1698.J SCHUYLER AT QUEBEC. 425 



take, and the resolution I have adopted, whereof I have thought 

 it proper by these presents to give you notice. 

 I am, Sir, yours, &c., 



Earl of Bellomont. 

 New York, 22d August, 1698. 



To arm every man in his government would 

 have been difficult. He did, however, what he 

 could, and ordered Captain Nanfan, the lieutenant- 

 governor, to repair to Albany ; whence, on the first 

 news that the French were approaching, he was to 

 march to the relief of the Iroquois with the four 

 shattered companies of regulars and as many of 

 the militia of Albany and Ulster as he could mus- 

 ter. Then the earl sent Wessels, mayor of Albany, 

 to persuade the Iroquois to deliver their prisoners 

 to him, and make no treaty with Frontenac. On 

 the same clay, he despatched Captain John Schuyler 

 to carry his letters to the French governor. When 

 Schuyler reached Quebec, and delivered the letters, 

 Frontenac read them with marks of great dis- 

 pleasure. " My Lord Bellomont threatens me," 

 he said. " Does he think that I am afraid of him ? 

 He claims the Iroquois, but they are none of his. 

 They call me father* and they call him brother; 

 and shall not a father chastise his children when 

 he sees fit ? " A conversation followed, in which 

 Frontenac asked the envoy what was the strength 

 of Bellomont's government. Schuyler parried the 

 question by a grotesque exaggeration, and an- 

 swered that the earl could bring about a hundred 

 thousand men into the field. Frontenac pretended 

 to believe him, and returned with careless gravity 

 that he had always heard so. 



