as you advised them not to be troubled at the sight of your barks and Gendarmes, they give you notice, likewise, not to be surprised when you will see faces painted red and black at Ochouegen. I gave a Cayuga letters for you some eight or ten days ago. I do not know if he will have delivered them. I believe I advised you that Colonel Dongan had the Duke of York's placards of protection (des sauvegardes) affixed to the three upper Iroquois villages, and that he styled himself Lord of the Iroquois. A drunken man here tore these proclamations down and nothing remains but the post to which the Duke of York's arms were attached. I gave La Grande Gueule your belt under hand, and remarked to him the things which you wish him to effect. He calls himself your best friend and you have done well to have attached to you this hoc, who has the strongest head and loudest voice among the Iroquois. The over coats (capots) and shirts which you have been so good as to send to be used on occasions are a most efficacious means to gain over, or to preserve public opinion. An honorable peace will be more advantageous to Canada than a war very uncertain as to its success. I am of opinion, whatever Messrs the Merchants may say, that you do them a good turn by inducing the Iroquois to give you satisfaction, and that the war would be very prejudicial to them. I am with all sort of respect and submission, My Lord, Your very humble and very obedient servant, FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. Onnontagué, this 28th of August. 1684. My Lord-M. le Moine's arrival has much pleased our burgomasters who have exhibited towards him many attentions, an! have promised to terminate matters with you in the manner you desire. The Onnontagués have called the Deputies of each Nation together as I have advised you. The Cayugas came here the first, with two young Tionnoutatés to restore them to you. We expect the Senecas, and as we were hoping that the Oneidas would arrive to-day, one Arnaud,' whom Father Bruyas is well acquainted with, came here on horseback from Mr. Dongan to tell the Iroquois that he did not wish them to talk with you without his permission, being complete master of their land and conduct towards you; that they belonged to the King of England and the Duke of York, and that their Council fires were lighted at Albany and that he absolutely forbad them talking with you. Two words which we whispered in the ears of your pensioner, La Grande Gueule, caused us to see at once how unreasonable, in his opinion, was so strange a proceeding as that of Mr. Dongan, after having himself exhorted the Iroquois to give us satisfaction in order to avoid a disastrous war which would have very bad [consequences. When M. le Moine and I shall have the honour to see you, we shall give you the particulars of these things, and how La Grande Gueule came to high words against this Messenger, exhorting all the warriors and chiefs not to listen to the proposals of a man who seemed to be drunk, so opposed to all reason was what he uttered. We being two or three days' journey from here, the said Messenger produced three Belts of Wampum. The first and second are from the Mohawks and Oneidas, who have promised Mr. Dongan that they should not go to meet us; the third was for the Onnontagués to exhort them to give their wampum belt also, as assurance of the same thing. They answered by La Grande Gueule, that they esteemed themselves too highly honored by your having granted them the embassy of M. le Moine and by your having placed the affairs of the peace in their hands, to commit so cowardly an action and so grave a fault as that which he seemed 'Arnold Cornelis" Viele, a citizen of Albany, who acted as Interpreter be tween the Whites and Indians. For his service in this capacity he had already obtained from the latter, 26th Sept. 1683, a tract of land called Wachkeerhoha, on the north bank of the Mohawk above Schenectady, the grant of which is in Alb. Deed Book C, 199.-TR. 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 henge 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 communicating 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 haye 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 Tionnontates 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 |
