Denonville and the Senecas.
Treachery of Denonville ? Iroquois Generosity1 ? The Invading Army ? The Western Allies ? Plunder3 of English Traders ? Arrival of the Allies ? Scene at the French Camp ? March of Denonville ? Ambuscade ? Battle ? Victory ? The Seneca Babylon ? Imperfect Success.
A host of flat-boats filled with soldiers, and a host of Indian canoes, struggled against the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and slowly made their way to Fort Frontenac. Among the troops was La Hontan. When on his arrival he entered the gate of the fort, he saw a strange sight. A row of posts was planted across the area within, and to each post an Iroquois was tied by the neck, hands, and feet, "in such a way," says the indignant witness, "that he could neither sleep nor drive off the mosquitoes." A number of Indians attached to the expedition, all of whom were Christian4 converts from the mission villages, were amusing themselves by burning the fingers of these unfortunates in the bowls of their pipes, while the sufferers sang their death songs. La Hontan recognized one of them who, during his campaign with La Barre, had often feasted him in his wigwam; 140 and the sight so exasperated5 the young officer that he could scarcely refrain from thrashing the tormentors with his walking stick. [1]
[1] La Hontan, I. 93-95 (1709).
Though the prisoners were Iroquois, they were not those against whom the expedition was directed; nor had they, so far as appears, ever given the French any cause of complaint. They belonged to two neutral villages, called Kenté and Ganneious, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, forming a sort of colony, where the Sulpitians of Montreal had established a mission. [2] They hunted and fished for the garrison6 of the fort, and had been on excellent terms with it. Denonville, however, feared that they would report his movements to their relations across the lake; but this was not his chief motive7 for seizing them. Like La Barre before him, he had received orders from the court that, as the Iroquois were robust8 and strong, he should capture as many of them as possible, and send them to France as galley9 slaves. [3] The order, without doubt, referred to prisoners taken in war; but Denonville, aware that the hostile Iroquois were not easily caught, resolved to entrap10 their unsuspecting relatives.
[2] Ganneious or Ganéyout was on an arm of the lake a little west of the present town of Fredericksburg. Kenté or Quinte was on Quinte Bay.
[3] Le Roy à La Barre, 21 Juillet, 1684; Le Roy à Denonville et Champigny, 30 Mars, 1687.
The intendant Champigny accordingly proceeded to the fort in advance of the troops, and invited the neighboring Iroquois to a feast. They 141 came to the number of thirty men and about ninety women and children, whereupon they were surrounded and captured by the intendant's escort and the two hundred men of the garrison. The inhabitants of the village of Ganneious were not present; and one Perré, with a strong party of Canadians and Christian Indians, went to secure them. He acquitted12 himself of his errand with great address, and returned with eighteen warriors13 and about sixty women and children. Champigny's exertions14 did not end here. Learning that a party of Iroquois were peaceably fishing on an island in the St. Lawrence, he offered them also the hospitalities of Fort Frontenac; but they were too wary15 to be entrapped16. Four or five Iroquois were however caught by the troops on their way up the river. They were in two or more parties, and they all had with them their women and children, which was never the case with Iroquois on the war-path. Hence the assertion of Denonville, that they came with hostile designs, is very improbable. As for the last six months he had constantly urged them, by the lips of Lamberville, to visit him and smoke the pipe of peace, it is not unreasonable17 to suppose that these Indian families were on their way to the colony in consequence of his invitations. Among them were the son and brother of Big Mouth, who of late had been an advocate of peace; and, in order not to alienate18 him, these two were eventually set free. The other warriors were tied like the rest to stakes at the fort.
The whole number of prisoners thus secured 142 was fifty-one, sustained by such food as their wives were able to get for them. Of more than a hundred and fifty women and children captured with them, many died at the fort, partly from excitement and distress19, and partly from a pestilential disease. The survivors20 were all baptized, and then distributed among the mission villages in the colony. The men were sent to Quebec, where some of them were given up to their Christian relatives in the missions who had claimed them, and whom it was not expedient21 to offend; and the rest, after being baptized, were sent to France, to share with convicts and Huguenots the horrible slavery of the royal galleys22. [4]
[4] The authorities for the above are Denonville, Champigny, Abbé Belmont, Bishop23 Saint-Vallier, and the author of Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'année 1682.
