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by Charles G. Bird (Author)
Adventure abounds in this fast-paced novel of 17th century French musketeers and soldiers, Antoine Cadillac and Jean St. Aubin, in Nouvelle France.
Sergeant Antoine Cadillac is determined to rise to a position of wealth and power in the French Empire of Louis XIV. While on a recruiting mission in St. Aubin de Blaye, France he meets a young boy, Jean Cassé. Their futures entwine and the story culminates with the founding of Detroit. Cadillac utilizes his skills as a soldier, mariner, trader, and cartographer to rise to captain and found Detroit. Jean remains with Detroit to defend and support it to his death. He leaves a legacy of numerous descendants.
The story follows the career of Cadillac from sergeant-recruiter in 1680 to commandant of Fort Pontchartrain at Détroit in 1701. Jean's story begins as a recruit in the army of King Louis XIV. He and his comrades leave the civilized world of France to fight for His Majesty in the wilds of Nouvelle France, a real place that ceased to exist in 1760. Their lives frequently intersect and a friendship develops between them. They fight common enemies, the hostile Iroquois Indians, the hated English, and smugglers!
Month's after Captain Cadillac founds Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit, Jean Cassé St. Aubin, aka the Skull Breaker, has the honor and responsibility of escorting the first French women to travel the St. Lawrence seaway, and the Great Lakes waterways, to reach Detroit. The wives of Cadillac and his adjutant Alphonse Tonti, are placed in his hands. He escorts those women, Mesdames Marie Thérèse Guyon Cadillac, and Marie Anne Pecoté de Belestre Tonti, and their children, through harrowing adventures to deliver them safely to Detroit.
