Denonville Versus Dongan

The French governor, unlike his rival (the British Governor of New York), felt strong in the support of his king, who had responded amply to his appeals for aid.

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Previously in Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. Continuing Chapter 7.

This specious appeal for maintaining French Jesuits on English territory, or what was claimed as such, was lost on Dongan, Catholic as he was. He regarded them as dangerous political enemies, and did his best to expel them, and put English priests in their place. Another of his plans was to build a fort at Niagara, to exclude the French from Lake Erie. Denonville entertained the same purpose, in order to exclude the English; and he watched eagerly the moment to execute it. A rumor of the scheme was brought to Dongan by one of the French coureurs de bois, who often deserted to Albany, where they were welcomed and encouraged. The English governor was exceedingly wroth. He had written before in French out of complaisance. He now dispensed with ceremony and wrote in his own peculiar English:

I am informed that you intend to build a fort at Ohniagero (Niagara) on this side of the lake, within my Master’s territoryes without question. I cannot beleev that a person that has your reputation in the world would follow the steps of Monsr. Labarr, and be ill advized by some interested persons in your Governt. to make disturbance between our Masters subjects in those parts of the world for a little pelttree (peltry). I hear one of the Fathers (the Jesuit Jean de Lamberville) is gone to you, and th’other that stayed (Jacques de Lamberville) I have sent for him here lest the Indians should insult over him, tho’ it’s a thousand pittys that those that have made such progress in the service of God should be disturbed, and that by the fault of those that laid the foundation of Christianity amongst these barbarous people; setting apart the station I am in, I am as much Monsr. Des Novilles (Denonville’s) humble servant as any friend he has, and will ommit no opportunity of manifesting the same. Sir, your humble servant, Thomas Dongan.”

[Dongan to Denonville, 22 May, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 455.]

Denonville in reply denied that he meant to build a fort at Niagara and warned Dongan not to believe the stories told him by French deserters. “In order,” he wrote, “that we may live on a good understanding, it would be well that a gentleman of your character should not give protection to all the rogues, vagabonds, and thieves who desert us and seek refuge with you, and who, to gain your favor, think they cannot do better than tell nonsensical stories about us, which they will continue to do so long as you listen to them.”

[Denonville à Dongan, 20 Juin, 1686.]

The rest of the letter was in terms of civility, to which Dongan returned: “Beleive me it is much joy to have soe good a neighbour of soe excellent qualifications and temper, and of a humour altogether differing from Monsieur de la Barre, your predecessor, who was so furious and hasty and very much addicted to great words, as if I had bin to have bin frighted by them. For my part, I shall take all immaginable care that the Fathers who preach the Holy Gospell to those Indians over whom I have power bee not in the least ill-treated, and upon that very accompt have sent for one of each nation to come to me, and then those beastly crimes you reproove shall be checked severely, and all my endevours used to surpress their filthy drunkennesse, disorders, debauches, warring, and quarrels, and whatsoever doth obstruct the growth and enlargement of the Christian faith amongst those people.”

He then, in reply to an application of Denonville, promised to give up “runawayes.”

[Dongan to Denonville, 26 July, 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 460.]

Promise was not followed by performance; and he still favored to the utmost the truant Frenchmen who made Albany their resort, and often brought with them most valuable information. This drew an angry letter from Denonville. “You were so good, Monsieur, as to tell me that you would give up all the deserters who have fled to you to escape chastisement for their knavery. As most of them are bankrupts and thieves, I hope that they will give you reason to repent having harbored them, and that your merchants who employ them will be punished for trusting such rascals.” [1] To the great wrath of the French governor, Dongan persisted in warning the Iroquois that he meant to attack them. “You proposed, Monsieur,” writes Denonville, “to submit everything to the decision of our masters. Nevertheless, your emissary to the Onondagas told all the Five Nations in your name to pillage and make war on us.” Next, he berates his rival for furnishing the Indians with rum. “Think you that religion will make any progress, while your traders supply the savages in abundance with the liquor which, as you ought to know, converts them into demons and their lodges into counterparts of Hell?”

