Chapter VII: Frontenac and His Times (3)

Meanwhile, to punish the English and to impress the savages, Frontenac sent out three expeditions. The first, from Montreal, fell suddenly upon Schenectady, then the farthest outpost of the English in New York, and perpetrated a fearful massacre. The invaders retired, not without pursuit, leaving some prisoners in the hands of the English, who learned from them that Frontenac designed to make a more formidable attack in the spring. Schuyler, of Albany, appealed to Massachusetts for help; but the New England colonies soon had a sharper appeal for their own defence. Towards the end of January, Frontenac’s second expedition had left Three Rivers, and two months later it fell suddenly upon Salmon Falls, a settlement on the river dividing Maine from New Hampshire, where the force plundered and killed whom they could, and retreated so as to intercept and join the third of the French parties, which had left Quebec in January, and was now on its way to attack Fort Loyal, at the present Portland. After a vigorous resistance, Captain Sylvanus Davis, a Massachusetts man, who commanded the English, surrendered that post upon terms which were not kept. Murder and rapine followed, as in the other cases, while Davis and some others were led captive to Canada. Frontenac received the New Englander kindly, who was still in his power when another and more famous New Englander appeared before Quebec with a fleet, in pursuance of a part of a plan of attack on New France which the English were now bent on making in retaliation. At a congress in May, 1690, held in New York, the scheme was arranged. A land force under Fitz-John Winthrop was to march from Albany to Montreal. It fell (as we shall see) by the way, and disappeared. A sea-force was to sail from Boston and attack Quebec at the same time. This for a while promised better.

During the previous year the Boston merchants had lost ships and cargoes by French cruisers, which harbored at Port Royal.[705] Another chapter tells the story of the reprisals which the aroused New Englanders made, and how Sir William Phips had returned with captives and booty to Boston, just after the Massachusetts Government had begun to make preparations to carry out their part of the campaign as planned in New York. There is no test of soldiership like success, and the adventitious results of the Port Royal expedition stood with the over-confident and unthinking for much more than they signified, and Phips of course was put in command of the new Armada. Money was borrowed, for recurrent frontier wars had drained the colonial treasuries. England was appealed to; but she refused even to contribute munitions of war. So with a bluff and coarse adventurer for a general, with a Cape Cod militia-man in John Walley as his lieutenant, with a motley force of twenty-two hundred men crowded in thirty-two extemporized war-ships, and with a scant supply of ammunition, the fleet left Boston Harbor in August, 1690.

Meanwhile Frontenac at Quebec had, during the winter, been constructing palisades in front of the inland side of the upper town, and leaving the work to go on, had gone up in the early summer to Montreal, to be elated by the arrival of a large fleet of canoes bringing furs from the upper lakes. All this indicated to Frontenac that his policy of reclaiming to the French interest the tribes about Michillimackinac was working successfully, and he rejoiced. While here, however, he got news of Winthrop’s force coming down Lake Champlain. It turned out that the English did nothing more than to frighten him a little by the sudden onset of a scouting party under John Schuyler, which fell upon the settlement at La Prairie, and then vanished.

Suddenly again word came of a rumor of a fleet having sailed from Boston to attack Quebec. Frontenac made haste to return to that town, and was met on the way by more definite intelligence of the New England fleet having been seen in the river. When he reached Quebec, not a hostile sail was in sight. He was in time, and his messengers were already summoning assistance from all distant posts.

In coming up the river, Phips had captured two vessels, so that the fleet which two or three days after Frontenac’s arrival slowly emerged into the basin of Quebec counted thirty-four vessels to the anxious eyes of the French. Phips’s prisoners had told him that there were not two hundred men in the works; Frontenac knew that his reinforcements had already made his garrison about twenty-seven hundred men.

Phips promptly sent a summons to surrender. His messenger was blindfolded and tumbled about over the barricades, to impress him with the preparations of defence. Frontenac disdained to take the offered hour for consideration, and sent back his refusal at once. Phips dallied with councils of war till he heard the acclamations with which the Governor of Montreal was received, when he brought several hundred additional men to the garrison. Walley was at last landed with a force of twelve or thirteen hundred, who experienced some fighting, which they conducted courageously enough, but without result, and suffered much from the inclemency of the weather. Without waiting for the land troops to reach a position for assaulting the town, Phips moved up his ships, and began a bombardment, wholly ineffectual, and drew a return which damaged him so considerably, that, after renewing it the following day, he finally drew off. There was another delay in rescuing Walley and his men, who were at last re-embarked under cover of the night. The fleet now fell down the river, stopped to repair, and then made their way back to Boston, straggling along for several months, some of the vessels never reaching home at all. The miseries of mortification and paper money were all that New England had to show for her bravado.[706]

To Frontenac the success of his defence was a temporary relief, so far as the English were concerned, though the New England cruisers continued to intercept his supplies in the Gulf. But the Iroquois wolves began to prowl again. Taunted by their savage allies for their inertness, the English and Dutch of Albany once more raided towards Montreal, under Peter Schuyler, and, inflicting more damage than they received, successfully broke through an ambuscading force on their retreat. All this irritated Frontenac. He prayed his King for help to destroy New York and Boston; and when a false report reached him that ten thousand “Bastonnais” had sailed to wreak their revenge for Phips’s failure, he set vigorously to work strengthening the vulnerable points of his colony. He varied his activity with continued expeditions against the Iroquois, whether strolling or at home, striking particularly against the Mohawk towns; and he protected a great fleet of canoes which in the troublous times had been kept back in the upper country, and now brought credit and hope to the lower settlements in an ample supply of furs.

But during all this turmoil with public foes, Frontenac was having his old troubles over again with the Bishop and the Intendant. Outward courtesy and secret dislike characterized their intercourse, and discord went in the train of the Bishop as he made his pastoral tours among a people bound in honor and reverence to the Governor.

