Deplorable State of the Canada

We will save this unhappy colony, or perish,” was the answer of Montcalm.

Our special project presenting the definitive account of France in Canada by Francis Parkman, one of America’s greatest historians.

Previously in Montcalm and Wolfe, Volume 7 of the French in Canada series. Continuing Chapter 23.

But now there was a change. The reverses of the last campaign, hunger, weariness and possibly some incipient sense of atrocious misgovernment, began to produce their effect; and some, especially in the towns, were heard to murmur that further resistance was useless. The Canadians, though brave and patient, needed, like Frenchmen, the stimulus of success. “The people are alarmed,” said the modest Governor, “and would lose courage if my firmness did not rekindle their zeal to serve the King.”

[1: Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Avril, 1759.]

“Rapacity, folly, intrigue, falsehood, will soon ruin this colony which has cost the King so dear,” wrote Doreil to the Minister of War. “We must not flatter ourselves with vain hope; Canada is lost if we do not have peace this winter.” “It has been saved by miracle in these past three years; nothing but peace can save it now, in spite of all the efforts and the talents of M. de Montcalm.”[2] Vaudreuil himself became thoroughly alarmed and told the Court in the autumn of 1758 that food, arms, munitions and everything else were fast failing and that without immediate peace or heavy reinforcements all was lost.

[2: Doreil au Ministre, 31 Juillet, 1758. Ibid. 12 Août, 1758. Ibid. 31 Août, 1758. Ibid. 1 Sept. 1758.]

The condition of Canada was indeed deplorable. The St. Lawrence was watched by British ships; the harvest was meagre; a barrel of flour cost two hundred francs; most of the cattle and many of the horses had been killed for food. The people lived chiefly on a pittance of salt cod or on rations furnished by the King; all prices were inordinate; the officers from France were starving on their pay; while a legion of indigenous and imported scoundrels fattened on the general distress. “What a country!” exclaims Montcalm. “Here all the knaves grow rich and the honest men are ruined.” Yet he was resolved to stand by it to the last and wrote to the Minister of War that he would bury himself under its ruins. “I asked for my recall after the glorious affair of the eighth of July; but since the state of the colony is so bad, I must do what I can to help it and retard its fall.” The only hope was in a strong appeal to the Court; and he thought himself fortunate in persuading Vaudreuil to consent that Bougainville should be commissioned to make it, seconded by Doreil. They were to sail in different ships, in order that at least one of them might arrive safe.

Vaudreuil gave Bougainville a letter introducing him to the Colonial Minister in high terms of praise: “He is in all respects better fitted than anybody else to inform you of the state of the colony. I have given him my instructions and you can trust entirely in what he tells you.”[3] Concerning Doreil he wrote to the Minister of War: “I have full confidence in him and he may be entirely trusted. Everybody here likes him.”[4] While thus extolling the friends of his rival, the Governor took care to provide against the effects of his politic commendations and wrote thus to his patron, the Colonial Minister: “In order to condescend to the wishes of M. de Montcalm and leave no means untried to keep in harmony with him, I have given letters to MM. Doreil and Bougainville; but I have the honor to inform you, Monseigneur, that they do not understand the colony and to warn you that they are creatures of M. de Montcalm.”[5]

[3: Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 4 Nov. 1758.]

[4: Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Oct. 1758.]

[5: Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 3 Nov. 1758.]

The two envoys had sailed for France. Winter was close at hand and the harbor of Quebec was nearly empty. One ship still lingered, the last of the season and by her Montcalm sent a letter to his mother:

You will be glad to have me write to you up to the last moment to tell you for the hundredth time that, occupied as I am with the fate of New France, the preservation of the troops, the interest of the state and my own glory, I think continually of you all. We did our best in 1756, 1757 and 1758; and so, God helping, we will do in 1759, unless you make peace in Europe.”

Then, shut from the outer world for half a year by barriers of ice, he waited what returning spring might bright forth.

