1763, June.] ESCAPE OF ALEXANDER HENRY. 343 



shriio^oriiio^ his shoulders, and intimating that he 

 could do nothing for me — ' Que voudriez-vous 

 que fen ferais ? ' 



" This was a moment for despair ; but the next a 

 Pani^ woman, a slave of M. Langlade's, beckoned 

 me to follow her. vShe brought me to a door, 

 which she opened, desiring me to enter, and telling 

 me that it led to the garret, where I must go and 

 conceal myself. I joyfully obeyed her directions ; 

 and she, having followed me up to the garret door, 

 locked it after me, and, with great presence of 

 mind, took away the key. 



" This shelter obtained, if shelter I could hope 

 to find it, I was naturally anxious to know what 

 might still be passing without. Through an aper- 

 ture, which afforded me a view of the area of the 

 fort, I beheld, in shapes the foulest and most ter- 

 rible, the ferocious triumphs of barbarian conquer- 

 ors. The dead were scalped and mangled ; the 

 dying were writhing and shrieking under the unsa- 

 tiated knife and tomahawk ; and from the bodies 

 of some, ripped open, their butchers were drinking 

 the blood, scooped up in the hollow of joined hands, 

 and quaffed amid shouts of rage and victory. I 

 was shaken not only with horror, but with fear. 

 The sufferings which I witnessed I seemed on the 

 point of experiencing. No long time elapsed before 



1 This name is commonly written Pawnee. The tribe who bore it lived 

 west of the Mississippi. They were at war with many surrounding 

 nations, and, among the rest, with the Sacs and Foxes, who often brought 

 their prisoners to the French settlements for sale. It thus happened that 

 Pawnee slaves were to be found in the principal families of Detroit and 

 Michillimackinac. 



