"We go with them into the woods ; we meet with each other, sometimes at an hour's walk from any house, and think no more of it fhan if we met with Christians." The dark side of their character may be seen in a single quotation from Father Jogues's narrative, as related by Father Lalemant: "Happily for the Father the very time when he was entering the gates, a messenger arrived who brought news that a warrior and 'his comrades were returning victorious, bringing twenty Abanaqois prisoners. Bdhold them all joyful ; they leave the poor Father; they burn, they flay, they roast, they eat those poor victims with public rejoicings." Gentle and affable in peace, with many evidences of a rude civilization, they were indeed "Demons in war." Faithful in their labors among them were the Jesuit Fathers. They were men who were ready to suffer torture and death in tlie propagation of their faith, as several of them did. The conflict of

1 94 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.

those heroes of the Cross in the valley of the Mohawk, inaugurated by the capture and martyrdom of Father Jogues and his companion, Rene Goupil, in 1646, did not deter them; the wars of tJhe nation with the French aided them. So successful were they that many of the nation were drawn off to Canada and became zealous partizans of the French and a scourge to English settlements, especially emphasized in the massacre at Schenectady in February, 1689-90. Those who remained true to the English became no longer "barbarians" inthe full sense of that word, but "Praying Maquas." The subsequent story of the nation may be gleaned from the pages of history. At the close of t'he Revolution the integrity of the Six Nations had been effectually broken, and the castles of the Mohawks swept from fhe valley proper.