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1200 warriors within a short distance of Montreal, who would immediately fall upon the settlements, set fire to the buildings and corn-fields, and murder the inhabitants, induced the governor to accept the conditions of peace which they proposed, and to send, without any delay, for their chiefs who were then chained to the galleys of France.

The ratification of this treaty was, however, prevented by the political management of a young Huron chief, worthy of the most refined disciple of Machiavel, conducted with sufficient address and skill to rank this savage, in the annals of political intrigue, with the Richelieus, Metterniches, and Talleyrands of Europe; while his callous disregard to scruples, in seizing the means necessary to accomplish his ends, affords an example of dark resolute perseverance, not surpassed in the register of diabolical policy.

Kondiaronk, or Le Rat, although not forty years of age, rose, by the power of his eloquence, bravery, skill in hunting, and success in the enterprises he planned and conducted, to be the chief in war, and the first in counsel among the Hurons. He inherited inveterate hatred towards the Iroquois; and their total extermination was, from his youth, the ruling passion of his soul. He hated the French in his heart; but his nation considered their friendship useful in protecting them against the Iroquois; and he hated the English also, as the allies of the latter, with all the animosity which an Indian bosom can cherish; but policy made him conceal his feelings while his people found it more convenient, or more profitable, to sell their furs to the English than to the French traders.

Denonville solicited and pressed his alliance, to which Le Rat consented, on the sole condition that the war should only terminate by the extinction of the Iroquois nations. On this assurance, he soon after left Makilimakinak, with a chosen band of a hundred warriors, in order to surprise the Iroquois, and to acquire additional fame by some brilliant exploit. He stopped on his way at Fort Frontenac, where he was informed by the commandant that M. Denonville had entered into a treaty of peace with the Iroquois nations, whose deputies he daily expected, with hostages to be left at Montreal for its final ratification. Le Rat, who was also told that it was consequently necessary for him and his warriors to return to Makilimakinak, suppressed the feelings that were maddening in his bosom, and very coolly observed that the request was reasonable. He then left the commandant under the impression that he would return peaceably with his warriors to his own country. Far different, however, was the resolution seized by Le Rat. He considered his whole nation, in not being consulted before treating with their enemies the Iroquois, insulted by a species of conempt, the most galling to the proud heart of an American Indian; while the brilliant achievements he anticipated on leaving his tribe with the flower of their warriors, were at the same time completely blasted. Conceiving, therefore, that his own fame and the honour of his nation were sacrificed to the interests of the French, he formed a plan of terrible revenge; which the deep address and perseverance of this fiend carried into full execution. What was said by the courtly Clarendon of Hampden, but without truth in respect to that patriot in the last word of the sentence, may be justly said of Le Rat:-" He had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any evil." Instead of returning to Makilimakinak, he proceeded with his warriors to the cascades, which are about thirty miles above Montreal, and where he knew the Iroquois deputies with their hostages would pass. Here he remained in ambush, waiting for the deputies, who arrived in a few days, accompanied by forty young men. He surprised them as they landed from their canoes, killed several, and made the remainder prisoners. He then told the captives that he was directed by the governor to occupy that position, in order to intercept a party of Iroquois warriors who were advancing by that route to plunder the French settlements, and that he must immediately conduct them as prisoners to Montreal, where there was not the least hope of mercy for them. The deputies, amazed at this intelligence, and their passions already aggravated to fury by recollecting that their chiefs were not yet sent back from France, considered the conduct of M. Denonville, and particularly this last apparent act of infamous perfidy, more horrible than all that their imagination had attributed to demons. They then related the object of their mission to Le Rat, who feigned astonishment; and, after remaining a short time silent, and seemingly affected with sorrow, assumed a ferocious air and tone, and declaimed with all the ingenuity and force of his eloquence against M. Denonville, for having made him the instrument of the most diabolical treachery.

He then released the prisoners, and told them to return and tell their tribes that the governor of the

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French had made him engage in a deed so horribly treacherous, that he should never rest until he had satiated his revenge by the destruction of the French settlements. The Iroquois believed Le Rat; and his apparent clemency in setting them at liberty so fully persuaded them of his sincerity, that they assured him that the five nations would immediately ratify such terms of peace with the Hurons as they might then agree upon. He then gave them fusils, powder, and ball, to defend them on their way back; and, under the pretence of replacing one man whom he had lost in attacking the Iroquois, he retained an Indian of the Chouanan tribe, with whom he returned to Makilimakinak.

This unfortunate prisoner, who believed himself. safe, from Le Rat telling the Iroquois that he would retain him as an adopted son, was delivered to the French commandant, who was still ignorant of the proceedings of M. Denonville; and who, through the statements made by Le Rat, condemned the unhappy wretch to be shot.

Le Rat had an old Iroquois slave for a long time in his possession, to whom he afforded the opportunity of witnessing the execution of his adopted countryman by the French, all the circumstances of which, however, he carefully concealed from him. He then told the Iroquois, "I now give you your liberty; return to your country, and there spend the remainder of your days in peace! Relate to your people the barbarous and unjust conduct of the French, who, while they are amusing your nation with offers of peace, seize every opportunity of betraying and murdering you; and that all my persuasions could not save the life even of one man from

your tribe, whom I adopted to replace the warrior I lost at the cascades."

The Iroquois returned to his country, and related what he had witnessed, together with all that Le Rat had told him. The Iroquois warriors, as might be anticipated, were even before this sufficiently exasperated; but this last master stroke of Le Rat's policy made their very blood boil furiously for revenge; yet they dissembled their feelings of resentment so completely, that M. Denonville, who declared that he would hang Le Rat whenever he could be captured, still expected deputies from the Iroquois to ratify a peace.

Le Rat's policy, however, operated more effectually than all the attempts of Denonville; and when the Iroquois arrived at Montreal, where the governor waited for their deputies, their appearance and purpose was indeed far different from what he expected. 1200 warriors, who landed at the upper end of the island, plundered and burnt all the houses and cornfields, destroyed and carried off the cattle, massacred men, women, and children, defeated and cut in pieces nearly the whole of a hundred regular troops and fifty Hurons, who were sent to defend the approach to the town, and carried off about 200 prisoners.

After spreading devastation over the whole island, with the loss only of three warriors, they embarked in their canoes, with their plunder and their prison

ers.

One of the three warriors lost by the Iroquois was brought before the governor, and declared, that the effect of Le Rat's policy was irreparable; that the Iroquois, far from condemning him, were ready to enter into a treaty with his nation; and that all the Iroquois tribes were so deeply impressed with a

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