Belmont, who accompanied the expedition, speaks of the affair with indignation, which was shared by many French officers. The bishop, on the other hand, mentions the success of the stratagem24 as a reward accorded by Heaven to the piety25 of Denonville. état Présent de l'église, 91, 92 (reprint, 1856).
Denonville's account, which is sufficiently26 explicit27, is contained in the long journal of the expedition which he sent to the court, and in several letters to the minister. Both Belmont and the author of the Recueil speak of the prisoners as having been "pris par11 l'appat d'un festin."
Mr. Shea, usually so exact, has been led into some error by confounding the different acts of this affair. By Denonville's official journal, it appears that, on the 19th June, Perré, by his order, captured several Indians on the St. Lawrence; that, on the 25th June, the governor, then at Rapide Plat on his way up the river, received a letter from Champigny, informing him that he had seized all the Iroquois near Fort Frontenac; and that, on the 3d July, Perré, whom Denonville had sent several days before to attack Ganneious, arrived with his prisoners.
Before reaching Fort Frontenac, Denonville, to his great relief, was joined by Lamberville, delivered from the peril28 to which the governor had exposed him. He owed his life to an act of magnanimity 143 on the part of the Iroquois, which does them signal honor. One of the prisoners at Fort Frontenac had contrived29 to escape, and, leaping sixteen feet to the ground from the window of a blockhouse, crossed the lake, and gave the alarm to his countrymen. Apparently30, it was from him that the Onondagas learned that the invitations of Onontio were a snare31; that he had entrapped their relatives, and was about to fall on their Seneca brethren with all the force of Canada. The Jesuit, whom they trusted and esteemed32, but who had been used as an instrument to beguile33 them, was summoned before a council of the chiefs. They were in a fury at the news; and Lamberville, as much astonished by it as they, expected instant death, when one of them is said to have addressed him to the following effect: "We know you too well to believe that you meant to betray us. We think that you have been deceived as well as we; and we are not unjust enough to punish you for the crime of others. But you are not safe here. When once our young men have sung the war-song, they will listen to nothing but their fury; and we shall not be able to save you." They gave him guides, and sent him by secret paths to meet the advancing army. [5]
[5] I have ventured to give this story on the sole authority of Charlevoix, for the contemporary writers are silent concerning it. Mr. Shea thinks that it involves a contradiction of date; but this is entirely34 due to confounding the capture of prisoners by Perré at Ganneious on July 3d with the capture by Champigny at Fort Frontenac about June 20th. Lamberville reached Denonville's camp, one day's journey from the fort, on the evening of the 29th. (Journal of Denonville.) This would 144 give four and a half days for news of the treachery to reach Onondaga, and four and a half days for the Jesuit to rejoin his countrymen.
Charlevoix, with his usual carelessness, says that the Jesuit Milet had also been used to lure35 the Iroquois into the snare, and that he was soon after captured by the Oneidas, and delivered by an Indian matron. Milet's captivity36 did not take place till 1689-90.
