BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAE SCIENCES 399 



hundred Senecas were thereupon despatched as spies, who, 



coming to the Lake at Irondequoit saw a French vessel lying 

 to there. 



Four of the Seneca spies paddled out in a canoe and hailed 

 those on board, receiving" an answer, "the Devil take you." 

 The spies returned to their village and reported and twenty others 

 were sent out. These found that the first vessel had been joined 

 by a second, and even while the spies looked they were almost 

 surrounded by Twichtwich (Miami) Indians, who had come 

 upon them by land. The twenty Senecas broke through the 

 line of enemies with difficulty and speedily returned with their 

 alarming story. Meanwhile the sachems had sent out still 

 other three who on reaching the lake shore found the French 

 army disembarked. A Seneca called out and asked what they 

 intended to do. They were answered by a Mohawk who said, 

 'You blockhead, I'll tell you what I am come to doe, to war 

 upon you, and tomorrow I will march up with my army to your 

 castles". The scouts were then fired upon, but they escaped 

 without hurt and reached the sachems at twilight. 



The alarming tidings of the approach of the French army 

 created panic in the Seneca villages. The people seem to 

 have been entirely unprepared. The sachems hurriedly decided 

 to send the women, children and old men to places of conceal- 

 ment among the Cayugas, and on the 12th were busily occupied 

 in removing them, some to the Cayugas, others to a lake to the 

 southward of their villages. As soon as the last of the women 

 and children had gone, the sachems decided to burn the villages, 



and this was done at once, only one small fort being preserved 

 as a base. 



To the sachems a defense seemed hopeless. A force of two 

 hundred Senecas remained in the fort, who, learning of the nearer 

 advance of the French, sent runners after the fleeing women, 

 begging the warriors escorting them to return at once to give 

 battle to their enemies. Of the escort three hundred young men 

 turned back and joined the force at the fort. They were young 

 and without experience as warriors and consequently their offi- 

 cers had difficulty in controlling them or in disposing them in 



any order of battle. The sachems finally decided to try an 

 ambuscade. 



The spot chosen was entirely appropriate for the purpose. 

 The trail from the lake approached the village of Gandagora 



