380 RUIN OF THE HURONS. [1649. 



for the greater part of the population had aban- 

 doned the town, thmkmg it too much exposed to 

 the enemy, and there remained only about four 

 hundred, chiefly women, children, and old men, 

 whose infatuated defenders were absent hunting, 

 or on futile scalping-parties against the Iroquois. 

 It was just before dawn, when a yell, as of a legion 

 of devils, startled the wretched inhabitants from 

 their sleep; and the Iroquois, bursting in upon 

 them, cut them down with knives and hatchets, 

 killing many, and reserving the rest for a worse 

 fate. They had entered by the weakest side ; on 

 the other sides there was no exit, and only three 

 Hurons escaped. The whole was the work of a 

 few minutes. The Iroquois left a guard to hold 

 the town, and secure the retreat of the main body 

 in case of a reverse ; then, smearing their faces 

 with blood, after their ghastly custom, they rushed, 

 in the dim light of the early dawn, towards St. 

 Louis, about a league distant. 



The three fugitives had fled, half naked, through 

 the forest, for the same point, which they reached 

 about sunrise, yelling the alarm. The number of 

 inhabitants here was less, at this time, than seven 

 hundred ; and, of these, all who had strength to es- 

 cape, excepting about eighty warriors, made in wild 

 terror for a place of safety. Many of the old, sick, 

 and decrepit were left perforce in the lodges. The 

 warriors, ignorant of the strength of the assailants, 

 sang their war-songs, and resolved to hold the place 

 to the last. It had not the natural strength of St. 

 Ignace ; but, like it, was surrounded by palisades. 



