 Chapter 12 of France and England in North America Part 5 Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV, by Francis Parkman Jr. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 12 1690 Massachusetts attacks Quebec. When Frontenac sent his war parties against New York and New England, it was in the hope not only of reanimating the Canadians, but also of teaching the Iroquois that they could not safely rely on English aid and of inciting the Aburnakis to renew their attacks on the border settlements. He imagined, too, that the British colonies could be chastised into prudence and taught a policy of conciliation towards their Canadian neighbours, but he mistook the character of these bold and vigorous, though not martial, communities. The plan of a combined attack on Canada seems to have been first proposed by the Iroquois, and New York and several governments of New England, smarting under French and Indian attacks, hastened to embrace it. Early in May, a Congress of their delegates was held in the city of New York. It was agreed that the colony of that name should furnish 400 men and Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut, 355 jointly, while the Iroquois afterwards added their worthless pledge to join the expedition with nearly all their warriors. The colonial militia were to rendezvous at Albany and their advance upon Montreal by way of Lake Champlain. Mutual jealousies made it difficult to agree upon a commander, but Winthrop of Connecticut was at length placed at the head of the feeble and discordant band. While Montreal was thus assailed by land, Massachusetts and the other New England colonies were invited to attack Québec by sea, a task formidable in difficulty and in cost, and one that imposed on them an inordinate share in the burden of the war. Massachusetts hesitated. She had no money and she was already engaged in a less remote and less critical enterprise. During the winter her commerce had suffered from French cruisers which found convenient harbourage at Port Royal whence all the hostile Indians were believed to draw supplies. Seven vessels with 280 sailors were impressed and from four to five hundred militiamen were drafted for the service. That rugged son of New England, Sir William Phipps, was appointed to the command. He sailed from Nantesque at the end of April, reached Port Royal on the 11th of May, landed his militia and summoned Meneval the governor to surrender. The port, though garrisoned by about seventy soldiers, was scarcely in condition to repel an assault, and Meneval yielded without resistance, first stipulating according to French accounts, that private property should be respected, the church left untouched, and the tube sent to Québec or to France. It was found, however, that during the Parley a quantity of goods belonging partly to the king and partly to merchants of the place had been carried off and hidden in the woods. Phipps thought this a sufficient pretext for plundering the merchants, imprisoning the troops and desecrating the church. We cut down the cross, writes one of his followers, rifled their church, pulled down their high altar and broke their images. The houses of the two priests were also pillaged. The people were promised security to life, liberty and property on condition of swearing allegiance to King William and Queen Mary, which, says the journalist, they did with great acclamation, and thereupon they were left unmolested. The lawful portion of the booty included twenty-one pieces of cannon with a considerable sum of money belonging to the king. These smaller articles, many of which were taken from the merchants and from such of the settlers as refused the oath, were packed in hogsheads and sent on board the ships. Phipps took no measures to secure his conquest though he commissioned a president and six counselors, chosen from the inhabitants to govern the settlement till farther orders from the crown or from the authorities of Massachusetts. The president was directed to constrain nobody in the matter of religion and he was assured of protection and support so long as he remained faithful to our government, that is the government of Massachusetts. The little Puritan commonwealth already gave itself heirs of sovereignty. Phipps now sent Captain Alden, who had already taken possession of St. Caste's post at Penobscot to seize upon L'Heuve, Chedobucte, and other stations on the southern coast. Then, after providing for the reduction of the settlements at the head of the Bay of Fundy, he sailed with the rest of the fleet for Boston, where he arrived triumphant on the thirteenth of May, bringing with him as prisoners the French governor, fifty-nine soldiers and two priests, petit and trouvée. Massachusetts had made an easy conquest of all Acadia, a conquest however which had neither the men nor the money to secure by sufficient garrisons. The conduct of the new England commander in this affair does him no credit. It is true that no blood was spilt and no revenge taken for the repeated butcheries of unoffending and defenseless settlers. It is true also that the French appear to have acted in bad faith, but Phipps, on the other hand, displayed a scandalous rapacity. Chalvois says that he robbed Meneval of all his money, but Meneval himself affirms that he gave it to the English commander for safekeeping, and that Phipps and his wife would return neither the money nor various other articles belonging to the captive governor were of the following are specified. Six silver spoons, six silver forks, one silver cup in the shape of a gondola, a pair of pistols, three new wigs, a gray vest, four pair of silk garters, two dozen of shirts, six vests of dimity, four nightcaps with lace edgings, all my table service of fine tin, all my kitchen linen, and many other items which give an amusing insight into Meneval's housekeeping. Meneval with the two priests was confined in a house at Boston under guard. He says that he petitioned the governor and counsel for redress, but as they have little authority and stand in fear of Phipps, who is supported by the rabble to which he himself once belonged, and of which he is now the chief, they would do nothing for me. This statement of Meneval is not quite correct, for an order of the council is on record requiring Phipps to restore his chest and clothes, and as the order received no attention, Governor Bradstreet wrote to the refractory commander a note in joining him to obey it at once. Phipps, thereupon, gave up some of the money and the worst part of the clothing, still keeping the rest. After long delay, the council released Meneval, upon which Phipps and the populace whom he controlled demanded that he should be again imprisoned, but the honest people of the town took his part, his persecutor was forced to desist, and he set sail covertly for France. This at least is his own account of the affair. As Phipps was to play a conspicuous part in the events that immediately followed, some notice of him will not be amiss. He is said to have been one of twenty-six children, all of the same mother, and was born in sixteen-fifty at a rude border settlement, since called Woolwich on the Kennebec. His parents were ignorant and poor, and till eighteen years of age he was employed in keeping sheep. Such a life ill-suited his active and ambitious nature. To better his condition he learned the trade of ship carpenter and in the exercise of it came to Boston, where he married a widow with some property beyond him in years and much above him in station. About this time he learned to read and write, though not too well, for his signature is like that of a peasant. Still aspiring to greater things, he promised his wife that he would one day command a king's ship and own a fair brick house in the Green Lane of North Boston, a quarter then occupied by citizens of the better class. He kept his word at both points. Fortune was inauspicious to him for several years, till at length under the pressure of reverses he conceived the idea of conquering fame and wealth at one stroke by fishing up the treasure said to be stored in a Spanish galleon wrecked fifty years before, somewhere in the West Indian seas. Full of this project he went to England where, through influences which do not plainly appear, he gained a hearing from persons in high places and induced the admiralty to adopt his scheme. A frigate was given him and he sailed for the West Indies, whence after a long search he returned unsuccessful, though not without adventures which proved his mettle. It was the epoch of the buccaneers and his crew, tired of a vain and toilsome search, came to the quarter-deck, armed with cutlasses and demanded of their captain that he should turn pirate with them. Phipps, a tall and powerful man, instantly fell upon them with his fists, knocked down the ring-leaders and awed them all into submission. Not long after there was a more formidable mutiny, but with great courage and address he quelled it for a time and held his crew to their duty till he had brought the ship into Jamaica and exchanged them for better men. Though the leaky condition of the frigate compelled him to abandon the search, it was not till he had gained information which he thought would lead to success and on his return he inspired such confidence that the Duke of Albemarle with other noblemen and gentlemen gave him a fresh outfit and dispatched him again on his quixotic errant. This time he succeeded, found the wreck and took from it gold, silver and jewels to the value of three hundred thousand pounds sterling. The crew now leagued together to seize the ship and divide the prize. And Phipps, pushed to the extremity, was compelled to promise that every man of them should have a share in the treasure, even if he paid it himself. On reaching England he kept his pledge so well that, after redeeming it, only sixteen thousand pounds was left of his portion which, however, was an apple fortune in the New England of that day. He gained, too, what he valued almost as much, the honor of knighthood. Tempting offers were made him of employment in the Royal Service, but he had an ardent love for his own country and thither he presently returned. Phipps was a rude sailor, bluff, prompt and choleric. He never gave proof of intellectual capacity, and such of his success in life as he did not owe to good luck was due probably to an energetic and adventurous spirit aided by a blunt frankness of address that pleased the great and commanded him to their favor. Two years after the expedition to Port Royal, the king, under the new charter, made him governor of Massachusetts, a post for which, though totally unfit, he had been recommended by the elder mother, who, like his son Cotton, expected to make use of him. He carried his old habits into his new office, Cudgelt Brinton, the collector of the Port, and belabored Captain Short of the Royal Navy with his gain. Far from trying to hide the obscurity of his origin, he leaned to the opposite foible and was apt to most of it, delighting to exhibit himself as a self-made man. New England writers describe him as honest and private dealings, but in accordance with his coarse nature he seems to have thought that anything is fair in war. On the other hand, he was warmly patriotic and was almost as ready to serve New England as to serve himself. When he returned from Port Royal, he found Boston alive with martial preparation. A bold enterprise was afoot. Massachusetts, of her own motion, had resolved to attempt the conquest of Quebec. She and her sister colonies had not yet recovered from the exhaustion of Philip's war, and still less from the disorders that attended the expulsion of the royal governor and his adherents. The public treasury was empty, and the recent expeditions against the Eastern Indians had been supported by private subscription. Worse yet, New England had no competent military commander. The Puritan gentlemen of the original emigration, some of whom were as well fitted for military as for civil leadership, had passed from the stage, and by a tendency which circumstances made inevitable they had left none behind them equally qualified. The great Indian conflict of fifteen years before had, it is true, formed good partisan chiefs, and proved that the New England yeoman, defending his family and his hearth, was not to be surpassed in stubborn fighting. But since Andros and his soldiers had been driven out, there was scarcely a single man in the colony of the slightest training or experience in regular war. Up to this moment, New England had never asked help of the mother country. When thousands of savages burst on her defenseless settlements, she had conquered safety and peace with her own blood and her own slender resources. But now, as the proposed capture of Quebec would endure to the profit of the British crown, Brad Street and his council thought it not unfitting to ask for a supply of arms and ammunition of which they were in great need. The request was refused, and no aid of any kind came from the English government whose resources were engrossed by the Irish war. While waiting for the reply, the colonial authorities urged on their preparations in the hope that the plunder of Quebec would pay the expenses of its conquest. Humility was not among the New England virtues, and it was thought a sin to doubt that God would give His chosen people the victory over papists and idolaters, yet no pains were spared to ensure the divine favor. A proclamation was issued, calling the people to repentance. A day of fasting was ordained, and as Mather expresses