258 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



been paid for 26 years, or since 1680. Tlie next year they took 

 20 belts and some strings to Onondaga. 



The French again proposed to secure Niagara through Jon- 

 caire's influence with the Senecas. Of him it was said later, 

 " He is daring, liberal, speaks the language in great perfection, 

 hesitates not even whenever it is necessary to decide." 



In spite of the French, the Indians would carry furs to the 

 English, and their own men would desert. An Onondaga had 

 killed a deserter in 1708 and claimed that the French said such 

 men were already dead. They had to yield. That year an 

 Englishman was for some months among the Onondagas, Cay- 

 ugas and Senecas. When he proposed a fort at Gaskonchiague', or 

 Oswego Falls, and another at the head of Lake Thiroguen, or Oneida 

 lake, they refused the first and referred the other to the Oneidas. 



Father d' Heu also wrote. May 24, 1708, that two Onondagas 

 had gone to the Gannaouans in Virginia, who had an ambuscade 

 near Onondaga the year before. They carried several belts. 

 The Onondagas were troubled over the pretended settlement of 

 the Ottawas at Fort Frontenac and Niagara, and the French 

 posts at Niagara and La Galette. In case of war all this would be 

 to their disadvantage. 



The English blacksmith had returned to Onondaga, but the 

 French party concealed the anvil in the priest's house, eventually 

 giving it up. They wanted a French smith, which he thought 

 " would be very important for the good of religion and the 

 French colony." 



De Tonty was reported to have retained Indian presents while 

 refusing their requests. This was contrary to their custom and 

 displeased them. There were hints, also, that Joncaire made 

 money by the use of his office and public presents. That year 

 the Indian Montour family first came to notice. The father was 

 a Frenchman who had a son and two daughters by an Indian 

 wife, and they became prominent. In 1708 the son brought 12 

 of the Far Indians to trade at Albany; they had come 800 miles. 

 There may have been several families of this name. Joncaire 

 killed the original Montour in 1721 by Vaudreuil's order. 