Again the fields about Fort Frontenac were covered with tents, camp-sheds, and wigwams. Regulars, militia37, and Indians, there were about two thousand men; and, besides these, eight hundred regulars just arrived from France had been left at Montreal to protect the settlers. [6] Fortune thus far had smiled on the enterprise, and she now gave Denonville a fresh proof of her favor. On the very day of his arrival, a canoe came from Niagara with news that a large body of allies from the west had reached that place three days before, and were waiting his commands. It was more than he had dared to hope. In the preceding autumn, he had ordered Tonty, commanding at the Illinois, and La Durantaye, commanding at Michillimackinac, to muster38 as many coureurs de bois and Indians as possible, and join him early in July at Niagara. The distances were vast, and the difficulties incalculable. In the eyes of the pious39 governor, their timely arrival was a manifest sign of the favor of Heaven. At Fort St. Louis, of the Illinois, Tonty had mustered40 sixteen Frenchmen and about two hundred Indians, whom he led across the country to Detroit; and here he found Du Lhut, La Forêt, and La Durantaye, with a large body of French 145 and Indians from the upper lakes. [7] It had been the work of the whole winter to induce these savages41 to move. Presents, persuasion42, and promises had not been spared; and while La Durantaye, aided by the Jesuit Engelran, labored43 to gain over the tribes of Michillimackinac, the indefatigable44 Nicolas Perrot was at work among those of the Mississippi and Lake Michigan. They were of a race unsteady as aspens and fierce as wild-cats, full of mutual45 jealousies46, without rulers, and without laws; for each was a law to himself. It was difficult to persuade them, and, when persuaded, scarcely possible to keep them so. Perrot, however, induced some of them to follow him to Michillimackinac, where many hundreds of Algonquin savages were presently gathered: a perilous47 crew, who changed their minds every day, and whose dancing, singing, and yelping48 might turn at any moment into war-whoops49 against each other or against their hosts, the French. The Hurons showed more stability; and La Durantaye was reasonably sure that some of them would follow him to the war, though it was clear that others were bent50 on allying themselves with the Senecas and the English. As for the Pottawatamies, Sacs, Ojibwas, Ottawas, and other Algonquin hordes51, no man could foresee what they would do. [8]
[6] Denonville. Champigny says 832 regulars, 930 militia, and 300 Indians. This was when the army left Montreal. More Indians afterwards joined it. Belmont says 1,800 French and Canadians and about 300 Indians.
[7] Tonty, Mémoire in Margry, Relations Inédites.
[8] The name of Ottawas, here used specifically, was often employed by the French as a generic52 term for the Algonquin tribes of the Great Lakes.
Suddenly a canoe arrived with news that a party of English traders was approaching. It will be 146 remembered that two bands of Dutch and English, under Rooseboom and McGregory, had prepared to set out together for Michillimackinac, armed with commissions from Dongan. They had rashly changed their plan, and parted company. Rooseboom took the lead, and McGregory followed some time after. Their hope was that, on reaching Michillimackinac, the Indians of the place, attracted by their cheap goods and their abundant supplies of rum, would declare for them and drive off the French; and this would probably have happened, but for the prompt action of La Durantaye. The canoes of Rooseboom, bearing twenty-nine whites and five Mohawks and Mohicans, were not far distant, when, amid a prodigious53 hubbub54, the French commander embarked55 to meet him with a hundred and twenty coureurs de bois. [9] Behind them followed a swarm56 of Indian canoes, whose occupants scarcely knew which side to take, but for the most part inclined to the English. Rooseboom and his men, however, naturally thought that they came to support the French; and, when La Durantaye bore down upon them with threats of instant death if they made the least resistance, they surrendered at once. The captors carried them in triumph to Michillimackinac, and gave their goods to the delighted Indians.
[9] Attestation57 of N. Harmentse and others of Rooseboom's party. N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 436. La Potherie says, three hundred.
"It is certain," wrote Denonville; "that, if the English had not been stopped and pillaged58, the Hurons and Ottawas would have revolted and cut 147 the throats of all our Frenchmen." [10] As it was, La Durantaye's exploit produced a revulsion of feeling, and many of the Indians consented to follow him. He lost no time in leading them down the lake to join Du Lhut at Detroit; and, when Tonty arrived, they all paddled for Niagara. On the way, they met McGregory with a party about equal to that of Rooseboom. He had with him a considerable number of Ottawa and Huron prisoners whom the Iroquois had captured, and whom he meant to return to their countrymen as a means of concluding the long projected triple alliance between the English, the Iroquois, and the tribes of the lakes. This bold scheme was now completely crushed. All the English were captured and carried to Niagara, whence they and their luckless precursors59 were sent prisoners to Quebec.
[10] Denonville au Ministre, 25 Ao?t, 1687.
La Durantaye and his companions, with a hundred and eighty coureurs de bois and four hundred Indians, waited impatiently at Niagara for orders from the governor. A canoe despatched in haste from Fort Frontenac soon appeared; and they were directed to repair at once to the rendezvous60 at Irondequoit Bay, on the borders of the Seneca country. [11]
[11] The above is drawn61 from papers in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 436, IX. 324, 336, 346, 405; Saint-Vallier, état Présent, 92; Denonville, Journal; Belmont, Histoire du Canada; La Potherie, II. chap. xvi; La Hontan. I. 96. Colden's account is confused and incorrect.
