THE LAST OF THE HURONS.
Fate of the Vanquished1 ? The Refugees of St. Jean Baptiste and St. Michel ? The Tobacco Nation and its Wanderings ? The Modern Wyandots ? The Biter Bit ? The Hurons at Quebec ? Notre-Dame de Lorette.
Iroquois bullets and tomahawks had killed the Hurons by hundreds, but famine and disease had killed incomparably more. The miseries3 of the starving crowd on Isle4 St. Joseph had been shared in an equal degree by smaller bands, who had wintered in remote and secret retreats of the wilderness5. Of those who survived that season of death, many were so weakened that they could not endure the hardships of a wandering life, which was new to them. The Hurons lived by agriculture: their fields and crops were destroyed, and they were so hunted from place to place that they could rarely till the soil. Game was very scarce; and, without agriculture, the country could support only a scanty6 and scattered7 population like that which maintained a struggling existence in the wilderness of the lower St. Lawrence. The mortality among the exiles was prodigious8.
424 It is a matter of some interest to trace the fortunes of the shattered fragments of a nation once prosperous, and, in its own eyes and those of its neighbors, powerful and great. None were left alive within their ancient domain9. Some had sought refuge among the Neutrals and the Eries, and shared the disasters which soon overwhelmed those tribes; others succeeded in reaching the Andastes; while the inhabitants of two towns, St. Michel and St. Jean Baptiste, had recourse to an expedient10 which seems equally strange and desperate, but which was in accordance with Indian practices. They contrived11 to open a communication with the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois, and promised to change their nationality and turn Senecas as the price of their lives. The victors accepted the proposal; and the inhabitants of these two towns, joined by a few other Hurons, migrated in a body to the Seneca country. They were not distributed among different villages, but were allowed to form a town by themselves, where they were afterwards joined by some prisoners of the Neutral Nation. They identified themselves with the Iroquois in all but religion,—holding so fast to their faith, that, eighteen years after, a Jesuit missionary12 found that many of them were still good Catholics. [1]
[1] Compare Relation, 1651, 4; 1660, 14, 28; and 1670, 69. The Huron town among the Senecas was called Gandougaraé. Father Fremin was here in 1668, and gives an account of his visit in the Relation of 1670.
The division of the Hurons called the Tobacco Nation, favored by their isolated13 position among 425 mountains, had held their ground longer than the rest; but at length they, too, were compelled to fly, together with such other Hurons as had taken refuge with them. They made their way northward14, and settled on the Island of Michilimackinac, where they were joined by the Ottawas, who, with other Algonquins, had been driven by fear of the Iroquois from the western shores of Lake Huron and the banks of the River Ottawa. At Michilimackinac the Hurons and their allies were again attacked by the Iroquois, and, after remaining several years, they made another remove, and took possession of the islands at the mouth of the Green Bay of Lake Michigan. Even here their old enemy did not leave them in peace; whereupon they fortified15 themselves on the main-land, and afterwards migrated southward and westward16. This brought them in contact with the Illinois, an Algonquin people, at that time very numerous, but who, like many other tribes at this epoch17, were doomed18 to a rapid diminution19 from wars with other savage20 nations. Continuing their migration21 westward, the Hurons and Ottawas reached the Mississippi, where they fell in with the Sioux. They soon quarrelled with those fierce children of the prairie, who drove them from their country. They retreated to the south-western extremity22 of Lake Superior, and settled on Point Saint Esprit, or Shagwamigon Point, near the Islands of the Twelve Apostles. As the Sioux continued to harass23 them, they left this place about the year 1671, and returned to Michilimackinac, where they settled, 426 not on the island, but on the neighboring Point St. Ignace, at the northern extremity of the great peninsula of Michigan. The greater part of them afterwards removed thence to Detroit and Sandusky, where they lived under the name of Wyandots until within the present century, maintaining a marked influence over the surrounding Algonquins. They bore an active part, on the side of the French, in the war which ended in the reduction of Canada; and they were the most formidable enemies of the English in the Indian war under Pontiac. [2] The government of the United States at length removed them to reserves on the western frontier, where a remnant of them may still be found. Thus it appears that the Wyandots, whose name is so conspicuous24 in the history of our border wars, are descendants of the ancient Hurons, and chiefly of that portion of them called the Tobacco Nation. [3]
[2] See "History of the Conspiracy25 of Pontiac."
[3] The migrations26 of this band of the Hurons may be traced by detached passages and incidental remarks in the Relations of 1654, 1660, 1667, 1670, 1671, and 1672. Nicolas Perrot, in his chapter, Deffaitte et Füitte des Hurons chassés de leur Pays, and in the chapter following, gives a long and rather confused account of their movements and adventures. See also La Poterie, Histoire de l'Amérique Septentrionale, II. 51-56. According to the Relation of 1670, the Hurons, when living at Shagwamigon Point, numbered about fifteen hundred souls.
