On the St. Lawrence the Count of Frontenac, old as he was, sickening of the perpetual raids, led a great war force into the very midst of the Iroquois. Rebuilding Fort Frontenac, which had been destroyed, he launched his men straight against the Onondaga lodges, wiping out all their stores of food and their maize harvests. He laid low also the land of the Oneidas, and the warriors of both tribes fled before him. If they could raid and butcher, by St. Louis, so could he! The Iroquois looked to the English for help against the French. Whatever they might have done, their hand was stopped. News arrived in 1697 of the signing of the peace at Ryswick between the warring kingdoms of England and France. Tired of the conflict grew the haughty Five Nations, and deputies were sent to Quebec to bring it to an end. They offered, as before, to cease fighting the French Canadians, but not their Indian allies in the west. {154} This would not satisfy Frontenac: he would make no peace which could not be lasting. The Governor of New York interfered. "The Iroquois," he told Frontenac, "are under the King of England's protection. They cannot make either war or peace on their own account. I have told them to be at peace with you. Henceforward you must not treat them as enemies." "I will make my peace with the Five Nations," Frontenac thundered forth to the Indian deputy, "but it shall be on my own terms. If we continue to fight and you aid them, by St. Louis! the blood will be on your own hands." A few weeks later, when the reward of his firmness was in sight, the lion-hearted Frontenac, now in his seventy-eighth year, sickened and died, amidst the sorrow of his people. It was a great loss to Canada, and fortunate was it that his successor was as brave and wise as Governor de Callières. [1] The fourth, the fire-ship _Owner's Love_, was never more heard of. It is supposed that, separated from the others, she ran into the ice and was sunk, with all on board. {155} CHAPTER X KING LOUIS BUILDS A MIGHTY FORT Afar off, in the little Dutch town of Ryswick, the two kings, William and Louis, had signed the treaty of peace. It was agreed that all the places captured by either French or English soldiers during the war should be given back again. What did this mean to Canada and America? Only this: that all these eight years of bloodshed had been in vain. Neither French nor English were a whit the richer or more powerful than before. You must always remember that what both sides were really fighting for was the mastery of the North-American continent. Vast as it was, there was not room enough for both. One side or other must possess it. Should it be French or English? No lasting peace could there be as long as the question remained unsettled.