lo47.] THE IROQUOIS AMBASSADOR. 345 



and scarcely one of the fierce confederates had 

 shed so much Huron blood. When he reached 

 the town of St. Ignace,. which he did about mid- 

 summer, and delivered his messages and wampum- 

 belts, there was a great division of opinion among 

 the Hurons. The Bear Nation — the member of 

 then' confederacy which was farthest from the Iro- 

 quois, and least exposed to danger — was for re- 

 jectmg overtures made by so offensive an agency; 

 but those of the Hurons who had suffered most 

 were eager for peace at any price, and, after 

 solemn deliberation, it was resolved to send an 

 embassy in return. At its head was placed a 

 Christian chief named Jean Baptiste Atu'onta ; and 

 on the first of August he and four others departed 

 for Onondaga, carrying a profusion of presents, and 

 accompanied by the apostate envoy of the Iroquois. 

 As the ambassadors had to hunt on the way for 

 subsistence, besides making canoes to cross Lake 

 Ontario, it was twenty days before they reached 

 their destmation. When they arrived, there was 

 great jubilation, and, for a full month, nothing but 

 councils. Ha^dng thus sifted the matter to the 

 bottom, the Onondagas determined at last to send 

 another embassy with Jean Baptiste on his return, 

 and with them fifteen Huron prisoners, as an ear- 

 nest of their good intentions, retaining, on their 

 part, one of Baptiste's colleagues as a hostage. 

 This time they chose for their envoy a chief of 

 their own nation, named Scandawati, a man of 

 renown, sixty years of age, joining with him two 

 colleagues. The old Onondaga entered on his 



