338 A DOOMED NATION. [1638. 



of the forests and the passes of the hills. The 

 invaders were not always successful. A bloody re- 

 buff and a sharp retaliation now and then requited 

 them. Thus, in 1638, a war-party of a hundred 

 Iroquois met in the forest a band of three hundred 

 Huron and Algonquin warriors. They might have 

 retreated, and the greater number were for doing 

 so ; but Ononkwaya, an Oneida chief, refusi^d. 

 " Look ! " he said, " the sky is clear ; the Sun be 

 holds us. If there were clouds to hide our shame 

 from his sight, we might fly ; but, as it is, we must 

 fight while we can." They stood then- ground for 

 a time, but were soon overborne. Four or five 

 escaped ; but the rest were surrounded, and killed 

 or taken. This year. Fortune smiled on the Hu- 

 rons ; and they took, in all, more than a hundred 

 prisoners, who were distributed among their various 

 towns, to be burned. These scenes, with them, 

 occurred always in the night ; and it was held to 

 be of the last importance that the torture should be 

 protracted from sunset till dawn. The too valiant 

 Ononkwaya was among the victims. Even in death 

 he took his revenge ; for it was thought an augury 

 of disaster to the victors, if no cry of pain could be 

 extorted from the suff'erer, and, on the present 

 occasion, he displayed an unflinching courage, rare 

 even among Indian warriors. His execution took 

 place at the town of Teanaustaye, called St. Joseph 

 by the Jesuits. The Fathers could not save his 

 life, but, what was more to the purpose, they bap- 

 tized him. On the scaff'old where he was burned, 

 he wrought himself into a fury which seemed to 



