82
DE LA BARRE’s EXPEDITION TO HUNGRY BAY.
them take the trouble and come and meet them. There came altogether on this embassy only a cer-tain sycophant who seeks merely a good dinner, and a real buffoon called among the French La GrandGueule [Big Throat,] accompanied by eight or ten miserable fellows who fooled the General in a mostshameful manner, which you will perceive by the articles of peace I have the honour to send you,and which I doubt not he also will send you. They will assuredly excite your pity. You will seehe abandons the Illinois among whom M. de la Salle is about to establish himself and who are thecause of this war, inasmuch as the Iroquois attacked them even in Fort St. Louis which the saidSieur de la Salle had erected among them, and of which the General took possession, having oustedand driven away those whom the said Sieur de la Salle had left in command there, and whither hesent Sieur de Bangy his lieutenant of the guards, who is still there.
When he concluded this peace he already had His Majesty’s letter eight days in his possession,but so far from conforming to its intentions, he consents to the slaughter of the Illinois who are ourallies, and where Ilis Majesty designed to plant a new Colony or some powerful establishment underM. de la Salle’s direction. I consider it also my duty to inform your Lordship that the General quitLa Famine the moment the peace was concluded without taking the least care of the troops, aban-doning them altogether to their own guidance, forbidding them on pain of death to leave the placeuntil a long time after liim, fearing to be surprised by the Iroquois , and having (so to say) lost hiswits, caring little what became of the army. Certain it is that he went up to the Fort withouttaking information about any thing and returned in the same manner.
The worst of this affair is the loss of the trade which I find inevitable, because the Outawas andother Savages who came to our aid will hereafter entertain no respect for us, and will regard us as apeople without courage and without resolution. I doubt not, my lord, but the General sends you aletter which he received from Father Lamberville, Jesuit, who is a missionary in an Iroquois villageat OnnontaguS, whence those ambassadors came with whom peace was negotiated. The Father, whohad learned the General’s intentions from Sieur Le Moyne, has been w r ise and sufficiently discreet,anticipating his design, to write to him in accordance with his views, and to ingeniously solicit thatwhich must flatter and highly please him. But one thing, is certain that all the Jesuits at Quebec ,and particularly Father Bechefer have openly stated in Quebec for six'weeks, that the country wasdestroyed if peace were concluded; which is so true, that having communicated to him the tw T oletters I wrote to the General, he highly approved of them and advised me to send them to the fort.I shall take leave to send you copies of them, requesting you very respectfully, to be persuaded thatI speak to you without passion, and that I state nothing to you but what is most true and reliable,and because I feel obliged to let you know the truth as regards all things, without which you willnever have the least confidence in me.
I should wish, my Lord, to avoid explaining myself in this manner, fearing you might infer thatwe were, the General and I, greatly disunited, which is quite contrary to the manner in which welive together, since it is certain that we never had, personally, the least difference wishing in that toconform myself to your wishes and His Majesty’s orders, aware that it is the most assured meansthat I can take to be agreeable to you, which is the sole ambition I have in the world, and to proveto you that no person can be with more profound respect and greater devotedness than I, my Lord,
Your very humble and ob: serv*.
This, my Lord, is only incidentally, i defer informing you of what has occurred in this countryduring this year, until the departure of the vessels.
Demeulles.