satisfaction on the proposals you made them; they say they must not contravene the orders of their father, who has spoken to them so authoritatively and with so many proofs of benevolence, and who has uttered no menace or angry expression. The man named Garanontié has spoken by a Wampum belt to the Chief of the warriors, and has turned the musket towards the Chaouennons. Our father Onontio, he said, merits obedience; he desires that his allies should not be hereafter insulted. He told me that if you wished to protect the Oumiamis, they will be enumerated among your allies, and that their is a strong disposition to satisfy you. Presents conjoined with kindness and courtesy are arms which the Iroquois scarcely ever resist; on the other hand, threats or even war would have been equally fatal to the Colony. You know better than I that a few bandits in Italy have disabled troops six times more numerous than theirs, and that the Burgundy dairymen formerly gave considerable trouble to the Prince. Soldiers who would prove good in the centre of a plain would be thrown into disorder in such forests as these here, and besides that, the Iroquois, daring and well armed, and who makes war like a thief, would have inflicted considerable injury on the French. The prudence of a Chief goes hand in hand with his valor and interpidity. The country is indebted to your prudence for its preservation; a premature war would have indubitably reduced it to extremities. Sieur de la Guele, who has been entirely won over by your liberality and the kind bearing with which you received him, is become your creature. He appears to be your man of business with Garakontie. He panegyrized you a few day ago when addressing the warriors, and exhorted the one and the other to act in a friendly manner to all your allies whom they will meet in the hunting grounds to which they are about to proceed; to assemble here again in the spring, and to form a numerous war party, the chife of which is called Hannatakta, to whom I gave a present in your name. He it was who last year opposed the Cayugas and Senecas, in order to keep the promise he caused to be made to you that he should not go to war that year against the Illinois and Oumiamis, which he faithfully observed. I say that he will possibly go to Montreal to pay his respects to you, and to observe nigher than here what sort of a man you are (comme vous avez l'esprit fait). (These are his words.) As Sieur de la grande Gueule says he will go to see you this summer to speak of divers matters in answer to the message you entrusted to him, and particularly about the affair of the armorer, I have not inquired of him, for you, what he desired this year, which is the first of the pension you are so good as to allow him. The man named Oreouahé, of Cayuga, told me also he intended to visit you at Montreal. It is he who made Father de Carheil to withdraw from Cayuga, and who treacherously brought the six Tion no.tatés there. He is exceedingly proud. Sorrennoa and he are the two greatest Chiefs in Cayuga. It is of this Oreouahé that the English of Albany (formerly Orange) made use to prevent Sieur Penn purchasing the land of the Andastogués,1 who were conquered by the Iroquois and the English of Maryland. I believe he will be better pleased with you than with the English, after he shall have the honor of an interview with you. I told him that if he should wish to see Father de Carheil again where he was going to, you will send for him to Montreal. He has great influence among the Cayugas; has conceived profound esteem for you as a great Captain, which he also piques himself to be. Your dexterity and experience in winning over all those various characters will attach him to you, as I believe, most intimately, and he will be convinced that the Onontio of Canada is quite a different thing from the Burgomasters of Orange, whose civilities in his regard are the neverending subject of his praise. It is reported that the chiefs of Mohawk having been to visit the Governor of New England, he has exhorted them not to kill nor burn people any more, and to become Christians; and on their asking him to continue the sale of powder to them, that he replied, it should be continued so long as they would not wage war against Christians. An Iroquois of the village where I reside killed another Englishman at the end of Autumn, towards Virginia. Six or seven houses were pillaged at the the same time by the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondages and Cayugas. The English of New York, with whom they trade, dare not even censure them for the many insults they repeatedly inflict on their bretheren; so much so that the Iroquois are astonished at it. The apprehension of losing the trade, for some years, has condemned them to a cowardly silence. Next summer the Governor of New York is, as 'tis reported, to come to Mohawk, and to speak there to the Iroquois. We'll see what he'll say. He has sent a ragged ship's flag to the Mohawks, to be hoisted there. These are the armorial bearings of England. That flag is still in the public chest of the Mohawks; I know not when it will see the light. 1 This tribe, called also Andastes by the French, occupied the Upper part of the Susquehannah river, from seven to ten days' journey from Western New-York. The precise date of the subjugation of the Susquehannahs by the Five Nations is still undetermined. Mr. Gallatin thinks it occured between 1664 and 1680. In Deed Book, VI., 28, in Secretary's office, Albany, is a Commission to Col. Coursey, from the Governor of Maryland, dated 30th April, 1677, in which it is stated that "the said Susquehannos have lately desired to come to a Treaty of Peace with his said Lordship [Baltimore], and have (as I am informed) Since ye said Overturn submitted themselves to, and putt themselves under the prottection of the Cinnigos [Senecas] or some other natyon of Indyans residing to ye Northward of this Province." It would hence appear that their conquest occurred about 1676.-O'Callaghan. " I pray God, My Lord, long to preserve your person, and to heap his blessings on it. I am always with profound submission, My Lord, Your most humble and most obedient JEAN DE LAMBERVILLE. The most influential Captains here, who decide affairs of war with the Ancients, had intended to go and pay you their respects, and to agree with you on the boundaries of the territory of your allies: but as you named only two of them to me, and they apprehended that the jealousy of some who might not have been invited would excite murmurs against them, they have postponed until next year the deliberation on this matter. 'Tis certain that the Iroquois are extremely sensitive to any mark of esteem and friendship evinced towards them, and any little underhand present is to 'them a preservative against all the bad impressions sought to be made on them. MEMOIR OF M. DE DENONVILLE ON THE STATE Memoir on the present state of Canada, and the measures to be adopted for the safety of the country. 