When Ragueneau and his party left Isle St. Joseph for Quebec, the greater number of the Hurons chose to remain. They took possession of the stone fort which the French had abandoned, and where, with reasonable vigilance, they could maintain themselves against attack. In the succeeding 427 autumn a small Iroquois war-party had the audacity27 to cross over to the island, and build a fort of felled trees in the woods. The Hurons attacked them; but the invaders28 made so fierce a defence, that they kept their assailants at bay, and at length retreated with little or no loss. Soon after, a much larger band of Onondaga Iroquois, approaching undiscovered, built a fort on the main-land, opposite the island, but concealed29 from sight in the forest. Here they waited to waylay30 any party of Hurons who might venture ashore31. A Huron war chief, named étienne Annaotaha, whose life is described as a succession of conflicts and adventures, and who is said to have been always in luck, landed with a few companions, and fell into an ambuscade of the Iroquois. He prepared to defend himself, when they called out to him, that they came not as enemies, but as friends, and that they brought wampum-belts and presents to persuade the Hurons to forget the past, go back with them to their country, become their adopted countrymen, and live with them as one nation. étienne suspected treachery, but concealed his distrust, and advanced towards the Iroquois with an air of the utmost confidence. They received him with open arms, and pressed him to accept their invitation; but he replied, that there were older and wiser men among the Hurons, whose counsels all the people followed, and that they ought to lay the proposal before them. He proceeded to advise them to keep him as a hostage, and send over his companions, with some of their chiefs, to open the negotiation32. 428 His apparent frankness completely deceived them; and they insisted that he himself should go to the Huron village, while his companions remained as hostages. He set out accordingly with three of the principal Iroquois.
When he reached the village, he gave the whoop33 of one who brings good tidings, and proclaimed with a loud voice that the hearts of their enemies had changed, that the Iroquois would become their countrymen and brothers, and that they should exchange their miseries for a life of peace and plenty in a fertile and prosperous land. The whole Huron population, full of joyful34 excitement, crowded about him and the three envoys35, who were conducted to the principal lodge36, and feasted on the best that the village could supply. étienne seized the opportunity to take aside four or five of the principal chiefs, and secretly tell them his suspicions that the Iroquois were plotting to compass their destruction under cover of overtures37 of peace; and he proposed that they should meet treachery with treachery. He then explained his plan, which was highly approved by his auditors38, who begged him to charge himself with the execution of it. étienne now caused criers to proclaim through the village that every one should get ready to emigrate in a few days to the country of their new friends. The squaws began their preparations at once, and all was bustle39 and alacrity40; for the Hurons themselves were no less deceived than were the Iroquois envoys.
During one or two succeeding days, many messages 429 and visits passed between the Hurons and the Iroquois, whose confidence was such, that thirty-seven of their best warriors41 at length came over in a body to the Huron village. étienne's time had come. He and the chiefs who were in the secret gave the word to the Huron warriors, who, at a signal, raised the war-whoop, rushed upon their visitors, and cut them to pieces. One of them, who lingered for a time, owned before he died that étienne's suspicions were just, and that they had designed nothing less than the massacre42 or capture of all the Hurons. Three of the Iroquois, immediately before the slaughter43 began, had received from étienne a warning of their danger in time to make their escape. The year before, he had been captured, with Brébeuf and Lalemant, at the town of St. Louis, and had owed his life to these three warriors, to whom he now paid back the debt of gratitude44. They carried tidings of what had befallen to their countrymen on the main-land, who, aghast at the catastrophe45, fled homeward in a panic. [4]
[4] Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1651, 5, 6. Le Mercier, in the Relation of 1654, preserves the speech of a Huron chief, in which he speaks of this affair, and adds some particulars not mentioned by Ragueneau. He gives thirty-four as the number killed.
Here was a sweet morsel46 of vengeance47. The miseries of the Hurons were lighted up with a brief gleam of joy; but it behooved48 them to make a timely retreat from their island before the Iroquois came to exact a bloody49 retribution. Towards spring, while the lake was still frozen, many 430 of them escaped on the ice, while another party afterwards followed in canoes. A few, who had neither strength to walk nor canoes to transport them, perforce remained behind, and were soon massacred by the Iroquois. The fugitives50 directed their course to the Grand Manitoulin Island, where they remained for a short time, and then, to the number of about four hundred, descended51 the Ottawa, and rejoined their countrymen who had gone to Quebec the year before.
