Yale University Library

39002002890557

^•<ifV>t- ' ..

"Reading ma\eth a fuU man, conference a
readye man, and uniting an exacte man"
— Bacon

iHr, jFtfiite'fli ^tstortcal Wovks.

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, with some account of
Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest. With Maps.
2 vols, crown 8vo, $4.00.
OLD VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS. 2 vols.
crown 8vo, $4.00.
Illustrated Edition. With Portraits, Facsimiles, etc. 2 vols.
8vo, $8.00.
THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND, or the Puri
tan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty.
Crown 8vo, J2.00.
Illustrated Edition. Containing Portraits, Maps, Facsimiles,
Contemporary Views, Prints, and other Historic Materials.
8vo, $4.00.
THE DUTCH AND QUAKER COLONIES IN AMER
ICA. With 8 Maps. 2 vols, crown 8vo, ;g4.oo.
NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. With Maps.
Crown 8vo, $1.65, net.
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 2 vols, crown 8vo,
$4.00.
Illustrated Edition. Containing Portraits, Maps^ Facsimiles,
Contemporary Views, Prints, and other Histonc Materials.
2 vols. Svo, $8.00.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
1783-17S9. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
Illustrated Edition. Containing Portraits, Maps^ Facsimiles,
Contemporary Views, Prints, and other Histonc Materials.
Svo, $4.00.
THE IVIISSISSIPPI VALLEY IN THE CIVIL WAR.
With 23 Maps and Plans. Crown Svo, $2.00.
THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. In Riverside Library
for Young People. i6mo, 75 cents.
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR SCHOOLS.
With Topical Analysis, Suggestive Questions, and Directions
for Teachers, by Frank A. Hill. i2mo, $1.00, net.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.
Considered with some Reference to its Origins. Crown
Svo, Ji.oo, net.
For Mr. Fiske*s Historical and Philosophical Works and
Essays see pages ai the hack of this work.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston.

9 Long:i

NEW FRANCE AND
NEW ENGLAND

BY

JOHN FISKE

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
1902

COPYRIGHT I9OZ BY ABBY M. FISKE, EXECUTRIX
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published September, igos

'C^\^ 2^s

4^

PUBLISHERS' NOTE
THE place of the present volume in the
series of Mr. Fiske's books on Amer
ican history may best be indicated by
a few words from his preface to " The Dutch
and Quaker Colonies in America." That work,
it will be remembered, comes next in order after
" The Beginnings of New England," and in
describing its scope Mr. Fiske remarks : " It is
my purpose, in my next book, to deal with the
rise and fall of New France, and the develop
ment of the English colonies as influenced by
the prolonged struggle with that troublesome
and dangerous neighbour. With this end in
view, the history of New England must be taken
up where the earlier book dropped it, and the
history of New York resumed at about the same
time, while by degrees we shall find the histo
ries of Pennsylvania and the colonies to the
south of it swept into the main stream of Conti
nental history. That book will come down to the
year 1765, which witnessed the ringing out of
the old and the ringing in of the new, — the one
with Pontiac's War, the other with the Stamp
v

VI PUBLISHERS' NOTE
Act. I hope to have it ready in about two years
from now." This preface bears the date of May
day, 1899.
It will be seen that " New France and New
England " completes the story of the settlement
and development of the colonies up to the point
where Mr. Fiske's "American Revolution " has
already taken up the narrative. It therefore
gives a final unity to the sequence of remark
able volumes which he has devoted to American
history. The lamented death of the brilliant author
prevented him from giving the final, touches to
his work. Most of the material for it was de
livered as lectures before the Lowell Institute
during the last winter of his life ; but only the
first two chapters received his definite revision
for the press. The third chapter was unfinished,
but has been completed by a few pages, en
closed in brackets, and prepared in accordance
with Mr. Fiske's own memoranda indicating
what incidents he proposed to include in the
remaining paragraphs. The other chapters were
in the form of carefully prepared lectures, but
were not equipped with the side-notes and an
notations calling attention to authorities, such as
Mr. Fiske supplied freely in his " Discovery of
America " and other volumes. From the third

PUBLISHERS' NOTE vii
chapter onward, it has been thought best to
provide such topical notes and references as may
prove helpful to the reader. These notes are
enclosed in brackets.
The text of all the chapters has been printed
as it left his hand. Though he doubtless would
have touched it here and there either for adorn
ment or for a more exact precision of detail, it
will on that account possess no less interest for
the readers of that notable series of historical
writings to which this volume now gives the
desired continuity and unity.
4 Park Street, Boston
Autumn, 1902

CONTENTS

FROM cartier TO CHAMPLAIN

Norman sailors ......

PAGE I

On the coast of Africa ....

z

Breton ships on the Banks ....

• 4

Alleged discovery of the Gulf of St. Lawrence
The Portuguese voyages to North America

4
. 6

Verrazano ......

8

Francis I. and the demarcation line .

8

Verrazano' s purpose ....
The Sea of Verrazano .....

9
II

Death of Verrazano .....

IZ

Jacgues^Cartier ......

• 13

The exploration of the St. Lawrence

14

The name " Canada " ....

• 15

Hochelaga .....
An Indian trick ......

16
. 16

Cartier arrives at Hochelaga
Hochelaga a typical Iroquois town .
The name "Montreal" ....

17
. 18
zo

Distresses of the winter .....

. 20

Indian tales ......

zz

Roberval .......

22

Cartier's voyage^ ijjj_ ....
Jean Allefonsce tries to explore the Sea of Verrazan

23
0 . 24

Errors in regard to the voyage of Allefonsce .
The true direction of Allefonsce' s voyage .

26
• 27

CONTENTS

Allefonsce visits the Hudson
The character of Roberval
The romance of Roberval' s niece
Suspension of French exploration
Ribaut in Florida ....
Importance of Dieppe in the traific of the sea

28303132
3333

II

the beginnings of QUEBEC
Voyage of the Marquis de la Roche . . -35
Pontgrave and Chauvin secure a monopoly of the fur-
trade . . . . . . . .36
De Chastes succeeds Chauvin . . . . 38
The early life of Chanipl^ . . . . -39
Champlain in the West Indies .... 40
Champlain's first voyage to Canada . . . .42
The disappearance of the Iroquois village of Hochelaga 4Z
The Iroquois displaced by the Algonquins . . 43
The Iroquois Confederacy ..... 4.6
Outlying tribes of Iroquois . . . . .48
Designs of the Sieur de Monts .... 49
Homeric quarrels . . . . • -So
Occupation of Acadia . . . . . 51
Founding of Port Royal, later Annapolis . . -52
Champlain explores the New England coast . . 52
A second exploration of the Massachusetts coast . -54
A picturesque welcome . . . . . rr
The Knightly Order of Good Times . . -57
Collapse of de Monts' monopoly . . . 5 g
Champlain turns his attention to Canada . . -58
The expedition of 1 608 ..... 60
Quebec founded ....... 60
Treachery foiled . , . . . . 61

CONTENTS xi
The first winter at Quebec . . . . . 6z
Friendship with the Indians the condition of successful '
exploration . . . . . . 63
This condition determines the subsequent French
policy ........ 63
Character of the Indians of Canada ... 64
Champlain allies himself to the Ottawas and Hurons . 64
A war party ....... 65
Consultation of departed heroes . . . -67
Lake Champlain ...... 67
War dances ....... 68
The Mohawks panic-stricken by firearms . . 69
The &;st__^ttle_ofTiconderoga_sows the seed of deadly
hostility between the French and the Iroquois . 70

III

THE LORDS OF ACADIA.  LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN
Poutrincourt returns to Port Royal, 1610 . . . 72
Remoter consequences of the death of Henry IV. . 7 3
The far-reaching plans of the Jesmts . . -74
They secure an interest in Acadia

XIII.

Madame de GuercheviUe obtains fi'om Louis
grant of the coast from Acadia to Florida . . 76
La Saussaye in Frenchman's Bay . . . -76
The French captured by ArgaU . . . . "J J
Argall's trick  78
Argall returns and bums Port Royal . . . 79
Champlain helps in the destruction of an attacking party
of Iroquois ....... 80
Beginnings of Montreal . . . . .81
The Count of Soissons and the Prince of Conde succeed
Monts  82
A traveller's tale  8z

75

Xll

CONTENTS

Champlain among the Ottawas, 1613 . . -83
Vignau's imposture discovered . . . . 85
Champlain returns from France with the Recollets . 86
Le Caron reaches Lake Huron . . . . 86
The attack on the Iroquois . . . . • ^7
Champlain's military engines . . . . 88
Rivalry of interests . . . . . .89
The craning^ofjhejesuits ..... 89
The One Hundred Associates . . . .90
Religious uniformity . . . . . . 91
The capture of Quebec by the English . . . gz
Champlain's last days . . . . . gz
James I. grants Acadia to Sir William Alexander . 93
Claude and Charles de la Tour . . . . 93
Legend of La Tour's fidelity to France . . -94
La Tour and D'Aunay ...... 94
Death of D'Aunay ...... 96
La Tour gives place to Sir Thomas Temple . . 96

IV

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE

Jean Nicollet . . . . . . .98
Nicollet explores Lake Michigan .... 09
Father Jogues near Lake Superior . . . . loo
Radisson and Groseilliers . . . . .101
Accession of Louis XIV. . . . . .101
His changes in Canadian administration . . . loz
Two expeditions against the Iroquois, 1666 . . loz
Contrasts between New France and New England . 104
The French trading route to the Northwest . .105
The coureurs de bois . . . . .105
Father AUouez on the Wisconsin . . . .106

CONTENTS

XllI

The French take possession of the Northwest
Father AUouez depicts the greatness of Louis XIV.
Early life of Lia_Salle . . . . .
La Salle comes to Canada ....
La Salle hears of the Ohio and resolves to explore it
His expedition combined with a mission exploration
the Sulpicians .....
The way blocked by the Senecas
Meeting with Joliet ....
La Salle parts from the Sulpicians
La Salle explores the Ohio
Frontenac succeeds CourceUes
Character of Frontenac
Joliet chosen to explore the Mississippi
Marquette .....
Johet and Marquette reach the Mississippi
They pass the mouth of the Missouri
The return ....
La SaUe's great designs
The Mississippi valley to be occupied
Difficulty of carrying out so vast a plan
La Salle's privileges arouse opposition
Fort Frontenac granted to La SaUe .
La SaUe builds the Griffin .
Henri de Tonty
Louisjiemiepin The voyage of the Griffin
La SaUe's terrible winter journey
Fresh disasters ....
La Salle goes to rescue Tonty
Destruction of the Illinois viUage by the Iroquois
La SaUe's winter voyage down the Mississippi
La SaUe returns to France ....
FaUure of the Mississippi expedition
La Salle's death ....

of

107 1081091 10
1 1 1
I II
1 12
H3114115IIS 116117 117118119 IZOIZO121IZZ 123IZ4124125 125
126127 128129 130130131
131132

xiv

CONTENTS

V

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE

Louis XIV. commutes the sentence of death imposed
upon alleged witches ....
The parUament of Normandy protests
The belief in witchcraft universal
Vitality of the beUef .....
Cause of the final decay of the beUef .
Rise of physical science ....
An EngUsh witch trial before Sir Matthew Hale
Grotesque evidence .....
Indications of shamming ignored .
Sir Matthew Hale affirms the reaUty of witchcraft
Revival of witchcraft superstition
The Hammer of Witches ....
King James on the reality of witchcraft .
The delusion increases with the rise of the Puritan party
to power .....
Last executions for witchcraft ....
Primitive America regarded as a domain of the DevU
The first victim of the witchcraft delusion in New Eng
land ......
The case of Mrs. Hibbins
A victim of malice acting through superstition
A sensible jury ....
The Goodwin chUdren
Cotton Mather ....
His character .....
His courage in advocating inoculation .
Views of Calef and Upham .
Mr. W. F. Poole ....
Cotton Mather and the Goodwin case
Cotton Mather and the Goodwin girl .

133
134 135
136
137 138138139139140
141 142143
143144144
145 146147
148 149
149 150150151 151152
IS3

CONTENTS

XV

Tests of bewitchment ....

• 153

Mather publishes an account of this case

• 154

Cotton Mather' s book and the Salem troubles

. . 156

Gloomy outlook in 1692 .

. 156

Salem village .....

• 157

Samuel Parris, the pastor ....

157

Parish troubles in Salem vUlage

. . 158

Mr. Parris' s coloured servants

• 159

The " afiUcted children "

• 159

Mistress Ann Putnam ....

160

Beginnings of the troubles

. 161

Physicians and clergymen called in

162

The trial of Sarah Good

. 162

The accusation of Martha Corey and Rebecca I

vlurse 164

Character of Martha Corey .

. 164

Rebecca Nurse .....

. 165

A vUlage feud .....

. . .6s

The examination of Rebecca Nurse

166

Deodat Lawson .....

. . 167

The spread of the delusion

. 167

Cases of personal malice

. 168

The Rev. George Burroughs

169

The special court erected

. 169

The advice of the ministers

170

Spectral evidence ....

¦ 173

The jury acquit Rebecca Nurse .

• 174

The court sends them back .

• 175

The case of Mary Easty ....

176, 177

Mary Easty torn from her home at midnight

. 178

Doubt perUous . . . . •

• 178

Peine forte et dure . . . •

• 179

The Rev. Mr. Noyes ....

180

The petition of Mary Easty .

. 181

Her warning ...•••

182

Sudden collapse of the trials .

. 183

Reaction foUows the intense strain'

184

XVI

CONTENTS

The accusers aim too high
Accusers threatened with a suit for damages
The Court of Oyer and Terminer abolished
Cotton Mather .....
Explanation of Mather's speech
Judge SewaU's public acknowledgment of wrong
Ann Putnam's confession
Were the accusers misled or shamming ?
Evidences of coUusion ....
Was there a deliberate conspiracy ?
Contagion of hysterical emotion
Psychology of hallucinations
Playing with fire ....
The evUs of publicity in the examinations
Explanation of Mrs. Putnam's part
She exercised hypnotic control over the children
The case of Salem vUlage helps one to realize the
rors of the witchcraft "delusion in the past .

ter

184185
186
186187
188188
189
190 191
191
192193
193 194195196

VI

THE GREAT AWAKENING

The reaction from the witchcraft delusion . .197
Rise of secular opposition to the theocracy . 198, 199
The Halfway Covenant ..... 200
The South Church . . . . . .201
The opposition to the theocracy lays the foundation of
Toryism . . '  201
The new charter of Massachusetts . . . zoz, 20J
The Brattle Church founded 1698 . . . 204
Relaxation of conditions of membership . . .204
Cotton Mather's alarm . . . . .20c
The theocracy helpless under the new charter . .206

CONTENTS

xvii

The new church finally recognized . . . 206
The effort to get a new charter for Harvard . .207
Governor Bellomont vetoes a test act for college officers zo8
Rise of liberalism in the college ....
President Increase Mather displaced . .
Cotton Mather's indignation ....
Governor Dudley ......
The new charter for Harvard a substantial reenactment
of that of 1650 .....
Conditions in Connecticut
New Haven annexed to Connecticut .
Comparison of Massachusetts and Connecticut
Causes of Connecticut conservatism
The tendency in organizations to become rigid and
mechanical ......
The instance of the Cambridge^ktfwm^ 1648
Lack of a party of opposition in Connecticut .
T1ie_Saybrogk_Platform ..'...
The platform tends to assimilate CongregationaUsm to
Presbyterianism ......
Massachusetts and Connecticut change places
The founding of Yale College ....
The conservative tendencies of Connecticut reinforced
by the college .......
State of religion early in the eighteenth century
Rise of commercial interests .
" Stoddardeanism " ....
Jonathan Edwards ....
Edwards's vein of mysticism
His emphasis on conversion .
Revivals .....
The Revival of 1734 ....
George Whitefield invited to New England
Gilbert Tennent ....
James Davenport ....
Comparison with the Antinomians .

208 209
Z09
210 zio
ZI I
212
212
213 213Z14Z15
Z16217 Z172l8219220221222 ZZZ
223224
225226 226
227 227228

xviii CONTENTS
Whitefield' s return to New England . . . 229
Davenport arrested for public disturbance . . .230
Last days of Edwards . . . . .231
Results of the Awakening . . . . -232

VII

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG
The "irrepressible conflict" between France and Eng
land in America . . . . . -233
Acadia finally passes to England . . . . 234
The French view of the limits of Acadia . . .234
The Abenaki tribes . . . . . .235
Sebastian Rale . . . . . . .236
The Norridgewock^ village . . . .236
The country between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec 237
The Indian view of selling land . . . -238
The Indians and the French . . . . 239
Conference between Governor Shute and the Indians 239
Baxter and Rale . . . . . .239, 240
The Indians instigated to attack the EngUsh . . 241
Border warfare ......
Conflicts between the Governor and the Assembly
Shute succeeded by Dummer
Expeditions against the Indians .
Extermination of the Norridgewock tribe .
Captain Lovewell ......

LoveweU's fi^it_ .....
The death of Frye ..... 247
Louisburg .......
The project to capture Louisburg
The New England colonies undertake the attack
The naval force ......
The French surprised .....

241 242
243243 244
245 245
248 249
250 251
252253

CONTENTS xix
The Grand Battery abandoned in panic . . 254
Capture of a French line-of-battle ship . . • zSS
Louisburg surrendered June 17, 1745 . . , 256
A relic of Louisburg . . . . . .256

VIII
BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle . . . .258
The spread of the English westward . . . 259
The Scotch-Irish . . . . . -259
The pioneers pass the Alleghanies . . .260
This advance of the English a menace to the French 261
The French influence with the Indians decUnes . 26 1
The founding of Oswego ..... 262
Sir WUUam Johnson . . . . . .263
EngUsh traders in the Ohio valley . . .264
Celoron takes possession of the Ohio valley for Louis XV.,
1749  265
Celoron among the Miamis .... 266
The Miamis under English influence . . .267
The French destroy the Miami trading viUage . 267
The Marquis Duquesne ..... 268
The French expedition of 1753 . . . . 268
The Indians between two fires . . . .269
A chance meeting . . . . . .270
Major George Washington sent to warn the French . 270
The French boast of their plans . . . . 271
Governor Dinwiddle resolves to occupy the Gateway
of the West . . . . . . 272
Duquesne anticipates the English . . . .272
The Virginia expedition to Fort Duquesne . . 273
Washington surprises a French force . . -274
Fort Necessity . . . . . .275

CONTENTS

The battle of Fort Necessity - . . . -275
The EngUsh retreat  276
Niggardliness of the Provincial AssembUes . -277
The defence of the colonies dependent on the governors 278

The need of a union of the colonies
The Albany Congress ....
Franklin's plan of union rejected
England and France send troops to America, 1755
Capture of two French ships ....
General Braddock ....
Indian mode of fighting
EngUsh regulars UI prepared for such tactics
Braddock's difficulties ....
Braddock should have landed at Philadelphia
The march .....
A detachment sent on in advance
Beaujeu sets out to waylay the English
Braddock's precautions
The battle 
The EngUsh faU before unseen foes
Bravery of Braddock and Washington
Braddock's death ....
Dunbar's culpable retreat

279 280
280281 282
283283284
285286287
288 289
289290 291291
292
292, 293

IX

CROWN POINT, FORT WILLIAM HENRY, AND TICONDEROGA

Governor Shirley's plan of campaign
WUliam Johnson to attack Crown Point
Character of Johnson's army .
Johnson names Lake George
Dieskau's approach
The Indians prefer to attack the camp .
The English scouting party routed .

294
295 Z96297297298 299

CONTENTS

xxi

Dieskau repulsed and captured
Shirley's expedition against Niagara a failure
Desolation on the frontier
Opening of the Seven Years' War
England and Prussia join forces
Montcalm .....
Montcalm's account of the voyage to Canada
VaudreuU not gratified by Montcalm's arrival
Shirley superseded ....
The Earl of Loudoun
Loudoun plans to attack Ticonderoga
Fall of Oswego ....
Montcalm's capture of Oswego impresses the Indians
Loudoun's expedition against Louisburg
Montcalm's expedition against Fort WilUam Henry
Ferocity of Montcalm's Indian allies
The EngUsh force at Fort WUUam Henry and Fort Ed
ward ......
Montcalm invests Fort William Henry .
Surrender of the forces at Fort WiUiam Henry
The Indians uncontrollable
The massacre of prisoners
WilUam Pitt 
Pitt's hold on popular confidence
Pitt recalls Loudoun
Lor^JIowe .....
The expeditionjigainstjnconderoga
Lord Howe's adaptabUity
The EngUsh scouting party lost in the woods
Death of Lord Howe ....
Montcalm's defences
Alternatives open to Abercrombie .
Montcalm saved by Abercrombie' s stupidity . 322
An assault ordered ....
All assaults repulsed ....
Abercrombie ridiculed ....

299 300301 302 302303 304 305
306307 307
308 3°9310310 311312313314 314315315316317317 318319319320321322323324324325

xxii CONTENTS X
LOUISBURG, FORT DUQUESNE, AND THE FALL OF QUEBEC
Strategic points in the contest . . . 326, 327
Louisburg . . . . . . .328
The EngUsh expedition against Louisburg . -329
General Wolfe effects a landing . . . . 330
The harbour batteries secured or reduced by the EngUsh 331
Gradual destruction of the French fleet . . -331
Surrender of Louisburg . . . . .332
Wolfe returns to England . . . . -333
Bradstreet's expedition against Fort Frontenac . 334
Fort Frontenac taken, August 27 . . . -334
The loss of Fort Frontenac weakens Fort Duquesne 3-35
General John Forbes . . . . -336
The expedition against Fort Duquesne . . -336
The choice of routes . . . . -337
Forbes's method of advance . . . . -337
The slow progress of the march favourable to success 338
Major Grant's disastrous reconnoissance . . 339, 340
Christian Frederic Post wins over the Indians . 341
The French evacuate Fort Duquesne . . .341
Pitt resolved to drive the French from Canada . 342
Preparations for the campaign of 1759 . . . 343
Weak points of eighteenth century strategy . . 344
General Amherst's plan of campaign . . . 344
General Prideaux's expedition against Fort Niagara 345
FaU of Fort Niagara . . . . . .346
General Amherst marches against Ticonderoga . -347
Ticonderoga dfifierted and_blownja£^ . . . 348
Amherst's ineffective activity . . . . .349
Quebec  3^g
The position of the French forces . . ¦ 350, 351
The difficulties which confronted Wolfe . . 352

CONTENTS xxui
His illness . . . . . . -352
Wolfe plans to scale the heights . . . -353
Final preparations . . . . . -354
The start  355
The ascent  355
Complete surprise of the French . . . . 356
The batde  357
Death of Wolfe  358
Deadi of Montcalm  358,359

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Map showing the British Colonies and Northern
New France, 1750— 1760 {coloured') Frontispiece
Map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence by Champlain,
1632 .  54
From The History of Canada under French Regime.
Map of North America  236
From Edward Well's New List of Maps, London, 1 698-1 699.
Map of Louisburg  254
^•K. From Mak(te's History of the Late War.
Map of Lake George  312
ly^ From Ma«(te's History of the Late War, London, 1772.
Map of the Siege of Quebec  342
From Mile's History of Canada under French Regime.

NEW FRANCE AND NEW
ENGLAND I
FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN
AMONG the seafaring people of Europe
there are perhaps none more hardy and
^ enterprising than the inhabitants of the
picturesque little towns along the coasts of Nor
mandy and Brittany. In race characteristics
there is a close similarity to their neighbours
of the opposite British shore. The Welsh of
Armorica are own brethren of the Welsh of
Cornwall, and as long ago as the reign of the
Emperor Julian the regions about the mouth
of the Seine were commonly known as a Litus
Saxonicum, or Saxon shore. There to this day
you will find the snug enclosed farmsteads so
characteristic of merry England, while Norman
the map is thickly dotted with Anglo- ^^^"'^
Saxon names. Thither a thousand years ago
flocked the Vikings from the fjords of Norway
and settled down over the north of Gaul as over
the east of Britain. The geographical position

2 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
was favourable to the indulgence of inherited
proclivities, and throughout the Middle Ages
the French and English shores of the Channel
were famed for their hardy mariners. Their
ships thronged side by side in the Icelandic
waters, in quest of codfish, and even the chase
of the whale was not unknown to them. When
at the beginning of the fifteenth century the
Norman knight Jean de Bethencourt conquered
and colonized the Canary Islands, for which in
return for aid and supplies he did homage to
the king of Castile,^ his company was chiefly
composed of Bretons and Normans, who have
left their descendants in those islands to the pre
sent day. As early as 1364 we find merchants
from Dieppe trading on the Grain Coast, be
tween Sierra Leone and Cape Palmas ; and by
1383 these bold adventurers had established
themselves upon that shore, which they held
until 1410.^ They were thus in advance of the
On the coast pionccrs of Henry the Navigator,
of Africa and for a moment it might have
seemed as if the Guinea coast were likely to be
come French rather than Portuguese, when the
civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians
and the invasion of France by Henry V. of
England put a new face upon the matter, and
the hold of the French upon Africa was lost.
* See my Discovery of America, i. 321.
2 Shea's Charlevoix, i. 13.

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 3
A substantial monument of their early activity
in that quarter is furnished by the fortified town
of Elmina, upon the Gold Coast, whence in
these British days runs the direct road to Ku-
massi. Elmina was founded in the fourteenth
century by men of Dieppe, and the trade in
elephants' tusks then inaugurated gave rise to
the ivory manufactures which still flourish in
the little Norman seaport.^
Under these circumstances it is not strange
that the voyages of Columbus and the Cabots
should have met with a quick response from the
mariners of northern Gaul. Local traditions of
a patriotic sort have asserted that -Normandy
and Brittany did not wait for the Cabot voy
ages to be taught the existence of the New
foundland fisheries, but had learned the lesson
for themselves even before the crossing of the
Sea of Darkness by Columbus.^ There is no
reason why fishing voyages to the Newfound
land banks might not have been made before
1492, but on the other hand there is no respect
able evidence that any such voyages had been
made. The strong impression made upon John
I Gaffarel, Etude sur les rapports de l' Am'erique et de
r ancien Continent avant Christophe Colomb, Paris, 1869, p.
316. 2 Such claims are to be found in the extremely uncritical
book of Desmarquets, Memoires chronologiques pour servir a
r histoire de Dieppe, Paris, 1785.

4 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Cabot by the enormous numbers of codfish ofi^
the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland ^ in
dicates that the western stretches of the ocean
were by no means familiar to the fishermen of
the English Channel. The first authentic record
Breton ships wc havc of Brcton ships in New-
on the banics foundland waters is in the year 1 504,
and from that time forward we never lose a year.
The place once found was too good to be neg
lected, and thus a presumption is raised against
any date earlier than 1504.
From catching fish in these waters to visiting
the neighbouring coasts the step was not a long
one, and presently the name Cape Breton makes
its appearance, the oldest surviving European
name upon the Atlantic coast of North Amer
ica. It is asserted by Dieppese writers that a
chart of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was made in
1506 by Jean Denys of Honfleur, and that two
years later Thomas Aubert ascended the great
river for eighty leagues, and brought back to
Alleged dis- Europc sevcu tawny natives who were
Gutflf°st. ^ exhibited at Rouen and perhaps else-
Lawrence where in 1509. We are furthermore
assured that upon this voyage Aubert was ac
companied by a Florentine mariner destined to
win great renown, Giovanni da Verrazano. The
1 See his conversation with the Milanese ambassador in
Harrisse, John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America,
and Sebastian his Son, London, i 896, p. 54.

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 5
authority for these statements is not such as we
could desire, being found chiefly In uncritical
documents collected by the uncritical editor
Desmarquets, who lets slip no opportunity for
glorifying Dieppe. There is strong collateral
evidence, however, of a voyage into the Gulf
of St. Lawrence at about this time. Not only
does the exhibition of the kidnapped Indians
rest upon independent evidence, as early as
1512,^ but In the edition of Ptolemy brought
out In 1 5 1 1 by Sylvanus, there is a map con
taining a square-looking gulf to the west of a
spacious Island which is unquestionably in
tended for Newfoundland, and the outlines of
this gulf seem to have originated in actual ex
ploration and not in fancy. There Is a map
preserved in the government archives at Ottawa,
which purports to be a copy of that of Jean
Denys, and may well be so, for, although the
names upon it belong to a later period, there is
some reason for believing that they are a sub
sequent addition. If the outlines are those of
Denys of Honfleur, we have In them a satisfac
tory explanation of the strange map of Sylva
nus. Moreover, some weight must attach to
the fact that both the voyages of Denys and of
Aubert are mentioned under the years 1506 and
1508 by Ramusio.^ There can be little doubt
^ Eusebii chronicon,'?2Lx\%, 1512, fol. 172.
2 Ramusio, Navigationi e viaggi,'S[trA'ad., 1550, iU. 423;

6 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
that the attention of Frenchmen was, to an
appreciable extent, drawn toward the New
World during the reign of Louis XII.
Under his successor, the gay, gallant, and
ambitious Francis I., attention was still further
drawn to these strange shores. The jovial law
yer, Marc Lescarbot of Vervlns, writing In
1 6 1 2, tells us that about the year 1518a certain
Baron de Lery made an unsuccessful attempt
at establishing a colony upon Sable Island, and
left there a stock of cattle and pigs which mul
tiplied apace, and proved comforting and tooth
some to later adventurers.^
The French had sturdy rivals In these Atlan
tic waters. That was the golden age of Portu-
The Portu- guesc enterprise, and one of the first
guese voy- rcsults of the Cabot voyages was to
ages to . . ^ . . J^
North Stimulate the curiosity of Portugal.
America -pj^g voyagc of Cabral in 1 500 proved
that the Brazilian coast in great part falls east
of the papal line of demarcation, and therefore
belonged to Portugal, and not to Spain. In
that same year a voyage in the northern waters
by Gaspar Cortereal raised hopes that the same
might be proved true of Newfoundland, and
2d ed., Venetia, 1606, iii. 355. Ramusio speaks of Aubert
as the first who brought Indians to France, " il primo che
condusse qui le genti del detto paese."
^ Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, Paris, 161 2,
i. 22 ; De Lst, Novus orbis, p. 39.

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 7
Portuguese vessels sailed often in that direction.
Their fishing craft were to be seen off^ the coast.
In company with Norman, Breton, and BIscayan
vessels, and sometimes an elaborate attempt at
exploration was made. Such was the voyage of
Alvarez Fagundes In 1520. In accordance with
an old custom the king of Portugal promised
this mariner a grant of such new lands as he
might discover upon this expedition. In March,
1 5 2 1 , after the return of Fagundes and his report
to the king, the grant was duly issued. From
the descriptions in the grant, supplemented by
a map made forty years later by Lazaro Luiz,
we may draw conclusions, somewhat dubious,
as to just what was accomplished by Fagundes ;
but there can be little doubt that he explored
more or less thoroughly the coasts of the Gulf
of St. Lawrence.^
But the Portuguese were becoming too deeply
absorbed with their work in the Indian Ocean
to devote much attention to North America.
And in like manner in 15 17-21 the discovery
of Mexico and the astonishing exploits of
Cortes quite riveted the minds of their rivals,
the Spaniards, In that direction. It was just at
* The voyage of Fagundes is discussed in Harrisse, The
Discovery of North America, f^. 180-188; Bettencourt,
Descobrimentos, guerras, e conquista dos Portugueses em ter
ras de 'Ultramar nos seculos xv. e xvi., Lisbon, 1 88 1, i.
132-135. etc.

8 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
this moment, and through these circumstances,
that French interest in America received a fresh
stimulus. After the capture of the city of Mex
ico an immense store of gold and silver was
shipped for Spain, In charge of Alonso de Avila ;
but Avila, with his ships and his treasure, was
captured by the famous Verrazano
Verrazano ^ . , _, -_, 111
and carried on^ to 1< ranee, probably to
Dieppe, where the Florentine navigator seems
for many years to have had his headquarters.
In the course of the same cruise Verrazano cap
tured another Spanish ship on its way from San
Domingo, heavily laden with gold and pearls,
so that he was enabled to make gorgeous pre
sents to King Francis and to the Admiral of
France. The delightful chronicler, Bernal Diaz,
who tells us these incidents, adds that the whole
country was amazed at the stupendous wealth
that was pouring into the treasury of Charles V.
from the Indies. The first great war between
Francis I. Charlcs and Francis was raging, and
demlrc'ation ^he latter did not need to be told that
line Mexican money could be used to pay
the troops that were defeating his army in Lom-
bardy. He sent a bantering message to Charles,
asking if it were really true that he and the king
of Portugal had parcelled out the earth between
them without leaving anything for him. Had
Father Adam made those two his only heirs ?

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 9
If so, he wished they would show him that
patriarch's last will and testament.^ Until they
could do so he should feel at liberty to seize
whatever his good ships might happen to meet
upon the ocean, and forthwith he concerted with
Verrazano fresh raids upon the enemy's sinews
of war.
The result of these meditations was the great
voyage of 1 524, which first placed upon the map
the continuous coast-line of the United States,
from North Carolina to the mouth of the Pe
nobscot River. The purpose of this Verrazano's
voyage was twofold : first, to ascertain p"p°s«
if any more countries abounding In precious
metals, like Mexico, or In pearls, like Venezuela,
were to be found within or near the longitudes
traversed by Columbus and Cabot ; secondly, to
find some oceanic route north of Florida from
European ports to the Indian Ocean. In other
words, this voyage of Verrazano was the first one
which had any reference to a northwest passage.
Columbus had believed the shores on which he
landed to be parts of Asia, either continental or
^ " Y entonces dize que dixo el rey de Francia, o se lo
embio a dezir a nuestro gran Emperador, Que como auian
partido entre el y el rey de Portugal el mundo sin darle parte
a el ? Que mostrassen el testamento de nuestro padre Adan,
si les dexo a ellos solamente por herederos," etc. Diaz, His
toria verdadera, Madrid, 1632, cap. clxix.

10 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
insular, and his last voyage was an attempt to
find the Strait of Malacca at the Isthmus of Pan
ama. Subsequent explanations, however, had
disclosed an unbroken coast-line all the way from
Florida to Patagonia ; and the recent return in
1522 of thewornout remnant of Magellan's ex
pedition brought convincing evidence that the
voyage to India by his southerly route was so
long and difficult as to be practically useless.
Thus the New World coasts were coming to be
recognized as a barrier on the route to Asia, and
an Important part of Verrazano's business was to
discover a northern end to this long barrier, or
a passageway through it somewhere to the north
ward of the regions already examined.
This is not the best place for giving a detailed
account of Verrazano's voyage, Inasmuch as It
was confined to portions of the American coast
over which France has never held sway. I have
given the principal details of It In treating of the
Dutch and Quaker Colonies,^ and need not repeat
them here. Let it suffice to say that besides
delineating the coast of the United States from
North Carolina to Maine, Verrazano entered the
Hudson River and Narragansett Bay, and saw
from his ship's deck the distant peaks of the
White Mountains. He found no gold mines
nor beds of pearl, neither did he anywhere detect
* \_The Dutch and Quaker Colonies, i. 68-78.]

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 11
what seemed to him a feasible waterway into the
Indian Ocean, but he did discover in this con
nection one of the most extraordinary mare's
nests on record. He seems to have gone ashore
upon the Accomac peninsula and tramped across
it until his eyes rested upon the waters of Ches
apeake Bay, which he mistook for the Pacific
Ocean. For soon after his return to Europe
two maps were Issued, one by his own brother,
Girolamo Verrazano,one by Vesconte Maggiolo,
which exerted a great Influence upon the geo
graphical ideas of the next three generations of
Europeans. These maps show a solid continen
tal mass connecting Florida with Mexico, and
another solid mass to the northward, such as
would naturally have been suggested to Verra
zano by the presence of such large The Seaof
rivers as the Hudson and the Penob- Verrazano
scot. But between these masses the whole cen
tral region of the United States Is represented
as an Immense sea continuous with the Pacific
Ocean ; while the Virginian coast is shown as a
very narrow Isthmus, with an inscription by Ver
razano's brother, informing us that here the
distance from sea to sea Is not more than six
miles. A full century elapsed before this notion
of the Sea of Verrazano was eliminated from
men's minds, and without taking this fact into
the account it Is impossible to understand the

12 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
movements of navigators who ascended rivers
like the Hudson and the St. Lawrence In the
hope of finding passageways Into the western
sea. When Verrazano arrived In Dieppe In July,
1525, the king, who had been taken prisoner at
the battle of Pavia In February, was a captive
at Madrid. His demand for a sight of Father
Adam's will had met with a rude response. He
purchased his freedom in January, 1526, by sign
ing a disastrous treaty, but no sooner had he
leaped upon his goodly steed, on the French side
of the Pyrenees, than he renounced all Intention
of keeping promises thus made under duress.
The worthy Verrazano fared much worse than
his royal master. In the year 1526 he entered
into an arrangement with Jean Ango and other
important citizens of Dieppe for a voyage into
Death of the Indian Ocean for spices, but in the
Verrazano coursc of the foUowIng year he was
overhauled by Spanish cruisers, who took him
prisoner and hanged him as a pirate.^
There enters now upon the scene a man of
whose personality we have a much more distinct
conception than we have of Verrazano. As that
accomplished Italian is one of the chief glories
of the town of Dieppe, so the Breton seaport of
1 Barcia, Ensayo chronologico para la historia general de
la Florida, 1735, p. 8, since confirmed by documents in the
archives of Simancas.

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 13
St. Malo is famous for its native citizen, Jacques
Cartier. His portrait hangs In the town hall.
Unfortunately its authenticity Is not jacques
above question, but if it is not surely ^^"'"
a true likeness it deserves to be ; It well ex
presses the earnestness and courage, the refine
ment and keen Intelligence of the great Breton
mariner.^ He had roamed the seas for many
years, and had won — and doubtless earned —
from Spanish mouths the epithets of " corsair "
and " pirate," when at the age of three and forty
he was selected by Philippe de Chabot, Admiral
of France, to carry on the work of Denys and
Aubert and Verrazano, and to bring fresh tid
ings of the mysterious Square Gulf of Sylvanus.
On April 20, 1534, Cartler sailed from St.
Malo with two small craft carrying sixty-one
men, and made straight for the coast of Labra
dor, just north of the Straits of Belle Isle, a re
gion already quite familiar to Breton and Nor
man fishermen. Passing through the straits he
skirted the Inner coast of Newfoundland south
ward as far as Cape Ray, whence he crossed to
Prince Edward Island, and turned his prows to
the north. The oppressive heat of an American
July is commemorated in the name which Car-
tier gave to the Bay of Chaleur. A little further
on, at Gaspe, he set up a cross, and with the
1 The best and most critical biography is Longrais, Jacques
Cartier, Paris, 1888.

14 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
usual ceremonies took possession of the country
in the name of Francis I. Thence he crossed to
the eastern end of AnticostI, and followed the
north shore of that island nearly to its western
point, when he headed about, and passing
through Belle Isle made straight for France,
carrying with him a couple of Indians whom he
had kidnapped, young warriors from far up the
St. Lawrence, who had come down to the sea to
catch mackerel in hemp nets.
With this voyage of reconnoissance the shad
owy Square Gulf of Sylvanus at once becomes
The expiora- clothed wlth reality. Enough interest
sTVaw-^ was aroused In France to seem to jus-
rence tlfy another Undertaking, and In May,
1535, the gallant Cartier set forth once more,
with three small ships and no men. Late In
July he passed through the Strait of Belle Isle,
and on the loth of August, a day sacred to the
martyred St. Lawrence, he gave that name to a
small bay on the mainland north of AnticostI.
Whales were spouting all around his course as
he passed the western point of the Island and
ploughed into the broad expanse of salt water
that seemed to open before him the prospect of
a short passage to the Indian Ocean. Day by
day, however, the water grew fresher, and by the
September morning when he reached the mouth
of the Saguenay our explorer was reluctantly
convinced that he was not in a strait of the ocean,

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 15
but In one of the mightiest rivers of the earth.
To these newcomers from the Old World each
day must have presented an impressive specta
cle ; for except the Amazon and the Orinoco It
may be doubted if there be any river which gives
one such an overwhelming sense of power and
majesty as the St. Lawrence ; certainly the Mis
sissippi seems very tame In comparison.
As the Frenchmen inquired the names of the
villages along the banks, a reply which they com
monly received from their two Indian The name
guides was the word Canada, y^hizh. Is "^"¦-^^^"
simply a Mohawk word for " village." ^ Hence
Cartier naturally got the Impression that Canada
was the name of the river or of the country
through which it flowed, and from these begin
nings its meaning has been gradually expanded
until it has come to cover half of a huge conti
nent. Presently on arriving at the site of Que
bec, Cartler found there a village named Stada
cona, with a chieftain called Donnacona. Painted
and bedizened warriors and squaws came troop
ing to the water's edge or paddling out In canoes
to meet the astounding spectacle of the white-
winged floating castles and their pale-faced and
bearded people. In the two kidnapped Inter
preters the men of Stadacona quickly recognized
their kinsmen ; strings of beads were passed
about, dusky figures leaped and danced, and
¦*¦ Beauchamp, Indian Names in New York, p. 104.

16 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
doleful yells of welcome resounded through the
forest. Was this the principal town of that coun
try ? No, It was not. The town in question was
many miles up-stream, a great town, and its name
was Hochelaga, but it would be rash
Hochelaga _ , , ° ,
for the bearded visitors to attempt to
go thither, for they would be blinded with falling
snow, and their ships would be caught between
ice-floes. This ironical solicitude for the safety
of the strangers has the genuine Indian smack.
The real motive underlying it was doubtless
" protection to home Industry ; " why should
the people at Hochelaga get a part of the beads
and red ribbons when there were no more than
enough for the people at Stadacona ? Recourse
was had to the supernal or infernal powers. On
a fine autumn morning a canoe came down the
river, carrying three scowling devils clad in dog
skins, with Inky-black faces surmounted by long
antlers. As they passed the ships they paddled
shorewards, prophesying In a dismal monotone,
until as the canoe touched the beach all three
fell flat upon their faces. Thereupon forth Issued
from the woods Donnacona's feathered braves.
An Indian ^nd In an ecstasy of yelps and groans
'"'^'^ seized the fallen demons and carried
them out of sight behind the canopy of leaves,
whence for an hour or so their harsh and gut
tural hubbub fell upon the ears of the French
men. At last the two young interpreters crawled

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 17
out from the thicket and danced about the shore
with agonized cries and gestures of lively terror,
until Cartier from his quarter-deck called out to
know what was the trouble. It was a message,
they said, from the mighty deity Coudouagny,
warning the visitors not to venture upon the
dangerous journey to Hochelaga, inasmuch as
black ruin would surely overtake them. The
Frenchman's reply was couched In language dis
respectful to Coudouagny, and the principle of
free-trade in trinkets prevailed.
With a forty-ton pinnace and two boats car
rying fifty men Cartier kept on up the rivfer,
leaving his ships well guarded in a snug harbour
within the mouth of the stream now known as
the St. Charles. A cheerful voyage of a fortnight
brought the little party to Hochelaga, Cartier
where they landed on a crisp October amves at
^ /-I Hochelaga
morning. There came rortn to meet
them — In the magniloquent phrase of the old
narrator — " one of the principal lords of the
said city," ^ with a large company of retainers,
for thus did their European eyes interpret the
group of clansmen by whom they were wel
comed. A huge bonfire was soon blazing and
crackling, and Indian tongues, loosened by its
genial warmth, poured forth floods of eloquence,
1 "L'un des principaulx seigneurs de la dicte ville."
Cartier, Brief recit de la nauigation faicte esysles de Canada,
etc., p. 23.

18 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
until presently the whole company took up its
march Into the great city of Hochelaga. Asketch
of this rustic stronghold was published In 1556
in Ramuslo's collection of voyages. The name
of the draughtsman has not come down to us,
but it was apparently drawn from memory by
some one of Cartier's party, for while it does not
answer in all details to Cartier's description, it
is a most characteristic and unmistakable Iro-
Hocheiagaa ^uois town. It was clrcukr in shape.
typical iro- Xhc Central portion consisted of about
quois town r r ^ • i r •
nrty long wigwams, about 150 reet in
length by 50 In breadth, framed of saplings
tightly boarded In with sheets of bark. Through
the middle of each wigwam ran a passageway,
with stone fireplaces at Intervals coming under
openings In the high bark roof whereby some of
the smoke might escape. Kettles of baked clay
hung over most of the fires, and the smoky at
mosphere was redolent of simmering messes of
corn and beans and fowl, or, if It were a gala day,
of boiled dog, while the fumes of tobacco were
omnipresent. On either side were the rows of
shelves or benches covered with furs, which
served as beds ; while here and there, overlook
ing sheaves of stone arrows and scattered toma
hawks, there dangled flint knives and red clay
pipes and dried human scalps. These spacious
wigwams were arranged about a large central
square, and outside of them a considerable inter-

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 19
val or boulevard intervened between habitations
and wall. Such a town might have held a pop
ulation of from 2500 to 3000 souls, but the ac
tual number was apt to fall short of the capacity.
The town wall was ingeniously constructed of
three concentric rows of stout sapUngs. The
middle row stood erect in the ground, rising to
a height of twelve or fifteen feet ; and the two
outer rows, planted at a distance of five or six
feet on either side of it, were inclined so as to
make a two-sided tent-shaped structure. The
three rows of saplings met at the top, and were
tightly lashed to a horizontal ridge-pole, while
at the bottom, and again about halfway up, they
were connected by diagonal cross-braces, after
the herring-bone pattern, thus securing great
strength and stability. Around the inside of this
stout wall, and near the top, ran a gallery acces
sible by short ladders, and upon the gallery our
explorers observed piles of stones ready to be
hurled at an approaching foe. Outside in all di
rections stretched rugged half-cleared fields clad
in the brown remnant of last summer's corn
crop, and dotted here and there with yellow
pumpkins. The arrival of the white strangers was the
cause of wild excitement among the bark cabins
and In the open square of Hochelaga. Their
demeanour was so courteous and friendly that
men, women, and children allowed curiosity

20 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
to prevail over fear ; they flocked about the
Frenchmen and felt of their steel weapons and
stroked their beards. Sick Indians came up to
be touched and cured, trinkets were handed
The name about, polItc speechcs wcrc made, and
" Montreal " a|- length amid a loud fanfare of trum
pets the white men took their leave. Before
they embarked the Indians escorted them to
the summit of the neighbouring hill, which
Cartier named Mont Royal, a name which as
Montreal still remains attached to the hill and
to the noble city at Its foot.
It was getting late in the season to make
further explorations in this wild and unknown
country, and upon returning to Stadacona the
Frenchmen went Into winter quarters. There
they suff^ered from such intensity of cold as the
shores of the EngHsh Channel never witnessed.
Distresses of ^ud presently scurvy broke out with
the wmter such vlrulcnce that scarcely a dozen
of the whole company were left well enough
to take care of the rest. In vain were prayers
and litanies and genuflexions In the snow. The
heavenly powers were as obdurate as when Cas-
sim Baba forgot the talismanic word that opened
the robbers' cave. But presently Cartier learned
from an Indian that a decoction of the leaves
of a certain evergreen tree was an Infallible cure
for scurvy. The experiment was tried with re-

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 21
suits that would have gladdened Bishop Berke
ley, had he known them, when he wrote his
famous treatise on the virtues of tar water.^
Whether the tree was spruce, or pine, or bal
sam fir, is matter of doubt, but we are told that
Cartier's men showed such avidity that within
a week 'they had boiled all the foliage of a tree
as big as a full-grown oak, and had quaffed the
aromatic decoction, whereupon their cruel dis
temper was quickly healed.
The ranks had been so thinned by death
that Cartler was obliged to leave one of his
ships behind. Further exploration must be
postponed. It was the common experience.
A single season of struggle with the savage con
tinent made it necessary to return to Europe
for fresh resources. So it was with Cartier.
The midsummer of 1536 saw him once more
safe within the walls of St. Malo, and confident
that one more expedition would reveal some at
least of the wonders which he had heard of,
comprising all sorts of things from gold and
diamonds to unipeds. As we are confronted
again and again with these resplendent dreams
of the early voyagers to America, we are re-
* On its specific use in scurvy, see Berkeley's Siris, pp.
86-11 9, in Fraser's edition of his works, Oxford, 1 871, ii.
395-408. The bishop's interest in tar water seems to have
been started by his experiences in America, iv. 262.

22 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
minded not only that the wish is father to the
thought, but also that the stolid-looking red
man is the most facetious of mortals, and In his
opinion the most delightful kind of
Indian tales - . , . . ,
lacetiousness, the genuine epicure s
brand of humour, consists in what English slang
calls " stuffing," or filling a victim's head with
all manner of false Information. In Cartier's
case one effect was to lead him to kidnap Don
nacona and several other chiefs, and carry them
to France, that they might tell their brave sto
ries before the king.
Five years elapsed before another expedition
was ready for Canada. King Francis made up
his mind that a little more flourish of trumpets,
such as the crowns of Spain and Portugal in
dulged in, would not come amiss. Columbus
and Gama had been admirals and viceroys ; it
was high time for the king of France to create
a viceroyalty In the New World. To fill this
eminent position he selected Jean Fran9ois,
Sieur de Roberval, a nobleman who held large
estates In Picardy. This man he created Lord
of Norumbega and Viceroy over Canada,
Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, and so
on through a long string of barbaric names. At
the same time Cartier was made cap-
Roberval . i i • i
tain-general, and in his commission
the king declares that the lands of Canada and
Hochelaga "form the extremity of Asia toward

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 23
the west." ^ The flourish of trumpets was loud
enough to reach the ears of Charles V., but the
Spaniards had become convinced that the cod
fish coasts contained no such springs of sud
den wealth as Cortes and Pizarro had dis
covered for them, and the Spanish ambassador
at Paris advised his master that the soundest
policy was to let Francis go on unmolested and
waste his money in a bootless enterprise.
The event seemed to justify this cynicism.
Itwas a dismal tale of misdirected energies. So
little commercial interest was felt in the voyage
that volunteers were not forthcoming and had
to be sought In the jails. So much time was
consumed in getting ready that it was decided
to send on a part of the expedition cartier's voy-
in advance, and so In May, 1 541, Car- ^^^> '54'
tier started with three ships, expecting soon to
be overtaken by Roberval. In this expecta
tion he tarried six weeks on the Newfoundland
coast, until the arrival of August determined
him to wait no longer, and he pushed across
the Gulf of St. Lawrence and up the river. Of
this voyage we have no such full report as of
its predecessor. Very little seems to have been
accomplished In new explorations ; at Hoche
laga there were rumours of hostile plots on the
part of the red men ; and then there was another
1 Harrisse, Notes sur la Nouvelle France, " De par le
roy," 17 Oct. 1540.

24 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
wretched winter near the site of Quebec ; and
then a forlorn retreat to the ocean and to
France. At one of the harbours on the New
foundland coast the little fleet of Cartler met
that of Roberval, whose detention of a whole
year has never been accounted for. Our author
ities are here so confused that It Is impossible
to elicit from them a coherent story. It seems
clear, however, that the meeting between the
two commanders was not a pleasant one, and
that Cartler kept on his way to France, leaving
Roberval to shift for himself.
The Lord of Norumbega was not left help
less, however, by this departure. He had sturdy
pilots on board, already familiar with these
coasts, and one of his three ships was com
manded by a veteran navigator who was thought
jeanAUe- to be unexccllcd by any other seaman
fonsce tries of Francc. ThIs was Jean Allefonsce,
to explore r \ . r o •
the Sea of of the provincc of Saintonge, over
Verrazano ^hlch swccp thc Salt breczcs of the
Bay of Biscay. In forty years or more of life
upon the ocean he Is likely to have visited more
than once already these northern waters, such a
haunt of BIscayan fishermen. He was now en
trusted with an important enterprise. In the
Gulf of St. Lawrence the expedition was divided,
and it seems clear that while Roberval under
took the task of exploring the river he sent
Allefonsce on an ocean trip to find a passage

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 25
into the Sea of Verrazano. This voyage is
usually mentioned in such terms as to be unin
telligible ; as for example by the Recollet friar,
SIxte le Tac, writing in 1689, who says that
Roberval sent Allefonsce northward to Labra
dor in quest of a passage to the East Indies,
but that Allefonsce was so beset with floating
ice that he was fain to rest contented with dis
covering the strait between Newfoundland and
the continent in latitude 5 2°,^ or, in other words,
the Strait of Belle Isle. Now this is of course
absurd, for the Strait of Belle Isle had long been
familiar to mariners and was a favourite route
for entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In one
of the most recent books, the late Justin Win-
sor's " Cartier to Frontenac," we get a reverber
ation of this statement when we are told that
" Allefonsce went north along the Labrador coast
to find, if possible, a passage to the west. The
ice proved so dense that he gave up the search."^
But while most writers have repeated this state-
1 " Ce fut lui [Roberval] aussy qui envoya Alphonse tres
habile pilote xaintongeois vers la Brador pour essayer de trouver
un passage aux Indes Orientales, mais il se contenta de decouvrir
seulement celuy qui est entre I'isle Terreneuve et la grande
Terre du Nord par les 52 degres, les glaces I'empeschant
d'allerplus loing." SixteleTac, Histoire chronologique de la
Nouvelle France, publi'ee pour la premVere fois d' apres le
manuscrit original de l68g, par E. Reveillaud, Paris, 1888,
p. 45.
^ Cartier to Frontenac, p. 41.

26 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
ment, it is to be observed that the careful and
thoroughly informed Hakluyt, writing in 1589,
Errors in re- kuows Hothlng of any such northcm
voyage of' ^oyagc of Alkfonscc. The truth
AUefonsce Jg, that eminent sailor, after return
ing from his expedition with Roberval, wrote
an account of his voyages, in which he was
aided by a friend, Paulin de Secalart, a geogra
pher of Honfleur, This narrative, written in
1545, still remains in manuscript, a folio of 194
leaves, and is preserved in the National Library
at Paris.^ But In 1559, shortly after the death
of Allefonsce, and during that brief period of
quickened curiosity about the man which is
wont to come at such a time, a book was pub
lished at Poitiers, entitled " The Adventurous
Voyages of Captain Jean Allefonsce," and this
book ran through at least seven editions. It
was compiled by a merchant of Honfleur
named Maugis Vumenot, and Is a thoroughly
uncritical and untrustworthy narrative.^ It omits
much that Allefonsce tells, and weaves In such
interesting material as Master Vumenot hap-
* Its description is Cosmographie avec espere et regime du
Soleil et du Nord ennostre langue franfoyse par Jehan Alle
fonsce, Bibliotheque Nationale, MSS. fran9ais 676. An
account of it is given in Harrisse, Decouverte de Terre-Neuve,
p. 153, and Notes sur la Nouvelle France, p. 7. See also De
Costa, Northmen in Maine, etc., pp. 92-122.
2 Cf. Weise, The Discoveries of America, New York,
1884, p. 352.

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 27
pened to have at hand, without much regard to
its historic verity. Such were the naive methods
of sixteenth century writers.
If we consider what Allefonsce himself tells
us, although his allusions to places are often far
from clear, we cannot fail to see that his voyage
in quest of a western passage in the summer of
1 542 was directed not northward but The true di-
southward from the Gulf of St. Law- T"'™ °^,
Allefonsce s
rence. He seems to have entered voyage
Massachusetts Bay, and may have passed
through Long Island Sound and Hell Gate;
at all events he has much to say about the town
of Norumbega, which Mercator's map of 1569
places upon Manhattan Island ; and he tells us
that the river of Norumbega Is salt for more
than ninety miles from Its mouth, which Is true
of the Hudson, but not of any other river which
men have sought to associate with Norumbega.
Moreover our good pilot feels confident that
this great river, if followed far enough to the
northward, would be found to unite with the
other great river of Hochelaga, that is, the St.
Lawrence.^ This notion, of a union between
the Hudson and the St. Lawrence, became a
very common one, and found expression upon
the famous map of Gastaldi in 1553, and upon
other maps.
1 Cf. Weise, The Discoveries of America, New York,
1884, p. 352.

28 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
If we were to allow a little free play to our
fancy, it would not be difficult to assign a suit
able explanation for this voyage of Allefonsce
in connection with the expedition of Roberval.
There is no longer any doubt that the Hudson
River was first made known to Europeans by
Verrazano in 1524, and was called by various
names, of which perhaps the Grand River was
the most common. At the Indian village on
Manhattan Island French skippers traded for
furs, and in 1540 a French blockhouse was
built near the site of Albany for the purpose of
AUefonsce protecting such traffic with the red
visits the men of the Mohawk valley. The
name Norumbega unquestionably first
appears with Verrazano's voyage, and for forty
years thereafter It was closely associated with the
neighbourhood of the Hudson. In reading the
string of Roberval's titles — which begin with
Norumbega and run through Canada, Hoche
laga, Saguenay, etc., down to Newfoundland
— It is clear that the king meant to concentrate
under his rule the various regions which Ver
razano and Cartier had discovered. When the
expedition arrives on the American coast it
seems not unnatural that the viceroy should
send his lieutenant to Norumbega while he
himself should prosecute the journey to Hoche
laga. Possibly, as some believed, the watery
channels pursued by the two might unite. At

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 29
all events a passage into the Sea of Verrazano
was more likely to be found at the fortieth par
allel than at the fifty-second.
It is a pity that these amiable old skippers,
in telling of their acts and purposes, should
have paid so little heed to posterity's craving
for full and exact knowledge. Just how far the
good Allefonsce ever got with his Norumbega
voyage, or what turned him back, we are not
informed. We may safely say that he did not
succeed in sailing Into the Sea of Verrazano, and
the next summer we find him once more with
Roberval on the St. Lawrence. Thither that
captain had proceeded at the outset after part
ing company with Allefonsce. Of his fortunes
during the next seventeen months our accounts
are but fragmentary. Hakluyt is unusually brief
and vague, and we have to rely largely upon a
manuscript of 1556,^ written by the somewhat
mendacious Andre Thevet, who seems to have
been an intimate friend of Roberval and a boon
companion of the irrepressible buffoon Rabelais.
Provoklngly scanty as Thevet often is, there are
times when he goes Into full details, and one of
his romantic stories is worthy of mention, since
it probably rests upon a basis of fact.
The expedition of Roberval was Intended
not only for exploring the wilderness but for
founding a colony. Homes were to be estab-
^ See Harrisse, Notes sur la Nouvelle France, p. 278.

30 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
lished in the New World, and many of the
company brought along with them their wives
and children. Among the young women was
Marguerite Roberval, niece of the Lord of
Norumbega, and on the same ship was a gal
lant chevalier, and the twain loved one another
not wisely but too well. Roberval
The charac- ¦' 111 j •
ter of Rober- was a man or stern and relentless dis-
^^ position, and forgiveness of sins
formed no part of his creed. He set his niece
ashore on a small barren island, with an old
Norman nurse who had been in her confidence,
and left them there with a small supply of food
and guns for shooting game or noxious beasts.
As the ship sailed away, the lover leaped into
the sea and by dint of frenzied exertion swam
ashore. The place was dreaded by sailors, who
called It the Isle of Demons, but bears and
wolves were more formidable enemies. On that
island was born, during the year 1 542, the first
child of European parents within the vast region
now known as British America, but one after
another, child, father, and nurse, succumbed
to the hardships of the place and died, leaving
the young mother alone in the wilderness.
There for more than two years she contrived
to sustain life, on three occasions shooting a
white bear, and at all times keeping the de
mons aloof by the sign of the cross, until one
day she was picked up by a fishing vessel and

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 31
carried back to France. There Thevet tells us
that he met her a little later, in a village of Peri-
gord, and heard the story from her
^ . All • Tns romance
own lips. At all events it was much of Roberval's
talked of In France, and forms the "'"^
subject of the sixty-seventh tale in the famous
collection of Queen Margaret of Angouleme,
sister of Francis I.^ The Isle of Demons was
often called by sailors the Isle of the Damsel.
Ascending the great river to Cap Rouge,
near the site of Quebec, where Cartler had win
tered, Roberval made it his headquarters. Lit
tle is known as to the course of events, save
that In the following summer Allefonsce had re
turned, and a trip was made up the Saguenay.
There were severe hardships and many died.
The sternness of Roberval is conspicuous in
the narrative, and may have been called forth
by apparent necessity. There were occasions on
which both men and women were shot for an
example, and the whipping-post was frequently
in requisition, " by which means," observes the
worthy Thevet, " they lived in peace." This Is
about all we know of the mighty viceroyalty of
Hochelaga, etc. Lescarbot tells us that in the
course of 1543 the king sent out Cartier once
* See Heptameron : Les Nouvelles de Marguerite, Reine
de Navarre, Berne, 1781, torn. iii. pp. 179-184. In my
copy of this edition de luxe the superb engraving by Freu-
denberg represents the lovers seated under palm-trees !

32 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
more, who brought home to France the wretched
survivors of the company.-* About this time
Cartier received from the king a grant of a
manor on the coast of the Channel, not far from
St. Malo, and there we lose sight of the navi
gator, except for the mention of his death at
that place in 1557. Allefonsce seems to have
been killed in a sea fight about ten years before,
and we are told that Roberval was assassinated
one evening on the street in Paris.
After the failure of this expedition there was
a partial cessation of French enterprise upon
the high seas. The reign of Henry II. was
clouded by the disastrous wars with Spain, in
which France lost the three bishoprics of Metz,
Toul, and Verdun, and French armies were so
woefully defeated at St. Quentin and Gravelines.
. , The death of the king In iccg was
Suspension of . . ° _ , -^ ¦v:; .
French ex- the Signal for the rise of the Guises
p oration ^^^ ^^^ pursuancc of a policy which
brought on one of the most disastrous civil
wars of modern times. From 1562 to 1598
some historians enumerate eight successive wars
in France, but it Is better to call It one great
civil war of thirty-six years, with occasional
truces. It is still more Instructive to regard it
all as a phase of the still mightier conflict which
was at the same time raging between Spain and
the Netherlands, and which presently Included
^ Lescarbot, ii. 416.

