carried out, the famous Fort St. Louis stood--the residence
and official head-quarters of many governors of Canada.

[4] According to the custom of the ladies of that time, Madame
Champlain wore a small mirror suspended from her girdle. The
untutored natives who approached her were astonished at perceiving
themselves reflected from the glass, and circulated among
themselves the innocent conceit that she cherished in her heart
the recollection of each one of them.

Champlain might have now enjoyed a period of comparative repose but for
two causes of anxiety which soon pressed themselves upon his attention.
The first of these was his knowledge of the cruel state of war subsisting
between the Iroquois and the natives of Canada. In 1620 the former made
incursions in considerable force, and, although few or none of them at
that time approached Quebec, they pressed hard upon the Algonquins higher
up the river, and lay in wait for his former allies, the Hurons, whom
they slaughtered without mercy as they descended with the products of the
chase for the purpose of trading with the French at Three Rivers, Quebec,
and Tadoussac. The injury to French interests, apart from the necessity
for being always on the alert to defend themselves in case of attack from
these barbarians, may be imagined. Champlain, as the only recourse open
to him, made appeals to the company and to the court of France for
succor.

In the course of 1622 and the following year several additional priests
and brothers of the order of Recollets came out to Canada, among whom was
Gabriel Sagard, the historian, who, along with Le Caron, departed as
missionaries into the Huron settlements beyond Lake Simcoe. These two
priests rendered most valuable services to the colony in becoming the
influential promoters of peace with the Iroquois in 1624. They had
labored to confirm in the minds of the Huron people a disposition to come
to terms with their fierce adversaries, between whom and themselves
unceasing hostilities had been waged ever since the period of Champlain's
third and unsuccessful expedition against the cantons. The war had proved
harassing to all the parties concerned--the French, the Iroquois, the
Hurons, the Algonquins, and minor tribes--and all were more or less
inclined to accede to proposals for a general cessation of strife. Caron
and Sagard accompanied a flotilla of sixty Huron canoes down the Ottawa
and St. Lawren