CHAPTER VI.

1673-1678.

LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC.

Objects of La Salle.--Frontenac favors him.--Projects of

Frontenac.--Cataraqui.--Frontenac on Lake Ontario.--Fort

Frontenac.--La Salle and Fénelon.--Success of La Salle: his

Enemies.

We turn from the humble Marquette, thanking God with his last breath

that he died for his Order and his Faith; and by our side stands the

masculine form of Cavelier de la Salle. Prodigious was the contrast

between the two discoverers: the one, with clasped hands and upturned

eyes, seems a figure evoked from some dim legend of mediæval saintship;

the other, with feet firm planted on the hard earth, breathes the

self-relying energies of modern practical enterprise. Nevertheless, La

Salle's enemies called him a visionary. His projects perplexed and

startled them. At first, they ridiculed him; and then, as step by step

he advanced towards his purpose, they denounced and maligned him. What

was this purpose? It was not of sudden growth, but developed as years

went on. La Salle at La Chine dreamed of a western passage to China, and

nursed vague schemes of western discovery. Then, when his earlier

journeyings revealed to him the valley of the Ohio and the fertile

plains of Illinois, his imagination took wing over the boundless

prairies and forests drained by the great river of the West. His

ambition had found its field. He would leave barren and frozen Canada

behind, and lead France and civilization into the valley of the

Mississippi. Neither the English nor the Jesuits should conquer that

rich domain: the one must rest content with the country east of the

Alleghanies, and the other with the forests, savages, and beaver-skins

of the northern lakes. It was for him to call into light the latent

riches of the great West. But the way to his land of promise was rough

and long: it lay through Canada, filled with hostile traders and hostile

priests, and barred by ice for half the year. The difficulty was soon

solved. La Salle became convinced that the Mississippi flowed, not into

the Pacific or the Gulf of California, but into the Gulf of Mexico. By a

fortified post at its mouth, he could guard it against both English and

Spaniards, and secure for the trade of the interior an access and an

outlet under his own control, and open at every season. Of this trade,

the hides of the buffalo would at first form the staple, and along with

furs would reward the enterprise till other resources should be

developed.

Such were the vast projects that unfolded themselves in the mind of La

Salle. Canada must needs be, at the outset, his base of action, and

without the support of its authorities he could do nothing. This

support he found. From the moment when Count Frontenac assumed the

government of the colony, he seems to have looked with favor on the

young discoverer. There were points of likeness between the two men.

Both were ardent, bold, and enterprising. The irascible and fiery pride

of the noble found its match in the reserved and seemingly cold pride of

the ambitious burgher. Each could comprehend the other; and they had,

moreover, strong prejudices and dislikes in common. An understanding,

not to say an alliance, soon grew up between them.

[Sidenote: PROJECTS OF FRONTENAC.]

Frontenac had come to Canada a ruined man. He was ostentatious, lavish,

and in no way disposed to let slip an opportunity of mending his

fortune. He presently thought that he had found a plan by which he could

serve both the colony and himself. His predecessor, Courcelle, had urged

upon the King the expediency of building a fort on Lake Ontario, in

order to hold the Iroquois in check and intercept the trade which the

tribes of the Upper Lakes had begun to carry on with the Dutch and

English of New York. Thus a stream of wealth would be turned into

Canada, which would otherwise enrich her enemies. Here, to all

appearance, was a great public good, and from the military point of view

it was so in fact; but it was clear that the trade thus secured might be

made to profit, not the colony at large, but those alone who had control

of the fort, which would then become the instrument of a monopoly. This

the governor understood; and, without doubt, he meant that the projected

establishment should pay him tribute. How far he and La Salle were

acting in concurrence at this time, it is not easy to say; but Frontenac

often took counsel of the explorer, who, on his part, saw in the design

a possible first step towards the accomplishment of his own far-reaching

schemes.

[Sidenote: EXPEDITION OF FRONTENAC.]

