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

Next came a Huron chief, followed by eight Iroquois prisoners, who, as he declared, had been bought at great cost, in kettles, guns, and blankets, from the families who had adopted them. "We thought that the Iroquois would have done by us as we have done by them; and we were astonished to see that they had not brought us our prisoners. Listen to me, my father, and you, Iroquois, listen. I am not sorry to make peace, since my father wishes it, and I will live in peace with him and with you." Thus, in turn, came the spokesmen of all the tribes, delivering their prisoners and making their speeches. The Miami orator said: "I am very angry with the Iroquois, who burned my son some years ago; but to-day I forget all that. My father's will is mine. I will not be like the Iroquois, who have disobeyed his voice." The orator of the Mississagas came forward, crowned with the head and horns of a young bison bull, and, presenting his prisoners, said: "I place them in your hands. Do with them as you like. I am only too proud that you count me among your allies."

The chief of the Foxes now rose from his seat at the farther end of the enclosure, and walked sedately across the whole open space towards the stand of spectators. His face was painted red, and he wore an old French wig, with its abundant curls in a state of complete entanglement. When he reached the chair of the governor, he bowed, and lifted the wig like a hat, to show that he was perfect in French politeness. There was a burst of laughter from the spectators; but Callières, with ceremonious gravity, begged him to put it on again, which he did, and proceeded with his speech, the pith of which was briefly as follows: "The darkness is gone, the sun shines bright again, and now the Iroquois is my brother."

Then came a young Algonquin war-chief, dressed like a Canadian, but adorned with a drooping red feather and a tall ridge of hair like the crest of a cock. It was he who slew Black Kettle, that redoubted Iroquois whose loss filled the confederacy with mourning, and who exclaimed as he fell, "Must I, who have made the whole earth tremble, now die by the hand of a child!" The young chief spoke concisely and to the purpose: "I am not a man of counsel: it is for me to listen to your words. Peace has come, and now let us forget the past."

When he and all the rest had ended, the orator of the Iroquois strode to the front, and in brief words gave in their adhesion to the treaty. "Onontio, we are pleased with all you have done, and we have listened to all you have said. We assure you by these four belts of wampum that we will stand fast in our obedience. As for the prisoners whom we have not brought you, we place them at your disposal, and you will send and fetch them."

The calumet was lighted. Callières, Champigny, and Vaudreuil drew the first smoke, then the Iroquois deputies, and then all the tribes in turn. The treaty was duly signed, the representative of each tribe affixing his mark, in the shape of some bird, beast, fish, reptile, insect, plant, or nondescript object.

"Thus," says La Potherie, "the labors of the late Count Frontenac were brought to a happy consummation." The work of Frontenac was indeed finished, though not as he would have finished it. Callières had told the Iroquois that till they surrendered their Indian prisoners he would keep in his own hands the Iroquois prisoners surrendered by the allied tribes. To this the spokesman of the confederacy coolly replied: "Such a proposal was never made since the world began. Keep them, if you like. We will go home, and think no more about them; but, if you gave them to us without making trouble, and gave us our son Joncaire at the same time, we should have no reason to distrust your sincerity, and should all be glad to send you back the prisoners we took from your allies." Callières yielded, persuaded the allies to agree to the conditions, gave up the prisoners, and took an empty promise in return. It was a triumph for the Iroquois, who meant to keep their Indian captives, and did in fact keep nearly all of them. 443

The chief objects of the late governor were gained. The power of the Iroquois was so far broken that they were never again very formidable to the French. Canada had confirmed her Indian alliances, and rebutted the English claim to sovereignty over the five tribes, with all the consequences that hung upon it. By the treaty of Ryswick, the great questions at issue in America were left to the arbitrament of future wars; and meanwhile, as time went on, the policy of Frontenac developed and ripened. Detroit was occupied by the French, the passes of the west were guarded by forts, another New France grew up at the mouth of the Mississippi, and lines of military communication joined the Gulf of Mexico with the Gulf of St. Lawrence; while the colonies of England lay passive between the Alleghanies and the sea till roused by the trumpet that sounded with wavering notes on many a bloody field to peal at last in triumph from the Heights of Abraham.

