D'Aulnay retaliated and took a ship belonging to Massachusetts, and in
September, 1646, a new treaty was made with him by envoys representing
the confederacy. The English made a formal acknowledgment of error,
and the French accepted in full satisfaction a present to D'Aulnay of
a sedan-chair, which had been sent as a present by the viceroy of
Mexico to his sister, but was captured in the West Indies by Cromwell
and given by him to Governor Winthrop.[18]

In 1648 the colony of Massachusetts applied to the French officials at
Quebec for a reciprocity of trade. As the Iroquois had proved very
destructive to the French and their Algonquin and Huron allies, the
French governor caught at the plan of granting the desired privileges
in return for military aid. Accordingly, in 1650, the French governor,
D'Aillebout, sent the Jesuit father Druillettes, who had acted as
missionary among the Algonquins of Maine, as envoy to Boston to
negotiate a treaty.[19] But Massachusetts did not repeat the error of
former times, and would do nothing without consent of the federal
commissioners. To them, therefore, the matter was referred, with the
result that the commissioners declined to involve the confederacy in a
war with the Iroquois by authorizing any assistance to be given the
French privately or officially.[20]

In the relations with the Dutch the temperate and conservative force
in the confederacy was Massachusetts, who took steady ground for peace
and opposed hostile measures. In doing so, however, she went the whole
length of nullification and almost broke up the confederacy. William
Kieft, the governor of New Netherland (1637-1647), seemed to recognize
at once the significance of the confederacy as well as the importance
of making friends with Massachusetts; and in July, 1643, before the