FROM CARTIER TO CHAMPLAIN 33
Queen Elizabeth's England among the com
batants. It was not a favourable time for ex
pending superfluous energy In founding new
states beyond sea. During the latter half
of the century we witness two feeble and ill-
starred attempts at planting Huguenot colonies
in America, — the attempt of Vlllegagnon in
Brazil in 1557-58, and that of Ribaut in Florida
in 1562-65. The latter of these was Ribaut in
formidable in purpose ; It represented Florida
the master thought of Collgny which led Sir
Walter Raleigh to plan the founding of an
English nation In America. The violent de
struction of this Huguenot colony was the
last notable exhibition of Spanish power beyond
sea In that century of Spanish preeminence.
Spanish energy, too, was getting absorbed in
the conflict of Titans in Europe.
The affair of Florida was essentially military
in purpose and execution. Attempts at planting
commercial colonies on the St. Lawrence must
wait for some more favourable opportunity.
Yet French fishing vessels steadily plied to and
fro across the Atlantic. Investigations in the
local account-books of such towns as importance
Dieppe and Honfleur lead to the con- l^^of
elusion that as many as 200 ships were ^« sea
equipped each year in French ports for fishing
in American waters.^ It was no uncommon
1 Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, p. 74.

34 NEW FRANCE AND NE]V ENGLAND
thing for these craft to bring home furs and
walrus ivory. But we hear of little in the way
of exploration. Dieppe, Indeed, boasted some
thing like a school of seamanship. It was a city
to which astronomers, geographers, and map-
makers were drawn In order to profit by the
experiences of practical navigators, and where
questions connected with oceanic exploration
were likely to be treated in a scientific spirit.
In those days such men as Pierre Desceliers,
who has been called the creator of French hy
drography, and whose beautiful maps are now
of great historical importance, made his head
quarters at Dieppe. It was a time of keen in
tellectual curiosity and bold commercial activity ;
and nothing was needed but relief from the
oppressive anarchy that had ruled so long to see
France putting forth new efforts to plant colo
nies and to prepare for maritime empire. The
end of the century saw a new state of things,
the military strength of Spain irretrievably
broken, the policy of France in the hands of
the greatest and wisest ruler that Ftance ever
had, with England and the Netherlands loom
ing up as powerful competitors In the world be
yond seas. Before the rivals lay the American
coasts, inviting experiments in the work of
transplanting civilization. It remained to be
seen how France would fare in this arduous
undertaking.

II
THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC
THE yean 598 was a memorable one in
the history of France, for It witnessed
the death of that Insatiable schemer,
Philip II. of Spain, supporter of the Guises, and
it also saw the end of the long wars of religion
and the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes.
The time seemed to be more propitious than
before for commercial enterprises, and the
thoughts of a few bold spirits turned once more
to the St. Lawrence. One of these was the
Marquis de la Roche, a Breton noble- voyage of
man, who obtained from Henry IV. the Marquis
. . . de la Roche
a commission very similar to that
under which Roberval had sailed. But so little
popular interest was felt In the enterprise that
volunteers would not come forward, and It be
came necessary to gather recruits from the jails.
The usual scenes of forlorn and squalid tragedy
followed. Roche was cast ashore on the Breton
coast in a tempest, and was thrown into a dun
geon by the king's enemy, the Duke de Mer-
coeur ; ^ while his convicts were landed on Sable
1 The "Duke Mercury " of John Smith's True Travels,
chaps, v., vi.

36 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Island, and only saved from starving by the
wild cattle descended from Lery's kine of four
score years before.
While these things were going on there was
a skipper of St. Malo, a man of good family and
some property, Fran9ois Grave, Sieur du Pont,
commonly known as Pontgrave, who had made
up his mind that the Canada fur-trade was some
thing that ought to be developed. He had
sailed up the St. Lawrence as far as Three
Rivers, and had feasted his eyes upon the soft
glossy pelts of mink and otter, lynx and wol
verene. The thing to do was to get a monopoly
of the trade In furs, and with this end in view
Pontgrave applied to a friend of the king, a
wealthy merchant of Honfleur named Pierre
Chauvin and a staunch Huguenot withal. An
other man of substance, the Sieur de Monts,
became Interested In the scheme, and the three
formed a partnership ; while the king granted
Pontgrave them a monopoly of the fur-trade on
and Chauvin the Condition that they should establish
secure a mo- , _,, . .^ .
nopoiy of the a colony. 1 his privilege awakened
fur-trade fierce hcart-bumlngs among the gal
lant skippers of St. Malo, who declared that
they had done more than anybody else to
maintain the hold of France upon the St. Law
rence country, and there was no justice in sin
gling out one of their number for royal favour,
along with merchants from Honfleur and else-

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 37
where. Similar complaints were heard from
Rouen, Dieppe, and Rochelle ; the parliaments
of Normandy and Brittany took up the matter,
and a fierce outcry was made because Chauvin
and Monts were Protestants. But this argument
naturally went for little with Henry IV., and
the monopoly was granted.
Pontgrave and Chauvin made their head
quarters at Tadousac, where the waters of the
Saguenay flow into the St. Lawrence. The traf
fic In furs went on briskly, but the business of
colonization was limited to the leaving of mis
erable garrisons in the wilderness to perish of
starvation and scurvy. So things went on from
1599 to 1603, when Chauvin on his third voy
age died in Canada. The partnership was thus
broken up, and the monopoly for the moment
went a-begging.
It was only for a moment, however. The
governor of Dieppe since 1589 was Aymar de
Chastes, a stout Catholic of the national party
and a friend of Henry IV. On the great day
of Arques In 1589, when the Leaguers boasted
that their fat Duke of Mayenne,^ with his army
of 30,000, would make short work of the king
with his 7000, when the fashionable world of
Paris was hiring windows in the Faubourg St.
* Mais un parti puissant, d'une commune voix,
Placait deja Mayenne au trone de nos rois.
Voltaire, La Henriade, vi. 61.

38 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Antoine, to see the rugged Bearnese brought in
tied hand and foot. It was largely through the
aid of Chastes that Henry won his brilliant vic
tory and scattered the hosts of Midlan.^ It was
therefore not strange that when upon the death
of Chauvin this scarred and grizzled
De Chastes
succeeds vctcran asked for the monopoly in
Chauvin £-^j.g^ j^jg request was promptly granted.
Chastes soon found an able ally in Pontgrave,
but even with the allurements of rich cargoes
of peltries It was hard to get people to subscribe
money for such voyages. Loans for such pur
poses were classed on the market as loans at
heavy risk, and the rate of interest demanded
was usually from 35 to 40 per cent.'^
While the preparations were briskly going on
a new figure entered upon the scene, the noble
figure of the founder of New France. Samuel
Champlain was now about six and thirty years of
age, having been born in or about the year 1 567,
at Brouage, a small seaport in the province of
Saintonge, not many miles south of Rochelle.
The district, situated on the march between the
Basque and Breton countries, was famous as a
^ Michelet, Histoire de France, xii. 286 ; Gravier, Vie
de Champlain, p. 6.
^ Toutain, " Les anciens marins de I'estuaire de la Seine,"
in Bulletin de la Societe normande de Geographic, 1898, xx.
1 34 ; Breard, Le vieux Honfieur et ses marins, Rouen, 1 897,
p. 59.

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 39
nursery of hardy sailors, and the neighbour
hood of Rochelle was one of the chief centres
of Huguenot ferment. Champlain's father was
a seafaring man, but nothing is positively
known as to his station In society or as to his
religion. One local biographer calls The early life
him an humble fisherman, but the ofchampiain
son's marriage contract describes him as of
noble birth. The son was often called by con
temporaries the Sieur de Champlain, but that
was chiefly perhaps after he had risen to em
inence in Canada. The baptismal names of the
father and mother, Antoine and Marguerite,
indicate that they were born Catholics ; while
Samuel, the baptismal name of the son, affords
a strong presumption that at the time of his
birth they had become Huguenots. In later
life Champlain appears as a man of deeply reli
gious nature but little interested In sectarian dis
putes, a man quite after the king's own heart,
who realized that there were other things in the
world more important than the differences be
tween Catholic and Huguenot. Champlain was
to the core a loyal Frenchman, without a spark
of sympathy with those Intolerant partisans
who were ready to see France dragged in the
wake of Spain.
The early years of this noble and charming
man were mostly spent upon the sea. He was
a true viking, who loved the tossing waves and

40 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
the howling of the wind in the shrouds. His
strength and agility seemed inexhaustible ; in
the moment of danger his calmness was un
ruffled as he stood with hand on tiller, calling
out his orders in cheery tones that were heard
above the tempest.^ He was a strict disciplina
rian, but courteous and merciful as well as just
and true ; and there was a blltheness of mood
and qualntness of speech about him that made
him a most lovable companion. In the whole
course of French history there are few person
ages so attractive as Samuel Champlain.
For several years until the peace of 1598
Champlain served in the army of Henry IV.
as deputy quartermaster-general. One of his
uncles was pilot major, of the Spanish fleets, and
after the peace Champlain accompanied him to
Seville. A fleet was on the point of sailing for
Mexico, under the Admiral Francisco Colombo,
and Champlain obtained, through his uncle's
influence, the command of one of the ships.
Champlain ^hc voyagc, wlth the journeys on
in the West land, lasted more than two years, and
Champlain kept a diary, from which
after returning to France he wrote out a narra
tive ^ which so pleased the king that he granted
1 Champlain, Traite de la marine et du devoir d' un bon
marinier, pp. 1-7.
^ An English translation from this MS. was published by
the Hakluyt Society in 1859 under the title Narrative of a

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 41
him a pension. In this relation Champlain de
scribed things with the keen insight and careful
attention of a naturalist. Shores, havens, and
mountains lie spread out before you, with the
wonderful effects of snow-clad peaks rising from
the masses of tropical verdure, birds of strange
colour sing in the treetops, while hearsay grif
fins, with eagles' heads, bats' wings and croco
diles' tails lurk in the background ; and worse
than such monsters, our traveller thinks, are
the spectacles of Indians flogged for non-attend
ance at mass, and heretics burned at the stake.
While making a halt at the Isthmus of Panama
it occurs to him that a ship-canal at that point
would shorten the voyage to Asia even more
effectually than the discovery of a northwest
passage. When Champlain returned to France he
found Aymar de Chastes preparing to send
Pontgrave upon a voyage to Canada. The
veteran Pontgrave was brave and wise, resource
ful and light-hearted, just the sort of man whom
Champlain would be sure to like. It is therefore
not strange that we find him embarking in the
Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico. The original MS.
was first pubhshedin 1 870 as the first volume of Champlain's
works edited by Laverdiere : Brief discours des choses plus
remarquables que Samuel Champlain de Brouage a reconnues
aux Indes Occident ales au voyage qu' il en a faict en ice lies en
Lannee mil v'^ iiij^ xix, etc.

42 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
enterprise with Father Pontgrave, as he used
affectionately to call him. The two sailed from
„^ ,., Honfleuronthe icthof March, 1603,
champlain s J j .j '
first voyage and scvcnty days later they were
gliding past the mouth of the Sague
nay. As they approached the St. Charles they
saw no traces of the Iroquois town of Stadacona.
On they went, as far as Hochelaga, where Car-
tier had been entertained sixty-eight years be
fore, but not one of its long bark cabins was
left, nor a vestige of its stout triple palisade,
nor a living soul to tell the story of the dire
catastrophe. No Iroquois were now to be met
upon the St. Lawrence except as invaders, nor
were the accents of their speech to be heard
from the lips of the red men who emerged from
the thickets to greet Champlain and Pontgrave.
The disap- Another name than " Canada " would
pearance of havc bccomc attached to that country
the Iroquois , j 1 1 r
viUage of had thcse explorers been the first to
Hochelaga penetrate its wilds. No doubt, what
ever, can attach to the facts. There is no doubt
that in 1535 Iroquois villages stood upon the
sites of Montreal and Quebec, or that the
Iroquois language was that of the natives who
dwelt along the shores of the St. Lawrence ;
while in 1 603 the villages with their people and
their language had vanished from these places,
and Instead of them were found Algonquin vil
lages of a much lower type and a ruder people.

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 43
known as Adirondacks, and speaking an Al-
gonquian language. The visits of our good
Frenchmen have placed dates upon a portion
of one of those displacements or wanderings of
people that have commonly gone on In barbaric
ages alike in the Old World and in the New.
Just as we find Hunnish hordes in one age
breaking their strength against the great wall
of China and In another age mowed down by
the swords of Roman and Visigoth In the val
ley of the Marne, just as we see the Arab smile
and hear the Arabic guttural in Cordova and
In Lucknow, so In the New World we find
Dacotahs or Sioux strayed afar into the Caro-
linas with their Identity veiled under the name
" Catawbas," and we recognize In the brave and
intelligent Cherokees of Georgia pure-blooded
Iroquois, own cousins of the Mohawks.
Now the Iroquois, as we know them, while
preeminent in power of organization, have not
been a numerous family. Within our historic
ken, which is so provoklngly narrow, the most
fruitful and abounding Indian stock has been
that of the Algonquins. They Include the
Blackfeet of the Rocky Mountains and the
Crees of the Hudson Bay country -The Iroquois
along with the Powhatans of Old Vir- the Xigon-
glnla, and Eliot's version of the Bible 1"'"=
for the natives of Massachusetts Bay is to-day
for the most part intelligible to the Ojibways

44 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of Minnesota. Obviously within recent times,
that is to say since the fourteenth century, the
Algonquins have been for a period of some du
ration a rapidly multiplying and spreading race,
and their weight of numbers for a time proved
too much for the more civilized but less numer
ous Iroquois to withstand. Thus in the Appa
lachian region we find the mound-building
Cherokees retiring from the Ohio valley into
Georgia before the advancing swarms of Shaw-
nees ; and we see the Tuscaroras, another band
of Iroquois, pushed into Carolina by the ex
pansion of the Algonquin Powhatans and Del
awares. From the time when white men first became
interested in the Five Nations of New York, it
was a firmly established tradition among the
latter that their forefathers had once lived on
the St. Lawrence, and in particular that they
had a stronghold upon or hard by the site of
Montreal ; but that they had been driven to
the southward of Lake Ontario by the hostility
of a tribe of Algonquins known as Adiron
dacks.^ Their first movement seems to have
been up the St. Lawrence and across Lake On
tario to the mouth of the Oswego River, where
for some time they had their central strongholds.
Thence they spread in both directions. Those
^ Colden' s History of the Five Indian Nations, London,
1755, i. 23.

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 45
who settled at the head of the Canandaigua
lake became known by the Algonquin name of
Senecas, which has been variously interpreted.
Those who stopped at a lake to the eastward,
with a marsh at its foot, called Cayuga, or
" mucky land," were known by that name.
Those who kept up the ancestral council fires,
and spread over the divide between the Oswego
and Mohawk watersheds, and so on over the
gentle rolling country eastward of the Skan-
eateles or " long lake," have ever since been
known as Onondagas, or " men of the hills.'.'
Eastward from this central region the people."
were called Oneidas, or " men of the boulders "
(or perhaps " men of granite "), from the profu
sion of erratic blocks strewn over their territory.
Furthest to the east, and most famous of these
confederated warriors, were the people who
called themselves, or were called by their kins
men, Canlengas, or " people of the flint " that
was used in striking fire ; they are best known
to history, however, by the name of Mohawk,
or " man-eater," bestowed upon them by their
Algonquin foes, and which all the Iroquois
seem abundantly to have earned by their canni
bal propensities.^
The driving of the Iroquois up the St. Law-
^ Beauchamp, Indian Names in New York, passim ; Mor
gan, League of the Iroquois, pp. 51-53 ; Ancient Society,
p. 125.

46 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
rence valley into central New York by their
Algonquin assailants had remarkable conse
quences. For military and commercial purposes
the situation was the best on the Atlantic slope
of North America. The line of the Five Na
tions stretched its long length between the trea
sures of beaver and otter on the great lakes and
the wampum beds on the coast of Long Island ;
but If an enemy, from any quarter of the com
pass, ventured to attack that long line, forth
with it proved to be an Interior line in follow
ing which he was apt to be overwhelmed.
Along with this singular advantage of geo
graphical position the Five Nations soon learned
the value of political confederation In preserv
ing peace among themselves while Increasing
their military strength. It was a common thing
for Indian tribes of allied lineage to enter into
confederation, but no other union of this sort
was so artfully constructed, harmonious, and
The Iroquois cudurlng as the League of the Iro-
confederacy quols. The date of the founding of
this confederacy seems to have been not far
from 1450, and we may suppose the great
movement from the valley of the St. Lawrence
to the lakes of central New York to have oc
curred about a century earlier. This group of
Iroquois, which became the Five Nations, was
an overgrown tribe which underwent expansion
and segmentation. From the expanding Onon-

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 47
dagas the extreme wings first broke off" as Sen
ecas and Mohawks ; afterward the Onondagas
again threw off" the Cayugas, while a portion of
the Mohawks became marked off" as Oneidas.
To abolish war throughout their smiling coun
try by referring all aff^alrs of general concern to
a representative council was the great thought
of the Onondaga chief Hiawatha, who, after bit
ter opposition In his own tribe, found a powerful
ally In Dagonoweda, the Mohawk.^ Soon after
the middle of the fifteenth century the work of
these sagacious statesmen was accomplished, and
thenceforth the people of the five tribes, from
Canandaigua, " the chosen settlement," to Sche
nectady, " the plain beyond the opening," were
proud to call themselves Hodenosaunee, or
"Kinsmen of the Long House." Thenceforth
they found themselves more than a match for
the Algonquin foe, and able to go forth and as
sail him.
But there were yet other Iroquois kinsmen
beside those of the Long House. To the north
of the St. Lawrence and of Lake Ontario as far
west as the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron one
might have encountered the populous tribe of
Hurons. In blood and speech they diff"ered no
more from Mohawks than a Frank from a Fri
sian, or a Welshman of Wales from a Welsh
man of Cornwall. They were the rear of the
1 Hale, The Iroquois Book of Rites, chap. ii.

48 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
retiring Iroquois host, the buff"er that took the
first brunt of the Algonquin onsets. They were
probably the last to leave the valley of the St.
Lawrence. In all probability the towns of
Outlying Hochclaga and Stadacona, visited in
tribes of 1535 by Cartler, were Huron towns,
roquoi ^hich in the course of the next half
century were swept away by the last advancing
Algonquin wave. In Champlain's time the
Huron boundaries all stopped west of the
meridian of Niagara, and their population of
20,000 souls was to be found mostly between
Lake Simcoe and the Georgian Bay. Between
these Hurons and Lake Erie, west of the Ni
agara River, dwelt another tribe of Identical
blood and speech, known as the Attiwenda-
ronks ; and south of Lake Erie came the Eries ;
while down in the pleasant valley of the Sus
quehanna were the villages of the powerful tribe
variously called Susquehannocks, Andastes, or
Conestogas. All these were Iroquois, and were
severely blamed by the Five Nations for refus
ing to accept Hiawatha's " Gift of Peace " and
join the confederacy. They were scorned as
base and froward creatures, so bent upon having
their own way that they held aloof from the only
arrangement that could put a curb upon the per
petual slaughter ; such, at least, was the purport
of the solemn speeches that used to be made be
fore the council fires at Onondaga. The Five

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 49
Nations were bound to be peace-makers, even at
the cost of massacring all the human population
of America. They fully appreciated the injunc
tion " Compel them to enter in." In the course
of the seventeenth century we find them annihi
lating successively the Hurons, Attlwendaronks,
Eries, and Conestogas, and after the customary
orgies of torment and slaughter, adopting the
remnants into their own tribes. In Champlain's
time the hatred between the Five Nations and
the Hurons had come to such a pass that the
latter forgot their ancient hostility to the Al
gonquins of the St. Lawrence, and were wont
to make common cause with them against the
dreaded Long House. In these ways, when
Champlain arrived upon the scene, a situation
had been prepared for him and for France, of
which he understood absolutely nothing.
Five years were to pass, however, before the
gallant Frenchman was to taste the first fruits
' of the true significance of the disappearance of
Hochelaga. When In the autumn of 1603 the
returning ships arrived at Havre, they were met
by the news that Chastes was dead. Once more
the business must be reorganized, and this time
itwas the Sieur de Monts, already men- Q^^^ns of
tioned, who took the lead. This no- 'i^^ sieur de
11-1 1 1-1 Monts
bleman turned his thoughts a little to
the southward, perhaps with a view to milder
winters, and obtained from the king a grant

50 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
extending from about the latitude of Montreal
as far south as that of Philadelphia. There is
a Micmac word, Acadle or Aquoddy, which
means simply " place " or " region," and which
appears in such names as Passamaquoddy. In
French it has a romantic flavour, which is perhaps
slightly enhanced In the English Acadia. To the
country since famous under that name the Sieur
de Monts brought his little company In the
spring of 1 604. There had been indignant out
cries over the circumstance that this gentleman
was a Huguenot, but the king laughed at these
protests. He insisted that Monts should so far
defer to public opinion as to take a Romish
priest with him to preach the gospel to the hea
then ; but he allowed him also to take a Calvin-
ist minister for his own spiritual solace and en-
livenment. Hardly had the French coast-line
sunk below the horizon when the tones of enven
omed theological discusslo'n were heard upon
the quarter-deck. The ship's atmosphere grew
as musty with texts and as acrid with quibbles
as that of a room at the Sorbonne, and now and
Homeric then a scene of Homeric simplicity
quarrels ^g^g enactcd, whcn the curate and the
parson engaged in personal combat. " I forget
just now," says Champlain, "which was the hard
est hitter, but I leave you to Imagine what a fine
spectacle they made, aiming and dodging blows,
while the sailors gathered around and backed

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 51
them according to their sectarian prejudices," ^
some shouting " Hang the Huguenot ! " and
others " Down with the Papist ! " On shore
similar scenes recurred, with an accompaniment
of capering and yelping Indians, to whom It was
quite enough that a scrimmage was going on, and
who were perhaps scarcely worse fitted than the
combatants themselves to understand the issues
involved. It happened that amid the hardships
which assailed the little company these two zeal
ous men of God succumbed at about the same
time, whereupon, says one of our chroniclers
with a shudder, the sailors buried them in the
same grave, expressing a hope that after so much
strife they would repose In peace together.^
In our brief narrative there Is no need for en
tering into the details of this first experience of
white men in Acadia. The experiment occupation
extended over three years, during °f Acadia
which there were voyages back and forth across
the ocean with reinforcements to off^set the losses
from disease. Among the company, besides its
leaders, were two men of rare and excellent qual
ity, the Baron de Poutrincourt and Marc Les
carbot, an advocate and man of letters who was
seized by a sudden inclination for wild life.
Among Lescarbot's accomplishments was a
knack of turning off" long Alexandrine verses by
1 Champlain, Voyages, 1632,1. 46.
2 Sagard, Histoire du Canada, 1636, p. g.

52 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
the jard, but what was of far more value, he |
wrote a shrewd and pithy prose, abounding in
good sense and cheer. After the priceless writ- i
ings of Champlain himself there are few books {
about the beginnings of New France with which
we should be so loath to part as the three teem
ing volumes of Lescarbot.
The first attempt at settlement was made at
the mouth of the river Ste. Croix, but the fancy
of Poutrincourt was captivated by the beautiful
gulf to which the English in later days gave the
name of Annapolis. He obtained from Monts
a grant of the spot with its adjacent territory.
Founding of and Called it Port Royal. There after
hter Anna- ^ whlle the work of thcsc colonists was
poiis concentrated, while Champlain spent
much time In exploring and delineating the
coasts. Of making charts he was never weary,
and in following sinuous shore-lines he found
delight. One of his first discoveries was the
grand and picturesque island which he called
" isle of the desert mountains," " L'Isle des
Monts Deserts," a name which to this day by
its noticeable accent on the final syllable pre
serves a record of this French origin. A little
further to the west he entered and explored for
Champlain somc dlstancc the Penobscot, which
Netsng!?' fishermen often called the river of
land coast Norumbcga, but he found no traces
of the splendid city into which popular fancy had

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 53
magnified AUefonsce's Indian village upon the
island of Manhattan.^ Farther on he ascended
the Kennebec, and was correctly told by Indians
of the route to the St. Lawrence by the valley
of the Chaudiere, the route which was traversed
with such bitter hardship by Benedict Arnold
and his men in 1775. As the French navigator
passed Casco Bay he began to notice a marked
superiority in the Indians over the squalid Mic
macs and Etetchemins of Acadia. The wigwams
were better built, and the fields of maize, beans,
and pumpkins wore a kind of savage cheerful
ness under the scorching July sun. Champlain
entered the Charles River, and mistook It for
the great stream which was soon to be explored
by Henry Hudson. After duly astonishing the
natives of the triple-peaked peninsula, he passed
on to Plymouth, sailed around Cape Cod, and
proceeded as far as Nauset Harbour, where the
supplies began to give out, and a direct return
was made to the Bay of Fundy.
The object of this coasting voyage was to see
if any spot could be found for a settlement that
would be preferable to those already visited in
Canada or on the Bay of Fundy. For a moment
the Charles River seems to have tempted these
worthy Frenchmen, but they decided to go fur-
^ In Gravier's Vie de Samuel Champlain, Paris, 1900,
pp. 40-49, the reader will find more or less uncritical specu
lation connected with this little summer voyage.

54 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
then Their narrative indicates a much greater
coast population of red men than was found by
the Mayflower Pilgrims fifteen years later, and
enables us to form some Idea of the magnitude
of the pestilence which In the Interval nearly de
populated the shores of Massachusetts Bay. In
1605 all the best spots seemed to show Indian
villages. The next summer Champlain made
A second ex- another reconnoitring voyage from
piorationof Port Royal, in company with Pou-
the Massa- . .
chusetts trincourt. They lost but little time in
coast gg^j-jj^g ^Q Cape Cod, and then in
rounding Cape Malabar they had a singular ex
perience. At a distance of a league and a half
from the shore they found the depth of water
rapidly diminishing to less than a fathom, while
on every side the waves leaped and gambolled
in the wildest confusion. They got their bark
across this ugly shoal with a broken rudder, lit
tle dreaming that only four years before the same
spot, proudly rearing its head above the sea, had
been described by Bartholomew Gosnold under
the name of Nauset Island. It had lately been
beaten down and submerged by the angry wa
ters, but nearly three centuries were consumed in
washing away the fragments. The sea is now six
fathoms deep there.^
After getting clear of this dangerous place
Poutrincourt put into Chatham Harbour for re-
^ De Costa, Pre-Columbian Discovery of America, p. 97.

THE GULF OF ST. LAWRE'

EMCE, BY CHAMPLAIN, 1632

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 55
pairs, and there he remained a fortnight, closely
watched from the bushes by peering red men
who one morning before daybreak came swarm
ing about a party of sleeping Frenchmen, and
killed several. Thence our voyagers kept on to
Hyannis, and from that neighbourhood descried
a shore-line to the southward, which must have
been either Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket.
By this time Poutrincourt had made up his mind
that Port Royal was the best place for his colony
after all, and so the prow was turned in that
direction. Things went well enough with them until in
a stress of weather near Mount Desert their
rudder broke, and their last hundred and fifty
miles were far from comfortable. As they en
tered the harbour of Port Royal a singular
spectacle greeted them. That fortress consisted
of a large wooden quadrangle enclosing a court
yard. At one corner, which came down to the
water's edge, was an arched gateway flanked by
rude bastions mounting a few cannon. One side
of the quadrangle comprised the dining-room
and officers' quarters, on the second side were
the barracks for the men, on the third the
kitchen and oven, and on the fourth a picturesque
the store-rooms. Now on the No- "'^'™'"'
vember evening when Champlain and Poutrin
court sailed into the harbour they saw the build
ings brightly lighted and the arch surmounted

56 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
by the royal arms supported on either hand by
the heraldic emblems of Baron Poutrincourt
and the Sieur de Monts. While the weary voy
agers were admiring the pageant there stepped
forth from the gateway no less a personage than
old Neptune, Lord of the Ocean, with a pom
pous retinue of Tritons, who marched with
measured step to meet the ship, declaiming long
Alexandrine rhymed couplets of praise and
welcome. Thus was the tedium of the wilder
ness relieved by the ingenious Lescarbot, whose
active brain was never idle, but In the intervals
of work was sure to be teeming with quips and
quirks and droll conceits. During the summer
he had kept the men at work to good purpose,
and not only raised a crop of maize, but made
a respectable beginning with barley, wheat, and
rye. It was to a well-stocked home that he
politely ushered the voyagers, after wanderings
which he would refrain from comparing with
those of .^neas and Ulysses, Inasmuch as he
did not like to soil their holy missionary enter
prise with unclean pagan similitudes. In such
whimsicalities there was a strong sympathy
between the mariner of Saintonge and the law
yer of Vervlns. Champlain praised Lescarbot's
thrifty housekeeping, and devised a plan whereby
their table might be always well supplied. The
magnates at Port Royal, who occupied the
dining-room, were fifteen in number; Cham-

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 57
plain formed them into an order of knighthood,
which he called " The Order of Good Times,"
and each member In regular rotation was Grand
Master of the Order for one day, .^-^^ Knight-
during which he was responsible not ly order of
only for the supply of the larder but
for the cooking and serving of the meals. The
result was a delicious sequence of venison, bear,
and grouse, ducks, geese, and plover, as well as
fresh fish innumerable, to go with their bread-
stuff^s and dried beans. Lescarbot boasted that
the fare could not be excelled In the best res
taurants of Paris, and they had brought more
over such a generous quantity of claret that
every man in the colony received three pints
daily. Under such circumstances we need not
wonder that there was no scurvy, or that there
were only four deaths during the winter. Such
comfort and immunity were unusual in those
improvident days.
It was with high hopes that these blithe
Frenchmen hailed the approach of spring, but
its arrival brought unwelcome news and re
minded them of the flimsiness of the basis on
which such hopes had been sustained. The
merchants and fishermen of Normandy and
Brittany had never approved of the monopoly
granted to Monts ; on the contrary they had
never ceased to fight against it at court with
money and personal influence, and now at last

58 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
they had procured a repeal of the monopoly.
Monts had spent on the enterprise a sum ex
ceeding $100,000 of our modern money; he
was allowed an indemnity of $6000 provided
he could collect it from fur-traders. The blow
coUa seof ^^^ dccIsIve. If It proved so hard to
De Monts' found colonlcs even with the advan-
monopoy t^ggg of a monopoly, clearly there
was no use in going on without such aid. The
good Poutrincourt could not be Induced to give
up his plans for Port Royal, but three years
elapsed before he was enabled to renew his
work there. Meanwhile we must follow the
fortunes of Champlain and Monts after their
return to France.
They first betook themselves to Paris, to
confer with the king ; and Champlain tells us
how day after day he walked the streets of the
great city like a man in a dream. In early days
he had loved the ocean and felt suff"ocated in an
air that was not spiced with adventure. He had
now left his heart In the wilderness, a subtle
robber that In such matters never makes restitu
tion. He longed to follow up each entrancing
vista in the woodland, and to improve his ac-
champiain qualntancc with its denizens, four-
IttTntio'n to footed or winged as well as human.
Canada Especially was his curiosity whetted
by the recollection of the mighty river which
he had once ascended for so many miles. At

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 59
Hochelaga, or rather upon the shore where that
barbaric town had once stood, he had heard of
oceans to the westward, by which his informants
doubtless meant the great lakes, and he had
been told of a cataract a league In width, down
which leaps a mighty mass of water, which cer
tainly sounds to our ears like a reference to
Niagara Falls. Champlain wished to see such
things for himself, and he believed that the St.
Lawrence fur-trade would prove a source of
great wealth ; nor was he at all lacking In mis
sionary zeal. He was more than once heard to
say that the saving of a soul is worth more than
the conquest of an empire. Here then was
important work which he felt that Frenchmen
were called upon to do. He consulted with his
comrades Monts and Pontgrave, and found in
them abundant sympathy. Henry IV. was In
clined to look with favour upon such schemes,
but his able minister Sully took a dlff"erent view.'
The European schemes of these two statesmen
were far-reaching and of the utmost importance,
and Sully believed that France had need at
home of all the able-bodied men she could
muster ; It was poor economy, he thought, to
be wasting lives in Canada. There was also the
cry against monopolies, but Henry neverthe
less yielded so far as to renew to Monts the
monopoly In furs for one year, a concession
which was far from showing the king's cus-

60 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
tomary soundness of judgment, since itwas too
brief to be of much use. The grantee and his
friends, however, could go on in the hope of
further renewals ; and so in fact they did.
In April, 1608, the expedition sailed from
Honfleur, Champlain following Pontgrave at a
The expedi- wcek's Interval. On arriving at Ta-
tionofi6o8 dousac our French adventurers got
into further trouble In the matter of Father
Adam's will. Pontgrave found a party of
Basques trading with the Indians, and so far were
they from taking his remonstrance in good part
that a tussle ensued in which they boarded his
ship, killing and wounding some of his men, and
seized all his fire-arms. But on the arrival of
Champlain the strangers became more peace
fully inclined, and an agreement was made by
which the whole matter was referred to the
courts of justice In France.
Champlain then pursued his way up-stream
past the Island of Orleans to the narrow place
where a mighty promontory rears its head over
Quebec opposlte PoInt LcvI. The French
founded contluucd Calling it by its Algonquin
name ^ebec, or " The Narrows," ^ and there,
in what is now the Lower Town, they speedily
reared a stack of buildings enclosed by a wooden
wall mounting a few cannon and loopholed for
musketry. While the building was going on
^ Parkman, Pioneers of France, p. 329.

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 61
there was a leaven of treason at work in the
company. A locksmith, named Duval, took it
Into his head that more was to be gained from
playing Into the hands of the Spaniards who had
not yet left Tadousac than from loyally serving
his own country. What private motives may
have urged him we do not know. The plan
was to murder Champlain and hand over the
new fortress and all the property to the Basques.
But the secret was entrusted to too many per
sons, and so came to Champlain's ears. Just as
he had learned all the details a pinnace sent up
from Tadousac by Pontgrave arrived upon the
scene, and in it was a man whose fidelity was
above suspicion. Champlain instructed him to
invite Duval and three accomplices Treachery
to a social evening glass in the cabin, *'°'^^'*
telling them that the wine was a present from
some Basque friends. The bait was eagerly
swallowed, and no sooner had the plotters set
foot aboard the pinnace than to their amaze
ment they were seized and handcuff"ed. It was
not clear just how far the plot had spread, but
it mattered little now. In the middle of the
summer night the little colony was aroused from
its slumbers, and many a heart quaked with fear
as the announcement was made of the detection
of the plot and the arrest of the ringleaders.
The long rays of the morning sun revealed the
severed head of the locksmith Duval adorning

62 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
the wooden gateway of the courtyard ; his three
accomplices were sent to France to work in the
galleys ; and a proclamation of pardon without
further inquiry put everybody else at his ease.
Treason and assassination had suddenly become
unpopular. A terrible winter followed. When Pontgrave
set sail for France in September with a magni-
ficent cargo of furs he left Champlain
winter at at Qucbcc with twcnty-cIght men.
Que ec ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^£- ]yj^y qj^J^ j^Jj^g ^£ j.}jegg
were left alive. At last the good Pontgrave ap
peared with reinforcements and supplies, and
it was arranged that he should carry on his
trading at Quebec while Champlain should ex
plore the country. This was a task the mean
ing of which was to be learned only through
harsh experience, but it was obvious from the
first that it would involve penetrating the forest
to a great and unknown distance from any pos
sible civilized base of operations. It was work
of Immense difficulty. To carry on such work
with an army had well-nigh overtaxed the
genius of such commanders as Soto and Coro-
nado, with the treasury of the Indies to back
them. For Champlain, without any such re
sources, dlff^erent methods must be sought. He
must venture into the wilderness with a hand
ful of followers and as little encumbrance as
possible of any sort. There seemed to be but

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 63
one feasible way of approaching this problem,
and this was to cultivate the friendship of such
native tribes as might be most ser-
1-1 Friendship
viceable to rum on his long routes, with the in-
By assimilating these expeditions to dlt^onrf™""
journeys through a friendly country successful ex-
the risks might be greatly diminished, ^"^ °"
and the solid results indefinitely Increased.
It was such considerations as these that
started French policy in America upon the path
which it was destined thenceforth to follow to
the end. It was a choice that was fraught with
disaster, yet It would be unjust to blame Cham
plain for that. Nothing short of omniscience
could have looked forward through the tangle
of wilderness politics that seems so simple to us
looking backward. For Champlain's purposes
his choice was natural and sagacious, but as to
the particular people with whom he should ally
himself he can hardly be said to have had any
choice. Grim destiny had already selected his
allies. The valley of the St. Lawrence Thiscondi-
was the route for the fur-trade, and ''°" d'^'f-
. . . mines the
friendship must be preserved with subsequent
the tribes along Its banks and In- F'-'="=i>P°"^y
ward on the way to those great seas of which
Champlain had heard. The tribes on the St.
Lawrence were Algonquins whom the French
called Montagnais, but who were afterward
known as Adirondacks to the English of New

64 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
York. They were less intelligent and more bar
barous than the Iroquois. Agriculture and
village life were but slightly developed
the Indians among them, they were more depend-
of Canada ^^^ upon hunting and fishing, and as
they showed less foresight in storing provisions
for the winter their numbers were more fre
quently depleted by famine and disease. Farther
up the great river and commanding the north
western trails were the Ottawas, another Algon
quin people considerably more advanced than
the Montagnais ; while southerly from the
Ottawas and bordering on the Georgian Bay,
as already observed, were the Hurons, who
rather than join the league of their Iroquois
brethren preferred to maintain a sullen inde
pendence, and to this end kept up an alliance
with their Algonquin neighbours. For such
conduct the Hurons were denounced by the
confederated Iroquois as the vilest of traitors.
Thus the allies marked out for Champlain
and his colony were the neighbouring Algon
quins and the Hurons. It was absolutely ne
cessary that friendship with these tribes should be
maintained. In the autumn of 1608 Champlain
champlain learned that It was in his power to
^'''th '^o'^'"' do them a signal favour. A young
tawas and Ottawa chlcf who happened to visit
Hurons Qucbcc was astoundcd at its massive
wooden architecture and overwhelmed with awe

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 65
at the voice of the cannon and the distant eff"ects
wrought by their bullets. Could not these weird
strangers be induced to hurl their thunders and
lightnings at the Insolent enemy of the Algon
quins ? The suggestion suited Champlain's love
of adventure as well as his policy. It was an ex
cellent means of getting access to the Ottawa's
country. Late in the following June the woods
about Quebec resounded with the yells of three
hundred newly arrived Hurons and Ottawas im
patient to start on such an expedition as these
forests had never witnessed before. It Is a pity
that we have no account of it from the red man's
point of view ; it is fortunate, however, that we'
have such a narrative as Champlain's own.
On the a 8th of June, 1609, after the custom
ary feast and war dance, they started from Que
bec, some three to four hundred bar
barians In bark canoes, and Champlain
with eleven other Frenchmen, clad in doublets
protected with light plate armour, and armed
with arquebuses. In a shallop, which the Indians
assured Champlain could pass without serious
hindrance to the end of their route. The weap
ons of the red men were stone arrows, lances,
and tomahawks, but already there were many
sharp French hatchets to be seen which had been
bought with beaver skins. Their route lay across
that broad stretch of the St. Lawrence known as
Lake St. Peter to the river which a generation

66 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
later received the name of Richelieu. There they
paused for some fishing and feasting, and some
thing happened which has been characteristic of
savage warfare in every age. A fierce quarrel
broke out among the Indians, and three fourths
of the whole number quit the scene in a tower
ing passion and paddled away for their northern
homes. The depleted war party, taking a fresh
start, soon reached the rapids and carrying-place
above Chambly, and there it was found that the
shallop could go no further, since she could
not stem the rapids, and was too heavy to be
carried. Why the Indians had misinformed their
white ally on this point it would be hard to say.
Perhaps the Inborn love of hoaxing may have
prevailed over military prudence, or perhaps
they may have entertained misplaced notions of
the Frenchman's supernatural powers. At all
events the shallop must go back to Quebec, but
Champlain decided to go forward in a canoe, and
from his men he selected two volunteers as com
panions. After they had passed the portage
there was a grand roll-call, and It was found that
the total force was four and twenty canoes car
rying sixty feathered warriors and the three white
men. As they approached the noble lake which now
bears the name of Champlain, but was long
known as Lake of the Iroquois, their movements
became more circumspect, they sent scouts in

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 67
advance, and occasionally they consulted the
tutelar spirits of departed Algonquin and Hu
ron heroes. _ To the pious Champlain consultation
this sort of invocation seemed like an of departed
, T-. ., heroes
uncanny attempt to raise the Devil,
but he observed It narrowly and described it
fully, according to his custom. A small circu
lar tent was raised, of saplings covered with deer
skins, and into it crawled the medicine-man, with
shudders and groans, and drew together thex
skins which curtained him off" from the specta
tors. Then the voice of the tutelar spirit was
heard in a thin shrill squeak, like that of a Punch
and Judy show, and If the manifestation were
thoroughly successful the frail tent was rocked
and swayed hither and thither with frantic en
ergy. This motion was thought by the awe
struck spectators to be the work of the spirits,
but the scoffing Champlain tells us that he caught
several distinct glimpses of a human fist shaking
the poles, — which would seem to be a way that
spirits have had in later, as in earlier times.
As the war party came nearer and nearer to
the enemy's country they took more pains in
scouting, and at last they advanced Lake
only by night. As the sky reddened champlain
in the morning they would all go ashore, draw
up their canoes under the bushes, and slumber
on the carpet of moss, and pine-needles until
sunset ; then they would stealthily embark and

68 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
briskly ply the paddles until dawn. It was on
the 29th of July, a full month after leaving Que
bec, that they were approaching the promontory
since famous under its resounding Iroquois name
of Ticonderoga, or " meeting of the waters,"
since there Lake George is divided only by a
thin strip of /and from Lake Champlain ; as they
were approaching this promontory late in the
evening they descried a dark multitude of heavy
elm-bark canoes which were at once recognized
as Iroquois. Naval battles are not to the red
man's taste. The Iroquois landed at once and
began building a barricade, while the invaders
danced a scornful iig In their canoes.
War dances . ¦' ° 1 • 1
and the very air was torn asunder with
yells. All night the missiles in vogue were
taunts and jeers, with every opprobrious and
indecent epithet that the red man's gross fancy
could devise. Early in the morning the invaders
landed, all except the Frenchmen, who lay at
full length, covered with skins. There was no
thought of tactics. The landing was unopposed,
though the enemy were at least three to one.
There were as many as 2.00 of them, all Mo
hawks, tall, lithe, and many of them handsome,
the best fighters In the barbaric world. In the
ordinary course of things the Invaders would
have paid dearly for their rashness. As it was,
their hearts began to quake, and they called

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 69
aloud for Champlain. Then he arose and coolly
stepped ashore before the astounded Mohawks,
while his two comrades moving to a flank posi
tion stationed themselves among the trees. Half
palsied with terror at this supernatural visitation,
the Mohawks behaved like staunch men, and
raised their bows to shoot, when a volley from
Champlain's arquebus, into which he had stuflTed
four balls, instantly slew two of their The Mo-
chiefs and wounded another. A sec- Snlf'
ond fatal shot, from one of the other fire-arms
Frenchmen, decided the day. The Mohawks
turned and fled in a panic, leaving many prison
ers in Algonquin hands. Most of these poor
wretches were carried oflF to the Huron and
Ottawa countries, to be slowly burned to death
for the amusement of the squaws and children.
There was an Intention of Indulging to some
extent In this pastime on the night following the
victory, but Champlain put a stop to It. The
infliction of torture was a sight to which he was
not accustomed ; at the hissing of the live flesh
under the firebrand he could not contain him
self, but demanded the privilege of shooting the
prisoner, and his anger was so genuine and
Imperative that the barbarians felt obliged to
yield. After this summer day's work there was
a general movement homewards. It was a fair
average specimen, doubtless, of warfare in the

70 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Stone Age ; a long, desultory march, a random
fight, a few deaths on the field and a few more at
the stake, and nothing definitely accomplished.
This last remark, however, will not apply to
Champlain's first forest fight. A specimen of
the Stone Age In all other particulars. It was in
one particular — the presence of the three
Frenchmen — entirely remote from the Stone
Age. In that one particular it not only accom
plished something definite, but it marked an
epoch. Of the many interesting military events
associated with Ticonderoga it seems the most
Important. There was another July day 149
years later when a battle was fought at Tlconde-
This battle TOga In whIch 20,ooo men were en-
began a gaged and more than 2000 were killed
deadly o o
hostility be- and wounded. That battle, in which
^ench and Americans and British were woefully
the Iroquois defeated by the Marquis de Mont
calm, was a marvellous piece of fighting, but
it is now memorable only for its prodigies of
valour which failed to redeem the dulness of
the English general. It decided nothing, and
so far as any appreciable eff"ect upon the future
was concerned. It might as well not have been
fought. But the little fight of 1609, In which
a dozen or more Indians were killed, marks
with strong emphasis the beginning of the
deadly hostility between the French in Canada
and the strongest Indian power on the con-

THE BEGINNINGS OF QUEBEC 71
tinent of North America. In all human prob
ability the breach between Frenchmen and
Iroquois would In any case have come very
soon ; it Is difficult to see what could have pre
vented it. But in point of fact It actually did
begin with Champlain's fight with the Mohawks.
On the July day when the Frenchman's
thunder and lightning so frightened those dusky
warriors, a little Dutch vessel named the Half-
Moon, with an English captain, was at anchor in
Penobscot Bay, while the ship's carpenter was
cutting and fitting a new foremast. A few weeks
later the Half-Moon dropped anchor above the
site of Troy and within the very precincts over
which the warriors of the Long House kept
watch. How little did Henry Hudson imagine
what a drama had already been inaugurated in
those leafy solitudes ! A few shots of an arque
bus on that July morning had secured for
Frenchmen the most dangerous enemy and for
Dutchmen and Englishmen the most helpful
friend that the mysterious American wilderness
could aff"ord.

Ill

THE LORDS OF ACADIA. — LATER
HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN
WE must now turn our attention for a
moment from Quebec to the Bay of
Fundy, where it will be remembered
that the withdrawal of the monopoly once
granted to Monts had for the moment brought
things to a standstill. While Monts and Cham
plain had forthwith renewed their labours on the
Poutrincourt banks of the St. Lawrence, Poutrin-
Port Ro'yal, ^'^'^^^ ^^'^ ^^^^E ^O hls bcloVcd SCt-
i6i° tlement at Port Royal. Thither he
returned in 1610 with a good priest who con
verted and baptized the squalid Micmacs of
the neighbourhood, and then found it hard to
restrain them from testing the efficacy of their
new religion by sallying forth with their toma
hawks against the nearest heathen tribes. A
certified list of baptisms was drawn up, and Pou-
trincourt's son, usually known by the family
name of Biencourt, returning next year to France
for assistance, carried with him this list as a
partial justification of the enterprise. Arriving

THE LORDS OF ACADIA 73
in Paris the gallant young sailor found the world
turned topsy-turvy. The great Henry had been
murdered by Ravalllac. " Never was king so
much lamented as this," says James Howell In
one of his letters.^ The eff'ects upon Europe
were far-reaching, and in the New France, which
had as yet been scarcely more than half ushered
into existence, a new and unexpected turn was
given to the course of events.
The society of the Jesuits, which began in
the year 1534 with seven members, had now
come to number not less than 7000, and it was
everywhere recognized as one of the most
powerful agencies of the counter-reformation.
In many directions its Influence was beneficial,
but there can be no doubt as to its Remoter con-
disastrous results in France. The ^e^je^thof
dagger of Ravaillac pointed the way Henry iv.
to the discontinuance of the States-General, the
expatriation of the Huguenots, the wasting
warfare of the last days of Louis XIV., the de
grading despotism of the next reign, and the
ruthless surgery of the guillotine. Such were
the cumulative results of the abandonment of
the broad and noble policy inaugurated by
Henry in 1598. At the time of his death they
were of course too remote to be foreseen, but
it was clear to everybody that the power of the
^ Howell's Familiar Letters, i. 49.

74 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Jesuits was rapidly growing, and it was dreaded
by many people for its ultramontane and Span
ish tendencies.
At that time the spirit of propaganda was
very strong among the Jesuits ; they aimed at
The far- nothing short of the conversion of
pkn^oTthe the world, and displayed In the work
Jesuits such energy, such ability, such unal
loyed devotion as the world has never seen sur
passed. As early as 1549 St. Francis Xavier
had penetrated to the remotest East and set up
a flourishing church in Japan. Before the death
of Claudlo Aquaviva in 161 5 they had made
their way into China. They had already estab
lished Christian communities in Brazil, and
about this time began their ever memorable
work among the Indians of Paraguay. It was
quite in the natural course of things that they
should include New France in their far-reach
ing plans. From Henry IV. they obtained but
slight and grudging recognition, but his death
for a moment threw the reins quite into their
hands. There is something irresistibly funny
in the alliance of the three women who made
the success of the Jesuits their especial care,
when one thinks of their various relations with
the lamented king, — Marie de Medicis, the
miserable and faithless queen; Henrlette d'En-
traigues, the vile mistress ; and Antoinette, the
admirable Marchioness de GuercheviUe, whom

THE LORDS OF ACADIA 75
Henry had wooed in vain. The zealous fathers
might well believe that Satan and the good
angels were alike enlisted in their behalf.
Young Biencourt soon learned that ™
'=' , _ They secure
resistance was useless. It was in vain an interest
that the merchants of Dieppe, who
were fitting out a new expedition for America,
protested that they would have no Jesuit priests,
or other agents of the king of Spain, on board.
Madame de GuercheviUe forthwith raised
money by subscription, and bought a control
ling interest in the business. So the Jesuits
came to Port Royal, and bitter were the dis
putes which they had with Poutrincourt and
his high-spirited son Biencourt. An Indian
sagamore of the neighbourhood, who loved
these old friends, the grantees and true lords
of Port Royal, came forward one day with a
suggestion for simplifying the situation and
securing a quiet life. Provided he could be
sure it would be agreeable, he would take great
pleasure in murdering the newcomers ! To his
surprise this friendly service was declined. The
grantees found that there was no contending
against money. Loans were off^ered to Poutrin
court in emergencies when he had not the
courage to refuse them, and thus a load of debt
was created with the result that on his next visit
to France, in 1613, he was thrown Into prison.
At that juncture a ship bearing the inau-

76 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
spicious name of Jonas was fitted up with
Jesuit money and manned by persons entirely
in the interest of that order. Madame de
GuercheviUe had bought out all the rights and
claims of Monts to lands In Acadia, and she
iWadame de had also obtained from the boy king,
GuercheviUe Louls XIII., a grant of all the terri-
obtains a " .
grant of the tory betwccn the river St. Lawrence
AcadiaT ^i^d Florida. Here was a grant that
Florida came into direct conflict with that
which James I. of England had given only six
years before to his great double-headed Vir
ginia Company. According to this new French
charter the settlers at Jamestown were mere
trespassers upon territory over which Madame
de GuercheviUe was lady paramount ! Would
she venture to claim their allegiance ?
Nothing nearly so bold was attempted ; but
when the Jonas arrived on the Acadian coast,
the chief of the expedition, a gentleman of the
court named La Saussaye, set up a standard
bearing Madame de Guerchevllle's coat of
arms. At Port Royal he picked up a couple of
Jesuits and thence stood for Penobscot Bay,
La Saussaye ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ entered Frenchman's Bay
in French- at Mount Dcscrt, and dropped anchor
ay ([jgj.g^ £qj. j.j^g place attracted him.
Presently a spot was found so charming that it
was decided to make a settlement there. Itwas
on the western shore of Somes Sound, between

THE LORDS OF ACADIA 77
Flying Mountain and Fernald Cove. Scarcely
had work begun there when a sloop of war
came into the sound, carrying fourteen guns,
and at her masthead was flying the little red
flag of England. She was commanded by
young Captain Samuel Argall, who had come
all the way from James River to fish for cod,
but incidentally Sir Thomas Dale, who was
then governing Virginia under the title of High
Marshal, had Instructed him to look out for
any Frenchmen who might have ventured to
trespass upon the territory granted by King
James to the Virginia Company. Argall had
picked up some Indians in Penobscot Bay who
told him of the white men at Mount Desert,
and from their descriptions he recognized the
characteristic shrugs and bows of Frenchmen.
When his flag appeared In Somes Sound, the
French commander La Saussaye, with some of
the more timid ones, took to the woods, but a
few bold spirits tried to defend their ship. It
was of no use. After two or three xhe French
raking shots the English boarded and captured by
took possession of her. The astute "^^
Argall searched La Saussaye's baggage until he
found his commission from the French govern
ment, which he quietly tucked into his pocket.
After a while La Saussaye, overcome by hunger,
emerged from his hiding-place and was received
with extreme politeness by Argall, who ex-

78 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
pressed much regret for the disagreeable neces
sity under which he had laboured. It was a
pity to have to disturb such estimable gentle
men, but really this land belonged to King
James and not to King Louis. Of course,
however, the noble chevalier must be acting
under a royal commission, which would lay the
whole burden of the aff"air upon the shoulders
of King Louis and exonerate the officers who
were merely acting under orders. So
Arg stnc gp^j^g ^j^g f-Q^^y Argall, adding with
his blandest smile that, just as a matter of
formal courtesy, he would like to see the com
mission. We can fancy the smile growing more
grim and Mephistophelean as the bewildered
Frenchman hunted and hunted. When at length
it appeared that La Saussaye could produce no
such document Argall began to bluster and
swear. He called the Frenchmen pirates, and
confiscated all their property, scarcely leaving
a coat to their backs. Then as he had not room
enough for all the prisoners, he put La Saus
saye, with one of the Jesuit fathers and thirteen
men, into an open boat and left them to their
fate, which turned out to be a kindly one, for
after a few days they were picked up by a
French merchant ship and carried back to the
Old World.
As for the other Jesuit father with thirteen
other men, Argall carried them to Jamestown,

THE LORDS OF ACADIA 79
where that great stickler for martial law. Sir
Thomas Dale, was Inclined to hang them all
without ceremony ; but the wisdom. of Master
Reynard was Argall's, and he saw that this
would be going too far. It might make serious
trouble between the two Crowns, and would
tend to reveal his trickery In a way that would
be awkward. So he revealed it himself to Sir
Thomas Dale, pulled La Saussaye's commission
from his pocket, saved the lives of the captives,
and remained master of the situation. Argaii re-
Presently he sailed for the north ZZTori
again with three ships and burned ^°y^
the settlement at Port Royal, destroying the
growing crops and carrying away the cattle and
horses. At the moment of the catastrophe
Biencourt and most of his armed men were
absent, and when they returned they were too
few to engage with Argall ; so after a fruitless
parley and much recrimination the English
skipper sailed away. Next year the Baron de
Poutrincourt was slain In battle in France, and
his steadfast son Biencourt, succeeding to the
barony and the title, still remained devoted to the
father's beloved Port Royal. He obtained fresh
recruits for the enterprise, and the little wooden
town rose Phcenlx-llke from its ashes. At the
French court there was grumbling over the con
duct of Argall, and complaint was made to King
James ; and there the matter rested.

80 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
The death of the elder Poutrincourt occurred
in 1 615. We must now return for a moment
to 1609 and take up the story of Champlain
after his memorable experience at Ticonderoga,
In June, 16 10, he was called upon to repeat it
on a larger scale. A party of 100 Mohawks
had advanced as far as the site of
Champlain i • i r j
helps in the Coutrecoeur, on the peninsula formed
ofTat"ck- there by the St. Lawrence and the
ing party of RIchelleu, 3. fcw mllcs abovc the
mouth of the latter river, and there
they were overwhelmed by a large force of Al
gonquins aided by a dozen Frenchmen. The
Mohawks, driven to bay, fought until only fif
teen were left alive. These were taken prison
ers, and one of them was surrendered to Cham
plain, while another was chopped into fragments
and eaten. The rest were put to death with slow
fires by the Algonquin women, who In this re
spect, Champlain tells us, are much more in
human than the men, " for they devise by their
cunning more cruel punishments, in which they
take pleasure, putting an end to their lives by
the most extreme pains." ^
After this second taste of Indian warfare
Champlain returned to France, and in the fol
lowing December married a young girl, Helen
Boulle, daughter of one of the late king's pri
vate secretaries. Clearly Champlain was now no
1 Voyages of Champlain, ed. Slafter, ii. 246.

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 81
Huguenot, for as this young lady was some
what too much of a Calvinist he left her for
a while in the following spring at an Ursuline
convent, where she might learn more whole
some opinions. At a later time she accompanied
him to Canada, but he was not yet quite ready to
bring her to such a place. On his next return,
in 1 6 II, he began building a Chris- Beginnings
tian city on the site of the old Hoche- °f Montreal
laga. Both in the interests of the fur-trade and
of his proposed western explorations he thought
it best to have an available station higher up
the river than Quebec. The site where building
operations were begun he called Place Royale,
and on a part of it the Hospital of the Gray
Nuns was afterwards erected. Scarcely was the
work well begun, and a few substantial walls
built, when Champlain again crossed the ocean.
His old colleague Monts had been appointed
governor of Pons, an important place near
Rochelle, and could no longer pay attention to
things in America. He therefore entrusted
everything to Champlain, and it was agreed that
in order to give to his enterprise the requisite
dignity and protection it was desirable to secure
as patron some personage of great social influ
ence. Such a person was found in Charles de
Bourbon, Count of Soissons, a prince of the
blood royal, who was made viceroy over New
France, with Champlain for his lieutenant. To

82 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
the latter was given full control over the fur-
trade. This arrangement was scarcely made
when Soissons died and a still greater magnate
was found to succeed him, — namely,
of Soissons Hcurl dc Bourbou, Prince of Conde,
MnM^of ^ ™^^ celebrated, as Voltaire says, for
Conde sue- havlug bccu thc father of the great
ceed Monts /^ i ^ i • r , i • i
Conde, but eminent for nothing else
save petty ambition and greed. Champlain had
come to doubt the wisdom of too exclusive a
policy of monopoly, and he sought to organize
a numerous association of merchants in the sea
port towns. During this arduous work, when
ever some little assistance at court was wanted
the Prince of Conde was always ready to absorb
the spare cash as a retaining fee.
There was so much to be done that Cham
plain could not leave France in 1612, but a
young man appeared in Paris with such a story
about his experiences in the New Wdrld that
fashionable society had an unwonted sensation.
The name of this youth was Nicolas de Vignau.
Two years before Champlain had let him go
home with a party of Ottawas, in order to learn
what he could about their country and perhaps
A traveller's to inculcate a fcw clvillzed ideas into
'^^ the heads of their warriors. Now
Vignau strutted about Paris with the story that
he had seen with his own eyes the western ocean ;
at all events, he had followed the river Ottawa

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 83
up to its origin in a lake, whence a river flowing
northward had carried him down to the sea. On
its shore he had seen the wreck of an English
ship and the heads of eighty Englishmen who had
been massacred by the natives ! It is not likely
that this story was pure invention. The Ottawa
River has Its sources in a chain of small lakes,
and from these a group of rivers, such as the
Moose and AbbittibI, flow northward into James
Bay, the southeasternmost portion of the vast
Hudson Bay. Vignau may very well have heard
of this route and have coupled with it some
vague rumour of the mutiny and disaster at
James Bay in which Henry Hudson lost his
life in June, 1612. The plausibleness of his
story and his straightforward manner carried
conviction to everybody, to Champlain among
others; and Champlain resolved to make the
visiting of that western sea the chief work of the
summer of 16 13.
Late in May he started from the island op
posite Montreal, which In honour of the wife
he had left behind he called Helen's Island.
He had two canoes, carrying, besides himself
and Vignau, three other Frenchmen and one
Indian. Far up the Ottawa River champlain
they made their way, with fierce and oTawas,'"'
sanguinary opposition from the mos- '^'3
quitoes, of which Champlain writes with most
lively disgust, but otherwise without unpleasant

84 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
experiences. At Allumette Island they came to
a thriving Ottawa village, many of the inmates
of which had never seen any white man except
Vignau. After the usual formalities of feasting
and smoking, Champlain addressed the warriors
in the kind of speech which he had learned that
they liked, and concluded by asking for canoes
and guides to take him further on, even to the
country of the Niplsslngs. But here he read
in the faces of his hearers that he had touched
an unpleasant chord ; they were not on good
terms with the Niplsslngs. The old chieftain
Tessouat, who replied, gently rebuked Cham
plain for not having been at Montreal the pre
ceding summer to take part once more in a
fight against the Iroquois. As for the canoes, of
course If Champlain wanted them he should have
them ; but oh, those Niplsslngs ! what could
he be thinking of in wishing to go to them ?
They would be sure to kill him ! and what
a day of mourning for every true Ottawa that
would be ! On Champlain's further representa
tions the canoes and guides were promised, and
he stepped out of doors to get a breath of fresh
air. No sooner was his back turned than the
assembled warriors reconsidered the subject and
decided not to grant the canoes. A message to
this effect brought him back into the wigwam,
and once more he had to listen to the tale of
Nipissing depravity. Naturally he pointed to

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 85
Vignau and observed that here was a man who
had been to the Niplsslngs and had not found
them quite so black as they were y; ^^^.^
painted. " Ah ! " exclaimed old Tes- imposture
1 11. discovered
souat, turning upon the wretched im
postor, " Nicolas, did you tell him that you had
been to the Niplsslngs ? " It was a terrible mo
ment for that silly young man, before that
scowling company, with all those pairs of little
snakelike eyes fixed savagely upon him. It mat
tered little whether he answered yes or no ; but
after some moments of silence he replied stoutly
that he had been there. Angry shouts of
" Liar ! " arose ; for Vignau had really spent his
whole winter in this very village, and everybody
present knew it. Effrontery was of no avail ; he
was plied with sarcastic queries which left him
dumb and bewildered. Then quoth Champlain,
" Look here, Vignau, if you have told me lies
I will forgive what is past, but I insist that you
tell the truth now, and if you fail me you shall
be hanged on the spot." For a moment more
the young rascal hesitated, then fell upon his
knees and confessed the whole. The Indians
begged to be allowed to kill him, but Cham
plain kept his word and the worthless life was
spared. There was no further talk of canoes and
guides, and our hero returned somewhat crest
fallen to Montreal.
[Later in the season Champlain took ship

86 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
for France where he enlisted the interest of the
Recollet friars in the establishment of missions
among the Indians. Armed with a royal patent
Champlain and the authorization of the Pope, he
France w^ rctumcd to Canada in the spring of
the Recollets 1615, accompanlcd by four friars,
whose singular garb at first greatly astonished
their prospective flock.
One of these missionaries, Le Caron, leaving
his brethren at Quebec went on to Montreal,
where he found the yearly gathering of Indian
fur-traders. Champlain appeared a few days
later, and was then besought by the throng of
Hurons to join them in an attack upon the
Iroquois. Yielding to these solicitations he
returned to Quebec for equipment. In the mean
time Le Caron went on with Indians, making
his way in a northwesterly direction until he,
Le Caron the first of whltc men, gazed on the
reaches great Frcsh Water Sea of the Hurons.
Lake Huron °_ , , ^^, , .
Not many days later, Champlain
arrived at the Huron villages and rejoined Le
Caron, and on August 1 2 the first Christian
service was held.
Hardly was the work of the church in this
abode of evil spirits begun with these solemn
rites before attention was directed to the worldly
project which the Hurons had most at heart.
Champlain reached the chief village of the
Hurons, Cahiague, the 17th of August. Feasts

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 87
and war dances filled the hours of waiting till all
the bands were gathered, and then, crossing Lake
Simcoe, the Indians, accompanied by a handful
of Frenchmen under the intrepid Champlain,
pushed on rapidly by lakes and the river Trent
to Lake Ontario.
Boldly venturing upon this inland sea in
their frail craft they safely reached the other
shore. A few days' march brought them to the
Iroquois village,^ where their first rash .^j^^ ^^^^^
attack was successfully repelled, but «" the
at the sound of French muskets and ™''"°'^
the hissing of the bullets the pursuing Iroquois
fell back and sought protection within the pali
sades of their town.
To enable an effective assault to be made
upon these defences Champlain had a movable
tower built, from which sharp-shooters could
pick off Iroquois behind the palisades ; and also
large shields to protect the assailing party from
arrows and stones. In their efforts to set fire to
the palings. But the excitement of battle was
too much for these undisciplined hordes. They
threw away the shields, rent the air with cries
which made it impossible for Champlain to be
^ [The situation of this fortified town of the Iroquois has
been the subject of no little discussion. For the various views,
see Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist., iv. 125; Parkman, Pio
neers of France in the New World, p. 402.]