Such of the Canadian merchants as were not in the governor's confidence

looked on his plan with extreme distrust. Frontenac, therefore, thought

it expedient "to make use," as he expresses it, "of address." He gave

out merely that he intended to make a tour through the upper parts of

the colony with an armed force, in order to inspire the Indians with

respect, and secure a solid peace. He had neither troops, money,

munitions, nor means of transportation; yet there was no time to lose,

for, should he delay the execution of his plan, it might be

countermanded by the King. His only resource, therefore, was in a prompt

and hardy exertion of the royal authority; and he issued an order

requiring the inhabitants of Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, and other

settlements to furnish him, at their own cost, as soon as the spring

sowing should be over, with a certain number of armed men, besides the

requisite canoes. At the same time, he invited the officers settled in

the country to join the expedition,--an invitation which, anxious as

they were to gain his good graces, few of them cared to decline.

Regardless of murmurs and discontent, he pushed his preparation

vigorously, and on the third of June left Quebec with his guard, his

staff, a part of the garrison of the Castle of St. Louis, and a number

of volunteers. He had already sent to La Salle, who was then at

Montreal, directing him to repair to Onondaga, the political centre of

the Iroquois, and invite their sachems to meet the governor in council

at the Bay of Quinté on the north of Lake Ontario. La Salle had set out

on his mission, but first sent Frontenac a map, which convinced him that

the best site for his proposed fort was the mouth of the Cataraqui,

where Kingston now stands. Another messenger was accordingly despatched,

to change the rendezvous to this point.

Meanwhile, the governor proceeded at his leisure towards Montreal,

stopping by the way to visit the officers settled along the bank, who,

eager to pay their homage to the newly risen sun, received him with a

hospitality which under the roof of a log hut was sometimes graced by

the polished courtesies of the salon and the boudoir. Reaching Montreal,

which he had never before seen, he gazed, we may suppose, with some

interest at the long row of humble dwellings which lined the bank, the

massive buildings of the Seminary, and the spire of the church

predominant over all. It was a rude scene, but the greeting that awaited

him savored nothing of the rough simplicity of the wilderness. Perrot,

the local governor, was on the shore with his soldiers and the

inhabitants, drawn up under arms and firing a salute to welcome the

representative of the King. Frontenac was compelled to listen to a long

harangue from the judge of the place, followed by another from the

syndic. Then there was a solemn procession to the church, where he was

forced to undergo a third effort of oratory from one of the priests. _Te

Deum_ followed, in thanks for his arrival; and then he took refuge in

the fort. Here he remained thirteen days, busied with his preparations,

organizing the militia, soothing their mutual jealousies, and settling

knotty questions of rank and precedence. During this time, every means,

as he declares, was used to prevent him from proceeding; and among other

devices a rumor was set on foot that a Dutch fleet, having just captured

Boston, was on its way to attack Quebec.[67]

[Sidenote: FRONTENAC'S JOURNEY.]

Having sent men, canoes, and baggage, by land, to La Salle's old

settlement of La Chine, Frontenac himself followed on the twenty-eighth

of June. Including Indians from the missions, he now had with him about

four hundred men and a hundred and twenty canoes, besides two large

flat-boats, which he caused to be painted in red and blue, with strange

devices, intended to dazzle the Iroquois by a display of unwonted

splendor. Now their hard task began. Shouldering canoes through the

forest, dragging the flat-boats along the shore, working like

beavers,--sometimes in water to the knees, sometimes to the armpits,

their feet cut by the sharp stones, and they themselves well-nigh swept

down by the furious current,--they fought their way upward against the

chain of mighty rapids that break the navigation of the St. Lawrence.

The Indians were of the greatest service. Frontenac, like La Salle,

showed from the first a special faculty of managing them; for his keen,

incisive spirit was exactly to their liking, and they worked for him as

they would have worked for no man else. As they approached the Long

Saut, rain fell in torrents; and the governor, without his cloak, and

drenched to the skin, directed in person the amphibious toil of his

followers. Once, it is said, he lay awake all night, in his anxiety lest

the biscuit should be wet, which would have ruined the expedition. No

such mischance took place, and at length the last rapid was passed, and

smooth water awaited them to their journey's end. Soon they reached the

Thousand Islands, and their light flotilla glided in long file among

those watery labyrinths, by rocky islets, where some lonely pine towered

like a mast against the sky; by sun-scorched crags, where the brown

lichens crisped in the parching glare; by deep dells, shady and cool,

rich in rank ferns, and spongy, dark-green mosses; by still coves, where

the water-lilies lay like snow-flakes on their broad, flat leaves,--till

at length they neared their goal, and the glistening bosom of Lake

Ontario opened on their sight.

