colony, however, was now free from the scourge of savage hostility.
The Indians turned their subtle craft and terrible energy to the chase
instead of war. From the far-distant hunting-grounds of the St. Maurice
and of the gloomy Saguenay, they crowded to Three Rivers and Tadoussac
with the spoils of the forest animals. At those settlements the trade
went briskly on, and many of the natives became domesticated among their
white neighbors. The worthy priests were not slow to take advantage of
this favorable opportunity; many of the hunters from the north, who were
attracted to the French villages by the fur trade, were told the great
tidings of redemption; and usually, when they returned the following
year, they were accompanied by others, who desired, with them, to
receive the rites of baptism.[376]

The most numerous and pious of the proselytes were of the Huron tribe,
an indolent and unwarlike race, against whom the bold and powerful
Iroquois held deadly feud, which the existing peace only kept in
abeyance till opportunity might arise for effective action. The little
settlement of St. Joseph was the place where first an Indian
congregation assembled for Christian worship; the Father Antoine Daniel
was the pastor; the flock were of the Huron tribe. Faith in treaties and
long-continued tranquillity had lulled this unhappy people into a fatal
security, and all cautions were forgotten,[377] when, on the morning of
the 4th of July, 1648, while the missionary was performing service,
there suddenly arose a cry of terror that the Iroquois were at hand.
None but old men, women, and children were in the village at the time;
of this the crafty enemy were aware; they had crept silently through the
woods, and lain in ambush till morning gave them light for the foul
massacre. Not one of the inhabitants escaped, and last of all, the good
priest was likewise slain.

During this year the first communication passed between the French and
British North American colonies. An envoy arrived at Quebec from New
England, bearing proposals for a lasting peace with Canada, not to be
interrupted even by the wars of the mother countries. M. d'Ailleboust
gladly entertained the wise proposition, and sent a deputy to Boston
with full powers to treat, providing only that the English would consent
to aid him against the Iroquois. But the cautious Puritans would not
compromise themselves by this stipulation. They were sufficiently remote
from the fier