ll, to prove to the Indian
tribes that prudence dictated alliance with the French and not with the
English.

Frontenac wrote a tale of blood. There were three war parties; one set
out from Montreal against New York, and one from Three Rivers and one
from Quebec against the frontier settlements of New Hampshire and Maine.
To describe one is to describe all. A band of one hundred and sixty
Frenchmen, with nearly as many Indians, gathers at Montreal in
mid-winter. The ground is deep with snow and they troop on snowshoes
across the white wastes. Dragging on sleds the needed supplies, they
march up the Richelieu River and over the frozen surface of Lake
Champlain. As they advance with caution into the colony of New York they
suffer terribly, now from bitter cold, now from thaws which make the
soft trail almost impassable. On a February night their scouts tell them
that they are near Schenectady, on the English frontier. There are young
members of the Canadian noblesse in the party. In the dead of night they
creep up to the paling which surrounds the village. The signal is given
and the village is awakened by the terrible war-whoop. Doors are smashed
by axes and hatchets, and women and children are killed as they lie in
bed, or kneel, shrieking for mercy. Houses are set on fire and living
human beings are thrown into the flames. By midday the assailants have
finished their dread work and are retreating along the forest paths
dragging with them a few miserable captives. In this winter of 1689-90
raiding parties also came back from the borders of New Hampshire and of
Maine with news of similar exploits, and Quebec and Montreal glowed with
the joy of victory.

Far away an answering attack was soon on foot. Sir William Phips of
Massachusetts, the son of a poor settler on the Kennebec River, had made
his first advance in life by taking up the trade of carpenter in Boston.
Only when grown up had he learned to read and write. He married a rich
wife, and ease of circumstances freed his mind for great designs. Some
fifty years before he was thus relieved of material cares, a Spanish
galleon carrying vast wealth had been wrecked in the West Indies. Phips
now planned to raise the ship and get the money. For this enterprise he
obtained support in England and set out on his exacting adventure. On
the voyage his crew mutinied. Armed with cutlasses, they told Phips that
he must turn pirate or perish; but he attacked the leader with his fis