OF THE FIRST FORTS ERECTED ON THE IROQUOIS RIVER.

[ Relation de ce qui s'est passé en la Nouvelle France ès années 1664 and 1665. ]

At the same time that the Outaouaks embarked to return to their country, the wind becoming more favorable, the soldiers who had been obliged to stop at Three Rivers likewise embarked; and after having navigated Lake St. Peter arrived at the mouth of the River Richelieu, which leads to the Iroquois of the Mohawk.

The plan entertained at this first campaign was to erect on the route some forts, which were considered absolutely necessary as well to secure the passage and liberty of trade as to serve for stores for the troops and retreats for sick and wounded soldiers. For this purpose three advantageous posts were selected. The first at the mouth of the Iroquois River; the second seventeen leagues higher up, at the foot of a current of water called the Sault de Richelieu: the third about three leagues above this current.

The first fort, named Richelieu, was built by Mons. de Chamblay, who commanded five companies which Monsieur de Tracy sent there. The second fort, named St. Louis, because it was commenced the week of the celebration of the festival of that great saint, protector of our Kings and of France, was built by M. de Sorel, who commanded five other companies of the Regiment of the Carignan Salières. The [third] fort was fortunately finished in the month of October on St. Theresa's day, whence it derived its name. From this third fort of St. Therese we can easily reach Lake Champlain without meeting any rapids to stop the batteaux.

This Lake, after a length of sixty leagues, finally terminates in the country of the Mohawk Iroquois. It is still intended to build there, early next spring, a fourth fort, which will command those countries, and from which continual attacks can be made on the enemy, if they do not listen to reason. We shall give at the end of the next chapter, the plan of these three forts, with the map of the Iroquois country1 which has not been as yet seen, after having given some particulars of those people, who thwart us so long a time, because they have never been efficiently attacked.

OF THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY AND THE ROUTES LEADING THITHER.

It must be premised that the Iroquois are composed of five Nations, of which the nearest to the Dutch is that of the Mohawk consisting of two or three villages containing about three to four hundred men capable of bearing arms. These have always been at war with us, though they sometimes pretended to sue for peace.

1 For the Map above referred to, see the Vol. of Relations in the State Library,

Proceeding towards the West, at a distance of forty-five leagues, is found the second Nation, called Oneida, which has no more, at most, than one hundred and forty warriors, and has never wished to listen to any negotiations for peace; on the contrary it has always embarrassed affairs when they appeared about to be arranged.

Fifteen leagues towards sunset is Onnontagué, which has full three hundred men. We have been formerly received there as friends and treated as enemies, which obliged us to abandon that post, where we remained two years, as if in the centre of all the Iroquois Nations, whence we proclaimed the gospel to all those poor people, assisted by a garrison of Frenchmen sent by Monsieur de Lauzon, then Governor of New France, to take possession of those countries in his Majesty's name. At twenty or thirty leagues from there still towards the West is the village of Cayuga, of three hundred warriors, where in the year 1657, we had a mission which formed a little church filled with piety in the midst of these Barbarians.

Towards the termination of the Great Lake, called Ontario, is located the most numerous of the Five Iroquois Nations, named the Senecas, which contains full twelve hundred men in two or three villages of which it is composed.

These last two nations have never openly made war on us, and have always remained neuter. All that extent of country is partly south, partly west of the French settlements, at a distance of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty leagues. It is for the most part fertile, covered with fine timber; among the rest entire forests of chestnut and hickory (noyer,) intersected by numerous lakes and rivers abounding in fish. The air is temperate; the seasons regular as in France, capable of bearing all the fruits of Touraine and Provence. The snows are not deep nor of long duration. The three winters which we passed there among the Onnontagués, were mild compared with the winters at Quebec where the ground is covered five months with snow, three, four and five feet deep. As we inhabit the Northern part of New France and the Iroquois the South, it is not surprising that their lands are more agreeable and more capable of cultivation and of bearing better fruit. There are two principal rivers leading to the Iroquois; one to those which are near New Netherland and this is the Richelieu river of which we shall speak hereafter; the second conducts to the other Nations more distant from us, always ascending our great river St. Lawrence which divides, above Montreal, as if into two branches, whereof one goes to the antient country of the Hurons, the other to that of the Iroquois.