it, the wheel of prayer was kept in continual motion. The chief difficulty was to provide funds. An attempt was made to collect a part of the money by private subscription, but as this plan failed, the provisional government already in debt stained its credit yet farther and borrowed the needful sums. Thirty-two trading and fishing vessels, great and small, were impressed for the service. The largest was a ship called the Six Friends, engaged in the dangerous West India trade and carrying forty-four guns. A call was made for volunteers, and many enrolled themselves. But as more were wanted, a press was ordered to complete the number. So rigorously was it applied that what with voluntary and enforced enlistment, one town, that of Gloucester, was deprived of two-thirds of its fensible men. There was not a moment of doubt as to the choice of commander, for Phipps was imagined to be the very man for the work. One John Wally, a respectable citizen of Barnstable, was made second in command with the modest rank of major, and a sufficient number of ship masters, merchants, master mechanics, and substantial farmers were commissioned as subordinate officers. About the middle of July the committee charged with the preparations reported that all was ready. Still there was a long delay. The vessel sent early in spring to ask aid from England had not returned. Phipps waited for her as long as he dared and the best of the season was over when he resolved to put to sea. The rustic warriors, duly formed into companies, were sent on board, and the fleet sailed from Nantasket on the 9th of August. Including sailors, it carried 2200 men with provisions for four months, but in sufficient ammunition and no pilot for the St. Lawrence. While Massachusetts was making ready to conquer Quebec by sea, the militia of the land expedition against Montreal had mustered at Albany. Their strength was even less than what was at first proposed, for after the disaster at Casco, Massachusetts and Plymouth had recalled their contingents to defend their frontiers. The rest, decimated by dysentery and smallpox, began their march to Lake Champlain with bands of Mohawk, Oneida, and Mohegan allies. The western Iroquois were to join them at the lake and the combined force was then to attack the head of the colony while Phipps struck at its heart. Frontenac was at Quebec during most of the winter and the early spring. When he had dispatched the three war parties whose hardy but murderous exploits were to bring this double storm upon him, he had an interval of leisure of which he had made a characteristic use. The English and the Iroquois were not his only enemies. He had opponents within as well as without, and he counted as among them most of the members of the Supreme Council. Here was the bishop, representing that clerical power which had clashed so often with the civil rule. Here was that ally of the Jesuits, the independent Champigny, who when Frontenac arrived had written mournfully to Versailles that he would do his best to live at peace with him. Here with Villeret and Auteuil, whom the governor had once banished, D'Amour, whom he had imprisoned, and others scarcely more agreeable to him. They and their clerical friends had conspired for his recall seven or eight years before. They had clung to Denisville, that faithful son of the church in spite of all his failures, and they had seen with troubled minds the return of King Stork in the person of the haughty and irascible count. He on his part felt his power. The country was in deadly need of him and looked to him for salvation, while the king had shown him such marks of favor that, for the moment at least, his enemies must hold their peace. Now, therefore, was the time to teach them that he was their master. Whether trivial or important, the occasion mattered little. What he wanted was a conflict and a victory or submission without a conflict. The Supreme Council had held its usual weekly meetings since Frontenac's arrival, but as yet he had not taken his place at the board though his presence was needed. Auteuil, the Attorney General, was there upon deputed to invite him. He visited the count at his apartment in the Chateau but could get from him no answer, except that the Council was able to manage its own business and that he would come when the king's service should require it. The Councilors divined that he was waiting for some assurance that they would receive him with befitting ceremony and after debating the question they voted to send four of their number to repeat the invitation and beg the Governor to say what form of reception would be agreeable to him. Frontenac answered that it was for them to propose the form and that when they did so he would take the subject into consideration. The deputies returned and there was another debate. A ceremony was devised which it was thought must needs be acceptable to the count and the First Councilor Villere repaired to the Chateau to submit it to him. After making him an arang of compliment and protesting the anxiety of himself and his colleagues to receive him with all possible honor he explained the plan and assured Frontenac that if not wholly satisfactory it should be changed to suit his pleasure. To which says the record, Monsieur the Governor only answered that the Council could consult the Bishop and other persons acquainted with such matters. The Bishop was consulted but pleaded ignorance. Another debate followed and the First Councilor was again dispatched to the Chateau with proposals still more differential than the last and full power to yield in addition whatever the Governor might desire. Frontenac replied that though they had made proposals for his reception when he should present himself at the Council for the first time they had not informed him what ceremony they meant to observe when he should come to these subsequent sessions. This point also having been thoroughly debated Villere went again to the count and with great deference laid before him the following plan that whenever it should be his pleasure to make his first visit to the Council four of its numbers should repair to the Chateau and accompany him with every mark of honor to the Palace of the Intendant where these sessions were held and that on his subsequent visits two Councillors should meet him at the head of the stairs and conduct him to his seat. The envoy farther protested that if this failed to meet his approval the Council would conform itself to all his wishes on the subject. Frontenac now demanded to see the register in which the proceedings on the question at issue were recorded. Villere was directed to carry it to him. The records had been cautiously made and after studying them carefully he could find nothing at which to cavill. He received the next deputation with great affability, told them that he was glad to find that the Council had not forgotten the consideration due to his office and his person and assured them with urbane irony that had they offered to accord him marks of distinction greater than they felt were due he would not have permitted them thus to compromise their dignity having too much regard for the honor of a body of which he himself was the head. Then after thanking them collectively and severally he graciously dismissed them saying that he would come to the Council after Easter or in about two months. During four successive Mondays he had forced the chief dignitaries of the colony to march in deputations up and down the rugged road from the Intendance Palace to the chamber of the Chateau where he sat in solitary state. A disinterested spectator might see the humor of the situation but the Council felt only its vexations. Frontenac had gained his point. The enemy had surrendered unconditionally. Having settled this important matter to his satisfaction he again addressed himself to saving the country. During the winter he had employed gangs of men in cutting timber in the forest, hewing it into palisades and dragging it to Quebec. Nature had fortified the upper town on two sides by cliffs almost inaccessible but it was open to attack in the rear and Fontenac with a happy provision of approaching danger gave his first thoughts to strengthening this its only weak side. The work began as soon as the frost was out of the ground and before midsummer it was well advanced. At the same time he took every precaution for the safety of the settlements in the upper parts of the colony, stationed attachments of regulars at the stockade forts which de Noville had built in all the parishes above three rivers and kept strong scouting parties in continual movement in all the quarters most exposed to attack. Troops were detailed to guard the settlers at their work in the fields and officers and men were enjoined to use the utmost vigilance. Nevertheless the Iroquois war parties broke in at various points burning and butchering and spreading such terror that in some districts the fields were left untilled and the prospects of the harvest ruined. Towards the end of July Fontenac left major prévot to finish the fortifications and with the intendant Champigny went up to Montreal the chief point of danger. Here he arrived on the 31st and a few days after the officer commanding the fort at Lechine sent him a messenger in hot haste with the startling news that Lake Saint-Huix was all covered with canoes. Nobody doubted that the Iroquois were upon them again. Cannon were fired to call in the troops from the detached posts when alarm was suddenly turned to joy by the arrival of other messengers to announce that the newcomers were not enemies but friends. They were the Indians of the upper lakes descending from Michel Amacanac to trade at Montreal. Nothing so auspicious had happened since Fontenac's return. The messages he had sent them in the spring by Louvigny and Perrault reinforced by the news of the victory on the Ottawa and the Cap Tref's connectivity had had the desired effect and the Iroquois prisoner whom their missionary had persuaded them to torture had not been sacrificed in vain. Despairing of an English market for their beaverskins they had come as of old to seek one from the French. On the next day they all came down the rapids and landed near the town. There were fully five hundred of them Hurons, Ottawa's, Ojibois's, Potawatomi's, Cree's and Nipissing's with 110 canoes laden with beaverskins to the value of nearly a hundred thousand crowns. Nor was this all. For a few days after the Durante late commander at Michel Amacanac arrived with 55 more canoes manned by French traders and filled with valuable furs. The stream of wealth damned back so long was flowing upon the colony at the moment when it was most needed. Never had Canada known a more prosperous trade than now in the midst of her danger and tribulation. It was a triumph for Frontenac. If his policy had failed with the Iroquois it had found a crowning success among the tribes of the lakes. Having painted, greased and befeathered themselves the Indians mustered for the Grand Council which always preceded the opening of the market. The Ottawa Orator spoke of nothing but trade and with a regretful memory of the cheapness of English goods begged that the French would sell them at the same rate. The Huron touched upon politics and war declaring that he and his people had come to visit their old father and listen to his voice being well assured that he would never abandon them as others had done nor fool away his time like the Noville in shameful negotiations for peace and he exhorted Frontenac to fight not the English only but the Iroquois also till they were brought to reason. If this is not done he said my father and I shall perish but come what may we will perish together. I answered writes Frontenac that I would fight the Iroquois till they came to beg for peace and that I would grant them no peace that did not include all my children both white and red for I was the father of both alike. Now ensued a curious scene Frontenac took a hatchet brandished it in the air and sang the war song. The principal Frenchman present followed his example. The Christian Iroquois the two neighbouring missions rose and joined them and so also did the Hurons and the Algonquins of Lake Nipissing stamping and screeching like a troop of madmen while the governor led the dance whooping like the rest. His predecessor would have perished rather than play such a part in such company but the punctilious old courtier was himself half Indian at heart as much at home in a wigwam as in the halls of princes. Another man would have lost respect in Indian eyes by such a performance. In Frontenac it aroused his audience to enthusiasm. They snatched the preferred hatchet and promised war to the death. Then came a solemn war feast. Two oxen and six large dogs had been chopped to pieces for the occasion and boiled with a quantity of prunes. Two barrels of wine with abundant tobacco were also served out to the guests who devoured the meal in a species of frenzy. All seemed eager for war except the Ottawa's who had not forgotten their late dalliance with the Iroquois. A Christian Mohawk of the Sault Ste. Louis called them to another council and demanded that they should explain clearly their position. Thus pushed to the wall they no longer hesitated but promised like the rest to do all that their father should ask. Their sincerity was soon put to the test. An Iroquois convert called Laplac, a notorious reprobate though a good warrior had gone out as a scout in the direction of Albany. On the day when the market opened and trade was in full