Exceptional new period documents attributed to Jean Mons (1606-1673) that shed light on the creation of Montreal confirm that the Iroquois were on the verge of destroying the French colony with their war tactics.
The situation in New France is dire. The year is 1665 and repeated attacks by the Iroquois force Jean Mance to call the metropolitan for help. In a letter written in his own hand, now certified as authentic, he asked Montreal's co-founder Paul de Somedy de Maisonneuve to send a hundred colonial-soldiers to prevent the aboriginal people from winning the war.
This letter is an important discovery
, Paul Labon, general director of the Musée des Hospitaliers at the Hotel-de-Montreal, says in a telephone interview. After carefully examining the finances of the Séminaire de Québec, I was able to identify Jean Mons among the documents in question.
Jean Mance's letter is part of a corpus believed to have been lost forever since the 1695 fire at the Hôtel-Dieu.
, the director notes. In the own words of Montreal's co-founder, we discover the reasons for requesting armed support from France.
The Iroquois, after defeating the Hurons, became more proud and insolent than they had been before, and began to trouble us again, and attacked us more and more frequently, and did not let up.
The colony is indeed passing through very dangerous days. The Iroquois, then allies of the British, won a fierce battle against the Hurons. They now have their eyes on Montreal, who are on the brink of defeat.
By 1665, the block colony was truly in crisis. The raids by the aboriginal people were relentless, and without the aid provided by the Crown, Montreal would simply have been wiped off the map.
Mr. Labonne says.
To save the colony Savages
And Despicable angers
, he describes in his letter that Jean Mance was willing to pay the travel expenses from the amount provided by patron Angélique Faure Bouillon. £22,000 was staggering for the 17th century: it's the equivalent of a million dollars today.
Jean Mance confronts an Iroquois strike force. The latter would focus their war efforts on Montreal, especially for commercial reasons which would have the appearance of many conflicts with the French.
Paul Labone adds.
According to Taiaaiake Alfred, a researcher and senior advisor to Native Administration at McGill University, the letter is of great historical importance because it confirms that the Mohawks already knew about their Iroquois ancestors, the Haudenosaunee, and the conflicted relationship they had with the First French people. Immigrants.
Reading the letter, the French feel completely abandoned, most of them ready to return home on the other side of the Atlantic.
Taiaaiake explains in the line Alfred, author of several works on Aboriginal identity and history, is particularly noted It's all about the land.
On the verge of winning the battle
A member of the Kahnawake community, the Mohawk asserts that regiments such as Carignan-Salyers were immediately sent to New France in 1665 to put an end to Iroquois raids in the St. Lawrence Valley. Maybe it was completely different.
The researcher underlined that it was not by choice but by luck, money and military support that allowed the French to stay in the territory and develop their colony. On the other hand, thanks to a complex war strategy, we see that the Iraquois had a real desire to risk their lives and evict the colonists.
The main objective of the Haudenosaunee was to drive the French settlers out of the region. We realize that they were very close to achieving this, which would have endangered the very existence of a French presence in North America.
This era is important in terms of Canadian history, he recalls. French and English colonies proliferated, and alliances between whites and natives paralleled the conquest of territories. It was here that everything was decided and European empires understood that without force and weapons, they could never win.
Despite the outcome of the conflict — the Iroquois Wars ended with the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701 — the Mohawk claim to be proud of their ancestors' fighting and their connection to protecting their land.
From an Indigenous perspective, First Nations experienced the arrival of Europeans as an invasion. The national narrative taught that it was inevitable and that the Europeans were there to conquer. The fierce battles waged by the Haudenosaunee prove to the contrary that nothing is pre-written.
However, the researcher lamented that her community was not consulted during the research to identify archival documents, including Jean Mance's will. This story is not only about the founding of Montreal, but also about our people's past and the military policies that the colonial power tried to eliminate us from.
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