70 THE FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND INDIANS. [1696-1700. 



trained among the hardships of the fur-trade, thin, 

 sinewy, and strong, arrayed in wild costume of 

 beaded moccason, scarlet leggin, and frock of buck- 

 skin, fantastically garnished with many-colored 

 embroidery of porcupine. ' Then came the levies 

 of the colony, in gray capotes and gaudy sashes, 

 and the trained battalions from old France in 

 cuirass and head-piece, veterans of European wars. 

 Plumed cavaliers were there, who had followed 

 the standards of Conde or Turenne, and who, even 

 in the depths of a wilderness, scorned to lay aside 

 the martial foppery which bedecked the camp and 

 court of Louis the Magnificent. The stern com- 

 mander was borne along upon a litter in the midst, 

 his locks bleached with years, but his eye kindling 

 with the quenchless fire which, like a furnace, 

 burned hottest w^hen its fuel was almost spent. 

 Thus, beneath the sepulchral arches of the forest, 

 through tangled thickets, and over prostrate trunks, 

 the aged nobleman advanced to wreak his ven- 

 geance upon empty wdgwams and deserted maize- 

 fields.^ 



Even the fierce courage of the Iroquois began to 

 quail before these repeated attacks, while the grad- 

 ual growth of the colony, and the arrival of troops 

 from France, at length convinced them that they 

 could not destroy Canada. With the opening of 

 the eighteenth century, their rancor showed signs 

 of abating ; and in the year 1726, by dint of skil- 

 ful intrigue, the French succeeded in establishing 

 a permanent military post at the important pass of 



1 Official Papers of the Expedition. —Doc. Hist. N. Y. I. 323. 



