f their victim, who was tied to
a tree. Sometimes they poured water on his wounds, tore off his nails,
and poured hot gum on his head from which they had cut the scalp. They
opened his arm near the wrists, and pulled at his tendons and when they
would not come off, they used their knives. The poor wretch was forced
to cry out now and then in his agony, and it made Champlain {75}
heart-sick to see him so maltreated, but generally he exhibited so much
courage and stoicism that he seemed as if he were not suffering at all.
Champlain remonstrated with them, and was at last allowed to put a
speedy end to the sufferings of the unhappy warrior. But even when he
was dead, they cut the body into pieces and attempted to make the
brother of the victim swallow his heart. Champlain might well say that
it was better for an Indian to die on the battlefield or kill himself
when wounded, than fall into the hands of such merciless enemies.

Soon after this memorable episode in the history of Canada, Champlain
crossed the ocean to consult De Monts, who could not persuade the king
and his minister to grant him a renewal of his charter. The merchants
of the seaboard had combined to represent the injury the trade of the
kingdom would sustain by continuing a monopoly of Canadian furs. De
Monts, however, made the best arrangements he could under such
unfavourable conditions, and Champlain returned to the St. Lawrence in
the spring of 1610. During the summer he assisted the Canadian allies
in a successful assault on a large body of the Iroquois who had raised
a fortification at the mouth of the Richelieu, and all of whom were
killed. It was on this occasion, when a large number of Canadian
nations were assembled, that he commenced the useful experiment of
sending Frenchmen into the Ottawa valley to learn the customs and
language of the natives, and act as interpreters afterwards.

The French at Quebec heard of the assassination {76} of Henry the
Fourth who had been a friend of the colony. Champlain went to France
in the autumn of 1610, and returned to Canada in the following spring.
In the course of the summer he passed some days on the island of Mont
Royal where he proposed establishing a post where the allied nations
could meet for purposes of trade and consultation, as he told the
Ottawa Indians at a later time when he was in their country. He made a
clearing on a little point to which he gave the name of Place Royale,
now known