Je n'ay aussy rien a vous recommander plus fortement que de
mettre en usage tout ce que vous pouvez avoir de capacite et de
prudence afin que les Canibas (_Abenakis_) ne s'employent qu'a la
guerre, et que par l'economie de ce que vous avez a leur fournir ils y
puissent trouver leur subsistance et plus d'avantage qu'a la chasse."
_Le Ministre a Villebon, Avril_, 1692. Two years before, the king
had ordered that the Abenakis should be made to attack the English
settlements.
[2] The best French account of the capture of York is that of
Champigny in a letter to the minister, 5 Oct., 1692. His information
came from an Abenaki chief, who was present. The journal of Villebon
contains an exaggerated account of the affair, also derived from
Indians. Compare the English accounts in Mather, Williamson, and
Niles. These writers make the number of slain and captives much less
than that given by the French. In the contemporary journal of Rev.
John Pike, it is placed at 48 killed and 78 taken.
Two fortified houses of this period are still (1875) standing at York.
They are substantial buildings of squared timber, with the upper story
projecting over the lower, so as to allow a vertical fire on the heads
of assailants. In one of them some of the loopholes for musketry are
still left open.
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