This is one of the most important rivers that can be seen, whether we regard its beauty or its convenience; for we meet there almost throughout, a vast number of beautiful Islands, some large, others small, but all covered with fine timber and full of deer, bears, wild cows which supply abundance of provisions necessary for the travellers who find it every where, and some times entire herds of fallow deer. The banks of the main land are ordinarily shaded by huge oaks and other lofty timber covering a good soil.

Before arriving at the Great Lake Ontario, two others are traversed, one of which adjoins the Island of Montreal, the other is amid way. It is ten leagues long by six wide. It is terminated by a great many little islands very pleasing to the sight, and we have named it Lake St. Francis. But what renders this river inconvenient is the water falls and rapids which extend for the space of forty leagues, to wit from Montreal to the entrance of Lake Ontario, there being only the two lakes just mentioned of easy navigation. To surmount these torrents, we must often debark from the canoe and walk in the river whose waters are sufficiently low in these quarters, chiefly towards the banks. We take the canoe in hand dragging it after us. Ordinarily two men suffice, one forward at the bow, the other behind at the stern; and as the canoe is very light, being made merely of the bark of trees, and as it is not loaded, it glides more smoothly over the water, not meeting great resistance. Some times the canoe is to be landed and carried some distance, one man in front,

the other in the rear; the first carrying one end of the canoe on the right shoulder, the second carrying the other end on the left. It becomes necessary to do this either on meeting cascades and entire rivers which fall sometimes perpendicularly from a prodigious height or when the current is too rapid; or when the water thereabout being too deep, we cannot walk, dragging the canoe along by the hand; or when the country is to be crossed from one river to the other.

But when the mouth of the Great Lake is reached, the navigation is easy, when the waters are tranquil, becoming insensibly wider at first; then about two-thirds, next one half and finally out of sight (of land); especially after one has passed an infinity of little islands which are at the entrance of the Lake, in such great number and in such a variety that the most experienced Iroquois Pilots sometimes lose themselves there, and experience considerable difficulty in distinguishing the course to be steered, in the confusion and as it were in the labyrinth formed by the islands, which otherwise have nothing agreeable beyond their multitude. For these are only huge rocks rising out the water, covered merely by moss, or a few spruce or other stunted wood whose roots spring from the clefts of the rocks which can supply no other aliment or moisture to these barren trees than what the rains furnish them.

After leaving this melancholy abode, the Lake is discovered appearing like unto a sea without islands or bounds, where barks and ships can sail in all safety; so that the communication would be easy between all the French colonies that could be established on the borders of this Great Lake which is more than a hundred leagues long by thirty to forty wide.

It is from this point that all the Iroquois Nations can be reached, by various directions, except the Mohawks, the route to whom is by the River Richelieu, of which we can safely say two words since they regard it, that our troops have already constructed the three forts of which we have spoken. It is called the Richelieu River because of the fort of the same name which was erected there at its mouth at the commencement of the wars; and which has been rebuilt anew to secure the entrance of that river. It likewise bears the name of the River of the Iroquois, because it is the route which leads thither, and it is by it these Barbarians used most ordinarily come to attack us. The bed of this river is one hundred to one hundred and fifty paces wide almost throughout, though at its mouth it is somewhat narrower: its borders are decorated with beautiful pines through which we can walk with ease; as in fact fifty of our men have done a foot by land nearly twenty leagues of the way from the mouth of the river to the Sault, which is so called, though it is not properly a waterfall but only an impetuous rapid full of rocks, that arrest its course and render the navigation almost impossible for three quarters of a league. In time however its passage may be facilitated. The remainder of the river has from the beginning a very fine bottom; as many as eight islands are to be met with before arriving at the basin, which is at the foot of the Sault. This basin is like a little lake, a league and a half in circumference and six to eight feet deep, where fish abounds almost at all seasons.

To the right of this basin in going up, is seen Fort Saint Louis, built quite recently here, which is very convenient for the design entertained against the Iroquois, since its position renders it almost impregnable and causes it to command the whole river.

After passing the rapids of the Sault which extend three leagues, the third fort is visible that terminates all these rapids: for the river afterwards is very beautiful and quite navigable to the Lake called Champlain, at the extremities of which we enter on the lands of the Mohawk Iroquois.