LAHONTAN. 311 



of Ms journey "westward from Fort Niagara in the preceding year. 

 "I embarked at Niagara," lie says, **on the 3rd of August in a canoe 

 manned with eight soldiers of my detachment; and after running 

 three leagues against the current of the strait, came that same day to 

 the place where the navigation stops. There I met with the Sieur 

 Grisolon de la Toui'ette, brother to M. Duluth, who had ventured to 

 come from Michilimackiniac in a single canoe to join the army. On 

 the 4th we commenced the grand portage to the southward, being 

 obliged to transport our canoes from a league and a half below the 

 great Falls of Niagara to half a league above it. Before we got at 

 any beaten or level path we were forced to climb up these Heights, 

 upon which a hundred Iroquois might have knocked us all on the 

 head with stones. While we were employed on this transport-service, 

 we were alarmed twice or thrice, which cautioned us to keep a strict 

 guard and to transport our baggage with all possible expedition. 

 Nay, after all our precautions, we were forced to leave one-half of 

 our baggage about half way upon the discovery of a thousand Iro- 

 quois that marched towards us. Do you judge. Sir, if we had not 

 some reason to be alai'med, and whether we would stand to sacrifice 

 all to the natural principles of self-preservation; though indeed we 

 were in danger of losing our lives as well as our baggage; for we had 

 not embarked above the Fall half a quarter of an hour when the 

 enemy appeared tipon the bank of the strait. I assure you I escaped 

 very narrowly; for aboiit a quarter of an hour before, I and three or 

 four savages had gone five himdred paces out of oxir road to look upon 

 that tremendous cataract, and it was as much as I could do to get at 

 the canoes before they put ofi". To be taken by such cruel fellows 

 was no trifling thing. II morir e niente, ma il vivere hrugiando e 

 troppo. "To die is nothing, btit to be burnt alive is too much." 



He then briefly speaks of the Falls of Niagara. " This Sault or 

 Leap," he says, "is seven or eight hundred feet high and about a 

 half a leag-ue wide." He had, as we have seen, only a hurried 

 glimpse of the Falls. He had just been accomplishing the distance 

 from Queenstown, as we should speak, under difficulties. His 

 imagination over-estimated the total height. In the same way the 

 hostile Iroquois observed along the river bank may not have been 

 exactly one thousand. By rowing strongly all night they reached 

 the outlet of Lake Erie on the following morning. He remarks 

 on the swiftness of the ciuTent. They coasted along the north shore 



