and give it to the dogs. Such are the courtesies prisoners receive. But
still they endure all the tortures inflicted upon them with such constancy
that the spectator is astonished.

As to the other prisoners, which remained in possession of the Algonquins
and Montagnais, it was left to their wives and daughters to put them to
death with their own hands; and, in such a matter, they do not show
themselves less inhuman than the men, but even surpass them by far in
cruelty; for they devise by their cunning more cruel punishments, in which
they take pleasure, putting an end to their lives by the most extreme
pains.

The next day there arrived the Captain Yroquet, also another Ochateguin,
with some eighty men, who regretted greatly not having been present at the
defeat. Among all these tribes there were present nearly two hundred men,
who had never before seen Christians, for whom they conceived a great
admiration.

We were some three days together on an island off the river of the
Iroquois, when each tribe returned to its own country.

I had a young lad, who had already spent two winters at Quebec, and who was
desirous of going with the Algonquins to learn their language. Pont Grave
and I concluded that, if he entertained this desire, it would be better to
send him to this place than elsewhere, that he might ascertain the nature
of their country, see the great lake, observe the rivers and tribes there,
and also explore the mines and objects of special interest in the
localities occupied by these tribes, in order that he might inform us upon
his return, of the facts of the case. We asked him if it was his desire to
go, for I did not wish to force him. But he answered the question at once