is eloquence,--made a mockery of the
French efforts to deceive him by a pretence of strength, and openly
declared the intention of the Iroquois to destroy the Illinois, while
La Barre dared not utter a defiant word in behalf of his allies. This
incapable governor was soon recalled and the Marquis de Denonville, an
officer of dragoons, sent in his place. One of the most notable
incidents of the new administration was the capture of the fortified
trading-posts belonging to the English Company of Hudson's Bay, by the
Chevalier de Troyes and a number of Canadians from Montreal, among whom
were the three famous sons of Charles Le Moyne, Iberville,
Sainte-Helene, and Maricourt, the former of whom became ere long the
most distinguished French Canadian of his time. The next {196} event
of importance was the invasion of the country of the Senecas, and the
destruction of their villages and stores of provisions. This was a
most doubtful triumph, since it left the Senecas themselves unhurt.
How ineffectual it was even to awe the Iroquois, was evident from the
massacre of La Chine, near Montreal, in the August of 1689, when a
large band fell upon the village during a stormy night, burned the
houses, butchered two hundred men, women and children, and probably
carried off at least one hundred and twenty prisoners before they left
the island of Montreal, where the authorities and people seemed
paralysed for the moment. The whole history of Canada has no more
mournful story to tell than this massacre of this unhappy settlement by
the side of the beautiful lake of St. Louis. The Iroquois had never
forgiven the treachery of the governor during the winter of 1687, at
Fort Frontenac, where he had seized a large number of friendly Indians
of the Five Nations who had settled in the neutral villages of Kente
(now Quinte) and Ganneious (now Gananoque), not many miles from the
fort. Some of the men were distributed among the missions of Quebec,
and others actually sent to labour in the royal galleys of France,
where they remained until the survivors were brought back by Frontenac,
when he and other Frenchmen recognised the enormity of the crime that
had been committed by Denonville, who is immediately responsible for
the massacre of La Chine. The Iroquois never forgot or forgave.

The French authorities soon recognised the fact {197} that Denonville
was entirely unequal to the critical condition of things in Canada, and
decided in 1689 t