FOOTNOTES:
[90] The seigneury of St. Sulpice, already granted, is included in this as part of the whole.
[91] D'Avaugour received the news as a magnanimous soldier. On his way home he wrote from Gaspé a memorial to Colbert in which he commends New France to the king. "The St. Lawrence," he says, "is the entrance to what may be made the greatest state in the world." In his purely military way he recounts the means of making this grand possibility by a military colonization.
[92] One horse only had reached Canada previously. It arrived June 20, 1647, and was presented to the governor, Montmagny.
[93] Etienne Pézard de la Touche never acted as governor of Montreal owing to the rigorous protestations raised by the Seigneurs of the island. M. de la Touche seems to have arrived in Canada in 1661 and by the 10th of October of that year he is to be found acting as lieutenant of the garrison of Three Rivers, in which locality he remained till 1664, when he became a captain. On June 20th he married Madeleine Mulois de la Borde and M. de Maisonneuve as governor assisted at the ceremony. On the same day or the next by a curious irony of fate there is found the nomination of the newly married captain, dated from Quebec, as Maisonneuve's successor. When the news became known at Montreal it was looked upon by the governor general de Mésy as an arrogation of the powers of the Seigneurs of Montreal, and an attempt on the part of the recently created Sovereign Council to test its jurisdiction over Montreal. The triumph of the seigneurs was evident, for on July 23d following, de Maisonneuve was accorded by the sovereign council his emoluments for the upkeep of the garrison for the current year, and on July 28th is found as governor granting a new concession of land, a practice he continued till May, 1665. On the other hand, on July 23d, de la Touche is recorded as in charge of the accounts of the garrison of Three Rivers. On August 8th M. de Mésy apparently by way of a consolation accorded him the seigneury of Batiscan and of Cap de la Madeleine, and the new seigneur busied himself in his new position. Meanwhile de Maisonneuve's days were numbered. (Cf. Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, 1914, No. 2, article by E. Z. Massicotte.)
CHAPTER XVI
1665
THE RECALL OF DE MAISONNEUVE
THE GOVERNOR GENERAL DE COURCELLES AND THE INTENDANT TALON ARRIVE—THE DUAL REIGN INHARMONIOUS—SIEUR DE TRACY, LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF THE KING FOR NORTH AMERICA, ARRIVES—THE CARIGNAN-SALLIERES REGIMENT—CAPTURE OF CHARLES LE MOYNE BY IROQUOIS—BUILDING OF OUTLYING FORTS—PREPARATIONS FOR WAR—THE DISMISSAL OF MAISONNEUVE—AN UNRECOGNIZED MAN—HIS MONUMENT—MAISONNEUVE IN PARIS—A TRUE CANADIAN.
The strained relations at Quebec and Montreal were soon to be relieved for a time by the death of de Mézy, who died on the night of May 5-6, 1665, thus being saved the painful investigations into his government which were ordered by Louis XIV, and were to be conducted by the new governor, M. de Courcelles, and the intendant, Jean Baptiste Talon. They, having received their letters of appointment on March 23d, were now on their way with a secret commission to look into the administration of the spiritual and temporal power of New France. M. de Courcelles was given power over all the local governors of Canada, and the Sovereign Council, to settle differences between its members, and to have command over all His Majesty's subjects, ecclesiastics, nobles, soldiers and others of whatever dignity or condition, but this under the supervision of M. Alexandre de Pourville, Sieur de Tracy, who was shortly expected to be in Canada. This latter had been appointed on November 19, 1663, the lieutenant general of the king for l'Amérique Méridionale et Septentrionale, and was to proceed to Canada as soon as possible.
As for Talon, the Colbert of New France, and the first intendant in Canada, he was given unlimited authority in police, civil, judiciary and financial matters, independently of M. de Courcelles.
THE INTENDANT TALON
This distribution of power was bound, in the beginning, to create trouble. Perfect harmony could not be expected while the intendant, though not of equal dignity with the governor, was treated with great consideration and was looked upon to act as a check and spy on the governor. This dual reign was as likely to cause friction as had that of the governor and the bishop hitherto. Still it was a most valuable and useful office in the progress of the country, and Talon used it well.
