they seized & carried him to Boston. There they cross-questioned him & interrogated him like a criminal. Among other things they asked him why

deputies frow the villages of Medocteh and Pemondaky. He also made those of Piscataqua come, who are nearest to the English on the coast of Boston.

"These Savages thus assembled and to the number of 250 who represented all the Abnaki nation and their allies, after having taken counsel, presented themselves the 28th of July last, armed before the English fort of Menaskous where the conference was appointed." On the 10th of November, Vaudreuil in another letter to the Council of State, says, that he "is persuaded that if his Majesty permits him to join the French with the Abnakis, the English will be forced to abandon all the settlements which they have on the lands of these Savages, he feels certain of the result by the long experience that he has, that the Abnakis supported by the French have always made the English tremble, who have been obliged in the last war to abandon nearly a hundred leagues of country."

It is unnecessary to quote from the French correspondence at greater length to show how far from the true picture is this which Ralé presents to his nephew. Charlevoix's account of this conference so artfully prepared by Vaudreuil, Ralé and de la Chasse, presents an equally false picture to the world, and should be carefully compared with the detailed reports of Vaudreuil and Begon to the French government. Vide Collection de Manuscrits, etc., vol. 3, PP. 49-70, et passim; Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France, etc., à Paris MDCCXLIV, Tome quatrieme, pp. 113-115.

& in what capacity he had assisted at the confer ence which was held among the Savages; what was signified by the Military uniform in which he was clothed; & if he had been sent to that assembly by the Governor of Canada. M. de St. Castin replied that he was an Abnaki on his mother's side; that he had passed his life among the Savages; that his Countrymen having chosen him Chief of their Nation, he was obliged to enter into their assemblies to support their interests; that it was in this capacity alone that he had assisted at the last conference; as for the rest the coat which he wore was not a Military uniform, as they thought it; that in truth, it was his own & well enough decorated, but was not above his rank, even independent of the honor which he had in being an Officer in our troops.

"M. our Governor, having learned of the detention of M. de St. Castin, wrote at once to the Governor of Boston to make complaint.

"He received no reply to his letter. But near the time the English Governor expected to receive a second, he restored liberty to his prisoner, after having kept him confined during five months.

"The enterprise of the English against myself, was the second act of hostility, which served to irritate to excess the Abnaki Nation. A missionary could

not fail to be an object of hatred to these Gentlemen. The love of Religion, which he strives to engrave in the hearts of the Savages, holds these Neophytes strongly to our alliance, and alienates them from that of the English.

"They also regard me as an invincible obstacle to the design which they have to spread themselves over the Abnakis' territory, & little by little to seize the continent which is between New England and Acadia. They have often sought to carry me off from my flock, & more than once my head has been put on sale.1 It was toward the end of January in the year 1722, that they made a new attempt,

1 Charlevoix, who almost literally quotes Ralé, says: "They set a price on his head and promised a thousand pounds sterling to anyone who brought it to them." Our own writers have copied and repeated this without taking the trouble to ascertain the facts relative to the transaction. This statement of Charlevoix fairly exhibits the percentage of truth to be found in his entertaining history. The following is the act which passed the General Assembly July 13, 1720: "This court being credibly informed that Mons. Rallé, the Jesuit, residing among the Eastern Indians, has not only, on several occasions of late, affronted His Majesty's government of this Province, but has also been the incendiary that has instigated and stirred up those Indians to treat His Majesty's subjects settling there in the abusive, insolent, hostile manner that they have done.

which had no other success than to show their ill

will in regard to me.

"I had remained alone in the village with a small number of the old and infirm, while the rest of the savages were off hunting. The time seemed favorable to them to surprise me, & with this in view they sent out a detachment of 200 men. Two young Abnakis who were hunting on the seashore, learned that the English had entered the river; they immediately turned their steps that way in order to watch their progress; having perceived them at ten leagues from the village, they outran them in crossing the country to give me warning, & to cause the old men, women & children to retire in haste.

"I had but time to swallow the consecrated Wafers, to put the holy Vessels into a little chest, & to save

"Resolved, That a premium of One Hundred Pounds be allowed and paid out of the Public Treasury to any person that shall apprehend the s Jesuit within any part of this Province and bring him to Boston and render him to justice."

It will be seen that no price was put upon his head, and that the sum offered was one-tenth the sum Ralé and Charlevoix state it to have been. (Vide Shea's Charlevoix, New York, 1871, vol. 5, p. 275; Council Records, Massachusetts Archives, vol. 8, p. 71.)

myself in the woods. The English arrived in the evening at the Village, & not having found me, they came the next day to search for me, even to the place of our retreat. They were in gunshot when we discovered them; all that I could do, was to bury myself in haste in the depths of the forest. But as I had not the time to take my snowshoes & besides as there remained to me considerable weakness from a fall from which several years since I had a broken leg & thigh, it was impossible for me to fly very far. The only resource left me, was to conceal myself behind a tree. They immediately traversed the different paths made by the Savages, when they went to gather wood, & when they came within eight steps of the tree which concealed & where naturally they ought to have seen me, as the trees were stripped of leaves; still as if they had been restrained by an invisible hand, they all at once retraced their steps & repaired again to the village.

"It was thus as by an especial protection of God. that I escaped their hands. They pillaged my Church & my little dwelling, whereby they almost reduced me to death by hunger in the midst of the woods. It is true that when they knew of my adventure at Quebec, they immediately sent me provisions, but they could not arrive until very late, & dur