I likewise sent to M. de Ladurantaye who is at lake Superior under orders from M. de Labarre, and to Sieur Duluth who is also at a great distance in another direction, and all so far beyond reach that neither the one nor the other can have news from me this year, so that not being able to see them all, at soonest before next July, I considered it best not to think of undertaking any thing during the

whole of next year, especially as a great number of our best men of the Colony are among the Outaouacs, and cannot return before the ensuing summer. Moreover, learning that six tribes of our friends and allies are at war with each other, and as it is absolutely necessary to reconcile them before thinking of deriving any advantage from them, I sent

presents and instructions to M. Ladurantaye to collect our French and put himself at their head, in

order to support his reasoning and to have more authority to reconcile them in concert with Father

Anjeblan Jesuit Missionary at Missilimakina.

We shall, however, lose no time in putting ourselves in a position to resent the insults that the Iroquois may oifer the Colony, which would suffer very much if we were mastered, and we will not let

pass any negotiations that offer so as to lull the Senecas who are the most insolent,

and with

whom there is no permanent peace to be expected, much less that they will observe it with our allies whose total destruction they contemplate. Chevalier de Tonty commandant of