thered in the bush, until some
Indian settlements were reached. They came upon almost a forest of
chestnut-trees, and fell upon them like locusts. They ate and filled
their haversacks, and it was well that they did so, for the Iroquois
had adopted the Russian expedient of abandoning their villages, and
suffering the enemy to march through a country altogether wanting in
the bare necessaries of life. M. De Tracy marched and countermarched
without effecting anything beyond capturing some old men, and one or
two women with their children. Luckily he fell in with supplies of corn
in one of the abandoned settlements which he took possession of for the
benefit of his army. Still more luckily he got to Quebec again safely,
but so thoroughly disgusted with the state of affairs, that he resigned
his government into De Courcelle's hands, and returned to France. De
Courcelle was a man of some address. He cajoled the Iroquois and
prevented war. He was the founder, but not the builder of Fort
Cataraqui or Kingston, on Lake Ontario. He settled Hurons at
Michillimacinac. Both fort and settlement were intended to benefit the
fur trade. The new settlement was in fact a new hunting ground, and the
new fort was for the protection of the hunters. De Courcelle visited
personally Cataraqui. He was dragged up the Lachine, the Cedars, and
other rapids of the St. Lawrence, in an open boat, but suffered from
moisture and exposure to such an extent that, on returning to Montreal,
he solicited his recall to France, and was recalled accordingly.

In 1669, the Indians encountered, in the shape of smallpox, a more
terrible foe than the musket, the sword, the arrow, or the "firewater."
Whole tribes were exterminated by this loathsome disease, which appears
not to have been imported, inasmuch as the most distant and least
civilized tribes were first attacked and most severely suffered. The
Atlikamegues were completely exterminated. Tadousac and Trois Rivieres
were abandoned by all the Indians. Fifteen hundred Hurons died at
Sillery, and yet the Huron suffered less than any other nation. The
remnant of the tribe was collected by Father Chamounat, who established
them at Lorette, where some half-breeds are yet to be found.

The Count de Frontenac was the third Viceroy of Canada. He succeeded De
Courcelle in 1692, and soon after his arrival erected the fort which
his predecessor had decided upon erecting at Cataraqui, giving it his
own name--a name which