316 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1693. 



Frenchmen were known to be at that remote post, 

 or roaming in the wilderness around it ; and Fron- 

 tenac resolved on an attempt to muster them to- 

 gether, and employ their united force to protect 

 the Indians and the traders in bringing down this 

 mass of furs to Montreal. A messenger, strongly 

 escorted, was sent with orders to this effect, and 

 succeeded in reaching Michillimackinac, though 

 there was a battle on the way, in which the officer 

 commanding the escort was killed. Frontenac 

 anxiously waited the issue, when after a long delay 

 the tidings reached him of complete success. He 

 hastened to Montreal, and found it swarming with 

 Indians and coureurs de bois. Two hundred ca- 

 noes had arrived, filled with the coveted beaver 

 skins. " It is impossible," says the chronicle, " to 

 conceive the joy of the people, when they beheld 

 these riches. Canada ha,d awaited them for years. 

 The merchants and the farmers were dying of 

 hunger. Credit was gone, and everybody was 

 afraid that the enemy would waylay and seize this 

 last resource of the country. Therefore it was, 

 that none could find words strong enough to praise 

 and bless him by whose care all this wealth had 

 arrived. Father of the People, Preserver of the 

 Country, seemed terms too weak to express their 

 gratitude." ! 



While three years of arrested sustenance came 

 down together from the lakes, a fleet sailed up the 

 St. Lawrence, freighted with soldiers and supplies. 

 The horizon of Canada was brightening. 



1 Relation de ce qui s'est passe de jjIus remarquable en Canada, 1692, 1693. 

 Compare La Potherie, III. 185. 



