HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 229 



After the speech was finished, he rose, and having took five or 

 six turns in the ring that the French and the savages made, he 

 returned to his place, and standing upright, spoke after the fol- 

 lowing manner to the General, who sat in his chair of state. 



Then followed that strain of dignified sarcasm which has never 

 been surpassed. He knew the condition of the French, and it 

 was idle to sa}^ so many soldiers were on an errand of peace. 

 Sickness had fortunately saved their lives. The sun had not dried 

 up the swamps which made the Iroquois towns inaccessible to 

 the French. '* Our Children and old Men had carried their Bows 

 and Arrows into the Heart of your Camp, if our Warriors had 

 not disarmed them and kept them back." They had plundered 

 the P>ench who carried warlike munitions to their foes. It was 

 a proper act of self-defense, but *' Our Warriors have not Beavers 

 enough to pay for all these Arms that they have taken, and our 

 old Men are not afraid of the War." They would trade with 

 whom they chose. '' We are born free, we neither depend on 

 Onnondio or Corlaer. We may go where we please, and carry 

 with us whom we please, and buy and sell what we please. If 

 your Allies be your Slaves, use them as such." 



De la Barre was enraged but powerless ; and Colden said that 

 this great expedition " ended in a Scold between the French 

 General and an old Indian." The Illinois were abandoned to 

 their fate, and the French army ingloriously returned. 



Governor Dongan was already in New York and had some- 

 thing to say on these affairs, though not always wisely; and 

 Arnold Viele, his deputy at Onondaga, offended the chiefs by his 

 words. He put the king's arms on all the Iroquois castles and 

 the French said he promised them aid. Governor Dongan did 

 another effective but doubtful thing, persuading the Onondagas 

 and Cayugas to place their Susquehanna lands under the king's 

 protection, lest Penn's agents should secure them. They said 

 that by conquest these lands belonged to them alone and they 

 fastened them to New York. Acting ostensibly for the public 

 good and against Penn, he yet wrote to him Oct. 22, 1683 : 



All business here goes on to great Satisfaction ; the Sescpie- 

 hannok River is given me by the Indians by a second gift, about 