Frontenac, to impose respect on the Iroquois, now set his canoes in

order of battle. Four divisions formed the first line, then came the two

flat-boats; he himself, with his guards, his staff, and the gentlemen

volunteers, followed, with the canoes of Three Rivers on his right, and

those of the Indians on his left, while two remaining divisions formed a

rear line. Thus, with measured paddles, they advanced over the still

lake, till they saw a canoe approaching to meet them. It bore several

Iroquois chiefs, who told them that the dignitaries of their nation

awaited them at Cataraqui, and offered to guide them to the spot. They

entered the wide mouth of the river, and passed along the shore, now

covered by the quiet little city of Kingston, till they reached the

point at present occupied by the barracks, at the western end of

Cataraqui bridge. Here they stranded their canoes and disembarked.

Baggage was landed, fires lighted, tents pitched, and guards set. Close

at hand, under the lee of the forest, were the camping sheds of the

Iroquois, who had come to the rendezvous in considerable numbers.

[Sidenote: FRONTENAC AT CATARAQUI.]

At daybreak of the next morning, the thirteenth of July, the drums beat,

and the whole party were drawn up under arms. A double line of men

extended from the front of Frontenac's tent to the Indian camp; and,

through the lane thus formed, the savage deputies, sixty in number,

advanced to the place of council. They could not hide their admiration

at the martial array of the French, many of whom were old soldiers of

the regiment of Carignan; and when they reached the tent they ejaculated

their astonishment at the uniforms of the governor's guard who

surrounded it. Here the ground had been carpeted with the sails of the

flat-boats, on which the deputies squatted themselves in a ring and

smoked their pipes for a time with their usual air of deliberate

gravity; while Frontenac, who sat surrounded by his officers, had full

leisure to contemplate the formidable adversaries whose mettle was

hereafter to put his own to so severe a test. A chief named Garakontié,

a noted friend of the French, at length opened the council, in behalf of

all the five Iroquois nations, with expressions of great respect and

deference towards "Onontio;" that is to say, the governor of Canada.

Whereupon Frontenac, whose native arrogance where Indians were concerned

always took a form which imposed respect without exciting anger, replied

in the following strain:--

"Children! Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. I am glad

to see you here, where I have had a fire lighted for you to smoke by,

and for me to talk to you. You have done well, my children, to obey the

command of your Father. Take courage: you will hear his word, which is

full of peace and tenderness. For do not think that I have come for war.

My mind is full of peace, and she walks by my side. Courage, then,

children, and take rest."

With that, he gave them six fathoms of tobacco, reiterated his

assurances of friendship, promised that he would be a kind father so

long as they should be obedient children, regretted that he was forced

to speak through an interpreter, and ended with a gift of guns to the

men, and prunes and raisins to their wives and children. Here closed

this preliminary meeting, the great council being postponed to another

day.

During the meeting, Raudin, Frontenac's engineer, was tracing out the

lines of a fort, after a predetermined plan; and the whole party, under

the direction of their officers, now set themselves to construct it.

Some cut down trees, some dug the trenches, some hewed the palisades;

and with such order and alacrity was the work urged on, that the Indians

were lost in astonishment. Meanwhile, Frontenac spared no pains to make

friends of the chiefs, some of whom he had constantly at his table. He

fondled the Iroquois children, and gave them bread and sweetmeats, and

in the evening feasted the squaws to make them dance. The Indians were

delighted with these attentions, and conceived a high opinion of the new

Onontio.

[Sidenote: FRONTENAC AND THE INDIANS.]

