When the deputation arrived at Onondaga and made known their errand,
the Iroquois magnates, with their usual deliberation, deferred
answering till a general council of the confederacy should have time
to assemble; and, meanwhile, they sent messengers to ask the mayor of
Albany, and others of their Dutch and English friends, to come to the
meeting. They did not comply, merely sending the government
interpreter, with a few Mohawk Indians, to represent their interests.
On the other hand, the Jesuit Milet, who had been captured a few
months before, adopted, and made an Oneida chief, used every effort to
second the designs of Frontenac. The authorities of Albany tried in
vain to induce the Iroquois to place him in their hands. They
understood their interests too well, and held fast to the Jesuit.
[Footnote: Milet was taken in 1689, not, as has been supposed, in
1690. _Lettre du Pere Milet_, 1691, printed by Shea.]
The grand council took place at Onondaga on the twenty-second of
January. Eighty chiefs and sachems, seated gravely on mats around the
council fire, smoked their pipes in silence for a while; till at
length an Onondaga orator rose, and announced that Frontenac, the old
Onontio, had returned with Ourehaoue and twelve more of their captive
friends, that he meant to rekindle the council fire at Fort Frontenac,
and that he invited them to meet him there.
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