beauty of the lordly river, its broad stretches of sparkling blue waters, its fairyland mazes of islands, and its great forests rising everywhere from the shore to the horizon.  At length they reached Lake Ontario and skirted its southern shore until they entered the Oswego river.  Ascending this river they were met by Chaumonot and an Onondaga delegation.  On Lake Onondaga the canoes formed four abreast behind the canoe of the leader, from which streamed a white silk flag with the name Jesus woven on it in letters of gold.  Then, with measured stroke of paddle and song of praise, the flotilla swept ashore to the site which Chaumonot had chosen for the headquarters of the colony.  Here, from the crest of a low hill, commanding a beautiful view of one of the most picturesque of inland lakes, they cleared the trees and erected a commodious and substantial house, with smaller buildings about it, all enclosed in the usual palisade.

The Jesuits announced that they had come not as traders but as ‘messengers of God,’ seeking no profit; and they began work under most favourable conditions.  Owing to Chaumonot’s exertions the Onondagas seemed genuinely friendly.  The fathers, too, found in every village many adopted Hurons, from their old missions in Huronia, who still professed Christianity.  Indeed, one whole village was composed largely of Hurons and Petuns.  The mission was not confined to the Onondagas; the Cayugas, Senecas, and Oneidas were included; and the new field seemed rich in promise.

But it soon became evident that the fickle Iroquois were not to be trusted.  The Mohawks continued their raids on the Hurons at Quebec and carried off captives from under the very walls of Fort St Louis.  Learning of this, the Onondagas sent an expedition to Quebec to demand that some Hurons should be given to them also, and the weak administrator of the colony, Charles de Lauzon-Charny, being too cowardly to resist, complied with this demand.  On the way back to Onondaga the Indians slew some of the captives.  On arriving at home they tortured and burned others, among them women and helpless children.  The colonists at Onondaga frequently witnessed such scenes, but they were powerless to interfere.  Presently they learned that it was with evil intentions that they had been invited to Onondaga.  A statement made to one of the missionaries by a dying convert served only to confirm the rumour already current, namely, that the death of the colonists had been decreed from the first, and that the Jesuits were to meet the fate which had befallen Jogues and their brothers in Huronia.