In the summer of 1653, all Canada turned to fasting and penance3, processions, vows5, and supplications. The saints and the Virgin6 were beset7 with unceasing prayer. The wretched little colony was like some puny8 garrison9, starving and sick, compassed with inveterate10 foes12, supplies cut off, and succor13 hopeless.
At Montreal, the advance guard of the settlements, a sort of Castle Dangerous, held by about fifty Frenchmen, and said by a pious14 writer of the day to exist only by a continuous miracle, some two hundred Iroquois fell upon twenty-six Frenchmen. The Christians16 were outmatched, eight to one; but, says the chronicle, the Queen of Heaven was on their side, and the Son of Mary refuses nothing to his holy mother. * Through her intercession, the Iroquois shot so wildly that at their first fire every bullet missed its mark, and they met with a bloody17 defeat. The palisaded settlement of Three Rivers, though in a position less exposed than that of Montreal, was in no less jeopardy18. A noted19 war-chief of the Mohawk Iroquois had been captured here the year before, and put to death; and his tribe swarmed20 out, like a nest of angry hornets, to revenge him. Not content with defeating and killing21 the commandant, Du Plessis Bochart, they encamped during winter in the neighboring forest, watching for an opportunity to surprise the place. Hunger drove them off, but they returned in spring, infesting22 every field and pathway; till, at length, some six hundred of their warriors24 landed in secret and lay hidden in the depths of the woods, silently biding25 their time. Having failed, however, in an artifice27 designed to lure28 the French out of their defences, they showed themselves on all sides, plundering30, burning, and destroying, up to the palisades of the fort. **
Of the three settlements which, with their feeble dependencies, then comprised the whole of Canada, Quebec was least exposed to Indian attacks, being partially31 covered by Montreal and Three Rivers. Nevertheless, there was no safety this year, even
* Le Mercier, Relation, 1653, 3.
their families, in order to make a permanent settlement.—
Marie de l’Incarnation, Lettre du 6 Sept., 1653.
under the cannon34 of Fort St. Louis. At Cap Rouge35, a few miles above, the Jesuit Poncet saw a poor woman who had a patch of corn beside her cabin, but could find nobody to harvest it. The father went to seek aid, met one Mathurin. Franchetot, whom he persuaded to undertake the charitable task, and was returning with him, when they both fell into an ambuscade of Iroquois, who seized them and dragged them off. Thirty-two men embarked36 in canoes at Quebec to follow the retreating savages38 and rescue the prisoners. Pushing rapidly up the St. Lawrence, they approached Three Rivers, found it beset by the Mohawks, and bravely threw themselves into it, to the great joy of its defenders39 and discouragement of the assailants.
Meanwhile, the intercession of the Virgin wrought40 new marvels41 at Montreal, and a bright ray of hope beamed forth42 from the darkness and the storm to cheer the hearts of her votaries43. It was on the 26th of June that sixty of the Onondaga Iroquois appeared in sight of the fort, shouting from a distance that they came on an errand of peace, and asking safe-conduct for some of their number. Guns, scalping-knives, tomahawks, were all laid aside; and, with a confidence truly astonishing, a deputation of chiefs, naked and defenceless, came into the midst of those whom they had betrayed so often. The French had a mind to seize them, and pay them in kind for past treachery; but they refrained, seeing in this wondrous44 change of heart the manifest hand of Heaven. Nevertheless, it can be explained without a miracle. The Iroquois, or, at least, the western nations of their league, had just become involved in war with their neighbors the Eries, * and “one war at a time” was the sage45 maxim46 of their policy.
All was smiles and blandishment in the fort at Montreal; presents were exchanged, and the deputies departed, bearing home golden reports of the French. An Oneida deputation soon followed; but the enraged47 Mohawks still infested48 Montreal and beleaguered49 Three Rivers, till one of their principal chiefs and four of their best warriors were captured by a party of Christian15 Hurons. Then, seeing themselves abandoned by the other nations of the league and left to wage the war alone, they, too, made overtures50 of peace.
A grand council was held at Quebec. Speeches were made, and wampum-belts exchanged. The Iroquois left some of their chief men as pledges of sincerity51, and two young soldiers offered themselves as reciprocal pledges on the part of the French. The war was over; at least Canada had found a moment to take breath for the next struggle. The fur trade was restored again, with promise of plenty; for the beaver52, profiting by the quarrels of their human foes, had of late greatly multiplied. It was a change from death to life; for Canada lived on the beaver, and, robbed of this,
* See Jesuits in North America, 438. The Iroquois, it will
be remembered, consisted of five “nations,” or tribes,—the
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. For an
account of them, see the work just cited, Introduction.
“Yesterday,” writes Father Le Mercier, “all was dejection and gloom; to-day, all is smiles and gayety. On Wednesday, massacre56, burning, and pillage57; on Thursday, gifts and visits, as among friends. If the Iroquois have their hidden designs, so, too, has God.
“On the day of the Visitation of the Holy Virgin, the chief, Aontarisati, ** so regretted by the Iroquois, was taken prisoner by our Indians, instructed by our fathers, and baptized; and, on the same day, being put to death, he ascended58 to heaven. I doubt not that he thanked the Virgin for his misfortune and the blessing59 that followed, and that he prayed to God for his countrymen.
“The people of Montreal made a solemn vow4 to celebrate publicly the fête of this mother of all blessings60; whereupon the Iroquois came to ask for peace.
“It was on the day of the Assumption of this Queen of angels and of men that the Hurons took at Montreal that other famous Iroquois chief, whose capture caused the Mohawks to seek our alliance.
“On the day when the Church honors the Nativity of the Holy Virgin, the Iroquois granted Father
* According to Le Mercier, beaver to the value of from
200,000 to 300,000 livres was yearly brought down to the
colony before the destruction of the Hurons (1649-50). Three
years later, not one beaver skin was brought to Montreal
during a twelvemonth, and Three Rivers and Quebec had barely
enough to pay for keeping the fortifications in repair.
** The chief whose death had so enraged the Mohawks.
Poncet his life; and he, or rather the Holy Virgin and the holy angels, labored62 so well in the work of peace, that on St. Michael’s Day it was resolved in a council of the elders that the father should be conducted to Quebec, and a lasting63 treaty made with the French.” *
Happy as was this consummation, Father Poncet’s path to it had been a thorny64 one. He has left us his own rueful story, written in obedience65 to the command of his superior. He and his companion in misery66 had been hurried through the forests, from Cap Rouge on the St. Lawrence to the Indian towns on the Mohawk. He tells us how he slept among dank weeds, dropping with the cold dew; how frightful67 colics assailed68 him as he waded69 waist-deep through a mountain stream; how one of his feet was blistered70 and one of his legs benumbed; how an Indian snatched away his reliquary and lost the precious contents. “I had,” he says, “a picture of Saint Ignatius with our Lord bearing the cross, and another of Our Lady of Pity surrounded by the five wounds of her Son. They were my joy and my consolation71; but I hid them in a bush, lest the Indians should laugh at them.” He kept, however, a little image of the crown of thorns, in which he found great comfort, as well as in communion with his patron saints, Saint Raphael, Saint Martha, and Saint Joseph. On one occasion he asked these celestial72 friends for something to soothe73 his thirst, and for a bowl of broth74 to revive his strength. Scarcely had he framed the petition when an Indian gave
* Relation, 1653, 18.
him some wild plums; and in the evening, as he lay fainting on the ground, another brought him the coveted75 broth. Weary and forlorn, he reached at last the lower Mohawk town, where, after being stripped, and, with his companion, forced to run the gauntlet, he was placed on a scaffold of bark, surrounded by a crowd of grinning and mocking savages. As it began to rain, they took him into one of their lodges77, and amused themselves by making him dance, sing, and perform various fantastic tricks for their amusement. He seems to have done his best to please them; “but,” adds the chronicler, “I will say in passing, that as he did not succeed to their liking78 in these buffooneries (singeries), they would have put him to death, if a young Huron prisoner had not offered himself to sing, dance, and make wry79 faces in place of the father, who had never learned the trade.”
