their dreaded enemy. Even Champlain, who
was versed in civilized warfare, made no attempt to lead
them to an invasion of the Iroquois realm. He did not dream
of the deadly reprisal which the now defeated race would
exact for this day of disaster.

Of the further doings of Champlain we shall relate but one
incident,--a thrilling adventure which he tells of his being
lost in the interminable woodland depths. Year after year he
continued his explorations; now voyaging far up the Ottawa;
now reaching the mighty inland sea of Lake Huron, voyaging
upon its waters, and visiting the Indian villages upon its
shores; now again battling with the Iroquois, who, this
time, drove their assailants in baffled confusion from their
fort; now joining an Indian hunting-party, and taking part
with them in their annual deer-hunt. For this they
constructed two lines of posts interlaced with boughs, each
more than half a mile long, and converging to a point where
a strong enclosure was built. The hunters drove the deer
before them into this enclosure, where others despatched
them with spears and arrows. It was during this expedition
that the incident referred to took place.

Champlain had gone into the forest with the hunters. Here he
saw a bird new to him, and whose brilliant hue and strange
shape struck him with surprise and admiration. It was, to
judge from his description, a red-headed woodpecker. Bent on
possessing this winged marvel, he pursued it, gun in hand.
From bough to bough, from tree to tree, the bird fitted
onward, leading the unthinking hunter step by step deeper
into the wilderness. Then, when he surely thought to capture
his prize, the luring wonder took wing and vanished in the
forest depths.

Disappointed, Champlain turned to seek his friends. But in
what direction should he go? The day was cloudy; he had left
his pocket-compass at the camp; the forest spread in endless
lines around him; he stood in helpless bewilderment and
dismay.

All day he wandered blindly, and at nightfall found himself
still in a hopeless solitude. Weary and hungry, he lay down
at the foot of a great tree, and passed the night in broken
slumbers. The next day he wandered onward in the same blind
helplessness, reaching, in late afternoon, the waters of a
forest pond, shadowed by thick pines, and with water-fowl on
its brink. One of these he shot, kindled a fire and cooked
it, and for the first time since his misadventure tasted
food. At nig