Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
PRE- AND EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE
of several things, I withdrew. Some time afterward they came to my shallop, where
they made me accept some skins, showing a good many signs of pleasure, and then
they returned to land.
The next day the two chiefs came to nd me. Then they remained some time
without saying a word, meditating and smoking constantly. After having thought
it all over, they began to harangue in a loud voice all their companions who were
on the river bank, their arms in their hands, listening very attentively to what their
chiefs said to them, namely: that nearly ten moons ago, as they reckoned, Iroquet’s
son had seen me, and that I had given him a kind reception, and that we desired
to assist them against their enemies, with whom they had been at war for a long
time, because of a great deal of cruelty that the enemy had shown toward their
tribe, on the pretext of friendship; and that, having always desired vengeance since
that time, they had asked all the savages on the bank of the river to come to us, to
form an alliance with us, and that they never had seen Christians, which had also
induced them to come to see us, and that I might do as I wished with them and
their companions; that they had no children with them, but men who knew how
to ght and were full of courage, and who were familiar with the country and the
rivers in the country of the Iroquois; and that now they begged me to return to our
settlement, that they might see our houses; that after three days we should return
all together to the war, and that for a sign of great friendship and joy I should have
muskets and arquebuses red, and that they would be very much pleased; which
I did. They gave great cries of astonishment, and especially those who never had
heard nor seen them before.
After I had heard them I replied to them that to please them I should be very glad
to go back to our settlement, to give them more pleasure, and that they might infer
that I had no other intention than to engage in war, since I carried with me nothing
but arms, and not merchandise for barter, as they had been led to understand; that
my desire was only to accomplish that which I had promised them; and that if I
had known of any one who had made evil reports to them, I should regard such
as enemies more than they themselves did. They told me that they did not believe
any of it, and that they had heard nothing said; but the contrary was true, for there
were some savages who told ours. I contented myself in waiting for an opportunity
to be able to show them in reality something dierent from what they could have
expected of me.
Chapter IX
Departure from the rapids of the Iroquois River. Description of a large lake. Of tke
encounter with the enemy that we had at this lake, and of the manner in which they
attacked the Iroquois.
I left these rapids of the Iroquois River on July 2. All the savages began to carry
their canoes, arms and baggage by land about half a league, in order to get by the
swiftness and force of the rapids. This was quickly accomplished.
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