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the rivers of Hudson's Bay from those of the St.
Lawrence, amidst marvellous adventures, by hardy
resolution and daring presence of mind, they had, in 1686, conquered the
English posts from Fort Rupert to
Albany River, leaving the
English no trading house in the bay, except that of which, in 1685, they had dispossessed the
French at
Port Nelson.
That post remained to the
English; but the sons of Lemoine intercepted the forces which were sent to proclaim William of
Orange monarch over jagged cliffs,
and deep ravines never warmed by a sunbeam,—over the glaciers and mountains, the rivers and tradinghouses in Hudson's Bay.
Exulting in their success, they returned to
Quebec.
In the east, blood was first shed at Cocheco, where,
thirteen years before, an unsuspecting party of three hundred and fifty Indians had been taken prisoners, and shipped for
Boston, to be sold into foreign slavery.
The memory of the treachery was indelible; and the
Indian emissaries of Castin easily excited the tribe of
Penacook to revenge.
On the evening of the twentyseventh of June, two squaws repaired to the house of
Richard Waldron, and the octogenarian magistrate bade them lodge on the floor At night, they rise, unbar the gates, and summon their companions, who at once enter every apartment.
‘What now?
what now?’
shouted the brave old man; and, seizing his sword, he defended himself till he fell stunned by a blow from a hatchet.
They then placed him in a chair on a table in his own hall: ‘
Judge Indians again!’—thus they mocked him; and, making cruel sport of their debts to him as a trader, they drew gashes across his breast, and each one cried, ‘Thus I cross out my account!’
At last, the mutilated man reeled from faintness, and
