84 LE FEBVRE DE LA BARRE. [1683. 



They assented ; and La Barre then asked, timidly, 

 why they made war on the Illinois. " Because they 

 deserve to die," haughtily returned the Iroquois 

 orator. La Barre dared not answer. They com- 

 plained that La Salle had given guns, powder, and 

 lead to the Illinois ; or, in other words, that he had 

 helped the allies of the colony to defend them- 

 selves. La Barre, who hated La Salle and his 

 monopolies, assured them that he should be pun- 

 ished. 1 It is affirmed, on good authority, that he 

 said more than this, and told them they were wel- 

 come to plunder and kill him. 2 The rapacious old 

 man was playing with a two-edged sword. 



Thus the Illinois, with the few Frenchmen who 

 had tried to defend them, were left to perish ; 

 and, in return, a brief and doubtful respite was 

 gained for the tribes of the lakes. La Barre and 

 his confederates took heart again. Merchandise, 

 in abundance, was sent to Michillimackinac, and 

 thence to the remoter tribes of the north and 

 west. The governor and his partner, La Ches- 

 naye, sent up a fleet of thirty canoes ; 3 and, a 



him to urge the Iroquois to plunder all traders who were not provided 

 with passports from the governor. The Iroquois complied so promptly, 

 that they stopped and pillaged, at Niagara, two canoes belonging to La 

 Chesnaye himself, which had gone up the lakes in Frontenac's time, 

 and therefore were without passports. Recueil de ce qui s'est passe en 

 Canada an Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis Vanne'e 1682. (Published by the 

 Historical Society of Quebec.) This was not the only case in which the 

 weapons of La Barre and his partisans recoiled against themselves. 



1 Belmont, Histoiredu Canada (a contemporary chronicle). 



2 See Discovery of the Great West. La Barre denies the assertion, 

 and says that he merely told the Iroquois that La Salle should be sent 

 home. 



3 Me'moire adresse' a MM. les Inte'resse's en la SocieUe' de la Ferme el 

 Commerce du Canada, 1683. 