[1: Denonville à Dongan, 1 Oct. 1686.]

“Certainly,” retorts Dongan, “our Rum doth as little hurt as your Brandy, and, in the opinion of Christians, is much more wholesome.”

[Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec., 1686, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 462.]

Each tried incessantly to out-general the other. Denonville, steadfast in his plan of controlling the passes of the western country, had projected forts, not only at Niagara, but also at Toronto, on Lake Erie, and on the Strait of Detroit. He thought that a time had come when he could, without rashness, secure this last important passage; and he sent an order to Du Lhut, who was then at Michillimackinac, to occupy it with fifty coureurs de bois. [2] That enterprising chief accordingly repaired to Detroit and built a stockade at the outlet of Lake Huron on the western side of the strait. It was not a moment too soon. The year before, Dongan had sent a party of armed traders in eleven canoes, commanded by Johannes Rooseboom, a Dutchman of Albany, to carry English goods to the upper lakes. They traded successfully, winning golden opinions from the Indians, who begged them to come every year; and, though Denonville sent an officer to stop them at Niagara, they returned in triumph, after an absence of three months. [3] A larger expedition was organized in the autumn of 1686. Rooseboom again set out for the lakes with twenty or more canoes. He was to winter among the Senecas, and wait the arrival of Major McGregory, a Scotch officer, who was to leave Albany in the spring with fifty men, take command of the united parties, and advance to Lake Huron, accompanied by a band of Iroquois, to form a general treaty of trade and alliance with the tribes claimed by France as her subjects. [4]

[2: Denonville à Du Lhut, 6 Juin, 1686.]

[3: Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II. 429; Denonville au Ministre, 8 Mai, 1686.]

[4: Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II. 443; Commission of McGregory, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 318.]

Denonville was beside himself at the news. He had already urged upon Louis XIV. the policy of buying the colony of New York, which he thought might easily be done, and which, as he said, “would make us masters of the Iroquois without a war.” This time he wrote in a less pacific mood: “I have a mind to go straight to Albany, storm their fort, and burn everything.” [5] And he begged for soldiers more earnestly than ever. “Things grow worse and worse. The English stir up the Iroquois against us and send parties to Michillimackinac to rob us of our trade. It would be better to declare war against them than to perish by their intrigues.” [6]

[5: Denonville au Ministre, 16 Nov., 1686.]

[6: Ibid., 15 Oct., 1686.]

He complained bitterly to Dongan, and Dongan replied:

I beleeve it is as lawfull for the English as the French to trade amongst the remotest Indians. I desire you to send me word who it was that pretended to have my orders for the Indians to plunder and fight you. That is as false as ’tis true that God is in heaven. I have desired you to send for the deserters. I know not who they are but had rather such Rascalls and Bankrouts, as you call them, were amongst their own countrymen.”

[7: Dongan to Denonville, 1 Dec., 1686; Ibid., 20 June, 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 462, 465.]

He had, nevertheless, turned them to good account; for, as the English knew nothing of western geography, they employed these French bush-rangers to guide their trading parties. Denonville sent orders to Du Lhut to shoot as many of them as he could catch.

Dongan presently received dispatches from the English court, which showed him the necessity of caution; and, when next he wrote to his rival, it was with a chastened pen: “I hope your Excellency will be so kinde as not desire or seeke any correspondence with our Indians of this side of the Great lake (Ontario): if they doe amisse to any of your Governmt. and you make it known to me, you shall have all justice done.” He complained mildly that the Jesuits were luring their Iroquois converts to Canada; “and you must pardon me if I tell you that is not the right way to keepe fair correspondence. I am daily expecting Religious men from England, which I intend to put amongst those five nations. I desire you would order Monsr. de Lamberville that soe long as he stayes amongst those people he would meddle only with the affairs belonging to his function. Sir, I send you some Oranges, hearing that they are a rarity in your partes.”

