256 BEESSANI. [1644. 



standard, he was useless, she sent her son with him 

 to Fort Orange, to sell him to the Dutch. With 

 the same humanity which they had shown in the 

 case of Jogues, they gave a generous ransom for 

 him, supplied him with clothing, kept him till his 

 strength was in some degree recruited, and then 

 placed him on board a vessel bound for Rochelle. 

 Here he arrived on the fifteenth of November ; and 

 in the following spring, maimed and disfigured, but 

 with health restored, embarked to dare again the 

 knives and firebrands of the Iroquois.^ 



It should be noticed, in justice to the Iroquois, 

 that, ferocious and cruel as past all denial they were, 

 they were not so bereft of the instincts of human- 

 ity as at first sight might appear. An inexorable 

 severity towards enemies was a very essential ele- 

 ment, in their savage conception, of the character 

 of the warrior. Pity was a cowardly weakness, at 

 which their pride revolted. This, joined to their 

 thirst for applause and their dread of ridicule, made 

 them smother every movement of compassion,^ and 



1 Immediately on his return to Canada he was ordered to set out 

 again for the Hurons. More fortunate than on his first attempt, he 

 arrived safely, early in the autumn of 1645. — Ragueneau, Relation des 

 Hurons, 1646, 73. 



On Bressani, besides the authorities cited, see Du Creux, Historia 

 Canadensis, 399-403 ; Juchereau, Histoire de V Hotel-Dieu, 53 ; and Mar- 

 tin, Biographie du P. Frangois-Joseph Bressani, prefixed to the Relation 

 Abreg^e. 



He made no converts while a prisoner, but he baptized a Huron cate- 

 chumen at the stake, to the great fary of the surrounding Iroquois. He 

 has left, besides his letters, some interesting notes on his captivity, pre- 

 served in the Relation Abre'gee. 



2 Thus, when Bressani, tortured by the tightness of the cords that 

 bound him, asked an Indian to loosen them, he would reply by mockery, 

 if others were present ; but if no one saw him, he usually complied. 