Denonville was already on his way thither62. On the fourth of July, he had embarked at Fort Frontenac with four hundred bateaux and canoes, 148 crossed the foot of Lake Ontario, and moved westward63 along the southern shore. The weather was rough, and six days passed before he descried64 the low headlands of Irondequoit Bay. Far off on the glimmering65 water, he saw a multitude of canoes advancing to meet him. It was the flotilla of La Durantaye. Good management and good luck had so disposed it that the allied66 bands, concentring from points more than a thousand miles distant, reached the rendezvous on the same day. This was not all. The Ottawas of Michillimackinac, who refused to follow La Durantaye, had changed their minds the next morning, embarked in a body, paddled up the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, crossed to Toronto, and joined the allies at Niagara. White and red, Denonville now had nearly three thousand men under his command. [12]
[12] Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada depuis 1682; Captain Duplessis's Plan for the Defence of Canada, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 447.
All were gathered on the low point of land that separates Irondequoit Bay from Lake Ontario. "Never," says an eye-witness, "had Canada seen such a sight; and never, perhaps, will she see such a sight again. Here was the camp of the regulars from France, with the general's head-quarters; the camp of the four battalions67 of Canadian militia, commanded by the noblesse of the country; the camp of the Christian Indians; and, farther on, a swarm of savages of every nation. Their features were different, and so were their manners, their weapons, their decorations, and their dances. They sang and whooped69 and harangued70 in every accent 149 and tongue. Most of them wore nothing but horns on their heads, and the tails of beasts behind their backs. Their faces were painted red or green, with black or white spots; their ears and noses were hung with ornaments71 of iron; and their naked bodies were daubed with figures of various sorts of animals." [13]
[13] The first part of the extract is from Belmont; the second, from Saint-Vallier.
These were the allies from the upper lakes. The enemy, meanwhile, had taken alarm. Just after the army arrived, three Seneca scouts72 called from the edge of the woods, and demanded what they meant to do. "To fight you, you blockheads," answered a Mohawk Christian attached to the French. A volley of bullets was fired at the scouts; but they escaped, and carried the news to their villages. [14] Many of the best warriors were absent. Those that remained, four hundred or four hundred and fifty by their own accounts, and eight hundred by that of the French, mustered in haste; and, though many of them were mere73 boys, they sent off the women and children, hid their most valued possessions, burned their chief town, and prepared to meet the invaders74.
[14] Information received from several Indians, in N. Y. Col. Docs., III. 444.
On the twelfth, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Denonville began his march, leaving four hundred men in a hastily built fort to guard the bateaux and canoes. Troops, officers, and Indians, all carried their provisions at their backs. Some of the Christian Mohawks guided them; but guides were scarcely needed, for a broad Indian trail led 150 from the bay to the great Seneca town, twenty-two miles southward. They marched three leagues through the open forests of oak, and encamped for the night. In the morning, the heat was intense. The men gasped75 in the dead and sultry air of the woods, or grew faint in the pitiless sun, as they waded76 waist-deep through the rank grass of the narrow intervales. They passed safely through two dangerous defiles77, and, about two in the afternoon, began to enter a third. Dense79 forests covered the hills on either hand. La Durantaye with Tonty and his cousin Du Lhut led the advance, nor could all Canada have supplied three men better for the work. Each led his band of coureurs de bois, white Indians, without discipline, and scarcely capable of it, but brave and accustomed to the woods. On their left were the Iroquois converts from the missions of Saut St. Louis and the Mountain of Montreal, fighting under the influence of their ghostly prompters against their own countrymen. On the right were the pagan Indians from the west. The woods were full of these painted spectres, grotesquely80 horrible in horns and tail; and among them flitted the black robe of Father Engelran, the Jesuit of Michillimackinac. Nicolas Perrot and two other bush-ranging Frenchmen were assigned to command them, but in fact they obeyed no man. These formed the vanguard, eight or nine hundred in all, under an excellent officer, Callières, governor of Montreal. Behind came the main body under Denonville, each of the four battalions of regulars 151 alternating with a battalion68 of Canadians. Some of the regulars wore light armor, while the Canadians were in plain attire81 of coarse cloth or buckskin. Denonville, oppressed by the heat, marched in his shirt. "It is a rough life," wrote the marquis, "to tramp afoot through the woods, carrying one's own provisions in a haversack, devoured82 by mosquitoes, and faring no better than a mere soldier." [15] With him was the Chevalier de Vaudreuil, who had just arrived from France in command of the eight hundred men left to guard the colony, and who, eager to take part in the campaign, had pushed forward alone to join the army. Here, too, were the Canadian seigniors at the head of their vassals83, Berthier, La Valterie, Granville, Longueuil, and many more. A guard of rangers84 and Indians brought up the rear.
