CHAPTER VII.
1678.
PARTY STRIFE.
La Salle and his Reporter.--Jesuit Ascendency.--The Missions and
the Fur-trade.--Female Inquisitors.--Plots against La Salle: his
Brother the Priest.--Intrigues Of the Jesuits.--La Salle poisoned:
he exculpates the Jesuits.--Renewed Intrigues.
[Sidenote: LA SALLE'S MEMOIR.]
One of the most curious monuments of La Salle's time is a long memoir,
written by a person who made his acquaintance at Paris in the summer of
1678, when, as we shall soon see, he had returned to France in
prosecution of his plans. The writer knew the Sulpitian Galinée,[75]
who, as he says, had a very high opinion of La Salle; and he was also in
close relations with the discoverer's patron, the Prince de Conti.[76]
He says that he had ten or twelve interviews with La Salle; and,
becoming interested in him and in that which he communicated, he wrote
down the substance of his conversation. The paper is divided into two
parts: the first, called "Mémoire sur Mr. de la Salle," is devoted to
the state of affairs in Canada, and chiefly to the Jesuits; the second,
entitled "Histoire de Mr. de la Salle," is an account of the
discoverer's life, or as much of it as the writer had learned from
him.[77] Both parts bear throughout the internal evidence of being what
they profess to be; but they embody the statements of a man of intense
partisan feeling, transmitted through the mind of another person in
sympathy with him, and evidently sharing his prepossessions. In one
respect, however, the paper is of unquestionable historical value; for
it gives us a vivid and not an exaggerated picture of the bitter strife
of parties which then raged in Canada, and which was destined to tax to
the utmost the vast energy and fortitude of La Salle. At times, the
memoir is fully sustained by contemporary evidence; but often, again, it
rests on its own unsupported authority. I give an abstract of its
statements as I find them.
The following is the writer's account of La Salle: "All those among my
friends who have seen him find him a man of great intelligence and
sense. He rarely speaks of any subject except when questioned about it,
and his words are very few and very precise. He distinguishes perfectly
between that which he knows with certainly and that which he knows with
some mingling of doubt. When he does not know, he does not hesitate to
avow it; and though I have heard him say the same thing more than five
or six times, when persons were present who had not heard it before, he
always said it in the same manner. In short, I never heard anybody speak
whose words carried with them more marks of truth."[78]
[Sidenote: JESUIT ASCENDENCY.]
After mentioning that he is thirty-three or thirty-four years old, and
that he has been twelve years in America, the memoir declares that he
made the following statements: that the Jesuits are masters at Quebec;
that the bishop is their creature, and does nothing but in concert with
them;[79] that he is not well inclined towards the Récollets,[80] who
have little credit, but who are protected by Frontenac; that in Canada
the Jesuits think everybody an enemy to religion who is an enemy to
them; that, though they refused absolution to all who sold brandy to the
Indians, they sold it themselves, and that he, La Salle, had himself
detected them in it;[81] that the bishop laughs at the orders of the
King when they do not agree with the wishes of the Jesuits; that the
Jesuits dismissed one of their servants named Robert, because he told of
their trade in brandy; that Albanel,[82] in particular, carried on a
great fur-trade, and that the Jesuits have built their college in part
from the profits of this kind of traffic; that they admitted that they
carried on a trade, but denied that they gained so much by it as was
commonly supposed.[83]
[Sidenote: FEMALE INQUISITORS.]
The memoir proceeds to affirm that they trade largely with the Sioux at
Ste. Marie, and with other tribes at Michilimackinac, and that they are
masters of the trade of that region, where the forts are in their
possession.[84] An Indian said, in full council, at Quebec, that he had
prayed and been a Christian as long as the Jesuits would stay and teach
him, but since no more beaver were left in his country, the missionaries
were gone also. The Jesuits, pursues the memoir, will have no priests
but themselves in their missions, and call them all Jansenists, not
excepting the priests of St. Sulpice.
