On arriving at Quebec, this "High and Puissant Seigneur," as he prefixed to his title of "Governor, Lieutenant-General for the King in France," introduced a gayety and high style of living, somewhat surprising and unaccustomed to the Canadian bourgeoisie. In official, governmental life he assumed the reins with a high hand. He was, as he thought himself, a "vice-roi" and he would model the colony on the lines of France. Thus his preliminary act was to call a representative convocation of the people in three several orders or estates, the clergy, the noblesse, and the third estate, to receive the oath of fealty from them, a proceeding which Colbert evidently disapproved of as too democratic, and opposed to the centralizing policy, then in favour in France, a policy which eventually ruined the initiative and delayed the progress of the colony. The minister wrote on June 13, 1673: "It is good for you to know that in the government of Canada you always ought to follow the forms practiced in France, where the kings have for some time considered it better for their service, not to assemble the 'Etats Généraux.' Also, you ought but rarely, or better say, never, give this form to the body of habitants of your country; it will even be necessary, in a little time, and when the colony is stronger than it is now, gradually to suppress the office of the syndic, who presents the requests in the name of all the inhabitants; it being good that each speaks for himself and not one for all." What is everybody's business is no one's, was evidently Colbert's view. Thus the people never learned the art of self-government.
The new governor very soon showed his desire to be sole master of the situation. Of his own responsibility he had made several police regulations and had established aldermen at Quebec and, contrary to the rights of the Company of the West Indies, then still existing, he had attributed to them the power of administering police regulations. This brought a letter from Colbert, dated May 17, 1674: "His Majesty orders me to tell you, that you have therein passed the limits of the power given by him. Besides, the police regulations ought to be made by the Sovereign Council, and not by you alone. The power which you have been given by the king gives you entire authority in the command of the army, but with regard to what concerns the administration of justice, your authority consists in presiding at the Sovereign Council. The intention of His Majesty is that you take the advice of the councillors and that it is for the council, to pronounce on all matters which belong to its jurisdiction."
On his arrival he quickly turned his gaze on Lake Ontario, lately visited by M. de Courcelles, and already the construction of a fort was in his mind, to divert the fur trade towards Montreal, and on to Quebec in place of it descending to Albany. Writing to Colbert, on November 2, 1672, two months after his arrival, he says: "You will have heard from M. de Courcelles of a post which he has projected on Lake Ontario and which he believes to be of the utmost necessity, in order to prevent the Iroquois taking peltry to the Dutch and to force them to trade with us, as it is but just, seeing that they hunt on our lands.
"The establishment of such a post will strengthen the mission at Kenté, already settled there by the Messieurs de Montréal. I beg you to believe that I will spare no trouble or pains or even my life to attempt to do something to please you."
It is alleged by the Duke de St. Simon in his mémoires (Paris 1829, Vol. II), that Frontenac came to France a "ruined man," that he was given the governorship for his means of living, and that he would sooner go to Quebec than die of hunger in Paris. His disinterestedness in setting up a trading post for the good of the colony is therefore somewhat discounted.
Frontenac determined to construct this fort before the return of the vessels from France. In order to obtain the necessary men, boats and canoes, he relied on the precedent of M. de Courcelles' official visit as governor general to Lake Ontario. To impress the Indians with the dignity of the French conquerors, he called a corvée from Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers and other places to supply the above at their own expense. In the meantime he had built two bateaux to face the rapids and currents and mounted on them two pieces of cannon. These he had painted, which was considered a novelty.
At Montreal there was no little murmuring at his novel and burdensome corvées, for to avoid the Rapids of St. Louis, he made the inhabitants repair the road leading to Lachine. He requisitioned about 200 canoes and 400 men and kept them at work until he finished his fort there.
La Salle was then in Montreal, and Frontenac, seeing an ally in this already experienced traveler, wrote to him to proceed to Onondaga, the ordinary rendezvous of the Iroquois nation, and there to explain, that the projected expedition was a visit of courtesy to the Mission of Kenté and to the neighbouring tribes. La Salle, nothing loath, set out ahead, leaving Montreal in the beginning of May, 1673. Frontenac left Quebec on June 3d and arrived at Montreal on June 15th, having delayed his journey, being received in the other towns on his way. Arriving at 5 o'clock that evening, the governor general was met at the wharf by Perrot, the governor of Montreal—no doubt with some jealousy and some resentment at the corvées demanded by his superior—and the principal citizens, with their military companies. After the volleys of musketry and cannon, there came the addresses of the officers of justice and that by Sieur Chevalier, the syndic of the people. Then they made their way to the temporary parish church attached to the Hôtel-Dieu and there the clergy held their reception and also harangued him. After which the Te Deum was sung in thanksgiving for his happy voyage and the governor retired to the hospitality of Fort Maisonneuve, not as yet demolished as we know.
For thirteen days, there was a great bustle at Montreal, fixing up canoes and loading them, and arranging the men in companies,—all requisitioned in the name of the king. The last preparations for the important journey were broken, however, by the celebration of feast of St. Jean Baptiste; on this occasion M. de Salignac Fénelon, the brother of the famous archbishop of Cambrai, returned from Kenté with M. Durfé, and about to return together, with the expedition, pronounced an elegant eulogium on the governor-general. At last all to join the vice-regal party had left the town and gone by road to Lachine, whence on June 28th, all being reunited, the expedition started—two flat bateaux, nearly one hundred and twenty canoes and about four hundred men, among them being Charles Le Moyne, who was a skilled interpreter.