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Parkman, Francis, 1823-1893

"Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV"

[Footnote: Frontenac
declares that he sent no such message, and intimates that Cut Nose had
been tampered with by persons over-anxious to conciliate the
Iroquois, and who had even gone so far as to send them messages on
their own account. These persons were Lamberville, Francois Hertel,
and one of the Le Moynes. Frontenac was very angry at this
interference, to which he ascribes the most mischievous consequences.
Cut Nose, or Nez Coupe, is called Adarahta by Colden, and Gagniegaton,
or Red Bird, by some French writers.]
"Ho, ho, ho," returned the eighty senators, from the bottom of their
throats. It was the unfailing Iroquois response to a speech. Then Cut
Nose, the governor's messenger, addressed the council: "I advise you
to meet Onontio as he desires. Do so, if you wish to live." He
presented a wampum belt to confirm his words, and the conclave again
returned the same guttural ejaculation.
"Ourehaoue sends you this," continued Cut Nose, presenting another
belt of wampum: "by it he advises you to listen to Onontio, if you
wish to live."
When the messenger from Canada had ceased, the messenger from Albany,
a Mohawk Indian, rose and repeated word for word a speech confided to
him by the mayor of that town, urging the Iroquois to close their ears
against the invitations of Onontio.


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