1650.] IROQUOIS DARING. 417 



not of enemies, but of friends. In the preceding 

 autumn Bressani had gone down to the French 

 settlements with about twenty Hurons, and was now 

 returning with them, and twice their number of 

 armed Frenchmen, for the defence of the mission. 

 His scouts had also been alarmed by discovering the 

 footprints of Kagueneau's Indians ; and for some 

 time the two parties stood on their guard, each 

 taking the other for an enemy. When at length 

 they discovered their mistake, they met with em- 

 braces and rejoicing. Bressani and his Frenchmen 

 had come too late. All was over with the Hurons 

 and the Huron mission; and, as it was useless to go 

 farther, they joined Ragueneau's party, and retraced 

 theu' course for the settlements. 



A day or two before, they had had a sharp taste 

 of the mettle of the enemy. Ten Iroquois warriors 

 had spent the winter in a little fort of felled trees 

 on the borders of the Ottawa, hunting for sub- 

 sistence, and waiting to waylay some passing canoe 

 of Hurons, Algon quins, or Frenchmen. Bressani's 

 party outnumbered them six to one ; but they re- 

 solved that it should not pass without a token of 

 their presence. Late on a dark night, the French 

 and Hurons lay encamped in the forest, sleeping 

 about their fires. They had set guards: but these, 

 it seems, were drowsy or negligent ; for the ten 

 Iroquois, watching their time, approached with the 

 stealth of lynxes, and glided like shadows into 

 the midst of the camp, where, by the dull glow 

 of the smouldering fires, they could distinguish the 

 recumbent figures of their victims. Suddenly they 