12th November, 1685. Lenthy discourses are not required to prove that the principal means of maintaining and increasing a Colony is to keep it in peace with its neighbors, so that the people may be enabled to devote the whole of their time to agriculture and the formation of their settlements, being no longer called aside by the necessity of taking up arms to attack an enemy and to protect themselves from the insults they are liable to experience. But as it is impossible to rely on neighboring nations, especially when they do not govern themselves by religion nor by any laws that have formed since the creation of the world the two guides which God has placed in the hands of Kings for the conduct of the people whom His Providence has confided to their care, 'tis indubitable that measures must be adopted to secure and guarantee the country against insults to which it is exposed from those Infidels. The first precaution necessary to be taken is to reassemble the Colony with great care in order to concentrate its forces, and so act that each inhabitant may be aided by his neighbor in case of need. Forts, redoubts and retrenchments must not be forgotten, as well for the safety of the inhabitants as for the security of their cattle and other property. I am pursuaded that the first who had the management of the Colony of New France did not omit anything essential in those principals; they have so frequently seen their necessity that experience, united to their own good conduct, caused them to adopt similiar resolutions wherein we now witness in New France but the vestiges of their wisdom. I am, thereby satisfied that care enough has not been taken to carry out their intentions, which appeared to me quite conformable to the King's orders, though these have not been afterwards so closely followed as they ought to have been. For, doubtless the Colony of New France would not be so exposed as it is to the insults of the feeblest enemy that will make his appearance, were it not as it seems to me from the situation of the greatest portion of the settlements, that priyate applications have been listened to, and every thing granted without any reflection. What is most to be regretted herein is, that for the present there is no remedy except the hope of seeing an increase of population, consequent on the large number of children I see around who, in order to be near their relatives, will possibly settle in their neighborhood. The best I can do on my side is, to decidedly oppose any person settling beyond our most distant plantation. The principal cause of that wide separation of settlements proceeds, I have remarked. from the desire each has to be in advance of all others, so as to obtain the most peltries; and this is so true, that, if it be not checked I believe settlements will be pushed as far as the Outaouacs. This will not assuredly happen, so long as the King will leave me in this country. Throughout the entire of New France there is not a single redoubt (reduit) except the Castle of Quebec, which, within a few years, resembles only a private establishment, open day and night to every comer, without a single gate capable of being closed. The post of three rivers is formed of lofty palisades, without doors or gates, and without flanks except two large turrets begun last year which are entirely exposed and unfinished. Nevertheless, that post is of importance, and might have been located more favorably had it been placed nearer the three mouths of the river. But this change is no longer feasible. On the Island of Montreal there is no sign of a redoubt except at the Indian mission of the Mountain which M. de Belmont has had inclosed with great care and industry. Thus it may be said with truth, that from River du Loup to the point (la pointe) of the Island of Montreal, a distance of more than one hundred leagues, there is not a solitary spot affording the sem blance of shelter from an enemy. The general census which I have caused to be taken will show the number of inhabitants in all those settlements; by following the two banks of the river, an opinion will be thus formed how far apart the settlements must be, the one from the other. The views that ought to be entertained for the support and strengthening of the Colony, until the number of children increase and multiply, would, it appears to me beforehand, be to populate as much as possible the Island of Montreal and to have it surrounded (d'en faire achever le circuit) by a greater number of settlers; if that were completed as commenced, no hostile Indian could come on the island without being discovered.. That island is twenty-five leagues in circumference; ten leagues remain still to be cleared, eight leagues on the north, and two on the west side, to complete that circle. To accelerate this, it would be necessary that the gentlemen of the Seminary could construct, as soon as possible, two or three mills and two churches, to attract settlers thither. Some offer themselves already on these conditions. M'. Dolier, their Superior, told me he wished it done, but that the erection of the Seminary and of the Church had retarded it; indeed, they did not adopt the resolution of building a house for themselves until they had great need of it, for no persons can be worse lodged than the ecclesiastics. Too much care cannot be taken to people this island which is of itself very fertile and, from its situation at the head of the entire country, must, if thickly settled, be the strength and support of the whole Colony, inasmuch as all the places against which the foe would like to make a demonstration, are accessible from this point. It would, for a thousand good reasons, be of consequence, also, to enlarge the town of Villemarie. This, could easily be effected by insisting that the Indian trade should be carried on, not in every private place in the settlements but exclusively in the town, as regulated by the King's order communicated in a letter of My Lord de Colbert of the 15th of April, 1676, whereupon an arrêt of the Sovereign Council of Quebec was issued, dated the 5th of October of the same year, which had no more effect than the King's commands. To avoid being too prolix, it is proper to conclude these reflections in order to make a few observations on the enemy, whose position affords a better opportunity for annoying the colony; and to consider the remedies required in such case. The Iroquois are the most formidable; they are the most powerful by reason of the facility they possess of procuring arms from the English, and in consequence of the number of prisoners (esclaves) they daily make among their neighbors, whose children they carry off at an early age and adopt. This is their only means of increase, for in consequence of their drunken debaucheries which impel them into frightful disorders, the few children their wives bear could not assuredly sustain them alone did they not make prisoners. |