1647.] THE HUNTERS OF MEN. 307 



their bloody and perfidious work ; for, of these 

 hardy and all-enduring warriors, two-thu'ds gave 

 out on the way, and returned, complaining that the 

 season was too severe.^ Two hundred or more 

 kept on, divided into several bands. 



On Ash-Wednesday, the French at Three Rivers 

 were at mass in the chapel, when the Iroquois, 

 quietly approaching, plundered two houses close to 

 the fort, containing all the property of the neigh- 

 boring inhabitants, which had been brought hither 

 as to a place of security. They hid their booty, 

 and then went in quest of two large parties of 

 Christian Algonquins engaged in their winter hunt. 

 Two Indians of the same nation, whom they 

 captured, basely set them on the trail ; and they 

 took up the chase like hounds on the scent of • 

 game. Wrapped in furs or blanket-coats, some 

 with gun in hand, some with bows and quivers, 

 and all with hatchets, war-clubs, knives, or swords, 

 — striding on snow-shoes, with bodies half bent, 

 through the gray forests and the frozen pine- 

 swamps, among wet, black trunks, along dark 

 ravines and under savage hill-sides, their small, 

 fierce eyes darting quick glances that pierced the 

 farthest recesses of the naked woods, — the hunters 

 of men followed the track of their human prey. 

 At length they descried the bark wigwams of the 

 Algonquin camp. The warriors were absent ; 

 none were here but women and children. The 

 Iroquois surrounded the huts, and captured all 

 the shrieking inmates. Then ten of them set out 



1 Lettre du P. Buteux au R. P. Lalemant. MS. 



