When the proceedings opened there were the usual long harangues,
followed by daily negotiations between the governor and the chiefs. It
was a leading feature of Frontenac's diplomacy to reward the friendly,
and to win over malcontents by presents or personal attention. Each
day some of the chiefs dined with the governor, who gave them the food
they liked, adapted his style of speech to their ornate and
metaphorical language, played with their children, and regretted,
through the interpreter Le Moyne, that he was as yet unable to speak
their tongue. Never had such pleasant flattery been applied to the
vanity of an Indian. At the same time Frontenac did not fail to insist
upon his power; indeed, upon his supremacy. As a matter of fact it had
involved a great effort to make all this display at Cataraqui. In his
discourses, however, he laid stress upon the ease with which he had
mounted the rapids and launched barges upon Lake Ontario. The sum and
substance of all his harangues was this: 'I am your good, kind father,
loving {44} peace and shrinking from war. But you can see my power and
I give you fair warning. If you choose war, you are guilty of
self-destruction; your fate is in your own hands.'

Apart from his immediate success in building under the eyes of the
Iroquois a fort at the outlet of Lake Ontario, Frontenac profited
greatly by entering the heart of the Indian world in person. He was
able, for a time at least, to check those tribal wars which had
hampered trade and threatened to involve the colony. He gained much
information at first hand about the _pays d'en haut_. And throughout
he proved himself to have just the qualities which were needed in
dealing with a North American Indian--firmness, good-humour, and
dramatic talent.

On returning from Lake Ontario to Quebec Frontenac had good reason to
be pleased with his summer's work. It still remained to convince
Colbert that the construction of the fort at Cataraqui was not an undue
expense and waste of energy. But as the initial outlay had already
been made, he had ground for hope that he would not receive a positive
order to undo what had been accomplished. At Quebec he received
Colbert's disparaging comments upon the assembly of the Three Estates
{45} and the substitution of aldermen for the syndic who had formerly
represented the inhabitants. These comments, however, were not so
couched as to make the governor feel that he had lost the minis