. At first surprised, they promptly recovered from their
confusion, and put the savages to flight. Some sixty Iroquois were
wounded in this encounter, and forty-five whom they left dead on the
field of battle were eaten by the Ottawas, according to the horrible
custom of these cannibals. They entered then into the territory of the
Tsonnontouans, which was found deserted; everything had been reduced to
ashes, except an immense quantity of maize, to which they set fire; they
killed also a prodigious number of swine, but they did not meet with a
single Indian.

Instead of pursuing the execution of these reprisals by marching
against the other nations, M. de Denonville proceeded to Niagara, where
he built a fort. The garrison of a hundred men which he left there
succumbed in its entirety to a mysterious epidemic, probably caused by
the poor quality of the provisions. Thus the campaign did not produce
results proportionate to the preparations which had been made; it
humbled the Iroquois, but by this very fact it excited their rage and
desire for vengeance; so true is it that half-measures are more
dangerous than complete inaction. They were, besides, cleverly goaded on
by Governor Dongan. Towards the end of the summer they ravaged the whole
western part of the colony, and carried their audacity to the point of
burning houses and killing several persons on the Island of Montreal.

M. de Denonville understood that he could not carry out a second
expedition; disease had caused great havoc among the population and the
soldiers, and he could no longer count on the Hurons of Michilimackinac,
who kept up secret relations with the Iroquois. He was willing to
conclude peace, and consented to demolish Fort Niagara and to bring back
the Iroquois chiefs who had been sent to France to row in the galleys.
The conditions were already accepted on both sides, when the
negotiations were suddenly interrupted by the duplicity of Kondiaronk,
surnamed the Rat, chief of the Michilimackinac Hurons. This man, the
most cunning and crafty of Indians, a race which has nothing to learn
in point of astuteness from the shrewdest diplomat, had offered his
services against the Iroquois to the governor, who had accepted them.
Enkindled with the desire of distinguishing himself by some brilliant
deed, he arrives with a troop of Hurons at Fort Frontenac, where he
learns that a treaty is about to be concluded between the French and the
Iroquois. Enraged at not