Frontenac’s successor was Le Fèbvre de la Barre, a soldier of repute who had already rendered his country good service in the West Indian war, where he had gained some notable successes against the English. For reducing Antigua and Montserrat and recapturing Cayenne from the enemy, he had been promoted to a lieutenant-generalship. He arrived at Quebec with Meules, his intendant, at a most inopportune time. The great fire of August 4, 1682, had laid waste fifty-five houses, and destroyed vast quantities of goods.
The new Governor took up his residence in the château, while Meules went to live in a house in the woods. La Barre was a very different man from Frontenac. He had nothing of that soldier’s peculiar energy or determination. He was a temporizer, cold and insincere, and no match for Indian diplomacy or duplicity. The Indians gauged his capacity before he had been in Canada many weeks, and as compared with Frontenac they felt that they had a child to deal with. The King had given him pretty plain instructions. He was ordered not only to apply himself to prevent the violence of the Iroquois against the French, but also to endeavor to keep the savages at peace among themselves, and by all means to prevent the Iroquois from making war on the Illinois and other tribes. He was further told that his Majesty did not attach much importance to the discoveries which had lately been made in the countries of the Nadoussioux, the River Mississippi, and other parts of North America, deeming them of but slight utility; but he enjoined that the Sieur de la Salle be permitted to complete the exploration he had commenced, as far as the mouth of the Mississippi, “in case he consider, after having examined into it with the Intendant, that such discovery can be of any utility.”
It was not long before La Barre exhibited his total incapacity for governing Canada. He lowered the French prestige in the eyes of the Indians of the Confederacy, and left his red allies to their fate. He was jealous of La Salle, and hated him cordially. Charlevoix accounts for his incapacity by saying that “his advanced age made him credulous when he ought to be distrustful, timid when he ought to be bold, dark and cautious towards those who deserved his confidence, and deprived him of the energy necessary to act as the critical condition of the colony demanded when he administered its affairs.” He was not very old, being little more than sixty years of age at the time. He found the Iroquois flushed with victory over their enemies, and displaying an arrogant bearing towards the French. He wrote a braggart letter to the King; said that with twelve hundred men he would attack twenty-six hundred Iroquois, and then begged for more troops. To the minister he wrote that war was imminent, and unless those “haughty conquerors” were opposed, “half our trade and all our reputation” would be lost. He was always talking about fighting; but those about him knew that he rarely meant all he said. He developed a remarkable predilection for trade, and soon after his arrival allied himself to several of the Quebec merchants, with that object in view. This gave grave offence to all those who could not participate. The tables were turned, and the old enemies of Frontenac now reigned, while La Salle and La Forêt were deposed. Du Lhut, the leader of the coureurs de bois, and a quondam friend of the Ex-Governor, transferred his allegiance to the new authority. La Barre soon showed his feeling towards La Salle. Jacques Le Ber and Aubert de la Chesnaye were early despatched to Fort Frontenac, which La Forêt commanded, with orders to seize it and all it contained, on the flimsy pretext that La Salle had failed to fulfil the conditions of his contract. La Forêt was offered his former position as commander of the fort; but he refused to be false to his chief, and sailed for France in high dudgeon.
On the 10th of October a conference on the state of affairs with the Iroquois was held. There were present the Governor, Intendant, Bishop of Quebec, M. Dollier, Superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice of Montreal, Father Dablon, the Governor of Three Rivers, and others. The meeting was harmonious, and the importance and danger of the situation seemed to be understood. A most uninviting prospect lay before the little colony. The Iroquois, well armed and equipped, could strike first the Illinois, and in turn all the tribes in alliance with the French, and so divert the peltry trade into other channels, and finally fall upon the French themselves. It was stated at the conference that the English were responsible for this, and that they had been urging the Iroquois on for four years, in order to ruin Canada, and to secure for themselves and the Dutch the entire peltry trade of the continent. It was determined to make an effort to prevent the Iroquois from bringing upon the friendly Indians the fate they had previously dealt upon the Algonquins, the Andastes, the Abenaquis, and others. It was finally thought that the war might be averted for a time, and meanwhile the King was urgently importuned for troops and two hundred hired men, besides arms and ammunition.
