278 PEACE. [1644. 



scorched, was given up to the French, who treated 

 him with the greatest kindness. But neither the 

 Governor's gifts nor his eloquence could persuade 

 the Hurons to follow the example of their allies ; 

 and they departed for their own country with their 

 two captives, — promising, however, not to burn 

 them, but to use them for negotiations of peace. 

 With this pledge, scarcely worth the breath that 

 uttered it, Montmagny was forced to content him- 

 self^ 



Thus it appeared that the fortune of war did 

 not always smile even on the Iroquois. Indeed, 

 if there is faith in Indian tradition, there had been 

 a time, scarcely half a century past, when the 

 Mohawks, perhaps the fiercest and haughtiest of 

 the confederate nations, had been nearly destroyed 

 by the Algonquins, whom they now held in con- 

 tempt.^ This people, whose inferiority arose chiefly 

 from the want of that compact organization in 

 which lay the strength of the Iroquois, had not 

 lost their ancient warlike spirit ; and they had one 

 champion of whom even the audacious confeder- 

 ates stood in awe. His name was Piskaret; and 

 he dwelt on that great island in the Ottawa of 



1 Vimont, Relation, 1644, 45-49. 



2 Relation, 1660, 6 (anonymous). 



Both Perrot and La Potherie recount traditions of the ancient superi- 

 ority of the Algonquins over the Iroquois, who formerly, it is said, dwelt 

 near Montreal and Three Rivers, whence the Algonquins expelled them. 

 They withdrew, first to the neighborhood of Lake Erie, then to that of 

 Lake Ontario, their historic seat. There is much to support the conjee 

 ture that the Indians found by Cartier at Montreal .in 1535 were Iroquois. 

 (See " Pioneers of France," 189.) That they belonged to the same family 

 of tribes is certain. Eor the traditions alluded to, see Perrot, 9, 12, 79, 

 and La Potherie, I. 288-295. 



