standing between them but that a prosperous correspondence stricht amity and union may perpettually bee continued between those monarchs, The stricktest care shall be taken concerning runawayes from you and those who are here if you please to send for them shall bee all conveyed to you-but if there bee any sol diers who have deserted, I desire you to give me the assurance that they shall not loose their lives, And now, Sir. I begg your pardon for giveing you the trouble of my particular affairs which is thus when my Prince called me out of the French service twenty five thousand livres were due to me as was stated and certifyed to Mons' De Lenoy by the Intendant of Nancy-my stay was so short that I had no time to kisse the King's hands and petition for itt a very great misfortune after so long service, for in the circumstances I was then in I served him faithfully to the uttermost of my power. After I quitted France I went to Tangier and haveing left that place sometime after came hither so that I never had time to represent my case to His Majesty which I request you to espouse for me that so by your means I may obtaine either all or at least some part of that which is due to meThe King I know had bin bountifull to all and I am confident hath too much generosity to see me suffer; however it happens I shall as heartily pray for his good health and happy success in all his undertakings as any one breathing and be ever ready to make all just acknowledgements to yourselfe for so great an obligation and favour; wishing heartily for a favorable occasion to demonstrate how profound an esteem I have for your person and merritts and give undenyable proofs that I am sincerely and with all respects

Sir

Your most humble and affectionate servant

THOS DONGAN

M. DE DENONVILLE TO GOV. DONGAN.

[Paris Doc. III.]

29 Sept. 1686.

I received by the Rev. Father de Lamberville, the elder, missionary among the Iroquois of the village of the Onontagués the letter which you took the trouble to write to me on the 27th July. I repeat, Sir, what I already had the honour to state to you that it will not be my fault that we shall not live in very good intelligence. I am willing to believe, Sir, that you will contribute thereunto on your side, and that you will put an end to all those causes that may exist for dissatisfaction at what is doing under your government by your traders and others whom you protect.

I do not believe, Sir, that the King your master approves of all the trouble you have taken in arming and 'soliciting by presents all the Iroquois Nation to wage war on us this year, neither the exhortations you have made them to plunder our Frenchmen who trade to places which up to the present time we have acquired long before New York was what it is.

You have proposed, Sir, to submit every thing to the decision of our Masters, yet your emissary to the Onnontagués, told all the nations in your name to pillage and to make war on us. This is so notorious a matter that it cannot be doubted, and it will be maintained before your emissary; whether he acted by your or der, or at the suggestion of your merchants at Orange, it has been said and done. You are not ignorant of the expedition of your merchants against Michilimaquina. I ask you, Sir, what do you wish that I should think of all this, and if this behaviour accord with the letter which you did me the honour to write on the 27th July filled with courtesies and friendly expressions as well regarding Religion as the good understanding and friendship existing between our Masters which ought be imitated in this country in token of our respect and obedience to them.

You had the civility to tell me that you would give me up all

the deserters, who to escape the chastisement of their knaveries, take refuge with you; yet you, Sir, cannot be ignorant of those who are there, but as all these are for the major part bankrupts and thieves I trust they will finally give you reason to repent of having given them shelter, and that your merchants who employ them will be punished for having confided in rogues who will not be more faithful to them than they have been to us.

You know, Sir, they spare neither the Outaouas, our most an tient allies, nor the other tribes among whom we have Preachers of the Gospel and with whose cruelties to our holy Missionaries, whom they have martyred, you are acquainted. Are all these reasons, Sir, not sufficiently conclusive to induce you'to contribute to designs so pious as those of your Master? Think you, Sir, that Religion will progress whilst your Merchants supply, as they do, Eau de Vie in abundance which converts the savages, as you ought to know, into Demons and their cabins into counterparts and theatres of Hell,

I hope, Sir, you will reflect on all this, and that you will be so good as to contribute to that union which I desire, and you

wish for.

