J 687.] PERIL OF L AMBER VILLE. 137 



brothers Lamberville had alone held their post. 

 Denonville, in order to deceive the enemy, had 

 directed these priests to urge the Iroquois chiefs 

 to meet him in council at Fort Frontenac, whither, 

 as he pretended, he was about to go with an escort 

 of troops, for the purpose of conferring with them. 

 The two brothers received no hint whatever of his 

 real intention, and tried in good faith to accomplish 

 his wishes ; but the Iroquois were distrustful, and 

 hesitated to comply. On this, the elder Lamber- 

 ville sent the younger with letters to Denonville 

 to explain the position of affairs, saying at the 

 same time that he himself would not leave Onon- 

 daga except to accompany the chiefs to the pro- 

 posed council. " The poor father," wrote the 

 governor, " knows nothing of our designs. I am 

 sorry to see him exposed to danger ; but, should I 

 recall him, his withdrawal would certainly betray 

 our plans to the Iroquois." This unpardonable 

 reticence placed the Jesuit in extreme peril ; for 

 the moment the Iroquois discovered the intended 

 treachery they would probably burn him as its 

 instrument. No man in Canada had done so much 

 as the elder Lamberville to counteract the influence 

 of England and serve the interests of France, and 

 in return the governor exposed him recklessly to 

 the most terrible of deaths. 1 



1 Denonville au Ministre, 9 Nov., 1686 ; Ibid., 8 Juin, 1687. Denon- 

 ville at last seems to have been seized with some compunction, and 

 writes : " Tout cela me fait craindre que le pauvre pere n'ayt de la peine 

 a se retirer d'entre les mains de ces barbares ce qui m'inquiete fort." 

 Dongan,-though regarding the Jesuit as an insidious enemy, had treated 

 him much better, and protected him on several occasions, for which he 

 received the emphatic thanks of Dablon, superior of the missions. 

 Dablon to Dongan (1685?), in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 454. 



