The Niagara River

by Archer Butler Hulbert

The Wind veering to the North-East, and the Ship being well provided, we made all the Sail we could, and with the help of Twelve Men who hall'd from the Shoar, overcame the Rapidity of the Current, and got into the Lake. The Stream is so violent, that our Pilot himself despair'd of Success. When it was done, we sung Te Deum, and discharg'd our Cannon and other Fire-Arms, in presence of a great many Iroquese, who came from a Warlike Expedition against the Savages of Tintonha; that is to say, the Nation of the Meadows, who live above four hundred Leagues from that Place. The Iroquese and their Prisoners were much surpriz'd to see us in the Lake and did not think before that, we should be able to overcome the Rapidity of the Current: They cry'd several times Gannorom, to shew their Admiration. Some of the Iroquese had taken the measure of our Ship, and immediately went for New-York to give notice to the English and Dutch of our Sailing into the Lake: For those Nations affording their Commodities Cheaper than the French, are also more belov'd by the Natives. On the 7th of August, 1679, we went on board being in all four and thirty men, including two Recollets who came to us, and sail'd from the Mouth of the Lake Erie.

The loss of the Griffon by shipwreck on its initial voyage and the subsequent misfortunes that seemed to follow the brave La Salle up to the very day that witnessed his brutal murder in a far Texan prairie in 1687, are, in a measure only a part of the story of Niagara. Had that great man lived to realise any fair fraction of his emparadising dream of empire the effect on the history of the Niagara frontier would have been momentous; a mere comparison of what now did transpire at the mouth of the Niagara, in the very year of La Salle's death, illustrates perfectly the lack of enterprise that seems suddenly to have faded from the situation. With La Salle gone, the whole attitude of the regime in power at Quebec seems to change; whereas La Salle was on the very point of establishing at Niagara an important station on the communication to Louisiana. What actually did happen here is pitiful by comparison.

The new Governor, De Nonville, in order to bring the Iroquois into a proper state of submission and compell them to desist from annoying travellers on the St. Lawrence, determined to repeat Champlain's feat of invading their homeland. The record of this expedition from the mouth of its commanding officer, the Governor himself, is a very interesting document, especially to those interested in the study of that famous Long House that lay south of Lake Ontario.[22] Embarking at Fort Frontenac July 4, 1687, the expedition landed at Irondequoit Bay six days later, where De Nonville was reinforced by a party of French which had rendezvoused at Niagara from the West. Of this party little is known; possibly some of La Salle's crew were here, coming from their cabins at either end of the Niagara portage path, or possibly from the ship yard at the present La Salle. "It clearly appears," writes Marshall, "from De Nonville's narrative, that the party which he met at the mouth of the bay, was composed of French and Indians from the far west, who sailed from . . . Niagara, to join the expedition pursuant to his orders." These Indians, Mr. Browne affirms, were from Michilimackinac. Marching inland to the region Mr. Marshall believed, in the neighbourhood of the village of Victor, ten miles north-west of Canandaigua, a party of Senecas was put to flight and the entire region devastated until the 23rd; it was estimated that in the four Seneca villages the soldiers had destroyed about 1,200,000 bushels of corn—350,000 minots, of which all but 50,000 were green. On the 24th the lake was again reached.

The situation on the Niagara frontier at this moment could not better be described than it has been by Mr. Browne in his The St. Lawrence River, as follows:

De Nonville had now a clear way to build his fort at Niagara, which he proceeded to do, and then armed it with one hundred men. If triumphant in his bold plans, he had to learn that the viper crushed might rise to sting. The Senecas had their avengers. Maddened by the cowardly onset of De Nonville and his followers, the Iroquois to a man rose against the French. This was not done by any organised raid, but, shod with silence, small, eager war-parties haunted the forests of the St. Lawrence, striking where they were the least expected, and never failing to leave behind them the smoke of burning dwellings and the horrors of desolated lives. From Fort Frontenac to Tadousac there was not a home exempt from this deadly scourge; not a life that was not threatened. Unable to cope with so artful a foe, De Nonville was in despair. He sued for peace, but to obtain this he had to betray his allies, the Indians of the Upper Lakes, who had entered his service under the conditions that the war should continue until the Iroquois were exterminated. The latter sent delegates to confer with the French commander at Montreal.

While this conference was under way, a Huron chief showed that he was the equal of even De Nonville in the strategies of war where the code of honour was a dead letter. Anticipating the fate in store for his race did the French carry out their scheme of self-defence, this chief, whose name was Kandironk, "the Rat," lay in ambush for the envoys on their way home from their conference with De Nonville, when the latter had made so many fair promises. These Kandironk captured, claiming he did it under orders from De Nonville, bore them to Michilimackinac, and tortured them as spies. This done, he sent an Iroquois captive to tell his people how fickle the French could be. Scarcely was this accomplished when he gave to the French his exultant declaration, "I have killed the peace!" The words were prophetic. Nothing that De Nonville could say or do cleared him of connection with the affair. His previous conduct was enough to condemn him. To avenge this act of deceit, as the Iroquois considered it, they rallied in great numbers, and on the night of August 4, 1689, dealt the most cruel and deadly blow given during all the years of warfare in the St. Lawrence valley. Fifteen hundred strong, under cover of the darkness, they stole down upon the settlement of La Chine situated at the upper end of the island of Montreal, and surprised the inhabitants while they slept in fancied security. More than two hundred men, women, and children were slain in cold blood, or borne away to fates a hundred times more terrible to meet than swift death. The day already breaking upon the terror-stricken colonists was the darkest Canada ever knew.

The result of the expedition, so far as result appears, was effected when the ships bearing his men turned toward the Niagara River and were anchored off the point of land where now stands historic Fort Niagara. Here a fort was to be built forthwith, as much to secure the fur trade and to overawe the Indians as to keep the English from making any advance toward the territory of the Lakes. On the very day of his arrival De Nonville set his men to work. The fortification was constructed partly of earth surmounted by palisades. The building of the structure was no easy matter. There were no trees in the immediate vicinity, so the soldiers had to obtain their timber to the east along the lake or across the river. After the timber had been obtained from these forests, it was a very difficult matter to drag it up the high bank. However, De Nonville was so energetic and his men worked so faithfully that in three days a fort was built with four bastions, where were mounted two large guns. Several cabins were also built. As the work progressed, many of those who had come with De Nonville, both French and Indians, began to leave. Du Luth, Durantaye, and Tonty, together with the Illinois Indians who had allied themselves with the French against the Iroquois, departed for the trading-posts of Detroit and Michilimackinac. Soon after De Nonville himself left for Montreal, taking with him all but a hundred men. Those whom he left behind were placed under the command of De Troyes, with promises to send provisions as soon as possible, and fresh troops in the spring.[23]

The men left behind were truly in a surly mood. In spite of De Nonville's assurance of provisions, and his assertion that the Senecas had been subdued, these men knew only too well not to depend too much on the first, and as to the second, that the Indians had only been enraged, rather than vanquished.

For a time there was enough work to keep all hands busy. M. de Brissay left on the 3d of August, commanding M. de Vaudreuil to help in the constructing of the cabins and the completion of the fort. There was an immense amount of work to be accomplished in the cutting, dragging, hewing, and sawing of the timbers; but, despite the hot weather, there was soon completed a house with a chimney of sticks and clay for the commandant. Three other cabins were afterward built in the square and in the midst of these a well was dug; but its waters were always roiled from improper curbing.