On their return march the troops suffered great hardships.  A storm on Lake Champlain upset two boats and eight men were drowned.  Tracy reached Quebec on November 5.  The expedition had lasted seven weeks, during which time he had covered nine hundred miles.  The news of his success had been received with joy.  Since the first days of October the whole colony had been praying for victory.  As soon as the destruction of the Iroquois towns was known, prayers were changed to thanksgiving.  The Te Deum was solemnly chanted, and on November 14 a mass was said in the church of Notre-Dame-de-Quebec, followed by a procession in gratiarum actionem.  New France might well rejoice.  A great result had been attained.  True it was that the Mohawks, panic-stricken, had not been met and crushed. in a set encounter.  None the less they had had their lesson.  They had learned that distance and natural impediments were no protection against the French.  Their towns were a heap of ashes, their fields were despoiled, their country was ruined.  The fruit of that expedition was to be eighteen years of peace for New France.  Eighteen years of peace after twenty-five years of murderous incursions!  Was not that worth a Te Deum?

After his return Tracy ordered one of the Iroquois detained at Quebec to be hanged as a penalty for his share in the murder of the French hunters.  He then directed three other prisoners, the Flemish Batard [Footnote:  A half-breed Mohawk leader.] and two Oneida chiefs, to go and inform their respective tribes that he would give them four months to send hostages and make peace; otherwise he would lead against them another expedition more calamitous for their country than the first one.  At length, in the month of July of the following year, ambassadors of the Iroquois nations arrived at Quebec with a number of Iroquois families who were to remain as hostages in the colony.  The chiefs asked that missionaries be sent to reside among their tribes.  This petition was granted.  New France could now breathe freely.  The hatchet was buried.

CHAPTER IV

A COLONIAL COLBERT

Tracy had led a successful expedition against the Iroquois and coerced them into a lasting peace.  He had seen order and harmony restored in the government of the colony.  His mission was over and he left Canada on August 28, 1667, Courcelle remaining as governor and Talon as intendant.  From that moment the latter, though second in rank, became really the first official of New France, if we consider his work in its relation to the future welfare of the colony.