Chapter 15 of France and England in North America Part 5 Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV, by Francis Parkman, Jr. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 15 1691-1695 An Interlude While the Canadians hailed Frontenac as a father, he found also some recognition of his services from his masters at the court. The king wrote him a letter with his own hand to express satisfaction at the defense of Québec and sent him a gift of 2,000 crowns. He greatly needed the money, but prized the letter still more and wrote to his relative, the minister Penchartret. The gift you procured for me this year has helped me very much towards paying the great expenses which the crisis of our affairs and the excessive cost of living here have cost me. But though I receive this mark of his majesty's goodness with the utmost respect and gratitude, I confess that I feel far more deeply the satisfaction that he has been pleased to express with my services. The raising of the siege of Québec did not deserve all the attention that I hear he has given it in the midst of so many important events, and therefore I must need to ascribe it to your kindness in commending it to his notice. This leads me to hope that whenever some office or permanent employment or some mark of dignity or distinction may offer itself, you will put me on the list as well as others who have the honor to be as closely connected with you as I am, for it would be very hard to find myself forgotten because I am in a remote country where it is more difficult and dangerous to serve the king than elsewhere. I have consumed all my property. Nothing is left but what the king gives me, and I have reached an age where, though neither strength nor good will fail me as yet, and though the latter will last as long as I live, I see myself on the eve of losing the former, so that a post a little more secure and tranquil than the government of Canada will suit my time of life, and if I can be assured of your support I shall not despair of getting such a one. Please then permit my wife and my friends to refresh your memory now and then on this point. Again in the following year. I have been encouraged to believe that the gift of two thousand crowns which His Majesty made me last year would be continued, but apparently you have not been able to obtain it, for I think that you know the difficulty I have in living here on my salary. I hope that when you find a better opportunity you will try to procure me this favor. My only trust is in your support, and I am persuaded that having the honor to be so closely connected with you you would reproach yourself if you saw me sink into decrepitude without resources and without honors. And still again he appeals to the minister for some permanent and honorable place attended with the marks of distinction which are more grateful than all the rest to a heart shaped after the right pattern. In return for these sturdy applications he got nothing for the present but a continuance of the king's gift of two thousand crowns. Not every voice in the colony sounded the governor's praise. Now as always he had enemies in state and church. It is true that the quarrels and the bursts of passion that marked his first term of government now rarely occurred, but this was not so much due to a change in Protonac himself as to a change in the conditions around him. The war made him indispensable. He had gained what he wanted, the consciousness of mastery, and under its soothing influence he was less irritable and exacting. He lived with the bishop on terms of mutual courtesy while his relations with his colleague the intendant were commonly smooth enough on the surface. For Champigny, warned by the court not to offend him, treated him with studied deference and was usually treated in return with urbane condescension. During all this time the intendant was complaining of him to the minister. He is spending a great deal of money but he is master and does what he pleases. I can only keep the peace by yielding everything. He wants to reduce me to a nobody. And among other similar charges he says that the governor receives pay for garrisons that do not exist and keeps it for himself. Do not tell that I said so, adds the prudent Champigny, for it would make great trouble if he knew it. Fontenac, perfectly aware of these covert attacks, desires the minister not to heed the falsehoods and imposters uttered against me by persons who meddle with what does not concern them. He alludes to Champigny's allies the Jesuits who, as he thought, had also maligned him. Since I have been here I have spared no pains to gain the goodwill of Monsieur the Intendant and may God grant that the councils which he is too ready to receive from certain persons who have never been friends of peace and harmony do not some time make division between us. But I close my eyes to all that and shall still persevere. In another letter to Poir-chartret he says, I write you this in private, because I have been informed by my wife that charges have been made to you against my conduct since my return to this country. I promise you, Monseigneur, that whatever my accusers do they will not make me change conduct towards them and that I shall still treat them with consideration. I merely ask your leave most humbly to represent that, having maintained this colony in full prosperity. During the ten years when I formerly held the government of it I nevertheless fell a sacrifice to the artifice and fury of those whose encroachments and whose excessive and unauthorized power, my duty and my passionate affection for the service of the king obliged me in conscience to repress. My recall, which made them masters in the conduct of the government, was followed by all the disasters which overwhelmed this unhappy colony. The millions that the king spent here, the troops that he sent out, and the Canadians that he took into pay all went for nothing. Most of the soldiers, and no small number of brave Canadians, perished in enterprises ill-devised and ruinous to the country which I found on my arrival ravaged with unheard of cruelty by the Iroquois, without resistance, and inside of the troops and of the forts. The inhabitants were discouraged and unerved by want of confidence in their chiefs, while the friendly Indians seeing our weakness were ready to join our enemies. I was fortunate enough and diligent enough to change this deplorable state of things and drive away the English, whom my predecessors did not have on their hands, and this too with only half as many troops as they had. I am far from wishing to blame their conduct. I leave you to judge it. But I cannot have the tranquility and freedom of mind which I need for the work I have to do here, without feeling entire confidence that the cabal which is again forming against me cannot produce impressions which may prevent you from doing me justice. For the rest, if it is thought fit that I should leave the priests to do as they like, I shall be delivered from an infinity of troubles and cares in which I can have no other interest than the good of the colony, the trade of the kingdom, and the peace of the king's subjects, and of which I alone bear the burden, as well as the jealousy of sundry persons, and the iniquity of the ecclesiastics who begin to call impious those who are obliged to oppose their passions and their interests. As Champigny always sided with the Jesuits, his relations with Frontenac grew daily more critical. Open rupture at length seemed imminent, and the king interposed to keep the peace. There has been discord between you under a show of harmony, he wrote to the disputants. Frontenac was exhorted to forbearance and calmness, while the intended was told that he allowed himself to be made an instrument of others, and that his charges against the governor proved nothing but his own ill temper. The minister wrote in vain. The bick rings that he reproved were but premonitions of a greater strife. Bishop Saint-Valier was a rigid, austere and contentious prelate who loved power as much as Frontenac himself and thought that, as the deputy of Christ, it was his duty to exorcise it to the utmost. The governor watched him with a jealous eye, well aware that, though the pretensions of the church to supremacy over the civil power had suffered a check, Saint-Valier would revive them the moment he thought he could do so with success. I have shown elsewhere the severity of the ecclesiastical rule at Quebec where the zealous pastors watched their flock with unrelenting vigilance and associations of pious women help them in the work. This naturally produced revolt and tended to divide the town into two parties, the worldly and the devout. The love of pleasure was not extinguished and various influences helped to keep it alive. Perhaps none of these was so potent as the presence in winter of a considerable number of officers from France whose piety was often less conspicuous than their love of enjoyment. At the Château Saint-Louis, a circle of young men, more or less brilliant and accomplished, surrounded the governor and formed a center of social attraction. Fontenac was not without religion and he held it becoming a manifestation not to fail in its observances, but he would not have a Jesuit confessor and placed his conscience in the keeping of the Ricollet friars who were not politically aggressive and who had been sent to Canada expressly as a foil to the rival order. They found no favor in the eyes of the bishop and his adherents and the governor found none for the support he lent them. The winter that followed the arrival of the furs from the upper lakes was a season of gaiety without precedence since the war began. All was harmony at Québec till the carnival approached when Fontenac, whose youthful instincts survived his seventy-four years, introduced a startling novelty which proved the signal of discord. One of his military circle, the sharp-witted Lamotte Cadillac, thus relates this untoward event in a letter to a friend. The winter passed very pleasantly especially to the officers who lived together like comrades and to contribute to their honest enjoyment the count caused two plays to be acted, Nicomaday and Mitridat. It was an amateur performance in which the officers took part along with some of the ladies of Québec. The success was prodigious and so was the storm that followed. Half a century before the Jesuits had grieved over the first ball in Canada. Private theatricals were still more baneful. The clergy, continues Lamotte, beat their alarm drums, armed cap a pie and snatched their bows and arrows. The Sia-Glondelet was first to begin and preached two sermons in which he tried to prove that nobody could go to a play without mortal sin. The bishop issued a mandate and had it read from the pulpits in which he speaks of certain impious, impure and noxious comedies insinuating that those which had been acted were such. The credulous and infatuated people