At Montreal, the fugitives were received with tender solicitude and the graphic details recounted at length. Thus the first attempt to plant Christianity in New York territory, after two years had come to a disastrous end.
Radisson, the half-civilized Frenchman, who had spent his early manhood as an adopted Iroquois, had accompanied Ragueneau from Montreal to Onondaga and back, tells the story in his "Travels." He dwells mostly on the occurrences of the feast, when the Indians gorged themselves so, that it was suggested to the priest by a Frenchman, probably by Radisson himself, that the fugitives should massacre them in their helpless drunken stupor and sleep--a suggestion which Ragueneau repudiated.
The surprise of the Onondagas next day was afterwards learned. "When night had given place to day," wrote Ragueneau, "darkness to light, the barbarians awoke from sleep and, leaving their cabins, roved around our well-locked house. They were astonished at the profound silence that reigned there. They saw no one going in or out. They heard no voice. They thought at first that we were at prayer or in council but, the day advancing, and the prayers not coming to an end, they knocked at the door. The dogs, which we had designedly left behind, answered by barking." Radisson's account adds that the idea of a religious ceremony going on within was stimulated by a pig who had a bell rope attached to his leg, so that whenever he moved the bell pealed.
"The cock crows which they heard in the morning," says Ragueneau, "and the noise of the dogs, made them think that the masters were not far off, and they recovered their patience, which they had lost. But at length the sun began to go down, and no person answering either to the voice of men or the cries of the dogs, they scaled the house to see what might be the condition of our men in this terrible silence. Astonishment now gave place to fright. They opened the door; the chiefs enter, descend to the cellar and mount to the garret. Not a Frenchman made his appearance, dead or alive. They thought they had to deal with devils."
This was further borne in upon them, because they had seen no boats. A search in the woods not revealing the fugitives, they came to the conclusion that the Frenchmen had vanished, and might as mysteriously reappear, to fall upon their village.
