Late in the summer of 1687 Lahontan took part in the Marquis de Denonville's campaign against the Iroquois. Immediately thereafter, and much to his frustration, Lahontan's leave to return home to attempt a salvage of what remained of the family estate was canceled. Instead Lahontan was assigned the command of Fort Saint Joseph (near Port Huron, Michigan), where he arrived, after a near-fatal sightseeing excursion at Niagara Falls, in September of 1687.
The following spring and summer found Lahontan away from his command. While at Michillimakinak, on the north shore of Lake Huron, he had occasion to hear from survivors of Sieur de La Salle's ill-fated Louisiana expedition; and during an otherwise profitless raid against the Iroquois, he met Kondiaronk (whose sobriquet was "Le Rat"), the wily Huron chief who succeeded in subverting French efforts to bury the hatchet with the Five Nations in 1688 and who would come to serve as the model for the enlightened Adario of Lahontan's Dialogues Curieux (in Supplément aux voyages, 1703). In response to the news of Iroquois incursions that greeted Lahontan's return to his command, he ordered the burning of Fort St. Joseph and retired to Michillimakinak.
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