Having sufficiently80 amused themselves, they left him for a time in peace; when an old one-eyed Indian approached, took his hands, examined them, selected the left forefinger81, and calling a child four or five years old, gave him a knife, and told him to cut it off, which the imp82 proceeded to do, his victim meanwhile singing the Vexilla Regis. After this preliminary, they would have burned him, like Franchetot, his unfortunate companion, had not a squaw happily adopted him in place, as he says, of a deceased brother. He was installed at once in the lodge76 of his new relatives, where, bereft83 of every rag of Christian clothing, and attired84 in leggins, moccasins, and a greasy85 shirt, the astonished father saw himself transformed into an Iroquois. But his deliverance was at hand. A special agreement providing for it had formed a part of the treaty concluded at Quebec; and he now learned that he was to be restored to his countrymen. After a march of almost intolerable hardship, he saw himself once more among Christians; Heaven, as he modestly thinks, having found him unworthy of martyrdom.
“At last,” he writes, “we reached Montreal on the 21st of October, the nine weeks of my captivity86 being accomplished87, in honor of Saint Michael and all the holy angels. On the 6th of November the Iroquois who conducted me made their presents to confirm the peace; and thus, on a Sunday evening, eighty-and-one days after my capture,—that is to say, nine times nine days,—this great business of the peace was happily concluded, the holy angels showing by this number nine, which is specially88 dedicated89 to them, the part they bore in this holy work.” * This incessant90 supernaturalism is the key to the early history of New France.
Peace was made; but would peace endure? There was little chance of it, and this for several reasons. First, the native fickleness91 of the Iroquois, who, astute92 and politic93 to a surprising degree, were in certain respects, like all savages, mere94 grown-up children. Next, their total want of control over their fierce and capricious young warriors, any one of whom could break the peace with
* Poncet in Relation, 1653,17. On Poncet’s captivity see
also Moral Pratique des Jésuites, vol. xxxiv. (4to) chap.
xii.
impunity95 whenever he saw fit; and, above all, the strong probability that the Iroquois had made peace in order, under cover of it, to butcher or kidnap the unhappy remnant of the Hurons who were living, under French protection, on the island of Orleans, immediately below Quebec. I have already told the story of the destruction of this people and of the Jesuit missions established among them. * The conquerors96 were eager to complete their bloody triumph by seizing upon the refugees of Orleans, killing the elders, and strengthening their own tribes by the adoption97 of the women, children, and youths. The Mohawks and the Onondagas were competitors for the prize. Each coveted the Huron colony, and each was jealous lest his rival should pounce98 upon it first.
When the Mohawks brought home Poncet, they covertly99 gave wampum-belts to the Huron chiefs, and invited them to remove to their villages. It was the wolf’s invitation to the lamb. The Hurons, aghast with terror, went secretly to the Jesuits, and told them that demons100 had whispered in their ears an invitation to destruction. So helpless were both the Hurons and their French supporters, that they saw no recourse but dissimulation101. The Hurons promised to go, and only sought excuses to gain time.
The Onondagas had a deeper plan. Their towns were already full of Huron captives, former converts of the Jesuits, cherishing their memory and constantly repeating their praises. Hence their
* Jesuits in North America.
tyrants102 conceived the idea that by planting at Onondaga a colony of Frenchmen under the direction of these beloved fathers, the Hurons of Orleans, disarmed103 of suspicion, might readily be led to join them. Other motives104, as we shall see, tended to the same end, and the Onondaga deputies begged, or rather demanded, that a colony of Frenchmen should be sent among them.
Here was a dilemma105. Was not this, like the Mohawk invitation to the Hurons, an invitation to butchery? On the other hand, to refuse would probably kindle106 the war afresh. The Jesuits had long nursed a project bold to temerity107. Their great Huron mission was ruined; but might not another be built up among the authors of this ruin, and the Iroquois themselves, tamed by the power of the Faith, be annexed108 to the kingdoms of Heaven and of France? Thus would peace be restored to Canada, a barrier of fire opposed to the Dutch and English heretics, and the power of the Jesuits vastly increased. Yet the time was hardly ripe for such an attempt. Before thrusting a head into the tiger’s jaws109, it would be well to try the effect of thrusting in a hand. They resolved to compromise with the danger, and before risking a colony at Onondaga to send thither110 an envoy111 who could soothe the Indians, confirm them in pacific designs, and pave the way for more decisive steps. The choice fell on Father Simon Le Moyne.
The errand was mainly a political one; and this sagacious and able priest, versed112 in Indian languages and customs, was well suited to do it.
“On the second day of the month of July, the festival of the Visitation of the Most Holy Virgin, ever favorable to our enterprises, Father Simon Le Moyne set out from Quebec for the country of the Onondaga Iroquois.” In these words does Father Le Mercier chronicle the departure of his brother Jesuit. Scarcely was he gone when a band of Mohawks, under a redoubtable113 half-breed known as the Flemish Bastard114, arrived at Quebec; and, when they heard that the envoy was to go to the Onondagas without visiting their tribe, they took the imagined slight in high dudgeon, displaying such jealousy115 and ire that a letter was sent after Le Moyne, directing him to proceed to the Mohawk towns before his return. But he was already beyond reach, and the angry Mohawks were left to digest their wrath116.
At Montreal, Le Moyne took a canoe, a young Frenchman, and two or three Indians, and began the tumultuous journey of the Upper St. Lawrence. Nature, or habit, had taught him to love the wilderness117 life. He and his companions had struggled all day against the surges of La Chine, and were bivouacked at evening by the Lake of St. Louis, when a cloud of mosquitoes fell upon them, followed by a shower of warm rain. The father, stretched under a tree, seems clearly to have enjoyed himself. “It is a pleasure,” he writes, “the sweetest and most innocent imaginable, to have no other shelter than trees planted by Nature since the creation of the world.” Sometimes, during their journey, this primitive118 tent proved insufficient119, and they would build a bark hut or find a partial shelter under their inverted120 canoe. Now they glided121 smoothly122 over the sunny bosom123 of the calm and smiling river, and now strained every nerve to fight their slow way against the rapids, dragging their canoe upward in the shallow water by the shore, as one leads an unwilling124 horse by the bridle125, or shouldering it and bearing it through the forest to the smoother current above. Game abounded126; and they saw great herds127 of elk128 quietly defiling129 between the water and the woods, with little heed130 of men, who in that perilous131 region found employment enough in hunting one another.
At the entrance of Lake Ontario they met a party of Iroquois fishermen, who proved friendly, and guided them on their way. Ascending133 the Onondaga, they neared their destination; and now all misgivings134 as to their reception at the Iroquois capital were dispelled135. The inhabitants came to meet them, bringing roasting ears of the young maize136 and bread made of its pulp137, than which they knew no luxury more exquisite138. Their faces beamed welcome. Le Moyne was astonished. “I never," he says, “saw the like among Indians before.” They were flattered by his visit, and, for the moment, were glad to see him. They hoped for great advantages from the residence of Frenchmen among them; and, having the Erie war on their hands, they wished for peace with Canada. “One would call me brother,” writes Le Moyne; “another, uncle; another, cousin. I never had so many relations.”
