Champlain, as the only recourse open
to him, made appeals to the company and to the court of France for
succor.
In the course of 1622 and the following year several additional priests
and brothers of the order of Recollets came out to Canada, among whom was
Gabriel Sagard, the historian, who, along with Le Caron, departed as
missionaries into the Huron settlements beyond Lake Simcoe. These two
priests rendered most valuable services to the colony in becoming the
influential promoters of peace with the Iroquois in 1624. They had
labored to confirm in the minds of the Huron people a disposition to come
to terms with their fierce adversaries, between whom and themselves
unceasing hostilities had been waged ever since the period of Champlain's
third and unsuccessful expedition against the cantons. The war had proved
harassing to all the parties concerned--the French, the Iroquois, the
Hurons, the Algonquins, and minor tribes--and all were more or less
inclined to accede to proposals for a general cessation of strife. Caron
and Sagard accompanied a flotilla of sixty Huron canoes down the Ottawa
and St. Lawrence to Three Rivers, at which place, in the presence of
Champlain, it was intended to agree upon and ratify a general treaty. On
the way to this rendezvous they were joined by twenty-five canoes bearing
the Iroquois deputies and thirteen of the Algonquins.
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