willing they should perpetrate. After many disputes, the Onnontagués councilled among themselves, and concluded to enquire of M. le Moine if he would not wait the permission which Mr. Dongan wished the Iroquois to have from him to talk with you, and if he would not tarry ten days more, and you remain at the Lake, to learn Mr. Dongan's final will. This is a piece of Iroquois cunning not to embroil themselves with Mr. Dongan, and to follow entirely what M. le Moine should say, whom they well knew would not wait so long, matters having advanced to the point at which they are, and knowing, moreover, that delay was directly contrary to your instructions. The Iroquis requested M. le Moine himself to communicate their opinion to the Cavalier, which he certainly did in an excellent manner, and which you will be glad to learn when he will give an account of his negotiation.

He has thought proper to send you one of his canoes at once to inform you hereof, and to assure you that as soon as the Onnontagué deputies shall have arrived here, he will endeavour to despatch them hence at the earliest moment to conduct them to you. If not he will leave with the Senecas who are here. Tegannehout acted his part very well and harangued strongly against Mr. Dongan's messenger and in favour of Onnontio. Good cheer and the way you regaled him was a strengthening medicine which sustained his voice when it might perhaps have failed in another who had not experienced proofs of your friendship such as you did him the honour to give him. He will return with M. le Moine.

The Cavalier says that before returning to his Master, he wishes to speak to the Senecas who are expected here. I caress somewhat Tegannehout in order that he may win those of his Nation over to his opinion and not to suffer them to yield to the solicitations of Sieur Arnaud to whom the Onnontagués have given two wretched belts to say to Mr. Dongan that they could not do other than what he himself had urged them to do; to wit, to settle matters peaceably with you, and to soothe his spirit if he were dissatisfied with them for not going to Albany whence they had returned very recently. A letter is sent you which he has given to M. le Moine.

Whatever Sieur Arnaud may say, we have not neglected to

send for the Oneida deputies whom we expect to-morrow. Monsieur le Moine will use the greatest possible diligence to return to you, inasmuch as this delay is not very agreable to him. I am always, my Lord,

Your very humble and very obedient servant,

J. DE LAMBERVILLE.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Onontagué, 27 Sept. 1684.

My Lord,-1 return here after having been delayed ten days in the Lake by very strong head winds. A day before the Iroquois deputies met here, the Senecas sent Belts to the Iroquois villages to declare to them that should you disembark in their country, they would attack you. Six or seven Mohegans (Loups) were preparing to go to the assistance of the Iroquois, as the Outaoutes were aiding the French. The Seneca scouts have been as far as Kaionhouagué, where you had concluded the peace, to be certain of the place at which your army had encamped. The Onnontagués believed for several days that they had killed me. Tegannehout's arrival in this country will have calmed the minds in communicat

ing your peace to them. No news have as yet been received from the Seneca. Some say they will shortly come hither to confer on important matters. If any one come from the For there I shall inform you of whatever I will have learned.

Sieur Arnaud, Mr. Dongan's deputy, has not re-appeared here since my departure from Onnontaé, though he had assured me that he should return in ten days. 'Tis said that his delay is caused by not having found his master at Orange (Albany), and that he has gone to Manath to inform him of the proceedings of the Onnontagué and of your arrival at Gainhouagué, [Hungry Bay.]

I had the honour of writing to you from the Fort whence I sent you a wampum belt from the Tionnontatés. I gave Sieur Hannataksa the belt of Wampum and the red Calumet in your name, to whom I said that you would be ever obliged to him if he would turn his arms to the left of Fort St. Louis, where the Illinois are

mingled with the Oumiamis, so as to give no cause of complaint. Uncertain as I was regarding matters on the side of the Senecas, and fearful that the Senecas would create confusion on arriving here, I made some presents in your name to some captains who could best curb their insolence, so as to prevent the brewing of the

storm.

Your man of business, I mean La Grande Gueule, is not con cerned at any thing; he is a venal being whom you do well to keep in pay. I assured him that you would send him the jerkin you promised. The Cayugas who are gone to war to the borders of Merinlande and Virginia have sent home some of their warriors to say that the English had killed three of their men, and that they having taken five Englishmen alive, had cut their throats after subjecting them to some bad treatment, and that they were still in the English country.

