Regarding the Dangers that Threaten Canada and the Means to Remedy Them, January 1687
From Memoir for the Marquis de Seignelay
Canada is encompassed by many powerful Colonies of
English who labor incessantly to ruin it by exciting all our
Indians, and drawing them away with their peltries for
which said English give them a great deal more merchandise
than the French, because the former pay no duty to
the King of England. That profit attracts towards them,
also, all our Coureurs de bois and French libertines who
carry their peltries to them, deserting our Colony and
establishing themselves among the English who take great
pains to encourage them.
They employ these French deserters to advantage in
bringing the Far Indians to them who formerly brought
their peltries into our Colony, whereby our trade is wholly
destroyed.
The English have begun by the most powerful and
best disciplined Indians of all America, whom they have
excited entirely against us by their avowed protection and
manifest usurpation of the sovereignty they claim over the
country of those Indians which appertains beyond contradiction
to the King for nearly a century without the English having,
up to this present time, had any pretence thereto.
They also employ the Iroquois to excite all our other
Indians against us. They sent those last year to attack the
Hurons and the Outawas, our most ancient subjects; from
whom they swept by surprise more than 75 prisoners,
including some of their principal Chiefs; killed several
others, and finally offered peace and the restitution of their
prisoners, if they would quit the French and acknowledge the
English.
They sent those Iroquois to attack the Illinois and
the Miamis, our allies, who are in the neighborhood of Fort
Saint Louis, built by M. de La Salle on the Illinois River
which empties into the River Colbert or Mississipi; those
Iroquois massacred and burnt a great number of them,
and carried off many prisoners with threats of entire
extermination if they would not unite with them against the
French.
Colonel Dongan, Governor of New-York, has pushed
this usurpation to the point of sending Englishmen to take
possession, in the King of England's name, of the post of
Mislimakinac which is a Strait communicating between
Lake Huron and the Lake of the Illinois [Lake Michigan],
and has even declared that all those lakes, including the
River Saint Lawrence which serves as an outlet to them,
and on which our Colony is settled, belong to the English.
The Reverend Father Lamberville, a French Jesuit
who, with one of his brothers, also a Jesuit, has been 18
years a Missionary among the Iroquois, wrote on the first of
November to Chevalier de Callieres, Governor of Montreal, who
informed the Governor-General thereof, that
Colonel Dongan has assembled the Five Iroquois Nations
at Manatte where he resides, and declared to them as follows:
- 1st, That he forbids them to go to Cataracouy or Fort
Frontenac and to have any more intercourse with
French.
- 2d, That he orders them to restore the prisoners they,
took from the Hurons and Outawacs, in order to attract
these to him.
- 3d, That he is sending thirty Englishmen to take
possession of Missilimakinak and the lakes, rivers and
adjoining lands and orders the Iroquois to escort them thither
and to afford them physical assistance.
- 4th, That he has sent to recall the Iroquois Christians
belonging to the Mohawks who reside since a long time at
the Saut Saint Louis, in the vicinity of the Island of
Montreal, where they have been established by us, and
converted by the care of our Reverend Jesuit Fathers, and
that he would give them other land and an English Jesuit,
to govern them.
- 5th, That he wishes that there should not be any
Missionaries except his throughout the whole of the Five
Nations of Iroquois, and that the latter send away our French
Jesuits who have been so long established there.
- 6th, That if they are attacked by Monsieur de
Denonville the latter will have to do with him.
- 7th, That he orders them to plunder all the French
who will visit them; to bind them and bring them to him,
and what they'll take from them shall be good prize.
The Iroquois-He accompanied his orders with presents
to the Five Iroquois Nations, and dispatched his thirty
Englishmen, escorted by Iroquois, to make an establishment
at Missilirnakinak.
The Iroquois plunder our Frenchmen every where
they meet them, and threaten to fire their settlements which
are much exposed and without any fortifications.
These measures, and the discredit we are in among
all the Indians for having abandoned our allies in M. de la
Barre's time, for having suffered them to be exterminated
by the Iroquois and borne the insults of the latter, render
war again absolutely necessary to avert from us a general
Indian Rebellion which would bring down ruin on our
trade and cause eventually even the extirpation of our
Colony.
