CHAPTEE XX. 



1645, 1646. 

 THE PEACE BROKEN. 



Uncertainties. — The Mission of Jogues. — He reaches the 

 Mohawks. — His Reception. — His Return. — His Second Mis- 

 sion. — Warnings of Danger. — Rage op the Mohawks. — 

 Murder of Jogues. 



There is little doubt that the Iroquois negotia- 

 tors acted, for the moment, in sincerity. Guillaume 

 Couture, who returned with them and spent the 

 winter in their towns, saw sufficient proof that they 

 sincerely deshed peace. And yet the treaty had a 

 double defect. First, the wayward, capricious, and 

 ungoverned nature of the Indian parties to it, on 

 both sides, made a speedy rupture more than likely. 

 Secondly, in spite of their own assertion to the 

 contrary, the Iroquois envoys represented, not the 

 confederacy of the five nations, but only one of 

 these nations, the Mohawks : for each of the mem- 

 bers of this singular league could, and often did, 

 make peace and war independently of the rest. 



It was the Mohawks who had made war on the 

 French and their Indian allies on the lower St. 



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