was in cache which we burnt and that which was standing, was computed according to the estimate afterwards made, at 400 thousand minots of Indian corn. 1 These There was a vast quantity of hogs which were four villages must exceed 14 to 15 thousand souls. a great many both of our Indians and French were attacked with a general rheum which put killed the loss, including old corn which
;
every one out of humor. 'Tis an unfortunate trade, to return
my lord, to command savages who, after the first broken head ask only
home carrying with them the scalp wliich they lift off like a leather cap.
You cannot
conceive the trouble I had to detain them until the corn was cut.
During the whole time we were in the Senecas country we did not see a single enemy, which caused me divers alarms lest they had been at our batteaux, but terror and consternation deterred
them too much from effecting their first threats. Returning to our batteaux I should have greatly wished to have been able to visit other villages, but the sickness, the extreme fatigue among all and the uneasiness of the savages who began to disband, determined me to proceed to Niagara to erect a fort there in their presence, and point out to them a sure asylum to encourage them to come this winter to war in small bodies. I selected the angle of the Lake on the Seneca side of the river; it is the most beautiful, the most is on the whole of this Lake, the Map and plan of which you will have if Sieur de Ville marie will take the trouble, for I tormented him considerably I sent him expressly to Quebec that he may have nothing else to do. for it