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through woods if he did not carry with him the necessary provisions.

This extremity seemed to put Sieur de Villieu out of condition for marching, nevertheless he resolved to live with the savages, and set out in one of their canoes. They left Medoktek on the twenty-eighth of May and arrived at Pentagouet on the third of June, where the savages made the division of their presents, but noticing that only a part had been given them, having learned through M. de Champigny and the savages who had returned from the French what had been sent to them by the King, that thought disturbed the friendly disposition in which they were. They murmured audibly, and, for a finishing touch, Mataquando, one of their chiefs, who returned from Pemaquid two days later, assured them that the Governor of Boston would produce the prisoners on the fifth of July, which abated so much their desire for war that they determined before proceeding further to prove if they were deceived by the English, or if the promise were made in good faith. It was only after prolonged discussion that they decided to attack the English, during which Sieur de Villieu occupied himself strenuously to parry the stroke which would wreck his designs. He represented to them that this delay was suggested to them by the Governor of Boston, and was only to seek an opportunity to entrap them, since he had sent word of his intention to give up but seven or eight prisoners, which concerned only some of those present. He also assured them that the Governor had asked for delay only to gain time, as he knew it was impossible to return to them their children. These had been sent, for the most part, to Europe by officers, who, to all appearances, had given them to their kinsfolk or to some of the grand siegneurs, and that thus it would be difficult to recover them. These reasons, though good, did not persuade the Indians. Mataquando stoutly protested, and, having some