“The White Governor” found before long that the Indians around Quebec were not satisfied with a friendship which showed itself in teaching them to be Christians and in trading beads for the furs the savages had gathered by shooting and trapping in the forests. It seems strange that tall, stern red men should be so childish as to care much for beads, but it must be remembered that the Indians used beads of special colors in weaving bands and strings of wampum which they used for money. Their own beads were very hard to make from shells; so they were as eager for glass beads of certain colors as white men are for the smallest grains of gold. The Indians were less trouble to Champlain and his friends than the English--and other Frenchmen, too--who tried to turn the Indians against him and his settlers. Other ships than those of Champlain’s company landed every now and then at points along the St. Lawrence to trade with the Indians. These white men would try to make the savages unfriendly to Champlain, so that they would trade only with the newcomers, somewhat as a business house to-day tries to take customers away from other dealers. The simple men of the forest could not understand these tricks of trade of the wily white men. Champlain, in one of the stories of his adventures, relates that the Indians came to tell him about some fur traders from other parts of France. “They tell us that they would come and fight for us against our enemies if we liked. What do you think of it? Are they telling the truth?” “No, they are not,” said Governor Champlain earnestly. “I know well enough what they want. They tell you this only to get your trade.” “The white governor is right!” shouted the Indians. “Those men are women; they only want to make war on our beavers!” By this they meant that the other Frenchmen were willing to promise anything in order to get all the beaver and other fur skins the Indians might have to sell. As the Indian squaws were not allowed to go into battle, the savages showed their contempt for white men by calling them “women”! Champlain knew that the Indians would not accept him as a real friend unless he would fight for them against their enemies--the cruel and powerful Iroquois, who lived south of the St. Lawrence. The tribes of the Iroquois were the most daring and warlike of the red men and were feared by all their neighbors. The Indians looked upon “the White Governor” and his men as workers of miracles with their “fire-sticks,” as they called the rude guns which the French called arquebuses. In one of his accounts Champlain describes the first of a number of battles he helped the Indians to fight against the Iroquois. After describing how his red friends met the enemy at night and agreed to fight next morning, he continued: