176 THE IROQUOIS INVASION. [1688. 



business." 1 Then, without loss of time, he repaired 

 to Michillimackinac, and gave his Iroquois prisoner 

 to the officer in command. No news of the in- 

 tended peace had yet reached that distant outpost ; 

 and, though the unfortunate Iroquois told the story 

 of his mission and his capture, the Eat declared 

 that it was a crazy invention inspired by the fear 

 of death, and the prisoner was immediately shot by 

 a file of soldiers. The Rat now sent for an old 

 Iroquois who had long been a prisoner at the 

 Huron village, telling* him with a mournful air 

 that he was free to return to his people, and re- 

 count the cruelty of the French, who, had put their 

 countryman to death. The liberated Iroquois faith- 

 fully acquitted himself of his mission. 1 



One incident seemed for a moment likely to rob 

 the intriguer of the fruits of his ingenuity. The 

 Iroquois who had escaped in the skirmish contrived 

 to reach Fort Frontenac some time after the last 

 visit of the Rat. He told what had happened ; and, 

 after being treated with the utmost attention, he 

 was sent to Onondaga, charged with explanations 

 and regrets. The Iroquois dignitaries seemed satis- 

 fied, and Denonville wrote to the minister that 



1 La Hontan, 1. 189 (1709). Most of the details of the story are drawn 

 from this writer, whose statement I have compared with that of Denon- 

 ville, in his letter dated Nov. 9, 1688 ; of Callieres, Jan., 1689 ; of the Ab- 

 stract of Letters from Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 393; and of the 

 writer of Relation des Eve'nements de la Guerre, 30 Oct., 1688. Belmont 

 notices the affair with his usual conciseness. La Hontan's account is 

 sustained by the others in most, though not in all of its essential points. 

 He calls the Huron chief Adario, on le Bat. He is elsewhere mentioned 

 as Kondiaronk, Kondiaront, Soiioias, and Soiia'iti. La Hontan says that 

 the scene of the treachery was one of the rapids of the St. Lawrence, 

 but more authentic accounts place it at La Famine. 



