By the treaty of Ryswick, the great
questions at issue in America were left to the arbitrament of future
wars; and meanwhile, as time went on, the policy of Frontenac
developed and ripened. Detroit was occupied by the French, the passes
of the west were guarded by forts, another New France grew up at the
mouth of the Mississippi, and lines of military communication joined
the Gulf of Mexico with the Gulf of St. Lawrence; while the colonies
of England lay passive between the Alleghanies and the sea till roused
by the trumpet that sounded with wavering notes on many a bloody field
to peal at last in triumph from the Heights of Abraham.
[1] The council at Montreal is described at great length by La
Potherie, a spectator. There is a short official report of the various
speeches, of which a translation will be found in _N. Y. Col. Docs.,_
IX. 722. Callieres himself gives interesting details. (_Callieres au
Ministre,_ 4 _Oct.,_ 1701.) A great number of papers on Indian affairs
at this time will be found in _N. Y. Col. Docs.,_ IV.
Joncaire went for the prisoners whom the Iroquois had promised to give
up, and could get but six of them. _Callieres au Ministre,_ 31 _Oct.,_
1701. The rest were made Iroquois by adoption.
According to an English official estimate made at the end of the war,
the Iroquois numbered 2,550 warriors in 1689, and only 1,230 in 1698.
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