activity the buyers and sellers were suddenly startled by the sound of the death yell. They snatched their weapons and for a moment all was confusion. When Laplac who had probably meant to amuse himself at their expense made his appearance and explained that the yells proceeded from him. The news that he brought was however sufficiently alarming. He declared that he had been at Lake Saint-Sacrement or Lake George and had seen there a great number of men making canoes as if about to advance on Montreal. Frontenac, thereupon, sent the chevalier de Clermont to scout as far as Lake Champlain. Clermont soon sent back one of his followers to announce that he had discovered a party of the enemy and that they were already on their way down the Richelieu. Frontenac ordered Cannon to be fired to call in the troops, cross the St. Lawrence followed by all the Indians and encamped with twelve hundred men at La Prairie to meet the expected attack. He waited in vain. All was quiet and the Ottawa Scouts reported that they could find no enemy. Three days passed. The Indians grew impatient and wished to go home. Neither English nor Iroquois had shown themselves and Frontenac satisfied that their strength had been exaggerated left a small force at La Prairie, recross the river and distributed the troops again among the neighboring parishes to protect the harvesters. He now gave ample presence to his departing allies whose chiefs he had entertained at his own table and to whom says Charlevoix, he bad farewell with those engaging manners which he knew so well how to assume when he wanted to gain anybody to his interest. Scarcely were they gone when the distant Cannon of La Prairie boomed a sudden alarm. The men whom La Plac had seen near Lake George were part of the combined force of Connecticut and New York destined to attack Montreal. They had made their way along Wood Creek to the point where it widens into Lake Champlain and here they had stopped. Disputes between the men of the two colonies intestine quarrels in the New York militia who were divided between the two factions engendered by the late revolution, the want of provisions, the want of canoes and the ravages of smallpox had ruined an enterprise which had been mismanaged from the first. There was no birch bark to make more canoes and owing to the lateness of the season the bark of the Elms could not peel. Such of the Iroquois as had joined them were cold and sullen and news came that the three western tribes of the Confederacy terrified by the smallpox had refused to move. It was impossible to advance and Winthrop the commander gave orders to return to Albany leaving fifths to conquer Canada alone. But first that the campaign might not seem holy futile he permitted Captain John Schuyler to make a raid into Canada with a band of volunteers. Schuyler left the camp at Wood Creek with 29 whites and 120 Indians passed Lake Champlain descended the Richelieu to Chamblee and fell suddenly on the settlement of La Prairie when Sfantanac had just withdrawn with his forces. Soldiers and inhabitants were reaping in the wheat fields. Schuyler and his followers killed or captured 25 including several women. He wished to attack the neighbouring fort but his Indians refused and after burning houses barns and hayricks and killing a great number of cattle he seated himself with his party at dinner in the adjacent woods while Canon answered Canon from Chamblee La Prairie and Montreal and the whole country was a stir. We thanked the Governor of Canada writes Schuyler for his salute of heavy artillery during our meal. The English had little to boast in this affair the paltry termination of an enterprise from which great things had been expected nor was it for their honour to adopt the savage and cowardly mode of warfare in which their enemies had led the way. The blow that had been struck was less an injury to the French than an insult but as such it galled Frantanac excessively and he made no mention of it in his dispatches to the court. A few more aroquois attacks and a few more murders kept Montreal in alarm till the 10th of October when matters of deeper import engaged the Governor's thoughts. A messenger arrived in haste at three o'clock in the afternoon and gave him a letter from Prevot town major of Quebec. It was to the effect that an abonac Indian had just come over land from Acadia with news that some of his tribe had captured an English woman near Portsmouth who told them that a great fleet had sailed from Boston to attack Quebec. Frantanac not easily alarmed doubted the report. Nevertheless he embarked at once with the intended in a small vessel which proved to be leaky and was near foundering with all on board. He then took a canoe and towards evening set out again for Quebec ordering some 200 men to follow him. On the next day he met another canoe bearing a fresh message from Prevot who announced that the English fleet had been seen in the river and that it was already above Tadoussac. Frantanac now sent back Captain de Ramsey with orders to Calière Governor of Montreal to descend immediately to Quebec with all the force at his disposal and to muster the inhabitants on the way. Then he pushed on with the utmost speed. The autumnal storms had begun and the rain pelted him without ceasing but on the morning of the 14th he neared the town. The rocks of Cape Diamond towered before him. The Saint Lawrence lay beneath them lonely and still and the basin of Quebec outspread its broad bosom as solitude without a sail. Frantanac had arrived in time. He landed at the lower town and the troops and the armed inhabitants came crowding to meet him. He was delighted at their ardour. Shouts, cheers and the waving of hats greeted the old man as he climbed the steep ascent of Mountain Street. Fear and doubt seemed banished by his presence. Even those who hated him rejoiced at his coming and hailed him as a deliverer. He went at once to inspect the fortifications. Since the alarm a week before Preveaux had accomplished wonders and not only completed the works begun in the spring but added others to secure a place which was a natural fortress in itself. On two sides the upper town scarcely needed defense. The cliffs along the St. Lawrence and those along the tributary River Saint-Charles had three accessible points guarded at the present day by the Prescott Gate, the Hope Gate and the Palace Gate. Preveaux had secured them by barricades of heavy beams and casks filled with earth. A continuous line of palisades ran along the strand of the Saint-Charles from the great cliff called the Sault au Matelot to the Palace of the Intendant. At this latter point began the line of works constructed by Frontenac to protect the rear of the town. They consisted of palisades strengthened by a ditch and an embankment and flanked at frequent intervals by square towers of stone. Passing behind the Garden of the Ursuline they extended to a windmill on a hillock called Mont-Carmel and thenced to the brink of the cliffs in front. Here there was a battery of eight guns near the present public garden. Two more, each of three guns, were planted at the top of the Sault au Matelot. Another at the barricade of the Palace Gate and another near the windmill of Mont-Carmel while a number of light pieces were held in reserve for such use as occasion might require. The lower town had no defensive works but two batteries each of three guns 18 and 24 pounders were placed here at the edge of the river. Two days passed in completing these defenses under the eye of the governor. Men were flocking in from the parishes far and near and on the evening of the 15th about 2700 regulars and militia were gathered within the fortifications besides the armed peasantry of Beaupar and Beaupré who were ordered to watch the river below the town and resist the English should the attempt to land. At length before dawn on the morning of the 16th the sentinels on the Sault au Matelot could describe the slow moving lights of distant vessels. At daybreak the fleet was in sight. Sail after sail passed the point of Alliant and glided into the basin of Quebec. The excited spectators on the rock counted 34 of them. Four were large ships. Several others were of considerable size and the rest were Briggs, Schooners and Fishingcraft all thronged with men. End of Chapter 12 Chapter 13 of France and England in North America Part 5 Count Frontenac New France Louis XIV by Francis Parkman Jr. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 13 1690 Defense of Quebec The delay at Boston waiting eight from England that never came was not propitious to Phipps nor were the wind and the waves. The voyage to the St. Lawrence was a long one and when he began without a pilot to grope his way up the unknown river the weather seemed in league with his enemies. He appears more over to have wasted time. What was most vital to his success was rapidity of movement yet whether by his fault or his misfortune he remained three weeks within three days sail of Quebec. While anchored off Tadoussac with the wind ahead he passed the idle hours in holding councils of war and framing rules for the government of his men and when at length the wind veered to the east it is doubtful that he made the best use of his opportunity. He presently captured a small vessel commanded by Grandville an officer whom Prévost had sent to watch his movements. He had already captured near Tadoussac another vessel having on board Madame Lalande and Madame Joliet the wife and the mother-in-law of the discoverer of the Mississippi. When questioned as to the condition of Quebec they told him that it was imperfectly fortified that its cannon were dismounted and that it had not 200 men to defend it. Phipps was greatly elated thinking that like Port Royal the capital of Canada would fall without a blow. The statement of the two prisoners was true for the most part when it was made but the energy of Prévost soon wrought a change. Phipps imagined that the Canadians would offer little resistance to the Puritan invasion for some of the Acadians had felt the influence of their New England neighbors and shown an inclination to them. It was far otherwise in Canada where the English heretics were regarded with abhorrence. Whenever the invaders tried to land at the settlements along the shore they were met by a rebuff. At the river Welle-Franç-Ville the Curé-Putinacap and Capote took a musket led his parishioners to the river and hid with them in the bushes. As the English boats approached their ambush gate they gave the foremost a volley which killed nearly every man on board upon which the rest sheared off. It was the same when the fleet neared Quebec. Bands of militia vigilant, agile and well commanded followed it along the shore and repelled with showers of bullets every attempt of the enemy to touch Canadian soil. When after his protracted voyage Phipps sailed into the basin of Quebec one of the grandest scenes on the western continent opened upon his sight. The wide expanse of waters the lofty promontory beyond and the opposing heights of Lévis the cataract of Montmorency the distant range of the Laurentian mountains the warlike rock with its diadem of walls and towers the roofs of the lower town clustering on the strand beneath the Chateau Saint-Louis perched at the brink of the cliff and over it the white banner spangled with fleur-de-lis flaunting defiance in the clear autumnal air. Perhaps as he gazed a suspicion seized him that the task he had undertaken was less easy than he had thought but he had conquered once by a simple summons to surrender and he resolved to try its virtue again. The fleet anchored a little below Quebec and towards 10 o'clock the French saw a boat put out from the Admiral's ship bearing a flag of truth. Four canoes went from the lower town and met at midway. It brought a subaltern officer who announced himself as the bearer of a letter from Sir William Phipps to the French commander. He was taken into one of the canoes and paddled to the quay after being completely blindfolded by a bandage which covered half his face. Prévol received him as he landed and ordered two sergeants to take him by the arms and lead him to the governor. His progress was neither rapid nor direct. They drew him hither and thither, delighting to make him clamor in the dark over every possible obstruction while a noisy crowd hustled him and laughing women called him Collet Maillard, the name of the chief player in Blind Man's Bluff. Amid a prodigious hubbub intended to bewilder him and impress him with a sense of immense war-like preparation they dragged him over the three barricades of Mountain Street and brought him at last into a large room of the chateau. Here they took the bandage from his eyes. He stood for a moment with an air of astonishment and some confusion. The governor stood before him haughty and stern surrounded by French and Canadian officers Marie-Côte, Saint-Hélène, Longueuil, Villebonne, Valreine, Bienville, and many more bedecked with gold lace and silver lace, peruchs and powder, plumes and ribbons, and all the martial farpory in which they took delight and regarding the envoy with keen defiant eyes. After a moment he recovered his breath and his composure, saluted Frontenac, and expressing a wish that the duty assigned him had been of a more agreeable nature handed him the letter of Phipps. Frontenac gave it to an interpreter who read it aloud in French that all might hear. It ran thus Sir William Phipps, Knight, General and Commander-in-Chief, in and over their Majesty's forces of New England by sea and land to