On the seventeenth, when the construction of the fort was well advanced,

Frontenac called the chiefs to a grand council, which was held with all

possible state and ceremony. His dealing with the Indians on this and

other occasions was truly admirable. Unacquainted as he was with them,

he seems to have had an instinctive perception of the treatment they

required. His predecessors had never ventured to address the Iroquois

as "Children," but had always styled them "Brothers;" and yet the

assumption of paternal authority on the part of Frontenac was not only

taken in good part, but was received with apparent gratitude. The

martial nature of the man, his clear, decisive speech, and his frank and

downright manner, backed as they were by a display of force which in

their eyes was formidable, struck them with admiration, and gave tenfold

effect to his words of kindness. They thanked him for that which from

another they would not have endured.

Frontenac began by again expressing his satisfaction that they had

obeyed the commands of their Father, and come to Cataraqui to hear what

he had to say. Then he exhorted them to embrace Christianity; and on

this theme he dwelt at length, in words excellently adapted to produce

the desired effect,--words which it would be most superfluous to tax as

insincere, though doubtless they lost nothing in emphasis because in

this instance conscience and policy aimed alike. Then, changing his

tone, he pointed to his officers, his guard, the long files of the

militia, and the two flat-boats, mounted with cannon, which lay in the

river near by. "If," he said, "your Father can come so far, with so

great a force, through such dangerous rapids, merely to make you a visit

of pleasure and friendship, what would he do, if you should awaken his

anger, and make it necessary for him to punish his disobedient children?

He is the arbiter of peace and war. Beware how you offend him!" And he

warned them not to molest the Indian allies of the French, telling them,

sharply, that he would chastise them for the least infraction of the

peace.

From threats he passed to blandishments, and urged them to confide in

his paternal kindness, saying that, in proof of his affection, he was

building a store-house at Cataraqui, where they could be supplied with

all the goods they needed, without the necessity of a long and dangerous

journey. He warned them against listening to bad men, who might seek to

delude them by misrepresentations and falsehoods; and he urged them to

give heed to none but "men of character, like the Sieur de la Salle." He

expressed a hope that they would suffer their children to learn French

from the missionaries, in order that they and his nephews--meaning the

French colonists--might become one people; and he concluded by

requesting them to give him a number of their children to be educated in

the French manner, at Quebec.

[Sidenote: TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.]

This speech, every clause of which was reinforced by abundant presents,

was extremely well received; though one speaker reminded him that he had

forgotten one important point, inasmuch as he had not told them at what

prices they could obtain goods at Cataraqui. Frontenac evaded a precise

answer, but promised them that the goods should be as cheap as possible,

in view of the great difficulty of transportation. As to the request

concerning their children, they said that they could not accede to it

till they had talked the matter over in their villages; but it is a

striking proof of the influence which Frontenac had gained over them,

that, in the following year, they actually sent several of their

children to Quebec to be educated,--the girls among the Ursulines, and

the boys in the household of the governor.

Three days after the council, the Iroquois set out on their return; and

as the palisades of the fort were now finished, and the barracks nearly

so, Frontenac began to send his party homeward by detachments. He

himself was detained for a time by the arrival of another band of

Iroquois, from the villages on the north side of Lake Ontario. He

repeated to them the speech he had made to the others; and, this final

meeting over, he embarked with his guard, leaving a sufficient number to

hold the fort, which was to be provisioned for a year by means of a

convoy then on its way up the river. Passing the rapids safely, he

reached Montreal on the first of August.

His enterprise had been a complete success. He had gained every point,

and, in spite of the dangerous navigation, had not lost a single canoe.

Thanks to the enforced and gratuitous assistance of the inhabitants, the

whole had cost the King only about ten thousand francs, which Frontenac

had advanced on his own credit. Though in a commercial point of view the

new establishment was of very questionable benefit to the colony at

large, the governor had, nevertheless, conferred an inestimable blessing

on all Canada by the assurance he had gained of a long respite from the

fearful scourge of Iroquois hostility. "Assuredly," he writes, "I may

boast of having impressed them at once with respect, fear, and

good-will."[68] He adds that the fort at Cataraqui, with the aid of a

vessel now building, will command Lake Ontario, keep the peace with the

Iroquois, and cut off the trade with the English; and he proceeds to say

that by another fort at the mouth of the Niagara, and another vessel on

Lake Erie, we, the French, can command all the Upper Lakes. This plan

was an essential link in the schemes of La Salle; and we shall soon find

him employed in executing it.

