AND DISCOVERY OF THE SALT SPRINGS.

39

the cold of the frozen water through which, under all circumstances, the canoes were to be dragged,throwing ourselves into the river and remaining there entire hours, sometimes up to the neck, andwe never had undertaken such expeditions without having savages for guides.

Notwithstanding these obstacles which appeared insurmountable to them as well as to us, God , whoholds in His hands all the moments of our lives, so happily inspired us with all that was necessary tobe done, that having departed on the 20 th day of March from our house of Ste. Marie, near Onnon-tagu6, at eleven o’clock at night, His divine providence guiding us, as if by a continued miracle, inthe midst of all imaginable dangers, we arrived at Quebec on the 23 d of the month of April, havingpassed Montreal and Three Rivers before any canoe could be launched, the river not having beenopen for navigation until the very day that we made our appearance.

From the same to the same.

Your Rev. will be glad to learn the particulars of our departure from Ste. Marie of the Iroquois .***** The resolution being taken to quit that country where God took throughus, the small number of his disciples, the difficulties appeared, insurmountable in their execution forwhich every thing failed us.

To supply the want of canoes, we had built, in secret, two Batteaux of a novel and excellentstructure to pass the rapids; these batteaux drew but very little water and carried considerablefreight, fourteen or fifteen men each, amounting to fifteen to sixteen hundred weight. We had more-over four Algonquin and four Iroquois canoes, which were to compose our little fleet of fifty-threeFrenchmen .

But the difficulty was to embark unperceived by the Iroquois who constantly beset us. The bat-teaux, canoes and all the equipage could not be conveyed without great noise, and yet without secrecythere was nothing to be expected save a general massacre of all of us the moment it would be dis-covered that we entertained the least thought of withdrawing.

On that account we invited all the savages in our neighborhood to a solemn feast at which weemployed all our industry, and spared neither the noise of drums nor instruments of music, to deceivethem by harmless device. He who presided at this ceremony played his part with so much addressand success, that all were desirous to contribute to the publick joy : Every one vied in uttering themost piercing cries, now of war, anon of rejoicing. The savages, through complaisance, sung anddanced after the French fashion and the French in the Indian style. To encourage them the more inthis fine play, presents were distributed among those who acted best their parts and who made thegreatest noise to drown that caused by about forty of our people outside who were engaged in removingall our equipage. The embarcation being completed, the feast was concluded at a fixed time; theguests retired, and sleep having soon overwhelmed them, we withdrew from our house by a backdoor and embarked with very little noise, without bidding adieu to the Savages, who were actingcunning parts and were thinking to amuse us to the hour of our massacre with fair appearances andevidences of good will.

Our little Lake on which we silently sailed in the darkness of the night, froze according as weadvanced and caused us to fear being stopt by the ice after having evaded the fires of the Iroquois -God , however, delivered us, and after having advanced all night and all the following day throughfrightful precipices and waterfalls, we arrived finally in the evening at the great Lake Ontario , twentyleagues from the place of our departure. This first day was the most dangerous, for had the Iroquois observed our departure they would have intercepted us, and had they been ten or twelve it wouldhave been easy for them to have thrown us into disorder, the river being very narrow, and terminatingafter travelling ten leagues in a frightful precipice where we were obliged to land and carry ourbaggage and canoes during four hours, through unknown roads covered with a thick forest which