In
defiance the Indians fighting for the French sallied out, scalped the
fallen Iroquois, and hoisted the sanguinary trophies on long poles
above the pickets. The enraged Iroquois redoubled their fury. The
fort was too small to admit all the Hurons; and when the Iroquois came
up from the Richelieu with Huron renegades among their warriors, the
Hurons deserted their French allies and went over in a body to the
enemy. For two days the French had fought against two hundred
Iroquois. For five more days they fought against eight hundred. "The
worst of it was," relates Radisson, "the French had no water, as we
plainly saw; for they had made a hole in the ground out of which they
could get but little because the fort was on a hill. It was pitiable.
There was not a tree but what was shot with bullets. The Iroquois had
rushed to make a breach (in the wall). . . . The French set fire to a
barrel of powder to drive the Iroquois back . . . but it fell inside
the fort. . . . Upon this, the Iroquois entered . . . so that not one
of the French escaped. . . . It was terrible . . . for we came there
eight days after the defeat." [22]
Without a doubt it was Dollard's splendid fight that put fear in the
hearts of the Iroquois who fled before Radisson. The passage to
Montreal was clear. The boats ran the rapids without unloading; but
Groseillers almost lost his life. His canoe caught on a rock in
midstream, but righting herself shot down safely to the landing with no
greater loss than a damaged keel.
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