28 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



worst of all treacheries. I have lost my son, the Eeverend Father, and 

 all my Frenchmen, which I shall lament all my life." 



An examination of these various accounts will reveal a considerable 

 diversity of opinion as to the circumstances which led up to and 

 attended the massacre, and the causes which induced the Sioux to 

 attack a party of Frenchmen. Much of this disparity may be 

 attributed to the radically different points of view of those whose 

 evidence has been adduced; some of it is explainable by the fact that 

 the various statements were written at widely different times and 

 places. Making due allowance for these circumstances, and weighing 

 carefully the evidence of the various witnesses, the reader will, I think, 

 find it possible to extract from these various documents a fairly complete 

 and accurate account of this most disastrous incident in the search for 

 the Western Sea — the tragedy of the Lake of the Woods. 



