No justice ever was done to this man who gave to his friends with both hand of flesh and hand of iron, caring nothing for recompense; and whom historians, priests, tradition, savages, and his own deeds unite in praising. But as long as the friendship of man for man is beautiful, as long as the multitude with one impulse lift above themselves those men who best express the race, Henri de Tonty’s memory must stand like the Rock of St. Louis.[27]
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Frontenac was the only man the Iroquois would ever allow to call himself their father. All other governors, English or French, were simply brothers.
[2] “Henri de Tonty, surnommé Main-de-fer.” Notes Sur Nouvelle France.
[3] The romancer here differs from the historian, who says Father Hennepin met La Salle at Quebec.
[4] “This name was in Huron and Iroquois the translation of the name of M. de Montmagny (Mons maguns, great mountain). The savages continued calling the successors of Governor Montmagny by the same name, and even to the French king they applied the title ‘Great Ononthio.’” Translated from note on page 138, tome 1, Garneau’s Histoire du Canada.
[5] The asceticism here attributed to Mademoiselle Jeanne le Ber was really practised by the wife of an early colonial noble. See Parkman’s Old Régime, p. 355.