• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Daily Archives: November 17, 2012

Missionaries and the Noble Savage: Père Marquette & Gabriel Sagard

17 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Black Robe, Brian Moore, Gabriel Sagard, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Jacques Marquette, Jesuit, Mississippi River, New France, Noble savage, Récollets

Pere_MarquettePère Marquette and the Indians [at the Mississippi River], oil painting (1869) by Wilhelm Lamprecht (1838–1906), at Marquette University

The Noble Savage

This post’s main feature could be the above depiction, by Wilhelm Lamprecht (1838-1906), of Father Jacques Marquette or Père Marquette, S.J. pointing to the Mississippi River, surrounded by Métis or Amerindians.  I have used this painting in one of two posts on The Jesuit Relations, a yearly account, by Jesuit missionaries, of events in New France.  In these posts, I indicated that the Jesuit Relations were the birthplace of the Noble Savage.

In the Jesuit Relations and in the accounts of other missionaries, the Amerindian is often described as morally superior to Europeans and, especially, to the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) inhabiting New France: Canada and Acadie.  Therefore, before we discuss the nineteenth-century sentimentalist portrait of the Noble Savage or bon sauvage, we should remember the missionaries to New France: the Récollets, and the Jesuits. 

The Récollets or Recollects

The Récollets were the first missionaries to travel to New France.  Brother Gabriel Sagard (fl. 1614–1636) arrived in New France 28 June 1623 and was sent to accompany Father Viel.  They traveled to Lake Huron to join Récollets who had come to New France in 1615.  Sagard wrote Le grand voyage au pays des Hurons (Paris, 1632), an Histoire du Canada (1636), in which Le grand voyage is retold, and a Dictionary of the Huron Language.

An English translation of Le grand voyage by historian George M. Wrong was published by the Champlain Society in 1939 as Sagard’s Long journey to the country of the Hurons.  It can be read online at the Champlain Society website [click on Long journey… ].  In 2009, John Steckley edited and published an authoritative edition of [Sagard’s] Dictionary of the Huron language.  (Gabriel Sagard, Wikipedia)

452px-john_norton

Teyoninhokarawen (John Norton)

John Norton (Teyoninhokarawen) (b.c. 1760s Scotland (?)- d.after 1826, likely born and educated in Scotland, had a Scottish mother and a father who was born Cherokee in Tennessee, but raised from boyhood with the English.

John Norton was adopted as Mohawk. He distinguished himself as the leader of Iroquois warriors who faught on behalf of Great Britain against the United States in the War of 1812. Commissioned as a major, he was the military leader of warriors from the Six Nations of the Grand River who faught against American invaders at Queenston Heights, Stoney Creek, and Chippawa.

As we know, “savages” were not always “noble savages.” The Iroquois tribes (SENECA, CAYUGA,  ONEIDA, ONONDAGA and MOHAWK) were enemies of French-speaking settlers.  I should note therefore that the five Amerindians who took Jolliet and Marquette down the Mississippi were bons sauvages.  In fact, they were French Amerindians, or Métis.

So it would appear that métissage occurred from the earliest days of New France and that it may have occurred because Amerindians were bons sauvages.  They were the voyageur‘s guides.  How would the voyageurs have succeeded in their mission had the Amerindians not been “Noble Savages” who actually prepared their food: sagamité?  Such were the Amerindians Jacques Marquette and Gabriel Sagard attempted to convert to Roman Catholicism.

Métissage itself provides proof of affinities not only between Canadiens and Amerindians, but also between British settlers and Amerindians.  Although métissage was less frequent between the British and Amerindians, it happened.  John Norton, a Métis born in Scotland to an Amerindian father, a Cherokee, and a Scottish mother became a Mohawk Chief.

Conclusion

In the accounts of missionaries, the Amerindian is not always a bon sauvage.  On the contrary.  Amerindians tortured and killed several missionaries, but missionaries were sometimes filled with doubts concerning their role.  Converting Amerindians could become a moral dilemma.  Why convert a people whose behavior was different, but morally acceptable?  The ambivalence of missionaries towards Amerindians and that of Amerindians towards the missionaries is central to Black Robe, a film mentioned below.