[Dongan to Denonville, 20 Juin, 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 465.]

“Monsieur,” replies Denonville, “I thank you for your oranges. It is a great pity that they were all rotten.”

The French governor, unlike his rival, felt strong in the support of his king, who had responded amply to his appeals for aid; and the temper of his letters answered to his improved position.

I was led, Monsieur, to believe, by your civil language in the letter you took the trouble to write me on my arrival, that we should live in the greatest harmony in the world; but the result has plainly shown that your intentions did not at all answer to your fine words.”

And he upbraids him without measure for his various misdeeds:

Take my word for it. Let us devote ourselves to the accomplishment of our masters’ will; let us seek, as they do, to serve and promote religion; let us live together in harmony, as they desire. I repeat and protest, Monsieur, that it rests with you alone; but do not imagine that I am a man to suffer others to play tricks on me. I willingly believe that you have not ordered the Iroquois to plunder our Frenchmen; but, whilst I have the honor to write to you, you know that Salvaye, Gédeon Petit, and many other rogues and bankrupts like them, are with you, and boast of sharing your table. I should not be surprised that you tolerate them in your country; but I am astonished that you should promise me not to tolerate them, that you so promise me again, and that you perform nothing of what you promise. Trust me, Monsieur, make no promise that you are not willing to keep.”

[Denonville à Dongan, 21 Aug., 1687; Ibid., no date (1687).]

Denonville, vexed and perturbed by his long strife with Dongan and the Iroquois, presently found a moment of comfort in tidings that reached him from the north. Here, as in the west, there was violent rivalry between the subjects of the two crowns. With the help of two French renegades, named Radisson and Groseilliers, the English Company of Hudson’s Bay, then in its infancy, had established a post near the mouth of Nelson River, on the western shore of that dreary inland sea. The company had also three other posts, called Fort Albany, Fort Hayes, and Fort Rupert, at the southern end of the bay. A rival French company had been formed in Canada, under the name of the Company of the North; and it resolved on an effort to expel its English competitors. Though it was a time of profound peace between the two kings, Denonville warmly espoused the plan; and, in the early spring of 1686, he sent the Chevalier de Troyes from Montreal, with eighty or more Canadians, to execute it. [8] With Troyes went Iberville, Sainte-Hélène, and Maricourt, three of the sons of Charles Le Moyne; and the Jesuit Silvy joined the party as chaplain.

[8: The Compagnie du Nord had a grant of the trade of Hudson’s Bay from Louis XIV. The bay was discovered by the English, under Hudson; but the French had carried on some trade there before the establishment of Fort Nelson. Denonville’s commission to Troyes merely directs him to build forts, and “se saisir des voleurs coureurs de bois et autres que nous savons avoir pris et arrêté plusieurs de nos François commerçants avec les sauvages.”]

– Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV, Chapter 7 by Francis Parkman

The below is from Francis Parkman’s Introduction.

If, at times, it may seem that range has been allowed to fancy, it is so in appearance only; since the minutest details of narrative or description rest on authentic documents or on personal observation.

Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research, however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. Such facts may be detailed with the most minute exactness, and yet the narrative, taken as a whole, may be unmeaning or untrue. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the time. He must study events in their bearings near and remote; in the character, habits, and manners of those who took part in them, he must himself be, as it were, a sharer or a spectator of the action he describes.

With respect to that special research which, if inadequate, is still in the most emphatic sense indispensable, it has been the writer’s aim to exhaust the existing material of every subject treated. While it would be folly to claim success in such an attempt, he has reason to hope that, so far at least as relates to the present volume, nothing of much importance has escaped him. With respect to the general preparation just alluded to, he has long been too fond of his theme to neglect any means within his reach of making his conception of it distinct and true.

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