"THE FRENCH HAVE ALWAYS COMMENCED HOSTILITIES IN CANADA"—SAMUEL VECHT IN MONTREAL—MONTREAL TO BE INVADED BY WOOD CREEK—NICHOLSON'S ARMY ROUTED BY DYSENTERY—THE "BOSTONNAIS" PLAN A SECOND DESCENT ON MONTREAL—JEANNE LEBER'S STANDARD—THE EXPEDITION OF SIR HOVENDER WALKER AGAINST QUEBEC—THE VOW OF THE MONTREAL LADIES—"OUR LADY OF VICTORIES" BUILT IN COMMEMORATION—PEACE OF UTRECHT—COMPARISON BETWEEN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW FRANCE. NOTE: THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY.
The peace of Ryswick, signed September 20, 1697, was only a temporary lull. Queen Anne began to reign in England on March 8, 1702, and another war with France, that known as Queen Anne's war or the war of the Spanish succession, was declared on the 4th of May, 1702. But it can be said that in Canada the English were not always the guilty causes. The Canadians, even before the declaration, were not adverse to war, as they considered themselves more warlike, better disciplined and could rely on their Indian allies since the peace of 1701. They held the "New Englanders"—a term often applied by them to the British colonists in general—as an easy mark. In their mind's eye they already saw themselves in possession of Boston and New York. Even Le Moyne d'Iberville had such visions and drew up a memoir on the project. On their side the greater number of the English colonists were not anxious for hostilities. Certainly not the New York and Albany Dutchmen, who feared for their trade. Meanwhile the borders of Massachusetts and New Hampshire were the theatre of war. An interesting light is thrown on the subject in the abstract of a dispatch, sent by M. de Vaudreuil, now governor, and M. Beauharnois, November 15, 1703, to be found in the state documents of New York (Doc. Col. Hist. N. Y., IX, p. 755). The minister, Pontchartrain, after the French attack on Wells and other places under Beaubassin, in 1703, has annotated the abstract thus: "It would have been desirable that this expedition had not taken place. M. de Vaudreuil was wishing for it in M. de Callières' time, who would never consent to it. I have a perfect knowledge that the English only want peace, aware that war is contrary to the interests of all the colonies; the French have always commenced hostilities in Canada." Yet Pontchartrain later, when the suffering English retaliated by planning the invasion of Canada, naturally enough was ready to counsel war parties against them.
In 1705 we find Samuel Vetch in Montreal. He had come on a diplomatic mission on the part of Massachusetts. He remained at Quebec from August to the middle of October, having ascended the St. Lawrence to reach the city and returning the same way. He kept his eyes open, and having been educated at Utrecht, he probably knew French, so that he likely discussed Canadian affairs. He boasted afterwards of the completeness of his knowledge of Canada and he made use of it. "Vetch visited Montreal and its governor, de Ramezay, wrote to the minister on the subject, complaining that in Quebec he had been left at liberty to obtain all the information desired; whereas in Montreal, de Ramezay himself had taken care that he should always be accompanied by an officer and an interpreter. There had been old dealings between Vetch and de Ramezay. Vetch, when engaged in his commercial operations for years previously, had advanced de Ramezay the amount of his appointments, paying him in card currency, and had received authority to draw his money in France. The war broke out and the power to obtain the money had been given by de Ramezay to another person in France. It was the object of Vetch in visiting Montreal to be repaid this advance, but de Ramezay professed himself not in the condition to give it back, without the approval of the minister."—Kingsford ("History of Canada"), II, p. 429.
About 1708 the conquest of Canada was designed as a means of bringing the struggles of the English colonists of North America in their desire for supremacy to a close. To the charge of this bold venture Samuel Vetch was appointed, an energetic, astute and ambitious agent for his party, who boasted he knew the St. Lawrence and its shores better than the Canadians themselves. His visit to Montreal had not been in vain. On March 11, 1709, he sailed from England, whither he had gone from the general court of Massachusetts to ask for aid from Queen Anne's government. A squadron bearing five regiments of regular troops was promised. The colonies, too, had to muster their forces, and the plan was to attack Montreal, advancing by way of Wood Creek, Lake Champlain and Chambly on the Richelieu, and to take Quebec by way of the St. Lawrence. The command of the advance on Montreal was entrusted to Col. Francis Nicholson, late lieutenant governor of New York, who had sailed from Portsmouth with Vetch. Nicholson was to proceed to Montreal and wait there until the promised British squadron should arrive at Boston about May.