count Frontenac, Lieutenant General and Governor for the French King at Canada or in his absence to his deputy or him or them in Chief Command at Quebec. The war between the crowns of England and France doth not only sufficiently warrant but the destruction made by the French and Indians under your command and encouragement upon the persons and estates of their Majesty's subjects of New England without provocation on their part hath put them under the necessity of this expedition for their own security and satisfaction. And although the cruelties and barbarities used against them by the French and Indians might upon the present opportunity prompt unto a severe revenge yet being desirous to avoid all inhumane and un-Christian-like actions and to prevent shedding of blood as much as may be. I the aforesaid William Phipps Knight do hereby in the name and in the behalf of their most excellent Majesties William and Mary King and Queen of England Scotland France and Ireland Defenders of the Faith and by order of their said Majesty's Government of the Massachusetts Colony in New England demand a present surrender of your forts and castles undemolished and the Kings and other stores unembezzled with a seasonable delivery of all captives together with a surrender of all your persons and estates to my dispose. Upon the doing whereof you may expect mercy from me as a Christian according to what shall be found for their Majesty's service and their subject's security. Which if you refuse forthwith to do I am come provided and am resolved by the help of God in whom I trust by force of arms to revenge all wrongs and injuries offered and bring you under subjection to the crown of England and when too late make you wish you had accepted of the favor tendered. Your answer positive in an hour returned by your own trumpet with the return of mine is required upon the peril that will ensue. When the reading was finished the Englishman pulled his watch from his pocket and handed it to the governor. Fultonak could not or pretended that he could not see the hour. The messenger there upon told him that it was ten o'clock in that he must have his answer before eleven. A general cry of indignation arose and Varen called out that Phipps was nothing but a pirate and that his man ought to be hanged. Fultonak contained himself for a moment and then said to the envoy I will not keep you waiting so long tell your general I do not recognize King William and that the prince of Orange who so styles himself is a usurper who has violated the most sacred laws of blood in attempting to dethrone his father-in-law. I know no king of England but King James. Your general ought not to be surprised at the hostilities which he says that the French have carried on in the colony of Massachusetts for as the king my master has taken the king of England under his protection and is about to replace him on his throne by force of arms he might have expected that his Majesty would order me to make war on a people who have rebelled against their lawful prince. Then turning with a smile to the officers about him even if your general offered me conditions a little more gracious and if I had a mind to accept them does he suppose that these brave gentlemen would give their consent and advise me to trust a man who broke his agreement with the governor of Port Royal or a rebel who has failed in his duty to his king and forgotten all the favors he had received from him to follow a prince who pretends to be the liberator of England and the defender of the faith and yet destroys the laws and privileges of the kingdom and overthrows its religion. The divine justice which your general invokes in his letter will not fail to punish such acts severely. The messenger seemed astonished and startled but he presently asked if the governor would give him his answer in writing. No, returned Frontenac. I will answer your general only by the mouths of my cannon that he may learn that a man like me is not to be summoned after this fashion. Let him do his best and I will do mine and he dismissed the Englishman abruptly. He was again blindfolded led over the barricades and sent back to the fleet by the boat that brought him. Phipps had often given proof of personal courage but for the past three weeks his conduct seems that of a man conscious that he is charged with the work too large for his capacity. He had spent a good part of his time in holding councils of war and now when he heard the answer of Frontenac he called another to consider what should be done. A plan of attack was at length arranged. The militia were to be landed on the shore of Bopal which was just below Quebec though separated from it by the Saint-Charles. They were then to cross this river by a Ford practicable at low water climbed the heights of Saint-Jean-Biev and gained the rear of the town. The small vessels of the fleet were to aid the movement by ascending the Saint-Charles as far as the Ford holding the enemy in check by their fire and carrying provisions ammunition and entrenching tools for the use of the land troops. When these had crossed and were ready to attack Quebec in the rear Phipps was to cannonade it in front and land 200 men under cover of his guns to effect a diversion by storming the barricades. Some of the French prisoners from whom their captors appear to have received a great deal of correct information told the admiral that there was a place a mile or two above the town where the heights might be scaled and the rear of the fortifications reached from a direction opposite to that proposed. This was precisely the movement by which Wolf afterwards gained his memorable victory but Phipps chose to abide by the original plan. While the plan was debated the opportunity for accomplishing it ebbed away. It was still early when the messenger returned from Quebec but before Phipps was ready to act the day was on the wane and the tide was against him. He lay quietly at his moorings when in the evening a great shouting mingled with the roll of drums and the sound of fives was heard from the upper town. The English officers asked their prisoner Grandville what it meant. M'fois messieurs he replied you have the opportunity you have lost the game. It is the governor of Montreal with the people from the country above. There is nothing for you now but to pack and go home. In fact Calière had arrived with seven or eight hundred men many of them regulars. With these were bands of Correur de Bois and other young Canadians all full of fight singing and whooping with Marshall Glee as they passed the western gate and trooped down St. Louis street. The next day was gusty and blustering and still Fips lay quiet waiting on the winds and the waves. A small vessel with 60 men on board under Captain Ephraim Savage ran in towards the shore of Bopas to examine the landing and stuck fast in the mud. The Canadians plied her with bullets and brought a cannon to bear on her. They might have waited out and boarded her but Savage and his men kept up so hot a fire that they forbore the attempt and when the tide rose she floated again. There was another night of tranquility but at about eleven on Wednesday morning the French heard the English pipes and drums in full action while repeated shouts of God save King William rose from all the vessels. This lasted an hour or more after which a great number of boats loaded with men put out from the fleet and rode rapidly towards the shore of Bopas. The tide was low and the boats grounded before reaching the landing place. The French on the rock could see the troops through telescopes looking in the distance like a swarm of black ants as they waited through mud and water and formed in companies along the strand. They were some thirteen hundred in number and were commanded by Major Wally. Frontenac had sent three hundred sharpshooters under St. Helene to meet them and hold them in check. A battalion of troops followed but long before they could reach the spot St. Helene's men with a few militia from the neighboring parishes and a band of Huron warriors from Lorette threw themselves into the thickets along the front of the English and opened a distant but galling fire upon the compact bodies of the enemy. Wally ordered a charge. The New England men rushed in a disorderly manner but with great impetuosity up the rising ground received two volleys which failed to check them and drove back the assailants in some confusion. They turned however and fought in Indian fashion with courage and address leaping and dodging among trees, rocks and bushes firing as they retreated and inflicting more harm than they received. Towards evening they disappeared and Wally whose men had been much scattered in the desultory fight drew them together as well as he could and advanced towards the Saint-Charles in order to meet the vessels which were to aid him in passing the fort. Here he posted sentinels and encamped for the night. He had lost four killed and about sixty wounded and imagined that he had killed twenty or thirty of the enemy. In fact however their loss was much less though among the killed was a valuable officer the Chevalier de Clermont and among the wounded the veteran captain of Bhopal Gichaud de Saint-Denis more than sixty four years of age. In the evening a deserter came to the English camp and brought the unwelcome intelligence that there were three thousand armed men in Quebec. Meanwhile Phipps whose fault hitherto had not been an excessive promptitude grew impatient and made a premature movement inconsistent with the pre-concerted plan. He left his moorings anchored his largest ships before the town and prepared to cannonade it but the fiery veteran who watched him from the Chateau Saint-Louis anticipated him and gave him the first shot. Phipps replied furiously opening fire with every gun that he could bring to bear while the rock paid him back in kind and belched flame and smoke from all its batteries. So fierce and rapid was the firing that La Hontanne compares it to volleys of musketry and old officers who had seen many sieges declared that they had never known the like. The din was prodigious reverberated from the surrounding heights and rolled back from the distant mountains in one continuous roar. On the part of the English however surprisingly little was accomplished beside noise and smoke. The practice of their gunners was so bad that many of their shots struck harmlessly against the face of the cliff. Their guns too were very light and appeared to have been charged with a view to the most rigid economy of gunpowder for the balls failed to pierce the stone walls of the buildings and did so little damage that as the French boasted twenty crowns would have repaired it all. Knight came at length and the turmoil ceased. Fips lay quiet till daybreak when Frotonac set a shot to awaken him and the cannonade began again. Saint-Hélène had returned from Bhopal and he with his brother Mericourt took charge of the two batteries of the lower town aiming the guns in person and throwing balls of eighteen and twenty four pounds with excellent precision against the four largest ships of the fleet. One of their shots cut the flagstaff of the admiral and the cross of Saint George fell into the river. It drifted with the tide towards the North Shore where upon several Canadians paddled out in a birch canoe, secured it and brought it back in triumph. On the spire of the cathedral in the upper town had been hung a picture of the Holy Family as an invocation of divine aid. The Puritan gunners wasted their ammunition in vain attempts to knock it down. That it escaped their malice was ascribed to Miracle but the Miracle would have been greater if they had hit it. At length one of the ships which had suffered most hauled off and abandoned the fight. That of the admiral had fared little better and now her condition grew desperate. With her rigging torn her main mast half cut through, her mizzen mast splintered, her cabin pierced and her hull riddled with shot. Another volley seemed likely to sink her when fifths ordered her to be cut loose from her moorings and she drifted out of fire leaving cable and anchor behind. The remaining ships soon gave over the conflict and withdrew to stations where they could neither do harm nor suffer it. Phipps had thrown away nearly all his ammunition in this futile and disastrous attack which should have been deferred till the moment when Wally with his land force had gained the rear of the town. Wally lay in his camp his men wet, shivering with cold, famished and sickening with the smallpox. Food and all other supplies were to have been brought him by the small vessels which should have entered the mouth of the Saint-Charles and aided him to cross it but he waited for them in vain. Every vessel that carried a gun had busyed itself in cannon aiding and the rest did not move. There appears to have been in subordination among the masters of these small craft, some of whom being owners or part-owners of the vessels they commanded were probably unwilling to run them into danger. Wally was no soldier but he saw that to attempt the passage of the river without aid under the batteries of the town and in the face of forces twice as numerous as his own was not an easy task. Frontenac on his part says that he wished him to do so knowing that the attempt would ruin him. The new England men were eager to push on but the night of Thursday the day of Vips repulse was so cold that ice formed more than an inch in thickness and the half-starved militia suffered intensely. Six field pieces with their ammunition had