, and I regained my liberty, by the ropes, with which I was tied, being burnt. At that moment the desire of life was rekindled by the possibility of escaping: the flames bursting out fiercely at one side of the house where I lay, the attention of the soldiers whom the fire had awaked, was principally turned to that quarter, and I had an opportunity of stealing off unperceived at the opposite side.
We were then in a sort of wooden huts which had been built for our accommodation on the outside of one of our frontier-forts; for that, when I had run two or three hundred yard, I found myself in the shelter of a wood, pretty secure from pursuit; but, as there it was impossible for me long to subsist, and I had no chance of escaping detection if I ventured to approach the habitations of any of my countrymen, I formed the resolution of endeavouring to join the Indians, whose scouting parties I had frequently seen at a small distance from our out-posts.
I held therefore in a direction which I judged the most probable for falling in with them, and a very little after day-break discovered a party, seated after the manner of their country, in a ring, with the ashes of their newly-extinguished fire in the middle. I advanced slowly to the place, which I had almost reached before I was perceived. When they discovered me, they leaped up to their feet, and seizing their arms, screamed out the war-whoop, to alarm the different small parties who had passed the night in resting places near them.
One of them presenting his piece took aim at me; but I fell on my knees, showed them my defenceless state, and h•ld out my hands, as if imploring their mercy and protection. Upon this one of the oldest among them made a sign to the rest, and advancing towards me, asked me, in broken French, mixed with his own language, of which too I understood something, what was my intention,

and whence I came? I answered as distinctly as I could to these interrogatories; and showing the sores on my back, which I gave him to understand had been inflicted at the fort, made protestations, both by imperfect language and significant gestures, of my friendship to his countrymen and hatred to my own. After holding a moment's conversation with the rest, he took my hand, and, leading me a little forward, placed me in the midst of the party.
Some of them examined me attentively, and upon some farther discourse