their route, having detaehedMessieurs d’Iberville
and Du Chesne with two savages before
them to Montreal. On the same day, some
Frenchmen, who doubtless were very much fatigued,
lost their way. Fearful that they should
be obliged to keep up with the main body, and
believing themselves in safety, having eighty
Indians in their rear, they were foundmissing
from the camp. They were waited for next day
until eleven o’clock, but in vain, and no account
has since beenfTeceived of them.
— “Two hours after, forty men more left the main
body without acquain|ing the commander, Continued
their route by themselves,vand, arrived
within two leagues of Montreal one day ahead,
so that there Were not more than fifty or sixty
men together. T'hef evening on which they
should arrive at Montreal, being,extremely-fa*
tigued from fostii|| and bad road&* the Tear fell
away from M. de Sainte ^Helene, who was in
front with an Indian guides and who couH‘ not
find a place suitable for camping, nearer than
three or four leagues^ oft the spot where he expected
to halt. He was not rejoined by M. de
Mantet and the others, until far advanced in the
night. Seven have not been found. ••• 'Next day
on parade, about ten o’clock in the forenoon, a
soldier arrived, who announced that they had
been attacked By' fourteen or fifteen savages^ and
that six had been killed. The party proceeded,
somewhat afflicted at this accident, and, arrived
at Montreal at 3 o’clock P. M.
! | Such, madame, is the account of what passed
at the taking of Corlear (Schenectady). The
French lost but twenty-one men, namely, four
Indians and seventeen Frenchmen. Only one
Indian and one Frenchman were killed at the
capture of the town. The others were lost on
the road.”
Golden remarks, that the Mohawks sent a
hundred warriors in pursuit, who fell upon the
tear of the retreating army, and killed and took
twenty-five persons. They also sent an embassy
of condolence to Albany, assured the inhabitants
of their friendship, and ability to defend the
frontier, and inspired a renewed feeling of confidence^
from thé bold style and ennobling sentiments
of their address. It was, it is clear from
this author, the renegade Caughnaicagas, with
i n i e z at their head, that led the way in this
sanguinary attack.
ANTIQUE CURRENCY OF THE MANHATTANESE
AND THEIR neighbors.
There were two kinds of wampum in early
use by the Indians, as a standard of value; the
purple or black, and the white. The purple was
made from the interior portions of the Venus
mercenaria, or common conch. The white was
wrought out of the pillar of the periwinkle.
Each kind was cönverted into a kind of bead,
by being rounded and perforated, so as to admit
of being strung, on a fibre of deer’s sinew.
This was replaced, after the discovery, by linen