At
the first _portage_ many of the canoes were nine and ten miles apart.
Enemies could have set on the Algonquins in some narrow defile and
slaughtered the entire company like sheep in a pen. Radisson and
Groseillers warned the Indians of the risk they were running. Many of
these Algonquins had never before possessed firearms. With the muskets
obtained in trade at Three Rivers, they thought themselves invincible
and laughed all warning to scorn. Radisson and Groseillers were told
that they were a pair of timid squaws; and the canoes spread apart till
not twenty were within call. As they skirted the wooded shores, a man
suddenly dashed from the forest with an upraised war-hatchet in one
hand and a blanket streaming from his shoulders. He shouted for them
to come to him. The Algonquins were panic-stricken. Was the man
pursued by Mohawks, or laying a trap to lure them within shooting
range? Seeing them hesitate, the Indian threw down blanket and hatchet
to signify that he was defenceless, and rushed into the water to his
armpits.
"I would save you," he shouted in Iroquois.
The Algonquins did not understand. They only knew that he spoke the
tongue of the hated enemy and was unarmed. In a trice, the Algonquins
in the nearest canoe had thrown out a well-aimed lasso, roped the man
round the waist, and drawn him a captive into the canoe.
"Brothers," protested the captive, who seems to have been either a
Huron slave or an Iroquois magician, "your enemies are spread up and
down! Sleep not! They have heard your noise! They wait for you!
They are sure of their prey! Believe me--keep together! Spend not
your powder in vain to frighten your enemies by noise! See that the
stones of your arrows be not bent! Bend your bows! Keep your hatchets
sharp! Build a fort! Make haste!"
But the Algonquins, intoxicated with the new power of firearms, would
hear no warning.
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