The Hero of New France

Little is known about Adam Dollard (referred to as Daulac on his death certificate) except that he came to New France in 1658 under mysterious circumstances and had a military background in France.

Adam Dollard in the spring of 1660, assumed the leadership of an expedition to the Ottawa River. Along with 17 young French companions left Ville-Marie (Montreal) to deter an army of 800 Iroquois who were intent on invading Quebec and Montreal later that year to remove the French from their hunting grounds once and for all.

These young Frenchmen set up camp at the foot of the Long Sault (rapids) along the Ottawa River and were joined eventually by 40 Huron’s and 4 Algonquin’s who were sworn enemies of the Iroquois.

Scarcely had they had time to put an old abandon fort in shape when 300 Iroquois burst forth along the river. They were the advance-guard of the 800 Iroquois forming at the mouth of the Richelieu on the St. Lawrence.

Fighting ensued and the Iroquois were driven back several times with severe losses. At that point, they sent for the entire army of Iroquois to take this little fort. After five days of fighting, the Iroquois by overwhelming numbers managed to enter the fort and kill all the survivors but three. These unfortunate men were divided up and taken to the individual Iroquois villages to be tortured to death.

A third of the Iroquois army is said to have perished in this battle. The Iroquois were appalled by the fact that the defense was put up by only 17 Frenchmen since most of the Huron’s abandoned them, and so they withdrew to their own territory among the five Iroquois nations. The planned attack on Montreal and Quebec was postponed indefinitely.