SAA SERS LSS Harem Ble lele \\ SK ‘ RS x A Dyce < sleloloicic. \ ~ AX acfololictojote |: nS ea EAT ec nROWs x co ql Sc Cornell Alniversity Library BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE - SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henry W. Sage 1891 iii jcoezO P24 O4 iq OQ FRANCIS PARKMAN'S WRITINGS. THE OreGon TRAIL... ee we THE CoNSPIRACY OF Pontiac . France and England in North America, PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WorLD . . THE Jesuirs In NortH AMERICA. . . La SALLE AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST: 6. oe ws we SO we OS THE OLD REGIME IN CANADA UNDER Louis XIV. Count Frontenac and NEW FRANCE UNDER Ours! KLVes ae + se oR ie Be a A Har-CEentury oF ConFLicT MontcaumM AND WOLFE... . . 1 vol. 2 vols. 1 vol. 1 vol. 1 vol. 1 vol. 1 vol. 2 vols. 2 vols. THE OLD REGIME IN CANADA. FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA. PART FOURTH. THE OLD REGIME IN CANADA. BY FRANCIS PARKMAN, a AUTHOR OF ‘THE OREGON TRAIL,” “THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC,” ‘* PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD,” ‘THE JESUITS IN NORTH AMERICA,” AND “LA SALLE AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT WEST.” REVISED, WITH ADDITIONS. BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1900 ry be Listas Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by FRANCIS PARKMAN, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Copyright, 1893, By Francis PARKMAN. Gniversity ress: JoHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. TO GEORGE EDWARD ELLIS, D.D. My pear Dr. Exuis- When, in my youth, 1 proposed to write a series of books on the French in America, you encouraged the attempt, and your helpful kindness has followed it from that day to this. Pray accept the dedica- tion of this volume in token of the grateful regard of Very faithfully yours, FRANCIS PARKMAN. PREFATORY NOTE TO REVISED EDITION. WuHen this book was written, I was unable to ' gain access to certain indispensable papers relat- ing to the rival claimants to Acadia, La Tour and D’Aunay, and therefore deferred all attempts to treat that subject. The papers having at length come to hand, the missing chapters are supplied in the present edition, which also contains some additional matter of less prominence. The title of “The Old Régime in Canada” is “derived from the third and principal of the three sections into which the book is divided. June 16, 1893. PREFACE. “Tur physiognomy of a government,” says De Tocqueville, “can best be judged in its colonies, for there its characteristic traits usually appear larger and more distinct. When I wish to judge of the spirit and the faults of the administration of Louis XIV., I must go to Canada. Its deform- ity is there seen as through a microscope.” The monarchical administration of France, at the height of its power and at the moment of its supreme triumph, stretched an arm across the Atlantic and grasped the North American conti- nent. This volume attempts to show by what methods it strove to make good its hold, why it achieved a certain kind of success, and why it failed at last. The political system which has fallen, and the antagonistic system which has pre- vailed, seem, at first sight, to offer nothing but contrasts; yet out of the tomb of Canadian abso- lutism come voices not without suggestion even to us. Extremes meet, and Autocracy and Democ- racy often touch hands, at least in their vices. x PREFACE. The means of knowing the Canada of the past are ample. The pen was always busy in this out- post of the old monarchy. The king and the min- ister demanded to know every thing; and officials of high and low degree, soldiers and civilians, friends and foes, poured letters, despatches, and memorials, on both sides of every question, into the lap of government. These masses of paper have in the main survived the perils of revolutions and the incendiary torch of the Commune. Add to them the voluminous records of the Superior Council of Quebec, and numerous other documents preserved in the civil and ecclesiastical depositories of Canada. The governments of New York and of Canada have caused a large part of the papers in the French archives, relating to their early history, to be copied and brought to America, and valuable contributions of material from the same quarter have been made by the State of Massachusetts and by private Canadian investigators. Nevertheless, a great deal has still remained in France, uncopied and unexplored. In the course of several visits to that country, I have availed myself of these sup- plementary papers, as well as of those which had before been copied, sparing neither time nor pains to explore every part of the field. With the help of a system of classified notes, I have collated the evidence of the various writers, and set down PREFACE. xi without reserve all the results of the examination, whether favorable or unfavorable. Some of them are of a character which I regret, since they cannot be agreeable to persons for whom I have a very cordial regard. The conclusions drawn from the facts may be matter of opinion, but it will be remembered that the facts themselves can be overthrown only by overthrowing the evidence on which they rest, or bringing forward counter- evidence of equal or greater strength ; and neither task will be found an easy one.’ I have received most valuable aid in my inqui- ries from the great knowledge and experience of M. Pierre Margry, Chief of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies at Paris. I beg also warmly to acknowledge the kind offices of Abbé Henri Raymond Casgrain and Grand Vicar Cazeau, of Quebec, together with those of James LeMoine, Esq., M. Eugéne Taché, Hon. P. J. O. Chauveau, and other eminent Canadians, and Henry Har- risse, Esq. The few extracts from original documents, which are printed in the appendix, may serve as samples of the material out of which the work has been constructed. In some instances their testimony 1 Those who wish to see the subject from a point of view opposite to mine cannot do better than consult the work of the Jesuit Charlevoix, with the excellent annotation of Mr. Shea. (History and General De- scription of New France, by the Rev. P. F. X. de Charlevoix, S.J., trans- lated with notes by John Gilmary Shea. 6 vols. New York : 1866- 1872.) xii PREFACE. might be multiplied twenty-fold. When the place of deposit of the documents cited in the margin is not otherwise indicated, they will, in nearly all cases, be found in the Archives of the Marine and Colonies. In the present book we examine the political and social machine; in the next volume of the series we shall see this machine in action. Boston, July 1, 1874. CONTENTS. SECTION FIRST. THE FEUDAL CHIEFS OF ACADIA. CHAPTER I. 1497-1648. LA TOUR AND D’AUNAY. Pace The Acadian Quarrel. —Biencourt.— Claude and Charles de la Tour. — Sir William Alexander. — Claude de Razilly. — Charles de Menou d’Aunay Charnisay.— Cape Sable. — Port Royal. — The Heretics of Boston and Plymouth. — Madame de la Tour. — War and Litigation. — La Tour worsted. — He asks help from the Boston Puritans . . 2. . - + + + + © © we ee ow 2 CHAPTER IL 1643-1645. LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. La Tour at Boston.— He meets Winthrop. — Boston in 1643.— Training Day. — An Alarm. — La Tour’s Bargain. — Doubts and Disputes. — The Allies sail. —La Tour and Endicott. —D’Au- nay’s Overture to the Puritans. — Marie’s Mission . . . . ~ 18 CHAPTER III. 1645-1710. THE VICTOR VANQUISHED. D’Aunay’s Envoys. — Their Reception at Boston. — Winthrop and his “ papist ” Guests. — Reconciliation. — Treaty. — Behavior xiv CONTENTS. Pace of La Tour. — Royal Favors to D’Aunay. — His Hopes. — His Death. — His Character. — Conduct of the Court towards him. —Intrigues of La Tour. — Madame D’Aunay. — La Tour marries her. — Children of D’Aunay.— Descendants of La Tour edges 2 ak aly GRAY cada ae tk hv Men Spade asian Ugh pes yee OO: SECTION SECOND. CANADA A MISSION. CHAPTER IV. 1653-1658. THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. The Iroquois War.— Father Poncet. — His Adventures. — Jesuit Boldness. — Le Moyne’s Mission. — Chaumonot and Dablon. — Troquois Ferocity. — The Mohawk Kidnappers. — Critical Posi- tion. — The Colony of Onondaga. — Speech of Chaumonot. — Omens of Destruction. — Device of the Jesuits. — The Medicine Feast.— The Escape . . 1 2 1 1 ee ew th ew ee 61 CHAPTER V. 1642-1661. THE HOLY WARS OF MONTREAL. Dauversiére. — Mance and Bourgeoys. — Miracle. — A Pious De- faulter. — Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Montreal in 1659. — The Hospital Nuns. — The Nuns and the Iroquois. — More Miracles. — The Murdered Priests. — Brigeac and Closse. — Soldiers of the Holy Family ..... EV evi nat Siok 91 CHAPTER VI. 1660, 1661. THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. Suffering and Terror. — Francois Hertel. — The Captive Wolf. — The Threatened Invasion. — Daulac des Ormeaux. — The Ad- venturers at the Long Saut.— The Attack.— A Desperate Defence. — A Final Assault.— The Fort taken . . . ... 1183 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. 1657-1668. THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC. Domestic Strife. — Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Abbé Queylus. — Fran- cois de Laval.