He was overjoyed to find that many of the Huron converts, who had long been captives at Onondaga, had not forgotten the teachings of their Jesuit instructors139. Such influence as they had with their conquerors was sure to be exerted in behalf of the French. Deputies of the Senecas, Cayugas, and Oneidas at length arrived, and, on the 10th of August, the criers passed through the town, summoning all to hear the words of Onontio. The naked dignitaries, sitting, squatting140, or lying at full length, thronged142 the smoky hall of council The father knelt and prayed in a loud voice, invoking143 the aid of Heaven, cursing the demons who are spirits of discord144, and calling on the tutelar angels of the country to open the ears of his listeners. Then he opened his packet of presents and began his speech. “I was full two hours," he says, “in making it, speaking in the tone of a chief, and walking to and fro, after their fashion, like an actor on a theatre.” Not only did he imitate the prolonged accents of the Iroquois orators145, but he adopted and improved their figures of speech, and addressed them in turn by their respective tribes, bands, and families, calling their men of note by name, as if he had been born among them. They were delighted; and their ejaculations of approval—hoh-hoh-hoh—came thick and fast at every pause of his harangue147. Especially were they pleased with the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh presents, whereby the reverend speaker gave to the four upper nations of the league four hatchets149 to strike their new enemies, the Eries; while by another present he metaphorically150 daubed their faces with the war-paint. However it may have suited the character of a Christian priest to hound on these savage37 hordes151 to a war of extermination153 which they had themselves provoked, it is certain that, as a politician, Le Moyne did wisely; since in the war with the Eries lay the best hope of peace for the French.
The reply of the Indian orator146 was friendly to overflowing154. He prayed his French brethren to choose a spot on the lake of Onondaga, where they might dwell in the country of the Iroquois, as they dwelt already in their hearts. Le Moyne promised, and made two presents to confirm the pledge. Then, his mission fulfilled, he set out on his return, attended by a troop of Indians. As he approached the lake, his escort showed him a large spring of water, possessed155, as they told him, by a bad spirit. Le Moyne tasted it, then boiled a little of it, and produced a quantity of excellent salt. He had discovered the famous salt-springs of Onondaga. Fishing and hunting, the party pursued their way till, at noon of the 7th of September, Le Moyne reached Montreal. *
When he reached Quebec, his tidings cheered for a while the anxious hearts of its tenants156; but an unwonted incident soon told them how hollow was the ground beneath their feet. Le Moyne, accompanied by two Onondagas and several Hurons and Algonquins, was returning to Montreal, when he and his companions were set upon by a war-party
* Journal du Père Le Moine, Relation, 1654, chaps, vi. vii.
of Mohawks. The Hurons and Algonquins were killed. One of the Onondagas shared their fate, and the other, with Le Moyne himself, was seized and bound fast. The captive Onondaga, however, was so loud in his threats and denunciations, that the Mohawks released both him and the Jesuit. * Here was a foreshadowing of civil war, Mohawk against Onondaga, Iroquois against Iroquois. The quarrel was patched up, but fresh provocations158 were imminent159.
The Mohawks took no part in the Erie war, and hence their hands were free to fight the French and the tribes allied160 with them. Reckless of their promises, they began a series of butcheries, fell upon the French at Isle161 aux Oies, killed a lay brother of the Jesuits at Sillery, and attacked Montreal. Here, being roughly handled, they came for a time to their senses, and offered terms, promising162 to spare the French, but declaring that they would still wage war against the Hurons and Algonquins. These were allies whom the French were pledged to protect; but so helpless was the colony, that the insolent163 and humiliating proffer164 was accepted, and another peace ensued, as hollow as the last. The indefatigable165 Le Moyne was sent to the Mohawk towns to confirm it, “so far,” says the chronicle, “as it is possible to confirm a peace made by infidels backed by heretics.” ** The Mohawks received him with great rejoicing; yet his
* Compare Relation, 1654, 33, and Lettre de Marie de
l’Incarnation, 18 Octobre, 1654.
** Copie de Deux Lettres envoyées de la Nouvelle France au
Père Procureur des Missions de la Compagnie de Jésus.
life was not safe for a moment. A warrior23, feigning166 madness, raved167 through the town with uplifted hatchet148, howling for his blood; but the saints watched over him and balked168 the machinations of hell. He came off alive and returned to Montreal, spent with famine and fatigue169.
Meanwhile a deputation of eighteen Onondaga chiefs arrived at Quebec. There was a grand council. The Onondagas demanded a colony of Frenchmen to dwell among them. Lauson, the governor, dared neither to consent nor to refuse. A middle course was chosen, and two Jesuits, Chaumonot and Dablon, were sent, like Le Moyne, partly to gain time, partly to reconnoitre, and partly to confirm the Onondagas in such good intentions as they might entertain. Chaumonot was a veteran of the Huron mission, who, miraculously170 as he himself supposed, had acquired a great fluency171 in the Huron tongue, which is closely allied to that of the Iroquois. Dablon, a new-comer, spoke172, as yet, no Indian.
Their voyage up the St. Lawrence was enlivened by an extraordinary bear-hunt, and by the antics of one of their Indian attendants, who, having dreamed that he had swallowed a frog, roused the whole camp by the gymnastics with which he tried to rid himself of the intruder. On approaching Onondaga, they were met by a chief who sang a song of welcome, a part of which he seasoned with touches of humor, apostrophizing the fish in the river Onondaga, naming each sort, great or small, and calling on them in turn to come into the nets of the Frenchmen and sacrifice life cheerfully for their behoof. Hereupon there was much laughter among the Indian auditors174. An unwonted cleanliness reigned175 in the town; the streets had been cleared of refuse, and the arched roofs of the long houses of bark were covered with red-skinned children staring at the entry of the “black robes.” Crowds followed behind, and all was jubilation176. The dignitaries of the tribe met them on the way, and greeted them with a speech of welcome. A feast of bear’s meat awaited them; but, unhappily, it was Friday, and the fathers were forced to abstain177.
“On Monday, the 15th of November, at nine in the morning, after having secretly sent to Paradise a dying infant by the waters of baptism, all the elders and the people having assembled, we opened the council by public prayer.” Thus writes Father Dablon. His colleague, Chaumonot, a Frenchman bred in Italy, now rose, with a long belt of wampum in his hand, and proceeded to make so effective a display of his rhetorical gifts that the Indians were lost in admiration178, and their orators put to the blush by his improvements on their own metaphors179. “If he had spoken all day,” said the de lighted auditors, “we should not have had enough of it.” “The Dutch,” added others, “have neither brains nor tongues; they never tell us about Paradise and Hell; on the contrary, they lead us into bad ways.”
On the next day the chiefs returned their answer. The council opened with a song or chant, which was divided into six parts, and which, according to Dablon, was exceedingly well sung. The burden of the fifth part was as follows:—
“Farewell war; farewell tomahawk; we have been fools till now; henceforth we will be brothers; yes, we will be brothers.”
Then came four presents, the third of which enraptured180 the fathers. It was a belt of seven thousand beads181 of wampum. “But this,” says Dablon, “was as nothing to the words that accompanied it.” “It is the gift of the faith,” said the orator; “it is to tell you that we are believers; it is to beg you not to tire of instructing us; have patience, seeing that we are so dull in learning prayer; push it into our heads and our hearts.” Then he led Chaumonot into the midst of the assembly, clasped him in his arms, tied the belt about his waist, and protested, with a suspicious redundancy of words, that as he clasped the father, so would he clasp the faith.
What had wrought this sudden change of heart? The eagerness of the Onondagas that the French should settle among them, had, no doubt, a large share in it. For the rest, the two Jesuits saw abundant signs of the fierce, uncertain nature of those with whom they were dealing182. Erie prisoners were brought in and tortured before their eyes, one of them being a young stoic183 of about ten years, who endured his fate without a single outcry. Huron women and children, taken in war and adopted by their captors, were killed on the slightest provocation157, and sometimes from mere caprice.
