young and warlike men execute. But if the common people do not
approve of the resolution, it is left entirely to the judgment of the
mob. The chiefs are generally the poorest among them, for instead of
their receiving from the common people as among Christians, they are
obliged to give to the mob; especially when any one is deceased; and if
they take any prisoners they present them to that family of which one
has been killed, and the prisoner is then adopted by the family into
the place of the deceased person. There is no punishment here for
murder and other villainies, but every one is his own avenger. The
friends of the deceased revenge themselves upon the murderer until
peace is made by presents to the next of kin. But although they are so
cruel, and live without laws or any punishments for evil doers, yet
there are not half so many villainies or murders committed amongst them
as amongst Christians; so that I oftentimes think with astonishment
upon all the murders committed in the Fatherland, notwithstanding their
severe laws and heavy penalties. These Indians, though they live
without laws, or fear of punishment, do not (at least, they very
seldom) kill people, unless it may be in a great passion, or a
hand-to-hand fight. Wherefore we go wholly unconcerned along with the
Indians and meet each other an hour's walk off in the woods, without
doing any harm to one another.

JOHANNES MEGAPOLENSIS.

END OF "MEGAPOLENSIS ON THE MOHAWKS."

LETTER AND NARRATIVE OF FATHER ISAAC JOGUES

Letter and Narrative of Father Isaac Jogues, 1643, 1645. In J. Franklin
Jameson, ed., Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 (Original
Narratives of Early American History). NY: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1909.

Letter of Father Isaac Jogues to His Superior in Canada, 1643.

I STARTED the very day of the Feast of Our Blessed Father Saint
Ignatius from the village where I was captive, in order to follow and
accompany some Iroquois who were going away, first for trade, then for
fishing. Having accomplished their little traffic, they stopped at a
place seven or eight leagues below a settlement of the Dutch, which is
located on a river where we carried on our fishing. While we were
setting snares for the fish, there came a rumor that a squad of
Iroquois, returned from pursuit of the Hurons, had killed five or six
on the spot, and taken four prisoners, two of whom had been already
burned in our village, with cruelties extrao