undertake it; and he begged them to be pleased to pardon him, as he also
did me again, confessing that he had greatly offended, and if I would leave
him in the country, he would by his efforts repair the offence, and see
this sea, and bring back trustworthy intelligence concerning it the
following year; and in view of certain considerations I pardoned him on
this condition.

After relating to them in detail the good treatment I had received at the
abodes of the savages, and how I had been occupied each day, I inquired
what they had done during my absence, and what had been the result of their
hunting excursions, and they said they had had such success that they
generally brought home six stags. Once on St. Barnabas's day, Sieur du
Parc, having gone hunting with two others, killed nine. These stags are not
at all like ours, and there are different kinds of them, some larger,
others smaller, which resemble closely our deer.[75] They had also a very
large number of pigeons, [76] and also fish, such as pike, carp, sturgeon,
shad, barbel, turtles, bass, and other kinds unknown to us, on which they
dined and supped every day. They were also all in better condition than
myself, who was reduced from work and the anxiety which I had experienced,
not having eaten more than once a day, and that of fish badly cooked and
half broiled.

On the 22d of June, about 8 o'clock in the evening, the savages sounded an
alarm because one of them had dreamed he had seen the Iroquois. In order to
content them, all the men took their arms, and some were sent to their
cabins to reassure them, and into the approaches to reconnoitre, so that,
finding it was a false alarm, they were satisfied with the firing of some
two hundred musket and arquebus shots, after which arms were laid down, the
ordinary guard only being left. This reassured them greatly, and they were
very glad to see the French ready to help them.