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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 z 1 .^■; ^^7 \lh ^^AMi -V "v i ^m ^-\i m i r.'imm ■u ^ } t ^^^J^?^^.<^ ^^ .S\->r: i^f* CO s Q CO MINOR WARS OF THE UNITED STATES. A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH WAR, Ending in the Conquest of Canada, WITH A PRELIMINARV ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION AND STRUGGLES FOR THE POSSESSION OF THE CONTINENT. ^ BY ROSSITER JOHNSON. ILLUSTRATED, NEW YORK : PQDDj MEAD*"& COMPANY, PUBLISUKRS. 234166 Copyright, xSSa, By DODD, mead & COMPANY. ^m PREFACE. anJ 1 R r 1 *' ''™^^"= '^''''"^ ^"^ Gaul hough m form a straggling story, stretching ove two centuries, offers nnc /»f ♦!,« _ ^ . .t,.^;^ r . "^ '"°'' interesting studies of nat»nal character and destiny. To treat . 2'"-"'^!-«'y ■" a volume like this was impossible, t ""f ^"^"^ ■' •>"' it '-s hoped that enough ha^ been told to give the reader a clear idea of the character and sequence of all the significant events, and to suggest something of the philosophy of the long contest. A knowledge of this is absol tl History of our country. The part played by the red man should not be overlooked. Bloody and terrible it wa, to the vanquished soldier, thrice bloody and hideous to he settler and his little family ; but though it pro- onged and embittered the struggle, it had no real effect upon the result. In the earlier wars on this continent, the tomahawk and sca.ping-knife we^e IV PREFACE. enlisted mainly in the service of the French against the British ; but the Briton conquered the French- man nevertheless. In later wars, the same savage weapons in savage hands were wielded for the English against the Americans ; but the American conquered the Englishman. There is no more im- portant lesson to teach the youth who must be our future soldiers and commanders than this, that in the warfare of nations the exercise of cruelty has never secured the ultimate victory. The power that only tortures and murders cannot become even a balance of power when two races are .in conflict for precedence, or two opposite ideas for survival. Civilization must fight out its own battles. An account of Pontiac's conspiracy, the final grand effort of the Indian to t'-ive off the encroach- ing Saxon from American soil, would have formed an interesting sequel to the narrative of the French war ; but the limits of space forbade. I am indebted to my sister, Mrs. Joseph O'Connor, for valuable assistance in the preparation of this volume. R. J. New York, September 13, 1882. CONTENTS. Early Voyages . . . 'CHAPTER I. „„ ataaacone, i -Hochelaga, J2.-Donnacona, 12. CHAPTER II ^ Sjy*'^!'''* J^t ^^KNCH Settlements' ,. Roberval and Cartier, 16. -Civil Wars in France * is -dV iJ ««u x^sca/oot, 23.— The Micmacs, 23.--The Tesuits ha — D^IJu^cJionofSrt'^'"'' as^olonjof St SS'. 2^.- i^esiniction of St. Saviour and Port Royal by Argall, 31. n„-« ^ CHAPTER III. Quebec Founded, and Taken by the English Foundang of Quebec. 36. -Friendship t^hth^Al^^inau/nV Vi;;r»n P'^^T' ^^'"^* t*'* ^'^^ois, 37.--St3of De o'^Tltia:i^fT''r f/r'l' 4i.~Hc;til7A«em?t ander :?^"?'^,'.'^^-~S''*°l?^ Acadia to Sir William Alex- SeE^ctlfrf ?o -^StL'T'" ^"^^i*' 4?.-Capture'of ^n7~.< r' so--— Ihe La Tours m Acad a. 5i.--Treatv of Germam-en-Laye, 52.-Death of Champion, 53. ^ -r r, CHAPTER IV. The French in the West. The Iroquois, 54.-Fate of the HuronsVss'.-FiihVat'the iJ^^ir Sault. 56.-Forts on the Richelieu. 57 -Moni«il 58 -Thf feK/^T^^K?^*^"."' '"^ *^« MississipprvSey. 62 -la Salle, 63.-La Chme, 63.-IbervilIe on th^e Gulf o^ M;xico! 35 54 Acadia. CHAPTER V. Destruction of English Trading-Stations, 66.-Feud'b;tw;;n Charnisay and La Tour. 67.-4:apture of A^dia Sy the E^e i^5; 78.-Restoration to France by the Treaty of Breda 7? H^tn^^'^'^K ^'1 P^"°bscot. 79.-Attack by Andros to!?! W; T9. '^ '"'""^' 79.~War betweeJ England' tnd KING WILLIAM'S War... ^''^''^^^^^• Iroquois Attack on Montreal, 8o.~pian*of 'the Fr^nrh'sV" Opture of English Posts at' Hudson Bay, BzIu^^^Z /alb~Dl"ro^!'T6^i\?^4"*^^y^ 84.-Salmon Planned by thTEng.ish.^r-J^SirwSS^^^Vj^te^^^^ 66 80 VI CONTENTS. rAOB :■ ture of Port Royal, 91.— Schuyler at La Prairie, 95.— Phipi at Quebec, 97. CHAPTER VII. Close of Kino William's War 105 AtUcks on Well? and York, 106.— Fort Built at Femaquid, 107. — Attempt to take it, 109. — Plan to Attack Quebec, 109. —Proposed Exchange of Prisoners, no.— Oyster River As- sailed, III.— Schuyler at La Prairie, 113. — Invasion of the Mohawk Country, 114. — Trearhery of Chubb at Pemaauid, 116. — Destruction of the Fc. 119. — Church and Hathom on the St. John, 120.— Haverh.il, 121. — French Plan for the Capture of Boston, 123. — Iberville in Newfoundland and at Hudson Bay, 124. — Frontenac among the Iroquois, 126. — The Peace of Ryswick, 128.— Deaths of Frontenac and Ville- bon, 129. CHAPTER VIII. Queen Anne's War 130 The Spanish Succession, 130.— The Pretender, 131.— Attacks on Wells, Saco, Casco, Deerfield, and Lancaster, 132. — Church in Acadia, 134. — Destruction of English Towns in Newfoundland, 135.— -Sieges of Port Royal, 135.— Attack on Haverhill, 135. — Final Capture of Pert Royal by the English, 136.— Insurrection of the Acadians, 137.— Attempted Con- ?uest of Canada by Admiral Walker, 139.— Attack of the oxes on Detroit, 142.— Treaty of Utrecht, i43.--Louis- bourg, 144. — Father Rasles, 144. — Expeditions of Harmon, Westbrooke, Winslow, and Lovewell, 147.— Indian Treaty, 149. — Forts at Niagara, Oswego, and Crown Point, 149. CHAPTER IX. King George's War 150 Sovereigns of England, 150. — The Austrian Succession, 150. — Maria Theresa, 151.— Frederick the Great, 151. — The War, 152.— Hostilities between France and England, 153. — At- tacks on Canso and Annapolis, 153. — La Loutre, 154. — Proposed Expedition to Louisbourg, 156. — Shirley, Pepperell, and Vaughan, 156. — Commodore Warren, 157. — Whitefield, , 157. — Siege and Fall of Louisbourg, 162. — Rejoicings in Boston, 163. — Project to Conquer Canada, 164. — Fighting in Acadia, 165.— Fate of the French Fleet, 166. — Success of Ramezay at Grand Pr6, 168. — Capture of Jonquifere's Fleet, 169. — The French and Indians on the Western Frontier, 169. — Inactivity of the English, 169. — Possible Reasons for it, 169.— The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 170. CHAPTER X. Acadia after the War 171 Failure of Negotiations for the Adjustment of Boundaries, 171. —Encroachments of the French, 172.— Settlement of Hali- fax, T73. — Refusal of the Acadians to Take the Oath, 174. — Attacks by Indians, 175. — Burning of Beaubassin, 176. — Fort Lawrence, 177. — Fort Beau S6iour, 177^— Colonel How's Fate, 1 78.— Expedition to Acadia, 179.— Fall of the French Forts, 181.— Escape of La Loutre, 182.— Exile of the Aca- dians, 183. i_^-^:^ CONTENTS. n^ r. rr CHAPTER XI. The Ohio Valley. ..... ^wMr P°?»J« the West; Vsi.-OgdeVsbVrirVM -si; Wni.am Johnson. igi.-Confer^ce with theT^qud^' igj -Lxped.tion of Bienville, I94.-The Walking P° J^ha^J* jf^'iZcLP^'" Company. i97.~Christopher Gist. 197 1 IMcaua i.^ T/n^V^r^^v'^S.-Aench At'tack on ncqua, i99--7Expedition from Canada, aoo.- Mission of George Wash ngtou. aoi.-Fort Du Quesne. a^-FUt with JumonviUe. 204.-Fort Necessity. 205. -Fight at Grfat Meadows. aos-Fort Cumberland. a&.-6ouncifat AlS^ vu rAoa 189 Braddock's Defeat. CHAPTER Xn. Capture of Ships by Boscawen, 2H.- Braddock'* Ma;^K ?eat"a^ ' ""^rh"?-""^ ^^^^^^^ ^ao.-EffecTof'tJ'e'Dt feat, 22i.-Wash>ngton, 22i.-Alliances with the Indian^ _ , CHAPTER Xni. Battle of Lake George, ... Expeditions under Shirley and' Johnson; "Mr-lshirievarOsl wego. 226.-Movementa of Diiskau. 226.-BuiSg of Fort 2,c -1ipS;;i^1^'"''^^ ^'^^i^"' 228.-First Enla^emen? 23c.-FightattheCamp, 232. -Fight with Macginnis 2^-1 ~ ?,7*''i°ii°*''?'°"' 234.-Erection of Fort WilHam Henrv Octai^'^.T. ' p£" f ''ri^'^o?''' a34.--Hosti;S on Te ucean, aas.—Plans for the Ensuing Year, 236. CHAPTER XIV. French Successes *v ^xv. sfrLrlan ? i ^^r<^^bi^^ 239- Adventure of Brad- r^nt,Vf^^'r£^P*"'"''°^ ^"""^ ^'^U* 24o.~Montcalm, 241 — Capture of Oswego, 242.-Movemcnts of Webb JiJ*- t^n^n?^^' \rP' Quartered on the Cities. 245 .-Dev^'^ DeLce'ts^^ ml^t''^''^' 246.-Din;.iddie's pl^ o? o'JtSn?n'gr2ra!!;VTe7r^^^^^^^^ 249. -Destruction T ^, CHAPTER XV. LOUISBOURG AND FORT WiLLIAM HeNRV . . . the Fre'^nc^'^if '• V^T"T ^/^^^^'^ StVrk's' Men 'and mL ' ?53. — Vaudreuil's Attempt at Fort William 25r^pS^';;^T"2°"?'' ^r^"' ^54.-Afrairs i thel^Sh^ «6'Zw?S.H ff Louisbourg. 255.--Admiral Holboume landlTi r^' ^"'"^ Louisbourg. 256. -Opinion in Eng 261 -U';;;;;^ r '"^"^- • ^58^-Siege of Fort AVilHa™ Henr?. fccre hv MnT?'"^' ft.-Monroe's Surrender, 265.- German FlLoA«^^"i? ^'?^'*""' 266. - Descent on the 270~Thfnnl 2^8-~«»tuat<>n at the Close of the Year, 270.--The Duke of Newcastle. 270.— William Pitt, 271. T nPTc»«. CHAPTER XVI. 1 -01 isbouro and Ticonderoga .... ilan of the Campaign, 273.-Siege of"LoLisb<;ui;V74;il 10^ 224 237 252 273 302 319 ^Ml CONTRNTS. The Surrender, 2.77.-~Effect of the Victory, 278.— Destruction of French Settlements, 278.— Expedition against Ticonderoea *Z^~"S?""1^^ '" *^« ^*^*' 281.— Death of Lord Ho^e 28i.~The Attack, 285.--The Flight, 287.-Terror of the Oeneral, 287.— Conduct of Bradstreet, 288. CHAPTER XVII. RONTENAC AND Du QUESNE 2QO Skirmishes near Lake Champlain, ago'.-Rogers and Putnam, 29i.~Bradstreet s Expedition, 292.— Capture of Fort Fronte- nac, 293.— General Forbes in Pennsylvania, 2Q5.~Granfs Defeat, 297.--Capture of Fort Du Quesne, 300. CHAPTER XVIII. Niagara and Lake Ch ^vmplain Plan of Operations for the Year, 302.— W^ness of'the French. 303.--&iege and Capture of Fort Niagara, 304.— Death of rrideaux, 305.— Western Forts Occupied by the English, 308.— Attack at Oswego, 309.— Inaction of General Gage. 310.— Amherst at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 310 —Op- erations on the Lake, 312.— Punishment of the St. Francis Indians, 315, — Adventures of Rogers, 316. ^ ^ CHAPTER XIX. The Siege of Quebec Situation of the City, 3I9.— Sailing orthe English Fleet,* 323' -Officers and Forces of the English, 323. - Advance of Durell, 324.— Mistake of the French, 324.— First Blow. 324. —Passage up the River, 325.— Skirmish with Peasants, 325. —Attempts to Fire the Fleet, 326.— Incidents of the SlejiLf^^^' 327.— Occupation of the East Bank of the MontmorencP by the English, 331.— The Scholars' Battle, 332.— Firine of the City, 332.— Passage of Ships by the Town, 333.— Battle of Montmorenci^ 336. ^ ^ CHAPTER XX. The Capture op Quebec Attacks of the French on Scouting pVrties,* '341. —Repris^V by Wolfe, 343-— Townshend's Plan, 344-— Wolfe's Opinion of It. 345.-7 Montcalm s Prediction, 345- —Transfer of the Army, 346.— The Anse du Foulon, or Wolfe's Cove, 348. —Landing and Ascent of the Troops, 349-— Diversion at Beauport, 350 —Position on the Plains of Abraham, 351 —Arrival of Montcalm, 352.— Arrangement and Numbers of o^A S^P^' ?52--The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, 356.— Rout of the French, 357.— Death of Wolfe, 357.— Death of Montcalm, 359. ^^' ^ „ CHAPTER XXI. THE Surrender of Canada ^'T. °' Q'f b«^ by De Levis, 363.-Battle*at "silierir w;od' 365.— Amherst on the St. Lawrence, 368.— Surrender of Isle Koyale, 369.— Surrender of Montreal and the Whole of Canada, 37o.-The Treaty of Paris, 37i.-Predictions of the Revolt of the Colonies, 372. 341 363 A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH WAR. CHAPTER I. EARLY VOYAGES. Claims of European Nations to American Territory-<:ontests of the English and French-The Indians in War-TI»e Cabots-Corte- real— Spanish Explorers— Decree of Alexander VI.— Verrazzano— Cartier— Stadacon6— IIochelaga-Donnacona. For more than a hundred years after the discov- ery of the continent of America, at the close of the fifteenth century, no permanent settlement was made by Europeans in its northern portion. The New World was looked upon 'mainly as a land of adventure and discovery, a land holding the pos. sibility of unimagined wonders and undreamed-of riches, waiting only for the hand brave enough and adventurous enough to seize them and carry them back in triumph to the Old World. The sailor and the merchant looked to it for the realization of their brightest visions, and crowned heads confidently expected its wealth to replenish their exhausted treasuries ; but not till the latter part of the six- teenth century was it sought as a refuge and a home ■■"■'-'-' ' I 'l "'■ 'TtTfnrffrnti^TJTT.. : A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH WAR. CHAPTER I. EARLY VOYAGES. Claims of European Nations to American Territory--Contests of the English and French-The Indians in War-Tl»e Cabots-Corte- real— Spanish Explorers— Decree of Alexander VI.— Verrazzano— Cartier— Stadaconfe— IIochelaga-Donnacona. For more than a hundred years after the discov- ery of the continent of America, at the close of the fifteenth century, no permanent settlement was made by Europeans in its northern portion. The New World was looked upon 'mainly as a land of adventure and discovery, a land holding the pos- sibility of unimagined wonders and undreamed-of riches, waiting only for the hand brave enough and adventurous enough to seize them and carry them back in triumph to the Old Worid. The sailor and the merchant looked to it for the realization of their brightest visions, and crowned heads confidently expected its wealth to replenish their exhausted treasuries ; but not till the latter part of the six- teenth century was it sought as a refuge and a home EARLY VOYAGES. [1492. t ; by the persecuted adherents of the new religion, and as a missionary field by the reawakened zeal of the older Christian Church. The clainis of European nations to American ter- ritory were vast and vague. When an adventurer touched a strip of sandy shore, he at once planted upon it the flag of his nation, and took possession of the whole continent in the name of his sovereign. These indefinite claims— in some instances strength- ened by colonization or confirmed by Indian grants —were afterward used as a pretext whenever indi- vidual interests or religious hatred or European wars excited any of the feeble American colonies to make themselves and their neighbors still feebler by intercolonial hostilities. The most successful explorers were Italians ; but they were all in the service of countries other than their own — in that of Spain, England, or France. The Spaniards made no attempt to establish colo- nies, or seriously to assert their claims, north of Florida ; and there they came somewhat into col- lision with the English and French. To those two nations was left the great struggle for the possession of the northern coast and the interior. The worst feature of their contests was the parti- cipation of the red men, with their savage and indis- criminate modes of warfare. That most of their ||L . ^^^..^ ^ ^^. -^ 1500.] EARLY VOYAGES. peculiar atrocities were committed in the interest of France was not wholly due to greater depravity on the part of the French ; for in later wars the Eng- lish showed themselves quite willing to employ the same barbarous and irresponsible allies, knowing that their outrages would be perpetrated, not upon the hereditary foes of England, but upon English- men themselves. Many of the leaders on both sides would have been glad to have their savage friends conform to the usages of civilized warfare ; but when the Indian's zeal was once awakened and his thirst for blood aroused, it was impossible to hold him to a code which he did not recognize, and which to him seemed weak and cowardly. His own laws of war knew no mercy for the conquered. When he failed, he expected none ; and when he was vic- torious, he deemed himself defrauded if he were forced to let prisoners go untortured and unharmed. Hence the horrible massacres that followed some of the French victories. That the Indians fought more frequently and zealously on the side of the French, was due to the superior tact and skill of the French ih dealing with them, and to the fact that they earlier saw the ad- vantage of gaining and holding the friendship of the natives. The British at first adopted the policy of avoiding them as much as possible, of driving thtm ■Jt-—**..— .. EARLY VOYAGES. [150a back into the interior ; they regarded them as in- capable of civilization, and scarcely looked upon them as subjects for the influences of Christianity. The French, on the other hand, tried from the first to Christianize, if not to civilize them. They drew them when they could into missionary villages near their own settlements, and sought to bind them to themselves by the bonds of a common religion. The wild life of the savages attracted many adventurous spirits ^rom the French colonies, who lived among them as coureurs de bois, or wood-rangers, adopting their mode of life and gaining an influence which told largely for France in times of war. Almost the only Indians who stood by the English were the Iroquois, or Five Nations, whose home was in New York. Even their friendship often wavered ; and it might be said that their adhesion to the English was not because they loved them more, but because they loved the French less. Their enmity may have been caused by the fact that the French, in the early days of their settlement in the country, joined against the Iroquois with their enemies, the Algonquins of the St. Lawrence. When the English woke to the importance of taking advantage of the distrust of the Iroquois toward the French, they were never successful in rousing them to the zeal in their cause which the u'^ i— I lAl 1500.] £AKLY VOYAGES. Indians of Maine and New Brunswick displayed in the cause of the French. Yet, though the English colonies availed themselves, as far as they could, of the help of the savages, it must be admitted that the record of the French in America is stained with many more atrocities not justifiable by any rules of civilized warfare — descents on unarmed laborers in the fields, and midnight attacks on peaceful settle- ments, with all the horrors of indiscriminate massa- cre, which were incited and often led by French- men, and even in some cases by the ministers of religion, and in periods of nominal peace. The contests between the English and the French for the possession of American territory were not ended until the close of the Seven Years' War in 1763. It is a curious fact that while the colonies which England had settled with her own sons, and which helped her to conquer New France, had re- volted and become an independent nation in twenty years, those then wrested from France, French in their origin and devotedly loyal to the French Crown, have contentedly remained under British rule for more than a century. The English claims were based on the discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot, Venetians living in England^ who, in i497-'8, examined the coast from Labrador to Virginia. The Portuguese, in 1500, mm rjii»-rni»-iM I imii I »mj ■ *^%r»^'%-.f ^\u-^- EARLY VOYAGES. [1512. sent out Caspar Cortereal, who explored the coast northward, and stole some of the natives, whom he took home for slaves. The Portuguese merchants therefore called the place Terra de Labrador ^ " land of laborers." The best known explorers sent out by Spain, after Columbus, are Juan Ponce de Leon, who discovered and named Florida in 1512 ; Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico ; Pamphilo de Narvaez, who discovered the land of the Appalaches ; and Her- nando De Soto, who found the Mississippi in 1541, and was buried in its waters the following year. Under the name of Florida, Spain claimed a vast country extending from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. This claim, based on the right of dis- covery, was further confirmed to Spain by a bull of Pope Alexander VI., making the Spaniards exclu- sive masters of all America. The decree of the Pope, however, was not powerful enough to prevent Francis I. of France from attempting to gain some share in the glory and profits of discovery. The first explorer sent out by the French Govern- ment was John Verrazzano, an Italian ; though French sailors, in common with those of other na- tions, had resorted to the coasts of Newfoundland for years to fish for cod, some as early, at least, as 1523] EARLY VOYAGES. 1504. Newfoundland and Labrador, or parts of them, were indefinitely called Baccalaos, a word said to mean codfish in the dialect of the Basque provinces. The sailors had a tradition that two islands north of Newfoundland were haunted by demons, whose clamor filled the air with confused sounds which were heard by ships venturing near the unholy coast. They were called the Isles of Demons, and were represented on maps of the time with their infernal inhabitants dancing about in wings, horns, and tails. Verrazzano set out in 1523 with four ships, but encountered a storm, and finally crossed the ocean with only one, the Dauphine, carrying fifty men and provisions for eight months.* He first saw the con- tinent near where Wilmington, North Carolina, now stands ; but, as the shores were thickly lined with savages, he did not dare to land. The Indians made signs urging the sailors to come on shore, and one, more daring than the rest, took some presents * The authenticity of this story, which rests upon a letter attributed to Verrazzano and published by Ramusio in 1556, has recently been ' called in question and, if not disproved, at least shown to be doubt- ful. I have thought best, however, to let the reader see it, with tnis warning as to its character. It was first disputed by T, Buckingham Smith, in 1864. J. Carson Brevoort defends the story, in his "Ver- razzano the Navigator" (New York, 1874), and Henry C. Murphy re- jects it, in his "Voyage of Verrazzano" (New York, 1875). iii — iliW n il ■ ■! M n 8 EARLY VOYAGES. [1533. and swam for the beach ; but, losing his courage when near the land, he threw all he had to them and started to return. A breaker, however, tossed him back upon the beach, and the Indians, running to his aid, took him ashore, and built a great fire. The terrified sailor, and his companions who were looking on from the boat, had no doubt that they were going to make a meal of him, or offer him in sacrifice to the sun. But he soon found that the fire was to warm him and dry his clothes. The Indians gathered about him, admired his white skin, caressed him, and took him down to the beach when he wanted to return to the boat, dismissing him with most affectionate embraces. The Dauphine proceeded northward along the coast, carrying away an Indian child stolen from its mother in Virginia, explored New York Bay and Long Island Sound, and stopped in the harbor of Newport, where the white men were most cordially treated by the Indians. Having gone as far north as Newfoundland, Verrazzano returned to France, and wrote for the King the first known description of the Atlantic coast of the United States. The most illustrious navigator sent out by France in the sixteenth century was Jacques Cartier, of the seaport town of St. Malo, in the northwestern part of the kingdom. He was sent at the suggestion of I534-] EARLY VOYAGES. Philip Chabot, Seigneur de Brion, Admiral of France, a favorite of the King, who indue d his master to make another attempt to gain a footing in the country which had given so much wealth to the Spaniards. Cartier sailed on the 20th of April, 1534, with two ships of sixty tons, and one hundred and twenty-two men. The voyage was so prosperous that Cartier reached Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland on the loth of May. Finding the land still covered with snow and ice, he turned to the southeast, and landed at a port" which he named St. Catharine. Then turning north again, he named some small islands Biicl Islands. He was surprised, he says, to see a white bear as large as a cow on one of these islands, to which it had swum from the mainland, a distance of fourteen leagues. As soon as it saw the boats, it took to the water, and Cartier killed and took it the next day near Newfoundland. He sailed nearly around the island, which he described as the most wretched country to be found, with " nothing but frightful rocks and barren lands covered with scanty moss — but inhabited, notwithstanding, by men well-made, who wore their hair tied on the top of the head, like a bundle of hay, with birds' feathers irregularly inserted, which had a most curious effect. " 10 EARLY VOYAGES. [>534. Crossing to the mainland, he entered a deep bay, which he named the Bay of Cbaleurs, on account of the heat. There is a tradition that it had before been entered by Spaniards, who, finding no signs of mineral wealth there, exclaimed, Acd nada / ' ' Nothing there ! " — an expression which the Indians caught up and repeated to the French, who sup- posed it to be the name of the country, whence the word Canada. It is more probable, however, that Canada is the Iroquois word Kannata, a village. Having explored a large part of the bay, Cartier landed at Gaspe and took possession in the name of the King of France, raising a cross thirty feet high, on which was hung a shield with the arms of the country and the words, Vive le Roy ! " Long live the King!" After discovering Anticosti, he returned to France, taking with him two Indians, who picked up a little French and served as inter- preters the following year. The reports of Cartier' s voyage convinced the court of Francis I. that it was desirable to found a colony, both for the purpose of establishing a profit- able trade and for saving the heathen, not only from their heathenism, but from the heresies that might be imported among them by the Protestant peoples of Europe. The Vice-Admiral Charles de Mouy obtained a fuller commission for Cartier, with a i! 1535.] EARLY VOYAGES, II three well-equipped vessels ; and all the sailors as- sembled at the Cathedral on Whitsunday, by Car- tier's directions, and received the bishop's bene- diction. They embarked on the 19th of May, in fine weather, but a furious storm arose the next day, and the scattered ships were tossed about for more than a month, but at last met in the gulf or Great Bay on the 26th of July. On the loth of August, Cartier gave to a small bay in the mainland, north of Anticosti, the name of St. Lawrence, in honor of the saint whose day it was. This name was after- ward extended to the whole gulf, and to the river also, which had before been known as the River of Canada, or River of the Great Bay, and by Cartier called the River of Hochelaga. Hochelaga was the chief Indian town on its banks, and stood on the site of Montreal. They ascended the river, entered the Saguenay on September ist, examined the mouth of that river, and then pursued their voyage up the great stream. The large island just below Quebec, now known as the Isle of Orleans, was so covered with grape-vines that Cartier named it Bacchus Island. He stopped next in the St. Charles, just north of Quebec, near its mouth. On the site of the present city of Quebec — between Fabrique Street and the Coteau w nnaB sffgm la EARLY VOYAGES. |iS3S. 'A'] de Sainte Genevieve, it is thought — was an Indian town called Stadacon6. Here he received a visit from a chief, named Donnacona, who talked with Cartier by the aid of the two Indians who had been to France. Cartier had heard of the much larger town farther up the river, called Hochelaga, and resolved to push on to it. The Indians of Stadacon6, who were of a different nation from those of Hochelaga, tried to dissuade him, representing that the way was long and beset with difficulties. When this failed to change his purpose, they pretended to have received a message from one of their gods threatening the" French with storm and tempest, if they should ascend the river. Cartier sent back word to the god that he was a fool, and set out with one of the ships, the Great Hermine, arid two long-boats. The anxiety of Donnacona and his people was probably caused by the fear that a rival nation might take from them the advantages of trade and alliance with this strange new people, from whose unknown abilities and resources they hoped not only gain, but an easy victory over their enemies. The voyagers were obliged to leave their ships at Lake St. Peter, having missed the channel and run aground, and went on with only the two boats, reaching Hochelaga the 2d of October. The town I535.] EARLY VOYAGES. 13 was round, and enclosed by three rows of trees. The middle row stood upright, and the other two were inclined and crossed above it. Then the sides of the pyramidal wall were covered with logs well » fastened together. There was but one gate ; and along the inside of the enclosing wall or palisade was a gallery reached by ladders, and stored with stones for the defence of the fortress. Inside of the town were fifty cabins, each over fifty paces long and fourteen or fifteen paces wide. These cabins were tunnel-shaped, made of saplings bent together, and covered with bark. Each was occupied by a large number of families. The Hochelagans received the French with cour- tesy, feasted them, and gave them gifts. They looked with great admiration at the dress of the strangers, their armor and weapons, their trumpets, their fair skins and bearded faces. Cartier has left a description of a peculiar kind of service held among them. One day the warriors formed a circle, on the outside of which were the women and chil- dren, and in the centre the Frenchmen, all the sav- ages gazing at them "as if they were going to play a mystery." Then the chief advanced, pointed at his decrepit limbs, and made signs that the French should heal him. His example was followed by all the sick, the halt, and the lame, who came them- If f H EAULY VOYAGES. [1535. selves, or were brought to the supposed healer. Cartier was perplexed, but seized the opportunity to make a religious impression on their minds. He recited the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, made the sign of the cross on the sick, and gave presents of knives to the men, beads to the women, and little tin lambs to the children. Then he prayed and recited aloud the passion of the Saviour, aiid the ceremony was concluded by a mighty blast from the trumpets, which set the savages nearly beside themselves with wonder and delight. The same day Cartier climbed the mountain, and gave it the name which is now borne by the city and the island, Mount Royal — Montreal. Looking from its summit over the vast extent of wooded country, with the great river rolling by and the dark waters of the Ottawa descending to meet it from the unknown wilderness, he thought no better site for a city could be found, and hoped, no doubt, himself to lay there the foundations of a French empire in the West. On taking leave of the friendly savages, the French returned to the St. Charles, called by them the St. Croix, where they had left the greater part of the men. They found that barracks had been built during their absence and surrounded by a kind of intrenchment, sufficient to protect them from a I53'i] EARLY VOYAGES. •S .surprise. The Indians, Iiowever, continued friend. ly. But the sailors were attacked by scurvy, and tvventy.five of them died. Cartier himself fell sick and all of them might have perished, had they not learned by accident of the Indian remedy for the d.sease-a decoction made from the leaves and bark of a tree called by the Indians Anneda, which is thought to have been the white pine. A week after they began using it, the sick were all restored. In the spring Cartier set sail for France. Having got Donnacona and some of his principal men into his hands, he carried them with him ; a piece of treachery which he excused by saying that the savages were making hostile preparations and at- tempting to get hold of Cartier himself. The Indians he took away were all baptized in France and died there. Donnacona lived four or five years after his capture. i^rr^ I ! :il ! ill-*; m CHAPTER II. DESTRUCTION OF FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. Roberval and Carrier — Civil Wars in France — De la Roche — Pont- grave and Champlain — De Monts — Poutrincourt and Lescarbot — The Micmacs — The Jesuits — Madame de Guercheville — Colony of St. Saviour — Destruction of St. Saviour and Port Royal. Either Cartier's report of his second voyage dis- appointed the hopes which had awaited the result of his enterprise, or the war in France drove the sub- ject from the minds of those who had power to push on the undertaking ; for nothing further was done till 1540, when a gentleman of Picardy, Francis de la Roque, Seigneur de Roberval, received a patent, declaring him Lord of Norumbega, the King's Vice- roy and Lieutenant-General in Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belleisle, Carpon, La- brador, Great Bay, and Baccalaos. This flourishing and pompous beginning had a most contemptible outcome. The next year Roberval went to the St. Lawrence, sending Cartier, who was to be his pilot, in advance. The Indians at Stadacon6 crowded about Cartier's ship, asking fpr Donn^icpna and their other country- 1 541- J FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 17 men who had been taken awry, and Cartier told them Donnacona was dead, but the others were living in France in great state, and were not willing to return to their own country. The Indians receive^ the story with distrust ; and when Cartier, after building a fort at the mouth of Cape Rouge River above Stadacone, left most of his men there, and went up the river to Hochelaga, they killed two of those who were left. On Cartier's return, the men at the fort, which was called Charlesbourg Royal, discouraged both at the hostility of the Indians and the failure of Roberval to arrive from France, whither he had gone for supplies, clamored to go home, and Cartier yielded. Near Newfoundland they met Roberval, who ordered them back ; but Cartier stole away with his ship in the night. In 1543 he went out again, and brought back the rem- nant of Roberval's colony, much reduced by disease and executions for mutiny. Roberval seems to have been stern and vindic- tive, uncompromising and impolitic in his manage- ment, and ill adapted to be the head of a colony where he had to rule a lawless band of adventurers and convicts within, and keep the peace with sus- picious and crafty savages without. Under his rule, men were hanged for theft and insubordination, and the whipping-post was in frequent requisition. In i8 I'RENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [i5y8. :i one case several men were banished to an island and kept there for some time in fetters. Cartier, after the inglorious ending of his career as a navigator, which had begun so brilliantly, set- tled down to a quiet life at his country-house in the suburbs of St. Malo, which was still standing a few years ago. More than half a century passed before the project of settling colonies in North America was revived. France had been torn ^ay dissensions between the Catholics and Protestants ; eight civil wars were waged during the reigns of Charles IX. and Henry III., a period of twenty-eight years. But the rule of the moderate and tolerant Henry IV. restored tranquillity to the kingdom ; and the spirit of ad- venture and discovery revived. During the inter- val, the fisheries and the fur-trade had been carried on in the vicinity of Newfoundland by Frenchmen and sailors of other nations, and had grown to large proportions. In 1598 the Marquis de la Roche received a grant from the King to colonize New France, with sub- stantially the same title which had been conferred on Roberval. By the terms of this grant he was made an almost absolute monarch, having sole power to raise troops, make war, build towns, give laws, impose punishments, and grant pardons ; but 1598] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 19 1 he was required to keep in view the establishment of the Roman Catholic faith. The gains and profits of the first voyage were to be divided into thirds, one for him, one to be distributed among his com- panions, and one applied to the expenses of war, fortification, and other common charges. For the purpose of establishing this magnifi- cent transatlantic feudal viceroyalty, the Marquis gathered a company from the prisons, and under the guidance of a skilful pilot named Chedotel, landed at Sable Island, a desolate spot south of Cape Bre- ton. Here De la Roche put ashore forty of his convicts, and went on to explore the coasts of Acadia, intending to call for the men on his way back ; but contrary winds prevented a landing, and the wretched men were left alone on the sandy and barren island. When they found themselves deserted, and the last hope of the vessel's return had died away, they built cabins of the wrecks of Spanish vessels. A few sheep and cattle were roaming about the island, sprung from some that had been on board the wrecked ships, or left there in a forgotten enterprise by the Baron de Lery ; and these, with the fish they caught, furnished a living. When their clothes were gone, they dressed in sealskin. So they lived for seven years. Various misfortunes had assailed De 1 I ^ ll 20 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1603. la Roche when he returned to France, and he had been unable to do anything toward their release ; but at last Ihe King heard of them, and sent Chedotel to bring them back. The forty men were reduced to twelve, whom Chedotel took to France and presented before the King in the same dress in which he found them, " covered with sealskin, their hair and beards of a length that made them resem- ble the pretended river-gods, and so disfigured as to inspire horror. The King gave them fifty crowns apiece, and sent them home released from all proc- ess of law. After the death of De la Roche, patents were granted to others, who used them mainly to enrich themselves by trade. But in 1603, the Sieur de Pontgrav6, a merchant of St. Malo, having received permission from the King to continue discoveries in the region of the St. Lawrence and make settle- ments there, associated with himself Samuel de Champlain. This great man was destined to become the real founder of New France. He was born at Brouage, in Saintonge, a department of Western France, in 1567. After serving in the army of Henry IV., he had gone to the West Indies as a captain in the Spanish service, and kept a journal, which he called ** A Brief Discourse of the Most Remarkable Things ll i6o3.