he northern lakes, so that they were extremely
anxious to rid themselves of it.

In the confused and tumultuous history of the savages of this continent
one now and then sees some tribe or league of tribes possessed for a
time with a spirit of conquest and havoc that made it the terror of its
neighbors. Of this the foremost example is that of the Five Nations of
the Iroquois, who, towards the middle of the seventeenth century, swept
all before them and made vast regions a solitude. They were now
comparatively quiet; but far in the Northwest, another people, inferior
in number, organization, and mental capacity, but not in ferocity or
courage, had begun on a smaller scale, and with less conspicuous
success, to play a similar part. These were the Outagamies, or Foxes,
with their allies, the Kickapoos and the Mascoutins, all living at the
time within the limits of the present States of Wisconsin and
Illinois,--the Outagamies near Fox River, and the others on Rock
River.[280] The Outagamies, in particular, seem to have been seized with
an access of homicidal fury. Their hand was against every man, and for
twenty years and more they were the firebrands of the West, and a
ceaseless peril to French interests in that region. They were, however,
on good terms with the Five Nations, by means of whom, as French writers
say, the Dutch and English of Albany sent them gifts and messages to
incite them to kill French traders and destroy the French fort at
Detroit. This is not unlikely, though the evidence on the point is far
from conclusive.

Fort Ponchartrain, better known as Fort Detroit, was an enclosure of
palisades, flanked by blockhouses at the corners, with an open space
within to serve as a parade-ground, around which stood small wooden
houses thatched with straw or meadow-grass. La Mothe-Cadillac, founder
of the post, had been made governor of the new colony of Louisiana, and
the Sieur Dubuisson now commanded at Detroit. There were about thirty
French traders, _voyageurs_, and _coureurs de bois_ in the place, but at
this time no soldiers.

The village of the Pottawattamies was close to the French fort; that of
the Hurons was not far distant, by the edge of the river. Their houses
were those structures of bark, "very high, very long, and arched like
garden arbors," which were common to all the tribes of Iroquois stock,
and both villages were enclosed by strong double or triple stockades,
such as Cartier had found at Hochela