304 THE PEACE BROKEN. |1646. 



the savage, who led him to the lodge of the Bear 

 chief. Jogues bent his head to enter, when another 

 Indian, standing concealed within, at the side of the 

 doorway, struck at him with a hatchet. An Iroquois, 

 called by the French Le Berger,^ who seems to 

 have followed m order to defend him, bravely 

 lield out his arm to ward off the blow ; but the 

 hatchet cut through it, and sank into the mission- 

 ary's brain. He fell at the feet of his murderer, 

 who at once finished the work by hacking off his 

 head. Lalande was left in suspense all night, and 

 in the morning was killed in a similar manner. 

 The bodies of the two Frenchmen were then 

 thrown into the Mohawk, and their heads dis- 

 played on the points of the palisade which inclosed 

 the town.^ 



Thus died Isaac Jogues, one of the purest ex- 

 amples of Eoman Catholic virtue which this West- 

 ern continent has seen. The priests, his associates, 

 praise his humility, and tell us that it reached the 



1 It has been erroneously stated that this brave attempt to save 

 Jogues was made by the orator Kiotsaton. Le Berger was one of those 

 who had been made prisoners by Piskaret, and treated kindly by the 

 French. In 1648, he voluntarily came to Three Rivers, and gave him- 

 self up to a party of Frenchmen. He was converted, baptized, and 

 carried to France, where his behavior is reported to have been very edi- 

 fying, but where he soon died. "Perhaps he had eaten his share of 

 more than fifty men," is the reflection of Father Ragueneau, after re- 

 counting his exemplary conduct. — Relation, 1650, 43-48. 



^ In respect to the death of Jogues, the best authority is the letter of 

 Labatie, before cited. He was the French interpreter at Fort Orange, and, 

 being near the scene of the murder, took pains to learn the facts. The 

 letter was inclosed in another written to Montmagny by the Dutch Gov- 

 ernor, Kieft, which is also before me, together with a MS. account, 

 written from hearsay, by Father Buteux, and a letter of De Quen, cited 

 above. Compare the Relations of 1647 and 1650. 