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED, ax Seen by Samuel Champlain of Brouage, in the West Indies." He drew his own illustrations for it — maps of the coasts, pictures of strange animals, and Indians burned for rejecting the gospel or whip- ped for not going to mass. This manuscript is still preserved at Dieppe, and has been published in an English translation. The accounts which he after- ward gave of his adventures in the French colonies, under the title, " Voyages in New France," are an important source of information regarding the early history of those colonies. Pontgrav6 and Champlain ascended the river to find Cartier's town of Hochelaga ; but it was gone, probably destroyed in some Indian war. The rapids prevented them from going farther, and they returned to France, to find that a new commission had been given to Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, of Saintonge. This gentleman was a Protestant, but agreed to establish the Roman Catholic religion among the Indians, while his own sect was to enjoy full freedom of worship. He went out with four ships, taking in his own some Catholic priests and some Huguenot ministers, who edified the crew with their disputes, even " falling to with their fists on questions of faith." A Franciscan friar who wrote a history of Canada says the crew buried in one grave a priest and a minister, who happened to die 22 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1604. at about the same time, to see if they would lie peaceably together. De Monts went to Acadia, and landed his men on the southern shore of what is now Nova Scotia, and then sent out Champlain to explore the coast and find a place for a settlement. He entered and named the harbor of Port Royal, where Annapolis now stands, a place which holds an important posi- tion in the early history of America. Crossing the Baye Fran^oise, now the Bay of Fundy, they en- tered the St. John's, naming it in honor of the saint whose feast fell on that day, and selected for the site of their colony an island in St. Croix River, called by them Isle St. Croix, and now known as Doucett's Island. The St. Croix they called River of the Etchemins, from the tribe of Indians living there. During the winter Champlain explored the coast as far as Cape Malabar, taking possession of the country in the name of the King of France. Find- ing that the island selected had been chosen un- wisely, De Monts moved his colony in the spring to Port Royal. A settlement had already been begun there by his lieutenant, De Poutrincourt, who had taken a fancy to the place, wished to bring his family and live there, and had therefore obtained a grant of Port Royal and the vicinity from De Monts. i6o5j FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 23 The next year Poutrincourt brought from France with him Mark Lescarbot, an advocate from Paris, who proved a great acquisition to the colony, being quick and fertile in invention of schemes, and able to inspire the men with enthusiasm for carrying them out. He induced them to plant fields and construct roads, showed them how to make fire- bricks, and build a furnace for clarifying the gum of the fir and making pitch ; and under his direction they built a watermill to take the place of the hand- mills they had been using. The priests had all died, and Lescarbot undertook to read and expound the Scriptures on Sundays. The supplies were abundant, and the winter passed with plenty of good cheer and fun, led by Lescarbot and Cham- plain. Lescarbot afterward wrote a history of New France. To their feasts the Micmacs, or Souriquois Indians of Acadia, were made welcome. These Indians were firm and serviceable allies of the French during all the time of their occupation of the country ; and their chief, an old man named Mambertou, became a great favorite with the set- tlers. Lescarbot wrote a poem commemorating a victory he gained over the tribe of the Armou- chiquois. De Monts, who had lost the privilege given him (• I 24 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1607. of carrying on the fur-trade to the exclusion of all others, succeeded in getting it restored, on condition that he plant a settlement on the St. Lawrence. He therefore removed his men and supplies, and Champlain went with him, leaving Port Royal to Poutrincourt, who had obtained a confirmation of his grant of the place from the King. At the same time the King notified him that something must now be done for the conversion of the Indians ; and the King's confessor, Father Cotton, being directed to choose some Jesuit fathers to go over and oegin the work, selected two, Pierre Biard and Enemond Masse. But Poutrincourt was unwilling to take the fathers over. Some historians have supposed that both he and Lescarbot were secretly Protestants ; but it is more probable that they merely shared the prejudice against the Jesuits as extremists in the Church and secret friends of Spain, which was not uncommon among good Catholics in France at the time. Poutrincourt gave Father Cotton to understand that he should soon embark at Bordeaux. Thither Father Biard repaired, and waited a whole year, but there were no signs of departure. The Jesuits com- plained to the King, and the King sharply rebuked Poutrincourt, who promised to go at once, and made his preparations ; but at the last moment he i6to] FRENCH SETTLEAfENTS DESTROYED. n begg^ed Father Cotton to let the missionaries wait until another year, that the colony might be in a better condition to receive them. Father Cotton let the matter go ; and Poutrincourt sailed. When he arrived at Port Royal, wishing to show the King that America could be Christianized without the Jesuits, he began to gather in the Indians for religious instruction ; he had with him a priest named La Fleche. Old Mambertou was the first convert, and others followed so rapidly that in a few weeks Poutrincourt war ready to send over to the King a list of twenty-five Indians who had been baptized into the Church. Mambertou received in baptism the name of the King, members of his household were called after the royal family, and the lesser Indians after other titled personages at the French Court. The list was taken over by Poutrincourt's son, Biencourt. But Henry IV. had fallen by the knife of an assassin, and Biencourt gave it to the Queen regent, supposing the matter of sending the Jesuits would not be pressed any farther. But they had succeeded in interesting in their favor the Marchion- ess de Guercheville, a woman ol great energy, enthu- siasm, and devotion to the Church, who assumed the role of patroness of the mission to the Indians, and collected money for building and furnishing a chapel. n 1 f6 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1611. li Two Huguenots who were associated with Bien- court refused to let the Jesuits go ; but Madame de Guercheville raised money at court and bought them out. Then she purchased from De Monts all of his claim under the grant of Henry IV., which had now been revoked, intending to get it renew- ed ; and she did afterward receive a royal patent for all of North America from the St. Lawrence to Florida, excepting Port Royal, which had been given to Poutrincourt. She made a contract with Biencourt by which the missionaries were to be sup- ported from the proceeds of the fisheries and the fur-trade. The missionaries at length reached Port Royal, in June, 161 1 ; but there was never a very good understanding between them and Poutrincourt, who resented the Jesuits* interference with what he con- sidered his own province. Lescarbot reports him as saying to Biard, " I with my sword, Father, have hopes of Paradise, and you with your brev- iary. Show me my way to heaven, and I will show you yours on earth." The missionaries were anxious to learn the Indian language ; but those of the French who could have helped them would not. Old Mambertou, however, came to them for instruction in Christian doctrine, and helped them to some knowledge of his lan- '■'1 i6ii.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. %1 guage, though he did not live long after their ar- rival. Biard, to show how the Indians had been taught by Father La Fleche, reported that when he was teaching him the Lord's Prayer, Mambertou objected to the petition for daily bread, saying, " If I only ask for bread, I shall get no fish nor moose- meat." The story of Mambertou 's death is interesting. Father Masse took him to his own house when he fell ill ; but care and remedies were of no avail. Mambertou saw that he must die, called for the last sacraments, and exacted a promise from Biencourt that he should be buried with his own people. Father Biard said it could not be allowed ; for to bury the chief in heathen ground would be a stumbling-block to the Indians. Biencourt urged his promise, and said the father had only to bless the spot where the chief should be laid. The mis- sionary replied that this could not be done unless all the pagan bodies were first removed ; and that, of course, was out of the question. But Mamber- tou was obstinate, and Biard declared he would have nothing to do with the funeral. The terrors of the world to come and the firmness of the Jesuit at last prevailed ; Mambertou gave way, died with the con- solations of the Church, and received Christian burial. 38 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [i6i2. 1 ) The Jesuits made some farther attempts to bring the savages into the fold of the Church. Biard went to visit the Kinibequi, or Kennebecs, and other Indians in what is now the State of Maine, in company with Biencourt ; and Father Masse made an expedition with Louis, the son of Mamber- tou, from which he came back worn with sickness and hardship. But the commandant and his son treated their Jesuits grudgingly ; the colony was growing feeble, depending on supplies from France and help from the Indians, and neglecting the care of the soil. On the other hand, the Jesuits, in concert with Madame de Guercheville, made it uncomfortable for Poutrincourt in France. His funds were 'iming low, and the colony was a constant drain upon them. He was forced to admit Madame de Guerche- ville as a partner, in order to get aid for Port Royal. She sent over another Jesuit, a lay-brother, Gilbert Du Thet. But quarrels ensued at the col- ony ; Du Thet was sent back ; and M^lame de Guercheville, who by this time had received her grant of the greater part of North America, deter- mined to b»-gin a new settlement. She therefore sent out a vessel in the spring of 1613, under the command of the Sieur de la Saussaye, who, stopping at Port Royal, took on i6i3.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 29 board the two Jesuits, and sailing on began a set- tlement on Mount Desert Island, which was named St. Saviour. But the colony was destined to be short lived. Samuel Argall, a piratical adventurer of Virginia, set out for a fishing excursion off the coast of Maine. On his way, he heard of the new settle- ment from the Indians, and resolved to drive away the French, on the strength of patents from the English King giving to the London and Plymouth Company the control of North America up to lati- tude 45° N. After a short engagement, in which Brother Du Thet valiantly fired off a cannon which he forgot to aim, and soon after fell mortally wounded, La Saussaye surrendered. Argall took possession, cut down the cros:- the Jesuits had raised, and, searching the baggage of La Saussaye, found and stole his commission. The next day he asked Saussaye to show his commission, sa3nng that he should respect the authority of the French King, although the country belonged to the English. La Saussaye, of course, could not find the commission ; whereupon Argall denounced him as a pirate, and gave up the French ship and the houses of St. Saviour to be plundered by his men. After this he treated the colonists more mildly. He offered them a small bark to take them home to 3© FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1613. ■ M France ; but it would not hold them all. Fifteen enibarked in it, including the commandant and Father Enemond Masse, who went to look after their spiritual interests. At first they had no pilot ; but in a day or two, as they were coasting along, they found thoir pilot, who had fled from the Eng- lish to the woods, and took him in. Near Port de la Heve, on the southern shore of Acadia, they met two French ships, which took them safely to St. Malo. The rest of the French prisoners were induced by Argall to go with him to Virginia. He promised that they should be treated well, allowed the free exercise of their religion, and be sent to France in a year if they cared to go. But when tl.ey reached Jamestown, where Sir Thomas Dale was acting as Governor, Dale declared that they should all be hanged as pirates. Argall tried to protect them, pleading the terms of the surrender and the promises by which he had induced them to come to Virginia ; but Dale would not relent ; he said they had been trespassing on English territory without authority, and they deserved the fate of pirates. Seeing no other way of saving them, Argall was obliged to produce the stolen commission of La Saussaye and confess his baseness. Sir Thomas was compelled to give up at sight of the commission from the I6i3.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. 31 French King, but he declared that the French should be driven out of Acadia. This he at once made preparations to do, though that part of the continent was included in the grant made by the English King to the Plymouth Company, while Virginia was under the control of the London Company ; so that the Virginians had no claim whatever to interfere with the French in Acadia. He fitted out three ships, and gave the command to Argall. Biard and Quentin, the Jesuits who had gone with Argall to Virginia, went with them, as did several others of the Frenchmen. They sailed first to St. Saviour, and destroyed all they had left at their previous visit. Next they went to the island of St. Croix, where De Monts had had his colony, and razed the deserted buildings. Then they crossed the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal, guided, it is supposed, by Father Biard, who saw an opportunity to be revenged on Poutrincourt's colony. Biencourt, who was in command, was absent among the Indians. But supplies had lately been sent from France, and these the invaders had the » satisfaction of seizing or destroying by fire. " And please God," says Biard, in his story of it, " that the sins committed there may have been also con- sumed." They cut off the arms of France and the Ik, I ! 33 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1613. names of the founders of the colony, which had been cut in a large stone standing in the fort, and left the fort itself in ruins. Sailing up the river, they saw the fields and mills where the men were at work. Biard, it is said, tried to induce some of them to leave Biencourt and serve under Argall. But they rejected the treacherous suggestion with scorn, and one of them threatened to split the holy father's head open with a hatchet if he dared to make another of the kind. Biencourt tried to make an agreement with Argall to divide the trade of the country ; but Argall re- fused to consider him in any light but that of an in- truder on the territory of King James. Biencourt also asked the surrender of Biard, to whose treach- ery he attributed all the misfortunes of Port Royal ; and the Jesuit, who was looked on with almost as much distrust by the English, was in a dangerous position. His own account says he was saved by his display of humanity and his forgiving spirit. " He put himself on his knees before the captain at two different times and on two occasions, to pray for pity toward the French at Port Royal, to per- suade him to leave them some provisions, their sloop, and some other means of passing the winter. And see what contrasting petitions were made to the captain ; for at the same time when Father Biard i6i3.] FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. was thus interceding for the French, a Frenchman was crying out from afar, with abuse and accusation, that the Father ought to be butchered. Now Ar- gall, who has a noble heart, seeing the Jesuit's sin- cere affection, and the beastly inhumanity of that Frenchman, refused to listen to the accusations." After the destruction of Port Royal, the French colonists were scattered. Some went to the settle- ments on the St. Lawrence ; but most of them spent a miserable winter, roaming in the woods and getting what help they could from the savages. Poutrincourt gave up all hope of the colony ; and in 1615 he was killed in a civil conflict in his own country. His son, with some few companions, among whom was Charles de la Tour, spent his life in Acadia and made efforts to rebuild Port Royal. Argall sailed again for Virginia, taking back with him the Frenchmen of St. Saviour. But he encoun- tered a storm at the very beginning of the voyage, and one of the three ships was lost ; Argall's own reached Jamestown in safety, but the one having the Jesuits on board was driven northward and then to the Azores, where it put into port at Fayal. It was a fortunate storm for Father Biard ; the ship carried a formal accusation from the Port Royal men to Sir Thomas Dale, against the Jesuit ; and the Governor, as Biard says, " was waiting to cut 34 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS DESTROYED. [1614. I i: off his voyages by showing him the end of the world from the top of the gallows." The ship, which was the one taken from La Saussaye in Argall's first expedition, and was now commanded by Turnell, the lieutenant of Argall, was in some danger from the Portuguese at Fayal, where it came to port ; the officers were at the mercy of the Jesuits, who had only to accuse them as pirates. But Biard and Quentin promised the master of the ship that they would lie hidden while in port, a promise which Biard claims great credit for keeping. When the ship arrived in England, Turnell was put into prison on suspicion of being a pirate. He had no papers to explain his position, and appear- ances were against him ; he was in possession of a French ship ; and he was only released on the testi- mony of the Jesuits. After spending some time in England, Fathers Biard and Quentin were claimed by the French ambassador and sent home. La Saussaye and his companions were at length shipped from Virginia to England, and in the end reached their own country. Madame de Guercheville sent La Saussaye to demand reparation in London ; but she seems to have succeeded only in getting her ship restored. This was the end of the first serious attempt at French settlement in Canada. CHAPTER III. QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. Founding of Quebec — Friendship with the Algonquins — Expeditions against the Ir^uois — Story of De Vignan — Introduction of Priests — Hostile Attempt of the Iroquois — Grant of Acadia to Sir William Alexander — Religious Troubles in France — Capture of Quebec by Kirk — The La Tours in Acadia — Treaty of Germain-en-Laye — Death of Champlain. According to the terms of his grant, which re- quired him to make a settlement on the St. Law- rence, De Monts sent Champlain to select a site and begin the work of building a town. Arriving at the spot where Cartier, more than seventy years before, had found Stadacon6, the capital of Donnacona, Champlain selected the same site for his settlement, and resolved to build a town on the promontory just where the Indian town had stood. All traces of Stadacon6 had now disappeared. The Indians called this part of the river Quebec, signifying "a narrow- ing in," or a strait, the river here being only about three quarters of a mile in width. The history of Quebec has justified the sagacity of Champlain's choice. Rising three hundred feet above the river, the steep wall of rock forms a natural stronghold and commands the stream below. tl 11 i 1 36 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1608. W: m V \\ L, Here, in July, 1608, Champlain began preparations for the oldest permanent settlement in North America, except the one at Jamestown, Virginia, which dates from 1607. Having first put up some rude barracks for temporary shelter, the men made an embankment along the present line of Mountain Street. Then they built a wooden wall with openings for defence, and within the wall three houses. Outside the wall they dug a moat. During the winter Champlain took care to gain the friendship of the neighboring Indians. The sup- plies at the fort were abundant, and were freely divided with the famishing savages, who were ac- customed to make very slight provision for winter. The Indians of the St. Lawrence belonged to the great family of the Algonquins, whose various tribes were scattered over Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the New England and Middle States, except New York, and parts of Virginia, Michigan, Wiscon- sin, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. Their deadly enemies were the Iroquois, or Five Nations, including the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onon- dagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, who lived in New York. In 171 5 the league of the Iroquois was joined by the Tuscaroras of Carolina, and nence they are often mentioned in history as the Six Nations. The Hurons and Eries lay near the lakes which bear their 1609.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 37 names. At this time the Hurons were in league against their kindred, the Iroquois, with the Algon- quins of the St. Lawrence. These Indians had great hopes of the alliance of ^ the French in their warfare against the powerful league of the Iroquois ; and in the spring of 1609 they asked Champlain to join them in an expedition to the Mohawk country. Satisfied that his best policy lay in the alliance with the Algonquin tribes, and anxious to penetrate farther into the r^reat un- known region at the west, in the hope of finding some clue to the passage to the East Indies, which was the dream of all the early voyagers, Champlain joined them with eleven other Frenchmen. This began an enmity between the French and those fierce and powerful tribes, which lasted for more than a century and a half. The Indians assured Champlain that there was no obstruction along the water route they intended to • take, and he therefore embarked in a shallop, while they took to their canoes. They ascended the St. Lawrence and the Sorel or Richelieu, ivhich they called the River of the Iroquois. Hearing at length the noise of rushing water, Champlain left some of his men in charge of the shallop and, pushing on through the woods, came to the Chambly Rapid. Unwilling to abandon the undertaking, he told the Indians that, 38 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND I1609. I notwithstanding their deception, he would keep his promise and go on with them. He sent back the shallop with all his men but two, who refused to leave him ; and the Indians shouldered their light canoes, walked through the woods past the rapid, and embarked on the stream above. At night they made an encampment, protecting themselves on the land side by a strong abatis of trees, and arranging the canoes so that in case of a surprise they could embark with ease and celerity. Then they all went to sleep without sentinels, answering Champlain's remonstrances by saying that those who labored all day needed rest at night. Proceeding up the river, they entered the lake of which it is the outlet. To the east and southeast lay the rolling summits of the Green Mountains ; to the west rose the Adirondacks, covered with silent woods, but suggestive of lurking and stealthy war- riors of the dreaded nations. To the beautiful sheet of water, Champlain, first of white men to look upon it, gave his own name. The islands abounded in deer, and the beavers worked in peace, for huntets were afraid to pursue their game so near the haunts of the terrible Iroquois. The Algonquins dared no longer advance by day ; they paddled their canoes at night, and rested hidden while the sun was up. They had told Champlain of another rapid beyond l6o9.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 39 the lake, and another lake beyond that rapid — Lake George now — and they intended to go to it. But one evening when they were paddling silently up the lake at about ten o'clock, another silent fleet of canoes suddenly appeared on the water in front of them. It was the Iroquois. Both parties took to the shore and began to fortify themselves. Then the Algonquins sent to ask the Iroquois whether they would fight immediately. The answer was that it was too dark ; and they all danced and sang and shouted boasts and threats at each other through the night. In the morning they prepared for battle. The Iro- quois, about two hundred strong, marched through the forest under command of three chiefs, distin- guished by the height of the birds' feathers they wore. Some had shields of wood or leather, and some had coats of mail made of woven twigs and cords. The Algonquins and Hurons issued from their defences and ran forward two hundred paces. When they were before the enemy they halted and separated into two divisions, leaving a space in the centre for the three Frenchmen. The Iroquois looked in wonder at the strange figure of Champlain, clad in glittering steel, surmounted by a plumed helmet. Then they moved to begin the attack. He aimed his arquebuse, into which he had loaded four 40 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1609. Bl'i balls, and fired ; two of the chiefs fell dead, and the third was dangerously wounded. Then the allies raised a deafening cry and followed up the charge with a shower of arrows. The Iroquois stood firm at fi**"*- and returned the charge ; but as Champlain was 1 .ing to fire again, his companions discharged their pieces, by which the frightened Iroquois were thrown into a panic, and fled in disorder. The allies pursued them a short distance, took some prisoners, and brought away the supplies of the enemy, of which they were sadly in need. On their way back they halted and brought out one of the prisoners for torture. Disgusted with their horrible ingenuity, Cha.nplain remonstrated, for some time without effect ; ' at length he got leave to end the sufferings of lUv. poor wretch by a shot from his arquebuse. One of the Indians dreamed the following night that the Iroquois were in pursuit. Not doubting the omen, the allies took to flight, only halting when they reached the islands above Lake St. Peter, where they hid themselves for the night. At Quebec they separated, assuring Champlain that they should want his help in future wars. When he returned from France the next spring, they were waiting for him. Another journey up the St. Lawrence to the Sorel, another wild engagement, Hi i i l6io.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 41 in which Champlain was slightly wounded by an arrow, another defeat of the Iroquois, through their fright at the strange and deadly weapons of the white men, and Champlain was again a hero with the Algonquins. They gave him one of their prisoners, and the Hurons consented to take home with them a Frenchman that he might learn their language, on condition that Champlain should take with him to France a young Huron, who should bring back to them a trustworthy account of the country of their white allies, as seen through Huron eyes. In 1611 Champlain attempted to establish a trad- ing-post at Montreal, and had a site cleared ; but the settlement did not thrive. In 161 3, he went there, accoi panied by a young man named Nicholas de Vigna who had drawn considerable attention to himselt m France, by stories of his adventures. He professed to have ascended the Ottawa River to a great lake from which it flowed ; having crossed the lake, he said, he discovered another river leading to the North Sea ; at the mouth of that river he saw the wreck of an English vessel, whose crew had been killed by the Indians. All this was told with so much detail and apparent honesty, that Cham- plain was deceived — the more easily as rumor said that Hendrick Hudson, during the voyage in which if- 42 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1613. I he discovered the bay that bears his name, had been put into a boat with eight others, and abandoned by his mutinous crew. Not doubting- that the wreck was Hudson's vessel, Champlain resolved to ascend the Ottawa without delay, believing that he should find the long-sought northwest passage. With Nicholas de Vignan, three other French- men, and an Indian, he toiled up the river, in canoes, which had to be carried past the rapids and falls through the tangled forest, until they reached the Isle des Allumettes. Here was the home of the Ottawas, many of whom had been down to Montreal for trade and war, and were known to Champlain. They received him with kindness ; but when he asked for help to continue his journey to Lake Nipissing, they told dreadful stories of the mean- ness, treachery, and sorceries of the tribe of the Nipissings. Champlain said his companion, De Vignan, had been there, and had come back in safety. The Indians were greatly astonished at this, and plumply called Nicholas a liar. "Nicholas," said the chief, "is it true that you said you had been to the Nipissings ?" Nicholas was silent for a time, then said in their language, of which he had some knowledge, "Yes, I have been there." i6i3.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 43 *'You are an impudent liar," said the chief. "You know very well that you went to bed here every night with my children and got up every morning ; if you went to those people, it must have been in your sleep." Champlain took Nicholas aside, and conjured him to tell the truth. Nicholas swore that all he had said was true. Champlain then told the Indians De Vignan's whole story — of the lake, and the river to the North Sea, and the wrecked ship — all of which the Indians insisted were outright lies. In great perplexity Champlain took De Vignan aside again, and promised if he would now tell the truth to for- give what was past ; but threatened that if he should be found out in a deception, he should be hanged without delay. Nicholas thought it over, and then confessed. He had not expected that Champlain would have the perseverance to go so far as to discover the truth ; and he was anxious to enjoy the glory of the discovery. Champlain was so enraged he could scarcely endure the sight of him ; but he kept his word, protected De Vignan from the In- dians, who officiously offered to despatch the liar for him, and let him return to Montreal and go on his way. On his next visit to France, Champlain, who was a i . I urr- 44 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1614. If man of sincere piety, and is recorded to have fre- quently said that the salvation of one soul was of more value than the conquest of an empire, obtained four Recollect missionaries to return with him, for the spiritual welfare of the colony and the conversion of the Indians. One of them, Father le Caron, who was assigned to the mission among the Hurons, went to Montreal with Champlain. There they found the Indians assembled for the fur-trade, and anxious to get the help of the French in another expedition against the Iroquois. Champlain prom- ised it, and went to Quebec to get ready. The Indians, impatient of the delay, set out for their homes to collect their warriors, and Le Caron and twelve other Frenchmen went with them. Finding them gone, on his return to Montreal, Champlain set out to follow them. Passing up the Ottawa and the Mattawan^ he crossed to Lake Nipissing, which he traversed, and entering the French River reached the Georgian Bay. He coasted along its eastern shore southward, and thence went overland to the Huron villages. In one of them he found the zealous Recollect, whose ardor had been kindled by the sight of so many heathen, and who wrote to a friend, '* Alas, when one sees such a vast number of infidels, needing but a drop of water to make them children of God, what w? 1613.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 45 zeal he feels to work for their conversion and to sacnfice for it his repose and his life !" The Indians had built him a chapel of bark, and the priest had raised within it an altar with the sacred images and the candles ; and after Cham- plain's arrival, the first mass was said in the little chapel, and the missionary work among the Hurons was begun. When the war parties of the Indians were all gathered, they made their journey to the south- east, by way of Lake Simcoe, the Talbot River, Balsam Lake, and the rivers Otonabec and Trent, to Lake Ontario, and crossed to New York, land- ing somewhere near the site of Sackett's Harbor. Concealing their canoes, they struck southward, were soon among the Iroquois, and attacked some small parties whom they found in the woods and fields. The Iroquois took refuge in a fortified town, probably in the neighborhood of Lake Onon- daga. The defences consisted of a kind of fort sur- rounded by an abatis of trees thirty feet high, which supported a gallery where great quantities of stones were kept, to be hurled down on assailants. The Hurons were repelled at their first attempt to take the fort. Then they set fire to the abatis ; but the Iroquois had provided against fire by conducting ~ 46 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1622. |1i 1: i water within the walls from a pond outside, and the flame was soon extinguished. Unable to control the Hurons, Champlain was obliged to let them carry on the attack in their own way ; and after three hours of fighting they retired discomfited. Cham- plain, although wounded, favored renewing the at- tack ; but the Indians insisted on waiting for some promised reenforcements. As these did not arrive, the Hurons retreated after five days, and returned to their own country. Their confidence in Cham- plain was lost ; they had supposed that his presence and the use of the fire-arms would always give them an easy victory. Sulky and disappointed, they refused to keep their agreement to send him back to Quebec ; and he was obliged to spend the winter among the Hurons. In 1622, the Iroquois attempted to exterminate the French, in retaliation for the help given to the Algonquins. One party attacked some Frenchmen who were at the passage of the St. Louis Sault, or Rapid, and were repelled with loss. Another party went down to Quebec and besieged the convent which had been built for the Recollect Fathers on the St. Charles. But the fathers had a little fort ; and, by means of prayers within and balls without, they succeeded in driving off their assaijants. The Iroquois were forced to content themselves with I622.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 47 some Hurons whom they found not far away, and made prisoners. After various changes in the management of the affairs of the colony, which were not prosperous, they had been placed under the control of two Huguenots, William de Caen and his nephew Emeric. The colony had been carefully kept free from Protestants, who would have settled in New France in great numbers if they could have been allowed to do so and to enjoy the free exercise of their religion. De Caen was ordered to take over some Jesuits ; but when they arrived he would not permit them to stay at the fort or Chateau St. Louis, a building which Champlain had begun in 1620 for the citadel. The jealousies between the Jesuits and the authorities, and between the Jesuits and the other orders, proved a fruitful source of trouble in Quebec for years afterward. On account of the complaints of the Jesuits that Emeric de Caen obliged Catholic sailors to join in the prayers of his Huguenots, De Caen was ordered to stop all Prot- estants from praying or singing psalms on the St. Lawrence. But the sailors remonstrated, and a compromise was finally agreed upon, by which the prayers were allowed and the psalm-singing only forbidden. In 1627, Cardinal Richelieu deposed the De Caens Ipliiil mil tt 'l 'f/ ff 48 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1622, and put the control of New France into the hands of the ** Company of One Hundred Associates." After the devastation of Acadia by Argall, the country, though claimed by both England and France, was neglected by both. Biencourt inher- ited a claim to Port Royal from his father, Poutrin- court — who held it in right of a grant from the French King — and lived in the country v/ith his •ilend, Charles St. Etienne de la Tour, who had *ome to Acadia in boyhood with his father, Claude ck; la Tour, a French Huguenot. In 1623, Bien- court died, having bequeathed his interest in Port Royal and the surrounding country to Charles de la Tour. Meantime, the King of England, James I., had granted the whole tract of land now forming New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, together with the g.tirninsula between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the Bay of Chaleurs, to Sir William Alexander, afterward Earl of Stirling, a now forgotten poet and dramatist. The entire territory was called Nova Scotia ; and the limits of Nova Scotia and Acadia were long afterward a fruitful subject of dispute and bloodshed between the English and the French. In 1622, Alexander made an unsuccessful attempt to plant a colony, and three years later an order of Baronets of Nova Scotia was created. T^ \ I 1625.