hat M. de Denonville was
constrained to abandon, or rather defer, his project of humbling the
pride and power of the Tsonnonthouans. He had also reason to doubt the
faith of his Indian allies; even the Hurons of the far West, who had
fought so stoutly by his side on the shores of Lake Ontario, were
discovered to have been at the time in treacherous correspondence with
the Iroquois.

While doubt and disease paralyzed the power of the French, their
dangerous enemies were not idle. Twelve hundred Iroquois warriors
assembled at Lake St. Francis, within two days' march of Montreal, and
haughtily demanded audience of the governor, which was immediately
granted. Their orator proclaimed the power of his race and the weakness
of the white men with all the emphasis and striking illustration of
Indian eloquence. He offered peace on terms proposed by the governor of
New York, but only allowed the French four days for deliberation.

This high-handed diplomacy was backed by formidable demonstrations. The
whole country west of the River Sorel, or Richelieu, was occupied by a
savage host, and the distant fort of Cataracouy, on the Ontario shore,
was with difficulty held against 800 Iroquois, who had burned the farm
stores with flaming arrows, and slain the cattle of the settlers. The
French bowed before the storm they could not resist, and peace was
concluded on conditions that war should cease in the land, and all the
allies should share in the blessings of repose. M. de Denonville further
agreed to restore the Indian chiefs who had been so treacherously torn
from their native wilds, and sent to labor in the galleys of France.

But, in the mean time, some of the savage allies, disdaining the
peaceful conclusions of negotiation, waged a merciless war. The
Abenaquis, always the fiercest foes of the Iroquois confederacy, took
the field while yet the conferences pended, and fell suddenly upon the
enemy by the banks of the Sorel. They left death behind them on their
path, and pushed on even into the English settlements, where they slew
some of the defenseless inhabitants, and carried away their scalps in
savage triumph. On the other hand, the Iroquois of the Rapids of St.
Louis and the Mountain, made a deadly raid into the invaders'
territories.

The Hurons of Michillimakinack were those among the French allies who
most dreaded the conclusion of a treaty of which they feared to become
the first victims. Through the extraordinary machin