On March 12, a company of men left Fort de La Présentation and began an overland trek toward the Oneida Carry. Under the command of Lieutenant[Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry, a Canadian-born "seigneur", the force consisted of 84 troupes de la Marine, 111 Canadian militiamen, and 110 natives, mostly Iroquois but also some Hurons. On 13 March 1756, an Oswegatchie traveler told the Canadian Iroquois about the British forts at the Oneida Carrying Place, which caused them to demand a halt. The Canadian historian D. Peter MacLeod called the arguments between the French and the Canadian Iroquois a cultural clash, writing