WAR DANCE
"The troops were led back to Fort Rolland, where about five hundred regulars and militia were now collected under command of Vaudreuil. On the next day eighty men from Fort Rémy attempted to join them, but the Iroquois had slept off the effects of their orgies and were again on the alert. The unfortunate detachment was set upon by a host of savages and cut to pieces in full sight of Fort Rolland. All were killed or captured except Le Moyne de Longueuil, and a few others who escaped within the gate of Fort Rémy.
"Montreal was wild with terror. It had been fortified with palisades since the war began and though there were troops in the town under the governor himself, the people were in mortal dread. No attack was made either on the town or on any of the forts, and such of the inhabitants who could reach them were safe while the Iroquois held undisputed possession of the open country, burned all the houses and barns over an extent of nine miles, and roamed in small parties pillaging and scalping over more than twenty miles. There is no mention of their having encountered opposition, nor do they seem to have met with any loss but that of some warriors killed in the attack on the detachment from Fort Rémy, and that of three drunken stragglers who were caught and thrown into a cellar in Fort La Présentation. When they came to their senses they defied their captors and fought with such ferocity that it was necessary to shoot them. Charlevoix says that the invaders remained in the neighbourhood of Montreal till the middle of October, or for more than two months. But this seems incredible, since troops and militia enough to drive them all into the St. Lawrence might easily have been collected in less than a week. It is certain, however, that their stay was strangely long. Troops and inhabitants seemed to have been paralyzed with fear. At length the most of them took to their canoes and recrossed Lake St. Louis in a body, giving ninety yells to show that they had ninety prisoners in their clutches. This was not all, for the whole number carried off was more than a hundred and twenty, besides about two hundred who had the good fortune to be killed on the spot. As the Iroquois passed the forts they shouted: 'Onontio! You deceived us! And now we have deceived you!' Towards evening they encamped on the farther side of the lake and began to torture and devour their prisoners. On that miserable night, stupefied and speechless groups stood gazing from the strand of the Lachine at the lights that gleamed along the distant shore of Chateauguay, where their friends, wives, parents or children agonized in the fires of the Iroquois and scenes were enacted of indescribable and nameless horror. The greater part of the prisoners were, however, reserved to be distributed among the towns of the confederacy and there tortured for the diversion of the inhabitants. While some of the invaders went home to celebrate their triumph others roamed in small parties through all the upper parts of the colony, spreading universal terror." [143]
NOTE
THE EXPLOIT AT THE RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES, 1690
Since writing the last chapter important facts almost forgotten concerning the brilliant exploit against the Iroquois at the Rivière des Prairies, which almost rivals that of Dollard's companions at the Long Sault, have been made public by Mr. E. Z. Massicotte in the "Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal" No. 3, 1914. The intendant, Champigny, had officially and briefly reported it and it had been also commented on sparsely or inaccurately by Ferland, "Histoire du Canada," Volume II, pp. 209-210, by de Belmont, "Histoire du Canada," and by Tanguay in his "Dictionnaire" and in a mémoire attributed to deLery. From these authorities and the study of the registers of Pointe aux Trembles for 1690 and 1694 Mr. Massicotte has been enabled to reconstruct the story and identify the heroes. Four days after the horrible hecatomb of Lachine, i.e., on the 9th of August, 1689, the Iroquois, emboldened by their success, spread over the island of Montreal and below it they massacred Pierre Dagenets dit Lespine and probably burned his wife, Anne Brandon, whose disappearance is recorded at this time. They also besieged the mill of Rivière des Prairies recently constructed. But this was only by way of prelude.
In the spring of 1690 the Indians, who had sown terror the preceding year, now probably on their way to combine with Phipps in the attack on Quebec, invaded anew the neighbourhood of Montreal and committed several acts of brigandage. On the 2d of July, warned of the presence of Iroquois on the Rivière des Prairies, some inhabitants of Pointe aux Trembles, under the command of Sieur de Colombet, a former lieutenant, went to meet the enemy. Posted near the river, they fired on the marauders and killed four of their men in a canoe. The Iroquois, numbered a hundred, and as the opposing force of habitants formed only a little group of twenty to twenty-five, Champigny's account "le combat fut rude" was very descriptive. Sixteen of the French remained on the field dead or taken prisoners. The rest in all haste partook themselves for safety to the little fort not far distant. The enemy lost thirty warriors and made their way to Ile Jésus to burn some of their captives; the rest they carried away to suffer the like fate, with the exception of one, whom Father Pierre Millet, himself a prisoner among the Onneyouts at the time, records as having been spared. Such was the fear of the lurking Iroquois that the eight bodies were buried in all haste on the field of glory, but on November 2, 1694, the registry of Pointe aux Trembles tells us the bodies were exhumed and reburied together in consecrated ground.
The list of the slain is as follows: (1) De Colombet, commandant; (2) Joseph de Maintenon, Sieur de la Rue; (3) Jean Gallot, surgeon; (4) Guillaume Richard, dit Lafleur, Captain, "de la Milice" de Pointe aux Trembles; (5) Joseph Cartier, dit Larose; (6) Jean Baudoin (fils); (7) Pierre Marsta (fils); (8) Jean Delpne, dit Parisot; (9) Nicholas Joly; (10) A hired man of one Beauchamp; (11) Isaac, a soldier.