The following is the journal of Pierre de Troyes, Chevalier de Troyes, captain of the 1686 French assault on the forts of the Hudson’s Bay Company. This journal was published in French for the first time in 1918, edited by the Abbe Ivanoe Caron. It is published here for the first time in English, with the help of AI technology, below English translations of the ‘Preface’ and ‘Historical Introduction’ to the 1918 publication.
Preface
The journal of Chevalier de Troyes’ expedition to Hudson Bay in 1686 has not yet been printed. The original manuscript is kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It is part of the Clsirambault collection and is catalogued under number 1026.
Mr. A-G. Doughty, Deputy Minister of the Canadian Archives Department, has kindly provided us with a copy, which we reproduce in the present work.
The diary was written by Chevalier de Troyes himself, based on notes taken each day during the expedition. M. de Troyes was a keen observer: he gives us an accurate picture of the regions he explored and the events he witnessed.
This is the most complete account we have of the memorable expedition of 1686. We already had the story in the Relation of what happened in Canada concerning the war between the English and the Iroquois since 1682, attributed to the engineer Gédéon de Catalogne. It seems that Mr. de Catalogne is recounting events in which he took part. However, it is curious to note that there is no mention in Chevalier de Troyes’ manuscript of the engineer of Catalonia.
Another very short account is that of Father Siy, which Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier reproduced in the Eslat présent de TEglie et de la colonie française dans la Nouvelle-France, published in Paris in 1688.
We have included in the appendix the account attributed to M. de Catalogne and that of Père Silvy so that readers can compare them with the relation du chevalier de Troyes.
In addition to these two accounts, we have included a certain number of unpublished pieces that are not directly related to Chevalier de Troyes’ account but still complement it.
As for the memoir of the Chevalier de Troyes, we have reproduced it as it is, with its stylistic errors, grammatical mistakes, and spelling errors.
However, we have added punctuation marks to make it easier to read.
Our special thanks go to Mr. A-G. Doughty, through whom we were able to obtain a copy of Chevalier de Troyes’ manuscript. We would also like to express our gratitude to Mar Amédée Gosselin, archivist at the Université Laval, and Mr. Pierre Georges Roy, archivist of the federal government in Quebec City, for providing us with several important pieces of information. We sincerely thank them for their contributions.
Historical Introduction
Who was this knight Pierre de Troyes, whose interesting memoir we are publishing? Where did he earn his fame? At what age did he come to New France? So many questions that have yet to be answered and that the documents of the period do not allow us to shed any light on them.
We are inclined to believe that he was still in the full vigour of middle age when he arrived in New France; the account he left of his expedition to Hudson Bay, in 1686, shows us a man of unusual physical strength and a will that would not let difficulties. At the same time, we see a man of sober judgement, gifted with a remarkable spirit of observation.
The Chevalier de Troyes arrived in Quebec on the 1st August 1685, the same day as the Marquis de Denon-de la Barre, who had come to replace him, had charged the new governor with actively waging war against the Iroquois, had given him a reinforcement of 500 soldiers, who were embarked on two ships; unfortunately, eighty of them died during the crossing. The Chevalier de Troyes had been given command of a company in these new troops. His commission, dated 5 March 1685, reads as follows:
De par le Roy- “His Majesty wishing to provide a commandment of one of the infantry companies he is sending to New France, He has chosen the Sr. de Troyes for this purpose. Mande Sa Majesté to the Sieurs Marquis de Denonville, Governor and his Lieutenant General, and de Meules, Intendant of Justice, police and finance in the said country, to have the said Sr. recognize the said Sieur de Troyes in the said capacity as captain of the said company.
A few months after his arrival in Quebec, Pierre de Troyes was entrusted with a very dangerous mission: it was to lead the small troop of soldiers that the Marquis de Denonville had decided to send to dislodge the English who had settled in Hudson Bay.
The French and the English had long been disputing possession of this bay. In 1668, led by two Canadian defectors, Médérie Chouart des Groseilliers and Pierre-Esprit Radisson, the English had built a fort at the mouth of the Nemiskau (Rupert) River, which they named Fort Charles. Two years later, Chouart and Radisson went on to establish a post on the Nelson River on behalf of the newly organized Hudson’s Bay Company.
It was also around the same time that the English established two other posts, one at the Monsoni River (Abitibi) and the other at the Quichitchouanne River (Albany or Sainte-Anne).
Unhappy with the way they had been treated by the noble adventurers of the Hudson Bay Company, Chouart and Radisson returned to France and were pardoned for their treason. De Groseilliers returned to Canada; Radisson took up service in the French navy, while retaining the hope of one day resuming his adventurous voyages to the North Bay. On his return to France in 1679, he met Sieur Aubert de la Chenaye in Paris. Chenaye, along with Gauthier de Comporté and a few Canadian merchants, had just organized the Northern Company, whose aim was to establish a presence in Hudson Bay in order to engage in the fur trade.
Aubert de la Chenaye was won over by Radisson’s promises; in 1682, he gave him two small ships to make the voyage to Hudson Bay, for the benefit of the Compagnie du Nord.
Radisson, accompanied by his nephew, Jean-Baptiste Chouart Des Groseilliers, and an experienced pilot Pierre Allemand, led the expedition brilliantly. It took two English ships and Fort Nelson, which he burnt down; on its ruins, he built Fort Bourbon. The French spent the winter of 1682-1683 at Hayes River (Sainte-Thérèse). In October 1683, they were back, with the exception of Jean-Baptiste Chouart who had remained with eight men at Fort Bourbon.
Radisson was badly received by M. de la Barre, who forced him to hand over to the English the ship he had taken from them. Injustice with the French government again betrayed his homeland and went to England, where he obtained three ships from the Hudson Bay Company.
Without hesitation, in the summer of 1684, he took Fort Bourbon, which he reduced to ashes; he seized his nephew, who reproached him for his treason, and bought himself for more than 400,000 francs of gold. A new fort was built; twenty guns and a garrison of fifty men were installed.
While Radisson was committing these acts of piracy, the associates of the Northern Company, of the success that had crowned their expedition in the summer of 1652, were trying to put their company on more solid foundations.
At the suggestion of M. de la Barre, they had recruited several new members and formed the Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company, in opposition to the English company of the same name.
Gauthier de Comporté, one of the most interested, Rene, not in France, overseeing the affairs of the company.
On arriving at Larochell, he learned of Radisson’s betrayal and the great losses the company had just suffered.
In a memorandum which he immediately addressed to the Marquis de Seignelay, he asked him to kindly grant protection to the new company and to give it ownership of the Hudson Bay lands and the place where the interested parties had their settlements.
The King acceded to his request and granted the members of the Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company a monopoly on the fur trade in Hudson Bay for a period of twenty years, with exclusive ownership of the Bourbon River and the right to establish two posts, one on Lake Abitibi and the other on Lake Nemisco.
On the strength of his claim, de Comporté approached the English ambassador in Paris to obtain that the fort of Bourbon be returned to the French and that the wrongs caused by Radisson be repaired, “but he could not obtain anything else,” says Denonville, “as it was a matter for merchants”.
It was at this point that the partners resolved to organize an expedition of their own and to go and dislodge the English from Hudson Bay.
It was a bold undertaking, for they were about to take a new route, the overland route; from Montreal to James Bay by canoe, following the course of the inland lakes and rivers. It took men of unusual physical strength and courage to undertake such a journey.
The Chevalier de ‘Troyes was given the task of commanding the small troop of braves chosen to bring such a difficult undertaking. On 12 February 1686, the Marquis de Denonville gave him the following instructions:
“Instructions from Jacques de Brisay, chevalier, seigneur, marquis de Denonville, etc., governor and Lieutenant-General for the King in Canada, Acadie, Île de Terreneuve, etc., to Sieur de Troyes to occupy posts on the coasts of the Bay of the North, etc.
The violence which several English individuals have committed in the persons of several French people sent by the company and society of the ‘of the inhabitants of this colony for the trade of furs on the pelt trade on the North Bay side, the eon- “* cession of which had been granted to them by His Majesty, by letters patent of 20 May last, approving and authorising the and authorise the said company, and the knowledge “we have of the perfidy of the named Radisson, “subject of the King and employed for several years “by the said company, who, instead of being loyal “to their interests, slipped away to go to England, with the “land, with the intention of associating with people to plunder the posts he himself had established, and the mar- which he had carried for the fur trade on behalf of those who had employed him there and entrusted their “and had entrusted their interests to him. His pernicious “his plan having succeeded, on 15 August 1684, by a treachery “betrayal he made to Chouart, his nephew, whom he himself himself had posted to an island in the Bourbon river, where “Bourbon river, where on the good faith of an uncle towards a nephew nephew, and under the French banner, the said Radisson approaching as a friend and as coming from La part of the said company, seized the said Chouart, the other Frenchmen “Chouart, the other Frenchmen he had with him and a large and a large number of pelts that the said Chouart and other other Frenchmen had traded for the benefit of the said com- company, which was a very considerable loss to them, and which siderable loss, would have led us to look for ways to “means of protecting from such insults those whom the “whom the said company will choose in the future for the < management of their affairs in this area. “For this, we thought we could do no better “than to choose the Sieur de Troyes, whose wisdom, prudence wisdom, prudence and good conduct “are sufficiently well known to us to send him with the nom- “the number of men and officers we deem appropriate, to go and find for himself the most “the most advantageous posts to occupy on the coasts of the “coasts of the said North Bay and the mouths of the rivers “rivers that enter it, entrench and fortify the said posts “fortify the said posts, seize the thieves who run the woods “and others whom we know to have caught and arrested several “sieurs of our French trading with the savages, whom we order to be arrested, “by name the said Radisson and others of his followers, “wherever he can find them, whom he will bring “he will bring back to us as deserters to be punished “according to the rigour of the ordinances.
For this, we order all officers, soldiers “and inhabitants of the colony, whom we intend “to send on his orders to recognise the aforementioned Sieur de Troie “de Troie as their commander-in-chief and to li “obey generally in everything he orders them to do “for the King’s service, to recognise him in the aforementioned capacity. “in this capacity, in witness whereof we have signed these pre “in witness whereof we have signed these pre-agreements, to which we have affixed the seal of our arms, “and countersigned by our secretary.
One hundred men, including thirty from the regular troops and seventy chosen from among the inhabitants of the colony, were given to the Chevalier de Troyes. It was at the head of these brave men that he would carry out, within the space of four months, the daring exploits of which he has left us such an interesting account.
TL’s first lieutenant was the Sieur de Sainte-Hélène; d’Iberville was lieutenant in se- cond; Sieur de Maricourt, major; Sieur LaNoue, assistant major. Pierre Allemand was commissioner of the Finally, a Jesuit, Père Silvy, accompanied the little troop as chaplain.
This religious, “of consummate merit”, says La- Potherie Potherie, was born in 1638 in Aix, Provence. He came to Quebec in 1673 and the following year was sent to the Outaouais missions. to the Outaouais missions in Michilimackinac. From there, he went to the Ta- doussac mission in 1678. doussac; it was during his stay at this mission he made his first trip to Hudson Bay by following following the course of the Némiskau (Rupert) river. In 164, he accompanied M. de la Martinière and spent the with him to the Bourbon River (Fort Nelson). 11 left us a journal of his voyage which was published by Father Rochemonteix in the work entitled entitled Relation par lettres de l’Amérique Septen- trionale…. This was his third voyage to Hudson Bay was his third voyage to Hudson Bay, in the company de Troyes.
The sieurs de Sainte-Hélène, d’Iberville and de Maricourt three brothers, Jacques, Pierre and Paul Lemoyne, sons of Paul Lemoyne, sons of Charles Lemoyne, seigneur of Longueuil and Châteauguay. De Sainte-Hélène then twenty-seven years old, d’Iberville was twenty mg, and de Marieourt, twenty-two.
Zacharie Robutel, sieur de la Noue, born in Montreal in 1665, was the son of Claude Robutel de la Noue, seigneur of Saint-Paul island; in 1689, Zacharie allied himself to the Lemoyne family through his marriage to Catherine, daughter of Charles Lemoyne. It was Zacharie sent by Vaudreuil in 1717 to found a trading post on the Kaménistigoya River, near Fort-William. Fort-William, where he remained until 1721. He then became commander of the post at Baie des Puants Bay (Green Bay) on the Michigan River. He died where he died in the summer of 1733.
Pierre Allemand was a renowned pilot who made his first voyage to Hudson Bay with Chouart and Radisson in the summer of 1682; he returned there in 1684 with M. de la Martinière. Father Silvy praises his conduct on this expedition. We will see from the account of the Chevalier de Troyes that he was no less distinguished in the present expedition. In 1688, he travelled to France and presented the Marquis de Seignelay with a memorandum in which he asked him to grant him a small vessel to “of all the ports and harbours on the coast of Canada and to draw up accurate maps of all the coasts”. He was unable to obtain anything, and returned to Québec where he died on 27 May 1691.
