174 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [16S& 



him ; and he had at length been induced to declare 

 for them, under a pledge from the governor that 

 the war should never cease till the Iroquois were 

 destroyed. During the summer, he raised a party 

 of forty warriors, and came clown the lakes in 

 quest of Iroquois scalps. 1 On the way, he stopped- 

 at Fort Frontenac to hear the news, when, to his 

 amazement, the commandant told him that deputies 

 from Onondaga were coming in a few days to con- 

 clude peace, and that he had better go home at 

 once. 



" It is well," replied the Rat. 



He knew that for the Hurons it was not well. 

 He and his tribe stood fully committed to the war, 

 and for them peace between the French and the 

 Iroquois would be a signal of destruction, since 

 Denonville could not or would not protect his allies. 

 The Rat paddled off with his warriors. He had 

 secretly learned the route of the expected deputies ; 

 and he shaped his course, not, as he had pretended, 

 for Michillimackinac, but for La Famine, where he 

 knew that they would land. Having reached his 

 destination, he watched and waited four or fi\e 

 days, till canoes at length appeared, approaching 

 from the direction of Onondaga. On this, the Rat 

 and his friends hid themselves in the bushes. 



The new comers were the messengers sent as 

 precursors of the embassy. At their head was a 

 famous personage named Decanisora, or Tegan- 

 nisorens, with whom were three other chiefs, and, 

 it seems, a number of warriors. They had scarcely 



1 Denonvilh a Seignday, 9 Nov., 1688. La Hontan saw the party set 

 out, and says that there were about a hundred of them. 



