to Onondaga for adoption into the Confederacy.  These Hurons were Christians, and the two Jesuits, Paul Ragueneau and Francois du Peron, were appointed to accompany them to their new abode.  Twenty young Frenchmen joined the party to seek their fortunes at the new settlement; but a man was needed who could speak Iroquois.  Glad to repay his debt to the Jesuits, young Radisson volunteered to go as a donne, that is, a lay helper vowed to gratuitous services.

It was midsummer before all preparations had been made.  On July 26, the party of two hundred, made up of twenty Frenchmen, eighty Iroquois, and a hundred Hurons, filed out of the gates of Montreal, and winding round the foot of the mountain followed a trail through the forest that took them past the Lachine Rapids.  The Onondaga voyageurs carried the long birch canoes inverted on their shoulders, two Indians at each end; and the other Iroquois trotted over the rocks with the Frenchmen’s baggage on their backs.  The day was hot, the portage long and slippery with dank moisture.  The Huron children fagged and fell behind.  At nightfall, thirty of the haughty Iroquois lost patience, and throwing down their bundles made off for Quebec with the avowed purpose of raiding the Algonquins.  On the way, they paused to scalp three Frenchmen at Montreal, cynically explaining that if the French persisted in taking Algonquins into their arms, the white men need not be surprised if the blow aimed at an Algonquin sometimes struck a Frenchman.  That act opened the eyes of the French to the real meaning of the peace made with the Iroquois; but the little colony was beyond recall.  To insure the safety of the French among the Onondagas, the French governor at Quebec seized a dozen Iroquois and kept them as hostages of good conduct.

Meanwhile, all was confusion on Lake St. Louis, where the last band of colonists had encamped.  The Iroquois had cast the Frenchmen’s baggage on the rocks and refused to carry it farther.  Leaving the whites all embarrassed, the Onondagas hurriedly embarked the Hurons and paddled quickly out of sight.  The act was too suddenly unanimous not to have been premeditated.  Why had the Iroquois carried the Hurons away from the Frenchmen?  Father Ragueneau at once suspected some sinister purpose.  Taking only a single sack of flour for food, he called for volunteers among the twenty Frenchmen to embark in a leaky, old canoe and follow the treacherous Onondagas.  Young Radisson was one of the first to offer himself.  Six others followed his example; and the seven Frenchmen led by the priest struck across the lake, leaving the others to gather up the scattered baggage.