420 THE HURON MISSION ABANDONED. [1651-52. 



Iroquois, who were about twenty-five in number, 

 got out of their canoes, and took post, waist-deep 

 in mud and water, among the tall rushes at the 

 margin of the river. Here they fought stubbornly, 

 and kept all the Frenchmen at bay. At length, 

 finding themselves hard pressed, they entered their 

 canoes again, and paddled ofi". The French rowed 

 after them, and soon became separated in the chase ; 

 whereupon the Iroquois turned, and made desperate 

 fight with the foremost, retreating again as soon as 

 the others came up. This they repeated several 

 times, and then made their escape, after killing a 

 number of the best French soldiers. Their leader 

 in this affair was a famous half-breed, known as the 

 Flemish Bastard, who is styled by Ragueneau " an 

 abomination of sin, and a monster produced between 

 a heretic Dutch father and a pagan mother." 



In the forests far north of Three Hivers dwelt 

 the tribe called the Atticamegues, or Nation of the 

 White Fish. From their remote position, and the 

 difiicult nature of the intervening country, they 

 thought themselves safe ; but a band of Iroquois, 

 marching on snow-shoes a distance of twenty days' 

 journey northward from the St. Lawrence, fell upon 

 one of their camps in the winter, and made a gen- 

 eral butchery of the inmates. The tribe, however, 

 still held its ground for a time, and, being all good 

 Catholics, gave their missionary, Father Buteux, 

 an urgent invitation to visit them in their own 

 country. Buteux, who had long been stationed at 

 Three Rivers, was in ill health, and for years had 

 rarely been free from some form of bodily suff'ering. 



