1690.] CHEVALIER D'AUX. 201 



corclingly despatched four envoys, with a load of 

 wampum belts, expressing his astonishment that 

 his countrymen had not seen fit to send a deputa- 

 tion of chiefs to receive him from the hands of On- 

 ontio, and calling upon them to do so without delay, 

 lest he should think that they had forgotten him. 

 Along with the messengers, Frontenac ventured to 

 send the Chevalier d'Aux, a half-pay officer, with 

 orders to observe the disposition of the Iroquois, 

 and impress them in private talk with a sense of 

 the count's power, of his good-will to them, and 

 of the wisdom of coming to terms with him, lest, 

 like an angry father, he should be forced at last 

 to use the rod. The chevalier's reception was a 

 warm one. They burned two of his attendants, 

 forced him to run the gauntlet, and, after a vigorous 

 thrashing, sent him prisoner to Albany. The last 

 failure was worse than the first. The count's name 

 was great among the Iroquois, but he had trusted 

 its power too far. 1 



The worst of news had come from Michillimack- 

 inac. La Durantaye, the commander of the post, 

 and Carheil, the Jesuit, had sent a messenger to 

 Montreal in the depth of winter to say that the 

 tribes around them were on the point of revolt. 

 Carheil wrote that they threatened openly to throw 

 themselves into the arms of the Iroquois and the 

 English ; that they declared that the protection of 

 Onontio was an illusion and a snare ; that they 



1 Message of Ourehaoue, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 735; Instructions to 

 Chevalier d'Eau, Ibid., 733; Chevalier d'Aux au MinUtre, 15 Mai, 1693. 

 The chevalier's name is also written d'O. He himself wrote it as in the 

 text. 