I admire the many “Black Robes” who learned Amerindian languages or otherwise expressed true devotion towards members of their little flock.  I also admire such men as François de Laval (30 April 1623 – 6 May 1708), the first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec and a member of the distinguished Montmorency family, who threatened to excommunicate and probably did excommunicate French fur-traders who gave alcohol to Amerindians in exchange for precious pelts.

One may read The Jesuit Relations Online (just click on the title).
 
 

RELATED ARTICLES:

  • The Jesuit Relations: an Invaluable Legacy, 15 March 2012
  • More on the Jesuit Relations, 16 March 2012
 

Black Robe, a novel and a film, was discussed by one of my WordPress colleagues.  But I cannot find the relevant blog.  Black Robe is a 1991 film directed by Australian Bruce Beresford. The screenplay was written by Irish-Canadian author Brian Moore, who adapted it from his novel of the same name.  The film stars Lothaire Bluteau and can be watched online.  It was produced by an Autralian team and a Canadian team and filmed in Quebec.  I used to show it to my students.  Below is part of the film.  It is not the video I used previously.  It featured French composer Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992) and it was exquisite, but it was removed.

© Micheline Walker
17 November 2012
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Carignan-Salières Regiment, etc

17 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Canada, Carignan-Salières Regiment, France, Franco-Spanish War, Louis XIV of France, Madeleine de Verchères, New France, Noble savage

 

Jean Talon, Bishop François de Laval and several settlers welcome the King’s Daughters upon their arrival. Painting by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

The “Filles du Roy” or King’s Daughters

From the story of Madeleine de Verchères, we know that among Amerindians, there were “Noble Savages” and “Savages” who were not so noble. We know moreover that Madeleine’s father was a member of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. However, the story of Madeleine de Verchères has not told us about the Carignan-Salières Regiment itself, whose members started to protect New France in 1665. Nor has it told us that, during the 1660s, France sent women to Canada. This matter was discussed in a post entitled Richelieu & Nouvelle-France, but is again relevant. We therefore require more information.

In the above-mentioned post, I wrote that “between 1663 and 1673, 500 to 900 Frenchwomen, the King’s Daughters (les filles du Roy), were given a dowry by king Louis XIV and sent to Nouvelle-France, if they were deemed sufficiently healthy to survive the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.”

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

The Sovereign Council, Charles Walter Simpson

The Sovereign Council: the 1660s in New France

The 1660’s were the early years of Louis XIV’s reign and he became interested in France’s North-American colonies. Since 1628, the Company of One Hundred Associates had ruled New France, but it was forced out of business in 1663 and Louis took charge. He in fact created a “Royal Government whereby France would run the government of New France through a Sovereign Council.” The Sovereign Council comprised a GOUVERNEUR (governor), a bishop, an INTENDANT and 5 councillors.[i]

In other words, to quote the Canadian Encyclopedia,

[i]n 1663 Louis XIV equipped the colony with a complete administrative system modelled on those used to govern French provinces.

However, hostile Amerindians, the Iroquois, were threathening the life of settlers.  Attacks, such as the attack that would make Madeleine de Verchères a heroine in 1692, were becoming a genuine obstacle to the growth of the colony.  How would the Filles du Roy and their husbands survive?  The remedy consisted in the deployment of the Carignan-Salières Regiment.

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Le Régiment

Le Régiment de Carignan-Salières

The Carignan-Salières Regiment combined two regiments, the Régiment de Carignan and the Balthasar Regiment. However, after the death of Balthasar, in 1665, the Régiment became the Régiment de Carignan-Salières. These were informal mergers. (Carignan-Salières Regiment, Wikipedia)

The Régiment de Carignan-Salières had fought against the Ottoman Turks in Hungary in 1664, but its main enemy as Régiment de Carignan-Balthasar had been the Spanish  However, after the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), France no longer needed a large military force. Consequently, in 1665, the soldiers of the Carignan-Salières Regiment were deployed to New France to protect the settlers from attacks by not-so-noble “savages.”

