s or nations-the Mohawks, the Cayugas, the Senecas, the Onondagas, and the Oneidas.] had heard with some disquietude of the body of trained soldiers sent by the

the little band, five or six hundred French and Canadians, left Fort Saint-Louis, unfortunately without waiting for a party of Algonquins who should have acted as scouts. It was a distressing march. The soldiers had to walk through deep snow, and the unfamiliar use of snowshoes was a great trial to the Europeans. At night, no shelter! They had to sleep in the open air, under the canopy of the sky and the cold light of the glimmering stars. Having no guides, Courcelle and his men lost their way in that unknown country. After seventeen days of extreme toil they found that, instead of reaching the Mohawk district, they were near Corlaer in the New Netherlands, sixty miles distant. The vanguard had a brush with two hundred Iroquois, who slipped away after killing six French soldiers and leaving four of their own number dead. The governor could go no farther with his exhausted troops an

once recalled and Captain de Sorel was ordered to march with some two hundred Frenchmen and ninety Indians to strike a blow at the raiders. Sorel lost no time and had nearly reached the enemy's villages when he met Tracy's nephew and the other prisoners under escort of an Iroquois chief and three warriors, who were bound for Quebec to make amends for the treacherous murder recently perpetrated and to sue for peace. Under these circumstances Captain de Sorel did not think it necessary to proceed farther, and marched his men home again with the Iroquois and the rescued prisoners. On August 31 a great meeting was held at Quebec in the Jesuits' garden. The delegates of the Five Nations were present, and speeches were made enlarging on the desirability of peace. But it soon became apparent that no peace could be lasting except after a successful expedition against the Mohawks. Tracy, Courcelle, and Talon held a consultation, and the intendant submitted a well-prepared document in which he reviewed the reasons for and against a continuance of the war. In Talon's mind the arguments in favour of it had undoubtedly the greater weight. Tracy and Cou

deur de Repentigny. Father Albanel and Father Raffeix, Jesuit priests, the Abbe Dollier de Casson, a Sulpician, and the Abbe Dubois, chaplain of the Carignan regiment, accompanied the army. Three hundred light boats had been launched for the crossing of Lakes Champlain and Saint-Sacr

n, with arms, provisions, and ammunition strapped on their backs, French and Canadians slowly proceeded through the great woods, whose autumnal glories were vanishing fast under the influence of the chill winds of October. Slipping over moist logs, sinking into unsuspected swamps, climbing painfully over steep rocks, they went forward with undaunted determination. At night they had to sleep in the open on a bed of damp leaves. The crossing of rivers was sometimes dangerous. Tracy, who unfortunately

rs appeared to them three times as great as they really were, and at the sound of the drums, like the voice of demons, they fled panic-stricken. The first village was taken without striking a blow. The viceroy immediately ordered a march against the second, which was also found abandoned. Evidently the Iroquois were terrified, for a third village was taken in the same way, without a show of defence. It was thought that the invaders' task was finished, when an Algonquin squaw, once a captive of the Iroquois, informed Courcelle that there were two other villages. The soldiers pushed forward, and the fourth settlement of the ever-vanishing enemy fell undefended into the hands of the French. The sun was setting; the exertions of

plentiful crop was ready for harvest. All this was to be destroyed; but first an impressive ceremony had to be performed. The army was drawn up in battle array. A French officer, Jean-Baptiste Dubois, commander of the artillery, advanced, sword in hand, to the front, and in the presence of Tracy and Courcelle, declared that he was directed by M. Jean Talon, king's counsellor and intendant of justice, police, and finance for New France, to take possession of Andaraque, and of all the country of the Mohawks, in the name of the king. A cross was solemnly planted alongside a post bearing the king's coat of arms. Mass wa

destruction of the Iroquois towns was known, prayers were changed to thanksgiving. The Te Deum was solemnly chanted, and on November 14 a mass was said in the church of Notre-Dame-de-Quebec, followed by a procession in gratiarum actionem. New France might well rejoice. A great result had been attained. True it was that the Mohawks, panic-stricken, had not been met and crushed. in a set encounter. N

inform their respective tribes that he would give them four months to send hostages and make peace; otherwise he would lead against them another expedition more calamitous for their country than the first one. At length, in the month of July of the following year, ambassadors of