For several days the whole town was in an uproar184 with the crazy follies185 of the “dream feast,” * and one of the Fathers nearly lost his life in this Indian Bedlam186.
One point was clear; the French must make a settlement at Onondaga, and that speedily, or, despite their professions of brotherhood187, the Onondagas would make war. Their attitude became menacing; from urgency they passed to threats; and the two priests felt that the critical posture188 of affairs must at once be reported at Quebec. But here a difficulty arose. It was the beaver-hunting season; and, eager as were the Indians for a French colony, not one of them would offer to conduct the Jesuits to Quebec in order to fetch one. It was not until nine masses had been said to Saint John the Baptist, that a number of Indians consented to forego their hunting, and escort Father Dablon home. ** Chaumonot remained at Onondaga, to watch his dangerous hosts and soothe their rising jealousies189.
It was the 2d of March when Dablon began his journey. His constitution must have been of iron, or he would have succumbed190 to the appalling191 hardships of the way. It was neither winter nor spring. The lakes and streams were not yet open, but the half-thawed ice gave way beneath the foot. One of the Indians fell through and was drowned. Swamp and forest were clogged193 with sodden194 snow,
* See Jesuits in North America, 67.
** De Quen, Relation, 1656, 35. Chaumonot, in his
Autobiography, ascribes the miracle to the intercession of
the deceased Brébeuf.
and ceaseless rains drenched195 them as they toiled196 on, knee-deep in slush. Happily, the St. Lawrence was open. They found an old wooden canoe by the shore, embarked, and reached Montreal after a journey of four weeks.
Dablon descended197 to Quebec. There was long and anxious counsel in the chambers199 of Fort St. Louis. The Jesuits had information that, if the demands of the Onondagas were rejected, they would join the Mohawks to destroy Canada. But why were they so eager for a colony of Frenchmen? Did they want them as hostages, that they might attack the Hurons and Algonquins without risk of French interference; or would they massacre them, and then, like tigers mad with the taste of blood, turn upon the helpless settlements of the St. Lawrence? An abyss yawned on either hand. Lauson, the governor, was in an agony of indecision, but at length declared for the lesser200 and remoter peril132, and gave his voice for the colony. The Jesuits were of the same mind, though it was they, and not he, who must bear the brunt of danger. “The blood of the martyrs201 is the seed of the Church,” said one of them, “and, if we die by the fires of the Iroquois, we shall have won eternal life by snatching souls from the fires of Hell.”
Preparation was begun at once. The expense fell on the Jesuits, and the outfit202 is said to have cost them seven thousand livres,—a heavy sum for Canada at that day. A pious gentleman, Zachary Du Puys, major of the fort of Quebec, joined the expedition with ten soldiers; and between thirty and forty other Frenchmen also enrolled203 themselves, impelled204 by devotion or destitution205. Four Jesuits, Le Mercier, the superior, with Dablon, Menard, and Frémin, besides two lay brothers of the order, formed, as it were, the pivot206 of the enterprise. The governor made them the grant of a hundred square leagues of land in the heart of the Iroquois country,—a preposterous207 act, which, had the Iroquois known it, would have rekindled208 the war; but Lauson had a mania210 for land-grants, and was himself the proprietor211 of vast domains212 which he could have occupied only at the cost of his scalp.
Embarked in two large boats and followed by twelve canoes filled with Hurons, Onondagas, and a few Senecas lately arrived, they set out on the 17th of May “to attack the demons,” as Le Mercier writes, “in their very stronghold.” With shouts, tears, and benedictions213, priests, soldiers, and inhabitants waved farewell from the strand214. They passed the bare steeps of Cape2 Diamond and the mission-house nestled beneath the heights of Sillery, and vanished from the anxious eyes that watched the last gleam of their receding215 oars216. *
Meanwhile three hundred Mohawk warriors had taken the war-path, bent on killing or kidnapping the Hurons of Orleans. When they heard of the departure of the colonists217 for Onondaga, their rage was unbounded; for not only were they full of jealousy towards their Onondaga confederates, but they had hitherto derived219 great profit from the
* Marie de l’Incarnation, Lettres, 1656. Le Mercier,
Relation, 1657 chap. iv. Chaulmer, Nouveau Monde, II. 265,
322, 319.
control which their local position gave them over the traffic between this tribe and the Dutch of the Hudson, upon whom the Onondagas, in common with all the upper Iroquois, had been dependent for their guns, hatchets, scalping-knives, beads, blankets, and brandy. These supplies would now be furnished by the French, and the Mohawk speculators saw their occupation gone. Nevertheless, they had just made peace with the French, and, for the moment, were not quite in the mood to break it. To wreak220 their spite, they took a middle course, crouched221 in ambush222 among the bushes at Point St. Croix, ten or twelve leagues above Quebec, allowed the boats bearing the French to pass unmolested, and fired a volley at the canoes in the rear, filled with Onondagas, Senecas, and Hurons. Then they fell upon them with a yell, and, after wounding a lay brother of the Jesuits who was among them, flogged and bound such of the Indians as they could seize. The astonished Onondagas protested and threatened; whereupon the Mohawks feigned223 great surprise, declared that they had mistaken them for Hurons, called them brothers, and suffered the whole party to escape without further injury. *
The three hundred maurauders now paddled their large canoes of elm-bark stealthily down the current, passed Quebec undiscovered in the dark night of the 19th of May, landed in early morning on the island of Orleans, and ambushed224
* Compare Marie de l'Incarnation, Lettre 14 Aout, 1656, Le
Jeune. Relation, 1657, 9.
themselves to surprise the Hurons as they came to labor61 in their cornfields. They were tolerably successful, killed six, and captured more than eighty, the rest taking refuge in their fort, where the Mohawks dared not attack them.
At noon, the French on the rock of Quebec saw forty canoes approaching from the island of Orleans, and defiling, with insolent parade, in front of the town, all crowded with the Mohawks and their prisoners, among whom were a great number of Huron girls. Their captors, as they passed, forced them to sing and dance. The Hurons were the allies, or rather the wards218 of the French, who were in every way pledged to protect them. Yet the cannon of Fort St. Louis were silent, and the crowd stood gaping225 in bewilderment and fright. Had an attack been made, nothing but a complete success and the capture of many prisoners to serve as hostages could have prevented the enraged Mohawks from taking their revenge on the Onondaga colonists. The emergency demanded a prompt and clear-sighted soldier. The governor, Lauson, was a gray-haired civilian226, who, however enterprising as a speculator in wild lands, was in no way matched to the desperate crisis of the hour. Some of the Mohawks landed above and below the town, and plundered227 the houses from which the scared inhabitants had fled. Not a soldier stirred and not a gun was fired. The French, bullied228 by a horde152 of naked savages, became an object of contempt to their own allies.
The Mohawks carried their prisoners home, burned six of them, and adopted or rather enslaved the rest. *
Meanwhile the Onondaga colonists pursued their perilous way. At Montreal they exchanged their heavy boats for canoes, and resumed their journey with a flotilla of twenty of these sylvan229 vessels230. A few days after, the Indians of the party had the satisfaction of pillaging231 a small band of Mohawk hunters, in vicarious reprisal232 for their own wrongs. On the 26th of June, as they neared Lake Ontario, they heard a loud and lamentable233 voice from the edge of the forest; whereupon, having beaten their drum to show that they were Frenchmen, they beheld234 a spectral235 figure, lean and covered with scars, which proved to be a pious Huron, one Joachim Ondakout, captured by the Mohawks in their descent on the island of Orleans, five or six weeks before. They had carried him to their village and begun to torture him; after which they tied him fast and lay down to sleep, thinking to resume their pleasure on the morrow. His cuts and burns being only on the surface, he had the good fortune to free himself from his bonds, and, naked as he was, to escape to the woods. He held his course northwestward, through regions even now a wilderness, gathered wild strawberries to sustain life, and, in fifteen days, reached the St. Lawrence, nearly dead with exhaustion236. The Frenchmen gave him food and a canoe, and the living skeleton paddled with a light heart for Quebec.
