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DENONVILLE’s EXPEDITION TO THE GENESEE COUNTRY AND NIAGARA.

I should have greatly desired to shorten my letters to you. But, My lord, as it is necessary toinform you of the state of our affairs and to render you an account of my conduct, I thought I wouldsend you all the orders as I had issued them, so that I might be corrected if I fail in any respect,being very anxious to satisfy you.

I receive letters from the most distant quarters; from the head of the River Mississippi , from thehead of Lake Superior , from Lake des Lenemyngon 1 where they propose wonders to me by estab-lishing posts for the Missions and for the Beavers which abound there. But in truth so long as theinterior of the Colony is not consolidated and secured, nothing certain can be expected from all thosedistant posts where hitherto people have lived in great disorder and in a manner to convert our bestCanadians into banditti. All these distant posts cannot maintain themselves except from the interiorof the Colony, and by a secure communication with them from here. Whilst we have the Iroquois on our hands, can we be certain of anything 1 Solicited by the English , they daily plunder ourcanoes and openly declare they will continue (to do so) being unwilling that we should carryammunition to the Savages, their enemies and our allies.

The principal affair at present is the security of this Colony which is in evident danger of perishingwhether the Iroquois be let alone or we make war without having a decided advantage over them,and however decided ours may be, the people separated as they are will always be in danger. YetMy lord, if you aid us with troops, war will be the least inconvenience, for if we do not wage it,I do not believe that the next year will pass away without the whole trade being absolutely lost; thesavages, our friends, would revolt against us, and place themselves at the mercy of the Iroquois ,more powerful because better armed, than any of them. The whole of the Hurons are waiting onlyfor the moment to do it. Had I not by the care of Father de Lamberville fortunately avoided thewar this year, not a single canoe would have come down from the forests without having been cap-tured and plundered in the river of the Outtawas. We should have lost a great number of goodmen.

This, My lord, is a long narrative about the state of the affairs of the country with the Iroquois which absolutely require that we wage war without longer delay. Every person sees its necessity soclearly that those concur in it now, who had been hitherto the most opposed to it. I hope that onthe sketch I give you of our wants, you will aid us both in men and other necessaries. In regard totroops, My lord, I had the honor to ask you for Regulars, for in truth the employment of peoplepicked up anywhere is very unwise. It requires time to make them fit for service and on theirarrival they will have to take arms in their hands and drill. If you propose to send us some it wouldbe well to have them arrive about the end of May which is the season when the North West windsprevail in our River . For that reason, the ships ought to leave Rochelle in the month of March.Sieur Dambour, one of our best ship captains that come to Canada , can give good advice thereupon.

Our march cannot begin before the fifteenth of May, for we must let the sowing be finished, andthe storms before that time are furious on our river and Lake Ontario . I say nothing of the risksto be incurred that the harvest will not be saved next year on account of the war, nor of the neces-sity of making store-houses. By sending us troops, many things will be done of which we dare notdream if you do not send any.

A few days since a man named Antoine L’Epinart, an old resident among the Dutch , at presentamong the English, came to Ville Marie on the Island of Montreal in search of a child he had boardingwith the Jesuits. He reports that the English kept watch three months this summer, our desertershaving told them that I would attack them for having armed the Iroquois against us. He also saysthat the Iroquois are drawing to them the Loups (Mohegans) and other tribes toward the Andastes,with whom they are forming alliances; he believed the Iroquois had evil intentions toward us—that

I Most probably, Lake Aleminipigon of the old maps; now L. St. Ann, north of Lake Superior .

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