Both Bougainville and Doreil escaped the British cruisers and safely reached Versailles, where, in the slippery precincts of the Court, as new to him as they were treacherous, the young aide-de-camp justified all the confidence of his chief. He had interviews with the ministers, the King and, more important than all, with Madame de Pompadour, whom he succeeded in propitiating, though not, it seems, without difficulty and delay. France, unfortunate by land and sea, with finances ruined and navy crippled, had gained one brilliant victory and she owed it to Montcalm. She could pay for it in honors, if in nothing else. Montcalm was made lieutenant-general, Lévis major-general, Bourlamaque brigadier and Bougainville colonel and chevalier of St. Louis; while Vaudreuil was solaced with the grand cross of that order.[6] But when the two envoys asked substantial aid for the imperiled colony, the response was chilling. The Colonial Minister, Berryer, prepossessed against Bougainville by the secret warning of Vaudreuil, received him coldly and replied to his appeal for help: “Eh, Monsieur, when the house is on fire one cannot occupy one’s self with the stable.” “At least, Monsieur, nobody will say that you talk like a horse,” was the irreverent answer.

[6: Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Janvier, Février, 1759.]

Bougainville laid four memorials before the Court, in which he showed the desperate state of the colony and its dire need of help. Thus far, he said, Canada has been saved by the dissensions of the English colonies; but now, for the first time, they are united against her and prepared to put forth their strength. And he begged for troops, arms, munitions, food and a squadron to defend the mouth of the St. Lawrence.[6] The reply, couched in a letter to Montcalm, was to the effect that it was necessary to concentrate all the strength of the kingdom for a decisive operation in Europe; that, therefore, the aid required could not be sent; and that the King trusted everything to his zeal and generalship, joined with the valor of the victors of Ticonderoga.[7] All that could be obtained was between three and four hundred recruits for the regulars, sixty engineers, sappers and artillerymen and gunpowder, arms and provisions sufficient, along with the supplies brought over by the contractor, Cadet, to carry the colony through the next campaign.[8]

[6: Mémoire remis au Ministre par M. de Bougainville, Décembre, 1758.]

[7: Le Ministre à Montcalm, 3 Fév. 1759.]

[8: Ordres du Roy et Dépêches des Ministres, Février, 1759.]

Montcalm had intrusted Bougainville with another mission, widely different. This was no less than the negotiating of suitable marriages for the eldest son and daughter of his commander, with whom, in the confidence of friendship, he had had many conversations on the matter. “He and I,” Montcalm wrote to his mother, Madame de Saint-Véran, “have two ideas touching these marriages, — the first, romantic and chimerical; the second, good, practicable.”[9] Bougainville, invoking the aid of a lady of rank, a friend of the family, acquitted himself well of his delicate task. Before he embarked for Canada, in early spring, a treaty was on foot for the marriage of the young Comte de Montcalm to an heiress of sixteen; while Mademoiselle de Montcalm had already become Madame d’Espineuse. “Her father will be delighted,” says the successful negotiator.[10]

[9: Montcalm à Madame de Saint-Véran, 24 Sept. 1758.]

[10: Lettres de Bougainville à Madame de Saint-Véran, 1758, 1759.]

Again, he crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the St. Lawrence as the portentous spring of 1759 was lowering over the dissolving snows of Canada. With him came a squadron bearing the supplies and the petty reinforcement which the Court had vouchsafed. “A little is precious to those who have nothing,” said Montcalm on receiving them. Dispatches from the ministers gave warning of a great armament fitted out in English ports for the attack of Quebec, while a letter to the General from the Maréchal de Belleisle, minister of war, told what was expected of him and why he and the colony were abandoned to their fate.

If we sent a large reinforcement of troops,” said Belleisle, “there would be great fear that the English would intercept them on the way; and as the King could never send you forces equal to those which the English are prepared to oppose to you, the attempt would have no other effect than to excite the Cabinet of London to increased efforts for preserving its superiority on the American continent.”

