fire to prepare the morning meal. Others lay about, smoking and
chatting idly. Jean de La Verendrye sat a little apart, perhaps {40}
recording the scanty particulars of the journey. The Jesuit priest
walked up and down, deep in his breviary.

The circumstances could hardly have been more favourable for the sudden
attack which the savages were eager to make. The French had laid aside
their weapons, or had left them behind in the canoes. They had no
reason to expect an attack. They were at peace with the western
tribes--even with those Ishmaelites of the prairie, the Sioux.
Presently a twig snapped under the foot of a savage. Young La
Verendrye turned quickly, caught sight of a waving plume, and shouted
to his men. Immediately from a hundred fierce throats the war-whoop
rang out. The Sioux leaped to their feet. Arrows showered down upon
the French. Jean, Father Aulneau, and a dozen voyageurs fell. The
rest snatched up their guns and fired. Several of the Sioux, who had
incautiously left cover, fell. The odds were, however, overwhelmingly
against the French. They must fight in the open, while the Indians
remained comparatively secure among the trees. The French made an
attempt to reach the canoes, but had to abandon it, for the Sioux now
completely commanded the approach and no man could reach the water
alive.

{41}

The surviving French, now reduced to half a dozen, retreated down the
shore. With yells of triumph the Sioux followed, keeping within
shelter of the trees. In desperation the voyageurs dropped their guns
and took to the water, hoping to be able to swim to a neighbouring
island. This was a counsel of despair, for wounded and exhausted as
they were, the feat was impossible. When the Sioux rushed down to the
shore, they realized the plight of the French, and did not even waste
an arrow on them. One by one the swimmers sank beneath the waves.
After watching their tragic fate, the savages returned to scalp those
who had fallen at the camp. With characteristic ferocity they hacked
and mutilated the bodies. Then, gathering up their own dead, they
hastily retreated by the way they had come.

For some time it was not known why the Sioux had made an attack,
seemingly unprovoked, upon the French. Gradually, however, it leaked
out that earlier in the year a party of Sioux on their way to Fort St
Charles on a friendly visit had been fired upon by a party of
Chippewas. The Sioux had shouted ind