The bishop is next accused of harshness and intolerance, as well as of
growing rich by tithes, and even by trade, in which it is affirmed he
has a covert interest.[85] It is added that there exists in Quebec,
under the auspices of the Jesuits, an association called the Sainte
Famille, of which Madame Bourdon[86] is superior. They meet in the
cathedral every Thursday, with closed doors, where they relate to each
other--as they are bound by a vow to do--all they have learned, whether
good or evil, concerning other people, during the week. It is a sort of
female inquisition, for the benefit of the Jesuits, the secrets of whose
friends, it is said, are kept, while no such discretion is observed with
regard to persons not of their party.[87]
Here follow a series of statements which it is needless to repeat, as
they do not concern La Salle. They relate to abuse of the confessional,
hostility to other priests, hostility to civil authorities, and
over-hasty baptisms, in regard to which La Salle is reported to have
made a comparison, unfavorable to the Jesuits, between them and the
Récollets and Sulpitians.
[Sidenote: PLOTS AGAINST LA SALLE.]
We now come to the second part of the memoir, entitled "History of
Monsieur de la Salle." After stating that he left France at the age of
twenty-one or twenty-two, with the purpose of attempting some new
discovery, it makes the statements repeated in a former chapter,
concerning his discovery of the Ohio, the Illinois, and possibly the
Mississippi. It then mentions the building of Fort Frontenac, and says
that one object of it was to prevent the Jesuits from becoming
undisputed masters of the fur-trade.[88] Three years ago, it pursues, La
Salle came to France, and obtained a grant of the fort; and it proceeds
to give examples of the means used by the party opposed to him to injure
his good name and bring him within reach of the law. Once, when he was
at Quebec, the farmer of the King's revenue, one of the richest men in
the place, was extremely urgent in his proffers of hospitality, and at
length, though he knew La Salle but slightly, persuaded him to lodge in
his house. He had been here but a few days when his host's wife began to
enact the part of the wife of Potiphar, and this with so much vivacity
that on one occasion La Salle was forced to take an abrupt leave, in
order to avoid an infringement of the laws of hospitality. As he opened
the door, he found the husband on the watch, and saw that it was a plot
to entrap him.[89]
Another attack, of a different character, though in the same direction,
was soon after made. The remittances which La Salle received from the
various members and connections of his family were sent through the
hands of his brother, Abbé Cavelier, from whom his enemies were,
therefore, very eager to alienate him. To this end, a report was made to
reach the priest's ears that La Salle had seduced a young woman, with
whom he was living in an open and scandalous manner at Fort Frontenac.
The effect of this device exceeded the wishes of its contrivers; for the
priest, aghast at what he had heard, set out for the fort, to administer
his fraternal rebuke, but on arriving, in place of the expected
abomination, found his brother, assisted by two Récollet friars, ruling
with edifying propriety over a most exemplary household.
Thus far the memoir. From passages in some of La Salle's letters, it may
be gathered that Abbé Cavelier gave him at times no little annoyance. In
his double character of priest and elder brother, he seems to have
constituted himself the counsellor, monitor, and guide of a man who,
though many years his junior, was in all respects incomparably superior
to him, as the sequel will show. This must have been almost insufferable
to a nature like that of La Salle, who, nevertheless, was forced to arm
himself with patience, since his brother held the purse-strings. On one
occasion his forbearance was put to a severe proof, when, wishing to
marry a damsel of good connections in the colony, Abbé Cavelier saw fit
for some reason to interfere, and prevented the alliance.[90]
[Sidenote: INTRIGUES OF THE JESUITS.]
To resume the memoir. It declares that the Jesuits procured an ordinance
from the Supreme Council prohibiting traders from going into the Indian
country, in order that they, the Jesuits, being already established
there in their missions, might carry on trade without competition. But
La Salle induced a good number of the Iroquois to settle around his
fort; thus bringing the trade to his own door, without breaking the
ordinance. These Iroquois, he is further reported to have said, were
very fond of him, and aided him in rebuilding the fort with cut stone.
The Jesuits told the Iroquois on the south side of the lake, where they
were established as missionaries, that La Salle was strengthening his
defences with the view of making war on them. They and the intendant,
who was their creature, endeavored to embroil the Iroquois with the
French in order to ruin La Salle; writing to him at the same time that
he was the bulwark of the country, and that he ought to be always on his
guard. They also tried to persuade Frontenac that it was necessary to
raise men and prepare for war. La Salle suspected them; and seeing that
the Iroquois, in consequence of their intrigues, were in an excited
state, he induced the governor to come to Fort Frontenac to pacify them.