“As we must expect the English to turn all their force against Canada and attack you on several sides at once, it is necessary that you limit your plans of defense to the most essential points and those most closely connected, so that, being concentrated within a smaller space, each part may be within reach of support and succor from the rest. How small soever may be the space you are able to hold, it is indispensable to keep a footing in North America; for if we once lose the country entirely, its recovery will be almost impossible. The King counts on your zeal, courage and persistency to accomplish this object and relies on you to spare no pains and no exertions. Impart this resolution to your chief officers and join with them to inspire your soldiers with it. I have answered for you to the King; I am confident that you will not disappoint me and that for the glory of the nation, the good of the state and your own preservation, you will go to the utmost extremity rather than submit to conditions as shameful as those imposed at Louisbourg, the memory of which you will wipe out.”

[11: Belleisle à Montcalm, 19 Fév. 1759.]

“We will save this unhappy colony, or perish,” was the answer of Montcalm.

It was believed that Canada would be attacked with at least fifty thousand men. Vaudreuil had caused a census to be made of the governments of Montreal, Three Rivers and Quebec. It showed a little more than thirteen thousand effective men.[12] To these were to be added thirty-five hundred troops of the line, including the late reinforcement, fifteen hundred colony troops, a body of irregulars in Acadia and the militia and coureurs-de-bois of Detroit and the other upper posts, along with from one to two thousand Indians who could still be counted on. Great as was the disparity of numbers, there was good hope that the center of the colony could be defended; for the only avenues by which an enemy could approach were barred by the rock of Quebec, the rapids of the St. Lawrence and the strong position of Isle-aux-Noix, at the outlet of Lake Champlain. Montcalm had long inclined to the plan of concentration enjoined on him by the Minister of War. Vaudreuil was of another mind; he insisted on still occupying Acadia and the forts of the upper country: matters on which he and the General exchanged a correspondence that widened the breach between them.

[12: Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Avril, 1759. The Mémoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760, says 15,229 effective men.]

Should every effort of resistance fail and the invaders force their way into the heart of Canada, Montcalm proposed the desperate resort of abandoning the valley of the St. Lawrence, descending the Mississippi with his troops and as many as possible of the inhabitants and making a last stand for France among the swamps of Louisiana.

[13: Mémoire sur le Canada remis au Ministre, 27 Déc. 1758.]

From Montcalm and Wolfe, Chapter 23 by Francis Parkman

To be continued.

The below is from Francis Parkman’s Preface to this book.

A very large amount of unpublished material has been used in its preparation, consisting for the most part of documents copied from the archives and libraries of France and England, especially from the Archives de la Marine et des Colonies, the Archives de la Guerre, and the Archives Nationales at Paris, and the Public Record Office and the British Museum at London. The papers copied for the present work in France alone exceed six thousand folio pages of manuscript, additional and supplementary to the “Paris Documents” procured for the State of New York under the agency of Mr. Brodhead. The copies made in England form ten volumes, besides many English documents consulted in the original manuscript. Great numbers of autograph letters, diaries, and other writings of persons engaged in the war have also been examined on this side of the Atlantic.

I owe to the kindness of the present Marquis de Montcalm the permission to copy all the letters written by his ancestor, General Montcalm, when in America, to members of his family in France. General Montcalm, from his first arrival in Canada to a few days before his death, also carried on an active correspondence with one of his chief officers, Bourlamaque, with whom he was on terms of intimacy. These autograph letters are now preserved in a private collection. I have examined them and obtained copies of the whole. They form an interesting complement to the official correspondence of the writer, and throw the most curious side-lights on the persons and events of the time.

Besides manuscripts, the printed matter in the form of books, pamphlets, contemporary newspapers, and other publications relating to the American part of the Seven Years’ War, is varied and abundant; and I believe I may safely say that nothing in it of much consequence has escaped me. The liberality of some of the older States of the Union, especially New York and Pennsylvania, in printing the voluminous records of their colonial history, has saved me a deal of tedious labor.

The whole of this published and unpublished mass of evidence has been read and collated with extreme care, and more than common pains have been taken to secure accuracy of statement. The study of books and papers, however, could not alone answer the purpose. The plan of the work was formed in early youth; and though various causes have long delayed its execution, it has always been kept in view. Meanwhile, I have visited and examined every spot where events of any importance in connection with the contest took place, and have observed with attention such scenes and persons as might help to illustrate those I meant to describe. In short, the subject has been studied as much from life and in the open air as at the library table.

BOSTON, Sept. 16, 1884.

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