Dollard des Ormeaux et ses Compagnons: Notes et Documents par E. Z. Massicotte (review)

394 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW It may be permitted to add that there are some minor slips. For instance, on page 11, note 2, "Louis Herbert" should be Louis Hebert. i On page 32, note 1, Drummond and Campbell (presumably W. W. Campbell) are classed as French-Canadian poets. One is also perplexed by the odd passage on page 79: "Such a policy has no adherents amongst the English Canadians or in Ottawa, and woe to him who would dare even to mention it." Mr. Hamilton seems to have some curious notions about Canadian politics. J. SQUAIR Dollard des Ormeaux et ses Compagnons: Notes et Documents. Par E. Z. MASSICOTTE. Avec une introduction par AEGID1US FAUTEUX. Montreal: Le Comite du Monument Dollard des Ormeaux. 1920. Pp.93. THE committee who have brought about the erection of a monument to Dollard and his companions, were wisely actuated in publishing the present volume. For deeds of valour reach better and further when written in books than in bronze, and the epic of the Long Sault is worthy of being eternally retold to the successive ages. The task of grouping the documents and information relating to them could not have been entrusted to bet'ter hands than those of Mr. Massicotte . Few persons, if any, know more intimately the mi'pute details of individual life and local conditions in early French Montreal. As a matter of fact, the present volume is a reprint, with an appendix, of two articles pl!-plished by hi~ in the Canadian A ntiquarian and Numismatic Journal, in April, 1912, and January, 1913. In these articles, which form the bulk of the book, he has either given in extenso the most important documents, analysed the incidental material, or brought together details collected by various authors relating to the young heroes, interspersing the whole with illuminating commentaries. In the appendix; which is the new part of the book, there are printed two contemporaneous narratives and a brief mention of the fight. Some of the manuscripts throw an entirely new light on the subject. They show that, before leaving, Dollard and his companions never contemplated , as currently relat~d, sacrificing themselves in a fight to death in order to stem the coming invasion. They did not know the existence of such an invasion. Their first idea was only to make raids on the Iroquois. In his deed of gift, Valais clearly states that he makes it, /I desiring to go in a party with Sr Dollard against small Iroquois bands, and not knowing how it will please God to dispose of him during this time" (p. 66); Dollard signs a note in which he says: "I promise to pay him on my return" (p. 40); and even Tavernier's will contains the REVIEWS OF BOOKS 395 significant words: "In case that the said Tavernier dies, and iIhe does not die the undersigned [document] will be broken" (p. 68). It is evident that it was only when they realized the strength of the enemy that the heroes decided to die in the attempt to stop them. This does not lessen , their glory, but merely throws a new light on it. There exists in the Archives at Ottawa-a place never to be overlooked in relation to Canadian history-a manuscript which relates to Valais, one of Dollard's companions. It is a contract, dated December 21,1654, between Ducharme and Valais and between them' and M. de Maisonneuve . It gives important details, which contradict some assertions of Mr. Massicotte, taken from Faillon's Histoire de la Colonie Fran(iaise. Faillon had evidently seen the document, but misread it. For instance it shows that Valais was not a carpenter, but" a ploughman and farmlaborer , and that only Ducharne, his associate, who was a carpenter, agreed to mend rifles and pistols for M. de Maisonneuve. ' This error, as well as other m~nor ones, is entirely due to Faillon; but it is a little surprising to find that Mr. Massicotte does not make use in his book of information already printed by himself. He does not mention the profession of Crusson, Josselin and Lecompte, and calls Doussin a miller and soldier (p. 52). Yet...