156 DENONVILLE AND THE SENECAS. [1687. 



to the capture of the English traders on the lakes, 

 it had, indeed, prevented the defection of the 

 western Indians, and in some slight measure re- 

 stored their respect for the French, of whom, 

 nevertheless, one of them was heard to say that 

 they were good for nothing but to make war on 

 hogs and corn. As for the Senecas, they were 

 more enraged than hurt. They could rebuild their 

 bark villages in a few weeks; and, though they 

 had lost their harvest, their confederates would 

 not let them starve. 1 A converted Iroquois had 

 told the governor before his departure that, if he 

 overset a wasps' nest, he must crush the Avasps, or 

 they would sting him. Denonville left the wasps 

 alive. 



Denonville's Campaign against the Senecas. — The chief 

 authorities on this matter are the journal of Denonville, of which 

 there is a translation in the Colonial Documents of New York, 

 IX. ; the letters of Denonville to the Minister ; the JEtat Present 

 de VEglise de la Colonie Francaise, by Bishop Saint- Vallier ; the 

 Recueil de. ce qui s'est passe en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, tant 

 des Anglais que des Iroquois, depuis Vann'ee 1682 ; and the excellent 

 account by Abbe Belmont in his chronicle called Histoire du Ca- 

 nada. To these may be added La Hontan, Tonty, Nicolas Perrot, 

 La Potherie, and the Senecas examined before the authorities of 

 Albany, whose statements are printed in the Colonial Documents, 

 III. These are the original sources. Charlevoix drew his ac- 

 count from a portion of them. It is inexact, and needs the cor- 

 rection of his learned annotator, Mr. Shea. Colden, Smith, and 

 other English writers follow La Hontan. 



The researches of Mr. O. H. Marshall, of Buffalo, have left no 

 reasonable doubt as to the scene of the battle, and the site of the 

 neighboring town. The Seneca ambuscade was on the marsh and 



1 The statement of some later writers, that many of the Senecas 

 died during the following winter in consequence of the loss of their 

 corn, is extremely doubtful. Captain Duplessis, in his Plan for the De- 

 fence of Canada, 1690, declares that not one of them perished of hunger. 



