no protection. were enabled to advise the governor of Canada, that circum stances had materially changed that they were now accustomed to the woods, were acquainted with all the roads through them, and that the French could, from Fort Frontenac, fall on the Senecas in forty hours and crush them by an unexpected blow. ;

When Colonel Dongan came over, in 1683, as governor of New York, matters wore a threatening aspect indeed. He was under instructions to preserve friendly relations with the French, and besides this, was himself an earnest Catholic ; but he was not blind to the danger which menaced the province, or slow Wherever the French priests to use his power to avert it. traveled

they set up the arms of France in token of French

Although the

priests

had no

little

with the Mohawks, they ultimately succeeded in converting the village

or castle of Caghnawaga. *

Documentary

difficulty

97.

History

Neiv

Tork,

i,

OF HUDSON'S RIVER.

Dongan gave to his Iroquols allies medals showing were British subjects, and caused the arms of the they Duke of York to be erected in all their castles. The French invited their converts to Canada ; Dongan solicited them to remain, and obtained a promise from those who had already possession ; that

gone to return.

He would give them lands and priests and

built them a church.

In the fall of 1686, he sent fifty citizens of Albany and New York to winter with the Senecas^ and used his influence with the Mabicans to