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 49 Each baronet was to receive a tract of land six miles by three, and in return was to help in the work of colonizing the country. In 1626, war broke out in France between the Catholics and Protestants. Rochelle, the strong- hold of the Huguenots, was held by the rebels, and Richelieu was besieging it, determined to put an end to the Protestant power in the kingdom. The city was making a desperate resistance, and Charles I. of England sent a fleet to the help of the rebels. Charles de la Tour, who had built a fort near Cape Sable, sent to France for arms and ammunition to prepare him for defence, in case the English should take advantage of the troubles in Europe to attack Acadia. The message was taken by his father, who came back bringing the supplies, in company with one De Roquemont, who had charge of cannon, ammunition, and stores for Quebec. When hostilities opened between England and France, an expedition was fitted out under the auspices of Sir William Alexander to attack the French in America, and the command was given to Sir David Kirk, a Huguenot of Dieppe, who had fled from religious persecution in France. Stopping at Tadoussac with his ships. Kirk sent a party to destroy the settlement at Cape Tourmente, and another to summon Quebec to surrender. i f-' ■ \iW\ 50 QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1629. :*■! Champlain answered that he should hold his position to the last, and, putting his poor defences in the best possible order, waited anxiously for the ex- pected supplies from France. But Roquennont's ships were intercepted by Kirk, who took some of them and sank the rest in the river. Supposing, from Champlain 's answer to his summons, that Quebec was strongly fortified and garrisoned, he made no further attempt at the time to take it. But the following year he sent his brother Louis to besiege it. The loss of Roquemont's supplies, and the wrecking of another vessel which had been sent over with food, had reduced the people of Quebec almost to starvation, and they took to the woods, where they dug roots and picked up acorns for food. Many of them wandered off to the Indians ; some made their way to the sea-coast in 'the hope of getting a passage to France in fishing- boats. Champlain had only sixteen men left to defend the fort, and as Kirk offered favorable terms, he surrendered without resistance. The soldiers were to march out with their arms and baggage and a beaver robe apiece ; the friars with their clothing and books ; everything else was to be left in the fort. The French were to be furnished with a vessel to take them to France. Louis Kirk took possession of Quebec, July 20th, 1629, and the mm 1629.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH. 51 banner of St. George waved on its heights for the first time, just one hundred and thirty years before the victory of Wolfe. The elder La Tour, who was with Roque- mont's fleet, was taken prisoner and carried to England. There he was presented at court and re- ceived with great favor. Moved, perhaps, by the treatment of Protestants in France, he renounced his allegiance to his own country, married one of the maids of honor of the Queen of England, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and received a grant of land there from Sir William Alexander. His son was invested with the same title and was to share the territory with him. In return. La Tour agreed to plant a Scotch colony and convey to the English his son's fort at Cape Sable. In 1630, he went over with his colonists in two ships ; but his son received the proposal to throw off allegiance to France with great indignation, much to the discomfiture of his father, who had had no doubts of success. After several attempts to per- suade his son to a change of mind, he landed his men and assaulted the fort, but failed to capture it, and then took his Scotch colonists to Port Royal. When it became probable that Acadia would be given up to France by England, his son invited him to Cape Sable, and built a house for him outside the I iJI I'iw: llii, 11!] 'iiii ! I Sa QUEBEC FOUNDED, AND [1632. walls of the fort, stipulating that neither he nor his wife should ever set foot within them. Champlain urged upon the French Government the policy of insisting on the restoration of New France when the treaty of peace should be made. The question was seriously debated whether it was worth while to keep and colonize Canada. All attempts so far had involved large outlays, with small returns. There was no mineral wealth, such as the Spaniards and Portuguese had brought from their colonies ; and Spain and Portugal, with all the treasure from Mexico and Peru, had declined rather than grown stronger. On the other hand, it was argued that the right means had not yet been taken ; that the monopolies granted to individuals had interfered with coloniza- tion ; that New France might be peopled with the overflow of population at home ; that mines might still be discovered there ; that the fur-trade and fisheries, properly conducted, might be a great source of wealth ; and, above all, that France owed a religious duty to the heathen of the western wilds. The restoration of New France was finally made one of the conditions in the treaty between the two powers which was signed at St. Germain-en-Laye, March 29th, 1632, when Canada, Acadia, and Cape 1632.] TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH, 53 Breton came once more under the dominion of France. Champlain died in the fort at Quebec, December 25th, 1635, and was buried in a sepulchre built by the colonists, the site of which is not very definitely indicated in the accounts of the time. About the year 1866, the Abb6 Laverdi^re found traces of the tomb on the site of the Recollect Chapel in Cham- plain Street. The ground had been broken up the year before for the laying of water-pipes ; but a vault was found containing a coffin and human bones, apparently those of some distinguished per- son, and near by were the remains of three others. On a wall of the vault which was still standing was found a part of the name, Samvel de Champlain. Champlain's adventurous and courageous spirit, combined with his pure and disinterested motives, and his remarkably clear and far-sighted judgment, make him one of the most attractive and heroic characters in the early history of America. Though an enthusiast in the work to which he gave his life, he was forbearing toward the cowardice, the avarice, and the half heartedness of colleagues, even when they retarded and almost ruined his work. Though faithful to his creed, narrow in the interpretation of it, as was the fashion of his age, and zealous in spreading it, he never appears as a persecutor. !'iiPi lil'llll it CHAPTER IV. rli THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. The Iroquois— Fate of the Hurons— Fight at the Long Sault— Forts on the Richelieu— Montreal — The Jesuits— Discoveries in the Mississippi Valley— La Salle— La Chine— Iberville on the Gulf of Mexico. The history of Canada for many years after the death of Champlain is little more than the history of the Jesuit missions and the fierce battles of the Algonquins and Iroquois, in which the French suffered with their Indian allies. The Mohawks had not only recovered from their superstitious fear of fire-arms, but had supplied themselves with them from Dutch traders in the New Netherlands. De- termined to exterminate the Hurons and Algonquins, they descended the St. Lawrence in war parties, and surprised their foes on the way down to the French settlements with their loads of bear and beaver skins for the summer trade. The Governor of Quebec built a fort at the mouth of the Richelieu to inte* |t t they easily avoided its guns by s^ ii ' irchen canoes at a point above ar iryiu; .ei northeastward through the woods, cO be launched on the St. 1650.] THE FKEiVCH IN THE WEST. 55 Lawrence below, while the garrison would not dis- cover that they had passed. By 1650, the Hurons were almost annihilated. Their principal towns had been burned, and the in- habitants slaughtered, dispersed, or carried away. I A remnant was taken to Quebec by the missionaries, and settled in several places successively in the vicinity of the city. Some of them are said to be still living at the last place to which they were re- moved, called New Lorette. Some settled among their conquerors in Central New York, where they clung to the religion taught them by the Jesuits, and many good Catholics were found among them by missionaries in 1668. That part called the Tobacco Nation wandered from place to place through the Northwest, driven by the Iroquois and the tribes among which they attempted to settle. They rested successively on the Island of Michilimackinac, the western shore of Lake Mich- igan, the banks of the Mississippi, the western shore of Lake Superior, the Strait of Mackinaw once more, and at last at the western end of Lake Erie, where they were known as Wyandots. Under this name they fought with the French against the English. In 1660, when a large party of the Iroquois were on their way to attack Quebec, a company of seven- Ijj I 56 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1660. teen men, all between twenty-one and thirty-one years of age, under Adam Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux, asked leave of the commandant of Montreal, in whose garrison they were, to go out and attack them. It was almost certain death ; but their enthusiasm would take no denial, and the commandant gave a reluctant consent. They were joined by a party of forty Hurons and four Algonquins, and at the foot of the Long Sault took possession of an old palisaded fort, built long before by the Algonquins. The Iroquois came, and a desperate fight ensued. The assailants were repeated- ly repelled, and the French party, though suffering for want of water, held out bravely ; but after four or five days they were deserted by all the Hurons ex- cept their chief, Etienne Annahotaha, persuaded by some of their countrymen who had been adopted by the Iroquois, and who told them that a large re- enforcement was on the way. The reenforcement came, but the fort held out three days longer. All the Frenchmen fell but one, and he, badly wounded, was carried away by the victors. The Hurons who deserted were treated as prisoners. But the Iroquois, although victorious, were discouraged and demoralized by the bravery of the heroes of the Long Sault, and returned to their own country. 1665.1 THE FRENCH IN THE IVEST. 57 In 1665, the Marquis de Tracy was sent over with two hundred soldiers to subdue the Iroquois. A fort was built, under command of an officer named Chambly, at the rapids in the Richelieu which bear his name, and another was erected on the site of the old Fort Richelieu, which had been built at the mouth of the river in 1642. The new fort was in charge of an officer named Sorel, whose name is pre- served in that of the town and river. Sali^res, the Colonel, built a third fort above Chambly, called St. Theresa. The three western of the Five Nations were now at peace with the French, but the Mo- hawks and Oneidas continued hostile. Courcelle, the Governor of Canada, and Tracy marched their men into the Mohawk country, and took their five important towns, the Indians flying at their approach without striking a blow. In 1667 the Mohawks asked for French mechanics and mis- sionaries to be sent among them. The request was granted, and the French had almost unbroken peace with them for twenty years. According to the authorities, the founding of Montreal was brought about in a wholly supernatural way. A gentleman of moderate fortune, named Dauversiere, living at La Fi^che in Anjou, was di- rected by a mysterious inward voice to establish a hospital-convent on the island of Montreal, in the m II 58 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST [1641. ■ 1?. ill; -.4 St. Lawrence ; and about the same time a priest named John James Olier de Verneuil was also di- rected by an inward voice to send priests to the island of Montreal, to bring the American Indians into the true church. It is said that neither knew anything of the place ; particulars regarding New France were published every year by the Jesuits, but these men saw the island in visions. At length they chanced to meet, knew each other at once, and understood their common design. They formed a plan for establishing religious communities on the island, and for raising a colony to accompany them, and were soon joined by others, obtained a title to the island, raised some money, and resolved to send out forty men to begin a settlement under Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, who took charge in the same spirit of pious zeal which actuated the. founders. More associates were soon added to the company, many of them women of wealth, and another mira- cle supplied a leader for the nuns. Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance felt herself called to labor in Canada, and her spiritual director assured her that the call was doubtless divine. Chancing to go into a church at Rochelle, after she had determined to go, she met Dauversi^re, when the two instantly knew each other and understood each other's secret intentions 1642.] THE FRENCH IM THE WEST. 59 as had happened before with Dauversi^re and Olier. Mademoiselle Mance went with Maisonneuve and his colony, in 1641, and in 1642 they laid the foun- dations of Montreal, which they called Villemarie — ■ the town of Mary. During all these years the missionaries were per- forming wonders of courage and devotion among the ungrateful and treacherous savages. Father Nicholas Viel, a Recollect, on his way home from among the Hurons to spend a time in retirement at Quebec, was drowned by the treacherous Indians who were bringing him in a canoe down the rapid of the River of the Prairies, back of Montreal ; and the ra'iid is still called the " Sault au Recollect." Fathers Garneau and Mesnard were murdered by the Ottawas. The Jesuits were ready to enter every dangerous field, and even to rush to martyrdom ; they estab- lished missions among the Hurons, notably that of Sainte Marie on the River Wye ; they even at- tempted the conversion of the Iroquois. Father Isaac Jogues, taken prisoner by them as he was re- turning from the Huron mission, might have escaped, but thought it his duty to remain with his cap- tive converts and prepare them for death. With two lay associates of his order, Goupil and Couture, he was carried to the Mohawk country and made to i'ffll ' liil'; 6o THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1644. suffer every torture that savage ingenuity could devise. Goupil was murdered on suspicion of having bewitched children with the sign of the cross. Jogues suffered not only from his wounds, but from hunger ; for he would not eat meat that had been offered to heathen gods. But he thought him- self suflficiently rewarded by the opportunity of baptizing a few children and dying Indians. The following summer, going with a fishing-party to a place near Fort Orange, now Albany, he was assisted to escape by a Dutch trader ; and the Dutch after- ward paid a ransom for him, of the value of three hundred livres. He and his companions were the first white men to look on Lake George. At his next visit, three years later, he named it Lake St. Sacrament. He went to France from New York, but returned to Canada in 1644, and volunteered to establish a mission in the Iroquois country in 1645. Unde- terred by the recollection of the horrors of his former visit, he went back ; but a sickness that pre- vailed among them during the summer, and the de- struction of their harvest by caterpillars, were laid to the evil spell of a box of papers which he had left among them during a short absence. Jogues was seized on his return, and after being beaten, W 1646.] THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. 61 hacked, and v/eated with the utmost cruelty and indignity, was killed by a blow from a hatchet. His companion. Father Lalande, shared his fate, and their heads were set up on the palisades of the town. Father de Nou6, a Huron missionary, was found kneeling and frozen in the snow, in a midwinter journey to Fort Richelieu. Father Daniel was in the Huron town of St. Joseph when it was assailed by the Iroquois, and busied himself among the panic-stricken inhabitants, baptizing and absolving. When the assailants forced an entrance, he directed those near him where to fly, and went to meet the enemy to gain time for them. A shower of arrows was sent at him ; but the undaunted priest threatened the assailants with the vengeance of God, at the same time assuring them that repentance would gain his favor. A shot pierced his heart, he fell dead, and was burned in his church, where his body was thrown by the victors. Charles Gamier and Noel Chabanel fell, the first by the Iroquois at St. Jean, the other by a renegade Huron convert who fancied the Christian religion had been the destruction of the Huron nation. Jacques Buteux was slain by the Iroquois on a toil- some winter journey to the nation of the White Fish, whose country was north of Three Rivers. !l!l 62 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1667. I* V \ m Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were taken at the Huron town of St. Louis when it was de- stroyed by the Iroquois, and slain after horrible tor- tures. The skull of Brebeuf — whose body, together with that of Lalemant, was found on the scene of his martyrdom — is still preserved at the H6tel-Dieu in Quebec, together with a silver bust of him which his relatives sent over from France. In the pursuit of their c lling, the Jesuits pene- trated far beyond the frontiers of the colonies, and discovered lands and waters never before seen by Europeans. It was due in part to their explorations that the French laid claim to the Mississippi Valley and the region of the Great Lakes, and that they gained the alliance of so many of the tribes that in- habited the West, by whose help they came so near establishing their claim. Father Claude Allouez, a missionary to the Ottawas, explored the southern shore of Lake Superior in 1667, and in 1670, with Father Dablon, he explored the regions about the Upper Wisconsin. In 1673, Father Marquette, with Louis Joliet, discovered the Mississippi, and de- scended as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. Father Hennepin accompanied La Salle down the Illinois and up the Mississippi, and wrote descriptions of his voyages. One of the most renowned of French explorers of ■^^F^.iJ't 1669.] THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. ^^ of the interior of the continent was Robert Cavelier de la Salle. Hearing of the great rivers at the west, he collected a party to go in search of them in 1669. The party numbered twenty-two, and included a priest, DoUier de Casson, noted for his great size and strength. It was said of him that when in his full strength, he could stretch out his arms and hold a man on each hand. The party set out from La Salle's seigniory on the St. Lawrence, which he called St. Sulpice. It was near the La Chine rap- ids, eight or nine miles from Montreal. They gave out that they were going to find a western pas- sage to China. In Western New York they met Joliet, and learned something of his discoveries. For some reason, La Salle and others of the party returned to the St. Lawrence ; and on this account, it is said, his place was called in derision, La Chine (China), a name which it still retains and which is now applied to the rapid. De Casson and some of his companions went on, and were the first to sail through Lakes Erie and St. Clair. In 1678, La Salle, having received a monopoly of the trade in buffalo-skins for five years, and per- mission to establish forts and trading-posts at the West, set out again. He built Fort Miami at the mouth of the St. Joseph, and Fort Crevecceur on the site of Peoria, Illinois. In 1682, he descended 64 THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. [1702. the Mississippi to its mouth, and took possession for France. In 1684, he brought a colony of two hundred and eighty persons to form a settlement on the Mississippi ; but they missed the mouth of the river and, going on to the shores of Texas, landed at Matagorda Bay. One of their four ships, the store- ship, was wrecked, and two were taken away by the naval officer in charge. A fort called St. Louis was built ; but the colony languished, and in 1687 not more than one seventh remained. La Salle started northward by land with several companions ; but some of them formed a conspiracy and assassinated him near a branch of Trinity River, while the survivors of his colony were nearly all murdered by the Indians. In 1699, D' Iberville and his brother De Bienville, planted a French Colony on the Bay of Biloxi, the first in the present state of Mississippi. French Protestants asked leave to settle on the lower Mis- sissippi, but were told that the King had not driven Huguenots from France to form a republic of them in America. In 1702 a fort was built on the Mobile River by the colonists of Biloxi — the first settlement in Alabama— and another was placed at the mouth of the Mississippi. The French had now a chain of forts and trading- posts from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. I702.] THE FRENCH IN THE WEST. 65 The oldest settlement in the Mississippi Valley is Kaskaskia, originally a Jesuit mission ; and besides the stations at St. Joseph and Peoria, there were posts at Detroit, Chicago, Vincennes, and other places on the line of the great lakes and rivers. CHAPTER V. m li-:: ACADIA. Destruction of English Trading-Siations — Feud between Charnisay and La Tour — Capture of Acadia by the English — Restoration to France by the Treaty of Breda — St. Castine at Penobscot— Attack by Andros — Hostilities by Indians — War between England and France. After the restoration of Acadia to France by the treaty of 1632, grants were made to Frenchmen in the country, and some colonists were sent out. There was room for a variety of interpretations of the treaty in regard to the territory near the Penob- scot and Kennebec Rivers, according to the under- standing of the limits of Acadia. The English trad- ing-stations at Penobscot and Machias were broken up by parties of Frenchmen and the traders were plundered of their goods. The Plymouth colony attempted to re-take Penobscot ; but the French had strengthened the place and continued to hold it, warning the English to encroach no farther than Pemaquid. The principal grants of territory in Acadia were made to Nicholas Denys, Isaac de Razillay, and Charles La Tour. De Razillay's rights passed into I635.J ACADIA. 67 the possession of D'Aulnay de Charnisay ; and the story of a strange feud between him and La Tour is the history of Acadia for years. La Tour's fort and trading-station was at the mouth of the St. John, Charnisay's at Port Royal. Disputes and jealousies arose between them as early as 1635 ; and Charnisay attempted to dislodge his enemy by means of his influence at court. He laid before the King and the Prime Minister accusations of treason and other crimes against La Tour ; and in 1641 an order was sent to the accused to appear and make answer to the charges. At the same time Charnisay was ordered to seize him and take control of 'his fort, if he should refuse to obey the order. La Tour refused, on the ground that the order was based on misrepresentations. The vessel sent to take him to France carried back letters from Charnisay giving accounts of La Tour's defiance, and before the end of the year he himself went to France for help against his rival. La Tour put his defences in the best possible order, and sent a messenger to Boston, a Huguenot from Rochelle, to propose an alliance. Though La Tour himself had been a Protestant, he had professed the Catholic faith ; but his wife was still a Prot- estant, and Charnisay used that fact to excite prejudice against them at the French court. The I Hi ill ^.- I. i 'I il 68 ACADIA. ti643- authorities at Boston readily accepted La Tour's proposal for free trade between his colony and theirs ; but they were more wary when it came to the question of furnishing him aid against Charnisay, and promised nothing. The next year La Tour sent his lieutenant to Boston with fourteen men and letters to John Winthrop, again asking assistance. The people of Boston treated La Tour's men with great consideration, and were edified at their respectful attendance at the Puritan meetings, though they were Catholics. The lieutenant ac- cepted with thanks, from one of the elders, a Testa- ment in French, with notes by a Protestant minis- ter, and promised to read it. He induced some of the merchants to fit out a ship and send it at once to open the trade. On its way back, this ship stopped at Pemaquid, where it happened to meet Charnisay. He showed* the officers an order from France for the arrest of La Tour, and gave them notice that he would seize any vessel he should find trading with the rebel. By giving mortgages on his lands to one Le Borgne, he had raised a large amount of money, with which he bought five vessels and hired five hundred men to serve against La Tour. Failing of support from New England, La Tour sent to Rochellc in France, and a large armed ves- EiLO^.,-.-' n 1643] ACADIA. 69 sel, carrying one hundred and forty men, was sent to him from that city. When this ship, the Clement, reached St. John, she found the harbor blockaded by Charnisay, who had come with two ships, several small vessels, and five hundred men, to assault the fort. Failing to take it, he es- tablished a blockade, hoping to starve the garrison into surrender. La Tour and his wife now stole out of the fort one night, reached the Clement in a small boat, and sailed directly to Boston, where La Tour with some of his men landed at Winthrop's garden on Governor's Lsland. The Governor called a meeting of the magistrates for the next day, and the captain of the Clement, to authenticate his mission, laid before them letters from the Vice-Admiral of France and the agent of the Company of New France, authorizing him to carry supplies to La Tour, who was called the King's Lieutenant- General in Acadia. The fact that these papers were issued when an order for La Tour's arrest was in the hands of Charnisay, is explained by the confusion in the administration of the govern- ment, caused by the recent death of Richelieu, and the expected death of the King, Louis XIIL, who died in May, 1643, before the Cletnent reached the St. John. On the evidence of these documents, the author!- Ill ill 70 ACADIA. [i643. ties of Boston gave him permission to hire men and vessels with which to relieve his fort. The merchants of Boston were anxious to see La Tour reinstated, not only from friendship toward him, but for the interests of trade ; for Charnisay was unfriendly and would have no commerce with them. Two of them let to La Tour four vessels, with fifty-two men and thirty-eight pieces of ordnance ; and he raised a force of ninety-two soldiers and armed them for service. The agreement was, that these vessels should accompany La Tour to St. John and aid the French ship in his defence in case Cnarnisay's forces should attempt to interfere with him. The owners of the ships sent an agent authorized to determine how far La Tour should be allowed to use them in the operations against his enemy. The New Eng- land soldiers were commanded by Captain Hawkins. Not until the five ships appeared in sight of the harbor of St. John did Charnisay suspect that La Tour was not shut up with his men inside the fort. Not daring to cope with the force brought against him, he ordered his vessels to set sail at once for Port Royal. La Tour's fleet gave chase, and Char- nisay ran his ships aground opposite the mill of Port Royal, and his men went to work to strengthen the defences. Captain Hawkins sent Charnisay a letter from Governor Winthrop, explaining the atti- I 1643] ACADIA. 71 tude of his government in the matter, and propos- ing a reconciliation between him and La Tour ; but Charnisay would not open the letter, because the address did not give him his title of Lieutenant- General, and he sent the captain a copy of the order for La Tour's arrest. As the messenger reported that Charnisay's men seemed confused and frightened, La Tour wanted to make an attack at once, and Hawkins gave his men permission to follow him if they chose to do so. About thirty of them joined in the attack, and Char- nisay's men were driven from the mill, three being killed and one taken prisoner. The New England- ers escaped without loss. La Tour lost three men. On the way back to his fort the ships took a pinnace of Charnisay's, loaded with a great quantity of moose and beaver-skins, which were divided between La Tour and the crews and owners of the Boston ships. Much uneasiness was felt in Boston about the seizure of Charnisay's pinnace, from fear that it would involve them in a quarrel with that enterpris- ing and dangerous rascal. Charnisay built a new fort at Port Royal, and tlTen sailed for France to get more help to crush La Tour ; while soon after his arrival there. La Tour's wife reached Rochelle, in search of aid for her husband. Charnisay, by his influence at court, obtained an 72 ACADIA. [1644. 7' order for her arrest on the same ground as that for the arrest of her husband — that she was a traitor and a rebel. Hearing of it in time, she fled to Eng- land ; and finding friends there, she set sail for Acadia, in a ship loaded with supplies and muni- tions of war. The ship carried as a passenger Roger Williams, famous in the history of New England. The master of the vessel spent so much time in trading on the way, that it was six months before they reached Acadia, and on the coast they fell in with a vessel sent out by Charnisay to watch for them. The master concealed Lady La Tour and her party, and gave out that he was on the way to Bos- ton ; by which means they escaped, but the ship was obliged to go on to its pretended destination. When they reached that port, Lady La Tour brought suit against the owners of the ship for the damage she had sustained by the delay, and was awarded two thousand pounds. In satisfaction of this judgment, she seized the cargo of the ship, valued at eleven hundred pounds, and hired some Boston vessels to take her home with her supplies. Before she was ready to sail for St. John, a mes-{ senger from Charnisay, Monsieur Marie, acx, jm- panied by ten Frenchmen, arrived in Boston with orders for the arrest of La Tour and his wife, and asked that the people of New England should help 7; 1644] A CAD /A. 73 Charnisay to carry out the King's commands, or at least should refrain from giving any further aid to the rebel. The magistrates explained their neutral position and their desire to effect a reconciliation between the rivals. Marie said La Tour should be assured of life and liberty if he would voluntarily surrender, but if taken in his rebellion he would be sure to lose his head ; and Charnisay was determined to capture his wife on her way home, believing her to be the cause of her husband's obstinate rebellion. At length the magistrates agreed to sign a treaty of peace with Charnisay ; but they reserved for their people the right to trade with whomsoever they chose. Having obtained this agreement, Marie hur- ried away before Madame La Tour set sail, in the hope of giving information to Charnisay in time for him to take her prisoner on her way, but he was too late ; and Madame La Tour reached St. John in safety. Charnisay soon had an opportunity for retalia- tion. La Tour went to Boston and sent back a small vessel laden with stores. Charnisay captuTed it and turned the crew, all English, out on a deso- late island covered with snow, and kept them there ten days without fire and with no shelter but a ruin- ous cabin. Then he sent them home in an old shal- •l( '■! 74 ACADIA. [1645. 7, H lop, without a compass ; but they managed to get safely to Boston. As Charnisay's ship was sailing away, it was hailed by two monks on the coast of the mainland, who wished to be taken on board. They had been sent out from the fort by Madame La Tour, on the discovery that they were secretly plotting in favor of Charnisay. They told him the fort could be easily taken ; La Tour was away, and the place was poorly supplied with men and munitions. Charni- say therefore pressed on for another attack. But Madame La Tour was not disposed to surrender ; she directed a fire a^Tiinst the ship, which killed twenty men and wouiided thirteen, and Charnisay then retired in disappointment and wrath. Two months later he returned to the attack once more. He had kept La Tour from reaching his fort by the vessels watching in the Bay of Fundy. La Tour's wife, however, withstood the siege three days, compelling Charnisay at that time to draw off his forces ; and had it not been for the treachery of a sentry, who betrayed the fort for a bribe, she might have been finally successful. The traitor allowed the enem.y to scale the walls while the gar- rison were at prayers. Even then the lady put her- self at the head of the men, and made a spirited re- sistance. Charnisay at length offered to grant life > 7/ 1646,3 ACADIA. 75 and liberty to the garrison if the fort were surren- dered ; and knowing that she must yield at last, and anxious to save the lives of her men, the lady accepted the terms. No sooner was Charnisay in possession, than, dis- regarding his compact entirely, he hanged all the garrison but one man, saving him only on the con- dition that he should act as the hangman. He com- pelled the lady to witness the execution with a rope around her neck, to signify that she deserved the same fate. Broken by the horrible scene, and the dangers and excitements of the siege, Madame La Tour lived only three weeks after the surrender of the fort, while her husband remained in Boston, ruined in fortune and homeless. The next year Charnisay concluded a treaty of peace with Ne v England. He claimed eight thou- sand pounds damages for the attack on his mill by the men under Hawkins in 1643 ; but his commis^ sioners finally agreed to accept a small present by way of acknowledgment that the New Englanders were in the wrong in that affair. Governor Win- throp had an elegant sedan chair which had been on its way from the Viceroy of Mexico to his sister in Spain in a Spanish ship, when the ship was seized by an English adventurer, who gave it to Winthrop. This chair was frugally devoted to the work of ill 76 ACADIA. [1647. 'I If * repairing the friendship with Charnisay ; and his commissioners departed with it and the treaty of peace. In the following year Charnisay received a com- mission making him Governor and Lieutenant- General for the King in Acadia, and giving him the exclusive right to the fur-trade and the products of the mines. It remained for him to drive out Nicholas Denys, who was established in the eastern part of the peninsula, but this was accomplished much more easily and sp'^edily than the expulsion of La Tour. The forts of Denys were taken, his fishing stations broken up, and himself and his family sent into exile. Charnisay was now supreme in Arcadia, and high in royal favor. His commission gave him the credit of having upheld the royal authority against armed rebels, of having built a seminary, provided friars to bring the Ir dians to a knowledge of the true religion, and driven foreigners from the King's do- minions at the mouth of the Penobscot. But he did not long enjoy his triumph. In 1650 he was drowned in the river of Port Royal. After the capture of his fort and the death of his wife, La Tour went to Newfoundland to get help from the Governor. Failing in this, he spent the following years in Boston and Quebec, until news 1653] A CAD/A. 77 reached him of the death of Charnisay. He then went at once to France, receiv ^d an acquittal from all the charges against him, and a commission as Governor and Lieutenant-General for the King in Acadia, and returned to take possession of his old fort. Charnisay's widow and children were still living in Acadia. Madame de Charnisay made an agreement with the Duke de Venddme, by which he was to help her to recover the rights granted to her husband, and to share with her and her children in the possessions to be recovered. But before any- thing had been done toward dislodging La Tour and Denys, who had also returned to his forts. La Tour entered into a compact with Madame de Charnisay which superseded the agreement with the Duke, consolidated the claims, and restored peace between the families. This was no less than a contract of marriage between La Tour and Madame de Charni- say, signed in February, 1653. At this time a new claimant appeared in the per- son of Le Borgne, to whom Charnisay had mort- gaged his possessions. He was proceeding to dis- possess La Tour and Denys, v/hen he was interrupt- ed by an enemy from without. Four vessels had been sent from England for operations against the Dutch colonies, and men were enlisted in Massachu- setts ; but news arrived of peace between England i^ 78 ACADIA. [1654. m * and Holland, and the force was turned against the French in Acadia. La Tour surrendered at the first summons, being without provisions or stores for de- fence, and Le Borgne gave up Port Royal after a slight resistance. Acadia was now once more in the hands of the English, and garrisons of New England men were placed in the forts ; but the French settlers and missionaries were allowed to remain. La Tour, with his usual activity and fertility in resources, sailed to England and appealed to Crom- well to confirm to him the grant made to him and his father jointly by Sir William Alexander in 1630. The success which seemed always to attend him when he pleaded his cause in person, attended him here. Cromwell granted to him, in connection with two of his own faithful followers — Thomas Temple and William Crowne — an immense tract of land, in- cluding the whole coast of the Bay of Fundy to a distance of one hundred leagues inland, all of the peninsula, and a large part of the present State of Maine. A small rent was to be paid in beaver- skins, and only Protestants were to be allowed to settle in the country, but the French Catholic set- tlers already there were not to be disturbed. La Tour soon sold out his rights to Temple, and retired from public affairs. Temple made great improve- A 1688.] ACADIA. 79 merits, and began to receive large returns in trade for his outlay, when the subject of the restoration of Acadia to France was again brought forward. • In 1667, by the treaty of Breda., which closed the war that England had been waging for two years with Holland and France, France gave back to Eng- land half of the Island of St. Christopher, which she had taken, and received Acadia. The disputed post of Penobscot, or Pentagoet, was now occupied by the Baron de St. Castin, who carried on a large trade there. He had lived a long time among the savages, married an Indian wife, and had great influence over all the tribes of that region, belonging to the family of the Abenaquis. In the spring of 1688, Edmund Andros, Governor of New England, attacked St. Castin, on the ground that the land was included in a grant made to the Duke of York, at this time James II., King of Eng- land. St. Castin and his family fled to the woods, and Andros plundered his dwelling. The result gf this was, that the Indians became restless, incited, it was supposed, by St. Castin ; but the Revolution in England by which James II. lost the throne brought on a war between France and England, and the colonies in America prepared for hostilities. 