Montreal, being at the head of navigation, became the starting point of many subsequent expeditions. We may add here the expedition of Governor General de Courcelles to Lake Ontario, which left Montreal on June 2, 1671. The object of the voyage was to conciliate the Indians who had made peace but who were in danger of breaking it, irritated as they had been by such breaches of faith as that related to have recently occurred at Montreal, by the brutal assassinations, and to show them by a dignified appearance among them not, in canoe, but "en bateau" that their waters were not inaccessible, and that the French knew how to punish and keep them in check. Another motive was to explore the lands bordering on Lake Ontario with the view of establishing a fort and colony and of diverting the peltry trade into French instead of English hands, and of claiming those lands for the French.
Accordingly de Courcelles arrived at Montreal with a specially constructed bateau of two or three tons under the management of Sergeant Champagne and eight other soldiers. The governor's daring expedition was joined at Montreal by M. Perrot, the local governor of Montreal; M. de Varennes, that of Three Rivers; Charles Le Moyne, M. de Laubia, M. de La Vallière, M. de Normanville and several others, as a mark of esteem for the governor; finally the genial Dollier de Casson as chaplain. It is from him that we have the history of the expedition.
The party of fifty-two went by road to La Chine and embarked above St. Louis Rapids on the governor's barque and thirteen birch bark canoes. On June 12th it reached the mouth of Lake Ontario. On the way a party of Iroquois had been met and impressed with fear and respect. These were now sent with letters to the missionaries to publish around news of the mission of the governor general. The Iroquois were overwhelmed by the dignity of the governor and his party, and for a time they kept dumb with their hands and their mouths, in astonishment. Of the French they said that they were demons and brought to a conclusion everything they wanted. The governor, they thought an incomparable man. He made capital of his success and menaced destruction to those who should revolt, whose settlements he would take and destroy at will.
The party returned on June 14th and soon arrived in Montreal, the whole expedition having taken only fifteen days. It was most successful with the Indians and restrained their trade with the Dutch and English, and even the latter, according to Marie l'Incarnation (letter No. 89) feared lest they should be driven from their trading posts.
FOOTNOTES:
[104] La Salle wondered where the Ohio emptied itself. His mind wavered between the Gulf of Mexico or the Vermillion River (the Gulf of California). He seems to have favoured the latter hypothesis.
[105] The Abbé Véreault says La Salle hired a small house in Montreal in November, 1668. At the southeast corner of St. Peter and St. Paul Streets a tablet commemorates such a house. On January 9th he was again in Montreal. Probably he found Lachine lonely and naturally sought the town.