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It is very much to be desired that first of all, sufficient flour and other provisions might be putinto Catarokvy next year, so as to have nothing to do the following year but to march against theenemy; but as I do not think it possible to convey the whole quantity of provisions necessary thitherwithout the savages naturally suspicious taking umbrage, measures must be adopted to accomplishall in the same year with great diligence, which cannot be effected without trouble and expense, forin truth, the difficulties in surmounting rapids and cascades, twenty-five to thirty leagues in extent,are immense.
This, however, is not all; for it is well to consider that the arrangements are not easy to be madeso as to secure punctuality, since from the Illinois country there are four hundred leagues to betravelled to arrive at Niagara, the place of rendezvous; and from the Outaouacs and Savages of lakeSuperior, three hundred leagues, and from Quebec nearly two hundred to the said place of Niagara.All this must make me think of putting myself in a condition to be, myself, sufficiently strong tofight them without any other aid than that of this country.
The conveyance of supplies and the expense are my sole difficulties. The neighbourhood of Cata-rokvy indifferently fertile in grain, produces good peas; M. de Laforest assures me that he has nearlythree hundred minots. I caused him to give orders to have them all sown, and M. d’Orvilliers notto allow any to be consumed, but will make the soldiers work and oblige them to plant some. Thatwill be a trifling supply of four or five hundred minots for next year.
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It will require considerable expense to render the river navigable; the Map I have caused to bemade of it will afford some imperfect idea by remarking the pitch in several places there.
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The surest remedy against the English of New York would be to purchase that place from theKing of England who in the present state of his affairs, will, without doubt, require money of theKing. By that means we should be masters of the Iroquois without waging war.
M. DE DENONVILLE TO THE MINISTER, 8 May 1686.
[ Paris Doc. III. ]
I learn that the news which I had the honour to send you of the appearance on Lakes Ontario andErie of English Canoes accompanied by French Deserters on their way to the Outaouacs is true.There are ten of them loaded with merchandize. Thereupon, my Lord, I sent orders to Missilimakina,to Catarokouy and other places where we had Frenchmen, to run and seize them, and I am resolvedto send another officer with twelve reliable men to join Sieur D’Orvifliers at Catarosky, who is to gowith Sieur de Lasalle’s bark to Niagara to treat there with the Iroquois Indians on their return fromhunting. He will take some men with him. This officer, with the aid of this bark and some canoeswhich shall be furnished him, will post himself with twenty good men at the River , communicatingfrom Lake Erie with that of Ontario, near Niagara by which place the English who ascended LakeEri6 must of necessity pass on their return home with their peltries. I regard, my Lord, as ofprimary importance the prohibition of this trade to the English , who without doubt, would entirelyruin ours both by the cheaper bargains they could give the Indians and by attracting to them theFrenchmen of our Colony who are accustomed to go into the woods.