REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I917 169 



Down the river Trent they traveled rejoicing over the victory they 

 thought already won. Champlain in his journal describes the beau- 

 tiful scenery en route and says that though the land was devoid of 

 habitation the trees and shrubs along its banks appeared to have been 

 planted by human hands. He vaguely hints to the mind of the 

 archeologist of a mysterious people who lived before the Hurons 

 came. Champlain particularly describes the majestic pines and the 

 chestnuts. After a journey, with no greater excitement than that 

 of a Frenchman shooting a Huron by mistake for a deer, the expe- 

 dition reached Lake Ontario. With their bark flotilla they crossed 

 the entrance of the St Lawrence and skirted the east shore of the 

 lake, paddling from island to island and disembarking at length at 

 Hungry bay where they hid their canoes. They were greatly con- 

 cerned lest the enemy discover them and puncture their bottoms, 

 and so made a very cautious concealment. 



With the release from the arduous task of paddling we can imagine 

 the elation of the Hurons upon treading the sandy beach that formed 

 part of the Iroquois fishing domain. We may picture the ceremonies, 

 the repair of accoutrements, the repainting of face and body, the 

 propitiation of the okis, and the invocations of the medicine bundles. 

 Then again the march. 



Champlain records that he journeyed along the sandy shore for 

 ten or twelve miles, crossing several rr\ 7 ers and brooks. By his 

 description we know he must have crossed the mouth of the Salmon 

 river, and the Big and Little Sandy in the present Jefferson county. 

 Then striking inland the party crossed the mouth of the Seneca 

 river, closely skirting Oneida lake. After a journey of four days 

 they saw traces of the enemy. The Huron scouts found four women, 

 three men, three boys and a girl, surrounded them and triumphantly 

 made them prisoners. The Huron blood was stirred. As a beginning 

 of their onslaught they cut off a finger of one of the women whereupon 

 Champlain roundly upraided the varlet both for his inhumanity and 

 lack of chivalry, whereupon the Huron replied that this was the 

 custom and that the Iroquois certainly would have done the same. 

 Champlain forcibly scolded the culprit, again laying particular 

 emphasis that defenseless and tearful women ought to have better 

 treatment from a noble warrior. Unabashed, the Huron answered 

 that since Champlain was so much concerned about the ladies he 

 would desist for his sake from any further indignities to them, but 

 he would not guarantee what he would or would not do if he laid 

 hands on a male prisoner. Champlain records no remonstrance but 



