e, was declared formally in the fall of 1653.
Then, at the request of the Onondagas, Father Simon le Moyne, a
missionary of great tact and courage, who was the first Frenchman to
ascend the St. Lawrence as far as the Thousand Isles, ventured into the
Iroquois country, where he soon became a favourite. As a result of the
negotiations which followed this mission, Governor de Lauzon was
persuaded to send a colony to the villages of the Onondagas. This
colony was composed {148} of Captain Dupuy, an officer of the garrison,
ten soldiers, and between thirty and forty volunteers. Father Dablon,
who had previously gone with Father Chaumonot among the Onondagas, and
had brought back the request for a colony, accompanied the expedition,
which left Quebec in the month of June, 1656. On the way up the river
the Onondagas were attacked by a band of Mohawks, when the boats
carrying the French had gone ahead and were not within sight. Some of
the Onondagas were killed and wounded, and then the Mohawks found out
that they had surprised and injured warriors belonging to a tribe of
their own confederacy. They endeavoured to explain this very serious
act of hostility against their own friends and allies by the excuse
that they had mistaken them for Hurons, whom they were on the way to
attack. There is little doubt that they well understood the character
of the expedition, and attacked it through envy of the success of the
Onondagas in obtaining the settlement of Frenchmen in their villages.

When the Mohawks had made their explanations, they allowed the angry
Onondagas to proceed on their journey, while they themselves went on to
Quebec where, as we have already seen, they showed their contempt of
the French by assailing the Hurons under the very guns of the fort of
St. Louis. As soon as the French colony arrived at the Onondaga
villages, they took possession of the country in the name of Jesus. On
an eminence overlooking the lake they erected the mission of St. Mary
of Gannentaha, the correct Iroquois name for Onondaga, {149} in the
vicinity of the present city of Syracuse. The Onondagas generally
appeared delighted at the presence of the French, though at this very
time the Mohawks continued to paddle up and down the St. Lawrence to
the consternation of the French and Canadian Indians alike. The Jesuit
priest Garreau was killed in one of these excursions while accompanying
a party of Ottawas to Lake Superior.

The colonists