He accordingly did so; and a council was held, which ended in a complete
restoration of confidence on the part of the Iroquois.[91] At this
council they accused the two Jesuits, Bruyas and Pierron,[92] of
spreading reports that the French were preparing to attack them. La
Salle thought that the object of the intrigue was to make the Iroquois
jealous of him, and engage Frontenac in expenses which would offend the
King. After La Salle and the governor had lost credit by the rupture,
the Jesuits would come forward as pacificators, in the full assurance
that they could restore quiet, and appear in the attitude of saviors of
the colony.
La Salle, pursues his reporter, went on to say that about this time a
quantity of hemlock and verdigris was given him in a salad; and that the
guilty person was a man in his employ named Nicolas Perrot, otherwise
called Jolycoeur, who confessed the crime.[93] The memoir adds that La
Salle, who recovered from the effects of the poison, wholly exculpates
the Jesuits.
This attempt, which was not, as we shall see, the only one of the kind
made against La Salle, is alluded to by him in a letter to a friend at
Paris, written in Canada when he was on the point of departure on his
great expedition to descend the Mississippi. The following is an extract
from it:
[Sidenote: LA SALLE EXCULPATES THE JESUITS.]
"I hope to give myself the honor of sending you a more particular
account of this enterprise when it shall have had the success which I
hope for it; but I have need of a strong protection for its support. It
traverses the commercial operations of certain persons, who will find it
hard to endure it. They intended to make a new Paraguay in these parts,
and the route which I close against them gave them facilities for an
advantageous correspondence with Mexico. This check will infallibly be a
mortification to them; and you know how they deal with whatever opposes
them. _Nevertheless, I am bound to render them the justice to say that
the poison which was given me was not at all of their instigation._ The
person who was conscious of the guilt, believing that I was their enemy
because he saw that our sentiments were opposed, thought to exculpate
himself by accusing them, and I confess that at the time I was not sorry
to have this indication of their ill-will; but having afterwards
carefully examined the affair, I clearly discovered the falsity of the
accusation which this rascal had made against them. I nevertheless
pardoned him, in order not to give notoriety to the affair; as the mere
suspicion might sully their reputation, to which I should scrupulously
avoid doing the slightest injury unless I thought it necessary to the
good of the public, and unless the fact were fully proved. Therefore,
Monsieur, if anybody shared the suspicion which I felt, oblige me by
undeceiving him."[94]
This letter, so honorable to La Salle, explains the statement made in
the memoir, that, notwithstanding his grounds of complaint against the
Jesuits, he continued to live on terms of courtesy with them,
entertained them at his fort, and occasionally corresponded with them.
The writer asserts, however, that they intrigued with his men to induce
them to desert,--employing for this purpose a young man named
Deslauriers, whom they sent to him with letters of recommendation. La
Salle took him into his service; but he soon after escaped, with several
other men, and took refuge in the Jesuit missions.[95] The object of the
intrigue is said to have been the reduction of La Salle's garrison to a
number less than that which he was bound to maintain, thus exposing him
to a forfeiture of his title of possession.
[Sidenote: RENEWED INTRIGUES.]
He is also stated to have declared that Louis Joliet was an
impostor,[96] and a _donné_ of the Jesuits,--that is, a man who worked
for them without pay; and, further, that when he, La Salle, came to
court to ask for privileges enabling him to pursue his discoveries, the
Jesuits represented in advance to the minister Colbert that his head was
turned, and that he was fit for nothing but a mad-house. It was only by
the aid of influential friends that he was at length enabled to gain an
audience.
Here ends this remarkable memoir, which, criticise it as we may, does
not exaggerate the jealousies and enmities that beset the path of the
discoverer.
FOOTNOTES:
[75] _Ante_, p. 17.
[76] Louis-Armand de Bourbon, second Prince de Conti. The author of the
memoir seems to have been Abbé Renaudot, a learned churchman.
[77] Extracts from this have already been given in connection with La
Salle's supposed discovery of the Mississippi. _Ante_, p. 29.
