1652-3

CRITICAL YEARS

LAMBERT CLOSSE, COMMANDANT

MAISONNEUVE'S SUCCESS IN PARIS—MADAME DE BULLION'S DONATIONS—"PARMENDA"—THE EXPLOIT OF LAMBERT CLOSSE—THE PHANTOM SHIP—MONTREAL REPORTED AT QUEBEC TO BE BLOTTED OUT—PROPOSALS OF PEACE FROM THE ONONDAGAS—MARCH OF MOHAWKS ON MONTREAL—CHARLES LE MOYNE AND ANONTAHA TO PARLEY FOR PEACE—A PATCHED UP PEACE—THE END OF THE SECOND IROQUOIS WAR.

M. de Maisonneuve was absent for nearly three years and during that time Montreal was in a critical position. The inhabitants were cooped up within the fortress or in the HÔtel-Dieu for fear of the Iroquois. The danger of going out of these limits was only too clearly seen when the cattle guardian, Antoine Roos, was slain at his work on the common in front, on May 26th.

Anxiety was felt as to M. de Maisonneuve's success in Paris. News was accordingly eagerly awaited. Thus it was that in June Jeanne Mance went to Three Rivers under the escort of Major Closse and proceeded on the way to Quebec under that of M. Duplessis Kerbodot, the governor of Three Rivers. On arriving there she had almost dared to hope to hear that M. de Maisonneuve had already arrived, but instead a long letter awaited her. In this, the governor related his visit to Madame de Bullion, telling how he had approached Madame adroitly, without discovering to her his knowledge of her benefactions as the founder of the HÔtel-Dieu. Not only did this lady not take any steps to show her disapproval of Mademoiselle Mance's action in making the exchange of the hospital revenue, but she gave in addition 20,000 livres more as an anonymous gift, placing it in the hands of the president of the Company of Montreal, M. de Lamoignon, for the purpose of raising a convoy for Montreal under M. de Maisonneuve. Thus, in all, this good lady had contributed 42,000 towards the 75,000 livres for the new expedition of 115 men provided by the Company. The letter then informed Mademoiselle Mance that he would return the next year; meanwhile the preparations would be hastened.

With this good news Jeanne Mance returned as soon as possible to Montreal. New hope was thus infused into the settlement. On July 29th, however, the state of hostilities is again revealed to us by the record of the brave exploit of Martine Messier, the wife of Antoine Primot.

Three Iroquois, who had hidden themselves in the wheat at a distance of two musket shots from the fort, fell upon her unexpectedly. She defended herself like a lioness, fighting with her hands and feet. To quell her loud cries for help they gave her three or four stunning blows with their axes. Thinking her dead, as she sank to the ground, one of them threw himself over the prostrate body to take her scalp as his trophy, when suddenly our Amazon, coming to herself, raised herself, more furious than ever, seized him with such violence "par un endroit que la pudeur nous dÉfend de nommer," that he could not free himself, although he did not cease striking her with the head of the axe. But she held on tightly, until at last she fell to the ground exhausted, thus affording her assailant what he most wanted at that moment, an opportunity to escape from the relief party now running from all parts of the fort to her rescue.

On reaching the spot where the poor woman lay bathed in her blood, one of the men assisting her to rise, moved by a natural sentiment of friendship and compassion, embraced her. But this seems to have made her confused, for she administered a sound slap in the face of this affectionate sympathizer, to the great surprise of the bystanders, who exclaimed: "What are you doing? This man was only showing his sympathy to you, without any thought of ill. Why do you strike him?"

"Par menda!" she exclaimed in her patois. "I thought he wanted to kiss me!"

Madame Primot did not die, but she was long afterwards known as "Parmenda," whose valour and modesty were lovingly held in tradition, as typical of the noble women of these early pioneering days, in which virtue and courage flourished side by side.

The severe treatment received at Montreal turned the Iroquois to Three Rivers, and in a skirmish on August 19th they killed the governor, M. Duplessis Kerbodot.

In October, however, Montreal was the scene of fresh fighting. Dollier de Casson has rescued the story of this from oblivion, from so many others not recorded.

On the 19th of this month, the barking of the dogs indicated the direction of an Iroquois ambuscade. The brave town major, Lambert Closse, ever ready to fly to the post of peril, started out at once with twenty-four armed men to reconnoitre the situation. But though brave, he was prudent; he therefore sent three of his soldiers ahead. La LochetiÈre, [69] Baston (or Bastoin) and another, ordering them to proceed within gunshot no further than a certain position marked out by him. La LochetiÈre, however, in his eagerness pushed a little ahead of his companions, and the more easily to discover the whereabouts of the enemy, he climbed a tree, intending to discover from this lookout if the enemy were hiding in a thicket.

But, without him knowing it, there was an ambush of them at the foot of the tree, and as soon as he had climbed it they raised their usual war cry, and were about to fire on him. No less alert than brave, La LochetiÈre seized his musket, fired straight at one of them, who was aiming at himself, killing his man, but paying the penalty of death at the same instant from his victim's gun. The other two scouts also received a volley, from which they were lucky to escape.