These united parties, joined from time to time by a few other fugitives, formed a settlement on land belonging to the Jesuits, near the south-western extremity of the Isle of Orleans, immediately below Quebec. Here the Jesuits built a fort, like that on Isle St. Joseph, with a chapel52, and a small house for the missionaries53, while the bark dwellings54 of the Hurons were clustered around the protecting ramparts. [5] Tools and seeds were given them, and they were encouraged to cultivate the soil. Gradually they rallied from their dejection, and the mission settlement was beginning to wear an appearance of thrift55, when, in 1656, the Iroquois made a descent upon them, and carried off a large number of captives, under the very cannon56 of Quebec; the French not daring to fire upon the invaders, lest they should take revenge 431 upon the Jesuits who were at that time in their country. This calamity57 was, four years after, followed by another, when the best of the Huron warriors, including their leader, the crafty58 and valiant59 étienne Annaotaha, were slain60, fighting side by side with the French, in the desperate conflict of the Long Sault. [6]
[5] The site of the fort was the estate now known as "La Terre du Fort," near the landing of the steam ferry. In 1856, Mr. N. H. Bowen, a resident near the spot, in making some excavations61, found a solid stone wall five feet thick, which, there can be little doubt, was that of the work in question. This wall was originally crowned with palisades. See Bowen, Historical Sketch62 of the Isle of Orleans, 25.
[6] Relation, 1660 (anonymous), 14.
The attenuated63 colony, replenished64 by some straggling bands of the same nation, and still numbering several hundred persons, was removed to Quebec after the inroad in 1656, and lodged65 in a square inclosure of palisades close to the fort. [7] Here they remained about ten years, when, the danger of the times having diminished, they were again removed to a place called Notre-Dame de Foy, now St. Foi, three or four miles west of Quebec. Six years after, when the soil was impoverished66 and the wood in the neighborhood exhausted67, they again changed their abode68, and, under the auspices69 of the Jesuits, who owned the land, settled at Old Lorette, nine miles from Quebec.
[7] In a plan of Quebec of 1660, the "Fort des Hurons" is laid down on a spot adjoining the north side of the present Place d'Armes.
Chaumonot was at this time their missionary. It may be remembered that he had professed70 special devotion to Our Lady of Loretto, who, in his boyhood, had cured him, as he believed, of a distressing71 malady72. [8] He had always cherished the idea of building a chapel in honor of her in Canada, 432 after the model of the Holy House of Loretto,—which, as all the world knows, is the house wherein Saint Joseph dwelt with his virgin73 spouse74, and which angels bore through the air from the Holy Land to Italy, where it remains75 an object of pilgrimage to this day. Chaumonot opened his plan to his brother Jesuits, who were delighted with it, and the chapel was begun at once, not without the intervention76 of miracle to aid in raising the necessary funds. It was built of brick, like its original, of which it was an exact facsimile; and it stood in the centre of a quadrangle, the four sides of which were formed by the bark dwellings of the Hurons, ranged with perfect order in straight lines. Hither came many pilgrims from Quebec and more distant settlements, and here Our Lady granted to her suppliants77, says Chaumonot, many miraculous78 favors, insomuch that "it would require an entire book to describe them all." [9]
[8] See ante, (p. 102).
[9] "Les graces qu'on y obtient par2 l'entremise de la Mère de Dieu vont jusqu'au miracle. Comme il faudroit composer un livre entier pour décrire toutes ces faveurs extraordinaires, je n'en rapporterai que deux, ayant été témoin oculaire de l'une et propre sujet de l'autre."—Vie, 95.
The removal from Notre-Dame de Foy took place at the end of 1673, and the chapel was finished in the following year. Compare Vie de Chaumonot with Dablon, Relation, 1672-73, p. 21; and Ibid., Relation 1673-79, p. 259.
But the Hurons were not destined79 to remain permanently80 even here; for, before the end of the century, they removed to a place four miles distant, now called New Lorette, or Indian Lorette. It was a wild spot, covered with the primitive81 forest, and seamed by a deep and tortuous82 ravine, where 433 the St. Charles foams83, white as a snow-drift, over the black ledges84, and where the sunlight struggles through matted boughs85 of the pine and fir, to bask86 for brief moments on the mossy rocks or flash on the hurrying waters. On a plateau beside the torrent87, another chapel was built to Our Lady, and another Huron town sprang up; and here, to this day, the tourist finds the remnant of a lost people, harmless weavers88 of baskets and sewers89 of moccasins, the Huron blood fast bleaching90 out of them, as, with every generation, they mingle91 and fade away in the French population around. [10]
[10] An interesting account of a visit to Indian Lorette in 1721 will be found in the Journal Historique of Charlevoix. Kalm, in his Travels in North America, describes its condition in 1749. See also Le Beau, Aventures, I. 103; who, however, can hardly be regarded as an authority.
