During his first term of office Frontenac had many enemies in the higher circles of society.  His quarrel with Laval was a cause of scandal to the devout.  His deadlock with Duchesneau dislocated the routine of government.  There was no one who did not feel the force of his will.  Yet to friends and foes alike his recall at sixty-two must have seemed the definite, humiliating close of a career.  It was not the moment to view in due perspective what he had accomplished.  His shortcomings were on the lips of every one.  His strength had been revealed, but was for the time forgotten.  When he left Quebec in 1682 he must have thought that he would never see it again.  Yet when need came he was remembered.  This fact is a useful comment on his first term, extenuating much that had seemed ground for censure in less troubled days.

Let us now regard Frontenac’s policy from his own point of view, and attempt to estimate what he had accomplished down to the date of his recall.

However closely Laval and Duchesneau might seek to narrow Frontenac’s sphere of action, there was one power they could not deny him.  As commander of the king’s troops in Canada he controlled all matters relating to colonial defence.  If his domestic administration was full of trouble, it must also be remembered that during his first term of office there was no war.  This happy result was due less to accident than to his own gifts and character.  It is true that the friendship of Louis XIV and Charles II assured peace between New France and New England.  But Canada could thank Frontenac for keeping the Iroquois at arm’s length.

We have seen how he built the stronghold at Cataraqui, which was named Fort Frontenac.  The vigour and the tact that he displayed on this occasion give the keynote to all his relations with the Indians.  Towards them he displayed the three qualities which a governor of Canada most needed—­firmness, sympathy, and fair dealing.  His arrogance, so conspicuous in his intercourse with equals or with refractory subordinates, disappears wholly when he comes into contact with the savages.  Theatrical he may be, but in the forest he is never intolerant or narrow-minded.  And behind his pageants there is always power.

Thus Frontenac should receive personal credit for the great success of his Indian policy.  He kept the peace by moral ascendancy, and to see that this was no light task one need only compare the events of his regime with those which marked the period of his successors, La Barre and Denonville.  This we shall do in the next chapter.  For the present it is enough to say that throughout the full ten years 1672-82 Canada was free from fear of the Iroquois.  Just at the close of Frontenac’s first term (1680-82) the Senecas were showing signs of restlessness by attacking tribes allied to the French, but there is abundant reason to suppose that had Frontenac remained in office he could have kept these inter-tribal wars under control.