punishment. When Ragueneau sat down, the Onondaga chief bestirred
himself to counteract the priest's powerful impression. Lounging to
his feet, the Onondaga impudently declared that the governor of Quebec
had instigated the massacre. Ragueneau leaped up with a denial that
took the lie from the scoundrel's teeth. The chief sat down abashed.
The Council grunted "Ho, ho!" accepting the wampum and promising all
that the Jesuit had asked.


Among the Thousand Islands, the French who had remained behind to
gather up the baggage again joined the Onondagas. They brought with
them from the Isle of Massacres a poor Huron woman, whom they had found
lying insensible on a rock. During the massacre she had hidden in a
hollow tree, where she remained for three days. In this region,
Radisson almost lost his life by hoisting a blanket sail to his canoe.
The wind drifted the boat so far out that Radisson had to throw all
ballast overboard to keep from being swamped. As they turned from the
St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario up the Oswego River for Onondaga, they
met other warriors of the Iroquois nation. In spite of pledges to the
priest, the meeting was celebrated by torturing the Huron women to
entertain the newcomers. Not the sufferings of the early Christians in
Rome exceeded the martyrdom of the Christian Hurons among the
Onondagas. As her mother mounted the scaffold of tortures, a little
girl who had been educated by the Ursulines of Quebec broke out with
loud weeping. The Huron mother turned calmly to the child:--

"Weep not my death, my little daughter! We shall this day be in
heaven," said she; "God will pity us to all eternity. The Iroquois
cannot rob us of that."