The Chevalier de Troyes had to return to Québec the beginning of October 1686; as he wrote in his diary, on October 20th, the burning of the Ursuline convent, he was tran- his travel notes.
On 10 November 1 to M. de Seignelay
“Monseigneur has been informed of the orders I “gave to the Sr. de Troie last March, “to go and choose posts at the bottom of this bay “(Hudson Bay), both to promote the trade of our company “and to prevent the English “and to repeat (take back) Sieur Pèré and the others. “Pèré and the two other Frenchmen I knew to be in irons with him since “I knew to be in irons with him for a long time at the fort of “Quichouchouanne at the end of the Bay.
“I am sending Monseigneur a duplicate of all the orders “I gave on this matter.
“The success of this voyage was that the Sr. de Troie “* with our Canadians found the secret of making himself “master of three reductions and several small 6, M. de Denonville wrote “houses for trading savages where the English mar- “where the English merchants were established with such a number < as many people as those who took them. Also the “English no longer have an establishment in Hudson Bay “than at Fort Nelson, where the Bour- < good, from which they would be out if we had put um < man at the head of the Canadian detachment sent there three “sent there three years ago, who would have known his business and “been enterprising”.
When news of these losses reached Lo “res, says Garneau, the people eria eontre the king, “to whom they attributed all the nation’s misfortunes. The monarch, who has lost the confidence of “is to be pitied. Jacques IT, de “becomes even more so “that no one could have foreseen, and the e “of a handful of Canadians against a few trading posts a few trading posts, at the end of the world, contrihua a king of Great Britain on his throne.
On 11 November 1686, M. de Denonville, writing to M. de Seignelay de Seignelay, said to him
“The Sr. de Troyes is the most intelligent of our captains. “captains; he has the kind of mind needed to have all the “necessary to command others. “to command others; one could not have a better con “than that which he had in the enterprise of the North, “for he needed skill to extract from the Canadians the services he received from them, and to make them into obedience.”
The Chevalier de Troyes spent the winter of 1686-87 in Quebec. Québec; in the spring, at the head of a company of regular of regular troops, he accompanied M. de Denon- city, in his expedition against the Tsonnontonans, “After having rudely punished these barbarians, and destroyed several of their villages, M. de Denonville stopped at Niagara Niagara, where he built a fort. The Sieur de Troyes was appointed commander of this fort. A garrison of a garrison of one hundred elite soldiers with six officers officers, a storekeeper and three carpenters.
On his return to Montreal on the following August 25, M. de Denonville wrote to M. de Seignelay: “This post (Niagara) being in defence, I have “I left one hundred men there under the command of Sieur de Troye. “de Troye, who made the northern expedition last year. + This is a very good subject that deserves to be written about. “< in honour of your good graces and your protection. He can be useful to you in many ways, is wise and understanding and of good will, and has “* served well on earth”.
The career of the valiant captain of Troyes ended tragically at Niagara.
During the winter, scurvy and other diseases broke out in the garrison, wreaking great havoc. In the spring a relief party, sent from Fort Frontenae which had been sent from Fort Frontenae to supply these unfortunate people, found at the fort of Niagara only “three officers and four soldiers in good health, and five or six dying”.
He told us,” says Mr de Catalogne, “that M. de Troyes, the commander, was dead. de Troyes, commander, had died on 8 May, and “4 he was the main cause of the illness, in that as soon as the * the disease, in that in the autumn he had cut off the supplies :: ehé the supplies, refused to kill a cow that he had, “that by this means we would have had the hay that was ‘+ intended for it, to put in the straw mattresses of the soldiers “who were forced to lie on the ground. This “This harshness determined the whole garrison to form a sedition. “sedition, that is to say, to slit the throat of the commander and 4 and a few other officers, of whom they were con “to take them to the English, at New York; of the whole “of the whole garrison there were only three who did not wish to be “who did not want to take part. The day before the expedition “was to be made, a large party of Eroquois appeared before the fort ” presented themselves in front of the fort, and from afar made some “skirmishes, and kept the garrison on its toes for several days. “for several days; this slowed down their plan, and several “and several fell ill, which completed their plan. “their plan.”
In order to complete the account of the Chevalier de Troyes, we will recount here the main events that took place at fort Sainte-Anne until it was taken by the English by the English in 1692
D’Iberville remained commander of the Hudson Bay posts Hudson Bay, with de Sainte-Hélène and de Mari- court as lieutenants, and Father Silvy as chaplain. chaplain, the Canadian Jean Bart was to continue for many years in these faraway regions. the series of military feats that would forever illustrate his name forever. A few weeks after the departure of the Chevalier de Troyes, English ships appeared in James Bay.
D’Iberville having learned that he was trapped in the ice near a of these ships the of Charleston, sent four men to find him.
One of the four released through illness,” says Denonville, in a letter to the Marquis de Seignelay, the other three followed their orders: they were- “They were surprised, arrested and bound; one of the three escaped “having been shot at several times, he carried the news of their “he carried the news of their wicked fate, and the two res- “were put at the bottom of the calle, liez, where they spent the whole winter. He who commanded the “hunting on the island in the spring, drowned. “When the time came to set sail, they found themselves “they were too weak to manoeuvre, the pilot and the others “six in number, thought it advisable to have the less vigorous of the two “the less vigorous of the two Canadians. They “They untied him and used him for manoeuvres. Most of the “of the English were at the top of the manoeuvres, the Canadian “seeing only two on deck, jumped to an axe, which he broke “to an axe, and broke the heads of the two on deck. “the two who were on deck, ran to rescue his comrade “more vigorous than himself, seized weapons and went up “and went up on deck, where they transformed themselves from slaves “masters, and set the ship on the road to the “mos forts. They met the Sieur d’Iberville “who had equipped a vessel to go and deliver “his men as soon as the ice allowed him to do so. ” allowed. The English ship was loaded with mar- “The English ship was loaded with goods and food which did our forts a great deal of good.
The Compagnie du Nord, having been unable to send provisions to supply the three forts of Saint-Louis (Monsipy), Rupert and Sainte-Anne (Albany), in the summer of 1687, food shortages were not long in coming to make itself felt. D’Iberville, foreseeing that the conquests of the brave soldiers of the ‘éhevalier de Troyes, would soon be in vain if help did not come, he resolved to return to Quebec by land in order to inform the Marquis de Denonville himself. He left with his two brothers, from Sainte-Hélène and Maricourt, leaving only twelve men in the two posts of Saint-Louis (Monsoni or Monsipy) and Sainte-Anne, each with a minot of corn for food. “We admire,” says Denonville, “the steadfastness of these men who have been willing to stay there at this price. Their resource is on the hunting of the outar- des whose passage in autumn lasts only eight days and the same in spring. D’Iberville must have arrived in Quebec in the course of October. On the last day of that month, M. de Denonville, in a letter to the minister, announced the return of the intrepid sailor and added that he was instructing him to go to France to “see for himself the advantages” that could be drawn from Hudson Bay and ask for a ship that could be used to transport the pelts stored at the posts in the bay.
D’Iberville succeeded in his mission; the king aceor- the partners of the Compagnie du Nord a ship, the Soleil d’Afrique, which arrived in Quebec on 3 June 1688, carrying Mgr de Laval, d’Iberville and twenty-five men on board. The Soleil d’Afrique, commanded by Captain Delorme, and having on board with d’Tberville and de Maricourt on board, left immediately for North Bay. On arriving at Fort Sainte-Anne, d’Tberville was surprised to find two English vires two English ships trying to enter the river. These two ships, one carrying eighteen cannons and the other with ten, were manned by eighty-five men crew. D’Iberville resolved to seize them. He could not, however, prevent the English from going ashore, and from building a fort on an island a quarter of a league from the French fort. During winter, with the help of his brother de Maricourt, he never stopped the enemy, capturing twenty-one men by skilful ruses. Several others died of seorbut during the winter. In the spring of 1689 only forty men remained in the English fort. D’Iberville forced their governor to capi- the two ships and all the provisions they contained. After this exploit d’Iberville went to Fort Rupert, where he seized another English vessel. Returning to Fort Sainte-Anne on 15 August, he found his brother from St. Helena, who had come by land, with the help of thirty-eight men, with orders to return to Québec.
D’Iberville left the guard of the forts to his brother de Maricourt, and left Sainte-Aune on September 12. De Sainte-Hélène, who had returned by land, arrived in Montreal a few days later. Wounded during Phips’ attack on Québec, he died on 4 December 1690. De ‘Marieourt returned from Hudson Bay in the summer of 1690, in time to attend the siege of Québec. Of all those who had taken part in the expedition de Troyes’ expedition in 1686, the only one left at the Father Silvy. Father Dalmas joined him in 1691, and for two years they worked together to convert the Indians. Exhausted by fatigue and overwhelmed by infirmities, Father Silvy had to abandon the Hudson Bay missions and returned to Quebec in the spring of 1693. He settled permanently at the Collège de Québec, where he taught mathematics, and then became minister for ten years. He died there in 1711.
A tragic event followed Father Silvy’s departure from Fort Sainte-Anne. The woodworker or armu- killed, in a fit of madness, the surgeon and then Father Dalmas. The news of this double assassination was brought by two soldiers from Hudson Bay, who arrived in Quebec City on July 13th 1693. The shortage of food had become so pressing that they had to leave Sainte-Anne, leaving only five men, including Father Dalmas, behind, including the murderer of Father Dalmas:
Only a few days after the departure of these two couriers three English ships attacked the fort. The five Frenchmen bravely withstood the first assault, but soon seeing the large number of besiegers of the besiegers, they abandoned the place to the dero and made their way to Québec by land.
Sainte-Anne, returned to the possession of the An- again Fort Albany, the name it has borne ever since. borne ever since.
In 1709, a party of one hundred men led by d’Ailleboust de Manthet and de Martigny wanted to retake Albany. The two commanders were killed in the first attack, and the enterprise ended in disaster. Almost all the members of the expedition died of hunger and misery.
D’Iberville had not given up on his quest for Hudson Bay. In 1694, he captured Fort Nelson (on the Bourbon River) from the English, who surrendered the following year.
At the head of a squadron of five well-armed vessels, d’Iberville set sail again from Quebec in the spring of 1697 to conquer the whole of Hudson Bay. After a perilous voyage, d’Iberville, mounted on the Pelicun, arrived alone at Fort Nelson on the following 6th September. As he was about to enter the Bourbon River, he saw three English ships running towards him.
D’Iberville boldly attacked them. The second flew its flag, and the third fled.
The rest of his squadron having come to join him, the intrepid sailor undertook to lay siege to the fort, but the garrison soon surrendered in September 1697. Fort Nelson, and the rest of Hudson Bay, with Fort Albany removed, remained in French possession until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. D’Iberville was never to see the desolate shores of Hudson Bay again. The shores of Hudson Bay, the angry waves of that inland ocean, where he had won his greatest glory. If navigation,” says Garneau, “has something great and bold in the high latitudes of our globe, it is infinitely sad there. A low, dark sky and dark, an immense solitude which the sun rarely penetrates, the heavy waves, open, most of the time, of ice. + ice, the colossal masses of which resemble mountains, and bare and arid coasts that seem to increase the horror of the nau- silence interrupted only by the moans of the storm: these are the seas which have attached to the forehead of D’Iberville a glory whose character comes from the mysterious nature of the North. For a long time his adventurous vessel has long plied them, Later he will descend to milder waters.
This sailor, who did his apprenticeship in the middle place of polar ice, will end his career on the warm waters of the West Indies, in the middle of Louisiana. He will found an empire on shores where winter and its chill are unknown, where greenery and flowers are almost eternal.
Relation et Journal du Voiage du Nort Par un Detachement de Cent Hommes Commendes Par le Sieur de Troyes in Mars 1686
Names of the officers of the detachment.
Chaplain… Father Silvie, Jesuit
Commanding Officer… Sieur de Troyes
Lieutenant… Sieur de St. Helene
Lieutenant Second in command… Sieur d’Yberville
Major… Sieur de Maricourt
Aide Major… Sieur de la noue
Commiss, des vvres… Le sieur Lallement
Still destined to commission a vessel until one is found capable of coming to Quebec.
Captain of the guides. Sieur de St. Germain.
The enterprise of the Nort being resolved and the execution having been committed to me I left Quebec at the beginning of March 1686 to go to Ville-Marie isle of Montreal where I arrived with all the diligence that the harshness of the season could allow me. A detachment of one hundred men chosen to accompany me on this expedition joined me a few days later, and Mr. le Chevalier de Callieres reported on them. They were all well crewed and provided with sufficient canoes, which they had provided for themselves on their way, which I continued, going straight to the end of the isle, where, by my order, a quarter of a trestle was set up to transport on the ice, according to the custom of the northern countries, the canoes, food and ammunition necessary for such a long voyage. It was in this place that the man called Pourpoint deserted after having committed several thefts and misdemeanours which he has since atoned for on a gallows (26).