The colonists themselves soon began to suffer
* See Perrot M?urs des Sauvages, 106.
from hunger. Their fishing failed on Lake Ontario and they were forced to content themselves with cranberries237 of the last year, gathered in the meadows. Of their Indians, all but five deserted238 them. The Father Superior fell ill, and when they reached the mouth of the Oswego many of the starving Frenchmen had completely lost heart. Weary and faint, they dragged their canoes up the rapids, when suddenly they were cheered by the sight of a stranger canoe swiftly descending239 the current. The Onondagas, aware of their approach, had sent it to meet them, laden240 with Indian corn and fresh salmon241. Two more canoes followed, freighted like the first; and now all was abundance till they reached their journey’s end, the Lake of Onondaga. It lay before them in the July sun, a glittering mirror, framed in forest verdure.
They knew that ?haumonot with a crowd of Indians was awaiting them at a spot on the margin242 of the water, which he and Dablon had chosen as the site of their settlement. Landing on the strand, they fired, to give notice of their approach, five small cannon which they had brought in their canoes. Waves, woods, and hills resounded243 with the thunder of their miniature artillery244. Then reembarking, they advanced in order, four canoes abreast245, towards the destined246 spot. In front floated their banner of white silk, embroidered247 in large letters with the name of Jesus. Here were Du Puys and his soldiers, with the picturesque248 uniforms and quaint249 weapons of their time; Le Mercier and his Jesuits in robes of black; hunters and bush-rangers; Indians painted and feathered for a festal day. As they neared the place where a spring bubbling from the hillside is still known as the “Jesuits’ Well,” they saw the edge of the forest dark with the muster250 of savages whose yells of welcome answered the salvo of their guns. Happily for them, a flood of summer rain saved them from the harangues251 of the Onondaga orators, and forced white men and red alike to seek such shelter as they could find. Their hosts, with hospitable252 intent, would fain have sung and danced all night; but the Frenchmen pleaded fatigue, and the courteous253 savages, squatting around their tents, chanted in monotonous254 tones to lull255 them to sleep. In the morning they woke refreshed, sang Te Deum, reared an altar, and, with a solemn mass, took possession of the country in the name of Jesus. *
Three things, which they saw or heard of in their new home, excited their astonishment256. The first was the vast flight of wild pigeons which in spring darkened the air around the Lake of Onondaga; the second was the salt springs of Salina; the third was the rattlesnakes, which Le Mercier describes with excellent precision, adding that, as he learns from the Indians, their tails are good for toothache and their flesh for fever. These reptiles257, for reasons best known to themselves, haunted the neighborhood of the salt-springs, but did not intrude173 their presence into the abode258 of the French.
On the 17th of July, Le Mercier and Chamnonot,
* Le Mercier, Relation, 1657, 14.
escorted by a file of soldiers, set out for Onondaga, scarcely five leagues distant. They followed the Indian trail, under the leafy arches of the woods, by hill and hollow, still swamp and gurgling brook259, till through the opening foliage260 they saw the Iroquois capital, compassed with cornfields and girt with its rugged261 palisade. As the Jesuits, like black spectres, issued from the shadows of the forest, followed by the plumed262 soldiers with shouldered arquebuses, the red-skinned population swarmed out like bees, and they defiled263 to the town through gazing and admiring throngs264. All conspired265 to welcome them. Feast followed feast throughout the afternoon, till, what with harangues and songs, bear’s meat, beaver-tails, and venison, beans, corn, and grease, they were wellnigh killed with kindness. “If, after this, they murder us,” writes Le Mercier, “it will be from fickleness, not premeditated treachery.” But the Jesuits, it seems, had not sounded the depths of Iroquois dissimulation. *
There was one exception to the real or pretended joy. Some Mohawks were in the town, and their orator was insolent and sarcastic266; but the ready tongue of Chaumonot turned the laugh against him and put him to shame.
Here burned the council fire of the Iroquois, and at this very time the deputies of the five tribes were assembling. The session opened on the 24th.
* The Jesuits were afterwards told by Hurons, captive among
the Mohawks and the Onondagas, that, from the first, it was
intended to massacre the French as soon as their presence
had attracted the remnant of the Hurons of Orleans into the
power of the Onondagas. Lettre du P Ragueneau au R. P.
Provincial267, 31 Ao?t, 1658.
In the great council house, on the earthen floor and the broad platforms beneath the smoke-begrimed concave of the bark roof, stood, sat, or squatted268, the wisdom and valor269 of the confederacy; Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas; sachems, counsellors, orators, warriors fresh from Erie victories; tall, stalwart figures, limbed like Grecian statues.
The pressing business of the council over, it was Chaumonot’s turn to speak. But, first, all the Frenchmen, kneeling in a row, with clasped hands sang the Veni Creator, amid the silent admiration of the auditors. Then Chaumonot rose, with an immense wampum-belt in his hand.
“It is not trade that brings us here. Do you think that your beaver skins can pay us for all our toils270 and dangers? Keep them, if you like; or, if any fall into our hands, we shall use them only for your service. We seek not the things that perish. It is for the Faith that we have left our homes to live in your hovels of bark, and eat food which the beasts of our country would scarcely touch. We are the messengers whom God has sent to tell you that his Son became a man for the love of you; that this man, the Son of God, is the prince and master of men; that he has prepared in heaven eternal joys for those who obey him, and kindled209 the fires of hell for those who will not receive his word. If you reject it, whoever you are,—Onondaga, Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga, or Oneida,—know that Jesus Christ, who inspires my heart and my voice, will plunge271 you one day into hell. Avert272 this ruin; be not the authors of your own destruction; accept the truth; listen to the voice of the Omnipotent273.”
Such, in brief, was the pith of the father’s exhortation274. As he spoke Indian like a native, and as his voice and gestures answered to his words, we may believe what Le Mercier tells us, that his hearers listened with mingled275 wonder, admiration, and terror. The work was well begun. The Jesuits struck while the iron was hot, built a small chapel276 for the mass, installed themselves in the town, and preached and catechised from morning till night.
The Frenchmen at the lake were not idle. The chosen site of their settlement was the crown of a hill commanding a broad view of waters and forests. The axemen fell to their work, and a ghastly wound soon gaped277 in the green bosom of the woodland. Here, among the stumps278 and prostrate279 trees of the unsightly clearing, the blacksmith built his forge, saw and hammer plied53 their trade; palisades were shaped and beams squared, in spite of heat, mosquitoes, and fever. At one time twenty men were ill, and lay gasping280 under a wretched shed of bark; but they all recovered, and the work went on till at length a capacious house, large enough to hold the whole colony, rose above the ruin of the forest. A palisade was set around it, and the Mission of Saint Mary of Gannentaa * was begun.
