166 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1688. 



governor as mortifying as it was painful. He 

 thought with good reason that the maintenance of 

 the new fort at Niagara was of great importance 

 to the colony, and he had repeatedly refused the 

 demands of Dongan and the Iroquois for its demoli- 

 tion. But a power greater than sachems and gov- 

 ernors presently intervened. The provisions left 

 at Niagara, though abundant, were atrociously bad. 

 Scurvy and other malignant diseases soon broke 

 out among the soldiers. The Senecas prowled 

 about the place, and no man dared venture out 

 for hunting, fishing, or firewood. 1 The fort was 

 first a prison, then a hospital, then a charnel-house, 

 till before spring the garrison of a hundred men 

 was reduced to ten or twelve. In this condition, 

 they were found towards the end of April by a 

 large war-party of friendly Miamis, who entered 

 the place and held it till a French detachment at 

 length arrived for its relief. 2 The garrison of Fort 

 Frontenac had suffered from the same causes, 

 though not to the same degree. Denonville feared 

 that he should be forced to abandon them both. 

 The way was so long and so dangerous, and the 

 governor had grown of late so cautious, that he 

 dreaded the risk of maintaining* such remote com- 

 munications. On second thought, he resolved to 

 keep Frontenac and sacrifice Niagara. He prom- 

 ised Dongan that he would demolish it, and he 

 kept his word. 3 



1 Denonville, Memoire du 10 Aoust, 1688. 



2 Recueil de ce qui s'est passe en Canada depuis Vanne'e 1682. The writer 

 was an officer of the detachment, and describes what he saw. Compare 

 La Potherie,II. 210; and La Hontan, I. 131 (1709). 



3 Denonville a Dongan, 20 Aoust, 1688 ; Proces-verbal of the Condition of 



