La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

92 LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC. [1673.reiterated his assurances of friendship, promised thathe would be a kind father so long asthey should beobedient children, regretted that he was forced tospeak through an interpreter, and ended with a gift ofguns to the men, and prunes and raisins to their wivesand children.Here closed this preliminary meeting,the great council being postponed to another day.During the meeting, Raudin, Frontenac 's engineer,was tracing out the lines of a fort, after a predeterminedplan; and the whole party, under the directionof their officers, now set themselves to constructit. Some cut down trees, some dug the trenches,some hewed the palisades ; and with such order andalacrity was the work urged on, that the Indianswere lost in astonishment. Meanwhile, Frontenacspared no pains to make friends ofof whom he had constantly at his table.the chiefs, someHe fondledthe Iroquois children, and gave them bread andsweetmeats, and in the evening feasted the squawsto make them dance. The Indians were delightedwith these attentions, and conceived a high opinionof the new Onontio.On the seventeenth, when the construction of thefort was well advanced, Frontenac called the chiefsto a grand council, which was held with all possiblestate and ceremony. His dealing with the Indianson this and other occasions was truly admirable.Unacquainted as he was with them, he seems to havehad an instinctiveperception of the treatment theyrequired. His predecessors had never ventured to