JOURNAL OF WHAT OCCURRED BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND SAVAGES.
[Relation, &c. 1657 and 1658.]
he word Onnota, which signifies, in the Iroquois tongue, a Mountain, has given the name to the village called Onnontaé, or as others call it, Onnontagué because it is on a mountain; and the people who inhabit it consequently style themselves Onnontaé-ronnons, or Onnontagué-ronnons.
1655. These people have for a long time and earnestly demanded that some priests of our Society be sent to their country. Finally, Father Joseph Chaumont and Father Claude Dablon were granted to them, in the year 1655. They embarked on the 19 Sept., and arnived at Onnontagué the 5 November of the same year 1655.
1656. These two good fathers finding themselves listened to with approval and kindness, Father Dablon left Onnontagué on the second day of March of the following year 1656, to look for help at Quebec, where he arrived in the beginning of April, and departed thence on the 17th May, in company with three Fathers and two brothers of the Society, and a good number of Frenchmen, who all proceeded towards this new country, where they arrived on the 11 day of July of the same year, 1656.
1657. In the year 1657, the harvest appearing plentiful in all the villages of the upper Iroquois, the common people listening to the words of the gospel with simplicity and the Chiefs with a well disguised dissimulation, Father Paul Ragueneau, Father Francois Du Peron, some Frenchmen and several Hurons, departed from Montreal the 26 July, to aid their brethren and compatriots.
On the 3 day of the month of August of the same year 1657, the perfidy of the Iroquois began to develop itself by the massacre which they made of the poor Hurons whom they broght into their country, after thousands of protestations of kindness and thousands of oaths, in their style, that they should treat them as brothers. And had not a number of Iroquois remained among the French, near Quebec, to endeavor to bring with them the rest of the Hurons, who distrusting these traitors, would not embark with the others, the Fathers and the Frenchmen who ascended with them would have then been destroyed; and all those who remained on the banks of Lake Ganantaa, near to Onnontagué, would shortly after have shared the same fate. But the fear that the French would wreak vengeance on their countrymen, staid their design,of which our fathers had had secret intelligence immediately on their arrival in the country. Even a captain who was aquainted with the secret of the Chiefs, having taken som liking to the preachings of the Gospel, and finding himself very sick, demanded Baptism; having received it with sufficient instruction, he discovered the evil designs of his countrymen to those who attended him, and went a short time afterwards to Heaven.
The 9 of the month of September. Our fathers at Onnontagué sent two canoes to Quebec with intelligence of the massacre of the poor Huron Christians, treacherously put to death by these barbarians, as we remarked above, 3 August of the year 1657.
The 7 of the month of November. Two Mohawks departed from Quebec, and took a third at Three Rivers. . . . . A number of letters from divers quarters were given to them for Father Le Moine, part of which were to be sent to our Fathers and our French of Onnontagué thro’ the medium of the Mohawks, who often go to that country.
It is true that the Mohawks faithfully delivered the letters to Ondessonk, because they feared evil for their people detained by the French. But for the letters addressed to our French at Onnontagué, the Mohawk who was the bearer thereof, threw them in the river, or gave them, probably, to the chiefs of the country. But these good fellows, who wished to rid themselves of the preachers of the gospel and of those who assisted them, threw them into the fire.
The Onnontagué sent by Monsieur de Maisonneuve did still worse: for he told the chiefs of the nation, that the French were leagued principally with the Algonquins to make war on them, and that they had killed his comrade. It was an Algonquin killed him on his way to war as we have remarked on the 3 November. Nothing more was necessary to excite these furious men, who had already concluded on the death of some and the captivity of others. They were desirous, however, to act in concert with the Mohawks, who could, no more than the others, reconcile then.selves to the detention of their people, believing it very unjust.