312 THE SCOURGE OF CANADA. [1693. 



would have averted every danger of future re- 

 conciliation between the Christian and heathen 

 Mohawks. The converts of the Saut and the 

 Mountain had readily given the pledge, but appar- 

 ently with no intention to keep it ; at least, they 

 now refused to do so. Remonstrance was useless ; 

 and, after burning the town, the French and their 

 allies began their retreat, encumbered by a long train 

 of prisoners. They marched two clays, when they 

 were hailed from a distance by Mohawk scouts, who 

 told them that the English were on their track, 

 but that peace had been declared in Europe, and 

 that the pursuers did not mean to fight, but to 

 parley. Hereupon the mission Indians insisted on 

 waiting for them, and no exertion of the French 

 commanders could persuade them to move. Trees 

 were hewn down, and a fort made after the Iro- 

 quois fashion, by encircling the camp with a high 

 and dense abatis of trunks and branches. Here 

 they lay two days more, the French disgusted and 

 uneasy, and their savage allies obstinate and im- 

 practicable. 



Meanwhile, Major Peter Schuyler was following 

 their trail, with a body of armed settlers hastily 

 mustered. A troop of Oneidas joined him ; and 

 the united parties, between five and six hundred 

 in all, at length appeared before the fortified camp 

 of the French. It was at once evident that there 

 was to be no parley. The forest rang with war- 

 whoops ; and the English Indians, unmanageable as 

 those of the French, set at work to entrench them- 

 selves with felled trees. The French and their 