APPENDIX

The Family of Frontenac

Count Frontenac's grandfather was

Antoine de Buade, Seigneur de Frontenac, Baron de Palluau, Conseiller d'État, Chevalier des Ordres du Roy, son premier maître d'hôtel, et gouverneur de St. Germain-en-Laye. By Jeanne Secontat, his wife, he had, among other children,

Henri de Buade, Chevalier, Baron de Palluau et mestre de camp (colonel) du régiment de Navarre, who, by his wife Anne Phélippeaux, daughter of Raymond Phélippeaux, Secretary of State, had, among other children,

LOUIS DE BUADE, Comte de Palluau et Frontenac, Seigneur de l'Isle-Savary, mestre de camp du régiment de Normandie, maréchal de camp dans les armées du Roy, et gouverneur et lieutenant général en Canada, Acadie, Isle de Terreneuve, et autres pays de la France septentrionale. Louis de Buade had by his wife, Anne de La Grange-Trianon, one son, François Louis, killed in Germany, while in the service of the king, and leaving no issue.

The foregoing is drawn from a comparison of the following authorities, all of which will be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, where the examination was made: Mémoires de Marolles, abbé de Villeloin, II. 201; L'Hermite-Souliers, Histoire Généalogique de la Noblesse de Touraine; Du Chesne, Recherches Historiques de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit; Morin, Statuts de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit; Marolles de Villeloin, Histoire des Anciens Comtes d'Anjou; Père Anselme, Grands Officiers de la Couronne; Pinard, Chronologie Historique-militaire; Table de la Gazette de France. In this matter of the Frontenac genealogy, I am much indebted to the kind offices of my friend, James Gordon Clarke, Esq.

When, in 1600, Henry IV. was betrothed to Marie de Medicis, Frontenac, grandfather of the governor of Canada, described as "ung des plus antiens serviteurs du roy," was sent to Florence by the king to carry his portrait to his affianced bride. Mémoires de Philippe Hurault, 448 (Petitot).

The appointment of Frontenac to the post, esteemed as highly honorable, of maître d'hôtel in the royal household, immediately followed. There is a very curious book, the journal of Jean Héroard, a physician charged with the care of the infant Dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII., born in 1601. It records every act of the future monarch: his screaming and kicking in the arms of his nurses, his refusals to be washed and dressed, his resistance when his hair was combed; how he scratched his governess, and called her names; how he quarrelled with the children of his father's mistresses, and at the age of four declined to accept them as brothers and sisters; how his mother slighted him; and how his father sometimes caressed, sometimes teased, and sometimes corrected him with his own hand. The details of the royal nursery are, we may add, astounding for their grossness; and the language and the manners amid which the infant monarch grew up were worthy of the days of Rabelais.

Frontenac and his children appear frequently, and not unfavorably, on the pages of this singular diary. Thus, when the Dauphin was three years old, the king, being in bed, took him and a young Frontenac of about the same age, set them before him, and amused himself by making them rally each other in their infantile language. The infant Frontenac had a trick of stuttering, which the Dauphin caught from him, and retained for a long time. Again, at the age of five, the Dauphin, armed with a little gun, played at soldier with two of the Frontenac children in the hall at St. Germain. They assaulted a town, the rampart being represented by a balustrade before the fireplace. "The Dauphin," writes the journalist, "said that he would be a musketeer, and yet he spoke sharply to the others who would not do as he wished. The king said to him, 'My boy, you are a musketeer, but you speak like a general.'" Long after, when the Dauphin was in his fourteenth year, the following entry occurs in the physician's diary:—

St. Germain, Sunday, 22d (July, 1614). "He (the Dauphin) goes to the chapel of the terrace, then mounts his horse and goes to find M. de Souvré and M. de Frontenac, whom he surprises as they were at breakfast at the small house near the quarries. At half past one, he mounts again, in hunting boots; goes to the park with M. de Frontenac as a guide, chases a stag, and catches him. It was his first stag-hunt."

