They were four hours carrying baggage and boats over this
_portage_. Sleet beat upon their backs. The rocks were slippery with
glazed ice; and through the rotten, half-thawed snow, the men sank to
mid-waist. Navigation became worse on Lake Ontario; for the wind
tossed the lake like a sea, and ice had whirled against the St.
Lawrence in a jam. On the St. Lawrence, they had to wait for the
current to carry the ice out. At places they cut a passage through the
honeycombed ice with their hatchets, and again they were compelled to
_portage_ over the ice. The water was so high that the rapids were
safely ridden by all the boats but one, which was shipwrecked, and
three of the men were drowned.
They had left Onondaga on the 20th of March, 1658. On the evening of
April 3d they came to Montreal, where they learned that New France had
all winter suffered intolerable insolence from the Iroquois, lest
punishment of the hostiles should endanger the French at Onondaga. The
fleeing colonists waited twelve days at Montreal for the ice to clear,
and were again held back by a jam at Three Rivers; but on April 23 they
moored safely under the heights of Quebec.
_Coureurs_ from Onondaga brought word that the Mohawks had been
deceived by the pig and the ringing bell and the effigies for more than
a week. Crowing came from the chicken yard, dogs bayed in their
kennels, and when a Mohawk pulled the bell at the gate, he could hear
the sentry's measured march.
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