1644.] BRESSANI AMONG THE IROQUOIS. 253 



gunpowder mixed with water, and his table is the 

 earth." ' 



Then follows a modest narrative of what he en- 

 dured at the hands of his captors. Fh'st they 

 thanked the Sun for their victory ; then plundered 

 the canoes ; then cut up, roasted, and devoured the 

 slain Huron before the eyes of the prisoners. On 

 the next day they crossed to the southern shore, 

 and ascended the E-iver Richelieu as far as the 

 rapids of Chambly, whence they pursued their 

 march on foot among the brambles, rocks, and 

 swamps of the trackless forest. When they reached 

 Lake Champlain, they made new canoes and re- 

 embarked, landed at its southern extremity six 

 days afterwards, and thence made for the Upper 

 Hudson. Here they found a fishing camp of four 

 hundred Iroquois, and now Bressani's torments 

 began in earnest. They split his hand with a 

 knife, between the little finger and the ring finger ; 

 then beat him with sticks, till he was covered with 

 blood ; and afterwards placed him on one of their 

 torture-scafi'olds of bark, as a spectacle to the 

 crowd. Here they stripped him, and while he 

 shivered with cold from head to foot, they forced 

 him to sing. After about two hours they gave 

 him up to the children, who ordered him to dance, 

 at the same time thrusting sharpened sticks into his 



1 This letter is printed anonymously in the Second Part, Chap. II 

 of Bressani's Relation Ahr€g€e. A comparison with Vimont's account, it. 

 the Relation of 1644, makes its authorship apparent. Vimont's narrative 

 agrees in all essential points. His informant was " vne personne digne 

 de foy, qui a este tesmoin oculaire de tout ce qu'il a soufFert pendant sa 

 captiuite." — Vimont, Relation, 1644, 43. 



22 