— The Zealots of Caen.— Gallican and Ultra- montane. — The Rival Claimants. — Storm at Quebec. — Laval Triumphattiw =. <2 @« 2 2 8 @ eS ee ee ee CHAPTER VIII. 1659, 1660. LAVAL AND ARGENSON. Francois de Laval.— His Position and Character.— Arrival of Argenson. — The Quarrel . CHAPTER IX. 1658-1663. LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR. Reception of Argenson. — His Difficulties. — His Recall. — Dubois d’Avaugour.— The Brandy Quarrel. — Distress of Laval. — Portents.— The Earthquake . . . 2... ee 2 ee CHAPTER X. 1661-1664. LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. Péronne Dumesnil. — The Old Council. — Alleged Murder. — The New Council. — Bourdon and Villeray.— Strong Measures. — Escape of Dumesnil.— Views of Colbert . ....... CHAPTER XI. 1657-1665. LAVAL AND MEZY. The Bishop’s Choice. — A Military Zealot. — Hopeful Beginnings. Signs of Storm. — The Quarrel. — Distress of ee — He Refuses to yield. — His Defeat and Death . . . . Sy PaGE 133 153 165 181 195 XV1 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. 1662-1680. LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY. Pace Laval’s Visit to Court. — The Seminary. — Zeal of the Bishop. — His Eulogists. — Church and State. — Attitude of Laval. . . 209 SECTION THIRD. THE COLONY AND THE KING, CHAPTER XIII. 1661-1665. ROYAL INTERVENTION. Fontainebleau. — Louis XIV. — Colbert. — The Company of the West. — Evil Omens. — Action of the King. — Tracy, Courcelle, and Talon. — The Regiment of Carignan-Salitres.— Tracy at Quebec. — Miracles. —A Holy War . . . . . . + « © ~ 219 CHAPTER XIV. 1666, 1667. THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. Courcelle’s March. — His Failure and Return. — Courcelle and the Jesuits. — Mohawk Treachery. — Tracy’s Expedition. — Burn- ing of the Mohawk Towns. — French and English. — Dollier de Casson at St. Anne. — Peace. — The Jesuits and the Iroquois . 236 CHAPTER XV. 1665-1672. PATERNAL GOVERNMENT. Talon. — Restriction and Monopoly. — Views of Colbert. — Politi- cal Galvanism.— A Father of the People . ..... =. =. 257 CONTENTS. Xvil CHAPTER XVI. 1661-1673. MARRIAGE AND POPULATION. Pace Shipment of Emigrants. — Soldier Settlers. — Importation of Wives. — Wedlock. — Summary Méthods.— The Mothers of Canada. — Bounties on Marriage. — Celibacy Punished.— Boun- ties on Children.— Results . . . . Ba MU Sas ae eof 20D CHAPTER XVIL. 1665-1672. THE NEW HOME. Military Frontier. — The Canadian Settler. — Seignior and Vassal. — Example of Talon.— Plan of Settlement. — Aspect of Canada. — Quebec. — The River Settlements. — Montreal. — THE PIONECTS! ee a ee hw wh ee we we 7 2BT CHAPTER XVIII. 1663-1763. CANADIAN FEUDALISM. Transplantation of Feudalism. — Precautions.— Faith and Homage. — The Seignior. — The Censitaire. — Royal Intervention. — The Gentilhomme.— Canadian Noblesse . . . . . 1. «1 293 CHAPTER XIX. 1663-1763, THE RULERS OF CANADA. Nature of the Government.—The Governor.— The Council. — Courts and Judges.—The Intendant.—His Grievances.—Strong Government. — Sedition and Blasphemy.— Royal Bounty. — Defects and Abuses . . ....... ee ee es 814 XViil CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX. 1663-1678. TRADE AND INDUSTRY. PAGE Trade in Fetters. — The Huguenot Merchants. — Royal Patronage. — The Fisheries. — Cries for Help. — Agriculture. — Manufac- tures. — Arts of Ornament. — Finance. — Card Money. — Repu- diation. — Imposts. — The Beaver Trade. — The Fair at Mon- treal. — Contraband Trade. — A Fatal System. — Trouble and Change. — The Coureurs de Bois. — The Forest. — Letter of Carell) 2: (ead) Sl athe tae we ve a BOS eS cae 889 CHAPTER XXI. 1663-1702. THE MISSIONS. THE BRANDY QUESTION. The Jesuits and the Iroquois. — Mission Villages. — Michillimack- inac. — Father Carheil. — Temperance. — Brandy and the Indians. — Strong Measures. — Disputes. — License and Pro- hibition.— Views of the King.— Trade and the Jesuits . . . 366 CHAPTER XXII. 1663-1763. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. Church and State. — The Bishop and the King. — The King and the Curés. — The New Bishop. — The Canadian Curé. — Ecclesi- - astical Rule. — Saint-Vallier and Denonville.— Clerical Rigor. —Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Courcelle and Chatelain. — The Re- collets.— Heresy and Witchcraft.— Canadian Nuns. — Jeanne Le Ber.— Education. — The Seminary. —Saint Joacnim. — Miracles of Saint Anne.— Canadian Schools . . . . . . . 881 CHAPTER XXIII. 1640-1763. MORALS AND MANNERS. Social Influence of the Troops. —A Petty Tyrant. — Brawls. — Violence and Outlawry. — State of the Population. — Views of CONTENTS. xix Pace Denonville. — Brandy. — Beggary. — The Past and the Present. Inns. — State of Quebec. — Fires. —The Country Parishes. — — Slavery. — Views of La Hontan. — Of Hocquart. —Of Bou- gainville. — Of Kalm.—Of Charlevoix . ....... . 418 CHAPTER XXIV. 1663-1763. CANADIAN ABSOLUTISM. Formation of Canadian Character.— The Rival Colonies. — Eng- land and France. — New England. — Characteristics of Race. — Military Qualities. —The Church. — The English Conquest . 444 APPENDIX. A. La Tourand D’Aunay. . . 2... 1 1 6 we we oe 458 B. The Hermitage ofCaen . . . 2... +. 1 se ee 459 C. Lavaland Argenson . . 2... 1. 1 4 ee @ 2 « 463 D. Péronne Dumesnil. . . . 2... 1 2 ee ew ee 465 HE, Lavaband Mésy. 2... 6 we ee ee % He we ~ 469 F. Marriage and Population. . . . . 1... 2... . 472 G, Chateau Sti Louis . . 6 so ps ww 8 ee ee 4B H. Tradeand Industry ........4.4.242. 6. 478 I. Letter of Father Carheil. . . 2... 1... ww ee 488 J. The Government and the Clergy . . . ...... . 488 K. Canadian Curés. Education. Discipline ..... . 494 INDEX, 6 2&8 4 we ew me we we we We ae we ey 47 1629.] YOUNG LA TOUR. 3 which thenceforth he is usually known. In his distress he lived much like an Indian, roaming the woods with a few followers, and subsisting on fish, game, roots, and lichens. He seems, however, to have found means to build a small fort among the rocks and fogs of Cape Sable. He named it Fort Loméron, and here he appears to have main- tained himself for a time by fishing and the fur trade. Many years before, a French boy of fourteen years, Charles Saint Etienne de la Tour, was brought to Acadia by his father, Claude de la Tour, where he became attached to the service of Biencourt (Poutrincourt), and, as he himself says, served as his ensign and lieutenant. He says, further, that Biencourt on his death left him all his property in Acadia, It was thus, it seems, that La Tour became owner of Fort Loméron and its dependencies at Cape Sable, whereupon he begged the king to give him help against his enemies, especially the English, who, as he thought, meant to seize the country. And he begged also for a commission to command in Acadia for his Majesty. In fact, Sir William Alexander soon tried to dis- possess him and seize his fort. Charles de la Tour’s father had been captured at sea by the privateer Kirke, and carried to England. Here, being a widower, he married a lady of honor of the queen, and, being a Protestant, renounced his French allegiance. 1 La Tour au Roy, 25 July, 1627. 4 LA TOUR AND D’AUNAY. [1629. Alexander made him a baronet of Nova Scotia, a new title which King James had authorized Sir William to confer on persons of consideration aiding him in his work of colonizing Acadia. Alexander now fitted out two ships, with which he sent the elder La Tour to Cape Sable. On arriv- ing, the father, says the story, made the most brilliant offers to his son if he would give up Fort Loméron to the English, to which young La Tour is reported to have answered in a burst of pa- triotism, that he would take no favors except from his sovereign, the king of France. On this, the English are said to have attacked the fort, and to have been beaten off. As the elder La Tour could not keep his promise to deliver the place to the English, they would have no more to do with him, on which his dutiful son offered him an asylum under condition that he should never enter the fort. A house was built for him out- side the ramparts, and here the trader, Nicolas Denys, found him in 1635, It is Denys who tells the above story,’ which he probably got from the younger La Tour, and which, as he tells it, is inconsistent with the known character of its pre- tended hero, who was no model of loyalty to his king, being a chameleon whose principles took the color of his interests. Denys says, further, that the elder La Tour had been invested with the Order of the Garter, and that the same dignity was offered to his son; which is absurd. The truth is, that Sir William Alexander, thinking that 1 Denys, Description géographique et historique. 1630.] THE BROTHERS KIRKE. 5 the two La Tours might be useful to him, made them both baronets of Nova Scotia.’ Young La Tour, while begging Louis XIII. for a commission to command in Acadia, got from Sir William Alexander not only the title of Baronet, but also a large grant of land at and near Cape Sable, to be held as a fief of the Scottish Crown” Again, he got from the French king a grant of land on the river St. John, and, to make assur- ance doubly sure, got leave from Sir William Alexander to occupy it.? This he soon did, and built a fort near the mouth of the river, not far from the present city of St. John. Meanwhile the French had made a lodgment on the rock of Quebec, and not many years after, all North America from Florida to the Arctic cir- cle, and from Newfoundland to the springs of the St. Lawrence, was given by King Louis to the Company of New France, with Richelieu at its head* Sir William Alexander, jealous of this powerful rivalry, caused a private expedition to be fitted out under the brothers Kirke. It suc- ceeded, and the French settlements in Acadia and Canada were transferred by conquest to England. England soon gave them back by the treaty of 1 Grant from Sir William Alexander to Sir Claude de St. Etienne (de la Tour), 30 Nov., 1629. Ibid. to Charles de St. Etienne, Esq., Seigneur de St. Denniscourt and Baigneux, 12 May, 1630. Hazard, State Papers, I. 294, 298. The names of both father and son appear on the list of baronets of Nova Scotia. 2 Patent from Sir William Alexander to Claude and Charles de la Tour, 30 April, 1630. 3 Williamson, History of Maine, I. 246. 4 See Pioneers of France, 429. 6 LA TOUR AND D’AUNAY. (1632. St. Germain,’ and Claude de Razilly, a knight of Malta, was charged to take possession of them in the name of King Louis.’ Full powers were given him over the restored domains, together with grants of Acadian lands for himself.’ Razilly reached Port Royal in August, 1632, with three hundred men, and the Scotch colony planted there by Alexander gave up the place in obedience to an order from the king of England. Unfortunately for Charles de la Tour, Razilly brought with him an officer destined to become La Tour’s worst enemy. This was Charles de Menou d’Aunay Charnisay, a gentleman of birth and character, who acted as his commander’s man of trust, and who, in Razilly’s name, presently took possession of such other feeble English and Scotch settlements as had been begun by Alex- ander or the people of New England along the coasts of Nova Scotia and Maine. This placed the French Crown and the Company of New France in sole possession for a time of the region then called Acadia. When Acadia was restored to France, La Tour’s English title to his lands at Cape Sable became worthless. He hastened to Paris to fortify his position, and, suppressing his dallyings with Eng- 1 Traité de St. Germain en Laye, 29 Mars, 1632, Article 8. For reasons of the restitution, see Pioneers of France, 444, 445. 2 Convention avec le Sieur de Razilly pour aller recevoir la Restitution du Port Royal, ete., 27 Mars, 1682. Commission du Sieur de Razilly, 10 May, 1632. 8 Concession de la rivitre et baye Saincte Croix a M. de Razilly, 29 May, 1632. 1685.] THE TWO RIVALS. 1 land and Sir William Alexander, he succeeded not only in getting an extensive grant of lands at Cape Sable, but also the title of leutenant-general for the king in Fort Loméron and its dependencies,’ and commander at Cape Sable for the Company of New France. Razilly, who represented the king in Acadia, died in 1635, and left his authority to D’Aunay Charnisay, his relative and second in command. D’Aunay made his headquarters at Port Royal, and nobody disputed his authority except La Tour, who pretended to be independent of him in virtue of his commission from the Crown and his grant from the Company. Hence rose dissensions that grew at last into war. The two rivals differed widely in position and qualities. Charles de Menou, Seigneur d’Aunay Charnisay, came of an old and distinguished . family of Touraine,’ and he prided himself above all things on his character of gentilhomme frangais. Charles Saint Etienne de la Tour was of less con- spicuous lineage? In fact, his father, Claude de la 1 Revocation de la Commission du Sieur Charles de Saint Etienne, Sieur dela Tour, 23 Fév., 1641. 2 The modern representative of this family, Comte Jules de Menou, is the author of a remarkable manuscript book, written from family papers and official documents, and entitled L’Acadie colonisée par Charles de Menou d’Aunay Charnisay. I have followed Comte de Menou’s spelling of the name. It is often written D’Aulnay, and by New England writers D’Aulney. The manuscript just mentioned is in my possession. Comte “de Menou is also the author of a printed work called Preuwves de l’ Histowre de la Maison de Menou. 3 The true surname of La Tour’s family, which belonged to the neighborhood of Evreux, in Normandy, was Turgis. The designation of La Tour was probably derived from the name of some family estate, after a custom common in France under the old régime. The Turgis’s arms were “ d’or au chevron de sable, accompagné de trois palmes de méme.” 8 LA TOUR AND D’AUNAY. [1635- Tour, is said by his enemies to have been at one time so reduced in circumstances that he carried on the trade of a mason in Rue St. Germain at Paris. The son, however, is called gentilhomme dune nais- sance distinguée, both in papers of the court and in a legal document drawn up in the interest of his children. As he came to Acadia when a boy he could have had little education, and both he and D’Aunay carried on trade, which in France would have derogated from their claims as gentle- men, though in America the fur trade was not held inconsistent with nodlesse. Of La Tour’s little kingdom at Cape Sable, with its rocks, fogs, and breakers, its seal-haunted islets and iron-bound shores guarded by Fort Loméron, we have but dim and uncertain glimpses. After the death of Biencourt, La Tour is said to have - roamed the woods with eighteen or twenty men, “living a vagabond life with no exercise of re- ligion.”? He himself admits that he was forced to live like the Indians, as did Biencourt before him? Better times had come, and he was now commander of Fort Loméron, or, as he called it, Fort La Tour, with a few Frenchmen and abun- dance of Micmac Indians. His next neighbor was the adventurer Nicolas Denys, who with a view to the timber trade had settled himself with twelve men on a small river a few leagues distant. Here Razilly had once made him a visit, and was enter- tained under a tent of boughs with a sylvan feast of wild pigeons, brant, teal, woodcock, snipe, and * Menou, L’Acndie colonisée par Charles de Menou d’ Aunay Charnisay. 2 La Tour au Roy, 25 Juillet, 1627. 1641.] PORT ROYAL. 9 larks, cheered by profuse white wine and claret, and followed by a dessert of wild raspberries.’ On the other side of the Acadian peninsula D’Aunay reigned at Port Royal like a feudal lord, which in fact he was. Denys, who did not like him, says that he wanted only to rule, and treated his settlers like slaves; but this, even if true at the time, did not always remain so. D’Aunay went to France in 1641, and brought out, at his own charge, twenty families to people his seign- iory2 He had already brought out a wife, having espoused Jeanne Molin or Motin, daughter of the Seigneur de Courcelles. What with old set- tlers and new, about forty families were gathered at Port Royal and on the river Annapolis, and over these D’Aunay ruled like a feudal Robinson Crusoe. He gave each colonist a farm charged with a perpetual rent of one sou an arpent, or French acre. The houses of the settlers were log cabins, and the manor-house of their lord was a larger building of the same kind. The most press- ing need was of defence, and D’Aunay lost no time in repairing and reconstructing the old fort on the point between Allen’s River and the Annapolis. He helped his tenants at their work, and his con- fessor describes him as returning to his rough manor-house on a wet day, drenched with rain and bespattered with mud, but in perfect good humor, after helping some of the inhabitants to mark out 1 Denys, Description géographique et historique. 2 Rameau, Une Colonie feodale en Amérique, I. 93 (ed. 1889). § Jbid., I. 96, 97. 10 LA TOUR AND D’AUNAY. (1641. a field. The confessor declares that during the eleven months of his acquaintance with him he never heard him speak ill of anybody whatever, a statement which must probably be taken with allowance. Yet this proud scion of a noble stock seems to have given himself with good grace to the rough labors of the frontiersman, while Father Ignace, the Capuchin friar, praises him for the merit, transcendent in clerical eyes, of constant attendance at mass and frequent confession.’ With his neighbors, the Micmac Indians, he was on the best of terms. He supplied their needs, and they brought him the furs that enabled him in some measure to bear the heavy charges of an establishment that could not for many years be self-supporting. In a single year the Indians are said to have brought three thousand moose skins to Port Royal, besides beaver and other valuable furs. Yet, from a commercial point of view, D’Aunay did not prosper. He had sold or mortgaged his estates in France, borrowed large sums, built ships, bought cannon, levied soldiers, and brought over immigrants. He is reported to have had three hundred fighting men at his principal station, and sixty cannon mounted on his ships and forts; for besides Port Royal he had two or three smaller establishments.2 Port Royal was a scene for an artist, with its 1 Lettre du Pére Ignace de Paris, Capucin, 6 Aoust, 1658. ? Certificat & Peyard de M. @Aunay Charnisay, signé Michel Boudrot, Lieutenant Général en VAcadie, et autres, anciens habitans au pays, 5 Oct., 1687. Lettre du Roy de gouverneur et lieutenant général es costes de |’ Acadie pour Charles de Menou, Sieur @ Aulnay Charnisay, Fev., 1647. 1642.