France and England in N America, Part V: Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV

131

Denonville à Du Lhut, 6 Juin, 1686.

132

Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II. 429; Denonville au Ministre, 8 Mai, 1686.

133

Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II. 443; Commission of McGregory, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 318.

134

Denonville au Ministre, 16 Nov., 1686.

135

Ibid., 15 Oct., 1686.

136

Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec., 1686; Ibid., 20 June, 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 462, 465.

137

Dongan to Denonville, 20 Juin, 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 465.

138

Denonville à Dongan, 21 Aug., 1687; Ibid., no date (1687).

139

The Compagnie du Nord had a grant of the trade of Hudson's Bay from Louis XIV. The bay was discovered by the English, under Hudson; but the French had carried on some trade there before the establishment of Fort Nelson. Denonville's commission to Troyes merely directs him to build forts, and "se saisir des voleurs coureurs de bois et autres que nous savons avoir pris et arrêté plusieurs de nos François commerçants avec les sauvages."

140

On the capture of the forts at Hudson's Bay, see La Potherie, I. 147-163; the letter of Father Silvy, chaplain of the expedition, in Saint-Vallier, État Présent, 43; and Oldmixon, British Empire in America, I. 561-564 (ed. 1741). An account of the preceding events will be found in La Potherie and Oldmixon; in Jerémie, Relation de la Baie de Hudson; and in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 796-802. Various embellishments have been added to the original narratives by recent writers, such as an imaginary hand-to-hand fight of Iberville and several Englishmen in the blockhouse of Fort Hayes.

141

Traité de Neutralité pour l'Amérique, conclu à Londres le 16 Nov., 1686, in Mémoires des Commissaires, II. 86.

142

Instrument for preventing Acts of Hostility in America in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 505.

143

Order to Gov. Dongan, 22 Jan., 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 504.

144

Louis XIV. à Denonville, 17 Juin, 1687. At the end of March, the king had written that "he did not think it expedient to make any attack on the English."

145

Abstract of Letters, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 314. This answers exactly to the statement of the Mémoire adressé au Régent, which places the number of troops in Canada at this time at thirty-two companies of fifty men each.

146

Denonville au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1686; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1687. Denonville at last seems to have been seized with some compunction, and writes: "Tout cela me fait craindre que le pauvre père n'ayt de la peine à se retirer d'entre les mains de ces barbares ce qui m'inquiète fort." Dongan, though regarding the Jesuit as an insidious enemy, had treated him much better, and protected him on several occasions, for which he received the emphatic thanks of Dablon, superior of the missions. Dablon to Dongan (1685?), in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 454.

147

Colden, 97 (1727), Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.

148

Saint-Vallier, État Présent. Even to the moment of marching, Denonville pretended that he meant only to hold a peace council at Fort Frontenac. "J'ai toujours publié que je n'allois qu'à l'assemblée générale projetée à Cataracouy (Fort Frontenac), J'ai toujours tenu ce discours jusqu'au temps de la marche." Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.

149

La Hontan, I. 93-95 (1709).

150

Ganneious or Ganéyout was on an arm of the lake a little west of the present town of Fredericksburg. Kenté or Quinte was on Quinte Bay.

151

Le Roy à La Barre, 21 Juillet, 1684; Le Roy à Denonville et Champigny, 30 Mars, 1687.

152

The authorities for the above are Denonville, Champigny, Abbé Belmont, Bishop Saint-Vallier, and the author of Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'année 1682.

Belmont, who accompanied the expedition, speaks of the affair with indignation, which was shared by many French officers. The bishop, on the other hand, mentions the success of the stratagem as a reward accorded by Heaven to the piety of Denonville. État Présent de l'Église, 91, 92 (reprint, 1856).

Denonville's account, which is sufficiently explicit, is contained in the long journal of the expedition which he sent to the court, and in several letters to the minister. Both Belmont and the author of the Recueil speak of the prisoners as having been "pris par l'appât d'un festin."

Mr. Shea, usually so exact, has been led into some error by confounding the different acts of this affair. By Denonville's official journal, it appears that, on the 19th June, Perré, by his order, captured several Indians on the St. Lawrence; that, on the 25th June, the governor, then at Rapide Plat on his way up the river, received a letter from Champigny, informing him that he had seized all the Iroquois near Fort Frontenac; and that, on the 3d July, Perré, whom Denonville had sent several days before to attack Ganneious, arrived with his prisoners.

153

I have ventured to give this story on the sole authority of Charlevoix, for the contemporary writers are silent concerning it. Mr. Shea thinks that it involves a contradiction of date; but this is entirely due to confounding the capture of prisoners by Perré at Ganneious on July 3d with the capture by Champigny at Fort Frontenac about June 20th. Lamberville reached Denonville's camp, one day's journey from the fort, on the evening of the 29th. (Journal of Denonville.) This would give four and a half days for news of the treachery to reach Onondaga, and four and a half days for the Jesuit to rejoin his countrymen.

Charlevoix, with his usual carelessness, says that the Jesuit Milet had also been used to lure the Iroquois into the snare, and that he was soon after captured by the Oneidas, and delivered by an Indian matron. Milet's captivity did not take place till 1689-90.