for stripping him
was that, as he wished afterwards to kill him, Henry's clothes might
not be stained with blood! With the intention of assassinating him, in
fact, he dragged Henry along to a region of bushes and sandhills, and
then produced a knife and attempted to execute his purpose. But with
the rage and strength of absolute despair Henry wrenched himself free,
pushed his would-be murderer on one side, and ran for his life towards
the fort.

Here Wenniway rather indifferently helped him to take refuge in the
house of the Frenchman in which he had formerly hidden, but the same
night he was roused from sleep and ordered to come below, where to his
surprise he found himself in the presence of three of the British
officers who had formerly commanded in this fort, and who were now
prisoners of the Ojibwes. The Indian chiefs for the time being had
handed these men over to the surveillance of the French Canadians,
together with the seventeen surviving English soldiers and traders.
Henry, like the others, was almost without clothes. The French
Canadian in whose house he had taken refuge refused to give him as
much as a blanket, but another Canadian, less indifferent to the
sufferings of a fellow white man, did give him a blanket, but for
which he would certainly have perished from cold.

The next day he and the other English prisoners were embarked in
canoes and taken away to Lake Michigan. On reaching the mouth of that
lake, at the Beaver Islands, the Ojibwe canoes, on account of the fog,
were obliged to approach the lands of the Ottawa Indians. These last
suddenly seized the canoes as they entered shallow water, and
professed great indignation at the capture of Fort Michili-Makinak and
the slaughter of the Englishmen. They declared their intention of
saving the survivors, and charged the Ojibwes with being about to kill
and eat them. By the Ottawa Indians, therefore, the twenty Englishmen
were carried back again and deposited in Fort Michili-Makinak, which
was now taken possession of by the Ottawas. The English were still
held as prisoners. After hearing all the Ojibwes had to say, and
receiving from them large presents, the Ottawas finally decided to
restore their English prisoners to the Ojibwes, who consequently took
them away with ropes tied round their necks, and put them into an
Indian habitation. Here, as they were starving, they were offered
loaves of bread, but with the horrible accompaniment of seeing the
sl