} A FEUD BEGUN. 11 fort, its soldiers in breastplate and morion, armed with pike, halberd, or matchlock, its manor-house of logs, and its seminary of like construction, its twelve Capuchin friars, with cowled heads, san- dalled feet, and the cord of Saint Francis; the birch canoes of Micmac and Abenaki Indians lying along the strand, and their feathered and painted owners lounging about the place or dozing around their wigwam fires. It was medisevalism married to primeval savagery. The friars were supported by a fund supplied by Richelieu, and their chief business was to convert the Indians into vassals of France, the Church, and the Chevalier d’Aunay. Hard by was a wooden chapel, where the seignior knelt in dutiful observance of every rite, and where, under a stone chiselled with his ancient scutcheon, one of his children lay buried. In the fort he had not forgotten to provide a dungeon for his enemies. The worst of these was Charles dela Tour. Be- fore the time of Razilly and his successor, D’Aunay, La Tour had felt himself the chief man in Acadia; but now he was confronted by a rival higher in rank, superior in resources and court influence, proud, ambitious, and masterful.! He was bitterly jealous of D’Aunay, and, to strengthen himself against so formidable a neighbor, he got from the Company of New France the grant of a tract of land at the mouth of the river St. John, where he built a fort and called it after his own name, 1 Besides succeeding to the authority of Razilly, D’Aunay had bought of his heirs their land claims in Acadia. Arréts du Conseil, 9 Mars, 1642. 12 LA TOUR AND D’AUNAY. [1642. though it was better known as Fort St. Jean. Thither he removed from his old post at Cape Sable, and Fort St. Jean now became his chief station. It confronted its rival, Port Royal, across the intervening Bay of Fundy. Now began a bitter feud between the two chiefs, each claiming lands occupied by the other. The Court interposed to settle the dispute, but in its ignorance of Acadian geography its definitions were so obscure that the question was more em- broiled than ever.’ While the domestic feud of the rivals was gath- ering to a head, foreign heretics had fastened their clutches on various parts of the Atlantic coast which France and the Church claimed as their own. English heretics had made lodgment in Virginia, and Dutch heretics at the mouth of the Hudson, while other sectaries of the most malig- nant type had kennelled among the sands and pine trees of Plymouth, and others still, slightly different, but equally venomous, had ensconced _ themselves on or near the small peninsula of Shawmut, at the head of La Grande Baye, or the Bay of Massachusetts. As it was not easy to dislodge them, the French dissembled for the present, yielded to the logic of events, and bided 1 Concession de la Compagnie dela Nouvelle France a Charles de Saint- Etienne, Sieur dela Tour, Lieutenant Général del’ Acadie, du Fort dela Tour, dans la Riviére de St. Jean, du 15 Janvier, 1635, in Mémoires des Commis- saires, V. 118 (ed. 1756, 12mo). 2 Louis XIII & d’Aunay, 10 Fev., 1688. This seems to be the occa- sion of Charlevoix’s inexact assertion that Acadia was divided into three governments, under D’Aunay, La Tour, and Nicolas Denys, respectively. The title of Denys, such as it was, had no existence till 1654. 1633-42.] ENGLISH INTERLOPERS. 13 their time. But the interlopers soon began to swarm northward and invade the soil of Acadia, sacred to God and the king. Small parties from Plymouth built trading-houses at Machias and at what is now Castine, on the Penobscot. As they were competitors in trade, no less than foes of God and King Louis, and as they were too few to resist, both La Tour and D’ Aunay resolved to expel them ; and in 1633 La Tour attacked the Plymouth trading-house at Machias, killed two of the five men he found there, carried off the other three, and seized all the goods.'| Two years later D’Aunay attacked the Plymouth trading station at Penob- scot, the Pentegoet of the French, and took it in the name of King Louis. That he might not ap- pear in the part of a pirate, he set a price on the goods of the traders and then, having seized them, gave in return his promise to pay at some con- venient time if the owners would come to him for the money. He had called on La Tour to help him in this raid against Penobscot, but La Tour, unwilling to recognize his right to command, had refused. He had hoped that D’Aunay, becoming disgusted with his Acadian venture, which promised neither honor nor profit, would give it up, go back to France, and stay there. About the year 1638 D’Aunay did in fact go to France, but not to stay, for in due time he reappeared, bringing with him his bride, Jeanne Motin, who had had the courage to share his fortunes, and whom he now installed at 1 Hubbard, History of New England, 163. 14 LA TOUR AND D’AUNAY. [1638-49. Port Royal, a sure sign, as his rival thought, that he meant to make his home there. Disappointed and angry, La Tour now lost patience, went to Port Royal, and tried to stir D’Aunay’s soldiers to mutiny; then set on his Indian friends to attack a boat in which was one of D’Aunay’s soldiers and a Capuchin friar, the soldier being killed, though the friar escaped. This was the begin- ning of a quarrel waged partly at Port Royal and St. Jean, and partly before the admiralty court of Guienne and the royal council, partly with bullets and cannon shot, and partly with edicts, decrees, and proces verbaux. As D’Aunay had taken a wife, so too would La Tour, and he charged his agent Desjardins to bring him one from France. The agent acquitted himself of his delicate mission, and shipped to Acadia one Marie Jacquelin, daughter of a barber of Mans, if we may believe the ques- tionable evidence of his rival. Be this as it may, Marie Jacquelin proved a prodigy of mettle and energy, espoused her husband’s cause with pas- sionate vehemence, and backed his quarrel like the intrepid Amazon she was. She joined La Tour at Fort St. Jean, and proved the most strenuous of allies. About this time D’Aunay heard that the Eng- lish of Plymouth meant to try to recover Pengb- scot from his hands. On this he sent nine soldiers thither with provisions and munitions. La Tour seized them on the way, carried them to Fort St. Jean, and, according to his enemies, treated them ’ 1 Menon, L’Acadie colonisée par Charles de Menou d’Aunay. 1642.] LA TOUR CONDEMNED. 15 like slaves. D’Aunay heard nothing of this till four months after, when, being told of it by In- dians, he sailed in person to Penobscot with two small vessels, reinforced the place, and was on his way back to Port Royal when La Tour met him with two armed pinnaces. A fight took place and one of D’Aunay’s vessels was dismasted. He fought so well, however, that Captain Jamin, his enemy’s chief officer, was killed, and the rest, in- cluding La Tour, his new wife, and his agent Des- jardins were forced to surrender, and were carried prisoners to Port Royal. At the request of the Capuchin friars D’Aunay set them all at liberty, after compelling La Tour to sign a promise to keep the peace in future.' Both parties now laid their cases before the French -courts, and, whether from the justice of his cause or from superior influence, D’Aunay prevailed. La Tour’s commission was revoked, and he was or- dered to report himself in France to receive the king’s commands. Trusting to his remoteness from the seat of power, and knowing that the king was often ill served and worse informed, he did not obey, but remained in Acadia exercising his author- ity as before. D’Aunay’s father, from his house in Rue St. Germain, watched over his son’s inter- ests, and took care that La Tour’s conduct should not be unknown at court. A decree was there- upon issued directing D’Aunay to seize his rival’s forts in the name of the king, and place them in charge of trusty persons. The order was precise, ~ 1 Menou, L’Acadie colonisée par Charles de Menou a’ Aunay. 16 “LA TOUR AND D’AUNAY. [1642. but D’Aunay had not at the time force enough to execute it, and the frugal king sent him only six soldiers. Hence he could only show the royal order to La Tour and offer him a passage to France in one of his vessels if he had the discretion to obey. La Tour refused, on which D’Aunay re- turned to France to report his rival’s contumacy. At about the same time La Tour’s French agent sent him a vessel with succors. The king ordered it to be seized; but the order came too late, for the vessel had already sailed from Rochelle bound to Fort St. Jean. When D’Aunay reported the audacious conduct of his enemy, the royal council ordered that the offender. should be brought prisoner to France,}! and D’Aunay, as the king’s lieutenant-general in Acadia, was again required to execute the decree. La Tour was now in the position of a rebel, and all legality was on the side of his enemy, who repre- sented royalty itself. D’Aunay sailed at once for Acadia, and in Au- gust, 1642, anchored at the mouth of the St. John, before La Tour’s fort, and sent three gentlemen in a boat to read to its owner the decree of the coun- eil and the order of the king. La Tour snatched the papers, crushed them between his hands, abused the envoys roundly, put them and their four sailors into prison, and kept them there above a year.® 1 Arrét du Conseil, 21 Fév., 1642. 