France and the Faith were intrenched on the Lake of Onondaga. How long would they remain
* Gannentaa or Ganuntaah is still the Iroquois name for
Lake Onondaga. According to Morgan, it means “Material for
Council Fire.”
there? The future alone could tell. The mission, it must not be forgotten, had a double scope, half ecclesiastical, half political. The Jesuits had essayed a fearful task,—to convert the Iroquois to God and to the king, thwart281 the Dutch heretics of the Hudson, save souls from hell, avert ruin from Canada, and thus raise their order to a place of honor and influence both hard earned and well earned. The mission at Lake Onondaga was but a base of operations. Long before they were lodged282 and fortified283 here, Chaumonot and Ménard set out for the Cayugas, whence the former proceeded to the Senecas, the most numerous, and powerful of the five confederate nations; and in the following spring another mission was begun among the Oneidas. Their reception was not unfriendly; but such was the reticence284 and dissimulation of these inscrutable savages, that it was impossible to foretell285 results. The women proved, as might be expected, far more impressible than the men; and in them the fathers placed great hope; since in this, the most savage people of the continent, women held a degree of political influence never perhaps equalled in any civilized286 nation. *
* Women, among the Iroquois, had a council of their own,
which, according to Lafitau, who knew this people well, had
the initiative in discussion, subjects presented by them
being settled in the council of chiefs and elders. In this
latter council the women had an orator, often of their own
sex, to represent them. The matrons had a leading voice in
determining the succession of chiefs. There were also female
chiefs, one of whom, with her attendants, came to Quebec
with an embassy in 1655 (Marie de l’Incarnation). In the
judgment of the women, who, says Champlain, were thought
The learned Lafitau, whose book appeared in 1724, dwells at
length on the resemblance of the Iroquois to the ancient
Lycians, among whom, according to Grecian writers, women
were in the ascendant. “Gynecocracy, or the rule of women,”
continues Lafitau, “which was the foundation of the Lycian
government, was probably common in early times to nearly all
the barbarous people of Greece” M?urs des Sauvages, I. 460.
But while infants were baptized and squaws converted, the crosses of the mission were many and great. The devil bestirred himself with more than his ordinary activity; “for,” as one of the fathers writes, “when in sundry289 nations of the earth men are rising up in strife against us (the Jesuits), then how much more the demons, on whom we continually wage war!” It was these infernal sprites, as the priests believed, who engendered290 suspicions and calumnies291 in the dark and superstitious292 minds of the Iroquois, and prompted them in dreams to destroy the apostles of the faith. Whether the foe11 was of earth or hell, the Jesuits were like those who tread the lava-crust that palpitates with the throes of the coming eruption293, while the molten death beneath their feet glares white-hot through a thousand crevices294. Yet, with a sublime295 enthusiasm and a glorious constancy, they toiled and they hoped, though the skies around were black with portent296.
In the year in which the colony at Onondaga was begun, the Mohawks murdered the Jesuit Garreau, on his way up the Ottawa. In the following spring, a hundred Mohawk warriors came to Quebec, to carry more of the Hurons into slavery, though the remnant of that unhappy people, since the catastrophe297 of the last year, had sought safety in a palisaded camp within the limits of the French town, and immediately under the ramparts of Fort St. Louis. Here, one might think, they would have been safe; but Charny, son and successor of Lauson, seems to have been even more imbecile than his father, and listened meekly298 to the threats of the insolent strangers who told him that unless he abandoned the Hurons to their mercy, both they and the French should feel the weight of Mohawk tomahawks. They demanded further, that the French should give them boats to carry their prisoners; but, as there were none at hand, this last humiliation299 was spared. The Mohawks were forced to make canoes, in which they carried off as many as possible of their victims.
When the Onondagas learned this last exploit of their rivals, their jealousy knew no bounds, and a troop of them descended to Quebec to claim their share in the human plunder29. Deserted by the French, the despairing Hurons abandoned themselves to their fate, and about fifty of those whom the Mohawks had left obeyed the behest of their tyrants and embarked for Onondaga. They reached Montreal in July, and thence proceeded towards their destination in company with the Onondaga warriors. The Jesuit Ragueneau, bound also for Onondaga, joined them. Five leagues above Montreal, the warriors left him behind; but he found an old canoe on the bank, in which, after abandoning most of his baggage, he contrived300 to follow with two or three Frenchmen who were with him. There was a rumor302 that a hundred Mohawk warriors were lying in wait among the Thousand Islands, to plunder the Onondagas of their Huron prisoners. It proved a false report. A speedier catastrophe awaited these unfortunates.
Towards evening on the 3d of August, after the party had landed to encamp, an Onondaga chief made advances to a Christian Huron girl, as he had already done at every encampment since leaving Montreal. Being repulsed303 for the fourth time, he split her head with his tomahawk. It was the beginning of a massacre. The Onondagas rose upon their prisoners, killed seven men, all Christians, before the eyes of the horrified304 Jesuit, and plundered the rest of all they had. When Ragueneau protested, they told him with insolent mockery that they were acting305 by direction of the governor and the superior of the Jesuits, The priest himself was secretly warned that he was to be killed during the night; and he was surprised in the morning to find himself alive. * On reaching Onondaga, some of the Christian captives were burned, including several women and their infant children. **
The confederacy was a hornet’s nest, buzzing with preparation, and fast pouring out its wrathful swarms306. The indomitable Le Moyne had gone again to the Mohawks, whence he wrote that two hundred of them had taken the war-path against the Algonquins of Canada; and, a little later, that all were gone but women, children, and old men. A great
* Lettre de Ragueneau au R. P. Provincial, 9 Ao?t, 1657
(Rel., 1657).
** Ibid., 21 Ao?t, 1658 (Rel., 1658).
war-party of twelve hundred Iroquois from all the five cantons was to advance into Canada in the direction of the Ottawa. The settlements on the St. Lawrence were infested with prowling warriors, who killed the Indian allies of the French, and plundered the French themselves, whom they treated with an insufferable insolence307; for they felt themselves masters of the situation, and knew that the Onondaga colony was in their power. Near Montreal they killed three Frenchmen. “They approach like foxes,” writes a Jesuit, “attack like lions, and disappear like birds.” Charny, fortunately, had resigned the government in despair, in order to turn priest, and the brave soldier Aillebout had taken his place. He caused twelve of the Iroquois to be seized and held as hostages. This seemed to increase their fury. An embassy came to Quebec and demanded the release of the hostages, but were met with a sharp reproof308 and a flat refusal.
At the mission on Lake Onondaga the crisis was drawing near. The unbridled young warriors, whose capricious lawlessness often set at naught309 the monitions of their crafty310 elders, killed wantonly at various times thirteen Christian Hurons, captives at Onondaga. Ominous311 reports reached the ears of the colonists. They heard of a secret council at which their death was decreed. Again, they heard that they were to be surprised and captured, that the Iroquois in force were then to descend198 upon Canada, lay waste the outlying settlements, and torture them, the colonists, in sight of their countrymen, by which they hoped to extort312 what terms they pleased. At length, a dying Onondaga, recently converted and baptized, confirmed the rumors313, and revealed the whole plot.
It was to take effect before the spring opened; but the hostages in the hands of Aillebout embarrassed the conspirators314 and caused delay. Messengers were sent in haste to call in the priests from the detached missions, and all the colonists, fifty-three in number, were soon gathered at their fortified house on the lake. Their situation was frightful. Fate hung over them by a hair, and escape seemed hopeless. Of Du Puys’s ten soldiers, nine wished to desert, but the attempt would have been fatal. A throng141 of Onondaga warriors were day and night on the watch, bivouacked around the house. Some of them had built their huts of bark before the gate, and here, with calm, impassive faces, they lounged and smoked their pipes; or, wrapped in their blankets, strolled about the yards and outhouses, attentive315 to all that passed. Their behavior was very friendly. The Jesuits, themselves adepts316 in dissimulation, were amazed at the depth of their duplicity; for the conviction had been forced upon them that some of the chiefs had nursed their treachery from the first. In this extremity317 Du Puys and the Jesuits showed an admirable coolness, and among them devised a plan of escape, critical and full of doubt, but not devoid318 of hope.
