By 1673, the Iroquois had recovered from the effects of the French offensives of 1666. The Mohawk had rebuilt and fortified their towns. Agriculture had been re-established, and game to replenish their food stocks was still plentiful. At the same time, the Iroquois Confederacy (the Five Nations-Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida) had a new ally: England. The English, who had established trading posts on Hudson Bay and James Bay, encouraged the Iroquois to renew their attacks on Canada. Iroquois success would seriously undermine the French fur trade network, and the Hudson's Bay Company would benefit as a result.
As the Iroquois began to conduct raids on the French allies, the Comte de Frontenac, the Governor of New France, took steps to counter the Iroquois threat. In the spring of 1673, he ordered the construction of a fort to protect the main fur-trade routes along the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Fort Frontenac was built on the present-day site of Kingston, Ontario. The fort proved to be highly effective in discouraging Iroquois raids on French allies. Fleets of canoes, manned by Canadian-born fur traders (couriers-de-bois) and Native allies, arrived in Montreal laden with furs. For the next eight years, New France experienced a period of relative peace and prosperity.
