Du Pont Grave, and seize the whole country.  Naturally (they believed) the Basques would reward the conspirators, who would thus at a stroke become rich men.  They none of them wished to go to France, but would live here independent of outside interference.  A conspirator, however, revealed the plot to Champlain as he was planting one of the little gardens which he started as soon as he had been in a place a few days.  He went about his business very discreetly, arrested all the leading conspirators, gave them a fair trial, had the ringleader executed by Pont Grave, and sent three others back to France.  After this he settled down at Quebec for the winter, taking care, however, in the month of October, to plant seeds and vines for coming up in the spring.

In the summer of 1609 Champlain, apparently with the idea of thus exploring the country south of the St. Lawrence, decided to accompany a party of Algonkins and Hurons from Georgian Bay and the neighbourhood of Montreal, who were bent on attacking the Iroquois confederacy in the Mohawk country at the headwaters of the Hudson River.  He was accompanied by two French soldiers—­Des Marais and La Routte—­and by a few Montagnais Indians from Tadoussac.

The Hurons[21] were really of the same group (as regards language and descent) as the Iroquois (Irokwa), but in those days held aloof from the five other tribes who had formed a confederacy[22] and alliance under the name of Ongwehonwe—­“Superior Men”.  The Iroquois (Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Kayugas, and Senekas) dominated much of what is now New York State, and from the mountain country of the Adirondaks and Catskills descended on the St. Lawrence valley and the shores of Lakes Ontario and Huron to rob and massacre.

[Footnote 21:  Huron was a French name given to the westernmost group of the Iroquois family (see p. 159).  The Huron group included the Waiandots, the Eries or Erigas, the Arendaronons, and the Atiwandoronk or “neutral” nation.  The French sometimes called all these Huron tribes “the good Iroquois”.  Iroquois was probably pronounced “Irokwa”, and seems to have been derived from a word like Irokosia, the name of the Adirondack mountain country.]

[Footnote 22:  The confederacy was founded about 1450 by the great Hiawatha (of Longfellow’s Poem), himself an Onondaga from south of Lake Ontario, but backed by the Mohawks only, in the beginning of his work.]

The route into the enemy’s country lay along the Richelieu River and across Lake Champlain to its southern end, in sight of the majestic snow-crowned Adirondak Mountains.  On the way the allies stopped at an island, held a kind of review, and explained their tactics to Champlain.  They set no sentries and kept no strict watch at night, being too tired; but during the daytime the army advanced as follows:  The main body marched in the centre along the warpath; a portion of the troops diverged on either side to hunt up food for the expedition; and a third section