[78] "Tous ceux de mes amis qui l'ont vu luy trouve beaucoup d'esprit et
un très-grand sens; il ne parle guère que des choses sur lesquelles on
l'interroge; il les dit en très-peu de mots et très-bien
circonstanciées; il distingue parfaitement ce qu'il scait avec
certitude, de ce qu'il scait avec quelque mélange de doute. Il avoue
sans aucune façon ne pas savoir ce qu'il ne scait pas, et quoyque je luy
aye ouy dire plus de cinq ou six fois les mesme choses à l'occasion de
quelques personnes qui ne les avaient point encore entendues, je les luy
ay toujours ouy dire de la mesme manière. En un mot je n'ay jamais ouy
parler personne dont les paroles portassent plus de marques de vérité."
[79] "Il y a une autre chose qui me déplait, qui est l'entière
dépendence dans laquelle les Prêtres du Séminaire de Québec et le Grand
Vicaire de l'Evêque sont pour les Pères Jésuites, car il ne fait pas la
moindre chose sans leur ordre; ce qui fait qu'indirectement ils sont les
maîtres de ce qui regarde le spirituel, qui, comme vous savez, est une
grande machine pour remuer tout le reste."--_Lettre de Frontenac à
Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672._
[80] "Ces réligieux [_les Récollets_] sont fort protégés partout par le
comte de Frontenac, gouverneur du pays, et à cause de cela assez
maltraités par l'évesque, parceque la doctrine de l'évesque et des
Jésuites est que les affaires de la Réligion chrestienne n'iront point
bien dans ce pays-là que quand le gouverneur sera créature des Jésuites,
ou que l'évesque sera gouverneur."--_Mémoire sur Mr. de la Salle_.
[81] "Ils [_les Jésuites_] refusent l'absolution à ceux qui ne veulent
pas promettre de n'en plus vendre [_de l'eau-de-vie_], et s'ils meurent
en cet étât, ils les privent de la sépulture ecclésiastique; au
contraire ils se permettent à eux-mêmes sans aucune difficulté ce mesme
trafic quoique toute sorte de trafic soit interdite à tous les
ecclésiastiques par les ordonnances du Roy, et par une bulle expresse du
Pape. La Bulle et les ordonnances sont notoires, et quoyqu'ils cachent
le trafic qu'ils font d'eau-de-vie, M. de la Salle prétend qu'il ne
l'est pas moins; qu'outre la notoriété il en a des preuves certaines, et
qu'il les a surpris dans ce trafic, et qu'ils luy ont tendu des pièges
pour l'y surprendre.... Ils ont chassé leur valet Robert à cause qu'il
révéla qu'ils en traitaient jour et nuit."--_Ibid._ The writer says that
he makes this last statement, not on the authority of La Salle, but on
that of a memoir made at the time when the intendant, Talon, with whom
he elsewhere says that he was well acquainted, returned to France. A
great number of particulars are added respecting the Jesuit trade in
furs.
[82] Albanel was prominent among the Jesuit explorers at this time. He
is best known by his journey up the Saguenay to Hudson's Bay in 1672.
[83] "Pour vous parler franchement, ils [_les Jésuites_] songent autant
à la conversion du Castor qu'à celle des âmes."--_Lettre de Frontenac à
Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672_.
In his despatch of the next year, he says that the Jesuits ought to
content themselves with instructing the Indians in their old missions,
instead of neglecting them to make new ones in countries where there are
"more beaver-skins to gain than souls to save."
[84] These forts were built by them, and were necessary to the security
of their missions.
[85] François Xavier de Laval-Montmorency, first bishop of Quebec, was a
prelate of austere character. His memory is cherished in Canada by
adherents of the Jesuits and all ultramontane Catholics.
[86] This Madame Bourdon was the widow of Bourdon, the engineer (see
"The Jesuits in North America," 297). If we may credit the letters of
Marie de l'Incarnation, she had married him from a religious motive, in
order to charge herself with the care of his motherless children;
stipulating in advance that he should live with her, not as a husband,
but as a brother. As may be imagined, she was regarded as a most devout
and saint-like person.