Major Chase quickly put his men in order, but, finding his party surrounded, he directed them to make a rush to a wretched shack near at hand, belonging to an old settler, M. Prud'homme, who had eagerly invited them to enter as quickly as possible, for the enemy were surrounding it. This done, the party made loopholes in the walls for their guns and prepared to open a brisk fire on the besiegers—all except one coward, who, falling flat on the ground, could not be induced by threats or blows to rise. But the Iroquois were now firing at close quarters all around the house and their balls riddled the scanty walls so that one of them struck Laviolette, one of the fighters of the fort, completely disabling him. The loopholes now being ready, the French party answered the Iroquois with such effect that after the first rounds the ground was strewn with the dusky bodies of the slain. The hurly-burly went on, the Iroquois fighting while they attempted to carry away their wounded and dead, until, fearing a dearth of ammunition, Major Closse was only too glad to accept the offer of Baston, whose prowess as a runner was well known, to make a dash to the fort and bring back a reinforcement of men.

Accordingly, under cover of the fire of the defenders of the house, the door was opened and Baston, speeding forth, escaped while the Iroquois were recovering from this last fusillade.

Soon he returned with eight or ten men, all that could be spared, and two pieces of cannon charged with canister shot. Between the scene of battle and the fort there was a screen of trees under cover of which the reinforcement made its way and thus escaped the attention of the savages till it suddenly appeared in view on this side of the screen and commenced firing on the Iroquois. Major Closse's party now went into the open to join fire also and a brisk and hot interchange took place. But the enemy were being overmastered and made their best to retreat, carrying with them their dead as far as possible, according to their custom. Dollier de Casson does not give the number of the enemy slain. "Usually," he says, "they decimated their losses, but, speaking of this occasion, they owned that 'we all died there.'"

M. de Belmont in his history states that more than fifty of the Iroquois were wounded and twenty killed. On the French side the only one killed was La LochetiÈre, and one wounded, Laviolette.

This was only one of the brave actions which surrounded the fame of the warlike Lambert Closse as revealed in the early chronicles.

Thus the fort of Montreal was the scene of many such conflicts, unassisted by the "camp volant," which de Lauson had suppressed in 1652. PÈre Mercier, in his "Relations of the Year 1653," writes: "There has passed no month of the year in which the Iroquois have not stealthily visited Ville Marie, attempting to surprise it. But they have had no great success. The settlers have assisted one another with so much determination and courage that as soon as a gunshot is heard in any direction, they run thither quickly, without any dread of the dangers besetting them."

At Quebec, it was announced that Montreal had been blotted out. In the spring of 1653 the governor of Quebec, anxious for news of this advanced post, had sent a barque thither, giving the commander instructions that he should not approach the fort, unless he had proof certain that the French were there, adding that if he did not see any, he was to come back to Quebec, for fear that the Iroquois, having captured Ville Marie, might be lying in ambush to capture them also. The barque advanced near the fort in a dense fog, and anchored. But seeing no one and hearing no signal, they obeyed their instructions literally enough, and went back to Quebec with the dire tale of the destruction of the French colonists. The wiseacres no doubt said that the inevitable had occurred at last.

Meanwhile in the fort, the keen-eyed had seen the vague outline of a vessel, but others said it was a phantom of the imagination, and when later the mist rolled away and they saw no ship, these were satisfied with their diagnosis until news came later from Quebec that it was a veritable vessel after all.

In this abandoned state, we are told by the chroniclers how the Montrealers, under the direction of the Jesuits of the fort, earnestly prayed for peace.

As if in answer to their petition, on June 26, 1653, an embassy of sixty Iroquois of the nation of the Onondagas (Onontaquis) appeared at the fort with a proposal of peace. As they came unarmed, they were treated kindly, presents were exchanged, and the day was one of public rejoicing. On returning to their country, passing by the village of the Oneidas (Onneyuts), they exhibited their presents and spoke in high praise of the French of Montreal. "They are devils when attacked," they said, "but most courteous and affable when treated as friends." And they protested that they were about to enter into a firm and solid alliance with them. Touched by these discourses, the Oneida Iroquois (Onneyuts) would also enter into an alliance with Montreal, and they sent an embassy with a great porcelain necklace, asking for peace, which was concluded. But there were three others of the Five Nations who had not made peace, for though they were allied amongst themselves they reserved their independence. These were the Mohawks (Agniers), the Senecas (the Tsonnoutouans), and the Cayugas (Gogogouins).

Three weeks after this, 600 Mohawks marched on Montreal. We have no records of this attack, but they retired to Three Rivers to seize the port there. Quebec now also trembled for itself, and it was at this time that de Lauson reestablished the "camp volant." In September of this year peace was again concluded, for a time, between the French and the Iroquois. As Montreal had a large share in bringing this about we must relate the following circumstances leading to it.

At the time of the descent, of the Iroquois above mentioned, on Montreal, there was present in the fort a band of Hurons, and among them one, the bravest of all, named Anontaha. On one occasion these Hurons had discovered the tracks of a party of lurking Iroquois meditating mischief for Montreal. They combined with the French and on August 25th they surrounded the Iroquois, and after a sharp struggle beat them off, leading four or five Iroquois chiefs, or men of importance, to the fort. These captives told of the projected raids of extermination on Three Rivers and Quebec. The acting governor, knowing of the importance of these Iroquois in the camp, called a meeting of his counsellors, and it was determined that Charles Le Moyne, the interpreter, should persuade Anontaha to go to Three Rivers and parley for peace with the Iroquois, offering to hand them over their chiefs in captivity in Montreal. This was done on August 24th and peace was concluded later. Dollier de Casson says of this: "Finally there was made a sudden patched-up peace in which our enemies acquiesced, solely to regain their own people and to have an opportunity of surprising us later. We well knew their rascally motives, but, as they were stronger than we, we accepted their conditions, 'et en passions par lÀ oÙ ils voulaient.'"

Thus ended the second Iroquois war.

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