seduced by the sermons and the mandate began already to regard the count as a corruptor of morals and a destroyer of religion. The numerous party of the pretended devotees mustered in the streets and public places and presently made their way into the houses to confirm the weak-minded in their illusion and tried to make the stronger share it. But as they failed in this almost completely, they resolved at last to conquer or die and persuaded the bishop to use a strange device, which was to publish a mandate in the church whereby the Sia de Marais, a half-pay lieutenant, was interdicted the use of the sacraments. This story needs explanation. Not only had the amateur actors at the château played two pieces inoffensive enough in themselves, but a report had been spread that they meant next to perform the famous Tertuffe of Molière, the satire which, while purporting to be leveled against falsehood, lust, greed and ambition, covered with a mask of religion, was rightly thought by a portion of the clergy to be leveled against themselves. The friends of Frontenac say that the report was a hoax. Be this as it may, the bishop believed it. This worthy prelate, continues the irreverent Lamotte, who was afraid of Tertuffe, and had got it into his head that the count meant to have it played, though he had never thought of such a thing. Monsieur de Cévalier sweated blood and water to stop a torrent which existed only in his imagination. It was now that he launched his two mandates both on the same day, one denouncing comedies in general, and Tertuffe in particular, and the other smiting Marais, who says, uses language capable of making heaven blush, in whom he elsewhere stigmatizes as worse than a protestant. It was Marais who, as reported, was to play the part of Tertuffe, and on him, therefore, the brunt of Episcopal indignation fell. He was not a wholly exemplary person. I mean, says Lamotte, to show you the truth in all its nakedness. The fact is that about two years ago, when the Sier de Marais first came to Canada and was carousing with his friends, he sang some indecent song or other. The count was told of it and gave him a severe reprimand. This is the charge against him. After a two-year silence, the pastoral zeal has awakened because a play is to be acted which the clergy mean to stop at any cost. The bishop found another way of stopping it. He met Fontenac with the attendant near the Jesuit chapel, accosted him on the subject which filled his thoughts, and offered him a hundred pistols if he would prevent the playing of Tertuffe. Fontenac laughed and closed the bargain. Saint-Valier wrote his note on the spot, and the governor took it, apparently well pleased to have made the bishop disbursed. I thought, writes the attendant, that Monsieur de Fontenac would have given him back the paper. He did no such thing, but drew the money on the next day and gave it to the hospitals. Marais, deprived of the sacraments and held up to reprobation, went to see the bishop who refused to receive him, and it is said that he was taken by the shoulders and put out of doors. He now resolved to bring his case before the council, but the bishop was informed of his purpose and anticipated it. Le mot says, He went before the council on the 1st of February and announced the Siaire de Marais, whom he declared guilty of impiety towards God, the Virgin and the Saints, and made a fine speech in the absence of the count, interrupted by the effusions of a heart which seemed filled with a profound and infinite charity, but which as he said was pushed to extremity by the rebellion of an endosceled child who had neglected all his warnings. This was nevertheless assumed, I will not say entirely false. The bishop did in fact make a vehement speech against Marais before the council on the day in question. Marais stoutly defending himself and entering his appeal against the Episcopal Mandate. The battle was now fairly joined. Frontenac stood alone for the accused. The intendant tacitly favored his opponents. Haute, the attorney general, and Villarais, the first councillor, owed the governor an old grudge, and they and their colleagues sided with the bishop with the outside support of all the clergy except the Ricollet, who as usual arranged themselves with their patron. At first, Frontenac showed great moderation but grew vehement and then violent as a dispute proceeded, as did also the attorney general who seems to have done his best to exasperate him. Frontenac affirmed that in depriving Marais and others of the sacraments, with no proof of guilt and no previous warning and on allegations which even if true could not justify the act, the bishop exceeded his powers and trenched on those of the king. The point was delicate. The attorney general avoided the issue, tried to raise others, and revived the old quarrel about Frontenac's place in the council which had been settled fourteen years before. Other questions were brought up and angrily debated. The governor demanded that the debates, along with the papers which introduced them, should be entered on the record that the king might be informed of everything, but the demand was refused. The discords of the council chambers spread into the town. Québec was divided against itself. Marais insulted the bishop, and some of his scape-grace sympathizers broke the pallet's windows at night and smashed his chamber door. Marais was at last ordered to prison and the whole affair was referred to the king. These proceedings consumed the spring, the summer, and a part of the autumn. Meanwhile, an access of zeal appeared to seize the bishop, and he launched interdictions to the right and left. Even Champigny was startled when he refused the sacraments to all but four or five of the military officers for alleged tampering with the pay of their soldiers, a matter wholly within the province of the temporal authorities, during a recess of the council he set out on a pastoral tour and arriving at three rivers excommunicated an officer named Desjardins for a reputed intrigue with the wife of another officer. He next repaired to Sorel, and being there on a Sunday was told that two officers had neglected to go to mass. He wrote to Frontenac, complaining of the offence. Frontenac sent for the culprits and rebuked them, but retracted his words when they proved by several witnesses that they had been duly present at the right. The bishop then went up to Montreal and Desjardins went with him. Except Frontenac alone, Calière, the local governor, was the man in all Canada to whom the country owed most. But, like his chief, he was a friend of the Ricollet and this did not commend him to the bishop. The friars were about to receive two novices into their order and they invited the bishop to officiate at the ceremony. Calière was also present kneeling at a prix du or prayer desk near the middle of the church. Saint-Valier, having just said mass, was seating himself in his armchair close to the altar when he saw Calière at the prix du with the position of which he had already found fault as being too honourable for a subordinate governor. He now rose, approached the object of his disapproval and said, Monsieur, you are taking a place which belongs only to Monsieur de Frontenac. Calière replied that the place was that which properly belonged to him. The bishop rejoined that if he did not leave it he himself would leave the church. You can do as you please, Saint-Calière, and the prelate withdrew abruptly through the sacristy refusing any further part in the ceremony. When the services were over he ordered the friars to remove the obnoxious prix du. They obeyed, but an officer of Calière replaced it and unwilling to offend him they allowed it to remain. On this the bishop laid their church under an interdict, that is, he closed it against the celebration of all the rites of religion. He then issued a pastoral mandate in which he charged Fr. Joseph Denis, their superior, with offences which he dared not name for fear of making the paper blush. His tongue was less bashful than his pen, and he gave out publicly that the Fr. Superior had acted as go-between in an intrigue of his sister with the Chevalier de Calière. It is said that the accusation was groundless and the character of the woman wholly irreproachable. The Ricollet submitted for two months to the bishop's interdict, then refused to obey longer and open their church again. Quebec, three rivers, Sorrel and Montreal had all been ruffled by the breeze of these dissensions, and the farthest outposts of the wilderness were not too remote to feel it. Lamotte Cadillac had been sent to replace Louvigny in the command of Michelin Mackenac where he had scarcely arrived when trouble fell upon him. Poor Monsieur de Lamotte Cadillac, says Fr. Anac, would have sent you a journal to show you the persecutions he has suffered at the post where I placed him and where he does wonders having great influence over the Indians who both love and fear him, but he has no time to copy it. Means have been found to excite against him three or four officers of the post dependent on his who have put upon him such a strange and unheard of a france that I was obliged to send them to prison when they came down to the colony. A certain Fr. Cadillac, the Jesuit who wrote me such insolent letters a few years ago, has played an amazing part in this affair. I shall write about it to Fr. Lachaise that he may set it right. Some remedy must be found, for if it continues none of the officers who were sent to Michelin Mackenac, the Miami's, the Illinois and other places can stay there on account of the persecutions to which they are subjected and the refusal of absolution as soon as they fail to do what is wanted of them. Join to all this is a shameful traffic and influence and money. Monsieur de Tonti could have written to you about it if he had not been obliged to go off to the Asinoboins to rid himself of all these torments. In fact there was a chronic dispute at the forest outposts between the officers and the Jesuits concerning which matter much might be said on both sides. The bishop sailed for France. He has gone, writes Calière, after quarrelling with everybody. The various points in dispute were set before the king. An avalanche of memorials, letters and procès verbaux descended upon the unfortunate monarch. Some concerning Marais and the quarrels in the council, others on the excommunication of Desjardins and others on the troubles at Montreal. They were all referred to the king's privy council. An adjustment was affected, order if not harmony was restored and the usual distribution of advice, exhortation, reproof and menace was made to the parties in the strife. Frantenec was commended for defending the royal prerogative, censured for violence and admonished to avoid future quarrels. Champigny was reproved for not supporting the governor and told that, his majesty sees with great pain that, while he is making extraordinary efforts to sustain