CHAPTER XXXI. 



1650-1652. 

 THE HURON MISSION ABANDONED. 



Famine and the Tomahawk. — A New Asylum. — Voyage of the 

 Refugees to Quebec. — Meeting with Bressani. — Desperate 

 Courage of the Iroquois. — Inroads and Battles. — Death 

 of Buteux. 



As spring approached, the starving multitude 

 on Isle St. Joseph grew reckless with hunger. 

 Along the main shore, in spots where the sun lay 

 warm, the spring fisheries had already begun, and 

 the melting snow was uncovering the acorns in the 

 woods. There was danger everywhere, for bands 

 of Iroquois were again on the track of their prey.^ 

 The miserable Hurons, gnawed with inexorable 

 famine, stood in the dilemma of a deadly peril and 

 an assured death. They chose the former; and, 

 early in March, began to leave their island and 



1 " Mais le Printemps estant venu, les Iroquois nous furent encore 

 plus cruels; et ce sont eux qui vrayement ont ruine toutes nos espe- 

 rances, et qui ont fait vn lieu d'horreur, vne terre de sang et de carnage, 

 vn theatre de cruaute et vn sepulchre de carcasses decharne'es par les 

 langueurs d'vne longue famine, d'vn pais de benediction, d'\ne terre de 

 Saintete et d'vn lieu qui n'auoit plus rien de barbare, depuis que le sang 

 respandu pour son amour auoit rendu tout son peuple Chrestien." — 

 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 23. 



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