Ragueneau's official account of this, to be found in the "Relations" of this year, is as follows: "The resolution was taken to quit the country forthwith, even though the difficulties seemed unsurmountable. To supply the want of canoes we built, in secret, two boats of a novel structure to pass the rapids. They were flat-bottomed and could carry considerable freight, with fourteen or fifteen men on each. We had, besides, four Algonquin and four Iroquois canoes. The difficulty was to build and launch them without being detected, for without secrecy we could only expect a general massacre.
"After succeeding in finishing the boats we invited the savages in our neighbourhood to a solemn banquet, and spared neither the noise of drums nor instruments of music, to deceive them as to our purpose. At the feast, every one vied with each other in uttering the most piercing shrieks, now of revelry, now of war. The savages sang and danced in French fashion, and the French after the manner of the Indians. Presents were given and the greatest tumult was kept up to cover the noise of forty of our people outside, who were launching the boats. The feast was concluded, the guests retired and were soon overpowered by sleep, and we slipped out by the back way to the boats.
"The little lake on which we sailed in the darkness of the night froze as we advanced. God, however, delivered us and, after having advanced all night and all the following day, we arrived in the evening at Lake Ontario. The first day was the most dangerous. Ten or twelve Iroquois could have intercepted us, for the river was narrow, and ten leagues down the stream it leaped over a frightful precipice. It took us four hours to carry our boats around it, through a dense and unknown forest. The perils in which we walked made us shudder after we escaped them. We had no bed at night but the snow, after having passed entire days in icy water.
"Ten days after our departure we reached the St. Lawrence, but it was frozen and we had to cut a channel through the ice. Two days after our little fleet nearly foundered in the rapids. We were in the Long Sault without knowing it. We found ourselves in the midst of breakers, with rocks on all sides, against which the mountains of water flung us at every stroke of our paddles. The cries of our people, mingling with the roar of the waters, added to the horror of the scene. One of our canoes was engulfed in the breakers and barred the passage through which we all had to pass. Three Frenchmen were drowned there; a fourth fortunately saved himself by clinging to the canoe. He was picked up at the foot of the Sault just as his strength was giving out and he was letting go his hold. On the 3rd of April we landed at Montreal at the beginning of the night."