Of Henri de Buade, father of the governor of Canada, but little is recorded. When in Paris, he lived, like his son after him, on the Quai des Célestins, in the parish of St. Paul. His son, Count Frontenac, was born in 1620, seven years after his father's marriage. Apparently his birth took place elsewhere than in Paris, for it is not recorded with those of Henri de Buade's other children, on the register of St. Paul (Jal, Dictionnaire Critique, Biographique, et d'Histoire). The story told by Tallemant des Réaux concerning his marriage (see page 6) seems to be mainly true. Colonel Jal says: "On conçoit que j'ai pu être tenté de connaître ce qu'il y a de vrai dans les récits de Saint-Simon et de Tallemant des Réaux; voici ce qu'après bien des recherches, j'ai pu apprendre. Mlle. La Grange fit, en effet, un mariage à demi secret. Ce ne fut point à sa paroisse que fut bénie son union avec M. de Frontenac, mais dans une des petites églises de la Cité qui avaient le privilège de recevoir les amants qui s'unissaient malgré leurs parents, et ceux qui regularisaient leur position et s'épousaient un peu avant—quelquefois après—la naissance d'un enfant. Ce fut à St. Pierre-aux-Bœufs que, le mercredy, 28 Octobre, 1648, 'Messire Louis de Buade, Chevalier, comte de Frontenac, conseiller du Roy en ses conseils, mareschal des camps et armées de S. M., et maistre de camp du régiment du Normandie,' épousa 'demoiselle Anne de La Grange, fille de Messire Charles de La Grange, conseiller du Roy et maistre des comptes' de la paroisse de St. Paul comme M. de Frontenac, 'en vertu de la dispense … obtenue de M. l'official de Paris par laquelle il est permis au Sr. de Buade et demoiselle de La Grange de célébrer leur marriage suyvant et conformément à la permission qu'ils en ont obtenue du Sr. Coquerel, vicaire de St. Paul, devant le premier curé ou vicaire sur ce requis, en gardant les solennités en ce cas requises et accoutumées.'" Jal then gives the signatures to the act of marriage, which, except that of the bride, are all of the Frontenac family.

1

Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, I. 358-363 (ed. 1859).

2

Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 265. The curé's holy water, or his exhortations, were at last successful.

3

Pinard, Chronologie Historique-militaire, VI.; Table de la Gazette de France; Jal, Dictionnaire Critique, Biographique, et d'Histoire, art. "Frontenac;" Goyer, Oraison Funèbre du Comte de Frontenac.

4

Historiettes de Tallemant des Réaux, IX. 214 (ed. Monmerqué); Jal, Dictionnaire Critique, etc.

5

Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 267.

6

Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, II. 279; III. 10.

7

Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, III. 270.

8

Oraison funèbre du Comte de Frontenac, par le Père Olivier Goyer. A powerful French contingent, under another command, co-operated with the Venetians under Frontenac.

9

Memoires du Duc de Saint-Simon, II. 270; V. 336.

10

Note of M. Brunet, in Correspondance de la Duchesse d'Orléans, I. 200 (ed. 1869).

The following lines, among others, were passed about secretly among the courtiers:—

"Je suis ravi que le roi, notre sire,Aime la Montespan;Moi, Frontenac, je me crève de rire,Sachant ce qui lui pend;Et je dirai, sans être des plus bestes,Tu n'as que mon reste,Roi,Tu n'as que mon reste."