been set ashore but they were nearly useless as there were no means of moving them. Half a barrel of musket powder and one biscuit for each man were also landed and with this meager aid Wally was left to capture Quebec. He might had he dared have made a dash across the fort on the morning of Thursday and assaulted the town in the rear while Vips was canoning it in front but his courage was not equal to so desperate a venture. The firing ceased and the possible opportunity was lost. The citizen soldier disparate of success and on the morning of Friday he went on board the Admiral's ship to explain his situation. While he was gone his men put themselves in motion and advance along the borders of the Saint-Charles towards the fort. Frontenac with three battalions of regular troops went to receive them at the crossing while Saint-Hélène with his brother Longueu passed the fort with a body of Canadians and opened fire on them from the neighbouring thickets. Their advance parties were driven in and there was a hot skirmish the chief loss falling on the New England men who were fully exposed. On the side of the French Saint-Hélène was mortally wounded and his brother was hurt by a spent ball. Towards evening the Canadians withdrew and the English encamped for the night. Their commander presently rejoined them. The Admiral had given him leave to withdraw them to the fleet and boats were accordingly sent to bring them off but as these did not arrive till about daybreak it was necessary to defer the embarkation till the next night. At dawn Quebec was all astir with the beating of drums and the ringing of bells. The New England drums replied and Wally drew up his men under arms expecting an attack for the town was so near that the hub above voices from within could plainly be heard. The noise gradually died away and except a few shots from the ramparts the invaders were left undisturbed. Wally sent two or three companies to beat up the neighbouring thickets where he suspected that the enemy was lurking. On the way they had the good luck to find and kill a number of cattle which they cooked and ate on the spot where upon being greatly refreshed and invigorated they dashed forward in complete disorder and were soon met by the fire of the ambushed Canadians. Several more companies were sent to their support and the skirmishing became lively. Three detachments from Quebec had crossed the river and the militia of Bhopar and Bhopri had hastened to join them. They fought like Indians hiding behind trees or throwing themselves flat among the bushes and laying repeated ambush caves as they slowly fell back. At length they all made a stand on a hill behind the buildings and fences of a farm and here they held their ground till night while the New England men taught them as cowards who would never fight except under cover. Wally who with his main body had stood in arms all day now called in the skirmishers and fell back to the landing place where as soon as it grew dark the boats arrived from the fleet. The sick men of whom there were many were sent on board and then amid floods of rain the whole forest embarked in noisy confusion leaving behind them in the mud five of their cannon. Hasty as was their parting their conduct on the whole had been creditable and La Hontein who was in Quebec at the time says of them they fought vigorously though as ill disciplined as men gathered together at random could be for they did not lack courage and if they failed it was by reason of their entire ignorance of discipline and because they were exhausted by the fatigues of the voyage. Of Phipps he speaks with contempt and says that he could not have served the French better if they had bribed him to stand all the while with his arms folded. Some allowance should nevertheless be made him for the unmanageable character of the forest under his command the constitution of which was fatal to military subordination. On Sunday the morning after the re-embarkation Phipps called a council of officers and it was resolved that the men should rest for a day or two that there should be a meeting for prayer and that if ammunition enough could be found another landing should be attempted. But the rough weather prevented the prayer meeting and the plan of a new attack was fortunately abandoned. Quebec remained in agitation and alarm till Tuesday when Phipps weighed anchor and disappeared with all his fleet behind the island of Alion. He did not go far as indeed he could not but stopped four leagues below to mend a rigging, fortify wounded masts and stop shot holes. Subet-Gas had gone with the detachment to watch the retiring enemy and Phipps was repeatedly seen among his men on a scaffold at the side of his ship exercising his old trade of carpenter. This delay was turned to good use by an exchange of prisoners. Chief among those in the hands of the French was Captain Davis, late commander of the French. He had been killed at Casco Bay and there were also two young daughters of Lieutenant Clark who had been killed at the same place. Frontenac himself had humanely ransomed these children from the Indians and Madame de Champigny, wife of the intendant, had with equal kindness bought from them a little girl named Sarah Garrish and placed her in charge of the nuns at the Hotel Dieu who had become greatly attached to her while she on her part left them with reluctance. The French had the better in these exchanges able-bodied men and returning with the exception of Davis, only women and children. The heretics were gone and Quebec breathed freely again. Her escape had been a narrow one, not that 3,000 men in part regular troops defending one of the strongest positions on the continent and commanded by Frontenac could not defy the attacks of 2,000 raw fishermen and farmers led by an ignorant civilian, but the numbers which were a source of strength were at the same time a source of weakness. Nearly all the adult males of Canada were gathered at Quebec and there was imminent danger of starvation. Cattle from the neighbouring parishes had been hastily driven into the town, but there was little other provision and before Fips retreated the pinch of famine had begun. Had he come a week earlier or stayed a week later the French themselves believed that Quebec would have fallen in the one case for want of men and in the other for want of food. The lower town had been abandoned by its inhabitants who bestowed their families and their furniture within the solid walls of the seminary. The cellars of the Ursuline convent were filled with women and children and many more took refuge at the Hôtel-du. The beans and cabbages in the garden of the nuns were all stolen by the soldiers and their woodpile was turned into bivouac fires. We were more dead than alive when we heard the cannon, writes Mother Juchot, but the Jesuit Frémée came to console them and their prayers and their labours never ceased. On the day when the firing was heaviest 26 balls fell into their yard and garden and were sent to the gunners at the batteries who returned them to their English owners. At the convent of the Ursuline the corner of a nun's apron was carried off by a cannon shot as she passed through her chamber. The sisterhood began a novena or nine days devotion to Saint Joseph, Saint Anne, the angels and the souls in Purgatory and one of their number remained day and night in prayer before the images of the Holy Family. The bishop came to encourage them and his prayers and his chants were so fervent that they thought their last hour was come. The superior of the Jesuits with some of the elder members of the order remained at their college during the attack, ready should the heretics prevail to repair to their chapel and die before the altar. Rumour exaggerated the numbers of the enemy and a general alarm pervaded the town. It was still greater at Lorette nine miles distant. The warriors of that mission were in the first skirmish at Boupal and two of them running off in a fright reported at the village that the enemy were carrying everything before them. On this the villagers fled to the woods followed by Father Gelmay their missionary to whom this hasty exodus suggested the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt. The Jesuits were thought to have special reason to fear the Puritan soldiery who it was reported meant to kill them all after cutting off their ears to make necklaces. When news first came of the approach of Phipps the bishop was absent on a pastoral tour. Hastening back he entered Quebec at night by torchlight to the great joy of its inmates who felt that his presence brought a benediction. He issued a pastoral address exhorting his flock to frequent and full confession and constant attendance at mass as the means of ensuring the success of their arms. Laval the former bishop aided his efforts. We appealed, he writes, to God his Holy Mother to all the angels and to all the saints. Nor was the appeal in vain for each day seemed to bring some new token of celestial favor and it is not surprising that the headwinds which delayed the approach of the enemy the cold and the storms which hastened his departure and above all his singularly innocent cannonade which killed but two or three persons should have been accepted as proof of divine intervention. It was to the Holy Virgin that Quebec had been most lavish of its vows and to her the victory was ascribed. One great anxiety still troubled the minds of the victors. Three ships bringing large sums of money and the yearly supplies for the colony were on their way to Quebec and nothing was more likely than that the retiring fleet would meet and capture them. Messengers had been sent down the river who passed the English in the dark found the ships at St. Paul's Bay and warned them of the danger. They turned back and hid themselves within the mouth of the Sagnae but not soon enough to prevent Fips from discovering their retreat. He tried to follow them but thick fogs arose with a persistent tempest of snow which completely baffled him and after waiting five days he gave over the attempt. When he was gone the three ships emerged from their hiding place and sailed again for Quebec where they were greeted with a universal jubilee. Their deliverance was ascribed to St. Anne the mother of the Virgin and also to St. Francis Xavier whose name one of them bore. Quebec was divided between Thanksgiving and rejoicing. The captured flag of Fips ship was born to the cathedral in triumph. The bishop sang Tédium and amid the firing of cannon the image of the Virgin was carried to each church and chapel in the place by a procession in which priests, people, and troops all took part. The day closed with a grand bonfire in honour of Frontenac. One of the three ships carried back the news of the victory which was hailed with joy at Versailles and a medal was struck to commemorate it. The ship carried also a dispatch from Frontenac. Now that the king has triumphed by land and sea, wrote the old soldier, will he think that a few squadrons of his navy would be ill-employed in punishing the insolence of these genuine old parliamentarians of Boston and crushing them in their den in the English of New York as well? By mastering these two towns we shall secure the whole sea coast besides the fisheries at the Grand Bank which is no slight matter and this would be the true and perhaps the only way of bringing the wars of Canada to an end. For when the English are conquered we can easily reduce the Iroquois to complete submission. Fips returned Crestfallen to Boston late in November and one by one the rest of the fleet came straggling after him, battered and weather-beaten. Some did not appear till February and three or four never came at all. The autumn and early winter were unusually stormy. Captain Rainsford with sixty men was wrecked on the island of Anticoste where more than half their number died of cold and misery. In the other vessels some were drowned, some frost-bitten and above two hundred killed by smallpox and fever. At Boston all was dismay and gloom. The Puritan bowed before this awful frown of God and searched his conscience for the sin that had brought upon him so stern a chastisement. Massachusetts, already impoverished, found herself in extremity. The war, instead of paying for itself, had burdened her with an additional debt of fifty thousand pounds. The sailors and soldiers were climbers for their pay and to satisfy them the colony was forced for the first time in its history to issue a pay-per-currency. It was made receivable at a premium for all public debts and was also fortified by a provision for its early redemption by taxation, a provision which was carried into effect in spite of poverty and distress. Massachusetts had made her usual mistake. She had confidently believed that ignorance and inexperience could match the skill of a tried veteran and that the rude courage of her fishermen and farmers could triumph without discipline or leadership. The conditions of her material prosperity were adverse to efficiency and more. The trading republic without trained officers may win victories, but it wins them either by accident or by an extravagant outlay in money and life. Chapter 14 1690 to 1694 The Scourge of Canada One of Pip's officers charged with the exchange of prisoners at Québec said as he took his leave, we shall make you another visit in the spring, and a French officer returned with martial courtesy. We shall have the honour of meeting you before that time. Neither side made good its threat for both were too weak and too poor. No more war parties were