Rémy de Courcelle & the Marquis de Tracy

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s finance minister and chief member of the Conseil d’en haut[ii] suggested that a mere 100 soldiers be sent to Canada, but Louis was of a different mind. In June 1665, some 1100 men, perhaps more, were sent to New France.  Twenty companies left from France and four, from Martinique. This was a formal merger. They would serve under Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle, Sieur de Montigny, de La Fresnaye et de Courcelle (1626 – October 24, 1698) who was governor of New France from 1665 to 1672. It would also serve under Lieutenant General Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy (1596 or 1603–1670) a military man who had driven the Dutch out of the West Indies in 1664.

The Regiment Engages the Iroquois

By November 1665, forts had been built along the Richelieu River, considered as the main invasion route. The French and Canadiens attacked the Mohawk Country in February 1666. Men were ambushed and the expedition had to retreat losing some 60 men on its return journey to Quebec City. It was midwinter, which seriously jeopardized the success of military operations.

The French attacked again in September 1666, but no Iroquois was to be found in Mohawk Country. Soldiers of the Carignan-Salières Regiment burned the villages and cornfields and took possession of the Mohawk Country.  Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy was ruthless. He forced the Iroquois to convert to Roman Catholicism and to speak French as taught by the Jesuit missionaries. A mission village was set up for Catholic Mohawks at Kahnawake, south of Montreal.[iii]

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia “[i]n July 1667 the Iroquois finally came to terms. The regiment was recalled to France in 1668, but some 400 officers and men chose to remain and settled on seigneuries along the Rivière Richelieu, greatly strengthening the colony’s defences, military ethos, and economy.”[iv]

Back to Madeleine de Verchères

Those 400 officers and men proved a godsend to a previously feeble New France.  It protected the colony, but they also settled New France. François Jarret de Verchères, Madeleine de Verchères’s father, was among the 400 officers and men who decided to stay behind. He was given a seigneury, married Marie Perrot, and built the fort his daughter defended on 22 October 1691.[v] 

The Iroquois were defeated, but a defeated Iroquois may well be a more dangerous enemy than a victorious one. 

RELATED POSTS 

  • Richelieu & Nouvelle-France (1st March  2012)
  • Cartier, Champlain, Missionaries, or New France, a Chronology, (16 March 2012)
  • Madeleine Jarret de Verchères: a Canadian Heroine (15 November 2012)
 
Photo credit: Wikipedia & Civics Canada Online (Simpson)
_________________________
[i] Civics Canada Online
http://www.civicschannel.com/textbook/6canadian.php
[ii] The king’s Council were called “d’en haut,” because they lived upstairs at the king’s castle. 
[iii] Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_de_Prouville
[iv] W. J. Eccles, “Carignan-Salières Regiment” Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/carignansalieres-regiment
[v] Madeleine de Verchères, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_de_Verch%C3%A8res
 
composer: Jean-Baptiste Lully (28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687)
piece: Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme)
performers: Skip Sempé (b. 1958)
ensemble: Capriccio Stravagante
 
© Micheline Walker 
17 November 2012
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,476 other followers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Language Laws in Quebec: Bill 96
  • From the Rurik Dynasty to the first Romanov
  • Uvalde: Analysis Paralysis
  • The Second Amendment to the American Constitution: a Misunderstanding
  • The Rurikid Princes & the Tsardom of Russia
  • The Decline of Kievan Rus’
  • Ilya Repin, Ivan IV and his son Ivan on 16 November 1581, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
  • Ukraine’s Varangian Princes, its Primary Chronicle, the Russkaya Pravda …
  • Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a Cossack Hetman
  • Ruthenia vs Ukraine

Archives

Calendar

November 2012
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Oct   Dec »

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

A WordPress.com Website.

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,476 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: