The Five Nations, soon after this, subdued the tribe of the Illinois, who had fought against them, and then prepared to go against the Miamis. The French determined to support their allies, and sent an order to all the Indians around Michilimackinac to assemble at Niagara and join them in an attack on the Senecas. The Potawatomies and others assembled at the place of rendezvous; but here the Ottawas sought to divert them from the enterprise, not being willing to lose a gainful trade they now enjoyed with the English. After various preparations, the French, with their Indian allies, marched toward the Seneca towns. The warriors of the latter tribe were, however, on the alert. Five hundred or more of them lay in ambush, while the French scouts passed within pistol-shot, and, not seeing them, reported that they could not find the enemy. The French pressed boldly forward, but, when they were about a quarter of a league from their village, the Senecas suddenly rose upon them with a discharge of their fire-arms, attended by the appalling war-whoop. This threw the militia, as well as the regular troops, into a fright, and such was the confusion, that they fired on one another. The Senecas, perceiving their disorder, fell upon them, till the French Indians, at last, rallied and repulsed them. This action so dispirited the French commander, that he could not be induced immediately to pursue his object; he halted till the next day, when he marched forward to burn the village. But he now found that the Senecas had already laid it in ashes and disappeared. After destroying two other villages, and the corn he found there, he returned home to Canada. Instigated by new causes of dissatisfaction, the Five Nations invaded Canada with a large force, and pushed the war with such vigor as to take Montreal and lay it in ashes. One thousand of the French are said to have been killed, and twenty-six taken prisoners, with the loss of only three men on the part of the Indians, who got drunk and remained behind. Had they understood the feeble condition of the French, and been relieved from the influence of the priests that were among them, especially the Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas, the French settlements in Canada would probably have been totally ruined.