CHAPTER XVII
1666-1670
THE SUBDUAL OF THE IROQUOIS
THE END OF THE HEROIC AGE
PRIMITIVE EXPEDITIONS UNDER DE COURCELLES, SOREL AND DE TRACY—THE ROYAL TROOPS AND THE MONTREAL "BLUE COATS"—DOLLIER DE CASSON, THE SOLDIER CHAPLAIN—THE VICTORY OVER THE IROQUOIS—THE HOTEL-DIEU AT MONTREAL RECEIVES THE SICK AND WOUNDED—THE CONFIRMATION OF THE GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY AS SEIGNEURS—THE LIEUTENANT GENERAL AND INTENDANT IN MONTREAL—THE "DIME"—THE CENSUS OF 1667—MORE CLERGY NEEDED—THE ABBE DE QUEYLUS RETURNS, WELCOMED BY LAVAL AND MADE VICAR GENERAL—REINFORCEMENT OF SULPICIANS—THEIR FIRST MISSION AT KENTE—THE RETURN OF THE RECOLLECTS—THE ARRIVAL OF PERROT AS LOCAL GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL.
So eager was de Courcelles to carry on the war, for which the troops had come, that they started from Quebec on January 9th, in the depth of winter, a rash venture as de Maisonneuve could have told the Europeans. Yet they marched out, each soldier with his unaccustomed snowshoes and with twenty to thirty pounds of biscuits and provisions strapped on his back, crossing the frozen streams and waterfalls, to the number of 300 of the Carignan regiment, and 100 French Canadians. They were joined by others on the route, among them a party of 106 good Montrealers under Charles Le Moyne. These latter were de Courcelles' most valued men, being seasoned woodmen used to wars' alarms. He called them his "blue coats," and found they served and obeyed him, better than the rest. The expedition was an utter failure, for not counting the frozen fingers, noses and limbs, they lost many men, sixty dying from want of provisions, so that de Courcelles returned to Quebec disconsolate.
A second expedition, under Sorel, started in July. This time there were only "thirty good Montrealers." When within twenty leagues of the Iroquois camps, they were met by the famous chief, called the "Flemish Bastard," with some European captives. He asked for peace, and Sorel, believing him, marched back to Quebec with the Bastard.
De Tracy led the next expedition with de Courcelles on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14th. Never had so large an army started out—600 Carignans, 100 friendly Indian allies from the missions and 600 French Canadians, of which 110 were the "blue coats" from Montreal under Le Moyne and Picoté de Bélestre, who led the van to meet the brunt of all disasters as they were chosen to be at the rear in retreat. The canoes and flat-bottomed boats started from Quebec crossed Lake Champlain; then, they landed and portaged their boats on their backs till they launched them again on Lake St. George (then called Lake St. Sacrament), and proceeded up the narrows to where Fort William Henry was afterwards built. There were 100 miles of marching now to be endured, through forests, streams and marshes gleaming in the Indian summer sun. Marie de l'Incarnation tells some adventures of this journey. As each one, even the officers, had to carry his knapsack of provisions, the fair Chevalier de Chaumont got a humour on his shoulders. Others suffered likewise. General de Tracy was placed in a dangerous predicament when crossing a ford. "He was one of the biggest men I have ever seen," says the good sister, "and a Swiss soldier was trying to carry him. When in the middle, de Tracy found himself overthrown, but luckily clung to a rock and saved himself. From this undignified position he was rescued by a hardy Huron, who conveyed him safely to the other side."
But the character of this journey was the genial chaplain of the Montreal forces, none other than Dollier de Casson, whom we have quoted so often. Dollier had arrived in Canada on September 7th. His venturesome spirit was enlisted at once in this expedition, in which he was quite at home being, besides a "man of God," a "man of war," having but ten years ago served and fought, as a cavalry officer under Marshal de Turenne. He was a very large man, as tall as de Tracy, and stronger. Grandet, who left a manuscript note on Dollier, says that he had such extraordinary strength, that he could hold two men seated in his hands. He was cheerful, courtly, courteous and genial. He had a merry and quick jest to cheer up the "blue coats" and others, in many a tight corner. He was doubtless the most popular man in camp. [94]
If he had lived in these days, the newspapers would have called him the "fighting parson." Grandet, in his manuscript note on Dollier, tells how on one occasion, being at prayer on his knees in an Algonquin camp, an insolent savage came to interrupt him. Without rising from his knees, the big burly missioner sent the astonished Indian sprawling on the ground by a blow from his fist—a proceeding which gained him admiration from the Algonquins, who exclaimed with pride in his physical prowess: "This is indeed a man!" Probably this strength helped him to become the great peacemaker he afterwards became at Montreal. Dollier says little of himself in his account of the march, speaking modestly and impersonally of himself. The big man seems to have suffered hunger very much on the small rations dealt out to him, for he says that "this priest made a good noviceship under a certain captain who could be called the Grand Master of Fasting; at least this officer could have served as novice master in this point to the Fathers of the Desert." This "ecclesiastic of St. Sulpice," he says, "was strongly built, but what enfeebled him was hearing the confessions of the men by night while the others were asleep. He felt the marching pretty badly, for his wretched pair of shoes gave way, so that having nothing left but the uppers the sharp stones of the water beds and banks played havoc with his bare feet. So weak and weary did he become that he could not save a man drowning in the water into which he had plunged to the rescue. This man happened to belong to the train of the Jesuits and Dollier explained that it was hunger that had so enfeebled him, whereat the good Jesuit took the good Sulpician aside and gave him a piece of bread, made palatable with two different sucres, one of Madeira and the other of appétit."