Mademoiselle de Montpensier had mentioned in her memoirs, some years before, that Frontenac, in taking out his handkerchief, dropped from his pocket a love-letter to Mademoiselle de Mortemart, afterwards Madame de Montespan, which was picked up by one of the attendants of the princess. The king, on the other hand, was at one time attracted by the charms of Madame de Frontenac, against whom, however, no aspersion is cast.

The Comte de Grignan, son-in-law of Madame de Sévigné, was an unsuccessful competitor with Frontenac for the government of Canada.

11

On Frontenac and his family, see Appendix A.

12

Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

13

Talon au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1671.

14

Registre du Conseil Souverain.

15

Frontenac au Roi, 2 Nov., 1672; Ibid., 13 Nov., 1673; Harangue du Comte de Frontenac en l'Assemblée à Quebec; Prestations de Serment, 23 Oct., 1672; Réglement de Police fait par Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac; Colbert à Frontenac, 13 Juin, 1673.

16

Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

17

Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673.

18

Laval à—–, 1674. The letter is a complete summary of the contents of Colbert's recent despatch to Frontenac. Then follows the injunction to secrecy, "estant de très-grande conséquence que l'on ne sache pas que l'on aye rien appris de tout cela, sur quoi néanmoins il est bon que l'on agisse et que l'on me donne tous les advis qui seront nécessaires."

19

Discovery of the Great West, chap. vi.

20

Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

21

Mémoire des Motifs qui ont obligé M. le Comte de Frontenac de faire arrêter le Sieur Perrot.

22

Mémoire des Motifs, etc.

23

Édits et Ordonnances, I. 73.

24

Information faite par nous, Charles le Tardieu, Sieur de Tilly. Tilly was a commissioner sent by the council to inquire into the affair.

25

Mémoire de M. d'Urfé à Colbert, extracts in Faillon.

26

All the proceedings in the affair of Perrot will be found in full in the Registre des Jugements et Déliberations du Conseil Supérieur. They extend from the end of January to the beginning of November, 1674.

27

Conteste entre le Gouverneur et l'Abbé de Fénelon; Jugements et Déliberations du Conseil Supérieur, 21 Août, 1674.

28

Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674. In a preceding letter, sent by way of Boston, and dated 16 February, he says that he could not suffer Perrot to go unpunished without injury to the regal authority, which he is resolved to defend to the last drop of his blood.

29

Le Roi à Frontenac, 22 Avril, 1675.

30

Colbert à Frontenac, 13 Mai, 1675.

31

Lettre de Bretonvilliers, 7 Mai, 1675; extract in Faillon. Fénelon, though wanting in prudence and dignity, had been an ardent and devoted missionary. In relation to these disputes, I have received much aid from the research of Abbé Faillon, and from the valuable paper of Abbé Verreau, Les deux Abbés de Fénelon, printed in the Canadian Journal de l'Instruction Publique, Vol. VIII.

32

Édits et Ordonnances, I. 84.

33

The Old Régime in Canada.

34

Colbert à Duchesneau, 1 Mai, 1677.

35

Ibid., 18 Mai, 1677.

36

Le Roy à Frontenac, 25 Avril, 1679.

37

Colbert à Duchesneau, 8 Mai, 1679

38

Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674

39

Declaration du Roy, 23 Sept., 1675.

40

"Présider au Conseil Souverain en l'absence du dit Sieur de Frontenac."—Commission de Duchesneau, 5 Juin, 1675.

41

This letter, still preserved in the Archives de la Marine, is dated 12 Mai, 1678. Several other letters of Louis XIV. give Frontenac the same designation.

42

Le Roy à Frontenac, 29 Avril, 1680. A decree of the council of state soon after determined the question of presidency in accord with this letter. Édits et Ordonnances, I. 238.

43

Colbert à Frontenac, 4 Dec., 1679. This letter seems to have been sent by a special messenger by way of New England. It was too late in the season to send directly to Canada. On the quarrel about the presidency, Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679; Auteuil au Ministre, 10 Aug., 1679; Contestations entre le Sieur Comte de Frontenac et M. Duchesneau, Chevalier. This last paper consists of voluminous extracts from the records of the council.