[15] Denonville au Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687.
Scouts thrown out in front ran back with the report that they had reached the Seneca clearings, and had seen no more dangerous enemy than three or four women in the cornfields. This was a device of the Senecas to cheat the French into the belief that the inhabitants were still in the town. It had the desired effect. The vanguard pushed rapidly forward, hoping to surprise the place, and ignorant that, behind the ridge85 of thick forests on their right, among a tangled86 growth of beech-trees in the gorge87 of a brook88, three hundred ambushed89 warriors lay biding90 their time.
Hurrying forward through the forest, they left the main body behind, and soon reached the end 152 of the defile78. The woods were still dense on their left and front; but on their right lay a great marsh91, covered with alder92 thickets93 and rank grass. Suddenly the air was filled with yells, and a rapid though distant fire was opened from the thickets and the forest. Scores of painted savages, stark94 naked, some armed with swords and some with hatchets95, leaped screeching96 from their ambuscade, and rushed against the van. Almost at the same moment a burst of whoops and firing sounded in the defile behind. It was the ambushed three hundred supporting the onset97 of their countrymen in front; but they had made a fatal mistake. Deceived by the numbers of the vanguard, they supposed it to be the whole army, never suspecting that Denonville was close behind with sixteen hundred men. It was a surprise on both sides. So dense was the forest that the advancing battalions could see neither the enemy nor each other. Appalled98 by the din2 of whoops and firing, redoubled by the echoes of the narrow valley, the whole army was seized with something like a panic. Some of the officers, it is said, threw themselves on the ground in their fright. There were a few moments of intense bewilderment. The various corps99 became broken and confused, and moved hither and thither without knowing why. Denonville behaved with great courage. He ran, sword in hand, to where the uproar100 was greatest, ordered the drums to beat the charge, turned back the militia of Berthier who were trying to escape, and commanded them and all others whom he met to fire 153 on whatever looked like an enemy. He was bravely seconded by Callières, La Valterie, and several other officers. The Christian Iroquois fought well from the first, leaping from tree to tree, and exchanging shots and defiance101 with their heathen countrymen; till the Senecas, seeing themselves confronted by numbers that seemed endless, abandoned the field, after heavy loss, carrying with them many of their dead and all of their wounded. [16]
[16] For authorities, see note at the end of the chapter. The account of Charlevoix is contradicted at several points by the contemporary writers.
Denonville made no attempt to pursue. He had learned the dangers of this blind warfare102 of the woods; and he feared that the Senecas would waylay103 him again in the labyrinth104 of bushes that lay between him and the town. "Our troops," he says, "were all so overcome by the extreme heat and the long march that we were forced to remain where we were till morning. We had the pain of witnessing the usual cruelties of the Indians, who cut the dead bodies into quarters, like butchers' meat, to put into their kettles, and opened most of them while still warm to drink the blood. Our rascally105 Ottawas particularly distinguished106 themselves by these barbarities, as well as by cowardice107; for they made off in the fight. We had five or six men killed on the spot, and about twenty wounded, among whom was Father Engelran, who was badly hurt by a gun-shot. Some prisoners who escaped from the Senecas tell us that they lost forty men killed outright108, twenty-five of whom we saw butchered. 154 One of the escaped prisoners saw the rest buried, and he saw also more than sixty very dangerously wounded." [17]
[17] Denonville au Ministre, 25 Ao?t, 1687. In his journal, written afterwards, he says that the Senecas left twenty-seven dead on the field, and carried off twenty more, besides upwards109 of sixty mortally wounded.
