During this year the first communication passed between the French and British North American colonies. An envoy arrived at Quebec from New England, bearing proposals for a lasting peace with Canada, not to be interrupted even by the wars of the mother countries. M. d'Ailleboust gladly entertained the wise proposition, and sent a deputy to Boston with full powers to treat, providing only that the English would consent to aid him against the Iroquois. But the cautious Puritans would not compromise themselves by this stipulation. They were sufficiently remote from the fierce and formidable savages of the Five Nations to be free from present apprehension, and to their steady and industrious habits the plow was more suitable than the sword. The negotiation, therefore, totally failed, which was probably of little consequence, for it is difficult to perceive how these remote and feeble colonies could have preserved a neutrality in the contentions of England and France, which was impossible even to powerful states.
After a treacherous calm of some six months' duration, the unhappy Hurons again relapsed into a fatal security; the terrible lessons of the past were forgotten in the apparent tranquillity of the present. Watch and ward were relaxed, and again they lay at the mercy of their ruthless enemies. When least expected, 1000 Iroquois warriors started up from the thick coverts of a neighboring forest, and fell fiercely upon the defenseless Hurons, burned two of their villages, exterminated the inhabitants, and put two French missionaries to death with horrible tortures. Then the remnant of the defeated tribe despaired; the alliance of the French had only embittered the hostility of their enemies without affording protection; therefore they arose and deserted their villages and hunting grounds, wandering away, some into the northern forests, others as suppliants among neighboring nations.
The greater body of the Hurons, however, attached themselves to the fortunes of the missionaries, and under them formed a settlement on the island of St. Joseph, but they neglected to cultivate the land. As the autumn advanced, the resources of the chase became exhausted, and the horrors of famine commenced. They were shortly reduced to the most dreadful extremities of suffering; every direst expedient that starvation could prompt and despair execute was resorted to for a few days' prolonging of life. Then came the scourge of contagious fever, sweeping numbers away with desolating fury. While these terrible calamities raged among the Hurons, the Iroquois seized the opportunity of again invading them. The village of St. John, containing nearly 3000 souls, was the first point of attack. The feeble inhabitants offered no resistance, and, with their missionary, were totally destroyed. Most of the remnant of this unhappy tribe then took the resolution of presenting themselves to their conquerors, and were received into the Iroquois nation. The few who still remained wandering in the forests were hunted down like wolves, and soon exterminated.
The terror of the Iroquois name now spread rapidly along the shores of the great lakes and rivers of the north. The fertile banks of the Ottawa, once the dwelling-place of numerous and powerful tribes, became suddenly deserted, and no one could tell whither the inhabitants had fled.
About this time was introduced among the Montagnez, and the other tribes of the Saguenay country, an evil more destructive than even the tomahawk of the Iroquois—the "accursed fire-water;" despite the most earnest efforts of the governor, the fur traders at Tadoussac supplied the Indians with this fatal luxury. In a short time, intoxication and its dreadful consequences became so frequent, that the native chiefs prayed the governor to imprison all drunkards. At Three Rivers, however, the wise precautions of the authorities preserved the infant settlement from this monstrous calamity.
In the year 1650 M. d'Ailleboust was worthily succeeded by M. de Lauson, one of the principals of the Associated Company. The new governor found affairs in a very discouraging condition, the colony rapidly declining, and the Iroquois, flushed by their sanguinary triumphs, more audacious than ever. These fierce savages intruded fearlessly among the French settlements, despising forts and intrenchments, and insulting the inhabitants with impunity. The island of Montreal suffered so much from their incursions, that M. de Maisonneuve, the governor, was obliged to repair to France to seek succors, for which he had vainly applied by letter. He returned in the year 1653 with a timely re-enforcement of 100 men.
