The Quebec Anthology: 1830-1990

"Yellow-Wolf, Malecite Chieftain of Old" 1893

Philippe Aubert de Gaspe, the Elder Translated byJane Brierley YELLOW-WOLF, MALECITE CHIEFTAIN OF OLD "On the 30th of October in the year 1786," Philippe Aubert de Gaspe wrote in his Memoires, "in a house within the walls of Quebec where the archbishop's palace now stands, a puny little thing first opened his eyes to the light." Shortly after, the de Gaspe family moved to Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, avillage on the St. Lawrence with which Philippe-Joseph was to be associated for the rest of his life. He studied law and in 1816 was named sheriff of Quebec, but in 1822 he began to get hopelessly into debt and was relieved of his office. The following year, he was committed to the Quebec penitentiary. Upon his release in 1841, he retired to Port-Joli and began to write. The result was a novel, LesAnciens canadiens (1864), and the Memoires (1866), both of which were resounding popular successes. Among de Gaspe's admirers were the influential Abbe Casgrain and the historian Fran9ois-Xavier Garneau, who were working to initiate a cultural revolution in Quebec. After de Gaspe's death in 1871, one of his sons, Alfred-Patrice, found a manuscript of stories among his father's papers. This was published in 1893 asDivers.Jane Brierley, whose translation of Divers (as Yellow-Wolf and Other Tales of the Saint Lawrence) appeared in 1990, notes aparallel between the proud chieftain Yellow-Wolf and de Gaspe himself , "the last seigneur of Saint-Jean-Port-Joli." The determination to preserve the old order is certainly one of the main themes of LesAnciens canadiens, and there is no doubt that the aging, exiled de Gaspe sympathizedwith Yellow-Wolfs desire to maintain contact with his own heritage. De Gaspe died in 1871 at his seigneury in Saint-JeanPort -Joli, which can still be visited today. 38 PHILIPPE AUBERT DE GASPE, THE ELDER "Yellow-Wolf: Malecite Chieftain of Old" is reproduced from Yellow-Wolf and Other Tales of the St. Lawrence (Montreal: Vehicule Press, 1990) and was originally published under the tide "Le loupjaune , ancien chef Malechite" in Divers (Montreal: C.O. Beauchemin & Fils, Lib.-Imprimeurs, 1893). YELLOW-WOLF, MALECITE CHIEFTAIN OFOLD 39 taking into account tnis Indian s acquaintance with the men of yesteryear and the events he had witnessed, he must have been a hundred years old at the time. Yellow-Wolf was a great favourite with my family, and my father loved to get him talking about the adventures of his long career. The old Indian was in the habit of pitching his wigwam at some distance from his fellows. He seemed to have little in common with them, exchanging but a few brief words with those he met. For their part, they seemed to feel more fear than friendship for him. He led a solitary life in their midst, his only companion being a small, distinctly foxy-looking dog. Ever sombre and meditative, Yellow-Wolf treated my childish advances with discouraging reserve. Witnessing my mischievous antics, he no doubt considered me a frivolous being, incapable of conducting a serious conversation. It wasn't until I reached the age of eighteen that I succeeded in overcoming his distaste for my company and gaining his friendship. Yellow-Wolf presented a most imposing ruin—what was left of him after days of captivity and hours of horrible suffering at the stake, at the hands of enemies as versed in the art of torture as the Iroquois. He had lost none of his tall stature, and still walked, shoulders thrown back, with the fine bearing of a man of forty. True, he had one blind eye, but the eagle orb that remained still blazed forth when he became animated. He might have been a disciple of Moliere's Toinette, who propounded the philosophy that having one eye plucked out only made you see more clearly with the other. His left hand had just the index finger and thumb left, but these two digits, separated though they might be from their brothers, were no less prompt in their unfailing obedience to his behests. As for Yellow-Wolf s lower regions, I had no way of assessing the damage. He tended to limp, despite efforts to 40 PHILIPPE AUBERT DE GASPE, THE ELDER mong the Indians who camped each year on our beach during my childhood was an old Malecite by the name of Yellow-Wolf. According...