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endeavored to the best of his ability to unite with the Kanibat envoy in assuring them that they could not fail to make a good stroke, in which they would acquire a great deal of both reputation and plunder. In order to engage them the more, he invited them at the same time to go to Natchouat to get the presents which the King had sent to them during the past year. They replied to him that they would be ready to march against the enemy as soon as they had received their presents, which they needed in order to make war. They also undertook to carry those which were destined for the Kanibats, and agreed upon a rendezvous at which to meet on the twenty-second day afterward, to march from there against the enemy.
On the sixteenth those savages left who were to fetch the presents. Sieur de Villieu accompanied them for the purpose of asking Sieur de Villebon for some soldiers for his company. On the twenty-second they arrived at Fort Natchouat, where M. de Yillebon regaled them upon that which the King had sent to them as a present, and he distributed to them a part of the surplus. Sieur de Villieu had afterwards a particular feast for the chiefs, and another one for all the savages, in order to incite them to war.
On the twenty-fifth Sieur de Villieu left Naxouat with those savages and two Frenchmen, all M. de Villebon would give him, being dissatisfied with the enterprise. Even this small number was not contributed with sincerity, for, two days after arriving at Fort Medoktik, the two Frenchmen left the party to return to Fort Natchouat without notifying Sieur de Villieu. He remained thÉ™ only Frenchman with the party, and was without provisions, M. de Villebon having refused to give him any in spite of the petitions he had made for some. He urged M. de Villebon to consider the urgency of the enterprise in the state of affairs, and the impossibility of his being able to subsist on the journey over lakes and rivers and