War is likewise necessary for the establishment of the
Religion, which will never spread itself there except by the
destruction of the Iroquois: so that on the success of
hostilities, which the Governor-General of Canada proposes
to commence against the Iroquois on the 15th of May
next, depends either the ruin of the Country and of the
Religion if he be not assisted, or the Establishment of the
Religion, of Commerce and the King's Power over all
North America, if granted the required aid.
If men consider the Merit in the eyes of God, and the
Glory and utility which the King will derive from that
succor, it is easy to conclude that expense was never better
employed since, independent of the salvation of the
quantity of souls in that vast County to which His Majesty
will contribute by establishing the faith there, he will
secure to himself an Empire of more than a thousand
leagues in extent, from the Mouth of the River Saint
Lawrence to that of the River Mississippi in the Gulf of
Mexico; a country discovered by the French alone, to
which other Nations have no right, and from which great
Commercial advantages, and a considerable augmentation
of His Majesty's Revenues will eventually be derived.
The Marquis de Denonville, whose zeal, industry and
capacity admit of no addition, requires a reinforcement of
1,500 men to succeed in his enterprise. If less be granted
him, success is doubtful and a war is made to drag along, the
continuation of which for many years will be a greater expense
to His Majesty than that immediately necessary
to guarantee its success and prompt termination.
The Iroquois must be attacked in two directions. The
first and principal attack must be on the Seneca Nation on the
borders of Lake Ontario, the second, by the River
Richelieu and Lake Champlain in the direction of she
Mohawks.
Three thousand French will be required for that purpose.
Of these there are sixteen companies which make
800 men and 800 drafted from the militia, 100 of the best of
whom the Governor-General destines to conduct 50
canoes which will come and go incessantly to convey
provisions. Of the 3,000 French he has only one-half, though
he boasts of more for reputation's sake, for the rest of the
militia are necessary to protect and cultivate the farms of
the Colony, and a part of the force must be employed in
guarding the posts of Fort - Frontenac, Niagara, Tarento
Missilimakinak so as to secure the aid he expects from the
Illinois and from the other Indians, on whom, however, he
cannot-rely unless he will be able alone to defeat the Five
Iroquois Nations.
The Iroquois force consists of two thousand picked
Warriors (d'elite) brave, active, more skilful in the use of
the gun than our Europeans and all well armed; besides
twelve hundred Mohegans (Loups), another tribe in alliance
with them as brave as they, not including the English who will
supply them with officers to lead them, and to intrench them
in their villages.
If they be not attacked all at once at the two points
indicated, it is impossible to destroy them or to drive them
from their retreat, but if encompassed on both sides, all
their plantations of Indian corn will be destroyed, their
villages burnt, their women, children and old men captured and
their warriors driven into the woods where they will be
pursued and annihilated by the other Indians.
After having defeated and dispersed them, the winter must
be spent in fortifying the post of Niagara, the most important
in America, by means of which all the other Nations will be
excluded from the lakes whence all the peltries are obtained;
it will be necessary to winter troops at that and some other
posts, to prevent the Iroquois returning and reestablishing
themselves there, and to people those beautiful countries with
other Indians who will have served under us during this war.
As operations commence on the 15th of May, it is
necessary to hasten the reinforcement and to send it off in
the month of March next in order that it may arrive in
season to be employed, and that it be accompanied by
munitions of war and provisions, arms and other articles
required in the estimates of the Governor-General and
intendant of Canada.
The vast extent of this country and the inconveniences
respecting the command which may occur during the war
suggest the great necessity of appointing a Lieutenant-
Governor over it, as well to command the troops there in the
absence, and under the orders, of the Governor-General as to
enforce these throughout all parts of the Colony beyond the
Island of Montreal towards the great lakes which are
at a considerable distance from Quebec.
The Marquis de Denonville who sees the necessity of
establishing that office is of opinion that Chevalier de
Callieres, Governor of the Island of Montreal, is eminently
qualified for it by his application and industry in the King's
service, and his experience in war, said Chevalier de
Callieres having served twenty years with reputation in his
Majesty's armies throughout the whole of his glorious
campaigns.
