“Frontenac.”
The entries in general throughout this end of the book are authenticated by the Governor, Bishop, Intendant, councillors, or Clerk of the Council; and the last, or two hundred and eighty-first leaf, is signed by Duchesneau, Intendant, and by Dupont, Member of the Council. Its general contents consist of a variety of orders, regulations, ordinances, judgments, civil and criminal, of the Superior Council, licitation, and adjudications of Crown estates, representations to the King and his ministers upon various subjects. There are four following volumes of this register in the archives at Quebec bearing the dates 1677 to 1680, 1681, 1681 to 1687, and 1688 to 1693, respectively. Each of these contains interesting details of Council proceedings during the first administration of Frontenac, the time of La Barre and Denonville, and during Frontenac’s second term.
The Édits et Ordonnances, vol. iii., contain copies of the commissions of Frontenac, La Barre, and Denonville.
For particulars concerning the youth of Frontenac, his family and marriage, see Parkman’s Appendix, where, among other sources, are named the journal of Jean Héroard, physician to the court, part of which is cited in Le Correspondant of Paris for 1873; Pinard, Chronologie Historique-Militaire; Les Mémoires de Sully; Table de la Gazette de France; Mémoires de Philippe Hurault (in Petitot); Jal, Dictionnaire Critique, Biographique, et d’Histoire, article, “Frontenac;” Historiettes de Tallemant des Réaux, ix. (ed. Monmerqué); Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, vols. i.-iii.; and Mémoires du Duc de Saint-Simon.[711]
At Frontenac’s death we have an Oraison funèbre du Comte de Frontenac, par le Père Olivier Goyer, preached from the text: “In multitudine videbor bonus et in bello fortis.” A copy of this eulogy, containing a running commentary on its sentiments strongly adverse to the views of the orator, is preserved in the Seminary of Quebec. These comments, selections from which will be found in Parkman’s Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV., pp. 431-434, are, the Abbé Casgrain informs me, from the caustic pen of the Abbé Charles Glandelet, who came to Canada in 1675, and labored half a century in the Seminary. He was first theologian, superior, and confessor of the Ursulines, and died at Three Rivers at the advanced age of eighty years.
In considering the early printed books pertaining to our subject, we find them copious; but unfortunately we can scarcely account many of them trustworthy historical authorities, since prejudice and partisanship characterize them for the most part. The contests of the period greatly developed antagonisms, and it was not easy at the time to resist their influences. When we collate the writings of these contemporaries, we find a great lack of unity and sympathy, and this often extends to matters of trifling import. While thus in many ways these books fail of becoming satisfactory chronicles, as expressions of current partisan feeling they often throw great light on all transactions; and it is fortunate that in their antagonisms they give rival sentiments and opposing narratives, from which the careful student, with the help of official and other contemporary documents, may in the main satisfy his mind. Foremost among these early narratives is the Premier Établissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle France of the Père Le Clercq: of this, however, as well as of the works of Hennepin and La Hontan, Tonti, and Marquette, an examination is made in another chapter.[712]
Of the more general early narratives, we must give a prominent place to a book which ranks as a respectable authority, and is frequently quoted,—Bacqueville de la Potherie’s Histoire de l’Amérique Septentrionale depuis 1534 jusqu’à 1701, Paris, 1722, four volumes. It is particularly useful in studying the relations of Frontenac and Callières, but as a contribution upon the condition of the Indians at that time it has its chief value.[713]
The Histoire du Canada of the Abbé Belmont, superior of the Seminary of Montreal during 1713 and 1724, is a short history of affairs from 1608 to 1700. The Literary and Historical Society of Quebec printed, about 1840, in their Collection de Mémoires, a small edition of the work from a manuscript copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. It is very scarce, and copies are held at high prices, but the Society intend reissuing it shortly. Its general accuracy has not been questioned, and the views expressed are evidently the outcome of careful consideration.
The general history of the administrations of Frontenac, De la Barre, and Denonville is exhaustively treated by Father Francis-Xavier de Charlevoix; and the first place in time and importance among the contributions to the general history of Canada, of a date earlier than the present century, must be given to this Jesuit’s Histoire et Description Générale de la Nouvelle France, avec le Journal Historique d’un Voyage fait par l’Ordre du Roi dans l’Amérique Septentrionale, which was issued at Paris in 1744.[714] Shea says: “Access to State papers and the archives of the religious order to which he belonged, experience and skill as a practised writer, a clear head and an ability to analyze, arrange, and describe, fitted him for his work.” Parkman, whose studies have made him a close observer of Charlevoix’s methods, speaks of his “usual carelessness.”
Charlevoix arrived in Canada in September, 1720, on an expedition to inspect the missions of Canada. His purpose took him throughout the limits of New France and Louisiana, and by the Illinois and the Mississippi to the Gulf. His work is commensurate with his opportunities; his faults and errors were those of his order; and his religious training inclined him to give perhaps undue prominence to the ecclesiastical side of his subject; and though the character of Frontenac suffers but little at his hands, some of the prejudice which Charlevoix bestows upon the Recollects necessarily colors his judgment in matters where the Governor came in contact with the Jesuits.