their defence, and suffered their
hereditary enemy to waste their fields and burn their towns. The English
called the Five Nations British subjects, on which the French taunted
them with being British slaves, and told them that the King of England
had ordered the governor of New York to poison them. This invention had
great effect. The Iroquois capital, Onondaga, was filled with wild
rumors. The credulous savages were tossed among doubts, suspicions, and
fears. Some were in terror of poison, and some of witchcraft. They
believed that the rival European nations had leagued to destroy them and
divide their lands, and that they were bewitched by sorcerers, both
French and English.[10]

After the Peace of Ryswick, and even before it, the French governor kept
agents among them. Some of these were soldiers, like Joncaire,
Maricourt, or Longueuil, and some were Jesuits, like Bruyas,
Lamberville, or Vaillant. The Jesuits showed their usual ability and
skill in their difficult and perilous task. The Indians derived various
advantages from their presence, which they regarded also as a flattering
attention; while the English, jealous of their influence, made feeble
attempts to counteract it by sending Protestant clergymen to Onondaga.
"But," writes Lord Bellomont, "it is next to impossible to prevail with
the ministers to live among the Indians. They [the Indians] are so nasty
as never to wash their hands, or the utensils they dress their victuals
with."[11] Even had their zeal been proof to these afflictions, the
ministers would have been no match for their astute opponents. In vain
Bellomont assured the Indians that the Jesuits were "the greatest lyars
and impostors in the world."[12] In vain he offered a hundred dollars
for every one of them whom they should deliver into his hands. They
would promise to expel them; but their minds were divided, and they
stood in fear of one another. While one party distrusted and disliked
the priests, another was begging the governor of Canada to send more.
Others took a practical view of the question. "If the English sell goods
cheaper than the French, we will have ministers; if the French sell them
cheaper than the English, we will have priests." Others, again, wanted
neither Jesuits nor ministers, "because both of you [English and French]
have made us drunk with the noise of your praying."[13]

The aims of the propagandists on both sides were secular. The French
wished to keep the Five Nati