In the morning, the troops advanced in order of battle through a marsh covered with alders110 and tall grass, whence they had no sooner emerged than, says Abbé Belmont, "we began to see the famous Babylon of the Senecas, where so many crimes have been committed, so much blood spilled, and so many men burned. It was a village or town of bark, on the top of a hill. They had burned it a week before. We found nothing in it but the graveyard111 and the graves, full of snakes and other creatures; a great mask, with teeth and eyes of brass112, and a bearskin drawn over it, with which they performed their conjurations." [18] The fire had also spared a number of huge receptacles of bark, still filled with the last season's corn; while the fields around were covered with the growing crop, ripening113 in the July sun. There were hogs114, too, in great number; for the Iroquois did not share the antipathy115 with which Indians are apt to regard that unsavory animal, and from which certain philosophers have argued their descent from the Jews.
[18] Belmont. A few words are added from Saint-Vallier.
The soldiers killed the hogs, burned the old corn, and hacked116 down the new with their swords. Next they advanced to an abandoned Seneca fort on a hill half a league distant, and burned it, with 155 all that it contained. Ten days were passed in the work of havoc117. Three neighboring villages were levelled, and all their fields laid waste. The amount of corn destroyed was prodigious. Denonville reckons it at the absurdly exaggerated amount of twelve hundred thousand bushels.
The Senecas, laden118 with such of their possessions as they could carry off, had fled to their confederates in the east; and Denonville did not venture to pursue them. His men, feasting without stint119 on green corn and fresh pork, were sickening rapidly, and his Indian allies were deserting him. "It is a miserable120 business," he wrote, "to command savages, who, as soon as they have knocked an enemy in the head, ask for nothing but to go home and carry with them the scalp, which they take off like a skull-cap. You cannot believe what trouble I had to keep them till the corn was cut."
On the twenty-fourth, he withdrew, with all his army, to the fortified121 post at Irondequoit Bay, whence he proceeded to Niagara, in order to accomplish his favorite purpose of building a fort there. The troops were set at work, and a stockade122 was planted on the point of land at the eastern angle between the River Niagara and Lake Ontario, the site of the ruined fort built by La Salle nine years before. [19] Here he left a hundred men, under the Chevalier de Troyes, and, embarking123 with the rest of the army, descended124 to Montreal.
[19] Procès-verbal de la Prise de Possession de Niagara, 31 Juillet, 1687. There are curious errors of date in this document regarding the proceedings125 of La Salle.
The campaign was but half a success. Joined 156 to the capture of the English traders on the lakes, it had, indeed, prevented the defection of the western Indians, and in some slight measure restored their respect for the French, of whom, nevertheless, one of them was heard to say that they were good for nothing but to make war on hogs and corn. As for the Senecas, they were more enraged126 than hurt. They could rebuild their bark villages in a few weeks; and, though they had lost their harvest, their confederates would not let them starve. [20] A converted Iroquois had told the governor before his departure that, if he overset a wasps127' nest, he must crush the wasps, or they would sting him. Denonville left the wasps alive.
[20] The statement of some later writers, that many of the Senecas died during the following winter in consequence of the loss of their corn, is extremely doubtful. Captain Duplessis, in his Plan for the Defence of Canada, 1690, declares that not one of them perished of hunger.
Denonville's campaign against the Senecas.—The chief authorities on this matter are the journal of Denonville, of which there is a translation in the Colonial Documents of New York, IX.; the letters of Denonville to the Minister; the état Présent de l'église de la Colonie Fran?aise, by Bishop Saint-Vallier; the Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, tant des Anglais que des Iroquois, depuis l'année 1682; and the excellent account by Abbé Belmont in his chronicle called Histoire du Canada. To these may be added La Hontan, Tonty, Nicolas Perrot, La Potherie, and the Senecas examined before the authorities of Albany, whose statements are printed in the Colonial Documents, III. These are the original sources. Charlevoix drew his account from a portion of them. It is inexact, and needs the correction of his learned annotator128, Mr. Shea. Colden, Smith, and other English writers follow La Hontan.
