The winter of 1683-4 was not marked by any notable event. In the following spring, pursuant to the plan which he had communicated to the French government, the governor sent instructions to the post commanders in the West, La Durantaye, Du Lhut, and Nicolas Perrot, to rendezvous at Niagara with as many men of the different Ottawa tribes as they could persuade to follow them. At that point they would find awaiting them provisions, arms, and ammunition, with means of transportation to the scene of action. Home levies of militia and of mission Indians were at the same time being raised and equipped. At this stage of the proceedings it occurred to La Barre that it would be a good thing to inform the governor of New York, Colonel Dongan, of his intention to make war upon the Senecas. The communication happened to be particularly ill-timed. The English of Maryland and Virginia had been having their own troubles with the Iroquois, who had made many destructive raids into their territory; and in the early summer of 1684 Lord Howard of Effingham, governor of Virginia, had gone to New York to consult with the governor there as to the measures to be adopted, and thence had gone on to Albany, Colonel Dongan accompanying him, to hold a conference with the offending tribes--in this case the Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas. Delegates from the Mohawks, who had not broken the peace, were also present; and one of them, Cadianne by name, made ample acknowledgment of the wrongs done by his brethren of the other tribes, to whom he took the opportunity of addressing some very severe and wholesome remarks. Shortly afterwards delegates from the Senecas also arrived, when a general treaty of peace and good-will was made between the Five Nations on the one hand, and the English and their Indians on the other. It was in the midst of these proceedings that Dongan received La Barre's letter. He replied by saying that the King of England exercised sovereignty over the whole Iroquois confederacy, and that if the Senecas had committed the depredations complained of he would see that they made reparation; he hoped that La Barre, in the interest of peace, would refrain from invading British territory. He then took occasion of the conference to inform the tribes of the French designs, his object being to draw from them an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the English king in return for a promise of protection against the French. The tribes, who had some time before requested that the arms of the Duke of York (now James II) should be raised over their fortresses, consented to this, but with the not altogether consistent proviso that they should still be considered a free people. The subject was further debated at the chief town of the Onondagas, the central nation of the confederacy, a few weeks later. Dongan was represented by Arnold Viele, a Dutchman. It happened that Charles Le Moyne of Montreal was also there, having