A curious incident occurred soon after the building of the fort on Lake

Ontario. Frontenac, on his way back, quarrelled with Perrot, the

governor of Montreal, whom, in view of his speculations in the

fur-trade, he seems to have regarded as a rival in business; but who, by

his folly and arrogance, would have justified any reasonable measure of

severity. Frontenac, however, was not reasonable. He arrested Perrot,

threw him into prison, and set up a man of his own as governor in his

place; and as the judge of Montreal was not in his interest, he removed

him, and substituted another on whom he could rely. Thus for a time he

had Montreal well in hand.

The priests of the Seminary, seigniors of the island, regarded these

arbitrary proceedings with extreme uneasiness. They claimed the right of

nominating their own governor; and Perrot, though he held a commission

from the King, owed his place to their appointment. True, he had set

them at nought, and proved a veritable King Stork; yet nevertheless they

regarded his removal as an infringement of their rights.

During the quarrel with Perrot, La Salle chanced to be at Montreal,

lodged in the house of Jacques Le Ber, who, though one of the principal

merchants and most influential inhabitants of the settlement, was

accustomed to sell goods across his counter in person to white men and

Indians, his wife taking his place when he was absent. Such were the

primitive manners of the secluded little colony. Le Ber, at this time,

was in the interest of Frontenac and La Salle; though he afterwards

became one of their most determined opponents. Amid the excitement and

discussion occasioned by Perrot's arrest, La Salle declared himself an

adherent of the governor, and warned all persons against speaking ill of

him in his hearing.

[Sidenote: ABBÉ FÉNELON.]

The Abbé Fénelon, already mentioned as half-brother to the famous

Archbishop, had attempted to mediate between Frontenac and Perrot, and

to this end had made a journey to Quebec on the ice, in midwinter. Being

of an ardent temperament, and more courageous than prudent, he had

spoken somewhat indiscreetly, and had been very roughly treated by the

stormy and imperious Count. He returned to Montreal greatly excited, and

not without cause. It fell to his lot to preach the Easter sermon. The

service was held in the little church of the Hôtel-Dieu, which was

crowded to the porch, all the chief persons of the settlement being

present. The curé of the parish, whose name also was Perrot, said High

Mass, assisted by La Salle's brother, Cavelier, and two other priests.

Then Fénelon mounted the pulpit. Certain passages of his sermon were

obviously levelled against Frontenac. Speaking of the duties of those

clothed with temporal authority, he said that the magistrate, inspired

with the spirit of Christ, was as ready to pardon offences against

himself as to punish those against his prince; that he was full of

respect for the ministers of the altar, and never maltreated them when

they attempted to reconcile enemies and restore peace; that he never

made favorites of those who flattered him, nor under specious pretexts

oppressed other persons in authority who opposed his enterprises; that

he used his power to serve his king, and not to his own advantage; that

he remained content with his salary, without disturbing the commerce of

the country, or abusing those who refused him a share in their profits;

and that he never troubled the people by inordinate and unjust levies of

men and material, using the name of his prince as a cover to his own

designs.[69]

[Sidenote: LA SALLE AND FÉNELON.]

La Salle sat near the door; but as the preacher proceeded he suddenly

rose to his feet in such a manner as to attract the notice of the

congregation. As they turned their heads, he signed to the principal

persons among them, and by his angry looks and gesticulation called

their attention to the words of Fénelon. Then meeting the eye of the

curé, who sat beside the altar, he made the same signs to him, to which

the curé replied by a deprecating shrug of the shoulders. Fénelon

changed color, but continued his sermon.[70]

This indecent proceeding of La Salle, and the zeal with which throughout

the quarrel he took the part of the governor, did not go unrewarded.

Henceforth, Frontenac was more than ever his friend; and this plainly

appeared in the disposition made, through his influence, of the new fort

on Lake Ontario. Attempts had been made to induce the king to have it

demolished; but it was resolved at last that, being built, it should be

allowed to stand; and, after long delay, a final arrangement was made

for its maintenance, in the manner following: In the autumn of 1674, La

Salle went to France, with letters of strong recommendation from

Frontenac.[71] He was well received at Court; and he made two petitions

to the King,--the one for a patent of nobility, in consideration of his

services as an explorer; and the other for a grant in seigniory of Fort

Frontenac, for so he called the new post, in honor of his patron. On his

part, he offered to pay back the ten thousand francs which the fort had

cost the King; to maintain it at his own charge, with a garrison equal

to that of Montreal, besides fifteen or twenty laborers; to form a

French colony around it; to build a church, whenever the number of

inhabitants should reach one hundred; and, meanwhile, to support one or

more Récollet friars; and, finally, to form a settlement of domesticated

Indians in the neighborhood. His offers were accepted. He was raised to

the rank of the untitled nobles; received a grant of the fort and lands

adjacent, to the extent of four leagues in front and half a league in

depth, besides the neighboring islands; and was invested with the

government of the fort and settlement, subject to the orders of the

governor-general.[72]

La Salle returned to Canada, proprietor of a seigniory which, all things

considered, was one of the most valuable in the colony. His friends and

his family, rejoicing in his good fortune and not unwilling to share it,

made him large advances of money, enabling him to pay the stipulated sum

to the King, to rebuild the fort in stone, maintain soldiers and

laborers, and procure in part, at least, the necessary outfit. Had La

Salle been a mere merchant, he was in a fair way to make a fortune, for

he was in a position to control the better part of the Canadian

fur-trade. But he was not a mere merchant; and no commercial profit

could content his ambition.

Those may believe, who will, that Frontenac did not expect a share in

the profits of the new post. That he did expect it, there is positive

evidence; for a deposition is extant, taken at the instance of his enemy

the Intendant Duchesneau, in which three witnesses attest that the

governor, La Salle, his lieutenant La Forest, and one Boisseau, had

formed a partnership to carry on the trade of Fort Frontenac.

[Sidenote: ENEMIES OF LA SALLE.]

No sooner was La Salle installed in his new post than the merchants of

Canada joined hands to oppose him. Le Ber, once his friend, became his

bitter enemy; for he himself had hoped to share the monopoly of Fort

Frontenac, of which he and one Bazire had at first been placed

provisionally in control, and from which he now saw himself ejected. La

Chesnaye, Le Moyne, and others of more or less influence took part in

the league, which, in fact, embraced all the traders in the colony

except the few joined with Frontenac and La Salle. Duchesneau, intendant

of the colony, aided the malcontents. As time went on, their bitterness

grew more bitter; and when at last it was seen that, not satisfied with

the monopoly of Fort Frontenac, La Salle aimed at the control of the

valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and the usufruct of half a

continent, the ire of his opponents redoubled, and Canada became for him

a nest of hornets, buzzing in wrath and watching the moment to sting.

But there was another element of opposition, less noisy, but not less

formidable; and this arose from the Jesuits. Frontenac hated them; and

they, under befitting forms of duty and courtesy, paid him back in the

same coin. Having no love for the governor, they would naturally have

little for his partisan and _protégé_; but their opposition had another

and a deeper root, for the plans of the daring young schemer jarred with

their own.

[Sidenote: PURPOSES OF THE JESUITS.]

We have seen the Canadian Jesuits in the early apostolic days of their

mission, when the flame of their zeal, fed by an ardent hope, burned

bright and high. This hope was doomed to disappointment. Their avowed

purpose of building another Paraguay on the borders of the Great

Lakes[73] was never accomplished, and their missions and their converts

were swept away in an avalanche of ruin. Still, they would not despair.

From the lakes they turned their eyes to the Valley of the Mississippi,

in the hope to see it one day the seat of their new empire of the Faith.

But what did this new Paraguay mean? It meant a little nation of

converted and domesticated savages, docile as children, under the

paternal and absolute rule of Jesuit fathers, and trained by them in

industrial pursuits, the results of which were to inure, not to the

profit of the producers, but to the building of churches, the founding

of colleges, the establishment of warehouses and magazines, and the

construction of works of defence,--all controlled by Jesuits, and

forming a part of the vast possessions of the Order. Such was the old

Paraguay;[74] and such, we may suppose, would have been the new, had the

plans of those who designed it been realized.

