CHAPTER XIV
1661-1662
HOSTILITIES AND LOSSES
MONTREAL THE THEATRE OF IROQUOIS CARNAGE—THE FIRST SULPICIAN SLAUGHTERED, M. LE MAITRE—THE SECOND, M. VIGNAL—THE FIRST VISIT OF LAVAL TO MONTREAL—THE ABBE DE QUEYLUS AGAIN APPEARS—ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTES LEGAL, NOT PERSONAL—THE DEATH OF LAMBERT CLOSSE—THE EXPLOIT OF PICOTE DE BELESTRE—MAISONNEUVE'S ORDINANCE AGAINST SALE OF LIQUOR TO INDIANS—INDIAN ORGIES AND BLOODSHED—THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AT QUEBEC DISAPPROVES OF MAISONNEUVE'S ACTION—THE FAMOUS LIQUOR TRAFFIC DISPUTES—JEANNE MANCE LEAVES FOR FRANCE.
The year 1661 saw the renewal of hostilities of the Iroquois from Montreal to Cape Tourment, "but," says Marie de l'Incarnation writing in September of this year, "Montreal has been the principal theatre of their carnage."
On February 25th a party of Montrealers were going to work in the fields unarmed, not fearing any ill, since there was usually no fear of Iroquois attacks at this early season, when suddenly they found themselves surrounded by sixty of their foes. There was only one weapon among them and that a small pistol borne by Charles Le Moyne, and, unable to defend themselves with their tools, they sought safety in flight to the town, but not without thirteen being captured.
On March 24th 200 Iroquois fell upon a body of Montrealers and captured ten. Had they not been now armed the numbers would have been more. The "Relation" of this year, speaking of these losses says: "After the capture of the thirteen in the month of February, ten others fell into the same captivity. Then later more, and still more, in such sort that, during the whole summer this island was constantly harassed by these goblin imps who sometimes appeared on the outskirts of the woods, contenting themselves with hurling insults at us; sometimes they glided stealthily into the midst of the field, to fall upon the workmen by surprise; sometimes they drew near our houses, ceaselessly annoying us, and like unfortunate harpies or evil birds of prey, would swoop down on us unawares."
Of the ten captured in March four were butchered in the neighbouring woods; their bodies, brutally dismembered, hacked and burned, were discovered by the dogs of the town, who came back each day glutted with blood. This led to their being followed to their foul feasting place. "Such disasters made the people turn their thoughts to eternity," says the pious Dollier de Casson. "Vice was then almost unknown at Ville Marie, and in the time of war, religion flourished there on all sides in quite a different manner than it does today, in that of peace."
Three Rivers and Quebec suffered similarly. Near Quebec the sénéchal of New France, M. Jean de Lauson, son of the former governor, fell a victim on June 22nd. On this same day a picturesque scene occurred at Montreal, when two canoes of Iroquois arrived under the protection of a white flag of peace, and bringing with them four French prisoners. It was an embassy of the two nations Onondaga and Oi8guere, who professed to be neutral. They parleyed offering the release of the four prisoners and twenty others at Onondaga; requesting that hospital sisters such as those at Quebec should be sent them, and insisting as the main condition of the release that a black robe be sent. M. Maisonneuve sent this proposal on to Quebec with the result that Father Le Moyne, the Jesuit, was deputed to accompany the ambassadors to Onondaga. On the arrival of Father Le Moyne at Montreal the four Frenchmen were exchanged for the eight Iroquois prisoners held, for a year past, in Montreal.
After their departure other Iroquois onslaughts resulted in the death of Jean Valets, at Point St. Charles, on August 14th, of the Sulpician M. Lemaître, and that of Gabriel de Rée with him on August 29th, near St. Gabriel's fortified farmhouse. M. Lemaître was saying his breviary in the fields and acting as a lookout, somewhat apart from the fourteen or fifteen workmen, when he suddenly came across an ambush of sixty Iroquois. Seizing a cutlass and facing the savage crew, he called out to the workers to hurry with their arms. He was now shot by the Iroquois and running towards his friends he dropped down dead. These managed to make their way to the farmhouse but left one man, Gabriel de Rée, dead on the field. The Iroquois cut off the heads of each, and one of them, a Christian renegade, put on the dead priest's soutane, and wearing a shirt over it for a surplice, went stalking around the body in mockery of the Christian burial service. The early memoirs of this event further tell that the head of the murdered priest had spoken after being severed from the body, and that when it had been carried away in a white handkerchief, probably taken from the pockets of his soutane, the features of the dead man became perfectly imprinted upon it. This handkerchief had been seen in the camp by a French prisoner, Lavigne, who tried in vain to obtain possession of it for, recognizing the features of the dead priest, he had learned of his massacre. This story he told to Dollier de Casson, who records it in his "Histoire de Montréal."