CHAPTER XVIII. 



1693-1697. 

 FKENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. 



Le Motne d'Iberville. — His Exploits in Newfoundland. — In 

 Hudson's Bay. — The Great Prize. — The Competitors. — Fatal 

 Policy op the King. — The Iroquois Question. — Negotiation. 

 — Firmness of Frontenac. — English Intervention. — War re- 

 newed. — State of the West. — Indian Diplomacy. — Cruel 

 Measures. — A Perilous Crisis. — Audacity of Frontenac. 



No Canadian, under the French rule, stands in a 

 more conspicuous or more deserved eminence than 

 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In the seventeenth 

 century, most of those who acted a prominent part 

 in the colony were born in Old France ; but Iber- 

 ville was a true son of the soil. He and his brothers, 

 Longueuil, Serigny, Assigny, Maricourt, Sainte- 

 Helene, the two Chateauguays, and the two Bien- 

 villes, were, one and all, children worthy of their 

 father, Charles Le Moyne of Montreal, and favora- 

 ble types of that Canadian noblesse, to whose 

 adventurous hardihood half the continent bears 

 witness. Iberville was trained in the French navy, 

 and was already among its most able commanders. 

 The capture of Pemaquid was, for him, but the 

 beginning of greater things ; and, though the ex- 

 ploits that followed were outside the main theatre 



