In Fact, Having Sent 3 Of My Men To Know, & Endeavour To Understand Their Design, I Learned From Them On

Their return that it was 2 English ships, & that they had encountered 3 men of that nation a league from

These vessels, but that they had not spoken to them, having contented themselves with saluting both. As my principal design was to discover the English ones, & that my men had done nothing in it, I sent back 3 others of them to inform themselves of all that passed. These 3 last, having arrived at the point which is between the 2 Rivers of Nelson & Hayes, they met 14 or 15 savages loaded with merchandise, to whom, having demanded from whence they were & from whence they had come, they had replied that their nation lived along the river called Nenosavern, which was at the South of that of Hayes, & that they came to trade with their brothers, who were established at the bottom of the Bay; after which my men told them who they were and where they lived, in begging them to come smoke with them some tobacco the most esteemed in the country; to which they freely consented, in making it appear to them that they were much chagrined in not having known sooner that we were established near them, giving evidence that they would have been well pleased to have made their trade with us.

"In continueing to converse upon several things touching trade, they arrived together in our house, reserving each time that but one of them should enter at once; which under a pretext of having forgotten something, one had returned upon his steps, saying to his comrades that they had leave to wait for him at the house of the French, where he arrived 2 days after, to be the witness of the good reception that I made to his brothers, whom I made also participants in giving to him some tobacco; but I discovered that this savage had had quite another design than of going to seek that which he had lost, having learned that he had been heard telling the other savages that he had been to find the English, & that he was charged by them of making some enterprise against us. In fact, this villain, having seen me alone & without any defence, must set himself to execute his wicked design. He seized me by the hand, & in telling me that I was of no value since I loved not the English, & that I had not paid him by a present for the possession of the country that I lived in to him who was the chief of all the nations, & the friend of the English at the bottom of the Bay, he let fall the robe which covered him, & standing all naked he struck me a blow with his poniard, which I luckily parried with the hand, where I received a light wound, which did not hinder me from seizing him by a necklace that he had around his neck, & of throwing him to the ground; which having given me the leisure of taking my sword & looking about, I perceived that the other savages had also poniards in their hands, with the exception of one, who cried out, 'Do not kill the French; for their death will be avenged, by all the nations from above, upon all our families.'

"The movement that I had made to take my sword did not prevent me from holding my foot upon the throat of my enemy, & knew that that posture on my sword had frightened the other conspirators.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 205 of 223
Words from 106889 to 107492 of 117345