On the thirtieth of March, I set off again after having distributed the canoes, thirty-five in number, both large and small, followed by my entire detachment and its equipment, except for Father Silvie who remained (410 bis) on the island to await the return of the men who were to lead him from the Magdeleine meadow where they had gone to fetch some canoes. That day, two oxen dragging the luggage of the sr. de St Germain sank into the ice, from which they were pulled out with great difficulty and only finished two leagues that day, with a lot of work, being obliged to make two sailings (27).
The next day, the last day of the month, several of our people broke through the ice, which was so thick that it obliged the Sr. de St Germain to send back his oxen, which broke through again “twenty paces from the camp, with their sledges and were saved by the help we gave them. Some who had since come from the end of the isle informed us that they had made it safely to where they had been taken, the ice being so bad that our people, who were continually sinking, only made it a league that day, being very unable to help each other, which prevented any inconvenience. I camped in a cove where I found Sieur de la Forest, captain in the troops commanded by Monsieur de la Salle, who was going to the Illinois with a crew of three canoes, taking our route as far as Mattaouan (411) (28).
On the first of April, I stayed, all my crew not having been able to follow the previous day, contenting myself with making those who found themselves in a position to continue the march take the lead, which a thaw made extremely jtenible. being obliged on the way to drag their luggage. merchant in the melted snow up to the legs. They were camped on the isle of Carillon, where a large tree fell on one of their canoes and crushed it with its fall, which obliged me, on being advised of it, to order some people to fetch another at the end of the isle.
On the second of April I went with the rest of my detachment to the island of Carillon (29), accompanied by R. 1*. Silvie who joined me that day. Several of our men went into the ice again but without any further accident. During the day we saw several bustards, and three or four pies, one of which was shot. We had been seeing bustards there for a long time. 1-e Sr. I.allemand having taken height, found 4”> degrez. 39 minutes.
On the third day of April, I stayed because of the rain; but having frozen all night I camped on the 4th. (411 bis) at the foot of the Long Bault. I walked with a drawn sword which I used to sound the thin ice which had formed the previous night. As the day began to rise a little, I found myself in a place where the ice bent under me ten paces to the right. But the frequent use I made of my sword made me realise my error and the danger I was in, which obliged me to leave the canal, where I was walking as if by the shortest route, and to continue along the land. Father Silvie followed me step by step and ran the same risks. At the end of the Long-Sault, we saw the remains where seventeen Frenchmen (30) had withstood the efforts of seven hundred of these barbarians during the ancient wars of the Iroquois, of whom they killed and wounded a very considerable number. Their resistance would have been as successful* as their bravery deserved had it not been for the treachery of a liuron who escaped from the fort, and having warned the Troquois, who were planning to retreat from the defences of the place, of the need (412) for the French to take them by a general attack, thus caused the loss of these brave men, who had no other consolation in their disaster than to sell their lives dearly.
On the eighth day of April, those who had remained behind arrived at the camp, where we stayed to raceomode our canoes and regom¬mer them and make poles and oars, being obliged to take every precaution, especially as we were at the foot of a rapid which never freezes and where it was necessary to tow and perch. So the Sr. de St. Germain, whom I had sent to carry out the planking inside the wood, assured me that the portage was impossible, which forced me to go up the rapid as in plain summer, that is to say in water up to the waist. That day I sent back a man called Loranger, who had come only to carry our letters and bring back the dogs and wild tralsnes, which had been used to transport our crew. I was glad to have sent him back that day, because the frost which occurred that day made the place useless for the rest of the spring.
On the sixth day of April, I continued to work on the canoes, and had a cross erected on a point which can be seen from quite a distance (412 bis).
On the seventh day of Palm Sunday, it rained all day and was very windy, which prevented us from making the procession. The next day the weather continued.
On the ninth of April, Messieurs de Ste. Helene and d’Iberville, accompanied by skilful canoeists, began to sail up the Long-Sault (32). They took their luggage above the first rapid which is a league from the tip of the lake named after the two mountains (33) which begins at the end of the isle of Montreal and ends at the foot of the Long Saut, and went back down to help the other canoes, some of which were damaged by the ice which drifted quite frequently.. It was very cold, and I stayed in camp (34) to see how the canoes would get up the end of the rapid.
On the tenth of April, I sent off the canoes which had remained in camp, and went to the woods along the water with Father Silvie (35) and those who were not needed to help put up the canoes*, several of which (413) were damaged. That day, they had to be restored (?) and the best sailors were often obliged to go down to help because they needed it.
On the first of April, I was in my canoe with messieurs d’Iberville and St. Germain to visit the path, followed by three canoes and the people necessary to make a portage trail the width of a musket barrel, but finding it quite easy, I sent them back with Monsieur d’Iberville and ordered them to decamp by diligence to join me. Which they did.
On the twelfth, I left early in the morning with Fr Silvie and walked a good half a league, along a very bad path to the port of Peau, through the woods to avoid the boarding and disembarking that had to be done, because of the melted ice, which covered the space of a quarter of a league, the cracks in which were so large that bridges had to be made to pass the food and ammunition canoes. 11 There were bridges more than three hundred feet wide, although the water could be seen through such large openings, which were more than twenty feet deep. This did not prevent everyone from going (413) to where I was camped, but we had two canoes broken during the portage on the ice, and a man from one of these two canoes swam across notwithstanding the extreme cold and came to the camp to inform me of this accident, and of a supervised quarrel between some people from the same canoes, who wanted to kill each other. I immediately sent Sieur de la Noue with five men, who put the kibosh on it, and took away the rifle of the most mutinous, who sewed another in jubilation. In my turn, on their arrival at the camp, I omitted the rest of their brandy, to punish them, and gave them a sack of Indian wheat in place of each barrel, with orders not to touch it. The sr. d’Ibervile went to fetch the two broken canoes, which he put back in as they could be used.
But the time it nearly took him to do this, combined with “the appalling wind and the bitter cold on the 13th, prevented me from setting out with my people, some of whom while walking, found in the month two moose hides, which apparently some savages had hidden, while hunting, which they will bring to the camp to sell, of which being informed, I brought them back to the same place, and sent the Sieur de Ste. Helene to see that this was done.
On the fourteenth, Easter day, we limited our devotions to a great mass which was sung with all the solemnity that the time and place permitted (37). 11 tit all morning there was a strong northerly wind, but in the afternoon the weather was fairly calm. After vespers, I made a review of all my detachment, of which I read three brigades, each composed of three squads. I took the first for myself, which I left in command to the Sieur de Chesny (38). The Sieur de Ste. Helenne had the second, and left, the third under the orders of the sr. d’Iberville. I order, for the march, that the Sieur de Ste. Helenne will do the front guard with his reserved brigade, mine for the body of battle, and that of the sr. d’Hyberville for the rear guard.
The reason for this arrangement is, so that in the lieutenants being by this means, one with the front guard and the other with the rear guard, the sr. de Ohesny found himself directly in my absence in the centre, being obliged to be most often on one side and the other to give by my presence heat to all things. I then drew from the brigades the people I needed for the use of my two canoes and those of Father Silvic. I exempted them from guard duty (41-i bis) so that they would be all the more suitable for the service we were hoping for. I did the same for those I intended for the canoe of sr. Lallemend’s canoe, whom I also wished to enlarge to his particular rank of guard and brigade rank, so that he could more easily carry out the duties to which his merit and fine ability have destined him. He is a person of great service and whose genius and activity have been of great help in this undertaking, where he has served as a good eanotteur, soldier, pilot and geographer. After all that I had my men put in battle, the sr. de Maricourt as major and sr. de la noüe as aide major, six sergeants six corporals and six anspesades (39). whom I separated, also in the squads, which I had put back in battle, having the aforementioned eamraux sergeants and ansesades at their teste. At the same time I had them read the regulations which I had drawn up both for the march of the boats and of each brigade, and for the encampments, guards and other military functions. I also had them draw lots for the rank of their squads, the first of which began to stand guard, and by my order a (415) tent was erected next to mine to serve as a guardhouse, sentries were posted on the shore in front of the canoes in which the baggage was placed, and in this way I gradually subjected them to the discipline required by the regularity of the service, and which alone is lacking in the natural value of Canadians.
On the fifteenth of April, I decamped after mass and went ashore with Father Silvie and those who were not needed for the canoe service (40). I took this expedient not only because of the difficulty of the rapids (41) but also because of the excessive cold which prevailed. which did not prevent those who were destined to take the canoes from being up to their waists in water, and sometimes up to their necks, to drag them, it being absolutely impossible to perch in the dreadful diuttes of water. Only the two lieutenants and the two majors dared (42) to undertake it; the last two thought they would suffer, for although they are reputed to be the best eanotcurs in the pay (country), they did not allow themselves to embark on a rock, and broke their canoes in the middle, which were filled at the same time. They threw themselves resoundingly into the water, where they found water up to the ladders (aiselles), and had great difficulty in reaching land, dragging their canoe full of water, the swiftness of which was frightening. A young Canadian named La Motte tried to help him, but the current carried him away and he would have drowned, had it not been for the prompt help of our people, who brought all three of them back to land with unbelievable difficulty, where they unloaded their canoes to repair them and seal up what was inside. The other canoes went up as best they could, some got as far as the portage and having done so at the same time came to where I was camped (43). I got there with great difficulty, through woods that were dreadful because of their solitude and inconvenience, due to a prodigious quantity of toppled rocks or, better said, fallen rocks (44), and felled wood, all interspersed with thick fredocles, which made the route extremely laborious. For apart from the fact that they had to be repaired, it is clear that it was impossible to resist such a long fatigue any longer. It is easy to judge by the time they took to travel about a league and a half, which was from six o’clock in the morning until six o’clock in the evening. They were wet and in the water longer than in a canoe. I found at ee eamp the place of the hut of the sr. de la forest of which I spoke before. He left in the morning and has not been seen since.
On the sixteenth of April everyone went to the camp, with the exception of two or three canoes. I** Sr. de ste. lielenne then went up with his valet to the fall of the portage, by pole. Sieurs de Marioourt et de la Noüe drew as much, of which the first wanted, having deliarquant, to renger a packet of rifles which he held between his arms, had the lsmlieur to see one leave, without wounding anybody <le those who were around him y; of the remainder I read camp the men, the ground there being very clean joined “pie the day was very beautiful.
On the tenth of April, those who had remained behind went to the camp, and the rest of the day was spent repairing the canoes that we had not been able to restore. The man named la Voie, trying to put out the fire which had started in his bray boiler, burnt his whole hand, another cut his finger with an axe, and four or five others fell ill with colic caused by the excessive cold they had endured in the water the previous day. The same day sr. Ldlemand prayed high, and found 45 degrees and 45 minutes.
On the eighteenth, we left at daybreak and set up camp at the Little Nation, eight leagues away.
On the nineteenth, we set off early to go to a place called La chaudière, about nine leagues away, which we could not do because we had to stop to repair our canoes. We passed the river du lievre to take one of them, which was there, and which had to be completely rebuilt, having spent the winter there. We camped two leagues further up (4ô) where all the canoes, about five or six of them, joined us the next day. During the whole of this route we had several times encountered troops of Iroquois (Christians, who charitably allowed us to stay in places where they oft’roient to treat us, which they were unable to grant them to make more diligence. Some (417) gave us wine in advance, others offered to go to the eliassc for us, and there were even the best of them, who wanted to accompany me, for which I thanked them. During the night the weather was very bad.
The twentieth, it continued, so that the day was spent in rain accompanied by a strong wind. I had a Canadian tied to a tree to punish him for some foolish thing he had said; some mutineers wanted to stir up a riot about it, but I quickly brought them back to their duty. Father Silvie helped me a great deal, and on this occasion I got to know the character of the Canadians, whose naturalness does not go well with subordination.
On the twenty-first of April, Fr. Silvie said mass, confessed and gave communion to those who remained to make their pasques. after which I left to go to the jiortage de la Chaudière, which is so called by the voiageurs, because part of the river, which falls among a frightful confusion of rocks, flows into a hole in one of these rocks (417) made in the shape of a cauldron, from which Peau flows over the top.
On the twenty-second I stayed to get the rest of the canoes, in one of which I sent back to Montreal four men from my detachment, people who were sick or wounded. Then I went to the portage of the oaks, so named because of the quantity of these trees which are in this place, which is with approximately mie place and half of the jump of the boiler. I went up this road several rapids which meet between two (46), and made a portage which is at mie lieue or approximately (47) of celuv of the boiler which has one quarter of lieue as celuv of the oaks.
On the twenty-fourth we came to the jiortage des chats, which is a place so called on account of the rocks with which the river is filled, and which rough manner of speaking, the canoe of voyageurs, have their place to impose this nickname.