After having spoken to you of others, I must acquit myself of a part of my duty, by thanking you very humbly for all the kindnesses you have been pleased to shower on me. I should have wished you, in addition to the good health in which it pleased God to preserve you in the midst of an army weakened by diseases, greater satisfaction for the trouble you have taken for the public good. Individuals assuredly know that if you had not accepted peace, which is very favorable since no one has been killed on either side, the Colony would have been exposed to the mercy of the Iroquois who would pounce, in different directions, on defenceless settlements, the people of which they would carry off in order to pitilessly burn them. I pray God, who knows the sincerity of your intentions, to be your reward and to heap His blessings on you to the extent of the wishes of him who is entirely, my Lord Your very humble and very obedient servant, J. DE LAMBERVILLE.

I told Colin that you would remember him and his comrade. The Tionnontatés have sent to thank the Onnontagués for having, by their obliging disposition, gained you over to treat for peace, and thus preserve the lives of many, and that they were attached to Onnonthio. Sieur la Grande [Gueule] has pronounced your panegyric here, and professes to keep the promise he made you, to cause

the articles of peace to be observed. Some furs are to be collected this fall. He is treating on this subject with Hannagoge and Ganakontié. There is no news yet from the Senecas.

FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Onnontagué, this 9th Octob. 1684.

My Lord,―The message you sent here by three canoemen from Montreal shows you to be in reality a man of your word. Sieur Grande Gueule has been informed by express, who is gone to find him at his fishery eight leagues from here, that you have written. I shall cause him when he returns particularly to recollect his promise to you to have satisfaction given you. I have spoken in his absence both privately and publicly, to influential persons and obtained promises from the chiefs and warriors that they would send two strings of wampum to the Senecas in three days to put them in mind of the word which the leader of those who pillaged the French canoes had himself brought here, from those of his own nation, that they had accepted all you had concluded at La Famine. I told them what you had concluded and had ordered me to acquaint them with. The report about the thousand Illinois is a mere rumor without any foundation, and M. duLut told me at Katarakoui, that he did not believe the truth of this news; besides there cannot be any apprehension that they could have dared to undertake any thing, having met neither Frenchmen nor Outaouas. All that they could make a demonstration against have more fuzileers than they.

A party of 40 warriors will leave here in six days to attack the Illinois whom they may find among the Chaouennons. I have presented the Captain a shirt in your name, to exhort the Senecas through whom he will pass, to keep their word with you. He has assured me that he will not lead his troop towards the quarter you forbad him. I notified him as well as the others that you had despatched a canoe to inform the Oumiamies and the Maskenses that you had included them in the peace, and that they could remain secure at the place where they had been before they were at war with the Iroquois. The Senecas shall be equally notified of this in a

few days. You may rest assured, my Lord, that I shall spare no pains to have that satisfaction given you which you expect from the Iroquois. The frenchmen who came here told me that whilst you were at La Famine a false alarm reached Montreal that the Iroquois were coming; that there was nothing but horror, flight and weeping at Montreal. What would so many poor people have done in their settlements if merely six hundred Iroquois had made an irruption into the country in the condition in which it is. You form a better opinion than one hundred manufacturers of rhodomontades who were not acquainted with the Iroquois, and who reflect not that the country, such as it is, is not in a condition to defend itself. Had I the honor to converse with you longer than your little leisure allowed me, I should have convinced you that you could not have advanced to Paniaforontogouat [Irondequoit bay] without having been utterly defeated in the state your army was in—which was rather an hospital than a camp. To attack people within their entrenchments and fight banditti in the bush will require one thousand men more than you have. Then you can accomplish nothing without having a number of disciplined savages. I gave you already my thoughts, and believe I told you the truth, and that you deserved the title of "Liberator of the Country" by making peace at a conjuncture when you would have beheld the ruin of the country without preventing it. The Senecas had double pallisades stronger than the pickets of the fort and the first could not have been forced without great loss. Their plan was to keep only 300 men inside, and with 1200 others perpetually harass you. All the Iroquois were to collect together and fire only at the legs of your people to master them, and burn them at their leisure; and after having cut them off by a hundred ambuscades among the foliage and grass, pursue you in your retreat even to Montreal to spread desolation throughout its vicinity also; and they had prepared for that purpose a quantity of canoes of eighteen men each which they kept concealed. But let us all speak of this war to thank God that He has preserved our Governor in the midst of so much sickness, and that He had compassion on Canada from which He turned away the scourge of war which would have laid it entirely desolate.

The English of Merinlande who had killed three Iroquois, and