The conversion which caused the most joy to Mgr. de Laval was that of
Garakontié, the noted chief of the Iroquois confederation. Accordingly
he wished to baptize him himself in the cathedral of Quebec, and the
governor, M. de Courcelles, consented to serve as godfather to the new
follower of Christ. Up to this time the missions to the Five Nations had
been ephemeral; by the first one Father Jogues had only been able to
fertilize with his blood this barbarous soil; the second, established at
Gannentaha, escaped the general massacre in 1658 only by a genuine
miracle. This mission was commanded by Captain Dupuis, and comprised
fifty-five Frenchmen. Five Jesuit Fathers were of the number, among them
Fathers Chaumonot and Dablon. Everything up to that time had gone
wonderfully well in the new establishment; the missionaries knew the
Iroquois language so well, and so well applied the rules of savage
eloquence, that they impressed all the surrounding tribes; accordingly
they were full of trust and dreamed of a rapid extension of the Catholic
faith in these territories. An Iroquois chief dispelled their illusion
by revealing to them the plans of their enemies; they were already
watched, and preparations were on foot to cut off their retreat. In this
peril the colonists took counsel, and hastily constructed in the
granaries of their quarters a few boats, some canoes and a large barge,
destined to transport the provisions and the fugitives. They had to
hasten, because the attack against their establishment might take place
at any moment, and they must profit by the breaking up of the ice, which
was impending. But how could they transport this little flotilla to the
river which flowed into Lake Ontario twenty miles away without giving
the alarm and being massacred at the first step? They adopted a singular
stratagem derived from the customs of these people, and one in which the
fugitives succeeded perfectly. "A young Frenchman adopted by an Indian,"
relates Jacques de Beaudoncourt, "pretended to have a dream by which he
was warned to make a festival, 'to eat everything,' if he did not wish