News of his approach to Wood Creek reaching de Vaudreuil, he sent de Ramezay, the governor of Montreal, with 1,500 Canadians and Indians to surprise his camp. Montreal and Quebec were meanwhile in the greatest consternation, brought on by most exaggerated reports. Nothing less than the total conquest of the colony was feared. The result of the expedition led by the governor of Montreal may be told by Parkman ("A Half Century of Conflict," Chapter VII), relying on state documents of this year, 1709:
"Ramezay's fleet of canoes had reached Lake Champlain and was half way to the mouth of Wood Creek, when his advance party was discovered by English scouts, and the French commander began to fear that he should be surprised in turn; in fact some of his Indians were fired upon from an ambuscade. All was now doubt, perplexity and confusion. Ramezay landed at the narrows of the lake, a little south of the place now called Crown Point. Here in the dense woods, his Indians fired on some Canadians whom they took for English. This was near producing a panic. 'Every tree seemed an enemy,' writes an officer present. Ramezay lost himself in the woods and could not find his army. One Deruisseau, who had gone out as a scout, came back with the report that 900 Englishmen were close at hand. Seven English canoes did in fact appear, supported, as the French in their excitement imagined, by a numerous though invisible army in the forest; but being fired upon, and seeing they were entering a hornet's nest, the English sheered off, Ramezay having at last found his army, and order being gradually restored, a council of war was held, after which the whole force fell back to Chambly, having accomplished nothing."
Yet the advance on Montreal never went beyond Wood Creek. While waiting months and weeks for the order from Boston to proceed to Montreal, Nicholson's little army succumbed to the attacks of pestilence, probably a malignant dysentery, caused by being long penned up in an insanitary palisaded camp during the midsummer heat. It is said on the authority of Charlevoix, that the Iroquois had poisoned the waters of the creek, by throwing into it, above the camp, the skins and offal of the animals they had killed in their hunting. Whatever the cause, when a party of French came later upon the scene they found innumerable graves. The remnant of Nicholson's army turned back, as the British squadron was countermanded for Portugal, where British interests needed it. Thus was Montreal saved and with it Quebec.
In 1711, however, Nicholson was again attempting to move against Montreal. Again great consternation prevailed in the town, for the news had reached Canada early in August, when Vaudreuil had been informed by de Cortebelle, the French commandant at Placentia in Newfoundland, that English prisoners had reported mighty preparations being made by the "Bostonnais" against Quebec by water and Montreal by land. Dismay and confusion seized both towns. Montreal, fortified only by its palisade of stakes and incapable of resisting the artillery of the English invaders, believed that it was on the eve of its death throes, seeing that an army was setting out from New York with 3,000 men with cannons. In these straits the people turned to God, and the priests of St. Sulpice preached penitence to them. The chronicles of the time tell how hearts were moved, how there were penitential processions, in which all the Montrealers joined barefooted and with cords around their necks; it was a time of general communions, voluntary fasting and like mortifications.
Mother Juchereau in the annals of the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec confesses that "the ladies of Montreal outbid those of Quebec, for the former obliged themselves not to wear ribbons or laces for a year,"—no small sacrifice, doubtlessly. Finally, the young "externe" ladies of the Congregation and others, made a vow that if they were saved from the evils apprehended, seemingly inevitable, they would build in honour of the Mother of God a chapel under the name of Our Lady of Victory. Meanwhile in her self-imposed retirement Jeanne LeBer, the recluse, was acquainted of the disasters impending, and her prayers were besought on all hands. Even the Baron de Longueuil, then governor of the town, and surnamed the "Macchabbeus of Montreal" prevailed on her to compose a prayer which should be inscribed on his standard, which he would take with a handful of men, to prepare, in their desperation, an ambuscade near Chambly, by which Nicholson's men were expected to pass. The recluse, thus prevailed on by her cousin, wrote this inscription: "Our enemies place all their confidence in their arms, but we place ours under the name of the Queen of Angels, whom we invoke. She is terrible as an army in battle array; under her protection we hope to conquer our enemies." The standard was solemnly blessed and put into the hands of M. de Longueuil by M. de Belmont, in the parish church of Notre Dame, whither all the people had gathered for this edifying spectacle.
Bearing this ensign himself, M. de Longueuil set out to encounter General Nicholson's land force, but the latter now retreated, on hearing of the disastrous termination of the expedition of the fleet making for the capture of Quebec. Not finding Nicholson's forces, and ignorant as yet of the cause of his retreat, the Montrealers journeyed down to Quebec to assist that town against the attack by water. There they waited till in the middle of October, when on the 19th the Sieur de la Valterie, who had come from Labrador in September and had been sent down the river again by de Vaudreuil to watch for the English fleet, appeared at Quebec with tidings of joy.