to tame them,) the Iroquois were
waxing ever bolder. They were well supplied with match-lock guns
obtained by the Mohawks from the Dutch of the Hudson River. From their
five towns ruled by a grand council of fifty chiefs they constantly
sent out their raiding parties into the north. These, darting
half-crouched in single file through the dark timber, creeping silently
in their canoes by road of the dark rivers, suddenly fell like starved
wolves upon whomsoever they sighted, be that near Quebec itself; killed
them, or captured them, to hustle them away, break their bones, burn
their bodies, eat of them; and returned for more.

Algonkins and Hurons were cruel, too, and crafty; but they were being
beaten by greater craft and better arms.

So now we come again to Piskaret, of the Adirondacks, whose home was
upon that large island of Allumette, governed by the haughty Algonkin
chief Le Borgne, or The One-Eye.

Simon Piskaret was his full name as recorded in the mission books, for
he and others of Allumette Island had been baptised by the priests.
But with them this was much a method of getting protection, food and
powder from these French; and an old writer of 1647 says that Piskaret
was a Christian only by "appearance and policy."

However, the case of the Algonkins and the Hurons was growing very
desperate. They risked their lives every time they ventured into the
forests, and Piskaret was ashamed of being cooped in. Once the
Adirondacks had been mighty. Hot desire to strike another blow flamed
high in his heart. Therefore in this early spring of 1644, ere yet the
snows were fairly melted, he strode away, alone, with snowshoes, bent
upon doing some great deed.

His course was southeast, from the river Ottawa to cross the frozen St.
Lawrence, and speed onward 100 miles for the Lake Champlain country of
the New York-Canada border line, where he certainly would find the
Iroquois.

By day and night he traveled, clad in his moccasins and fur mantle.
Then when he reached the range of the Iroquois he reversed his
snowshoes, so that they pointed backward. The Iroquois who might see
his trail would know that these were the prints of Algonkin snowshoes,
but they would think that here had been only an Algonkin hastening
home. If they followed, they would be going in one direction and he in
another!

His progress was slower, now, for it is hard to make time in snowshoes
pointing backward; and presently he took pains