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Bressani they put to torture even more severe than that which Jogues had endured; not sparing the young lad, who manfully faced his tormentors till death freed him. Bressani escaped death only because an old squaw adopted him; but so mangled were his hands, so burned and broken was his body, that she deemed her slave of little value and sent him with her son to Fort Orange to be sold.
It was so early in the season that there seemed hope that he might pass in safety; and as the Fathers in that wild mission had received no succor for three years, Bressani was charged with letters to them, and such necessaries for their use as he was able to carry. With him were six young Hurons, lately converted, and a French boy in his service. The party were in three small canoes.
For a time the hopes of the Jesuits for a mission among the Iroquois were damped by the experiences of Jogues and Bressani. But in 1645 an incident took place that opened the way for an attempt to carry the Gospel to this savage people. A band of Algonquins captured several Mohawks and brought them to Sillery.
Father Martin, in his notes on Bressani, prefixes to this name that of "Horicon," but gives no original authority. I have seen an old Latin map on which the name "Horiconi" is set down as belonging to a neighboring tribe. This seems to be only a misprint for "Horicoui," that is, "Irocoui," or "Iroquois."
Aux mains seules, ils m'ont applique le feu et le fer plus de 18 fois, et i'etais oblige de chanter pendant ce supplice. Ils ne cessaient de me tourmenter qu'a une ou deux heures de la nuit." Bressani, Relation Abregee, 122. Bressani speaks in another passage of tortures of a nature yet more excruciating. He adds, that past ages have never heard of such.
Suddenly they screeched the war-whoop, and struck like lightning with their hatchets among the sleepers. Seven were killed before the rest could spring to their weapons. Bressani leaped up, and received on the instant three arrow-wounds in the head. The Iroquois were surrounded, and a desperate fight ensued in the dark.
The Dutch acted generously; paid a liberal ransom; and gave Bressani passage on a Dutch vessel, which landed him at La Rochelle on November 15, 1644. But, like Jogues, his one thought was to return to New France; and in the following year we find him in Huronia, his mutilated hands, torn and broken by the enemies of the Hurons, mute but efficacious witnesses of his courage.
On the fifteenth of July following, Bressani wrote from the Iroquois country to the General of the Jesuits at Rome "I do not know if your Paternity will recognize the handwriting of one whom you once knew very well.
Owing to the danger from Iroquois along the route, the annual canoe-fleet did not go down, although a small party of Hurons, it seems, went as far as Ville Marie. The necessities of the mission were, however, urgent, and in the spring of the following year Father Bressani set out with a strong contingent of two hundred and fifty Huron warriors, fully half of whom were Christians.
It was thought that the Iroquois would not yet have reached the St Lawrence at this early time of the year; but this was an error, as the sequel proved. A party of twenty-seven warriors in ambush surprised Bressani and his fellow-travellers, slew several of the Hurons, and carried the rest with Bressani and the French boy to the Mohawk towns.
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