Canada at a time so critical, all his cares and all his outlays are made useless by your misunderstanding with Monsieur de Frantenec. The attorney general was sharply reprimanded, told that he must mend his ways or lose his place and ordered to make an apology to the governor. Viré was not honoured by a letter, but the attendant was directed to tell him that his behaviour had greatly displeased the king. Calière was mildly advised not to take part in the disputes of the bishop Anne de Ricollet. Thus was conjured down one of the most bitter as well as the most needless, trivial and untimely of the quarrels that enliven the annals of New France. A generation later, when its incidents had faded from memory, a passionate and reckless partisan Abilatur published and probably invented a story which later writers have copied till it now forms an accepted episode of Canadian history. According to him, Frantenec, in order to ridicule the clergy, formed an amateur company of comedians expressly to play deltouf, and after rehearsing at the château during three or four months, they acted the peace before a large audience. He was not satisfied with having it played at the château, but wanted the actors and actresses and the dancers, male and female, to go in full costume with violins to play it in all the religious communities except de Ricollet. He took them first to the house of the Jesuits, where the crowd entered with him, then to the hospital, to the Hall of the Poppers, whether the nuns were ordered to repair. Then he went to the Ursuline convent, assembled the sisterhood and had the peace played before them. To crown the insult, he wanted next to go to the seminary and repeat the spectacle there, but, warning having been given, he was met on the way and begged to refrain. He dared not persist and withdrew in very ill humor. Not one of the numerous contemporary papers, both official and private, and written in great part by enemies of Frantenec, contains the slightest allusion to any such story, and many of them are wholly inconsistent with it. It may safely be set down as a fabrication to blacken the memory of the governor and exhibit the bishop and his adherents as victims of persecution. End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of France and England in North America, Part 5 Count Frantenec, New France, Louis XIV by Francis Parkman, Jr. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 16 1690-1694 The War in Acadia Amid domestic strife, the war with England and the Uruguay still went on. The contest for territorial mastery was fourfold. First, for the control of the West. Secondly, for that of Hudson's Bay. Thirdly, for that of Newfoundland. And lastly, for that of Acadia. All these vast and widely sundered regions were included in the government of Frantenec. Each division of the war was distinct from the rest and each had a character of its own. As the contest for the West was wholly with New York and her Iroquois allies, so the contest for Acadia was wholly with the Bustonnet or people of New England. Acadia, as the French at this time understood the name, included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the greater part of Maine. Sometimes they placed its western boundary at the little river Saint-Georges and sometimes at the Kennebec. Since the wars of Dolnay and Latour, this wilderness had been a scene of unceasing strife. For the English drew their eastern boundary at the Saint-Croix and the claims of the rival nationalities overlapped each other. In the time of Cromwell, Sedgwick, a New England officer had seized the whole country. The peace of Breda restored it to France. The Chevalier de Grand-Fontaine was ordered to re-occupy it and the king sent out a few soldiers, a few settlers, and a few women as their wives. Grand-Fontaine held the nominal command for a time followed by a succession of military chiefs, Chamblis, Merson, and Lavalière. Then Perot, whose malpractices had cost him the government of Montreal, was made governor of Acadia, and as he did not meant his ways, he was replaced by Meneval. One might have sailed for days along these lonely coasts since he no human form. At Canceau or Chadabucto, at the eastern end of Nova Scotia, there was a fishing station and a fort. Chebucto, now Halifax, was a solitude. At L'Heve, there were a few fishermen, and thence, as you doubled the rocks of the Cap Sable, the ancient heart of Latour, you would have seen four French settlers and an unlimited number of seals and sea-fowl. Ranging the shore by St. Mary's Bay and entering the Strait of Annapolis Basin, you would have found the fort of Port Royal, the chief place of all Acadia. It stood at the head of the basin where Dumont had planted his settlement near the port. It was nearly a century before. Around the fort and along the neighboring river were about ninety-five small houses, and at the head of the Bay of Fundy were two other settlements, Bobassin and Laminne, comparatively stable and populous. At the mouth of the St. John were the abandoned ruins of Latour's old fort, and on a spot less exposed at some distance up the river stood the small wooden fort of Gemsec with a few intervening clearings. Still sailing westward passing Mount Desert, another scene of ancient settlement, and entering Penobscot Bay you would have found the barren de Saint Castin with his Indian harem at Pentaget where the town of Castin now stands. All Acadia was comprised in these various stations, more or less permanent, together with one or two small posts on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the huts of an errant population of fishermen and fur traders. In the time of Denisville the colonists numbered less than a thousand souls. The king, busy with nursing Canada, had neglected its less important dependency. Rude as it was, Acadia had charms and has them still, in its wilderness of woods and its wilderness of waves, the rocky ramparts that guard its coasts, its deep, still bays and forming headlands, the towering cliffs of the Grand Manan, the innumerable islands that cluster about Penobscot Bay, and the romantic islands of Mount Desert, down whose gorges the sea fog rolls like an invading host, while these spires of fir trees pierce the surging vapours like glances in the smoke of battle. Leaving Pentaget and sailing westward all day along a solitude of woods, one might reach the English outpost of Pemequod, and then, still sailing on, might anchor at evening off Casco Bay and see in the glowing west the distant peak of the White Mountains spectral and dim amid the weird and fiery sunset. Inland Acadia was all forest and vast tracts of it are a primeval forest still. Here roamed the Abonakis with their kindred tribes erase wild as their haunts. In habits they were all much alike. Their villages were on the waters of the Androskagan, the Sacco, the Kennebec, the Penobscot, the St. Croix and the St. John. Here in spring they plodded their corn, beans and pumpkins and then leaving them to grow went down to the sea in their birch canoes. They returned towards the end of the summer, gathered their harvest and went again to the sea where they lived in abundance on ducks, geese and other waterfowl. During winter most of the women, children and old men remained in the villages, while the hunters ranged the forest in chase of moose, deer, caribou, beavers and bears. Their summer stay at the seashore was perhaps the most pleasant and certainly the most picturesque part of their lives. Vivwacked by some of the innumerable coves and inlets that indebt these coasts they passed their days in that alternation of indolence and action which is a second nature to the Indian. Here in wet weather while the torpid water was dimpled with raindrops and the upturned canoes lay idle on the pebbles the listless warrior smoked his pipe under his roof of bark or launched his slender craft at the dawn of the July day when shores and islands were painted in shadow against the rosy east and forests, dusky and cool lay waiting for the sunrise. The women gathered raspberries or wortelberries in the open places of the woods or clams and oysters in the sands and shallows adding their shells as a contribution to the shell heaps that have accumulated for ages along these shores. The men fished, speared porpoises or shot seals. A priest was often in the camp watching over his flock and saying mass every day in a chapel of bark. There was no lack of altar candles made by mixing tallow with the wax of the bayberry which abounded among the rocky hills and was gathered in profusion by the squazz and children. The Abenaki missions were a complete success. Not only those of the tribe who had been induced to migrate to the mission villages of Canada but also those who remained in their native woods were or were soon to become converts to Romanism and therefore allies of France. Though less ferocious than the Urquois, they were brave after the Indian manner and they rarely or never practiced cannibalism. Some of the French were as lawless as their Indian friends. Nothing is more strange than the incongruous mixture of the forms of feudalism with the independence of the Acadian woods. Vast grants of land were made to various persons, some of whom are charged with using them for no other purpose than roaming over their domains with Indian women. The only settled agricultural population was at Port Royal Boubasse and the Basin of Minas. The rest were fishermen, fur traders or rovers of the forest. Repeated orders came from the court to open a communication with Quebec and even to establish a line of military posts through the intervening wilderness and distance in the natural difficulties of the country proved insurmountable obstacles. If communication with Quebec was difficult that with Boston was easy and thus Acadia became largely dependent on its New England neighbors who, says an Acadian officer, are mostly fugitives from England guilty of the death of their late king and accused of conspiracy against their present sovereign. Others of them are pirates and they are all united in a sort of independent republic. Their relations with the Acadians were of a mixed sort. They continually encroached on Acadian fishing grounds and we hear at one time of a hundred of their vessels thus engaged. This was not all. The interlopers often landed and traded with the Indians along the coast. Mennaval the governor complained bitterly of their arrogance. Sometimes it is said they pretended to be foreign pirates and plundered vessels and settlements while the aggrieved parties could get no redress at Boston. They also carried on a regular trade at Port Royal and Les Mines or Grand Prais where many of the inhabitants regarded them with a degree of favor which gave great umbrage to the military authorities who, nevertheless, are themselves accused of seeking their own profit by dealings with the heretics. And even French priests including Petit, the Curée of Port Royal are