HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 183 



severing their hostility, that they sought out and destroyed an 

 Algonquin camp in a remote northern wilderness, in the depth 

 of winter, treating their prisoners with horrible cruelty. A Huron 

 village was also destroyed that year. 



The site of Montreal was selected in 1641, near the spot 

 where Hochelaga had stood a century before. The Relation of 

 1646 says : " This island is in some fashion the frontier of the 

 Annierronnons Iroquois." Governor Montmagny and Sieur Mai- 

 son-neuve went there May 17, 1642, to take possession of the 

 island and commence the first buildings with solemn religious 

 services and a feast. Two Indians present stood on the moun- 

 tain top, as before mentioned, where their ancestors had lived. 

 The grandsire of one had cultivated the land on which they stood. 

 They said : " The Hurons, who were then our neighbors, chased 

 our ancestors from this country ; some retired toward the land 

 of the Abnaquiois, the others to the land of the Iroquois, and one 

 part turned to the Hurons themselves, united with them, and 

 behold the island was rendered almost a desert." This has been 

 variously explained. Mr Shea proposed interchanging Hurons 

 and Iroquois, making the latter the aggressors, but this is no real 

 improvement. It is rather probable that, after the withdrawal 

 of the Iroquois to New York, the Hurons did attack the Algon- 

 quins who had dwelt by them, and who remained behind. Tra- 

 ditionally the Hurons did receive a. new nation about that time, 

 and the Iroquois always welcomed accessions to their numbers. 

 Among these Algonquins who w^ent to their land, may have been 

 many old friends. 



It was in 1641 that Governor Montmagny was called from his 

 name, Onontio, or Great Mountain, afterward the title of Can- 

 adian governors. In 1642 he commenced forts on the Sorel, or 

 River of the Iroquois, to check their war parties, which seemed 

 everywhere and were well supplied with guns by the Dutch. 

 Charlevoix said that Montmagny complained of this to the Dutch 

 governor, who replied in a courteous but vague way. In this 

 year Father Isaac Jogues was taken by the Mohawks, with two 

 French companions, while on the St Lawrence with a party of 



