1665

THE RECALL OF DE MAISONNEUVE

THE GOVERNOR GENERAL DE COURCELLES AND THE INTENDANT TALON ARRIVE—THE DUAL REIGN INHARMONIOUS—SIEUR DE TRACY, LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF THE KING FOR NORTH AMERICA, ARRIVES—THE CARIGNAN-SALLIERES REGIMENT—CAPTURE OF CHARLES LE MOYNE BY IROQUOIS—BUILDING OF OUTLYING FORTS—PREPARATIONS FOR WAR—THE DISMISSAL OF MAISONNEUVE—AN UNRECOGNIZED MAN—HIS MONUMENT—MAISONNEUVE IN PARIS—A TRUE CANADIAN.

The strained relations at Quebec and Montreal were soon to be relieved for a time by the death of de MÉzy, who died on the night of May 5-6, 1665, thus being saved the painful investigations into his government which were ordered by Louis XIV, and were to be conducted by the new governor, M. de Courcelles, and the intendant, Jean Baptiste Talon. They, having received their letters of appointment on March 23d, were now on their way with a secret commission to look into the administration of the spiritual and temporal power of New France. M. de Courcelles was given power over all the local governors of Canada, and the Sovereign Council, to settle differences between its members, and to have command over all His Majesty's subjects, ecclesiastics, nobles, soldiers and others of whatever dignity or condition, but this under the supervision of M. Alexandre de Pourville, Sieur de Tracy, who was shortly expected to be in Canada. This latter had been appointed on November 19, 1663, the lieutenant general of the king for l'AmÉrique MÉridionale et Septentrionale, and was to proceed to Canada as soon as possible.

As for Talon, the Colbert of New France, and the first intendant in Canada, he was given unlimited authority in police, civil, judiciary and financial matters, independently of M. de Courcelles.

This distribution of power was bound, in the beginning, to create trouble. Perfect harmony could not be expected while the intendant, though not of equal dignity with the governor, was treated with great consideration and was looked upon to act as a check and spy on the governor. This dual reign was as likely to cause friction as had that of the governor and the bishop hitherto. Still it was a most valuable and useful office in the progress of the country, and Talon used it well.

Before the arrival of de Courcelles and Talon, on April 25th, an attack had been made on the HÔtel-Dieu at Montreal, when four of their men were fallen upon by the Indians; one was killed, another mortally wounded and two others were taken prisoners. This made Montreal look more eagerly for the arrival of the troops promised to exterminate the Iroquois.

On June 17th and 19th, four companies of the Carignan-SalliÈres regiment, which had sailed from Rochelle, arrived at Quebec, while de Tracy himself, with the four others which had served with him in the French Islands, reached Quebec on June 30th. In the train of the tall and portly veteran of sixty-two, was a gay and glittering throng of finely dressed young noblemen, and gentlemen adventurers, eager to witness the wonders of New France. Never was such splendour seen in Canada as that, when Laval received de Tracy and his bronzed veterans recently come from Hungary, where they had fought the Turks, and who now, with their picturesque soldiery accoutrements and trained movements marched stately to the fort to the beat of the drums. Assuredly at last the Iroquois would be exterminated by such disciplined forces.

This infantry regiment, which at the conclusion of the war was to leave many of its soldiers to settle down near Montreal and become the founders of many of the best Canadian families, had originally been raised in 1644 by Thomas FranÇois de Savoie, Prince of Carignan, the head of the house of Carignan, who fought for France in Italy. His son, after him, also commanded this regiment, which took henceforth the name of Carignan. In 1659, after having joined the regiment of Colonel Balthasar, he incorporated this with his own and it was handed over to the French king, who placed M. Henri de Chapelais, Sieur de SalliÈres, the colonel of another regiment incorporated with it, to command it in the absence of the prince, under his orders. Hence the combination became known as the Carignan-SalliÈres regiment and consisted of about 1,000 men from the Carignan-Balthasar regiment and 200 of the SalliÈres. The portion of the troop which returned to France became the nucleus of a reconstructed regiment which under the name of Lorraine existed till 1794.

The regiment had, however, not yet all arrived. That portion led by Colonel de SalliÈres himself did not come till August 18th or 19th, while the last companies reached New France with de Courcelles and Talon, on September 12th. These latter added to the splendour of Quebec "for," says Mother Jucherau, "M. de Courcelles, our governor, had a superb train and M. Talon, who naturally loves glory, forgot nothing which could do honour to the king." At last the numbers were complete, but many were put into the hospitals, sick from disease, and from the long voyage, which had taken M. Talon's party 117 days at sea. This sickness was one of the reasons which delayed the war against the Iroquois till next year.

Meanwhile at Montreal news had arrived of the capture on the Ile Ste. ThÉrÈse, of Charles Le Moyne who, in July, had been given leave by de Maisonneuve to join the friendly "wolves" in a hunting expedition. He, however, escaped death, for he threatened them with dire revenge. "There will come a great number of French soldiers," he said, "who will burn your villages; they are even now arriving at Quebec. Of that I have certain information."