The reader must turn to another page[707] for the struggle with the “Bastonnais” which Frontenac was watching meanwhile in Acadia; but this did not divert his attention from the grand castigation which at last he was planning for the Iroquois. He had succeeded, in 1694, in inducing them to meet him in general council at Quebec, and had framed the conditions of a truce; but the English at Albany intrigued to prevent the fulfilment, and war was again imminent. Both sides were endeavoring to secure the alliance of the tribes of the upper lakes.[708] These wavered, and Frontenac saw the peril and the remedy. His recourse was to attack the Iroquois in their villages at once, and conquer on the Mohawk the peace he needed at Michillimackinac. It was Frontenac’s last campaign. In July, 1696, he left Montreal with twenty-two hundred men. He went by way of Fort Frontenac, crossed Lake Ontario, landed at Oswego, and struggled up its stream, and at last set sails to his canoes on Lake Onondaga. Then his force marched again, and Frontenac, enfeebled by his years, was borne along in an arm-chair. Eight or nine miles and a day’s work brought them to the Onondagas’ village; but its inhabitants had burned it and fled. Vaudreuil was sent with a detachment, which destroyed the town of the Oneidas. After committing all the devastation of crops that he could, in hopes that famine would help him, Frontenac began his homeward march before the English at Albany were aroused at all. The effect was what Frontenac wished. The Iroquois ceased their negotiations with the western tribes, and sued for peace.

Meanwhile the crowns and diplomats of England and France had concluded the Peace of Ryswick in 1697. Frontenac got word of it from New York as early as February of 1698, and a confirmation from Louis in July. There were still some parries of diplomacy between the old French soldier and the English governor at New York, the Earl of Bellomont, each trying to maintain the show of a paramount authority over the Five Nations. But Frontenac was not destined to see the end. In November he sickened. His adversary, Champigny, mollified at the sight, became reconciled to him, and soothed his last hours. On the twenty-eighth he died, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and New France sincerely mourned her most distinguished hero.

* * * * *

CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

A LARGE portion of the manuscript sources of this chapter may be found in the invaluable collection of papers relating to New France in the Archives of the Marine and Colonies, the Archives Nationales, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; and in the office of the Provincial Registrar at Quebec. The archives of New York, Massachusetts, and Canada have made extensive transcripts from these documents, as follows:—

1. _Correspondance Officiele_, first series, vols. i.-v. There are transcripts from the Paris documents copied in France for the State of New York, and translations of them all are in the ninth and tenth volumes of the _Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York_.[709]

2. _Correspondance Officiele_, second series, vols. ii., iv.-viii. These papers exist in manuscript, and have not been translated into English. Copies are in the Library of Parliament, Ottawa, and in the Archives Office of the Quebec Government.

3. A collection of papers made by an agent of Massachusetts at Paris, relating chiefly to Acadian matters, contains also a good deal about Frontenac. They were copied afterward in Boston on an order from the Quebec Government, and are in the keeping of the Registrar at Quebec. The Quebec administration intends publishing these papers.[710] [They have since been published.]

The original Register and Proceedings of Council, in several volumes, remain in very fair condition in the archives of the Quebec Government. The first, a folio bound in calf and indexed, bears two titles, the first of which is, _Registre des Insinuations du Conseil Supérieur de 1663 à 1682_, ninety-six pages. It begins with the King’s edict creating the Superior Council, dated April 1, 1663, and ends with the “Procès Verbal” of the Superior Council concerning the _Redaction_ of the _Code Civil_, or ordinance of Louis, April 14, 1667.

The second title is, _Jugements et Délibérations du Conseil Souverain de la Nouvelle France, 1663 à 1676_, two hundred and eighty-one pages. It begins with an _arrêt_ of the Superior Council ordering the registration of the King’s edict of April 1, 1663, creating the Superior Council for New France, to be held at Quebec; and ends with an interlocutory judgment, dated Dec. 19, 1676, upon a petition of François Noir Roland, complaining of his curate for refusing him absolution. This book, or register, is authenticated by the certificate of the Governor, Comte de Frontenac, on the first page, as follows:—

“Le Présent Régîstre du Conseil Souverain contenant trois cens soixante et seize feuillets a été ce jour paraphé _ne varietur_ par premier et dernier, par nous Louis de Buade de Frontenac Chevallier Comte de Palluau, Conseiller du Roy en ses Conseils, Gouverneur et Intendant Général pour sa Majesté, en la Nouvelle France, Québec le quinzième Janvier Mille six cents soixante et quinze.”

“FRONTENAC.”

The entries in general throughout this end of the book are authenticated by the Governor, Bishop, Intendant, councillors, or Clerk of the Council; and the last, or two hundred and eighty-first leaf, is signed by Duchesneau, Intendant, and by Dupont, Member of the Council. Its general contents consist of a variety of orders, regulations, ordinances, judgments, civil and criminal, of the Superior Council, licitation, and adjudications of Crown estates, representations to the King and his ministers upon various subjects. There are four following volumes of this register in the archives at Quebec bearing the dates 1677 to 1680, 1681, 1681 to 1687, and 1688 to 1693, respectively. Each of these contains interesting details of Council proceedings during the first administration of Frontenac, the time of La Barre and Denonville, and during Frontenac’s second term.

The _Édits et Ordonnances_, vol. iii., contain copies of the commissions of Frontenac, La Barre, and Denonville.

For particulars concerning the youth of Frontenac, his family and marriage, see Parkman’s Appendix, where, among other sources, are named the journal of Jean Héroard, physician to the court, part of which is cited in _Le Correspondant_ of Paris for 1873; Pinard, _Chronologie Historique-Militaire_; _Les Mémoires de Sully_; _Table de la Gazette de France_; _Mémoires de Philippe Hurault_ (in Petitot); Jal, _Dictionnaire Critique_, _Biographique, et d’Histoire_, article, “Frontenac;” _Historiettes de Tallemant des Réaux, ix._ (ed. Monmerqué); _Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier_, vols. i.-iii.; and _Mémoires du Duc de Saint-Simon_.[711]

At Frontenac’s death we have an _Oraison funèbre du Comte de Frontenac, par le Père Olivier Goyer_, preached from the text: “In multitudine videbor bonus et in bello fortis.” A copy of this eulogy, containing a running commentary on its sentiments strongly adverse to the views of the orator, is preserved in the Seminary of Quebec. These comments, selections from which will be found in Parkman’s _Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV._, pp. 431-434, are, the Abbé Casgrain informs me, from the caustic pen of the Abbé Charles Glandelet, who came to Canada in 1675, and labored half a century in the Seminary. He was first theologian, superior, and confessor of the Ursulines, and died at Three Rivers at the advanced age of eighty years.

