Lachine massacre

On August 5, 1689, 1,500 Iroquois attacked the village of Lachine, in New France. An excerpt from the article:

"The Iroquois attack

On the rainy morning of August 5, 1689, Iroquois warriors used the element of surprise to launch their nighttime raid against the undefended settlement of Lachine. They traveled up the Saint Lawrence River by boat, crossed Lake Saint-Louis, and landed on the south shore of Montreal Island. While the colonists slept, the invaders surrounded their homes and waited for their leader to signal when the attack should commence.[7] They then proceeded to attack the homes, breaking down doors and windows, and dragged the colonists outside to meet their demise.[7] When some of the colonists barricaded themselves within the village's structures, the attackers set fire to the buildings and waited for them to flee the flames.[7][5] Fifty-six of the settlement's seventy-seven structures were effectively destroyed by fire.[2] Because the settlement was relatively sparse, any hope of counterattack was thwarted due to a lack of communication and an inability to organize.

Twenty-four colonists were killed in the initial raid,[8] and more than 70 were taken prisoner. The remaining colonists were able to escape the attack.[2] Of those taken prisoner, close to 50 were tortured to death (burned alive and cannibalized), while some managed to escape and 42 others were released in prisoner exchanges. A few young children were spared and actually adopted into Iroquois society.[5]

French inaction in the aftermath

Word of the attack spread when one of the Lachine survivors reached a local garrison, three miles (4.8 km) away, and notified the soldiers of the events that had transpired.[10] In response to the attack, two hundred soldiers, under the command of Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, along with 100 armed civilians and some soldiers from nearby Forts Rémy, Rolland and La Présentation, marched against the Iroquois.[10] They were able to defend some of the fleeing colonists from their Mohawk pursuers, but just prior to reaching Lachine they were apprehensively recalled back within the walls of Fort Rolland by order of Governor Denonville, who was attempting to pacify the local Iroquois inhabitants.[11] Governor Denonville had 700 soldiers at his disposal within the Montreal barracks, and could have easily overrun the Iroquois forces, but diplomacy was his decided course of action and he did not utilize his troops to repel the Iroquois attackers.[5]

In the days following the attack, a small group of soldiers left Fort Rémy to reach Fort Rolland, but they were intercepted by the Iroquois and the entire dispatch was killed.[11] The Iroquois roamed Montreal Island, without European intervention, for three days before boating back up the Saint Lawrence River. French inaction cost other Montreal settlements dearly as well. One month following the raid at Lachine, the Iroquois also attacked the village of La Chesnaye, killing 42 more colonists.[8]"