In preparation for the coming war, de Tracy, soon after his arrival, determined to build forts at the entrances to the routes leading to and from the Iroquois country. These were to be garrisoned by the soldiers of the Carignan regiments so far arrived. The first fort was placed at the mouth of the Richelieu River, to replace that originally built by de Montmagny, and quickly ruined in 1642. It was built under the direction of one of the officers, M. Sorel, whose name was afterwards given to this place, A second was constructed at the foot of a rapid of the Richelieu River and it received the name of Chambly, from another Carignan officer. M. de SalliÈres constructed the third at another rapid of the same river and it gained its name of Fort Ste. ThÉrÈse from the saint's day occurring on October 15th, the day of its completion. A fourth, St. John, was built at the foot on another rapid of the Richelieu. The fifth was built by another officer, M. Lamothe, on an island of Lake Champlain, at a distance of four leagues from its mouth and was named Ste. Anne.

After their completion, the soldiers were distributed for winter to Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal. Colonel de SalliÈres was in command at the latter. As provisions were scarce in the storehouses of the company, Talon wrote to Colbert on October 4, 1665:

"I have sent merchandise to Montreal and on the advice of M. de Tracy I have added some ammunition from the king's stores to be distributed to the inhabitants. But in return I expect to receive from them wheat and vegetables, as well as elk skins, to make stronger canoes than those covered with birch bark."

Hearing of the preparation for war, an embassy from the three upper nations under GaracontiÉ, the chief friendly to the French, met de Tracy at Quebec, bringing back with them Charles Le Moyne unscathed, and parleying for peace. But the two insolent lower tribes against whose marauderings the forts had been built, were still contumacious and to be punished presently.

By November, the forts were completed and the peace from Iroquois attacks was so secure that the body of Father Duperon, the old Jesuit missioner at Montreal, who had died at Chambly, was taken to Quebec to be buried. This same month, on November 24th, another Jesuit well known at Montreal, Simon Le Moyne, died at Cap de la Madeleine. He was a man of remarkable courage, tact and ability, and his name will ever be remembered in Canadian history as the first European recorded to have ascended the St. Lawrence River.

A greater sorrow than the imprisonment of Le Moyne was to afflict Montreal in the enforced departure of "its father, and very dear governor," who had served the colony for nearly twenty-four years, and was now to be a sacrifice to the centralizing policy of the new government, which had long looked with envy on the power of the seigneurs of Montreal to name their governor. The policy pursued by de MÉzy, and temporarily checked, was now adopted by the Marquis de Tracy, with no uncertain significance.

The joy at the arrival of the troops, now turned to bitterness. The nature of de Maisonneuve's dismissal was conveyed in the appointment, on October 23d, of his successor. "Having permitted," ran de Tracy's letter, "M. de Maisonneuve, governor of Montreal, to make a journey to France for his own private affairs, we have judged that we can make no better choice for a commander in his absence than the person of Sieur Dupuis, and this as long as we shall judge convenient." Under the glove of velvet, can be seen the hand of iron.

This stroke of diplomacy, delicate enough in its way, cut deep enough to wound de Maisonneuve's friends. The charge of inefficiency was read into the veiled dismissal by Marguerite Bourgeoys, his faithful adviser. "He was ordered to return to France," says Sister Morin, "as being incapable of the place and rank of governor he held here; which I could scarcely have believed, had not Sister Bourgeoys assured me of it. He took the order as that of the will of God and crossed over to France, not to make complaint of the bad treatment he had received but to live simply and humbly, an unrecognized man."

De Maisonneuve was left a poor man; he had made no fortune in Canada, as others had done. He had contented himself with being the father of his people. His devotion and attachment to Montreal had stood in the way of his acceptance of the governor generalship. He left under a cloud, but his memory has been vindicated in the noble monument to him in the Place d'Armes of Montreal. There is hardly to be found a higher ideal of Christian knighthood in the whole history of our Canadian heroes.

On his return to France, he led a simple Christian life. His heart was in Montreal, and in his modest home at the FossÉ St. Victor, his greatest delight was sometimes to receive a Canadian visitor, for whom he felt a fatherly affection.

His retreat was visited in 1670 by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who thus describes it in the account of her journey to obtain the letters patent for her new institution: "The morning of my arrival I went to the Seminary of St. Sulpice to learn where I could find M. de Maisonneuve. He was lodged at the FossÉ St. Victor, near the church of the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, and I arrived at his house rather late. Only a few days before he had constructed a cabin and furnished a little room after the Canadian manner so as to entertain any persons who should come from Canada. I knocked at the door and he himself came down to open it, for he lived on the second floor with his servant, Louis Frins, and he opened the door for me with very great joy." Many other kindnesses did this simple gentleman do for her and for other Canadians, for whom he acted as the kindly agent while they were in Paris.

A true Canadian! May his memory remain forever green at Montreal! He died on September 9, 1676, and his funeral obsequies were carried out in the church hard by his home, above mentioned. Dollier de Casson, in his history of the city, treats the painful incident of the governor's departure thus:

"Speaking of the arrival of the ships and of the 'grand monde' which came to Montreal this year, and of the extreme joy because of the king's goodness in making his victorious arms glare and glitter, all the same these joys were diluted for the more intelligent with much bitterness when they saw M. Maisonneuve, their father and very dear governor, depart this time for good, leaving them in the hands of others, from whom they could not expect the same freedom, the same love, and the same fidelity in putting down the vices, which have since taken effect with those other disgraces and miseries, which had never up to then appeared to the point at which they have since been seen."

It is commonly thought that Maisonneuve arrived at Montreal in his fortieth year. He lived there twenty-three years. After that he spent eleven in France, thus dying at the age of seventy-four years.