western world. Several of the English colonies, from Virginia to Maine,
had of late years been harassed by Indian wars; and the Puritans of New
England, above all, had been scourged by the deadly outbreak of King
Philip's war. Those engaged in it had paid a bitter price for their brief
triumphs. A band of refugees, chiefly Abenakis and Mohegans, driven from
their native seats, had roamed into these distant wilds, and were
wintering in the friendly neighborhood of the French. La Salle soon won
them over to his interests. One of their number was the Mohegan hunter,
who, for two years, had faithfully followed his fortunes, and who had been
for four years in the West, He is described as a prudent and discreet
young man, in whom La Salle had great confidence, and who could make
himself understood in several western languages, belonging, like his own,
to the great Algonquin tongue. This devoted henchman proved an efficient
mediator with his countrymen. The New-England Indians, with one voice,
promised to follow La Salle, asking no recompense but to call him their
chief, and yield to him the love and admiration which he rarely failed to
command from this hero-worshipping race.

New allies soon appeared. A Shawanoe chief from the valley of the Ohio,
whose following embraced a hundred and fifty warriors, came to ask the
protection of the French against the all-destroying Iroquois. "The
Shawanoes are too distant," was La Salle's reply; "but let them come to me
at the Illinois, and they shall be safe." The chief promised to join him
in the autumn, at Fort Miami, with all his band. But, more important than
all, the consent and co-operation of the Illinois must be gained; and the
Miamis, their neighbors, and of late their enemies, must be taught the
folly of their league with the Iroquois, and the necessity of joining in
the new confederation. Of late, they had been made to see the perfidy of
their dangerous allies. A band of the Iroquois, returning from the
slaughter of the Tamaroa Illinois, had met and murdered a band of Miamis