Before the arrival of de Courcelles and Talon, on April 25th, an attack had been made on the Hôtel-Dieu at Montreal, when four of their men were fallen upon by the Indians; one was killed, another mortally wounded and two others were taken prisoners. This made Montreal look more eagerly for the arrival of the troops promised to exterminate the Iroquois.
On June 17th and 19th, four companies of the Carignan-Sallières regiment, which had sailed from Rochelle, arrived at Quebec, while de Tracy himself, with the four others which had served with him in the French Islands, reached Quebec on June 30th. In the train of the tall and portly veteran of sixty-two, was a gay and glittering throng of finely dressed young noblemen, and gentlemen adventurers, eager to witness the wonders of New France. Never was such splendour seen in Canada as that, when Laval received de Tracy and his bronzed veterans recently come from Hungary, where they had fought the Turks, and who now, with their picturesque soldiery accoutrements and trained movements marched stately to the fort to the beat of the drums. Assuredly at last the Iroquois would be exterminated by such disciplined forces.
This infantry regiment, which at the conclusion of the war was to leave many of its soldiers to settle down near Montreal and become the founders of many of the best Canadian families, had originally been raised in 1644 by Thomas François de Savoie, Prince of Carignan, the head of the house of Carignan, who fought for France in Italy. His son, after him, also commanded this regiment, which took henceforth the name of Carignan. In 1659, after having joined the regiment of Colonel Balthasar, he incorporated this with his own and it was handed over to the French king, who placed M. Henri de Chapelais, Sieur de Sallières, the colonel of another regiment incorporated with it, to command it in the absence of the prince, under his orders. Hence the combination became known as the Carignan-Sallières regiment and consisted of about 1,000 men from the Carignan-Balthasar regiment and 200 of the Sallières. The portion of the troop which returned to France became the nucleus of a reconstructed regiment which under the name of Lorraine existed till 1794.
The regiment had, however, not yet all arrived. That portion led by Colonel de Sallières himself did not come till August 18th or 19th, while the last companies reached New France with de Courcelles and Talon, on September 12th. These latter added to the splendour of Quebec "for," says Mother Jucherau, "M. de Courcelles, our governor, had a superb train and M. Talon, who naturally loves glory, forgot nothing which could do honour to the king." At last the numbers were complete, but many were put into the hospitals, sick from disease, and from the long voyage, which had taken M. Talon's party 117 days at sea. This sickness was one of the reasons which delayed the war against the Iroquois till next year.
Meanwhile at Montreal news had arrived of the capture on the Ile Ste. Thérèse, of Charles Le Moyne who, in July, had been given leave by de Maisonneuve to join the friendly "wolves" in a hunting expedition. He, however, escaped death, for he threatened them with dire revenge. "There will come a great number of French soldiers," he said, "who will burn your villages; they are even now arriving at Quebec. Of that I have certain information."
In preparation for the coming war, de Tracy, soon after his arrival, determined to build forts at the entrances to the routes leading to and from the Iroquois country. These were to be garrisoned by the soldiers of the Carignan regiments so far arrived. The first fort was placed at the mouth of the Richelieu River, to replace that originally built by de Montmagny, and quickly ruined in 1642. It was built under the direction of one of the officers, M. Sorel, whose name was afterwards given to this place, A second was constructed at the foot of a rapid of the Richelieu River and it received the name of Chambly, from another Carignan officer. M. de Sallières constructed the third at another rapid of the same river and it gained its name of Fort Ste. Thérèse from the saint's day occurring on October 15th, the day of its completion. A fourth, St. John, was built at the foot on another rapid of the Richelieu. The fifth was built by another officer, M. Lamothe, on an island of Lake Champlain, at a distance of four leagues from its mouth and was named Ste. Anne.
After their completion, the soldiers were distributed for winter to Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal. Colonel de Sallières was in command at the latter. As provisions were scarce in the storehouses of the company, Talon wrote to Colbert on October 4, 1665:
"I have sent merchandise to Montreal and on the advice of M. de Tracy I have added some ammunition from the king's stores to be distributed to the inhabitants. But in return I expect to receive from them wheat and vegetables, as well as elk skins, to make stronger canoes than those covered with birch bark."
