enemy, having laid waste the island with fire and sword, and having lost only three of their number, departed, carrying off two hundred prisoners, reserved for death and torture. Nearly a thousand of the French are said to have perished or been captured in this terrible invasion. The governor found it impossible to disabuse the offended tribes of their belief in his treachery, thus reaping in full the bitter fruits of his original perfidy. The war was continued, and famine and disease were added to the calamities of the French. Fort Niag ara and Fort Frontenac were successively abandoned by their garrisons, and the unfortunate colony, devastated by pestilence, involved in war with the English, and exposed to the still more terrible ravages of Indian hostility, seemed reduced to an almost desperate condition.

CHAPTER VI.

REAPPOINTMENT OF M. DE FRONTENAC.-NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE IROQUOIS.-DESTRUCTION OF SCHENECTADY, ETC. -UNSUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION OF PHIPPS AGAINST QUEBEC.- RENEWED WARS WITH THE IROQUOIS. -EXPEDITION OF FRONTENAC.

In this extremity, it was found absolutely indispensable, that a man of the first order of talents should be placed at the head of affairs in Canada; and the Count de Frontenac, whose former administration, though self-willed and arbitrary, had been marked by enterprise, energy, and policy, was at once reinstated in the office of governor. (1689.) He brought with him to America the Iroquois chiefs, so treacherously seized by his predecessor, and such was the fascination of his manners, that he completely won their friendship -Oureouharé, the principal of them, ever after remaining strongly attached to his person. By the advice of that chief, he sent four of them as a deputation to their people, with overtures of peace; and the friendly adviser, adding a persuasive message, announced his intention not to quit the count till the affair was satisfactorily adjusted.

But the hostile nation, embittered by ancient wrong, and haughty with recent triumph, replied in lofty terms. The tree of peace, they said, plauted by Yonondio (the governor) at Frontenac, had been

watered with blood and polluted by treachery. Let atonement be made, and all the captives be delivered, and he might then "plant again the tree of peace, but not in the same spot.' Hostilities were presently renewed, and Frontenac, perceiving how greatly the enemy were encouraged by the alliance and instigation of the English, (now at open war with France,) resolved to make the latter feel, in turn, the terrors of savage enmity. An expedition, which, in 1690, he fitted out from Quebec, consisting of a hundred French, and a force of Indian allies, surprised Schenectady, then the frontier town of the New York settlements. Sixty-three of the inhabitants were massacred, and the rest carried prisoners into Canada. The English village of Sementels was also surprised and destroyed by another party, and the Iroquois in their turn also met with a signal defeat. This active and cruel policy confirmed the latter in their hatred, but increased the fidelity and attachment of the Hurons, Ottawas, and other Indian allies of the French, who rejoiced in the return and the sharp measures of "their great father," the count.

In the same year (1690) an expedition of thirty-four vessels, fitted out for the conquest of Quebec, under Sir William Phipps, sailed from Boston, and, having captured all the ports of Newfoundland and Acadia, entered the St. Lawrence. On learning this disastrous news, the count hastened to put the town in a state of defence, and peremp torily rejected a summons to surrender, which the English commander dispatched in advance of his fleet. On the 18th of October, the English, sustaining much loss from the sharp shooting of their enemies, disembarked near the river St. Charles, not far from the city. An action ensued, in which the assailants had at first the advantage, but were finally repulsed by the garrison, though the latter were very inferior, both in number and appointments. The English were finally compelled to abandon the attempt, and to rëembark, leaving their cannon and ammunition. Despite this mortifying result, there is little doubt that Phipps, from the vast superiority of his forces, both military and naval, by a well-directed attack, could have carried the place; and the French, it is said, devoutly returned thanks to God for having, by a special providence, deprived the enemy of common sense. On the 23d the hostile fleet sailed down the river, and seven or eight of the vessels were soon after lost in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The Iroquois, the next year, renewed hostilities, landing, with a thousand warriors, on the island of Montreal, burning houses, and carrying off prisoners, whom they put to death with cruel tortures.

Other incursions were made, and in the skirmishes which ensued, many lives were lost on both sides among them, those of several French officers of high rank; and the French at last, by way of retaliation, almost vied with the savages in the cruelties inflicted on their captives. Under their famous chief, Black Kettle, the Iroquois made continual forays into the French territory, rendering seed-time and harvest extremely dangerous, making the forts the only places of safety, and boasting that their enemies should have no rest except in the grave. Nevertheless, Frontenac, by his unremitting vigilance and vigour, so far kept them at bay, that, in 1692, the cultivation of the land was resumed, and the traffic in furs once more renewed.