In considering the early printed books pertaining to our subject, we find them copious; but unfortunately we can scarcely account many of them trustworthy historical authorities, since prejudice and partisanship characterize them for the most part. The contests of the period greatly developed antagonisms, and it was not easy at the time to resist their influences. When we collate the writings of these contemporaries, we find a great lack of unity and sympathy, and this often extends to matters of trifling import. While thus in many ways these books fail of becoming satisfactory chronicles, as expressions of current partisan feeling they often throw great light on all transactions; and it is fortunate that in their antagonisms they give rival sentiments and opposing narratives, from which the careful student, with the help of official and other contemporary documents, may in the main satisfy his mind. Foremost among these early narratives is the _Premier Établissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle France_ of the Père Le Clercq: of this, however, as well as of the works of Hennepin and La Hontan, Tonti, and Marquette, an examination is made in another chapter.[712]

Of the more general early narratives, we must give a prominent place to a book which ranks as a respectable authority, and is frequently quoted,—Bacqueville de la Potherie’s _Histoire de l’Amérique Septentrionale depuis 1534 jusqu’à 1701_, Paris, 1722, four volumes. It is particularly useful in studying the relations of Frontenac and Callières, but as a contribution upon the condition of the Indians at that time it has its chief value.[713]

The _Histoire du Canada_ of the Abbé Belmont, superior of the Seminary of Montreal during 1713 and 1724, is a short history of affairs from 1608 to 1700. The Literary and Historical Society of Quebec printed, about 1840, in their _Collection de Mémoires_, a small edition of the work from a manuscript copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. It is very scarce, and copies are held at high prices, but the Society intend reissuing it shortly. Its general accuracy has not been questioned, and the views expressed are evidently the outcome of careful consideration.

The general history of the administrations of Frontenac, De la Barre, and Denonville is exhaustively treated by Father Francis-Xavier de Charlevoix; and the first place in time and importance among the contributions to the general history of Canada, of a date earlier than the present century, must be given to this Jesuit’s _Histoire et Description Générale de la Nouvelle France, avec le Journal Historique d’un Voyage fait par l’Ordre du Roi dans l’Amérique Septentrionale_, which was issued at Paris in 1744.[714] Shea says: “Access to State papers and the archives of the religious order to which he belonged, experience and skill as a practised writer, a clear head and an ability to analyze, arrange, and describe, fitted him for his work.” Parkman, whose studies have made him a close observer of Charlevoix’s methods, speaks of his “usual carelessness.”

Charlevoix arrived in Canada in September, 1720, on an expedition to inspect the missions of Canada. His purpose took him throughout the limits of New France and Louisiana, and by the Illinois and the Mississippi to the Gulf. His work is commensurate with his opportunities; his faults and errors were those of his order; and his religious training inclined him to give perhaps undue prominence to the ecclesiastical side of his subject; and though the character of Frontenac suffers but little at his hands, some of the prejudice which Charlevoix bestows upon the Recollects necessarily colors his judgment in matters where the Governor came in contact with the Jesuits.

The Abbé La Tour, not a very trustworthy authority, wrote _Mémoires sur la Vie de M. de Laval, premier Évêque de Québec_ in 1761,—a small book which is worth looking into, though not with the object of accepting all its statements. Frontenac is bitterly attacked, his faults magnified, and many serious charges are preferred against him. But one volume, however, was published,—a thin book of a few pages, bearing the imprint of Jean Frederick Motiens, Cologne, 1761. The second volume was never printed. The copy of vol. i. which the Abbé Vemey possessed has this note in the latter’s handwriting: “L’Abbé de la Tour de Montauban, author of this Life, of which the first volume only has been published, promised me a manuscript copy of the second volume; but he did not keep his word. Owing to the unfair manner in which Bishop St. Vallier was treated in the second volume, his family objected to its publication.” The first volume ends with the year 1694. A second edition was published at Paris in 1762.[715]

A useful work, which should not be lost sight of in the consideration of this period, is _L’Histoire de l’Hôtel Dieu de Québec, de 1639 à 1716_, by the reverend mother, Françoise Juchereau de St. Ignace, printed in Paris in 1751. It is rich in facts and incidents, and especially valuable as an authority on the missionary activity of the time, and on the attempt made by the clergy to evangelize the savages. A supplementary work, prepared with great care and thoroughness from original documents, and bearing the same title, has been written by the Abbé H. R. Casgrain. It is brought down to 1840, and was published at Quebec in 1878. The Abbé is one of the most industrious of the French-Canadian writers, and his book is full of interesting details and notes.[716]

In the third series of _Historical Documents_ published under the auspices of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in 1871, is a paper entitled “Recueil de ce qui s’est passé en Canada au sujet de la guerre, tant des Anglais que des Iroquois, depuis l’année 1682.” It contains a good account of the Lachine massacre, the truthfulness of which may be accepted. The author accompanied Subercase to the scene.[717]

In a collection entitled, _Bibliotheca Americana: Collection d’ouvrages inédits ou rares sur l’Amérique_, with the imprint of Leipsic and Paris, appeared the _Mémoire sur les Mœurs, Coustumes, et Réligions des Sauvages de l’Amérique Septentrionale, par Nicolas Perrot, publié pour la première fois par le R. P. Tailhan, de la Compagnie de Jésus_, 1864. Considerable importance is attached to this memoir by Charlevoix, La Potherie, Ferland, and others, who frequently quote it in their narratives. Harrisse (no. 833) says that this work seems to have been written day by day from 1665 to the death of Perrot, who was an eye-witness of events under the administration of De la Barre, Denonville, and Frontenac. Colden gives a part of the narrative in his _History of the Five Indian Nations_, London, 1747.[718]

It remains to characterize the chief general works of our own time, which indicate the great interest with which modern research has invested the story of New France. The French-Canadians generally accept François-Xavier Garneau as their national historian, and his _Histoire du Canada_ well entitles him to that consideration. He began writing his history in 1840, and published the first volume in Quebec in 1845, the second in 1846, and the third, treating of events down to 1792, in 1848. A new edition, revised and corrected, and brought down to 1840, appeared at Montreal from Lovell’s press, in 1852, and a third edition at Quebec in 1859.[719] In 1882 the fourth edition, edited by his son,[720] was issued at Montreal by Beauchemin & Valois. It is enriched by many valuable notes, and has a recognized place as a work of conspicuous merit.

