HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 24I 



" Let US not reproach one another, such Words do not savour 

 well among Friends." Of one present they said : 



We return you Thanks for the Powder and Lead given us ; 

 but what shall we do without Guns, shall we throw them at the 

 Enemy? We doubt they will not hurt them so. Before this we 

 always had Guns given us. It is no Wonder the Governor of 

 Canada gains upon us, for he supplies his Indians with Guns as 

 well as Powder; he supplies them plentifully with every Thing 

 that can hurt us. 



In January 1693 a party of 625 men left Montreal to attack the 

 Mohawks, effecting a complete surprise and bringing away 200 

 prisoners, most of whom escaped on the return march. Nearly 

 a score of Mohawks were killed in this inroad. The French 

 party passed Schenectady Feb. 8, and the alarm was given there, 

 but no word was sent to the Mohawks. Two of their forts were 

 quickly taken. In the third and largest a war party prepared to 

 go out next day, and in the noise of the war dance the French 

 surprised them and killed many. The invaders became per- 

 fectly destitute and would have been destroyed had the pursuit 

 continued. In this retreat there was some fighting, both parties 

 making rude forts in the woods, and both suffering for lack of 

 food. Golden said : " The French designed to have put them all 

 to the Sword, but their own Indians would not suffer it, and gave 

 Quarter. They took three hundred Prisoners, of whom one 

 hundred were fighting Men." Major Schuyler went to the aid 

 of the indignant Mohawks, and most of the prisoners were recov- 

 ered. Golden said : 



The Indians eat the Bodies of the French that they found. 

 Coll. Schuyler (as he told me himself) going among the Indians 

 at that Time, was invited to eat Broth with them, which some 

 of them had already boiled, which he did, till they, putting the 

 Ladle into the Kettle to take out more, brought out a French 

 Man's Hand, which put an end to his Appetite. 



He elsewhere speaks of the indifference as to food : 



A Mohawk Sachem told me with a Kind of Pride, that a Man 

 eats every Thing without Distinction, Bears, Cats, Dogs, Snakes, 

 Frogs, &c., intimating, that it is Womanish to have any Delicacy 

 in the Choice of Food. 



