their torments and in the midst of the flames, offered their prayers as if they were at the foot of the Altar; and they still continued to offer them during all their captivity, exhorting each other thereto whenever they met. [87] After the first fury of the Iroquois had been appeased by the sight of their prisoners and by these trial strokes of their cruelty, they divided their captives. Two Frenchmen were apportioned to the Agnieronnons, two to the Onnontagueronnons, and the fifth to the Onneioutheronnons, to give them all a taste of French flesh, and impart to them an appetite and a desire to eat of it,—that is, to invite them to a bloody war for avenging the deaths of a score of their men killed on this occasion. After this distribution they departed, abandoning their intention to come and overwhelm our settlements, in order the sooner to conduct to their several countries those wretched victims, destined to appease the rage and cruelty of the most barbarous of all Nations. We must here give [88] glory to those seventeen Frenchmen of Montreal, and honor their ashes with a eulogy which is justly their due, and which we cannot refuse them without ingratitude. All had been lost had they not perished, and their disaster saved this country, or, at least, exorcised the storm that threatened to burst over it, since they checked its first movements and entirely diverted its course. Meanwhile, to make sure of their captives on the way, they every evening stretch them out almost entirely naked on their backs, with no other bed than the bare earth, into which are driven four stakes for each of the prisoners, for binding thereto their feet and hands, the latter being open, and the limbs auquel on attache vne corde, qui [89] prend le prifonnier par le col, & le ferre de trois ou quatre tours. Enfin on le ceint par le milieu du corps, auec vn collier: c'eft vne façon de fangle, dont les Sauuages fe feruent en toutes fortes d'vfages: & celui qui a foin d'vn captif, prend les deux bouts du collier, & les met fous foi pendant qu'il dort, afin d'estre éueillé fi fon homme remuë tãt soit peu. Cette feule posture durat toute vne nuit, dans cette cõtrainte, à la merci des Maringouïns & des Moufquites, qui ne ceffent de piquer iufqu'au vif, & qui fucent le fang par tout le corps, eft fans doute vn cheualet bien rude; & c'est le traitemět que nos pauures Frãçois auec les autres captifs reçoiuent toutes les nuits, pour les difpofer aux tourmens du feu, aufquels ils fe doiuent bien attendre. Mais voions coment nonobftant [90] toutes ces precautions quelques Sauuages fe fauuerent fi heureusement, que ces fortes d'euafions peuuent passer pour de petits miracles. C'est d'eux que nous auons appris ce que nous auons dit cy-deffus. extended in the form of a saint Andrew's Cross. A fifth stake is also driven into the ground and a cord fastened to it, which [89] is tightly wound about the prisoner's neck three or four times. Finally, he is bound around the waist with a belt, a kind of strap that the Savages use for all sorts of purposes; and he who has charge of a captive takes the two ends of the belt and puts them under him while he sleeps, in order to be awakened if his man moves ever so little. This single position during a whole night, under such constraint and at the mercy of the Gnats and Mosquitoes, which sting incessantly to the very quick, and suck the blood in all parts of the body,is undoubtedly a very severe torture; and such is the treatment that our poor Frenchmen, as well as the other captives, receive every night, to prepare them for the tortures by fire which they are confidently to expect. But let us see how, despite [90] all these precautions, several Savages effected their flight, with such good luck that escapes of this sort may be regarded as little miracles. From these men we learned the facts given above. 18 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA: VOL. XLV XCIX The original of this letter of Bishop Laval, addressed to the father general, under date of August, 1659, was in the domestic archives of the Society, at Rome, when copied by Father Felix Martin about 1858; but could not be found among the MSS. of the order, when, in 1897, search was made in the interest of this series. We are obliged, therefore, to follow Father Martin's copy, in Carayon's Première Mission, pp. 257-259. C 99 66 In reprinting Jerome Lalemant's little annual for 1659 (Paris, 1660), entitled Lettres envoiées de la Novvelle France, we follow a copy of the original Cramoisy edition in the Lenox Library. It consists of three of Lalemant's letters, each dated "A Kebec" in 1659, and respectively as follows: "12. de Septemb., 10 d'Octobre," and " 16 d'Oct." The "Priuilege" was "Donné à Paris le 26. Decembre 1660," while the date of the "Permifsion" is the same as that of the Relation of 1657-58, namely "Donné à Paris, au mois de Decembre 1658." The volume forms no. 113 of Harrisse's Notes. Collation: Title, with verso blank, I leaf; "Premiere Lettre," pp. 3-21; "Seconde Lettre," pp. 21-33; "Troisiéme Lettre," pp. 34-49; "Extrait |