1701.1 SPEECH OF THE RAT. 445 



brought them. Now let us see if the Iroquois have 

 also obeyed, and brought you our people whom 

 they captured during the war. If they have clone 

 so, they are sincere ; if not, they are false. But I 

 know that they have not brought them. I told 

 you last year that it was better that they should 

 bring their prisoners first. You see now how it is, 

 and how they have deceived us." 



The complaint was just, and the situation became 

 critical. The Iroquois deputies were invited to 

 explain themselves. They stalked into the council- 

 room with their usual haughty composure, and 

 readily promised to surrender the prisoners in 

 future, but offered no hostages for their good faith. 

 The Rat, who had counselled his own and other 

 tribes to bring their Iroquois captives to Montreal, 

 was excessively mortified at finding himself duped. 

 He came to a later meeting, when this and other 

 matters were to be discussed ; but he was so weak- 

 ened by fever that he could not stand. An arm- 

 chair was brought him ; and, seated in it, he 

 harangued the assembly for two hours, amid a 

 deep silence, broken only by ejaculations of ap- 

 proval from his Indian hearers. When the meet- 

 ing ended, he was completely exhausted ; and, being 

 carried in his chair to the hospital, he died about 

 midnight. He was a great loss to the French ; for, 

 though he had caused the massacre of La Chine, 

 his services of late years had been invaluable. In 

 spite of his unlucky name, he was one of the ablest 

 North American Indians on record, as appears by 

 his remarkable influence over many tribes, and by 



