228 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690. 



lish as they attempted to cross, kept npa brisk fire 

 on the rest, held them in check till night, and then 

 continued their retreat. The prisoners, or some of 

 them, were given to the Indians, who tortured one 

 or more of the men, and killed and tormented chil- 

 dren and infants with a cruelty not always equalled 

 by their heathen countrymen. 1 



Hertel continued his retreat to one of the Abe- 

 naki villages on the Kennebec. Here he learned 

 that a band of French and Indians had lately 

 passed southward on their way to attack the Eng- 

 lish fort at Casco Bay, on the site of Portland. 

 Leaving at the viilage his eldest son, who had 

 been badly wounded at Wooster River, he set out 

 to join them with thirty-six of his followers. The 

 band in question was Frontenac's third war-party. 

 It consisted of fifty French and sixty Abenakis 

 from the mission of St. Francis ; and it had left 

 Quebec in January, under a Canadian officer named 



1 The archives of Massachusetts contain various papers on the dis- 

 aster at Salmon Falls.- Among them is the report of the authorities of 

 Portsmouth to the governor and council at Boston, giving many par- 

 ticulars, and asking aid. They estimate the killed and captured at 

 upwards of eighty, of whom about one fourth were men. They say that 

 about twenty houses were burnt, and mention but one fort. The other, 

 mentioned in the French accounts, was probably a palisaded house. 

 Speaking of the combat at the bridge, they say, " We fought as long as 

 we could distinguish friend from foe. We lost two killed and six or 

 seven wounded, one mortally." The French accounts say fourteen. 

 This letter is accompanied by the examination of a French prisoner, 

 taken the same day. Compare Mather, Magnolia, II. 595; Belknap, 

 Hist. New Hampshire, I. 207 ; Journal of Rev. John Pike (Proceedinr/s oj 

 Mass. Hist. Soc. 1875 ) ; and the French accounts of Monseignat and La 

 Potherie. Charlevoix adds various embellishments, not to be found in 

 the original sources. Later writers copy and improve upon him, until 

 Hertel is pictured as charging the pursuers sword in hand, while the 

 English fly in disorder before him. 