The ecclesiastical history of Canada is particularly illustrated by the Abbé J. B. A. Ferland in his _Cours d’Histoire du Canada_, 1534-1759, Quebec, 1861 and 1865, two volumes. The author died while the second volume was passing through the press, and the completing of the publication devolved upon the Abbé Laverdière, one of the ablest scholars in the Canadian priesthood. Ferland had access to many documents of great interest, and his work shows judgment and a skilful handling of the rich store of materials within his reach.[721]

The _Histoire de la Colonie Française en Canada_, with maps, by the Abbé Faillon, a Sulpitian priest of very great ability, was projected on an extensive plan. The author visited Canada on three separate occasions, spending several years in the country, and made the most of his opportunities in gathering his material, not only there, but from the archives of the Propaganda at Rome and from the public offices in Paris. The result was a work of high value; but it must be read with a full perception of the author’s intention to rear a monument to commemorate the labors and trials of the Sulpitians of Montreal.

Parkman[722] thus speaks of him: “In all that relates to Montreal I cannot be sufficiently grateful to the Abbé Faillon, the indefatigable, patient, conscientious chronicler of its early history; an ardent and prejudiced Sulpitian; a priest who three centuries ago would have passed for credulous, and withal a kind-hearted and estimable man.”

Three volumes only appeared, the first two in 1865, and the third in 1866. The latter deals with events covered by a small portion of the period discussed in this chapter. M. Faillon’s death at Paris in 1871 prevented further publication; but he has left in manuscript enough prepared material to complete the work as far as the conquest of 1759-1760. The book was published anonymously, according to the custom of the Congregation of St. Sulpice.[723]

It is, however, to an American of Puritan stock that the story we are illustrating owes, for the English reader certainly, its most conspicuous recital. Two volumes of Francis Parkman’s series of _France and England in North America_ concern more especially the period covered by the administrations of Frontenac, De la Barre, and Denonville; these are his _Frontenac, and New France under Louis XIV._ (Boston, 1877), and his _La Salle, and the Discovery of the Great West_ (Boston, 1879); but the consideration of the last of these belongs more particularly to another chapter. Of Parkman as an historian there has been a wide recognition of a learning that has neglected no resource; a research which has proved fortunate in its results; a judgment which, though Protestant, is fair and liberal;[724] a critical perception, which in the conflict of testimony keeps him accurate and luminous; and a style which has given his narrative the fascinations of a romance.

John Dennis wrote a tragedy,—_Liberty Asserted_,—which was acted in London in 1704, in which Frontenac was made a character, together with an English governor and Iroquois chief. Betterton acted in it. A romantic picture of the period is furnished in an amusing novel by M. Joseph Marmette, formerly of Quebec, but now of Paris, entitled _François de Bienville_. Frontenac figures as one of the principal characters in the story. Frontenac’s expeditions against the Iroquois were made the subject of a poem by Alfred B. Street,—_Frontenac: or, the Atotarho of the Iroquois_. London and New York, 1849.

M. T. P. Bedard, of the Archives department, has a paper in the _Annuaire de l’Institut Canadien_, nos. 7 and 8, 1880, 1881, which discusses the first and second administrations of the Count, and sheds some light on the social and political aspects of the country between 1672 and 1698, the year in which Frontenac died.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

This is engraved from a copy kindly lent by W. S. Appleton, Esq., of Boston. See _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, xi. 296, and Shea’s _Charlevoix_, iv. 190, and his _Le Clercq_, ii. 329. See the “Historic Medals of Canada,” in the _Quebec Lit. and Hist. Soc. Transactions_, 1872-1873, p. 73.]

=A.= FRONTENAC’S SECOND TERM.—Mr. Parkman has accompanied his narrative[725] of the attempt on Quebec in 1690 with an indication of the sources of the story. Besides the despatches of Frontenac and the _Relation_ of Monseignat (both printed in the _New York Colonial Documents_, vol. ix.), there is an account taken by vessel to Rochelle, which is without place or date, and was probably there printed. It is entitled, _Relation de ce qui s’est passé en Canada, à la descente des Anglais à Québec, au mois d’Octobre, 1690, faite par un Officier_ (Harrisse, no. 168; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,426), and contains Phips’s summons to Frontenac (also given in Mather’s _Magnalia_, and repeated by Parkman, _Frontenac_, p. 266), and Frontenac’s verbal answer.

Fac-simile of an engraved plan in La Hontan’s _New Voyages_, London, 1703, vol. i. p. 160. It was re-engraved for the French edition of 1705.]

The copy of Phips’s summons sent to Paris by Frontenac is indorsed by him to the effect that he retained the original. The _Mercure de France_ also issued an “Extraordinaire,” with an account (Harrisse, no. 166,) and another brief _Relation de la levée du siége de Québec_ (Harrisse, no. 167) was printed at Tours. La Hontan, Le Clercq, La Potherie, and Juchereau (_L’Hôtel Dieu_), give other accounts contemporary, or nearly so, and their testimony has been availed of by Charlevoix (cf. Shea’s ed., iv. 169) and the later writers, like Garneau.

Fac-simile of the engraving in La Hontan’s _Mémoires_, La Haye, 1709, vol. ii. p. 14. It was re-engraved for the 1715 edition.]