[87] "Il y a dans Québec une congrégation de femmes et de filles qu'ils
[_les Jésuites_] appellent la sainte famille, dans laquelle on fait
voeu sur les Saints Evangiles de dire tout ce qu'on sait de bien et de
mal des personnes qu'on connoist. La Supérieure de cette compagnie
s'appelle Madame Bourdon; une Mde. d'Ailleboust est, je crois,
l'assistante et une Mde. Charron, la Trésorière. La Compagnie
s'assemble tous les Jeudis dans la Cathédrale, à porte fermée, et là
elles se disent les unes aux autres tout ce qu'elles ont appris. C'est
une espèce d'Inquisition contre toutes les personnes qui ne sont pas
unies avec les Jésuites. Ces personnes sont accusées de tenir secret ce
qu'elles apprennent de mal des personnes de leur party et de n'avoir pas
la mesme discretion pour les autres."--_Mémoire sur M^r. de la Salle_.
The Madame d'Ailleboust mentioned above was a devotee like Madame
Bourdon, and, in one respect, her history was similar. See "The Jesuits
in North America," 360.
The association of the Sainte Famille was founded by the Jesuit
Chaumonot at Montreal in 1663. Laval, Bishop of Quebec, afterwards
encouraged its establishment at that place; and, as Chaumonot himself
writes, caused it to be attached to the cathedral. _Vie de Chaumonot_,
83. For its establishment at Montreal, see Faillon, _Vie de Mlle.
Mance_, i. 233.
"Ils [_les Jésuites_] ont tous une si grande envie de savoir tout ce qui
se fait dans les familles qu'ils ont des Inspecteurs à gages dans la
Ville, qui leur rapportent tout ce qui se fait dans les maisons," etc.,
etc.--_Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673._
[88] Mention has been made (p. 88, _note_) of the report set on foot by
the Jesuit Dablon, to prevent the building of the fort.
[89] This story is told at considerable length, and the advances of the
lady particularly described.
[90] Letter of La Salle, in possession of M. Margry.
[91] Louis XIV. alludes to this visit, in a letter to Frontenac, dated
28 April, 1677. "I cannot but approve," he writes, "of what you have
done, in your voyage to Fort Frontenac, to reconcile the minds of the
Five Iroquois Nations, and to clear yourself from the suspicions they
had entertained, and from the motives that might induce them to make
war." Frontenac's despatches of this year, as well as of the preceding
and following years, are missing from the archives.
In a memoir written in November, 1680, La Salle alludes to "le désir que
l'on avoit que Monseigneur le Comte de Frontenac fit la guerre aux
Iroquois." See Thomassy, _Géologie Pratique de la Louisiane_, 203.
[92] Bruyas was about this time stationed among the Onondagas. Pierron
was among the Senecas. He had lately removed to them from the Mohawk
country. _Relation des Jésuites, 1673-79_, 140 (Shea). Bruyas was also
for a long time among the Mohawks.
[93] This puts the character of Perrot in a new light; for it is not
likely that any other can be meant than the famous _voyageur_. I have
found no mention elsewhere of the synonyme of Jolycoeur. Poisoning was
the current crime of the day, and persons of the highest rank had
repeatedly been charged with it. The following is the passage:--
"Quoiqu'il en soit, Mr. de la Salle se sentit quelque temps après
empoisonné d'une salade dans laquelle on avoit meslé du ciguë, qui est
poison en ce pays là, et du verd de gris. Il en fut malade à
l'extrémité, vomissant presque continuellement 40 ou 50 jours après, et
il ne réchappa que par la force extrême de sa constitution. Celuy qui
luy donna le poison fut un nommé Nicolas Perrot, autrement Jolycoeur,
l'un de ses domestiques.... Il pouvait faire mourir cet homme, qui a
confessé son crime, mais il s'est contenté de l'enfermer les fers aux
pieds."--_Histoire de Mr. de la Salle._
[94] The following words are underlined in the original: "_Je suis
pourtant obligé de leur rendre une justice, que le poison qu'on m'avoit
donné n'éstoit point de leur instigation."--Lettre de La Salle au Prince
de Conti, 31 Oct., 1678._
[95] In a letter to the King, Frontenac mentions that several men who
had been induced to desert from La Salle had gone to Albany, where the
English had received them well. _Lettre de Frontenac au Roy, 6 Nov.,
1679._ The Jesuits had a mission in the neighboring tribe of the Mohawks
and elsewhere in New York.
[96] This agrees with expressions used by La Salle in a memoir addressed
by him to Frontenac in November, 1680. In this, he intimates his belief
that Joliet went but little below the mouth of the Illinois, thus doing
flagrant injustice to that brave explorer.