ich confronted La Barre, and in
fairness it must be admitted that they were the most serious thus far
in the history of Canada. From the first the Iroquois had been a pest
and a menace, but now, with the English to flatter and encourage them,
they became a grave peril. The total population of the colony was now
about ten thousand, of whom many were women and children. The regular
troops were very few; and, though the disbanded Carignan soldiers
furnished the groundwork of a valiant militia, the habitants and their
seigneurs alone could not be expected to defend such a territory
against such a foe.

{95}

Above all else the situation demanded strong leadership; and this was
precisely what La Barre failed to supply. He was preoccupied with the
profits of the fur trade, ignorant of Indian character, and past his
physical prime; and his policy towards the Iroquois was a continuous
series of blunders. Through the great personal influence of Charles Le
Moyne the Five Nations were induced, in 1683, to send representatives
to Montreal, where La Barre met them and gave them lavish presents.
The Iroquois, always good judges of character, did not take long to
discover in the new governor a very different Onontio from the imposing
personage who had held conference with them at Fort Frontenac ten years
earlier.

The feebleness of La Barre's effort to maintain French sovereignty over
the Iroquois is reflected in his request that they should ask his
permission before attacking tribes friendly to the French. When he
asked them why they had attacked the Illinois, they gave this ominous
answer: 'Because they deserved to die.' La Barre could effect nothing
by a display of authority, and even with the help of gifts he could
only postpone war against the tribes of the Great Lakes. The Iroquois
intimated that for the present they would be {96} content to finish the
destruction of the Illinois--a work which would involve the destruction
of the French posts in the valley of the Mississippi. La Barre's chief
purpose was to protect his own interests as a trader, and, so far from
wishing to strengthen La Salle's position on the Mississippi, he looked
upon that illustrious explorer as a competitor whom it was legitimate
to destroy by craft. By an act of poetic justice the Iroquois a few
months later plundered a convoy of canoes which La Barre himself had
sent out to the Mississippi for trading purposes.

The season of 1684 proved ev