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, Larivière, 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. Larivière 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.
It was dark. The Indians would not wait to search. Radisson and
Groseillers dared not turn back to face the irate governor. Larivière
was abandoned. Two weeks afterwards some French hunters found him
lying on the rocks almost dead from starvation. He was sent back to
Three Rivers, where D'Avaugour had him imprisoned. This outrage the
inhabitants of Three Rivers resented. They forced the jail and rescued
Larivière.

Three days after the loss of Larivière Radisson and Groseillers caught
up with seven more canoes of Indians from the Upper Country. The union
of the two bands was just in time, for the next day they were set upon
at a _portage_ by the Iroquois. Ordering the Indians to encase
themselves in bucklers of matting and buffalo hide, Radisson led the
assault on the Iroquois barricade. Trees were cut down, and the Upper
Indians rushed the rude fort with timbers extemporized into
battering-rams. In close range of the enemy, Radisson made a curious
discovery. Frenchmen were directing the Iroquois warriors. Who had