418 FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE ONONDAGAS. [1696-98. 



He still continued to provoke the detraction 

 which he deprecated, till he drew, at last, a sharp 

 remonstrance from the minister. " The dispute 

 you have had with M. de Champigny is without 

 cause, and I confess I cannot comprehend how 

 you could have acted as you have done. If you 

 do things of this sort, you must expect disagreeable 

 consequences, which all the desire I have to oblige 

 you cannot prevent. It is deplorable, both for 

 you and for me, that, instead of using my good-will 

 to gain favors from his Majesty, you compel me to 

 make excuses for a violence which answers no 

 purpose, and in which you indulge wantonly, no- 

 body can tell why." 1 



Most of these quarrels, however trivial in them- 

 selves, had a solid foundation, and were closely 

 connected with the great question of the control 

 of the west. As to the measures to be taken, two 

 parties divided the colony ; one consisting of the 

 governor and his friends, and the other of the in- 

 tendant, the Jesuits, and such of the merchants as 

 were not in favor with Frontenac. His policy was 

 to protect the Indian allies at all risks, to repel by 

 force, if necessary, every attempt of the English to 

 encroach on the territory in dispute, and to occupy 

 it by forts which should be at once posts of war 

 and commerce and places of rendezvous for traders 

 and voyageurs. Champigny and his party de- 

 nounced this system ; urged that the forest posts 

 should be abandoned, that both garrisons and 

 traders should be recalled, that the French should 



1 Le Ministre a Frontenac, 21 Mai, 1698. 



