"The nine chiefs were taken to a great city and condemned to be hung
within a month. On this sad news fires were lighted on all the hills
of Scotland to summon a grand council of all the warriors. The wise
men spoke fine words for three days and three nights, but came to no
conclusion. Then they consulted the spirits, and a great medicine-man
declared that the Manitou was angry with his children, and that they
must bury the hatchet forever. Twenty warriors with blackened faces
betook themselves to the chief town of the English, and before the
gates they uttered a death-cry for every captive chief. A great council
was held, and Ononthio granted peace on condition that they should
give hostages, that they should deliver up their strongholds, that
the two nations should henceforth be as one, and that the English and
Scotch warriors should fight shoulder to shoulder against the enemies
of the great Ononthio. A feast was made which lasted three days and
three nights, and at which so much brandy was drunk that the women took
away all the tomahawks. Had they not done so the war would have broken
out anew. The English were so rejoiced that they promised to send the
Scotch all the heads, feet, and tails of the sheep which they should
kill in the future."
"The English must be generous, indeed," said the Indian.
"My brother must see by this," continued Dumais, "that a Scotch warrior
would rather be burned than hung, and he will sell me his share of the
prisoner. Let my brother fix his price, and Dumais will not count the
cost."
"Grand-Loutre will not sell his share of the prisoner," said the
Indian. "He has promised Taoutsi and Katakoui to hand him over
to-morrow at Petit-Marigotte, and he will keep his word. The council
will be assembled, and Grand-Loutre will speak to the young men. If the
young men consent not to burn him, it will then be time to hand him
over to D'Haberville."
"My brother knows Dumais," said the Canadian. "He knows that he is rich
and a man of his word. Dumais will pay for the prisoner six times as
much as Ononthio pays the Indians for every one of his enemies' scalps."
"Grand-Loutre knows," said the Indian, "that his brother speaks the
truth, but he will not sell his share of the prisoner."
The eyes of the Canadian shot flame, and instinctively he grasped his
hatchet; but, suddenly changing his mind, he assumed an indifferent
air, and knocked the ashes out of the bowl of his tomahawk, which
served the Canadians as well as the savages for tobacco-pipe when on
the march. Although the first hostile movement of the Canadian had
not escaped the keen eye of his companion, the latter went on smoking
tranquilly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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