Finally, Sir, you must be persuaded that I will contribute, willingly and with pleasure, my best to obtain for you the favor you desire from the King my master. I should have wished, Sir, that you had explained your case more clearly, and that you had placed in my hands the proofs or vouchers of your debt, so as to explain it to the King, for so many things pass through the hands of Messrs. his Majesty's Ministers that I fear M. de Lonnoy will not recollect your affair, which he cannot know except through the Intendant who was at Nancy, whose name you do not mention. I shall not fail, Sir, to endeavour to obtain for you some favor from the King my master for the services which you have rendered his majesty. I should wish, Sir, to have an opportunity, on some other more fitting occasion to prove that I am,

Sir,

Your very humble and very obedient Servant.

M. DE DENONVILLE'S MEMOIR

ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN CANADA AND THE NECESSITY OF MAKING WAR NEXT YEAR ON THE IROQUOIS,

{Paris Doc. III.]

Quebec the 8th 9ber 1686.

Our reputation is absolutely destroyed both among our friends and our enemies. It is no trifling thing, My lord, to reestablish it in view of the expense and labor and the dreadful consequences of a war, absolutely necessary. But, My lord, when we are certain that it is God's business end the King's glory that are in question, and that all those to whom they are committed have head and heart occupied only with zeal to perform their duty so as to have nothing wherewith to reproach themselves, we labour untroubled, confident that Heaven will supply the defects of our understanding and abilities, more especially having you as our Protector near to King with whom all things are possible, his piety being the foundation and motive of all his undertakings.

I annex to this Memoir, the duplicate of the letter of June last in which I advised My lord of the expedition of the Iroquois against our allies the Hurons and Ottawas of Missilimakina in the Saguinan. I have learned since, that the English had more to do with that expedition than even the Iroquois who struck the blow. Their intrigues, My lord, reach a point that without doubt it would be much better that they should have recourse to open acts of hostility by firing our settlements, than to do what they are doing through the Iroquois for our destruction.

I know, beyond a moment's doubt that Mr. Dongan has caused all the Five Iroquois Nations to be collected, this spring, at Orange to tell them publicly, so as to stimulate them against us, that I want to declare war against them; that they must plunder our Frenchmen in the Bush which they can easily effect by making an incursion into the country, and for that purpose Mr. Dongan

1 The Country between Lakes Erie and Huron was thus called. Paris Doc.

iii. 84.

caused presents of arms and ammunition to be given them by the merchants, neither more nor less than if it were himself who was to make war. There is no artifice, therefore My lord, that he did not employ to persuade them of their destruction, unless they destroyed ús.

Father de Lamberville, Jesuit Missionary at Onontagué, one of the five villages, being advised of the wicked designs of the English, set all his friends to work to avert the storm, and enjoining them to report every thing to him, he obtained fro them that they would not budge until he had seen me. During his absence Mr. Dongan sent an express to the Iroquois to notify them to march without delay and fall on the Colony, ordering Father de Lamberville's brother, who had remained as hostage to be brought to him, thinking to deprive us of all our missionaries among the Iroquois. At the same time, he sent emissaries among our savages at Montreal to debauch them and draw them to him, promising them Missionaries to instruct them, assuring them that he would prevent Brandy being conveyed to their villages. All these intrigues have given me no small exercise all summer to ward off this blow.

Mr. Dongan wrote me, and I answered him as a man may do who wishes to dissemble, and who cannot yet get angry, much less crush his foe. I thought it better to temporise and answer Mr. Dongan by eluding rather than exhibiting one's chagrin without having the power to injure his enemy. The letters which I reed from him and my answers, copies of which I send, will advise you of my conduct in this conjuncture. Mr. Dongan, notwithstanding works secretly by all the artifices in the world, to debauch our Frenchmen and Indians Col. Dongan's letters will sufficiently explain his pretensions which embrace no less than from the Lakes inclusive to the South Sea. Missilimackinac belongs to them. They have taken its elevation. They have been there treating with our Outawas and Huron Indians, who received them there very well on account of the excellent trade they made there in selling their goods for beaver which they purchase much dearer than we. Unfortunately we had at the time but very few French at Missilimackinac. M. de la Durantaye on arriving there would