Within four years hope of better success in converting the heathen appeared in an unexpected spot. The crafty Iroquois, attacked by their southern neighbors, sent overtures of peace to Quebec and invited to their villages the once hated Jesuit priests. Father Le Moyne was the first to respond, and others followed, eager to convert this savage people. The first mission was brought to a speedy end by the uprising of the Iroquois against the remaining Hurons and their former white allies in 1658, but by 1665 the government of New France was strong enough to mete out deserved punishment to the marauding parties of Iroquois warriors, and by 1668 a mission was established in each of the Five Nations. CHAPTER IV THE PAGEANT OF SAINT LUSSON With the destruction of the Huron missions western exploration ceased for a few years. In 1660 Father Ménard passed through the Sault Ste. Marie and spent a winter ministering to the Indians on the southern shore of Lake Superior. In the following summer he set out on an inland journey from the lake and was never heard from again. In the same year, however, two fur-traders, Radisson and Groseilliers, coasted along the shore of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and were followed by many Jesuit missionaries whose names have become famous. Two principal mission stations were established, one at Sault Ste. Marie, the other at La Pointe at the western end of Lake Superior. At these places missionaries and traders heard many tales of a great river to the south and of rich copper deposits in the lake region, which in turn led to more exploring expeditions. At Sault Ste. Marie, in 1671, there was a picturesque ceremony when Daumont de Saint Lusson, agent of Louis XIV, took possession of the interior of North America in the name of his king. For months the French and the Indians had been preparing for this pageant. Messages had been sent to all the Indian tribes living within one hundred leagues of Ste. Marie, urging them to attend, and Nicholas Perrot, a Canadian voyager and interpreter, had visited many of the tribes in person to make sure of their coming. With a large Indian following, he paddled up the Strait of Mackinac from Lake Michigan and landed at the foot of the rapids. Saint Lusson was already there with fifteen men. The French leaders were housed at the mission station, while the savages made themselves comfortable in temporary lodges erected along the stretch of shore and in the fields. Gradually tribe after tribe from the north and the west arrived, and on the 14th of June, when fourteen tribes or their representatives had come, Saint Lusson announced that the ceremony would take place.