They had rashly
changed their plan, and parted company. Rooseboom took the lead, and
McGregory followed some time after. Their hope was that, on reaching
Michillimackinac, the Indians of the place, attracted by their cheap
goods and their abundant supplies of rum, would declare for them and
drive off the French; and this would probably have happened, but for
the prompt action of La Durantaye. The canoes of Rooseboom, bearing
twenty-nine whites and five Mohawks and Mohicans, were not far
distant, when, amid a prodigious hubbub, the French commander embarked
to meet him with a hundred and twenty _coureurs de bois._ [Footnote:
Attestation of N. Harmentse and others of Rooseboom's party. N. Y.
Col. Docs., III. 436. La Potherie says, three hundred.] Behind them
followed a swarm of Indian canoes, whose occupants scarcely knew which
side to take, but for the most part inclined to the English. Rooseboom
and his men, however, naturally thought that they came to support the
French; and, when La Durantaye bore down upon them with threats of
instant death if they made the least resistance, they surrendered at
once. The captors carried them in triumph to Michillimackinac, and
gave their goods to the delighted Indians.
"It is certain," wrote Denonville; "that, if the English had not been
stopped and pillaged, the Hurons and Ottawas would have revolted and
cut the throats of all our Frenchmen.
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