2-38 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1600. 



women. He wished to attack the neighboring fort, 

 but his Indians refused ; and after burning houses, 

 barns, and hay-ricks, and killing a great number of 

 cattle, he seated himself with his party at dinner 

 in the adjacent woods, while cannon answered can- 

 non from Chambly, La Prairie, and Montreal, and 

 the whole country was astir. " We thanked the 

 Governor of Canada," writes Schuyler, "for his 

 salute of heavy artillery during our meal." * 



The English had little to boast in this affair, the 

 paltry termination of an enterprise from which 

 great things had been expected. Nor was it for 

 their honor to adopt the savage and cowardly mode 

 of warfare in which their enemies had led the way. 

 The blow that had been struck was less an injury 

 to the French than an insult ; but, as such, it galled 

 Frontenac excessively, and he made no mention of 

 it in his despatches to the court. A few more Iro- 

 quois attacks and a few more murders kept Mont- 

 real in alarm till the tenth of October, when matters 

 of deeper import engaged the governor's thoughts. 



A messenger arrived in haste at three o'clock in 

 the afternoon, and gave him a letter from Prevost, 

 town major of Quebec. It was to the effect that 

 an Abenaki Indian had just come over land from 

 Acadia, with news that some of his tribe had cap- 

 tured an English woman near Portsmouth, who 

 told them that a great fleet had sailed from Bos- 

 ton to attack Quebec. Frontenac, not easily alarmed, 

 doubted the report. Nevertheless, he embarked 



1 Journal of Captain John Schuyler, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., II. 285. Cora- 

 pare La Potherie, III. 101, and Relation de Monseignat. 