88 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
heard, and in their haste lighted the fires on
the lee side of the stockade, where they were
Champlain's quickly put out by the water poured
military down by thc defenders. After three
engines hours of almlcss and ineffectual strug
gle, the Hurons fell back discouraged. Nor was
Champlain able to rouse them to another set
attack. They refused to stir unless they should
be reinforced by some expected allies. These
failing to arrive, the defeated Hurons gave up
the contest and stole off, carrying their wounded
In baskets upon their backs. They found their
canoes unharmed, and safely recrossed the lake,
but Champlain, greatly to his chagrin, was un
able to induce the leaders to fulfil their promise
to conduct him back to Quebec. At the last
he was fain to accept the shelter of the lodge
of a Huron chief. After some months spent in
hunting, exploration, and the observation of
Huron manners, Champlain returned to Quebec,
where he was received as one from the dead.
Champlain's plans to found a colony were
in conflict with the commercial interests of the
company of merchants who controlled the for
tunes of New France. For them the fur-trade
was the chief concern, and the growth of settle
ment could but diminish the profitableness of
this commerce. As a trading-post Quebec was
a success, but the lapse of eight years from its

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 89
beginnings saw only two farms in cultivation,
one by the Recollet friars, the other by Louis
Hebert, who brought his wife and Rivalry of
children to Quebec In 1617, and es- '"'"«"«
tabllshed the first Christian household In Can
ada. In 1620 Champlain brought his own young
wife to Quebec, where she devoted herself with
the zeal of a young convert to the spiritual wel
fare of the Indian women and children. These
four years of missionary apprenticeship seem
to have kindled her piety to such a flame that
nothing would satisfy her but retirement from
the world, and after her husband's death she
became a nun.
In 1 62 1 the merchants of St. Malo and
Rouen, owing to repeated complaints, were
ordered to give place to two Huguenot mer
chants named De Caen. Their refusal brought
on quarrels between the rival traders, and In
weariness at these discords Montmorency sold
his viceroyalty of New France to his nephew
the Duke of Ventadour, whose interest in the
welfare of Canada was wholly religious. It was
through him that the order of the The coming
Jesuits embraced New France In the "^ 'i>« J'=™'«
world-wide field of their labours. In 1625 Lale-
mant. Masse, and Brebeuf began the work which
was to place their names so high In the history
of Canada. The far-seeing eye of RIchelleu

90 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
was now directed to the possibilities for the ex
tension of French power in the New World,
and the wasted opportunities of eighteen years
devoted to the conflicting Interests of trade and
religion, which had left Quebec with only one
or two self-supporting families, and at most a
motley population of little over one hundred
persons, convinced the great minister that a
radical change was necessary. He abolished the
privileges of the De Caens, and formed the com
pany of New France, to consist of one hundred
„, „ members with himself at their head.
The One
Hundred As- To thls body, commonly known as
the " One Hundred Associates," were
granted the political control of all of New
France, the commercial monopoly of the fur-
trade forever, and of other commerce, except
whaling and cod-fishing, for fifteen years, for
which period the trade of the colony was to be
exempt from taxation. In return, the Associates
must settle in Canada during these fifteen years
not less than four thousand men and women,
who were to be provided with cleared lands after
three years' residence. In contrast to the lax
unconcern with which for the most part England
saw her colonies peopled with all sorts and con
ditions of men, German Protestants and English
Catholics, English Puritans and Irish Papists,
New France was henceforth to be open only to

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 91
Catholics and Frenchmen. To attain the ideal
of religious unity the strongest Inducement for
an energetic and progressive population to mi
grate was relinquished, and the inter- Religious
esting possibility of the growth of a "nifoi-mity
Huguenot New France side by side with a
Puritan New England was rejected.
Hardly had this reorganization been effected,
when, through the outbreak of war between
England and France, these plans were inter
rupted, and not only the possession but even
the existence of the colony hung in the balance.
The new company despatched four armed ves
sels in April, 1628, under Roquemont, one of
their number, to succour the distressed colonists,
and simultaneously Charles I. of England au
thorized a private expedition, patronized by
London merchants and commanded by the
three sons of their associate, Gervase Kirke, to
dislodge the French from Acadia and Canada.
The English fleet arrived first, but Champlain's
sturdy resolution and the apparent strength of
his position disconcerted them, and they turned
back. But if the Kirkes failed to capture Que
bec, the blow they did inflict was hardly less
serious, for they overwhelmed the expedition of
relief led by Roquemont, and the feeble garrison
dragged through another year in such misery
that Champlain meditated the desertion of Que-

92 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
bee and the capture of some Iroquois village
where they would find a buried store of corn.
Before so desperate a plan was resolved upon.
Captain Kirke reappeared, this time to secure
The capture the Surrender of Quebec, not through
of Quebec by the valour of his attack, but through
the despair of its holders. The
English possession, however, was short-lived.
Three years later, in accordance with the treaty
of St. Germain-en-Laye, Canada and Acadia
were restored to France in response to a demand
which the honour of France, the personal pride
of Richelieu as the head of the One Hundred
Associates, and the pious urgency of Champlain
for the conversion of the savages, all combined
to press. In 1633 Champlain returned to Que
bec as governor under commission from the
One Hundred Associates. For a brief two years
more he guided the destinies of New France.
champlain's HIs days of cxploratlott were over,
last days ^^^ j^jg j^[^^ tumed morc and more
to the development and extension of the mis
sions, to which all other interests were now sub
ordinate. On Christmas day, 1635, the father
of New France passed away. Like Bradford
and Winthrop, his contemporaries, he was not
only the brave, patient, and wise leader of an
epoch-making enterprise, but also its honest and
dispassionate historian. Yet this was not all,
for to-day he is not less remembered as the

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 93
adventurous and Indefatigable explorer and the
curious observer of savage life and manners.^
Recurring now to the rivalry between France
and England for the possession of Acadia, the
next stage to be noticed is the grant t^^^^ j
of that region In 1621 bv King grants Acadia
° TT7-11- At 1 toSirWil-
James 1. to bir William Alexander, a Uam Aiexan-
member of the newly organized Coun- ^^''
cll of New England, to be held under the name
Nova Scotia as a fief of the Crown of Scotland.
The first obstacle to the establishment of his
sway Sir William found in the French occu
pants under the leadership of Biencourt. At
Blencourt's death about the year 1623 his pos
sessions and claims fell to his friend and com
panion, Charles de la Tour. In 1627 Charles de
la Tour petitioned the king of France to be
appointed commandant of Acadia. His mes
senger was his own father, Claude de q^^^^ ^^^
la Tour, who, upon his return with charies de
Roquemont's Quebec relief expedi
tion, was captured by the Kirkes and carried to
England. Here, being a Protestant, he re
nounced his French allegiance and entered the
' [Champlain's works are easily accessible in the scholarly
collected edition of the Abbe Laverdiere, 6 vols., Quebec,
1870. An English translation of his Voyages hy C. P. Otis
has been published by the Prince Society under the editorial
charge of Rev. E. F. Slafter, who has added a memoir and
extensive notes.]

94 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
service of Sir William Alexander, who made him
a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1629.
The return of the father with a commission
from England after he had been despatched to
Legend of sccurc ouc from Francc produced a
fideSrto^ situation which has appealed alike to
France poct, hlstorlan, and novelist, who have
depicted the son sternly rejecting the father's
solicitations to change his allegiance. The story
is a doubtful one, and the facts seem to be that
La Tour adapted himself to the changes in the
political world with the readiness of the Vicar
of Bray.^
The restoration of Canada and Acadia to
France In 1632 forced the La Tours to trim
their sails again, and Charles de la Tour suc
ceeded in getting a grant of lands and a com
mand from the French king. He soon found
himself confronted by a shrewd and tireless rl-
La Tour and ^al, D'Aunay Charnisay, the heir of
D'Aunay t^g authority of Claude de Razllly,
whom the king had sent over In 1632 to receive
back Acadia from the English. The rivalry of
these two chieftains revived In Acadia the petty
warfare of the feudal ages. E.nsconced In their
rustic castles, first on opposite sides of the penin
sula of Acadia, — D'Aunay at Port Royal and
^ [Roberts, History of Canada, p. 50 ; and Rameau, Une
Colonie F'eodale en Amerique, Paris, 1877, p. 57.]

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 95
La Tour at Cape Sable, — and later, on opposite
sides of the Bay of Fundy, where La Tour es
tablished his Fort St. Jean, — contesting each
other's holdings, capturing each other's retain
ers, now proposing common action against the
English interlopers, now appealing to Boston
for assistance, they carried on the struggle inter
mittently for years.^
Appeals to the king of France at first only
complicated matters because of the uncertainties
of Acadian geography, but In 1641 D'Aunay's
superior Influence at court prevailed. La Tour's
commission was recalled, and he was ordered to
report to the king in France. At the same time
D'Aunay was authorized to take possession of
La Tour's forts. La Tour refused obedience,
and D'Aunay was ordered to seize him. La
Tour, now finding himself in the dangerous
plight of a rebel, had recourse to Boston for help,
and convinced the leaders of the Puritan colony
that his cause was just, and that D'Aunay was
an Intruder. Their help, however, was of little
lasting advantage, and In 1645 D'Aunay cap
tured Fort St. Jean and hanged most of the
prisoners. Five years later the tide turned, when
^ [For the vicissitudes of this struggle the reader may be
referred to Murdoch's History of Nova Scotia, to Rameau' s
Une Colonie F'eodale, and to Parkman's The Old Regime in
Canada.\

96 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
D'Aunay was drowned, leaving a widow and
eight children. The skies then brightened for
Death of La Tour, and he came back to Acadia,
D'Aunay having succccdcd In getting a new
commission from the king. Madame D'Aunay
was now overwhelmed with misfortune ; her
claims and those of La Tour seemed Incapable
of adjustment, and, urged by the necessities of
her children, she accepted La Tour's proposal
to merge them with his by marriage.^ Hardly
had this promising settlement been effected when
a force of New Englanders under Major Robert
Sedgwick of Charlestown, following secret in
structions received from Cromwell, suddenly
attacked and conquered Acadia. Again La
Tour's adroitness served him well. In 1656 he
secured for himself. In conjunction with Thomas
Temple and William Crowne, a grant of all of
Acadia, but apparently he had now had enough
of the labours and vicissitudes of founding a peo
ple, for in less than two months he relinquished
La Tour hls sharc to Temple, who devoted
sir Thomas'" hlmsclf wIth great energy to building
Temple up the colony. Temple successfully
weathered the change In government at the
Restoration, reminding Charles II. that he had
been faithful to his father, and " that one of the
last commands that he whispered to Kirke on
1 [Murdoch prints the marriage contract, i. 1 20-1 2 3. 1

LATER HISTORY OF CHAMPLAIN 97
the scaffold was to charge this king to have a
care of honest Tom Temple." ^ The Injunction
was heeded so far as to allow Temple to retain
Acadia, but it was not heeded to the extent of
Indemnifying him for his losses when Acadia was
transferred again to France in 1667.
The Lords of Acadia, from Sir William Alex
ander to Sir Thomas Temple, and not least the
two indefatigable rivals. La Tour and D'Aunay
Charnisay, had learned to their cost how great a
labour it is to found a state.]
^ \ Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, i. 496. This vol
ume contains many items on these Lords of Acadia. J

IV
WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE
WE must now return to the lifetime of
Champlain and note some of the prin
cipal steps by which the French ac
quired control of the central portion of North
America. Among the young men whom Cham
plain selected to send among the Indians to fit
themselves for the work of interpr.eters was a
Norman named Jean Nicollet. This
lean Nicollet ¦ r r, ^ r ^
was in i6i 8, and for the next sixteen
years Nicollet's time was chiefly spent among
the Ottawas and Niplsslngs, engaging in their
various expeditions, and encountering with them
the privations and hardships of the forest. In
1634 Champlain sent Nicollet upon a western
expedition. The object was to find out, if pos
sible, what was meant by the repeated stories of
large bodies of water to the westward, and of a
distant people without hair or beards who did all
their journeying in enormous tower-like canoes.
Nicollet thought that this must be an Oriental
people, and in order that he might not present
too strange an appearance when he should have
arrived among them, he took along with him a

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 99
Chinese gown of rich brocade embroidered with
flowers and birds.
Nicollet's route lay up the Ottawa River to
Lake Nipissing, and thence to the Georgian
Bay. On that broad expanse of water the party
launched their canoes for a journey to the Sault
Ste. Marie and the Ojibway tribe which dwelt
in its neighbourhood. It does not appear that
Nicollet gained any positive knowledge of Lake
Superior, but he entered Lake MIchI- Nicoiiet
gan, and followed its western shores LakTMicM-
as far as Green Bay, where he met with g^"
Indians of strange speech who had never before
set eyes upon a white man. These were Winne-
bagoes, belonging to the great Dacotah family,
and in their presence the robe of brocade was
put to uses quite different from those which
its owner had intended. The amazed redskins
beheld in its wearer a supernatural being, and
were more than confirmed In this belief when
they heard the report and saw the flash of his
pistol.^ From Green Bay our explorer pushed on
up the Fox River, where he fell in with a tribe
of Algonquins famous for their valour, under
the name of Mascoutins. These Indians told
him of the existence of a " great water " in the
* [On this expedition, cf. Jesuit Relations,'Thv/a.kes's ed.
xxiii. 275—279, and the monograph of C. W. Butteriield,
History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet,
Cincmnati, 1 881.]

100 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
neighbourhood, and inasmuch as their speech
was Algonquin, the words which they used were
in all probability Missi-Sippl. Whether Nicollet
entered the Wisconsin River or not is uncertain,
but it seems probable that he went further to
the south than Green Bay, to reach the country
belonging to the Algonquin tribe of the Illinois.
He also established friendly relations with the
Algonquin Pottawattamies. After this he re
traced his course, and reached Three Rivers in
July, 1635, just 3-bout one year from the time
of starting.
Of course the " great water " to which Nicol
let's Indian informants alluded was the Missis
sippi River, but it was an easy and natural mis
take to identify it with the western ocean, for
which everybody had been so long and so eagerly
looking. Many years elapsed before this and Its
kindred questions were correctly solved. The
Jesuit influence, which after Champlain's death
was long supreme in the colony, was not espe
cially favourable to western exploration. The
scientific zeal of Champlain, which studied geo
graphy for its own sake, was not theirs, but their
missionary zeal took them to great lengths, and
Father Jogues j" 1641 wc find Father Jogues preach-
near Lake ing the gospel to a concourse of red
men hard by the outlet of Lake Su
perior.^ It is possible that the movements in
^ [_Jesuit Relations, xx. 97 ; xxiii. 19.J

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 101
that direction might have been more vigorously
prosecuted but for the terrible Iroquois war re
sulting in the destruction of the Hurons in 1649.
Ten years later the journey of two Frenchmen,
Radisson and Groseilliers, is worthy of Radisson and
mention because they reached a stream Groseilliers
which they called Forked River " because it has
two branches, the one towards the west, the other
towards the south, which we believe run towards
Mexico." ^ This, of course, might be meant for
the Mississippi and Missouri. Within the next
three or four years Menard and AUouez ex
plored portions of the Lake Superior coast, and
again heard enticing stories about the "great
water." About this time a marked change came over
Canada. In 1661 the youthful Louis XIV. as
sumed personal control of the gov- Accession of
ernment of France, and it cannot be ^"""^ ^^^•
said of him that either then or at any later time
he was at all neglectful of the interest of Can
ada. As our narrative will hereafter show, if
Canada suffered at his hands, it was from ex
cessive care rather than from neglect. In 1664
and the following year the king sent three very
able men to America ; the first was the Marquis
de Tracy, to be military commander of New
France, the Sieur de Courcelle, to be governor
1 [Radisson' s narratives of his travels have been printed
by the Prince Society, Boston, 1885.]

102 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of Canada, and Jean Baptiste Talon, to be in
tendant of Canada. The intendant was an of-
His changes ficcr charged with the duty of enfor-
'adiSnkfra-" ""g ^ mlnutc systcm of regulations in
tion the colony, and incidentally of keep
ing a watch upon the governor's actions, ac
cording to the universal system of surveillance
for which the old regime in France was so not
able. With these men came as many as 2000
fresh colonists, together with 1200 veteran In
fantry, as fine as anything Europe had to show ;
so that there was now some hope that the Iro
quois nuisance might be kept at arm's length.
Talon was a man of large views ; he had an
inkling of what might be accomplished by such
extensive waterways as those of North America;
and it was his settled intention to occupy the
interior of the continent, and to use the mouths
of its southern rivers as places from which to
emerge in force and threaten the coast of Span
ish Mexico. So aggressive was the mood of the
French at this moment that Courcelle projected
an invasion of the Long House, and in January
and February, 1666, he proceeded as far as
Schenectady, whence he retired on learning that
Two expedi- thc English had taken possession of
d^riroquots, New Netherland. In the ensuing au-
1666 tumn another expedition was under
taken, and Courcelle, accompanied by Tracy,
penetrated the greater part of the Mohawk val-

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 103
ley. It was a singular spectacle, that of 600
French regulars in their uniforms, marching
through the woodland trails to the sound of
drum and trumpet. At a later period such bold
ness would have entailed disaster, but at that
time white men and their ways were still suffi
ciently novel to inspire a great deal of whole
some terror. It Is not easy to calculate the
death-dealing capacity of the unknown, and
accordingly our Mohawks, though thoroughly
brave men, retired in confusion before the con
fident and resonant advance of the Gallic chiv
alry.* The moral impression thus produced was
reinforced so effectively by Jesuit missionaries
that the Long House was kept comparatively
quiet for twenty years. Indeed, fears were en
tertained at times In New York that the French
might succeed in winning over the Iroquois in
spite of the past, but any such result was averted
by the far-sighted policy of Sir Edmund An
dros and Thomas Dongan, and the ascendancy
acquired over the Mohawks by the Schuylers
at Albany.
The remotest western frontier of French mis
sionary enterprise was now the northern portion
of Lake Michigan from the Sault Ste. Marie
to Green Bay. The French names dotted with
1 [For these two expeditions, see the Abbe Faillon's Histoire
de la Colonie Fran^aise en Canada, iii. 130—158 ; Parkman,
The Old Regime, pp. 236-256.]

104 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
such profusion over that portion of the United
States known as the Old Northwest preserve
Contrasts be- for US an cloqucnt record of the trav-
^ance^nl ^Is and toils of the old explorers-.
New England The Ncw England colonies were more
than twenty times as populous as Canada, yet
their furthest inland reach was to the shores of
the Connecticut River at Deerfield and Hadley,
while the French outposts were more than a
thousand miles from the Atlantic. This differ
ence was partly due to the fact that the primary
object of the English was to found homes, and
reproduce In the wilderness the self-supporting
and self-governing rural communities of the
Old Country ; whereas the primary object of
the French was either to convert the heathen,
or to trade for peltries, or to settle geographical
questions, and all this was a more migratory
kind of work than founding villages. In par
ticular, the effects of Champlain's policy in be
coming a leader of the alliance against the Long
House are conspicuously visible.* It will be
observed that for more than half a century after
Champlain's attack upon the Onondaga fort,
the route taken by Frenchmen toward the great
West was up the Ottawa River and across
the northern portion of Lake Huron. The
French acquaintance with Lake Ontario was as
yet but slight, while of Lake Erie they knew
^ [See above, p. 70.J

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 105
nothing save by hearsay. It was impossible for
them to use those southerly routes because of
the Iroquois. But inasmuch as the The French
Iroquois by sudden raids to the north- tt!Z^-
ward could cut off the current of west
the northwestern fur-trade at almost any point
between Lake Ontario and the Sault Ste. Marie,
it became very important for the French to
maintain friendly relations with all the Algon
quin tribes about the great lakes, from the Otta
was to the Ojibways and Pottawattamies. These
were among the prime necessities which car
ried their activity so far to the west, and it so
happened that side by side with the devoted
missionaries a peculiar kind of population was
developed in adaptation to the wild and lawless
life of these woodland regions. Among the
picturesque figures of New France are those of
the coureurs de bois, which, literally rendered,
would be " runners of the woods." Many
of these men were ne'er-do-weels Th
brought over from France by a legls
lation which Insisted rather upon quantity than
quality for the settlers of the New World. Their
ranks were reinforced by those who for what
ever purpose were dissatisfied with steady work
in a steady-going community. The paternal
legislation of Louis XIV. would have had them
marry French women of their own station, cul-

le cou
reurs de bois

106 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
tivate their small farm, and comport themselves
with sober dignity. In point of fact, they
tramped off to the woods, took to themselves
Indian wives, and hunted the moose, or speared
the salmon, or set traps for every four-footed
creature with fur on Its back. We are told,
with much probability, by Charlevoix, that
these men did not do nearly so much to civil
ize the Indians as the Indians did to barbarize
them. It was certainly felt by Father AUouez that
these wood rangers were as much in need of a
missionary as the red men themselves, for early
Father Al- *" ^ ^7° ^^ busIcd himsclf lu preach-
louez on the ing to them. At this time he reached
the head of the Wisconsin River, and
was told that six days' journey from there it
flowed into the Mississippi or "Great Water."
The " Jesuit Relation " for 1670 speaks of this
"great water" as a very wide river, of which
none of the Indians had ever seen the end, and
it was not clear whether It emptied Into the
Gulf of Mexico or that of California.
The politic Frenchmen at the north of Lake
Michigan had their hands quite full with the
relations, peaceful or hostile, of the Indian
tribes. Thither had retreated the Hurons and
Ottawas to get out of the reach of the dreaded
Long House, and by coming hither they had

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 107
given umbrage to the ferocious Dacotahs or
Sioux, whom Father Marquette not inaptly
termed the Iroquois of the West. But the chas
tisement wrought by Tracy in the Mohawk
country was reported with savage exultation
from red man to red man along the chain of
lakes, until it encouraged the Ottawas with the
remnant of Hurons to move backward as far as
Mackinaw and the great Manitoulin Island.
In 1670, In accordance with the injunctions
of the king. Talon despatched St. Lusson to
take possession of the Northwest, and In the
spring of 1 67 1 the heights looking upon the
Sault Ste. Marie witnessed a pageant such as
none knew so well as Frenchmen how to prepare.
Besides the tribes just mentioned, there were
representatives from not less than a The French
dozen others, Pottawattamies, Win- sfo„^o''f^'e'
nebagoes, Illinois, Shawnees, Ojib- Northwest
ways, Niplsslngs, and others, a vast assemblage
of grunting warriors hideous with every variety
of lurid paint, and bedizened with feathers and
wampum. Here were games of ball, mock fights,
and whatever peaceful diversion the barbaric
mind was capable of finding pleasure In. These
festivities continued for some weeks, inter
spersed with feasts at which were served the
wild fowl of the season and abundance of fish,
with that pride of the red man's menu, boiled
dog. On the 14th of June, a great concourse

108 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of people assembled in the bright sunshine at
the top of a lofty hill, and there all the mag
nates present, white and red, affixed their sig
natures or made their marks to a document
which practically claimed for Louis XIV. all
the continent there was, from the Arctic Ocean
to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the coast of
Labrador as far west as land might go, which
some bold spirits thought might be two or three
hundred miles west of the Wisconsin River.
These signatures were supposed to commit the
Indian tribes as well as the Frenchmen to this
extensive French claim. After the signing was
over, an immense wooden cross was reared aloft
and planted In the hole which had been dug to
receive it, while the Frenchmen present, with
uncovered heads, chanted an ancient Latin hymn.
A post with the lilies of France was planted
close by, while the French commander, Sieur
de St. Lusson, held up a sod as symbolic of
taking seizin of the land. It was felt, however,
that all this pageant would be incomplete with
out a speech that would stir the hearts of the
Indians, and Father AUouez, the orator of the
day, knew how to tell them what they could
Father Al- appreciate. He informed the gaping
louez depicts j-gd men that when it came to the
the greatness .
of Louis business of massacre, their bloodiest
^'^" chiefs were mere tyros compared with
the most Christian king of France. He depicted

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 109
that monarch as wet with the blood of his en
emies, and declared that he did not keep scalps
as a record of the number slain simply because
the carnage to which he was accustomed was so
wholesale, that no such petty method of reck
oning would be of any use. Having listened to
this ensanguined rhetoric, the assemblage broke
up, and with the usual choruses of yelps and
grunts, the tawny audience separated Into count
less little groups and disappeared In the recesses
of the forest.*
At the time of this wild ceremony there had
already entered upon the scene the man who in
some respects must be counted the most re
markable among all these pioneers of France.
In the city of Rouen there had dwelt for sev
eral generations a family by the name of Cave-
lier, wealthy and highly respected, whose mem
bers were often chosen as diplomats and judges,
or for other positions entailing large responsi
bility. Although these people did not strictly
belong to the noblesse, they were nevertheless
lords of small landed estates, and the estate be
longing to the Cavellers was known as La Salle.
In the year 1643, Rouen witnessed the birth of
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La jariyiifeof
Salle. This boy seems to have been ^^ ^^"^
educated at a Jesuit school, but as he grew up,
^ [F(5r the text of this speech, see Jesuit Relations, Iv.
109-113, and Parkman, La Salle, pp. 44-46. J

110 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
feeling no inclination for the priesthood, he
parted from his old friends and teachers with a
reputation for excellent scholarship and unim
peachable character. He had shown unusual
precocity in mathematics, and a strong love for
such study of physical science as could be com
passed in those days of small things. He was
noted at an early age for a reserved and some
what haughty demeanour, a Puritanic serious
ness in his views of life, and a power of deter
mination which nothing could shake. It so
happened that his elder brother, Jean Cavelier,
a priest of St. Sulpice, was in Canada, and that
circumstance may perhaps have drawn him
thither. His entrance into a religious order had
cut him off from his Inheritance, so that his re
sources were then and always extremely meagre.
On arriving in Montreal, La Salle
comes to accepted the feudal grant of a tract of
'^"^''^ land at the place now called La Chine,
above the rapids known by that name. That
La Salle must have entertained some purpose
of exploring the wilderness before his coming
to America is highly probable, for the first two
or three years at La Chine were spent by him
in the diligent study of Indian languages ; and
he was not long in acquiring high proficiency
both in Iroquois and in several dialects of Al
gonquin. One day he was visited by a party of
Senecas, who spent some weeks at his house

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 111
and had much to tell him about a river that
they called the Ohio, which had its sources In
their country and reached the ocean at a dis
tance so great that many months would be re
quired to traverse it. By the Ohio River, these
Indians meant the Allegheny with the Ohio and
the lower Mississippi, in which group- La Saiie hears
ing their error was just as natural and ttr.^ul
no greater than we make in calling to explore it
the upper and lower Mississippi by the same
name ; whereas In fact, the Missouri with the
lower Mississippi Is the main river, and the
upper Mississippi Is the tributary. From the
Senecas' account of the immense length of
their Ohio River, La Salle concluded that it
must fall into the Gulf of California, and hence
afford the much-coveted passage to China.
La Salle therefore decided that he would visit
the Seneca country and ascertain for himself the
truth of what he had been told. He found no
difficulty In obtaining the requisite authorization
from CourceUes and Talon, but as he had no
ready money he was obliged to sell his estate
of La Chine in order to raise the necessary
funds. Tust at that moment the sem- ^,.
-' . 1 • • "'^ expedi-
inary of St. Sulpice was meditating tioncom-
a similar enterprise, but with a very ^"sskuTl-^
different destination and purpose, piorationof
, '^ I the Sulpicians
They wished to go northwesterly to
convert some Indians whom they had been told

112 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
surpassed all others for heathenish ignorance.
To combine two such diverse expeditions into
one was not an augury of success.
In July, 1669, seven canoes carrying twenty-
four men started up the river from La Chine,
and after a voyage of thirty-five days they
reached Irondequoit Bay on the south side of
Lake Ontario, from which a march of twenty
miles brought them to one of the principal
Seneca villages. There they found the people
in great excitement because of the return of a
small war party with one young captive warrior.
One of the French priests tried to buy him
from his captors, but the village found the
season dull and was determined not to be de
prived of its night's pleasure. So the French
men were obliged to look on for six weary
hours while the young man was subjected to
The way cvcry torture that the red man's in-
biocked by genulty could devise. After the life
the Senecas ,, .,-.., , , .,
had quite left his charred and writh
ing form, and after the body had been cut into
fragments and passed about to be eaten as
dainty morsels, the savage hosts were ready to
inquire what service they could do to their
guests. But when they heard what was wanted
they became profuse in their warnings against
the wicked Indians who dwelt on the banks of
the Ohio. They would furnish no guides nor
be in any way instrumental in leading their

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 113
beloved friends into such unseemly dangers.
Our Frenchmen had long since learned the
true meaning of such ironical expressions of
solicitude on the part of the red men. Practi
cally, they often amounted to a threat, as If to
say. If you go down there we will kill you and
lay the blame upon the Indians of that part.
Why the Senecas did not wish the Frenchmen
to pass through their country at that moment,
unless it may have been the general Iroquois
feeling toward Frenchmen, Is not clear. At this
juncture one of the Indians offered to guide the
party by an entirely different route, from which
they could reach the Ohio at a point lower
down than originally contemplated. La Salle
and the Sulpicians concluded to accept this offer,
and were led back to the shore of Lake On
tario. , They crossed the Niagara River just
below the bluffs at Queenston and distinctly
heard the magnificent sub-bass monotone of
the great cataract, to which, perhaps, they were
the first of Europeans to approach so near. At
a village on the present site of Hamilton, La
Salle was presented with a Shawnee prisoner
who promised to take him across Lake Erie to
the Ohio ; but a new turn to events was sud
denly given by the unexpected arrival of a
couple of Frenchmen from the north- Meetingwith
west. One of these was Louis Joliet, J°''^'
a man of about the same age as La Salle, who

114 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
had, like him, been educated by the Jesuits and
taken orders, but had afterward come to devote
himself to mercantile pursuits. Talon, the In
tendant, had heard much of the copper mines
on the shore of Lake Superior, the fame of
which was very widespread in aboriginal Amer
ica, and he had sent Joliet to discover and in
spect them. In this quest the young French
man had not been successful, but he brought
with him such a desperate account of the sinful
condition of the Pottawattamies that the Sulpl-
cian priests decided to go at once and convert
La Salle parts them, lu spItc of all that La Salle could
from the gay. So the exploring partv was
Sulpicians , , , £, , . ? ^ ^
broken up, the oulpicians went to
Sault Ste. Marie, where they met with a rather
cold reception from the Jesuits, and after a
while concluded to return to Montreal without
anything to show for their pains.
As for La Salle at that disappointing moment,
he showed a quality for which he was ever after
ward distinguished. When he had started to do
a thing he never relinquished his purpose,
although men and fortune forsook him. If he
had been one of a Balaklava Six Hundred and
the only survivor among them, he would have
attacked the enemy, single-handed, with una
bated courage. Unfortunately, our sources of
information partially fail us at this point, so that

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 115
some uncertainty remains as to the route which
La Salle took after the Sulpicians had left him.
One account of his route — perhaps as probable
as any — takes him by way of Lake ^^ g^y^ ^^
Chautauqua into the Allegheny val- piores the
ley, and thence down the Ohio River
as far as Louisville. In the following year he
seems to have crossed Lake Erie from south to
north, and ascended the Detroit River to Lake
Huron ; thence to have passed into Lake Michi
gan and ascended the Chicago River, from which
he found his way across the brief portage to
the river of the Illinois. According to some
accounts, he reached the Mississippi River on
both these trips, first from the Ohio, and after
ward from the Illinois. But these conclusions
are not well supported and have generally been
pronounced improbable.
An interest In this remote " great water "
continued strongly to agitate many minds, and
Talon had already settled upon Louis Joliet
as a fit man to undertake its discovery, when
circumstances led to a change of governorship
for New France. CourceUes and Talon were
both recalled, and In place of them the affairs
of Canada were managed by one of p^ontenac
the most remarkable Frenchmen of succeeds
... T ' 1 -r» 1 /-- . r CourceUes
his time, Louis de Buade, Count or
Frontenac. This man was of the bluest blood

116 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of France, a veteran soldier of no mean ability,
and for executive capacity excelled by few.
His talents for dealing with Indians were sim
ply marvellous. He could almost direct the
policy of an Indian tribe by a wave of the hand.
If need be, he could smear his face with war
paint and lead off the demon dance with a
vigour and abandon that no chieftain could hope
to rival. He could out-yell any warrior In the
Long House, and when he put on a frown
and spoke sternly, the boldest warriors shiv
ered with fear. Among white men he was
domineering and apt to be irascible. A man
of very clear Ideas, he well knew how to re-
character of allzc them, and cared little for the
Frontenac advIcc of thosc who sccmcd to him
frivolous or stupid. It was hinted that some
times in his management of money he was not
above sundry slight peccadilloes, with which his
enemies were fond of twitting him, but this was
not always a safe game, since he was liable to
retort upon his accusers with an utterly over
whelming tu quoque. On the whole, however,
he must be called a man of public spirit, de
voted to the interests of his country, and with
fewer serious failings than most of the public
men of his age. In his general view of things
he was far-sighted and not petty. If Talon had
remained in Canada, Frontenac would probably

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 117
have quarrelled with him, but as it was, he
adopted most of that official's Intelligent plans ;
among other things he warmly espoused the
ideas of La Salle, and he confirmed the choice
of Joliet for the proposed expedition to the
Mississippi. The mention of Joliet reminds us
that New France was coming of age as a colony,
for this explorer was a native of the country,
having been born at Quebec in 1 645, ten years
after the death of Champlain. It appears that
Joliet was a well-educated man and , ,. . ,
•' _ . . J o^^*- cnosen
showed considerable proficiency in to explore the
the higher mathematics. It was said, '^'^'pp'
too, that he was rather a formidable debater on
questions of logic and metaphysics. There is
nothing in his career that shows qualities of a
lofty or transcendent order, but we get the im
pression of a prudent and painstaking man of
sober judgment.
At Mackinaw Joliet was joined by a Jesuit
priest named Jacques Marquette, a native of the
old Carlovinglan capital, Laon, born ,
. TT J- ¦ ¦ 1 J r Marquette
in 1637. He was distinguished ror
linguistic talents and for the deeply spiritual
quality of his mind. He seems to have had a
poetic temperament profoundly sensitive to
the beauties of nature and of art, while his reli
gion exercised upon him a transfiguring influ
ence, so that all who met him became aware of

118 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
a heavenly presence. This gentle and exquisite
creature was as brave as a paladin and capable
of enduring the fiercest extremes of hardship.
It was on the 17th of May, 1673, that Joliet
and Marquette started with five companions In
two birch canoes well supplied with dried corn
and smoked buffalo meat. From Green Bay
JoUet and they ascendcd the Fox River to Lake
racTthe" Winnebago, and after various adven-
jviississippi tures reached the portage from which
they launched their canoes on the Wisconsin
River. One month from the day of starting they
passed the blufl^s at Prairie du Chien and glided
out upon the placid blue waters of the upper
Mississippi. Their joy, as Marquette informs
us, was too great for words. A fortnight passed
while they floated down-stream without disclos
ing any trace of human beings, but at length
they came to a village called Peoria, where they
were treated with great civility and regaled with
the usual Indian dishes, while the chief, in a
more than usually florid speech, assured them
that their visit to his village added serenity to
the sky and new beauty to the landscape and a
fresh zest to his tobacco, but he really, as a
friend, could not advise them to pursue their
course, as it abounded with dangerous enemies.
Disregarding this caution, however, they kept
on their way without any ill consequences.
They did not fail to note the striking spectacle

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 119
below the cliffs at Alton where the furious
Missouri, with Its load of yellow mud accumu
lated during its 3000 miles' course through the
mountains, rushes through, swallows ™ ^
up and defiles the quiet blue waves the mouth of
of the Mississippi. Down the turbid
and surging yellow river they kept on for hun
dreds of miles, until they encountered parties
of Arkansas and narrowly escaped without a
fight. Presently they stopped at an Arkansas
village where they were feasted as usual, but
after the hilarity was over the principal chief
informed them that a foul conspiracy was on
foot to murder them, — an infringement of the
laws of hospitality which he felt himself unable
to sanction. This incident Seems to have had
its effect in deciding them to retrace their
course. They had gone so far southward as to
convince themselves that the river must empty
Into the Gulf of Mexico and not into the Ver
milion Sea, as the Gulf of California was then
commonly called. This was the most impor
tant of the points which they had it In mind to
establish, and it seemed to them better to return
with the Information already acquired than to
run the risk of perishing and sending back no
word. For such reasons they turned back on
the 17th of July, just two months from their
date of starting. After ascending to the mouth
of the Illinois they went up to the head of that

120 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Stream, and there met some Indians who guided
them to Lake Michigan. It was about the
end of September when thev reached
The return ti r ¦ • i i i i
Green Bay, after having wielded the
paddles for more than 2500 miles. There the
two friends parted. While Joliet made his way
to Montreal with a report of what had been
accomplished, Marquette lay ill at Green Bay
for more than a year. A partial recovery of
health led him to attempt the founding of a
new mission at the principal town of the Illinois,
to be called the Immaculate Conception, but his
strength again gave out, and on the way to
Mackinaw in the spring of 1675 this beautiful
spirit passed away from the earth.*
The Immediate effect of the voyage of Mar
quette and Joliet was to revive in La Salle the
spirit which had led him down the Ohio River
some years before. The conception of New
France as a great empire In the wilderness was
La SaUe's taking a distinct shape In his mind.
great designs Amoug Its Comprehensive features
were the extension of the fur-trade, the build
ing up of French colonies with an extensive
agriculture, the conversion of the Indians to *
Christianity, and the playing a controlling part
in forest poHtics. Marquette and Joliet had
^ [A translation of Marquette's own narrative may be
found in J. G. Shea's History and Exploration of the Missis
sippi Valley, pp. 6-50.]

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 121
well-nigh demonstrated that the Mississippi
River flows Into the Gulf of Mexico. One
might, perhaps, suppose that a reference to the
expedition of Soto more than a century before
would have sufficed to establish the Identity of
the river descended by Marquette and Joliet with
the river where the great Spanish knight was
buried. But the Frenchmen of the seventeenth
century seem to have known nothing about
Soto or his explorations. To them the prob
lem was a new one. After once completely
solving it. La Salle would be in a position to
establish a town at the mouth of the great river.
Such a town might become a commercial rival
of the Spanish seaports In Mexico and the West
Indies, while it would be a formidable menace
to them in time of war. A chain of military
posts might connect the town at the mouth of
the Mississippi with the spot where the Illinois
empties Into that river, and similar chains might
connect the Illinois on the one hand .^j^^ uissh-
wlth the Sault Ste. Marie, and on the sippi vaUey to
other hand with Lakes Erie and ^°""P''
Ontario. It was the generally accepted French
doctrine that the discovery of a great river gave
an inchoate title to all the territory drained by
the river, and this inchoate title could be com
pleted by occupation. La Salle's plan was to
effect a military occupation of the whole Missis-

122 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
sippi valley as far eastward as the summit of
the Appalachian range by means of military
posts which should control the communications
and sway the policy of the Indian tribes. Thus,
the Alleghanies would become an irhpassable
barrier to the English colonists slowly pressing
westward from the Atlantic coast. This became
the abiding policy of the French in North
America. This was the policy in attempting to
carry out which they fought and lost the Seven
Years' War. Of this policy such men as Talon,
Frontenac, and La Salle were the originators,
and in La Salle it found its most brilliant
representative. An obvious criticism upon such a scheme is
its mere vastness. In a colony recruited so
Difficulty of slowly as Canada there were not
carrying out euough pcoplc to Carry It into opera-
so vast a plan . t t i i r 11
tion. Under the most favourable
circumstances it could scarcely remain more
than a sketch ; but La Salle believed that
the Inducements held out by an Increasing fur-
trade and enlarged opportunities of agriculture
and commerce In general would bring settlers
to New France and greatly accelerate its rate
of growth. There was perhaps nothing necessa
rily wild in his calculations, except that he en
tirely failed to understand the inherent weak
ness of colonization that was dependent upon
government support.

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 123
When it came to performing his own part of
the great scheme, the essential point of weak
ness was want of money, — a kind of weakness
which has proved fatal to many a great scheme.
In order to cure this want La Salle was inclined
to resort to the agency which was chiefly In
vogue in the seventeenth century, namely, that
of monopoly. This at once enlisted against him
the fur-traders as a class. His friendly relations
with Frontenac made it seem probable that he
could get whatever he wanted, and in whatsoever
quarter he turned his attention the La SaHe's
monopoly scare was excited and every j"ouse^oppo.
possible device was adopted for hinder- sition
ing his success, — devices which went all the way
from attaching his property to hiring despera
does to murder him. Besides this. La Salle was
regarded with coldness. If not hostility, by the
Jesuits, whose service he had abandoned and
whose schemes for civilizing the wilderness were
often at variance with his. Moreover, with all
his admirable qualities. La Salle was not exactly
a lovable person. He was too deeply absorbed
in his arduous work to be genial, and he was a
stern disciplinarian against whom lawless spirits,
familiar with the loose freedom of the wilder
ness, were liable to rebel. The history of his
brief career of eight years after he had finally
given himself up to his life work is a singular
record of almost unintermitted disaster leading

124 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
to a tragic end, yet relieved by one glorious,
though momentary, gleam of triumph.
One of Frontenac's first steps for the protec
tion of the fur-trade between Montreal and the
northwestern wilderness was the erection of a
strong wooden blockhouse at the outlet of
Fort Fronte- Lake Ontario. Its site was about that
nac granted of the prcscnt town of Klngstou, and
to La SaUe . f , ^ ° '
It was long known as l*ort l<rontenac.
It served as a wholesome menace to the men
of the Long House over across the lake. La
Salle went to France and had an interview with
Louis XIV., in which he obtained that mon
arch's authority to conduct an exploring expe
dition, and he was placed in command of Fort
Frontenac on his promise to rebuild and greatly
strengthen it. This promise was amply ful
filled. The fortress was rebuilt of stone accord
ing to sound military principles, and was strong
enough to defy the attempt of any force that
was likely to be brought against It.
The next reach of La Salle's arm was from
the outlet of Ontario to the Niagara River
La saUe abovc the Falls. For the prosecution
buUdsthe of his enterprise canoe navigation
Griffin i i ji rr , ,
seemed hardly to suffice, and on the
Niagara River La Salle built and launched a
schooner of some forty-five tons burden, armed
with five small cannon, and carrying on her

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 125
prow a grotesque griffin, the name that was given
to her in honour of Count Frontenac's family
arms. While these preparations were going on
La Salle received a treacherous dose of poison,
the effects of which his iron constitution threw
off with rather surprising ease. He started out
on his enterprise with about forty men, two of
whom deserve especial mention for various rea
sons. Henri de Tonty was a native of Naples,
son of the gentleman who Invented the kind of
life Insurance for a long time popular Henri de
as the Tontine. In his youthful days '^™^y
Tonty had one hand blown off in battle ; he
had it replaced by an iron hand over which he
always wore a glove, and he was commonly
known among the Indians as Iron Hand. He
was a man of direct and simple nature, brave
and resourceful, and In every emergency was
absolutely faithful to La Salle.
A very different sort of person was Louis
Hennepin, a native of Flanders, about thirty-
seven years of age. He had early joined the
Franciscan friars, and an irrepressible love for
adventure brought him to Canada, Louis
where he found the wild solitudes Hennepin
about Fort Frontenac quite in harmony with
his tastes. He was a capable man with many
excellent qualities, and on most occasions truth
ful, although his reputation has greatly suffered

126 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
from one gigantic act of mendacity.* We shall
have occasion to note his characteristics as we go
on. He was one of the advance party sent by
La Salle to the Niagara River, and was probably
the first of Europeans to look at the Falls. It
is certain that he was the first to make a sketch
of them for publication. Such a sketch is en
graved in his account of his journeys published
in Utrecht In 1697, and is extremely interest
ing and valuable as enabling us to realize the
changes which have since occurred In the con
tour of the Falls.^
It was in the autumn of 1678 that La Salle
set sail in the Griffin. His departure was clouded
The voyage by the ncws that impatient creditors
of the Griffin fj^d laid hands upon his Canadian
estates, but nothing daunted, he pushed on
through Lakes Erie and Huron, and after many
disasters reached the southern extremity of Lake
Michigan. The Griffin was now sent back with
half the party to the Niagara River with a cargo
of furs to appease the creditors and purchase
^ [Hennepin, in his Nouvelle Decouverte d ' un grand Pays
situ'e dans P Amerique, Utrecht, 1697, affirmed that he him
self had explored the Mississippi to its mouth, in 1680, thus
anticipating the great exploit of La Salle, and he gave an ac
count of the voyage. This account Hennepin based on the
journal that Father Membre kept of his voyage down the
river in company with La SaUe.]
" [Hennepin's sketch of the Falls is reproduced in Win
sor' s Narr. and Crit. Hist., iv. 248.]

WILDERNESS ^ND EMPIRE 127
additional supplies for the remainder of the
journey, while La Salle, with his diminished
company, pushed on to the Illinois, where a fort
was built and appropriately named Fort Creve-
coeur. It was indeed at a heart-breaking mo
ment that it was finished, for so much time had
elapsed since the departure of their little ship
that all had come to despair of her return. No
word ever came from her. In that time of uni
versal suspicion there were not wanting whispers
that her crew had deserted and scuttled her,
carrying off her goods to trade with on their
own account. But perhaps she may simply have
foundered In some violent gale on the lakes.
After a winter of misery It was evident that
nothing could make up for the loss of the Griffin,
except a journey on foot to Montreal, ^a saiie's
Accordingly, In March, 1680, La terrible win-
Salle started on this terrible walk of ^''¦'°"™'^'^
1000 miles, leaving Fort CreveccEur under
command of the faithful Tonty. La Salle had
with him a long-tried Indian guide, a Mohegan
from Connecticut, who for many years had
roamed over the country. He took with him
also four Frenchmen ; and these six fought
their way eastward through the wilderness, now
floundering through melting snow, now biv
ouacking In clothes stiff with frost, now stop
ping to make a bark canoe, now leaping across
streams on floating ice-cakes, like the runaway

128 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
slave girl in " Uncle Tom's Cabin ; " in such
plight did they make their way across Michigan
and along the north shore of Lake Erie to the lit
tle blockhouse above Niagara Falls. All but La
Salle had given out on reaching Lake Erie, and
the five sick men were ferried across by him in
a bark canoe to the blockhouse. We may see
here how the sustaining power of wide-ranging
thoughts and a lofty purpose enabled the scholar
reared in luxury to surpass in endurance the
Indian guide and the hunters inured to the
hardships of the forest. He had need of all this
sustaining power, for at Niagara he learned that
a ship from France, freighted for him with a
cargo worth about ^30,000 in our modern
money, had been wrecked in the St. Lawrence,
and everything lost. He received this stagger
ing news with his wonted Iron composure, and
taking three fresh men in place of his invalids,
completed his march of 1000 miles to Mon
treal. There he collected supplies and rein
forcements, and, returning as far as Fort Fron-
Fresh disas- tcnac, was taking a moment's rest pre-
'"^ paratory to a fresh start when further
ill tidings arrived. In July there came a mes
sage from the fort so well named Heart-break.
The garrison had mutinied, and after driving
away Tonty with such men as were faithful,
they had pulled the blockhouse to pieces and

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 129
made their way eastward through Michigan.
Recruiting their ranks with divers wood rangers
of ill repute, they had plundered the station
at Niagara, and their canoes were now cruising
on Lake Ontario In the hope of crowning their
work with the murder of La Salle. These
wretches, however, fell into their own pit. Be
tween hearing and acting, the Interval with La
Salle was not a long one. That Indomitable
commander's canoes were soon upon the lake,
and in a few days he had waylaid and cap
tured the mutineers and sent them In chains to
be dealt with by the viceroy. La Salle now kept
on his way to the Illinois River, intending to
rebuild his fort and hoping to rescue , „ ,,
r o La SaUe goes
Tonty with the few faithful followers to rescue
who had survived the mutiny. That
little party had found shelter among the Illinois
Indians ; but during the summer of 1680 the
great village of the Illinois was sacked by the
Iroquois, and the hard-pressed Frenchman re
treated up the western shore of Lake Michigan
as far as Green Bay. When La Salle reached
the Illinois village he found nothing but the
horrible vestiges of fiery torments and cannibal
feasts. The only thing to be done was with
out delay to utilize the situation by cementing
a firmer alliance than before with the west
ern Algonquins on the basis of their common

130 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
enmity to the Iroquois. After thus spending
Destruction the wlntcr to good purpose, he set
v-2geby"°"' out again for Canada in May, 1681,
the Iroquois to arrange his affairs and once more
obtain fresh resources. At Mackinaw his heart
was rejoiced at meeting his friend Tonty, after
all these wild vicissitudes, and together they
paddled their canoes a thousand miles and came
to Fort Frontenac.
La Salle's enemies had begun to grow quite
merry over his repeated discomfitures, but at
length his stubborn courage for a time van
quished the adverse fates. On the next venture
things went smoothly and according to the pro
gramme. In the autumn he started with a fleet
of canoes, passed up the lakes from Ontario to
the head of Michigan, crossed the narrow port-
La SaUe's age from the Chicago River to the
IsTdown^'the Illiools, and thence coming out upon
Mississippi the MlssissIppI, glided down to its
mouth. On the 9th of April, 1682, the fleurs-
de-lis were duly planted, and all the country
drained by the great river and its tributaries, a
country far vaster than La Salle ever imagined,
was solemnly declared to be the property of the
king of France, and named for him Louisiana.*
Returning up the Mississippi after this
• [Father Membre' s narrative of this voyage is given in
translation in J. G. Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the
Mississippi Valley, pp. 165-184.]

WILDERNESS AND EMPIRE 131
triumph. La Salle established a small fortified
post on the Illinois River which he called St.
Louis of the Illinois. Leaving Tonty in com
mand there, he lost no time in re- La SaUe re
turning to France for means to com- '"ns to
plete his scheme. The time had ar
rived for founding a town at the mouth of the
Mississippi and connecting it with Canada by a
line of military posts. La Salle was well re
ceived by the king, and a fine expedition was
fitted out, but once more the fates began to frown
and everything was ruined by the 111 fortune of
the naval commander, Beaujeu, whom it was
formerly customary to blame more than he
seems really to have deserved. The Intention
was to sail directly to the mouth of the Missis
sippi, but the pilots missed it and passed be
yond ; some of the ships were wrecked ^^^i,^^ ^f the
on the coast of Texas ; the captain, Mississippi
beset by foul weather and pirates, dis
appeared with the rest, and was seen no more.
Two years of misery followed, and with the
misery such quarrelling and mutual hatred as
had scarcely been equalled since the days of the
early Spanish explorers in South America. At
last. In March, 1687, La Salle started on foot
in search of the Mississippi, hoping to ascend
it and find succour at Tonty's fort ; but he had
scarcely set out with this forlorn hope when

132 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
two or three mutineers skulked in ambush and
shot him dead. Thus was cut short at the early
La SaUe's age of forty-two the career of the man
death whosc personality is impressed in some
respects more strongly than that of any other
upon the history of New France. His schemes
were too far-reaching to succeed. They re
quired the strength and resources of half a
dozen nations Hke the France of Louis XIV.
Nevertheless, the lines upon which New France
continued to develop were substantially those
which La Salle had In mind, and the fabric of
a wilderness-empire, of which he laid the foun
dations, grew with the general growth of colo
nization, and in the next century became truly
formidable. Itwas not until Wolfe climbed the
Heights of Abraham that the great ideal of La
Salle was finally overthrown.

V
WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE
IN the year 1670 the provincial parliament
of Normandy condemned a dozen women,
young and old, to be burned at the stake.
Their crime was attendance upon the Witches'
Sabbath. An appeal was taken to the Crown,
and Louis XIV. was persuaded to Louis xiv.
spare their lives on condition that ^""""^'^^
s^ _ the sentence
they should leave the kingdom and of death im-
never return. Astonishment and In- ^^ged"''""
dignation greeted this exercise of royal w'^^^i^s
clemency, and the provincial parliament sent a
petition to the king containing a grave re
monstrance : " Your parliament have thought
it their duty on occasion of these crimes, the
greatest which men can commit, to make you
acquainted with the general and uniform feel
ing of the people of this province with regard
to them ; It being moreover a question in which
ire concerned the glory of God and the relief
of your suffering subjects, who groan under
their fears from the threats and menaces of this
sort of persons. . . . We humbly supplicate

134 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
your Majesty to reflect once more upon the
extraordinary results which proceed from the
The parUa- malevolcncc of these people ; on
mandy^P^-"" the loss of goods and chattels, and
tests the deaths from unknown diseases,
which are often the consequence of their men
aces ; ... all of which may easily be proved
to your Majesty's satisfaction by the records of
various trials before your parliaments." It is
pleasant to be able to add that Louis XIV. was
too well versed in the professional etiquette of
royalty to withdraw a pardon which he had
once granted, and so the poor women were
saved from the flames. What we have espe
cially to note is that the highest court of Nor
mandy, representing the best legal knowledge
of that province. In defining witchcraft as the
infliction of disease or the destruction of pro
perty by unknown and mysterious means, de
scribes it as the greatest of all crimes, and has
no more doubt of its reality than of burglary
or highway robbery.*
This unquestioning belief in the reality of
witchcraft has been shared by the whole human
^ [For the original text and fiirther particulars in regard to
this petition Lecky refers to Garinet, Histoire de la Magie
en France, p. 337. Cf also Rambaud, Hist, de la Civilisa
tion Frangaise, ii. 154. "In 1672, Colbert directed the
magistrates to receive no accusations of sorcery." Lecky,
Hist, of Rationalism, i. 118.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 135
race, civilized and uncivilized alike, from pre
historic ages to the end of the seven- .^, . ,. ..
D _ The behef m
teenth century. There are tribes of witchcraft
men with minds so little developed
that travellers have doubted the existence of
religious Ideas among them ; but none have
been found so low as not to have some notion
of witchcraft. Indeed, one of the most prlmi-
1 [For a comprehensive survey of the history of witchcraft
and allied occult phenomena, from the standpoint of modern
psychology, see Alfr. Lehman, Aberglaube und Zauberei,
Stuttgart, 1898. Mr. Lecky' s opening chapter on Magic
and Witchcraft, in his History of Rationalism, still remains
for the Enghsh reader the most convenient sketch of witch
craft in modern times. On the rise of modern witchcraft,
the most scholarly investigation in English is that of H. C.
Lea, in his Inquisition in the Middle Ages, vol. iii. chaps, vi.
and vii.
Recently there has appeared an investigation into the be
ginnings of the witchcraft delusion that surpasses all previous
works in scientific thoroughness. It is Joseph Hansen's
Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Hexenwahns
und der Hexenverfolgung im Mittelalter, Bonn, 1901.
Hansen has presented his results in popular form in his Zau-
berwahn. Inquisition und die Entstehung der Grossen Hexen
verfolgung, Munich, 1901. In the Report of the American
Hist. Assoc, for 1890 will be found an admirably compact
and learned sketch of" The Literature of Witchcraft," by
Professor GeorgeJL^urr. An excellent selection of extracts
illustrating the behef in witchcraft, the methods of trial, and
the growth of the opposition is given in Professor Burr's The
Witch-Persecutions, a pamphlet pubhshed by the University
of Pennsylvania.]

136 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
tive and fundamental shapes which the relation
of cause and effect takes in the savage mind is
the assumed connection between disease or death
and some malevolent personal agency. The
conceptions of natural disease and natural death
are attainable only by civilized minds. To the
savage, who has scarcely an Inkling of such a
thing as laws of nature, all death Is regarded as
murder, either at the hands of a superhuman
power that must be propitiated, or at the hands
of some human being upon whom vengeance
may be wreaked. The interpretation of disease
is the same, and hence one of the chief occu
pations of medicine-men and priests among
barbarous races is the detection and punish
ment of witches.* Hence among all the super
stitions, — or things that have" stood over"
from primeval ages, — the belief in witchcraft
Vitality of has been the most deeply rooted and
the belief ^j^g j^^gj teuaclous of life. In all
times and places, until quite lately among the
most advanced communities, the reality of
witchcraft has been accepted without question,
and scarcely any human belief Is supported by
so vast a quantity of recorded testimony.
At the present day, among communities like
^ [On the stubborn resistance made in modern times to the
displacement of the Satanic theory of disease and disaster by
scientific theories, see A. D. White, History of the Warfare
of Science with Theology, chaps, xi.-xvi.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 137
our own, we may observe a wonderful change.
Among educated people the belief in witch
craft is practically extinct. It has not simply
ceased to be taken seriously, but It has vanished
from people's minds. We recognize It as one
of the grotesque features in an Indian's theory
of things, or perhaps we find It cropping out
among the odds and ends of diabolism that the
negro mind retains from the old stock of Afri
can folk-lore, but we no longer associate such a
belief with civilized men, and a good deal of
historical study is needed to enable us to real
ize adequately its omnipresence only two cen
turies ago.
What has caused this remarkable change in
our mental attitude toward witchcraft? Surely
not argument. N obody has ever re- ^^^^^ ^^ ^^
futed the evidence that once seemed final decay of
so conclusive in favour of the belief.
For the most part we should now regard that
evidence as not worth the trouble of refuting.
Some powerful cause has made our minds Insu
perably Inhospitable to such sort of evidence.
That cause is the gigantic development of phy
sical science since the days of Newton and Des
cartes. The minds of civilized people have
become familiar with the conception of natural
law, and that conception has simply stifled the
old superstition as clover chokes out weeds. It

138 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
has been observed that the existence of evidence
Rise of phy- in favour of witchcraft closely depends
sicai science upon the dlsposItlon to beheve it, so
that when the latter ceases the former disap
pears. Accordingly we find no difficulty in un
derstanding the universality of the belief until
quite modern times. The disposition to believe
was one of the oldest Inheritances of the human
mind, while the capacity for estimating evidence
in cases of physical causation Is one of Its very
latest and most laborious acquisitions.
In 1664 there was a witch trial at Bury
St. Edmunds in Suffolk. The presiding justice
An EngUsh ^^^ Sir Matthcw Hale, one of the"
witch trial most eminent and learned of English
iviatthew judgcs. Two aged widows. Amy
^^'^ Duny and Rose Cullender, were in
dicted for bewitching six young girls and one
baby boy. This infant was seized with fainting
turns, and his mother, suspecting witchcraft,
took counsel of a country doctor, who told her
to hang the child's crib blanket all day In the
chimney corner, and if on taking it down at
nightfall she should see anything strange there,
she was not to be afraid of It, but to throw it
Into the fire. Well, when she was putting the
baby to bed she took down the blanket, and a
big toad fell out and hopped about the hearth.
" Oh, put it In the fire, quick," said she to a boy

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 139
present, who forthwith seized the poor toad with
a pair of tongs and held it in the blaze. There
was a flashing as of powder, and a strange noise,
and then the toad vanished ; but that Grotesque
same evening Amy Duny sitting by ="'^^"'==
her own fireside had her face all smirched and
scorched. Of course Amy was the toad, and it
was natural that she should be vexed at such
treatment, so that when the baby's sister sud
denly sickened and died, and its mother grew
lame enough to use crutches, it was all clearly
due to Amy's diabolical arts. Absolute demon
stration was reached when Amy was sentenced
to death, for then her witch-power ceased, and
the lame woman forthwith threw away her
crutches and walked as briskly as anybody.
The other afflicted children complained of
griping pains, and vomited crooked pins and
twopenny nails. In the court-room when Amy
Duny or Rose Cullender came near to them,
they threw their aprons over their heads and
writhed In agony. It happened that among the
magistrates present were some hard-headed Sad-
ducees. Lord Cornwallis and Sir Edmund Bacon
suspected these fits and torments of being a
wicked sham. They blindfolded the indications of
girls, and had other old women ap- fhamming
proach and touch them. The girls
went off into fits every time without discrimi-

140 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
natlng between Rose or Amy and the other wo
men. But this trifling flaw in the case was
nothing when set off against the weighty evi
dence of a witness who declared that Rose Cul
lender had given him hard words, and shortly
afterwards his hay-cart was stuck In passing
through a gate. Another deposed that Amy
Duny had said, " That chimney of yours will be
falling down one of these days," and so sure
enough it did. After this there could be no
doubt in any reasonable mind that Rose had be
witched the cart and Amy the chimney. The
learned justice in his charge aimed a rebuke at
the scepticism exhibited by some of the magls-
sir Matthew trates ; he declared that the reality of
the'redity"of wItchcraft was not open to question,
witchcraft slncc It was exprcssly affirmed in Holy
Writ, and provided for in the criminal codes of
all nations. The jury took less than half an hour
to agree upon their verdict of guilty ; and next
week the two old dames were hanged at Cam
bridge, protesting their innocence with their last
breath.* Upon just such so-called " evidence " more
thousands of Innocent persons than It will ever
1 Linton's Witch Stories, p. 395. [Cotton Mather
printed an account of this trial in his Wonders of the Invisible
World, London reprint, 1862, pp. 111-120. He says it
" was a Tryal much considered by the Judges of New Eng
land." Ibid. p. III.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 141
be possible to enumerate have been put to death
under the forms of law. It Is difficult to accept
all the wholesale figures mentioned by old his
torians, yet the figures for which we have good
authority are sufficiently dreadful. In general
we may regard it as probable that during the
Middle Ages executions for witchcraft occurred
with much the same monotonous regularity as
executions for murder and other felonies, but
from time to time there were epidemics of ter
ror when the number of victims was fearfully
swelled. Now the famous bull of Pope Inno
cent VIII. against witchcraft, pub- Revival of
lished in 1484, marks the beginning witchcraft
r • 1 1 • r ^ superstition
of a new era in the history or the su
perstition.* As literature and art have had their
Golden Ages, so the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries were especially the Sulphurous Age of
the witchcraft delusion. It was the period when
the Church of Rome was engaged In a life and
death struggle with heresy, and obnoxious per
sons suspected of heresy could sometimes be
destroyed by a charge of witchcraft when there
was no other method of reaching them. Thus
the universal superstition was enlisted in the ser
vice of a militant and unscrupulous ecclesiastical
organization with effects that were frightful. As
it was understood that the diabolical crime of
^ [This bull is given in an Enghsh translation by Burr, The
Witch-Persecutions, pp. 7-10.]

