Yet despite these untoward circumstances all hope of peace between the French and the Five Nations had not been destroyed.  The Iroquois loved their revenge and were willing to wait for it, but caution warned them that it would not be advantageous to destroy the French for the benefit of the English.  Moreover, in the long course o their relations with the French they had, as already mentioned, formed a high opinion of men like Le Moyne and Lamberville, while they viewed with respect the exploits of Tonty, La Durantaye, and Du Lhut.

Moved by these considerations and a love of presents, Grangula, of the Onondagas, was in the midst of negotiations for peace with the French, which might have ended happily but for the stratagem of the Huron chief Kondiaronk, called ‘The Rat.’  The remnant of Hurons and the other tribes centring at Michilimackinac did not desire a peace of the French and Iroquois which would not include themselves, for this would mean their own certain destruction.  The Iroquois, freed of the French, would surely fall on the Hurons.  All the Indians distrusted Denonville, and Kondiaronk suspected, with good reason, that the Hurons were about to be sacrificed.  Denonville, however, had assured Kondiaronk that there was to be war to the death against the Iroquois, and on this understanding he went with a band of warriors to Fort Frontenac.  There he learned that peace would be concluded between Onontio and the Onondagas—­in other words, that the Iroquois would soon be free to attack the Hurons and their allies.  To avert this threatened destruction of his own people, he set out with his warriors and lay in ambush for a party of Onondaga chiefs who were on their way to Montreal.  Having killed one and captured almost all the rest, he announced to his Iroquois prisoners that he had received orders from Denonville to destroy them.  When they explained that they were ambassadors, he feigned surprise and said he could no longer be an accomplice to the wickedness of the French.  Then he released them all save one, in order that they might carry home this tale of Denonville’s second treachery.  The one Iroquois Kondiaronk retained on the plea that he wished to adopt him.  Arrived at Michilimackinac, he handed over the captive to the French there, who, having heard nothing of the peace, promptly shot him.  An Iroquois prisoner, whom Kondiaronk secretly released for the purpose, conveyed to the Five Nations word of this further atrocity.

The Iroquois prepared to deliver a hard blow.  On August 5, 1689, they fell in overwhelming force upon the French settlement at Lachine.  Those who died by the tomahawk were the most fortunate.  Charlevoix gives the number of victims at two hundred killed and one hundred and twenty taken prisoner.  Girouard’s examination of parish registers results in a lower estimate—­namely, twenty-four killed at Lachine and forty-two at La Chesnaye, a short time afterwards.  Whatever the number, it was the most dreadful catastrophe which the colony had yet suffered.