ble Goods, and Spare our Lives; this Day
they Gave us Some Boill'd Salmon which we Eat with a Verey Good
Appetite, without Either Salt or Bread, we Incamped this Night at this
afforsaid Indian Village Apog. (Aukpaque.)"

Evidently the Indians had retained the practices of their forefathers
as regards their treatment of captives, for Pote's experience at
Aukpaque was just about on a par with that of Gyles at Medoctec rather
more than half a century before. But it is only just to remember that
this was a time of war and (as Murdoch well points out) Indian laws of
war permitted not only surprises, stratagems and duplicity, but the
destruction and torture of their captives. These practices being in
harmony with the ideas and customs inherited from their ancestors did
not readily disappear even under the influence of Christianity. And
yet it is well to remember that the Indians often spared the lives of
their captives and even used them kindly and however much we may
condemn them for their cruelty on many occasions we must not forget
that there were other occasions where men of our own race forget for a
season the rules of their religion and the laws of humanity.

Captain Pote's unhappy experience at Aukpaque caused him to feel no
regret when the Huron Indians took their departure with their captives
the next day. They had now come to the "beginning of the swift water"
and their progress became more laborious. The party included
twenty-three persons. One of the prisoners, an Indian of Gorham's
Rangers, taken on Goat Island at Annapolis, Pote says

"Was exceedingly out of order and could not assist ye Indians to
paddle against ye Strong Current that Ran against us ye Greater part
of ye Day, his head was So Exceedingly Swelled, with ye Squaws beating
of him, yt he Could Scearsley See out of his Eyes. I had ye Good
fortune to be almost well in Comparison to what he was, although it
was he and I was Companions, and Sat Next to Each other, In ye Time of
their Dance, and him they alwas took for my partner to knock our heads
Together. Ye Indians asked me In what Manner ye Squaws treated us,
that his head was So Exceedingly Swelld, I Gave them an account, at
which they feigned themselves much Disgusted, and protested they was
Intierly Ignorant of ye affair, and Said they thought ye Squaws
Designed Nothing Else, but only to Dance round us for a Little
Diversion, without mollisting or hurting of us In any manner."

As they ascende