THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 97 
from the other the Senecas interrupted the fur trade 
on the western lakes, and the central tribes infested 
the upper St. Lawrence. In the summer of 1689 they 
penetrated as far as Montreal, and shouted defiance to 
the garrison, while they laid waste the country for 
miles around, and roasted and devoured their pris- 
oners in full sight of the terror-stricken town. This 
achievement, however, marked the acme of their suc- 
cess and of their power. The next year they had to 
reckon with a skilful and indomitable soldier in the 
person of Count Frontenac, and the fates were no 
longer propitious to them. 
Frontenac had already been governor of New 
France for ten years, from 1672 to 1682. Court 
scandal said that he was a rival of Louis XIV. in the 
affections of Madame De Montespan, and that the 
jealous king had sent him over to America to get him 
out of the way. He was an able administrator and a 
man of large views. He even saw the desirableness 
of introducing an element of local self-government 
into the Canadian community, and strove to do so, 
though unsuccessfully. He sympathized with La 
Salle in his adventurous schemes, and aided them to 
the extent of his ability. Had he been properly sup- 
ported by the king, he might perhaps have carried out 
the bold suggestion of Talon, and wrested from the 
English their lately acquired province of New York, 
thus isolating New England, and materially strength- 
ening the grasp of France upon the American conti- 
nent. But he unwisely made enemies of the Jesuits, 
and his fiery temper and implacable stubbornness 
got him into so many quarrels that, in 1682, he was 
ordered home. Now, after seven years of neglect, 
2H 