142 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
witchcraft was now to be stamped out once for
all, the evidences of it were naturally found in
The Ham pl^nty. The " Malleus Malcficarum,"
mer of or Hammer of Witches,* published
in 1489, became the great text-book
of the subject, and at no time since history be
gan have the fires of hell been so often lighted
upon earth as in the course of the next two cen
turies. We are told by Martin del Rio that in 1515
not less than 500 witches were executed In the
single city of Geneva ; and a certain inquisitor
named Remigio boasted that in his district, in
the north of Italy, within fifteen years he had
personally superintended the burning of more
than 900 such criminals.^ In Scotland, from
1560 to 1600, the average annual number of
victims was 200, making a grim and ghastly
total of 8000 for the forty years. Or, to put it
in another form, the executions averaged four
each week in a population about equal to that
of Massachusetts at the present day. In 1597
that grotesque royal author, James VI., pub
lished at Edinburgh his treatise on " Dsemono-
* [An extract fi-om this book is given by Burr, The Witch-
Persecutions, and an analysis of it in Roskoff's Geschichte
des Teufels, ii. 226—292. Cf. also Hansen, as above.]
^ [Williams, The Superstitions of Witchcraft, p. 1 07. See
also White, Warfare of Science and Theology, i. 358, 359.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 143
logie," in which he maintained that against so
foul a crime as witchcraft any sort of evidence is
good enough, and the testimony of very young
children, or of persons of the vilest „. ,
' r King James
character, ought on no account to be on the reaUty
omitted. In the course of our story we
shall see that James was by no means singular
in this absurd style of reasoning. In 1604,
scarcely more than a year after he had become
King of England, Parliament passed the famous
"Witch Act," which remained on the statute-
book until the reign of George II.
It was In the reign of Charles I. that trials
and executions under the Witch Act were most
frequent. While the Long Parliament _, , , .
T- . . „ . ° . J , The delusion
was in session the affair attained al- increases
most the proportions of an epidemic, ^f'*e Pm^^*
but under the rule of Cromwell there '^n party to
was a sudden halt, and thereafter the
delusion never fully recovered its hold upon
the community. Cases like those of Amy Duny
and Rose Cullender were sporadic. In that age
of Newton and Locke, the whole baleful troop
of demons were spreading their wings for their
final flight from this world.
The last executions for witchcraft, however,
occurred in England in 171a and In Scotland
in 1722.* We may observe in passing that in
1 [Cf. Lecky, i. 139.]

144 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Germany the case of Maria Renata, a nun be-
, ^ headed for witchcraft, occurred as late
Last execu- /
tions for as 1 749, the year In which Goethe
witchcraft i ,
was born.
Considering the fact that the exodus of
Puritans to New England occurred during the
reign of Charles I., while the prosecutions for
witchcraft were Increasing toward a maximum
in the mother country. It Is rather strange that
so few cases occurred In the New World. It
was already noted in Cromwell's time that In-
dependericy in ecclesiastical matters seemed to
be attended by a diminution of activity in the
world of witches, but on the other hand the
Independents who came over to New Eng-
Primitive ^^.nd voluntaHly thrust themselves
America re- j^to a couutry whlch was supposed
garded as a , , -^ ^ '^
domain of to be lu a Special sense under the
the Devil ^ircct control and administration of
the Devil. It was believed that Pagan coun
tries generally were ruled by Satan, and that
here in the American wilderness that old foe of
mankind had taken his stand to annoy and dis
hearten the Lord's elect. As for the red men,
it was easy to see that they were his veritable
imps ; their tricks and manners proclaimed them
1 [On this case see White, Warfare of Science, ii. 121 and
1 56. He refers in particular to an essay on Maria (or Anna)
Renata by Johannes Scherr in his Hammerschl'dge und Histo-
rien.^

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 145
as such. There could be little doubt that the
heathen New World was Satan's Kingdom ; *
and in view of this very common belief it is
strange that the instances of witchcraft or dia
bolism were so rare in the early history of New
England. During the sixty years following the first set
tlement of Boston, a dozen or more cases can
be enumerated. The first victim in the New
World was Margaret Jones, of Charlestown,
who had some sensible ideas about medicine.
She disapproved of wholesale bleeding and vio
lent emetics, and used to work cures by means
of herb tonics and other simple pre- .^j^^ f^^^ ^;^_
scrlptlons. This offended the doc- timofthe
, . y^ n 1 witchcraft de-
tors, and in 1648 the poor woman iusion in New
was tried for witchcraft, convicted, ^"s^""*
and hanged. Governor Winthrop, who tells
the story, adds that at the very hour of her ex
ecution there was a great gale In Connecticut,
which blew down trees, and this he considers
an absolute demonstration of her gullt.'^ When
Winthrop wrote this, Isaac Newton was a child
playing In the nursery. When we see a mind
so broad and cultivated as Winthrop's enter-
1 [See Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible
World, London, 1693, London reprint, 1862, p. 74.]
2 [See Winthrop, ii. 326 (rev. ed., ii. 397); W. F.
Poole, No. Am. Rev., April, 1869, pp. 343, 344.J

146 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
taining such notions of cause and effect, is it
not obvious that the mainstay and support of
the frightful superstition was ignorance of phy
sical science ?
About the same time, according to Thomas
Hutchinson, a woman was hanged at Dor
chester, and another at Cambridge, for the
crime of witchcraft. The next case was a star
tling one, on account of the victim's social posi
tion. A woman like Margaret Jones, though
perhaps educated, and such as would to-day be
classed as a lady, was In those times not called
Mrs. Jones, but simply Goodwife or Goody
Jones. To be Mrs., or Mistress, one must be
the wife of an esquire, and the rank of esquire
was as carefully guarded in common forms of
speech as the rank of knight or baronet. The
next victim of the witch-delusion was Mistress
The case of Ann Hlbblns. Her husband, Wil-
Mrs. Hibbins [[^^ Hlbbins, who died in 1654, had
been for twelve years a member of the council
of assistants, and at one time was the colony's
diplomatic agent in England. Her brother,
Richard Bellingham, was deputy-governor of
Massachusetts. In 1656 this lady was tried for
witchcraft before Governor Endicott and the
General Court. She was found guilty, and was
hanged on Boston Common on the 19th of
June of that year. The verdict and death-war-

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 147
rant are In the Colonial Records,* but we have
no report of the case, and do not know how the
accusation was originated. Hutchinson, whose
great-grandfather Edward was one of the lady's
friends, believed it to be a case of outrageous
persecution, and so some of her contemporaries
regarded it. The Rev. John Norton, persecutor
of Quakers, was by temperament quick to see
marks of Satan's presence, but he tried his best
to save Mrs. Hibbins, and afterward a victim of
spoke of her accusers with his cus- ^fougii^u-^
tomary sarcasm. Mrs. Hibbins was perstition
hanged, he said, " only for having more wit
than her neighbours." ^ One day she saw two
persons whom she knew to be unfriendly to
her talking together in the street, whereupon
she exclaimed that she knew they were talking
about her. Her guess being correct was forth
with cited against her as an instance of super
natural insight which must have been Imparted
to her by the Devil. According to Norton this
argument had great weight with the Court. It
is a pity, and it is strange too, that we know so
little of this case, for there must have been
something extraordinary in the circumstances
that could thus send to the gallows one of the
foremost persons In that colonial society. There
* [Mass. Records, iv. pt. i. 269. The record is quoted
in Winsor's Memorial Hist, of Boston, ii. 139.]
2 [Hutchinson's Hist, of Mass., i. 173.]

148 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
is evidence that the affair created fierce excite
ment and left much bitterness behind. There
were many in Boston who Insisted that a saint
had been wickedly done to death by slanderous
tongues. Out of a dozen cases in the course of the next
thirty years we find several acquittals, and once
in a while we encounter a gleam of genuine com
mon sense, as in the case of John Bradstreet of
Rowley, who was accused of familiarity with the
Devil ; forasmuch as the said Bradstreet con
fessed that he had " read in a book of magic,
and that he heard a voice asking him what work
he had for him. He answered, ' Go make a
A sensible bridge of saud over the sea ; go make
j""? a ladder of sand up to heaven, and go
to God, and come down no more.' " When the
case was tried at Ipswich, the jury found that
the said Bradstreet lied, whereupon the court
sentenced him to pay twenty shillings fine or
else to be whipped.*
More disastrous was the case of the Good
win children in Boston In 1688. An Irish Cath
olic woman named Glover was laundress for
John Goodwin's family. In which there were
four children. One day the eldest child, Mar
tha, aged thirteen, accused the Glover woman
of purloining some pieces of linen. Glover an-
^ [Nevins, Witchcraft in Salem Village, p. 34. This case
occurred in 1652.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 149
swered with threats and curses, and Martha
presently fell down in a fit. The other children
— aged eleven, seven, and five — soon followed
her example. Then they went through with all
sorts of pranks : they would pretend The Oood-
to be deaf and dumb ; they would ^'^ "^i^'Wren
complain of being pricked with pins or cut
with knives ; they would bark like dogs, and
purr like cats ; they even performed feats of
what modern spirit-rappers call " levltatlon,"
skimming over the ground without appearing
to touch it, seeming, as Cotton Mather said, to
"fly like geese." This sort of thing went on
for several weeks. Doctors and ministers agreed
that the children must have been bewitched by
the Glover woman, and she was accordingly
hanged. The chief interest In this case arises from
Cotton Mather's connection with it. That fa
mous divine, son of Increase Mather cotton
and grandson of John Cotton, was father
then five and twenty years of age. He had been \
graduated at Harvard ten years before, his
career as an author had already begun, and he'
was already regarded as the most learned man '
of his time. The range of his reading was
enormous. Theology, philosophy, history,
literature, physical science, in all these he was '
omnivorous, and he could write and speak at
least seven languages (one of them the Iroquois)

150 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
with fluency and precision.* In the course of \
his life he published nearly four hundred books
and tracts, most of which bring a high price
now, while some are Indispensable to the student |
of history. He was an earnest and severely
conscientious man. His chief foible
was vanity, which was perhaps not
strange in view of the wholesale homage and
adulation to which he was accustomed. He
was not a profound or original thinker, nor was
he free from the errors and superstitions char
acteristic of his time ; but in most matters his
face was set toward the future and his work
was helpful to mankind. In 1 721, In spite of
„. furious opposition and some personal
His courage ^ ^ ST ...
in advocating peril, he succccdcd In introducing
inoculation • .^ a • • i i* r 1 1
into America inoculation for small
pox,^ the most conspicuous among many in
stances in which he showed himself wiser than
his contemporaries. With his other fine qualities
he was a man of loving heart and gracious
sympathies. But in the disputes and conflicts
of his time he took too prominent a part to
get along without making enemies ; and so it
happened that after the witchcraft delusion
had become thoroughly discredited, a malicious
writer saw fit to distort and misrepresent his
relations to it. The slanders of Robert Calef
^ [Samuel Mather, Life of Cotton Mather, p. 49. j
' [See Peabody's Life of Cotton Mather, pp. 31 1-326.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 151
became the commonplaces of historical writers
in a later generation, and the memory „j^^ ^^
of Cotton Mather has been held up Caiefand
to scorn as that of the man who did ^ ^'"
more than any one else to stimulate and foster
the witchcraft delusion in Massachusetts. This
view is maintained by Charles Wentworth Up
ham, In his history of " Salem Witchcraft," pub
hshed in 1867 in two volumes, the most learned
and elaborate work on the subject.* It was
repeated at second hand from older writers
and embellished with cheap rhetoric by George
Bancroft, and has usually been copied by the
makers of compendlums and school-books, so
that it has obtained a firm lodgement in the
popular mind. The correct view of Cotton
Mather's relations to witchcraft was first set
forth in Longfellow's " New England Trage
dies," published in 1868. The poet had studied
the original documents with profound attention,
and his fine critical insight had detected the
truth where Upham, the Dryasdust specialist,
had missed it. But the first full and adequate
statement of the case was made in Mr. w. f.
1869 by the late William Frederick ^°°^
Poole, who was at that time librarian of the
^ [For the literature of this subject, see G. H. Moore, Bib
liographical Notes on Witchcraft in Massachusetts, Worcester,
1888, and Justin Winsor, "The Literature of Witchcraft

152 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Boston Athenaeum.* Cultivation of the critical
faculty and the exercise of it upon original
sources of information are perpetually obliging.
us to modify, and sometimes to reverse, long-
accepted judgments upon historical characters
and events. In the present brief narrative I
shall simply indicate, without controversy, the
true position of Cotton Mather.
His connection with the Goodwin case began
late. He was the last minister invited to attend.
He had nothing to do with the accusation or
prosecution of the poor laundress, but after her
Cotton death sentence he visited her twice in
the Godwin prison to pray for her. She confessed
case to him that she had made a covenant
with Satan, and was in the habit of going to
meetings at which that personage was present.
She was utterly impenitent and wanted none of
his prayers. " However," as he says so sweetly
in his account of the matter, " against her will
I prayed with her, which, if it were a fault, it
was in excess of pity." In her confession she
implicated several other persons by name, but
Mather never divulged any of these names, for,
as he said, " we should be very tender in such
in New England," Proceedings of the Am. Antiquarian Soe,
1895.] 1 [Mr. Poole's paper was published in the No. Am. Re
view in April, 1869. Mr. Upham rephed to it in The His
torical Magazine in September, 1869.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 153
relation, lest we wrong the reputation of the
innocent by stories not enough inquired Into."
About the time of this woman's execution
Mather took the little accuser, Martha Good
win, into his own home and kept her there for
several months, partly as a subject for investi
gation, partly as a patient to be cured by prayer
and judicious treatment,* for this cotton
brilliant young clergyman was also a ^^qI^^
doctor in medicine of no mean attain- ™n giri
ments, besides knowing more law, and knowing
it to better purpose, than half the jurists of his
time. The girl showed herself an actress of
elf-like precocity and shrewdness. She wished
to prove that she was bewitched, and she seems
to have known Mather's prejudices against
Quakers, Papists, and the Church of England ;
for she could read Quaker books and Catholic
books fluently, and seemed quite In love with
the Book of Common Prayer, but she could
not read a word In the Bible or any Tests of be-
book of Puritan theology, and even witchment
in her favourite Prayer Book, whenever she
came to the Lord's Prayer, she faltered and
^ ["I took her home to my own family, partly out of
compassion to her parents, but chiefly that I might be a criti
cal eye-witness of things that would enable me to confiite
the Sadducism of this debauch'd age." Mather's Magnalia,
ii. 460 (Hartford ed., 1853). The Magnalia was first pub
lished in i7o^.]/'j_

154 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
failed. Gradually the young minister's firm
good sense and kindness prevailed in calming
her and making her discard such nonsense, but
during the cure her symptoms showed the
actress. She would refuse to go into the study,
lined with its goodly tomes of Greek and
Hebrew, because her devils forbade it ; then she
would go into hysterics of six-young-lady-power
until It occurred to some one of the family to
drag her, all screams and kicks, into the sacred
room; then she would instantly grow quiet
and say that the accursed thing had just gone
from her In the form of a mouse, — which was
of course a bit of ancient Teutonic folk-lore,
a remnant of the doctrine of changelings. Im
plicitly believed by our ancestors when they
lived in what Freeman used to call Oldest Eng
land, before ever Hengist and Horsa sailed for
Kent. After a while the little minx was cured ;
her distemper gave way to kind patience and
common sense, and the affair went no further.
Cotton Mather was a firm believer In the
Mather reality of witchcraft. He published
accounfof" ^" account of thls case and its cure.*
this case HIs objcct In the pubHcation was two-
^ [Mather's account of this case was included in his Mem
orable Providences, relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions,
etc., Boston, 1689. Reprinted in London in 1691 as Late
Memorable Providences, etc. He also gave a fiiU account in
his Magnalia, Hartford ed., ii. 456-465.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 155
fold : first, to prove the reality of witchcraft
against a few bold sceptics who were lately be
ginning to doubt It, in spite of the teachings of
Holy Writ; secondly, to show the best method
of effecting a cure. In this second point he was
in advance of his age, and had others been as
discreet and self-contained as he, there need
have been no such tragedy as was soon to be
enacted in Salem. All personal and local refer
ences, whatever could give the mania a concrete
hold and a chance to work bodily mischief, he
had kept, and ever after kept, locked up within
his own breast. He had evidence enough, per
haps, to have hung half the old women in Bos
ton, but his strong common sense taught him
that the Devil is too tricksome a rascal to be
worthy of much credit as an accuser. His rules
of evidence were far in advance of those upon
which the great lawyer. Sir Matthew Hale, had
condemned people to death only four and
twenty years before. Mather's rules would not
have allowed a verdict of guilty simply upon
the drivelling testimony of the afflicted persons,
and if this wholesome caution had been ob
served, not a witch would ever have been hung
at Salem.
Some writers have thought that the mere
publication of Mather's book must have led to
the outbreak of the delusion in Salem, since it
must have helped put such ideas into the heads

156 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of Salem people. But this Is forgetting that the
superstitious ideas were in everybody's head
Cotton already. Not a man, woman, or child
Madier's [^ Massachusctts, or elsewhere In the
the Salem clvIlIzed world, but kncw exactly how
'"""^ a witch should behave. Tracts and
chap-books on the wretched subject abounded,
and poisoned young minds as dime novels do
in our time. Even If Mather had written no
thing, the execution of the Irish laundress and
the pranks of her little accusers were familiar
topics at every fireside in New England.
But in 1692, quite apart from any per
sonal influence, there were circumstances which
favoured the outbreak of an epidemic of witch
craft. In this ancient domain of Satan there
were indications that Satan was begin-
Gloomy .... "
outlook ning again to claim his own. War had
'* broken out with that Papist champion,
Louis XIV., and it had so far been going badly
with God's people in America. The shrieks
of the victims at Schenectady and Salmon Falls
and Fort Loyal still made men's blood run
cold In their veins ; and the great expedition
against Quebec had come home crestfallen with
defeat. Evidently the Devil was bestirring
himself ; it was a witching time ; the fuel for
an explosion was laid, and it needed but a spark
to fire it.
That spark was provided by servants and

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 157
children in the household of Samuel Parris,
minister of the church at Salem Village, a group
of outlying farms from three to five miles out
from the town of Salem. The place was some
times called Salem Farms, and in later times
was set off as a separate township under the
name of Danvers. Any one who has ever vis
ited a small New England village can gaiem
form some idea of the looks of the "^'"^s^
place, for the type is strongly characteristic, and
from the days of Cotton Mather to the Intro
duction of railroads the changes were not great.
On almost any country roadside In Massachu
setts you may see to-day just such wooden
houses as that in which Samuel Parris dwelt.
This clergyman seems to have lived for some
years in the West Indies, engaged In commer
cial pursuits, before he turned his attention to
theology. Some special mercantile connection
between Salem and Barbadoes seems to have
brought him to Salem Village, where he was In
stalled as pastor in 1689. An entry
in the church records, dated June 18 Parris,
of that year, informs us that " It was ' ' ''^^'"
agreed and voted by general concurrence, that
for Mr. Parris his encouragement and settle
ment in the work of the ministry amongst us,
we will give him sixty-six pounds for his yearly
salary, — one third paid In money, the other
two third parts for provisions, etc. ; and Mr.

158 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Parris to find himself firewood, and Mr. Parris
to keep the ministry-house in good repair ; and
that Mr. Parris shall also have the use of the
ministry-pasture, and the inhabitants to keep
the fence in repair ; and that we will keep up our
contributions ... so long as Mr. Parris con
tinues in the work of the ministry amongst us,
and all productions to be good and merchant
able. And If it please God to bless the inhabit
ants, we shall be willing to give more ; and to
expect that, if God shall diminish the estates of
the people, that then Mr. Parris do abate of his
salary according to proportion." *
This arrangement was far from satisfying the
new minister, for it only gave him the use of
the parsonage and its pasture lands, whereas
he was determined to get a fee simple of both.
_ . , , Another entry in the parish book
Parish trou- _ ¦' r
bies in Salem says that It was votcd to make over
'^^ to him that real estate, but this entry
is not duly signed by the clerk, and at the time
there were parishioners who declared that it
must have been put Into the book by fraudu
lent means. Out of these circumstances there
grew a quarrel which for utterly ruthless and
truculent bitterness has scarcely been equalled
even in the envenomed annals of New England
parishes. Many people refused to pay their
church-rates till the meeting-house began to
1 [C. W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, i. 291.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 159
suffer for want of repairs, and complaints were
made to the county court. Matters were
made worse by Parris's coarse and arrogant
manners, and his excessive severity in inflicting
church discipline for trivial offences. By 1691
the factions into which the village was divided
were ready to fly at each other's throats. Chhs-
tlan charity and loving-kindness were well-nigh
forgotten. It was a spectacle such as Old Nick
must have contemplated with grim satisfaction.
In the household at the parsonage were two
coloured servants whom Parris had brought
with him from the West Indies. The „ „ .,
Mr. Parns s
man was known as John Indian ; the coloured
hag Tituba, who passed for his wife, ^"™"'^
was half-Indian and half-negro. Their intel
ligence was of a low grade, but it sufficed to
make them experts in palmistry, fortune-tell
ing, magic, second-sight, and incantations. Such
lore is always attractive to children, and in
the winter of 1691-92 quite a little circle of
young girls got into the habit of meeting at
the parsonage to try their hands at the Black
Art. Under the tuition of the Indian servants
they soon learned how to go Into trances, talk
gibberish, and behave like pythonesses of the
most approved sort. These girls were ^.^^
Parris's daughter Elizabeth, aged "afflicted
11- • A 1 ¦ •! TiT-1 children"
nine, and his niece Abigail Wil
liams, aged eleven ; Mary Walcott and Eliza-

160 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
beth Hubbard, each aged seventeen ; Eliza
beth Booth and Susannah Sheldon, each aged
eighteen ; Mary Warren and Sarah Churchill,
each aged twenty. Conspicuous above all
in the mischief that followed were two girls
of wonderful adroitness and hardihood, Ann
Putnam, aged twelve, daughter of Sergeant
Thomas Putnam, and Mercy Lewis, aged
seventeen, a servant in his family. This
Thomas Putnam, who had taken part in the
great Narragansett fight, was parish clerk and
belonged to an aristocratic family. One of his
nephews was Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary
fame. Mistress Ann Putnam, the sergeant's
wife, was a beautiful and well-educated woman
of thirty, but so passionate and high-strung
Mistress Ann that In her best moments she was
Putnam scarccly quite sane. She was deeply
engaged in the village quarrels ; she also played
an important part In supporting her daughter
Ann and her servant Mercy Lewis in some of
the most shocking work of that year. Beside
Mrs. Putnam, two other grown women, one
Sarah VIbber and a certain Goody Pope, ap
peared among the sufferers, but were of no
great account. The minister withdrew his own
daughter early in the proceedings and sent her
to stay with some friends in Salem town. The
chief managers of the witchcraft business, then,
were two barbarous Indians steeped to the

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 161
marrow In demonolatry, the half-crazed and
vindictive Mrs. Putnam, and nine girls between
the ages of eleven and twenty.
These girls came to be known as the " Af
flicted Children." Their proceedings began at
the parsonage about Christmas time, 1691.
They would get down on all fours, crawl under
chairs and tables, go off into fits, and speak an
unintelligible jargon. All this may have been
begun In sport. It would doubtless tickle them
to find how well thev could imitate „ . .
T ,. ,. . 1 , . Beginnings
Indian medicine, and the temptation ofthe
to show off their accomplishments "¦"""^
would be too great to be resisted. Then if
they found their elders taking the affair too
seriously, if they suddenly saw themselves in
danger of getting whipped for meddling with
such uncanny matters, what could be more
natural than for them to seek an avenue of
escape by declaring that they were bewitched
and could not help doing as they did ? As to
these first steps the records leave us in the
dark, but somewhat such, I suspect, they must
have been. The next thing would be to ask
them who bewitched them ; and here the road
to mischief was thrown open by Mr. Parris
taking the affair into his own hands with a
great flourish of trumpets, and making it as
public as possible. Such was this man's way,
as different as possible from Cotton Mather's.

162 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Physicians and clergymen, who came from all
quarters to see the girls, agreed that they must
Ph sicians ^^ Suffering from witchcraft. When
and clergy- commanded to point out their tor-
men caUed in i r* i i t j •
mentors, they first named the Indian
hag Tituba, and then Sarah Good and Sarah
Osburn, two forlorn old women of the village,
who were not held in high esteem. On the last
day of February, 1692, these three were ar
rested, and the examinations began next day.
The chief accusations against Sarah Good were
that after she had spoken angrily to some
neighbours their cattle sickened and died ; that
The trial of shc thrcw Mary Walcott and other
Sarah Good children into convulsions ; and that
she tried to persuade Ann Putnam to sign her
name in a book. It was supposed that such
signatures were equivalent to a quitclaim deed
surrendering the signer's soul to the Devil ;
and his agents, the witches, were supposed to
go about with that infernal autograph book so
liciting signatures. Similar charges were brought
against the other prisoners. In their presence
the afflicted children raved and screamed. At
the indignant denials of the two old white wo
men the violence of these paroxysms became
frightful, but when Tituba confessed that she
was an adept in witchcraft and had enchanted
the girls, their symptoms vanished and perfect
calm ensued. As the result of the examination

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 163
the three prisoners were sent to the jail in Bos
ton to await their trial.*
The country was now getting alarmed, and
the girls began to feel their power. Their next
blow was aimed at victims of far higher sort.
The wretched Tituba knew human nature well
enough to consult her own safety by acting as
king's evidence,^ and In her examination she
testified that four women of the village tor
mented the girls ; two of them were Good and
Osburn, but the faces of the other two she said
she could not see. After Tituba had gone to
prison, the girls were urged to give up the names
of these other two tormentors. At first they
refused, but shortly it began to be whispered in
bated breath that some of the most respected
and godly persons in the village were leagued
with Satan in this horrible conspiracy. About
the middle of March the whole community was
thunderstruck by the arrest of Martha Corey
and Rebecca Nurse. Of these two ladies the for-
^ [For the details of these examinations, see W. E. Wood
ward, Records of Salem Witchcraft, Roxbury, Mass., 1864,
i. 1—49 ; Upham, ii. 4-32 ; Nevins, Witchcraft in Salem
Village, pp. 57-69.]
'^ [" The account she since gives of it is, that her master did
beat her, and otherways abuse her, to make her confess and
accuse (such as he called) her sister-witches ; and that what
soever she said by way of confessing, or accusing others, was
the effect of such usage." Robert Calef, More Wonders of
the Invisible World, Salem reprint, 1823, p. 189.]

164 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
mer was about sixty years of age, the latter
more than seventy. As they were addressed not
The accusa- ^.s " Mrs.," but as " GoodwIfc," their
tion of Mar- position was not cxactly aristocratic.
tha Corey £^ , , , ,
and Rebecca It was nevertheless most respectable.
Nurse They were thoroughly well-bred and
well-educated ladles, full of sweet courtesy and
simple-hearted kindliness, like the best of
farmers' wives in New England villages of to
day. Martha Corey was third wife of Giles
Corey, a farmer eighty years old, a man of her
culean stature and strength, proud, self-willed,
and contentious, but frank and noble, with a
rash, unruly tongue. He had been in many a
quarrel, and had made enemies. His wife, so far
as we know, had not. She was a wo-
Character ' .
of Martha man of deep and sincere piety, with as
°™'^ clear and sound a head as could be
found anywhere between Cape Cod and Cape
Ann. She disbelieved in witchcraft, was Inclined
to regard it as a mere delusion, and had no sym
pathy with the excitement which was beginning
to turn the village topsy-turvy. She did not
flock with the multitude to see the accusing
girls, but she reproved her more credulous hus
band for giving heed to such tomfoolery, and
he, with that uncurbed tongue of his, was heard
to utter Indiscreet jests about his good wife's
scepticism. It was probably this that caused
her to be selected as a victim. Sceptics must

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 165
be made to feel the danger of impugning the
authority of the accusers and the truth of their
tales. Accordingly Martha Corey, accused by
little Ann Putnam, was soon in jail awaiting
trial. The next was Rebecca Nurse. She was one
of three sisters, daughters of William Towne
of Yarmouth, in England. Her two Rebecca
sisters, who were arrested soon after ^""^
her, were Mary Easty and Sarah Cloyse. With
their husbands they were all persons held In
highest esteem, but an ancient village feud had
left a grudge against them in some revengeful
bosoms. Half a century before there had been
a fierce dispute between parties from Salem and
from Topsfield who had settled in the border
region between the two townships. The dispute
related to the possession of certain lots of land ;
it had grown more and more complicated, and it
had engendered hard feelings between a vUiage
the Putnams on one side and the '^"''
Eastys and Townes on the other. Besides this,
Rebecca Nurse and her husband had become
obnoxious to the Putnams and to the Rev. Mr.
Parris from reasons connected with the church
dispute. There was evidently a method In the
madness of the accusing girls. Rebecca Nurse
was arrested two days after the committal of
Martha Corey. The appearance of this vener
able and venerated lady before the magistrates

166 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
caused most profound sensation. Her numerous
children and grandchildren stood high in public
esteem, her husband was one of the most hon
oured persons in the community, herself a
model of every virtue. As she stood there, deli
cate and fragile in figure, with those honest eyes
that looked one full in the face, that soft gray
The ex- hair and dainty white muslin kerchief,
orRebewa ^^^ marvels what fiend can have pos-
Nurse scsscd thosc young girls that they did
not shamefastly hold their peace. In the Inter
vals of question and answer they went into fits as
usual. When the magistrate Hathorne became
visibly affected by the lady's clear and straight
forward answers, the relentless Mrs. Putnam
broke out with a violence dreadful to behold :
" Did you not bring the black man with you ?
Did you not bid me tempt God and die ? How
oft have you eaten and drunk your own dam
nation?" At this outburst, like the horrible
snarl of a lioness, the poor old lady raised her
hands toward heaven and cried, " O Lord, help
me ! " Whereupon all the afflicted girls " were
grievously vexed." Hathorne thought that their
spasms were caused by a mysterious influence
emanating from Goodwife Nurse's lifted hands,
and so his heart was hardened toward her. Mary
Walcott cried out that the prisoner was biting
her, and then showed marks of teeth upon her
wrist. Thus the abominable scene went on till

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 167
Rebecca Nurse was remanded to jail to await her
trial. That was on a Thursday morning. The Rev.
Deodat Lawson, a fine scholar and powerful
preacher, had arrived in the village a few days
before, and it was known that he was to preach
the afternoon sermon familiar In those Deodat
days as the Thursday lecture. He lawson
had scarcely arrived when two or three of
the girls called upon him and drove him nearly
out of his wits with their performances. Their
victory over him was complete, and the result
was seen in that Thursday lecture, which was
afterwards printed, and is a literary production
of great intensity and power. The arrests of
Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse had de
stroyed all confidence, everybody distrusted his
neighbour, and that Impassioned sermon goaded
the whole community to madness. If the Devil
could use such " gospel women " for .^^^ ^ ^^^^
his instruments, what safety was there ofthe de-
for anybody ? Arrests went on with in
creasing rapidity during the spring and summer,
until at least 126 persons, of whom we know the
names and something ofthe family history, were
lodged In jail ; and these names do not exhaust
the number. Among them — to mention only
such as were executed — we may note that John
Procter and the venerable George Jacobs had
each had one of the accusing girls in his family

168 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
as a domestic servant, and in both cases per
sonal mahce was visibly at work. In the case
Cases of per- of Gcorge Jacobs it may also be ob-
sonai maUce gcrvcd that hls own granddaughter, to
save her own life, confessed herself a witch, and
testified against him ; afterward she confessed
this horrible wickedness. Sarah Wildes, Eliza
beth How, and Mary Easty were connected
with the Topsfield affair already mentioned.
Some, such as Susannah Martin, seem to have
owed their fate to mere superstition of the low
est sort. On a rainy day she walked over a good
bit of country road without getting her hose or
skirts muddy, and It was sagely concluded that
such neatness could only have been attained
through the aid of the Devil. She was mother
of the Mabel Martin about whom Whittler
wrote his beautiful poem, " The Witch's Daugh
ter." John Willard Incurred his doom for having
said that it was the accusing girls who were the
real witches worthy of the gallows, and John
Procter in a similar spirit had said that by the
judicious application of a cudgel he could effect
a prompt and thorough cure for all the little
hussies. People who ventured such remarks
took their lives in their hands.
The boldest and most remarkable of all these
arrests was that of the Rev. George Burroughs,
and it was one of the cases in which mahce was
most clearly concerned. This gentleman was

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 169
graduated at Harvard College in 1670, and had
been pastor over the church In Salem Village
from 1680 to 1682. He had left there _, „
The Rev.
because of church feuds, in which George
he had the misfortune to belong to "™"^ '
the party hostile to Mrs. Ann Putnam and her
friends. He was afterwards settled over a
church in Wells, Maine, and was living there
quietly in 1692, when about the first of May he
was arrested and taken to Salem to answer a
charge of witchcraft. His physical strength was
alleged against him. Though small In frame he
could carry a barrel of cider and hold out a heavy
musket at arm's length, which without Infernal
aid was not likely. On accusations brought by
the afflicted girls he was thrown into prison.*
All the events thus far recounted happened
under the provisional government of Massa
chusetts that followed the overthrow of Andros.
Now in the middle of May the first royal
governor. Sir William Phips, arrived in Boston
with the new charter. Military duties The special
soon called him far down East, and ""^' "''""^
he did not return till October. Before his de
parture he appointed a special court of Oyer
and Terminer to try the witchcraft cases. Wil
liam Stoughton was presiding justice, and among
his colleagues it may suffice to mention John
Hathorne for his connection with one of the
1 [Cf. Nevins, Witchcraft in Salem Village, pp. 131 ff.]

170 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
most Illustrious names in modern literature, and
Samuel Sewall, in whose voluminous diary we
have such a wonderful picture of that old Puri
tan society.
Early in the proceedings this court requested
the opinion ofthe ministers In Boston and neigh
bouring towns concerning the subject then
uppermost in all minds. The opinion, written
by Cotton Mather, one of the youngest of
the ministers, and subscribed by all the most
eminent, was calm and judicial. It ran as fol
lows : — Boston, June 15, 1692.
I, "The afflicted state of our poor neigh
bours that are now suffering by molestations
The advice of from the Invisible World we appre-
the ministers jjgjjd SO dcplorablc, that we think
their condition calls for the utmost help of all
persons In their several capacities.
2. " We cannot but with all thankfulness ac
knowledge the success which the merciful God
has given unto the sedulous and assiduous en
deavours of our honourable rulers to detect the
abominable witchcrafts which have been com
mitted In the country ; humbly praying that the
discovery of these mysterious and mischievous
wickednesses may be perfected.
3. "We judge that, in the prosecution of
these and all such witchcrafts there is need of a
very critical and exquisite caution, lest by too

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 171
much credulity for things received only upon
the devil's authority, there be a door opened
for a long train of miserable consequences, and
Satan get an advantage over us ; for we should
not be ignorant of his devices.
4. " As in complaints upon witchcraft there
may be matters of inquiry which do not amount
unto matters of presumption, and there may be
matters of presumption which yet may not be
matters of conviction, so it is necessary that
all proceedings thereabout be managed with
an exceeding tenderness toward those that may
be complained of, especially if they have been
persons formerly of an unblemished reputation.
5. "When the first inquiry Is made into the
circumstances of such as may lie under the just
suspicion of witchcrafts, we could wish that
there may be admitted as little as possible of
such noise, company and openness as may too
hastily expose them that are examined, and that
there may be nothing used as a test for the trial
of the suspected, the lawfulness whereof may
be doubted by the people of God, but that the
directions given by such judicious writers as
Perkins and Barnard may be observed.
6. " Presumptions whereupon persons may
be committed, and much more, convictions
whereupon persons may be condemned as guilty
of witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more con
siderable than barely the accused persons being

172 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
represented by a spectre unto the afflicted, inas
much as it Is an undoubted and notorious thing,
that a demon may by God's permission appear,
even to ill purposes. In the shape of an inno
cent, yea, and a virtuous man. Nor can we
esteem alterations made in the sufferers, by a
look or touch of the accused, to be an infallible
evidence of guilt, but frequently liable to be
abused by the devil's legerdemains.
7. " We know not whether some remarkable
affronts given the devils, by our disbelieving
these testimonies whose whole force and strength
is from them alone, may not put a period unto
the progress of the dreadful calamity begun
upon us. In the accusation of so many persons,
whereof some, we hope, are yet clear from the
great transgression laid to their charge.
8. " Nevertheless, we cannot but humbly re
commend unto the government, the speedy and
vigorous prosecutions of such as have rendered
themselves obnoxious, according to the direc
tions given in the laws of God and the whole
some statutes of the English nation for the de
tection of witchcrafts."
Had these recommendations been followed,
not a single capital conviction could have been
secured. Note the warning to the judges against
relying upon " spectral evidence " or upon the
physical effects apparently wrought upon the
accusers by the presence of the accused persons.

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 173
since evidence of that sort is " frequently lia
ble to be abused by the devil's legerdemains."
Now every one of the victims was convicted
and hung upon the strength of " spectral evi
dence " or the tantrums of the afflicted chil
dren, or both combined. And what, pray, was
" spectral evidence " ? Little Ann Putnam's
testimony against Mr. Bvfrroughs was an in
stance of it. She \said that one evening the ap
parition of a minister came to her and asked
her to write her name In the devil's book ; then
came the forms of two women in spectral
winding sheets, and looked angrily science
upon the minister and scolded him till he was
fain to vanish away ; then the women told little
Ann that they were the ghosts of Mr. Bur-
roughs's first and second wives whom he had
murdered, and one of them showed the very
place under the left arm where he had stabbed
her. At another time three other persons who
had recently died appeared to Ann and accused
Mr. Burroughs of murdering them, and com
manded her to tell these things to the magis
trates before Mr. Burroughs's face. On such
evidence was a gentleman and scholar con
demned to death.* So when Mercy Lewis was
found sobbing and screaming, " Dear Lord,
receive my soul," " O Lord, let them not kill
1 [See Cotton Mather's account of Burroughs's case. Won
ders of the Invisible World, pp. 120 ff.]

174 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
me quite," the same Ann Putnam and Abigail
Williams were sent for to see what was the
matter, and both declared that they saw the
apparitions of Mary Easty and John Willard
pinching and biting and strangling poor Mercy
Lewis. On such evidence Mary Easty and
John Willard were sent to the gallows. With
such ghost stories did Mary Walcott and
Elizabeth Hubbard convict Rebecca Nurse of
three hideous murders, naming persons who had
died within a few years. When the astounded
old lady called upon God to witness her Inno
cence, the girls all went into fits. Nevertheless
it was hard to obtain a verdict against her.
An ancestor of mine (my great-grandfather's
great-great-grandfather). Dr. John Fisk, one
of the most eminent physicians In the colony,
then lived In Wenham, within four miles of
Mr. Parris's meeting-house. The family tradi
tion has it that he was sceptical about witchcraft.
His uncle, Thomas Fisk, was a firm believer in
The 'u witchcraft, but disapproved of spectral
acquit Re- evIdcncc. He was foreman of the
jury in the trial of Rebecca Nurse,
and the verdict was Not Guilty, whereat the
girls began screaming and rolling about as if all
Bedlam were let loose. The judges then told
the jury that they must have overlooked one
fact, — that in an unguarded moment the pris
oner had really confessed her guilt ! It seems

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 175
that one of the prisoners, Deliverance Hobbs,
had gone clean daft with fright, confessed her
self a witch, and joined the accusing girls as a
sort of king's evidence. When she was brought
in to testify against Rebecca Nurse, the old lady
exclaimed : " What ! do you bring ker ? She is
one of us." Of course she meant one of us pris
oners, but the atrabilious chief justice was sure
she meant one of us witches, and he _,
¦' _ ' The court
insisted that the jury should go out sends them
again. They were not convinced, but
presently returning to the court-room asked the
accused to explain what she meant. She made
no reply, and the jury at length reluctantly
accepted this silence as a confession of guilt.
Afterwards she explained that, being somewhat
" hard of hearing and full of grief," she did not
realize what was asked of her. She was sen
tenced none the less, and after being excom
municated from the church with elaborate cere
mony was taken to the gallows. Thomas Fisk,
the juryman who held out longest, made a writ
ten statement afterward in which he declared
that what finally overcame him was her sudden
silence at the critical moment. The whole
incident is a pretty clear case of judges brow
beating jury.*
1 [See Calef, New Wonders of the Invisible World, pp.
209-211 ; Nevins, Witchcraft in Salem Village, pp. 125—
I30-J

176 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
The case of Mary Easty, sister of Rebecca
Nurse, still further Illustrates the fierce persis
tency of the accusing girls and the complete-
The case of ness of the Influence which they exer-
Mary Easty clscd ovcr a large portion of the com
munity. Mary Easty had been arrested soon
after her sister, but had borne herself so well
upon examination that after two months' im
prisonment she was set free on May i8. Evi
dently, the accusing girls made up their minds
that it would not do to allow this sort of thing.
One day elapsed, during which they had plenty
of time to interchange messages with one an
other and with Mrs. Putnam. On the 20th,
at about nine o'clock in the morning, Mercy
Lewis, being at John Putnam's house, was sud
denly seized with the paroxysms above men
tioned. Let us observe the rapidity with which
the desired effects were produced. A neighbour
named Samuel Abbey was sent in all haste to
Thomas Putnam's house, to bring little Ann
to see what was the matter. The distance was
about a mile. He found Abigail Williams
with Ann, and brought the two girls back with
him. On the way, they both exclaimed that
they saw the apparition of Goody Easty afflict
ing Mercy Lewis. When they arrived upon
the scene, they found Mercy In convulsions,
apparently choked and strangled, and catching
for each breath as if it were the last. The two

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 177
girls exclaimed, " There are Goody Easty and
John Willard and Mary Whittredge afflicting
poor Mercy Lewis ! " After this had continued
for some time, a messenger was sent up to Cap
tain Jonathan Walcott's to get his daughter
Mary. The distance was a mile and a half. She
arrived about one o'clock, and Immediately cried
out that she saw the spectre of Mary Easty
standing over the patient and tightening a chain
about her neck. Presently a messenger was sent
to the house of Dr. Griggs, three and a half miles
distant, to get Elizabeth Hubbard, who upon
her arrival immediately saw Goody Easty, as she
said, torturing Mercy in a most dreadful man
ner. Occasionally Mercy would grow tired, but
as her convulsions ceased, Elizabeth Hubbard
would be seized with fits and would ask the
spectre why she had brought with her a coffin and
winding-sheet. By eight o'clock in the evening
the room was full of neighbours, who were so
impressed by the acting of the girl that some of
them were afterward ready to testify that they
saw the winding-sheet, the coffin, and the devil's
autograph book, and heard words uttered by
the spectre as well as by the girls. About eight
o'clock two messengers went to Salem town to
apply to Justice Hathorne for a warrant for the
arrest of Mary Easty. The distance was seven
miles. Hathorne at once issued the warrant,
which bears the date. May 20. The constable

178 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
went with it to the house of Isaac Easty, nine
miles ^stant, which he seems to have reached
Mary Easty about midnight. For two days poor
hlelT^" Mary had enjoyed her freedom, the
midnight comforts of homc, and the pleasure of
being once more with her husband and children.,
Now at midnight she was aroused from sleep,
carried off to prison, and put In irons, after which
the constable returned seven miles to John Put
nam's house to witness the performances of
Mercy Lewis until dawn. Mercy kept scream
ing, "What ! Have you brought me the wind
ing-sheet, Goodwife Easty ? Well, I had rather
go into the winding-sheet than set my hand to
the book." About daybreak she fell asleep,
but only for a short time ; her paroxysms were
not finished until Mary Easty had been exam
ined before Hathorne and finally committed to
prison early the next morning. Nothing could
show more forcibly than the events of that 20th
of May the extent to which the community was
dominated by the accusing girls. There is no
hint that among all the bystanders who watched
Mercy Lewis In the course of that day and night
there was one who ventured to express any
doubt as to the reality of the pretended appari
tions. Indeed, the slightest expression of any
Doubt such doubt would have been fraught
perilous ^jth peril to the doubter, and it is
most likely that none but willing believers made

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 179
bold to attend the scene. It only need be added
that after Mary Easty was finally committed
for trial and the news of it reached John Put
nam's house, the wretched Mercy Lewis at once
recovered, thus sealing the belief in the truth
of her story. From that moment it was a fore
gone conclusion that Goody Easty must die,
slain by the same degrading methods which
had achieved the destruction of her sister.
Further details ofthe trials seem unnecessary ;
it was but the same old story repeated. In all,
nineteen persons were hanged, one died of ill-
treatment In prison, and the old wretch Tituba
was sold into slavery to pay for her board in
prison. One often hears people allude to the
burning of witches in New England ; no per
sons were ever burned there by white people
for witchcraft. One cruel punishment, however,
was inflicted on this occasion for the only time
in American history. In old English law, in
cases working corruption of blood, the refusal
to plead either guilty or not guilty to peinefone
an indictment would prevent confisca- " ''"'¦'
tion of estates. Hence a prisoner would some
times refuse to plead, and In order to overcome
his obstinacy the law would stretch him on the
floor and pile weights upon his chest until the
breath was gradually squeezed from his body.
This was appropriately called the peine forte et
dure. Now Giles Corey was arrested for witch-

180 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
craft in April. His wife, who had been in jail
since March, was sentenced to death on Septem
ber IO, and his own trial came two or three
days later. The knowledge that thoughtless
words of his, uttered in jest, had been used
against his wife had broken his heart, but not
his will of iron. This man, who In all his eighty
years had never known the meaning of fear, ex
pected nothing but death, and probably wished
for nothing better, but he had made up his
mind to leave his property where he pleased,
and baulk his enemies of at least one gratiflca-
tion. So he stood mute before the court until
he was taken out and pressed to death. Nothing
could quell that Indomitable spirit. Three days
later, on September 22, his good wife and seven
companions were taken to the gallows. One of
the most busy witch-hunters, ever since the
The Rev. affair began, had been Rev. Nicholas
Mr. Noyes Noyes, pastor of the First Church in
Salem town. Such meagre pity as his soul found
room for was expressed when he pointed to the
swinging bodies and exclaimed, " What a sad
thing It is to see eight firebrands of hell hang
ing there ! " * Some weeks before, this truculent
Mr. Noyes had been present at the execution
of Sarah Good, and just before she was turned
off he said to her, " You are a witch, and you
know you are ! " The spirited answer of the
1 [Calef, p. 2 2 1. J

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 181
dying woman is refreshing to read : " You are a
liar ! I am no more a witch than you are a wiz
ard, and If you take away my life, God will give
you blood to drink ! " *
In strong contrast with this were the dying
words of that noble Christian woman, Mary
Easty : —
" The humble petition of Mary Easty unto
his Excellency, Sir William Phips, and to the
Honoured Tudge and Bench now sit- „,
i ° . The petition
ting in Judicature in Salem, and the of Mary
Reverend Ministers, humbly show- ^^^"^
eth, that, whereas your poor and humble peti
tioner, being condemned to die, do humbly beg
of you to take It in your judicious and pious
consideration, that your poor and humble pe
titioner, knowing my own innocency, blessed
be the Lord for it ! and seeing plainly the wiles
and subtilty of my accusers by myself, cannot
but judge charitably of others that are going
the same way of myself. If the Lord steps not
mightily in. I was confined a whole month
upon the same account that I am condemned
now for, and then cleared by the afflicted per
sons, as some of Your Honours know. And In
two days' time I was cried out upon [by] them,
and have been confined, and now am condemned
to die. The Lord above knows my innocency
then, and likewise does now, as at the great day
* [Calef, p. 209.]

182 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
will be known to men and angels. I petition not
to Your Honours for my own life, for I know I
must die, and my appointed time is set ; but the
Lord he knows it is that, if it be possible, no
more innocent blood may be shed, which un
doubtedly cannot be avoided in the
Her warning , . , .
way and course you go in. 1 question
not but Your Honours do to the utmost of your
powers In the discovery and detecting of witch
craft and witches, and would not be guilty of
innocent blood for the world. But, by my own
innocency, I know you are in the wrong way.
The Lord in his Infinite mercy direct you in this
great work, if It be his blessed will that no more
innocent blood be shed ! I would humbly beg
of you, that Your Honours would be pleased
to examine these afflicted persons strictly, and
keep them apart some time, and likewise to try
some of these confessing witches ; I being con
fident there is several of them has belled them
selves and others, as will appear, if not in this
world, I am sure in the world to come, whither
I am now agoing. I question not but you will
see an alteration of these things. They say my
self and others having made a league with the
Devil, we cannot confess. I know, and the
Lord knows, as will [shortly] appear, they belie
me, and so I question not but they do others.
The Lord above, who is the Searcher of all
hearts, knows, as I shall answer it at the tri-

WITCHCR.4.FT IN SALEM VILLAGE 183
bunal seat, that I know not the least thing of
witchcraft ; therefore I cannot, I dare not, belie
my own soul. I beg Your Honours not to deny
this my humble petition from a poor, dying,
innocent person. And I question not but the
Lord will give a blessing to your endeavours." *
The execution of Mary Easty, Martha Corey,
and their six companions was the last scene in
the tragedy. Further trials were held, but there
were no more executions, and early in 1693 all
the prisoners were set free. As to the „ ,,
r 1 • -1 Sudden col-
cause of this sudden collapse in the lapse of the
frenzy we m ay say that it came, as such '^'^ ^
collapses always come, when humanity has been
outraged more than it will bear. Why did the
guillotine stop its work in 1794 just after the
fall of Robespierre ? The men who overthrew
him were not much better than himself, but the
state of things had come to be unendurable.
Such periods of furious excitement 'inevitably
lead up to a moment of reaction, and the sudden
ness and completeness of the reaction is apt to
be proportionate to the Intensity and ferocity
of the excitement. The reign of terror in Salem
Village was due to a temporary destruction
of confidence ; everybody became afraid of his
neighbours, and there is nothing so pitiless as
1 [Upham, ii. 328, 329 ; Calef, pp. 219, 220. There are
sHght differences in the two texts. The two insertions in
brackets are from Calef 's text.]

184 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
fear. But many long ages of social discipline
Reaction fol- ^^^^'^ upon mutual confidcncc, wlthout
lows the in- whIch human society could not exist,
ense s ram }^^yg made that Sentiment so strong
and tough that It cannot be suppressed for more
than a short time. The feeling with which people
endured the sight of Rebecca Nurse and George
Burroughs and Martha Corey hanged like com
mon felons was a feeling of tension that must
soon give way. The accusing girls did not ap
preciate this point ; they became overweeningly
bold and aimed too high. Increase Mather,
President of Harvard College, had expressed his
disapproval of the methods of the court, and a
member of his family was accused. Then the
girls cried out against Rev. Samuel Willard,
pastor of the Old South Church In Boston, a
man of as much eminence in his day as the late
The accusers PhUlIps Brooks. They even assailed
aim too high Lady Phips, the governor's wife, who
condemned their proceedings and expressed
sympathy with the victims. In these instances
the girls struck too high. The same Stoughton
and Hathorne, who could take for granted the
guilt of Martha Corey, could entertain no such
thoughts about Mr. Willard, and when some
of the girls mentioned his name they were
sharply rebuked and told to hold their tongues.
Their final and most fatal mistake was made In
October, when they accused Mrs. Hale, wife of

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 185
the minister in Beverly, a lady known through
out the colony for her noble Christian character.
The vile accusation opened the eyes of her hus
band, who had been active in the pursuit of the
witches. He instantly faced about, began to op
pose the whole prosecution, and confessed that
he had been deceived. This was a fatal blow to
the witch-hunters, and the effect was presently
enhanced when some high-spirited persons in
Andover, on being accused of witch- Accusers
craft, retorted by bringing an action with^^suit
for defamation of character with heavy ^'"' ¦'^¦"ag's
damages. This marked the end of the panic,
and from that time people began to be quick in
throwing off the whole witchcraft delusion.
Another circumstance is worthy of notice in
this connection. About three weeks after the
execution of Martha Corey and her companions
the General Court of Massachusetts was assem
bled at Boston. It was different from any Gen
eral Court that had sat before, for It was the
first Court elected under the new charter. Un
der the old charter none but church members
could either serve as representatives or vote for
representatives.* Under the new charter such
restrictions were abolished and a property quali
fication was substituted for them. The effect
^ [This was modified in 1664, in response to the king's
command, so as to extend the suffrage to all respectable citi
zens of orthodox opinions.]

186 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
was not only greatly to widen the suffrage, but
The Court also to sccularlze it. One of the first
of Oyer and ^^.^g gf thc ncw leglskturc was to abol-
Terminer ^ _ ^
aboUshed ish the spccIal court of Oyer and Ter
miner under which the witchcraft trials had been
held, and to establish a superior court. When
the new court met in January, the change was
visible. The grand jury began by throwing out
more than half of the Indictments.* In the mean
time a tract published by Increase Mather, en
titled " Cases of Conscience," ^ had done much
to cast discredit upon spectral evidence. As for
Cotton Cotton Mather, he had not been pre-
Mather sgjj|- ^t any of the witch trials, nor
do we know of any comment which he made
upon them at the time, except that Calef tells
us that at the execution of Mr. Burroughs young
Mather was present on horseback, having, per
haps, ridden down from Boston for the occasion.
Calef says the spectators were so impressed with
Burroughs's Innocence of demeanour that Cot
ton Mather felt it necessary to tell them that the
devil might take on the semblance of a saint or
an angel ; and that thereupon, the people being
appeased, the executions went on. Now Calef
has so often been convicted of Inaccuracy that
^ [See Sir William Phips' s report to the home government
of his policy in regard to the troubles. Palfrey, iv. 112, 113.]
' [This occupies pp. 220-291 of the London reprint of
the Wonders of the Invisible World.'\

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 187
his Statement here Is open to suspicion. The
argument that Satan might assume the appear
ance of some person of known innocence or ex
cellence was a favourite one with Cotton Mather
when he was inveighing against spectral evi
dence. As applied to the alleged testimony of
the two deceased wives of Mr. Burroughs, it
had a peculiarly Matherian meaning ; it meant
that instead of the first and second Mrs. Bur
roughs, it was the devil who was talking to little
Ann Putnam, so that therefore the unfortunate
minister was condemned upon the devil's evi
dence. As ordinarily understood, in ^ , .
TV /r -n 11- 1 r Explanation
the sense that Mr. Burroughs himself of Mather's
was an impersonation of the devil, the *^^"
remark ascribed by Calef to Mather does not
fit in with his habits of expression and has no
point. Apart from this misconstruction, there
is nothing in the records to set off against the
weighty evidence of Mather's own rules of pro
cedure, which were in themselves the strongest
condemnation the court could have had. Long
fellow's picture of Mather in his tragedy of
Giles Corey seems absolutely justified, except
In one trifling particular, when he makes him say
to Mary Walcott, " Accept an old man's bless
ing," which from a spruce young minister of
twenty-nine is, no doubt, a slight anachronism.
The reign of terror we have been describing
was the expiring paroxysm of the witchcraft

188 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
delusion. In the energy of the reaction scep
tics declared themselves In all quarters. How
Judge Sew- Judge Scwall, only five years after-
aU'spubUc ward, got up in the Old South
mentTf' Church and publicly acknowledged
wrong j^jg shame and repentance is known
to every one. Not all the court were so open
to conviction. Stoughton, who was at best
a narrow-minded and cross-grained creature,
maintained to his dying day that he had done
nothing to be sorry for. Of the wretched chil
dren, one of the most active, Ann
Ann Put- r, r r i
nam's con- Putnam, fourtecn years afterward,
''''''°" humbled herself before the village
church at Salem and declared that she had
been Instrumental, with others, in bringing
upon the land the guilt of innocent blood ;
" though what was said or done by me against
any person, I can truly and uprightly say be
fore God and man, I did it not out of any
anger, malice, or ill-will to any person, for I
had no such thing against one of them, but
what I did was ignorantly, being deluded of
Satan. And particularly as I was a chief in
strument of accusing Goodwife Nurse and her
two sisters, I desire to lie in the dust and to
be humbled for it. In that I was a cause, with
others, of so sad a calamity to them and their
famines." *
* [Nevins, Witchcraft in Salem Village, p. 250.]

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 189
I think we should accept this solemn dis
claimer of mahce as sufficient evidence that In
1706 the poor girl did not believe herself to
have been actuated by unworthy motives in
1692. By declaring herself to have been de
luded by Satan she meant that when she accused
Rebecca Nurse and George Burroughs and
others she said what she believed to be true at
the time, but had since learned to reject as false.
In other words, when a little girl of twelve, she
believed that she had seen the ghosts of Mr.
Burroughs's wives and other persons who said
that they had been murdered, but as a young
woman of six and twenty she looked back upon
this as a delusion, and charged it to Satan. This
brings us to the question. Are we justified in
accepting this explanation of Ann Put- were the
nam as to her own conduct, and shall J^j'^si'efor
we suppose the case to have been sub- shamming .'
stantially the same with the other girls ? Did
they really have visions of ghosts and black
men and yellow birds and devil's autograph
books, or was it all a lie ? Did they really fall
into convulsions, and fancy themselves pricked
with pins, and cut and bitten, or was all that put
on for effect? In his elaborate history Mr. Up
ham seems to incline toward the latter view.
Certainly the fits came and went, and the ghost
stories were told, as If to order, and certainly
there was methodical cooperation of some sort.

