While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Adario. A
Tionontate chief, known also as Kondiaronk,
Sastaretsi, and The Rat. He had a high reputation for bravery and sagacity, and
was courted by the French, who made a treaty with him in 1688 by which he agreed
to lead an expedition against the Iroquois, his hereditary enemies. Starting out
for the war with a picked band, he was surprised to hear, on reaching
Cataracouy, that the French were negotiating peace with the Iroquois, who were
about to send envoys to Mont real with hostages from each tribe. Concealing his
surprise and chagrin, he secretly determined to intercept the embassy. Departing
as though to return to his own country in compliance with the admonition of the
French commandant, he placed his men in ambush and made prisoners of the members
of the Iroquois mission, telling the chief of the embassy that the French had
commissioned him to surprise and destroy the party. Keeping only one prisoner to
answer for the death of a Huron who was killed in the tight, he set the others
free, saying that he hoped they would repay the French for their treachery.
Taking his captive to Michilimackinac, he delivered him over to the French
commander, who put him to death, having no knowledge of the arrangement of
peace. He then released a captive Iroquois whom he had long held at his village
that he might return to inform his people of the act of the French commander. An
expedition of 1,200 Iroquois fell upon Montreal Aug. 25, 1689, when the French
felt secure in the anticipation of peace, slew hundreds of the settlers and
burned and sacked the place. Other posts were abandoned by the French, and only
the excellent fortifications of others saved them from being driven out of the
country. Adario led a delegation of Huron chiefs who went to Montreal to
conclude a peace, and while there he died, Aug. 1, 1701, and was buried by the
French with military honors. (F. H.)
