280 PEACE. [1644. 



like the wind. All the village swarmed out in fu- 

 rious chase ; but Piskaret was the swiftest runner 

 of his time, and easily kept in advance of his pur- 

 suers. When daylight came, he showed himself 

 from time to time to lure them on, then yelled 

 defiance, and distanced them again. At night, all 

 but six had given over the chase ; and even these, 

 exhausted as they were, had begun to despau'. 

 Piskaret, seeing a hollow tree, crept into it like a 

 bear, and hid himself; while the Iroquois, losing 

 his traces in the dark, lay down to sleep near by. 

 At midnight he emerged from his retreat, stealthily 

 approached his slumbering enemies, nimbly brained 

 them all with his war-club, and then, burdened with 

 a goodly bundle of scalps, journeyed homeward in 

 triumph.^ 



This is but one of several stories that tradition 

 has preserved of his exploits ; and, with all rea- 

 sonable allowances, it is certain that the crafty and 

 valiant Algonquin was the model of an Indian 

 warrior. That which follows rests on a far safer 

 basis. 



Early in the spring of 1645, Piskaret, with 

 six other converted Indians, some of them better 

 Christians than he, set out on a war-party, and, 

 after dragging their canoes over the frozen St. 

 Lawrence, launched them on the open stream of 

 the Eichelieu. They ascended to Lake Champlain, 



1 This story is told by La Potherie, I. 299, and, more briefly, by Per- 

 rot, 107. La Potherie, writing more than half a century after the time in 

 question, represents the Iroquois as habitually in awe of the Algonquins. 

 Li this all the contemporary writers contradict him. 



