Iroquois. The frightened Indians from the Upper Country shouldered
their canoes and dashed through the woods. Lariviere could not keep up
and was afraid to go back from the river lest he should lose his
bearings. Fighting his way over windfall and rock, he sank exhausted
and fell asleep. Far ahead of the Iroquois boats the Upper Country
Indians came together again. The Frenchman was nowhere to be found.
It was dark. The Indians would not wait to search. Radisson and
Groseillers dared not turn back to face the irate governor. Lariviere
was abandoned. Two weeks afterwards some French hunters found him
lying on the rocks almost dead from starvation. He was sent back to
Three Rivers, where D'Avaugour had him imprisoned. This outrage the
inhabitants of Three Rivers resented. They forced the jail and rescued
Lariviere.

Three days after the loss of Lariviere Radisson and Groseillers caught
up with seven more canoes of Indians from the Upper Country. The union
of the two bands was just in time, for the next day they were set upon
at a _portage_ by the Iroquois. Ordering the Indians to encase
themselves in bucklers of matting and buffalo hide, Radisson led the
assault on the Iroquois barricade. Trees were cut down, and the Upper
Indians rushed the rude fort with timbers extemporized into
battering-rams. In close range of the enemy, Radisson made a curious
discovery. Frenchmen were directing the Iroquois warriors. Who had
sent these French to intercept the explorers? If Radisson suspected
treachery on the part of jealous rivals from Quebec, it must have
redoubled his fury; for the Indians from the Upper Country threw
themselves in the breached barricade with such force that the Iroquois
lost heart and tossed belts of wampum over the stockades to supplicate
peace. It was almost night. Radisson's Indians drew off to consider
the terms of peace. When morning came, behold an empty fort! The
French renegades had fled with their Indian allies.

[Illustration: Chateau St. Louis, Quebec, 1669, from one of the oldest
prints in existence.]

Glad to be rid of the first hindrance, the explorers once more sped
north. In the afternoon, Radisson's scouts ran full tilt into a band
of Iroquois laden with beaver pelts. The Iroquois were smarting from
their defeat of the previous night; and what was Radisson's amusement
to see his own scouts and the Iroquois running from each other in equal
fright, while the ground be