We now
let you know that we have made peace with the tribes of
Michillimackinac. You are not to think, because we return you an
answer, that we have laid down the tomahawk. Our warriors will
continue the war till you send our countrymen back to us." [3]
The messengers from Canada returned with this reply. Unsatisfactory as
it was, such a quantity of wampum was sent with it as showed plainly
the importance attached by the Iroquois to the matters in question.
Encouraged by a recent success against the English, and still
possessed with an overweening confidence in his own influence over the
confederates, Frontenac resolved that Ourehaoue should send them
another message. The chief, whose devotion to the count never wavered,
accordingly despatched four envoys, with a load of wampum belts,
expressing his astonishment that his countrymen had not seen fit to
send a deputation of chiefs to receive him from the hands of Onontio,
and calling upon them to do so without delay, lest he should think
that they had forgotten him. Along with the messengers, Frontenac
ventured to send the Chevalier d'Aux, a half-pay officer, with orders
to observe the disposition of the Iroquois, and impress them in
private talk with a sense of the count's power, of his good-will to
them, and of the wisdom of coming to terms with him, lest, like an
angry father, he should be forced at last to use the rod.
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