100 SOBAPSQUA 



near at hand; and they soon approached their 

 camp, on a small island near the southern end of 

 Lake Champlain. The warriors, two hundred in 

 number, saluted their victorious countrymen with 

 volleys from their guns; then, armed with clubs 

 and thorny sticks, ranged themselves in two lines, 

 between which the captives were compelled to pass 

 up the side of a rocky hill. On the way they were 

 beaten with such fury that Jogues, who was last 

 in the line, fell powerless, drenched in blood and 

 half dead. As the chief man among the French 

 captives, he fared the worst. His hands were 

 again mangled, and fires applied to his body; 

 while the Huron chief, Eustache, was subjected to 

 tortures even more atrocious. When, at night, the 

 exhausted sufferers tried to rest, the young warriors 

 came to lacerate their wounds and pull out their 

 hair and beards." 



One can hardly realize that scenes now so 

 steeped in the serenity of peace should ever have 

 witnessed such barbarities. 



The shores of this island can no longer tempt 

 me, as they once did years and years ago, to steal 

 a boat wherewith to get close to the congregation 

 of ducks assembled in and about them on that 

 October Sunday. My companion and I broke 

 two commandments and were not penitent, but 

 I trust Heaven forgave us, for we were only 

 boys and returned the boat just as we found it, 



