It's a pleasur to find
the place of their abode, for they tourne round about compassing 2 or 3
Acres of land, beating the snow with their feete, & coming to the center
they lye downe & rise againe to eate the bows of trees that they can reach.
They go not out of their circle that they have made untill hunger compells
them.
We did what we could to have correspondence with that warlick nation &
reconcile them with the Christinos. We went not there that winter. Many
weare slained of both sides the summer last. The wound was yett fresh,
wherfore it was hard to conclude peace between them. We could doe nothing,
ffor we intended to turne back to the ffrench the summer following. Two
years weare expired. We hoped to be att the 2 years end with those that
gave us over for dead, having before to come back at a year's end. As we
are once in those remote countreys we cannot doe as we would. Att last we
declared our mind first to those of the Sault, encouraging those of the
North that we are their brethren, & that we would come back & force their
enemy to peace or that we would help against them. We made guifts one to
another, and thwarted a land of allmost 50 leagues before the snow was
melted. In the morning it was a pleasur to walke, for we could goe without
racketts. The snow was hard enough, because it freezed every night. When
the sun began to shine we payed for the time past. The snow sticks so to
our racketts that I believe our shoes weighed 30 pounds, which was a paine,
having a burden uppon our backs besides.
We arrived, some 150 of us, men & women, to a river side, where we stayed 3
weeks making boats. Here we wanted not fish. During that time we made
feasts att a high rate. So we refreshed ourselves from our labours. In that
time we tooke notice that the budds of trees began to spring, which made us
to make more hast & be gone. We went up that river 8 dayes till we came to
a nation called Pontonatenick & Matonenock; that is, the scrattchers. There
we gott some Indian meale & corne from those 2 nations, which lasted us
till we came to the first landing Isle. There we weare well received
againe. We made guifts to the Elders to encourage the yong people to bring
us downe to the ffrench. But mightily mistaken; ffor they would reply,
"Should you bring us to be killed? The Iroquoits are every where about the
river & undoubtedly will destroy us if we goe downe, & afterwards our wives
& those that stayed behinde. Be wise, brethren, & offer not to goe downe
this yeare to the ffrench. Lett us keepe our lives." We made many private
suits, but all in vaine. That vexed us most that we had given away most of
our merchandises & swapped a great deale for Castors.
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