72

DE LA BA REE’s EXPEDITION TO HUNGRY BAY.

I could heartily wish that the Sieur de la Barre had sooner given me notice of the act of hostilitybefore he had detained Taganeout there Ambassadour, or made warr against them, that I mighthave used all just methods to prevent a warr that may be destructive to either party—

That the Governor of Canida does very well in believing what truly he ought that I will notinterest myselie in any manner to countenance such villanyes and if I did not think there was amiddle way to compose that difference myselfe, I would be willing to joyne against themI am glad you asured me that the neighbourghing Indians to Albany have no share in that warr,but I am sorry the troops are in soe great forwardness, that if my former advice had bin taken, therehad been no absolute necessity to attaque the Indians or loose the campaigne.

That it is very true, I ought to have a good correspondence with the Sieur de la Barr, and it is notnor ever shall be my fault if I have not, and I againe must tell you that I have no thought or incli-nation to protect any villany whatsoever.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER ADDRESSED BY LOUIS XIY. TO MONSIEUR DE LA BARRE, THE

21st JULY, 1684.

[Paris Doc. II.]

Monsieur De la barre

I have seen by your letters of the 5 th June last, the resolution you have taken to attack the Iro­ quois , and the reasons which moved you to it, and though it is a grave misfortune for the Colony ofNew France which will interrupt the trade of my subjects and divert them from the cultivation ofthe land and expose them to frequent insults on the part of the Iroquois Savages, who can frequentlysurprize them in distant settlements, without your being even in a state to succor them; I do nothesitate to approve your adoption of that resolution since, by the insult they offered the fifteenFrenchmen whom they pillaged, and the attack on Fort St. Louis, you have had reason to believethat they seriously intended declaring war, and as I wish to place you in a position to sustain it, andbring it to a speedy termination, I have given orders for equipping the Ship L’Emerillon, on boardwhich I have caused to be embarked three hundred soldiers quartered in the ports of Brest andRochefort with the number of Officers and Marines contained in the lists which you will find annexed,and this reinforcement with that sent to you by the last vessels from Rochelle, and which you havelearned from my preceding letters, will furnish you means to fight advantageously, and to destroyutterly those people, or at least to place them in a state, after having punished them for their inso-lence, to receive peace on the conditions which you will impose on them.

You must observe as regards this war that even though you prosecute it with advantage, if you donot find means to wage it promptly, it will not the less cause the ruin of the colony, the people ofwhich cannot subsist in the continual disquietude of being attacked by the Savages, and in the im-possibility in which they find themselves of applying themselves to trade and the cultivation of theirfarms. Therefore whatever advantage you may derive for the glory of my arms and the entiredestruction of the Savages by the continuation of this war, you ought to prefer peace which restoringquietness to my subjects will place you in a condition to increase the Colony by the means pointedout to you in my preceding letters.

I write to my ambassador in England to procure orders from the Duke of York to prevent himwho commands at Baston assisting the Savages with troops, arms or ammunition, and I have reasonto believe that orders will be despatched as soon as representations on my part will have been made.