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Updated: June 24, 2025
Radisson and Groseillers dared not turn back to face the irate governor. Larivière was abandoned. Two weeks afterwards some French hunters found him lying on the rocks almost dead from starvation. He was sent back to Three Rivers, where D'Avaugour had him imprisoned. This outrage the inhabitants of Three Rivers resented. They forced the jail and rescued Larivière.
Laval saw that the very life-blood of the Indians was being poisoned by this traffic, and succeeded in obtaining the removal of D'Avaugour. But all the efforts of himself and his successor, Saint-Vallier, could not practically restrain the sale of spirituous liquors, as long as the fur-trade so largely depended on their consumption.
Such a spirit is being gradually aroused, and the more gradual the more permanent will it be. Violence begets violence. Example is more persuasive than force. De Monts, or rather de Lauzon, was succeeded by the Baron D'Avaugour, the last of the Fur Governors, a weak, stupid man, who had almost by his imbecility and vacillation suffered the business of his employers to be extinguished.
D'Avaugour stubbornly ordered the Indians to await the return of his party from the Saguenay. The Indians made off to hide in the rushes of Lake St. Peter. The sympathy of Three Rivers was with the explorers. Late one night in August Radisson and Groseillers who was captain of the soldiers and carried the keys of the fort slipped out from the gates, with a third Frenchman called Larivière.
Moreover, the post of governor in the colony was not to be judged by what it had been in the days of D'Avaugour or De Mézy. The reports sent home by Talon had stirred the national ambitions. "I am no courtier," this intendant had written, "and it is not to please the King or without reason that I say this portion of the French monarchy is going to become something great.
Fervent appeals for assistance were made to the King by Pierre Boucher, the governor of Three Rivers, by Monseigneur Laval, the first bishop, by the Jesuit Fathers, and by the governors of New France, especially by M. d'Avaugour, who recommended that three thousand soldiers be sent to the colony, and allowed to become settlers after a certain term of service.
"If she is not to be punished," brusquely replied d'Avaugour, "no one shall be punished henceforth!" And, as he made it a point of honour not to withdraw this unfortunate utterance, the traders profited by it. From that time license was no longer bridled; the savages got drunk, the traders were enriched, and the colony was in jeopardy.
Governor d'Avaugour supported energetically the measures taken by Mgr. de Laval; unfortunately a regrettable incident destroyed the harmony between their two authorities. Inspired by his good heart, the superior of the Jesuits, Father Lalemant, interceded with the governor in favour of a woman imprisoned for having infringed the prohibition of the sale of brandy to the Indians.
Groseillers was furious, and sailed for France to demand restitution; but the intriguing courtiers proved too strong for him. Though he spent 10,000 pounds, nothing was done. D'Avaugour had come back to France, and stockholders of the jealous fur company were all-powerful at court.
The prelate on his side believed that it was his duty to take severe steps, and he suspended the Abbé de Queylus. On instructions which were given him by the king, Governor d'Avaugour transmitted to the Abbé de Queylus an order to return to France. The court of Rome finally settled the question by giving the entire jurisdiction of Canada to Mgr. de Laval.
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