320 LAHONTAN. 



far as Cape Finisterre by tlie Count d'Aunay, On the 6th of Sep- 

 tember tlie Ronore is in the Gulf, and is attacked by an English ship. 

 "The fight lasted two hours, and both sides fired continually one upon 

 another, but the sea being tempestuous we were obliged to sheer off as 

 night came on, without sufiering any other loss than the wounding 

 of two seamen and the receiving of twenty-eight or thirty shot in our 

 masts, sails and rigging." On the 18th they are at anchor at Quebec. 

 Letter twenty-three is written on the 25th of October in the follow- 

 ing year (1692). Lahontan is now once more back in France. He 

 writes from Nantes. He has been sent over by Frontenac to obtain 

 the royal sanction to a scheme of defence against the Iroquois — a 

 scheme which Lahontan himself has suggested, and which he is to 

 carry into efiect if the proper authorization can be procured. "I 

 project," he says, *'to build and maintain three forts upon the course 

 of the lakes, with some vessels that shall go with oars, which I will 

 buUd according to my fancy; but they being light and of great car- 

 riage may be managed either with oars or a sail, and will also be able 

 to bear the shocks of the waves. I demand fifty seamen of the French 

 Biscay, for they are known to be the most dexterous and able mariners 

 that are in the world. I must also have two hundred soldiers, chosen 

 out of the troops of Canada. I will biiild three fortresses in several 

 places: one at the mouth of the Lake Erie; the second where I main- 

 tained a fort in 1687 and 1688 (Fort St. Joseph) at the southern 

 extremity of Lake Huron; and the third at the mouth of the Bay of 

 Toronto, upon the same lake (Matchedash bay). Ninety men will 

 be siifiicient to garrison these three redoubts, and perhaps a smaller 

 number; for the Iroquois who never saw a cannon but in a picture, 

 and to whom an ounce of powder is more precious than a louis d'or, 

 can never be persuaded to attack any kind of fortification. I desire 

 of the King for putting this project in execution, 15,000 crowns a 

 year for the maintenance, entertainment, subsistence and pay of these 

 250 men. It will be very easy for me to transport, with the above- 

 mentioned vessels, 400 savages into the country of the Iroquois when- 

 ever I have a mind. I can carry provisions for 2000, and transport 

 as many sacks of Indian corn as are necessary for maintaining these 

 forts both winter and summer. It is easy to have plenty of hunting 

 and shootiag in all the isles, and to contrive ways for crossing the 

 lakes; and it will be so much the more easy to pursue the Iroquois 

 in their canoes and sink them, that my vessels are light and my men 