2 Menou, L’Acadie colonisée. 3 Menou, L’Acadie colonisée. Moreau, Histoire de l’ Acadie, 169, 170. 1648] LA TOUR SAILS FOR BOSTON. 17 His position was now desperate, for he had placed himself in open revolt. Alarmed for the consequences, he turned for help to the heretics of Boston. True Catholics detested them as foes of God and man, but La Tour was neither true Catho- lic nor true Protestant, and would join hands with anybody who could serve his turn. Twice before he had made advances to the Boston malignants, and sent to them first one Rochet, and then one Lestang, with proposals of trade and alliance. The envoyswere treated with courtesy, but could get no promise of active aid.t La Tour’s agent, Desjardins, had sent him from Rochelle a ship, called the St. Clement, manned by a hundred and forty Huguenots, laden with stores and munitions, and commanded by Captain Mouron. In due time La Tour at his Fort St. Jean heard that the St. Clement lay off the mouth of the river, unable to get in because D’Aunay blockaded the entrance with two armed ships and a pinnace. On this he resolved to appeal in per- son to the heretics. He ran the blockade in a small boat under cover of night, and, accompanied by his wife, boarded the St. Clement and sailed for Boston.’ 1 Hubbard, History of New England, chap. liv. Winthrop, ITI. 42, 88. 2 Menon, L’ Acadie colonisée. CHAPTER II. 1643-1645. LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. La Tour at Boston.— His Meetinc wita Wriyturop. — Boston In 1643. — Training Day. — An ALArmM. — La Tour’s Barcarn. — Dousts ann Disputes. — Tue ALLies saiv. — LA Tour ano Enpicort. — D’Aunay’s OVERTURE TO THE PurITANS. — MaRIE’s Mission. On the 12th of June, 1643, the people of the infant town of Boston saw with some misgiving a French ship entering their harbor. It chanced that the wife of Captain Edward Gibbons, with her children, was on her way in a boat to a farm belonging to her husband on an island in the harbor. One of La Tour’s party, who had before made a visit to Boston, and had been the guest of Gibbons, recognized his former hostess, and he, with La Tour and a few sailors, cast off from the ship and went to speak to her in a boat that was towed at the stern of the St. Clement. Mrs. Gib- bons, seeing herself chased by a crew of outland- ish foreigners, took refuge on the island where Fort Winthrop was afterwards built, which was then known as the “Governor’s Garden,” as it had an orchard, a vineyard, and “many other conveniences.” * The islands in the harbor, most 1 Wood, New England’s Prospect, Part I. chap. x. 1613.] LA TOUR AND WINTHROP. 19 of which were at that time well wooded, seem to have been favorite places of cultivation, as sheep and cattle were there safe from those pests of the mainland, the wolves. La Tour, no doubt to the dismay of Mrs. Gibbons and her children, landed after them, and was presently met by the governor himself, who, with his wife, two sons, and a daugh- ter-in-law, had apparently rowed over to their garden for the unwonted recreation of an after- noon’s outing. La Tour made himself known to the governor, and, after mutual civilities, told him that a ship bringing supplies from France had been stopped by his enemy, D’Aunay, and that he had come to ask for help to raise the blockade and bring her to his fort. Winthrop replied that, be- fore answering, he must consult the magistrates. As Mrs. Gibbons and her children were anxious to get home, the governor sent them to town in his own boat, promising to follow with his party in that of La Tour, who had placed it at his disposal. Meanwhile, the people of Boston had heard of what was taking place, and were in some anxiety, since, in a truly British distrust of all French- men, they feared lest their governor might be . kidnapped and held for ransom. Some of them accordingly took arms, and came in three boats to the rescue. In fact, remarks Winthrop, “if La Tour had been ill-minded towards us, he had such an opportunity as we hope neither he nor any other shall ever have the like again.”’® The castle, or fort, which was on another island hard by, was defenceless, its feeble garrison having been lately 1 Winthrop, IL. 107. i 2 Thid. 20 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. [1643. withdrawn, and its cannon might easily have been turned on the town. Boston, now in its thirteenth year, was a strag- gling village, with houses principally of boards or logs, gathered about a plain wooden meeting-house which formed the heart or vital organ of the place. The rough peninsula on which the infant settle- ment stood was almost void of trees, and was crowned by a hill split into three summits, whence the name of Tremont, or Trimount, still retained by _a street of the present city. Beyond the narrow neck of the peninsula were several smaller villages with outlying farms; but the mainland was for the most part a primeval forest, possessed by its original owners, wolves, bears, and rattlesnakes. These last undesirable neighbors made their favor- ite haunt on a high rocky hill, called Rattlesnake Hill, not far inland, where, down to the present generation, they were often seen, and where good specimens may occasionally be found to this day. Far worse than wolves or rattlesnakes were the Pequot Indians, a warlike race who had boasted that they would wipe the whites from the face of the earth, but who, by hard marching and fight- ing, had lately been brought to reason. Worse than wolves, rattlesnakes, and Indians together were the theological quarrels that threat- ened to kill the colony in its infancy. Children are tanght that the Puritans came to New Eng- land in search of religious liberty. The liberty 1 Blue Hill in Milton. “Up into the country is a high hill which is called rattlesnake hill, where there is great store of these poysonous cveatures.” (Wood, New England’s Prospect.) “ They [the wolves] be the greatest inconveniency the country hath.” (Ibid.) 1643.] PURITAN TROUBLES. 21 they sought was for themselves alone. It was the liberty to worship in their own way, and to prevent all others from doing the like. They imagined that they held a monopoly of religious truth, and were bound in conscience to defend it against all comers. Their mission was to build up a western Canaan, ruled by the law of God, to keep it pure from error, and, if need were, purge it of heresy by persecution; to which ends they set up one of the most detestable theocracies on record. Church and state were joined in one. Church members alone had the right to vote. There was no choice but to remain politically a cipher, or embrace, or pretend to embrace, the extremest dogmas of Calvin. Never was such a premium offered to cant and hypocrisy; yet in the early days hypocrisy was rare, so intense and "pervading was the faith of the founders of New England. It was in the churches themselves, the appointed sentinels and defenders of orthodoxy, that heresy lifted its head and threatened the state with dis- ruption. Where minds different in complexion and character were continually busied with subtle questions of theology, unity of opinion could not be long maintained; and innovation found a cham- pion in one Mrs. Hutchinson, a woman of great controversial ability and inexhaustible fluency of tongue. Persons of a mystical turn of mind, or a natural inclination to contrariety, were drawn to her preachings, and the church of Boston, with three or four exceptions, went over to her 22 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. [1643. inabody. “Sanctification,” “ justification,” “ rev- elations,” the “covenant of grace,” and the “cov-_ enant of works,” mixed in furious battle with all the subtleties, sophistries, and venom of theo- logical war, while the ghastly spectre of Antino- mianism hovered over the fray, carrying terror to the souls of the faithful. The embers of the strife still burned hot when La Tour appeared to bring another firebrand. As a “papist” or “idolater,” though a mild one, he was sorely prejudiced in Puritan eyes, while his plundering of the Plymouth trading- house some years before, and killing two of its five tenants, did not tend to produce impressions in his favor; but it being explained that all five were drunk, and had begun the fray by firing on the French, the ire against him cooled a little. . Landing with Winthrop, he was received under the hospitable roof of Captain Gibbons, whose wife had recovered from her fright at his approach. He went to church on Sunday, and the gravity of his demeanor gave great satisfaction, a solemn carriage being of itself a virtue in Puritan eyes. Hence he was well treated, and his men were per- mitted to come ashore daily in small numbers. The stated training day of the Boston militia fell in the next week, and La Tour asked leave to ex- ercise his soldiers with the rest. This was granted, and, escorted by the Boston trained band, about forty of them marched to the muster field, which was probably the Common, a large tract of pasture land in which was a marshy pool, the former home 1643.] “ TRAINING DAY.” 23 of a colony of frogs, perhaps not quite extermi- nated by the sticks and stones of Puritan boys. This pool, cleaned, paved, and curbed with granite, preserves to this day the memory of its ancient inhabitants, and is still the Frog Pond, though bereft of frogs. The Boston trained band, in steel caps and buff coats, went through its exercise, and the visitors, we are told, expressed high approval. When the drill was finished, the Boston officers invited La Tour’s officers to dine, while his rank and file were entertained in like manner by the Puritan soldiers. There were more exercises in the afternoon, and this time it was the turn of the French, who, says Winthrop, ‘‘ were very expert in all their postures and motions.” A certain “judicious minister,” in dread of popish conspiracies, was troubled in spirit at this martial display, and prophesied that “ store of blood would be spilled in Boston,” a prediction that was not fulfilled, although an incident took place which startled some of the spectators. The Frenchmen suddenly made a sham charge, sword in hand, which the women took for a real one. The alarm was soon over; and as this demonstra- tion ended the performance, La Tour asked leave of the governor to withdraw his men to their ship. The leave being granted, they fired a salute and marched to the wharf where their boat lay, escorted, as before, by the Boston trained band. During the whole of La Tour’s visit he and Winthrop went amicably to church together every Sunday, the governor being attended, on these 24 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. (1643. and all other occasions while the strangers were in town, by a guard of honor of musketeers and hal- berd men. La Tour and his chief officers had their lodging and meals in the houses of the principal townsmen, and all seemed harmony and good will. La Tour, meanwhile, had laid his request be- fore the magistrates, and produced among other papers the commission to Mouron, captain of his ship, dated in the last April, and signed and sealed by the vice-admiral of France, authorizing Mouron to bring supplies to La Tour, whom the paper styled lieutenant-general for the king in Acadia ; La Tour also showed a letter, genuine or forged, from the agent of the Company of New France, addressed to him as lieutenant-general, and warn- ing him to beware of D’Aunay: from all which the Boston magistrates inferred that their peti- tioner was on good terms with the French gov- ernment,! notwithstanding a letter sent them by D’Aunay the year before, assuring them that La Tour was a proclaimed rebel, which in fact he was. Throughout this affair one is perplexed by the French official papers, whose entanglements and contradictions in regard to the Acadian rivals are past unravelling. La Tour asked only for such help as would en- able him to bring his own ship to his own fort, and, as his papers seemed to prove that he was a ! Count Jules de Menou, in his remarkable manuscript book now before me, expresses his belief that the commission of the vice-admiral was genuine, but that the letter of the agent of the Company wasa fabrication. 1643.] LA TOUR'S BARGAIN. 25 recognized officer of his king, Winthrop and the magistrates thought that they might permit him to hire such ships and men as were disposed to join him. _La Tour had tried to pass himself as a Protes- tant, but his professions were distrusted, notwith- standing the patience with which he had listened to the long-winded sermons of the Reverend John Cotton. As to his wife, however, there appears to have been but one opinion. She was approved as a sound Protestant “ of excellent virtues;”’ and her denunciations of D’Aunay no doubt fortified the prejudice which was already strong against him for his seizure of the Plymouth trading-house at Penobscot, and for his aggressive and master- ful character, which made him an inconvenient neighbor. With the permission of the governor and the approval of most of the magistrates, La Tour now made a bargain with his host, Captain Gibbons, and a merchant named Thomas Hawkins. They agreed to furnish him with four vessels; to arm each of these-with from four to fourteen small cannon, and man them with a certain number of sailors, La Tour himself completing the crews with Englishmen hired at his own charge. Hawkins was to command the whole. The four vessels were to escort La Tour and his ship, the St. Clement, te the mouth of the St. John, in spite of D’Aunay and all other opponents. The agreement ran for two months, and La Tour was to pay £250 sterling a month for the use of the four ships, and mort- 26 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. [1643. gage to Gibbons and Hawkins his fort and all his Acadian property as security. Winthrop would give no commissions to Hawkins or any others engaged in the expedition, and they were all fore bidden to fight except in self-defence; but the agreement contained the significant clause that all plunder was to be equally divided according to rule in such enterprises. Hence it seems clear that the contractors had an eye to booty; yet no means were used to hold them to their good behavior. Now rose a brisk dispute, and the conduct of Winthrop was sharply criticised. Letters poured in upon him concerning “great dangers,’ “ sin upon the conscience,” and the like. He himself was clearly in doubt as to the course he was tak- ing, and he soon called another meeting of magis- trates, in which the inevitable clergy were invited to join; and they all fell to discussing the matter anew. As every man of them had studied the Bible daily from childhood up, texts were the chief weapons of the debate. Doubts were advanced as to whether Christians could lawfully help idol- aters, and Jehoshaphat, Ahab, and Josias were brought forward as cases in point. Then Solomou was cited to the effect that “he that meddleth with the strife that belongs not to him takes a dog by the ear;” to which it was answered that the quarrel did belong to us, seeing that Providence now offered us the means to weaken our enemy, D’Aunay, without much expense or trouble to our- selves, Besides, we ought to help a neighbor in 1643.] WINTHROP BLAMED. 27 distress, seeing that Joshua helped the Gibeonites, and Jehoshaphat helped Jehoram against Moab with the approval of Elisha. The opposing party argued that “by aiding papists we advance and strengthen popery ;” to which it was replied that the opposite effect might follow, since the grateful papist, touched by our charity, might be won to the true faith and turned from his idols. Then the debate continued on the more worldly grounds of expediency and statecraft, and at last Winthrop’s action was approved by the majority. Still, there were many doubters, and the governor was severely blamed. John Endicott wrote to him that La Tour was not to be trusted, and that he and D’Aunay had better be left to fight it out between them, since if we help the former to put down his enemy he will be a bad neighbor to us. Presently came a joint letter from several chief men of the colony, Saltonstall, Bradstreet, Na- thaniel Ward, John Norton, and others, saying in substance: We fear international law has been ill observed; the merits of the case are not clear; we are not called upon in charity to help La Tour (see 2 Chronicles xix. 2, and Proverbs xxvi. 17); this quarrel is for England and France, and not for us; if D’Aunay is not completely put down, we shall have endless trouble; and “he that loses his life in an unnecessary quarrel dies the devil’s martyr.” This letter, known as the “Ipswich letter,” touched Winthrop to the quick. He thought that it trenched on his official dignity, and the asperity 28 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. [1643. of his answer betrays his sensitiveness. He calls the remonstrance “ an act of an exorbitant nature,” and says that it “ blows a trumpet to division and dissension.” “If my neighbor is in trouble,” he goes on to say, “I must help him;” he main- tains that “there is great difference between giv- ing permission to hire to guard or transport, and giving commission to fight,” and he adds the usual Bible text, “The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” * In spite of Winthrop’s reply, the Ipswich letter had great effect, and he and the Boston magis- trates were much blamed, especially in the coun- try towns. The governor was too candid not to admit that he had been in fault, though he limits his self-accusation to three points: first, that he had given La Tour an answer too hastily; next, that he had not sufficiently consulted the elders or ministers; and lastly, that he had not opened the discussion with prayer. The upshot was that La Tour and his allies sailed on the 14th of July. D’Aunay’s three ves- sels fled before them to Port Royal. La Tour tried to persuade his Puritan friends to join him in an attack; but Hawkins, the English commander, would give no order to that effect, on which about thirty of the Boston men volunteered for the adven- ture. D’Aunay’s followers had ensconced them- 1 Winthrop’s Answer to the Ipswich Letter about La Tour (no date), in Hutchinson Papers, 122. Bradstreet writes to him on the 21st of June, “Our ayding of Latour was very grievous to many hereabouts, the design being feared to be unwarrantable by dyvers.” 1644] _ JOHN ENDICOTT. 