394 THK SENECA NATION 



the solicitation of the Onondagas they consented however to 

 allow a peace to be made, and to accomplish this a council was 

 called to meet with De la Barre at La Famine, at the mouth of 

 Salmon River. 



Meanwhile De la Barre was bustling- about in an aimless 

 way, trying to impress the Canadians at home and the King in 

 France with his earnestness and resolve, unsuccessfully however, 

 for it was pretty generally understood that it was all a sham. 

 However "in conformity to the resolutions adopted by the In- 

 tendant, the Bishop, the heads of the country and myself", he 

 assembled about a thousand soldiers, mostly Canadians, with 

 some few regulars and some Christian Indians at Fort Frontenac, 

 whence, with the greater part of his little army sick, he crossed 

 the lake to the rendezvous at La Famine, where he was joined 

 presently by a delegation of Iroquois sachems led by an Onon- 

 daga, Big Mouth. 



The conference that followed was disastrous to De la Barre's 

 plans. Before opening the council he endeavored to deceive 

 the sachems with a story that he had left his army at Fort Fron- 

 tenac and was there with an escort only, but the astute sachems 

 had already learned that the most of his soldiers were so sick 

 that they had been sent back to Fort Frontenac. In opening 

 the council he spoke mildly of the offences of the Senecas as 

 being provocative of war and that "should it happen again" he 

 had orders from the King to declare war against them. The re- 

 ply of Big Mouth has long been quoted from Colden's account 

 of it, as a master-piece of Indian sarcasm. "We may go where 

 we please, and carry with us whom we please, and buy and sell 

 what we please". In a later session peace was made, ' 'the tree of 

 peace was planted anew" and De la Barre promised not to attack 

 the Senecas. The Iroquois promised to make reparation for the 

 damage done in capturing French goods but flatly refused to 

 abstain from war upon the Illinois and other French allies in the 



west. The council broke up and De la Barre returned to 

 Canada. 



The threatened invasion of the Senecas had not happened. 



The prestige of the French was utterly gone in the towns of the 



Iroquois and the Senecas resumed their interrupted life in their 



villages about the deserted mission houses of the Jesuits. 



The plans of De la Barre proved fatal to the missions in 

 Sonnoutouan. Father Gamier seems to have had early and secret 



