f the Iroquois have pledged
themselves to take the field whenever the Governor shall require the axe
to be dug up and lifted against the English and the Five Nations. Next
summer the chiefs of all these tribes will come to Quebec, and ratify in
a solemn General Council the wampums they now send by me and the other
missionaries, my brothers in the Lord!"

The Abbe, with the slow, formal manner of one long accustomed to the
speech and usages of the Indians, unrolled the belts of wampum, many
fathoms in length, fastened end to end to indicate the length of the
alliance of the various tribes with France. The Abbe interpreted
their meaning, and with his finger pointed out the totems or signs
manual--usually a bird, beast, or fish--of the chiefs who had signed the
roll.

The Council looked at the wampums with intense interest, well knowing
the important part these Indians were capable of assuming in the war
with England.

"These are great and welcome pledges you bring us, Abbe," said the
Governor; "they are proofs at once of your ability and of your zealous
labors for the King. A great public duty has been ably discharged by you
and your fellow-missionaries, whose loyalty and devotion to France
it shall be my pleasure to lay before His Majesty. The Star of Hope
glitters in the western horizon, to encourage us under the clouds of
the eastern. Even the loss of Acadia, should it be final, will be
compensated by the acquisition of the boundless fertile territories
of the Belle Riviere and of the Illinois. The Abbe Piquet and his
fellow-missionaries have won the hearts of the native tribes of the
West. There is hope now, at last, of uniting New France with Louisiana
in one unbroken chain of French territory.

"It has been my ambition, since His Majesty honored me with the
Government of New France, to acquire possession of those vast
territories covered with forests old as time, and in soil rich and
fertile as Provence and Normandy.

"I have served the King all my life," continued the Governor, "and
served him with honor and even distinction,--permit me to say this much
of myself."

He spoke in a frank, manly way, for vanity prompted no part of his
speech. "Many great services have I rendered my country, but I feel
that the greatest service I could yet do Old France or New would be the
planting of ten thousand sturdy peasants and artisans of France in the
valley of the far West, to make its forests vocal with the speech of