Historical Background

The Trail of a Traitor

After the massacre at Schenectady and another by French and Indian raiders at Casco, in present-day Maine, a two-pronged response was planned by the colonies of New York and New England. The first would be an attack by land on Montreal. The second would be a sea attack on Quebec.

In August 1690, while Massachusetts was making ready to attack Quebec by sea, the militia of the land expedition against Montreal had mustered at Albany under the command of Major General Fitz-John Winthrop of Connecticut. However, the strength of the force was far less than had been initially proposed by the colonies. After the disaster at Casco, Massachusetts and Plymouth had recalled their contingents to defend their frontiers, and New York had sent only 150 of the 400 men promised by Leisler.

Despite the shortage of men, Winthrop and his troops departed Albany with bands of Mohawk, Oneida and Mohican warriors. They joined Colonel Pieter Schuyler, the mayor of Albany, and his troops at the "Great Carrying Place" on Lac du Saint Sacrament, where they began building canoes for the expedition through the two lakes. But, much discouraged by the lack of proper transportation for so many men and an outbreak of smallpox among the troops, Winthrop and Schuyler reluctantly agreed to return to Albany. Before leaving, however, they commissioned Captain Johannes Schuyler (the 22-year-old brother of the mayor) to undertake a raid on Canada with what militia he could enlist from among the Dutch and Indians.

Captain Schuyler led his band of 40 Dutchmen and 120 Indians to La Prairie, a small town on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Montreal. There they burned every house and haystack; destroyed 150 head of cattle; killed six men; and, took 19 prisoners. Thus was Schenectady avenged.

In October of that year, a fleet of four large and four middle-sized vessels, along with a number of ketches and brigantines, under the command of Admiral Sir William Phips, sailed from Boston to the St. Lawrence River to attack Quebec. After bombarding Quebec and its environs for eight days without result and a troop landing that stalled as soon as it started, the fleet broke off its attack and returned to Boston, leaving the massacre at Casco unanswered.

The Fall of Jacob Leisler

In the summer of 1690, Jacob Leisler's political opponents convinced King William to disavow him. Colonel Henry Sloughter, commissioned by the king as governor, proclaimed his intention to rid New York of Leisler and his "rabble," and set sail for New York toward the end of 1690.

The first contingent of English troops reached the city ahead of Sloughter, in March 1691. With several hundred well-armed followers, Leisler and his son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, barricaded themselves in Fort James and refused to surrender until shown Sloughter's commission. A tense six weeks passed, punctuated by exchanges of gunfire, as both sides waited for Sloughter to arrive. When Sloughter finally arrived, commission in hand, Leisler and Milborne surrendered.

A hastily appointed court convicted them and six others of treason and directed that they be "hanged by the Neck and being Alive their bodys be Cutt Downe to the Earth that their Bowells be taken out and they being Alive burnt before their faces that their heads shall be struck off and their Bodys Cutt in four parts and which shall be Desposed of as their Majesties shall Assigne."

In response to public appeals for clemency, Sloughter paroled all the condemned rebels except Leisler and Milborne. Before Sloughter could take pity on Leisler and Milborne as well, Nicholas Bayard, the former mayor of New York, talked him into signing their death warrants. (It was later alleged that Bayard took advantage of the governor when he was drunk.) The Assembly concurred and, on a rainy May 16, 1691, the two were taken to the gallows on the eastern edge of what is now New York's City Hall Park in front of the largest crowd ever to congregate in Manhattan.

Leisler spoke briefly, begging forgiveness for the errors and excesses of his regime and insisting on the purity of his motives. "This confused City & Province," he said, needed "more wise & Cunning powerful Pilotts than either of us ever was." Milborne, always the more defiant, swore that he would have his day of reckoning with his enemies "before gods tribunal." As no carpenter would provide a ladder for the scaffold, Domine Henricus Selyns fetched one himself and the executions proceeded.

One eyewitness later recalled that "the shrieks of the people were dreadful, especially those of the women. Some fainted, some were taken in labor; the crowd cut off pieces of his [Leisler's] garments as precious relics; also, his hair was divided out of great veneration as for a martyr."

Afterward, Leisler and Milborne, heads sewed back on, were buried side by side on property Leisler owned not far from the place of their execution, in the area now bounded by Park Row, Spruce Street, and Frankfort Street.

Vindication and Restoration

Leisler's supporters sent agents to London to petition the government for redress. In January 1692, their petition was heard by the king; and, the Lords of Trade recommended pardons for the convicted in April. On May 13, 1692, Queen Mary instructed incoming governor Benjamin Fletcher to pardon the six remaining prisoners.