Two years afterwards, the hostile tribes made overtures of peace, and Oureouharé, who went into their country, returned with thirteen French prisoners, some of them persons of distinction, who had long been held in captivity; but owing to the insidious interference of the English, nothing of importance was finally effected. The next year (1695) Fort Cataraqui, or Frontenac, which had been abandoned and destroyed, was rebuilt, and in June of 1696, the French, having mustered all their forces—regular, provincial, and Indianmade a grand invasion of the enemy's country: "De Callieres commanded the left wing, the Chevalier de Vaudreuil the right; while the count, then seventy-six years of age, was carried in the centre in an elbow-chair." No warriors, however, appeared to oppose the march of this formidable force, and the principal fort of the Five Nations was found already reduced to ashes. Only a single prisoner was taken, an aged warrior, nearly a hundred years old, whom the French, with almost inconceivable barbarity, delivered to their savage allies to be tortured to death. With unmoved fortitude, he endured their utmost cruelty, deriding them to the last as slaves of a contemptible race of intruders. Nothing of moment was accomplished by this expedition, the Iroquois retreating without offering battle during the advance, but harassing the invaders severely on their return.

They prosecuted the war with vigour, but with their allies, the English, met with repeated disasters; and the famous Black Kettle was surprised and killed while hunting, by a party of Algonquins. Negotiations for peace were again opened, but were retarded by the death of Oureouharé, the friendly mediator between his countrymen and the French. The peace between France and England, concluded

in 1698, opened the way for a more successful attempt, and a jealousy against the English, lately sprung up among the Iroquois, furthered the advancement of the project. Just as the negotiation was being concluded, on the 29th of November, 1698, the Count de Frontenac died, at the age of seventy-eight years, twenty of which had been passed in Canada, during an administration, from important and interesting incidents, the most memorable in the history of that province. Though the commencement of his official career was marked by violence and self-will, yet, with little assistance from the mother-country, he had preserved a colony which he found on the verge of destruction, and ere its close he had rēgained the confidence of the king, the respect of his subordinates, and in a great measure the esteem and good-will of the long-hostile savages.

CHAPTER VII.

DE CALLIERES. PEACE WITH THE IROQUOIS.-SINGULAR RESOLUTION OF THE FRENCH PRISONERS. DE VAUDREUIL.-EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA: DISCONCERTED BY THE IROQUOIS-UNSUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION OF NICHOLSON.-TREATY OF UTRECHT. -EXTENSION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE PROVINCE.-DE BEAUHARNOIS. PEACE AND PROSPERITY OF CANADA.

THE office of governor, left vacant by the death of Frontenac, was conferred on De Callieres, an able officer, who had been commandant of Montreal, and who was high in favour with the Indian allies of the French. It is said that on war parties and other solemn occasions, he would dance the war-dance with them, brandishing his hatchet, and enacting all the savage pantomime of a warrior bound against his foes. His administration was marked by excellent prudence and policy; and by the year 1700, a treaty of peace was finally effected with the Five Nations, for so many years involved in such deadly hostility with the Canadians. Numerous prisoners, on both sides, were restored; but, singularly enough, while the savages sought their forest-homes with eagerness, "the greater part of the French captives were found to have contracted such an attachment to the wild freedom of the woods, that neither the commands of the king

nor the tears and entreaties of their friends could induce them to quit the savage associates with whom they were united."

The memorable war waged by Louis XIV. for the oppression of Europe, and its disastrous results to the French, at Blenheim, Ramillies, and other defeats, left the Canadian colonies dependant on their own resources; and the death of the able De Callieres, which occurred in 1703, was a misfortune which was severely felt. "His loss was great to Canada; and although his powers of mind wanted the splendid points which cast such brilliant lustre on the government of M. de Frontenac, yet, from his great excellence of character, he was beloved and respected by all; and having never violated his word to the Indians, he always retained their implicit confidence." The Count de Vaudreuil, agreeably to the general wish of the people, was appointed to succeed him.

The English, now confident of expelling their rivals from America, called on the Iroquois to renew hostilities; but that high-spirited people, with honourable feeling, replied that when they made a treaty, they did so to keep it; whereas the English and the French seemed to do so only for the purpose of breaking it; and one chief plainly intimated his opinion that both nations were drunk. Some minor hostile operations having occurred, the English, in 1709, dispatched a great force from New York to effect the conquest of Canada; and a large body of Iroquois and Michigans, according to requisiton, joined the expedition. A singular story is told of the artful means used by the latter to disconcert the project of their allies. A force dispatched by the governor to interrupt their progress having failed to accomplish its object, and the English being exultant with the prospect of success, an Iroquois chief harangued his countrymen on the impolicy of permitting the latter to completely overwhelm their enemies. "What will become of us," he said, "if we destroy the French, who keep the English in check? The latter will then assuredly crush us, in order to possess our country. Let us not, therefore, foolishly bring certain ruin on ourselves, merely to indulge our passions or please the English. Let us rather leave the French and English in a position which will make either of them set a high value on our friendship."

The allied army halted on the bank of a small river, waiting for artillery and ammunition, and the Iroquois busied themselves in hunting-casting, it is said, the skins of various wild beasts into the stream above the encampment, and thus poisoning its waters, to the