406 GARNIER. [1649. 



on the ground.^ At this time the whole town was 

 on fire. The invaders, fearing that the absent war-' 

 riors might return and take their revenge, hastened 

 to finish their work, scattered firebrands every- 

 where, and threw children alive into the burning 

 houses. They killed many of the fugitives, cap- 

 tured many more, and then made a hasty retreat 

 through the forest with theh prisoners, butchering 

 such of them as lagged on the way. St. Jean lay 

 a waste of smoking ruins thickly strewn with black- 

 ened corpses of the slain. 



Towards evening, parties of fugitives reached 

 St. Matthias, with tidings of the catastrophe. The 

 town was wild with alarm, and all stood on the 

 watch, in expectation of an attack ; but when, in 

 the morning, scouts came in and reported the re- 

 treat of tlie Iroquois, Garreau and Grelon set out 

 with a party of converts to visit the scene of havoc. 

 For a long time they looked in vain for the body 

 of Garnier ; but at length they found him lying 

 where he had fallen, — so scorched and disfigured, 

 that he was recognized with difiiculty. The two 

 priests wrapped his body in a part of their own 



1 The above particulars of Garnier's death rest on the evidence of a 

 Christian Huron woman, named Marthe, who saw him shot down, and 

 also saw his attempt to reach the dying Indian. She was herself struck 

 down immediately after with a war-club, but remained alive, and escaped 

 in the confusion. She died three months later, at Isle St. Joseph, from 

 the effects of the injuries she had received, after reaffirming the truth 

 of her story to Ragueneau, who was with her, and who questioned her 

 on the subject. [Memoires touchant la Mort et les Vertus des Peres Garnier, 

 etc., MS.). Ragueneau also speaks of her in Relation des Hurons, 1650, 9. — 

 The priests Grelon and Garreau found the body stripped naked, with 

 three gunshot wounds in the abdomen and thigh, and two deep hatchet 

 wounds in the head. 



