200 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. [1690. 



" Onontio, you have tolcl us that you have come 

 back again, and brought with you thirteen of our 

 people who were carried prisoners to France. We 

 are glad of it. You wish to speak with us at Cata- 

 raqui [Fort Frontenac). Don't you know that 

 your council fire there is put out ? It is quenched 

 in blood. You must first send home the prison- 

 ers, When our brother Ourehaoue is returned to 

 us, then we will talk with you of peace. You must 

 send him and the others home this very winter. 

 We now let you know that we have made peace 

 with the tribes of Michillimackinac. You are not 

 to think, because we return you an answer, that 

 we have laid down the tomahawk. Our warriors 

 will continue the war till you send our country- 

 men back to us." ] 



The messengers from Canada returned with this 

 reply. Unsatisfactory as it was, such a quantity 

 of wampum was sent with it as showed plainly the 

 importance attached by the Iroquois to the mat- 

 ters in question. Encouraged by a recent success 

 against the English, and still possessed with an over- 

 weening confidence in his own influence over the 

 confederates, Frontenac resolved that Ourehaoue 

 should send them another message. The chief, 

 whose devotion to the count never wavered, ac- 



1 The account of this council is given, with condensation and the 

 omission of parts not essential, from Colden (105-112, ed. 1747). It will 

 6erve as an example of the Iroquois method of conducting political busi- 

 ness, the habitual regularity and decorum of which has drawn from 

 several contemporary French writers the remark that in such matters 

 the five tribes were savages only in name. The reply to Frontenac is 

 also given by Monseignat (V. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 465), and, after him, by 

 La Potherie. Compare Le Clereq, EtabHssement tie la Foy, II. 403. 

 Ourehaoue' is the Tawerahet of Colden. 



