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French themselves.
They bade defiance to forts and
entrenchments; their war parties triumphed at
Three Rivers, were too powerful for the palisades of Silleri,
and proudly passed by the walls of
Quebec.
The
Ottawas were driven from their old abodes to the forests in the
Bay of Saginaw.
No frightful solitude in the wilderness, no impenetrable recess in the frozen north, was safe against the passions of the Five Nations.
Their chiefs, animated not by cruelty only, but by pride, were resolved that no nook should escape their invasions; that no nation should rule but themselves; and, as their warriors strolled by
Three Rivers and
Quebec, they killed the governor of the one settlement, and carried off a priest from the other.
At length, satisfied with the display of their power, they themselves desired rest.
Besides, of the scattered Hurons, many had sought refuge among their oppressors, and, according to an Indian custom, had been incorporated with the tribes of the Five Nations.
Of these, some retained affection for the French.
When peace was concluded, and Father Le Moyne appeared
as envoy among the Onondagas to ratify the treaty, he found there a multitude of Hurons, who, like the Jews at
Babylon, retained their faith in a land of strangers.
The hope was renewed of winning the whole west and north to Christendom.
The villages bordering on the settlements of the Dutch, were indifferent to the peace; the western tribes, who could more easily traffic with the French, adhered to it firmly.
At last, the Mohawks also grew
weary of the strife; and
Le Moyne, selecting the banks of their river for his abode, resolved to persevere, in the vain hope of infusing into their savage nature the gentler spirit of civilization.
