Count Frontenac / Makers of Canada, Volume 3

by William Dawson LeSueur

The first care of the explorer on arriving at Quebec in the autumn was to load several canoes with goods to the value of several thousands of francs, and despatch them with a party of men to the Illinois country. In the spring carpenters were sent forward to Niagara to commence the construction of a fort. He himself followed in a large canoe laden with provisions and goods. His first misadventure was the loss of this canoe and its freight, not far from the mouth of the Niagara River. The accident was due to the inattention of his men while he was on shore. A little above the Falls of Niagara he began the construction of a forty-five ton vessel, destined for the trade between that point and an establishment he proposed to make at the southern end of Lake Michigan. The Iroquois of the neighbourhood did not like these proceedings, but did not make any active opposition. The vessel was completed and La Salle and his men sailed away in her through Lake Erie, the St. Clair River, and Lake Huron into Lake Michigan. Severe storms were encountered on the way. Near Green Bay the men whom he had sent forward with goods the previous fall met him with a number of canoes, all laden with skins, the result of their trading with the Illinois. This was more expedition than he had counted on, for he had told them to await his arrival. He caused the goods, however, to be transferred to his vessel, the Griffon, as she was called, and sent her back to Niagara with a sufficient crew. She was never heard of more; but the Indians reported that, shortly after she left shelter, a terrible storm had arisen on Lake Michigan. They watched her for some time as she was tossed about by the fury of the waves, and then they lost sight of her. Ignorant of this disaster, La Salle was making his way south. He established two forts on the Illinois River. The first, which he called St. Louis, was near the site of the present town of La Salle. The second, a little further south, near to Peoria, he named Crèvecoeur. The name is significant of "heartbreak," and his fortunes were then at their lowest ebb, for provisions were exhausted and a number of men had deserted; still it is not recorded that the name was given on that account. Leaving Henry Tonty, a man of great energy and resource, whom he had brought out from France, in charge of Fort Crèvecoeur he made his way back alone to Fort Frontenac and thence to Montreal.

It was at Fort Frontenac that La Salle first learnt the fate of his richly-laden Griffon; while at Montreal the news reached him of the loss of a vessel coming from France with a large quantity of goods for his trade. Such an accumulation of misfortunes was enough to break the spirit of an ordinary man; but La Salle was a man whom adversity could not conquer. Straining his credit to the utmost to procure supplies and reinforcements, he returns to the Illinois country to find Fort Crèvecoeur in ruins. It had been attacked by the Iroquois and its defenders scattered. Tonty, wounded in the skirmish, had gone to Michilimackinac. Getting no word of him, La Salle assumes that he is dead. Once more the long journey eastward must be faced. He reaches Montreal, and succeeds in organizing yet another expedition. Again he sets out for the West. It is late in the fall of 1680 when he reaches Michilimackinac, where he is overjoyed to find the lost Tonty. The two proceed together to the Illinois country. The year 1681 is spent in establishing or re-establishing posts and dealing or negotiating with the natives. On the 6th February 1682 La Salle strikes the Mississippi. Two months and three days later, or on the 9th of April, he is gazing forth over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The tale is quickly told; but not so easy is it adequately to appraise the courage, determination and resource necessary for the accomplishment of such an enterprise. Knowing what we do of the man, the portrait of him in Margry's third volume seems to possess a certain convincing character, though Margry himself does not vouch for its authenticity. We see a face sensitive, perhaps sensuous, subtle, passionate, daring, tenacious. Such a man could not bind himself to the task of patient colonization at Fort Frontenac, or even find satisfaction in the more varied and exciting life of a frontiersman and trader. An overwhelming desire possessed him

"To sail beyond the sunset and the baths Of all the western stars,"

and to follow the swelling flood of the mightiest of rivers to its bourne in some mighty sea. Such a man will have the defects of his qualities, and La Salle was neither devoid of jealousy nor incapable of injustice; and he was a somewhat hard taskmaster. Possessed himself of iron nerve and unbending resolution, and sustained by visions of high accomplishment, he expected more from average men than they were altogether capable of rendering. More than once some of his followers deserted him. One attempt was made at Fort Frontenac to poison him; and finally he met his death at the hand of an assassin, a member of his own party, in that far southern region which he had added to the domain of France.

Frontenac's personal relations with La Salle are not very clearly defined. He was certainly favourable to him at first. The two men were much alike in their attitude towards the ecclesiastical power; and both showed a preference for the Récollet order, two members of which La Salle maintained at the fort. Frontenac also approved of La Salle's plans of discovery in the west and south, as tending to the extension of the French dominions and the glory of the French name, and possibly also as furnishing a counterpoise to the growing influence of the Jesuits among the western Indians. There is nothing, however, to show that he followed the later movements of the great explorer with any particular sympathy.

