Iroquois, French, and English thus formed the points of a political triangle.  Home politics, however—­the friendship of Stuart and Bourbon—­tended to postpone the day of reckoning between the English and French in America.  England and France were not only at peace but in alliance.  The Treaty of Dover had been signed in 1670, and two years later, just as Frontenac had set out for Quebec, Charles II had sent a force of six thousand English to aid Louis XIV against the Dutch.  It was in this war that John Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, won his spurs—­fighting on the French side!

None the less, there were premonitions of trouble in America, especially after Thomas Dongan became governor of New York in 1683.  Andros had shown good judgment in his dealings with the Iroquois, and his successor, inheriting a sound policy, went even further on the same course.  Dongan, an Irishman of high birth and a Catholic, strenuously opposed the pretensions of the French to sovereignty over the Iroquois.  When it was urged that religion required the presence of the Jesuits among them, he denied the allegation, stating that he would provide English priests to take their place.  A New England Calvinist could not have shown more firmness in upholding the English position.  Indeed, no governor of Puritan New England had ever equalled Dongan in hostility to Catholic New France.

Frontenac’s successor, Lefebvre de la Barre, who had served with distinction in the West Indies, arrived at Quebec in September 1682.  By the same ship came the new intendant, Meulles.  They found the Lower Town of Quebec in ruins, for a devastating fire had just swept through it.  Hardly anything remained standing save the buildings on the cliff.

La Barre and Meulles were soon at loggerheads.  It appears that, instead of striving to repair the effects of the fire, the new governor busied himself to accumulate fortune.  He had indeed promised the king that, unlike his predecessors, he would seek no profit from private trading, and had on this ground requested an increase of salary.  Meulles presently reported that, far from keeping this promise, La Barre and his agents had shared ten or twelve thousand crowns of profit, and that unless checked the governor’s revenues would soon exceed those of the king.  Meulles also accuses La Barre of sending home deceitful reports regarding the success of his Indian policy.  We need not dwell longer on these reports.  They disclose with great clearness the opinion of the intendant as to the governor’s fitness for his office.

La Barre stands condemned not by the innuendoes of Meulles, but by his own failure to cope with the Iroquois.