On the English side, besides a contemporary bulletin issued in the _Publick Occurrences_, Boston, Sept. 25, 1690 (given in _Hist. Mag._, August, 1857), two participators in the expedition left narratives,—one of which by John Walley is printed in Hutchinson’s _Massachusetts_, i. app. no. xxi., which concerns chiefly the land forces; and the other was by the officer second in command of the militia, and is entitled, _An account of the late action of the New Englanders, under the command of Sir William Phips, against the French at Canada, sent in a letter from Maj. Thomas Savage, of Boston, in New England_ (_who was present at the action_), _to his brother, Mr. Perez Savage, in London_. London, 1691. This quarto tract is in Harvard College Library; it was reprinted in the _Mass. Hist. Coll._, xiii. 256.

In the same _Collections_, third series, i. 101, is the diary of Captain Sylvanus Davis, who was at the time a captive in Quebec; cf. also Johnston’s _Bremen, Bristol, and Pemaquid_. An original journal of the expedition is said to have been intrusted to Admiral Walker at the time of his venture in 1711, and to have been lost in one of his ships (Walker’s _Journal_, p. 87). Phips’s side of the story is doubtless told amid the high laudation of Cotton Mather’s _Life of Phips_; some light is thrown upon the times in Dummer’s _Defence of the Colonies_; and various tokens of the preparations for the expedition are preserved in the _Hinckley Papers_, vol. iii, in the Prince Library.

Somewhat later we have the story in some of its aspects in Colden’s _Five Nations_; later still, in Hutchinson’s _Massachusetts Bay_, vol. i.; again, in part, in Belknap’s _New Hampshire_; while the chief modern writers who have preceded Parkman, on the English side, have been Palfrey’s _New England_, iv. 51; Barry’s _Massachusetts_, ii. 79; Bowen’s “Life of Phips,” in Sparks’ _American Biography_; and Warburton, in his _Conquest of Canada_, chap. 14.

Of the supporting Winthrop expedition from Albany, we have the French accounts in La Potherie (iii. 126), and in the _New York Colonial Documents_, ix. 513. The recently published _Winthrop Papers_ (iv. 303-324) throw considerable light through the letters of Fitz-John Winthrop on the preparations which were made; and they give also his reasons for the expedition’s failure, and through his Journal, with which the one printed in the _New York Colonial Documents_, iv. 193, may be compared. Parkman’s _Frontenac_ (p. 257) and Shea’s _Charlevoix_ (iv. 145) note the authorities; and the _New York Colonial Documents_ (iii. 727, 752) and _Doc. Hist. N. Y._ (ii. 266, 288) yield other light than that already mentioned. The Journal of Schuyler’s raid to La Prairie is given in the _Doc. Hist. N. Y._, ii. 285, and in the publications of the New Jersey Historical Society, vol. i.

Concerning the minor episodes of this second term of Frontenac’s government, both Parkman and Shea indicate the essential authorities. On the destruction of Schenectady, the letter of Monseignat and other papers in the _Doc. Hist. of New York_, vol. i. 297, etc. (where authorities are cited), and a letter of Schuyler and his associates in the Massachusetts Archives, printed in the _Andros Tracts_, are of the first importance. Cf. also M. Van Rennsselaer’s paper in _N. Y. Hist. Soc. Proc._, 1846, p. 101, and the same Society’s _Fund Publications_, ii. 165; a letter from Governor Bradstreet, in the _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, ii. 150; and the contributions in Munsell’s _Albany_. French accounts are in _Le Clercq_ (Shea’s edition, ii. 292); _Potherie_, ii. 68; _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 466; and English accounts in Smith’s _New York_, p. 66; Colden’s _Five Nations_ (1727), p. 114.

On Schuyler’s raid by way of Lake Champlain in 1691, the French side is still to be gathered from La Potherie, with help from Belmont, _Histoire du Canada_, and from the _Relation of 1682-1712_, and from the despatches of Frontenac and Champigny. Schuyler’s own Journal and other documents, French and English, are in the _N. Y. Colonial Documents_, vol. iii.; Parkman (p. 294) examines the question of the number of the forces engaged, and Shea, _Charlevoix_, iv. 202, gives references.

On the expedition against the Mohawks, led by Mantet, Courtemanche, and La Noue, we have more various accounts. Parkman gives a graphic recital, and his notes show he has used all the sources. The French authorities, besides the letter of Callières to the home government, are the _Relation de ce qui s’est passé de plus remarquable en Canada_, 1692-93; the _Relation de ce qui s’est passé en Canada au sujet de la Guerre_, 1682-1712; while citations of original journals, etc., are in Faillon’s _Vie de Mdle. Le Ber_, and of course we have La Potherie (iii. 169) and Belmont. The _N. Y. Col. Docs._, vol. ix., contain important material, including a “Narrative of Military Operations in Canada;” and Major Peter Schuyler’s report is in vol. iv. of the same collection. Colden, in his _Five Nations_, p. 142, wrote while the actors were still living. There was a tract on the expedition issued in London the same year, which is of such rarity that the copy in the Carter-Brown Library (_Catalogue_, vol. ii. no. 1,446, with fac-simile of title; also Harrisse, no. 171) is the only one known to me, and from it Sabin, in 1868, reprinted it. It is entitled, _A Journal of the late actions of the French in Canada, with the manner of their being repulsed, by his Excellency Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York_, etc. _By Coll. Nicholas Reyard_ [should be Beyard] _and Lieutenant-Coll. Charles Lodowick._

The reader must turn to the chapter on Acadia for the authorities for such other expeditions as come within the alleged limits of that province and the neighboring English settlements.

This sketch of the costume of a grenadier de St. Louis, Compagnie canadienne, is taken from the _Mass Archives: Documents Collected in France_, iii. 3.]

