THE ADVENTUEES OF ISAAC J0C4UES. 47 



little flotilla had reached the upper eud of Lake St. Peter, abovit seventy miles from. 

 Qiiebec. The advance guard observed Iroc|uois footprints on the shore ; but, trusting to 

 their assumed superiority in number to the enemy, they proceeded. Within half a league 

 they fell into an ambuscade. Suddenly the shrill vrar-whoop rang out, a storm of bullets 

 hurtled through the air, and a large Iroquois war-party appeared. The Hurons in the 

 rear abandoned the canoes and took to the woods. Jogues himself found concealment in 

 the dense thicket ; liut, seeing Goupil and some of the Hurons captives, he resolved not to 

 abandon them. He knew the fate he must brave, but flight seemed horrible.' " I must 

 suffer the fires of earth," he said, " to deliver these poor souls from the flames of hell. 

 I must endure a temporary death to procure for them eternal life." " 



Couture, who had made his escape, refused to abandon Jogues. He was about to 

 surrender to the Iroquois when one of them levelled an arquebuse at his head. With the 

 instinct of self-preservation Coutirre laid the savage dead at his feet. "The Iroquois, 

 with the fury of demons," says Jogues, "leaped upon the hajjlcss Frenchman. They 

 stripped oti' his clothes, beat him with clubs, and gnawed his bleeding lingers in their 

 savage rage." The savages, with an outburst of fury, attacked Jogues, beat him sense- 

 less, and as he recovered consciousness, lacerated his fingers, bruising and crushing them, 

 he says, as between two stones, causing exquisite agony. G-oupil they treated with 

 similar ferocity. 



The victors retreated by way of the Richelieu, Lake Champlain and Lake Horicou, now 

 Lake George, to Mohawk River. On Lake Champlain they met another war-party of 

 two hundred Iroquois on their way to Canada. The latter, ranging themselves in two 

 lines, made the unhappy captives run the gauntlet between their ranks, exposed to a 

 perfect hail of blows. Before Jogues had traversed half of that path of anguish and 

 savage fury, as he called it, he fell overpowered upon the ground. They then tore open 

 his yet raw wounds and seared his flesh with burning brands. " But these sufferings," 

 he devoutly exclaims, " undertaken from love to God and for his glory, are full of joy 

 and honour." 



Upon the point where rose in aftertimes the fortress of Ticonderoga they landed, and 

 made the painful portage through the woods to the beautiful Lake Horicou. Crossing 

 its fair expanse, they again landed upon the future site of Fort William Henry and 

 plunged once more into the wilderness. For four days Jogues staggered beneath a heavy 

 load, faint with suflering, hunger, toil and loss of blood, his wounds fevered by the 

 oppressive heat. A few berries, snatched by his mangled hand from the bushes as he 

 passed, sustained his life. He urged René Goupil to escape. As for himself, he said, he 

 would suffer any torments in order that he might administer the sacraments to his little 

 flock amid human wolves. "I will die with you," replied the faithful creature, "but I 

 will never leave you." ^ 



Thirteen days after their capture the wretched prisoners reached the Iroquois villages 

 on Mohawk River, probably near the site of Utica. They had again to undergo a 

 storm of scourging with clubs or with iron rods procured by the Indians from the Dutch 



' La fuitte me sembloit horrible. Lalemant, Ibid., 1647, p. 18. 



- II faut, disois-ie en mon cœur, que mon corps souffre le feu de la terre, pour deliurer ces pauures âmes des 

 flammes de l'Enfer ; il faut qu'il meure d'vne mort passagère, pour leur procurer vno vie étemelle. /'«<£., pp. 18, 19. 

 ' le mourray, dit-il, auec vous, ie ne voiis sçaurois abandonner. IlAd, 



