where we remained two years, as if in the centre of all the Iroquois Nations, whence we proclaimed the gospel to all those poor people, assisted by a garrison of Frenchmen sent by Monsieur de Lauzon,

then Governor of New France, to take possession of those countries in his Majesty's name.

At twenty or thirty leagues from there still towards the West is the village of Cayuga, of three hundred warriors, where in the year 1657, we had a mission which formed a little church filled with piety in the midst of these Barbarians.

Towards the termination of the Great Lake, called Ontario, is located the most numerous of the Five Iroquois Nations, named the Senecas, which contains full twelve hundred men in two or three villages of which it is composed.

These last two nations have never openly made war on us, and have always remained neuter. All that extent of country is partly south, partly west of the French settlements, at a distance of

from one hundred to one hundred and fifty leagues.

It is for the most part fertile, covered with fine

timber ; among the rest entire forests of chestnut and hickory (noyer,) intersected by numerous lakes

and rivers abounding in fish. bearing

all

The air is temperate

the fruits of Touraine and Provence.

;

the seasons regular as in France, capable of

The snows are not deep nor of long duration.

The three winters which we passed there among the Onnontagues, were mild, compared with the winters at Quebec where the ground is covered five months with snow, three, four and five feet deep.