A proposal to have the bill of attainder reversed and the family properties restored was introduced into Parliament in 1695. The proposal quickly passed in the House of Lords, although anti-Leislerian agents succeeded in having it sent to committee in the House of Commons. After lengthy hearings it was finally passed on May 2, 1695, and received royal approval the next day.

However, it was not until 1698 that Leisler's heirs finally received their due. The Earl of Bellomont arrived in New York as governor and oversaw the restoration of the family estate, and the proper reburial of the bodies of Leisler and Milborne in the yard of the Dutch Reform Church.

Primitive Passions

The key events described in Primitive Passions actually happened. In the mid-1680s, the fur trade at Albany had ground almost to a halt as the Iroquois could find fewer and fewer beaver in what is now upstate New York. In order to keep themselves supplied with arms with which to fight their enemies and the ironware which they had come to value, the Iroquois were forced to attack French trading parties. They raided those going to the Great Lakes for weapons and trade goods and those returning from the Great Lakes for furs which they would then trade at Albany.

In addition, representatives of William Penn did try to buy the Susquehanna Valley and fur traders from Pennsylvania did make minor inroads among the Iroquois. In response, the Albany magistrates and traders, including Aernout C. Viele, used subterfuge to stymie Penn. The Iroquois did "suddenly" remember that they had given the Susquehanna Valley to the English.

The French, meanwhile, were doing all that they could to prevent the Dutch and English from usurping the fur trade of the western Indians while trying sway the allegiance of the Iroquois or, failing that, ensure their destruction. Governor La Barre did launch an attack on the Seneca, and his invasion did end ignobly with his force stricken with fever.

Throughout, the Iroquois believed that they could delay choosing sides until they could determine who was stronger – the French or English. For example, no one, least of all the Iroquois, really believed that the Duke of York's Arms on their gates would stop the French. But, if they did, then it was proof that the English were stronger than the French. It was a diplomatic game the sachems would play with varying success until well into the 18th century.

The French Jesuits, while trying to "save" the savages, often played the role of agents provocateurs on behalf of the government of New France.

The Characters

As the main events are real as described, so are most of the characters. Among the English such well-known personages as Robert Livingston, Col. Thomas Dongan, Major Patrick MacGregory and Lord Howard are real. All of the Dutch characters, with the exception of Laurentje van Reuyter, really lived. Real people among the French include Governor La Barre, the French Jesuit, Father De Lamberville, and the French officers, de Salvaye and Le Moyne de Longueuil.

All of the Iroquois sachems who spoke at the Albany councils — Odianne, Tekanista, Thanohjanihta and Adissas — actually did meet with Dongan and Lord Howard as described; and Garangula, the Onondaga sachem, did boldly rebuke Governor de La Barre in their meeting at La Famine. The quotes are accurate as recorded, although I have slightly updated the language.

Savage Wilderness

In Savage Wilderness as well, the key events are as they occurred. In March 1685, King Louis XIV, "The Sun King," appointed Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, Marquis de Denonville, governor of New France to replace the discredited Joseph Antoine de LaBarre. In his instructions to Denonville, the King said, "... he must lower the pride of the Iroquois, support the Illinois and the other allies whom Sieur de la Barre has abandoned, and by a firm and vigorous policy to let the said Iroquois know that they will have everything to fear if they do not submit to the conditions which he intends to impose on them." From the outset, Denonville wanted to make King Louis proud.

He did plan a massive invasion of the Seneca lands to bring this proud and troublesome people to heel. In doing so, he cajoled Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, French Secretary of State until he was sent French regular troops to augment the militia, coureurs-des-bois and natives from Quebec, Montreal, Detroit, Michilimackinac and Fort Saint Louis. To keep his plan secret, he ordered that sachems of the Christian Iroquois living in Canada be captured and sent as hostages to France. His invasion, as described, embarrassed the Seneca and robbed them of their stores of grain, but did no lasting damage to them.

Colonel Thomas Dongan, lieutenant-governor of the Colony of New York did, in 1685, license a two-stage trading expedition to Michilimackinac at the juncture of lakes Huron and Superior. The first stage was led by Johannes Roseboom. As planned, Roseboom wintered with the Seneca but, instead of waiting for the second contingent, led by Major Patrick MacGregory, set off for Michilimackinac on its own. Roseboom's group was captured by a force Canadian coureurs-des-bois and Indians from Michilimackinac led by Olivier Morel de la Durantaye.

Major MacGregory's group was unable to catch up with Roseboom's group and was itself captured in Lake Erie by a combined forced led by Durantaye, Henri de Tonti, commander of Fort Saint Louis, and Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, commander at Detroit on Lake Erie.