charged with carrying on the solicit trade on their own behalf and in that of a seminary of Quebec. The settlers caught from the Bosse-Donais what their governor stigmatizes as English and parliamentary ideas the chief effect of which was to make them restive under his rule. The church, moreover, was less successful in excluding heresy from Acadia than from Canada. A number of Huguenots established themselves at Port Royal and formed sympathetic relations with the Boston Puritans. The bishop at Quebec was much alarmed. This is dangerous, he writes. I pray your majesty to put an end to these disorders. A sort of chronic warfare of aggression and reprisal closely akin to piracy was carried on at intervals in Acadian waters by French private armed vessels on one hand and New England private armed vessels on the other. Genuine pirates also frequently appeared. They were of various nationality, though usually buccaneers from the West Indies. They preyed on New England trading and fishing craft and sometimes attacked French settlements. One of their most notorious exploits was the capture of two French vessels and a French fort at Chateaubuteau by a pirate manned in part, it is said, from Massachusetts. A similar proceeding of earlier date was the act of Dutchman from Saint Domingue. They made a descent on the French port of Pentaget on Penobscot Bay. Chambley then commanding for the king in Acadia was in the place. They assaulted his works, wounded him, took him prisoner and carried him to Boston where they held him at Ransom. His young ensign escaped into the woods and carried the news to Canada, but many months elapsed before Chambley was released. This young ensign was Jean-Vaissant de la Bédie, baron de Saint Castin, a native of Bayern on the slopes of the Pyrenees, the same rough strong soil that gave to France When fifteen years of age he came to Canada with the regiment of Carignan-Salière ensign in the company of Chambley and when the regiment was disbanded he followed his natural bent and betook himself to the Acadian woods. At this time there was a square bastion fort at Pentaget mounted with twelve small cannon but after the Dutch attack it fell into decay. Saint Castin meanwhile roamed the woods with the Indians, lived like them, formed connections more or less permanent with their women, became himself a chief and gained such ascendancy over his red associates that according to La Hontanne they looked upon him as their tutelary god. He was bold, hardy, adroit, tenacious and in spite of his erratic habits had such capacity for business that if we may believe the same somewhat doubtful authority he made a fortune of three or four hundred thousand crowns. His gains came chiefly through his neighbors of New England whom he hated but to whom he sold his beaver skins at an ample profit. His trading house was at Pentaget now called Castin in or near the old fort a perilous spot which he occupied or abandoned by turns according to the needs of the time. Being a devout Catholic he wished to add a resident priest to his establishment for the conversion of his Indian friends but observes Father Pizzi of Port Royal who knew him well he himself has need of spiritual aid to sustain him in the past of virtue. He usually made two visits a year to Port Royal where he gave liberal gifts to the church of which he was the chief patron, attended mass with exemplary devotion and then shriven of his sins returned to his squares at Pentaget. Perot the governor maligned him the motive as Saint Castin says being jealousy of his success in trade for Perot himself traded largely with the English and the Indians. This indeed seems to have been his chief occupation and as Saint Castin was his principal rival they were never on good terms. Saint Castin complained to Denonville Monsieur Petit he writes we'll tell you everything I will only say that he, Perot, kept me under arrest from the 21st of April to the 9th of June on pretense of a little weakness I had for some women and even told me that he had your orders to do it but that is not what troubles him and as I do not believe there is another man under heaven who will do meaner things through love of gain even to selling brandy by the pint and half pint before strangers in his own house because he does not trust a single one of his servants I see plainly what is the matter with him he wants to be the only merchant in Acadia Perot was recalled this very year and his successor Menovell received instructions in regard to Saint Castin which show that the king or his minister had a clear idea both of the barons merits and of his failings the new governor was ordered to require him to abandon his vagabond life among the Indians seesaw trade with the English and establish a permanent settlement Menovell was further directed to assure him that if he conformed to the royal will and led a life more becoming a gentleman he might expect to receive proofs of his majesty's approval in the next year Menovell reported that he had represented to Saint Castin the necessity of reform and that in consequence he had abandoned his trade with the English given up his squazz, married and promised to try to make a solid settlement true he had reformed before and might need to reform again but his faults were not of the baser sort he held his honor high and was free-handed as he was bold his wife was what the early chroniclers would call an Indian princess for she was the daughter of Madakawando chief of the Penobscotts so critical was the position of his post at Pentaget that a strong fort and a sufficient garrison could alone hope to maintain it against the pirates and the Bustane its vicissitudes had been many standing on ground claimed by the English within territory which had been granted to the Duke of York and which on his accession to the throne became a part of the royal domain it was never safe from attack in 1686 it was plundered by an agent of Duncan in 1687 it was plundered again and in the next year Andros then royal governor anchored before it in his frigate the Rose landed with his attendants and stripped the building of all it contained except a small altar with pictures and ornaments which they found in the principal room Sankaste escaped to the woods and Andros sent him word by an Indian that his property would be carried to Pemequod and that he would have it again by becoming a British subject he refused the offer the rival English post of Pemequod was destroyed as we have seen and in the following year they and their French allies had made such havoc among the border settlements that nothing was left east of the Piscataqua except the villages of Wells, York and Quittery but a change had taken place in the temper of the savages mainly due to the easy conquest of Port Royal by Phipps and to an expedition of the noted partisan church by which they had suffered considerable losses fear of the English on one hand and the attraction of their trade on the other disposed many of them to peace six chiefs signed a truce with the commissioners of Massachusetts and promised to meet them in council to bury the hatchet forever the French were failed with alarm peace between the Abbenakis and the Bustanet would be disastrous both to Acadia and to Canada because these tribes held the passes through the northern wilderness and so long as they were in the interest of France covered the settlements on the St. Lawrence from attack moreover the government relied on them to fight its battles they were spared to break off their incipient treaty with the English and spur them again to war Éville Bonn, a Canadian of good birth one of the brothers of Paul Neuf was sent by the king to govern Acadia presents for the Abbenakis were given him in abundance and he was ordered to assure them of support so long as they fought for France he and his officers were told to join their war parties while the Canadians who followed him to Acadia were required to leave all other employments you yourself says the minister will herein set them so good an example that they will be animated by no other desire than that of making profit out of the enemy there is nothing which I more strongly urge upon you than to put forth all your ability and prudence to prevent the Abbenakis from occupying themselves in anything but war and by good management of the supplies which you have received for their use to enable them to live by it more to their advantage than by hunting armed with these instructions Vilbon repaired to his post where he was joined by a body of Canadians under Paul Neuf his first step was to reoccupy Port Royal and as there was nobody there to oppose him he easily succeeded the settlers renounced allegiance to Massachusetts and King William and swore fidelity to their natural sovereign the capital of Acadia dropped back quietly into the lap of France but as the Bostonais might recapture it at any time Vilbon crossed to the Saint John to high up the stream of Naxwat opposite the present city of Frederickton here no Bostonais could reach him and he could muster war parties at his leisure one thing was indispensable a blow must be struck that would encourage and excite the Abbenakis some of them had no part in the truce and were still so keen for English blood that a deputation of their chiefs told Frontenac at Québec that they would fight even if they must had their arrows they were under no such necessity guns, powder, and lead were given them in abundance and Tzuri the priest on the Panab Scot urged them to strike the English a hundred and fifty of his converts took the warpath and were joined by a band from the Québec it was January and they made their way on snowshoes along the frozen streams and through the deathly solitudes of the winter forest till after marching a month they went to New York in the afternoon of the 4th of February they encamped at the foot of a high hill evidently Mount Agamenticus from the top of which the English village lay in sight it was a collection of scattered houses along the banks of the river Agamenticus and the shore of the adjacent sea five or more of them were built for defense though owned and occupied by families like the other houses near the seas to the unprotected house of the chief man of the place Dummer, the minister the work appears to have contained from three to four hundred persons of all ages for the most part rude and ignorant boarders the warriors lay shivering all night in the forest not daring to make fires in the morning a heavy fall of snow began they moved forward and soon heard the sound of an axe it was an English boy chopping wood they caught him extorted such information as they needed then tomahawked him and moved on till hidden by the forest to the village here they divided into two parties and each took its station a gun was fired as a signal upon which they all yelled the war whoop and dashed upon their prey one party mastered the nearest fortified house which had scarcely a defender but