REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I917 I7 1 



stockade. In this contrivance he stationed several Frenchmen with 

 blunderbusses, shielding them by an arrow-proof front . Two hundred 

 Indians carried this fort on stilts to a convenient place. Then the 

 French gunners opened fire, so discomforting the enemy that success 

 would have been with the invading party if it had been possible to 

 enter the fort. 



After three hours of this blundering warfare the Hurons withdrew 

 with their dead and wounded. Champlain, crippled by an arrow 

 wound in the knee and one in the leg, was borne off to the camp 

 tormented by the agony that the enemy's arrows had inflicted. 

 The Hurons continued their frenzied whooping, momentarily expect- 

 ing the arrival of reinforcements, but these failing to come the Hurons 

 became disheartened and would not renew the attack. They 

 immediately began to care for their seventeen wounded comrades 

 and build the basket litters in which they were to be carried back 

 on the homeward trail. Champlain reports how he was woven into 

 a basket frame and trussed so securely he could not move. His 

 agony was excruciating and in his quaint French he exclaims: :< Oh, 

 it was Hell! " 



The attacking party waited a week, hoping for new forces or the 

 surrender of the enemy. They could scarcely believe that Cham- 

 plain's magic had failed. They blamed him scornfully for the lack 

 of success, not knowing, says Champlain, that it was their own 

 stupidity. 



On October 18th there was a severe snow storm. The great war 

 party's luck seemed to be frost. ■ " The party began its retreat, and 

 this was one thing," Champlain says, " the Hurons knew how to do 

 admirably." The company formed into a hollow square with 

 strong young men in the lead and in the rear, and with the weak 

 and wounded in the center. 



When the Iroquois found the invading force had withdrawn and 

 was on the march they sallied forth from their fort and for a time 

 inflicted considerable annoyance. They were afraid of the French- 

 men's guns, which alone prevented the Iroquois from massing an 

 attack upon the retreating party. They were bitter in their thoughts 

 and invited the Hurons to fight them alone next time without French 

 aid. Likewise they called out to the French, advising them not to 

 interfere in their intertribal wars. 



The party continued their journey with great apprehension; they 

 feared their canoes had been destroyed, but upon reaching Hungry 

 bay they rejoiced to find their birchen transports safe and intact. 