set that winter to ravage the English border, for neither blankets, clothing, ammunition, nor food could be spared. The fields had lain until over half Canada, and though four ships had arrived with supplies, twice as many had been captured or driven back by English cruisers in the Gulf. The troops could not be kept together, and they were quartered for subsistence upon the settlers themselves half famished. Spring came at length and brought with it the Swallows, the Bluebirds, and the Iroquois. They rarely came in winter when the trees and bushes had no leaves to hide them, and their movements were betrayed by the track of their snowshoes, but they were always to be expected at the time of sowing and of harvest when they could do most mischief. During April, about 800 of them gathering from their winter hunting grounds and camped at the mouth of the Ottawa, once they detached parties to ravage the settlements. A large band fell upon Pointe-au-Tramble below Montreal, burned some 30 houses, and killed such of the inmates as could not escape. Another band attacked the mission of the mountain just behind the town, and captured 35 of the Indian converts in broad daylight. Others prowled among the deserted farms on both shores of the St. Lawrence, while the inhabitants remained penned in their stock-aid forts with misery in the present and starvation in the future. Troops and militia were not wanting. The difficulty was to find provisions enough to enable them to keep the field. By begging from house to house, getting here a biscuit and there a morsel of bacon enough was collected to supply a considerable party for a number of days, and 120 soldiers and Canadians went out under Vaudré to hunt the hunters of men. Long impunity had made the Iroquois so careless that they were easily found. A band of about 40 had made their quarters at a house near the fort at Répentigny, and here the French scouts discovered them early in the night. Vaudré and his men were in canoes. They lay quiet till one o'clock, then landed and noiselessly approached the spot. Some of the Iroquois were in the house, the rest lay asleep on the ground before it. The French crept towards them and by one close volley killed them all. Their comrades within sprang up in dismay. Three rushed out and were shot. The others stood on their defense, fired from windows and loopholes and killed six or seven of the French, who presently succeeded in setting fire to the house, which was stached with straw. Young François de Bieville, one of the sons of Charlemagne rushed up to a window, shouted his name like an Indian warrior, fired on the savages within and was instantly shot dead. The flames rose till surrounding objects were brightest day. The Iroquois, driven to desperation, rushed out like tigers and tried to break through their assailants. Only one succeeded. Of his companions, some were shot, five were knocked down and captured and the rest driven back into the house, where they perished in the fire. Three of the prisoners were given to the inhabitants of Repensigny, Pointe-au-Tremble and Boucherville, who in their fury burned them alive. For weeks the upper parts of the colony were infested by wolfish bands howling around the force and were thoroughly ventured to attack. At length help came. A squadron from France strong enough to beat off the new England privateers which blockaded the St. Lawrence arrived at Quebec with men and supplies and a strong force was dispatched to break up the Iroquois camp at the Ottawa. The enemy vanished at its approach and the suffering farmers had a brief respite which enabled them to sow their crops when suddenly a fresh alarm was sounded from Sorel to Montreal and again the settlers ran to their forts for refuge. Since the futile effort of the year before the English of New York still distracted by the political disorders that followed the usurpation of Lesler had fought only by deputy and contented themselves with hounding on the Iroquois against the common enemy. These savage allies at length lost patience and charged their white neighbors with laziness and fear. You say to us, keep the French in perpetual alarm. Why don't you say, we will keep the French in perpetual alarm? It was clear that something must be done or New York would be left to fight her battles alone. A war party was therefore formed at Albany and the Indians were invited to join it. Major Peter Schuyler took command and his force consisted of 266 men of whom 120 were English and Dutch and the rest Mohawks and Wolves or Mohigans. He advanced to a point on the Richelieu ten miles above Port Chamblis and leaving his canoes under a strong guard marched towards La Prairie de la Madeleine opposite Montreal. Scouts had brought warning of his approach and Calière, the local governor crossed the St. Lawrence and encamped at La Prairie with seven or eight hundred men. Here he remained for a week attacked by fever and helpless in bed. The fort stood a few rods from the river. Two battalions of regulars lay on a field at the right and the Canadians and Indians were bivouacked on the left between the fort and a small stream near which was a windmill. On the evening of the 10th of August a drizzling rain began to fall and the Canadians thought more of seeking shelter than of keeping watch. They were moreover well supplied with brandy and used it freely. At an hour before dawn the sentry at the mill described objects like the shadows of men silently advancing along the borders of the stream. They were Skyler's vanguard. The soldier cried, There was no answer. He fired his musket and ran into the mill. Skyler's men rushed in a body upon the Canadian camp drove its occupants into the fort and killed some of the Indian allies who lay under their canoes on the adjacent strand. The regulars on the other side of the fort roused by the noise sprang to arms and hastened to the spot. They were met by a volley which laid some fifty of them on the ground and drove back the rest in disorder. They rallied and attacked again, on which Skyler greatly outnumbered, withdrew his men to a neighbouring ravine where he once more repulsed his assailants and as he declares drove them into the fort with great loss. By this time it was daylight. The English having struck their blows slowly fell back hacking down the corn in the fields as it was still too green for burning and pausing at the edge of the woods where their Indians were heard for some time uttering frightful howls and shouting to the French that they were not men but dogs. Why the invaders were left to retreat unmolested before a force more than double their own does not appear. The helpless condition of Caliaia and the death of Saint-Silk, his second in command scarcely suffice to explain it. Skyler retreated towards his canoes moving at his leisure along the forest path that led to Chambley. Tried by the standard of partisan moor, his raid had been a success. He had inflicted great harm and suffered little but the affair was not yet ended. A day or two before, Val-Ren, an officer of birth and ability had been sent to Chambley with about 160 troops and Canadians, a body of Huron and Iroquois converts and a band of Algonquins from the Ottawa. His orders were to let the English pass and then place himself in their rear to cut them off from their canoes. His scouts had discovered their advance and on the morning of the attack he set his force in motion and advanced six or seven miles towards La Prairie on the path by which Skyler was retreating. The country was buried in forests. At about nine o'clock the scouts of the hostile parties met each other and their war whoops gave the alarm. Val-Ren instantly took possession of the ridge of ground that crossed the way of the approaching English. Two large trees had fallen along the crest of the activity and behind these the French crouched in a triple row well hidden by bushes and thick standing trunks. The English, under raiding the strength of their enemy and ignorant of his exact position, charged impetuously and were sent reeling back by a close and deadly volley. They repeated the attack with still greater fury than the French from their ambush gate. Then ensued a fight which Frontenac declared to have been the most hot and stubborn ever known in Canada. The object of Skyler was to break through the French and reach his canoes. The object of Val-Ren was to drive him back upon the superior force at La Prairie. The cautious tactics of the bush were forgotten. Three times the combatants became mingled together firing breast to breast and scorching each other's shirts with their weapons. The Algonquins did themselves no credit and at first some of the Canadians gave way but they were rallied by La Berre du Cheyne their commander and afterwards showed great bravery. On the side of the English many of the Mohegan allies ran off but the Whites and the Mohawks fought with equal desperation. In the midst of the tumult Val-Ren was perfectly cool directing his men with admirable vigor and address and barring Skyler's retreat in an hour. At length the French were driven from the path. We broke through the middle of their body says Skyler until we got into their rear trampling upon their dead then faced about upon them and fought them until we made them give way then drove them by strength of arm four hundred paces before us and to say the truth we were all glad to see them retreat. He and his followers continued their march on molested carrying their wounded men leaving about forty dead behind them along with one of their flags and all their knapsacks which they had thrown off when the fray began. They reached the banks of the Richelieu found their canoes safe and after waiting several hours for stragglers embarked for Albany. Nothing saved them from destruction but the failure of the French at La Prairie to follow their retreat and thus enclose them between two fires. They did so it is true at the eleventh hour but not till the fight was over the English were gone. The Christian mohawks of the soul also appeared in the afternoon and set out to pursue the enemy but seemed to have taken care not to overtake them for the English mohawks were their relatives and they had no wish for their scalps. Fultonac was angry at their conduct and as he rarely lost an opportunity to find fault with the Jesuits he laid the blame on the fathers in charge of the mission whom he sharply upbraided for the shortcomings of their flock. He was at three rivers at a ball when news of the disaster at La Prairie dampened the spirits of the company which however were soon revived by tidings of the fight under Valhren and the retreat of the English who were reported to have left 200 dead on the field. Fultonac wrote an account of the affair to the minister with high praise of Valhren and his band followed by an appeal for help. What with fighting and hardship our troops and militia are wasting away. The enemy is upon us by sea and land. Send us a thousand men next spring if you want the colony to be saved. We are perishing by inches. The people are in the depth of poverty and the war has doubled prices so that nobody can live. Many families are without bread. The inhabitants desert the country and crowd into the towns. A new enemy appeared in the following summer almost as destructive as the Iroquois. This was an army of caterpillars which set at naught the maledictions of the clergy and made great havoc among the crops. It is recorded that along with the caterpillars came an unprecedented multitude of squirrels which, being industriously trapped or shot, proved a great help to many families. Alarm followed alarm. It was reported that Phipps was bent on brevenge for his late discomfiture that great armaments were afoot and that a mighty host of Bustonet was preparing another descent. Again and again Fultonac begged that one bold blow should be struck to end these perils and make King Louis Master of the Continent by dispatching a fleet to seize New York. If this were done, he said, it would be easy to take Boston and the rebels and old Republican Levin of Cromwell who harbored there then burn the place and utterly destroy it. Villabon, Governor of Acadia was of the same mind. No town, he told the minister, could be burned more easily. Most of the houses are covered with shingles and the streets are very narrow. But the King could not spare a squadron equal to the attempt and Fultonac was told that he must wait. The troop sent him to not supply his losses. Money came every summer in sums which now seem small but were far from being so in the eyes of the King who joined to each remittance a lecture on economy and a warning against extravagance. The Intendant received his share of blame on these occasions and he said, he received his share of blame on these occasions and he usually defended himself vigorously. He tells his master that war parties are necessary but very expensive. We rarely pay money but we must give presents to our Indians and fit out the Canadians with provisions, arms, ammunition, moccasins, snowshoes, sledges, canoes, kaputz, britches, stockings and blankets. This cost a great deal but without it we should have to abandon Canada. The King complained that while the great sums he was spending in the colony turned to the profit of the inhabitants they contributed nothing to their own defense. The complaint was scarcely just for if they gave no money they gave their blood with sufficient readiness accepting a few merchants they had nothing else to give and in the years when the fur trade was cut off they lived chiefly on the pay they received from supplying the troops and other public services. Far from being able to support the war they looked to the war to support them. The work of fortifying the vital points of the colony, Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal received constant stimulus from the alarms of attack and above all from a groundless report that 10,000 bus donnets had sailed for Quebec. The sessions of the council were suspended and the councillors seized pick and spade. The old defenses of the place were reconstructed on a new plan made by the great engineer Vauban. The settlers were mustered together from a distance of 20 leagues and compelled to labor with little or no pay till a line of solid earthworks enclosed Quebec from Cape Diamond to the Saint-Charles. Three rivers and Montreal were also strengthened. The cost exceeded the estimates and drew upon Frontenac and Champigny fresh admonitions from Versailles. The bounties on scalps and prisoners were another occasion of royal complaint. 