women the rest burst into the unprotected houses killing or capturing the astonished inmates the minister was at his door in the act of mounting his horse to visit some distant parishioners he was a graduate of harvard college a man advanced in life of some learning and greatly respected the french accounts say that about a hundred persons including women and children were killed and about 80 captured those who could ran for the fortified houses of prebble, harman, alcock and norton which were soon filled with the refugees the indians did not attack them but kept well out of gunshot and visit themselves in pillaging killing horses and cattle and burning the unprotected houses they divided themselves into small bands and destroyed all the outlying farms for four or five miles around the wish of king louis was fulfilled a good prophet had been made out of the enemy the victors withdrew into the forest with their plunder and their prisoners among whom were several old women and a number of children from three to seven years old these with a forbearance which does them credit they permitted to return unendured in recital it is said for the lives of a number of indian children spared by the english in a recent attack on the androscogon the wife of the minister was allowed to go with them but her son remained a prisoner and the agonized mother went back to the indian camp to beg for his release they again permitted her to return but when she came a second time they told her that as she wanted to be a prisoner she should have her wish she was carried with the rest to their village where she soon died of exhaustion one of the warriors arrayed himself in the gown of the slain minister and preached a mock sermon to the captive parishioners leaving york in ashes the victors began their march homeward while a body of men from portsmouth followed on their trail but soon lost it and failed to overtake them there was a season of feasting and scalp dancing at the abbenacke towns and then as spring opened a hundred of the warriors set out to visit the camp and received the promised gifts from their great father the king vilebo and his brothers parneuf, neviyet and dazil with their canadian followers has spent the winter chiefly on the saint john finishing their fort at naxwat and preparing for future operations the abbenacke visitors arrived towards the end of april and were received with all possible distinction there were speeches, gifts and feasting for they had done much and were expected to do more parneuf sang a war song in their language then he opened a barrel of wine the guests emptied it in less than 15 minutes sang, whooped, danced and promised to repair to the rendezvous of saint castin station of pentaget a grand war party was afoot and a new and withering blow was to be struck against the english border the guests set out for pentaget followed by parneuf, dazil, lebrunry several other officers and 20 canadians a few days after a large band of mcmax arrived then came the malisit warriors from their village of medectic and at last father boudouais appeared leading another band of mcmax from his mission of boudassin speeches, feasts and gifts were made to them all and they all followed the rest to the appointed rendezvous at the beginning of june the site of the town of castine was covered with wigwams and the beach lined with canoes malisites and mcmax abanakis from the panopscot and abanakis from the canabec were here, some 400 warriors in all here too were parneuf and his canadians the baren de saint castin and his indian father-in-law marocowando with moxus, isheremet and other noted chiefs the terror of the english borders they crossed panopscot bay and marched upon the frontier village of wells wells like york was a small settlement of scattered houses along the seashore the year before, moxus had vainly attacked it with 200 warriors all the neighboring country had been laid waste by a murderous war of detail the lonely farmhouses pillaged and burned and the survivors driven back to refuge to the older settlements wells had been crowded with these refugees but famine and misery had driven most of them beyond the piscatakwa and the place was now occupied by a remnant of its own destitute the people borned by the fate of york had taken refuge in five fortified houses the largest of these belonging to joseph's store was surrounded by a palisade and occupied by 15 armed men under captain converse an officer of militia on the 9th of june two sloops and a sailboat ran up the neighboring creek bringing supplies and 14 more men the sucker came in the nick of time the sloops had scarcely anchored when a number of cattle were gathered in the palisades it was plain that the enemy was lurking there all the families of the place now gathered within the palisades of store's house thus increasing his force to about 30 men and a close watch was kept throughout the night in the morning no room was left for doubt one john diamond on his way from the house to the sloops was seized by indians and dragged off by the hare then the whole body of savages appeared swarming over the fields and neglected their usual tactics of surprise a french officer who, as an old english account says was habited like a gentleman made them in harang they answered with bursts of yells and then attacked the house firing, screeching and calling on converse and his men to surrender others gave their attention to the two sloops which lay together in the narrow creek stranded by the ebbing tide they fired at them for a while from behind a pile of planks on the shore and through many fine arrows without success the men on board fighting with such cool and dexterous obstinacy that they held them all at bay and lost but one of their own number next the canadiens made a huge shield of planks which they fastened vertically to the back of a cart la brunerie with 26 men french and indians got behind it and shoved the cart towards the stranded sloops it was within 50 feet of them when a wheel sunk in the mud the brunerie tried to lift the wheel and was shot dead the tide began to rise a canadian tried to escape and was also shot the rest then broke away together some of them as they ran dropping under the bullets of the sailors the whole force now gathered for a final attack on the garrison house their appearance was so frightful and their clamor so appalling that one of the english muttered converse returned if you say that again you are a dead man had the allies made a bold assault he and his followers must have been overpowered but this mode of attack was contrary to indian maxims they merely leaped, yelled, fired and called on the english to yield they were answered with derision the women in the house took part in the defense passed ammunition to the men and sometimes fired themselves on the enemy the indians at length became discouraged and offered converse favorable terms he answered I want nothing but men to fight with an abinacchi who spoke english cried out if you are so bold why do you stay in a garrison house like a squaw come out and fight like a man converse retorted do you think I'm fool enough to come out with 30 men to fight 500 another indian shouted damn you go before morning converse returned a contemptuous defiance after a while they ceased firing and dispersed about the neighborhood butchering cattle and burning the church and a few empty houses as the tide began to ebb they sent a fire raft and full blaze down the creek to destroy the sloops but it stranded and the attempt failed they now wreaked their fury on the prisoner diamond whom they tortured to death all disappeared a few resolute men had foiled one of the most formidable bands that ever took the warpath in akadia the warriors dispersed to their respective haunts and when a band of them reached the St. John Villibon coolly declares that he gave them a prisoner to burn they put him to death with all their ingenuity of torture the act on the part of the governor was more atrocious as it had no motive of reprisal and as the burning of prisoners was not the common practice of these tribes the warlike ardor of the Abonakis cooled after the failure at Wells and events that soon followed nearly extinguished it Phipps had just received his preposterous appointment to the government of Massachusetts to the disgust of its inhabitants the stubborn colony was no longer a republic the new governor unfit as he was for his office understood the needs of the eastern frontier he spent his youth and he brought a royal order to rebuild the ruined fort at Pemequid the king gave the order but neither men, money nor munitions to execute it and Massachusetts bore all the burden Phipps went to Pemequid laid out the work and left a hundred men to finish it a strong fort of stone was built the abandoned cannon of Casco mounted on its walls and 60 men placed in garrison the keen military eye of the establishment of Pemequid lying far in advance of the other English stations it barred the passage of war parties along the coast and it was a standing menace to the Abonakis it was resolved to capture it two ships of war lately arrived at Quebec the Pauly and the Anvieux were ordered to sail for Acadia with above 400 men take on board 200 or 300 Indians at Pentaget reduced Pemequid which they were to scour the Acadian seas of Bustanet, Fishermen at this time a gentleman of Boston John Nelson captured by Bill Bon the year before was a prisoner at Quebec Nelson was nephew and heir of Sir Thomas Temple in whose right he claimed the proprietorship of Acadia under an old grant of Oliver Cromwell he was familiar both with that country and with Canada which he had visited several times before the war as he was a man of birth and breeding and a declared enemy of Phipps and as he had befriended French prisoners and shown a special kindness to Manavelle the captain of Governor of Acadia he was treated with distinction by Frontenac who though he knew him to be a determined enemy of the French lodged him at the Chateau and entertained him at his own table Madoka Wando the father-in-law of Saint Castet made a visit to Frontenac and Nelson who spoke both French and Indian contrived to gain from him he was not in favor at Boston for though one of the four most in the overthrow of Andros his greed and his character savored more of the cavalier than of the Puritan this did not prevent him from risking his life for the colony he wrote a letter to the authorities of Massachusetts and then bribed two soldiers to desert and carry it to them the deserters were hotly pursued but reached their destination and delivered their letter the two ships sailed from Quebec but when after a long delay at Mount Desert they took on board the Indian allies and sailed onward to Pémacouid they found an armed ship from Boston anchored in the harbor why they did not attack it is a mystery the defenses of Pémacouid were still unfinished the French force was far superior to the English