Du Lhut was a man of a different type. He did not possess the vaulting ambition, nor perhaps the talent for organization, of La Salle; but he discovered a vast stretch of new territory in what is now the western part of New Ontario, and along the course of the Assiniboine; and, so far as skill in the management of the native races was concerned he was probably superior to the more romantic explorer. No man was more successful in upholding French prestige amongst the Indian tribes. It was just before La Salle returned from France in the autumn of 1678 that Du Lhut, in somewhat clandestine fashion, slipped off to the West. Those were the days in which the coureur de bois difficulty was at its height; and, upon arriving at Sault Ste. Marie, he wrote to Frontenac in a rather deprecatory tone as if sensible of the doubtful legality of his position, but pointed out the advantages that would accrue from entering into relations with the North Western Indians. About a year later he presided over a great meeting of the tribes on the site of the important city which now bears his name (according to one spelling of it); established peace between communities that had long been at war; and obtained the promise of the important tribe of the Nadessioux to direct their trade in future to Montreal. This was eminently useful work, and gained for its author the full sympathy of Frontenac. Nevertheless, on his return to Quebec in the following year (1680), he was imprisoned for violation of the king's regulations, in all probability at the instance of the vigilant M. Jacques Duchesneau, who would be prompt to suspect complicity in illegal trading between him and the governor. He was released after a short detention, and went to France in the fall of 1681, in the hope of obtaining the king's sanction for further explorations. In this he was unsuccessful; but, returning to Canada, he obtained employment in the West as post commander and agent to the tribes west and north of Lake Superior. Through him the French influence was extended, not only far into what is now our own North-West, but even to the shores of Hudson's Bay, much of the trade which had before been done with the English of that region being diverted, through his persuasions, to Montreal.

While the secular rulers of the country were, with somewhat divided aims, striving to promote the material interests and provide for the security of the colony, the church, with considerably more unity of purpose, was labouring to achieve spiritual results. The promotion of M. de Laval to the see of Quebec put an end to much disputing and mutual distrust amongst different orders of the clergy. It is said to have had a markedly beneficial effect on Laval himself, who seemed at once to dismiss the exaggerated suspicions he had entertained regarding all who were not thoroughly subdued to his influence, and the Sulpician order in particular. Missionary work was actively carried on, and though the question of tithes gave more or less trouble, and the people were not as zealous as might have been wished in providing for the maintenance of their local clergy, y, y, the influence of the church and of religion was strongly felt throughout the length and breadth of the land. The king had much at heart the establishment of permanent curacies, and in 1679 issued an edict on the subject, which, however, had little effect. His Majesty's idea was that the curé should receive tithes, and that if these did not suffice to give him a decent living, further rates should be levied on the seigneurs and the people. As even the tithes were paid very grudgingly, it is easy to believe that a scheme of further taxation for church purposes stood little chance of acceptance. We have already seen that Laval was by no means in love with the policy of fixed cures, and he was probably not sorry to be able to represent to the court that it really could not be carried into effect. Bishop and people together were too much even for the king.

The Récollets, always on the alert to make themselves useful, rose to the occasion by offering to serve the parishes and accept simply what the people might be disposed to give, but the bishop thought their zeal savoured of officiousness, and declined the offer with scanty thanks. These worthy ecclesiastics were very popular in the country, and it is probable they could have successfully carried out their undertaking had they been allowed to try. The bishop had other views for the nurture of his Canadian flock. The Récollet fathers did not at this time stand very high in his esteem. The Jesuits accused them of tolerating grave abuses in the household of the governor, who had a Récollet, Father Maupassant, for confessor; but, as M. Lorin pertinently observes, the accusation was singularly ill-timed, considering the flagrant disorders which marked the private life of Frontenac's master, Louis XIV, whose spiritual interests were in charge of the Jesuit, Père Lachaise. The monarch—"ce religieux prince," as the Abbé Faillon calls him—had no hesitation in demanding of the parliament of Paris legitimation of successive batches of his bastard offspring, and registration of the titles of nobility he was pleased to confer upon them. Whatever the responsibilities of Father Maupassant may have been, he must have had a sinecure in comparison with the king's confessor. It may be added that Frontenac vehemently denied that there were any disorders or scandals in his household.

Missions to the different Indian tribes were in active operation during the whole of the period now under review. Those of the Jesuits were by far the most widespread. Their chief establishment outside of Quebec was at Sault Ste. Marie; in addition they had permanent missions at Mackinac, Green Bay, and various points in the Iroquois country; while Father Albanel penetrated as far as Hudson's Bay, and others laboured amongst the Indians of the Saguenay region. The Sulpicians were less adventurous; they did most of their evangelizing work on or near to the Island of Montreal. They had an establishment, however, on the Bay of Quinté, and one or more on the Ottawa River. The Récollets had Fort Frontenac, Percé on the Baie des Chaleurs, and certain posts on the line of La Salle's explorations.