in arms make frightful gaps in the ranks of the savages by well-directed shots, he loads with grape shot a musket which is to explode as it falls, and hurls it with all his might.  Unhappily, the branch of a tree stays the passage of the terrible engine of destruction, which falls back upon the French and makes a bloody gap among them.  “Surrender!” cries La Mouche to Anahotaha.  “I have given my word to the French, I shall die with them,” replies the bold chief.  Already some stakes were torn up, and the Iroquois were about to rush like an avalanche through this breach, when a new Horatius Cocles, as brave as the Roman, made his body a shield for his brothers, and soon the axe which he held in his hand dripped with blood.  He fell, and was at once replaced.  The French succumbed one by one; they were seen brandishing their weapons up to the moment of their last breath, and, riddled with wounds, they resisted to the last sigh.  Drunk with vengeance, the wild conquerors turned over the bodies to find some still palpitating, that they might bind them to a stake of torture; three were in their mortal agony, but they died before being cast on the pyre.  A single one was saved for the stake; he heroically resisted the refinements of the most barbarous cruelty; he showed no weakness, and did not cease to pray for his executioners.  Everything in this glorious deed of arms must compel the admiration of the most remote posterity.

The wretched Hurons suffered the fate which they had deserved; they were burned in the different villages.  Five escaped, and it was by their reports that men learned the details of an exploit which saved the colony.  The Iroquois, in fact, considering what a handful of brave men had accomplished, took it for granted that a frontal attack on such men could only result in failure; they changed their tactics, and had recourse anew to their warfare of surprises and ambuscades, with the purpose of gradually destroying the little colony.

The dangers which might be risked by attacking so fierce a nation were, as may be seen, by no means imaginary.  Many would have retreated, and awaited a favourable occasion to try and plant for the third time the cross in the Iroquois village.  The sons of Loyola did not hesitate; encouraged by Mgr. de Laval, they retraced their steps to the Five Nations.  This time Heaven condescended to reward in a large measure their persistent efforts, and the harvest was abundant.  In a short time the number of churches among these people had increased to ten.

The famous chief, Garakontie, whose conversion to Christianity caused so much joy to the pious Bishop of Petraea and to all the Christians of Canada, was endowed with a rare intelligence, and all who approached him recognized in him a mind as keen as it was profound.  Not only did he keep faithfully the promises which he had made on receiving baptism, but the gratitude which he continued to feel towards the bishop and the