On Frontenac’s last raid,—the attack upon the Onondagas, in 1696,—we must naturally find our chief information from the French, for the English at Albany were not ready to advance till the French had done their work and had gone. Frontenac and Callières each despatched accounts to Paris; and besides the _Relation_, 1682-1712, already referred to, we have the _Relation de ce qui s’est passé en Canada_,—a manuscript preserved in the library of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec (see _Parliamentary Library Catalogue_, 1858, p. 1613); the _Relation_, 1696, which Shea has printed, and of course the accounts in La Potherie, iii. 270, and Charlevoix (Shea adds references in his edition, vol. v.), and the papers in the _Doc. Hist. of N. Y._, i. 323, and the _N. Y. Col. Docs._ iv. 342. Parkman’s narrative (_Frontenac_, chap. xix.) is clearly put and exemplified.

=B.= GENERAL DOCUMENTARY SOURCES OF CANADIAN HISTORY.—Harrisse prefaces his _Notes pour servir à l’histoire, à la bibliographie et à la cartographie de la Nouvelle France et des pays adjacents_, 1545-1700, Paris, 1872, with an account of the sources of early Canadian history, and of the repositories of documentary material in Paris, etc. He states that the French Government refused access to their archives to an agent of the Historical Society of Quebec in 1835, and that a similar refusal was made in 1838; but that in 1842 General Cass, then United States Minister, succeeded, in behalf of the State of Michigan, in securing about forty cartons for publication; and ten years later the Parliament at Quebec obtained copies of documents, which now (1872) form a series of thirty-six folios,—not embracing, however, the papers of the early discovery, which were withheld.

Louis P. Turcotte, in his address on _Les Archives du Canada_ (Quebec, 1877), says that the first inventory of the public archives of Canada was published in 1791; that it shows the subsequent loss of important documents; that the first steps were taken to procure copies from the European archives in 1835, which were not successful at the time; and that the better results made by the State of New York (1841-1844) were accordingly availed of. In 1845 the Canadian agent, M. Papineau, secured other copies in France; and in 1851-1852 M. Faribault added twenty-four volumes of transcripts to the collection, now in the library at Ottawa; and sixteen volumes have been added since. M. Turcotte pays a tribute, for his zeal and industry in preserving early Canadian records, to M. Jacques Viger, whose efforts have been since supplemented by the labors of l’Abbé Verreau, who has formed a large library of copies of manuscripts and printed books. M. Verreau was in 1873 sent by the Canadian Government to Europe to make additional collections.

The _Catalogue_ of the Library of the Canadian Parliament, made by Gérin-Lajoie, and published in 1858, gives (p. 1448) an account of the manuscript collections at that time in the possession of the Canadian Government at Toronto, and now transferred to Ottawa, and divides them thus:—

_First series._—Copies of copies made by Brodhead for the State of New York, from the archives at Paris, seventeen volumes, with six additional volumes, drawn at second hand in the same way from the Colonial Office in London. These copies were made before the Brodhead collection was printed. Kirke, in his _First English Conquest of Canada_, London, 1871, says: “The papers in the Record Office [London] relating to Canada, Acadia, or Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland are numerous and continuous from 1621 to 1660, with the exception of the period from 1640 to 1649, during which years we find no papers.”

_Second series._—Copies obtained in Paris by Faribault, and made under Margry’s direction; twelve volumes, giving the official correspondence of the governors, 1637-1727. These are enumerated in the _Catalogue_.

_Third series._—Copies of official correspondence relative to Canada, 1654-1731; twelve volumes, likewise arranged by Margry, and also enumerated in the _Catalogue_.

_Fourth series._—A transcript of Franquet’s “Voyages et mémoires sur le Canada, 1752-53,” and other documents mentioned in the _Catalogue_.

_Fifth series._—Maps, copied by Morin, and enumerated on pp. 1614-21 of the _Catalogue_.

Cf. _Collection de Mémoires et de Relations sur l’histoire ancienne du Canada, d’après des manuscrits récemment obtenus des archives et bureaux publics en France_, Quebec, 1840; and the Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1870-71, and 1871-72. The _Collection_ contains Belmont and the Report attributed to Talon. Cf. _Magazine of American History_, iii. 458, in the Quebec Society.

The _Lettres, instructions et mémoires de Colbert, publiés par Clément_, Paris, 1865, vol. iii., second part, contain various important papers,—like the instructions as intendant of Talon, March 27, 1665; of De Bouteroue, April 5, 1668; Duchesneau, May 30, 1675; those to Gaudais in 1663, and to Courcelles in 1669: besides letters to Frontenac, April 7, 1672; June 13, 1673; May 17, 1674; April 22, 1675; May 10, 1677; March 21, 1678; Dec. 4, 1679; April 30, 1681 (pp. 533, 557, 574, 585, 594, 622, 631, 641, 644): others to Talon, Feb. 11, 1671; June 4, 1672 (pp. 511, 539); to Duchesneau, April 15, 1676; April 28, 1677; May 1, 1677; May 15 and 24, 1678; April 30, 1679 (pp. 605, 614, 619, 632, 635, 638); with one to l’Évêque de Petrée, May 15, 1669 (p. 451). Margry (i. 247) gives some of the correspondence of Frontenac and Colbert, 1672-1674, relative to the pushing of Recollect missionaries farther west; and in Clément’s _Histoire de Colbert_, Paris, 1874, vol. i. last chapter, there is an exposition of Colbert’s colonial policy.

Mr. Ben: Perley Poore was appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts, in May, 1845, to select and transcribe such documents in the French archives as he might find to bear upon the early history of Massachusetts and the relations of New England with New France. His report to the Governor, Dec. 28, 1847, accompanied by letters from John G. Palfrey and Jared Sparks, telling the story of his work, constitutes _Senate Doc., no. 9_ (1848), _Mass. Documents_. His transcripts, covering papers from the discovery to 1780, fill ten volumes in the Archives of the State, and are accompanied by two volumes of engraved maps. Mr. Poore, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and with the pledge of Colonel William P. Winchester to assume the expense if necessary, had already a year earlier begun his work. M. Davezac was at that time _chef des archives_ of the Marine, and the confusion which Brodhead, the agent of New York, had earlier found among the papers had disappeared under the care of the new custodian. From other departments as well as from other public and from private sources, Mr. Poore increased his collection, and added to it water-color drawings and engraved prints of an illustrative nature; but unfortunately many of the documents cited are given by title only, and the blank pages left to be filled are still empty. It is these papers which have been copied within a year or two for the Government of the Province of Quebec.