First, they must provide means of transportation; next, they must contrive301 to use them undis covered. They had eight canoes, all of which combined would not hold half their company. Over the mission-house was a large loft319 or garret, and here the carpenters were secretly set at work to construct two large and light flat-boats, each capable of carrying fifteen men. The task was soon finished. The most difficult part of their plan remained.
There was a beastly superstition320 prevalent among the Hurons, the Iroquois, and other tribes. It consisted of a “medicine” or mystic feast, in which it was essential that the guests should devour321 every thing set before them, however inordinate322 in quantity, unless absolved323 from duty by the person in whose behalf the solemnity was ordained324; he, on his part, taking no share in the banquet. So grave was the obligation, and so strenuously325 did the guests fulfil it, that even their ostrich326 digestion327 was sometimes ruined past redemption by the excess of this benevolent328 gluttony. These festins à manger tout329 had been frequently denounced as diabolical330 by the Jesuits, during their mission among the Hurons; but now, with a pliancy331 of conscience as excusable in this case as in any other, they resolved to set aside their scruples332, although, judged from their point of view, they were exceedingly well founded.
Among the French was a young man who had been adopted by an Iroquois chief, and who spoke the language fluently. He now told his Indian father that it had been revealed to him in a dream that he would soon die unless the spirits were appeased333 by one of these magic feasts. Dreams were the oracles334 of the Iroquois, and woe335 to those who slighted them. A day was named for the sacred festivity. The fathers killed their hogs336 to meet, the occasion, and, that nothing might be wanting, they ransacked337 their stores for all that might give piquancy338 to the entertainment. It took place in the evening of the 20th of March, apparently339 in a large enclosure outside the palisade surrounding the mission-house. Here, while blazing fires or glaring pine-knots shed their glow on the wild assemblage, Frenchmen and Iroquois joined in the dance, or vied with each other in games of agility340 and skill. The politic fathers offered prizes to the winners, and the Indians entered with zest341 into the sport, the better, perhaps, to hide their treachery and hoodwink their intended victims; for they little suspected that a subtlety342, deeper this time than their own, was at work to countermine them. Here, too, were the French musicians; and drum, trumpet343, and cymbal344 lent their clangor to the din26 of shouts and laughter. Thus the evening wore on, till at length the serious labors345 of the feast began. The kettles were brought in, and their steaming contents ladled into the wooden bowls which each provident346 guest had brought with him. Seated gravely in a ring, they fell to their work. It was a point of high conscience not to flinch347 from duty on these solemn occasions; and though they might burn the young man to-morrow, they would gorge348 themselves like vultures in his behoof to-day.
Meantime, while the musicians strained their lungs and their arms to drown all other sounds, a band of anxious Frenchmen, in the darkness of the cloudy night, with cautious tread and bated breath, carried the boats from the rear of the mission-house down to the border of the lake. It was near eleven o’clock. The miserable349 guests were choking with repletion350. They prayed the young Frenchman to dispense351 them from further surfeit352. “Will you suffer me to die?” he asked, in piteous tones. They bent to their task again, but Nature soon reached her utmost limit; and they sat helpless as a conventicle of gorged353 turkey-buzzards, without the power possessed by those unseemly birds to rid themselves of the burden. “That will do,” said the young man; “you have eaten enough; my life is saved. Now you can sleep till we come in the morning to waken you for prayers.” * And one of his companions played soft airs on a violin to lull them to repose354. Soon all were asleep, or in a lethargy akin33 to sleep. The few remaining Frenchmen now silently withdrew and cautiously descended to the shore, where their comrades, already embarked, lay on their oars anxiously awaiting them. Snow was falling fast as they pushed out upon the murky355 waters. The ice of the winter had broken up, but recent frosts had glazed356 the surface with a thin crust. The two boats led the way, and the canoes followed in their wake, while men in the bows of the foremost boat broke the ice with clubs as they advanced. They reached
* Lettre de Marie de l'Incarnation a son fils, 4 Octobre,
1658.
the outlet357 and rowed swiftly down the dark current of the Oswego. When day broke, Lake Onondaga was far behind, and around them was the leafless, lifeless forest.
When the Indians woke in the morning, dull and stupefied from their nightmare slumbers358, they were astonished at the silence that reigned in the mission-house. They looked through the palisade. Nothing was stirring but a bevy359 of hens clucking and scratching in the snow, and one or two dogs imprisoned360 in the house and barking to be set free The Indians waited for some time, then climbed the palisade, burst in the doors, and found the house empty. Their amazement361 was unbounded. How, without canoes, could the French have escaped by water? and how else could they escape? The snow which had fallen during the night completely hid their footsteps. A superstitious awe192 seized the Iroquois. They thought that the “black-robes” and their flock had flown off through the air.
Meanwhile the fugitives362 pushed their flight with the energy of terror, passed in safety the rapids of the Oswego, crossed Lake Ontario, and descended the St. Lawrence with the loss of three men drowned in the rapids. On the 3d of April they reached Montreal, and on the 23d arrived at Quebec. They had saved their lives; but the mission of Onondaga was a miserable failure. *
* On the Onondaga mission, the authorities are Marie de
l'incarnation,
Lettres Historiques, and Relations des Jésuites, 1657 and
1658, where the story is told at length, accompanied with
several interesting letters and journals. Chaumonok in his
Autobiographie, speaks only of the
Seneca mission, and refers to the Relations for the rest.
Dollier de Casson, in his Histoire du Montréal, mentions
the arrival of the fugitives at that place, the sight of
which, he adds complacently363, cured them of their fright. The
Journal des Supérieurs des Jésuites chronicles with its
usual brevity the ruin of the mission and the return of the
party to Quebec.
The Jesuits, in their account, say nothing of the
superstitious character of the feast. It is Marie de
l’Incarnation who lets out the secret. The Jesuit
Charlevoix, much to his credit, repeats the story without
reserve.
of soldiers, made of straw, in the fort, to deceive the
Indians. He adds that the Jesuits found very little sympathy
at Quebec.
