THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. I9 



came to Canada with a new company, among whom \\-*ere four Roman 

 CathoHc priests, the first missionaries to the Indians of Canada. The 

 following year Champlain, accompanied by Algonquins to the number 

 of 2,500, made another formidable raid upon the Five Nations, but this 

 time they had to return after accomplishing very little. About 1620 

 a treaty of peace was entered into between the Iroquois and Hurons, 

 in which Champlain and a Huron Chief named Wolf-stag took an 

 active part. This treaty, however, was of short duration, for three 

 years only passed when the Five Nations were again at deadly warfare 

 with the French and Hurons. But just about this time, war having 

 broken out betw^een France and England, Sir David Kirk sailed with 

 a fleet to the St. Lawrence and forced Champlain with his colony to 

 surrender. Kirk sent his French prisoners to England, but by the 

 treaty of peace in 1632 they were sent back and the Colony became 

 again the property of France, which in the following year sent out 

 enough new colonists to make the total white population about 6,000. 

 Champlain died in about 1636, and in the meantime the Iroquois 

 had been fighting fiercely with the Hurons and Algonquins, the latter 

 of whom they completely subdued. 



Montmorency, who followed Champlain as governor, succeeded 

 in making peace between the hostile tribes. The Roman Catholic 

 missionaries at the same time were actively at work, and no less than 

 3,000 of the Hurons are said to have been baptized at one time. 

 But in 1648 the Five Nations again arose in war and attacked the 

 French settlements with desperate fury, killing alike priests, women 

 and children. They attacked the Hurons, who had of late been 

 peaceful and flourishing, and filled the land with horror and blood. 

 The Hurons fled to supposed places of safety, but their enemy pur- 

 sued and killed them till at last they had reduced that once powerful 

 nation to a little tribe of about 300 souls. This small remnant 

 of the nation, with downcast heads and heavy hearts, wandered 

 through the thickest forests to evade their savage enemies until at last 

 they were able to throw themselves upon the charity of the French at 

 Quebec. A little station called Sillery was there provided for them, 

 which in a few years' time saw the last of the Hurons. 



The Iroquois now lorded it over Canada, and they were con- 

 tinually attacking the French settlements, until in 1653 they, of their 

 own accord, made overtures of peace. But while one part of them 