The manuscript collections of Mr. Parkman are very extensive, and are still in his house; the more important of his maps, however, have been transferred to the College Library at Cambridge, and these have been sketched elsewhere in the present volume. The Editor is under great obligations to Mr. Parkman for unrestricted access to his manuscripts. They consist of large masses of miscellaneous transcripts, with a few original papers, and so far as they come within the period of the present volume, of the following bound series:—

I. _Acadia_, in three volumes. These are transcripts made by, or under the direction of, Mr. Ben: Perley Poore, and in considerable part supplement the collection made by Mr. Poore for the State of Massachusetts.

II. _Correspondance officielle_, in five volumes, coming down to 1670, being transcripts from the French archives.

III. _Canada_, in eight volumes, covering 1670-1700, being transcripts from the French archives, and supplementing Brodhead’s _Colonial Documents of New York_, vol. ix.

=C.= BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Harrisse’s _Notes_, etc., is the latest of the general bibliographies of the history and cartography of New France; and this with his _Cabot_ constitutes a complete, or nearly so, indication of the sources of Canadian history previous to 1700. Charlevoix in 1743 prefixed to his _Nouvelle France_ a list of authorities as known to him, and characterized them; and this is included in Shea’s translation. Of the modern writers, Ferland and Faillon in their introduction each make note of their predecessors. The work of G. B. Faribault, _Catalogue d’ouvrages sur l’histoire de l’Amérique, et en particulier sur celle du Canada, avec des notes_, Quebec, 1837, containing nine hundred and ninety-six titles, besides maps, etc., has lost whatever importance its abounding errors left for it formerly. There is a biographical sketch (1867) of Faribault in the Abbé Casgrain’s _Œvres_, vol. ii. Cf. Morgan’s _Bibliotheca Canadensis_, p. 118. H. J. Morgan’s _Bibliotheca Canadensis_, Ottawa, 1867, includes the writers on Canadian history who have published since the conquest of 1759.

From this book and other sources the following enumeration of the various general histories of Canada, compendious as well as elaborate, and including such as cover a long interval in a general way, is taken:—

Excepting one volume of a projected _History of Canada_, by George Heriot, published in London in 1804, and which was an abridgment of Charlevoix, the earliest of modern works is _The History of Canada from its first Discovery to 1796_, by William Smith, published in Quebec in 1815. The author was a son of the historian of New York.

There was published in Paris in 1821, in a duodecimo of 512 pages, a sketchy compendium by D. Dainville,—_Beautés de l’histoire du Canada, ou époques remarquables, traits intéressans, mœurs, usages, coutumes des habitants du Canada, tant indigènes que colons, depuis sa découverte jusqu’à ce jour_.

In 1837 Michael Bibaud published at Montreal a _Histoire du Canada sous la domination Française_. A second edition was published in 1845. In 1844 appeared his _Histoire du Canada et des Canadiens sous la domination Anglaise_. This author also published a _Bibliothèque Canadienne_, a monthly magazine, which for several years gathered and preserved considerable documentary material.

Between 1845 and 1848 the work of Garneau, mentioned in the preceding chapter, was printed, which became the basis of Bell’s adaptation in 1866.

In 1851 a comprehensive compendium by W. H. Smith,—_Canada_ [West]: _Past, Present, and Future_,—in two volumes, was published at Toronto.

Brasseur de Bourbourg’s _Histoire du Canada; de son Église et de ses missions_, published in Paris in 1852, is characterized in the Note on the _Jesuit Relations_, following chap. vi.

A popular _History of Canada from its first Discovery to the Present Time_, by John MacMullen was published at Brockville in 1855 and 1868.

L. Dussieux’s _Le Canada sous la domination Française_ was published at Paris in 1855, and a new edition in 1862.

F. M. N. M. Bibaud’s _Les Institutions de l’histoire du Canada_ (to 1818), Montreal, 1855, is a concise narrative.

Between 1861 and 1865, and in 1865-1866, were published the works of Ferland and Faillon, of which note is made in the preceding chapter.

John Boyd’s _Summary of Canadian History_ was issued at Toronto in 1860, and many editions since.

In 1863 Boucher de la Bruère, fils, published a brief survey,—_Le Canada sous la domination Anglaise_.

Alexander Monro’s _History, Geography, and Statistics of British North America_ was published at Montreal in 1864.

William Canniff’s _History of the Settlement of Upper Canada, with special reference to the Bay Quinté_, appeared at Toronto in 1869. This book was undertaken under the auspices of the Historical Society of Upper Canada, which was established at St. Catharines in 1861.

At Montreal, in 1872, appeared Henry H. Miles’s _History of Canada under the French régime (1535-1763), with Maps, Plans, and Illustrative Notes_.

Andrew Archer’s _History of Canada_ was published in 1875 at London.

John Harper’s _History of the Maritime Provinces_ was issued at St. John, N.B., in 1876.

Charles R. Tuttle’s _Short History of Canada_, 1500-1878, appeared in Boston in 1878.

F. Teissier’s compendious historical sketch of Canada under the French, 1562-1763, appeared at Limoges,—_Les Français au Canada_. It is not dated, but is recent.

The series of monographs by Mr. Parkman is spoken of elsewhere.

An important work is now publishing: _Histoire des Canadiens-Français. 1608-1880. Origine, Histoire, Réligion, Guerres, Découvertes, Colonization, Coutumes, Vie Domestique, Sociale et Politique, Développement, Avenir_. Par Benjamin Sulte. Ouvrage orné de portraits et de plans. Montreal. 1882-1883.

THE GENERAL ATLASES AND CHARTS

OF THE

SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

BY THE EDITOR.