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kidnappers
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| n.拐子，绑匪( kidnapper的名词复数 ) | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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penance
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| n.（赎罪的）惩罪 | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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inveterate
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| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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jeopardy
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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infesting
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| v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的现在分词 )；遍布于 | |
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warrior
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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biding
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| v.等待，停留( bide的现在分词 )；居住；（过去式用bided）等待；面临 | |
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26
din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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27
artifice
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| n.妙计，高明的手段；狡诈，诡计 | |
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28
lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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29
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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30
plundering
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的现在分词 ) | |
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31
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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32
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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33
akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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34
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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35
rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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36
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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37
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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38
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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39
defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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40
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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41
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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42
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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43
votaries
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| n.信徒( votary的名词复数 )；追随者；（天主教）修士；修女 | |
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44
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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45
sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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46
maxim
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| n.格言，箴言 | |
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47
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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48
infested
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| adj.为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于 | |
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49
beleaguered
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| adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰 | |
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50
overtures
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| 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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51
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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52
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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53
plied
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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54
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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55
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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56
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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57
pillage
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| v.抢劫；掠夺；n.抢劫，掠夺；掠夺物 | |
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58
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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60
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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61
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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62
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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63
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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64
thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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65
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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66
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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67
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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68
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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69
waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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71
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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72
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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73
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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74
broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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75
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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76
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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77
lodges
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| v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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78
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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79
wry
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| adj.讽刺的；扭曲的 | |
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80
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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81
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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82
imp
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| n.顽童 | |
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83
bereft
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| adj.被剥夺的 | |
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84
attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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85
greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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86
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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87
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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88
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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89
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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90
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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91
fickleness
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| n.易变；无常；浮躁；变化无常 | |
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92
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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93
politic
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| adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政 | |
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94
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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95
impunity
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| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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96
conquerors
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| 征服者，占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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97
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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98
pounce
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| n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意 | |
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99
covertly
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| adv.偷偷摸摸地 | |
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100
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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101
dissimulation
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| n.掩饰，虚伪，装糊涂 | |
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102
tyrants
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| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
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103
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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104
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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105
dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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106
kindle
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| v.点燃，着火 | |
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107
temerity
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| n.鲁莽，冒失 | |
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108
annexed
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| [法] 附加的，附属的 | |
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109
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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110
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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111
envoy
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| n.使节，使者，代表，公使 | |
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112
versed
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| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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113
redoubtable
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| adj.可敬的；可怕的 | |
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114
bastard
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| n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子 | |
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115
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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116
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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117
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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118
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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119
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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120
inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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121
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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122
smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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123
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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124
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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125
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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126
abounded
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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127
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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128
elk
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| n.麋鹿 | |
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129
defiling
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| v.玷污( defile的现在分词 )；污染；弄脏；纵列行进 | |
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130
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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131
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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132
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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133
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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134
misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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135
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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136
maize
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| n.玉米 | |
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137
pulp
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| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
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138
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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139
instructors
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| 指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 ) | |
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140
squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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141
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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142
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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143
invoking
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| v.援引( invoke的现在分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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144
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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145
orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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146
orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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147
harangue
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| n.慷慨冗长的训话，言辞激烈的讲话 | |
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148
hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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149
hatchets
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| n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 )；恶毒攻击；诽谤；休战 | |
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150
metaphorically
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| adv. 用比喻地 | |
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151
hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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152
horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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153
extermination
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| n.消灭，根绝 | |
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154
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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155
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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156
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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157
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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158
provocations
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| n.挑衅( provocation的名词复数 )；激怒；刺激；愤怒的原因 | |
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159
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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160
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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161
isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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162
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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163
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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164
proffer
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| v.献出，赠送；n.提议，建议 | |
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165
indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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166
feigning
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| 假装，伪装( feign的现在分词 )； 捏造（借口、理由等） | |
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167
raved
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| v.胡言乱语( rave的过去式和过去分词 )；愤怒地说；咆哮；痴心地说 | |
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168
balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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169
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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170
miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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171
fluency
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| n.流畅，雄辩，善辩 | |
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172
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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173
intrude
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| vi.闯入；侵入；打扰，侵扰 | |
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174
auditors
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| 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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175
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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176
jubilation
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| n.欢庆，喜悦 | |
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177
abstain
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| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
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178
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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179
metaphors
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| 隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 ) | |
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180
enraptured
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| v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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181
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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182
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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183
stoic
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| n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者 | |
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184
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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185
follies
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| 罪恶，时事讽刺剧； 愚蠢，蠢笨，愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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186
bedlam
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| n.混乱，骚乱；疯人院 | |
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187
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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188
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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189
jealousies
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| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
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190
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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191
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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192
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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193
clogged
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| （使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞 | |
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194
sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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195
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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196
toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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197
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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198
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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199
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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200
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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201
martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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202
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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203
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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204
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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205
destitution
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| n.穷困，缺乏，贫穷 | |
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206
pivot
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| v.在枢轴上转动；装枢轴，枢轴；adj.枢轴的 | |
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207
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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208
rekindled
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| v.使再燃( rekindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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209
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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210
mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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211
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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212
domains
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| n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产 | |
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213
benedictions
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| n.祝福( benediction的名词复数 )；（礼拜结束时的）赐福祈祷；恩赐；（大写）（罗马天主教）祈求上帝赐福的仪式 | |
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214
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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215
receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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216
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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217
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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218
wards
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| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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219
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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220
wreak
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| v.发泄；报复 | |
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221
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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222
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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223
feigned
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| a.假装的，不真诚的 | |
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224
ambushed
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| v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 )；埋伏着 | |
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225
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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226
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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227
plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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228
bullied
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| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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229
sylvan
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| adj.森林的 | |
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230
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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231
pillaging
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| v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的现在分词 ) | |
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232
reprisal
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| n.报复，报仇，报复性劫掠 | |
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233
lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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234
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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235
spectral
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| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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236
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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237
cranberries
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| n.越橘( cranberry的名词复数 ) | |
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238
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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239
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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240
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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241
salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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242
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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243
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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244
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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245
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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246
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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247
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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248
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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249
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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250
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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251
harangues
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| n.高谈阔论的长篇演讲( harangue的名词复数 )v.高谈阔论( harangue的第三人称单数 ) | |
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252
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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253
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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254
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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255
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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256
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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257
reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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258
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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259
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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260
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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261
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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262
plumed
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| 饰有羽毛的 | |
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263
defiled
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| v.玷污( defile的过去式和过去分词 )；污染；弄脏；纵列行进 | |
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264
throngs
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| n.人群( throng的名词复数 )v.成群，挤满( throng的第三人称单数 ) | |
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265
conspired
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| 密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
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266
sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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267
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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268
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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269
valor
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| n.勇气，英勇 | |
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270
toils
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| 网 | |
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271
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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272
avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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273
omnipotent
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| adj.全能的，万能的 | |
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274
exhortation
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| n.劝告，规劝 | |
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275
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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276
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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277
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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278
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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279
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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280
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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281
thwart
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| v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的) | |
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282
lodged
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| 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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283
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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284
reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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285
foretell
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| v.预言，预告，预示 | |
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286
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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287
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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288
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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289
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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290
engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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291
calumnies
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| n.诬蔑，诽谤，中伤（的话）( calumny的名词复数 ) | |
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292
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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293
eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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294
crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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295
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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296
portent
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| n.预兆；恶兆；怪事 | |
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297
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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298
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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299
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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300
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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301
contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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302
rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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303
repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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304
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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305
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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306
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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307
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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308
reproof
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| n.斥责，责备 | |
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309
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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310
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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311
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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312
extort
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| v.勒索，敲诈，强要 | |
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313
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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314
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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315
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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316
adepts
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| n.专家，能手( adept的名词复数 ) | |
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317
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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318
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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319
loft
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| n.阁楼，顶楼 | |
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320
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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321
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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322
inordinate
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| adj.无节制的；过度的 | |
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323
absolved
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| 宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责） | |
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324
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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325
strenuously
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| adv.奋发地，费力地 | |
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326
ostrich
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| n.鸵鸟 | |
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327
digestion
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| n.消化，吸收 | |
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328
benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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329
tout
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| v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱 | |
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330
diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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331
pliancy
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| n.柔软，柔顺 | |
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332
scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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333
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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334
oracles
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| 神示所( oracle的名词复数 )； 神谕； 圣贤； 哲人 | |
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335
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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336
hogs
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| n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人 | |
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337
ransacked
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| v.彻底搜查( ransack的过去式和过去分词 )；抢劫，掠夺 | |
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338
piquancy
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| n.辛辣，辣味，痛快 | |
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339
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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340
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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341
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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342
subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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343
trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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344
cymbal
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| n.铙钹 | |
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345
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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346
provident
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| adj.为将来做准备的，有先见之明的 | |
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347
flinch
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| v.畏缩，退缩 | |
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348
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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349
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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350
repletion
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| n.充满，吃饱 | |
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351
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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352
surfeit
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| v.使饮食过度；n.(食物)过量，过度 | |
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353
gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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354
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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355
murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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356
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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357
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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358
slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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359
bevy
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| n.一群 | |
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360
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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361
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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362
fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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363
complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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364
memoir
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| n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录 | |
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365
morale
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| n.道德准则，士气，斗志 | |
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366
effigies
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| n.（人的）雕像，模拟像，肖像( effigy的名词复数 ) | |
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