Lachine massacre The Lachine massacre , part of the Beaver Wars , occurred when 1 , 500 Mohawk warriors attacked by surprise the small , 375 inhabitant , settlement of Lachine , New France at the upper end of Montreal Island on the morning of August 5 , 1689 . The attack was precipitated by growing Iroquois dissatisfaction with the increased French incursions into their territory , and was encouraged by the settlers of New England as a way to leverage power against New France . As a result of the attack , a substantial portion of the Lachine settlement was destroyed by fire and many of its inhabitants were captured or killed . Background and Motivations . Intro : The motives present for Iroquois attacks on the French and other native groups are a complex series of economic and cultural circumstances . Cultural Motives : The arrival of Europeans was marked by trade affairs such as beaver furs with natives including the Iroquois . However , in the 17th century , the dominance of what historian Daniel Richter refers to as “ Francophiles ” or French takeover , contributed to an erosion of French - native relations . The French mission to assimilate natives required the abandonment of native tradition , which was met with resistance . By 1667 , large numbers of Hurons and other new Iroquois began streaming towards the St Lawrence Valley and its mission villages . Many traditionalists , such as the Mohawk , resented the Jesuits for destroying traditional native society but were unable to do anything to stop them . However , traditionalists reluctantly accepted the establishment of a mission in order to have good relations with the French , whom they needed for trade . This cultural invasion increased tensions between the two factions . The relationship between the French and the Iroquois were strained long before the Lachine Massacre due to French friendliness towards enemy tribes . In 1679 , following the end of the Iroquois war with the Andastes and the Mohicans , the Iroquois proceeded to raid native villages in the West , recovering what they considered to be their hunting grounds in the Ohio Valley , which were lost while they fought the Andastes and the Mohicans . As a result , the trading parties of the West that were under French protection were aggressively attacked and pillaged4 . Indeed , following military confrontation in 1684 , though the Iroquois negotiated a peace treaty with New France governor LeFebvre de LaBarre , the treaty itself leaned heavily in favour of the Iroquois , as it explicitly stated that the Iroquois were free to attack the western Indians . This treaty was considered ignominious by the French Crown , who replaced LaBarre with the marquis de Denonville , who was considerably less tolerant towards Iroquois - Algonquin tension . For the Iroquois , the violence against the French that followed was motivated by a desire for freedom to pursue violence against traditional Iroquois enemies . Mourning wars were also an important cultural factor in native warfare . Natives fought war to “ avenge perceived wrongs committed by one people against another ” . These Mourning wars were a means to replace the dead within a native community . In times of war , natives would capture other members of another native group in order to rebuild their society . This issue of rebuilding ones society became an essential reason to go to war when diseases like small pox would wipe out large numbers of native people within their communities . As a result , these diseases created a sense of urgency to replace the dead within native communities . Economic Motives : The Event . 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 . They then proceeded to attack the homes , breaking down doors and windows , and dragged the colonists outside to meet their demise . 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 . The Iroquois , wielding weapons such as the now famous tomahawk , killed twenty - four French and took more than seventy prisoners . Other sources such as Encyclopædia Britannica claim that 250 settlers and soldiers lost their lives during the “ Massacre . ” The Iroquois wanted to avenge the 1 , 200 , 000 bushels of corn burned by the French , but since they were unable to reach the food stores in Montreal , they kidnapped and killed the Lachine crop producers instead . Lachine also acted as the main departure point for fur westward traveling fur traders , which may have acted as extra motivation for the attack . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . Numerous attacks from both sides followed , but none were fatal , and the two groups quickly realized the banality of their attempts at driving the other out13 . In February of 1690 , the French began peace negotiations with the Iroquois . The French returned captured natives in exchange for the beginnings of peace talks . There were no major French or native raids throughout the 1690s , and even against the will of the English , peace talks continued . This time of relative peace eventually led to the Montreal Treaty of 1701 , during which , the Iroquois promised to remain neutral in case of war between the French and English . Following the events at Lachine , Denonville was recalled to France for matters unrelated to the massacre , and Louis de Buade de Frontenac took over governorship of Montreal in October 1689 . Frontenac launched raids of vengeance against the English colonists to the south " in Canadien style " by attacking during the winter months of 1690 . Bias . Parkman , one of the first historians to write about natives within the colonial historical narrative , argues that the Iroquois wars “ were products of an ‘ insensate fury ’ and ‘ made ambition ’ ” . He explains that the reason for the Iroquois to wage wars was due to the extinction of the beaver , their growing dependence on European goods and the extermination of native culture . Parkman argues that the Iroquois had become so dependent on European goods that they needed these items in order to survive . In his research , Parkman had no evidence to support his claims . He assumed that natives ’ culture was inferior and that there was in fact probably no real reason for the Iroquois violent attacks . In addition , Parkman ’ s interpretation also neglects to explain why the Iroquois had waged war against other native groups as well . Parkman ’ s view would later on be dismissed due to is ethnocentric interpretation of the events . Jose Brandao , a historian specializing in North American Native history , suggests that contemporary analyses of what motivated the Lachine Massacre maintain some form of bias . Brandao criticizes historians Francis Parkman , Charles McIlwain , and George Hunt for citing the growing dependence on European goods ( which were , according to these historians , viewed by the Iroquois as superior to other goods ) as a reason for Iroquois dissatisfaction and violence . Brando dismisses this theory as a largely ethnocentric interpretation with little evidence to support it . Brandao also dismisses Hunt ’ s suggestion that natives like Europeans , waged wars for economic reasons . Historical Accounts According to historian Jean - Francois Lozier , the factors influencing the course of war and peace throughout the region of New - France were not exclusive to the relations between the French and Iroquois or those between the French and British crowns . Indeed , there are a number of possible factors that , when considered together , provide context for the Lachine Massacre . Sources of information regarding victims of the Iroquois in New France are the writings of Jesuit priests ; the state registry of parishes in Quebec , Trois - Rivieres , and Montreal ; letters written by Marie Guyart ( French : Mère Marie de l ’ Incarnation ) ; and the writings of Samuel Champlain . However , the accuracy of these sources and reports vary . For instance , in the town of Trois - Rivieres , approximately one third of deaths attributed to the Iroquois are missing names . . According to Canadian historian John A . Dickinson , though the cruelty of the Iroquois was real , the threat was neither as constant nor terrible as the sources of the time would like us to believe . European accounts of the Lachine massacre come from two primary sources , survivors of the attack , and Catholic missionaries in the area : Initial reports inflated the Lachine death toll significantly , and the final number of deceased , 24 , was determined by examining Catholic parish registers following the attack . Catholic accounts of the attack itself also exist . François Vachon de Belmont , the fifth superior of the Sulpician s of Montreal , wrote in his " History of Canada " : Surviving prisoners of the Lachine massacre reported that 48 of their colleagues were tortured , burned and eaten shortly after being taken captive . Further , the survivors themselves possessed clear signs and tales of torture . Following the attack , the French colonists retrieved many English - made weapons that the Indians had left behind following their retreat from the island ; this incited long - standing hatred of the English colonists of New York into demands for revenge . Unfortunately , Iroquois accounts of the attack are non - existent , but French sources reported that only three of the attackers lost their lives . Because all accounts of the attack are one - sided , reports of cannibalism and parents being forced to throw their children onto burning fires may be greatly exaggerated or apocryphal .