7 CHAPTER VI. KING WILLIAM'S WAR. Iroquois Attack on Montreal — Plan of the French — Capture of Eng- lish Posts at Hudson Bay — Massacres at Dover, Saco, and Pema- quid — Three Expeditions Planned byFrontenac — The Schenectady Massacre — Salmon Falls Destroyed —Attack on Casco — Expedi tion Planned by the English — Sir William Phips — Capture of Port Royal — Schuyler at La Prairie — Phips at (Quebec. At the opening of this war, the French had the post at Fort Frontenac, where Kingston, Canada, now stands, and one at Niagara, besides those on the western lakes and in tlie Mississippi Valley. In July, 1689, a thousand Iroquois attacked Montreal, massacred men, women, and children, burned houses, laid waste the fields, and carried away prisoners and plunder. The garrison at Fort Frontenac, panic- stricken, destroyed the fort and fled down the river in canoes, many of them losing their lives in shoot- ing the rapids. After this disaster, the Governor, Denonville, was superseded by the former Gov- ernor, Count de Frontenac, one of the most efficient officers and one of the most striking and pict- uresque characters in the whole history of Canada. Frontenac was instructed to carry out a plan laid 7j 1689. J m KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 81 before the Government by Calli^res, commandant at Montreal. Calli^res was to ascend Lake Cham- plain under pretence of marching against the Iro- quois, then surprise and take Albany, descend the Hudson, and seize New York, thus giving the French the finest harbor on the coast, and cut off the Iro- quois from receiving arms and ammunition from the English. Calli^res was then to be appointed Governor of Albany and New York. He was in- structed to allow only French Catholics in the prov- ince ; the French Huguenots already there were to be sent to France, and all other Protestants ban- ished to other colonies. A fleet was sent over to attack New York while Callieres was engaged in land operations, and Frontenac came over in one of the vessels, as did also some Iroquois whom Denon- ville had treacherously seized two years before, and sent over to work in the galleys. The fierce revenge taken by their nation forced him to ask that they should be sent back. Frontenac had the tact to make a firm friend of their chief on the passage, and the friendship was afterward of service to him. The first news he received on his arrival was that of the massacre at Montreal, the loss of Fort Fron- tenac, and the abandonment of Niagara. On the other hand, the English posts at Hudson Bay had been attacked by two brothers of the Le Moyne St- %^. P /i (P^ ■^ <^a v? c': c?3 VI '^^ J%' S^ ^A "■e^ .>/' V IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I. i^lM IIIIIM ^^' IM |||||Z2 " 2.0 1.8 Photographic Sciences Corporation t /. ^/ . 6^ «.^ >^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. H580 (716) 872-4503 4\> V ! i I 83 KING WILLIAM'S W.iR. [1689. family, Sainte H61^ne and Iberville, and all. but one had been taken. At the same time, the Abenaquis in Maine had been making havoc among English settlements. Their first attack was on Dover, or Cocheco, in New Hampshire, in June, and was in satisfaction of revenge that had been nursed for thirteen years. In 1676, near the close of King Philip's War, Major Waldron, of the Dover militia, had treacher- ously seized over two hundred Indians with whom he had just made peace, hanged several, and sold the rest into slavery. In retaliation, the Indians selected Dover for the first assault. They sent two squaws to Waldron 's house, who begged for a night's lodging, and were allowed to sleep on the floor. In the night they opened the gates, and the warriors rushed in. Waldron, who was eighty years old, seized his sword, with the exclamation, " What now? what now?" and defended himself .bravely, till he was felled by the blow of a hatchet. Then they placed him in a chair, and cried, " Judge Indians now ! Judge Indians now ! " Some who were in debt to him cut great gashes in his breast with their knives, exclaiming, " So I cross out my account ! " The old man fainted under the tortures, and was killed with his own sword. At Saco several men were killed in July by 71 71 1689.J KING WILLIAM'S WAR. S3 Indians, who in August attacked Fort Pemaquid, garrisoned by fifteen men unde- Captain Weems. The one hundred assailants were all converted Ind- ' ians, and were accompanied by their priest, a Jesuit named Thury. The fort surrendered the second day on condition of life and liberty to the garrison, a promise which was kept to Weems and a few others, while the rest were killed as they were leav- ing the fort, or carried away prisoners. Father Thury said it was due to his exhortations that the Indians refrained from torturing the prisoners, and •' immediately killed those whom they wished to kill." These and other similar attacks broke up the settlements in Maine east of Casco Bay. Frontenac now planned three expeditions against the English colonies— one from Montreal to devas- tate New York, one from Three Rivers to destroy the New Hampshire towns, and one from Quebec to make a descent on Maine. The Montreal party of two hundred and ten was about half Frenchmen, bush-rangers largely, and the other half-converted Iroquois who had settled near Montreal. They were reluctant allies against their heathen kindred, but more than willing to fight the English. The party was led by Mantet and Sainte Hel^ne, and accompanied by Iberville. They marched in the dead of winter through the 84 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. forests and up the frozen streams, drawing their provisions on sledges. When they reached Lake Champlain, the Indians asked where they were go- ing. " To Albany." The Indians laughed at the idea of attempting Albany with such a force, and advised a descent on Schenectady, or Corlaer, as the French called it, from Anthony Van Curler, its founder. The leaders assented, and after a slow and painful march, the party reached the Mohawk River near the village. There were dissensions in New York at this time between the followers of Leisler and the opposing party, and Schenectady was divided by the feud. The chief magistrate, John Alexander Glen, often called Captain Sander, and Lieutenant Talmage, who was in command of a small party of Connecti- cut militia at the block-house, were opposed to Leis- ler, whom most of the citizens of Schenectady fa- vored. For this reason they laughed at the magis- trate and the lieutenant, who urged them to guard against surprise and be prepared for defence. They left the gates of the city open, and set up images of snow for sentinels. The French and Indians entered the village about eleven o'clock on the night of Feb. 8th, 1690, and formed a line within the palisades and around the houses, completely enclosing them. Then they raised r [1690. zing their hed Lake T were go- led at the force, and "orlaer, as Curler, its :er a slow e Mohawk t this time I opposing the feud. }len, often T aim age, ■ Connecti- led to Leis- nectady fa- the magis- m to guard nee. They p images of illage about 1, 1690, and around the n they raised Q < H O w u o o 2 - ] 1 m f •7 y N \ idgo.J KING WILLIAM'S WAR, 85 the war-whoop, the first intimation of their presence to the villagers. The doors of the houses were bat- tered down, and the wretched inhabitants brained at once with the tomahawk, or reserved for a more horrible fate. Sixty were killed, of whom twelve were children. Some fled through the eastern gate toward Albany and found shelter, many of them with limbs frozen by exposure to the excessive cold. The next day a party went to the house of the magistrate, Glen, across the river. He was prepared for defence ; but they assured him they had orders not to harm him or any one belonging to him. He had several times saved French captives by his influ- ence with the Iroquois, and the officers in return for this service allowed him to take all his relatives from among the prisoners. He naturally found a great many — so many as to make the surly savages grumble at the great extent of his family connec- tion. The village was fired, and not more than half a dozen of the eighty houses escaped the flames. Twenty-seven prisoners were carried away, as well as a large number of horses and other plunder ; and not more than one sixth of the inhabitants of Sche- nectady remained unhurt. About thirty Mohawks in the town were carefully spared by the French, who were fully awake to the importance of appeas- 86 KIaWG WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. ing the Five Nations and cultivating their friend- ship. The party from Three Rivers, numbering about fifty, fell upon the town of Salmon Falls, on the Piscataqua, March 27th. It had two forts, but nei- ther had placed sentinels. The scenes of the Sche- nectady massacre were re-enacted ; thirty-foyr were killed, and over fifty taken, some of whom were tor- tured on the retreat. The French were pursued by a small party from Piscataqua, and r.fter a skirmish at a bridge over Wooster River, in which the pursu- ers lost a few men, went on to join the war-party from Quebec. This party, under an officer named Portneuf, numbered nearly five hundred, after being joined by some Indians under St. Castin and the men from Three Rivers. They were on their way to the settle- ment at Casco Bay, near the present city of Portland. The place was defended by a fort and four block- houses, and had about one hundred defenders under the command of Sylvanus Davis. Thirty of his men went out against the enemy, contrary to ^his orders, and all but four lost their lives. After a siege of four days. Fort Loyal surrendered on condi- tion of liberty to the garrison and a guard to the nearest English town — all of which, according to the account of Captain Davis, was solemnly promised y r y 1690.] AT/JVC IV/LLIAM'S IVAH. 87 T 1 \ and sworn by the French leader. Nevertheless, they were given to the Indians as soon as they had laid down their arms and left the fort ; and when they protested were told they deserved no quarter, because they were rebels against their rightful king, James II. The Indians murdered some, and carried away the rest. The fort and town were burned, and the dead left unburied. These successes of the French carried courage and enthusiasm to Canada, and aroused the English colo- nies to action. It was resolved, at a congresiJ held in New York in May, that a land force should march on Montreal, while a fleet should be sent from Bos- ton to capture Quebec. Massachusetts had just fitted out seven vessels and seven or eight hundred men, and placed them under the command of Sir William Phips, to attack Port Royal in Acadia. It was a harbor for French vessels which roamed the waters and preyed on New England commerce, and a place of stores whence the Indians drew their supplies of arms and ammu- nition to carry on the border warfare. Sir William Phips, at this time about forty years old, had had an adventurous career. Belonging to a family of twenty-six children reared in poverty and ignorance in the woods of Maine, he learned to read and write after he became a man. His boy- II ) 88 A'/JVC WILLIAM 'a WAR. [1683. hood was spent in tending sheep ; he then became apprentice to a ship-carpenter, in whose service he spent four years. When he vas twenty-two he went ' to Boston and married a widcvv older than himself. She had some property, and set him up in business ; but he was not prosperous, and soon lost all his wife's , capital. He was not discouraged, but began to follow the sea, and often told his wife that she should yet live in a " fair brick house in the Green Lane of Boston." The Green Lane was in the northern part of the city, and was occupied by well-to-do citizens. In 1683, Phips heard of a Spanish ship which had been wrecked near the Bahama Islands and was supposed to have carried down with it a great deal of gold and silver. He thought a swift and easy way to the possession of the " fair brick house" would be to bring up some of this treasure from the sea, and accordingly went there in a small vessel, but did not get enough to pay for his outlay. But while he was on this voyage he heard of another Spanish galleon which had been wrecked fifty years before somewhere on the coast of the West Indies. There was a tradition that this ship carried down a vast amount of treasure, but no attempt had been made to recover it. Undiscouraged by his first fail- ure, he went to England, and succeeded in getting an audience of the King, J ames II., who was so much 1684.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 89 ,il- impressed by the scheme that he appointed Phips captain of a ship called the Rose A /gier, with eighteen guns and ninety-five men. Two years were spent in the West Indies, searching for the wreck without success. The sailors were discouraged, organized a mutiny, and arming themselves with cutlasses, came to the captain and demanded that he should turn pirate. Phips, as brave as he was persevering, fell upon the leaders and used his fists so vigorously that he knocked down several of them and awed the rest into submission. It was not long before they made another attempt ; and though he succeeded in quelling the second mutiny also, it would have been dangerous to keep such a crew much longer on the sea ; the ship was old and leaky, and the cap- tain thought best to go back to England. But be- fore he went he was so fortunate as to find an old man who remembered the shipwreck, and told him it was very near Porto Plata, on the northern coast of Santo Domingo, or Hispaniola, as it was then called. Phips returned to England to get a better vessel and crew. The King had lost all confidence in the scheme and would have nothing more to do with it ; but the Duke of Albemarle and some other noble- men fitted out a ship for him, and he sailed for Porto Plata, Here he anchored, and built a large boat to 90 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [iC86. go nearer the reef where the wreck was said to have taken place than the ship could venture. Taking some skilful Indian divers in the boat, a part of the crew went to the spot and examined the waters, but could see nothing. As they were about giving up the search, one of the sailors noticed through the clear water a beautiful feathery seaweed growing from a rock at the bottom. He told one of the divers to bring it up to him ; and when the diver came up with the plant he said he saw some great cannon at the bottom. This was enough. The gal- leon was found. The divers were sent down, and the first one that rose brought a lump of silver worth nearly two hundred pounds. The sailors rowed to the ship, and showed their prize to the captain. The crew all went to work, and brought up gold and silver and precious stones, bullion, coin, cups, and sacramental plate — to the value of three hundred thousand pounds. It is said that a captain who was with Phips lost his reason at the sight of such an amount of treasure. The share of Captain Phips amounted to only six- teen thousand pounds. But this was enough to en- able him to live in style in Boston in those days. The Duke of Albemarle sent Mrs. Phips a gold cup valued at a thousand pounds, and the King con- ferred upon Phips the honor of knighthood. 1690.] KIXG WILLIAM'S WAR. 91 To Sir William Phips, then, who had become a man of importance in the colony, was encrusted the command of the expedition against Acadia, and he appeared off Port Royal on the •9th of May. The fort was in command of Meneval, the French Gov- ernor, who summoned the inhabitants by firing a cannon ; but only three of them came. The next day Phips entered the harbor and sum- moned the commandant to surrender. Meneval sent Petit, a priest, to negotiate ; and it was agreed that the troops, consisting of seventy men, should be sent to Quebec or to France, that private property should be respected, that the inhabitants be left in peaceable possession of their lands and the free exer- cise of their religion, and that the church should not be injured. While Meneval was on board the flag-ship arrang- ing the terms, some of the soldiers and citizens of Port Royal broke into a storehouse and carried off a quantity of goods, which they hid in the woods ; and Phips made this a pretext for violating all, or nearly all, the terms of the capitulation. He al- lowed his soldiers to break into the church, cut down the cross, and shatter the ornaments of the altar. The houses of the priests were plundered ; and they, together with Meneval and fifty-nine of the soldiers, were carried to Boston and imprisoned. 1 I i 1 t 92 A^/JVG WILLIAM'S WAK. [1690. The inhabitants were called together and asked to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary ; most of them did so, and were left unmolested ; but a few refused, and their houses were pillaged. Phips organized a temporary government, with a sergeant of the garrison at the head of it, and a council of six chosen from among the inhabitants. They were instructed to govern the place for the King of England, and to allow liberty in matters of religion. Meneval gave his money and personal effects to Phips for safe keeping ; but when he wanted them returned, Phips refused, and Meneval petitioned the Governor and Council at Boston to order Phips to restore them. They did so, but Phips paid no at- tention to it. Then Governor Bradstreet wrote to him, commanding him to comply immediately with the order, and Phips reluctantly gave up some of the money and some of the poorest articles of cloth- ing, but kept the greater part of the articles, which Meneval thus enumerated : " 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 shirts, six vests of dimity, four night-caps with lace edging, all my table-service of fine tin, all my table linen," etc. Before returning to Boston, Phips sent Captain M 1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 93 Alden to take La Heve and Chedabucto. He car- ried to Boston twenty-one pieces of ordnance, and a sum of money belonging to the King, besides the plunder taken from private individuals. Alden, who had captured the two places without much trouble, brought a large quantity of goods belonging to the fishing company. A few days after their departure, a French ship, the Union, arrived at Port Royal with goods, provis- ions, arms, ammunition, and presents for the Ind- ians, to ensure their continued loyalty to France. On board were some recruits for the garrison, an ofificer of engineers named Saccardie, and Meneval's brother, Villebon, who had been in Acadia before, and now came to lead the Indians against the Eng- lish. When he found what had befallen the settle- ments of Acadia, Villebon determined to go to the River St. John, and occupy the fort at Gemseg, and accordingly crossed over, leaving orders for the Union to follow. No sooner had he gone than two pirate ships ap- peared. Finding the town undefended, the crews landed, seized all they could carry away, and burned sixteen houses. They hanged two men, and taking the Union and her cargo, sailed off with Perrot, a trader, and Saccardie the engineer, after having tor- tured Perrot to make him tell where he had hidden his I! 94 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [169a ! I M money. When Villebon learned of the disaster, he returned to Fort Gemseg, and told the Indians that the English had stolen their presents, but that he was going to France to get them much nicer ones, and exhorted them to be faithful to the French, to keep up the war, and to be ready to go with him the following spring. He then went to Quebec to sail for France. When Phips returned to Boston, preparations for an attack on Canada were already far advanced. Aid was sought from England ; but everything there was concentrated on the struggle in Ireland with the adherents of James II., and the colonists were left to fight it out alone. The plan was, to march a land force under General Winthrop against Mont- real, while a fleet was to sail from Boston for the capture of Quebec. Thirty-four ships, the largest of which carried forty-four guns, were made ready and manned with two thousand two hundred sailors and militia, undr the command of Major John Walley. The success of Phips in Acadia led to his appointment as commander of the expedition. The force destined for Montreal set out from Albany much reduced by sickness and the with- drawal of the militia of the eastern colonies, made necessary by attacks on the border settlements. Bands of Indians from eastern New York gathered •I i 1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 95 at Albany to join the expedition, and those of the west were to be in readiness on Lake Champlain. But before they were prepared, the season was far advanced ; the work of making canoes was stopped by the want of birch-bark, and it was too late in the season for elm-bark to be made available. The ad- herents of the two factions in New York politics quarrelled with each other and with the Connecticut soldiers ; the supplies were insufficient ; and the Indians of the western tribes failed to keep their engagement. Captain John Schuyler was in advance with less than two hundred men, pushing on down the lake ; but Winthrop, finding it impossible to do anything with the disorderly forces of the main body, marched them back to Albany. Frontenac had prepared for the expected attack by strengthening the stockade forts along the Upper St. Lawrence, and holding a great council with the Indians who came down from the Upper Lakes to trade. He was now seventy years old ; but, bran- dishing a tomahawk about his head, he danced the war-dance and sang the war-song, arousing the Ind- ians to the highest pitch of excitement and enthusi- asm. Schuyler arrived just after Frontenac had gone to protect the other settlements. The Indians, who I ! ft 96 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. formed the greater part of his band, refused to attack the fort ; and so the extent of the operations was the destruction of houses, harvests, and cattle, and the killing or capture of twenty-five settlers. Thus the land expedition of the English was worse than a failure. It accomplished nothing ; it stained their record by the use of the Indian method of at- tack on peaceful settlers ; and it tended to bring them into contempt with their savage allies. After a long delay, the fleet under Sir William Phips was prepared to sail from Boston. The weather was unfavorable, the ocean voyage was long, and Phips had no pilots acquainted with the St. Lawrence. So slow was the progress of the fleet that the advantage of surprise was lost. Two small French vessels were captured on the way ; and from information obtained from them in regard to the state of the defences of Quebec, Phips anticipated a victory as easy as that at Port Royal,. But Frontenac had been employed during the summer in building palisades on the undefended side of the city ; and Major Provost, who commanded in Quebec during his absence in Montreal, receiving timely warning of the departure of the fleet from Boston, sent word to Montreal, and hastened to improve the defences of the city ; the gates were barricaded, cannon mounted, palisades and moats ■ \ 1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 97 placed wherever they were needed, and batteries posted in the lower part of the town near the river. Frontenac went down the river in a canoe as soon as he heard of the danger to his capital, leaving orders for all the forces at Montreal and intervening points to gather at Quebec. On the 5th of October the fleet arrived before Quebec, and Phips demanded a surrender. The messenger was blindfolded and led by two officers in a roundabout course, followed by a tumultuous and jeering mob. When the bandage was taken from his eyes, he found himself in the presence of the Governor and his superior officers. He delivered his letter to the Governor and an interpreter trans- lated it into French. The letter said : " 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 per- sons and estates of their Majesties' 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 unchris- 98 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. ' I tian-like actions, and to prevent shedding of blood as much as may be, " I, the aforesaid William Phips, Knight, do here- by, 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 Majesties' government of the Massachusetts-colony in New England, demand a present surrender of your forts and castles, undemolished, and the King's and other stores, unimbezzled, 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 Chris- tian, according to what shall be found for their Maj- esties' service and the subjects' 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 in- juries offered, and bring you under subjection to the crown of England, and when too late make you wish you had accepted of the favour tendered. " Your answer positive in an hour, returned by your own trumpet, with the return of mine, is re- quired upon the peril that will ensue." When the reading of the letter was finished, the messenger reminded Frontenac that it was ten 1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 99 o'clock, and his answer must be given by eleven. The French officers exclaimed at the impudence of the demand, and some of them said Frontenac ought to hang the messenger of such a pirate as Phips had shown himself to be. Frontenac told the messenger that he need not wait so long for his answer ; that he did not acknowledge William of Orange as King of England, knowing no King of England but King James ; that the King of France was about to restore King James to his throne ; and that his subjects in Canada were prepared to make war on the English colonists, who were rebels against their lawful sovereign. He alluded to the violation by Phips of his agreement at Port Royal, and said, " I will answer your master only by the mouths of my cannon, and he shall learh that I am not to be summoned in this way to surrendc." The officer was led back blindfolded, as he had come, and when Frontenac's answer was received, Phips held a council, at which it was decided to make a combined attack by land and sea. Major Walley, with a force of militia, was to be landed above the St. Charles at Beauport, to ford the river, and climb to the rear of the town by the heights of St. Genevieve. Several of the smaller vessels were to support the land soldiers by ascending the St. Charles with provisions and ammunition, and assist r-l 100 X'/NG WILLIAM'S WAR. [i6go. L, ■ 1 i ! I ■ in the attack with their guns. Then the larger vessels were to assail the city from the St. Lawrence side, and land a part of the troops to storm the de- fences. Two days passed before it seemed best to the English to begin carrying out the plan. While they were waiting, the forces which Frontenac had or- dered from Montreal arrived, under the command of Calli^res, so that the number of troops reached about three thousand. The city was full, the inhabitants of the Lower Town having taken shelter in the con- vent, the hospital, and the seminary of the Upper Town. Provisions were low, and there was danger of famine if the siege should be long continued. Masses were constantly offered, a picture of the Holy Family was hung on the cathedral spire, and the nuns kept up an unbroken stream of prayer to the Virgin and all the sa'nts for the deliverance of the city. At length on the 8th, at noon, boats were sent out to Beauport, below the St. Charles, carrying Major Walley with about twelve hundred men. Having landed, they began their march, but had not gone far when they were assailed from the woods and thickets by a band of French and Indians under Sainte H61^ne. Walley's men charged bravely on them, and they retreated, but kept up a continual i6go.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. lOI fire from behind the rocks and trees as they went, sending confusion into the ranks of the English. Walley drew his forces together and encamped, in expectation of the ships which were to support him. Without waiting till Walley was in full readiness to climb the heights in the rear and co-operate with the attack from the fleet, Phips rushed on with his larger ships and drew them up before the town. He was greeted by a shot from the Cheiteau St. Louis, and at once opened with all his cannon. A rapid firing ensued on both sides, which was kept up until nightfall. Comparatively little damage was done by the English ; their guns were not charged heavily enough with powder to give the balls much effect, and their gunnery was poor. Many of the balls struck the wall of rock, and many of those that reached the town had spent their force and failed to pierce the walls. The fire from the town was more effective ; but Phips only waited till morning to renew the attack. The next day the troops in the town were refe'n- forced by the detachment which had been sent out against Walley 's party ; and under the direction of Sainte H61^ne the guns of the batteries in the tower Town were aimed against the fleet with good effect. All the ships were before the town ; for those that should have gone to the aid of Walley 103 KING WILLIAM'S WAR, [169a were afraid to expose themselves to the danger ; and there was no central command strong enough to enforce obedience — if, indeed, anything was thought of at the head of the fleet except the busi- ness immediately in hand. A few pieces of cannon and a little powder and food were sent to the shore, but Walley received no other assistance. The ships were at length disabled by the fire and were drawn off beyond the reach of the guns of the town. The attack by water had proved a miserable failure ; and Walley was too poorly sup- ported to effect anything by land. On the morn- ing of the loth, the day after the repulse of the fleet, he went to consult with Sir William Phips. During his absence his men advanced to cross the St. Charles and make an attack, but were met by a party under Sainte Hei^ne and driven back with loss. Walley returned with orders to take them to the fleet, and boats were sent in the night, in which they were to embark the following night. During the nth, another skirmish took place, with about the same result. Walley's troops fought courageously, but were too poorly disciplined to fight with advantage ; while the French and Indians fired from behind rocks and trees and farm-houses. Walley withdrew, and as soon as darkness came on embarked his troops in the boats and joined the 1690.] KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 103 fleet. As the ships were disabled, and the stock of ammunition low, the undertaking was now aban- doned, and the fleet dropped down below the Island of Orleans, where it stopped for repairs. After an exchange of prisoners, the vessels made their way t slowly homeward. While Phips was on his way down the river, three ships arrived from France bringing money and stores to Quebec, and ran up the Saguenay. Phips at- tempted to capture them, but failed. He reached Boston in five or six weeks ; some of his vessels were more than three months on the way, and several — as many as nine, by some accounts — were wrecked. This miserable outcome of an expedition from which so much had been hoped, carried dismay and foreboding to the New England colonies. In Que- bec there was great rejoicing when the fleet dis- appeared down the river, marred only by the fear that the ships from France might be surprised on the way and captured. When they arrived in safety, the general joy knew no bounds. If the siege had been prolonged, the city would have suffered from famine and perhaps been forced at last to surrender ; for the warning had not been long enough to give time for providing food for the great number that were gathered in the capital, and the supplies from France had not arrived. 111.. ; 104 KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1690. A procession was formed, which carried the image of the Virgin to every church and chapel in turn, with appropriate ceremonies ; Te Deum was sung in the cathedral ; and the banner bearing the cross of St. George, which had waved at the mast-head of Phips's vessel, and was shot away by one of Sainte H61^ne's cannon, was picked up from the river where it had fallen, and carried to the cathedral, where it hung for years. Frontenac sent the news to France, urging the Government at the same time to provide troops for the complete conquest of New York and New England ; and a medal in honor of the victory was struck in Paris. n i l!H CHAPTER VII. CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. Attacks on Wells and York— Fort Built at Pemaquid— Attempt to take it— Plan to Attack Quebec— Proposed Exchange of Prisoners —Oyster River Assailed— Schuyler at La Prairie— Invasion of the Mohawk Country— Treachery of Chubb at Pemaquid— Destruction of the Fort— Church and Hathorn on the St. John— Haverhill— French Plan for the Capture of Boston— Iberville in Newfound- land and al Hudson Bay — Frontenac among the Iroquois — The Peace of Ryswick — Deaths of Frontenac and Villeboi. The English made no attempt to secure their conquest in Acadia, and Villebon was appointed Governor by the French Government and instructed to lavish presents on the Indians and keep them and the French constantly engaged in war. All supplies would be sent from France, so that none of the men need be kept at home for the cultivation of the soil. The vessel which took Villebon to Acadia cap- tured Colonel Edward Tyng, who had been sent from Massachusetts as Governor of Port Royal, and John Nelson, who was going with him. Nelson inherited a claim to Acadia, from his uncle, Sir Thomas Tem- ple, to whom Cromwell had made a large grant, and he was well acquainted with the country and the '1^ io6 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1692, ! i I i 1 i ! I I :• T r I : \ i I language of the Indians. He and Tyng were taken to Quebec. Villebon took possession of Port Royal without opposition, and administered to the colonists the oath of allegiance to the sovereign of France. He established himself at Fort Gemseg on the St. John, and set about the work of inciting the Indians to war. A chief named Moxus had already attacked Wells with two hundred Indians, and had been re- pelled by the garrison under Captain Converse. Seconded by the priest Thury, Villebon persuaded the Indians to form a great war-party, though some who had signed a truce with the English were re- luctant. They set out in January, 1692, and marched a month over icy streams and through bare forests to southwestern Maine. On the night of Feb. 4th, they encamped at the foot of Mount Agamenticus, and in the morning moved cautiously to the village of York. They caught a boy cutting wood in a forest, forced information from him, murdered him, and pushed on. Dividing into two parties, they began their work at a signal. There were five forti- fied houses, having projecting upper stories with loop-holes for guns. One was taken at the first as- sault. The unprotected dwellings were attacked, and all their inmates who did not escape to the for- ! i 1692.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 107 tified houses were slaii. or taken captive. The minister, Mr. Dummer, was shot at his own door as he was about to mount his horse to visit a parish- ioner. After unsuccessfully attacking the othr- four fortified houses, the party withdrew with eighty prisoners, having killed nearly a hundred. In June of the same year, an attack on Wells, by about four hundred Indians, was a complete failure. The Indians attempted to fire some ships lying in the river, by means of a burning raft, but it ran aground. The French officers tried to induce them to make a regular assault on the fort ; but they carried it on in their own fashion, with a tremen- dous amount of noise and desultory firing. The men in the fort held out bravely ; the women loaded their guns, and some fired ; Converse answered defi- antly every summons to surrender ; and the Indians were glad to draw off with one prisoner, after burn- ing the church and the deserted houses. Villebon consoled some who lived near his fort with a pris- oner to burn, an Indian ally of the English, taken near the St. John. During the summer. Sir William Phips, now Gov- ernor of Massachusetts, having authority to rebuild the fort at Pemaquid, set out with Benjamin Church, noted for success in Indian wars, and one hundred workmen. On the way they buried the ,Lf^ ! I xo8 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR, [1692. dead left at Casco in 1690, and carried the cannon of Fort Loyal with them. Phips laid the founda- tions for a strong fortress of stone, and left the men to finish it. When done, it was the best fort the English had in America ; the front wall was twenty- two feet high, and the great round tower at the southwestern corner twenty-nine feet high. Eigh- teen guns were mounted, and sixty men placed in it as a garrison. Phips named it Fort William Henry. Madockawando, the Indian father-in-law of the Baron de St. Castin, had gone to Quebec to carry to Frontenac the news of the building of this fort, and Frontenac resolved to drive the English away at once before it should be completed. He had two ships of war, and arranged that they should sail with about four hundred men, take in as many more as they could get at Villebon's fort and Pentagoet, and then capture Pemaquid and destroy the settlements along the coast of the present States of Maine and New Hampshire. John Nelson was still a prisoner in Quebec when Madockawando came with his intelligence, but was treated as a guest by Frontenac, and had apart- ments at the Chateau St. Louis. He discovered that an expedition was on foot, and, through his knowledge of the Indian language spoken by the chief, and in other ways, he managed to get some n IBMJw'lf llll*|l.>l'^lii| 1693.