The first blunder occurred at Fort Frontenac before mobilization had been completed.  There were on the north shore of Lake Ontario two Iroquois villages, whose inhabitants had been in part baptized by the Sulpicians and were on excellent terms with the garrison of the fort.  In a moment of insane stupidity Denonville decided that the men of these settlements should be captured and sent to France as galley slaves.  Through the ruse of a banquet they were brought together and easily seized.  By dint of a little further effort two hundred Iroquois of all ages and both sexes were collected at Fort Frontenac as prisoners—­and some at least perished by torture.  But, when executing this dastardly plot, Denonville did not succeed in catching all the friendly Iroquois who lived in the neighbourhood of his fort.  Enough escaped to carry the authentic tale to the Five Nations, and after that there could be no peace till there had been revenge.  Worst of all, the French stood convicted of treachery and falseness.

Having thus blighted his cause at the outset, Denonville proceeded with his more serious task of smiting the Iroquois in their own country.  Considering the extent and expense of his preparations, he should have planned a complete destruction of their power.  Instead of this he attempted no more than an attack upon the Senecas, whose operations against the Illinois and in other quarters had made them especially objectionable.  The composite army of French and Indians assembled at Irondequoit Bay on July 12—­a force brought together at infinite pains and under circumstances which might never occur again.  Marching southwards they fought a trivial battle with the Senecas, in which half a dozen on the French side were killed, while the Senecas are said to have lost about a hundred in killed and wounded.  The rest of the tribe took to the woods.  As a result of this easy victory the triumphant allies destroyed an Iroquois village and all the corn which it contained, but the political results of the expedition were worse than nothing.  Denonville made no attempt to destroy the other nations of the confederacy.  Returning to Lake Ontario he built a fort at Niagara, which he had promised Dongan he would not do, and then returned to Montreal.  The net results of this portentous effort were a broken promise to the English, an act of perfidy towards the Iroquois, and an insignificant success in battle.

In 1688 Denonville’s decision to abandon Fort Niagara slightly changed the situation.  The garrison had suffered severe losses through illness and the post proved too remote for successful defence.  So this matter settled itself.  The same season saw the recall of Dongan through the consolidation of New England, New York, and New Jersey under Sir Edmund Andros.  But in essentials there was no change.  Andros continued Dongan’s policy, of which, in fact, he himself had been the author.  And, even though no longer threatened by the French from Niagara, the savages had reason enough to hate and distrust Denonville.