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rement is apparently a lapsus calami for enlevement, in the light of Poncet's mention of the child's death among the Iroquois.

8 (P. 191).-- Interesting contemporary documents regarding Canadian affairs at this juncture are the letters of Marie de l'Incarnation. Writing from Quebec, Aug. 30, 1653. she mentions Poneet's capture, and the siege of Three Rivers by the Iroquois; and adds: "But the reverend Father Mercier, superior of missions, has so fortified this place that the French people here are safe

.... Those wretches have so devastated these districts that we have sometimes believed that we would be obliged to return to France. ... Now the harveste, which are abundant, are being gathered. With that. too, aid is coming from France, which is a consolation to all the people; for it would have been deplorable if matters had come to the extremity of abandoning the country. More than 2,000 French settlers, who have made great outlays in order to establish themselves here, would be destitute, having 10 property elsewhere."

in another letter,- dated 1653 (month and day not given), and addressed to the Ursuline superior at Tours,- Mother Marie makes a statement of especial interest, in view of the credit given by most historians to Frontenac for planning the erection of the fort which bore his name: "At present, a peace is being negotiated; and there is talk of sending Gospel laborers to establish a great mission at Ontario, which is ten days' journey above Montreal. It is intended to take soldiers there also, and to build a fort, in order to make the place secure, because, as that post will be in the midst of several important tribes, it will be a resort for those who shall go to announce the Gospel."

The name " Ontario" was not, as far as is known, applied at that early date to any fixed settlement, whether of French or Indians; but the lake - otherwise known as Lac des Iroquois, Lac St. Louis, and Lac ('atarakoui - was already called Ontario (vol. xxi., p. 101 - its first mention by that name in the Relations), and would be first reached from Montreal at the place known as Catarakoui, where Ifort Frontenac was erected (July, 1673), the site of the present city of Kingston. The name Ontario means, according to 111811 y writers," beautiful lake." Upon this rendering, Hale reMinke

" This, doubtless, is the meaning conveyed to an Iroquois of the present day, unless he belongs to the Tuscarora tribe. But there an be no doubt that the termination io (otherwise written iyo, *** wrong, ale) had originally the sense, not of beautiful,' but of Nhat, it is derived from the word wiyo, which signifies in the Hentet inleef 'good,' but in the Tuscarora 'great.' .. On*** r fn derived from the Huron yontare, or ontare, 'lake'

te huise, marelord with this termination. It was not by any

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means the most beautiful of the lakes which they knew; but it was to both of them emphatically 'the great lake.' "- Iroquois Book of Rites (Phila., 1883), p. 176.

Another letter from Mother Marie, dated Sept. 6, 1653, written to the Ursuline superior at Dijon, gives a graphic account of the events related in our text. After mentioning the rumors, current in the summer, of Iroquois attacks, and the belief of the French colonists that these were false reports, she adds: “But the reverend Father superior of the missions — a man very zealous for the public welfare, who considers it necessary to remain continually upon his guard — labored energetically to secure the fortification of that settlement of Three Rivers. This was contrary to the opinion of the inhabitants of the place themselves, - who, devoted to their own personal affairs, had no inclination to quit these in order to labor on the fortress. Notwithstanding the hindrances encountered by the Father in his undertaking, the fortifications were completed, and all the inhabitants were protected from sudden attacks by the enemy. Hardly three weeks had passed, when 600 Iroquois (by whom we had been threatened) appeared, with the intention of putting all to fire and sword, without sparing age or sex,- which they would cer. tainly have accomplished, if the place had been in the condition in which they expected to find it. All those who lived in the Huron village, being informed of the enemy's approach, immediately took refuge within the fort, and consequently they, as well as the French, escaped slaughter. So true is it that the Iroquois intended to exterminate all and render themselves masters of the place, that they had brought their wives and children, and all their baggage, in order to establish themselves there."-See Richaudeau's edition of the Lettres, t. ii., pp. II – 25.

9 (p. 209). — Concerning the use of wampum, see vol. viii., note 70, and vol. xxvii., note 24; of tobacco on ceremonious occasions, vol. vi., note 25.

10 (p. 221).— This passage, and a similar statement by Marie de l'Incarnation ( note 8, ante), would indicate that the Jesuits had anticipated by twenty years Frontenac's plan of building a fort for the control of Lake Ontario.

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