Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 01

by Samuel de Champlain

It was obvious to Champlain that this fort was a complete protection to the Iroquois, unless an opening could be made in its walls. This could not be easily done by any force which he and his allies had at their command. His only hope was in setting fire to the palisades on the land side. This required the dislodgement of the enemy, who were posted in large numbers on the gallery, and the protection of the men in kindling the fire, and shielding it, when kindled, against the extinguishing torrents which could be poured from the water-spouts and gutters of the fort. He consequently ordered two instruments to be made with which he hoped to overcome these obstacles. One was a wooden tower or frame-work, dignified by Champlain as a cavalier, somewhat higher than the palisades, on the top of which was an enclosed platform where three or four sharp-shooters could in security clear the gallery, and thus destroy the effective force of the enemy. The other was a large wooden shield, or mantelet, under the protection of which they could in safety approach and kindle a fire at the base of the fort, and protect the fire thus kindled from being extinguished by water coming from above.

When all was in readiness, two hundred savages bore the framed tower and planted it near the palisades. Three arquebusiers mounted it and poured a deadly fire upon the defenders on the gallery. The battle now began and raged fiercely for three hours, but Champlain strove in vain to carry out any plan of attack. The savages rushed to and fro in a frenzy of excitement, filling the air with their discordant yells, observing no method and heeding no commands. The wooden shields were not even brought forward, and the burning of the fort was undertaken with so little judgment and skill that the fire was instantly extinguished by the fountains of water let loose by the skilful defenders through the gutters and water-spouts of the fort.

The sharp-shooters on the tower killed and wounded a large number, but nevertheless no effective impression was made upon the fortress. Two chiefs and fifteen men of the allies were wounded, while one was killed, or died of wounds received in a skirmish before the formal attack upon the fort began. After a frantic and desultory fight of three hours, the attacking savages lost their courage and began to clamor for a retreat. No persuasions could induce them to renew the attack.

After lingering four days in vain expectation of the arrival of the allies to whom Brûlé had been sent, the retreat began. Champlain had been wounded in the knee and leg, and was unable to walk. Litters in the form of baskets were fabricated, into which the wounded were packed in a constrained and uncomfortable attitude, and carried on the shoulders of the men. As the task of the carriers was lightened by frequent relays, and, as there was little baggage to impede their progress, the march was rapid. In three days they had reached their canoes, which had remained in the place of their concealment near the shore of the lake, an estimated distance of twenty-five or thirty leagues from the fort.

Such was the character of a great battle among the contending savages, an undisciplined host, without plan or well-defined purpose, rushing in upon each other in the heat of a sudden frenzy of passion, striking an aimless blow, and following it by a hasty and cowardly retreat. They had, for the time being at least, no ulterior design. They fought and expected no substantial reward of their conflict. The sweetness of personal revenge and the blotting out a few human lives were all they hoped for or cared at this time to attain. The invading party had apparently destroyed more than they had themselves lost, and this was doubtless a suitable reward for the hazards and hardships of the campaign.

The retreating warriors lingered ten days on the shore of Lake Ontario, at the point where they had left their canoes, beguiling the time in preparing for hunting and fishing excursions, and for their journey to their distant homes. Champlain here took occasion to call the attention of the allies to their promise to conduct him safely to his home. The head of the St. Lawrence as it flows from the Ontario is less than two hundred miles from Montreal, a journey by canoes not difficult to make. Champlain desired to return this way, and demanded an escort. The chiefs were reluctant to grant his request. Masters in the art of making excuses, they saw many insuperable obstacles. In reality, they did not desire to part with him, but wished to avail themselves of his knowledge, counsel, and personal aid against their enemies. When one obstacle after another gave way, and when volunteers were found ready to accompany him, no canoes could be spared for the journey. This closed the debate. Champlain was not prepared for the exposure and hardship of a winter among the savages, but there was left to him no choice. He submitted as gracefully as he could, and with such patience as necessity made it possible for him to command.

The bark flotilla was at length ready to leave the borders of the present State of New York. According to their usual custom in canoe navigation, they crept along the shore of the Ontario, revisiting an island at the eastern extremity of the lake, not unlikely the same place where Champlain had stopped to take the latitude a few weeks before. Crossing over from the island to the mainland on the north, they appear to have continued up the Cataraqui Creek east of Kingston, and, after a short portage, entered Loughborough Lake, a sheet of water then renowned as a resort of waterfowl in vast numbers and varieties. Having bagged all they desired, they proceeded inland twenty or thirty miles, to the objective point of their excursion, which was a famous hunting-ground for wild game. Here they constructed a deer-trap, an enclosure into which the unsuspecting animals were beguiled and from which it was impossible for them to escape. Deer-hunting was of all pursuits, if we except war, the most exciting to the Indians. It not only yielded the richest returns to their larder, and supplied more fully other domestic wants, but it possessed the element of fascination, which has always given zest and inspiration to the sportsman.

They lingered here thirty-eight days, during which time they captured one hundred and twenty deer. They purposely prolonged their stay that the frost might seal up the marshes, ponds, and rivers over which they were to pass. Early in December they began to arrange into convenient packages their peltry and venison, the fat of which was to serve as butter in their rude huts during the icy months of winter. On the 4th of the month they broke camp and began their weary march, each savage bearing a burden of not less than a hundred pounds, while Champlain himself carried a package of about twenty. Some of them constructed rude sledges, on which they easily dragged their luggage over the ice and snow. During the progress of the journey, a warm current came sweeping up from the south, melted the ice, flooded the marshes, and for four days the overburdened and weary travellers struggled on, knee-deep in mud and water and slush. Without experience, a lively imagination alone can picture the toil, suffering, and exposure of a journey through the tangled forests and half-submerged bogs and marshes of Canada, in the most inclement season of the year.

At length, on the 23d of December, after nineteen days of excessive toil, they arrived at Cahiagué, the chief town of the Hurons, the rendezvous of the allied tribes, whence they had set forth on the first of September, nearly four months before, on what may seem to us a bootless raid. To the savage warriors, however, it doubtless seemed a different thing. They had been enabled to bring home valuable provisions, which were likely to be important to them when an unsuccessful hunt might, as it often did, leave them nearly destitute of food. They had lost but a single man, and this was less than they had anticipated, and, moreover, was the common fortune of war. They had invaded the territory and made their presence felt in the very home of their enemies, and could rejoice in having inflicted upon them more injury than they had themselves received. Though they had not captured or annihilated them, they had done enough to inspire and fully sustain their own grovelling pride.

To Champlain even, although the expedition had been accompanied by hardship and suffering and some disappointments, it was by no means a failure. He had explored an interesting and important region; he had gone where European feet had never trod, and had seen what European eyes had never seen; he had, moreover, planted the lilies of France in the chief Indian towns, and at all suitable and important points, and these were to be witnesses of possession and ownership in what his exuberant imagination saw as a vast French empire rising into power and opulence in the western world.