ate to assail him
by land. The French governor immediately called together the Iroquois
deputies, and successfully urged their neutrality in the approaching
struggle. He also secured the somewhat doubtful allegiance of the allied
tribes, but only accepted the proffered services of a few warriors of
each nation, and this more as hostages than for the purpose of
increasing his strength.

M. de Vaudreuil then hastened from Montreal to Quebec, where he found
that his lieutenant, M. de Boucourt, had effectually executed his orders
to strengthen the defenses. The settlements along the coast below that
important stronghold were sufficiently guarded to render a hostile
debarkation difficult and dangerous. The governor immediately
re-ascended the St. Lawrence, and formed a corps of 3000 men under M. de
Longueiul, at Chambly, to await the approach of the English. The
invading army, however, retreated without coming to action, having
received information of a great disaster which had befallen their fleet.
The British admiral had neglected the warnings of an experienced French
navigator, named Paradis, who accompanied him, and approached too near a
small island in the narrow and dangerous channel of the Traverse; a
sudden squall from the southeast burst upon him at that critical moment,
and his own, with seven other ships of the fleet, were driven on the
rocky shore, and utterly destroyed: very few men escaped from these
ill-fated vessels.[415]

The generosity and loyalty of the merchants of Quebec furnished the
governor with 50,000 crowns, to strengthen the fortifications of their
town, on the occasion of a rumor that the English were again preparing
an invasion of Canada, in 1712, aided by the Iroquois, to whom they had
become reconciled. At the same time, a new enemy entered the field--the
fiercest and bravest of the native tribes; this people, called Outagamis
or Foxes, joined in a confederacy with the Five Nations, and undertook
to burn the French fort at Detroit,[416] and destroy the inhabitants. A
large force of their warriors advanced upon the little stronghold, but
Du Buisson, the able and gallant commandant, having summoned the
neighboring allies to the assistance of his garrison of twenty
Frenchmen, defeated the dangerous invaders after a series of conflicts
almost unparalleled for obstinacy in Indian war, and destroyed more than
a thousand of their best and bravest.[417]

These important successes, however, could not