One of the first matters to receive their attention was the reorganization of the Canadian administration.  We have seen that in 1663 the Sovereign Council had been created, to consist of the high officials of the colony and five councillors.  At this time, September 1665, the five councillors were Mathieu Damours, Le Gardeur de Tilly, and three others who had been irregularly appointed by Mezy, the preceding governor, to take the places of three councillors whom he had arbitrarily dismissed—­Rouer de Villeray, Juchereau de la Ferte, and Ruette d’Auteuil.  The same governor had also dismissed Jean Bourdon, the attorney-general, and had replaced him by Chartier de Lotbiniere.  These summary dismissals and appointments had arisen out of a quarrel between the governor and the bishop, in which the former appears to have been influenced by petty motives.  At any rate Mezy had been recalled by the king; and Tracy, Courcelle, and Talon had been instructed to try him for improper conduct in office.  But before their arrival at Quebec, Mezy had obeyed the summons of another King than the king of France.  He had been taken ill in the spring of the year and had died on May 6.  Mezy being dead, it was wisely thought unnecessary to recall unhappy memories of his errors and misdeeds.  Sufficient would be done if the grievances due to his rashness were redressed.  Accordingly the dismissed officials were reinstated, and on September 23, 1665, a solemn sitting of the Sovereign Council was held, at which Tracy, Courcelle, Laval, and Talon were present, together with the Sieur Le Barroys, general agent of the West India Company, and the Sieurs de Villeray, de la Ferte, d’Auteuil, de Tilly, Damours—­all the councillors in office before Mezy’s dismissals—­Jean Bourdon, the attorney-general, and J. B. Peuvret, secretary of the council.  The letters patent of Courcelle and Talon as well as the commission and credentials of the Sieur Le Barroys were duly read and registered; the letters patent of the Marquis de Tracy had been registered previously.  With these formalities the new administration of Canada was inaugurated.

The next proceeding of the rulers of New France was to prepare for a decisive blow against the daring Iroquois.  Tracy and the soldiers, as we have seen, had arrived in June and three forts were in course of building on the Richelieu river, or ‘riviere des Iroquois,’ so called because for a long period it had been the most direct highway leading from the villages of these bloody warriors to the heart of the colony.  During the summer and autumn of 1665 the Carignan soldiers were kept busy with the construction of these necessary defensive works.  The first fort was erected at the mouth of the river, under the direction of Captain de Sorel; the second fifty miles higher, under Captain de Chambly; and the third about nine miles farther up, under Colonel de Salieres.  The first two retained the names of the officers in charge of their construction, and the third received the name of Sainte-Therese because it was finished on the day dedicated to that saint.  During the following year two other forts were built—­St John, a few miles distant from Sainte-Therese, and Sainte-Anne, on an island at the head of Lake Champlain.  Both Tracy and Courcelle went to inspect the work personally and encourage the garrisons.