1686.] THE FRENCH AT HUDSON'S BAY. 135 



This buccaneer exploit exasperated the English 

 public, and it became doubly apparent that the 

 state of affairs in America could not be allowed to 

 continue. A conference had been arranged be- 

 tween the two powers, even before the news came 

 from Hudson's Bay ; and Count d'Avaux appeared 

 at London as special envoy of Louis XIV. to settle 

 the questions at issue. A treaty of neutrality was 

 signed at Whitehall, and commissioners were ap- 

 pointed on both sides. 1 Pending the discussion, 

 each party was to refrain from acts of hostility or 

 encroachment ; and, said the declaration of the 

 commissioners, " to the end the said agreement 

 may have the better effect, we do likewise agree 

 that the said serene kings shall immediately send 

 necessary orders in that behalf to their respective 

 governors in America." 2 Dongan accordingly was 

 directed to keep a friendly correspondence with his 

 rival, and take good care to give him no cause of 

 complaint. 3 



It was this missive which had dashed the ardor 

 of the English governor, and softened his epistolary 

 style. More than four months after, Louis XIV. 

 sent corresponding instructions to Denonville ; 4 but, 



N. Y. Col. Dors., IX. 796-802. Various embellishments have been added 

 to the original narratives by recent writers, such as an imaginary hand-to- 

 hand fight of Iberville and several Englishmen in the blockhouse of Eort 

 Hayes. 



1 Traitede Neutrality pour VAme'rique, conclu a Londres le 10 Nov., 1686, 

 in Memoires des Commissaires, II. 86. 



2 Instrument for preventing Acts of Hostility in America in N. Y. Col. 

 Docs., III. 505. 



3 Order to Gov. Dongan, 22 Jan., 1687, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 504. 



4 Louis XIV. a Denonville, 17 Juin, 1687. At the end of March, the 

 king had written that " he did not think it expedient to make any at- 

 tack on the English." 