and Iberville who commanded it was a leader of unquestionable enterprise and daring nevertheless the French did nothing and soon after bore away for France Fontenac was indignant and severely blamed Iberville whose sister was on board his ship and was possibly the occasion of his inaction thus far successful the authorities of Boston undertook an enterprise little to their credit they employed the two deserters joined with two Acadian prisoners to kidnap Saint Castain whom next to the priest Turi they regarded as their most insidious enemy the Acadians revealed the plot and the two soldiers were shot at Mount Desert Nelson was sent to France imprisoned two years in a dungeon of the château of Angoulême and then placed in the Bastille ten years passed before he was allowed to return to his family at Boston the French failure at Pémacouid completed the discontent of the Abbenakis and despondency and terror seized them when in the spring of 1693 Converse, the defender of Wells arranged the frontier with a strong party of militia and built another stone fort at the falls in July they opened a conference at Pémacouid and in August 13 of their chiefs representing or pretending to represent all the tribes from the Miramaque to the St. Croix came again to the same place to conclude a final treaty of peace with the commissioners of Massachusetts they renounced the French alliance buried the hatchet declared themselves British subjects promised to give up all prisoners and left five of their chief men as hostages security and hope returned to secluded dwellings buried in a treacherous forest where life had been a nightmare of horror and fear and the settler could go to his work without dreading to find at evening his cabin burned and his wife and children murdered he was fatally deceived for the danger was not passed it is true that some of the Abbenakis were sincere in their pledge of peace a party among them headed by Mara Coando were dissatisfied with the French anxious to recover their captive countrymen and eager to reopen trade with the English but there was an opposing party led by the chief Taksou who still breathed war while between the two was an unstable mob of warriors guided by the impulse of the hour the French spared no efforts to break off the peace the two missionaries Bigo on the Canabec and Suri on the Penabscot labored with unwearied energy to urge the savages to war flattered them, feasted them adopted Taksou as his brother and to honor the occasion gave him his own best coat 2,500 pounds of gunpowder 6,000 pounds of lead and a multitude of other presents were given this year to the Indians of Acadia two of their chiefs had been sent to Versailles they now returned in gay attire their necks hung with metals and their minds filled with admiration wonder and bewilderment the special duty of commanding Indians had fallen to the lot of an officer named Vilieu who had been ordered by the court to raise a war party and attack the English he had lately been sent to replace Palneuf who had been charged with debauchery and speculation Vilbon, angry at his brother's removal was on ill terms with his successor and though he declares that he did his best to aid in raising the war party Vilieu says on the contrary the new lieutenants spent the winter at Nexwet and on the 1st of May went up in a canoe to the Malacite village of Meductek assembled the chiefs and invited them to war they accepted the invitation with alacrity Vilieu next made his way through the wilderness to the Indian towns of the Penebscot on the 9th he reached the mouth of the Matawamcag where he found the chief Taksu paddled with him down the Penebscot and at midnight on the 10th village at or near the place now called Pasadamcag here he found a powerful ally in the Jesuit Vesabigou who had come from the Kennebec with three Abonakis to urge their brethren of the Penebscot to break off the peace the chief envoy denounced the treaty of Penequet as a snare and Vilieu exorted the assembled warriors to follow him to the English border where honor and profit awaited them but first he invited them to go back with him to Nexwet to find the house that they needed they set out with alacrity Vilieu went with them and they all arrived within a week they were feasted and gifted to their hearts content and then the indefatigable officer led them back by the same long and weary roots which he had passed and repast before rocky and shallow streams chains of wilderness lakes threads of water writhing through swamps where the canoes could scarcely glide among the water weeds and alters the only white man the governor as he says would give him but two soldiers and these had run off early in June the whole flotilla paddled down the Penebscot to Penteget here the Indians divided their presence which they found somewhat less ample than they had imagined in the midst of their discontent Madoka Wando came from Pemequet with news that the governor of Massachusetts was about to deliver up the Indian prisoners in his hands as stipulated by the treaty changed the temper of the warriors Madoka Wando declared loudly for peace and Villiers saw all his hopes wrecked he tried to persuade his disaffected allies that the English only meant to lure them to destruction and the missionary Thurie supported him with his utmost eloquence the Indians would not be convinced and their trust in English good faith was confirmed when they heard that a minister had just come to Pemequet to teach their children to read and write the news grew worse and worse Villiers was secretly informed that Pips had been off the coast in a frigate invited Madoka Wando and other chiefs on board and feasted them in his cabin after which they had all thrown their hatchets into the sea in token of everlasting peace Villiers now despaired of his enterprise and prepared to return to the St. John when Thurie, wise as the serpent set himself to work on the jealousy of Taksu took him aside and persuaded him that his rival had put a slight upon him and presuming to make peace without his consent the effect was marvelous says Villiers Taksu exasperated declared that he would have nothing to do with Madoka Wando's treaty the fickle multitude caught the contagion and asked for nothing but English scalps but before setting out they must needs to go back to Pasadumka to finish their preparations Villiers again went with them and on the way his enterprise and he nearly perished together his canoe over set in a rapid at some distance above the site of Bangor he was swept down the current his head was dashed against a rock and his body bruised from head to foot for five days he lay helpless with fever he had no sooner recovered than he gave the Indians a war feast at which they all sang the war song except Madoka Wando and some thirty of his clansmen whom the others made the butt of their taunts and ridicule the chief began to waver the officer and the missionary beset him with presence and persuasion till at last he promised to join the rest it was the end of June when Villiers and Suri with one Frenchman and 105 Indians began their long canoe voyage to the English border the savages were directed to give no quarter and told that the prisoners already in their hands would ensure the safety of their hostages in the hands of the English more warriors were to join them on the 9th of July they neared Pemaquid but it was no part of their plan to attack a garrisoned post the main body passed on at a safe distance while Villiers approached the fort dressed and painted like an Indian and accompanied by two or three genuine savages carrying a packet of furs as if on a peaceful errand of trade such visits from Indians had been common since the treaty and while his companions bartered their beaver skins with the unsuspecting soldiers he strolled about the neighborhood the party was soon after joined by Bego's Indians and the united force now amounted to 230 they held a council to determine where they should make their attack but opinions differed some were for the places west of Boston and others for those nearer at hand Necessity decided them their provisions were gone and Villiers says that he himself was dying of hunger they therefore resolved to strike at the nearest settlement in the oyster river now Durham about 12 miles from Portsmouth they cautiously moved forward and sent scouts in advance who reported that the inhabitants kept no watch in fact a messenger from Phipps had assured them that the war was over and that they could follow their usual vocations without fear Villiers and his band waited till night and then made their approach there was a small village a church, a mill 12 fortified houses and many unprotected farmhouses extending several miles along the stream the Indians separated into bands and stationing themselves for a simultaneous attack at numerous points lay patiently waiting till towards day the moon was still bright when the first shot gave the signal and the slaughter began the two palisaded houses of Adams and Drew without garrisons were taken immediately and the families butchered were abandoned and most of the inmates escaped the remaining seven were successfully defended though several of them were occupied only by the families which owned them one of these belonging to Thomas Bickford stood by the river near the lower end of the settlement roused by the firing he placed his wife and children in a boat sent them down the stream and then went back alone to defend his dwelling when the Indians appeared he fired on them sometimes from one loophole and sometimes from another there was a person and showing himself with a different hat, cap or coat at different parts of the building the Indians were afraid to approach and he saved both family and home one Jones, the owner of another of these fortified houses was wakened by the barking of his dogs and without thinking that his hogpen was visited by wolves the flash of a gun in the twilight of the morning showed the true nature of the attack the shot missed him narrowly he stood on his defense when the Indians after firing for some time from behind a neighboring rock withdrew and left him in peace Woodman's garrison house though occupied by a number of men was attacked more seriously the Indians keeping up a long and brisk fire from behind a ridge where they lay sheltered but they hit nobody and at length disappeared among the unprotected houses the carnage was horrible 104 persons chiefly women and children were locked, shot or killed by slower and more painful methods some escaped to the fortified houses and others hid in the woods 27 were kept alive as prisoners 20 or more houses were burned but what is remarkable the church was spared father Tzuri entered it during the massacre and wrote with chalk on the pulpit some sentences of which the purport is not preserved as they were no doubt in French or Latin Tzuri said mass and the victors retreated in a body to the place where they had hidden