Colonial governor; born in
France in 1620; was made a colonel at seventeen years of age, and was an eminent lieutenant-gen-
[
484]
eral at twenty-nine, covered with decorations and scars.
Selected by
Marshal Turenne to lead troops sent for the relief of
Canada, he was made governor of that province in 1672, and built
Fort Frontenac (now
Kingston), at the foot of
Lake Ontario in 1673.
He was recalled in 1682, but was reappointed in 1689, when the
French dominions in
America were on the brink of ruin.
With great energy he carried on war against the
English in New York and
New England, and their allies, the
Iroquois.
Early in 1696 an expedition which he sent towards
Albany desolated
Schenectady; and the same year he successfully resisted a land and naval force sent against
Canada.
He was in
Montreal when an Indian runner told him of the approach to the
St. Lawrence of
Colonel Schuyler (see
King William's War).
Frontenac, then seventy years of age, called out his Indian allies, and, taking a tomahawk in his hand, he danced the war-dance, and chanted the war-song in their presence and then led them successfully against the foe. He afterwards repulsed
Phipps at
Quebec, having been informed of his expedition by an Indian runner from
Pemaquid.
So important was that repulse considered that King Louis caused a medal to be struck with the legend, “
France victorious in the New world.”
This success was followed by an expedition sent by
Frontenac against the Mohawks in 1696; and he led forces in person against the Onondagas the same year.
Frontenac was the terror of the
Iroquois, for his courage and activity were wonderful.
He restored the fallen fortunes of
France in
America, and died soon afterwards, in
Quebec, Nov. 28, 1698.
