416 FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS. [1696. 



tablished an entrepot {Fort Frontenac), which 

 made my communications more easy, and if I had 

 not known, beyond all doubt, that this was abso- 

 lutely the only means to prevent our allies from 

 making peace with the Iroquois, and introducing 

 the English into their country, by which the colo- 

 ny would infallibly be ruined. Nevertheless, by 

 unexpected good fortune, the Ononclagas, who pass 

 for masters of the other Iroquois, and the terror of 

 all the Indians of this country, fell into a sort of 

 bewilderment, which could only have come from 

 on High ; and were so terrified to see me march 

 , against them in person, and cover their lakes and 

 rivers with nearly four hundred sail, that, without 

 availing themselves of passes where a hundred 

 men might easily hold four thousand in check, 

 they did not dare to lay a single ambuscade, but, 

 after waiting till I was fiwe leagues from their fort, 

 they set it on fire with all their dwellings, and fled, 

 with their families, twenty leagues into the depths 

 of the forest. It could have been wished, to make 

 the affair more brilliant, that they had tried to 

 hold their fort against us, for we were prepared to 

 force it and kill a great many of them ; but their 

 ruin is not the less sure, because the famine, to 

 which they are reduced, will destroy more than we 

 could have killed by sword and gun. 



" All the officers and men have done their duty 

 admirably ; and especially M. de Callieres, who has 

 been a great help to me. I know not if your Maj- 

 esty will think that I have tried to do mine, and 

 will hold me worthy of some mark of honor that 



