264 ROUT OF CUTLER'S DETACHMENT. [1763, Mat. 



the savage and throw him overboard. The man 

 answered that he was not strong enough ; on which 

 the steersman directed him to change places with 

 him, as if fatigued with rowing, a movement which 

 would excite no suspicion on the part of their 

 guard. As the bold soldier stepped forward, as if 

 to take his companion's oar, he suddenly seized 

 the Indian by the hair, and, griping with the other 

 hand the girdle at his waist, lifted him by main 

 force, and flung him into the river. The boat 

 rocked till the water surged over her gunwale. 

 The Indian held fast to his enemy's clothes, and, 

 drawing himself upward as he trailed alongside, 

 stabbed him again and again with his knife, and 

 then dragged him overboard. Both went down the 

 swift current, rising and sinking ; and, as some 

 relate, perished, grappled in each other's arms.^ 

 The two remaining Indians leaped out of the boat. 

 The prisoners turned, and pulled for the distant 

 vessel, shouting aloud for aid. The Indians on 

 shore opened a heavy fire upon them, and many 

 canoes paddled swiftly in pursuit. The men 

 strained with desperate strength. A fate inexpres- 

 sibly horrible was the alternative. The bullets 

 hissed thickly around their heads ; one of them 

 was soon wounded, and the light birch canoes 

 gained on them with fearful rapidity. Escape 

 seemed hopeless, when the report of a cannon 

 burst from the side of the vessel. The ball flew 

 close past the boat, beating the water in a line of 



1 Another witness, Gouin, affirms that the Indian freed himself from 

 the dying grasp of the soldier, and swam ashore. 



