Formerly, the hunting of them appeared to our Frenchmen an impossibility, and now it serves them as recreation. They have also adapted themselves to the hunting of the beaver, which forms one of this country's great sources of wealth.

But the warfare of the Iroquois thwarts all our pleasures, and is the sole affliction of new France, which is in danger of becoming utterly devastated unless prompt and powerful relief is rendered from France. For, to tell the truth, nothing is so easy for these barbarians as to subject all our settlements to fire and massacre whenever they choose, with the exception of Quebec, which is in a state of defense, but which would still be only a prison that one could not [18] leave with safety; and where one would die of hunger, if all the outlying country were laid

waste.

What gives the enemy this advantage over us is, that all the rural settlements outside of Quebec are without defense, and are distant from one another as much as eight or ten leagues on the banks of the great River. In each house there are only two, three, or four men, and often only one, alone with his wife and a number of children, who may all be killed or carried off without any one's knowing aught about it in the nearest house.

I say nothing of the losses that France would suffer if these vast regions should pass from her control. The foreigner would reap a great [19] advantage, to the detriment of French navigation.

Moreover, in their method of warfare the Iroquois are so stealthy in their approach, so swift in their execution, and so expeditious in their retreat, that one commonly learns of their departure before gain

Au refte, la façon que tiennent les Iroquois dans leurs guerres, eft fi cachée dans leurs approches, si fubite dans leur execution, & fi prompte dans leur retraite, que d'ordinaire l'on apprend plufstost leur départ, que l'on n'a pû fçauoir leur venuë. Ils viennent en renards dans les bois, qui les cachent, & qui leur feruent de fort inexpugnable. Ils attaquent en lions; & comme ils furprennent lors qu'on y pense le moins, ils ne trouuent point de refiftance: ils fuient en oiseaux, difparoiffans pluftoft qu'ils ne paroiffent. Vn pauure homme trauaillera tout le iour proche de fa maifon, l'ennemi qui eft caché dans la forest toute voifine, fait fes approches, comme vn chaffeur fait de fon [20] gibier, & décharge fon coup en affeurance, lors que celuy qui le reçoit fe pense plus affeuré.

Or qu'y a-t-il de plus aifé à vne troupe de huit cent, ou de mille Iroquois, que de fe refpandre par dans les bois, tout le long de nos habitations Françoises, faire vn massacre general, en vn mesme iour vfant de cette surprise, tuant les hommes, & emmenant les femmes & les enfans captifs, comme ils ont defia fouuent fait? ils pafferoient en plein midy deuant Quebec, chargez de cette proie toute innocente, que l'on ne pourroit pas ni courir aprés eux, ni recouurer les captifs de leurs mains, pour lefquels il ne nous resteroit que des larmes inutiles: nos chaloupes font trop pefantes, & leur canots font trop legers pour les pouuoir atteindre: [21] outre que s'il y auoit quelque chofe à craindre pour eux, la nuit leur feruiroit de voile pour se defrober à nos yeux: fe gliffant dans le bois, où ils trouuent leur chemin par tout, quoique pour des François il n'en paroiffe

ing any knowledge of their arrival. They come like foxes through the woods, which afford them concealment and serve them as an impregnable fortress. They attack like lions, and, as their surprises are made when they are least expected, they meet with no resistance. They take flight like birds, disappearing before they have really appeared. A poor man will work all day near his house; the enemy, hidden in the forest that is close at hand, steals upon him like a hunter upon his [20] game, and deals his blow in safety at the moment when its recipient deems himself most secure.

Now, what is there easier, for a band of eight hundred or a thousand Iroquois, than to scatter through the woods along the entire line of our French settlements and inflict a general massacre, adopting this method of surprise all on the same day, killing the men and leading away captive the women and children, as they have often done already? They would pass before Quebec in broad noonday, laden with this most innocent prey; and no one could pursue them, or recover the prisoners from their hands, over whom we could only weep unavailing tears. Our shallops are too heavy and their canoes too light to render possible our overtaking them. [21] And, besides, if there should be anything for them to fear, the night would serve them as a veil to conceal them from our eyes; they would slip into the woods, where they find their way everywhere, although to a Frenchman there seems to be no path whatever; and even though we should outnumber them, they would be in a position of safety, and we would not dare to follow them.

It is a kind of miracle that the Iroquois, although

aucun; & quand mefme nous ferions en plus grand nombre qu'eux, ils y feroient en affeurance, & nous n'oferions pas les fuiure.

C'eft vne espece de miracle, que les Iroquois pouuant fi aisément nous deftruire, ils ne l'aient pas encore fait; ou plustost c'est vn prouidence de Dieu, qui iufqu'à maintenant les a aueuglez, & a rompu les deffeins qu'ils ont formé de nous faire cette forte de guerre. Encore cette année, ils eftoient partis de leurs païs, au nombre de fept cent, pour cet effet; l'alarme en eftoit fi grande [22] icy vers le printemps dernier, que les maifons de la campagne estoient abandonnées comme en proie à l'ennemi, & tout le monde fe croioit quafi perdu, fi Monfieur le Vicomte d'Argençon noftre Gouuerneur n'euft raffeuré les efprits par fon courage, & par sa sage conduite, mettant tous les postes de Quebec en fi bon ordre, qu'on y fouhaittoit plustoft l'Iroquois que de l'y craindre. Pour le reste du païs, nos habitations font fi expofées aux ennemis, que s'ils n'y ont point causé vne defolation generale, c'eft que Dieu les a arrestez en chemin; & quoy qu'il en ait cousté la vie à quelquesvns de nos François, toutefois le païs s'eftant conferué, & demeurant en fon entier, nous auons pluftoft fuiet de benir Dieu, que de nous [23] plaindre de nos pertes.

Mais Dieu ne s'eft pas obligé de continuer fur nous cette prouidence, quasi miraculeufe, qui aiant egalé nos defirs, a furmonté nos efperances; & il femble qu'il n'ait eu d'autre deffein, que de nous faire subfifter iufques au temps prefent, que la paix estant heureusement en France, l'on pourra nous donner fecours contre vn ennemi, qui s'eft refolu enfin ou

able to destroy us so easily, have not yet done so; or, rather, it is a providence of God, who has hitherto blinded them, and foiled the plans which they have formed for prosecuting this kind of war against us. This year, they had again left their country for this purpose, to the number of seven hundred; and the consequent alarm was so great [22] here, toward last spring, that the country houses were abandoned as prey to the enemy. All thought themselves as good as lost, until Monsieur the Vicomte d'Argençon, our Governor, reassured them by his courage and his wise course of action-putting all the posts of Quebec in such good order that the Iroquois was rather hoped for there than feared. As for the rest of the country, our settlements are so exposed to the enemy that, if they have not wrought general devastation among them, it is because God has stayed their course; and, although they have been the cause of some loss of life to our French, still, the country being preserved and continuing in its entirety, we have reason rather to bless God than to [23] complain of our losses.

But God has not bound himself to continue over us this almost miraculous providence, which has not only equaled our desires but has exceeded our hopes; and he seems to have had no other design than to assure our subsistence up to the present time, when, peace being happily established in France, it will be possible to send us aid against an enemy that has finally resolved either to destroy us, or to perish in the attempt. Our destruction would involve that of a countless number of souls; the destruction of the enemy would give new life to this whole country and cause here a reign of peace, the sweets of which