442 THE DESTROYERS. [1662-72. 



ing four nations of the Iroquois league now took 

 up the quarrel, and fared scarcely better than the 

 Mohawks. In the spring of 1662, eight hundred 

 of their warriors set out for the xlndaste country, 

 to strike a decisive blow ; but when they reached 

 the great town of their enemies, they saw that they 

 had received both aid and counsel from the neigh- 

 boring Swedish colonists. The town was fortified 

 by a double palisade, flanked by two bastions, on 

 which, it is said, several small pieces of cannon 

 were mounted. Clearly, it was not to be carried 

 by assault, as the invaders had promised them- 

 selves. Their only hope was in treachery ; and, 

 accordingly, twenty-five of their warriors gained 

 entrance, on pretence of settling the terms of a 

 peace. Here, again, ensued a grievous disappoint- 

 ment ; for the Andastes seized them all, built high 

 scaffolds visible from without, and tortured them to 

 death in sight of their countrymen, who thereupon 

 decamped in miserable discomfiture.^ 



The Senecas, by far the most numerous of the 

 five Iroquois nations, now found themselves at- 

 tacked in turn, — and this, too, at a time when they 

 were full of despondency at the ravages of the 

 small-pox. The French reaped a profit from their 

 misfortunes ; for the disheartened savages made 

 them overtures of peace, and begged that they 

 would settle in their country, teach them to for- 

 tify their towns, supply them with arms and am- 

 munition, and bring " black-robes " to show them 

 the road to Heaven.^ 



1 Lalemant, Relation, 1663, 10. 2 md., 1664, 33. 



