harangues, followed by daily negotiations between the
governor and the chiefs. It was a leading feature of
Frontenac's diplomacy to reward the friendly, and to win
over malcontents by presents or personal attention. Each
day some of the chiefs dined with the governor, who gave
them the food they liked, adapted his style of speech to
their ornate and metaphorical language, played with their
children, and regretted, through the interpreter Le Moyne,
that he was as yet unable to speak their tongue. Never
had such pleasant flattery been applied to the vanity of
an Indian. At the same time Frontenac did not fail to
insist upon his power; indeed, upon his supremacy. As a
matter of fact it had involved a great effort to make
all this display at Cataraqui. In his discourses, however,
he laid stress upon the ease with which he had mounted
the rapids and launched barges upon Lake Ontario. The
sum and substance of all his harangues was this: 'I am
your good, kind father, loving peace and shrinking from
war. But you can see my power and I give you fair warning.
If you choose war, you are guilty of self-destruction;
your fate is in your own hands.'

Apart from his immediate success in building under the
eyes of the Iroquois a fort at the outlet of Lake Ontario,
Frontenac profited greatly by entering the heart of the
Indian world in person. He was able, for a time at least,
to check those tribal wars which had hampered trade and
threatened to involve the colony. He gained much information
at first hand about the pays d'en haut. And throughout
he proved himself to have just the qualities which were