It Is Enough That We Are Warned That They Follow Us.
Att last
we perceived that he was before us, which putt us in some feare; but seeing
us resolut, did what he could to augment his number.
But we weare mighty
vigilent & sent some to make a discovery att every carriage through the
woods. We weare told that they weare in an ambush, & there builded a fort
below the long Sault, where we weare to passe. Our wildmen said doubtlesse
they have gott an other company of their nation, so that some minded to
throw their castors away & returne home. We told them that we weare almost
att the gates of the ffrench habitation, & bid [them] therefore have
courage, & that our lives weare in as great danger as theirs, & if we weare
taken we should never escape because they knewed us, & I because I runned
away from their country having slained some of their brethren, & my brother
that long since was the man that furnished their enemy with arms.
They att last weare persuaded, & landed within a mile of the landing place,
& sent 300 men before armed. We made them great bucklers that the shot
could not pearce in some places. They weare to be carryed if there had ben
occasion for it. Being come neere the torrent, we finding the Iroquoits
lying in ambush, who began to shoot. The rest of our company went about
cutting of trees & making a fort, whilst some brought the boats; which
being come, we left as few means possible might bee. The rest helped to
carry wood. We had about 200 men that weare gallant souldiers. The most
weare hurrons, Pasnoestigons, & Amickkoick frequented the ffrench for a
time. The rest weare skillfull in their bows & arrows. The Iroquoits
perceiving our device, resolved to fight by forceing them to lett us passe
with our arms. They did not know best what to doe, being not so munished
nor so many men above a hundred and fifty. They forsooke the place &
retired into the fort, which was underneath the rapide. We in the meane
while have slained 5 of theirs, & not one of ours hurted, which encouraged
our wildmen. We bid them still to have good courage, that we should have
the victory. Wee went & made another fort neere theirs, where 2 of our men
weare wounded but lightly.
It is a horrid thing to heare [of] the enormity of outcryes of those
different nations. The Iroquoits sung like devils, & often made salleys to
make us decline. They gott nothing by that but some arrows that did
incommodat them to some purpose. We foresee that such a batail could not
hold out long for want of powder, of shott & arrows; so by the consent of
my brother & the rest, made a speech in the Iroquoit language, inducing
meselfe with armours that I might not be wounded with every bullett or
arrow that the ennemy sent perpetually. Then I spoake. "Brethren, we came
from your country & bring you to ours, not to see you perish unlesse we
perish with you. You know that the ffrench are men, & maks forts that
cannot be taken so soone therefore cheare upp, ffor we love you & will die
with you." This being ended, nothing but howling & crying. We brought our
castors & tyed them 8 by 8, and rowled them before us. The Iroquoits
finding that they must come out of their fort to the watterside, where they
left their boats, to make use of them in case of neede, where indeed made
an escape, leaving all their baggage behind, which was not much, neither
had we enough to fill our bellyes with the meat that was left; there weare
kettles, broaken gunns, & rusty hattchetts.
They being gone, our passage was free, so we made hast & endeavoured to
come to our journey's end; and to make the more hast, some boats went downe
that swift streame without making any carriage, hopeing to follow the
ennemy; but the bad lacke was that where my brother was the boat turned in
the torrent, being seaven of them together, weare in great danger, ffor God
was mercifull to give them strength to save themselves, to the great
admiration, for few can speed so well in such precipices. When they came to
lande they cutt rocks. My brother lost his booke of annotations of the last
yeare of our being in these foraigne nations. We lost never a castor, but
may be some better thing. It's better [that one] loose all then lose his
life.
We weare 4 moneths in our voyage without doeing any thing but goe from
river to river. We mett severall sorts of people. We conversed with them,
being long time in alliance with them. By the persuasion of som of them we
went into the great river that divides itselfe in 2, where the hurrons with
some Ottanake & the wild men that had warrs with them had retired. There is
not great difference in their language, as we weare told. This nation have
warrs against those of [the] forked river. It is so called because it has 2
branches, the one towards the west, the other towards the South, which we
believe runns towards Mexico, by the tokens they gave us. Being among these
people, they told us the prisoners they take tells them that they have
warrs against a nation, against men that build great cabbans & have great
beards & had such knives as we have had. Moreover they shewed a Decad of
beads & guilded pearls that they have had from that people, which made us
believe they weare Europeans. They shewed one of that nation that was taken
the yeare before. We understood him not; he was much more tawny then they
with whome we weare. His armes & leggs weare turned outside; that was the
punishment inflicted uppon him. So they doe with them that they take, &
kill them with clubbs & doe often eat them. They doe not burne their
prisoners as those of the northern parts.
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