PROJECT OF THE CHEVALIER DE CALLIERES,

GOVERNOR OJF MONTREAL AND COMMANDING BY COMMISSION THE TROOPS AND MILITIA OF CANADA ,REGARDING THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS OF THAT COUNTRY. JANUARY, 1689.

[ Paris Doc. IV. ]

To Monseigneur, the Marquis of Seignelay.

As the recent Revolution in England will change the face of American affairs it becomes necessaryto adopt entirely new measures to secure Canada against the great dangers with which it is threatened.

Chevalier Andros, now Governor General of New England and New York , having already declaredin his letters to M. de Denonville that he took all the Iroquois under his protection as subjects ofthe Crown of England and having prevented them returning to M. de Denonville to make peacewith us, there is no longer reason to hope for its conclusion through the English nor for the alienationof the Iroquois from the close union which exists with those in consequence of the great advantagesthey derive from thence, the like to which we cannot offer for divers reasons.

Chevalier Andros is a protestant as well as tlie whole English Colony so that there is no reason tohope that he will remain faithful to the King of England [James II .] and we must expect that hewill not only urge the Iroquois to continue the war against us but that he will even add Englishmento them to lead them and seize the posts of Niagara, Michilimakinak and others proper to renderhim master of all the Indians our allies, according to the project they have long since formed, andwhich they began to execute when we declared war against the Iroquois and when we captured 70Englishmen who were going to take possession of Michilimakinak, one of the most important postsof Canada; our entrepot for the Fur Trade and the residence of the Superior of the Rev : Jesuit Fathers, Missionaries among our Savages, and which belongs, incontestably to us.

It is to be expected, then, that they are about to endeavour to invest all Canada and raise all theSavages against us, in order to deprive us wholly of every sort of Trade and draw it all to themselvesby means of the cheap bargains of merchandize they can give them, nearly a half less than ourFrenchmen can afford theirs, for reasons which will be, elsewhere, explained, and thus becomemasters of all the peltries; a trade which sustains Canada and constitutes one of the chief benefitsthat France derives from that Colony.

No sooner will the English have ruined our Trade with the Savages than uniting with them theywill be in a position to fall on us, burn and sack our settlements, scattered along the River St.Lawrence to Quebec , without our being able to prevent them, having no fortress capable of arrestingthem.

Things being thus disposed, the only means to avoid this misfortune is to anticipate it by the expe-dition which will be hereafter explained and which I offer to execute forthwith, if it please HisMajesty to confide its direction to me on account of the particular knowledge I have acquired of theaffairs of that country during five years that I had the honour to serve His Majesty and to commandhis troops and military there, after twenty years service in the army.