in the following manner, it being midnight and very dark the Indian,
myself and two servants crossed the river in a batteaux to where they
were carousing around this unhappy victim. The Indian then went to his
companion, and under a pretence of taking the prisoner out to answer a
call of nature, delivered him to me, who lay at some distance, and I
carried him to the batteaux. As soon as he found himself in the hands of
his deliverer, his transport was too great for his tender frame; three
different times he sunk lifeless in my arms, and as often by the help
of water, the only remedy at hand, I prevented his going to the land of
spirits in a transport of joy. None but those who have experienced it,
can have an idea of the thoughts that must have agitated the breast of a
man, who but a few minutes before saw himself surronnded by Savages,
whose dismal yell, and frightful figures, heightened by the glare of a
large fire in a dismal wood, which must have harrowed up the soul of an
uninterested bystander, much more one who knew that very fire was
prepared for his execution, and that every moment the executioner was
expected to arrive.--The executioner arrives; he advances towards him;
he losens this unhappy victim from the tree to which he was bound, no
doubt as this young man imagined to be led to the stake; but as it were
in an instant, he finds himself in the hands of his deliverer and
fellow-countryman. This, as I said before was too much for him to bear;
however I got his almost lifeless corpse to my house, where I kept him
hid. The Indian, according to our agrement in an hour or two after I was
gone, returned seemingly much fatigued, and told his fellow Savages who
were impatiently waiting to begin their brutal sacrifice, that the
prisoner had escaped, and that he had in vain pursued him. Some time
after this I found an opportunity and made an agrement with the Captain
of a vessel going to Michilimakanac, to take my unhappy inmate with him,
but one of my servants being tempted, by a large reward that was offered
for retaking the above prisoner, informed De Jeane, that he was hid in
my house, on which my habitation was soon surrounded by a party of
soldiers under the command of said De Jeane, and myself, the young man
and four servants were made prisoners, and having demanded my keys,
which I delivered, we were hurried to goal and confined in different
rooms. Here this unhappy young fellow, in high expectations of seeing