Smith's Canadian gazetteer - ElectricCanadian.com

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In 1665, M. de Ooiircelles, being appointed governor of New France, transported
the regiment of Calignan iiulicrcs to (.'unada : it consisted of one
thousand foot, and thiy were accompanied besides by numerous families, with
mechanics, hired servants, horses (tiie first ever seen in Canada), cattle and
sheep. The one hundred associates in whom the property of the colony was
vested, had grown weary of the expense of maintaining the colony, and I'roni the
year 1644 abandoned the fur trade to the inhabitants, reserving to themselves as
their right of lordshij) an annual payment of one thousantl l)eavers. Reduced
at length to tiie number of forty-five associates, they made a total resignation
of all their rights in 1662, to the French King, who socm afterwards included
New France in the grant which he made of the French colonies in America, in
favour of the West India Company formed by the great Colbert.
The Mohawks having greatly annoyed the French, were attacked in the
following year by a Frencli army of twenty-eight companies of foot, and the
whole militia of the colony. This formidable body of troops marclied upwards
of seven hundred miles, in the deptli of winter, from Quebec into tlie country of
the Moliawks, with a view of utterly destroying them ; but the Indians retired
^vith their women and children into the depth of the woods, leaving only a few
ancient sachems in the villages, who chose rather to die than desert their habitations.
These were murdered by the French, and their villages burnt, but
nothing was gained by the expedition. In the following year, peace was at
length established between the French and the Five Nations, which continued
for several years, and they cultivated a mutual trade. In 1670 the small-pox
broke out amongst the Indians in the northern parts of Canada, and swept off
whole tribes, particularly the tribe of AtlikaTuegues, which has never since been
heard of. Tadusac, the chief mart of the Indian fur trade with the French, was
deserted, as was also Trois Rivieres, where the smali-pox carried off 1,500
Indians at once. In 1671, a grand congress of tbe French andof many Canadian
Indians was held at the Falls of St. Mary ; where the Indians professed submission
to the king of France in a formal m inner. In 1672, M. de Courcclles,
governor of Canada, conuuenced building a fort on the north side of tlu' outlet
of Lake Ontario (near where Kingston now stands), as a barrier against the
Iroquois, whicli was completed in the following year by Count Frontenac, who
called it after his own name. The French likewise built a fort at Michilimackiuac.
In 1674 Quebec was made a bishopric. In 1678 M. de Sale rebuilt
the Fort Frontenac with stone ; he also launched a bark of ten tons on Lake
Ontario, and in the year following another vessel of sixty tons on Lake Erie ;
about this time he also enclosed a little spot of ground at Niagara with stockades
intended for a fort. In le^^S, the French erected a fort between the Lakes Erie
and Hui'on ; and in the following year M. de la Barre with a large army from
Canada made an unsuccessful expedition into the country of the Five Nations,
and found it necessary to conclude his campaign with a treaty. He was met at
the place appointed by the Oneidas. Onondagas, and Cayugas; the Moh:iwks
and Senecas refusing to attend. Seated in a chair of state, surrounded by his
own Indians, principally the Hurons of Lorette, and the French officers, he
addressed himself to Garatigula, an Onondaga chief, in a very haughty speech,
which he concluded with a menace to burn the castles of the Five Nations, and
destroy the Indians, unless the satisfaction which he demanded was given.
Garangula, who sat at some litth; distance before his men, with his pipe in his
mouth, and the great Calumet of peace before him, did nothing but look at the
end of his pipe during this harangue: when it was finished, after walkir.g fis'e
or six times round the circle in silence, he stood perfectly upright, and thus
addressed the Freach general: " Onnuntio, I honour you, and all the warriors
who are vcith me ho:H)ur you. Your interpreter has finished your speech, I now
begin mine : my words make haste to reach your ears; hearken to them.
Onnuntio, in setting out from Quebec, you must have imagined that the
scorching beams of the sun had burned down the forests, which rendered our