om played a
daring and important part in the history of New France,--Iberville
greatest,--was one of the few merchants in whom was combined the trader
and the noble. But he was a trader by profession before he became a
seigneur. In his veins was a strain of noble blood; but leaving France
and settling in Canada, he avoided the little Court at Quebec, went to
Montreal, and there began to lay the foundation of his fame and fortune,
and to send forth men who were as the sons of Jacob. In his heart he was
always in sympathy with the woodsmen, and when they were proclaimed
as perilous to the peace and prosperity of the king's empire, he stood
stoutly by them. Adventurers, they traded as they listed; and when the
Intendant Duchesnau could not bend them to his greedy will, they were to
be caught and hanged wherever found. King Louis hardly guessed that to
carry out that order would be to reduce greatly the list of his Canadian
noblesse. It struck a blow at the men who, in one of the letters which
the grim Frontenac sent to Versailles not long before his death, were
rightly called "The King's Traders"--more truly such than any others in
New France.

Whether or not the old seigneur knew it at the time, three of his own
sons were among the coureurs du bois--chieftains by courtesy--when they
were proclaimed. And it was like Iberville, that, then only a lad, he
came in from the woods, went to his father, and astonished him by asking
for his blessing. Then he started for Quebec, and arriving there
with Perrot and Du Lhut, went to the citadel at night and asked to be
admitted to Count Frontenac. Perhaps the governor-grand half-barbarian
as he was at heart-guessed the nature of the visit and, before he
admitted Iberville, dismissed those who were with him. There is in an
old letter still preserved by an ancient family of France, an account
of this interview, told by a cynical young nobleman. Iberville alone was
admitted. His excellency greeted his young visitor courteously, yet with
hauteur.

"You bring strange comrades to visit your governor, Monsieur Iberville,"
he said.

"Comrades in peace, your excellency, comrades in war."

"What war?"

"The king makes war against the coureurs du bois. There is a price on
the heads of Perrot and Du Lhut. We are all in the same boat."

"You speak in riddles, sir."

"I speak of riddles. Perrot and Du Lhut are good friends of the king.
They have helped your excellency with the Indians a hun