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In a few days, Garangula, an Iroquois chief, arrived, attended by thirty of his warriors.*. After having been properly regaled by the French governor, a council was held with all due ceremony; and a circle being formed of the French officers and the Indian warriors, Monsieur de la Barre, placing himself in his chair of state, thus commenced his address to the old Iroquois chieftain :

"The king, my master, being informed that the Iroquois have for a long time infringed the peace, has ordered me to come hither with an escort, and to send to the Onondagas, to invite their chief sachems to visit me. The intention of this great monarch is that you and I should smoke the pipe of peace together: provided you engage, in the name of the Five Nations, to give reparation to his subjects, and not to quarrel with them in future. The Five Nations have robbed and abused all our traders who were going to the Illinois, Miami, and other tribes, the children of my king. On these occasions, they have acted contrary to the treaty of peace with my predecessor. I am ordered, therefore, to demand satisfaction; and to tell them that, in case of refusal, or their plundering us any more, I have express orders to declare war against them. This belt guarantees my words."†

* Charlevoix gives him the Indian name Hauskouan; the French called him La Grande Gueule. Hence probably he got the more sounding appellation of Garangula.

+ The belt, or collar, of wampum, is given on these occa

After several other similar threats, the French governor thus concluded his speech: "This is what I have to say to Garangula, that he may carry back to the Five Nations the declaration which the king my master has commanded me to make. He will be concerned if they force him to send a great army to Cadarackui Fort, to begin a war which must prove fatal to them. He would also be sorry that this fort, which was the work of peace, should become the prison of your warriors. We must endeavour, on both sides, to prevent such misfortune. The French, who are the brethren and friends of the Five Nations, will never trouble their repose, provided the satisfaction which I demand be given, and the treaties of peace hereafter punctually observed. I shall be extremely sorry if my words do not produce the effect which I expect, for then I shall be obliged to join with the English governor of New York, who is commanded by the king his master to assist me in burning the forts of the Five Nations, and in destroying you.This belt guarantees my words."

Garangula was too well aware of the real intentions of the French, and saw too clearly their inability, at that time, to execute them, not to hear with the utmost contempt the threats thus held out by

sions, according to the Indian fashion, as a record or solemn remembrance of their speeches, treaties, promises, &c. The wampum belts are handed down from generation to generation among the Indian nations.

M. de la Barre. During the governor's address, the Indian kept his eyes immoveably fixed upon the end of his pipe; and, after the speech was concluded, he walked composedly several times round the circle, and then, placing himself directly opposite to the governor, thus addressed him :

"Onnontio,*

"I honour you, and all the warriors now with me likewise honour you. Your interpreter has finished your speech: I now begin mine. My voice hastens to reach your ear: hearken to my words.

"Onnontio, you must have imagined, when you left Quebec, that the heat of the sun had burnt up all the forests which make our country inaccessible to the French, or that the lake had so much overflowed its banks, as to have surrounded our cabins, and made it impossible for us to escape. Yes, Onnontio, you surely must have believed this; and the curiosity of seeing so great a country destroyed by fire or water, has brought you so far: but now you are undeceived, since I, and my warriors here, have come to assure you that the Five Nations are not yet destroyed. I thank you, in their name, for bringing back into their country the calumet of peace which your predecessor received from their hands. I also congratulate you that you left still

* Onnontio means the Great Mountain, and was the usual appellation given by the Indians to the governors-general of Canada.

buried underground that hatchet which has been so often dyed in the blood of the French.* Listen, Onnontio; I am not asleep; my eyes are open, and the sun, which gives me light, discovers to me, at the head of a band of soldiers, a great captain who speaks in his sleep. He says that he only came to this lake to smoke the great calumet with the Onondagas but Garangula sees the contrary, and that it was to knock us on the head, if sickness had not prevented the French from doing so. I see Onnontio dreaming in a camp of sick men, whose lives the Great Spirit has saved by visiting them with this sickness for, our women would have taken up their clubs, and our old men and children carried their bows and arrows into the heart of your camp, if our warriors had not disarmed them, when your ambassador came to my village. This is so; I have spoken it."

Garangula, after proceeding some time in this strain, closed his lecture to the governor-general of New France in the following words:

"Listen, Onnontio-My voice is that of the Five Nations: hear what they answer: open your ears to what they say. When they buried the hatchet within the Fort of Cadarackui, in the presence of your predecessor, they planted on the same

*To bury the hatchet is the Indian expression for concluding a peace, as the unburying it means the preparing to go to war.

spot the tree of peace, to be there carefully nourished: that the fort, instead of being a rendezvous for soldiers, might become a retreat for traders; and in place of being made a deposit for arms and ammunition of war, it should only be used as a magazine for beaver skins and merchandise. Take care that in future so great a number of soldiers as appear now enclosed in that little fort do not choke the tree. It would be a great pity that, after taking root so favourably, its growth should be checked, and prevent its covering with its branches both your country and ours. I assure you, in the name of the Five Nations, that our warriors will dance under its leaves the dance of the calumet, and remain quiet on their mats, and never dig up the hatchet to cut down the tree of peace: unless their great brothers Onnontio and Corlear* shall, either jointly or separately, endeavour to attack this country, which the Great Spirit gave to our ancestors. This belt guarantees my words, and this other one the authority which has been given to me by the Five Nations."†

Neither Charlevoix nor La Potherie take any particular notice, in their Histories, of this speech of the Iroquois chief; the former merely stating that one of the Indian deputies had addressed

* Corlear was the name by which the Indians usually distinguished the governors of the English colony of New York. + La Hontan, vol. i. let. 7.

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