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1 vanquished | |
v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 );战胜;克服;抑制 | |
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2 par | |
n.标准,票面价值,平均数量;adj.票面的,平常的,标准的 | |
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3 miseries | |
n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 );痛苦的事;穷困;常发牢骚的人 | |
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4 isle | |
n.小岛,岛 | |
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5 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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6 scanty | |
adj.缺乏的,仅有的,节省的,狭小的,不够的 | |
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7 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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8 prodigious | |
adj.惊人的,奇妙的;异常的;巨大的;庞大的 | |
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9 domain | |
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围 | |
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10 expedient | |
adj.有用的,有利的;n.紧急的办法,权宜之计 | |
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11 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
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12 missionary | |
adj.教会的,传教(士)的;n.传教士 | |
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13 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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14 northward | |
adv.向北;n.北方的地区 | |
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15 fortified | |
adj. 加强的 | |
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16 westward | |
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
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17 epoch | |
n.(新)时代;历元 | |
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18 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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19 diminution | |
n.减少;变小 | |
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20 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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21 migration | |
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙 | |
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22 extremity | |
n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
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23 harass | |
vt.使烦恼,折磨,骚扰 | |
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24 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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25 conspiracy | |
n.阴谋,密谋,共谋 | |
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26 migrations | |
n.迁移,移居( migration的名词复数 ) | |
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27 audacity | |
n.大胆,卤莽,无礼 | |
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28 invaders | |
入侵者,侵略者,侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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29 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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30 waylay | |
v.埋伏,伏击 | |
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31 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
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32 negotiation | |
n.谈判,协商 | |
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33 whoop | |
n.大叫,呐喊,喘息声;v.叫喊,喘息 | |
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34 joyful | |
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的 | |
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35 envoys | |
使节( envoy的名词复数 ); 公使; 谈判代表; 使节身份 | |
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36 lodge | |
v.临时住宿,寄宿,寄存,容纳;n.传达室,小旅馆 | |
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37 overtures | |
n.主动的表示,提议;(向某人做出的)友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 );(歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的)序曲,前奏曲 | |
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38 auditors | |
n.审计员,稽核员( auditor的名词复数 );(大学课程的)旁听生 | |
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39 bustle | |
v.喧扰地忙乱,匆忙,奔忙;n.忙碌;喧闹 | |
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40 alacrity | |
n.敏捷,轻快,乐意 | |
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41 warriors | |
武士,勇士,战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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42 massacre | |
n.残杀,大屠杀;v.残杀,集体屠杀 | |
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43 slaughter | |
n.屠杀,屠宰;vt.屠杀,宰杀 | |
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44 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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45 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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46 morsel | |
n.一口,一点点 | |
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47 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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48 behooved | |
v.适宜( behoove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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50 fugitives | |
n.亡命者,逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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51 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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52 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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53 missionaries | |
n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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54 dwellings | |
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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55 thrift | |
adj.节约,节俭;n.节俭,节约 | |
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56 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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57 calamity | |
n.灾害,祸患,不幸事件 | |
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58 crafty | |
adj.狡猾的,诡诈的 | |
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59 valiant | |
adj.勇敢的,英勇的;n.勇士,勇敢的人 | |
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60 slain | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词) | |
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61 excavations | |
n.挖掘( excavation的名词复数 );开凿;开凿的洞穴(或山路等);(发掘出来的)古迹 | |
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62 sketch | |
n.草图;梗概;素描;v.素描;概述 | |
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63 attenuated | |
v.(使)变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 );(使)变薄;(使)变小;减弱 | |
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64 replenished | |
补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 ); 重新装满 | |
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65 lodged | |
v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 );暂住;埋入;(权利、权威等)归属 | |
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66 impoverished | |
adj.穷困的,无力的,用尽了的v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化 | |
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67 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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68 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
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69 auspices | |
n.资助,赞助 | |
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70 professed | |
公开声称的,伪称的,已立誓信教的 | |
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71 distressing | |
a.使人痛苦的 | |
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72 malady | |
n.病,疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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73 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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74 spouse | |
n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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75 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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76 intervention | |
n.介入,干涉,干预 | |
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77 suppliants | |
n.恳求者,哀求者( suppliant的名词复数 ) | |
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78 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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79 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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80 permanently | |
adv.永恒地,永久地,固定不变地 | |
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81 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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82 tortuous | |
adj.弯弯曲曲的,蜿蜒的 | |
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83 foams | |
n.泡沫,泡沫材料( foam的名词复数 ) | |
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84 ledges | |
n.(墙壁,悬崖等)突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 );(平窄的)壁架;横档;(尤指)窗台 | |
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85 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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86 bask | |
vt.取暖,晒太阳,沐浴于 | |
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87 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
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88 weavers | |
织工,编织者( weaver的名词复数 ) | |
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89 sewers | |
n.阴沟,污水管,下水道( sewer的名词复数 ) | |
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90 bleaching | |
漂白法,漂白 | |
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91 mingle | |
vt.使混合,使相混;vi.混合起来;相交往 | |
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