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S VVAK. 109 information as to the details. He bribed two French soldiers to desert, and carry a letter to Bos- ton. A ship of war was at once sent from Boston to the defence of Pemaquid, which was not yet finished, and when the French vessels arrived, and found the place thus defended, they gave up the enterprise without attempting to strike a blow. Iberville, who commanded the expedition, was cen- sured severely by Frontenac, and the Indians were so indignant that they threatened to break their alliance with the French. The colonists, harassed continually by the Ind- ians, their border settlements broken up, their har- vests and cattle destroyed by these sly and faithless hordes, whom no treaties could hold, made repeated applications to England for help ; and at length a plan was formed. A fleet under Sir Francis Wheeler was to be sent to Martinique, and after service there was to go to Boston, take on as many troops as the colonies should have been able to raise, and proceed to Quebec ; the troops to be under the command of Sir William Phips. But the attack on Martinique was a failure. Six hundred of the men were killed, and three hundred taken prisoners. Half of the sailors and three fourths of the soldiers died of yellow fever before the fleet reached Bos- ton, and the epidemic was carried into the city. no CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1693. i ;! i !! % lit MM ilHi; The design of an attack on Quebec was then neces- sarily abandoned. The English made a treaty with the eastern Ind- ' ians, supposing that all the tribes were represent- ed ; but Villebon, who had built a fort on the St, John nearly opposite the site of Fredericton, Fort Naxouat, took measures to stir them up to break the treaty. Taxus, a chief friendly to the French, was honored and feasted at the fort, and Villebon gave him his best coat. He sent presents and am- munition to be distributed among the various tribes ; and, what was of vastly greater importance to the French cause, he set on the Jesuits — Vincent Bigot on the Kennebec and Pierre Thury on the Penob- scot — to incite their converts to the work. Their plans were nearly defeated by tidings that the English were going to exchange prisoners at Pemaquid, according to the treaty ; for the French had told them the English were trying to entrap them. Had it not been for the cunning of Thury, the Indians, or a large part of them, would have gone to their homes from the Penobscot, where they had been gathered by St. Castin and Villieu who had been appointed to lead them. But Thury pri- vately told those chiefs who had not been present at the conference with the English, that Madocka- wando and the others had taken altogether too much l;i: [1693. ti neces- ern Ind- present- the St. on, Fort to break French, Villebon and am- s tribes ; e to the int Bigot : Penob- ngs that ioners at e French o entrap f Thury, uld have lere they ieu who hury pri- resent at ^adocka- :oo much 1694.] CLOSE OJf KING WILLIAM'S WAR. Ill on themselves, and assumed too much importance in making a treaty without their concurrence. This was enough ; their jealousy was aroused, they were all for war, and Madockawando and some of his followers who still held out were at length persuad- ed, at a dog-feast given by Villieu, by means of the presents of the French and the jeers of their savage companions. About two hundred and fifty of them set out in canoes for Piscataqua. At Pemaquid, Villieu, dis- guised as an Indian, landed with a few savages and went to the fort, carrying some furs to trade to the soldiers. Leaving the Indians to make the bargain, he walked away unobserved, studied the plan of the fort, and made a drawing of it. At the village of Oyster River, now Durham, in New Hampshire, the Indians took five of the twelve fortified houses ; three families escaped, but two were slaughtered. The seven other houses were resolutely defended. The owner of one of these, Thomas Bickford, placed his family in a boat and sent them down the stream ; then he went back to his house, and by keeping up a constant firing, now from one point and now from another, shouting orders as if to his garrison, and giving the assailants glimpses of him in different clothing at different parts of the house, he defended the place success- 112 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1691. » i I ! 1 I n ! i' ii! Ii I nil! 1 ! fully alone, and saved his house and his whole fam- ily. About one hundred persons were killed, and twenty-seven carried away. After mass had been said by Thury, the Indians took to their canoes. Some of them wanted to go home ; but Taxus with a large party remained to work what havoc they could on neighboring settlements. They divided into small bands, and killed some of the inhabitants of Groton, York, Kittery, and other places. Villieu on his return set out for Quebec to warn the Gov- ernor of a rumored expedition against that city, tak- ing with him some Indians, and a string of thirteen English scalps, which were presented to Frontenac. During these years the Iroquois, incited by the New York colonists, went down the St. Lawrence and fell upon the least protected settlements from time to time, killing, burning, and capturing. A large party of them, encamped near the mouth of the Ottawa, sallied out in bands, and kept the fron- tier in terror. Over one hundred men were marched against them under Vaudreuil, and routed a band of about forty near Repentigny ; and when men and supplies arrived from France, a large force was sent against them, and their camp was broken up. After this defeat, they refused to keep up hostilities un- aided by the English, and an expedition was then organized under Major Peter Schuyler. I69I.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 1*3 About two hundred and fifty men were gathered at Albany, half of them Indians. They descended Lake Champlain and the Richelieu in canoes, and debarked a few miles above Fort Chambly, whence they marched to attack the French at La Prairie, opposite Montreal. Calli^res, who was now Gov- ernor of Montreal, had been warned, and had gone over to La Prairie with seven hundred men, but he was too ill to command during the attack, which took place early in the morning of the nth of August. The camp was broken up, the soldiers driven into the fort, and great loss inflicted on the French, and then Schuyler drew off his men, destroy- ing the growing crops as he went. On the way back he was met by a force of French soldiers and Canadian Indians from Fort Chambly, under an officer named Valrenne, who, knowing of their attack on La Prairie, had come out to cut off their retreat. A fierce combat followed. Some of the Indians ran away ; but the English and the French fought with desperation, and the Mohawks remained steadfast. The force at La Prairie did not come up till the fighting was over. Schuyler's men at length succeeded in breaking through the centre of the enemy's rank, and then faced about and drove the French before them, forcing them to retreat. This is according to Schuyler's own account. The jLz^n 114 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1693. ; 1.1 ! 1 1 ; il 11 liii' French also claimed the victory, and Valrenne was highly commended for having repelled the English. As the Iroquois continued their raids on the French, it was resolved to invade the Mohawk coun- try. A force of nearly seven hundred French and Indians set out from Montreal in the middle of January, 1693. After a weary march on snow-shoes they passed Schenectady early in February, went on to the first Mohawk castle, or town, anH took a few prisoners without resistance. The second was taken quite as easily ; but at the third the Mohawks, who had gathered there for a feast and a war-dance, fought desperately, though they were at last over- powered. The invaders lost thirty men, and the Mohawks about the same number. The Canadian Indians had promised to put their captives to death in accordance with the command of Frontenac that no quarter should be given ; and as many of these Canadian Indians were converted Iroquois, it was hoped that such a proceeding on their part would preclude any reconciliation from ever taking place be- tween them and the Iroqucis of New York. But they refused to keep their promise, and the French turned homeward with about three hundred prisoners. Warning had been given at Albany of the French invasion, by a young man who had been carried away from Schenectady at the burning of that town in i693.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. "5 1690. He was taken with the invading expedition, and ran away when -he reached the neighborhood of his old home. Schuyler hastily gathered two hundred men and, joined by three or four hundred Indians, marched against the French. Some Mo- hawks caught up with the French, and told them Schuyler was coming to parley with them, as peace had been declared in Europe. The Canadian Indians said they would wait ; the French were distrustful, and anxious to push rn their retreat. The Indians prevailed, and a fort was built of felled trees. When Schuyler came up, instead of seeking a par- ley, he began to build a similar fort, or rather his Indians did. The French attacked it, and were de- feated in three attempts ; then they quietly packed their baggage and moved off in the night during a heavy snow-storm. The Acadians were anxious that the fort at Pema- quid should be reduced. Not only was it a standing assertion of the English claim to disputed territory, but it kept them in constant fear of English influ- ence over their unstable allies. There was need also of protection for the fisheries and the fur-trade, which were seriously encroached upon by the Eng- lish, who offered much better terms to the Indians, both in Acadia and New York, than the French would. A pestilence had weakened the Indians of i— rp-l At ii6 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR, [1696. the cast, who were hungry and needy, and disposed to seek the best market for their furs, regardless of their friendships or preferences. They were still anxious to exchange prisoners with the English ; but when they were at last sum- moned to Pemaquid, they were told that nothing could be done till they should bring in all they had taken. As the English had not brought their men, they thought this was asking too much, and refused to treat further. In 1696 the Governor of Massa- chusetts sent them another summons. The Penob- scot tribe, the only one that answered, took five pris- oners to give for five of their tribe who had been taken by the English, and arrived at Pemaquid in February, 1696. The fort was commanded by Cap- tain Pascho Chubb, who received the Indians cor- dially, took back the prisoners they brought, and promised to give them some presents, and to send at once to Boston for their men, whom they desired in exchange. He then proposed a conference near the fort, where nine of his men were to meet nine of the Indians, all unarmed. The Indians accepted, but the liquor which was freely given them rendered them less wary than usual, and they did not notice a party of soldiers who had come out from the fort and stood ready for action at a short distance from the scene ot the conference. Chubb's men carried X696.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 117 concealed weapons, and at a signal fell upon the Ind- ians and killed several of them, of whom two were chiefs. The Indians fought savagely, and several of the soldiers also fell. According to French accounts, the Indians themselves were treacherously disposed, but none the less this treachery of Captain Chubb roused their hatred of the English to new fury, and did more service to the French cause than all the persuasions and presents which Villebon had lavished upon his reluctant allies. That officer had long been urging upon the Gov- ernment at Quebec the necessity of another a ck upon Pemaquid ; and now that the folly of its eoin- mander had made the Indians eager to take revenge, preparations for the expedition were pushed on with vigor. In the summer of 1696 the Acadians and Indians assembled on the Penobscot and the St. John, and waited for two ships of war under Iber- ville and Bonaventure, which were to come from Quebec. While they were waiting, two British ships and a tender from Massachusetts were hang- ing about the coast, and the crews made several attempts to land. When at length the French ships, which had taken on board thirty Micmac Indians at Cape Bre- ton, arrived at the St. John, a sharp engagement took place. One of the English vessels, the New- If ii8 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1696. !''l^ IW port^ was captured ; but a fog enabled the Sorting and the tender to escape. The victorious vessels took on fifty more of the Micmacs and their priest, Father Simon, who were waiting at the mouth of the St. John, and proceeded to Pentagoet. Here were Villieu, and St. Castin, and the faithful Father Thury with twenty-five French soldiers and three hundred Abenaquis. Attended by a fleet of Abe- naqui canoes, the ships set out for Pemaquid, arriving there August 14th, 1696. The Abenaquis, under the lead of St. Castin, were put ashore for the land attack, while Iberville sum- moned Chubb to surrender. Chubb replied that he would not give up the fort, " if the sea were cov- ered with French ships, and the land with Indians." The attack began ; the French and Indian marks- men surrounded the fort, hiding in placec where they were sheltered from its cannon, and kept up a con- stant fire. During the night the heavy guns were loaded, and the batteries made rcuuy for use by the next afternoon. Before they were fired, St. Castin sen<- word to Chubb that if he and his soldiers held out until the fort should be carried by assault, they would get no quarter from the Indians, who remem- bered his former treachery. The letter was followed by five bomb-shells. Chubb immediately sounded a parley and offered 1696.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 119 to surrender, on condition that he and all his men should be protected from the Indians, and sent to Boston to be exchanged for French and Indian pris- oners. Iberville sent them to an island in the bay, and despatched Villieu to take possession of the fort. One of the Indians whom Chubb had taken in February was found in irons in the fort, nearly dead with hunger and long confinement, and his country- men were so incensed that they would have made short work with the garrison if Iberville had not taken the precaution to send them away. The cannon of the fort were carried to the ships, and then the walls were blown up and the ruins fired. Notwithstanding the money and labor ex- pended on the fort, and its apparent strength, it was not well planned. There were no casemates, and a shower of bomb-shells would have made havoc with the garrison. When Chubb reached Boston he was thrown into prison on a charge of cowardice. He was liberated after several months and returned to his home in Andover ; but Indian vengeance was on his track, and the next year he and his wife were killed by a party of savages. Massachusetts had a force ready to send against the French, under Benjamin Church, when news of the capture of Pemaquid reached Boston, and Church started immediately with about five hundred I20 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1696. \ \ I M 111 I iliiiiilli men, partly Indians, embarked in sloops and whal- ing vessels. After doing a small amount of damage at Penobscot, he went on to Chignecto at the head of the Bay of Fundy, where he landed and took pos- session of the place without meeting any resistance from the twenty or thirty men in the settlement. The inhabitants saved their lives by producing a certificate that they had taken the oath of allegiance to the British Crown ; but the soldiers plundered without restraint, and then burned the town. After this easy triumph, Church sailed for the St. John. An officer named Chevalier was stationed with a few soldiers at the mouth of the river, while Villebon's fort of Naxouat was situated farther up. These soldiers were taken by the Indians of Church's force, and Chevalier was killed. One of the captured Frenchmen told Church where to find the cannon of the old fort, which were buried in the sand, and the New Englanders dug them up and put them on board. On the way back to Boston they met three ships from Massachusetts, with two hundred men under Colonel Hathorn. Hathorn deprived Church of his command for having conducted the expedition in such a manner, and turned the force back to at- tack Fort Naxouat. But, warned by the arrival of Church, Villebon had been strengthening his fort and gathering into it a force of settlers and Indians. 1696.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 121 The attack began on the i8th of October, and continued two days without success. During the night of the 19th the English quietly embarked and sailed away, having had eight men killed and sev- enteen wounded, while only three of the French suffered injury. This was the end of hostilities between the British and French colonists during what is known as King William's War. But the Indians kept up a petty warfare, ravaging the bor- ders of settlements and butchering defenceless fam- ilies. In the spring of 1697, a band of Indians reached the village of Haverhill, raised the war-cr>', and began their horrid work. A man named Dustin was at work in the field, having with him his seven chil- dren, while his wife with the baby, one week old, and Mary Neff, a neighbor, were in the house. As soon as he became aware of the presence of the Ind- ians, Dustin started for the house ; but, seeing he was too late to be of any use there, he escaped to the woods with the children that were in the field * with him. The savages killed the infant, set fire to the house, and took Hannah Dustin and Mar\'^ Neff to the woods with the other prisoners they had taken. Some of these were killed, and the rest were divided among the Indians, who separated and re- turned to their homes. 132 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. I1697. ■ I li |i i The two women fell to the lot of two families, who, taking a leisurely march northward, were on their way to some Indian village. They encamped one night in the forest, on a small island in the Mer- rimack, near the present city of Concord, N. H. The Indians went to sleep about their camp-fire, after having counted on their beads the prayers taught them by some Jesuit enthusiast at their mis- sion station. Hannah Dustin had planned an escape and inspired Mary Neff and Samuel Leonardson, a boy captured at Worcester, to take part in it. When all the Indians were still, the three rose quiet- ly, took each a tomahawk, and at a signal all struck together on the heads of the sleeping savages. They struck with such nerve and skill that the two men of the party, two of the three squaws, and six of the seven children were instantly killed. A little boy was spared ; and he and a wounded squaw who ran with him into the woods were the only survivors. In the morning Hannah Dustin took the ten scalps, together with the gun and tomahawk of the Indian that killed her child, and a canoe carried her and her companions down the Merrimack to their home. They received a bounty of five pounds apiece for the scalps, and a present was sent to them by the Gov- ernor of Maryland. In the same year, 1697, a squadron of fifteen ships LixitJumuMiwu i M i jit i M* 1697.] CLOSE OF ICING WILLIAM* S WAR. 123 was sent out from France, under the command of the Marquis de Nesmond. It was to go to New- foundland, capture any English ships that might be there, then sail to the Penobscot and take on board as many Indians and French soldiers as could be collected. It was expected that Canada would send fifteen hundred. This force was destined to take possession of Boston. One part was to land at Dor- chester and enter the town from the south by way of the Neck ; another was to land at Noddle's Island, take boats to Charlestown, capture it, and enter Boston from the north ; while still another portion of the forces was to land directly in the town near Long Wharf. Boston once taken, the forces were to march northward along the coast, and, with the assistance of the fleet, take all the settle- ments. The towns were to be burned after every- thing of value that could be removed had been taken out. Frontenac prepared his forces, and made ready to command them in person. But the fleet was de- tained by contrary winds until it was too late for the plan to be carrier' out that season. In Septem- ber a treaty of peace between France and England was signed at Ryswick, and thus the scheme for destroying the New England settlements came to nothing. 184 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [<696. But before peace was declared, the French had met with unqualified success in the north. As soon as Iberville had destroyed Pemaquid, he took charge of an expedition for the conquest of Newfoundland. The island was claimed by the English, by virtue of the discoveries of the Cabots and Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and the fishing settlements planted by Eng- lishmen on the coast. The French, however, assert- ed that fishermen from Brittany, Normandy, and the Basque Provinces had fished on the coast long before, and that through them France had a prior claim. At this time the French had a town and a fort at Placentia Bay, which gave them control of the southern coast. The eastern coast was occupied by a long line of small English settlements, the princi- pal of which was St. John. Expeditions had been planned by each nation during the hostilities, for driving the other out ; but all of them had fallen through. When Iberville arrived, the Governor of Placentia was already at St. John with a fleet of privateers, attempting to take the place. Iberville joined him, and St. John was soon reduced to ashes. Then the ships were withdrawn, and Iberville with his soldiers and Indians marched along the eastern coast, attack- ing and destroying every town in turn. It was in 1696.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR, 125 the depth of winter ; the ground was covered with snow and ice ; and the soldiers went stumbh'ng along the unbroken paths, tripping against rocks and logs concealed under the snow, but merry with the ex- citement of the march, and elated with their suc- cess ; for the villagers surrendered without the slightest resistance, and the soldiers plundered with- out restraint. Nothing was left to the English but Eonavista and Isle Carbonni^re. In the spring, Iberville and his brother Serighy were sent to re-take Fort Nelson on Hudson Bay, which, after being taken by them in 1694, had fallen again into the hands of the English in 1696. The French called it Fort Bourbon. It was of great importance, being in the midst of a vast region abounding in valuable furs. The brothers set out with four ships of war and a transport. Although it was July when they entered Hudson Bay, the water was filled with floating ice, and the supply, ship was crushed. Iberville's ship, the Pelican^ was in great danger, and when at last she got free and sailed into the unobstructed waters of the open bay, nothing was to be seen of the other three ; they were still struggling amid the ice. Iberville and his men sailed on alone to begin the attack ; but before they reached the fort, they were overtaken by three armed English ships. There was 126 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1697. a close and desperate engagement. One of the English ships sank under the heavy broadsides of the Pelican^ with all on board ; another surrendered, and the third sailed away and escaped. The Pelican was badly injured ; and a fierce storm arising, she was stranded and split amidships by the fury of the wind and waVes. The crew escaped to the shore, but they were in danger of starvation, and were about to make an attack on the fort as the only hope of saving themselves, when the three ships appeared. Fort Nelson, which was occupied by the traders of the Hudson Bay Company, was incapable of resist- ing an attack by mortars, and it soon surrendered. In the summer of 1695, Frontenac rebuilt the fort at the head of the St. Lawrence, on the site of the present city of Kingston, which was sometimes known as Fort Catarocouay, but named by him now, as before under the French, Fort Frontenac. He was determined either to conquer the Iroquois, or to bring them over to alliance with the French, or rather, perhaps, to bring them over by conquering them, if they should refuse to make a permanent treaty of peace. In the summer of 1696 he commanded in person an expedition against the Indians of New York, and with twenty-two hundred men crossed Lake Ontario to Oswego. The Onondagas, when they heard of 1696.] CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. 127 the advance of the French, set fire to their principal village, and fled. One old man of the tribe was found hidden in a hollow tree, and was dragged out. The Indians who were with the French wanted to torture and burn him, while Frontenac was anxious to save him ; but the Indians were so clamorous, that it was finally decided to be the better policy to give him up. During the horrible tortures inflicted on him he never quailed, but taunted his tormentors to the last. When at length a mortal thrust was made, he said, " I thank you ; but you should have finished me by fire. Learn, dogs of Frenchmen, how to suffer, and you Indians, their allies, who are dogs of dogs, remember what you should do when you stand where I stand now." A party was sent out to destroy the corn in the fields of the Oneidas, most of whom had fled, though thirty-five had staid to defend their town and were taken prisoners. It Avas proposed that the army should next march against the Cayugas. But as it was of no use to march an army through the wilderness to take pos- session of a cluster of deserted wigwams, Frontenac decided to return home. In his despatches to the King, he represented the expedition as a brilliant triumph, which, indeed, would have been still more brilliant if the savages had made a stand, and given \ 128 CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR. [1697. the French army a chance to overwhelm and defeat them completely, but which, nevertheless, would be of vast advantage to the French interest, in pre- venting an alliance between the Iroquois and the Indian allies of the French. He took care, also, to say that the triumph could not have been effected had it not been for the rebuilding of Fort Frontenac, a proceeding in which he had gone contrary to the wishes of the King, and eluded his express orders. For this exploit he was rewarded with the cross of the Military Order of St. Louis. Early in 1698, tidings of the peace which had been proclaimed at Ryswick, September 20th, 1697, reached Montreal, and in July official notice was sent with a letter from the King ordering Te Deum to be sung in the cathedral of Quebec. An exchange of prisoners was proposed between the colonies of the two nations in America ; but a dispute arose between Frontenac and the Earl of Bellomont, Governor of New York, as to the exchange of the French prisoners in the hands of the Iroquois for the Iroquois in the hands of the French. Bellomont proposed to negotiate the exchange. Frontenac refused to treat with the Iroquois through the Eng- lish, which would have been an admission that the Iroquois were English subjects, whereas he chose to regard them as rebellious subjects of France. mmmm X698.J CLOSE OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR, lap The death of Frontenac interrupted the quarrel. That able and intrepid officer had exercised a pow- erful influence on the fortunes of the French in America. Much less pure and disinterested than Champlain, exacting and quarrelsome, he continu- ally exasperated his associates in times of peace ; but when danger threatened the colony, they in- stinctively felt that in his leadership was almost certain victory. He died in November, 1698, at the age of seventy-eight. He was succeeded by Calli^res, upon whom de- volved the settlement of the dispute about the Iro- quois, who declined to allow the English to negoti- ate for them, asserting their independence of both the foreign powers. After many councils, and many wampum belts, and much eloquence, the exchange was effected ; but the question of the sovereignty of the west, and even of New York, still remained undecided. In the following year, 1700, the French in Acadia lost their efficient leader Villebon. '' CHAPTER VIII. QU EEN AN .'S WAR. The Spanish Succession — The Pretender — Attacks on Wells, Saco, Casco, Deerfield, and Lancaster— Church in Acadia — Destruction of English Towns in Newfoundland — Sieges of Port Royal — At- tack on Haverhill — Final Capture of Port Royal by the English — Insurrection of the Acadians — Attempted Conquest of Canada by Admiral Walker — Attack of the Foxes on Detroit — Treaty of Utrecht — Louisbourg — Father Rasles — Expeditions of Harmon, Westbrooke, Winslow, and Lovewell— Indian Treaty — Forts at ' Niagara, Oswego, and Crown Point. But a few years of p.^ac" succeeded the treaty of Ryswick. First came tl ontest in Ejrope ov^er the Spanish succession — tnat is, the succession to the Spanish crown, which was bestowed upon one of the Bourbons, the reigning family of France. This threatened to give a great preponderance of power and influence to France, and William III., though he was old and sick, resolved to fight against a dangerous accession to the power of England's ancient enemy. But another cause of war soon arose. James II., the dethroned King of England, died at St. Germain in September, 1701 ; and be- fore he died he received a promise from Louis XIV., King of France, that he would recognize as King of xyoa.] QUEEN ANNE'S ^AR. 131 England his son, James Stuart, often called " the Pretender"— or, in later years, after his son, Charles Edward, had also made a claim to the throne of his fathers, " the Old Pretender." This recognition was, of course, a challenge to England, and preparations were made for war. William III. died in March, 1702, and was succeed- ed by Anne, the sister of his wife, and daughter of James IT. War was declared by England against France, May 15th, 1702. The contest that followed is known in European history as the War of the Spanish Succession ; in American history, it is usu- ally called Queen Anne's War ; or the Second Inter- colonial War. On the one side were France, Spain, and Bavaria ; on the other, England, Holland, Sa- voy, Austria, Prussia, Portugal, and Denmark. It was in this war that the Duke of Marlborough won his fame. To the people of New England, war between France and England meant the hideous midnight war-whoop, the tomahawk and scalping-knife, burn- ing hamlets, and horrible captivity. To provide against it, a conference was called to meet at Fal- mouth, on Casco Bay, in June, 1703, when Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, met many of the chiefs of the Abenaquis. The Indians, professing to have no thought of war, promised peace and friendship by 132 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1703. their accustomed tokens, and it was believed in New England that they were sincere, and would be neu- tral during any hostilities that might arise between the English and French colonies. But, as usual, only a part of the tribes had been brought into the alliance, those on and west of the Penobscot ; an! a party of lawless plunderers, by attacking and pillaging St. Castin's place, roused the resentment of the tribe on that river and dis- posed them to listen to the insinuations of their ancient allies. French persuasions were successful, and by August five hundred French and Indians were assembled, ready for incursions into the New England settlements. They divided into several bands and fell upon a number of places at the same time. Wells, Saco, and Casco were again among the doomed villages, but the fort at Casco was not taken, owing to the arrival of an armed vessel under Captain Southwick. About one hundred and fifty persons were killed or captured in these attacks. In a night of February, 1704, a large party under Hertel de Rouville reached the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and hid them- selves in a pine forest until morning. The people had received information from Colonel Schuyler that they were in danger of attack, and twenty soldiers were sent to them as a guard. On this night, how- 1704] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. "^ZZ ever, the watch went to sleep two hours before day- break. The town was surrounded with palisades ; but huge drifts of snow were piled up against them, and they were no defence. The invaders entered ^ undiscovered, and in a few hours forty-seven of the inhabitants were killed, the town was in flames, and one hundred and twelve prisoners were on their way to Canada. The journey to Quebec was long and painful, and two of the men starved on the way, for the party had to depend on hunting for support. Most of the prisoners were in time redeemed. On the 30th of July, the town of Lancaster was assailed, and a few people were killed, seven build- ings burned, and much property destroyed. These and other depredations of war-parties along the coasts filled New England with consternation. The governments of Massachusetts and New Hampshire offered a bounty of twenty pounds for every Indian prisoner under ten years, and forty for every one above that age, or for the scalp of one. Yet but few were taken, even at that price. It was then resolved to fit out an expedition for retaliation, and as usual the people of Acadia were selected to expi-. ate the sins of the Indians and Canadians. Colonel Benjamin Church was put in command of five hundred and fifty men, fourteen transports, and thirty-six whale-boats, convoyed by three ships of 1 ; \v f '•a 4 134 Q UEEN A NNE ' S WA Ji. [1704. il ! war. Sailing from Boston in May, 1704, he stopped at Penobscot, and killed and took captive a few French and Indians, among them a daughter and several grandchildren of St. Castin. At Passama- quoddy he met with similar success, and then sailed on to the Bay of Fundy. The ships of war were sent to Port Royal, where they did nothing but wait for him to come back. Church himself went on with the other vessels to Minas, farther up the bay. This place was built on marsh lands, enclosed by dykes. The soldiers cut the dykes, plundered and burned the dwellings, and took some prisoners. Returning to Port Royal, Church discreetly re- frained from attacking a fortified place, and the officers signed a declaration that their force was in- sufficient for an assault. Chignecto was next visit- ed, twenty houses were burned, large numbers of cattle killed, and the whole settlement ravaged. The only thing that can be said in excuse for this kind of warfare is, that it was less cruel than the barbarous attacks for which it was intended to re- taliate. In 1705, four hundred and fifty men under Suber- case — soldiers, Canadian peasants, adventurers, and Indians, well armed, and with rations for twenty days, blankets, and tents—set out to destroy the English settlements in Newfoundland, marching on iiSenSSiBaUl wmm 1709.] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 135 snow-shoes. They took Petit Havre and St. John's, i.nd devastated all the little settlements along the eastern coast, and the English trade was for the time completely broken up. Subercase was made Governor of Acadia in 1706. The following spring New England sent Colonel March to Port Royal with two regiments, but he returned without assaulting the fort. Governor Dudley forbade the troops to land when they came back to Boston, and ordered them to go again. Colonel March was ill, and Colonel Wainwright took command ; but after a pretence of besieging the fort for eleven days, he retired with small loss, the expedition having cost Massachusetts two thousand two hundred pounds. In 1708 a council at Montreal decided to send a large number of Canadians and Indians to devastate New England. But after a long march through the almost impassable mountain region of northern New Hampshire, a murderous attack on Haverhill, in which thirty or forty were killed, was the only re- sult. Thirty of the assailants were killed by a pur- suing party from neighboring settlements, under Samuel Ayer, and some of the prisoners were rescued. Ayer himself fell a victim to his brave effort in behalf of his neighbors. In 1709 a plan was formed in England ^or thecapt- t iy 136 QUEEN ANNE 'S WAR. [1710. ure of New France by a fleet and five regiments of British soldiers aided by the colonists. But a defeat in Portugal called away the ships destined for America, and a force gathered at Lake Champlain under Colonel Nicholson for a land attack was so re- duced by sickness — said to have resulted from the poisoning of a spring by Indians — that they burned their canoes and retreated. The next year, Nicholson was furnished with six ships of war, thirty transports, and one British and four New England regiments, for the capture of Port Royal. Subercase had only two hundred and sixty men and an insufficient supply of provisions. His soldiers were disaffected, and as soon as the ships appeared they began deserting, complaining that they had been neglected and abandoned by their own country. Subercase had to order the canoes removed to prevent a general desertion. Nicholson sent a summons to surrender, after three days' waiting, landed his troops after three days more, and bombarded the fort after another week. The inhabitants of the town petitioned Su- bercase to surrender. Nothing else could be done, and on the i6th of October the starving and ragged garrison marched out to be sent to France. For the last time the French flag was hauled down from the fort, and Port Royal was henqefarth an English for- 1 ' "J i tf mmimiimmtmtimmm I71I.J QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 137 tress, which was re-named Annapolis Royal, in honor o*" Queen Anne. Subercase sent St. Castin to Quebec to carry the news, and Nicholson despatched a letter to Vau- dreuil, the Governor, by Major Livingstone, threat- ening reprisals on the people of Acadia, if the bar- barities of French and Indians in New England were continued. Vaudreuil replied that the French were able to avenge anything he might do ; that they were not responsible for the acts of the Indians ; that they had not treated prisoners with inhuman- ity ; and that a truce might long ago have put a stop to hostilities if the English had been willing. He appointed St. Castin his lieutenant in Acadia, and directed him and the missionaries to keep alive the loyalty of the French and preserve the friendship of the Indians. They were so successful that the next year, when the garrison of Port Royal was weakened by disease, death, and even desertion, the inhabitants refused to obey the comm.andant's order to bring in timber for repairing the fort. Sixty men sent out to seize a band of Indians and Acadians fell into an ambus- cade ; half were killed, and the remainder taken pris- oners. The people of the town then sent word to the commandant, that since he, as they thought, had violated the terms of the surrender, they deemed I 1 m'. QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [17". themselves absolved from their agreement not to bear arms, and one of the priests went to Placentia for arms, ammunition, and an officer to lead the in- surgents. Rut by this time news of the uprising had reached Boston, and two hundred men from there soon reduced the insurgents, captured the supplies, and forced St. Castin to fly to Quebec. Immediately after his victory, Nicholson went to England to secure a force for the conquest of Canada ; and about the same time Colonel Schuyler of New York went theie for the same purpose, tak- ing with him five Iroquois sachems to awaken inter- est in the cause, and to insure the fidelity of the tribes to the English alliance. The chiefs caused a great sensation throughout the kingdom. The court was in mourning, and the sachems were therefore dressed in black suits, but over them they wore mantles of scarlet cloth bordered with gold. They were taken in coaches to an audience with the Queen ; and presented her with belts of wampum, while one of them made a speech, saying : " We were greatly rejoiced when we heard that our great Queen had resolved to send an army against Canada. We hung up the kettle, and took down the hatchet. But while we were getting ready we were told that our great Queen could not send the army. We were very sorrowful. We cannot hunt I7II.] QUEEN ANNE'S IVAJi. n9 in freedom if Canada is not taken. So that if our great Queen does not remember us, we must take our families and forsake our country, or stand neu- tral while the French are fighting our friends." The Secretary of State, St. John, afterward Vis- count Bolingbroke, planned the expedition. Fifteen ships of war rnd forty transports, placed under the command of Sir Hovenden Walker, carried seven regiments of veterans from the Duke of Marlbor- ough's army, and a battalion of marines under the command of Brigadier-General Hill. They arrived in Boston on the 25th of June, and encamped on Noddle's Island, now East Boston. A great crowd of people gathered to witness the review of the troops. "They made a very fine appearance," wrote the Admiral, " such as had never before been in these parts of the world." New England and New York had raised two regi- ments to join the fleet ; and on the 30th of July sixty-eight vessels, carrying six thousand five hun- dred soldiers, set sail for Quebec. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut collected about four thou- sand men, including a thousand Indians, to march against Montreal, under Colonels Schuyler, Whiting, and Ingoldsby, while Nicholson had the general care of the expedition. It was expected, also, that the Indian tribe called Foxes, in Wisconsin, whose 140 Q UEEN A NNE ' S WA R. [1711. alliance had been secured through the Iroquois, would begin hostilities against the French in the stations on the lakes. When Vaudreuil learned that a hostile fleet was on its way to Quebec and an army marching toward Montreal, he first gathered the Onondaga and Sen- eca deputies and persuaded them to remain neu- tral. Then he gave a great festival, at which the war-song was sung and the hatchet raised. There were the Christian Indians of the settlements near Montreal, called the Sault and the Mountain ; there were the Indians of the various mission stations of the Jesuits ; there were Algonquin chiefs from the banks of the St. Lawrence, Ottawas, and Hurons, and Chippewas from beyond the lakes. The raising of the hatchet by the Hurons decided these remoter tribes ; and when the festival ended, they were all declared allies of the French. Quebec was strength- ened, and the settlements along the banks below were guarded sufficiently to prevent the landing of the hostile troops. Three thousand men were placed at Chambly to meet the army from Albany on its way to Montreal. But the fleet was destined never to see Quebec. Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker was busy with inge- nious plans for taking care of his vessels at Quebec during the winter after he should have taken the V ^ ■illllMBiii 17".] QUEEN ANNE 'S WAX. 141 F place. He said, "the ice in the river, freezing to the bottom, would bilge them as much as if they were to be squeezed between rocks," and concluded that the better way would be to " secure them on the dry ground in frames and cradles, till the thaw." Meantime he remained in complete ignorance of the real difficulties and dangers that lay in his path. He had with him a French seaman of experience named Paradis, and by following his advice might have navigated the river in safety. But, refusing all counsel, he gave orders according to his own no- tions, and the fleet approached during a fog very near a small island ; a sudden wind from the south- east drove the ships toward it, eight of them were wrecked, and eight hundred and eighty-four men were drowned. After this disaster, the Admiral ordered his fleet about and bore off to the coast of Cape Breton, where he held a council of officers. All agreed that it was not advisable to go on ; there was but ten weeks' provision for the men, and a supply could hardly arrive in time from New England. In re- porting it. Walker philosophized thus : " Had we arrived safe at Quebec, ten or twelve thousand men must have been left to perish of cold and hunger ; thus by the loss of a part, Providence saved all the rest !" The Admiral's ships sailed for England and \ ' Z43 QUEEN ANNE 'S PVAA\ [I7". the provincial vessels carried home the New Eng- land troops. Nicholson, who had reached Lake George when he heard of the issue of the attack on Quebec, returned home and abandoned his under- taking also. In the following year, the French were assailed by a new enemy, the Foxes, or Ottagamies, whom the Iroquois had drawn into an alliance against them. A party of their warriors set out to burn Detroit, which was defended by only twenty men under Du Buisson. But, having timely warning, Du Buisson^ sent swift messages to the Jesuit stations to have the Indian allies of the French sent to his relief. They poured in from every side and surrounded the Foxes, who soon found themselves the besieged in- stead of the besiegers. They held out with desper- ate bravery, but were at last compelled to surren- der. The warriors of the party were slain at once, and the rest divided as slaves among the conquer- ors. But the French had gained an implacable foe ; and for a long time the Foxes and some more nu- merous tribes with which they were leagued con- tinued to harass the French posts at the West. Negotiations for peace began in Europe in 171 2, but were not concluded till the following year. The power of France had been humbled ; and not only did the policy of England prevail in the settlement m. mmmmmm I7I3] QUERN ANNE'S WAR. '43 of questions regarding European territory, but Eng- land also gained large tracts of land in America which had been claimed by her enemy. Although France was left in possession of Louisiana, England gained Newfoundland, Hudson Bay and Straits with the land adjoining, the Island of St. Christopher, and Nova Scotia or Acadia, according to its ancient boundaries. The Iroquois, or Five Nations, were recognized as being under the dominion of the Eng- lish, and it was stipulated that France should never molest thern. The treaty of peace was signed at Utrecht, April nth, 1713. But there was still abundant room for future mis- understandings and disputes. The limits of the territory of the Five Nations were indefir't,, the French applied the name Louisiana to the entire valley of the Mississippi and the Ohio, and the boundaries of Acadia had long been a subject of dis- pute. The French claimed that only the southern portion of the peninsula of Nova Scotia was proper- ly included in Acadia ; while the English applied the name to a great territory bounded by the St. Law- rence, the ocean and gulf, and a line drawn from, the mouth of the Kennebec to Quebec, and includ- ing the islands of Cape Breton and St. John, now Prince Edward Island. Large numbers of the Acadians, restive under 144 QUEEN ANNE'S WAH. [17x3- ii^ British rule, removed to the provinces still under the control of the French, many of them to Cape Breton Island. A large settlement was formed at Louis- burg on the southeastern shore of the island. Here was a fine harbor, half a mile broad, and here in time arose the strongest fortress in America, pro- tecting the French fisheries and forming a refuge for privateers in time of war. The Abenaquis, seeing with jealousy the growth of the English settlements in their territory, sent an embassy to the Governor of Canada, asking if the French had really given up their country to the English. Vaudreuil answered that nothing was said about their country in the treaty ; and the Indians, resolved to undertake their own defence, attacked the English fishermen at Canso, killing several and robbing them of all they had, and committing other similar depredations. The New England people had long been suspi- cious of the influence of a Jesuit missionary, Sebas- tian Rasles, at Norridgewock, on the Kennebec. He had been at the Jesuit mission on the Chaudi^re, had travelled throurfh th^ st in pursuit of his call- ing, and was fam'"' 3f the Indian lan- guages. For 1 he had been on the Kennebec ^ere h iiad gathered a flourish- ing congregation of & ivages, and built a church * ; X73I.J QUEEN ANNE 'S IVAR. MS I which he had decorated with pictures painted by his own hand, and whose glittering altar was looked on with reverent awe by savage eyes. His altar- boys were little Indians, gorgeous in red and white ; and their chanting processions were a favorite bid for the admiration of the natives. The old man shared the journeys and the dangers of his flock, and his influ- ence over them was unbounded. This influence, there was every reason to believe, was used to incite them to depredations on the English settlements ; he was said to keep a flag on which was a cross sur' rounded by bows and arrows, which he used to raise on a pole in front of the church when he gave them absolution before they set out on their warlike en- terprises. Father Rasles was therefore marked for destruc- tion. On occasion of the Abenaquis threatening reprisals if some of their chiefs who were held by the Massachusetts Government as hostages were not released, a party of men under Colonel Westbrook was sent in December, 172 1, to capture the priest. The hunters were away on the chase, and there was no one to protect him ; but, warned of Westbrook's approach, he fled to the woods in haste, leaving his papers behind. Among them was his correspond- ence with the Governor of Canada, which proved that the suspicions against him were not unfounded. u m X46 QUEEN ANNE'S WAA\ [1722. There was also a dictionary in manuscript of the Abenaquis language, which has been preserved, and was printed by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1833. At about the same time the young Baron de St. Castin was also seized, as dan- gerous to the peace of the settlements in the east, and taken to Boston. Exasperated by these attempts on their leaders, the Indians determined on war. They invited all the tribes of their own nation not only, but those near Quebec, to unite with them. The first blow was struck at Merry Meeting Bay, near the junction of the Androscoggin with the Kennebec, where Brunswick now stands. A party of sixty Indians captured nine families, but they afterward released all but five men, whom they kept as security for their hostages in the hands of the English. Two attacks on the fort at the River St. George were un- successful, as were nearly all Indian attempts on fortifier" places ; but many fishing and trading ves- sels fell into their hands, and with these they cruised about the coast, compelling the captured seamen to serve as their crews. Two armed vessels sent out by the Governor of Nova Scotia re-took all the ves- sels, numbering more than twenty, and put a stop to the piracies for the time. Parties sent out the next year, under Captain ^'■f^t- i-T^-gTJwr-jr-r-vj- 1724] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 147 Harmon and Colonel Westbrook, made some repri- sals on the savages. Harmon pursued a party of thirty -four, and killed fifteen of them as they lay by their camp-fires. Westbrook took a large party of men to a village on the Penobscot, supposed to have been above Bangor at Old Town ; it was deserted, and they set fire to it. and all the buildings in it, including a well-built stockade fort, a chapel, and the residence of the priests, were laid in ashes. During this year the Indians were comparatively quiet, but in 1724 the)'' broke out afresh. Men working in the fields, or for any reason away from the settlements, were liable to death or capture at any moment. At Kennebunk a sloop was taken, and every man on it was put to death. Captain Josiah Winslow and sixteen men who were with him were surprised on the St. George, and every one of them was killed. Annapolis was at- tacked, and a party sent out from the fort was de- feated. The priest of Annapolis, who was at Mi- nas when the Indians gathered there, and might have given warning of the intended attack, was ex- pelled from the colony and sent to Louisburg ; an- other priest, who did send a warning, although it arrived too late, was thanked and promoted by the English ; but the church authorities afterward su- perseded him, placing in Minas, where the English t .; !:'• 148 QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. [1724. HP I hi had stationed him, one more faithful to the French interest. The same year another expedition was planned to seize the hated Father Rasles. He had been urged to fly to Canada ; but, though he knew the danger, he would not leave his post. " God has given this flock into my care," he said, " and I shall not leave it." This time the assailants succeeded in taking Norridgewock by surprise. The Indians made lit- tle resistance ; all who could get away fled to the river, crossed it, and escaped to the forest. Father Rasles, who was in his wigwam, went forward to help his flock to escape by drawing the attention of the assailants to himself, and was struck down at once, killed, scalped, and trodden under foot. After pillaging the church and the dwellings, the soldiers set them on fire and retired. The mourning Indians buried their priest beneath the ground where his altar had stood, and now a monument to his mem- ory marks the spot where he fell. In the following year Captain John Lovewell, of Dunstable, impelled by patriotism, or the desire of adventure, or the bounty on scalps, led out a party of men. Ten Indians asleep beside the Salmon Falls River were surprised and killed, and Lovewell received one thousand pounds for the ten scalps. The next expedition was not so fortunate ; it fell [1724. rench ed to urged nger, n this leave aking e lit- the ather rd to on of vn at After Idiers dians e his nem- 11, of re of Darty Imon swell alps. : fell 'I! i i ill' u: < Qi U X H < fa O H <; e 1 ■ Hi Im t^R 1 V I73I] QUEEN ANNE'S WAR, 149 into an ambuscade on the Saco ; and Lovewell and half of his thirty-four men lost their Hves. Love- well's Pond, near Fryeburg, where he fell, is named for him, and the brook flowing into it is called Bat- tle Brook. In the summer of the same year, a conference with the Indians was held at the fort on the St. George. They seemed disposed for peace, and in November four of the chiefs were called to Boston to form a treaty. They acknowledged the title of the English to Nova Scotia and Acadia, and promised to main- tain peace and deliver up their prisoners. The treaty was faithfully observed, and the eastern colonies had a season of rest from the horrors of Indian warfare. In 1726, the French built a fort at Niagara, where they had long had a trading-post ; and in the follow- ing year, Governor Burnet, of New York, built what he called a '* stone house of strength " at Oswego. The Governor of Canada remonstrated, and threat- ened to destroy it, but did not venture on any vio- lence. In 1 73 1, the French built Fort Frederick at Crown Point, thus asserting their claim to north- eastern New York. CHAPTER IX. KING GEORGE'S WAR. Sovereig;ns of England — The Austrian Succession — Maria Theresa — Frederick the Great — The War — Hostilities between France and England — Attacks on Canso and Annapolis — La Loutre — Pro- posed Expedition to Louisbourg — Shirley, Pepperell, and Vaughan — Commodore Warren — Whitefield — Siege and Fall of Louis- bourg — Rejoicings in Boston — Project to Conquer Canada — Fight- ing in Acadia — Fate of the ?>ench Fleet — Success of Ramezay at Grand Pr6 — Capture of Jonquiere's Fleet — The French and Ind- ians on the Western Frontier — Inactivity of the English — Possible Reasons for it — The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Peace reigned between France and Fngland for thirty years after the Treaty cf Utrecht. Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart line of sovereigns, died in 1714, and was succeeded by George I., first English king of the House of Hanover, who in- herited through his mother, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James I. of England. He died in 1727, and was succeeded by his son, George H. It was during the reign of this king that England became engaged in the next war which involved the colonies of North America. In 1740, Charles VI., Emperor of Germany, died. Many years before, he had taken measures to secure to his daughter, Maria Theresa, the succession to ' %.* 1 740. J KIXG GEORGE'S WAR. »5» his hereditary dominions ; and he hoped that after his death her husband, the Duke of Tuscany, would be chosen by the electors to wear the imperial crown. To secure the inheritance to his daughter, he pro- claimed a law called the " Pragmatic Sanction," » regulating the succession. Many of the powers of Europe demurred ; but by ceding away parts of his dominions to the other monarchies of the continent, the Emperor at length gained their consent. After his death, however, claims were made to his domin- ions by several princes, on grounds having more or less color of justice in themselves, but all were set aside by the Pragmatic Sanction to which they had pledged their support. The young queen had been carefully educated with a view to the position her father designed her to occupy. She had shared his counsels, and learned something of the art of governing. She was twenty-three years of age when her father died, and being gifted with beauty, unusual mental abili- ty, and a high spirit, she was well fitted to attract the loyalty of her father's subjects The first to attack the rights of the young queen was the King of Prussia, Frederick II., called the Great. Raising some pretence of a right to the possession of Silesia, which had been under Aus- tria for more than a hundred years, he prepared an 15a KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1740. army of thirty thousand men, and sent them into the country, in December, 1740, without having' made any declaration of war, or any demand for the province ; indeed, he had until then professed to be friendl)^ to the interests of Maria Theresa. After filling Silesia with his forces, Frederick sent an ambassador to the Queen, offering to aid her against her other enemies, if she would cede to him the duchy which he had invaded, which she indig- nantly refused to do. He then overran the whole of Lower Silesia with his troops, and Prussia was suc- cessful in the first battle with Austria, that of Moll- witz, in April, 1741, though Frederick himself ran away. Then all the other claimants rushed on to the dismemberment of the Austrian Empire. France took the part of the Elector of Bavaria, who claimed the throne. Prussia, France, Spain, and Poland were combined against the Queen. Thus began the War of the Austrian Succession. Maria Theresa was obliged to yield Silesia to Frederick, in June, 1742, but succeeded in maintain- , ing her claim to most of her other dominions, while the Elector of Bavaria was thoroughly humbled. The war now became a struggle on the part of Aus- tria to wrest Alsace and Lorraine from France, and Naples from Spain, and to make Bavaria a part of the Austrian dominions. England had aided Aus- \=j 1744] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 153 tria by subsidies and troops, and her forces met the army of France in the battle of Dettingen in June, 1743. But it was not until March, 1744, that war was formally declared between France and England. When the news of the declaration of war was sent to Louisbonrg, orders were also sent that no offen- sive measures should be taken until reinforcements should arrive. But it was thought that a sudden at- tack on the small garrisons at Annapolis and Canso, before help could arrive from New England, could not fail of success. Du Vivier, a great-grandson of Charles la Tour, so prominent in the early history of Acadia, taking command of five hundred men, of whom two hundred were Indians, and several vessels, attacked the block-house at Canso, in May, 1744. Having no chance of a successful defence, the gar- rison of eighty men surrendered at once, and were taken to Louisbourg, on condition that they should be sent, at the end of a year, to England or to Boston. The buildings were all destroyed by Du Vivier's men. It remained only to take Annapolis. The fort was an earthwork in a ruinous condition, held by one hundred and fifty men under Paul Mascarene. Du Vivier took his prisoners to Louisbourg, and re- mained there some time, making preparations for going to Annapolis. Meantime, a rumor reached I ■■;: 154 KING GEORGE'S WAR. ['744- W\\ li that place that five hundred French and Indians, on the way to attack it, were already on the river above the town. A vessel soon arrived from Boston bring- ing news of the declaration of war, and the ofificers and soldiers of the garrison sent their families to Boston by the return of the galley, two other ves- sels being sent with it, thus greatly relieving the place of those unable to bear arms. The men then went to work repairing the fortifications. The Indians who had been with Du Vivier at Canso grew impatient waiting for his return ; and they were easily persuaded by Belleisle, a scion of the St. Castin family, to march against Annapolis under his leadership without waiting for Du Vivier. They were accompanied by their priest, La Loutre, who, like most of the priests in Acadia, had been faithfully laboring to keep his flock loyal to French interests. If the Indians had been supported by Du Vivier's soldiers, Annapolis would proba- bly have fallen ; for it was not in a condition to withstand a determined assault. But the Indians pursued their usual methods, picking off strag- glers and firing from under cover. The English ^ sent out a party of workmen and soldiers, who drove them back and tore down all buildings that could protect them from the guns of the fort, and they were glad to escape with a few stolen cattle. 1744] KING GEORGE'S WAR, 155 Reenforcements were sent from Boston to the number of one hundred men or more. Du Vivier returned with two hundred soldiers, expecting a general rising among the inhabitants ; but there was only a feeble response to his summons to them to enlist under the banner of France and bring in sup- plies for the expedition ; and the Indians were dis- heartened by their failure. Many of the savages, however, joined him, and late in August he began his attack. After several days of ineffectual firing, he sent in a flag of truce, saying that three ships of war were on their way to his assistance, together with a large body of soldiers, and supplies of cannon and mortars, and offering to accept a capitulation conditioned on their arrival ; but Mascarene refused to have any negotiations with him. The attacks were resumed and kept up night after night, until late in September, when another reenforcement ar- rived from Boston. Having learned from a prisoner that Mascnrene talked of attacking his camp, Du Vivier hastily drew off to Minas, and finally returned to Louisbourg. It was not long after Du Vivier abandoned the siege, that a part of his ships arrived ; but finding him gone, they withdrew, while Mascarene kept his men at work strengthening the defences during the au- tumn and winter, in expectation of another attack. ^1' ill i lit;' \ m IT . 1? ! I ! I !i lllll il: '56 /frJ¥G GEORGE'S WAR. [1745. La Loutre gathered a force of Indians again, who were joined by some Canadian troops, and in the spring they made a feeble attack on Annapolis, and prowled about the country, but with no greater success than the capture of two trading- vessels. The soldiers taken at Canso, who had been sent to Boston on parole, gave information regarding the condition of the fortress, and in January, 1745, the question of an expedition for its capture began to be agitated. Governor Shirley of Massachusetts had written to England the preceding autumn, asking help for the protection of Nova Scotia and the capture of Louisbourg ; but as yet no answer had been received. In January he laid the project before the State Legislature in a secret session. It was at first rejected, so improbable did it seem that a provincial force could effect the capture of the strongest post in North America. But afterward, on a complaint from the merchants of Boston, Sa- lem, and Marblehead, of the injuries to their vessels I'rom the privateers which found refuge at Louis- bourg, the project was reconsidered, and resolved on by a majority of one. The other provinces were asked to render aid. Connecticut sent five hundred and sixteen men. New Hampshire three hundred and four ; and these, with the three thousand two hundred and fifty i 1745] KING GEORGE'S WAR. »57 raised in Massachusetts, constituted the whole force. Rhode Island sent three hundred, but they arrived too late. New York gave some artillery, and Penn- sylvania some provisions. The New England colo- nies furnished thirteen armed vessels. Commodore Warren, who was at Antigua, was solicited to send some of his ships, but declined doing so without express orders from England. It was a question who should command this expe- dition. With the exception of some little irregular fighting with the Indians, peace had reigned through- out the colonies for thirty years ; and there were no officers to be had in the provinces with any knowl- edge of the science of regular warfare. The choice fell upon William Pepperell, of Kittery, a colonel of militia, who, as a merchant, a landholder in three of the provinces, and a man of clear judgment and weight of character, would be likely to have influence with those of his countrymen who were to be led on this great undertaking. Immense enthusiasm attended the fitting out of the expedition. Pepperell sought advice from the celebrated preacher, George Whitefield, on the question of accepting the proffered command, and Whitefield answered that if he should fail, the re- sponsibility for the blood of the fallen would be laid to his charge, and that if he should succeed, he m illf 158 KING GEOHGE'S WAR. 1. 1 743. would become an object of malicious envy lo his fellow-citizens. In spite of this dark augury, Pep- perell accepted. To the New Hampshire troops who asked him for a motto, Whitefield gave, Nil dcspcranduDt, CJiristo Duce — "Nothing is tc be de- spaired of, Christ being the leader." In this spirit of religious enthusiasm, one of the volunteers car- ried an axe wherewith to hew down the crosses and images in the French churches. All sorts of advice and schemes for the protection of the volunteers and the speedy capture of the fort were laid before the officers. One inventive enthusiast brought a model of a flying bridge which would land the army within the walls at a single bound. A minister had a scheme for avoiding the explosion of mines, and taking Louisbourg without the loss of a life. Another had made a complete plan of the siege, the camp, the batteries, the intrenchments. Gov- ernor- Shirley's instructions were, that the army should land in the night and march to surprise the fortress before daybreak. Late in March, 1745, the fleet set sail, carrying the army of fishermen, farmers, mechai.ics, and lum- bermen, under their citizen General, Will am Pep- perell. Brigadier- General Waldo, and their subor- dinate officers, mostly chosen from among the church deacons, justices of the peace, and other cit- 1745] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 159 izens of respectability and consideration in their townships. Among them was the soldier, Colonel William Vaughan, who had first suggested the enter- prise to Governor Shirley. Arriving at Canso early in April, they found the coast of Cape Breton so clogged with ice that not a vessel could enter the harbors, which made it probable that no news of their intentions could have reached the fort. While they were waiting, Pepperell had a block-house built in place of the one that had been destroyed the previous year, and garrisoned it with eighty men. Their spirits were raised by the capture of a richly-loaded vessel on its way from Martinique to Louisbourg, and still more by the arrival of four ships of war under Commodore War- ren, who had received instructions from England to go to the help of the colonies, just after his refusal to proceed without orders had been despatched to Boston. More ships of war soon after arrived, and in a few days Louisbourg was blockaded, Warren's ships guarded the entrance to the harbor, and the places in the vicinity from which supplies might be sent were surprised and held. Louisbourg was fortified with a stone rampart thirty feet high and forty feet thick at the base, which swept around the town in a circuit of two miles, and was surrounded by a ditch eighty feet v\ i6o KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1745. l!;! v/ide. Six bastions stood out from this great wall, and there were embrasures for a hundred and forty- eight cannon and six mortars. On an island at the entrance of the harbor was a battery of thirty pieces, and on the shore opposite the entrance was the grand or royal battery of twenty-eight forty- two pounders and two eighteen-pounders, with a moat and bastions. Near the drawbridge, giving entrance to the town on the land side, was a circular battery mounting sixteen twenty-four pounders. This fortress, which was twenty-five years in build- ing, cost thirty millions of livres, and was called the " Dunkirk of America," is now a lonely ruin, the former military importance of the place having entirely passed away. The appearance of the fleet in Chapeaurouge, or Gabarus Bay, southward from the city, May 30th, was the first intimation of danger the French had received. They fired cannon, rang bells, and ran about in confusion ; and a hundred and fitty soldiers, under an officer named Boulardiere, were sent out to prevent the landing. But Pepperell quietly sent a detachment farther up the Bay while Boulardiere's attention was fixed on the spot where it was sup- posed the attempt would be made, and Boulardiere was obliged to retire into the city again. About two thousand men were landed that day, and by 1745] KING GEORGE'S WAR. l6i the next night all were on shore. Colonel Vaughan took a party of New Hampshire men and marched past the city to the northeast harbor, where the) burned a number of warehouses containing naval stores and large quantities of wine and brandy. The smoke was carried into the royal battery, a panic seized the men in charge of it, and they spiked their guns and fled. In the morning Vaughan's men took possession of the deserted battery. Boat-loads of men from the city came to dislodge them, but Vaughan stood on the shore with thirteen men and prevented them from landing till reinforcements came. The spiked cannon were drilled out and turned on the city and the island battery, throwing a deadly fire within the walls and reaching the roof of the cita- del. To a summons to surrender, on the 7th of May, Du Chambon, the commandant, returned a refusal ; but his men had been so mutinous oefore the siege that he did not dare trust them to make a sortie, for fear of desertion. In order to place batteries for more effective work, it was necessary to carry the guns over a morass. ' Sledges were made, and the men drew them by straps passed over their shoulders, sinking to their knees in the bog. This task consumed fourteen nights. Several attempts were made by the besiegers to <, :i 1 :!rt^ I i^ i ll l62 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [i745- take the island battery, but all without success ; one, a night attack, was a disastrous failure. The assailants, discovered before they could land, and met by a sharp fire, were glad to escape after nearly an hour's hard fighting, having lost sixty men killed and a hundred and sixteen prisoners. Despairing of taking the island battery, the Americans then placed a battery on the high cape at the light- house on the eastern side of the harbor, which com- manded the island battery, and nearly silenced it. The siege had now lasted almost six weeks, and the city had neither been entered nor had a breach been made in the walls. Other ships of war had arrived, and it was agreed that the fleet should sail into the harbor and bombard while the land forces attempted an entrance by storm. At this time the Vigilant, a French ship, carrying sixty- four guns arrived with military supplies for the garrison, and was taken by a Massachusetts frigate under the command of Captain Edward Tyng. Pepperell sent news of the capture to Du Chambon under a flag of truce, and this so discouraged the commandant that he determined to canitulate, and on the 17th of June Louisbourg was surrendered, after a siege of forty-nine days. The garrison, the crew of the Vigilant, and some of the inhabitants of the town were sent to France. — —imin^liii 1745] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 163 When the American troop- entered the fortress they for the first time realized the strength of the place and the magnitude of the enterprise, the undertaking of which now seemed presumptuous, and its success Httle short of a miracle. With the feeling that Providence had manifestly interfered to give them the victory, they listened to the chaplain who proclaimed the gospel according to Calvin from the altar whence they had cast down the images and the tapers. There was great rejoicing in Boston when a swift- sailing schooner brought news of the victory of which the anxious communities at home were be- ginning to despair. Commodore Warren had sent home two prisoners some weeks before, one the commander of a battery without the walls of Louis- bourg, the other, captain of a captured ship ; and these men had given descriptions of the strength of the fortress, which made New England tremble for its little army. But now bells were rung, cannon fired, and tumultuous crowds added their voices in a general shout of rejoicing. In England the report that such a stronghold had been taken by an untrained army of provincials could hardly be believed. Sir Peter Warren, tlie naval commander, acknowledged the services of the colo- nists but grudgmgly ; and though it was the most I I 164 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1745- brilliant success the English achieved during the war, English historians scarcely mention it. Voltaire, however, calls the capture of Louisbourg one of the most remarkable events of the reign of Louis XV. General Pepperell was made a baronet for his share in the enterprise, while Governor Shirley re- ceived a commission in the regular army, and after- ward held the chief military command in America. Colonel Vaughan went to England to present his claims, but failed to receive any reward for his ser- vices, and died in London in obscurity and neglect. The capture of Louisbourg led to a project on the part of the English authorities to conquer Canada, and one by the French to recover Cape Breton and Acadia, and devastate the New England coast. Governor Shirley wrote to the British ministry, urging measures for the conquest of Canada, and in response the Secretary of State sent orders to the governors of the colonies, as far south as Virginia, to raise as many men as possible, and have them ready for action. A squadron of ships and some land forces were to be sent to Louisbourg, and there met by the New England troops, when the united force was to ascend the St. Lawrence to Quebec. At the same time the soldiers from New York and the southern colonies were to assemble at Albany for the capture of Crown Point and Montreal. mgmigmmtmm 1746.] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 165 The colonial troops were readily raised, to the number of about eight thousand men, and waited for the fleet. But no fleet came. When the season was so far advanced that all hopes of its arrival were given up, it was thought best to employ the troops o» dered to Albany in an attack on Crown Point ; and the Iroquois as usual were found willing to join in the undertaking. The New England troops were ordered to Acadia, on the sudden intelligence that the inhabitants were on the eve of revolt, and that Annapolis was threatened by a body of French and Indians. During the same season a large fleet had been gathered at Brest for the capture of Louisbourg, Annapolis, and Boston ; and the Canadians and their Indian allies were to be ready to cooperate with the fleet by land. Six hundred Canadians, therefore, repaired to Acadia in June, and the Mic- macs and Malicites rallied once more under the banners of France. This force was waiting at Chignecto in September for the arrival of the fleet, when the Governor of Canada, having heard that the New England forces were about to embark for Acadia, sent orders to Ramezay, their commander, to bring them back to Quebec. But as Ramezay was about^ to go, he learned tha*: the French fleet had arrived in the harbor of Chebucto, now Halifax. n m 1 ; 3!! ft i 1; : :rt (,f:! i i; •« 'i '; Hill ' ' "ii!! 166 /r/NG GEORGE'S WAR. [1746. This intelligence, which was received by Rame- zay's men with great rejoicing, and had filled New England with consternation, was not so important as it seemed. The fleet which had started from France on the 22d of June, under the command of the Due d'Anville, comprised forty ships of war, with transports carrying more than three thousand soldiers and all kinds of military stores. It was the largest armament that had ever been sent to American shores. But a tempest had scattered the ships soon after they set sail, many of them were compelled to return, and when the Due d'Anville reached Chebucto he had only three of his war-ships and a few transports left. An Infectious fever was rapidly disabling the soldiers that remained, and on the i6th of September, a few days after the arrival, D'Anville himself suddenly died, not without sus- picion of poison. More ships having arrived, the officer next in com- mand, Vice-Admiral d'Estournelle, proposed in a council of officers that the undertaking should be abandoned ; for some ships which were to join them from Hispaniola had failed, their own ships were scattered, and twenty-four hundred of their men had died of the fever. Three ships from Hispaniola had been to Chebucto, but had returned to France on failing to find D'Anville's fleet. The abandonment Hlji. mr mf tmf-mmmmmim 1746.1 KING GEORGE'S WAR. 167 of the expedition was violently opposed by the officers, headed by Jonqui^re, who had been lately appointed Governor of Canada and was next in command, and D'Estournelle, excited by the op- position, took the fever, and in a fit of delirium killed himself with his own sword. Jonqui^re resolved to attack Annapolis with the forces that were left ; but when they arrived off Cape Sable, another storm still further disabled the ships, and news was brought the commander that Louisbourg and Annapolis were both defended by English ships. So the French vessels could do nothing but return to Brest. Ramezay, with his Canadian and Indian followers, went into winter quarters at Chignecto, where his presence was a constant menace to .Annapolis. Mascerene, commander of the garVison there, sent to Boston for troops, and five hundred men were accordingly despatched in December, and on their arrival were stationed at Grand Pr6, near the River Gaspereaux in the district of Minas. Ramezay determined to send a force against them, and in January, 1747, about four hundred Canadians and Indians set out, under an officer named De Villiers. For two weeks they travelled on snow-shoes and dragged their supplies on sledges along the wintry coast. The New England officers A^ ^% O., ^^^^^9. IMAGE EVALUATION! TEST TARGET (MT-3) 'y // // ^^\^^^f<^ < <» y 1.0 I.I .>5 6 IIIIIM IIIIIU m m IM Z2 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ■^ 6" — ► v^ /. '^1 ^m.' -1^ ■> ■ei ^ .>^ /^ ^;^ # Photographic Sciences Corporation %^ S V S V \ \ ^\^ ^ ;i> ^ # 6^ % V "^^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 &p 9 ^ i68 KING GEORGE'S WAR. [1747. had some warning of the danger; but, supposing the enemy to be isolated by the season, they paid no attention to it. On the loth of February the French arrived in a dense storm of snow, which prevented them from being seen by the sentries. They had accurate in- formation from the inhabitants of Grand Pr6, and ten houses where the officers were lodged were selected for the first attack. There was a desper- ate resistance, but the New England soldiers were under too great disadvantage ; sixty were killed, including the chief officer. Colonel Arthur Noble, and sixty-nine were made prisoners. The French lost but seven killed and fourteen wounded. Those of the English who remained could not escape, having no snow-shoes ; a capitulation was at length agreed upon, and they returned to Annapolis under a promise not to bear arms in Minas and adjoining districts for six months. After Jonqui^rc returned to France, another fleet was prepared to carry troops to Canada and Nova Scotia, and placed under his command. He set sail in May, 1747, with six ships of war and some transports, accompanied by six merchant-ships and a frigate bound for the East Indies. An English fleet under Admirals Anson and Warren set out in pursuit, and a battle was fought off Cape Finisterre I'iji. 1747] KING GEORGE'S WAR. 169 on the 3d of May, which resulted in a complete victory for the English. They took six ships of war and all the merchantmen, with over four thousand prisoners. The captured treasure was afterward taken to the Bank of England in twenty wagons. The people on the western frontier had been somewhat disturbed by French and Indian bands during the progress of the war. Rumford, now Concord, New Hampshire, was unsuccessfully at- tacked in 1746, and Fort Massachusetts, in Wil- liamstown, was taken by a large party in the same year. Fort Number Four on the Connecticut was assailed by a large band in 1747, but was bravely and successfully defended by a garrison under Cap- tain Phineas. The village of Saratoga was de- stroyed, and the inhabitants, thirty families in all, were slaughtered. Nothing was done in America this year by the English, though the colonists believed that a reason- able amount of aid from England would enable them to bring all Canada under British sway. It was said that English statesmen thought the col- onies, if their strength were revealed to them by such a conquest, and if the fear of French inroads from the north were removed, might be tempted to assert their independence ; particularly as they ■- \ : \ ; i ' i i A \m I 170 ir/JVG GEORGE'S WAR. [17481 were growing restive under some of the exactions and restrictions imposed upon them. However that may be — whether EngUsh statesmen foresaw the events that were to occur within thirty years, or whether they had simply not awakened to the im- portance of their colonial possessions in America — not only was nothing done to reduce Canada, but Louisbourg was restored to France, much to the chagrin of the colonists who were so proud of its capture. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which put an end to the war, October 18, 1748, gave up Louis- bourg for Madras, which the French had taken, and left the boundaries of French and English territory in America as undefined as they had been under former treaties. Parliament agreed to pay to the colonists all the expenses they had incurred for the war, and in 1749 two hundred and fifteen chests of Spanish dollars and one hundred casks of copper coin were sent from England to Boston. This money, which amounted to about a million dollars, was carried to the treasury on twenty-seven carts and trucks. CHAPTER X. Xi ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. Failure of Negotiations for the Adjustment of Boundaries— Encroach- ments of the French — Settlement of Halifax — Refusal of the Acadians to Take the Oath — Attacks by Indians — Burning of Beau- bassin — Fort Lawrence — Fort Beau S^jour— Colonel How's Fate —Expedition to Acadia -Fall of the French Forts — Escape of La Loutre — Exile of the Acadians. During the nominal peace which followed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the representatives of the two governments were anxiously engaged in at- tempting to settle by actual occupation the question of boundaries, which was still left open by that treaty. It professed to restore the boundaries as they had been before the war ; and before the war the entire basin of the Mississippi, as well as the tract between the St. Lawrence River and Gulf, the Bay of Fundy, and the Kennebec, was claimed by both nations, with some show of reason, as no con- vention between them had ever defined the rights of each. Names had been given to vast tracts of land whose limits were but partly defined, or at one time defined in one way, at another time in another, and when these names were mentioned in treaties If 11 I . ,i ; ill, 172 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1749- they were understood by each party acjording to its own interest. The treaty of 1748, therefore, not only left abundant cause for future war, but left oc- casion for the continuance of petty border hostilities in time of nominal peace. Commissioners were ap pointed, French and English, to settle the question of the disputed territory, but the differences were too wide to be adjusted by anything but conquest. While the most important question was that of the great extent of territory at the west, and, as we shall hereafter see, both nations were devising means for establishing their claims to it, Acadia, or Nova Scotia, was the scene of a constant petty war- fare. The French were determined to restrict the English province to the peninsula now known by that name. The Governor of Canada sent a few men under Boishebert to the mouth of the St. John's to hold that part of the territory. A little old fort built by the Indians had stood for fifty years on the St. John's at the mouth of the Nerepis, and there the men established themselves. A larger number was sent under La Corne to keep possession of Chig- necto, on the isthmus which, according to French claims, formed the northern boundary of English territory. In all the years that England had held nominal rule in Acadia, not a single English settlement had 1749] ACADIA AFTER THE WAK. 173 been formed, and apparently not a step of progress had been taken in gaining the loyalty of the inhab- itants. A whole generation had grown up during the time ; but they were no less devoted to France than their fathers had been. It was said that the King of England had not one truly loyal subject in the peninsula, outside of the fort at AnnapoHs. When the inhabitants did not choose to obey the orders of the English authorities, they represented themselves as being under fear of the Indians ; and the Indians were constantly urged to their share in the proceed- ings by the persuasions and inducements of the priests and emissaries of the Canadian Government. No doubt, also, the bond of religion was the strong- est influence that held the Acadians faithful to France. Among the schemes suggested for remedying this state of affairs, was one by Governor Shirley, to place strong bands of English settlers in all the im- portant towns, in order that the Government might have friends and influence throughout the country. Nothing came of this ; but in 1749 Parliament voted forty thousand pounds for the purpose of settling a colony. Inducements were offered to discharged soldiers and sailors, and to farmers and mechanics to join the colony. They were to be carried over free, to be furnished with farming and fishing im- W^ i ', t i i ; '74 ACADIA AFTER THE WAH. [1749. plements, and to be maintained free of expense for one year. Grants of land were offered also, privates from the army and navy were to receive fifty acres each, and officers more, according to their rank. No quit-rents were to be required for the first ten years. Twenty- five hundred persons being ready to go in less than two months from the time of the first advertisement, the colony was entrusted to Colonel Edward Cornwallis (uncle of the Cornwallis of the Revolutionary War), and he was made Gov- ernor of Nova Scotia. Chebucto was selected as the site of the colony, and the town was named Halifax in honor of the president of the Lords of Trade and Plantations. Within four months a clearing was made, and three hundred houses were built. In July, a council was held at Halifax, when Gov- ernor Cornwallis gave the French deputies a paper declaring what the Government would allow to the French subjects, and what would be required of them. They were to be left in peaceable possession of their property and the free exercise of their re- ligion, provided they should take the oath of allegi- ance to the British Government, submit to its laws, and give all possible countenance and assistance to settlers who should be sent out under his Majesty's orders. To this the people replied by their depu- ties, asking that they might enjoy the privileges 1749] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. '75 mentioned, under condition of taking a qualified oath, one that should exempt them from bearing arms in case of war, even in defence of their own province. Such an oath had been allowed in certain cases twenty years before ; and the precedent was urged at this time. They wished to stand as neu- trals, and, indeed, were often called so. Cornwallis replied that nothing less than entire allegiance would be accepted. Then the deputies asked if they might sell their property and leave the peninsula, and were told that the Treaty of Utrecht gave them a year in which to withdraw from the province with their effects, if they preferred that to becoming subjects of Great Britain ; but that now there was no alternative but confiscation or en- tire allegiance. About a month later the people sent in a declaration with a thousand signatures, stating that they had resolved not to take the oath, but were determined to leav^e the country. Corn- wallis took no steps to coerce them, but wrote to England for instructions. A treaty was made between the Governor and the chiefs of the Indians in July ; but on the occasion of the building of a block-house by the English at Minas, the Indians were instigated to violate the treaty, and attacks were made by them on Canso and Minas, and some vessels in the harbor of Chig- ■'1 M i (• ■ 1 : -^ t < i i \\i \ \\ . I { 1 J i 176 A CAD J A AFTER THE IVAH. [1750. P ! necto. It was supposed that the missionary priest La Loutre was at the bottom of all the trouble with the Indians and much of the disloyalty of the Aca- dians ; one means of coercion was always at his service, the refusal of the sacramei i to the disobe- dient. In the following year Cornwallis sent four hundred men, under Major Lawrence, to Chignecto to build a block-house. A little river called the Messagouche was claimed by the French as their southern boun- dary ; and a force under La Corne had been keeping possession of the isthmus. On the southern bank was a prosperous village called Beaubassin, and La Corne had compelled its inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance to the King of France. When Law- rence arrived, all the inhabitants of Beaubassin, about one thousand, having been persuaded by La Loutre, set fire to their houses, and leaving behind the fruits of years of industry, turned their backs on their fer- tile fields, and crossed the river, to put themselves under the protection of La Corne's troops. Many Acadians from other parts of the peninsula also left their homes, and lived in exile and poverty under the French dominion, hoping for a speedy change of masters in Nova Scotia. Lawrence was obliged to abandon the work oa which he had been sent, since La Corne had a very 1750.] • ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 177 large force at his command ; but later in the season he went again to Chignecto with a larger body of troops. Their landing was opposed by a band of Indians assisted by some of the Acadians, intrenched behind the dikes, and in the assault six English- men were killed and twelve wounded. This was the first blood shed since the peace of Aix-Ia- Chapelle. Lawrence's men proceeded to build a fort on the south bank of the Messagouche, which was called Fort Lawrence, and garrisoned by six hundred men. In the same year a large French fort. Beau S^jour, was built on the northern side of the Messagouche, and a smaller one, Gaspereaux, at Bale Verte. Other stations were also planted, foi ""ing a line of fortified posts from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the mouth of the St. John's. An instance of the treach- ery of La Loutre about this time is recorded. Cap- tain Edward How, an officer well known to the country and the Indians, was sent to Fort Lawrence by the Governor, that he might use his influence to keep the Indians peaceful. He sometimes met French officers on the Messagouche with flags of truce, and messages were in that way sent between the forts. La Loutre dressed an Indian like a French officer, and sent him down the river with a flag of truce, and Captain How came unsuspiciously '\. ! M '.i 1 .i 178 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1754. n! Il- iiitii to meet him, when some Indians who were con- cealed on the bank arose and shot him dead. The Acadians made repeated attempts to induce Cornwallis to allow them to take the qualified oath, threatening to leave the province and to neglect sowing their fields. Cornwallis seems to have treat- ed them with mildness and consideration, but was firm in his refusal to take less than an oath of full al- legiance. Many of those who had exiled themselves asked permission to return, but through the influ- ences brought to bear upon them by the French, declined to fulfil the conditions required. La Loutre told them that if they returned and yielded allegi- ance they should be allowed neither priests nor sacraments, and as he was Vicar-General for Acadia under the Bishop of Quebec, he probably had power to make good his threat. In the following years, the Acadians refused to bring supplies to the English forts, even at their own prices, and in 1754 three hundred of them went to work at Fort Beau S6jour. refusing the offer of employment on government works at Hali- fax. Their rebellious conduct was imitated by some Germans lately settled at Lunenburg, and the Gov- ernor was obliged to send soldiers to subdue them. The commission appointed to settle the question of boundaries had broken up without accomplishing wmmm 1755.] ACAD/A AFTER THE WAR. »79 any results ; and it was resolved by the authorities in Nova Scotia and Massachusetts that an xpedi- tion should be sent against Fort Beau S^jour. The enterprise was planned by Governor Shirley and Colonel Lawrence, then in command in Nova Sco- tia. Great care was taken to keep the matter se- cret, that the garrison might be taken completely by surprise. Arms and boats had been taken from the Acadians ; and during the summer, when it was rumored that a French fleet had arrived in the Bay of Fundy, they offered memorials to the council, asking for the restoration of their arms, and exemp- tion from the oath. This was refused ; and the dep- uties, on again declining to take the oath, were ordered into confinement. The Governor then issued orders to all the French inhabitants to send in new deputies, who should ex- press their final intentions with regard to the oath ; warning them that any who now rei'used would not thereafter be allowed to take it, " but that effectual measures ought to be taken to remove all such rec- usants out of the province." Deputies were sent in representing over five hundred of the inhabitants ; all refused to take the required oath, and were or- ' dered into confinement. It had been'determined to expel the people from the province in rase they should refuse, " and," says the record of the council, II ' if I * i If ■ 1 ■t.,'; ) X\ ,-♦■ t- I i8o ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1755. " nothing now remained to be considered but what measures should be taken to send them away, and where they should be sent to." Meantime, Massachusetts had raised about two thousand' troops for the contemplated enterprise, who were under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Winslow. To this force were added about three hundred regulars, and the whole was placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Monck- ton. They reached Chignecto on the 2d of June, and the following day encamped about Fort Law- rence. De Vergor, commander at Beau S6jour, had neglected to take measures for strengthening his position, though some rumors of the intended attack had reached him. Now, however, having quite a large force at his disposal, consisting of a hundred and sixty-five soldiers, and several hundred Aca- dians who had obeyed the summons to come into the fort, he set to work to complete the defences. On the 4th the English began by attacking the block-house at Pont-a Buot, some miles east of Beau S6jour, and took it in an hour, the French running away in a panic and setting fire to the block-house and all the houses they passed on their flight to the fort. Several days were consumed by Monckton's men in making a bridge over the river and cutting a road by which to carry their cannon to an emi- 1755-] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. l8l nence north of the fort. Small parties had been sent from the fort to interrupt them, but without effecting anything. On the 13th their cannon were in place, and the attack began. The next day De Vergor received an answer from Louisbourg, whither he had sent for reinforcements, that no men could be spared, owing to a threatened assault from an English squadron. De Vergor and his officers tried to conceal this in- telligence from the Acadians at the fort, who had been led to believe that certain help was to come from Louisbourg ; but it was run.ored about among them, and many of them, on De Vergor's refusal to dismiss them, escaped from the fort in the night. On the i6th the mortars were in position, and the shells made such havoc in the fort that De Vergor re- solved to surrender. The terms were soon arranged, and Monckton took possession the same evening. The garrison were allowed to leave with their arms, to be sent to Louisbourg, under promise not to bear arms in America for six months. The Acadians who had been forced to take up arms were granted a general amnesty. Many of them had asked De Vergor, when they were summoned to the fort, to threaten them with death unless they complied. La Loutre, since none of the terms of the capitu- lation would apply to him, fearing the vengeance 1 1 t=1 ' -r f : 1 \\\ i-Xl-i,. i W \' t :- ' - Ui! U1:J ^ir 182 ACAD/A AFTER THE WAR. [»755 of the English, escaped in disguise, and made his way through the wilderness to Quebec. Here the Bishop, who had not approved of his course in Acadia, reproached him with having neglected re- ligion for politics. As he was without a home, friends, position, or influence in the New World, he embarked for France ; but the vessel was captured by an English ship, and the Abbe La Loutre was imprisoned on the Island of Jersey till the close of the war. He came out, to find not only Acadia, but all of Canada and the Ohio basin, irretrievably lost to France. After Beau Sejour, the smaller forts were quickly reduced. Some vessels sent to the mouth of the St. John's found the French fort deserted and burned. The name of Beau Sejour was changed to Cumberland. The Government had now determined to carry out the threat of expelling the Acadians from the peninsula. No doubt some justification for this act may be found in the long course of provocations given by them since they had been under English rule. They had steadily refused to take the oath of allegiance to England, and had claimed the position of neutrals. Had they maintained this position, it is quite probable that the authorities would have allowed theni to^ keep it undisturbed ; but they had IM 1755-] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 183 repeatedly abandoned it in favor of the French. On every occasion when the French seemed about to regain their supremacy they gave them open aid ; and at other times they looked on with indiffer- ence, if not with applause, at the barbarities of the Indians against the English. And now, when the two countries were evidently on the eve of war, it was perhaps excusable in the dominant power that it should take measures to rid itself of an enemy within its own territory. Yet the exile of the Aca- dians remains one of the saddest incidents of history, and hf almost universal consent is branded as a crime. The simple and pastoral character of the people is dwelt upon ; and it is pro')able that the mass of them would have been innocent of hostile actions if they had been deprived of a few of the priests and leaders who were constantly inciting them against the English. It was decided to distribute the Acadians among the various English colonies, in order that they might not go to strengthen the settlements of Canada. It was necessary to assemble them with- out letting them know the object for which they were called together, and then detain them un- til the transports were ready to take them away. They were to be allowed to carry with them their ready money and their household goods ; all their H i I 1 •> . ^ AM ** 1 84 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [1755. Other effects were to be declared forfeit to the Crown. Arrangements were made for collecting the inhab- itants at several places in different districts. At Chignecto and Annapolis the design was suspected, and most of the people escaped. Their houses were burned down, and as many of the fugitives as could be collected were put on board the transports. Winslow, who had charge of the business at Grand Pr6 in the district of Minas, was most successful. A proclamation was issued ordering all, ** both old men and young men, as well as all the lads of ten years of age, to attend at the church of Grand Pr6, on Friday, the 5 th instant, at three of the clock in the afternoon, that we may impart to them what we are ordered to communicate to them." No excuse would be accepted for failure to attend ; but goods and chattels would be forfeited by disobedience, in default of real estate. At three o'clock on Friday, the 5th of Septem- ber, four hundred and eighteen men assembled in the church at Grand Pr6, unsuspicious of the. object for which they were summoned. The doors were closed and guarded, and the men were then ad- dressed by Winslow, who told them : "You are called together to hear his Majesty's final resolution in regard to you* For almpst half 9 1755] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. 185 century you have had more indulgence granted to you than any of his subjects in any other part of his dominions, though what use you have made of the indulgence you yourselves best know. The duty which is laid on me, though necessary, is very dis- • agreeable to my natural make and temper, as I know it must be grievous to you. His Majesty's orders and instructions are, that your lands and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the Crown, with all your other effects, saving your money and household goods ; and you yourselves are to be removed from the province. I am, through his Majesty's goodness, directed to allow you to carry away your money and household goods, so far as you can without discommoding the vessels you are to go in." He promised that fami- lies should be kept together, and that he would make the removal as easy for them as possible. The blow was sudden and terrible ; they could not believe at first that it was anything but a threat. When they became convinced that it was really in- tended to tear them from their homes and scatter them among strange people, and that the guard made escape impossible, they begged to be allowed at least to go out and prepare for removal, offering to leave a number as hostages. Winslow thought it would not be safe to permit them to go out in a i86 ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. [»755. 11 body ; but he allowed ten to go at a time. After- ward, seeing some movements he thought suspicious among them, he was obliged to refuse even that privilege. It was decided to remove the men to the vessels in the harbor, and keep the women and children on shore until the transports should arrive to carry them away. The men were so reluctant to obey the order to march to the ships that the sol- diers had to drive them with their bayonets. The women and children crowded along the way, kneel- ing and praying, while the men marched past them singing hymns. Those 'left behind were kept near the shore, with insufficient food and clothing, for more than a month. Twenty-four young men es- caped from the ships ; but all but two of them re- turned, rather than stay behind and be separated from their families. On the loth of October the transports arrived ; and care was taken to bring families together ; but in the confusion they were separated in many cases. The number of those thus exiled has sometimes been placed at seven thousand. This is the estimate of the number that would have to be removed which was given by Colonel Lawrence when the scheme was first proposed, and probably includes nearly the whole population of the peninsula. More than three thousand escaped to the country 1755.] ACADIA AFTER THE WAR. i87 about the Bay of Chaleurs, some went to Quebec, and some took refuge with the Indians ; so that the whole number of those removed by the English did not exceed three thousand. The houses and barns left by the exiles were burned to the ground. The cattle and horses were seized as spoils by the officers. The dikes which the people had raised against the ocean, enclosing some of the most fertile lands in the whole region, were left to go to ruin, and the ocean broke over the de- serted fields. The exiles were scattered through the British colonies, some as far south as Georgia. They became a charge upon the public, and even the support of paupers was grudgingly allotted them. A bill is on record which was sent in for the support of " three French pagans," and they were sent from town to town on one and another pretext, while their children were taken from them at the option of the town authorities. They clung with unfailing constancy to their own religion ; and this, by keep- ing them a separate people among their captors, no doubt contributed much to the feeling against them. Yet instances are on record where their complaints were listened to and redress granted by the authorities, and where private generosity took pity on their sorrows. Some of those who were sent to Georgia escaped lis ■: '^ M. M r iS8 A CAD/ A AFTER THE WAR, [1755- to the ocean in boa*^s and went coasting along the sliore, in hopes to reach their native country ; but they were stopped and detained on the coast of New England by orders from the authorities in Nova Scotia. One small colony went to Guiana. Some found their way to France ; and two villages near Bordeaux are said to be inhabited by their de- scendants. Some planted settlements in Louisiana in the districts of Attakapas and Opelousas, where they and their descendants went for a long time under the name of " Cajeans. " Longfellow's poem " Evangeline" is founded on the removal of the inhabitants of Grand Pr6. CHAPTER XI. THE OHIO VALLEY. French Posts in the West— Ogdensburg — Sir William Johnson — Conference with the Iroquois — Expedition of Bienville— The Walking Purchase — The Ohio Company — Christopher Gist — Ind- ian Conference at Logstown — French Attack on Picqua — Expe- dition from Canada— Mission of George Washington — Fort Du Quesne — Fight with Jumonville— Fort Necessity — Fight at Great Meadows — Fort Cumberland — Council at Albany. The establishment of French forts and trading- posts at various points in the West has already been spoken of. Fort Frontenac at the head of the St. Lawrence, Fort Frederick at Crown Point on Lake Champlain, Fort Niagara at the mouth of the Niagara, and the posts at Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, Mackinaw, Chicago, and on the Maumee, the Wa- bash, and the Mississippi, formed a line of French stations, and supplied communication between the East and the Southwest. Missions and trading- houses were scattered through the regions of the lakes and the great rivers, at points favorable for trade and navigation ; and one French adventurer, as early as 1731, had carried a line of trading- posts one hundred leagues beyond Lake Winnipeg, and built Fort de la Reine on the Assiniboin. After |i ^' S~fMp ' Jll 190 THE OHIO VALLEY, [1749- the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the attention of both governments was drawn to the necessity of vigor- ous measures west of the AUeghanies. In 1749, the mission of La Presentation was established at Oswegatchie, on the present site of Ogdensburg, by a French priest, Father Francis Picquet. He hoped by means of it to effect what the French had labored so long to accomplish by diplomacy and flattery, by the missions to the Mo- hawks and Onondagas, to break up the friendship of the Iroquois for the English, and win them over to the French interest. Father Picquet was with an expedition that destroyed Fort Edward during King George's War, an enterprise which he had been the first to suggest. In 1748 he proposed to the Gov- ernor of Canada to found a settlement at Oswegatch- ie, a point which he thought most advantageously situated for intercepting the progress of the English and for influencing the Six Nations. He was di- rected to incite them to the destruction of Oswego, and thus secure to the French the uninterrupted control of the great highway along the lakes and their connecting waters. | After much opposition, he established himself at Oswegatchie with soldiers and workmen, built a saw-mill, and soon had a palisaded fort and several other buildings, and some lands cleared on which to 1750} THE OHIO VALLEY. 191 settle a colony of Indians. During the peace, the settlement grew rapidly ; in a few years there were three Indian villages gathered about the fort. At the visit of the Bishop of Quebec during the first year of the mission one hundred and thirty-two Indians were baptized. Picquet ertablished a coun- cil from among the converts, and went with the most influential of them on a visit to Montreal, where they took the oath of allegiance to the King of France. He made a canoe voyage around Lake Ontario and up its tributaries, examined the forts, spoke to gatherings of savages, and noted the de- fects of the French management of the Indian trade. His success with the Iroquois was so great that the savages of that region were nearly lost to England, and perhaps would have been entirely so, had it not been for the influence of William Johnson. This man came from Ireland and settled in the Mohawk Valley about 1738, taking charge of a large tract of land which had been granted to his uncle, Sir Peter Warren. He learned the language of the Mohawks, and became such a favorite with them that he was adopted into the tribe and chosen a sachem. They called him Warraghiyagey. He built two fortified houses, Johnson Hall and John- son Castle. The Hall is still standing in the village of Johnstown. The Castle, farther up the river, * ?:• :ii! WW llvl 19a rHE OHIO VALLEY. [1748. was built of stone, with a parapet and four bas- tions. The Indians were always made welcome, and were treated by Johnson with great tact, as well as confi- dence and liberality ; sometimes, it is said, hun- dreds of them would lie down about him with their blankets after a feast, and go to sleep. A story is told which illustrates his sagacity. They had great respect for dreams ; when they saw anything at Johnson's place which they particularly coveted, they were accustomed to tell him that they dreamed he gave it to them. Johnson humored them until tliat kind of begging grew very troublesome, and then cunningly turned their faith in dreams to his own account. " I dreamed too," he said to a chief who had just taken possession of some coveted article. "What did you dream?" Johnson told him he dreamed the tribe gave him a large tract of their hunting-ground. The chief and his warriors were confounded. "You must have it," they said, " if you dreamed it ; but don't dream any more." The Governor of New York made Johnson Colonel of the Six Nations, and in 1746 he was appointed Commissary of New York for Indian affairs, and in 1748 the command of all the soldiers of New «749l TUE OHIO VALLEY. 193 York was given to him for the defence of the fron- tier. Commissioners from the several Engh'sh colonies met the chiefs of the Iroquois in a conference at Albany. They agreed that they would allow no Frenchmen to settle on their lands, and that the English should negotiate with the French for the restoration of Iroquois prisoners ; and promised to use their influence to bring into the "covenant chain " the tribes dwelling west of the Alleghanies. Those about Lake Erie and the Upper Ohio had been friendly to the English during the last war. The Governor of Canada, Count de la Galisso- ni^re, appointed in 1747, urged on the French minis- try the policy of sending out competent engineers to build forts from Detroit to the Mississippi, and to colonize the country west of the Alleghanies with large bodies of French peasantry. No movement was made toward carrying out this policy ; and all that Galissonidre could do was to send out men in 1749 ^o take formal possession of the territory west of the Alleghanies, a movement which more effect- ually wakened the British colonies to the danger, without securing anything to the French which they had not held before. Celoron de Bienville was put in charge of three hundred men for the purpose, and was directed to take with him representatives of the M i \ ll 11 !fr \h \ >. i 1,1 194 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1749- western tribes friendly to the French, that they might seem to give their consent to the French claims, and also be influenced to drive English trad- ers out of the country. Bienville carried with him leaden plates which he was to bury at every important point along the Ohio and the lake shore, as far as Detroit. These plates were engraved with the arms of France and a Latin inscription. Following is a translation of the legend on one which fell into the hands of a Mohawk chief and was brought to Colonel Johnson's house by him for explanation : " In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV,, King of France, we, Celoron, commander of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Mar- quis de la Galissonifere, commander-in-chief of New France, for the rfestoration of tranquillity in some villages of Indians of these dis- tricts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and Tchad- akoin, trie 2gthof July, near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of the renewal of possession which we have taken of the said River Ohio, and of all those that therein fall, and of all the land on both sides, as far as the sources of said rivers, as enjoyed, or ought to be enjoyed, by the preceding kings of France, and as they therein have maintained themselves by arms and by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, of Utrecht, and of Aix-la-Chapelle." While the French were thus burying leaden plates, and decorating forest trees with the lilies of France, and sending armed men into the Ohio Val- ley to expel English traders from the disputed 1749] THE OHIO VALLEY. 