On the twenty-fifth of April, I set out early in the morning to make the portage and to climb the rapids which are above (48). I made camp in a place (118) which has no name (49). The sr. de St. Germain, captain of the guides to avoid the rapids, saw himself off by a bay, through which he had formerly passed; some of our people who saw him following assured me that they had made a very rough and very difficult portage.
On the twenty-sixth, I left early in the morning the weather was quite fine, and as there was a light easterly wind I set sail in our canoes, which took us to the entrance of the Calumet Islands. We saw opposite our camp a cross, at the foot of which is buried the named Dargy, a sailmaker, who drowned some time ago while weaving his boat at a portage above which bears the name (sic).
On the twenty seventh, I decamped and began to climb the Calumet rapids (50). They have been given this name because there is a blue stone close by that is suitable for making them. I camped at the pass of the mountain having made the fort (51) which retains this name from what the savages had built there in the past to protect themselves from the races of the Iroquois.
On the twentieth and eighth day everyone went to the great Calumet portage (52). There were some who could not make it, because of the length which is two thousand paces, among mountains and vast plains of upturned woods which make access extremely difficult.
On the twenty-ninth I was obliged to stay (53) to wait for those who could not complete the portage. The day was very fine and we spent our time seeing to our supplies and re-coding our canoes. At midday sr. Lallemand took height and found 45 degrees 41 minutes.
On the last day of the month, I set sail at daybreak, having left three canoes to wait for a member of our detachment who had strayed into the woods the day before. We had fairly good weather, the wind was from the south and I made almost all our way under sail, in the evening there was a hostage accompanied by rain and a heavy wind. I met on my way a hut of Iroquois who were due to leave on the first day for Montreal, which gave me the opportunity to give (419) my news there. We also found a moose crossing the river being chased by an Iroquois some of our people shot it, but it sank without trace and the depth of the water made us lose it.
Father Silvie said mass on the first morning. We stayed (54) because of the bad weather, which could not prevent anyone from planting a maypole in front of my tent and firing a salvo. They did the same to Monsieurs de St. Helenne and d’Iberville. In the evening, four canoes of savages from Themiska-Mingue arrived in camp. It had been twenty days since they had left, and they spent the night in our camp, and the second day, we were still obliged to stay because of a strong west wind, which lasted all day. In the morning, as mass was beginning, fire broke out in a gunpowder barrel of 501, which injured no-one; the water rose by more than three feet.
On the third, I left early in the morning to follow my route and the savages followed theirs, straight to Montreal (419 bis). I left the sr. d’Hyberville to wait for the named Lamiot who had not gone to the camp even though I had stayed there. My following made me aware that he saw me deserted with three men whom he had in his canoe taking me away a barrel of powder, a bag of bullets with picks and all the provisions with which he was charged. I was encamped that day at a point of sand (55) which is a league from the great portage of the matches, and the hunters whom I usually put in front, killed a young moose, but a wind which had risen forced us to wait to calm down (in order) to cross a bay which can be three quarters of a place wide.
On the fourth of May, we set sail very early, arriving at sunrise at the portage des grandes allumettes, distinguished from the petites because of an isle, whose southern channel is called les grandes allumettes, because the channel is longer, but also easier to climb. The northern channel is called “les petites” probably because it is shorter. In the channel, to the right of a waterfall, there is a small flat rock on which you can portage. An R. I. Jesuit passing there in the past, he forgot a box of matches that he carried there to make a fire, which gave the travelers this name at this place; with the difference that I noticed cydesaus, I therefore go through the big ones, and arrive at the portage which is very beautiful, 300 steps long, where everyone carried canoes of food and luggage. We then re-embarked and camped at the entrance to the Hollow River, after crossing the Lac des Allumettes, which receives water from the south side of a small river (56) which is discharged there, at the point of which appeared some savages who beat the quesse (box) there, carrying a white flag. The captain of the guides whom I had sent there returned with a present of meat, which was the subject of their signal, but he could not reach me until the following night at the place where I had camped, having even been obliged to fire a few shots from his rifle to find out where I was. My camp was at the end of a cove (57) which made it impossible to see the fires. The sentry told me the moment the shots were fired, and judging well that it could only be him I was waiting for, and moreover that there was nothing to fear in the place where we were. I made him reply with a few blows, at the sound of which he joined us (240).
On the fifth day of May, we left after mass to go to the porgage at the end of the Riviere Creuse. This river is about seven leagues long. On the north side, following the road, we see a high mountain whose rock is straight and very steep, the middle of which appears black. This is perhaps due to the fact that the savages make their sacrifices there by throwing arrows over it, at the end of which they tie a small piece of tobacco. Our French are accustomed to baptise those who have not yet passed through here. This rock is called l’oiseau (the bird) by the savages and some of our people, not wanting to lose the old custom, will throw themselves into the water. We camped at the bottom of the portage (59).
On the sixth of May, I had it done (60) early in the morning. We made two more during the day, during which we also climbed several rapids, after which we camped at Pointe aux Pins (61).
On the seventh of May, we set off at sunrise and arrived at the foot of the rapids (421) (62). The good canoeists began to climb them, which they did with all the more danger .They lost a canoe, whose men nearly got lost. This obliged me to distribute them among the other canoes. As for me, I was on land at a place called the nuira bout, about a league long. I spent the whole day making the very difficult way, because it is crossed by ahatus woods. This is where a tongue of land is cut, which exempts travellers from these nasty rapids and portages. This does not prevent them from liking it even better to follow the river than to do so; I had no sooner returned to the water’s edge than canoes came to pick me up with the I*. Silvie who had made the journey with mov, and took us to the camp I had indicated above (63).
Le huitiesme may. Monsieur de Ste Helene went down to the bits of the rapids to help those who had had difficulty in climbing; for my part I went over and made camp at the portage des grelots with twelve canoes. I was often obliged in this way to take the lead to avoid the confusion which usually arose in the portages, where there was only room for two or three canoes (421a).
On the ninth of May I was brought half a league above the rapids of the grelots (64), so called because the shore and the bottom of the water are filled with large round rocks.
On the tenth day of May, I continued my journey from the morning and camped three quarters of the way from Mataouan (65); the rain prevented us from going there. We spent part of the time under sail and the Sieur de Ste Helenne stayed behind to repair some damaged ships. I read to put the weapons in condition and to load with bullets, fearing that on my arrival, at the fork of Mataouan, the Iroquois joined to the English of Boston had set up an ambush for me there on the advice which they had been able to have of my march.
On the eleventh of May, it rained, snowed and blew a heavy wind, which prevented us from leaving; in addition the water rose that day by more than a foot.
On the twelfth of May, we went to Mataouan, which in the savage language means the fork of a river, there actually being one in this place, the left of which is to the south and (is) (422) the Ottawa road, and the right, which is to the north, and therefore my road, leads to the Thcmiska-Minguc. I arrive at this place of Mataouan very early, which tist that the 1*. Si 1 vie celebrated holy mass. We found black in this place on a point of cabannc of the savages who made canoes, They seemed surprised to see us so many people. It snowed in the morning but was fine in the evening. I dined with sr Juchereau (66) who had just come from Michilmakina, and was going to Quebecq by great diligence, to bring news to Monsieur the Marquis de Denonville. He arrived as I said and left shortly afterwards to continue his journey. At the same time I sent off the sr de Ste lielenne with three of our canoes to meet Monsieur d’lberville.
On the thirteenth of May it rained, snowed and winded all day, which continued the next day until midday, when Monsieur d’Iyberville arrived and told me that he had waited in vain for two days for the canoe for which I had asked him to stay. I was very wary of the savages, so to keep my people alert, I had ordered that no one should sleep in the guardhouse for an hour before daylight. There was nothing left (422) but a small fire which had to be put out at the first alarm; in a word the whole world was ready and in order with arms in hand. I had a cross put up on the point of the fork and our English interpreter cut his leg open with a blow from the axe right to the bone. The distance from the isle of Montreal to Mataouan is one hundred leagues.
On the fifteenth of May, we could not leave until sunrise, because of the trellises we had to make in the water, which was extremely cold. We left after mass was said and having made three portages we camped one place above the last and one and a half kilometres from Mataouan (69). One of our canoes broke into pieces in the second Iwn-dage, having landed in a hut. What was inside was saved, but we had people extremely injured in the water; I found a sage in the canoe of the captain of our guides, who could see the way to the bay very well. I saw it rented in Mataouan.
On the sixteenth we camped eight leagues from Mataouan, a league above the fourth portage (70). The road is very bad and three hundred paces long; the Sieur de Ste. Helenne dragged him (423).
On the last day we went up again to a place called le long du saut, which is two places long, and is extremely difficult because of its strong current, and is extremely difficult because of its strong drag in five or six places. There were crcvey canoes and we camped above the last rapid (71).
On the eighteenth we set off in the morning and did not fail, notwithstanding a storm which lasted for most of the day, to arrive at the house of Monsieurs of the northern company. It is on an island in Lake Themiskamingue. This isle may be half a league in circumference, and is between two rapids, coming from a small river called Mctabec Chouan (72), en sauvage, from which some come out to trade. There were fourteen Frenchmen in this house for the company who were no less delighted than we were at our arrival, which was solemnised on both sides by several rifle shots.
On the nineteenth and the two following days the weather was very bad. Monsieurs de Ste. Helenne and d’Iberville used it with Monsieur de St. Germain (to settle) the affairs of the Old and New Company of goods and peltries which were in the shop, where he appointed Sieur Sibille to make accounts for everything to the (423 bis) company. Guillet (74) and Villedieu (75) stayed behind to go three days later to Nepissingue, a savage nation, to make logs and bring them down to Mount Real. As for us, we dealt with some savages whom we found near the house, to replace those (pie we had and which we left there. for between too heavy and too inconvenient, for the remainder of our voyage, for which I took my measures so well, that there were two good canoers at each canoe. to jump the rapids well.
On the twenty-second it rained for part of the day, which did not prevent me from setting sail after mass (76), followed by three canoes, to visit a mine six leagues away.
I gave orders to the Sieur de Ste. Helenne, whom I left there to complete their business, to join me on the next day with the rest of the detachment, and to take the northern route across the lake in order to meet me sooner. Two leagues from the house I met three wild cahaïmes, who dragged me a small canoe of four places, which served me for the rest of my journey. And for my return to Quebec. I was camped out of there on an island, the weather not allowing me to go further.
On the 23rd, after mass we walked to go and find this mine, the man called Coignac (sic) led us. In looking for it we came across a wild cahanne whose people had killed a large moose the day before, which gave me the opportunity to camp near it so that Cognac (sic) could find the mine more easily. He searched in vain for the rest of the day. During this time the two lieutenants (78) left the house to come and join me with all our people, but the heavy weather having driven them away, some took to the south, others to the north, and some were in the isles, which meant that very few people rejoiced with me.
On the twenty-fourth it was very windy all day, accompanied by rain, but Cognac, who was listening to his ideas, assured me that he recognised himself and that the mine was very near, so I set off with him, with myself swimming ahead and him steering, and did not let the bad weather deter us from reaching the place where he thought it might be. We did indeed find it. This mine (79) is situated to the east and west, on the edge of the western lake, a semi-circular rock which is about thirty feet above the water’s edge, ten feet high from the level (424 bix) of the water, and a hundred feet deep, with no land on it, and which is lost under a mountain covered with (sic) rocks. We tore off a few small pieces with great difficulty and returned to camp.
On the twenty-fifth, we left and went to an isle (80), which is a league from the bottom of the lake where my detachment joined me. It was very early in the morning and as the weather was bad I stayed there to help with the supplies which were wet. I also finished the letters I was writing and gave them to Cognac at the same time “before leaving for Quebec. We found in this island savages who spoke to us of the English, with whom they saw treated the half autumn. 11 There was one who even tried to draw me, on a bark with charcoal, the plan of their forts, but having taken him at his word he only made a large circle, which convinced me that he saw ignorance and perhaps even more malice in his act. At midday Sieur Lallemend took the height, and found 47 degree and 36 minutes. The night was very rainy.
On the twenty sixth day, I set sail at sunrise and crossed the isle, at the end of the lake, which is one (425) league away. We had a very strong wind in front and to the north, and my small canoe, which is very convenient for portages, but which is also not so suitable for heavy weather, was carried against a large wave, forcing me to let go.
Father Silvie and those of our people who were in small canoes laughed as well. The rest took the lead. When the sea had ebbed a little, we joined them. They were at the mouth of a small river (81 L’il du Chef ) where mass was said, after which everyone reembarked. It was a very cool breeze for the rest of the day. I camped four leagues from this river, which is very deep, but only fifty paces wide; it has a little current and it is very bad to camp on its banks, which are full of overturned wood and fir trees.
