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The
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Acadia |
The Fall
The Iroquois were one
of the most powerful and influential Indian nations in
America and played an instrumental role in the
development of New France, the English colonies and the
final resolution of the French-English struggle. When
Cartier arrived in the early 1500's, the Iroquois
occupied the St Lawrence river valley and were the
natives that he met at Stadacona and Hochelaga. When
Champlain returned in 1608 the Algonquin had replace the
Iroquois along the St Lawrence river.
The Iroquois were a sophisticated people
who planted corm and obtained food from both
agriculture and hunting. In 1570 the Iroquois
confederacy was formed in an effort to end the incessant
warfare between the various nations of the Iroquois. The
prophet Deganawidah was the force that brought the
Iroquois together and as a symbol of their unity the
long house was chosen. The five nations were the
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and
in the eighteenth century the Tuscaroras joined.
Samuel de Champlain and the Algonquin's
attacked the Iroquois in 1609 and the bitter rivalry was
begun which led to on and off raiding and wars for
the next 150 years. The Iroquois were fearless fighters
and throughout the entire existence of New France they
were like a dagger aimed at the throat of the French
colonies. The Iroquois became allies of the English due
to the rivalry they both had with the French. In 1650
the Iroquois attacked and dispersed the Huron's
throughout Ontario. The Huron were no longer a player in the
colonial wars or politics after that attack and the
French fear of the
Iroquois was greatly magnified.
One of the most famous encounters between
New France and the Iroquois was in 1660 when almost 1000
Iroquois were moving quickly towards New France with the
intention of attacking and destroying Montreal, Trois
Riviere and Quebec City. The historian Robert Jarvis
wrote He
(Dollard) approached the governor of New France, Paul de
Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, in Montreal.
Dollard proposed that
he, along with a small force of volunteers, could set up
a defensive position in the hope of preventing a
junction of the two Iroquois bands. He wanted to make
his stand near the rapids of Chute a Blondeau, where the
Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers converge - - a place
called the Long Sault.
Maisonneuve assented
to Dollard's request, and Dollard started to gather
recruits. By the end of April, 1660, 16 men had come
forward. They were all young men of humble station:
discharged soldiers, farmers and artisans. The oldest
was 30. Almost all the rest were in their early 20's.
They all had mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and
sweethearts in the three settlements, and ,if their
desperate efforts failed, they would all die -- either
by musket and tomahawk in the burning villages, or by
barbarous torture after capture. The task of Dollard
and his companions was to die so that the people that
they loved could live. With no doubt in their minds as
to their fate, the 17 young men confessed, made their
wills, and received the last sacrament in the stone
chapel of the Hotel-Dieu.
After two weeks of
arduous travel, Dollard and his men reached the Long
Sault. A short distance form the Ottawa, on the Eastern
side of the Sault, Dollard found an abandoned stockade,
but for some reason, he and his men dawdled instead of
repairing the stockade and provisioning it with food and
water.
Dollard was joined by
a party of 40 Huron under their chief, Anahotaha, as
well as by four Algonquin. After two days, scouts at the
head of the Sault spotted two Iroquois canoes coming
towards the stockade. The Frenchmen and their allies
ambushed the canoes but one brave escaped to warn the
main party. Forty or fifty canoes soon landed, and the
Iroquois warriors immediately rushed the stockade.
Dollard and his men fired volley after volley into them
and they broke. A second attack was launched, this time
from all sides. When it and a third attack failed, the
Iroquois retreated and held a council of war.
For five days, there
was a lull in the fighting. Renegade Huron fighting with
the Iroquois directed a constant barrage of taunts and
promises at the Huron fighting with Dollard. One by one,
the Dollard Huron jumped over the barricades to join the
Iroquois. In the end, only the gallant Anahotaha
remained.
Inside the stockade,
the 22 men stood by their loopholes and waited. Dollard
and his companions were stupefied from lack of sleep.
Water and food, like hope, had long since vanished.
Escape or rescue was impossible All they could do was to
buy some time to save their families.
On the fifth day, more
than 500 warriors from the Richelieu arrived, and now
over 700 hundred Iroquois faced Dollard. For three days,
the Iroquois prepared for the final assault, keeping up
a day-and-night harassment against Dollard's little
band.
On the morning of the
fourth day, the assault was delivered from all quarters,
spearheaded by volunteers carrying torches and crude
shields. The attack was beaten back. A second assault
reached the barricades, and the braves started to set
fire to the stockade. In desperation, Dollard tried to
toss a hand-made grenade filled with musket balls and
gunpowder over the stockade into the midst of the
attackers. The grenade struck the top of the barricade
and fell back into the stockade. It exploded killing
several of the defenders and blinding others. In the
following confusion, the Iroquois gained the barricade.
In hand-to-hand fighting, Dollard and all of his men
were soon cut down. The epic of the Long Sault was over.
The Iroquois returned
to their own territories. They reasoned that, if Dollard
and his few followers could cause them so much trouble
at the Long Sault, an attack on Montreal would be far
too costly."
In 1760 as the seven years war wound
down with the Fall of Quebec City and Montreal, England
consolidated all of New France into the English system,
and with that finally came safety from the Iroquois.
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