Historic Caughnawaga —
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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 ""'"eraity Library F•r 10545C4^«.r^.r-f?''"£"D49 Historic Cauahnawaga, by E.J. Devine. 3 1924 028 899 503 olin Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028899503 ' Historic Cauglinawaga By f> E. J. DEVINE, S.J. Member of the Canadian Authors Association Member of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Skwiety of Montreal Lecturer in Canadian Historyt Loirola College Editor of the Canadian Messenger MONTREAL PUBLISHED BY THE MESSEN6ER PRESS ItOO BOKDBAUX STREET 1922 HISTORIC CAUGHNAWAGA — BY THE SAME AUTHOR ACROSS WIDEST AMERICA Newfoundland to Alaska. Wilk llu Imfiressions of a Two Years' Sojourn on the Berini Coast. 307 pp 8vo, cloth, profusely illustrated. Benziger Bros, 36-38 Barclay Street, New York. A TRAVERS L'AM£RIQUE—Terreneuve A l'Alaska. Imprtssums dt deux ans de sijour sur la die de Bering. (Authorized French trans- lation.) 267 pp. in-4to, broch£; iUustrg. F. PAIU.ART, £diteur, Abbe- ville, France. THE TRAmiKG OF SILAS—A Romance among Books. 332 pp. 8vo. cloth. Benziger Bros., 36-38 Barclay Street, New York. FIRESIDE MESSAGES—^Fifty-two Essays for Family Reading. 534 pp. 8vo, cloth. The Messenger Press, Montreal. THE CANADIAN MARTYRS—Eight pamphlets. 24 pp. each, 8vo, paper The Messenger Press, Montreal. HISTORIC CAUGHNAWAGA By E. J. DEVINE, SJ. Member of the Canadian Authors Association Member of the Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Montreal Lecturer in Canadian History, Loyola College Editor of the Canadian Messenger 1^ MONTREAL Published by the Messenger Press 1300 Bordeaux Street 1922 /\5o^3\»V Imprimi potest. J. M. FiLION. S.J., Praep. Prov. Canad. Nil obstat. A. CuROTTE, Censor Imprimatur, . , ; F. X. DE LA DURANTAYE, V.G» Marianopoli, die 15a aug. 1921 TO . THE . MEMORY OF THE • HEROIC > MISSIONARIES WHO • LABOURED AMONG THE ' INDIAN • TRIBES • OF - AMERICA IN . PAST - CENTURIES THIS . WORK IS - HUMBLY . DEDICATED — PREFACE 'T'HERE are jew spots in America that recall more •* vivid historic memories than the old village of Caughnawaga lying peacefully on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, ten or twelve miles west of the city of Montreal. Its proximity to the great Canadian metropolis has not robbed this quaint Indian village of its aboriginal atmosphere; nor has intercourse with white neighbours deprived its citizens of many of their ancient racial traits. Angular features^ piercing black eyes, the guttural accents of the native language, the swarthy bronze complexions in evidence everywhere—all betoken the survival of a remnant of the once doughty Iroquois, who for nearly a hun- dred years spread terror and desolation among the early European settlers on this continent. Founded by the Jesuits in the seventeenth century, the mission of Caughnawaga—or Satilt Saint-Louisi as it was called during the French regime had its share in many of the religious and political events which fill the pages of Canadian history. During its existence of two hundred and fifty years, the vil- lage often witnessed memorable scenes, when haughty chieftains, surrounded by their braves in paint and feathers, seized the tomahawk and started on the war-path as allies of the French; or when in times II HISTORIC CAUGHNAWAGA 0/ peace they mingled with distinguished visitors like Count Frontenac, the Marquis de Beauharnois, Chevalier de Calliere, the Marquis de la Jonquiire, whom they received with military honours, Comte de Bougainville, who consented to adoption into their tribe. General de Montcalm, who chanted with them their stirring war-songs, the De Vaudreuils, father and son, and other French celebrities; or when, as docile children of the Catholic Church, the only power that ever curbed their savage independence, they humbly listened to distinguished missionaries, such as Fremin, Chauchetiere, Cholenec, Bruyas, De Lauzon, the De Lambervilles, Lafitau, the historian Charlevoix, and dozens of other Jesuits, whose names Bancroft, Parkman, Gilmary Shea, De Rochmonteix, and Atherton have made so familiar. Documents, still preserved in the archives in Paris, show that this obscure village on the St. Law- rence river gave many an anxious hour to the states- men of Old and New France in their endeavours to disentangle Indian affairs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nor had conditions changed very much in later times when—even in the nine- teenth century—Caughnawaga warriors crossed the Atlantic and summoned Briish officials to listen to their grievances and to render justice to a nation "which once treated kings on a footing of equality." The little village played its part in public affairs, but it was always essentially an Indian missionary centre, founded in 1667 as a refuge for the Iroquois