Francois Rabelais Quotes
In their rules there was only one clause: Do what you will.
Rabelais, François. Gargantua and Pantagruel. Translated by J. M. Cohen, Penguin Books, 1955, p. 159.
The Iroquois were very sophisticated diplomatically and had appointed Garangula, a chief of one of the Iroquois tribes, to be their Ambassador Plenipotentiary in negotiations with the French. The French had a number of complaints one of which was that the Iroquois had brought English traders into areas that the French regarded as their hegemony. Yonnondio was the name the Indians had given to the La Barre and Corlear, another powerful French Official. The French had threatened the Iroquois with war. In polite diplomatic terms, Garangula told the French to mind their own business and if war was what they wanted, war would be. Actually, the Iroquois had a more formidable and better organized military capability than did the French at that time. The French did not realize the sophistication of the Iroquois the way the English did, and thought that they could easily be intimidated. Note the Iroquois emphasis on their freedom.
François Rabelais (UK: /ˈræbəleɪ/ RAB-ə-lay, US: /ˌræbəˈleɪ/ -LAY, French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʁablɛ]; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes, and songs.
