1647 J THE CAPTIVE ALGONQUIN. 313 



Her journey from Ononda^'a had occupied about 

 two months, mider hardships which no woman but 

 a squaw could have survived. Escapes not less 

 remarkable of several other women are chronicled 

 in the records of this year ; and one of them, with 

 a notable feat of arms which attended it, calls for a 

 brief notice. 



Eight Algonquins, in one of those fits of desper- 

 ate valor which sometimes occur in Indians, en- 

 tered at midnight a camp where thirty or forty 

 Iroquois warriors were buried in sleep, and with 

 quick, sharp blows of their tomahawks began to 

 brain them as they lay. They killed ten of them 

 on the spot, and wounded many more. The rest, 

 panic-stricken and bewildered by the surprise and 

 the thick darkness, fled into the forest, leaving all 

 they had in the hands of the victors, mcluding a 

 number of Algonquin captives, of whom one had 

 been unwittingly killed by his countrymen in the 

 confusion. Another captive, a woman, had escaped 

 on a previous night. They had stretched her on 

 her back, with limbs extended, and bound her 

 wrists and ankles to four stakes fhmly driven into 

 the earth, — their ordinary mode of securmg pris- 

 oners. Then, as usual, they all fell asleep. She 

 presently became aware that the cord that bound 

 one of her wrists was somewhat loose, and, by long 

 and painful efforts, she freed her hand. To release 

 the other hand and her feet was then compar- 

 atively easy. She cautiously rose. Around her, 



descended the great rapids of Lachine in her canoe : a feat demanding 

 no ordinary nerve and skill. 



27 



