was without power and beyond hope of being able
to instruct them; for the whole country was so irritated against me
that I found no more any opening to speak to them, or to win them; and
the Algonquins and the Hurons were constrained to withdraw from me, as
from a victim destined to the fire, for fear of sharing in the hatred
and rage which the Iroquois felt against me. I realized, moreover,
that I had some acquaintance with their language; that I knew their
country and their strength; that I could perhaps better procure their
salvation by other ways than by remaining among them. It came to my
mind that all this knowledge would die with me, if I did not escape.
These wretches had so little inclination to deliver us, that they
committed a treachery against the law and the custom of all these
nations. Savage from the country of the Sokokiois, allies of the
Iroquois, having been seized by the upper Algonquins and taken a
prisoner to the Three Rivers, or to Kebec, was delivered and set at
liberty by the mediation of Monsieur the Governor of New France, at the
solicitation of the Fathers. This good savage, seeing that the French
had saved his life, sent in the month of April, some fine presents, to
the end that they should deliver at least one of the French. The
Iroquois retained the presents, without setting one of them at liberty,
which treachery is perhaps unexampled among these peoples, for they
inviolably observe this law, that whoever touches or accepts the
present which is made to him, is bound to fulfil what is asked of him
through that present. This is why, when they they are unwilling to
grant what is desired, they send back the presents or make others in
place of them. But to return to my subject: having weighed before
God, with all the impartiality in my power, the reasons which inclined
me to remain among those barbarians or to leave them, I believed that
our Lord would be better pleased if I should take the opportunity to
escape. Daylight having come, I went to greet Monsieur the Dutch
Governor, and declared to him the opinions that I had adopted before
God. He summons the chief men of the ship, signifies to them his
intentions, and exhorts them to receive me, and to keep me
concealed--in a word, to convey me back to Europe. They answer that,
if I can once set foot in their vessel, I am in safety; that I shall
not leave it until I reach Bordeaux or La Rochelle. "Well, then," the
Governor said to me