utterly. Still Sargeant would not show the white flag;
so an underfactor flourished a white sheet from an upper window.
Chevalier De Troyes came forward and seated himself on one of the
cannon. Governor Sargeant went out and seated himself on the same
cannon with two bottles of wine. The English of Albany were allowed to
withdraw to Charlton Island to await the company ship. As for the
other prisoners, those who were not compelled to carry the plundered
furs back to Quebec, were turned adrift in the woods to find their way
overland north to Nelson. Iberville's bushrovers were back in Montreal
by October.

{161}

CHAPTER IX

FROM 1686 TO 1698

War with the Iroquois--The year of the massacre--Frontenac returns--The
heroine of Vercheres--Indian raid and counter-raid--Massacre and
Schenectady--The massacre at Fort Loyal--Boston roused to
action--Quebec besieged--Phips and Frontenac--Retreat of the
English--Iberville's gallant sea fight--Nelson surrenders

For ten years Hudson Bay becomes the theater of northern buccaneers and
bushraiders. A treaty of neutrality in 1686 provides that the bay
shall be held in common by the fur traders of England and France; but
the adventurers of England and the bushrovers of Quebec have no notion
of leaving things so uncertain. Spite of truce, both fit out raiders,
and the King of France, according to the shifting diplomacy of the day,
issues secret orders "to permit not a vestige of English possession on
the northern bay."

Maricourt Le Moyne held the newly captured forts on the south shore of
James Bay till Iberville came back overland in 1687. The fort at
Rupert had been completely abandoned after the French victory of the
previous summer, and the Hudson's Bay Company sloop, the _Young_, had
just sailed into the port to reestablish the fur post. Iberville
surrounded the sloop by his bushrovers, captured it with all hands, and
dispatched four spies across to Charlton Island, where another sloop,
the _Churchill_, swung at anchor. Here Iberville's run of luck turned.
Three of his four spies were captured, fettered, and thrown into the
hold of the vessel for the winter. In the spring of 1688 one was
brought above decks to help the English sailors. Watching his chance,
the grizzled bushrover waited till six of the English crew were up the
ratlines. Quick as flash the Frenchman tiptoed across decks in his
noiseless moccasins, took one precautionary glance over his s