76 LE EEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1680-82. 



have ruined Canada. Moreover, the Illinois, the 

 Hurons, the Ottawas, and all the other tribes 

 threatened by the Iroquois, were the allies and 

 " children " of the French, who in honor as in in- 

 terest were bound to protect them. Hence, when 

 the Seneca invasion of the Illinois became known, 

 there was deep anxiety in the colony, "except 

 only among those in whom hatred of the monop- 

 olist La Salle had overborne every consideration 

 of the public good. La Salle's new establishment 

 of St. Louis was in the path of the invaders; 

 and, if he could be crushed, there was where- 

 with to console his enemies for all else that might 

 ensue. 



Bad as was the posture of affairs, it was made 

 far worse by an incident that took place soon after 

 the invasion of the Illinois. A Seneca chief en- 

 gaged in it, who had left the main body of his 

 countrymen, was captured by a party of Winne- 

 bagoes to serve as a hostage for some of their 

 tribe whom the Senecas had lately seized. They 

 carried him to Michillimackinac, where there 

 chanced to be a number of Illinois, married to 

 Indian women of that neighborhood. A quarrel 

 ensued between them and the Seneca, whom they 

 stabbed to death in a lodge of the Kiskakons, one 

 of the tribes of the Ottawas. Here was a casus belli 

 likely to precipitate a war fatal to all the tribes 

 about Michillimackinac, and equally fatal to the 

 trade of Canada. Frontenac set himself to conjure 

 the rising storm, and sent a messenger to the Iro- 

 quois to invite them to a conference. 



