372 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND. [1690-97. 



sisted, for the most part, in pouncing upon peaceful 

 settlers by surprise, and generally in the night. 

 Combatants and non-combatants were slaughtered 

 together. By parading the number of slain, without 

 mentioning that most of them were women and 

 children, and by counting as forts mere private houses 

 surrounded with palisades, Charlevoix and later 

 writers have given the air of gallant exploits to acts 

 which deserve a very different name. To attack 

 military posts, like Casco and Pemaquid, was a le- 

 gitimate act of war ; but systematically to butcher 

 helpless farmers and their families can hardly pass 

 as such, except from the Iroquois point of view. 



The chief alleged motive for this ruthless war- 

 fare was to prevent the peojDle of New England 

 from invading Canada, by giving them employ- 

 ment at home; though, in fact, they had never 

 thought of invading Canada till after these attacks 

 began. But for the intrigues of Denonville, the 

 Bigots, Thury, and Saint-Castin, before war was 

 declared, and the destruction of Salmon Falls after 

 it, Phips's expedition would never have taken 

 place. By successful raids against the borders of 

 New England, Frontenac roused the Canadians 

 from their dejection, and prevented his red allies 

 from deserting him ; but, in so doing, he brought 

 upon himself an enemy who, as Charlevoix himself 

 says, asked only to be let alone. If there was a 

 political necessity for butchering women and chil- 

 dren on the frontier of New England, it was a ne- 

 cessity created by the French themselves. 



There was no such necessity. Massachusetts was 