converts to the Christian faith, just as Lorette and Sillery had been founded for the Hurons and the PREFACE HI Algonquins, a few years earlier. "The missionaries," wrote Charlevoix, "after having watered the country with their sweat and some of them even with their blood, lost all hope of establishing Christianity on a solid basis among the Iroquois, . but not of bringing at least a large number of them under the yoke of teligion. They were convinced that God had His chosen souls among those barbarians as He has in every other nation, but they had long felt that, in order to give practical effect to their conviction, they would have to separate them from their fellow- countrymen and place them somewhere in the French colony, not merely those who were already converted but also those who had a leaning towards Christian- ity." ' // was this conviction that brought about the foundation of Caughnawaga and made it a flourishing mission during the whole of the French occupation. After the cession of Canada to England, in 1763, the Caughnawaga Indians held fast to their faith and to their French missionaries, but they yielded entire allegiance to the British Crown. Sir William Johnson, whose prestige rivalled that of any of the governors of the old regime, exercised his influence and reconciled them to the change of flags; and, when the occasion offered, the warriors fought as bravely and died as stoically as they did under the French. But the gradual development of the last hundred years and the settling of the country in the ways of peace, have driven the Iroquois of Caugh- nawaga into comparative obscurity. Their peaceful 1. Charlbvoix: Hisloire dt la Nouselle France, Vol. Ill, p. 176. IV HISTORIC CAUGHNAWAGA and civilized descendants still remind us, by way of contrast, of the active and sanguinary part their ancestors took in furnishing material for the history of the heroic age of Canada. For the present work we have taken our facts wherever we could find them. The Jesuit Relations, the Dominion archives at Ottawa, the diocesan ar- chives of Quebec and Montreal, the Caughnawaga archives, the archives of Laval University, Char- levoix's Histoire de la Nouvelle France, de Roch- monteix's Les Jesuites et la Nouvelle France, the ten volumes of Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Le Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, the Aulneau Letters, manuscripts left by missionaries, notes gathered here and there, have all been utilized with the design of putting together into a connected story whatever concerned Historic Caughnawaga. Like the lonely miner who penetrates a wilderness for the purpose of digging out its treasures, so we, too, have tried to blaze a new trail through a wilderness of books and musty documents for the purpose of adding a few fresh pages to the history of the Amer- rican missions. If tve have overlooked fads worth recording, or if we have failed to place recorded facts in their true perspective or to give them their full historic value, may we not claim a pioneer's privi- lege of pleading loneliness on the trail and obstacles encountered on the journey? E. J. D. CONTENTS I.—The Laprairie Foundation 1 II.—The First Migration 39 III.—Kahnawake and Kahnawakon 76 IV.—Indian Activities 109 V.—Dealings with the English 148 VI.—The Final Migration 183 VII.—End of the French regime 218 VIII.—Under British Rule 272 IX.—The Nineteenth Century 332 X.—The Last Fifty Years 381 . List of Illustrations Site of ancient Kahnawake, showing the tomb of Kateri Tekakwitha 32 Monstrance presented to the mission in 1668; Huron wampum belt preserved at Caugh- nawaga 48 Kateri Tekakwitha 64 Site of ancient Kahnawakon, showing the old grist-mill 80 Site of ancient Kanatakwenke (La Suzanne) . 96 Tomb of Kateri Tekakwitha; "Le Moulin des Jesuites" 112 Rev. Joseph-Frangois Lafitau, SJ 176 Missionaries' residence at Caughnawaga 192 Plan of Fort Caughnawaga, in 1754 208 Residence, showing Officers' Quarters 224 Louis-Antoine de Bougainville 272 Sir William Johnson 288 Church at Caughnawaga 304 Interior of the church at Caughnawaga 320 Eleazar Williams 336 Rev. Joseph Marcoux 352 Rev. Eugene Antoine, O. M. L; Rev. Nicholas Burtin, O. M. 1 400 The Right Rev. Joseph William Forbes, Bishop of Joliette 416 View of Caughnawaga 432 MAP ILLUSTRATING \, Historic Caughnawaga 1667 - 1890 StiGNIOQY OF rv LAPRA1R.IE: li'^ S&IGNIOCJY OF LA SALLt (QENE: CAQTIER) i Ti 1 "g y Stfttun laUDRAiaic: Kentaki 1 c S&IGNIOQY or SEIGNIORY OP f' Kahnavmm! w CHATQAUGUAY SAULT ST. LOUIS ST. LAMBEtJT JesultjMitl >«^ im-Yi Hll/g Kanatakv/enkeNATAKWI (1696) ,eAUGV V \ CHAPTER I The Laprairie Foundation 1667-1675 The Iroquois Confederacy — First Hostile Relations with the French — Fur Traders and Fur Trading. Trials of the French Colony—De Tracy's Expedi- tion—Treaty of 1666—The Jesuits in the Cantons.