20 crowns had been offered for each male white prisoner, 10 crowns for each female and 10 crowns for each scalp whether Indian or English. The bounty on prisoners produced an excellent result since instead of killing them the Indian allies learned to bring them to Quebec. If children they were placed in the convents and if adults they were distributed to labor among the settlers. Thus though the royal letters show that the measure was one of policy it acted in the interest of humanity. It was not so with the bounty on scalps. The Abenaki, Huron and Iroquois Converts brought in many of them but grave doubts arose whether they all came from the heads of the enemies. The scalp of a Frenchman was not distinguishable from the scalp of an Englishman and could be had with less trouble. Partly for this reason and partly out of economy the king gave it as his belief that a bounty of one crown was enough though the governor and the intent in declaring that the scalps of the whole Iroquois Confederacy would be a good bargain for his majesty at ten crowns apiece. The river Ottawa was the main artery of Canada and to stop it was to stop the flow of her life blood. The Iroquois knew this and their constant effort was to close it so completely that the annual supply of beaver skins would be prevented from passing and the colony be compelled to live on credit. It was their habit to spend the latter part of the winter in hunting among the forests between the Ottawa and the upper St. Lawrence and then when the ice broke up to move in large bands to the banks of the former stream and lie in ambush at the Chaudière, the L'Enceau or other favourable points to wailay the passing canoes. On the other hand it was the constant effort of Frantonac to drive them off and keep the river open an almost impossible task. Many conflicts great and small took place with various results but in spite of every effort the Iroquois blockade was maintained more than two years. The story of one of the expeditions made by the French in this quarter will show the hardship of the service and the moral and physical vigor which it demanded. Early in February 300 men under Dovilliers were sent by Frantonac to surprise the Iroquois in their hunting grounds. When they were a few days out their leaders scalded his foot by the upsetting of a kettle at their encampment near and the command fell on a youth named Boucoule, an officer of regulars accomplished as an engineer and known for his polished wit. The march through the snow-clogged forest was so terrible that the men lost heart. Hands and feet were frozen. Some of the Indians refused to proceed and many of the Canadians lagged behind. Shots were heard showing that the enemy were not far off but cold hunger and fatigue had overcome the courage of the pursuers and the young commander saw his followers on the point of deserting him. He called them together and harangued them in terms so animating that they caught his spirit and again pushed on. For four hours more they followed the tracks of the Iroquois snowshoes till they found the savages in their bivouac, set upon them and killed or captured nearly all. There was a French slave among them scarcely distinguishable from his owners. It was an officer named Laplante taken at Lachin three years before. He would have been killed like his masters, says the Hontan. If he had not cried out with all his might, Misericorde, sauvez-moi, je suis Français! Beaucourt brought his prisoners to Québec where Fultonac ordered that two of them should be burned. One stabbed himself in prison, the other was tortured by the Christian herons on Cape Diamond defying them to the last. Nor was this the only instance of such fearful reprisal. In the same year a number of Iroquois captured by Vaudré were burned at Montreal at the demand of the Canadians and the Mission Indians who insisted that their cruelty should be paid back in kind. It is said that the purpose was answered and the Iroquois deterred for a while from torturing their captives. The brunt of the war fell on the upper half of the colony. The country about Montreal and for nearly a hundred miles below it was easily accessible to the Iroquois by the roots of Lake and the upper St. Lawrence. While below three rivers the settlements were tolerably safe from their incursions and were exposed to attacks solely from the English of New England who could molest them only by sailing up from the Gulf in force. Hence the settlers remained on their farms and followed their usual occupations except when Fultonac drafted them for war parties. Above three rivers their condition was wholly different. A traveller passing through this part of Canada would have found the land. Here and there he would have seen all the inhabitants of a parish laboring in a field together watched by sentinels and generally guarded by a squad of regulars. When one field was tilled they passed to the next and this communal process was repeated when the harvest was ripe. At night they took refuge in the fort that is to say in a cluster of log cabins surrounded by a palisade. Sometimes when long exemption from attack had emboldened them they ventured back to their farmhouses and experiment always critical and sometimes fatal. Thus the people of La Chanae for getting a sharp lesson they had received a year or two before returned to their homes in fancied security. One evening a bachelor of the parish made a visit to a neighboring widow bringing with him his gun and a small dog. As he was taking his leave his hostess whose husband had been killed the year before told him that she was afraid to be left alone and begged him to remain in the house. The next morning the barking of his dog groused him. When going out he saw the night lighted up by the blaze of burning houses and heard the usual firing and screeching of an Iroquois attack. He went back to his frightened companion who also had a gun. Placing himself at a corner of the house he told her to stand behind him. A number of Iroquois soon appeared on which he fired at them and taking her gun repeated the shot giving her the gun. The warriors returned his fire from a safe distance and in the morning withdrew all together on which the pair emerged from their shelter and succeeded in reaching the fort. The other inhabitants were all killed or captured. Many incidents of this troubled time are preserved but none of them are so well worth the record as the defense of the fort at Bershaw by the young daughter of the senior. Many years later the Marquis de Boarnet Governor of Canada caused the story to be written down from the recital of the heroine herself. Their chair was on the south shore of the St. Lawrence about 20 miles below Montreal. A strong blockhouse stood outside the fort and was connected with it by a covered way. On the morning of the 22nd of October the inhabitants were at work in the fields and nobody was left in the place but two soldiers, two boys, an old man of 80 and a number of women and children. The senior, formerly an officer regiment of Carignan was on duty at Québec. His wife was at Montreal and their daughter Madeleine, 14 years of age, was at the landing place not far from the gate of the fort with a hired man named La Violette. Suddenly she heard firing from the direction where the settlers were at work and an instant after La Violette cried out, Here come the Urquois. She turned and saw 40 or 50 of them at the distance of a pistol shot. I ran for the fort commending myself to the Holy Virgin. The Urquois who chased after me seeing that they could not catch me alive before I reached the gate stopped and fired at me. The bullets whistled about my ears and made the time seem very long. As soon as I was near enough to be heard I cried out two arms, two arms, hoping that somebody would come out and help me but it was of no use. The two soldiers in the fort were so scared that they had hidden in the blockhouse. At the gate I found two women crying for their husbands who had just been killed. I made them go in and then shut the gate. I next thought what I could do to save myself and the few people with me. I went to inspect the fort and found that several palisades had fallen down and left openings by which the enemy could easily get in. I ordered them to be set up again and helped to carry them myself. When the breaches were stopped I went to the blockhouse where the ammunition is kept and here I found the two soldiers hiding in a corner and the other with a lighted match in his hand. What are you doing with that match? I asked. He answered, light the powder and blow us all up. You are a miserable coward! said I, go out of this place. I spoke so resolutely that he obeyed. I then threw off my bonnet and after putting on a hat and taking a gun I said to my two brothers let us fight to the death. We are fighting for our country and our religion. I remember that our father has taught you that gentlemen are born to shed their blood for the service of God and the king. The boys who were 12 and 10 years old aided by the soldiers whom her words had inspired with some little courage began to fire from the loopholes upon the Iroquois who, ignorant of the weakness of the garrison, showed their usual reluctance to attack a fortified place and occupy themselves with chasing and butchering the people in the neighboring fields. Madeleine ordered a cannon to be fired to deter the enemy from an assault and partly to warn some of the soldiers who were hunting at a distance. The women and children in the fort cried and screamed without ceasing. She ordered them to stop lest their terror should encourage the Indians. A canoe was presently seen approaching the landing-place. It was a settler named Fontaine trying to reach the fort with his family. The Iroquois were still near and Madeleine feared that the newcomers would be killed if something were not to aid them. She appealed to the soldiers but their courage was not equal to the attempt, on which, as she declares, after leaving la Violette to keep watch at the gate she herself went alone to the landing-place. I thought that the savages would suppose it to be a ruse to draw them towards the fort in order to make a soft tea upon them. They did suppose so and thus I was able to save the Fontaine family. When they were all landed I made them march before me to help the enemy. We put so bold a face on it that they thought they had more to fear than we. Strengthened by this reinforcement I ordered that the enemy should be fired on whenever they showed themselves. After sunset a violent northeast wind began to blow accompanied with snow and hail which told us that we should have a terrible night. The Iroquois were all this time lurking about us and I judged by their movements that instead of being deterred by the storm they were poured under cover of the darkness. I assembled all my troops that is to say six persons and spoke to them thus. God has saved us today from the hands of our enemies but we must take care not to fall into their snares tonight. As for me I want you to see that I am not afraid. I will take charge of the fort with an old man of eighty and another who never fired a gun and you Pierre Fontaine with La Montée and Gachet with the women and children because that is the strongest place and if I am taken don't surrender even if I am cut to pieces and burned before your eyes. The enemy cannot hurt you in the blockhouse if you make the least show of fight. I placed my young brothers on two of the bastions the old man on the third and I took the fourth and all night in spite of wind snow and hail the cries of all as well were kept up from the blockhouse to the fort and from the fort to the blockhouse one would have thought that the place was full of soldiers the Iroquois thought so and were completely deceived as they confessed afterwards to Monsieur de Calière whom they told that they had held a council to make a plan for capturing the fort in the night but had done nothing because such a constant watch was kept. About one in the morning the sentinel on the bastion by the gate called out mademoiselle I hear something I went to him to find what it was and by the help of the snow I could see through the darkness a number of cattle the miserable remnant that the Iroquois had left us the others wanted to open the gate and let them in but I answered God forbid you don't know all the tricks of the savages they are no doubt following the cattle covered with skins of beasts so as to get into the fort if we are simple enough to open the gate for them nevertheless after taking every