La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

1680.] ATTACK OF THE IROQUOIS. 235with them ; and thus the adverse bands moved slowlysouthward, till they were near the mouth of theriver. Hitherto, the compact array of the Illinoishad held their enemies in check ; but now, sufferingfrom hunger, and lulled into security by the assurancesof the Iroquois that their object was not todestroy them, but only to drive them from thecountry, they rashly separated into their severaltribes. Some descended the Mississippi; some, moreprudent, crossed to the western side. One of theirprincipal tribes, the Tamaroas, more credulous thanthe rest,had the fatuity to remain near the mouth ofthe Illinois, where they were speedily assailed byall the force of the Iroquois. The men fled, andvery few of them were killed; but the women andchildren were captured to the number, it is said, ofseven hundred. 1 Then followed that scene of tortureof which, some two weeks later, La Salle saw therevolting traces. 2 Sated, at length, with horrors,the conquerors withdrew, leading with them a hostof captives, and exulting in their triumphs overwomen, children, and the dead.After the death of Father Ribourde, Tonty andhis companions remained searching for him till nooni Relation des Decouvertes ; Frontenac to the King, N. Y. Col.Docs., ix. 147.hundred.A memoir of Duchesneau makes the number twelve* " lis [les Illinois] trouverent dans leur campement des carcasseide leurs enfans que ces anthropophages avoient mangez, ne voulantmeme d'autre nourriture que la chair de ces infortunez."—La Potherie, ii. 145, 146. Compare note, ante, p. 211.