Hearing of the preparation for war, an embassy from the three upper nations under Garacontié, the chief friendly to the French, met de Tracy at Quebec, bringing back with them Charles Le Moyne unscathed, and parleying for peace. But the two insolent lower tribes against whose marauderings the forts had been built, were still contumacious and to be punished presently.
By November, the forts were completed and the peace from Iroquois attacks was so secure that the body of Father Duperon, the old Jesuit missioner at Montreal, who had died at Chambly, was taken to Quebec to be buried. This same month, on November 24th, another Jesuit well known at Montreal, Simon Le Moyne, died at Cap de la Madeleine. He was a man of remarkable courage, tact and ability, and his name will ever be remembered in Canadian history as the first European recorded to have ascended the St. Lawrence River.
LE MOYNE MEMORIAL AT SALINA, NEW YORK
A greater sorrow than the imprisonment of Le Moyne was to afflict Montreal in the enforced departure of "its father, and very dear governor," who had served the colony for nearly twenty-four years, and was now to be a sacrifice to the centralizing policy of the new government, which had long looked with envy on the power of the seigneurs of Montreal to name their governor. The policy pursued by de Mézy, and temporarily checked, was now adopted by the Marquis de Tracy, with no uncertain significance.
The joy at the arrival of the troops, now turned to bitterness. The nature of de Maisonneuve's dismissal was conveyed in the appointment, on October 23d, of his successor. "Having permitted," ran de Tracy's letter, "M. de Maisonneuve, governor of Montreal, to make a journey to France for his own private affairs, we have judged that we can make no better choice for a commander in his absence than the person of Sieur Dupuis, and this as long as we shall judge convenient." Under the glove of velvet, can be seen the hand of iron.
This stroke of diplomacy, delicate enough in its way, cut deep enough to wound de Maisonneuve's friends. The charge of inefficiency was read into the veiled dismissal by Marguerite Bourgeoys, his faithful adviser. "He was ordered to return to France," says Sister Morin, "as being incapable of the place and rank of governor he held here; which I could scarcely have believed, had not Sister Bourgeoys assured me of it. He took the order as that of the will of God and crossed over to France, not to make complaint of the bad treatment he had received but to live simply and humbly, an unrecognized man."
De Maisonneuve was left a poor man; he had made no fortune in Canada, as others had done. He had contented himself with being the father of his people. His devotion and attachment to Montreal had stood in the way of his acceptance of the governor generalship. He left under a cloud, but his memory has been vindicated in the noble monument to him in the Place d'Armes of Montreal. There is hardly to be found a higher ideal of Christian knighthood in the whole history of our Canadian heroes.
STATUE OF MAISONNEUVE IN PLACE D'ARMES
(By Philippe Hébert)
On his return to France, he led a simple Christian life. His heart was in Montreal, and in his modest home at the Fossé St. Victor, his greatest delight was sometimes to receive a Canadian visitor, for whom he felt a fatherly affection.
His retreat was visited in 1670 by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who thus describes it in the account of her journey to obtain the letters patent for her new institution: "The morning of my arrival I went to the Seminary of St. Sulpice to learn where I could find M. de Maisonneuve. He was lodged at the Fossé St. Victor, near the church of the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, and I arrived at his house rather late. Only a few days before he had constructed a cabin and furnished a little room after the Canadian manner so as to entertain any persons who should come from Canada. I knocked at the door and he himself came down to open it, for he lived on the second floor with his servant, Louis Frins, and he opened the door for me with very great joy." Many other kindnesses did this simple gentleman do for her and for other Canadians, for whom he acted as the kindly agent while they were in Paris.
A true Canadian! May his memory remain forever green at Montreal! He died on September 9, 1676, and his funeral obsequies were carried out in the church hard by his home, above mentioned. Dollier de Casson, in his history of the city, treats the painful incident of the governor's departure thus:
"Speaking of the arrival of the ships and of the 'grand monde' which came to Montreal this year, and of the extreme joy because of the king's goodness in making his victorious arms glare and glitter, all the same these joys were diluted for the more intelligent with much bitterness when they saw M. Maisonneuve, their father and very dear governor, depart this time for good, leaving them in the hands of others, from whom they could not expect the same freedom, the same love, and the same fidelity in putting down the vices, which have since taken effect with those other disgraces and miseries, which had never up to then appeared to the point at which they have since been seen."
