356 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1692. 



The warriors dispersed to their respective haunts ; 

 and, when a band of them reached the St. John, 

 Villebon coolly declares that he gave them a pris- 

 oner to burn. They put him to death with all their 

 ingenuity of torture. The act, on the part of the 

 governor, was more atrocious, as it had no motive 

 of reprisal, and as the burning of prisoners was not 

 the common practice of these tribes. 1 



The Avarlike ardor of the Abenakis cooled after 

 the failure at Wells, and events that soon followed 

 nearly extinguished it. Phips had just received 

 his preposterous appointment to the government of 

 Massachusetts. To the disgust of its inhabitants, 

 the stubborn colony was no longer a republic. The 

 new governor, unfit as he was for his office, under- 

 stood the needs of the eastern frontier, where he 

 had spent his youth ; and he brought a royal order 



Magnolia, II. 613 ; Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., II. 67 ; Williamson, History 

 of Maine, I. 631 ; Bourne, History of Wells, 213; Niles, Indian and French 

 Wars, 229. Williamson, like Sylvanus Davis, calls Portneuf Burneffe 

 or Burniffe. He, and other English writers, call La Brognerie Labocree. 

 The French could not recover his body, on which, according to Niles and 

 others, was found a pouch " stuffed full of relics, pardons, and indul- 

 gences." The prisoner Diamond told the captors that there were thirty 

 men in the sloops. They believed him, and were cautious accordingly. 

 There were, in fact, but fourteen. Most of the fighting was on the tenth. 

 On the evening of that day, Convers received a reinforcement of six 

 men. They were a scouting party, whom he had sent a few days be- 

 fore in the direction of Salmon River. Returning, they were attacked, 

 when near the garrison house, by a party of Portneuf s Indians. The 

 sergeant in command instantly shouted, " Captain Convers, send your 

 men round the hill, and we shall catch these dogs." Thinking that Con- 

 vers had made a sortie, the Indians ran off, and the scouts joined the 

 garrison without loss. 



1 " Le 18 me (Aout) un sauvage anglois fut pris au bas de la riviere de 

 St. Jean. Je le donnai a nos sauvages pour estre brule', ce qu'ils firent le 

 lendemain. On ne peut rien adjouter aux tourmens qu'ils luy firent 

 souffrir." Villebon, Journal, 1691, 1692. 