190 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
if not collusion, between most if not all the
Evidences of glfls, and Ann Putnam's mother and
collusion jj^g minister Parris. There can be no
doubt as to such cooperation. They all worked
together as harmoniously and relentlessly as the
cog-wheels In a machine. Of the victims from
Salem Village and the towns near by, a large
majority were persons against whom either the
Putnam family, or the minister, or some of the
afflicted girls, are known to have entertained a
grudge ; others were sceptics whose scoffing re
marks were liable to weaken the authority ofthe
accusers. When we have eliminated these two
classes, very few names are left. Like the tracks
of various beasts which Master Reynard saw,
all pointing toward the lion's cave and none
coming out from It, the traces of evidence here
all point in the same direction, — all point
toward methodical cooperation between the
accusers. The question remains, however, was this co
operation a case of conscious and deliberate con
spiracy, or must we seek some other explana
tion ? The theory of conspiracy, toward which
Mr. Upham seems inclined, offers us a spectacle
of astounding wickedness. We are asked to
believe that a minister of the gospel and a lady
of high position in the community make up
their minds to destroy their enemies, and for
that purpose employ young girls in their fami-

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 191
lies to pretend Illness and bring false accusations
conceived and supported with all the ^^^ ^^^^
skill of trained actresses ! Such a con- a deliberate
spiracy is much too diabolical and ""^P"'^'^y-
altogether too elaborate for belief. Moreover,
It leaves out of account the most important fact
In the whole case, — the fact that the accusers,
like nearly all the rest of the community, un
questionably believed in the reality of witchcraft.
It will not do to invest those poor girls with
a nineteenth century consciousness. The same
delusion that conquered learned magistrates led
them also astray. Still more, they were doubt
less In a morbid mental condition. A „Contagion
large part of Indian medicine consists of hysterical
fi • 1 , emotion
convulsive muscular movements,
twitching, capering, and groaning, accompanied
by an awestruck belief In the presence of some
supernatural agency. Such convulsive move
ments tend to prolong themselves, to recur with
spasmodic violence, and they are in a high de
gree contagious. Abundant instances may be
found among the experiences of revival meet
ings, where multitudes of ignorant minds are
at work after much the same fashion as the
Indian's, though in connection with different
religious symbols. This kind of hysterical ex
citement selects for its victims impressionable
people with sensitive nerves ; it attacks children
more frequently than adults, and women more

192 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
frequently than men ; vivacious and quickly
„ , , responsive temperaments are more
Psychology r _ r
of haUucina- subjcct to It than those that are phleg
matic and slow. Under suitable cir
cumstances it easily develops Into a thoroughly
morbid mental state, in which convulsive move
ments are attended by partial and temporary
hallucinations ; the nervous impressions be
come so vivid that ideas are clothed with ex
ternality and mistaken for realities. Such are
the characteristics of hysteria and allied forms
of mental disturbance, which differ from true
insanity in being merely temporary and func
tional, and not connected with any organic
lesion. They are very striking phenomena, and
often very shocking, but not more mysterious
than many other phases of abnormal mental
life. It was not strange that an ignorant age
should have called them the result of witchcraft ;
that same age, we must remember, regarded
ordinary insanity as the direct work of the
devil. Applying these considerations to the case of
the Salem girls, we may suppose that the min
ister's West Indian servants began by talking
Indian medicine and teaching its tricks to his
daughter and niece ; then the girls of their ac
quaintance would naturally become interested,
and would seek to relieve the monotony of the
winter evenings by taking part In the perform-

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 193
ances. Their first motives are most likely to
have been playful, but there was prob- paying
ably a half-shuddering sense of wick- ^'''^ ^"^
edness, a slight aroma of brimstone, about the
affair, which may have made it the more attrac
tive. I feel sure that sooner or later some of
those girls would find themselves losing control
over their spasms, and thus, getting more than
they had bargained for, would deem themselves
bewitched by Tituba and John Indian. But,
especially If they found themselves taken to task
by their parents, the dread of punishment —
perhaps of church discipline, wherein Parris was
notably severe — would be sure to make them
blame the Indians In order to screen themselves.
If Cotton Mather's methods had now been fol
lowed, the affair would have been hushed, and
the girls Isolated from each other would have
been subjected to quiet and sooth- The evils of
ing treatment; and thus no doubt it P""'"fyi°
o ' the examina-
would all have ended. But when Par- tions
ris made the affair as public as possible, when
learned doctors of divinity and medicine came
and watched those girls, and declared them be
witched, what more was needed to convince
their young minds that they were really In that
dreadful plight ? Such a belief must of course
have added to their hysterical condition. Nat
urally they accused Tituba, and as for the two
old women. Good and Osburn, very likely some

194 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of the girls may really have been afraid of them
as evil-eyed or otherwise uncanny.
For the rest of the story a guiding influence
Is needed, and I think we may find It in Mrs.
Putnam. She was one of the Carrs of Salis
bury, a family which for several generations had
been known as extremely nervous and exclt-
Expianation able. There had been cases of in-
of Mrs. Put- sanity among her near relatives. The
nam's part (^gaths of somc of her own children
and of a beloved sister, with other distressing
events, had clouded her mind. She had once
been the most sparkling and brilliant of wo
men, but was sinking into melancholia at the
time when the first stories of witchcraft came
from the parsonage and she learned that her
little daughter Ann, a precocious and imagina
tive child, was one of the afflicted. Mrs. Put
nam and her husband were both firm believers
in witchcraft. I do not think it strange that
her diseased mind should have conjured up
horrible fancies about Goodwife Nurse, mem
ber of a family which she probably hated all the
more bitterly for the high esteem in which it
was generally held. Mrs. Putnam fell Into vio
lent hysterical fits like her daughter, and their
bright and active servant Mercy Lewis was af
flicted likewise. These three, with the min
ister's niece Abigail Williams and her friend
Mary Walcott, were the most aggressive and

WITCHCRAFT IN SALEM VILLAGE 195
driving agents in the whole tragedy. I presume
Mrs. Putnam may have exercised she exercised
something like what it is now fashion- tToverX"
able to call hypnotic influence over the children
young girls. She honestly believed that witches
were hurting them all, and she naturally sus
pected foes rather than friends. I see no good
reason for doubting that she fully believed her
own ghost stories, or that the children believed
theirs. In their exalted state of mind they could
not distinguish between what they really saw
and what they vividly fancied. It was analogous
to what often occurs In delirium.
Such an explanation of the witchcraft in
Salem Village accounts for the facts much bet
ter than any such violent supposition as that
of conscious conspiracy. Our fit attitude of
mind toward It Is pity for all concerned, yet the
feelings of horror and disgust are quite legiti
mate, for the course of the affair was practically
the same as if It had been shaped by deliberate
and conscious malice. It Is on the whole the
most gruesome episode In American history^
and it sheds back a lurid light upon the long
tale of witchcraft in the past. Few Instances of
the delusion have attracted so much attention
as this at Salem, and few have had the details
so fully and minutely preserved. It was the
last witch epidemic recorded in the history
of fully civilized nations. It occurred among

196 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
people of our own sort, and the sixth generation,
born since it happened, has not yet passed
away. It came just as the superstition which
produced it was about to die out from the
thoughts of educated men, and there is no
monument more conspicuous than the Salem
Witchcraft to mark the remote and fast reced
ing side ofthe gulf which the human mind has
traversed in these two centuries. For these
reasons it looms up in our memory, and Is
sometimes alluded to as if it were in some way
a singular or exceptional Instance of supersti
tion. Yet in Europe, only a few years earlier,
the hanging of nineteen persons for witchcraft
in a single village and in the course of a single
summer would have called forth no special
comment. The case of Salem Village may help
us In the attempt to form some dim conception
of the stupendous wickedness that must have
been wrought by the terrible delusion In the
The case of days of Its stalwart prime, when vlc-
Saiem vu- tlms by the hundred were burned at
to^reaiize the the Stake. We cau but faintly im-
terrors ofthe ^gluc what must havc bccn the de-
witchcraft " . -
delusion in structlou of confidcncc, the breaking
^ ^^^' of the dearest ties, the madness, the
reign of savage terror ; and we cannot be too
grateful that the gaunt spectre which stalked so
long over the fairest parts of earth has at length
been exorcised forever !

VI
THE GREAT AWAKENING
ONE of the effects of the witchcraft epi
demic at Salem was to cast discredit
upon the clergy, who still represented
the old theocratic Ideal which had founded the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is true,
that with regard to the prosecutions of witches,
the more eminent among the clergy had behaved
with much wisdom and discretion ; nevertheless,
the new public opinion, receiving its The reaction
tone far more from laymen than for- ^Jitdicraft
merly, was Inclined to charge this whole delusion
business of diabolism to the account of the men
who represented an old and discredited state of
things. With regard to the reality of witchcraft.
Cotton Mather had been foremost among the
defenders of the belief, and now that there came
a sudden and violent reaction against the super
stition, it made little difference to people that
he had been remarkably discreet and temperate
in his handling of the matter ; It was enough
that he had been a believer and prominent ad
vocate. To some extent Cotton Mather was
made the chief butt of popular resentment be-

198 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
cause he and his father especially typified the
old theocratic state of things.
Now the old Puritan theocracy in the early
days when Winthrop and Cotton led it had
framed for itself an ideal of society that was at
least lofty and noble, although from the first
there were settlers who dissented from it. The
defensive wall behind which the theocracy
sought to shelter itself from all hostile attack
was the restriction of the rights to vote and
hold office to members of the Congregational
churches In full communion. One of the first
effects of this policy was to drive away from
Massachusetts the men who founded Con
necticut* and some of those who founded
Rhode Island; but after such depletions there
was a considerable number left In Massachusetts
who were disfranchised, and who would have
been glad In many respects to secularize the
government. In the second period ofthe theo-
Rise of secu- cracy, wIth Endicott, Bellingham, and
tot^eAlt" Norton at the head, the opposition
"acy had become very strong ; Indeed, it
numbered a majority of the population. When
the Quakers arrived upon the scene, determined
to stay In the Commonwealth at all hazards
and thus destroy Its character as a united body
of behevers, there Is little doubt that a majority
^ [Fiske, The Beginnings of New England, pp. 123,
249.]

THE GREAT AWAKENING 199
of the people sympathized with them.* The
violent policy pursued by magistrates and min
isters soon failed because the force of a new and
growing public opinion was arrayed against It.
During the reign of Charles II. the course of
the theocracy. In spite of its narrowness and ar
rogance, commands our admiration for the bold
ness with which it resisted all attempts of the
British government to interfere with the local
administration of the colony. There can be no
doubt that the Massachusetts theocracy then
made a splendid fight for the principles of po
litical freedom, so far as they concerned the re
lation between a colonial and imperial govern
ment. At the same time, the theocracy at home
was felt as more and more oppressive. By the
time of the death of Charles II. It was reckoned
that four fifths of the adult males In Massachu
setts were disfranchised because of inability to
participate In the Lord's Supper. It is not
strange, therefore, that between the one fifth who
ruled, and the four fifths who had no voice in
ruling, there should have been marked differ
ences of pohcy accompanied with a good deal
of Ill-feeling.
1 [On the Quakers in Massachusetts, cf. Fiske, The Be
ginnings of New England, pp. 179 ff. ; Doyle, The English
in America, The Puritan Colonies, ii. 126 ff. ; and R. P.
Hallo well. The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts. '\

200 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
In view of such difficulties which began to be
foreseen soon after 1650, an opinion grew up
that all baptized persons of upright and deco
rous lives ought to be considered, for practical
purposes, as members of the church, and there
fore entitled to the exercise of political rights,
even though unqualified for participation in
the Lord's Supper. This theory, according to
which a person might be a halfway member of
the church, — member enough for
way Gov- polItlcal purposcs, but not for reli-
^"""^ gious, — was known at the time as the
" Halfway Covenant."* It formed the occasion
for prolonged and bitter controversy, in which
prominent clergymen took opposite sides. It
was contended by some that its natural ten
dency would be toward the spiritual demorali
zation of the church, while others denied that
such would be Its practical effect, and pointed
to the lamentable severance between ecclesias
tics and laymen as a much greater evil. In the
^ [Cf. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in its Litera
ture, pp. 467 ff. ; Walker, History of Congregational Churches,
pp. 170 ff. J Trumbull, History of Connecticut, i. 296 ff.;
Palfrey, History of New England, ii. 487 ff. ; Doyle, The
English in America, The Puritan Colonies, ii. 96 ; Bancroft,
History of the United States (author's last revision), i. 360 ;
Massachusetts Colonial Records, vol. iv. pt. ii. pp. 1 1 7 and
164. Dr. Dexter, p. 476, gives two specimen "Halfway
Covenants."]

THE GREAT AWAKENING 201
First Church of Boston, the Halfway Covenant
was decisively condemned, and the Rev. John
Davenport, a theocrat of extreme type, was
called from New Haven to be its pastor. Then
the minority in the church, who approved of the
Halfway Covenant, seceded in 1669 and formed
themselves into a new society known The South
as the South Church, further defined church
in later days as the " Old South." The wooden
meeting-house of this society, which occupied
the spot of land upon which its brick successor
still stands to-day, was a favourite place for meet
ings which dealt with political questions, and in
a certain sense Its founding may be regarded as
a kind of political safety valve for the agitation
in Massachusetts.*
In spite of such palliatives, however, the op
position grew, and it was apt to take the form
of political Toryism, or a disposition to uphold
the British government in Its contests with the
theocracy. From this point of view, „,
J T U T-. J1 A Theopposi-
we may regard J oseph Dudley and tion to the
his friends as the founders of New JayTthefoun-
England Toryism. Boston was be- Nation of
°. , - . , Toryism
coming a place or some commercial
note, sustaining business relations with various
parts of the world. Among Its residents were
'^ [Mr. Fiske writes a Kttle more fully of this movement
in The Beginnings of New England, pp. 314 ff.]

202 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
members of the Church of England, who de
sired a place of worship for themselves, and
naturally felt Indignant that nothing of the sort
was allowed to be provided.
Such was the state of affairs when the old
charter was rescinded, and Sir Edmund Andros
was sent by James II. to govern New England
according to his own sweet will, without any
constitutional checks or limitations. The rule
of Andros produced for the moment something
approaching to unanimity of opposition, for
there were few men in Massachusetts ready to
surrender the charter of their liberties, although
there were many who would be glad to see It
modified. After the well-planned and fortunate
insurrection which expelled Andros, the repre
sentatives of the theocracy, and in particular
Increase Mather, made every effort to obtain
from William III. a charter essentially similar
to the old one. In this they were completely
The new defeated. The new charter, with Its
MassIciTu- substitution of a royal governor for a
setts governor elected by church members,
dealt a serious blow at the Independence of the
Commonwealth. At the same time the wide
extension of the suffrage, and its limitation only
by a property qualification, was equivalent to the
death-blow ofthe old theocracy. Itwas a revo
lution, the severity of which for the clergy was
but slightly disguised by the appointment of

THE GREAT AWAKENING 203
Mather's candidate. Sir William Phips, to be
the first royal governor.*
Five years after the new charter had gone
into operation, an event occurred which illus
trated most strikingly the decline in the power
of the clergy. Increase Mather had been for
many years minister of the North Church in
Boston, and in 1685 was appointed president of
Harvard, but continued to live In Boston. Dur
ing the Andros interval he was occupied in pro
tecting the interests of the colony in London.
Thus the management of affairs at Harvard
was left chiefly in the hands of William Brattle
and John Leverett, who both belonged to the
extreme liberal wing of the clergy ; for the influ
ences which were raising up a crop of freethink
ers for the eighteenth century in England were
not entirely without effect In the English colo
nies. Under the influence of Brattle and Lev
erett, grew up Benjamin Colman, who took his
master's degree at Harvard In 1695, and then
went to England, where he was settled, over a
congregation at Bath. The group of liberals in
Boston was steadily increasing in number, and
one of their leaders was Thomas Brattle, trea
surer of Harvard, a wealthy merchant whose
leisure hours were more or less devoted to
astronomy and physics. He was the author of
several papers on lunar eclipses and of an able
1 [On the new charter, see Palfrey, iv. 76.]

204 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
criticism of the witchcraft delusion. In 1698
Thomas Brattle conveyed to a body of trustees
The Brattle the land upon which a new meeting-
fmnded housc was to be built, and in the fol-
1698 lowing year an invitation was sent to
Benjamin Colman to become the pastor of the
new Brattle Church. Upon Colman's arrival In
Boston, his church issued a manifesto In which
two startling novelties were announced. It had
been the custom to require from all candidates
for admission to the Lord's Supper not only a
general subscription to the Westminster creed,
but also a relation of personal experiences, which
in order to insure their admission must be
satisfactory to the presiding clergy. The new
church announced that it would dispense with
such personal experiences, requiring merely a
Relaxation formal subscrlptlon to the Westmin-
of member stcr crccd. It had also bccn customary
ship to confine the choice of a minister to
the male communicants alone ; the new church
proposed to allow all members of the congre
gation who contributed money toward the sup
port ofthe church to have votes In the election
of ministers. It is hardly necessary to point out
the far-reaching character of these provisions In
allowing a wholesome opportunity for variations
in individual opinion to creep into the church.
A body of ministers elected only by communi
cants, and able to exclude all communicants save

THE GREAT AWAKENING 205
such as could satisfy them in a relation of per
sonal experiences, was naturally able to exert a
very powerful influence in repressing individual
divergences. The Mathers were quite right in
thinking that the Brattles and their friends
aimed a blow at the vitals of the church. On
the 5th of January, J^'^, Cotton Mather writes
in his diary : " I see Satan beginning a terrible
shake In the churches of New England, and
the innovators that have set up a new church
in Boston (a new one, indeed !) have ^^^^^^
made a day of temptation among us. Mather's
The men are ignorant, arrogant, ob- ^"^
stinate, and full of malice and slander, and they
fill the land with lies. . . . Wherefore I set
apart this day again for prayer In my study, to
cry mightily unto God." *
It was indeed probable that should the new
Brattle Church succeed In obtaining recognition
as a Congregational church In good standing.
It would create a precedent for latltudlnarlanism
which might be pushed to almost any extent,
and yet there was no available method of pre
venting it. Under the old theocracy, that clause
ofthe Cambridge Platform would have been suf
ficient which enjoined It upon the magistrates to
suppress heresy. Had the old state of things
continued in 1699, there can be httle doubt
that Leverett, Colman, and the two Brattles
* [See Quincy's Hist, of Harvard University, i. 487.]

206 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
would either have been expelled from the
Commonwealth or heavily fined, as had been
The theo- the casc wlth William Vassall, Robert
undJrS'''' Child, and their companions. But the
new charter Cambridge Pktform had fallen with
the fall of the old charter; and although Increase
Mather had endeavoured to obtain a provision
substantially replacing it. King William, who was
no friend to theocracies, would not hear of such
a thing. The Mathers were therefore reduced to
the expedient of declining to exchange pulpits
with the new pastor ; this refusal of eccleslasti-
^, cal courtesies was all that was left for
The new
church finaUy them, and from the theocratic point
recognize ^^ vIcw onc caunot wondcr if they
thought that in some essential respects the world
was coming to an end. In the course of the
following year a kind of peace was patched up
between the party of the Brattles and that of
the Mathers, and blessings were interchanged ;
but as we look back upon the affair we can see
that the theocracy had received a fatal blow.
The Increasing power of the liberals was dis
played about the same time In what went on
at Harvard College. The charter of 1650, by
which the Company of Massachusetts Bay had
incorporated that institution, was generally re
garded as having lost its vahdity when the char
ter of the company was repealed ; and although
things went on about as usual at the college, it

THE GREAT AWAKENING 207
was felt that things stood upon a precarious foot
ing. But to obtain a new charter which would
be satisfactory to the theocrats was no The effort to
easy matter, for any such charter must fhlrt^r^for
either exclude or allow the exclusion Harvard
from the teaching body of all persons not in
communion with the Congregational church,
and King William would never consent to the
exclusion of Episcopalians. It will be remem
bered that one of the chief sources of conten
tion between Charles II. and the government of
Boston had been the repressive policy pursued
by the latter toward members of the Church of
England. King William felt, both as an advo
cate of liberalism and as the representative of
imperial authority, that no concessions could
be allowed to the theocracy on this point. In
1699 the party of the Mathers introduced a bill
into the General Court, providing for a reli
gious test in Harvard College, the substance
of which was, " that in the charter for the col
lege, our holy religion may be secured to us
and unto our posterity, by a provision that no
person shall be chosen president or fellow of the
college, but such as declare their adherence unto
the principles of reformation which were es
poused and Intended by those who first settled
the country . . . and have hitherto been the
general professions of New England." This
bill passed both houses, but, fortunately, was

208 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
vetoed by the royal governor. Lord Bellomont.
Meanwhile, the discontent in Cambridge arls-
Governor *"S from President Mather's non-re-
BeUomont sldeucc had been increasing. That
vetoes a test .... . r ^
act for col- worthy divine seems to have felt
lege officers niorc attachment to his church in Bos
ton than toward the college,* After a while the
Rev. Samuel Willard of the Old South was ap
pointed vice-president of the college, but he,
too, seems to have preferred the duties of pastor
to those of administering a college, and his ab
senteeism attracted comment as well as Mather's.
I think, however, that the true explanation of
Mather's difficulty with the college lies deeper.
„. r... There can be no doubt that between
Rise of Uber-
aiismin the 1 685 and 1700 the Intellectual atmos-
'^° ^^^ phere of the college was rapidly be
coming more and more liberal. Leverett and
the Brattles were the ruling spirits, and the
events of each passing year made Mather more
and more uncongenial to them ; whereas, Wil
lard was both in character and in turn of thought
more to their mind. It Is not strange, there
fore, that we find Mather's non-residence com
plained of, while the same fault in Willard is
but lightly noticed. After a while Mather sig
nified that if the General Court were not satis
fied with his conduct, it might perhaps be well
for them to choose another president. To his
^ [SewaU's Diary, i. 49 3.]

THE GREAT AWAKENING 209
Intense chagrin, he was taken at his word, and
in September, 1701, the dignity and President
duties of the president were trans- Mathe^
ferred to Willard, who, however, re- displaced
tained the title of vice-president, thus somewhat
softening the blow. A couple of entries in Judge
SewaU's diary are rather amusing In this connec
tion. Sewall was a member of the court which
had just wrought this change in the presidency.
The first entry Is : " Mr. Cotton Mather came
to Mr. Wllklns's shop, and there talked very
sharply against me as if I had used his father
worse than a neger ; spake so loud that people
in the street might hear him. ... I had read
In the morning Mr. Dod's saying : Sanctified
afflictions are good promotions. I found it
now a cordial." Then follows a memorandum :
" Ocf 9. I sent Mr. Increase Mather a hanch
of very good venison ; I hope in that I did not
treat him as a negro." * As for Cotton Mather,
he hoped to be chosen president of ^^^^^^
Harvard when Willard should die or Mather's
resign, but he did not read correctly '" '^"^"°"
the signs of the times, nor did he play his part
with skill ; for he chose the part of sulking, and
went so long without attending the meetings of
the corporation, of which he was a member, that
people spoke of his having abdicated his office.^
1 [SewaU's Diary, ii. 43, October 20, 1701.]
* [See Quincy's Hist, of Harvard University, i. 151. J

210 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
In 1702 Joseph Dudley, who had been In Eng
land ever since the Andros days and had just
been appointed to succeed Lord Bellomont as
governor of Massachusetts, arrived In Boston.
Governor The enmity between Dudley and the
Dudley Mathers was of long standing, and
may be said to have had its origin in the very
roots of things. Between the representatives of
the old theocracy and the subtle founder of
Toryism there could be no love lost at any time ;
on the other hand, by that very law of selection
which was apt to bring together revolters against
the theocracy, whether for religious or political
reasons, a strong alliance grew up between Dud
ley and Leverett. When Willard died, In Sep
tember, 1707, the corporation at once chose
Leverett as his successor. At his instigation
a resolution was introduced into the General
„, Court declaring that the charter of
The new .^.. , ^
charter for 1650 was Still in forcc ; or rather, ctt-
s"bs7andaire- actlng^ charter which In Its essential
enactment of provIsIons was Identical with the old
that of 1650 .
one. 1 nis charter was at once signed
by Governor Dudley. The English Privy Coun
cil might still have overturned it, but they
never did, so after the vicissitudes of the great
revolution through which Massachusetts had
passed. Harvard College started quietly upon
a new chapter in her career, with her hands tied

THE GREAT AWAKENING 211
as little as possible by hampering statutes or
traditions. While these things were going on in Massa
chusetts, affairs were taking a somewhat dif
ferent turn in Connecticut. The confederacy
of river towns which gave birth to the state of
Connecticut had represented a more liberal
principle than that upon which Massachusetts
was founded. The wholesale migration which
carried the people of Dorchester, Cambridge,
and Watertown to the Connecticut River was a
migration of people for whom Massachusetts
was too theocratic. In Connecticut there was
no restriction of civil rights to church members ;
the relative power of the representa- conditions in
tlves as compared with the Council Connecticut
of Assistants was much greater, and the local
independence of the several towns was more
complete. Connecticut was originally more de
mocratic and more liberal in complexion than
Massachusetts. On the other hand, the federal republic of
New Haven closely resembled the common
wealth of Massachusetts, but was even more
theocratic and aristocratic* But the union of
1 [After the Restoration the people of Connecticut through
their governor, the younger Winthrop, secured from the king
a charter which included New Haven in the boundaries al
lotted to Connecticut, and in spite of the reluctance of the
people of New Haven the absorption of their republic was

212 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
New Haven with Connecticut did not by a mix
ture of plus and minus make a commonwealth
„ „ quite like Massachusetts. The most
New Haven T
annexed to thcocratlc elements In New Haven
onnec cu gij-j^gj. migrated In large bodies to New
Jersey, or came as individuals one by one back
to Massachusetts. Of those who remained on
the shores of Long Island Sound, the greater
part were those who had protested against the
New Haven theocracy with its exclusiveness.
On the whole, the Connecticut of 1670 to 1690
seems to have been a more liberal-minded com
munity than Massachusetts.
But if we come forward Into the nineteenth
century. It can hardly be denied that while both
states have maintained a high intellectual level,
Massachusetts has been the more liberal-minded
community. Or, if a different phrase be pre-
comparison fcrrcd, Massachusctts has been some-
se'ttt'anr "" what morc prompt in adopting new
Connecticut Ideas or In following out new vistas of
thought, especially in all matters where theo
logy is concerned. Or, to put the case in yet
another way, Massachusetts has shown less hesi
tation in departing from ancient standards. The
history of Unitarlanism Is of Itself a sufficient
illustration of this. To some minds the rise of
Unitarlanism seems like a great step In advance ;
consummated in 1665. Doyle, The Puritan Colonies, ii.
154-162.]

THE GREAT AWAKENING 213
to other minds it seems like a deplorable for
saking of the highroad for byways that lead to
Doubting Castle ; but all will agree that the
great development of Unitarlanism in Massa
chusetts, as compared with Its small develop
ment in Connecticut, shows in the former state
less hesitation in deviating from old standards.
Something of the same contrast in regard to
deviation Is shown in the history of Yale Col
lege as contrasted with Harvard ; no _ ,
D ' Causes of
one will deny that the temper of the Connecticut
r 1 1 • conservatism
former has been more conservative.
It becomes interesting, then, to inquire what
has produced this change. In what respects
have circumstances operated to render the career
of Connecticut more conservative than that of
the sister commonwealth ? Such questions are
always difficult to answer with confidence, but
certain facts may be pointed out which have a
bearing upon the question.
It Is a general tendency of organizations to
grow more rigid through increase of rules and
definitions, and to interfere more and
more with the free play of individu- dency in or-
ality; so that often In the pursuit of t^'^
a given end, the organization will so ^nd me-
r , ¦ ^r 1 ¦ chanical
far hamper itselr as to decrease its
fitness for attaining the ends desired ; in other
words, the ends become a matter of secondary
importance, while the machinery of the organi-

214 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
zatlon absorbs the entire attention. Especially
has this been true in the case of ecclesiastical
organizations. The members of a priesthood
are apt to acquire an exaggerated Idea of the im
portance of the body to which they belong and
which Is invested by public opinion with a pecu
liar sanctity, and they are apt to feel justified in
making laws and regulations tending to coerce
all their members Into conformity with some
prescribed set of rules. In Massachusetts an
The instance early and baneful source of rigidity
bridge PiaT-" was the Cambridge Platform of 1 648,
form, 1648 which enjoined it upon magistrates to
punish any infractions of ecclesiastical doctrine
or observance. Among the fruits of this Cam
bridge Platform were the odious proceedings
against Baptists and Quakers, which have left
such a stain upon the annals of Boston. But It
is worthy of note that owing to the very re
strictions which confined the civil liberties of
Massachusetts to communing church members,
a large body of citizens grew up In opposition,
so that the Commonwealth was never deprived
of the healthful stimulus of competition and
struggle between opposing views in interest.
To such a point had this conflict come that
when, in 1699, an attempt was made to fasten
a religious test upon Harvard, it fell to the
ground, and that critical period of the history
ofthe Commonwealth saw Harvard falling more

THE GREAT AWAKENING 215
and more completely under the guidance of the
party opposed to the old theocracy. Lack of a
On the other hand, Connecticut pur- P^tyofpp-
-* sr position in
sued the even tenor of her way from Connecticut
the first beginnings into the nineteenth century
with comparatively little severe Internal commo
tion. She had for a moment, of course, resented
the arrogance of Andros, but her constitution was
never wrenched out of shape by such violent
changes as those which Massachusetts witnessed
after 1685. I think we must attribute it to this
very fact of the sllghtness and gentleness of the
opposition, — to the comparative mildness of ec
clesiastical life In Connecticut, — that at the be
ginning of the eighteenth century her clergymen
and people should have yielded so easily to the
natural Impulse to Improve, or, rather, to define
and limit their ecclesiastical organizations. By
that time It bad come to seem to many worthy
people that the work of the church might be
greatly facilitated if its organization were made
a little more thorough in its working. The
result was the synod held at the town of Say-
brook in May, 1708, which adopted the famous
constitution known as the Sayb.ook Platform.
This constitution provided that " the par
ticular pastors and churches, within the respec
tive counties in this government," should " be
one consociation, or more if they should judge
meet, for mutual affording to each other such

216 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
assistance as may be requisite, upon all occa
sions ecclesiastical." Hitherto ecclesiastical au-
, thority had been exercised by councils
saybrook formed by voluntary election by indi-
^ °™ viduals or by single churches. Such
authority was henceforth to be vested in per
manent councils appointed by the consociation
of churches. Disobedience to the decree of one
of these permanent councils was punished by
excommunication of the too independent pastor
or church. The council of one consociation
might Invite councils from one or more neigh
bouring consociations to take part In Its proceed
ings, and it was further provided that a general
association consisting of representatives from all
the churches in the commonwealth should be
held every year at the time of the election of
governor and legislature.
This platform was adopted by the General
Court of Connecticut, with the proviso that a
church which conducted Itself discreetly and
soberly might be allowed to carry on worship
and exercise discipline according to its own con
science, even though it should not be able to
enter Into the consociation of churches. This
was a prudent and liberal provision, and was
intended to prevent injustice and persecution.
The general effect of the platform was to assim
ilate Congregationalism in Connecticut to Pres
byterianism, and there can be little doubt that

THE GREAT AWAKENING 217
this was an important change in the direction
of conservatism. Manifestly, the power of any
ecclesiastical organization In checking The piat-
individual variations depends upon f"™ ."=°<is
, . , , , ^° assimilate
the coercive power which the whole Congrega-
can bring to bear upon any one of its p^bytTrirn-
parts. Manifestly, the conservative '™
power of a Mussulman caliph, being absolutely
unchecked, was greater than that of the medi
aeval Pope, who might be limited by a council
or thwarted by an emperor. Still less coercive
power could be exercised by a sovereign head of
a church, like Elizabeth or Charles II. Still less
could be exercised by a Presbyterian synod, and
from this again down to an Independent congre
gation the step in diminution of coercive power
was a long one. It Is therefore interesting and
significant that just at the moment when Mas
sachusetts by the founding of Brattle Church
took a long step in the direction Massachu-
of further independency, Connecticut Connecticut
shoul'd have taken a decided conser- change places
vative step in the direction of Presbyterianism.
The effect exerted by the mere possession of
coercive power does not always need to be ex
hibited by overt actions ; it is a subtle effect
consisting largely In the colouring which It gives
to that indefinable thln^ known as public opin
ion, but I suspect that in the circumstances here
narrated we have at least a partial explanation

218 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of the fact that a century later, when so many
churches In Massachusetts adopted Unitarian
theology while still remaining Congregational
churches, on the other hand, in Connecticut a
step so extreme was very difficult to take, and
that while there were churches in which dissent
from time-honoured doctrines was rife, never
theless It was seldom that Unitarian doctrines
were avowed.
One effect of the Saybrook Platform was to
make it easy in later times for the Congrega
tional churches In Connecticut to fraternize with
the Presbyterian churches. To such an extent
has this fraternization been carried in modern
times, that persons in Connecticut and states
to the west of It are very apt to use the word
" Presbyterian " In a loose sense when they
really mean "Congregational," — a use of lan
guage which would have made the hair of one
of Cromwell's Ironsides stand on end with
horror. The beginning of the eighteenth century in
Connecticut was also memorable for the found-
ing of Yale College. The journey from
ing of Yale the Conncctlcut towns to Cambridge
° ^^^ was much longer than it is now, and
it was felt that there ought to be a college nearer
home. The movement,was begun by a meeting
at Branford of ten ministers, nine of whom were
graduates of Harvard. These gentlemen con-

THE GREAT AWAKENING 219
tributed from their libraries about forty gigantic
folios for the founding of a college library.
Other gifts began to come in, and an act of in
corporation in 1 701 created a body of trustees,
all of whom were to be clergymen and not less
than forty years of age. The college was at first
situated in Saybrook, though in the first years
the classes were taught at Klllingworth, where
the first rector of the college, Abraham Pierson,
was pastor. At length the college was settled In
New Haven In 17 16, and two years later it re
ceived the name of Yale College in recognition
of a donation from Elihu Yale, a merchant of
London, whose father had been one of the ori
ginal settlers of New Haven. Now this found
ing of Yale College exerted a conservative effect
upon the mind of Connecticut. While ^,
1 • 1 I'l conser-
on the one hand it brought a classical vative ten-
education within the reach of many cmTecticut
persons who would not have gone reinforced by
to Cambridge to get It, on the other
hand it tended to cut off the clergy of Con
necticut from the liberalizing influences which
were so plainly beginning to be powerful at
Harvard. From the outset something like a
segregation began. Many persons in Massachu
setts who were disinclined to the liberalism of
Leverett and the Brattles transferred their affec
tions to Yale College, making gifts to it and
sending their sons there, and in this way the

220 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
conservatism of the university that was con
trolled entirely by ministers holding under the
Saybrook Platform was Increased. When to all
these circumstances we add that the royal gov
ernor in Boston, although an abiding cause of
irritation, nevertheless kept bringing in Ideas
and fashions from Europe, we can see how the
stormier life of Massachusetts Bay was more
favourable to change than the delicious quiet
of the land of steady habits.
The general state of the church in New Eng
land In the first decades of the eighteenth cen
tury was one which may be best characterized
by saying that spirituality was at a low ebb.
Pretty much the same might be said of the
church in England, and If we were to extend the
State of reii- obscrvatlon to Fraucc, we should have
gion early to make It Still morc emphatic. The
in the - . . ^ . .
eighteenth causcs OI this State of things were
century complicated. Among other things,
the scientific reaction against supernaturalism,
which was so rapidly destroying the behef In
witchcraft, was leading the great mass of superfi
cial thinkers In the direction of materialism. In
France the church had discredited Itself through
an alliance with despotism, until nearly all the
best minds had turned against It. In England
the epoch of intense mental exaltation which
characterized the seventeenth century had pro
voked a reaction in which worldly-mindedness

THE GREAT AWAKENING 221
prevailed and sanctity was derided. There can
be little doubt, I think, that the political uses
to which religion had been put during the
terrible struggle of the counter-reformation had
done much to loosen Its spiritual hold upon
men's minds. Something may be said, too, of
the rapidly expanding effects of com-
merce. Men's interests were multi- commercial
plying so that something must suffer '"'^'^^'^
for a time, and religion, for the causes already
mentioned, was the weak spot In the social
fabric. But whatever the explanation may be, the
fact is generally accepted that the early years of
the eighteenth century were a period of coldness
in religious matters. This coldness was quite
generally perceived and lamented by clergymen
and laymen throughout New England, and
speculations were rife as to the probable cause
and the best cure. It Is not unlikely that among
other things the Halfway Covenant may have
exerted a baneful influence. If there could be
anything serious and solemn in life it would
seem to be the ascertainment of the state of
mind which would qualify a person for partici
pation in the Lord's Supper, yet the Halfway
Covenant practically admitted to this sacrament
all persons of decorous lives who had been
baptized in Infancy. One effect of this was to
endow infant baptism with the character of a

222 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
magical ceremony and to make of the commun
ion a mere hfeless form. At first. Indeed, the
supporters of the Halfway Covenant simply
allowed baptized members of the congregation
" Stoddard- to votc and hold office, without allow-
eanism" jj^g tj^gjji jq participate in the com
munion until they could make some statement
of their internal experience which proved them
qualified for such participation ; but a crisis
seemed to be reached when the Rev. Solomon
Stoddard of Northampton admitted people to
communion without any other credentials than
proof of baptism In infancy.*
This work was to be undone and this whole
state of things put an end to by the writings
and the preaching of Solomon Stoddard's grand
son, a man who was one of the wonders of the
world, probably the greatest intelligence that
Jonathan the wcstcm hemisphere has yet seen.
Edwards Jonathan Edwards was born at East
Windsor, Conn., In 1703, Inheriting extraordi
nary abilities both from his father, Rev. Timo
thy Edwards, and from his mother, Esther
Stoddard. From early childhood Edwards was
a personage manifestly set apart for some high
calling. His " Notes on Nature," written at the
^ [On this outgrowth of the Halfway Covenant, see
Walker, Hist, of the Congregational Churches in the U. S.,
pp. 180-182. Stoddard advocated this practice as early as
1679. It was adopted in his church in 1706.]

THE GREAT AWAKENING 223
age of sixteen, show a precocity as remarkable
as that of Pascal ; his Treatise on the Will and
other works of his maturity show a metaphy
sical power comparable with that of Kant or
Berkeley ; while in many of his speculations
his mind moves through the loftiest regions of
thought with a sustained strength of flight that
comes near reminding one of the mighty Spi
noza. There can be no doubt that the more
one considers Edwards, the more colossal and
astonishing beseems. Among writers of Chris
tian theology his place is by the side of Augus
tine, Aquinas, and Calvin. At the same time,
there was more In Edwards than sheer power
of intellect. His character was as great as his
genius. The highest attributes of manliness
were united in him. He was a man of deep
affection, abounding in sympathy, so that with
out resorting to the ordinary devices of rhetoric
he became a preacher ofthe first order. Now In
the mind of Jonathan Edwards there ^,
% . . . r-dwards s
was a vein of mysticism as unmlstak- vein of
able as that in the mind of William ™5'^""'™
Penn. Such mysticism may be found In minds
of medium capacity, but in minds of the highest
type I believe It is rarely absent. A mind which
has plunged deeply Into the secrets of nature
without exhibiting such a vein of mysticism Is,
I believe, a mind sterilized and cut off in one
direction from access to the truth. Along with

224 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Edwards's abstruse reasoning there was a spirit
ual consciousness as deep as that of Spinoza or
Novalls. From his mystic point of view, the
change whereby a worldly, unregenerate man
or woman became fitted for divine life was a
conversion of the soul, an alteration of Its inner
most purposes, a change of heart from evil to
goodness. Perhaps this way of conceiving the
His emphasis casc was not ncw wIth Edwards. From
on conversion ^^g earliest agcs of Christianity a turn
ing of the soul from the things of this world to
Christ has been the essential, but the importance
of what has since come to be known as conver
sion, or change of heart, assumed dimensions
never known before. As Calvinism enhanced
the value of the individual soul by representing
it as the subject of a mighty struggle between
the powers of heaven and those of hell, so
Edwards, while setting forth this notion in all
its grim ness, gave it a touch of Infinite tragedy
and pathos through the power with which he
conceived the situation ofthe soul whose salva
tion trembled In the balance. The distinction
between the converted and the unconverted be
came in his hands more vitally Important than
the older distinction between~the elect and the
non-elect. There was great difficulty in work
ing the two distinctions together, and a large
portion of the eighteenth century was consumed
by New England theologians in grappling with

THE GREAT AWAKENING 225
this difficulty. It was due to Edwards that the
prime question with every anxious mind was
not so much. Am I one of the elect ? as this
other question. Have I surrendered my heart
to Christ ? It is obvious that this new point
of view in itself, and even more in the mood
in which it was set forth, soon worked a vivify
ing change in the religious consciousness of
New England. The effect was presently shown
in those so-called revivals which are
in the strict sense a product of the
New England mind. Phenomena of religious
excitement, sometimes reaching epidemic pro
portions, are of course to be found among
heathen savages, but religious emotion of an
intense sort, coupled with a high general level
of education, such as we see it in modern re
vivals. Is something that had Its beginnings In
New England. The essential features of a re
vival are the aroused consciousness of sin, over
whelming fears associated therewith, and a con
dition of doubt as to whether one has really
satisfied the conditions of salvation. One can
see that when such a state of things has been
generally reached in a community, there is no
longer any room for such mechanical devices as
the Halfway Covenant. Before such a state of
things can be reached, the ecclesiastical atmos
phere must be spiritualized. To this end the
whole tenor of Edwards's preaching contributed.

226 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
for he insisted, with as much emphasis as Wil
liam Penn, upon the Insignificance of the form
as compared with the spirit.
Sometimes the religious revival seemed a
mere survival of barbaric superstition, — as
when the earthquake of 1727 brought people In
The Revival crowds Into the Boston churches. But
of 1734 In 1734 there began at Northampton,
where Edwards, who had succeeded his grand
father, had been preaching for eight years, a
revival of a much higher kind. This wave of
religious excitement spread through the whole
Connecticut valley and lasted for six months. It
attracted some notice in England, and presently
George Whitefield accepted an invitation from
Dr. Benjamin Colman to come to New Eng
land and preach. Whitefield was twenty-six
George years of age, and had just been or-
^^^dfo dained as a minister of the Church of
New England England. Hc was a man of medi
ocre intelligence, without distinction either as a
scholar or as a thinker, but his gifts as an ora
tor were very extraordinary. In 1740 White-
field preached in various parts of New England,
sometimes In churches, sometimes In the open
air, to audiences which on occasion reached
15,000 In number. He made a pilgrimage to
Northampton in order to visit the preacher of
the late revival there, and thought he had never
seen such a man as Edwards, while, on the other

THE GREAT AWAKENING 227
hand, under the influence of Whitefield's musi
cal voice, Edwards sat weeping during the en
tire sermon.
The example set by Whitefield was followed
after his departure by a Presbyterian minister
from New Jersey named Gilbert Ten- Gilbert
nent. This preacher came to Boston Tennent
and spent some three months In the neighbour
hood, preaching to enormous audiences with
most startling effect. Tennent was followed by
James Davenport of Southold, Long Island, a
great-grandson of the famous Davenport of the
old New Haven colony. This James Daven
port was highly esteemed by Whitefield and
other revivalist preachers, but his Ill-balanced
enthusiasm led him to very strange lengths.
On one occasion he Is said to have preached a
sermon nearly twenty-four hours In length, with
such violence of intonation and gesture ¦ that
he brought on a brain fever. He was consti
tutionally intemperate in speech, eccentric in
action, and inspired by that peculiar self-conceit
which is one of the marks of mental derange
ment. If he came to a town where james
little excitement was manifested on Davenport
the subject of religion he would revile the min
isters of the town, accusing them of beii;g un
converted, blind leaders of the blind, and he
warned the people that by listening to such
preaching they were imperilling their souls. At

228 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Boston he grew so abusive that the ministers
held a conference and decided that they would
not allow him the use of their pulpits. Nothing
daunted, however, this Boanerges hurled forth
his thunderbolts on such places as Copp's Hill
and Boston Common, where he spoke his mind
with great freedom to thousands of listeners.
For example. In one of his prayers, he said,
" Good Lord, I will not mince the matter any
longer with Thee, for Thou knowest that I
know that most of the ministers of Boston and
of the country are unconverted, and are leading
their people blindfold to hell." For these words
Davenport was indicted for slander, but was
acquitted on the ground of Insanity.
A situation had now arisen in some respects
not unlike that when Mrs. Hutchinson and
her Antlnomian friends had been preaching in
„ Boston a century earlier. One of the
Comparison ^ ^ J
with the chief objections to the Antinomians
ninomians ^^^ ^j^^^ ^j^^^ profcsscd to havc their
minds illumined by a divine light which en
abled them to see truths hidden from the gen
erality of Christians, and in this belief they
confidently assailed even the highest of the
clergy as creatures acting under a covenant of
works. It was now held by many clergymen
that the conduct of Tennent and Davenport
and other followers of Whitefield resembled
that of the Antinomians, and tended to Intro-

THE GREAT AWAKENING 229
duce dissensions into the churches. There can
be no doubt that such was its immediate effect.
Emotional extravagances on the part of revi
valists were so marked as to lead many persons
to question whether. In view of this and of the
intemperate criticism that had been indulged
in, the revival had not really been productive
of more harm than good. Such questions were
agitated until in almost every church there came
to be a party who approved of the revival and
a party which condemned it. Under these cir
cumstances it is not strange that the power of
the revival should have declined, or that we
should find the Rev. Thomas Prince writing
in 1744 that "The Sovereign Spirit, in His
awakening influence, has seemed these two last
years in a gradual and awful manner to with
draw. For a twelvemonth I have rarely heard
the cry of any new ones. What shall I do to be
saved ? But few are now added to our churches
and the heavenly shower in Boston seems to be
over." About the time that Prince expressed
himself so despondingly Whitefield Whitefield's
returned to New England, but he was return to
not so much a novelty as before and New England
made less sensation. The Brattle Church showed
its liberality by inviting him, an Episcopal priest,
to administer its Communion. On the other
hand. President Holyoke and the Faculty of
Harvard passed a resolution condemning his

230 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
itinerant methods, and the clergymen of Cam
bridge refused to allow him in their pulpits ; so
that his preaching was done to a large audience
on Cambridge Common.
In Massachusetts the opposition to the revi
valists showed itself only in such protests by
professors and clergymen, but in Connecticut
the matter went further. Whitefield, Tennent,
and Davenport travelled about In that com
monwealth, making converts by hundreds, and
Davenport, at least, made no scruple of attack
ing the settled ministers. These proceedings
called forth interference from the government.
Davenport At Stratford Davenport was arrested
pubUc"* ^°' ^°^ disturbing the peace by gathering
disturbance great crowds of people, filling their
heads with pernicious doctrines, and inciting
them to a noisy and disorderly demeanour.
During their examination a mob of their con
verts undertook to rescue them from the sher
iff's custody, and in order to quiet the disturb
ance it proved necessary to call out the militia.
For revivalist practices similar to Davenport's
the Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy was turned out of
office and deprived of his salary.
It thus appears that one result of the Great
Awakening was to stir up dissension in the
churches between the more aristocratic ministry
of the old type and the more democratic preach
ers like Whitefield and his friends. Our ac-

THE GREAT AWAKENING 231
count would be far from complete If we were to
omit the conclusion of the story at Northamp
ton, the home of Jonathan Edwards, from whose
preaching this Great Awakening had Last days of
emanated. We have seen that the Edwards
Edwards doctrine of conversion was flatly op
posed to the Halfway Covenant to which Ed
wards's grandfather In Northampton had given
its most extreme form. In 1749, after Edwards
had been settled twenty-two years over that par
ish and regarded with extreme reverence by his
parishioners, he suddenly lost favour with them
by insisting upon more rigorous requirements
in admitting communicants to the church.
This gave rise to a quarrel of such bitterness
that Edwards's parish not only dismissed him,
but obtained a vote in town meeting to the
effect that he should not be allowed any more
to enter a pulpit in that town. The result was
the removal of Edwards to Berkshire for mis
sionary work among the Stockbrldge Indians,
and thence after six years to the presidency of
Princeton College. He died In Princeton at the
early age of fifty-five.
One result of the breaking down of the Half
way Covenant was to discredit Infant baptism, so
that the majority of the revivalists ofthe more
democratic type went over to the Baptist church
and greatly swelled Its numbers In New Eng
land. With regard to the general effect of the

232 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Awakening, In spite of the extravagances with
which it was here and there attended, it cer
tainly did much to heighten and deepen the
religious life in New England. As compared
with the old days of the Halfway Covenant, the
new doctrine of conversion was like an upHft-
ing of the soul to better things. The religious
thought of the seventeenth century was in dan
ger of losing its life among dry logical formulas.
It needed to be touched with emotion, and that
Results of the was what the Great Awakening ac-
Awakening compllshed. It may be said to have
exerted a stimulating influence similar to that
which attended the preaching of the Wesleys
in England, and It should not be forgotten
that John Wesley In -the early part of his career
received a powerful stimulus from news which
reached him from New England. If we were
able thoroughly to sift all relevant facts I think
we should conclude that In producing the ten
derness of soul in which the nineteenth cen
tury so far surpassed the eighteenth, a consider
able share must be assigned to the preaching
and self-searchings, the prayers and tears, the
jubilation and praise, of the Great Awakening.

VII
NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG
WHEN Mr. Seward, about forty years
ago, spoke of the "Irrepressible con
flict " between slavery and freedom,
it was generally felt that he had Invented a
happy and telling phrase. It was a conflict
equally Irrepressible that was carried on for sev
enty years between France and England for the
possession of North America. Itwas ,,.
the strife between absolutism and pressiUe
individualism, between paternal gov- t™™ France
ernment carried to the last extreme, f^^ Engbnd
, , . . ^ - in America
and the spontaneous lire or commu
nities that governed themselves in town meet
ing. Alike In Europe and in America each
party was aggressive and uncompromising.
Particularly In America the proximity of the
Indians made it next to Impossible to avoid
bloodshed even when the governments of
France and England were nominally at peace
with one another. There is no better Illustra
tion of this than is afforded by the story of
Norridgewock. The treaty of Utrecht, by which the long war

234 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of the Spanish succession was brought to an end
in 1 7 13, transferred the province of Acadia
from France to England. After many changes
of ownership backward and forward it was de-
Acadia finaUy cided that Acadla was finally to be-
passes to comc English. But what was Acadia?
As customarily applied, the name in
cluded Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and a part
of Maine ; and the English maintained that all
this territory was ceded to them by the treaty ;
but the French, on the other hand, maintained
that they had only given away Nova Scotia,
and woe to the Englishman who should dare to
meddle with the rest ! It was intended that this
question should be settled by a special commis
sion, but the question was such a ticklish one
that neither country was in haste to appoint a
commission, and so things remained until the
matter was settled forever by the mighty Seven
Years' War.
According to the French view, the boundary
between their territory and that of New Eng
land was the river Kennebec. This line they
felt it important to defend for two reasons.
The French FIrst, the Ncw England settlements
UmfeV ^ were rapidly extending northeast-
Acadia wardly along the coast ; secondly, the
sources of the Kennebec were connected by an
intricate network of streams, marshes, and lake
lets, with those of the Chaudiere, which falls

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 235
into the St. Lawrence just opposite Quebec. It
was an excessively difficult route by which to
invade Canada, as Benedict Arnold found half
a century later. Nevertheless, it was a possible
route which the French felt it necessary to bar.
In this they proceeded according to their usual
manner by establishing a hold upon their Al
gonquin friends along the Kennebec River.
These Algonquins were commonly known
as Abenakis, or Eastern Men. Their grade of
culture was quite similar to that of the tribes In
Massachusetts and considerably more advanced
than that ofthe Micmacs of Nova Scotia. They
were divided Into numerous tribes and sub-
tribes, the names of which, such as Kennebec,
Penobscot, etc., have in many cases remained
as local names upon the map, while the most
important of these Abenaki tribes was The Abenaki
that of the Norridgewocks, inasmuch '"''"
as their position guarded the approaches to the
upper waters of the Kennebec. The stockaded
Norridgewock village was situated close by the
river, about seventy-five miles from its mouth,
and a journey to It from Portsmouth or Boston
seemed like plunging into the Innermost depths
ofthe wilderness. These Indians were no longer
heathen, for they had all been converted and bap
tized by the devoted efforts of Father Sebas
tian Rale. This interesting man was a native
of that part of Burgundy known as Franche-

236 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Comte, and when thirty-two years of age came
over to Canada with Frontenac In 1689. After
a more or less migratory service extending as
Sebastian far wcst as the Illinois River, Father
^^'° Rale took charge of the Norridge
wock Indians in 1693, ^'^d remained with them
until his death. His attainments in American
languages were very considerable, for he pos
sessed a fluent knowledge of at least three dia
lects of Algonquin, besides the Huron dialect
of Iroquois, and his knowledge of the Indian
character was as thorough as his proficiency in
their tongue. The Norridgewock village was a
square enclosure 160 feet on each side, walled
in with a palisade of stout logs about nine or
ten feet in height. In the middle of each side
was a gate, and the two streets connecting the
gates crossed each other in an open square at
the centre. Within the enclosure were twenty-
six wigwams, and outside of it at a distance of
a few yards stood the chapel. Altogether it was
a much ruder village than the Iroquois Hoche
laga which Cartier had visited nearly two centu
ries before, and very much ruder than the
Onondaga village attacked by Champlain in
161 5. Besides being the spiritual father of this
The Nor- kittle commuulty. Father Rale was
^^jfewock of necessity a jack-of-all-trades. He
must be a bit of a carpenter, and
more or less of a gardener, with a pennyweight

(SOIF I

MAP OF NOR

^Tcni^^m ANTIZLJE ¦%

iTH AMERICA

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 237
of medicine to an intolerable deal of theology,
and unlimited devotion to the spiritual needs
of his flock. To these duties he added those
of linguist and diplomat ; for his leisure hours
were whiled away In making a vocabulary of
the Abenaki tongue, while his own talent of
speech was put to diligent use In instructing all
the tribes of that region how to comport them
selves in the presence of the much hated Eng
lish. At the time of the peace of Utrecht, the
country between the Piscataqua and the Kenne
bec had been the scene of atrocious warfare for
nearly forty years. First there was King Philip's
War In which the French had no part, and then
there were the two great wars between France
and England from 1689 to 1697, and from 1702
to 1 7 13. The result was that this border coun
try had almost relapsed into a desert, ^he country
But after 17 13, a new wave of set- between the
tlement advanced northeasterly, old and the
villages were rebuilt and new ones ^^'"^^^
founded, and in all directions might be seen
clearings in the forest, where the smoke curled
up from the log cabins of English pioneers.
Now this advance of the white frontier Incensed
and alarmed the Indians, as it was natural that
it should. They maintained that the English
were encroaching upon their lands. The Eng
lish retorted that these lands were their own, in-

238 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
asmuch as they had formerly been bought from
Indian sachems, and prices had been paid for
them which the Indians had deemed liberal and
satisfactory. But the red man's notions of own
ership and transfer of real estate were In a hope
lessly different stage of evolution from those of
the white man. To an Indian, the selling of a
The Indian territory meant little more than grant-
view of seU- ing permission to catch fish and game
ing land . , , . , .
upon it, or to pass through it unhin
dered for whatever purpose. The Indian had
not arrived at the point where the sale of an
estate conveys to the vendee the right to ex
clude the vendor ; but his mind was open to a
suggestion of Father Rale, that no sale of land
by a sachem could be other than void because
the land was the property of the clan, and must
be kept In trust for the children born to the
clan. This was exactly in accordance with In
dian ways of thinking, and it Is not strange that
Father Rale's doctrine suited the red men's
temper better than the English notion that after
once buying the land they had a right to fence
the Indian out. As the English farmhouses
came nearer and an occasional blockhouse was
erected, the disgust of the Abenakis increased
beyond all bounds, but they entertained a
wholesome dread of attacking the English with
out assistance from the French, and this was
difficult to obtain In time of peace.

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 239
While the French, however, prudently re
frained from gross violations of International
law, they were nevertheless quite willing to
incite the Indians to attack the Eng- xhe Indians
lish. Vaudreuil, the governor of and the
Canada, expressly declared that It
was convenient to maintain a secret alliance
with the Indians, since the latter might Inflict
much damage upon the English, while the
French could disclaim all responsibility for their
acts. In 1 7 17, when Colonel Shute was royal gov
ernor of Massachusetts, a conference was held
on Arrowsick Island at the mouth conference
of the Kennebec River. There the between
Indians showed themselves so eager shuteandthe
for peace that even the insults of Gov- '"'''^"'
ernor Shute, who was an arrogant person utterly
destitute of tact, failed to produce an outbreak.
A Puritan minister from Medfield by the name
of Joseph Baxter was left among the Indians
to counteract by his preaching the influence of
Father Rale ; and the twain indulged Baxter and
in a Latin correspondence. In which '^^'^
the writers not only attacked each other's poli
tics and theology, but made game of each other's
Latin style, — a kind of fierce banter in which
the Puritan came off second best. This con
test over the Kennebec River was typical of
the whole struggle between the French and the

240 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
English. On the one hand, there was the
steadily advancing front of the self-governing
and greatly thriving agricultural community ;
on the other hand, there was the little group
of French noblemen and priests governing a
mere handful of settlers, and striving to keep
back the advancing English by means of diplo
matic control over barbarous Indians. It was a
struggle which could really have but one issue.
It was a struggle, moreover, that was conducted
without pity or mercy, with scarcely a pretence
of regard for the amenities of civilized warfare.
Neither side was particularly scrupulous, while
from that day to this, each side has kept up a
terrible outcry against the other for doing the
very same thing which it did itself. From that
day to this English writers have held up their
hands in holy horror at the atrocious conduct
of the French in sending savages to burn vil
lages and massacre women and children on the
English border. Yet was it not an English
governor of New York who In 1689 launched
the Iroquois thunderbolt against Canada, one
of the most frightful Indian incursions known
to history ? It does not appear that the con
science of either Puritan or Catholic was in the
slightest degree disturbed by these horrors.
Each felt sure that he was fighting the Devil,
and thought it quite proper to fight him with
his own weapons.

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 241
On the Kennebec frontier the problem for
New France was to prevent English villages
and fortresses from advancing In that The Indians
direction, and the most obvious way a"tack'the'°
of accomplishing the result was to English
instigate the Indians to acts of warfare. This
was the avowed policy of Vaudreuil, and It was
carried out by Father Rale to the best of his
ability. When he found that his Norridgewock
Indians were timid, and inclined to, peace, he
sent to Montreal and caused parties of warriors
from divers tribes, Ottawas, Caughnawagas,
Hurons, and others, to be sent to the Kenne
bec River, where all engaged In a frantic war
dance, and quite carried away the Norridge
wocks In a frenzy of bloodthirsty enthusiasm.
This was In 1721. Then began the sickening
tale so many times repeated in early American
history, — the tale of burning homes, of youth
and beauty struck down by the tomahawk, and of
captives led away through the gloom ofthe forest
to meet a fiery death. Thus, in turn, the English
government at Boston was confronted Border war-
with its problem : how to put a stop '^''^
to these horrors without bringing on a new war
with France. The practical New England mind
saw that the principal hotbed of all the mischief
must be destroyed, and If a Frenchman or two
should come to grief in the process, It was his
own fault for playing so recklessly with fire. It

242 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
was easier, however, for Boston to know what
ought to be done than to do it ; for there was
the irreconcilable hostility between governor and
legislature to be reckoned with. For example,
when the Norridgewocks on one occasion com
plained to Governor Shute that they were
cheated and shamefully used by irresponsible
traders, the governor undertook to set up cer
tain trading stations on the frontier which
should be controlled by trustworthy persons,
and where Indians might rest assured of fair
Conflicts be- treatment, but when he proposed this
Govem^rand pl^n to the Assembly, that body flatly
the Assembly rcfuscd to appropriate any money for
the purpose. Finally, when the torches were
lighted and the shrieks of the victims were
heard, when the indignant governor was raising
his arm to strike, what should this contuma
cious Assembly do but interpose obstacle after
obstacle ! Not only was it unwilling to entrust
the governor with the money for obtaining mil
itary supplies, but it even insisted upon carry
ing on the war through committees of its own.
Its blundering conduct was not unlike that of
the Continental Congress in the War for Inde
pendence. After a while the course of the legis
lature put the governor Into such a rage that on
New Year's day, 1723, he drove down to the
water side, and embarked in a ship for London

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 243
without so much as telling anybody what he
was about to do. He left It for the town to rub
its eyes in astonishment at finding its governor
gone. His place was filled by the lieutenant-gov
ernor, William Dummer, who fared no better
at the hands of the Assembly, al- ^^
111 • r XT V ^""'^ *"'^"
though he was a native ot JN ew ling- ceeded by
land. The Assembly Insisted that °""""''
two competent but unpopular officers should
be removed from command, and when Dummer
refused, the many-headed king retorted by re
fusing to grant supplies until the officers In ques
tion should have been removed. When we read
of such scenes as this, which were perpetually
recurring during the seventy years' struggle with
France, we can understand why the British gov
ernment thought it necessary to raise money by
stamps in order to protect the frontier against
the Indians.
After much tribulation an expedition under
Colonel Westbrook sailed for the Penobscot
River, ascended it for some distance
1 1 • r -n 11 Expeditions
above the site or rJangor, and de- against the
stroyed a missionary village which ^"'''^"^
the French had founded there. The next year,
1724, a force of about 200 men went up the
Kennebec River, carried the Norridgewock vil
lage by storm, and slew many of Its defenders.

244 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
while the rest were scattered. In the course of
the fight Father Rale was shot through the head.
Puritan writers have sought to stigmatize this
interesting man as a murderer, while Catholics
have praised him as a martyr. In the impartial
light of history, he was neither the one nor the
other. He was true to his own sense of duty,
and the worst that can be said about him is
Thedeathof that he was uot exceptionally scrupu-
FatherRale J^^g Jj^ j^Jg choIcC of political and
military means ; while on the other hand, the
title of " martyr " seems hardly to belong to a
man who was killed In the ordinary course of
battle, not because of his religious faith, but be
cause he was fighting in the service of France.*
The fighting thus begun continued for nearly
four years, and In the course of It the Norridge-
Extermina- wock tribe was practlcally exterml-
No"rrMgt' "ated. The destruction of that mis-
wock tribe glou was 3. serlous blow to the French
hold upon the Maine frontier, and they never
succeeded in making good the loss.
Our forefathers of that time had come to re
gard Indians very much In the light of wolves
or panthers, to be hunted and slain wherever
found. Parties of yeomanry were enlisted for
the purpose of penetrating into the wilderness
^ [On the manner of Rale's death, see Parkman, Ha^
Century of Conflict, i. 237-239 ; and on the Norridgewock
troubles as a whole, the same, pp. 205-240.]

