The prow of Radisson's boat was once more heading
upstream for the Unknown. Paddling with all swiftness through the
dark, the three Frenchmen had come to the rushes of Lake St. Peter
before daybreak. No Indians could be found. Men of softer mettle
might have turned back. Not so Radisson. "We were well-armed and had
a good boat," he relates, "so we resolved to paddle day and night to
overtake the Indians." At the west end of the lake they came up with
the north-bound canoes. For three days and nights they pushed on
without rest. Naturally, Radisson did not pause to report progress at
Montreal. Game was so plentiful in the surrounding forests that
Iroquois hunters were always abroad in the regions of the St. Lawrence
and Ottawa.[3] Once they heard guns. Turning a bend in the river,
they discovered five Iroquois boats, just in time to avoid them. That
night the Frenchman, Lariviere, dreamed that he had been captured by
the Mohawks, and he shouted out in such terror that the alarmed Indians
rushed to embark. The next day they again came on the trail of
Iroquois. The frightened Indians from the Upper Country shouldered
their canoes and dashed through the woods. Lariviere could not keep up
and was afraid to go back from the river lest he should lose his
bearings. Fighting his way over windfall and rock, he sank exhausted
and fell asleep. Far ahead of the Iroquois boats the Upper Country
Indians came together again. The Frenchman was nowhere to be found.
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