Canaqueese

He became an important intermediary between the French, the Dutch and the Mohawk during the intermittent conflicts known as the Beaver Wars which arose over control of the fur trade.

[1] One French source described him as "an execrable issue of sin, the monstrous offspring of a Dutch Heretic father and a pagan woman.

In the matrilineal kinship system of the Mohawk, children were considered born into the mother's clan and derived their status from her family.

He likely acted as an interpreter when, during the summer months, the Mohawk brought beaver pelts to trade for European goods at Fort Orange, Rensselaerswyck and Beverwyck.

[3] The Jesuit Relations record Canaqueese's speech to the governor, Jean de Lauzon: Ought not one to enter a house by the door, and not by the chimney or roof of the cabin, unless he be a thief, and wish to take the inmates by surprise?

[6]In August 1656, Canaqueese led an ambush of a group of Odawa and Wendat at Lac des Deux Montagnes on the Ottawa River near Montreal.

[7] In August 1666, a retaliatory expedition against the Mohawk, led by Captain Pierre de Saurel of the Carignan-Salières Regiment met a peace delegation headed by Canaqueese that was returning the four captives to New France.

Marie de l'Incarnation, an Ursuline nun, wrote that the intendant, Jean Talon, treated the "Bâtard Flamand ... like a great lord.

According to Marie de l"Incarnation the Iroquois captives at Quebec wept "like children" and that "tears fell from the Bâtard Flamand's eyes at seeing such fine troops in good array."

Canaqueese warned Tracy that many French soldiers would perish since the Mohawk would "fight to the end," but he also asked the lieutenant-général to "preserve" his wife and children.

A peace settlement was reached in July 1667 when a Mohawk and Oneida delegation brought several families to Quebec, and invited Jesuit missionaries to their homelands.