Having thus proved their courage, the Five Nations next successfully withstood the whole force of the Adirondacks. They then carried the war into the heart of their country, and forced them to leave it, and fly towards Quebec. The Adirondacks were now joined by the French, who had just commenced their settlements in Canada. The combatants met at Corlaer’s Lake, since called, after the French commander, Lake Champlain. The Five Nations had never seen fire-arms, and the French, keeping themselves concealed till the Indians were engaged, rose suddenly up and poured a deadly volley upon them. Panic-struck at the fearful character and deadly effect of the attack, they fled, with great loss, from the field. By the influence of the French, the Hurons and other neighbouring nations now joined in the war against the Five Nations. The Adirondacks, thus reinforced, and having been furnished with fire-arms, proposed utterly to destroy their enemies. But their young men, fond of adventure, and refusing obedience to their captains, often attacked the foe rashly; and the latter, observing this, soon began to profit by it. They sent out small parties, who, meeting greater numbers of the enemy, retreated, while the Adirondacks pursued with fury, and carelessly suffered themselves to be drawn into ambuscades. Thus many of them were cut off with little loss to the victors. In this manner the Adirondacks were wasted away, while the practice of the Five Nations, of adopting into their tribes the prisoners taken from the Satanas, increased their strength and numbers. The Five Nations appear to have delighted in stratagem, and amused the Adirondacks, and the Hurons, their allies, by messages to the French, pretending to wish for peace, and to have some priests come among them. When, accordingly, some Jesuits came, they kept them as hostages, in order to force the French to remain neutral in their wars with the Adirondacks. They then attacked and defeated the latter within two leagues of Quebec, and, had they known its weakness, might have destroyed even the French colony. The allies of the Adirondacks, now struck with terror, fled in different directions. Soon after, the Five Nations collected 1,000 or 1,200 men, and set out to pay a visit to the governor of Canada. On their way, they met Piskaret, captured him, and, learning from him that the Adirondacks were divided into two bodies, they fell upon them and cut them to pieces. When the French first settled in Canada, the Adirondacks had 1,500 warriors within a league of Quebec, but, after this last battle, they never possessed any consequence as a nation.