It is commonly thought that Maisonneuve arrived at Montreal in his fortieth year. He lived there twenty-three years. After that he spent eleven in France, thus dying at the age of seventy-four years.
CHAPTER XVII
1666-1670
THE SUBDUAL OF THE IROQUOIS
THE END OF THE HEROIC AGE
PRIMITIVE EXPEDITIONS UNDER DE COURCELLES, SOREL AND DE TRACY—THE ROYAL TROOPS AND THE MONTREAL "BLUE COATS"—DOLLIER DE CASSON, THE SOLDIER CHAPLAIN—THE VICTORY OVER THE IROQUOIS—THE HOTEL-DIEU AT MONTREAL RECEIVES THE SICK AND WOUNDED—THE CONFIRMATION OF THE GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY AS SEIGNEURS—THE LIEUTENANT GENERAL AND INTENDANT IN MONTREAL—THE "DIME"—THE CENSUS OF 1667—MORE CLERGY NEEDED—THE ABBE DE QUEYLUS RETURNS, WELCOMED BY LAVAL AND MADE VICAR GENERAL—REINFORCEMENT OF SULPICIANS—THEIR FIRST MISSION AT KENTE—THE RETURN OF THE RECOLLECTS—THE ARRIVAL OF PERROT AS LOCAL GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL.
So eager was de Courcelles to carry on the war, for which the troops had come, that they started from Quebec on January 9th, in the depth of winter, a rash venture as de Maisonneuve could have told the Europeans. Yet they marched out, each soldier with his unaccustomed snowshoes and with twenty to thirty pounds of biscuits and provisions strapped on his back, crossing the frozen streams and waterfalls, to the number of 300 of the Carignan regiment, and 100 French Canadians. They were joined by others on the route, among them a party of 106 good Montrealers under Charles Le Moyne. These latter were de Courcelles' most valued men, being seasoned woodmen used to wars' alarms. He called them his "blue coats," and found they served and obeyed him, better than the rest. The expedition was an utter failure, for not counting the frozen fingers, noses and limbs, they lost many men, sixty dying from want of provisions, so that de Courcelles returned to Quebec disconsolate.
A second expedition, under Sorel, started in July. This time there were only "thirty good Montrealers." When within twenty leagues of the Iroquois camps, they were met by the famous chief, called the "Flemish Bastard," with some European captives. He asked for peace, and Sorel, believing him, marched back to Quebec with the Bastard.
De Tracy led the next expedition with de Courcelles on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14th. Never had so large an army started out—600 Carignans, 100 friendly Indian allies from the missions and 600 French Canadians, of which 110 were the "blue coats" from Montreal under Le Moyne and Picoté de Bélestre, who led the van to meet the brunt of all disasters as they were chosen to be at the rear in retreat. The canoes and flat-bottomed boats started from Quebec crossed Lake Champlain; then, they landed and portaged their boats on their backs till they launched them again on Lake St. George (then called Lake St. Sacrament), and proceeded up the narrows to where Fort William Henry was afterwards built. There were 100 miles of marching now to be endured, through forests, streams and marshes gleaming in the Indian summer sun. Marie de l'Incarnation tells some adventures of this journey. As each one, even the officers, had to carry his knapsack of provisions, the fair Chevalier de Chaumont got a humour on his shoulders. Others suffered likewise. General de Tracy was placed in a dangerous predicament when crossing a ford. "He was one of the biggest men I have ever seen," says the good sister, "and a Swiss soldier was trying to carry him. When in the middle, de Tracy found himself overthrown, but luckily clung to a rock and saved himself. From this undignified position he was rescued by a hardy Huron, who conveyed him safely to the other side."
But the character of this journey was the genial chaplain of the Montreal forces, none other than Dollier de Casson, whom we have quoted so often. Dollier had arrived in Canada on September 7th. His venturesome spirit was enlisted at once in this expedition, in which he was quite at home being, besides a "man of God," a "man of war," having but ten years ago served and fought, as a cavalry officer under Marshal de Turenne. He was a very large man, as tall as de Tracy, and stronger. Grandet, who left a manuscript note on Dollier, says that he had such extraordinary strength, that he could hold two men seated in his hands. He was cheerful, courtly, courteous and genial. He had a merry and quick jest to cheer up the "blue coats" and others, in many a tight corner. He was doubtless the most popular man in camp. [94]
If he had lived in these days, the newspapers would have called him the "fighting parson." Grandet, in his manuscript note on Dollier, tells how on one occasion, being at prayer on his knees in an Algonquin camp, an insolent savage came to interrupt him. Without rising from his knees, the big burly missioner sent the astonished Indian sprawling on the ground by a blow from his fist—a proceeding which gained him admiration from the Algonquins, who exclaimed with pride in his physical prowess: "This is indeed a man!" Probably this strength helped him to become the great peacemaker he afterwards became at Montreal. Dollier says little of himself in his account of the march, speaking modestly and impersonally of himself. The big man seems to have suffered hunger very much on the small rations dealt out to him, for he says that "this priest made a good noviceship under a certain captain who could be called the Grand Master of Fasting; at least this officer could have served as novice master in this point to the Fathers of the Desert." This "ecclesiastic of St. Sulpice," he says, "was strongly built, but what enfeebled him was hearing the confessions of the men by night while the others were asleep. He felt the marching pretty badly, for his wretched pair of shoes gave way, so that having nothing left but the uppers the sharp stones of the water beds and banks played havoc with his bare feet. So weak and weary did he become that he could not save a man drowning in the water into which he had plunged to the rescue. This man happened to belong to the train of the Jesuits and Dollier explained that it was hunger that had so enfeebled him, whereat the good Jesuit took the good Sulpician aside and gave him a piece of bread, made palatable with two different sucres, one of Madeira and the other of appétit."
We cannot pursue the story of the war, as it takes us too far from Montreal. Suffice it to say that there was a complete victory, the greatest that had ever been won against the Iroquois. After the capture of the last stronghold of the Mohawk Iroquois, the warrior priest chanted a Te Deum and said mass. After that, the cross was planted with the arms of France and possession was taken of the country in the name of Louis XIV. "Vive le roi!"
At Quebec, when the news arrived, on November 2d, there were great rejoicings, and when de Tracy returned on the 5th the Te Deum boomed out anew. But the army was sorely depleted; many had died from cold, hunger and the chances of war, as also by accidents on the road, whereas the Iroquois had lost little else than their birch bark cabins.
After the termination of the expedition, some of the soldiers were picketed in the new forts. A chaplain was needed for Fort Ste. Anne, and Dollier de Casson, now returned to Montreal, volunteered, although he suffered from a swelling on the knee, to cure which he underwent a severe bleeding at the hands of one of the local medicos of Montreal, who did it so effectually that the big man fainted. However, he started out in two days, accompanied by Jacques Leber, Charles Le Moyne and Migeon de Branssat. At Ste. Anne's, he had busy work, with young Forestier, a surgeon from Montreal, in attending the sick men who suffered from famine and scurvy, while eleven died. Though himself sick the cheery chaplain did good, self-sacrificing service, none the less excellent, because it was seasoned with a plenteous fund of raillery and bantering. Among the officers there was La Durantaye, famous hereafter in Canadian annals. So the winter wore away at Ste. Anne's, relieved by provisions sent by the good folks of Montreal.
That winter the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal was filled to overflowing with the sick and wounded, which it had received from the army under de Courcelles after the terrible war of the early winter. During the next year it continued its good work, for which Dollier de Casson says it deserved unspeakable praise, receiving the sick from the forts of Ste. Anne, St. Louis and St. Jean.
Before closing the narration of the events of this year we must not forget the joy at Montreal caused by the news spread in September that the king had settled all doubts of the rights of the Seigneurs of Montreal by confirming the letters patent of 1644. This confirmation M. Talon put into practice on September 17th when he received the fealty and homage of the Seminary for the Seigneurs of Montreal "with high, low and middle justice," and two days afterwards, in virtue of the extraordinary powers granted him by the king, ordered the seigneurs to be maintained in the possession of the administration of justice, thus supplanting the royal court of the sénéchal already established, as before mentioned.
