He reported that they had retired with their families twenty leagues from their fort, having scouts always around them in order to fly farther off if pursued. He added that it is probable a great number would perish having been in such a hurry to fly that they took away scarcely any corn, caches of which they hastily made, and that they began to fall short. Almost all these caches were The grain and the rest of the booty consisting of pots, guns, axes, stuffs, wampum belts, discovered.

The destruction of the Indian

and some peltries were plundered by our Frenchmen and Savages.

corn was commenced the same day, and was continued the two following days. The grain was so forward that the stalks were very easily cut by the sword and sabre without the least fear that any could sprout again.

Not a single head remained. The fields stretched from a league and a half to The destruction was complete. A lame girl was found concealed under

two leagues from the fort

:

a tree, and her life was spared.

An old man, also captured, did not experience the same fate. M. le Comte's intention, after he had interrogated him, was to spare his life on account of his great age, but the savages who had taken him and to whom he was given were so excited that it was not deemed prudent to dissuade them from the desire they felt to burn him. He had, no doubt, prepared himself during his long fife to Not the slightest complaint die with firmness, however cruel the tortures he should have to endure. escaped his lips. On the contrary he exhorted those who tormented him to remember his death, so as to display the same courage when those of his nation would take vengeance on them and when a savage, weary of his harangues, gave him some cuts of a knife, " I thank thee," he cried, "but thou oughtst to complete my death by fire.