1641-45. j IROQUOIS AND ALGONQUIN. 245 



part of the French, one man was killed and four 

 wounded. They had narrowly escaped a disaster 

 which might have proved the ruin of the colony ; 

 and they now gained time so far to strengthen their 

 defences as to make them reasonably secure against 

 any attack of savages.^ The new fort, however, 

 did not effectually answer its purpose of stopping 

 the inroads of the Iroquois. The) would land a 

 mile or more above it, carry their canoes through 

 the forest across an intervening tongue of land, and 

 then launch them in the St. Lawrence, while the 

 garrison remained in total ignorance of their move- 

 ments. 



While the French were thus beset, their Indian 

 allies fared still w^orse. The effect of Iroquois 

 hostilities on all the Algonquin tribes of Canada, 

 from the Saguenay to the Lake of the Nipissings, 

 had become frightfully apparent. Famine and 

 pestilence had aided the ravages of war, till these 

 wretched bands seemed in the course of rapid 

 extermination. Their sphit was broken. They 

 became humble and docile in the hands of the 

 missionaries, ceased theh railings against the new 

 doctrine, and leaned on the French as their only 

 hope in this extremity of woe. Sometimes they 

 would appear in troops at Sillery or Three Rivers, 



1 Vimont, Relation, 1642, 50, 51. 



Assaults by Indians on fortified places are rare. The Iroquois are 

 known, however, to have made them with success in several cases, 

 some of the most remarkable of which will appear hereafter. The cour- 

 age of Indians is uncertain and spasmodic. They are capable, at times, 

 of a furious temerity, approaching desperation ; but this is liable to sud- 

 den and extreme reaction. Their courage, too, is much oftener displayed 

 in covert than in open attacks. 



21* 



