upon himself to do justice to both parties. He was obeyed: the chiefs of
the contending tribes repaired to Quebec, and by the firmness and
judgment of the governor, the breach was healed, and peace secured.

At this time a scourge more terrible than even savage war visited the
red race of Canada. The small-pox first appeared among the northern
tribe of the Attikamegues, and swept them totally away: many of their
neighbors shared the same fate. Tadoussac, where 1200 Indians usually
assembled to barter their rich furs at the end of the hunting season,
was deserted. Three Rivers, once crowded with the friendly Algonquins,
was now never visited by a red man, and a few years after the frightful
plague first appeared, the settlement of Sillery, near Quebec, was
attacked; 1500 savages took the fatal contagion, and not one survived.
The Hurons, who had been always most intimately associated with the
French, suffered least among the native nations from the malady. In 1670
Father Chaumonat assembled the remnant of this once powerful tribe in
the neighborhood of Quebec, and established them in the village of
Lorette,[386] where a mixed race of their descendants remains to this
day.

Even the presence of the dreadful infliction of the small-pox and the
fear of French power could not long restrain the savage impulse for war.
The most distant tribe of the Iroquois became engaged in a sanguinary
quarrel with a neighboring nation, and took a number of prisoners. The
governor immediately sent to warn these turbulent savages that if they
did not desist from war, and return their prisoners, he would destroy
their villages as he had those of the Agniers. This peremptory message
raised the indignation of the Iroquois, they at first proudly disclaimed
the right of the French to dictate to the free people of the forest, and
vowed that they would perish rather than bow down to the strangers'
will; but, finally, the wisdom of the old men prevailed in the council:
they knew that they were not prepared to meet the power of the
Europeans; it was therefore decided that they should send a portion of
their prisoners to the governor. He either believed, or pretended to
believe, that they had fully complied with his demands, deeming it
prudent not to drive the Indians to extremities.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 374: Among the Ursulines who accompanied Madame de la Peltrie
to Quebec was Marie de l'Incarnation, "the Theresa of France," and Marie
de St.