d
Kondiaronk that there was to be war to the death against the Iroquois,
and on this understanding he went with a band of warriors to Fort
Frontenac. There he learned that peace would be concluded between
Onontio and the Onondagas--in other words, that the Iroquois would soon
be free to attack the Hurons and their allies. To avert this
threatened destruction of his own people, he set out with his warriors
and lay in ambush for a party of Onondaga chiefs who were on their way
to Montreal. Having killed one and captured almost all the rest, he
announced to his Iroquois prisoners that he had received orders from
Denonville to destroy them. When they explained that they were
ambassadors, he {111} feigned surprise and said he could no longer be
an accomplice to the wickedness of the French. Then he released them
all save one, in order that they might carry home this tale of
Denonville's second treachery. The one Iroquois Kondiaronk retained on
the plea that he wished to adopt him. Arrived at Michilimackinac, he
handed over the captive to the French there, who, having heard nothing
of the peace, promptly shot him. An Iroquois prisoner, whom Kondiaronk
secretly released for the purpose, conveyed to the Five Nations word of
this further atrocity.

The Iroquois prepared to deliver a hard blow. On August 5, 1689, they
fell in overwhelming force upon the French settlement at Lachine.
Those who died by the tomahawk were the most fortunate. Charlevoix
gives the number of victims at two hundred killed and one hundred and
twenty taken prisoner. Girouard's examination of parish registers
results in a lower estimate--namely, twenty-four killed at Lachine and
forty-two at La Chesnaye, a short time afterwards. Whatever the
number, it was the most dreadful catastrophe which the colony had yet
suffered.

{112}

Such were the events which, in seven years, had brought New France to
the brink of ruin. But she was not to perish from the Iroquois. In
October 1689 Frontenac returned to take Denonville's place.

[1] See _The Jesuit Missions_ in this Series, chap. vi.

[2] Grangula's speech is an example in part of Indian eloquence, and in
part of the eloquence of Baron La Hontan, who contributes many striking
passages to our knowledge of Frontenac's period.

{113}

CHAPTER VII

THE GREAT STRUGGLE

During the period which separates his two terms of office Frontenac's
life is almost a blank. His relations with h