29 selves in a fortified mill, whence they were driven with some loss. After burning the mill and rob- bing a pinnace loaded with furs, the Puritans returned home, having broken their orders and compromised their colony. In the next summer, La Tour, expecting a serious attack from D’Aunay, who had lately been to France, and was said to be on his way back with large reinforcements, turned again to Massa- chusetts for help. The governor this time was John Endicott, of Salem. To Salem the suppliant repaired, and as Endicott spoke French the con- ference was easy. The rugged bigot had before expressed his disapproval of “ having anything to do with these idolatrous French;” but, according to Hubbard, he was so moved with compassion at the woful tale of his visitor that he called a meet- ing of magistrates and ministers to consider if any- thing could be done for him, The magistrates had by this time learned caution, and the meeting would do nothing but write a letter to D’Aunay, demanding satisfaction for his seizure of Penobscot and other aggressions, and declaring that the men who escorted La Tour to his fort in the last sum- mer had no commission from Massachusetts, yet that if they had wronged him he should have justice, though if he seized any New England trading vessels they would hold him answerable. In short, La Tour’s petition was not granted. D’Aunay, when in France, had pursued his liti- gation against his rival, and the royal council had ordered that the contumacious La Tour should be 30 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. (1644, seized, his goods confiscated, and he himself brought home a prisoner; which decree D’Aunay was em- - — powered to execute, if he could. He had returned to Acadia the accredited agent of the royal will. It was reported at Boston that a Biscayan pirate had sunk his ship on the way; but the wish was father to the thought, and the report proved false. D’Aunay arrived safely, and was justly incensed at the support given by the Puritans in the last year tohisenemy. But he too had strong reasons for wishing to be on good terms with his heretic neighbors. King Louis, moreover, had charged him not to offend them, since, when they helped La Tour, they had done so in the belief that he was commissioned as lieutenant-general for the king, and therefore they should be held blameless. Hence D’Aunay made overtures of peace and friendship to the Boston Puritans. Early in Oc- tober, 1644, they were visited by one Monsieur Marie, “ supposed,” says the chronicle, “to be a friar, but habited like a gentleman.” He was probably one of the Capuchins who formed an important part of D’Aunay’s establishment at Port Royal. The governor and magistrates received him with due consideration; and along with cre- dentials from D’Aunay he showed them papers under the great seal of France, wherein the decree of the royal council was set forth in full, La Tour condemned as a rebel and traitor, and orders given to arrest both him and his wife. Henceforth there was no room to doubt which of the rival chiefs had the king and the law on his side. The envoy, 1644.] MARIE’S MISSION. 31 while complaining of the aid given to La Tour, offered terms of peace to the governor and magis- trates, who replied to his complaints with their usual subterfuge, that they had given no commis- sion to those who had aided La Tour, declaring at the same time that they could make no treaty without the concurrence of the commissioners of the United Colonies. They then desired Marie to set down his proposals in writing, on which he went to the house of one Mr. Fowle, where he lodged, and drew up in French his plan for a treaty, add- ing the proposal that the Bostonians should join D’Aunay against La Tour. Then he came back to the place of meeting and discussed the subject for half a day, sometimes in Latin with the magis- trates, and sometimes in French with the governor, that old soldier being probably ill versed in the classic tongues. In vain they all urged that D’Au- nay should come to terms with La Tour. Marie replied, that if La Tour would give himself up his life would be spared, but that if he were caught he would lose his head as a traitor; adding that his wife was worse than he, being the mainspring of his rebellion. Endicott and the magistrates re- fused active alliance; but the talk ended in a pro- visional treaty of peace, duly drawn up in Latin, Marie keeping one copy and the governor the other. The agreement needed ratification by the commissioners of the United Colonies on one part, and by D’Aunay on the other. What is most curious in the affair is the attitude of Massachu- setts, which from first to last figures as an inde- 32 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. _ [1644. pendent state, with no reference to the king under whose charter it was building up its theocratic republic, and consulting none but the infant con- federacy of the New England colonies, of which it was itself the head. As the commissioners of the confederacy were not then in session, Endicott and the magistrates took the matter provisionally into their own hands. Marie had made good despatch, for he reached Boston on a Friday and left it on the next Tuesday, having finished his business in about three days, or rather two, as one of the three was “ the Sab- bath.” He expressed surprise and gratification at the attention and courtesy with which he had been treated. His hosts supplied him with horses, and some of them accompanied him to Salem, where he had left his vessel, and whence he sailed for Port Royal, well pleased. Just before he came to Boston, that town had received a visit from Madame de la Tour, who, soon after her husband’s successful negotiation with Winthrop in the past year, had sailed for France in the ship St. Clement. She had labored strenuously in La Tour’s cause; but the influence of D’Aunay’s partisans was far too strong, and, being charged with complicity in her husband’s misconduct, she was forbidden to leave France on pain of death. She set the royal command at naught, escaped to England, took passage in a ship bound for America, and after long delay landed at Boston. The English shipmaster had bargained to carry her to her husband at Fort St. Jean; but he 1645.] AN ENRAGED AMAZON. 33 broke his bond, and was sentenced by the Mas- sachusetts courts to pay her £2,000 as damages. She was permitted to hire three armed vessels then lying in the harbor, to convey her to Fort St. Jean, where she arrived safely and rejoined La Tour. Meanwhile, D’Aunay was hovering off the coast, armed with the final and conclusive decree of the royal council, which placed both husband and wife under the ban, and enjoined him to execute its sentence. But a resort to force was costly and of doubtful result, and D’Aunay resolved again to try the effect of persuasion. Approaching the mouth of the St. John, he sent to the fort two _ boats, commanded by his lieutenant, who carried letters from his chief promising to La ‘Tour’s men pardon for their past conduct and payment of all wages due them if they would return to their duty. An adherent of D’Aunay declares that they received these advances with insults and curses. It was a little before this time that Madame de la Tour arrived from Boston. The same writer says that she fell into a transport of fury, “ behaved like one possessed with a devil,” and heaped contempt on the Catholic faith in the presence of her husband, who approved every- thing she did; and he further affirms that she so berated and reviled the Récollet friars in the fort that they refused to stay, and set out for Port Royal in the depth of winter, taking with them eight soldiers of the fort who were too good Cath- olics to remain in such a nest of heresy and re- 3 34 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. [1645. bellion. They were permitted to go, and provided with an old pinnace and two barrels of Indian corn, with which, unfortunately for La Tour, they safely reached their destination. On her arrival from Boston, Madame de la Tour had given her husband a piece of pclitic advice. Her enemies say that she had some time before renounced her faith to gain the favor of the Puri- tans; but there is reason to believe that she had been a Huguenot from the first. She now advised La Tour to go to Boston, declare himself a Prot- estant, ask for a minister to preach to his men, and promise that, if the Bostonians would help him to master D’Aunay and conquer Acadia, he would share the conquest with them. La Tour admired the sagacious counsels of his wife, and sailed for Boston to put them in practice just before the friars and the eight deserters sailed for Port Royal, thus leaving their departure unopposed. At Port Royal both friars and deserters found a warm welcome. D’Aunay paid the eight soldiers their long arrears of wages, and lodged the friars in the seminary with his Capuchins. Then he questioned them, and was well rewarded. They told him that La Tour had gone to Boston, leaving his wife with only forty-five men to defend the fort. Here was a golden opportunity. D’Aunay called his officers to council. All were of one mind. He mustered every man about Port Royal and embarked them in the armed ship of three hundred tons that had brought him from France ; 1645] FORT ST. JEAN ATTACKED, 85 he then crossed the Bay of Fundy with all his force, anchored in a small harbor a league from Fort St. Jean, and sent the Récollet Pére André to try to seduce more of La Tour’s men, an attempt which proved a failure. D’Aunay lay two months at his anchorage, during which time another ship and a pinnace joined him from Port Royal. Then he resolved to make an attack. Meanwhile, La Tour had persuaded a Boston merchant to send one Grafton to Fort St. Jean in a small vessel loaded with provisions, and bringing also a letter to Madame de la Tour containing a promise from her husband that he would join her in a month. When the Boston vessel appeared at the mouth of the St. John, D’Aunay seized it, placed Grafton and the few men with him on anisland, and finally supplied them with a leaky sail-boat to make their way home as they best could. D’Aunay now landed two cannon to batter Fort St. Jean on the land side, and on the 17th of April, having brought his largest ship within pis- tol-shot of the water rampart, he summoned the garrison to surrender.’ They answered with a 1 The site of Fort St. Jean, or Fort La Tour, has been matter of question. At Carleton, opposite the present city of St. John, are the remains of an earthen fort, by some supposed to be that of La Tour, but which is no doubt of later date, as the place was occupied by a suc- cession of forts down to the Seven Years’ War. On the other hand, it has been assumed that Fort La Tour was at Jemsec, which is about seventy miles up the river. Now, in the second mortgage deed of Fort La Tour to Major Gibbons, May 10, 1645, the fort is described as “ situé pres de l’embouchure de la riviére de St. Jean.” Moreover, there is a cata- ract just above the mouth of the river, which, though submerged at high tide, cannot be passed by heavy ships at any time; and as D’Aunay brought his largest ship of war to within pistol-shot of the fort, it must 36 LA TOUR AND THE PURITANS. (1645. volley of cannon-shot, then hung out a red flag, and, according to D’Aunay’s reporter, shouted “a thousand insults and blasphemies””!* Towards evening a breach was made in the wall, and D’Aunay ordered a general assault. Animated by their intrepid mistress, the defenders fought with desperation; and killed or wounded many of the assailants, not without severe loss on their own side. Numbers prevailed at last; all resistance was overcome ; the survivors of the garrison were made prisoners, and the fort was pillaged. Madame de la Tour, her maid, and another woman, who were all of their sex in the place, were among the captives; also Madame de Ja Tour’s son, a mere child. D’Aunay pardoned some of his prisoners, but hanged the greater part, “to serve as an ex- ample to posterity,’ says his reporter. Nicolas Denys declares that he compelled Madame de la Tour to witness the execution with a halter about her neck; but the more trustworthy accounts say nothing of this alleged outrage. On the next day, the 18th of April, the bodies of the dead were decently buried, an inventory was made of the contents of the fort, and D’Aunay set his men to repair it for his own use. These labors occu- pied three weeks or more, during a part of which Madame de la Tour was left at liberty, till, being detected in an attempt to correspond with her have been below the cataract. Mr. W. F. Ganong, after careful exam- ination, is convinced that Fort La Tour was at Portland Point, on the east side of the St. John, at its mouth. See his paper on the subject in Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1891. 1 See Procés Verbal d’André Certain, in Appendix A. DEATH OF MADAME LA TOUR. aT husband by means of an Indian, she was put into confinement ; on which, according to D’Aunay’s reporter, “she fell ill with spite and rage,” and died within three weeks, after, as he tells us, renouncing her heresy in the chapel of the fort. CHAPTER ITI. 1645-1710. THE VICTOR VANQUISHED. D’Avnay’s Envoys To THE PurITANS. — THEIR RECEPTION AT Boston, — WinTHROP AND HIS “PAPIST”’? GUESTS. — RECONCILIATION. — Treaty. — Benavior or La Tour. — Rorau Favors to D’Anunay. — His Horrs. — His Deatu. — His CHARACTER. — CONDUCT OF THE Court TOWARDS HIM.—INnTRIGUES OF LA Tour. — MapamE D’Aunay. —La Tour MARRIES HER. — CHILDREN OF D’Aunay. — Descenp- ants oF La Tour. Havine triumphed over his rival, D’Aunay was left free to settle his accounts with the Massa- chusetts Puritans, who had offended him anew by sending provisions to Fort St. Jean, having always insisted that they were free to trade with either party. They, on their side, were no less indignant with him for his seizure of Grafton’s vessel and harsh treatment of him and his men. After some preliminary negotiation and some rather sharp correspondence, D’Aunay, in Septem- ber, 1646, sent a pinnace to Boston, bearing his former envoy, Marie, accompanied by his own secretary and by one Monsieur Louis. It was Sunday, the Puritan Sabbath, when the three envoys arrived; and the pious inhabitants were preparing for the afternoon sermon. Marie 1646.] PAPIST VISITORS. 39 and his two colleagues were met at the wharf by two militia officers and conducted through the silent and dreary streets to the house of Captain, now Major, Gibbons, who seems to have taken upon himself in an especial manner the office of entertaining strangers of consequence. All was done with much civility, but no cere- mony, for the Lord’s day must be kept inviolate. Winthrop, who had again been chosen governor, now sent an officer, with a guard of musketeers, to invite the envoys to his own house. Here he regaled them with wine and sweetmeats, and then informed them of “our manner that all men either come to our publick meetings or keep themselves quiet in their houses.” * He then laid before them such books in Latin and French as he had, and told them that they were free to walk in his garden. Though the diversion offered was no doubt of the dullest, since the literary resources of the colony then included little besides arid theology, and the walk in the garden promised but moderate delights among the bitter pot herbs provided against days of fasting, the victims resigned themselves with. good grace, and, as the governor tells us, “gave no offence.” Sunset came at last and set the captives free. On Monday both sides fell to business. The envoys showed their credentials, but, as the com- missioners of the United Colonies were not yet in session, nothing conclusive could be done till Tuesday. Then, all being assembled, each party 1 Winthrop, IT. 273, 275. 40 THE VICTOR YANQUISHED. (1646. made its complaints of the conduct of the other, and a long discussion followed. Meals were pro- vided for the three visitors at the “ordinary,” or inn, where the magistrates dined during the sessions of the General Court. The governor, as their host, always sat with them at the board and strained his Latin to do honor to his guests. They, on their part, that courtesies should be evenly divided, went: every morning at eight o'clock to the governor’s house, whence he accompanied them to the place of meeting, and at night he, or some of the commissioners in his stead, attended them to their lodging at the house of Major Gibbons. Serious questions were raised on both sides; but as both wanted peace, explanations were mutually made and accepted. The chief difficulty lay~ in the undeniable fact that, in escorting La Tour to his fort in 1643, the Massachusetts volunteers had chased D’Aunay to Port Royal, killed some of his men, burned his mill, and robbed his pinnace, for which wrongs the envoys demanded heavy dam- ages. It was true that the governor and magis- trates had forbidden acts of aggression on the part of the volunteers; but on the other hand they had had reason to believe that their prohibition would be disregarded, and had taken no measures to en- force it. The envoys clearly had good ground of complaint; and here, says Winthrop, “they did stick two days.” At last they yielded so far as to declare that what D’Aunay wanted was not so much compensation in money as satisfaction to his. 1646.} THE “NEW SEDAN.” 41 honor by an acknowledgment of their fault on the part of the Massachusetts authorities; and they further declared that he would accept a moderate present in token of such acknowledgment. The difficulty now was to find such a present. The rep- resentatives of Massachusetts presently bethought themselves of a “very fair new sedan” which the viceroy of Mexico had sent to his sister, and which had been captured in the West Indies by one Captain Cromwell, a corsair, who gave it to “ our governor.” Winthrop, to whom it was entirely. useless, gladly parted with it in such a cause, and the sedan, being graciously accepted, ended the discussion.' The treaty was signed in duplicate by the commissioners of the United Colonies and the envoys of D’Aunay, and peace was at last concluded. : The conference had been conducted with much courtesy on both sides. One small cloud appeared, but soon passed away. The French envoys dis- played the /eur-de-lys at the masthead of their pinnace as she lay in the harbor. The townsmen were incensed, and Monsieur Marie was told that to fly foreign colors in Boston harbor was not according to custom. He insisted for a time, but at length ordered the offending flag to be lowered. On the 28th of September the envoys bade farewell to Winthrop, who had accompanied them to their pinnace with a guard of honor. Five cannon saluted them from Boston, five from “the 1 Winthrop, II. 274. 42 THE VICTOR VANQUISIED. [1646. Castle,” and three from Charlestown.