On the twentieth of September, it was very cold this morning, but the day was very fine. We also continued our route for about three and a half leagues along this river, which we left to the left to cross a small river twenty paces wide. (82) In a league and a half’s journey we found three nortaees, the first of which is of a thousand, the second of 200 (425 bis) and the third of 800. At the first and last there are two large knolls, the ascent and descent of which are very tiring for those who are portaging. I camped at the top of the last with six canoes, the others being left behind, because it is impossible in these portages to unload and reload only one canoe at a time. (83).
The twenty-eighth. The weather was very hot. I set off at sunrise, and my people made four portages, one of which was very nasty: it was 700 paces long. One of our people unloading his canoe dropped his clothing bag into the water, which sank low.
On the twenty-ninth, we continued on our way in fine weather and finished about three leagues along the way, where there were four portages (84), the last of which proved fatal to us because some of our people were too presumptuous and, instead of doing as the others did, wanted to climb the rapids. Their temerity wrecked three canoes and wetted everything inside, and the hulls were broken in several places, but fortunately no one was lost (426). The Sieurs de Ste. Helene, de Maricourt, and de la Noue, who were the last to arrive in three canoes, nearly perished with all that was inside theirs, which sank to the bottom; but having returned to the water, they saved themselves. They had to swim back to land, except for the Sieur de la Noue who, not being able to swim, had more difficulty than they did in getting out of trouble. He went down the steep river caught in the current and would have drowned had it not been for the canoes, which I sent down in a hurry to rescue him, so that the monsieurs had to pay for a bag of wine and a bag of wheat, which were lost. They also took advantage of the fine weather to dry out in this place, where they camped. That night the fire raged in the wood, which was a great nuisance to us. For my part I continued on my way and slept further on.
On the 30th of May those who had remained behind joined me, having made three portages along the way. We worked a little for Italy, after which we all embarked and made eight portages in twenty-five leagues (85) during that day, the last of which involved an accident which is no less terrible than it is worthy of note (426a).
Some of our last canoes had lit a fire at the preceding rapids, and it ran into the lx>is with an impetuosity all the greater for the strong wind. The Haines which he pushed ahead of him did not stretch out but always gained in length in the wood, to the grc of the wind which chased them; they appeared to us formidable in that after having burned along a lake, with speed, which we had passed, they reached the endrot where we were. The danger was great, because our people were busy with the portage, which is fifteen hundred paces long, some were hurrying, others were walking, some were coming back to fetch what they had to carry, and in a word the road was so full of al- lans and comings. that I could only compare it to that of ants around their anthill; But our misfortune seemed inevitable when the wind, having changed, frightfully drove these whirlwinds of ladies along the length of our path, “in such a way that it is as difficult to write the trouble we had to save ourselves from it as it is to express the size and rapidity of so great a fire, which obliged those who were at the entrance to the portage ( 427) to throw themselves into their canoes with the powder. And all who feared the approach of the fire. Who, having put themselves further out to sea on account of the narrowness of the lake at this point, covered themselves and their canoes with wet blankets, the better to resist the flames “which most frequently passed over them., who found themselves engaged in the middle of the portage. They gained the extremities with the last diligence, the risk being no less than “being burnt alive. As far as I was concerned, I was three quarters of the way through the 1*. Silvie. when we found ourselves obliged to run with all our strength through the wood which was all ablaze, and whose fire came so close to us that a half of my shirt was burnt by a confusion of sparks and glowing coals, which fell continually. At last we spied a small meadow on the water’s edge, where we found that those who had completed the portage.
We found that those who had completed the portage had imitated those at the other end, who had taken to the water in their canoes with all that could not be gastcr. down to the sae of Indian wheat, of which the whole detachment lived. On entering the prairie we met a band of savages who were very helpful in saving our gear and other things for re-embarkation. We were in this prairie, which is no more than twenty paces wide, buried up to our knees, so hurried were we to embark, which we did in two canoes which came to take us on the shore of the lake, which in this place is no more than thirty paces wide, the fire there became so furious “that the liâmes passed like a torrent over our testes, and lit the wood on the other shore. It was a very sad thing to see ourselves exposed between two such impenetrable elements, in canoes that were made only of bark and huts of ash wood, which are extremely combustible. It was necessary, however, to get out of such a nasty situation, so that, having noticed that we would be safer with regard to the place where the fire had passed, I sent the canoes there, where they found no danger, and two hours later those who remained at the lower end continued their portage, as if nothing had happened, there were only a few dry trees left which were burning, and the others were all black and stripped of their leaves (80) those who may have the curiosity to find out the cause.
Knowing the cause of this embarkation (conflagration) whose progress was so rapid and so sudden, will know that all the forests of this climate are only cedars, firs and birches, which join to the gum which they carry in abundance, take and maintain with ease the fire which communicates. We lost a canoe, some chickens of corn and a few rifles. There were some grenades in one of these pockets which did not catch fire even though the cloth in the sack was completely burnt. After so much toil we camped close by with some savages we had met, who provided us with a canoe to replace the one that had been burnt. I feel obliged, however, to mention here a circumstance (which may not displease the superstitious), which is that Sieur Lalle-Mend took care to make a map of our route naming all the portages by the name of the saints according to their rank in the litanies. 11 It so happened that the portage where we suffered this fire ended up in St Laurans. This observation has since been observed and reinforced by another deplorable event. I was working on the 20th of 8th February, on my return to Quebec, “putting the journal of my voyage on the net, when having arrived (428 bis) at the article on this embarkation, I heard the toxin ringing, because of the fire which had taken hold at the home of the Reverend Ursuline Mothers, which burnt down their entire monastery in less than an hour (87). This gives me cause to warn the reader to beware of fire when reading this passage, if he is reading by candlelight.
On the thirty-first and last day of the month, we left and entered a small stream (88) whose water was barely sufficient to carry our canoes. We finished five leagues this day and three journeys, at the last of which I saw where the waters parted, and consequently the height of the land (89) and the world, that in this voyage the sea was equally low on the coasts of Canada and the north bay, and the land being as high as half a circle, and as we went up the rivers on the Canadian side, the land is elevated like half a circle, and as one ascends the rivers on the side of Canada, one finds rapids and waterfalls and cascades which are known as many degrees to ascend the height of the land and which, serving as natural locks, make that from distance to distance the water is easy to navigate, this is also what gives rise to all the portages (429) that one makes in the voyage, but when 011 has reached this height. It is nothing but a pay of rocks all filled with lakes, the land being everywhere seated beautiful five leagues below the height of the earth. I also observed two things: the first was that the lakes ceased to flow at this portage on the side of Quebec, and were discharged into the bay to the north, descending there by similar cascades; the second was that there is a height of land which reigns in this country, which causes all the rivers to cascade as I observed above. After all these remarks, I camped a league from the lake where everyone did not go until the following day.
On the first day of June, the rest of our people arrived and the weather having calmed down, we set off at ten o’clock in the morning and crossed the lake (90) which has five places from one portage to the other. I stopped with some savages, whom I found huts in the corner of a small bay, and took two of them willingly, whom I distributed among us to serve as guides, not being able most of the time (429 bis) to go all together, on account of the difficult portages. We limed four of them this day, which are only within rifle range of each other, and crossed by small lakes (91). I camped at the bottom of the fourth.
The second… I ascamped after mass, and finished, that day, which was very fine, nine leagues, and two portages. We crossed a large lake (92), very pleasant because of the four islands it contains, and arrived at the Abitibi gist. I camped in a meadow on the right as we entered, and as it was early in the morning I went to visit a nearby spot, which I found to be very suitable for building a fort. Which I did according to my orders.
On the third & the two following days, I built the fort (93), on a small hill which is twenty-three feet above the level of the water. Made of piles and flanked by four small bastions, I then set about representing the shape of the English fortifications (430). For this purpose I used pickets and ropes as I could not find suitable ground for this subject in my voyage. I then made my detachments, had the officers put on the list, and showed each one what had to be done, telling them to remember what I told them, when we went to a more serious attack. Events have shown me that this exercise was not in vain.
On the sixth, I left the sr. de Cerry (94) to com- mend in the fort, and gave him three men. I then left at sunrise and made cabannor below the strait of St Germain, in the large isle, of which there is a quarter in the lake which is very beautiful.
Our day was eleven leagues long and was also very beautiful (95).
On September June, there was a strong wind which did not hinder the crossing of the lake* which we finished, which is a league wide in this place. We also finished two portages, to cross a point of the same lake (430 bis), and shorten our route. These two portages, the first of which is sixty paces long, and the other two hundred, are caused by a small lake which lies in the middle of the crossing of this jetty, the waters of which are extremely clear. This day we made another crossing of two leagues, to go to the mouth of the river (96) which descends to the Anglois, where we camped.
On the eighth. the weather was fine and our day was fifteen leagues, in which we tiouvâs juatre portages and several rapids which we nearly jumped (97).
On the ninth we set off in the morning and during the day, which was quite fine, made ten leagues and a portage of half a league or so (98).
On the tenth, we covered six leagues and a portage or drag which proved fatal for one of our best men, named Noël Leblanc (99). He drowned while trying to jump the waterfall, with Sieur d’Iberville, in whose canoe he was. The canoe having filled up, perhaps because it was overloaded (431). a broth, threw out the said Noël lebiane who, not being able to swim, sank to the bottom without ever having been recovered. As for the Sieur d’Iberville, who was at the front of the canoe which, by its length, had taken him through this nasty spot, he swam until the canoes which I promptly dispatched in his wake had arrived, During this time the canoe of the Sieur d’Iberville returned to the water without a above underneath, and those whom I had sent back brought him back with the Sieur d’Iberville who lost his guns, clothing and almost all his provisions. I gave them some of mine instead: a sack of peas, 20 lbs of sweetbreads, a pouch of pancakes and a few other trifles. At midday the Sieur Lallemand took height and found 49 degrees 30 minutes.
I left at sunrise. Our day consisted of eleven leagues in which we finished three portages, the first of which is 300 paces, the second, 250. They are very close after each other, the Sieur l’Allemand took height and found 49 degree 5 minutes (100).
The dozen. We only travelled a league because of the two thousand eight hundred paces we had to carry. It is very bad today, the mountains and fountains which meet there all covered with overturned trees. Monsieur de Ste. Helenne and d’Iberville threw their canoes lightened by the falls, and caught six others. We could only camp a quarter of a league below this portage.
On the thirteenth. “June, half a foot of snow fell. We finished only a league and two portages (102), the first of which is 100 paces, and the second two hundred. We camped at the latter, while the captain of the guides went to reconnoitre the place of the portage, which he said was close to here. He found it and returned to the camp where we spent the night, which was very cold.
On the fourteenth in the morning, the wind having died down and the weather being fine again, we finished half a quarter of a league to find the portage (103) which was very small, at the end of which, as there was only a cove to cross, we could see the entrance to the large one (104), which is two places long. It is very bad, because of the climbs which are very frequent and very embarrassed by ‘pientite de lx’ is dejected us, there are even in some places ‘the molieres in which one sinks up to the knee.
Some panic terror having seized the two savages (432) whom I had taken as guides, they left, as they say, without saying goodbye, but also without taking anything with them. That day there were many of our people who could not make their journey.
On the fifteenth, I set out early with ten canoes, and that day made five places, at the end of which I found a portage of 1200 paces, which I nearly made. I came then with the commandant of another which is with one league of this last.
On the sixth, Monsieur Silvie said mass, and we walked from there. We finished there four portages (100), entered which are almost all fast, the first is of thousand steps. the second, of 1500. I camped at the latter to wait for all our people who went there the same day. 11 rained a little in the evening. 11 It should also be noted that most of the last canoes will throw (sic) the last portage.
On the tenth September. 11 was fairly fine weather, and our day lasted seventeen hours. The rain that came in the evening prevented me from going any further. I camped in a place full of large spruce and aspen woods (107). ^
On the tenth of the eighth our guide assured me that we were not far from what we were looking for. I < 432 bis) stayed to take advantage of the convenience of this place where there is plenty of wood which I needed to prepare for the attack on the first fort. I had planks made to cover the miner and several logs. I used spruce bark for my gabions and facins that I could not make the brenchage as in trope, because of the difficulty that there was to see them in our canoes, the ecoree being more portable besides, less embarrassing, and also useful. I added to all this four ladders to be used if necessary.
On the nineteenth I set off early and made six leagues in the morning to get as far as the fork of Monsipv (108), from where I sent out to discover the sis of d’Iberville and St Germain, accompanied by a man from our detachment, and kept me coy in a point of the isle, which we did not leave until the evening to join them, or to wait for them where they should have put down a marker, as I saw them order. We walked until nightfall without finding one, when, being close to the cabin to wait for daylight, we saw a fire on our left. We went ashore and found the man who had accompanied our discoverers, who told us (433) that we had to go lower, which we did, with all the more difficulty as we nearly jumped two rapids, where more than half of our canoes ran aground, without any damage. Even though it was quite dark, we came to an isle, where the man who had made the above fire had assured us that we should find our discoverers. However, we found no one there and as daylight approached we were obliged to retire to a cul de sac for fear of being discovered, where we spent the day.
