1649. J THE INVADERS. 379 



breathless and aghast, from the burning town. 

 Their worst fear was realized. The Iroquois were 

 there ; but where were the priests of the mission, 

 Brebeuf and Lalemant '? 



Late m the autumn, a thousand Iroquois, chiefly 

 Senecas and Mohawks, had taken the war-path 

 for the Hurons. They had been all winter in the 

 forests, hunting for subsistence, and moving at 

 their leisure towards their prey. The destruction 

 of the two towns of the mission of St. Joseph had 

 left a wide gap, and in the middle of March they 

 entered the heart of the Huron country, undis- 

 covered. Common vigilance and common sense 

 would have averted the calamities that followed ; 

 but the Hurons were like a doomed people, stu- 

 pefied, sunk in dejection, fearing everything, yet 

 taking no measures for defence. They could easily 

 have met the invaders with double thek force, but 

 the besotted warriors lay idle in their towns, or 

 hunted at leisure in distant forests ; nor could the 

 Jesuits, by counsel or exhortation, rouse them to 

 face the danger. 



Before daylight of the sixteenth, the invaders 

 approached St. Ignace, which, with St. Louis and 

 three other towns, formed the mission of the same 

 name. They reconnoitred the place in the dark- 

 ness. It was defended on three sides by a deep 

 ravine, and further strengthened by palisades fifteen 

 or sixteen feet high, planted under the direction of 

 the Jesuits. On the fourth side it was protected 

 by palisades alone ; and these were left, as usual, 

 unguarded. This was not from a sense of security ; 