The researches of Mr. O. H. Marshall, of Buffalo129, have left no reasonable doubt as to the scene of the battle, and the site of the neighboring town. The Seneca ambuscade was on the marsh and 157 the hills immediately north and west of the present village of Victor; and their chief town, called Gannagaro by Denonville, was on the top of Boughton's Hill, about a mile and a quarter distant. Immense quantities of Indian remains130 were formerly131 found here, and many are found to this day. Charred132 corn has been turned up in abundance by the plough, showing that the place was destroyed by fire. The remains of the fort burned by the French are still plainly visible on a hill a mile and a quarter from the ancient town. A plan of it will be found in Squier's Aboriginal133 Monuments of New York. The site of the three other Seneca towns destroyed by Denonville, and called Totiakton, Gannondata, and Gannongarae, can also be identified. See Marshall, in Collections N. Y. Hist. Soc., 2d Series, II. Indian traditions of historical events are usually almost worthless; but the old Seneca chief Dyunehogawah, or "John Blacksmith," who was living a few years ago at the Tonawanda reservation, recounted to Mr. Marshall with remarkable134 accuracy the story of the battle as handed down from his ancestors who lived at Gannagaro, close to the scene of action. Gannagaro was the Canagorah of Wentworth Greenalgh's Journal. The old Seneca, on being shown a map of the locality, placed his finger on the spot where the fight took place, and which was long known to the Senecas by the name of Dyagodiyu, or "The Place of a Battle." It answers in the most perfect manner to the French contemporary descriptions.
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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exasperated
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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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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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galley
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| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
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entrap
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| v.以网或陷阱捕捉，使陷入圈套 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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13
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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15
wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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entrapped
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| v.使陷入圈套，使入陷阱( entrap的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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18
alienate
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| vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等) | |
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19
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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20
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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21
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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22
galleys
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| n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房 | |
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23
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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24
stratagem
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| n.诡计，计谋 | |
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25
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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26
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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27
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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28
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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29
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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30
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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31
snare
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| n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑 | |
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esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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33
beguile
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| vt.欺骗，消遣 | |
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34
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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35
lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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36
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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37
militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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38
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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39
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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40
mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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41
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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42
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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43
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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44
indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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45
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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46
jealousies
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| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
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47
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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48
yelping
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| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
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49
whoops
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| int.呼喊声 | |
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50
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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51
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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52
generic
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| adj.一般的，普通的，共有的 | |
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53
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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54
hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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55
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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56
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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57
attestation
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| n.证词 | |
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58
pillaged
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| v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
precursors
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| n.先驱( precursor的名词复数 )；先行者；先兆；初期形式 | |
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60
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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61
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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62
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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63
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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64
descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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65
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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66
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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67
battalions
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| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
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68
battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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69
whooped
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| 叫喊( whoop的过去式和过去分词 )； 高声说； 唤起 | |
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70
harangued
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| v.高谈阔论( harangue的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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72
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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73
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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74
invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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75
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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76
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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77
defiles
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| v.玷污( defile的第三人称单数 )；污染；弄脏；纵列行进 | |
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78
defile
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| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
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79
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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80
grotesquely
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| adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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81
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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82
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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83
vassals
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| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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84
rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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85
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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86
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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87
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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88
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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89
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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90
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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91
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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92
alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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93
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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94
stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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95
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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96
screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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97
onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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98
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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99
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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100
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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101
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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102
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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103
waylay
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| v.埋伏，伏击 | |
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104
labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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105
rascally
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| adj. 无赖的，恶棍的 adv. 无赖地，卑鄙地 | |
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106
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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107
cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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108
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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109
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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110
alders
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| n.桤木( alder的名词复数 ) | |
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111
graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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112
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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113
ripening
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的现在分词 )；熟化；熟成 | |
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114
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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115
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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116
hacked
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| 生气 | |
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117
havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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118
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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119
stint
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| v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
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120
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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121
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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122
stockade
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| n.栅栏，围栏；v.用栅栏防护 | |
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123
embarking
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| 乘船( embark的现在分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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124
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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125
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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126
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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127
wasps
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| 黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人 | |
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128
annotator
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| n.注释者 | |
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129
buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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130
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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131
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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132
charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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133
aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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