have been easy for them to have thrown us into disorder, the river being very narrow, and terminating after travelling ten leagues in a frightful precipice where we were obliged to land

and carry our

baggage and canoes during four hours, through unknown roads covered with a thick forest which

FIRST SETTLEMENT AT ONONDAGA,

could have served the enemy for a Fort, whence at each step he could have struck and fired on us

without being perceived. God's protection visibly accompanied us during the remainder of the road, in which we walked through perils which made us shudder after we escaped them, having at night

no other bed except the snow after having passed entire days in the water and amid the ice. Ten days after our departure we found Lake Ontario on which we floated, still frozen at its mouth. We were obliged to break the ice, axe in hand, to make an opening, to enter two days afterwards a For having entered a Great Sault without rapid where our little fleet had well nigh foundered.

knowing it, we found ourselves in the midst of breakers which, meeting a quantity of big rocks, threw up mountains of water and cast us on as many precipices as we gave strokes of paddles. Our batteaux which drew scarcely half a foot, were soon filled with water and all our people in such confusion, that their cries mingled with the roar of the torrent presented to us the spectacle of a dreadful It became imperative, however, to extricate ourselves, the violence of the current