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Poor, unoffending old men, and pious women, had been shot at and killed by our soldiers, their wigwams burned, their families scattered, and driven to seek shelter with the enemy; yea, many Christian Indians, he did believe, had been sold as slaves to the Barbadoes, which he did account a great sin, and a reproach to our people.
Some of them, when they broke out, rushed from their heated wigwams and rolled themselves in the snow, which of course was most disastrous treatment, resulting in the death of numbers.
Gookin, who was superintendent of the Indians subject to the Massachusetts Colony, writing in 1674, says, "The best of their houses are covered very neatly, tight and warm, with barks of trees, slipped from their bodies at those seasons when the sap is up, and made into great flakes, with pressure of weighty timber, when they are green.... The meaner sort are covered with mats which they make of a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but not so good as the former.... Some I have seen, sixty or a hundred feet long and thirty feet broad.... I have often lodged in their wigwams, and found them as warm as the best English houses."
To avoid discovery, the whole retired together to an unfrequented part of the forest, situate some distance from the shore of the lake, carrying with them all the winter stock of provisions they possessed. In this sequestered spot they built six winter wigwams, and remained unmolested for the remainder of the winter, about six weeks.
A convenient place for a camp, in a hollow surrounded by trees, was chosen, and wigwams were put up for those who wished to remain in camp. The larger number of the men, however, all of whom were accustomed to hunting, were eager to go in chase, so that comparatively few remained to guard the camp.
"He sees the smoke of a fire." "Is it likely to be the fire of an enemy?" "No more like to be the camp of some of my people, but their wigwams are two days beyond this lake. Perhaps hunters are out in this direction." "We shall soon see give way, lads!" said Lumley, sitting down. In a few minutes the boat was on the beach.
The Indians led the Frenchmen into their wigwams and feasted them upon buffalo steaks, with bear's fat, and some very delicious wild plums. It appeared that these Indians were a band of warriors, probably from the Tuscarora nation. They had seen the Spaniards, on the Florida coast, and had purchased of them guns, axes, and knives. They kept their powder in strong glass bottles.
The Indians who then occupied these regions killed only what was required for the supply of the camps-a mere speck in the dense herds that roamed up to the very doors of the wigwams; but when the trader pushed his adventurous way into the fur regions of the North, the herds of the Saskatchewan plains began to experience a change in their surroundings.
This patriarchal repast being finished, we again went forth, and visited the convent of Plijâ, distant from the wigwams about ten minutes' walk. Many of our new friends accompanied us, the judge with great solidity of manner leading the way. We passed a beautiful fountain at the head of the glen, and entered the monastic edifice, which is built of stone.
Then he replied shortly to Pontiac's fine speech, "The friendship of the British should be theirs," he said, "so long as they deserved it." The Council was at an end. The gates of the fort which had been closed were now thrown open again, and the savages, balked in their treachery, stalked back to their wigwams. But Pontiac was not yet beaten, and again he tried to master the fort by treachery.
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