is a bar there all red with wrath from the blow which thou hast struck at them last autumn. I will try to deaden this fire, and when the bar shall be again cooled, I will notify thee of it, and thou wilt be able to pass. Behold what I have to tell thee."

Two of this village, speaking alternately for all those of the assembly, observe what they replied.

My brother Englishmen, the king, thou sayest, ours and your queen and the others also have smoothed the land beyond the Great Lake and have effaced the blood with which it was covered. That is well and thou thyself overturnest that here, thou turnest it upside down in order that the blood may no more appear, I do not oppose it, that it may be fair and clean, I find it good. I only know while resting quietly on my mat that suddenly some one comes to tell me that our King strikes the Englishman beyond the Great Lake, and sends me his word. which says My son, strike also the Englishman.

I, who hear thee, I come to strike thee. It is not I who come to strike thee, it is my father who strikes thee by my hands.

My father is now at peace with thee, he ceases from strife with thee and I also, cease from striking thee, that the land may be fair and smooth, I am

content.

Thou sayest my Brother, that the Frenchman has given thee Plaisance Port Royal and the land about them, reserving to himself only the river where Quebec is situated. He shall give thee what he will, as for me, I have my land which I have given to nobody, and which I will not give, I wish always to be the master of it. I know the bounds and when anybody wishes to dwell there, he shall pay. Let the English take wood, fish or hunt game, there is enough of them for all, I will not hinder them; and if some wicked affair happens, we will do nothing on one side or the other, and we will deliberate."

After which the English threw their hats into the air, making a cry, perhaps of Long Live the Queen, and the Savages replied to them by their Sakakois.

The assembly was terminated by a feast of a great ox, which they had killed, a barrel of pork, two barrels of peas, a barrel of flour, two barrels of beer, a great case of brandy and of wine, one of syrup of molasses, three barrels of biscuit, which two men could not clasp, some knives, and this is what has passed in this country to speak of at the beginning of August.

As it is extremely difficult still to find here workmen and provisions for them, I am compelled to let the Savages act, who have spoken to the English in

order to have some.

These here having learned that those of Penobscot had left for Quebec, where they went to seek powder which they are accustomed to give them, these leave to the number of 4 or 5 canoes hoping that you will do them the same favor.1

It is impossible to reconcile these conflicting accounts of the conference. The treaty which embodies its subject-matter, as a sufficient guarantee of its correctness, bears the names of a large number of the most honorable men of New England; but if this guarantee were wanting, we have, as the result of the conference, the spectacle of the settlers, who survived the war, returning to the desolated country and rebuilding their ruined homes, erecting mills and setting on foot various enterprises, which we may be sure they would not have done had the savages taken the position at the conference which Ralé reports them to have assumed. But this is not all. As soon as the articles of peace were known to have been signed at Utrecht, the savages went to Casco and anxiously requested that a conference should be held there. This request the governor would not accede

1 For the letter in French, of which this is a translation made by the author, vide "Lettre du R. P. Rasle a Monsieur le Gouverneur General." Collection de Manuscrits, etc., vol. 11, pp. 562-564.

to, not "being willing so far to condescend," and "ordered" a conference at Portsmouth, to which place the savages submissively went. The reader can form his own conclusion as to which account is entitled to credence.

A few years of peace enabled the hardy English colonists to again take root in the soil of Maine. New hamlets sprang up on the sites of old ones; trading posts were established on the frontiers, and adventurous men planted their rude cabins near by.

Uninfluenced by the fact that Acadia had been ceded back to England, this was regarded by the neighboring French with jealous eyes; and although France and England were enjoying a season of peace and amity, the French rulers of New France ceased not to plot against the welfare of their English neighbors, and to excite the jealousy of the savages against them, by making them feel that the English were usurpers of their territorial rights.

This was easy of accomplishment. The Indians had loose ideas of territorial proprietorship; even tribes had no defined territorial limits. All the land far and near belonged to the wild band, which for the time, could hold it against others, and although Englishmen might possess title deeds to lands from chiefs of tribes, the savages did not feel bound to

respect them; indeed, where rights to land were so common, and dependent altogether upon absolute possession, we cannot wonder that men, who had had no part in the conveyance of land held by their tribe, should pay scant respect to titles given by chiefs or others, to whom the common rights had never been ceded.

Listening to Begon, the intendant, and Vaudreuil, the governor of New France, whose treachery and falsehood so conspicuous in his letters will forever doom him to disgrace, Ralé lent his powerful aid in forwarding their plans. "With the savage," wrote Vaudreuil to the French minister, quoting a senti ment of Father de la Chasse, "temporal interest serves as a vehicle to faith;" and he, therefore, bestowed upon them presents, not the least valuable of which were guns and other weapons to be used against the English settlers, with whose government France was then at peace; and in the same letter he adds, "war with the English is more favorable to us than peace. This was the keynote to what fol

1 Mais comme le marque le Père De la Chasse, la grâce parmi les Sauvages a toujours besoin de la coopération de l'homme, et parmi eux l'intérêt temporel sert de véhicule à la foi. Je ne doute pas, Monseigneur, que vous fassiez attention à ce que j'ai l'honneur de vous marquer à ce sujet.

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