The attack came sooner than had been expected. In the early spring the Seneca Indians were reported to be moving in considerable force on the Illinois, the Hurons, and the Ottawas of the lakes. La Barre, greatly excited, hastened his preparations. He wrote to France, explaining the posture of affairs, and demanding more troops. Du Lhut was sent with thirty men, with powder and lead, to Michillimackinac, to strengthen the defences there, and to guard the stores, of which there was a great quantity. Charles Le Moyne was despatched to Onondaga with a mission, which so far succeeded that forty-three Iroquois chiefs went to Montreal to meet the Governor. They arrived on the 14th of August. A council was held, and over two thousand crowns’ worth of presents were distributed among the Indians. La Barre demanded friendship for the Ottawas, the Algonquins, and the Hurons; but there was no firmness in his demands. He was timid, and when the fierce Senecas declared that the Iroquois made war on the Illinois because they deserved to die, he said nothing, and his silence sealed their doom. The delegates were asked to agree not to plunder French traders who were provided with passports. They agreed to this. It was a suggestion of La Chesnaye, and evidently aimed at La Salle, though La Barre denied that he gave the Iroquois liberty to plunder and kill the explorer. By a sort of poetic justice, the first captures the Iroquois made under their agreement were two boats belonging to La Chesnaye, which had gone up the lakes during Frontenac’s reign, and had no passports. On the 30th of August the deputies left Montreal.
La Barre continued his trading operations. He and La Chesnaye anticipated the annual market at Montreal, by sending up a large fleet of vessels, and securing enormous quantities of furs, a great part of which was clandestinely sent to Albany and New York. The Governor’s persecutions of La Salle went on, and in the spring he sent the Chevalier de Baugis, with canoes and soldiers, to seize his fort of St. Louis; but his scheme suffered defeat. La Barre now prepared in earnest for war, and was resolved to attack the Senecas in the following August (1684). On the 31st of July the King wrote that he had sent him three hundred soldiers.
It has been said that the English colonists of New York had instigated the Iroquois to make war on the French. Colonel Thomas Dongan, Lord Tyrconnel’s nephew, and a Roman Catholic, was governor of New York. Though he had respect for the King of France, he nevertheless thought himself entitled to a share of the fur-trade, which had so long remained a monopoly of the Canadians, and he decided to make some effort to obtain it. The Duke of York warned him against offending the French governor; but while Dongan publicly professed to observe his Grace’s injunction, he was really in frequent intrigue with the enemies of the French, and did all he could to provoke the Iroquois into making war on La Barre and his allies. The English had secured the allegiance of the five tribes of the Confederacy; the hatchet had been buried, and the song of peace had been sung. Dongan was wily, and got the Iroquois to recognize his king as their lawful sovereign. This would give him the command of the country south of the great lakes. The Indians readily promised, but without any intention of keeping their word. Their motive evidently was to make the most out of either party, and yield nothing. La Barre complained of the Senecas and Cayugas, and wrote to Dongan, telling him not to sell the offenders any arms or ammunition, and saying that he meant to attack the tribes for plundering French canoes and attempting a French fort. Dongan wrote in reply that the Iroquois were British subjects, and if they had done wrong, reparation should be made. Meanwhile he urged La Barre not to make his threatened attack, and begged him to keep the peace between the two colonies. Next he laid the complaints of the French governor before the chiefs, who on their part declared that the French had carried arms to their foes, the Illinois and the Miamis. Dongan handled the question with tact, and played upon the fears of the Indians so well that he got them to consent to his placing the arms of the Duke of York in their villages, which he said would save them from the French. They further agreed that they would not make peace with Onontio without consent of the English. In return for this, Dongan promised aid in case their country should be invaded.