I have said that since the middle of the century the religious

exaltation of the early missions had sensibly declined. In the nature of

things, that grand enthusiasm was too intense and fervent to be long

sustained. But the vital force of Jesuitism had suffered no diminution.

That marvellous _esprit de corps_, that extinction of self and

absorption of the individual in the Order which has marked the Jesuits

from their first existence as a body, was no whit changed or

lessened,--a principle, which, though different, was no less strong

than the self-devoted patriotism of Sparta or the early Roman Republic.

The Jesuits were no longer supreme in Canada; or, in other words, Canada

was no longer simply a mission. It had become a colony. Temporal

interests and the civil power were constantly gaining ground; and the

disciples of Loyola felt that relatively, if not absolutely, they were

losing it. They struggled vigorously to maintain the ascendency of their

Order, or, as they would have expressed it, the ascendency of religion;

but in the older and more settled parts of the colony it was clear that

the day of their undivided rule was past. Therefore, they looked with

redoubled solicitude to their missions in the West. They had been among

its first explorers; and they hoped that here the Catholic Faith, as

represented by Jesuits, might reign with undisputed sway. In Paraguay,

it was their constant aim to exclude white men from their missions. It

was the same in North America. They dreaded fur-traders, partly because

they interfered with their teachings and perverted their converts, and

partly for other reasons. But La Salle was a fur-trader, and far worse

than a fur-trader: he aimed at occupation, fortification, and

settlement. The scope and vigor of his enterprises, and the powerful

influence that aided them, made him a stumbling-block in their path. He

was their most dangerous rival for the control of the West, and from

first to last they set themselves against him.

[Sidenote: SPIRIT OF LA SALLE.]

What manner of man was he who could conceive designs so vast and defy

enmities so many and so powerful? And in what spirit did he embrace

these designs? We will look hereafter for an answer.

FOOTNOTES:

[67] _Lettre de Frontenac à Colbert, 13 Nov., 1673._ This rumor, it

appears, originated with the Jesuit Dablon. _Journal du Voyage du Comte

de Frontenac au lac Ontario_. The Jesuits were greatly opposed to the

establishment of forts and trading-posts in the upper country, for

reasons that will appear hereafter.

[68] _Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673._

[69] Faillon, _Colonie Française_, iii. 497, and manuscript authorities

there cited. I have examined the principal of these. Faillon himself is

a priest of St. Sulpice. Compare H. Verreau, _Les Deux Abbés de

Fénelon_, chap. vii.

[70] _Information faicte par nous, Charles le Tardieu, Sieur de Tilly,

et Nicolas Dupont, etc., etc., contre le Sr. Abbé de Fénelon._ Tilly

and Dupont were sent by Frontenac to inquire into the affair. Among the

deponents is La Salle himself.

[71] In his despatch to the minister Colbert, of the fourteenth of

November, 1674, Frontenac speaks of La Salle as follows: "I cannot help,

Monseigneur, recommending to you the Sieur de la Salle, who is about to

go to France, and who is a man of intelligence and ability, more capable

than anybody else I know here to accomplish every kind of enterprise and

discovery which may be intrusted to him, as he has the most perfect

knowledge of the state of the country, as you will see, if you are

disposed to give him a few moments of audience."

[72] _Mémoire pour l'entretien du Fort Frontenac, par le Sr. de la

Salle, 1674. Petition du Sr. de la Salle au Roi. Lettres patentes de

concession, du Fort de Frontenac et terres adjacentes au profit du

Sr. de la Salle; données à Compiègne le 13 Mai, 1675. Arrêt qui

accepte les offres faites par Robert Cavelier Sr. de la Salle; à

Compiègne le 13 Mai, 1675. Lettres de noblesse pour le Sr. Cavelier

de la Salle; données à Compiègne le 13 Mai, 1675. Papiers de Famille.

Mémoire au Roi._

[73] This purpose is several times indicated in the _Relations_. For an

instance, see "The Jesuits in North America," 245.

[74] Compare Charlevoix, _Histoire de Paraguay_, with Robertson,

_Letters on Paraguay_.