Canada -- History -- 1763-1867; Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France)
A great advantage was gained for Canada when the Iroquois at length
gave way. Their chiefs, journeying to Montreal in 1701, smoked the
calumet with Governor de Callières and handed him the belt of
wampum--which signified that there should be no more fighting between
Onontio and the Five Nations. Never again did the Iroquois make
serious trouble for the people of Canada, and the fetters {156} which
had so long bound the fur trade were for ever removed.
But the very next year after this had happened the Peace of Ryswick
came to an end. It had lasted only five years, and it was the
reckless ambition of Louis the Fourteenth that killed it. He, too,
like Kondiaronk, "The Rat," could exclaim to his courtiers, "I have
killed the peace!" The new war is known in Europe as the War of the
Spanish Succession, because Louis wanted to put his Bourbon nephew on
the vacant throne of Spain. In America it is always called "Queen
Anne's War." William the Third had died that year, and Queen Anne
had succeeded him on the English throne.
The English colonists were still as much in earnest as ever about the
importance of overcoming by any means in their power the "French
danger," as they called it. They did not hesitate to employ the
tribes of Indians, however remote, in the work of harrying the French
settlements, both east and west. Port Royal was again attacked, only
this time the attack was ignominiously repulsed. Meanwhile the
French were not idle. De Calliéres had strongly advised the
establishment of several posts on the lake for the reception of furs
and merchandise. In June 1701 La Motte Cadillac, with a Jesuit
priest and 100 men, was despatched to build a fort at Detroit.
Governor de Calliéres hesitated to attack Albany until he could feel
confident that the long-dreaded Iroquois Indians would not return to
the old allies, the English. He was still making up his mind when
illness seized him, and {157} in 1703 he died. His successor was the
Marquis de Vaudreuil.
But if the authorities at Quebec doubted the wisdom of provoking
Indian hostility in their quarrel with the New Yorkers, Vaudreuil and
his friends felt sure of Abenakis friendship. This famous tribe had
long hated the New Englanders with a deadly hate. They had committed
terrible outrages for many years upon the unfortunate Yankee
settlers. De Vaudreuil feared that if the Abenakis were to be at
peace too long, they might forget their hatred and even become on
friendly terms with the Americans. So Canadian priests and soldiers
were sent amongst them to stir up their zeal. They did not want any
pitched battles or long sieges. Their policy was to persecute and
slay the outlying farmers and woodmen, to make settlement outside of
the large towns impossible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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