195 lands, fhe English colonies were anxiously consider- ing the feasibility of forming settlements west of the AUeghanies. And while the colonists of the two nations were jealously watching each other, the Ind- ians were jealously watching them all. The burial of the leaden plates roused their indignation against the French, who, they were sure, were trying to steal their country away from them. And they watched with equal distrust the steady progress of the settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The western slopes of the Alleghany Mountains were occupied by the Delawares and Shawnees, both of which nations had been conquered by the Iro- quois and were subject to those fierce warriors, who exacted from them a tribute and would not allow them to bear arms. The Delawares, who had origi- nally lived on the banks of the river which bears their name, sold parts of their land to William Penn, whose treatment of them was always humane and friendly ; and they remained on the lands they still retained in amicable relations with the settlers. But as the colony grew, and more lands were needed, the Delawares were crowded back. Old title-deeds were brought forward by the proprietaries, and new interpretations put upon them, making them cover great tracts of land never intended by the savages who gave them. i t 1- \*A \ (' •; r ti -1\ 196 T//£ OHIO VALLEY. [1737. One of these was called " the walking purchase." An old deed executed in the seventeenth century was brought forward in the eighteenth, and lands were claimed by right of it which the bewildered Delawares supposed they had reserved for them- selves. The land conveyed was to be a triangle bounded on one side by the Delaware River, on another side by one of its branches to the distance from its mouth that a man could walk in a day and a half, and on the third by a straight line drawn from the point reached by the walker back to the Delaware. Bringing forward this deed, the proprie- taries had a path cut along the margin of the creek, that there might be no obstructions or rough places in the way ; then they trained a man according to the most approved methods for pedestrians, and when he had walked his day and a half after his training, they drew the line, not directly eastward to the nearest point on the Delaware, but in a long slope to the northeast, forming the broadest possi- ble angle where it met the creek, and the narrowest possible where it met the river. The Delawares refused to obey the notice to quit, as they had no knowledge of any title to the lands but thefrown, acquired by ages of possession. The Pennsylvanians sent for the Iroquois to enforce their demand. The Iroquois despatched some chiefs to 1748.] THE OHIO VALLEY. 197 settle the affair, who took the side of the English, browbeat the poor Delawares most unmercifully, and ordered them to go either to Shamokin or Wyom- ing. The Delawares, afraid to disobey their con- querors, moved to Shamokin and Wyoming on the Susquehanna, and as the encroachments of settlers continued, many of them with the Shawnees passed on still farther west, until now they were living about the headwaters of the Ohio. Remembering with regret their home on the Delaware, and with anger their wrongful dispossession, they were pre- disposed to join the French against their former friends. • In 1748, the Ohio Company was formed, for the purpose of planting settlements in the Ohio valley. It was composed of gentlemen of the provinces of Virginia and Maryland, and some in England. Among the stockholders were Lawrence and Au- gustine Washington, half-brothers of George. The King granted the company five hundred thousand acres of land west of the Alleghanies, south of the upper Ohio. It was designed to open a route from the settlements on the company's tract to the At- lantic coast, by connecting the headwaters of the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny with those of the Potomac, by short roads. The Company sent out Christopher Gist to ex- , ! ^11 1 IliiC I9S THE OHIO VALLEY. [1750. amfne the country as far west as the Falls of the Ohio, to look out favorable sites for settlements and mark the passes of the mountains, the courses of the rivers, and the strength and disposition of the Indians. Gist found most of them disposed to be - friendly to the English, but unwilling to commit themselves to an alliance until they could meet in a general council of all their nations. He and his men pushed on to the west, and were the first explorers of iSouthern Ohio. At Ficqua, the chief city of the Miamis, they were invited to a council and promised the friendship of the nation. Some Ottawas came before the council broke up, with offers of amity from the French, but were sent away with the answer that the Miamis looked upon the English as their brothers and regarded as done to themselves all the hostile acts committed by the French against those brothers. Several English traders had been seized by order of the Governor of Canada and sent to the French fort at Otsanderket, or Sandusky. Having gone as far as Louisville, Gist returned by a more southerly route, ascending the Kentucky. He had been instructed to invite the Indians to a conference at Logstown, about seventeen miles down the Ohio from the site of Pittsburg. In 1752 they came, and a treaty was made, the Indians 1752] THE OHIO VALLEY, 199 to es 52 ms agreeing not to molest settlements on the lands granted to the Ohio Company, but carefully avoid- ing any acknowledgment of the title of the English to the territory. The company built a station and made some roads, and a few settlers, among whom i was Gist, went into the country and founded a colony between the Monongahela and the Youghio- gheny, beyond Laurel Point. In the summer of 1752, two Frenchmen led a party of over two hundred Indians against the Mia- mis, to force them to give up the six English traders among them and renounce the English alliance. Most of the warriors were away on a hunting-expe- dition ; but the King refused to give up the traders, and in the assault that followed they were bravely defended by the few who had remained at home. The Miamis were defeated, however, their captured King was killed and eaten, and the French flag was raised over the deserted fort. Most of the Indians of the West were ready to take up arms with the French ; and the Miamis urged the English to carry out the plan of building a fort on the Ohio. But the colonies could not or would not bear the expense ; and England did nothing, except to declare that the valley of the Ohio was a part of Virginia, and the encroachments of the French were to be regarded as acts of hostil- -^-' ■H^ I' , ■? t 20O THE OHIO VALLEY. [1753. ity. A few guns sent over from the ordnance stores were all the substantial aid received. It was inti- mated that the militia of Virginia ought to be able to maintain her rights. The government of Canada was now under the Marquis Du Quesne, who determined to drive the English back from the Ohio, and for that purpose prepared a strong party of troops to establish posts on that river. Accompanied by a large force of Indians ihey ascended the St. Lawrence in the spring of 1753, and crossed the lakes to Presqu' Isle, on the site of Erie. A hunting-party of Iroquois on the banks of the St. Lawrence hastened to send the news to the grand council at Onondaga. Messen- gers were sent out to warn the Miamis and the other friends of the Iroquois in Ohio, and runners carried the intelligence to Colonel William Johnson on the Mohawk in forty-eight hours. The Ohio tribes sent envoys to Niagara and Presqu* Isle, warning the French not to invade their country ; but the French commander threw back the wampum belts before the faces of the envoys, and told them the land was his and he meant to have it. He established and fortified posts at Waterford, south of Erie, and at Venango, now Franklin, at the junction of French Creek with the Alleghany. When the news of these proceedings reached imi I 7F X753.] THE OHIO VALLEY. 20I Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, determined to send a messenger to ask the French why they were invading the British domin- ions "while a soHd peace subsisted," and for his envoy he selected George Washington, then twenty- one years of age and Adjutant-General of the State militia. As a surveyor he had grown familiar with forest life and learned something of the ways of the Indians. He started on his mission late in October, with an interpreter, Christopher Gist as guide, and four other attendants. Passing the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela, where he noted the miliiary importance of the place, he pushed on to Logstown, and met some Delaware and Miami chiefs in council, who agreed to ally themselves with the English, if the French should still persist in their efforts to occupy the land. A part of the chiefs went on with Washington to Venango. The boasts of the officers there intimi- dated some of the Delawares, but the Half-King, chief of the Miamis, gave up the belt that symbol- ized his peace with the French. Washington was directed to proceed to Fort Le Boeuf, at Waterford, where he would find the commanding officer. Toil- ing slowly up the river through the snow and mud, crossing swollen streams by bridges which they made themselves of felled trees, the messengers arrived at i!'. .1 It 11 202 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1753- the newly-built fort, surrounded by the bark-roofed log cabins that served as barracks for the soldiers, who were busily employed in making bark canoes and pine boats for the descent of the river. Legardeur de St. Pierre, the commander, received Washington with courtesy, but told him it was his business to take possession of the country, accord- ing to the orders of his superior, and that he purposed to do it to the best of his ability, and should seize every Englishman he found in the Ohio valley. As to the question of the rights of the two nations, it was not his place to discuss that ; but he would forv/ard the message of the Governor of Virginia to the Governor of Canada. Having made the most of his opportunities for noting the numbers of the French and the strength and plans of their fortifications, Washington set out with his men to return. The difficulties of the way were increased by the advancing winter. When they came to the place where tlie horses were left, they found them so weak that they continued their way on foot, Washington was so anxious to get back that he and Gist left the circuitous route by ^ way of the streams, and with a compass to guide them took a straight course for the fork of the rivers. Washington was twice in danger of his life. He was fired upon by a hidden Indian from 1754] THE OHIO VALLilY. ao3 'fill a distance of not over fifteen steps and narrowly missed. The Indian was taken, and Gist would have killed him, but Washington forbade it, and re- leased him. Again, after they had spent a day in making a raft, the raft was caught in the floating ice. Washington thrust out the setting-pole to stop it, and was thrown into the water, but saved himself by grasping one of the logs that formed the raft. The answer of St. Pierre led to prompt action by the Virginia authorities. Jt was determined to build a fort at the head of the Ohio, and ten thousand pounds were voted for the purpose by the Assem- bly. Other provinces were called upon for aid, but most of the burden fell upon Virginia. A company of thirty-three workmen, sent out in haste to begin the fort and hold the place before the French should arrive, had scarcely begun, when they were surprised by an army of six hundred French and Indians un- der Contrecoeur, and summoned to surrender. Of course there was no alternative ; they gave up the place and were allowed to retire. The date of the surrender, April 17th, 1754, is usually taken as the beginning of the " Old French War." Meanwhile a regiment of militia was hastily col- lected at Alexandria, and sent out under Colonel Joshua Fry, with Washington second in command. Washington went in advance with a part of the ■I? ' i'l f , 1 j t I I:' 304 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1754. force early in April, and had reached Wills' Creek, near Cumberland, when he was met by the returning party from the head of the Ohio. He sent messen- gers to the Governors of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, asking for reenforcements, and then went on without waiting for Colonel Fry with the remainder of the troops, intending to intrench him- self on the Monongahela at the mouth of Red Stone Creek and there await the reenforcements. He would then have been thirty-seven milej from the head of the Ohio. The French commander, ContreccEur, set his men at work to finish the fortifications the English had begun, and named the place Fort Du Quesne, in honor of the Governor-General of Canada. More men soon arrived, and St. Pierre sent out a scout- ing party under Jumonville to meet the advance of the English. Hearing by messengers from the Half- King that this party was lurking in the vv^oods, Washington stopped at a place called the Great Meadows. During the night he advanced, surprised the JumonvUle party, and completely defeated them, after an action of fifteen minutes. Ten of the French, including Jumonville, were killed, and twenty-one, more than half of them, taken prison* ers. This action, which took place April 23d, 1754, was the first fighting of the war in the Ohio valley. »754j THE OHIO VALLEY. 205 M Washington had thrown up a hasty I'ntrenchment at Great Meadows, in a little hollow between two hills covered with trees, and after the fight with Jumonville he strengthened the fortifications, and named the place Fort Necessity. While waiting for reinforcements, he employed his men in clearing a road toward Fort Du Quesne ; but hearing that a large body of the French were on the way to meet him, he fell back to his fort, where he was at- tacked on the 3d of July. The attacking party, con- sisting of six hundred French soldiers and a hundred Indians, was commanded by Villiers, who was re- solved to avenge the death of his brother, Jumon- ville. They took possession of one of the hills, and, sheltering themselves behind the trees, fired upon the English works below. Washington had but four hundred men, and a greatly inferior position ; but he and his men made a stubborn resistance, fighting bravely for nine hours. Then the French sounded a parley and offered terms. The fort was surren- dered, and the next day Washington's men, with their arms and baggage, retired to the east of the Alleghanies, according to the terms of the cap- itulation. The Americans lost thirty men in the action, and the French three. By this defeat the English flag was banished from the Ohio valley. Washington began works on Wills* Creek, which 'r f\ 206 THE OHIO VALLEY. [»754. li: i;t were afterward completed and named Fort Cumber- land. These hostilities led to remonstrances and pro- ' tests between the French and English governments. Each declared a desire for peace and reconcilia- tion, but war seemed inevitable, and both prepared for it. The English Government sent directions to the colonies to allow no encroachments by the French ; and the Governor of New York was directed to call a council of Iroquois chiefs and bind them to the English interests by conciliation and presents. A congress, therefore, assembled at Albany on June 19th, 1754, commissioners coming from all the colonies as far south as Maryland. Deputies from the Six Nations were also present. Gifts were scattered among them in great profusion, and they renewed their compact with the English ; but still there was widespread disaffection among them tow- ard their old allies. The French establishment at Oswegatchie had drawn off half the Onondagas, and the Mohawks were indignant at what they considered trespass on their lands by English surveyors. The chiefs boldly reproached the English with their in- action and the slow progress of their preparations. *' Look at the French," said a Mohawk chief ; " they are men ; they are fortifying everywhere ; it is but one step from Canada hither, and they may easily 1754J THE OHIO VALLEY. 907 come and turn you out of doors." The Iroquois claimed the lands occupied by the Delawares and Shawnoes, by right of their conquest of those na- tions. The Delawares and Shawnoes were still wa- vering, and might perhaps have been saved to the English, but the Pennsylvania agents took advan- tage of the assembling of Iroquois at the congress, and induced Ihcm to convey to themselves large tracts of land occupied by the conquered tribes. Those Indians heard of the. transfer with great in- dignation, and were easily won over to the French. The council at Albany was memorable from the *"act that it projected a confederacy of the Ameri- can colonies. Benjamin Franklin, a delegate from Pennsylvania, had made notes for a plan of union while on his journey to Albany, and when he arrived there he found that some of the other commission- ers had also thought out plans for the same pur- pose. Franklin's plan was substantially adopted, after much deliberation. Philadelphia was to be the seat of government. The President, or Governor- General, was to be appointed by the King, and was to have a veto power on all measures of the Grand Council. The Council was to be elected once in three years by the legislatures of the colonies, and to meet every year. The number of delegates from each colony was to vary from two to seven. General !* i \ Pi \ > 1 ■ [l t 1- f 1 ife'i 2C8 THE OHIO VALLEY. [1754- ! ! matters of war, trade, and taxes were to be under the control of the Council. The plan was favored neither by the colonies, who thought it gave too much power to the President appointed by the Crown, nor by the Board of Trade in England, who rejected it on account of the power it gave to the people of the colonies ; but it foreshadowed the union of ^ne Americans, which resulted in their independence less than thirty years later. W CHAPTER XII. braddock's defeat. Plan of the English Ministry for Operations in America — Capture of Ships by Boscawen — Braddock's March — His Defeat — His Death — Effect of the Defeat — Washington — Alliances with the Indians. The English ministry now resolved upon a plan for attacking the French by four expeditions at about the same time, hoping to defeat them at every point where they had encroached on English claims, and drive them finally and forever from the dis- puted territory. The four expeditions were to move against the French in Acadia, at Fort Niagara, at Fort Du Quesne, and at Crown Point. The result of the operations in Acadia has already been de- tailed. The expedition assigned to the attack of Fort Niagara never reached its destination. That against Fort Du Quesne was most actively carried out, and most influential in its results. While these preparations were going on, England and France were nominally at peace. Both were sending troops to America, but both professed to be taking nieasures for defence only. In January, m fi 1' 210 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. 1755, negotiations passed between the two countries on the subject of the boundaries. France proposed that the Ohio valley be left as it was before the last war ; England proposed that it be left as it was at the Treaty of Utrecht in 171 3. Then France pro- posed that the territory between the Ohio and the Alleghanies be left neutral, by which she would then have had all north of the Ohio and far on to the west, while the neutral country would have kept back the English settlers. England then demanded that twenty leagues on each side of the Bay of Fundy should be added to the territory conceded by the French as belonging to Nova Scotia, and the country northward to the St. Lawrence be left neutral ; that the French forts at Crown Point and Niagara, and all those between the Alleghanies and the Wabash, should be destroyed. Of course, the French would make no such concessions ; but some show of negotiations was still kept up, while the warlike movements went on. Six thousand men had been sent out from Eng- land for service in America. They were under General Edward Braddock, who was made com- mander-in-chief of all the forces in North America, Governor Shirley and Sir William Pepperell to be associated with him as next in command. Braddock had been in service on the Continent, and his mill- m ill 1755.] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 211 tary record was good. About three months after he sailed, a force of three thousand men was de- ^spatched from France to Canada, under Baron Dieskau. Admiral Boscawen was sent to the Banks of New. foundland to intercept the French squadron. Three of the French ships, the Lys, the Alcide, and the Dauphin, were separated from the rest and enveloped in the fogs of the Newfoundland coast, and when the fogs cleared away, on the morning of the 8th of June, they found the English fleet close upon them. " Are we at peace or war?" asked the commander of the Alcide. In reply Boscawen commanded his men to fire, and after a short engagement the Lys and the Alcide struck their colors. The Dauphin escaped to the harbor of Louisbourg. This affair naturally excited great indignation in France, and the French ambassador at the English court was withdrawn. In England it was not disapproved of, although it had been steadily asserted that only defensive measures for the protection of the English frontiers were to be taken. Braddock arrived at Hampton Roads in February, 1755. In April he called a conference of the gov- ernors of the provinces to meet him for the purpose of raising a common fund for carrying on the war ; but they were unable to pledge the support de- 212 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. manded of them. Virginia, whose frontiers were in the greatest danger, was most zealous in rendering assistance, and later Franklin used his influence in Pennsylvania to supply the pressing want of horses and wagons. Colonel William Johnson, at the sug- gestion of Braddock, was asked to treat with the Six Nations and take charge of the expedition against Crown Point. The governors agreed to raise eight hundred pounds for presents to the Iroquois, and Johnson consented to negotiate the treaty, though reluctantly, on account of the carelessness the English had previously shown in regard to the observance of their agreements with the Indians. Braddock was full of confidence as to the result of his enterprise. He had great faith in himself, in " the King's regular troops," and in the tactics of war as he had learned them, great contempt for the provincials who were to serve in his army, and not the slightest suspicion that men who had spent their lives among the Indians could tell him anything of value about savage methods of warfare. He sent de- spatches to the English ministry, promisiiig speedy success. To Franklin he said, " I shall hardly need to stop more than three or four days at Fort Du Quesne ; then I shall march on to Niagara, and from there to Frontenac." "To be sure, sir," answered Franklin, ** if you 1755] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 213 arrive well before Du Quesne with those fine troops, so well provided with artillery, that place, not com- pletely fortified, and, as we hear, with no very * strong garrison, can probably make but a short re- sistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruc- tion to your march is from ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practice, are dexterous in laying and executing them ; and the slender line, near four miles long, which your army must make, may ex- pose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come up in time to sup- port each other." Franklin says Braddock smiled at his ignorance, and answered, ** These savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia ; but upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any impres- sion." He paid no attention to Washington's ad- vice that he should secure the aid of one hundred Indians under the interpreter Croghan, and treated them so scornfully that they withdrew in anger. The troops were all gathered at Fort Cumberland, on Wills* Creek. Braddock spent some weeks there in preparations, disciplining the provincial troops to make them as much like regulars as possible, and disgusted with his slender success. " The American \ \K \v u \ 'I 214 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT, [1755 troops," he wrote in one of his letters, " have little courage or goodwill. I expect almost no military service from them, though I have employed the best officers to drill them." The wagons and horses procured by Franklin at ' last arrived, and on the 7th of June the army was ready to march. There were one thousand of Brad- dock's regular soldiers, twelve hundred of the pro- vincial militia, a few sailors, and a few Indians. Washington was made an aide-de-camp. Two com- panies from New York were under the command of Horatio Gates, afterward famous as the American commander at Saratoga ; one of the wagons was owned and driven by Daniel Morgan, destined to render important service in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War ; and there was Hugh Mer- cer, who was to fall at Princeton. Side by side with these future leaders of the American rebels was Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Gage, the future commander of the King's forces in their struggle with his rebellious subjects. Many of the French troops had been sent away from Fort Du Quesne ; but on the news of the English expedition reenforcements were summoned, and the slowness of Braddock's march gave them ample time to reach the fort. The route through Pennsylvania would have been much shorter than \y I 1755-] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 215 I ■' \ that through Virginia. But the former expedition of Washington had taken the route by way of Wills' Creek, and the shorter route seems scarcely to have been considered. Five hundred men had been sent forward the last day of May to open the road, and carry stores to Little Meadows. The rest of the army moved slowly, making only five miles in three days. Washington looked on with impatience, while Braddock insisted on moving exactly in accordance with the methods practised in European warfare. " We halted," he says, " to level every mole-hill and bridge every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles." Even after the road had been widened by the advancing axe-men, it was almost impossible for the horses to drag the heavy wagons loaded with useless baggage through the miry ravines and over the rocks and stumps of trees, and they grew weak with the fatigue and the insufficient food afforded by the wild grass. After crossing the Great Savage Mountain, and toiling painfully through the thick gloom of the Shades of Death, the army reached Little Meadows, where some attempt at fortification had been made by the five hundred axe-men. Here a council of war was held, and Washington's suggestion was adopted, that twelve hundred men ■i^ 1 % m 1,1. ■ ■it *- .\ % >1 2l6 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755. should be selected to push on in advance with the artillery and the lighter baggage. Braddock went on with the twelve hundred, leaving the remainder, with the heavy wagons, in charge of Colonel Dunbar. Even then the progress of the advance party was very slow, and it was not until the 8th of July that they arrived at the fork of the Monongahela and Youghiogeny rivers, twelve miles from Fort Du Quesne, where they encamped on a stream known as Crooked Run. Braddock had at first refused to send forward any Indians as scouts ; now it was with great difficulty that he could induce any of the few remaining with him to undertake the perilous task. Their march was haunted by the skulking allies of the French, who "^ picked off stragglers and faith- fully reported every movement of the British army at Fort Du Quesne. Braddock's men were now on the same side of the Monongahela as the fort — that is, on the eastern side ; but a high rocky ridge very near the river on that side left such a narrow defile beside the stream, that the General thought best to cross at a ford near his camp, and, reaching a point above the nar- row defile, to recross at a second ford at the mouth of Turtle Creek, eight miles below the fort. Early on the morning of the 9th of July, the army crossed the upper ford, and marched splendidly down the fl :755] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT, 211 river in their scarlet uniform, with drums beating and colors flying, the finest spectacle, Washington said long years afterward, that he had ever wit- nessed. At noon they recrossed the river, and entered a woody and hilly country cut through by three deep ravines, with seven miles yet to march. Gage led on a detachment through the narrow path, attended by the engineers with the workmen. Indian scouts had carried swift inteUigence of the English advance to Fort Du Quesne, and Con- trecceur, thinking it would be impossible to hold out against such an a ay, talked of retreat. But one of his captains, Beaujeu, advised sending out a party of soldiers and Indians to form an ambuscade. Contrecoeur consented, and the Indians w^re called together from their bark huts around the fort. Not one was willing to follow Beaujeu in the dan- gerous undertaking, and he gave it up for the time. Another invitation met with an answer no more fa- vorable ; but the third time, when he said, " I am determined to go ; and will you let your father go alone ? " a sudden enthusiasm seized them, and they were ready to follow. On the morning of the 9th, Beaujeu, Dumas, and Lignery led out more than eight hundred men, of Avhom six hundred were Indians. Among the Ind- ffr X" T I: ' ■ |- \ i'^ i i - i »: a •»* 1 ' ■ k !>: i \ ■(■ i" ■i fP -f \\ %- v; ■■ - -- -+7 - 4l \ ■ I i 1 . ^' \ - f .1 ', J - \ , . ■ ' 1 : . . ; i:^^" *< k lA 2X3 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [»755. ians was the chief Pontiac, afterward well known in American history. The Engh'sh army was mov- ing on without a single scout to give warning of the danger, when it was suddenly confronted by the fantastic figure of Beaujeu in a fringed hunting- dress and wearing on his neck a silver gorget, closely fol- lowed down the hill by a multitude of white men and savages. Beaujeu gave the word of command, and the Indians dropped into the ravines and joined the French on the hill in a murderous fire on the British regulars, who, though bewildered by the hideous yells and shrieks that arose from the ra- vines, returned the fire, and Beaujeu was one of the first to fall dead. His loss dismayed the Indians, and they began to fly, but were rallied by Dumas, who sent them to attack the flanks of the English army, while the French soldiers kept up the fire in front. Hiding behind the trees, the Indians picked off the Englishmen with unerring aim. A reen- forcement was sent on by Braddock ; but the ad- vance party was driven back, leaving two of their pieces to the enemy, and meeting the reenforce- ments which were attempting to form, they became mingled and confused with them, and the entire force was thrown into disorder and unable to effect anything. Braddock pushed bravely forward, and rode hither 1755] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT, 219 and thither, issuing commands, and trying to in- spire his troops with his own courage. Four horses were shot under him, but again he mounted and again renewed his efforts. His officers were not outdone in bravery. Washington had two horses shot under him and his clothing torn by bullets ; Gates was shot through the body ; and only twen- ty three of the eighty-six officers escaped unhurt. Twenty-six were killed and thirty-seven wounded. But the English troops were panic-stricken ; they would not follow their officers ; they loaded their muskets and fired upon their own comrades, or into the empty air. The provincials, understanding bet- ter the methods of the Indians, maintained their self-control, and, stationing themselves behind trees, returned the fire in the Indian method from the cover. Washington urged Braddock to order all the men to fight in that way; but still the General could not see that there was any occasion for setting aside the rules of regular warfare. He drove the men out from their hiding-places, and insisted that they should form in platoons. At length he fell, mortally wounded, but continued to give orders as he lay bleeding on the ground. After three hours of such fighting, during which half the men were killed or wounded, the soldiers, in an uncontrollable panic, rushed back from the field 320 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [I755. and fled in confusion across the river, throwing away their arms. Bradduck was carried from the field by some provincials. The enemy did not fol- low across the river, but returned to the field to secure the plunder. Braddock's orders brought his men to a stand, but they were too frightened to maintain it, and broke once more into a straggling retreat, and on the nth reached the reserves at the camp. The panic spread to Dunbar's men ; all the stores at the camp were destroyed, and the whole army fled helpless through the woods, and past the settlements toward Philadelphia. Braddock lay in a lethargy, rousing himself at times to give commands, and once murmuring, ** Who would h-ve thought it? Who would have thought it?" S ortly before he died, on the night of the 13th, he turned to his lieutenant and said, " We shall better know how to deal with them another time." The soldiers made his grave at Great Meadows, near Fort Necessity, where it still may be seen. The lower ford, where his army crossed to the fatal field, is known as Braddock's Ford. The news of this defeat carried dismay through the provinces. It left the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia open and unprotected from the Indians ; and every unusual noise, even the 1755] BRADDOCK'S DEhEAT. 221 maudlin howl of a drunken man in the streets, was thought by the terrified inhabitants to be the deadly yell that heralded the tomahawk and the scalping- knife. In August, Washington was appointed Com- mander-in-Chief of all the forces of the colony. His conduct during Braddock's expedition had brought him to the favorable notice of the country, and attracted attention in England. He had, it is said, been marked by an Indian chief, who persist- ently aimed at him, and told some of his warriors to do the same. Failing to bring him down, they concluded that some powerful manitou was watching over his life. " I point out that heroic youth. Colonel Wash- ington," said a clergyman, Rev. Samuel Davis, in a sermon, "whom I cannot but hope Providence has preserved in so signal a manner for some im- portant service to his country." And Lord Hali- fax said, " Who is Mi. Washington ? I know noth- ing of him but that they say he behaved in Brad- dock's action as if h® really loved the whistling of bullets." One of the most disastrous results of t^ . defeat was its effect upon the Indians. It in .red them with contempt for the English soldie»-^ and respect for the military ability of the French. It decided the defection of the Delawares and Shawnoes, and rr ii 223 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. [1755- incited them to petty ravages on the border. Scarooyadi, successor to the Half-King, refused to listen to French persuasions, and remained true to the English. He said the defeat was due to the "pride and ignorance of that great general that came from England. He is now dead ; but he was a bad man when he was alive. He looked upon us as dogs, and would never hear anything that was said to him. We often endeavored to advise him, and tell him of the danger he was in with his sol- diers ; but he never appeared pleased with us, and that was the reason that a great many of our war- riors left him." Washington was anxious to secure the aid of the Indians ; and Scarooyadi was willing to go out at once. " Let us unite our strength," said he. " You are numerous, and the governors along the seashore can raise men enough ; but don't let those from over the seas be concerned any more. They are unfit to fight in the woods. Let us go out our- selves, we that came out of this ground." The Cherokees were also faithful to their friend- ship with the English colonies. Their chief pro- posed a conference with the Governor of South Carolina, notifying him of the attempts of the French and their allies to win over his nation. The Governor met the principal Cherokee warriors in 1755-] BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 223 their own country, two hundred miles from Charles- ton ; the alliance was renewed, and a large tract of land was ceded by the Cherokees to the colo- ny. Fort Prince George, three hundred miles from Charleston, was built on the ceded lands. CHAPTER XIII. BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. Expeditions under Shirley and Johnson — Shirley at Oswego — Move- ments of Dieskau — Building of Fort Edward — Advance of Dieskau — First Engagement — Fight at the Camp — Fight with Macginnis — Reward of Johnson — Erection of Fort William Henry— Fortifica- tion of Ticonderoga — Hostilities on the Ocean — Plans for the En- suing Year. The third expedition designed to establish the supremacy of England in the American territory which she claimed as her own, was to advance under Governor Shirley to attack Fort Niagara ; and the fourth under Johnson to Fort Frederick at Crown Point. These two expeditions were to be com- posed of troops supplied by the northern colonies, and warriors of the Six Nations. In June nearly six thousand men were gathered at Albany. Among them were Israel Putnam, of Connecticut, who was to have so large a share in the deeds of the Revolu- tionary War ; John Stark, of New Hampshire, des- tined to make himself famous at Bennington and Saratoga ; and Ephraim Williams, of Massachusetts, who had just made a will at Albany by which he 1755.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. Zt