The Seminary had right to name its own governor also, but no one was appointed to the vacant post of Maisonneuve till 1669.
Thus the year closed in a peace to last for twenty years. The king's arms had battered Iroquois insolence.
But the heroic age was at an end. [95]
After the successful war, de Tracy engaged himself before departing in May for Montreal, in consolidating the paternal government lately introduced and in conciliating the habitants on behalf of his royal master. He came to Montreal to take cognizance of it as a place which was most commonly resorted to by the savage as the most advanced point on the river.
He left Quebec on May 4th, and two days later Talon, as intendant, set out to pay his official visit to Montreal. He acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the settlers on all the côtes "for," says Dollier de Casson, "he went to the great edification of the public from house to house, even to the poorest, asking if all were being treated according to equity and justice, and when pecuniary assistance was needed, it was forthcoming."
We shall speak later of many of the progressive movements initiated through M. Talon at this time.
This year the Seigneurs of Montreal were given back the possession of the storehouse at Quebec, about which there had been much contention.
The question of the "dime" had agitated Montreal as elsewhere. Originally fixed by Laval at one-thirteenth it had been reduced to one-twentieth and then to one-twenty-sixth. Even then in view of the difficulties of a young country it was not payable for five years, to allow the settler to cultivate his lands more easily. But at the same time, it was arranged that in the future, better times might allow it to be increased. This was regulated by an act of the clerk's office at Montreal of August 23, 1667; but a further act of an assembly, held on August 12, 1668, shows appreciation on the part of the syndic and inhabitants of a desire to meet the seigneurs in the upkeep of the church by fixing the dime at one-twenty-first part for wheat and one-twenty-sixth for other grains.
The arrangements for the payment of the dime had been made jointly by de Tracy, de Courcelles and Talon. De Tracy left Quebec on September 28th, to the great regret of Laval and the clergy.
Illustration: PLAN OF MONTREAL, 1650-1672
The census of Montreal for this year (1667) is given as 766 souls; Three Rivers and its dependencies, 666; Côte de Beaupré, 656; Isle of Orleans, 529; Quebec, 448; other settlements under the government of Quebec, 1,011; Beauport, 123; Côte de Lauson (south shore), 113. In this year there were 11,448 arpents under cultivation in New France. There were 3,107 heads of cattle, besides 85 sheep. These latter began to be imported in 1665, at the same time as the horses. In the following year 15,649 arpents were cultivated and the production of wheat amounted to 130,978 minots.
But more clergy was needed, so this year M. Souart, the curé of Montreal, went over to France to seek new missioners for the work of the Sulpicians. He left behind him M. Giles Pérot as curé and MM. Galinier, Barthélemy and Trouvé. At the Hôtel-Dieu the venerable superioress, Mother Macé, had five nuns under her direction, and at the house of the "Congregation" Marguerite Bourgeoys, with three helpers, continued her good work.
M. Souart brought back a most enthusiastic worker who was none other than the redoubtable Abbé de Queylus. There was at last no opposition on the part of Laval. The elements leading to this change of front are twofold: firstly, the archbishop of Rouen had some time ago renounced all pretension to jurisdiction in New France, and thus was removed Laval's contentious attitude against de Queylus, for it was not a question of persons with him, but of prerogatives. He had looked upon de Queylus as the representative of a rival authority which might tend to raise "altar against altar," and lead to schism and so destroy his policy of church centralization. Secondly, de Queylus had received an invitation from the king, who had been apprised of his good qualities through the papal nuncio, Picolomini, now become a cardinal, and the king's word went with Laval.
Accordingly, when de Queylus arrived in the spring with three Sulpicians, M. René de Brébant de Galinée, M. François Saturnin Lascares d'Urfé, [96] and his former secretary, M. Antoine d'Allet, Laval received them most cordially and gave de Queylus letters patent as his vicar general, a post held by him in Montreal during all his further stay.
