170 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



no doubt it consisted of an expressive shrug and a mental ejaculation 

 that there was no teaching of manners to a Huron. 



The next day the party began to pass through outlying fields of 

 the enemy. Their march had carried them inland and upward into 

 the hilly country. Champlain knew the enemy only by the name of 

 Entonhonorons and it is not likely that he knew the tribal identity 

 of the Indians he was about to attack. If he had hoped to strike 

 the Onondagas he had failed to turn his route far enough to the west, 

 for he was now running directly into the dominion of the Oneidas. 



On the 10th of October the Hurons found the village fields of the 

 enemy mature with their harvests of corn, squashes and beans. 

 They quickly saw the company of harvesters and then raised their 

 battle cry. This annoyed Champlain, who writes that he had not 

 intended to discover himself immediately. His intent was to locate 

 the town and then draw up his forces for an orderly attack; but the 

 Hurons having given the alarm discharged their arrows into the 

 company of harvesters, whereupon the enemy's archers rushed forth 

 and covered the retreat of their women, putting six Hurons hors de 

 combat the while. 



In the distance Champlain saw the enemy's stockade and his 

 quick discerning eye noted its great superiority over the fortified 

 Huron towns which he had so much admired. The enemy had 

 reached their gates and closed them and Champlain, following his 

 onrushing troops, endeavored to direct the fight which they had so 

 impetuously precipitated. The Hurons were confident and over- 

 eager. At any moment they expected reinforcements of 500 men. 

 With showers of flint tipped arrows they assailed the fortress but 

 were unable closely to approach it, because of the ardor and efficiency 

 of its defenders. Champlain yelled himself hoarse trying to bring 

 about a systematic attack, but failed to produce any apparent effect 

 upon the frenzied Hurons. They shouted, screamed and whooped 

 with all their hideous genius and Champlain 's commands in this 

 bedlam were but a croaking whisper. Nevertheless he writes that he 

 shouted orders until he thought his throat would crack. He was 

 disgusted and angered at his hare-brained allies. They tried to set 

 fire to the fort, he writes, but placed the flaming fagots on the 

 leeward side and all the brush wood brought by the bold Hurons and 

 thrown upon the fire was unavailing, for the enemy merely poured 

 down water from troughs specially designed for flooding the stockade. 

 Champlain soon designed, according to his journal, a, movable 

 fighting top with tall legs that would lift to a height overlooking the 



