The task was difficult; and, filled with anxiety, the
father came down to Montreal to see the governor, "and communicate to
me," writes Denonville, "the deplorable state of affairs with our
allies, whom we can no longer trust, owing to the discredit into which
we have fallen among them, and from which we cannot recover, except by
gaining some considerable advantage over the Iroquois; who, as I have
had the honor to inform you, have labored incessantly since last
autumn to rob us of all our allies, by using every means to make
treaties with them independently of us. You may be assured,
Monseigneur, that the English are the chief cause of the arrogance and
insolence of the Iroquois, adroitly using them to extend the limits of
their dominion and uniting with them as one nation, insomuch that the
English claims include no less than the Lakes Ontario and Erie, the
region of Saginaw (_Michigan_), the country of the Hurons, and all the
country in the direction of the Mississippi." [Footnote: _Denonville a
Seignelay_, 12 _Juin_, 1686.]
The most pressing danger was the defection of the lake tribes. "In
spite of the king's edicts," pursues Denonville, "the _coureurs de
bois_ have carried a hundred barrels of brandy to Michillimackinac in
a single year; and their libertinism and debauchery have gone to such
an extremity that it is a wonder the Indians have not massacred them
all to save themselves from their violence and recover their wives and
daughters from them.
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