I Have Upon That Resolved To Engage My Nephew &
His Interpreter To Remain In It, & I Have Come For That End, By My
Attendance, For The Consent Of The Governor, Who Demands To-Day That They
May Be Sent Back As People Who Apparently Are Known To Him As Suspected.
I
have always believed, & I believe it still, that their presence is useful
in this Country and also necessary to the Company, and it was difficult to
be able to overlook two, because they are known to all the nations.
It is
also upon them that I have relied for the Security of the merchandises
which are left behind at the houses of the French, because without their
assistance or their presence they would be exposed to pillage. Nevertheless
I do not pretend to oppose my self to the design that the Governor has put
in execution & the proposition that he proposes making. He is free to undo
what he pleases, but he cannot make me subscribe to his resolutions,
because I see that they are directly opposed to those of the Company, to my
instructions, and to my experience. On the contrary, I will protest before
God and before men against all that he does, because, after what he has
said to you, he is incapable of doing what is advantageous for his masters.
It is in vain that one should give him good councels, for he has not the
spirit to understand them, that he may again deal a blow to which he would
wish I opposed nothing."
This declaration had without doubt made some impression upon a spirit not
anticipated in an imaginary capacity of governor; but this one here, on the
contrary, fortified himself in his resolution, & begged me to tell the
French to embark themselves, without considering that my nephew had not
time enough to go seek his clothes, nor several bonds that were due to him
in Canada, which remained in the house of the French, and that I had
abandoned to him, to yield whatever I was in a condition of giving
satisfaction to him, & that in the hope that the Company would set up for
him the way exclusively.
The Council after that broke up; but the Governor, apprehending that the
Frenchmen would not obey, wished to give an order to the Captains to seize
upon them and put them on board. He had even the insolence of putting me
first on the lists, as if I was suspected or guilty of something, for which
Captain Bond having perceived, said to him that he should not make a charge
of that kind, as I must be excepted from it, because he remembered nothing
in me but much of attachment for the service of his masters, & that they
should take care of the establishment that we had made, & of the advantages
that would accrue to the Company. They obliged the Governor to make another
list, and thus finished a council of war held against the interests of
those who had given power to assemble them. The persons who had any
knowledge of these savages of the north would be able to judge of the
prejudice which the conduct of this imprudent Governor would without
contradiction have caused the Company. Many would attribute his proceeding
to his little experience, or to some particular hatred that he had
conceived against the French. Be it as it may, I was not of his way of
thinking; and I believed that his timidity & want of courage had prompted
him to do all that he had done, by the apprehension that he had of the
French undertaking something against him; & what confirmed me in that
thought was the precaution that he had taken for preventing the French from
speaking to any person since the day of council, for he put them away from
the moment that we went away from them. I made out also that he had wanted
but the occasion of putting to the sword my nephew if he had had the least
pretext; but knowing his wicked designs, I made him understand, as well as
the other Frenchmen, that we were to go to England, & that he must not
leave the ship, because we were at any moment ready to depart.
Although this change surprised my nephew & his interpreter, nevertheless
they appeared not discontented with it, especially when I had assured them,
as well as the other Frenchmen, that they would receive all kinds of good
treatment in England, and that it would do them no harm in their persons
nor in their pretensions. I left them then in the ship, and having embarked
myself in the frigate, we were put ashore two leagues from the place where
they were at anchor, to take on board some goods that remained on the
shore, with more diligence than we had been able to make with the ships;
which having succeeded in happily doing, we went to rejoin the ships at the
place where they were at anchor, in one of which my nephew and the other
Frenchmen were staying during this time without having taken the least
step, although they were in a condition for any enterprise, because they
could easily render themselves masters of the two ships and burn them,
having there for both but two men and one boy in each; after which they
could also, without danger, go on shore on the south side with the canoes
of the savages, who were from the north, and then make themselves masters
of their houses and their merchandise, which were guarded but by two men;
but to go there to them, he made doubts of all that I had told him, and
that it would be ill intentioned to the service of the company, as it was
to the Governor. That is why they were not capable, neither those nor the
others, after having submitted themselves & having taken the oath of
fidelity as they had done.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 111 of 115
Words from 112764 to 113764
of 117345
