Page:Aristopia (1895).pdf/202

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

climate so much more genial than that of the St. Lawrence, peopled with Frenchmen, vanished. They saw that France was completely forestalled. After a few days' rest, being treated very hospitably, they returned to New France as they came.

The war which broke out between France and England on the accession of William III., and lasted, with a short intermission, until 1713, into which the American colonies were dragged, had no effect on Aristopia. The French and their allies, the Algonquins, made from their posts on the St. Lawrence several bloody raids on the exposed settlements of New England and eastern New York, accompanied with great atrocities. But the powerful Iroquois, the implacable enemies of the French and the allies of the English, barred the way of the French to the west, compelling them to evacuate Forts Niagara and Frontenac, respectively, at the inlet and outlet of Lake Ontario. The Mohawks, one of the Iroquois tribes, even made a bloody raid on Montreal. The French afterward made peace with the Iroquois, but during the war had not force enough west of Niagara Falls to threaten Aristopia.