On the twentieth I stopped a canoe containing two savages who had come from the English. I questioned them carefully both on the situation of the forts and on other circumstances that I wanted to know, and having regaled them with Indian wheat. They seemed very happy and showed us in their own way how happy they were to see the French in their pay. It is true that the situation was all the more favourable to us as the governor of Quiehichoanne (109), who also commanded other forts, whose commanders acknowledged that they had recently caned a savage, whose disgrace was very sensitive to all the others, who had a mortal hatred for the English. As for these two savages, they seemed so irritated that they wanted to come with me at all costs to fight, they said, against this nation which had treated them so badly. I thanked them for not giving them any suspicion of the distrust I had of them, and dismissing them civilly, I told them very gently that they could come the next day, as a matter of course, to deal with us in the goods of the English, whose masters we were going to make ourselves. I did not think it advisable to take them with me, for fear that if they hid during the night they might inform the English of our arrival. The Sieur d’Iberville, who had come to join us, told me that it was time to go. i let them go, when i did, them on one side and myself on the other. We spent the night on the water, which seemed to us to be very long, in the impatience in which everyone is, or “to see themselves in the hands of the English. At daybreak, we put ashore on an isle half a league from their fort, where we found the Sieur de St. Germaine who had spent the previous day without leading, to discover, and to give me an account of the manner in which it was built, and of what he had seen them do on this isle. He told me that their ship, which had sailed the day before, in the morning, was anchored a league and a half lower than the fort, which had fired several cannon shots on its departure, which it had replied to those whose ships had greeted it. This advice, together with the proximity of the enemy, obliged me to set up a guardhouse for the safety of my canoes, where I left the 1*. Silvie with ten men, including the two chvrurgiens. After that I applied myself entirely to planning the attack I intended (434) to make on this post, the plan of which I deemed necessary to give the reader a more perfect idea of the action I am about to describe.
This fort is made up of large palisades which, rising out of the ground from a height of seventeen to eighteen feet, form four curtain walls, each side of which is one hundred and thirty feet long. They are flanked by as many bastions, the level ground of which is underpinned by two rows of large stakes, interlaced, from space to space, with planks, which cross them from one row to the other, seem to bier & stiffen the earth they contain, and keep it from being able to collapse. They are very well equipped with cannons. The two who facing the river are jerrey for three pieces, which actually appear out of their embrasures. “There were two guns, one on each flank, to defend the curtain wall and the other facing the bastion, and two facing the desert, which is around the fort, of twenty acres or thereabouts, which carried six or seven pounds of bullets. The embrasures were very well made, so that it would have been impossible to slide any rifle shot along the pillar, because of a slide which joined them and which withdrew easily when it had to be operated. This is the interior of the square, which contained a large one and a redoubt in the middle, made up of three storeys, with rooms on top of them. There was a terrace above, made of joist planks, with its parapet (434 bis), which had four embrasures on each side, made in the shape of the approaches, in which only four pieces of wood appeared. of which there were three of two pounds and one of cast iron, of eight, which saw all the surroundings of the fort beaten in cavalry, the main entrance to which was in the middle of the curtain wall facing the river, closed by a half-foot thick door, reinforced with nails and large hinges and crossed with iron bars. there was also a false door in the curtain wall facing the wood. (110). Let’s get back to our attack, which I arranged in this way. First of all, I ordered two canoes from the ocean, one of which carried picks, shovels, pickaxes, ladders and planks, and the other, the bellier that I had had made, with orders to follow the detachments that were marching along the water, whose shore is very beautiful at low tide, and which cannot be inconvenient from the fort, which was only thirty paces away. I detached the Sieurs de St. Helenne and d’Iberville with eighteen men to go and insult the dancs who were defending the curtain wall which faces the wood, and ordered the man called la liberté (111) with six others, to make a mock attack, enjoining him to put three of his men on each flank of the right hand curtain wall of the fort, one of whom would cut the palisade, and the other two would fire continuously into the (4: fJ) embrasures, to inconvenience those who handled the guns. As for myself, I made three detachments of all that I had left, and reserved it for my attack, which was to be the main attack. Each detachment had a sergeant at its head, two of whom I ordered to fire as much as possible at the curtain walls and flanks to (prevent) the enemy’s cannon from serving him and harming us, and ordered the third to bring in the bellier and break down the gate, while I kept myself busy animating our people and giving the orders necessary on such occasions. In the meantime the sr. de Ste. Helenne came to ask me if he would jump over the palisade; I replied that when orders were given to attack and take a place, it did not matter how one went about it. He interpreted this so well that in a moment he was frenehit the palisade, sword in hand, followed by the Sieurs d’Iberville, Maricourt, la Uoiie and Pallemend and five or six others who alone were able to do the same with their detachment. They bravely entered the fort, seized the cannon and opened the false door which was not locked. During this time I sent for the bellier, and going from one post to another I took care exactly that what I had ordered was carried out regularly. I visited among others the eeltiy of Sergeant Laliberté to whom I owe as well as to all the others the testimony of having seen them vigorously do their duty. When the bellier arrived, I had the gate of the fort broken down during which exercise it happened that my people, who were firing from all the places that could allow it, discharged through the palisades at the detachment of the Sieurs de Ste. Helenne and d’Iberville whom they believed to be the English who were sending each other back to defend themselves. There was one of our men who bore the brunt of this contempt by a wound which he received in the kidneys. .1 ‘entered, at that time, the fort, accompanied by all my men, to whom I had a continuous fire made in the portholes, windows and other openings of the redoubt, occupying myself, in the meantime, in having a piece of cannon which was in front of the right-hand bastion removed from its blaze, in order to turn it against the redoubt. But I was very surprised when, wanting to see if it was loaded, I found nothing inside and no cannonballs which I could not use, which would have been repaid by the diligence with which our people broke down the door, when our English interpreters advised me that they were asking for quarter (436). I then had a great deal of difficulty in stopping the ardour of our Canadians, who, shouting loudly in the manner of the savages, were only interested in playing with knives. In the end, I got the better of them and had my interpreter shout to the English that they had to surrender, and that there was good reason for them to do so. One of them sent the interpreter to lead them and used very insolent language, adding that he wanted to fight and in fact wanted to point a bastion at us, which obliged him to uncover himself a little too much, and he received a rifle shot in the head which knocked him dead in the square. There are those who attribute this shot to Monsieur de Ste Helenne who is reputed to be an excellent marksman. However, as I had redoubled the attack and kept up the fire from all sides, they shouted ‘quartier tout de nouveau’, but the bellier had already put the door in, and threw a manery of tembour on the ground. The Sieur d’Iberville threw himself in incontinently, sword in one hand and rifle in the other, when an Englishman closed the door, which still held on to its bolts, and then prevented the rest from following the Sieur d’Iberville who, bickering boldly with his sword at everything in sight, wounded some of the Englishmen in the face and fired his rifle into a staircase where he heard a noise. While another shot from the bellier, completely negating the door, broke it down, all our men entered (436 bis) with swords in hand, and found the English all in shirts, and in no way expecting to see any comrades. This is how we took the place from these gentlemen, whose negligence was so great that they had no guard, no sentry, except for mornings, which were of no consequence to them, in that savages passing through by day and by night, the dogs barking at all times, and Monsieur de Ste. Helenne has already assured me that he found so few obstacles to his discovery, that he had all the time in the world to probe with the rod of his rifle the guns of the fort to see if they were loaded. This, together with the little or no resistance we found, clearly shows the little value of this nation if it is not hardened. I had them unfinished and locked up in a cellar, where I held them for half a day, during which time I took stock of everything, having first begun by setting up a guardhouse and having sentries posted wherever I deemed it necessary. I then sent for Father Silvie, and ordered the canoes to be brought in with their guards, whom I recalled. After which I had our blacksmith work diligently to re-code all the Turkish links and put everything back in place. For this purpose he used the forge which was outside the (437) fort; so everything was soon repaired during the day. It only remains now to add to the description I have made of the fort, the forge which is outside and a large shop with a kitchen which are placed between the first enclosure and the redoubt, under which the miner had already made a hole seated sufficient to place a 50 1. powder keg to blow it up, if they had wanted to resist. In addition, the Sieurs de Marieourt and Lalleinend, the knot, de la Chevallerie (112) and de St. Denis did very well. They were part of the detachment commanded by the Sieurs de Ste. Helenne and d’Iberville, who were also perfectly well seconded by all the other Canadians. The fort was taken in half an hour, with seventeen Englishmen who were inside, whom I had pulled from the rave where I “saw them put and gave them a prison which they did not expect. 11 there was outside the fort about fifteen paces “the tip of a bastion an old building called the Ste. Anne, which at other times had belonged to the French. It had a capacity of three hundred tons and had been put there to store the best that could be found and burn the rest. When I went to visit it, it seemed to me to be very suitable as a prison for my English, and I was very happy to demolish the fort. I had effect on the hatches the fort Eallibotit and that same day pulled these gentlemen to the cellar where they were, to put them more clearly inside, with a good sentinel on the bridge, which had day and night correspondence with those of the bastions and the date shape of the redoubt.
On the twenty-first, 22nd, 22nd and 24th, I visited the entire fort where I found very few supplies, and spent a long time deciding which of the two remaining forts I would attack. I had two reasons to consider: on the one hand the English whom I had taken masscured that no watch was kept at Fort Rupert, which was 40 leagues away by a very difficult route, from the one we had taken, that there was even less food than where we were, and that the building I mentioned carried very little. On the other hand, it was only thirty leagues to the fort of Quiebichouanne where there was an abundance of food, but also the guard there was very accurate and the place very well equipped and fortified, with thirty good men and twenty-five pieces of cannon. I had thirty good men and twenty-five pieces of cannon there, and the ship that was not to stay at Fort Rupert was to be anchored in front of Quiebichouanne, the capture of which became impossible at the time, as I did not have a sufficient gaspole to transport the cannon* which was (438) absolutely necessary for me on this occasion. It is quite true pie le si. Lallemend offered to have a double one built, but I was short of food. I determined to attack Fort Rupert (which I hoped to remove with the building which moulded it, ]>in order to use it with confidence against that of Quiehi-chouanne, giving orders nevertheless for the construction of a double longboat, not being sure of removing this bastiinent. My resolution having been taken, I ordered sixty good men, leaving the remainder in the fort which I had taken, under the command of the Sieur de St.. Oennain who, not knowing the way any further, gave a local savage to lead us. I read them distribute food as much as I could. and canoes both for their use and to carry picks, pickaxes, shovels and other necessary munitions, in addition to two small cannons without mounts to serve us in need. I then ask Monsieur Silvie to stay at the fort to refresh himself, and left on the 25th with Monsieurs. de Ste. Helenne and d’Ibervilie followed by our people well deliberated to go to the river liupcrt. I camped at the mouth of the Monsipi river. It is five leagues from our fort, and as we were about to reach camp two of our people fighting in their canoe turned it around. By misfortune it carried our cannonballs and grenades which forced us to wait until midday the next day to remove it at low tide. From there we camped at the entrance to the oueaouons bay (113) which is five leagues across (43S bis).
On the twenty seventh and the following day we stayed because of a strong wind which, coming from the open sea, prevented us from making this crossing, and we were as cold as in plain winter.
On the 29th in the morning, the wind having abated, we made the crossing, in which we found ice two leagues ahead. We went ashore, and having got back into the canoe we met four savages, who seemed surprised to see so many of us, and wanted to defend themselves. They thought we were Iroquois, but having disabused themselves, they were pleased to meet some French. They told us that they had just been at war with the Eskimos, that they had seen the English at the Rupert river, that they had seen a building moulded at a point four leagues from there, of which the Sieur le Briquienne (114) left in a rowboat, accompanied by four men, to go to the fort which was three leagues away, and replied to the request I read to them that the English had no idea of our arrival in their river, that it was true that they were fortifying themselves but that it was against the Iroquois against whom they wished to keep them. After all this adieu, I camped in a beautiful place where they showed me, and I questioned them more fully and forbade them to fire any shot ( 439).
Ix.* thirtieth. I left “early in the morning to make a traverse of three leagues, at the end of which we discovered the vessel which appeared “out in a point (115). She made her way through the ice, and so did we in our canoes, two of which I put in front with orders not to be too exposed. For my part I followed them, covering myself as much as I could with the ice through which we were walking. We thus arrived at a headland where the entrance to the Rupert River can be seen, and when night had come (which robbed us of the sight of the ship, we camped at this headland which the English call Confort (116).
On the first of July we marched from morning until ten o’clock (we were obliged to wait until nightfall, in order to be able to pass a point, which we could not do during the day without running the risk of being caught by the fort. During all this time I prepared everything and sent the Sieur. de Ste. Helenne to the discovery, who led with luv two Frenchmen and the savage who served as our guide, he went with them to a small river (117) which is about a league from the fort, where he left his canoe, a Frenchman, and a savage to wait for us and went with the other to spend the night around the fort, to discover and observe the movements of those inside. As for us, we arrived at the beginning of the night at the place where he left his canoe or where I camped.
