Meanwhile, our men kindled a fire; and, when it was well burning, they each
took a brand, and burned this poor creature gradually, so as to make him
suffer greater torment. Sometimes they stopped, and threw water on his
back. Then they tore out his nails, and applied fire to the extremities of
his fingers and private member. Afterwards, they flayed the top of his
head, and had a kind of gum poured all hot upon it; then they pierced his
arms near the wrists, and, drawing up the sinews with sticks, they tore
them out by force; but, seeing that they could not get them, they cut
them. This poor wretch uttered terrible cries, and it excited my pity to
see him treated in this manner, and yet showing such firmness that one
would have said, at times, that he suffered hardly any pain at all. They
urged me strongly to take some fire, and do as they did. I remonstrated
with them, saying that we practised no such cruelties, but killed them at
once; and that, if they wished me to fire a musket-shot at him, I should be
willing to do so. They refused, saying that he would not in that case
suffer any pain. I went away from them, pained to see such cruelties as
they practised upon his body. When they saw that I was displeased, they
called me, and told me to fire a musket-shot at him. This I did without his
feeing it, and thus put an end, by a single shot, to all the torments he
would have suffered, rather than see him tyrannized over. After his death,
they were not yet satisfied, but opened him, and threw his entrails into
the lake. Then they cut off his head, arms, and legs, which they scattered
in different directions; keeping the scalp which they had flayed off, as
they had done in the case of all the rest whom they had killed in the
contest. They were guilty also of another monstrosity in taking his heart,
cutting it into several pieces, and giving it to a brother of his to eat,
as also to others of his companions, who were prisoners: they took it into
their mouths, but would not swallow it. Some Algonquin savages, who were
guarding them, made some of them spit it out, when they threw it into the