uil received them with courtesy. As required by their
instructions, they demanded the release of the English prisoners in
Canada, and protested against the action of the French governor in
setting on the Indians to attack English settlements when there was
peace between the two Crowns. Vaudreuil denied that he had done so, till
they showed him his own letters to Rale, captured at Norridgewock. These
were unanswerable; but Vaudreuil insisted that the supplies sent to the
Indians were only the presents which they received every year from the
King. As to the English prisoners, he said that those in the hands of
the Indians were beyond his power; but that the envoys could have those
whom the French had bought from their captors, on paying back the price
they had cost. The demands were exorbitant, but sixteen prisoners were
ransomed, and bargains were made for ten more. Vaudreuil proposed to
Thaxter and his colleagues to have an interview with the Indians, which
they at first declined, saying that they had no powers to treat with
them, though, if the Indians wished to ask for peace, they were ready to
hear them. At length a meeting was arranged. The French governor writes:
"Being satisfied that nothing was more opposed to our interests than a
peace between the Abenakis and the English, I thought that I would sound
the chiefs before they spoke to the English envoys, and insinuate to
them everything that I had to say."[270] This he did with such success
that, instead of asking for peace, the Indians demanded the demolition
of the English forts, and heavy damages for burning their church and
killing their missionary. In short, to Vaudreuil's great satisfaction,
they talked nothing but war. The French despatch reporting this
interview has the following marginal note: "Nothing better can be done
than to foment this war, which at least retards the settlements of the
English;" and against this is written, in the hand of the colonial
minister, the word "_Approved_."[271] This was, in fact, the policy
pursued from the first, and Rale had been an instrument of it. The
Jesuit La Chasse, who spoke both English and Abenaki, had acted as
interpreter, and so had had the meeting in his power, as he could make
both parties say what he pleased. The envoys thought him more
anti-English than Vaudreuil himself, and ascribed the intractable mood
of the Indians to his devices. Under the circumstances, they made a
mistake in consenting to the intervi