In the spring of 1685, M. de Callières, the governor of Montreal, employed 600 men under the direction of M. du Luth, royal engineer, to erect a palisade around the town. [133] It was made of wood stakes furnished by the citizens and had to be constantly repaired. This palisade, with curtains and bastions, was 13 feet in height and there were five gates, those of Lachine, the Recollects, the Port, St. Martin and St. Lawrence; and five posterns, de Maricourt, the barracks, the General Hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu and de Callières.
About this time there was apparently laxity in the retention of arms. For one cause or another many households were very scantily accommodated, through sale or truck, or on account of seizure for debt. Accordingly a notice of the supreme council was affixed to the door of the parish church of Montreal by the sergeant, Quesneville, on February 18, 1686. After emphasizing the importance of the obligation which the Marquis de Denonville had laid upon every house-holder in the colony of being well armed, the council forbade all persons of whatever quality or condition to deprive themselves of their arms by sale or otherwise, unless they had weapons beyond what was necessary, to arm each father of the family, and his children and domestics, who shall have attained to the age of fourteen years; it forbade all "huissiers and sergeants of justice to seize these arms, all tavern keepers and others to buy them, or truck them, under penalties named."
With Denonville's advent as the representative of Louis XIV, the struggle for supremacy between Canada and the English, under Thomas Dongan, the Irish Catholic governor of New York representing James II, of England, began to assume warlike proportions. The English of New York were laying claim to the whole country south of the Great Lakes and were anxious to control the great western fur trade. The northern fur trade was being bid for by the Hudson's Bay Company, and the fisheries of New Acadia were being seized upon by the New Englanders. In the regions of Michillimackinac the English were striving to alienate the Hurons, Ottawas and other like tribes; they had already on their side, the Iroquois, whose arrogance to the French, especially that of the Senecas, was so galling that it seemed necessary for French prestige to humble them. Such were de Denonville's instructions. This was one of the reasons why he wished to build his fort at Niagara as early as May, 1685—a project highly displeasing to Dongan—to counteract the English desire for the same purpose, namely to obtain supremacy over the tribes in that direction and to be masters of the trade, for that was what most mattered. [134]
This was de Denonville's motive also for his projected forts at Toronto, or Lake Erie, and that at Détroit, for which latter enterprise he commissioned du Luth of Montreal. The intense rivalry showed itself in 1686 in the organized attempt of the French to dispute the supremacy claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company, then in its infancy, on the western shore of that dreary inland sea. As so many Montrealers joined in this effort, it may be recorded more fully than could otherwise be permitted.
Let us, then, turn to the rivalry existing between the English and French in Hudson's Bay, represented by the great company of that name and the Canadian rival body, "La Compagnie du Nord." The English firm had discovered the bay under Hudson and, with the help of the two renegade Frenchmen, Médard Chouart des Groseilliers and Pierre Esprit de Radisson, [135] both well known at Montreal, as bold and unscrupulous coureurs de bois and fur traders, had formed a company with English capital from London and had established Fort Nelson near the mouth of the Nelson River, and then other forts, Albany, Rupert and Monsipi or Monsoni (Fort Hayes) on the southern end of the bay. But the French had a grant of the fur industry from Louis XIV and had done some trading there before the advent of the English. It had been taken possession of, in 1672, in the name of Louis XIV by the Jesuit Albanel (one of the early Montreal missionaries) and M. de St. Simon, and the French had built Fort Thérèse, which, on being taken from them by the English, was named Fort Nelson.
The French merchants desiring to oust their competitors appealed to Denonville and he commissioned the Chevalier de Troyes, a captain of infantry, to chase the English from the bay and retake their own. With him went the young d'Iberville (then twenty-four years of age) and his brothers Maricourt and St. Hélène, seventy Canadians and thirty soldiers, "all," says Ferland, "accustomed to long marches, able to manage canoes, to withstand the most piercing colds and well versed in 'la petite guerre.'" Their chaplain was the Jesuit Silvy. The party left Montreal in the month of March, 1686, when the rivers were still frozen and the snow was on the ground. They mounted the rivers and lakes on their snowshoes, dragging their provisions, arms and materials for canoe construction on their sleds, reaching the River Monsipi, near Fort Hayes, the first English fort, in June or so, which shortly afterwards fell with Forts Rupert and Albany, largely on account of the brilliant exploits of d'Iberville, whose reputation was established on this occasion. The whole expedition lasted only two months.
This brave buccaneering angered the English. A treaty of neutrality intervening between the two powers of France and England left them helpless for the moment, but in 1693 the Hudson's Bay Company were again in possession. In 1697, as we shall see, d'Iberville will again be in their waters and attacking these forts.
The year 1687 marks the tragic death of La Salle. In 1684 his last expedition had sailed from La Rochelle directly for the Mississippi, carrying three priests at least, his brother, the Sulpician, Jean Cavelier, and the Recollects, Zendbre Membre and Anastase Douay; twelve gentlemen of France and also soldiers, artisans and labourers, in all to the number of 144 persons, with a full supply of provisions and implements. There were four vessels, Le Joly, a frigate of thirty-six cannons; La Belle, six cannons; St. François, a transport; and l'Aimable, a fluke of 300 tons. M. de Beaujean, sailing in Le Joly, was commander of the squadron and La Salle led the land forces.
Disaster after disaster befell the expedition. M. de Beaujean passed the mouth of the Mississippi without noticing it, it being reserved for Le Moyne d'Iberville in 1699 to be the first white man to descend it by the sea. One vessel ran aground, another was captured by the Spaniards, with those that carried the greater part of the ammunition, implements and provisions. Beaujean in consequence of serious disagreements with La Salle returned to France with Le Joly and the luckless explorer found himself reduced, by these losses and by sickness, to the number of thirty-six despairing colonists. In this plight La Salle conceived the plan of reaching Canada on foot. Sixteen of his party consented to follow him, among them his brother Jean, his nephew Moranget, the faithful Joutel, du Hault and his servant Larchevêque, Hiens of Wurtembourg a buccaneer, Ruter Liotot or Lanquetot, the surgeon of the expedition, Sager and Nika, and the faithful Recollect, Père Douay, who accompanied La Salle to his last hour.