The second, the Sieur de Ste. Helenne having returned from his discovery at eight o’clock in the morning, assured me that the hastiment was anchored in front of the fort at half a pistol range (439 bis) from land, (the fort being a square flanked by four bastions almost similar to the previous one, except that there was no cannon, that it also contained a redoubt of the same construction as the other, with the exception that this one was covered with a flat roof instead of a terrace and without any parapet, and that it was not directly situated in the middle of the encente. The Sieur de Ste. Helenne added that it was fortified with four small bastions which, being raised from the ground to the height of a man, were supported by wooden spikes which protruded from the body of the redoubt, which was much closer to a pucrite than to a bastion, in each of which two cannons were mounted, that there was also a ladder supported against the top of this redoubt for fear of fire. and a small building at the other end of the square, where there was a chimney which smoked. and which has not seen in all its discovery any watchman or sentry, either in the fort or on the ship. After a report so well circumstanced I occupied myself the rest of the day in lisxjser all things by the attacks which I intended to make thereafter, of which I gave the Sieur d’Iberville the choice from the whole detachment of thirteen men, making him fourteen, to go in two canoes, present the side to the Anglo ship and seize it, having to be subdued {440) by another detachment led by a servant, who had to fire from the water’s edge at all those who might have appeared on the deck of this ship. This was his part. At the epraid of the fort, I put Monsieur de Ste. Helenne at the head of the detachment I had intended to attack it. They broke down the door with bollier blows, while I was at the head of the rest of our people whom I had placed in battle. To keep them in check, I had my two small lion cannon estât, and what is best all our people very animated. When night had come we all marched in the order I had prescribed, and all the more diligently as there is almost no night in this pay, in which we noticed when it was almost dawn that the setting sun was still appearing.
On the third of July, we put ashore at daybreak and immediately brought forward four canoes, two of which carried the people destined to attack the building the tools necessary for taking the place, which I had (440 drunk) unloaded at the same time. I then ordered them to march, which was done with all imaginable order. We followed the water’s edge in profound silence, until, having arrived close by, I made the shore detachment halt to order the two canoes to go and take the ship, towards which I saw them also leave quickly with much urgency. As I had always intended to make my two attacks at the same time, I marched straight to the fort, which I entered at the head of my detachment, after having had the door broken down with a bellier. I also ordered a grenadier and a bucheur to throw grenades through the openings and to make new ones, and ordered a continual fire through all the windows, openings and loopholes, which was done, although my grenadier, having climbed to the top of the redoubt by Lechelle, who was stationed there, shot so hard with his grenades at the diemintV of an i>eole whose barrel appeared. that it burst. jioisle was broken into pieces, and a woman who tried to escape to another room was wounded in the heart by a splinter. During this execution, my people were firing continuously and in order to make the music better, I wanted to attach my two cannons which, making a bundle, will pierce the door of the redoubt, against which I saw them pointed. The miner on the other side was about to give us a dish of his trade, when the English shouted eartier. I began as soon as the gun was fired and, having silenced them, I told them that they had to surrender and that there was good reason to do so. The one who began obeyed and came up to me trembling (441) and begged me by the arm, as if he were safe with me. I led him in this posture to the entrance of the fort where I questioned him about what I wanted to know, at the time that the sr. de Ste. helenne and our people were taking over the fort and those who were guarding it. thirty men in number, including however those from the ship and others who had gone to fetch wood, and to try to save the beaver which had spent the winter under the sails of a ship which had been shipwrecked last year. As I was talking to this gentleman, who was trying to save a French mechaud, he told me to leave the island for fear of fire from the vessel, the catch of which he did not know, and which festooned when I advised him to do so. After that, I returned to the place from which I took out the English who had been disarmed, and sent them to the bottom of the channel to a jak, of thirty-five to forty tons, which was beached near the fort, and without agrey. I gave them food with their blankets and clothing, and for fear of the spirits, a 1M “II guardhouse, as well as at the fort and on the ship whose capture is shown below.
The two canoes, which I had destined to take the building, have left with the resolution which I have indicated above. The Sieur d’Iberville who was in charge of one of them alorded it on the tributary side, or having met the longboat this prevented him from going on deck. They will find only one man, wrapped in his blanket, sleeping peacefully. The rest of the ship’s crew were doing the same in bed, not expecting to wake up in the morning. Our people having given two or three kicks on the deck to evacuate him, the one who was sleeping on top of him got up with a start, and having got out of bed obliged one of the others to kill him with a rifle shot. At the noise, one of those in the room wanted to go up on deck, but Sieur d’Iberville prevented him from doing so and struck him on the head with his sabre, which did not stop his obstinacy. 11 called his companions to his assistance, and making every effort to climb up he was stopped short by a blow from the same sabre through the body. In the meantime, our men made openings with axes in the room, into which they rained a barrage of rifle shots, some of the English feeling wounded, they all asked for quarter. They were taken to the back of the room. So we made sure of this bastimcnt where were among others sr. Brigneul (Bridgar), who had been appointed to the fort of Monssipy and who this year was to relieve the governor of Quicliichouanne, who had been recalled, was destined to be the general at the head of the bay. He had with him Captain Omoltas (118) who arrived in the bay last year in a twelve-gun vessel which coin* mendoit, and which, having jeri on its way back, obliged the people inside to escape to Fort Rupert in a rowboat, one of whom was this woman, who was wounded by a piece of the pomegranate when this fort was taken, and who had come to the pay to keep company with the wife of the governor of Quichicouanne. of whom she was a friend. That was the outcome of these two ventures. Let us return to the fort.
On the fourth and following days, until the ninth, I loaded the ship with all that was in the fort. Among other things I put five pieces of fert cannon, which I had found there, the other three being only of wood, which I burnt as well as the redoubt and cut the palisade of the fort, of which I kept only the kitchen, in order to be able afterwards to make a summer tent. There were, among our English prisoners, two carpenters who must, before their arrival, repair the jak of which I have spoken, and make it seaworthy. I gave them all the tools they needed to do this along with food for all the others, which I left there, instructing them to work diligently on this job because when I had taken Quiquichouan, I would send them food and amenities to return inside. (Some savages <who had come down from Nimisco to come and deal with the English, were very surprised to see us masters of the fort, and took a letter for Canada, and then I left to return to the first fort with sr. Briginel (119), whom I took with me, having left Captain Onultas (Outlaw) on the building, whom I ordered to bring me as soon as possible.
The 9th and following days were used for my return to the first fort. I thought I would perish in my transport. I did everything I could. I had given orders to Monsieur de Ste. Helenne to come in a canoe with me, notwithstanding which he remained on the bastiinent to write some letters, together with the Sieur d’Iberville, his brother, and under the pretext of indisposition went to the fort with the ship, instead of joining me, as I had told him. This prejudiced me, all the more so because I would have used a piece of luggage that he had, for lack of which I nearly lost myself. For having set out to make a five-league crossing (120) of which I have spoken above, in very poor weather, I was no sooner off the coast with all my boats than there arose a fog (-!-*”) so thick that we could not see each other. This fog was preceded by a ]>small wind, which ebbed and we set to sail, trying to keep our canoes afloat, and then being in an abyss of waves, it took a while for us to know where we were, being uncertain whether we were going to the bottom of the bay, or whether we were taking the road to the open sea, or whether we were actually on our way. We fired a few shots in vain, to see if everyone was taking the same route. The brunette was getting on our nerves, not being able to see the length of the canoe, so not knowing what to do, I probed. We had no lead, so we used an axe, with which we found four fathoms, and some time later three, which delighted me, in that I could see we were approaching land: shortly afterwards I sounded again, and we found only a fathom of water, and then grounded insensibly on a sandbank, the sea being very low, which gave us great joy. Sometime later, we came ashore, the mist having cleared and we having re-embarked, we arrived at the mouth of a large river (443 bis) (121) which we took to be where our fort was, but we were mistaken. We dismounted there to have dinner, and continuing on our way, we came to lie down in meadows covered with water. We were obliged to use wood and tide to put under us, because of the sea water, which floods the surface of these meadows, the sea flooding at high tide, up to two leagues into the woods, which means that all the tides we find are salty, and that good water is very rare. This was our greatest fatigue, and the most detrimental to our safety. In the evening, we heard a few gunshots from some of our canoes which had gone ashore, and we found a large number of woodcocks which came to us at the right time, being so short of food that I was only able to give my detachment two salted bustards to return to the fort, as the biscuit had already been finished for a long time. They had dressed in parsley from Mandoia (Macedonia) (122) which they found in abundance, having been obliged to wait until the weather was fine to take me away. during which time they did not eat (444) (magpie of this parsley which they seasoned more with appcti than anything else. Our misery was at such a point that one of our men, weakened by so much fatigue, having gone hunting, did not return. I left two canoes to wait for him and look for him, but when they did not find him they returned to the fort. I sent another wild canoe which brought back no news of him, which leads me to judge that he died of weakness, or that he was swallowed up in some trembling marsh. As for me, I continued on my way and arrived at the point of the traverse which we had been seeking for so long, I found two of our canoes which had just arrived there, which told me that several of our people had already left to go to the fort, and had assured them that all my people were there and had landed safely. This gave me great joy. I spent very little time there, as I was reduced to the third person, namely the English Sr. Briguiel, myself and my valet, to a fistful of beans and a quarter of a biscuit, and we still only had one meal, which was at three o’clock in the afternoon. We continued in this way from camp to camp, up to seven leagues from the fort. The wind was so contrary that it forced us to stay there, so that we came to the point where we had nothing to eat. God allowed the wind (444a) to change, and in a short time brought me to the fort (123), where I found another ship which had arrived a long time ago.
On the tenth of September the following day, the rest of my detachment arrived, and while I was busy the following day, the rest of my detachment arrived, and while I was busy unloading the ship and putting what was in the storehouse, I then wove the two large cannon from the fort, and had them loaded with their mountings and cannonballs, which were found to be in very small numbers. This caused Sieur Lallemend made a wooden mould to make lead, with clinker! in it, to fill in, as he had already done a few years before, against the English who cannonaded him as he passed the strait (124), after which everything was ready for my departure, I made the English go over to the other side with sufficient food, nets, guns and powder to hunt, as I had done to the others, and forbade them on pain of their lives to go over to the island under any pretext, their pc. In case of need, I told them to come with no more than two men, at low tide, to a flats in the middle of the river, and to make a signal with a handkerchief in their hands, at which point we would go to them, giving them (445) a canoe for this purpose. I then left the fort to command twenty men of Sieur de Chesni (125) who had done his duty very well in capturing him and the second, but was indisposed.
I spent the next few days going to the fort of Quiquichouan, the next building to us, which carried our cannon. I observed on the way, that the shores of the sea are, very difficult, being very flat, the sailors finding themselves absolutely obliged to go more than three leagues to reach them.
