1084.] ENGLISH AND IROQUOIS. 91 



Maryland added two others ; then the hole was 

 filled, the song of peace was sung, and the high 

 contracting parties stood pledged to mutual accord. 1 

 The Mohawks were also at the council, and the 

 Senecas soon after arrived ; so that all the confed- 

 eracy was present by its deputies. Not long before, 

 La Barre, then in the heat of his martial prepara- 

 tions, had sent a messenger to Don^an with a let- 

 ter, informing him that, as the Senecas and Cayugas 

 had plundered French canoes and assaulted a 

 French fort, he was compelled to attack them, and 

 begging that the Dutch and English colonists should 

 be forbidden to supply them with arms. 2 This 

 letter produced two results, neither of them agree- 

 able to the writer : first, the Iroquois were fully 

 warned of the designs of the French ; and, secondly, 

 Dongan gained the opportunity he wanted of as- 

 serting the claim of his king to sovereignty over 

 the confederacy, and possession of the whole 

 country south of the Great Lakes. He added 

 that, if the Iroquois had done wrong, he would re- 

 quire them, as British subjects, to make reparation ; 

 and he urged La Barre, for the sake of peace be- 

 tween the two colonies, to refrain from his intended 

 invasion of British territory. 3 



Dongan next laid before the assembled sachems 

 the complaints made against them in the letter of 

 La Barre. They replied by accusing the French 

 of carrying arms to their enemies, the Illinois and 



1 Report of Conferences at Albany, in Colden, History of the Five 

 Nations, 50 (ed. 1727, Shea's reprint). 



2 La Barre a Dongan, 15 Jain, 1684. 



3 Donyan a La Barre, 24 Juin, 1684. 