44

Registre du Conseil Supérieur, 16 Aoûst, 1681.

45

Registre du Conseil Supérieur, 4 Nov., 1681.

46

Registre de Conseil Supérieur, 1681.

47

Colbert à Duchesneau, 15 Mai, 1678.

48

Le Roy à Frontenac, 12 Mai, 1678.

49

Colbert à Duchesneau, 25 Avril, 1679.

50

Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679.

51

Le Roy à Frontenac, 29 Avril, 1680.

52

Frontenac au Maréchal de Bellefonds, 14 Nov., 1680.

53

Mémoire et Preuves du Désordre des Coureurs de Bois.

54

Frontenac au Roy, 2 Nov., 1681.

55

Duchesneau au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1681.

56

Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1681.

57

Mémoire de l'Evesque de Quebec, Mars, 1681 (printed in Revue Canadienne, 1873). The bishop is silent about the barricades of which Frontenac and his friends complain in several letters.

58

See, among other instances, the Défense de M. de Frontenac par un de ses Amis, published by Abbé Verreau in the Revue Canadienne, 1873.

59

Plumitif du Conseil Souverain, 1681.

60

Conduite du Sieur Perrot, Gouverneur de Montréal en la Nouvelle France, 1681; Plainte du Sieur Bouthier, 10 Oct., 1680; Procès-verbal des huissiers de Montréal.

61

Conduite du Sieur Perrot. La Barre, Frontenac's successor, declares that the charges against Perrot were false, including the attestations of Migeon and his friends; that Dollier de Casson had been imposed upon, and that various persons had been induced to sign unfounded statements without reading them. La Barre au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1683.

62

Le Roy à Frontenac, 30 Avril, 1681.

63

La Barre says that Duchesneau was far more to blame than Frontenac. La Barre au Ministre, 1683. This testimony has weight, since Frontenac's friends were La Barre's enemies.

64

Registre du Conseil-Supérieur, 16 Fév., 1682.

65

Frontenac, Mémoire adressé à Colbert, 1677. This remarkable paper will be found in the Découvertes et Établissements des Français dans l'Amérique Septentrionale; Mémoires et Documents Originaux, edited by M. Margry. The paper is very long, and contains references to attestations and other proofs which accompanied it, especially in regard to the trade of the Jesuits.

66

Note by Abbé Verreau, in Journal de l'Instruction Publique (Canada), VIII. 127.

67

Chartier de Lotbinière, Procès-verbal sur l'Incendie de la Basse Ville; Meules au Ministre, 6 Oct., 1682; Juchereau, Histoire de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, 256.

68

Meules au Ministre, 6 Oct., 1682.

69

Jesuits in North America.

70

Discovery of the Great West.

71

Duchesneau, Memoir on Western Indians in N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX. 160.

72

For the papers on this affair, see N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX.

73

P. Jean de Lamberville à Frontenac, 20 Sept., 1682.

74

La Barre au Roy, (4 Oct.?) 1682.

75

La Barre à Seignelay, 1682.

76

He was made governor of Cayenne, and went thither with Tracy in 1664. Two years later, he gained several victories over the English, and recaptured Cayenne, which they had taken in his absence. He wrote a book concerning this colony, called Description de la France Équinoctiale. Another volume, called Journal du Voyage du Sieur de la Barre en la Terre Ferme et Isle de Cayenne, was printed at Paris in 1671.

77

La Barre à Seignelay, 1682.

78

Conference on the State of Affairs with the Iroquois, Oct., 1682, in N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX. 194.

79

La Barre au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1683.

80

La Barre au Roy, 30 Mai, 1683.

81

La Barre au Ministre, 30 Mai, 1683.

82

Meules au Roy, 2 Juin, 1683.

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).