of the language of their captors, or understand a word
spoken to them. It is probable that they often misunderstood the
significance of signs. But there was no difficulty in perceiving the
difference between smiles and frowns, between blessings and curses.

On the nineteenth day of their navigation, the Indians reached one of
their villages on the river banks. It was afterwards found that this
spot was about twenty-five miles below a remarkable fall in the river,
to which Father Hennepin gave, in honor of his patron saint, the name
of the Falls of St. Anthony. This hamlet, far away in the north, was a
cold and cheerless assemblage of savage homes. The families, in the
culture and comforts of life, were but slightly elevated above the
brutes around them. There were several chiefs who had lost sons during
the war. The captives were given one to each of three of them.
Nominally, they were to be adopted in the place of the lost ones. In
reality, they were slaves, to be driven farthest from the fire, to have
the most scanty supply of food, in case of want, and in all things to
endure the hardest fare.

Having thus distributed their captives, the savages seized their
property and divided it among themselves. They probably did not
consider this an act of robbery, but since the Frenchmen had been
graciously received as sons of the tribe, their goods should be
appropriated to the public welfare. The village near the Falls of St.
Anthony was but a temporary encampment. The tribe into whose hands the
captives had fallen, was called Issatis. Their principal village was
still farther up the river, nearly a hundred and fifty miles in a
northwesterly direction. Probably in consequence of the innumerable
windings of the stream, they abandoned their canoes at the Falls, and
commenced the journey on foot, traversing an Indian trail which led
through forest and moor, over prairie and mountain. It was indeed a
wearisome and almost fatal journey to those newly adopted into such
hardships of barbarian life. In those early days of spring, and in
those high latitudes, it was often bitterly cold. There were remaining
snow drifts, and deeper clammy mud and pools of water to be waded,
skimmed over with ice, and freezing storms of rain and sleet. They
encountered many rivers and swollen brooks, which they were compelled
either to swim or ford.

These streams, flowing down from unknown regions in the north, were
often encumbered with large bloc