dongan to Denonville, 17 Feb., 1688, Ibid., III. 519.

179

"II y a une nécessité indispensable pour les intérais de la Religion et de la Colonie de restablir les missionaires Jésuites dans tous les villages Iroquois: si vous ne trouvés moyen de faire retourner ces Pères dans leurs anciennes missions, vous devés en attendre beaucoup de malheur pour cette Colonie; car je dois vous dire que jusqu'icy c'est leur habilité qui a soutenu les affaires du pays par leur sçavoir-faire à gouverner les esprits de ces barbares, qui ne sont Sauvages que de nom." Denonville, Mémoire adressé au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1688.

180

Denonville à Dongan, 24 Avril, 1688; Ibid., 12 Mai, 1688. Whether the charge is true is questionable. Dongan had just written that, if the Iroquois did harm to the French, he was ordered to offer satisfaction, and had already done so.

181

Denonville à Dongan, 18 Juin, 1688; Ibid., 5 Juillet, 1688; Ibid., 20 Aug., 1688. "Je n'ai donc qu'à vous asseurer que toute la Colonie a une très-parfaite reconnoissance des bons offices que ces pauvres malheureux ont reçu de vous et de vos peuples."

182

Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sr. Marquis de Denonville, 8 Mars, 1688; Le Roy à Denonville, même date; Seignelay à Denonville, même date. Louis XIV. had demanded Dongan's recall. How far this had influenced the action of James II. it is difficult to say.