their canoes here Tksu dissatisfied with the scalps that he and his band had taken resolved to have more and with 50 of his own warriors joined by others from the Kennebec set out on a new enterprise they mean, writes Velier in his diary to divide into bands of four or five and knock people in the head by surprise which cannot fail to produce a good effect they did in fact fall a few days after on the settlements near Groton they killed some 40 persons having heard from one of the prisoners a rumour of ships on the way from England to attack Quebec Velier thought it necessary to inform Frotonac at once attended by a few Indians he traveled four days and nights till he found we go at an Abonacky Fort on the Kennebec his Indians were completely exhausted he took others in their place pushed forward again reached Quebec on the 22nd of August Frotonac had gone to Montreal followed him thither told his story and presented him with 13 English scalps he had displayed in the achievement of his detestable exploit and energy, perseverance and hardyhood rarely equalled but all would have been vain but for the help of his clerical colleague Fr. Pierre Tsouris end of chapter 16 chapter 17 of France and England in North America Part 5 of Louis XIV by Francis Parkman Jr this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 17 1690 to 1697 New France and New England this stroke says Villibon speaking of the success at Oyster River is of great advantage because it breaks off all the talk of peace between our Indians and the English the English are in despair I have given the story in detail as showing the origin and character of the destructive raids of which New England analysts show only the results the borders of New England were peculiarly vulnerable in Canada the settlers built their houses in lines within supporting distance of each other along the margin of a river which supplied easy transportation for troops and in time of danger they all took refuge in forts with the attachment of soldiers the exposed part of the French colony extended along the St. Lawrence about 90 miles the exposed frontier of New England was between 2 and 300 miles long and consisted of farms and hamlets loosely scattered through an almost impervious forest mutual support was difficult or impossible a body of Indians and Canadians approaching secretly and swiftly dividing into small bands and falling at once upon a short period could commit prodigious havoc in a short time and with little danger even in so-called villages the houses were far apart because except on the seashore the people lived by farming such as were able to do so fenced their dwellings with palisades or built them of solid timber with loopholes a projecting upper story like a block house and sometimes a flanker at one or more of the corners in the more considerable settlements of old men and served as a place of refuge for the neighbors the palisaded house defended by converse at Wells was of this sort and so also was the Woodman House at Oyster River these were garrison houses properly so-called though the name was often given to fortified dwellings occupied only by the family the French and Indian War parties commonly avoided the true garrison houses and very rarely captured the most part in pouncing upon peaceful settlers by surprise and generally in the night combatants and non-combatants were slaughtered together by parading the number of slain without mentioning that most of them were women and children and by counting as forts mere private houses surrounded with palisades Chelevoix and later writers have given the air of gallant exploits to acts which deserve a very different name to attack military posts and the legitimate act of war but systematically to butcher helpless farmers and their families can hardly pass as such except from the Iroquois point of view the chief alleged motive for this ruthless warfare was to prevent the people of New England from invading Canada by giving them employment at home though in fact they had never thought of invading Canada till after these attacks began but for the intrigues of Dononville to stay before war was declared and the destruction of salmon falls after it Phipps expedition would never have taken place by successful raids against the borders of New England Franklin Neck roused the Canadians from their dejection and prevented his bad allies from deserting him but in doing so he brought upon himself an enemy who as Chelevoix himself says asked only to be let alone if there was a political necessity for butchering women and children that were only created by the French themselves there was no such necessity Massachusetts was the only one of the New England colonies which took an aggressive part in the contest Connecticut did little or nothing Rhode Island was non-combatant through Quaker influence and New Hampshire was too weak for offensive war Massachusetts was in no condition to fight nor was she impelled to do so by the home government Canada was organized for war and must fight at the bidding of the king who made the war and paid for it Massachusetts was organized for peace and if she chose an aggressive part it was at her own risk and her own cost she had had fighting enough already against infuriated savages far more numerous than the Iroquois and poverty and political revolution made peace a necessity to her if there was danger of another attack on Quebec it was not from New England that no amount of frontier butchery could avert it nor except their inveterate habit of poaching on Acadian fisheries had the people of New England provoked these barbarous attacks they never even attempted to retaliate them though the settlements of Acadia offered a safe and easy revenge once it is true they pillaged Bobasset but they killed nobody though countless butcheries in the settlements yet more defenseless were fresh in their memory with New York when they were easily sundered in local position the case was different its rulers had instigated the Iroquois to attack Canada possibly before the declaration of war and certainly after it and they had no right to complain of reprisal yet the frontier of New York was less frequently assailed because it was less exposed while that of New England was drenched in blood because it was open to attack because the Abonakis were convenient instruments for attacking it and because this adhesion could best be secured by inciting them to constant hostility against the English they were not only needed as the barrier of Canada against New England but the French commanders hoped by means of their tomahawks to drive the English beyond the Piscataqua and secure the whole of Maine to the French crown who were answerable for these offenses against Christianity and civilization first the king and next the governors and military officers who were charged with executing his orders and who often executed them with needless barbarity but a far different responsibility rests on the missionary priests who hounded their converts on the track of innocent blood the Acadian priests are not all open to this charge some of them are even accused of being too favorable to the English while others gave themselves to their proper work and neither abused their influence nor their moral lens the most prominent among the Apostles of Carnage at this time are the Jesuit Bigot on the Kennebec and the seminary priest Turi on the Penobscot there is little doubt that the latter instigated attacks on the English frontier before the war and there is conclusive evidence that he had a hand in repeated forays after it began whether acting from fanaticism policy or an odious compound of both he was found so useful Turi wrote him letters of commendation praising him in the same breath for his care of the souls of the Indians and his zeal in exciting them to war there is no better man says an Acadian official to prompt the savages to any enterprise the king was begged to reward him with money and Pont Chartrain wrote to the Bishop of Québec to increase his payout of the allowance furnished by the government to the Acadian clergy because he, Turi, had persuaded the French missionaries are said to have made use of singular methods to excite their flocks against the heretics the Abbenacke chief Bommacine when a prisoner at Boston in 1696 declared that they told the Indians that Jesus Christ was a Frenchman and his mother the Virgin a French lady that the English had murdered him and that the best way to gain his favor was to revenge his death whether or not these articles of faith formed a part of the teachings of Turi and his fellow apostles there is no doubt that it was recognized part of their functions to keep their converts in hostility to the English and that their credit with the civil powers depended on their success in doing so the same holds true of the priests of the mission villages in Canada they avoided all that might impair the warlike spirit of the neophyte and they were well aware that in savages the warlike spirit is mainly dependent on native ferocity they taught temperance conjugal fidelity devotion to the rights of their religion and submission to the priest but they left the savage a savage still in spite of the remonstrances of the civil authorities the mission Indian was separated as far as possible from intercourse with the French and discouraged from learning the French tongue he wore a crucifix hung wampum on the shrine of the Virgin told his beads prayed three times a day knelt for hours before the host but with rare exceptions he murdered, scalped and tortured like his heathen countrymen the picture has another side which must not pass unnoticed early in the war the French of Canada began the merciful practice of buying English prisoners and especially children from their Indian allies after the first fury of attack many lives were spared for the sake of this ransom sometimes but not always the redeemed captives were made to work they were uniformly treated well and often with such kindness that they would not be exchanged and became Canadians by adoption Villibon was still full of anxiety as to the adhesion of the Abbenakis Turis saw the danger still more clearly and told Fontenac that their late attack at Oyster River was due more to levity than to any other cause that they were greatly alarmed wavering half stupefied afraid of the English and distrustful of the French rules it was clear that something must be done and nothing could answer the purpose so well as the capture of Pemaquid that English stronghold which held them in constant menace and at the same time tempted them by offers of goods at a low rate to the capture of Pemaquid therefore the French government turned its thoughts one Pasco Chubb of Andover commanded the post with a garrison of 95 militiamen Stoughton, governor of Massachusetts had written to the Abbenakis abrading them for breaking the peace and ordering them to bring in their prisoners without delay the Indians