398 FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY. [1694. 



stead an invitation to meet them and their friends, 

 the English, in a general council at Albany ; a 

 proposal which he rejected with contempt. Then 

 they sent another deputation, partly to him and 

 partly to their Christian countrymen of the Saut 

 and the Mountain, inviting all alike to come and 

 treat with them at Onondaga. Frontenac, adopt- 

 ing the Indian fashion, kicked away their wampum 

 belts, rebuked them for tampering with the mission 

 Indians, and told them that they were rebels, bribed 

 by the English ; adding that, if a suitable deputa- 

 tion should be sent to Quebec to treat squarely of 

 peace, he still would listen, but that, if they came 

 back with any more such proposals as they had 

 just made, they should be roasted alive. 



A few weeks later, the deputation appeared. It 

 consisted of two chiefs of each nation, headed by 

 the renowned orator Decanisora, or, as the French 

 wrote the name, Tegannisorens. The council was 

 held in the hall of the supreme council at Quebec. 

 The dignitaries of the colony were present, with 

 priests, Jesuits, Recollets, officers, and the Christian 

 chiefs of the Saut and the Mountain. The appear- 

 ance of the ambassadors bespoke their destitute 

 plight ; for they were all dressed in shabby deer- 

 skins and old blankets, except Decanisora, who was 

 attired in a scarlet coat laced with gold, given him 

 by the governor of New York. Colclen, who knew 

 him in his old age, describes him as a tall, well- 

 formed man, with a face not unlike the busts of 

 Cicero. " He spoke," says the French reporter, 

 u with as perfect a grace as is vouchsafed to an 