If you want to go ashore at low tide, you have to carry your canoes, food and luggage more than a league to be able to find the wood you need, (because the tides come in, and if it is high tide you have to go a very long and very bad way to be able to land. I found myself rather hampered in this journey, not knowing exactly where the fort was, and having no guide this time other than an old savage who showed us that he expected nothing, Sieur de St. Germain had never been so far, and my apprehension was that we would be discovered indiscreetly, when one evening, looking for the mouth of the Quichi- ehouaii river, the English of this fort (445 bix) fired seven or eight cannon shots according to their custom, which made us aware by their tonnaire of the place where it was situated. We stopped in the moment and spent the night in our canoes, which the tide saw carried of the eosté of ground, where they were ©chouez. In the morning the cold was threatening us, so we walked through the mud up to mid-leg to look for dry wood, which we used to build a fire. This place was directly opposite a kind of extro-pade, with a seat intended to put a sentinel, to discover. I incontinantly filled the place of one, which I laid, and having put our weapons in estât I gave twenty good men to Monsieur de Ste. Helene, to go and discover the fort, which is situated in the recoude of an arm of the river, and the view of which is very good. During this time, we saw our ship under sail. Monsieurs d’Iberville and l’Alleinend were on board, with sr. Briguiol (Bridgar) captain Onultas (Outlaw) and this wounded woman that one of our chyrurgicns thought. having outside all the flags of the English company. I was taking pleasure in looking at it, when the Sieur de Ste. Lielenne, who had made his discovery, sent me some of our people to advise me ( M6′) and to lead me to a place which he had found suitable for setting up our camp. I went there immediately, followed by our people, to set up a guardhouse, and to post sentries at our ordinary. This place was on the banks of the river, and situated in such a way that we could not be seen very easily from the fort. In the evening the Sieur de Ste. Lielenne told me, having returned, that we would do better to go and camp on a headland which is very close to the fort where we would be under cover. We went there the next day, and the next morning we saw our boat anchored at the entrance to the river. Having arrived at this place, I took ten men with whom I went through the woods towards the fort, which I considered very comfortable, as it was not within rifle range. I noticed the place where I could put my cannons in the battery, where I could camp, the place in the wood where I would make a communication path from the camp to the battery, but as no one knew better than I the strength of my people who had plenty of patience and who were falling over themselves, for the little we had to live on, and so it would be good to try to exempt them from the work that all undertakings cause them. Your considerations give me a hard time with the governor, who has already let us know that he knew of our (44b bis) arrival by a cannonball shot which he greeted us with without effect. I am therefore sending him a tcmbour with our interpreter and a third who is coming with orders to send him three Frenchmen, called jeré. la Croix and des moulins (126), whom he had arrested as prisoners and treated very badly, and to summon him to return the place to me under safe and honourable conditions, if he did not expect all the extremities felt by those who attack them stubbornly, to inform him that I had taken the other two forts and their buildings, and in an inot and on his refusal to do so, to tell him that I am resolved and in a state to be obeyed. In addition to this, I had expressly recommended to them not to eat and not to answer all the questions which could be put to them except by saying I don’t know. On their return, they did not add the governor’s rejHin.se. It was stated in general terms which decided nothing, and made no mention of surrendering either the place or the prisoners, or of wanting to fight. This who made me judge that he was a man of ceremony and that it would only take a few strokes of the eanon to make him leave with honour, I set myself from the moment to tell the story. In fact I asked him to sit down and started working on the battery and four detachments went into the woods to the four corners of the faith where I ordered them to make fires, cry at the stake, and make all the demonstrations of being a water entity, with the exception of the quartet, who during this time had to work on building our bettery, which was (would have been) impossible for us, as the ground was frozen, but for the cowardice of the English, who let us work as quickly as if we had been in their employ. So I had plenty of time to cut the frozen tciTe with liaehcs. and, the water winning the working. I made it drain. by the means of a small trench which went on the edge of the river. In the end, on the morning of the twenty-third, the battery was ready to receive the cannon, the platform was made of wooden planks, on top of which I had erected large stakes, to guide the cannon with high pulleys which were attached. It was in our vessel, which from the entrance of the river where it was entered, could not arrive because of the contrary wind which continued all the following day, during which Monsieurs de Ste. Helenne, Maricourt and de la Noue continually harassed the besieged, with small plots of riflemen who, slipping* among the (147 bis) fredoebes who were already large and toufuted, fired at any mercy on what they saw appear, as they had done while working on our battery. Without the English making any effort other than to raise their parapet to the height and thickness of a plank, and to fire a few cannon shots which, being poorly aimed, did no more than shoot spruce trees over our heads, which they measured with rifle shots. However, as the wind continued to be contrary, we had no more food, and our people lived on nothing but macedoine parsley, so I proposed that we all make a vow to St Anne, to which we agreed and recited her litanies, to whom we each promised forty solz for the repairs to her church on the coast of Beaupré, and to bring the pavilion which was erected on one of the bastions of the fort, praying her, moreover humbly, to be favourable to us in our undertaking (127). This we did no sooner, than the wind suddenly changed, bringing us to our fortress, from which I promptly had eight cannon fired around our fortress, and I made such good use of it that on the 25th it was ready to fire. I had them aimed at the governor’s flats, of which an Englishman gave me an account. so that, having taken my time ]x “ur to play (448), the situation was so favourable to me that the first cannon shot was fired as he sighed with his wife and their minister, two cannonballs having passed against the face of this woman, she fainted from fright, and the other, under the arm of a vallet who was pouring him a drink, let fall, for fear, the equere which he had and the m.e (minister), the glass which he held in his hand, without anyone being hurt. At the instant they left the table and the room, as I have since learned. As for me, I will leave it at that to describe the fort, asking the reader only to remember that the day in question was the eve of St Anne.
The fort of Quichichouan is situated on very wet ground (sic), so that when the snow melts, the water rises to the first floor. See how it is composed. There is a large main building built of room upon room, which forms the greater part of the curtain wall, which faces the river; it is intended for the servants’ quarters, having at each end twenty palisades which complete the curtain wall on each side, and joining it to the bastions, of which it is flanked. The one facing the woods, in the same way, also has a large building used as accommodation for the governor, and “the shop, as well as a number of bastons, the underside of which is used for this purpose (44ft bis). The other two curtain walls serve as large palisades, well joined together, crossed on top by a piece of wood fitted with iron spikes, as are all those that make up the enclosure of this place, each of whose curtain walls has a door defended internally by two cannon pieces, spiked directly in front of each door to stop those who have driven them in. The four bastions of which the fort is defended, are of pieces on pieces with a flat plate above, like a cavalier; or there are. on each, four pieces of cannon, in addition to those which appeared in the lianas floor the aretage. There still appears from the eostc of the wood, a “txsté of palisade of the length of the courtine which covered it, which they lowered for fear that that would facilitate our approaches to the fort, at the end of which is a small kitchen. This is the situation and construction of this place, which is about forty paces from the river, and is nevertheless surrounded by old, almost filled-in ditches, where there is water in only a few places. I return to our fortress, which dominated the square from which it was only within rifle range, with a small river in between (128).
IA’ twenty six Father Silvie, who had come from the ikastiment, went to bed in the camp, having said mass ( 129). at six o’clock in the morning. We aimed our cannon at the defences of the fort, the Sieurs de Ste. Helenne and d’Iberville who had joined us, l’Allemand, In less than an hour, they sent us more than one hundred and forty volleys of cannon, which scorched the place from all sides. so that the bullets came to lead us, our people shouted a great Vive le Roy. The English replied in kind. But it appeared to us from the broken tone, that they were hiding in a cellar, which they have since admitted to us, and that the Vive le Roy, which they ‘saw us answer, was to make us understand that they wanted to surrender, not being hardy enough to appear, and to go and blow up the pavilion which appeared on one of their bastions. However, when one of them wanted to do this, he returned just as quickly, without daring to go any further. As I knew nothing of all this I was working at all costs to make cannonballs, when after having led very lightly, leading myself alone into the camp, to dispel the headache, which was growing worse, and to make it worth my while to quickly reduce this place, a longer resistance of which would have caused the entire ruin of my men, someone came to inform me, from our battery. that they were beating the gancade, and we could see people sailing off with a white flag on the water’s edge. I think their time has come. I therefore immediately sent an order to the summer guard, had some of the people on the avenue of our camp laid low, and having had sixty of our best men take up arms, I had them line the hedge of the water, to wait for this boat & order. when it was advanced, to ask those who were in, what they were going to do. I put the rest of our people in the camp, with orders to burn and to speak as if they had been part of the world. I was told shortly afterwards that they were about to speak. So I went to meet them with Father Silvie, not wanting to bring him into the camp for that reason. I found a man who had got out of the boat, where four others remained, including their tenibour. It was their minister who, holding in his hand half a picque to which was attached the apron of the maid who serves as their pavilion, was about to pay me a great compliment when, interrupting him, I asked him brusquely the purpose of his coming. 11 replied, quite disconcerted, that the governor would have liked to have the honour of speaking to me. I told him that he could do so & come to the camp in complete safety. although to say the truth, I had no desire to receive him there. for fear that he would discover our uiisere. to whomov. When I explained that the governor would gladly come in a boat, halfway between the fort and the battery, to confer with me, if I were willing to do the same, I laughed, as they say, and finally consented on the pretext that I was willing to gratify the governor. In fact the minister, making me great reverences, said the governor would meet me in an hour. I told him that if he did not come in half an hour I would fetch him, which surprised him. He told me, with a ministerial air, that he had to make him come as soon as possible. In the meantime I risked arming a longboat, leaving only a small part of it in the camp, and I marched all my people to the battery, to stand under arms there on the eve of the fort. Two pieces of cannon loaded with sticks (cannonballs or bullets) were also aimed, all the other pieces being in the mast, and the cannonballs lit, after which I got into the longboat, in the same order and number of people as the governor, who, having set sail, always let himself turn in the middle of the channel, at the tide (I was kissing him, until, having joined me, we threw our grapnel into the water, which stopped us. 11 approached me with great greetings. He began our conference with a bottle of Spanish wine, of which he was the first to drink, to the health of the kings of France and England. I willingly read him reason with those who were with me, among whom was Monsieur d’Iberville. He had several other bottles of liqueurs which, wanting to be regaled, I told them that I had not come there to drink, (for I was not lacking in refreshment) and if he wanted to come to the camp, I would make him drink better wine than his, although I seriously only had a chopinc of brandy which I kept for the last necessity, and asked him what he thought of me. He replied that he was asking me to tell him what I wanted and what my claims were. I told him that since he would not give me back the French (130) which he had, that I wanted to have the position, whereupon he told me again that he would gladly give it back to me, but that he considered me too generous not to grant him a grace which he saw fit to ask of me. He also told me that I had to give him the articles of surrender which we agreed on, and which we signed on the spot, obliging him to hand over the fort and everything in it to me (131). Immediately, therefore, we parted, he to return to prepare to receive me, and I to learn to go and see him. In fact, I had not so soon arrived at the camp that I chose five of my best men, and placed at their head Monsieurs de Ste. Helenne and d’Iberville, who were marching at the beating pace of the costc of the fort, which the governor handed over to them (the good faith, into their hands, according to and as he was obliged by the capitulation. I then went by canoe, leaving the governor, his wife, the minister and his servants in their flat, and encamped the other Englishmen far from the fort, forbidding them to come more than one at a time. After that, he (I) gave orders for the securing of the place, repaired the damage (451) it had received from our cannon, and used the following days to have it removed from the battery and put back on our building. I also took on board the bards and furniture of the governor and his successors to take him, his wife and their servants to the isle of Caleston (132), giving them the captain and the captain’s men for their company.
the minister this woman who was wounded, and was at the time almost healed, all under the guidance of the Sieur d’Iberville to whom I gave twenty good men and the commendant of the ship. With regard to the fort, I left the Sieur de St. Germain, the fourth in command, with orders to throw the four bastions to the ground, to push back the two palisades against the gables of the two main buildings, to ensure that there was only a guarded courtyard and no fortifications, and to release a canoe containing food and munitions in case it was attacked. Returning to the first fort, which is the one we are guarding and is situated in the river of Monsipy, I order the Sieuyr d’Iberville verbally to burn the large building which was on the isle le Carleston, lest the English, reinforced with provisions and “the world by the year ivée “the two ships they were waiting for, should fortify themselves there, which would be very detrimental to the possession of “the fort “le baye, being 1 the only place where the “*ships can alight in safety, and he enjoined to leave to the English, whom he was to disembark, the provisions which I had agreed with them, and with which I was very pleased, and to. The captain onultas (Outlaw) was also to carry on his side provisions both to those who were working on the jae, and to those who had been taken on the ship and at the fort of Kupcrt, who were all there together. From there, with the jak he had to take, at the pointe de Confort, the Englishmen from the fort of Quichouan and “Uceluv de Monsipy, whom I have since sent to the pointe de Confort, to this efTeet after having joined them all together, including the Sieur de Hrigniel (Bridgar) with whom I left Quichouan. to go to the fort monssipi, having previously taken leave of the Monsieur Silvie and Monsieurs d’Hyberville, de Maricourt and de la Noue. Monsieur de Ste. Helenne having to join me in short at Monsipi, where I arrive some time later, and tist leave the English with the said Sieur Brigniel (Bridgar) to go to this point of Comfort which I spoke above.
- de Ste. Helenne having arrived, I settled all things with him, and the need for food forced us to separate. I said goodbye to him and returned to Quebec. It was on the tenth of August that I left at three o’clock after midday, with all my detachment, with the exception of forty men whom I left in the bay, under the orders of Monsieur de Ste. Helenne and d’Iberville, accompanied by sr. l’Allemend with whom I began the ascent of this great river which is about a hundred leagues long, the people having for all food lorge, to make beer, and which had been germinated, to five or six pounds of bacon. We arrived at the fort of the abethibis, where having refreshed our people with food, I came to Temiskamingue, in five days, in which we finished twenty five portages. On the way, one of our men killed a large cow moose, which served us well to recover from so many t’alignes. We went back through the mine where we noticed the places where the people of Monsieur the Marquis de Denonville sent sleds there, saw some shot. It was on the 7th that we arrived at Temiskamingue, where our return greatly rejoiced our French who are there. They fired several rifle shots and after quov having found very little food there I left the next day after having distributed to my people some Indian wheat with which we had to travel six and twenty leagues to reach the first settlements on the island of Montreal I made them entirely with the chief of the Temiskamingue nation. Yoicy begins (4ô2 bis) my voyage finishes by three feuneaux of March I arrived at Montreal with the remainder of my detachment without that during the road it arrived anything remarkable.
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