of Begaux's mission that is to say Begaux in their name retorted by a letter to the last degree haughty and abusive those of Turis' mission however were so anxious to recover their friends held in prison at Boston that they came to Pemaquid and opened a conference with Chubb the French say that they meant only to deceive him this does not justify the fact that the French who by an act of odious treachery killed several of them and captured the chief at Jeremet nor was this the only occasion on which the English had acted in bad faith it was but playing into the hands of the French who saw with delight that the folly of their enemies had aided their own intrigues early in 1696 two ships of war the Anveu and the Profon one commanded by Iberville and the other by Bonaventure the French then proceeded to Cape Breton embarked thirty MacMac Indians and steered for the St. John here they met two British frigates and a provincial tender belonging to Massachusetts a fight ensued the forces were very unequal the new port of 24 guns was dismastered and taken but her companion frigate along with the tender escaped in the fog the French then anchored at the mouth of the St. John these cimons were waiting for them with fifty more MacMacs cimons and the Indians went on board and they all sailed for Pentegette where Villeux with twenty-five soldiers and Suri and Saint-Casté with some three hundred Abanacches were ready to join them after the usual feasting these new allies paddled for Pemequid the ships followed and on the next day the 14th of August they all reached their destination the port of Pemequid stood at the west side of the promontory of the same name on a rocky point at the mouth of Pemequid River it was a quadrangle with ramparts of rough stone built at great pains and cost but exposed to artillery and incapable of resisting heavy shot the government of Massachusetts with its usual military fatuity had placed it in the keeping of an unfit commander and permitted some of the yeoman garrison to bring their wives and children to this dangerous and important post the Indians landed at New Harbour half a league from the fort troops and cannon were sent ashore and at five o'clock in the afternoon Chubb was summoned to surrender he replied that he would fight even if the sea were covered with friendships and the land with Indians the firing then began and the Indian marksmen favored by the nature of the ground ensconced themselves near the fort well covered from its cannon during the night mortars Chubb's guns were landed and by great exertion were got into position the two priests working lustily with the rest they opened fire at three o'clock on the next day Saint Estay had just before sent Chubb a letter telling him that if the garrison were obstinate they would get no quarter and would be butchered by the Indians close upon this message followed four or five bombshells Chubb succumbed immediately sounded a parley and gave up the fort the men should be protected from the Indians sent to Boston and exchanged for French and Abonacky prisoners they all marched out without arms and Iberville, true to his pledge sent them to an island in the bay beyond the reach of his red allies Villiers took possession of the fort where an Indian prisoner was found in Irons half dead from long confinement this so enraged his countrymen that a massacre would infallibly have taken place but for the precaution of Iberville the cannon of Pemequid were carried on board the ships and the small arms and ammunition given to the Indians two days were spent in destroying the works and then the victors withdrew in triumph disgraceful as was the prompt surrender of the fort it may be doubted if even with the best defense it could have held out many days for it had no casemates and its occupants were defenseless against the explosion of shells Chubb was arrested for cowardice on his return after his release he returned to his family at Andover 20 miles from Boston and here in the year following he and his wife were killed by Indians who seemed to have pursued him to this apparently safe asylum to take revenge for his treachery toward their countrymen the people of Massachusetts compelled by a royal order to build and maintain Pemequid had no love for it and underrated its importance having been accustomed to spend their money and revolted at compulsion though exercised for their good Pemequid was nevertheless of the utmost value for the preservation of their hold on Maine and its conquest was a crowning triumph to the French the conquerors now projected a greater exploit the Merquides-des-Mont with a powerful squadron of 15 ships including some of the best in the Royal Navy sailed to Newfoundland with orders to defeat an English squadron supposed to be there with the Habanaki warriors and 1,500 troops from Canada the whole united force was then to fall upon Boston the French had an exact knowledge of the place Mennaval when a prisoner there lodged in the house of John Nelson had carefully examined it and so also had the Chevalier d'Eau while L'Amote Cadillac had reconordered the town and harbor before the war began an accurate map of them was made for the use of the expedition with great care 1,200 troops and Canadians were to land with artillery at Dorchester and march at once to force the barricade across the neck of the peninsula on which the town stood at the same time San Castam was to land at Nautil's Island with a troop of Canadians and all the Indians pass over in canoes to Charlestown and after mastering it crossed to the north point of Boston which would thus be attacked at both ends during these movements and then land in front of the town near Long Wharf under the guns of the fleet Boston had about 7,000 inhabitants but owing to the seafaring habits of the people many of its best men were generally absent and in the belief of the French it's available force did not much exceed 800 there are no soldiers in the place says the directions for attack at least there were none last September except the garrison from Pemequod who do not deserve the name an easy victory was expected and it was expected after Boston was taken the land forces French and Indian were to march on Salem and thence northward to Portsmouth conquering as they went while the ships followed along the coast to land aid when necessary all captured places were to be completely destroyed after removing all valuable property a portion of this plunder was to be abandoned to the officers and men in order to encourage them and the rest stowed in the ships for transportation to France notice of the proposed expedition had reached Frontenac in the spring and he began at once to collect men canoes and supplies for the long and arduous march to the rendezvous he saw clearly the uncertainties of the attempt but in spite of his 77 years he resolved to command the land force in person he was ready in June and waited only to hear from Nezmo the summer passed and it was not till September that a ship reached Quebec with a letter from the Marquis telling him that headwinds had detained the fleet till only 50 days provision remained and it was too late for action the enterprise had completely failed and even at Newfoundland nothing was accomplished it proved a positive advantage to New England since a host of Indians who would otherwise have been turned loose upon the borders were gathered by Saint Castin at the Penobscot to wait for the fleet and kept their idle all summer to wait for the ships to dwell farther on the war in Acadia there were petty combats by land and sea Villieu was captured and carried to Boston a band of New England rustics made a futile attempt to dislodge Villbon from his fort at Nexwet while throughout the contest rivalry and jealousy rankled among the French officials who continually maligned each other and tell tale letters to the court their hope that the Abbenakis would force back the English boundary at Kittery at Wells and even among the ashes of York the stubborn settlers held their ground while war parties prowled along the whole frontier from the Canabec to the Connecticut a single incident will show the nature of the situation and the qualities which it sometimes called fourth early in the spring that followed the capture of Pemequid a band of Indians fell after daybreak on a number of farmhouses near the village of Haberl one of them belonged to a settler and his wife Anna had born a child a week before and lay in the house nursed by Mary Neff one of the neighbors Dustin had gone to his work in a neighboring field taking with him his seven children of whom the youngest was two years old hearing the noise of the attack he told them to run to the nearest fortified house a mile or more distant and snatching up his gun threw himself on one of his horses and galloped towards his own house to save his wife it was too late the Indians were already there and keeping behind them as they ran he fired on the pursuing savages and held them at bay till he and his flock reached a place of safety meanwhile the house was set on fire and his wife and the nurse carried off her husband no doubt had given her up as lost when weeks after she reappeared accompanied by Mary Neff and a boy and bringing ten Indian scalps her story was to the following effect the Indians had killed the newborn child by dashing it against a tree after which the mother and the nurse were dragged into the forest where they found a number of friends and neighbors, their fellows in misery some of these were presently tomahawked and the rest divided among their captors Hannah Dustin and the nurse fell to the share of a family consisting of two warriors three squaws and seven children who separated from the rest and hunting as they went moved northward towards an Abinaki village two hundred and fifty miles distant on the Shadyar every morning noon and evening they told their beads and repeated their prayers an English boy captured at Worcester was also of the party after a while the Indians began to amuse themselves by telling the women that when they reached the village they would be stripped, made to run the gauntlet and severely beaten according to custom Hannah Dustin now resolved on a desperate effort to escape and Mary Neff and the boy agreed to join in it they were in the depths of the forest on their journey and the Indians who had no distressed of them were all asleep about their campfire when late in the night the two women and the boy took each a hatchet and crouched silently by the bare heads of the unconscious savages then they all struck at once with blows so rapid and true that ten of the twelve were killed before they were well awake one old squaw sprang up wounded and ran screeching into the forest followed by a small boy whom they had purposely left unharmed with corpses till daylight then the Amazon scalped them all and the three made their way back to the settlements with the trophies of their exploit End of Chapter 17