1681.] THE WAR BECOMES GENERAL. 65 



neau and his partisans with circulating libels against 

 him, and who say, like Frontenac himself, that the 

 intendant used every means to exasperate him, in 

 order to make material for accusations. 1 



The disputes of the rival factions spread through 

 all Canada. The most heinous offence in the eyes 

 of the court with which each charged the other was 

 the carrying of furs to the English settlements ; thus 

 defrauding the revenue, and, as the king believed, 

 preparing the ruin of the colony. The intendant 

 farther declared that the governor's party spread 

 among the Indians the report of a pestilence at 

 Montreal, in order to deter them from their 

 yearly visit to the fair, and thus by means of 

 coureurs de hois obtain all their beaver skins at a 

 low price. The report, according to Duchesneau, 

 had no other foundation than the fate of eighteen 

 or twenty Indians, who had lately drunk them- 

 selves to death at La Chine. 2 



Montreal, in the mean time, was the scene of a 

 sort of by-play, in which the chief actor was the 

 local governor, Perrot. He and Frontenac appear 

 to have found it for their common interest to come 

 to a mutual understanding ; and this was perhaps 

 easier on the part of the count, since his quarrel 

 with Duchesneau gave sufficient employment to 

 his natural pugnacity. Perrot was now left to 

 make a reasonable profit from the illicit trade 

 which had once kindled the wrath of his superior ; 



1 See, among other instances, the Defense de M. de Frontenac par un 

 de ses Amis, published by Abbe Verreau in the Revue Canadienne, 1873. 



2 Plumitifdu Conseil Souverain, 1681. 



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