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 245
and finding the enemy in his lair. The regular
wages paid by the Commonwealth for such ser
vice were half a crown a day, paid In a currency
so depreciated that the half-crown amounted
to about twenty-five cents of our money; but,
in addition, there was a liberal bounty of a
hundred pounds for each Indian scalp. Even
in that detestable rag money a hundred pounds
was worth securing. Among the leaders in
this rough service was Captain John Lovewell
of Dunstable on the Merrlmac River, a son
of one of Cromwell's soldiers. In January,
1725, he earned his first hundred pounds by
bringing a scalp from a remote point among the
White Mountains. It was customary for the
Massachusetts rangers to patrol those wild.
stretches of forest, through which captain
Algonquins from Canada used to LoveweU
come on their murderous raids. Toward the
end of February, 1725, Lovewell's party were
passing the shores of a large pond in what Is
now the township of Fryeburg in Maine, just
on the border of New Hampshire, and about
sixty miles north of Dover. That sheet of
water is still known as Lovewell's Pond. Near
its shore his party suddenly came upon ten In
dians sleeping around a fire, and immediately
killed them all, for which they received a thou
sand pounds from the treasurer at Boston. The

246 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Indians who were killed were on their way to
join an expedition for massacre In the frontier
villages, so that the bounty would seem to have
been well bestowed. A few weeks later Love
well once more tried his fortune at the head of
forty-six men, but as they approached the pond
which had witnessed their winter performance,
one or two of their number fell sick, so that it
was necessary to build a rude fortification and
leave there a guard for the sick ones. This re
duced the number to thirty-four. Early on a
bright May morning these men fell into an am
buscade of Pequawket Indians, and they kept
LoveweU's up a dcsperatc fight all day against
'^sbt overwhelming odds. Toward sunset
the Indians gave way and retired from the
scene, leaving a tremendous harvest of scalps
for the victors. But these children of the Iron
sides had paid a high price for their victory.
Captain Lovewell and eleven others were slain,
being rather more than one third of the number.
One coward had run away and told so dismal a
story to the sick men and their guard that they
deemed It best to quit their rude fortification
and travel southward with all possible despatch.
The retreat from the battlefield began at mid
night and was led by Ensign Wyman. One of
the party was the chaplain of the expedition.
Rev. Jonathan Frye of Andover, a youth of
twenty-one, recently graduated at Harvard, who

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 247
was as zealous an Indian killer as any of the
party. He had been terribly wounded in the
fight, and as he felt his strength giving out so
that he must lie down upon the ground, he
begged his comrades not to Incur danger by
waiting with him, but to keep on their The death
way, and he said to one of them, °f^'y^
" Tell my father that I expect in a few hours
to be in eternity, and am not afraid to die." So
they left him alone in the forest and nothing
more was heard of him. The survivors of this
expedition were rewarded with extensive grants
of land on the mountain ridges between Lan
caster and the Connecticut River, which down
to that time were a howling wilderness, and it
was in this way that Petersham and others of
the hill towns In that region originated.
For half a century, until Its memory was ob
scured by the incidents of the Revolutionary
War, Lovewell's fight was a popular theme with
the New England farmers. Ballads as long
as " Chevy Chase " were written about It, and
perhaps a few verses should be quoted in this
connection. " Then spake up Captain Lovewell, when first the fight be
gan,
' Fight on, my valiant heroes, you see they fall Uke rain ! '
For, as we are informed, the Indians were so thick,
A man could scarcely fire a gun, and not some of them hit.

248 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND

Our worthy Captain Lovewell among them there did die ;
They killed Lieutenant Robbins, and wounded good young
Frye,
Who was our English chaplain : he many Indians slew.
And some of them he scalped, when bullets round him
flew."i
As for this worthy young chaplain, he was
mourned by the fair Susanna Rogers, daughter
of the minister at Boxford, to whom he was be
trothed. She afterward wrote a long monody
which thus begins : —
" Assist, ye Muses, help my quill
WhUe floods of tears does down distU,
Not from mine eyes alone, but all
That hears the sad and dolefial fall
Of that young student, Mr. Frye,
Who in his blooming youth did die."
Such Incidents as the destruction of Nor
ridgewock and Lovewell's fight occurred In
what was reckoned as an interval of peace be
tween the second and third great intercolonial
wars. We may now pass over twenty years and
make some mention of the most important
event that marked in America the war of the
Austrian Succession, which began with the seiz
ure of Silesia by Frederick the Great in 1740,
^ [The whole of this ballad is given in Hart's American
History told by Contemporaries, U. 344—346.]

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 249
and ended with the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in
1748. On the southeast side of Cape Breton Island,
In a very commanding position, was a small
town which had been known as English Har
bour, but which In the many vicissitudes of
Acadia had passed Into the hands of the French
and had been by them christened
Louisburg, after the king. After the
treaty of Utrecht, the French refused to sur
render Cape Breton Island on the ground that
the name " Acadia " applied only to Nova
Scotia in the strictest sense, excluding the adja
cent islands. About 1720 the French began
fortifying this place, and went on until they had
spent a sum equivalent to more than 1 10,000,000
of our modern money, and had made it one of
the strongest places In the world, scarcely sur
passed by Quebec or Gibraltar. With refer
ence to Canada, France, and the West Indies,
this place occupied a central position. It
blocked the way to any English ascent of the
St. Lawrence, such as had been attempted in
1690 and 171 1, and It afforded an admirable
base of supplies from which a powerful French
squadron might threaten Boston or any other
English city upon the Atlantic coast.
It was in 1744 that France and England
were dragged Into the war between Austria and

250 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND '
Prussia, and no sooner had the news arrived in
America than Duquesnel, the French com
mander of Louisburg, sent a squadron to sur
prise and capture such English ports in Nova
Scotia as might be found Insufficiently guarded.
The little port of Canseau was at once taken,
and an energetic, but fruitless attack was made
upon Port Royal. A certain number of prison
ers who had been taken from Canseau to Louis
burg were returned in the autumn of 1744, and
they sent such messages to Governor Shirley as
led him to believe that a prompt attack
The project t • 1_ ¦ ^C ¦ tI
to capture upon LouisDurg itsclt might prove
ouis urg successful. Pcrhaps the first person to
entertain such a scheme seriously was William
Vaughan, a graduate of Harvard In 1722, whose
father had been lieutenant-governor of New
Hampshire. Vaughan had an estate on the
Damariscotta River, and did a brisk trade in
lumber and fish. There was imminent danger
that Louisburg might work the destruction of
the English fisheries, and Vaughan, who was dar
ing to the verge of foolhardiness, thought it a
good plan to anticipate such a calamity by captur
ing the impregnable fortress. So bold was the
project that Parkman gives to his chapter on this
subject the simple heading, " A Mad Scheme." *
Fortunately, Shirley was himself a man of cour
age and resource. After a conversation with
^ \Half Century of Conflict, U. 78-107.]

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 251
Vaughan, Shirley informed his legislature that
he had a proposal to make of such great impor
tance that he wished them before receiving it to
take an oath of secrecy. Shirley had shown
much tact In avoiding dissensions with his
legislature, and this extraordinary request was
granted, but when the Assembly came to con
sider the question of attacking Louisburg with
out assistance from British arms, the Assembly
deemed the proposal chimerical, and voted to
reject it. Nothing daunted, however, Shirley
returned to the attack, and with the active co
operation of many merchants who felt that their
business absolutely demanded the reduction of
the French stronghold, he succeeded at last in
obtaining a majority of one vote in the Assem
bly. The next step was to seek aid .pj^^ ^^^
from the other colonies, but only New England
Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Con- dertake the
necticut gave favourable responses. ^"^'^'^
Connecticut and New Hampshire furnished
each 500 men, and Rhode Island furnished the
sloop of war Tartar. Massachusetts supplied
3000 men, and Shirley selected William Pep-
perell to command the expedition. Pepperell
was a very wealthy merchant of Kittery, who
had served as justice ofthe peace and as a mili
tia officer of various grades, ending with colonel.
He was by no means a genius, but a man of
energy, good sense, and tact. He was now

252 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
raised to the rank of lieutenant-general, and
Roger Wolcott of Connecticut was commis
sioned major-general and appointed second in
command. Pepperell's good sense was sufficient
to make him doubt the possibility of success ;
and the Rev. George Whitefield, when asked
to furnish a motto for one of the flags, suggested
Nil desperandum Christ o duce, or, in other words.
There is room for hope when Christ is leader,
which, under the circumstances, does not seem
to indicate a very exuberant confidence on the
part of the great preacher.
As for a naval force. It was always possible
to extemporize something of the sort in New
The naval England, whcrc almost every seaport
^°''" had citizens ready to venture money
In privateering, or perhaps in equipping expe
ditions for capturing privateers from French
men and Spaniards. The force collected for the
Louisburg expedition consisted of one new 24-
gun frigate and twelve smaller vessels, mostly
sloops of from 8 to 20 guns. This was a ludi
crous force for the purpose assigned ; one French
line-of-battle ship could easily have destroyed
the whole of It. To put 4000 men upon Cape
Breton Island without an adequate naval force
to insure their retreat might easily entail their
starvation or capture. More ships must be had,
and Shirley sent a message to Commodore Peter
Warren, at the island of Antigua, requesting

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 253
assistance. Warren was inclined to give the aid
required, but a council of war overruled him,
and he declined ; but Shirley had wisely pro
vided another string to his bow, and had writ
ten some time before to the Duke of Newcastle,
Secretary of State, pointing out the great danger
to the fisheries and the Acadian ports from the
proximity of Louisburg. It was this Duke of
Newcastle who knew so little about Ameri
can affairs that, one day when he was told that
Annapolis must be fortified, replied, " Annap
olis, Annapolis ! Oh, yes, Annapolis must be
defended ; to be sure, Annapolis should be de
fended. Where is Annapolis ? " ^ Fortunately,
this amiable secretary's zeal was better than his
knowledge, and he promptly wrote to Com
modore Warren, ordering him to sail for Bos
ton and do what he could to help the cause.
Warren accordingly sailed with one line-of-bat
tle ship and two 44-gun frigates. While on the
way he met a Boston vessel which informed
him that Pepperell's force had already sailed,
so Warren changed his course and joined the
expedition at Canseau. Perhaps Pepperell had
been precipitate, but in point of fact The French
this headlong speed was the salvation ^'"¦p™ed
of the enterprise. The French were practi-
' [Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George
IL, i. 396.J

254 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
cally taken unawares ;' for although rumours of
the scheme had reached them, they had been
inclined to laugh them to scorn. What likeli
hood was there of an enemy attacking them
with any hope ? Their batteries mounted at
least 150 heavy guns, against which the pro
vincial assailants brought a vastly inferior arma
ment In size and strength. The British ships,
however, constituted a powerful reinforcement.
The French garrison consisted of 560 French
regulars and Swiss mercenaries, with about 1400
Canadian militia, some 2000 In all.
The New Englanders effected a landing on
the ist of May, and Immediately laid siege to
the town. On the next day Vaughan led 400
men behind a line of hills to a point where
there were large magazines of naval stores.
These he set on fire ; and what with the pitch
and tar and other such combustibles, the smoke
that came up and floated over the town was
something quite tremendous. One effect upon
The Grand the French was absurd. Near the
donedln^''^"' bumlng storcs was a large fortlfica-
panic tion known as the Grand Battery,
mounting 30 heavy guns. As the thick clouds
of smoke rolled up and enveloped this battery,
the defenders were seized with panic and aban
doned it without firing a shot ; so that when
Vaughan's men passed It, observing the pro
found quiet, they reconnoitred for a moment

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NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 255
and then exultingly marched In. So hastily
had the French departed that they left an im
mense quantity of ammunition as a present
for Vaughan's men, while the cannon were so
poorly spiked that the gunsmith, Seth Pome
roy, had them all ready for use the next morn
ing. So that our New Englanders could now
bombard the town with cannon and shot pro
vided by the most Christian king.
This capture of the Grand Battery was some
thing on which the besiegers had no right to
count, for if It had been properly defended they
probably could not have taken It. As it was, its
loss by the French probably decided the issue
ofthe whole conflict. The New England troops
pressed matters with vigour, and at the end of
a week demanded the surrender of the place,
but the time had not yet come. On May 19
a French line-of-battle ship arrived upon the
scene heavily laden with material of "ca ture of a
war, and on approaching the town French Une-
she encountered one of the English ° ^ ^ ^ '''
ships of smaller calibre, which, retreating before
her, lured her within reach of the whole Brit
ish fleet. She was soon surrounded and cap
tured, and all her material of war passed into
the hands of the besiegers. Presently the lat
ter received a great reinforcement by the arrival
of eight British seventy-fours, under cover of
which the troops were able to establish new

256 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
batteries at various points. By the middle of
June there was scarcely a house in the town
that had not been more or less riddled by shot
and shell. The British fleet held the harbour
closely Invested, and looo scaling ladders were
made ready for a grand attack. This was too
Louisburg much for the Frenchmen, and on
funetr^ the 17th of June this famous fortress
1745 was surrendered. The mad scheme
of Vaughan and Shirley had become a sober re
ality. When the news was disseminated abroad
the civilized world was dumb with amazement.
For the first time it waked up to the fact that
a new military power had grown up in America.
One of the strongest fortresses on the face of
the earth had surrendered to a force of New
England militia. Pepperell was at once cre
ated a baronet, being the only native Ameri
can who ever attained that rank. Warren was
promoted to the grade of admiral. Louisburg
Square In Boston commemorates the victory.
Some twenty-five years ago, when we were re
building the eastern transept of Harvard Col
lege Library, I discovered in a gloomy corner
an iron cross about thirty inches In height,
which had stood In the market-place at Louis-
A relic of burg and was brought to Cambridge
Louisburg as a trophy. I thought It a pity to
hide such a thing, so I had It gilded and set
up over the southern entrance to the library.

NORRIDGEWOCK AND LOUISBURG 257
where it remained several years, until one night
some silly vandals, presumed to be students,
succeeded In detaching this heavy mass of irop
and carrying it away.^
^ [Fortunately it has since been returned, and is now in
the library.]

VIII
BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR
THE treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle did very
little to set matters at rest In North
America ; it provided only a short
breathing spell before the numerous unsettled
Th tr at qucstlons gavc rise to another and far
of Aix-ia- greater war. The treaty did little or
*''° ^ nothing toward marking out bounda
ries either at the east in Acadia, or at the west
toward the Ohio valley, and it was in the latter
region that the next great storm was to burst.
By 1748 the schemes of La Salle had developed
as far as they were ever destined to do. A
thriving colony had been founded near the
mouth of the Mississippi River, and that region
was connected with Canada by a straggling
series of fortified villages at great distances
apart. Such places were Kaskaskia and Caho-
kia, as well as Fort Chartres in the lUInois
country, and Detroit.
But the French were now beginning to feel
the disadvantage of scarcity of numbers dis
tributed over long exterior lines. Every year

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 259
that brought them. closer to contact with the
English made this disadvantage more apparent.
Since La Salle's time a great change had come
over the land. In his day, Pennsylvania was
merely the banks of the Delaware River, while
the Maryland and Virginia settlements .j,^^ ^ ^^^^
were confined to the tidewater re- ofthe Eng-
gions ; but by 1748 not only had
these EngHsh populations spread for many miles
into the interior, but a fresh migration from
Europe, conducted on a greater scale than any
of its predecessors, had introduced into the mid
dle Appalachian region an active and aggressive
population. Ofthe 3,000,000 inhabitants ofthe
United States in 1776, at least one The Scotch-
sixth part were Presbyterians who had ^"^^
come from the north of Ireland since lyio}
Along with these there was a considerable pop
ulation of Protestant Germans who had come at
about the same time. By far the greater part
of this population had passed through the old
settled seaboard districts and made homes for
itself on what was then the western frontier ; that
is to say, the Alleghany region of Pennsylvania,
1 [Cf. on the Scotch-Irish, Fiske, Old Virginia and her
Neighbours, ii. 456-462 ; The Dutch and Quaker Colonies,
U. 410—414 ; and Mr. C. A. Hanna's elaborate work. The
Scotch-Irish, or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland,
and North America, 2 vols.. New York, 1902.]

260 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. From
this population came some of the most hardy
and enterprising pioneers of the old west, such
men as Daniel Boone, James Robertson, and
John Sevier the Huguenot ; for in this move
ment we find the name of many a Protestant
Frenchman enlisted under the banner of St.
George. By 1 748 the settled English population
was fast approaching the Appalachian ranges,
and the rriore mobile company of hunters, trap-
The pioneers P^^'Sj fur-tradcrs, and other pioneers
pass the AUe- wcrc passIng bcyoud them and fast
g ames making their mark upon the western
country. A company had already been formed
In Virginia for the improvement of lands on the
Ohio River, and In this company were inter
ested some of the most prominent men in the
colony, including two brothers of George Wash
ington. Some ofthe pioneers were pressing for
ward to make homes in the wilderness where
afterward grew up the two great commonwealths
of Kentucky and Tennessee ; but that stage was
only realized three years later. Meanwhile as
the Indian trade was lucrative, and hunting had
its charms, all the restless spirits who preferred
life In the wilderness to life on plantations were
finding their way through the picturesque defiles
of the mountains down the broad grassy slopes
through which flowed the western rivers.

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 261
Now this advance of the English frontier was
an advance against the centre of the whole
French position. In those days, as at y^Cis advance
present, there were two great routes, "f *= Eng-
\ t r ¦ I • r ''^" ^ men-
whether for military purposes or ror ace to the
trade, between the Atlantic seaboard ^'¦™'^''
and the Mississippi valley. One of these was
from Albany to the Niagara River, and thence
westward either to the north or to the south of
Lake Erie. The other was from Philadelphia
or Baltimore to Pittsburg, and thence down the
Ohio River. It followed, therefore, that if the
English could firmly hold both the Niagara
River and the junction between the Allegheny
and the Monongahela, where Pittsburg now
stands, it would be In their power to strike at
the centre of the long exterior line held by the
French, and forever to cut Louisiana asunder
from Canada. By degrees the more far-sighted
Frenchmen who administered the affairs of Can
ada had been taking in the alarming character
of the situation. Since the early part of the cen
tury the influence of the Frenchmen .j.j^^ French
over the Indian tribes had relatively influence
diminished. They held as firmly as Indians
ever the alliance of the northern Al- '^^'^^"^^
gonquins, from the Micmacs of Nova Scotia to
the Ojibways of Lake Superior, and at one time
in the early part of the eighteenth'century their

262 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Influence had waxed strong even among their
ancient enemies of the Long House. The per
suasive tongues of the Jesuits had even won
converts among the Mohawks, a small colony of
whom they had established at Caughnawaga on
the St. Lawrence River, a short distance above
Montreal. These Caughnawagas were useful as
middle men In the trade between the remote
northwest and the province of New York by
way of Lake Champlain, and they were also of
considerable service as spies to report in Canada
the affairs of New York. These circumstances
led William Burnet, the able governor of New
The founding York, to buUd a fortress at Oswego in
of Oswego IJ22 upon land which he bought for
the purpose from the Six Nations. As the New
York Assembly was as froward and penny wise
as usual, Burnet cut the Gordian knot by pay
ing the expenses out of his own pocket. This
founding of Oswego was an event of prime Im
portance in the history of the United States,
inasmuch as it diverted the main current of the
northwestern fur-trade from the valley of the
St. Lawrence to the valley of the Mohawk, and
thus greatly strengthened the hold of the Eng
lish upon the Long House all the way from the
Hudson River to Lake Erie.* In 1738 this
English Influence was still further increased by
1 [W. L. Stone, Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, i.
30-32.]

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 263
the arrival of that remarkable man, William
Johnson, a native of Ireland, who waxed rich in
the Indian trade, built for himself two strong
holds in the Mohawk valley, and acquired such
a reputation among the Mohawks that they
revered him like one of their natural chiefs.
The infiuence exerted upon the In- sirwiiiiam
dians by Johnson and by the Schuy- J°i>°son
lers of Albany, as well as through the trading
station at Oswego, made it probable that in the
event of a conflict with France the English could
control the Niagara River.
Still more important, however, was the moun
tainous site of Pittsburg, the Gateway of the
West, as It used to be' called ; for it was In that
neighbourhood that the English were already
pressing westward and winning control over the
numerous and powerful tribes of the Ohio val
ley. Among these should especially be men
tioned the Delawares and Shawnees upon the
upper Ohio ; and with them were associated the
remnants of the Hurons, generally known as
Wyandottes, and likewise a group which had
migrated from the Long House, apparently con
sisting chiefly of Senecas, but called by the fron
tiersmen MIngos. Westward of all these came
the Miamis, and then the Ilhnols. Late In the
seventeenth century all these tribes had been
invaded, tormented, and made more or less trib-

264 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
utary by the Long House. Whether they ac
knowledged the relationship or not, the Long
House asserted it whenever an occasion offered.
French influence over these tribes had never
been strong except among the Illinois. On the
EngUsh other hand, the English traders as
the'^ohio ^^^^ Came Into the Ohio valley were
valley carcful to propItlatc the natives, and
succeeded in establishing a strong influence over
them, especially the tribes of the upper Ohio.
Obviously, if this sort of thing were to go on,
it would not be long before the English would
hold the whole stretch of country from Oswego
south of Lake Erie to Cahokia as firmly as the
French held the country from Montreal to the
Sault Ste. Marie ; In other words, the English
would hold both the great routes between east
and west, and New France would be severed In
twain. This situation was distinctly realized by the
Marquis de la Galissonlere, who governed Can
ada in 1749 ; and that year he sent a party of
about 250 men to inspect the country between
the Niagara and Ohio rivers, to take possession
of it in the name of the French king, and to as
certain the sentiments of the native tribes. The
command of this party was entrusted to a cap
tain and chevalier named Celoron de Bienville.
They went up the St. Lawrence as far as Fort

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 265
Frontenac, crossed Lake Ontario in canoes
which they carried up by the bank of the Niag
ara River, and launching them at a safe distance
above the falls, made their way into Lake Erie.
Then for seven days they forced their way
through the dense forest to the placid waters
of Chautauqua Lake, and after landing where
Jamestown now stands, and struggling once
more with the tangled woods, they reached the
Allegheny River. At that point of their route
on the 29th of July they took possession of
the country in the name of Louis XV. This
act of taking possession was performed ceioron takes
as follows : The royal arms of France possession of
stamped upon a tin plate were nailed '^^^,^ f°^
to a tree. At the foot of the tree a Louis xv.,
plate of lead was burled, upon which '^'^9
was an Inscription stating that Monsieur Celo
ron had buried this plate " as a token of re
newal of possession heretofore taken of the
aforesaid river Ohio, of all streams that fall into
it, and all lands on both sides to the source of
the aforesaid streams, as the preceding kings
of France have enjoyed or ought to have en
joyed It, and which they have upheld by force
of arms and by treaties, notably by those of
Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle." * It
^ [A facsimile of this plate is given in Winsor, Narrative
and Critical Hist, of America, v. 9.]

266 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
will be observed that this Is the usual style
which France has maintained for some centu
ries. Whenever her borders have been extended
it has always been officially declared to be sim
ply taking possession of what was hers already.
Upon various other spots as they descended
the river our party of Frenchmen buried these
leaden tablets, the last place being at the mouth
ofthe Great Miami. Some of the plates have
since then been dug up and preserved in mu
seums. The general demeanour of the Indians
through whose towns the Frenchmen passed
was polite, but suspicious and unsatisfactory. It
was evident that the Enghsh influence was
strong throughout the upper country drained
by the Ohio. When Celoron reached the Great
Miami he turned his course up that river and
Celoron presently came to a village of the
among the Mlamls, Tulcd by a chieftain who was
lamis ^ £^^ friend to the English, in so
much that they commonly called him " Old
Britain," but the French oddly called him " La
Demoiselle," or " The Maiden." Whether he
was faint-hearted, as such an epithet might seem
to Imply, or perhaps more delicate of feature
than others of his race, we cannot say; but. as
to his capacity for lying, we are not left in doubt.
His home had formerly been upon the Maumee
River, not far from the site of Fort Wayne, and

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 267
he had now moved close down to the Ohio,
apparently In order to be in the highway of -
English trade. Celoron heaped gifts upon him
and urged him to take his men back to their
old home on the Maumee. The astute Demoi
selle accepted the presents and was profuse in
promises, but so far was he from re- ^^^ Miamis
tiring that he gathered into his new underEngUsh
1 . 1 influence
town as many recruits as he could
summon.* The English called It Plckawillany.
It became one of the principal Indian towns
of the west, completely under English influ
ence, and was a serious obstacle to all French
schemes in that quarter. For some time Cana
dian officials intrigued and fulminated against
Plckawillany, until at length in the summer
of 1752 Charles de Langlade, a young French
trader of Green Bay, led a large The French
force of Ojibways and Ottawas against Milmltrad-
the obnoxious town. They took it ing village
by surprise, slaughtered many of the defend
ers, and burned the town, crowning the work
by a hilarious supper in which they feasted
upon the boiled carcase of the Demoiselle him
self Considering the vital importance ofthe Gate-
* [A facsimUe of the map of Father Boimecamp, the chap
lain of the expedition, is given in Winsor, Narr. and Crit.
Hist, of Amer.,\. 569.]

268 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
way of the West, it seems very strange that
the English, who were then in possession of It,
did not build and maintain a strong fortress
there, but in truth the spot was claimed at once
by Virginia and by Pennsylvania, and in neither
of these provinces did the legislature wish to
Invest money in property that might be adjudged
to belong to another province. The swarm of
difficulties that surrounded this unsettled ques
tion sufficed to prevent all action. Meanwhile,
a new governor came to Canada, the Marquis
Duquesne, who saw clearly that New France
The Marquis must either control the Gateway of
Duquesne ^]^g WcSt, Or glvC Up all hold UpOU
the Ohio valley and submit to see Canada
severed from Louisiana. Accordingly, In the
spring of 1753 Duquesne sent out a force of
1500 men commanded by an able veteran named
Marin. This little army crossed Lake Erie at
some distance to the west of Niagara River,
and landed at Presqu'Isle, where the town of
Erie now stands, and there they built a strong
The French blockhousc. From that point they
expedition cut a Toad through the forest to the
stream since known as French Creek,
and there they erected a second blockhouse and
called it Fort Le Boeuf Here they could re
sume their canoes and easily float down French
Creek to the Allegheny River., and so on. If need

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 269
be, to the Gulf of Mexico. At this point the
French commander fell dangerously 111, and his
place was taken by another skilful veteran, Le-
gardeur de Saint-Pierre.
By these active measures the French were
gaining strength daily. It is true that the In
dians of the region they were entering were
friends, of the English, but the red man's pol
itics were apt to be of a vacillating sort, and
truckling to strength was one of their .^.j^^ j^^^j^ ^
chief characteristics. They resembled between
the politics of the famous Vicar of
Bray, whose conduct was always guided by one
unswerving principle, no matter what party
might be uppermost, always to remain Vicar
of Bray, sir. The red man was usually ready
to follow the advice of Mr. Pickwick and shout
with whichever mob shouted the loudest. This
was seen in the conduct of a feathered potentate
whom the English called the Half-King ; he
came out from his village with a show of fight,
but soon made up his mind that discretion
was the better part of valour. Fifteen hundred
Frenchmen ! truly the white father at Quebec
must be a mighty chief. Several tribes sent
messages seeking to curry favour with the in
vaders. It was Duquesne's intention to have a third
fort built at Venango, where French Creek flows

270 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
into the Allegheny, and an advance party, com
manded by Joncaire, had arrived at that place
and seized and fortified an English trading
house there. Thus far had things proceeded in
the early days of December, 1753, when one
A chance cvcnlng as Joncalrc and his friends
meeting wcrc slttlug down to suppcr, some
unbidden guests arrived upon the scene. The
party consisted of Christopher Gist, a veteran
trader who acted as guide, an Indian Interpre
ter named Davison, a French interpreter named
Vanbraam, and four wood rangers as servants. .
The person for whom this little party acted as
escort was a tall and stately youth named George
Major Washington, a major in the Virginia
George mllltla. Govcmor Dinwiddle of Vir-
Washlngton ... , . ,
sent to warn gmia, who was keeping as keen a
the French y^^atch upon the Ohio valley from
Williamsburg as Duquesne was keeping from
Montreal, had heard of the crossing of Lake
Erie by the French and their approach toward
the Gateway of the West. To warn them off was
a delicate matter, while to counteract their in
trigues with the Indians a wise head was called
for. Washington had been In the employ of
Lord Fairfax in surveying frontier land, and
had made good use of the opportunities for
studying Indians. Governor Dinwiddle, more
over, gave him credit for a clear-sightedness
that nothing could hoodwink and a courage

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 271
that nothing could daunt, and in this the wise
old Scotchman was not deceived.
After the party had sat down to supper and
the wine had begun to circulate, the Frenchmen
grew somewhat confidentia], and with their po
litest smiles assured Washington that they in
tended to drive the English out of all .^.j^^ p^^^^j^
that country ; and they felt sure that boast of their
they could do It, for although inferior '' ^"^
in force, they more than made up for this by
their quickness of movement. The next day
Washington proceeded to Fort Le Boeuf, where
he met the French commander, and gave him a
polite letter from Dinwiddle expressing his sur
prise that he should thus venture to encroach
upon English territory In time of peace. The
old Frenchman treated Washington with ex
treme politeness, but said that he should feel it
necessary to remain where he was until he should
have had time to transmit Dinwiddle's letter to
Montreal and get a reply from Governor Du
quesne. Washington's return to Virginia was
marked with adventures and some hair-breadth
escapes.* When Governor Dinwiddle heard the
results of his journey, which were not very dlf-
* [Washington's Journal of this expedition is in Sparks's
ed. of his works, U. 432—447. For other reprints, see Win
sor, Narr. and Crit. Hist., v. 572. Gist's Journal is to be
found in the Mass. Hist. Soe. Coll., 3 ser. v. 101-108.]

272 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
ferent from what he had anticipated, he made up
his mind that as large a force as possible must
be collected from Virginia and other
Dinwiddie colonlcs, to advaucc, while there was
o?c°upy the yet time, and occupy the Gateway
Gateway of of the Wcst ; but the governor of a
the West .
free English colony was at a great
disadvantage as compared with a despotic gov
ernor of Canada. Dinwiddle must persuade his
legislature, and he must notify other governors,
who in turn must persuade their legislatures.
We need not be surprised that the English
were too late. Washington had selected the
spot where Pittsburg now stands as the proper
place for a commanding fortress, but scarcely
had his men begun to work there when they
were driven away by a superior force of French
men, who proceeded to build a stout fortress and
call It Fort Duquesne. Well might the indig-
„ nant Dinwiddie exclaim in a letter
Duquesne
anticipates Written at thls time, "If our Assembly
"^ ^ had voted the money In November
which they did in February, it 's more than
probable the fort would have been built and
garrisoned before the French had approached;
but these things cannot be done without money.
As there was none in our treasury, I have ad
vanced my own to forward the expedition ; and
if the independent companies from New York

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 273
come soon, I am in hopes the eyes of the other
colonies will be opened ; and if they grant a
proper supply of men, I hope we shall be able
to dislodge the French or build a fort on that
river." * When we read such letters as this and
realize that through the whole seventy years
of struggle with New France the difficulty was
always the same, we surely cannot much wonder
that the British minister at the beginning of
Pontiac's war should have deemed it necessary
to resort to such a measure as the Stamp Act.
Americans should not forget that while that
measure was ill-considered, the evil which it
was designed to relieve was most flagrant and
dangerous. In point of fact, in May, 1754, Dinwiddle's
force on the frontier was only the Virginia regi
ment of about three hundred men The Virginia
under Colonel Joshua Fry, with Ma- t^Fort™
jor Washington second In command. Duquesne
Fry was detained by sickness at Will's Creek,
about one hundred and forty miles from Fort
Duquesne. The advance was slow and difficult,
as it was necessary to cut roads through the
virgin forests and over the mountains In order
to drag cannon and wagons. An advance of a
mile In a day was sometimes all that could
be accompHshed. In spite of these obstacles,
* [Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, i. 144.]

274 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Washington had crossed the mountains and
encamped at a spot called Great Meadows
with about one hundred and fifty men, when a
message came to him from his friend the Half-
King, saying that the French were upon the
march to meet him. For two or three days
Washington watched vigilantly for a surprise,
and the reports that came In seemed to indicate
that a French force was lurking in the neigh
bourhood. Presently the Half-King arrived
upon the scene, and as everything
surprises a Indicated that the enemy Intended a
French force guj-pj-ige. It was dccIded to find them
if possible and inflict a counter surprise. The
result was that presently the French were dis
covered In a ravine, and there was a brief fight
in which the French commander, an ensign
named Jumonvllle, was killed, with nine others,
and the remaining twenty-two were captured.
After it was all over some of the prisoners in
formed Washington that they were a party sent
from Fort Duquesne by its commander, Con
trecoeur, to carry a message to Washington. In
point of fact, it was a scouting party intended
to look out for any approaching party of Eng
lish, and to warn them to withdraw from this
portion of New France. A great outcry was
afterward raised by the French at what they
chose to call perfidy on Washington's part, and

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 275
an absurd story was circulated to the intent that
he had fired upon a flag of truce. The whole
case may, however, be properly summed up as
a chance encounter between two forces engaged
In actual hostilities before any declaration of
war. Each side professed to be unwilling to
force on hostilities, while each side was eager to
strike the other as soon as a proper occasion
offered. After this affray Washington built a rude en
trenchment at Great Meadows which he called
Fort Necessity. A few days after- p^^
ward news came of Colonel Fry's Necessity
death, and presently other troops arrived from
Virginia and South Carolina, until Washington
was in command of some three hundred men
besides about one hundred and fifty Indians
under the Half-King and others.
Meanwhile, the authorities in Canada had
not been Idle, and the garrison of Fort Du
quesne now numbered fourteen hundred men.
A force of about six hundred under Coulon
de Vllllers, brother of the slain Jumonvllle,
marched up the Monongahela in quest of
Washington. Vllllers arrived at Great Meadows
on a rainy day, and a lively firing was
1 -1 J 1 n 1 ¦ 1 The battle
kept up until dark. By that time the of Fort
English found their powder nearly Necessity
exhausted and their guns foul, while their food

276 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
was gone and starvation faced them. Washing
ton therefore accepted the terms offered by the
French commander, that the English should
march away with the honours of war, with drums
beating and colours flying, and that they should
be protected from insult, while on the other
hand, they should surrender their prisoners of
Jumonville's party. So the English marched
away. It was not a very murderous affair, and
Washington's friend, the red man Half-King,
sarcastically gave it as his opinion that the
Frenchmen had behaved like cowards and the
English like fools. It was on the 4th of July
The English that young Washington began his
retreat dolcful Tctrcat across the mountains
Into Virginia. The situation seemed to have
nothing to retrieve It. At this first outbreak of
the struggle with France the enemy seemed to
be carrying everything before them. The Gate
way of the West was in their possession, and
the red flag of England waved nowhere within
the limits of what they chose to call New
France. Yet Washington even at that early age
was already a marvel of fortitude and may have
consoled himself with the thought that better
days were coming.
Before he was permitted, however, to see such
better days, the cup of disaster must be drained
to its dregs. Nothing could be clearer than that

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 277
the possession of Fort Duquesne by the French
and their infliction of a slight defeat upon the
English would have an immediate and disas
trous effect upon most of the Indian tribes In
the Ohio valley. Dinwiddie therefore at once
prepared to assume the offensive and carry the
war on a larger scale Into the enemy's country.
But he found himself impeded at every step by
the Virginia House of Burgesses. Those
canny planters were loath to put much money
into the governor's hands lest he should make
an improper use of it. At one time they would
refuse the appropriation asked for, at Niggardii-
another time they would grant a sum provbciai
too small to be of much use, and yet Assemblies
again they would grant a sufficient sum, while
attaching to the bill a rider concerning some
long-disputed question which they knew would
elicit an angry veto from the governor. Simi
larly In Pennsylvania the Assembly refused
money for military purposes in order to wring
from the governor some concession with regard
to the long-vexed question of taxing proprietary
lands. Moreover, the Assembly at Philadel
phia was not quite sure that it was worth while
to raise troops for taking Fort Duquesne from
the French If It should thereby fall Into the
possession of Virginia. It was with difficulty
that these representative bodies could be made
to see anything that required any breadth of

278 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
vision. Moreover, they were used to contend
ing against their governors ; in the eyes of most
representatives that was the sole object for
which legislatures existed, but they were not
accustomed to devote much thought to the
French as enemies, nor had they as yet learned
very well what it meant to be invaded by In
dians. On the other hand. New York and
The defence Massachusctts wcrc somcwhat more
ofthe coio- forward Inasmuch as they had a keen
mes depend- . r i • i i •
ent on the perception of what was involved in
governors warfare against Frenchmen and In
dians. Here too, however, the zeal of the gov
ernors far outran the efficiency of the legisla
tures. Shirley, in particular, a veteran lawyer
of great sense and more than average insight,
appreciated the nature of the threatened strug
gle more keenly than any of the other gov
ernors except Dinwiddie.
In fact, something was happening ofthe sort
that people never quite see until they can look
backward. The English colonies had Insensibly
drifted Into a continental state of things. The
crisis had been hastened by the wholesale in
coming of the Scotch-Irish and Germans. The
bulging of the centre of the English line toward
the Ohio valley had brought things to a pass
where it was no longer a conflict between New
France and New England in the narrower sense,

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 279
but between New France and the entire world
of English America. Under these circumstances
the next war that should break out must be a
continental affair ; it would concern Louisiana
and Georgia as well as New York and ^^ ^ .
° The need of
Canada ; and yet, here were the peo- a union of
pie of these colonies profoundly '^e colonies
ignorant and almost culpably careless of each
other's Interests, ready to throw away all the
advantages of numerical strength and interior
lines and give away the victory to an inferior
enemy rather than cooperate with one another
in defeating him. Obviously, the crying need
of the time was some feasible plan for a federal
Union. In the event of a war, it was Important
to insure the aid of the Six Nations, and to
this end It was necessary to let them know how
much support they might expect from the Eng
lish colonies. For this purpose a congress was
called to assemble at Albany In the summer of
1754 in order to consider the situation. It.was
the second congress that assembled on Ameri
can soil, the first having been the one called by
Leisler at New York in 1690.^ It is significant
that even on this verge of a mighty conflict only
the four New England colonies with New York,
Pennsylvania, and Maryland were represented
^ [Cf. Fiske, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies, ii. 228,
and Frothingham, Rise ofthe Republic of the United States,
pp. 90-93.]

280 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
at the Albany Congress. The deliberations were
chiefly memorable for a plan of union drawn
The Albany up by Benjamin Franklin which, if
Congress j(. ^^^ been adopted, might perhaps
have averted the Revolution of twenty years
later.* This plan would have created a true
federal Union, the government of which would
have operated directly upon individuals, as our
present federal Union does, and not upon states
only, as the Continental Congress did. Frank
lin's plan would have created a Continental
government with taxing power for continental
purposes only, leaving otherwise intact the local
self-government. There would have been a
president or governor-general appointed by the
Crown to serve as chief executive in purely
continental matters.^
This plan of federation was rejected with small
ceremony by the colonies. In some cases no
notice was taken of it ; in others It was treated
^ , , , with contempt. There were few peo-
FrankUn s ^ . -"^ ,
plan of union plc as yct who saw any meaning in
rejected ^.j^^ demand for a closer union, and
nothing but a long experience of distress and
disaster would have taught them the need of It.
This rejection of the Albany plan left the col-
^ [Such seems to have been FrankUn's opinion in 1789 ;
see Frothingham, Rise ofthe Republic, etc., p. 149, note.]
^ [See Bigelow, Franklin' s Works, u. 355-375 ; Froth
ingham, Rise ofthe Republic, etc., pp. 1 34-1 51.]

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 281
onies in a very embarrassing position. On the
brink of a great war there was no single power
in the country which could raise men and money
for the common defence. Of course, there were
but few who anticipated war, or were alive to
the situation. It was at this moment that It
occurred to Shirley that if the colonists could
not create for themselves a continental taxing
power it would be necessary for Parliament to
fulfil that function. This would involve a direct
tax, and while Shirley recognized the American
unwillingness to submit to taxation by any other
authority than that of the colonial Assemblies,
he nevertheless thought that a stamp tax might
be received with acquiescence because it had so
few annoying features. It was by such consid
erations as these that the British official mind
was prepared for the Stamp Act of eleven years
later. As it was, the colonies had to flounder
through a great war as best they could.
The representations of the royal governors
and of the viceroy of Canada created some ex
citement both in England and In E„gi,„<j,„i
France. In England a couple of regi- France send
ments, each of five hundred men, were America,
shipped for Virginia under command '^55
of Major-General Edward Braddock. When
this was learned at Versailles a force of three
thousand men was started for Canada under

282 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Baron Dieskau. The health of Duquesne was
failing, and with Dieskau's expedition there came
a new viceroy for Canada, the last of her French
governors, Vaudreuil, a younger son of the
former governor of that name. The expedition
did not get clear of European waters without
adventure. It was well understood by the Brit
ish government that the squadron gathering at
Brest had troops on board destined for Amer
ica. Accordingly, a powerful force of eighteen or
twenty ships of the line was sent out to Inter
cept and capture any French vessels bound for
America. The greater part of the French squad
ron, however, got away, but three of its ships,
having fallen behind through stress of weather,
ca ture of wcrc In the neighbourhood of Cape
two French Racc whcn the British fleet overtook
* '''^ them. As the British ship Dunkirk
came abreast of the French ship Alcide, a red
flag was suddenly hoisted upon the British flag
ship as a signal for fighting; whereupon the
French captain of the Alcide called out, " Is this
peace or war ? " He was answered by Richard
Howe, captain ofthe Dunkirk, " I don't know ;
but you 'd better get ready for war." Scarcely
had the words been uttered when the Dun
kirk and other English ships opened fire, and
the Alcide, with one of her companions, was
forced to surrender. This little incident at

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 283
sea was the naval counterpart to Washington's
passage at arms with Jumonvllle in the moun
tains. It was In February, 1755, that General Brad
dock arrived at Governor Dinwiddle's house at
Williamsburg. The spring was spent General
in preparations for the campaign that Braddock
was to wrest Fort Duquesne from the enemy
and recover the Gateway of the West. The fig
ure of Braddock has long been well known to
all Americans, — a British bulldog, brave, ob
stinate, and honest, but more than ordinarily
dull in appreciating an enemy's methods, or in
freeing himself from the precise traditions in
which he had been educated. His first and
gravest mistake, however, — that of underrating
his Indian foe, — is one that has been shared by
many commanders, to their confusion, and by
many writers. The fighting qualities of the red
man have often been 111 appreciated, and In par
ticular he has been Ignorantly accused of cow
ardice because of his stealthy methods Indian mode
and unwillingness to fight In the open. °^ fighting
In point of fact, his method of fighting was
closely adapted to the physical conditions ofthe
American wilderness, and It was just what was
produced by survival of fhe fittest during thou
sands of years of warfare under such conditions.
When white men came to America, they were at

284 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
first able to wreak wholesale destruction upon
the natives without regard to numbers or con
ditions. Such was the case when the Pequots,
the Stamford Indians, and the Narragansetts
were swept out of existence.* This was largely
because ofthe European superiority in arms, but
In later days, when this disparity had been done
away with, white men were apt to find Indians
quite as formidable enemies as they cared to deal
with, and In order to achieve success it was found
necessary to adopt the Indian methods, aban
doning solid columns and lines of battle, so as
to fight in loose order and behind trees or earth
works. It is interesting to see that in these later
English days when the increase in the power
regulars and prccIsIon of death-dealing wea-
ill prepared , , . i i i
for such pons has greatly increased the danger-
tactics ousness of the battlefield, there has
been a tendency to recur to Indian methods in
so far as concerns looseness of order and the
use of various kinds of cover. In the eighteenth
century there was nobody so ill fitted to fight
with Indians as a European regular, trained in
European manuals of war and inured to Euro
pean discipline. Braddock's fatuity was well
illustrated in his reply to Dr. Franklin, when
the latter informed him that the Indians, as
^ [Fiske, The Beginnings of New England, pp. 157-
162.]

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 285
antagonists, were by no means to be despised:
" These savages may, indeed," said Braddock,
" be a formidable enemy to your raw American
militia, but upon the king's regular and disci
plined troops, sir. It is impossible that they
should make any impression." *
Many stories of Braddock's arrogance and ill-
temper have come down to us, but If we con
sider the obstacles that were thrown in the way
of military promptness, by which zealous men-
like Shirley and Dinwiddie were so Braddock's
often goaded to anger, we need not <i'ffi<:uities
wonder that Braddock's temper was sometimes
not altogether at its best. He scolded a good
deal about the legislatures, and sometimes let
fall exasperating remarks about the lack of
zeal and rectitude In public servants. For
such insinuations there was sometimes appar
ent ground, especially when the member of a
legislature showed himself more intent upon an
noying the governor than upon attacking the
enemy. The energetic Shirley made a visit to Brad
dock's camp at Alexandria, in the course of
which a comprehensive plan of procedure was
agreed upon, which involved operations on the
Niagara River and Lake Champlain and the
* \_Life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself. Edited
by John Bigelow, Philadelphia, 1884, i. 425.]

286 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
northeastern frontier as well as in the Alleghany
Mountains. For the present we will confine
our story to the latter.
At the outset a mistake was made in the
choice of a route. For a force like Braddock's,
wagons were indispensable, and wagons were
far more common in Pennsylvania than In Vir
ginia. A route corresponding with the general
Braddock dlrectlou of the Pennsylvania rail-
¦ ij°jgj J^" road would not only have been much
Philadelphia shorter than the route through Vir
ginia, but it would have been, at least in its earlier
stages, a route through a population which could
furnish wagons. By adopting this route Brad
dock would have made the Pennsylvanians feel
some personal Interest in the acquisition of Fort
Duquesne ; whereas, when he decided to march
through Virginia it only tended to confirm Penn
sylvanians In the impression that Fort Du
quesne, if conquered, was to pass into Virginian
hands. After a while Benjamin FrankHn went
about among the farmers, and by pledging his
own personal credit obtained a fair supply of
horses and wagons.*
Braddock's force at length set out in de
tachments and marched along the banks of
the Potomac River to the old trading station
^ \^Life of Benjamin Franklin, etc., edited by John Big
elow, i. 322.]

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 287
of the Ohio Company known as Will's Creek.
It had lately been fortified, and received the
name of Fort Cumberland. This was the ren
dezvous of the army. The two regiments from
England had been increased by further enlist
ments in Virginia of nine companies of mihtia
of fifty men each to a total of fourteen hundred
men. Braddock despised these militia, and had
small respect either for partisan guerilla forces
or for Indian auxiliaries. The services of the
chief Scarroyaddy, or ofthe noted frontiersman
Black Jack, were at his disposal at the cost of
a few civil words only, but he treated these
worthies so superciliously that they went off on
business of their own.
In spite of these instances of indiscretion,
however. It is not correct to say, as has often
been said, that Braddock neglected all
J . . The march
precaution and was drawn into an am
buscade. Such statements &re samples of the
kind of exaggeration that is apt to grow up
about events that create great public excitement.
Braddock made mistakes enough, but he was
not absolutely a fool. During the whole of the
march flanking parties were kept out on each
side of the creeping column, while scouts In all
directions ranged through the depths of the
woods. The column, which consisted of about
twenty-two hundred men, sometimes extended

288 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
for four miles along a road hardly fit to be
called a bridle-path, on the average scarcely four
yards in width. The march began on June lo,
and eight days later the force had advanced
only thirty miles from Fort Cumberland. By
that time the rear of the column was so heavily
encumbered with sick men that its power of
marching had almost come to an end. It was
. , , . therefore decided to leave with the
A detach
ment sent on rear column of about one thousand
in advance . r , i i ¦ i
men most or the heavier wagons and
other impedimenta, and to proceed somewhat
more quickly toward Fort Duquesne with an
advance guard of twelve hundred. But in spite
of this diminution of labour, the difficulties of
the road were such that the 7th of July had
arrived when the advance column approached
Turtle Creek, a stream that flows into the
Monongahela about eight miles south of Fort
Duquesne. Meanwhile, its progress had been
detected and watched, as was to have been ex
pected, by French and Indian scouts. At the
fortress Contrecoeur still governed, with Beau
jeu second in command. The force consisted
of five or six hundred Frenchmen, partly reg
ulars and partly Canadian militia, with eight
hundred Indians, some of them baptized con
verts from the northeast, some of them wild
Ojibways led by Charles de Langlade, the

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 289
conqueror of the Demoiselle, and the rest,
Ottawas under their renowned chieftain, the
long-headed and ferocious Pontiac. When the
approach of Braddock's column to the mouth
of Turtle Creek was announced at the French
fortress Captain Beaujeu volunteered to go out
with a strong party and lay an ambuscade for
the English. With this end in view Beaujeu sets
he took some two hundred and fifty ^y^J'^l'
Frenchmen and over six hundred In- I's^
dians and stole through the woods between the
fortress and Turtle Creek, but he never suc
ceeded in preparing the desired ambuscade, nor
did Braddock's force march into an ambuscade,
in any proper sense of the word. So sensible
was Braddock of the great danger of the road
between Turtle Creek and Fort Duquesne, on
the right bank of the Monongahela, Braddock's
that he forded the latter stream and p''^'^^"'^™^
proceeded down the opposite bank for five or
six miles, when he again crossed the river and
brought his column on to a rising ground along
which the narrow road ran toward the fortress.
His column was then in its usual condition :
a few Virginian guides in front, then the advance
under Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Gage, among
whose men were two lieutenants destined in later
days to play inglorious parts, — Horatio Gates
and Charles Lee. Behind Gage came Sir John

290 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
St. Clair with the working party, followed by a
couple of cannon, and these. In turn, by the
wagons with powder and tools. Behind these
came the principal part of the column, while
both flanks and rear were very strongly guarded
with flanking parties. The situation would not
have been particularly dangerous if the British
regulars had known how to separate and fight
under cover. It was owing to this Internal fault-
iness, and not to any ambush, that Braddock's
column came to grief.
When the opposing forces met it was simply
the meeting of the two heads of columns in
a narrow woodland road. Who can
ever forget that moment when Gage's
light horsemen quickly fled back and those be
hind could catch a glimpse through the trees
of a young Frenchman wearing a brilliant red
gorget and bounding lightly along the road,
till, on seeing his enemy, he turned and waved
his hand ? That brief glimpse of Captain Beau
jeu at the moment of his death will forever
live in history. At the third volley he dropped
dead. Gage's men delivered fire with admirable
coolness, but its effect was slight, for the enemy.
In two bifurcating columns, passed to right and
to left of the English, all the time pouring in
a galling fire from behind trees and bushes.
Never were the conditions of a battle more
simple. The Enghsh were torn to pieces be-

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 291
cause they stood in solid line where they could
be seen ; and if anything were needed to make
it impossible to miss them, it was their bright
scarlet coats. On the other hand, no matter
how diligently the British loaded and .^j^^ ^.^ y^j^^
fired, they could see nothing to aim faU before
at. One officer who had been in the ""^^°" °^
thickest of the fight, literally wedged in among
falling bodies, said after the battle that he had
not caught sight of an Indian during the whole
of the battle. They were fighting simply against
puffs of smoke which seemed to come from all
points of the compass. For a time the can
non were diligently plied and split many tree
trunks. Many of the regulars fired wildly and
hit their own comrades. The Virginians, who
scattered and fought in Indian fashion, suffered
but little and did more than their share of exe
cution. Some of the regulars tried to imitate
these tactics, but wherever Braddock saw any
thing of the sort going on he would strike
them with the flat of his sword and Bravery of
force them back into the ranks. As f^fwaL
for the general himself, he performed ington
prodigies of valour, and was forever In the most
exposed places, while he had four horses shot
under him and at last fell from the fifth with
one of his lungs badly torn by a bullet. Wash
ington's fighting was equally desperate. Two
horses were killed under him and his clothes

292 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
were partly torn from his back by bullets. He
seemed to bear a charmed life. It is needless
to enlarge further upon such a scene. Let it
suffice to say, that out of a total force of thir
teen hundred and seventy-three all but four
hundred and fifty-nine were killed or wounded ;
and in addition to these, out of eighty-six offi
cers only twenty-three escaped unhurt. The
whole affair was as thickly fraught with horror
as anything that is likely to happen in modern
warfare. The utter fatuity of the affair, the
hopeless feeling of brave men drawn up for
slaughter without understanding the means of
defence, has in It something peculiarly Intoler-
Braddock's able. The gallant Braddock, as he
death i^y half-dazed upon his death-bed,
was heard to murmur, " Who would ever have
thought it ? " and again, after an interval, " We
shall know better how to do it next time." *
The skilful retreat from this field of blood
added much to the credit of the youthful Wash
ington, and marked him out as an officer likely
Dunbar's *° '^^'^^ ^ brilliant future. As for the
culpable re- rear column, which had been left un
der command of Colonel Dunbar, it
retreated to Fort Cumberland, and presently
abandoned the campaign, a most Ill-judged and
reprehensible proceeding which threw open the
* l_Life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself, i. 3 2 7.]

BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 293
frontier to all the horrors of Indian invasion.
The events of the past twelve months had done
all that twelvemonths could do in destroying the
influence of the English among the Ohio tribes.
Washington's disaster at Great Meadows had
gone far toward undermining their allegiance,
Braddock's insolence had seasoned their con
tempt with a spice of anger, and now at last this
headlong overthrow of an English army had
convinced the red men that good medicine was
all on the side of the Great White Father on
the St. Lawrence.
Thus inausplciously for the English began
the mighty war that was to put an end to thg
dominion of Frenchmen In America, yet it must
be remembered that no declaration of war had
as yet been made pubhc. These deeds of blood
were the deeds of a time of so-called peace.*
^ [For the Uterature of Braddock's march and defeat, see
Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist. v. 575-580.]

IX
CROWN POINT, FORT WILLIAM
HENRY, AND TICONDEROGA
WHILE General Braddock was at
Williamsburg in the spring of 1755,
discussing plans for the summer, he
was visited by Governor Shirley, and a very ex
tensive scheme of campaigning was
Governor _ r o o
Shirley's plan laid out. While Braddock was to ad-
of campaign ^^j^^^ agaiust Fort Duquesne, Shirley
was to conduct a force, consisting largely of
New England troops, to the Niagara River by
way of the Mohawk valley and Oswego. At
the same time a force commanded by William
Johnson was to wrest from the French the con
trol of Lake Champlain, and yet another force
under Colonel Monckton was to proceed against
the French on the Acadian frontier. The expedi
tion against Niagara was to be commanded by
Shirley himself, and he also undertook to pro
vide a leader for the operations against Crown
Point. Few royal governors had so much suc
cess in dealing with their legislatures as Shirley,
who was conspicuous for moderation and tact.
He knew how to make his demands seem rea-

CROWN POINT 295
sonable in amount, and he knew how to urge
them so gracefully as to make It hard to refuse
them. In the present instance he had to deal
with the four New England colonies and New
York ; and he understood very well that he
could not appoint a commander from anyone of
the New England commonwealths without of
fending the other three. But against the ap
pointment of William Johnson nothing could
very well be said, since the aid of the Iroquois
seemed important and Johnson's influence over
them was well known. Besides, the expedition
was to be directed toward points In the Mohawk
country. For these reasons Shirley selected
Johnson to command the movement wiiiiam
against Crown Point, and it proved f '°
a good selection. It greatly pleased Crown Point
New York and the Long House, and no serious
objection was made In New England except that
Connecticut insisted that one of her own of
ficers, Phlneas Lyman, should be second in
command, and this, too, was a good selection.
There was much delay, owing to the necessity
for communicating with five different legisla
tures, and the larger part of the summer had
passed away before anything was accomplished.
The sad news of Braddock's defeat came like
an augury of disaster to Johnson and his men
as they were approaching the upper waters of
the Hudson in August. Along with this news

296 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
came a report from the north that the French
were coming with eight thousand men to de
fend Lake Champlain.
Johnson's little army consisted almost en
tirely of New England yeomanry, many of whom
^ were now for the first time in training
character of , • i i ¦
Johnson's for the tasks that awaited them in
army 1 775 and the cnsulug ycars. Among
them were names afterward so important as those
of Seth Pomeroy, Israel Putnam, and John
Stark. The training now gained by these men
and their comrades made veterans of them for
the opening scene of the later war.
The movements were slow and the delays
incessant, partly because the business of moving
an army was so ill understood. Cannon, am
munition, and camp kettles would be forgotten
and left on the way ; wagons would not arrive
at the right time, either because distances had
been miscalculated, or because the wagoners were
disappointed of their pay and spiteful ; the stock
of bullets delivered to a regiment would not fit
their muskets; stores of food were delayed un
til men were oppressed with hunger ; and so on
through the usual list of mishaps attendant upon
bad logistics. By the third week in August this
New England army had arrived at a point on
the Hudson River where a fortress then partly
built was called Fort Lyman, a place which after
ward acquired celebrity as Fort Edward. There

CROWN POINT 297
they were joined by three hundred Mohawks.
From Fort Lyman to Crown Point two routes
were available : one by way of Lake George, the
other by way of Wood Creek, which emptied
into the long, narrow head of Lake Champlain.
These two routes united at Ticonderoga, about
twenty-five miles south of Crown Point. After
some discussion It was decided to follow the
route by Lake George, which was then known
by its French name of Lake Sacre- ^ ,
1 T I -1 Johnson
ment, but J ohnson gave it the name names Lake
of the British king, partly by way of ^^"^^
asserting his dominion over it. Leaving five
hundred men to complete Fort Lyman, John
son moved with the other two thousand to the
head of Lake George, and encamped there.
Meanwhile, the French commander. Baron
Dieskau, had arrived at Crown Point with a
force of more than thirty-five hun- Dieskau's
dred men, and decided to push for- ^pp™^'^''
ward and find the enemy. At Ticonderoga he
received Information from an English prisoner
which was Intended to draw him Into a trap.
The prisoner Informed him that five hundred
of the New England army were at Fort Lyman,
but the remainder had for some unknown rea
son turned back and retreated upon Albany.
This story seemed to offer to Dieskau an easy
conquest of Fort Lyman, and he pursued his
way with all haste southward by Lake Qham-

298 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
plain to what was called the South Bay, the
head of which was about halfway between Wood
Creek and Lake George. Thence he marched
directly toward Fort Lyman, and had arrived
within four miles of it when he captured a letter
which disclosed the truth, that the principal body
of New Englanders were encamped at the head
of Lake George. Dieskau had with him six hun
dred Indians under Legardeur de Saint- Pierre,
and these allies suggested that they would
The Indians greatly prefer to attack the open camp
attack Ae rather than the fort. Indians, indeed,
camp had no love for encountering can
non. When it was objected that there seemed
to be more English In the open camp than in
the fort. It was replied that the English were
wretched fighters, and would think of nothing
but running away. The victory over Braddock
was cited with exultation, and several painted
chieftains yelped with delight as they assured
Dieskau that the more English there were in
the camp the more scalps there would be to
bring away. Thus persuaded, if not convinced,
Dieskau gave orders to march directly upon
Lake George.
Meanwhile in Johnson's camp, when scouts
announced the approach of a large French force,
its size was underestimated, and at first two par
ties, each of five hundred men, were ordered
out by different trails to attack It. Then the

CROWN POINT 299
veteran Mohawk chief Hendrick picked up a
couple of stout sticks and tried in vain to break
them, but immediately thereafter took them
separately and broke them with ease. .^.^^^ ^^ j.^^
" Very well," quoth Johnson, " let scouting
them take the same trail." But even ^"'^ ""'"*
now the old red skin was not quite satisfied.
" If their aim is victory," he said, " there are
not enough of them ; but if they are going to
be defeated, there are too piany to lose." The
upshot was that Dieskau, receiving intelligence
of this advancing party, laid an ambush and
inflicted upon it a severe defeat. In which the
veteran Hendrick and many well-known New
England officers were killed.
Emboldened by this success, and half believ
ing the slanders against English courage, Dies
kau pressed on to attack .Johnson's camp, but
the latter was strongly fortified with earthworks
and with trunks of fallen trees. The _. ,
Dieskau
most desperate efforts of the French repulsed and
to carry the place by storm were fruit- "'""'^^
less, and after they had fought until their strength
was nearly exhausted, the New Englanders came
leaping over the works in a deadly charge, and
the Frenchmen were driven from the field with
heavy slaughter. Among the killed was the
Chevalier de Saint- Pierre, whose interview with
George Washington at Fort Le Boeuf had
been the opening scene of this great drama.

300 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Dieskau was wounded and taken prisoner, and
Johnson's Mohawks were furiously eager to
burn him, but the Irishman treated him with
great kindness and courtesy, and assured him,
" They will not burn you until they burn me
with you."
There is not time to go into the disputed
questions which cluster about this as about most
battles. New England men have claimed the
chief credit for Lyman,* to whom they allege
that Johnson never did justice ; and I am in
clined to think this judgment is, on the whole,
well supported. The chief credit at the time
accrued to Johnson, and the promptness of his
reward Is an index to the chagrin which was felt
in England over the defeat of Braddock. John
son was at once made a baronet. As for the vic
tory, it would have been a very important one
if Johnson had followed it up and destroyed the
enemy's force. Much fault was found with him
for not doing this, but, as has often happened
in such cases, the reasons for his inaction are not
easy to explain. With the victory, such as it
was, the English were obliged to rest content
Shirley's ^^^ somc time to come. For Shirley's
expedition expedition agalnst Niagara was a com-
Niagara plctc failure. Shirley penetrated the
a failure New York wlldcmess as far as Oswego,
from which it was possible to reach the Niagara
^ [Cf. Dwight's Travels, iu. 367-370.]

