HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROOUOTS 199 



being baptized. To avenge his death, a Mohawk party came 

 near that place the following winter, but the French strength- 

 ened their works and doubled the guard. The enemy withdrew, 

 but a small party returned in the spring, making ambushes and 

 doing much damage. F'ather Poncet was taken prisoner Aug. 

 20, 1653, with another Frenchman who was burned. Poncet was 

 soon released, because of new proposals for peace. While in the 

 Mohawk country he was adopted by a widow, and said : 



So soon as I entered her cabin she began to sing the song of 

 the dead, in which she was joined by her two daughters. I was 

 standing near the fire during these mournful dirges ; they made 

 me sit upon a sort of table slightly raised, and then I understood 

 I was in the place of the dead, for whom these women renewed 

 the last mourning, to bring the deceased to life again in my per- 

 son, according to their custom. 



Unexpected events had happened and his release came quickly. 



He said : 



I was only a month in the land of the Irocjuois. I came in the 

 fourth of September ; I went out the third of October. And in 

 this brief time 1 had intercourse with the Hollanders ; I had seen 

 Fort Orange ; I had passed three times through the four villages 

 of the Iroquois Agniers ; the remainder of the time of my cap- 

 tivity was occupied in my going and my return. I was taken by 

 the River of the Iroquois and Lake Champlain, and consequently 

 there were but two days of the journey by land. And I was 

 brought back by another route, so that I have passed over the 

 two routes which their armies and their warriors take when they 

 come in search of us. 



Montreal suffered much from the Irocjuois, but Maison-neuve 

 brought lOO settlers from France, and conditions improved. One 

 event became historic, the beginning of a new era. In the midst 

 of alarms, 60 Onondagas came to Montreal June 26, 1653, to 

 propose peace, saying that the Cayugas and Oneidas favored 

 their coming. They warned the French also that 600 Mohawks 

 were in the field, intending to fall on Three Rivers. The Onon- 

 dagas had a good reception, going also to Quebec, and sent a 

 second deputation there in September. 



One Mohawk party was defeated by the Hurons on the island 

 of Montreal, the captain and four principal men being made pris- 