precaution I thought that we might open it without risk I made my two brothers stand ready with their guns cocked in case of surprise and so we let in the cattle at last the daylight came again and as the darkness disappeared our anxieties seemed to disappear with it everybody took courage except mademoiselle Marguerite wife of the sire Fontaine who being extremely timid as all Parisian women are asked her husband to carry her to another fort he said I will never abandon this fort while mademoiselle Madeline is here I answered him that I would never abandon it that I would rather die than give it up to the enemy and that it was of the greatest importance that they should never get possession of any French fort because if they got one they would think they could get others and would grow more bold and presumptuous than ever I may say with truth that I did not eat or sleep for twice 24 hours I did not go once into my father's house but kept always on the bastion or went to the block house to see how the people there were behaving I always kept a cheerful and smiling face and encouraged my little company with the hope of speedy sucker we were a weak and constant alarm with the enemy always about us at last Monsieur de la Monnerie a lieutenant sent by Monsieur de Calière arrived in the night with 40 men as he did not know whether the fort was taken or not he approached as silently as possible one of our sentinels hearing a slight sound cried I was at the time dozing with my head on a table and my gun lying across my arms the sentinel told me that he heard a voice from the river I went up at once to the bastion to see whether it was Indians or Frenchmen I asked who are you? one of them answered we are Frenchmen it is la Monnerie who comes to bring you help I caused the gate to be opened placed a sentinel there and went down to the river to meet them as soon as I saw Monsieur de la Monnerie I saluted him and said Monsieur I surrender my arms to you he answered gallantly mademoiselle they are in good hands better than you think I returned he inspected the fort and found everything in order and a sentinel on each bastion it is time to relieve them Monsieur said I we have not been off our bastions for a week a band of converts from the so Saint Louis arrived soon after followed the trail of their heathen countrymen took them on Lake Champlain and recovered 20 or more French prisoners Madeleine de Verschère was not the only heroine of her family her father's fort was the castle dangerous of Canada and it was but 2 years before that her mother left with 3 or 4 armed men and beset by the Urquois threw herself with her followers into the blockhouse and held the assailants 2 days at bay till the Marquis de Crissas came with troops to her relief from the moment when the Canadians found a chief whom they could trust and the firm old hand of Fultonac grasped the reins of their destiny a spirit of hardyhood and energy grew up in all this rugged population and they faced their stern fortunes with a stubborn daring and endurance that merit respect and admiration now as in all their former wars a great part of their suffering was due to the Mohawks the Jesuits had spared no pains to convert them thus changing them from enemies to friends the Jesuits had so far succeeded that the mission colony of Sault Ste. Louis contained a numerous population of Mohawk Christians the place was well fortified and troops were usually stationed here partly to defend the converts and partly to ensure their fidelity they had sometimes done excellent service for the French but many of them still remembered their old homes on the Mohawk and their old ties of fellowship and kindred their heathen countrymen so they had a session and spared no pains to reclaim them sometimes they tried intrigue and sometimes force on one occasion joined by the Onidas and Onondagas they appeared before the Palisades of Saint Louis to the number of more than 400 warriors but finding the bastions manned and the gates shut they withdrew discomfited it was of great importance to the French to sender them from their heathen relatives so completely that reconciliation would be impossible largely to this end that a grand expedition was prepared against the Mohawk towns all the mission Indians in the colony were invited to join it the Iroquois of the Sault and Mountain Abbenakis from the Chaudière Hurons from Lorette and Algonquins from Three Rivers a hundred picked soldiers were added and a large band of Canadians all told they mustered 625 men under three tried leaders Montet, Gortemange and Lanou they left Chambley at the end of January and pushed southward on snowshoes their way was over the ice of Lake Champlain for more than a century the great thoroughfare of war parties they bivouacked in the forest by squads of twelve or more dug away the snow in a circle covered the bare earth with a bed of spruce bows made a fire in the middle and smoked their pipes around it here crouched the Christian savage muffled in his blanket his flushed face still smirched with soot and vermilion relics of the war paint he had worn a week before when he danced the war dance in the square of the mission village and here sat the Canadians hooded like capuchin monks but irrepressible in locacity as the blaze of the campfire glowed on their hardy visages and fell in fainter radiance on the rocks and pines behind them 16 days brought them to the two lower Mohawk towns a young Dutchman who had been captured three years before and whom the Indians of the so had imprudently brought with them ran off in the night and carried the alarm to the English the invaders had no time to lose the two towns were a quarter of a league apart they surrounded them both on the night of the 16th of February waited in silence till the voices within were hushed and then captured them without resistance as most of the inmates were absent after burning one of them and leaving the prisoners well guarded in the other they marched eight leagues to the third town reached it at evening and hid in the neighboring woods through all the early night they heard the whoops and songs of the warriors within who were dancing the war dance for an intended expedition about midnight all was still the Mohawks had posted no sentinels and one of the French Indians scaling the palisade opened the gate to his comrades there was a short but bloody fight 20 or 30 Mohawks were killed and nearly 300 captured chiefly women and children the French commanders now required their allies the mission Indians to make good a promise which at the instance of frontenac had been exacted from them by the governor of Montreal it was that they should kill all their male captives a proceeding which would have averted every danger of future reconciliation between the Christian and Ethan Mohawks the converts of the so and the mountain had readily given the pledge but apparently with no intention to keep it at least they now refuse to do so remonstrance was useless and after burning the town the French and their allies began their retreat encumbered by a long train of prisoners they marched two days when they were hailed from a distance by Mohawks scouts who told them that the English were on their track but that peace had been declared in Europe and that the pursuers did not mean to fight but to parley here upon the mission Indians insisted on waiting for them and no exertion of the French commanders persuaded them to move trees were hewn down and a fort made after the Iroquois fashion by encircling the camp with a high and dense abity of trunks and branches here they lay two days more the French disgusted and uneasy in their savage allies obstinate and impracticable meanwhile major Peter Schuyler was following their trail with a body of armed settlers hastily mustard a troop of Oneidas joined him and the United parties between five and six hundred and all at length appeared before the fortified camp of the French it was at once evident that there was to be no parley the forest rang with war whoops and the English Indians unmanageable as those of the French said at work to entrench themselves with felled trees the French and their allies sallied to dislodge them the attack was fierce and the resistance equally so both sides lost ground by turns a priest of the mission of the mountain named Gay was in the thick of the fight and when he saw his neo-fights run he threw himself before them crying what are you afraid of we are fighting with infidels who have nothing human but the shape have you forgotten that the holy virgin is our leader and our protector and that you are subjects of the king of France whose name makes all Europe tremble three times the French renewed the attack in vain then gave over the attempt and lay quiet behind their barricade of trees so also did their opponents the morning was dark and stormy and the driving snow that filled the air made the position doubly dreary the English were starving their slender stalk of provisions had been consumed or shared with the Indians who on their part did not want food having resources unknown to their white friends a group of them squatted about a fire and invited Skyler to share their broth the appetite was spoiled when he saw a human hand ladled out of the kettle his hosts were breakfasting on a dead Frenchman all night the hostile bands ensconced behind their silver ramparts watched each other in silence in the morning an Indian deserter told the English commander that the French were packing their baggage Skyler sent to reconnoiter and found them gone they had retreated unseen through the snowstorm he ordered his men to follow but as most of them had fasted for two days they refused to do so till an expected convoy of provisions should arrive they waited till the next morning when the convoy appeared five biscuits were served out to each man and the pursuit began by great efforts they nearly overtook the fugitives who now sent them word that if they made an attack all the prisoners should be put to death on this Skyler's Indians continue the chase the French by this time had reached the Hudson where to their dismay they found the ice breaking up and drifting down the stream happily for them a large sheet of it had become wedged at a turn of the river and formed a temporary bridge by which they crossed and then pushed on to Lake George here the soft and melting ice would not bear them and they were forced to make their way along the shore over rocks and mountains through sodden snow and matted thickets the provisions of which they had made a depot on Lake Champlain were all spoiled they boiled moccasins for food and scraped away the snow to find hickory and beach-nuts several died of famine and many more unable to move lay helpless by the lake while a few of the strongest toiled on to Montreal to tell Calière of their plight men and food were sent them and from time to time as they were able they journeyed on again straggling towards their homes with all parties, feeble, emaciated and in many instances with health irreparably broken the expedition says Fontenac was a glorious success however glorious it was dearly bought and a few more such victories would be ruined the governor presently achieved a success more solid and less costly the wavering mood of the north-western tribes always oscillating between the French and the English he caused him incessant anxiety and he had lost no time in using the defeat of FIPS to confirm them in alliance with Canada Kurt Damage was sent up the Ottawa to carry news of the French triumph and stimulate the savages of Michelin Mackenac to lift the hatchet it was a desperate venture for the river was beset as usual by the Iroquois with ten followers the daring partisan ran the gauntlet of a thousand dangers and safely reached his destination his gifts and his harangues joined with the tidings of victory kindled great excitement among the Ottawa's and Hurons the indispensable but most difficult task remained that of opening the Ottawa for the descent of the great accumulation of beaver skins which had been gathering at Michelin Mackenac for three years and for the want of which Canada was bankrupt more than 200 Frenchmen were known to be at that remote post or roaming in the wilderness around it he hurled on an attempt to muster them together and employ their united force to protect the Indians and the traders in bringing down this mass of furs to Montreal a messenger strongly escorted was set with orders to this effect and succeeded in reaching Michelin Mackenac though there was a battle on the way in which the officer commanding the escort was killed Fultonac anxiously waited the issue when after a long delay the tidings reached him of complete success he hastened to Montreal and found it swarming with Indians and Courier de Bois 200 canoes had arrived failed with the coveted beaver skins it is impossible says the chronicle to conceive the joy of the people when they beheld these riches Canada had awaited them for years the merchants and the farmers were dying of hunger credit was gone and everybody was afraid that the enemy would wail and seize this last resource of the country therefore it was that none could find words strong enough to praise and bless him by whose care all this wealth had arrived father of the people preserver of the country seemed terms too weak to express their gratitude while three years of arrested sustenance came down together from the lakes a fleet sailed up the St. Lawrence freighted with soldiers and supplies the horizon of Canada was brightening end of chapter 14