CHAPTER IV.

1633, 1634.

LE JEUNE AND THE HUNTERS.


LE JEUNE JOINS THE INDIANS.--THE FIRST ENCAMPMENT.--THE APOSTATE.--
FOREST LIFE IN WINTER.--THE INDIAN HUT.--THE SORCERER.--
HIS PERSECUTION OF THE PRIEST.--EVIL COMPANY.--MAGIC.--
INCANTATIONS.--CHRISTMAS.--STARVATION.--HOPES OF CONVERSION.--
BACKSLIDING.--PERIL AND ESCAPE OF LE JEUNE.--HIS RETURN.


On a morning in the latter part of October, Le Jeune embarked with the
Indians, twenty in all, men, women, and children. No other Frenchman was
of the party. Champlain bade him an anxious farewell, and commended him
to the care of his red associates, who had taken charge of his store of
biscuit, flour, corn, prunes, and turnips, to which, in an evil hour,
his friends had persuaded him to add a small keg of wine. The canoes
glided along the wooded shore of the Island of Orleans, and the party
landed, towards evening, on the small island immediately below. Le Jeune
was delighted with the spot, and the wild beauties of the autumnal sunset.

His reflections, however, were soon interrupted. While the squaws were
setting up their bark lodges, and Mestigoit was shooting wild-fowl for
supper, Pierre returned to the canoes, tapped the keg of wine, and soon
fell into the mud, helplessly drunk. Revived by the immersion, he next