Although the Iroquois had now overcome or destroyed all their native enemies, and proved their strength even against the Europeans, some of their tribes were more than ever disposed to a union with the white men. The Onnontagués dispatched an embassy to Quebec to request that the governor would send a colony of Frenchmen among them. He readily acceded to the proposition, and fifty men were chosen for the establishment, with the Sieur Dupuys for their commander. Four missionaries were appointed to found the first Iroquois church; and to supply temporal wants, provisions for a year, and sufficient seed to sow the lands about to be appropriated, were sent with the expedition. This design excited the jealousy of the other Iroquois tribes; the Agniers even tried to intercept the colonists with a force of 400 warriors; they, however, only succeeded in pillaging a few of the canoes that had fallen behind. The same war party soon after made an onslaught upon ninety Hurons, working on the Isle of Orleans under French protection, slew six, and carried off the rest into captivity. As they passed before Quebec they made their unhappy prisoners sing aloud, insultingly attracting the attention of the garrison. The marauders were not pursued; they dragged the prisoners to their villages, burned the chiefs, and condemned the rest to a cruel bondage. M. de Lauson can hardly be excused for thus suffering his allies to be torn from under his protection without an effort to save them from their merciless enemies. These unfortunates had been converted to Christianity, which increased the rage and ferocity of the captors against them. One brave chief, whose tortures had been prolonged for three days as a worshiper of the God of the white men, bore himself faithfully to the last, and died with the Saviour's blessed name upon his quivering lip.
In the mean time the expedition to the country of the Onnontagués suffered great privations, and only escaped starvation by the generosity of the natives. Their spiritual mission was, however, at first eminently successful, the whole nation seeming disposed to adopt the Christian faith. But the allied tribes having carried their insolence to an intolerable degree, and massacred three Frenchmen near Montreal, the commandant at Quebec seized all the Iroquois within his reach, and demanded redress. The answer of the haughty savages was, to prepare for war. Dupuys and his little colony were now in a most perilous position: there was no hope of aid from Quebec, and but little chance of being able to escape from among their dangerous neighbors. They labored diligently and secretly to construct a sufficient number of canoes to carry them away in case some happy opportunity might arise, and found means to warn the people of Quebec of the coming danger. By great industry and skill the canoes were completed, and stored with the necessary provisions; through an ingenious stratagem, the French escaped in safety, while the savages slept soundly after one of their solemn feasts. In fifteen days the fugitives arrived at Montreal, where they found alarm on every countenance. The Iroquois swarmed over the island, and committed great disorders, although still professing a treacherous peace. The savages soon, however, threw off the mask, and broke into open war.
On the 11th of July, 1658, the Viscompte d'Argenson landed at Quebec as governor. The next morning the cry "to arms" echoed through the town. The Iroquois had made a sudden onslaught upon some Algonquins under the very guns of the fortress, and massacred them without mercy. Two hundred men were instantly dispatched to avenge this insult, but they could not overtake the wily marauders. In the same year, however, a party of the Agniers met with a severe check in a treacherous attempt to surprise Three Rivers. The lesson was not lost, and the colony for some time enjoyed a much-needed repose. The missionaries seized this interval of tranquillity to recommence their sacred labors: they penetrated into many remote districts where Europeans had never before reached, and discovered several routes to the dreary shores of Hudson's Bay. In the year 1659, the exemplary François de Laval, abbé de Montigny, arrived at Quebec to preside over the Canadian Church as the first American bishop.[378]
The temporal affairs of the colony were falling into a lamentable condition; no supplies arrived from France, and the local production was far from sufficient. Terror of the Indians kept the settlers almost blockaded in the forts, and cultivation was necessarily neglected. It was proposed by many that all the settlements should be abandoned, and that they should again seek the peaceful shores of their native country. Many individuals were massacred by the savages, and two armed parties, one of thirty and the other of twenty-six men, were totally destroyed. But some of the Indians, too, began to weary of this murderous war, and to long again for Christian instruction and peaceful commerce. The new governor was at first little inclined to negotiate with his fierce and capricious enemies; but, influenced by the miserable state of the colony, which even a brief truce might improve, he at length agreed to an exchange of prisoners and a peace.