CROWN POINT 301
River in boats in the course of five or six days.
But there was a French force of fourteen hun
dred men at Fort Frontenac. This was about
equal to Shirley's full force. If he were to leave
men enough at Oswego to defend the works, he
would not be able to go on with force enough
to accomplish his object ; but if he were to pro
ceed westward with his full force, the French
from Fort Frontenac would at once capture
Oswego and expose him to starvation. There
was no escape from the dilemma, and it became
necessary to abandon the campaign.
The winter which followed was one of such
misery on the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsyl
vania as had never been witnessed be- Desolation on
fore. Firebrand and tomahawk were ''^'= frontier
perpetually busy, and it proved Impossible to
concentrate forces in such way as to deal with
the horror. It was a winter of bitter contention
in legislatures, and of gloom and fault-finding
everywhere. At last. In May, 1756, nearly two years after
Washington's little campaign at Great Mead
ows, England declared war against France, and
the most memorable war of modern times was
begun. Frederick of Prussia, in beginning to
build up a modern Germany out of the sound
est elements that had survived the general
devastation of the Thirty Years' War, had con
trived to enlist against himself a powerful coali-

302 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
tion. By his seizure of Silesia he had made a
„ ^ permanent enemy of Austria. Maria
Opemng or r ^ J ^
the Seven Thcrcsa, having failed to recover Sile
sia In the recent war, was ready to try
again ; and she found a formidable ally in Eliza
beth of Russia, who was ready to attack Prus
sia for various reasons, all of them sharpened
and embittered by the deadliest of insults when
Frederick had called her by an epithet that was
strictly true. To these two powers was added
that of France, which was coming to forebode
more danger from Prussia than from Austria.
In such a combination the alliance of England
with Prussia was marked out by all sound policy.
From the narrowest point of view, George II.
En land and ^ould find hIs principality of Hanover
Prussia join thus better protected, while from the
widest point of view, the contest for
colonial empire could best be carried on while
the military strength of France was largely ab
sorbed in warfare on the continent of Europe.
The English treasury was thus the mainstay of
Frederick the Great, who put every penny of
the money thus received to the best possible
use by sustaining single-handed a victorious
contest against Russia, Austria, and France.*
^ [For the diplomatic changes which preceded the Seven
Years' War, see Perkins, France under Louis XV., u. I -84,
or Tuttle, History of Prussia under Frederic the Great, ii.
234-321-]

CROWN POINT 303
While Frederick was winning some of the most
astonishing victories the world has seen, and
keeping his three antagonists at bay, the fight
for control of the colonial world was carried on
by England with great advantage against France
In North America and in Hindostan.
It was not in a moment, however, that the
English world reaped the advantages of this
new combination of forces, for it happened
that the choice made by the French minister
for a commander-in-chief in America proved to
be exceptionally fortunate. The appointment
of Louis Joseph, Marquis de Mont-
. . r 1 Montcalm
calm, was an appointment lor long-
tried merit. He was forty-four years of age,
having been born in the neighbourhood of
Nimes in 17 12. He had an excellent educa
tion, especially In Greek and Latin classics and
philology, and his literary tastes were such that
one of the great objects of his ambition was to
become a member of the Academy. In his
leisure moments he was always engaged in read
ing and study. During the war of the Austrian
Succession he had served with great distinction,
and he was recognized by competent judges as
one of the ablest officers In the French service.
When he came to America he left behind him
in his charming country home at Candlac, near
Nimes, a wife and six children, besides his
mother. Montcalm was a man of strong fam-

304 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
ily affections and intense love of home, as we
see from many charming allusions in his jour
nal and letters while campaigning in the New
World. His voyage of nearly six weeks was a rough
one, and sometimes dangerous. In a letter to
his wife he says : " The forecastle was always
under water, and the waves broke twice over
Montcalm's the quartcr-dcck. From the 2ad of
rCgeto April to the evening of the 4th of
Canada May wc had fogs, great cold, and an
amazing quantity of icebergs. On the 30th,
when luckily the fog lifted for a time, we
counted sixteen of them. The day before, one
drifted under the bowsprit, grazed it, and
might have crushed us if the deck-officer had
not called out quickly, Luf. After speaking
of our troubles and sufferings, I must tell you
of our pleasures, which were fishing for cod
and eating It. The taste is exquisite. The
head, tongue, and liver are morsels worthy of
an epicure. Still, I would not advise anybody
to make the voyage for their sake. My health
is as good as it has been for a long time. I
found it a good plan to eat little and take no
supper ; a little tea now and then, and plenty
of lemonade. Nevertheless I have taken very
little liking for the sea, and think that when I
shall be so happy as to rejoin you I shall end my
voyages there, I don't know when this letter

CROWN POINT 305
will go. I shall send it by the first ship that
returns to France, and keep on writing till then.
It Is pleasant, I know, to hear particulars about
the people one loves, and I thought that my
mother and you, my dearest and most beloved,
would be glad to read all these dull details.
We heard mass on Easter Day. All the week
before, it was Impossible, because the ship
rolled so that I could hardly keep my legs. If
I had dared, I think I should have had myself
lashed fast. I shall not soon forget that Holy
Week."* When Montcalm arrived In Montreal, his
reception by Governor Vaudreuil was far from
cordial. Vaudreuil aspired to military vaudreuU
fame, and thought himself competent ty'iMont-"*
to direct military operations on a large calm's arrival
scale as well as to command either Canadian
militia or French regulars. He liked, moreover,
to have everything his own way, and knew
very well that he was not likely always to pre
vail over a strong-willed and energetic general-
in-chief. Besides, Vaudreuil was a native of
Canada, having been born there during his
father's administration, and between Canadians
and Frenchmen from the old country there
was somewhat the same kind of jealousy that
existed between Americans and British. The
coldness between Montcalm and the governor
^ [Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, i. 364, 365.]

306 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
sometimes had an ill effect upon the French
operations. Nevertheless the arrival of Montcalm was
soon signalized by a heavy blow to the Eng
lish. In a certain sense the blow was prepared
by the Enghsh themselves. We have seen how
Shirley's expedition had been turned back at
Oswego by French demonstrations from Fort
Frontenac. Such a failure was of course inevi
table for any expedition directed against Niag
ara, unless Fort Frontenac were first captured.
After Shirley's return to New York the gen-
shiriey cral dlscoutcnt assumed the form of
superseded ^ quarrel between him and Johnson,
and several persons of influence in New York
wrote to the minister requesting that another
commander-in-chief be appointed In his stead.
The ministry replied by appointing John Camp
bell, Earl of Loudoun, to the chief command In
America ; but as this particular Campbell was
slow In coming, they sent General James Aber
crombie in advance of him, and/as Abercrombie
was not quite ready, they sent Colonel Daniel
Webb ; insomuch that Shirley, who was just
preparing a new campaign against Oswego, had
to turn over the command to Webb, who turned
it over to Abercrombie, who turned It over to
Loudoun, — and so much swapping of horses in
mid-stream, as President Lincoln would have
said, was not conducive to promptness and

CROWN POINT 307
unity of operation. As for the new comman
der-in-chief, he was as poor a choice as could
have been made. Shirley was a mere The Eari of
amateur soldier, but he had courage, Loudoun
quickness, and discretion. Loudoun, on the
other hand, was dull, sleepy, and irresolute,
— the kind of man who would be likely to
stop halfway in any important undertaking.
Dr. Franklin summed him up very well when
he compared him to Saint George on the tavern
signboards, always on horseback, but never get
ting ahead.
The effect ofthe arrivals of Webb and Aber
crombie was to delay an expedition which Shir
ley would have sent to Oswego In the hope of
moving from that point against Fort Fronte
nac. When Loudoun arrived, late in Loudoun
July, he determined to concentrate l^^^^°
his efforts against Ticonderoga, where Ticonderoga
the French had erected a new fortress, and to
content himself on Lake Ontario by merely
holding Oswego. Having thus decided, he
allowed time to slip away without reinforcing
Oswego. This was bad generalship, since if,
the French were to take Oswego, they would
not only cut off the English from Niagara but
would have their hands free to concentrate
against them at Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
After Loudoun's arrival at Albany, all opera
tions were brought to a standstill by a silly

308 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
order of the king in council that all generals
and colonels holding commissions from the
colonial governments should rank only on the
level of senior captains. Such an arrangement
might have put the entire provincial army under
the command of a British major. While hot
disputes were raging over this matter, Loudoun
suddenly remembered the need of Oswego and
sent Webb In all haste with reinforcements, but
this hurry at the eleventh hour was unavailing.
When Webb arrived at the great portage be
tween the Mohawk valley and Lake Ontario,
about where Fort Stanwix was afterwards built,
and near the site of the present city of Rome,
Fall of he learned with dismay that Mont-
oswego calm had captured Oswego. It was
even so. While Loudoun had been dawdling,
Montcalm had been acting. He had crossed
from Fort Frontenac, invested Oswego, and
pressed the siege so vigorously that the garri
son of fourteen hundred men with two or three
hundred non-combatants surrendered, prisoners
of war. Among the spoils were more than a
hundred light cannon. Here something oc
curred which was ominous of future horror. A
few of Montcalm's Indians began murdering
prisoners, and it was only with great difficulty
and by making lavish promises that he suc
ceeded in restraining those painted demons. He
reckoned that the presents to be given them

CROWN POINT 309
as a ransom for the prisoners would amount to
ten or twelve thousand livres.
The following winter witnessed many scenes
of partisan warfare which we need not here stop
to describe. The summer of 1757 found things
looking 111 for the English cause. The French
had destroyed Oswego, which was for them an
outpost dangerously near the strongholds of the
Six Nations, but while they held Fort Fronte
nac they could prevent the English from reach
ing the Niagara River, and this fact, together
. with their possession of Fort Duquesne, seemed
to have given them the victory so far as the
whole interior of the continent was concerned.
The effect of the capture of Oswego upon the
Indians was very great. One day a Montcalm's
party from Lake Superior came to see capture of
Montcalm, and their spokesman thus presses the
addressed him : " We wanted to see '"'''^"'
this famous man who tramples the English
under his feet. We thought we should find
him so tall that his head would be lost in the
clouds. But you are a little man, my father.
It is when we look Into your eyes that we see
the greatness of the pine-tree and the fire of
the eagle." *
It remained to see what could be done in
the direction of Lake Champlain or in that
> [Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, i. 475, from Bougain
ville's Journal.]

310 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of Cape Breton Island. The Earl of Loudoun
Loudoun's decided that the most Important thing
arafnst™ t° be done was to capture Louisburg,
Louisburg and to that end he started with more
than ten thousand men and seventeen shlps-of-
the-line, and after wasting the whole summer
retired to the mainland because he heard that
a French fleet was approaching which outnum
bered him by one ship. He was an apt scholar
of that worthy king of France who marched
his forty thousand men up a hill and down
again. But while Loudoun seems to have been
incapable of achieving anything, he was able
to spoil much. These mighty preparations for
Louisburg went far towards stripping the Hud
son River of its defenders, so that Montcalm
was able to entertain thoughts of advancing
southward and capturing Albany. For this
purpose there were assembled at Ticonderoga
Montcahn's J" ^^^ ^ fo^c of scventy-sIx hun-
expedition drcd Frenchmen and Canadians with
WiUiam eighteen hundred Indians, a force
Henry unusually large and unwieldy. The
story of Braddock's defeat and the fall of
Oswego had penetrated far and wide through
out the wilderness, and among the bedizened
chiefs who were gathered between Lake Cham
plain and Lake George were some from dis
tant Iowa, whose language none of the white

FORT WILLIAM HENRY 311
men, not even those most familiar with the
forest, could understand. They made no secret
of the fact that they had come for feasting and
pelf. Such gormandizers the Frenchmen said
they had never seen. Long rows of oxen roasted
whole disappeared with amazing celerity, and
wild fowl vanished as if they had taken to wing
and flown down the red men's throats. When,
however, it came to eating human flesh, our
Frenchmen winced at the sight. As for brandy
and rum. It was necessary to guard the casks
with great care to prevent these thirsty allies
from breaking them open ; and when f^^^^^^ of
the Indians were thoroughly drunk Montcalm's
, . ^ . , 1 1 1 1 Indian allies
their rerocity became uncontrollable ;
they quarrelled Incessantly, and bit and tore
each other with their teeth like wild beasts.
It was not easy for the French to restrain these
creatures, for If they had been prevented from
eating prisoners and drinking rum, they would
have taken offence and gone trooping off on
other business, and In that wilderness they
were as necessary to the French as cavalry are
necessary In civilized warfare. It has been
said that the eyes of an army are its cavalry ;
It might be truly said that the teyes of the
French force in the wilderness were its Indian
scouts. The only English force opposed to Mont
calm consisted of twenty-six hundred men at

312 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Fort Edward, under the immediate command
of General Webb, and twelve hundred at the
head of Lake George, where Johnson had for
merly defeated Dieskau. It was shameful mis-
The EngUsh rnauagemcnt on the part of Loudoun
force at Fort to Icavc thIs Important point so weakly
Henry and guarded. Whcu Wcbb learned that
Fort Edward ^.j^g French were likely to make an
attack, he Intended to move his men from Fort
Edward to Lake George, but he presently de
sisted from this lest the French should seize the
occasion to come down by way of South Bay,*
slip around his right flank, and move upon
Albany. The expedient of withdrawing his
weak advance force to the meeting of routes at
Fort Edward does not seem to have occurred to
him. So he sent forward a thousand men, thus
raising the numbers at Lake George to twenty-
two hundred. This force was protected by
strong lines of works which Johnson had called
Fort William Henry, and also by huge trunks
of felled trees scattered in various directions.
Against this fortress Montcalm started on
the I st of August with a force of seven thou
sand Frenchmen and sixteen hundred Indians,
leaving a garrison of four hundred men at Ti
conderoga. On arriving at Fort William Henry
he sent a summons to the commander. Colonel
' [The southern tip of Lake Champlain, about halfway
between Ticonderoga and the head of Lake George. ]

MAP OF L.

o

liOQiidtto^a

tuoJiocks

.r,"'!!" '^/liv ^

wo owo w

FORT WILLIAM HENRY 313
Monro, to surrender, but Monro refused, and
presently the French general found himself
obliged to proceed by regular meth- Montcalm
ods of siege, opening parallels, plant- wiiifaJ"'
ing batteries, and pounding the works. Henry
While this was going on, a letter from Gen
eral Webb was captured by the French. It
was written to inform Colonel Monro that
General Webb would be unable to come to his
assistance until further reinforcements should
arrive, for which he had sent repeated requests
down the river. After reading this welcome
information, Montcalm kept It in his pocket
two or three days until some bad breaches had
been made in the English works, and then he
sent it in to Colonel Monro with a flag of
truce and many compliments upon his bravery.
Monro politely dismissed the flag and con
tinued to earn the compliments by holding out
until the close of the eighth day ; by that time
his heavy guns were all silenced, three hundred
of his men were killed, and a considerable por
tion of the garrison were disabled with small
pox. Under these circumstances Monro capit
ulated. His force was to march out with the
honours of war and to retain one cannon as a
present in token of their gallantry. Before the
articles were signed Montcalm called a meeting
of the Indian chiefs, and received from them a
solemn promise confirmed in every manner

314 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
known to the Indian mind that there should
be no molestation ofthe prisoners. The chiefs
Surrender of wcrc unanlmous In making this prom-
Fort wiuiaL ^^^> ^^^ assevcratcd with much ear-
Henry nestness that they would restrain their
young warriors from any acts of cruelty or
plunder. No sooner, however, had the garrison
left the fort, than a rabble of Indians swarmed
in and instantly tomahawked all the men who
were confined to their beds by sickness.
This incident was like the tiger's foretaste
of blood. The Indians were too numerous to
be kept in control by their French allies. They
understood their power, and were to the last de
gree indignant at the prospect of being baulked
in their bloodthirsty fury. The next morning,
according to agreement, the English column
started for Fort Edward with an escort of
.j,j^^ Canadian militia. At the moment of
Indians un- Starting, a large party of Indians
controllable . i i i i i i
tomahawked and scalped seventeen
wounded men in the presence of an Inadequate
French force that had been sent to guard them.
Not long after the march had begun another
party rushed up from under cover of the trees
and seized some seventy or eighty New Hamp
shire soldiers, and dragging them off under
cover, massacred them at leisure. The short
journey to Fort Edward was an evil one, for
such acts of murder kept recurring in spite of

FORT WILLIAM HENRY 315
Montcalm's persistent and furious efforts to
prevent them. It is said that in the course of
the march the Indians succeeded In dragging
six or seven hundred persons from the column ;
but Montcalm was able to rescue from four to
five hundred of these. The exact number of
the victims has never been satisfactorily esti
mated, but it was enough to make _,
' ^ ^ o The mas-
Fort William Henry a name of hor- sacre of
\ . r 1 prisoners
ror to Americans tor many a long
year. To Montcalm it was an abiding grief;
but while we must acquit the general of any
share of this atrocity, it can hardly be denied
that some of the French officers showed culpa
ble weakness, acting as if they were more than
half afraid of the red men themselves, so that
they were over-cautious about drawing the
wrath of the murderers upon themselves. Take
it for all in all, it Is one of the blackest inci
dents in the history of our country.
Before the next season of campaigning a
great change had been made in England. By a
happy stroke of fortune the conduct of military
operations throughout the empire had been put
into the hands of William Pitt, the . . „.
' . William Pitt
greatest war minister and organizer
of victory that the world has seen. It boded
no good to France when the genius of Pitt was
called upon to cooperate with that of Frederick
of Prussia. Pitt had a supreme capacity for

316 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
administration and an infallible eye for the
selection of men to carry out his plans. He
was never confused by petty details, but saw
through them to the great underlying princi
ples. He delighted in large ideas, as Is shown
by the fact that the maritime supremacy of
England, the winning of the Mississippi valley
for English-speaking America, and the creation
of a renovated Protestant empire in Germany
were in his mind the closely allied phases of
one stupendous scheme. Along with these high
intellectual qualifications, there was In Pitt a
magnetic glow of lofty emotion which seemed
at once under his leadership to inspire the
whole English people. It was said of him that
no man ever entered his presence without going
away a better citizen and a braver man. In an
age when most statesmen looked with tolerance
upon corruption, and when domestic morals
were not upon a high plane, Pitt was absolutely
spotless In public and in private life, and the
popular faith in his disinterestedness was never
disappointed. He was a democrat, too, after
the fashion of the eighteenth century, and for
Pitt's hold *^^ ^^^^ ^™^ since the death of
on popular CromwcU the English people felt that
confidence .11111 1 .1
they had a leader who represented
the whole nation, from the highest to the low
est. In America the feeling toward him was
nearly as strong as in England, so that when

FORT WILLIAM HENRY 317
he began by informing the New England colo
nies that he should have to ask them for twenty
thousand men, they replied with greater willing
ness than when formerly they had been asked
for one fourth of that number.
One of Pitt's first acts was to recall the In
competent Loudoun and to replace him by a
general of tried ability. Sir Jeffrey Amherst, and
among his subordinate generals was the youth
ful James Wolfe, of whom we shall presently
hear more. Pitt would have been glad pht recalls
to remove Abercrombie, but influ- Loudoun
ences were brought to bear in behalf of that
general of such a nature that It did not seem
altogether wise to disregard them. He was
accordingly retained in command of the forces
on the Hudson River, while Pitt sent over to
be his second in command Lord Howe, whom
Wolfe called the best soldier in the English
army, and who was unquestionably an officer of
rare personality and extraordinary powers. This
George Augustus, Viscount Howe was the elder
brother of the famous admiral, Richard, Vis
count Howe, and of Sir William Howe, who
commanded the British army in America a few
years later. These three brothers were grand
sons of George I., whose daughter by the Bar
oness Kielmannsegge married Eman-
1 Tr . U T-U Lord Howe
uel. Viscount Howe. 1 hey were
half-cousins to the reigning king, George II.

318 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
All three studied military affairs from their ear
liest years ; all three were warm friends to the
American colonists ; but this was especially true
of the eldest brother, George Augustus. In
sending him to America Pitt had reason to be
lieve that he would prove the real guiding spirit
of Abercromble's army. We have now to see
how an adverse fate exacted yet one more costly
sacrifice before all the benefits of the new change
in administration were realized.
At the end of June, 1758, Abercromble's
army was encamped at the head of Lake George
^, ,. where Tohnson had defeated Dieskau
The expedi- "^ . j i ^ i
tion against three ycars before, and where scarcely
Ticonderoga ^^^ rnonths had elapsed since the hor
rors of Fort William Henry. Abercrombie had
collected at that spot more than six thousand
British regulars and nine thousand provincial
troops ; In all, more than fifteen thousand, the
largest army that had ever been collected In
North America. The task before him was to
do what Johnson had failed to do, to move
upon Montcalm at Ticonderoga and defeat him.
By the 4th of July all the arrangements were
completed, and next morning the whole army
embarked in bateaux and canoes on Lake
George. It was an imposing sight, eloquently
described by more than one contemporary pen.
It soon appeared that Pitt had not been wrong
in supposing that Lord Howe would prove to

TICONDEROGA 319
be the life of the army. His popularity was un
bounded with all ranks, from the commander
down to the private soldiers. On his first arrival
in America he had seized an opportunity for
learning something about the conditions of war
fare in the wilderness, for he sought lq^j Howe's
with the true insight of genius to adaptability
adapt himself to new conditions. He would lay
aside all cumbersome baggage and trim away
all useless apparel, cutting down long coats into
jackets, making the men wear leather leggings
for protection in the brush, and carry meal In
their knapsacks, which they could at any time
cook for themselves. In all such things he him
self set the example.
At noon of July 6- the flotilla had reached
the northern end of Lake George, where It nar
rows into a crooked river or strait communicat
ing with Lake Champlain at the mouth of Wood
Creek. The whole force was speedily landed,
and began its march on the west side of the
river. Robert Rogers led the way with a couple
of New England regiments,but presently became
entangled in woods so dense that the The English
rays of the sun could hardly find their '^t"\lT'
way in. Here, after a while, they be- woods
came confused, and were at a loss in which di
rection to move. A party of three hundred and
fifty French under Langy had been watching
the landing from an eminence between the river

320 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
and Trout Brook. Before they could retreat
from that spot the whole English army had
advanced so far as to cut them asunder from
their main army at Ticonderoga, but Langy was
an old hand at bushranging, and he thought
that by crossing to the north of Trout Brook
he could describe a semicircle and reach Ticon
deroga. Thus the three hundred and fifty
Frenchmen under Langy and the two New
England regiments under Rogers were wander
ing in a forest which at midday was nearly as
dark as night. And here the Frenchmen, too,
soon lost their bearings. At the very head of
the English column was Lord Howe with Major
Israel Putnam, when all at once a rustling was
heard among the branches, and a sharp cry of
" ^i vive ? " The answer, " Francais," was
prompt enough, but some of Langy's men had
sharp eyes, and even in that pitch darkness could
tell the British scarlet from the French white.
Langy's reply was a volley which slew Lord
Death of Howc and wrecked the fortunes of
Lord Howe ^u army. The further result of this
chance collision was the defeat of Langy's party,
most of which was captured, but when this
densest piece of woods had been traversed, and
the news of what had happened flew from rank
to rank, it is said the spirit of the whole army
was dashed, and high hopes gave place to con
sternation. So greatly had this young officer

TICONDEROGA 321
endeared himself to people in the short time
since his arrival in America, that at the news of
his death there was weeping throughout the
northern colonies. The commonwealth of Mas
sachusetts afterward erected a monument to
Howe In Westminster Abbey.
Nobody felt the loss more keenly than Aber
crombie, who had been depending upon Howe's
advice. He had need of such advice after com
ing within touch ofthe French position. Across
the plateau northwest of the fortress of Ticon
deroga there runs a ridge which Montcalm had
fortified by felling trees in such wise Montcalm's
as to make a zigzag parapet, so that defences
an approaching foe could be torn between flank
fires of grapeshot and musketry. On the inner
side was a platform from which to fire, and the
parapet was so high that nothing could be seen
of the French soldiers standing upon the plat
form except the crowns of their hats. Along
the entire front of the parapet the ground was
covered with intertwisted boughs presenting a
myriad sharp points to any approaching foe.
Now this position was obviously one which
could hardly be carried by infantry armed with
muskets, but to a general who possessed the
slightest inventiveness of mind it was very far
from being an Impregnable position. Indeed,
Montcalm had been slow in making up his
mind whether to try to hold Ticonderoga or to

322 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
retreat upon Crown Point, and when at last he
decided to fortify this position, his resolution
was somewhat hastily taken. It is probable
that Montcalm made a mistake in trying to
defend the point of land upon which the for
tress of Ticonderoga stood, for there were sev
eral ways in which Abercrombie might have de
feated him. He might have sent back to the
landing place and brought up all his cannon
and used them to batter down these
Alternativesopen to wooden obstructions before charging
ercrom le j.|^gj^ ^j(.j^ j^jg Infantry. That, one
would suppose, would have been a mere ordi
nary precaution. And then, there was a hill in
the in>mediate neighbourhood where Abercrom
bie might have planted a few batteries that could
have torn the French army to pieces, and must
have obliged them to change their position at
once. Precisely such a use of that hill was made
In 1777 by General Burgoyne, with the desired
result of taking Ticonderoga, and since that
occasion it has been known as Mount Defiance.
Yet again. If Abercrombie had made a feint with
part of his army upon Montcalm's position,
while with his main force he had marched about
five miles on the road to Crown Point, he would
Montcalm havc fouud the lake there so narrow
AbLcrIm- that he might have commanded the
bie's stupidity whole of It wIth batteries, and thus
cut off Montcalm's retreat and left it for star-

TICONDEROGA 323
vation to do the rest. It would seem, there
fore, that Montcalm was rescued from a perilous
situation by the stupidity of his enemy, and it
is among the possibilities that he may have
counted upon that very circumstance. There is
a curious analogy between this battle of Ticon
deroga and those of Bunker Hill and New
Orleans. At Bunker Hill the American force
was completely at the mercy of the British, and
might have been forced to surrender without
the loss of a life. This would have been done
if the British had simply gone by water and
occupied Charlestown Neck, but the brother
of the young general slain at Ticonderoga pre
ferred to assault Intrenchments and suffefed ac
cordingly.* So, too, at New Orleans. It was
not necessary for Sir Edward Pakenham to
assault Andrew Jackson's Intrenchments, for he
might have advanced up the further bank of
the Mississippi River and turned the whole
position, but he preferred the bulldog method,
and very probably Jackson should have the
credit of having known his man.
With regard to Abercrombie, he seems to
have been Influenced by undue haste. A rumour
reached him that reinforcements were on the
way to Montcalm, and therefore he was anxious
to adopt the quickest method. Besides, he seems
to have harboured that fallacious notion that one
* [See Fiske, The American Revolution, i. 167.]

324 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Englishman can under any circumstances beat
three Frenchmen. At all events, on the fore-
An assault noon of July 8 the assault was or
ordered dctcd. The Instructlous to the Eng
lish Infantry were to carry the works by a solid
bayonet charge, an order which seems almost
incredible, for as might have been expected, the
compactness needed for a bayonet charge was
almost instantly broken up by the tangle of
pointed boughs and the trunks lying In all
directions upon the ground, and presently the
assailants, caught In a hailstorm of grape and
musket shot on either flank, could only answer
by firing in turn. Again and again, with as-
toundfng gallantry, the men from New England
and Old England returned to the charge. Be
tween noon and nightfall they made six assaults
of the most desperate character, sometimes
almost winning their way over the parapet, but
of course the situation was utterly hopeless. The
AU assaults greater the bravery, the sadder the
repulsed jogg of life. At twillght, whcu the fir
ing ceased, Abercrombie had lost In killed and
wounded two thousand men.*
Even after all this useless waste of life, there
was no reason why the English should have
retreated. Montcalm was in no condition to
take the offensive, and it would still have been
1 [The killed alone amounted to some five hundred and
fifty men. Kingsford, History of Canada, 'iv. 173.]

TICONDEROGA ' 325
in Abercromble's power to march down the
Crown Point road and cut off all supplies from
the French army ; but our accounts agree in
representing the general's conduct as disgraceful.
He seems to have lost his head, and thought
only of escaping, as If from a superior foe. By
the time he had returned to the head of Lake
George, Abercrombie found himself a laughing
stock. People called him a poltroon, Abercrombie
an old woman, Mrs. Nabbycromble, "dicuied
and such other nicknames and epithets as served
to relieve their feelings.
It was Indeed a dark day for New England
when the death of Lord Howe deprived the
army of its brains. Of all the disasters of the
war, perhaps none struck so near home as Ti
conderoga. But the tide of misfortune had
reached its height, and was already turning.
We have now to take up the story of Louis
burg, of Fort Frontenac and Niagara, of Fort
Duquesne and Quebec, — a story fraught with
good cheer for English-speaking America.

X

LOUISBURG, FORT DUQUESNE,
AND THE FALL OF QUEBEC
AT midsummer of 1758 four years had
/-\ elapsed since Washington's experiences
-*- -*- at Great Meadows, and as yet little or
nothing had occurred to encourage the English.
It will be remembered that along the border
between New France and the English colonies
Strategic there were strategic points of primary
points in Importance. The first of these was
the contest i-* ta t r
l^ort Duquesne, commanding one ot
the great central routes Into the western wilder
ness. The French had anticipated the English
in seizing this point, and the ruin of Braddock's
army had been Incurred in the attempt to recover
It for the English. The second strategic point
was Fort Frontenac at the outlet of Lake On
tario into the river St. Lawrence, for this strong
hold commanded the eastern approaches to Niag
ara, and thus controlled the other great route
to the west. Thus far Its importance had been
illustrated, first, by the failure of Shirley to ad
vance beyond Oswego in the direction of Niag
ara, and secondly, by Montcalm's capture of

LOUISBURG 327
Oswego, a very heavy blow to the English.
The third strategic point was the southern ex
tremity of Lake Champlain with its fortresses at
Crown Point and Ticonderoga, for in French
hands this was an excellent base for an invasion
of New York, while In English hands it would
serve equally well for an Invasion of Canada.
This strategic point had been held from the
first by the French, and in three campaigns the
English had failed to drive them away. In the
first of these Johnson had won a tactical victory
which he failed to improve. The second had
witnessed the shocking tragedy of Fort WiUiam
Henry. The third had been a climax of imbe
cility, as shown in the useless butchery at Ticon
deroga and the shamfeful retreat of Abercrom
bie after that battle. The fourth strategic point
was the fortified town of Louisburg on Cape
Breton Island, which not only threatened the
Newfoundland fisheries and British commerce
on the Atlantic In general, but also afforded an
excellent base for a French Invasion of the New
England coast, while at the same time it made
the entrance of the St. Lawrence dangerous for
a hostile fleet. On the other hand, if held by the
English, Louisburg afforded an excellent base
for a naval expedition up the St. Lawrence
against Quebec. This Important place had been
captured by New England militia, aided by Brit
ish ships in the preceding war thirteen years

328 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
before, but had been restored to> France by the
treaty which terminated that war.
Down to the midsummer of 1758 nothing
seemed to have prospered with the English,
but at all the strategic points where there had
been collision, the advantage had remained
with the French. The first change of
Louisburg . T • 1 ^T-ii
fortune was at Louisburg. 1 hat town
was situated on a peninsula at the south side
of Cape Breton Island. To the east of it was
a deep and finely sheltered bay which was de
fended at its northern end by what was called
the Grand Battery, and on an island at the
entrance, by what was called the Island Bat
tery ; while across the peninsula. In front of the
town, the entrance to the harbour was com
manded by a series of four bastions named from
south to north Princess's, Queen's, King's, and
Dauphin's. The rear of the town was to a con
siderable extent protected by marshes, and the
rocky coast of Gabarus Bay to the rear or west
presented but few points where troops could
effect a landing. At all times the sea was so
boisterous as to make it dangerous for any
floating thing to approach the rocks. Since the
treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the French govern
ment had spent great sums of money in per
fecting the fortifications. It was now com
manded by General Drucour, who had three
thousand regular troops with a few Canadians

LOUISBURG 329
and Indians, while in the harbour were five
ships-of-the-line and seven frigates mounting
five hundred and forty guns and carrying three
thousand men.
On the twenty-eighth day of May there sailed
out from Halifax an English force which was
to undertake the reduction of Louisburg. It
was commanded by Admiral Bosca- The English
wen, who had twenty-three ships-of- agafngf""
the-line and eighteen frigates along Louisburg
with a fleet of transports carrying eleven thou
sand British regulars and five hundred colonial
militia. The land force was commanded by the
new general-in-chief for America, Sir Jeffrey
Amherst. It was the 2d of June when this
powerful force arrived In Gabarus Bay and
scrutinized its wild coast for a place to land in
the rear of the town. The prospect was not
encouraging, and some officers were inclined to
pronounce the attempt foolhardy, but Boscawen
and Amherst saw a spot which seemed practi
cable, and they entrusted the task of effecting a
landing there to the young brigadier-general,
James Wolfe.
There were three or four places along the
coast where a landing might be effected if the
sea were somewhat to subside, and the plan
was to make demonstrations against all these
points while the extreme left wing under Gen
eral Wolfe should advance against the most

330 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
remote of them, known as Fresh Water Cove,
with the intention of carrying it. Although
this plan was matured On the 2d of June, It was
not until the Sth that there was enough of a
lull in the violence of the surf to admit of any
approach to the shore whatever. Then the plan
was tried, and Wolfe's landing was
General i • , , .,,. ° « i
Wolfe effects achicvcd With brilliant success. Al-
a landing though Fresh Water Cove was de
fended by one thousand Frenchmen behind
entrenchments supported by a battery of eight
cannon, Wolfe managed his landing so as to
pass by their left flank, between It and the town,
and there to attack them in such wise as to
cut them off. Under these circumstances the
Frenchmen abandoned their works and fled to
the woods, whence they made a circuitous re
treat to their comrades in the town. After this
auspicious beginning the remainder of the
English army was safely landed, and ready for
further operations. Troops were presently
moved so as to threaten the communications
of the Grand Battery at the north end of the
harbour, whereupon the French abandoned it.
The eastern side of the harbour ran In the
shape of a sickle from the Grand Battery,
terminating in a point opposite the point of the
peninsula on which the city stood. The space
of sea between these two points was the entrance
to the harbour, and the small island already

LOUISBURG 331
mentioned, with its Island Battery, lay midway
between them. Considering the great superior
ity of the English fleet, the French had felt it
rash to keep a detachment upon the The harbour
opposite point, where it was hable to ''^"'="« se-
¦>¦ 1 X ¦' cured or
be cut off, and they had therefore reduced by
withdrawn it. Now Wolfe, with '^'=^"s"^'>
twelve hundred men, marched past the Grand
Battery and around the sickle-shaped shore and
took possession of the works which the French
had there abandoned, and from that point he
kept up a heavy fire against the Island Battery
until by June 25 all its guns were dismounted
and silent.
It now became possible for the English fleet
to enter the harbour, and in order to ward off
such a calamity, Drucour sank six ships at the
entrance. Meanwhile, General Amherst was
digging his trenches and building his parallels
with prodigious labour over the treacherous
ground behind the town. Gradually the English
drew nearer, until they approached the very walls
on both sides of the peninsula, and kept throw
ing shot and shell into the streets. Gradual
In one adventure after another the oftS French
French ships were sunk or burned i^^'
until only five were left. On the 21st of July a
bomb falling upon one of these penetrated her
magazine and she blew up, communicating the

332 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
flames to two sister ships, which were burned to
the water's edge. A large part of the town had
now taken fire, and the time of the besieged
was largely consumed in fighting the flames ;
then a party of six hundred English sailors in
boats rowed Into the harbour and seized the
two remaining French ships ; one of them, a
seventy-four, they burned ; while the other, a
sixty-four, they made a prize and towed away.
On the 26th of July the last gun in the
row of French bastions was dismounted and a
white flag was raised. The details of the sur-
Surrender of fender wcrc completed next day. It
Louisburg ^as a truly great victory, for the New
England coast was at last relieved of a serious
danger, and the way was opened for an English
fleet to ascend the St. Lawrence. There was a
general feeling that the glory of the achievement
belonged to the youthful Wolfe more than to
any one else. While the management of the
whole affair, both by General Amherst and by
Admiral Boscawen, had been admirable, yet in
all Wolfe's operations there had been the artis
tic touch, so seldom witnessed, that marked real
military genius, and along with all the intelli
gence, the quickness and sureness, there was an
electric enthusiasm that communicated Itself to
the whole army, and wherever that tall, emaci
ated form was present, there was the centre of
interest.

FORT FRONTENAC 333
It had been Wolfe's desire to follow up the
capture of Louisburg by an immediate advance
against Quebec, but the obstinate defence of
Drucour had made it so late in the
. . , , , Wolfe re-
season that It was thought best to post- tums to
pone such an enterprise for the present, ^"s'""'*
and Wolfe, who was seriously ill, went home to
England for the winter, while Amherst took his
army to the Hudson River with intent to re
lieve the situation at Lake George.
Meanwhile in Abercromble's camp there had
been much despondency and grumbling since
the terrible slaughter ofthe Sth of July. Dur
ing the summer more or less guerilla fighting
went on, in the course of which Israel Put
nam was at one time taken prisoner and tied
to a stake to be burned alive, but was res
cued by a French officer after the tongues of
flame had actually begun to curl around him.
Presently one of Abercromble's officers. Colonel
John Bradstreet, accomphshed something which
went far toward changing the face of things on
the New York frontier. Bradstreet was a native
of England, forty-six years of age, but most of
his life had been spent in America. Among
Shirley's officers he had been recognized as
very capable ; he had taken part in the first
capture of Louisbufg, and in the present war
he had been connected with the Oswego cam-

334 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
paign. He now had reason to believe that such
heavy demands had been made upon the French
Bradstreet's Tcsourccs lu varlous dlrcctlons that
agans^Fort ^^ Inadequate force had been left to
Frontenac guard Fort Frontcnac. He there
fore proposed to conduct an expedition for the
capture of that Important place. Lord Howe
had favoured this plan, but Abercrombie had
not regarded it with approval. At last, after a
council of war had been held to consider the
case, Bradstreet was allowed to undertake the
task with a force of three thousand men, chiefly
militia of New York and New England. On
his march through the Oneida country he found
occasion to observe that Montcalm's victory at
Ticonderoga had wrought more or less disaf
fection toward the English even in the Long
House. It was high time to do something to
counteract this Influence. Bradstreet kept on
to the site of the ruined Oswego, and thence,
crossing the lake In boats, pounced upon Fort
Fort Fron- Frontcnac and captured it, with its
tenac taken, garrlson of Only one hundred and ten
ugus 2.7 rnen. He also took seventy cannon
and mortars, nine sloops of war, and an enor
mous quantity of warlike material, provisions,
and furs. It was impossible to make the best
use of these captures without rebuilding Os
wego, so as to regain a seaport on the lake ;

FORT FRONTENAC 335
but there did not seem to be men enough and
time enough for this. General Stanwix was then
building the fort known by his name, on the
divide between Lake Ontario and the Mohawk
valley, and that seemed to be all the construc
tive work that could then be undertaken. The
walls of Fort Frontenac were battered down by
its own cannon, and as much as possible of the
military spoil was taken across the lake, whence
some of It was carried away and the remainder
destroyed. A thousand men were left to de
fend Fort Stanwix, and Bradstreet returned to
the Hudson River.
In this expedition Bradstreet dealt a blow
second only, if second at all, to the capture
of Louisburg. It Is true the success was but
partial ; a complete success would have meant
the restoration of Oswego as a port on the
route to Niagara. The building of Fort Stan
wix as a means of maintaining English influ
ence near the centre of the Long House did
not quite supply the place of such a ^he loss of
port ; nevertheless, the route to Nlag- Fort Fron-
ara was laid open, and what was of ens Fort
far greater Importance, the communi- °"'J"^*"^
cations with Fort Duquesne were cut off. That
all-important fortress was supplied through the
long line of communication from the St. Law
rence River to the Niagara, and thence across

336 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
Lake Erie to Presqu'Isle and Venango and down
the Allegheny River. Among the munitions
of war and other provisions captured at Fort
Frontenac there was a great supply already on
its way for Fort Duquesne. The exploit of
Bradstreet left that remote strategic point in
the air, and we have now to see how its con
quest was completed.
Among the excellent officers sent by Pitt to
America was a veteran Scotchman named John
General Forbes. He was a well-educated man,
John Forbes ^]^q Jj^d bccn for somc time a physi
cian before taking up the life of a soldier. He
was frank, simple, honest, abounding In good
sense, and very ready to learn from others. His
weight of character, combined with kindliness,
made him as much liked by the Americans as
Braddock had been detested. It is a commen
tary upon Forbes's strong qualities that during
his American campaign he was suffering from
a severe illness which carried him off in the
following spring. Among its symptoms was a
severe gastric and Intestinal Inflammation which
kept him a large part of the time in acute tor
ture, and it was commonly necessary for him
Theexpe- to be Carried in a litter, so that this
Forrou-"" campaign might well be said to have
quesne been conducted by a man upon his
death-bed. General Forbes, however, had two
very active and capable lieutenants : one was

FORT DUQUESNE 337
George Washington ; the other was Lieutenant-
Colonel Henry Bouquet, a native of Switzer
land, who had seen much service on the con
tinent of Europe and had entered the English
service in 1756. He was destined a few years
later, in Pontiac's war, to win a great reputa
tion. The army commanded by General Forbes
with these able lieutenants consisted of about
seven thousand men, partly British regulars,
partly the ordinary provincial militia, and partly
a force known as the Royal Americans and
composed chiefly of Pennsylvania Germans. It
was among these Royal Americans that Bou
quet held his commission.
The first serious question was the choice of
a route. Washington was In favour of the old
route which had been taken by Brad- The choice
dock, but Bouquet thought it would ofroutes
be better to push westward through the moun
tains of Pennsylvania in a course more or less
like that now taken by the railroad from Har
risburg to Pittsburg. The opinion of Bouquet
found ^vour with General Forbes and that route
was chosen.
Forbes's method of advance was very dif
ferent from that of Braddock. Instead of ad
vancing through mile after mile of un- „ , ,
o _ o _ ... Forbes s
known wilderness, taking with him im- method of
mensely long baggage trains, Forbes's
method was to clear the way and make some-

338 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
thing of a road as he went along, building at in
tervals sundry blockhouses which might serve
as temporary supports and magazines. This
required a great amount of digging, hewing,
blasting, and building, and was a truly Hercu
lean piece of work. Gradually, but surely, the
rude road was carried over the ridges of the Al
leghanies and Laurel Hill, and finally at Loyal-
hannon Creek the last magazine was built as a
base for the final advance on Fort Duquesne,
which was about fifty miles distant.
One circumstance which reconciled Forbes
to this slow method of advance was his know
ledge of the difficulty of holding Indian alhes
together for many weeks at a time without the
stimulus of slaughter or plunder frequently re
newed. Vaudreuil had sent parties of Hurons,
Miamis, Ottawas, and Pottawattamies to the
The slow ^id of Fort Duquesne, and earnestly
th°^'°'rif hoped that the English would not
favourable dcfcr their approach until these war-
to success j.jQj.g ghoy](j }^^yg grown tired and
gone home. Forbes appreciated this point and
was willing to give them time to get tired. He
had much reason to expect that delay would
work in his favour. Inasmuch as the advance of
so large a force as seven thousand men could
not fail to produce a notable moral effect upon
the Delawares, Shawnees, and MIngos, and he

FORT DUQUESNE 339
entertained strong hopes of winning back these
tribes to the English alliance.*
At this juncture it was especially Important
that no opportunity should be afforded the
enemy of inflicting even the slightest reverse
upon the English advance, since the moral
effect which might thus be produced upon the
Indians was likely to be out of all proportion
with the importance of the affair itself
Now there was in the English army a hot
headed and ill-balanced Scotch officer named
James Grant. He was a supercilious sort of
person, and looked down with ineffable con
tempt upon the provincial troops. It was very
irksome to Major Grant to be within fifty miles
of Fort Duquesne and not engage in some kind
of work more exciting than that of spade and
pickaxe ; so he sought and obtained permission
from Bouquet to take a thousand men and go
forward to reconnoitre the situation. Major
Grant went forward, but did not re- ^^^,\f'
turn until he had provoked a fight connoissance
with the enemy, in which he was ignominiously
defeated with a loss of one quarter of his force.
This Grant was afterward a member of Par
liament, and served in the British army during
a large part of the Revolutionary War. He is
1 [Cf. Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, ii. 141, 142, where
the letters of Vaudreuil and Forbes, describing their plans,
are quoted.]

340 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
now perhaps best remembered for a remark
which he made in the House of Commons in
1774, to the effect that the Americans were an
undisciplined rabble who would take to their
heels at the first sound of a cannon. But two
years after that unlucky speech, when he met
Smallwood's Marylanders at the battle of Long
Island and pounded them four hours without
making them give up an Inch of ground, he
found reason to amend his opinion.*
Grant's defeat near Fort Duquesne occurred
about the middle of September, and three weeks
afterwards a convention of Indian chiefs was
assembled at Easton in Pennsylvania. This
conference was brought about by the earnest
persuasion of General Forbes and the wise co
operation of Sir William Johnson. It will be
remembered that while the Mohawk end of the
Long House, where Johnson had his home,
was firmly attached to the English cause, yet
through the rest of the confederacy symptoms
of vacillation were sometimes seen, and at the
Seneca end French interests now and then pre
vailed. The recent capture of Fort Frontenac
by Bradstreet had done much to discredit the
French in the minds of the Senecas, and could
these Indians, with the tribes southwest of
them, be induced once more to make common
^ [Fiske, The American Revolution, i. 243—245.]

FORT DUQUESNE 341
cause with the English, It was clear that Fort
Duquesne would become untenable. To this
end was exerted all the influence of Sir William
Johnson over the Senecas, while at the same
time a memorable triumph of dlplo- christian
macy was effected by the noble Mo- Frederic
. . Ay • ^- T- 1 • Post wins
ravian missionary. Christian b rederic over the
Post, who at the Easton conference '"'''^"'
won the alliance of the Delawares, Shawnees,
and MIngos.* This achievement sealed the
doom of Fort Duquesne. It was isolated in a
hostile country without means of supply. Its
French militia from New Orleans and the Illi
nois country departed In boats down the Ohio.
Its painted and feathered allies from Detroit
and Green Bay tramped off through the many-
hued autumn forests in the haze of Indian
summer, and presently the French commander
retired with his garrison up the Al- ^j^^ ^^^nzh
legheny River to Lake Erie and so evacuate Fort
to Montreal. When Washington and "i"^^"^
Bouquet arrived at Fort Duquesne they found
it dismantled and partially destroyed. There
was not time enough, so late in the season,
to rebuild It properly, but around the clus
ter of traders' cabins that had gathered there
a stockade was built, and the embryo village
was named Pittsburg, in honour of the great
1 [Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, ii. 142-150, gives in
teresting extracts from Post's Journal^

342 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
war minister.* In the following year General
Stanwix came there and built Fort Pitt. The
gallant Forbes, after lingering all winter on the
brink of the grave, died in March, and was
buried in Christ Church, Philadelphia.^
Great were the rejoicings in Pennsylvania
and Virginia, as well as In all the other Eng
lish colonies, over this auspicious capture of
the Gateway of the West. But neither this nor
any other conquest could be deemed finally
secure so long as the French maintained them
selves in Canada. Pitt was one who well under
stood the sound military maxim that in war,
until everything has been done, nothing has
Pitt resolved bccu donc, and he entered upon the
Frettrf^m Y^^^ 1^59 with the firm Intention
Canada of driving the French from America
altogether ; and what had been done on both
sides of the globe was only the prelude to
heavier blows. " We are forced to ask every
morning," wrote Horace Walpole, " what new
victory there is, for fear of missing one." Ter
rible was the catalogue of French defeats in
^ ["I have used the freedom of giving your name to fort
du Quesne, as I hope it was in some measure the being actu
ated by your spkit that now makes me master of the place. ' '
Forbes to Pitt, Nov. 27, 1758. Kingsford, History of Can
ada, iv. 213.]
" [For the literature of this campaign, see Winsor, Narr.
and Crit. Hist., v. 599. J

DEFENCES OF Quebec

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EGE OF QUEBEC

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 343
1 7 59- Their army in Germany was routed at
Minden by Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick ;
one great fleet was defeated at Lagos Bay by
Admiral Boscawen, and another was annihilated
at Quiberon by Sir Edward Hawke; Havre was
bombarded by Admiral Rodney ; Guadeloupe,
the most valuable of the French West Indies,
was taken ; and serious reverses were experi
enced In India.
In America prodigious exertions were made.
Massachusetts raised seven thousand men, and
during the year contributed more Preparations
than a million dollars toward the ex- camaign
penses of the war. Connecticut raised of 1 759
five thousand troops ; New Hampshire and
Rhode Island furnished one thousand between
them ; New York raised twenty-six hundred
and eighty ; New Jersey, one thousand ; Penn
sylvania, twenty-seven hundred ; Virginia, two
thousand ; and South Carolina, twelve hun
dred and fifty. These, together with twenty-
two thousand British regulars and other special
levies of provincial troops, made an aggregate
of somewhat more than fifty thousand collected
for the overthrow of the French power in
America. With regard to the strategy with which this
force was to be used, it bears the marks, of
course, of the pre-NapoleonIc age. The weak
points in eighteenth-century strategy were the

344 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
insufficient concentration of resources and the
persistence in advancing against objective points
Weak points by mcans of converging lines. Such
century^''"'''' ^rrors wcrc often enough repeated in
strategy the nineteenth century with less ex
cuse. Since now, for the first time in the great
war, the capture of Quebec entered Into the
plan of campaign, the more modern method
would have been to concentrate everything
upon that one point and to. avoid expending
energy In subordinate matters, however im
portant, such as the capture of Fort Niagara,
or the reestablishment of Oswego, inasmuch
as success in the greater undertaking would
carry with it success along the whole line.
Nevertheless, the policy of diffused attack was
more in accordance with the mental habits of
that time, and Amherst, the commander-in-
chief, though a capable general, was not a man
of great originality. His plan was to complete
General Am- ^^^ vlctorlcs at the wcst and Insure
herst's plan the Safety of Pittsburg by sending an
campaign expedition westward to restore Os
wego and take Niagara. At the same time the
principal blow should be struck at Quebec by
General Wolfe, assisted by the fleet under Ad
miral Saunders. As for Lake Champlain, Am
herst undertook to clear the French from there
and proceed against Montreal, in the hope
either of taking that city and advancing against

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 345
Quebec, or, at least, of creating a diversion
that would lighten Wolfe's task. The subor
dinate parts of this scheme were carried out
with a creditable measure of success, yet not
such as to take away from Wolfe the necessity
for doing the impossible. As often happens In
warfare, the shortcomings of the average in
tellect were repaired by the presence' of some
heaven-sent genius.
We may first note the fortunes of the west
ern expedition which started from Albany under
General Prideaux, with Sir William q^^^^^
Johnson second in command. The Prideaux's
work to be accomplished by this force against Fort
was important, and five thousand men Niagara
were prudently allotted to it. General Prideaux
was to garrison the new Fort Stanwix, and pro
ceeding thence to the shore of Lake Ontario
was to leave half of his troops under Colonel
Haldimand * to restore and defend Oswego,
while he himself with the remainder of the army
should move against Fort Niagara. The wis-
* [On Haldimand' s interesting career and invaluable ser
vices to American history, see Kingsford, History of Canada,
iv. 317, 318. Like Bouquet, he was a Swiss by birth. He
gathered together two hundred and thirty-two volumes of
manuscripts relating to American history for the years 1758—
1785, which are now in the British Museum. They have
been copied for the Canadian Archives, and have been calen
dared in Brymner's Reports. Cf Winsor, Narr. and Crit.
Hist., viii. 461.]

346 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
dom of leaving a strong force at Oswego was
presently demonstrated when the French came
across Lake Ontario to attack it. The pressure
upon Quebec had become so heavy that it was
not easy to find men enough for this western
work, and one thousand men were all that could
be gathered. This party, commanded by the
partisan chieftain La Corne, made a demonstra
tion upon the camp at Oswego, but was re
pulsed with considerable loss, and retired from
the scene.
Fort Niagara, situated at the mouth of the
Niagara River, was bravely defended by its
commander, Pouchot. In the course ofthe en
gagement Prideaux was killed by a shell, and
the command devolved upon Johnson. Cut off,
as Pouchot was, from all help from the east, his
fate was only a question of time unless some
thing could be done In his behalf by the militia
and Indians of the west. A force had been
gathered together from Detroit and the Sault
Ste. Marie, from Green Bay and the Illinois
FaU of Fort Rlvcr, conslstlug of about eleven hun-
Niagara ^j.^^ Frenchmen with two hundred In
dians under command of the able leaders Marin,
Aubry, and Lignerls, who had been the last
commander at Fort Duquesne. The original
object of this western muster had been to retrieve
the last autumn's disaster and take Pittsburg
from the English ; but the Frenchmen had only

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 347
advanced as far as Presqu'Isle and Le Boeuf
when a message from Pouchot summoned them
to come to the rescue at Fort Niagara. They
made all haste in that direction, but on arriving
In the neighbourhood were encountered by Sir
William Johnson and totally defeated, losing all
their principal leaders, who were taken prison
ers. Nothing was left for Pouchot but to sur
render his fortress and men. This surrender,
which was made on the 24th of July, was the
final blow to the French In the west.
While these things were going on at Niagara,
General Amherst with thirteen thousand men
was advancing from the Hudson River upon
Ticonderoga. The terrible defences which
Montcalm had built, and which had cost Aber
crombie two thousand men in his attempt to
carry them by storm, were still in position and
once more confronted the brave men who re
turned to the spot. Montcalm was no longer in
command, having been called away to Quebec
to defend that supreme position General Am-
agalnst the expedition led by Wolfe. ^XsT't?''
Ticonderoga was now commanded by conderoga
General Bourlamaque, who made as few signs
of life as possible. Amherst was a man not given
to erring on the side of rashness. Such an at
tempt as Abercromble's he would never have
thought of making ; so he drew up his army

348 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
before the works and studied the situation. His
meditations were interrupted by a stupendous
explosion which scattered one of the forts in
Ticonderoga fragments through the air, hke a gi-
deserted and gantic Roman candlc. This explo-
°™"^ sion represented the partial success
of the Frenchmen's attempt to destroy the
fort. Bourlamaque had been instructed by Vau
dreuil not to offer serious resistance at either
Ticonderoga or Crown Point, where a defeat
would endanger his being cut off; but, on the
other hand, he was to withdraw the whole length
of Lake Champlain to the river Richelieu, and
there make a determined stand, where his line
of retreat would be tolerably secure. In these
prudent Instructions we see how great had been
the change of animus in the French command
ers during the past twelve months. They had
ceased to despise their adversary.
The faults of Amherst as a commander now
come into the foreground. He was a safe and
prudent commander, not likely to commit
any startling blunder, but his movements were
marked by excessive deliberation. Instead of
pushing and harassing Bourlamaque with might
and main, he devoted too much attention to the
restoration and repair of the forts at Ticonde
roga and Crown Point, a kind of work which
might have been left for another season. Am-

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 349
herst was the commander-in-chief, whose objec
tive point was some position where he might
cooperate with his subordinate, Wolfe, , , ,
1 11 J 1 1 ¦ Amherst's
in what all agreed to be the crowning ineffective
operation of the war, if It should prove ^'^""^
successful. If he could not directly cooperate
with Wolfe, his next best course was to compel
Montcalm to weaken his own force for the sake
of helping Bourlamaque; and the only practi
cable way of doing this was to push Bourlamaque
with all possible persistence and fury ; but this
Amherst was far from doing. His conduct of
the campaign was busy, but languid, and the
month of September arrived before any pro
gress had been made in disturbing the French
lines at Isle aux Noix.
Thus the problem of taking Quebec was left
for Wolfe to solve alone, and after his own
fashion. It seems hardly necessary to cumber
the narrative with the numerous details of the
summer's disappointing work. The principal
elements in the problem were as follows : —
The city of Quebec stands on the summit of
a cliff at least two hundred feet In height at the
junction of the St. Charles River with
1 o T T • 1 Quebec
the St. Lawrence. It occupies the
apex of the cliff between the two rivers, and
looks eastward down the St. Lawrence. Below
the St. Charles the distance down the north side

350 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
of the St. Lawrence to the Montmorenci is six
miles. The bank Is rather low, but precipitous,
with a low beach at its foot, and for some
distance from this beach the river is shallow.
Nearly opposite the magnificent cataract of two
hundred and fifty feet by which the Montmo
renci discharges Itself is the island of Orleans in
mid-stream. Between this large island and the
city of Quebec six miles up-stream the width of
the river is not less than two miles, and it Is
often called the Basin. In passing Quebec, a
name which means " The Narrow Place," the
stream narrows to less than twelve hundred
yards, so that in Wolfe's time the city could be
reached by batteries planted on the south side
ofthe stream at Point Levi, although the French
had been disinclined to believe this.
When Wolfe came up the river in June he
encamped his army upon the Island of Orleans
and upon the mainland at Point Levi and sur
veyed the situation. The French army, four-
The position ^ceu thousand strong, was encamped
oftheFrench behind cntrcnchmcnts along the six
forces ^^
miles of low chff between the St.
Charles River and the falls of Montmorenci.
The lofty cliff above the city had small sentry
parties posted at Intervals along the summit,
while eight miles above, a force of twenty-three
hundred men under Bougainville was posted at

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 351
Cap Rouge. The purpose of this latter detach
ment was to check and give timely warning of
any possible movement from above on the part
of Amherst, should he succeed In getting into
that part of the world. Now Wolfe was good
enough general to know that Montcalm's army
was his chief objective point in a deeper sense
than Quebec. Unless he should crush the French
army, the position of Quebec would be of small
use to him, while with the army once disposed
of, Quebec would drop Into his hands like a
ripe apple. The difficult question was, how to
get at the French army. Their position between
the St. Charles and the Montmorenci was sim
ply inaccessible. They could not be reached
from English batteries south of the river, and
it was impossible for any English force to turn
their left flank without putting itself Into a very
dangerous position, where It would be liable to be
cut off from the fleet which served as its base.
The greater part of July was spent by Wolfe In
inspecting the eastern bank of the Montmo
renci to see if there were any means of attacking
there ; but no available place was found, and
with all his dare-devil courage, Wolfe was not
the man to risk useless sacrifice of life. Be
sides, even if a vigorous attack could have been
made at that point, the French could easily
withdraw, for their supplies came to them from

352 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
the west. A flank attack on the west of their
The difficui- line by the St. Charles River would
conf7ont'ed ^avc Compelled them to stand and
Wolfe fight, where defeat meant ruin. But
for the English to land in that locality was sim
ply impossible. On the last day of July, appar
ently for the sake of doing something or other,
Wolfe landed a considerable force on the low
ground just above the Montmorenci. That he
did not intend to storm is obvious, for when
some of his brave regiments rushed forward. It
was entirely without orders, in pursuit of a sud
den Impulse, and a deadly fire from the French
infantry soon made them recoil. A large part
of the month of August was spent by the young
general on a sick-bed, attacked by a complica
tion of diseases from which there was small hope
of recovery ; he begged only to live long enough
to solve the problem which Pitt had laid before
him. To his physician he exclaimed, " Oh,
Doctor, just patch me up enough for this busi-
„. .„ ness and I '11 ask no more ! " It was
His illness probably while tossing on that fever
ish couch that his mind began playing with the
thought which presently developed into a stern
resolve. If a landing could not be effected at
the St. Charles in face of a greatly superior
force, how might it be with the heights above
the city, which were watched only by small par
ties of sentinels ? Wolfe went up the river with

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 353
boats and inspected the bank for himself, and
about two miles above the city, at a place called
Anse du Foulon, he detected a zigzag path
which he rightly judged led to the summit of
the well-nigh perpendicular cliff, though its
course was in great part hidden by stout bushes.
At the summit of this cliff the point of land
upon which the city stood opened out into a
wide plateau, known from some old AVolre plans
settler as the Plains of Abraham. If to scale the
a force could be landed here it would ^^^^^^
compel Montcalm to come and attack, for other
wise his food supply would be cut off. With
this end In view Wolfe increased the activity of
his men in all directions. The batteries at Point
Levi had been throwing shot and shell into the
city for several weeks, and had reduced large
portions of it to ruins. The bombardment now
became more furious than ever. One move
which he made quite puzzled Montcalm, but
conveyed no hint of what was really contem
plated ; the greater part of the British force was
moved up the river to Cap Rouge, where such
demonstrations were made as completely to ab
sorb the attention of Bougainville. Montcalm
was Inclined to regard the movement as the final
embarking of the British army preparatory to
sailing down-stream and away, for his mind
could conceive no possible alternative for Wolfe
except the abandonment ofthe enterprise. With

354 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
regard to Wolfe himself, while his attitude was
one of grim determination, it can hardly be said
to have been hopeful. The expedient was one
from which success might come, and was there
fore preferable to a confession of failure. One
circumstance upon which he rested some hope
was the fact that boats now and then succeeded
in stealing down under the black shadow of the
lofty bank with provisions for the French army
below. On the 12th of September all was in
readiness, and Wolfe made such demonstrations
below the city that Montcalm began to think
that a landing at the mouth of the St. Charles
might be intended, and that thus the Lord was
delivering his enemy into his hands. At the
Final pre- samc time, the demonstrations against
parations BougainvIllc wcrc redoubled, and
Enghsh ships kept moving from point to point
in such wise as to strain every nerve of the
watchful and bewildered French. In the course
of the day Wolfe called to him his friend Jervis,
afterward celebrated as an admiral, and told him
that he had a presentiment of impending death ;
and taking from about his neck a small chain
with the miniature of the lady to whom he was
betrothed, he gave It to Jervis to be returned
to her In case he should not survive the antici
pated battle. As midnight approached, all was
silence at Cap Rouge, but such demonstrations
were made below the city that Montcalm was

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 355
on horseback all night, expecting an attack at
the St. Charles. Meanwhile, at the gleaming of
a lantern at the masthead of one of the ships,
sixteen hundred men dropped into their boats
and waited for the ebb of the tide. Then, at the
momentary flash of another lantern,
, , , . , . , The start
all began rowing down-stream in the
dark shadow of the cliff. Twice they were chal
lenged by sentinels above, but an officer who
spoke French fluently replied that they were
boats with provisions for Montcalm.
Wolfe sat burled In thought, occasionally
repeating aloud verses from Gray's " Elegy,"
which had been published a few years before,
and one line,
"The paths of glory lead but to the grave,"
betrayed what was passing in his mind. " Gen
tlemen," he said to the officers with him, " I
would rather be the author of that poem than
take Quebec." When they reached the land
ing-place, the head of the column The ascent
went ashore, under the lead of Wil
liam Howe, youngest brother of the general
who had been killed at Ticonderoga. As the
sixteen hundred landed, the zigzag path was
overcrowded, but there were so many bushes
as to afford an abundance of handles and foot
holds on that steep precipice. The height of
the climb was a little over two hundred feet.

356 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
or about the same as that of Bunker Hill
Monument. But at length It was safely accom
plished, and just as the first streaks of dawn
glimmered on the eastern horizon, the gallant
Howe with his men leaped upon the summit
and scattered the French sentinels, who were
seized with panic and stood not upon the order
of their going. It was still early dawn when the
sixteen hundred were drawn up in order on
the Plains of Abraham. Other boats were fol
lowing close behind, and by six o'clock three
thousand more had chmbed the rocky wall.
The alarm was now spreading in many direc
tions, but it was a long march for any of the
French forces to reach the spot where Wolfe
stood. When the tidings came to Montcalm
j^^^ his countenance fell. " This is a very
surprise of scrlous busIness," he said, and in
stantly put a large portion of his force
under marching orders. Not a moment was to be
lost, for Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham was
in possession of his line of communication.
Nothing was to be done but to go and fight
the English In a position where defeat meant
destruction. By nine o'clock in the morning
Montcalm had about five thousand men on
the plateau, while Wolfe was waiting for the
numbers of the French to reach a point where
their defeat might be final ; for now Wolfe had
good grounds for confidently expecting victory.

