308 ANOTHER WAR. [1647. 



to find the traces of the absent hunters. They 

 soon met the renowned Piskaret returning alone. 

 As they recognized him and knew his mettle, they 

 thought treachery better than an open attack. 

 They therefore approached him in the attitude 

 of friends ; while he, ignorant of the rupture of 

 the treaty, began to sing his peace-song. Scarcely 

 had they joined him, when one of them ran a 

 sword through his body ; and, having scalped 

 him, they returned in triumph to their compan- 

 ions.-^ All the hunters were soon after waylaid, 

 overpowered by numbers, and killed or taken 

 prisoners. 



Another band of the Mohawks had meanwhile 

 pursued the other party of Algonquins, and over- 

 taken them on the march, as, incumbered with 

 their sledges and baggage, they were moving from 

 one hunting-camp to another. Though taken by 

 surprise, they made fight, and killed several of 

 their assailants ; but in a few moments their resis- 

 tance was overcome, and those who survived the 

 fray were helpless in the clutches of the enraged 

 victors. Then began a massacre of the old, the 

 disabled, and the infants, with the usual beating, 

 gashing, and severing of fingers to the rest. The 

 next day, the two bands of Mohawks, each with its 

 troop of captives fast bound, met at an appointed 

 spot on the Lake of St. Peter, and greeted each 

 other with yells of exultation, with which mingled 



1 Lalemant, Relation^ 1647, 4. Marie de I'Incarnation, Lettre a son 

 Fils. Qu^ec, . . . 1647. Perrot's account, drawn frcm tradition, is dif- 

 ferent, though not essentially so. 



