1644.] EXPLOITS OF PISKARET. 279 



which Le Borgne was chief. He had lately turned 

 Christian, in the hope of French favor and counte- 

 nance, — always useful to an ambitious Indian, — 

 and perhaps, too, with an eye to the gun and pow- 

 der-horn which formed the earthly reward of the 

 convert.^ Tradition tells marvellous stories of his 

 exploits. Once, it is said, he entered an Iroquois 

 town on a dark night. His first care was to seek 

 out a hiding-place, and he soon found one in the 

 midst of a large wood-pile.^ Next he crept into 

 a lodge, and, finding the inmates asleep, killed 

 them with hig war-club, took their scalps, and 

 quietly withdrew to the retreat he had prepared. 

 In the morning, a howl of lamentation and fury 

 rose from the astonished villagers. They ranged 

 the fields and forests in vain pursuit of the myste- 

 rious enemy, who remained all day in the wood- 

 pile, whence, at midnight, he came forth and 

 repeated his former exploit. On the third night, 

 every family placed its sentinels ; and Piskaret, 

 stealthily creeping from lodge to lodge, and recon- 

 noitring each through crevices in the bark, saw 

 watchers everywhere. At length he descried a 

 sentinel who had fallen asleep near the entrance 

 of a lodge, though his companion at the other end 

 was still awake and vigilant. He pushed aside 

 the sheet of bark that served as a door, struck the 

 sleeper a deadly blow, yelled his war-cry, and fled 



1 " Simon Pieskaret . . . n'estoit Chrestien qu'en apparence et par 

 police." — Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 68. — He afterwards became a con- 

 vert in earnest. 



2 Both the Iroquois and the Hurons collected great quantities of wood 

 in their villages in the autumn. 



