olunteer to go away with the Algonkins, in order to learn their
language. Brule was taken in hand by Iroquet,[1] a chief of the
"Little Algonkins", whose people were then occupying the lands on
either side of the Ottawa River, including the site of the now great
city of Ottawa. After four years of roaming with the Indians, Brule
was dispatched by Champlain with an escort of twelve Algonkins to the
headwaters of the Suskuehanna, far to the south of Lake Ontario, in
order to warn the Andastes[2] tribe of military operations to be
undertaken by the allied French, Hurons, and Algonkins against the
Iroquois. This enabled Brule to explore Lake Ontario and to descend
the River Suskuehanna as far south as Chesapeake Bay, a truly
extraordinary journey at the period. This region of northern Virginia
had just been surveyed by the English, and was soon to be the site of
the first English colony in North America.[3]

[Footnote 1: Mentioned on p. 80.]

[Footnote 2: The Andastes were akin to the Iroquois, but did not
belong to their confederacy; they lived in Pennsylvania.]

[Footnote 3: The inaccurate statement has frequently been written
about Newfoundland being "the first British American colony".
Newfoundland was reached by the ship in which John Cabot sailed on his
1497 voyage of discovery, and a few years afterwards its shores were
sought by the English in common with the French and the Portuguese,
and later on the Spaniards and Basques, for the cod fishery. But no
definite British settlement, such as subsequently grew into an actual
colony, was founded in Newfoundland until the year 1624; the island
was not recognized as definitely British till 1713, and no governor
was appointed till 1728. The first permanent English colonial
settlement in America was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607; and
in the Bermudas and Barbados (West Indies) soon afterwards.]

In attempting to return to the valley of the St. Lawrence in 1616,
with his Andaste guides, Brule lost his way, and to avoid starvation
surrendered himself to the Seneka Indians (the westernmost clan of the
Iroquois) against whom the recent warlike operations of the French
were being directed. Discovering his nationality, the Senekas decided
to torture him before burning him to death at the stake. As they tore
off his clothes they found that he was wearing an _Agnus Dei_ medal
next his skin. Brule told them to be careful, as it was a medicine of
great power which would c