he
charred wood. He lighted his pipe, and after smoking for a moment, gave
it Father Hennepin to smoke. He then put his hands affectionately on
the Frenchman's head, and moaned and wept.

What did this all mean? Were the sympathies of the savage excited, in
view of the sufferings of the white man? Were his tears caused to flow
in anticipation of torture at the burning stake, to which he might
suppose the victim to be doomed? Or was this an act of barbarian
mourning over some loved one lost in battle? Father Hennepin could not
interpret the deed. But he greatly feared that it indicated dreadful
woes to come--sufferings, the thought of which was sufficient to
agitate even a savage breast.

After a weary journey of five days, this party of forty or fifty
warriors, with their captives, approached their destined village. It
was far away in the northern wilderness, east of the Mississippi, which
majestic stream had there dwindled into a rivulet. They were near the
head waters of a river, since called the St. Francis. It was indeed a
dreary and savage wild which they had penetrated, and from whose glooms
the captives could not expect ever to emerge. In some way the
inhabitants of the village had heard of the approach of the warriors,
and quite a number of the women and children came out to meet them.

In a sort of triumphal entrance, like that of the ancient Romans, they
took Auguelle, dressed him as gorgeously as they could, in Indian
costume, painted his face, daubed his hair with grease, and fastened
upon his head a plume of eagle's feathers, brilliantly colored. They
placed a gourd in his hand, containing a number of round pebbles, which
he was directed to shake for music, with the accompaniment of his
voice, shouting a French song. The Frenchmen, in dreadful incertitude
respecting their fate, were agreed in the conviction that it was good
policy to do every thing in their power to conciliate their captors.

The warriors were much chagrined in returning from their expedition
without a single scalp, without a single captive from their enemies,
without having even struck a blow. It was necessary for them therefore
to make as much parade as they could of their French prisoners. Yet the
most ignorant Indian of them all could not but perceive that there was
not much to be boasted of in a hundred and twenty warriors having
picked up three peaceful canoe men, who had made no resistance, who had
never done them any harm; who h