The season was now so far advanced that the project which had been formed of raising a large force with which to invade English territory, in conjunction with a naval attack on New York, had to be abandoned. La Caffiniere, commander of the squadron, waited for two months for some sign of the arrival of the Canadians, and then sailed back to France, making a few prizes on the way. But, if the governor was unable to organize an expedition on a large scale, he did not forego his intention of attacking the English colonies. If he could not march with an army he could make raids after the Indian fashion. His plan was to stand simply on the defensive as regards the Iroquois, and to impress their minds by the suddenness and vigour of his attacks on the English. Three raiding parties were accordingly organized, one having its base at Montreal, the second at Three Rivers, and the third at Quebec. The Montreal party consisted of a little over two hundred men, of whom somewhat less than half were mission Indians from Sault St. Louis--the present Caughnawaga settlement--and the Montreal Mountain. The remainder of the party consisted for the most part of _coureurs de bois_, formidable men for border warfare, far steadier than the Indians, and just as wary. Their destination was Albany and the neighbouring English settlements. The leaders were men of skill and courage, Daillebout de Mantet, and Le Moyne de Ste. Helene; the latter, a man greatly admired and beloved for his brilliant soldierly qualities and gay, amiable disposition, but nevertheless a keen and relentless fighter. With these were two of Ste. Helene's brothers, formidable men all, Le Moyne d'Iberville, who had already made fame for himself in Hudson's Bay, where still greater glory yet awaited him, and Le Moyne de Bienville, together with several other members of the Canadian _noblesse_. The Three Rivers party was under the charge of Francois Hertel, a man of much experience in Indian warfare. When quite a lad he had been carried off by the Iroquois, and had endured some cruel treatment at their hands before making his escape,[36] and since then he had been in constant contact with them either in peace or in war. With him went three of his sons, twenty-four Frenchmen, and twenty-five Indians, fifty-two men in all. The third party, recruited at Quebec, consisted of fifty Frenchmen and sixty Abenaquis Indians from the settlement at the falls of the Chaudiere, under the command of M. de Portneuf, who had as lieutenant his cousin, Repentigny, Sieur de Courtemanche. The Montreal expedition set out in the beginning of February, those from Three Rivers and Quebec a few days earlier; but before recounting their exploits, it may be well to glance at the negotiations, which the governor was at this time carrying on with a view to putting the relations of the colony with the Iroquois tribes on a better basis.