THE general atlases at this time becoming familiar to Europe were unfortunately made up on a thrifty principle, little conducive to keeping the public mind abreast of current discovery,—so far as America, at least, was concerned,—and very perplexing now to any one studying the course of the cartographical development of American geography. Dates were sedulously erased with a deceitful purpose (which is not yet gone into disuse) from plates thus made to do service for many years, and united with other dated maps, to convey an impression of a like period of production.

Bestelli e Forlani’s _Tavole moderne di Geografia de la maggior parte del mondo_, Roma, 1558-80, with seventy-one large maps, including three maps of the world, and three of America, is reputed the best atlas which had been constructed up to that date. Sets vary much in their make-up.[726]

Perhaps the prototype of the modern atlas can be best found in the _Theatrum orbis terrarum_ of Ortelius, issued in the first edition at Antwerp in 1570, of which an account has been given elsewhere.[727] His portrait is on a later page.

In 1597 appeared the earliest special atlas of America in the _Descriptionis Ptolemaicæ Augmentum_ of Cornelius Wytfliet, which was reissued the same year with its errata corrected.[728] It had nineteen maps, which were also used in the second edition, issued in 1598. A fac-simile of the title of 1597 is given on the next page.[729]

This is a fac-simile of a cut in Lorenzo Crasso’s _Elogii d’ Huomini letterati_, Venice. 1666. There’s a portrait of him at sixty-two in the 1584 edition of Ptolemy, the second of Mercator’s own editing. It is engraved by Francis Hoggenberg. The engraving in the 1613 edition of Mercator’s _Atlas_ represents Mercator and Hondius seated at a table, and is colored. There is said to be an engraving in the 1618 edition of Ptolemy, but it is wanting in the Harvard College copy. Cf. fac-similes of old prints in Raemdonck’s _Mercator_, in C. P. Daly’s address on _The Early History of Cartography_, and in _Scribner’s Monthly_, ii. 464. There is another portrait of Mercator in J. F. Foppens’ _Bibliotheca Belgica_, Bruxelles, 1739.]

Reference has been made elsewhere to the conspicuous work of Gerard Mercator, which was a sort of culmination of his geographical views, in his great mappemonde of 1569.[730] Then after giving his attention to a closer study of Ptolemy and to the publication of an edition of the great Alexandrian geography, with a revision of Agathodæmon’s charts, but without any attempt to make them conform to the newer knowledge, he set about the compilation of a modern geographical _atlas_ (applying this word for the first time to such a collection, though modern usage has somewhat narrowed the meaning as he applied it); and he had published two parts of it, when he died, in December, 1594,—the second part having appeared at Duisburg in 1585, and the third in 1590. Shortly after his death, a son, Rumold Mercator, published in 1595, at Dusseldorf, part i., and prefixed to it a Latin biography of his father, by Walter Ghymm, which is the principal source of our knowledge of his career.[731] The son Rumold died in 1600, and in 1602, at the expense of the estate, the three parts of the _Atlas_ were united and published together, making what is properly the earliest edition of the so-called _Mercator Atlas_. It had one hundred and eleven maps and a Latin text. It is very rare, for Raemdonck says he has met with but two copies of it. Up to this time it had contained no American maps. A map of America, as one of the four quarters of the globe, was called for in part iii.; but Raemdonck (p. 257) says he has never seen a copy of that part which has it.

Mercator’s maps were followed, however, pretty closely in Mathias Quad’s or Quadus’s _Geographisch Handtbuch_,[732] Cologne, 1600, which contained a map of the world and another of North America, with some other special American maps; and such were also contained in the Latin version called _Fasciculus geographicus_, Cologne, 1608, etc.

This is a fac-simile of an engraving in J. F. Foppens’s _Bibliotheca Belgica_, 1739, vol. i. p. 3. There is another engraving in Lorenzo Crasso’s _Elogii d’huomini letterati_, Venice, 1666.]

In 1604 Mercator’s plates fell by purchase into the possession of Jodocus Hondius,[733] of Amsterdam, who got out a new edition in 1606,[734] to which he added fifty maps, including a few American ones; and thus began what is known as the _Hondius-Mercator Atlas_. The text was furnished by Montanus,[735] and the new maps were engraved by Petrus Kærius, who also prepared for Hondius the _Atlas minor Gerardi Mercatoris_ in 1607.[736]

After the death of Jodocus Hondius, Feb. 16, 1611, Heinrich Hondius (b. 1580; d. 1644) and Johannes Jannsonius (d. 1666) completed the _Atlas_; and what is known as the fourth edition (1613) contains portraits of Mercator and the elder Hondius. In this there were ten American maps, and for several editions subsequently there were 105 of Mercator’s maps and 51 of Hondius’. Such seemingly was the make-up of the seventh edition in 1619 (though called fourth on the title); but there is much arbitrary mingling of the maps observable in many copies of these early editions.

The same Latin text and its translations appeared in the several editions down to 1630, when what is called sometimes the eleventh edition appeared with 163 maps (105 by Mercator, 58 by Hondius); but I have noted copies with 184 maps, of which ten are American, and a copy dated 1632, with 178 maps. Raemdonck does not venture to enumerate all the Latin editions of Hondius and Jannsonius; but he mentions those of 1612, 1613, 1616, 1623, 1627, 1628, 1630, 1631.

In 1633 a marked change was made in the _Mercator-Hondius Atlas_. There was a new Latin text, and it was now called the _Atlas novus_, and made two volumes, containing 238 newly engraved maps (only 87 of Mercator’s remaining, while Hondius added 151, including 10 new maps of America). The French text was issued the same year, but it added details not in the Latin, and in the general description of America is quite different.[737] The German text also appeared in 1633; but it had—at least in the copy we have noted—only 160 maps, and of these 6 were American. The Dutch text is dated usually in 1634.

In 1635 the English text appeared with the following title: _Historia Mundi; or, Mercator’s Atlas.... Lately rectified in divers places, and also beautified and enlarged with new mappes and tables by the studious industry of Iudocus Hondy. Englished by W. S._, London;[738] and of this there was a second edition in 1637. The only map showing New France is a general one of America, which is no improvement upon that of the 1613 edition.