finished, when an Algonquin squaw, once a captive of the Iroquois, informed Courcelle that there were two other villages. The soldiers pushed forward, and the fourth settlement of the ever-vanishing enemy fell undefended into the hands of the French. The sun was setting; the exertions of the day and of the night before had been arduous, and it seemed impossible to go farther. But the squaw, seizing a pistol and grasping Courcelle's hand, said, 'Come on, I will show you the straight path.' And she led the way to the town and fort of Andaraque, the most important stronghold of the Mohawks. It was surrounded with a triple palisade twenty feet high and flanked by four bastions. Vessels of bark full of water were distributed on the platforms behind the palisade ready for use against fire. The Iroquois might have made a desperate stand there, and such had been their intention. But their courage failed them at the fearful beating of the drums and the appearance of that mighty army, and they sought safety in flight.

The victory was now complete, and the army could go to rest after nearly twenty-four hours of continuous exertion. Next morning the French were astonished at the sight of Andaraque in the light of the rising sun. instead of a collection of miserable wigwams, they saw a fine Indian town, with wooden houses, some of them a hundred and twenty feet long and with lodging for eight or nine families. These houses were well supplied with provisions, tools, and utensils. An immense quantity of Indian corn and other necessaries was stored in Andaraque-'food enough to feed Canada for ten years'—and in the surrounding fields a plentiful crop was ready for harvest. All this was to be destroyed; but first an impressive ceremony had to be performed. The army was drawn up in battle array. A French officer, Jean-Baptiste Dubois, commander of the artillery, advanced, sword in hand, to the front, and in the presence of Tracy and Courcelle, declared that he was directed by M. Jean Talon, king's counsellor and intendant of justice, police, and finance for New France, to take possession of Andaraque, and of all the country of the Mohawks, in the name of the king. A cross was solemnly planted alongside a post bearing the king's coat of arms. Mass was celebrated and the Te Deum sung. Then the work of destruction began. The palisades, the dwellings, the bastions, the stores of grain and provisions, except what was needed by the invaders, the standing crops-all were set on fire; and when night fell the glaring illumination of that tremendous blaze told the savages that at last New France had asserted her power, and that the soldiers of the great king had come far enough through forest and over mountain and stream to chastise in their own country the bloodthirsty tribes who for a quarter of a century had been the terror of the growing settlements on the St Lawrence.

On their return march the troops suffered great hardships. A storm on Lake Champlain upset two boats and eight men were drowned. Tracy reached Quebec on November 5. The expedition had lasted seven weeks, during which time he had covered nine hundred miles. The news of his success had been received with joy. Since the first days of October the whole colony had been praying for victory. As soon as the destruction of the Iroquois towns was known, prayers were changed to thanksgiving. The Te Deum was solemnly chanted, and on November 14 a mass was said in the church of Notre-Dame-de-Quebec, followed by a procession in gratiarum actionem. New France might well rejoice. A great result had been attained. True it was that the Mohawks, panic-stricken, had not been met and crushed. in a set encounter. None the less they had had their lesson. They had learned that distance and natural impediments were no protection against the French. Their towns were a heap of ashes, their fields were despoiled, their country was ruined. The fruit of that expedition was to be eighteen years of peace for New France. Eighteen years of peace after twenty-five years of murderous incursions! Was not that worth a Te Deum?

After his return Tracy ordered one of the Iroquois detained at Quebec to be hanged as a penalty for his share in the murder of the French hunters. He then directed three other prisoners, the Flemish Batard [Footnote: A half-breed Mohawk leader.] and two Oneida chiefs, to go and inform their respective tribes that he would give them four months to send hostages and make peace; otherwise he would lead against them another expedition more calamitous for their country than the first one. At length, in the month of July of the following year, ambassadors of the Iroquois nations arrived at Quebec with a number of Iroquois families who were to remain as hostages in the colony. The chiefs asked that missionaries be sent to reside among their tribes. This petition was granted. New France could now breathe freely. The hatchet was buried.

CHAPTER IV

A COLONIAL COLBERT

Tracy had led a successful expedition against the Iroquois and coerced them into a lasting peace. He had seen order and harmony restored in the government of the colony. His mission was over and he left Canada on August 28, 1667, Courcelle remaining as governor and Talon as intendant. From that moment the latter, though second in rank, became really the first official of New France, if we consider his work in its relation to the future welfare of the colony.

We have already seen something of his views for the administration of New France. He would have it emancipated from the jurisdiction of the West India Company; he tried also to impress on the king and his minister the advisability of augmenting the population in order to develop the resources of the colony—in a word, he sought to lay the foundations of a flourishing state. Undoubtedly Colbert wished to help and strengthen New France, but he seemed to think that Talon's aim was too ambitious. In one of his letters the intendant had gone the length of submitting a plan f or the acquisition of New Netherlands, which had been conquered by the English in 1664. He suggested that, in the negotiations for peace between France, England, and Holland, Louis XIV might stipulate for the restoration to Holland of its colony, and in the meantime come to an understanding with the States-General for its cession to France. Annexation to Canada would follow. But Colbert thought that Talon was too bold. The intendant had spoken of New France as likely to become a great kingdom. In answer, the minister said that the king saw many obstacles to the fulfilment of these expectations. To create on the shores of the St Lawrence an important state would require much emigration from France, and it would not be wise to draw so many people from the kingdom—to 'unpeople France for the purpose of peopling Canada.' Moreover if too many colonists came to Canada in one season, the area already under cultivation would not produce enough to feed the increased population, and great hardship would follow. Evidently Colbert did not here display his usual insight. Talon never had in mind the unpeopling of France. He meant simply that if the home government would undertake to send out a few hundred settlers every year, the result would be the creation of a strong and prosperous nation on the shores of the St Lawrence. The addition of five hundred immigrants annually during the whole period of Louis XIV's reign would have given Canada in 1700 a population of five hundred thousand. It was thought that the mother country could not spare so many; and yet the cost in men to France of a single battle, the bloody victory of Senef in 1674, was eight thousand French soldiers. The wars of Louis XIV killed ten times more men than the systematic colonization of Canada would have taken from the mother country. The second objection raised by Colbert was no better founded than the first. Talon did not ask for the immigration of more colonists than the country could feed. But he