etween England and France. The British governor also expressed surprise
that the French should contemplate erecting a fort at Niagara, "because
it should be known in Canada that all that country was a dependency of
New York." M. de Denonville, in reply, denied the pretensions of the
English to sovereignty in New France, and pointed out the impropriety of
hostile communications between inferiors, while the kings whom they
served remained on amicable terms. He rendered, however, some sort of
evasive explanation on the subject of his preparations against the
Iroquois.

The following year the governor general received from the court the
notification of a most important agreement between England and France,
that, "notwithstanding any rupture between the mother countries, the
colonies on the American continent should remain at peace."
Unfortunately, however, the force of national prejudice, and the
clashing of mutual interests, rendered this wise and enlightened
provision totally fruitless.

In the summer of 1687, M. de Denonville marched toward Lake Ontario with
a force of 2000 French and 600 Indians, having already received all the
supplies and re-enforcements which he had expected from France. His
first act of aggression was one that no casuistry can excuse, no
necessity justify--one alike dishonorable and impolitic. He employed two
missionaries, men of influence among the savages, to induce the
principal Iroquois chiefs to meet him at the fort of Cataracouy, under
various pretenses; he there treacherously seized the unsuspecting
savages, and instantly dispatched them to Quebec, with orders that they
should be forwarded to France to labor in the galleys. The missionaries
who had been instrumental in bringing the native chiefs into this
unworthy snare were altogether innocent of participation in the outrage,
never for a moment doubting the honorable intentions of their countrymen
toward the Indian deputies. One, who dwelt among the Onneyouths, was
immediately seized by the exasperated tribe, and condemned to expiate
the treachery of his nation, and his own supposed guilt, in the flames.
He was, however, saved at the last moment by the intervention of an
Indian matron, who adopted him as her son. The other--Lamberville by
name--was held in great esteem among the Onnontagues, to whose
instruction he had devoted himself. On the first accounts of the outrage
at Cataracouy, the ancients assembled and called the missionary befor