This was not without cause, for a report had come from Canada that the
French were about to march on Albany to destroy it. "And now, my
Lord," continues Dongan, "we must build forts in ye countrey upon ye
great Lakes, as ye French doe, otherwise we lose ye Countrey, ye Bever
trade, and our Indians." [Footnote: _Dongan to Sunderland, Feb.,_
1688, _N.Y. Col. Docs.,_ III. 510.] Denonville, meanwhile, had begun
to yield, and promised to send back McGregory and the men captured
with him. [Footnote: _Denonville a Dongan_, 2 _Oct._, 1687. McGregory
soon arrived, and Dongan sent him back to Canada as an emissary with a
civil message to Denonville. _Dongan to Denonville,_ 10 _Nov._, 1687.]
Dongan, not satisfied, insisted on payment for all the captured
merchandise, and on the immediate demolition of Fort Niagara. He added
another demand, which must have been singularly galling to his rival.
It was to the effect that the Iroquois prisoners seized at Fort
Frontenac, and sent to the galleys in France, should be surrendered as
British subjects to the English ambassador at Paris or the secretary
of state in London. [Footnote: _Dongan to Denonville,_ 31 _Oct._,
1687; _Dongan's First Demand of the French Agents, N. Y. Col. Docs.,_
III. 515, 520.
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