We
Were Nevertheless Always Upon The Defensive, & We Apprehended Being
Surprised At The Place Where We Were As Much On
The part of the English, as
of those of the savages, their friends; that is why we resolved of coming
To establish ourselves in the place where we are at present, & which is, as
you see, difficult enough of access for all those who have not been
enslaved as we are amongst the savages. We built there this house in a few
days with the assistance of the savages, & for still greater security we
obliged several among them to pass the winter with us on the condition of
our feeding them, which was the reason that our young men parted in the
summer, having almost consumed all our provisions. During the winter
nothing worthy of mention passed, except that some savages made several
juggles to know from our Manitou, who is their familiar spirit among them,
if my father and my uncle would return in the spring; who answered them
that they would not be missing there, and that they would bring with them
all kinds of merchandise and of that which would avenge them on their
enemies.
"At the beginning of April, 1684, some savages from the South coast arrived
at our new house to trade for guns; but as we had none of them they went to
the English, who had, as I afterwards learned, made them Some presents &
promissed them many other things if they would undertake to kill me with
the one of my men whom you saw still wounded, who spoke plainly the
language of the country. These savages, encouraged by the hope of gain,
accepted the proposition and promissed to execute it. For that means they
found an opportunity of gaining over one of the savages who was among us,
who served them as a spy, and informed them of all that we did.
Nevertheless they dared not attack us with open force, because they feared
us, & that was the reason why they proceeded otherwise in it; and this is
how it was to be done.
"The Frenchman that you saw wounded, having gone by my orders with one of
his comrades to the place where these savages, our friends, made some
smoked stag meat that they had killed, to tell them to bring me some of it,
fell, in chasing a stag, upon the barrel of his gun, and bent it in such a
manner that he could not kill anything with it without before having
straightened it; which having done, after having arrived at the place where
the savages were, he wished to make a test of it, firing blank at some
distance from their cabin; but whilst he disposed himself to that, one of
the savages who had promissed to the English his death & mine, who was
unknown to several of his comrades amongst the others, fired a shot at him
with his gun, which pierced his shoulder with a ball.
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