1688.] A HURON MACCHIAVEL. 173 



affixed to it the figures of sundry birds and beasts 

 as the signatures of himself and his fellow-chiefs. 1 

 He promised, too, that within a certain time depu- 

 ties from the whole confederacy should come to 

 Montreal and conclude a general peace. 



The time arrived, and they did not appear. It 

 became known, however, that a number of chiefs 

 were coming from Onondaga to explain the delay, 

 and to promise that the deputies should soon follow. 

 The chiefs in fact were on their way. They 

 reached La Famine, the scene of La Barre's meet- 

 ing with Big Mouth ; but here an unexpected 

 incident arrested them, and completely changed 

 the aspect of affairs. 



Among the Hurons of Michillimackinac there 

 was a chief of high renown named Koncliaronk, or 

 the Rat. He was in the prime of life, a redoubted 

 warrior, and a sage counsellor. The French seem 

 to have admired him greatly. " He is a gallant 

 man," says La Hon tan, " if ever there was one ; " 

 while Charlevoix declares that he was the ablest 

 Indian the French ever knew in America, and that 

 he had nothing of the savage but the name and the 

 dress. In spite of the father's eulogy, the moral 

 condition of the Rat savored strongly of the wig- 

 wam. He had given Denonville great trouble by 

 his constant intrigues with the Iroquois, with whom 

 he had once made a plot for the massacre of his 

 neighbors, the Ottawas, under cover of a pretended 

 treaty. 2 The French had spared no pains to gain 



1 See the signatures in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 385, 386. 

 - Nicolas Perrot, 143. 