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 357
Only two thousand of the force opposed to him
were French regulars. The rest were Canadian
militia, unsurpassed in bush fighting, but hardly
fit to withstand a charge of British grenadiers.
The attack was made bv the French,
, 1 1 r 1-1 • ¦ The battle
who rushed rorward with great spirit.
Wolfe's orders to his men, like those of Pres
cott in later days at Bunker Hill, were to with
hold their fire until the enemy were within very
close range. This order was strictly obeyed.
When the volley was delivered. It made sad
havoc in the French ranks, and when the Brit
ish followed it with a solid bayonet charge on
the double-quick, the French line was hope
lessly broken. The firing in some parts of the
field remained very brisk on both sides. In
crossing an exposed place Wolfe received a
ball in the wrist which shattered the arm, but
he tied it up with his handkerchief and kept
on. Presently a second ball struck him In the
groin without causing him to stop, and almost
immediately afterward a third passed through
one of his lungs. As he staggered, he was
seized by four men, who carried him to the
rear and laid him upon the ground. He was
already somewhat comatose, when one of the
officers exclaimed, " My God ! see how they
run ! " " Who run ? " exclaimed Wolfe, rousing
himself " The enemy," replied the officer, " is
giving way everywhere." The young general's

358 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND
eyes lighted up once more as he eagerly cried
Death of o^t, " Go, onc of you, my lads, to
Wolfe Colonel Burton and tell him to march
down to the Charles River Bridge and cut off
their retreat ; " then, turning upon his side, he
murmured, " Now, God be praised, I will die
in peace."
For Montcalm, too, the final summons had
come, and he was no more to see the beautiful
Provencal home for which he had so wearily
yearned. As he was approaching one of the
gates of the city, mounted on his black horse,
a bullet was lodged in his chest, which in the
intensity of excitement he seemed hardly to
feel. As he passed through the gate a party
Death of of womcn, scelug the blood stream-
Montcaim jjjg (^qwu hls walstcoat, burst into
loud lamentations : " He is killed ! The Mar
quis is killed ! " " Do not weep for me, my
children," said he ; " It 's nothing." But, as he
said the words, he fell from his horse and was
caught In the arms of his officers. When the
surgeon informed him that the wound was mor
tal, his reply was, " So much the better. I shall
not live to see Quebec surrendered."
Thus came to a close one of the greatest
scenes in the history of mankind, the final act
in the drama which gave the North American
continent into the keeping of the English race
instead of the French ; and perhaps there has

THE FALL OF QUEBEC 359
never been a historic drama in which the lead
ing parts have been played by men of nobler
stuff than Montcalm and Wolfe. After the fall
of Quebec there could be no doubt that the
fate of Canada was decided. The capture of
Montreal by Amherst in the following sum
mer was like an appendix to a tale already told.

INDEX

Abenakis, Algonquin Indians in
Maine, 235. See also Norridge
wock.
Abercrombie, James, English gen
eral, arrives with Loudoun, 306 j
commands on the Hudson, 317 }
expedition against Ticonderoga,
318— 323 J assault, 324; retreat,
325 ; ridiculed, 325.
Acadia, meaning of the word, 50 ;
occupation by Monts, 50-58 ;
Madame de GuercheviUe buys
Monts' s claim, 76 j restored to
France, 92, 97 j Alexander's
grant, 93 j La Tour's rule, 93,
94 ; contest between La Tour
and D'Aunay, 94—96 ; conquest
by New England, 96 ; Temple's
grant, 96 ; passes finally to Eng
land, 234 ; extent, 234, 249.
See also Canada, Port Royal.
Adirondacks, Algonquin Indians in
Canada, 43, 63.
Africa, Dieppe traders on western
coast, 2.
Albany Congress, purpose, 279 ; at
tendance, 279 ; plan of union,
280.
Alexander, Sir William, grant of
Nova Scotia, 93.
Algonquin Indians, displace Iroquois
on the St. Lawrence, 42 ; fruit
ful stock, 43 ; friendship neces
sary to the French, 63, 64;
character of Canadian, 64 ; in
Maine, 235 ; tribes in the Ohio
valley, 263.
Allefonsce, Jean, Roberval's lieu
tenant, sent to find Verrazano

Sea, 24 ; mistaken ideas on his
voyage, 25 j narrative, 26 j Vu-
menot's account, 26 j true course,
27 J on the Hudson River, 27 j
probable object of voyage, 28 j
rejoins Roberval, 31 ; death, 32.
AUouez, Claude, Jesuit missionary,
explores Lake Superior, loi j
hears of the Mississippi, 106 ;
oration to the Indians, 108.
America considered the Devil's do
main, 144.
Amherst, Sir JefFry, English com
mander-in-chief in America, 317 ;
expedition against Louisburg, 329-
332 ; goes to the Hudson, 333 j
plan of campaign for 1759, 344 ;
advance on Ticonderoga, 347 j
fails to support Wolfe, 348 ; cap
tures Montreal, 359.
Andastes, name for the Susquehan
nocks, 48.
Andros, Sir Edmund, preserves
friendship of Iroquois, 103 ; rule
in Massachusetts, 202.
Annapolis, N. S. See Port Royal.
Antinomianism and the Great Awak
ening, 228.
Argall, Samuel, attacks the French
at Mount Desert, 77-79 5 burns
Port Royal, 79.
Army, English, Braddock's force,
281 J ignorant of Indian warfare,
2835 character of Johnson's force,
296 ; rank of colonial officers,
308 J Abercromble's force, 318 j
force against Louisburg, 329 ;
Forbes's force, 337 j in 1759,
343-

362

INDEX

Army, French, force sent over with
Dieskau, 281 j character of the
Indian allies, 308, 310, 313-315 j
at Quebec, 350.
Assemblies, colonial, reluctance to
grant funds, 242, 262, 272, 273,
277, 285.
Attiwendaronks, kin to the Five
Nations, 48 ; refuse to join the
confederacy, 48 j consequent an
nihilation, 49.
Aubert, Thomas, alleged voyage on
St. Lawrence River, 4-6.
Aubry, French partisan, unsuccess
ful attempt to relieve Fort Niagara,
346.
Austrian Succession, war of the,
248, 249.
Baptists profit by the Great Awaken
ing, 231.
Baxter, Joseph, Puritan missionary
in Maine, controversy with Rale,
239.
Beaujeu, second in command at Fort
Duquesne, 288 ; waylays Brad
dock, 289 J death, 290.
Bethencourt, Jean de, Norman
knight, colonizes Canary Islands,
Biencourt, son of Poutrincourt, in
France, 72, 75 j and Argall, 79 ;
rebuilds Port Royal, 79 j death,
93-
Booth, Elizabeth, and the Salem
witchcraft, 160. See also Salem
Village.
Boscawen, Edward, English admiral,
expedition against Louisburg, 329.
Boston, Ann Hibbins witchcraft case,
146—148 ; Goodwin witchcraft
case, 148, 152-155.
Boulle, Helen, marries Champlain,
80 ; in Canada, 89 ^ religious
zeal, 89.
Bouquet, Henry, English colonel,
with Forbes, 337.
Bourlamaque, Chevalier de, French

general, evacuates Ticonderoga,
347-
Braddock, Edward, English general,
sent to America, 281 ; prepara
tion to march against Fort Du
quesne, 283, 285 ; character,
283 J underestimates the Indians
and militia, 283-285, 287 ;
mistake in route, 286 ; march,
286—288 J not ambushed, 289 ;
defeat, 290; bravery, 291 ; death,
292; retreat of his forces, 292.
Bradstreet, John, trial for witchcraft,
148.
Bradstreet, John, English colonel,
ability, 333 j captures Fort Fron
tenac, 334.
Brattle, Thomas, liberal views, 203 ;
gives land for Brattle Church,
204.
Brattle, William, liberal views, 203.
Brattle Church, Boston, founded,
204 J conditions of membership,
204 } recognized, 206.
Brazil, Huguenot colony, 33.
Brebeuf, Jean de, Jesuit missionary,
arrives in Canada, 89.
Brittany, France, race characteristics,
I J mariners, 2 ; interest in New
foundland fisheries, 3 ; objects to
trade monopoly in Canada, 36, 57.
Bunker Hill and Ticonderoga, 323.
Burnet, William, governor of New
York, builds fort at Oswego,
262.
Burroughs, George, arrested for
witchcraft, 168 ; accusation, 173;
execution, 186.
Bury St. Edmunds, England, witch
craft trial, 138-140.
Cahiague, Canada, Huron village,
Champlain at, 86.
Calef, Robert, and Cotton Mather,
150 J on the witchcraft trials,
163 n., 186.
Cambridge, Mass., execution of a
witch, 146.

INDEX

363

CambridgeJPlatfbrm, fall, 206 j some
results, 214.
Canada, early explorations, 5, 7 j
early attempt at settlement, 6 ;
Cartier^s explorations, 1 3-22 ;
first use of name, 15 j Roberval's
attempted colony, 22-24, 2.9-32 ;
fiir-trade monopoly, 36—38, 49,
57, 59, 60; Chaniplajn's first
voyage, 42 ; change in Indian in
habitants, 42—44 ; Champlain' s

second_voyage, 60 j first settle
ment, 60 ; beginnings of Indian
policy, 62-65, 7°j 7^ h Indian
missionaries, 86, 89, 103 ; rivalry
of interests, 88 ; Richelieu's mea
sures for settlement, 90 ; religious
uniformity required, 91 ; captured
by the English in 1628, 91 ; re
stored to France, 92 j inland ex
plorations, 98—101, 106 J inter
est of Louis XIV., loi ; policy
of development, 104 j route to
the interior, 1 04 ; possession taken
ofthe Northwest, 107-109 j La
Salle's expedition to the Ohio,
III— 115 ; exploration of the
Mississippi, 1 1 7—120 ; scheme
for empire in the Mississippi val
ley, I20~I22, 132 ; Louisiana
added to French possessions, 130 ;
irrepressible conflict with English
colonies, 233, 239 ; importance
of Kennebec River to, 234 ;
policy against English settlements,
239, 241 ; loss of the control of
the Kennebec, 244; loss of Louis
burg in 1745, 249-256 ; develop
ment of scheme of empire, 258 ;
menace in the English advance
into the Ohio valley, 261, 264 ;
decline of influence over the In
dians, 261-264; possession and
occupation of Ohio valley, 264-
273 ; restored control of the in
terior, 309 ; strategic points, 326 j
Pitt resolves to destroy, 342 j
English conquer, 358. See also

Acadia, French and Indian War,
Newfoundland.
Canary Islands, Bethencourt colo
nizes, 2.
Caniengas, name for Mohawks, 45.
Canseau, Nova Scotia, captured by
the French, 250.
Cape Breton, named, 4.
Cartierj^ JacqueSj early career, 13 ;
first voyage, 1 3 ; second voyage,
1 4 ; explores St. Lawrence River,
14 ; at Stadacona, 15; visit to
Hochelaga, 16—20; winter quar
ters at Stadacona, 20 ; return
voyage, 21 ; captain-general, 22 ;
third voyage, 23 ; and Roberval,
24; brings Roberval back to
France, 31 ; death, 32.
Caughnawaga, Canada, village of
converted Iroquois, 262.
Cavelier family, 109. See also La
SaUe.
Cavelier, Jean, brother of La SaUe,
IIO.
Cayugas, Iroquois Indians, 45 j
segregated from the Onondagas,
47. See also Iroquois.
Celoron de BienvUle, takes possession
of Ohio valley for France, 264-
266 J and La Demoiselle, 266.
Chamglain^^Samueli^ birth, 38 ; re
ligion, 39, 59, 81 ; character^
39, 58, 92 ; in the West Indies
and Mexico, 40 ; suggests a canal
at Panama, 41 ; and Pontgrave,
41 ; fiigt^yqyage to Canada , 42 ;
on coast of New England, 52—55 ;
purpose of the exploration, 53,
55 j greeting at Port Royal, 55 ;
his knightly Order of Good Times,
57 ; interest in Canada, 58 ; re -
turn^to CanadsLj, 60 ; founds Que
bec, 60 ; puts down treason, 61 ;
makes alliance with Algonquins
and Hurons, 62-64 ; first expedi
tion against the Iroquois, 65-70 ;
great consequences, 70, 71 ; sec
ond encounter with the Iroquois,

364

INDEX

80 ; married, 80 ; founds Mon
treal, 81 ; viceregal lieutenant,
81 ; controls the fur-trade, 82 ;
interests merchants, 8 2 ; seeks the
western sea, 83 ; among the Ot
tawas, 83 ; brings Recollets to
Canada, 86 ; attacks an Iroquois
viUage, 86-88 ; defends Quebec
against Kirke, 91 ; surrenders,
92; governor, 92; last days, 92.
Charles River, Mass., Champlain
enters, 53.
Charlestown, Mass., execution of a
witch, 145.
Charlevoix, P. F. X. de, Jesuit his
torian, on the coureurs de bois,
106.
Charter, new, for Massachusetts,
202. See also Grants.
Chastes, Aymar de, aid to Henry
IV., 37; joins Pontgrave's mo
nopoly, 38 ; death, 49.
Chauvin, Pierre, monopoly of the
fur-trade, 36 ; death, 37.
Chesapeake Bay and Verrazano Sea,
II.
Church and State in Massachusetts,
opposition to theocracy and growth
of Toryism, 197, 201 ; overthrow
of theocracy, 202, 205.
Churchill, Sarah, and the Salem
witchcraft, 160. See also Salem
Village.
Clergy of Massachusetts and the
Salem witchcraft, 170-172,
Colman, Benjamin, liberal views,
203 ; pastor of Brattle Church,
204.
Colonies, EngUsh, purpose, 104 ;
frontier growth, 237, 259, 263 ;
incite Indian raids, 240 j gov
ernors and legislatures, 242, 262,
272, 273, 277, 285; effect of
growth on New France, 261-
263 J increased influence with the
Indians, 262—264, ^.66 j inter
colonial relationship in 1754, 2785
rejection ofthe Albany Plan, 280 j
results of rejection, 281 ; troops

raised for campaign of 1759, 343.
See also New England and colonies
by name.
Colonies, French, attempt at Sable
Island, 6 j attempted Huguenot,
33 ; and the fiir-trade interests,
88. See also Acadia, Canada,
Louisiana.
Conde, Henri, Prince of, viceroy of
New France, 82.
Conestogas, name for the Susquehan
nocks, 48.
Congregationalism, innovations of
Brattle Church, 204 ; Saybrook
Platform, 215-218 ; condition in
early years of eighteenth century,
220—222 ; outgrowth of Halfway
Covenant, 221 ; effect of Edwards's
teachings, 224. See also Great
Awakening.
Connecticut, civil liberalism, 211 ;
increased_conservatisr^ ;
Saybrook Platformj 215-218 ;
founding of Yale CoUege, 218-
220 ; opposition to the Great
Awakening, 230 ; share in the
Louisburg expedition, 251 j troops
for campaign of 1759, 343.
Contrecoeur commands Fort Du
quesne, 74, 288.
Corey, Giles, character, 1 64 j
charged with witchcraft, 179 ;
pressed to death, 1 80.
Corey, Martha, wife of Giles, charac
ter, 164 ; accused of witchcraft,
165 ; condemned, 180 ; executed,
183.
Cortereal, Gaspar, voyage, 6.
Courcelle, Sieur de, governor of
Canada, 10 1 ; invades the Iroquois
country, 102; recalled, 115.
Coureurs de bois, origin and nature,
105.
Crown Point, N. Y., Johnson to
attack, 295 ; strategic value,
327 ; evacuated by the French,
348. See also Ticonderoga.
Crowne, William, English grant of
Acadia, 96.

INDEX

365

CuUender, Rose, trial for witchcraft,
138-140.
Dacotah Indians, first contact with
whites, 99 ; character, 107,
Dagonoweda, Mohawk chief, helps
establish Iroquois confederacy, 47.
Dale, Sir Thomas, governor of Vir
ginia, and the Jesuits, 79.
D'Aunay Charnisay, Charles, Seign
eur, contest with La Tour in
Acadia, 94 ; supported by the
king, 95 ; death, 96 ; widow
marries La Tour, 96.
Davenport, James, revivalist, eccen
tricities, 227 ; arrested, 230.
Davenport, John, opposes Halfway
Covenant, 201.
De Caen, Emery, trade monopoly in
Canada, 89 ; abolished, 90.
Delaware Indians in Ohio vaUey,
263 ; become English aUies, 341.
Demarcation, buU of, opinion of
Francis I., 8.
DemoiseUe, La, Miami chief, and
Celoron, 278 ; killed, 279.
Denys,Jean, French navigator, al^
leged chart, 4—6.
DesceUers, Pierre, French hydro-
grapher, at Dieppe, 34.
Diaz de Castillo, Bernal, Spanish
historian, on Verrazano and Fran
cis I., 8.
Dieppe, France, early trade with
Africa, 2 ; and the Newfoundland
fisheries, 33 ; as a centre of nau
tical science, 34 ; objects to the
fur-trade monopoly, 37. See also
Normandy.
Dieskau, Baron, French general,
sent to America, 281 ; advance
from Crown Point, 297 ; am
bushes Johnson's scouts, 299 ;
repulsed by Johnson, 299 ; cap
tured, 300.
Dinwiddie, George, governor of Vir
ginia, sends Washington to warn
off the French, 270 ; attempt to
build a fort at Pittsburg frustrated,

272 ; war measures impeded by
the legislature, 272, 277.
Dongan, Thomas, governor of New
York, preserves Iroquois friend
ship, 103.
Donnacona, Canadian chief, 15 ;
taken to France, 22.
Dorchester, Mass., execution of a
witch, 146.
Drucour, Chevalier de, French gen
eral, commands Louisburg, 328.
Dudley, Joseph, founder of New
England Toryism, 201 ; governor
of Massachusetts, 210 j and the
Mathers, 210.
Dummer, William, lieutenant-gov
ernor of Massachusetts, conflict
with the Assembly, 243.
Dunbar, Thomas, commands Brad
dock's rear detachment and re
treats, 292.
Duny, Amy, trial for witchcraft,
138-140.
Duquesne, Marquis, governor of
Canada, sends expedition to Ohio
valley, 268 ; recalled, 282.
Duval, treason at Quebec, 61.
Easton, Penn., convention of Indian
chiefs, 340.
Easty, Mary, accusation and trial for
witchcraft, 176-179; petition,
181-183 ; execution, 183.
Edict of Nantes issued, 35.
Edwards, Jonathan, greatness, 222 ;
mysticism, 223 ; emphasis on
conversion, 224 ; revival of
1734, 226; quarrel with his
church, 23 1; president of Prince
ton, 231.
Elizabeth, empress of Russia, and the
Seven Years' War, 302.
Elmina, Gold Coast, founded by
Dieppe traders, 3.
England, captures Acadia and Que
bec in 1628, 91 ; restores them,
92 ; purpose of colonial enter
prise, 104; witchcraft trials,
138-140, 143; Witch Act,

366

INDEX

143 ; irrepressible conflict with
France in America, 233, 239;
in the war of the Austrian Suc
cession, 249 ; first troops sent for
French and Indian War, 281 ;
declares war on France, 301 ;
allied with Prussia, 302. See also
Colonies, French and Indian War.
Entraigues, Henriette d', Henry
IV. 's mistress, and the Jesuits,
74-
Erie, Penn. See Presqu'Isle.
Eries, kin of Five Nations, 48 ; re
fuse to join confederacy, 48 ;
consequent annihilation, 49.
Europe, condition at end of sixteenth
century, 34.
Fagundes, Alvarez, Portuguese navi
gator, voyage, 7.
Five Nations. See Iroquois.
Florida, Huguenot colony, 33.
Forbes, John, English general, char
acter, 336 ; expedition against
Fort Duquesne, 336 ; lieutenants
and force, 336; route, 337;
method of advance, 337—339}
Grant's defeat, 339 ; finds the
fort deserted, 341 ; death, 342.
Fort CrevecoEur, IU., built, 127 ;
mutiny and destruction, 128.
Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg), im
portance of location, 261, 263,
326 ; rival EngUsh colonial claims
to site, 268 ; English attempt to
build a fort, 272 ; French build,
272 ; Braddock prepares to march
against, 283-285 ; his march,
286-288 ; French force, 288 ;
defeat of Braddock, 289—292 ;
EngUsh retreat, 292 ; effect of
destruction of Fort Frontenac,
335» 34^ i Forbes's expedition
against, 337-340 ; isolated and
abandoned, 341 ; named Fort Pitt,
341-
Fort Edward, N. Y., built, 296 ;
Webb's force at, 311.
Fort Frontenac (Kingston), Canada,

built, 124; La Salle commands
and rebuilds, 1 24 ; strategic value,
3^6, 335 ; captured, 334; de
stroyed, 335.
Fort Le Bceuf, Penn., French block
house, 268 ; Washington at,
271.
Fort Lyman. See Fort Edward.
Fort Necessity, Penn., Washington
buUds, 275 ; battle and surrender,
^75-
Fort Niagara, N. Y., failure of
Shirley's expedition against, 294,
300; Prideaux's expedition against,
345 ; relief routed, 346 ; sur
render, 347.
Fort Stanwix (Rome), N. Y.,
built, 335 ; purpose, 335.
Fort Willjani Henry, N. Y_., Mont
calm advances against, 310-312;
reinforced, 312 ; siege, 312; sur
render, 313 ; massacre, 314.
France, war ' with Spain, 8, 12 ;
civil wars, 32 ; condition at end
of sixteenth century, 34, 35 ;
poUcy in America, 62—64, i°4)
120—122, 132; takes possession
of the Northwest, 107-109 ;
claim to the Mississippi vaUey,
130 ; irrepressible conflict with
England in America, 233, 239;
in war of Austrian Succession,
249 ; first troops sent for French
and Indian War, 281 ; England
declares war, 301 ; in the Seven
Years' War, 302 ; disasters in
1759, 342. See also Canada,
French and Indian War.
Francis I. of France, on the bull of
demarcation, 8 ; capture, 12 ;
creates a viceroyalty in the New
World, 22, 28.
p£anklin,_ Benjai^^ Al^iny^^an,
280 ; and Braddock, 284 ; on
Loudoun, 307.
Frederick the Great of Prussia, and
the Seven Years' War, 301 ;
allied with England, 302.
French and Indian War, first move-

INDEX

367

ments, 271—276; French and
English troops sent to America,
281 ; first naval battle, 282 ; first
comprehensive plan, 285, 294 ;
war declared, 301 ; strategic
points, 326 ; EngUsh preparations
for campaign of 1759, 343 ; plan
of campaign of 1759, 344. See
also fortified places and generals by
name.
Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Count
of, governor of Canada, 115;
character and influence over the
Indians, 116.
Frontier, advance of English settle
ments, 259-264 ; Indian depre
dations, 301. See also Kennebec
River, Ohio vaUey.
Fry, Joshua, colonel Virginia miUtia,
on the frontier, 273.
Frye, Jonathan, in Lovewell's fight,
246 ; death, 247 ; verses on, 248.
Fur-trade, early French, on the
Hudson, 28 ; monopoly of Cana
dian, 36-38, 49, 57, 59, 90;
Champlain controls, 82 ; interests
opposed to settlement, 88 ; route,
104, 261 ; diversion to the Eng
Ush, 262.
Gage, Thomas, lieutenant-colonel
under Braddock, 289.
gastaldj^Tacopo, ItaUan geographer,
map* ^7-
Gates, Horatio, with Braddock,
289.
General Court of Massachusetts,
character under new charter, 185.
Geneva, Switzerland, execution of
witches, 142.
Geograghy^ alleged chart_^f Denys^
4—6 ; Luiz' s_ map, 7 ; Verra-
zano^sjmpi 1 1 ; Maggiolo's map,
1 1 ; Verrazano Sea, 1 1 ; carto
graphical union of Hudson and
St. Lawrence rivers, 27.
Germany, last execution for witch
craft, 144; emigration to the
English colonies, 259.

Gist, Christopher, with Washington,
- 270 ; journal, 271 n.
Glover, Mrs., of Boston, executed
for witchcraft, 148 ; confession,
152.
Good, Sarah, accused of witchcraft,
162 ; execution, 180.
Goodwin, John, his children be
witched, 148 ; Cotton Mather's
connection with the case, 152—
154.
Governors, EngUsh colonial, con-
J[icts7'v^th_ thg AssembUes, 242,
243, 262, 272, 273, 277, 285.
Grant, James, English major, disas
trous reconnoissance on Fort Du
quesne, 339; contempt for pro
vincials, 340.
Grants, fur-trade monopoly, 36-38,
49, 59, 90 ; of Acadia to Monts,
49 ; Madame de GuerchevUle's,
76 ; of Nova Scotia to Alexander,
93 ; of Acadia to Temple, 96.
See also Charter.
Grave, Fran9ois. See Pontgrave.
Great Awakening of 1734, 225-
228 ; and the Halfway Covenant,
225, 231; and Antinomianism,
228 ; decHne, 229 ; opposition,
229 ; effect, 231.
Griffin, La Salle's schooner, built,
124 ; loss, 126.
GroseUliers, Sieur des, explorations in
the West, loi.
GuercheviUe, Antoinette, Mar
chioness de, and the Jesuits, 74 ;
grant, 76.
Gulf of St. Lawrence, alleged dis
covery, 4 ; Fagundes's explora
tion, 7 ; Cartier in, 13, 14.
Haldimand, Frederick, EngUsh colo
nel, restores and defends Oswego,
345 ; manuscripts, 345 n.
Hale, Sir Matthew, English jurist,
belief in witchcraft, 138, 140.
Hale, Mrs., of Beverly, accused of
witchcraft, 184.
Half-King, Indian chief on the

368

INDEX

Ohio, unstable friendship, 269 ;
warns Washington, 274 ; at Fort
Necessity, 275.
Halfway_Coyenant, 200 ; outgrowth,
221 ; effect of the Great Awak
ening, 225, 231.
Hallucinations, psychology, 191.
Harvard College, Increase Mather
non-resident president, 203, 208 ;
Uberalism, 203, 208, 213, 214,
219; question of the charter,
206, 210; question of religious
test for its officers, 207 ; Mather
displaced and WiUard made head,
208 ; Leverett president, 210 ;
condemns Whitefield, 229; Louis
burg cross, 256.
Hathorne, John, judge of Salem
witches, 169.
Hebert, Louis, first farm at Quebec,
89.
Hendrick, Mohawk chief, at Lake
George, 299 ; killed, 299.
H^ne£in^_JLou^i character, 125 ;
false claims, 126 ; with La SaUe,
126 ; sketches Niagara FaUs,
126.
Henry IV. of France, grants mo
nopoly in fur-trade, 36, 38, 59 ;
grant to Monts, 49 ; favours
Champlain's scheme, 59 ; mur
dered, 73 ; results of abandoning
his policy, 73.
Hiawatha, Onondaga chief, con
ceives Iroquois confederacy, 47.
Hibbins, Ann, execution for witch
craft, 146-148.
Hobbs, Deliverance, confesses to
witchcraft, 175.
Hochelaga (Montreal), Cartier's
visit, 16—19 j typical Iroquois
town, 18; destroyed, 42. See
also Montreal.
Holyoke, Edward, president of Har
vard, condemns Whitefield, 229.
How, EHzabeth, executed for witch
craft, 168.
Howe, George, Viscount, English
general, Abercromble's Ueutenant,

317; ancestry, 317; military
insight, 319 ; death, 320 ; effect
of his death, 320, 325 ; monu
ment, 321.
Howe, Richard, Lord, intercepts
French troops, 282 ; ancestry,
317-
Howe, Sir WilUam, ancestry, 317 ;
at Quebec, 355.
Hudson Bay and Vignau's story,
83.
Hudson River, Verrazano enters,
10, 28 ; Allefonsce explores, 27;
belief in its union with the St.
Lawrence, 27 ; early French fiir-
trade, 28.
Huguenots, attempted colonies, 33 ;
not allowed in Canada, 90.
Huron Indians, kin to the Five Na
tions, 47 ; location, 48 ; refuse
to join the confederacy, 48 ; con
sequent annihilation, 49, loi ;
aUied with Algonquins, 49, 64 ;
friendship necessary to the French,
63, 64; and Champlain attack
an Iroquois village, 86—88 ; rem
nants in Ohio vaUey, 263.
Illinois, Algonquin Indians, Nicol
let encounters, 100 ; Iroquois In
vade, 129, 263.
Indians, facetiousness, 22, 66 ; mi
grations, 43 ; pestilence in Massa
chusetts, 54 ; French policy, 62-
64, 70, 71, 105, 239 ; consult
ing of tutelary spirits, 67; war
fare, 68-70, 283 ; missions, 86,
89, 92, 103 ; Northwest tribes,
99, 106; and Frontenac, 116;
idea of land selling, 238 ; both
French and English incite Indian
raids, 239-241 ; destruction of
Maine, 243, 244 ; bounty for
their scalps, 245 ; Lovewell's
fight, 245-248 ; decUne of French
influence, 261-267 i 0\\iQ valley
tribes, 263 ; vacillation, 269 ; as
French allies, 288, 298, 301,
308, 310, 313-315, 338, 346;

INDEX

369

as English alUes, 297, 300, 341 ;
convention of chiefs at Easton,
340. See also Algonquin, Hu
ron, Iroquois.
Innocent VIII., pope, buU against
witchcraft, 141.
Intendant of Canada, duties, 102.
Iroquois Indians, at Hochelaga, 18 ;
driven from the St. Lawrence by
Algonquins, 42—44 ; settlement
in New York, 44 ; tribes, 45 ;
advantages of situation, 46 ; con
federacy, 46 ; origin of the five
tribes, 46 ; destruction of outlying
tribes, 47—49, loi ; first fight
with Frenchmen, 68—70; results,
70, 71 ; second defeat by the
French, 80 ; Champlain attacks
a viUage, 86-88 ; destroy the
Hurons, loi ; CourceUes^ inva
sion, 102 ; effect, 103 ; friend
ship for the EngUsh, 103 ; tem
porary French influence, 262 ;
power in the Ohio vaUey, 263;
and the Albany Congress, 279 ;
with Johnson's army, 297 ; atti
tude in French and Indian War,
34°-
Jacobs, George, executed for witch
craft, 167.
James I. of England, Damonologie,
142.
Japan, St. Francis Xavier in, 74.
Jesuits, growth and power, 73 ;
spirit of propaganda, 74, 100;
at Port Royal, 75 ; with La
Saussaye at Mount Desert, 76 ;
treatment by ArgaU and Dale,
78, 79 ; supreme in Canada,
100.
Jogues, Isaac, Jesuit missionary, at
outlet of Lake Superior, 100.
Johnson, WiUiam, influence over the
Iroquois, 263 ; selected to attack
Crown Point, 294, 295 ; charac
ter of his army, 296 ; advance,
296 ; scouts ambushed, 299 ;
defeats Dieskau, 299 ; made a

baronet, 300 ; fails to pursue the
French, 300 ; second In com
mand against Fort Niagara, 345 ;
takes command, 346 ; defeats re
lief force, 347 ; captures the fort,
347-
Joliet, Louis, education, 113, 117 ;
exploration for copper mines, 114;
sent to find the Mississippi, 115,
116; on the Mississippi, 118—
120.
Joncaire- Chabert and Washington at
Venango, 270, 271.
Jones, Margaret, executed for witch
craft, 145.
JumonviUe, Coulon de, surprised and
kUled by Washington, 274.
Kennebec River, Maine, Champlain
ascends, 53 ; importance to Can
ada, 234 ; Indians, 235 ; Shute's
conference with the Indians, 239;
Indians attack English settlements,
241 ; French control destroyed,
243, 244.
Kirke, David, attack on Quebec,
91, 92.
La Corne, Saint-Luc de, French
partisan, unsuccessful attack on
Oswego, 346.
La Galissoniere, Marquis de, gov
ernor of Canada, sends expedition
to claim Ohio valley, 264.
La^Salle,. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de,
birth and early life, 109 ; charac-
Jer, IIO, 114, 123 ; at La Chine,
IIO; expedition to the Ohio,
III— 115 ; on the Great Lakes,
115; reputed trip to the Missis
sippi, 115; scheme for French
empire, 120-122, 132; opposi
tion, 123, 125 ; commands and
rebuUds Fort Frontenac, 1 24 ;
buUds schooner Griffin, 124;
discomfitures, 126-128 ; voyage
to head of Lake Michigan, 126 ;
loss of the Griffin, 126 ; builds
Fort CreveccEur, 127; overland

370

INDEX

return to Montreal, 127 ; and the
Crevecceur mutineers, 128 ; goes
to rescue Tonty, 129; descends
the _Mis_sissippi, 130; takes pos
session for France, 1 30 ; plan for
a colony, 131 ; death, 1 32; de
velopment of his scheme, 258.
La Saussaye, chief of Jesuit colony,
at Port Royal, 76 ; attacked by
ArgaU at Mount Desert, 76-78 ;
set adrift but rescued, 78.
La Tour, Charles de, succeeds Bien
court in Acadia, 93 ; relations
with England and France, 94—
96; contest with D'Aunay, 94 ;
marries D'Aunay's widow, 96 ;
retires, 96.
La Tour, Claude de, father of Charles,
captured and enters EngUsh ser
vice, 93 ; and his son, 94.
Lake Champlajuj Champlain crosses,
66; str^e^cjjalue, 327.
Lake George, named, 297 ; battle,
297-300. See also Fort WiUiam
Henry.
Lake Huron, discovery, 86.
Lake Michigan, NicoUet's explora
tions, 99.
Lake Ontario, Champlain crosses, 87.
Lake Superior, Jogues at outiet,
100 ; explored, loi.
Lalemant, Gabriel, Jesuit missionary,
arrives in Canada, 89.
Land, Indian ideas of selling, 238.
Langlade, Charles de, French trader,
destroys Miami trading viUage,
267 ; at Fort Duquesne, 288.
Langy, French partisan, encounter
with Howe's scouting party, 319.
Lawson, Deodat, lecture on witch
craft, 167.
Le Caron, Joseph, Recollet mission
ary, reaches Lake Huron, 86.
Lee, Charles, with Bradflock, 289.
Lery, Baron de, attempted colony on
Sable Island, 6.
Lescarbot,_Marc, in Acadia with
Monts, 51 ; as^ an author, 51 ;
pageant for Poutrincourt, 55.

Leverett, John, liberal views, 203 ;
president of Harvard, 210.
Lewis, Mercy, and the Salem witch
craft, 160. See also Salem Vil
lage.
Ligneris, French partisan, attempt
to reUeve Fort Niagara, 346.
Longfellow, H. W., on Cotton
Mather's connection with the
Salem witchcraft, 151, 187.
Loudoun, Earl of, EngUsh com
mander-in-chief in America, 306 ;
character, 307 ; plans to attack
Ticonderoga, 307; futile expedi
tion against Louisburg, 310 ; re-
caUed, 317.
Louis XIV. of France, and Canada,
101 ; pardons witches, 133.
Louisburg, Cape Breton Island, for
tified, 249 ; colonial project to
capture in war of the Austrian
Succession, 250 ; attacking mili
tary force, 251 ; attacking naval
force, 252, 255 ; progress of the
attack, 253-256 ; surrender,
256; Loudoun's expedition against,
in French and Indian War, 310 ;
strategic value, 327 ; restored to
France by treaty of Aix-la-Cha
pelle, 328 ; situation and defences,
328 ; EngUsh expedition against,
in 1758, 329; landing effected,
329; reduction of outer works,
330 ; bombardment, 331 ; French
fleet destroyed, 331 ; surrender,
33^-
Louisiana, possession taken for
France, 130; La Salle's attempted
colony, 131; development, 258.
See also Canada, Mississippi River.
Loyewdljjohn, Massachusetts cap
tain, fight withthe Indians, 245—
247 ; death7"a47^bailad on the
fight, 247.
Luiz, Lazato, map, 7.
Lyman, Phineas, Connecticut gen
eral, Johnson's Ueutenant, 295 ;
credit for battle at Lake George,
300.

INDEX

.371

Maggiolo, Vesconte, map, 1 1 .
Maine, advance of settlement, 237.
See also Kennebec River.
Malleus Maleficarum^ 142.
Maria Theresa, queen of Hun
gary, and the Seven Years' War,
302.
Marie de Medicis, widow of Henry
IV., and the Jesuits, 74.
Marin, French officer, expedition to
the Ohio valley, 268.
Marin, French partisan, attempt to
reUeve Fort Niagara, 346.
Marquette, Jacques, Jesuit mission
ary, character, 117 ; on the
Mississippi, 1 18-120 ; death,
120.
Martin, Susannah, executed for
witchcraft, 168.
Mascoutins, Algonquin Indians on
Lake Michigan, 99.
Massachusetts, early witchcraft trials,
145—149; change in character of
General Court under new charter,
185 ; opposition to the theocracy,
197, 201 ; Halfway Covenant,
200 ; Andros's rule, 202 ; new
charter, 202 ; liberalism com
pared^ withXonnecticut, 212—215,
220 ; confUcts between governor
and Assembly, 242, 243 ; expe
dition against Kennebec Indians,
243 ; bounty for Indian scalps,
245 ; share in the Louisburg ex
pedition, 251 ; monument to
George, Viscount Howe, 321 ;
troops for campaign of 1759,
343. See also Great Awakening,
Salem Village.
Masse, Enemond, Jesuit missionary,
arrives in Canada, 89.
ft^therj__Cottonj_ attainments, 149 ;
character, 150; and the Salem
witchcraft, 150-152, 155, 170-
173, 186, 197 ; connection with
the Goodwin witchcraft case, 1 52-
155 ; religious conservatism, 197,
205, 206 ; and Harvard College,
209.

MatheTj^Jncrease, Cases^_^f^^Con--
science f 186; reUgious conser
vatism, 197, 206 ; effort to ob
tain a charter for Massachusetts,
202 ; non-resident president of
Harvard, 203, 208 ; displaced,
208.
Menard, Rene, Jesuit missionary,
explores Lake Superior, loi.
MerccEur, Duke de, and Roche,
35-
Mexico, Champlain in, 40.
Miamis, Algonquin Indians in Ohio
vaUey, 263 ; Celoron among,
266 ; English influence, 267 ;
French attack, 267.
Mingos, Iroquois Indians in Ohio
vaUey, 263 ; English allies, 341.
Missions to the Indians, French, Re
collets arrive, 86 ; Jesuits arrive,
89 ; paramount interest, 92 ; ex
tent, 103.
Mississippi River, NicoUet unwit
tingly hears of, 1 00 ; AUouez
hears of, 106 ; question of its
mouth, 106, III, 119; La
SaUe's reputed ttip, 115 ; Mar
quette and Joliet on, 118— lao;
La Salle descends, 130.
Missouri River, JoUet and Marquette
discover, 119.
Mohawks, Iroquois Indians, mean
ing of name, 45 ; segregated from
the Onondagas, 47. See also Iro
quois.
Monckton, Robert, EngHsh colonel,
to attack the French from Acadia,
294.
Monopoly In Canada, fur-trade, 36—
38, 49», 57, 59, 90; general
commercial, 90.
Monro, English colonel, defends Fort
WiUiam Henry, 312 ; surrenders,
313-
Montagnais, name for the Adiron
dacks, 63.
Montcalm, Louis Joseph, Marquis
de, French commander-in-chief
in America, 303 ; character,

372

INDEX

303 ; voyage to America, 304 ;
and Vaudreuil, 305 ; captures Os
wego, 308 ; expedition against Fort
WiUiam Henry, 310-312; siege
and surrender of the fort, 312;
unable to prevent a massacre, 3 1 3—
315 ; defences at Ticonderoga,
321 ; repulses Abercrombie's at
tack, 324 ; defence of Quebec,
350 ; battle of Plains of Abra
ham, 356; mortaUy wounded,
358.
Montmorency, Duke of, sells vice-
royalty, 89.
Montreal, named, 20 ; founded,
82; captured, 359. See also
Hochelaga.
Monts, .Pi«'re du Guast, Sieur de,
monopoly of fur-trade, 36"P^Mit,
49 J voyage to Acadia, 50 ;
monopoly withdrawn, 57 ; tem
porary renewal of monopoly, 59 ;
governor of Pons, 81 ; gives up
Canadian affairs, 81. See also
Acadia, Port Royal.
Mount Desert, Maine, discovered,
52 ; La Saussaye and Argall at,
76-78.
Nausett Island, submerged, 54.
New England, Champlain on the
coast, 52—55 ; conquers Acadia,
96 ; purpose of settlement, 104 ;
gloomy outlook in 1692, 156;
advance of settlement in Maine,
237; Indian depredations, 241 ;
captures Louisburg, 250-256.
See also colonies by name.
New France. See Canada, Louisi
ana.
New Hampshire, share in Louisburg
expedition, 251 ; troops for cam
paign of 1759, 343-
New Haven annexed to Connecticut,
211 n.
New Jersey, troops for campaign of
1759, 343-
New Orleans, battle of, and Ticon
deroga, 323.

New York, troops for campaign
of *759, 343- *^" ^^^° Iro
quois.
Newcastle, Duke of, and the attack
on Louisburg, 253.
Newfoundland, question of pre-
Cabotian voyages, 3 ; exploitation
ofthe fisheries, 4, 7, 33.
Niagara FaUs, Champlain hears of,
59 ; La Salle hears, 113; Hen
nepin sketches, 126.
Niagara River. See Fort Niagara.
Nicollet, Jean, among the Indians,
98 ; sent to find the western
*' great water," 98; explores
Lake Michigan, 99, 100 ; hears
ofthe Mississippi, 99.
Normandy, France, race character
istics, I ; mariners, 2 ; early in
terest in Newfoundland fisheries,
3 ; objects to trade monopoly in
Canada, 37, 57 ; condemnation
of witches, 133. See also
Dieppe.
Nomdgewock, Maine, viUage of
Christianized_AlgonguinJnd^^
importance of location, 235 ;
Rale in, 2.35-237; construction,
236 ; inhabitants take the war
path, 241 ; stormed, 243 ; tribe
exterminated, 244.
North America identified with Asia,
22.
Northampton, Mass. , development
of Halfway Covenant in church
at, 222 ; beginning of Great
Awakening, 226 ; church quar
rel with Edwards, 231.
Northwest, route used by the French,
104; Indian conditions in 1670,
105—107 ; France takes posses
sion, 107-109.
Northwest passage, why sought, 9 ;
Verrazano seeks, i o ; Cartier
seeks, 14.
Norumbega, location, 27, 28 ; Al
lefonsce at, 27 ; Penobscot River
so called, 52.
Nova Scotia. See Acadia.

INDEX

373

Noyes, Nicholas, and the Salem
witches, 1 80.
Nurse, Rebecca, accused of witch
craft, 165; judges force convic
tion, 174.
Ohio River, La SaUe hears of, 1 1 1 ;
La SaUe's expedition, iii— 115.
See also next title.
Ohio valley, beginnings of English
occupation, 260, 264 ; effect on
the French, 261 ; Indians, 263 ;
power of the Iroquois, 263 ;
French influence over the Indians,
264, 266, 269 ; French posses
sion asserted, 264-267 ; Du
quesne sends expedition to control,
268 ; Washington's mission, 270,
271 ; Fort Duquesne built, 272 ;
failure of Washington's expedition,
273-276 ; effect of Fort Du
quesne on English prestige, 277,
293 ; EngUsh gain control, 340.
See also Fort Duquesne.
Ojibways, Algonquin Indians, loca
tion, 99; French friendship, 105.
Old Britain. See DemoiseUe.
Old South Church, Boston, founded,
201.
One Hundred Associates, privileges
and duties, 90 ; first expedition
captured by English, 91.
Oneidas, Iroquois Indians, meaning
of name, 45 ; segregated fi-om
Mohawks, 47. See also Iro
quois.
Onondagas, Iroquois Indians, mean
ing of name, 45.
Organizations, tendency to rigidity,
213.
Osbum, Sarah, accused of witch
craft, 162.
Oswego, N. Y., importance of
founding, 262 ; captured by the
French, 308 ; destroyed, 309 ;
effect of capture, 309 ; rebuUt,
345 ; successfiiUy defended, 346.
Ottawas, Algonquin Indians in Can
ada, 64 J war party with Cham

plain, 65— 70 ; Champlain among,
84 ; driven westward by the Iro
quois, 106.
Panama, Champlain suggests a canal
at, 41.
ParUament, Witch Act, 143.
Parris, Ehzabeth, and the Salem
witchcraft, 159. See also Salem
Village.
Parris, Samuel, minister of Salem
Village, 157; church troubles,
1 58 ; his household and the begin
nings of the witchcraft delusion,
159-161, 192.
Pennsylvania, western claim, 268 ;
attitude of the Assembly on Fort
Duquesne, 277 ; troops for cam
paign of 1759, 343.
Penobscot River, Maine, explored
by Champlain, 52 ; caUed No
rumbega, 52.
PeppereU, WiUiam, commands the
attack on Louisburg, 251 ; cre
ated a baronet, 256.
Peguawketlndians, Lovewell' sfight^
246-248.
PhiUp II. of Spain, death, 35.
Phips, Sir WilUam, governor of
Massachusetts, 169, 203 ; wife
accused of witchcraft, 184.
Physical science, effect on beUef in
witchcraft, 137.
PickawiUany, Ohio, Miami trading
viUage, Celoron at, 266 ; de
stroyed by the French, 267.
Pitt, WUliam, controls war affairs,
315 ; character, 315 ; popularity,
316; poUcy of destruction of
New France, 342.
Pittsburg, Penn., named, 341. See
also Fort Duquesne.
Pomeroy, Benjamin, punished for
revivaUsm, 230.
Pomeroy, Seth, in Johnson's army,
296.
Pontgrave (Francois Grave, Sieur du
Pont), monopoly of the fur-trade,
36, 37 ; and Champlain in Can
ada, 41, 60, 62.

374

INDEX

Pontiac, Ottawa chief, at Fort Du
quesne, 289.
Poole, W. F., on Cotton Mather
and the Salem witchcraft, 152.
Port Royal (Annapolis), Acadia,
founded, 52 ; Lescarbot's pageant,
55 ; early Ufe at, 56 ; Poutrincourt
returns to, 72 ; Jesuits arrive,
75 ; burned by Argall, 79 ; re
built, 79 ; D'Aunay controls,
94 ; French attack, 250. See
also Acadia.
Portugal, voyages to northwest, 6,
7 ; interest in Newfoundland fish
eries, 7.
Post, C. F., Moravian missionary,
secures Indian aUiance for the
English, 341.
Pottawattamies, Algonquin Indians
on Lake Michigan, Allouez meets,
100 ; French friendship, 105 ;
Sulpicians attempt to convert,
114.
Pouchot, M., French captain, de
fends Fort Niagara, 346 ; sur
renders, 347.
Poutrincourt, Baron de, in Acadia
with Monts, 51 ; founds Port
Royal, 52 ; on the* coast of New
England, 54 ; greeting at Port
Royal, 55 ; returns to Port Royal,
72 ; and the Jesuits, 75 ; death,
^79- . .
Presbyterianism, tendency in Con
necticut, 215—218.
Presqu'Isle (Erie), Penn., French
blockhouse, 268.
Prideaux, John, English general, ex
pedition against Fort Niagara, 345;
killed, 346.
Prince, Thomas, on decUne of the
Great Awakening, 229.
Princeton CoUege, Edwards presi
dent, 231.
Proctor, John, executed for witch
craft, 167, 168.
Putnam , Ann, wife of Thomas,
and the Salem witchcraft, 160,
194. See also Salem ViUage.

Putnam, Ann, daughter of Thomas,
and the Salem witchcraft, 1 60 ;
confession, 186. See also Salem
Village.
Putnam, Israel, in Johnson's army,
296 ; in Abercrombie's army,
320 ; rescued from the stake,
333-
Quebec, meaning of the name, 60 ;
founded, 60 ; treason in, 61 ;
first winter, 62 ; early conditions,
88, 90 ; attacked by the English
in 1628, 91; surrender, 92;
restored to France, 92; unsuc
cessful expedition against, in 1 690,
156 ; situation, 349 ; position of
French army in 1759, 350 ;
problems of attack, 351 ; Wolfe
prepares to get above, 352-355 ;
bombardment, 353 ; English as
cend to Plains of Abraham, 355 ;
battle, 356-358; faU, 359. See
also Stadacona.
Radisson, Pierre d'Esprit, Sieur, ex
plorations, 1 01.
Rale^Sebastian^ Jesuit missionary,
^^tgorndg^vock, 2,35—237 ; ex
cites attacks on the EngUsh, 237,
238, 241 ; controversy with Bax
ter, 239 ; kiUed, 244 ; character,
244.
RavaiUac, assassin of Henry IV.,
73-
RecoUets arrive in Canada, 86.
Religion, effect of rigid organization,
213 ; condition in early years of
eighteenth century, 220-222 ;
Edwards on conversion, 224 ; re
vivals, 225 ; Great Awakening
in New England, 226—232. See
also Church and State, Congrega
tionaUsm, Missions.
Remigio, inquisitor, execution of
witches by, 142.
Renata, Maria, executed for witch
craft, 144.
Rhode Island, share in Louisburg

INDEX

375

expedition, 251 ; troops for cam
paign of 1759, 343-
Ribaut, Jean, attempted colony in
Florida, 33.
RicheUeu, Cardinal, measures for
New France, 90.
Roberval, Jean Fian9ois, Sieur de,
his New World titles, 22, 28 ;
arrives in Canada, 24 ; divides
his expedition, 24 ; to found a
colony, 29 ; and his niece, 30 ;
character, 30, 31 ; faUure of the
colony, 31 ; death, 32.
Roberval, Marguerite, niece of the
Sieur de, romance, 30.
Roche, Marquis de la, voyage to
Canada, 35.
Rogers, Susanna, verses on Frye,
248.
Royal Americans in Forbes's army,
337.
Sable Island, attempted colony, 6.
Saguenay River, Canada, Roberval
explores, 31.
Saint Francis Xavier in Japan, 74.
St. Lawrence River, Aubert' s al
leged voyage, 4 ; Cartier explores,
14; impressiveness, 15; notion
of union with the Hudson, 27.
St. Louis OH the IlUnois River,
founded, 131.
St. Lusson, Sieur de, takes posses
sion of the Northwest for France,
107-109;
St. Malo, Brittany, opposition to
fur-trade monopoly, 36. See also
Brittany.
Saint-Pierre, Legardeur de, expedi
tion to Ohio vaUey, 269 ; with
Dieskau, 298 ; killed, 299.
Salem ViUage (Danvers), Mass.,
Cotton Mather's connection with
the witchcraft delusion, 150—152,
15s, Jt 70-173, 186, 197 ; biblio
graphy of the witchcraft, 151 n. ;
situation, 157 ; church troubles,
157—159; beginningsof the witch
craft troubles^ 159-161 ; persons

accused, 161-169, 184; malice
as an element in the accusations,
165, 167-169, 180-191, 195;
special court, 169 ; recommenda
tions of the ministers, 170-172;
convictions on spectral evidence,
173; trials, 174-180; execu
tions, 179, 180, 186; protes'
tations of innocence, 180-183 i
reaction, 183-185 ; special court
abolished, 186; confessions of
miscarriage of justice, 188 ; ex
planation of the delusion, 189—
195 ; historical importance of
the troubles, 195 ; reaction on
the clergy, 197. See also Witch
craft.
SaybroQkPIatform, 215-218.
Schuyler family, influence over the
Iroquois, 103, 263.
Scotch-Irish immigrants, settlement,
259.
Scotland, witchcraft trials, 142, 143.
Secalart, PauUn de, French geogra
pher, and AUefonsce's narrative,
26.
Sedgwick, Robert, Massachusetts
major, conquers Acadia, 96.
Senecas, Iroquois Indians, 45 ; segre
gated from the Onondagas, 47 ;
and La SaUe's expedition to the
Ohio, III— 113. See also Iro
quois.
Seven Years' War, beginning, 301.
See also French and Indian War.
SewaU, Samuel, judge of Salem
witches, 170 ; pubUc acknow
ledgment of error, 188 ; on In
crease Mather's displacement from
presidency of Harvard, 209.
Shawnees, Algonquin Indians in
Ohio valley, 263 ; English alUes,
357-
Sheldon, Susannah, and the Salem
witchcraft, 160. See also Salem
ViUage.
Shirley, WiUiam, governor of Massa
chusetts, project to attack Louis
burg, 250 ; and his Assembly,

376

INDEX

278, 294 ; suggests a stamp tax,
281 ; part in the first campaign,
294 ; failure of expedition against
Fort Niagara, 300 ; superseded as
commander-in-chief, 306.
Shute, Samuel, governor of Massa
chusetts, conference with the
Maine Indians, 239 ; conflict
with the Assembly, 242 ; saUs
suddenly for England, 242.
Soissons, Charles, Count of, viceroy
of New France, 81.
Soto, Fernando de, explorations un
known to La SaUe, 121.
South CaroUna, troops for campaign
of 1759, 343-
Stadacona (Quebec), Cartier at, 15 ;
jealous of his visit to Hochelaga,
16; he winters at, 20 ; destroyed,
42.
Stamp tax, reasons for, 243, 273,
281,
Stark, John, in Johnson's army,
296.
Stoddard, Solomon, and the Halfway
Covenant, 222.
Stoughton, William, judge of the
Salem witches, 169.
Suffrage, under new charter of Mas
sachusetts, 185, 202; theocratic
restrictions in Massachusetts, 197 ;
Halfway Covenant, 200.
Sully, Duke of, opposes Champlain's
scheme, 59.
Sulpicians, expedition with La Salle,
II I-I 14.
Susquehannocks, kin to the Five
Nations, 48 ; refuse to join the
confederacy, 48 ; consequent an
nihilation, 49.
Sylvanus, Bernadus, Italian carto
grapher, Gulf of St. Lawrence in
his edition of Ptolemy, 5.
Tac, Sixte le, RecoUet missionary,
on AUefonsce's voyage, 25.
Tadousac, Canada, headquarters of
Pontgrave's monopoly, 37.
Talon, Jean Baptiste, intendant of

Canada, pohcy, 102 ; recalled,
115.
Temple, Sir Thomas, EngUsh grant
of Acadia, 96.
Tennent, GUbert, revivaUst, 227.
Tessouat, Ottawa chief, and Cham
plain, 84.
Theocracy. See Church and State.
Thevet,_ Andre, on Roberval's ad
ventures, 29.
Ticonderoga, _N._ Y., rneaning gf
name, 68 ; sjte of Champlain's
firstjnd^n__battle, 68, 70 ; Lou
doun plans to attack, 307 ; Aber
crombie's expedition against, 318—
321 ; defences, 321 ; possible
methods of attack, 322 ; and
battles of Bunker HUl and New
Orleans, 32.3 ; assault and re
pulse, 324 ; EngUsh retreat, 325 ;
strategic_,j^lue, 327 ; Amherst's
expedition against, 347; evacuated
by the French, 348.
Tituba, servant of Parris, and the
beginnings of the Salem witch
craft, 159, 192; accused of
witchcraft, 162; king's evidence,
162, 163 ; sold into slavery,
179.
Tonty, Henri de, La SaUe's Ueu
tenant, 125 ; commands Fort
Crevecceur, 127 ; driven away by
mutineers, 128; reunion with
La Salle, 130.
Toryism and opposition to Massa
chusetts theocracy, 201.
Tracy, Marquis de, miUtary com
mander in Canada, loi.
Trade, effect of rise of, on reUglon,
221. See also Fur-trade.
Treaties, St. Germain-en-Laye, 92 ;
Utrecht, 233 ; Aix-la-Chapelle,
258.
Union, Iroquois confederacy, 46 ;
need of colonial, In 1754, 2,79 J
Albany Plan, 280.
Unitarlanism as a gauge of liberalism,

INDEX

377

Vaudreuil, Philippe de, governor of
Canada, policy, 239, 241.
Vaudreuil, Pierre Francois, Marquis
de, governor of Canada, 282 ;
and Montcalm, 305.
Vaughan, William, project to cap
ture Louisburg, 250 ; occupies
the grand battery at Louisb.urg,
254.
Venango, Penn., Washington and
Joncaire at, 269—271.
Ventadour, Duke of, viceroy of
New France, 89 ; sends Jesuits,
VerrazanOa_ Giovanni da, and Au
bert, 4 ; captures Spanish treasure
ships, 8 ; purpose of his voyage,
9 ; course, lo ; Verrazano Sea,
II ; death, 12.
Verrazano, Girolamo, map, 11.
Ven-azano Sea, origin of the idea,
II ; on maps, 11 ; influence,
1 1 ; AUefonsce seeks, 24.
Vignau, Nicolas de, story of adven
tures, 82 ; probable basis of truth,
83 ; sequel, 85.
ViUegagnon, Nicholas de, attempted
colony in Brazil, 33.
ViUiers, Coulon de, at Fort Neces
sity, 275.
Virginia, Assembly impedes Dinwid
dle's war measures, 272, 277 ;
troops in Braddock's expedition,
287; troops for campaign of 1759,
343. See also Fort Duquesne.
Voyages^ pre-Cabotian^ to__J:Jew;
founjland fijheries,. 3 ; aUeged,
of Denys and Aubert, 4-6 ; of
Fagundes, 7 ; Verrazano's, 9—
II ; Cartier's, 13-24, 31 ; AUe
fonsce's, 24—29 ; Roche's, 35 ;
Champlain's, 42, 52—55.
Vumenot, Maugis, on AUefonsce's
voyage, 26.
Walcott, Mary, and the Salem
witchcraft, 159. See also Salem
ViUage.
Warfare, character of border, 240 ;

Indian, 283 ; former popularity
of convergent movements, 343.
Warren, Mary, and the Salem witch
craft, 160. See also Salem VU
lage.
Warren, Peter, EngUsh commodore,
and the attack on Louisburg,
252, 256.
Washington^ George, mission to the
French in Ohio valley, 270,
271 ; driven from site of Fort
Duquesne, 272 ; advance against
Fort Duquesne, 273 ; surprises
JumonviUe, 274; question of per
fidy, 274 ; at Fort Necessity,
275 ; surrender and retreat, 276 ;
at Braddock's defeat, 291, 292 ;
with Forbes, 337.
Webb, Daniel, EngUsh general, with
Loudoun, 306 ; tardy reinforce
ment for Oswego, 308 ; at Fort
Edward, 312.
West Indies, Champlain in, 40.
Westbrook, Thomas, Massachusetts
colonel, expedition against Maine
Indians, 243.
Whitefield, George, revival in New
England, 226 ; second visit to
New England, 229 ; motto for
Louisburg expedition, 252.
Wildes, Sarah, executed for witch
craft, 168.
WiUard, John, executed for witch
craft, 168.
WiUard, Samuel, accused of witch
craft, 1 84 ; non-resident vice-
president of Harvard, 208 ; be
comes head ofthe college, 209.
WiUiams, Abigail, and the Salem
witchcraft, 159. See also Salem
ViUage.
Winnebagoes, Dacotah Indians on
Lake Michigan, Nicollet meets,
99.
Winsor, Justin, on AUefonsce's voy
age, 25.
Winthrop, John, on witchcraft,
145- .
Wisconsin River, Allouez at its

378

INDEX

head, io6 ; JoUet and Marquette
descend, ii8.
Witchcraft, condemnation for, in
Normandy, 133 ; universal be
lief in, 134-137; bibliography,
^35 ^•, ^52 n. ; rise of scepti
cism, 137 ; specimen English
trial, 138—140; epidemic of
condemnations, 140—143, 205 ;
papal buU against, 141 ; text
book, 142; James I.'s treatise,
142 ; Witch Act in England,
143 ; trials in England, 143 ;
last trials, 143 ; comparatively
few cases in America, 144 ; early
trials in Massachusetts, 145—148 ;
the Goodwin case, 148, 152—
155. See also Salem VUlage. I

Wolfe, James, English general, ar
rives in America, 317; effects a
landing at Louisburg, 330 ; credit
for capture of Louisburg, 332;
sent against Quebec, 344; prob
lems, 351 ; illness, 352 ; project
to get above the city, 352 ; pre
parations, 354; ascent to Plains
of Abraham, 355 ; battle, 356 ;
death, 357.
Wyandottes, Huron Indians in Ohio
valley, 263.
Yale, Elihu, endows Yale CoUege,
219.
Yale CoUege, conservatism, 213,
218 ; founded, 218.

THE END

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Contents. — The Mystery of Evil ; The Cosmic Roots of Love
and Self-Sacrifice ; The Everlasting Reality of Religion.
The cognate topics of evolution and religion are harmonized
by a fine and delicate perception of spiritual and physical truths,
and the realities of love and faith in the unseen are given a fair
hearing with the tangible and scientific facts of this world. The
little volume has a reasonableness and a persuasiveness that can
not fail to commend its arguments to all. — Public Ledger (Phila
delphia).
OUTLINES OP COSMIC
PHILOSOPHY
Based on the Doctrine of Evolution, with Criticisms on the
Positive Philosophy. In two volumes, Svo, $6.00.
You must allow me to thank you for the very great interest
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... I never in my life read so lucid an expositor (and therefore
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DARWINISM, AND OTHER
ESSAYS
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MYTHS AND MYTH-MAKERS
Old Tales and Superstitions interpreted by Comparative
Mythology. Crown Svo, gilt top, $2.00.
THE UNSEEN WORLD
And Other Essays. Crown Svo, gilt top, $2.00.
EXCURSIONS OF AN
EVOLUTIONIST
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A CENTURY OP SCIENCE
And Other Essays. Crown Svo, $2.00.
Among our thoughtful essayists there are none more brilliant
than Mr. John Fiske. His pure style suits his clear thought. —
The Nation (New York).
CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN THE
UNITED STATES
Considered with some Reference to its Origins. With Ques
tions on the Text by Frank A. Hill, and Bibliographical Notes
by Mr. Fiske. Crown Svo, $1.00, net.
It is most admirable, alike in plan and execution, and will do
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forms of our civil institutions. — MosES CoiT Ttleb, Professor
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