This savage seemed to regard him with feelings of kindness.  He offered him some biscuits, but finding that the wound in his cheek and the blow he had received on the jaw prevented him from chewing, he soaked them in water till they could be swallowed easily.  Yet, despite his kindness, he took extraordinary care that his prisoner should not escape.  When the camp was made, he forced the captive to lie on the ground, stretched each arm at full length, and bound it to a young tree, and fastened his legs in the same manner.  Then a number of long and slender poles were cut and laid across his body from head to foot, on the ends of which lay several of the Indians.

Under such circumstances escape could not even be thought of, nor was a moment’s comfort possible.  The night seemed infinitely extended, the only relief that came to the prisoner, as he himself relates, being the reflection of what a ludicrous subject the group, of which he was the central figure, would have made for a painter.

The next day he was given a blanket and moccasins, and allowed to march without being loaded with packs.  A little bear’s meat was furnished him, whose juice he was able to suck.  At night the party reached Ticonderoga, where he was placed in charge of a French guard, and his sufferings came to an end.  The savages manifested their chagrin at his escape by insulting grimaces and threatening gestures, but were not allowed to offer him any further indignity or violence.  After an examination by the Marquis de Montcalm, who was in command at Ticonderoga, he was sent to Montreal, under charge of a French officer, who treated him in a humane manner.

Major Putnam was a frightful object on reaching Montreal, the little clothing allowed him being miserably dirty and ragged, his beard and hair dishevelled, his legs torn by thorns and briers, his face gashed, blood-stained, and swollen.  Colonel Schuyler, a prisoner there, beheld his plight with deep commiseration, supplied him with clothing and money, and did his utmost to alleviate his condition.

When shortly afterwards an exchange of prisoners was being made, in which Colonel Schuyler was to be included, he, fearing that Putnam would be indefinitely held should his importance as a partisan leader become known, used a skilful artifice to obtain his release.  Speaking to the governor with great politeness and seeming indifference of purpose, he remarked,—­

“There is an old man here who is a provincial major.  He is very desirous to be at home with his wife and children.  He can do no good here, nor anywhere else.  I believe your excellency had better keep some of the young men, who have no wives or children to care for, and let this old fellow go home with me.”

His artifice was effective.  Putnam was released, and left Montreal in company with his generous friend.  He took further part in the war, at the end of which, at the Indian village of Cochuawaga, near Montreal, he met again the Indian whose prisoner he had been.  The kindly savage was delighted to see him again, and entertained him with all the friendship and hospitality at his command.  At a later date, when Putnam took part in the Pontiac war, he met again this old chief, who was now an ally of the English, and who marched side by side with his former prisoner to do battle with the ancient enemies of his tribe.