Laval has described this reception himself in a letter to his friend, M. Poitevin, the curé of St. Fossé at Paris. Speaking of the consolation in receiving M. de Queylus and the new workers he says: "We have embraced them all in the name of Jesus Christ. What gives us most sensible joy is that we see our clergy disposed, with one heart and one soul, to procure the glory of God and the salvation of souls, both French and Indian. The fatherly tenderness which the king has made apparent to New France and the notable contributions he has made to make it more numerous and flourishing, furnishes an ample harvest field for all to employ their zeal and spend their lives for the love of Jesus Christ, who has given them the first inspirations to consecrate themselves to Him and His church."
This was not a diplomatic change of attitude with Laval. He was incapable of dissimulation or subterfuge. He saw the glory of God in the new situation and thenceforward the Sulpicians had a true friend and admirer.
On their part the Jesuits were no less cordial in their welcome. The "Relation" for 1668 speaks of the same powerful reinforcement of the clergy for Montreal and hoped for much good from "these great missionaries."
There were now about fifteen Sulpicians in Montreal when, in the month of June, 1668, an embassy of Iroquois came from the Bay of Kenté, on the banks of Lake Ontario, asking for a black robe to instruct their people in the religion of the white man. Two young priests, M. Fénelon and M. Trouvé, having offered themselves, on September 15th, Mgr. Laval gave them letters to establish their mission, and they embarked at Lachine on October 2d, and arrived at the Bay of Kenté (Quinté) on October 28th. This was the first mission of the Sulpicians. Their good work, begun at Montreal, was to stretch far and wide. If we do not follow them in detail it is because we are sketching only the original and cradle events of great movements in these annals. In the winter M. de Queylus sent M. Dollier de Casson and M. Barthélemy to Lake Nipissing.
The peace with the Iroquois left further opportunity for self-sacrificing missioners to work among them, so that in 1669 the clergy were glad to welcome the return of the Recollects. Not only did Laval welcome them, but the Jesuits, who succeeded them on the renewal of the French possession, after the occupation by the English under Kirke, though they are represented by mischief-making historians as having "supplanted" them, wrote as follows of their joy at their coming, in the "Relations" of 1670:
"The Reverend Recollect Fathers, who have come from France to be a new succour to the missionaries in the growth of this church, have given us an excess of joy and consolation. We have received them as the first apostles of this country, and in recognition of the obligation due to them by the French colony, the inhabitants of Quebec have been delighted to receive these good religious, now established on the same ground where they dwelt forty years before the French were driven from Canada by the English."
In fact, arrangements were made by those who had been put into possession of the Recollects' former estates, held prior to 1629, to cede them, and the friars now had an estate of ten by ten arpents, for which the governor general gave them new titles by an act of October 23, 1670.
We have now to record the appointment of a new governor for Montreal, left officially vacant since de Maisonneuve's departure, three and a half years ago, although several commandants had represented the Seigneurs. The choice fell upon M. Marie François Perrot, a gentilhomme by birth, and captain of an Auvergne regiment, who was then on the point of crossing over with his regiment to establish himself with his wife in Canada and doubtless make his fortune.
M. Perrot had married Talon's niece, Madeleine de Laguide, and it was the former intendant, then about to revisit Canada for a second time, who solicited the vacant post from M. de Bretonvilliers, the superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris who granted it by a letter addressed to M. Perrot on June 13, 1669, being "duly informed of your good life and character, talents, capacity and good qualities, we have made choice of your person to fill and exercise the office of governor ... without you at the same time being able to make pretensions to any salary or remuneration other than the country has been accustomed to give."
On the voyage, Perrot, his wife and Talon were shipwrecked, and they saved their lives on a broken mast by having promised a large sum of money to the sailors for having assisted them to it. Five hundred emigrants came with this expedition.
But on Perrot's arrival in Montreal, where he and his wife were well received, in pity for their shipwreck and out of interest in the lady governor—for Maisonneuve had been a sorry bachelor—he sought to have his commission made more certain by letters patent from the king. Accordingly, this was finally effected through Talon and Colbert, by letters dated March 14, 1671, and with the consent of M. Bretonvilliers, whose rights seemed not to be infringed, since it had been the custom for the governor generals named by the seigneur companies, also to receive a royal commission.