1682.] HIS SPECULATIONS. 81 



Iiis predecessors in making money out of his gov- 

 ernment by trade ; and in consideration of these 

 good intentions he asked for an addition to his 

 pay. 1 He then immediately made alliances with 

 certain merchants of Quebec for carrying on an 

 extensive illicit trade, backed by all the power of 

 his office. Now ensued a strange and miserable com- 

 plication. Questions of war mingled with ques- 

 tions of personal gain. There was a commercial 

 revolution in the colony. The merchants whom 

 Frontenac excluded from his ring now had their 

 turn. It was they who, jointly with the intendant 

 and the ecclesiastics, had procured the removal of 

 the old governor ; and it was they who gained the 

 ear of the new one. Aubert de la Chesnaye, 

 Jacques Le Ber, and the rest of their faction, now 

 basked in official favor; and La Salle, La Foret, 

 and the other friends of Frontenac, were cast out. 

 There was one exception. Greysolon Du Lhut, 

 leader of coureurs de bois, was too important to be 

 thus set aside. He was now as usual in the wilder- 

 ness of the north, the roving chief of a half sav- 

 age crew, trading, exploring, fighting, and laboring 

 with persistent hardihood to foil the rival English 

 traders of Hudson's Bay. Inducements to gain his 

 adhesion were probably held out to him by La 

 Barre and his allies : be this as it may, it is certain 

 that he acted in harmony with the faction of the 

 new governor. With La Foret it was widely dif- 

 ferent. He commanded Fort Frontenac, winch 

 belonged to La Salle, when La Barre's associates, 



1 La Barre a Seignelay, 1682. 



