1689.] FEROCITY OF THE VICTORS. 181 



friends, wives, parents, or children agonized in the 

 fires of the Iroquois, and scenes were enacted of 

 indescribable and nameless horror. The greater 

 part of the prisoners were, however, reserved to 

 be distributed among the towns of the confederacy, 

 and there tortured for the diversion of the inhab- 

 itants. While some of the invaders went home to 

 celebrate their triumph, others roamed in small 

 parties through all the upper parts of the colony, 

 spreading universal terror. 1 



Canada lay bewildered and benumbed under 

 the shock of this calamity ; but the cup of her 

 misery was not full. There was revolution in 



1 The best account of the descent of the Iroquois at La Chine is that of 

 the Recueil de ce qui s'est pass€ en Canada, 1682-1712. The writer was an 

 officer under Subercase, and was on the spot. Belmont, superior of the 

 mission of Montreal, also gives a trustworthy account in his Histoire da 

 Canada. Compare La Hon tan, I. 193 (1709), and La Potherie, II. 229. 

 Farther particulars are given in the letters of Callieres, 8 Nov. ; Cham- 

 pigny, 16 Nov.; and Frontenac, 15 Nov. Frontenac, after visiting the 

 scene of the catastrophe a few weeks after it occurred, writes : " lis 

 (les Iroquois) avoient brusle plus de trois lieues de pays, saccage 

 toutes les maisons jusqu'aux portes de la ville, enleve plus de six vingt 

 personnes, tant homrnes, femmes, qu'enfants, apres avoir massacre plus 

 de deux cents dont ils avoient casse la teste aux uns, brusle, rosty, et 

 mange les autres, ouvert le ventre des femmes grosses pour en arraclier 

 les enfants, et fait des cruautez inou'ies et sans exemple." The details 

 given by Belmont, and by the author of Histoire de VEau de Vie en Ca- 

 nada, are no less revolting. The last-mentioned writer thinks that the 

 massacre was a judgment of God upon the sale of brandy at La Chine. 



Some Canadian writers have charged the English with instigating 

 the massacre. I find nothing in contemporary documents to support the 

 accusation. Denonville wrote to the minister, after the Rat's treachery 

 came to light, that Andros had forbidden the Iroquois to attack the colony. 

 Immediately after the attack at La Chine, the Iroquois sachems, in a 

 conference with the agents of New England, declared that " we did not 

 make war on the French at the persuasion of our brethren at Albany ; 

 for we did not so much as acquaint them of our intention till fourteen 

 days after our army had begun their march." Report of Conference in 

 Colden, 103. 



