Famous Discoverers and Explorers of America: Their Voyages, Battles, and Hardships in Traversing and Conquering the Unknown Territories of a New WorldJohnston, Charles H. L. (Charles Haven Ladd)
History
Famous Discoverers and Explorers of America: Their Voyages, Battles, and Hardships in Traversing and Conquering the Unknown Territories of a New World
Johnston, Charles H. L. (Charles Haven Ladd)
America -- Discovery and exploration; Explorers
As the white Mohawk moved about the fort, he noticed a soldier among
the Dutch who was a Frenchman, and, at the same instant the soldier
saw, that, beneath all the paint and grease, was a brother. They spoke
to each other, threw their arms around one another’s necks, and from
that moment Radisson became the lion of Fort Orange.
The Dutch people crowded about him, shook his hand, offered him
presents of wine and of money. They wished to ransom him at any price;
but he was pledged to return to his Indian parents and he feared the
revenge of the Mohawk braves. So he had to decline the kind offer of
the white men, returning to his lodge in the Indian country, far more
of a hero in the eyes of his Indian allies than ever before.
Young Pierre had not been back among the Iroquois for more than two
weeks when he began to pine for the log fortress at Three Rivers.
He loathed the filthy food, the smoky lodges, the cruelties of the
Mohawks, and he longed to be once more among his own people. Hidden
beneath all the grease and war paint was the true nature of the white
man, and he determined to escape, even if he had to die for the attempt.
The white Indian left his lodge, early one morning in the month
of September, taking only his hatchet, as if he were going to cut
wood. Once out of sight of the Mohawk village, he broke into a run,
following the trail, through the dense forests of the Mohawk Valley,
towards Fort Orange. On, on, he ran until the morning, when, spent
with fatigue, he fell exhausted to the ground. After a short sleep, he
again arose, pressed forward through the brush, and finally came to a
clearing in the forest where a man was chopping wood. He found that
there were no redskins in the cabin, then, hiding in it, he persuaded
the settler to carry a message to the Fort. While he was absent, he hid
behind some sacks of wheat.
The frontiersman had been gone about an hour, when he returned with a
rescue party, which conducted the young Frenchman to the Fort. Here
he hid for three days, while a mob of Mohawks wandered through the
stockade, calling for him by name, but they could not find him. Gifts
of money from a Jesuit priest enabled him to take a ship to New York,
then a settlement of five hundred houses, with stores, barracks, and a
stone church. After a stay of three weeks the ex-Mohawk set sail for
Amsterdam, where he arrived in January, 1674.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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