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In 1689 Denonville was recalled and in October of that year Frontenac returned as governor of New France for the second time.

Frontenac was instructed that it was the intention of the king to attack New York by sea and land; the movement by land to be conducted by the governor from Canada. The first point of attack on the north would be Albany. After taking that town and seizing the vessels which were there, he would pass down the Hudson to co-operate with the naval forces in reducing the town of New York. It being fully expected that the colony would thus pass into the hands of the French, the English and Dutch farms with their live stock and agricultural equipment were to be distributed among the French Canadians, who would go down to take possession. The taxes they were to pay the king on these lands and many other matters of detail connected with the conversion of the colony from an English to a French one were specified with much minuteness in the instructions to the governor.

But before the Canadian expeditions could be prepared and equipped, the savage attacks of the incensed Iroquois both above and below Montreal more than occupied the military resources of the colony. At Montreal, Frontenac found affairs in the utmost confusion and the people in a panic, owing to the wholesale manner in which the Iroquois were taking revenge for the conduct of Denonville. The settlers were being massacred at every outlying point, and the Iroquois were greatly encouraged by the general consternation resulting from their attacks. Frontenac, who understood both the Canadians and the Indians, did much, by his strong personal qualities and the confidence which he inspired, to restore order, and soon placed the colony in a fairly efficient state of defence, notwithstanding that aid from France, which was so urgently requested, had been refused. The king informed him that he must simply do the best he could with the resources at hand. By skilful defence and the taking of an aggressive attitude, wherever possible, Frontenac first checked the attacks of the Indians, and, after 1696, succeeded in putting them on the defensive. The governor well knew that an Indian, flushed with success and with his enemies in a condition of panic and defence, is a really formidable enemy; but the Indian on the defensive is soon discouraged and is already marked for defeat.

Meanwhile the English, knowing that Canada was being vigorously attacked by the Iroquois from the west, chose this opportunity for an attack upon the eastern settlements by sea. In 1690 a naval expedition under Phips sailed from Boston with the object of capturing Quebec. Frontenac, however, had put his chief town in an excellent state of defence and employed his troops and artillery, recently received from France, to the best possible advantage. The English, who had expected an easy victory over a nearly defenceless town, were astonished at the preparation made for their reception. Phips, however, sent Frontenac a summons to surrender within an hour; the veteran governor disdained to make a reply in writing, stating that he would answer it out of the cannon’s mouth. In the engagements which followed after the landing of the English at Beauport, Frontenac made good his lofty tone, and the English retired. The preparations which they had made for an attack upon Montreal, by way of Lake Champlain, proved equally unfortunate. An outbreak of smallpox which extended to their allies, the Indians, completely discouraged them and caused the abandonment of the attack.

One result of the English defeat was to give them a new idea of the strength of the French position on the continent. They now realized that, though numerically much stronger than the French, their settlements were being hemmed in on every side by the territories lately annexed to New France. The English colonies were just then awakening to the consciousness of their future possibilities, and they saw in the extension of the French power to the north and the west a barrier to their own future expansion. Under leadership such as that of Frontenac, the French power might in time surround them with a hostile force, which, if not threatening their existence, would at least be a constant menace to their peace and safety. The defeat, therefore, of their plans against Canada, coupled with the change of relations between the courts of France and England, concentrated the attention of the English colonies upon Canada and soon produced the steady conviction that nothing short of the complete removal of the Canadian menace would satisfy them. The determination of the English colonies to free themselves from the French peril, associated as it was with the constant and more or less serious attacks of the eastern Indian allies of the French, notably the Abnakis, naturally affected the outlook of New France.

To maintain so vast a frontier and to be prepared to meet the attacks of the English was quite beyond the normal strength of the French resources in Canada. To provide for the normal needs of their own internal development was the utmost that could be expected of the Canadian colonists for many years to come. When, therefore, the people of Canada were called upon to sustain and defend thousands of miles of frontier, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, it was quite obvious that they could not also adequately develop any part of the colony. And, if they could not develop the colony, it would not be possible, nor indeed worth while, to continue to defend it.

Canada was gradually becoming the victim of circumstances. The pride of France would not permit her to relinquish voluntarily the great dominion that her enterprising explorers and missionaries had thrust upon her. But the very attempt proved it impossible to garrison so vast a wilderness. Far-sighted French colonial officials saw quite clearly what must be the end, under the accepted international principles of the age, but they were powerless to avert their fate. They could only patiently do their best under the conditions of the time, and hope that, by some fortunate stroke, France might overcome all her enemies, and be free to come to the aid of New France in a sufficiently generous manner to ensure not only its safety but its adequate development.

Apprehending further attacks from the English, the governor, in 1693, requested reinforcements from France. In the following year the king sent him about 500 men, all that could be spared at the time. Profiting by the experience of the English attack under Phips, the governor and the intendant, Champigny, undertook to spend a further sum of 4000 livres on the fortifications of Quebec. When the accounts were laid before the king, he was highly displeased at this expenditure, and warned them that if such an outlay were repeated the amount would be deducted from their salaries. Nevertheless Frontenac and Champigny continued to urge the necessity for further defence, and particularly for the reconstruction and fortification of Fort Frontenac.^[1] The court reluctantly assented, and the fort was re-established in 1694 at a cost of 12,000 livres, and 700 men were sent to act as a garrison.

In 1697 the Treaty of Ryswick afforded a short breathing spell in which the French and the English might prepare for the resumption of the struggle for supremacy. The articles of peace themselves furnished ample occasion for further hostilities. It was provided that navigation and commerce between France and England should be resumed on the basis which prevailed before the war. There was to be a general restoration of forts, territories, and possessions taken during the war. Special commissioners were to be appointed to settle outstanding disputes.

In 1698 Frontenac died. He was the greatest and most picturesque of the governors of New France. During his two terms of office he had seen the colony pass through periods of the brightest hope and of the deepest gloom. His boundless confidence in himself not only sustained him in the most discouraging situations, but inspired those associated with him with new confidence, which was itself a guarantee of success. Notwithstanding the many rebukes for his excessive zeal, his general conduct was approved by the king, and his successor was ordered to follow his example.

[1]	Fort Frontenac had been dismantled and abandoned by Denonville in 1689.