Each man besides
his gun carried a sack of grain, so the progress was slow. They had
not gone far beyond the village when a wild war whoop was heard.
It was immediately followed by a shower of arrows. The Frenchmen
replied with a hot fire of bullets. Several of the Indians fell
dead, and the rest fled howling into the forest.
Then the Frenchmen marched on again. But they had scarcely gone
a quarter of a mile when another war whoop was heard in front.
It was answered from behind, and the Frenchmen knew themselves
surrounded. But they stood their ground bravely. Dropping their
bags of corn they seized their guns. A sharp encounter followed,
and soon the Indians fled again into the forest. But again and
again they returned to the attack, and the Frenchmen had to fight
every yard of the way. At nine o'clock the fight began, and the sun
was setting when at length the Indians gave up the pursuit. When
the Frenchmen reached their boats they counted their losses. Two
had been killed, and twenty-two injured, some of them so badly
that they had to be carried on board the boats. Of all the bags of
grain with which they had started out only two remained. It was a
miserable ending to the expedition.
The plight of the colony was now worse than ever. The two sacks
of grain were soon consumed; the feeble efforts at building a ship
had come to nothing.
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