396 THE SENECA NATION 



news of the intended attack. Realizing- its probable conse- 

 quences to himself and his colleagues he fled in 1684 to Lake 

 Ontario presumably in company of Father Pierron and found 

 refuge upon a bark owned by De la Barre. Father Raffeix had 

 departed in 1680. 



The threat of Big Mouth that they would war upon the 

 western Indian allies of the French proved to be no idle boast. 

 In 1686 Father Lamberville wrote from Onondaga (*1) to 

 Father Bruyas that a war party of two hundred Seneca warri- 

 ors had just returned from the country of the Miamis and that 

 they claimed to bring with them five hundred captives. Their 

 downfall however was near. 



De la Barre's disastrous attempt to lower the pride of the 

 Senecas was followed at once by his recall as Governor of New 

 France. He was superseded by the Marquis de Denon- 



ville, a "pious colonel of 

 dragoons". (*2) His coming 

 to assume his office boded ill 

 for the Senecas. 



There is no doiibt that at 

 this time the Senecas were at 

 the zenith of their power. Numerically they had always been 

 the strongest of the League. They had always been the most 

 independent and arrogant also and because of their almost 

 continuous success in their incessant wars they considered their 

 nation invincible and their country invulnerable. Their recent 

 diplomatic victory over the French added largely to this feel- 

 ing and they took immediate advantage of the prestige thus 

 gained to attempt an alliance of the French allies amongst the 

 western Indians, with the deliberate plan to alienate them from 

 the French. So, though warfare was being carried on against 

 the Illinois, there was intriguing with the Hurons and Ottawas 

 of the Upper Lake region. 



That the new governor, Denonville, thoroughly appreciat- 

 ed the dangers to Canada from and through the Senecas is 

 shown by his letters to the Minister at home in France. "If 

 we have war nothing can save the country but a miracle of God". 

 South of him was the colony of New York, then administered 



*l Colonial Documents, Vol. Ill, p. 489. 

 *2 Parkman, Frontenac, p. 115. 



