1654.] A SISTER'S REVENGE. 439 



it in her choice to receive him with a fraternal 

 embrace or to burn him ; but, though she was ab- 

 sent at the time, no one doubted that she would 

 choose the gentler alternative. Accordingly, he 

 was clothed in gay attire, and all the town fell to 

 feasting in honor of his adoption. In the midst of 

 the festivity, the sister returned. To the amaze- 

 ment of the Erie chiefs, she rejected with indig- 

 nation their proffer of a new brother, declared that 

 she would be revenged for her loss, and insisted 

 that the prisoner should forthwith be burned. The 

 chiefs remonstrated in vain, representing the danger 

 in which such a procedure would involve the nation : 

 the female fury was inexorable ; and the unfortunate 

 prisoner, stripped of his festal robes, was bound to 

 the stake, and put to death. ^ He warned his tor- 

 mentors with his last breath, that they were burning 

 not only him, but the whole Erie nation ; since his 

 countrymen would take a fiery vengeance for his 

 fate. His words proved true ; for no sooner was 

 his story spread abroad among the Iroquois, than 

 the confederacy resounded with war-songs from end 

 to end, and the warriors took the field under their 

 two great war-chiefs. Notwithstanding Le Moyne's 

 report, their number, according to the Iroquois ac- 

 count, did not exceed twelve hundred.^ 



They embarked in canoes on the lake. At their 

 approach the Eries fell back, withdrawing mto the 



1 De Queii, Relation, 1656, 30. 



2 This was their statement to Chaumonot and Dablon, at Onondaga, 

 in November of this year. They added, that the number of the Eries 

 was between three and four thousand. [Journal des PP. Chaumonot et 

 DaMon, in Relation, 1656, 18.) In the narrative of De Quen (Ibid., 30, 31 ), 



